Winnipeg band tops list of Western Canadian Music Awards nominees
Roots quartet Nathan has snagged a leading five nominations for this year's Western Canadian Music Awards, followed closely by rising country music star Shane Yellowbird.
The Winnipeg-based band is up for outstanding roots recording by a duo or group and outstanding independent album for their third disc, Key Principles.
Nominations were announced Wednesday in Moose Jaw, Sask. where the fifth annual Western Canadian Music Awards will be held Oct. 21.
Nathan also has two nods for video of the year and one for songwriter of the year.
"I'm actually really surprised, I was thinking we were old news by now," said lead singer and guitarist Keri Latimer.
"We've just been around a while and it's our third album and I figured people would be starting to get sick of us by now. So it's very nice, it's good to know that we're still making things that people like."
The band's first album, Stranger, was more pop-based and the second, the Juno-nominated Jimson Weed, had a lot more of a roots element to it, Latimer said.
"The third one, we just sort of found a middle ground and I think it suits us the best," she said.
In the video of the year category, Nathan is up against Yellowbird.
The Alberta-born Yellowbird, who captured the rising star award at the Canadian Country Music Awards on Monday, has three nominations: outstanding aboriginal recording, outstanding country recording, and video of the year for his debut album Life is Calling My Name.
Other artists with multiple nominations include Manitoba group Doc Walker and Saskatchewan's Donny Parenteau with two nods each.
Led Zeppelin Takes Flight, For One Night Only
Legendary rock combo Led Zeppelin is reforming, but for one night only. The British band will play a one-off show at London's 22,000-capacity O2 arena on Nov. 26 as part of a tribute to Atlantic Records co-founder and chairman emeritus Ahmet Ertegun, who died last December. The band recorded for Atlantic its entire career.
The Who's Pete Townshend, former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman, Foreigner's Mick Jones and Paolo Nutini will also perform at the event. Profits will benefit the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund, which provides scholarships to universities in the United States, United Kingdom and Ertegun's homeland, Turkey.
Tickets costing £125 ($254) will be allocated on a lottery basis through the Ahmettribute.com web site. Billboard.com understands there are no plans to broadcast or commercially release music from the show.
Putting an end to several months of speculation, it was confirmed on Wednesday during a press conference at the O2 that the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin -- Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones -- would reunite onstage for just the third time in 27 years. The drummer for the evening will be Jason Bonham, son of the band's original drummer John Bonham, who died from a heart attack in 1980.
"This is going to be the largest demand for one show in history," promoter Harvey Goldsmith said today, adding that Zeppelin will play a full two-hour set. "I can only tell from the buzz going around now, but it is really just filtering around the world. I feel there's going to be a huge amount of pressure (on tickets)."
None of the band members, however, were on hand at the media gathering. "I didn't want them to come down today," Goldsmith told Billboard.com. "It's enough that they're committed to doing this show."
Goldsmith also downplayed prospects of a larger Zeppelin reunion. "The band members are getting along really well at the moment, but there's no talk of them making a new record off the back of this," he noted.
Page, Plant and Jones initially reformed with Genesis' Phil Collins and Chic/Power Station sticksman Tony Thompson sharing drum duties for a performance at Live Aid in Philadelphia in 1985. In May 1988, Jason Bonham joined the three originals for another 'one-off" reunion at an Atlantic Records 40th anniversary concert in New York.
Plant and Page teamed in 1994 for an MTV special and subsequently toured globally and released two albums. Jones has also released two solo albums, although his post-Zeppelin work has largely concentrated on production and arranging.
The concert will follow the release of a new Atlantic/Rhino two-disc, 24-track best-of Zeppelin set, "Mothership," due Nov. 13 in the United States.
Jon Stewart will host Academy Awards
LOS ANGELES - Jon Stewart is getting a do-over as Oscar host. America's favorite faux newscaster, who drew mixed reviews for his first stint in 2006, has been picked for a return engagement in February, the film academy announced Wednesday.
"I'm thrilled to be asked to host the Academy Awards for the second time because, as they say, the third time's a charm," Stewart said Wednesday in a statement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
"He did a great job two years ago," Oscar telecast producer Gil Cates told The Associated Press Wednesday. "You need a host who is not afraid of the unexpected, who can stand out and really work a room and deal with a live show. Jon, of course, does that on his show every night."
Stewart, 44, is also "a very, very nice guy and very easy to work with," Cates said.
The 2007 show, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, drew 40.1 million viewers, compared to the 38.9 million who watched when Stewart hosted the previous year. But bringing back Stewart is "not a bad choice," said longtime TV critic David Bianculli of the New York Daily News.
"Stewart has such good will, and the worst mistake people have made — in the Oscars especially — is trying to be a little bit too cold to the room rather than cool enough for the room," he said.
Besides, people don't tune into the Oscars for the host, Bianculli said: "It's up to the films in contention more than anything else."
AP television critic Frazier Moore called Stewart a "TV veteran" who "did a good job last time and will be even more comfortable this time in the role."
"He always brings some needed irreverence and smarts to pretty much anything he does," Moore said. "The Oscars are an often very pretentious, self-important institution, and somebody like Jon Stewart is very useful to help deflate a little of that pomposity."
In his first Oscar gig, the star of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" made jokes about the Iraq war and ribbed Hollywood's elite about their ties to the Democratic Party.
"His usually impeccable blend of puckishness and self-effacement fell flat," an AP review said, adding he was "too deferential, too nice and too obvious in his targets."
Stewart, who also hosted the Grammys in 2001 and 2002, noted the split decision on his own cable TV show the night after the Oscars, saying he had a great time but didn't know how he fared until he saw the reviews.
"I sucked and was great!" he joked.
The 2008 Oscars will take place Feb. 24 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles.
Who hosts the Oscars each year is up to the telecast producer. Cates also produced in 2006, and chose Stewart then. Previous Cates-selected hosts include Steve Martin, Chris Rock and Billy Crystal. Laura Ziskin selected DeGeneres.
"We love them both," Academy president Sid Ganis said of the two most recent Oscar emcees.
So is it because 2008 is an election year that Stewart was chosen?
"The choice was not impacted by political issues," Ganis said. "The choice was impacted by funny issues and he's funny funny. That's the main criteria."
Stewart is "able to communicate with the live, hot-shot audience in the theater," Ganis added, "and of course we know he's great on television."
Cates said he hadn't thought about the election connection in selecting Stewart.
"I'm sure some of that might make its way into the show," Cates said, "although the show is totally nonpartisan."