allstar news for Feb. 12, 1997
News Editor
______________allstar Daily News for February 12, 1997______________
http://www.allstarmag.com
Edited by Carrie Borzillo
U2 SATIRIZES MALL CULTURE ON POPMART TOUR
At K-Mart Press Conference, Bono Says Band Will "Turn Stadiums Into
Shopping Malls."
The Rolling Stones made their announcement from the back of a
refurbished railroad car. The Cure made their announcement after
stepping off the passenger ship QE2. Today (Feb. 12), U2 announced
the
details of their upcoming world tour at a press conference held in
the
lingerie and sportswear department at a K-Mart department store in
the
East Village of New York City.
Dubbed the International PopMart Tour '97, and described as a
"giant, sci-fi disco supermarket," the year- long extravaganza kicks
off at Las Vegas's Sam Boyd Stadium on April 25 and will take the
band
to 62 cities in 20 countries through December 1997, then extend into
another 20 countries throughout 1998. And not only will this mark the
band's first appearance ever in South America, but it was confirmed
that the band will perform in the civil war- ravaged Sarajevo on
Sept.
23.
The tour is in support of the band's eighth studio album Pop,
their first album since 1993, which is due March 4 on Island. For a
few hours this morning, the East Village K-Mart was transformed from
its predictable Valentine's Day motif into the PopMart complete with
signs, stickers, shopping bags, balloons, and even containers of
seedless dates.
Arriving just before noon, the members of U2 proceeded down the
aisles of the department store, pausing to greet friends,
acquaintances and well-wishers before jumping onstage to perform
"Holy
Joe," the B-side of Pop's first single "Discotheque."
In an attempt to outdo 1992's Zoo TV and 1993's Zooropa tours, the
stage designed for the International PopMart 97 Tour will include a
single 100 ft. high golden arch, a 35 ft. high Mirrorball Lemon and a
12 ft. wide internally- illuminated stuffed olive with a 100 ft. tall
toothpick, a 3 ft. tall Squeaky Nun, 100 strobe lights, 5,000 feet of
disco rope lighting, and more. The backdrop will be the world's
largest (150 ft. by 50 ft. and weighing in at 65,000 lbs.) video
screen. The equipment and road crew of 200 people will travel the
world in 15 buses and 52 trucks.
"It's bigger, better, taller, wider, more intimate and more
spectacular than our previous tours," explained frontman Bono. "But
it's still just window dressing. The people come to see us and hear
the tunes. The rest of it is just trying to make fun of a very large
space, by turning stadiums into shopping malls.
"We're prepared to spend [for the tour]," he added, "if people are
prepared to spend to come see it." The vocalist believes the standard
ticket prices will be $45.
Surprisingly, the band is not against sponsorship. Bono says that
U2 refuse to "kiss asses" in exchange for huge sums of money.
However,
guitarist The Edge admitted that the band is planning to set up a
"PopMart Web site that will be accessible to all Web surfers"
regardless of the online service they use. U2's manager Paul
McGuinness later added that the band is currently negotiating with
"both America Online and N2K to get the Web site up and running."
Bono
stated that the Internet tie-in will be non-exclusive.
While Zoo TV and Zooropa satirized mass media and its impact on
society by taking a television network on the road, PopMart both
satirizes crass commercialism and pays homage to 1960s pop art by
taking a supermarket on the road. The irony that the announcement was
held at a department store chain, which practices censorship by
refusing to stock records with parental warning labels and often
demands that record companies alter album cover art, did not slip by
the band.
"[Like K-Mart], we are a multi-outlet outfit," joked Bono. "It
costs a fortune to look this trashy."
Although a set list has yet to be determined, Edge believes that
it
will contain eight songs from Pop, and the rest will be comprised of
fan favorites, although he does not want it to become a "greatest
hits
show."
When asked if the Pop concept was an attempt to deflate the
"sainthood aura" that has surrounded the band since the mid-'80s,
Bono
laughed: "Despite all of the mirror balls and all of the stadium
tours, I'm always going to be the fucker with the white flag."
By special arrangement, MTV and VH1 will present U2's PopMart in
the U.S. and will offer viewers the opportunity to purchase tickets
to
some shows before they go on sale through the networks' Tickets First
program. Beginning Thursday (Feb. 13) and continuing through the
month, tickets will be sold through this program each Friday evening
prior to the market's Saturday date that tickets are made available
to
the general public. The first shows to go on sale using this method
are May 31 at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, May 26 at RFK Stadium in
Washington D.C., June 8 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, June 14 in
Edmonton Ontario at the Commonwealth Stadium, June 21 at L.A.
Memorial
Coliseum in Los Angeles, and June 27 at Soldier Field in Chicago. A
phone number will be broadcast to viewers of both channels beginning
at 8 p.m. (EST) Thursday.
Portions of the PopMart Press Conference will be replayed on MTV
and VH-1 throughout the weekend.
While the band hasn't announced the opening bands for the tour,
rumor has it that The Prodigy's name has been tossed around in that
capacity.
- Vincent N. Cecolini
____________________________________________________________________
FLESH N' BONE JAIL UPDATE
Arrest Stems From Assaulting Bandmate Brother
More details have surfaced regarding yesterday's (Feb. 11)
story on Bone Thugs- N- Harmony member Flesh N' Bone's incarceration.
Stanley House, Flesh's real name, actually surrendered to Los Angeles
police on Jan. 15, and began serving his five- month sentence at that
time, according to his manager and attorney John K. Pierson. As
reported, he is serving his sentence at Men's Central Jail in L.A. in
what is now dubbed the "VIP O.J. Simpson Ward."
Pierson tells us that House was arrested seven times between 1993
and 1997, all involving drunk and disorderly conduct, and assault and
battery against his brother and fellow Bone Thugs- N- Harmony
bandmate, Layzie Bone. Nevertheless, the two have remained in the
same
band together, are recording a new album due later this year, and
plan
to tour in May when House gets out of jail. Whatever happened to
brotherly love?
House was given probation after all seven of the arrests,
which required him to attend counseling classes. However, he failed
to
do so, and the police were about to throw him in jail, but House
surrended first to make his sentence lighter. Pierson says if he
didn't turn himself in, he would've faced 18 months in jail instead
of
five.
____________________________________________________________________
MARILYN MANSON ON OZZ FEST '97?
Osbourne, Pantera, Type O Negative Also On Festival
Ozzy Osbourne is about to announce the lineup for his Ozz
Fest metal tour. Here's the advance word: expect to see Marilyn
Manson
on a number of the dates as well as Osbourne himself, Pantera, Type O
Negative, Downset, and possibly the return of Slayer.
Management for both Pantera and Type O Negative have confirmed
their clients' presence on the tour, while Slayer's management
confirms they are in negotiations. Sources connected to Manson are
saying that the Creepy One will be at "most" of the events, however
this is still unconfirmed.
The Ozz Fest, produced by Ozzy and his manager/ wife Sharon
Osbourne, is an expansion of two festivals staged in Phoenix and San
Bernardino, Calif, last year. The latter, with continuous music on
two
stages, featured a dozen acts including Slayer, Danzig, Sepultura,
Biohazard, Fear Factory, and Cellophane. This year's tour, reportedly
starting in July, is expected to feature eight acts and include stops
in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.
Fans missing the live event are still likely to hear at least some
of the performances on a CD. The 1996 California show was recorded
and
will be released on Osbourne's new label, Ozz Records, this Spring.
- Sorelle Saidman
____________________________________________________________________
YES, ANOTHER SUGE KNIGHT LAWSUIT
Death Row Head And Attorney Owe Amex More Than $1 Million
The Death Row/ Tupac Shakur- related lawsuits just keep
rolling in. The latest, albeit one not all that newsworthy, is
probably the most amusing of the slew. American Express filed a suit
against Marion "Suge" Knight, the incarcerated head of Death Row
Records, his attorney David E. Kenner, Erica D. Kenner, and Death Row
Records for an unverified complaint for breach of express and implied
contract, account stated, and creditor action in Los Angeles Superior
Court on Jan. 7. Basically, the defendants didn't pay their
$1,574,991.82 Platinum AMEX bill. The suit says that Knight is an
additional card holder on Kenner's account.
The $1 million- plus expenses range from a $947.17 charge to Dial-
A- Mattress in Long Island to several chartered airplanes from CLS
Transportation (ranging from $10,000 to $75,000 each) to four pages
worth of bills from the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, where rapper Tupac
Shakur was shot to death. So what's the deliquency charge on a $1
million- plus late account? Well, that would be $25,787.43.
____________________________________________________________________
ICE CUBE'S DANGEROUS GROUND IS UNINTENTIONALLY FUNNY
You can take the boy out the mean streets, but you can't take
the mean streets out of the boy. Or, as Ice Cube learns in Dangerous
Ground, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Cube,
the star of the film, plays a character who returns to his native
South Africa, but it's not so different from life in the U.S.A. Drug
dealings, carjackings, racist assaults, gang wars -- heck, Cube might
as well be back in L.A.
Dangerous Ground, a New Line movie, is essentially a shoot- 'em-
up action flick, with only the location changed in the name of
variety. The result is an awkward blend of forced political speeches
wrapped around the requisite mayhem, and shouldn't do much to advance
anyone's career. Cube is required to do little more than make
righteous proclamations in a monotone and abandon his principles in
time to unleash the climactic bloodbath that wraps up every loose end
in sight. Elizabeth Hurley is also given the chance to embarrass
herself as the stripper with a heart of gold (well- worn clichés,
anyone?)
The proceedings do end up being unintentionally funny (the sight
of
Hurley running down the street brandishing a semi-automatic is a
hoot), but that probably wasn't the point. If you want a better look
at the new South Africa, or, indeed, better action, you're well
advised to look elsewhere. Dangerous Ground can best be summed up by
Cube's closing line: "Let's get the fuck outta here."
The soundtrack to the movie, by the way, features Ice Cube,
B-Legit, KRS-One, Too Short and others. It's out now on Jive Records.
- Gillian G. Gaar
_______________________________________________________________
GOSSIP!
Do the Stipey! Doot doot doot da doot doot da doot doot... (Sorry,
just approximating a bad version of "The Hustle"). Anyway, R.E.M.
frontman Michael Stipe did a freaky dragon dance on the KTLA
(Channel 5) morning television news program in Los Angeles today
(Feb.
12). Why, you ask? He was helping Dr. Hong Liu , his Chinese
physician, schlep Master Liu's book on Qi Gong titled Mastering
Miracles. Stipe, who was referred to Liu by his dentist for a
toothache, continued to see Liu after he was cured of said ache in
order to reduce the effects stress had on his body. The book and Liu
teach people how to use ancient Chinese exercises and herbs as
healing
agents. Stipe demonstrated one of these exercises, "The Dragon," on
the show. He stood up from behind the news desk, put his palms
together, and raised them above his head. Then he slowly curved them
down and around as if doing tai chi on acid. Stipe said that he's
shared the book with fellow bandmates as well as "passing the book
out
wherever I can." Both Stipe and Liu will be at two book signings in
the Los Angeles area today and tomorrow... So, our sources tell us
that Eric Dover, lead singer of Imperial Drag , has left the
band, and is getting a divorce. However the band's management insists
there is no truth to this rumor. I guess only time will tell...
- Miss
Truth
_____________________________________________________________
allstar, the better online music magazine
http://www.allstarmag.com/
Copyright 1997 by allstarmag.com LLC. All rights reserved.
Restatements of allstar daily news must be credited to
"allstar music magazine at www.allstarmag.com"
_____________________________________________________________
If you wish to be removed from the allstar-news
mailing list, please send email to
majo...@allstarmag.com
with "unsubscribe allstar-news"
as the entire message.
To add yourself, send email to the same address
with "subscribe allstar-news" as the message.
_____________________________________________________________