November 1, 2004

Lawyers for singer R. Kelly were filing a criminal complaint against a member of rapper Jay-Z’s entourage and considering other legal action after the platinum-selling stars’ joint tour came to an abrupt end.

Kelly was booted from remaining shows at Madison Square Garden by the promoter yesterday (Oct. 30), a day after a member of Jay-Z’s entourage allegedly blasted Kelly with pepper spray, according to his publicist, Allan Mayer. The promoter announced that Jay-Z, with special guests, would do the shows alone.

Kelly’s lawyers were filing a complaint against the entourage member and considering action over the decision to remove Kelly from the tour, Mayer said. “The fans deserve better than this,” Kelly said in a statement. “I’d like the show to go on. It’s really disappointing that Jay-Z and the promoter don’t.”

Jay-Z and R. Kelly were in the midst of the 40-city Best of Both Worlds tour, which has been beset by canceled shows and reports that the feuding performers weren’t even on speaking terms.

The trek, which had been scheduled to run through Nov. 28, has been canceled, said promoter Jeff Sharp of Atlanta Worldwide Touring. Jay-Z’s publicist was unsure if the rapper would try and fill the remaining dates as a solo act.

The pepper-spray incident happened about an hour into Friday night’s show, when Kelly walked on stage and said he saw two people in the audience waving guns, Mayer said. Kelly abruptly stopped his set around 9:30 p.m. while arena security employees searched for weapons.

Finding none, guards told Kelly it was safe to continue performing, Mayer said. But as the singer was making his way back to the stage, a man in Jay-Z’s entourage — apparently miffed that Kelly interrupted the show — sprayed him and two of his bodyguards in the face. “I’m pretty sure Jay didn’t realize what was going on,” Mayer said.

All three men were treated at St. Vincent’s Hospital and released, he said. Jay-Z performed for another 45 minutes after Kelly was sprayed.

Jay-Z publicist Jana Fleishman said the rapper’s entourage knew nothing about the incident because it occurred while Jay-Z was performing. Jay-Z “did not attack R. Kelly in any way, shape or form,” Fleishman said.

In a Friday radio interview on New York radio station Hot 97, Jay-Z said he couldn’t understand why Kelly left the stage. “You can’t get a gun inside Madison Square Garden,” the rapper said. “If people give me love he can’t take it.”

The Chicago Sun-Times reported discord between the two performers after Kelly showed up more than two hours late for a show in Chicago and walked off the stage mid-performance in St. Louis this month. Three shows on the tour were canceled because of “technical difficulties” suffered by Kelly, Fleishman said.

Source billboard.com .

Back in the day, before Clear Channel became the dominate concert promoter in the U.S., concerts were brought to you by regional promoters.

Then in the mid-90s, SFX, a media conglomerate that would later be sold to radio giant Clear Channel, began buying major concert promotion businesses across the country.

It wasn’t long before Clear Channel Entertainment seemed to be promoting most of the shows in just about every major city.

But CCE has made some changes recently. Maybe someone realized that “music” and “corporate” don’t always go together – at least not where the fans are concerned.

So CCE is reviving the regional company names and allowing promoters (still owned by CCE) to use their original monikers.

That means concert goers will soon be attending shows presented by Avalon Attractions, (Los Angeles); Bill Graham Presents, (San Francisco); Belkin Productions, (Cleveland); Cellar Door Concerts, (Columbia, S.C.); Cellar Door North, (Detroit); Delsener Presents, (NYC); Electric Factory Concerts, (Philadelphia); Evening Star Productions, (Phoenix); Pace Concerts, (Houston); and Tea Party, (Boston).

Source pollstar.com.

The Nirvana box set “With the Lights Out” will take a chronological look at the Kurt Cobain-led band’s brief but enormously influential career, beginning with a Led Zeppelin cover from its debut show in 1987 to Cobain solo acoustic performances just prior to his 1994 suicide. The three-CD/one-DVD package is due Nov. 23 via Geffen/UME.

Kicking off with a run through Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker,” disc one sports early versions of familiar tracks like “Floyd the Barber,” “Polly” and “About a Girl,” demo recordings of the Leadbelly tracks “Grey Goose,” “They Hung Him on a Cross” and “Ain’t It a Shame” and undated tracks presumed to have been recorded in 1987 or 1988, such as “Beans,” “Clean Up Before She Comes” and “Don’t Want It All.”

Disc two includes demos for the classic “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and an alternate mix by producer Butch Vig, a 1991 live radio performance of “Dumb” two years before it appeared on the studio album “In Utero” and such covers as the Velvet Underground’s “Here She Comes Now” and the Wipers’ “Return of the Rat” and “D-7.”

In addition to unreleased acoustic and electric versions of “Rape Me” and an undated run through “All Apologies,” some of Nirvana’s final studio recordings show up on disc three. Six tracks originate from a January 1993 session in Rio de Janeiro, including “Gallons of Running Alcohol Flows Through the Strip” and “The Other Improv.”

Cobain’s solo home demos of “Do Re Mi,” “You Know You’re Right” and “All Apologies” close the set.

As for the DVD, it includes nine tracks captured at a 1988 rehearsal at the home of bassist Krist Novoselic’s mother, 10 previously unreleased live performances of such tracks as Jacques Brel and Rod McKuen’s “Seasons in the Sun” (recorded at the Rio sessions) and “Pennyroyal Tea” and the rare 1990 video for “In Bloom.”

“With the Lights Out” was originally intended for release in Christmas 2001, to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of Nirvana’s breakthrough album, “Nevermind.” But surviving members Novoselic and Dave Grohl were thwarted by lawsuits from Cobain’s widow Courtney Love, who objected to their planned use of the previously “You Know You’re Right” in the set.

The dispute was eventually settled in September 2002, with the parties agreeing to earmark “You Know You’re Right” for a self-titled Nirvana compilation released the following month.

Here is the track list for “With the Lights Out”:

“Heartbreaker” (1987)
“Anorexorcist” (1987)
“White Lace and Strange” (1987)
“Help Me I’m Hungry” (1987)
“Mrs. Butterworth” (1987)
“If You Must” (1988)
“Pen Cap Chew” (1988)
“Downer” (1988)
“Floyd the Barber” (1988)
“Raunchola/Moby Dick” (1988)
“Beans” (undated)
“Don’t Want It All” (undated)
“Clean Up Before She Comes” (undated)
“Polly” (1988)
“About a Girl” (1988)
“Blandest” (1988)
“Dive” (1988)
“They Hung Him on a Cross” (1989)
“Grey Goose” (1989)
“Ain’t It a Shame” (1989)
“Token Eastern Song” (1989)
“Even in His Youth” (1989)
“Polly” (1989)

Disc two:
“Opinion” (1990)
“Lithium” (1990)
“Been a Son” (1990)
“Sliver” (1989)
“Where Did You Sleep Last Night” (1989)
“Pay To Play” (1990)
“Here She Comes Now” (1990)
“Drain You” (1990)
“Aneurysm” (1990)
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” (1991 demo)
“Breed” (1991)
“Verse Chorus Verse” (1991)
“Old Age” (1991)
“Endless, Nameless” (1991)
“Dumb” (1991)
“D-7” (1990)
“Oh the Guilt” (1992)
“Curmudgeon” (1992)
“Return of the Rat” (1992)
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” (1991 Butch Vig mix)

Disc three:
“Rape Me” (1992 acoustic version)
“Rape Me” (1992 electric version)
“Scentless Apprentice” (1992)
“Heart Shaped Box” (1993)
“I Hate Myself and I Want To Die” (1993)
“Milk It” (1993)
“Moist Vagina” (1993)
“Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip” (1993)
“The Other Improv” (1993)
“Serve the Servants” (1993)
“Very Ape” (1993)
“Pennyroyal Tea” (1993)
“Marigold” (1993)
“Sappy” (1993)
“Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam” (1994)
“Do Re Mi” (1994)
“You Know You’re Right” (1994 home demo)
“All Apologies” (undated)

DVD:
“Love Buzz” (1988 rehearsal)
“Scoff” (1988 rehearsal)
“About a Girl” (1988 rehearsal)
“Big Long Now” (1988 rehearsal)
“Immigrant Song” (1988 rehearsal)
“Spank Thru” (1988 rehearsal)
“Hairspray Queen” (1988 rehearsal)
“School” (1988 rehearsal)
“Mr. Moustache” (1988 rehearsal)
“Big Cheese” (1989)
“In Bloom” (music video, 1989)
“Sappy” (1990)
“School” (1990)
“Love Buzz” (1990)
“Pennyroyal Tea” (1991)
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” (1991)
“Territorial Pissings” (1991)
“Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam” (1991)
“Talk to Me” (1992)
“Seasons in the Sun” (1993)

Source billboard.com.

Lyrics Born – one half of groundbreaking Bay Area duo Latyrx – has some good news for fans who spent years hoarding his hard-to-find late ’90s releases. He’s releasing a follow-up to last year’s solo debut, Later That Day…, but first he’s touring the country through the rest of the year.

He’s participating in the Ropeadope New Music Seminar, which brings an eclectic lineup of musicians together to do one long non-stop set, usually running about 4 hours.

Charlie Hunter with Bobby Previte, DJ Olive, Sex Mob Horns, Benevento/Russo Duo, Critters Buggin, Matt Haimovitz, DJ Rich Medina and, obviously, Lyrics Born will participate in the shows along with a variety of guest musicians in each city.

Of course, they won’t all be on stage at once, but instead will mix and match into various unique combinations, creating a wholly different show each night.

The tour began as a bi-annual event in Brooklyn put together by indie label Ropeadope. The shows sold out every time, and special runs in New Orleans and at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom did just as well, so taking the concert out on tour was a no-brainer.

Ropeadope runs from November 10-21, but the fun doesn’t stop there. Lyrics Born will hit the road with hip-hop instrumentalist RJD2 immediately after Thanksgiving for a club and theatre tour, beginning in San Francisco but mostly concentrating on the South.

The leg is scheduled to run through December 8, when the two will be joined by legendary rapper KRS-ONE at Hailey’s in Denton, Texas.

Lyrics Born, who recently won an SF Weekly award for best hip-hop artist of 2004, is currently prepping Same !@#$, Different Day for release. The album will feature remixes of Later That Day… tracks as well as new material.

Source pollstar.com.