Apr 4

Keane and Kanye West line up for Diana memorial concert
[source: NME.com] Keane and Kanye West have been added to the line-up for a commemorative concert to mark the tenth anniversary of Princess Diana's death.
Take That, Rod Stewart, James Blunt, Bryan Adams, James Morrison, Meatloaf and Orson have also been added to the gig, while Pharrell Williams, Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry, Joss Stone, Duran Duran and Elton John are also confirmed.
They join the likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber and the English National Ballet for the special show to be staged at the new Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday July 1. The date would have been Diana's 46th birthday.
Prince William said: "We want it to represent exactly what our mother would have wanted... we wanted this big concert full of energy, full of fun and happiness."
The Spice Girls and Dire Straits have been asked to reform especially for the gig. Robbie Williams has been invited and Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon has been asked to duet with Justin Timberlake.
Tickets for the gig sold out within 20 minutes in December.

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Keith Richards: I snorted my dad's ashes
[source: NME.com] The Rolling Stones' guitar legend Keith Richards has revealed he once snorted a line of his own father's ashes.
Speaking exclusively in this week's NME, the star, notorious for decades of substance abuse, admitted he gave his old man a unique send-off after his cremation.
"The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father," Richards said. "I snorted my father. He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow.
"My dad wouldn't have cared; he didn't give a s**t. It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive."

http://bigpondmusic.com/Artist/Rolling-Stones-The.aspx


Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly reveals new album details
[source: NME.com] Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly is set to enter a UK studio next week to record the follow-up to last year's debut album, The Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager.
The new album will be titled Searching For The How's And Why's [sic] and is tentatively slated for a (northern hemisphere) fall release.
"We're in the process of finalising 12 to 14 demos," Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly mastermind Sam Duckworth told NME.
"It addresses similar themes to The Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager," he explained. "It says I don't have the answers but it's still important to ask the questions.
"It might take a thousand questions to get the answers, but if we don't at least ask the questions, it's easy to get complacent," he said.

http://bigpondmusic.com/Artist/Get-Cape-Wear-Cape-Fly.aspx


Scary Spice gives birth to "Baby Brown"
Singer Melanie Brown, best known as Scary Spice from UK girl-group Spice Girls, has given birth to her second daughter in Los Angeles.
Her new addition - known, for now, as "Baby Brown" - was born just after midnight at St. John's hospital in Santa Monica on Tuesday April 2. The 31-year-old singer has been based in Los Angeles since the demise of the Spice Girls back in 2000, and has an eight-year-old daughter, Phoenix Chi, from a former marriage.
"Baby is completely healthy with a good head of hair," Brown's publicist, Nadine Bibi, revealed. "Mother and baby are now resting."
There's no word on whether the father - actor Eddie Murphy, according to Brown - has paid his new daughter a visit.

http://bigpondmusic.com/Artist/Spice-Girls.aspx


Police issue warrants for Billy Joe Shaver
US country singer Billy Joe Shaver has become a real outlaw this week, with police in Texas issuing warrants for the singer's arrest.
According to his attorney, Joseph A. Turner, on Saturday March 31 Shaver left a bar in his hometown of Lorena, Texas, and was followed by a drunk, aggressive stranger into the bar's parking lot. Shaver then shot the man, "acting in self-defence".
However, local police aren't convinced that's how it went down and issued arrest warrants ordering Shaver to surrender on charges of aggravated assault and possessing a firearm in a prohibited place. Shaver tried to turn himself in on Monday but was let loose after police failed to have the proper warrants in their possession.
"We're working with the police to get this resolved," Turner says. "Billy Joe's priority is dealing with this issue."
The victim was shot in the cheek, but is doing well and was not seriously injured.

http://bigpondmusic.com/Artist/Billy-Joe-Shaver.aspx


Paul McCartney's gatecrasher
Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney suffered a scare at his country estate this week when a fan crashed through his entrance gates. While McCartney wasn't home at the time of the incident, the driver of the speeding car was heard screaming, "I must get to him!", by the property's security guards.
After crashing through McCartney's gates, the car sped towards his house and stopped just metres from the front door, before driving off towards a nearby village where the driver gave himself up. McCartney, meanwhile, arrived back at the house several hours later.
According to Sussex police, the driver was "detained under the Mental Health Act and is not facing charges". It's the second scare for McCartney in the last fortnight, after a mysterious blacked-out Volvo was seen regularly parked outside the house for several days.

http://bigpondmusic.com/Artist/Paul-Mccartney.aspx


Chris Martin has the last laugh
Success, they say, is the best revenge... and it's not something lost on British singer Chris Martin. The Coldplay frontman, who's married to Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow and has sold millions of albums worldwide, revealed he enjoyed an encounter with a former schoolmate recently.
"I bumped into a guy who used to give me hell at school," Martin admitted this week. "He was a bully who always said I wouldn't make anything of myself. I had great pleasure in asking what he was up to now. He wasn't up to much. Then I turned around and said, 'This is my wife Gwyneth'. His face dropped and he looked really embarrassed."
It was, the normally humble star admitted, a rather nice reunion.
"It was a proud moment. I'm not one to get my own back and look for revenge, but that was pretty sweet."

http://bigpondmusic.com/Artist/Coldplay.aspx


Sneaky Sound System win award and head out on tour
Sydney-based dance rockers Sneaky Sound System have beaten more than 15,000 acts from 88 countries to win second place in the dance/electronica category in the 2006 International Songwriting Competition.
The group's single, "Pictures", was judged one of the best in the world by luminaries Robert Smith (The Cure), Peter Hook (New Order), Tom Waits, Brian Wilson (Beach Boys) and Frank Black (Pixies).
The song peaked at number 17 on the ARIA charts, while Sneaky's self-titled debut LP has gone on to sell more than 50,000 copies. To celebrate the win, the band are heading out on the road in May.

Tour dates:

Thursday May 3 - The Forum, Melbourne
Saturday May 5 - Malibu Sunset Sessions, Caloundra
Sunday May 6 - Platinum, Gold Coast
Friday May 11 - The Forum, Sydney
Saturday May 12 - Groovin In The Moo, Maitland
Thursday May 17 - The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill
Friday May 18 - Friction, Canberra
Saturday May 19 - The Dom Polski Centre, Adelaide
Friday May 25 - The Met, Brisbane
Saturday May 26 - Inferno, Traralgon

http://bigpondmusic.com/Artist/Sneaky-Sound-System.aspx