eunited British rock band James, which enjoyed cult success in America during the early 1990s, played its first US concert in Los Angeles on Friday since ending a lengthy hiatus last year. The hour-long gig at Spaceland, a 260-capacity club near Hollywood, showcased a handful of tunes from James’ new album Hey Ma, including the anti-war title track.
Despite a wobbly start and fears of imminent implosion, Van Halen said on Thursday its first tour with singer David Lee Roth in two decades grossed more than US$93 million, a record for the rock band. Van Halen played to nearly one million people during 74 arena shows throughout the US and Canada, beginning Sept. 27 in Charlotte, North Carolina and wrapping up Tuesday in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne won “substantial” damages on Thursday from the publishers of the Daily Star newspaper over a report that the singer’s poor health had thrown a music awards show into chaos. Osbourne sued the tabloid for a story titled Ozzy’s Freak Show, which said the 59-year-old rocker and reality TV star had toppled over twice just before the annual Brit Awards, which he and his family presented on live television. The article also alleged that Osbourne had to be ferried around the February awards show on an electric buggy.
PHOTO: AP
Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten was charged in a civil lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles with beating a woman during the taping of a reality show last year, court sources said.
Roxane Davis, an assistant producer in a reality TV show that featured Rotten, 52, said the former punk rocker hit her because he didn’t like the hotel room he was given.
The alleged aggression in January, 2007, did not lead to criminal charges, but Davis is suing Rotten — whose real name is John Lydon — for sexual harassment and assault.
PHOTO: AP
A spokesman for the singer said that Rotten was not available for comment.
The Sex Pistols spearheaded the 1970s punk movement with singles like Anarchy in the UK and Pretty Vacant and were formed in 1975. The band split in 1978. Sid Vicious, who replaced Glen Matlock as bassist in 1977, died after a drug overdose in 1979.
The group got together again in 1996 and performed until 2003. Last year they again re-grouped and are scheduled to tour Europe by mid year.
The actress who played Wonder Woman on TV in the 1970s says she didn’t do anything extraordinary when she discovered a body this week on the Potomac River in Washington, DC.
Lynda Carter told the Washington Post she was alone in a boat when she saw the body Wednesday. She says she didn’t have a cell phone with her, so she yelled to some fishermen and asked them to call police. Carter waited until rescuers arrived and directed them to the body.
Police say the body of 47-year-old Helen Johnstone was found floating on the river Wednesday. The medical examiner’s office has not declared an official cause of death.
Carter says she “did what anybody would have done.’’
A book publisher has sued the daughter of the late Mafia don John Gotti for the return of a US$70,000 advance she was paid to write a memoir she never delivered.
HarperCollins Publishers LLC says in court papers filed Thursday in Manhattan that the book was due Nov. 1, 2005.
Last September, Victoria Gotti notified HarperCollins she was terminating the contract.
The publisher’s lawsuit filed in Manhattan says did not return the US$70,000 advance.
Gotti’s literary agent Frank Weiman says he’ll get another deal for his client, and then she’ll give back the money to the publisher.
Jim McKay, a veteran sports television broadcaster who brought the drama of the Olympic games to millions of Americans, has died, US media reported on Saturday.
McKay died of natural causes at his home in Maryland, his family said in a statement. He was 86.
McKay was the amiable face of ABC’s Wide World of Sports, the most successful sports program in US television history, and hosted coverage of 12 Olympic games.
His poised minute-by-minute reporting from the 1972 Munich Olympics, in which members of the Israeli team were taken hostage and murdered, won him accolades and awards, including two Emmys and the George Polk Award.
He was inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame in 1988.
April 28 to May 4 During the Japanese colonial era, a city’s “first” high school typically served Japanese students, while Taiwanese attended the “second” high school. Only in Taichung was this reversed. That’s because when Taichung First High School opened its doors on May 1, 1915 to serve Taiwanese students who were previously barred from secondary education, it was the only high school in town. Former principal Hideo Azukisawa threatened to quit when the government in 1922 attempted to transfer the “first” designation to a new local high school for Japanese students, leading to this unusual situation. Prior to the Taichung First
When the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese forces 50 years ago this week, it prompted a mass exodus of some 2 million people — hundreds of thousands fleeing perilously on small boats across open water to escape the communist regime. Many ultimately settled in Southern California’s Orange County in an area now known as “Little Saigon,” not far from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, where the first refugees were airlifted upon reaching the US. The diaspora now also has significant populations in Virginia, Texas and Washington state, as well as in countries including France and Australia.
On April 17, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) launched a bold campaign to revive and revitalize the KMT base by calling for an impromptu rally at the Taipei prosecutor’s offices to protest recent arrests of KMT recall campaigners over allegations of forgery and fraud involving signatures of dead voters. The protest had no time to apply for permits and was illegal, but that played into the sense of opposition grievance at alleged weaponization of the judiciary by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to “annihilate” the opposition parties. Blamed for faltering recall campaigns and faced with a KMT chair
Article 2 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文) stipulates that upon a vote of no confidence in the premier, the president can dissolve the legislature within 10 days. If the legislature is dissolved, a new legislative election must be held within 60 days, and the legislators’ terms will then be reckoned from that election. Two weeks ago Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposed that the legislature hold a vote of no confidence in the premier and dare the president to dissolve the legislature. The legislature is currently controlled
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