Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on September 18th, 2016

Bruce Springsteen posted a new video of himself reading from his forthcoming book Born to Run on Sept. 13. "Writing prose has its own set of rules," Springsteen says in the clip. "It connects up to your musical rules but you got to create the music without the music. You gotta create momentum purely on the page." Springsteen added that writing a book differs from writing a song in that the songwriter has less time to make his or her point in a few verses. Springsteen received a reported $10 million advance from Simon & Schuster for Born to Run, which is out Sept. 27, and some publishing insiders are questioning whether the book can earn back the hefty advance, which could be the highest payout ever for a music memoir (the publisher declined to confirm the amount). While Keith Richards' bestselling 2010 memoir Life sold one million copies in its first year and earned back much of Richards' reported $7 million advance, Springsteen's book will be more introspective than your typical sex-and-drugs rock memoir: The only drugs he discusses at length are antidepressants. Meanwhile, Springsteen and his E Street Band have announced a tour of Australia and New Zealand which is set to kick off in January. At a Sept. 11 concert in Pittsburgh, the Boss dedicated a song to a fan who gave him a copy of the US constitution amended to mock Donald Trump. "It does say 'F--- Trump' on the front of it. And this next song was his request," Springsteen said. He then played "Long Walk Home" from his 2007 album Magic. - Billboard/NME, 9/13/16...... Hundreds of Rush fans attended a new art park named after Rush singer/bassist Geddy Lee and Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson on Sept. 16 in Toronto, Canada. The fans withstood a driving rainstorm for the official opening of the Lee-Lifeson Art Park, which has a giant likeness of Lee and Lifeson in mosaic tile, and includes a small outdoor stage and amphitheatre for acoustic performances and permanent interactive sculpture installations. The park is located in the Toronto neighborhood of North York where Lee and Lifeson both grew up and formed Rush in 1971. "We're obviously thrilled and amazed that someone would want to do something like this and put our names on it, and we're really happy for the community that there's some investment arts and leisure for this neighborhood," said Lee. "This park will still be here weeks after we're gone," added Lifeson. The idea for the 7000 sq. metre art park originated with Councillor John Fillon in 2012, who also came onstage to say a few words. Toronto mayor John Tory also gave the pair the Key to the City. - Billboard, 9/17/16...... Ozzy Osbourne's family has purchased an auction lot of early Black Sabbath memorabilia that was scheduled to be sold by the Sheffield Auction Gallery to prevent the items from reaching private hands. The gallery had been due to sell the memorabilia from the earliest days of the band, 1968-73, on Sept. 30 with the items expected to fetch as much as £3,000, but a spokesman for the gallery confirmed on Sept. 16 that Ozzy's family pre-empted the auction by buying all the items. Discovered in the 1980s by a Black Sabbath fan living in the Docklands area of East London when his flat was being renovated, the items included postcards sent from on tour to Osbourne's mother Lillian at her home in Birmingham, early publicity photos, tour flyers and posters plus handwritten lyrics for songs including "Changing Phases," which eventually became the song "Solitude" from Black Sabbath's 1971 album Masters Of Reality. The spokesman added that there had been a "huge amount of pre-auction interest" in the items, and did not disclose how much Osbourne's family paid for the items. Black Sabbath continue on their farewell tour, with their final show scheduled in their hometown of Birmingham, UK on Feb. 4. Meanwhile, Ozzy Osbourne's wife Sharon Osbourne revealed on Sept. 13 during her talk show The View that she had a "complete and utter breakdown" which forced her to take an emergency leave from the show in May 2015. "I woke up in Cedars-Sinai Hospital and for probably three days I knew nothing. "I couldn't think, I couldn't talk, I could do nothing. My brain just shut down on me," admitted Osbourne, 63. At the time, Sharon's doctors reported that she suffered from "extreme exhaustion" and believed she returned to work too soon after being treated earlier in the year for pneumonia. Sharon credited group therapy for helping her mental state because "there were several people suffering with what I was suffering." - New Musical Express/People.com, 9/16/16...... The Who's Pete Townshend has launched a line of guitar replicas modelled on the one which he famously smashed on stage in 1976 during a Who gig at the Boston Garden. Townshend smashed his original Les Paul Gold Top Deluxe before 15,000 fans at the show, with its shattered remnants now on display at London's Victoria & Albert Museum. Guitar manufacturer Gibson is selling just 150 copies of the "Pete Townshend Gold Top '76," inspired by a guitar Townshend regularly played in the 1970s and manufactured using the same vintage techniques. The new model includes a reference to the incident, with a "Break Here" sticker placed on the back of the guitar next to its eighth fret, where Townshend smashed the original. - NME, 9/15/16...... A release date has been confirmed by BMG Music for a new Lou Reed box set of albums recorded by Reed between 1972 and 1982. Lou Reed - The RCA & Arista Album Collection, Vol. 1 will be released on Oct. 7 in the US and Nov. 18 in the UK, after being intitally announced back in May. The set will be comprised of six early Reed albums -- all of which were remasted by Reed himself shortly before his death in 2013 -- and include Transformer (1972), Berlin (1973), Rock n Roll Animal (1974), Coney Island Baby (1975), Street Hassle (1978) and The Blue Mask (1982). All LPs will be housed in sleeves with original artwork, and the collection includes a 30-page book featuring previously unseen photos and memorabilia from Reed's personal archives, as well as added liner notes. "Lou put his heart into remastering these records," his widow Laurie Anderson said in a press release." "They are not smoothed out... They leap out at you with their original energy." - NME, 9/14/16...... As his 1966 album Sunshine Superman celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2016, pop legend Donovan performed at Carnegie's Zankel Hall in New York City on Sept. 15. Donovan, 70, revisited some of his less-heralded songs, including the the medieval "Guinevere" to the more modern "Jennifer Juniper." Donovan also shared the story of how he contributed key lyrics to the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" and recalled the time a pre-stoner Graham Nash chided him for smoking weed backstage. "I lived it, and I barely believe it myself," he frequently ended his stories. - Billboard, 9/16/16...... Hip-hop musician Skepta has beaten out David Bowie's Blackstar for the UK's Mercury Prize for his fourth album, Konnichiwa. Skepta beat out competition from London bookies' favourite Bowie, whose final album Blackstar was nominated for a posthumous win, as well as albums from artists including Anohni, Radiohead and Savages. Musician Jarvis Cocker, who was among this year's judging panel, said that Bowie would have approved of panel's decision. "We as a jury decided that if David Bowie was looking down on the Hammersmith Apollo tonight if he would want the 2016 prize to go to Skepta," he told the audience during the Mercury Prize ceremony at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on Sept. 15. Established in 1992 and open to acts from Britain and Ireland, the Mercury Prize often favors the eclectic and obscure over better-known performers. In other Bowie-related news, Bowie's son Duncan Jones has confirmed on Twitter that there is no truth to recent reports that his dad's ashes were scattered at the The Temple of Black Rock City in Nevada during the week-long Burning Man gathering earlier in September. "That Burning Man thing? What people will do & say for attention never ceases to amaze me. Not true. Kind of a gross claim as well. *sigh*" Jones wrote. "...We all know if dad DID want his ashes scattered in front of strangers, it would be at the Skegness Butlins. ;)," he added. Bowie's estate has also confirmed that the Burning Man report, in which Bowie's godchild had been granted permission from Bowie's widow Inman had granted permission for a portion of Bowie's ashes to be scattered during the event, was false. - NME, 9/12/16...... Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr attended the world premiere of director Ron Howard's new Beatles documentary Eight Days a Week. in London on Sept. 15. A day earlier, McCartney, Starr and Howard participated in a live Facebook chat, with McCartney saying "In the cinema, we're going to be able to hear ourselves. We couldn't hear ourselves when we were live. So much screaming going on." McCartney added that Howard was a natural choice as the film's director. "Ron was going to do it because we loved his work as a Hollywood director. And we liked him as Richie in Happy Days as well." Among the revelations in the film are that John Lennon's apology for his "Beatles are Greater than Jesus" remark "made him sort of a broken man" and that the Beatles refused to play to segregated audiences. Meanwhile, a lawsuit has emerged over footage from the Beatles' 1965 Shea Stadium concert that is used in the film. On Sept. 12, Sid Bernstein Presents, LLC -- a company representing the late businessman who promoted the group's 1965 concert at New York's Shea Stadium -- filed lawsuit against two Beatles-related companies, Apple Corps Ltd. and Subafilms Limited. The lawsuit contends Sid Bernstein Presents is the rightful owner of the Shea Stadium footage, and claims infringement also occurred two decades ago when the Shea Stadium footage appeared in the 1995 docu-series The Beatles Anthology. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, says Bernstein, who died in 2013 at 95, produced the concert and hired the Beatles and the supporting acts to perform. - Billboard, 9/15/16...... Sting has made his first appearance in 12 years on Billboard's Adult Alternative Songs radio airplay chart with "I Can't Stop Thinking About You," the lead single from his Nov. 11 album 57th & 9th. The song debuted at No. 19 on the chart for the week ending Sept. 24, making it the former Police frontman's first entry on that chart since his 2004 song "Stolen Car (Take Me Dancing)," which bowed at No. 19. 57th & 9th is Sting's first rock-focused set since 2003's Sacred Love. - Billboard, 9/16/16...... Keith Richards, Robert Plant, Iggy Pop, Yoko Ono and Ringo Starr are among 175 artists who have joined "We Are Not Afraid," a global campaign aimed at raising funds for the refugee crisis and victims of religious and political violence. "We Are Not Afraid" takes its name from a song by Nigerian singer Majek Fashek, and its video is directed by former 10cc member Kevin Godley and features Richards, Plant, Pop, Ono and Starr as well as Debbie Harry and Buddy Guy It will be released on Sept. 29. Proceeds from the single will be donated to Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC). - New Musical Express, 9/14/16...... Stevie Wonder has been added to the lineup of a Prince tribute show which is set for St. Paul, Minn., on Oct. 13. Prince's family and organizers have announced the event will be held at the smaller Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, after previously planning to hold it at the new NFL stadium in Prince's hometown of Minneapolis. The lineup also includes Christina Aguilera, Chaka Khan, John Mayer, Tori Kelly, Anita Baker, Doug E. Fresh, Luke James, Bilal and Mint Condition. Prince's inner circle will be represented by Morris Day & The Time, Judith Hill and Liv Warfield along with Prince's New Power Generation, led by Morris Hayes. Meanwhile, Prince's ex-wife Mayte Garcia has announced she will release an "intmate" memoir of her life with Prince called The Most Beautiful: My Life With Prince on Apr. 14, 2017, the one-year anniversary of Prince's death. - AP/Billboard, 9/15/16...... Songwriter Alan Cole filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in Pennsylvania federal court on Sept. 15 against late reggae legend Bob Marley's record company Tuff Gong Music. Cole claims he co-authored Marley's songs "War" and "Natty Dread," but just recently discovered he doesn't own the copyrights. In May, Cole hired a lawyer to help him transfer one half of his interest in "War" to the family of former Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. That lawyer discovered Tuff Gong Music holds the copyright as the "employer for hire." "[Cole] was led to believe that the songs were being copyrighted for him by the record company," states the complaint. "[Cole] was never employed by Tuff Gong Music." Cole is suing Tuff Gong and the Island Def Jam Group, a division of Universal Music and successor in interest to the copyright, and is asking the court to declare that the label infringed on his copyrights. - The Hollywood Reporter, 9/16/16...... Stevie Nicks performed Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" during the Sept. 14 episode of the TV series America's Got Talent. Grace VanderWaal, a 12-year-old finalist on the show, brought Nicks onstage after her performance, introducing her as "a true hero of inspiration." Nicks sang "Landslide" and told host Nick Cannon that young VanderWaal "has a bright future." - Billboard, 9/14/16...... A two-night tribute to Tom Petty dubbed Petty Fest was held at Hollywood's Fonda Theatre on Sept. 13 and 14. Described as a "40th anniversary celebration of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, performers included Norah Jones and comedian/actress Kristen Wiig, who dueted on Petty's pot-smoking-introvert anthem "You Don't Know How It Feels" and the more contemplative "Time to Move On." Jakob Dylan and Dhani Harrison reprised their fathers' roles in the Traveling Wilburys on "End of the Line," and the 30-song set was capped off with all the musicians covering Petty's "Free Fallin'." - Billboard, 9/14/16...... It has been revealed that guitarist Rick Parfitt of the British hard rock band Status Quo was declared clinically dead for several minutes when he suffered a heart attack after a gig in Turkey in June. Parfitt suffered a heart attack following the band's show at Expo 2016 in Antalya, Turkey, leading to him pulling out of the band's concerts for the rest of the year. Status Quo's manager Simon Porter says Parfitt is expected to make a full recovery, but might not be able to tour again as he wants to make his eight-year-old twin children Tommy and Lily his priority. "Rick may well have performed his last show with Quo, but no final decision will be made until next year. Regardless, it is his wish that the band continue to tour as planned and he will always be a part of Quo's numerous other off stage activities," Porter said. The collapse in June was Parfitt's fourth heart attack, after he had undergone a quadruple bypass following his first heart attack in 1997. Status Quo are continuing to tour with guest guitarists, and begin an 11-city UK tour on Dec. 8 in Nottingham. - NME, 9/15/16...... Brian Eno has launched a new interactive website to accompany his 2016 album The Ship. Eno describes the site as an "generative film" which explores the themes and music of the album, released in April on Warp Records. The project attempts to answer the question: "Does the machine intelligence produce a point of view independent of its makers or its viewers? Or are we -- human and machine -- ultimately co-creating new and unexpected meanings?" - NME, 9/15/16...... Actor James Stacy, best known for starring in the TV Western Laramie, died on Sept. 15 in Ventura, Calif. He was 79. Stacy's turbulent life included being married to actresses Connie Stevens and Kim Darby, becoming a double amputee after a motorcycle accident, and serving prison time for child molestation. Stacy's other TV credits included The Donna Reed Show, The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, Bonanza, Gunsmoke and Wiseguy. He also appeared as a wounded Vietnam vet in the film Just a Little Inconvenience opposite Barbara Hershey, hoping to encourage other amputees and persons with disabilities to fulfill their goals of living a full life. He was also nominated for an Emmy for a guest appearance on Cagney & Lacey. - Variety.com, 9/16/16.

Yusuf/Cat Stevens kicked off his 50th anniversary A Cat's Attic acoustic tour in Toronto, Canada on Sept. 12 at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts. Yusuf, 68, appeared onstage in front of a backdrop depicting a moonlit skyline with London's Big Ben, the locale of many of the autobiographical songs he performed. He played more than 30 songs from his career, beginning with "Where Do the Children Play?" from 1970's Tea for the Tillerman, and "If You Want to Sing Out Sing Out," which first appeared in the 1971 film Harold & Maude. Yusuf skipped the 27 years he got out of the music business -- when he almost drowned, called out to God, and began his conversion to Islam and lifelong service to education and humanitarianism -- and suggested to learn more about that you'll have to read his 2014 memoir because "it's too long a story." A portion of ticket sales from Yusuf's tour, which continues for 11 more dates and celebrates the 50 years since his first hit "I Love My Dog," will be donated to UNICEF and International Rescue Committee to help child refugees through his charity Small Kindness. - Billboard, 9/13/16...... Queen played Israel for the first time in 40 years in Tel Aviv on Sept. 12, longer than current Queen touring vocalist Adam Lambert has been alive. Wearing a skintight leather getup and Robocop sunglasses, Lambert stood at the fore alongside his much older bandmates, founding guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. Queen opened with the galloping "Seven Seas of Rhye," also including "Fat Bottom Girls," "Don't Stop Me Now," "Love of My Life," "Another One Bites the Dust" and "I Want it All" in the setlist. The band encored with "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" as confetti showered down. - Billboard, 9/13/16...... Former Michael Jackson choreographer Wade Robson has added new negligence claims against two companies formerly controlled by Jackson that he says fostered nearly a decade of sexual abuse. In the graphic new complaint filed on Sept. 12, Robson claims Jackson first sexually assaulted him when he was seven years old when his family was invited to stay at Neverland Ranch, where he slept in Jackson's bed while his family stayed in separate guest quarters. He describes sexual encounters ranging from French kissing to penetrative sex, and claims the abuse continued until he was 14, but became less frequent when he "began showing signs of puberty" and Jackson was "no longer as interested in him sexually." In July, Robson hired attorney Vince Finaldi to represent him in his trial against the Jackson estate, which is scheduled to get underway in March 2017. Finaldi seeks to add several negligence claims to the suit, arguing the MJJ companies "breached their duty to take reasonable protective measures to protect minor children in their charge." - The Hollywood Reporter, 9/13/16...... Stevie Nicks announced on Sept. 13 that she's planning to add a tribute to Prince to her upcoming 24K Gold Tour by performing their collaboration "Stand Back." Nicks says her 1983 hit single was inspired by her hearing Prince's "Little Red Corvette" on the radio during her honeymoon with Kim Anderson. Nicks said when she entered the studio to record the demo for "Stand Back," she called Prince and told him the story of how she wrote the song. Prince then came down to the studio and played synthesisers on the track, although he was initially uncredited. The two never performed the song together on-stage and Nicks previously said she was "heartbroken" that she missed the opportunity to do so when Prince died in April. Nicks also admitted the two disagreed on drug use, saying Prince "hated that I did drugs and that's probably why we didn't hang out more." Nicks will kick off her tour behind her 2014 album 24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault on Oct. 25 with opening act the Pretenders. - New Musical Express/AP, 9/13/16...... Jeff Lynne's ELO peformed three shows with an orchestra at the legendary Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles over the second weekend in September. The three Hollywood Bowl shows constitute three-fifths of ELO's entire American tour, with the final two dates to follow at Radio City Music Hall in New York on Sept. 16 and 18. The 18-song setlist is essentially the same as what Lynne has been doing overseas without symphonic accompaniment, focusing mainly on the run of hits that began in America with "Can't Get It Out of My Head" in 1974. - Billboard, 9/11/16...... Appearing on the Fox News program Fox & Friends on Sept. 12, Wayne Newton said he agrees with those who are not pleased with the current protest by NFL players who are not standing for the playing of the national athem, and said they can "get the hell out" of the country if they are that unhappy. "I think every American has the right to do or say whatever freedom offers us. However, during a national anthem is not a time or a place to show that kind of thing," the iconic Las Vegas performer and "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast" singer said. "I have no tolerance at all for it." San Francisco 49ers backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick made headlines after he didn't stand for the national anthem during preseason games. Kaepernick told reporters it was his way of protesting the injustice against minorities, stemming from more videos surfacing of unarmed African-American men being shot by white police officers. - The Hollywood Reporter, 9/13/16...... Jimmy Page has joined the lineup of guests for the new BBC2 series Later With Jools Holland. The Led Zeppelin guitarist will appear on the first episode, which also features Sting, Kings of Leon, Jack White, M83 and Banks. Page won't be performing on the show, instead he will discuss the newly-expanded Zeppelin album The Complete BBC Sessions, which drops. Sept. 16. The new season of Later With Jools Holland will be broadcast on BBC2 on Sept. 13 with a half-hour live segment, before the full hour-long pre-recorded version debuts on Sept. 16. - New Musical Expresss, 9/8/16...... Bruce Springsteen will once again be among the headliners for the upcoming Stand Up for Heroes benefit show at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 1, as he has done every year since the charity series began 10 years ago. Presented by the Bob Woodruff Foundation and the New York Comedy Festival, Stand Up for Heroes mixes music, comedy and an auction, and raises funds to support injured service members and their families. Also on the bill for this year's edition are comedians Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Jim Gaffigan and Louis C.K.. The 2015 edition featuring Jon Stewart, Ray Romano and Seth Meyers raised $6.1 million and was the most successful year yet. - Billboard, 9/12/16...... In other Springsteen news, the Boss has announced he'll embark on a national book tour promoting his forthcoming biography, Born to Run, on Sept. 27 at the Barnes & Noble in Freehold, N.J. Springsteen will also visit various book stores and libraries in New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., San Francisco and New York City before concluding in Boston at the Harvard Coop on Oct. 10. Born to Run drops on Sept. 27, and a companion album, Born to Run: Chapter and Verse, is due out on Sept. 23. - Billboard, 9/12/16...... ZZ Top released a new live album, Live: Greatest Hits from Around the World, on Sept. 9, a collection that features concert cuts from 13 cities on three continents. "I can't remember who came up with the different cities on different tours [idea] for different songs, but we thought that was kind of a tasty idea, so here it is," says ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill. Hill adds that "playing live is the essence of what what we do." "I love recording and I love everything -- videos, everything like that -- but playing live is what does it for me. If we're off the road too long I start bugging all my friends; I've gotta find somebody to play for. So this was a fun project for me," Hill said. Hill adds the band is currently working on a ZZ Top documentary, with no release date yet determined. The group is also planning to release a new studio album to follow up 2012's Rick Rubin co-produced La Futura. - Billboard, 9/12/16...... The final recordings by David Bowie will be featured on a 2-disc release of cast recordings from the Bowie-inspired and created musical "Lazarus." Due Oct. 21, the first disc will include the New York cast versions of 18 Bowie songs -- all of which were recorded on Jan. 11, just hours after the icon died the previous night. The second disc will include Bowie's final studio recordings in the form of three previously unreleased songs -- "No Plan," "Killing A Little Time," and "When I Met You." Meanwhile, there are reports that Bowie's ashes have been scattered at The Temple of Black Rock City, the temporary community set up in Black Rock Desert for Burning Man in Nevada. According to sources close to Bowie, the late rock icon and his godchild "had long talks about Burning Man and what it stands for, and David loved the message behind it." Bowie was purportedly commemorated by 70 people at The Temple of Black Rock City, which was put up for attendees to pay respects to their loved ones and at the end of the week is burned to the ground. In more Bowie-related news, his widow Iman made her first public appearance since her husband's death in January on Sept. 7 at designer Tom Ford's New York Fashion Week show. Iman posted a picture of herself getting ready on Instagram with the caption "My first night out attending an event since last year!" The musician and Iman were married from 1992 until his death. - Billboard/New Musical Express, 9/12/16...... Taking the stage at the "LGBT for Hillary Clinton" event in New York on Sept. 9, Barbra Streisand sang rewritten lyrics for the Stephen Sondheim ballad "Send in the Clowns" to zing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. "Is he that rich? Maybe he's poor," Streisand sang. "Something's amiss, I don't approve. If he were running the free world, where would we move?" Streisand also praised Clinton, her longtime pal. "Hillary's kind, smart, that is clear," Streisand continued. "While she is giving us hope, Trump is selling us fear!" Later in the song, she blasted Trump as a "sad, vulgar clown." The tune was part of Streisand's intimate, seven-song set at the event, which was held at Cipriani Wall Street in New York. In other Streisand news, the diva has been tapped to chair the New World Trade Center Arts Center in New York. Streisand will serve as board chair of the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center that will be dedicated to producing new works and serving as a public space, officials announced on Sept. 9. Located between One World Trade Center and the memorial plaza, the cube-shaped center will aim to both commemorate the Sept. 11 tragedy and reflect the vitality of New York City. The center also will be home to the Tribeca Film Festival. - The Huffington Post/AP, 9/11/16...... A musical based on the life and music of '70s disco queen Donna Summer is in the works. The project is being brought to Broadway by some of the talent behind hit shows like "Jersey Boys" and "Hamilton." A workshop of early parts of the show was staged in New York recently, with the part of Summer played by Ariana DeBose, who has previously appeared in both "Hamilton" and Broadway musical "Motown." Two more actors will portray Summer at different stages of her life: through childhood, superstardom during disco's heyday and in her later years. Summer, who was born in Boston in 1948, died in Naples, Florida in 2012 of lung cancer at age 63. - NME, 9/8/16...... In related news, Summer's producer Giorgio Moroder brought back the days of disco at an "I Feel Love" immersive event in Brooklyn on Sept. 8 and 9. "I grew up on their music and Donna Summer in South Africa," said original Village People cowboy Randy Jones. "It made me gay." Moroder took over the DJ booth at 11:30 p.m. and immediately went into Summer's orgiastic "Love to Love You Baby," followed by her dramatic "MacArthur Park," plus "Take My Breath Away," the 1986 Berlin song Moroder won an Oscar for co-writing. "Disco music is perfect," said Moroder between spins. "It's beautiful. I love it!" - Billboard, 9/10/16...... As a Ron Howard-directed movie about Beatlemania, Eight Days a Week: The Beatles Touring Years, premieres in theaters nationwide on Sept. 16, Howard, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartneyrecently participated in a press conference about the new film. Starr said he first met Howard in the '70s, "when he was a lad and I was a lad." Howard said Starr and Who drummer Keith Moon "wandered onto the Happy Days set... I'm not kidding. Everything stopped and the assistant director tried to keep rehearsal going, but [co-star] Henry Winkler and I said [to the AD], "Get the f-- out of here! We'll catch up later!" Eight Days a Week arrives in 80 theaters for one-night-only sneak peek on Sept. 15, followed by a full-week engagement in 50 theaters starting Sept. 16. A companion album, The Beatles: Live at the Hollywood Bowl, which captures the group's 1964 and 1965 performances at the legendary venue, dropped on Sept. 9. - Billboard, 9/9/16...... Folk-rock legend Donovan will become the third recipient of the John Lennon Real Love Award at the 36th annual John Lennon Tribute Concert to be held on Dec. 2 at Symphony Space in New York City, the event's non-profit sponsor Theatre Within announced on Sept. 8. Donovan, who accompanied the Beatles on a trip to India in 1968 and composed songs there, will perform a set of Beatles songs and his own at the concert and dedicate them to Lennon. Donovan's body of work speaks for itself. It's seminal and beloved by fans and fellow artists," Joe Raiola, executive producer and artistic director of Theatre Within's Annual John Lennon Tribute, says. "Donovan is a beautiful soul who was positively influenced by John," Lennon's widow Yoko Ono said in a statement. "I think it is lovely that Theatre Within is honoring him with the 'John Lennon Real Love Award' and that the Tribute continues to flourish." - Billboard, 9/8/16...... With its shag carpeting, Polynesian flair and indoor waterfall, the "Jungle Room" in Elvis Presley's Graceland den epitomized the kitsch excess of the King's declining years. It was also the unlikely birthplace of his final recordings, showcased in the new RCA/Legacy reissue Way Down in the Jungle. This is a chance to eavesdrop on a troubled icon pulling himself together for a final sprint. Obviously, there's some schlock (his version of Neil Sedaka's "Solitaire"). But when he glides through Johnny Ace's 1954 R&B classic "Pledging My Love," his innate Elvis-ness is as seductive as ever. - Rolling Stone, 9/8/16...... Wayne Kramer of the seminal Detroit-based punk band MC5 was among the headliners at the Prison Reform and the Jail Guitar Doors Benefit in Los Angeles on Sept. 9. "I'm a returned citizen," Kramer says, "I served a federal prison term." In 1974 the Detroit native was part of a drug sting, supposedly the result of his and his bandmates' connections to political activism the White Panther party, by the federal government, which resulted in a four-year prison term. Kramer says the prison term he received for procuring a pound-and-a-half of cocaine for an informant with a briefcase full of of $100 bills would have ended with a life sentence today. Also performing were Shooter Jennings, Marshall Crenshaw, Jill Sobule, Keith Morris and Don Was, among others. - Billboard, 9/9/16...... Rhino Records will reissue a 2-CD remastered version of Bette Midler's classic 1972 Grammy-winning debut album The Divine Miss M on Oct. 21. The special edition includes the remastered album, a bonus disc of singles, outtakes, demos and new liner notes written by Midler. A digital version will also be available, as well as a 1-LP vinyl format with the remastered original album (co-produced by Barry Manilow) and original album artwork. In addition to the top 40 hits "Do You Want to Dance" and "Friends" and the Top 10 hit "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," the second disc has nine additional tracks including the single mixes for "Friends" and "Chapel of Love" and a version of "Do You Want to Dance" mixed by album co-producer Joel Dorn. Midler has been tapped to serve as a mentor on the upcoming 11th season of NBC's The Voice. - Billboard, 9/9/16...... Former Saturday Night Live star Chevy Chase has reportedly entered rehab as an in-patient at Hazelden Addiction Treatment Center in Minnesota -- the same place his longtime pal Robin Williams was treated in 2014. A rep for Chase said the 72-year-old comidean is seeking a "tune-up" for an alcohol-related problem. In the 1980s, Chase checked into the Betty Ford Clinic in California, and Jan. 1995 was convicted of drunk driving in Beverly Hills. Chase is set to appear in two upcoming movies, Dog Years and The Christmas Apprentice, while he and his Vacation co-star Beverly D'Angelo are in talks to play retired characters who have to give up their comfortable lives and raise their grandchildren in a new TV comedy. - WENN.com, 9/6/16...... Ska pioneer and Jamaican music legend Prince Buster died in a Miami hospital on Sept. 8 after suffering a stroke. He was 78. Born Cecil Bustamante Campbell in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1938, Prince Buster became one of the island's most revered musicians, performing and producing popular ska bands in the 1960s including The Vikings and the Folkes Brothers. A prolific musician, he recorded thousands of records, including such hits as "Al Capone," and "Judge Dread." He helped ignite the ska movement in England and later helped carry it into the rocksteady era in the mid-1960s. During a ska revival in the late 1970s, a group of British musicians named their band Madness after one of his hit songs and also covered his song "One Step Beyond" in 1979. Prince Buster couldn't walk after a massive stroke in 2009, but he could still communicate and travel. - AP, 9/9/16.