NBC is eyeing a November airdate for a Madonna concert special, “The Confessions Tour Live.” The program will be taped this summer at London’s Wembley Stadium and will mark the first broadcast network performance by the artist, according to NBC. It will be directed by longtime collaborator Jonas Akerlund, who directed Madonna’s 2005 concert film “I’m Going To Tell You a Secret.”
The North American portion of the Confessions tour wraps this weekend and Miami and will resume July 30 in Cardiff, Wales. Madonna’s roadwork ends Sept. 20 in Tokyo.
— Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
Pop-punk act the Spill Canvas will be upstreamed into the Warner Bros. system. The band’s 2005 album, “One Fell Swoop,” was released on 111 Records, which is part of Warner Music Group’s rock incubator umbrella group East West.
The Spill Canvas’ next album is slated to come out on WMG’s Sire imprint. “One Fell Swoop” has sold 42,000 copies in the United States since its release, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
In other East West news, the label group has just signed McKinney, Texas-based Pluto Records. A metal label, Pluto released the first As I Lay Dying album, 2001’s “Beneath the Encasing of Ashes.” The group then went onto Metal Blade.
— Todd Martens, L.A.
Leonor Watling is best-known outside her native Spain as the star of such movies as Pedro Almodovar’s “Talk to Her.” She may soon be known for her music now that “Automatic Imperfection,” the second album by Watling’s jazz-pop ensemble Marlango, is receiving a global release through Universal Classics & Jazz. The album went gold (50,000 units) after it was first issued in Spain in September 2005 by Madrid indie label Subterfuge Records and is licensed for international distribution to Universal Music Spain.
In May, Marlango was signed directly to Universal Music Spain. During July, Universal Classics & Jazz began rereleasing the album in Europe, Latin America, Japan, Singapore and Australia on Emarcy/Verve. The reissue carries six bonus tracks and a DVD of a live Barcelona performance. Verve is expected to handle the album in the United States.
Watling, whose mother was British, writes the act’s English-language lyrics. She fronts a trio that includes Alejandro Pelayo (piano) and Oscar Ybarra (trumpet/flugelhorn), augmented in the studio by five other musicians for “Automatic Imperfection.
— Howell Llewellyn, Madrid