2008 - VanHalen on Hold… Metal Underground reports: After postponing a handful of dates last week in order for guitarist Eddie Van Halen to undergo tests for an unspecified medical condition, Van Halen is postponing all tour activity until April 19.
Seventeen shows are affected, beginning tomorrow night (March 11) in Charlottesville, Va., and running through April 15 in Baltimore.
According to organizers, Van Halen, who has battled cancer and substance abuse, “is currently under doctors’ care” and will “continue medical tests to define a course of treatment.” No further details were made available.
2006 – English songbird Katie Melua performs a concert 303 meters below sea level. The world’s deepest gig happens at the bottom of an oil rig shaft in the North Sea. Unfortunately, someone lifts Melua back to the surface.
Katie Melua has entered the record books by playing the deepest ever gig.
Melua set the record on Statoil Troll A, a gas rig in the North Sea, descending to a depth of 303 metres to play her set.
The gig was watched by a Guinness Book Of Records adjudicator, a small group of rig workers, and a Norwegian TV crew.
The singer had to endure rigorous training and medical tests in Norway to prepare for the performance.
Melua told the BBC: “It took nine minutes to go from the main part of the gas platform down to the bottom of the shaft in a lift.
“Giving a concert to the workers there was something really extraordinary and an occasion that I will remember all my life.”
Melua’s deep sea gig sets record
Katie Melua
The gig took place at the bottom of one of the rig’s legs
Singer Katie Melua has entered the record books by playing the world’s deepest underwater concert.
Melua and her band performed for workers 303 metres below sea level on the Statoil Troll A gas rig in the North Sea.
“This was definitely the most surreal gig I have ever done,” Melua said.
The 22-year-old singer underwent extensive medical tests and survival training in Norway before flying by helicopter to the rig.
“It took nine minutes to go from the main part of the gas platform down to the bottom of the shaft in a lift,” said Melua.
“Giving a concert to the workers there was something really extraordinary and an occasion that I will remember all my life.”
Deep sea set-list
The songs Melua performed included Closest Thing To Crazy and Nine Million Bicycles.
Katie Melua
Melua underwent survival training before the gig
Guinness World Records has confirmed the gig sets a new record.
The concert was held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of gas production on Troll A and was filmed for Norwegian TV channel NRK.
Melua is currently the UK’s biggest-selling female artist.
2003 – Ozzy Osbourne seeks treatment for Parkinson’s Disease-like tremors and postpones a fall European tour, The veteran rock artist says in a statement, “I have been in Boston for the last three weeks, having medical tests for a tremor which has become markedly worse over the last two years.”
2003 – Slipknot bassist Paul Gray is arrested on drug charges after a car accident in Des Moines, Iowa. Gray reportedly ran a red light and collided with another car proceeding through an intersection. The musician’s behavior was erratic, and when police arrived on the scene, they found small amounts of marijuana, a substance that tested positive for cocaine, and two syringes in his Porsche.
1994 – During “Woodstock Weekend,” MTV debuted “The Goods,” its electronic retailing test, offering Woodstock memorabilia otherwise only available to attendees of the events. “The Goods” continued through 1994 with “Beavis and Butt-Head Mega Model Jam” and the “Rolling Stone Voodoo Lounge Tour.
1991 – Enigma went to No.1 for one week on the UK singles chart with ‘Sadness Part One’.
As Enigma is primarily an electronic music production, I assume you had a long standing interest in this area, so what artists influenced you to explore this direction right from the start? Influences, I’d have to say that I’ve always loved synthesisers, these are my toys. I have always been interested in electronic music and I started with the Minimoog and the legendary ones through to the generations of electronic equipment.
Did any artist/s in particular inspire you to pick up those instruments? Not really because I studied concert piano, so I’m a keyboarder all of my life.
So where did the original concept for Enigma derive? It was very simple, because I wanted to listen to a kind of special instrumental music but I couldn’t buy it so I did it by myself.
And incorporating Gregorian chants and eastern instruments? Yeah, it was more a question of ideology because the first record was based on this conflict between sexuality and the church, so it was very simple to use this as a sound logo of the Catholic Church. But I tell you what, sound philosophy yes? The sound is combined with the ideology of the records, but it’s nothing fixed, it’s coming along during the work, becoming clearer and clearer how I can transport my sound vision.
It’s never been contrived? No, I’m doing it very instinctively. Ok, in the back of my mind I am thinking about many things and I have a certain target of where I want to go and where I want to arrive, but how it will be at the end? As I always say, all the roads are going to Rome, which way I choose at the end is a question that is decided during the journey.
Is it true to say that Enigma is a one-man band, and that you’re involved in every aspect of the creation and production yourself? Yeah, it was from the very first day a one-man band; there were only some guest musicians for vocals or for guitars. On the new record I didn’t have the impression that I need some other vocalists, so I sing by myself and there are artificial voices, synthetic voices.
And the artwork on the new album looks quite interesting. It’s beautiful; it’s beautiful.
Yes, this big machine covered in leaves entwining it. The machine is from the British Museum of Marine… or something like that, it’s an old measurement instrument used from the past centuries.
Did you have a hand in designing the artwork? No, no, no, I have an excellent art director, which I’m very happy with.
And regarding lyrical content, there seems to be a lot less than on previous albums? I don’t know – it came how it came, so there’s no concrete messages. I don’t know; it was how it was, but I didn’t have the need to speak more. There’s not too much message behind the lyrical content this time, it’s more like a modern alchemist dream, who is dreaming about other galaxies – between science fiction and a visionary attitude.
How would you say A Posteriori differs from other Enigma albums then? I think the Enigma feeling, the emotion, the bloodline is still here, but transported in a completely different way. The sound and the structure of the songs are different to the albums before and I try to reduce the sound, not to be so bombastic as before. I wanted to go back a little bit to the simplicity of Enigma one.
It sounds quite different to me, perhaps more like a film soundtrack? Yes, but I always said I am doing soundtracks without pictures, the pictures are coming into your mind.
Has it been a struggle breaking away from the loops and samples of the previous Enigma style? It depends on the record you see because I always wanted to have a kind of lead sound, in brackets, lead sound for each album. So for the first one it was Gregorian charts, the second one the ethnic chants, the third was a mixture between both of them. Four was the classic stuff – the Carmina Burana from Carl Orff, fifth had nothing special as a sound leader, but in the new one I think the complete sound is a unit you know? And I think it’s the most compact Enigma album concerning the sound.
So it’s just a natural progression. I have to, because if not I get bored and music is my passion and I do it with all my love and all my energy, and it’s boring to copy myself so I will never do it.
Living in Ibiza, has the club scene there ever had an impact on you? Not at all, since I moved here to Ibiza in 1989 I may have been in a club for 1 hour every 3 years or something.
When Enigma was first successful you were in your early thirties? Yes.
So is there a difference between writing an album before you’ve sold 30 million album and then after? No, not at all. Because I’m doing it like if it’s my first album ever, and also with the same energy and with the same enthusiasm. And I’m happy like a little kid if it sounds how I like it and how I wanted to have it.
And you feel no external pressure to move the project in a particular direction? No pressure at all. And this rhythm of say every two and a half to three years, the albums are reflecting what I want to do in a certain period of my life, but life is not changing so dramatically in one year so that I could have something new. It has to be first born the idea, the basic idea, and then I transform it into music.
When you make music do you ever get excited about fulfilling what you perceive to be the desires of the audience? No, I have no idea what are the desires of my audience. I want to have an influence over everything even the single choices. Even if people say I’m nuts, I don’t care a bit because success is on my side.
When you’re creating a track, what’s the starting point? It’s each time different, one song can be testing a new keyboard; I like a sound and I start to play around and then woof, suddenly I have the base for a song. Other times I have a melody in my mind, other times I have maybe some lyrics, so it’s completely different, there’s no basic formula. There are songs maybe where the drum loop is important for me, and other ones where the drum loop is only like a rhythm machine and nothing important.
“I think the Enigma feeling, the emotion, the bloodline is still here, but transported in a completely different way.”
What are using the studio – are you working increasingly with computer software? Yes, because I reduced completely my huge studio and now I don’t have (laughs), so I made a little transportable studio with a monitoring system with everything included. So it’s reduced basically on the level of a quad processor with all the plug-ins that you have inside and that’s maybe 90% of the record. For the rest, I probably have only two auxiliary synthesisers, the Korg Oasis and the Roland V-Synth XT, but they were used only a little bit. But there are no effect machines or nothing; everything is plug-ins.
Has it been a challenge to switch over, having previously been reliant on hardware? No, basically the decision was very easy for me because I realised I’m using less and less everyday the huge equipment that I had. So I said why the hell have 55 kilometres of cables and they always have a bug somewhere? And it’s reduced now so I can do everything including mastering with my transportable machine. But I tell you, the amount of failures and bugs was reduced by 90%, so I could really make music and not moan with the software (laughs).
So you find that the technology is enhancing the whole experience and allowing your creativity to come to the fore? Exactly, exactly, exactly, so I didn’t have to squeeze my mind in such little ways about technical problems this time – so the decision to reduce the equipment was absolutely correct. But I’m missing nothing, so it’s not that I castrated myself, not at all.
You can tell by listening to A Posteriori that you’re not led by the technology. Without this technology I wouldn’t be able to have this equipment that I always dreamed of having, but I’m not a slave to the technology. The machines have to do what I want!
Unfortunately, with a lot of electronic music nowadays the reverse is often true. Absolutely, that’s the reason why I wanted to make a pure synthesiser album but in a way that does not sound at all like synthesiser music that was done in the past or present. And I think it’s correct to pretend that it sounds different, it’s not sounding so synthetic and so cold, like maybe people are used to if they hear the term electronic music – so the clichι goes completely the other way.
Is there still considerable motivation there for you to continue making many more Enigma albums? I always said, if I have an idea and I have the feeling that I can fulfil my targets – and I can keep the quality level high and have the feeling I’m still good enough for my own baby, then I will do some other records. But I never know. It’s always from one record to the other because I have first of all to be happy with myself and if I can’t do it so there will be no Enigma albums anymore, but I think that number seven will be for sure.
Do you feel the massive success of Enigma has made it difficult to match people’s expectations? No, not at all because it was extremely risky from the very first moment. It was never fulfilling the needs of the market and of the marketing machinery, so it was against a lot from the very first moment. I know, because I’m realist enough to know that the goal is at a very high level to fulfil each time, first of all for myself. It’s difficult to find a new way, not to have the impression that the project is standing still, that something is moving – there has to be an evolution in the project. But now if I hear all the six albums in a row, I must say that the way is fine because each one has its own identity without losing… say, the basic spirit.
Have you ever written an Enigma album that you weren’t entirely happy with, in retrospect? No, all of them are exactly… I couldn’t put them better. And that’s very important for me because then I can’t argue with myself, y’know “oh I miss this or miss that”. For my taste and for what I wanted to reach it was excellent for the period of time when I did it.
And of course many artists have attempted to imitate the Enigma sound? Yes.
I’m sure you’re aware of artists such as Enya and Deep Forest maybe. Do you think they achieved their goals? Phew (laughs). I don’t know if they achieved their goals or not.
I’m sure you’ve heard of Delerium? No.
Never? Never. I listen to music but I tell you, I’m also fixed on what I what I can get on my satellite dish if it’s on MTV or, I don’t know what music radio programmes, and so on. I don’t have the chance to listen to a lot of other music.
You’re so busy writing and recording that you don’t have the patience to listen to anything else? Oh, I have the patience but when I go into the final phase of record production I avoid listening to other things because I don’t want to be inspired – inspired subconsciously that is. I have to do exactly the opposite of what other people are doing. I have to go my own way, at least concerning Enigma.
“I’m not a slave to the technology. The machines have to do what I want!”
1976 – In an interview with the BBC program The Old Grey Whistle Test, Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and manager Peter Grant explain they got the idea to make The Song Remains the Same after using large TV screens at their 1975 Earl’s Court concerts.
1975 – Sean Lennon is born this day in rock history!
Sean Taro Ono Lennon (aka Sean Ono Lennon, born 9 October 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor. He is the son of musicians and peace activists John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
Biography
Early life and education
Sean Lennon was born in New York City on 9 October 1975 (his father’s 35th birthday). Kyoko Chan Cox and Julian Lennon are his half-siblings. After Sean’s birth, John became a house husband, doting on his young son until his murder in 1980. Sean was educated at the exclusive private boarding school Institut Le Rosey in Rolle, Switzerland and earlier at New York’s private Ethical Culture Fieldston School and Dalton. He later attended Columbia University, though only for three semesters before dropping out to focus on his music career.
His debut into the music world came at the age of six, reciting a story on his mother’s 1981 album Season of Glass. From childhood into his teen years Sean continued to collaborate with his mother, contributing vocals and receiving production credit on her solo albums It’s Alright (I See Rainbows), Starpeace and Onobox. At sixteen Sean co-wrote the song “All I Ever Wanted” with Lenny Kravitz for his 1991 album Mama Said. By 1995 Sean had formed the band IMA (with Sam Koppelman and Timo Ellis) to play alongside his mother on her album Rising. Sean also made appearances in film, featured in the cast of Michael Jackson’s 1988 Moonwalker and portraying a teenager experiencing visions of various MC Escher paintings in Sony’s 1990 promotional short-film Infinite Escher.
Cibo Matto and Into The Sun
In 1996 Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda of Cibo Matto were invited by Ono to remix the song “Talking To The Universe” for a Rising remix EP Rising Mixes. They met Sean and invited him to join them on tour as a bass player. This eventually led to Sean contributing to their side-project Butter 08 and to his becoming a member of the group. He continued to play with them on tour, joining them on television and providing bass guitar and vocals on their EP, Super Relax. Through his association with Cibo Matto, Lennon was approached by Adam Yauch (of the Beastie Boys), who expressed an interest in his music and persuaded him to sign a record contract with Grand Royal Records. Regarding Grand Royal, Lennon has said, “I think I found the only label on the planet who doesn’t care who my parents are and what my name is. It’s a good feeling to know that I wouldn’t have gotten the offer if they wouldn’t have liked my songs. That’s pretty rare in the music business!”.
Lennon’s solo début Into the Sun, was released in 1998. A music video for “Home”, a single from the album, was directed by Spike Jonze and enjoyed extended airplay on MTV. The album was produced by fellow Cibo Matto member Yuka Honda, who Lennon claimed was his inspiration for the album. They struck up a personal relationship as well as a creative one.
He would go on to tour (often backed by Cibo Matto) supporting Into The Sun. During this period he would appear on radio programs such as The Howard Stern Show and KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic. He would later recall promoting the album as a bitter experience due to the media focus on his family rather than his own music. In 1999, Sean’s EP Half Horse, Half Musician was released featuring new tracks such as “Heart & Lung” and “Happiness” as well as remixes of songs from Into The Sun. Along with Half Horse Half Musician 1999 saw the release of Cibo Matto’s second album Stereo Type A. Sean stepped out of his traditional role as the group’s bass player, this time playing a much wider range of instruments (such as drums, guitars and synthesizers). Despite being well received Stereo Type A was to be the final Cibo Matto album and the group disbanded.
In 2000 Lennon briefly entered the world of hip hop, contributing vocals to Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Handsome Boy Modeling School and Jurassic 5. In 2001 on national television, Sean performed Beatles classics “This Boy”, “Across The Universe” and “Julia” alongside Robert Schwartzman, Rufus Wainwright and Moby for Come Together: A Night for John Lennon’s Words and Music. In the following years Sean faded out of the spotlight. However he collaborated with various bands and artists as a session musician and producer.
Return and Friendly Fire
After the demise of Grand Royal Records in 2001, Sean signed with Capitol Records (whose parent company EMI has released the vast majority of his father’s musical output, group and solo), yet no solo material surfaced until February 2006, when “Dead Meat” was released as the first single from his new album, Friendly Fire. A promotional trailer for the CD/DVD package of Friendly Fire was leaked online in early 2006. The trailer featured scenes from the film version of the album, a DVD of music videos comprised into a film. The videos were actually screen tests for Coin Locker Babies, another project on which Lennon is working which became a cinematic counterpart to his new album and was featured as a bonus track on the French release of Friendly Fire.
Although again establishing himself as a solo artist, Lennon has continued his work as a session musician and producer, lending his talent to the likes of Dopo Yume, Albert Hammond, Jr. (of The Strokes) and model/singer Irina Lazareanu. With the release of new material and subsequent touring Sean launched a website featuring music, videos and a forum for his fans. Various members of the forum have even crated a fan-made cover album entitled Truth Mask Replica. In a You Tube video released for his website (January, 2008) Lennon has stated that he is working on a new solo album as well.
Musical influence
This section does not cite any references or sources.
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Lennon has said that Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys are major influences in his music and he interviewed Wilson on a limited edition CD entitled Words and Music. During the release of Into The Sun, Sean often talked about his admiration for the Brazilian band Os Mutantes. While in Brazil, Sean performed live with Arnaldo Baptista (bass guitar player and vocalist of Os Mutantes) and later designed the artwork for the Os Mutantes album, Tecnicolor (2000). Lennon has stated that The Beastie Boys album Check Your Head was a source of inspiration, with its varied music styles contained in one album.
Discography
Solo
* Into the Sun (1998)
* Half Horse, Half Musician (1999)
* Friendly Fire (2006)
With Cibo Matto
* Super Relax (1997)
* Stereo Type A (1999)
Film Scores
* Smile for the Camera (2005)
* Friendly Fire (2006)
* The Stranger (2008)
* Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead (2008)
* Tea Fight (2008)
Producer
* Sean Lennon – Half Horse Half Musician (1999)
* Soulfly – Primitive (2000)
* Valentine Original Soundtrack (2001)
* Esthero – Wikked Lil’ Grrrls (2005)
* Sean Lennon – Friendly Fire (2006)
* Irina Lazareanu – Some Place Along the Way (2007)
Filmography
* Moonwalker (1988) – Actor
* Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Season 2, Episode 1 – “When She Was Bad” (1997) – musician, Cibo Matto
* Smile for the Camera (2005) – Original Score, Writer
* Friendly Fire (2006) – Actor, Original Score, Writer
* The Stranger (2008) – Original Score
* Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead (2008) – Original Score
* Tea Fight (2008) – Original Score
* Coin Locker Babies (2008 in production) – Actor, Writer
1965 – The Beatles’ Saturday-morning cartoon series premieres on ABC. It’s canceled in 1969.
The series premiered on ABC on Saturday, September 25, 1965 at 10:30 am. Each show was a half-hour long and consisted of two “adventures” and two sing-a-long songs. Lyrics were flashed on the screen so that viewers could join in. The show was an instant success.
The show was produced by King Features Productions. The voices of the Beatles cartoon characters were supplied by voice actors Lance Percival (Paul and Ringo), and Paul Frees (John and George). Animation was done overseas at TVC of London and Astransa, an Australian company. TVC is also the company that produced the animated movie “Yellow Submarine”. The scripts were relatively easy to develop, as the episodes were based on popular Beatles songs.
The cartoons remained on ABC for three more years, with the final two seasons being reruns of previous episodes. After receiving previously unheard of daytime television ratings in its first season, its second season, however, lost ratings to CBS’s Saturday morning line-up. Apparently The Beatles couldn’t compete with the likes of “Space Ghost”, “Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles”, “Mighty Mouse” and “Mighty Heroes”.
In the fall of 1968 the series was moved to Sunday mornings, where it remained until its final broadcast on September 7, 1969.
There were a total of 39 episodes made. They have been rebroadcast in the past by MTV.
A Word With Richard Jones
I was fortunate enough to get into contact with Richard Jones, and artist from the ARTRANSA studio in Sydney. Richard detailed what he knew about the tunes, a few stories behind the scenes, and what ended up happening to ARTRANSA. Here are his answers to some fairly broad questions:
1. Where did the cartoons originate?
I was never sure. Some attributed the idea to the Beatles themselves, though I suspect that they probably originated in the bowels of King Features during one of their “How do we make more bucks?” meetings.
2. How did I become involved?
At the time I was 18 years old and living in a small country town called Quirindi in northern New South Wales. The only thing I wanted to do was to animate.
I had been pestering ARTRANSA PARK TELEVISION in Sydney about a job for 2 years. Sending letters, gags, drawings, cells made out of plastic shirt box topes, finally I wore them down and they agreed to give me a job for their next television series.
I received a telegram from Graham Sharpe, “Starting Beatles series – need you Sydney next week”.
When I arrived in Sydney, Artransa was putting the finishing touches to the Beetle Baily and Krazy Kat cartoons. I remember it was several months before we started on the Beatles. I punched a hell of a lot of paper cell in that time!
3. Who proposed the idea?
No idea. (Actually it was Al Brodax.)
4. Sources for modelling Beatles characters.
We watched interviews with the Beatles. We had discussion meetings with Abe Goodman as to what he required from us. We watched the film A Hard Days Night. We drew and discussed mannerisms and movement from model sheets supplied from the states. We discussed guitar types and Ringo’s rings. We also did some pencil tests.
5. Procedures for making the cartoons.
As I remember, we worked two animators on a title with an inbetweening. Cel paints were imported from the US, as they were unobtainable here and there had to be colour continuity.
We received storyboards, voice and music tracks from the US.
I do not remember if the tracks were read, direction timed and charted here.
The layout backgrounds commenced
Animation
Inbetweening
Trace and paint in one area, about a dozen girls headed by Zora Janjic.
Oxberry 35mm animation camera, one main operator.
Rushes and reshoots.
Editing, added canned music and FX.
Answer print
Release prints.
6. The cartoons were made at ARTRANSA PARK TELEVISION, French’s Forest. I believe there was some subcontracting to Ron Campbell and Zoran Janjic.
7. The scripts were written and storyboarded in the States by King Features, or associates, subject to Beatle representative approval. I have no proof of this; it is what I was told.
8. We did not have any say in the scripts, they were taken as read by the time we had received them. Sometimes we were allowed to draw incidental characters.
I remember one episode where an animator had drawn a bosomy flying bat lady. There was some discussion about the shape of the offending creature and androgyny was decided on. My friend had to take to his scenes with an eraser. He was not amused.
9. Do I have any favourite episodes?
I don’t remember half the episodes. I guess A HARD DAYS NIGHT. It was my first animation. The song is one that was popular at the time and easily identified with the Beatles.
10. Was there to be four one-hour Beatles specials?
There were always rumours around the studio and I seem to remember one about specials. Abe Goodman was the consummate businessman and everyone’s uncle, he would always tell us about the great year we would have next year. ARTRANSA lived a hand to mouth existence; it needed US specials to survive. There was dissent among animators in America because work came to Australia, this maybe one of the reasons much of the work we were promised did not eventuate.
11. Why didn’t the cartoons last longer?
The cartoons were for the time, I do not think they had any lasting value, apart from collectors like yourself (Darren English). The stories, design and animation were adequate, but crude. As animators, we were all pretty green. I believe as with most animation, it was a case of ‘make a buck while you can’. It was fun while it lasted.
Richards full interview will be published in the upcoming Beatle cartoons book.
BEATLES MONTHLY STORY ON CARTOONS
The Beatles Monthly magazine recently featured a new item on the Beatles cartoons stating that Apple now owns the rights to the series. Apple is looking at releasing a video compilation of the cartoons. The date of this release is unclear.
MOJO STORY ON BEATLES CARTOONS
The October 1996 edition of Mojo magazine included a 40 page Beatles special. Included was an interview with Neil Aspinal, the complete words to Revolution #9, an interview with Ron Nasty (from the Rutles), and an interview with Paul McCartney.
Most importantly, for me anyway, was an article the magazine did on the Beatles Cartoons.
Mojo states that Apple now owns the Copyrights for the series. Fans can only hope that Apple would buy the series so that they could release it in some format.
Tragically someone at Kings features sanctioned the incineration of many of the scripts from the series a few years ago.
Featured within the article are character templates of the Beatles. My scanner is down and out, so if someone can scan this for me, that would be cool!
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