January 2005

Coldplay and Nine Inch Nails will headline the sixth Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, to be held April 30-May 1 at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, Calif. The fest will also feature reunion performances by pioneering rock acts Gang Of Four, the Cocteau Twins and Bauhaus, as well as the first live appearance since late 2002 from Weezer.

The first day’s bill will also feature rock acts Wilco (who were originally confirmed last year but forced to cancel while frontman Jeff Tweedy underwent treatment for painkiller addiction), Snow Patrol, Keane, Bloc Party, the Raveonettes, Mercury Rev, Fantomas, Ambulance LTD, the Kills, Secret Machines, Spoon, Razorlight, Radio 4 and Eisley, plus, as first reported here, Doves and Rilo Kiley.

Electronica and hip-hop will be represented on day one by the Chemical Brothers, Sage Francis, Armin Van Buuren, Boom Bip, Jean Grae, Swayzak, M83, Josh Wink, Four Tet and MF Doom, plus the customary DJ set from Jane’s Addiction’s Perry Farrell (as DJ Peretz).

Beyond Nine Inch Nails, New Order, Bright Eyes, the Prodigy, Roni Size, the Faint and the rarely reunited hip-hop duo Black Star (Mos Def and Talib Kweli) are the top attractions on day two. The Arcade Fire, Junkie XL, the Bravery, the Futureheads, Matmos, Kasabian, Autolux and the Fiery Furnaces will also be on hand.

Tickets for Coachella will go on sale Saturday (Feb. 5) via Ticketmaster.

Source billboard.com.

Lou Reed, the Kinks’ Ray Davies and vocalist Antony have joined the lineup for the 15th annual Tibet House benefit concert, to be held Feb. 9 at New York’s Carnegie Hall. They join a bill that already includes the Black Keys, Patti Smith, Trey Anastasio, Nellie McKay, Chocolate Genius, the Drepung Gomang Monks and longtime artistic director/Tibet House VP, composer Philip Glass.

In other news, Reed has unveiled plans for a 21-date European tour, kicking off April 14 in Oporto, Portugal, and wrapping May 13 in Helsinki. The artist has also split with longtime label Reprise and signed a worldwide recording deal with Sanctuary. His final release for Reprise was the 2004 live set “Animal Serenade,” which featured material from his 2003 Edgar Allen Poe-inspired studio album “The Raven.”

Source billboard.com.

The second annual Virgin College Mega Tour (VCMT) will feature Cake as the headliner, with support from British rock quintet Gomez, Billboard.com has learned. The trek is set to begin in early April, with an official announcement expected on Monday (Jan. 31).

Presented by Dentyne Fire & Dentyne Ice, the 20-market tour also feature a daytime village on college campuses that will include an “emerging artist” stage, karaoke booth, contest give-a-ways and the latest games, new product demonstrations and gadgets for the college market.

Last year’s inaugural tour boasted Michelle Branch in the headline spot, with support from Rooney and Joe Firstman, as well as Gavin DeGraw on select dates.

On Monday, Cake will begin a European tour in Dublin that will end Feb. 15 in Tourcoing, France. The band is supporting its latest Columbia album, “Pressure Chief,” which debuted in October at No. 17 on The Billboard 200.

Gomez has just two other dates on its schedule: tomorrow (Jan. 29) in London and March 28 at the East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival in Byron Bay, Australia. The band’s last Hut/Virgin album, “Split the Difference,” opened in June at No. 11 on Billboard’s Top Heatseekers tally.

Here are Cake’s confirmed tour dates:

Jan. 31: Dublin (Vicar Street)
Feb. 1: Glasgow (Garage)
Feb. 2: Manchester, England (Academy)
Feb. 4: London (Astoria)
Feb. 5: Brugge, Belgium (TBD)
Feb. 7: Copenhagen (Vega Musikkenshus)
Feb. 8: Dusseldorf (Zakk)
Feb. 9: Darmstadt, Germany (Central Station)
Feb. 10: Munich (Muffathalle)
Feb. 12: Zurich (X-Tra Limmathaus)
Feb. 13: Dijon, France (La Vapeur)
Feb. 15: Tourcoing, France (Le Grand Mix)

Source billboard.com.

Classic rock trio Cream is reuniting for a four-show run at London’s Royal Albert Hall this spring. The May 2-3, 5-6 shows will constitute guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker’s first on-stage appearances together since Cream’s 1993 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Tickets for the run will go on sale Monday (Jan. 31). Cream’s final shows were held at Albert Hall in 1968.

“Live, Cream was a great, hardworking band — Eric was supreme and Ginger the most musical drummer alive — and those original live albums were very good, probably the best records of their kind up to that point,” Bruce told Billboard in 1997, prior to the release of the boxed set “Those Were the Days.” “But our studio recordings were probably more important, although there you can tell that each one of us had a different idea of what Cream should be.”

Clapton is up for two Grammys at the 47th annual ceremony on Feb. 13: best traditional blues album for his Duck/Reprise set “Me and Mr. Johnson,” and best pop collaboration with vocals for his rendition of the Beatles’ “Something” with Paul McCartney, released on the live album “Concert for George.”

Source billboard.com.

Although Phish is only a memory, group members Trey Anastasio and Mike Gordon have signed on for separate appearances at the fourth Bonnaroo festival, to be held June 10-12 in Manchester, Tenn. Anastasio and his solo band will perform what is billed as a “very special late night show” on a date to be announced, while Gordon will play a set with New York improvisational act the Benevento/Russo Duo.

Other newly confirmed additions to the Bonnaroo lineup are Mouse On Mars, Tea Leaf Green and the Old Crow Medicine Show. Organizers promise additional “major acts” to be added in the weeks ahead.

The Dave Matthews Band, Modest Mouse, Joss Stone, Toots and the Maytals, the Allman Brothers Band and Gov’t Mule lead the list of previously announced performers for Bonnaroo, tickets for which go on-sale tomorrow (Jan. 29) via the event’s official Web site.

This year’s on-sale is a month earlier than the three previous years, which organizers say is a reaction to market conditions. “We felt this would be a year to get out there early,” says Jonathan Mayers of promoter Superfly Presents.

Source billboard.com.

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Copyright 2004 Billboard

Legendary rock drummer Jim Capaldi died today (Jan. 28) after a brief fight with stomach cancer, his publicist said.

The 60-year-old Capaldi, born in England of Italian immigrant parents, died in his sleep at the London Clinic in the early hours with his wife and family at his bedside.

Capaldi, whose driving rock rhythms and songwriting ability helped make groundbreaking band Traffic a household name in the 1960s and ’70s with — among others — Steve Winwood and Dave Mason — also had an illustrious solo career.

“Steve rang me when he heard this morning. He is very upset. They were very close and had plans to record and tour again. He was praying Jim would recover from his illness,” Winwood’s manager Mick Newton said.

Capaldi was inducted with Traffic last spring into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, just five months before being diagnosed with terminal cancer. A reunion tour was in the works but was scotched last August due to Capaldi suffering what at the time was described only as a “severe gastric ulcer.”

When Traffic finally broke up in 1974 after releasing 11 albums, Capaldi busied himself with solo projects. Traffic eventually reformed to tour in 1993-94, and Capaldi toured in 1998 with fellow band founder Mason.

Source billboard.com.