Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on September 8th, 2016

Bruce Springsteen played his longest U.S. concert in history in Philadelphia on Sept. 7. At 4 hours and 4 minutes and 34 songs played, the show at Citizens Bank Park surpassed the previous U.S. record set only eight days earlier at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Aug. 30 (a 2012 set in Helsinki, Finland, still holds the world record at 4:06). Springsteen and his E Street Band treated the Philly crowd to an early 10-song set that focused primarily on his first two albums, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, and he also included his Academy Award-winning song, "The Streets of Philadelphia." Meanwhile, as he prepares to release his anxiously awaited autobiography Born to Run on Sept. 27, Springsteen has given a new interview to Vanity Fair magazine, opening up about his complex relationship with his late father, his own struggles with depression, and his next album, which he says is completely finished. - Billboard, 9/8/16...... A huge 26-by-15 foot iron sculpture created by Bob Dylan will be unveiled by the iconic singer/songwriter at the entrance of the new $1.3 billion MGM National Harbor resort casino in Prince's County, Maryland, when the casino opens later in 2016. Titled "Portal," the sculpture will be Dylan's first permanent piece to be displayed in a public space. Dylan reportedly fashioned the sculpture with hand-selected found objects, including farm equipment, kitchen utensils and tools. Creating sculptures out of pieces of iron and other metals has been one of Dylan's hobbies for the past 30 years, but only in 2013, at the Halcyon Gallery in London, did he exhibit his first metalwork, called "Moodswings," publicly. "I've been around iron all my life ever since I was a kid. I was born and raised in iron ore country -- where you could breathe it and smell it every day," Dylan said at the time. "And I've always worked with it in one form or another," he added. - New Musical Express, 9/7/16...... The first three of a planned 11-LP reissue series of all of Yoko Ono's albums will hit stores on Nov. 11 via Secretly Canadian and Chimera Music. Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins (1968), Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With Lions (1969), and Plastic Ono Band (1970) will all include bonus tracks and feature the original vinyl packaging with never-before-seen photos. The vinyl was re-mastered from the original tapes by mastering engineer Greg Calbi, who worked with John Lennon, and musician Sean Lennon, her son. The reissue series will also be available, for the first time ever, for digital download. - Billboard, 9/7/16...... A tribute concert to late blues icon B.B. King was held at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Sept. 1. "Icon: The Life and Legacy of B.B. King" featured performances from such diverse acts as Slash, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Keb' Mo', Jimmie Vaughan, Joe Bonamassa, Bobby Bland, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks. "B.B. gave me inspiration, friendship, advice and the stage," said Joe Bonamassa, who opened for King at the age of 8. "If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be standing here." Also sharing reflections via video were Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt and Buddy Guy. Proceeds from the event support the Grammy Foundation and Grammy Museum, two charitable organizations of The Recording Academy. - Billboard, 9/2/16...... Meat Loaf's classic 1977 rock opera Bat Out of Hell is being adapted into a musical for the U.K. stage, with previews set to begin on Feb. 17, 2017 at Manchester Opera House. Scripted by Jim Steinman, who also wrote all the songs on the LP, the storyline of "Bat Out of Hell: The Musical" is described in a press release as "a romantic adventure about rebellious youth and passionate love, set against the backdrop of a post-cataclysmic city adrift from the mainland." "Bat Out of Hell: The Musical" coincides with the 40th anniversary of the release of the 1977 album, and is being produced by David Sonenberg, Michael Cohl, Randy Lennox and Tony Smith. After its U.K. run it will eventually play Canada. Bat Out of Hell has been certified as selling 14 million copies in the U.S. by the R.I.A.A., and according to Neilsen Music, has sold an additional 5.2 million units since 1991. Although Meat Loaf is not directly involved in the new production, he praised his longtime collaborator Steinman. "He and I have been friends and worked together for over 40 years so it's incredible for me to see his dream of over 50 years finally come to fruition," Meat Loaf said. The singer's next LP, Braver Than We Are, hits stores in the U.S. on Sept. 16 and Sept. 9 in Europe. All the songs were written by Steinman. - Billboard, 9/6/16...... Queen guitarist Brian May, who is also an astrophysicist, has announced in a new video that an asteroid discovered in 1991 orbiting betwen Mars and Jupiter will be named after his late bandmate, Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. "I'm happy to be able to announce that the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center has today designated Asteroid 17473, discovered 1991, in Freddie's name, timed to honor his 70th Birthday," May said. "Henceforth this object will be known as Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury." May says that you "need a pretty decent telescope" to see the heavenly body. "It's just a dot of light but it's a very special dot of light and maybe one day we'll get there," May said. - NME, 9/5/16...... Stevie Nicks announced on Sept. 6 that she'll kick off a new 27-date leg on her 24 Karat Gold Tour on Sept. 25 in Phoenix, Ariz. With opening act the Pretenders, Nicks will also visit Denver (9/27), Houston (9/29) and Dallas (9/30) in September. After taking October off, the tour picks up in Tampa, Fla., on Nov. 2 for shows in major U.S. and Canadian cities before wrapping on Dec. 18 at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. Meanwhile, in a new interview with the New York TImes, the singer admitted that she regrets doing so many drugs during her career. "Yes, it (doing drugs) was a lot of fun between 1975 and 1990 - until it wasn't," Nicks recalled. "I walk onstage every night now and do a three-hour show with Fleetwood Mac, and I have a great time up there. I wish I had known that I actually had the energy to do this entire set totally sober and get just as excited. On one hand, that makes me feel great and on the other it makes me sad that I ever did my first line of coke," she added. - Billboard/New Musical Express, 9/6/16...... Former Deep Purple singer Glenn Hughes will release his twelfth solo album, Resonate, on Nov. 4 in the U.K. via Frontiers Music Srl. The album dovetails Hughes' UK and European tour with special guests Living Colour, which kicks off in the UK on Nov. 8 in Leamington Spa. Resonate is Hughes' first solo album in over 8 years and features his live solo band members, in addition to his longtime friend and drummer Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers. The new album will be available in two configurations: regular CD and Deluxe Edition including one bonus track and DVD. Vinyl release will be made available via the Frontiers' label partners Soulfood Music. - Noble PR 9/8/16...... Some diehard fans of Michael Jackson are claiming the singer is still alive after spotting what they believe to be the King of Pop in a selfie taken by his daughter, Paris Jackson, in May and posted on Instagram. In the photo, Paris is pictured sitting beside a pile of clothes on the passenger seat next to her. But now, some fans of Jackson maintain the clothes are the late singer in disguise. The rumours surrounding the photo have intensified after Jackson's 19-year-old son Prince Jackson recently wrote a poem in honour of his late father. Its lines include: "To many he is a king/To me a man/All he inspires/To lead a noble cause/Everyone is family, not a fan even while receiving thunderous applause." Jackson died in 2009, when Paris was 11. Taken while Paris was travelling around the Joshua Tree in California, the photo is captioned: "If you give a little love, you get a little love of your own." - NME, 9/5/16...... Barbra Streisand has earned her 11th No. 1 album on the Billbaord Hot 200 album chart with her latest release, Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway. The LP extends the diva's record for the most Billboard No. 1 albums among women artists, and ties her with Bruce Springsteen for the the third-most among all acts. Only the Beatles have more No. 1 albums in the U.S., with a record 19 chart-toppers. Released Aug. 26 through Columbia, Encore is an all-star collaborative affair, and pairs Streisand with a range of actors -- including Anne Hathaway, Daisy Ridley, Jamie Foxx and Melissa McCarthey -- to cover songs from Broadway. - Billboard, 9/4/16...... Country music legend Loretta Lynn has postponed shows after suffering injuries in a fall that will require minor surgery. In a statement posted on her website on Sept. 7, the 84-year-old singer/songwriter's injuries were described as not serious, but her doctors have advised her to stay off the road until she's made a full recovery. Lynn was forced to cancel a Labor Day weekend show at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tenn., and three upcoming shows in September have been postponed. Lynn released her latest album, Full Circle, earlier in 2016, and she continues to tour regularly. - AP, 9/7/16...... Jerry Heller, known for being NWA's original manager and before that a successful tour promoter for such acts as Elton John, The Who and Kraftwerk, passed away at Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks, Calif. on Sept. 2 after suffering a heart attack. He was 75. In the '60s and '70s, Heller worked as an agent for numerous artists Marvin Gaye, ELO, Journey and Creedence Clearwater Revival, while also promoting the first US tours by Elton John, Kraftwerk and Pink Floyd. Heller later helped to accelerate the rise of NWA and the gangsta-rap movement as the group's original manager, and co-founded the highly influential Ruthless Records with group member Eazy-E. In 2015, Heller filed a defamation lawsuit last year over the way he was portrayed in the hit NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton. He was played by Paul Giamatti in the acclaimed film. In 2006, he published his autobiography, Ruthless: A Memoir, written with Gil Reavill. - NME, 9/3/16...... Veteran actor Hugh O'Brian, best known for starring in the long-running TV western The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, died of natural causes in his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Sept. 5. He was 91. The ABC Western The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, in which the exceedingly handsome, muscular O'Brian starred as the title character, ran for 221 episodes from 1955-61. At the time he was one of television's great male sex symbols. In 1957, Mr. O'Brian was nominated for an Emmy for best continuing performance by an actor in a dramatic series for his work on the series. Mr. O'Brian also dedicated a great deal of his life to a charitable effort he created himself in 1958, the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Foundation, a nonprofit youth leadership development program for high schoolers. The organization sponsors 10,000 high school sophomores annually through leadership programs in all 50 states and 20 countries. He is survived by his wife, the former Virginia Barber, whom he married in 2006 at the age of 81. - Variety, 9/5/16...... Outspoken conservative activist Phyllis Schafly, who helped defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and founded the Eagle Forum political group, died on Sept. 5 at her St. Louis home after a battle with cancer. She was 92. Mrs. Schlafly rose to national attention in 1964 with her self-published book, A Choice Not an Echo, that became a manifesto for the far right. It chronicled the history of the Republican National Convention, sold three million copies and helped conservative Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater earn the 1964 GOP nomination. Although she earned master's and law degrees, she once said perhaps her greatest legacy was the ultraconservative Eagle Forum, which she founded in suburban St. Louis in 1972. - AP, 9/5/16.

Former AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd has completed his eight months of home detention on threatening-to-kill charges in 2015, and in a new interview with the New Zealand Herald he says his recovery from recent heart attack is more important than returning to AC/DC. "I was just at home walking around at home, and I started feel, well just funny I had a strange pain in my chest," the 62-year-old musician said. "So my housekeeper took me to the hospital, when they hooked me up and did all these tests turned out I had a big heart attack... my artery was all blocked up, and they said I had to stay in and have an operation." After receiving treatment, Rudd is now out of the hospital and says he's "ready to rock." Although Rudd says he isn't exactly yearning to rejoin the band, he's leaving the door open. "If Angus [Young] wanted me to play then that is up to him," Rudd said. "But I don't really want to play with Axl Rose... I don't really rate him," he added. Instead, Rudd says he plans to spend time re-releasing and touring behind his 2014 solo album, Head Job, and teaching a drumming master class at Paul McCartney's Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts. Meanwhile, the Rudd-less version of AC/DC continues its US tour through Sept. 20. - Billboard, 9/1/16...... The first UK home of late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury has been decorated with an English Heritage Blue Plaque in the singer's honor. Mercury's parents moved into the terrace house in Feltham, West London when they emigrated to the UK from Zanzibar in 1964. Mercury's sister Kasmira Cooke, who was on hand for the unveiling, said that "Secretly he would have been very proud and pleased too." Queen guitarist Brian May, also in attendance, said: "It was here that I first visited Freddie soon after we had met through a mutual friend. We spent most of the day appreciating and analysing in intimate detail the way that Jimi Hendrix had put his recordings together in the studio -- listening to Hendrix on vinyl played on Freddie's Dansette record player -- which had stereo speakers on opposite sides of the box!" The performer was also hailed by UK Secretary of State for Culture Karen Bradley, who called him a "global icon whose music touched the lives of millions of people around the world." Mercury, who passed away in 1991, would have celebrated his 70th birthday on Sept. 5. - New Musical Express, 9/1/16...... Barbra Streisand has hit the top of the charts in England for the seventh time in her 50-year career with her new duets album Encore - Movie Partners Sing Broadway. The diva previously reached the top in the UK with her A Star Is Born, Greatest Hits Vol . 2, Guilty, Love Songs, The Essential Barbra Streisand and, most recently, Love Is the Answer in 2009. Only Madonna, with 12 chart-toppers, has more UK No. 1 LPs than Streisand. - Billboard, 9/2/16...... The city council of Foxborough, Mass., has voted to extend the city's concert curfew by 15 minutes -- from 11:15 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. -- to accomodate the upcoming Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band show at Gillette Stadium on Sept. 14. A spokesman for the venue said Springsteen, who has been playing 3 1/2 to 4 -hour sets on his current "The River Tour," has played Gillette twice before with no issues. Foxborough is the last stop on the US leg of the tour, which began in January. Meanwhile, Springsteen and the band have played another marathon 4:01 concert in East Rutherford, N.J. on Aug. 30 which should become their longest ever US concert. The 34-song concert shattered records from shows at the same venue on Aug. 23 and Aug. 25. The record for the longest E Street Band show, 4 hours and 6 minutes, was set in 2012 in Helsinki, Finland. At the finale, Springsteen told the crowd that the three-night stand was the most fun the group ever had at the Meadowlands, and he concluded his 9 encores with "Jersey Girls" as the sky ignited with fireworks. - AP/Billboard, 9/2/16...... In more Springsteen-related news, the rocker has shared what he says was the hardest part of writing his autobiography, Born to Run, in a new video on his official website. "The hardest part was the third [part of the] book where you had to write about the present, because it's all people you are living with in your life today," he says. "That was the most challenging part. Stuff that was in the past, [it] just felt like you had a lot of freedom there." Born to Run is due Sept. 27. - Billboard, 9/1/16...... Beach Boys singer Mike Love's upcoming memoir includes detals of the band's brief relationship with cult leader Charles Manson in the late 1960s. Love reportedly writes that Manson and his followers moved in with bandmate Dennis Wilson in 1968, a little more than a year before Manson's cult killed seven people, including actress Sharon Tate. Love recalled one occasion when he was at the house with another Beach Boy, Bruce Johnston, when Manson handed out LSD and was "orchestrating sex partners" for some of his female followers. When Love tried to bow out of the situation Manson, according to Love, told him "you can't leave the group." Love's autobiography, Good VIbrations: My Life as a Beach Boy, is due Oct. 19. - AP, 9/1/16...... Original Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward has responded to Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne's recent claims that he contacted Ward about joining the band's farewell tour. Posting on Facebook on Sept. 1, Ward said that "Ozzy has never reached out since January 26/27 2012 when he called to see when I would be arriving in the UK to join rehearsals for the 13 CD. Since that last phone call, he has never reached out to me, and I have not reached out to him." Ward's post was in response to a new interview Ozzy did with Rolling Stone magazine, in which he was asked if he'd consider having Ward join the band for their final concerts ever in their hometown of Birmingham in Feb. 2017. "I don't know. Every time I reach out to Bill I get yelled at for something. If something can be worked out, great," Ozzy said. "[Touring drummer] Tommy [Clufetos] is doing a great job I'm sad that Bill never came through," he added. Ward, who left the band in 2012, has cited what he considers to be an unfair contract as a reason to stay away. "The contract was impossible to sign," Ward wrote in the Facebook note. "The group rhetoric of 2012, 2013 and throughout, was fault-finding, condemning and full of dishonest evaluations of me as a person, including my so-called health issues." Ward also said he got a "no" from a Black Sabbath rep in 2015 when he inquired about possibly rejoining for the farewell tour. Black Sabbath is currently on tour in North America as it heads towards its final two concerts in Birmingham on Feb. 2 and 4. In other Black Sabbath news, Ozzy Osbourne has told Rolling Stone that he thinks Adolf Hitler was gay. Ozzy, a World War II expert, believes the infamous dictator was hiding a sexual secret, which may have turned him mad. "I always thought he was gay," Osbourne said. "Back then, being gay was a criminal offense. When he would go to (vacation spot) Berchtesgaden, his cleaners would check to see if there were any stains on his blankets. And there never were any." - Billboard/WENN.com, 9/2/16...... A major Pink Floyd retrospective called "The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains" is set to run at the UK's historic Victoria and Albert Museum in West London's South Kensington district from May 13 to Oct. 1, 2017. Produced with the collaboration of the surviving Pink Floyd members, the retrospective will feature "never-before-seen classic Pink Floyd concert footage" and a "custom-designed laser light show," as well as over 350 artefacts including instruments, music technology, original designs, architectural drawings, handwritten lyrics and psychedelic prints and posters. Previously unseen material and set and construction pieces from stage performances including The Dark Side Of The Moon, The Wall and The Division Bell will also be presented. "It's an impressive and enduring British design story of creative success," said museum diretor Martin Roth. - New Musical Express, 8/31/16...... The Guinness World Records organization has certified Ringo Starr's copy of the Beatles' "White Album" as the "most expensive LP ever sold at auction." The Dec. 2015 sale of Starr's first-edition "White Album" copy with the catalog number 0000001 was sold by Julien's Auctions and went for a whopping $790,000. It had been kept in a vault in perfect condition by Starr for more than 35 years. The LP was sold as part of a three-day auction of items owned by the band's drummer and his wife, Barbara Bach, with proceeds going to his social welfare charity, the Lotus Foundation. The name of the buyer was not disclosed. The previous record holder in the category was an Elvis Presley acetate that sold for $305,000. The 2017 edition of the Guinness records also notes that David Bowie has earned a record for the most simultaneous entries on the UK album charts -- 19 albums in the UK Top 100 -- after his Jan. 2016 death. - Billboard, 9/1/16...... Such rock stars as Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi and Jimmy Buffett performed at an outdoor private fundraiser for Democratic presidential nominee Sec. Hillary Clinton in the Hamptons in Long Island, N.Y., on Aug. 30. McCartney performed "Jet," "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Lady Madonna," also leading Buffett and Bon Jovi in a rendition of "Hey Jude" to close the 75-minute show. "This is the first time I've paid to hear myself sing," McCartney told the crowd. McCartney also danced with Clinton, and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, also was in attendance. - Billboard, 8/31/16...... Several of Prince's closest friends and musical collaborators are planning a tribute to the late rock star. An Oct. 13 at the new U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis will "feature members of the iconic Prince Family," including Morris Day and the Time, Sheila E., The Revolution and New Power Generation, according to a Minnesota State Arts Board newsletter. - AP, 8/31/16...... Guernsey's Auctions of Manhattan has announced it will conduct an auction of several of the late blues-rock great Johnny Winter's guitars, song notebooks and memorabilia on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at the Gibson Brands Showroom in New York. Guernsey reps say the items being put on the block include jewelry, scarves and hats -- "sweat stains and all" -- and "extremely rare" rock and blues posters and vintage photos. The collection is being sold for Winter's family. - AP, 9/1/16...... In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Sting says his forthcoming album 57th & 9th was inspired by the "immortal" David Bowie, as well as other recently deceased musicians including Prince, Lemmy Kilmister and actor Alan Rickman. "David Bowie went first, and then Lemmy, and then my friend Alan Rickman died, and then Prince. It all seemed to topple on top of each other. It was a strange time because you think that these people are immortal, but then suddenly they're like the rest of us, they die," Sting said. 57th & 9th, due Nov. 11, will be Sting's first solo album since 2013's The Last Ship. - NME, 8/30/16...... Dean Stuart Wetter, the 65-year-old husband of Heart singer Ann Wilson, has been charged with assault in an alleged attack on two relatives during the group's show in suburban Seattle. Court records reveal that two teens were watching a Heart show from backstage on Aug. 27 when they left to walk around. They were walking past the tour buses when they saw Ann Wilson's new tour bus and wanted to look inside. Wetter reportedly started yelling at the boys after they left the door open and allegedly punched one of them in the back of the head before grabbing him by the throat. When the other boy stepped in, Wetter allegedly also grabbed his throat. Wetter, who married Ann Wilson in 2015, has been charged with two counts of assault by Seattle authorities and is free on $10,000 bail. - AP, 9/1/16.