No one attended the Rally to Restore Sanity in DC Saturday (10/30) not expecting moments of total insanity - and Jon Stewart did not disappoint.  One of the best came when Yusuf Islam, who most thought dropped his sense of humor with the name Cat Stevens with his religious conversion years ago, was singing Peace Train when Ozzy Osbourne burst in with Crazy Train.  Stewart and Steven Colbert then staged a heated exchange over which train was the better one to be on - and Islam and Ozzy continued playing both (video).  That comic madness wasn't crazy enough, so the O'Jays emerged to add Love Train to the insane train mashup. Expectations that Bruce Springsteen would make an appearance at the event did not pan out.  Bruce was in London the night before making an unannounced appearance at a screening of The Promise (story). Kid Rock, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, The Roots, Tony Bennett and the Staples Singers did put in appearances.
RollingStone.com

Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh has offered to counsel Australian government officials on effective ways to counter alcohol and drug use Down Under.  Walsh, who cleaned himself up after a tour of New Zealand and Australia in 1994, told the Herald Sun, 'I'd love to speak to leaders and politicians in Melbourne, and around Australia, about addiction.'  The Eagles have four concerts in Australia booked during December.
NME.com

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Despite receiving evidence during the summer that seemed to back long standing allegations that the drowning death of Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones was not accidental, officials have announced that they will not reopen the case.  A review of the circumstances was conducted after a journalist provided police with some 600 pages of transcripts from in-depth interviews he conducted with individuals that had been at the house the evening Jones died in1969.  The death was attributed to accidental drowning.  An initial report indicated the death was likely a result of drug and alcohol use by Jones, but an autopsy report later indicated that no impairing substances were in his system.  Two years ago the woman who discovered the body in the swimming pool came forward with a claim she had seen a man named Frank Thorogood '...do something to Brian' after jumping into the pool.  Janet Lawson claimed that her statement to police during the original investigation had been altered by a police official before being put into the record.  Sussex police issued a statement saying '...there is no new evidence to suggest that the coroner's original verdict of death by misadventure was incorrect.'   Thorogood died in 1994.
DailyMail.co.uk

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Fans attending a London screening of The Promise: The Making Of Darkness On The Edge Of Town Saturday (10/29) got an unexpected bonus session when The Boss himself emerged to conduct a Q&A session after the film.  Bruce, his manager, Jon Landau, and Thom Zimny, the documentary's director, fielded questions from movie goers attending the BFI Southbank screening.  No surprise - most of the questions went to Springsteen, who told the audience that much of the credit for the fact the documentary could be made at all goes to a neighborhood kid who had dreams of being a film maker someday.  He showed up for a lot of the sessions and rehearsals with his camera and, Bruce said, was allowed to continue doing it because he kept out of the way so well he was '...easy to ignore.'  The fact he kept the footage under wraps when he could have sold it for a lot of money anytime during the last 30 years earned him the respect of Springsteen, who rewarded him by arranging for him to be well compensated for his loyalty.  Bruce described the process of making the album as a 'slog', owing in part to the fact the band was facing the almost impossible challenge of meeting  expectations in the aftermath of Born To Run, and had been forced into a prolonged layoff due to a legal row with his former manager.  He said the band set out to make '...a record of the times', and that during sessions that did not measure up he could sense it, telling the audience, 'If we didn't have something I could smell it in the air.' He closed by thanking Zimny for having managed to '...capture the narrative of that moment' in bringing the project to the screen.
NME.com

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Bruce Springsteen, U2, Metallica and others are offering up exclusive releases for independent record stores to sell on Back To Black Friday, November 26.  Several of the limited edition releases made available on what has become the biggest retail day of the year will be offered on vinyl.  Included in the releases will be a special edition of George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, a Jimi Hendrix Christmas EP, Wide Awake In Europe, a 3 song live U2 EP recorded during the band's ongoing 360o tour and a 7" single from Bruce Springsteen featuring Save My Love, a song from the The Promise, backed by Because The Night.

On Friday (10/30), the anniversary of the 1971 motorcycle accident that claimed the life of Duane Allman, we learned that a concert is being organized by Warren Haynes to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of a later day member of the Allman Brothers Band, bassist Allen Woody.  Another One For Woody is being organized by ABB and Gov't Mule member Warren Haynes for November 22 at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City.  The concert honoring Woody, who passed away in August of 2000, will include sets by the Allmans, Gov't Mule, the North Mississippi Allstars duo of Luther and Cody Dickinson and several other artists.  Funds raised from the event will be used to support music programs in schools.
Relix.com

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When news circulated that the home Ringo Starr was born in was going to be one of several torn down in an area of Liverpool, souvenir seekers wasted no time going to the site looking for momentos.  With access to the home restricted, many took to chiseling bricks out of the structure's wall (story) Individuals and groups already lobbying to have the building preserved stepped up pressure on authorities to secure the home against further vandalism.  Officials have now installed metal grills on the entrances to the Madryn Street building.
Mirror.co.uk

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Kinks fans cling to the expectation that an eventual reunion involving Ray & Dave Davies and other remaining members of the band is inevitable.  Great as it could be, prospects for it coming together in the near future diminished to someplace between slim and none recently because the Davies brothers are sniping at each other again.  That leaves fans with Ray's new album to tide them over.  See My Friends, out Nov. 8, finds Ray Davies in some interesting company - and is a good reminder of how broad the Kinks sphere of influence is.  Davies recently said that the project '...came about almost by accident' as a result of his decision to re-record the Kinks classic     'Tll The End of The Day with Alex Chilton, the late Box Tops and Big Star leader.  The process got Davies excited about an album full of Kinks covers collaborations. It also made him realize that the end result needed each song to have the unique signature of the person he invited to join him on it - smoething he decided could be best achieved by keeping certain guest artists in studios they were familiar and comfortable with.  He recorded Bruce Springsteen (Better Days) in New Jersey, Jon Bon Jovi & Richie Sambora (Celluloid Heroes) in New Jersey, Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgan (All Day And All Of The Night/Destroyer) in Chicago, and caught up with Metallica in Europe.  Other artists on the 14 track album include Jackson Browne (Waterloo Sunset) and Lucinda Williams (Long Way From Home)
Glasswerk.co.uk

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Roger Hodgson, irate that Rick Davies mounted a Supertramp tour without his co-founding partner (story), has apparently decided that if Davies can tour without him as Supertramp with no other original member other than himself, then he (Hodgson) is just as entitled to put out a live album of Supertramp songs without Davies.  The 10 track album, titled Classics Live, will come out soon.  Hodgson plans to follow the release up with a tour in 2011.
ClassicRockMagazine

A cathedral is an unlikely place to find major Rock stars performing, but a charitably generous bunch willing to put up big bucks for the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation was treated to sets from Eric Clapton and Jon Bon Jovi Saturday (10/23) in a New York City house of worship.  The event, staged at the of the Church of Saint John The Devine in Manhattan, raised money to support the former President's foundation provide assistance to governments, groups and individuals working to address poverty, health problems and environmental issues. 
EC has added two additional dates to the Royal Albert Hall spring 2011 concerts that were recently announced.  Clapton, Steve Winwood, Chris Stainton, Steve Gadd and Willie Weeks will play the historic London concert hall venue May 26, 27,29 & 30.  Eric will do six solo sets at the historic concert hall May 17, 18, 20, 21, 23 and 24.
WheresEric.com

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The Fender Duo-Sonic guitar Jimi Hendrix used while performing under the name Jimmy James with the Isley Brothers and others in 1964 is set to be auctioned November 2.  The instrument, which could be had for around $150 back in the day, is expected to fetch an amount upwards of 100x that amount when Lot 429 becomes the center of attention during the Cameo Auctioneers event in the UK.  The guitar was once rumored to have been lost or during a US tour, but was reportedly found in the studio of Animals bass player and one-time Hendrix manager Chas Chandler, who sold it in 1982 to a another member of the Animals for around $500.  Also up for bids that date will be a 1967 Hendrix hand colored drawing and rare photos of the Beatles.
ResponseResource.com

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No one appreciates robo-calls from politicians.  And pre-recorded messages from celebrities calling on behalf of candidates are even more annoying to a lot of people.  But Headcount.org is betting that an actual phone call from someone's favorite musician can really help get out the vote.  The group has enlisted Grateful Dead, Ratdog and Furthur veteran Bob Weir, Willie Nelson, Jon Fishman of Phish and a number of other musicians to place calls to encourage people to vote in November's mid-term election.  The calls will be placed to many of the 25,000 fans that signed up at concerts for the group's Pledge To Vote campaign.  You have to figure the first response from a lot of call recipients will be 'Right... who is this, really?'
TalkRadioNews.com

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Most Rockers Neil Young's age consider getting around to one album or tour every few years to be as about as ambitious as they want to be.  Not Neil, who seems to keep himself busy every waking hour - and probably fills the time between with dreams about what he's going to do when he wakes up.  In addition to continuing to put out new material at a pace that is a distant memory to his contemporaries, Young has been mining his archives and releasing retrospective material at an astonishing clip.   Perhaps that process got him thinking about the idea of getting the surviving members of one of his early bands back together for another of the things he is passionate about - his annual benefit to benefit the Bridge School, a school in Northern California Neil and his wife, Pegi, started 24 years ago for special needs children.  Neil even broke out his leather, fringed jacket for the occasion Saturday (10/23) for the brief reunion set with Buffalo Springfield band mates Stephen Stills (looking trimmer than he has in years) and Richie Furay. Jim Messina, unfortunately, did not participate.  He was in Nevada for an appearance with Kenny Loggins. Young, Furay and Stills were joined by drummer Joe Vitale in the late Dewey Martin's role, and Rick Rosa playing bass for Bruce Palmer, who died last February. The 6 song set included Mr. Soul, Rock & Roll Woman, Do I Have To Come Right Out And Say It, Burned, Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing and For What It's Worth.  The concert also featured appearances by Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne, Billy Idol, Lucinda Williams (joined by surprise guest Emmylou Harris), Elvis Costello (with Emmylou throughout his set) and Kris Kristofferson, who had planned to play with Merle Haggard but instead found himself solo, asking the crowd to say a prayer for his ailing friend, who Kristofferson called '...the closest thing to Hank Williams' left on the planet.
RollingStone.com

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A blue English Heritage plaque has been placed outside the entrance to the 34 Montagu Square building that houses the first floor and basement apartment John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved into after the Beatle left his first wife, Cynthia.  The property was owned by Ringo Starr, who rented it out to Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix before John and Yoko took up residence in 1968.  John worked on material for the White album while living there, and the apartment was also the setting for one of the most controversial album covers ever produced - the stark naked photo of Lennon and Ono that appeared on the front of the couple's Two Virgins release.  At the unveiling, Ono thanked officials during the unveiling Friday (10/22), saying, '...I am grateful to you all for commemorating John and this particular part of his London life, one which spawned so much of his great music and great art.'
BBC.co.uk

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A few hours after Steven Tyler did the honors for Bruins fans in Boston (story) (video), Grateful Dead veterans Bob Weir and Phil Lesh sang the National Anthem Thursday (10/21) before the Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies faced off in the National League playoff series on the left coast.  It was an encore performance for the pair, who also did the Anthem the night the Giants honored Jerry Garcia during a regular season game this year (story) (video) .Pro and anti groups used the occasion to lobby fans on a California November ballot measure on legalization of marijuana.  Tyler's mojo worked better in Beantown, where the Bruins dominated the Washington Capitals in a 4-1 game.  The Giants did not fare as well, dropping a 4-2 decision despite another strong pitching performance by young ace Tim Lincecum - who was busted in Washington state for possession of a small amount of pot after last season.  The Thursday game fell on the night before Timothy Leary's birthday, reminding us of a baseball feat that won't ever be acknowledged in Cooperstown, the 1970 no hitter Doc Ellis of the Pirates claims he pitched on LSD in 1970 (video).
Philly.com

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An unspecified surgical procedure involving Mick Ralphs has forced Bad Company to go to the bench and enlist the services of Heart multi-instrumentalist Howard Leese. Pollstar reports that Leese, who has done previous stints with Bad Company and the Paul Rodgers Band, is covering  six dates in Japan of the Bad Company reunion tour. No details about what is ailing Ralphs has been released on his or the Bad Company web sites.

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Barney's Beanery, the legendary funky eating attraction that has served food and drink to stars and wannabes since hulking Victrolas were the cutting edge music technology, turns 90 this month.  Cheap eats and beverages made the Santa Monica Boulevard location a Mecca for yet to be discovered Rock stars, and many continued as regulars even after making it big.  The Doors offices, a recording studio they used and a motel and apartment Jim Morrison lived were all just a short walk from the Beanery.  Morrison relieved himself on the top of the Baenery bar during a night of prolific drinking, an occasion the owner commemorated with a plaque.  Barney's is also where Janis Joplin is said to have eaten shortly before suffering the overdose that killed her at the nearby Landmark Hotel in October of 1970.  Jeff Jampol, who manages the estates of both Joplin and Morrison, said that Barney's and the Troubador were the two places in the area that had comparable 'cultural weight'.  Peter Rowan mentions both in Lonesome LA Cowboy, a song the New Riders Of The Purple Sage included on the 1973 album The Adventures of Panama Red,  calling Barney's a place musicians could meet girls and '...smoke our hopes, try to make it one more night'.
LATimes.com

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Steven Tyler of Aerosmith has been tapped to deliver the National Anthem before the puck drops on the Bruin's home opener against the Washington Capitals Thursday (10/21) at TD Garden in Boston.  Tyler will also unveil a Dirico Motorcycle sporting Bruin graphics that is being donated to the team's foundation to raffle off during the season.  The bike is autographed by Tyler, who is the brother-in-law of the motorcycle manufacturer founder (story),hockey legend Phil Esposito, Patrice Bergeron and other members of the team.  The foundation funds organizations that provide programs and services to children throughout New England.
Bruins.NHL.com

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Bruce Dickinson is not just the front man for one of the most successful Hard Rock bands on the planet.  The Iron Maiden member is also a licensed commercial pilot. He has spent time at the controls of a plane Astraeus Airlines custom outfitted for the band during a couple of Iron Maiden world tours.  Dickinson describes the plane, which is large enough to carry the band, all of its touring equipment and road crew members, as being '...like the biggest tour bus in the world.'
Thursday (10/21) Dickinson was in the cockpit of a plane taking off from John Lennon Airport in Liverpool transporting the Liverpool soccer franchise to a match in Naples, Italy.  The singer professes not to have a favorite soccer team, but said he hopes the Liverpool squad, which is having a rough season, gets insipred during the flight for their match against Napoli.
BBC.co.uk

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Prospective buyers of the former synagogue in Hibbing Minnesota where Bob Dylan (then Zimmerman) had his bar mitzvah at 13 (story) might want to consider another Dylan landmark. The hotel Dylan lived in while writing songs for Blonde on Blonde is being put up for sale. The price tag will be several hundred multiples of the $119,000 sought for the former synagogue, but the iconic Chelsea Hotel registry read like a Who's Who of Rock culture during the 1960's when Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, members of the Grateful Dead, Jim Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Beat authors Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg and painter Andy Warhol lived or hung-out there. The Grateful Dead played on the hotel's roof. Sid Vicious was charged with  stabbing his girlfriend to death there (he died before the trial concluded). Two years ago, tenants of the former hotel waged a battle with the building's owner to prevent the renovation of the room Bob Dylan lived in (story).
BisNow.com

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Transformer inspired stages, pyrotechnic & electronic special effects and super-sized props have turned stadium and large arena concerts into the kind of over-the-top spectacles that action-adventure films turn itno when more time and money goes into special effects than quality screen plays and actors.  Ask someone about the U2 3600 tour, the Roger Waters Wall tour or the Rolling Stones Bigger Bang tour and chances are good the first thing they will talk about relates to the staging.  Bruce Springsteen might be the only stadium/large arena Rock artist left determined to keep visual trappings of his stage set up from eclipsing the music. 
Ladies And Gentlemen The Rolling Stones  takes us back to the days when a Rolling Stones concert was all about the music - when the only props and special effects were Mick's clothing and a dab of glitter.  Filmed during the 1972 Exile On Main Street tour, the movie also has long shots of band members instead of the thousands of speed-cut glimpses that make so many modern concert movies and music videos come off like they were produced or edited by someone using crystal meth to treat their A.D.D.
Although the film was cobbled together from four concerts in Texas, it would be easy to believe it was all recorded during one show were it not for Mick's rotating wardrobe. Anyone who caught the tour probably ranks it among the best concert experiences in their life - and the movie does a good job of conveying why.  The band is at it's live peak.  Jagger and Richards push and play off each other brilliantly, and Mick Taylor is given enough time and space in the songs to demonstrate why he is still sorely missed by fans that got to see the Stones before he departed at the end of 1974. 
The 14 songs from the tour performances are augmented with some great bonus material, including rehearsal versions of Shake Your Hips, Tumbling Dice and Bluesberry Jam, plus 1972 and 2010 interviews with Mick Jagger.

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Making money on real estate has gotten as tough as nailing Jello to a wall, but Graham Nash managed to pocket a nice profit with the sale of a home in the LA enclave of Encino when it recently sold for its asking price of $1.6 million - close to twice what the former Hollies and CSN member paid for it.  The 6 bed room Tudor style home sports 4,600 square feet, along with a  guest house that includes a recording studio.  The grounds also feature and pool and spa area.  Nash composed a lot of songs while sitting at the piano in the living room.  Graham and his wife, Susan, have only used the home occasionally since buying a place in Hawaii, where they will now reside full-time.  Nash was in London last week for a ceremony in another posh piece of real estate.  He picked-up an OBE honor from the Queen in Buckingham Palace (story).
LATimes.com

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A book that chronicles the 1975 Led Zeppelin tour of America goes on sale October 28.  LZ-'75 has been compiled by Stephen Davis, author of Hammer Of the Gods.  It is being touted by his publicist as loaded with inside info on the band and the tour, including interviews the author was able to do with band members after being granted extraordinary access to the band that, according to the press release, even included a reserved seat on The Starship, the group's private tour jet.  If you're like us, you are thinking all the good material from the interviews has already been printed and reprinted several times over.  Not so, according to the PR, which claims that Davis lost the three notebooks he had recorded all of his notes in, only finding them after '...three decades of searching.'  He must have a lot of amazing shit. I lose stuff all the time, but I'm pretty sure that if something as rare as first-hand notes from interviews with a band as notorious for not granting interviews as Led Zeppelin went missing, I'd either find them a lot faster than he did, or tear apart my home looking. It will be interesting to see whether the '...amazing amount of information from the tour' includes any amazing information - or just stuff Davis did not think was worth including in the 1975 magazine article he put together using the interviews.  Of course, over time, some things not worthy of printing in 1975 may have gained in significance. The book also promises 40 never published pics of the group.

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Life, the book Keith Richards puts out October 26, proves that the Rolling Stones guitarist is as willing to spill details in print as he is at a press conference or during an interview.  Excerpts from the book about his life in the Rolling Stones describe women as \'peripheral\' to the band compared with electricity, food and the compulsion to make and listen to music, but the stories about the women involved with band members and their members has gotten a lot of pre publication play.  A lot of it centers around love triangles involving Anita Pallenberg and Marianee Faithfull.  Pallenberg originally hooked up with Brian Jones in a relationship Richards describes as abusive, saying Jones expected her to serve as '...his full-time geisha, flatterer, punchbag', and that Jones demanded that she participate in orgies, something he says she refused to do.  Richards says he rescued Pallenberg from Jones rather than stole her.  According to Richards, her appreciation and attraction were expressed orally on him in the back of a Bentley while riding from Barcelona to Valencia, Spain, where the two checked in at  a hotel as Count and Countess Zigenpuss.  Jagger and Pallenberg later had an affair Richards blames on Performance movie director Donald Cammell, who he said '...took delight in screwing things up' between him and Jagger, calling him, '...the most destructive turd I have ever met'.  Richards retaliated against his band mate by sacking Marianne Faithfull, Jagger's partner at the time. He says that to this day Faithfull includes 'I still can't find your socks' in messages she sends him.  Richards writes, 'I was knocking Marianne, man.  While you were missing it, I'm kissing it.'  A lot has been made over the fact Richards is so willing to tell-all, including speculation that the revelations could fracture the relationship between the two and end the band.  Our guess is that nothing Richards writes or says can bother Mick enough for that to happen - and there's probably much more damaging stuff Jagger will appreciate Richards either forgot happened or decided not to include for him to be angry about what is in the book.  Besides, Mick is bound to have the last word.
RollingStone.com   TheTimes.co.uk   Examiner.com

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Tony Iommi and Ian Gillan have had no trouble finding suitable players to go into the studio with them to raise funds for a worth cause.  The pair enlisted Deep Purple veteran Jon Lord, Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden, and former Metallica bass player Jason Newsted for the new track Out Of My Mind.  Iommi and Gillan recorded a version of DP's Smoke On The Water in 1989 to help raise funds to aid in recovery efforts in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that hit Armenia the year before.  A year ago, the two musicians took a trip to the region to see how rebuilding had gone, only to find that a music school still had no permanent home.  The new song will be released specifically to see raise money so the music school can move into a permanent location.
AntiMusic.com

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The average Rock Insights reader probably isn't qualified to perform brain surgery, teach rocket science or pitch in the post season, but we're pretty confident they could come up with a more deserving list of Rock Hall Of Fame inductees than the Hall has been able to produce over the last several years.  Last month, the Cleveland museum continued its streak of overlooking far more qualified candidates when it put Neil Diamond, Donna Summer, the Beastie Boys and several other marginally justifiable nominees on the ballot and left Rush off the list of nominees again. What makes this all the more pathetic is that VH1, an entity that generally deserves and gets even less respect from Rock fans than the Hall does, actually stepped up and honored the Canadian trio with the release of a DVD documenting the making of the albums 2112 and Moving Pictures.
Rush was hardly a favorite of its own record company in the mid 70's.  Relegated to roles as the opening or middle act on a number of small and mid-size arena tours, the group had yet to deliver an album that Mercury Records felt made good on the potential they had been signed for.  The band's attitude about the pressure to expand its commercial appeal plays a role in the development of 2112 that is captured well in this DVD.  The release, the groups 4th, would go on to earn Rush its first Gold Record.  Its success set the stage for A Farewell to Kings (1977), Hemispheres (1978) and Permanent Waves (1980). All were good, but in 1981 Rush came out with the album a lot of Rush fans consider as good as 2112.  On the commercial success level, Moving Pictures dwarfed what 2112 had accomplished, elevating Rush into the ranks of the most played artists on Rock radio and making the group one of the top drawing Rock acts for much of the decade. 
Observing how Rush went about the creative process of putting together these two career defining albums will be great for the hard-core Rush fan and prove to be more than interesting enough to hold the attention of the casual fan.  It should also be mandatory viewing for whoever is behind the Rock Hall Of Fame nominating process - if they can extract their head from where it seems to be lodged long enough to watch it.

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Nick Mason has told the BBC that it is possible that he, Roger Waters and David Gilmour will get together, provided it is '...for the right reasons'.  The statement has rekindled hopes that one or more concerts involving the Pink Floyd members might be in the offing.  David Gilmour has indicated that he plans to do one appearance during the current Roger Waters tour. The two did four songs together this summer at a benefit concet (story).
GigWise.com

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Songs Of Ascent, a new album by U2, is expected to be ready for release before the Irish Rockers return to US concert stages in May, according to manager Paul McGuinness.  The band has already played several new songs expected to be on the album in concert.  Some accounts say the group was disappointed that No Line On The Horizon, the heavily hyped album U2 released in March of 2009, sold less than half the number of copies its 2004 album had sold. McGuinness recently leveled blame at the internet services for allowing file sharing to undermine album sales. Our take: recent albums by the band would have comparatively poor sales even without file sharing. They just haven't been very good.  And the new songs we have heard to this point have not convinced us the next album will fare much better.
IrishTimes

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A London woman's brush with fame saved her from injury Thursday (10/14) when Paul McCartney pushed her out of the path of an oncoming bicycle courier.  McCartney, who described the two wheeling messenger as '...careening toward us', took hold of the woman about to get mowed down by the biker and '...threw her out of the way', according to a report in The Sun.  Macca said the biker never slowed or turned, but flew straight through between them, directing a barrage of of profanity at the two of them.  McCartney retaliated with some choice words of his own.  He thinks the cyclist was going too fast to recognize that he'd nearly squished a former Beatle.
TheSun.co.uk

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Shortly before Chas Chandler of the Animals convinced Jimi Hendrix to go to London with him so Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and others could hear him, Hendrix, playing under the name Jimmy James, played guitar in a band put together by sax player Lonnie Youngblood.  The reaction of the most successful musicians in England put Hendrix on a fast-track to international notoriety, but he did not forget Youngblood, and in 1969 he played guitar on a song titled Georgia Blues during a Lonnie Youngblood recording session in New York City.  The song was included in a Martin Scorsese special about Blues music that PBS ran in 2003, and later appeared on one of the albums that grew out of the program. Youngblood sued the Hendrix estate, Scorsese and MCA Records, claiming that he had not approved the use of the song on the album and that he did not get credit in the album packaging.  This week, the Hendrix estate filed a counter claim against Youngblood, maintaining that the song rightfully belongs to the estate and requesting that the Youngblood copyright claim be ruled invalid.
TorontoSun.com

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Speculation that Ric Ocasek and the Cars were getting back together surfaced during the summer (story).  The reunion rumor now has a song to back it up. Ocasek, Greg Hawkes, Elliot Easton and David Robinson, recording together for the first time in 23 years, posted a clip of a new song and a video on the band's Facebook page Wednesday (10/13).  Whether the song Blue Tip means a full album project is underway is anyone's guess at this point.  Hawkes and Easton enlisted Todd Rundgren, Kasim Sulton and Prairie Prince for an album and tour a couple of years ago using the name the New Cars.  Ben Orr of the original lineup passed away a decade ago of pancreatic cancer.

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November 16 is the release date for the highly anticipated Darkness On The Edge Of Town expanded re-release (story), but other dates in the first half of the month will also find Bruce front and center.  Nov. 3 Springsteen will perform at the Stand Up For Heroes event to benefit the Bob Woodruff Foundation at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. The following two nights he joins Joe Grushecky on stage at the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall near Pittsburgh.  Springsteen has made unannounced appearances with Grushecky a number of times over the years, most recently in January when the two did 11 songs together during a benefit concert in Asbury Park, NJ. His participation in these dates has been made public because the performances are to mark the anniversary of the release of American Babylon, the Grushecky album Bruce produced in 1995.
SoundSpike.com

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The strong Macon music tradition may not be enough to prevent the Georgia Music Hall Of Fame from heading to greener pastures.  Four cities appear to be in the running to become the new home to the financially strapped museum - Athens, Dahlongea, Dunwoody and Woodstock.  Athens can lay claim to being the home base of REM and Drive By Truckers. Dahlongea fostered Widespread Panic's John Bell and Zac Brown. We don't know whether the other two have any claims to musical fame, but all four combined can't match the role Macon had in bringing the Peach Tree State to the attention of the country musically through the city's role in the careers of the Allman Brothers Band and Otis Redding, and as the home base for Capricorn Records, the record label that propelled the Allmans and several other groups to prominence in the formative years of Southern Rock.  Macon won't go down without a fight.  A group of civic and business leaders is vowing to put together a campaign to keep the museum right where it is.  Even if it loses the Hall Of Fame and museum, Macon will still have an attraction that will draw Allman Brothers fans.  The Big House, a residence some band members shared in the early 70's, opened recently as a ABB museum (story).
GPB.org

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For less than some collectors would pay for a Bob Dylan lyrics sheet or guitar, a fan can buy a live-in artifact.  The former Hibbing, Minnesota synagogue where Robert Zimmerman had his bar mitzvah is on the market.  Location #8 on the Bob Dylan walking tour was converted into an apartment building in 1980's after the congregation disbanded but still features the original stained-glass windows,  large, high ceiling meeting room and adjacent kitchens to keep meat and dairy products seperate in the kosher tradition it had when the Dylan ceremony took place in the Agundath Achim Synagogue when he was 13.  The downstate couple that bought the structure in 2001 planned to convert it into a bed & breakfast, but has not been able to make the move from the Minneapolis area.  At $119,000, the price seems like a bargain for a true one-of-a-kind collector's item.
DuluthNewsTribune.com

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The Billboard Touring Awards for 2010 will be given out during a ceremony November 4 in New York.  Rush has already a locked up the Legend Of Live honor (story), but three perennial top drawing acts are in contention for the top awards of the evening - the Top Tour and the Top Draw bragging rights.  U2, AC/DC and Bon Jovi will vie for the honors, which are based largely on box office results for tours over the course of a year beginning Oct. 1 and ending Sept. 30.  U2 would have been an easy lock had its 360o tour schedule not been disrupted by Bono's back injury.  The AC/DC Black Ice and Bon Jovi Circle tours have both been strong draws - and much less expensive to stage than the U2 tour featuring the enormous and enormously expensive Claw (story).
Billboard.com

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Some artists that have the latitude to create the album they want instead of the one their fans and label expect are so duty bound or  commercial success oriented that they never take advantage of that freedom.  Neil Young is a notable exception. He has always done exactly as he pleased. Robert Plant seems to be reveling in his new found freedom in his work with Alison Krauss and, more recently, Band Of Joy. Elton John, at least for now, has turned his back on the glitter and glitz pop material that has been his staple for most of the last 30 years to record Union, a wonderful Roots Rock record with Leon Russell. At times in his long career, it seemed that Clapton wrestled with whether to please himself or cater to \'Guitar God\' expectations imposed by fans.  Not lately.  His studio collaboration with JJ Cale a few years ago featured comfortable, confident guitar work that meshed beautifully with Cale\'s own understated playing.  On Clapton, the first new studio album of his own in five years, EC continues in that mode, choosing material that  incendiary solos would be as out of place in as one of his Ferraris would be at a Prius owners rally. But unless you just gotta have wailing guitar solos that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, this album still provides plenty to appreciate.
Clapton chooses slightly lower profile Pop Standards than Rod Stewart drew on for his American Songbook series of releases, turning in stellar versions of Autumn Leaves (Johnny Mercer) and Rockin' Chair (Hoagy Carmichael), and works in a couple of Fats Waller tracks along the way.  Contributions from Cale, his long ago Blind Faith band mate and recently frequent collaborator Steve Winwood, Allen Toussaint, Wynton Marsalis, Derek Trucks and Sheryl Crow fit the songs and moods perfectly, as does the overall production feel mastered by Clapton himself with Doyle Bramhall.  Bramhall gets credit too for being open to bringing in lesser known but equally talented performers, including the gospel trained organist of a Shreveport, LA. church recommended by friend and fellow producer Brady Blade Jr., son of the minister.  Bramhall's only instruction to 35 year-old Sereca Henderson was to, 'just play it like you feel.'
Clapton was recently quoted as being uncomfortable with the quality of his voice.  While it\'s range and strength were sometimes overwhelmed by the intensity and volume of his own playing and that of his band mates on earlier solo albums and during his band days, his recent material lets him stay in a comfortable zone.  He may wish it was stronger or more versatile, but plenty of better singers would exchange some range to be able to play guitar like Eric.
ShreveportTimes.com
 

The fact Graham Nash has lived in Hawaii for most of the last 30 years did not sink his fate in the eyes of those on the isle he started his career in.  Nash was honored Wednesday (10/13) in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, where the Queen was on-hand as the former Hollies and still Crosby, Stills & Nash member was awarded the OBE.  Nash called the occasion 'very profound', and called receiving the honor a highlight of his life.  Although Nash became a US citizen 32 years ago, he still considers himself English at his core, telling those attending the event, 'This is my country and my Queen gave me an honor - it's a stunning experience.'  No slouch when it comes to winning favor with his Queen, Nash told her majesty how beautiful she looked as the two chatted about his days with the Hollies.  He expressed his surprise that his country would bestow the honor on someone who had moved to the US nearly four decades ago, telling the Queen he '...didn't think anybody was watching', to which she replied, '...now you know.'
BBC.co.uk

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If getting an equally enigmatic but well known actor was a requisite for filling the title role for a movie about music producer Phil Spector, Al Pacino was probably on a very short list. The fact he landed the role bodes well for the as yet untitled film being developed for HBO Films by director Barry Levinson (Diner, The Natural, Tin Men, Good Morning Vietnam, Rain Man, Wag The Dog) and Pulitzer Prize winning writer David Mamet  (Glengarry Glen Ross, The Verdict, Wag The Dog). Pacino seems well-suited to nail the kind of eccentric, maniacal and often tyranical character traits attributed to a man many credit with having the most creative minds on the mixing board side of the glass in music history. Spector's Wall Of Sound helped him rule the Top 40 charts of the early 60's. He was behind more than 25 charted hits during the first 5 years of the decade.  Always craving attention but never comfortable in the spotlight, Spector became increasingly reclusive after marrying Veronica Bennett, lead singer of the Ronettes, one of his most prolific groups.  Other than a cameo appearance as a drug dealer in the movie  Easy Rider, Spector spent most of the late 60's under the radar. 
 He emerged in 1970 to produce John Lennon's Instant Karma!, staying on to cobble together songs from the Get Back sessions to create the Beatles album that became Let It Be, and later worked on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass and subsequent Lennon and Harrison albums. A 1974 car wreck that nearly cost him his life started another period of inactivity that broke when he was recruited to produce the 1980 Ramones album End Of The Century.  Stories emerged about erratic behavior and guns during those sessions.  His 1989 induction into the Rock Hall Of Fame became one of the last good developments in Spector's life.  In February of 2003 an actress was shot and killed at his house near LA.  Spector claimed it was a case of what the called accidental suicide. Prosecutors disagreed after obtaining reports from other women that Spector had detained them at gunpoint. His first trial ended with a hung jury in the fall of 2007.  The second returned a guilty verdict on March 29, 2009, resulting in a 19-Life sentence.
 Given Pacino's age (70), expect the movie to center on the later years in his life, with flashbacks to earlier times.  It will be fascinating to see whether the producers obtain Spector's cooperation in the project.  With no prospect for parole before he turns 88, Spector could view this as his only chance to spin his legacy.
 Guardian.co.uk   NYTimes.com
 
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Year 22 for the Warren Haynes Christmas Jam in Asheville, NC looks solid, as usual.  The Dec. 11 concert in the Civic Center will include the Steve Miller Band, Gregg Allman, a couple of members of Widespread Panic, Drive-By Truckers, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and of course, the Warren Haynes Band.  The actual lineup of the Haynes band has not been announced yet, but at least some of the musicians the Allman Brothers Band and Gov't Mule veteran recruited for his forthcoming album are expected to be there.  Faces alum Ian McLagan and Ivan Neville are a couple of the names that are coming up.
Mog.com

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Heinz Field in Pittsburgh will be where U2 concludes its 360o tour, the multiple continent extravaganza the Irish Rockers kicked off in the Spring of 2009 with a concert in Barcelona, Spain.  Emergency back surgery to address a spinal injury Bono suffered in Germany while warming-up for a new leg of the tour in May of this year resulted in the postponement of a series of North American dates (story).  Tickets for the July 26, 2011 date go on sale this month, giving promoters almost a full year to earn interest on ticket proceeds.  The injury delay was an expensive interruption to what had been one of the brighter tour stories in an otherwise dismal period for a recession battered concert industry.  Promoters and venue operators suffered substantial losses on a number of tours into the summer, with an average of 40% of seats going unsold and many tours being scaled back or scuttled.  A stronger economic outlook and prospects that Fleetwood Mac, Van Halen and possibly the Rolling Stones will hit the road in 2011 have Live Nation and stadium operators cautiously optimistic about the coming year, but unless or until Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd decide to tour it will probably be a long time before a production approaching the scale of the U2 tour is mounted again. 
Pollstar.com   U2.com

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No official explanation of the Don Henley ailment that led to recent Eagles concert cancellations has been given, but word filtering out of the Austin City Limits festival in Texas is that the drummer, guitarist and singer had a stent put in his heart. A report in the Houston Press observes that Henley has probably been been advised by doctors not to play drums for a bit.
 
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After strenuously defending himself against attacks from the Anti Defamation League (ADL) over images being used during his Wall tour (story), Roger Waters apparently decided to have the scene in the video that displays while he and his band play Goodbye Blue Sky changed.  The ADL and other groups claimed that images depicting bombs dropping along with stars of David and dollar signs amounted to anti-Semiticism.  Waters fired back that he was anti-occupation, not anti-Semitic.  ADL criticism was based largely on the use of dollar signs in the montage, claiming it reinforced a negative stereotype.  The alteration that has been made may not do much to satisfy the ADL. Instead of dollar signs, the scene now depicts the Mercedes Benz logo.
au.eonline.com

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Keith Richards armed himself before going to score drugs.  The Rolling Stones guitarist reportedly told AnOther Man magazine that he often carried a gun when he was buying drugs during the years he was using heroin.  He graduated from a Luger he bougtht in New York City to a Smith & Wesson .38 Airweight revolver, of which he remarked, 'that is the fucking gun.  No safety on it.'  His days packing heat are behind him, but Richards says he usually has a knife on him.
DigitalSpy.com

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Ringo Starr made an unannounced appearance with the Plastic Ono Band during a tribute concert to John Lennon on what would have been his 70th birthday Saturday (10/9). The concert, staged near the Peace Monument to Lennon in Haskolahin Reykjavik, Iceland, included Sean Lennon, whose 35th birthday coincided with the event, and included the touching scene of him blowing out the 70 candles on a large birthday cake.  Ringo, George Harrison's wife, Oliva and son, Dhani, joined the Plastic Ono Band on Give Peace A Chance.  In Liverpool, the former Beatle's first wife and son unveiled a sculpture honoring John.  Cynthia and Julian Lennon presided at the event marking the official debut of the Peace & Love sculpture in the UK city where the Beatles got their start.  In New York, groups gathered around the John Lennon memorial in Central Park throughout the day.
Gothamist.com

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A UK High Court has upheld the right of Michelle Morrison, wife of singer Van Morrison, to seek a legal remedy to what she claims is the failure of the council to take measures that protected her family's right to privacy when it approved an application for a neighbor's house plans. The filing by Morrison contends that the landscape plans of the neighbor will significantly open the Morrison property to view.  A justice involved in review of the claim said adequate grounds were provided in the complaint to warrant court review proceedings against the council and to name the neighbors as notice parties.  The judge also said that the case will likely end up costing someone 'an awful lot of money'.
Independent.ie

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The FBI's obsession with John Lennon in the late 60's and well into the 1970's has been well documented.  One of the documents in the file the agency compiled while keeping tabs on the former Beatle that was slated to go to with a minimum opening bid of $100k this weekend won't. Agents seized a fingerprint sheet of Lennon that was inked when he filed for US citizenship in 1976.  The agency was granted a subpoena to take possession of the card from the auctioneer shortly after it was displayed to the media Wednesday (10/6).  The print form had been in the collection of an unidentified concert promoter for the last 20 years, after turning up for sale at a Beatles fan convention. 
Hennemusic.com

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Keith Emerson reveals that faced several health issues recently.  The rough patch began for the Emerson, Lake & Palmer keyboard veteran when a colonoscopy turned up a dangerous polyp.  Surgery to address that revealed that a big portion of his colon showed evidence of diverticular disease.  A sizeable portion of the lower colon was removed.  Internal bleeding in the aftermath of the surgery created more complications for Emerson, resulting in two blood transfusions and another operation.  Emerson finally got some good news when doctors told him tests on the polyp showed it was not malignant.  His two week hospital stay over, Keith says on his Facebook page that he is recuperating at home with a fresh understanding of the importance of regular colon screening - and a great appreciation for blood donors.
Hennemusic.com

Plans for some Aerosmith members may be up in the air after American Idol recruited Steven Tyler to become a judge, but Brad Whitford knows what he'll be doing.  The Experience Hendrix tour has confirmed that Whiftord is one of the featured guitarists during the US leg of the tour that starts October 26 in Pittsburgh.  Whitford joins guitarists Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Steve Vai, Jonny Lang, Band of Gypsys bass player Billy Cox and others in the latest edition of the tour celebrating the legacy of the guitar legend.  Whitford, a participant in earlier Experience Hendrix tours (story), calls Hendrix someone who, 'Since the first time I heard him, and right up until today, has been an important influence on me'.
Gibson.com

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Sax player Clarence Clemons had surgery not long after the Bruce Springsteen world tour wrapped up (story).  What hardly anyone outside of a very tight circle knew until Thursday (10/7) was that E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg also went under the scalpel last winter. Speaking during an interview with Fancast.com about the HBO premier of The Promise, Weinberg said, 'I can make a little news here, which I haven't talked about to anybody', before revealing that he had open heart surgery in February.  The operation to repair a damaged valve the drummer first learned he had more than 25 years ago lasted almost 4 times longer than a than the typical marathon Springsteen set, logging in at close to 12 hours.  Weinberg said that he is feeling 'a thousand percent better', and wonderful about where he is, 'physically, personally, professionally', countering anyone contending he is disappointed not to be anchoring the house band for Conan O'Brien when his former other Boss premiers his new late night show on TBS (story).
Music-Mix.ew.com

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Bass tracks from the Feb. 14 1970 concert the Who performed at Leeds are being transplanted to fill-in for ones missing from the show the group performed the night night before the Live At Leeds album recording date.  That concert set, which took place at Hull City Hall, will be included in an expanded reissue of Live At Leeds, an album widely heralded as one of the greatest live records of all time.  No one can account for why John Entwistle's performance on the 13th was missing on the four opening songs of the tape of the set.  Roger Daltrey recounts that, in his opinion, the Hull concert was even better than the one turned in the following night.  Fortunately, all four songs the bass track was missing from were also done the following night, allowing for the digital transplant.  The Nov. 14 Deluxe 40th Anniversary Live At Leeds disc will include the Hull set and a live performance of the Rock Opera Tommy.
Spinner.com

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It's not as unexpected as the Judas Priest cover of the Joan Baez song Diamonds & Rust, but word that Ozzy Osbourne has recorded a John Lennon song still gave us whiplash.  The Ozz take on the 1971 Lennon song How? from Imagine gets released on Saturday (10/9) the 70th anniversary of Lennon's birth.  A video for the song filmed in New York shows the Black Sabbath veteran taking purple flowers to the John Lennon memorial in Central Park, across the street from the Dakota, where the former Beatle was gunned down.  Osbourne says that hearing the news John had been killed stopped his world.  Proceeds from the sale of the song will be donated to Amnesty International.
Guardian.co.uk
 
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Under attack from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other Israeli support groups for using images during the Wall tour that some consider anti-Semitic (story), Roger Waters has responded by calling the allegation he is anti-Semitic something that could not be further from the truth, telling the Independent, 'You can attack Israeli policy without being anti-Jewish.  He equates the criticism of the ADL to claiming someone is anti-Christian for opposing US policy. The ADL issued a statement that says the organization's opposition to the imagery being projected during concerts is based the use of the star of David and dollar signs with bombs dropping, and has nothing to do with the former Pink Floyd member's '...right to express his political views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through his music and stagecraft.'
JPost.com

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Steven Tyler will have a virtual presence on television in addition to his weekly appearances as a judge on American Idol.  The lead singer for Aerosmith will supply the voice for the Mad Hatter in The Wonder Pets animated adaptation of Alice In Wonderland that premiers October 15 on Nickelodean.  Tyler tells TV Guide.com that the gig is '...something I've wanted to do forever', and calls it, '...another feather in the cap'. It could also be another thorn in the side of Joe Perry.  The guitarist views Tyler's commitment to Idol as a distraction that Aerosmith can ill-afford as the band tries to rebound from a year in which multiple illnesses and injuries nearly put an end to one of the longest running acts in Rock.
Gibson.com

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The Promise: The Mkaing of Darkness On The Edge Of Town has it's small screen debut Thursday (10/7) on HBO at 9pm.  The film, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last month (story) and will be included in the massive collection getting released Nov. 16 (story), is scheduled to run through the end of the month on HBO and until Oct. 18 on HBO2.  A rumored project also has Bruce appearing on at least one episode of a hit TV series.  What started out as a plan to feature Springsteen music in an episode of the FOX show Glee has might have morphed into Bruce making at least a brief appearance on screen as the uncle of one of the show's characters. 
Backstreets.com   ShowbizSpy.com

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Some 40 years after their brief pairing in Blind Faith, Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood have been collaborating again.  In addition to a series of concert appearances with EC over the past few  years, Winwood is featured prominently on Eric's self-titled new studio album.  The two will share the stage at London's Royal Albert Hall in the spring of 2011.  The May 26 & 27 concerts, on sale Monday (10/4), will add to the already impressive total of more than 150 appearances Clapton has under his belt at RAH, most of them accumulated during multiple date annual residency bookings.  If demand proves as heavy as seems likely, this could turn into an extended series too.
WheresEric.com

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Lots of British musicians grew-up fascinated by American Blues and R&B music.  Phil Collins was one of them.  His new album, Going Back, is filled with covers of songs from the States Collins was listening to when he responded to an ad for a drummer in Melody Maker and landed a gig with a band that took him in a totally different musical direction - Genesis.  Collins developed another passion in his youth that continues to this day.  After learning about the Alamo by seeing the Disney version of it in the 1950's TV series Davy Crockett, Collins became obsessed with it.  He told NPR that the first Christmas after his discovery of the fabled Texas battle, nearly every gift under the tree had to do with the Alamo.  With the financial success he found in Genesis, Collins started collecting real artifacts relating to the historic site.  He now owns a collection that ranks among the most impressive ones in existence.  For Collins, one benefit is that he gets to talk shop with historians that beat a path to his door to see his collection.  Limited in his ability to play drums by medical problems (story), Collins now considers himself largely retired from music, a status that gives him more time to finish a book about his Alamo collection that he says is around half done.
NPR.org  TorontoSun.com

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Rod Stewart has frustrated Ron Wood and other members of the Faces by failing to make good on suggestions that he is open to joining them on some reunion dates.  News that Rod is apparently considering working with Jeff Beck probably means a Faces reunion involving him is getting back-burnered again.  Stewart, who plans to put an end to the series of American Pop Standards albums he has done in recent years with the October 19 release of The Great American Songbook, Vol. V, tells Billboard that he and Beck plan to meet soon in London to discuss working together and to get a feel for what each of them has in mind.  Stewart was lead vocalist for the Jeff Beck Group from 1967 through the first half of 1969, when he left to go solo before hooking-up with Wood again in the Faces.  For his part, Stewart says he's interested in doing some Blues and Country material. 
Billboard.com   Gibson.com

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Time and time again during his long career Willie Nelson has ventured into musical territory mere mortals steer clear of.  His willingness to lend his unique interpretation to songs from multiple genres has earned him the respect and appreciation of a wide range of artists and fans. Saturday (10/2) Nelson was joined at the annual benefit he and Neil Young and John Mellencamp stage to raise money and awareness to champion family farms by Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.  Tyler, who was recently named as a judge on American Idol, a program that Willie probably has no regard for and, was welcomed on stage as Farm Aid wound down a 10 hour marathon at Miller Park in Milwaukee.  Tyler joined Nelson on the opening song of his set, singing and blowing some harp on One Time Too Many.

The band TAB features two sons of Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry.  Poppa Perry joins the boys when TAB plays before the Monday Night Football game that pits the Patriots against the Dolphins in Miami Monday (10/4).  Adrian Perry says he, brother Tony and their  father are all 'huge' football fans, and look forward for the chance to warm-up the crowd before the big on-field rivalry between New England and Miami kicks off.  The group has been opening dates for Bret Michaels during his recent tour.
NESN.com

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Ever have someone so excited about telling you a joke that they ask you if you've heard about the one... and use the punch line to identify the joke?  That's kinda like the way the U2 web site is 'hinting' about a pending announcement that the band will make an appearance at the 2011 Glastonbury Festival.  The band is setting itself up for too bad a bashing if it proves not to be the case.  Whether it gets confirmed prior to tickets going on sale this weekend s about the only thing left out of the tease, which pointed out the band has a gap in its 2011 schedule that synchs-up nicely for a Friday appearance at the UK festival.  Manager Paul McGuinness offered, 'We're certainly excited about our plans for next year. Watch this space.'

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Music information sites can be a flakey as some of the less reputable ones selling discount designer fashions.  Good ones seldom get sucked in by rumors without doing some good background work to check on how likely they are to have merit, so we were surprised to see a few of the ones we generally consider to be pretty solid on that count run with a story indicating that Robert Plant is warming to the idea of a Led Zeppelin reunion.  Rock Insights won\'t run with a speculation based story about Zeppelin or its members without checking with LedZeppelinNews.com to see what Steve Sauer, who writes Lemon Squuezings for the site, has to say about it.  As usual, Sauer has done his homework.  He notes that the off-hand comment by Robert Plant fueling the latest rumor was actually made a couple of months ago - several weeks prior to more recent statements by Plant (story) that put the possibility of him agreeing to a Led Zeppelin reunion on even odds with Obama and Sarah Palin as running mates in the next Presidential election.
 
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Van Morrison has managed to get an injunction to prohibit publication of a newspaper story the Irish singer contends mounted to an unreasonable invasion of his privacy.  A Belfast high Court sided with Morrison, ruling that photographs in the story of the singer, his home and a business associate that was the subject of earlier press claims alledging that she was carrying Morrison's child exceeded '...the margin or appreciation aallowed to a free press'.  The court stopped short of issuing a broader restriction on the News Of The World covering less detailed aspects of Morrison's off-stage life.  The singer maintains that almost all matters relating to his private life should be off limits to the media and the public as a whole, saying, 'I have made considerable efforts to protect my private life and I have refused to be interviewed about it, to comment on it or to authorise (sic) others to do so, save in very limited circumstances when a bare minimum of information is required to prevent or minimise (sic) harm from the repeated attempts of others to publish allegations about my private life'.  A reporter for the World claims that the article content amounted to what he described as a low level intrusion, and included no details about the relationship between Morrison and Gigi Lee.
BBC.co.uk

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What started out as just a few Elton John & Leon Russell dates in New York and LA (story) has now grown several stops larger with the addition of Union tour stops in Tulsa, Oklahoma (11/12), Fort Worth, Texas (11/13), Daytona, Florida (11/20) and Lakeland, Florida (11/21), The two will also make appearances during the Speaking Clock Revue shows (story) being presented by T Bone Burnett in Boston's Wang Center (10/16), the Beacon Theatre in New York City (10/20) and the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountainview, California (10/24).
TicketNews.com


 Elton John & Leon Russell - Union Tour