Search Results for: Rock am Ring

Paris – Hip-hop rhymers, classical orchestras, church choirs, punk bands and creamy-voiced crooners from Paris to Hong Kong are taking up the fund-raising theme for victims of the Asian tsunami, holding money-raising concerts and singing special songs. Ever since the 1980s African famine relief hit “We Are the World” and its Band Aid predecessor “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” support from musicians has been part of charity fund-raising. But the response to the tsunami has been huge. In Norway alone, dozens of benefit concerts are planned. In its oil capital, Stavanger, groups scheduled a free show Thursday, with cash to… Read more »

Even though Led Zeppelin are one of the best-selling rock bands in history (the technically untitled Led Zeppelin IV is among the handful of records that have sold more than 20 million copies in the U.S.), the critics have never really liked ’em. Be it Robert Plant’s screeching vocals, Jimmy Page’s self-indulgent guitar solos or the band’s pilfering of classic American blues, the Zep didn’t receive the greatest reviews in their day and shockingly, never won a Grammy Award (though Robert Plant and Jimmy Page won for Best hard Rock Performance in 1998 for their relatively lame “Most High”). Led… Read more »

New York, Ny – The 47th Annual GRAMMY Awards nominations were recently announced and hard rock quintet Skillet were among the nominees for Best Rock Gospel Album in conjunction with their best-selling, current album Collide. Upon hearing the news of their nomination, lead singer John Cooper said, “First off we were really surprised since this was our first GRAMMY nomination. I think it is super cool and an honor to be in such great company with the other nominees.” “We are ecstatic about Skillet’s nomination,” remarked Andy Karp, Senior Vice President of Lava Records. “The band’s sound musicianship and broad… Read more »

New York – Christmas sales came in the nick of time, saving the holiday selling season for most merchants at the last minute. After watching sales waver on an almost daily basis in the first half of December, most retailers say that because the weeks before and after Christmas were strong, stores could top last year’s numbers. “Christmas was late coming, but once it did, it came crushing in,” says Geoffrey Caruso, manager of the Amoeba store in Berkeley, Calif. “In the first part of December, it vacillated from day to day.” Indeed, Nielsen SoundScan numbers confirm that for the… Read more »

Los Angeles – NBC hasn’t received any calls about the F-word that Motley Crue rocker Vince Neil dropped during the live New Year’s Eve broadcast of “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.” “Happy f–ing New Year, Tommy!” Neil said to bandmate Tommy Lee shortly after midnight Friday. The remark was carried to viewers on the East Coast but was edited out before it was broadcast in the West, according to the entertainment trade paper Variety, which reported the incident on its Web site Monday night. Leno normally tapes his show for broadcast later in the evening but does a live… Read more »

Washington, D.C. – With the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Bush, visitors to the capital won’t be able to swing a cat next week without hitting a ball or party. Although there will be free daytime festivities open to the public during inauguration week, the closed soirees are the hot tickets. The nine “official” nighttime balls, all sponsored by states’ societies, most set for Jan. 19, command most of the attention. All are closed affairs reserved for the Republican Party faithful, with campaign contributors flying in from all over the country. There are also boatloads of “unofficial” parties being thrown… Read more »

Many artists say the greatest reward is to have an effect on people’s lives. Johnny Borrell, 24-year-old frontman for Razorlight, won’t settle for merely having an effect, he wants his music to save the lives of others. After all, it was his music that saved his life. When he was 17, Borrell started shooting heroin, and for the next two years, he made a daily habit of shooting up and snorting cocaine. Over time, he lost most of his friends, some who overdosed, and some who couldn’t stand watching Borrell destroy himself. It was only after he decided to mold… Read more »

Sugarcult have a video – “She’s the Blade” – that’s garnering major airplay, an opening slot on Blink-182’s European tour and an extremely devoted female fanbase. But as singer Tim Pagnotta is reminded every day, there’s still a whole lot of ground to cover before the band can count itself among rock’s elite. “Whoa, somebody is totally screaming,” Pagnotta said recently while standing backstage in Paris. “Sorry, some kid just saw Travis Barker eating a sandwich, and he just started screaming.” The fact that a kid wandered by the lead singer of Sugarcult without even pausing – but went totally… Read more »

New York – The year began with the Super Bowl halftime show fiasco and ended with aftershocks from Howard Stern flipping his detractors the bird and taunting the Federal Communications Commission with a just-try-and-get-me-now move to satellite radio. Between those two seismic events, the FCC levied a record number of indecency fines, responding to an avalanche of complaints carefully orchestrated by conservative zealots and election year political pressure. The results from the government crackdown were widespread. Top-rated personalities were fired. Zero-tolerance edicts were issued. On-air delays and indecency tutorials became commonplace. Warhorses like Pink Floyd’s “Money,” Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer”… Read more »

New York – Irish rockers U2, R&B singers The O’Jays and soul balladeer Percy Sledge are among five musical legends to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during the foundation’s 20th annual induction ceremony next year, the organization announced Monday. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation will hold its induction ceremony March 14 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. U2, which became one of the planet’s most popular bands in the 1980s with their megahit “The Joshua Tree,” is still making the charts: Their November release, “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,” is… Read more »