That’s just music

One of the rarest The Beatles’ press-conference records, which was made in Toronto way back in 1966 is going to be put on the Bonhams auction sales. The approximate price of the fourteen minutes record is twenty five thousand dollars, said The Hamilton Spectator. It was made by the Canadian photographer Paul Hourigan when he was working as a reporter for The Spectator. Right after that now legendary press-conference he was trying to make fifty dollars, but there was no radio station which could agree to pay this sum; well, well life is full of historical surprises. Eventually, he did not sell his tape and for many years it was kept in Hourigan’s house. In 2008 the guy had discovered that another rare The Beatles concert record was sold out for thirty thousand dollars, he began to search for his tape and finally found it in the cigar case - lucky discovery. Today it’s definitely known that Hourigan’s tape is the only surviving copy of The Beatle’s interview given on August 17, 1966 at the King Edward Hotel. Auction should take place in Los Angeles on June 13, and besides this tape the selling lot will include CD copies of the very same interview taken by Paul Hourigan.  The Beatles rare records and other historical artifacts which somehow relate to this band are extremely popular and keep on raising huge money every year.

The fourth studio album produced by Antony and The Johnsons will appear in stores at the beginning of October this year, said Gigwise. Most likely the British release will take place on October 4, and only one day later this album should reach North America. “Swanlights” shall come out on the CD and vinyl versions; the latter became very popular among many musicians, maybe for it’s retro stylishness or for it’s possibility to make those who produce look different in our time. Also, the band is planning to release an exclusive disk version together with the 144 pages book that includes photographs, drawings and remarks by Antony Hegarty. Antony and The Johnsons was formed in 1998 and by this time had released four studio records. The previous album The Crying Light came out in the beginning of 2009 and was able to get to number one on the European Billboard chart. Besides his work in this band, Antony Hegarty is also famous for his duet performances and co-operations with other musicians. In particular, he had participated in recording albums with Bjork and Mark Almond. This musician is quite talented and his chamber pop style became very popular in Europe and North America. Along with Antony’s talent goes his open hearted character and ability to project positivism on music and the stage.

Infamous supermodel Kate Moss is going to create the band together with her fiancé Jamie Hince from The Kills, said Undercover. As in The Kills, Hince will be performing on guitar, and Kate’s role is not very clear yet, some even believe that her looks may be the strongest thing in the band. As the above mentioned news source said, Kate Moss had already met with three session musicians and explained to them her vision of songs they’re about to record. The new project’s name is not known at all, there is no information on their style and generally speaking almost nothing is certain about it. Currently, The Kills is not performing due to the absence of a vocalist Alison Mosshart who is busy working with her new The Death Weather project; this band had released the new album on May 11. It’s interesting to note that Kate Moss already possesses some experience in working with music bands, she played some interesting music instrument in one of the Oasis’ songs, sang with Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream), and was a co-author of her ex-boyfriend Pete Doherty. Hince and Moss are dating since 2007 and in the beginning of 2010 a couple became engaged. 

John Bonham’s son Jason had decided to organize the tour in dedication to his legendary father who has died thirty years ago, said Jason’s official web site. This guy is definitely less famous, but surely not the worst drummer, and his personal work continues very talented family tradition. This upcoming tour will be called Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience during which John’s son will perform Led Zeppelin’ songs while demonstrating rare photographs and videos from his family’s archive. As Jason noted, during his performing he is planning to tell a story on how his life is connected to the music of Led Zeppelin. Totally his tour should incorporate thirty concerts, but the exact dates were not announced so far, and there is no certain information on whether Jason will do this alone or with his band. As his father, Jason Bonham is also playing drums, in 2007 he was performing together with Led Zeppelin (till this day the last performance of this band) at O2 Arena in London, when a group came together once again. Particularly, after that performance it became known that Led Zeppelin may start the world tour, however Robert Plant had refused this idea and the whole plan had blown apart. Jason’s father John Bonham had died on September 25, 1980 and is considered to be the greatest drummer in the history of rock music.

Songwriters Guild of America (SGA) had asked for help to fight Internet music piracy, and the most curious part about it all is that this organization turned towards FBI, not more not less. Ars Technica brought this news relating it to some recommendations published on the US President’s administration web site. Basically, SGA is seriously trying to get rid off pirates in music, and their attempt seems to be quite fast and radical. Poets are also asking for serious methods to fight piracy through criminal prosecution patterns, not civil, so things get better quickly within the endless fields of Internet. SGA representatives believe that Internet music piracy is not just hitting musicians, but by damaging the music industry it takes money out of the US economy even more than such crimes as bank robberies. However, claimants believe that in comparison to the above mentioned illegal activities, music piracy is not prosecuted in the way it should be, thus leaving musicians and economy without money they need. SGA recommendation includes examples of the FBI’s administrative weaknesses while dealing with the music piracy. Practically, it’s another crusade against such sort of stealing, and it may bring some results, but again, Internet is too hard to control and a lot of musicians together with authorities may spend a lot of time fighting for their copyright possessions.

Madonna has decided to interrupt her music career to concentrate upon filming of the “W.E.” movie about the English king Edward VIII and his affair with Wallis Simpson. In the recent interview to the Interview magazine she said that currently she is not connected to any contract with any record label, and she is not working at the studio to produce a new album. The movie is pretty strong and surely she has no time for writing music, touring and producing; Madonna is not just a singer and some people or even fans tend to forget this fact. Right now she is not even interested in the recently released DVD compilation, which includes her newest performances at the “Sticky & Sweet” tour. “For example, I do appreciate that lots of people worked long and hard putting together things like the DVD of the Sticky & Sweet tour that we just released, and I have seen the finished product, but I have got no idea how people are going to find out about it or how it’s going to be sold”, she remarked. Well, certainly Madonna is pretty far away from the music business today, and hopefully her new movie will be awesome. She was planning to film “W.E.” for a long time, but was constantly postponing it, due to the lack of a movie director’s skills, so it will be her first experience in actually filming stuff.