Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on July 10th, 2015

A New Hampshire radio station has made available all three shows from the Grateful Dead's sold-out three night run of Fare Thee Well concerts on the SoundCloud.com website. Radio station 93.5 WMWV compiled the performances, which will be released on Nov. 20 in a variety of formats, including 12 CDs and seven DVDs or Blu-ray discs. The Grateful Dead played their final ever show on July 5 at Chicago's Soldier Field on July 5, teaming up with Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio for the gigs, replacing frontman Jerry Garcia. Soldier Field was also the venue which the band played it's last show with Garcia before his August 1995 death of a heart attack during his stay at a drug rehabilitation facility in California. The remainder of the band (Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann) had not performed live under the name since the "Fare Thee Well" shows, instead touring as The Dead or The Other Ones. - Billboard/New Musical Express, 7/9/15...... AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd was sentenced to eight months of home detention by a New Zealand judge on July 8 after the musician pleaded guilty to threatening to kill a man who used to work for him, along with possession of methamphetamine and marijuana. Rudd, 61, was sentenced in Tauranga District Court on New Zealand's North Island, and could have faced up to seven years in prison on the threatening to kill charge. He pleaded guilty to the charges in April, acknowledging in a court summary of facts that he'd offered large amounts of cash, vehicles and a house to an associate after asking him to have the victim "taken out." He also acknowledged that he'd directly said to the victim he was going to kill him. Rudd has since been replaced by former AC/DC drummer Chris Slade in the band's current line-up. - AP, 7/8/15...... A member of The Who's live band who often plays keyboards on stage has posted on the band's official website that The Who stepped into replace Prince at the 2015 Glastonbury Festival just one month before the show, and that their headline set was "sabotaged" by an unnamed individual who fiddled with the band's equipment at the concert. "Not many know that we were a last-months addition to the show, replacing Prince who decided not to come this year," the June 28 blog post reads. It also says that "we found someone had sabotaged the carefully-tested audio connections for much of our gear...We've never seen that before, but we're good at plugging things in, so all damage was repaired in time." The blog also goes into detail with guitarist Pete Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey's own frustrations with their performance on the night, though not everyone agreed with Townshend's feeling that the gig was "one of the very worst the band had ever played." The Who headlined the Pyramid Stage on June 28, the final night of Glastonbury 2015 with a set that finished with Townshend mocking the previous night's headliner, rapper Kayne West, who boasted he was "the biggest rock star in the world." - NME, 7/9/15...... A forthcoming live television production of the 1978 smash movie Grease has tapped actor Aaron Tveit of Graceland to portray Danny Zuko, the role made famous by John Travolta in the film. Grease: Live, set to air on the Fox network on Jan. 31, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. EST, will also star Big Time Rush's Carlos PenaVega as Kenickie, played by Jeff Conoway in the movie. Tveit is an accomplished theater actor who starred in Catch Me If You Can and created the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical "Next to Normal." His TV credits include starring in USA Network's Graceland as well as the feature film adaptation of "Les Miserables." - Billboard, 7/9/15...... The Rolling Stones will release a limited edition 12" 45 rpm single of their influential 1965 single "Satisfaction" on July 10, ABCKO Records, which owns the rights to the band's pre-1971 recordings, announced on July 8. July 10 also marks 50 years to the day that "Satisfaction" topped Billboard's Hot 100. The new single will feature two tracks, "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man" and "The Spider and the Fly," on the flipside. Meanwhile, the band says it is "dumbfounded" that an exhibition poster for its upcoming "Exhibitionism" exhibit at London's Saatchi Gallery in 2016 has been banned from London subway stations. The poster, which depicts a scattily-clad woman with the band's iconic logo positioned at her crotch, was rejected by advertising regulators who deemed it too risque to display, and a spokesperson for the band calls it a "rather silly decision." "Perhaps something to do with the fact that it's the Rolling Stones and controversy still seems to follow them everywhere," he said. Instead of the planned poster, London stations and bus stops will see an altered version featuring the logo positioned over the woman's belly button instead. In other Rolling Stones news, guitarist Keith Richards has confirmed he'll release Crosseyed Heart, his first solo effort in 23 years, on Sept. 18 via Virgin EMI. The first single from the 15-track album, "Trouble," will be released on July 17. "I had a ball making this new record and working with [drummer] Steve Jordan and [guitarist] Waddy Wachtel again," Richards said. The record will feature contributions from the Stones' late saxophonist Bobby Keys, who died in December 2014. Meanwhile, Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts made a surprise appearance the Detroit Jazz Show on July 7, sitting in with Band 2, a group led by Stones touring saxophonist (and Detroit native) Tim Ries and also features Stones bassist Darryl Jones. Watts, sporting a black leather jacket, a red sweatshirt and a smile, was introduced by Ries as "a new young drummer just on the scene" and joined the group for renditions of the 1930s standards "For All We Know" or "All Or Nothing At All," both of which were popularized by Frank Sinatra. - Billboard/New Musical Express, 7/8/15...... An attorney for Joni Mitchell has stated in court documents released on July 7 that the iconic folk-rock singer, who was was hospitalized due to a stroke and brain aneurysm in March, is now talking and "is expected to make a full recovery." In the new court documents related to the singer's conservatorship, Mitchell's attorney Rebecca J. Thyne described visiting her client at home on June 26: "When I arrived she was seated at her kitchen table feeding herself lunch. She also told me that she receives excellent care from caregivers round-the-clock. It was clear that she was happy to be home and that she has made remarkable progress. She has physical therapy each day and is expected to make a full recovery." The purpose of the documents was that Thyne recommended that Michell's longtime friend Leslie Morris (who has been acting as her temporary conservator) be officially appointed her conservator. According to Thyne, Mitchell should be judged to lack the capacity to give informed consent for medical treatment. The news of Mitchell's condition comes after her longtime friend David Crosby said in June that the 71-year-old singer-songwriter was not speaking. - Billboard, 7/7/15...... Rock drummer Bruce Rowland, whose prolific career included session work for a long list of artists as well as stints with Fairport Convention and Joe Cocker's Grease Band, has died in a hospice at the age of 74. Rowland joined the Grease Band in 1969, while they served as Cocker's backing band, and was part of the lineup for Cocker's performance at Woodstock as well as his second solo LP, Joe Cocker! Cocker and the Grease Band split in 1970, but Rowland remained in the lineup for the band's own self-titled studio effort the following year. He remained busy after leaving the Grease Band, booking a string of session dates and filtering through Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance. He entered Fairport Convention's orbit during the turbulent recording of 1972's widely bootlegged Manor Album, eventually becoming a full-fledged member after drummer Dave Mattacks quit the group in 1975. - UltimateClassicRock.com, 7/1/15...... As Ringo Starr turned 75 years old on July 7, the famous Beatles drummer received many messages of birthday love from his fellow famous friends, including Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Steven Tyler, Mickey Dolenz and Paul Stanley. "Happiest of birthdays to @ringostarrmusic on this special day. It's my Dad's too - he would have been 113!," Paul McCartney posted on Twitter. "Happy Birthday, Ringo! And Many, Many moreLet us count the ways. How we love you. From an old acquaintance, yoko," tweeted John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono. Meanwhile, Yoko Ono has commented on alleged ISIS terrorist Mohammed Emwazi, who has been dubbed "Jihadi John" after acquiring his nickname from John Lennon. Speaking to the London Observer, Ono said: "I thought that was very distasteful... I'm not going to let them destroy [the memory of] John Lennon or The Beatles." In February, intelligence forces revealed that the Kuwait-born Emwazi is the man behind the Jihadi John guise, who is thought to be responsible for the beheadings of many Westerners. Previously, Ringo Starr criticized the nickname, saying: "It's bullshit. What [ISIS] are doing out there is against everything The Beatles stood for. If we stood for anything we never stood for that. The four of us absolutely stood for peace and love." - Billboard/NME, 7/7/15...... Legendary promoter/producer Jerry Weintraub, who promoted shows for such superstars as Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton and the Beach Boys and produced such hit films as Nashville, Diner, Oh, God!, The Karate Kid and Ocean's Eleven, died at his home in Palm Springs, Calif., on July 6 of as yet undisclosed causes. He was 77. The steely, hard-charging Bronx-raised Weintraub was wildly successful in a ranging entertainment career that spanned over 50 years, and also produced several TV programs. His foray into movies came after a Weintraub-produced John Denver performance where he met director Robert Altman, who sent him a prospective project: Nashville. The 1975 film went on to garner five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. In addition to his entertainment industry endeavors, he held large real estate investments and such ventures as an Elvis Museum in Tokyo, as well as a spa in Beverly Hills. - The Hollywood Reporter, 7/6/15...... Songwriter Roy C. Bennett, who penned hits for such acts as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Carl Perkins and Perry Como, died on July 2 in Queens, N.Y. He was 97. With his songwriting partner Sid Tepper, the duo published over 300 songs and wrote more than 40 tracks for Presley alone, including almost half of the massively successful Blue Hawaii soundtrack. In 2002, they were honored in Memphis for their contributions to Presley's career. Bennett-Tepper also wrote songs covered by the Beatles, Eartha Kitt, Duke Ellington, Marty Robbins and Wayne Newton, among others. Mr. Bennett started his songwriting career at the age of 11, teaming with Tepper from the start. Tepper died this past April at the age of 96 of natural causes. - Billboard 7/9/15.

The Grateful Dead's final three 50th anniversary Fare Thee Well shows at Chicago's Soldier Field on July 3, 4 and 5 drew recognition from Pres. Barack Obama and New York's iconic skyscraper the Empire State Building. Prior to the band's July 3 show, Pres. Obama sent a message of well wishes, writing: "Here's to fifty years of the Grateful Dead, an iconic American band that embodies the creativity, passion, and ability to bring people together that makes American music so great. Enjoy this weekend's celebration of your fans and legacy. And as Jerry [Garcia] would say, 'Let there be songs to fill the air.'" Meanwhile in the Big Apple, the Empire State Building turned red, white and blue, in observance of the Fourth of July holiday, with a "swirl of the color spectrum" to approximate the Grateful Dead's tied-dyed ethic. "The Empire State Building has long recognized the historic and cultural significance of the Grateful Dead and asked me to do this show for the band's highly anticipated reunion and final shows of GD50," says award-winning lighting designer Marc Brickman. "It's a once in a lifetime experience." The first of the three Chicago shows kicked off on July 3 shortly after 7:00 p.m. CDT as the Dead's "core four" -- Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann -- kicked off a three-night run they say will be their final shows ever, augmented by Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio and keyboardists Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti. The mood was rowdy and energetic but peaceful and relatively calm, as the fans rushed in to both celebrate one more time and bid farewell. The attendance of 70,764 shattered Soldier Field's post-renovation attendance record of 67,936 set by U2's 360 Tour in 2009. - Billboard, 7/4/15...... Billy Joel married his fourth wife, former Morgan Stanley executive Alexis Roderick, in an intimate surprise ceremony on July 4 at his estate in Long Island, N.Y. "They surprised guests at their annual July 4th party," a spokesman for Joel told People magazine. The couple, after meeting at a restaurant, have been together since 2009 and are expecting their first child together, a baby girl, later this summer. Joel was previously married to Elizabeth Webber, Christie Brinkley and Katie Lee. Meanwhile, Joel set a record for most performances by a single artist at Madison Square Garden with his 65th show on July 1, besting his onetime touring partner, Elton John. The Piano Man performed an energetic two-hour set for the 20,000-strong crowd of older and younger fans alike, rocking out on such smash hits as "Uptown Girl," "We Didn't Start the Fire," "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" and "Only the Good Die Young." "I didn't know I'd be here 65 times, amazing," Joel said. "I want to thank you very much for making this possible." Joel, 66, has been performing at MSG once a month since 2014. John, 68, previously had the MSG record with 64 performances, and Joel paid tribute to his friend by singing "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" as yellow lights beamed from the stage. - Billboard/AP, 7/4/15...... Former Commodores principal and '80s solo superstar Lionel Ritchie has scored his first UK No. 1 album in 23 years following his successful performance at the 2015 Glastonbury Festival. The Definitive Collection by Lionel Ritchie & The Commodores was released in 2003 and previously reached N. 10 on the UK's Official Chart upon its release. It has now made its first Top 40 re-entry in six years. "I was overwhelmed performing at Glastonbury in front of all those people and for the fans to make the album Number 1 is unbelievable," Richie told OfficialCharts.com. "The UK has always been a special place for me, thank you, I love you all." - New Musical Express, 7/5/15...... Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has released a video for "Love Is Your Name," a track from his forthcoming country-tinged LP which is likely due in 2016 or possibly a few months earlier. In the video, the 67-year-old Tyler is still rocking his made-up androgynous style but now surrounds himself with a band of roaming county Gypsies, rocking out in an idyllic prairie somewhere unknown as a gorgeous blonde 20-something makes her way to his front door. Tyler relocated to Nashville to begin work on the album earlier this year. - Billboard, 7/3/15...... Bruce Springsteen made a surprise appearance onstage at Brian Wilson's summer US tour made its way to Holmdel, N.J., on July 1. The Boss at first stayed off to the side of the PNC Banks Arts Center, singing backup for "Barbara Ann," but was eventually goaded onstage to sing the Beach Boys classic "Surfin' USA" with Wilson. The crowd went wild as Springsteen strapped on a guitar and took to the stage, but he immediately left as soon as the song was over. Wilson's US tour is set to wrap on July 12, and according to an official statement, his UK tour has been postponed until 2016 due to the success of his biopic Love and Mercy. - Billboard, 7/2/15...... "Corrine, Corrina," a famous blues song written by Armenter "Bo Carter" Chatmon back in 1928, is the subject of a new lawsuit filed in Georgia against Rod Stewart, Universal Music and Capitol Records. Although the song is old enough that it borders on being in the public domain, the heirs of Chatmon's estate are claiming Stewart's inclusion of the similarly titled song "Corrina, Corrina" on his 2013 album Time is copyright infringement. The complaint asserts that the two songs are "nearly identical" and "contain substantially similar defining compositional elements, including, but not limited to lyrics, melody, rhythm, tempo, meter, key, and title." The suit also contains a racial dimension by noting Chatmon was "the son of an ex-slave" and says that the song is protected by copyright registrations in 1929 and 1932 on two different versions of "Corrine, Corrina." Curiously, besides nodding to the longstanding fame of "Corrine, Corrina," the lawsuit makes no mention of whether the many musicians who have covered the song over the years have made licensing payments. Since being recorded, the 12-bar song has become somewhat of a standard with covers by Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson, Big Joe Turner and Conor Oberst, among others. - The Hollywood Reporter, 7/2/15...... In a new interview with Esquire magazine, Paul McCartney admitted he felt "frustrated" by the change in public perception of his late Beatles bandmate John Lennon following his death. "Post-Beatles George [Harrison] did his record, John did his, I did mine, Ringo [Starr] did his. We were equal. When John got shot, aside from the pure horror of it, the lingering thing was, OK, well now John's a martyr. A JFK," Sir Paul said. "So what happened was, I started to get frustrated because people started to say, 'Well, he was The Beatles'. And me, George and Ringo would go, 'Er, hang on. It's only a year ago we were all equal-ish'." He went on to say that John "did a lot of great work" but he "also did a lot of non-great work." "So whilst I didn't mind that -- I agreed with it -- I understood that now there was going to be revisionism. It was going to be: John was the one," he added. Elsewhere in the interview, McCartney reveals that he had a crush on Queen Elizabeth II as a child. Macca recalled the light-hearted memory, saying: "When we grew up she was a babe." He also rejected the idea of retiring and says he's seen too many people stop working and "expire" straight away. "Sit at home and watch telly? Gardening, golf... no thanks... I still enjoy writing, I still enjoy singing. What am I gonna do? You see so many people who retire and then immediately expire." - NME, 7/5/15...... In other Beatles news, a postcard autographed by members of the Fab Four went up for auction by Lelands auctioneers on July 1, and swiftly reached a top bid of $12,636 after less than 24 hours. Also up for sale is a collection of signed Apple Records checks from three out of the four Beatles: John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, one of Paul McCartney's signed guitars, and an exact replica of Ringo Starr's drum kit. - NME, 7/2/15...... At a launch party at the Saatchi Gallery on London's Kings Road for their forthcoming memorabilia exhibition "Exhibitionism" on July 2, the Rolling Stones said in a video message that they are "not interested" in splitting up yet. "People have said we're splitting up since every tour from about 1975," said guitarist Keith Richards. If anybody should be interested in when we're going to quit, it should be the Stones, and they're not particularly interested in doing so." Fellow guitarist Ronnie Wood also chimed in: "The exhibition is an insight into an ongoing machine and institution that will never stop rumbling. We didn't get into this exhibition with the thought of retiring. It's just another input into the travelling circus." Although no precise memorabilia for 'Exhibitionism' has been confirmed, the launch hinted at exhibits that will be on display, with photos of items set to be included such as a fake-fur jacket Richards wore on tour in 1994, and a Gibson Firebird III guitar played by late guitarist Brian Jones at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1966. Tickets for the exhibit will go on sale July 11. The band weren't at the launch, as they are still on tour in North America, which ends at Le Festival D'ete in Quebec on July 15. - NME, 7/3/15...... A rare test pressing of Bob Dylan's classic 1975 LP Blood on the Tracks is on sale at LA's Amoeba Records for $12,000 and the dealer says it's "the most expensive piece Amoeba has ever had for sale." The test pressing was among a recently purchased album collection of 4,000 that Amoeba says had many "great, rare and one-of-a-kind items." Although the tracks on the test pressings of Blood on the Tracks have been widely heard, to have a physical copy of this original pressing is incredibly rare. - NME, 7/2/15...... The TV Land cable network has pulled reruns of the CBS comedy series The Dukes of Hazzard from its schedule following the controversy over Confederate flag imagery. In late June, Warner Bros., which produced the series, halted production of toy replicas of the "General Lee," the 1969 Dodge Charger that famously features a replica of the Confederate flag on its roof. On July 4, the General Lee's current owner, golf pro Bubba Watson, announced he was painting over the Confederate flag on the car and replacing it with a US flag. Watson, a two-time Masters champ, paid $121,000 for the car at a January 2012 auction. On June 26, an Illinois-based auto museum offered to buy the car as-is from Watson. The Dukes of Hazzard originally aired on CBS from 1979 to 1985. - AP, 7/4/15...... Veteran Nashville songwriter Red Lane, who throughout his 50-year career penned tunes for such country stars as Merle Haggard, Faron Young, Waylon Jennings, Conway Twitty, Dottie West and John Conlee, died on July 1 after an extended illness. He was 76. Jennings recorded Lane's "Walk On Out of My Mind," which became a top-five hit in 1968, and his "Darling, You Know I Wouldn't Lie" narrowly missed the top spot for Conway Twitty but nevertheless earned a nomination for the song of the year award from the Country Music Association that year -- one of only two Twitty hits to earn such a distinction. With his success as a songwriter, Lane was offered a recording contract with RCA Victor, where he placed four songs on the charts in 1971-72, with "The World Needs A Melody" being the biggest -- hitting No. 32 in the spring of 1971. The song became a popular album cut throughout the decade, with George Jones, Tammy Wynette and Kenny Rogers all recording the song. Somewhat of a free spirit, another interesting fact about Lane was that he had converted a 1958 DC-8 passenger jetliner into his living quarters, and was enamored with airplane travel. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters' Hall of Fame in 1993. - Billboard, 7/2/15...... Val Doonican, an easygoing Irish crooner also known for his fondness for knitwear, died of natural causes on July 1 at a nursing home in southern England. He was 88. Sometimes known as "Ireland's Bing Crosby," Mr. Doonican was born in Waterford, Ireland, in 1927 and performed for years in clubs and on radio in Ireland and Britain before making his breakthrough. He had a string of British chart hits through the 1960s and '70s, including "Walk Tall," ''The Special Years" and "Elusive Butterfly." On The Val Doonican Show, which ran on BBC television from 1965 to 1986, the singer performed easy-listening pop songs, often while wearing woolen pullovers. For his many fans, he was a reassuring presence. One album was called Val Doonican Rocks, But Gently. is survived by his wife, Lynne, and two daughters. - AP, 7/2/15...... Actress Diana Douglas Webster, the former wife of Kirk Douglas and the mother of Michael Douglas, died of cancer on July 4 in Woodland Hills, Calif. She was 92. Ms. Webster appeared in more than 20 films, including Planes, Trains and Automobiles and It Runs in the Family, in addition to TV roles on The West Wing and Love is a Many Splendored Thing. She met Kirk Douglas when they were both acting students at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. They married in 1943 and had Michael in 1944, followed by the birth of Joel (now a producer) in 1947. After a divorce from Kirk in 1951, Ms. Webster married actor Bill Darrid in 1956 and then Donald A. Webster upon her second husband's death. A memorial service will be held in Los Angeles. - Variety, 7/4/15.