Rush extends world tour into summer
Having recently completed their highest-grossing tour to date, Canadian prog-rock vets Rush are preparing to hit the road hard again this spring.
The extended "Snakes & Arrows World Tour" will launch April 11 with Rush's first-ever appearance in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and then trek through more than 45 cities across the US and Canada. The itinerary is listed below.
The outing will bring the band to a host of cities it hasn't played in more than a decade, including Winnipeg; New Orleans; Oklahoma City, OK; Reno, NV; Moline, IL; Boise, ID; Austin, TX; and Orlando and Jacksonville, FL
Fan-club presales begin Jan. 22 and American Express cardholders will have access to advance tickets in select cities beginning Jan. 26. Further information is available at Rush's website.
The band continues to support its May release, "Snakes & Arrows," which debuted at No. 3 on The Billboard 200 and became Rush's 11th Top 10 album in the US. A track from the set, "Malignant Narcissism," is up for a Grammy Award in the "Best Rock Instrumental Performance" category.
The album is Rush's first collection of new material since 2002's "Vapor Trails." The rockers are planning to release a live version of "Snakes & Arrows" in April, according to a press release.
April 2008
11 - San Juan, Puerto Rico - Coliseo de Puerto Rico
13 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL - BankAtlantic Center
15 - Orlando, FL - Amway Arena
17 - Jacksonville, FL - Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena
19 - New Orleans, LA - New Orleans Arena
20 - Woodlands, TX - Woodlands Pavilion
23 - Austin, TX - Frank Erwin Center
25 - Dallas, TX - The Music Center at Fair Park
26 - Oklahoma City, OK - Ford Center
29 - Albuquerque, NM - Journal Pavilion
May 2008
1 - Phoenix, AZ - Cricket Wireless Pavilion
3 - Reno, NV - Reno Events Center
4 - Concord, CA - Sleep Train Pavilion
6 - Los Angeles, CA - Nokia Theatre
10 - Las Vegas, NV - Mandalay Bay Events Center
11 - Irvine, CA - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
20 - Moline, IL - iWireless Center
22 - St. Paul, MN - Xcel Energy Center
24 - Winnipeg, Manitoba - MTS Center
25 - Regina, Saskatchewan - Brandt Center
27 - Edmonton, Alberta - Rexall Place
29 - Vancouver, British Columbia - GM Place
31 - George, WA - The Gorge Amphitheatre
June 2008
1 - Ridgefield, WA - Clark County Amphitheatre
3 - Nampa, ID, - Idaho Center
5 - Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
7 - Kansas City, MO - Starlight Theatre
9 - Chicago, IL - United Center
10 - Detroit, MI - Joe Louis Arena
12 - Montreal, Quebec - Bell Center
14 - Philadelphia, PA- Wachovia Center
15 - Mansfield, MA - Tweeter Center
25 - Indianapolis, IN - Verizon Amphitheatre
27 - Milwaukee, WI - Summerfest
28 - Maryland Heights, MO - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre St. Louis
30 - Cincinnati, OH - Riverbend Music Center
July 2008
2 - Burgettstown, PA - Post Gazette Amphitheatre
4 - Atlantic City, NJ - Marc Etess Arena
5 - Saratoga, NY - Saratoga PAC
7 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun
9 - Toronto, Ontario - The Molson Amphitheatre
11 - Manchester, MA - Verizon Wireless Arena
12 - Holmdel, NJ - PNC Bank Arts Center
14 - Wantagh, NY - Nikon at Jones Beach Theater
17 - Hershey, PA - Hersheypark Stadium
19 - Bristow, VA - Nissan Pavilion
20 - Charlotte, NC - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
22 - Atlanta, GA - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park
Mariah Rolls With T-Pain, Dupri On New Album
Mariah Carey has set an April 1 release date for the follow-up to her mega-selling album "The Emancipation of Mimi," which was the biggest selling album of 2005. Dubbed "That Chick," the set features production from Jermaine Dupri, will.i.am and Rodney Jerkins, plus collaborations with the likes of T-Pain and Damian Marley.
The album veers between breezy pop tunes like "Lovin' You Long Time" and the title track, ballads like "Love Story" and urban club bangers like the standout "Migrate."
The latter features T-Pain in a guest slot, providing the counterpoint to Carey's anthemic "single girls on the town" lyrics with the killer line: "Don't wait for me to buy drinks, or you're going to dehydrate."
Other highlights include the frisky R&B of "Touch My Body," with Carey cooing, "If there's a camera up in here then I best not catch this flick on YouTube," and the catchy "OOC" -- short for "out of control." There's also a new sound for Carey on "Cruise Control," which features Marley and sees the artist try her hand at Jamaican patois.
"It's kind of strange but I heard a lot of her records and it sound like the album is better than the last album," Dupri recently told Billboard.
Here is the track list for "That Chick":
"Lovin' You Long Time"
"Touch My Body"
"That Chick"
"Thanx for Nothin'"
"For the Record"
"Migrate"
"Cruise Control"
"Love Story"
"OOC"
"Bye Bye"
"Rock Band," "Guitar Hero" drive digital song sales
DENVER (Billboard) - In the two months since MTV Networks and Harmonix released the music-based videogame "Rock Band," players have purchased and downloaded more than 2.5 million additional songs made available after the game's initial distribution.
Activision, meanwhile, said it has sold more than 5 million new songs via download for "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock" since it began adding downloadable content in early November.
By comparison, it took wireless operator Sprint four months to sell 1 million songs on its over-the-air full-song download service. While new digital music services competing with iTunes and free peer-to-peer services have struggled to convince music fans to pay $1 for a single, downloadable tracks for games like "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" are flying off the digital shelves.
"With such a low installation base, we didn't think that there'd be 2 million songs sold in eight weeks," MTVN Music Group/Logo/Films division president Van Toffler said. "We live in a rough time around music where our audience struggles to pay $20 for a CD but don't hesitate to pay $50 for a game. The notion to pay 99 cents or $1.99 to have a song and repeatedly play with it apparently isn't a big hurdle."
The original "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" games shipped with more than 50 licensed songs each, a mix of master recordings and covers. Since then, "Rock Band" has made new music available every week as either singles or in three-pack bundles that can be added as new playable levels for between 99 cents and $5.50. "Guitar Hero III" did the same, focusing on three-song bundles of new music and music featured in previous versions of the game.
Although MTV is not providing specific numbers, it did say that the majority of the downloaded songs were purchased by Xbox 360 as opposed to PlayStation 3 users. According to the NPD Group, "Rock Band" sold 775,000 copies for the Xbox 360 through the end of 2007, compared with 250,000 on the PS3.
METALLICA SHINES
The game's impact on song sales for participating artists, however, remains unclear. While not providing exact sales figures, MTV did say that the Metallica three-pack of "Ride the Lightning," "Blackened" and "And Justice for All" is the best-selling "Rock Band" download.
According to Nielsen SoundScan data, those same songs saw digital download sales spikes of 31 percent, 39 percent and 48 percent, respectively, for the month after they were featured as a "Rock Band" download, over the previous month.
But those increased sales numbered only in the hundreds, while the "Rock Band" downloads numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Still, label executives are thrilled with the results.
MTVN already has plans to expand its outreach to artists, creating additional game expansions -- as both physical products and downloadable content -- around specific music genres and even artists.
"We are talking to tons of bands, from indie to the most established ... to release not necessarily their entire catalog, but maybe some of their classic albums and do special packages around that," Toffler said.
What's more, there's no reason for "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" to be the only videogames that sell music. It's only a matter of time before other games begin offering new downloadable soundtracks as well.
Titles like the "Madden" football series, the Tony Hawk skateboarding franchise and the venerable "Grand Theft Auto" games are well known for their extensive soundtracks. Offering gamers the ability to replace their soundtracks every few months after the initial release is not only technically possible with today's new-generation consoles, but also on the horizon.
"That's certainly something we're interested in," Electronic Arts worldwide head of music Steve Schnur said earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show.
'Cloverfield' pulls down monster $41M
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The creature-feature "Cloverfield" became the first monster hit released in 2008, debuting with $41 million, a record opening for January, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Paramount's tale of a giant reptile causing chaos in New York City surpassed the $35.9 million premiere weekend of the "Star Wars" special edition in 1997, the previous best for January.
Opening in second-place was 20th Century Fox's romantic comedy "27 Dresses," starring Katherine Heigl as a perpetual bridesmaid. It pulled in $22.4 million.
The weekend's other new wide release, Overture Films' crime comedy "Mad Money," with Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes plotting a Federal Reserve Bank heist, opened at No. 7 with $7.7 million.
Overall business surged, with the top-12 movies taking in $135.3 million, up 39 percent from the same weekend last year.
Featuring a cast of unknowns, "Cloverfield" tells its monster story from the perspective of a partygoer's hand-held video camera, which captures the mayhem as the creature tears through the city.
The film benefited from cryptic marketing that sent young moviegoers on a scavenger hunt to decode clues about the movie's plot, images and even its title, which was not confirmed until shortly before its release.
"As we started it, we asked, how do we draw people in and have them say, `Hey, I want to know more about that. That looked cool, that looked intriguing,'" said Rob Moore, Paramount vice chairman. "Then fortunately, they delivered a movie that was as unique and engaging as people had hoped from the marketing campaign."
The big winners at the previous weekend's truncated Golden Globes had mixed results cashing in on their prizes.
Focus Features' gloomy romance "Atonement," the Globe winner for best drama, expanded into wider release and added $4.8 million to its haul, raising its total to $31.9 million. Business was up slightly from the previous weekend.
Yet the Globes' best musical or comedy winner, Paramount's "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," also added theaters but took in just $2.6 million, down significantly from a weekend earlier. "Sweeney Todd" has taken in $48 million to date.
The televised Globes banquet was canceled because stars planned to boycott the show in support of a strike by the Writers Guild of America, which refused to let its members work on the ceremony. In place of the glitzy Globes show was a hasty news conference rattling off winners' names.
That deprived studios of much of the luster they count on to boost the box office of acclaimed films during awards season. Had the three-hour Globes show aired as usual on NBC, "Atonement," "Sweeney Todd" and other key winners might have done better business this weekend.
"I can only guess, but I think so," said Jack Foley, head of distribution for Focus Features. "I wish it was televised. It's one of the best commercials there is for film."
Following Heigl's success with last summer's hit "Knocked Up," "27 Dresses" solidifies the "Grey's Anatomy" co-star as a big-screen star.
While "Cloverfield" was more a movie for young males, "27 Dresses" sewed up the women's audience, the two films giving Hollywood a huge lift during what is normally a sleepy time for new releases.
"This is almost like a summer weekend," said 20th Century Fox distribution executive Chris Aronson. "It's almost a counter-programming move where you have two pictures aimed squarely, at least initially, at different audiences, and they both succeeded."
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Tuesday.
1. "Cloverfield," $41 million.
2. "27 Dresses," $22.4 million.
3. "The Bucket List," $15.2 million.
4. "Juno," $10.3 million.
5. "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," $8.1 million.
6. "First Sunday," $7.8 million.
7. "Mad Money," $7.7 million.
8. "Alvin and the Chipmunks," $7 million.
9. "I Am Legend," $5.1 million.
10. "Atonement," $4.8 million.
CBC Sports' Don Wittman dies
Don Wittman, synonymous with CBC Sports for nearly a half-century, died early Saturday after a battle with cancer. He was 71.
Wittman passed away in a Winnipeg hospital surrounded by his family.
Don Wittman joined CBC Sports in 1961 and went on to call some of the most vicious, arresting and triumphant moments in Canadian sports history.
"The family wishes to acknowledge the tremendous outpouring of support Don received from friends, colleagues and fans. Thanks to everyone for respecting our privacy at this time," his son, David, said in a statement.
Wittman joined CBC Sports on the first day of 1961 and embarked on a career that saw him do the play-by-play for or report on Grey Cups, Stanley Cups, curling's Brier and Tournament of Hearts, the Canadian Open of golf and several exhilarating, disappointing and grave moments at 18 Summer and Winter Olympics.
"To suggest that Don was versatile does not begin to describe his ability, and his impressive accomplishments," CBC Sports executive director Scott Moore said on Saturday.
To his colleagues, Wittman maintained a balance, renowned for both his sense of humour and dedication.
"On the Saturday mornings of every telecast I worked with Don, I recall him spending a couple of hours talking to players, coaches, writers and broadcasters, gathering as much information as possible, far more than he could ever use on the air," Scott Oake of CBC Sports said. "But, in Don's mind, better that than being unprepared."
Wittman was born in Herbert, Sask., and attended the University of Saskatchewan. He began his broadcasting career in 1955 and worked as a radio news reporter and disc jockey at stations in Saskatoon and North Battleford.
That early background proved invaluable in being able to adjust to the unpredictable nature of live sports, he told the Winnipeg Free Press in 1977.
"I've been accused of having a photographic memory, but it's nothing I've ever been consciously aware of," he said. "I used to adlib a 10-minute sportscast. That was before the strong reliance on VTR [videotape recording] and film. I could give the runs batted in, runs scored, pitchers, the whole thing."
Olympic voice
Wittman would report on a litany of memorable Olympic moments, beginning with the 1964 Innsbruck Games. Wittman interviewed Canadian skier Nancy Greene after she won gold in the 1968 Olympics and said Sandra Schmirler's 1998 gold medal win in curling for Team Canada was one of his favourite moments.
His experiences at the Summer Olympics were undoubtedly characterized by a wider range of human emotion.
His voice appears on perhaps the most replayed sports clip in Canadian history, Ben Johnson's apparent win in the 100-metre sprint at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, a result overturned days later after Johnson tested positive for a steroid. More recently, he expressed the shock so many viewers felt when favourite Perdita Felicien crashed into the first hurdle at the 2004 Athens Games.
Covering a calamity more sobering than any sporting event could ever be, Wittman was near the scene in Munich in 1972 after gunmen attacked and held hostage members of Israel's Olympic team, with 11 eventually killed.
During the standoff, Wittman and producer Bob Moir crawled under a fence to get into the Olympic Village and the evacuated Canadian quarters. They were positioned directly across a courtyard from the Israeli dormitory.
There were plenty of joyous Summer Olympic moments, of course, that Wittman left his indelible mark on. He deemed Donovan Bailey's gold medal in the 100m and the Canadian men's 4X100 sprint gold days later at the 1996 Atlanta Games as highlights of his career.
Part of Canadiana
Wittman played a huge part in broadcasting the most distinctly Canadian of sports.
He covered his first Grey Cup in 1961 alongside Steve Douglas and Ted Reynolds, and went on to call an amazing 36 more. Wittman ranked Winnipeg's 1961 overtime win and Saskatchewan ending its 23-year championship drought in 1989 atop his list.
He recalled the 1961 Brier in Calgary as the first national event he covered for CBC Sports, and he would be at 30 more by the time he was inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame in 2003.
Wittman joined Hockey Night in Canada in 1979 and continued to work on the program into this season. Based in his hometown of Winnipeg, he came on board as the Jets entered the NHL and would report firsthand as the Battle of Alberta between the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames heated up.
He was also there as CBC Sports helped increase the profile of the world junior hockey championship, calling the infamous 1987 brawl between Canada and Russia, the 20th anniversary of which took place on Jan. 4.
Wittman would be best known late in his career for his work on track and field with colleagues such as Geoff Gowan and Michael Smith. He was present for all but one world track and field championships since 1983 and at numerous Commonwealth and Pan American Games.
Versatility unmatched
He was still up for new challenges, however, calling Canadian Open tennis for the first time in 2004. It joined a list of sports that also included baseball, basketball and even cricket, his versatility only rivalled by former CBC and CTV broadcaster Don Chevrier, who died at his Florida home on Dec. 17.
Wittman, a two-time ACTRA award winner, was also a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and Manitoba’s provincial Hall of Fame.
Wittman was inducted into the new CBC Sports Hall of Fame on Jan. 9 in front of family, friends and colleagues in Winnipeg.
In addition to his son, Wittman is survived by his wife, Judy, and two daughters, Karen and Kristen.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
'Newhart' Actress Pleshette Has Died
LOS ANGELES - Suzanne Pleshette, the husky-voiced star best known for her role as Bob Newhart's sardonic wife on television's long-running "The Bob Newhart Show," has died at age 70.
Pleshette, whose career included roles in such films as Hitchcock's "The Birds" and in Broadway plays including "The Miracle Worker," died of respiratory failure Saturday evening at her Los Angeles home, said her attorney Robert Finkelstein, also a family friend.
Pleshette underwent chemotherapy for lung cancer in 2006.
"The Bob Newhart Show, a hit throughout its six-year run, starred comedian Newhart as a Chicago psychiatrist surrounded by eccentric patients. Pleshette provided the voice of reason.
Four years after the show ended in 1978, Newhart went on to the equally successful "Newhart" series in which he was the proprietor of a New England inn populated by more eccentrics. When that show ended in 1990, Pleshette reprised her role — from the first show — in one of the most clever final episodes in TV history.
It had Newhart waking up in the bedroom of his "The Bob Newhart Show" home with Pleshette at his side. He went on to tell her of the crazy dream he'd just had of running an inn filled with eccentrics.
"If I'm in Timbuktu, I'll fly home to do that," Pleshette said of her reaction when Newhart told her how he was thinking of ending the show.
Born Jan. 31, 1937, in New York City, Pleshette began her career as a stage actress after attending the city's High School of the Performing Arts and studying at its Neighborhood Playhouse. She was often picked for roles because of her beauty and her throaty voice.
"When I was 4," she told an interviewer in 1994, "I was answering the phone, and (the callers) thought I was my father. So I often got quirky roles because I was never the conventional ingenue."
She met her future husband, Tom Poston, when they appeared together in the 1959 Broadway comedy "The Golden Fleecing," but didn't marry him until more than 40 years later.
Although the two had a brief fling, they went on to marry others. By 2000 both were widowed and they got back together, marrying the following year.
"He was such a wonderful man. He had fun every day of his life," Pleshette said after Poston died in April 2007.
Among her other Broadway roles was replacing Anne Bancroft in "The Miracle Worker," the 1959 drama about Helen Keller, in New York and on the road.
Meanwhile, she had launched her film career with Jerry Lewis in 1958 in "The Geisha Boy." She went on to appear in numerous television shows, including "Have Gun, Will Travel," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Playhouse 90" and "Naked City."
By the early 1960s, Pleshette attracted a teenage following with her youthful roles in such films as "Rome Adventure," "Fate Is the Hunter," "Youngblood Hawke" and "A Distant Trumpet."
She married fellow teen favorite Troy Donahue, her co-star in "Rome Adventure," in 1964 but the union lasted less than a year. She was married to Texas oilman Tim Gallagher from 1968 until his death in 2000.
Pleshette matured in such films as Hitchcock's "The Birds" and the Disney comedies "The Ugly Dachshund," "Blackbeard's Ghost" and "The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin." Over the years, she also had a busy career in TV movies, including playing the title role in 1990's "Leona Helmsley, the Queen of Mean."
More recently, she appeared in several episodes of the TV sitcoms "Will & Grace" and "8 Simple Rules ... For Dating My Teenage Daughter."
In a 1999 interview, Pleshette observed that being an actress was more important than being a star.
"I'm an actress, and that's why I'm still here," she said. "Anybody who has the illusion that you can have a career as long as I have and be a star is kidding themselves."