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Really Randoms: Brandy, Led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson

Brandy gets down with video, Zep collect their hits, Jacko ripped off & more

Posted Oct 27, 1999 12:00 AM

If seeing BRANDY in her Fox sitcom Moesha doesn't give you a big enough small-screen dose of the teen R&B diva, you're in luck: She will be releasing her first home video collection, called The Videos, on Nov. 9. The tape will include the clips for hit songs like "Baby," "I Wanna Be Down," "Have You Ever?" and "Sittin' Up in my Room"...


While JIMMY PAGE and ROBERT PLANT iron out their differences, Atlantic Records is preparing to release the first-ever Led Zeppelin greatest hits compilation, Early Days: The Best of Led Zeppelin Volume 1, on Nov. 23. Industry sources say that a second volume is set for release sometime next year. The compilation will feature tracks from the seminal hard rock band's first four albums, all selected by Led Zep guitarist Jimmy Page. In addition, recently discovered footage from a 1969 Swedish TV show will be included in the enhanced CD showing a young Zeppelin lip-synching to "Communication Breakdown." According to Hugh Jones of Zep fanzine Proximity Magazine, it's the earliest known video of the group . . .


A spokesperson for MICHAEL JACKSON says that several home videos of the entertainer and his children were recently stolen from the singer's digs in France. The tapes were shot at Jackson's Neverland Ranch during Christmas and a trip to EuroDisney last July. Lest anyone think that the vids were just misplaced, the singer received an anonymous call shortly after the theft demanding $100,000 for their safe return. Images from the tapes recently turned up in Los Angeles, prompting Jackson's legal team to issue a stern warning to any would-be publishers that they will be sued to the fullest extent of the law ...


While police in Los Angeles continue to search for SANDRA ROSAS, the missing wife of LOS LOBOS singer CESAR ROSAS, the band has announced the cancellation of their upcoming string of live dates from Nov. 3 (Athens, Ga.) through Nov. 9 (Miami). At a press conference today, the Rosas family asked for the public's assistance in locating Sandra. According to Lt. Marilyn Baker of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, kidnapping charges have not yet been filed against jailed suspect Gabriel Gomez, Mrs. Rosas' half brother, but he is being held for parole violation pending further investigation. She said a motive in the suspected kidnapping is not yet known . . .


RICKY MARTIN is helping raise the profile of quepasa.com, the premier online community for U.S. Hispanics, by donating a pair of tickets to his sold-out show at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 29...


Despite reports of two OASIS shows in early December -- one in Philadelphia on Dec. 3, the other in Chicago on Dec. 4 -- a spokesperson for the band at their U.K. label, Creation Records, says that neither show is confirmed. The band is expected to play a few U.S. gigs around that time, but no exact details have been settled. The same applies to the rumor that the band is about to recruit DAVID POTTS (formerly of MONACO) to replace departed bassist PAUL McGUIGAN. The band's spokesperson says that Potts' name is among a list of contenders and that, while they have been impressed by his previous work, they haven't even met him in person yet and so his membership in the band is far from guaranteed. Evidently, the band will have to make some quick advances toward finding a suitable bassist if it is to play any of those December shows. Hey, Gallaghers, we hear D'ARCY needs a gig...


MARILYN MANSON and UB40 are the latest additions to Elektra's DOORS tribute album, to be released next spring. Manson will record "Five to One," while UB40 will do "Light My Fire." Already aboard the project are BUSH, SMASH MOUTH, CREED, CHRISSIE HYNDE, JOHN LEE HOOKER, BO DIDDLEY, THE CULT, DAYS OF THE NEW, and the surviving members of the Doors: JOHN DENSMORE, RAY MANZAREK and ROBBIE KRIEGER . . .


MISSY ELLIOTT will guest on JAY-Z's upcoming Vol. III...The Life and Times of S. Carter, the sequel to his quadruple-platinum, Grammy-winning Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life. TIMBALAND is producing the album, and it's due to hit stores Dec. 28 ...

Early next year JONI MITCHELL will release an album of standards recorded in London with a full orchestra. The tentatively titled Both Sides Now, the disc features Mitchell singing songs made famous by such artists as FRANK SINATRA, ELLA FITZGERALD and BILLIE HOLIDAY, but she does sneak in a couple of her own: "Both Sides Now" and "A Case of You" ...


Are you ready for some KID ROCK? None other than football fanatic HANK WILLIAMS, JR. will appear in Detroit's new favorite son's upcoming video, "Naked Women and Beer." In more football-related news, Kid Rock will contribute "F*** That" to the upcoming soundtrack to OLIVER STONE's gridiron movie Any Given Sunday ...


Los Angeles police investigating the disappearance of Sandra Rosas, wife of Los Lobos singer/guitarist CESAR ROSAS, have arrested Mrs. Rosas' half-brother Gabriel Gomez and charged him with kidnapping, according to the Associated Press. Mrs. Rosas' daughters returned home Saturday evening find the door to their home open, broken glass in the driveway and Mrs. Rosas and her Chevy van missing. When they called her on her cell phone, they heard what they believed to be an argument between their mother and Gomez. The van was found yesterday, but the search for Rosas continues . . .


Country singer/songwriter HOYT AXTON, who achieved his biggest success penning songs for acts like THREE DOG NIGHT ("Joy to the World"), RINGO STARR ("No No Song") and STEPPENWOLF ("The Pusher"), died Tuesday at his Montana ranch from heart trouble. He was sixty-one. Axton had a heart attack two weeks ago, and a second during surgery. In addition to his songwriting credits and his own albums, Axton also enjoyed some success as a television and film actor, appearing in Bonanza, E.T. and Gremlins. In a statement released today, former Three Dog Night member Chuck Negron called Axton "a loveable man" who was widely respected. "I am truly saddened by the loss a very talented artist," Negron said. "Thanks to Hoyt's genius, 'Joy,' and its memorable opening lyric, 'Jeremiah was a bullfrog,' are arguably a part of Americana. He will be greatly missed." . . .


BECK has filled the vacancies left by the defections of drummer JOEY WARONKER and guitarist SMOKEY HORMEL last month. He's hired Los Angeles stalwart and former MASTERS OF REALITY and SCOTT WEILAND drummer VICTOR INDRIZZO, and guitarist LYLE WORKMAN, who has logged time with both TODD RUNDGREN and FRANK BLACK . . .


Just when you thought radio couldn't get any more rotten... Beginning Oct. 30, JOHN LYDON (a k a JOHNNY ROTTEN) will take his 'tude to the Net as host of Rotten Radio, a weekly four-hour talk show on the online radio site eYada.com. The show will air each Saturday from 4-8 p.m. EDT, with Lydon weighing in on everything from pop to politics. If history is any indication, he'll mean it, maaaan ...


SONIC YOUTH will offer their millennial two cents through SY4: Goodbye 20th Century, a double-CD set of instrumental covers due Nov. 8. JOHN CAGE, YOKO ONO and STEVE REICH are among the avant garde composers to be sonically reworked ...


After twenty appearances on the big screen, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS bassist FLEA finally has a starring role in the independent film Liar's Poker, which opens at a theater near you on Oct. 29. Flea will portray a socially challenged nerd ...


Just because PHISH are forgoing their annual Halloween show this year, doesn't mean you have to change your plans. On Oct. 31, Emusic.com will present an opportunity to listen, purchase and download a high-quality, full-length MP3 archival recording of the Vermont band's 150-minute show at Colorado College back on All Hallow's Eve in 1990, for $14.99. If that's a little too steep, fans can download either of the two sets for $8.99 each, or individual songs for 99 cents, or $1.49 for songs seven minutes or longer. As an added bonus, an interview with guitarist TREY ANASTASIO will also be available for download that day. According to the mavens at Emusic.com, Phish are "committed to releasing similar shows in the same vein." Just a warning, this is not one of the shows where the band covers a classic album in its entirety. That ritual didn't begin until 1994, when the band performed the Beatles' White Album ...

Nuns were about the only Canadian women not represented in BRYAN ADAMS' newly published photography book, Made in Canada, the royalties from which go to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. "I think the Pope said that the nuns didn't have to wear their habits anymore, so you couldn't find any," explained Adams, who was in Toronto Oct. 22 to open an exhibit of his portraits at the Royal Ontario Museum's Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall (until Nov. 6). The black and white photographs of eighty-nine Canadian women -- among them NEVE CAMPBELL, PAMELA ANDERSON LEE, JILL HENNESSY, KAREN KAIN, CATHERINE O'HARA, MARGARET TRUDEAU, ALANIS MORISSETTE, K.D. LANG, SHANIA TWAIN, DEBORAH COX, SARAH McLACHLAN and MELISSA AUF DER MAUR -- feature portraits and candid shots. Adams hopes to tour with the exhibit and secure publication of the book in America, the U.K. and Australia. Meanwhile, he is currently shooting more photographs of British women to auction off in aid of Action on Addiction, a British charity which helps people battling drug dependencies ...


BOB DYLAN will be given the classical treatment at Carnegie Hall on March 15, 2000 -- but it won't really sound like the pop icon's music. Instead, Soprano SYLVIA MCNAIR will be performing the bard's best loved lyrics to music composed by JOHN CORIGLIANO in what the great concert hall is calling "Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan." Commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation as part of their "Great Singers In Recital Series", McNair, accompanied by Martin Katz on piano, will perform Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Masters of War," "All Along the Watchtower," "Blowin' in the Wind," "Forever Young" and twoothers not known at press time. If you're interested in the eccentric pairing, tickets go on sale on Dec. 6. For more information call 212-247-7800. According to a spokesperson for Carnegie Hall, Dylan has been invited. As for Corigliano, according to insiders, the composer, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his "Symphony Number I," didn't even listen to the originals while he was writing his own versions ...


The first official, Apple Records-sanctioned book chronicling the full history of the BEATLES as told through new interviews with the surviving members and archival JOHN LENNON sources will be published next year by San Francisco's Chronicle Books. The Beatles Anthology, which will retail in hardback for $60, will feature approximately 70,000 words from each Beatle and 1,000 photographs, half of them never-before published. Chronicle paid Apple more than $1 million for the worldwide rights to the tome . . .

Five weeks after we first reported that MELISSA AUF DER MAUR was planning to leave HOLE, the band's management has confirmed that the bassist has left to pursue her own muse. Though there's been no official word on rumors that Auf Der Maur will join SMASHING PUMKPINS, insiders still claim she'll team up with Corgan and Co. when they head out on the road. Auf Der Maur joined Hole in 1994, replacing KRISTEN PFAFF, who died of a drug overdose. Hole is said to currently be auditioning new bassists . . .


Police are searching for SANDRA ANN ROSAS, wife of LOS LOBOS' CESAR ROSAS, according to the Associated Press. The Los Angeles native has been missing since 11 p.m. Saturday night, when her daughters returned home to find the front door open and her Chevy fan missing and broken glass from the vehicle in the driveway . . .


CREED, who are serving as executive producers for the Scream 3 soundtrack, have cut SEVENDUST in on the action . . .


Using thousands of photos taken by his late wife LINDA MCCARNTEY and computer animation techniques, PAUL McCARTNEY plans to make a new BEATLES film. . . .


'N SYNC's JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE has formed the Justin Timberlake Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to improving America's public schools . . . .


The DUST BROTHERS will release the single "This Is Your Life," from the Fight Club soundtrack, on Nov. 22. The single will feature dialogue from the film.


KAREN BLISS, BILL CRANDALL, JENNY ELISCU, RICHARD SKANSE, JAAN UHELSZKI
(October 27, 1999)


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