by Gary Graff, Detroit
August 01, 2011 6:35 EDT
As he continues to tour in support of his 2010 album "Hang Cool Teddy Bear" -- and to commemorate his 40th anniversary as a recording artist -- Meat Loaf has three new projects in the works, including a studio album that will feature rappers Chuck D from Public Enemy and Lil Jon.
"Ever since we started with ('Hang Cool Teddy Bear' producer) Rob Cavallo, from that minute on I've been back in the music business and having a really, really great time -- which I haven't had for five years before that," Meat Loaf, who's returned to Sony Music -- which released three of his albums, including 1977's multi-platinum "Bat Out of Hell" -- tells Billboard.com.
First up will be "Hell in a Handbasket," due out in February (except for Australia and New Zealand) and an album Meat Loaf calls "the most personal record I've ever made. It's about how I feel the world's gone to hell in a handbasket. It's really the first record that I've ever put out about how I feel about life and how I feel about what's going on at the moment." Meat Loaf says the album is finished -- no release date has yet been established -- and "sounds different," although he adds that "it's rock, definitely rock," produced by Paul Crook, who's part of his current touring band, with Cavallo consulting.
As for the rappers, Meat Loaf met Lil Jon when the two appeared on "Celebrity Apprentice" this past spring, while Chuck D came through Anthrax's Scott Ian, who is Meat Loaf's son-in-law. "(D) was going to do one thing, and he came back and did something else and we flipped out," Meat Loaf reports.
Meat Loaf also has about nine songs towards another studio album, who's title we won't reveal. "We've started to do drum tracks on those songs, and we'll get more in pretty soon," he says. Meanwhile he's planning a 2012 Christmas album called "Hot Holidays" that will feature guests such as Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire "and different rock people and some actors...After I played Sony ('Hell in a Hand Basket') I said, 'Look, I've got two other records. I've got a Christmas record and I've got another record,' and they said, 'Well, get us the Christmas record and start working on the other one.' So there you go -- I'll just keep recording."
Meat Loaf -- whose first album, "Stoney & Meatloaf" with current Bob Seger backup singer Shaun Murphy, came out in 1971 on Motown's Rare Earth label -- says he's also keeping an eye out for further acting opportunities, although at this point "I'm more focused on the music than I've been in a long time." But he's also happy to be name-checked in an new TV ad for Allstate Insurance. "I liked it. I think it's funny," he notes. "They showed it to me, and they paid me for (use of) my picture. It's autographed, by the way; it goes by so fast you can't really read it, but it says, 'To the professor...' It's pretty cool."
Meat Loaf is recording in-between tour dates, which go into early September in the U.S. He's also booked a run of Australia and New Zealand for for October, including a spot on the A Day on the Green festival Oct. 8 in Hunter Valley. "Hell in a Handbasket" will be released in those countries to coincide with the tour.
http://www.billboard.com/news/meat-loaf-enlists-lil-jon-chuck-d-for-upcoming-1005299992.story#/news/meat-loaf-enlists-lil-jon-chuck-d-for-upcoming-1005299992.story
Friday, August 12, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Love Never Dies (but the West End musical has)
By Rob Sharp, Arts Correspondent
Saturday, 18 June 2011
Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies, which has divided fans and critics throughout its brief history, will close in London's West End in August after just under 18 months playing at the Adelphi Theatre.
A spokesperson for the production confirmed that the show would close after it was revealed yesterday that another show, One Man, Two Guvnors, currently playing at the National Theatre, would transfer to the Adelphi from November.
The spokesperson said: "I can confirm that the show's run will end on 27 August." A spokesperson for Lord Lloyd-Webber's Really Useful Group refused to comment further.
The lavish production, which cost £5.5m, has had a troubled run, not least because of Phantom fans objecting to the production through a Facebook group and a website, loveshoulddie.com. The group has branded the show a "train wreck" and a bastardisation of the original early 20th century story by the French writer Gaston Leroux, subsequently made into a 1986 hit musical composed by Lord Lloyd Webber with lyrics by Charles Hart.
According to The Stage theatre critic Mark Shenton, the show, which stars Ramin Karimloo as the phantom and is set 10 years after the original story, "suffered from a series of production miscalculations". These included Lord Lloyd-Webber's "hubristic" plans to open the show simultaneously on three continents, something which never materialised.
Lord Lloyd-Webber later admitted it was a mistake to continue with the show in the wake of his cancer diagnosis in October 2009. "I had a unique issue because I got cancer in the middle of all of it," he said this month. "With hindsight we should have said, 'Let's put the whole thing on hold until I'm 100 per cent again.' Frankly I wasn't feeling very well."
In the same interview the impresario admitted that the show suffered from the lack of an outside producer to help steer its progress.
The show received mixed reviews when it opened last year, with one critic branding it "Paint Never Dries". In November it was postponed for changes to be made, and it bounced back from early box-office jitters to pick up seven nominations at the Olivier Awards this year.
In October it was reported that a planned Broadway run of the show was "indefinitely postponed". In May an Australian version of the show opened to more positive reviews than the original.
Shenton said: "I can hear the gloating already from the mad 'Love Should Die' lobby of Love Never Dies detractors, who have run their disgraceful campaign of intimidation and aggravation, lies and deceit around the show since before it even opened. But now they are finally getting their wish."
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/love-never-dies-but-the-west-end-musical-has-2299298.html
Saturday, 18 June 2011
Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies, which has divided fans and critics throughout its brief history, will close in London's West End in August after just under 18 months playing at the Adelphi Theatre.
A spokesperson for the production confirmed that the show would close after it was revealed yesterday that another show, One Man, Two Guvnors, currently playing at the National Theatre, would transfer to the Adelphi from November.
The spokesperson said: "I can confirm that the show's run will end on 27 August." A spokesperson for Lord Lloyd-Webber's Really Useful Group refused to comment further.
The lavish production, which cost £5.5m, has had a troubled run, not least because of Phantom fans objecting to the production through a Facebook group and a website, loveshoulddie.com. The group has branded the show a "train wreck" and a bastardisation of the original early 20th century story by the French writer Gaston Leroux, subsequently made into a 1986 hit musical composed by Lord Lloyd Webber with lyrics by Charles Hart.
According to The Stage theatre critic Mark Shenton, the show, which stars Ramin Karimloo as the phantom and is set 10 years after the original story, "suffered from a series of production miscalculations". These included Lord Lloyd-Webber's "hubristic" plans to open the show simultaneously on three continents, something which never materialised.
Lord Lloyd-Webber later admitted it was a mistake to continue with the show in the wake of his cancer diagnosis in October 2009. "I had a unique issue because I got cancer in the middle of all of it," he said this month. "With hindsight we should have said, 'Let's put the whole thing on hold until I'm 100 per cent again.' Frankly I wasn't feeling very well."
In the same interview the impresario admitted that the show suffered from the lack of an outside producer to help steer its progress.
The show received mixed reviews when it opened last year, with one critic branding it "Paint Never Dries". In November it was postponed for changes to be made, and it bounced back from early box-office jitters to pick up seven nominations at the Olivier Awards this year.
In October it was reported that a planned Broadway run of the show was "indefinitely postponed". In May an Australian version of the show opened to more positive reviews than the original.
Shenton said: "I can hear the gloating already from the mad 'Love Should Die' lobby of Love Never Dies detractors, who have run their disgraceful campaign of intimidation and aggravation, lies and deceit around the show since before it even opened. But now they are finally getting their wish."
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/love-never-dies-but-the-west-end-musical-has-2299298.html
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