Search Results for: european

The trailblazing early ?90s festival, Lollapalooza, will return this summer for the first time since 1997. When Perry Farrell first organized the touring event he did it in the true spirit of European music festivals. The first couple of years were an immense success melding lots of musical genres with bands like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Cypress Hill, Pearl Jam, Ice Cube, Lush, Ministry, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and more with cool merchandise and ethnic foods. Then the event became too corporate focusing its line-up on mostly white, male rock bands and generic stadium vendors. Now it’s… Read more »

TRUSTcompany is gearing up to hit the road on their first national headline outing. The Alabama-based quartet’s major label debut, “The Lonely Position of Neutral”, has continued to make its mark since its late summer debut at #11 on the Billboard Album Chart. The album was produced by Don Gilmore (Linkin Park, Lit, Eve 6) and mixed by Andy Wallace (Nirvana, Jeff Buckley, Rage Against The Machine). The band recently performed at the ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’ and at European festivals to over 30,000 fans. The “Lonely Position of Neutral” is already certified Gold. Comparing the sounds of… Read more »

Matchbox Twenty is set to embark on a U.S. tour starting in late April. Dates are still being solidified, but the tickets will go on sale in mid-February. First up though is a European tour, which starts March 25 in Koln, Germany. Rob Thomas and crew are promoting their new album, More Than You Think You Are, which follows in the footsteps of the multiplatinum Mad Season and diamond award-certified Yourself Or Someone Like You. When it comes to making a set list Rob Thomas told us there are several ways to go about it. “There’s two ways to do… Read more »

Could 2003 be the year that EMI finally finds a mate? Frenzied gossip among executives at this year’s Midem music industry conference on the French Riviera would suggest so. As a new group of suitors eyes the EMI dowry, which includes the Beatles back catalog, bets among the glitterati at Cannes are that the world’s third biggest music company will pair up with one of its old flames: BMG or Warner Music. Yet some still hold out hope for a more dramatic swoop by private equity houses led by an industry guru – cash-rich Clive Calder being one contender after… Read more »

In its harshest indictment yet of Internet piracy, a top official of the music industry said Sunday Europe’s 600,000 music professionals risk losing their jobs unless the industry fights back. “They are all potential victims of online music piracy,” Jay Berman, the CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) told music executives in his annual address at the Midem music conference in southern France. “In truth, online music piracy is not about free music. The music creators and rights holders, denied the right to choose how their music is used and enjoyed, are in fact paying the… Read more »

EMI Group Plc chairman Eric Nicoli didn’t confirm any of the myriad rumors of possible merger plans for his music major at a media confab in Gotham Tuesday, but he didn’t try very hard to dispel them, either. The British label group – which has been twice spurned by European and U.S. regulators in its attempts to link up with rival majors – would benefit from the expanded scale and geographical reach offered by a combination, Nicoli said at UBS Warburg’s Media Week event. And the regulatory skepticism, while still significant, may have been diminished somewhat by the dismal performance… Read more »

British rock band Oasis is to return to the stage in Wales on Sunday to finish a European tour after a brawl in a Munich bar forced two shows to be canceled. Wildman vocalist Liam Gallagher, 30, lost two teeth in the fight on December 1, leaving him unable to sing in two scheduled German shows. But a band spokesman said on Saturday dentists had repaired the damage and the final, British leg of the two-month tour would go ahead. “The Oasis UK tour will therefore be going ahead as planned, starting this Sunday,” he told the band’s Web site… Read more »

Two of Jim Morrison’s old pals from The Doors had hoped to debut a reconstituted version of the band next week, but they’ll have to wait until next year because their new drummer, Stewart Copeland, broke his arm. Copeland, a former member of the Sting-fronted rock trio The Police, was injured during the Thanksgiving holiday when he fell from his bicycle on a path near his Los Angeles home, the band’s publicists said on Monday. The accident has forced members of the Doors’ new lineup to postpone their kickoff performance at the Palms in Las Vegas from Dec. 8 to… Read more »

Vivendi Universal said third-quarter revenues for Vivendi Universal, excluding its utilities unit Vivendi Environnement, grew by 1 percent to $7.4 billion, despite revenue declines in its publishing and music divisions. The report, released Monday, comes as the media, entertainment and utilities conglomerate faces continuing pressure to improve its balance sheet and convince investors that its business is sound. For the three months ending Sept. 30, Vivendi’s Canal Plus subscription television group showed some improvement, with revenue growing 4 percent to nearly $1.2 billion in the third quarter. But Vivendi’s Universal Music Group saw revenues fall 9 percent to 1.3 billion… Read more »

Faced with adverse publicity to copy protection on CDs, a year ago Bertelsmann Music Group bravely gave in and promised to replace a clutch of Natalie Imbruglia CDs which were protected by Midbar’s Cactus Data Shield. But a year is a long time, BMG is at it again, this time apparently set on applying copy protection to all its music products. Not, of course, that this should be surprising. The music companies are absolutely intent on copy-proofing their products, and although they’ll maybe retreat a little when irate consumers pelt them with ordure, they’ll be right back just as soon… Read more »