The Star Online: Entertainment: Music
The Star Online: Entertainment: Music |
- George Michael keeps faith with Vienna doctors
- London's V&A announces Bowie retrospective
- Rolling Stones announce new greatest hits album
| George Michael keeps faith with Vienna doctors Posted: 05 Sep 2012 12:36 AM PDT VIENNA (Reuters) - British singer George Michael hailed the Vienna medical team that brought him back from the brink of death last year as he prepared to resume his tour interrupted for months by a severe lung infection. "Hey everyone, it's that time again! And I get to open the tour singing to the men and women who saved my life," he posted on his Twitter account on Tuesday. "And it's a beautiful day!" The former Wham! frontman, who went on to pursue a successful solo career, fell ill in the Austrian capital in November and was diagnosed with severe pneumonia. He spent a month in Vienna's General Hospital under intensive care. Austrian media reported that 300 hospital staff - from doctors to cleaning crews - would attend Tuesday evening's show. With his permission, the hospital is selling another 700 concert tickets he donated to raise money for lung disease research. The near-death experience prompted Michael's new single White Light, which he performed at the closing ceremony of the London Olympic Games. Michael, 49, had been in the middle of a European tour when he became ill and was forced to cancel a string of dates but has promised to play to every fan who had bought a ticket. Born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, Michael burst on to the British pop scene in the early 1980s as the lead singer of Wham!, which had a string of catchy hits including Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and Last Christmas. That launched a standout solo career that featured chart-toppers like Careless Whisper and A Different Corner. His rich vein continued with the 1987 No. 1 I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) in which he performed with Aretha Franklin, one of his favourite artists. The same year he released Faith, an album which spawned a string of hit singles including I Want Your Sex, Faith and Father Figure and earned the singer a Grammy. It was his best-selling album, although he did top charts around the world with subsequent releases, enjoyed estimated career sales of 100 million records and amassed a personal fortune of 90 million pounds (US$143.1 million). When he was not hitting the airwaves with his music, Michael's personal life was regularly in the headlines, most notably in 1998 when he was arrested in California for "engaging in a lewd act" in a public toilet. After the incident he spoke openly about his homosexuality, and courted controversy again by speaking out against the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Michael told Reuters in a 2005 interview that he was withdrawing from public life, but the following year he launched his first tour in 15 years. He had a string of run-ins with British police for possession of narcotics, and was given a jail sentence two years ago for driving under the influence of cannabis. |
| London's V&A announces Bowie retrospective Posted: 04 Sep 2012 06:36 PM PDT LONDON: London's Victoria and Albert Museum will celebrate the career of outlandish British pop icon David Bowie with an exhibition in March, it was announced on Tuesday. The vast museum will display handwritten lyrics, set designs, more than 60 original costumes, photographs and instruments used by the 65-year-old performer. Among the outfits on show will be the 1972 bodysuits worn by Bowie's alter-ego Ziggy Stardust, the striped bodysuit used during the 1973 Aladdin Sane tour and a Union Jack coat designed by Bowie and Alexander McQueen. "David Bowie is a true icon, more relevant to popular culture now than ever," said V&A director Martin Roth. "His radical innovations across music, theatre, fashion and style still resound today in design and visual culture and he continues to inspire artists and designers throughout the world." It will be the first time that the David Bowie archive has been displayed in a museum, but the rocker, real name David Jones, last week denied he was involved in curating the show. "Contrary to recently published reports relating to the announcement by the V&A of an upcoming David Bowie Exhibition, I am not a co-curator and did not participate in any decisions relating to the exhibition," he said in a statement. "The David Bowie Archive gave unprecedented access to the V&A and (the) museum's curators have made all curatorial and design choices." Bowie's androgynous style and outrageous costumes shook up the world of rock 'n' roll and catapulted him to worldwide stardom, selling an estimated 140 million albums over a career spanning almost 50 years. - AFP |
| Rolling Stones announce new greatest hits album Posted: 04 Sep 2012 06:34 PM PDT LONDON: Legendary British rock group The Rolling Stones teased fans on Tuesday by announcing the release of a 50th anniversary greatest hits album amid widespread rumours of an upcoming series of live concerts. The album will be released in most countries on November 12, although North America will have to wait until the following day, the band said in a statement on their official website. The statement contained no mention of any live performances. The new collection will include two new studio recordings - "Gloom And Doom" and "One Last Shot" - laid down by the group in Paris in August, the statement said. The 50-track album, called "GRRR!", will also include chart-toppers "The Last Time", "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", "Get Off Of My Cloud", "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Honky Tonk Women". There is also an 80-track "super deluxe" version. The band had been widely expected to confirm a series of concerts following a report in US music magazine Billboard on Thursday which said they were planning four dates in November in New York and London. Billboard.com reported the band would play two gigs at London's O2 Arena and another two at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The magazine said British entrepreneur Richard Branson and Australian Paul Dainty would promote the shows, which could earn the band $25 million (20 million euros). The Stones have previously said they would not tour this year, then hinted at upcoming gigs during a book launch and photography exhibit marking their anniversary in London in July. A new film called "Crossfire Hurricane", which documents the history of the band from their first concert to the present day, is due for release in British cinemas in October. The last Stones tour, "A Bigger Bang", ran from 2005 to 2007. - AFP |
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