Category: Hard To Believe!

Guns N’ Roses to finally release `Democracy’ album
NEW YORK ñ After years of delay, Guns N’ Roses is finally releasing “Chinese Democracy.”
Geffen Records has announced that the band’s eagerly awaited album will be released Nov. 23 at Best Buy stores and the retail chain’s Web site.
“Chinese Democracy” is the first album of new Guns N’ Roses material since 1991’s “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II.”
The band, fronted by Axl Rose, has sold 90 million albums and made a splash in the ’80s with the hits “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” “Paradise City” and “Welcome to the Jungle.”
Their 14-track album includes the song “If The World,” which is part of the soundtrack to the recent film “Body of Lies.” The band recently completed a world tour.

Hard Core Logo sequel films ready to rock
Hard Core Logo is set to become a movie franchise.
A sequel to the cult classic will begin shooting early next year with a third instalment to follow shortly thereafter, says director Bruce McDonald.
Plans are afoot for a fourth ó maybe even a fifth ó film inspired by a fake Canadian punk band called Hard Core Logo that implodes while on an ill-fated reunion tour in 1996.
Despite the dire ending that marks the original film, the possibilities for sequels are endless, McDonald insists.
“We’ve got a little juggernaut lined up,” McDonald says from his downtown office while taking a break from editing his current project, Pontypool.
“You look at Planet of the Apes ó they squeezed five (films) out of that. And Saw is up to five now and Rocky is probably up to seven, so we’re thinking, ‘Well, why not build our own little army?’ ”
McDonald isn’t about to reveal how the film’s hero, Joe Dick, played by Hugh Dillon, comes back from the dead, but says “it’s quite cleverly worked out and it’s very satisfying.”
He says he wants shooting to take place in January and February for Hard Core Logo II: Still Hard. The story picks up about 10 years after the original left off, with the film sticking to a mockumentary style.
Part three ó tentatively titled Hard Core Logo: 45s (as in the gun, someone’s age and those vinyl records) ó will be shot more in a straight-up feature style and picks up roughly six months later. It was written by Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor.
No. 4 centres on the 17-year-old daughters of Joe Dick and Billy Talent, who are in high school and have a band called Sex Chimes. This one is written by Fubar co-writer/star Paul Spence.
McDonald even muses about a fifth film, which he suggests could throw back to a 1981 version of the band, touring with the Dead Kennedys and X.
McDonald says shooting depends on when he can snag Dillon, now starring on the police series Flashpoint, which was picked up for a second season.
Meanwhile, Callum Keith Rennie, who played fame-hungry guitarist Billy Talent, has been busy shooting 10 episodes of the David Duchovny series, Californication.
“You just hope to God you can kind of secure everybody and everybody’s available at the right time. This is probably the biggest challenge,” McDonald says.
McDonald says the sequel also reunites John Pyper-Ferguson as bassist John Oxenberger, Bernie Coulson as drummer Pipefitter and Julian Richings as the band’s mentor, Bucky Haight.
And like the original, some rock’n’ roll cameos are planned. McDonald says they include punk veteran Henry Rollins, British DJ and musician Don Letts and Canadian rockers Billy Talent, who turn up as a band being managed by Rennie’s character.
McDonald says the real-life Billy Talent were hard core fans of the film, and sent him backstage passes to an arena show last year as thanks for inspiring the group’s name.
“It’s a real kick, you know, when you kind of weirdly become a part of the zeitgeist or the things that you make are travelling on other roads and making other things click,” he says.
It would seem the time is ripe for a sequel. Maybe even four.
Earlier this month at a revue theatre, fans held a Hard Core Logo tribute night featuring a screening, a Q&A with McDonald and others involved in the film, and a live cover band. Fans were invited to sing along to the soundtrack and McDonald says he was astounded by how many actually knew the words to songs like Son of a Bitch to the Core and Edmonton Block Heater.
“We were just kind of floored at the great embrace,” he says of the film, which debuted as an underground indie but over the years has picked up a mountain of fans including director Quentin Tarantino, who picked up the U.S. distribution rights.
“It’s been a slow rolling thunder from the premiere and because of the life on DVD and people passing it around amongst themselves and sending it to friends in Germany and Alabama,” McDonald says.
“It’s developed its own little mythologies and so we want to do the fans proud and make a kick-ass follow-up.”
“We’re very proud of the first movie and we want to do more than just exploit it, we want to kind of make something brand new that is sort of inspired by it. I have sort of mixed feelings sometimes, you’re not quite sure if you should be digging up corpses and walking them around…but it’s good. It feels like the right time.”

‘Indiana Jones’ star LeBeouf arrested for DUI
LOS ANGELES (AP) ó Officers in Los Angeles say “Indiana Jones” co-star Shia LaBeouf has been arrested for drunk driving following an early morning car accident in Hollywood.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. S. Wolf says LaBeouf was the driver of a vehicle that was involved in a 3 a.m. collision.
LeBeouf and his passenger were injured, as was the other driver. Wolf said he didn’t know the extent of their injuries.
Wolf says officers at the scene Sunday morning reported it was clear to them that LaBeouf was intoxicated.
Wolf says it is unknown whether LaBeouf will face felony or misdemeanor charges.

Fiddler MacIsaac offers half of future revenues to winning eBay bidder
Fiddler Ashley MacIsaac, as known for his attention-seeking stunts as his musical talents, has launched an online auction to sell half of his future revenue.
In an eBay listing, the 33-year-old musician says he’ll share 50 per cent of his future receipts with a winning bidder until the day he dies.
The deal also includes a concert a year for the next decade, located wherever the winner chooses.
As of Wednesday afternoon, one anonymous eBay account holder has met MacIsaac’s starting bid of $1.5 million. The auction ends July 7.
The Cape Breton-born, Toronto-based fiddler is reportedly working on a new album.
Considered a musical prodigy since his childhood, MacIsaac rose to fame in the mid-1990s for mixing contemporary rock ‘n’ roll elements with traditional Celtic music.
His genre-smashing album Hi, How Are You Today? became a Canadian and international hit, with the single Sleepy Maggie climbing Top 10 charts around the world. However, his musical achievements were soon overshadowed by his eccentric behaviour as well as drug problems.
The bad-boy musician began courting controversy, including in an incident where he kicked up his kilt and exposed his genitals during an appearance on Late Night With Conan O’Brien, and after talking in an interview about his sex life with an underage boyfriend.
The outlandish behaviour eventually extended to concerts as well, including several New Year’s gigs in 2000 where he launched into profanity-laced tirades directed at the audience. At one point, he joked about declaring bankruptcy ó something that came true in spring 2000.
In recent years, he has toyed with a bid to represent Dartmouth, N.S., as an Independent member of Parliament (he later withdrew his plans); briefly ran for leadership of the federal Liberal Party (he dropped out after a few months); and declared he was planning a same-sex wedding ceremony in Calgary to protest Alberta’s opposition to gay marriage (he and his partner eventually married onstage during an East Coast Music Awards concert in Halifax in 2007).
“A lot of things I still say today aren’t true about me. I say stuff to media that I’ll make up just to see if they’ll print it,” MacIsaac once told CBC-TV’s biography series Life and Times.
“I’ve had some public issues that people have read about, whether it was drugs or money, but that’s the persona.”

CTV purchases The Hockey Theme
CTV Inc. has acquired the rights to The Hockey Theme in perpetuity, the network announced Monday.
The agreement was reached with Copyright Music & Visuals, which was unable to renew a deal with CBC Sports.
CBC Sports executive director Scott Moore said he was disappointed but not surprised the song was shopped elsewhere.
“The two sides were so far apart and there was so much bad blood that we knew a deal would be difficult,” he said. “The reality is it takes two sides to do a deal and we tried everything we could to do a deal.
“We offered arbitration, mediation ó we offered to meet their price. On Friday, when it came right down to it, we never got a response from them on our latest offer and find out, in the meantime, they appeared to be negotiating with CTV.”
Moore said CBC had negotiated for 14 months but to no avail, and that the agency was asking for $2.5 million to $3 million for use in perpetuity.
“If they got that from CTV, we would never have been able to get there,” Moore told CBC Newsworld. “It is not a responsible price for us.
“If that is the price CTV wants to pay, it won’t be the first time nor will it be the last time, probably, that they outbid us for something. They have a lot more profits than we do.”
The song had been used on Hockey Night in Canada since 1968.
“Hockey is a game, it’s not a song,” Moore said. “We have the No. 1 sports property in Canada.
“I don’t expect one less viewer to tune in on Saturday to watch Hockey Night in Canada. They will continue to watch their favourite team.”
According to a release, CTV said it agreed to a deal with Copyright Music & Visuals after Friday’s deadline with CBC passed.
The agency represents the song’s composer, Dolores Claman, who was born in Vancouver.
“The song has a long and storied history in Canadian sports, and has become ingrained in the hearts and minds of hockey fans across the country. It is an iconic tune, embraced by Canadians everywhere, and we felt it was imperative to save it,” said Rick Brace of CTV Inc.
Moore said he was surprised a rival network would purchase something so inextricably linked to the Hockey Night brand.
“It’s a constant commercial for our network,” he said.
Lawsuit complicated negotiations
Earlier on Monday, CBC Sports had said it planned to bring in noted sports and entertainment lawyer Gord Kirke in a last-ditch effort to bring about a mediated resolution.
Complicating the bid for a settlement was an outstanding lawsuit filed against the CBC in late 2004 surrounding its use for ringtones and downloads.
Moore said CBC wanted to resolve that issue along with the song’s future use, but that representatives for Claman wanted to keep them separate.
Claman, 80, has written about 2,000 jingles over her career, including the Ontario theme A Place to Stand, which she co-wrote with her husband, Richard Morris.
“I am very moved by how so many Canadians have taken the hockey theme to heart. We are so pleased the song has found a new home,” said Claman, who now resides in Britain.
Before Kirke’s involvement was announced, CBC Sports announced plans to launch a new national contest in conjunction with Nettwerk Music Group to find a new theme song.
Canadians will be invited to write and record an original song for Hockey Night in Canada, with fans and a jury of experts to choose the best new composition.
“I think it’ll help us get a new demographic,” Moore said. “The theme that we had was a great theme. [But] it was 39 years old. Maybe it’s time for something else.”
The son of Stompin’ Tom Connors said Monday his father is open to licensing his famed hockey song to CBC as a replacement.
“If they want to use The Hockey Song, it’s a good song, whether Tom sings it or not,” Tom Connors Jr. said. “There’s other versions out there.
“Even if they wanted to commission some other band, like a big [name] band if they wanted to do more of a Hockey Night theme, everything is open for negotiations, of course. That’s the business we’re in.”

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s ashes stolen
Kurt Cobain’s ashes have apparently been stolen.
According to the News Of The World, the Nirvana frontman’s remains ñ the location of which has previously been kept secret ñ were taken from the Los Angeles home of his widow Courtney Love.
The ashes were said to have been kept in a “pink teddy bear-shaped bag along with a lock of his hair” and were taken with some jewellery and clothes.
Love is quoted by the paper as saying: “I can’t believe anyone would take Kurt’s ashes from me. I find it disgusting and right now I’m suicidal. If I don’t get them back I don’t know what I’ll do.”
Some of the Nirvana frontman’s ashes were previously scattered near his home in Washington State and some at a New York Buddhist temple, with his widow retaining the rest.
She added: “They were all I had left of my husband. I used to take them everywhere with me just so I could feel Kurt was still with me. Now it feels like I have lost him all over again.”

Large fire devours movie sets at Universal Studios
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – A large fire raged on a back lot at Universal Studios on Sunday, devouring several movie sets and the theme park’s King Kong attraction, officials said.
The King Kong exhibit is a stop on the studio’s tram tour where the giant ape bellows at passengers and artificial banana scent fills the area, studio spokesman Eliot Sekuler said.
Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Daryl Jacobs said at least one building had burned and as many as three blocks of movie facades were destroyed.
Two mock New York and New England streets used for movie making and tourist displays were “a total loss,” he said.
Though the fire was contained, it was still raging, Jacobs said.
The blaze broke out just before dawn on a sound stage at the 400-acre property, fire Capt. Frank Reynoso said. There was at least one explosion.
A thick column of smoke rose thousands of feet into the air and for a time helicopters swept in to drop water.
More than 100 firefighters were trying to prevent the flames from spreading to nearby brush, Reynoso said. One firefighter was hospitalized for unspecified injuries.
Sekuler said the theme park would open Sunday, though the studio tour would not go to the King Kong part of the attraction. He said a commercial shoot was going on when the fire broke out. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Universal Studios is located nine miles north of downtown Los Angeles that has thrill rides and a back lot where movies and television shows are filmed.
Some of the more familiar attractions on the back lot are the clock tower from the “Back To The Future” movies and the house featured in “Psycho.”
Scenes from several blockbuster films and television shows have been filmed at the studios, including “War of the Worlds,” “When Harry met Sally” and “Scrubs.”

Dinner with Pamela Anderson for highest charity bid
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – How much would you pay to have dinner with Pamela Anderson?
The former “Baywatch” star is offering herself as a dinner guest to the highest bidder at an auction in Abu Dhabi on Saturday for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Anderson, 40, will be flying out to Abu Dhabi as the big attraction at the fund-raiser. The United Arab Emirates branch of the international foundation is hoping to make the wishes of 39 terminally ill children come true.
“We are planning to have a lot of fun and make a lot of money for the cause,” the Canadian-born actress said in a statement on Wednesday.

BBC: Hell’s Angels sought to kill Jagger
LONDON – Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger escaped an assassination plot hatched in 1969 by the Hells Angels, a new British Broadcasting Corp. documentary has claimed.
A program to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Monday says the rock star was the target of the plot following a purported dispute with the motorcycle gang over concert security.
Jagger had vowed not to use Hells Angel members as bouncers following the death in December 1969 of an 18-year-old fan at a notorious free performance at Altamont Speedway in Northern California.
In return, gang members hatched a plan to kill Jagger at his holiday home in Long Island, New York, the BBC claimed.
“The Hells Angels were so angered by Jagger’s treatment of them that they decided to kill him,” Tom Mangold, the presenter of the program, was quoted as telling Britain’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
He said the plan was disclosed during an interview with Mark Young, a former FBI officer, for the BBC’s “The FBI at 100” documentary.
Mangold said the men tried to reach Jagger by sea. “The boat was hit by a storm and all of the men were thrown overboard,” he was quoted as saying. They all survived but made no other attempt on his life, Mangold said.
It was not clear whether Jagger was ever informed of the alleged plot against him.
LD Communications, Jagger’s publicists in Britain, did not immediately return calls requesting comment.
The Hells Angels have always denied any connection with the Altamont Speedway killing.

Rock band Triumph reunites
NEW YORK – The rock band Triumph is reuniting, but you’ll have to go overseas to see them.
Rik Emmett, Mike Levine and Gil More will reunite for the first time in two decades at the Sweden Rock Festival outside Solvesborg, Sweden, in June.
An organizer of the festival says they jumped at getting Triumph to play at the festival after the band was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame and some of the members mentioned they might enjoy doing something together someday.
Triumph was known for songs like “Magic Power,” “A World of Fantasy” and “Somebody’s Out There.”