Florida governor Charlie Crist is seeking to issue a posthumous pardon to Doors front man Jim Morrison for two criminal convictions he received after a night of onstage antics in Miami in 1969 that drew outcries from conservatives including antigay crusader Anita Bryant.
The New York Times reports that Crist, whose term ends in January, will submit Morrison’s name to a clemency board next month. He joins Morrison supporters who believe the charges against the countercultural hero were trumped up in a case that constitutes an "injustice." The rocker, who was fined $500 but never served time, was appealing his conviction on misdemeanor charges of profanity and indecent exposure when he died in Paris in 1971 at age 27.
According to the Times, “The fight began on March 1, 1969, when the Doors played a raucous concert at Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami. An intoxicated Morrison stumbled through songs like 'Light My Fire' and 'Break On Through (To the Other Side),' taunted the crowd and threatened to expose himself before fans mobbed the stage. A newspaper review said the singer appeared to simulate masturbation during his performance, and the concert was investigated by a Miami crime commission as six arrest warrants were issued for Morrison, including one for a felony charge of lewd and lascivious behavior.
“In the ensuing outrage, several other nearby Doors concerts were canceled. On March 23, the Orange Bowl became the scene of a Rally for Decency, organized by local high school students. Some 30,000 teenagers and adults gathered for performances and speeches on virtue by Jackie Gleason, Anita Bryant and the Lettermen. (President Richard M. Nixon later wrote a letter to the rally’s organizers saying they had shown ‘admirable initiative.’)”
Some doubt whether the pardon will succeed. Katherine Fernandez Rundle, the current state attorney of Miami-Dade County, who would need to weigh in regarding the pardon, said the effort seemed like a waste of state resources.
Remember how Cher’s farewell tour went on and on and on?
Sadly, her Las Vegas run will not last as long. The great star has announced that she will end her three-year run at Caesars Palace on February 5, 2011.
Cher will have performed approximately 200 shows during the course of her three years at The Colosseum at Ceasars Palace. Her schedule includes concerts from September 25th through the end of October, followed by a two-month break before the final round of shows get underway. The legendary performer will then perform 16 shows from January 11th through February 5th.
Cher debuted at The Colosseum in May 2008, after Celine Dion fulfilled her contract at the venue. Dion is set to return there on March 15th, with more than 50 shows booked through August.
Tickets will be on sale on September 25th beginning at 1:00 pm (ET). Prices are $95, $140, $175, and $250.
There were very few people who were invited to watch Barbra Streisand perform an intimate concert at the Village Vanguard last September.
But, thankfully, the concert was being filmed and is now available on DVD and Blu-ray. There’s also a more deluxe version of One Night Only that includes a CD of the performance, however the audio disc is not available separately.
It’s the first and only club date of Miss Streisand’s to ever be recorded and it is noteworthy for its spare and subtle accompaniments.
Songs include: Happy Days Are Here Again; Here’s To Life; Cry Me A River\ Here’s To Life; In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning; Gentle Rain; Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most; If You Go Away (Ne Me Quitte Pas); Where Do You Start?; Nobody’s Heart (Belongs To Me); Make Someone Happy My Funny Valentine;Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered; Evergreen (Love Theme From “A Star Is Born”); Evergreen (Love Theme From “A Star Is Born”)\ Happy Days Are Here Again; Some Other Time.
A full-length DVD of Barbra Streisand’s September concert at the Village Vanguard in Greenwich Village will be released May 4th, according to her official website.
The Sept. 26 Vanguard concert was performed for an intimate audience of invited guests and fans who gathered to hear her sing selections from her new album Love Is the Answer.
Backed by a small group of jazz musicians, Streisand performed such songs as Here’s To Life, In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning, Gentle Rain, Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most, If You Go Away, Where Do You Start, Make Someone Happy, My Funny Valentine, and Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, among others.
The evening marked a return to Streisand’s roots. Befire she became a star on Broadway and film with Funny Girl, she performed in such Greenwich Village clubs as the Bon Soir, the Blue Angel and the Lion
Beyonce will later this month release a live concert DVD and companion CD, and a new song, "Video Phone" featuring Lady Gaga.
The DVD, entitled "I Am ... Yours: An Intimate Performance At Wynn Las Vegas," will be released November 23rd by Columbia Records. Three days later, ABC will air a Beyonce Thanksgiving special.
The DVD, culled from an August stand in Las Vegas, will mix biographical storytelling, performances and behind-the-scenes footage, showcasing over 30 songs from all three Beyonce solo albums. A CD of the concert will be included in the package.
Also due on November 23rd is a deluxe version of her current studio album "I Am ... Sasha Fierce," which will feature two bonus tracks, including "Video Phone (Extended Remix)," featuring Lady Gaga. The music video for "Video Phone" will premiere on MTV on Thursday.
The flu may be on everyone's minds, but it happens to be in Elton John's system – prompting the British musician, who is said to be in a London hospital for treatment of E-coli bacterial infection and influenza, to postpone the Seattle and Portland, Oregon, dates on his current tour, costarring Billy Joel, the BBC reports.
According to his official Web site, Sir Elton 62, postponed a Dublin performance on Thursday after earlier shelving concerts in London, Liverpool, Sheffield, Newcastle.
The American leg of the tour was also put on hold in July, when Joel, 60, was ordered to rest after suffering "flu-like symptoms" and "extreme fatigue."
The Pacific Northwest gigs are likely to be rescheduled for December, according to promoters.
Pop star Lady Gaga is preparing for her "Monster Ball" tour extravaganza next month, and she's unsurprisingly taking her fashion choices to the next level. She told Rolling Stone: “The fashion is going to be another exploration and another level from where we were with the previous tour, the ‘Fame Ball.’ The theme of monsters is certainly going to be an influence, as well as the theme of evolution and change. It's going to be a truly artistic experience that is going to take the form of the greatest post-apocalyptic house party that you've ever been to."
Lady Gaga was due to hit the road with Kanye West. However, the tour, entitled "Fame Kills," was canceled earlier this month, just weeks after Kanye was heavily criticiszed for interrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards.
But the 23-year-old singer hasn’t ruled out the possibility of touring with him in the future. She said: “It just wasn't the right timing. I don't want to embellish on it too much, because I want to respect Kanye's privacy. But we just had our own reasons. We're real friends, real friends can make decisions like that, and we wanted to keep the momentum going in terms of pop music staying innovative with hip-hop and R‘n’B. But who’s to say what will happen in the future?"
Bon Jovi announced on Thursday that the group will embark on a two-year concert tour dubbed The Circle 2010-2011 World Tour. The group will perform 135 shows in 30 countries over a two year period, beginning February 19, 2010 in Seattle.
Members Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, David Bryan and Tico Torres also announced that they have been chosen to perform at a kickoff event for New Jersey’s New Meadowlands Stadium on May 26th and 27th, 2010.
Bon Jovi performed Thursday in the parking lot of the new stadium for an invitation only crowd of 5,000 fan club members to announce the tour – see video below.
The band has sold 120 million albums and performed more than 2,600 concerts in over 50 countries for more than 34 million fans. Bon Jovi’s latest album, The Circle, will launch on November 10, 2009.
Now that she's going on tour without a certain scandal-ridden musician known as Kanye West, Lady Gaga promises a bigger, badder, crazier show than her fans have ever seen before.
"I wanted to really put together a show that would be the most beautiful, expensive-looking, delicious show, but that my fans wouldn't have to pay a ton of money to come see," she tells Rolling Stone.
Lady Gaga, 23, had been scheduled to partner with West for their Fame Kills tour, but those plans quickly fell through after the outrage over West's upstaging of Taylor Swift at the VMAs. Still, she holds out the possibility that a West-Gaga performance pairing might take place in the future.
"It just wasn't the right timing," Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, says. "I don't want to embellish on it too much, because I want to respect Kanye's privacy. But we just had our own reasons. We're real friends, real friends can make decisions like that, and we wanted to keep the momentum going in terms of pop music staying innovative with hip-hop and R&B, and we really wanted to do it, and it just wasn't the right time. But who's to say what will happen in the future?"
And out of respect for West and the lost Fame Kills tour, she won't be recycling ideas from it for her new, solo tour, she says.
"I'm certainly inspired by what we were doing, but I made a decision based on integrity not to use any of the things that we had designed together," she says.
Rehearsals for Gaga's solo tour, The Monster Ball, begins next week, and it will begin in earnest on November 27th. The new show's expected to heavily feature songs from her upcoming album, "The Fame Monster," which she calls intensely intimate.
"Each one of these songs on my album represents a different demon that I've faced in myself, so the music is much more personal," she says. "I don't write about fame or money at all on this new record."
But this being Lady Gaga – known for her outrageous clothing, off-the-wall performances and penchant for unusual companions – you can expect big, bold stage performances – and chatter-inducing outfits.
"The fashion, certainly, is going to be another exploration and another level from where we were with [previous tour] the Fame Ball," she says. "The theme of monsters is certainly going to be an influence, as well as the theme of evolution and change. It's going to be a truly artistic experience that is going to take the form of the greatest post-apocalyptic house party that you've ever been to."
U2 and YouTube have teamed up to broadcast a live stream of the band's Los Angeles-area concert this weekend via its YouTube channel.
The Sunday, October 25th show will take place at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Any fan wishing to tune in from the 16 countries supported will be able to do so for free.
This is YouTube's second effort at live-streaming concerts. In August, it aired portions of the Outside Lands music festival in San Francisco. The U2 show will be the first start-to-finish live stream.
Like other live concert streams, portions will be archived and available for streaming after the event.
International pop superstar Lady Gaga yesterday announced plans for her next North American tour, entitled "The Monster Ball." The tour will begin on November 27th in Montreal, and will wind up on January 21, 2010 in Gaga's hometown, New York City. Kid Cudi will be the supporting act for the entire tour.
Says Lady Gaga, "The Haus of Gaga had been designing 'The Monster Ball' for premiere in 2010 at the O2 Arena in London, but due to diligent work and preparation, 'The Monster Ball' will begin on November 27th in Montreal. 'The Monster Ball' is a multimedia artistic experience in the style of the first-ever 'pop electro opera.'"
Lady Gaga will release a re-package of her breakthrough album, The Fame, called The Fame Monster, earlier that week, on November 23rd. The re-package will include eight brand new songs, including the club-banging first single "Bad Romance." Continues Lady Gaga, "A message to all my little monsters: The Fame Monster will come out four days before the first live show. You have exactly 96 hours to learn all of the lyrics so you can sing along. Dress accordingly."
The dates for "The Monster Ball" are:
November 27 – Montreal, Quebec, Canada – The Bell Center November 28 – Toronto, Ontario, Canada – Air Canada Center November 29 – Ottawa, Ontario, Canada – Scotiabank Place December 01 – Boston, MA – Wang Center December 02 – Boston, MA – Wang Center December 03 – Camden, NJ – Susquehanna December 09 – Vancouver, BC, Canada – Queen Elizabeth Theatre December 10 – Vancouver, BC, Canada – Queen Elizabeth Theatre December 13 – San Francisco, CA – Bill Graham Civic December 18 – Las Vegas, NV – TBD December 19 – San Diego, CA – San Diego Sports Arena December 21 – Los Angeles, CA – Nokia Theatre December 29 – Atlanta, GA – Fox Theater December 31 – Miami, FL – Knight Center January 03 – Orlando, FL – The Hard Rock January 07 – St. Louis, MO – The Fox January 08 – Chicago, IL – Chicago Theatre January 09 – Chicago, IL – Chicago Theatre January 12 – Detroit, MI – Fox Theater January 16 – Atlantic City, NJ – Borgata January 20 – New York, NY – Radio City Music Hall January 21 – New York, NY – Radio City Music Hall
Whitney Houston will start touring in Europe this spring and if we're lucky, maybe the singing sensation will bring her tour to the US. This will be the first time Whitney has toured in the UK in over 10 years.
"This is my first full tour since the 'My Love Is Your Love' tour in 1999 and I am so excited to be performing for my fans around the world after all this time," Whitney said. "I am putting together a great show and cannot wait to perform the songs from my new album I Look to You along with some of your favorites."
The 46-year-old star will also make a TV appearance on talent show The X Factor this Sunday, her first UK TV appearance in 12 years. Whitney, who has sold over 140 million albums worldwide, is making her long-awaited musical comeback after overcoming drug addiction.
Pop star Lady Gaga said on Friday she and Kanye West decided jointly to cancel their "Fame Kills" tour, and she will embark on her own headlining concert series soon while West plans to drop out of the spotlight.
"It was a mutual decision," Gaga said as she arrived for Billboard Women in Music Event where she received this years Rising Star award.
"Kanye's going to take some time off. But the good news is that I'm going on tour in a few weeks."
Lori Ann Gibson, Gaga's longtime choreographer who was working on dances for the shows, claimed on her Twitter feed that "creative differences" between the Gaga and West led to the tour's abrupt demise.
The cancellation comes just days after the two pop stars announced the dates for an arena tour that was to kick off next month. Concert promoter Live Nation announced the cancellation news on Thursday and said refunds will be issued.
The cancellation comes on the heels of wave of negative publicity for West, following his interruption of Taylor Swift's award-winning moment at the MTV Video Music Awards in September.
Australian pop star Kylie Minogue kicked off her first-ever American tour with a driving disco beat, a bevy of well-muscled dancers, and a lot of leg, hoping to finally crack the lucrative U.S. market.
The pop diva, no stranger to spectacle, made her first appearance adorned in pink feathers as she was lowered onto the stage from a metallic skull.
"Well, good evening -- finally!" exclaimed the 41-year-old Grammy-winning singing, who has never toured the United States before. "All this anticipation -- on my part!"
In a fast-paced, two-hour show, Minogue made her way through her international hits, including "Slow," "Spinning Around" and "Wow." But the biggest applause greeted "Can't Get You Out of My Head," her 2001 club hit.
The tour, which began Wednesday night in Oakland outside San Francisco, takes Minogue to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, with one stop in Toronto.
Minogue first began her career as an actress on the Australian soap opera "Neighbors," but was catapulted to fame after her 1987 remake of '60s hit "Locomotion" hit the top of the charts.
Some 10 studio albums have followed and a handful of movies, giving Minogue mega-star status in Britain, Europe and Asia as well as her native Australia.
Minogue was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 but she returned to performing after recovering from surgery and chemotherapy. In a world tour last year she visited more than 21 countries.
Her career also includes a lingerie line, perfumes, linen and a children's book.
But the star, who has a wax image of her likeness in Madame Tussauds, has never quite managed to crack the U.S. market, a notion that seemed incomprehensible to one fan.
"Americans are stupid, obviously," said Dustin Thornhill, 28, of San Francisco, who was at the show with friend Nicky Bangles, 24. The pair planned to see Minogue again in Los Angeles.
"We're stalking her -- sort of," Thornhill said.
Like many in the audience, the two said they were thrilled to finally have the opportunity to see Minogue perform.
"We're so excited. We've been waiting millions of years," Bangles said, adding that Minogue is an icon to gay men.
"She wears outfits that are amazing. What gay man wouldn't love it?" Bangles asked, adding, "Madonna who?"
To a constantly shifting set of images projected on a video backdrop -- including some of well-chiseled men in the shower and others working out with gym equipment -- Minogue and her scantily-clad dancers made their way through a series of hits. The singer delivered the sassy fashion she is known for, sporting a host of leg-baring outfits that included silver tunics, black boots, a Nautical cap and a sparkly black leotard.
"Kylie's a diva!" gushed Todd Hedgpeth, 39, of San Francisco.
Minogue littlest American fan at the concert may have been Alexis Chiu, 9, who was looking at the T-shirts for sale with her mother, Donna. Why was she at Minogue's first U.S. tour?
"I've liked her since I was a baby," said the youngest Chiu.
"She likes that "Na, na, na" song," explained her mother.
Kanye West and Lady Gaga's highly anticipated tour is over before it even began.
Just days after announcing dates for an ambitious joint that was to kick off next month, the tour was canceled.
Live Nation announced the news in a brief statement Thursday that did not offer any explanation. Refunds are available for those who brought tickets for the tour. It was to kick off Nov. 10 in Phoenix and was scheduled to run through at least January.
The name of the tour was to be "Fame Kills" — a sentiment West may have been feeling in recent weeks. The Grammy-winning rapper has endured a firestorm of negative publicity since he hijacked the award-winning moment of country-pop sweetheart Taylor Swift at last month's MTV Video Music Awards.
Swift had made history as the first country act to win at the VMAs, and was giving her acceptance speech after nabbing a trophy for best female video. West — who has a long history of awards-show meltdowns — grabbed the microphone and declared that Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" was one of the "best videos of all time."
A crushed Swift did not finish her speech then but did later when Beyonce brought her back on stage after winning video of the year.
West endured boos from the celebrity crowd that night, and the negative reaction kept growing — even President Barack Obama was caught calling him a "jackass" during remarks to reporters that the White House believed were off-the-record.
An almost tearful West gave one of three apologies for his behavior during the premiere of "The Jay Leno Show" last month. He said that hadn't fully taken time to grieve for his mother, who died suddenly in November 2007, and hinted that a break would be coming.
"So many celebrities, they never take the time off," he said. "I've never taken the time off to really — you know, just music after music and tour after tour. I'm just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else's hurt. My dream of what awards shows are supposed to be, 'cause, and I don't try to justify it because I was just in the wrong. That's period. But I need to, after this, take some time off and just analyze how I'm going to make it through the rest of this life, how I'm going to improve."
But shortly after that, the "Fame Kills" tour — which had been in the works for months — was announced.
Publicists for both West and Lady Gaga did not immediately return requests for comment. A representative for Live Nation said there was no further information.
After nearly seven months, the American leg of Britney Spears's Circus tour came to a close Sunday in Las Vegas.
"Hey Vegas, how y'all feeling?" the headliner, 27, asked the crowd in one of the only times that she spoke during the 90-minute show at Mandalay Bay also attended by Lance Bass and Barry Manilow.
Bass didn't stay in his seat for the entire show, though: He was given a brief lap dance by Spears during the song "Breathe on Me," in which an audience member is invited on stage. Bass was seen singing as Spears smiled at him during the sexually charged choreography.
Sunday's show was the second of Spears's Vegas concerts over the weekend. On Saturday, Miley Cyrus and Spice Girl Melanie Brown attended the concert.
It wasn't all work for Spears in Vegas. Sunday afternoon, the pop star was spotted at Mirage's Sugar Factory with sons Sean Preston, 3, Jayden James, 2, and beau Jason Trawick.
"She spent about $3,000 and walked out of the store with 10 bags," a source tells PEOPLE. "She got a bunch of candy and shirts for her kids and got a bunch of the couture lollipops to give to her backup dancers." Following the purchase, the store sent another $2,500 in merchandise to her room at the Mirage Villas, according to the source.
Though she is finished with the United States leg of the tour, Spears is set to play several shows in Australia in November.
George Michael surprised Beyoncé fans in London by joining the singer onstage to perform her hit If I Were a Boy.
It was the final European stop on Beyoncé's sold out I AM tour and the bootylicious singer went out with a bang. For her encore performance, Mrs. Jay-Z announced a “special guest” and launched into her hit ballad If I Were a Boy as pop icon, Michael, joined her on stage.
The crowd roared at the sight of the Faith singer, still looking quite good in shades and trademark five o’clock shadow.
Other celebs in attendance included Beyonce's husband, rapper Jay-Z and pop-starlet Katy Perry, who said she considers Beyoncé, “a living legend… I might have seen one of the best shows I ever saw tonight.”
Wouldn't it have been more fun to see the two take on Michael's big hit Faith?
Check out the video, taken by an audience member lucky enough to catch the O2 show:
After an absence of five years, No Doubt returned to the stage Saturday as if they hadn't missed a beat. "You always remember your first show of any tour," singer Gwen Stefani told the audience a few songs into the concert, "and so far, so, so, so good."
Dressed in white, members of the band ripped through a 90-minute set at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, the highlight of the 12th annual Tiger Jam, a benefit for the Tiger Woods Foundation, which specializes in children's education.
"The only reason we're doing the tour is to feel inspired," Stefani, 39, told a crowd of 12,000 that included Woods, P. Diddy, Cassie, and a plethora of professional athletes.
The band appeared energetic as it played new songs but stuck mainly to hits, sending the audience into a frenzy when Stefani ran into the middle of the crowd to sing "I'm Just A Girl". The crowd again went crazy when Stefani scanned the room, saying she was looking for her "favorite person." (No word on whether husband Gavin Rossdale, on tour with his own band this spring, or sons Kingston and Zuma were in the house.)
While relatively unknown in the U.S. but beloved elsewhere, multi-platinum Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue will perform in six North American cities this fall, including New York and Los Angeles, her concert promoters have announced.
The singer, 40, is also slated to appear on Friday's fourth hour of NBC's Today show, with Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford.
"I've wanted to tour in America and Canada for years and know that fans have been waiting a long time for this," Minogue said in a statement. "I'm thrilled that the opportunity has finally arrived."
The concerts are to take place Sept. 30, at Oakland, California's Fox Theater; Oct. 3, at Las Vegas's the Pearl (Palms Hotel & Casino); Oct. 4, at the Hollywood Bowl; Oct. 7, at Chicago's Congress Theater; Oct. 9, at Toronto's Air Canada Centre; and Oct. 11, at Manhattan's Hammerstein Ballroom.
Forget a summer vacation – Beyoncé is spending hers on the road. The singer will kick off the U.S. leg of her "I AM …" world tour in New York on June 21.
Launching at Madison Square Garden, the tour, which officially kicked off March 26 in Edmonton, takes Beyoncé to arenas across the country, hitting Ft. Lauderdale, Dallas, Chicago, and 14 other cities before wrapping with a four night stand at Las Vegas' Encore Theatre inside the Wynn. The singer is touring behind her 2008 album I AM … Sasha Fierce.
Beyoncé's tour wardrobe, which includes 71 costumes, was designed by Thierry Mugler. The singer will also be joined on the road by her all-female band as well as winners of her "Single Ladies" dance contest – in which fans uploaded videos of themselves performing her hit – during a segment of the show.
Fan club members can buy tickets beginning April 20. Tickets to the general public will go on sale April 25. In addition, Beyoncé is making 2,000 seats available at each venue (save for the Las Vegas dates) available for $20.
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Florida governor Charlie Crist is seeking to issue a posthumous pardon to Doors front man Jim Morrison for two criminal convictions he received after a night of onstage antics in Miami in 1969 that drew outcries from conservatives including antigay crusader Anita Bryant.
“In the ensuing outrage, several other nearby Doors concerts were canceled. On March 23, the Orange Bowl became the scene of a Rally for Decency, organized by local high school students. Some 30,000 teenagers and adults gathered for performances and speeches on virtue by Jackie Gleason, Anita Bryant and the Lettermen. (President Richard M. Nixon later wrote a letter to the rally’s organizers saying they had shown ‘admirable initiative.’)”
