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.
Music festival organizers at Reading and Leeds had recently said that Guns N’Roses is going to participate at their events, including all previously arranged performances, noted Billboard. The problem lays in the fact that on August 15, Axl Rose’s (band’s frontman) Twitter blog began to spread the news that both venues will be cancelled, and there is practically no hope for the upcoming concerts to take place; a lot of fans just simply began to panic as never before. Both performances should be carried out on August 27 (Reading) and on August 29 (Leeds), however even right now a lot people are questioning such a new certainty, and wish to find more proves. “Festival Republic are informed by GN’R management that Guns N’Roses have not canceled their performances at Reading & Leeds and that Axl Rose’s twitter account was hacked into and all claims of dates being cancelled are unfounded”, underlined a Festival Republic with the diplomatic precision. After both concerts in Reading and Leeds, GN’R is planning to perform in many other European cities such as Barcelona, Prague, Paris and Rome. Also, the band is planning to give one concert in Sidney in the beginning of December. In other words, fans had something to fear of because Axl Rose is very well known for his eccentric moves, especially during the concert performances.
Paramount had decided to place Jonathan “Jon” Chu on the director’s position to film a movie about a sixteen year old Canadian singer Justin Bieber, said Deadline. Previously, Chu used to work with the dancing oriented movies such as “Step-Up 2: The Streets” and “Step-Up 3-D”, the last one came out in the beginning of August. Work process had begun already, and Bieber’s concerts are getting filmed in order to be shown later when the whole thing is over; pro-music orientation will be used for the maximum in this case. The major performance which is going to be recorded and incorporated is the upcoming August, 31 concert in New York (Madison Square Garden), it should be reflecting or better to say underlining this movie. Formerly, it was expected that this thing will be filmed by Davis Guggenheim (author of such documentary as “It Might Get Loud” about The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White). However, he declined it because currently he is directing “Waiting for Superman”, and is very concerned with the entire idea and it’s final outcome. Some critics are saying that Chu is too young and his experience is not good enough, even though he did movies before. It should be said that those critics absolutely don’t understand anything, and they just simply need to make something on their own first before judging anyone else.
Director of the post-apocalyptic drama “The Road” John Hillcoat had filmed a video on UNKLE’s song “The Answer”, thus creating another interesting shatter within the music video world. It’s currently available on the band’s website and YouTube. The main character of Hillcoat’s video is Ray Winstone (well known for his roles in “The Departed”, “Beowulf”, “Sexy Beast”) who is actually portraying the real story which happened to him a few decades ago. When Ray was seventeen he was hit by the lightning, and thereafter his life was never the same, according to him, one thing ended and another began. It sounds as a pretty cool story to show in the video. “The Answer” is incorporated into “Where Did the Night Fall”, the latest album released by UNKLE in May, 2010. John Hillcoat is famous for his video making, previously he had co-operated with Depeche Mode, Therapy?, Pacebo and Nick Cave. The unusual sounds produced by UNKLE hit the right nerve; it surely infects viewers with that special mood so important in order to propagate the nature of music. Downtempo, trip rock and electronica genres in which they operate are quite progressive and solid, therefore the lightning theme is matching it all the way through. UNKLE is also well known for it’s joint work with such groups as Queens of the Stone Age, Oasis, Massive Attack and Radiohead.
Lady Gaga is planning to participate in the filming of a movie, which is based on her autobiography, said Gigwise. Surely, she has something to say about her own life, and it would be great if she plays a role in there, at least no one can tell it better. As the source of inspiration she named Michael Jackson’s “Moonwalker” released in 1988; according to her Jackson’s piece is the most convenient way to portray the autobiography of an artist. It consists of short stories in which Jackson participates as the main character, and some include his famous videos such as “Leave Me Alone” and “Smooth Criminal”. Notably, many of Lady Gaga’s videos turned into hits – “Alejandro”, “Telephone”, “Just Dance”, “Poker Face” and “Bad Romance”, definitely they must appear in her movie. Bryan Singer is supposedly going to direct it and his experience (X-Men, The Usual Suspects) should reflect the final result. The name of an upcoming movie is not known yet because practically nothing is ready and those who are responsible for the production shall not spread any kinds of exact information. Hopefully, Lady Gaga will show herself as a good actress because after all she is very talented and looks as someone who can make it. Lady’s stage performances illustrate that she is a potential actress.
On August 8, infamous Lily Allen had presumably given the last concert before a long break, which she is planning to take for one very important reason, said Gigwise. This performance took place at the Big Chill festival in England; the whole event was great, but many fans felt a little bit sad. A singer is taking this vacation because of pregnancy, and definitely is worth of it, who can perform while being pregnant? Besides that, way back in February, 2010 Allen said that she doesn’t want to start another three year tour, but would like to try herself in other spheres of creativity. For example, she is planning to establish her own record label and open a clothing line. This girl is obviously partially tired of the stage and it’s very understandable, during the latest years a pressure she was taking during the touring process was tremendous, so now is time to disappear for a while. At the same instance there is no information whether she wants to continue her music career after the break, maybe Allen just wishes to totally re-direct the whole thing away from music nowadays? Lily Allen became famous in 2005 after putting demo-versions of her music on MySpace, later on she had released two studio albums – “Allright, Stil” (2006) and “It’s Not Me, It’s You” (2009).
Infamous rapper Kanye West had announced the release of his new studio album, which is supposed to be released in November this year, said Pitchfork. Previously, it was expected that it will come out in September, but plans were radically changed at the last minute. Besides that, he is not going to call the album “Good Ass Job” as it was planned before; probably the record company had decided to stop him from such titles. West had also mentioned those musicians who helped him to get through the writing process, he included Thom Yorke from Radiohead and Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails. Surely, these guys are very powerful songwriters and he had experienced their talent, genre was not standing in between because great things are totally limitless in creativity. At the same time, Kanye West had promised to release the first single in three weeks, thus fans shall not stay without his new music until November; it may be one of two songs – “Lost in the World” or “All of the Lights”. By the end of July West had posted parts of the upcoming release on his Facebook and Twitter accounts, however over there he did not use any musical instruments, only his voice was the actual sound.
An independent record label Secretly Canadian is going to release a mini album recorded by Antony & The Johnsons, which is supposed to include covers of John Lennon and Bob Dylan, said NME. Pretty good idea that assumes respect and dedication toward these prominent musicians, however this is not very innovative so to speak because it’s been used by too many before. A lot of bands and musicians keep on covering or dedicating something to the old “class” without contemplating anything new on their creative side, thus a circle just keeps on turning without revolving. A new record will be called “Thank You for Your Love” and should hit the stores on August, 24 this year; additionally it must be included into their upcoming studio release. Besides that, the band had renewed Lennon’s “Imagine” and totally recreated Dylan’s “Pressing”, in other words original stuff is pouring from Antony & The Johnsons, but under the ‘cover’ from legends. Their next studio record is planned for October, 2010 and it’s already known that they’ve called it “Swanlights”. Previous album “The Crying Light”, which came out in January, 2009 marked the beginning of their world tour, so most likely this group will repeat the whole thing by starting another traveling agenda in 2011.
