Search Results for: decade

After nearly 40 years of playing “Satisfaction,” aren’t the Rolling Stones a bit sick of it? Really, they aren’t. Keith Richards and Ron Wood say it’s a great song and it takes on a different meaning every time they play it. “Of course, there are nights where you want to throw the set list out the window,” Mick Jagger said. “But up to a point, people want to hear certain things. But you don’t want to just play those, you want to play other things. Richards and Jagger said they don’t think young people are giving up on rock. “No,… Read more »

Classic acts such as Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones and Cher lured more people to concerts in 2002 and helped the industry make a record $2.1 billion in ticket sales, according to figures released Friday. This was the fourth straight year concert receipts reached record levels in America. There were $1.75 billion in sales in 2001, according to trade publication Pollstar, which tracks the concert industry. In 2001, ticket costs rose and sales declined, Pollstar said. Last year, increased ticket sales helped push concert receipts higher. “We had some very big marquee names out on tour this year,” said Pollstar’s… Read more »

‘NSYNC and Britney Spears took a distant back seat to dinosaur rockers Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones and Cher this year when it came to concert ticket sales. As alarming as that might seem to Timberlake groupies, it probably has a lot more to do with the limited number of shows the young stars played than with any sort of pop backlash or classic rock revolution. Touring for the first time in almost a decade, McCartney netted $126.1 million, according to data from Billboard Boxscores. The former Beatle landed $98.8 million from U.S. shows and an additional $27.5 million from… Read more »

When Guns N’ Roses announced they were going on tour this fall after a nine-year hiatus, fans of the heavy metal band snapped up tickets. Axl Rose was back and there was talk of a new album. But the comeback has been no “Paradise City.” Rose, the mercurial frontman whose disappearing acts have long irritated fans, failed to show up for the opening show Nov. 7 in Vancouver, prompting thousands of ticket holders to riot outside the venue. The band was a no-show again last week in Philadelphia, and fans got unruly. By then it became apparent that the “Chinese… Read more »

A New York operation accused of pirating music to the tune of millions of dollars was raided this week by U.S. Secret Service agents and record industry investigators in what they called the largest ever seizure of music piracy equipment in the U.S. About 35,000 pirated CDs, 10,000 DVDs and the equivalent of 421 CD burners were confiscated, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said in a statement. Three people were arrested in the Monday raid in an industrial complex in the New York City borough of Queens and charged with trafficking counterfeit labels, criminal copyright infringement and trademarket… Read more »

Dashboard Confessional and Jack Johnson played acoustic, and Beck and Coldplay celebrated Christmas, but otherwise KROQ-FM’s annual Almost Acoustic Christmas was a two-day, 20-act festival all about rocking. And the sold-out event was certainly crammed with rock and roll moments, particularly the announced live debut of Audioslave (they played a secret club show the night before), and an amusing rendition of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” orchestrated by Beck and the Flaming Lips and featuring Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba, Johnson and a horribly off-key Juliette Lewis. (Click here for photos from the show.) Audioslave were the talk… Read more »

More than a decade after the height of the Seattle rock explosion, Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains are long gone and Mudhoney have become a cult band. Pearl Jam are the last man standing. And despite their best efforts to maintain a low profile, their Riot Act debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, selling more than 165,000 copies. No one could be more surprised than guitarist Mike McCready. “I’m amazed that people are even still wanting to listen to us,” he said. “With all the other music out there and the shifting times, I’m surprised that… Read more »

Eddie Vedder has found plenty of material in mortality over the years. His band, Pearl Jam, was born of a heroin overdose more than a decade ago. Rival songwriter Kurt Cobain of Nirvana committed suicide while at the height of popularity. Two of Pearl Jam’s biggest hits, “Jeremy” and “Last Kiss,” deal with teen death. Now comes renewal, an appropriate topic as the lead singer and his bandmates re-emerge from their most proximate shock: the deaths of nine fans trampled during the 2000 Roskilde festival in Denmark. “Riot Act,” released Nov. 12, is Pearl Jam’s first studio album since the… Read more »

Dublin’s docklands redevelopers, who angered U2 by tearing down the group’s hallowed old studios, are giving Bono and his colleagues a high-rise penthouse replacement, the two sides announced Tuesday. “The new Dublin is something I’m really excited about,” Bono told a press conference alongside leaders of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. Earlier this year the state-backed developers successfully fought U2 in court for the right to tear down a building at Hanover Quay where the band had recorded most of its records since the early 1980s. The building became a place of pilgrimage for U2 devotees, some of whom spray-painted… Read more »

For those about to rock, the Rock Hall salutes you – by inducting several heroes of metal, punk and new wave into next year’s class. AC/DC, the Clash, the Police, and Elvis Costello and the Attractions will lead the class of 2003 when they are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, organizers announced Thursday (November 7). Other artists recognized include blue-eyed soul singers the Righteous Brothers, whose “Unchained Melody” and Phil Spector-produced “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ ” remain classics. Sideman and non-performer inductees remain to be announced. AC/DC, who formed in 1973 and… Read more »