U2 inks 12-year pact with Live Nation

Live Nation has inked another blockbuster deal with one of the biggest names in music. Just five months after its $120 million pact with Madonna, the concert promotion giant announced a deal today with U2. The 12-year agreement, for which terms were not disclosed, puts Live Nation in charge of U2's merchandising, digital, and branding rights.

Unlike the Madonna deal, however, it does not include album distribution and publishing, which will still be handled by Universal Music Group.

"We've been dating for over twenty years now, it's about time we tied the knot," U2 frontman Bono said, in a statement, of his band's longstanding relationship with Live Nation.

Dave Matthews Band, Ticketmaster team up

In yet another innovative deal between a massively popular band and a concert promotion giant, the Dave Matthews Band and Ticketmaster have teamed up to offer concertgoers an exclusive digital album culled from the band's upcoming 40-city North American tour.

Fans who purchase tickets through Ticketmaster will receive a unique barcode in mid-September that can be redeemed for the digital album on iTunes. The album will go on sale to the general public a month later. The offer is only valid for venues ticketed by Ticketmaster.

DMB's three-month summer tour will begin May 30-31 outside Pittsburgh and will feature material from its next studio album, its first since 2005's Stand Up. Opening acts on the tour will include Willie Nelson, the Black Crowes, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, O.A.R., Michael Franti and Spearhead, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Paolo Nutini, Gomez, and Ingrid Michaelson.

Beanie Sigel heads back to prison

After he allegedly gave probation officials false urine samples and also tested positive five times this month for Xanax and Percocet, Beanie Sigel is headed back to prison. The rapper--real name Dwight Grant--was sentenced to three months in prison Friday for violating his probation.

Sigel was already serving a six-month term in a halfway house for having previously violated supervised release. Sigel told the judge he was an addict and had a relapse when he was sent to the halfway house.

In 2004, Sigel was sentenced to a year in prison and two years of supervised release after Sigel pleaded guilty to weapons and drug charges. He was acquitted in September 2005 of attempted-murder charges in connection with a shooting and avoided car theft charges in October 2007 following a dispute with a car rental company.

Tone Loc to play at scammed Detroit bars

You know economic times are tough when con men use the ol' "I'm Tone Loc's manager" racket to swindle area bars. Tone Loc will perform live shows at two Detroit-area bars that were scammed by a man posing as his manager and booking gigs on his behalf.

Tone Loc will play April 11 at the Red Dog Saloon in Milford and April 12 at Bumpers in Westland, The Detroit Free Press reports.

Red Dog owner Patty McMillan gave about $400 last summer to a man posing as Tone Loc's manager who promised his client would perform at her bar. Authorities say the man also scammed Bumpers out of $1,000. The scam artist hasn't been caught.

The Specials talk reunion

More than 27 years after the original lineup of British ska band the Specials split up, the band is talking about getting back into the studio and hitting the road together. Frontman Terry Hall told the BBC that plans are in the works for a full-fledged Specials reunion.

"Well we're still trying to put dates together, but hopefully September/October time," he said. "We need to spend the summer rehearsing. I think it's taken me 30 years to realize we could do it really well."

Several members of the band have appeared in Specials-related projects over the years, but the entire original lineup has never reformed. Hall, Neville Staple, and Lynval Golding left in 1981 to form Fun Boy Three.

Hall and Golding made surprise appearances at last year's Glastonbury Festival, performing with both Lily Allen and Damon Albarn.

"Because I saw Patti Smith do Horses, and I saw The Pixies reforming...you do it with dignity or don't do it at all," Hall said.

Singer Sean Levert dies in jail

The past 16 months have been rough on the Levert family. On the heels of the November 2006 death of singer Gerald Levert at the age of 40, his brother Sean Levert died Sunday night after a medical emergency in jail. He was 39. Levert was the son of lead O'Jays singer Eddie Levert and one-third of R&B trio Levert with his brother Levert.

Sean Levert was taken from the Cuyahoga County jail in Cleveland about 11 p.m. Sunday and died within the hour at Lutheran Hospital, Powell Caesar, a spokesman for the Cuyahoga County's coroner's office, told the Associated Press. Levert was sentenced last week to one year and 10 months in jail for failing to pay $85,000 in child support for his three children, ages 11, 15, and 17.

An autopsy to determine the cause of death began this morning, Caesar said. Levert suffered from high blood pressure and had been hallucinating in jail, Caesar said. Toxicology reports could take four to six weeks.

Gerald Levert died in 2006 of an accidental mix of prescription and over-the-counter drugs. At Gerald Levert's funeral service on November 17, 2006, Sean Levert and his father performed "Dance With My Father" and personalized the words for Gerald.