Print

Mail

wiki links

PLANET POP

VIEW THIS PAGE

Carlos Santana is on tour and has an album coming out, but in an interview with Rolling Stone posted online on Friday the rocker said he sees himself one day heading up a church in Hawaii. Santana also told the magazine about the pain of recently going through a divorce from his wife of 34 years, Deborah.

Brazilian race car driver Helio Castroneves and his sister and lawyer were indicted on Thursday on charges of conspiring to defraud the US of taxes on US$5.55 million of income, prosecutors said. The two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and his sister, Katiucia Castroneves, were also charged with six counts of income tax evasion for the years 1999 through 2004.

Singer Natalie Cole is resting in bed at her Los Angeles home after being hospitalized in New York last month because of a setback in her battle with Hepatitis C, her spokeswoman said on Thursday. The Grammy-award winning singer, 58, canceled her tour dates next month and all other appearances after spending about a week in the hospital last month.

Clint Eastwood spends more time behind the camera these days directing films. But anyone who believed him a few years ago when he said he had given up on acting, can think again. Eastwood has changed his mind. The Academy Award-winning director, who was promoting his latest film Changeling at the New York Film Festival on Thursday, began acting more than 50 years ago and gained fame playing tough-minded cowboys and cops.

More than 60 artists, including Radiohead, Robbie Williams and the Kaiser Chiefs announced Saturday they had banded together to seek more rights over their music and break free of record labels.

The Featured Artists’ Coalition (FAC) aims to “give artists the voice they need to argue for greater control over their music,” amid new opportunities provided by Internet, the group said in a statement.

“It is time for artists to have a strong collective voice to stand up for their interests,” said Brian Message, co-manager of Radiohead and Kate Nash.

“The digital landscape is changing fast and new deals are being struck all the time, but all too often without reference to the people who actually make the music.”

Message said the FAC would “help all artists, young and old, well-known or not, drive overdue change through the industry in their interests and those of fans.”

Thus far, 61 artists have signed up to the coalition, which was officially launched yesterday in the northwest English city of Manchester.

It is fighting for changes to laws that govern business in the music industry so that artists always ultimately own the rights to their music, rather than record labels.

The FAC is also calling for, among other things, artists to receive “fair compensation whenever their business partners receive an economic return from the exploitation of the artists’ work.”

Several groups have recently used the Internet to promote their music directly to fans, often bypassing record labels entirely, including Radiohead, which launched their latest album In Rainbows in October 2007 on the Web.

Last week, Oasis posted its new album Dig Out Your Soul on Internet social networking site MySpace in advance of its commercial release, allowing fans to listen to the whole compilation, but they could not buy it.

Janet Jackson has postponed three more shows because of an undisclosed illness.

Her publicist said in an e-mail late Saturday that Jackson was postponing a Saturday show in Greensboro, North Carolina, one yesterday in Atlanta and a third tomorrow in Fort Lauderdale.

A statement from Jackson said she arrived in Greensboro, North Carolina, hoping to perform there Saturday, but a local doctor advised that she not perform after it became “evident’’ she was not fully recovered.

Representatives for the 42-year-old singer say she became “suddenly ill’’ and was hospitalized Monday night in Montreal shortly after she arrived for a show. She also canceled concerts in Boston and Philadelphia on Wednesday and Thursday.

Jackson’s publicist did not elaborate Saturday, only saying she was “recuperating.’’ The note said Jackson will return home, at her doctor’s direction, for further treatment.

In the note Jackson said the promoter is working to reschedule dates.

Jackson is on her first North American tour in seven years.

VIEW THIS PAGE

This story has been viewed 960 times.