Rock News: Music's high and low notes

BRITNEY SPEARS

HBO has announced that it will feed Britney Spears' upcoming pay-TV special to Armed Forces Radio and Television Service free of charge, at the request of the 19-year-old singer herself.

"Britney Spears: Live From Las Vegas" will air Nov. 18 on HBO, originating from the MGM Grand.

AFRTS will carry the show on its AFN-Atlantic and AFN-Pacific channels.

Plans call for several segments of the show to have Spears interact via satellite with military personnel at Fort Polk. La.; Lackland Air Force Base, Texas; and two installations in California, Camp Pendleton and the San Diego Naval Station.

(Thanks to UPI Hollywood Reporter Pat Nason)

SHAKIRA

Latin rock star Shakira will personally introduce New York City fans to her first English-language CD, titled "Laundry Service," this Tuesday when she appears at The Wiz.

The singer, 24, will meet fans and sign copies of her new album, which includes her new single "Whenever, Wherever."

Although "Laundry Service" is her first album recorded in English, Shakira is no stranger to the United States, where "Donde Estan Los Ladrones?" has already gone platinum.

GENE SIMMONS

Gene Simmons of KISS says no other band but The Beatles has sold more albums than KISS, and no bands but The Beatles and the Rolling Stones have more gold records than KISS.

"Numbers speak louder than words," he tells UPI's Pat Nason. "At the end of the day, it's about numbers. When fans speak they speak with money. They buy tickets and they buy stuff."

KISS has profited from the use of their images in comic books, pinball machines, board games, a KISS Visa Card, the 1999 movie "Detroit Rock City," and a Fortune magazine cover in 1996, when they were the No.1 touring band in the world.

Soon, they're bringing a CGI superhero to TV, a musical to Broadway and -- Simmons says -- KISS brand condoms. He plans to launch a magazine next spring, "Gene Simmons's Tongue," and he has a clothing line in development.

"I basically want to go where no band has gone before," he says. "I want to be Disney without the overhead."

As Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley work their way through a KISS farewell tour -- bringing the show to two generations of the "KISS Army" around the world -- Simmons has taken time out to help promote "KISS: The Box Set," due in stores Nov. 20.

"KISS: The Box Set" features six hours of digitally re-mastered recordings on five CDs, with 94 tracks. In addition to the band's classic numbers -- "Rock and Roll All Nite," "Deuce," "Detroit Rock City," "Love Gun" and "Beth" -- it includes previously unreleased band and solo demos, outtakes and live recordings.

Simmons remains open to touring with KISS again, even though the band is on what is supposed to be its farewell tour.

"Money can convince God and the devil to do it," he said. "Ace and Peter would either talk me out of it or convince me to do it."

One way or the other, Simmons is pretty sure the KISS phenomenon will be lucrative for some time to come. "It's not over and it's getting bigger," he said.

RAVI SHANKAR

The man the world most associates with the sound of the Indian sitar, Ravi Shankar, says he is making his last tour. But many in the world of music -- including reviewer Bret Saunders, writing in the Denver Post -- wonders if the internationally known musician can keep his word.

Still spry and energetic, Shankar, 81, is now in the United States touring with his daughter, in the midst of a "farewell" tour. But, look at Barbra Streisand. She said "farewell" how many times? In the case of Shankar, if he does indeed stop touring, he will leave behind a musical legacy that few did, can or will rival. He began touring central India in the 1930s. He moved to Bombay and became known on radio in the '40s. By the 1950s, he was becoming internationally known. It was in the '50s that he began doing the musical scores for movies made in his home country. Beatle George Harrison brought new attention to Skankar, thrusting him into the limelight again in the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh.

By the way, Harrison collaborated on a CD in 1997 called "Chants of India." It's available on Angel. Saunders says saxophonist John Coltrane planned to work with Shankar, but died before the project got off the ground. Coltrane named his son Ravi in tribute to the Indian musician.

(Thanks to UPI Feature Reporter Dennis Daily)