Danke schoen! Mr. Las Vegas to glitz up Swift Current

The quintessential lounge performer Wayne Newton has been booked to perform at the grand opening of Swift Current's Living Sky Casino.

The entertainer, who has been a staple of the Las Vegas gambling strip for decades, will perform one show on Feb. 24.

Newton, 66, is best known for a string of pop hits in the 1960s, including his signature song, Danke Schoen.

Leah Bragg, marketing manager for the casino, told CBC News that the concert was expected to sell out.

Tickets, which go on sale Feb. 9, cost $100 each.

Newton will be the first act to perform at the casino's new Sky Centre, a 560-seat auditorium attached to the gaming floor.

Bragg said that while the casino has been open since December 2008, Newton's performance will kick off the formal grand opening, which will include a Mardi Gras theme.

The Swift Current casino is part of a chain of venues operated by the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority.

Van Halen to Rock On With Roth

Van Halen's tour with David Lee Roth ended last July with one final triumphant version of "Jump" — but if Eddie Van Halen gets his way, that's not going to be the end of the reunion. "We are a band — it wasn't just a one-off tour we did," says the guitarist, who plans to meet with Roth this summer to play him demos of new songs. "We had a lot of fun on the tour — Dave was a blast. And next time we go out, we're going to have some new stuff, too. I'm looking forward to getting on it." The 75-date tour, which began in September 2007, grossed more than $93 million, making it the most lucrative of the band's career.

June will be a busy month for the Van Halens: Eddie will marry Janie Liszewski, his girlfriend and publicist; and 17-year-old bassist Wolfgang Van Halen ("a permanent part of Van Halen," according to his dad) will graduate with his high school class after taking a year off for the tour. "Wolfie had it the toughest," says Eddie. "He had three or four hours of tutoring every day and then the gig." And after that, Eddie hopes to start recording what could be the band's first new studio album since 1998's Van Halen III (with short-tenured lead singer Gary Cherone) and its first with Roth in 25 years.

"I've got tons of music written, such a variety of stuff," says Eddie, who thinks some of it may surprise fans. "The essence of me is obviously there, and those drums, they're always recognizable. But people expect a certain thing from Van Halen, and this isn't exactly bang-your-head-against-the-wall stuff."

Roth is keeping busy too — he lives part time in New York, where he works as an EMT, an unlikely passion he began pursuing in 2004. His spokeswoman said he couldn't be reached for comment on his future with the band.

At the same time, Eddie is continuing his own side career as an entrepreneur: He just launched a Website, EVHgear.com, where fans can buy replicas of nearly everything he plays and wears, from his signature Wolfgang guitar, which he used on the band's last tour (upgraded over two and a half years to what he calls "NASA quality"), to Converse-style sneakers with his red-white-and-black-striped design, which he's been wearing since the Eighties. "I'm not shoving it down anyone's throat or trying to be a clothing designer," he says. "I just think my tennis shoes are cool, and I love my equipment — everything I put out is exactly identical to what I use."

Ticketmaster Admits Springsteen Sale “Wasn’t Our Finest Hour”

One week after Live Nation’s new ticket service left Phish fans screaming with rage, Ticketmaster’s computer system malfunctioned during a Bruce Springsteen onsale yesterday morning. Fans attempting to buy seats for Springsteen’s Working on a Dream shows in Long Island and New Jersey got error messages during the 9:00 AM sale. “It was an unfortunate computer glitch that happened on our side,” says Ticketmaster spokesperson Albert Lopez. “It wasn’t our finest hour. [The glitch] lasted minutes versus hours. As it was described to me it didn’t have anything to do with high demand. Ticketmaster.com’s network didn’t fail. This was for specific shows. Having said all that, that doesn’t take away from the heartache fans experienced.”

Despite Ticketmaster’s insistence the problem was isolated to three concerts, fans reported receiving the same error code for many East Coast shows. Fans attempting to buy tickets in the crucial early minutes of the onsale got a message saying the system was undergoing “routine maintenance.” Many fans who did manage to load tickets were unable to complete the transaction — though Lopez says that 95 percent of them have been contacted and Ticketmaster is working on completing their purchases when possible. Lopez says that 85 percent of the 200,000 Springsteen tickets sold yesterday came from Ticketmaster.com. Fans attempting to buy to the Nassau Coliseum today are directed to the Ticketmaster owned Ticketsnow.com resale site, that lists 697 tickets ranging up to $1,605 each.

The incident comes just days after Live Nation’s competing ticket service underwent its first significant test, as hordes of Phish fans hit the site to buy tickets to the band’s anxiously awaited comeback tour and experienced technical difficulties. A Live Nation spokesman told Rolling Stone, “At the moment of the onsale, there were 1 million people trying to buy tickets, and that overwhelmed the system for a minute.” Ironically, both Phish and Springsteen will headline 2009’s Bonnaroo Festival. Tickets for the fest go on sale February 7th.

James Franco wins Harvard Hasty Pudding award

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – James Franco, who won recent acclaim for playing both a goofy pot dealer and Harvey Milk's lover, has been named Harvard's Hasty Pudding Man of the Year.

Franco will receive the award at a roast Feb. 13 by the Hasty Pudding — the nation's oldest undergraduate drama troupe.

The 31-year-old actor was nominated for a Golden Globe for his supporting role in "Pineapple Express" and starred opposite Sean Penn in "Milk." He has appeared in TV's "Freaks and Geeks" and the "Spider Man" trilogy and portrayed James Dean in the TNT biopic.

Renee Zellweger will be honored as the Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year on Thursday. Last year's honorees were Christopher Walken and Charlize Theron.

'Guitar Hero: Metallica' Offers New Twists

Several new gameplay twists emerge for the first time on "Guitar Hero: Metallica," which arrives in stores March 29 from Activision.

Players have a double bass option on drums for the difficult and expert levels, which can be enabled by using a splitter and an additional pedal for the kick drum. In addition, all of the songs will be "unlocked" from the beginning of the game as opposed to them not being available until players reach certain levels, as in previous versions of "Guitar Hero."

"It was time to change it up a bit," Neversoft lead designer Alan Flores says. "Guitar Hero: Metallica" will be available for Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2. Aerosmith was the first artist to star in its own version of the game, which was released last summer.

This time around, in Career Mode, instead of taking players through the band's career chronologically like in "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith," gamers take on the role of a band that rocks its way onto a Metallica tour as the opening act, a premise based on a true story as relayed by frontman James Hetfield.

As would be expected with the high-octane music, the game's visuals are rich with pyrotechnics. Metallica also specifically requested that the concert hall views be rendered "in the round," like its most recent arena shows. Venues include the Los Angeles Forum and Moscow's Tushino Airport, where Metallica played before 1.6 million fans in 1991 as part of the Monsters of Rock tour.

There are 28 Metallica classics on "Guitar Hero: Metallica," as well as 21 songs from other bands hand-picked by Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo. Rare live concert videos and vintage show flyers round out the gameplay experience.

Metallica begins a European tour Feb. 25 in Nottingham, England.

Here are the Metallica tracks on "Guitar Hero: Metallica":

"All Nightmare Long"
"Battery"
"Creeping Death"
"Disposable Heroes"
"Dyers Eve"
"Enter Sandman"
"Fade to Black"
"Fight Fire with Fire"
"For Whom the Bell Tolls"
"Frantic"
"Fuel"
"Hit the Lights"
"King Nothing"
"Master of Puppets"
"Mercyful Fate"
"No Leaf Clover"
"Nothing Else Matters"
"One"
"Orion"
"Sad But True"
"Seek and Destroy"
"The Memory Remains"
"The Shortest Straw"
"The Thing That Should Not Be"
"The Unforgiven"
"Welcome Home (Sanitarium)"
"Wherever I May Roam"
"Whiplash"

Here are the non-Metallica tracks on "Guitar Hero: Metallica":

Alice In Chains, "No Excuses"
Bob Seger, "Turn the Page (Live)"
Corrosion of Conformity, "Albatross"
Diamond Head, "Am I Evil?"
Foo Fighters, "Stacked Actors"
Judas Priest, "Hell Bent For Leather"
Kyuss, "Demon Cleaner"
Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Tuesdays Gone"
Machine Head, "Beautiful Mourning"
Mastodon, "Blood and Thunder"
Mercyful Fate, "Evil"
Michael Schenker Group, "Armed and Ready"
Motorhead, "Ace of Spades"
Queen, "Stone Cold Crazy"
Samhain, "Mother of Mercy"
Slayer, "War Ensemble"
Social Distortion, "Mommy's Little Monster (Live)"
Suicidal Tendencies, "War Inside My Head"
System of a Down, "Toxicity"
The Sword, "Black River"
Thin Lizzy, "The Boys Are Back in Town"

The Boss rules album charts

Bruce Springsteen's triumphant Super Bowl performance wasn't the only big showing for the Boss -- he also has the No. 1 album in the land.

His 16th studio effort, "Working on a Dream," shot to the top of the charts this week, selling just under 20,000 copies, according to figures compiled by Nielsen SoundScan.

However, it didn't surpass the first week numbers of his last two albums -- 2007's "Magic" racked up 25,000 in sales, while 2005's "Devils & Dust" came in at 21,000.

The Boss also ruled the No. 1 spot south of the border, selling 224,000 copies of "Working on a Dream" in the U.S.

Back here, Franz Ferdinand's third album "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand" (7,000) came in at No. 2, and Nickelback, who were nominated for 5 Juno Awards on Tuesday, dropped from No. 1 to No. 3 with "Dark Horse" (6,800).

Lady GaGa's "The Fame," Taylor Swift's "Fearless," and Akon's "Freedom" all slipped two positions to No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6, respectively, while the compilation "2009 Grammy Nominees" premiered at No. 7.

Closing out the top 10 was Kings of Leon's "Only By the Night" at No. 8, Beyonce's "I Am... Sasha Fierce" at No. 9, and the "MuchDance 2009" compilation at No. 10.

In the U.S., Taylor Swift came in second, followed by Beyonce in third, Nickelback in fourth, and Kanye West's "808s & Heartbreak" in fifth.

Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique Reissue Out Now

If you're me, the Beastie Boys' sampledelic spazz-rap sophomore LP Paul's Boutique is easily the group's best album ever, made when the Beasties were at the ideal middle ground between the hilariously asshole-ish prankster brats of the License to Ill days and the self-consciously eclectic downtown boho aesthetes they first became on Check Your Head. Paul's Boutique is coming up on its 20th anniversary, and we reported last month that the Boys would be giving the album the reissue treatment it deserves.

Well, they've done it. Physical copies of the Paul's Boutique 20th Anniversary Edition won't be out until February 10, but if you cruise over to the Beasties' site, you can already buy yourself a download or decide how much money you feel like dropping on the various multi-tiered options the group is offering.

If you're seriously balling, you can drop $129.99 on the Commemorative Package, which includes a limited edition eight-foot-long panoramic poster of the fold-out cover art, a limited edition T-shirt, and both vinyl and CD copies of the remastered album, as well as an immediate download.

Broke folks can pay $11.99 for the download itself, which comes in DRM-free 320 kbps and includes "interactive, 3D digital album art" (Which will be what? The Google Earth street-view of the corner on the cover?). For $15.99, there's also a Deluxe Digital Download package, which includes five music videos and (this is actually awesome) a full-album commentary by the boys themselves. Still more options: $18.99 for the CD, $23.99 for the 180-gram vinyl, both of which come with a download of the album. They're also selling T-shirts and stuff like that on the site.

Even if you don't plan on parting with any money over an album you already own, it's worth checking out the Boys' site, which now features all manner of Paul's Boutique-related sillness: videos, photos, stories from fans, a truly difficult and low-tech ping-pong game, and a free download of that audio commentary track. Go nuts.

In other Beastie Boys news, last night, it was announced that they would be playing Bonnaroo. This is their only scheduled show right now.