Search Results for: ireland

Lilting Irish group The Corrs, Australian chanteuse Kylie Minogue and U.S. band Wheatus are to play at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party in London this year, transforming the UK awards into an international pop festival. U.S. reggae star Shaggy and Ireland’s Westlife will also feature at the pop extravaganza at the London Arena on December 9, along with homegrown Atomic Kitten and Spice Girl Emma Bunton, teenage magazine Smash Hits said in a statement. Also playing will be dance act S Club 7, Ash and Samantha Mumba. The annual ceremony will screen live on TV channel T4. Award categories… Read more »

Gorillaz, the cartoon indie-beat band formed by Damon Albarn of the rock band Blur, picked up six nominations, including best group, in the eighth annual MTV Europe Music Awards noms, announced here Tuesday. Gorillaz will compete with Destiny’s Child, Limp Bizkit, R.E.M. and U2 for the best group prize in a ceremony to be aired live Nov. 8 on MTV’s worldwide channels from Frankfurt, Germany. Additionally, Gorillaz’ international hit single “Clint Eastwood” is up for best song. Nominees in the female act category include Dido, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna and Mariah Carey, while Robbie Williams, Eminem, Ricky Martin, Shaggy… Read more »

Staind’s latest album Break The Cycle was recently released overseas and is garnering a great response: This week it debuts at Number One in the U.K., Number Two in Ireland, and Number Six in Australia. The sales figures have been helped by European festival appearances, which concluded August 30 in Paris, France. The album has already sold more than 3 million copies in the U.S. LAUNCH asked Staind singer-songwriter Aaron Lewis when he realized his band was a musical force. “I don’t think that has dawned on me yet,” he said. “When you lose the mindset of trying to prove… Read more »

Bono, lead singer of the Irish rock supergroup U2, is flying back to Dublin every night after the band’s concerts to be with his father, who is dying of cancer. At their weekend concert in London, the singer dedicated the song “Kite” from their latest album to his father, Bob Hewson. The song was originally written for his children but the singer said it now feels “like my father wrote it about me. It’s funny how things work out.” He then used the band’s private jet to fly back to Dublin to be at his bedside. Another new song, “In… Read more »

The Cranberries are gearing up to release their fifth studio album, “Wake Up And Smell The Coffee,” due from MCA Records on October 23rd. The album’s premiere single, “Analyse,” impacts radio on August 27th. Coinciding with the release of the single, the Irish-based band will head stateside for a string of private semi-acoustic concerts in five U.S. markets. With the exception of the show in Boulder, Co, tickets will not be on sale to the public. Fans of The Cranberries can still obtain tickets through local radio station giveaways or exclusively through The Cranberries website. Tickets for each show will… Read more »

Ireland quartet the Cranberries, who are celebrating their tenth anniversary, are offering fans free tickets to see them on their upcoming, semi-acoustic U.S. promotional tour. The five-date tour, beginning August 14th in Los Angeles, comes a couple months before their new album, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, hits record stores on October 23rd. The band is inviting fans to send emails explaining briefly (thirty words or less) why they should receive the goods. Along with the plea, fans must indicate which show they’d like to attend, as well as their home city and state. Email requests should be sent… Read more »

Radio airplay is and has been the primary driver of retail record sales in the United States. Some estimate that nearly 90 percent of sales is the direct result of an artist being exposed on radio. But today, radio is joined by an array of other media choices: MTV, BET, and VH1, digital downloads, and streamed audio. Consumers borrow friend’s CDs and tapes, and see live performance. Any record label or promoter would be remiss by ignoring any one of these outlets since they all help to sell music. In the first-ever project of its kind, James Schureck at Jeff… Read more »

Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington was apparently impressed by the band’s performance when he saw them group live at the Whisky in West Hollywood, Calif., in the summer of 1999 (singer Declan O’Shea’s shockingly bright red hair, pixie body, pale white skin, and piercing vocals make the band impossible to be overlooked live). Bennington kept in contact with the Cork, Ireland-based band, and when the group asked for him to sing on a track for the new album, he gladly obliged. Bennington lends vocals to the song “Karma Killer.” Tales from the Fishbowl, which was produced by Colin Richardson (Fear… Read more »

Rock superstars U2 launched their first U.S. tour in nearly four years in classic form in Florida Saturday night, treating 20,000 devoted, delirious fans to a crowd-pleasing mix of old and new songs delivered with their legendary energy free of the extravagances of their most recent tours. The Irish rockers hit the stage of the National Car Rental Center arena at Sunrise, near Miami, with the house lights still on and launched into a swinging “Elevation” for their new album “All That You Can’t Leave Behind”. For the next two hours they put on a performance in which the songs,… Read more »