Lady Gaga had caused some bitter dissatisfaction on the side of John Lennon’s fans by performing on his legendary white piano, said New York Post. This instrument was given to Yoko Ono as a gift from Lennon on her birthday way back in the 1970’s. Lady Gaga had used the instrument while visiting Yoko as a friend. Lennon’s son did not miss a moment and took a picture of her, and later published it on his Twitter-blog, so surely Lady Gaga is now part of the legendary music world. However, this picture had caused some anger from Lennon’s and The Beatles admirers, particularly, bloggers did not like the fact that Sean Lennon and Yoko had allowed Lady Gaga get so close to that ‘mysterious’ piano. Most likely these people don’t understand Lady Gaga and strongly believe that such a musician simply can’t use Lennon’s instruments, for them it’s a taboo. Basically, it’s another very good example of the war between pop and rock n’ roll, but Lady Gaga is also not a simple pop singer, she definitely belongs to some very unique stash too and must deserve to stay near such people as Yoko Ono, her son and John Lennon’s piano. On the other hand, Sean had removed that picture from his blog almost right away, but wrote some complaints.
Frontman of the British rock band Arctic Monkeys Alex Turner has debuted as a solo artist and author of the music for movies. As ContactMusic.com said, a twenty four years old musician had written the soundtrack for the new movie called “Submarine”, which is now filmed by Richard Ayoade. Previously, he had produced a documentary about Arctic Monkeys – “At The Apollo”; it was totally the concert oriented film about their performances in the various places. Besides that, Ayoade is famous for participating in such series productions as “The Mighty Boosh” and The IT Crowd” and as the director of the music videos for Vampire Weekend. This talented actor and producer is most likely working with something pretty cool for Alex Turner, and surely he will make some kind of work which may not leave Turner’s fans unsatisfied. The soundtrack production (technical side) is lead by James Ford who was already co-operating with Arctic Monkey and Klaxons. The last studio album by Arctic Monkeys was released in August, 2009, and since then the band did not make anything creative, possibly because every member is planning his own solo career right now. Before 2009 Alex Turner was participating in The Last Shadow Puppets project together with The Rascals vocalist Miles Kane, in 2008 they’ve released a successful album “The Age of the Understatement”, but as Turner said, no more albums will be released in the near future.
Amy Winehouse had created the new band, which is going to include ?uestlove, a drummer from the American hip-hop group The Roots, said Gigwise. Winehouse is constantly trying to move around and create something cool despite her partying life style; her new project is still staying without the name though. Another member of Amy’s new thing will be Raphael Saadiq, multi-instrumentalist, producer and a singer. Both of her new followers are considered to be very talented and innovative, so most likely Winehouse’s fans will be surprised with another album, and hopefully it will happen as soon as possible. So far, Winehouse and ?uestlove were keeping in touch through the Skype only because a British singer could not get the US visa due to her scandalaous behaviour. “The closest US territory to which she can get to is Jamaica”, noted ?uestlove. Soon a drummer will visit France and hopes to personally meet with Winehouse. As the guy also said, he is too tired of communicating with her exclusively online. Currently, “Back to Black” is Amy’s second and most recent album, it was released in 2006 by the Island record label and nothing new was in sight so far. In March 2010 some news agencies began to spread rumors about her plans to make another release. Mitch Winehouse (her father) had shown hopes that the work will be over closer to the end of this year.
British musician David Bowie had announced the re-releasing of his tenth studio album “Station to Station”, said New Musical Express. For the first time it came out way back in January, 1976, and is considered to be one of the most influential of Bowie’s works, back then it went onto fifth place on the British hits chart, and third on the Billboard chart. This re-release will be produced by the EMI record label on September 20 in two formats; the first will include three CDs and besides the original tape version it must incorporate Bowie’s “Live Nassau Coliseum” performance recorded in 1976 in New York. The second version is aimed at music fans; it should include three CDs and the mini-album with an edited and shortened tape version, DVD with four different stereo versions and three vinyl records. Surely, regular lover of his music may not purchase this second part, but for some it will be the real gift, which they’ve never seen before while dealing with Bowie’s collections in the music stores. Additionally, both re-release versions will include a booklet with Cameron Crow’s comments (while working for the Rolling Stone in 1970’s this guy used to interview Bowie) and posters/photographs. A lot of musicians these days are interested in re-producing things again and again, many of them wish to leave a lot of musical inheritance, and it’s absolutely right.
Legendary Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor has become an author of the soundtrack for the newest David Fincher’s movie “The Social Network” dedicated to the Facebook’s creator Mark Zuckerberg. All this curious information can be found on the Nine Inch Nails official website. Reznor notes that working on the music is almost over, and now he should find the best racks, which may fulfill two studio albums – not more, not less. “The Social Network” will be premiered on October 1, 2010, but Reznor believes that his album shall come out on two weeks earlier, so fans and admirers may hear another creation of a genius. Previously, Trent has mentioned that this year is for the artistic rest on his side; however when he saw Fincher’s screenplay the whole plan had suddenly changed, he began to work continuously just to make the whole work getting done on time. Nowadays, Trent Reznor is quite busy with his new side project – How to Destroy Angels, which is taking most of his working time during this year. The band includes Trent’s wife Maryqueen Maandig (vocals) and Atticus Ross (his NIN colleague). Ross was also participating in the production of the above mentioned soundtracks. Nine Inch Nails leader is famous for writing soundtracks not just for movies, but even for computer games; today his music is often associated with the conceptual visual arts.
Founder of The Beach Boys Brian Wilson is about to release the cover album on George Gershwin’s music, said Pitchfork. Gershwin is the legend of the classical music and if a guy as Wilson is contemplating on re-producing this unique heritage, then surely he will outstand before his rock n’ roll counterparts. The album should be called “Brian Wilson Reimagines George Gershwin” and will be in stores during the second half of August. Usually modern musicians tend to forget the old stuff, even if that old stuff is ten times greater than their own new song writing ingenuity. Wilson’s position is somewhat different, the album shall consist of fourteen tracks, including such songs as “Summertime”, “I Loves You Porgy”, “I Got Rhythm” and “Someone to Watch Over Me”. Besides that, it should include two songs written by Wilson based on the unfinished Gershwin’s works - “The Like in I Love You” and “Nothing But Love”, the first one can be heard on Brian’s official website. It’s interesting to note that Wilson’s plans on “co-working” with Gershwin began to pulse within the press way back in 2009, right when Gershwin’s heritage possessors gave him the green light to use his material, especially those unfinished works. So far the most recent album -“That Lucky Old Sun” was released in September of 2008, and now Wilson will kick once more.
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:
The Eraser
Harrowdown Hill
Black Swan
Cymbal Rush
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Pyramid Song
Idioteque
Karma Police
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.
