Search Results for: Rock Fest

Los Angeles – In a dismal year for the touring industry, with ticket prices soaring and seats going unsold, music fans in North America partied like it was 1989 as Prince and Madonna topped the concert box office. According to freshly tabulated estimates provided by concert trade publication Pollstar, Prince sold $87.4 million in tickets in 2004, while Madonna earned $79.5 million. Prince also worked a bit harder for his payday, playing 96 shows, compared with 39 for Madonna. Canadian pop singer Celine Dion actually topped Madonna by about $900,000, but her haul came exclusively from 154 dates performed at… Read more »

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A nightclub shooting that left four people dead, including a heavy-metal guitarist, has concert bookers and bar managers wondering whether fans will grumble less the next time they’re patted down or directed through a metal detector. Scott Stienecker, for one, thinks it will. “It’ll be a whole different feeling, I bet.” Stienecker’s PromoWest Productions owns two Columbus concert halls larger than the Alrosa Villa, where 25-year-old Nathan Gale gunned down “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott and three others before a police officer shot him to death. Caroline O’Toole, though, and many of her fellow managers doubt Wednesday’s violence will… Read more »

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A small memorial started by a handful of fans blossomed into an outpouring of grief and celebration Thursday, less than 24 hours after the shocking slayings at the Alrosa Villa club where Pantera/ Damageplan guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott and three others were killed. Despite the rain and cold temperature, hundreds of fans gathered outside the weathered metal club to pay homage to their hero. They erected makeshift crosses, laid yellow roses in honor of Abbott’s Texas roots and burned candles in his honor, but mostly they shared stories, asked each other why anyone would do such a… Read more »

Just like in professional wrestling, a band’s entrance music provides a pretty good forecast of what’s to follow. When Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” filled an arena, Hulk Hogan’s irrepressible fortitude wasn’t far behind. The sound of glass shattering typically prefaced a Stone Cold-style beat-down. And this past summer, when Joe Esposito’s “You’re the Best,” off “The Karate Kid” soundtrack, rained down upon an unsuspecting rock club, it meant that one of the most immodest bands around was about to deliver its musical equivalent of a jump-front kick to the head. “We thought it was the funniest thing,” explained Fall… Read more »

The day filmmaker Joe Berlinger, co-creator of the documentary “Metallica: Some Kind of Monster,” asked the band permission to write a book about his experience working on the movie, he wasn’t even sure there would be a movie. The band had just been shown a rough cut of the film and was concerned about how intimate and personal some of the scenes were. Metallica had never really let their feelings out before and were unsure how much of themselves they wanted to reveal – and they had revealed plenty. During the film, Metallica are captured from the time bassist Jason… Read more »

Los Angeles – The original members of 1980s glam metal band Motley Crue, which made hard living and wild sexcapades a centerpiece of their music and their lives, on Monday announced a world reunion tour. After a five-year hiatus, the big-haired, leather-clad Crue members are eager to slip back into the music, if not the lifestyle depicted in hit rockers like “Girls, Girls, Girls” and “Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room.” The band arrived Monday at the Hollywood Palladium in a hearse, sporting eye makeup. About 1,000 people cheered as the group opened with “Dr. Feelgood” following a news conference. With… Read more »

Los Angeles – Nearly 45 years after Stevie Wonder’s live harmonica workout “Fingertips, Pt. 2” topped the charts, the soul visionary’s musical charm still enthralls. From preteen wunderkind to adult visionary, his musical evolution embodies a “What’s next?” curiosity that still burns brightly as fans anticipate his first new Motown album in 10 years, which he hopes will come out in April. “Hopefully, that little boy will always stay in me,” Wonder said in a recent interview with Billboard. “The part of me that’s still eager to discover; who welcomes new, unbroken ground. When that ground is being broken, there’s… Read more »

Washington – Music legend Elton John, opera diva Joan Sutherland and conductor John Williams – along with actors Warren Beatty, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee – were being honored Sunday with a star-studded tribute at The Kennedy Center. The six recipients of the 27th annual Kennedy Center Honors were being saluted for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts. First lady Laura Bush greeted the honorees – as well as actors Louis Gossett Jr., Robert Downey Jr. and Bo Derek – at a reception at the White House Sunday afternoon. Later, President and Mrs. Bush were honored… Read more »

When Agnostic Front vocalist Roger Miret calls modern “hardcore” bands up on the carpet for degrading and bastardizing the genre, you don’t look at him as a grumpy old scenester. You snap to attention. Accredit it to over two decades of proud loyalty to the scene he and Agnostic Front helped create. After all, if there were no AF, you surely wouldn’t be rockin’ out to Hatebreed and their throngs of clones today. That frustration is the focal point of the band’s forthcoming full-length Another Voice. With tracks such as “Hardcore! (The Definition)” and “Pride, Faith, Respect,” Miret heralds the… Read more »

Los Angeles – After a three-year hiatus, Destiny’s Child is picking up where it left off: at the top. “Lose My Breath,” the first single from the R&B trio’s hotly anticipated album “Destiny Fulfilled,” quickly marched its way to No. 3 on The Billboard Hot 100. Now industry observers are handicapping how the group’s sales destiny will be fulfilled following the release of its first album since 2001’s “Survivor.” The Sony Urban Music/Columbia album debuted this week at No. 19 on the Billboard 200, based on only three days of sales in the week ended Nov. 14. It officially went… Read more »