Miramax reaches music publishing deal with Warner Music

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Warner Music Group has acquired the rights to all film music owned by Miramax, the companies announced Tuesday. The agreement expands an existing deal in which Warner administers the studio's film music publishing across most of Europe and South America. Warner will license performance rights from Miramax's catalog in screenings and broadcasts of the films and will develop new usages of the music on television, film, advertising, games and online. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

'This deal is a good example of Warner/Chappell's focus on developing extraordinary repertoire, through both organic growth and acquisition,' Cameron Strang, the chairman and CEO of Warner's global publishing arm Warner/Chappell Music, said in a statement. 'The Miramax library of music is filled with gems from decades of renowned films, and our expertise in creating new opportunities for great music makes Warner/Chappell the perfect home for this incredible collection.' The Miramax music library includes music from films like 'Chicago,' 'Gangs of New York' and 'Good Will Hunting.' The catalog of music includes scores written by Academy Award-winning composers, such as Howard Leslie, Jan A. P. Kaczmarek and Rachel Portman. 'We are very pleased with this agreement, which ensures the music from the iconic Miramax film library is further nurtured by the outstanding and innovative music industry experts at Warner/Chappell, and enables us to continue to focus on our studio and our films, our core creative product,' Mitzi Reaugh, Miramax's senior vice president of business development and strategy, said in a statement.

(Reporting By Andrea Burzynski)



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Court revives suit involving Elvis memorabilia

(Reuters) - The heirs of a longtime friend of Elvis Presley can proceed with a lawsuit over a chunk of the King's hair and other memorabilia they say were stolen and sold at auction, an appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

At stake is $218,000 in proceeds from the sale of a trove of collectors' items that allegedly belonged to Elvis's personal friend and fan club president, Sterling Gary Pepper.

Pepper's heirs, John Tate and Norma Deeble, filed the suit in 2009 on behalf of their late cousin. They accused Pepper's former caretaker, Nancy Pease Whitehead, of stealing the collection when Pepper was transferred into a home for the disabled.

An Iowa district court refused to block the auction, which ultimately reaped $28,000 for an Elvis-worn red suede shirt, $15,000 for a clump of hair cut off when he went into the Army, and $1,400 for two dried white roses from his funeral. The lower court found that Pepper's relatives had waited too long to file the lawsuit and ruled for Whitehead before a trial.

Deeble appealed to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of Pepper's estate, arguing that the family members had no knowledge that the collection existed and were not able to file the suit earlier.

That argument was enough to convince a three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit to revive the suit, which on Tuesday sent the case back to the lower court for a trial.

The $218,000 in sale proceeds is in escrow while the case is still pending, said Matthew Sease, a lawyer for Pepper's estate. Also in escrow are a pastel painting of Elvis and his wife Priscilla Presley.

Brant Leonard, a lawyer for Whitehead, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case is Estate of Nell G. Pepper et al v. Nancy Whitehead et al, 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 11-2764.

(Reporting By Terry Baynes)



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Madonna blames boos at Paris show on "a few thugs"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pop star Madonna on Monday downplayed media reports of boos and calls for refunds from the audience of her recent concert at Paris' famed Olympia theatre, saying they were caused by 'a few thugs' in the audience.

'Unfortunately at the end of the show - after I left the stage - a few thugs who were not my fans rushed the stage and started throwing plastic bottles pretending to be angry fans,' Madonna said on her website.

Tickets for the surprise show held last Thursday - a last-minute addition to Madonna's 'MDNA' tour - had been offered first to members of her fan club and sold out within minutes. Some people began gathering outside the Olympia as early as Wednesday for the show, and anticipation was running high.

The show, which included both classics and songs from her latest album 'MDNA,' cost ticket holders 80 euros ($98) to start.

After it ended, some in the audience voiced disappointment at the show's length, a mere 45 minutes. A few booed and others called for refunds as they left the 2,700-seat theatre, Paris' oldest surviving music hall which has welcomed iconic stars from Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel to the Rolling Stones.

'The press reports have focused on this and not the joyous aspect of the evening,' Madonna said in the statement. 'But nothing can take away or ruin this very special evening for me and my fans. When I looked out in the audience, everyone I saw had a smile on their face. I look forward to having this wonderful experience again.'

It's not the first time her current tour in France has attracted controversy.

At the 80,000-seat Stade de France on July 14, she angered France's far right party leader Marine Le Pen by showing a picture of her with a swastika superimposed on her face.

This past Thursday, Madonna made a only a glancing reference to Le Pen and her political party's anti-immigration stance, and paid homage to a French past that, Madonna said, 'opened its arms to minorities.'

(Reporting By Christine Kearney; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Marguerita Choy)



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Judge orders report on welfare of Jackson kids

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A judge on Friday ordered a probe into the care of Michael Jackson's three children as the late singer's brother accused executors of dirty tricks in a power struggle over the pop star's multi-million dollar estate.

Los Angeles Superior Court judge Mitchell Beckloff appointed a probate investigator to interview Prince Michael, 15, Paris, 14, and Blanket, 10, 'on an unannounced basis' and report back to him about the children's welfare which has come under scrutiny in recent days.

Beckloff made the order as a family attorney proposed that the 'Thriller' singer's mother Katherine, 82, share guardianship of the children with her nephew Tito Jackson Jr.

Tito, 34, was awarded temporary guardianship on Wednesday after Katherine took a prolonged and rumor-filled absence from the Jackson family's compound outside Los Angeles.

The Jackson matriarch returned home from Arizona on Thursday, after going on national television to deny speculation that she had been kidnapped by some of her adult children.

Katherine Jackson's attorney on Friday said the new arrangement for the care of the children would be formally presented to Beckloff next week.

Although the dispute over guardianship apparently neared a resolution, the dead pop singer's brother Randy continued his attack on the executors of Michael Jackson's lucrative estate.

Randy Jackson, who along with four other siblings last week claimed Jackson's signature on a will benefiting his mother and his children had been forged, accused the Jackson estate of trying to kill Katherine Jackson.

'The Estate is trying to isolate my Mother from her family JUST LIKE THEY DID TO MICHAEL, in order to propagate their lies, financial agendas and to protect a fraudulent will,' Randy Jackson tweeted on Friday.

'It is my fear and belief, that they are trying to take my mother's life,' he added.

Jackson, 50, died in June 2009 of an overdose of the surgical anesthetic propofol and his physician was convicted and jailed last year for giving Jackson the drug as a sleep aid.

Some members of the Jackson clan of eight remaining siblings have long maintained that their brother was killed by unknown persons wanting to get their hands on his musical fortune.

The two non-family executors of the estate, entertainment lawyer John Branca and music executive John McClaine, insist the will is valid. They declined to comment on Randy Jackson's latest claims.

Since Jackson's death, the estate has approved numerous projects including a posthumous concert rehearsal film 'This Is It', and a Cirque du Soleil show. According to recent court documents, the estate has earned $475 million in gross profits since Jackson's death, and much of the singer's estimated $500 million debt has been paid off.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte; Desking by Andrew Hay)



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Lady Gaga makes acting debut in "Machete Kills"

(Editor's note: Following story contains language that some readers may find offensive)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pop star Lady Gaga will make her film acting debut in the second installment of the 'Machete' film franchise in a casting choice alongside the likes of Mel Gibson and Charlie Sheen, Gaga and the film's director Robert Rodriguez said on Twitter.

Rodriguez announced the casting on Thursday on Twitter, saying, 'I just finished working with @LadyGaga on @MacheteKills, she kicked SO MUCH ASS! Holy Smokes. Blown away!' and posted a link to a poster featuring the singer.

Gaga, 26, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta and whose concerts and music videos are littered with various flamboyant theatrics, confirmed on Twitter, 'Yes it's true, I will be making my debut as an actress in the amazing MACHETE KILLS BY @RODRIGUEZ IM SO EXCITED!!! AH! Filming was insane.'

Little is known about the role, which is likely to be a cameo or smaller film appearance. The character poster featured the pop star dressed in a scantily clad outfit and a wolf wrap with smoke pouring out of a gun alongside the caption, 'Lady Gaga as La Chameleon.'

Rodriguez, who posted a tweet in June he had also cast Charlie Sheen playing a fictional U.S. president in the film, directed the first 'Machete' film that was released in 2010 with the 'Machete' character derived from his 'Spy Kids' 2001 film.

'Machete Kills' sees the character of Machete battling his way through Mexico in order to take down an arms dealer, said film website imdb.com. Rodriguez has previously directed 'Sin City' and 'Desperado.'

(Reporting By Christine Kearney, Editing by Jill Serjeant and Marguerita Choy)



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Madonna voices love for tolerant France in Paris show

PARIS (Reuters) - Pop star Madonna treated fans to an intimate show at Paris' famed Olympia theatre on Thursday, voicing her love for a France that is open to minorities and artists and reinterpreting 'Je t'aime moi non plus,' a song laced with sexual innuendo.

Tickets for the surprise show - a last-minute addition to Madonna's 'MDNA' tour - were offered first to members of her fan club and sold out within minutes. Some people began gathering outside the Olympia as early as Wednesday for the show, and anticipation was running high.

In the end, reaction was mixed and some in the audience voiced disappointment at the show's length, a mere 45 minutes. A few called for refunds as they left the 2,700-seat theatre, Paris' oldest surviving music hall which has welcomed iconic stars from Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel to the Rolling Stones.

The concert was expected to have a political overtone to it, and Madonna started off on a rebellious note.

'I have a special affinity with France, and I have for many years,' the pop star shouted at the start. 'It could go all the way to Napoleon because I think of myself as a revolutionary.'

Yet there was no repeat of the performance she gave at the 80,000-seat Stade de France on July 14, which angered France's far right party leader Marine Le Pen by showing a picture of her with a swastika superimposed on her face.

France's National Front has since announced it will sue her.

On Thursday, Madonna offered only veiled criticism of the party's anti-immigrant stance, paying homage to a France which she said once 'opened its arms to minorities.'

'I know that I have made a certain Marine Le Pen very angry with me,' she said, adding that her intention was not to make enemies. 'We are entering some very scary times in the world. People are afraid, and what happens when people are afraid? They say 'get out! You're the reason. You're the problem. You're to blame,'' she told the audience.

LONG WAIT, SHORT SHOW

Tickets for the show, which included both classics and songs from her latest album 'MDNA,' started at 80 euros ($98) and were offered first to members of Madonna's fan club. They sold out in less than 5 minutes, organizers said, and the Olympia's website crashed several times due to heavy traffic.

Fans started gathering at noon on Wednesday to attend the show, with many pitching tents on the sidewalk to make sure they got as close as possible to the Material Girl.

Die-hard fan, 25-year-old Ally Gloser from Cologne, Germany, said she had bought tickets for 11 of Madonna's shows over the summer, at a cost of 2,500 euros.

'Normally, I'm a student. Now I'm a poor student,' she said.

True to form, the 53-year-old offered up an array of sexy outfits and age-defying moves, at one point adding a French touch for Parisian fans with a black leather pencil skirt, red lipstick, and a French beret. She paid tribute to several French artists, including actor Alain Delon and singer Piaf.

'I walk in her footsteps, actually I crawl in her footsteps', she said of the 'La Vie en rose' singer while kneeling on stage.

Under red lights and on an entirely empty stage, Madonna sang the famous French song, 'Je t'aime moi non plus' ('I love you, neither do I') written by Serge Gainsbourg in the late 1960s. She tied a dance partner down on a chair and pretended to shoot him in the mouth.

Audience reaction to the show was mixed.

'The show itself was pretty good, but she didn't even sing for an hour', complained 33-year-old Guillaume Delaval. 'She spoke for 15 minutes about tolerance, it's not the U.N. here.'

Pierce Brosnan, the Irish actor who played in four James Bond movies, attended the show with his wife.

'We're fans. My wife wanted to come, so we bought tickets,' he told Reuters, explaining he was in Paris to shoot a movie with Emma Thompson called 'Love Punch.'

Madonna will perform in Nice, France on August 21. After shows in the Middle East and Europe, the singer will give concerts in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Chile and Argentina.

(Reporting by Chine Labbe; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Stacey Joyce)



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Punk "godmother" Patti Smith pays homage to St Francis in Assisi

ROME (Reuters) - Singer-songwriter Patti Smith, whose latest album 'Banga' was in part inspired by the life of St Francis, meditated before his tomb in the Umbrian hill town of Assisi on Wednesday and even helped restore a fresco by Giotto.

Smith, sometimes called the 'Godmother of Punk,' spent several hours at the large basilica and convent complex, which is also the burial place of the saint who for centuries has been an inspiration for pacifists and environmentalists.

'When I think of St Francis I don't think of religion, I don't think of any rules and regulations,' she told an interviewer for the basilica's website www.sanfrancescopatronoditalia.it/.

'I think of nature. I think of his love of nature. I think of his absolute love of life and I think any human being can relate to that,' she said in the interview, an advance tape of which was provided to Reuters.

'I think that St Francis does not exclude anyone. Just like Jesus Christ. If you approach St Francis with love, you receive love in return.'

Smith, 65, who is most famous for her 1978 song 'Because the Night,' meditated before the stone tomb of the saint and then joined the brown-robed monks for a frugal lunch in the refectory.

St Francis, who died in 1226, inspired 'Constantine's Dream', one track of her latest album Banga.

The rocker and writer, who was an early denizen of the legendary punk club CBGB in New York and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, said she has been influenced by different saints over the years.

'As a young child I was very drawn to saints, whether it be Joan of Arc or St John or St Matthew. I (like) the feeling of different saints that watch over you,' she said. 'Saints take us through different stages of our life. St Bernadette helped me at a time when I was young.'

Smith, an environmental activist, said the saint of Assisi, who legend says spoke to animals and called the sun 'brother' and the moon 'sister,' was now her guide.

'In this period of my life his idea of simplicity and of being close to nature is what I wish to aspire to. It's simply his example. It's that simple. He is a holistic example of how to conduct oneself in the world,' she said.

Asked what song she would sing to St Francis if she met him, she said it would be 'Blackbird' by Paul McCartney, adding that she was particularly moved by the lyric 'Take these broken wings and learn to fly'.

While touring the convent complex, she spoke to restorers cleaning a Giotto fresco in the lower basilica and, donning a yellow hard hat, she was allowed to add a touch of watercolor to the painting by the master who lived in the 13th and 14th centuries.

'Excuse me, Giotto,' she said. 'I did it with love.'

(Reporting By Philip Pullella, editing by Paul Casciato)



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Killer of three in Jennifer Hudson's family gets life

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The man convicted of murdering Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and young nephew was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday, with the judge in the case deriding him as a man with 'the heart of an arctic night.'

William Balfour had been convicted in May of breaking into the Hudson family home and fatally shooting Hudson's mother Darnell Donerson, 57, her brother Jason Hudson, 29, and her 7-year-old nephew Julian King.

Cook County Judge Charles Patrick Burns sentenced Balfour to three consecutive life terms with no opportunity for parole, plus 120 years for aggravated kidnapping and home invasion.

Prior to announcing his sentence, Burns told Balfour: 'You have the heart of an arctic night. Your soul is as barren as dark space.'

Hudson, wearing a tan pantsuit with a black jacket and high heels, wiped her eyes frequently during the sentencing hearing. Hudson, who won an Academy Award for her role in the movie 'Dreamgirls' and a Grammy for her debut album, left the court without making a statement.

Balfour's motive was jealousy of his estranged wife Julia Hudson, Jennifer's sister, whom he threatened numerous times, saying he would kill her after he killed her family, according to witnesses at the 11-day trial that ended with his conviction on May 11.

Gregory King, father of Hudson's murdered 7-year-old nephew Julian, spoke to the court before the sentencing.

When King learned that his son had been killed, 'Instantly it was like a chunk of my heart was ripped out,' he said. 'I felt hopeless. I was filled with rage for William Balfour, the man who murdered my son.'

Hudson was the first witness in Balfour's trial. She said she had known him since grade school and had never liked him.

Speaking before the sentence was rendered, Balfour offered 'my condolences' to the victim's family and his prayers to Julian King. 'I still do love him,' he said. He also repeated his claim of innocence.

Burns dismissed Balfour's expression of love for Hudson's nephew. 'To tell us in open court that you loved that child is an insult to all of us,' Burns said.

Balfour's attorneys said they planned to appeal the sentence.

(Reporting by Mary Wisniewski; Writing by Dan Burns; Editing by Jackie Frank and Philip Barbara)



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Killer of three in Jennifer Hudson's family gets life

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The man convicted of murdering Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and young nephew was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday, with the judge in the case deriding him as a man with 'the heart of an arctic night.'

William Balfour had been convicted in May of breaking into the Hudson family home and fatally shooting Hudson's mother Darnell Donerson, 57, her brother Jason Hudson, 29, and her 7-year-old nephew Julian King.

Cook County Judge Charles Patrick Burns sentenced Balfour to three consecutive life terms with no opportunity for parole, plus 120 years for aggravated kidnapping and home invasion.

Prior to announcing his sentence, Burns told Balfour: 'You have the heart of an arctic night. Your soul is as barren as dark space.'

Hudson, wearing a tan pantsuit with a black jacket and high heels, wiped her eyes frequently during the sentencing hearing. Hudson, who won an Academy Award for her role in the movie 'Dreamgirls' and a Grammy for her debut album, left the court without making a statement.

Balfour's motive was jealousy of his estranged wife Julia Hudson, Jennifer's sister, whom he threatened numerous times, saying he would kill her after he killed her family, according to witnesses at the 11-day trial that ended with his conviction on May 11.

Gregory King, father of Hudson's murdered 7-year-old nephew Julian, spoke to the court before the sentencing.

When King learned that his son had been killed, 'Instantly it was like a chunk of my heart was ripped out,' he said. 'I felt hopeless. I was filled with rage for William Balfour, the man who murdered my son.'

Hudson was the first witness in Balfour's trial. She said she had known him since grade school and had never liked him.

Speaking before the sentence was rendered, Balfour offered 'my condolences' to the victim's family and his prayers to Julian King. 'I still do love him,' he said. He also repeated his claim of innocence.

Burns dismissed Balfour's expression of love for Hudson's nephew. 'To tell us in open court that you loved that child is an insult to all of us,' Burns said.

Balfour's attorneys said they planned to appeal the sentence.

(Reporting by Mary Wisniewski; Writing by Dan Burns; Editing by Jackie Frank and Philip Barbara)



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Tony Bennett makes nostalgic return to Italian roots

ROME (Reuters) - Whenever crooner Tony Bennett returns to the land of his roots, he feels overwhelmed.

'When I sing in Rome or anywhere in Italy, I get a complex,' he said after performing for a sold-out hall at Rome's Parco della Musica.

'I know too much history, too much about the magnificence of Italy, the place where the orchestra was invented, the first piano, the first violin,' he said, the feeling of awe mixed with pride clear in his voice.

With an easy laugh, he said he has come across singing waiters in Italy that could give some professional singers a run for their money.

Bennett, currently on a tour of Europe that will also take him to Spain, Monte Carlo, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland before it ends in August, left the Rome crowd sublimely stunned that he could still belt out his famous songs with style despite his 85 years.

Don't expect a light show or sound effects. A Tony Bennett concert, even if held in an auditorium or a piazza, feels as intimate as if it were in a small club in Greenwich Village. In fact, a number of people in the audience said later they felt as if he were singing just for them.

He is accompanied on the European tour by Lee Musiker on piano, Gray Sargent on guitar, Harold Jones on drums and Marshall Wood on upright bass. His daughter Antonia, 38, opens the show for him and they do several duets.

Bennett clearly has a soft spot for Italy, its people, its food and its musical heritage but the softest spot is for his parents, who came from the poor Calabria region in the deep south.

His father, Giovanni Benedetto, a grocer, left the tiny, dirt poor mountain hamlet of Podargoni in 1906 for the Astoria section of Queens in New York City, where Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born in 1926.

'The legend from all my relatives was that he used to stand at the top of the mountain in Podargoni and the whole valley would hear him sing,' Bennett said by telephone after his Rome concert.

His mother, who worked in a clothing sweatshop in New York earning a penny a dress, was the daughter of immigrants from the same region of southern Italy. His father died when Tony was 10.

SINGING WAITER

Like Irving Berlin and Frank Sinatra before him, Bennett began as a singing waiter.

'I remember saying very clearly to myself and the musicians I was with then that if I never become famous or successful I'm going to do this for the rest of my life,' he said. 'That's how much I loved entertaining people'.

Bennett dropped out of high school to help support his widowed mother. He served in World War Two and after some false starts had his first big hit in 1951 with 'Because of You'.

'My mom did something that changed my life. She would make as many dresses as possible but when she got a bad dress she would throw it over her shoulder and say 'don't let me work on a bad dress, only the good dresses',' he said.

'Later that became my whole premise with music. I said 'I don't want a hit record, I want a hit catalog. I don't want to do one song that isn't intelligent or quality music.''.

The 1950s were dotted with hits such as 'Rags to Riches,' 'Blue Velvet,' and in 1962 he released what would become his signature song, 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco'.

Bennett likes to recall that he recorded San Francisco in one take because 'I was prepared' and says it still astonishes young artists that he prefers to record in so few takes even now.

His two 'Duets' albums in 2006 and 2011 were smash hits and brought him wide appreciation among younger listeners because of his collaboration with the likes of Amy Winehouse, Lady Gaga, Bono, Dixie Chicks, Sting, Sheryl Crow and Norah Jones.

Indeed, the two million-selling albums have introduced old classic such as 'Stranger in Paradise', 'The Way You Look Tonight', 'Rags to Riches', 'I Wanna Be Around', 'The Lady is a Tramp' and 'Body and Soul' to millions of young people.

FREE ADVICE

Bennett, who is planning an all jazz album with Lady Gaga, has some fatherly - or even grandfatherly - advice for young artists.

'Fame is very threatening. You might be very famous and then go right down and broke because of some artist that comes along who's better.

'You're supposed to be the business for a long time. You shouldn't think of fame, you should think of quality, then you stay in the business all the time,' he said.

He also has some pointed advice for record companies, with whom he had his share of scrapes in the 1960s when they forced him to sing contemporary rock songs.

'Record companies should trust artists more, rather than order them to sing trite music, something that will be forgotten in two weeks or 10 weeks and go to the junkyard,' he said.

Every day, Bennett, while reflecting on the ups and downs of his long life and career, enjoys his other passion: painting. He paints under his real name, Anthony Benedetto, creating mostly landscapes and cityscapes.

'Rembrandt said there's only one master and that's nature and the more you become an artist and study nature, you realize that nobody in the world, including Rembrandt, ever painted as good as nature. Nature is the boss. We are nature ourselves. Nature is our god, that's how I feel about it,' he said.

Bennett came up from 'complete poverty' and has been a social activist most of his life, taking an active part in the civil rights movement in the United States in the 1960s.

He calls famous people who don't want to acknowledge their poor roots 'failures'.

Bennett and his wife Susan established a non-profit organisation, Exploring the Arts, that has raised millions of dollars to suppoorganizationrt arts programs in New York public schools.

'When you come from humble beginnings and become famous you should help other people from humble beginnings and support them. You can't forget them. You can't just close the door and forget your background,' he said.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella, editing by Paul Casciato)



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Elton John tops UK album chart for first time in 22 years

LONDON (Reuters) - Elton John has scored his first number one album in 22 years, an electronic reworking of his hit songs, while Florence and the Machine clung to top spot in the singles chart for a second week running, the Official UK Charts Company said on Sunday.

John teamed up with Australian electronic duo Pnau for 'Good Morning To The Night', giving his 70s catalogue a modern summer vibe. The album's title is also the name of the lead track, which has become an official song of the London Olympics.

Elsewhere at the top of the album chart, 'Overexposed' by Maroon 5 climbed one place to number two, while U.S. rapper Nas made his British album chart top 10 debut with 'Life is Good' which went in straight at number eight.

Flame-haired singer Florence Welch's second week at the top of the singles chart with 'Spectrum' may offer her some consolation after she was forced to pull out of high-profile European gigs due to damaged vocal chords.

X-Factor talent show finalist Misha B was this week's highest new entry in the singles chart with 'Home Run' at number 11.

(Reporting by Mohammed Abbas; Editing by Andrew Osborn)



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The Who hit replay on "Quadrophenia" for new tour

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Legendary British rockers the Who will hit the road for their first North American concert tour in four years, playing the entire rock opera 'Quadrophenia' alongside other memorable hits, the band said on Wednesday.

The road trip starts in Florida on November 1, and features founding members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend, alongside Zak Starkey, Pino Palladino, Simon Townshend, Chris Stainton, Loren Gold and Frank Simes.

The Who are among the bands that led the British Invasion of the United States in the mid-1960s following the massive success of the Beatles. Joining Daltrey and Townshend originally were Keith Moon on drums and John Entwistle on bass, both of whom have died.

The foursome scored hits such as 'My Generation' and 'I Can See for Miles' and like many of their rock peers, they began experimenting with new styles that led to their first rock opera, 'Tommy.' The 1969 work was about a deaf, dumb and blind kid who was a wiz at pinball -- that generation's equivalent of videogames.

The band followed 'Tommy' with 'Quadrophenia' (1973), a musical tale of a young boy's coming of age that features hits such as '5:15' and 'The Real Me' and is considered a rock classic.

The 36-date tour features a first leg that runs six weeks and ends in Connecticut on December 9. The band will take a holiday break and resume a second leg on January 28 in California, concluding at the end of February in Rhode Island.

In advance of the tour, a one-night-only, in-theater screening of documentary 'The Who: Quadrophenia - Can You See the Real Me?', the story of making the album, will screen at movie theaters around the United States on July 24. In Canada, the film will screen in theaters on August 1.

(Reporting by Bob Tourtellotte; editing by Matthew Lewis)



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New Bob Dylan album "Tempest" set for September release

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new Bob Dylan studio album, 'Tempest', will be released on September 11th to mark the 50th anniversary of the folk singer-songwriter's debut album, Columbia Records said on Tuesday.

The album will feature 10 new and original songs and is the 35th studio set from Dylan, whose last album in 2009, 'Together Through Life,' sold more than a million copies and debuted at No. 1 in both Britain and the United States.

The album comes during a period of critical acclaim and creativity for Dylan that has included four popular album releases, including 'Time Out Of Mind' in 1997 that won a Grammy for album of the year and 'Modern Times,' released in 2006, earning Dylan two more Grammys.

The Minnesota-born Dylan, 71, this year received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for his profound impact on popular music and American culture.

His first album, 'Bob Dylan,' which was released in March, 1962, initially did not sell well. His second album, 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan,' released in 1963, established him as a poetic writer of protest songs and a raw, original new voice.

(Reporting By Christine Kearney, editing by Patricia Reaney; Desking by Andrew Hay)



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Kitty Wells, country music star, dies at 92

NASHVILLE (Reuters) - Kitty Wells, the 'Queen of Country Music,' died this morning at her home in Nashville surrounded by family members, of complications from a stroke. She was 92.

Among those mourning her today was Loretta Lynn, whose own rise to popularity came after Wells opened the doors for strong female voices in country music. 'Kitty Wells will always be the greatest female country singer of all times,' said Lynn in a statement released on her web site.

'She was my hero. If I had never heard of Kitty Wells, I don't think I would have been a singer myself. I wanted to sound just like her, but as far as I am concerned, no one will ever be as great as Kitty Wells.

'She truly is the Queen of Country Music.'

Wells, born as Ellen Muriel Deason Wright, actually began performing on local radio in Nashville, but her ascent to stage stardom began in 1937 with husband Johnnie, half of the duo Johnnie & Jack. He died in 2011.

She was the first female singer to reach the top of the country charts with her 1952 song 'It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,' an answer to Hank Thompson's 'The Wild Side of Life,' which made the argument God indeed makes such angels.

Wells was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1976.

'Kitty Wells was a 33-year-old wife and mother when her immortal recording of 'It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels' suddenly made her a star,' according to the Hall of Fame's biography.

'Other female country singers of her day were trying their hands at hard-living, honky-tonk songs, but it was the intense and piercing style of Kitty Wells, with her gospel-touched vocals and tearful restraint that resonated with country audiences of the time and broke the industry barriers for women.'

Wells was born in Nashville to a musical family. She first began performing on the radio with her two sisters and a cousin, the quartet going by the name of the Deason Sisters.

She married Wright in 1937 and she joined by her husband and his sister, Louise, to perform as Johnnie Wright and the Harmony Girls.

It was two years later that Wright began performing with Jack Anglin as the duo Johnnie & Jack.

While she performed with them as a girl singer in the 1940s, her husband began calling her 'Kitty Wells,' a name taken from a 19th century folk song.

'SWEET, GENTLE LADY'

Harold Bradley, 86, the venerable Nashville session guitarist whose brother, Owen Bradley, produced so many of her recordings, said there was no better person to work with than Wells.

'I worked a lot of her sessions, of course, that Owen produced,' said Bradley, the most-recorded guitarist in history. 'She was the most sweet, gentle lady. She always knew her songs when she came in and she was very easy to work with.'

In addition to 'It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,' which sold 800,000 copies in its initial release in the summer of 1952, according to the Hall of Fame biography, Wells sang 'Release Me,' 'Making Believe,' 'I Can't Stop Loving You' among other classic songs.

She garnered 35 Billboard Top Ten records and 81 charted singles.

Michael McCall, writer and editor at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, said Wells' importance to the emergence of women singing hit records 'cannot be overstated.'

He said Wells proved to the industry that a woman singer could sell and headline big shows.

'She opened the doors for everybody that came after her,' McCall said. 'It was just a huge shift in how things were perceived. It was so important that it happened.'

He said Honky Tonk Angels was controversial at the time, and some radio stations wouldn't play it. She wasn't allowed to sing the song on the NBC segment of the Grand Ole Opry when it first came out.

'The fans rallied around her to prove the record industry wrong,' said McCall.

'She was one of the major recording artists of the 1950s and into the 1960s,' said McCall. 'She has had so many country classics and so many songs that came from a woman's point of view that were often about wayward and faithless men.'

Her straightforward manner and subject matter was a major influence on the song-writing and singing of Lynn and Dolly Parton, setting the stage for today's female country stars.

'We live in an age when people over-sing so much and put so much emphasis on the emotion. She showed sometimes it's more emotional by having restraint rather than trying to oversell it,' said McCall.

Among her many honors, she was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991, the same year as Bob Dylan and John Lennon were so honored.

She was just the third country singer to be get that most prestigious award, after Hank Williams and Roy Acuff.

She finally gave up touring in 2007 and continued to live a quiet life, so much differently than the subjects of her songs.

Her funeral will be Friday.

(Reporting by Timothy Ghianni; Editing by James B. Kelleher, Greg McCune and Todd Eastham)

KISS tour "The Apocalypse!", says Paul Stanley

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Get out your makeup and dust off those platform boots, KISS is hitting the road again with one of the summer's biggest concert tours, teaming up with fellow rock band Motley Crue and kicking off 'The Tour' on July 20 in Virginia.

The band, with its painted faces and pyrotechnics, was among the biggest acts of the 1970s, coming out of the glam rock era with hits like 'Rock and Roll All Nite' as a predecessor of 1980s the heavy metal groups that included Motley Crue. KISS guitarist and singer Paul Stanley recently spoke to Reuters about the tour, the band's new album 'Monster,' and the secret to the group's longevity.

Q: After all these years, do you still feel pressure when you hit the road?

A: 'I do. I'm very excited about it but I also know there's a lot to live up to. We're really up against our own reputation and the legend of what KISS is supposed to be, and that grows bigger and bigger. How much of it's true I don't know, but we have to live up to that.'

Q: So what can fans expect?

A: 'The apocalypse! It's a lot more than people usually get in one night. It's being bombarded with rock 'n' roll. Motley's co-headlining, and one thing we didn't want to do was the kind of sabotage between bands that happens. We always figured, let a band go out and do the greatest show they can, and that'll only amp us up to do what we do that much better. There's no ego clashes, and this is another way to give fans more than just a concert - it's an event.'

Q: What about the new album which you also produced? What can fans expect from that?

A: ''Monster' is done. Its heart is beating, and it's chained down until we release it in October. I was asked if it's a great Kiss album and I said, forget about Kiss - I truly believe it's far beyond being a Kiss album. It's a great album of its genre with all the elements of all the classic bands that I listened to - all the music that inspired me - The Who, the Stones, Humble Pie, (Eric) Clapton, (Jimi) Hendrix, Led Zeppelin. That's what I grew up with, and it inspired me to create passion, chaos, something sexually aggressive that'd celebrate life. That's a description of rock 'n' roll.'

Q: So many bands implode after they make it big. Do you guys still hang out together off-stage?

A: 'Well, Gene Simmons lives five minutes away - I can see his ego from here (laughs). We have a great relationship, and the key is knowing its limitations. If you want a family, go have one, as a band isn't a family. It may start out like that, but if it evolves into something else you haven't lost anything. I told this other very famous band, well-known for all their in-fighting, 'Look, if you make magic on stage, anything else is a bonus. Be thankful for that.''

Q: You've outlasted all sorts of movements in music - punk rock, grunge rock. What's the secret to the band's longevity?

A: 'KISS's appeal has always been timeless. It's not about a movement, just a simple philosophy - you're here once, let's celebrate life and enjoy ourselves. And it's about empowerment, believing you can accomplish something. We're the proof of that. We were given up for dead before our first album came out, and I think we're like a rallying cry to fans of what's possible. Kiss concerts are no longer concerts. It's a tribal gathering.'

Q: Ever see a day when KISS might retire?

A: 'I can see a day when I'll say 'that's it,' but that has nothing to do with KISS. Members have been replaced before and I'm not excluded from that. The philosophy is, the band's bigger than its members. You show a KISS photo anywhere in the world, and they know who it is even if they don't know all our names.'

Q: What's your view of the music business today?

A: 'It's in shambles. I don't even know if it's a business now. It lost its footing when the Internet arrived and ways to clamp down on piracy weren't put into effect. Suddenly you had people file sharing, which is a nice way of saying stealing. You can't share what you don't own.'

Q: In 1999, you played the title role in a production of 'The Phantom of the Opera.' Any more theatrical ambitions?

A: 'Sure. I love doing theater. I saw the show in London and I just connected with it, so I auditioned and got the part. I loved every minute of it.'

Q: You're also a successful artist. What do you get from painting that you don't get from music?

A: 'It's a different mindset. For me, there are no rules with painting. When I started, it was an outlet - something cathartic, something therapeutic - so to put any boundaries or limits on myself went against everything I've always stood for. So there's no structure as there is with music.'

(Editing By Bob Tourtellotte; Desking by Andrew Hay)



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Deep Purple keyboard player Jon Lord, dies aged 71

LONDON (Reuters) - Jon Lord, keyboardist and co-founder of British rock group Deep Purple, has died in a London hospital aged 71, his official website said on Monday.

'It is with deep sadness we announce the passing of Jon Lord, who suffered a fatal pulmonary embolism today, Monday 16 July at the London Clinic, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Jon was surrounded by his loving family,' a message on the website said.

Lord co-wrote many of Deep Purple's legendary songs including 'Smoke On The Water', and went on to play with many other bands and musicians during his career, including rock bands Whitesnake and Paice, Ashton and Lord.

He pioneered the fusing of rock and orchestral music, with his Concerto for Group and Orchestra being first performed by Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1969.

Lord was born in Leicester in the English midlands, where he took up classical piano from an early age. By his late teens he was playing in jazz and rhythm and blues groups in pub gigs, before acquiring his first electric organ.

From 1968, Deep Purple were part of the British heavy metal and rock scene alongside bands including Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath that stormed the charts worldwide in the late sixties and 1970s.

Deep Purple was once listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's loudest band and went through many line-ups and a split between 1976 and 1984.

Lord was a fixture of the group until he retired from it in 2002, playing alongside musicians including drummer Ian Paice, singer David Coverdale and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore.

Lord's solo pieces included his 1976 orchestral work Sarabande, and last year he said he was working on a definitive studio recording of his Concerto for Group and Orchestra.

(Reporting by Tim Castle; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)



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100 years after singer Guthrie's birth, this land is his

OKEMAH, Oklahoma (Reuters) - For a man who has been dead since 1967, it has been a good year for folk singer Woody Guthrie, who would have turned 100 on Saturday.

New books on Guthrie have been published, more Guthrie songs have been released and in the small Oklahoma town of Okemah, where he was born, nobody wants to burn him in effigy for his politics.

'It's a new world,' said Arlo Guthrie, 65, standing outside the town's refurbished movie theater that hosts Woodyfest, the annual folk festival that honors his father. It continues through Sunday.

This year, from California and New York to Germany and Italy, the man dubbed the 'Dust Bowl troubadour' is being analyzed and fondly remembered at Guthrie centennial gatherings great and small.

Not bad for a singer and songwriter who was a commercial flop, despite writing the iconic American song 'This Land is Your Land.'

Guthrie first caught the public's attention for his songs about the 1930s Dust Bowl and the migration west of a half-million out-of-work poor folk. In California, and later in New York City, he became an advocate for migrant farm workers and the trade union movement, a promoter and fund-raiser for socialist causes and a columnist for a communist newspaper.

He sang and joked and philosophized on major network radio shows that commanded a huge audience, but his commercial career was short-lived. He died of the degenerative nervous system disorder Huntington's Disease after spending most of his last 15 years in a hospital.

Guthrie, not formally educated but a well-read bookworm, used a hillbilly sense of humor patterned after a fellow Oklahoman he admired, said Guy Logsdon, who began researching Guthrie in 1957.

'He used extremely poor grammar deliberately,' said Logsdon, a retired University of Tulsa professor. 'He wanted to communicate with the common person the same way Will Rogers did,' he said of the great humorist of the 1920s and '30s.

In a span of about 15 years, Guthrie wrote more than 3,000 songs, essays and stories, Logsdon said.

'I know of no one in this nation who has even come close to that type of production,' he said.

Guthrie was, by all accounts, a peripatetic wanderer who hitchhiked and hopped freight trains even after he became well-known.

Arlo Guthrie said he figured out quickly that his dad was 'not normal' about things like money.

SLEEPING ON THE FLOOR

'If you gave him some new clothes or something, as soon as it got warm he'd take 'em off and give it to somebody,' Arlo Guthrie said. 'He didn't collect things. That's kinda rare.'

He said he remembered coming home once and seeing his father sleeping on the floor and asking him why he wasn't in a bed.

'He said, 'Cause the bed will make me soft and if I get soft, I won't be able to sleep outdoors anymore,'' Arlo Guthrie said. 'So I began to get an inkling of what he was about. He didn't want to get so comfortable that he couldn't be himself. He wanted to be able to leave on a whim, on a moment's notice and be free that way.'

For years, Okemah and much of Oklahoma were appalled at Woody Guthrie's politics.

When Logsdon first began going to Okemah for research, few people would talk to him.

'There was a great deal of anger and in some cases hatred toward Woody Guthrie,' Logsdon said. 'But that's all changed.'

In time, Okemah put his name on a water tower, named a street after him and placed his statue in a downtown park.

Thousands come to the town's annual folk music festival, now in its 15th year.

Gerry Mochan has been traveling there for 12 years from Scotland. 'It's just the music,' he explained of his yearly pilgrimage.

The majority of Woody Guthrie's songs were never recorded, and his daughter Nora Guthrie began sorting through his letters, journals and artwork in 1992.

She unearthed some surprises. Her father wrote songs about flying saucers and Albert Einstein during his New York years, she said.

'It was so stunning to me,' Nora Guthrie said. 'I was in the same box everybody else was - `Oh, yeah, he wrote about the Dust Bowl.''

She has worked with 75 different recording artists, allowing them to create melodies to the words her father left behind, since he could neither write nor read music.

'We didn't know whether people would throw rocks at us or not,' she said of the first collection, a collaborative effort between the American band Wilco and the British singer Billy Bragg.

The George Kaiser Family Foundation, based in Tulsa, bought the archives and is building a museum there to house them.

The decision made sense to Nora Guthrie, a lifelong New Yorker who said she has always wanted to return her father to 'his people.'

(Editing by Corrie MacLaggan, Greg McCune and Vicki Allen)



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Steven Tyler votes self off "American Idol"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rocker Steven Tyler on Thursday bowed out of his job as a judge on top-rated television singing contest 'American Idol' for the coming season, saying he wants to dedicate himself to his band, Aerosmith.

Tyler's departure comes as his fellow judge, Jennifer Lopez, also weighs whether to return to the program that once reigned supreme atop U.S. TV ratings but has seen its audience shrink in recent years. Third panelist Randy Jackson seems a likely bet to return this fall for the program's 12th season as either a judge or in a mentoring role.

'I strayed from my first love, Aerosmith, and I'm back,' the band's lead singer said in a statement.

'I've decided it's time for me to let go of my mistress 'American Idol' before she boils my rabbit,' Tyler added, in a reference to the thriller movie, 'Fatal Attraction.' 'I got two fists in the air, and I'm kicking the door open with my band.'

Tyler, 64, and Aerosmith had amassed numerous hits like 'Walk This Way' and 'I Don't Want To Miss a Thing' since gaining fame in the 1970s, but the group had reached a lull a few years back when the singer decided to join 'American Idol' as a judge.

The addition of Tyler and Lopez to the judging panel in the season that began in January 2011 sparked great interest in the Fox TV network's hit show.

But the most recent season that ended in May had the lowest-rated finale in 11 years with just 21.5 million Americans tuning in to watch Phillip Phillips win the title and recording contract that comes with it. More than 30 million viewers watched the show's finale in its heyday in 2006 and 2007.

Mark Darnell, president of alternative entertainment for Fox, called Tyler 'a terrific judge, a true friend, and great mentor' on the show.

'We are very sad that Steven has chosen to focus more on his music, but we always knew when we hired a rock 'n roll legend, he would go back to music,' Darnell said in a statement.

Indeed, Tyler's return to performing seemed foremost on his mind in March when Aerosmith announced it would go on a North American tour that began June 16, and release their first album in eight years, 'Music From Another Dimension,' on November 6.

The flamboyant rocker's departure leaves a big hole on the 'American Idol' judges panel as he has been a fan favorite. He helped create one of this past season's dramatic moments when young Jessica Sanchez was voted off by fans, then saved from elimination after Tyler and fellow judge Jackson stormed the stage in her defense. Sanchez went on to the finals.

Still in doubt is the fate of Lopez, another music superstar, who just this morning on NBC's 'Today' show seemed still undecided about her next move.

'It's been on my mind a lot, as you can imagine,' she said. 'You know, I signed on to 'American Idol' to do one year, and ... I wound up doing the two years. And now it's like, 'OK, do we continue on this journey?''

(Additional reporting by Courtney Garcia; Editing by Jan Paschal)



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Rolling Stones celebrate 50th, hint about tour

LONDON (Reuters) - Half a century after their first live gig on London's Oxford Street, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and the rest of the Rolling Stones will mark the band's 50th anniversary at a photographic exhibition on Thursday.

Guitarist Richards said this week that the Stones have met up for 'a couple of rehearsals', fanning the fire of rumors that a new world tour may be in the works.

Richards would not go so far as to say when the quartet comprising himself, Jagger, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood would be performing in public again.

'There's things in the works - I think it's definitely happening,' he told British broadcaster the BBC. 'But when? I can't say yet.'

'We're playing around with the idea and had a couple of rehearsals - we've got together and it feels so good.'

The exhibition photos and an accompanying book track the rise of a group of fresh-faced British boys who played their first gig at Oxford Street's Marquee Club in 1962, became the scourge of the establishment in the 1960s, the titans of 70s music and finally the elder statesmen of rock n' roll in the 21st century.

'There was no sort of master plan,' Richards says on the band's official website rollingstones.com. 'We were flying by the seat of our pants. That is what amazes me, that the whole thing was improvised.'

The relationship at the heart of the Stones' success remains the working friendship of singer Jagger and Richards, whose long musical partnership goes back to the days when they roomed with the late guitarist and former Stones founding member Brian Jones, hustling gigs wherevever they could find them.

'You have to put yourself back into that time,' Jagger says on rollingstones.com. 'Popular music wasn't talked about on any kind of intellectual level. There was no such term as 'popular culture.' None of those things existed.'

But the Jagger/Richards partnership has also had its chillier moments.

Earlier this year, Richards apologized to Jagger for derogatory comments he made about the lead singer in his 2010 memoir 'Life', which caused a rift within the band.

In comments reported by Rolling Stone magazine, the two agreed it was time to settle their differences, leaving fans keen for another world tour breathing a sigh of relief.

'I got very involved with the business side of the Stones, mainly because I felt no one else was interested, but it's plain now from the book that Keith felt excluded, which is a pity,' Jagger was quoted as saying. 'Time I reckon to move on.'

Richards added: 'Mick's right. He and I have had conversations over the last year of a kind we have not had for an extremely long time and that has been incredibly important to me.'

Some industry sources had put a tour delay down to the argument, but Rolling Stone said it may be more closely linked to concerns over Richards' health.

'The quality of the guitarist's performances declined after he suffered a head injury on vacation in Fiji in April 2006, midway through the Bigger Bang tour,' the magazine said.

A Bigger Bang, the Stones' last tour, played to 4.5 million people in 32 countries over two years before it finished in London in 2007.

'The Rolling Stones: 50' picture book also hit the shelves on Thursday to correspond with the golden anniversary.

The new book features 700 illustrations, 300 of them in color and many taken from the archive of the Daily Mirror tabloid, which contains the largest newspaper collection of Rolling Stones photography.

'This is our story of 50 fantastic years,' Jagger, Richards, guitarist/bass player Wood and drummer Watts said in a joint statement.

'We started out as a blues band playing the clubs and more recently we've filled the largest stadiums in the world with the kind of show that none of us could have imagined all those years ago.'

The photographic autobiography, which also features words from the band, includes images taken by Philip Townsend, the photographer for the band's first ever shoot.

The 352-page hardback edition published by Thames & Hudson in Britain, will retail at 29.95 pounds ($48).

The Stones have said they also plan to release a documentary film in November chronicling their history.

The last studio album by the group was in 2005. They have released two live albums, 'Hampton Coliseum (Live 1981)' and 'L.A. Friday (Live 1975),' so far this year.

Richards said on rollingstones.com that he is grateful for the hallowed place that he and the band have carved into the hearts of their fans and in rock history, but was still striving to improve, half a century into his career.

'If you say I'm great, thank you very much, but I know what I am. I could be better, man, you know?'

(Reporting By Josie Cox, writing by Paul Casciato, editing by Steve Addison)



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Chris Brown's "Fortune" tops Billboard album chart

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rapper Chris Brown scored his second No. 1 debut with new album 'Fortune' topping the Billboard 200 chart on Wednesday, despite failing to impress critics in early reviews last week.

'Fortune' sold 134,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, a considerably lower debut than the singer's previous album 'F.A.M.E.,' which also reached No. 1 with 270,000 copies in its debut week last year.

Brown's was the only new album in the top 10 this week.

A surprise entry from pop star Katy Perry took the No. 2 slot on the album chart. Her 'Teenage Dream' record, released almost two years ago in August 2010, notched 80,000 unit sales last week, fueled by her new movie 'Katy Perry: Part Of Me' and Amazon.com's offer of the album for 99 cents on July 3.

The Amazon.com offer, which saw several albums priced at 99 cents for one day only, also pushed Gotye's 'Making Mirrors,' Fun.'s 'Some Nights' and the Black Keys' 'El Camino' albums back into the top 10 of the Billboard 200, at No. 6, No. 7 and No. 10 respectively.

Justin Bieber's 'Believe' held steady at No. 3, Maroon 5's 'Overexposed' notched No. 4, and Linkin Park's 'Living Things' fell from the top spot last week to No. 5.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and M.D. Golan)



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EU copyright law plan angers Radiohead, Pink Floyd

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A proposed EU law to give musicians more rights over their royalties has angered bands like Radiohead and Pink Floyd, who accused the European Commission of breaking promises to tackle the problem of musicians' missing pay.

The Commission announced a draft law on Wednesday designed to make sure that the firms collecting music royalties on the behalf of artists also hand them over to the performers, composers and producers involved in making a piece of music.

'We are deeply disappointed by your choice to defend the interests of a minority of managers and stakeholders,' said a letter signed by Pink Floyd's Nick Mason, Radiohead's Ed O'Brien, British singer Sandie Shaw, producer CJ Bolland and the director of Younison, an artists' lobby, Kelvin Smits.

By the Commission's own assessment, collection societies -- up to 250 of which operate in Europe -- keep 'substantial amounts of money' on their books, pending distribution.

In an impact assessment made ahead of Wednesday's announcement, the Commission said that in 2010 major societies owed 3.6 billion euros ($4.41 billion) in royalties to the creators.

Artists say that figure is in fact much higher and that societies have no incentive to pay up quickly, because of the returns they can make on the money in their hands.

Some 5-10 percent of payments are kept for as long as three years after they were collected, the Commission said.

The draft law, which will need approval from the European Parliament and the EU's 27 member countries, says societies have 12 months after the financial year in which a song was played to pay royalties.

And funds whose royalty-owner remains unidentified could be kept by the collecting society after five years.

'You have broken your promises and encourage the management of collecting societies to keep the fruits of our creativity,' read the artists' letter to the Commission.

'You stole our hopes.'

The artists say the five-year grace period will only encourage the collecting societies to keep the money they owe, and reduces the incentive to find the rights-holder.

'You thus legitimize one of the most problematic forms of embezzlement adopted by some collecting societies in Europe,' their letter reads.

Societies say they try to pay rights-holders as quickly as they can and that many already pay their members much quicker than the draft law demands.

PRS in Britain makes payments every three months, said Veronique Desbrosses, the secretary-general of GESAC, which represents 33 collecting societies in the European Union.

'And sometimes it's difficult to find the rights-holders because they are all over the world,' she added.

The law also aims to tackle piracy by expanding the amount of music which can be played by online companies like Apple's iTunes that need licenses from the societies before they can offer their services.

To date, iTunes is the only online mainstream music vendor available in all 27 EU member states, the Commission report says. ($1 = 0.8160 euros)

(Editing by Rex Merrifield and Mark Heinrich)



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Gilberto Gil, South Africa's "Voice" premiere Viramundo

MONTREUX, Switzerland (Reuters) - Brazil's Gilberto Gil showcased joyful African-inspired music despite being tinged with themes of poverty, slavery and painful reconciliation at the Montreux Jazz Festival on Tuesday night.

Teaming up with South African folk star Vusi Mahlasela also on guitar, Gil's 'Viramundo' concert offered a sneak preview of an upcoming documentary on his road trip rich in cross-cultural collaboration.

South African Paul Hanmer was on piano, along with Brazilians Gustavo Di Dalva on drums and guitarist Sergio Chiavazzoli, for the nearly two-hour set in Miles Davis Hall, which was backed by a Swiss orchestra, the Lausanne Sinfonietta.

'We are Africans in Brazil, especially when it comes to music. We are very African already in Brazil,' Gil told Reuters in an interview in the chalet of festival founder Claude Nobs hours before the show.

'What we sing about, our subjects, we have lots of things in common like the apartheid situation, hunger, poverty, submission, humiliation and exploitation - all of that. The black slaves in Brazil went through the same thing that tribes had to go through when they worked in the gold mines in South Africa.'

'Ba Kae', 'Lamento Sertanejo' and 'Raca Humana' were among the tracks performed by the duo, who opened for American chanteuse Melody Gardot.

Gil arrived a few days early in Switzerland for his 10th appearance at one of Europe's most prestigious music festivals.

Last weekend in a Swiss studio, he recorded 10 songs for the soundtrack of 'Viramundo - a Journey with Gilberto Gil,' which follows him on a musical tour of the southern hemisphere, via Brazil, South Africa and Australia, while examining racial issues.

The 95-minute film, now due to be released early in 2013 in Switzerland, France and Belgium, is directed by Pierre-Yves Borgeaud, whose award-winning documentary 'Return to Goree' features Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour.

'I was completing some recording requirements that we had from the film's soundtrack. Definitely I think that the producer has the intention to release probably a soundtrack of the film,' Gil said.

Referring to the anti-apartheid activist Mahlasela, known as 'The Voice', he said: 'Vusi is an outstanding performer and songwriter, a very interesting musical personality in Africa.'

On stage, Mahlasela, a strapping man in an African shirt, towered over the slight, grey-haired Gil, who turned 70 last month.

'I not only sing the beauty of my country but also some of the disturbing things we saw, the brutality of the police playing with old corpses,' Mahlasela told the crowd after singing the track 'The Beauty of Our Land'.

'Our grandfathers of humanity, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and another man who lived in South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi, planted a seed of reconciliation and taught us there is wisdom in forgiveness,' he said.

Peter Garrett, former frontman for Midnight Oil and now Australia's education minister, and indigenous singer Shellie Morris appear in film scenes shot in the Northern Territories.

'Aborigine is a local, ancient culture that was all of a sudden struck by the colonizers. They almost lost completely their identity and natural forms of relating to themselves and their environment,' Gil said.

'The whole long struggle they have been having to endure, and to survive is also very similar to the situation of South Africans and the situation of blacks and Indians in Brazil.'

Gil, celebrating 50 years in the music business, was culture minister under former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Seated in Nob's chalet in a village overlooking Montreux and Lake Geneva, he was surrounded by souvenirs collected by the Swiss founder of the festival, now in its 46th edition, which ends on Saturday.

A red, flowered kimono that belonged to the late Freddie Mercury was displayed behind him in a glass frame.

'I was first here in Montreux when Queen was recording their second album in 1978. They hired a studio in the mountains during the whole festival and were recording there,' Gil said. 'One night we both went to the same restaurant and shook hands.'

His European tour began in London followed by Brussels, and continues in France, Italy, Germany and Spain.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Patricia Reaney)



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Rihanna sues ex-accountants, says she lost millions

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pop star Rihanna has sued her former accountants for mismanaging the singer's finances, including claiming they earned huge commissions from concert tours that resulted in her losing millions of dollars.

In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court that surfaced on Thursday, the 24-year-old singer and her tour company, Tourihanna, is seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory damages and loss of earnings from accountancy firm Berdon LLP and former employees Michael Mitnick and Peter Gounis.

The suit, first filed late in Tuesday ahead of the July 4 U.S. holiday, claims the accounting firm caused 'significant financial losses' between 2005 and 2010 by charging 'exorbitant' commissions from Rihanna's 2010 'Last Girl on Earth Tour.' It also accuses Berdon of mishandling Rihanna's foreign and domestic taxes and failing to monitor unpaid song royalties.

'Between 2005 and 2010, Tourihanna suffered significant losses due to defendants' financial mismanagement and other acts and omissions,' the lawsuit said.

Ron Storch, a partner at Berdon, said the company could not comment on pending litigation. Mitnick and Gounis have since left the firm and could not be reached for comment.

Rihanna, whose real name is Robyn Fenty, has produced a string of worldwide hits including 'Umbrella' and 'We Found Love.' She is referred to in the suit as a financial novice who found fame at a young age and relied heavily on her accountants.

Her music management introduced her to Berdon in 2005 when she was a 16-year-old and 'a minor with a booming music career and no knowledge or understanding of financial matters whatsoever.'

The lawsuit said the accountants concealed facts regarding her finances and, in a deal Rihanna's lawyers called unusual, earned commissions based on a percentage of Rihanna's gross receipts that were 'exorbitant and expensive.'

In addition, the firm assumed control over the singer's affairs beyond the industry standard and failed to maximize her personal net worth and long term wealth, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit said several of the Barbados-born singer's national and international tours between 2005 and 2010 suffered losses compared with her last tour, 'Loud', that was a financial success after she parted ways with Berdon.

The lawsuit said Rihanna lost millions of dollars during 'The Last Girl On Earth' tour after the firm failed to reconcile costs versus revenues while still paying itself millions in fees.

It estimated that between 2007 and 2010, the accountants earned millions in commissions on tour gross receipts in an amount equaling 23 percent of total tour income, compared with 6 percent for Rihanna.

The firm did not do monthly planning reports and performed little record-keeping of Rihanna's personal and business expenses, including those for Tourihanna. For example, during 2008 and 2009, the accountants kept only 2 percent to 4 percent of all receipts for expenses charged on the singer's personal credit card, the suit said.

It also failed to uncover millions in unpaid royalties and problems with the way in which Universal Music Group (UMG) label Recordings was tracking song royalties. The suit did not mention Rihanna's direct label, Def Jam, also owned by UMG.

Accountants mishandled foreign and domestic taxes by withholding more funds than necessary, leading to 'a significant losses of tax benefits' and failed to file taxes on time, causing late penalties.

The singer further claims that, as a result, the IRS is now auditing her because Berdon mishandled tax returns between 2008 and 2010. The suit includes claims of breach of contract, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment.

(Reporting By Christine Kearney; editing by Bob Tourtellotte, M.D. Golan and Andre Grenon)



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