The long-awaited holiday shows are now official with tickets going on sale tomorrow, Saturday, Nov. 22. at 10 AM through Ticketmaster. The three shows are billed as Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band on Ticketmaster, but Backstreets reports that it will be the Max Weinberg Seven backing up Bruce and his guests. The dates are December 5, 6 and 7 and the venue is as always the Convention Hall in Asbury Park. Read more

   

Live in Barcelona has now been released in most of the world. Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of copies came with an error on disc 2 that makes it impossible to use the menu. So if you experience this problem it is not your player's fault, and you should have your disc replaced. The way to go is probably to call Sony in your own country and have them take your name and address so they can send you a new one once the error has been fixed. At least, that seems to be the way Sony in the US handles it. Too bad for an otherwise excellent release. Read more

   

January 6 will see the release of the second live album culled from his two Stone Pony shows in 2002. The album entitled Clarence Clemons & the Temple of Soul Live in Asbury Park Vol. II will include songs such as "Pink Cadillac", "Friend of Mine", "Lights of the City" and not least "Raise Your Hand" featuring Bruce himself on guitar and vocals. This is the first time since Clarence's debut album in 1983, Rescue, that Bruce officially appears on a Big Man release. Read more

   

Fans in the UK who bought their copy of Essential in Virgin or HMV, were a little surprised to find that the version that included the "free" bonus CD was ?2 more expensive than the one without the bonus CD. The two music chains now admit their blunder and offer people the extra ?2 back if they bought the more expensive version. Read more

   

On November 8, Bruce jumped on stage and played "Jersey Girl" at the Muscular Dystrophy Association Gala in Aberdeen, NJ. He also auctioned off a guitar which went for $15,000. Later he sat in with the band some more in front of a small audience of 550 people. Read more

   

Earlier this year Bruce contributed his vocal and guitar skills to a song on Warren Zevon's last album. The song was called "Disorder in the House" and has now been made into a video. The video apparently shows the actual recording of the song with both Warren and Bruce in the studio. Bruce is featured at least as much as Warren Zevon himself, not least on Bruce's no less than three guitar solos that we can now see were done on his good ole Fender Esquire. The video can be viewed in its entirety on Yahoo's music site Launch. What a treat! Read more

   

As more and more people get a closer look at the Essential set, it becomes clear that this is unfortunately no exception from the rule that Springsteen's releases often have several errors in the artwork department. One caption confuses Garry Tallent and Danny Federici, Clarence Clemons is not credited on "Badlands", and "Trapped" is allegedly taken from The River Tour, but then how come both Patti Scialfa and Nils Lofgren are credited (and audible) on the track when they didn't join the band until the Born in the USA Tour three years later? Also, it says that "Code of Silence" was recorded live in 1999, but the song was not live premiered until 2000. Apart from that, the artwork is well done with many never-before seen pictures. Read more

   

The Essential Bruce Springsteen has been released in most of the world by now. In some European countries it was available as early as last Friday whereas you had to wait till today in most countries. Initial fan reaction is mixed... as usual. On the positive side, all the old familiar tracks seem to appear in new remastered versions, and most of the bonus disc gets the thumbs up. However, according to some fans, some of the bonus disc material suffers from inferior sound quality that doesn't improve much on already known bootleg versions. Next question is what impact it will have on the newspaper critics and the charts. Read more

   

Better late than never... Last Saturday Bruce could be seen on the Stone Pony stage rocking his butt off at the fourth annual Light of Day benefit show. He first joined Garland Jeffreys for a few songs, then later reappeared during Joe Grushecky's set. That also included a duet between Bruce and Michael J. Fox on "Light of Day" in what must have been a very touching moment for everyone present. The song "Light of Day" was the title song in a movie from 1987 starring Joan Jett and, you guessed it, Michael J. Fox. Since then Michael J. Fox has been diagnozed with Parkinson's disease, which made his appearance at the concert all the more poignant. As usual, the proceeds from the concert went to the Parkinson's Disease Foundation.

Bruce was in fine form and was on stage for close to a couple of hours. He participated on the following songs:

With Garland Jeffreys:
Hail Hail Rock and Roll
96 Tears

With Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers
Never Be Enough Time
Homestead
From Small Things
Code of Silence
Fire
Talking to the King
Johnny 99
Murder Incorporated
Pumping Iron
Happy Birthday (to Bob Benjamin, founder of the PDF
Light of Day
Dirty Water
Twist and Shout Read more

   

It never fails.... As soon as a tour ends, rumors of a new studio album begin to circulate. This time a usually reliable source reports that the band has booked studio time just after the Holidays to record about 25 new songs. Of course, don't hold your breath. Even if it's true, it doesn't necessarily mean that a new album will be released anytime soon, let alone the first half of next year. We can only wait and see. We'll keep you posted. Read more