Real Music People

Veteran rocker Ringo Starr has been tipped to finally be honored in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame next year, according to some industry insiders. The former Beatles drummer is the only member of the Fab Four not to be inducted into the prestigious Hall Of Fame, with the late George Harrison the last to receive the honor in 2004 - three years after his death in 2001. I think it is like justice being delayed a bit in his case. He should have been long before have been included in the Hall Of Fame. I love Ringo and the Bee Gees and all of the Beatles and am I glad to see him join the other is his rightful place in The Hall Of Fame. HE HAS EARNED THE HONOR. Why is always with some people that they get their honor much more later than a few who really never deserve to be there in that esteemed list of greats. But a better way to look at it would be that may the ones who get a later recognition savor it more than the one who get it early but fail to understand the value of it all.

Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines has paid $5.6 million for a home in the upscale Los Angeles suburb of Brentwood, the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday.

Maines, 32, already has homes near Austin,

Texas, and in New York City, the paper added. The newest addition, in a gated community, boasts five bedrooms and seven bathrooms.

The Dixie Chicks, country music’s darlings until Maines criticized U.S. President George W. Bush during a concert four years ago, won five G

rammy Awards earlier this year in a measure of the trio’s respect within the music industry at large.

Maines’ husband, actor Adrian Pasdar, appears in the TV series “Heroes,” requiring his presence in Los Angeles for lengthy stretches, the Los Angeles Times said.

Father-to-be Usher is hoping his pregnant wife Tameka Foster gives birth to a boy because he’s got his heart set on a male name for the unborn child Usher. The R&B singer was born Usher Raymond and, if the unborn baby is a boy, he’s hoping to continue a family tradition by passing on his name to another generation. What if he has a girl will he still like to continue with the family tradition and call the girl Usher? Family traditions are nice to follow but only they are in tune with the times we live in. Sons are good but I am of the belief that daughters are better than sons and I would like to have a single child and a daughter only not a son. And the one thing we all should have in our hearts is that we have a healthy baby and that is the biggest blessing one can ask for.

R&B singer Chris Brown and his new single “Wall To Wall”
Chris’s new album entitled “Exclusive” is due out on November 6th

George Strait is still blazing a trail through country music. The country legend, who had his 55th number-one single this year and was recently inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, leads this year’s Country Music Association Awards with five nominations. He’s up for Entertainer of the Year, Top Male Vocalist and Best Single (for “Wrapped”), as well as for Best Album for It Just Comes Natural and Musical Event for the live version of “Hey Good Lookin’” with Jimmy Buffett and Alan Jackson. With that kind of nominations and the track record this guy has, I don’t think he has any competition as on date. Well what I would be interested in would be that when the awards are announced how many awards he will win out of the ones he is nominated for. Like 55 number-one singles in his career is something he would be proud of and should be coz I don’t think there are many how can boast of such a repertoire.

Scottish rocker KT Tunstall longs for a split with her boyfriend - because it will give her inspiration for songs. The singer briefly split with long-term boyfriend Luke Bullen - and it inspired her to write song Someday Soon which features on new album Drastic Fantastic. And she now plans to have more arguments in a bid for musical success. Nonsense that you need to have split with your boyfriend to find inspiration to write love and emotional songs, that way to write rock and rap songs one would have to spend a few nights with a prostitute or a gay to write these woeful songs. I thing she’s completely looking at the wrong way to find inspiration to write songs, rather than a break up she could well sit on the pot and find better inspiration. We are looking for love songs that make us happy not sad and remorseful about our past relationships gone wrong. KT don’t spoil a relation for just trying to find inspiration dear, go have some coke and cheer up.

Newton Faulkner’s debut album includes the single Dream Catch Me
Singer-songwriter Newton Faulkner has hit the top spot in the UK album chart, confirming him as one of this year’s hottest new artists.
Hand Built By Robots was released last month and now sits above Elvis Presley and Amy Winehouse in the rundown.

Faulkner rose to prominence supporting James Morrison and Paolo Nutini.

In the singles chart, Kanye West’s Stronger has held onto number one for a second week, holding off a challenge from Sean Kingston’s Beautiful Girls.

Soft rocker, acoustic alien, folk fantasist and blues boy are just a few of the nicknames you may fancy labelling Newton Faulkner. And if his personality is as laidback as his sound, the Surrey-bred Brit probably couldn’t care less what you tag him. As long as it’s not cheesy.

Here’s the first single from the debut album of American Idol winner Jordin Sparks to be released in November. The song is titled “Tatoo”

He’s rapped about it, made movies about it and is even nicknamed because of his love about it. But in a shocking turn of events, Method Man is going to educate people about the dangers of using it. What is it? Weed of course!

The Wu-Tang Clan member is ‘thrilled’ at his plans to discuss everything he knows about the evils of weed. He’s going to be speaking to students from 15 New York City high schools as part of a plea deal from getting busted with drugs this year.

Well that figures. It’s all a publicity stunt for the judge.

A handgun stolen from an exhibit during last week’s commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death has been recovered.

Surveillance video showed a man reaching into a display case at the “Elvis After Dark” exhibit at Graceland, Presley’s mansion, and removing a black, 9 mm Smith & Wesson pistol on Aug 14.

Travis Brookins turned the gun over to police Monday after the theft was reported by news media.

Brookins said he was cleaning portable toilets behind the exhibit hall last Thursday when he found the gun in the muck. Unaware the weapon had been stolen, Brookins took it home and cleaned it.

“He called us and said he thinks he had the gun and brought it to us,” Memphis police Lt. Jerry Gwyn said.

Gwyn said he believes the thief may have accidentally dropped the gun into the toilet.

“Of course, whoever dropped it wouldn’t go in there,” he said.

Presley died at Graceland on Aug. 16, 1977, and is buried in a small garden beside the house.

Tens of thousands of fans were in Memphis last week for various ceremonies marking the anniversary of Presley’s death.

Check out these promotional shots of Rihanna and Kanye West for this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. World famous photographer David LaChapelle did the elaborate photo shoots of not only Rihanna and Kanye but also Fall Out Boy, Foo Fighters and Chris Brown.

All of the above mentioned artists are featured as performers for this year’s VMAs along with Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen. And FYI, Justin Timberlake will be hosting a Fantasy Suite party with good pal and partner Timbaland.

The 2007 MTV Video Music Awards will air on September 9. And if the photos are any measure of the hotness of the show, then prepare to take on the heat!

Hip-hop star Snoop Dogg has been branded a nightmare neighbor by the residents whose road he deserted seven years ago. The rapper sold his lavish Claremont, California home earlier this week - despite moving out in 2000 after it featured on an episode of MTV’s Cribs. I wonder what it is about some celebs that just don’t recognize and care for their neighbors. Neighbors make up a neighborhood that in turn makes up the community and so on until you have a country. Take care of your neighbor and sometimes they take care of you…! But these idiot singers never may be care for their parents so how could we expect them to ever care for their neighbors. Most of the neighbors might know that he used to live beside them but he would never have known anyone in the neighborhood and would never have tried to make friends. Now that he lives some place else where, the neighborhood in that place would be having a sound sleep too.

It’s not uncommon to see some stars partnering up with some other outlets especially these days when record sales are at a low due to internet downloading and piracy. John Mayer, despite being the intellectual cutie pie that he is, is not above all of that.

The singer has added a new side gig to complement his crooning as a tatted-up model for The Gap. LA motorists, keep your eyes on the road. His larger than life ad was posted over The Gap at Hollywood and Highland in Los Angeles.

For those not in the know, the ‘SRV’ skin art is a reference to his guitar god, the late Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Erykah Badu is back in the music scene and her hair is back in our nightmares. I liked her better with the turban on.

Erykah and her crazy hair took the stage at the Paradiso in Amsterdam yesterday. Her music tracks may be off the charts but her head needs to be re-released!

See ladies, this is what happens when you decide to not bathe and just roll around in your bed for 8,912 days. It’s a massive case of bed head and frizz that you can’t get rid off even if you tried with a lawnmower. Bring back the turban!

Really like her - because she does her own thing AND has a beautiful voice - and hope so much she gets herself together (right expression?) - cause it would be a shame she throws her life away. The night that she overdosed, Amy said she smoked heroin, snorted cocaine, took ecstasy pills, took Ketamine pills, and drank tons of vodka and whiskey. Puke! Just saying vodka and whiskey aloud makes me gets that tingling feeling in my lip like I might vomit. How does this chick do it? How disgusting. Let’s hope she gets some help. I really am puzzled at one thing, they booze so much, they ecstasy pills and heroin and if there’s something else then I do not know the word for the obscure thing but how do they manage to keep their voices intact and still manage to sing that well, by now they should have lost their voices completely. That’s a miracle to me.

Producers putting together the biopic on late rapper Notorious B.I.G. are seeking an unknown actor to fill the role. A series of open auditions will be held in currently undisclosed locations. Filming is scheduled to begin this fall. Biggie’s mother and two managers will be selecting the right man for the part. His mother insists she will know the right actor when she sees him. Biggie who’s real name was Christopher Wallace, had been shot to death in March 1997 outside of a party in L.A. It’s always a good idea to find an unknown actor when trying to portray one who had previously been well known. To fill in the role with an actor that everyone knows will just take away from the story being told. Millions of rap fans have been waiting for this biopic and I’m sure the producers are doing all they can to make it the best possible.

Some of the latest news coming out of the Gwen Stefani camp is that she may have to cancel a Malaysian show date. Her Sweet Escape tour is scheduled to pass through Malaysia but have to cancel. A Muslim group has branded the pop star as indecent and obscene and they believe that she offends Islamic beliefs. The video clips used to promote the event were deemed too racy. I find it shocking that nobody does their homework anymore. Travelling to those countries involves a level of research. They have so many different ways and beliefs and if you aren’t aware of them, you run the risk of insulting people. Remember when Cameron Diaz did it with her bag? Hollywood has gotten so cocky that they seem to think they are accepted as they are everywhere, but the reality is they are only accepted in Hollywood itself. A concert cancellation is being let off easy. Some countries may have stoned her.

More than 70 Eminem songs are available for download on iTunes. Rap star Eminem is suing computer firm Apple for allegedly selling his music in its iTunes store without permission.
A lawsuit claiming infringement of copyright has been filed on behalf of the singer by his music publishing company Eight Mile Style.

Apple pays Eminem’s record label for each download - but Eight Mile Style argues it has not approved the deal.

“This is a significant issue in the music industry,” said Norman Ankers, a lawyer for the company.

“This occurs with many artists and many record labels.”

A spokesperson for Apple had no comment on the legal case, which was filed in the US District Court in Detroit.

Eight Mile Style said between 70 and 80 songs were affected by the dispute, including tracks from the Grammy award-winning The Eminem Show.

The company holds the copyright, or partial copyright, in all of the tracks.

It is seeking more than $75,000 (£36,900) for copyright infringement, unfair competition and a violation of the Michigan consumer protection act.

It also asks for damages of up to $150,000 (£73,800) per infringement - or each time a song is downloaded.

Apple charges $0.99 (£0.49) for most song downloads in the US. Recording companies get about $0.70 (£0.34) and pass on $0.09 (£0.04) of that fee to publishers.

But many publishers would prefer to receive their share of the money directly from retailers.

“Generally, artists want their music sold,” said Joel Martin, a spokesperson for Eight Mile Style. “We want it downloaded. We request that any provider that’s offering downloads license it through the publisher.”

“Apple is not accounting to us. They are accounting to Universal (Music),” he said.

Martin added that Apple had repeatedly asked Eight Mile Style for permission to use its songs, but the requests had been turned down.

Eminem has locked horns with Apple before. In 2004 he sued the company for copyright infringement, alleging that it had used his song Lose Yourself in a TV commercial without permission.

The case was settled out of court.

John Mayer took the time to post a blog that was made to greet his sound engineer Chad. In the entry, John shows some of his humor as he wrote what could be assumed to be a song for Chad and ratted out some trivia about the guy.

The lyrics were quite interesting as John writes:

“Happy Birthday, Chad.
You are my sound engineer (hence the sound board birthday cake)
and together we share a house.
You keep me warm on those cold nights
by making sure the thermostat is functioning properly.
And if it’s not, then we lovingly embrace
the fact that it will be cold
and pile on extra blankets
in our respective beds
that are located next to one another
at our local Serta mattress dealer.
I long to feel your caring touch
on the production of the next CD
And look forward to showering again with you soon.
Your sister looks lovely with that pregnant glow, and I hope the gift will go to good use.”

Mom Sheryl Crow waits offstage as hired nanny Marva keeps her 3-month old adopted son Wyatt at bay. He’s quieted with a pacifier at the Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago on Saturday. Sheryl also put on some noise-canceling headphones on baby Wyatt to keep the kid from going deaf as she performed on stage with Eric Clapton.

But it seems to me that the noise should be the least of her worries. Does anyone else think that baby Wyatt looks tortured? And why does nanny Marva look like she doesn’t give a damn? Mommy needs to figure something out and fast.

Kiss lead singer and guitarist Paul Stanley had to bow out of a Southern California concert because of heart problems before the show, according to his Web site.

Band-mates Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer played the Friday night gig at Soboba Casino, about 90 miles east of Los Angeles, as Stanley was taken to the hospital.

“During sound check yesterday, my heart spontaneously jumped to 190 plus beats per minute where it stayed for over an hour necessitating paramedics to start an IV and give me a shot to momentarily stop my heart and get it into a normal pattern,” Stanley said in the Saturday Web site posting.

“Not knowing if this episode was life threatening made it even more exhausting,” the statement continued.

Phone and e-mail messages for Kiss manager Doc McGhee seeking comment about Stanley’s condition were not immediately returned Saturday night.

It was Kiss’ first ever appearance as a trio, according to the band’s Web site.

As famous for their makeup, stage mayhem and wagging tongues as their music, Kiss recorded the 1970s hits “Rock and Roll All Nite” and “Detroit Rock City.”

The 55-year-old Stanley, born Stanley Eisen, released a solo album, “Live to Win,” in 2006.

Pearl Jam will play a private show for fan club members in Chicago on August 2, three days before its headlining stint at the city’s Lollapalooza festival, the rock group said on Tuesday.

Tickets for the show at the Vic Theatre will go on sale on Thursday, priced at $150 per pair (plus applicable fees). The Vic’s capacity is about 1,400 people, according to the venue’s web site.

Lollapalooza is Pearl Jam’s only U.S. appearance planned for 2007. Apart from a three-week European tour last month, the group has been laying low this year. The Seattle quintet spent much of 2006 on the road in support of a new self-titled album, its first studio release in almost four years.

Contact between father and son had been rare and publicly cool for nearly 50 years, and few thought they would ever see Bebo Valdes, 89 in October, and his son Chucho, 66, on tour together.

And yet the Cuban jazz pianists are not only playing 10 concerts in Spain, but on July 10 they finished recording their first collaborative album. The currently untitled release is set for an October launch on Madrid-based Calle 54 Records, with distribution by Sony BMG Spain.

The tour, which includes Chucho’s vocalist sister and Bebo’s daughter, Mayra Caridad, began July 6 in Tenerife and ends August 5 in Huesca after passing through seven cities including Barcelona, Madrid and Zaragoza.

“The tour means not only the re-encounter of father and son, but a review of the history of Cuban music in the 20th century,” said tour promoter Joan Anton Cararach, who has been the director of the Barcelona Jazz Festival for four years.

“We put on one of their extremely rare concerts together last year and proposed a joint tour,” Cararach said. “Working with them is a blessing.”

Beginning in 1959, Chucho played in Bebo’s Sabor de Cuba band in Havana, but Bebo left Cuba for good in 1961 after differences with Fidel Castro’s revolution. Bebo had been a star in 1950s Cuba, but he spent nearly 40 years unrecognized, playing in piano bars in Stockholm.

He was rediscovered in 2000 by Spanish film director Fernando Trueba for his Latin jazz documentary “Calle 54.” Trueba, who won the 1992 Academy Award for best foreign-language film for “Belle Epoque,” co-produced the new album with Miami-based fellow Latin jazz specialist Nat Chediak.

At the Madrid tour launch, Chucho said, “Bebo is my hero and my ‘maestro,’ and on this tour I will rediscover things he taught me when I was a kid.”

Bebo responded, “This is a dream come true. Nobody in the world plays better than Chucho.”

Most of these buyers are not fans but merely investors who want to lay there hands of a piece of Beatle history and cash it 20-30 years later. John Lennon’s trademark ‘granny’ spectacles, which the late Beatle wore during the band’s tour to Japan in 1966, have attracted a bidding of $1.5m at an online auction so far. I could see better without any glasses on what the buyer do with a $1.5m spectacles would. Everyone is bidding to get their hands on the gold-rimmed glass less spectacles that he had gifted to the Fab Four’s Japanese translator Junishi Yore. Yore had removed the dark lenses from the frame by pushing them out with his own thumbs when Lennon was murdered in 1980. He did so because he wanted Lennon to be able to see in death. Whatever the memories and facts associated with this spectacle $1.5m is really exorbitant and let us see that when the final bids are opened will this be the figure for the glasses.

R&B singer Usher is attempting to shut down one of his most popular fan sites UsherForever.com, according to reports. The Burn hitmaker is currently in discussions with lawyers to prepare a legal attempt to close down the fan site, run by Erika Jackson. Usher recently sent an open letter to fans via America’s People magazine, declaring, “Some media and bloggers have been totally intrusive, they have misconstrued aspects of my personal life and, because of this, my ‘true’ fans are not sure about what is fact and what is fiction. Blog sites are run so as to air views of fans and shutting the site down means that Usher has no respect and love for his fans and don’t care a damn for their opinion. I personally would read the story and his views before I would make any of my comments. Hope he retracts his wish and lets the site continue. This will in any case not do any good to him, coz there are other sites where fans could air their views and it’s not going change their opinion.

Bobby Brown has spoken of his fear that he maybe killed by al-Qaeda on his upcoming tour of Australia.

The faded R&B star is due to play the first in a series of shows Down Under on Thursday, with a gig in Melbourne.

However, he admits to being concerned that Osama bin Laden wants him dead, following claims the infamous terrorist is obsessed with Brown’s former wife Whitney Houston.

Sudanese writer Kola Boof recently claimed that he was amongst the main targets on bin Laden’s hit-list, prompting Brown to ramp up security for the new dates.

“Come on, if anybody is threatened by al-Qaeda they’d take it seriously,” Brown told an Australian radio show.

“I figure if bin Laden wants me, and everybody is looking for him, it probably won’t happen. But if he wants to try and find me for something so stupid, he can do what he wants.

“I have to leave it in the hands of my higher power,” insisted Bobby, who is now divorced from Houston.

Seven months after Valentin Elizalde’s death, the slain banda star’s relatives are keeping the dynasty going with their own work.
On July 3, Universal Music Latino released “Mi Ultima Bohemia … En Vivo,” a collection of songs Elizalde recorded live at the grave of his father, “El Gallo” Elizalde.
The only survivor of the November shooting that killed the 27-year-old Elizalde was his cousin, producer/bandleader Fausto “El Tano” Castro Elizalde. The latter’s “Dedicado a Ti” with La Banda Guasavena has sold 21,000 copies in the United States since its April release, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Far from trying to take the band on its own path, “we want to continue with (Valentin’s) legacy, God willing, for many years with the band and keep doing shows and albums in his honor,” El Tano Elizalde said.
The late singer’s girlfriend, Natalie Fernandez, and archival footage of Elizalde appear in the video for the single “Solo Un Sueno.”
El Chico followed May 22 with his own album of songs, many of them previously recorded by his brother, on Universal Latino. With accompaniment by La Banda Guasavena, the album “De Un Elizalde Para Un Elizalde” has sold 9,000 copies stateside.
In contrast, Jesus “El Flaco” Elizalde’s “Corazon de Acero” on Fonovisa, which was released April 3, does not cover material from his late brother.
“Over time, what will make him stay or be successful is that he will be himself,” Fonovisa VP/general manager Alfonso Larriva said. An emphasis on tributes “will pigeonhole the artist … He’ll always be linked to the tragedy.”
“Corazon de Acero” has sold 6,000 copies in the States, more than El Flaco’s previous efforts combined.
La Tricolor radio network program director Napo Sanchez said Valentin Elizalde’s younger siblings previously focused on working Mexico’s Pacific Coast. But now there’s an effort “to internationalize them. Their careers are just barely starting.”

Editors frontman Tom Smith contemplates the huge anticipation surrounding the British band’s imminent sophomore set, “An End Has a Start,” and shivers. “I get nervous thinking about it,” he says.

No one else around the band seems concerned, however. Editors’ debut, “The Back Room,” was a slow-burn success in the United Kingdom after its bow in 2005. It’s certified platinum, with total British shipments of 450,000, according to Rob Whitaker, who co-manages the band for Zoot Music.

Whitaker says expectations for the follow-up released June 25 in the UK, two days after a high-profile appearance at the Glastonbury Festival, and set to bow July 17 in the United States are even higher.

“The shipment on the new record is Sony’s biggest of the year” in the United Kingdom, he says. “They’re looking at about 170,000.”

That’s in contrast to the steady progress of “The Back Room,” which earned comparisons to gloomy post-punk bands Joy Division and Echo & the Bunnymen, spawned several hit singles and was nominated for the 2006 Nationwide Mercury Prize.

Since its U.S. release in March 2006 via Fader/Epic, “The Back Room” has sold 47,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

First single “Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors” became the band’s first commercially available single June 26 in the States, with a three-track EP of album songs available via iTunes.

The next single, “An End Has a Start,” will coincide with a month long American tour in September.

Smith is happy enough to be compared to the biggest UK band of recent years, although he was more excited that R.E.M.’s Peter Buck turned up to watch the band perform at a Seattle in-store during the last album campaign.

R&B star Rihanna has topped the UK charts for a ninth week with her single Umbrella, matching a record for the longest run at number one this decade. The Barbados singer held off Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie, who’s Big Girls Don’t Cry went up six to number two. Rihanna has equaled the run of Gnarls Barkley with the song Crazy last year.
The all-time record for consecutive weeks at the top of the singles chart is held by Bryan Adams with Everything I Do, which achieved 16 weeks in 1991. Records apart the success should be celebrated and she should aim higher with her next single whenever she plans to release one. Being from the land of Bob Marley, music is the way of life in the Caribbean whether it’s a cricket match or while partying they just love their music.

She’s busy performing concerts around the world. She’s loved and adored by many. Some even think she’s perfect. But on a recent sit down with Glamour magazine, Jennifer Lopez took time out to show that she is just human.

The singer who is beaming with confidence says that she has her moments and can be really insecure about herself sometimes. Apparently, she’s not the only one. She spoke about her conversation with Victoria Beckham. Victoria said to her ‘People would never guess you’re insecure. Are you? Because I know I am.’

Jennifer said that the way Victoria said it was as if she needed to hear someone say the same thing. Jennifer shared her affirmation to that statement too. She pretty much emphasized the fact that even the big stars feel the same way as everyone.