ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS

ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS

The bad news for English Beat fans is that singers Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger have left the band. The good news is that the pair have formed a new band called General Public, which’ll record for I.R.S. Records. Ranking Roger also recently joined the Clash in the studio to cut a “toasting” dub version of the boys’ “Rock The Casbah.” The remaining Beat members are reportedly looking for singers to fill the vacancies in their line-up.

Bob Dylan is planning a massive tour to promote his new LP this fail, and his band will include those reggae superstar session musicians, Robbie Shakespeare and Sly Dunbar. From the rock of ages to rock steady! Alright, Bob!!

Bow Wow Wow were forced to cancel 30 dates on their twomonth summer American tour when guitarist Matthew Ashman fell off a 15 foot stage and broke his hand at New Jersey’s Great Adventure Amusement Park in late June. Seems that Ashman was walking

to the edge of the stage to discuss the band’s encore with the soundman, but his shades, combined with a darkened stage, prevented him from seeing where he was going. Perhaps the Mohawked wonder should take some sunglass lessons from Ian Hunter and Roy Orbison. An RCA spokesperson said the tour will probably be rescheduled this fall.

The Motels’ Martha Davis has been collaborating with Elton John’s lyricist Bernie Taupin for the band’s forthcoming LP.

Will it be “Crocodile Rock” meets “Take The El Out Of Lover”? We’ll have to wait and see!

Bill Wyman is the Rolling Stone in the news this month. Wyman recently spent a week in a London studio recording the soundtrack for his Digital Dreams film with a 70-piece orchestra that included 58 members of the London Symphony. Wyman screened the film at the Cannes festival last April, but had to use canned music at the time. He plans to find a distributor for the film and classical soundtrack once the score is finished. Wyman was also recently asked to be a judge in the Miss Universe contest. He accepted until he was told he had to wear a tuxedo, to which he replied: “If 1 didn’t wear one to meet my monarch (Queen Elizabeth), I’m certainly not going to wear one to help select Miss Universe!” And, finally, the silent Stone is taking some time to compile material for a forthcoming Rolling Stones history book.

After completing his world tour, David Bowie says his next project will once again be rescuing the career of his old buddy, Iggy Pop. Bowie will produce the Ig’s next LP, as well as lending him his current touring group. And although Stevie Ray Vaughan recently speculated that the Thin White Duke was a bit cheap in paying his musicians, Bowie was very generous to his road crew after a recent gig in Germany. It was reported in London’s Sunday Mirror newspaper that he spent over $30,000 to rent a complete brothel (that’s whorehouse to you) for his road crew, although it seems that David abstained from the festivities...In other Bowie news, the chameleon rocker has joined Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Elton John as one of the few rock stars to be immortalized in wax at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in London.

Sad to report the death of saxist/flautist Chris Wood, a founding member of Traffic with Steve Win wood, Jim Capaldi and Dave Mason. Wood, 39, died of liver failure in Birmingham, England on July 19th. In addition to Traffic, the horn man also worked with Ginger Baker’s Airforce,

Jimi Hendrix, Dr. John and on Jim Capaldi’s solo projects.

Ex-Wings guitarist Denny Laine recently filed for bankruptcy in England. Kinda strange when you figure that Laine was the co-writer of McCartney’s very successful “Mull Of Kintyre.”

Michael Jackson recently became caught up in a racial row with his manager-father, Joe Jackson. Seems that Joe made a statement in regard to Michael’s management to the press that enraged the younger Jackson. Said Joe: “There was a time when I felt I needed white help in dealing with the corporate structure at CBS Records. But they (referring to co-managers Ron Weisner and Freddy Demann) never gave me the respect you expect from business partners.” Said Michael: “To hear him talk like that turns my stomach. I don’t know where he gets it from. I don’t hire color. I hire competence.” The row continues...

Elton John and Rod Stewart, rock stars and soccer enthusiasts, will join forces during the summer of 1984 for an international concert tour together. Elton’s also planning to make a stillunspecified film with Liza Minnelli.

Bettina Huebers, the German girl who claims to be Paul McCartney’s illegitimate daughter, recently posed for a High Society magazine pictorial wearing nothing but a pair of gloves and a glass guitar. Says Bettina’s mother, Erica: “The pictures are very tasteful. She did the session because she is broke and Paul hasn’t paid her any maintenance money yet.” Says the writer of “Silly Love Songs”:

“I haven’t paid any maintenance because I’m not her father. I have denied right from the outset ever even knowing the girl’s mother.”

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five of “The Message” fame recently joined House of Representatives Speaker Up O'Neill, Senator Ted Kennedy and rocker John Hall on the steps of the Capital building in Washington, D.C. for a press conference protesting the MX nuclear missile. Hall, who helped to organize the affair, says “Bob Dylan, Bill Graham and I were trying to think of people who’d be good for the event. Dylan wanted to find the musicians who stood for social commentary the way he used to in the ’60s. Then it suddenly hit us...Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five!”

The newly reformed Band have started their tour sans Robbie Robertson, but Bill Graham, the man responsible for presenting their historic Last Waltz farewell performance, refused to book them in San Francisco this time. Although the group has Robertson’s blessing to tour without him, Graham said it was “unethical” to call it the Band without the lead guitarist and refused to book them out of respect.

Time Waits For No One. Mick Jagger turned 40-years-old on July 26th. But the big Jagger news is that Mick’s gonna be a papa again. Jeri Hall is reportedly going to have Mick’s bambino in about six months. Sources close to the couple say she is “a couple months” pregnant.

Supertramp have split up, as have Bad Company. Supertramp’s Roger Hodgson cited “too much success” as the reason for the band calling it quits, while Bad Company’s Simon Kirke explained that the band “hasn’t played together for three years and we’ve all started solo projects.”

It’s been a great summer for the Police’s Stewart Copeland. Not only is “Every Breath You Take” the blond boys’ first number one hit single in the U.S., but Stew and his wife Sonja Kristina became the proud

parents of a bouncing baby boy on June 28th.

Mitch Ryder went through laser surgery for a glaucoma problem in late June. Mitch suffered some

painful complications following the operation, but all’s well now. Joked the Motor City legend:

“For a time there, I thought we were going to have to retitle the new album Never Kick A Seeing Eye Dog!”

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters recently complied with many radio programmers’ strong suggestion to substitute the “fuck all that” chorus in the band’s “Not Now, John” with the words “stuff ail that.”

Tapes containing four unreleased songs by Lennon and McCartney and performed by the Beatles were recently discovered in the Fab Four’s old recording studio, Abbey Road. EMI are currently negotiating with the three remaining Beatles to release the tapes on record.

It might sound as odd as Joe Strnmmer joining Rod Stewart’s country club, but batbiting Ozzy Osbourne recently received a lifetime membership to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Ozzy received the honorary membership after he contributed $2,000 to the New York and Los Angeles branches of the organization.

Dave Clark, one time leader of the Dave Clark Five, recently turned down a large offer from Union Carbide to allow the band’s 1964 hit, “Glad All Over,” to be used for commercials advertising Glad plastic wrap and garbage bags. Said the drummer-turnedproducer: “My songs have been good to me. I’m not ready to sell them out yet.”

D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, now the Dauph: When Wendy O. Williams & the Plasmatics toured the Midwest recently, they took along copies of Your Heart In Your Mouth, their authorized biography, penned by CREEM’s own Edouard Dauphin, intending to sell them at concession stands in the venues they played. But, at the Richfield Coliseum in Cleveland and the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, building managers, under pressure from local vice squads, forbade sale of the book on grounds of obscenity. The Cleveland banning was particularly noteworthy considering Wendy’s previous arrest there on similar charges (she was acquitted), prompting her to wonder if the latest harassment might be politically motivated. Significant sidelight: in each city, officials purchased a half dozen copies of the highly pictorial tome, presumably to study the “obscene” passages more closely. Reached for comment at his 16th Arrondissement walk-up, Dauphin muttered: “I’ve heard of Cleveland, but where is Indianapolis?”