A-ha, Another Level, Björk, Bon Jovi, David Bowie, Bobby Brown, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Ian Dury, Bob Dylan Eurythmics, Bryan Ferry, Macy Gray, Geri Halliwell, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Madness, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Olivia Newton-John, Sinèad O'Connor, Oasis, Marti Pellow, Pet Shop Boys, Prince, Lionel Richie, Jimmy Sommerville, Britney Spears, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Tina Turner, Westlife, Robbie Williams, Paul Young


NEWS JUNE 2000


 

 
 
 

A-ha have released a new single with the title "Summer Moved On" and a new album called "Minor Earth Major Sky", proving that the boys from the 80s are still going strong. Also, their management has taken over a website, previviously owned by a fan of theirs. They're currently touring in various venues around Europe.

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Lead singer Dane Bowers announced in an interview that Another Level will split for good. His words, "They are no longer. It's just turned-out that way. It's just the sort of natural way. It's gone."
Though the band have had success with over a dozen British Top Ten hits in their short career, they were shaken up by Wayne Williams' and Bobak Kinoush's quitting.

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According to news reports Björk was filing a law suit in May to ban the documentary "100 Eyes", which contains behind-the-scenes situations such as Björk's on-set tantrums with Lars Von Trier, (who openly accused her of unprofessionalism at the Cannes Film Festival 2000 and who's also the founder of "Dogme '95") during the making of her debut movie, "Dancer In The Dark". However, she's magically changed her mind and, besides giving the go-ahead for the documentary, agreed to do a joint interview with Von Trier as well. She's also won "Best Actress Award" and the Palm D'Or, the festival's highest price, despite all critizism.

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Jon Bon Jovi 's new album "Crush" is out now as well as their great single "It's My Life". They are currently on tour.

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David Bowie has informed the public via an interview that - him and his model wife Iman expecting their first child in August - is going to put his heavy schedule on hold from now on. He said about singing at the Glastonbury Festival (25th of June), "It is alarming how I enjoy playing the old songs again, for I was determined never to do so. It was driving me insane, singing them in the old days. And being a musician myself, I can sense when some of my colleagues just wade through their shows and don't really want to sing this or that song. I never want my audience to feel that. ... I sing with enthusiasm, and and I believe my audience is capable of picking up that enthusiasm and using it for themselves."

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Bobby Brown , Whitney Houston's husband, has finally publicly admitted that he's an alcoholic during his court case in Florida and is seeking help by doing a therapy while imprisoned at the Joseph Conte Detention Centre, Florida.

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Westlife , having recorded a cover Phil Collins' "Against All Odds", have completed a duet with Mariah Carey. Bryan McFadden said that Mariah, "... produced the song herself. There was only aengineer in the studio to help her. She's an incredibly talented woman". He also revealed that they all got a bit drunk to settle their nerves and to relax for the session.

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Celine Dion and husband Rene Angelil are expecting a baby and are said to be thrilled at the unexpected news.
Dion, 32, had to undergo 2 small operations a few weeks ago at a fertility clinic to improve her chances of becoming pregnant. Also, they have only just had the confirmation that Angelil is beating his cancer successfully.

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Material written by the late Ian Dury will be released as a "posthumous album". According to his manager, Mr. King, Dury has never stopped writing songs, even at his worst times leading up to his death from cancer in March 2000.
Dotmusic had opened up a special site dedicated to the Ian Dury beneficial concert which was staged on June 16th 2000 at the Brixton Academy. The show - with a line-up of The Blockheads (Ian Dury's own band), Robbie Williams, The Clash, Madness and lots of others - was broadcast live via Dotmusic's own site.

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Reports have it that Bob Dylan is gonna tour the UK and Ireland as part of his major European tour in autumn. He will be playing with foremer Grateful Dead member Phil Lesh & Friends. The full dates:
 

9th September   The Point Dublin
16th September   Exhibition Center Aberdeen
17th September   SE & CC Hall Glasgow
19th September   Telewest Arena Newcastle
20th September   NEC Arena Birmingham
22nd September   Sheffield Arena Sheffield
24th September   Cardiff Arena Cardiff
24th September   Guild Hall Portsmouth
25th September   Guild Hall Portsmouth
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Eurythmics have appeared at an Open Air concert in Vienna on June 27th 2000, alongside Macy Gray and many others.

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Bryan Ferry will release a new compilation album on July 10th 2000. The album's entitled "Slave To Love" and consists of records which span the artist's entire career. He recently revealed in an interview that, after 1977, he thought he was no longer good enough to write music and tended to rely on high-level session players. The star was quoted, "once you've written a Do The Strand or an Avalon you can't write another one", and he feels that his later work was very much underrated.

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Macy Gray has taken part in a big Open Air concert in Vienna on June 27th 2000, as well as the Eurythmics and many more.

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Geri Halliwell is supposed to have appeared (no further news on that) as special guest on Saturday, 1st of July, at the G-A-Y celebration at the London Astoria, London. She specially wrote a track, describing her experience of playing at the club in the formation of the Spice Girls, for that album.
Other stars, such as Billie, Bananarama, Dina Carroll, the Honeyz, All Saints and Louise, were set to be at the show, also marking the launch of a double album featuring a host of female divas who have sung there over the last 5 years.

Who lives in a house like this? - a famous catchphrase from the old UK programme "Behind the Keyhole". According to Dotmusic, Geri Halliwell has forked out about £1 million (pounds) to buy a lavish apartment near the exclusive resorts of St. Tropez and Cannes and also close to George Michael's and Sir Elton John's villas. She's said to love the climate there.

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An inmate of ex-convict Bobby Brown, John Puleo, has revealed that Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown are expecting a baby. He told that Brown confided in his inmate whilst they were watching Arista Records' 25th anniversary on television, confessing he couldn't be happier that his wife is pregnant again, though he's scared the baby might be born sick from all the drugs she was taking.

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For her latest video - promoting her new single "It Doesn't Really Matter", part of the soundtrack for movie sequel 'Nutty Professor II' (in which she stars alongside Eddie Murphy) - Janet Jackson is reported to have needed an entire truck load of outfits. Crew members were a bit lost for words when 2 huge trucks - one full of clothes for Janet herself and the other for her dancers - arrived at the set. Janet claimed that she was totally inspired by Michael, as his dressing style and his videos were constantly in her mind.

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Jennifer Lopez has been struck by a £1 million lawsuit by her former agents, The Gold Company, having got rid of them after making it big in Hollywood. She was signed by the agency in 1994 and they alledgedly securing her parts in various successful movies.

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Among many others, such as The Blockheads (Ian Dury's own band), Robbie Williams or The Clash, Madness were playing at the late Ian Dury's beneficial concert, staged on June 16th 2000 at the Brixton Academy. The show was broadcast live via Dotmusic's own site.

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Madonna is said to be more than unhappy, actually outraged by the fact that a demo version of her forthcoming single "Music" (due in autumn) apparently leaked out and got published on the internet for fans to access and download it. It is quite possible that the song might be released earlier now.

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Kylie Minogue is back in talks again with her new single "Spinning Around", released 19/06/00. The video is also finished and quite a raunchy one for that. The Aussie girl is said to be back in top form, having dumped her previous indie style and going back to her pop roots. For the upcoming album called "Light Years" she has asked Robbie Williams and his co-writer as well as another famous pop girl, Paula Abdul, for their cooperation. In return Kylie has joined Robbie on a track for his new album.
On a private note I must say, coincidental enough, I've just had the chance to hear the song and see the video myself and I reckon both will fare well.

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Olivia Newton John is set to perform the theme song, "Dare To Dream" for the Sydney Olympics 2000 in September together with John Farnham. According to rumours she might be taking the famous torch into the stadium as part of the opening ceremony.

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How to get into the news effectively? Take Sinéad O'Connor for example. In a recent interview she's first explained she's straight and then, suddenly, outed herself by admitting she's actually gay, but couldn't quite cope with the matter herself until not long ago.

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Reports have it that Oasis will play a free concert at the Place de la Republique on 21st June, as part of the city's annual Fête de la Musique, despite Liam's brother Noel having walked out on them for the European dates of their tour. In a recent interview Noel Gallagher was quoted as saying that, "Never mind being on the same stage, I can't stand being in the same room as him" and that his brother Liam thought he "is a star and classes himself above anybody else, though that is obviously not the case. Even a star has to live in the real world, walk his dog and wash up the dishes in the morning". Noel however insisted that, nonetheless, Liam is a good singer in a good band.
The feud between the brothers continued when Liam threatened the plans of Noel's solo career by claiming it would be the end of Oasis if he went ahead with his solo album.

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Marti Pellow was selected for a very special guest appearance alongside Suggs from Madness and Lionel Richie at the Party In The Park, Hyde Park, London, on 9/7/2000. Other artists there included Elton John together with the Backstreet Boys, Bon Jovi, The Corrs, Westlife, Kylie Minogue, Christina Aguilera and many more.
Marti is still working on an album in Memphis. He also reminded people of his tour in November. Dates are as follows:

10th & 11th   - Manchester Apollo
13th & 14th   - London Royal Albert Hall
16th   - Nottingham Royal Concert Hall
17th   - Birmingham N.I.A
18th   - Newcastle City Hall
20th & 21st   - Glasgow Clyde Auditorium
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Currently the Pet Shop Boys are performing in various European cities and have also brought out a new song, "Positive Role Model".

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Prince has recently critizised music industry and its bosses, saying that artists usually just have to play along with their wishes and be the fools for music bosses. He spoke out after eventually having freed himself from his own contract with Warner Brothers, claiming that the experience was "like sunshine to a flower". Must've had some positive influence on the man's outlook on things, cause he apparently welcomed his fans into his home at his own birthday celebrations in Paisley Park.

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Lionel Richie has joined Tina Turner as special guest on the North American part of her "Twenty Four Seven Millennium Tour 2000" which took them through several major cities in the USA. Lionel came on stage after Janice Robinson, who sang about 4 songs. Obviously Lionel was great and performed the all-time favourites, such as "Dancing On The Ceiling", "All Night Long", "Say You Say Me", "Easy" and also a few Commodores hits. According to reviews he even received a standing ovation on entering the set which almost left him speechless.

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Jimmy Sommerville is still out and about performing in various places in the USA, Germany and England.

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Britney Spears will try to host the Canadian website YOUtopia.com which will be launched around the end of June 2000. It is said that she's being paid shares and is very much looking forward to her new challenge.

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The New York police officer, Bob Lucente, who condemned Bruce Springsteen's new track "American Skin" has now been urged to resign and is also the target of a hailstorm of criticism.
He apparently appealed to New York cops to boycott the song, which recounts the death of 22-year-old West African immigrant Amadou Diallo at the hands of police. However, his thoughtless comments has prompted outrage and members of the local political infrastructure have called on Lucente to quit his job.

Bruce Springsteen (The Boss) is up to his neck in trouble with his newly released single "American Skin", which is based on the killing of Amadou Diallo in 1999. At the incident police fired 41 shots at the West African immigrant, because they thought he was about to pull out a gun, whereas he was actually trying to retrieve a wallet. New York cops, specially Bob Lucente, president of the New York state chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, have taken it as an insult on their jobs. Mr. Lucente has even gone as far as publicly slagging Springsteen off, calling him names such as "floating fag" in an outrage.
Meanwhile Bruce's fans and others are 100% behind him, which was proven, for example, by the sell-out concert he gave in Madison Square Garden.

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Sting has decided to promote his album "Brand New Day" some more by touring America, starting today (24/06/00) and ending on the 8th of September '00.

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TinaTina Turner has changed her mind about retiring and is currently on tour again. The tour, called 'Twenty Four Seven Millennium Tour 2000' (named after her new album "Twenty Four Seven") and said to be her final one, officially started on the 23/03/2000 in Minneapolis. It eventually moved through various major cities around the USA and has now gone on into Europe. Tina has (had) numerous special guest throughout the tour, such as Mr. Lionel Richie.

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Irish boyband Westlife's single "Swear It Again" is the second biggest selling release in the States. At present the group is in the middle of an exhausting American tour which seems to pay off.

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Robbie Williams has performed the late Ian Dury's yet unpublished final song, "You're The Why" at his wake and sang it again at the Ian Dury beneficial concert, staged on June 16th 2000 at the Brixton Academy. The show - with a line-up of The Clash, Madness, The Blockheads (Ian Dury's own band), Robbie Williams himself and lots of others - was broadcast live via Dotmusic's own site.
Robbie is also expected to release the above song on single as well as on a Blockhead's album.

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The new layout on Paul Young's official website is out now! And of course Paul is still delighting his fans, either solo or in the formation of Los Pacaminos, in places such as Poland or England.
 
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