2004

Two Dublin stops on David Bowie’s recent wildly successful world tour are the basis for the upcoming DVD “David Bowie – A Reality Tour.” Due Oct. 19 via ISO/Columbia, the 30-track collection was shot Nov. 22-23, 2003, at the Point Depot. It was mixed in 5.1 Surround Sound by longtime collaborator Tony Visconti, co-producer of Bowie’s 2003 studio album “Reality.”

Beyond such classics as “Ashes to Ashes,” “Fame,” “The Man Who Sold the World,” “Under Pressure,” “Heroes” and “Ziggy Stardust,” the DVD sports such live rarities as “Hang on to Yourself” and “Five Years,” which have not been a part of Bowie’s concert repertoire since the early 1980s.

The North American portion of the A Reality tour was the top-grossing trek of the first half of 2004, according to Billboard Boxscore. It grossed $45.4 million from 82 shows that drew 722,158 fans.

Bowie was forced to cancel the final 10 dates on the European leg of the tour in June. At the time it was said he was suffering from a pinched nerve. Shortly after, he underwent emergency heart surgery for a blocked artery.

According to a spokesperson, “he’s recovering nicely.”

Here is the “A Reality Tour” DVD track list:

“Rebel Rebel”
“New Killer Star”
“Reality”
“Fame”
“Cactus”
“Sister Midnight”
“Afraid”
“All the Young Dudes”
“Be My Wife”
“The Loneliest Guy”
“The Man Who Sold the World”
“Fantastic Voyage”
“Hallo Spaceboy”
“Sunday”
“Under Pressure”
“Life on Mars?”
“Battle for Britain”
“Ashes to Ashes”
“The Motel”
“Loving the Alien”
“Never Get Old”
“Changes”
“I’m Afraid of Americans”
“Heroes”
“Bring Me the Disco King”
“Slip Away”
“Heathen”
“Five Years”
“Hang on to Yourself”
“Ziggy Stardust”

Source billboard.com.

The Foo Fighters are about to begin pre-production on their next studio album, which, as first revealed here last month, will likely be a double-disc set.

“Having a year to write and demo things at your own pace sure makes for better songs,” frontman Dave Grohl writes on the Foos’ official Web site. “In preparing for today’s pre-production, I dumped all of the things I’ve recorded onto my computer and I wound up with five-and-a-half hours of music. I just laughed.”

Explaining his hopes for a double LP with one disc each of acoustic and electric material, Grohl says, “I’d love to have an album that requires us to stretch farther in both directions, eliminating any middle ground. The idea also comes from the fact that we’ve always explored both dynamics, just not to their fullest potential. Why not get heavier? Or quieter? Why try and cram all of that onto one CD? Why not make two albums, and call it one?”

Grohl is in the midst of rebuilding his Virginia home studio in Los Angeles. “We came up with a plan: Buy a warehouse,” he says. “Build a bigger, better studio. Have a massive space to store our mountains of gear that we’ve amassed over the past decade. Have somewhere to jam that we don’t have to move out of at the end of the week. A full-on headquarters, designed to further the idea of self-sufficiency. We will never have to go anywhere else as long as we live.”

The lone date on the Foos’ upcoming schedule is Aug. 28 at San Diego’s Street Scene festival, but the band’s name is already being whispered as part of a major package tour next summer. “I’m dying to get this sh*t on tape and play it live,” Grohl says. “The whole album every night — Something we haven’t done in a long, long time.”

As for his drum work on Nine Inch Nails’ forthcoming Interscope album, “Bleed Through,” Grohl enthuses, “you’re gonna flip when you hear [it].”

Source billboard.com.

Fans can pre-order DJ Harry

R.E.M.’s upcoming North American tour will feature support from such acts as Joseph Arthur, Charlie Mars, Five Eight, Angela McCluskey and Now It’s Overhead.

Rock outfit Five Eight, which hails from R.E.M.’s Athens, Ga., hometown, will open the first four shows of the six-week tour, which kicks off Oct. 13 in Los Angeles. Sprinkled through the subsequent 11 dates will be the lone appearance of newcomer Trent Dabbs (Oct. 22, Nashville), four opening sets by fellow Athens natives Now It’s Overhead and six by former Wild Colonials vocalist McCluskey.

Akron, Ohio-bred, New York-based singer/songwriter Joseph Arthur, who will release the album “Our Shadows Will Remain” this fall via Vector, opens the next six shows through Nov. 12 in Montreal. V2 rock artist Charlie Mars will support on seven of the final eight dates, with Five Eight returning for a Nov. 19 performance in Seattle.

R.E.M. will be touring in support of its new Warner Bros. album, “Around the Sun,” due Oct. 5 in North America. First single “Leaving New York” can be streamed via the band’s official Web site; a video, directed by Peter Care, is in the works.

In other news, the group has contributed its vintage track “We Walk” to the Epic compilation “Mary Had a Little Amp,” also due Oct. 5. The Dixie Chicks, Moby, Maroon 5 and Lou Reed are among the other artists donating cuts to the album, proceeds from which will benefit Project Kid Smart and Start Smart America.

Source billboard.com.

The Del McCoury Band tops the list of nominees for the 15th annual International Bluegrass Music Awards, set for Oct. 7 at the Kentucky Center in Louisville, Ky. The awards show, hosted by Alison Krauss and Dan Tyminski, is the centerpiece of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) annual World of Bluegrass Trade Show and Fan Fest, which runs Oct. 4-10.

The Del McCoury Band, eight-time winners of the award for entertainer of the year, have 12 nominations this year, including entertainer, vocal group, instrumental group and album of the year for “It’s Just the Night.” McCoury earned an individual nod in the male vocalist category, and other band members received individual nominations on their respective instruments: Rob McCoury, banjo; Mike Bub, bass; Jason Carter, fiddle; and Ronnie McCoury, mandolin.

Krauss & Union Station earned nine nominations, including entertainer of the year, instrumental group, vocal group and female vocalist of the year for Krauss. Blue Highway earned seven nominations. Other multiple nominees include Rhonda Vincent & the Rage, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Mountain Heart and Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver.

This year’s Hall of Honor inductees are Curly Seckler and Bill Vernon. Distinguished Achievement Awards will be presented to Moses “Mo” Asch, Kirk & Becky Brandenberger, Tom T. & Dixie Hall, Jimmie Skinner and Art Stamper.

The winners are voted on by the professional membership of the IBMA. This year marks the last year in Louisville before the IBMA’s World of Bluegrass event moves to Nashville in 2005. The awards will be broadcast to more than 300 U.S. markets and 14 foreign networks.

Source billboard.com.

The bounty of vintage Grateful Dead and posthumous Jerry Garcia releases will continue to overflow this fall. In September, Rhino will release a three-disc live Garcia set and follow it in October with a 12-disc box culling the Dead’s post-Warner Bros. studio albums, rarities and live cuts.

Due Sept. 28, “After Midnight” stems from a Garcia performance at Kean College in Union, N.J., captured on 24-track masters. The nearly three-hour show featured 16 songs, including Bob Dylan’s “Simple Twist Of Fate” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come” and the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby.”

Dead lyricist and frequent Garcia collaborator Robert Hunter was on hand to sing lead vocals on his songs “Tiger Rose” and “Promontory Rider.” Joining Garcia on stage was Ozzie Ahlers (keyboards/vocals), John Kahn (bass) and Johnny De Foncesca (bass).

As previously reported, Jerry Garcia Estate LLC discovered a treasure trove of Garcia tapes when the Dead reorganized its storied tape vault. Two-track concert recordings will emerge via the “Pure Jerry” series, which will be released exclusively online. Further multi-track recordings are expected to emerge via the estate’s relationship with Rhino.

“There’s over 500 live concerts in two-track, and then … several multi-track concerts that haven’t been mined yet,” Christopher Sabec, CEO of the Jerry Garcia Estate LLC recently told Billboard.com. “It’s unbelievably impressive, the number of solo projects that he performed.”

On Oct. 26, Grateful Dead Productions/Rhino will release “Beyond Description (1973-1989),” which will boast remastered and repackaged version of the band’s Arista-era output on its own Grateful Dead Records label. In the vein of the Warner Bros. -era 2001 box “The Golden Road (1965-1973),” this sprawling set captures 161 songs, 65 of them previously unreleased.

The box will boast sonically improved versions of the studio albums “Wake of the Flood” (1973) “The Grateful Dead From the Mars Hotel” (1974), “Blues for Allah” (1975), “Terrapin Station” (1977), “Shakedown Street” (1978), “Go to Heaven” (1980), “In the Dark” (1987) and “Built to Last” (1989). Each title has been expanded to include outtakes, live tracks, alternate versions and rehearsal peroformances.

Additionally, the 1981 live albums “Reckoning” and “Dead Set” have been expanded to two-disc sets that include further material from the original concert dates. The first, from San Francisco’s Warfield Theatre, adds 16 songs, including “Cassidy,” “Ripple” and “Heaven Help the Fool” from the concert, and a studio rehearsal version of “To Lay Me Down.”

“Dead Set” has been expanded with a nine-track bonus disc featuring previously unreleased versions of such Dead staples as “Sugaree,” “Not Fade Away,” “Jack Straw” and “Shakedown Street.”

“Beyond Description” was co-produced by Dead archivist David Lemieux and Rhino’s James Austin. Joe Gastwirt remastered each disc in the set utilizing HDCD technology; he had previously remastered the titles for their initial CD release.

The set will also include a book with essays by Rolling Stone music critic David Fricke, “Grateful Dead Hour” host David Gans and author Blair Jackson. Lemieux and Dead biographer/spokesperson Dennis McNally (“A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead”) contribute liner notes.

Source billboard.com.