Stones Sue Label
Apparently, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones have filed a lawsuit against their record label over royalties of their last album. The British High Court must decide whether Decca Records owes the veteran rockers money for their greatest hits album Forty Licks. The three original members of the band claims that Decca has refused their auditors access to examine records. Their hope is that the label will hand over the necessary documents. The last thing the Stones need is to be slammed by the government on their taxes.

Rock Mix
Metalli-movie monster
Documentary reveals the band's dark underbelly.

METALLICA ARE THE SUBJECTS OF a new fly-on-the-wall documentary shot during the creation of their current 'St Anger' album. Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster follows the San Francisco quartet going through addiction, fatherhood and what one critic called "near-total disintegration" while recording their first original studio album in six years. It was recently previewed at the Sundance Film Festival, is due to hit cinemas in July and will be available on DVD early next year.


Darkness eclipse Beyonce
UK rockers slag Oasis after Brits triumph.

THE DARKNESS, VOTED BY READERS OF Clasic Rock as having recorded the best album of 2003 and also as last year's biggest hype, have added to their list of honours with a night of triumph at the recent Brit Awards. They won Best British Group, Best British Rock Act and Best British Album for 'Permission To Land'.
While in America recently The Darkness took a pot-shot at Oasis, claiming that Liam Gallagher and company had expected to have US success presented to them on a plate.


Clapton: Johnson is God
Eric records tribute to the late blues legend.

ERIC CLAPTON RELEASES 'ME And Mr Johnson', a new album of Robert Johnson covers on March 23, and will play some shows in the UK later this year.


Traffic honoured
Winwood and co play Hall of Fame ceremony.

BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS, BRITISH 60s/70s stars Traffic will have taken part in an emotional reunion when they were among this year's inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a ceremony in New York.

Organ player/guitarist/vocalist Steve Winwood (who also recently completed a solo tour of the UK) will be joined at the event at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel by co-founding Traffic members Dave Mason and Jim Capaldi.


Ozzy hits the road
Recovering singer braces himself to join US Ozzfest.

OZZY OSBOURNE IS TO MAKE A DRAMATIC RETURN TO the stage this summer, headlining the Ozzfest tour in America. The recovery of the one-time Black Sabbath singer - who is still wearing a surgical collar following his quad bike accident in December - has been remarkable. Indeed he is going ahead with the tour against doctors' orders, and will be taking a sizeable medical team with him on the road.


(Rockahead)

Dylan Gets Dubbed
It's not a mystery that Bob Dylan smoked a few pounds of weed in his time. Therefore it's also not a surprise that the folk/rock troubadour will be covered by some of today's leading reggae acts. Is It Rolling Bob? is a 16-track album featuring Gregory Isaacs and Toots Hibbert covering some of Dylan's biggest tunes, reggae style. Founder of the RAS label Gary Himelfarb conceived the idea for the album. This is what he had to say of the legendary songwriter: "a voice of the oppressed in the 1960s, just as Bob Marley was a voice of the oppressed in the 1970s." The album is scheduled to be released sometime in August. (Arrow FM)

Clapton Lends A Hand For EXPO 2005
Mood:  happy

Eric Clapton will serve as executive music consultant for the 2005 World Exposition and has written a song for the 185-day event in Aichi, Japan. Clapton's "Say What You Will" will be a featured part of EXPO 2005's musical program, which has a theme of "Love the Earth," and will be used in advertising relating to the event.

"Nature's Wisdom" is the overall theme of EXPO 2005, reflecting the fact that next year will be the first in the United Nations "Decade of Education for Sustainable Development." A total of 125 countries are confirmed to participate in the international affair, which is slated to run March 25-Sept.25, 2005

Clapton's song will appear on a compilation disc to be released prior to the opening. Also contributing to the EXPO 2005 music program will be cellist Yo-Yo Ma and soprano Sarah Brightman. Other artists will be announced through the coming year.

Robert Wilson has created an experimental half-hour theater piece that will be staged nightly at the Koi Pond, a central attraction in the EXPO 2005 Global Village. The avant-garde artist has worked in the past with Phillip Glass ("Einstein on the Beach"), Tom Waits ("Woyzeck"), Lou Reed ("Time Rocker") and others.

Hawaiian-born Dahlia performs the event's official theme song, "I'll Be Your Love," which was written by songwriter/producer Yoshiki. The song and more information about the event can be found on the EXPO 2005 Web site.

In other Clapton news, Vince Gill, Neal Schon, James Taylor, Joe Walsh and ZZ Top have been added to the finale concert of the artist's Crossroads Guitar Festival. As previously reported, the June 4-6 event in Dallas will raise funds for the Crossroads Centre, a chemical addiction treatment and education center that provides residential care, family and aftercare programs on the island of Antigua that was founded by Clapton in 1997.
(Billboard)

Sting and Lennox Hit The Road!
Mood:  flirty
Now Playing: Police-Eurythmics

Even though nothing has been confirmed yet, news is that former Police singer/songwriter Sting and former Eurythmics singer Annie Lennox will join forces and co-headline a North American tour this summer. The two superstars are thinking of playing in over 40 cities between late June and mid-October. In fact, Sting and Lennox are expected to play the Hollywood Bowl on September 28th and the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine on October 1st. But don't tell anyone I told you. Official announcements are on the way! (Arrow FM)

Bowie Takes 'Diamond Dogs' For A Stroll
Mood:  sharp

David Bowie's 1974 album "Diamond Dogs" will be reissued in expanded form June 15 via Virgin. The new edition will feature a second disc of rare tracks and demos, including the 2003 re-recording of the album's hit single, "Rebel Rebel," which appeared on the "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" soundtrack.

The 30th anniversary edition will be housed in a gatefold replica of the controversial album art, which featured Bowie transformed as a dog. "Diamond Dogs" was inspired by George Orwell's "1984" and found Bowie working without his backing band, the Spiders From Mars. The group's final recording, "1984/Dodo," kicks off the new editions' second disc.

Other rarities earmarked for the album include a rare U.S. single edit of "Rebel Rebel," a stand-alone version of "Dodo" that was intended as a duet with Lulu, a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Growin' Up" with Ron Wood on lead guitar, the non-album cut "Alternative Candidate" and a K-tel edit of "Diamond Dogs."

As previously reported, Columbia will on March 23 release expanded reissues of the '90s Bowie albums "Outside," "Earthling" and "Hours." The artist's ongoing A Reality tour resumes March 29 in Philadelphia.
(Billboard)

Clapton Wipes Away
Bluesman Eric Clapton recently said that that he could no longer perform tow of his best known songs: "Tears in Heaven" and "My Father's Eyes." Both songs are about the loss of his four-year-old son Conner, who died in 1991 when he fell from a window in the musician's New York apartment. Clapton realized that he could no longer put himself into the songs at a string of recent concerts in Japan: "I didn't feel the loss anymore, which is so much a part of performing those songs," Clapton said. "I really have to connect with the feelings that were there when I wrote them. They're kind of gone and I really don't want them to come back, particularly. My life is a different life now." (Arrow FM)

Hendrix Show Adds Santana
Latin rocker Carlos Santana has just been added to an impressive list of performers taking part in the upcoming Experience Hendrix concerts, which pays homage to the late guitar hero. The three-date tour will start in Seattle on February 22nd and work its way down to San Francisco. The lineup will change for each show, but collectively includes such musicians as Pearl Jam's Mike McReady, Buddy Guy, Living Colour, Jerry Cantrell and Bad Company vocalist Paul Rodgers.
(Arrow FM)

Trashed Lennon Guitar On Sale
Mood:  amorous
Now Playing: Acoustic Guitar

An acoustic guitar found in a New York trash bin and thought to have belonged to John Lennon went on sale Monday with an auction price of nearly $2 million. Why so much? Well, mostly because the guitar was engraved with Lennon's trademark etchings including a self-portrait. The beaten up guitar is currently on offer at the US online auction website MomentsinTime.com. Lennon reportedly gave the guitar to a friend in the Seventies. It was passed on to the guy's in-laws before being tossed in the garbage. A maintenance man knew the family had the guitar and found it in 1981. "Beyond it being an instrument on which he played and composed, it's also an extraordinary work of hand-art created by Lennon," said the website's curator, Gary Zimet. The guitar also has a drawing of an apple and a heart pierced by an arrow.
(Arrow FM)

Bruce, Alicia Hail Rock Hall
Mood:  loud
OutKast, Kid Rock also set to induct Class of '04

Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Keith Richards, Alicia Keys, OutKast, Kid Rock, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne will be on hand to induct the Class of 2004 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
To add an element of surprise to the event, a list of who will be inducting whom has not been revealed, though several presenters have connections to inductees that offer possible hints. Kid Rock has long been an outspoken fan of inductee Bob Seger, a fellow Detroit rocker, while another inductee, ZZ Top, lent guitarist Billy Gibbons to play on Rock's latest album. Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne recorded a pair of records with George Harrison as the Travelling Wilburys, and Lynne also produced Harrison's 1987 hit Cloud 9 and his final studio album, 2002's Brainwashed. OutKast's Andre 3000 is a longtime Prince fan, and Alicia Keys is an alum of the funk star's annual weeklong concert birthday bash.

Other inductees include Jackson Browne, Traffic and the Dells. Rolling Stone founder and publisher Jann Wenner, who launched the magazine more than three decades ago, will be inducted in the non-performer category.

The event will be held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City on March 15th. The program will air on VH1 on March 21st.
(Rolling Stones Network)