Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Originally a teen rapper as half of the duo Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde, New York City Andre Harrell started his career at Def Jam, but soon launched Uptown Records.
14.07.2023 - 15:01 / variety.com
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Syd Barrett was the guiding light of the original Pink Floyd — the band’s singer, primary songwriter and guitarist from their first day until their psychedelia-defining 1967 debut album, “Piper at the Gates of Dawn.” His sparkling, childlike melodies and lyrics have cast a huge influence over rock and pop music ever since — David Bowie cited him as a pivotal influence, and it shows — and entire genres of music, particularly the neo-psychedelic waves of the early ‘80s in the U.S. and U.K., bear his fingerprints. Yet he was also one of rock’s first “acid casualties” — people who took too many drugs, or at least the wrong ones, and were never the same afterward. His bandmates and friends say one day, he was just gone: The distinctive sparkle in his eye and spring in his step had disappeared. He became uncommunicative and withdrawn; he’d go onstage and just stand there, strumming one chord or doing nothing while the other bandmembers would struggle to hold things together. He’d bring the band a song and continually change it as they tried to follow him — this remarkable documentary takes its title from one such song, so titled because they could never get it if he kept changing it.
Eventually the group had no choice but to fire him, and although they certainly figured out how to succeed without him — Pink Floyd, after all, is one of the most influential and commercially successful rock groups of all time — the ensuing emotional turmoil has always followed them. They helped Barrett to release two solo albums in 1970, but then he essentially became a recluse, shunning most social contact and declining the interviewers who’d sporadically appear at his doorstep or photograph him. “Syd doesn’t
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Originally a teen rapper as half of the duo Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde, New York City Andre Harrell started his career at Def Jam, but soon launched Uptown Records.
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Bronx-born Chris Lighty founded Violator Management with Mona Scott-Young in 1996 — and within months they had one of the most powerful firms in the hip-hop business, with a roster that grew to include 50 Cent, LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott, A Tribe Called Quest and many more. During those years, Lighty negotiated 50 Cent’s deal with Vitaminwater — which ended up netting the rapper a reported $100 million — and over the course of his career worked at Rush Management and Def Jam, Jive and Loud Records, before his death in 2012.
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Irish singer and legendary “Live Aid” leader Bob Geldof showed that he’s lost none of his eloquence in paying tribute to Sinead O’Connor, who died Wednesday at the age of 56, during a concert at Ireland’s Cavan Festival on Saturday. More than just pop-star acquaintances, Geldof said he was “very good friends” with both Sinead and her brother Joseph and “grew up with the O’Connors”: They lived just 75 yards apart, and shared the same bus stop going to school.
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Harry Styles’ world-shaking “Love on Tour” wrapped before a crowd of 100,000 people at Italy’s RCF Arena last week, concluding 173 dates over nearly three years. The tour launched on September 4, 2021 and saw Styles performing to 5.04 million fans in North and South America, the U.K., Europe and Australia — including 20 dates at Madison Square Garden, 18 at the Los Angeles Forum, six at London’s Wembley Stadium, and two sets of “Harryween” concerts — and is the fourth highest-grossing tour of all time, according to the announcement.
Pink and Brandi Carlile just mourned the loss of Sinéad O’Connor in the most beautiful way.
, moisturized, crops flourishing, etc. She and her twin sister Patricia celebrated their combined 86 years on this planet (so, 43rd birthdays) on July 20 with a girls trip, and the just-dropped pics make it look so fun.“I wanted to thank everyone who took the time to congratulate and send good vibes on our birthday.
It was a magnificent movie weekend. Barbie, Oppenheimer, Sound of Freedom. All hits, a blow-out!
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The Faroe Islands seem a very unlikely place to hold a music festival. A string of rocky islands located in the North Atlantic between Scotland, Norway and Iceland, it has a population of around 56,000 people and, as any tour guide will tell you, approximately three times as many sheep. The weather and the terrain are wild and unpredictable — last week, as the Northern Hemisphere roasted, it ranged from clear and sunny to cold with driving rain, with temperatures between 50 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit. The country has a strong music tradition but just a handful of venues and one record label — Tutl (“total”), which, true to its name, releases local music in basically every genre, from classical to hip-hop to death metal, and whose office also holds the Faroes’ one surviving record store.
The “Vanderpump Rules” drama never seems to end, especially when it involves Tom Sandoval.
Andrea Brooks plays a game of basketball with Patch May in this still from tonight’s premiere of A Lifelong Love on Hallmark Channel.
Manchester United are set to begin their tour of the US with a friendly against Arsenal in New York on Saturday.
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Whether it’s a soundtrack, a score or a song placement, there are countless wrong ways to do music for film and so few ways to make it feel right. There’s very little leeway, which is why it can be so challenging for even the most successful hitmakers to make the transition to film music — especially with a major film event like “Barbie.” With albums and songs by Amy Winehouse, Adele, Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Bruno Mars and many others under his belt, seven-time Grammy-winning producer Mark Ronson is one of the most successful pop songwriter-producers working today, yet his work on the soundtrack to Greta Gerwig’s summer blockbuster “Barbie” film — for which he co-wrote and co-produced five songs, cowrote the score with longtime collaborator Andrew Wyatt, and served as an executive music producer — was a new experience.
Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Move over, Taylor Swift — Roger Waters has re-recorded the most famous of the albums he made with Pink Floyd in the 1970s for its 50th anniversary. The project, titled “The Dark Side of the Moon Redux,” comes out Oct. 6. The album’s first single, “Money,” a fresh take on the 1973 song that was the band’s biggest hit, was released today as an audio track and lyric video. Any similarities to Swift’s re-recordings end with the most basic concept, as Water says he does not mean the new version to supplant the old one, but to complement it as a more mature take on the material. As for the big question of who will replaced his estranged former partner David Gilmour’s lead vocal and guitar parts, the seven-and-a-half minute “Money” seems to at least partially answer that. Taking over Gilmour’s role on the mic in the song, Waters “sings” the song in a spoken whisper, and the guitar solo has been replaced by what seems to be a new, lengthy poem set in a metaphorical boxing-ring. The tune has been significantly transformed in other ways; it’s bluesier and less rocking, with no cash registers or random voices or other sound effects. Some of the first listeners to hear it after it came out in the wee hours compared it to a Leonard Cohen recitation.
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music From Marcel Duchamp to punk rock, the art world has struggled to find ways to present rebellious forms of art in a museum-like context, and hip-hop is certainly no exception. There have been many rap-related exhibits over the past couple of decades, from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to the Museum of Modern Art, some good, some less so. Exhibits around single artists have been more successful — “David Bowie Is,” “Rolling Stones Exhibitionism” and even the full museum dedicated to Bob Dylan — yet it’s hard to imagine one more fully realized, or thorough, than the 40,000 square foot “The Book of Hov,” Roc Nation’s homage to its founder, Jay-Z, which opens at the Brooklyn Museum on Friday, not far from the now-famous Marcy Projects where the man grew up.
Kim Kardashian and Tom Brady are having mixed reactions to a possible romantic relationship between the reality star and the athlete, after it was revealed that they had been in contact, with Brady helping her to find her new home in the Bahamas.And while the romance was only limited to rumors, it seems the pair are actually very good friends and even had some interaction during the star-studded Fourth of July party in the Hamptons last week. An anonymous source sent a photo from their interaction to the celebrity gossip site Deuxmoi.“I’ve been seeing some posts speculate whether or not Kim and Tom actually spent time together at the party and I wasn’t gonna send this initially bc it felt creepy but I do have a photo of them together lol,” the source wrote, adding the photo.
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Fresh off a summer concert run headlining Re:Set Concert Series and more, Boygenius — Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus — have announced further touring dates for the fall in support of their debut full-length album “The Record.” Kicking off in September in Boston, the band will make stops in New Haven and Philadelphia before two final performances at venues Madison Square Garden and a special Halloween event at Hollywood Bowl. Support comes from Muna, Samia, and Palehound and a special Halloween event with 100 Gecs and special guest, Sloppy Jane (for whom Bridgers used to play bass — a guest appearance seems inevitable).
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Raedio, the “audio everywhere” division of Issa Rae’s Hoorae Media, has announced a multi-year deal with Def Jam Recordings. The partnership will give Raedio the opportunity to sign, market, and distribute signed artists through Def Jam’s network, according to the announcement. It includes publishing, music supervision, music library, podcasts, digital content and events divisions. Raedio’s “symbiotic pipeline to Hoorae Media’s ecosystem of film, television production and talent management divisions provides a unique all-in-one infrastructure paving the way for a new, disruptive approach to music label models,” the announcement states.
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Over the past weekend, the Weeknd broke London Stadium’s record for highest attendance with his two-night stand at the venue on Friday and Saturday, which drew 160,000 people to his “After Hours Til Dawn Tour.” The tour also holds the record for highest single-night attendance for any show at the stadium with 80,000 fans. According to promoter Live Nation, the tour has already sold more than 2 million tickets for its European and forthcoming South America and Mexico dates — and 200,000 for both England and France. The sold-out 2022 North American leg of the stadium tour grossed more than $148 million dollars. The global tour has now grossed over $350 million dollars to date.
Good Morning Britain stars Charlotte Hawkins and Laura Tobin have dazzled fans as they put on a festival-ready display over the weekend. The ITV news programme's meteorologist and presenter were seen hanging out and having fun together at the Soho House Festival.
Tom Sandoval is officially back in the Vanderpump Rules orbit.