Archive: 2003

A Broadway musical based on songs by John Lennon, tentatively titled “The Lennon Project,” will musically explore the turbulent times of the 1960s and 1970s with some 30 songs drawn from more than 200 Lennon wrote after the Beatles break-up. The legendary band released their last album, “Let It Be,” in 1970 but had already dissolved as a act.
“Over the past two decades, I have been experiencing the feedback from the world to John’s life, statements and music,” Yoko Ono said in a statement. “I realized what John had meant to the world. He was a catalyst who brought down the hypocrisy and the old world establishments by saying ‘Gimme Some Truth.'”
“What we present on stage should again give people insight, encouragement, inspiration and fun, so they can go on with their lives with some assurance and hope,” she continued.
The show, which is planned for the 2004-2005 season, will be produced by Edgar Lansbury and Don Scardino. Scardino will also direct the show with a script he plans to write with Eric Overmyer.
The Lennon show follows several recent Broadway shows based on preexisting songs by a composer. The long-running “Mamma Mia” is based on music by ABBA; the Tony-winning, rock-ballet “Movin’ Out” is performed to Billy Joel’s music; and this season marks the opening of “The Boy From Oz,” a musical biography of Australian cabaret singer Peter Allen.
As previously reported, Capitol will on Nov. 18 release the “Lennon Legend” DVD, featuring rare newsreel and private footage from the Lennon/Ono archive, 15 new and remastered music video clips, newly created animations of Lennon’s drawings and an extensive photo gallery.
Source Billboard.com.

Guns N’ Roses hasn’t released a new album in a decade, but that isn’t stopping Geffen from delving into the group’s back catalog. On Oct. 28, the label will offer the first DVD editions of the 1998 home video “Welcome to the Videos,” plus the separate 1992 home videos “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II: World Tour – 1992 in Toyko.”
“Welcome to the Videos” rounds up clips for such favorites as “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” “Patience,” “Don’t Cry” and GNR’s cover of Wings’ “Live and Let Die.”
Guns N’ Roses has been dormant since its disastrous fall 2002 comeback tour, which was derailed after frontman Axl Rose failed to show up for a concert in Philadelphia. The group’s terminally delayed album “Chinese Democracy” appears no closer to release; a March posting on GNR’s official Web site says, “stay tuned for news and information on ‘Chinese Democracy’ coming soon.'”
Source Billboard.com.

Cash Tribute Lineup Swells John Mellencamp, Dwight Yoakam and George Jones have joined the lineup for the Nov. 10 Johnny Cash Memorial Tribute concert in Nashville. As reported last week, the event at the Ryman Auditorium will also feature Rosanne Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Hank Williams Jr., Sheryl Crow, Jack Clement, Steve Earle and Larry Gatlin.
Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and U2 lead singer Bono have expressed interest in taking part, but have not yet confirmed. According to a spokesperson, the concert will be taped for later broadcast on an outlet yet to be determined.
Source Billboard.com.

“Concert for George,” the November 2002 celebration of George Harrison’s life and music, will be documented in CD and DVD releases by that name Nov. 18 via Warner Strategic Marketing. Both will be double-disc sets.
The video of the evening

Thicker than Water a new Jack Johnson surf documentary will be released on DVD

Coming soon to a Windows PC near you: Apple Computer Inc.’s. popular iTunes online music store, which analysts say will join an already crowded market that could mute its chances of repeating the success of the Macintosh -only version, will soon be available on Windows personal computers.
The computer maker is set to unveil this week the long-promised Windows-compatible version of its online music service. Last week, it sent invitations to reporters for an event on Thursday in San Francisco proclaiming, “The year’s biggest music story is about to get even bigger.”

Yet now, some analysts say that while iTunes for Windows may be just the thing for fans, it may be coming too late for the broader market. There are already similar services for Windows users, such as MusicMatch, already entrenched and another called BuyMusic.com. File-swapping service Napster (news – web sites) has resurrected itself as a pay service, now under a parent company, Roxio Inc. .
Apple unveiled the iTunes service for the 3 percent of the PC market that uses Macintosh computers in April. Incorporated into its popular and easy-to-use iTunes software for managing digitized songs, the interface is simple, and songs cost 99 cents each to download.
The service took off, and the Cupertino, California, company has sold more than 10 million songs in the five months since launching the service, which has more than 200,000 songs for sale.
Source Yahoo.com.

Badly Drawn Boy, a.k.a. British singer-songwriter Damon Gough, will tour the eastern U.S. in November. The three-week run begins with two sets at the Iron Horse in Northampton, Mass., on Nov. 1, and continues through Nov. 18 at Dallas’ Gypsy Tea Room. Along the way, Gough and his stripped-down trio will perform in markets including Washington DC, New York, Cleveland, Chicago and Nashville.
Bady Drawn Boy is working on his fourth album in Manchester, England, with co-producer Andy Votel. His most recent disc was 2002’s “Have You Fed The Fish?” which earned a four-star review from Rolling Stone and a feature in Newsweek. His previous albums are 2000’s Mercury Music Prize-winning “The Hour of Bewilderbeast” and 2002’s soundtrack to the Hugh Grant film “About A Boy.”
BADLY DRAWN BOY 2003 U.S. TOUR DATES
November
1 – Northampton MA – Iron Horse Music Hall
2 – Winooski VT – Higher Ground
3 – Rochester NY – Water Street Music Hall
4 – Albany NY – The Egg
6 – Towson MD – Recher Theatre
7 – Washington DC – 9:30 Club
8 – Brooklyn NY – Northsix
9 – New York NY – Bowery Ballroom
11 – Cleveland Heights OH – The Grog Shop
12 – Chicago IL – Park West
13 – Nashville TN – The Belcourt Theatre
14 – Asheville NC – The Orange Peel*
15 – Athens GA – 40 Watt Club*
17 – Austin TX – The Mercury*
18 – Dallas TX – Gypsy Tea Room*
* with Mathew Ryan

When the music annals of 2003 are compiled, topping many lists will be the wildly successful reunion of original founding Stooges members Iggy Pop, and brothers Ron Asheton (guitar and bass) and Scott Asheton (drums). The reunion is celebrated with four newly recorded tracks on SKULL RING, Iggy

Primus is back! The newest release from Primus has certainly been a long time coming, with Les Claypool, Larry LaLonde, and Tim Alexander rejoing forces for the first time on record in eight years. Right from the get-go, you can do nothing but become sucked in visually and musically, as Primus proves they can do more than suck.

A Princeton graduate student said on Monday that he has figured out a way to defeat new software intended to keep music CDs from being copied on a computer — simply by pressing the Shift-key.
In a paper posted on his Web site late Monday, John Halderman said the MediaMax CD3 software developed by SunnComm Technologies Inc. (OTC BB:STEH.OB – news) could be defeated on computers running the Windows operating system by holding down the Shift key, disabling a Windows feature that automatically launches the encryption software on the disc.
Halderman said the protection could also be disabled by stopping the driver the CD installs when it is first inserted into a computer’s drive.
Computers running Linux (news – web sites) and older versions of the Mac operating system are unable to run the software and are able to copy the disc freely, he said.
The CD in question, Anthony Hamilton’s “Comin’ From Where I’m From,” was released by BMG’s Arista label in late September. Music retailers praised the release, which BMG touted as a breakthrough in the industry’s efforts to prevent music piracy.
Source Yahoo.com.