That’s just music

A wife of the legendary Ozzy Osbourne Miss Sharon Osbourne won the legal battle against The Sun tabloid, said New Musical Express. Issue’s representatives have agreed with the court’s decision and accepted the fact that they’ve made a negative moral impact on her family by publishing an article about Sharon’s horrible methods of doing business when she was Black Sabbath’s manager. In October 2007 The Sun wrote an article were it said that Sharon was “driving her frail husband Ozzy Osbourne to destruction… so hard she will kill him.” Practically, an accusation which is quite popular among those who generally dislike her. The Sun’s piece of writing made it very clear that Sharon forced her husband to perform live, even when he did not feel very good. It is possible though that Ozzy could feel a bit weak after his parties, but saying that she kept on using him as a slave is definitely not true. She would never do something horrible to Ozzy even when their relationship suffered his excessive drinking and the rock n’ roll wilderness.

Following a court’s decision The Sun will pay a lot of money for the moral damage and shall financially cover everything she has spent on lawyers. At the same time The Sun had to appologize and officially disprove everything what was said in that article.

Metallica and Run DMC are going to be placed into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. The ceremony in dedication to this historical event will take place on April 4, 2009 in Cleveland, Ohio. Besides that, all celebrations that are somehow connected to this affair will continue for at least seven days. Also, the Hall of Fame shall welcome Jeff Beck, Little Anthony & The Imperials, and Bobby Womack. “These artists demonstrate the rich diversity of rock and roll itself. We are proud to honor these artists and celebrate their contribution to rock and roll’s place in our culture”, said the Hall’s director Joel Peresman. In order to get into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame it takes not less than twenty five years after the release of the first album, in other words continuity, age and of course talent make it all happen. For the last two decades Metallica is considered to be the most successful metal band. Their debut album “Kill ‘Em All” was recorded in 1983 (Megaforce Records).

Run DMC is going to be the second rap group to enter the Hall. The first one went to the hip-hop pioneers Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five in 2007. Jeff Beck is practically already there because in 1992 he made it to the list together with The Yardbirds.

Former Pavement guitarist Scott Kannberg has noted that he is about to reunite with his ex-bandmates in order to celebrate their group’s twentieth anniversary, said Gigwise.  The American indie-rock band which was formed in 1989 and fell apart in 1999 is now following the old tradition of reunions once again.  Also, Kannberg added that by the end of 2009 Pavement may begin it’s first since the late 90’s full blown tour. “I don’t see why not, you know, it could be a fun thing to do, go and play your favourite songs every night,” he said. However, the exact decision on this event is still hanging in the air. They’re planning to perform at the Coachella festival, which should take place on April 17–19 in LA. “Coachella keep asking our booking agent but our booking agent’s pretty strong. He’s waiting for the right number, I think”. In 2006 and 2008 guys from Pavement kept on saying that their reunion is quite realistic, and not just in dedication to their anniversary, but also to Matador Records’ 20th anniversary as well (they’ve co-worked with them).

Pavement was founded by Steven Malkmus and Scott Kannberg in California. They have released five studio albums, out of which the most successful was “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain” (1994). The last one was released in 1999 – “Terror Twilight”.

Madonna has hired two additional bodyguards who have previously served in the Israeli special forces, said The People tabloid. These measures were taken right after she had received a number of threats from the Muslim religious fanatics who have promised to behead her for supporting Israel. Recently, one of the Islamic-fundamentalist websites had posted a message written by one of the Palestinian terrorists named Muhammad Abdel-Al. It says, “If I meet these whores I will have the honor to be the first one to cut the head off Madonna if they will keep spreading their satanic culture against Islam.” It is obvious that these words are aimed at her love of Kabbalah, and her general stance for Israel. In recent years she had visited that country for many times. It is also well known that currently she is more than anyone else would like to see the end to the conflict in Gaza, but definitely terrorists just hate her for her beliefs no matter what. Her friendly stance to all religions was also not taken into consideration.

Due to these threats Madonna is specifically worried for her kids. Her ex-husband and an infamous movie director Guy Ritchie is planning to step up the security of his house in order to make their children safer. After their divorce they’ve negotiated to share time with them in New York (where Madonna lives) and in London (Ritchie’s place).

Don Randall who has given the name to an infamous guitar model Fender Stratocaster died at the age of ninety one, said Associated Press. It happened at his home in California on December 23, but the information about it came out only on January 11. Randall had develeped the name “Stratocaster” in 1954 by giving an idea to Fender’s founder Leo Fender to change and re-develop an older version of it called “Telecaster”. This name had to associate with the cutting edge technologies and reflect Fender’s new ideas on it’s design. “Guitar Player” magazine editor Tom Willer used to say that without Randall the Stratocaster’s commercial success would never take place. In 1965 Randall was one of those who helped to sell Fender to CBS, practically he was the key negotiator. After this deal Stratocaster sort of lost it’s powerful popularity, but began to come back right after Jimmy Hendrix became it’s biggest fan. Eventually, it became tremendously popular and legendary. This model was used by Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Ritchie Blackmore, Mark Knopfler, Jimmy Page, Billy Corgan and many others. Currently, Fender Stratocaster remains to be one of the most popular guitars in the world without any plans to go down.

Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor had placed an exclusive information on the band’s official website, which says that he possesses more than 400 gigabytes of the video material. All this stuff was recorded during his band’s recent concerts in Portland, Victoria and Sacramento within their Lights In The Sky tour. All the files are absolutely free. In an article called “Your Gift” Trent has noticed that he was in contact with some fans who respectfully gave him all this material, recorded in the HD format. “The internet is full of surprises these days. I was contacted by a mysterious, shadowy group of subversives who somehow managed to film a substantial amount of raw, unedited HD footage”, he said. Here is a link to the curious and cool works – http://forum.nin.com/bb/read.php?18,378166. At the end of his message Reznor politely proposes everyone who is interested to organize these videos and turn them into something like a documentary. He believes that there are many talented fans who are capable of making a movie about NIN.

This is not the first time when Reznor has decided to use Internet as the advertisement ground, earlier this year “The Slip” album was given out for free with the help of nin.com. The same thing was done with  the “Ghosts I-IV” album.

Apple’s marketing vice-president Phil Schiller said that iTunes online music store is reducing prices. Right now it went down from 99 cents per track to 69 cents. The best quality tracks will be standing on $ 1,29. The cost reduction is possibly connected with the world financial crisis and a huge demand for the online music. Industry is changing as quick as the eye can see. Besides that, by now eight million songs were freed from the copyright law, and by April all the tracks should follow the same regulation. The most sensitive part of it all is going into the past within the iTunes and it looks quite unbelievable. Some journalists wrote about this innovation in the beginning of December, but they thought that it shall never happen in the near future. Everyone could not think of the fact that the major record labels will allow iTunes move toward this step due the legal difficulties and their money interests. Also, Schiller has noted that by the beginning of 2009 iTunes was able to sell six billion songs with the clientele rising up to seventy five million regular users. iTines is growing and it looks like all these changes will only double it’s profits.

The Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton who is considered to be the one of those who have literally laid the foundation of the punk music has died, said AP. Police representatives have reported that a body of the 60 years old Asheton was found on Tuesday morning in his own house in Ann-Arbor, Michigan. They’re saying that his death took place over the natural causes without telling any details.

The Stooges was found way back in 1967 by Iggy Pop (vocals), Ron and Scott Ashetons (bass), and drummer Dave Alexander. Between 1967 and 1973 The Stooges which are often characterized as ‘proto-punk’ and the alternative rock have released three albums. Their lineup was often changed, but Asheton brothers kept on playing in there until 1974 when the band fell apart. In 2003 following Iggy Pop’s idea they’ve came back together again in their original standing, but without Dave Alexander who died in 1975. Also, in 2003 Ron Asheton had reached 29^th place among the best guitar players according to the Rolling Stone magazine’s charts. In 2007 The Stooges have released their fourth album.

After hearing of Asheton’s death Iggy Pop said that Ron used to be his best friend, while the other The Stooges musicians have told the press that they’re totally shocked by this loss.

One of the participants of the legendary German electronic band Kraftwerk Florian Schneider has left the group, said New Musical Express. There is no explonation of why he did this, but it’s known that during the last few years he did not really participate in the band while paying more attention to his personal side projects. Also, Schneider did not take part in Kraftwerk’s 2008 world tour. His place was taken by Stefan Pfaffe. This news may be upsetting to many of their fans because Florian is one of the founders of Kraftwerk. This band had a tremendous influence on the electronic music, and today there is no trance, techno, progressive group or DJ which is not going to mention Kraftwerk as their original insipiration. It was created in 1970 by Schneider and Ralf Hütter. The most famous and cool albums are “Autobahn” (1970), “Radio-Activity” (1975), “Trans-Europe Express” (1977) and “The Man Machine” (1978).

Right now it means that Ralf Hütter is going to be the only musician who is left from the original lineup. The good news is coming for the Kraftwerk’s Latin American fans that are going to see them performing together with Radiohead in March-April 2009 during their Central and South American tour. Let’s see what Schneider will do with his side projects, and may it be as good as Kraftwerk.

Legendary American rock band Grateful Dead is planning to start a tour in April. It’s going to be their first concert voyage in four years, said EOnline. The band’s official website also reported that from April 12 to May 10 they’re considering to orginize nineteen concerts in the various US cities. In October 2008 four Grateful Dead musicians have performed together in order to collect some money for Obama’s presidential campaign, and of course to show themselves again. In November one of the guys Mickey Hart has said in an interview that “ice began to melt, and their band is getting rid off some skeleton’s in the closet.”

Greateful Dead was created back in 1965 and lasted until 1995 when the band’s influential leader Jerry Garcia had died. Since that time this great band kept on reuniting once in a while, but failed to come together on a full scale. They were participating in many other prominent music projects such as, The Other Ones, The Dead, RatDog, Phil Lesh and Friends, Donna Jean and the Tricksters.

April 12 Greensboro NC Greensboro Coliseum
April 14 Washington DC Verizon Center
April 15 Charlottesville VA John Paul Jones Arena
April 17 Albany NY Times Union Center
April 18 Worcester MA DCU Center
April 19 Worcester MA DCU Center
April 21 Buffalo NY HSBC Arena
April 22 Wilkes-Barre PA Wachovia Arena @
Casey Plaza
April 24 Uniondale NY Nassau Coliseum
April 25 New York NY Madison Square Garden
April 26 Hartford CT XL Center
April 28 E. Rutherford NJ IZOD Center
April 29 E. Rutherford NJ IZOD Center
May 1 Philadelphia PA Wachovia Spectrum
May 2 Philadelphia PA Wachovia Spectrum
May 5 Chicago IL All State Arena
May 7 Denver CO Pepsi Center
May 9 Los Angeles CA The Forum
May 10 Mountain View CA Shoreline Amphitheater