Search Results for: thursday

Lou Pearlman, the music mogul who launched the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync, has agreed to plead guilty and make restitution to victims swindled out of an estimated $300 million in phony bank and investment schemes, U.S. prosecutors said on Tuesday. Pearlman admitted in a plea agreement that for 20 years he enticed people and banks to invest millions of dollars in two companies that existed only on paper: Transcontinental Airlines Travel Services Inc. and Transcontinental Airlines Inc. Pearlman is scheduled to enter his plea on Thursday in a U.S. court in Orlando. The charges carry a maximum of 25… Read more »

Juvenile is in mourning. A teenage gunman shot and killed the New Orleans rapper’s infant daughter Thursday along with her Sheriff’s Deputy mother and older sister in their Lawrenceville, Georgia home, authorities have confirmed. The victims–39-year-old Joy Deleston and her two daughters, 11-year-old Micaiah, and 4-year-old Jelani–were gunned down by Deleston’s 17-year-old son, Anthony Tyrone Terrell. Jelani was the daughter of Juvenile. Police discovered the bodies in the residence on Thursday and took Terrell into custody Friday, booking him on three counts of murder and three counts of aggravated assault after he pointed them to the location of the gun… Read more »

Universal Music Group said on Thursday it reached a deal to buy Spanish-language Univision Music Group for an undisclosed sum, including its recording and publishing operations. The Univision Music Group includes Univision Records, Fonovisa Records and Disa Records, with Marco Antonio Solis, Los Tigres del Norte and Gloria Trevi on its artist roster. Universal — the world’s largest music company, which is owned by France’s Vivendi — said it would phase out use of the Univision name but retain the brands Fonovisa and Disa. Universal had already been Univision Music’s distributor in the United States, Puerto Rico and Mexico. It… Read more »

If you ask Boy George if he really wanted to hurt him, the answer’s an emphatic no. The “Karma Chameleon” purveyor pleaded not guilty Thursday to a charge of false imprisonment for allegedly chaining a male escort to a wall and threatening him at the former’s east London home last April. George, 46, whose real name is George O’Dowd, turned up at Snaresbrook Crown Court dressed in black and sporting shades. The ’80s icon was mostly mum during the 20-minute hearing except to enter his plea and confirm the conditions of his bail. He subsequently left without speaking to reporters.… Read more »

Mike Smith, the lead singer of the 1960s British band the Dave Clark Five, died on Thursday of pneumonia at an English hospital, his U.S. agent said. Smith, 64, was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday morning with a chest infection resulting from complications of a 2003 spinal cord injury that had left him paralyzed from the waist down, his New York agent, Margo Lewis, said in a statement. His death at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, north of London, came just two weeks before the Dave Clark Five — one of the leading bands of the 1960s “British invasion” — was… Read more »

“SIMPLE PLAN,” the long-awaited new album from Lava/Atlantic recording group Simple Plan, has made a triumphant chart debut, both here and around the world. The Montreal-based band’s third studio effort — which features the singles “When I’m Gone” and “Your Love Is A Lie” — was the Billboard 200’s highest-charting debut of the week at #14, while also placing high on a variety of additional tallies, including #3 on “Top Rock Albums,” #4 on “Top Modern Rock/Alternative Albums,” and #7 on “Top Digital Albums.” In addition, the album reached the #1 spot on the iTunes Store’s “Top Pop Albums” ranking.… Read more »

British rock band Coldplay will release its new album through EMI Group this summer, the band’s manager was quoted as saying on Thursday, a month after he threatened to withhold the record in protest of major cost-cutting by the beleaguered London label’s new owners. The album will be a key test for private-equity investor Guy Hands, who led a 3.2 billion pound ($6.25 billion) buyout of EMI last year. He quickly unnerved musicians by looking for ways to trim the fat in an industry known for its wanton excess and loss-making deals. Hands’ strategy includes laying off up to a… Read more »

The night before they were set to play for thousands of people at one of the world’s most famous venues, Linkin Park performed a midnight show for a small group of fans in an unlikely venue – an Apple store. The rock-rap group did a short but energetic set, including hits such as “Bleed It Out,” for about 200 fans early Thursday, just hours before their show that evening at Madison Square Garden. “We’re actually in the middle of our first U.S. arena tour in years,” guitarist Brad Delson told The concert, which ran about 30 minutes, will be available… Read more »

The integrity of “American Idol” as a contest for raw, undiscovered talent was called into question again after an Irish singer who once had a major-label deal, and solo album that flopped, advanced to the top rung of the competition this week. Dublin native Carly Smithson, who formerly recorded for MCA Records under her maiden name, Carly Hennessy, was one of the 24 “Idol” contestants who made it on Wednesday to the semifinal rounds voted on each week by the show’s home TV audience. Online critics immediately seized on her initial success, and her professional recording background, as further evidence… Read more »

Radiohead is chasing Rainbows with its first North American tour in two years. The band announced Tuesday that it will kick off an eight-concert trek May 5 in West Palm Beach, Florida, continuing on to locales including Tampa, Atlanta and Houston before wrapping up in Dallas on May 18. Tickets to the shows go on sale Saturday, with presale beginning Thursday. From there, the British rockers will head back across the pond for the European leg of their tour, kicking off June 6 in Dublin and wrapping up July 8 in Berlin. Radiohead is then due to return to the… Read more »