Justin Bieber Silly Bandz!

Silly Bandz are the crazy right now. My son came home with a few of these squiggly wristbands in the shape of a few animals. He loves them, They are actively traded in the schoolyard, and sometimes kids are eager to trade just about anything to get a hold of them.

Celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker have been spotted wearing them, and Justin Bieber just launched his own variety of Silly Bandz: Justin Bieber Silly Bandz!

The Silly Bandz fad in the U.S. has already slowed a bit, but Google has touted them as a sought-after stocking stuffer this Christmas. I suspect we’ll see it on my son’s wish list as well.

More about the Silly Bands (sorry: Silly Bandz) from a parenting perspective , on parentcentral.ca.

A lot of that income comes from touring, merchandising sales, product endorsements and sales of their catalogs, although that last ingredient has taken a nose-dive the past decade.

Here are the rock bands and solo artists that added most to their bottom line between June 2009 and June 2010:

1. U2 - $130 million
2. AC/DC – $114 million
3. Beyoncé Knowles – $87 million
4. Bruce Springsteen – $70 million
5. Britney Spears – $64 million
6. Jay-Z – $ million
7. Lady Gaga – $62 million
8. Madonna – $58 million
9. Kenny Chesney – $50 million
10. Coldplay (Tie) – $48 million
11. Toby Keith (Tie) – $48 million
12. Black Eyed Peas (Tie) – $48 million

U2 sold 1.3 million tickets during their worldwide at an average price of $94 a seat – and that’s only in North America…

AC/DC has been a steady high-earner for years and years. Did I head “Iron Man”?

Beyoncé was the endorsement Queen of this list: more than half of her total earnings came from endorsements with companies ranging from Nintendo to L’Oreal and of course her growing fashion line “House of Dereon”.

Oops – she did it again. Britney is back, and is in the top 5 of top-earning artists. And her image seems to be OK again too, looking at high-profile endorsement deals with Elizabeth Arden and the Britney for Candie’s clothing line. Hope she spent that money wisely…

Jay-Z had a new album (Blueprint 3) tour, as well as investments in the 40/40 nightclub chain, the Broadway show “Fela!” and the New Jersey Nets basketball team.

Lady Gaga had a worldwide tour with million-dollar endorsements from Polaroid, Virgin Mobile, Viva Glam and Monster Cable.

Madonna is still hip after all these years. She had her own episode in the Fox hit sitcom Glee, increasing her profile to a whole new audience.

Kenny Chesney is the 500 pound gorilla in the Country world. His closest competitor, Keith Urban, didn’t come close. And sponsorships from strong brands like Corona and MasterCard helped too, of course.

Black Eyed Peas also had a good number of endorsement deals, including Target, Honda, Bacardi and Apple.

You can read more about Forbes’ list in this picture gallery.

According to the Ticketmaster USA website, Springsteen and the E Street Band is the top selling act of all time at the Meadowlands having sold out 56 concerts to date:

• 19 at Giants Stadium;
• 37 at the IZOD Center.

Springsteen has always been a hot stadium act, but his performance at the Superbowl will only have enhanced the image that people have of The Boss. With his new album Working on a Dream he is at the top of his class yet again.

I could not find any tickets anymore…

Guess we will have to wait for some clips on YouTube, then.

Bruce Springsteen In Concert With Brandon Flowers of The Killers

The Boss surprised concert goers at the Pinkpop festival in Landgraaf, Netherlands on Saturday May 30 2009 when he was joined onstage by Brandon Flowers of The Killers. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band headlined the Pinkpop Festival and played the opening night of the three day event. He had a special treat in store for his fans – bringing out Killers’ singer Brandon Flowers on stage for a rendition of his 1975 hitsong Thunder Road.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thunder road live at Pinkpop (Landgraaf, the Netherlands). Brandon Flowers of The Killers joins Springsteen May 30 2009.

In the second hour of last Sunday’s Celebrity Apprentice Donald Trump had Team Kotu and Team Athena working on new meals for Schwan’s (a fast food delivery service). The next day, Schwans was at the top of phrases searched for, according to Google Trends. The products that both teams created are for sale online, at least for the time being. The items may be pulled once the Celebrity Apprentice season is over, as all three featured products only have one rating. And based on her remark during the show, I suspect that those ratings may come from Ivanka Trump herself (“I don’t think my dad will eat it, but I might.”).

The two-hour show was again more about the celebrity feuds than the challenges or the charities that benefited from the winning project manager. Country singer Clint Black pulled another two one-man shows, poker player Annie Duke went cut-throat on her poker pal Phil Hellmuth when opposing team’s Natalie Gulbis tried to get him to bid on jewelry items for her team and Joan Rivers, who overheard this conversation, called Annie two-faced and compared her to Hitler, who apparently also had his good moments. All of these can be “enjoyed” for at least another week, as Natalie Gulbis and Herschel Walker were the ones packing their bags.

Previous winner Pierce Morgan, now one of Donald Trump’s “eyes and ears”, said that this board room battle was way worse than the quarrels that he himself had with Amarosa. Pierce is all over YouTube again because of overnight British singing housewife sensation Susan Boyle’s performance on Britain’s Got Talent, with Pierce Morgan, Amanda Holden and Simon Cowell as stunned judges.

Pierce could also not understand why Jesse James had not used his wife Sandra Bullock’s contacts for the fundraiser, but Jesse replied that he doesn’t mix “business with pleasure”. Donald Trump had his own thoughts on why Jesse James was married to Sandra Bullock at all; according to him Jesse must be good in bed? O-K…

Not much online yet on YouTube for this episode, except maybe for Jesse James’ chili fart:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mor eabout Celebrity Apprentice on NBC.

Yeh, right.

The way Billy Bob Thornton behaved, or better: didn’t behave, has not done the band’s profile any good. The celebrity stamp that this band has, worked against them with the absurd interview on the CBC radio show Q, hosted by Jian Ghomeshi this week. Jian Ghomeshi gave his usual upbeat introduction and in it he mentioned that not only had the band released 3 albums in just one year, it was also fronted by “Oscar winner screen writer, actor and director Billy Bob Thornton”. BBT was furious that his movie past was mentioned, as his handlers seemed to have instructed the show’s producer that it should only be about the music. Which it was – Jian merely mentioned the movie celebrity part to give radio listeners a frame of reference. Something that the Boxmaster’s website does all the time; looking at the news section there, the band’s official name is “Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters”.

The band must not be pleased with this negative attention. Looking at their faces during the interview they were as embarrased as any of us.

I hope for them BBT is worth the trouble…

“Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters”:

Yeh – right. A really poor attempt at damage control.

When asked about the “mashed patatoes without the gravy” he now says he was talking about the radio host, while this movie of the entire interview shows that he was talking about Canadian audiences:

“Canadian audiences seem to be very reserved. (…) Well, it’s mashed patatoes and no gravy, you know what I’m saying?”

Here is a short movie item on the Globe & Mail’s website (a Canadian newspaper).

He is not using his movie career to promote his band – he would like to go into a witness protection program, get a new face and a new identity, so that his musical accomplishments as a drummer in the band The Boxmasters are purely judged on their musical genius.  According to himself (in the interview) nobody has made their type of music “for the last 30 years”. And Billy Bob knows this for a fact, as he “grew up as pretty much a music historian”.

The Interview on CBS’s Q – With Jian Ghomeshi

The man previously known as Billy Bob Thornton (M.P.K.A.B.B.T.) completely blew up in an interview with accomplished and respected Canadian CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi, all because he dared introducing him as someone with a movie career. Ah well, it must have been due to his self-described “lower middle-class, white trash upbringing.” (quote taken from the Boxmasters’ website)

Click here to view the embedded video.

The New York Times said it was “achingly, all-too-real situation comedy”, but the readers did not agree at all. I stopped counting the 209 comments at the bottom of the second page: 30 who were completely appalled by MPKABBT’s demeanor while just 5 were somewhat sympathetic.

Some of the reactions:

#15:
I actually liked the band’s intrumental, but will never purchase due to this spectacle. Professional?? I think not.

#24:
Applause to the Jian Ghomeshi for eloquently putting up with Billy Bobs arrogance and rudeness.

#29:
Without the media, these ’stars’ are nothing. Take back your medium and stick it to these unprofessional hacks.

#35:
I’m tired of these no talent “movie star” bands that think people are following them for there music, not than there Hollyweird career. There is nothing original or ground breaking about there music. If it were not for Billy’s name on the back-cover, the album would collect dust at a CD vending machine at a truck stop in Iowa.
The host was great, one for the Canadians.

#47:
Billy Bob Thornton came off as a complete ass. Did he think he could get away with his abusive personallity in Canada? What an insult to everyone who was listening to the radio. This will not help his struggling fan base.

#50:
This goes to show yet again how one should love the celebrity’s art and not the celebrity him/herself. Just because an artist has good music/good movies doesn’t mean they are a good person. Society has a tendancy to think too highly of these people.

It is obvious that Canadians are even more upset by this Canada-bashing (“Canada is mashed patatoes without the gravy”): at the time of writing there were no less than 2561 comments on the program “Q” ‘s blog.

Watching the interview made me cringe. Seeing how visibly uncomfortable his band members were suggests they have been through this before. If they have talent on their own they should bail on Billy Bob ASAP – he will continue to be an embarrassment and a money loser. BBT is a bitter, nasty and pathetic loser.
http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2009/04/vanity_project_or_renaissance.html#comment-2406299

Jian, you ARE the gravy!
http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2009/04/vanity_project_or_renaissance.html#comment-2406402

Just to clarify questions around ‘preconditions’: the producers and host did NOT agree to any preconditions to not mention his acting career. As Jian Ghomeshi said in the interview, he was interested in talking to Billy Bob Thornton and the band about their music as well as having them perform. That’s what we were aiming to do.
Thank you,
Arif Noorani
Executive Producer
Q on CBC Radio One
http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2009/04/vanity_project_or_renaissance.html#comment-2406664

Hollyweird

MPKABBT did not want Jian Ghomeshi mentioning his movie past (would it be – in the “past”?), but he must really have been on something. I mean, if you look at the Boxmasters website it is all about “Billy Bob “Bud” Thornton and the Boxmasters”, not just “The Boxmasters”. They have a celebrity band member – and they flaunt it! But when the grumpy control freak MPKABBT doesn’t get his way, he will just frustrate an interview and cancel the remainder of his Canadian tour, as support act for country legends Willie Nelsen and Ray Price. (Nelson was a member of Price’s band early in his career)

Sad, so sad…

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