Search Results for: when we were young

Looking to take advantage of what they say is a large and lucrative niche audience untapped by television programmers, two cable divisions of Viacom (news/quote), MTV Networks and Showtime, are developing a plan to create the first cable channel aimed directly at gay viewers. The still unnamed channel would be offered to cable system operators as a pay channel like HBO or Showtime – only much less costly at $5 or $6 a month – but it would also include advertising. MTV Networks and Showtime have conducted extensive audience testing and concluded that there is, as one Showtime executive put… Read more »

Neil Young may be Canadian, but the veteran rock star was honored Tuesday for promoting freedom and justice in his adopted country. People for the American Way, a free-speech advocacy group formed 20 years ago to combat the so-called “religious right,” presented Young with its Spirit of Liberty lifetime achievement award during its annual fundraising dinner in Beverly Hills. Young, in turn, raised a few eyebrows among the liberal crowd by defending anti-terrorist measures that have angered civil rights groups. But he urged the audience to ensure the controversial measures were only temporary. “Never let America forget that these are… Read more »

In one of the last weeks before the new season, all four major networks for the first time finished with the same share among young adults for the Sept. 3-9 period – another sign of how hotly contested the upcoming season could be. (However, Tuesday’s terrorist attacks mean the new season, scheduled to start next Monday, could be delayed.) NBC won for the 20th time in 21 weeks in the coveted adults 18-49 demographic (3.3 rating, nine share), according to Nielsen, but second-place CBS (3.1/9) and third-place ABC and Fox (who tied at 3.0/9) were all within three-tenths of the… Read more »

Album sales for R&B singer Aaliyah rose 41 percent last week, reflecting a surge of interest in the 22-year-old performer following her death in a plane crash this past weekend, statistics showed Wednesday. Music retail tracking firm SoundScan’s album charts for the week ended Aug. 26 showed sales of her latest album, “Aaliyah,” had grown to 62,000 copies, up from 44,000 units the week earlier. Total sales of “Aaliyah” since its July 10 release reached 509,000 copies as of Aug. 26, putting the disc at No. 19 on the latest Billboard Top 200 chart of pop albums. Blackground, Aaliyah’s record… Read more »

This ninth edition of the KROQ Weenie Roast, which saw the annual all-day charity festival return to its traditional Irvine home after it was held in Anaheim last year, was largely divided into distinct segments representing two contrasting sides of modern rock music. There were the angry young hard rock bands (Disturbed, Papa Roach, Linkin Park, Crazytown), who toiled under the hot afternoon sun, and the superior veteran headliners (Jane’s Addiction, Blink-182, 311, surprise guests Stone Temple Pilots), who brought the better music and benefited from their post-sunset show times. Occupying a mid-day space somewhere between those groupings was the… Read more »

The scene onstage at Jimmy Z’s is unmistakable: the singer is screeching “Sin City,” right hand on the mic, left hand cocked at the side like it might just fire bullets from the fingers drawn in a heavy metal devil salute. Several feet away, the guitarist’s head is in a non-stop nod to the beat; a schoolboy necktie squirms under a burgundy Gibson SG. Uh, but wait a minute… this Angus Young is wearing a miniskirt. And the person rocking the spotlight isn’t a middle-aged Aussie man, but a twentysomething African-American woman. Ding dong, welcome to the world of Hell’s… Read more »

After six years and two modestly successful albums, the members of the hard rock band Stabbing Westward had every reason to be surprised when their label, Columbia, pulled the plug in 1999 – the day before the quintet was to leave for Hawaii to make a new album with producer Bob Rock. “It was out of nowhere,” says frontman Chris Hall. “All of a sudden they decided they needed to fund more money towards Ricky Martin’s wardrobe and dropped 12 bands in one day; ‘This rock thing doesn’t seem to be working out for us. We’ll keep Offspring and let… Read more »

Irish boy band Westlife will rock Indonesia’s capital on Thursday under heavy security as police take no chances following the death of four fans in a stampede when another band toured Jakarta in March. Organizers said 2,000 security personnel including police would guard the 15,000-seat concert stadium in central Jakarta, along with 200 paramedics backed up by a number of ambulances and fire engines for the late afternoon event. Bands such as the chart-topping Westlife are hugely popular with Indonesian teenagers, but visits have become less common since the country sank into crisis in the late 1990s. The British boy… Read more »

Rock band the Black Crowes, who kicked off a North American tour with Oasis last weekend, took time out Monday to immortalize their handprints in concrete. As about 200 fans looked on, the group’s members dipped their hands in wet concrete at the Rockwalk, joining a display that includes such artists as Willie Dixon, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bonnie Raitt and Black Sabbath. “We’ve had an amazing journey the last 10 years and we couldn’t be happier,” singer Chris Robinson told the fans gathered on Sunset Boulevard outside the guitar store that operates the exhibit. “From Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters… Read more »

Their embraceable debut (1997’s Middle of Nowhere, featuring the Number One single “MMMBop”) sold millions of copies and established Hanson as TRL’s preeminent poster-teens. The grittier follow-up (2000’s This Time Around) alienated bubblegum-dependent younger fans and has yet to go platinum in the states. Now the brothers Hanson – Isaac, Taylor and Zac – are hard at work on a record they hope will marry the success of one to the punchy feel of the other and in the process show the world what they’ve know all along: Hanson are a hard-working, musically gifted and educated rock band. Sessions for… Read more »