Posted by Administrator on Feb. 1st, 2016
After previously canceling two shows in late January, Def Leppard announced on Feb. 1 that it's postponing the remainder of its winter U.S. tour dates "due to illness," although no band member was specified. The cancellation was for shows in San Antonia, Tex.; Little Rock, Ark.; and Brooklyn's Barclays Center that ran from Feb. 2-17. The band said it will announce new dates for those shows soon, and tickets will be honored for their rescheduled shows. Opening for Def Leppard on the tour are Styx and Tesla. - Billboard, 2/1/16...... A three-hour live telecast on Fox of the musical "Grease" on Jan. 31 was a big hit for the network, with 12.2 million viewers tuning in to see Julianne Hough, Aaron Tveit, Carly Rae Jepsen. Vanessa Hudgen, Carlos Pena Vega and Keke Palmer play the students of Rydell High in the 1950s-set musical. Grease: Live still fell short of NBC's The Sound of Music Livein 2013, which attracted 18.3 million live viewers. Just hours before Grease: Live aired, the soundtrack for the live television event was made available for purchase on iTunes. - Billboard, 2/1/16...... 
Parlophone Records UK has announced David Bowie's seminal first six albums from 1969-73 will be getting a vinyl re-release on Feb. 26. Space Oddity, The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Aladdin Sane and Pin Ups will all be reissued on heavyweight 180g vinyl. Bowie's Bowie at the Beeb box set compilation of recordings from various BBC Radio stations from 1968-1972 will also be released on that day. All the albums have been remastered. Meanwhile, Newsweek is reporting that a treasure trove of new music the legendary artist created will be released in stages beginning in 2017. According to an unnamed source "close to the late artist, there's "a long list of unscheduled musical releases that Bowie planned before he died," which have been "divided into eras," the first of which will hit stores before the end of 2017. Also, a cast album for Bowie's off-Broadway musical "Lazarus" is also in production. The musical, which featured 18 of the artist's biggest hits, closed on Jan. 20 after its two-month run at the New York Theatre Workshop. Meanwhile Labyrinth, director Jim Henson's 1986 fantasy film starring Bowie, is getting a reboot with a script by Nicole Perlman, the co-writer of the hit film Guardians of the Galaxy. Labyrinth told of a teenager, played by Jennifer Connelly in one of her first roles, who has to navigate a fantastical maze in order to save her young brother, kidnapped by a goblin king (Bowie). It is unclear whether the new film, which is being produced by Columbia/TriStar, will be a reimagining of the story or a sequel. Despite the film's popularity in recent years, it was a box-office disappointment at the time of its release and led to Henson's exit from film directing. It was only in the intervening years that the film gained a strong cult following. In other Bowie-related news, his producing partner Tony Visconti will be the opening keynote speaker at this year's 30th annual South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival (SXSW). The 2016 SXSW Music Festival runs March 15-20 and is expected to showcase 2,000 acts ranging from across all the genres. Visconti's keynote address will take place March 16. Finally, Bowie's son Duncan Jones thanked fans on Twitter on Jan. 23 for their support following his father's death earlier in January. "Hi all. Just wanted to thank you for the incredibly kind words & thoughts. I'll be easing my way back into Twitter- pic.twitter.com/n0ytOiESWb," Jones posted. Jones is the director of the films Moon and Source Code. - Billboard/The Hollywood Reporter/New Musical Express, 1/27/16...... Actor Joseph Fiennes has been cast to play Michael Jackson in a new one-off, half hour British TV comedy, chronicling a fabled road trip that the King of Pop took with Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. 
The unbelievable story is based on a 2011 Vanity Fair article that alleged the three entertainment icons rented a car and fled New York westward following the attacks. Unable to fly, they were hoping to make it home to California and made it as far as Ohio while gorging on junk food in the car, before catching a plane the rest of the way. Taylor's former assistant has claimed the legendary actress never joined Brando and Jackson on the trip, and Fiennes, who has been the subject of controversy over his controversial casting as an African-American, insists that the project is only intended to be lighthearted. "It's a light comedy look. It's not in any way malicious. It's actually endearing," he told Entertainment Tonight. Fiennes is a white British actor best known for his role in 1998's Shakespeare in Love, as well as more recent roles in Hercules and American Horror Story. - Billboard/Vulture.com, 1/26/16...... In other Michael Jackson news, it appears the crazy Internet conspiracy theory that the King of Pop provided uncredited musical contributions to the 1994 Sega video game Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is true. The gist of the convoluted story is that former Sega exec Roger Hector, who worked on Sonic 3, has confirmed in a recent Huffington Post article that Jackson reached out to Sega in the early '90s to express his admiration for the new Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Sega, which released several titles of Jackson's Moonwalker video game, invited him to visit their office. Jackson was provided with a demo of the game and invited to compose music for it. "He took it from there and started making music," Hector said. After receiving music from Jackson's team for Sonic 3, Hector recalled, "I was really impressed with how much of a signature Michael Jackson sound there was in this, and yet, it was all new." Sega, however, still denies Jackson had any involvement on Sonic 3. Meanwhile, producer John Branca, who's also the co-executor of Jackson's estate, has hinted that more Michael Jackson movies could be on the way. "I'd like to see a movie about the History album and tour," says Branca. "It was his last tour, and his most underappreciated album. Michael was out of favor in the U.S. at the time. But if you listen to it start to finish, it's one of the greatest albums of all time." Branca also says a movie about Jackson's blockbuster 1982 album Thriller is also "definitely a candidate, and that he's planning Halloween-themed events around the album in 2017, its 35th anniversary. But until then, fans will have to be content with the new Spike Lee-directed Showtime documentary Michael Jackson's Journey From Motown to Off the Wall, which premiered on Jan. 24 at the Sundance Film Festival and hits Showtime on Feb. 5. "This (film) shows the story of Michael resurrecting the Jacksons and making his first solo album -- and we all know what happened after that," Branca says. - Billboard, 1/26/16...... 
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have rescheduled their postponed Madison Square Garden concert, which was cancelled on Jan. 24 due to a blizzard in New York City, to March 28. Tickets to the original show will be honored on the new night. Springsteen's camp has also announced that his The River Tour is extending its U.S. run with 14 new shows, and the band will play May 19 in Portugal as the headlining act on the first night of "Rock in Rio Lisboa." The new dates will begin with a third and final show at Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena March 19, and will extend through Denver, Dallas, and Detroit with two final shows at Brooklyn's Barclays Center on April 23 and 25. The River Tour, Springsteen's first in two years, follows the release of his 1980 The River deluxe reissue 
Brian Wilson has announced he'll be launching an ambitious Pet Sounds 50th Anniversary World Tour on Mar. 26 at Auckland, Australia's Civic Theatre. More than 70 dates are confirmed so far in countries also including Japan, the UK, Spain, Israel and Portugal, with additional shows being added. Wilson, joined by former bandmates Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin, will also be playing the seminal 1966 album in its entirety in U.S. cities coast-to-coast on the tour beginning on June 14 in Burlington, Vermont, wrapping on Oct. 14 in Lake Tahoe, California. "It's really been a trip to sit here and think about releasing Pet Sounds 50 years ago," the 73-year-old Beach Boys mastermind said in a statement. "I love performing this album with my band and look forward to playing it for fans all across the world," he added. - Billboard, 1/25/16...... Iggy Pop has announced he'll be headlining London's Royal Albert Hall on May 18 with new bandmates, drummer Josh Homme (Arctic Monkeys) and Matt Helders (Queens of the Stone Age). On the same day, Pop will release his new album, Post Pop Depression, which he recorded in secret in 2015. Pop released the first track from the album, "Gardenia," earlier in January. - New Musical Express, 1/27/16...... Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the worldwide rights (excluding France and Germany) to a new documentary on Frank Zappa, Eat That Question -- Frank Zappa In His Own Words. Directed by Thorsten Schutte, the film zooms in on the iconoclastic composer-musician entirely through rare archival footage from his three-decade career and includes clips of rare TV interviews and international performances. "I'm delighted and I'm thrilled that Sony Pictures Classics believes in the film and I feel we're in very good hands," said Schutte, whose film premiered on Jan. 25 at the Sundance Film Festival. "The news of the acquisition is really the cherry on the cake of our world premiere at Sundance," he added. - The Hollywood Reporter, 1/23/16...... 
Olivia Newton-John, who played Sandy in the 
Actor Abe Vigoda, best known for his roles as mobster Tessio in 
Police in Maine arrested Don McLean on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge at his Camden home on Jan. 18, and court records show she then filed a handwritten request for protection that claims her 70-year-old husband's rage was "unfathomably deep and scary." In the request, she said McLean's abuse often left her bruised, and that she feared for her life when she called 911 earlier in the week. "Don terrorized me for four hours, until the 911 call that I think might have saved my life," she wrote. On Jan. 21, McLean issued a statement saying his marriage is experiencing a "very painful breakdown," that he is "not a villain," and that it is an emotional time for his family. "I may never recover from this but I will try and hope to continue to entertain you all as I always have," McLean said. The singer/songwriter was released from the Knox County Jail on a $10,000 bail the same day and is due in court Feb. 22. McLean's attorney, Walter McKee, said his client will plead not guilty when the case returns to court, and that McLean "vigorously denies" his wife's allegations. McLean, who grew up in Port Chester, N.Y., and has resided in the wealthy coastal Maine town of Camden for years, is best known for his chart-topping 1972 song 
Other musicians are remembering Glenn Frey, including Jimmy Buffett, who described the Eagles co-founder as "a friend, professional, inspiration, and sometimes a handful." Buffett, who was asked to induct the Eagles into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, says after he first met Frey in August of 1975 when his band was invited to open for the Eagles, "Glenn and I went on to become close friends, songwriting collaborators, and neighbors in Aspen. He and Don [Henley] were instrumental in getting Irving Azoff to become my manager, and eventually open for the Eagles on the Hotel California tour of America, which was the rocket ship we rode to eventually becoming a headliner." Meanwhile, even one of Frey's most well-known antagonists, former Eagles member Don Felder, is offering praise for his ex-bandmate. "Glenn's passing was so unexpected and has left me with a very heavy heart filled with sorrow," said Felder in a statement. "He was so young and still full of amazing genius. He was an extremely talented songwriter, arranger, leader, singer, guitarist, you name it and Glenn could do it and create 'MAGIC' on the spot. His visions and insights into songs and lyrics have become legendary and will echo throughout time on this earth for decades to come." Eagles manager Irving Azoff provided additional details of Frey's Jan. 18 passing on the following day, saying his death was caused partly be medications. In an interview with TheWrap.com, Azoff said that the "complications of Rheumatoid Arthritis, Acute Ulcerative Colitis and Pneumonia" that were announced on the Eagles' website were "side effects from all the meds." "Glenn died from complications of ulcer and colitis after being treated with drugs for his rheumatoid arthritis which he had for over 15 years," said Azoff. "I can't believe he's gone... I can't believe everything we accomplished. It was a staggering body of work and just an amazing run. I don't think there will ever be another American band as successful." Also paying tribute to Frey are his "Take It Easy" co-writer Jackson Browne and Bruce Springsteen. On Jan. 19, Browne played "Take It Easy" during a show at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida, his first concert following Frey's death the previous day at the age of 67. Springsteen also performed an acoustic version of the breezy song with just a guitar at the beginning of his encores during a concert at Chicago's United Center on Jan. 19. - Billboard, 1/20/16...... Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has received permission from Simon & Garfunkel to use one of their songs in what has been described as one of the most effective campaign commercials so far -- a 
The late David Bowie has earned his first No. 1 Billboard Hot 200 album chart debut with his new album 
ABBA members Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad made a rare group appearance for the Jan. 20 opening of an ABBA-inspired restaurant, Stockholm's Mamma Mia! The Party. The legendary Europop foursome arrived and left separately and declined to be photographed together on the red carpet, according to reports. Though the Swedes did stand beside one another on the stage -- a momentous occasion which was captured on camera. "We are here to party," Ulvaeus told reporters. ABBA, who split in 1982 and haven't performed together since 1986, purportedly once turned down a $1 billion offer for a comeback tour. - Billboard, 1/21/16...... Elton John has confirmed that he's working with Lady Gaga on music for Gaga's next album. "I've heard two songs, which are killer. They're just great songs," Sir Elton said during an interview on Jan. 19 on the U.K.'s Beats 1 program. The show's host, Zane Lowe, also Tweeted that John said he'd be "writing with Gaga tomorrow." Meanwhile, Elton has released a new video for "Blue Wonderful" from his new studio album, 
Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne has announced that his band has opted not to record a final album to go along with the band's upcoming The End tour, but they will have a final piece of product to offer fans. Osbourne and Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler say the group has prepared an eight-track CD that will be sold only at shows featuring four unreleased tracks from sessions for 2013's Grammy Award-winning 
Drummer Dale Griffin, a former member of the British glam-rock outfit Mott the Hoople, passed away in his sleep on Jan. 17 after having been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease a decade ago. He was 67. Griffin was a founding member of the group that released eight albums over their five-and-a-half years as a band. Mott the Hoople are best known for their hit "All The Young Dudes," which was penned by David Bowie. The band were on the verge of splitting in 1972 when Bowie wrote "All The Young Dudes" for them, after originally offering them "Sufragette City." "All The Young Dudes" became a hit and spurred the band on to create more hits with "Honaloochie Boogie," "All The Way From Memphis" and "Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll" all following. Mott The Hoople split in 1974 after completing a European tour. Griffin continued playing alongside bassist Pete Overend Watts and Morgan Fisher under the name Mott in 1976. The original band reunited in 2009 for their 40th anniversary but Griffin was unable to perform with the group due to ill-health, having been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease at the age of 58. Griffin later worked as a producer for BBC live music sessions by bands including Nirvana, the Smashing Pumpkins and Pulp. - New Musical Express, 1/19/16...... Mic Gillette, a talented trumpet and trombone player and founding member of the Oakland, Calif., soul-R&B powerhouse Tower of Power, died unexpectedly on Jan. 16. He was 64. Gillette was a key component of Tower of Power's legendary horn section, which is routinely ranked among the best of its kind over the last 50 years. He also touched many in his East Bay neighborhood with his tireless involvement with and support for middle and high school music programs. The acclaimed brass player, who performed on both trumpet and trombone, was prominently featured on the band's best-known recordings, including such hits as "You're Still a Young Man," "So Very Hard to Go" and "What Is Hip?" He remained with Tower of Power until the mid-1980s, when he decided to trade in the touring life to spend more time with his family. He rejoined the seminal Oakland act from 2009 to 2011. "Mic was without a doubt the greatest brass player I've ever known," Tower of Power band leader Emilio Castillo said on the band's website. "Our sincere condolences go out to his wife, Julia, and his daughter, Megan, and their entire family." - 1/19/16.
Born on Nov. 6, 1948, in Detroit, Frey was raised in nearby Royal Oak, Mich., and was exposed to both the Motown sounds and harder-edged rock of his hometown, including Bob Seger and his band. After playing in a succession of local bands in Detroit, Frey first connected with Seger when Frey's band, the Mushrooms, convinced Seger to write a song for them. Seger also invited Frey to sing backing vocals on Seger's first hit, 1968's "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man," which was also Frey's first recorded appearance. After relocatiing to Los Angeles with his then-girlfriend Joan Silwin, Frey was introduced to songwriter John David Souther by Silwin's sister, Alexandra. Before long, Frey, Souther and another aspiring songwriter, Jackson Browne were living as roommates in East L.A. and quickly became deeply involved in the burgeoning L.A. country-rock scene centered around the Troubadour nightclub. Frey and Souther, calling themselves Longbranch Pennywhistle, secured a recording contract with the short-lived indie label Amos Records in 1969, but soon split up. However 1971 would prove to be a fateful year when future country-rock superstar Linda Ronstadt hired Frey and his friend, drummer Don Henley to play in her backing band, on the advice of her boyfriend, Souther. Frey and Henley decided to form their own band on the night of their first show backing Ronstadt, and later recruited ex-Poco bassist Randy Meisner and former Flying Burrito Brothers guitarist Bernie Leadon to join them. Calling themselves the Eagles, they became one of the first artists signed to David Geffen's new label, Asylum Records. 
The Eagles became an instant success after releasing their eponymous 
Frey also began a side career in acting, and portrayed a drug-smuggling musician on Miami Vice named Jimmy Cole. In 1991, after solo hits by Frey and Don Henley began to dry up, the Eagles' manager Irving Azoff mastermined a reunion tour with a title, "Hell Freezes Over," that mocked the acrimony which caused the band to spllit up. The Eagles continued to tour periodically -- and lucratively -- over the past two decades, releasing just scattered new material (including a successful studio album called 
"He saw the videos; he heard the music; and he's so happy you're doing this and I want you to know too, so we're going to celebrate the life of David Bowie." Visconti, who appeared tearful at times, added: "The reason why we're doing this is about 46 years ago Woody and I were the original musicians who played this album, so technically we're not a tribute band; we are the real deal." The band closed out the two-hour concert with "Time" and "Suffragette City," with the crowd throwing red roses onstage. Meanwhile, Bowie's family posted a new message on Bowie's official Facebook page on Jan. 14 thanking fans for their recent "love and support" following the music icon's passing, describing themselves as "overwhelmed and grateful," and announcing plans for a private funeral service. "Thank you. The family of David Bowie is currently making arrangements for a private ceremony celebrating the memory of their beloved husband, father and friend...We are overwhelmed by and grateful for the love and support shown throughout the world," the message read, and also requested that fans "respect their privacy at this most sensitive of times" and noted that while the concerts and tributes planned in honor of Bowie in the coming weeks are welcome, "none are official memorials organised or endorsed by the family." Two Bowie tributes -- in Berlin and New Orleans -- already occurred on Jan. 17, with a memorial service held at Berlin's Hansa Studios, where Bowie recorded most of his "Berlin trilogy" albums (Low, Lodgers, "Heroes"), and a parade in New Orleans led by the band Arcade Fire that brought traffic in the city to a standstill. Additionally, two rock music superstars -- Elton John and Bruce Springsteen -- have honored the Thin White Duke during concerts in the past week. John performed a special "piano requiem" as a tribute to Bowie during his concert at L.A.'s Wiltern Theater on on Jan. 13, weaving his own hit "Rocket Man" and Bowie's "Space Oddity," and Springsteen, performing in Pittsburgh on the opening night of his The River Tour, treated the crowd to a rousing rendition of Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" from Diamond Dogs. According to a report in the U.K. paper The Guardian, the singer has been privately cremated in New York without any friends and family present, as per his wishes. He wanted "to go without any fuss", a source told the paper. The executors of Bowie's will have revealed that his family stands to inherit his fortune, thanks to his "Bowie bonds" scheme devised by California-based banker David Pullman, which gave investors the rights to royalties for his first 25 albums for 10 years, before ownership returned to him and llowed him to buy back the rights to some of his most popular work from a former manager. "He was astute financially and he had the foresight to have things set up then that would look after his family," Pullman said on Jan. 13. 
As predicted, Bowie's 26th album 
Cher has donated thousands of bottles of water to residents of Flint, Mich., as the city struggles with a drinking water crisis linked to lead contamination. Cher has reportedly paid for more than 180,000 bottles of water to be shipped to Flint beginning on Jan. 17, calling the situation "a tragedy of staggering proportion and shocking that it's happening in the middle of our country." Flint's 100,000 residents haven't had safe water to drink and bathe in since 2014, when officials began drawing water from the Flint River as a cost-saving measure. However, the city did not treat corrosive water properly, which led to metal leaching from old pipes. - AP, 1/16/16...... Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer has announced he'll be opening up a new coffee shop in Nort Attleboro, Mass., just 40 miles outside of Boston, in April. Kramer says the 1,500 square-foot facility will serve up organic coffee and have a rock 'n' roll theme, with Kramer's drum kit and other Aerosmith memorabilia on display. Kramer has already put his name on a line of organic coffee, according to his business parter Frank Cimler, and they hope the business will be the first in string of coffeehouses with a "rock star edge." - AP, 1/16/16...... Actor Tim Curry, who played Dr. Frank N Furter in the original 1975 
A one-night-only Neil Young film event, "An Evening with Neil Young," will take place in theaters across the U.S. on Feb. 29 featuring two Young films and feature a Q&A with Young hosted by director Cameron Crowe. The Young-starred, co-directed and co-written 1982 film Human Highway will be followed by Young's 1979 concert film, Rust Never Sleeps, and capped off with a live Q&A. - Billboard, 1/14/16...... Veteran soul singer Patti LaBelle, 71, has reportedly struck up a romance with the drummer in her band, Eric Seats, who is 30 years her junior. "She tried to keep it quiet," a source told the website Dailymail.com. "But everyone around her has figured things out now. She's completely smitten with him and they spend so much time together." The source claims LaBelle and the 41-year-old Seats first met years ago, when he was hired to be her drummer, and he helped "heal her broken heart" after the end of a previous relationship. Seats, an accomplished musician, has also toured with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Mary J. Blige and Missy Elliot. - WENN.com, 1/13/16...... Pete Huttlinger, best known for being the lead guitarist in John Denver's band, died on Jan. 15 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville after suffering a stroke. He was 54. Huttlinger, the youngest son of a former White House correspondent named Joseph Bernard Huttlinger, graduated with honors from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and moved to Nashville to begin his musical career. Ten years later he connected with Denver after a producer heard him playing on a recording session. Huttlinger toured with Denver over the next four years and played on his various recordings. He would go on to tour with such artists as LeAnn Rimes and John Oates. As a solo artist, Huttlinger recorded more than 15 albums. - Billboard, 1/16/16...... Giorgio Gomelsky, best known as the first manager of the Rolling Stones, died on Jan. 13 after a battle with cancer. He was 82. The Soviet-born and Swiss-raised Mr. Gomelsky originally moved to England to be a filmmaker, but became in London's London's burgeoning blues scene led by Alexis Korner and the as yet little known Rolling Stones. He opened the Crawdaddy Club where the Stones were essentially the house band and began managing their career, but by May of 1963 he had been disloged by Andrew Loog Oldham as their manager. Mr. Gomelsky then shifted his attention to managing The Yardbirds and began booking them at the Crawdaddy, along with other British acts like Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll and Gong. Mr. Gomelsky moved to New York in 1978 and settled into a building on 24th St. in Chelsea that later was converted into an underground club know as the Green Door. - Billboard, 1/14/16...... 
Acclaimed British actor Alan Rickman, one of the best-loved and most warmly admired British actors of the past 30 years, died in London on Jan. 14 after a battle with cancer. He was 69. Rickman, who rose to fame in Hollywood as the sharp-tongued baddie Hans Gruber in the first Die Hard film, was much-loved on both sides of the Atlantic, later adding to his list of on-screen antagonists when he played the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Price of Thieves, for which he won a BAFTA, and finding a new generation of fans as Professor Snape in the Harry Potter series. Other memorable roles included playing Metatron -- the voice of God -- in Dogma, as a deceased over in Truly Madly Deeply, and as Col. Brandon in Sense and Sensibility. Although Rickman would never win an Oscar, he would add to his BAFTA win for Robin Hood with a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, both for his lead role in HBO's 1996 TV film Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny. Rickman is survived by his wife Rima Horton, who he met as a teenager and married in New York in 2012. - The Hollywood Reporter, 1/14/16...... Actor Dan Haggerty, best known as the lead character in the 1974 TV movie The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams and the subsequent 
Paul McCartney was one of the estimated 100 million Facebook interactions who remembered the rock luminary on his Facebook page: "Very sad news to wake up to on this raining morning. David was a great star and I treasure the moments we had together. His music played a very strong part in British musical history and I'm proud to think of the huge influence he has had on people all around the world," Sir Paul posted on Jan. 11. John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono remembered Bowie on her website as being something of a father figure to the couple's son, Sean, after the former Beatle was gunned down in Dec.1980: "John and David respected each other. They were well matched in intellect and talent. As John and I had very few friends we felt David was as close as family." Bowie's record label, Columbia, posted "We are deeply saddened by the loss of David Bowie. It was an honor and a privilege to release his music to the world." On Twitter, a massive number of over 4.3 million tweets poured in worldwide, with the title track from Blackstar clocking more than 5 hours as the service's most shared and discussed track. Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger posted that Bowie was "always an inspiration to me and a true original," while Bowie's first wife, Angie Bowie, told a TV news crew that "I just feel like an era has ended with his passing. I'm so very sad... The stardust is gone." Traditional press outlets across the world also covered the news, with the U.K.'s Daily Mirror announcing "The stars look very different today... The world mourns a legend," and the Daily Telegraph illustrating its daily edition with Aladdin Sane-era photographs. Thousands of Bowie fans gathered in the star's birthplace of Brixton, London on Jan. 11 to celebrate his life, with people playing and singing such Bowie songs as "Heroes," "Rebel Rebel", "Starman" and "Suffragette City" on harmonica and acoustic guitars. 
Meanwhile, Blackstar is on track to be Bowie's first No. 1 album on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart, with industry forecasters saying the LP could sell upwards of 130,000 albums in the week ending Jan. 14, and debut at debut at No. 1 on the same chart in the week dated Jan. 30 (Bowie's highest-charting album so far was his previous one, 2013's The Next Day, which debuted and peaked at No. 2). In the U.K., OfficialCharts.com is predicting Blackstar will also top the charts there to become Bowie's 10th chart-topping LP in his native country. On the streaming services and online retailers, streams of Bowie songs surged 2,700% after the news of his passing broke, and digital editions of Bowie albums are also being scooped up by fans on iTunes and Amazon.com. Blackstar skyrocketed to No. 1 on the iTunes Store's constantly updated chart, with his Best of Bowie collection at No. 2, and on Amazon, Blackstar is only being outsold by Adele's new album, 25. Meanwhile, sources close to Bowie have revealed that the singer "died from liver cancer" after "surviving six heart attacks." Writer Wendy Leigh, who published a biography about Bowie in 2014, claims that the star had suffered a series of heart attacks prior to his passing. "He didn't just battle cancer| he had six heart attacks in recent years. I got this from somebody very close to him," Leigh told BBC News. And the New York Times is reporting that New York's Carnegie Hall will present a memorial concert in tribute to David Bowie and his legacy (the concert was already in the works before he died, but will now be a memorial). Among the confirmed artists to perform thus far are The Roots, Cyndi Lauper, Ann Wilson of Heart, and the Mountain Goats. Tony Visconti -- who produced Bowie's last album Blackstar -- is reportedly assembling the house band. - Billboard/New Musical Express, 1/12/16...... The life of singer Natalie Cole was celebrated during a memorial service at the West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles on Jan. 11, with such R&B icons as Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, Gladys Knight, Eddie Levert of The O'Jays, Mary Wilson and Freda Payne attending. Also on hand was longtime friend Chaka Khan, who was expected to perform but was under the weather. One of the service's more touching moments, noted one attendee, was Wonder's delivery of the Lord's Prayer. Cole, the daughter of popular music icon Nat "King" Cole, died on New Year's Eve at age 65 of pulmonary arterial hypertension, which led to heart failure. - Billboard, 1/11/16...... 
Former Pink Floyd guitarist/singer David Gilmour has topped Billboard Hot Tours list of top-grossing tours for the first week of January with $25.7 million in ticket sales revenue from the South American leg of his 2015-2016 world tour. Gilmour is on the road supporting his latest album, 
In related news, actor/comedian Pat Harrington, Jr., who portrayed the farcically macho building superintendent Dwayne Schneider in the original One Day at a Time series, died on Jan. 6 of as yet undisclosed causes. He was 86. Although billed as a supporting actor on One Day at a Time, Mr. Harrington provided such welcome comic relief that the program's popularity and longevity -- it aired on CBS from 1975 to 1984 -- was owed as much to him as to anyone. Years afterward, producer Norman Lear said Mr. Harrington "turned out to be the comic strength of the show." Born in Manhattan on Aug. 13, 1929, Mr. Harrington went to a Catholic military school and graduated from Fordham University, where he also later received a master's degree in political philosophy. After serving in the Air Force, he began working in the NBC mail room, a job he parlayed into a junior advertising salesman position for the network. Before gaining fame as Schneider, Mr. Harrington worked in nightclubs, released comedy albums, and appeared in several made-for-TV movies, including The Affair, The Healers, Let's Switch and Savage. A seasoned comic performer, Mr. Harrington often entertained clients at Toots Shor's, the Manhattan watering hole, where he had his greatest success conjuring a fictional Italian immigrant named Guido Panzini, part of a gag he honed over many years and many drinks. - The Washington Post, 1/8/16...... R&B singer Otis Clay, a Blues Hall of Fame musician who also was a community activist on Chicago's West Side, died of a heart attack on Jan. 8. He was 73. Clay had been preparing an upcoming gospel tour and had been nominated for two Blues Music Awards -- one for his album with Billy Price and one for soul blues music artist. Clay's manager, Miki Mulvehil, said Clay was not only a great musician but a humanitarian, who often performed his 1993 standard, "When the Gates Swing Open" for funerals. - AP, 1/9/16...... Early '60s rock & roll singer Troy Shondell, whose song "Kissin' at the Drive-In" became a popular tune at drive-in movie theaters, died on Jan. 7 at a nursing facility in Picayune, Miss, of complications related to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. He was 76. Shondell hit the Billboard charts in 1961 with "This Time (We're Really Breaking Up)," which spent four months on the Billboard Top 100 singles chart in 1961 and also charted on the UK singles chart. He later became a songwriter and publisher in Nashville, Tenn. - AP, 1/9/16...... Robert Balser, who served as the animation director for the Beatles' 1968 film Yellow Submarine and on the Saturday morning Jackson 5 cartoons of the early 1970s, died on Jan. 11 of complications from respiratory failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 88. More than 200 artists were under Mr. Balser's supervision on the surreal Yellow Submarine, a vividly colored film set in the paradise of Pepperland. The production that took 11 months to complete on a budget of less than $1 million. Mr. Balser also partnered with graphic design legend Saul Bass on the seven-minute, end-of-film animated title sequence for Michael Anderson's star-studded Around the World in 80 Days (1956), and he helmed the otherworldly "Den" sequence for Heavy Metal in 1981. - Billboard, 1/7/16.
Legendary British singer/songwriter/actor David Bowie, one of the most iconic and influential rock stars of the 1970s and beyond whose stature can perhaps only be matched by Bob Dylan, died on Jan. 10 after a private 18-month battle with cancer, his publicist has announced. He was 69. "David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family's privacy during their time of grief," his rep posted on Twitter. Bowie, who excelled at glam-rock, art-rock, soul, hard rock, dance pop, punk and electronica during his amazing and eclectic 40-plus-year career, died just days after the release of his 25th album 
His early semi-hits as a pop singer, including "Love You Till Tuesday," "Rubber Band," and "The Laughing Gnome" (an embarrassing novelty recorded reissued by Decca and became a Top 10 U.K. hit in 1973) showed a theatrical bias and heavy debt to the phrasing of British singer/actor Anthony Newley. In 1969, he released Space Oddity (originally titled Man of Words Man of Music), which although an undisciplined album, nevertheless possessed a freshness and individuality that would later bear fruit. The title track of Space Oddity saw the artist break through into the U.K. Top Five (and when reissued in 1976 in the U.K. it even topped the charts), and after a brief "retirement" to run the Arts Lab in South London, he returned to the studio in 1970 to cut the powerful, doom-ladened LP, The Man Who Sold the World, which many critics count among his finest works. His taste for rock returned, and he began to play occasional dates first as a soloist with an acoustic guitar and later with the as-yet unnamed Spiders From Mars -- Mick Ronson (guitar), Trevor Bolder (bass), and Woody Woodmansey (drums). It was at this point that Bowie was beginning to indulge in his taste for outrageous clothing, posing in ankle-length dresses with his model wife Angie Bowie and their child, Zowie. After 1971's 
During this period, he also worked with other artists including Lou Reed and Mott the Hoople, and in late 1972 he undertook an extensive U.S. tour with the Spiders, the experience of which he used to write material for his May 1973 LP, 
He then returned to the U.K. for the first time in three years before settling in Berlin, where he lived in semi-reclusion, studying art, painting, and recording with Brian Eno. His work in this period, known as the "Berlin trilogy," was comprised of 
In 1992, Bowie married Somilian supermodel Iman, and the following year he recorded Black Tie White Noise which he called his "wedding present to his wife." Although it received generally positive reviews, it failed to excite the public. In 1995, he recorded Outside with Eno, and toured with Nine Inch Nails as his opening act. The following year, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and returned to the studio to record the techno-influenced Earthling, and followed that with two more albums, 1999's hours... and 2002's Heathen. He was relatively quiet between the years of 2004 and 2012, reemerging in 2013 with the album