Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on June 6th, 2018

In a new interview with the Swedish newspaper Expressen, Gene Simmons of KISS revealed that his band is preparing to announce a three-year world tour that he promises will be "the most spectacular KISS tour ever." He added that it would also take in "all continents," and will be kicking off in January 2019. - New Musical Express, 6/6/18...... Bruce Springsteen will be taking the stage at the Asbury Lanes in his hometown of Asbury, N.J., on June 18 as a "special guest" performer celebrating the transformation of the city's beloved bowling alley into a music venue. A donation will be made by iStar to the Boys & Girls Club of Monmouth County. In 2010, developer iStar invested $100 million to renovate the areas on and around the boardwalk, and the new Asbury Lanes venue opened to the public over Memorial Day Weekend. - Billboard, 6/4/18...... Puerto-Rican singer-songwriter José Feliciano will be performing the U.S. national anthem for 20 new U.S. citizens at a naturalization ceremony at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington on June 14, Flag Day. The event will also commemorate the 50th anniversary of Feliciano's performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" during game five of the 1968 World Series at Detroit's Tiger Stadium, which ignited a controversy that reflected the tense atmosphere in the United States in the era of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement, after Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated earlier that year. Boos could be heard in the audience, and many television viewers called in to NBC to complain about Feliciano's "hippie" version of "The Star-Spangled Banner." During the naturalization ceremony on June 14, Feliciano will speak to immigrants from 17 countries gathered to officially become Americans, and then sing "The Star-Spangled Banner." Feliciano, who immigrated to the U.S. with his family from Puerto Rico at age 5, will also donate the Concerto Candelas guitar he played during the recording of his Top 5 breakout hit "Light My Fire" to the Smithsonian, along with other items from his personal archives. "I could be a sarcastic bastard and say it's too little too late," he says, referring to the initial reaction to his "Star-Spangled Banner." "But I'm grateful to the Smithsonian. This is a beautiful thing." Feliciano will also be among the headliners at a free concert in New York City's Central Park on Aug. 12. - Billboard, 6/6/18...... Olivia Newton-John and country singer Hunter Hayes are set to surprise two couples in the Disney series Fairy Tale Weddings, which returns on cable TV's Freeform channel on June 11 at 8:00 p.m. EDT. The new episodes follow 11 new couples with hidden-camera engagements, fairytale weddings and everything in between filmed at different Disney locations around the world. One couple, Christina and Jarrod, tie the knot at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, with Newton-John -- a cancer research crusader after being diagnosed with breast cancer herself -- performing at their ceremony. - Billboard, 6/4/18...... Attorneys for concert promoter AEG have filed a motion to dismiss Ozzy Osbourne's anti-trust lawsuit challenging the concert promoter's block-booking policy, which requires artists playing the O2 arena in London to also play Staples Center in Los Angeles. According to a recent filing from AEG, Osbourne doesn't have standing to sue the company over a proposed Staples Center commitment letter from earlier in 2018 because the rocker was not a party to the agreement, and the deal was between AEG and Live Nation. Osbourne's attorney Dan Wall counters that argument is "flat wrong." "The Staples Center Commitment letter binds the artist," Wall says. "They're trying to have it both ways and say the letter is signed on an artist's behalf, but (also say) the artist will be bound by it and can't do anything if they think it's unlawful." - Billboard, 6/4/18...... Cable TV's A&E channel will air a new David Cassidy documentary, David Cassidy: The Last Session, on June 11, and in the doc Cassidy is reportedly quoted as saying he was still drinking in the last years of his life and he did not have dementia, which was reported at the time. Cassidy, according to People magazine, called producers of the documentary after he fell ill last year and told them that he had liver disease. In the recorded conversation, the former teen idol said there was no sign of dementia and it was "complete alcohol poisoning," adding that he had lied by telling friends and family he had stopped drinking. "He wanted to be honest once and for all," says documentary producer John Marks. Cassidy died of organ failure in Nov. 2017 at age 67, and his late father, actor Jack Cassidy also had a well publicized battle with alcoholism. - AP, 6/6/2018...... Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman, two co-founders of the seminal '60s country/rock band The Byrds, have announced they will embark on a 50th anniversary tour commemorating the release of their influential 1968 LP Sweetheart of the Rodeo on July 24 at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles. The tour will also visit Saratoga, Calif. (7/29), Albany, NY (9/18) and Hopewell, Va. (9/20) before wrapping at the Akron Civic Center in Akron, Oh. on Oct. 3. "On March 9, 1968, Roger McGuinn and I along with many fantastic musicians began recording the Sweetheart of the Rodeo album at Columbia Studios in Nashville," Chris Hillman said in a statement. "It was truly a pivotal moment in our lives taking a turn toward the music we always felt a strong kinship with. We are honored that it has left a strong, long lasting impression on country and rock music." With new member Gram Parsons, the Byrds' 1968 album melded country and rock to bring about a new Nashville sound. As pioneers of the blended genre, Hillman and McGuinn will share stories of how the album came together while onstage. Roger McGuinn adds that he and Hillman "are looking forward to taking the fans through the back pages of the recording," and that the concert "will include songs that led up to that groundbreaking trip to Nashville and all the songs from that album." The duo will be joined on tour by country artist Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives. To warm up for the tour, McGuinn and Hillman played a short set at Stuart's Late Night Jam on June 6 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn. - Billboard, 6/4/18...... Neil Diamond will be the recipient of the Johnny Mercer Award during the 2018 Songwriters Hall of Fame gala at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York on June 14. The award is named for the "Moon River" tunesmith who co-founded the SHOF in 1969 with with music publishers Abe Olman and Howie Richmond. Ahead of the ceremony, Diamond reflected on one of his biggest hits, 1969's "Sweet Caroline (Good Times Never Seemed So Good)." "That song was like a lucky gift. I needed it desperately in my career," Diamond says. "I was about to go hungry. I had a new baby. There were all kinds of things that were counting on this record, and I just had an hour to do it. It was the day before the session, and that beautiful girl came to me and I was a happy guy. You never know with a song; I never knew with 'Sweet Caroline' it would become such a beloved song." Also among the honorees at the gala will be Robert "Kool" Bell, Ronald Bell, George Brown & James "JT" Taylor, John Mellencamp and Bill Anderson. - Billboard, 6/5/18...... With June being Gay Pride Month, Carole King is one of the artists requested by Billboard to write a "love letter" to the LGBTQ community. The legendary singer/songwriter says that she is "old enough to remember friends growing up in the last century who thought being L or G or B or T or Q made them 'the other' not only to others but to themselves. Sadly, in this century, too many people (who may themselves be suffering) are turning to fear, hatred, and blame rather than to love." King continued: "After years of fighting for AIDS research and against arbitrary barriers defining "normal," you, and consequently all of us, have come a long way.... My hope for the future is that every being will live in harmony, peace, joy, love and light." - Billboard, 6/5/18...... Music producer/composer/arranger Giles Martin, the son of the late Beatles producer George Martin, has been tapped by the Aussie alternative rock outfit INXS to be their executive music producer. In that role, Martin will have creative reins on all audio aspects of INXS's plans, which include musicals and movies and the reissue of their studio albums, which will be repackaged, remixed and expanded for release through Universal Music Group (UMG) in partnership with Petrol Records. Martin first collaboarated with INXS in 1994, and has worked with the band across several of their releases, including a greatest hits compilation and a Dolby Atmos mix of their classic Kick album for its 30th anniversary reissue in 2017. Formed in Perth in 1977, INXS has racked up six U.K. Top 10 albums and five U.S. Top 20 albums, a BRIT Award (in 1991 for best international group) and, in 2001, they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. - Billboard, 6/5/18...... Queen is curently occupying three of the top 20 spots on Billboard's Hot Rock Songs chart for the week ending June 2, thanks to streaming and sales gains for the band's catalog after the May 18 arrival of the first trailer for its upcoming biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody. The film's namesake song has risen to No. 8 from No. 10 on the chart, drawing 4.7 million U.S. streams and sold 4,000 downloads in the tracking week. "Rhapsody" is followed by "Another One Bites the Dust" (No. 13; 3.3 million streams, 2,000 sold) and "We Will Rock You" (No. 17; 2.7 million streams, 3,000 sold), with all three songs appearing in the trailer. Additionally, the band's Greatest Hits LP, originally released in October 1981, has jumped to No. 2 from No. 4 on the Hard Rock Albums chart. Bohemian Rhapsody, starring Rami Malek as late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, is set to premiere Nov. 2 in the U.S. - Billboard, 6/1/18...... After two TV-movies based on Dolly Parton songs aired on NBC, streaming giant Netflix has picked up an eight-episode scripted Parton anthology with the same premise. The as yet untitled anthology will see each episode based on a song by the country music icon. Parton will serve as singer-songwriter, exec producer and will also appear in the series. "As a songwriter, I have always enjoyed telling stories through my music," Parton said in a statement. "I am thrilled to be bringing some of my favorite songs to life with Netflix. We hope our show will inspire and entertain families and folks of all generations, and I want to thank the good folks at Netflix and Warner Bros. TV for their incredible support." - The Hollywood Reporter, 6/4/18...... Prince fans will celebrate what would have been the music legend's 60th birthday with a three-day music festival beginning on June 7 in Henderson, Minn., where the iconic movie Purple Rain was filmed. The festival will include a bus tour of Purple Rain filming locations, a screening of the 1984 movie and live music. In honor of Prince's 60th birthday, 60 butterflies will be released at the event, and members of Prince's family will be present. Meanwhile, another copy of Prince's super rare "The Black Album" has surfaced. The album was supposed to be released in 1987 as The Funk Bible, Prince's 16th album. However, the singer had a "spiritual epiphany" and demanded all 500,000 copies be destroyed, as he said the content was "evil." Prince later gave permission for it to be released on CD and cassette -- but never vinyl. Five vinyl copies surfaced in the States in 2017, and now another has appeared in Canada, after a Canadian former employee of Columbia Records' pressing plant held onto one of the records. The owner has listed the record online on Discogs.com for $27,500, and a pristine edition of the album once sold for $42,298. In more Prince news, sources close to the investigation of his 2016 death from an accidental drug overdose have revealed that the pop star often "videotaped himself having sex with lots of his lovers and was quite kinky in his porn tastes." "The evidence is in his vaults and on the computers seized by police," says the source, who stressed that none of the material was illegal. The music legend's porn preferences were described as "wild" by another source, based on the search history and downloads on laptops taken from Prince's home. "Cops had enough respect for Prince that they didn't want to mar his legacy by revealing he was a secret sex-tape and porn addict!" the insider claimed.- AP/RadarOnline.com, 6/3/18...... James Taylor and Sheryl Crow's co-headlining summer tour hit a jam-packed Hollywood Bowl on May 31, with Taylor stepping onstage to a standing ovation -- one of several throughout the evening. Centering on well-known entries in his repertoire, including "Fire & Rain," "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)," "Handyman," "Sweet Baby James," Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" and "You've Got a Friend, Taylor also took the audience all the way back to 1968 with "Something in the Way She Moves" -- the song he auditioned for Paul McCartney and George Harrison before he signed with Apple Records. Earlier in the evening, Taylor joined Crow onstage for a rousing rendition of Crow's hit "Everyday Is a Winding Road," with Crow joining Taylor during his encore for duets of "Mockingbird" and "Close Your Eyes." Taylor and his band will next head to Sacramento (6/10), Portland, Ore. (6/12) and Seattle (6/13) before Bonnie Raitt rejoins the tour for seven shows beginning in St. Paul, Minnesota (6/22). - Billboard, 6/1/18...... Actor Bill Phipps, a prolific character actor who starred in several sci-fi movies of the 1950s and provided the voice of Prince Charming in the Disney classic Cinderella, died on May 31 at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica after a battle with lung cancer. He was 96. His other roles include a servant to Marlon Brando's Antony in Julius Caesar (1954), the French Impressionist painter Emile Bernard in Kirk Douglas' Lust for Life (1956) and the old man Quentin in Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993). Mr. Phipps left show business in the late 1960s to live in Maui but returned to portray Theodore Roosevelt in the 1976 ABC miniseries Eleanor and Franklin, winner of 11 Emmy Awards. He then reprised the role in a commercial for Maxwell House coffee. He also showed up on TV shows like The Twilight Zone (the 1960 episode "The Purple Testament"), Perry Mason, Rawhide, 77 Sunset Strip, Gunsmoke, F Troop, Batman, The Virginian and Mannix. - The Hollywood Reporter, 6/3/18.

The Who's Roger Daltrey released his first solo LP in 25 years, As Long As I Have You, on June. 1. A soulful grab bag of originals and covers, the album was described by Daltrey in a statement as "a return to the very beginning, to a time when we were a teenage band playing soul music to small crowds in church halls." - Billboard, 5/31/18...... Posts by Mick Jagger on his son Lucas Jagger's Instagram account have gone viral as the legendary Rolling Stones frontman apparently left a series of "dorky dad" comments to tease his son. "Looks like fun. Ha!" read one comment underneath a photo of Lucas at the Lollapalooza festival. "Watch out for the water," said another, written in the comments section on a photo of Lucas standing ankle deep in the ocean. Meanwhile, the Stones returned to London in late May for their first show in the city in five years. - Billboard, 5/31/18...... Former The Monkees members Mike Nesmith and Micky Dolenz will kick off their "The Monkees Present The Mike & Micky Show Tour" in Arizona on June 1. Both Dolenz and Nesmith said the tour developed out of a mutual friendship and respect for each other that began early in the Monkees' career and has lasted through the years. "I've always been a fan of his and he's been a fan of mine," Dolenz says. "We always got along great creatively. (We have) similar tastes in music and style and stuff like that. I've had an enormous amount of respect for him as a musician, singer and songwriter." Nesmith says that he and Dolenz always "got on so well." "He could make me laugh hard and I could make him laugh hard. So we were playmates on that level," he said. "The Mike & Micky Show Tour" is also scheduled to hit California, Nevada, Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, and includes two dates in Canada. Nesmith, meanwhile, has just released his new memoir, Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff, in which he remembers his Monkees days as well as his tenure with the First National Band, along with his Christian Science philosophy and meeting the Beatles. - Billboard, 5/31/18...... Elton John spoke out about the recent successful referendum in Ireland to repeal the country's ban on abortion during a recent visit to Ukraine to raise awareness about AIDS. "Believe me, I love this country. We will do everything we can to continue the fight against AIDS," John said at an event organised by the Elena Pinchuk Foundation. "It takes a long time for things to happen as I said," Elton continued. "Look what just happened in Ireland: the vote for abortion. Things change. People | they change their mind. And with a younger generation coming up, they are different kind of people, and they're our future." It has also been announced that the pop star will be further establishing his alliance with people living with HIV and AIDS by delivering the "Diana, Princess of Wales Lecture" on HIV on June 8 in London. The lecture is presented with the mission to end AIDS, calling on the government and private sector to take necessary actions in order to rid the country of the disease. Meanwhile, Paramount Pictures has given a May 17, 2019 opening date for the upcoming Elton biopic Rocketman. The movie has been billed as a "larger than life movie musical spectacle that tells the story of a child prodigy turned music legend" and will star Eddie the Eagle actor Taron Egerton as John. - New Musical Express/Billboard, 5/30/18...... The Jimmy Buffett Broadway musical "Escape to Margaritaville" has announced it will have its final performance on July 1 after the tequila-infused jukebox musical has struggled to build audiences since opening earlier in 2018. The romantic comedy, set at a Caribbean island getaway threatened by an erupting volcano, has been a modest earner at the box office since it began previews in February, suggesting that Manhattan is not a high-density Parrothead metropolis as it played to just 56 percent capacity. Built around songs drawn primarily from Buffett's back catalog but also including more recent material, the musical drew more consistent crowds in Houston and Chicago, suggesting that it might fare better on tour, and producers have announced a road company will kick off in Oct. 2019 at Rhode Island's Providence Performing Arts Center. - The Hollywood Reporter, 5/31/18...... The estate of Michael Jackson filed a copyright infringement suit against the Walt Disney Co. on May 30, alleging that the television special The Last Days of Michael Jackson which aired on ABC on May 14 used Jackson's songs and videos without permission. Jackson's estate alleges that the producers used songs including "Beat It," "Billie Jean," and "The Girl Is Mine," along with music videos such as "Thriller," and clips from This Is It, the concert documentary, without asking for permission before the show aired. The suit says when the estate raised objections, Disney asserted that the show was a "documentary" and was entitled to use the material under the "fair use" doctrine. Howard Weitzman, the attorney for the Jackson estate, argued that was "patently absurd," especially in light of Disney's aggressive enforcement of its own copyrights. - Variety.com, 5/30/18...... A career-spanning documentary focusing on former The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive member Randy Bachman had its world premiere at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto, Canada, in May and will air on Canada's CBC Documentary Channel later in 2018. Incorporating numerous present-day interviews with Bachman's family, management, and fellow musicians, the documentary touches on everything from Bachman's childhood to his various rock bands -- The Guess Who, BTO, Brave Belt, Bachman-Turner -- and solo work. Bachman says it's "pretty strange" seeing his life condensed into a 75-minute documentary. "It's like your dad doing a surprise and inviting out all your friends and showing all your old family home movies of going on vacation and the clothes you wore, and then have all your friends complaining about what a poor playmate you were or what a brat you were," he says. A number of musicians who cite Bachman as an influence, including Neil Young, Paul Shaffer, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Alex Lifeson and Peter Frampton, also contribute to the documentary. Bachman is also promoting his new album, By George By Bachman -- Songs of George Harrison, which he has described as "his last all-original studio work." and a new movie called Taking Care of Business is currently in the works. Bachman says his son, Tal Bachman, who scored an alternative rock hit with "She's So High," has also joined his band and "they're talking about re-recording it for the women's movement because "the women in the audience don't sing 'she's so high'; they sing 'we're so high, we're high above you,' but they're pointing to the men." - Billboard, 5/31/18...... A private retreat in the Turks & Caicos Islands that is believed to be the only remaining property in Prince's real estate portfolio is being put up for sale. A New York auction house is taking sealed bids on the 5.7-acre (23,000 sq.-meter) property which is surrounded by water on three sides and includes several structures totaling more than 10,000 square feet (930 sq. meters). It includes two private beaches, a marina and a long, winding driveway painted purple. Prince bought the property in 2011 for $13 million, and it is expected to bring as much as $15 million. - AP, 5/29/18...... Former Police frontman Sting and his wife Trudie Styler were presented with honorary degrees during the 250th commencement at Brown University in Providence, R.I., on May 27. Sting and Styler were recognized for their work with the environmental organization the Rainforest Fund, to protect the world's rainforests, which they co-founded. - AP, 5/28/18...... Willie Nelson was forced to leave the stage before playing a note at a concert in Charlotte, N.C., on May 26 at the PNC Music Pavilion after the country/pop legend complained he was ill. After picking up his trusty acoustic guitar Trigger and briefly putting it on, Nelson set it back down, flung his cowboy hat into the crowd and left the stage. The 85 year-old singer could be seen walking out of the stage door after what was reportedly his second attempt to take the stage that night. A spokesman for Nelson said the following day that he was suffering from a "stomach bug" that prevented him from performing and that the Charlotte show will be rescheduled at a later date. The concert promoter also issued a statement saying "Fans are asked to please hold on to their tickets until the new date is announced." - Billboard, 5/28/18...... Graham Nash is prepping a 2-disc compilation of his solo material and work with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young entitled Over the Years. The release, which hits stores June 29, features 15 tracks of Nash's greatest solo material, up to 2016's Myself At Last on one disc, and an equal number of demos from 1968-80. The latter disc includes rarities such as "Horses Through A Rainstorm," co-written with Terry Reid and originally targeted to join "Our House" on CSNY's Deja Vu, as well as "Man In The Mirror," "I Miss You," "Simple Man" and "Right Between The Eyes." "I realized there hadn't ever been a 'greatest hits' album of my music," Nash says, "so I decided that I would find out what my 15 most popular songs are and put them on. And then I thought, 'Well, everybody's got those,' so I decided I would put demos on here because I think people are kind of interested in what happens from a demo to an actual record." As for a potential CSN and/or Y reunion (the band has been dormant since 2015), Nash says "I don't know what's going on." "All I know is I'm here on my own trip now and having a great time. If someone comes to me, if Neil (Young) calls again and says, 'Hey Willy, man, I've got six great songs here. What do you want to do?' then we're off and running again. But until that happens, nothing's going on." - Billboard, 5/31/18...... Ginger Baker's son Kofi Baker, Jack Bruce's son Malcolm Bruce and Eric Clapton's nephew Will Johns have announced they will come together for the first time in the UK to pay homage to Cream's extraordinary legacy with "The Music Of Cream - 50th Anniversary World Tour." The four-date UK tour, which starts at the Glasgow O2 Academy on Nov. 23, celebrates 50 years since the original line-up's farewell UK concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Nov. 26, 1968. Other dates include the Leamgton Spa, Assembly (11/24), London's O2 Forum (11/25) and the Manchester Ritz on Nov. 26. The trio will share personal stories and perform songs such Cream classics as "Sunshine of Your Love," "Crossroads," "Spoonful" and White Room" performed across a comprehensive set, which will also see the three interplay with footage of their fathers and mentors on the big screen, along with never-before-seen footage and photos. Tickets are available via www.themjrgroup.com/moc50th/. - Noble PR, 5/29/18...... The iconic 80s Canadian rock band Glass Tiger, best known for their 1986 UK Top 40 hit single "Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)" and 1991's "My Town" featuring Rod Stewart, return to the UK for the first time in 27 years to play two rare concerts. The band last came to the UK when they supported Roxette on their 1991 nationwide UK tour. Glass Tiger play the University of London Union on Oct. 19, followed by the Rockingham Festival at Nottingham Trent University on Oct. 21. Tickets for the University of London concert can be booked from Eventbrite, Eventim, and Gigantic. Tickets for Glass Tiger's Rockingham Festival performance are available from Ticketsource. To celebrate their 30th Anniversary, earlier this year Glass Tiger released a new album entitled 31 which includes two new songs and re-imagined recordings of all their hit singles. - Noble PR, 5/29/18...... Russ Regan, the "golden-eared" A&R music exec best known for signing the likes of Elton John, Neil Diamond and Barry White, among many others, has died following a series of health problems. He was 89. The 30-year industry veteran had been hospitalized this spring following surgery for a pacemaker, and his battles with cancer and other ailments even led to a GoFundMe campaign to help his family cover hospital expenses. In 1965, Mr. Regan joined the Warner Bros. soul imprint Loma as general manager, and two years later took over at the fledgling Uni Records, owned by MCA, where he proceeded to transform it into a powerhouse by signing both Diamond and John, as well as guiding other artists like Strawberry Alarm Clock ("Incense and Peppermints") and Hugh Masekela to mainstream success. Mr. Regan signed John to Uni in 1970 and played an integral part in introducing the British piano man to U.S. audiences during the elaborate promotional campaign for his second studio album (but first in the U.S.), which included breakthrough single "Your Song." On Twitter, Elton John paid tribute to Mr. Regan, saying thanks for "believing in me and helping launch my career." In 1972, Mr. Regan jumped ship to 20th Century Records where he launched then producer Barry White's singing career, and in 1977 he launched Parachute Records in a working partnership with Neil Bogart's Casablanca Records. He also did extensive work as a music supervisor or consultant for numerous films including The Karate Kid, Breakin', All the Right Moves and Flashdance, among others. - Billboard, 5/29/18...... Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page has persuaded authorities in the affluent Holland Park area of West London to postpone a decision on pop star Robbie Williams' plan for an underground gym and swimming pool. Page and the former Take That boy band member have been feuding for years over Williams' plans to extend his home, which Page says could damage his own 19th-century Gothic-revival mansion, Tower House, which features ornate tiling, plasterwork and stained glass. Page says Tower House could be damaged by vibrations from construction work. Page says he's careful to only play acoustic guitars in the home, which he bought in 1972 from actor Richard Harris, however Williams counters the construction work "will result in absolute minimal impact" to neighboring properties. At a meeting on May 30, the Kensington and Chelsea Council's planning committee decided not to grant Williams planning permission until it received further legal assurances. Page said he was "really pleased at the outcome" and the council's consideration for the house. "I'm only the custodian to pass it on to the next person in the same way I bought it from Richard Harris," he said. - AP, 5/30/18...... Australian guitar legend Phil Emmanuel died on May 24 in the Australian town of Parkes after a sudden asthma attack. He was 65. Revered for his versatility on the electric guitar, Emmanuel shared a stage with the greats of country, jazz and rock 'n' roll over 50-year-plus career, from Dolly Parton to Willie Nelson, Tammy Wynette, Dire Straits, The Shadows, Midnight Oil, Jimmy Barnes, Carlos Santana and many more. The 2000 Sydney Olympic Games provided a career highlight for Emmanuel and his younger brother and regular bandmate Tommy Emmanuel as they performed at the Closing Ceremony, and the pair reunited again in late 2010 for a 50th anniversary tour. In 1991, Phil was inducted into Australia's Country Music Hall of Fame. - Billboard, 5/28/18...... Former US astronaut Alan Bean, who was the fourth man to walk on the Moon, has died in a Houston, Tex. hospital at the age of 86, his family has said. Mr. Bean also commanded the second Skylab crew in 1973 and went on in retirement to become an accomplished artist, producing paintings that were inspired by space. A former US Navy test pilot, Mr. Bean was selected by NASA as a trainee in 1963 and went into space twice, the first time in Nov. 1969 as the lunar module pilot on the Apollo 12 Moon-landing mission. He later described how complex and risky the mission had been: "It was more science fiction to us, I think, than it was to the average public." Mr. Bean retired from NASA in 1981 and carved a successful career as an artist. His paintings, inspired by space travel, featured lunar boot prints as well as small pieces of his mission patches which were stained by Moon dust. The three astronauts who preceded Alan Bean to the moon's surface were Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on Apollo 11 in July 1969, and Charles Conrad who was also on the Apollo 12 mission. Of the four men, only Aldrin is still alive, now aged 88. Mr. Bean is survived by his wife Leslie, a sister and two children from a previous marriage. - BBC.com, 5/27/18.