Search Results for: EUROPE

You can love Meat Loaf – you can love him forever – but you can’t see him in concert for much longer. The singer-actor is embarking on his final world tour, which will last 15 months. The U.S. portion is scheduled to begin June 22 in Saratoga, Calif., and end Sept. 29 in West Springfield, Mass. Then he’ll travel to Europe, Australia and Asia before returning to Europe and the United States. “He wants to tour and then devote himself to acting,” his spokesman, Dan Forman at Susan Blond Inc., said Friday. “He has the acting bug – he’s been… Read more »

The music industry said on Thursday it had begun cascading pamphlets on universities across the globe in its latest blitz against online piracy. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a global trade group representing major and independent music labels and publishers, said it had begun issuing brochures to universities in 29 countries in Europe, South America, Asia and Australia spelling out the legal and technological snares of online file-sharing networks. “In Canada and Europe we have found institutions where users are uploading thousands of files using university computer networks,” said Allen Dixon, general counsel at IFPI in London.… Read more »

Nearly 7,000 music industry representatives and more than 1,000 bands are descending on Austin this week for the 17th annual South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival. Even for a place that calls itself the “Live Music Capitol of the World,” the planes, buses and vans arriving full of shaggy-haired men and tattooed women carrying guitars and drums adds a new dimension to the city. The musicians and industry representatives have come for four days of industry panels, discussions and trade shows. To balance out the shop talk, the festival features four intense nights of live music with 1,000 acts… Read more »

EMI Group, home to stars from the Rolling Stones to Norah Jones, came under more pressure to find a suitor on Wednesday after its debt was slashed to “junk,” sending its shares to their lowest level in more than 10 years. EMI, the world’s third-largest music company, saw its stock slump 13 percent after Moody’s slashed its debt below investment grade late on Tuesday on concerns about the weak outlook for the music industry, stoking fears about the group’s profits and dividend. Faced with an increasingly gloomy outlook, EMI has been in talks in recent months with two rivals –… Read more »

The hour-long Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band special airs at 9 p.m. ET/PT Friday (February 28) on CBS-the same night the group’s tour resumes in Duluth, Georgia. The broadcast, taken from a show in Barcelona last October, will feature a number of songs from The Rising, including the title track, “Lonesome Day,” “You’re Missing,” and “Waiting On A Sunny Day,” as well as older material such as “Darkness On The Edge Of Town.” E Street Band guitarist Little Steven said that Bruce Springsteen and company were very pleased with how the show-which was originally broadcast live in Europe-turned… Read more »

Wendy Whitworth, executive producer of CNN’s “Larry King Live” and a huge Paul McCartney fan, received an unforgettable 50th birthday present: a private concert from the former Beatle. Whitworth’s husband, financier Ralph Whitworth, came up with the unusual gift idea and offered McCartney $1 million to do the San Diego gig. McCartney agreed, saying he would donate the money to the anti-landmines charity Adopt-A-Minefield. Wendy Whitworth, broke into tears when her husband announced McCartney was taking the stage Saturday before 150 guests, including Katie Couric of NBC’s “Today” and King. Near the end of the 90-minute set, which included the… Read more »

From rampaging bikers at the Rolling Stones’ infamous Altamont show in 1969 to deadly stampedes by fans of the Who and Pearl Jam, the most notorious rock concert tragedies have generally been linked to the biggest names in the business. That is, until Great White took the stage of a tiny Rhode Island nightclub Thursday night. The heavy metal “hair” band, which reached the brief apex of its career in the 1980s, will now be forever remembered for a devastating fire that stands in a class by itself as the deadliest episode in the annals of rock ‘n’ roll mayhem.… Read more »

Headbangers of the world will unite once again this summer at Ozzfest, the annual road show of hard rock bands organized by America’s first couple of reality TV, the Osbournes. Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne and son Jack opened their Beverly Hills house to journalists on Tuesday to announce the lineup for the eighth annual outing of Ozzfest. Dressed in his best pair of tracksuit pants and a black T-shirt, a typically befuddled Ozzy slurred his way through the news conference while a svelte Sharon, as usual, took charge of proceedings, firing off insults at her guests and husband. Ozzy Osbourne,… Read more »

The recording industry directed its anti-piracy campaign at large companies in the United States, Europe and Asia on Thursday, warning them that employees are illegally downloading music on company time. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a global trade group representing the major music labels, said it had begun issuing brochures to thousands of companies spelling out the legal and technological dangers of giving employees access to online file-sharing networks. “We were surprised to see that peer-to-peer services are being accessed by a lot of companies’ computer networks,” Allen Dixon, general counsel at IFPI in London told Reuters.… Read more »

The trailblazing early ?90s festival, Lollapalooza, will return this summer for the first time since 1997. When Perry Farrell first organized the touring event he did it in the true spirit of European music festivals. The first couple of years were an immense success melding lots of musical genres with bands like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Cypress Hill, Pearl Jam, Ice Cube, Lush, Ministry, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and more with cool merchandise and ethnic foods. Then the event became too corporate focusing its line-up on mostly white, male rock bands and generic stadium vendors. Now it’s… Read more »