Bands

It was another dour year for the music business in a lot of ways, but don't tell that to the Rolling Stones. By extending the group's "A Bigger Bang" tour through much of 2006, the indefatigable band has topped Calendar's 10th annual Ultimate Top 10, which combines album sales with revenue generated by pop acts at the concert box office. It's the Stones' third time leading this poll, raking in a bit more than $150 million last year, most of it from concert ticket sales.

Coca-Cola Co. has reached an agreement with an unsigned London ska band over the global soft drink giant's use of the band's material in TV ads. The band, called 7 Seconds of Love, had argued that Coke used its video and song "Ninja" without permission in a South American commercial for Coca-Cola Light. Coke agreed this week to an out-of-court settlement. The ads have been taken off the air, and the band retains all the rights. The amount of the financial settlement wasn't disclosed.

Professor Harold Hill had a name for it: "the think system." As a way of teaching music, it had its drawbacks, but anyone who's seen "The Music Man" knows that it worked out in the end. That's what Charles Barnes must have been thinking Thursday morning as he taught his regular marching band class at Roosevelt Middle School in Compton. "Jaime, you feel like tapping on the desk a little bit, you and Jonathan?" he asked his drummers.

WHO doesn't love tribute bands? OK, a lot of people. Seems as if half the world thinks the wigs and costumes and zany personas, if not the music, are cheesy. And the other half is in retro heaven, especially if the performers are charismatic and the covers are tight. There certainly are more of the latter on Fridays and Saturdays at the Burbank Bar & Grille.

The Soul Generals, the band that backed musical icon James Brown for his last 20 years, will carry on the Godfather's legacy with a series of appearances this year. The 17-piece band, with three backup singers, will begin the shows on Brown's birthday, May 3, at the Apollo Theater in New York. The theater is where a raucous celebration was held after Brown died -- and the same stage for a 1956 concert that launched him into the international spotlight.

THE proverbial rock-star treatment can take many forms: penthouse suites, groupie-filled limos, bowls of M&M's picked clean (per contractual stipulation) of all green candy. At the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, a team of professionals strives to make sure that dressing rooms exceed even over-the-top rocker standards.

Reality shows can have spinoffs, too. The producers of "American Idol" are launching "The Search for the Next Great American Band," a new talent series. That's a working title for the Fox show, which will "scour the country, seeking musical groups of all ages, styles and genres," producers 19 Entertainment and FremantleMedia North America said Thursday. An air date for the show was not announced. The format, as described by the production company, parallels "American Idol."

Nevada has become one of at least a dozen states to enact laws against fake groups promoting themselves as famed musicians. The new law enacted this week requires performing groups to have at least one member of the recording group that they claim a connection to, or label the production a "tribute" or "salute." Otherwise, claiming a connection would be considered a deceptive trade practice.

Old-new generation of rockers "I hope I die before I get old"? No way! The elderly rockers known as the Zimmers entered the British Top 40 chart Monday at No. 26 with their guitar-smashing take on the Who's "My Generation." The group -- which takes its name from the Zimmer frame, the British term for a walker -- was formed by Tim Samuels for a British Broadcasting Corp. documentary.