http://uk.news.launch.yahoo.com/dyna/artic...amp;e=l_news_dm

 

Kiss star approved of Williams' name-drop

 

(Sunday June 01, 2008 10:30 AM)

 

Kiss star Paul Stanley was flattered British pop star Robbie Williams name-checked his band in a song - but insists he has no plans to return the favour any time soon.

 

Williams - who sang, "Every morning when I wake up, I look like Kiss, but without the make-up" in his 1999 hit Strong - joins a long list of artists who have mentioned the face-painting rockers in their lyrics, including Lenny Kravitz, Weezer, Jimmy Buffett and Kid Rock.

 

And singer/guitarist Stanley insists he was impressed with the British pop star's name-drop, despite Williams' fear the metal rockers would hate the lyric.

 

He says, "I liked it. When I ran into him in Los Angeles, I think he thought I was gonna deck (punch) him. But I liked it.

 

"But, as big as Robbie Williams is, he's not in one of our songs."

 

and I ask myself "why the hell not??" <_< Kiss can sing about Robbie anytime... might mean I actually buy some of their stuff! :lol:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/showbiz/3am/2008/0...89520-20600669/

 

Exclusive: Girls Aloud to go solo as Sarah Harding goes it alone

By 3am 9/06/2008

 

First it was Nadine Coyle. Then Cheryl Cole. And most recently Nicola Roberts.

 

Now Girls Aloud's Sarah Harding is getting in on the act - and working on her first solo project.

 

The 26-year-old singer has recorded a funky track with nu-rave group the Filthy Dukes on the soundtrack of forthcoming Hollywood movie Wild Child.

 

Starring Julia Roberts's look-alike niece, Emma, and co-starring acclaimed Brit actress Natasha Richardson, the film promises to give Sarah's solo career the perfect kickstart.

 

And the move, following Cheryl's recent venture with hip-hop star Will.I.Am on Heartbreaker, is sure to fuel further rumours that the band is ready to call it a day.

 

"It is a really exciting project for Sarah to be involved with," says our mole. "She was chuffed to be approached and recognised as a singer in her own right.

 

"It's a pretty cool album with some big names featured on it including Rihanna, Robbie Williams and Nelly Furtado, so it promises to be a springboard for other things. Sarah's always maintained that she loves Girls Aloud and has no desire for the band to split - but that doesn't mean she's not willing to branch out."

 

Sarah is just the latest of the gang to go for a high-profile side project.

 

Nadine is spending most of her time in LA - she recently set up a Mexican restaurant there and has also bought a candle shop.

 

And Nicola Roberts has brought out her own make-up range for fairs-kinned women.

 

We're just waiting for fifth member Kimberley Walsh to get into the solo spirit...

 

Watch this space.

 

:unsure:

Wonder which Robbie song is on the soundtrack?

just great <_<

For Coldplay, it's another album, but for EMI, is it a leap too far?

 

Tomorrow's release will be a make or break for Guy Hands' £3.2bn takeover

 

Owen Gibson

Wednesday June 11, 2008

The Guardian

 

 

In an industry well used to hype, for once it was no exaggeration when EMI chief Guy Hands hailed it as "the most anticipated album of the year".

Not only does Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends signify that Coldplay are at a stage in their career where they can get away with pretentious album titles, it could also set the tone for whether Hands' controversial £3.2bn takeover of EMI last year ultimately succeeds.

 

The album, released in the UK tomorrow after a marketing campaign that included giving away the first single, Violet Hill, free and promoting a series of free concerts beginning in London on Monday, is being seen as a litmus test for Hands and his vision for a new EMI.

The early signs are good, with 2 million downloads of the single appearing to drive online sales. After featuring the title track in its ads and delivering it immediately to anyone who ordered the album, Coldplay has racked up the biggest ever global pre-release sale on Apple's iTunes music store.

 

Play.com, the online store, has revealed the album is outselling the rest of the top 40 combined.

 

But retailers will be looking beyond the initial surge to whether the record has the "legs" to maintain a high chart position for months to come, appeal to casual record buyers and match X&Y's global 10 million sale.

 

"We're optimistic. We've placed one of our largest ever orders for any album," said HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo. "They are one of the few artists that can actually drive people instore and sales online, and connect with a wider audience."

 

Coldplay, who have a mixture of credibility and mass appeal matched only by U2 that makes them major label gold dust, embody the dilemmas facing Hands and his team as they try to reconfigure the company for the digital age.

 

Does the label or the band and its management claim the credit for taking them from pasty students to A-list stadium fillers? And having reached that point, what value is there for Coldplay in remaining with their label when they could now duplicate most of its functions at a lower cost elsewhere - keeping a greater cut for themselves?

 

'Pay what you like'

 

The fear for major labels is that more of their stars will follow Madonna and Jay-Z, who have signed with concert promoter Live Nation for $120m (£60m) and $150m respectively. At EMI, Paul McCartney left to experiment with a record label operated by Starbucks and Radiohead quit for their groundbreaking "pay what you like" experiment with In Rainbows and a new deal with an independent label.

 

Yet away from the hype a more complex picture is emerging. "Everyone is waiting to see what happens with Madonna and Live Nation. We won't know the answers for a few years, and that will give a lot of people food for thought," said Ben Cardew, at industry title Music Week.

 

In an age when there is more to be made from live performance and licensing than selling records, commentators are asking whether the aims of the band and their label are still aligned.

 

"Ultimately, Coldplay don't really need a record label. It would be a huge blow for EMI if they lose a band like Coldplay, given how much they contribute to the bottom line. But aside from physical distribution, everything else you need you can pretty much build yourself. The big question is around what they do next," said Paul Brindley, managing director of digital music consultancy MusicAlly.

 

While the industry buzzes with rumours that Coldplay have only one more studio album and a greatest hits to deliver on their current deal, it is understood the two sides are tied together for longer. So it must have been with some relief that Hands recently opened Q magazine to read a ringing testimonial for the "new EMI" from the band's guitarist Jonny Buckland. The last album, he said, was "finished under pressure" from the label but this time "they've been f***ing brilliant and we've been feeling like a new band again, rather than a corporate machine".

 

Bank frontman Chris Martin said: "Being on a major label at the moment is like living in your grandparents' house. Everyone knows they need to move out, and they will eventually, but we kind of like our grandmother."

 

All the rhetoric from Hands about behaving less like a "plantation owner", as he was dubbed by the managers of EMI act Robbie Williams, will be tested by the Coldplay campaign.

While not quite copying Radiohead's gambit, the free download was a move that gave the group a direct relationship with 2 million fans. By making streaming tracks from the album available free on MySpace, EMI has helped head off the usual fears of pre-release leaks and piracy.

 

Gamble

 

Radiohead's gamble and other moves, such as the Raconteurs rush-releasing their album to critics and fans alike on the same day, have forced record labels to reconsider the monolithic marketing they attach to big releases.

 

U2 manager Paul McGuinness yesterday became the latest to confirm that the internet had changed the game, although he ruled out following in Radiohead's footsteps for the Irish band's next album, saying the experiment had "to some extent backfired" because too many people still downloaded the album from filesharing sites.

 

As in the film industry, music executives have long pledged to wean themselves off the need to rely on two or three "tentpole" releases a year and spread the risk by investing more intelligently in a range of artists in the same way as independent labels have done.

 

"They are all still geared to the big releases. One vision of the future is that they will be able to invest in artists at a lower level and make a profit on, say, 200,000 sales. At the moment, they might need 1 million just to break even," said Cardew.

 

Another dilemma for the majors is that they are trying to face two directions at once: making as much money as they can from older audiences still buying CDs from artists such as Coldplay, while also trying to sign new acts and develop new models for a generation for whom paying for music is anathema.

 

They are faced with trying to claw back revenues lost to digital piracy and falling CD sales, while attempting to wrest back the credibility with consumers and artists lost in the 1990s thanks to cynical marketing and opaque contracts.

 

Behind the scenes, Hands has overhauled the top team since he paid £2.4bn for EMI last year in a deal worth £3.2bn including debt. One outburst about "lazy" A&R men aside, he has also been less high-profile recently following the outcry that greeted his arrival.

 

As he cut 2,000 jobs, respected figures such as Tony Wadsworth left. And digital gurus such as Douglas Merrill, a former senior Google executive, and Cory Ondrejka, one of the creators of virtual world Second Life, have joined in an effort to accelerate the transition.

 

As they set to work, perhaps they'll be humming the chorus of one of Coldplay's earlier hits, The Scientist: "Nobody said it was easy, no one ever said that it would be this hard."

 

Difficult albums: a history of hype

 

Be Here Now, Oasis The third album by the modestly self-titled biggest band in the world was released amid a flurry of hype in August 1997. It followed success of their first two albums but the release marked the high water mark of their fame; the music failed to match the hype and the band imploded amid fraternal tensions.

 

HIStory, Michael Jackson In an event that encapsulated the hubris of a record industry still riding the CD boom, in 1995 Sony spent a fortune sending a 60ft statue of the singer down the Thames as part of a marketing campaign for his new album. It didn't sink, but Jackson's career soon did.

 

Loveless, My Bloody Valentine According to music business lore, this slice of Scottish indie rock nearly bankrupted Creation records after a torturous two-year recording process presided over by the band's leader Kevin Shields. In the end it didn't sell well but was rapturously received by critics.

 

Chinese Democracy, Guns N Roses This as-yet unreleased album promises to be one of the most hyped moments in music. Since recording began in 1994, it has cost a reputed £13m. Drinks giant Dr Pepper has pledged to give everyone in America a free can of pop if the band releases the record this year.

 

Second Coming, The Stone Roses After huge success with their 1989 self-titled debut, the Manchester indie band wanted to quit small label Silvertone for Geffen. But contractual problems followed and it wasn't until 1994 that the new record finally appeared. It wasn't well received and the band split soon afterwards.

 

 

 

 

Source ...The Guardian UK...

 

This should be really inspiring for Robbie that he was this poor girls inspiration for surviving.

 

 

Incest dungeon girl reunited with family

Story Highlights

Daughter of Austrian incest victim reunited with family, expected to make full recovery

 

Kerstin Fritzl, 19, has spent her entire life in cellar

 

The dungeon was uncovered after she was taken to hospital with illness

 

Josef Fritzl, 73, has allegedly confessed to incestuous relationship with teen's mom

 

(CNN) -- The 19-year-old girl whose hospitalization exposed a shocking Austrian incest case is recovering well, her doctors and a family lawyer said Wednesday.

 

She and other children who were held captive for years are also slowly adapting to modern life, they said.

 

Kerstin Fritzl, who doctors placed in an artificial coma after she was admitted to a hospital in April for multiple organ failure, is now well enough to speak, stand and walk with assistance, her doctors said.

 

The two parts of her family -- those who were locked in a basement, like Kerstin, and those who lived above ground, apparently unaware of the abuse of their mother and siblings -- are getting to know each other again, the doctors and lawyer said.

 

"We are so glad that things have turned out so positively so far," said lawyer Christoph Herbst, who appeared at a news conference at a hotel near Amstetten, west of Vienna, where Kerstin and her family are now recovering. Watch doctors describe what happened when the teen opened her eyes »

 

Kerstin is the oldest daughter of an incestuous relationship between her mother, Elisabeth, 43, and Elisabeth's father, Josef Fritzl, 73, according to police. He is awaiting trial.

 

Police say he confessed to holding Elisabeth captive since 1984 and raping her repeatedly, fathering seven children with her. Six of the children survived.

 

Kerstin fell unconscious in April and Elisabeth persuaded her father that she needed urgent medical attention. Kerstin was admitted to a hospital in Amstetten, where staff grew suspicious and called police, who opened an investigation and uncovered the abuse.

 

Kerstin was suffering from kidney, lung, and liver failure when she arrived at the hospital, said Dr. Albert Reiter, director of the hospital. Doctors were able to turn her health around but they kept her in a coma with artificial respiration for weeks, he said.

 

Doctors started reducing Kerstin's medication May 12, allowing her to emerge from the coma, he said. Three days later, she opened her eyes and smiled at her carers, he said, and doctors were soon able to take the breathing tube from her throat.

 

Her mother was at Kerstin's bedside regularly, and doctors credited that with helping Kerstin's health improve.

 

Sunday, Kerstin finally met with other family members and was able to say hello to them, he said. Kerstin and the rest of the family were also able to move into an apartment at a regional clinic nearby.

 

"It was a special moment where, walking, we were able to support her and cross the threshold into a new house and into a new life," Reiter said.

 

Kerstin and two of her brothers, ages 18 and 5, had spent their entire lives trapped in the cellar with their mother, never seeing daylight. A television was their only contact with the outside world.

 

Doctors said "little novelties" such as seeing a cloud go by are now big events for the former captives.

 

Kerstin has said she wants to see the ocean and go to a concert by Robbie Williams, the British singer, said Dr. Berhold Kepplinger, director of the clinic where the family are now living. He described how excited Kerstin was to hear Robbie Williams songs in her hospital room, and that she was moving around to the music so much that doctors even had to quiet her down.

 

It was then, Kepplinger said, that doctors became confident Kerstin can eventually become fully healthy and develop normally. Her immune system has improved and she is continuing to have physiotherapy, including strengthening exercises, he said.

 

The other three children Josef Fritzl fathered with Elisabeth were taken as infants to live above ground with Fritzl and his wife, who says she had no idea her daughter was being held captive.

 

In recent weeks, the wife and the three children have had several meetings with Kerstin and the others formerly held in the basement. The doctors said all are receiving therapy and are getting to know each other.

 

"It is clear that (the two sides) have a different temper of life," Kepplinger said. "These different ways of living, the two parts of the family, still have to come to some agreement."

 

Still, the entire family is "very happy" to be reunited, Herbst said. "This is an incredible drawing-near to each other. There is incredible joy among them," he said. "It is wonderful to see the way they are living together."

 

He appealed to the public and the media to give the family privacy.

 

There continues to be "big ambivalence" about the "grandfather issue," as Kepplinger called it, and therapists are helping the family members cope with the complicated relationship they have with each other and with Fritzl, who is now behind bars.

This should be really inspiring for Robbie that he was this poor girls inspiration for surviving.

 

Aw !!!!! The poor girl....well I hope that her wish comes true for her someday....... ;)

The story is very touching and I hope gives her her wish some day. :D

 

I am delighted to hear that we will be getting a new Rob track, whether it be a cover or original, it is better than nothing. :D

I read it as being that they were just going to use one of Robbie's songs on the soundtrack ( an existing one I mean). But maybe it is a new one. Dunno. :unsure:

I read it as being that they were just going to use one of Robbie's songs on the soundtrack ( an existing one I mean). But maybe it is a new one. Dunno. :unsure:

 

I am hoping that it is a new one too......or what the name of the fim is.......anyway surely we wil get that ' something' that he promised before the end of the year..... :unsure: :unsure: :unsure: :unsure: :unsure:

A pen set? :unsure:

A pen set? :unsure:

 

Jup .....Have you been getting too much sun girl !!!!!! :o :o :o :o ....a pen set...... :unsure: :unsure: :unsure: :unsure: where did you get that from..... :huh: :huh: you must mean some new songs...... ;) ;) ;) ...Yeah !!! that's it....he did mention B-sides in his blog in January.... :P :P :P :P ...I guess we will get a G-sides next January !!!!Erm ''''''....hold your breath now :P :P :P :P :P :P :P Robbie needs a good slap... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: & then a :wub:

 

 

BTW...what is a knuffel....a friend of mine on myspace sent me one & I do not know what to do with it !!!!!!!! :( :( :( :( :( :(

The Inner Scrotum promised us all a pen set if we renewed. :o

 

 

A Knuffel is a 'Hug' (Dutchie style) :wub:

WHO IS THE FAIREST CELEB OF ALL?

 

 

 

Who is the most photogenic celebrity?

Thursday June 12,2008

By Nicola McCafferty for express.co.uk HOLLYWOOD actors and actresses, leading musicians, catwalk models all have have one thing in common: they never fail to look drop-dead gorgeous.

 

And it's no wonder when their wardrobes are bursting full of the latest labels, they have top stylists on speed-dial and they have personal trainers to force them to the gym at least three times a week.

 

But how do they cope when another good-looking A-lister steals their thunder at a glittering premiere? Do they start an argument in full-view of the TV crews? Do they trip them up on the red carpet?

 

No celebrities are far more dignified when under-attack from a rival starlet.

Instead of throwing their Dom Perignon or smacking a fellow A-lister with their Hermes Brikin bag they release an extra-special celebrity secret weapon - the pose.

 

And stars such as stunning singer Kylie Minogue and Hollywood actors George Clooney and Brad Pitt have all mastered the look designed to make you swoon.

 

They strut up the red-carpet, stop and pose for the camera, making sure their beautiful faces are in position for the perfect pucker and hey presto, the paparazzi go crazy.

 

According to a new survey by Samsung cameras the perfect pout is a celebrities most powerful weapon. Get it right and you'll top the A-list charts.

 

So who are the official Top 10 most photogenic celebrities?

 

1. Kylie Minogue

2. George Clooney

3. Brad Pitt

4. Victoria Beckham

5. Elizabeth Hurley

6. Kate Moss

7. Madonna

8. Cheryl Cole

9. Robbie Williams :heart:

10. Paris Hilton

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Victoria Beckham? :blink:

 

 

Photogenic? :blink: She's a torn faced bint. And I've seen more meat on a butcher's pencil. :puke2:

Top Ten Celebrity Coma Tracks – EVER!

http://www.anorak.co.uk/tabloids/184804.html

 

1. Let Me Entertain You - Robbie Williams

2. Candle In The Wind - Elton John

3. Carrie - Cliff Richard

4. My Heart Will Go On – Celine Dion

5. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da – The Beatles

6. We Didn’t Start the Fire – Billy Joel

7. Cotton Eye Joe – Rednex

8. The Final Countdown – Europe

9. You’re the Inspiration – Chicago

10. I Wanna Know What Love Is - Foreigner

Ok that was a weird one...The top ten coma songs, how morbid :mellow:

I don't understand that List :unsure:

Top Ten Celebrity Coma Tracks – EVER!

http://www.anorak.co.uk/tabloids/184804.html

 

1. Let Me Entertain You - Robbie Williams

2. Candle In The Wind - Elton John

3. Carrie - Cliff Richard

4. My Heart Will Go On – Celine Dion

5. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da – The Beatles

6. We Didn’t Start the Fire – Billy Joel

7. Cotton Eye Joe – Rednex

8. The Final Countdown – Europe

9. You’re the Inspiration – Chicago

10. I Wanna Know What Love Is - Foreigner

 

WTF? Surely LMEY has been mixed up as it would be more suited to a list to get someone OUT of a coma :wacko: It simply does not fit in under most of those boring songs :blink:

WTF? Surely LMEY has been mixed up as it would be more suited to a list to get someone OUT of a coma :wacko: It simply does not fit in under most of those boring songs :blink:

 

Actually I think the point of the list is to show the songs that are supposed to stimulate response rather than bore