New wave music impresario Ian Copeland dead at 57
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Ian Copeland, a pioneering booking agent and music promoter credited with helping launch the "new wave" alternative rock movement of the 1970s and '80s with such bands as the Police, the B-52's and R.E.M, has died at age 57, relatives said on Wednesday.
Copeland succumbed to melanoma on Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles where he was surrounded by family members, including younger brother Stewart Copeland, a founder and drummer of the Police, his publicist said.
With the help of older brother Miles, Copeland began his career in show business as a booking agent in London, where he discovered the Scottish funk outfit Average White Band, who made their debut in 1973 opening for Eric Clapton.
Copeland moved in the mid-1970s to Macon, Georgia, to work for the Paragon Agency, which booked tours for popular southern rock acts like Charlie Daniels, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers Band.
But it was Copeland's role in helping brother Miles, founder of the International Records Syndicate (I.R.S.) label, introduce the British band Squeeze to the United States that transformed his career.
The brothers adopted a strategy of building fan support for Squeeze by booking the group on a tour of smaller nightclubs, and successfully repeated that formula to launch other bands, including the Police and the B-52's.
Their work was pivotal in establishing the "club circuit" that helped usher in the punk rock and new wave scenes to the United States.
After the demise of Paragon, Copeland moved to New York and started his own booking agency, Frontier Booking International (F.B.I.), which represented such acts as Adam Ant, the Bangles, R.E.M., nine inch nails, the Go-Go's, UB40, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Oingo Boingo, the Dead Kennedys and the Cure.
The son of a jazz musician turned U.S. intelligence officer, Copeland was born in Damascus, Syria, in the midst of a military coup. As a young man he enlisted in the U.S. Army at the height of the Vietnam War and served in the infantry, earning numerous decorations.
He is survived by his two daughters, brothers Stewart and Miles and a sister, Lorraine, a writer and producer. Memorial plans were pending.
Roth predicts Van Halen comeback
DETROIT (Billboard) - Now that he's lost his radio job, David Lee Roth is seeking gainful employment in another capacity -- as lead singer of Van Halen. Again.
"I see it absolutely as an inevitability," says Roth, who was deposed by CBS Radio in late April as one of Howard Stern's replacements. "There's contact between the two camps, and they have legitimate management; Irv Azoff is part of their loop now.
"To me, it's not rocket surgery. It's very simple to put together. And as far as hurt feelings and water under the dam, like what's-her-name says to what's-her-name at the end of the movie 'Chicago' -- 'So what? It's showbiz!' So I definitely see it happening."
Despite that claim, Roth -- who was Van Halen's singer from 1974-1985 -- acknowledges that he hasn't seen Edward Van Halen "in a couple of years." The last time Roth recorded with Van Halen was for the group's "Best Of Van Halen Volume 1" album in 1996, though there have been periodic rumors ever since.
Roth isn't sitting around while he waits for the call, however. He joins the John Jorgensen bluegrass band for two songs -- "Jump" and "Jamie's Cryin' " -- on "Strummin' With the Devil: The Southern Side of Van Halen," a bluegrass-styled tribute to Van Halen. Roth calls it "a detour" as well as "an interesting return ... Before there was rock 'n' roll, there was me and a single guitar, flat pickin' Doc Watson (songs)." Roth plans to make a number of TV appearances on behalf of the album, which comes out June 6.
Roth is also planning to tour later this summer to play Van Halen hits -- "I'm so proud of that music," he says -- favorites from his solo album and covers. He'll leave the banjos and fiddles at home, though.
"I like to bring out the brass section now and the keyboard players and the singers and so forth," Roth explains. "It's probably a little closer to the Rolling Stones' revue than to the early three-piece power trio. But the demand is amazing; I guess I'm lucky enough to be one of those guys now who can point at the map and say 'Let's go here' -- or, rather, my favorite expression, which is 'Let's follow the sun."'
Cheech says no reunion with Tommy Chong
CONCORD, N.C. - Those rumors about an on-screen reunion of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong? Reefer madness, according to Marin.
The actor — one half of the stoned comedy duo that embodied 1970s and 1980s marijuana humor — said there will be no future joint efforts with Chong.
"DOA," Marin replied when asked about the prospects during a press junket this week for "Cars," the new animated summer offering from Disney and Pixar. In the film, Marin voices Ramon, a vintage low-rider who befriends lead character Lightning McQueen ( Owen Wilson).
"We've tried to do it a bunch of times and we always end up at the same place," Marin said. "All the old animosities resurface."
"You know what?" he added. "I'm real comfortable leaving Cheech & Chong right where it is. I was a big Laurel & Hardy fan when I was a kid. I used to watch them on TV all the time and then one time I saw a Laurel & Hardy film they made when they were a lot older and it creeped me out. I just never wanted to do that."
Marin said breaking into animated films with 1988's "Oliver and Company" helped give his career a second act. He went on to do voices in "FernGully" and "The Lion King," acted in the "Spy Kids" series of children's movies and co-starred on the TV series "Nash Bridges."
"That was always a point of conflict with Tommy and I," Marin said. "I wanted to kind of keep moving and do other stuff and he wanted to stay at that same thing. My natural inclination was to keep moving."
"X-Men" set to "Stand" tall at holiday box office
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "X-Men: The Last Stand," the third and last film in the superhero trilogy, is expected to take the box office crown from "The Da Vinci Code" during the Memorial Day holiday weekend, but will be hard-pressed to match the $85.6 million three-day bow of its 2003 predecessor.
Fox's PG-13 film is debuting in 3,689 theaters, slightly less than the 3,741 in which "X2" debuted during the first weekend in May. Unlike this year, there was precious little competition in the marketplace then. "X2" went on to gross $214.9 million domestically.
Amid mostly positive reviews, the Marvel sci-fi actioner has been tracking strongly for quite some time, attracting a broad age range but skewing slightly younger and more male.
Sony's "Da Vinci Code" debuted a week ago with a sterling $77.1 million, and Paramount's "Over the Hedge," from DreamWorks Animation, parlayed $38.5 million in its opening session. Conventional box office wisdom says they should gross almost as much in the four-day holiday period.
With Brett Ratner taking over as director from Matthew Vaughn, who himself had replaced Bryan Singer, "X3" features returning stars Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, and Famke Janssen. The story follows the battle among mutants when a cure is discovered that would strip them of their powers and make them human.
"X3" will also roll out in most countries overseas, with the notable exceptions of Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan. Last weekend, "Da Vinci" pulled in an international gross of a record $154.7 million.
'Lost' Finale Leaves Viewers Less Lost
NEW YORK (AP) -- As promised, "Lost" viewers were left with plenty to ponder but juicy answers to savor as well, thanks to Wednesday's season finale of the ABC mystical adventure series.
Go no further if you don't want to know what happened (or may have happened).
Roughly two months - or, more accurately, two TV seasons in real time - after Oceanic flight 815 crash-landed by this lost tropical island, viewers learned:
- The sailboat seen at the end of last week's episode belonged to Desmond, who had been found at the start of this season in the hatch when the castaways first made their entrance. Grateful to hand to someone else the weird computer-entry task, Desmond ran away - and set sail in the boat he had arrived in years earlier. But after 2 1/2 weeks on the water, he had gotten nowhere.
"There's no outside world, there's no escape," he wailed, drunk and despondent, when the castaways retrieved him from the sailboat just offshore.
- What may have caused the jetliner's crash: an excessive buildup of electromagnetic energy that Desmond, as the hatch's occupant at the time, failed to properly diffuse.
- Why that numbered sequence (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42) needed to be entered on the keyboard every 108 minutes: To diffuse the powerful buildup safely.
So the audience learned that the button really did need to be pushed, and wasn't a meaningless exercise after all, which became a season-long issue that on the finale fueled a raging argument between Locke (the disillusioned former believer) and Mr. Eko (the fiercely loyal convert to the button-pushing cause). After an explosion in the hatch, they were both unaccounted for.
- Finally, Michael seemed to prove without a doubt that he would sell out his friends to save himself and his son, Walt, who was kidnapped at the end of last season by the Others.
After having been brainwashed by the Others, Michael had gunned down fellow castaways Ana Lucia and Libby a few episodes ago to facilitate the escape of Henry, an "Other" from across the island whom the castaways had been holding captive.
Then - despite the best efforts of Jack and Sayid to outmaneuver him - Michael made good on his plan to deliver Jack, Hurley, Sawyer and Kate to the Others in exchange for getting Walt back.
Hurley was released by the Others with an order to return to camp and warn the rest of the castaways against retaliating.
"But what about my friends?" Hurley protested.
"Your friends are coming home with us," said Henry, the Other who had been held in the hatch.
While Jack, Sawyer and Kate looked on, bound and gagged, Michael and Walt were given a motor boat to make their safe escape.
"My hunch is, you won't say a word to anybody," Henry told Michael as he sent him on his way, "because if you do, people will find out what you did to get your son back."
"Who ARE you people?" asked Michael, voicing the question that has plagued "Lost" viewers all season.
"We're the good guys, Michael," Henry said simply.
Disinclined to argue and at last reunited with Walt, Michael piloted his boat to apparent freedom.
Hoods were pulled over the heads of Jack, Sawyer and Kate. Their safety while in the Others' custody was assured by Henry. But viewers will have to wait until fall to see.
FIRST "24" SPOILER
Just because Jack Bauer is on a slow boat to China, that doesn't mean he'll wind up there.
That's the word from Howard Gordon, executive producer of "24," who acknowledged this week that the challenge of bringing Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) all the way back from China next season would wreak havoc with the suspense series' "real-time" format.
Following the surprise cliff-hanger which had Bauer being shanghaied by Chinese government agents at the conclusion of the season finale of "24" Monday, fans have wondered how Bauer would ever get back to the United States in time to participate in next season's 24-hour adventure, given the great distance between the two countries.
In an interview with the TV trade publication TV Week, Gordon revealed that Bauer won't be trapped in China when the new season begins next January.
"It's just an impractical thing given the real-time constraints because, even by the time we concluded that story, it would take Jack 16 hours - you know, three-quarters of the series - to get back to L.A.," Gordon said, inadvertently revealing that, somehow, Bauer escapes from the Shanghai-bound cargo ship in which he was last seen long before it gets to China.
"Unfortunately, I don't think much of the story will take place in China," Gordon said.
He revealed nothing else about how the next season of "24" will play out. "I just started writing the first [episode] this morning," he said.