2005

A four-disc DVD set of the nine international concerts held on July 2nd as part of Live 8, an initiative organized by Bob Geldof to pressure the G8 to address extreme poverty in Africa, will be released on November 8th. A “generous” royalty from sales of the package — which features performances from artists ranging from Paul McCartney’s duet with U2’s Bono on “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” to Pink Floyd’s reunion — will go to the Band Aid Trust for African relief.

The first three discs focus on the shows at London’s Hyde Park and at Philadelphia’s Museum of Art, with highlights from the events in Paris, Rome, Berlin, Tokyo, Moscow, Toronto and Johannesburg. In addition to the McCartney/Bono concert opener, duets include McCartney and George Michael, Stevie Wonder and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, and Coldplay and Richard Ashcroft.

The third disc closes with the entire Hyde Park lineup performing the Beatles’ “Hey Jude.” The final disc features a behind-the-scenes documentary of the London show, Pink Floyd’s reunion rehearsal and other extras.

Source: RollingStone

Big Star vocalist/guitarist Alex Chilton has been rescued from New Orleans, according to the group’s longtime producer, Terry Manning. Chilton’s specific whereabouts at this point are unknown, but several friends report that he is now safe after having waited several days to evacuate his New Orleans home.

Source: billboard

A host of top acts have joined the bill for Saturday’s (Sept. 10) “ReAct Now: Music & Relief” special, which, as previously reported, will air live on MTV, VH1 and CMT and raise funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Among the new additions are the Rolling Stones, Kanye West, Paul McCartney, Kelly Clarkson, Audioslave and Neil Young.

Live or taped performances will also be included from Alan Jackson, Staind, Melissa Etheridge, Motley Crue, Dashboard Confessional, Good Charlotte, Maroon 5, John Mayer, Common, Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock and the Goo Goo Dolls.

Among the performers that have strong connections to areas devastated by Katrina are Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor, 3 Doors Down, the Neville Brothers and rappers Lil’ Wayne and Baby.

“ReAct Now” is already confirmed to feature participation from Green Day, Usher, Alicia Keys, Dave Matthews Band, Rob Thomas, Ludacris, Gretchen Wilson, John Mellencamp and Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington.

Source: billboard

The White Stripes’ Sept. 27 concert at the Merriweather Post Pavilion Theatre in Columbia, Md., will be streamed live online via the National Public Radio Web site, NPR.org. The show will mark the first time the band has Webcast one of its performances and will also include sets by support acts the Shins and M. Ward.

The Columbia gig will fall in the midst of the White Stripes’ fall tour in support of its latest album, “Get Behind Me Satan.” The run kicks off Thursday (Sept. 8) in Milwaukee and closes with an Oct. 1-2 stand in Detroit.

Released in June, the Third Man/V2 disc debuted at No. 3 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 507,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Source billboard.com.

Already battling an injured knee, Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme collapsed after a Monday show in Hamburg, forcing the cancellation of the next evening’s concert in Stuttgart. According to QOTSA’s Web site, Homme “was diagnosed with exhaustion and ordered to bed by a local doctor.”

The statement adds that Homme “has been performing every night on this tour despite his physical condition (due to a knee operation less than a week before he left for tour), and it finally caught up with him. He is resting now and in a stable condition.”

The remaining dates on the group’s European tour are scheduled to resume tomorrow (Sept. 3) at Spain’s Azkena Rock Festival. Homme is also expected to be healthy enough to begin QOTSA’s North American tour with Nine Inch Nails, which begins Sept. 16 in San Diego.

It’s been a rough few months for the California-based rock act, which have found Homme battling the aforementioned knee injury as well as a lung infection that required the cancellation of a February European tour.

But QOTSA fans do have a lot to look forward to. An Aug. 23 show at London’s Brixton Academy was taped for an as-yet-untitled CD/DVD due Nov. 22 via Interscope, and the group has also recorded a cover of Joe Walsh’s “In the City” for the soundtrack to the upcoming video game “The Warriors.” In addition, Homme has remixed two songs from Death From Above 1979, which will join QOTSA and NIN on the road this fall.

Source billboard.com.

With eighty percent of New Orleans submerged under up to twenty feet of water in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and thousands of casualties anticipated, the music world is dealing with the emotional impact and trying to imagine the future of one of America’s most influential cultural centers.

“I’ve had, like, an hour’s sleep,” says Dr. John, on tour in Minneapolis. “All my family is MIA — I mean, most everybody I know. They might be anywhere. I’m praying hard.” For the blues legend, a New Orleans native, “my heart’s always gonna be in New Orleans. It ain’t just the place, it’s the whole culture. The music will survive; the people will survive.”

Former Phish bassist Mike Gordon, who has played the city numerous times adds, “I’m very passionate about the city — I’ve had amazing experiences there. We used to go canoeing on the bayou, go to Mother’s Restaurant and see these hip brass bands that no one knows about. New Orleans is such a fuel for the entire country’s music. There is such a looseness to the city and the people, a happy-go-lucky quality, throwing caution to the wind. I don’t think the pure essence of the place can be wiped away by natural disaster.”

To read more visit rollingstone.com.

Fats Domino, who had been unaccounted for in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, was plucked from the flooded city by a helicopter late Thursday. He was reported to be in good condition.

An APB went out for the musician and his family earlier in the day.

The musician’s niece, Checquoline Davis, posted a plea on Craigslist.com for information on her missing relatives, writing that Domino and his wife, Rosemary, and their children and grandchildren “didn’t get out” of their New Orleans home. Her plea was one of thousands seeking information on missing friends and family on the site.

The R&B legend had last been heard from on Sunday night, a day before the storm struck. During a phone call with longtime agent Al Embry, the 77-year-old performer insisted he would ride out the hurricane in his three-story home.

It is not immediately known if Domino’s family made it to safety.

Domino’s house was located in the city’s 9th Ward, an area that is heavily flooded and littered with dead bodies.

The singer and boogie-woogie pianist, born Antoine Domino, has sold over 110 million records in his nearly five-decade career highlighted by the jukebox staples “Blueberry Hill” and “Ain’t That a Shame.” The New Orleans music fixture’s 1949 recording of “The Fat Man” is considered by some to be the first rock ‘n’ roll record, and Domino was among the inaugural group of inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

Another Hall of Famer, singer-songwriter Allen Toussaint, was listed among the missing, although Fox News reported that Toussaint may be among the 20,000-plus refugees seeking shelter in the Super Dome.

With New Orleans a hub of jazz, blues and even rap, several musicians were impacted by the storm. Rapper Juvenile’s home was destroyed and he says he has lost several friends. Soul Asylum frontman Dave Pirner, who was waiting out the storm in his native Minneapolis, told the Associated Press he still hadn’t heard anything about the condition of his home and recording studio in the Crescent City. Pirner moved there seven years ago.

Meanwhile, several high-powered denizens are rallying support. Master P, whose home was swamped and who hasn’t been able to track down his uncle, father-in-law or sister-in-law, has announced the formation of a charity, Team Rescue, and is organizing a “Save Our Hood” concert and benefit album. Wynton Marsalis will play both NBC and BET’s telethons in the coming days. Louisiana natives Tim McGraw and Harry Connick Jr. will also perform at the NBC event and have made public appeals for help.

“I haven’t slept in days,” Connick says in a statement. “Although I now finally know that my immediate family in New Orleans is safe, I have not heard from many, many friends and other family members.

“New Orleans is my essence, my soul, my muse, and I can only dream that one day she will recapture her glory. I will do everything within my power to make that happen and to help in any way I can to ease the suffering of my city, my people!”

Source yahoo.com.

With the Grateful Dead and his own side projects, Jerry Garcia frequently covered the songs of Bob Dylan. Fifteen of those interpretations have been collected for a two-disc set, “Ladder to the Stars: Garcia Plays Dylan,” due Oct. 11 via Rhino.

An American musical icon in his own right, the late guitarist/singer was a masterful interpreter, and within the poetry of Dylan, a longtime friend and compatriot, he found a wealth of material. The Jerry Garcia Band provides the bulk of the recordings in this collection, touching on such classics as “Positively 4th Street,” “I Shall Be Released” and “Tangled Up in Blue.”

The Dead is also present, with disc two boasting four selections from the group: “She Belongs to Me,” “Visions of Johanna,” “Mighty Quinn (Quinn, The Eskimo)” and “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.” At deadline it was unknown if the latter pair of selections are the same versions that appeared on Arista’s 2002 compilation “Postcards of the Hanging: The Grateful Dead Perform the Songs of Bob Dylan.”

Also included on the first “Ladder” disc is a version of “The Wicked Messenger” by Garcia’s short-lived jazz-leaning side project Legion Of Mary. That group’s version of Dylan’s “Tough Mama” was part of the “”The Jerry Garcia Collection, Volume 1: Legion Of Mary,” released in August by Rhino.

In addition to the music, which has been remastered in HDCD, the set includes liner notes by Garcia biographer Blair Jackson, with input from the Dead’s Bob Weir.

Here is the “Ladder to the Stars: Garcia Plays Dylan” track list:

Disc one:
“It Takes a Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train To Cry / Tough Mama,” Jerry Garcia
“Positively 4th Street,” Jerry Garcia Band
“The Wicked Messenger,” Legion Of Mary
“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” Jerry Garcia Band
“Simple Twist of Fate,” Jerry Garcia Band
“I Shall Be Released,” Jerry Garcia Band

Disc two:
“When I Paint My Masterpiece,” Jerry Garcia Band
“She Belongs to Me,” Grateful Dead
“Forever Young,” Jerry Garcia Band
“Tangled Up in Blue,” Jerry Garcia Band
“Senor (Tales of Yankee Power),” Jerry Garcia Band
“Visions of Johanna,” Grateful Dead
“Mighty Quinn (Quinn, the Eskimo),” Grateful Dead
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” Grateful Dead

Source billboard.com