Happy New Year to everyone. The year is off to a running start for me, thanks to my monthly on line TV show, which I co host with Bobby La Serra, the CEO of all things Strong Island. Hot on the heels of a year end interview with the amazing Vic Latino of Party 105,we played host to publicist Anne Leighton and Noel Ramos of the In Independent Music Conference. For those of you want to know more about how the music industry works, and how you can break in, you should join us each month, (the first Wednesday of each month) at 8 PM, as you can call in and join the conversation. Go to www.strongisland.com, scroll down to "TV",and find out how to join the party at "Strong Island Seen".

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Strong Island Rocks, the label run by the aforementioned Bobby La Serra, will be releasing the remastered edited version of Jimi LaLumia & the Psychotic Frogs "Live! At Max's Kansas City" Deluxe, remastered 2.0 edition. Mark Gaide of Audio Cuisine did an astounding job of editing all my stoned, drunken outbursts between each song, leaving a breath taking straight ahead rock n'roll album. If I do say so myself! All the 'hits' are in there, "Death To Disco" and "wipeout","Mangle Me", the xxx parody version of "Eleanor Rigby" and of course, "F***ed By The Devil".Also included is the end of the night jam, when Johnny Thunders,Jayne County, Cherry Vanilla, and Donna Destri doing "Twist And Shout" and "Boys". It'll be available as a digital album on iTunes,as well as a CD and eventually,limited edition vinyl LP. I fling it all very exciting, and I hope you all do as well.

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The music industry,like the economy, is on the rebound,and sales are up higher than they've been since 2004,almost ten years ago.A lot of the excitement is driven by the success of "21" by Adele, but it proves that people will still buy Cd's and will pay for digital downloads instead of trying to steal everything on line.People are willing to support their favorite artists with their dollars, and this will only make the industry healthier,and provide more choices for music fans. Labels feel more confident, and are willing to take more chances, when money is coming in; this is true of most businesses,and it can only be a good thing. In addition to Adele, the health of the industry was fueled by the on going success of Lady GaGa. As well as the offspring of Motown's Berry Gordy, the wild men in the group called LMFAO. Good luck to the music industry in 2012.

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The Top Ten money making tours of 2011 were recently revealed, and right in between U2 at #1 and Bon Jovi at #3,was Take That at #2.Who? You ask..Well, Take That was a monstrously successful Uk boyband in the 90's;in America, RCA Records had the rights to them and didn't know what to do with them, so as far as I'm concerned, they never got their shot.but of course, RCA had the rights to the fabulous U.K. albums of Cherry Vanilla in the 70's and refused to release them in America. They wouldn't even release a single("The Punk",a brilliant song) to test the waters.They didn't know what to do with the great album by Sylvain Sylvain("Teenage News") or Robert Gordon, who had the original recording of "Fire", which Springsteen gave him specifically..c',on,... RCA couldn't get "Fire" off the ground?? Several years later ,The Pointer Sisters covered it and had a huge hit with it, but not for RCA.

So it came as no surprise that RCA failed to make Take That happen. Group member Robbie Williams eventually went solo. He became the biggest star on planet Earth, everywhere except America. Take That eventually had one U.S. hit, with "Back For Good",by which point they were on Arista Records in America. But the whole concept of the group never got the necessary exposure here to make the group happen. In 2011, they toured,re united with Robbie Williams, who remains a worldwide superstar(still except for America)and they made almost as much money as U2 . Who had the advantage of America as part of their audience,and still, Take That with Williams gave them a run for the money. So Take That! if you think that America is the be all,end all of making it in the music biz. At least 80's UK star Toyah finally did a mini tour here at the end of 2011(with her new band The Humans),so anything is possible. I suppose.

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Speaking of reunions, one thing that America is excited about is David Lee Roth finally,actually climbing back aboard the Van Halen train for a new album and tour in 2012. This almost happened several times in recent years, but diva-ish cat fights worthy of The Supremes always put the kibosh on things. Not so now!! There's a new single, the full length new CD ready to hit the racks,and then the TOUR!! The music industry certainly can use an extra shot in the arm, and long standing VH fans will certainly want to own the new CD release, so grab that last copy before I do and get ready to rock!