Music

Almost Famous

What if you were a talented musician, so good that you got a record. Now, what if you had a relative that was also good…but maybe a little bit better, and they got incredibly famous? Here are a the stories of the almost famous.

STEVE YOUNG

Starfighters were a British heavy metal band that formed in the late ‘70s. Despite having released one single called “I’m Falling” that didn’t sell very well, they were signed by the manager of the popular British heavy metal group Krokus and got a spot as the opening act on tour for AC/DC in 1981, one of the world’s most popular bands at the time. How did they pull that off? The Starfighters’ lead guitarist, Steve Young, is the nephew of Angus and Malcolm Young of AC/DC. Starfighters released two albums in the ’80s, and when Uncle Malcolm briefly left AC/DC in 1988 to check into alcohol rehab, Steve Young filled his spot. What did Starfighters sound like? If songs like “Alley Cat Blues” are any indication…a lot like AC/DC.

Sing, Batman, Sing! (Batman Musical)

Amazingly, Spider-Man wasn’t the first comic book superhero to try to
make it on the Great White Way.

Batman MusicalIn 2011, the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark debuted on Broadway and made headlines. Not because it was really good, but because it was an absolute disaster. Actors in the stunt-heavy show routinely suffered injuries, critics savaged it, audience members asked for their money back, and the producers and creators sued each other. Eventually, the lawsuits were settled, safety measures were introduced, the script was rewritten mid-production, and two years later, the show is still running (to packed houses). But it’s amazing that it ever even made it to Broadway, after the failure of a proposed Batman musical.

Parents Just Don’t Understand: Celebrity Emancipated Minors

Celebrity Emancipated MinorsRecently, actor Will Smith told the British newspaper The Sun that his 14-year-old son Jaden, star of movies like The Karate Kid and the upcoming Will Smith movie After Earth, was looking into joining the ranks of other celebrity emancipated minors. It’s usually used to declare minors legal adults to either help teenagers escape abusive homes, protect financial assets or, as we’re guessing is the case with Smith, be able to work long hours on movie sets without violating child labor laws. The elder Smith seems cool with this. After all, he’s a guy who used to win Grammys for complaining about his parents.

Garth Brooks: Country Star, Failed Filmmaker, Defendant

Garth BrooksName the bestselling solo male musician of all time. Elvis Presley? Bing Crosby? Elton John? Nope. It’s country superstar Garth Brooks, who has sold more than 128 million albums in the U.S., which is especially remarkable because unlike those other guys, he didn’t have a recording career that lasted decades. His first record came out in 1989 and his last one in 2001. Why’d he retire? He wanted to try new things, particularly starring in and making movies.

Brooks is one of the most popular musicians of all time, and if a new lawsuit filed by a former business partner is to be believed, one of the prickliest. Former business partner Lisa Sanderson is taking Brooks to court because his bad behavior and pattern of bridge-burning resulted in a number of movie projects that never saw the light of day, and thus prevented Sanderson from earning a great deal of money.

Here are some of the movies Sanderson alleges she and Brooks worked on that never made it to the big screen:

The Misappropriation of Lauryn Hill

Lauryn HillLauryn Hill was one of the most promising singers of the late ’90s. As part of the Fugees, she sang on a smash hit cover of Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” and then in 1998 released her solo debut The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Hill wrote and produced most of the album, which sold 19 million copies and won five Grammys, including Best New Artist and Album of the Year.

It looked like Hill would be one of the biggest pop stars of the new millennium…but then almost nothing happened. The only album she’s released since was a live performance in 2002, which was marked by emotional breakdowns and bizarre stage banter. After that she retired from music to raise her five children.

Steve Martin, Edie Brickell Make Album

This could be real good:

Steve Martin and singer-songwriter Edie Brickell are set to release their first collaborative LP, Love Has Come for You, on April 23rd through Rounder Records. Comprising 13 new songs that combine Martin’s banjo work with Brickell’s lyrics and vocals, you can now get a taste of the record’s unique sound and take an exclusive look at this interview in which the duo discuss the making of the LP.

If you don’t recognize the name, Edie Brickell became famous in 1988 with her, “What I am is what I am is what you are or what?” song. (Then she married Paul Simon and got lost in the attic of one of his Manhattan mansions, we’re pretty sure.)

P.S. Is it just us or..

Three Other Rock Star Meltdowns

Earlier this month, Grammy-nominated singer Michelle Shocked went off on a bizarre diatribe near the end of a San Francisco performance. While her behavior may have, uh, shocked, fans, it’s not a first. Here are some other examples of rock star meltdowns.

Axl Rose. The Guns N’ Roses singer is a little unpredictable in concert. He’s been known to show up several hours late, for example, but the worst event happened at a St. Louis show in 1991 when he caught a fan filming the show. Rose’s response: He threw himself into the crowd, wrestled the camera away from the fan, and then stormed off stage. End of show. The audience responded by rioting. More than 60 people were hospitalized.

Playing Music…With Ice

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Very cool!

A group of Siberian percussionists have become an internet hit with an exhibition of ice drumming on frozen Lake Baikal.

In minus 20C, they found by pure chance that the one metre thick ice has a distinctive and haunting rhythm all of its own, reported the Siberian Times.

‘I felt like we were playing on the drums that Nature has left out for us, alone under the sun on the frozen waters of the world’s most magnificent lake,’ said Irkutsk architect Natalya Vlasevskaya, 31, a mother-of-one and organiser of Etnobit percussion group.

• More here.

• Much more here:

RIP Alvin Lee

Reuters:

British blues-rock guitarist Alvin Lee, who was best known for his performance with rock band Ten Years After at Woodstock in 1969, died on Wednesday at age 68, his family said.

“With great sadness we have to announce that Alvin unexpectedly passed away early this morning after unforeseen complications following a routine surgical procedure,” the family said in a statement on the singer’s official website.

Ten Years After—”Spoonful”:

RIP, Whitney Houston

Dang. Shocking news:

Whitney Houston, who reigned as pop music’s queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, has died. She was 48.

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