Fatboy Slim will head to the U.S. for a brief tour beginning Nov. 6 to promote his new album, Halfway Between the Gutter And the Stars," due out on Nov. 7. The night before album's release, Fatboy, a.k.a. Norman Cook, will spin at the Virgin Megastore in Manhattan's Union Square, as well as being on hand at the stroke of twelve when the first copies of the album go on sale. Fatboy will also visit the Fillmore in Denver on Nov. 7, the Showbox in Seattle on Nov. 8, 1015 in San Francisco on Nov. 10 and he'll wrap things up at Los Angeles' Club Soho on Nov. 11 . . .
Rap diva Lil' Kim, Trick Daddy, Lil' Cease and Junior M.A.F.I.A. have been added to the "Jingle Ballers Jam" tour roster. Artists already scheduled to appear include chart-topper Nelly, the Cash Money Millionaires (Juvenile, Lil' Wayne, Hot Boyz, B.G. and Big Tymers) and R&B crooner Joe. The tour kicks off Nov. 10 in Miami and wraps up Dec. 22 in Anaheim, Calif. . . .
PJ Harvey's recent surprise performance at the Viper Room may well have boasted the hippest guest list in Los Angeles. Granted, it was Monday night, but it's not just anybody that can draw out the likes of Beck, Sheryl Crow, Scott Weiland, Anthony Kiedis, Eric Erlandson of Hole and Tenacious D. Attendees were treated to a set highlighting Harvey's new album, Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea. The rest of the world who couldn't get in (or didn't hear about it) will have to wait until Oct. 24, when the album is released in stores . . .
A thirty-eight-year old man fell to his death at an AC/DC show in Ghent, Belgium on Oct. 14. Isidoor Theunissen from Bilzen Belgium reportedly climbed onto his seat during the band's last song, when he lost his balance and fell twenty-three feet to the concert floor below. He was rushed to University Hospital, but never regained consciousness, and died of his injuries in the early hours of Oct. 15. A spokesperson for Flanders Expo Center said that the incident was the venue's first fatality in fourteen years. The Aussie band was not notified of the tragedy until they had left the facility. Representatives for AC/DC declined to comment on the incident. A police investigation into the accident is underway . . .
Shortly after the twenty-third anniversary of the plane crash that robbed the world of Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and singer Cassie Gaines, the enduring Southern rock band is releasing Skynyrd Collectybles on Nov. 14. The twenty-six-song extravaganza will feature unreleased material from the band's nearly three-decade-long career, including two demo sessions held before the group's recorded their debut album with Al Kooper. Also included are snippets from a radio show recorded in 1973, as well as outtakes from the sessions for Second Helpings, the band's final album with Van Zant Street Survivors, and alternative takes from their live album One More From The Road . . .
Legendary blues singer Etta James will tackle songs by Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and other rock & roll legends on her new studio album, Matriarch of the Blues, due Dec. 12. The Stones' "Miss You" will be the first single. Other covers include Dylan's "You Got to Serve Somebody," Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Born on the Bayou" and Al Green's "Rhymes" . . .
Courtney Love is offering herself up as the unlikely main prize in www.holemusic.com's Charlie's Angels Sweepstakes. Fans enter the contest via the band's Web site filling out a questionnaire that includes listing your five favorite records, books and movies. (Hint: Celebrity Skin, Man on the Moon, etc.) The winner and a guest will fly to Los Angeles to accompany Love to the premiere of friend Drew Barrymore's highly anticipated re-make of Charlie's Angels on Oct. 22 . . .
Shania Twain and Dolly Parton are among the country music artists contributing to the Wave to the World charity CD available Oct. 16. Proceeds from the album go towards the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games, where athletes with disabilities compete in the same city as that year's Olympics, following the games. Other artists on the CD include Vince Gill, Trisha Yearwood and Reba McEntire. All of the artists collaborate on the title track. For more information on the games or to purchase the album, go to www.wavetotheworld.com . . .
Madonna won her case against a New York cybersquatter who was using the Internet address madonna.com. The pop-icon filed the case last July with the World Intellectual Property Organization against Dan Parisi, who beat her to the address. On Monday, the WIPO found that Parisi, who has been involved in previous cybersquatting cases, could not prove a legitimate interest in the Internet name and ordered him to relinquish control of the site to Madonna . . .
Pete Townshend has tapped his pal Eddie Vedder to perform on a bill for a concert benefiting the Britain's Teenage Cancer Trust, to be held at London's Royal Albert hall on Nov. 27. Joining the Who and Vedder will be Paul Weller and Oasis's Noel Gallagher who, like Vedder, will be performing without his band. Other special guests are being kept under wraps until show day, according to the UK Sun. Tickets for the bash, called "Teenage Wards Not Teenage Wasteland," went on sale Oct. 13 at the Albert Hall Box Office in London. The band hopes to raise $400,000 for the charity, which builds hospital units specially tailored for teenagers. "When I wrote a line about a teenage wasteland in the Seventies," Townshend said to the British press, "I didn't foresee that could apply to the lack of facilities in the NHS [National Health Service] for teenagers with cancer in the year 2000" . . .
A forty-three-year-old Don Henley fan filed suit against the former Eagle after he allegedly struck her in the head with a maraca. Mary Ann Haley claims that she tried to take a picture of Henley during his Oct. 4 concert in Little Rock, Ark., and in doing so crossed the singer. In a lawsuit filed Friday in Arkansas State Court, Haley claimed that the musician also pointed at her and made other gestures when announcing that he would appreciate no more flash photography, before hurling the wooden rattle at her. The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages claims, "these affronts, coupled with her physical injury, caused highly unpleasant mental reactions including fright, horror, disappointment, chagrin, worry, disgrace, embarrassment, indignity, ridicule, grief, shame, humiliation, anger and outrage." Haley says she and her husband left the concert because they were worried another object might be thrown at her or that Henley's comments might turn the crowd against her. Henley's camp could not be reached for comment . . .
Marilyn Manson will be placing another musician's material on his site for download for the first time. Former Nitzer Ebb frontman Bon Harris, who worked with Manson on his upcoming Holy Wood, will offer up "The Candidate" from his new band, Maven, as an exclusive Internet download starting Oct. 17. "Bon was someone I had always respected and was completely blown away by his musical ability and voice," Manson said in a statement. "I think Maven adds genius songwriting to the genre of electronica in a totally original way." "The Candidate" can be found at www.marilynmanson.com . . .
Though they weren't hit with an injunction like their brethren Napster, Scour, Inc. (the entertainment-swapping site started by Hollywood super-agent Mike Ovitz) has filed for bankruptcy. The Los Angeles-based company filed for Chapter 11 protection in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in California. Though Scour had maintained a lower profile than Napster, the company had still been hit with lawsuits by the Recording Industry Association of America as well as the Motion Picture Association of America, Fox, Sony and Disney. Scour owes millions to creditors, but by declaring bankruptcy, they are shielded from litigation by their creditors and the site will remain operational as the company regroups or finds new ownership . . .
ANDREW DANSBY, CHRISTINA SARACENO, GABRIELLE SCHAFER, JAAN UHELSZKI
(October 18, 2000)