39 Rolling Stones

39
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2014
LIFESTYLE
Rolling Stones
M u s i c
&
M o v i e s
in insurance feud over Scott suicide
T
he Rolling Stones are embroiled in a legal feud
with insurance underwriters who refused to pay
$12.7 million for a tour cancellation following
the suicide of Mick Jagger’s girlfriend L’Wren Scott.
The dispute came to light in court documents filed in
the western US state of Utah, where the insurers are
seeking to speak to Scott’s brother to bolster their case
against the rock legends. Scott, a fashion designer and
model, hanged herself in her New York apartment in
March, leading to a grief-stricken Jagger to call off a
tour of Australia and New Zealand—whose rescheduled dates are underway.
A court document, explaining the need to speak to
Scott’s brother Randall Bambrough, said that doctors
had diagnosed Jagger with “acute traumatic stress
disorder” and ordered the Stones frontman “not to perform for at least 30 days.” The band claimed $12,689,833
under an insurance policy that covered cancellation of
a tour due to the “sudden and unforeseen” deaths of
the band members’ loved ones, with Scott specifically
listed.
“Underwriters denied coverage under the policy because Ms Scott’s suicide was an intentional act and not
a sudden and unforeseen event beyond her control,”
a court document said. The insurance policy excluded
coverage for deaths that were traceable to medical conditions for which the individuals had received medical
care. The documents said that the underwriters were
seeking information on Scott’s medical history as part
of a court case in London.
A subpoena asked Bambrough—who is not accused of wrongdoing—to appear to give testimony at
the office of a law firm in Salt Lake City on December
8. The Salt Lake Tribune, which first reported the case,
said that Bambrough declined comment and said he
had not seen the subpoena. He lives in the Utah city of
Ogden, close to Salt Lake City where Scott was born.
Rolling Stones fans in Australia suffered a new blow
when the band canceled a show Saturday at Hanging
Rock in Victoria state as Jagger struggled with a throat
infection.
But the rock superstars, who keep packing in arenas
50 years into their careers, kept an earlier show in
Melbourne and are scheduled to play Wednesday in
Sydney.—AFP
File photo shows The Rolling Stones perform at the Staples Center launching of their ‘50 & Counting’ tour in
Los Angeles, California.—AFP
Sharing music: A personal gift made easy by tech
Chris
Brown,
Trey Songz reunite for
US tour
This undated photo provided by Heather
Browne displays a selection of holiday CDs she
has made over the years for friends and listeners of her blog.
C
hris Brown and Trey Songz are celebrating their
10-year anniversary. The longtime friends and
Virginia natives announced their upcoming “Between the Sheets” tour Monday, nearly a decade after
performing together during a 2005 college tour. “We
always had a bond regardless as friends and as brothers.
We trust each other,” Brown said during an interview
with Trey Songz and rapper Tyga, who will also perform
on the tour.
Brown and Trey Songz made the announcement at
the House of Blues in Los Angeles after performing their
remix “Tuesday” and Brown’s hit single “Loyal.” Tyga did
not perform. “It took awhile for something like this to
happen because you do grow a friendship over years
and I’m excited about it, more excited about it than any
(other) tour,” said Trey Songz. The 25-city trek, which
kicks off Jan. 28 in Hampton, Virginia, isn’t Brown’s only
collaboration making headlines.
He’s featured along with Drake and Lil Wayne on
Nicki Minaj’s new single “Only.” The militaristic music
video has stirred some controversy with critics accusing
Minaj of using Nazi imagery. Brown, however, said he
has not seen it. “I haven’t had a chance to see the whole
video. I know I shot my part maybe a couple weeks ago,
so I’m waiting to see the final edit of the actual video. So
it’s going to be dope,” he said.—AP
Chris Brown and Trey Songz perform at the Chris
Brown and Trey Songz Press Conference at House of
Blues on Monday in Los Angeles.—AP
Lost Dylan
Photo shows the musician Armstrong, left, who used a song
from Kenya on his 2012 mix
that reminds him of the time he
spent building a home for AIDS
orphans there, in Kisii. —AP
photos
Bowie
interprets WWI horror in new song
O
ne hundred years after the start of World War
I, innovative rock legend David Bowie has
offered an interpretation of the war’s horrors
in an experimental new song. “’Tis a Pity She Was
a Whore,” which alludes to the controversial 17thcentury play by John Ford, starts with percussion that
resembles trench gunfire before growing into a rock
beat with a hazy electronic background.
As saxophones blare with growing urgency, the
67-year-old stretches his voice to high pitch as he
describes what, on the surface, is an account of being
punched by a woman during the Great War. “If Vorticists wrote rock music it might have sounded like this,”
Bowie said in a statement, referring to the modernist
art movement that emerged in Britain during the war
that engulfed Europe.
The song, available for download, will also appear
as a B-side to a nearly eight-minute number entitled
“Sue (or In a Season of Crime),” which is part of Bowie’s
upcoming career-spanning collection “Nothing Has
Changed.” The music is the first by the glam rock pioneer since March 2013, when he released the album
“The Next Day” to critical acclaim after a decade of
silence.—AFP
Music Review
lyrics brought to life
T
he bottomless well of material from Bob
Dylan just got deeper with the release of “Lost
on the River: The New Basement Tapes,” an
unqualified success. The 20 songs with titles like
“Card Shark” and “Duncan and Jimmy” are taken
from recently discovered lyrics Dylan wrote in 1967,
during the period that produced the so-called Basement Tapes recordings that were released in their
entirety in a separate box set earlier in November.
Such luminaries as Elvis Costello, Jim James from
My Morning Jacket, and Marcus Mumford worked
out musical arrangements from the lyrics that Dylan
This CD cover image
either never recorded, or perhaps recorded and
released by Electromagnever released. Former Dylan band member and
netic Recordings/Harvest
Records shows, “Lost on the producer T Bone Burnett, who also pulled together
the “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou” soundtrack among
River: The New Basement
Tapes,” sung by various art- many other projects, oversaw the work and makes it
all flow seamlessly.
ists.—AP
“Down On The Bottom,” the James-led opener,
is a standout, as is “When I Get My Hands On You,”
with Mumford taking lead vocals. The artists create
something entirely new with lyrics written nearly 45
years ago that sound like they could just as easily
have come from the Civil War, Dust Bowl or yesterday. In other words, it’s timeless.—AP
David Bowie
Cranberries
singer arrested on plane at Irish airport
I
Dolores O’Riordan
rish police arrested a woman reported to be
Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan after
an alleged assault on a flight from the United
States on Monday, police said. O’Riordan, who
shot to fame as the lead singer of the Cranberries
in the 1990s, was detained at Shannon airport
in southwest Ireland on arrival on an Aer Lingus
flight from New York. Police officers “were called
to meet the aircraft following an allegation of
assault on an Aer Lingus female air hostess,” a
police spokesman said.
“A male member of An Gardai Siochana (Ireland’s police service) was also assaulted... during
the course of the arrest.” The air stewardess was
brought to hospital for treatment, the police
spokesman said. O’Riordan, 43, was reportedly
taken for questioning at a police station, before
being brought to hospital for examination. The
singer and lead songwriter for the band, which
sold over 40 million albums worldwide, was later
released without charge. Police said an investigation into the incident is ongoing. O’Riordan’s
management company did not immediately
respond to a request for comment.—AFP
In this photo provided by
Milktape Mixtape Co, music
aficionados can personalize their holiday playlists by
loading the songs onto fun
USB drives like this one that
resembles a cassette tape.
L
uke Maguire Armstrong doesn’t pen a holiday
letter to friends. The guitar player and songwriter
prefers to communicate musically. Armstrong
makes a CD that he shares with friends and family each
Christmas, containing songs that reflect the places he’s
visited or how he’s felt during the year. He includes a
note about how he discovered each song. Recent CDs,
for example, have helped tell the stories of his travels
throughout Central America.
“I choose the songs that had the most impact on
me,” said Armstrong, who divides his time between New
York and Antigua, Guatemala. “It’s a way for me to stay
in touch with a lot of people and get everyone something.” Sharing music is a great way to connect with
friends, and technology has made it easier than ever,
says Kristen Chase, publisher and CEO of coolmompicks.
com, which covers trends in technology. Chase, who has
a degree in music therapy, creates playlists for various
occasions, including her children’s birthdays.
“Because our music preferences are often a window
into who we are as people, sharing music is actually
sharing a part of ourselves,” she said. “It’s a way for us
to connect with other people and allow them into our
lives, which I think is an inherent part of being human.”
Or, as Armstrong described it in a holiday letter he sent
to friends with the songs in 2011: “To me, music is more
than just an entertaining way to pass the time, but (like
chocolate covered bananas and Lady Gaga) a way to
enrich life - a way of reaching further than rigid reality
allows.”
Music lovers can create and share playlists in a variety
of ways, Chase said. She recommends Spotify, a digital
music service that provides access to millions of songs.
Users can search for songs online to share with friends
and family. For those who prefer creating something
more tangible, Chase suggests putting the music on a
USB drive. USB drives come in numerous designs and
colors; Chase likes the nostalgic feel of ones that look
like cassette tapes, which for her conjure up memories
of mix tapes in high school.
Adding music to a USB drive is also a way to give a
tech gift that has a personal touch. “You can get really
creative,” she said. Tyler Hayes, a writer in San Diego,
suggests asking friends what website or app they use
to listen to music, and sharing a playlist through it. In
addition to Spotify, he has shared songs using Beats
Music and Rdio. “I’m always seeking out new music and
sharing it - especially with people I know who would
enjoy it,” he said.
Conscious rebellion
Heather Browne of Colorado Springs, Colorado, looks
forward every fall to creating a 20-song Christmas/
holiday playlist to share with friends, family and readers
of her music blog. “Part of the reason I do them is as
a conscious rebellion against the amount of terrible
Christmas music out there,” she said. “I try to find songs
with some sense of nostalgia, some sense of wonder.”
Often, the songs aren’t holiday music per se, but feel
“Christmasy” or “wintery,” and reflect how her year went.
She pays careful attention to the order of the songs, too.
“That’s kind of the fun part of making a mix - curating
the songs,” she said. “I hope that they listen to them in
the order I put them in.”
Browne shares the list as MP3 files on her blog,
fuelfriends.blogspot.com, but also burns about two
dozen CDs to give away. A friend helps her create cover
art for the CD, and anyone who wants to burn a CD of
the playlist can also print out the cover art. “It takes a
lot of work,” Browne said. “I get wonderful, emotional
feedback from people from all around the world - that
makes it worthwhile.”—AP