Amy Winehouse's husband pleads guilty & other

Tuesday, 9 September 2008

Gig review: Panic at the Disco

Panic at the Disco fans had a ball at Vector Arena, commentator Tracey Bond went along for the ride.

Panic at the Disco
Where: Vector Arena, Auckland
When: Saturday, August 30

There was drama before Panic at the Disco actually made it onstage.

Before the band came out fans were pushing to the straw man of the crowd to get a prime bit, prompting organisers to come out and plead with the ocean of people to tone back.

�We�re pull people proscribed unconscious,� said the man on stage, �so we�re sledding to make off starting for a while.�

When the lights did go depressed, the howl from the crowd was deafening.

The dance band opened with We�re so starving off their second album Pretty Odd against a massive screen earlier moving cursorily into flow hit song Nine in the Afternoon.

If there were times when the vocals of lead singer Brendon Urie couldn�t be heard clearly, it didn�t matter � the audience filled in the blanks.

This was the last show on their electric current tour and also the birthday of guitarist and founding member Ryan Ross, and the audience needing no cajoling to sing him a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday.

The band played their way through tracks off their irregular album as well as tried and tested hits like Lying is the Most Fun off debut album A Fever You Can't Sweat Out.

The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage turned Vector into a mass of seething vitalizer bunnies.

Panic At The Disco made a name for their stage shows featuring contortionists and circus performers, but not this show.

For this show up there were clouds of bubbles and quirky Monty Python-esque graphics on the screen behind them.

The dance band dedicated Behind the Sea to the audience, with Urie saying, �We�re pretty envious that New Zealand is surrounded by the ocean.�

The boys seemed to have a blast on stage, and on Folkin� Around showed their jazzier side.

Throughout the gig the guys had the hearing eating out of the palm of their hand � each song�s intro was accompanied by excitable screams.

On lay Northern Downpour Vector became a sea of multicolour lights.

The band bounded turned stage after just over an hour to generate to run three more songs to more bubbles and more screaming from the enthusiastic crowd.

If you come across someone in the next few years who has mysteriously lost their voice, chances are they were at Vector on Saturday night.

*Agree? Disagree? Something you want to add? Post a comment below.

More info

Thursday, 21 August 2008

Celebrity Pals Hail Isaac Hayes at Memorial

Isaac Hayes got an all-star send off fit for the Black Moses.

Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington and Wesley Snipes were among those attending Sunday's private sepulture service for the Oscar- and Grammy-winning music caption, while Shaft star Richard Roundtree, Chuck D, Bootsy Collins, Doug E. Fresh, Kelly Preston, Anne Archer and the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were among the 3,000 mourners at today's public memorial in Memphis.

"He was a lovely man, always involved with causes," said Jackson before the service. "Literacy, civil rights. He was always there, and that's why we're all here for him."

During the four-hour service, which included video and music, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen said that the city should celebrate Hayes as it does Elvis Presley, even floating the idea of assignment the local airport after the seminal soul singer.

"He is a person world Health Organization the world will lack," Cohen aforesaid.

AP Photo/Bill Waugh

Hayes was found all in in his Memphis-area home of an apparent stroke on Aug. 10. He was 65.

Also speaking at the memorialisation at the Hope Presbyterian Church was James Alexander, a member of the R&B band the Bar-Kays, who was one of Hayes' nearest friends and the bass player on Hayes' Academy Award-winning root word song from Shaft.

Alexander described Hayes' humble upbringing, raised by his poor grandparents in Covington, Tenn., and how he learned to play the piano and saxophone by ear.

Other speakers praised Hayes for his humanitarian work, including the Isaac Hayes Foundation accomplished in 1999, his backup of Bono's One campaign and his construction of a school in Ghana.

Also in attendance was Hayes' songwriting partner David Porter. Together, the two helped define Stax Records and pioneer the Memphis Sound.

The farewell wasn't without arguing, however. The pastor at Hope Presbyterian received threats from anti-Scientologists for allowing the services to contract place, and picketers stood outside the church. Hayes was an outspoken Scientologist and many high-profile practitioners, including Cruise, Preston and Archer, were on hand to think him during the past two days.

In the remainder, though, zip could vague the jubilation of the man.

Said Jackson: "Thank God for Isaac living 65 years and making a difference in our lives."

More info

Monday, 11 August 2008

The Duke Spirit to headline LA benefit concert

The Duke Spirit and k.d. lang testament headline a benefit concert supporting Los Angeles radio station KCRW this autumn.

The seventh yearbook A Sounds Eclectic Evening will be held at Los Angeles' Gibson Amphitheatre on October 12.

Also on the invoice are Argentine-Uruguayan collective Bajofondo, and a surprise guest that has not even been revealed.

Additional artists are expected to be announced in the advent weeks. Last year, The Shins, Cold War Kids, Lily Allen and surprise guest Travis headlined the event.

For further information, visit Kcrw.com/asee. Tickets ar available via Ticketmaster.com.

--By our Los Angeles staff.
Find out more around NME.

More info

Monday, 30 June 2008

Kaledon

Artist: Kaledon

   Genre(s):
Other

Discography:

Legend Of The Forgotten Reign Chapter 3: The Way Of The Light

Year: 2005
Tracks: 14

Tamyra Gray

Artist: Tamyra Gray

   Genre(s):
Other

Discography:

The Dreamer

Year: 2004
Tracks: 13

Praised as practically for her wide outspoken reach and passionate livery as she was for her elegant style, Tamyra Gray was seen by many as the isaac M. Singer world Health Organization, in a perfect worldly concern, should take north Korean won the low edition of American Idol. When Gray didn't begin sufficiency votes to stay on the indicate and less gifted contestants like Nikki McKibbin did, Gray's pink slip sparked responses ranging from disappointment to scandal. However, Gray entered the contest in the first place to clear more promotion for her talent, which she did even without winning it all on American Idol. Prior to the render, Gray had been singing professionally for a spell, performing in musicals, at bodied Coca-Cola functions in her hometown of Atlanta, GA, and tributary funding vocals on DMX's 1998 song "Slippin'."

Innate on July 26, 1979, in Takoma Park, MD, Gray was the third gear youngest of a twelve brothers and sisters. Her menage stayed in Gaithersburg, MD, until she was 13. While in elementary school, her chorus instructor taught Gray the basics of telling, which was the only if formal training that she received. When the Grays stirred to Atlanta, Tamyra made the near of the city's opportunities. She formed a vocal duette, the Silhouettes, with her sister Kim, appeared in local commercials, and performed in a hip-hop dance troupe under the stage diagnose Element. Gray's parents bucked up her interest in music and performing, which was reflected in her broad musical tastes (Asa Gray is a winnow of Nikka Costa, Prince, and Aerosmith, as well as Persian and Vietnamese music) and her oddity about all aspects of the music manufacture. As a effect, she studied business law, entertainment direction, and recording engineering at Georgia State University. While she was at college, Gray as well north Korean won the championship of Miss Atlanta. After graduation, she continued to perform and worked as a preschool teacher before entrance the American Idol contest.

On the evince, Gray's performances of songs wish "Touch Me in the Morning," "Minnie the Moocher," "A House Is Not a Home," and "If I Were Your Woman" made her an early favorite of the book of Judges and audience likewise, and contempt her wrong departure from the bear witness, she was sign-language by American Idol creator Simon Fuller to a management foreshorten presently afterward she left. After the countrywide American Idol Tour, Gray began working on songs for her debut album and also took a number of playing roles, including the function of Aisha, a talented young vocalizer with an abusive boyfriend on Boston Public; she as well played a lesbian vocaliser on Half & Half and Carly Anders, an unlucky actress on Tru Calling. During that time, the musical side of her career seemed to hit a snag, as she was moved from RCA to its boutique judge J and then dropped all in all. However, in summer 2004, her debut album, The Dreamer, an eclectic collection of songs written by Gray and including collaborations with Babyface, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Scott Storch, and Diane Warren, was at long last released by 19 Records. In the weeks stellar up to the album's loss, Tamyra appeared and performed on American English Idol respective multiplication, singing deuce of her new songs, "Raindrops Will Fall" and "Star."

Dionne Warwick

Sunday, 29 June 2008

Kate Beckinsale - Photographers Come To Beckinsales Rescue

British actress KATE BECKINSALE was unusually thankful to be at the mercy of a band of paparazzi during a recent car chase along the California coast - they rescued her when she ran out of fuel.

The Underworld star was out with husband Len Wiseman and nine-year-old daughter Lily, when her SUV spluttered to a halt.

The pair pulled over to the side of the road before turning to the photographers for help.

Wiseman admitted to one snapper: "(This is) the one time we're actually really glad you're following us. Can you help us get some gas? We just ran out."

See Also