Search Results for: EUROPE

The release of Amnesiac on June 5 will bring to a conclusion Radiohead’s three-year saga of what to do after OK Computer. And after going in markedly different directions with Amnesiac and last fall’s Kid A, bassist Colin Greenwood says he expects the group to drift back toward something resembling a standard operating procedure. “We’ve talked about doing a guitar album next,” Greenwood reports. “The reason we did these two records is to show that anything is possible rather than everything is expected; the last thing we wanted to do was go into the studio and make another version of… Read more »

The combative brothers in English rock band Oasis have buried the hatchet long enough to survive the first two shows of their North American tour, guitarist Noel Gallagher said Monday. Oasis are co-headlining the road trip with the Black Crowes, an American band also fronted by two squabbling siblings, and the package has been slyly dubbed “The Tour of Brotherly Love.” Noel Gallagher and his younger brother, vocalist Liam, are famous for their public spats, with Noel walking off the group’s European tour last year. A few years ago, the group cut short an American tour because of internal strife.… Read more »

Former Rolling Stone bass player Bill Wyman launched a savage attack on British pop phenomenons Hear’Say on Wednesday, saying the band created for a hit TV series were nothing more than “plumpish boys and girls who mimed.” “They are just pretty young people someone has discovered. They don’t write the songs they sing, most of the time they mime when performing live and most can’t play an instrument,” the veteran rocker told the Daily Mail. “I didn’t see any creativity. It’s all a production and of no interest to me,” he said. Wyman, 64, who recently kicked off a European… Read more »

Jordan’s Queen Noor made a surprise appearance in Washington to present British rock star Sting with an award for promoting cross-cultural understanding, calling him one of “the heroes of our time.” The Arab American Institute Foundation gave Sting one of its 2001 Kahlil Gibran Spirit of Humanity awards to honor what it said was his “commitment to indigenous people and the environment, as well as his efforts to promote cross-cultural understanding.” Noor, the wife of the late King Hussein, praised Sting for his activism on issues such as saving the rain forest. “I think we can count Sting among the… Read more »

The Crowes and Oasis don’t plan on merging into a bluesy Brit-pop supergroup anytime soon, but the two bands will definitely jam onstage together on their joint Tour of Brotherly Love, Gallagher promises. “It’d be rude not to, wouldn’t it,” Gallagher said Wednesday from his manager’s office in London. “I have no doubts in my mind that there’s gonna be various people on stage at various points – as for what we’re gonna do, I don’t know.” The songwriter/guitarist/vocalist said that his top three choices of cover songs to play with the Crowes would be Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,”… Read more »

Reuters reports that Bertelsmann Music Group is now seeking to make cooperation deals or small acquisitions following the collapse of merger talks with EMI. BMG, the music division of German media giant Bertelsmann, ranks last among the Big 5 music majors worldwide, behind Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Warner Music. The company said on Tuesday it had abandoned merger talks with EMI after failing to resolve issues identified by the European Commission as regulatory problems. Bertelsmann Chief Executive Rolf Schmidt-Holtz told Reuters, “We can easily cooperate with anybody. We have of course identified partners.” Schmidt-Holtz said BMG… Read more »

Back in 1983, Sting sang about being the “King of Pain.” These days, he’s pain-free, not to mention prosperous. His most recent album, 1999’s “Brand New Day,” is one of the most successful of his career, with more than 7 million copies sold. It won two Grammy Awards and netted him a spot in the pre-game show at this year’s Super Bowl, while his contributions to the soundtrack for Disney’s animated feature “The Emperor’s New Groove” earned him an Oscar nomination. And on Saturday in Washington, D.C., the British musician – who co-founded the Police in 1977 and dissolved the… Read more »

While Janet Jackson’s new album, All for You, is expected to top next week’s Billboard 200, the title track is still holding strong as the #1 song in the country. Like most of Janet’s album, the song is produced by the singer/songwriter with the Flyte Tyme team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and it includes an inventive sample – from Change’s 1980 disco cut “The Glow of Love,” which featured Luther Vandross on lead vocals. “It was Jimmy’s idea,” Janet told MTV Europe of the sample. “I hadn’t heard the song before. He thought that he was going to… Read more »

Iggy Pop, the undisputed godfather of punk, is slated to release another blistering sonic assault in July. Entitled “Beat ‘Em Up,” the album is a return to form for the astonishingly ageless Pop, whose last release was 1999’s “Avenue B.” “Beat ‘Em Up,” to be released from Virgin Records America, was produced by Iggy, and engineered by Danny Kader. Joining Iggy are Whitey Kirst (guitar), Alex Kirst (drums), Pete Marshall (guitar) and Lloyd “Mooseman” Roberts (bass). Sadly, Mooseman, formerly of Body Count, was murdered in a drive-by shooting this past winter. Pete Marshall will take over bass duties for Iggy’s… Read more »

EMI Group, the world’s fifth-biggest music company, and Bertelsmann’s BMG music unit may call off merger talks, reports said on Monday. EMI’s labels represent popular artists such as the Spice Girls,Ý Fat Boy Slim, and Radiohead. BMG’s artists include Whitney Houston, David Bowie, and Christina Aguilera. Both companies continue to talk but are awaiting merger conditions from the European Commission early this week. Those conditions could mean that the combined group may have to sell businesses to get regulator approval. Talks to form the world’s biggest music company have been ongoing for the last six months and have at times… Read more »