Quick quips: Paul McCartney, KISS, Don Cornelius, Etta James, Black Sabbath, musical cruise

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added: 8 Feb 2012 // by: VVN Music 

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Digital Music News has reported that all Paul McCartney and Wings albums that are under the Concord Music Group umbrella have been pulled from Spotify, Rhapsody, MOG, Rdio and other streaming services. It also appears that McCartney music from sources other than Concord are also being removed.

The Angry Genes? Yes, that could be one direction that the creators of the Angry Birds game could go as they talk with the members of KISS about bringing out a band-based version of the game. Gene Simmons told the magazine Industry Games that the group is looking to break into the video game market in a big way but not by creating one from scratch, but by attaching the KISS brand to existing hits.
So while the gaming world is waiting for the KISS games that are going to explode, we're busy taking the brand to places where no band has gone before. So Hello Kitty is one of the biggest brands on planet Earth. Now there's KISS Hello Kitty, which we've already launched in 90 countries. We're talking with Angry Birds, KISS and Angry Birds, which will become a deal. The KISS and the Archie world have now teamed up and the first issues of KISS Archie comic books hits the world this month. KISS golf courses are starting in Las Vegas right across from the Hard Rock. That opens in January. It's just endless what we can do, but we only do things when it's right. Just because there are games, and just because there's this or that out there, unless the deal is right and unless the content is exciting to our fans, we don't do it.

Coroners ruled on Tuesday that Don Cornelius' death was, indeed, a suicide. Toxicology tests, which could take a week or two, are needed before a final report can be issued.

The Grammys will present a salute to Etta James at this Sunday's awards ceremony. Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt will sing.

Fans appear to be getting on the Bill Ward bandwagon after an internet rumor circulated that he was being replaced in the Black Sabbath reunion by Tommy Clufetos who previously played with Ozzy Osbourned.
A Facebook group, 1,000,000 Black Sabbath Fans Say Yes to Bill Ward, has been formed and they have reported that the people who run Black Sabbath's Facebook page have turned off all comments.

Here's a concert lineup for you, if you want to take a cruise around the Caribbean. The Malt Shop Memories cruise will depart from Ft. Lauderdale, FL on October 27 for Turks & Caicos, San Juan, St. Thomas and the private island of Half Moon Cay. On stage during the seven day trip will be Dion, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, Ronnie Spector, Darlene Love, The Original Drifters, The Duprees, Sonny Turner (former lead singer of the Platters), Carl Gardner's Coasters, Kenny Vance and the Planotones, The Chiffons, The Tymes, The Marvelettes and more.

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The Musical Box to play 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway'

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added: 29 Jan 2012 // by: newsdesk 

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THE MUSICAL BOX, the only band in the world to obtain the performing rights and access to the full original archives for "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" from Peter Gabriel and Genesis, will perform 4 shows in the UK in March.

The critically acclaimed production has been performed with great success in some of the most prestigious venues in the world, such as London's Royal Albert Hall and the Olympia in Paris. In 2005, Phil Collins joined the band on stage in Geneva, Peter Gabriel takes his children to the shows and Steve Hackett has joined them onstage on more than one occasion. Collins once said "I watched and listened. They played that stuff better than we ever did."

One of the very first Rock Operas in history, 'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway' was released as a double album in 1974. The tour that followed was a ground-breaking theatrical production, which The Musical Box reproduces in its entirety in painstaking detail. The show is supported by over 1200 original slides, original costumes and props together with an arsenal of visual effects and pyrotechnics.

The UK dates are:

March
Tue 13th Bristol Colston Hall £25/£21.50 0117 922 3686 www.colstonhall.org
Wed 14th Glasgow Clyde Auditorium £25 0844 395 4000 www.ticketSOUP.com
Thu 15th Manchester O2 Apollo £21.50/£25.00 08444 777 677 www.o2apollomanchester.co.uk
Fri 16th London HMV Apollo £23.50/31.50 08448 444 748 www.hammersmithapollo.net

Buy sold out tickets at our partners here and check out all other tickets here.

The Musical Box version of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway debuted in Montreal in October 2000, more than 25 years after the last Genesis performance with Peter Gabriel; the show was sold out and has been going around the world ever since.

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Anthony Hopkins: Musical ability was a shock

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added: 13 Jan 2012 // by: newsdesk 

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Sir Anthony Hopkins didn't take his musical ability 'seriously' until recently.

The award-winning actor has turned his hand to composing and has written some orchestral music that is being released this month.

Music has always been a hobby of Anthony's, but he never thought twice about releasing it into the public sphere until his wife Stella Arroyave pointed out his talent.

"I have a piano ' I play every day, if I'm home ' and I've always improvised music and composed," he said in an interview with British newspaper The Independent.

"But I never took any of it seriously. I did it not out of ambition to be a musician or to be a composer, but for the sheer pleasure of it. Stella heard my playing over the years and said, 'Why don't you write those down?'"

Anthony says music comes naturally to him. The 74-year-old star warns that thinking too much about something is destructive to creativity.

"That's because I don't worry about it. I don't think, 'I've got to get this perfect, I've got to analyse it...' If it sounds OK to me and other people like it, then I go ahead,' he explained. "I have catholic tastes and no preconceptions. I love listening to Vaughan Williams, Delius and Elgar, but I also listen to country and western music and jazz. I listen to anything."

Anthony has explained the roots of his musical interests. The Hollywood star's passion for music started before his love of acting.

"I was a lonely kid because at school I was a real duffer. I was completely stupid, I didn't know what on earth was going on, so I withdrew into myself. I didn't have any friends at school and I never played with other kids. I sort of created my own world,' he explained.

'It sounds a little bit like a fairy tale, but I had no other choice. I could draw and I could play the piano. And that has stayed with me all my life."

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Drake enjoyed musical �freedom�

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added: 9 Jan 2012 // by: newsdesk 

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Drake had the 'greatest freedom' possible when making his latest album.

The Canadian rapper released Take Care late last year and it debuted at number one on the Billboard album chart.

He worked closely with his friend Noah '40' Shebib on the record, with Drake's record company happy to let the pair lay down tracks on their own. Engineer-and-producer 40 thinks that's why Take Care was such a hit.

'We get to do what we want: we don't have to clear it with the A&Rs or anybody. We are our own A&Rs," he told MTV News. "And that's the greatest freedom you can possibly have in this business.'

The two music stars had worked together before. 40 was involved with So Far Gone, the 2009 mix-tape which launched Drake's career. They also teamed up for his first record Thank Me Later, but neither had anything particular in mind when they started work on Take Care.

'I can't sit there and tell you that anybody made any conscious decisions to the extent of, 'Oh, we're gonna make this feel of an album,'' 40 explained. 'We really just make records and cut music until someone says, 'That's it: You can't make any more music; you gotta stop.''

Drake and 40 work well together and the producer prides himself on helping the rapper get his message across. Drake is adamant all his tunes must mean something to him and he likes to be involved in every aspect of album making, which 40 respects.

'What ends up happening a lot of times with our records is that, because I can do a lot of things in the studio, whether it be play instruments or produce or edit or run Pro Tools or edit vocals, whatever the case may be, I help him get out his ideas," the producer said. "I think that's the goal of any good producer, is to make sure the artist is delivering what they want.'

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