Bono announced at a press conference in Toronto that a covers version of the U2 album Achtung Baby is on its way. Commissioned by the British magazine Q, the album will include Patti Smith (Until the End of the World), Depeche Mode (So Cruel), Jack White (Love is Blindness) and Damian Rice (One).

Even more trouble for the Michael Jackson tribute scheduled for October 8 in Cardiff, Wales. Global Events Live, who is putting on the show with part of the Jackson family, recently offered tickets “buy 1 get 1 free” which outraged those who have already purchased tickets and gave the over thirty Jackson fan clubs who were calling for a boycott of the show more fodder.

Reba McEntire may be returning to TV. ABC has announced that they have picked up the pilot for a series called Malibu Country. Reba will play a mother of three who divorces her cheating husband and moves from Nashville to Mailbu where she’ll try to restart her music career and not let her family be influenced by the materialistic world around them. Dave Stewart is one of the producers.
McEntire previously spent six years on the series Reba.

An exhibit of the art of Bob Dylan is coming to New York’s Gagosian Gallery. 18 drawings and paintings will be on-display from September 20 to October 22.

Dates are starting to leak out for an October tour by Guns N’ Roses. At this point, only Orlando, Miami and Kansas City have been mentioned but further dates are sure to be announced in the coming days.

Peter Hook has told Rolling Stone how disappointed he is that New Order will reunite without him.
“Ultimately it’s my music they’re playing so it’s not the end of the world. I was instrumental, excuse the pun, in New Order for 34 years and they won’t take that from you unless they started releasing new records that eclipsed all the New Order stuff. And maybe they’ll do that, I don’t know. But I do know at this point in time there have been some really underhand, dirty business dealings that have enabled them to do this that I don’t agree with and I’m very saddened and upset by it. But it’ll come out in the wash.”

After a multi-year battle, it looks like artists will be granted a longer copyright period in Europe. Currently, the limit is set at 50 years which means some of the earliest records of the rock era, including those of artists like Cliff Richard, are coming into the public domain. According to an unnamed source within the European Union, that is likely to be extended to 70 years on Monday.
The move will be good for artists and labels alike as catalog sales have been growing over the last few years with the addition of digital downloading of older songs.