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Monday, April 23, 2007

Tuesday Rock Roundup

Doris Richards, the 91-year-old mother of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, died Saturday in England. The band's spokesperson revealed the news Monday afternoon but did not disclose a cause of death. Richards had kept a vigil at her bedside.

Alice Cooper will publish his autobiography, Golf Monster: A Rock 'n' Roller's 12 Steps to Becoming a Golf Addict, early next month. The book covers his career, his recovery from alcohol abuse, and his love of golf. Professional golfer John Daly says, "Alice writes like he golfs -- straight and right down the middle."

George Thorogood and the Destroyers are assembling a 25th anniversary edition of their Bad to the Bone album for release later this year. They're working on some bonus tracks for the collection, and as a result have had to cancel their show in Nashville this Sunday night. The Destroyers will try to make up the show at a later date. They're in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina tonight and Cherokee, North Carolina on Saturday.

The 40th Anniversary Issue Rolling Stone (the first of three such issues) reports that Ticketmaster is auctioning some of the prime seats for The Police reunion tour for as much as $800. And guitarist Andy Summers acknowledges now that if the tour goes well...during which they are playing new material...that the band might hit a studio and finally put out their sixth album.

Crosby, Stills and Nash have been big supporters of environmental causes for many years, but they have not been invited to play at Live Earth, the 24-hour concert on July 7th that will help fund the fight against global warming. Graham Nash tells Premiere, "We don't exist in the rock and roll world to those people...If we're asked, absolutely. Are we gonna volunteer? Probably not." In any case, Nash supports the cause. "We know what shape this Earth has been in and what dangers face us."

John Mellencamp will entertain 300 wounded men and women of America's Armed Forces with a show inside the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D-C on Friday. Mellencamp says that his performance at the opening of the Center for the Intrepid in San Antonio in January was what inspired him to want to do Friday's show. "It dawned on me what I really wanted to do is lighten the load of the soldiers and workers in the hospital, so why not just play for them?" Friday's show will air live on H-D Net at 8:0o p-m

Def Leppard -- in addition to getting ready for their summer tour with Styx and Foreigner -- is also recording a new album at singer Joe Elliott's home studio in Dublin, Ireland. Elliott tells us it has two working titles -- Songs from the Sparkle Lounge or just Sparkle Lounge. As for the sound of it, he says, "It's a very up-tempo rock album... It's not an album you might think is a typical Def Leppard record with that classic ballad on it." He adds that they plan to release it next year. Def Leppard starts their tour on June 27th in Cincinnati.

Cream singer-bassist Jack Bruce has been honored by his alma mater. Last week the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow opened the Jack Bruce Zone, a space for students to give live performances. Bruce will visit the school and do a short set on May 17th.

Contradicting last week's report in England's' Daily Mirror, a spokesman for Yoko Ono and a source close to Keith Richards tell us that neither will testify as character witnesses for producer Phil Spector in his Los Angeles murder trial. A 12-person jury has been selected and arguments in the trial are expected to get under way on Wednesday. A panel of alternate jurors was to be finalized yesterday.

As we clean up from Earth Day, Kirsten Dunst slams musicians for not taking up enough causes. She laments, "We don't have a Bob Dylan, you know what I mean?" she credits Bono with doing amazing things, but bands today just aren't measuring up in their level of social commitment. "I'm not saying that no bands are doing anything. I'm just saying we don't have the inspirational, like things that just pop out."

NEW ON CD TODAY:

Arctic Monkeys -
Favourite Worst Nightmare
Patti Smith -
Twelve
Various Artists -
A Tribute To Joni Mitchell

NEW ON DVD TODAY:

Deja Vu DVD
Night at the Museum DVD
The Queen DVD
Ironside - The Complete First Season DVD
The Odd Couple - The First Season DVD
One Day at a Time - The Complete First Season DVD
Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series DVD
WKRP in Cincinnati- The Complete First Season DVD