Thursday, May 15, 2008

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Pony Performance

Bruce Springsteen has been keeping busy during the E Street Band's break between their North American and European tours. Tuesday night he was on stage at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park for a local school benefit. Backed by Bobby Bandiera of Asbury Jukes fame and his band, Springsteen was joined by his wife, Patti Scialfa, and Southside Johnny for a night of originals and covers, including "6-3-4 -- 5-7-8-9," "Seven Nights to Rock" and "Twist and Shout." Among the originals were "Girls in Their Summer Clothes," "Cover Me," "Rendezvous," "The Fever," "From Small Things," "Pink Cadillac" and the rarely performed "Man's Job."

ERIC CLAPTON: Helps Out a Legend

Eric Clapton is among the musicians who've contributed songs to the new album by soul legend Solomon Burke. Clapton wrote the title track to Like a Fire, and collaborated with Burke on "Thank You." The album comes out June 10th.

CSNY: Doc in Theaters

In July, the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young documentary C-S-N-Y Deja Vu will be screened in 15 cities and released on video-on-demand and online streaming video. The D-V-D will hit stores in the fall, just before the presidential election. The documentary, shot during the band's 2006 Freedom of Speech tour, showed the audience reaction to Neil Young's anti-Iraq War and anti-Bush songs, as well as interviews with soldiers and others affected by the war, interspersed with performance footage.

BAD COMPANY: Bad Blood?

Apparently the recent post on the Bad Company website about "cover bands attempting to pass [themselves] off" as Bad Company doesn't refer to your average cover band. The band in question is Bad Company 2008, led by original Bad Co. guitarist Mick Ralphs and featuring former Bad Co. replacements Robert Hart on vocals, Dave "Bucket" Colwell on guitar, Jaz Lochrie on bass, and two guest drummers -- Harry James and Smiley. The post on the website goes on to say, "The name is only allowed to be used with the consent of the four original members and consent has not been given. Our lawyers will be taking action against all parties involved -- musicians, promoters, agents and sponsors." The original Bad Company was singer Paul Rodgers, guitarist Ralphs, drummer Simon Kirke and bass player Boz Burrell. They last toured in 1999. Rodgers and Kirke, billing themselves as Bad Company with Colwell and Lochrie, last toured together in 2002. Burrell died in 2006. Ralphs and this latest line-up got together last year and were performing as X-COM until the recent name change.

RUSH: Original Drummer Dies

John Rutsey, the original drummer in Rush, died last weekend, but the cause has not been disclosed. He was 55. In 1968, Rutsey teamed with guitarist Alex Lifeson and bass player Jeff Jones, who was soon replaced by Geddy Lee. Rutsey played on Rush's 1974 self-titled debut, but then left the group for health reasons. He was diabetic and could not go on extended tours. He was replaced by Neil Peart. A few years back, Lifeson told us he had re-established a friendship with Rutsey in the late '80s and trained together as Rutsey had become a bodybuilder who competed on an amateur level for a while. Rush are back on the road Tuesday in Moline, Illinois.

LED ZEPPELIN: It Was a Joke

David Coverdale insists he was joking when he hinted that Whitesnake would be going on tour with Led Zeppelin. He was recently quoted in the U-K magazine Classic Rock as saying he was waiting for Led Zep to offer the opening slot on their much-rumored reunion tour. Though Classic Rock thought his comment was tongue-in-cheek, other media outlets took the story seriously. So Coverdale, who teamed with Jimmy Page in the early '90s in Coverdale-Page, has contacted Classic Rock to set the record straight. He says, "What world tour, we ask ourselves? We're already out on our Good to Be Bad world tour, thank you very much... I assure you there is no foundation in this. Why, after all the charming back-and-forth between one Monsieur Plant and oneself through the years, who could imagine such a premise possible? Not me, squire." And of course, the Zeppelin tour remains just a rumor.

BOSTON: More Than a Dream

Rehearsals have begun this week in Massachusetts for Boston's first tour since the suicide of singer Brad Delp last year. Taking his place are Michael Sweet of Stryper and Tommy DeCarlo from the Home Depot in Charlotte, North Carolina. DeCarlo is the Delp sound-alike who sent M-P-3 recordings of himself doing Boston songs to the band's leader, Tom Scholz. This is the first band that the 43-year-old DeCarlo has been in, so singing for long periods of time is new to him. But he tells us that as the rehearsals go on, his voice "actually gets a little stronger." Boston start their tour on June 6th in Canada with Styx opening a number of shows starting June 13th in Minnesota.

IN OTHER NEWS

KISS were presented with a plaque for worldwide sales in excess of 100-million albums the other night at their show in Verona, Italy.

Mark Knopfler starts his U-K tour tomorrow night in Birmingham, which concludes with six nights at the Royal Albert Hall in London at the end of the month.

Brian May says he is one step closer to saving the U-K Internet radio station Planet Rock. "It has been a much bigger set of variables to sort out than any of us realized -- and even now I can't tell you that it's certain there will be a deal struck, but the will is there."

Songs from Van Halen and the Eagles will be featured in the fourth installment of the Guitar Hero video game, due out in the fall.

You don't have to be alive to have a MySpace page. The late Traffic drummer-singer Jim Capaldi has one -- MySpace.com/JCapaldi.

The Turtles have sued Capitol Records over rapper Ice Cube's sampling of their 1968 song "Buzzsaw."

Entertainment News

JESSICA SIMPSON: The Fat Lady Has Sung

One day after Jessica Simpson's reps flatly denied that the singer had been dumped by football-star boyfriend Tony Romo, sources in the Simpson camp have confirmed the split. Dallas Morning News gossip columnist Alan Peppard writes, "After taking several oaths not to divulge my sources, two people close to Tony and Jess have told me that the glam couple is over, splitsville, kaput, put a fork in it."

JENNIFER ANISTON, JOHN MAYER: John Stringing Jen Along?

John Mayer knows how to play the guitar -- but is he also just playing Jennifer Aniston? One of the singer's pals tells O-K magazine that it sure looks that way, saying, "John says that Jen and he have a physical connection as deep as their spiritual one, but he also said he's categorizing this as a summer fling for now. He's never been faithful to anyone." But a guest at the wrap party for Jen's new flick, Marley and Me, tells a different story, saying the two were "holding hands and being extremely cuddly, kissing and walking with their arms around each other. They spent the majority of their time sitting on a couch in the courtyard, away from everyone else, foreheads touching, talking to one another." And Jen was in the house Tuesday night snapping pictures when John played a concert in Orlando, Florida. She planted a big fat smooch on him before he headed out to play an encore of -- wait for it -- Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'."

HALLE BERRY: Ring Tones

Even though Halle Berry insists that, baby or no baby, she and boyfriend Gabriel Aubry have no intention of getting married, she's been sporting what looks like a diamond wedding band on the ring finger of her left hand. What gives? Shopping. A so-called "source close to the Oscar-winner" tells People magazine, "Halle just saw it and thought it was beautiful, so she bought it for herself."

NICOLE RICHIE: Fiance Handling Lohan?

Nicole Richie's fiance Joel Madden seems to have a wandering eye -- and hands to match. Star magazine reports that Nicole's sometime B-F-F Paris Hilton caught the Good Charlotte rocker in a compromising situation with Lindsay Lohan -- while Nicole was at home taking care of the couple's infant daughter. A source tells the mag that Nic tried to call to check on her beau, but "he was so zeroed in on Lindsay, he never heard his cell ring. Nicole felt so incredibly helpless and upset that she threw her phone against the wall in a rage."

ANGELINA JOLIE: Eating for Three

Angelina Jolie has finally fessed up that she and Brad Pitt are expecting twins. For those keeping score, that will make six Jolie-Pitts -- the adopted Zahara, Maddox and Pax, the natural-born Shiloh and the pair in the oven.

DUANE "DOG" CHAPMAN: The Return

It looks like A-&-E has its Dog back. Duane "Dog" Chapman and his show Dog the Bounty Hunter are going to be coming back to the cable network next month. A-&-E will begin airing reruns of Dog the Bounty Hunter on June 25th, and new episodes will follow a few weeks later. Chapman lost his show last year after a recorded phone call involving a racist rant was taped and sold by his son to a tabloid, which made the tape public. The conversation involved Chapman using the N-word in referring to his son's girlfriend, who is black. Chapman pleaded that he wasn't a racist, and A-&-E ultimately decided that he deserved a second chance. -

O.J. SIMPSON: "You're Not Hired"

Donald Trump confirms that O-J Simpson was considered for the cast of the next edition of Celebrity Apprentice. The creatively coiffed real estate tycoon tells Extra, "Let's say that N-B-C, when I mentioned O-J Simpson, had a heart attack. They weren't thrilled. I'm not saying I would have [cast him] either, but it was certainly somebody that would be interesting." Simpson, the author of a best-selling book about how he would have killed ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson -- if that were the sort of thing that interested him -- is awaiting trial in Las Vegas on armed robbery and kidnapping charges.

DENISE RICHARDS: The Sambora Affair

Denise Richards, who has a reality show bowing later this month, came clean about her relationship with Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora. Richards said that she and Sambora maintained a friendship after her relationship with ex-pal Heather Locklear hit the skids. When Richards and Charlie Sheen were divorcing, so were Locklear and Sambora. She and Sambora were also caring for ailing parents at the time. She says that she "followed my heart," but insists she did not interfere with the Sambora-Locklear marriage. Although she and Sambora are no longer hot and heavy, they remain friends...which is more than she can say about ex-hubby Sheen. She says that they don't speak, and that he cut off child support for their two children last week

DENNIS QUAID: On the Hil

Dennis Quaid was on Capitol Hill yesterday -- to testify to Congress on the need to hold drug companies accountable through lawsuits. Quaid is suing the maker of the blood thinner that almost killed his newborn twins, when they were administered a dose more than a thousand-times the proper strength. At issue is a move by F-D-A regulators to step into lawsuits on the side of drug companies. Quaid testified that if all such lawsuits are pre-empted "it will basically make us uninformed and uncompensated lab rats... The courts are often the only path to justice."

MIKE MYERS: Hindu Hubbub

Mike Myers' latest comedy, The Love Guru, isn't being welcomed with open arms in the land of gurus -- India. Some Hindu groups are demanding that the film be banned for making fun of the world's third-largest religion. The spoof, which has the tagline "His karma is huge," stars Myers as "Guru Pitka," a self-help swami who specializes in romantic problems. The film co-stars Ben Kingsley, who won an Oscar as Gandhi, and features a cameo from real India-born self-help guru Deepak Chopra. A Hindu group says that, without changes, the film will "hurt the feelings of the worldwide spiritual and Hindu community."

CHARLTON HESTON: Take Two Tablets..

God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, and the tablets haven't survived. But the Ten Commandments that the movie God gave to Charlton Heston in the 1956 Biblical epic can be yours -- if the price is right. A pair of fake granite tablets used in director Cecil B. DeMille's movie is going on the auction block later this summer. They're expected to fetch up to 60-thousand dollars. Also going under the hammer -- the five-piece outfit Heston wore three years later in the Oscar-winning Ben-Hur. Heston died last month at the age of 84.

AMERICAN IDOL: David and David

It'll be the two Davids in the finals of American Idol next week -- David Archuleta and David Cook made it through, and Syesha Mercado is on her way home to Florida. The trio opened last night's show with the McFadden and Whitehead classic "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now," then yielded the stage to a fiery-haired Fantasia, who did her hit "Bore Me." During the behind-the-scenes features, David Cook revealed that he had gone to the American Idol tryouts to support his brother Andrew and threw his hat into the ring only after the cameras took footage of him backstage. Unlike in previous weeks, host Ryan Seacrest didn't divulge who was "safe" or in the Bottom Two, but after 56-million votes, America said goodbye to Syesha. She closed the show with Alicia Keys "If I Ain't Got You."