That’s just music

Legendary Bruce Springsteen was recently fined right after his a little bit too long performance at the Glastonbury festival in Britain, said ContactMusic. Of course, abropting someone like Bruce will never work, and writing out ‘tickets’ is absolutely impossible. Usually those are very small amounts of money for people like Springsteen, but the whole idea behind ‘cutting’ of a musician because he is not stopping on time looks slightly odd. On June 27 Springsteen was closing a third day of the festival together with his group E Street Band on the Pyramid Stage. Bruce’s debut performance at the Glastonbury stage was lasting for two and a half hours, including twenty five songs out of his classic arsenal such as “Badlands”, “Born To Run”, and “Thunder Road”. Eventually he was fined due to the fact that his performance lasted on forty minutes longer than originally designed by the organizers and local authorities. After twelve o’clock at night it should be quiet in around the Glastonbury area. Come on, it’s the festival event and Mr. Springsteen is performing, law is law, but certain exceptions are definitely possible in these cases. However, festival’s top manager Michael Eavis said that he is going to pay Bruce’s fine because he believes that his performance was absolutely stunning. In 2004 Paul McCartney was also fined for a long performance.

Michael Jackson’s hit’s album “Number Ones” went number one on the British national music chart. Previously, it was standing as far as the 121 place can be, but after the recent tragic events things have changed unbelievably quickly. Before, the first spot was occupied by Kasabian and it’s album “West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum”, but it just could not resist the wave of sentiments coming from every corner right now. So often death of an icon, which was not so popular anymore or was shadowed by so many unpleasant scandals, suddenly makes that icon universally big again. Also, the first ten includes “Thriller”, “King of Pop”, “Off the Wall” and “The Essential”. Besides that, British people began to show an intereset towards Jackson’s singles among which are “Man in the Mirror”, “Thriller”, “Billie Jean”, “Smooth Criminal”, “Beat It” and “Earth Song”. All of these infamous singles are within the first forty hits. Currently, a lot of people identify Jackson with an era, which was long gone (even though it was just in the 80’s and early 90’s), but now everything what may be dealing with this figure sort of comes back. The king of pop had returned for a certain period of time in order to remind of himself, probably for the last time.

Vocalist from the legendary British band Oasis Liam Gallagher is about to participate in the movie called “Powder”, which is based on Kevin Sampson’s book of the same title. This news came out on Wednesday this week with the help of New Musical Express, as always. Particualarly, the one who told this info is the infamous Guru Josh, very cool British post acid house musician. Following some other facts givem by ContactMusic, Gallagher will start acting in September 2009, right after the current Oasis tour. Another example of a multi oriented talent. It’s well known that Guru Josh (the real name Paul Walden) will act himself in the movie, but what role shall be granted to Gallagher will become known a little bit later. “Powder” is produced by Sampson himself, so it should turn out pretty close to the original idea. Since the issue of his book the guy always wanted to project it onto screen and finally it should come in to existance. In the past Sampson used to manage The Farm, a group from Liverpool, thence his connection with the music world is quite strong. “Powder” itself will tell about the history of the music industry and particularly about Brit pop, which obviously includes Oasis as one of the beginners of this genre.

According to Forbes, Madonna had taken the first place among the richest musicians in the world. During the last twelve months, from June 2008 until the same month this year she was able to gain 110 million dollars. Such a thing could become possible with the help of Sticky & Sweet Tour, which took place in support of her eleventh studio album - “Hard Candy”. However, these statistics did not include Madonna’s spendings on a divorce with Guy Ritchie, which presumably stole seventy five (!) million dollars from her pockets. Interesting, did she spend all these money on lawyers or gave it to Ritchie? Why did the ‘guy’ agree take it from her, and anyway, why it should be so expensive after all? The second place was conquered by Celine Dion – one hundred million dollars. Third spot went to Beyonce – eighty seven million. All three are obviously don’t look very poor, especially after spending millions on divorces. Among men the richest musician is Bruce Springsteen, his “Working on a Dream” tour brought him seventy million dollars providing this musician with the fourth place. Fifth position went to an American country singer Kenny Chesney. Lots of money and lots of fame, power and respect that keeps on being recorded by Forbes.

Founder of the British Glastonbury festival Michael Eavis is now thinking about taking some rest from his work. As the guy says he is planning to leave director’s position of one of the biggest music events in the world. This should happen in 2011, notes New Musical Express. Eavis also wants to give all his responsibilities to his daughter Emily and her future husband Nick. Their involvement in Glastonbury affairs is going to grow and by the time when Eavis shall leave the business a couple will start taking care over everything. However, the founder of Glastonbury had noted that even after his leave he wants to participate in the events anyway. “I still feel I have an important role to play. Even if I go I’ll worry about the drains, the rubbish, the recycling. There will be a gradual process of her and Nick taking it over,” said Eavis. The old king still wants to know what happens and no matter what stick his nose in the affairs of the future generation. Glastonbury-2009 will take place on June 26–29 and will include a lot of prominet musicians such as Bruce Springsteen, reunited Blur, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Status Quo, Madness, The Prodigy, Franz Ferdinand and many more.

Infamous American musician Beck Hansen is now the founder of the “Record Club” project, which is planning to organize and record the album per day. This curious information was taken from Beck’s official website. It’s either very strange or very talented because how can one write so much stuff without having some special qualities to do so? The answer is dwelling in covers, not the original material.  Maybe it’s just part of the music PR and advertisiment process in order to make Beck look quite different from the rest of the music business crowd. Even by writing this article about the news means that if it belongs to PR then they’ve achieved their goal. Seriously, one album each day, very interesting thing after all. As the New Musical Express said, Beck’s “Record Club” was already joined by a singer Devendra Banhart, the band called MGMT and the famous British producer Nigel Godrich. The project will start with covering The Velvet Underground’s debut album – “The Velvet Underground & Nico”. When exactly this unique “club” shall start it’s actual recordings is not know yet. Beck believes that before going to the studio, musicians have to rehearse and try to excercise in order to make some cool covers. He did not mention what other albums these brave guys are going to cover, but had promised that it will be announced right after the club begins it’s activities.

Sir Paul McCartney is going to become the author of a soundtrack for his own “High in the Clouds” tale, which came out in 2005, said BBC News. McCartney is one of those creators who can perform constantly without swithing their life towards some kind of an artistic time out. Music goes into acting (not in his case though), acting may go into writing or drawing and other things of this nature. Rob Minkoff who had produced “Lion King” and Michael Lynne famous for his co-working the the creators of “The Lord Of The Rings” are currently making “High in the Clouds” cartoon film. It’s not known so far when exactly this artistic piece will come out, but again, everything from rock music to little squirrels…  “High in the Clouds” was written by McCartney together with Philip Ardagh and became very well known all around the world among many children since 2006. McCartney’s romance with cartoons is not suppose to be something extra ordinary because such thing had already happened before. In 1984 Sir Paul wrote a song “We All Stand Together” for another anime called “Rupert and the Frog Song”. Back then in turned to be the hit. In other words if a person is talented in one thing, he is going to be talented in everything else too.

California band Blink-182 which not so long ago had announced it’s reunion is almost done with finishing a new song, said New Musical Express. Noteworthy, a song called “Up All Night” turns to be their first piece of music since 2004. The band had experienced certain unrest during the last five or so years and sort of escaped the past popularity. They’ve been everywhere in the beginning of the current decade, but later probably became tired of everything and stopped any recording processes. “It’s got a little bit of Pink Floyd, a little bit of Rush, a little bit of Blink in there. It’s crazy, but it somehow sounds exactly like where we left off. It’s an amazing song,” notes the band’s guitarist Tom DeLong. Musician had also noted that finally this song should be ready when their drummer Travis Barker will fully recover from the plane crash. He just needs to get back and record his part, and generally speaking the guy was lucky to survive that accident. In the nearest time the band is planning to organize a tour in around the US. The first in four years tour shall start on July 23 in Los Angeles. Surely some totally new material will be presented over there, so hopefully “Up All Night” is not the only one.

Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor had recently told the press that his two hour performance at the Bonnaroo festival on June 13 was the last concert in the US, said NME. This news of course sounds a little bit upsetting to those who admire this band, and especially to those who love to see them performing live. Nine Inch Nails used to spend a lot of time off the stage, not every album was produced regularly often taking years of waiting for them to come out from the studio. During the recent four years the band was on the rise again by making something new almost every year. Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction have just finished the joint tour in around the North America. The Los Angeles Times notes that the band’s summer 2009 European tour is going to be their last one. In the meantime NIN’s offical web site was recently posting some information about the fact that the band is about to take a rest from the concert activities, but did not clarify for how long and wheather it may touch it’s presence at the studio. Many journalists believe that such action can be tied to Reznor’s decision to get married. In May it became known that Reznor is engaged to Mariqueen Maandig, a singer from the West Indian Girl.

There is absolutely no setting down for some rock stars, they just keep on having fun, wild parties and rebellions all the time. On the night between June 10 and 11 Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty was arrested again, this time for driving under the influence and possession of illegal substances. Also, he refused to follow everything what cops were asking him to do, said BBC News. The guy is having fun, that’s for sure. He was accompanyed with a 30–years old lady whose name was not told to the press so far. Double fun. Doherty was stopped by the Gloucester police in England on the way back from the solo acoustic concert. As BBC says, cops have decided to stop his car after noticing that it’s not following traffic rules, it simply looked too suspicious. Currently, the law enforcement people speak of his resistance to stop right away, and some total lack of sobriety on the side of his female company. She was arrested too for keeping drugs. It’s all quite interesting because the guy was already arrested only six days ago at the Geneva airport for using illegal substances during the flight. Then a singer was let loose pretty quickly after he paid a ticket. This time it may go a little bit more further due to the DUI case.