Ronnie James Dio, Rock Singer, Dies at 67

New York Times

Ronnie James Dio, a singer with the bands Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Dio, whose powerful, semioperatic vocal style and attachment to demonic imagery made him one of the best-loved figures in classic heavy metal, died on Sunday morning, according to an announcement on his Web site by his wife, Wendy. He was 67.

No cause was given in the announcement, but Mr. Dio had been suffering from stomach cancer, and recently his band Heaven and Hell canceled its summer tour because of his health. The Houston Chronicle reported that Mr. Dio was being treated at a hospital in Houston.

Malcom McLaren, Former Sex Pistols Manager, Dies

Billboard

Famed rock 'n' roll raconteur Malcom McLaren, best known as the manager of the Sex Pistols, died Thursday (Apr. 8) in New York City at the age of 64.

McLaren's spokesman, Les Molloy, told the U.K.'s Independent that McLaren had been battling cancer "for some time, but recently had been in full health, which then rapidly deteriorated." Molloy said McLaren's body will be buried in London's Highgate Cemetery.

McLaren was born into a working class family in London's Stoke Newington section. After attending art college, he and designer Vivienne Westwood opened a Kings Road clothing store in 1971 called Let It Rock, later renamed Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die. Having traveled to New York in 1972, McLaren began making stage clothes for the New York Dolls and subsequently managed the group.

National Record Store Day - April 17

10 Connects.com

What started as a simple celebration of the independent, locally owned record store has blossomed into the most of exciting day of the year for vinyl collectors and music fans of every persuasion.

It's Record Store Day, and for this year's installment, music shops coast-to-coast will be offering a treasure trove of exclusive and limited-edition new releases and reissues from over 100 artists, including the Rolling Stones, Wilco, Bruce Springsteen, the Beastie Boys, Soundgarden, R.E.M., Sonic Youth, Ani DiFranco, Dave Matthews and more. Even both Elvises (Costello and Presley) are in on the action.

A Rock and Roll Dinosaur Rolls On

Wall Street Journal

During the eight years when Peter Wolf was putting together his new album "Midnight Souvenirs," he labored over which track should go where on the CD. His friends told him not to bother, nobody worries about that stuff anymore—everyone's shuffling playlists on their iPods anyway.

Mr. Wolf was adamant, and took great care to work out the best song sequence for the record, which comes out April 6. "I come from an era where an album is an album," Mr. Wolf explains on a recent afternoon at a chi-chi French bistro he's been coming to for years on Manhattan's Upper East Side. "Because things have changed, it doesn't mean my approach changed."

Mr. Wolf, now 64 years old and the former lead singer of the J. Geils Band, is a dinosaur. But he's a member of a select breed of dinosaurs, the few who wrote the history of rock and roll since the 1960s—and are still contributing to it. He's not as well known as Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones or Van Morrison, but he's been a rock star for more than four decades and has crossed paths with all of them many times. He probably couldn't fill a medium-size concert hall, but he's still making music that goes beyond rehashing the greatest hits of yore. He's rock's elder Renaissance Man—not just as a walking encyclopedia but as an ultimate fan who, Zelig-like, lived through pretty much the whole thing.

Ronnie Wood Gets Back to Guitar Roots With Radio Show

Spinner

Ronnie Wood is probably keen to focus on his music after becoming a tabloid staple for all the wrong reasons. From Friday, April 9, he's getting his chance with the launch of a brand new weekly radio show in the UK.

The hour-long 'Ronnie Wood Show' on Absolute Classic Rock will see the Rolling Stones guitarist -- also a former member of the Faces and the Jeff Beck Group -- present a selection of tracks from the canon of rock 'n' roll inspired by his career and anecdotes from his years on the road.

The programme description says Wood "may get distracted or lost in the music but every record he plays comes with a story -- a memory, a tale of mischief or inspiration."

Jeff Beck interview: no regrets from reluctant guitar god

Telegraph.co.uk

A phone rings in the middle of my interview with Jeff Beck. “F--- off!’ he snarls, comically. But then he looks closer at the digital display. “Oops, sorry, it’s Eric, I better take this.”

It is Eric Clapton, Beck’s fellow guitar god, calling to discuss a planned performance together. “It’s in D, Eric. Nah, don’t worry about that, I’ll do all the riffs,” chatters Beck. “You just play fills and solos. I’ll do everything else. We’ll give it a shot, anyway, if it doesn’t work, heave ho.”

It is a fascinating glimpse into the private world of guitar heroes. Not least because, at 65, remarkably fit, muscular and alert, it is Beck who appears to be calling the shots with arguably his more celebrated peer, giving some indication why he is so often referred to as the guitarist’s guitarist.

St. Blues Guitar Workshop

I recently discovered a guitar maker on Facebook. St Blues Guitar Workshop has been around for a while but just off my radar. Here's a snip from the website.

St. Blues Guitars was born in the heart of the Delta, where country tangled with the blues and spawned the true birthplace of Rock & Roll, Memphis. On the street now called Elvis Presley Boulevard, across the way from Graceland, Mike Ladd and Tom Keckler were doing something magical with guitars at Mike Ladd’s Guitar City. Seems whenever these boys laid hands on someone’s guitar, it just played a whole lot better. Hell, they even customized one for the King ordered by his father. You can see him play it in “Aloha From Hawaii”.

After Mike Ladd’s Guitar City, Keckler worked as the guitar guru at the legendary Strings and Things music store, where his skills and legend continued to grow. Here is where the “Bluesmaster” body was first designed, built from a telecaster esquire that Keckler was looking to modify.

In 1978, Keckler joined Tom Anderson and David Schecter out in California to turn Schecter Guitar Research from a parts supplier to a guitar company. But anyone who’s ever lived in Memphis knows you can’t stay away long and in 1983 he came home to continue his guitar work, and formed St. Blues Guitars with the founders of Strings and Things in 1984. Using the body shape that Tom had created some years before, the first St. Blues model was created and not surprisingly named the “Bluesmaster”. Sometimes you hit it just right. This unique guitar stands up to any classic design, and people who know a great guitar were quick to notice. Soon you would find a Bluesmaster in the hands of Eric Clapton, Bono, Albert King, Elliot Easton, Marshall Crenshaw, Glen Frey, Billy Gibbons... We could go on but this isn’t a book.

EMI music licensing talks falter with Sony

Reuters

EMI Group Ltd is struggling to reach a deal to license its catalogue of recordings, with Sony Corp on the verge of pulling out of discussions with the British music company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The newspaper cited unnamed people familiar with the matter as saying that EMI needed to clinch a licensing deal by Wednesday in order to satisfy a covenant of a loan agreement with Citigroup Inc (C.N).

A cash advance from a music licensing group would help it meet that test, the newspaper said.

Charlie Gillett, Disc Jockey and Historian, Dies at 68

New York Times

Charlie Gillett, who turned his youthful zeal for rock ’n’ roll into an influential career by writing one of the first serious rock histories and, as a disc jockey in London, helping to discover talents like Dire Straits and introduce the new genre of world music, died on Wednesday in London. He was 68.

The British Broadcasting Corporation said he had suffered from an autoimmune disease and died of a heart attack.

As a broadcaster, journalist, author and musicologist, Mr. Gillett (pronounced GILL-et, with a hard G) strove to bring deeper, broader dimensions to people’s appreciation of popular music. His book “The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll” (1970) described how rock evolved from more or less authentic regional styles recorded by independent companies to a vast, homogenized business ruled by major labels.

Music legend Phil Spector roughed up for mouthing off to fellow inmate, says pal Steven Escobar

New York Daily News

Has Phil Spector gotten a bloody taste of jail-yard justice? The hot-tempered music legend is minding his tongue after having several teeth knocked out by a fellow inmate at the state prison in Corcoran, Calif., two Spector confidants tell us.

"Phil has quite a mouth on him," says longtime pal and defender Steven Escobar. "Not everyone understands his humor. He said the wrong thing to the wrong inmate in the yard."

Lacking any of his trusty firearms, Spector wound up with a bruised nose, black eye and the loss of a couple of caps, according to Escobar.

Peter Gabriel deconstructs music, reconstructs world

AFP

Peter Gabriel strips songs to their bare essentials in his latest album, the first in eight years, but he is as passionate about new technologies and saving the world as he is about music.

Looking forward to a concert tour to promote "Scratch My Back", the former Genesis frontman sits shoeless -- "I like big boots but always take them off" -- in a Paris hotel room, chatting about human rights and the music industry.

"The industry," Gabriel, 60, told AFP, "is a corpse but there's lots of interesting things crawling out of it.

"In some ways it reminds me of the early 60s because there wasn't a lot of business then the way we know it, so people could write or rewrite the rules," he said.

Hard-up EMI seeks buyer for Abbey Road studios

iWon News

The long and winding road of Beatles history has taken a new twist.

Cash-strapped music company EMI Group Ltd. is seeking a buyer for Abbey Road, the London studio where the Fab Four recorded some of their most famous songs, a person familiar with the situation said Tuesday.

The person said talks had been going on for several months but a buyer had not yet been found. The individual spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.

A spokesman for EMI refused to comment on the sale bid, which could raise tens of millions of dollars for the struggling label.

Rush drummer uncomfortable with fame

Toronto Sun

Over the years — in addition to his main gig with singer-bassist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson — the celebrated and innovative percussionist has written four non-fiction books about his life, career and travels; released two full-length instructional drum videos; done cartoon voiceovers and film cameos; organized tribute albums and concerts to iconic drummer Buddy Rich; and regularly blogs, reviews books and even shares recipes on his website. Most recently, he recorded a drum-based version of the iconic The Hockey Theme for TSN and shot a video to go with it, playing a custom-made kit bearing the insignias of all 30 NHL teams.

To publicize his latest project, the intensely private Peart — who retreated more or less permanently from the media after the tragic deaths of his daughter and first wife in the late ’90s — emerged from hiding to talk with QMI Agency. And while he still shies away from personal questions, the personable ex-pat was happy to chat about everything from the future of Rush and the integrity of the album, to parenthood and pop music.

Daltrey, Who unhappy with performance

ESPN

The Who's medley of five songs -- shortened versions of the classics -- were "Pinball Wizard" out of the gate, sliding into "Baba O'Reilly," "Who Are You," a few bars of "See Me" (from the "Tommy" album) and then "Won't Get Fooled Again."

Looking at the 65-year-old Daltrey and 64-year-old guitarist Pete Townshend, the two surviving members of the original quartet, you could tell they weren't necessarily enjoying their moment in the Sun Life Stadium. And that's with family members in skyboxes, all the herbal tea you can drink and a stadium packed with 70,000 fans.

With only 12 minutes to perform, they had no time to talk to the audience. No time to mention the Super Bowl. No time to mention Miami. And no time to thank the audience.

I am still trying to understand why the Super Bowl organization chose to have The Who provide the halftime entertainment. I like the band and respect their contribution to modern music but this one has me baffled.

EMI parent seeking cash to avoid default

Washington Post

The private equity firm that bought the recording label of the Beatles and Coldplay needs more cash from investors to avoid a possible foreclosure by Citigroup Inc.

The problems for British financier Guy Hands were detailed in a report that was audited by KPMG and released Thursday. Hands' private equity firm, Terra Firma, bought EMI Group PLC through a separate company, Maltby Capital Ltd., for 2.4 billion pounds (equivalent to $3.8 billion now) in 2007.

Maltby directors said in the report the company needs to raise money by June 14 or risk defaulting on its loans. Maltby said it may require more than 105 million pounds ($165 million) to last through this year.

Men At Work's Colin Hay hits out over plagiarism ruling

BBC News

Men at Work's Colin Hay has issued an angry statement calling the Down Under plagiarism case "opportunistic greed".

Earlier this week, a federal court in Sydney ruled that Men at Work had plagiarised Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree in its 1983 hit, Down Under.

"It's all about money, make no mistake," said Down Under author Hay.

But Norm Lurie, owner of Larrikin Music who filed the case, said it highlighted "the importance of checking before using other people's copyrights."

Flashback: My First Home Studio

Here's a pic showing me in my first home studio setup. I believe this photo was taken in the summer of 1987.

“The Day the Music Died” Remembered

Long Island Press.com

Today, 51 years ago, was “The Day the Music Died,” the phrase immortalized in American folk singer/songwriter Don McLean’s 1972 hit “American Pie.”

The tune has been called a metaphor for the loss of innocence in America, inspired by, and about, the untimely deaths of rock and rollers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, Jr. They were killed in a plane crash Feb. 3, 1959 along with the plane’s pilot, Roger Paterson, in a snowy field in the middle of Iowa just a short while after 1 a.m.

Music's lost decade: Sales cut in half

CNN Money

If you watched the Grammy Awards Sunday night, it would appear all is well in the recording industry. But at the end of last year, the music business was worth half of what it was ten years ago and the decline doesn't look like it will be slowing anytime soon.

Total revenue from U.S. music sales and licensing plunged to $6.3 billion in 2009, according to Forrester Research. In 1999, that revenue figure topped $14.6 billion.

Although the Recording Industry Association of America will report its official figures in the early spring, the trend has been very clear: RIAA has reported declining revenue in nine of the past 10 years, with album sales falling an average of 8% each year. Last decade was the first ever in which sales were lower going out than coming in.

Music Piracy Case will Go to Round 3

PC World

The long music piracy fight between the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Minnesota native Jammie Thomas-Rasset shows no sign of ending anytime soon.

RIAA spokeswoman Cara Duckworth last week said the industry association is beginning preparations for a third trial in the case after Thomas-Rasset rejected a $25,000 settlement offer it made earlier this week.