^Marablog.net^

MUMBAI: “I flew a long way to see how you party in India. I am sure you party hard,” boomed Beyonce Knowles before kicking off a powerful two-hour performance at the MMRDA grounds at the Bandra Kurla Complex on Saturday evening. Backed by an all-female band called Sugamama, Beyonce raised the temperature a notch higher with her hip-hop songs pepped up with cheerleaders swaying to the beats.

The bootylicious singer performed some of her best chartbusters like ‘ Crazy in Lov e’, ‘ Baby Boy’ and ‘ Beautiful Liar’ in front of a relatively thin crowd-the grounds were only half full. To make matters worse, the concert started almost an hour late, by which time the crowd was restless.

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In the late 1977-78, a band fronted by a diminutive, muscular, longhaired man wearing incredibly tight, frayed shorts, made a Breakthrough. It was perhaps an apt title for one of India’s first original English rock albums at a time when rocking meant swinging primarily to Dum Maro Dum. At 60, Lou Majaw still sports long hair— albeit with a receded hairline —and tight and frayed shorts, and belts out songs with the vigour of a 16-year-old. But he hardly pens soul-stirring songs like Sea of Sorrow and Girls.

However, the “grand old man of rock” in the Northeast has inspired a new crop of rockers who are not content with singing cover versions of their idols ranging from Elvis Presley and The Beatles to Iron Maiden, Styx and U2. And they have been fortifying the “last bastion of rock” in India, reaching out to a wider audience with experimental fusion of haunting tribal tunes.

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It looks like troubled singer Britney Spears is back in shape.

The mum of two showed off her toned body as she was spotted dancing in her garden in a bikini.

The transformation comes a month after the singer said that she looked like a ‘pig’ in her comeback performance at MTV Video Music Awards, reports the Sun.

Apparently, a strict regimen seems to have done the trick, when the singer is gearing up to perform her new single Gimme More.
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Carrie Underwood, Beyonce, Elton John among performers

NEW YORK - Carrie Underwood, Beyonce and Elton John will be among the performers at the first-ever Movies Rock concert celebrating the relationship between music and film.

The event will be held Dec. 2 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, and will air Dec. 7 in a two-hour special on CBS. The concert is a production of Conde Nast Media Group in conjunction with the Producers Guild of America and the Entertainment Industry Foundation.
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American mobile services giant AT&T has announced it would offer users wireless song downloads from Napster Inc. The mobile services giant made the announcement Monday, and said users could download songs from the digital music service that Napster Inc. runs.

AT&T and Napster Inc. already have an agreement in place that allows AT&T subscribers to transfer music that Napster provides by connecting their cell phone to the computer using a cable or a storage card.

The new agreement, which would be effective mid-November, would enable AT&T users to directly download songs and music from Napster into their cell phones at the price of $7.49 for a five-song package. Users would also have the option of buying music a la carte by paying $1.99.

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GUWAHATI: – They have done it before. They are doing it again. But unlike last time when they scripted the world record with the largest drum ensemble, this time though, there will be a visible threat percept on the anvil coming all the way from London when around 2000-odd guitarists would be strumming its way towards setting another world record by assembling in the largest guitar contingent ever. For, within a week’s time, guitarists under Guitar Trade Fair in London will vie to outmaneuver it again.

On October 26, when a band of more than 2,000 guitarists will perform a record-breaking strumming session at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Shillong to outnumber the current Guinness Book of World Records’ guitar ensemble of 1,721, guitarists from across the globe, especially London, will keep a close eye on it.

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US mobile phone giant AT&T has said it will give its customers direct access to digital music provider Napster’s catalogue of five million songs.
As part of the deal, AT&T will offer its subscribers Napster tracks for $1.99 each (97 pence) or $7.49 for five songs a month from mid-November.

The firm already offers downloads from independent labels through eMusic.com.

AT&T has not said which phones will work with the service, but they will not include Apple’s iPhone.

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With music aficionados in the hill state of Meghalaya still basking in the glory of Indian Idol finalist Amit Paul’s feat, they could not have asked for more as American rock band Mr Big is all set to perform here on October 27. Conceived just a few months ago, the Eric Martin-led group will perform for the first time in India in an exclusive one-off concert at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium at Polo here.

Christened as the ‘Festival of Rock’ and a part of the state’s Autumn Festival, the grand showdown is slated for October 27, and the organisers feel it would be “the biggest ever rock show of the country”.

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