Here & There …

“Distressed Stratocasters, vegan guitar straps, inverted devil horns and cheap sunglasses” If it’s January in Anaheim then it’s gotta be NAMM – Los Angeles Times (registration may be required)

We missed this Michael Jackson item when The Times Online posted it last week. But the almost throwaway closing line about a three-month United Kingdom tour makes it important enough to include in today’s news items – The Times Online

Leeds Festival organizers say all three headliners will be American. Yeah, that really narrows it down – Yorkshire Evening Post

College student “shreds his way to Slash” – College Of New Jersey Signal

Sign of the times – Saying its readers want “faster music news,” Christian music magazine CCM will stop producing hard copy in order to focus on Web content – Christian Post

Forget the dressing rooms! Charleston charity concert puts portable toilet on stage for when performers want to answer nature’s call without missing a curtain call – Fox 12 KTRV / Associated Press

Dates, Dates & More Dates …

Rhonda Vincent & The Rage are one of the hardest working groups you’ll find anywhere. We just posted 18 new dates for the bluegrass group. Cities include Pearisburg, VA, Chattanooga, TN, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, and Denton, MD.

Bettye LaVette keeps adding dates. Today’s additions include Maryland Heights, MD, in February and Greece in March.

Tokyo Police Club fills in its May dance card with shows throughout North America. Cities include Winnipeg, Minneapolis, Seattle, Denver, Omaha and Saskatoon.

Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys beef up the schedule with new shows for Raleigh, Charleston, Richmond and Summersville.

During the past couple of hours we also updated the schedules for Petula Clark, Peter Rowan, Nick Moss & The Fliptops, Lisa Haley, Jeff Healey & The Jazz Wizards, Doro, John Hammond, Dave Gunning, David Lindley, Coco Montoya, Born Ruffians, Hayden, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Lukas Rossi, Slaid Cleaves, Sista Monica, Stephen Fearing, The Seldom Scene and X.

But there’s still more dates yet to post! We’re only halfway through the working day and we have crates of tour dates still sitting on our loading dock waiting for our professionals to sort, sift and enter before the sun sets on another Tuesday. Check out the latest concert information in Your Latest Update, coming up around 3 pm (PST), from Pollstar.com!

This Day In Music History

In 1889, the Columbia Phonograph Company, the forerunner of CBS Records, was formed in Washington, D-C. A territorial franchise of the North American Phonograph Company, Columbia covered Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia. At this time the phonograph was seen primarily as a business device, a sort of mechanical stenographer. Commercial recording of music did not begin until 1890.

In 1959, Buddy Holly made his last recordings in his New York apartment. Among the tunes were “Peggy Sue Got Married” and “Learning the Game.” Holly died in a plane crash in Iowa a month later.

In 1967, The Rolling Stones refused to go on the revolving stage during the finale of the British TV show “Sunday Night at the London Palladium.” The incident caused a great scandal in Britain at the time.

In 1990, Slash, the guitarist for Guns N’ Roses, swore while accepting American Music Awards for his band. Viewers complained to ABC, which had broadcast the show live. The network apologized.

In 1998, Elton John told a news conference in Miami that he was “not going to go around the world being a professional mourner.” John raised millions for charity with his reworked “Candle in the Wind ’97” as a tribute to Princess Diana. He said he wouldn’t perform the song again.