Hello!  From NoDoubt.com: the band has released an official “No Doubt TV” iPhone application.

“The No Doubt TV iPhone application is out now. The newly released iPhone app includes video clips and photos from the road, news, tour dates and more. You can even chat with other No Doubt fans. The application is free so CLICK HERE to download. Enjoy!”

Also, found on BSO, No Doubt played a bit of Squeal in Cleveland when they pulled a fan onstage!  I wish they’d played the whole thing!!!  It’s one of my favorites! Click here to view on Youtube.

Hello!  I’ve added scans from Elle to the gallery.

From Goldcoast.com.au:

“AMANDAH Wilkinson, the lead singer of award-winning Gold Coast band Operator Please, has been writing songs with Gwen Stefani’s US group No Doubt.

Operator Please’s record company, EMI Music Australia, has confirmed Wilkinson has been working with some of the band without its lead singer Stefani.

A spokesperson for EMI told CC it was yet to be confirmed what the next step would be for Wilkinson, but it is expected the songs she has recorded will be included on the next Operator Please album.

Operator Please, known for hits such as Just a Song About Ping Pong, Get What You Want and Leave It Alone, has stormed the charts and won countless awards since forming in 2005.

Just a Song About Ping Pong won an Aria Award for Breakthrough Artist in 2007 and their album Yes Yes Vindictive was nominated in 2008 for Breakthough Artist and Best Pop Release.”

Hello!  I’ve added photos from the May 2, May 19, June 2, June 14, June 16, and June 20 shows to the 2009 tour section of the gallery.

Hello!  My Darien, NY meet and greet winner, Laura, sent me her photos, and I’ve added them to the gallery!  I’m so happy that I was able to give her meet and greets!  She is an awesome person, and a longtime fan, and definitely deserved it!  Yay!!!!

Hello!  I went to the MA show last night, and it was amazing!  I got to meet No Doubt for the first time!!  I was hooked up with meet and greet passes (thank you!!!).  It was so surreal.  I almost cried when we were standing there waiting for the band to come in, but managed to hold it together lol.  Curtis, the security guy, is so cool!  He’s pretty intimidating to look at, but he was really funny and nice.

I’ve never been to a formal meet and greet like that, and wasn’t sure what to expect.  There isn’t much time for chatting, you pretty much get autographs and get a photo taken, and that’s it.  I’m not complaining, just wish I had used my time more wisely lol.  I was so stunned, I really couldn’t speak!  I did manage to tell them who I was.  They thanked me for having this site, and said that they appreciated it!  Tony was so sweet, and kept saying thank you to me, and I was so stoked, all I could do is say “thank you!” back to him, and smile like an idiot lol!  They probably think there’s something wrong with me, now….

Gwen thought it was cool that I’ve had the site for so long.  She said that she was going to visit it last night (presumably to see my post about the show), and I didn’t think to tell her that I wouldn’t be able to update last night, as I wasn’t going to get home until about 3 in the morning (I live in Maine).  She was really cool and down-to-earth, and looked so pretty.  They all were really chill and down-to-earth!

I brought the cover sleeve from my original Beacon Street CD for them to sign, and Tom and Adrian both commented on it.  Adrian told me that he used to go look for them in record stores, and buy them lol.  They were really nice!  So, that’s my new most prized posession.

When I picked up my meet and greet passes, there were two tickets for section 2 in the envelope as well.  I didn’t realize they were going to give me tickets, and had already gotten section 2 tickets through the tour club.  I didn’t want them to go to waste, so I decided I was going to find someone with crappy seats to give them to.  That turned out to be quite an adventure lol.  I COULD NOT give those things away!  I think people thought that I was a scalper or something.  I was just walking up to people asking if they wanted section 2 tickets, and when they said no, I’d add “they’re free…” and they would just look at me oddly like I was trying to scam them or something lol.

I finally gave them to two girls who obviously didn’t have very good seats, and they were totally stoked!  I think they were with a parent, though, so I have a feeling that Mom probably got stuck sitting by herself lol.  Sorry ’bout that!  :)

The show was awesome!!!  They slipped “Tragic Kingdom” into the set list!  I took some photos, but my camera doesn’t have very good zoom, and I had to use digital zoom so they didn’t come out very good.  A few of them aren’t too bad, though.  I added them to the gallery.  (If anyone knows the girl that got on stage, there are a couple photos of her in there.)

I’m still in disbelief……

Hello,

I’ve drawn a winner using random.org, and it’s Kevin!  Congrats!!!

Hello!  There’s a new article/interview on the Whig Standard’s web site:

“It’s all Gwen Stefani’s fault. No doubt about it.

Anyone wondering why the ’90s chart-toppers are regrouping for their first tour in five years — even though they still haven’t recorded a followup album to their 2001 CD Rock Steady — need look no further than their blond bombshell frontwoman.

“There was a game plan,” Stefani, 39, says. “I was going to go on tour, then I was going to come home and get pregnant.

“Then I was going to write an album with No Doubt. But that wasn’t working while I was pregnant, because all I was doing was eating. So I stopped doing that. Well, I eat and have a baby. And once I had the baby, I thought, ‘OK, we can make this record.’ But it still wasn’t coming; I felt very homebound and I couldn’t picture myself for the next year in a room trying to write music. I (thought), ‘I have to get out there and feel modern, feel inspired … let’s just go out on tour.’ It was very spontaneous, very naughty. Now here we are.”

Here, in their case, was a meeting room in California, where Stefani and the rest of the band — bassist Tony Kanal, guitarist Tom Dumont and drummer Adrian Young — gathered for a conference call with Canadian reporters while Stefani’s 23-month-old Kingston played in the background.

Here’s what they had to say about their tour, giving their entire catalog away for free, and their plans to turn their summer road trip into a family affair.

On being perceived as a nostalgia act:

Tom: We don’t think in those terms. For us, it’s really as simple as being excited to play music and revisit what we’ve always been about as a band. Which is playing shows and getting to enjoy that incredible gratification of being onstage and rocking together and doing that with an audience that’s happy to be there. And that’s as far as I think we consider it. All that stuff about nostalgia, to me personally, is overthinking it a little bit.

Tony: I think it’s really hard for us to have perspective on that and be objective about it. We’ve been in the band for a long time. To me, it doesn’t feel nostalgic because I think Gwen’s idea of going on the road and getting inspired and reconnecting — the four of us reconnecting, and reconnecting with all the people who have supported us for so many years — is really forward-thinking.

That was the one component that was missing from our writing sessions; we haven’t played for a number of years and it was time for us to bring that part of our band back. That’s how we started; we started as a live band. That was obviously missing; and I think that’s going to help us make a great record.

On their favourite songs:

Gwen: For me, the bigger hits are obviously pretty exciting when you’re playing live because the response from the audience is at such a level that it’s not even about the song anymore … I don’t have a particular song that I love playing more than another, but Don’t Speak, Just a Girl, the hits — there’s nothing like that feeling when you’re playing songs people love and are singing along.

Tony: There’s a couple of tracks we might be playing off Tragic Kingdom that I’m really excited about: A song called Happy Now and a song called End it On This. We haven’t played them in so many years … it brings back memories.

Tom: I feel a little bit the same as all my bandmates. I love the older songs that we haven’t played as often in recent years. And I love the big hits. I especially love any song that has a really great guitar solo. I plan on trying to milk that if I can. (Laughter)

Adrian: We encourage Tom to guitar solo on every song … I think he should be competing with Gwen’s vocals all the time.

On giving away a download of the band’s catalog with tickets:

Tom: You’re not seeing it, but the band is all pointing at me. It was my idea to do that, I suppose. To me, it’s just so exciting that the technology is there to deliver your music to people in such a simple way. And everybody has changed the way they listen to music. If the technology is there, I’m glad we were able to embrace it. The idea is to get our music into people’s ears.

On whether they’ll be working on the CD while on tour:

Tony: I want to answer that question, because all my bandmates have kids, and all their families are coming along with us on the tour this year. So by default, my bus is going to have a studio on it. And I’m going to invite my bandmates to come on the bus and write music with me. It may happen, it may not, but the option will be there. There’s something kind of cool about being able to play shows and then go write music. We haven’t done that a lot in the past, but you never know.

On the songwriting process:

Gwen: It’s just such a magical thing. You can’t really press a button and write a song. It’s just one of those things. And to actually write a hit, a song that people really connect to … you don’t really know how it happens. What’s happened for me — and it’s only me, because the rest of the band guys have tons of ideas and they’re very inspired and they’re ready to go — but I do this every single time pretty much; I always have this little procrastination, writer’s block, whatever-you-want-to-call-it moment.

I’ve been in that moment for a minute and that’s the whole reason why we’re doing this tour — to get out there and get inspired. To just change the atmosphere, to get me out of my house, so I’m not just in mom mode. I just had a baby, which is totally emotional and physical. So to get out there onstage and see people singing these songs that we wrote, there’s nothing more inspiring than that. I don’t expect that I’ll write any songs on this tour. But I think that on the other side of the tour, I will be a different person from singing these songs. So, it’s kind of an experiment.

On the hardest part of the reunion:

Gwen: I feel like it hasn’t been that hard, really. The hard part was sitting in a studio thinking ‘Oh my God,’ and panicking about making a record. As soon as everybody decided, ‘You know what? Let’s just go on tour, let’s just go have fun and take the weight off our shoulders,’ suddenly it was fun again and got really exciting. To tour together is really hard because of our crazy schedules … But playing these songs again was like riding a bike. We hardly had to do anything to remember them. It’s hard, but it’s fun hard.”

Hello!  I have another pair of tickets to the 6/27 Jones Beach show to give away, courtesy of State Farm!  No meet and greets this time, just tickets.

No time for a fancy schmancy contest this time, as the show is coming right up.  So, to enter to win, just comment on this post (making sure to enter a valid e-mail address so I can contact you if you win)!  Contest ends Thursday at 9 PM EST.  I’ll draw one random winner on Thursday night.

The tickets are to be picked up at will call, so the winner will need to be the one to pick them up, and will need to present ID.

Don’t forget, the State Farm contest for Vegas is still open for entries, too.  You can win airfare, limo service, spending $, tickets, and meet and greet passes.

Hello!  I just added a bunch of photos from the June 3 show to the gallery.

• There’s a new interview with Tom on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette site:

“Gwen Stefani said she was just going to take a little time off from the band to see what’s it’s like to be her own person. She ended up being more productive, on multiple levels, than anyone anticipated.

Between 2004 and 2008 the flashy blond singer for No Doubt delivered two successful solo albums, including the No. 1 single “Hollaback Girl,” and two sons, now ages 3 and 10 months.

It left the other three members of the multi-platinum Orange County, Calif., ska-pop band to their own devices. Guitarist Tom Dumont released the solo project Invincible Overlord, backed Matt Costa on tour, scored a documentary and played dad. Bassist Tony Kanal did production work for Stefani and wrote songs with artists including Pink. And drummer Adrian Young did session work and toured with Bow Wow Wow.

Meanwhile, for five years they watched Stefani soar up the charts, tour the world and rack up multiple Grammy nominations.

“It was a little bit [difficult], but I knew it was a good thing,” Dumont says in an interview from Orlando. “When we finished the Rock Steady tour we had been touring and making albums for so many years everybody was exhausted and a little burnt. She grew up in the band since she was a teenager in high school and found herself in her 30s and being in a band is like being married. It was as if she was married as a teenager and never able to make her own decisions or follow her own inspirations. I know at the time, yeah, [it was a] little bit of a difficult thing, but also really healthy. All of us needed some time apart to grow up a bit. Gwen said, ‘We’re not quitting or breaking up’ and though the public may have perceived it that way, we knew it was just a matter of time.”

At the end of her 2007 tour, she planted the seed for a No Doubt comeback by approaching the band and saying, “Hey wouldn’t it be awesome if we surprised the audience and you guys came out for the encore and played a couple No Doubt songs?”

They did that and then in early 2008 decided to reconvene to write the follow-up to 2001’s “Rock Steady,” a triple-platinum, Grammy-winning album that produced four singles, including “Hey Baby” and “Hella Good.”

“I think Gwen had seen through the extent of her solo thing, as far as she wanted to take that,” Dumont says. “After that tour she said, ‘Hey my plan is to get pregnant again and what better thing to do than hang out and write and record an album?’ That was kind of the plan last year and that’s what we started to do, and then it didn’t materialize. I think part of it, Gwen would say, was due to being pregnant and just feeling out of sorts and not creative and not having figured out what to write about. We took a break for her to have her baby and my wife had a baby around the same time, so we took a few months off.”

With nothing really happening on the album front, Stefani came up with a different idea.

“She said, ‘You know what would be the best thing? Let’s go out and play shows again and reconnect as a live band’ and it was in a way kind of naughty because it was like going straight to dessert and not eating dinner. We were worried about it because making an album is really important and it’s kind of what we need to do. But this is a way to get back to the roots of being in a band and playing shows together and being on stage and getting that incredible ego stroke from the audience and getting that feedback.”

To prepare, Dumont says, “We starting getting together in Adrian’s basement to dust off the cobwebs and kind of reacquaint ourselves with everything. It was rusty at first. It took us a while to pull it all together and even when we started getting into full band rehearsals, it took us a while.”

But when No Doubt finally kicked off its tour on May 2 in Atlantic City, punknews.org wrote, “The O.C. hitmakers blasted back in full force, skanking and strutting their way through a ridiculously tight, upbeat, 90-something-minute workout in front of a raucous, fist-pumping crowd.”

“It feels great now, really,” Dumont says. “We’re all in the groove of the tour.”

No Doubt sticks to No Doubt songs, just as Stefani leaves them out of her solo sets, and they rage on with a stage set they all find visually inspiring.

“We figured out when we have a strong theme visually it seems to make the music work stronger,” Dumont says. “This time we focused on this ’60s modernism look. The stage set kind of resembles this famous building at the LAX airport with this insane ’60s modern architecture, and James Bond stuff and a wee bit of ‘Clockwork Orange.’ It’s kind of a powerful stage.”

They’ll get to the album after the tour, and Dumont says he’s not too concerned about the band’s core sound of ska-punk being slightly out of fashion.

“We don’t think too much about it. We’ve have a pretty diverse set of influences. Everyone kind of has a different focus and that kind of give-and-take creatively is what creates the sound. It’s hard to say what the sound of next record would be. It’s safe to say we’re not going to break out too much from what we did in the past.”