After splitting with his ex-wife, Ronnie Wood is selling off some of his Rolling Stones memorabilia. The items include a wide variety of stuff, ranging from included several worn leather and velvet jackets and real and cardboard guitars, along with a signed lithograph of Eric Clapton.
Wood and his wife Jo had been married for 23 years prior to their divorce being finalized last year. Next February we’ll be getting her memoirs which are expected to reveal her stories fro their years together. Wood left Jo for a young waitress named Ekaterina Ivanova, so it will be interesting to see what Jo decides to reveal in her book.
Events like this are a double edged sword, as they sometimes bring more interest to the band which affects things like memorabilia sales. Stuff like Rolling Stones posters can generate more interest, though new prints are usually very reasonable. With the premiere of the Rolling Stones’ new documentary “Crossfire Hurricane” you can shop for movie poster frames and have a totally new item to add to your collection along with older Stones stuff.
A movie about the art form of mash-ups that features mash-ups of the movie within the movie itself? We’re pretty sure we just heard the space/time continuum begin to rip at the prospect. Director Brett Gaylor attempts to make sense of the intellectual property laws that allow some musicians to steal riffs and make millions (Led Zeppelin, the Stones), while other, more cutting-edge musicians are branded as criminals (Girl Talk), and the end result is “Rip! A Remix Manifesto,” a wake-up call to Big Media that, whether they like or not, the rules have changed. Gaylor declares Walt Disney to be the first mash-up artist, and absolutely pummels publishing company Warner-Chappell for refusing to let “Happy Birthday” to enter the public domain (it’s true: if you sing that song, ever, you’re a thief), and for suing Radiohead fans for mash-ups once W-C acquired the rights to In Rainbows. Truth be told, the doc isn’t quite a five-star affair – we were frankly surprised that he didn’t mention when John Fogerty was sued for ripping off one of his own songs – but we’re giving it an extra star because “Rip!” addresses an issue that needs to be sorted out sooner rather than later. Indeed, one could argue that the music industry’s very survival depends on it. (Disinformation 2009)
Better than the 2003 collection that bears his name, this michelgondry.com-exclusive set of music videos is simply staggering. The beauty of Gondry’s work is that his methods are surprisingly low-tech (Beck’s “Cellphone’s Dead” being this set’s exception). He uses reflective glass to create the ghosts that haunt Paul McCartney’s house in “Dance Tonight,” and Steriogram’s “Walkie Talkie Man” is a brilliant stop-motion clip, using both real people and their string equivalents. Gondry assembles a couple of clever yet completely unique one-take videos with Michael Andrews and Gary Jules’ cover of “Mad World” and the White Stripes’ “The Denial Twist,” and his videos from the pre-CGI early ’90s, namely Thomas Dolby’s “Close but No Cigar” and Sananda Maitreya’s “She Kissed Me” (otherwise known as Terence Trend D’Arby to your older brothers and sisters), look as good as any video made today. The set comes with a bunch of behind-the-scenes footage, a couple films featuring Gondry solving a Rubik’s Cube with various parts of his body (feet and nose, to be precise), and they also added the parody of Gondry’s video of the White Stripes’ “The Hardest Button to Button” that appeared on a 2006 episode of “The Simpsons.” Genius stuff, across the board. If only he could replicate this consistency in the feature film arena.(ElektroFilm)
The Rolling Stones are reportedly putting plans in place for a 2009 tour – after guitarist Ronnie Wood’s hopes of reuniting The Faces fell through.
Wood was eager to get the seventies band back together, telling Rolling Stone magazine that he and former frontman Rod Stewart were working on new material and talking about a series of concert dates later this year.
But Stewart dismissed the comeback reports, with his representative saying, “There are no plans for a Faces reunion tour this year.”
However, it is alleged Wood is eyeing a Rolling Stones tour because he is desperate to earn more cash to cover his impending divorce from estranged wife Jo.
The insider adds, “Keith (Richards) is particularly close to Ronnie and told him it would be a great way of getting back on his feet, both personally and financially, after all that’s happened over the past several months.”
Wood left his wife of 23-years in 2008 after his affair with 20-year-old Ekaterina Ivanova was exposed. He subsequently moved out of the family home and has offered Jo a reported $4.9 million-a-year divorce deal.
If you can, forget for a moment the picture of Wood, 61, having an affair with a 20-year-old. I mean, he literally could be her grandfather. Ew. But what if this affair ultimately resulted in the Stones going on tour so that he could generate some cash to pay for his divorce?
