Tag: Things That Are British (91-100 of 219)

Feb 12 2012 10:12 PM ET

Adele sings 'Rolling in the Deep' at Grammys in first performance since surgery

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Image Credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Up until the untimely passing of Whitney Houston on Saturday night, the biggest narrative going into Sunday night’s Grammy Awards was the return of Adele. What would she sing? How would she sound? And would her night end triumphantly with a clean awards sweep?

She certainly answered 66% of those questions when she walked onto the stage at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and knocked “Rolling in the Deep” out of the ballpark. Though she has admitted to suffering from performance-related anxiety in the past, she showed no signs of wavering during an exquisite performance that fell a little short of her memorable turn at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards but still instantly became a signature television moment.

Adele’s big night began during an extensive interview conducted for 60 Minutes by Anderson Cooper. READ FULL STORY »

Feb 9 2012 09:35 PM ET

Sir Paul McCartney gets star on Hollywood Walk of Fame. Finally!

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Image Credit: Steve Granitz/WireImage.com

No, that headline is not from 1997. Or 1989. Or 1975. Today, Sir Paul McCartney, at 69 years old, finally received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Even more astoundingly, McCartney is the last of the Beatles to earn this honor. John Lennon posthumously got his star in 1988; The Beatles as a band got their star in 1998; George Harrison got his star posthumously in 2009; and Ringo Starr got his star in 2010. Like their respective stars, McCartney’s was placed today in front of the famed Capitol Records building.

Reportedly, McCartney was nominated for a star in 1993, but scheduling issues kept the ceremony from happening until 19 years later, the same week McCartney releases an album of standards, Kisses on the Bottom. Which somehow reminds us: Axl Rose doesn’t have a Hollywood Walk of Fame star either.

Check out a photo of McCartney at today’s ceremony below:  READ FULL STORY »

Feb 9 2012 11:45 AM ET

Adele explains her surgery, laments her inability to curse for two months in '60 Minutes' preview: Watch it here

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The big narrative going into this Sunday’s Grammy Awards is the return of Adele. Her slated performance marks a comeback from throat surgery and a disappearance from the public eye while her album and singles have continued to dominate charts around the world.

This Sunday, CBS’ 60 Minutes will lead into the Grammys telecast with an interview of Adele conducted by Anderson Cooper (last year in this same slot, he took on Lady Gaga).

In the first preview clip posted on the CBS News website, Adele walks Cooper through the surgery (which involved lasers) and her recovery period, which required her to be on vocal rest for the better part of two months. She communicated via pad and paper, as well as a series of phone apps that spoke for her.

The multiple apps were necessary, she said, because certain words simply had to get through. “The great thing is I love to swear,” she explained to Cooper. “Most of [the apps] you can’t swear on, but I found this one app where you can swear, so I’m still really getting my point across.”

Check out the clip below. READ FULL STORY »

Feb 8 2012 01:01 PM ET

This week in ridiculous tour riders: Kanye West and M.I.A.

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Image Credit: Abdeljalil Bounhar/AP

Whatever you thought of M.I.A.’s Super Bowl outing, one thing is for certain: it could’ve gotten weirder.

The web’s premier celebrity-shamer The Smoking Gun has dug up a copy of what it claims is M.I.A.’s tour rider, and it’s a bit of a doozy, even by M.I.A.’s high-doozy standards.

On the list? Let’s see, we’ve got some bottles of Vitamin Water, a few trays of European cheese and “quality chocolates,” a high-speed internet connection.

Hmm, anything else? Oh yeah, we almost forgot about the three women between the ages of 20 and 25 to dance on stage wearing full-body burkas. And the burkas should be provided by the venue, naturally.

READ FULL STORY »

Jan 31 2012 10:47 PM ET

Ringo Starr talks Beatles days with Russell Brand... but is there anything we don't already know?

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Image Credit: Rob Shanahan

A trim and tan Ringo Starr regaled a select group of fans yesterday in at a SiriusXM “Town Hall” held the Troubadour in Los Angeles, to promote the release of his new studio album Ringo 2012, out today. If you didn’t know the former Beatle was 71 years old, you would not have believed it — rarely has a septuagenarian rock star looked this good. He gamely bantered with host Russell Brand, who has held back on a sex joke. “The whole day is sort of designed to elicit relentless ejaculation,” Brand told the crowd at the Troubadour before the event began. (“If I talk about relentless ejaculation now,” Brand added, apparently talking to a SiriusXM producer, “it probably won’t be part of the broadcast.”)

Sex jokes aside, a great deal of the hour-long audience Q&A — the second half of which was moderated by music producer Don Was — was spent on Beatles nostalgia, from reminiscing about their final rooftop concert (yesterday was that event’s 43rd anniversary, a fact that took Starr by surprise), all the way back to when the drummer would watch the Beatles perform before he’d joined the band. READ FULL STORY »

Jan 31 2012 01:34 PM ET

Adele confirms Grammys performance, her first since throat surgery

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Image Credit: Ian West/AP

Sorry, England: The good old U.S. of A. gets Adele back first.

Two weeks ago, the chart-busting singer announced that she would be making her triumphant return to the stage at the Brit Awards. That all changed this morning when the confirmation came that Adele would in fact be performing at the Grammys, making that appearance her first on stage since she took time off for career-threatening throat surgery nearly six months ago.

“I’m immensely proud to have been asked to perform at this year’s Grammy Awards,” Adele said in a press release sent out this morning. “It’s an absolute honor to be included in such a night, and for it to be my first performance in months is very exciting and of course nerve-racking, but what a way to get back into it all.”

There’s no word on what she’ll be performing, but she has a trio of songs that have reached the top of the Hot 100 at her disposal. READ FULL STORY »

Jan 25 2012 02:03 PM ET

Adele passes Rihanna on Hot 100, targets 'The Bodyguard' for all-time album chart mark

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Adele’s still proving to be the ultimate chart-breaker. “Set Fire to the Rain,” the singer’s third 21 single, has toppled Rihanna’s “We Found Love” to claim top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Ri Ri’s Calvin Harris-assisted track, which slips to number two this week, spent 10 total weeks on top of the chart, the stoutest run at that spot since Ke$ha notched nine weeks there at the beginning of 2010 with “Tik Tok.”

“Set Fire to the Rain” is Adele’s third number one, joining “Rolling in the Deep” (which spent seven weeks on top last year) and “Someone Like You” (five total weeks in 2011). Of course, 21 is also the number one album in the country this week, which means that Adele rules both charts simultaneously. That’s not necessarily a remarkable feat, as plenty of artists have lorded over both charts simultaneously, and 10 artists have even done it with two songs (most recently, Usher pulled it off with the Confessions singles “Yeah!” and “Burn” back in 2004). But in an interesting bit of trivia, Adele is now the only artist in history to rule both charts with three different singles from the same album. READ FULL STORY »

Jan 23 2012 04:28 PM ET

Pulp announces more U.S. dates on first Stateside tour in 14 years

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Image Credit: Simone Joyner/Getty Images

The announcement of the full Coachella lineup a few weeks ago was a double-edged sword for fans of Pulp, the iconic Brit-pop band who fashion-rock tunes about rave drugs, the British class system, and Gen X ennui barred them from any substaintial Stateside success but still made them cult heroes here.

On the one hand, it was exciting to know that after reforming last year, they would finally be making their way to the U.S. On the other hand, was it going to take a trip to the desert to sing along with frontman Jarvis Cocker on the chorus of “Disco 2000″?

Luckily, the band heard the cries from people in two other cities, and this morning they announced that they’ll be playing an additional pair of shows in the U.S., which makes four sets total if you count the two weekends at Coachella.

The new dates will take them to New York City’s Radio City Music Hall on April 11 and to San Francisco’s Warfield on April 17. The New York show will be the band’s first sojourn to the United States since 1998, when they went on a brief tour in support of their 1998 album This Is Hardcore.

While they never scored any charting hits in the U.S., Pulp’s influence runs deep. READ FULL STORY »

Jan 18 2012 01:26 PM ET

Album sales: Adele matches 'Titanic' record, passes the 6 million mark; David Crowder Band at No. 2

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For the sixteenth week in its 48-week run, Adele’s chart behemoth 21 topped the Billboard 200, selling 104,000 copies and matching Titanic‘s 16-week run atop the chart in 1998.

All told, Adele’s ubiquitous album has now surpassed the 6 million mark, a feat last achieved by Taylor Swift’s Fearless, which took twice the time — 96 weeks — to do so. If Adele can win a few Grammys next month (and let’s be honest, she probably will), there’s no telling how high 21 may soar.

Christian artists the David Crowder Band notched a No. 2  debut with their final album, Give Us Rest, which moved 51,000 and gave the band their first (and last — they played their final show on Jan. 2) Top 10 debut. Interestingly, Adele kept another Christian act — Casting Crowns — back in second place a few months ago, too.

The week’s other notable debut came from Scottish slow-rockers Snow Patrol. Their new set Fallen Empires entered the chart at No. 5 with 31,000 copies sold — quite a small number for a Top 5 debut.

The low number is indicative of the general weakness plaguing the music industry right about now: While Adele is doing some heavy lifting, other albums are struggling badly. In fact, this week marked the first time in the history of Soundscan that an album (and in this case, two albums) moving fewer than 20,000 copies has managed to make the Top 10.

Check out the Top 10 below: READ FULL STORY »

Jan 13 2012 01:00 PM ET

Madonna talks Lady Gaga, ‘Born This Way’ comparisons, and kissing Nicki Minaj -- VIDEO

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Madonna has never shied away from expressing herself, and in a new interview for 20/20, she finally answers one of the zeitgeist-iest questions of early 2011 (Better late than never!): Was “Born This Way” a straight-up Madge rip-off?

According to reports, Madonna was at first complimentary to Gaga, praising her talent for both singing and songwriting. But you know the lady can never resist a good diva-off, and eventually she went in for the cold kill:

“There’s a lot of ways to look at it. I can’t really be annoyed by it …because, obviously, I’ve influenced her…. When I heard it ["Born This Way"] on the radio… I said that sounds very familiar.”

She then said that “Born This Way” felt “reductive,” and when asked if that was a good thing or a bad thing, Her Madgesty smiled, said “look it up,” and took a sip of her tea.

Considering that she famously likes the press about as much as she likes hydrangeas, the singer handled silly questions about her 24-year-old dancer boyfriend with aplomb: “Behind the curtain, I’m just like everybody else.”

Lady Gaga has previously praised Madonna, saying, “Madonna is a wonderful influence on me.” And Madonna, previously, has been kind right back, telling Graham Norton, “When I first saw her I was really impressed by her. She was cool.” Has the diva detente been shattered now?

You can check out a preview of the interview, where she also talks kissing Nicki Minaj, below: READ FULL STORY »

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