Search Results for: 2003

After a 25-year absence from the #1 album spot, J Records artist Rod Stewart with his album Stardust… The Great American Songbook: Volume III enters the Billboard 200 Album chart at #1 on a first week Soundscan total of 240,043 copies sold. The Songbook albums are a musical and cultural phenomenon, and are now the biggest-selling ongoing series of new music recordings in history. This is also Rod Stewart’s first ever #1 debut on the Billboard Top 200 chart. Stardust is the follow-up to 2002’s It Had To Be You… The Great American Songbook (which spent 85 weeks on the… Read more »

Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge already wears many hats: singer/guitarist, clothing-line impresario, political activist. Now he’s adding another cap to his spiky dome: music video director. DeLonge took time off from stumping for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. On their Web site, TBS wrote that “We spent a very hectic 48 hours flying from Dallas to L.A. back to Nashville to shoot our next video with our good friend Thomas DeLonge. He had a great visual concept and was a very enthusiastic, focused and attentive first-time director. “There is a lot of colorful live performance footage as well,” the statement continued. “The… Read more »

Rock band U2 has cut a deal with Apple Computer to sell custom iPods promoting the band’s forthcoming album. Sources close to the group say the U2 edition of the popular digital music player will come preloaded with the band’s new album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, along with portions of the Irish supergroup’s 25-year catalogue. The iPods will be black and will be made available the same week as the band’s 11th studio album, which is slated to be released in the U.S. by Universal Music Group’s Interscope Records on November 23. The deal is expected to be… Read more »

Clay Aiken is still not completely used to his popularity-mainly because he still thinks of himself as a “skinny little dork.” The 25-year-old singer, who was named one of People magazine’s sexiest celebrities, told the Houston Chronicle that he has no idea what all the hype is all about. He said, “I would not get that worked up over me at all. It’s all very baffling to me.” The North Carolina native added, “I guess that’s why it’s so hard to wrap my mind around it when people are waiting outside the venue after a concert and cheering. I’m amazed… Read more »

She may put on a tough front, but surly teen pop star Avril Lavigne has once again enlisted the help of the courts to stop a persistent stalker boi from harassing her and her family. Prosecutors in Everett, Washington, have charged 30-year-old James B. Speedy with felony stalking for his overzealous and unwanted attention to the Lavigne brood over the past year. Speedy has allegedly been firing off letters to the singer and her family since 2003, and he recently violated the terms of a court order by trying to get in touch with her yet again. “He sent his… Read more »

Right about now, we’re thinking 50 Cent would have rather been in da club than on da stage. The chart-topping hip-hopster cut short his set at Britain’s Reading Festival over the weekend after getting booed and pelted with plastic bottles by a hostile audience just minutes after he began performing. Accompanied by his G-Unit crew, 50 Cent hadn’t even taken the stage at the legendary U.K. music bash on Sunday evening when the cranky crowd of 55,000 began yelling insults at the former crack peddler and hurling plastic cups. Things got even worse when the lights came up on 50… Read more »

The MTV Video Music Awards featured a lot of star power this year, but some fans were left wondering: Where were Britney and Justin? Britney Spears has practically made a tradition of not only appearing at the VMAs, but giving the ceremony some of its most talked about moments. She performed her schoolgirl hit “… Baby One More Time” in 1999, stripped to “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and “Oops!… I Did It Again” in 2000, became a snake charmer for “I’m a Slave 4 U” in 2001, presented birthday cake to Michael Jackson (who mistook it for an award)… Read more »

Mississippi blues label Fat Possum Records and its owner Matthew Johnson have sued former joint-venture partner Epitaph Records, alleging that Epitaph hatched “a malicious plot… to financially destroy Johnson and Fat Possum.” The suit, filed Tuesday in California Superior Court in L.A., charges Epitaph with breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, interference with contractual relations and a host of other abuses. According to the suit, Oxford, Miss.-based Fat Possum – home to R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and other contemporary bluesmen – was being funded by L.A.-based Epitaph under the terms of a joint-venture agreement reached in July 1997.… Read more »