Search Results for: ireland

Britain’s largest pay-TV firm BSkyB is to launch an online subscription music service and has signed the world’s largest music group Universal as its first partner, in a deal that could challenge Apple. The service will offer downloads to keep and unlimited listening through streaming for a single monthly subscription service. The tracks will be in the MP3 format, meaning they can be used on many devices including the iPod and mobile phones. BSkyB will form a new joint venture to launch the service in Britain and Ireland, building on its relationship with millions of customers and Universal’s hundreds of… Read more »

“PRETTY. ODD.,” the eagerly awaited sophomore album from Decaydance/Fueled By Ramen recording group Panic At The Disco, has made a stellar debut on this week’s SoundScan/Billboard 200 album chart. The critically acclaimed collection enters in the #2 spot with sales of 139,000. “PRETTY. ODD.” — which follows the Las Vegas-based band’s RIAA platinum-certified 2005 debut, “A FEVER YOU CAN’T SWEAT OUT” — debuted at #1 on SoundScan’s “Current Alternative Albums” chart and #2 on the “Digital Albums” chart. In addition, “PRETTY. ODD.” debuted at #2 in the UK, Canada, and Mexico, with top 10 debuts in New Zealand, Austria, and… Read more »

Who said you can never go home again? For Dublin-born singer-guitarist Dave King of Irish-American punk rockers Flogging Molly, all it took was a little help from his eventual wife and bandmate, violinist Bridget Regan. “When I heard Bridget playing the fiddle it brought out a lot of feelings in me,” King said through a bright and friendly Irish brogue during a recent phone interview with “I wanted to take that feeling and go back home – not physically of course. It just seemed to all fall together for me.” A lilting mix of traditional Celtic sounds – fiddle, banjo,… Read more »

The integrity of “American Idol” as a contest for raw, undiscovered talent was called into question again after an Irish singer who once had a major-label deal, and solo album that flopped, advanced to the top rung of the competition this week. Dublin native Carly Smithson, who formerly recorded for MCA Records under her maiden name, Carly Hennessy, was one of the 24 “Idol” contestants who made it on Wednesday to the semifinal rounds voted on each week by the show’s home TV audience. Online critics immediately seized on her initial success, and her professional recording background, as further evidence… Read more »

British rock band Radiohead scored its second No. 1 album on the U.S. pop charts on Wednesday with a release that was initially sold on the Internet under a revolutionary “name-your-own-price” system. “In Rainbows” also topped the charts in Britain, Canada, France, Japan and Ireland, a representative for the group said. The critically acclaimed album sold a relatively modest 122,000 copies during its first official week in U.S. stores, according to Nielsen SoundScan data for the week ended January 6. It sold an additional 10,000 copies the week before, when some retailers put it on shelves ahead of its January… Read more »

Iranian authorities have approved a plan for concerts by an Iranian pop group and singer Chris de Burgh in Tehran, the group’s manager said on Saturday. The concerts, set for the middle of next year, would be the first time since the 1979 revolution that an Iranian pop band had played alongside a Western singer inside the Islamic Republic, Arian’s manager Mohsen Rajabpour said. Rajabpour, director of Taraneh Sharghi music company, said Arian and de Burgh had recorded a song called “A Melody for Peace” which he said was intended “to reflect the peace-seeking spirit of the Iranian people to… Read more »

A Dublin High Court judge on Wednesday formally requested that Eminem provide testimony under oath explaining why he scrapped a sold-out gig at Slane Castle in 2005. The rap superstar’s answers are considered a potentially critical part of a civil lawsuit brought by the promoter against three insurance companies that declined to cover the costs of the cancellation. Eminem had been slated to headline the Sept. 17, 2005 concert as part of the European leg of his Anger Management Tour, but the rapper, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, backed out just weeks before the show, citing exhaustion stemming… Read more »

With Sting’s simple “Ladies and gentlemen, we are the Police,” one of the most iconic bands of the last 30 years ended a long absence from live performing to launch the 49th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night. Blasting off with the unmistakable, reggae-fied “Roxanne” riff from guitarist Andy Summers and the hard jazz drumming of Stewart Copeland, the Police lived up to their top billing on the show, providing a spirited kickoff to one of the most anticipated reunions in a year full of get-backs. With a buff-if-balding Sting in fine form and voice, the trio’s homage to a… Read more »

Members of rock acts Snow Patrol and Ash are throwing their support behind plans to create a dedicated music center in their Northern Ireland homeland. Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody and Ash lead singer Tim Wheeler are rallying behind the project, dubbed Oh Yeah (the title of Ash’s 1996 U.K. top 10 hit), aimed to be a multi-functional nucleus for musicians in the country’s capital of Belfast. An ambitious renovation schedule is planned for the three-story site, which stands at a former bonded whiskey warehouse in the heart of the city’s Cathedral Quarter. The completed venue will feature rehearsal space,… Read more »

Since Michael Jackson forsook his Neverland Ranch, the King of Pop has popped up in some very unexpected places. He’s taken up residence in the Gulf state of Bahrain, in France and even in a castle in Ireland. He showed up in Augusta, Ga., to give a eulogy at James Brown’s funeral, and materialized in London to accept an award for his contributions to the world of pop music. Lately he’s been spotted in Las Vegas on his famed shopping sprees. So where is he now? In a rare conference call, the singer emerged with his spokeswoman Friday to confirm… Read more »