The Specials Pictures

News Ticker: Velvet Revolver, “Grand Theft Auto IV,” The Specials, Bjork

Slash has hinted that even if singer Scott Weiland decides to leave Velvet Revolver, the rest of the band may stick together. “There will be a third album,” Slash said, “We don’t know how or when but the core four guys will continue.” Video game Grand Theft Auto IV will feature a link-up with the Amazon Music Store that will allow players to download tracks from the game’s 150-song soundtrack via an in-game mobile phone. While the soundtrack listing has not yet been released, DJ Green Lantern will have his own radio station. Ska legends the Specials are talking reunion almost thirty years after the original lineup disbanded. “We’re still trying to put dates together,” singer Terry Hall said. “I think it’s taken me 30 years to realize we could do it really well.” Remember that strange Bjork photo we showed you last week? Check out those images in motion in Bjork’s colorful new video for “Wanderlust.” [Photo: Getty]

Published: 2008-03-31 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Afternoon News Roundup

Amy Winehouse Returns to the Stage With the Specials at V Fest

Photo: Ryan/AP Photo Amy Winehouse made a surprise appearance at this weekend’s V Festival in the U.K., taking the stage with ska legends the Specials during their set to perform a medley of the band’s hits. Winehouse’s performance at V marked the first time the troubled “Rehab” singer has appeared onstage in the U.K. since last year’s V Festival, where the crowd booed Winehouse after a poor, problem-plagued performance. Winehouse had much better results this weekend, however, joining the Specia

Published: 2009-08-24 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

MTV Celebrates 20 Years of “Headbangers Ball”

Photo: Samad/AFP/Getty The year was 1988. The first George Bush was elected as President, Kirk Gibson of the Los Angeles Dodgers was limping his way across the bases in the World Series and MTV was airing a show dedicated to heavy metal called Headbangers Ball. Even though their flagstaff hard rock program has been relegated to VJ-less MTV2 status in recent years, MTV will still pay homage to the show that gave metal heads stiff necks two decades ago with a 20th anniversary celebration. Highlighting the festivities is an interview and live performance by Headbangers favorite band, Metallica. Other specials include an Avenged Sevenfold concert from the Long Beach Arena, the premiere of Slipknot’s “Dead Memories” video and a heavy metal panel featuring the show’s past VJs like Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider, Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta and the show’s most memorable host, Riki Rachtmann (who presided over a number of phenomenal video premieres, including the Rock Daily favorite “November Rain”). Still, all that headbanging probably knocked a screw loose inside MTV’s head, as 2008 is actually the 21st anniversary of the show: The first Headbangers Ball aired in April 1987. Then there’s the fact that the show was off the air from 1995 to 2003, but who cares? The party begins on MTV2 on October 20th. Related Stories: • MTV Puts TRL on Hiatus • Talk Show Flashback: Beastie Boys Hang Out on Old, Weird MTV • Backstage at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards

Published: 2008-10-09 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Queens of the Stone Age Team Up With Celeb Chef Anthony Bourdain For Weirdest Holiday Special Ever

If you are Anthony Bourdain, the punk-rock-loving world-renowned chef and star of the hit Travel Channel show No Reservations, sometimes you find yourself in Berlin boozing with Queens of the Stone Age. As the cocktails flow, the conversation morphs from the Ramones to kitsch, and before you know it you’re talking about super-cheesy Christmas variety-show specials in the Bing Crosby-hosts-David Bowie tradition. The result? Last week QOTSA played “Silver Bells” (renamed “Turkey Bells”) for a holiday-themed episode of No Reservations. “We just got a call saying, ‘Hey, we have a weird idea,’” frontman Josh Homme told us. “So when people come to us with that sort of a statement we are all ears.” Here’s the plot: While Bourdain cooks a traditional holiday feast at his Connecticut home, the Queens are rocking tracks including “Sick, Sick, Sick,” “3’s & 7’s” and “Make It Wit Chu” at an ungodly volume in the basement rec room. When the band emerges, they’re sporting appalling Christmas sweaters. “QVC graciously sent us the worst sweaters of all time,” Homme explains. “I think someone Googled the word ‘horrible’ and that’s how we found them.” Bourdain, ever the arbiter of good taste, hasn’t recovered: “Those Christmas sweaters were just the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen in my life. Beyond Sandra Lee on some really awful hallucinogen.” While Homme and Bourdain aren’t giving up the whole story, they revealed the episode will involve karaoke, surly adolescents and a Japanese businessman. “It’s a traditional Thanksgiving/Christmas meal with turkey, all the trimmings, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie … some Christmas carols … and a vicious brother-on-brother knife fight,” Bourdain said. “We spent a fair amount of time spraying stage blood onto my niece and nephew’s face. What’s a holiday special without violent mayhem? I think it’s an honest reflection of the holiday season.” Though Homme

Published: 2007-09-14 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Amy Winehouse Ready For Her Big UK Comeback

Amy Winehouse has announced she is ready to make a UK comeback after her appearance at the V Festival. The Back to Black singer gave an impromptu performance with her idols ska band, The Specials during the concert. Speaking with British newspaper the Sun, a healthier looking Winehouse said she was so happy to be back out on stage. It's great to be back. I absolutely loved it out there. The fans and the atmosphere were great. I want to do my own gigs now. Amy was famously vacationing on the isla

Published: 2009-08-25 Provider: Splash News Online

Kristen Stewart Gets Into The Groove

We caught up with Twilight star Kristen Stewart as she left a recording studio in Hollywood earlier this afternoon.Headphones in hand and wearing a t-shirt of Ska band The Specials Kristen is clearly getting into the swing of things as she prepares for her latest film role playing rock and roller Joan Jett in upcoming movie The Runaways. Click here to learn about Kristen's latest role

Published: 2009-06-13 Provider: Splash News Online

5 Seasonal Classics to Help Stephen Colbert Craft a Hit Holiday Special [Making Spirits Bright]

newVideoPlayer("/colbert.flv", 506, 423,""); Stephen Colbert brought a preview of his upcoming Comedy Central holiday special to Good Morning America today, revealing a glimpse at a stirring interfaith celebration uniting Catholics, Jews, unsightly turtleneck devotees and a raft of other persuasions. But the brief sample of Colbert prying Hanukkah secrets from Jon Stewart isn't quite enough to make anyone forget how far a holiday show really needs to go to achieve immortality. From the head-exploding ambition of the Star Wars Christmas Special to the suave, sweatered croonings of Solid Gold, there's a golden era of genre excellence that even a talent like Colbert will find himself stretching awfully far to approximate. Follow the jump for five seasonal landmarks worth the effort, and godspeed outdoing any one of them. newVideoPlayer("/davidson_winter_wonderland.flv", 506, 423,""); 1. John Davidson, A Solid Gold Christmas (1982) — It was the year Davidson was in the early downswing of his raconteurial powers. And who could fault him? With That's Incredible, a running guest spot on Hollywood Squares and two of his own Christmas specials behind him, among the few milestones left to check off was "Completely KILL on the Solid Gold Christmas show." And kill he did, bringing a never-before-told tale of wintertime glee and his silky baritone to a riveted TV audience. Colbert's own style seems to have already borrowed a bit from this clip, but if he really wants to own the holidays like Davidson, he's going to have to lose the irony. And fast. newVideoPlayer("/carpenters_xmas.flv", 506, 423,""); 2. Kristy McNicol, A Carpenters Christmas (1977) — Leave it to the era's most famous TV tomboy to upstage her own honey-voiced host, but Karen Carpenter was just a fraction of McNicol's competition in the climactic ensemble number "My New Year's Resolution." Harvey Korman? Puppets? The infamously precise Carpenters band? Amateurs all! If Colbert doesn't revive this number, then we

Published: 2008-11-18 Provider: Defamer Keywords: Making Spirits Bright, Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Top

It's Official! 'Rosie's Cavalcade of Talent and Celebrity Debasement' Coming Soon to NBC [Spice Of Life]

So Jay Leno must have said no to that primetime variety show NBC had in mind for him, because Defamer HQ opened for business this morning with flocks of winged monkeys dropping pamphlets promoting Rosie's Variety Show, Rosie O'Donnell's live, hour-long mash of song, dance, comedy and teeth-gritting celebrity cameos set for a Nov. 26 trial run before launching into a full season some time in 2009. The show comprises NBC's best laid plans and worst-kept secret in one handy bundle; O'Donnell has been in talks with the 'Cock at least since July, conjuring a catch-all talent show/musical comedy free-for-all just in case Leno defected to ABC. And while Leno's plans still aren't officially set, Rosie and her new network allies should encounter little trouble throwing together the hot, hodgepodgy mess in a month and a half. Behold what NBC brass is calling "the YouTube of variety shows": The hourlong event will include celebrity guests, musical acts, comedy skits and a contest both for in-studio and at-home auds, the network said. David Friedman (Last Comic Standing, Last Call With Carson Daly) will exec produce with O'Donnell. "We want to show people that variety can be done in a new and inventive way for 2008," said Craig Plestis, NBC Entertainment's exec VP for alternative programming, development and specials. "We hope to do it in ways you haven't seen before. It's going to be the YouTube of variety shows." [...] Details of the show were still being ironed out, but Plestis said a repertory cast will likely populate the show's sketches, and a house band is being considered. Other details, such as marketing partners, the primetime giveaway and celeb guests, will be unveiled later. No rush, NBC! Worst case scenario, in-house talent like Ben Silverman and Jeff Zucker are good for a sketch apiece (though we'd consider keeping Zucker away from a live audience just in case), and Tina Fey is always looking for another show to overtake at Rockefeller Center. And in the end, shou

Published: 2008-10-02 Provider: Defamer Keywords: Spice of Life, Nbc, Rosie O'Donnell, Rosie's Variety show