ROCK'N' ROLL NEWS

ROCK'N' ROLL NEWS

The Rolling Stones plan to tour the States again this Spring but they’ve also indicated a desire to play behind the Iron Curtain and in Third World countries.

Carly Simon’s uncle Peter Dean has made his recording debut with an album of vintage big band tunes on Buddah. Carly herself warbles on a couple cuts.

Rod Stewart told a British reporter that while he may have a beer now and then, he has given up serious drinking. “I was beginning to lose my memory.. .Y’see, I’ve got no alarm system in my body to tell me to stop. I don’t get sick, I don’t get hangovers. I became a terrible lush and after a while I wouldn’t be able to tell you what happened five days ago,”he explained.t’V*'*?. *;? y

Rod Stewart got what he termed “some incredible pfferes from Playboy and Penthouse” to pose nude. He modestly declined: “ft all seemed rather cheap and anyway I’m really not that well endowed.”

Eric Clapton’s single “I Shot the Sheriff” was banned by the station manager of K.WHP in Edmond, Oklahoma. The explanation: the character in the song “shot the sheriff because the sheriff bumed down his marijuana patch. He said it was in self-defense. Now, that’s senseless.” Clapton’s version of the song hit Top 10 in Jamaica, outselling even the original by Bob Marley and the Wallers.

Iggy Pop in collaboration with Dick Wagner (Of Rock ‘n ’ Roll Animal and numerous uncredited Alice Cooper elpees guitarro trailblaze fame), Ray Manzarek and Alice manager Shep Gordon, cooking up new post-Stooges band with supersecret name. Ig will let out a few of his new song titles, though: “Degenerate Nightmare,” “Line 91,” “Ladies Please*’» (I Thought That Was) -, The Night,Before Last,” “I Don’t Wanna Die,” and, of course, “Savage.”

Paper Lace, following the hit single of “The Night Chicago Died,” wrote Mayor Richard Daley about the possibility of a special shindig in their honor, when they came to town. Replied a Daley aide, to the group’s publicist: “We do have our own ideas as you suggest in your letter. With a bit of cooperation you might persuade Paper Lace and the writer of ‘Chicago Died’ to come to Chicago, jump in the Chicago river placing their heads under water three times and surfacing twice. The lyrics are the greatest assemblage of garbage ever to be published. Our interest ^ is zero minus. Thank you for contacting us. Pray tell us, are you nuts?”

Berry Park, Chuck Berry’s Missouri resort, has been closed for six months, following rock concert “disorders.” Chuck, who didn’t contest the county prosecutor’s ruling, says he’ll hold future, such events in the'daytime hours “where there can’t be so much hide-and-seeking with smoking and stuff.”

The Guess Who^s Burton Cummings has decided to take L.A. session work on the side, starting with a couple cuts for a future Poco album.

Whilst in Los Angeles, recently, Ian Anderson purchased a moto-cross competition motorcycle, cycling being his new found love.

That Mott the Hoople stage show that sold out the Uris Theater on Broadway for a week earlier this t year will wind up in London’s Jgi West End next, hopes Ian Hunter.

Paul Krassner’s newest project is a porn film by and for senior citizens with a working title of Gum Job.

Shortly after the airing of its television special, Chicago saw all seven of its albums on the Billboard charts in the same week, a feat never before achieved by anyone.

The Altaian Brothers Band, the Eagles, and Grinder Switch played a Boston benefit that netted $105,000 for the North American Indian Foundation. Thrfee previous benefits staged by the AUmans for the same cause had already raised some $200,000.

That Fleetwood Mac appearing here in America is the genuine * item, led by Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, and promotihga new VP > Heroes Are Hard to , Come By.

Bad Company won in three categories of the prestigious Melody Maker reader’s poll in England. “Can’t Get Enough” was voted best single, Paul Rodgers best lead singer, and the group was named “brightest hope.”

Elton John’s November 21 concert in Washington D-C. sold out two hours after tickets went on sale, and a riot ensued. The next day was supposed to be off, but Elton agreed to play D.C. again anyhow. Among those rumored to be attending are Gerry Ford and family. It is rumored that they did not stand in line.

Under pressure from Women s Liberation groups, Paul Anka changed the lyrics in “You’re Having My Baby.” Where he used to sing ‘‘It’s still my baby” (and that’s how it is on record), he now sings, “It’s still our baby” in performance. Declared Anka, “The last thing I want to do in the world is fight-with the ladies. I have five of them at home, you know.?’ (He means one wife and four daughters, that is.)

He’s been spending a lot of time here lately, and in September Keith Moon made it official: he will now live in America, taking advantage of the law that allows him 60 days a year in England. His decision will reportedly have no effect whatsoever on the Who’s future. Prompting Moon’s move were the crippling British tax laws and the fact that most of his friends live in the States.

Bob Dylan’s first album for Columbia since his resigning was cut in the very same studio where he made his recorded debut some 10 years ago.

First thing David Essex did after renting a villa in the south of Spain was to fall by his neighbor’s place to introduce himself. And his neighbor turned out to be Brigitte Bardot Some guys have all the luck.

Moody Blues vocalist Graeme Edge let the cat out of the bag when he told a radio announcer that the group “can’t work together.” After 10 years, the band is no more. All five members will be releasing solo albums, and they are hoping that anthologies of old material wdl clear up the “contractual problems” they are now facing.

Bob Ezrin, the hot Canadian producer who’s worked with Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, and the Guess Who, among others, has formed a new label - Migration, to be . distributed by Atlantic. He’s goinj to concentrate on singles, and the first act is Garry Bonner, half of the old Turtles songwriting team responsible for “Happy Together.”

Jerry LaCroix, who only yesterday was lead singer in Blood Sweat and Tears, and before that in Edgar Winter’s White Trash, has now joined up with Rare Earth. Also new to that group are drummer Frosty and bassist Reggie McBride, formerly of Stevie Wonder’s road band.

John Entwisfle is taking a version of his Rigor Mortis show (now known as Ox) on the road in England in December; if it goes down to his satisfaction, he’ll probably bring it to the States next year. (Look also for a Roger Daltrey tour here next year.)

Uriah Heep had to cancel the last half of its American tour when bassist Gary Thiin was electrocuted onstage in Dallas and suffered amnesia. They’re making up the lost dates this month.

Paul Krassner believes that Cass Elliott may have been killed rather than having died of heart failure due to fatty tissue which prevented blood from flowing properly. Krassner wrote in his underground press Rumple foreskin column that Cass “knew an awful lot about the incredible criminal links between Hollywood and Washington and Las Vegas.”

Brain Salad Surgery became Emerson Lake & Palmer’s fifth consecutive platinum record.. . and the live one can’t be too far behind. And in the better late than never department, Black Sabbath, the group’s first LP, recently qualified %as their third platinum.

Oakland, Arkansas, had its new $35,000 school bankrolled by Black Oak Arkansas.

Cat Stevens is bald. According to columnist John J., Miller, Cat looked into the mirror one morning and wondered what he’d look like without a beard so he shaved it. Then he wondered what he’d look like with short hair so he cut it. Then ‘he wondered what he’d look like with no hair. So he shaved his head entirely. (Must have been a busy morning.)

Whilst wife Patti cavorts with Eric Clapton, George Harrison is wooing model Kathy Simmonds, who claims credit for George’s haircut. “George won’t allow meat in the house,” she told a British publication for which she posed.

Whilst in Los Angeles, David Bowie was seen all over to\yn with either Raquel Welch or Diana Ross. Honest.

The Doobie Brothers private plane caught fire and was burned to a rubble while the band was playing in Virgmia.,The sole surviving thing on the plane was a cooler filled with beer.

After doing only three shows in 18 months, Tubular Bellsrpan Mike Oldfield has formed a band and will open a British tour early next year.

Since Japan is the second largest record market in the world, the new Kiss album has liner notes in both English and Japanese. The band is particularly big, there. The band is also considering adding laser beams to its already garish stage act. That oughta cut up . a few people. ,

The reunited Electric Flag, due to contractual overlaps, will 1 alternate albums between Atlantic and Columbia.,

Talk about extravagant, consider these figures for Rick Wakenian and the Journey to the Center bf the Earth tour. About $95,000 : for the Electra jet (seats 105) to transport .Rick and band, the 65 piece orchestra, and the 20-member choir. A hotel bill bf about $3000 per night for a 35-night tour. Wages run about $25,000. That’s without even getting into firings like lights, PA, etc. • ivV--. M H

Rev.'Pearly Brown, the blind street singer who posed for the cover of Wet Willie’s Keep on Smilin ’ album, has changed his mind and is now suing for $200,000 for “severe mental pain” suffered because of the unauthorized use of his likeness.

Loudon' Wainwright III has been added to the cast of Mash. He’ll play someone named Captain Spaulding, a character who “tends to express himself through song.”