That’s just music

American director James Cameron who’s popularity began to rise once again in 2009 right after the release of “Avatar” was recently included into the list of the most influential celebrities, and interestingly has conquered it’s third place. This list is annually updated by the Forbes magazine and totally incorporates one hundred famous people, those can belong to showbiz, movies, music and art. Surely Forbes is counting money and considers celebrities’ influence exclusively according to their gains, nothing more. Magazine’s experts had counted that Cameron was able to obtain 210 million dollars due to Avatar’s success (the whole movie dragged 2,7 billion dollars). Cameron’s creation had helped him to join the Forbes’ list for the first time and also sit on it’s third spot. This year’s list is quite different from it’s predecessors, Oprah is back on the first place with 315 million dollars of gains - surely her media projects are experiencing another uplift. The second place went to Beyonce who is actively touring, can be seen in the numerous commercials and develops her own clothing line. The list’s authors have underlined that Beyonce has gone far from just being a singer, and works in other projects, which brought her 87 million dollars. Lady Gaga went onto the fourth place, right next to Cameron. If she keeps on repeating all of her successes, then by the next year (unless someone new shows up and kicks her out) Cameron’s spot will be hers.

Eight solo albums that were produced by John Lennon after his career in The Beatles should be re-released before October 9 this year, exactly in dedication to his seventieth birthday. This guy is well remembered for his unique solo works and simply cannot be forgotten, especially by those who are responsible for his music heritage. As his official website says, Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono had carried out the digital remastering process (surely she was not the only one at the studio while doing it), so now his songs will get another life. She was doing it in co-operation with the Abbey Road studio in London and Avatar Studios in New York; totally the whole thing dealt with 121 original songs. Fans and admirers will see the following list of albums: “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band” (1970), “Imagine” (1971), “Some Time In New York City” (1972), “Mind Games” (1973), “Walls and Bridges” (1974), “Rock ‘n’ Roll” (1975), “Double Fantasy” (1980), “Milk and Honey” (1984). The last of his albums, “Double Fantasy” should be re-released as the special edition, which is going to include both, original and remastered versions (some instrumental parts will not be included because according to Yoko Ono it may allow Lennon’s voice sound better). Besides this grandiose re-releasing, fans may see another compilation of John Lennon’s songs called “Power To The People: The Hits”, which is going to include fifteen tracks without any remastering or changes.  

Leader of the British nearly legendary band Radiohead Tom York had secretly performed at the biggest European music festival - Glastonbury. His surprising concert was not announced at all, so people just couldn’t believe that he is actually standing on the stage and singing before them. As the New Musical Express said, musician was accompanied by a Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood at one of the small stages (The Park Stage) in the evening of June 25. York’s set was announced by the Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis and is now considered to be “the biggest surprise”; fans and followers of his music had probably experienced it for the first time, thus their happiness saw no limits. During the concert, Tom York had performed a lot of songs from his new solo album “The Eraser” and Radiohead’s hits such as “Karma Police” and “Street Spirit” (”Fade Out”). By showing his musical talents a singer had interchangeably used guitar and piano. Totally, two musicians have performed nine songs:

1. The Eraser
2. Harrowdown Hill
3. Black Swan
4. Cymbal Rush
5. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
6. Pyramid Song
7. Idioteque
8. Karma Police
9. Street Spirit (Fade Out)

This year’s Glastonbury was celebrating it’s 40th anniversary and is considered to be the most important event of the year in the music world. It was headlined by the Muse and Stevie Wonder.

Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue had finally decided to perform at the biggest European music festival “Glastonbury”. Fortieth anniversary of the infamous open air event will start on June 24 in the British county of Somerset. It seems that Kylie is going to be the most important act in the whole thing because her presence is just simply undeniable all the way through. As the British tabloid The Sun noted, a singer shall debut at the festival during the evening of June 27, and most likely will shake the whole thing up. She is going to perform at the main Pyramid Stage together with a pop group Scissor Sisters, and it’s expected that Kylie’s performance should include a single “All The Lovers” from her new album “Aphrodite”. Scissor Sisters themselves will present their own new work, - “Night Work”, which is about to be released on June 28. Kylie Minouge had to headline the Glastonbury way back in 2005, but at that time she was diagnosed with the breast cancer and definitely could not participate on the event, so she was replaced by Basement Jaxx. All in all this girl must be quite happy about what’s going on right now, she is on the top again and performs at the largest ‘festivity’ in Britain and even Europe. The rest of the Glastonbury lineup should include such a big name as The Velvet Underground founder Lou Reed, he is going to perform together with Gorillaz on June 25. Damon Albarn’s band is going to replace U2 because Bono is still recovering from his injury.

British rock band Bush, which is headed by Gavin Rossdale, had announced it’s sudden reunion. Quite unexpected move on the side of the band because fans and admirers have almost forgotten them, but now things are rapidly changing. As the Undercover said, in October they’re planning to release the first album in ten years called “Everything Always Now”; the first single “Afterlife” was recently premiered on the Californian radio station KROQ. In other words, the band is not just reuniting to travel by visiting different cities and countries, but also in order to create something new while presenting it through the means of reunion. In September, Bush will perform at the Epic Centre Music Festival in Southern California, and only after this event the band shall start the world tour. The future seems to be very nice for them right now, and hopefully it stays this way for as long as possible. Bush was founded by guitarists Gavin Rossdale and Nigel Pulsford in 1982 in London. In Britain the band was practically unknown for years, but was extremely popular in the US and Canada where their releases were sold out by millions of copies. Till this day Bush had released four studio albums among which “Golden State” (2001) was the most recent one. In 2002 the band fell apart, and musicians went into many various ways, Gavin Rossdale had released “Distort Yourself” (2005) as the frontman of his new project - Institute, and his totally solo release - “WANDERlust” (2008). He is also well known for being Gwen Stefani’s husband.

Some of the Depeche Mode songs will be used in a musical, which is about to be written by Adrian Buckle, said New Musical Express. The whole thing shall be called “Playing the Angel” - the same as the band’s most recent album released in 2009. As the author noted, his musical should look very different, and totally unique if comparing it to the others. “Depeche Mode are not ABBA or Queen, the story can’t be a happy one. It is a story of two boys growing up, coming of age and discovering love. They are abused, used, taken advantage of. It’s their sad way of discovering life”, he said. Buckle also said that “Playing the Angel” will tell a story about our sad reality, the bad side of love and relationships, things that cannot be denied or erased. It may be something quite conceptual, possibly similar to the “Requiem for a Dream” and as the author also noted, - “Well, I’m not going to invite my grandmother to this musical”. Shocks are definitely expected, love, sex, pain of loosing someone, maybe drugs, and other things of this nature. Conceptuality explores the visions of reality, which can’t be denied even if people are trying to do so, absolutely nothing can’t stand on the way of such reality and those authors, musicians or movie directors who explore it in the art of creativity are bravely carrying out the right job. The premiere of “Playing the Angel” is expected in 2010 on the island of Malta.

American rapper Snoop Dogg is not going to participate at the Parkpop music festival in Hague, said Billboard. This decision was taken by the Dutch authorities after they’ve concluded that he may not be very peaceful and may create a lot of disturbance. Smooth and calm Holland is now skeptical toward this guy, even though throughout years Snoop believed in it’s total friendship. Hague’s mayor and police representatives have addressed festival’s organizers by saying that they should erase Snoop Dogg from the list of performers because he is not reliable at all. What is the real reason behind this absolutely strange thing is not known, but the Billboard believes that the Dutch authorities are aware of his marijuana habits, so they didn’t want him to abuse liberal laws of Holland by smoking right during the concert - in that country people can do it only in the coffee shops or at home. Well, he used to do such things before and nothing scary was happening, however this time even Dutch laws may be a little bit confusing for him. Snoop is constantly performing in Holland by visiting all kinds of marijuana and music venues; this time he had to headline the event, but things are not so easy anymore. Organizers are of course terribly upset, they’ve lost the main act. Snoop on the other hand did not make any comments so far, but surely he is not in the best condition.

Infamous Oasis, which fell apart in 2009 was able to return onto the British national charts once again, said ClashMusic. The collection of singles produced by those who truly admire the band came out on June 14, and miraculously became the best selling music thing in the whole Britain. Gallagher brothers were contemplating on when to release it and the first plan was to do this during the last spring. Compilation includes twenty six songs, including “Whatever” and “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down”, - which were not contained by the last Oasis album. If “Time Flies… 2004-2009″ will keep the leadership over the British chart until the end of this week, then it may become the eighth Oasis release that was able to get on top. Oasis is not something what can go down so quickly after falling apart, especially knowing that so many fans still don’t see them as being separated. The last Oasis album - “Dig Out Your Soul” (2008) was able to reach number one and the double platinum status in Britain; practically the whole band deserves to receive the platinum status after so many years of success. Interestingly, “Time Flies… 1994-2009″ began to inspire  fans to start buying the old albums, and the number of downloaded songs had risen tremendously.  Therefore, it seems that re-releasing of the old material is not the worst thing at all!

Leader of the New York based band TV on the Radio David Sitek had announced the release of his debut solo album, said The Guardian. As the issue noted, musician’s independent brand new side project was called Maximum Balloon, and the same name will be carried by the album too. While recording this album, Sitek had invited his TV on the Radio colleagues Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs vocalist Karen O. If following some uncertain facts, the recording process did also include the leader of Talking Heads David Byrne. Maximum Balloon will be released on August 24 this year. David Sitek is well known not just as the founder of TV on the Radio, but also as an independent musician and producer. Particularly, he was co-working with Liars, Foals, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beck, Scarlett Johansson and many other artists, basically his influence can bee seen in a lot of their records. Recently, Sitek was named the most progressive and farsighted musician by the New Musical Express magazine, and definitely not without the reason. At the same time the guy is interested in many other ways to express his talents, arts and photography belong to him as well. Progressive sounds of TV on the Radio include everything from electronica and turntablism to hip hop, so experimental nature of the future solo release on the side of David Sitek is quite expected.

The album cover from the new Rammstein record “Liebe ist Fur Alle Da”, which was proclaimed provocative and even dangerous was temporarily released from these accusations, so it may be sold out without any restrictions. As the Billboard said, this decision was made by the administrative court of Cologne, Germany. However, this rule may have the relative power and can be changed at any time by the Supreme administrative court of Munster. The cover of “Liebe ist Fur Alle Da” was applied to the strict censorship in the Fall of 2009 by the German authorities for it’s harsh theme, possible propaganda of sadism and sexual extremism. They’ve forbidden any public appearance of it in order not to disturb people; in this sense they may be right, but the real supporters of Rammstein argue that it’s only art, and it cannot be extremist anyway. Thus, previously the album had to be sold in the totally closed envelopes, and only people who had reached eighteen years old could buy it. Currently, the Cologne court believes that songs, which are presented on the album don’t propagate violence, so youth or folks with the unstable psyche will not get damaged by it. Well, this decision may be overturned later because a lot of critics are still believing in the extreme sides of “Liebe ist Fur Alle Da” cover.