That’s just music

Robert Plant had recently said that he is going to stop dealing with the rock music since now on, notes ContactMusic. Quite peculiar remark on the side of somebody who had practically standing at the roots of this music genre. A sixty two year old Plant had suddenly realized it while visiting Them Crooked Vultures concert, the band which is led by his Led Zeppelin colleague John Paul Jones - “I fell so far away from heavy rock now. It’s quite odd how mine and John’s paths seem to have crossed over - we’ve sort of gone into each other’s world’s a bit.” Surely, he was saying the truth, Plant is probably just not staying within the same frames anymore, everybody tends to change from time to time, especially when decades go by and years pass. Notably, Plant did not like the band’s loudness, so according to him, his both ears “bled for two days”; well, for the ex-Led Zeppelin member it’s very strange, but again, life goes on. He did not say in which music style his talent will move around, and what particular thing interests him today. In October 2007 Plant had released the album “Raising Sand” together with an American country singer Alison Krauss. Stylistically, it was pretty close to folk music with some additions from the variety of ballad-like notions. In the middle of September his solo project Band of Joy should release the album of the same title, and hopefully this time everybody will see what interests Plant nowadays.

Stanley Donwood’s personal expo is going to be shown for the first time in the United States, said ArtDaily. This guy is famous for making Radiohead’s album designs and covers; particularly his talent is reflected upon the creation of many unique pictures that practically were not really repeated by the others. His current exposition will take place in Los Angeles from September 2 to October 27, and is going to be called “Over Normal”. Specifically for this expo, Donwood had prepared seven new works, which must portray another scheme of how to produce commercials, basically all kinds of them including ones on the street, and even Internet spam. In other words, Donwood wants to show people something what can be used later by some clever expo visitor whose sense of business deals is equal to his own talent.  It’s expected that the whole thing will be accompanied with some special soundtrack, possibly with Radiohed’s music; after all he is co-working with them for years. Besides that, visitors will get a booklet in which Donwood describes how he got to the idea of “Over Normal”, it’s basic meaning and other curious artistic facts. The first Radiohead album which was designed by Donwood was “The Bends” in 1995, later he worked with all of their releases including “Amnesiac” in 2002 – this album received the prize for the best design.

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Waxworks that should reflect the whole physical and partially emotional aspects of an infamous singer Lady Gaga should appear in every Madame Tussauds museum, all over the world, said The Daily Telegraph. Thus, she is going to be the first celebrity who’s wax stature will be exposed in such a way; it must include museums in London, Hollywood, Las Vegas, Washington, New York, Amsterdam, Berlin, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Seriously, this woman is winning over the minds of people simply everywhere, and her fame seems to be as a huge wave of pop culture right now. This wax project will absorb one million pounds (1,2 million euros); notably, every waxwork of Lady Gaga will portray her in different poses and clothes. Practically, this project looks as if it reflects so far the biggest thing that was ever launched by the Madame Tussauds specialists. By twenty four years of age Lady Gaga was able to reach the highest step in the music world, and turned to be the best paid performer. She is regularly winning over the hit charts and search scores on the Internet. At the same time fans are currently waiting for another album, which is supposedly should be another source of heat behind her.

From August 25 until November 7 this year Handel House Museum in London is going to organize an expo dedicated to Jimi Hendrix, said Reuters. Legendary musician used to live in London on 23 Brook Street from 1968 till 1969; another great musician from the past, Handel was quartering on the same street (house number 25) for thirty six years, from 1723 to 1759. Hendrix’s close friend Kathy Etchingham wrote in her book “Through Gypsy Eyes” that guitarist was well informed about the fact that he is living right next to the place where such a famous classical composer used to live too. Etchingham notes that both musicians came to England in order to become famous. At the same time, both had died in there, and it’s another thing which parallels these two far distanced characters; often life is ironic and sort of puts talented people in the same areas. Currently, Hendrix’s flat is occupied by the Handel Museum, but in the midst of September it will be totally free for viewers, and possibly they may feel that late 1960’s vibe. “The flat was the ideal place for us – at the heart of London at a time when the city was the centre of the music world”, said Etchingham. On the other hand, the Handel Museum itself will show Hendrix’s electric guitar, clothes and some handwritten texts.

Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson had recently said that his band will never participate in the Glastonbury festival, said ContactMusic. “Glstonbury is a bit too cream cakes and afternoon tea for us. It’s all yurts and people being far too polite”, noted Dickinson. At the same time he did not note if Iron Maiden was invited to participate in the event. In other words, this band is not setting up things for the Glastonbury, possibly for their general view on it or for the fact that they did not get invited. At least these two points of view had collided because of the recent commentaries made by Dickinson. Iron Maiden is quite famous for it’s principles in the show business, so most likely they truly anticipate the event. On August, 13 Iron Maiden had released it’s fifteenth studio album “The Final Frontier”. It was able to get to the first place on the British national chart and also lead the way in Sweden and Finland. Previously, the festival’s organizer Michael Eavis said that he had already talked with two possible headliners, which were welcomed to participate in the Glastonbury-2011, but he still refuses to give their names. Surely, it will not be Iron Maiden, especially after Bruce Dickinson’s remarks regarding the issue.

Bob Dylan had tried the new system of selling concert tickets, particularly it took place during the San Francisco venue on August 25, said NME. Basically, the whole thing was based on his statement and wishes not to sell tickets before a day of the concert. It was possible to buy tickets only on August 25, and anyone who wanted to purchase it could get only one ticket per person. Thus, Dylan hoped to get rid of the price speculations and all sorts of manipulations that exist in the world of the show business. Also, musician plans to use such system in the future because according to the results it worked. “Given the state of touring and how fees have escalated, it was a real breath of fresh air to do something very consumer-oriented by eliminating all ticketing charges,” said Dylan’s representative David Lefkowitz. Practically, it’s good to do it because too many people today are trying to buy a bunch of tickets and later re-sell them for a larger price; this is nearly damaging for those who don’t have enough resources to pay for an expensive ticket. In April, 2009 Bob Dylan had released his thirty third studio album – “Together Through Life”. On October the same year he released a compilation of the Christmas songs – “Christmas in the Heart”.

The Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood is planning to release the new album called “I Feel like Playing” on September 27, 2010, said NME. This record is going to be his seventh studio work, and it surely must reflect the variety of his innovative views on how the music should sound. “I Feel like Playing” was not made up by Wood himself; he had invited Pearl Jam leader Eddie Vedder, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea and ex-Guns N’Roses guitarist Slash. Also, such musicians as Billy Gibbons and Bobby Vomak took their parts in the production process. Ronnie Wood thinks that “I Feel like Playing” is his most ‘solo’ work ever and without doubt must be the best one. The cover was drawn by Wood, and if it be exact some fragment from one of his artistic works was used. His previous album “Not for Beginners” was released in November, 2001 and the last The Rolling Stones record “A Bigger Bang” came out in September, 2005. In other words, Ronnie Wood looks and sounds quite happy when talking or discussing “I Feel like Playing”, he definitely gave up a lot of time to make it, so hopefully it will be his major hit in time. Such people as Wood never give up their music career, even if the age is pushing their physical abilities.

EMI record label had announced that currently the company is able to fix it’s various financial problems due to the fact that they’ve re-released The Beatles’ re-mastered albums, said BBC News. By the end of March 2010 EMI’s budget decreased from 1,75 billion to 624 million pounds. Today’s gains had increased on five percents; EMI experts had connected this success to The Beatles re-mastered sales. However, the record label underlines that they still have a lot of work ahead of them in order to pay off the debt. EMI owes three billion pounds to the US bank Citigroup, so things are still not working very well for one of the biggest record producing companies. In September 2009 EMI had re-released all The Beatles albums in mono and stereo versions with the boosted sound quality. Nevertheless, some songs were slightly edited during the re-mastering process. Mono versions were totally moved onto the digital format in their original condition. By the end of September 2009 the re-released songs were capable of conquering all the first ten places on the Billboard’s chart list. Even Michael Jackson was knocked out despite his popularity during that time. The most popular re-mastered album was “Abbey Road”, it had simply went back into it’s original popularity right after the original release in 1969.

In August 2010 a letter which was sent by John Lennon way back in 1971 had finally reached the original receiver, a folk singer Steve Tilston, said The Daily Telegraph. This letter was Lennon’s answer to Tilston’s interview that was given to the ZigZag magazine; he had simply sent it to the publisher, but unfortunately it did not get to the right place. Later it was purchased by an American collector, and only five years ago Tilston was able to see it. Therefore, it took thirty four years to actually reach the guy, who was definitely quite surprised by this thing. In his ZigZag interview Tilston was saying that he doesn’t want to become rich because it can negatively affect his songwriting skills. In a brief reply Lennon told him that he is practically wrong in such a conclusion. “Being rich doesn’t change your experiences in the way you think. The only difference, basically, is that you don’t have you worry about money – food – roof etc. But all other experiences - emotions – relationships – are the same as anybodies”. On the other hand, Yoko Ono remembers how John was writing this message, she noted: “This one is very special because he was writing to another musician, didn’t want to sound preachy, so made his handwriting oddly rough and artistic”. What if Tilston had acquired this letter in 1971?

British band Status Quo is about to re-record their 1986 hit “In the Army Now”, said ContactMusic. They are planning to slightly change this song, possibly add new words and maybe record fresh sounds. Besides that, the British army choir will be used on back-vocals, thus adding original spice to the whole thing. “We want people to celebrate what they do, say thank you and also support these vital charities”, noted the band’s leader Francis Rossi during his recent BBC News interview. The new version of “In the Army Now” should be released on September 26 this year, and all the financial gains must go to the charity organizations – Help for Heroes and British Forces Foundation. “In the Army Now” was recorded in 1981 by the Bolland & Bolland duet, but became very famous after Status Quo performance. It was incorporated into the album of the same name in 1986, and therefore turned to be number two on the British national music chart. This song is obviously is very well known all over the world and is considered to be one of the most famous ‘hymns’ about military service. Surely, Status Quo wants to re-popularize it once again, but with certain innovations that may add another wave of popularity to it.