Robbie Williams

Robbie Williams Marries Ayda Field In Los Angeles

08 Aug 2010 17:17:47 EDT

The British singer weds actress on Saturday in his Beverly Hills home.
By Mawuse Ziegbe

The summer of celebrity love" rolls on as another artist ties the knot.

British pop singer Robbie Williams married American actress Ayda Field on Saturday (August 7) at the couple's California home. Williams' spokesperson, Murray Chalmers, confirmed the nuptials in a statement.

"Robbie Williams and Ayda Field were married yesterday, August 7, in a ceremony held in the grounds of the home they share in Los Angeles," Chalmers said. People magazine reports that the couple first met in 2006 and swapped vows surrounded by 75 guests.

Williams rose to fame in the '90s as a member of the British boy band Take That. He went on to launch a successful solo career and topped the international pop charts with songs such as "Millennium" and "Rock DJ." Ayda Field has appeared in TV shows such as "Days of Our Lives" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."

Williams recently reunited with his Take That members to record a new album for the first time since he split from the group in 1995. He told BBC News in July that getting back together with his fellow boy-banders was like "coming home."

The singer's dad said Field is a good fit for Williams, who has struggled with substance abuse throughout his career.

"At last, Rob is happy. That's what you want for your kids and this is the happiest I've seen him," Pete Conway told U.K. newspaper News of the World. "Ayda is so beautiful and so delightful and so lovely and just so right for him. They are brilliant together."

Leave well-wishes for the couple in the comments below!

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Lovebirds: Robbie Williams And Ayda Field

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Robbie Williams

For The Record: Quick News On Mariah, Notorious B.I.G., Paul Wall, Beyonce, Shakira, Fall Out Boy & More

13 Feb 2007 18:04:00 EST

Carey is new face of Pinko; Biggie comp has two unreleased cuts; Wall teeing up second LP.
By MTV News staff

Mariah Carey has been named the new face of the Italian fashion house Pinko. Pietro Negra, the president and founder of the clothing line, said the company sought "not only a beautiful woman, but a musical artist, because music is the greatest channel of communication." Carey, a self-described "huge fan" of the brand, said she was "beyond excited" when approached by Pinko. "The clothes are so stylish and fun, and I'm really looking forward to our new venture together." ...

A Notorious B.I.G. Greatest Hits compilation is coming March 6, in time for the 10th anniversary of his death. Along with favorites like "Juicy," "Big Poppa" and "Hypnotize," the album will feature two previously unreleased tracks: "Running Your Mouth" and "Want That Old Thing Back." ...

Paul Wall will release his second major-label album, Get Money - Stay True, April 3. Jermaine Dupri, Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross, Fergie and Trina are among the guests. The album's first single, "Break 'Em Off," recently went to radio. ... The grillz guru is also joining Jamie Kennedy's Hip-Hop Comedy Tour this month, to play for U.S. troops stationed in the Persian Gulf. Like other United Service Organizations performances in the area, specific dates and destinations on the tour are unavailable for security reasons. ...

Beyoncé's B'Day, which earned the singer a Grammy in the Best Contemporary R&B Album category Sunday, is getting another spin April 3. The double-disc deluxe edition of B'Day will feature the original album plus three new tracks — "If," "Flaws & All" and the Shakira duet "Beautiful Liar" — on one CD. Disc two of the expanded release will feature six Spanish-language tracks, including "Amor Gitano" — a duet with singer Alejandro Fernández — Spanish-language versions of "Listen" ("Oye") and "Irreplaceable" ("Irremplazable") and three additional mixes of "Beautiful Liar." "B'Day Anthology Video Album," a Wal-Mart exclusive DVD featuring 10 Beyoncé videos, will also hit shelves April 3. ...

Fall Out Boy, Deftones, Meg & Dia and Motion City Soundtrack bandmembers have finally found something in common: a love of haikus. They're putting ink to paper for "Revolution on Canvas, Volume 2: Poetry From the Indie Music Scene," an exhaustive volume that also features contributions from members of Cobra Starship, Atreyu, Chiodos, Rise Against, Murder by Death, the Hush Sound, Rx Bandits and Hellogoodbye. The book is due May 9. ... Robbie Williams will spend his 33rd birthday in rehab. The British pop singer has checked into a clinic to treat a prescription-drug addition, his spokesperson confirmed to MTV UK on Tuesday (February 13): "Robbie Williams has today been admitted into a treatment center in America for his dependency on prescription drugs. There will be no further comment on this matter." In 1995, Williams checked into rehab for drug and alcohol addiction following his departure from the boy band Take That. ...

The Shins, who kicked off their latest tour last week, have added more dates to their itinerary. The band plays Lawrence, Kansas, on Tuesday and will perform in Denver, Seattle, Houston, Philadelphia, New York and Boston before the trek concludes with an April 14 performance at KCRW's A Sounds Eclectic Evening festival in Universal City, California. ... With a string of five shows at the Judson Memorial Church in New York beginning Tuesday, the Arcade Fire have announced a full U.S. tour in support of their new album, Neon Bible (due March 6). The band will spend all of March and most of April overseas, then return to the U.S. on April 26 for a show at the Spreckels Theatre in San Diego, followed by a performance at Coachella on April 28. The band will then hit Atlanta; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; and Boston before playing three shows at a yet-unannounced venue in New York, three gigs at the Chicago Theatre and a stop at the Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon. The tour is currently set to conclude with two shows at San Francisco's Greek Theatre on June 1-2. ...

Lou Reed, Mike Doughty, Laurie Anderson and others will congregate March 1 at New York's Town Hall for "Old Knit," a 20th anniversary celebration of the founding of noted Tribeca music venue the Knitting Factory. The event — also featuring jazz savant John Zorn and Medeski, Martin and Wood — will double as a benefit for the nonprofit performance space the Stone, located on the Lower East Side. ... The Flaming Lips will tour the southern U.S. this spring, the band announced just hours after taking home two Grammys Sunday night — winning Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "The Wizard Turns On ..." and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, for At War With the Mystics. The tour kicks off April 11 in Athens, Georgia, and will make stops in Orlando, Florida; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and Raleigh, North Carolina, before wrapping up April 19 in Norfolk, Virginia. No word yet on who will open for the Lips, but those details and additional live dates are expected in the coming weeks. ...

Shadows Fall have set an April 3 release date for their new album, Threads of Life. Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Velvet Revolver) produced the album, which features the first single, "Redemption." ... MTV News You Hear It First alums the Exies have moved to indie label Eleven Seven Music for the release of their album, A Modern Way of Living With the Truth, due April 10. The first single, "Different Than You," is going to radio February 20. ... Static-X will release their latest LP, Cannibal, April 3. To promote the disc, the band will kick off a U.S. tour March 30 in Santa Ana, California. Dates run through April 15 in San Antonio. ... Scottish band the View have canceled their upcoming U.S. tour due to "unforeseen visa and immigration issues," the band announced Monday. The scrapped run was set to kick off March 3 in New York and hit the South by Southwest music conference as well as cities including Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco and Toronto. The band's debut album, Hats Off to the Buskers, will be released in the U.S. on May 8.

02.12.2007

In honor of Black History Month, Jay-Z has partnered with thinkMTV to present a two-minute video clip for "Minority Report," the rapper's somber response to the Hurricane Katrina aftermath. Visit "Minority Report: New Orleans Today" to see the clip, read Jay's lyrics and find out how you can help the recovery efforts. ...

According to a post on Metallica's Web site, the band is wrapping up preproduction on its forthcoming album and will begin recording the effort March 12. "We're pretty f---in' psyched about it and pretty f---in' psyched to be sharing this experience with [producer Rick Rubin]," the post reads. Metallica plan to take a break from the studio with a European tour this summer. ...

Like a young LL Cool J, Bow Wow is in need of love. So to help the teen rapper promote his new single, "Outta My System," he's looking for a virtual Valentine via his MySpace page, through which he's asking fans to send him video V-Day messages. The winning entries will be broadcast on his site at a later date. ...

The Grammy Awards received an 18 percent ratings boost Sunday night — and they might have Simon, Randy and Paula to thank, according to The Associated Press. After getting trounced by "American Idol" upon going head-to-head with the reality show last year, the Grammys attracted an estimated 20.1 million viewers this time around. The show also outdid its ratings from 2005, when 18.8 million people tuned in. ... John Legend and Corinne Bailey Rae teamed up for a Sunday night Grammy performance, but that won't be the last time the two join forces. Legend will kick off his North American spring tour — featuring Bailey Rae as the opener — on April 3 in Irvine, California. The tour will make stops in cities including Los Angeles; Denver; Minneapolis; Boston; New York; and Orlando, Florida, before wrapping up May 4 in Atlanta. Legend will perform the following day at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. ...

Unsung hip-hop hero J Dilla continues to get accolades after his passing last year. The producer won two posthumous awards — for Artist of the Year and Record Producer of the Year — at the Plug Awards, held Saturday night in New York. Other winners included Sufjan Stevens (Male Artist of the Year), Arctic Monkeys (New Artist of the Year), Broken Social Scene (Live Act of the Year), Band of Horses (Album of the Year, Song of the Year), Yo La Tengo (Indie Rock Album of the Year), Wolf Parade (Music Video of the Year) and Thom Yorke (Electronic/Dance Album of the Year). ... A coroner has determined that Gerald Levert's November death was due to a fatal combination of prescription narcotics and over-the-counter drugs, AP reports. The R&B singer had three prescription painkillers, an anti-anxiety drug and two over-the-counter antihistamines in his system. The death was ruled accidental. ...

Modest Mouse are preparing to hit the road this spring in support of their next album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, which is slated for a March 20 release. So far, the band has booked gigs in Mexico City, Mexico (March 10); Portland, Oregon (March 14-15); Missoula, Montana (March 16); Sioux Falls, South Dakota (March 18); and Fargo, Nort

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Coldplay, Green Day Win Big At MTV Europe Music Awards

04 Nov 2005 08:44:00 EST

Madonna emerged from a disco ball to open Thursday's show in Lisbon, Portugal.
By Gil Kaufman

Madonna popped out of a disco ball, the Gorillaz got animated and Green Day and Coldplay dominated the MTV Europe Music Awards, performing live and winning two awards each at Thursday's ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal.

Dressed in a purple leotard and purple leather jacket, Madonna emerged from a giant disco ball to open the show, performing her new single, "Hung Up."

(Click here for images from this year's MTV Europe Music Awards.)

This year's ceremony was hosted by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's Kazakhstani alter ego, Borat Sagdiyev, who greeted the audience by saying, "Welcome to the 2005 Eurovision song contest!" Poking fun at his pal Madonna, he then said, "It was very courageous of MTV to start the show with a genuine transvestite."

Gorillaz's win for Best Group brought a chuckle when co-founder/cartoonist Jamie Hewlett said, "We are the best group, and we don't even exist." The band "performed" at the show via three-dimensional holograms of their cartoon images projected onto the stage.

Also taking home awards were Robbie Williams (Best Male), Shakira (Best Female), Alicia Keys (Best R&B), Chemical Brothers (Best Video - "Believe") and the Black Eyed Peas (Best Pop).

In addition to performances by Green Day, Coldplay and Gorillaz, the show at Lisbon's Pavilhão Atlântico featured sets from the Foo Fighters, Shakira, System of a Down, the Pussycat Dolls and Robbie Williams.

The event also featured the presentation of the Free Your Mind humanitarian award, which was given to Live Aid and Live 8 founder Sir Bob Geldof by Madonna.

MTV Europe Music Awards winners:

Best Male: Robbie Williams
Best Female: Shakira
Best Group: Gorillaz
Best Song: Coldplay - "Speed Of Sound"
Best Album: Green Day - American Idiot
Best Video: Chemical Brothers - "Believe"
Best Pop: Black Eyed Peas
Best Rock: Green Day
Best Hip-Hop: Snoop Dogg
Best New Act: James Blunt
Best Alternative: System of a Down
Best R&B: Alicia Keys
Best UK & Ireland Act: Coldplay
Free Your Mind Award: Sir Bob Geldof

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MTV Europe Music Awards 2005

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Franz Ferdinand, Scissor Sisters, Keane Win Big At Brit Awards

10 Feb 2005 10:32:00 EST

Sisters, an American group, lead the pack with three awards.
By Gil Kaufman

The biggest winners at Wednesday night's Brit Awards in London were ...

American camp-rockers the Scissor Sisters. The flashy, trashy disco-rock group — whose self-titled debut was the top-selling album of last year in England — won three awards at the British answer to the Grammys, including International Breakthrough Act, Best International Group and Best International Album. The group blew open the night's proceedings with a typically over-the-top performance of their hit "Take Your Mama," which had them bursting out of a pair of golden eggs laid by a huge pink rooster.

The evening's other big winners include Glasgow, Scotland, rockers Franz Ferdinand (Best British Group and Best British Rock Act), Keane (whose Hopes and Fears won Best British Album and British Breakthrough) and teenage soul diva Joss Stone (Best British Female Solo Artist and Best Urban Act). The Best Male Solo Artist award went to gritty rapper Mike Skinner (a.k.a the Streets), and Muse were named Best British Live Act.

The Sisters weren't the only Yanks to crash the proceedings, as Gwen Stefani swept up the International Female Solo Artist trophy and Eminem won for International Male Solo Artist.

Live Aid founder Sir Bob Geldof was given an award for outstanding contribution to music for his work raising money for African famine relief and leading the Irish band the Boomtown Rats.

In a reflection of his massive popularity in England, Robbie Williams' "Angels" was picked as the best song of the past 25 years by a poll of BBC radio listeners, beating out selections by Queen, Kate Bush, Joy Division and "Pop Idol" winner Will Young.

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For The Record: Quick News On Linkin Park, Chili Peppers, Tommy Lee, Moby, Big Daddy Kane, Robbie Williams & More

26 Jun 2003 16:59:00 EDT

By MTV News staff report

Linkin Park will play three rescheduled Projekt Revolution Tour shows in between Summer Sanitarium dates. The added shows are July 22 in Rochester, New York, with Mudvayne, Cold and Jurassic 5; July 29 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, with Mudvayne and Cold; and July 30 in Wichita, Kansas, with Mudvayne. ...

While on a break before going to Europe to support By the Way in August, the Red Hot Chili Peppers will write and record two or three songs for an upcoming greatest-hits album. The band completed a North American tour leg, with Snoop Dogg in tow, last weekend. ... Tommy Lee has confirmed the end of his engagement to Prince's ex-wife, Mayte Garcia. In his Web journal at joysmayhem.com, the rocker originally wrote, "I'm a free man by the way. NO more probation/court/drama, etc. ... I'm a single man these days ... uh oh!" The reference to his love life, however, has since been deleted, while the line about his probation status remains. ...

Maybe Moby really is made of stars — he's the music coordinator for the new multimedia show at New York's Hayden Planetarium, which used to host weekly laser-light shows set to the tunes of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and others. Moby's show, in which he'll mix his own music with that of Radiohead, the Flaming Lips and Massive Attack, should debut in October. ... Pharoahe Monch, KRS-One and Big Daddy Kane will be on hand for the inaugural Hip-Hop Peace & Unity Festival in Boston on July 18 and 19. The festival, organized to celebrate diversity and promote positivity, will include roundtable discussions with hip-hop artists and local government officials in an effort to come to a mutual understanding about the origin and culture of hip-hop. There will also be a fundraiser for Boston youth programs that have been subjected to recent cutbacks. ...

Love crooner Daniel Bedingfield will appear on the CBS soap opera "Guiding Light" on July 9 to perform his ballad "If You're Not the One." The dance mix for the song is already used in the promos for CBS Daytime's "Hot Enough for You" ad campaign. ... Thursday have made a new song called "For the Workforce, Drowning" available through their Web site. The track will appear alongside Thrice's "Under a Killing Moon" on a limited-edition clear vinyl split 7" single set for release July 1. The song was recorded during the sessions for War All the Time, Thursday's first full album since jumping to a major label, which drops September 16. ...

Robbie Williams appears in a three-minute public-service announcement sponsored by UNICEF to help fight child trafficking. "It's short, but it's definitely not sweet," he says in an introduction preceding the film, which is based around a poem by Simon Armitage, describing the sale of children into prostitution as if they were an exotic fruit. The film can be viewed at endchildexploitation.org.uk. ... Williams is also reportedly looking to collaborate with journalist Chris Heath on his autobiography, which he would work on throughout his European tour. This would be Williams' second autobiography; his first, "Somebody Someday," took fans behind the scenes of his 2001 tour. ...

To offset cutbacks the state of California made to its educational system, hometown boys Hoobastank have planned a July 15 benefit at a new Calabasas middle school that now can't afford to open. The money raised will be used to hire teachers. Hoobastank's second album is due September 30. ... Britpop band Starsailor have finished their follow-up to Love Is Here. The new album, Silence Is Easy, is slated for release in September, with the title track set to be the first single. Other song titles include "Music Was Saved," "Fidelity," "Shark Food," "White Dove" and "Four to the Floor." ... Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Christopher Walla, who has worked with Hot Hot Heat, will produce Blue Sky Mile's Initial Records debut. The band will begin tracking at the end of July at Hall of Justice studios in their hometown of Seattle. ...

06.25.2003

Linkin Park are scheduled to play a pro skateboarding contest this weekend in Las Vegas, and JC Chasez and Pink will be among the celebs there to help the winners celebrate. The Boost Mobile Pro of Skateboarding will take place Friday through Sunday, boasting the richest prize purse in the history of professional skateboarding — more than $250,000. Linkin Park's performance follows the wildcard skate-off, and takes place at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino's the Joint on Friday. ...

Expect lots of bands changing places — at least musically — on the upcoming "Freaky Friday" soundtrack. Bowling for Soup cover Britney Spears' "... Baby One More Time," Simple Plan remake the Turtles' "Happy Together" and Lillix contribute their cover of the Romantics' "What I Like About You." The Donnas also provide an unreleased song, while the film's star Lindsay Lohan makes her recording debut on the soundtrack. The LP is due in stores July 29, and the film hits theaters August 6. ...

Mya, appearing as herself, will sing her new single "My Love Is Like ... Wo," on the NBC soap opera "Passions." The episode is scheduled to air July 24. ... A recent acoustic performance by Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, along with an interview with the band, will air at 11 a.m. PT Thursday on KCRW.com and KCRW-FM in Los Angeles. An edited version of the show will air July 20 on the weekly program "Sounds Eclectic," which is distributed to public radio stations nationwide. ...

First the West Coast All Tomorrow's Parties festival was postponed until September, and now its cross-country counterpart has followed suit. The East Coast ATP Festival, curated by Stephen Malkmus and scheduled for September in Asbury Park, New Jersey, has been bumped to next year. ... R.E.M. have set an October 28 release date for In Time: Best of R.E.M. 1988 - 2003. The compilation will feature two new tracks, "Bad Day" and "Animal." ...

The Dandy Warhols are hitting the road beginning August 24 at Los Angeles' annual Sunset Junction Street Fair, but in the meantime, the group is planning a more innovative tour. To promote the August 19 release of Welcome to the Monkey House, the group is a launching an Internet tour. The Warhols' Odditorium Web site — a collection of short films and music — will travel around to different Web sites, ranging from gaywired.com to virginmega.com, beginning July 1. ... Steve Turner, Mark Arm's right-hand man in Mudhoney, has released his solo debut, Searching for Melody, on newly formed Seattle indie Roslyn Records. Backing up the guitarist are Mudhoney drummer Dan Peters, Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard (who will play bass on the project) and Seattle studio wiz Johnny Sangster. ...

Death Cab for Cutie have announced that Transatlanticism will be the title of their new album, due in October. In related news, Death Cab frontman Ben Gibbard and DNTEL's Jimmy Tamborello are gearing up for an Australian tour with their project the Postal Service that's set to begin July 3. ... The new album by Vertical Horizon, Go, will be released on September 23. The first single, "I'm Still Here," goes to radio in July. ...

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Godsmack Slap Linkin Park From #1 Slot On Albums Chart

16 Apr 2003 14:09:00 EDT

Faceless, Godsmack's third LP, sells more than 266,000 copies its first week out.
By Joe D'Angelo

Despite their nondescript album title, Godsmack earned the distinction of topping next week's Billboard albums chart.

Faceless, the Boston band's third LP, sold more than 266,000 copies, according to SoundScan figures released Wednesday (April 16), breaking Linkin Park's two-week hold on the top slot. Meteora trailed Godsmack's aggro opus by more than 80,000 copies to place second on the chart.

Godsmack's last album, Awake, released on Halloween in 2000, put up nearly similar numbers, 256,000 in its first week, but came in at #5 on the chart.

The Presley surname is hardly out of place in the top of the charts, and Elvis' daughter, Lisa Marie, continues the family tradition with To Whom It May Concern. Fronted by the single "Lights Out," Presley's debut sold more than 142,000 copies to claim the #5 position.

Ginuwine has got to be exclaiming the title of his hit single "Hell Yeah" at the news that his latest album, The Senior, will place at #6. Written and produced by R. Kelly, "Hell Yeah" helped the R&B crooner's fourth album sell more than 122,000 copies in its first week.

A greatest-hits collection from the soothing and sensitive James Taylor, titled The Best of James Taylor, that features "Fire and Rain" and "Sweet Baby James," leads next week's chart debuts in the #11-#20 bracket, followed by Jay-Z's condensed combo of Blueprint albums, Blueprint 2.1, at #17.

Lucinda Williams' beautifully languid World Without Tears will come in right behind Jigga at #18, while Scarface's Balls and My Word, which cops its title from dialogue from the rapper's namesake's film, will place at #20.

The remainder of next week's top 10 finds 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' dropping a place to #3 (159,000) and surpassing total sales of more than 4 million copies; Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 12 also taking a step back to #4 (143,000); The Very Best of Cher holding at #7 (118,000); Celine Dion's One Heart slipping four spots to #8 (117,000); Norah Jones' Come Away With Me sliding likewise to #9 (166,000); and Evanescence's Fallen losing a spot to #10 (87,000) while moving past the half-million mark.

Two of the most talked about albums in recent weeks took the biggest nosedives on the next week's chart. British invader Robbie Williams is seemingly falling short of his crossover quest, as his latest album, Escapology, will drop to #104 after its #43 debut. Its weekly sales were also slashed by 11,000, more than half of last week's retail performance.

The soundtrack to Rob Zombie's horror flick "House of 1000 Corpses" also got buried on next week chart. The week that the movie hit the big screens, weekly sales of the LP fell by more than 8,000 copies and its chart position plummeted 52 places.

Other notable debuts on next week's chart include country rockers the Jayhawks' Rainy Day Music at #51; an imitation of the "Now" series, Got Hits, featuring contributions from Kylie Minogue, Justin Timberlake and Aaliyah, among others, at #73; Boomkatalog One by Taryn Manning and her brother Kellin's dance-pop project Boomkat, at #88; the newest addition to Insane Clown Posse's Psychopathic Records, gangsta rapper ABK's Hatchet Warrior at #98; indie rock pillars Yo La Tengo's Summer Sun at #115; and SoCal punks' Lagwagon's fifth LP, Blaze, at #172.

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White Stripes Storm The Chart But Can't Topple Linkin Park

09 Apr 2003 13:54:00 EDT

Very Best of Cher LP also hits top 10.
By Gil Kaufman

While the White Stripes topped the U.K. album charts last week, they won't be able to achieve the same feat at home with their fourth album, Elephant. Meanwhile, perennial British chart topper Robbie Williams was relegated to the mid-40s with his third U.S. release, Escapology.

The White Stripes' Elephant lumbers into Billboard's top 10 at #6, but the blues punk, candy-stripped duo from Detroit couldn't slow the orbit of last week's #1, Linkin Park's Meteora.

Elephant is by far the highest chart debut from garage rockers Jack and Meg White, moving more than 125,000 copies in its first week, according to SoundScan figures released Wednesday (April 9). The album is the follow-up to the duo's breakthrough, 2001's White Blood Cells.

Linkin Park held onto the #1 spot with 264,000 in sales, a 65 percent drop from their 810,000-plus debut last week, but still enough to put them over the 1 million mark. 50 Cent slipped back into the #2 slot with sales of 174,000, just a slight dip from the week before, but enough to push Get Rich or Die Tryin' closer to the 4 million mark. 50 was followed by the Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 12 album (166,000) with contributions from Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z and Nelly; Celine Dion's One Heart (165,000) at #4; and Norah Jones' still strong Come Away With Me (132,000) at #5.

Cher's farewell TV special scored impressive ratings on Tuesday night, and her greatest-hits collection, Very Best of Cher, will say hello to the top 10 next week with a #7 seating on sales of 122,000. The top 10 is rounded out by the soundtrack to "Chicago" (89,000), the debut LP from Evanescence, Fallen (83,000), and R. Kelly's Chocolate Factory (81,000), which held steady at #10 as it neared the 1.5 million sales mark.

Country singer Chris Cagle will debut at #15 with sales of 41,800, and the Dixie Chicks' 'landslide' seems to have leveled out following the fallout from singer Natalie Maines' overseas statements about President Bush. The group's Home sold 41,000 copies last week, which is 10,000 less than the week before and enough to knock them down one spot to #17.

Even as their album Pandemonium! neared the 1 million sales mark, B2K took a tumble, plummeting from #13 to #27 on sales of 32,000, a 50 percent drop from the previous week. The drop was even steeper for the Hot Boys, who fell 17 spots to #31 as their sales were cut in half to 27,000 in their second week on the chart.

Try as he may, British star Robbie Williams can't seem to escape the middle regions of the U.S. charts. He landed at #43 with Escapology on weak sales of 21,000 copies. Williams has released five albums overseas, selling more than 20 million albums total, but Escapology is only his third U.S. release. The sales are a disappointment given the reported $80 million contract Williams signed last year with EMI.

Rob Zombie's soundtrack to his directing debut, "House of 1,000 Corpses," enters the charts at #53 with 18,000 copies sold. Next week will also see the chart debut from Boy Sets Fire, Tomorrow Come Today (#141), Stereomud's Every Given Moment (#146) and not-so-dumb girl Lucy Woodward's While You Can, which slips in at #148.

For a feature interview with Linkin Park, check out "Linkin Park: Pretty Boring, Pretty Huge."

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Robbie Williams Loves Googling, Shrugs About Lack Of U.S. Success

04 Apr 2003 07:53:00 EST

British pop sensation enjoys relative anonymity in States.
By

HOLLYWOOD — When you're Robbie Williams, this is how the dating scene in Los Angeles works: You meet a girl, she blows you off, then she looks up your name on the Internet search engine Google, finds out you're one of the richest pop stars in the world, and voila! You get lucky.

"I bump into these girls and they are like really not interested," the British singer explained with his famously wry smile, dressed in a T-shirt and warm-up pants and walking his dogs through the hills overlooking his adopted city. "The next time I see them, they are like, 'Hey, nice to meet you, Robbie!' So I've been told, 'That girl "googled" you, because she knows who you are now.' Hurray for 'googling'! Science got me laid.

"I got laid twice because they thought I was Robin Williams, which is kind of cool," he added.

Robbie's Hollywood dating situation — joke or not — is quite indicative of the current phase of his musical career. An Internet search for his name generates close to half a million pages, yet most Americans are largely unfamiliar with the charismatic breakout star from British boy band Take That!. In 1999, "Millennium," from The Ego Has Landed compilation drawn from his first two overseas albums, was moderately successful in the U.S. And of course there was "Rock DJ," an oddball dance number that the eclectic singer now says he hates, though he likes the video, in which he rips off his skin and tosses it out to adoring female fans. But compared to the Justins and Snoop Doggs, he's still obscure on this side of the pond.

Late last year, Williams signed the biggest British record deal in history, reportedly worth over $100 million, shortly after recording his latest album, Escapology. EMI is hoping this album will finally break him in the U.S. Though he owns a house in Los Angeles and has written several songs about the town, Williams says he isn't dying to make it in the States, and in fact, insisted he's enjoying the relative anonymity.

"I'm very pleased to say I've got a successful career everywhere else," he said. "And this is a massive country. It involves a lot of work. And it involves a lot of ass-kissing as well, and touring for years. I used to work very hard and it made me very ill. And I refuse to work that hard again. So, if [success] happens here by doing very little, then great. But if it doesn't, it's cool.

"I want to sell a few hundred thousand albums here," he added. "And I'll be happy with that."

Featuring a somewhat different track list than its imported counterpart, the domestic version of Escapology fully encapsulates the strengths Williams has developed over the years: a silky smooth and versatile voice, finely honed Britpop sensibilities, swinging bluster, driving power, the occasional veer into starkly emotional territory ("Nan's Song" is about his late grandmother), inventive storytelling ("Me and My Monkey"), emotional self-analysis (most evident in the album's first single, "Feel") and of course, a self-deprecating wit.

"I'm just getting started musically," he said thoughtfully. "I think I'm just finding myself. I can see from this album where I want to go and what I want to sound like. I think the pressure's on the record company. So, all I got to do is deliver [good albums], and I've done that before. And I'm getting better at it each album.

"And plus, if [Escapology] bombs, what the hey," he said with a laugh. "I'm in the hills. I've got my dogs. I've got the life, you know?"

— Ryan J. Downey, with additional reporting by Nick ZanoNick Zano

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Robbie Williams

New Releases: White Stripes, Ghostface Killah, Faint, Robbie Williams, Stereomud & More

01 Apr 2003 07:57:00 EST

By Abbey Goodman

The White Stripes' Elephant, their first release since becoming the darlings of the music world, finds Jack and Meg up to their same old — and good — tricks. The album continues their trend of lo-fi rock and blues with numbers like "Seven Nation Army" and sugary love songs like "I Want to Be the Boy."

Meanwhile, cheeky British singer Robbie Williams wants to be the boy who, after umpteen tries, finally hits it big in the U.S. market with his latest effort, Escapology.

The soundtrack to Rob Zombie's directorial debut, "House of 1,000 Corpses," features the score by Zombie himself, plus tracks by the Ramones, Slim Whitman and Buck Owens.

The Faint remix their electro-pop Danse Macabre, while Placebo and their glamour/sleaze rock are busy Sleeping With Ghosts, and Ghostface Killah — ostensibly sleeping with ghosts, too — proves that he's Shaolin's Finest.

The X-ecutioners' Rob Swift mixed Under the Influence,an album less devoted to scratching (though there are some chances for Swift to show off)than to showcasing '60s soul, '80s hip-hop and present-day Latin grooves.

Out Tuesday, April 1:

808 State - Outpost Transmission (Shadow)
Adventures of Mary Kate and Ashley - Give Us Mystery (Sony)
Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Altered States of America (Relapse)
The Alarm - 68 Guns (Simply the Best)
Aphrohead - Thee Underground Made Me Do It (Clashbakk)
A.R.E Weapons - A.R.E Weapons (Sanctuary)
Asleep at the Wheel - Served Live (Acadia)
Bass Syndicate - Slow Low Techno (D.M)
Big Mountain - Cool Breeze (Rebel Ink)
Billy Blanks - Taebo Mix (Red Ball)
Blue Flames - Drivin' and Dyin' in Texas (Voodoo Valley)
Boo - Naughties (Sheer Sound)
Boo - Shooting Star (Sheer Sound)
Boy Sets Fire - Tomorrow Comes Today (Wind-Up)
Bridge - Blown Away (Hole)
Chris Cagle - Chris Cagle (Capitol)
Cenobites - Demons to Some Angels to Others (Drunkabilly)
Cheka Tu Mail - Cheka Tu Mail (Universal)
Chromatics - Chromatics (Gold Standard Labora)
County Sareno - 13 With a Bullet (Teen Angel)
Dangerous Garden - Dreams and Rain (The Orchard)
DJ Napey - Illfinger (P-Vine Japan)
DJ Zappi - Enjoy the Silence (KJU)
Ester Drang - Infinite Keys (Jade Tree)
Even in Blackouts - Myths & Imaginary Magicians (Lookout)
Exploding Heats - Guitar Romantic (Dirtnap)
The Faint - Danse Macabre Remixed (Astralwerks)
Flamers - 20 Super Flamazos (I.M)
The Fugees - Greatest Hits (Sony)
Buy Now: Greatest Hits (Sony)
Ghostface Killah - Ghostface Killah: Shaolin's Finest (Sony)
Buy Now: Ghostface Killah: Shaolin's Finest (Sony)
G-Man - Electro-Bop (Delvian)
G-Man - Grin Groove (Delvian)
Gob - Foot in Mouth Disease (Arista)
Godflesh - Messiah (Relapse)
Grand Drive - Grand Drive (RCA)
Isaac Hayes - At Wattstax (Stax)
Hellbats - Fast and Heavy (Pure and Proud)
I-Roy - Deejay Menace Babylon (Varese)
J Geils - Showtime (EMI)
Bob James - Hi-Fi (Morada)
James Boy - Raps and Ballads (The Orchard)
Jets - Bolt of Lightning (Krypton)
Angela Johnson - They Don't Know (Purpose)
Kendalls - Love Is a Long Hard Road (Varese)
Kills - Keep on Your Mean Side (Rough Trade)
Langhorns - Mission Exotica (Bad Taste)
Lil Flip - Lil Flip & Sucka Free: 713 and Undaground Legend (Sony)
M Path - Wanderer (Razor & Tie)
Millencolin - Battery Check (Burning Heart)
Millencolin - E20 Norr (Burning Heart)
Mirahj - Bounce All Night (The Orchard)
Mistahs - Mistahs (Aries)
Modeste - Modeste (Space Shop)
M.O.P. - 10 Years and Gunnin' (Sony)
Mötley Crüe - New Tattoo (reissue, BMG)
Numbers - Death (Tigerbeat6)
Numbers - Ee-Uh (EP, Troubleman)
Roy Orbison - Essential Sun Years (Metro)
Peepshows - Refuge for Degenerates (Burning Heart)
Phantom Rockers - Rise Up (Drunkabilly)
Pieces - Pieces (Benchmark)
Placebo -Sleeping with Ghosts (Astralwerks)
Puffball - Leave Them All Behind (Burning Heart)
Punkles - Beat the Punkles (Bitzcore)
Radio Dept -Lesser Matters (Shelflife)
Red Snapper - Red Snapper (Lo)
Sid Selvidge - Little Bit of Rain (Archer)
Smash King All Stars - Smash Rhythm (P-Vine Japan)
Starvations - One Long Night (Kapow)
Steamhammer - MK II (Akarma)
Stereomud - Every Given Moment (Sony)
Buy Now: Every Given Moment (Sony)
Stitches - 5 More Songs from the Stitches (Kapow)
Rob Swift - Under the Influence (Six Degrees)
Swirlies - Cats of the Wild 2 (Bubble Core)
Devin Townsend - Accelerated Evolution (Inside Out)
Triggers - Shoot Your Mouth Off (Dirtnap)
Vaux - There Must Be Some Way to Stop Them (Volcom)
Ventures - Surfin' with the Ventures (EMI)
Venus Hum - Big Beautiful Sky (MCA)
White Stripes - Elephant (V2)
Read: "White Stripes To Put Their Best Trunk Forward On April Fool's Day With Elephant"
Buy Now: Elephant (V2)
Robbie Williams - Escapology (Virgin)
Buy Now: Escapology (Virgin)
George Winston - Velveteen Rabbit Anniversary Edition (Windham Hill)
Lucy Woodward - While You Can (Atlantic)
Buy Now: While You Can (Atlantic)
Various artists - Aromatherapy (Nukarma)
Various artists - "Assassination Tango" soundtrack (RCA)
Various artists - Booty Essentials from Da ATL (D.M.)
Various artists - Chicano Rap Oldies (Sideshow)
Various artists - Cosmic Sounds Remixed (Cosmic Sounds)
Various artists - "Crossing Jordan" soundtrack (Sony)
Various artists - Dinner at Eight (Varese)
Various artists - Dinner for Two (EMI)
Various artists - "Dreamcatcher" soundtrack (Varese)
Various artists - Drum and Bass Sessions (Sessions)
Various artists - Dutch Assault (Relapse)
Various artists - Euromix Greatest Hits: A Decade of Dance (SPG)
Various artists - Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan (Sony)
Various artists - "The Guys" soundtrack (Sony)
Various artists - House Breaks Sessions (Sessions)
Various artists -"House of 1,000 Corpses" soundtrack (Interscope)
Various artists - Inside Deep Note: Music of 1970s Adult Cinema (OST)
Various artists - More Hot N Hip Harmony (Sweet Beat)
Various artists -Music from Woody Allen's Films (Soundtrack Factory)
Various artists - Old School Lowrider (Thump)
Various artists - Skank Mania (P-Vine Japan)
Various artists - Then: Totally Oldies 80s (Varese)
Various artists - Troubleman Sampler (Troubleman Unlimited)
Various artists - "What a Girl Wants" soundtrack (Atlantic)

April 22:

Evan Dando - Baby I'm Bored (Bar None)
Flaming Lips - Fight Test (EP, Warner Bros.)
Buy Now: Fight Test (EP, Warner Bros.)
Madonna - American Life (Warner Bros.)
Read: "Madonna To Follow Spiritual Muse For New Album"
Buy Now: American Life (Warner Bros.)

April 29:

Kelly Price - Priceless (Universal)
Buy Now: Priceless (Universal)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell (Touch & Go)
Various artists - American Idol Season 2: All-Time Classic American Love Songs (RCA)

May 13:

Macy Gray - The Trouble With Being Myself (Epic)
Third Eye Blind - Out of the Vein (Elektra)
Read: "Third Eye Blind Recruit Fred Durst, Andrew W.K. For Third Album"
Buy Now: Out of the Vein (Elektra)

June 10:

Metallica - St. Anger (Elektra)
Read: "Metallica To Give Rock And Roll A Good Thrashing"

June 17:

Limp Bizkit - Bipolar (Interscope)
Read: "Snoop Dogg, Bubba Sparxxx May Appear On Limp Bizkit Album"

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Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne Fall Into The Matrix

13 Mar 2003 07:47:00 EST

Production team currently working with Ricky Martin, Robbie Williams, Mariah Carey.
By Corey Moss

The Matrix were a little known production team two years ago when they got a call about meeting with a teenage newcomer.

"[Arista Records] had an artist who had been signed for a year and nothing was working. She was on the verge of getting dropped," Scott Spock, one of the team's three producers, recalled recently from the Matrix's Los Angeles studio. "She came over and we played her some stuff in the Faith Hill vein and she said, 'I don't wanna do that, I wanna rock!' She played us a CD of this screaming punk rock, 'I hate you'-type stuff. We said, 'Come back tomorrow and we'll go over some stuff.' She left and the three of us knew exactly what she wanted, a pop song with a rock edge. We wrote 'Complicated' that day."

When Avril Lavigne and her manager heard the song, they responded, "This is it!"

"Her and Lauren changed some lyrics," Spock said of Lavigne and the Matrix's Lauren Christy. "She sang it in like two takes and we had the version you heard on the radio the next day."

Of course, "Complicated" went on to become one of the biggest hits of 2002 and propelled Lavigne to superstar status. And the Matrix, who also co-wrote and produced Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi" and "I'm With You" singles, are not doing too bad either.

In a matter of months, they have become the go-to producers for singers looking to stretch their musical boundaries. Along with working on the next Britney Spears LP (see "Who's Been Hooking Up With Britney? We Got 'Em To Talk"), the Matrix are logging studio time with Ricky Martin, Robbie Williams, Mariah Carey, Liz Phair and up-and-coming singer/songwriter Jason Mraz, among others.

The production team's success is even more impressive considering that Spock, Christy and her husband, Graham Edwards, formed the Matrix by accident.

Christy was a solo pop-rock artist signed with Mercury Records (making music similar to Lavigne's) in the early '90s when she met Spock, who produced one of her singles. Years later, Edwards met the producer while putting together a band called DollsHead.

The trio first collaborated in 1999, much to the apprehension of Christy and Edwards, who had vowed never to work together when they wed 15 years earlier. DollsHead's manager asked if the three could write a song for an Australian band called Jackson Mendoza.

It was supposed to be a one-time thing, but the results were well received and the group enjoyed the process. The following week, their manager asked for a holiday song for Christina Aguilera. "This Year" made her Christmas album and the Lavigne phone call came soon after.

"We thought, 'Wow, this is fun!'" Christy said. "We preferred it to slogging away doing the artist thing."

Spock, Christy and Edwards sing and play the instruments on most of the tracks they produce, including Lavigne's, however, unlike, say, the Neptunes, they have no interest in being in the spotlight.

"We don't want to take the glory, which is why we took the name the Matrix, to be in the background, to make the artist's name stand out more," Spock explained.

"We're not into that," Edwards added. "I did the whole rock and roll thing in my early days."

The Matrix say that while they have only written or only produced for artists, they prefer to be more of a one-stop shop.

"A song is a work of art," Spock said. "You just don't say, 'I sketched this with a pencil and I'll color it in later,' [it's] 'here's my piece of art.' I think that's the old-school way of thinking — a guy on a piano who is the lyricist and then we get a producer and he hires the musicians and then we get an arranger. Today, it's evolved into one thing. You sit down and all the pieces start evolving together and that's kind of how we work. When we get done, it's usually a finished master."

The production team often comes to artists with songs already written, but also enjoys co-writing, especially with older singers, like Phair. "From a writing point of view, there were things we could say with Liz that we couldn't on the Avril record," Christy said. "That's why it was fun, you could just let rip."

The Matrix are influenced by Quincy Jones (Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin) and Mutt Lange (Def Leppard, Shania Twain), producers with a wide range of achievements.

"We don't want to be put in the box of people who do only Avril-type stuff," Edwards said. "We've done rap, punk. All three of us are so different."

"We have done everyone from Darius, who won 'Pop Idol' [the U.K. version of 'American Idol'], to Busted, who are just like Blink-182," added Christy, a native of England.

Ironically, Edwards' ultimate goal is to work with an artist so far removed from Lavigne that the Canadian singer once famously mispronounced his name.

"My dream would be working with David Bowie, sitting down and making a concept album," he said.

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