Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on May 29th, 2014

Canadian musician and businessman Tim Bachman, one of the founding members of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, was charged with several sexual offenses by Canadian authorities on May 28, including sexual assault, sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching, following an investigation into incidents that took place two decades ago. Bachman is currently free under the provision he must avoid contact with anyone under the age of 16, and also has been ordered to stay away from public parks, schoolyards, swimming pools and other areas where minors are present. In 2013, an unidentified woman claimed Bachman had groped her while she was living with him as a foster child, however he was found not guilty of the charges in that case. Bachman co-founded BTO with his brothers Robbie and Randy Bachman, along with vocalist Fred Turner, in 1973, and played on their first two albums, the gold-selling Bachman-Turner Overdrive and the platinum follow-up, Bachman-Turner Overdrive II. He left the band in 1979, and played with the group again between 1983 and 1986. He was not included in the members of Bachman-Turner Overdrive inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in early 2014, though his replacement, Blair Thornton, was. After turning his back on music in the early 1990s, Bachman became a real estate agent in Abbotsford, B.C., Canada. Leading up to the charges, authorities in Abbotsford had been investigating incidents related to Bachman that took place in the 1990s. The alleged victim's name will not be released due to a court order. - WENN.com/Rolling Stone, 5/28/14.

Former Journey frontman Steve Perry sang publicly for the first time in 19 years when he joined the alt-rock band Eels for a few songs during the second encore of the band's second encore in St. Paul, Minn., on May 25. Perry surprised fans when he took to the stage to sing the Eels song, "It's a Motherf---er," then resurrected two classic Journey songs, "Open Arms" and "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin,'" before leaving the stage. Although the 64-year-old Perry's vocals have grown gruffer and scratchier with age, one reviewer noted his pipes still packed the same potent arena-ready punch they did back in the day. After a successful side solo career which included the double-platinum LP Street Talk (with its No. 3 hit "Oh Sherrie") while still in Journey, Perry recorded his last album with Journey, Trial By Fire, in 1996. In a 2013 interview, Perry revealed that he was writing "for the first time in three years," and said his tenure in Journey was "a magical time for music and to be in the music business" but he "got burned and had to leave." He also left the band partly due to medical issues, including a bad hip that's since been replaced, arthritis and having two melanoma removal surgeries, as well as mourning the passing of his girlfriend Kellie Nash, who died of breast cancer in 2012. Perry is also reportedly working on a new record with Aaron Bruno of the band Awolnation. In related news, former Genesis singer/drummer Phil Collins finally returned to the stage on May 22 when he sang two classic rock songs -- his iconic solo hit "In the Air Tonight" and the Genesis MTV staple "Land of Confusion" -- with young musician-students in Florida at the Miami Country Day School. It was a rare public appearance for Collins, who recorded his last album of original material, Testify, in 2002 and since then has seemed to be more comfortable out of the spotlight. "I've kind of put that side of my life on hold mainly because I feel like I've earned this opportunity to do nothing," he told Rolling Stone magazine in 2012. "And I have young children, so I don't feel the drive to go out there and compete... I can't be what I used to be. I can't play like I used to. And I don't want to go out there and do it half-assedly," he added. Collins has been gradually re-entering the public eye over the past year, and early in 2014 told a Florida reporter that he'd begun writing material with chart-topping pop star Adele."I've just started to work with Adele," he said. "I wasn't actually too aware I live in a cave, but she's achieved an incredible amount. I really love her voice. I love some of this stuff she's done, too." It is unclear if this material was intended for an Adele project or a Collins project (if either), and no further info about the collaboration has been announced. - Rolling Stone, 5/27/14.

The Rolling Stones returned to the road on May 26 with a high-energy, two-hour-plus show in Oslo, Norway, their first gig since the band interrupted their 2014 would tour due to the suicide of Mick Jagger's girlfriend, fashion designer L'Wren Scott. Playing to a sold-out crowd of 23,000, Jagger did not mention the death of Scott, but proved himself proficient in Norwegian-language between-song patter. The band played numbers from their vast catalog of hits, including a rendition of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" featuring a local youth choir, and ended their set with fireworks. The Stones interrupted their tour in March and later rescheduled all their Australia and New Zealand tour dates upon news that Scott-- Jagger's companion since 2001 -- had committed suicide. - AP, 5/27/14.

A block on New York City's Upper West side has been renamed in honor of jazz legend Miles Davis on May 26, what would have been his 88th birthday. A stretch of 77th street between Riverside and West End, where Davis composed some of jazz's greatest works in an apartment building at 312 West 77th Street, was renamed "Miles Davis Way" and the scene of an unveiling ceremony which drew hundreds of jazz fans. The campaign to rename the street was led by Shirley Zafirau, a former neighbor of Davis who still lives on the block. According to Zafirau, Davis often hung out on the stoop outside his apartment, greeting those who passed by and even leading jam sessions. "He interacted with the community on the street," Zafirau told The New York Times. "He really liked being there." Thanks to Zafirau's efforts, outgoing New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a bill renaming the street into law last December. Davis, whose 1970 album Bitches Brew was chosen as the 94th greatest album of all time by Rolling Stone in 2003, will also be the subject of an upcoming biopic starring Don Cheadle as the music icon. Davis died in 1991 at the age of 65. - Billboard, 5/27/14.

In an interview with BBC Wales on May 23, Queen guitarist Brian May revealed his iconic rock band would be releasing a new collection of music later in 2014 that will include previously unreleased songs sung by Freddie Mercury. "We found a few more tracks with Freddie singing and all of us playing and they are quite beautiful. It is a compilation but will have this material that nobody in the world has ever heard...I think people will really enjoy it," May said, adding it will probably be released before the end of the year under the title Queen Forever. "It is quite emotional," May continued. "It is the big, big ballads and the big, big epic sound. It wouldn't have been if we hadnt have done this restoration job. We had to start from scratch because we only had scraps. But knowing how it would have happened if we had finished it, I can sit there and make it happen with modern technology." Earlier in May, Queen announced it will hit the road for its first full North American tour in nearly a decade, with Adam Lambert taking on the late Mercury's vocal chores. The tour starts June 19 in Chicago and ends July 28 in Toronto before heading down under for an Australian leg. - Billboard, 5/26/14.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania has ordered sanctions against the attorney preparing to sue Led Zeppelin for "Stairway to Heaven," claiming that lawyer Francis Malofiy behaved "in a flagrantly unprofessional and offensive manner" over the course of a different case which concerned a songwriter named Dan Marino who claimed that he had created the basic melody, chord progressions and tempo for the Usher song "Bad Girl." Malofiy has claimed that Led Zeppelin stole the intro for their 1971 song "Stairway to Heaven" from Spirit's 1968 track "Taurus," and says that he will file a copyright infringement lawsuit and seek an injunction to block the release of the Led Zeppelin IV reissue. The recent sanctions against the attorney could distract from that pursuit, however. "Whether Malofiy should be removed from practice is a question properly answered in another forum," wrote Judge Paul Diamond, who is presiding over the Marino/Usher case. In other Zeppelin-related news, Eagles member Don Henley has responded to former LZ vocalist Robert Plant's recent comments in Rolling Stone magazine about the Eagles' reasons for reuniting. In an interview with the New Zealand Herald, Henley denied that the reunion had anything to do with boredom and offered a stinging conjecture regarding Plant's reluctance to tour with Led Zeppelin. "Do you know why the Eagles said they'd reunite when 'hell freezes over,' but they did it anyway and keep touring?" Plant said in the interview. "It's not because they were paid a fortune. It's not about the money. It's because they're bored. I'm not bored." Asked whether Plant's assessment was correct, Henley said, "No, I am never bored. The truth is, we enjoy doing it. It is hard work, especially for gentlemen of our age but the fact is it's a fantastic job and it's a wonderful way to make a living and see the world and get to travel and we take our kids with us." Henley went on to deliver a back-handed compliment to the LZ singer. "I really wish [Led Zeppelin] would get back together because they were one of the greatest bands of all time," he began, promisingly. "I think maybe Robert is worried about hitting those notes. He may not be able to unbutton his shirt any more." Meanwhile, a new video for a previously-unheard version of the Zepp classic "Whole Lotta Love" from the upcoming reissue series has just been released. It comprises footage from several live performances of the song. - Rolling Stone, 5/24/14.