Search Results for: Rock Fest

Jon Lee, drummer for the Brit-rock band Feeder, was found dead in at his home in Miami on Monday. He was 33. Lee hanged himself in his garage and was discovered by his wife, Brazilian model Tatiana Englehart, according to a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s office. “We will miss him more than melody,” Feeder frontman Grant Nicholas and bassist Taka Hirose said in a statement. “We’re utterly devastated.” Nicholas elaborated in an interview he gave to BBC Radio 1 on Wednesday, saying he “really can’t understand why he chose to take his own life when he had… Read more »

The rock band U2 had the second biggest tour ever during a year in which concert industry business was off but ticket prices continued to rise, an industry trade publication said Thursday. The top 100 concert tours sold 34.4 million tickets in 2001, down about 7 percent from 37.1 million the year before, according to an analysis by Pollstar magazine. U2, coming off one of its strongest albums, sold out arenas across the country with a well-received back-to-basics show. They even added dates after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The band’s $109.7 million in estimated ticket sales is second only… Read more »

Shock-rocker Marilyn Manson scored a significant court victory Friday (December 28) in Clarkston, Michigan, when a judge reduced charges brought against him from his July 30 OzzFest performance there. In a preliminary examination, 52nd District Court Judge Gerald E. McNally knocked down a prosecution charge of fourth degree criminal sexual conduct to misdemeanor disorderly conduct and carried over a charge of misdemeanor assault-and-battery. Both charges carry fines of $2,000 and no jail time. Manson remains free on a personal bond. Manson revealed, “I’m not completely happy,” and added that the new charges are “better than when I came. I still… Read more »

Though the annual South by Southwest Music Conference is known as a place for up-and-coming bands to get noticed, there’ll be several artists at next year’s 16th annual festival who already have hits under their belts. Hanson, who were discovered at 1994’s SXSW and played at last year’s fest as well, will return again to the music industry schmooze extravaganza in Austin, Texas. They’ll join such other airwave veterans as Marcy Playground (“Sex and Candy”), Girls Against Boys (“Kill the Sexplayer”) and Jesus Jones (“Right Here, Right Now”). Of course, the underground is still represented in full-force, as the lineup… Read more »

The world’s largest record company will be the first of the major labels to release a copy-protected CD in the United States, signaling a new chapter in the industry’s efforts to stem music piracy. When Universal Music Group on Tuesday releases the soundtrack, “Fast & Furious – More Music,” consumers won’t be able to copy the music onto another CD or use their PCs to “rip” tracks in digital MP3 format. The copy-protection technology will also render the disc unplayable on Macintosh computers, DVD players and game consoles, such as Sony’s PlayStation 2. It might not even play in some… Read more »

Calling her a greedy, volatile “prima donna,” the two surviving members of influential grunge rock group Nirvana have sued to have the widow of Kurt Cobain thrown off the board controlling the band’s musical legacy. Cobain’s widow Courtney Love last June sued to block the release of a boxed set of Nirvana greatest hits that would have coincided with the 10th anniversary of the band’s chart-topping “Nevermind” album. Now the surviving band members, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl, have counter-sued, saying Love is incapable of handling her obligations to their three-way partnership controlling the band’s music. “In truth,… Read more »

While the 2001 season of Showtime’s Chris Isaak Show featured cameos by Stevie Nicks, Bret Michaels and Shawn Colvin, next year’s will see Green Day, Everclear’s Art Alexakis, Third Eye Blind’s Stephan Jenkins and Shelby Lynne trot on. Green Day filmed their episode, “The Wrong Number,” in Vancouver, British Columbia, several weeks ago. Although the full details are still under relative wraps, Isaak says that episode finds the punk triad behaving in typically punk fashion. “They pretty much destroy my amps,” he says. “They wreck my house. I have to throw them out, but [Green Day singer] Billie [Joe Armstrong]… Read more »

British rock band the Cure mounted a farewell tour last year to promote what it billed as its last album, and had such a blast playing for more than half a million people in North America and Europe that it now hopes to return to the road in 2002. Retirement at age 42 just never suited the Cure’s leader, singer/guitarist Robert Smith, whose gloomy songs about death and despair have transfixed fans since the Cure released its first single in 1978. “The swan song was actually me… saying the group’s going to end,” Smith told Reuters in a recent interview.… Read more »

Marilyn Manson will have to wait a little longer to get his day in court in Michigan. The shock rocker’s hearing on charges of criminal sexual conduct and assault-and-battery, slated first for November 9 and then for tomorrow (December 7), has now been moved again to December 28 at the request of his attorney Walter Piszczatowski, who is involved in another trial. The hearing will still take place before Judge Gerald E. McNally of the 52nd District Court in Clarkston, Michigan. Manson is free on $25,000 personal bail after a September 21 arraignment at the court. The charges stem from… Read more »

Apparently Marilyn Manson can’t keep his crotch to himself – for the second time in four months he’s been accused of rubbing his crotch on a security guard’s head. David M. Diaz of Anoka County, Minnesota, filed a $75,000 civil suit against Manson on Tuesday in a Minneapolis federal court, according to a court spokesperson. Diaz, a security guard working the front barricade at Minneapolis’ Orpheum Theatre, said the controversial rocker grabbed his head, held his hips against it and gyrated. The incident allegedly took place October 27, 2000, during the first show of Manson’s Guns, God and Government tour.… Read more »