Search Results for: extreme

Barry Diller’s USA Interactive sued Vivendi Universal on Tuesday over a tax dispute, saying the French entertainment company reneged on its partnership agreement with USA to save much-needed cash. USA and Vivendi formed a joint venture, Vivendi Universal Entertainment, last year combining Universal’s film, television and theme park properties with USA’s cable channels and television production company. Diller recently stepped down as VUE chairman. As part of the deal, USA has claimed Vivendi must make annual payments to reimburse USA for taxes that will become due on income it receives from the preferred shares it owns in VUE. The unusual… Read more »

From rampaging bikers at the Rolling Stones’ infamous Altamont show in 1969 to deadly stampedes by fans of the Who and Pearl Jam, the most notorious rock concert tragedies have generally been linked to the biggest names in the business. That is, until Great White took the stage of a tiny Rhode Island nightclub Thursday night. The heavy metal “hair” band, which reached the brief apex of its career in the 1980s, will now be forever remembered for a devastating fire that stands in a class by itself as the deadliest episode in the annals of rock ‘n’ roll mayhem.… Read more »

In an aggressive move to boost subscriptions, online music firm Listen.com on Thursday cut what it charges users to burn songs from its Rhapsody service from 99 cents to a loss-making 49 cents. The drastic discount underscores the lengths to which legitimate online music companies will go to jump-start the fledgling marketplace, which is competing against still popular unauthorized services like Kazaa which attract millions with offers of virtually limitless content for free. “We look at this as a limited-time promotion and an effort to get people in the door,” said Matt Graves, a spokesman for independently-owned Listen.com. “We may… Read more »

Record producer Phil Spector and Lana Clarkson, the actress found slain in his mansion, reflected the two sides of success that exist within Hollywood’s pop culture landscape. Spector, 62, the music industry wunderkind who struck it rich in his teens and changed the face of pop music, became an eccentric millionaire with a castle home in the suburbs. Clarkson, 40, a B-movie actress who sold her pinups on the Internet and modeled herself after Marilyn Monroe, was a success within the exploitation movie world. She was nearly 6 feet tall, blonde, buxom and gorgeous. She was discovered by B-movie king… Read more »

Hilary Rosen, who led the music industry’s fight against online piracy, turning an obscure trade group into a major player in the debate over copyright protection, said Wednesday she will quit as chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America. Rosen, who will resign by year-end after 17 years with the RIAA, led the group recently in victorious copyright infringement battles against Napster and Aimster and this week’s judgment against Verizon Communications to stem piracy on the Internet. But despite the wins on the legal front, the music industry finds itself entrenched in one of its most tumultuous periods,… Read more »

The lyrics to the song “This Is My Life Story” by MXPX run through my head as I hopelessly scramble to the very back of the line. I left later than I had hoped, got caught up in D.C. traffic, and arrived about 5 minutes before doors were scheduled to open. Once inside, I rush to get as close to the stage as I possible. While mashed between about five teeny boppers and their “boyfriends,” anticipation runs through my bones as I eagerly await the first performance. First up is Further Seems Forever. I was a little skeptical about this… Read more »

Concert tours to Southeast Asia have become the latest casualty of recent bomb blasts in Bali and the Philippines with veteran jazz guitarist George Benson and rock groups Red Hot Chili Peppers and Oasis canceling shows. “George Benson did cancel some dates that he had lined up for Indonesia,” promoter Nigel Peters said on Tuesday. “It’s obviously a direct relation to the Bali bombing. That’s the only reason this decision was taken.” A bomb attack at a nightclub on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali on October 12 killed more than 180 people, most of them Australian. Ten people were… Read more »

The British rock group Oasis canceled its concert in the Philippines after a spate of deadly bombings in the country and in Indonesia. The band was scheduled to perform Wednesday at the Araneta Coliseum in suburban Quezon City. “Due to recent terrorist attacks in both Bali and the Philippines, Oasis has regretfully decided not to play its show in Manila on Wednesday,” the band’s British agent, Ben Winchester, said in a statement released Monday by Midas Promotion. The statement said, “The band did not wish to perform a show under the extreme security precautions that would have to be taken… Read more »

A handwritten note by Paul McCartney that includes a two-line quotation from a Beatles song has fetched 1,350 pounds ($2,100) at auction. McCartney quoted the opening lines of “Penny Lane,” the song he penned about a street in his hometown of Liverpool, in a note to an old family friend. Richard Westwood-Brookes of Swindon’s Dominic Winter Book Auctions said Saturday that such quotations are “extremely rare.” The note was sold Friday. The song begins: “In Penny Lane there’s a barber showing photographs of every head he has had the pleasure to know, and all the people that come and go,… Read more »

8 Mile, the semi-autobiographical drama in which rapper Eminem makes his movie debut, might just be as good as Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind) once boasted. Playing to a packed house on Sunday night (September 8), director Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential) unspooled a “work-in-progress” version of the pic at the Toronto Film Festival. Tickets for the anticipated film were extremely difficult to come by, but apparently the around-the-block queue for seating was worth it. New York Post reviewer Lou Lumenick said the movie is “a rousing Rocky with rappers (that has) astonishing crossover appeal.” He also says the… Read more »