Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
Elvis Presley’s Dirty Underwear Could Fetch $16,000 At Auction
When it comes to Elvis Presley souvenirs, the following shows that one collector’s ewww is another’s treasure.
A pair of soiled underwear worn by Presley under his white jumpsuit — and not washed afterward — is expected to fetch $16,000 (10,000 pounds) at an auction in England next month, Metro UK and other outlets reported. But Omega Auctions’ website, which displays the item, put the estimate between $11,000 and $14,000 as of Monday afternoon.
As for their condition, let’s just say the fuller-cut jockey-style briefs look as if the King did more shaking on stage than in the bathroom. There appears to be other tell-tale signs of potty neglect as well. He wore the skivvies during a concert in 1977, and were obtained from the estate of his dad, Vernon Presley,, according to reports.
The BBC wrote that the underwear wasn’t supposed to show any lines beneath his iconic white jumpsuit. The undies are framed for suitable display.
The auction of The King’s memorabilia will take place in Stockport, Greater Manchester, and will include an Elvis-annotated bible and home movies.
If you can’t get enough of Presley’s dirty laundry, the auction will be web-broadcast by Omega Auctions website on Sept. 8, the BBC reported.
Elvis memorabilia with less yuck factor has done well over the years. One of his belts once went for $66,000, MSN reported, and a pill bottle fetched $800.
via Elvis Presley’s Dirty Underwear Could Fetch $16,000 At Auction.
Hard Rock Calling 2012: England a ‘police state’, says Bruce Springsteen guitarist – Telegraph
Steven Van Zandt, a guitarist in Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street Band, has accused England of becoming “police state” after “The Boss” and Sir Paul McCartney were silenced for breaching a council curfew at Hard Rock Calling.
via Hard Rock Calling 2012: England a ‘police state’, says Bruce Springsteen guitarist – Telegraph.
Minister bursts into song on TV | Orange UK
An Australian government minister shocked journalists by bursting into song during a live television interview.
Craig Emerson, the minister for trade and competitiveness, was defending his party’s controversial carbon tax.
When asked to comment on the impact of the tax on the mining town of Whyalla, he burst staged his song and dance routine.
To a prepared backing track, he launched into a rendition of 1975 song Horror Movie by Australian band Skyhooks, complete with is own self-styled lyrics and dance moves.
BBC News – Greg Ham, Men At Work flute player, ‘found dead’
Men At Work flautist Greg Ham has been found dead at his Melbourne home, according to Australian reports.The 58-year-old will be remembered for playing the famous flute riff from the band’s biggest hit, Down Under.Two friends found the body. They became concerned about Ham’s well-being having not heard from him for some time.Local authorities have not confirmed the man’s identity. A crime scene has been established and the cause of death is being investigated.”Because of the early stages of our investigation, we’re not prepared to go into the exact details of what has occurred,’ Detective Senior Sergeant Shane O’Connell told reporters.
via BBC News – Greg Ham, Men At Work flute player, ‘found dead’.
Piracy cut in half in France, yet music and movie revenues fell | Techi.com
France made waves in the P2P industry by implementing a controversial graduated response program in 2010 that was designed to reduce the amount of illegal downloads by establishing progressively-harsher penalties on file sharers. The results were strong, as shown in Hadopi’s report, with file-sharing activities traffic slashed by two-thirds in 2011. However, the goal of increasing revenues in the French music and movie industries did not materialize and revenues fell in both industries.
The French music market fell 3.9% in 2011 while the video market fell 2.7%.
As Ernesto of TorrentFreak says, “If we follow the logic employed by the anti-piracy lobby during the past decade, this means that piracy is actually boosting sales.”
The declines in revenue were inevitable and will continue as technology makes it less-expensive to be entertained. Legal downloads and streaming services do not generate the revenue nor the profits that DVDs and CDs once did. The obsessive pursuits by governments, lobbyists, and anti-piracy organizations are wastes of energy when the real challenge the industries face are evolutionary. They are simply not adapting fast enough.
Piracy has an effect on music and movie sales in the same way that smoking has an effect on a person’s health. The problem is that the industries have a much bigger problem with understanding the way that their customers operate today and onward into tomorrow. If piracy is like smoking than lack of innovation is like a bullet wound. When you’re getting shot, you don’t take time to quit smoking.
via Piracy cut in half in France, yet music and movie revenues fell | Techi.com.
Jerry Lee Lewis Marries the Ex-Wife of His Underage Ex-Wife’s Brother
Right-wingers concerned with the sanctity of marriage should probably shift their focus from the gays to Jerry Lee Lewis, who recently got married for the seventh time. That in and of itself is shocking, but what’s really unsettling is the family connection.
Remember back in 1957 when a 23-year-old Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin? Myra Gale Brown was the Courtney Stodden of her time. The couple stayed together for 13 years before getting divorced, after which Lewis went on to marry several other people.
Now here’s where his most recent marriage to Judith Brown (note the surname) gets interesting.
You see, Judith Brown is the ex-wife of Rusty Brown, Lewis’ second cousin. And Rusty Brown would be the brother of Myra Gale Brown, the minor-cousin-once-removed whom Lewis married in 1957.
via Jerry Lee Lewis Marries the Ex-Wife of His Underage Ex-Wife’s Brother.
BBC News – Banjo musician Earl Scruggs dies aged 88
Pioneering banjo player Earl Scruggs, who is credited with helping create modern country music, has died aged 88.
The musician died of natural causes at a Nashville hospital on Wednesday, his son Gary said.
Scruggs was known for his unique banjo playing technique, which involved just three fingers. It later became known as “the Scruggs picking style”.
His innovative method can be heard on the theme tune to the 1962 series The Beverly Hillbillies.
Scruggs rose to prominence when Bill Monroe hired him to play in the Blue Grass Boys, one of the defining groups in the bluegrass musical genre.
Hollywood actor and fellow banjo player Steve Martin previously paid tribute to Scruggs in the New Yorker newspaper.
