ROCK 'N' ROLL news

ROCK'N' ROLL news

Steve Marriott is the first of Humble Pie doing a solo album. Greg Ridley helps out on it and it includes a Dylan song and a Lulu song (yes, Lulu). Steve is just finishing up cutting the thing down from a double to a single record, but it looks like the Lulu tune (yes. Lulu) will survive. Lulu? But it’s not “To Sir, With Love.”

Hunter Thompson finally (net fris Asperi next-door neighbor who sings in the backyard all the time. Tfie self-proclaimed Mr. Gonzo said o of John Denver: “He’s a nice guy, but 1 still can’t stand his music.”

Oh Happy Day: Jeremy . Spencer, who quit Fleetwood Pfhc to join the Children of God ‘. Sect, has not given up on the H religious fanatics for Christil But he does have a new rock band called Joramy Spencer's Albatross (named after Fleetwood Mac’s biggest hit, we presume), and they’re already * working England,

At presstime New York was rampant with rumors about who was gonna fill Mick Taylor’s place in the Stones, or as some put it, “be the next Brian Jones.” Mick Ronson was offered the job, to which Tony DeFries replied that Ronboy would be glad to accept as long as the Stones turn their management over to DeFries and become Main man artistes. Peter Fxampton also supposedly got a solid offer, and Leslie West was approached. According.to Leslie West.

When he will get time to do all of ■this is anybody’s guess, but this time Bowie is paired with Marc Bplan. The two old pals may cut an album together and plan to do a film with David acting and Bolan directing.

x And (hat’s not all»* ‘ the ex-Ziggy. j now rock’s Joe LeVine is also supposed to direct 300 pound former Warhol freak, Tally Brown, in a feature flick this spring.

Last but not least, is it true that. David is enrolled as a full-time veterinary student at a large midwest university? Dr. Bowie?

: Ian Hnnlar, with Mick Ronaon as lead guitarist, should begin a solo tour of England around the end of April. They will play medium sized halls for about four weeks. 1

Hot rumors abound that Ota and Tina Turner are divorcing, which will result in the dissolution of the Sonny and Cher of rhythm and blues.

According to the Walrus tip sheet, 1974 saw the release of 1491 albums; and if that seems an ’ outrageous figure to you, it’s 207 less than 1973.

Paul and Linda McCartney, with Wings, spent most of January and February recording in New Orleans.

Hick Derringer should have an LP out in the next month, and hopefully he kept the appropriate working title: Spring Fever. Johnny and Edgar Winter appear on it, along with Chick Corea on synthesizer and none other than David Johansen on harp.

With the exception of a reggaeinfluenced version of his old standard ‘Hang On Sloopy” and “Walking the Dog,” a live favorite when Rick was in the McCoys, it will be all new material.

Johnny Bristol had his laundry stolen on his British tour. Which means now that somewhere in England, there walks a very ‘Fly Utaey,;

Tina and Kareem Abdul Jabbar: a romantic link?

Or a very large peg into a . . .

... Or as Grace Slick recommended the last time she was dished a dead mike , "Stick the damn peg

i n your mouth, however

it fits.

Ever wonder how Randy Bachman can throw his guitar

out into the audience at the end of every BTO performance and then show up for his next set with an exact duplicate? It’s simple - he plants a roadie out there in the first row and always tosses it to that guy.

A! Green sang at the NAACP’s eighth annual Image Awards banquet. Grits were not served.

Congressman John Lent (R-Long Island) is leading 24 other Congressmen in urging President Ford to pardon John Lennon so that he may remain in the country. George Harrison, meanwhile, was heard to remark “I feel good vibes” wheri he visited the White House for lunch at the invitation of Ford’s son. George Wore orange sneakers.

Elvis is going to do a benefit for tornado victims in his home-state of Mississippi, if he can get out of bed. For the three days that his daughter was visiting, he only had the energy to remain prone. But, after all, he is 40.

There may be a live album in the Fall from Elton John’ s New York dates on his last tour. Including three songs with John Lsnnon, if the contractual situation can be resolved. «.

John Dsnvsr will probably be the next tomato to have his own label.

Ex-Supreme Flo Ballard lives.in Detroit with her three kids on welfare, while her lawsuit claims that Motown owes her about a million.

David Bowie will play selected dates in England and the rest of Europe throughout April, May and June. He vows to make it the most spectacular rock show ever, with five separate stages he’ll be jumping around, and there will always be something else happening on the four stages he’s not on at that . -moment. It’s an expensive show that some promoters refuse to handle; his new Fascination album, already out in the States, will be released in Europe to coincide with the tour.

The Doobie Brothers are looking about for one James Lust a.k.a. Jim Page, whose “Busted Down Around O’Connelly Corners” „ they recorded on their Captain and Me album. Trouble is, he done disappeared, and since that LP sold some two million copies, he has a sizeable royalty check coming to him. It’s being held by their office until he can be located, and anyone with info on his whereabouts should contact Benita Brazier at the DooBro Corp.: (415) 456-4068.

Look for bassist Tarry Hath and guitarist Pstsr Cstsra to follow Chicago keyboardist Robert Lamm’s lead and cut a solo album.

Elvis has put 75 grand down on the purchase of a 707 belonging to old Nixon crony Robert Vesco. The plane has offices, a sauna, a gym, a discotheque with a 12 by 12 foot dance floor, and two bedrooms where Elvis can sleep until he turns fifty.

Paul Colby has re-opened his Bitter End nightclub in New York. It will be connected to his other club the Other End by a tunnel, with the Bitter End being the live music room and the Other End featuring dinners and a game room.

Turns out John Lennon, did intend to play at George’s final New York show but a last minute fight between John and Lord Krishna iced the idea.

69: it’s got a good beat... a new record called The Ultimate Heartbeat features the sound of a woman’s pulsating heart for twenty minutes and it’s supposed to be great to fornicate to.

Ex-Rascal Gene Cornish is producing the solo album by former Alice Cooper guitarist Mike Bruce.

It’s official now. Steely Dan founder Jeff Baxter is a fullfledged Doobie Brother.

Everything’s just hunky-dory between Ian Hnater and partner Mick Ronson. The tour is on and, according to lan, here’s the story on the solo LP’s: “What Mick’s doing is holding his album back, so we can go out together and push our albums at the same time, and try to keep it as .equal as possible.” 8 Apparently Mick just couldn't holjji' I it any longer. His solo effort came out six weeks ago while ian’s is still just a gleam in his sunglasses. Some people are more equal than others. Will this indiscretion scotch the tour? And will lan scotch Mick?

For a long time everybody’s been U whispering about trouble between Mick and Bianca, but did you know that the divine ffiss. Bette Midler recently purchased, one of the original illustrations of Jagger from the Rock Dreams book? Meanwhile, John Lennon pines for his old foursome: he bought the original Rock Dreams picture of the Beatles in Hamburg.

Billy Preston’s been holding up more than his end on a lot of big tours {the last being the Harrison ^ debacle). He may be crutching for Joe “Am 1 Dead Yet” Cocker on a Spring U.S. tour.

Wet Willie has become the first rock group ever to have a horse race named after it. The “Wet Willie Handicap” was the eighth race on New Year’s Eve at the New Orleans Fairgrounds Race Track.

Motown is considering jumping into the country music and porn businesses simultaneously with a . band called, you guessed it, Country Porn. Among their songs: “Dry-Humping in the Back of a ’55 Ford” and “Asshole From El Faso.”

Johnathon Richman, who’s been working solo in the San Francisco area, is back in Boston taking another shot at making the highlytouted Modern Lovers a working . proposition. If 11 be a brand new group .too, since most of the original members aren’t interested.

Religions, Inc.: The three youngest Osmond Brothers were not allowed to atterid their bro Wayne’ $ recent wedding, because Mormon rules dictate that young men (i.e., those not initiated) are not allowed inside the church.

Inside dirt from Mias Viclde, the former Mrs. Tiny Tint: their sex Me was .. confined to the rare event ’ when, like a pair of naive Victorian lovers, we-would struggle, hilly clothed, to make contact” And she is trying to tell us that she didn't know what she was in for when she married him?

According to gossip ace John J, Miller, Elton John is ready to compose, produce and star in a rock opera version of Hamlet. His Ophelia? David Bowie, of course.

Mike Love says the Beach Boys would like to get together with a full orchestra and “tour the world representing America” in honor of the country’s Bicentennial. But as their manager notes, that’s “... a pipe dream, a well-intentioned pipe dream.”

Believe it or not, when Elton John’s version of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” went to the top of the charts, it was the first time in history a Beatle song by someone ! other than the Beatles hit Number One.

Vocalist Russ Ballard has left Argent. No word yet on his plans

Eno and a London taxicab got into a scrape recently. The Loser: Eno - . thirty stitches worth.

Roxy’s Phil Manzanera out with a solo album this month featuring the talents of Andy j Mackay, Robert Wyatt* Fred Frith; and the patched-up Eno

Robin Trower should be undertaking another major American tour just about any day now.

The Georgia Department of Corrections {prison, to you) has presented the Allman Brothers with the Outstanding Community Organization of the Year award.

Apparently The Undisputed 'Truth is that two members of that band had possesion with intent to distribute heroin, or at least so reads their conviction. - 1 "... . ' •

Seating in the tanks to the rear of fhe auditorium only . . “Whales prefer live to recorded music,” says Joan McIntyre, president of Project

Jonah, who intends to pipe live rock into the oceans to scare whales away from fisherman.

“I wiH not.sit on the sidelines and "J watch our town being turned intoa tS den of iniquity with the kids taking drugs fotf kicks.” And that’s just one man’s reason for the bap on rock “ shows in Richfield, Ohio, site of the J new Cleveland Coliseum. Rumors say that, in fact, Richfield is afraid of what all those whales will do to the neighborhood.

We hear that Todd Rundgren has ;-fjged his pubic hairs blue. How cute.

Are David Bowie and Elton ;lj| John really writing songs for the - * ’HR next Blood,' Sweat and Tears album?.

jltmerson, Lake and Palmer should be hitting the boards here in America within the next month or so - as soon as they get South America, Australia artdjapan out of the way. Meanwhile, Greg Lake is now a papa.

Ginger Bake hss emerged from three years of living in Nigerian, to put his new band. The Baker Gurvitz Army, on the road.

Remember the good ol’ days when Spit ‘n’ rollers put out three albums J| a year? Well, Marc Bolan plans to 1 release three books this year - two pC "" them poetry, the other, a horror

All ready fo shoo Nice’s “Deutschland Uber Alies” off the charts is French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg with his latest on Phonogram, “Rock Around the Bunker,” celebrating the delights of everybody’s favorite Reich.

Thank God Gary GHttal willS finally tour the U.S. in late Spring.