THE ROLLING STONES: Update on their new album
Work continues on the new Rolling Stones album. Mick Jagger says that even with a few recording sessions in the can, he's still working on songs.
Speaking to Ireland's Independent newspaper, he says, "I'm just writing. I don't really think about what I have written, much. I just keep plowing forward, really."
The Stones' last album of original material was 2005's A Bigger Bang. In 2016, they started work on another, but switched to recording a collection of old blues songs instead. That resulted in the album Blue & Lonesome.
Producer Don Was recently said the band's next album probably won't be out this year.
The Rolling Stones begin a tour May 18th in Dublin.
MORE BIG 95 MUSIC NEWS: Wednesday, April 25th
PRINCE: New album coming in September
The rumors are true: there will be a new Prince album this fall.
Troy Carter, who oversees the musical assets of the Prince estate, tells Variety that this collection of new material will be out September 28th on Warner Brothers.
The album will feature the first dozen or so previously unreleased songs from Prince's famed Paisley Park vault. In the last year, the various tapes and computer drives were moved to a professional storage facility in California, where the entire archive is being digitized and restored.
Carter credits Prince for the way "he wrote down his thoughts and plans and how he ran his business, so he pretty much left a blueprint of how things should go. Listening to the music, the demos, seeing some of his notes and tape notes, you really get an idea of how his mind worked, and I’m honored to get a glimpse of his process."
There is also video footage potentially to be released and "conversations" on projects, included a jukebox musical are underway. Carter added, "We're looking at all options."
Speaking of Prince...
Prince's heirs have filed a wrongful death lawsuit. Members of the Nelson family took action against Walgreens and the Illiinois medical facility where Prince was treated after an emergency landing days before he died in 2016.
Filed Friday, a day after the County Attorney covering Chanhassen, Minnesota said no criminal charges would be filed, the suit in Cook County, Illinois names the Trinity Health Center. That's where Prince, after taking ill on a private plane, was treated for what his staff called flu-like symptoms -- although reports say he received Narcan, the antidote used in opioid overdoses.
Two Walgreens location were named for giving Prince "medications not valid for a legitimate medical purpose and failing to conduct appropriate drug utilization review." (KSTP-TV)
U2: Fan smartphones enhance concert experience
Many artists want fans to keep phones hidden during concerts -- but U2 want them out for the opening song at their Experience + Innocence tour.
They've just released an app called the AR eXPERIENCE that promises to "augment your reality." You're supposed to open the app before U2 comes on, and it will be triggered by the 100-foot-long LED wall running the length of the arena floor. Then during the opening song, keep the app open for something special.
The app is available for iPhones and Android devices. U2's Experience + Innocence tour opens on May 2nd in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
DONNA SUMMER: Critics pan musical
Theater critics for New York's big newspapers gave low marks to Summer: The Donna Summer Musical.
Never known for enthusiasm toward rock and roll-based shows, all three papers showed their contempt for the bio-musical that officially opened Monday night.
- The Daily News proclaimed: "Donna Summer bio-musical drops the disco ball."
- The New York Post used a reference to one of the diva's classics: "The new Donna Summer musical is not hot stuff."
- And the New York Times made it unanimous: "Hot Stuff Turns Cold in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical."
The Times' negativity went beyond the production itself, accusing recording giant Universal Music -- which controls the Summer catalog as well as that of Jimmy Buffett, whose Escape to Margarative opened last month -- of not understanding Broadway. Critic Jesse Green comments, "I don’t doubt the sincerity of their interest in brands that can still make them millions. It’s the sincerity of their interest in musical theater I question."