Music News Page 1072

British rock band Babyshambles put back the pieces in order. The music group is returning to the road, back on their cancelled tour due to Pete Doherty's arrest on drugs charges.

Doherty, the band's frontman, was found guilty of possessing class A drugs but avoided a jail sentence. He was instead granted a 12-month community order.

UK singles chart again sees the comeback of DJ Meck's dance remix of Leo Sayer's 1977 song "Thunder In My Heart" to its top position. This is the second consecutive week that the song reigning the throne. In the mean time, Notorious B.I.G., Diddy and Nelly also well maintaining their position in 2nd on the chart with their collaboration of "Nasty Girl."

Secures the 3rd rank is The Ordinary Boys' "Boys Will Be Boys," followed close behind by Chris Brown's "Run It" featuring Juelz Santana at No. 4. No. 5 is Liz McClarnon's "Woman In Love/I Get The Sweetest Feeling." Beyonce Knowles' "Check On It" featuring Slim Thug wins the 6th place.

The surviving Bee Gees, Barry Gibb and Robin Gibb, have on Saturday night Feb 19th, 2006 reunited on stage. The performance took place at the Diplomat Hotel is a private concert held to raise money for the Diabetes Research Institute at an annual benefit for the organization. That's according to Gibb's publicist Paul Bloch.

The Gibb brothers performed many of Bee Gees hits including "Stayin' Alive," "Massachusetts," "How Deep is Your Love" and "Don't Forget to Remember," which is a tribute to Maurice Gibb who died at age 53 in January 2003 after emergency surgery for an intestinal blockage.

It was such a successful concert. More than 1 million people were there, watching their idol The Rolling Stones performance. Yes the free concert held by the music group was a hit.

The Stones' free concert held Saturday Feb 18th, 2006 on Copacabana Beach was the first that the band played for free in the country, where few can afford tickets to see top international acts.

Nearly six months after he first publicly announced to out a Katrina single, Michael Jackson finally breaks his silence saying the song will come out by the end of this month.

Sheik Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the son of Bahrain's king, told all to The Associated Press. In a telephone interview from Dubai last week, the prince said "The record is coming along great. We've been taking our time to perfect it and mix it."

"Coldplay are not quitting. They are on the road until July, when their X&Y World Tour ends in Japan. They will then continue working on new material." Hopefully the statement released by the band spokesman would stop the long circulating speculation on their break up following frontman Chris Martin comments during Brit Awards on Wednesday Feb 15th, 2006.

Martin said "we won't see you for a long time" and thus prompted rumors among many that they are about to split. That's for everybody to know. Aside from the splitting up rumors, Coldplay has on their website say they plan to record a follow-up to "X&Y" after their tour wraps up in July.

While the album chart is dominated by Jack Johnson's "Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George", the Billboard Hot 100 again is dominated by Beyonce Knowles. This is the fourth time in a row that the singer's single "Check On It" leads the list. In the meantime, James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" stays at No. 2, followed by Nelly's "Grillz" at No. 3.

Stick at No. 4 is Mary J. Blige's "Be Without You", ahead of T-Pain's "I'm Sprung" at 5th. Eminem's "Shake That" surprisingly rocketing from No. 9 to the 6th slot, seizes the place from Ne-Yo's "So Sick," which slips one place to No. 7. No. 8 to 10 in succession are Sean Paul's "Temperature", Chris Brown's "Yo (Excuse Me Miss)", and Jamie Foxx's "Unpredictable".

Rumor has it that British band Coldplay is about to call it quit. Such report actually was prompted by the band lead singer Chris Martin's recent statement at the Brit Awards, during which he said "You won't see us at one of these for many, many years. We won't see you for a long time. I mean it. It's going to be years before we have the chance to say this again."

The man prompted even more speculation on the band's split as later in the evening he said "We got to go. People are fed up with us, and so are we." Despite such reports, Coldplay's London rep insists the hiatus will be no more than the standard break bands usually take between churning out albums. Probably Martin just wants to spend more times with wife Gwyneth Paltrow and daughter Apple.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is ready to hold its annual Jazz and Heritage Festival. Scheduled to take place April 28-30 and May 5-7, festival organizers have on Wednesday Feb 15th, 2006 announced a lineup of artists to perform at the event.

The names tapped to headline the fest include the likes of Keith Urban, Fats Domino, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and Yolanda Adams. Besides, there will also any other famous musicians like Dave Matthews Band, Lionel Richie and Jimmy Buffett in addition to the city's most famous musicians, many of whom are seasoned performers.

The Billboard 200 album chart in the week ended Sunday Feb 12, 2006 was dominated by Jack Johnson's "Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George" which soared to the top spot with 163,000 in sales. Mary J. Blige's "The Breakthrough" sold another 152,000 copies to hold at No. 2 while last week's No. 1, Barry Manilow's "The Greatest Songs of the Fifties," fell to No. 3.

Andrea Bocelli's "Amore" dropped to No. 4 followed close behind by Dem Franchize Boyz' "On Top of Our Game" at No. 5. While Il Divo's "Ancora" sticked at No. 6, Mariah Carey's "The Emancipation of Mimi" bounced from 14th to No. 7. Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" was at No. 8, Eminem's "Curtain Call: The Hits" fell to No. 9, and closing the Top 10 was Jamie Foxx's "Unpredictable."

Chris Robinson and Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes have set date for their all-acoustic tour, which is planned to begin this spring. The dates will among others include performances in New York, Austin, Texas, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Dubbed "Brothers of a Feather: An Acoustic Evening With Chris & Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes," the tour will first open April 13 in Brooklyn, the first of three shows in as many venues in New York. The Robinson brothers then will run a two-night stand in Los Angeles.

Great singer Barry Manilow will have his performances in DVD set. DVD supplier Rhino Entertainment has inked a deal with the star and Stiletto New Media to distribute Manilow's performances on DVD.

The first set under the deal is "Manilow: Music and Passion," which chronicles the 100th performance of Manilow's hit stage show at the Las Vegas Hilton and was filmed in high definition by PBS. It will hit the market March 28 later this year.

As a follow up to his 2004 album "The Definition," LL Cool J will have his next set "Todd Smith" released on March 21 later this year.

The new album among others consist tracks like "It's LL and Santana" featuring Juelz Santana, "Control Myself" featuring Jennifer Lopez and Jermaine Dupri, and "Favorite Flavor" featuring Mary J. Blige.

Valentine's Day is just perfect for Willie Nelson to release his new song, a gay cowboy song entitled "Cowboys Are Secretly, Frequently (Fond of Each Other)."

Has nothing to do with the box office hit "Brokeback Mountain," the song was written in 1981 by Texas-born singer-songwriter Ned Sublette. It is said that he wrote it during the "Urban Cowboy" craze and always imagined Nelson singing it.

Listed in the line up of performers at this year's Winter Olympic Games among others are Duran Duran and Whitney Houston. Also there are Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson, Andrea Bocelli, Anastacia and Ricky Martin.

Per LiveDaily.com, Duran Duran is slated for a February 15 performance, while Houston is set for February 19, Avril Lavigne will perform on the 21st, and Kelly Clarkson to entertain on Feb 12th. The Games will be held in Torino, Italy with the shows to take place at the Olympic Village's Medals Plaza after each night's awards ceremony.