ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS

ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS

Bette Midler made a very speedy recovery from the emergency appendectomy that forced her to cancel the opening two dates of her current tour, though fans at the eventual opening date in Berkeley were surprised to see her appear onstage at the show's opening in a hospital bed... which she immediately bounced out of into "Friends," teasing the audience by cracking, reports ENS, "How many of you didn't think I'd show up tonight? And how many of you thought it really was an appendectomy?"'

Author and neighbor of John Denver, Hunter Thompson has had his Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas picked up for the movies with the screenplay to be wsitfen by LatryMcMortry, author of, among other things, The Lost Picture Show.

"Not true!" insist sources close to Elton John, the pixie did not , undergo a hair transplant at a TojM,'. onto hospital recently. ("Indeed;^' Elton reportedly remarked * "I'm ' keeping the hair on my elbows right where it is!")

First the good news dept. Earlier this year Lou"i never get honored for nuthin'" Reed was the beaming recipient of not one but two gold records for his Rock 'n'Roll Animal and Transformer LPs — actually, if you must know the truth, it was in Australiafor Australian gold records. Nevertheless, the man was rightfully proud of his accomplish, ments and ordered the discs shipped to RGA's New York office. Well, the records made it safely to New York on the plane but the delivery truck from the airport bearing Lou's booty , as well as a shipment of gold watches, got hijacked. Quick detectin' by the N. Y.P.D. recovered the truck and all the watches within inside of two days but, alas, no gold records. Please, whoever you are out there, bring back the gold records, a very sad death dwarf misses them.. .and besides do you know what the chances are that he'll ever get any more?

That's about it... Nigel Oleeou's customized Pontiac Trans-Am has license plates that read "I Drum."

Maybe they wanted chickens, not turkey... Alice Cooper is expected in court in Los Angeles shortly to try and collect the money he says he's owed by the promoter of his week-long engagement at the Sahara-Tahoe Hotel. Alice says that he has not seen any of the $47,500 he was promised for the stint.

Speaking of lasts, Little Feat's current UP, The Last Record Album may be just that, at least, for their current label Warner Brothers. Though company insiders insist that a split would surely be amicable, other reports have it that band leader Lowell George has been none too happy with the ,

promotional effort (or lack thereof) put behind the Feat.

Variety reports that the former Cher Bono Allman, Mrs . Cher BonO AllmanAllman, the future. Miss Cher Bono Allman, who is teaming up again this month with Si the former Mr. Sonny Bono, the ex, on another TV show this month, is expecting a baby in the spring. And is Sonny expecting Gregg or vice versa? -

NME seems to have information that the song "Stupid Girl" on the latest NeUYonngalbum is not about Carrie Snodgrass, as has been assumed, but rather about Joni, another of Neil's past flames.

Annette Funicello runs for help dept. Paul McCartney quickly recovered his good humor after nearly being drowned in a rip tide and suffering bruises and minor cuts on the rocks off the beach at Honolulu's Koko Head. Remarked McC at a party later that day: "Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun.. .and choppy surf."

Robert Stigwood is pitching American TV networks on a new Series to feature the Bee Gees in what Earth News describes as "a Monty Python kind of song and dance show." Meanwhile, the v Spinners (no relation) have a show slotted as a su mmer replacement in'76.

FRANKIE, CAN YOU HEAR ME? New Jersey father of four (?), Frankie ValU is recovering "nicely," we are told, fromarecenf ear operation undertaken to correct increasing deafness. Whaf s that? DEAFNESS^. Judd for the Defense???

Chalk up arrest number f jve of the year for Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ronnie Van Zantfor defending keyboardist Billy Powell's inalienable right to drink whenever he wants to, including outside of concert halls in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Flash! Extra! Very Important! EhosT John has f oresak en h is platforms »-.* for the down tdearth goodnessof '. Root shoes! While inToronto recently (not for a hair transplant operation, they still insist) Elton bought four pair and ordered a ? custom-made glitter version for Stage.

According to the trades, Columbia dropped Alvin Lee and Ten Years After from the label due to significantly saving record sales.

Dylan travelled incognito during the Rolling Thunder tour — which, incidentally, may be assembling again for a Spring jau nt through the Midwest and West — posing as Keef Laundry for hotel registers. While wife Sarah, who along with the ; kids joined up late in the tour, called herself Harriet Blaze and Joan Baezchecked in as Rachel Sandperi.

ENS further reports that Allen Ginsberg is editing the more than 100 hours of film footage of the Rolling Thunder Revue's on and offstage hijinks into that promised feature film.

In Santa Monica, one Richard Keeling has, according to the L.A Free Press, pleaded guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter — ihdicating "an absence of malice" — in the drug death of Tim Buckley.

Expect Laura Nyro's first new ' album in three years this month.

Hair today, gone... MCA recently took out a 25 million dollar life insurance policy on Elton John.

The Movement stops here. .Kins was recently presented with an award at Fort Belvoir, Virginia for furthering the image of toe service and for dedication to the armv.

Better than Kiss? (Shees. it's hard to decide...) In Wichita last month 7.f)0() fans cheered as Rosy Gallagher's guitar amplifier was engulfed by fire onstage, according ti » ENS Luckily (one supposes), the roadies realized that the file was not part erf the act and rushed onand extinguished it. Gallagher went on with the show but commented afterwards: "Sea ng my little I

amplifier on fne neatly binke my heart. The arnp is about 20 years I

old a real collectors item ''

m

Drummer Dallas Taylor, exC«S,N & Y, ex-Manassas, is suing Steve Stills for $50,000 in damages. Taylor maintains that Stills owes him a portion of the royalties from an unnamed album recorded in Miami in late 71 (most I probably Manassas) on which lie played drums and produced.

Hello, everybody. I'm a dead man This strange story comes by [way of ENS: Jerry Lee Lewis has been sued by the estate of a dead man. The suit claims that "Killer" struck Marvin Major with a mike at a concert m Atlanta seven-years ago. Major died in 1970. though the suit in no way implicates Lewis in that, alledging, instead, that the assault; per manen tly damaged Major's' jj|esight. ; v f ; . ?

During the sessions for Lou Reed's recently released Coney Island Baby album, one insider reports that a hundred dollar a throw hooker was brought in to service everyone in the band, including Lou. They allegedly charged it up as "recqjrdirig expenses" so RCA ended up unknowingly footing the bill We pnnt this item, not out of exploitative Mentions, bu t only to discredit the Kent and ludicrously unfounded jlnriors tha{ Lou is a homosexual

The Dudes are hitting the road in America in earnest this year and will be in the studio shortly to complete their second album, tentatively titled You Gotto Haue Pop, which should be out by May.

Dates are firm for spring for the Eastern half of the Yes tour of this country, while summer dates are tentative for the West Coast. The album, as reported, will be out by the start of the American toirr.

Barth News reports that actor Bob Cummings has been busted in Seattle for a blue box and has been pleased on $3,000bail after being charged with defrauding thephone company with the device. j

Where do the stars gofor Xmas? j|tell. it's taken our crack team of investigative reporters to these many months to find out but.. .Dylan went home to Hibbing, Minnesota, Mick and Bianca sunned in Rio, Carole King relaxed in Malibu, David Bowie laid back in Jamaica, while Jon Cocker reportedly felt uptight at home with mom in Sheffield, England.

Monty Python will be touring here beginning in April with a date at New York's City Center and in the meantime are suing ABC for $500,000in damages and $500,000 for "unfair competition" because the network supposedly "mutilated" their recent ABC Wide World special

Rest easy, Flo and Eddie fans, everything is cool now: Rick Wakeman stated recently in Los Angeles that the only act he saw last yeartoatjgot him off was the fleshpod duo. Said Rick, who, incidentally, has seen videotapes of his own show: "It takes a lot for me to get a buzz on, but i lefHftelr show buzzing.?" i. r,

The Taylora — you know, James and Carfy? — are back living in ^ L.A. for the winter and are both back in the studio at work on new LPs scheduled for summer release.

The Next Big Thing? Ingrid Croce, the wife of the late Jim (of the same name). is launching her own career. Ingrid claims that her own musical talents were ignored in the wake of her husband's success and that she "contributed both lyrics and melody to virtually all of her late husband's songs." For an album toe is recording for an as yet unspecified label, Ms. Croce reports she will be composing "songs for today.. .just as Jim did." t '

tyatcfeforCREEM T-shirt girl Gilda Radner; the longtime National Lampoon trooper is a regular on NBCsSatu rday Night. (Hope they get the show in your neck of the

Keith Moon dept. Mr. Moon jjpcently sold (unloaded?) his English home to Kevin Godleyof jljOcc. So far, sobafi. Mr Godley's first piobiem upon taking possession of the house how to get Moon's Rolls Koyce out of the swimming ■JOI. .. In the meantime, Moon is enjoying the sizable wardrobe erf police uniforms he collected during toe recent Wfiotour: he walks up and down hotel corridors in the * I fiddle of the night and bangs on * frightened guest's doors

Ijlrth News reports that, in order to avoid fandom, the Who travelled under these aliases dunng their tour Sherlock Holmes (Townshend), Sterling Silver (Daltrey), John Fitzperfectly {Entwivtle), $nd Charley Farley (Moon).

Put'efri up,' Roger! We are barely able to contain former Golden Gloves champion Lester Bangs I in our offices here. It seems that our "Mauler" is upset about recent published (in NME) comments by the darling lead singer for the Who. It seems that Roge is miffed that Lester called him a "schmuck" in a recent Who review. Quoth Dnhroy, while engaged in a frantic search backstage at the Philadelphia Spectrum for Bangs: 'Tell Lester if I'm a schmuck, he's a schmuck too. Takes onetoknow one."

England's Daily Mail is refuting reports published here recently that Marianne Faithful is making a musical comeback — with Ruse j Manias producer, it has been suggested — and instead is going to take'd job as a waitress in a London restaurant*

The 1976 Humility-In-Action Award To.. .The Bay City Rollers' Lea McKeowen reportedly ran down an old lady in an accident last year, allegedly beat up one or more photographers at a London gig, and recently is said to have collapsed onstage. Les has this to say:

"I have become pop's bad boy, and 1

^dojVtdeserve the title."

The man fears nothing! Ted Nugent, "the world's greatest guitarist." (according to T ed Nugent) recently stared down a potential assassin, who waved a 44 Magnum in front of the stage ini Spokane. Washington, continuing to play his guitar solo as the rest of his band fell silent Later in the week Ted was accompanied by a Sherman tank to the stage of toe Long Beach Area.