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Exclusive: Rolling Stones Will Get $25Mil for Four Shows

Roger Friedman
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Exclusive: Rolling Stones Will Get $25Mil for Four Shows

Exclusive: sources inside their camp tell me that the Rolling Stones will play four shows this November and December, two in London and two in Brooklyn, NY. They will be produced by Sir Richard Branson, who will use the events to launch his VirginLive.

Branson is paying the Stones a total of $25 million for the four dates–topping bids from Live Nation, Michael Cohl, and AEG Live. The dates are November 26 and 27 in London at the O2 Arena and December 6 and 7 at Brooklyn’s Barclay Center.

Because the amount Branson is paying is so high, ticket prices are going to be astronomical. I’m told the prices could be around $500 face value, and $200 for the nosebleed seats. “It’s a loss leader for VirginLive,” says the Stones insider, “because Branson just wants to make a splash in the live field.”

More to come…

 

Hollywood Reporter to Own Golden Globes? Conflicts of Interest?

Roger Friedman
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Hollywood Reporter to Own Golden Globes? Conflicts of Interest?

This is weird. I’m in Europe, but back in Los Angeles, The Hollywood Reporter got a “scoop” they posted in the early evening: their parent company, Guggenheim Partners, is in “exclusive talks” to buy Dick Clark Productions, which produces the Golden Globes, American Music Awards, and People’s Choice Awards.

Uh, conflicts of interest?

And the weird part is that Variety and trade blogs like Deadline or The Wrap, haven’t even followed up on the story. They’re either completely skeptical or too crazed to do anything. It’s been several hours, and nothing so far.

But think of it: the three awards shows with the least amount of integrity and the most criticism would be owned by the company that publishes the Hollywood Reporter and Billboard, the publications that are supposed to “cover” them. Yikes. Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse.

And they really want it: according to the “scoop” in THR, Guggenheim is paying 10% more than asked, to make they complete the purchase.

I felt sorry for Alex Ben Block, the THR reporter made to write that story. He’s one of their few real journalists, a really great guy. Yet, the headline in his story and the first few grafs don’t even acknowledge the Guggenheim relationship. You have to drill way down below the fold for that information. And there’s no mention of Billboard or the American Music Awards, or the creepy People’s Choice Awards. I liked how Alex had to write “Reps for Guggenheim declined comment.” It’s a joke.

That should be a taste of what’s to come.

I can see Guggenheim’s point: if they own all that, the studios will be forced to advertise everything in THR. Bingo! Also: it’s not likely we’ll find any critical reporting about the heinous Hollywood Foreign Press in the Reporter, or anything negative about the other shows.

It might be evil genius. That is, unless someone challenges it in court. But who would that be? Variety is for sale, and its owner isn’t spending money if it doesn’t have to. Maybe Deadline’s Penske Media will take up the charge; they’re very litigious.

But for such a deal to go through–for the company owning the Tinsel Town publications– to own the town’s awards machine– means the end of any integrity ro anyone to take seriously already very trivial enterprises. It would truly be the Day of the Locusts.

Who’s the winner? The ‘real’ parts of Hollywood, like Variety, the Oscars, and the Grammy Awards. At least the public will know, if it’s handled correctly, that they’re the only real standards of journalism and award dispensing in town. They’ll have to hire ten pr firms to get the message out, but in the end, they’d be the beneficiaries of such nonsense.

PS Guggenheim would inherit the endless lawsuit between the Hollywood Foreign Press and Dick Clark Productions.

Michael Jackson “Bad” Tracks: Mysteries Explained

Roger Friedman
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Michael Jackson “Bad” Tracks: Mysteries Explained

Sony Music really liked our story about the new Michael Jackson tracks, the unreleased material from “Bad.” But I’m told the Jackson estate is nervous I’ve implied the tracks were less than genuine. Never! They are 100% pure Michael, and just great.

Here’s an explanation for my earlier questions, just so every is, as we say, on the same page. A source close to the estate emailed me:

“There are no mysteries about the tracks.  They were all done in Michael’s studio at Hayvenhurst.  Bruce Swedien never worked at Hayvenhurst with Michael and would only have heard the tracks that Michael brought to Quincy [Jones] to include on the album.  As a result, there are many songs that would be unfamiliar to Bruce.  And, as far as Bill [Bottrell] is concerned, he doesn’t even know the names of all of the tracks he did work on.  Is it really surprising that, with the amount of tracks worked on during the BAD sessions, that there are some Bill doesn’t remember having done some engineering on? And, by the way, Bill wasn’t the only engineer working with Michael at Hayvenhurst.  Matt Forger was there then as well.”

Fans will love all the versions of “Bad25,” believe me. And I do hope Sony tries to get a couple of hits out of the demos. “I’m so Blue” is so catchy it’s embarrassing!

Mariah Carey Gives Baby Pictures to Fans, Not Tabloids

Roger Friedman
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Mariah Carey Gives Baby Pictures to Fans, Not Tabloids

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon have decided not to sell their baby pictures to tabloids. Instead, they’ve essentially given them away to fans on Mariah’s website. At the same time, they’re asking publications and others who want copies to buy them from dembabies.com, where proceeds will go to Mariah’s Fresh Air Fund Camp.

This lovely act of altruism is certainly a first, as we’re expecting pictures of Snooki’s baby, Lorenzo, to be flogged somewhere any minute. (Not to say there’s any comparison between Mariah and Snooki.)

Mariah has been running Camp Mariah for about twenty years through good times and bad, and has taken it pretty seriously. You can read about it at www.freshairfund.org. We’re running a picture from the website here on our site, so we’re sending a check to the Fresh Air Fund immediately. Nice stuff, Nick and Mariah!

“2016” Anti Obama Movie Number 2 on Monday Thanks to No RNC

Roger Friedman
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“2016” Anti Obama Movie Number 2 on Monday Thanks to No RNC

The anti-Obama movie, “2016: Obama’s America,” hit number 2 on the box office chart on Monday night. The slanted documentary now has $10.4 million in its till after taking in an additional $1.2 million Monday night.

The doc surged as a replacement for the actual Republican National Convention, which postponed its start because of a possible landing by Hurricane Isaac in Tampa.

Alas, nothing happened, but that was to the benefit of Rocky Mountain Pictures and Dinesh D’Souza and Niall Ferguson, who put this thing together. It will be interesting to see whether “2016” does as well the rest of the week when it’s competing with the actual convention.

“2016” was produced by Gerald R. Molen, who got his start executive producing the film version of “Bright Lights, Big City,” about massive cocaine use and nightlife partying in the early 1980s in New York. After a stint working for Steven Spielberg, Molen went on to produce a trio of Mormon cenric flops. (This has nothing to do with Mormon life, just the quality of the movies, kids.)

Last night the convention rolled along, with speeches by Ann Romney and Chris Christie in the spotlight.

Michael Jackson: Exclusive Liner Notes from “Bad25”

Roger Friedman
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Michael Jackson: Exclusive Liner Notes from “Bad25”

Exclusive: Here’s some more info from the boxed set of Michael Jackson’s “Bad 25” anniversary project coming on September 18th. Jackson fans should be ears up on this since we get some explanations for how the estate put the project together after Frank DiLeo unexpectedly and tragically passed away. Here’ an excerpt, plus a description of some of the unreleased songs I wrote about this morning. I’m telling you, “I’m So Blue” is one I cannot get out of my head. Very annoying, in a good way.

Excerpt: “A lot of time was spent listening to all of the recordings in the archives from the BAD era… Some tracks we found were very early recordings. They had no lyrics except possibly the chorus but more complete music tracks. Some were actually so complete that any other artist but Michael Jackson – who worked tirelessly to make sure his songs reflected his vision – might consider them finished tracks… As such, we have given a little information for each recording. As Michael wrote in a note at the time, he was determined to get exactly what he wanted on the recordings of his songs… In addition to the demo recordings, also on the “bonus” disc are the three recordings that were included in the 2001 re-release of the BAD album – “Fly Away,” “Streetwalker” and the Spanish version of “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You.” In addition, a French version of “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” is included along with the earlier mentioned remixes.”

DON’T BE MESSIN’ ROUND

It is well-known that Michael might start a song for one album, and then choose not to use it. The song would later be pulled from his vaults for possible use on a subsequent album project. “Don’t Be Messin’ Round” is an example of one such song, and how it took shape at the time of BAD. Indeed, Bruce Swedien has called it one of his favorites.

I’M SO BLUE

For Michael, creating a demo is how he let someone (in this case Quincy and Bruce) know what he wanted to hear in the finished recording. It also was a vehicle for writing both the lyrics and the music (since he didn’t actually write leadsheets). And because he was such a perfectionist, this really meant giving them a demo that, to most people, would be considered a finished “record” and not a demo at all as Bruce Swedien, among others, have noted. This is an example of one of those “demos.”

SONG GROOVE (A/K/A ABORTION PAPERS)

As noted earlier, this is a song that Michael knew could be controversial and, as a result, he spent a lot of time thinking about the story for the song and the voice through which the song should be told. The song is

about a girl whose father is a priest; she was raised in the Church and on the Bible. She gets married in the Church but decides, against the Bible, to have an abortion and she wants “Abortion Papers.” As Michael indicated in his notes, “I have to do it in a way so I don’t offend girls who have gotten abortions or bring back guilt trips so it has to be done carefully… I have to really think about it.“ This is an early example of a song with a controversial subject.

FREE

Generally, Michael’s process for creating a song would start with the chorus and harmonies first and it would build from there to include melodies and the lyrics for the verses. This piece shows a song that is clearly still a “work in progress” but with a full, finished chorus and harmonies.

PRICE OF FAME

Sometimes a song is written with a story in mind. In Michael’s work notes we found the story for this song – blind obsession. He described the story as “the girls who are over-obsessed with me, who follow me, who almost make me kill myself in my car, who just give their lives to do anything with me, to see me – they’ll do anything and it’s breaking my heart. It’s running me crazy. It’s breaking up my relationship with my girl, with my family. That’s the ‘Price of Fame’.”

AL CAPONE

When you listen to some early demos of songs, you can tell instantly what song it is. This is NOT one of those songs. It is an example of how different a song can be during its early stages of development from its later, finished polished version. If it were not a well known fact that “Smooth Criminal” was developed out of “Al Capone,” it would be hard to know that it had its roots in the material based on listening to this early recording.

Christie Brinkley Keeps it Light with Mom Gravely Ill

Roger Friedman
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Christie Brinkley Keeps it Light with Mom Gravely Ill

Christie Brinkley was a hit at East Hampton’s Guild Hall this weekend, getting rave reviews for her appearance in the very funny “Celebrity Autobiography.” This is the hit show where cast members read excerpts from real celebrity bios.

The ubiquitous Alec Baldwin hosted, and Christie read from a Miley Cyrus biography. The supermodel who keeps looking better and better has a cutting sense of humor, and I’m Miley was shreds by the time Christie was done. Don’t blame her. Blame the biographer!

But what people don’t know: Christie’s beloved mom, Marge, is gravely ill and battling just about everything. She’s in the hospital and getting tons of support from Christie, her kids and brother. It was only about a month ago that Christie’s famous TV producer dad, Don Brinkley, passed away.

Brinkley moved her elderly parents from Hawaii–where they had quite a marvelous life in their heyday–to the Hamptons a few years ago as their health declined. A lot of us “regular” people are going through this sort of thing with parents and grandparents. We don’t think of supermodels having such mortal problems. But they do — and Christie has been the model daughter, so to speak. And the best medicine is always laughter.

Rosie O’Donnell Got Married Twice This Summer

Roger Friedman
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Rosie O’Donnell Got Married Twice This Summer

Congratulations to Rosie O’Donnell and Michelle Rounds. They got married twice this summer. This is what happened: they married on June 9th, quickly, because Michelle had gotten ill on May 13th with desmoid tumors. It was scary. The women didn’t tell anyone. They’d planned to get married anyway, but with the illness, it was necessary.

The plan was to get married officially and publicly next June 9th–and everyone was told that in the month. But then today Rosie tweeted that the couple had officially re-hitched 10 days ago. Michelle, thankfully, was doing better. Then Rosie had a heart attack. There is no one with a bigger heart, more charitable financially, or more generous. So it’s good to know that her heart has been repaired in every way and that she’s now eating a plant diet, she tells me. No ice cream. “I want to live!” she emailed me.

Now Rosie and Michelle are pitching for the Desmoid Tumor Foundation. On rosie.com and on ebay, Rosie is selling the original paintings she’s been making all summer. I’ve been coveting some of these works, so when I get back to New York after Labor Day, I’ll be going right on ebay to get one!

So congrats to Rosie and Michelle. Here’s to the rest of the year being healthy and boring.

Mystery About Unreleased Michael Jackson Songs from “Bad” Anniversary Album

Roger Friedman
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1
Mystery About Unreleased Michael Jackson Songs from “Bad” Anniversary Album

EXCLUSIVE There are some mysteries about a couple of unreleased tracks included in the upcoming Michael Jackson “Bad25” album. Two of the eight tracks– which are really wonderful–are unknown entirely to the engineers who worked on “Bad” in 1986. Those tracks are a lovely ballad called “I’m So Blue” and a slice of funk called “Song Groove (aka Abortion Papers).” Neither Bruce Swedien nor Bill Bottrell has any memory of them. I played the songs for each of them this weekend, and came up with no answers. “Michael must have gotten out and recorded with someone else,” Bottrell told me.

But don’t worry–they are completely by Michael Jackson. They’re the genuine article.

The anniversary boxed set of the huge-selling 1987 album contains quite a few surprises. Eight of them, actually. There are eight unreleased tracks that didn’t make it onto the “Bad” album. Surprisingly, they’ve remained in the vaults at Sony all this time. One of them, called “Don’t Be Messin’ Around,” was released earlier this summer as the “B” side of a re-released single on “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” from Wal-Mart. I have no idea why Sony did that, since it seemed a squandered opportunity.

Now these eight tracks are coming as a separate CD inside “Bad25,” which contains four discs. The first disc is a remastered version of the original album. The second disc has these eight songs. The third disc is a live CD from a concert Michael performed on July 16, 1988 at Wembley Stadium in London. The fourth disc is a DVD of live performances from that time. Target customers get a disc of the original music videos from “Bad.” What’s unclear is what happens to  a Spike Lee documentary about the making of “Bad,” which should have footage from the recording sessions with Quincy Jones, engineer Bruce Swedien, and manager mastermind Frank DiLeo.

(Update: the documentary will be released this fall, separately.)

“Bad25” will be released on September 18th.

But it’s the eight songs that are going to make fans very, very happy. A couple of them are known, like “Don’t Be Messin’ Around” and “Fly Away.” But the others are real surprises, especially a track called “Streetwalker.” It the vague feel of “The Way You Make Me Feel” in that it’s a Motown oriented shuffle. But it’s also a dynamite track. The version on “Bad25” was mixed by Bottrell, but there are others by Swedien. Jackson was never satisfied with any of them. “Streetwalker” will be known to players of the video game “The Michael Jackson Experience.” But it’s also a hit. We’re going to be hearing it on the radio– a lot. (“Streetwalker” and another track, “Fly Away,” were first included in the “Bad” re-release back in 2001.)

The others are all gems. “I’m So Blue” is beautiful ballad, with a vocal by Michael that recalls his best work. If Sony were smart, they’d release it as their first single from this set. It also has a harmonica solo that either is by Stevie Wonder or sounds just like him. The other tracks– “Al Capone,” “Free,” “Fly Away”– are also excellent.

There are reasons the songs didn’t make the final album.

“Price of Fame” is a mixture of a “Billie Jean” outtake, musically, combined with the Police’s “Spirits in the Material World.” Michael’s vocal on this track sometimes dips into his “real” voice–a lower register–than his stage falsetto and whisper that he perfected. “Free” is just another breezy ballad. “Al Capone” is a different take on the hit, “Smooth Criminal.”

The strangest of the eight songs is titled “Song Groove (aka Abortion Papers).” Swedien doesn’t remember this track. Neither does Bottrell. It’s got a killer rhythm track and a very catchy hook and melody. But the lyrics–and I’m not sure whether Michael wrote them–are like the real flip side of “Billie Jean.” He sings “Those abortion papers/think about signing your name…”

Update: the estate tells me they even have a handwritten note about that track. I hope the Jackson fans don’t try to destroy these tracks the way they did the songs on the “Michael” album. Like those tracks, these are completely real, they’re Michael Jackson’s vocals, and they’re a wonderful reminder of the King of Pop at his zenith.

PS A gift for the fans: buying the boxed set with all of its ingredients isn’t necessary. There are several “upgrade” versions, starting with a two for the price of one CD that includes the remastered “Bad” and the demo tracks. Cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cUPpIPVT-E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBv9me5amX4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHZshqpB0BQ

 

 

 

TMZ Botches Our RNC-Journey Story

Roger Friedman
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TMZ Botches Our RNC-Journey Story

Leave it to TMZ. It’s a slow news night and they need an item. So they try to repurpose our story from last week about rock groups playijng at the political conventions. I told you that the non partisan Creative Coalition was involved in shows in both Tampa and Charlotte.In Tampa, they’re bringing in Journey, which is getting around $250,000 tops, and not half a million dollars.

In Charlotte the Creative Coalition is bringing in the B52s, who are getting $100,000 and a promise that they can get home the same night. (Just kidding, maybe.) Music acts are not so interested in either convention this year. The reason? No one wants to pay them high fees, and the groups can make more money on tour, or playing at Ron Perelman’s house in the Hamptons.

Indeed, a booker friend of mine has been bemoaning the whole convention-music thing for weeks. “The Democrats are cheap and are only paying expenses,” they say. “The Republicans are offering top dollar but no one wants to play for them.”

As I also reported exclusively James Taylor and Sheryl Crow will warm up the crowd at Bank of America Stadium on Sept 6th before President Obama makes his acceptance speech.

TMZ: Don’t stop believing, but do stop borrowing stories and then screwing them up.

 

 

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