No Doubt Music Group

The subject of ticket distribution and scalping has been a hot topic this week from New Jersey to Los Angeles to Washington, where the U.S. House and Senate have been investigating the proposed merger of ticket giant Ticketmaster with Live Nation, the world's biggest concert promoter. Now a new voice is joining the chorus -- No Doubt, the multiplatinum band from Anaheim whose reunion tour is being greeted as one of the hottest tickets of the summer.

In response to rock band No Doubt's lawsuit against Activision over use of the band members' likenesses in the Band Hero video game, the game developer has filed a response saying it has done no wrong and faults No Doubt for failing to request a restriction on the game function that lets users unlock computerized characters to perform any of the 60-plus songs in the game. Activision also filed a counterclaim accusing the quartet of reneging on its promise to help market and publicize the game, which was released in November, and alleged that No Doubt has been "unjustly enriched by its wrongful conduct against Activision."

Two questions have been fired incessantly at the members of No Doubt in the months leading up to the release this week of their new album, "Return of Saturn." First, will they repeat the phenomenal success they had with "Tragic Kingdom," the breakthrough 1995 album that has sold 7.5 million copies in the U.S. and turned the group's telegenic singer Gwen Stefani into the sexy but clean-cut idol of young navel-gazing rock fans around the world?

Can a band that's been on hiatus for five years -- during which time its lead singer launched a monstrously successful solo career -- return to find a meaningful place within a music industry that's gone into free fall while it was away? No Doubt. Much has changed since the rock foursome from Orange County bade fans adieu in 2004 with a short but potent tour to promote a greatest hits album: Singer Gwen Stefani birthed two children and two platinum-plus solo albums, not to mention establishing herself as a bona fide fashion designer, while bassist Tony Kanal, guitarist Tom Dumont and drummer Adrian Young broadened their music skill sets by writing, playing with and/or producing other artists.

No Doubt, Orange County's hottest-selling rock band, has chosen Jim Guerinot, the county's highest-profile music executive, as its new manager. Guerinot's Laguna Beach-based Rebel Waltz management company also represents the Offspring, another heavy-hitting O.C. rock act, with total worldwide record sales rivaling the 14 million No Doubt reaped with its 1995 release, "Tragic Kingdom." Guerinot also owns a record company, Time Bomb Recordings, financed by the German conglomerate Bertelsmann.

Orange County musicians--current, former and soon-to-be--brought the county its strongest showing in years in the Grammy Award nominations, announced Tuesday. Anaheim's No Doubt landed two more nominations, the most prestigious coming in the best song category. "Don't Speak," the break-up ballad written by siblings Eric and Gwen Stefani, will vie for the award with "How Do I Live" by Diane Warren, R.

Orange County's No Doubt will appear on VH1's "Storytellers" series in an episode scheduled to premiere Sept. 24. The session, filmed Thursday in Carson in front of about 300 fans, included the first performance with the group in five years of its former leader and chief songwriter Eric Stefani, singer Gwen Stefani's older brother.

The success of "Tragic Kingdom" changed everything for the members of No Doubt, and the Anaheim band's expanded world view is evident even in the title of their new album, "Return of Saturn." The phrase "Tragic Kingdom" summarized the dour outlook on romance expressed in most of that album's songs of relationships gone kablooey.

Southern California quartet No Doubt will conclude its first tour in five years with a two-night stay at Irvine's Verizon Wireless Amphitheater beginning July 31. Tickets will go on sale March 7 for the Live Nation-produced tour, with a "tour club" pre-sale for most dates beginning today. Locals who want to see the return of No Doubt sooner than the end of July can take a mini road trip in late May. The band will play the Save Mart Center in Fresno on May 19, the Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield on May 20 and the Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in San Diego on May 22. The tour begins May 16 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

Rock band No Doubt on Wednesday became the first Orange County-based pop act to reach No. 1 on Billboard magazine's top albums chart, a milestone achieved after a national television appearance last weekend on "Saturday Night Live." The Anaheim band's "Tragic Kingdom" album, which appeals to alternative rock and mainstream pop fans alike, sold 229,000 copies last week and edged out French-Canadian pop diva Celine Dion by about 1,700 sales, according to the SoundScan monitoring service.

Gwen Stefani may be a superstar pop singer, hit songwriter, fashion maven and role model for millions of girls and young women, but on a brutally hot afternoon late last week, on a loading dock outside a largely empty sports arena in Ontario, she was just a mom, trying to keep her 3-year-old son entertained while she took on an impromptu decorating project. "I don't have time to do this, but you know me -- once I get obsessed with something . . .

The subject of ticket distribution and scalping has been a hot topic this week from New Jersey to Los Angeles to Washington, where the U.S. House and Senate have been investigating the proposed merger of ticket giant Ticketmaster with Live Nation, the world's biggest concert promoter. Now a new voice is joining the chorus -- No Doubt, the multiplatinum band from Anaheim whose reunion tour is being greeted as one of the hottest tickets of the summer.

Southern California quartet No Doubt will conclude its first tour in five years with a two-night stay at Irvine's Verizon Wireless Amphitheater beginning July 31. Tickets will go on sale March 7 for the Live Nation-produced tour, with a "tour club" pre-sale for most dates beginning today. Locals who want to see the return of No Doubt sooner than the end of July can take a mini road trip in late May. The band will play the Save Mart Center in Fresno on May 19, the Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield on May 20 and the Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in San Diego on May 22. The tour begins May 16 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

Gwen Stefani's concert encore Friday night at Verizon Amphitheater in Orange County came with a big surprise -- her three old bandmates from No Doubt came onstage to play their old hits "Just a Girl," "It's My Life," and "Spiderwebs." The next night, Stefani was again joined by Tony Kanal, Adrian Young and Tom Dumont for two more No Doubt tracks, "Hella Good" and "Sunday Morning."

The tune most fans may have been humming coming out of the No Doubt/Blink-182 concert Saturday at Hyundai Pavilion in Devore wasn't a hit by those groups, but an old Animals classic: "We Gotta Get Out of This Place." Miles-long traffic snarls resulted in hundreds if not thousands of fans being stranded in their vehicles before and after the show outside the amphitheater, observers said.

Maybe Lollapalooza would not have turned into Lollapaloozer this year if they'd just tapped No Doubt to headline. The perky little band from Anaheim, which with help from Blink-182 packed about 40,000 fans into Hyundai Pavilion in Devore on Saturday, might have added the marquee power that the Pixies, Morrissey, Flaming Lips and String Cheese Incident didn't muster, prompting the recent cancellation of this year's tour.

"Sorry I'm not home right now, but leave a message and I'll call you back." If this quintessential answering-machine line resonates louder than usual, it's because it was cleverly employed on No Doubt's "Spiderwebs"--one of the five hit songs spawned from the pop group's enormously popular "Tragic Kingdom."

Orange County bands No Doubt and Korn lost in the three categories they were nominated for Grammys in this year, although another with county ties, Rage Against the Machine, won for best metal performance. Anaheim's No Doubt came up short in its two categories--new artist and rock album--but was among the acts showcased during Wednesday night's Grammy telecast.

No Doubt, the Anaheim-born band that dubbed its home the "Tragic Kingdom" en route to rock stardom, Friday returned to the town it lampooned for the ultimate civic honor. That's right, the keys to the city. Band members received the distinction at Disneyland, no less, the same place they poked fun at in the multiplatinum album "Tragic Kingdom," which includes images of rotten oranges and lyrics mocking the Seven Dwarfs and the hallowed Main Street Electrical Parade.

Early in tonight's VH1 "Storytellers" episode on No Doubt, singer Gwen Stefani comments on the irony of the band's appearance on the show. "The funny thing," Stefani says, "is that we got into a band so we could play music, dance around and entertain, and here we are telling stories, which is kind of awkward and weird. But who cares? Here we are."