News that's going to cry, cry, cry all the way home (all the way home)!
• Call VH1.com suckers, but as Spinal Tap's singer David St. Hubbins (really comedian Michael McKean in a wig) just remarked, "There's a
fine line between exploitation and opportunism." Which may be why, as the good ship Napster slowly sinks into bottomless cyber-waters, novelty rockers Spinal Tap have launched their own MP3-swapping service, Tapster.com.
The only catch is that there isn't much to trade. There's only one song, a download of Spinal Tap's unreleased single "Back From The Dead." Guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest, a lord in real life) explained, "Napster's a bit complicated, really, what with all of the songs available. One of the brilliant things about Tapster is that there's only one song to choose from."
"We're not unnecessarily concerned about intellectual property - this isn't about Harvard, Yale or Oxford," wisecracked Harry Shearer, who could be mistaken for the mustachioed Tap bassist Derek Smalls. Well, it made us laugh.
• The Who and the Black Crowes with Jimmy Page have confirmed October 3 and 4 as the dates when they will co-headline at Madison Square Garden. Funny to think that Page and the Who probably know backstage at MSG better than they do their own homes. Their publicists were keen to point out that no one will be admitted into the arena after 7:30 PM as "these special concerts are conceived by both acts as a complete musical experience from beginning to end." Tickets are on sale August 7.
• More trouble for Oasis. This time a Swiss concert came to a premature end on Wednesday when Liam Gallagher and band were bottled offstage. A statement said, "Several bottles, cans and coins were thrown on stage, hitting several band members" at the Paleo Festival in Nyon. The band left, came back to play two songs, but when more debris was thrown, left for good. Now organizers are threatening legal action.
• Consider Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens in the running. On Tuesday the singer filed his petitions with New Jersey's Division of Elections to run as the Reform Party's Senate candidate there. DiNizio gathered the signatures on his petition during a tour of fans' living rooms in Jersey. He's now got a Web site set up where you can learn more about his Albert Camus-inspired platform at www.dinizio2000.org.
• The BBC reports that Luciano Pavarotti is finally coming to terms with the Italian taxman. The rotund opera star has agreed to cough up almost $12 million in return for settling a tax evasion case. Pavarotti argued that he didn't pay tax in 1989 and 1991 because he was living in Monte Carlo. The authorities didn't buy it, pointing out that Pavarotti also had homes in the Italian cities of Modena and Pesaro.
• Eminem is making a movie, and no, it's not Oliver Stone's remake of Birdman of Alcatraz. A feature film is in development inspired by the white rapper's colorful life, but Eminem tells MTV News, "Everything that happens in the movie didn't necessarily happen to me. There are also going to be some things that did happen to me that aren't going to be in the movie. We're leaving the mystique, I guess."
• Eminem isn't the only rapper who's coming to a multiplex near you. Pras of the Fugees stars in the new film Ghetto Superstar. Except the film is now called Turn It Up. At least it has a release date, September 6. While the Fugees seem lost to us forever, Pras is making himself the toast of Tinseltown with his production company Warning Films and a role in the forthcoming Higher Ed.
• Summer just doesn't seem the same anymore unless the Len song "Steal My Sunshine" is coming out of a boom box somewhere. The Canadian crew are hoping to strike solar again with a cover of the 1981 No. 25 hit "Kids in America," originally recorded by Kim Wilde. The song features on the Digimon: The Movie soundtrack, due out on October 6. Wrong season, dudes.
• The Beastie Boys' Mike D on his dislocated shoulder: "On the real, things like these serve as our greatest teachings. The incident happened so fast and so close to my N.Y.C. home, yet it has affected so many people's plans for the future. So just when we think we are in control, we are awakened to realize that it is just an illusion of control that we live with." He used to be cool, you know.
• Lucky Gavin Rossdale of Bush. He's allegedly stepping out with Andrea Corr, of Irish folk-poppers the Corrs. The two are madly in love, says the British Sun tabloid, even though they only met Monday (July 24). That's how it always happens, isn't it? The news is bound to go down badly with No Doubt's Gwen Stefani, who is expecting to spend August with her purple-haired honey. Things could get interesting
• Meat Loaf on his next move: "Basically, I feel like Glenn Miller. You know how in The Glenn Miller Story he kept going, 'I hear something in my head that & it doesn't sound like anything?' And I really hear something in my head that doesn't sound like anything that I've ever heard before, and so I'm trying to figure out how to go about doing it and how to work my way to get there, because I'm not gifted on any instrument." Has anybody lost a cuckoo lately?
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