04.08.08 (AP) After a five-year breakup and nearly eight-year absence from the concert scene, Stone Temple Pilots will reunite for a North American tour. On Monday, Singer Scott Weiland, guitarist Dean DeLeo, bassist Robert DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz revealed the details of their 65-city tour, set to begin May 17 in Columbus, Ohio. "The story's not finished," Weiland told The Associated Press. "There's more to be revealed and more to be told." DeLeo said the band plans to record a new album after the tour, which is set to wrap in November. Formed in 1992, the band has sold more than 35 million albums worldwide. The Grammy-winning rockers celebrated their announcement with a private show in the Hollywood Hills. They're scheduled to make their first national television appearance May 1 on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Weiland, 40, has been dogged by drug problems since the band's early days. His arrests for drug possession and stints in rehab led the group to cancel tour dates and contributed to their breakup. Weiland pleaded not guilty last month to charges of driving under the influence of drugs stemming from a November car crash. After Stone Temple Pilots' split, Weiland formed the rock group Velvet Revolver. On April 1, his bandmates - Slash, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum and Dave Kushner - announced that Weiland was no longer part of the group. "Among other things, his increasingly erratic on-stage behavior and personal problems have forced us to move on," Slash said in a statement. Two days later, Stone Temple Pilots announced their reunion.
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04.05.08 (AP) A company in a court fight with the Beatles has agreed not to release recordings purportedly made during Ringo Starr's first performance with the group until the case is resolved. A federal judge on Friday approved the agreement between Apple Corps Ltd., the London-based group formed by the Beatles that helps guard their legacy, and Miami Lakes-based Fuego Entertainment, Inc. The dispute stems from recordings the Fab Four apparently made in 1962 during a performance at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany. Eight unreleased tracks are said to be among the recordings, including Paul McCartney singing Hank Williams'"Lovesick Blues" and McCartney and John Lennon singing "Ask Me Why." Apple Corps claims the songs were taped without the band's consent and that Fuego and sister companies Echo-Fuego Music Group LLC and Echo-Vista Inc. have no right to distribute them. Fuego's attorney Michael Joblove said the agreement was voluntary and that his clients claim they acquired the legal right to market the recordings. "This is an injunction that was agreed to by our clients with no admission of liability to give the court time to consider the parties' claims regarding the ownership interests in these recordings," Joblove said. New York-based attorney Paul LiCalsi, who represents Apple Corps, said the agreement "clearly reflects that there is no basis for Fuego's claims that they have a right to exploit the tapes."
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04.04.08 (AP) The lead singer of the British band Procol Harum won an appeals court judgment Friday awarding him the full royalties to the iconic hit, "A Whiter Shade of Pale." Britain's Court of Appeal ruling for rock star Gary Brooker overturned a lower court decision granting the group's former organist 40 percent of the millions of dollars in royalties from the song. The appeals court agreed Matthew Fisher, who played the haunting organ theme, was entitled to co-authorship but said he will receive no money from past or future royalties. "For nearly three years this claim has been a great strain upon myself and my family. I believe the original trial was unfair and the results wrong," Brooker said. "I would hope that now, we can all get on with our lives." Lord Justice John Mummery said Fisher was "guilty of excessive and inexcusable delay in asserting his claim." Fisher, who quit the band in 1969 and is now a computer programmer in London, filed his claim to joint ownership nearly 40 years after the song was recorded and became one of the anthems of the 1967 "Summer of Love." The record has sold 10 million copies, and Rolling Stone magazine has ranked the song 57th on a list of the 500 greatest of all time. Brooker argued that it was his idea to use the theme based on Bach's "Air on the G String" that Fisher played on the track, and that he was unable to make his case properly because Fisher did not tell him he was pursuing his legal claim. Brooker, who still tours with the band, said he and lyricist Keith Reid wrote the song before Fisher joined the band in March 1967. The two had called Fisher's earlier court victory a dangerous precedent, saying it meant any musician who had played on any recording in the past four decades could claim joint authorship. The judge rejected Fisher's claim for an estimated $2 million in back royalties. Mummery said the issue of who will pay legal costs will be decided later, as well as whether Fisher can appeal the decision to the House of Lords, Britain's highest court. In December, a judge awarded the classically trained Fisher a 40 percent share in the copyright of the song, saying his organ solo was "a distinctive and significant contribution to the overall composition." "A Whiter Shade of Pale," famous for its cryptic lyrics - "We skipped the light fandango, turned cartwheels 'cross the floor" - topped the British charts for five weeks in 1967 and was a top five hit in the U.S.
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03.27.08 (RockAndMetal.com) Sevendust has announced the return of original guitar player Clint Lowery to the band. Lowery was with Sevendust when they formed in 1995 and singed to TVT Records in 1997. Lowery was a key member of the Sevendust attack throughout the their TVT years which saw the band release Sevendust (1997) Home (1999), Animosity (2001), Seasons (2003) and Southside Double Wide (2003). After leaving TVT in 2003 the band and Lowery mutually parted ways, with Lowery moving on to join his brother in the band Dark New Day. Sevendust brought in former Snot guitar player Sonny Mayo to replace Lowery and went on to release three full length albums. Next (2004) on the now defunct Winedark Records, Alpha (2007) on 7Bros. Records, Sevendust's wholly owned label through Warner Music Group's Independent Label Group and Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow which comes out April 1st on 7Bros/Asylum. Says Sevendust drummer Morgan Rose on Lowery's return: "This was extremely tough considering Sonny is our brother and has been amazing to work with. He didn't do anything wrong at all, we just owe it to ourselves and all the folks that grew up with us to put our original band back together. Clint has always been our brother and Sonny will always remain our brother as well. We are sorry to say goodbye to Sonny and I'm sure this will be tough on the fans that follow him, but we're excited about reuniting the original lineup of Sevendust." Saya vocalsi LaJon Witherspoon: "Everything happens for a reason. Sonny is an incredible person and we thank him for everything. Just like when you leave home, you come back! Hopefully everyone will understand the decision we have made. God bless you all. Welcome home Clint Lowery." LaJon Witherspoon, Vocals Sevendust's new record Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow is out on Tuesday, April 1st, for which the band will be hitting the road in support of later in the month.
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03.25.08 (AP) The Smashing Pumpkins are suing Virgin Records, saying the record label has illegally used their name and music in promotional deals that hurt the band's credibility with fans. In a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, the rockers said they have "worked hard for over two decades to accumulate a considerable amount of goodwill in the eyes of the public," and that Virgin's use of the band in a "Pepsi Stuff" promotion with Amazon.com and Pepsi Co. threatens their reputation for "artistic integrity." Virgin released the Smashing Pumpkins' music for more than 17 years, but the only active agreement between the two parties, the lawsuit claims, is a deal granting Virgin permission to sell digital downloads of the band's songs. The agreement does not give Virgin the right to use the band in promotional campaigns to sell outside products, the lawsuit said. The band members said they would "never grant such authority to Virgin, or any other entity." An after-hours call to Virgin Records wasn't immediately returned. The lawsuit demands that Virgin pay with the profits earned in the promotion and asks for an injunction against using the Pumpkins' name or music in the future.
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03.21.08 (AP) Lawyers for the Beatles sued Friday to prevent the distribution of unreleased recordings purportedly made during Ringo Starr's first performance with the group in 1962. The dispute between Apple Corps Ltd., the London company formed by the Beatles that helps guard their legacy, and Fuego Entertainment Inc. of Miami Lakes stems from recordings the Fab Four apparently made during a performance at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany. Eight unreleased tracks are said to be among the recordings, including Paul McCartney singing Hank Williams' "Lovesick Blues" and McCartney and John Lennon singing "Ask Me Why." Apple Corps claims that the songs were taped without the consent of the band and that Fuego and sister companies Echo-Fuego Music Group LLC and Echo-Vista Inc. have no right to distribute them. "This appears to us to be a garden-variety bootleg recording," said Paul LiCalsi, an attorney for Apple Corps. But Fuego Entertainment says the recordings were legally made. "Don't claim that these were just bootlegged," said Fuego president Hugo Cancio. "It's not like today, that you just go in with a phone or a blackberry and you record." The lawsuit contends that the recordings are of poor quality and that circulating them "dilutes and tarnishes the extraordinarily valuable image associated with the Beatles." Cancio said that he had not been served with a copy of the lawsuit, but that the filing demanding at least $15 million in damages was not expected. "I'm surprised because up to a few weeks ago, we were in good-faith conversations with Apple," he said. Also named in the lawsuit is Jeffrey Collins, a partner of Cancio who obtained the recordings. It's unclear how Collins obtained the recordings. Cancio intended to release the songs as "Jammin' with The Beatles and Friends, Star Club, Hamburg, 1962." "It's unfair to millions of Beatles fans not to allow this recording to be put out. The world deserves to hear these tracks," he said. "The fact is that we have it; they don't, and that is what's bothering them."
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03.03.08 (AP) Blind rock and jazz musician Jeff Healey has died after a lifelong battle against cancer. He was 41. Healey died Sunday evening in a Toronto hospital, said bandmate Colin Bray, who was in the room with Healey's family when the guitarist died. The Grammy-nominated Healey rose to stardom as the leader of the Jeff Healey Band, a rock-oriented trio that gained international acclaim and platinum record sales with the 1988 album "See the Light." The album included the hit single "Angel Eyes." Healey had battled cancer since age 1, when a rare form of retinal cancer known as Retinoblastoma claimed his eyesight. Due to his blindness, Healey taught himself to play guitar by laying the instrument across his lap. His unique playing style, combined with his blues-oriented vocals, earned him a reputation as a teenage musical prodigy. He shared stages with George Harrison, B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Bray said he and many others expected the guitarist to rally from this latest illness. "I don't think any of us thought this was going to happen," Bray said. "We just thought he was going to bounce back as he always does." Healey had undergone numerous operations in recent years to remove tumors from his lungs and leg. Bray and fellow bandmate Gary Scriven remembered their frontman as a musician of rare abilities with a generous nature and wicked sense of humor. Healey's true love was jazz, the genre that dominated his three most recent albums. His love of jazz led him to host radio shows in Canada where he spun long-forgotten numbers from his personal collection of over 30,000 vinyl records. His death came weeks before the release of his first rock album in eight years. "Mess of Blues" is slated for a North American release on April 22. He is survived by his wife, Christie, and two children.
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03.02.08 (AP) Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger escaped an assassination plot hatched in 1969 by the Hells Angels, a new British Broadcasting Corp. documentary has claimed. A program to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Monday says the rock star was the target of the plot following a purported dispute with the motorcycle gang over concert security. Jagger had vowed not to use Hells Angel members as bouncers following the death in December 1969 of an 18-year-old fan at a notorious free performance at Altamont Speedway in Northern California. In return, gang members hatched a plan to kill Jagger at his holiday home in Long Island, New York, the BBC claimed. "The Hells Angels were so angered by Jagger's treatment of them that they decided to kill him," Tom Mangold, the presenter of the program, was quoted as telling Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper. He said the plan was disclosed during an interview with Mark Young, a former FBI officer, for the BBC's "The FBI at 100" documentary. Mangold said the men tried to reach Jagger by sea. "The boat was hit by a storm and all of the men were thrown overboard," he was quoted as saying. They all survived but made no other attempt on his life, Mangold said. It was not clear whether Jagger was ever informed of the alleged plot against him. LD Communications, Jagger's publicists in Britain, did not immediately return calls requesting comment. The Hells Angels have always denied any connection with the Altamont Speedway killing.
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