Added 18/03/2010 by briggs

Metallica Plan 2011 Tour

Metallica are planning a tour in 2011 which their manager claims will rival Pink Floyd's 1980-1981 'The Wall' tour, it has been revealed.

Manager Peter Mensch revealed that the band are currently working on ideas for the tour, which will see then play in 10 cities worldwide. No dates have been announced yet.

"Let's just say that next year you will see a Metallica tour that will blow your mind," he told Classic Rock. "They will only play in 10 cities but it will be a huge undertaking. It will be Metallica's equivalent of 'The Wall'."

When asked to define his role as the band's manager, Mensch said it involved, "Saying something like, 'I have this idea for us to play an equivalent of 'The Wall'. So here's some ideas so we can get the professionals in so they can tell me if I'm crazy or not.'"

160 people were recently arrested outside a Metallica gig in Bogata, Columbia during a riot as ticketless fans stormed venue barriers.

According to NME.com

Added 17/03/2010 by ronni

Michael Jackson estate signs record deal

The estate of Michael Jackson has agreed the biggest recording deal in history, worth more than $200m, with Sony Music, US reports say.

The deal reportedly involves 10 album projects over seven years - including one of previously unreleased material.

The singer died at his Los Angeles home in June, aged 50. He was due to stage a series of comeback concerts in Britain.

Michael Jackson's death was ruled as homicide, mainly caused by the use of the anaesthetic Propofol.

Massive debts

The contract with Sony could be worth up to $250m if certain conditions are met, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing sources close to the deal.

It reflects sales of Jackson's music and memorabilia - which have sky-rocketed in the months since his death, making the late star one of the biggest-earning acts of last year, says the BBC's Rajesh Mirchandani in Los Angeles.

Sony has sold about 31 million copies of Jackson's albums worldwide since his death on 25 June, the report said.

His estate may soon be able to pay off some of the huge debts he left behind, our correspondent adds.

According to US media, Jackson also left behind dozens of new songs, which may be released, along with revamped packages of old hits.

More details are expected in an official announcement later on Tuesday, but the contract is reported to include the soundtrack to the recent film, This Is It.

The footage showed Jackson rehearsing for his comeback tour just days before his death from an overdose of an anaesthetic.

His doctor, Conrad Murray, who told police he had prescribed Propofol for insomnia, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of manslaughter.

He has always maintained that he neither prescribed nor administered anything that should have killed the singer.

Added 16/03/2010 by ronni

French singer Jean Ferrat dies

French singer and songwriter Jean Ferrat, whose communist views saw some of his songs banned from French TV in the 1960s, has died aged 79.

The musician died in hospital in Aubenas in the south of France, where he had been admitted a few days earlier, an official told AFP.

Ferrat wrote about 200 songs which reflected his political views.

Among his best-known tunes were La Montagne (The Mountain), Potemkine and Ma France.

Born in a Parisian suburb as Jean Tenenbaum, the singer began his career in the cabarets of the postwar Left Bank before making his name in the 1960s and 1970s with a succession of lyrical love songs.

He was also known for his adaptations of works by the communist poet Louis Aragon.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy issued a statement praising the singer's "unyielding conception of French song"

Michel Drucker, one of France's most popular television presenters and a friend of the singer, told France Info radio: "A whole part of France, a whole generation is mourning today."