When promoter Paul Tollett and his partners hatched the idea of a huge multi-day rock festival called Coachella a decade ago, plenty of people wondered if the idea would actually go anywhere. Now the question is when it will stop.

The lineup for the 2008 edition of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival (taking place from April 25-27) was finally announced today!

Friday Headliners: Jack Johnson, The Verve, The Raconteurs.

Rest of Friday performers: The Breeders, Fatboy Slim, Madness, Tegan and Sarah, Swell Season, The National, Animal Collective, Slightly Stoupid, Mum, Peendulum, Sharon Jones, Stars, Battles, Aesop Roc, MIdnight Juggernauts, Does It Offend You Yeah?, Minus the Bear, Spank Rock, Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip, Diplo, Adam Freeland, Santo Gold, Jens Tokman, John Butler Trio, Vampire Weekend, Dan Deaon, Architecture in Helsinki, Sandra Collins, Busy P, Cut Copy, Black Lips, Datarock, Proffesor Murder, Reverend and the Makers, The Bees, Porter, Rogue Wave, Modeselektor, American Gang, Luckyiam.

Saturday Headliners: Portishead, Kraftwerk, Death Cab for Cutie, Cafe Tacuba.

Rest of Saturday performers: Sasha & Digweed, Rilo Kiley, Dwight Yokam, M.I.A., Hot Chip, Cold War Kids, Stephen Malkmus, DeVotchKa, Floggin Molly, Mark Ronson, Turbonegro, Scars On Brodway, Islands, Enter Shikari, Calvin Harris, Boyz Noise, Junke XL, The Cinematic Orchestra, Jamie-T, The Teenagers, VHS or Beta, Garbon/Silicon, Erol Alkan, Yo Majesty, Little Brother, Bonde Do Role, St. Vincent, Akron Family, MGMT, Institubes DJS, Surkin, Orgasmic, James Zbiola, SebastiAn, Kavinsky, Dready, The Birds and the Bees, Grand Ole Party, New Young Pony, 120 Days, Yoav, Electrick Touch, UFFIE.

Sunday Headliners: Roger Waters (Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety, and then will do hits from The Wall), Love and Rockets, My Morning Jacket.

Rest of Sunday performers: Spiritualized, Justice, Gogol Bordello, Chromeo, The Streets, Metric, Danny Tenaglia, Simian Mobile Disco, Booka Shade, Murs, Dimitri From Paris, Autolux, The Field, Lintop Kwesi Johnson, Les Savy Fab, The cool Kids, Sons and Daghters, Sia, Holy Fuck, Black Kuls, Black Mountain, The Animals, Kid Sister feat. A-Trak, Mon Man, Duffy, I’m From Barcelona, Manchester Orchestra, Deadmau5, The Horrors, Austin TV, Shout Out Louds, Plastiscines, Brett Dennen.

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Snoop Dogg is set to release his new album next year. “Ego Trippin” is due out in March. Snoop’s ninth album will be the follow-up to 2006’s The Blue Carpet Treatment.

The premiere single, produced by Shawty Redd, titled Sensual Seduction, is an ode to the early eighties. The catchy up-tempo showcases Snoop’s talents in a completely different capacity, unlike anything we have ever heard from the rap veteran. “Sensual Seduction” features Snoop playing both the singer and the rapper, crooning about fleshly desires through melodic verses. On it, Snoop’s vocals are reminiscent of the signature “talk box” machine, inspired by the funk sounds of Roger and Zapp.

The video for the single was directed by Melina, known for her vibrant hued and fantasy-like shots (Eve “Tambourine, Ludacris “Money Maker”). The video takes viewers back to the early eighties and pays homage to some of Snoop’s favorite artists like Roger Troutman, Rick James, Prince and others from that time. Taking a cue from the era when music was all about having fun, the video showcases video vixens channeling the Mary Jane Girls and Vanity 6, while Snoop plays the leading man.

Snoop says, “Sensual Seduction is like a throwback feel-good song. I wanted to have fun with this one….and the video is crazy!”

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Bon Jovi has announced the first round of dates for a mammoth tour that will take the veteran rockers to more than 10 countries around the world over the next half year. “We’re starting in New Jersey and then taking it to the world,” lead singer Jon Bon Jovi told a packed house Thursday night (10/25) in Newark, NJ, according to a press release issued through the tour’s promoters, AEG Live. The show marked the band’s first date of a ten-night engagement inaugurating the city’s brand new Prudential Center.

Including the nine remaining Newark shows, plans are currently in place for more than 40 concerts in the US, Canada and Japan, with additional shows expected in New Zealand, England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Holland and Austria, according to promoters.

Bon Jovi is touring behind “Lost Highway,” its ninth album of original material, and first since 2005’s platinum-selling “Have a Nice Day,” which spawned the Grammy-winning duet “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” with Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles.

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Like it or not, the secondary ticket market is here to stay. But some people still look at ticket brokers as the scum of the earth, and this heated topic has come back into the limelight as parents scramble trying to purchase Hannah Montana tickets. As with any popular show, tickets sold out quickly. But in this case, parents started complaining LOUDLY, and pointed the finger at ticket brokers as the major culprits behind the ticket shortage. The fact of the matter is that there simply weren’t enough tickets to satisfy the demands of the public. Take a city like Philadelphia. The city alone has 1.5 million people, and that’s not including surrounding cities (and South Jersey residents). If even 1% of those people wanted to go see the show at the Wachovia Center, the show would be sold out! And let me tell you, there’s a lot more than 1% that wants tickets to this show!

While most performers simply add additional shows, the management instead decides to impose a residency restriction, limiting ticket purchases to those that live within a certain radius from the show. It’s not the first time something like this has happened - In fact, Garth Brooks just did the same thing for his show in Kansas City last weekend. But it does nothing to solve the issue at hand. All it does is screw the out-of-state fans that wanted to see the show.

About 40% of our customers buy tickets to events that aren’t local to them. Why? Business trips, vacation with the family, they’re buying the tickets as a gift for a family member or friend, etc. So if I wanted to buy tickets to the show in Ohio for my nieces, why shouldn’t I be able to do so?

Every year there’s a must-have item, whether it’s the TMX Elmo, PS3, or XBox360. So why should this be any different? Why wasn’t the Attorney General suing the people selling PS3s for $3000 on eBay? Hmmm…

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As a ticket broker, I’m sometimes left with extra tickets, so I’ve seen my fair share of concerts. (With great seats to boot!)

Monday night was the Justin Timberlake show at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ. Unfortunately, with shows the following two nights at Madison Square Garden, demand wasn’t as strong as we had anticipated, and I was left with some extra tickets. Rather than let them go to waste, me and the g/f decided to go see the show, based on the rave reviews from previous shows.

Overall, I was less-than-impressed. Good Charlotte opened up for Timberlake, and I thought that was an odd choice - They seemed like they’d be better suited to open for some emo punk band (Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects, Panic at the Disco, etc) rather than Justin. It probably wouldn’t have been so bad, except that GC seemed intent on promoting their new album, and played a bunch of new, obscure songs that really sucked. It reminded me of Kelly Clarkson at Live Earth, just painful..

After Good Charlotte, we were subjected to about 45 minutes of Verizon ads while we waited for Timberlake to take the stage. The people in the audience didn’t mind, but we were standing on the floor, so that seemed like a LOOOONG time! Finally, the theatrics get started, and Justin finally comes on stage. The crowd goes absolutely ape-shit, and he jumps right into his first song.

The Pros: Very cool stage setup (in the round, with 4 catwalks extending out into the audience), tons of dancers, and flawless choreography.

The Cons: Stage layout left us at times unable to see JT at all. The acoustics were AWFUL - Overpowering bass, and you couldn’t hear the vocals. Timbaland’s intermission thing was retarded, and entirely too long..

All in all, an interesting concert, but I would have much preferred to see him when he did his club tour.. The show won’t disappoint crazy 13-year-old JT fans, but for some of his “older” fans, consider yourself warned!

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We’re witnessing one of the slowest concert seasons on record this year, and the music industry is busy pointing fingers. So who’s to blame? No one knows for sure, but a change is needed quickly. The easiest solution?

Cut Concert Ticket Prices! Since bands may have to rely on touring for even more of their income (since CD sales are continuing to drop), it’s vital that people be able to afford to see them. The Rolling Stones, U2, and Barbra Streisand commanded top-dollar last year (and got it), but others have followed suit with mixed results.

Madonna tickets continue to get more and more expensive, and last year’s ticket sales were sluggish as a result of this..

Genesis tickets have been a REALLY slow seller this year, having only sold out one or two shows on their entire tour thus far. Could it have something to do with the $275 face value on the top seats?!

Kelly Clarkson should have listened to her experienced management - Instead, she launched an overly-ambitious tour in venues that were entirely too large for her, and the ticket prices tipped the scales at almost $90. With a 14-year old demographic, you just charge that much for the tickets! The shows were slow sellers, and Clarkson’s camp eventually cancelled the ENTIRE TOUR!

Even The Police have seen ticket sales slow down after the initial rush. Perhaps it’s because their own band mates are criticizing their performances? Or maybe it’s because Sting has continued to tour for the past decade, so it’s not a big deal as the media has made it out to be? Regardless, at almost $300/ticket for the best seats in the house, it’s still a lot to ask from a Police fan.

The American Idols Live tour is usually money in the bank, but they got a little greedy this year, launching a MASSIVE tour that’s hitting almost 60 cities in 3 months (with an inflated price tag to boot). So what happened? They oversaturated the market, and things got downright ugly. If you wanted to go to the Nashville show last night, you could have bought 8th row floor tickets for 6 DOLLARS. That’s quite a steal, considering those tickets originally sold for $85! Many people bought extra tickets, hoping to make a quick buck when the shows sold out - But when the market took a turn for the worse, people got stuck with those extra tickets.

The summer wasn’t all bad though - Perennial summer tourers Dave Matthews Band, Jimmy Buffett, and Kenny Chesney all have sold-out shows all across the country, and they’ve managed to keep ticket prices within reach for the common person.

Speak with your wallet, and demand lower ticket prices!

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Live Earth was a 24-hour, 7-continent concert series that took place on 7/7/07, and brought together more than 100 music artists and 2 billion people to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis. Giants Stadium in East Rutherford NJ was chosen as the site for the US location (after losing the Washington DC site due to “scheduling conflicts” that sounded more political in nature).

This worked out perfect for us, as we’re based in South Jersey, and only an hour away from the show! I have been looking foward to this show for months now, and Saturday finally arrived. It was REALLY hot - Temperatures hig 90 degrees, and even with ample sunscreen, I still managed to get a little sunburn..

Our seats were great (which should be no surprise given the nature of our business), but even I was surprised when I looked to my left. Who’s that?

Yes, that’s Chad Lowe in the front row, wearing a white t-shirt! He’s sitting literally 5 feet away from us. My girlfriend couldn’t stop staring at him, I think she enjoyed that even more than the concert itself!

Celebrity Seats has taken the pledge to join the global movement and take action against the climate crisis. Instead of poluting the planet in a gas-guzzling Hummer H2, we’ve instead ordered the new Smart Car!

A big thanks goes out to Al Gore, and to all of the bands that made this historic event possible!

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Come And See Fall Out Boy Perform For Free!

Fall Out Boy will be performing a live set on The Today Show in the heart of New York City on Friday July 6th!

The performance is at Rockefeller Plaza so make sure you get there before 7:00 am because space is extremely limited and viewing is on the first come, first-served basis. The concert will be held outside of The Today Show’s NBC studio.

The studio is located at 49th Street and Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. If you can’t make it to the performance, tune into The Today Show on NBC at 8:30 am.

30 Rockefeller Plaza
(49th between 5th & 6th Avenue)
New York, NY

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And he pulls further two shows this week!

Morrissey ended his show after 30 minutes at the Bank Of America Pavillion in Boston last night, having played just seven songs.

Doctors said that Morrissey is suffering from a throat infection, and despite making it through seven songs, he couldn’t complete his planned set.

The singer has been told by doctors he must not sing for three days, resulting in the cancellation of a show on Thursday in Northampton, MA and Friday’s show in Philadelphia.

So far, Saturday’s show at New York’s Madison Square Garden is expected to go ahead as planned.

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Kelly Clarkson, whose career hit a bumpy road this summer, is reportedly being offered a spot on the upcoming American Idol tour.

Clarkson, who has been feuding with her record label and fired her manager in recent weeks, was forced to cancel a planned summer tour of her own due to poor ticket sales.

Now comes word that the “Idol” tour - set to begin July 6 in Florida and starring the top-10 finishers from this year’s show - is inviting Clarkson to make a “special cameo” appearance on the tour, according to a report on the music-industry Web site Geno’s World.

Calls to Clarkson’s label, Sony-BMG, were not immediately returned yesterday.

It has been a rough month for the singer who had come to epitomize “Idol” success.

Her latest CD, “My December,” is not due to be released until next week but it has reportedly suffered from poor early sales orders.

The “Idol” tour might be a comedown for the star, but it will give her a chance to sing her own songs in front of loyal audiences.

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