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Move over, Gomez. The nominations are in for this year's Technics Mercury Music Prize, which honors the best British or Irish album of the year as selected by a select panel of journalists. Gomez's Bring It On won the prize last year, but on September 7 it will go to Blur's 13, the Chemical Brothers's Surrender, Beth Orton's Central Reservation, Underworld's Beaucoup Fish, Manic Street Preachers' This is My Truth Tell Me Yours, Stereophonics' Performance and Cocktails, Talvin Singh's Ok, Faithless' Sunday 8 p.m., Blackstar Liner's Bengali Bantam Youth Experience, Kate Rusby's Sleepless, Thomas Ades' Asayla or Denys Baptiste's Be Where You Are . . .
Last year, with his book Light My Fire: My Life with the
Doors, former Doors keyboardist Ray
Manzarek became an author. Now, he's adding "director" to
his resume with a film called Love Her Madly. Although the
flick has nothing to do with the famous song other than the same
title, Variety reports that its about "love, madness,
obsession and murder surrounding a captivating female drama
student," all of which sounds suitably Doorsy. Manzarek also
co-wrote the screenplay, and the film is produced by Doors
videographer Rick Schmidlin. . .
After the book I, Tina and the ensuing movie What's
Love Got To Do With It, not many people like Ike --
Ike Turner, that is. Tina
Turner's autobiography is one of extreme hardships and
glorious triumphs, not the least of which is the ditching of her
abusive husband and musical partner. Well, Ike Turner is sick of
being the bad guy in someone else's book, so he's decided to write
his own. Takin' Back My Name: The Confessions of Ike
Turner is Ike's side of the story, and it hits bookstores in
October. . .
On Saturday, former Guns n' Roses guitarist
Slash interrupted the recording of his first album
since 1995's It's Five O'clock Somewhere with famed
producer Jack Douglas to go directly to jail. A day after his
thirty-fourth birthday, the artist born Saul Hudson was arrested at
Ocean Way Studio in Los Angeles for allegedly beating his live-in
girlfriend Perla, according to police. She claims that Slash beat
her on July 19 at Le Parc Hotel in West Hollywood, but authorities
did not explain why she waited so long to report the incident. The
guitarist is now free on $50,000 bail . . .
Almost three decades after the Who's rock opera
Tommy hit the stage for the first time, Tommy
architect Pete Townshend is staging "Lifehouse," a sequel
twenty-eight years in the making. Rehearsals for "Lifehouse," which
will debut on BBC3 in December, have already begun. Begun in 1971,
the musical is reported to be about a "vast global network" much
like the World Wide Web. According to Kate Rowland, head of the BBC
radio drama, as quoted in the U.K.'s Independent, "It's
extraordinary when you think about what [Townshend] was writing in
1971. It was like he was projecting ahead. He didn't use the words
'Net' or 'Web.' He called it 'grid'" . . .
You knew that Ozzy Osbourne is slated to be a
doll, thanks to McFarlane Toys and Signatures Network, but on July
25, the Ozzmeister will also be a magazine. Todd McFarlane
Productions is unleashing Ozzy Osbourne, a fifty-six-page
glossy magazine, taking some of the old war horse's more
sensational road stories and having author Paul Jenkins putting
them in a "fictional setting." So they say. The mag will also
include an Ozzy biography, photo gallery, and a no-holds barred
interview conducted by Steve Niles -- all for only a mere $4.95 . .
.
Just last week, Megadeth's Dave
Mustaine told reporters that he named his band's
forthcoming album Risk because his old bandmate in
Metallica, Lars Ulrich, told him that he wasn't
taking enough risks with his career. This week it has come to our
attention that the old hunk of burning love, Tom
Jones has dubbed his upcoming double album,
Reload, no doubt as homage to Metallica's 1997 opus of
stripped-down, rhythmic songs. But the similarity ends there.
Jones' Reload is a collection of duets the Welsh crooner
recorded with some of rock's brass. Among those joining Jones are
Natalie Imbruglia for a rendition of
INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart"; the
Cardigans for the Talking Heads'
"Burning Down the House"; Van Morrison for his own
"Sometime We Cry"; the Barenaked Ladies for the
George Baker Selection's "Little Green Bag"; and
the Pretenders for Iggy Pop's
"Lust for Life" . . .
BILL CRANDALL, RICHARD SKANSE and JAAN UHELSZKI
(July 27, 1999)