LONDON (Reuters) - The Red Hot Chili Peppers led dozens of pop stars performing at Live Earth concerts around the world on Saturday to persuade fans and governments to go green.

Crowds poured into venues in Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hamburg and Johannesburg to hear Linkin Park, Rihanna, Shakira, Crowded House, Kumi Koda and many others perform and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore call for action on climate change.

Genesis, Razorlight and Snow Patrol kicked off the event at London’s Wembley Stadium, leading a star-studded cast there including Madonna, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Spinal Tap, who will play before a less-then-capacity crowd of around 63,000.

Corinne Bailey Rae sang “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)”, Marvin Gaye’s 1971 environment classic, and sets alternated with short videos about climate change and tips on how to slow it.

Following the model of Live Aid in 1985 and Live 8 in 2005, Live Earth hopes to reach up to two billion people through radio, television and the Internet.

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It was quite unexpected to see John at the front page of Blic today, especially with the news that went with it. Here’s a photo of the front page and a (horrible) English translation of the article. Later today I will properly and professionally translate the whole article, scan the paper version and look if any other newspaper of web service has more news on this; as I have to hurry now. Please, everyone, don’t panic. Since the next shows are being played, he’s obviously OK.

Concert shorter due to health problem of the guitarist
Immediately after Red Hot Chili Peppers’ concert in Indjija people started speculating as to why the concert lasted an hour and twenty minutes only. According to previous announcements the audience expected much longer concert. One of the concert organizers claims that the concert was shorter than it should have been because one of the Peppers, guitar man John Frusciante, was physically unable to play longer.
‘We were informed to provide an oxygen bottle in the back stage since their guitar man was not feeling well. In spite of that fact the Peppers made an effort to came and perform in Serbia’, Bojan Boskovic, ‘Exit’ general manager says for ‘Blic’.

The Daily Texan says:

With the shadowboxing and half-raps of Anthony Kiedis, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are one of the most original and successful acts in modern music, reaching their commercial and creative peak now two decades in. Without him, Rolling Stone-certified guitar god John Frusciante, Flea and Chad Smith are an unrivaled power trio, face-melting frenetic virtuosity from all ends.

read the whole review here

MySA says:

Go Johnny go is relevant here as a battle cry only if the last name “Frusciante” follows it – because he delivered riffs with an abandon and snarl that was nowhere approached at the Eric Clapton show at the AT&T Center on Saturday with three- and four-times the guitars onstage.

read the whole review here

According to 24 časa, Večernje novosti and MTS Mondo, as well as some of my sources in local media and some fairies and elves, Red Hot Chili Peppers are definitely going to play in southeastern Europe for the first time in their 22-year-long career…and what’s even better, they’ll be playing here in Serbia! However, surprisingly, the venue will most likely be an open field close to the small town of Inđija, 40-ish km north-western from Belgrade [the capital/I-M.net headquarters…I mean, my hometown :p]

Here’s the translation of the news published in all the mentioned media during the last couple of days, translated by yours truly.

The greatest American rock band at the moment, Red Hot Chili Peppers are finally coming to Serbia! According to Belgrade media, the Peppers will play near Inđija on 26th June.

The concert will be held on an open field, close to the [Belgrade-Budapest] highroad, so the expected amount of people, 50-60 000 could have enough place. As MONDO found out, on the location in the industrial zone of Inđija, fake grass will be set up on the field, to avoid any mud.

It is known that Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante and Chad Smith like to play in unusual places they have not visited before, and since it’s been rumoured that their honorar for the show in Serbia would be 1 500 000 Euros, playing at the highway near Inđija won’t hurt them.

The organisers of the show are the same people in charge of the EXIT festival and they’ll soon provide us with ticket price and other details regarding this concert.

So, guys, I am still waiting for the official site to confirm this, but it seems pretty much official otherwise. When it’s announced, I will probably do a little survey to see how many of the site visitors are interested in coming and going to the show and perhaps we could organise a little something.

What a night for all the Red Hot Chili Peppers and John Frusciante fans this was! The band won not one, not two, but FOUR Grammy Awards!

WON
Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal
Best Rock Song
Best Rock Album
Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package

Did NOT win
Best Short Form Music Video (lost to OK Go!)
Album Of The Year (lost to Dixie Chicks)

Also, Rick Rubin won Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical award

As per the wonderful USA correspodents and friends, Becky and Marian* [I could not watch the broadcast on the German TV due to technical problems], RHCP played Snow and John was very shaken by the fact that they won the best rock album award. Don’t worry, video and audio of this will be up as soon as technically possible!

And here are two photos to spice it up, thanks to marvellous JuliaCher who finds everything by the speed of light. Click on the small images to view bigger ones.

And these are screencaps taken by our Marian:

Even though Dixie Chicks won five awards, this is the night of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ triumph, but even more the night of John Frusciante’s definitive triumph! More to follow, so watch this space.

This is a review of Running Away Into You, the song from John’s first solo album, from Tiny Mix Tapes. I thought it would be a…well…different read.

“Run Away Into You,” by John Frusciante from Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt, 1995
Ever seen that Behind the Music episode on the Red Hot Chili Peppers? There’s that part where they talk about John Frusciante’s descent into heroinism (look it up, cracka) and show pics and video clips of him looking all spider-monkey-ish and ready to scratch-scratch-scratch his forearms raw. OH, SWEET SMACK indeed; as bad as those years were for Frusciante as a person, he made wonderfully jittery junkyard music that perhaps only emerges when one’s veins are full. “Running Away Into You” represents a future genre that I can only imagine will be HUGE someday. It starts with Frusc’s pale, frail voice purring over an acoustic guitar. Pretty, sure, but then he starts fruit-looping his voice up, down and sideways while the guitar dutifully keeps time and things get dank and disturbing. As his now-Alvin & The Chipmunks voice sprawls, it suddenly stops and repeats several times. Then a little more guitar and we’re done. Although it only employs a few minor tricks to get its point across, “Running Away Into You” is so much different from just about anything else out there I’d shudder to even call it music. But music it is — albeit music that shuns history and looks unflinchingly into what the kids might be listening to in 2222 if technology regresses over the coming decades. Much like “My Smile is a Rifle,” this Frusciante track held my attention so steadfastly I wondered what planet he was from … and where I could get some of the shit he was on when he made this.

The interview excerpt, originally on the page 4 of the cover story preview

When the intellectual part of guitar playing overrides the spiritual, you don’t get to extreme heights,” says John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Then he gives an example of how high he gets with six strings and electricity: his hair-raising solo on a recent Chili Peppers B side, “Lyon 6.06.06,” recorded live in France last year. “I remember my brain completely going off. The energy flows to such a degree that there’s no reason to think.” But Frusciante, who turns thirty-seven on March 5th, is also one of the most advanced technical guitarists in rock, a vibrant, chameleonic stylist whose melodic precision and invention were pivotal on the Chili Peppers’ commercial breakthrough, 1991’s BloodSugarSexMagik. Born in New York and raised in Southern California, Frusciante obsessively practiced guitar in his bedroom, playing along to records, until he joined the Chili Peppers in 1989, replacing the late Hillel Slovak. Frusciante abruptly quit in 1992, beginning a seven-year descent into drug-fueled isolation. But since his return for 1999’s Californication, Frusciante’s early fusion of punk energy and the exploratory grandeur of Jimi Hendrix has bloomed into a colorful, explosive originality that is all over the Chili Peppers’ recent double album, Stadium Arcadium.

Who are your guitar heroes?
I always felt it was limiting to stick with guitarists for your inspiration. I also draw inspiration from what you might call guitar anti-heroes — people with an originality that goes beyond the guitar-hero aesthetic.

OK, who are your anti-heroes?
Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison of the Velvet Underground. In the Seventies, Keith Levene of Public Image, Ltd. and John McGeoch of Magazine invented interesting styles. I’m a big fan of Matthew Ashman of Bow Wow Wow. I have nothing against flash. But I grew up in a time when heroism and flashiness were overtaking the desire to make beautiful music. Kurt Cobain took guitar playing further than anyone with way more technique had done in a while.

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