Helping Haiti singles "Everybody Hurts" makes its debut
A host of stars gathered in a Hollywood recording studio on Monday to record a cover of We Are The World to raise money for the victims of the Haiti earthquake.
Legendary producer Quincy Jones and singer Lionel Richie invited stars including Barbra Streisand, Jennifer Hudson, Celine Dion, Miley Cyrus and Kanye West to participate in the new charity single. Proceeds of the song will go straight to the people of Haiti, who are recovering from the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12.
In just one afternoon, around 80 stars sang in unison at the famous Jim Henson Studios. The star-studded group also included Akon, Usher, Jeff Bridges, Harry Connick Jnr, Justin Bieber, Natalie Cole, Toni Braxton, Nicole Scherzinger, Brandy, Jason Mraz and Brian Wilson.
The charity single comes 25 years after the song was originally released to raise money for Live Aid. Producer Jones said: 'It's the 25th anniversary and it's perfect timing. It's not an accident, man. That's God. It will be We Are the World for Haiti.'
Canadian singer Dion enthused: 'We have a special responsibility to help needy people and this is part of our world. 'We're all gathering here together to support people in need and to do whatever we can. We'll lend our voices and help however possible.'
Also involved was Haiti-native Wyclef Jean, who has already visited the ravaged island. He said: 'This is a great thing... and it's giving us a lot of hope for Haiti.'
Socialite Nicole Richie, whose father Lionel co-wrote the song, attended with her partner Joel Madden and their two-year-old daughter Harlow. Writing on her Twitter micro-blogging page, she joked: 'I hope Jennifer Hudson wasn't upset that I was out-singing her tonight. 'Brian Wilson stood next to me and I got to hear him sing right into my left ear. Can you say AWESOME?'
Meanwhile, the British charity single for Haiti was debuted online yesterday.
The song, a moving remake of REM's Everybody Hurts, is available from today and features some of the music world's biggest talents. Music mogul Simon Cowell helped to secure 21 of pop's biggest stars to take part in the recording.
Opening with vocals from X Factor winner Leona Lewis, the single also includes a reunion between Robbie Williams and ex-Take That bandmates Gary Barlow and Mark Owen.Stars such as Rod Stewart, Mariah Carey, Cheryl Cole, Jon Bon Jovi, Michael Buble, Kylie Minogue, Susan Boyle and Westlife have also lent their time to the single.
Everybody Hurts is not released until Sunday, but you can hear it right here.
The track is available from hmv.com, play.com, or amazon.co.uk - with all the proceeds split between the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and the Sun newspaper's Helping Haiti campaign.
It was debuted yesterday (Feb 2) on UK radio, with a positive reaction received from many of the listeners.
On January 12 an 7.0 Mw earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale devastated the island displacing an estimated three million people.
So far, some 170,000 bodies have been counted, with reports claiming that 20,000 commercial buildings and 225,000 residences had collapsed or were severely damaged by the quake. Masses of emergency relief has been shipped in to help those affected by the disaster, and fundraising efforts have been put into effect around the globe, with many celebrities aiding the efforts.
The new single is one of three songs to be released in aid of the Haiti appeal.
Stevie Wonder looks set to headline the Sunday night of this year's Glastonbury Festival.
At a production event in London, organiser Michael Eavis hinted that the festival is in talks with the soul legend. If confirmed, it will mark Wonder's first performance at Worthy Farm, in this, the festival's 40th year.
He also revealed that Muse may headline the Pyramid Stage on the Saturday night. The band closed the festival with show-stealing set in 2004.
If confirmed, Wonder and Muse will join U2 who are already set to play the Pyramid on the Friday night.
The full line-up will be announced in the weeks preceding the start of the event.
Glastonbury 2010 takes place between June 23 - 27.
Bon Jovi Plans Full Album Shows On 'Circle' World Tour
Bon Jovi is planning to dig deep into its catalog and maybe even play some albums in their entirety for the group's upcoming Circle World Tour, which kicks off Feb. 11 in Honolulu.
With an itinerary of 135 shows in 30 countries until August of 2011, guitarist Richie Sambora told Billboard.com during a conference call with reporters that "to keep ourselves interested and happy we're going to be picking songs from different records and kind of intersect them into the set as time goes on...We try to give the crowd the songs they want to hear, obviously. That's very important 'cause the fans came to hear those songs. We love to play them, so it's not a big deal. But we're gonna go back and play stuff that we haven't played in 20 years...stuff off the first album, stuff off the second album that we haven't played in God knows how long. So it's gonna be a lot of fun."
The guitarist added that Bon Jovi will particularly take advantage of multi-night stands at the new Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. (five) and the O2 Arena in London (15) to stage a few special events. "We might do 'Slippery When Wet' in its entirety, or 'Lost Highway' in its entirety," he said. "I'm sure we'll do 'The Circle' in its entirety a few times on this tour, 'cause we're really proud of this record. We're going to be doing a lot of different stuff."
Three Meadowlands shows are currently announced; two more will be put on sale in the near future, Sambora said, with Kid Rock slated to open both.
Sambora revealed that the staging will again make extensive use of moving video screens, this time with a twist. "We have these robots that actually move the video screens around the stage," he said. There will also be a semi-circular ramp bordering the stage as well as VIP pits for premium ticket buyers to get up close and personal with the band.
And while "The Circle" is still going strong with a new single, "Superman Tonight," Sambora said a greatest hits album is "ready to go" with three new songs, though he expects that it won't be released until the fourth quarter of 2010 or "whenever ('The Circle') wanes...I would think, in my heart of hearts that this record'll last 'til next Christmas and the greatest hits will come out for Christmas of next year."
Sambora doesn't expect any of the compilation's new songs to be previewed during the tour, however. "We have so many other songs to choose from," he said, "but you never know. We're so loose when it comes to that stuff...Jon is always calling what we call audibles, just like a quarterback on a football field...and inject any song at any time. We sound check every day and we're always trying new songs to play at shows. Then we also play a lot of covers, too; Jon'll say, 'You got an idea?' 'Yeah -- how about Neil Young, 'Rockin' in the Free World?' ' and, bang, we do it. 'Helter Skelter,' bang, we do it. It'll be a lot of fun."
THE JIM JONES REVUE turned Camden's Jazz Cafe into a mad asylum of rock'n'roll psychosis last night, as they headlined one of the most crazed MOJO Clubs ever.
Before the onslaught of JJR, London's one-man warped-blues machine Lewis Floyd Henry (pictured right) kicked things off with a set of furious fuzztone vignettes. Armed with big hair, a crooked bowtie, an oversized waistcoat, a foot drum kit and a wailing Fender Stratocaster, LFH married country-blues and Hendrix-esque divebombing to tales of late night city life. A broken string early on forced a brief break in proceedings - the lull admirably filled with the rare R&B choices of MOJO DJs Lois Wilson and Jon Harrrington - but stand-out tracks Rickety Old Rollercoaster and Where's The Party? laid the perfect foundation for the next hour of rockabilly rioting. You can check out four of his tracks here.
Since forming The Revue in 2007, Jim Jones - the jet-fuelled ex-Thee Hypnotics vocal powerhouse - has led his band through a hurricane of live shows and the recording of their first, bone-shattering LP. Last night's set was predominantly made up of material from that album: a relentless meld of flame-grilled rock'n'soul and punk-R&B. In fact it's rumoured that the Jazz Café had to hold back on the band's usual volume for fear of broken eardrums and complaints from the entire postcode.
"It's all about the swing," Jones told MOJO late last year. And swing they do. From the super-strength rhythm section of bassist Gavin Jay and drummer Nick Jones, to the twisting guitar gnarl of Rupert "Beth's Brother" Orton and the clang-a-clang boogie of Elliot Mortimer's piano; there is no stopping them.
What makes the Jim Jones Revue such an exciting live prospect is their heady mix of quality songs and unpredictability. Their mining of the pre-1960 rock'n'roll sound serves them well. You feel that you've lived with these songs for a long time, yet, in a live setting, their material doesn't feel constrained by category. It just makes you stand up and listen before knocking you off your feet.
A new album will hopefully see the light of day later this year. In the meantime, catch this band live while you can.
Flaming Lips Will Perform 'Dark Side of the Moon' at Bonnaroo
Get ready, campers. The Flaming Lips will perform Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' in its entirety at Bonnaroo, frontman Wayne Coyne reveals to Spinner. "As of yesterday, we're gonna do it at Bonnaroo at the midnight slot, the first night," Coyne says. "We do a Flaming Lips set then starting about 2:30 we do this 'Dark Side of the Moon' thing. In that sense, it's perfect for that. It lets you play a little bit longer."
It had been previously reported that the band's New Year's Eve performance of the classic album would be the only time the Lips would perform it live, but Coyne says that was never the case. "We feared it could be because we thought, 'Well, if it's horrible we'll be glad we only did it once and it will grow in its infamy or whatever,'" he says. "But no, we considered if this record did in the end come out and people liked it and we were able to pull off this New Year's Eve thing, then we thought, 'Well, we could probably do that other places.'"
Coyne also believes that Bonnaroo creates the right setting to do Pink Floyd live. "We did it at the New Year's Eve show just knowing everybody's gonna be taking acid, staying awake until five in the morning. We might as well just be jamming on some freak-out music," he says. "I don't think it'll be that much of a stretch to think Friday night at 2:30 in the morning at Bonnaroo would be that much different than being in Oklahoma City on New Year's Eve. I'm sure people will be having their own party while we play this space rock or whatever. In that sense it's perfect for that."
Bonnaroo is set for June 10-13 in Manchester, Tenn. Tickets go on sale at Noon EST on Feb. 9th.
Noel Gallagher has announced his first post-Oasis gigs, to take place in March for the Teenage Cancer Trust.
He joins Arctic Monkeys, Them Crooked Vultures, a reformed Suede, The Who, Depeche Mode and JLS on the bill for the charity gigs at the London Royal Albert Hall from February 17.
Gallagher is to play two gigs at the venue, on March 25 and 26. The Who's Roger Daltrey, who is a patron for the Teenage Cancer Trust, told NME.COM that the shows would be the guitarist's only live dates of 2010. The Who also play the event on March 30. In addition to the gigs a comedy night will take place at the venue on March 23.
Tickets for all the shows go on sale at 9am (GMT) on Friday (February 5). See Teenagecancertrust.com for more information.
The Teenage Cancer Trust gigs line-up at the London Royal Albert Hall is:
Depeche Mode (February 17)
Them Crooked Vultures (March 22)
Jimmy Carr, Noel Fielding and Rhod Gilbert (23)
Suede (24)
Noel Gallagher (25, 26)
Arctic Monkeys (27)
JLS (28)
The Who (30)
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