Search Results for: GERMANY

Bruce Springsteen grabbed the top of the U.S. pop charts Wednesday with the debut of his somber, Sept. 11-influenced album, “The Rising,” the first all-new recording with his E Street Band since 1984. The critically hailed LP sold about 525,000 copies in its first week in stores, Springsteen’s best album debut in at least a decade, his publicists said as the veteran rocker and his band prepared to launch a world tour at the Continental Airlines Arena in his native New Jersey. Springsteen’s publicity firm, Shore Fire Media, said “The Rising,” released July 30, also was expected to open at… Read more »

A clash with shareholders cost Thomas Middelhoff his job at the helm of media giant Bertelsmann – even though the company made money while rivals like AOL Time Warner and Vivendi ran into trouble. Not even one of the deals of the decade – reaping billions from selling a stake in AOL Europe at the height of the Internet bubble – could save Middelhoff from the same fate as Vivendi’s former chief Jean-Marie Messier and Robert Pittman, ousted as head of AOL Time Warner’s AOL division in a management shakeup. Bertelsmann said Sunday that Middelhoff was leaving due to “differing… Read more »

The record industry pleaded on Wednesday with consumers to stop downloading and recording music for free because piracy was strangling the multi-billion-dollar industry. Profits have plummeted, especially in Europe. CD sales in Germany last year were 185 million whereas the number of blank CDs used to copy music was estimated at 182 million. Record executives also believe there are now more unauthorized music files available on the Internet than at the height of Napster ( news – web sites)’s success in the field. “Music for free means less new music, fewer new artists, less choice, thousands less jobs,” said Jay… Read more »

Strahov Stadium has had it all – communist rallies, anti-globalization protests, gymnastics exhibitions, drive-through movies and, now, Ozzfest. The crumbling structure, which stands as the largest stadium in the world per square foot, lent itself well to Ozzy Osbourne and his latest touring comrades, who hit the venue Thursday night for the seventh stop on the metal tour. With their stage parked in the middle of the field, the hard rockers used only half of the 200,000-capacity stadium, carving out an almost cozy cradle for Bohemia’s metalheads within the concrete monolith. While the tour got off to a less-than-grand beginning… Read more »

Elton John has announced that he is going to donate the proceeds of his June 16 concert at Messehalle in Erfurt, Germany, to the victim fund for the families of those killed when a 19-year-old student went on a shooting rampage in the local Johann Gutenberg Gymnasium high school on April 26. John received word of the tragedy while on his recent Australian tour. The singer-songwriter was aware that he would be performing in Erfurt in several weeks, and wanted to do whatever he could to help. “I wanted to show my solidarity with the victims and their families, when… Read more »

The Hives begin swarming the U.S. next week. Even though the Swedish rock band have been playing since they were seventeen-years-old, they are just now finding themselves pinned as rock’s next critical darling, alongside bands like the Strokes and the White Stripes. “We get asked a lot of times if we compare ourselves to those bands, but it’s hard to say,” says guitarist Vigilante Carlstroem. “We might have some of the same influences but we come to different conclusions.” And the Hives certainly are not an overnight success – their most recent album, Veni, Vidi, Vicious was recorded over two… Read more »

Her collarbone may be broken, but her spirit seems barely bruised, given Jewel’s plans to resume touring earlier than expected. She’ll return to the stage Monday for shows that looked as though they wouldn’t happen after she fell from a horse on April 24, according to an Atlantic Records spokesperson. Doctors had suggested she not perform for at least a month. The singer’s first day back in the saddle, so to speak, will be May 13 in Stuttgart, Germany. Although she’s capable of singing, she won’t be able to play guitar. Only two dates of her European tour – May… Read more »

Universal Music is in talks with its best-selling rap artist Eminem to deploy copy protection technology on all upcoming CD releases of “The Eminem Show,” marking the biggest move yet to protect its top acts from music piracy, a label official told Reuters Wednesday. Discussions are under way between Universal, a division of French media conglomerate Vivendi Universal, Eminem and his Universal-owned label Interscope Records to make the anticipated top-selling release copy proof, thwarting the industry’s biggest concern – piracy. Universal and Eminem would need to strike an agreement on whether or not to release the security-enhanced CDs in the… Read more »

Nearly 40 years after he wrote the lyric “He not busy being born is busy dying,” Bob Dylan clearly still believes that estimation is right on the mark. Looking snazzy in a black cowboy hat and old-school Western suit, the 60-year-old folk-rock icon was tireless, fearless and masterful throughout his 140-minute show Thursday at the Arena. Within shouting range of Treptow Park, where he played in 1987 when the area was still communist East Germany, the Arena is a onetime bus depot and hangar that now serves as one of the city’s largest music venues. The 7,500-capacity, standing-room-only space served… Read more »

Veteran British electronic duo Pet Shop Boys has lined up a spring/summer world tour due to kick off May 14 in Miami. The trek crosses over to Europe beginning June 12 in Madrid and concludes with 12 dates in the group’s U.K. home base. It comes in support of the pair’s eighth EMI studio album, “Release,” which debuts this week at No. 5 on the European Top 100 Albums chart. The set is due April 23 in North America. As previously reported, the group’s planned Wotapalava tour was canceled last July due to poor ticket sales and the failure to… Read more »