Search Results for: harper

In what his publisher calls a record-breaking deal, British pop superstar George Michael is working on a memoir to come out in the fall of 2009. HarperCollins says the book, currently untitled, will be an “access all areas” story, with the 44-year-old Michael writing extensively about his professional and personal life. A publishing official with knowledge of the negotiations said the deal was worth at least $6 million for British rights alone, among the biggest publishing contracts ever for that market, and at least $7 million overall. “George has promised HarperCollins a no-holds barred biography, and it’s certain to be… Read more »

With members of Yellowcard spending the last few months scattered across the country – in New York, California and Florida – what better place to reconvene than sunny Orlando, Florida? After all, it is the nation’s favorite vacation destination. “Yeah, we didn’t really come down here for vacation,” guitarist Ben Harper laughed. “We’re playing a couple of shows at [Disney World’s] Grad Nite, and we figured here was as good a place as any to finish up the saga [of] writing our new album.” Since January, frontman Ryan Key and bassist Pete Mosely have been living in New York, writing… Read more »

Partial list of winners at Sunday’s 47th Annual Grammy Awards: Engineered Album, Classical – “Higdon – City Scape Concerto for Orchestra,” Jack Renner, engineer – Robert Spano. Producer of the Year, Classical – David Frost. Classical Album – “Adams – On the Transmigration of Souls,” Lorin Maazel, conductor John Adams and Lawrence Rock, producers. Orchestral Performance – “Adams – On the Transmigration of Souls,” Lorin Maazel, conductor John Adams and Lawrence Rock, producers. Opera Recording – “Mozart – Le Nozze di Figaro,” Rene Jacobs, conductor Patrizia Ciofi, Veronique Gens, Simon Keenlyside, Angelika Kirchschlager and Lorenzo Regazzo Martin Sauer, producer –… Read more »

Yellowcard singer Ryan Key and his brand-new roommate – bassist Pete Mosely – recently witnessed something they had never seen before: an honest-to-goodness blizzard. It happened in New York a few weeks back, and while it certainly wasn’t the most epic of meteorological events (just one day of snow), it was enough to keep the Florida-spawned duo bundled up inside their apartment in Manhattan’s Soho district. Which isn’t really a bad thing, when you consider they moved to New York to begin writing the new Yellowcard record. So how many new tunes did they pen while Mother Nature unleashed her… Read more »

It seems only fitting that after six months, 7,000 bands and more than 100,000 votes, the winner of the Takeover Records “Sign My Band” contest would be determined by mere percentage points. And so on Christmas Eve, when the Internet polls closed and Pennsylvania’s Strike Fire Fall defeated the New York band Silhouette by the slimmest of margins – 52 percent to 48 percent – no one was really surprised. “People don’t realize how many bands there are out there, how many kids there are in garages out there. And we’d like to think that this contest communicated to those… Read more »

This summer, Yellowcard’s Ben Harper was looking to sign some new acts to his fledgling label, Takeover Records. There was only one problem: Being the guitar player in a successful rock band does not necessarily afford one the time necessary to check out up-and-coming acts at tiny clubs. So Harper had the bands come to him. And the “Sign My Band” contest was born. “The contest idea came around because we would collect demos from each city we went on Warped Tour, and we didn’t really have any time to follow up with the kids,” Harper said. “So we started… Read more »

New York – RealNetworks, XM Satellite Radio, NCSoft and TiVo were among the big winners at the first annual Billboard Digital Entertainment Awards. The awards were held on November 5th at UCLA Covel Commons at Sunset Village in Los Angeles, California. XM Satellite Radio was presented the award for Best Radio Service, given to the best digital, Internet, satellite or other format in radio with respect to variety, innovation and user experience. XM’s president and CEO Hugh Panero, was honored with the Innovator of the Year award for his profound impact and leadership in the satellite radio medium. RealNetworks’ Rhapsody… Read more »

St. Louis – Grammy-award winning rapper Murphy Lee was arrested after police pulled him over for an expired license plate and found marijuana in his Mercedes, authorities said. Lee, born Tohri Harper, was stopped Oct. 31 on Interstate 55 south of St. Louis. Sheriff’s deputies allegedly smelled marijuana, and the 22-year-old Lee was arrested on charges that he had less than 35 grams of marijuana and was driving under the influence of drugs. Lee’s attorney, Scott Rosenblum, declined to discuss the charges Monday, saying only that Lee expects to plead not guilty during a court appearance next month. Lee, part… Read more »

Yellowcard aren’t like the other bands. They may have headlined this year’s Warped tour, but they’re pretty adamant about their individuality. They hate being lumped in with the Good Charlottes and the Simple Plans of the world and they don’t want to be labeled as pop-punk, emo or anything other than “Yellowcard.” “We hate being the ‘punk-pop heavyweights’ or whatever,” says band guitarist Benjamin Harper. (No, not that Ben Harper.) ChartAttack recently spoke with Ben regarding the band’s upcoming DVD, their place in the current scene and what it is that separates Yellowcard from their Warped Tour contemporaries. The band’s… Read more »

For the first time, the No. 1 album in the United States is loaded with anticopying protections, marking a clear step into the mainstream for the controversial technology. According to figures released by Nielsen SoundScan, Velvet Revolver’s “Contraband” was the top-selling album in America last week, despite being prominently labeled on its cover as being “protected against unauthorized duplication.” The success of the album is likely to prompt more experiments from BMG, the band’s label, and other record companies, industry watchers said. “It’s too soon to tell whether the rest of the industry is going to be heartened by this,”… Read more »