MUSIC NEWS- According to a recent lawsuit filed in Tulare County California, Tim Jones, one of the four singers/songwriters of the group TRUTH & SALVAGE COMPANY, was shaken awake and pulled from his bed by hotel security and local police while sleeping at the Marriott Hotel in Visalia, CA. Jones, a Marriott Rewards member and a registered guest staying the night at the Visalia Marriott in February 2010 as part of the band's opening slot on a Black Crowes tour, was handcuffed, assaulted, taken to jail and cited for trespassing and resisting arrest in his own hotel room after performing at a concert earlier in the evening.
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MUSIC NEWS - To evolve and improve its Awards process, The Recording Academy announced changes to eligibility rules in the Best New Artist category, the Classical Field, and for Recording Academy-produced performances. The new rules go into effect immediately for the upcoming 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards on February 13, 2011, with the total number of GRAMMY categories remaining at 109.
New eligibility requirements for Best New Artist;
New artists have at least one chance to compete in the Best New Artist category, provided that the artist has not already won a GRAMMY. The current eligibility requirements state that the artist must have released, as a featured performing artist, at least one album but not more than three; and the artist must not have been entered for Best New Artist more than three times, including as a performing member of an established group. Any previous GRAMMY nomination for the artist as performer precludes eligibility in the Best New Artist category (including a nomination as an established performing member of a nominated group.)
Continue reading ""Best New Artist" Grammy Award Rules Updated" »
MUSIC NEWS- Australian rockers
Men At Work won't have to pay out as much money as they thought for plagiarising an Aussie folk song for their classic rock tune,
Down Under. A Sydney court ordered them to hand over 5% of the royalties to the publisher of the children's song
Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree , a sum which could top $100,000.
Earlier in the year, an Australian court ruled that the band's songwriters, Colin Hay and Ron Strykert, had broken copywrite laws by taking parts of a flute riff when they recorded Down Under. Larrikin Music Publishing (Kookaburra... publisher) asked the court for nearly 60% of the song's royalties, but a Federal Court judge said he considered "the figures put forward by Larrikin to be excessive, overreaching and unrealistic".
Continue reading "Court Decides on MEN AT WORK "Down Under" Plagiarism Case" »
MUSIC NEWS - Madina Lake's bassist, Matthew Leone, is in a Chicago hospital afer being severely beaten in the Chicago neighborhood of West Town. Apparently, Leone came to the aid of a woman who was being assaulted by her husband on a local street early Tuesday morning, according to the local news site, Chicago Breaking News.
“Matthew saw something he didn’t like to see and tried to step in and the guy turned on him instead, but then the two of them (the couple) walked off together like nothing happened,” said an unnamed police officer, according to the website. Lead singer in the band, Nathan Leone, and Matthew’s twin brother, said he was due to meet up with his brother at a local bar, and as he arrived he saw his brother trying to stop the husband from hitting the woman.
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MUSIC NEWS -
Billy Joel's longtime drummer and music associate,
LIBERTY DEVITTO has settled his lawsuit in which he accused
Joel of keeping royalties from many of his biggest albums from him, the singer's lawyer announced on Wednesday.
In Joel's heyday, from 1975 thru 2005 Liberty DeVitto was Joel's main drummer and performed on classic Billy Joel albums
such as "The Stranger," "52nd Street," "Glass Houses" and "Storm Front". DeVitto also appeared live with Joel as part of his touring band.
Continue reading "BILLY JOEL and Former Drummer, Liberty Devitto Settle Lawsuit" »
MUSIC NEWS - Remember last year, when a man jumpeed on stage at an Oasis concert in Canada and attacked Noel Gallagher causing three broken ribs? Now the attacker, Daniel Sullivan,, 47, has pled guilty to all charges and will be sentenced on February 5, 2010. The Toronto Sun reports that Sullivan claims he was drunk at the time of the incident, which happened at the Virgin Festival in Toronto, and doesn't remember anything other than jumping a fence.
MUSIC NEWS - The founder of the American alt rock band, the Lemonheads
has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Federal Court on Thursday against General Motors, claiming the auto company had copied one of his songs for an ad. Evan Dando is suing GM and its advertising firm, claiming the automaker violated his copyright on The Lemonheads tune "It's a Shame About Ray
."
The complaint alleges the song was re-recorded and included in a 2008 TV campaign for Chevrolets and Buicks. Dando is seeking damages and a percentage of the of profits from the campaign. So far, there has been no reponse from GM, which sought federal bankruptcy protection this week, and the advertising firm Asche & Spencer, Inc . Mr Dando's attorney, Kia Kamran said; "The facts in the complaint state Evan's case. The similarities between the song being whistled in the commercial and "It's a Shame About Ray" are undeniable." Take a listen to GM commercials, below-
The Lemonheads are about to embark on a tour to promote the June 23 release of their new album, Varshons (order below) on The End Records. News, here.
Continue reading "LEMONHEADS Leader Sues GM Over Song Use" »
Music News - Ozzy Osbourne's attorneys have filed a lawsuit with the USA Patent and Trademark Office against Mr Osbourne's former Black Sabbath bandmate, Tony Iommi, with claims that Mr Iommi has improperly taken over ownership of the Black Sabbath without having the legal right!. (read Ozzy’s full statement on the suit below the break) According to the NY Post, Osbourne’s suit seeks a 50% stake in the “Black Sabbath” trademark and the filing claims Osbourne is entitled to a portion of the profits Iommi has generated through use of the band name. The suit further suggests that Osbourne’s “signature lead vocals” helped propel the band’s “extraordinary success”. The suit also points out that Sabbath’s popularity went into a decline when Ozzy left BS, during 1980 and 1996. That's when former Rainbow
vocalist Ronnie James Dio took over behind lead vocalist chores.
Ozzy's action likely stems from Iommi's 12/08 lawsuit against entertainment firm, Live Nation claiming that the company sold merchandise with the BLACK SABBATH logo, in violation of a 2006 expiration of a merchandising deal, reportedly worth nearly $80 million. Soon after the agreement ended, Iommi took back the band’s trademark. Iommi’s suit argued that Live Nation continued to sell more than 100 items of merchandise featuring the band’s likeness, name and logo, despite the cease-and-desist order from the guitarist’s legal team. Iommi’s suit seeks damages in the amount of three times the profits from the merchandise sales, plus a halt to the Black Sabbath merchandise sales.
A real shame when friend's fight, huh?
Continue reading "Heavy Metal Lawsuit, Ozzy Sues Tony Iommi over BLACK SABBATH Name" »
MUSIC NEWS - With the increased interest in all things Woodstock and the original event's 40th Anniversary, some legal squables has already started. And now, the organizer's of San Francisco's planned daylong celebration have announced that they will fight the original Woodstock promoters. These are the same Summer of Love folks that revisit the Hippie Sacred Ground in Golden Gate Park every 10 years to celebrate San Francisco's Human Be In that became the Summer of Love that became the Woodstock Generation and the Age of Aquarius. Council of Light leader and SF event promoter, Boots Hughston, Former District Attorney Terrence “Kayo”Hallinan, Woodstock veteran musician and attorney Barry “The Fish” Melton and his partner Country Joe McDonald along with Lester Chambers of The Chambers Brothers and Super Lotto Winner Dennis “Mr. Lucky” Sanfilippo announced today at a press conference that despite a Cease and Desist demand from NY's Woodstock Ventures, their day long free show on Sunday, October 25th is fully permitted, financed and will take place as scheduled. Hughston also complained of “an old fashioned shakedown tactics for money” by Woodstock producer Michael Lang.
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MUSIC NEWS - The "Piano Man's longtime drummer, Liberty DeVitto, has opted to sue his old boss, Billy Joel, under claims that the Long Island, NY "PIANO MAN" hadn't paid the drummer royalties for the last 10 years ! Liberty DeVitto, Joel's drummer of 30 years, filed a suit against the singer/songwriter and his record company, Columbia Records / Sony Music, on Tuesday (May 19, 2009) in Manhattan Supreme Court. Mr DeVitto, 58, says that he was shocked when he was abruptly fired by Joel and thrown out of the backing band in 2005 (after being with him since 1975 during Billy's biggest days). That's the same year that Mr Joel checked himself into an alcohol rehab center for alcohol abuse. DeVitto told the New York Post "Everybody always assumes that you make a lot of money because you worked with Billy Joel
. It didn't happen that way. People get fired, they get severance or insurance for a certain period of time. I didn't even get a phone call. It was cold." The Brooklyn, NY drummer now works as a studio musician and believes he was kicked out of the band after he took part in an intervention with Joel over his addictions. He added, "I thought I could say things to him as a friend... This is what I would tell Billy: 'If you only had talked to me... this probably never would have happened.'" "I think he's insensitive to other people," Mr DeVitto said of Joel, a Gold album man, with six Grammys and 33 Top 40 hits.
DeVitto's lawyer, Brian Gucciardo says, "It's all subject to an audit. We're talking a long period of time and worldwide sales." Mr Joel has declined to comment on the suit. He's currently on the road with Elton John
on their "FACE to FACE" tour (itinerary below). See news on Elton's Red Piano release.
UPDATE 4/21/10- Joel and DeVitto come to terms, see news on settlement .
Continue reading "BILLY JOEL's Former Drummer Files Lawsuit, Liberty DeVitto Says He's Owed $$$" »