Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on June 26th, 2018

As part of its 50th anniversary celebration in 2018, Led Zeppelin announced on June 22 that its 1976 double-LP live set The Song Remains the Same will be reissued this fall in a "super deluxe box set" that will house the film and soundtrack together in the same package for the first time and include many other treats. The release will also feature a 28-page book of photos, stills, and an essay written by director and former Rolling Stone journalist Cameron Crowe, a replica of a Japanese program from 1977, a high-quality print of the original album cover, and more. The Song Remains The Same was the soundtrack to the band's 1976 concert film, which was filmed at New York's Madison Square Garden in 1973. A new edition of the album will be released on Sept. 7 in multiple formats. It will be available on CD, a four-vinyl LP set, and Blu-Ray, and include live versions of classic Zeppelin tracks such as "Dazed And Confused," "Stairway To Heaven," "Celebration Day" and more. - New Musical Express, 6/22/18...... It was "Tuesday Knight Fever" for the Bee Gees' Barry Gibb on June 26 as the music legend received a knighthood from Prince Charles during investitures at Buckingham Palace. "If it was not for my brothers, I would not be here," said the new Sir Barry, adding he hopes his late brothers Robin and Maurice Gibb, who passed away in 2012 and 2003 respectively, are proud of him. "If I had spent my whole life writing songs on my own, it would have meant something else altogether. I hope and pray that they are aware of what has happened and that they are proud. I believe in that," he said. The 71-year-old singer/songwriter, who was honoured for his services to music and charity, added that the honor was "a bit surreal" and that "it is a high award that your culture can give you and that is something I am enormously proud of." During his time with the Bee Gees, Barry Gibb helped the band become one of the most successful acts in pop music history, with a slew of global hits including "Night Fever," "Stayin Alive," "How Deep Is Your Love," "Tragedy" and "Words." - AP, 6/26/18...... Cher snuck into the Oriental Theatre in Chicago over the fourth weekend in June to catch a preview of the Broadway-bound musical "The Cher Show," and the diva has shared some opinions about its progress. Cher told the Chicago Tribune that while she really enjoyed the show overall, there were parts of the show that could have been better. "It needs work," she said. "I'm not supposed to say that, but I don't care." Though the 72-year-old pop icon admitted the show was "much, much better than I thought it would be," she felt that some parts of the show dragged a little bit more than she would have liked. "Sometimes, my mind was wandering... I think those are the parts that are going to get better." Cher says she thinks the show could be improved by making it feel like more of a spectacle, saying that one specific idea for a concert-style ending to the show could really work for the best. "I am pushing them to do three dance songs in a concert-style way at the end, a bit like they do in [the hit ABBA-based musical] 'Mamma Mia,'" she said. "I think the audience would like that." But she said was nevertheless still impressed: "I am the most critical person who ever drew breath. If they can impress me, they're doing good." "The Cher Show" is set to open June 28 at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago, before making it's Broadway opening at the Neil Simon Theater on Dec. 3. - Billboard, 6/26/18...... In an interview with the UK paper The Telegraph on June 25, the Kinks frontman Ray Davies revealed the Kinks are getting back together to record a new album, and may even play some live shows. "I think it's kind of an appropriate time to do it," Davies said, adding he had been working in the studio with his brother Dave Davies and band mate Mick Avory, which has led to the pair making amends. "The trouble is, the two remaining members -- my brother Dave and Mick -- never got along very well," Davies explained in a recent interview with Britain's Channel 4. "But I've made that work in the studio and it's fired me up to make them play harder, and with fire." The Davies siblings haven't performed together since 1996, as the band split up in the '90s due to rising tensions between band members. A new Kinks LP would be the followup to 1994's To The Bone, and feature songs Ray wrote during the split. Ray says he was inspired to get the band back together after seeing the Rolling Stones' recent successful UK tour. While he praised the Stones' "well-organized" comeback, he quipped that "the Kinks will probably be playing the local bar." - New Musical Express/Billboard, 6/26/18...... Country star Chris Stapleton has just been added to the lineup of 33rd Annual Farm Aid Concert, which in 2018 will take place for the first time at the Xfinity Theatre in Hartford, Conn., on Sept. 22. Stapleton -- who won Grammy Awards in February for best country album (From a Room: Volume 1), best country solo performance ("Either Way") and best country song ("Broken Halos") -- will share the bill with Stapleton -- who won Grammy Awards in February for best country album (From a Room: Volume 1), best country solo performance ("Either Way") and best country song ("Broken Halos") -- will share the bill with Farm Aid's guiding foursome of Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews, who will perform an acoustic set with Tim Reynolds. Tickets for Farm Aid 2018 will go on sale June 29 at 10 a.m. ET through Live Nation. Farm Aid, through its annual concerts, has raised more than $53 million for grants to help family farmers and to advocate on their behalf. - Billboard, 6/25/18...... The Beach Boys have scored their first ever No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Albums Chart with their new foray into orchestral music, The Beach Boys With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The album, released on June 8, has moved 5,000 copies so far, and also topped the Classical Crossover Albums chart for the week ending June 14, according to Nielsen Music. While this is the first time at No. 1 on both charts for the Beach Boys, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a frequent visitor to the tallies, collecting four top 10s on both lists in the past year, thanks to collaborations with the Beach Boys, Aretha Franklin, Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley. In other chart news, Fleetwood Mac has surpassed 2 million copies sold in the U.S. with their The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac compilation. The album was originally released in 2002 when it peaked at No. 12, and is one of the act's 11 top 40-charting efforts on the Hot 200 tally. - Billboard, June 22, 2018...... '70s artists Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris are among the recording, television, film and theater stars set to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2019, it was announced on June 26. Other recipents set to be honored in 2019 include The Lettermen, Michael Buble, Faith Hill and P!nk, and actors Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway. The Hollywood Walk of Fame receives hundreds of submissions each year for a personal star on Hollywood Boulevard, however only a few of those submissions are granted their own star as it is estimated that the construction and ceremony production costs exceed $30,000. The dates for the 2019 star ceremonies have yet to be announced. - Billboard, 6/26/18...... The Monkees have announced they are canceling the remaining four dates of their 20-city "The Monkees Present: The Mike & Micky Show Tour" due to a health issue for Mike Nesmith, starting with a June 21 scheduled show at the Keswick Thater in Philadelphia. "Michael Nesmith had a minor health issue today in advance of his tour date in Philadelphia tonight," the band said in a statement issued on June 21. "He visited a local medical facility and, although the issue was not serious, was advised to rest for the next week, so unfortunately the remaining four dates on The Monkees Present: The Mike & Micky Show tour have been postponed until a later date... Nesmith has been dismissed from the hospital and is traveling back to his home in Carmel Valley. He is in good spirits and thanks all the fans for their support and understanding. He looks forward to getting back on the stage again soon." The shows, which feature the duo of Nesmith and Micky Dolenz performing a mixture of well-known and "deep tracks" from the Monkees' catalog, will be rescheduled for January. - Billboard, 6/21/18...... Jackson family patriarch Joe Jackson, the father of Michael Jackson and the other famous Jackson siblings, is reportedly "on his deathbed" in a Las Vegas hospital as he battles terminal cancer at the age of 89. The music manager's family claims that their father "does not have long" left to live, but he has banned them from visiting after his condition took a nosedive earlier in June. "He's very very frail, he doesn't have long. The family needs to be by his bedside -- that's our only intention in his final days," Jermaine Jackson told the UK paper The Daily Mail. Although Jackson has battled illness for a lengthy period, he reportedly gave verbal instructions in recent days to stop his family from accessing his medical records or visiting him. Despite the request, he was eventually visited at the hospital by wife Katherine Jackson, daughters Rebbie and Joh'Vonnie, and granddaughter Yashi Brown. In 2017, Jackson was hospitalized after a car he was riding in was involved in an accident on the Las Vegas Strip. He was also hospitalized in 2015 after suffering a stroke while visiting Brazil. - NME, 6/22/18...... In an interview with a Las Vegas TV station after his June 25 performance at Bally's Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, Wayne Newton shared his thoughts about the string of burglaries that have taken place over the past few months at his Vegas home. Newton said his daughter ran into the alleged suspects of the second home invasion. "[My daughter] said 'Daddy, there's somebody in your dressing room,'" he explained. "So, I ran in to confront them." Newton's property, which is also home to his wife Kathleen and their daughter, was first broken into on June 3. Less than two weeks later, the house was robbed again when Newton and his family were coming home late at night. The intruders managed to escape the scene before the police arrived, according to the "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast" singer: "I'm as angry as one could imagine, I have no doubt they will be caught because we have pictures." Police have released images of two suspects they believe to have been involved with the second robbery, but have not confirmed whether or not anything was stolen in that incident. - Billboard, 6/26/18...... Legendary hard rock drummer Vinnie Paul, who co-founded the metal band Pantera and also played with Damageplan and Hellyeah, died on the morning of June 23. He was 54. "Vincent Paul Abbott aka Vinnie Paul has passed away," reads a statement on the Pantera Facebook page. "Paul is best known for his work as the drummer in the bands Pantera and Hellyeah. No further details are available at this time. The family requests you please respect their privacy during this time." Along with his brother, "Dimebag" Darrell Paul, Paul (born Vincent Paul Abbott) formed Pantera in 1981. The group found mainstream success with second lead singer Phil Anselmo. Throughout its career, Pantera earned four Grammy nominations and charted nine albums on the Billboard Hot 200, including its 1994 album Far Beyond Driven, which debuted at No. 1 on the chart. Following Pantera's demise, the Texas-raised Abbott brothers formed Damageplan in 2003. The band was performing on Dec. 8, 2004, when Dimebag Darrell was shot and killed onstage during a concert in Columbus, Oh. Since 2006, Paul was the drummer for Hellyeah, a heavy metal supergroup that also includes vocalist Chad Gray and guitarist Tom Maxwell. Paul's passing was memorialized on Twitter by such rock stars as Paul Stanley, Alice Cooper, Zakk Wylde and Bret Michaels. - Billboard, 6/22/18.

Paul Simon announced on June 20 that he'll be finishing his current "Homeward Bound -- The Farewell Tour" at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, N.Y., on Sept. 22, in the borough where he spent most of his childhood. Simon will also play two additional shows in the Big Apple in the days before, at Madison Square Garden on Sept. 20 and 21. Tickets for the MSG shows are on sale now, and presale for the Corona Park show starts on June 25. - Billboard, 6/20/18...... Robert Plant, Michael McDonald, Modest Mouse and Kacey Musgraves will be among the 40-plus headliners at the 9th annual LouFest in St. Louis, Missouri's Forest Park on Sept. 8-9. Last year's LouFest drew more than 60,000 concertgoers. - Billboard, 6/19/18...... Former Free and Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the formation of Free with a new live album and video, Free Spirit: Celebrating The Music of Free. The album was recorded at London's historic Royal Albert Hall, a venue Rodgers has played many times before. "It was wonderful and received so well," he says. "There's a lot of love for the music, and I was very touched by the response." Free Spirit also includes a rendition of Free's signature song, "All Right Now," which he says he didn't perform after leaving Free in 1972 "until about 1996, when I was touring with Jason Bonham, and we were supporting the tribute record we had done to Muddy Waters." "It was so refreshing to play, and it has wound up staying in the set," Rodgers says. "I am amazed at the song and its longevity." In addition to CD/DVD, streaming and Blu-ray on June 29, Free Spirit will be released on vinyl on July 6, a medium Rodgers says he still listens to quite a bit today. I still have a lot of my old records from back in the day... There's a warmth that you can still feel. I do think that the ear detects this on some level," he says. - Billboard, 6/21/18...... Stevie Nicks has collaborated with country singer LeAnn Rimes on a new rendition of Rimes' classic song "Borrowed."" I stopped in my tracks and sat down on the floor and started to cry," Nicks says of the time she heard Rimes sing the song on The Tonight Show in 2013. "I understood what she was singing about. I understood that the pain was real... and I understood that it had happened to me. When the song ended, I called my assistant to tell her that one day, I would sing this song with LeAnn. It was our destiny." The Nicks/Rimes duet is available along with a number of other alternate songs of Rimes' on her new EP, Re-Imagined. - Billboard/Rolling Stone, 6/21/18...... Development has begun on a new Michael Jackson musical based on the pop star's life, the Jackson estate and Columbia Live Stage announced on June 19. An offcial title has yet to be determined for the stage show, which will be directed by Tony Award winner Christopher Wheeldon. The Broadway premiere of the show, which will feature a soundtrack full of Jackson's hits, is set for 2020. Meanwhile, an elephant that once lived at Jackson's Neverland Ranch briefly escaped its enclosure at a Florida zoo on June 17. The Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens posted on Facebook that Ali the bull elephant wandered through a gate that was accidentally left open and wound up in a courtyard behind the giraffe and elephant barn. The zoo said guests weren't endangered and they used food to entice the elephant back into the enclosure. - Billboard/AP, 6/19/18...... Promoting her new ABBA-inspired movie Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again! on CBS's The Late Late Show with James Corden on June 19, Cher joined host James Corden for a game of "Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts," in which guests are asked difficult questions or eat things that most people would never want on their plate. Asked if she "could say one nice thing about Pres. Donald Trump," Cher hesitated for a few seconds, then said "No, I can't think of a single nice thing to say about him." Then, Cher nibbled on a piece of a cow's tongue to fulfill her obligation. Meanwhile, the soundtrack for Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again has been given a release date of July 13, a week before the film hits theaters in the US. It features a duet of "Fernando" between Cher and Andy Garcia, as well as other stars including Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Amanda Seyfried and Pierce Brosnan singing such ABBA hits as "Waterloo" and "When I Kissed the Teacher." Cher will play a new character in the movie. - Billboard, 6/20/18...... In other ABBA-related news, the Swedish quartet has shared definitive proof that they are currently recording together after announcing in April that they'd recorded their first new material in 35 years. ABBA posted a pic on their #abbaofficial Twitter account showing Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad recording together with a caption "...in RMV Studio Stockholm, recording the two new songs! Release end of this year. ??" ABBA are set to reveal both songs -- "I Still Have Faith In You" and another new song - on a TV special in November, ahead of a "virtual" hologram ABBA tour in 2019. A spokesperson for the band has denied rumours of a Glastonbury set in 2019. - New Musical Express, 6/18/18...... The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced it will be teaming with NBC-based Wilshire Studios to develop a new documentary series that will explore the artistic and cultural significance of some of the world's greatest rock 'n' roll legends. The current plan will be to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame open its collection of archival materials and artifacts and invite an acclaimed director to explore the impact of their favorite rock artist on their work and the cultural landscape as a whole. "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is such an amazing brand to be able to partner with," said BJ Levin, Senior VP of Development at Wilshire Studios. "Their wealth of untapped research material and resources will allow this series to stand among some of the great music doc series." While the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's annual induction ceremony has been televised on HBO, Amazon will stream this year's induction to international audiences beginning on July 1. - The Hollywood Reporter, 6/18/18...... After announcing a new double A-side single on Instagram on June 19, Paul McCartney issued a press release on June 20 announcing that his new album, called Egypt Station, will be released on Sept. 7 on Capitol Records. Named after one of his paintings, Egypt Station will be Macca's 17th solo effort and comes as welcome news for fans who have been waiting for new music from the former Beatle for almost five years. "Egypt Station starts off at the station on the first song and then each song is like a different location," McCartney noted. "So it gave us some idea to base all the song around that. I think of it as a dream location that the music emanates from." The two new singles, "I Don't Know," and "Come On To Me," indicate that Egypt Station could contain head banging rock, as well as heartfelt ballads. Sir Paul debuted a live version of "Come On to Me" in mid-June at the Philharmonic Pub in Liverpool. Both singles, along with the rest of the 14-track album, were produced by Greg Kurstin and recorded in L.A, London, and Sussex. - Billboard, 6/20/18...... In other Beatles-related news, writer and cartoonist Carol Tyler has just released a new Beatles-themed book Fab 4 Mania. The book is a joyous voyage back to the years when the band conquered America, complete with Tyler's thoughts and drawings from 1965 of seeing them in concert. It also features an introduction from Hunter Davies, author of the 1968 Fab Four tome The Beatles: The Authorised Biography. - Billboard, 6/19/18...... A private jet once owned by Elvis Presley that has sat on a runway in New Mexico for nearly four decades is back on the auction block. The plane, adorned with gold-tone woodwork, red velvet seats and red shag carpet has returned the market after its current owner bought it in 2017 for $430,000. It was once owned by Elvis and his father, Vernon Presley, and has been privately owned for 36 years and sitting on a tarmac in Roswell, N.M. The auction house IronPlanet is accepting online bids for the plane until July 27. - Billboard, 6/18/18...... Elvis Costello announced on June 19 that he'll kick off a 20-date North American tour this fall on Nov. 2 in Bethlehem, Penn., in support of his new album with his backing band The Imposters. The tour, called "Look Now and Then... It's Elvis Costello & The Imposters," will also visit such major markets as Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Memphis, St. Louis, Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, and wrap on Dec. 4 in Vancouver, B.C. While the new album's release date and official title have yet to be announced, details are "imminent," according to Concord Records. It will be Costello's first LP since 2010's National Ransom. - Billboard, 6/19/18...... Actor Peter Fonda apologized on June 20 for a late-night Twitter rant in which he suggested Pres. Donald Trump's 12-year-old son Barron Trump should be ripped from "his mother's arms and put in a cage with pedophiles" in reaction to Pres. Trump's new policy of separating migrant children from their parents on the U.S.-Mexico border. "I tweeted something highly inappropriate and vulgar about the president and his family in response to the devastating images I was seeing on television," Fonda said in the statement, released by both his manager and his publicist. "Like many Americans, I am very impassioned and distraught over the situation with children separated from their families at the border, but I went way too far. It was wrong and I should not have done it. I immediately regretted it and sincerely apologize to the family for what I said and any hurt my words have caused." In another tweet, the Easy Rider star suggested people opposed to the border policy should track down the addresses of federal agents and "surround their homes in protest," adding: "We should find out what schools their children go to and surround the schools in protest." Pres. Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Jr. tweeted that Fonda is "clearly a sick individual" who behaved "like a bully and a coward," and called on Sony Pictures Classics to stop the release of its film Boundaries, in which Fonda has a small role. The company condemned Fonda's tweets as "abhorrent" but said the film would be released as planned. - AP, 6/21/18...... In related news, Bruce Springsteen broke from his usual script during his "Springsteen on Broadway" show on June 19 to condemn the "inhumane" treatment of thousands of children who have been separated from their families by the strict immigration policies set up by the Trump administration. He used his show to particularly call out "senior people in government" who he believed blasphemed in suggesting that they had a duty to separate families. "For 146 shows, I have played pretty much the same set every night. Tonight demands something different," Springsteen said. He then played his 1995 protest song "The Ghost of Tom Joad," which over the last ten years has featured guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, transforming the acoustic song into an impassioned call to activism. The night before, Springsteen performed onstage during the Grand Re-Opening of Asbury Lanes in his hometown of Asbury Park, N.J., a 1960s bowling alley that his been refurbished into a music venue. The Boss jammed for about 30 minutes with Tangiers Blues Band on such blues-rock classics as "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu," "I Just Wanna Make Love to You," "Down the Road Apiece" and "Twist and Shout." "It's been a joy -- watching the rebirth of Asbury," Springsteen told the crowd. - Billboard/AP, 6/20/18...... Archaeologists from Binghamton University's Public Archaeology Facility have recently conducted a five-day dig at the site of the original 1969 Woodstock music festival on Max Yasgur's old farm about 80 miles (128 kilometers) north of New York City, where The Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker and Jimi Hendrix wowed the crowds 49 years ago. "The overall point of this investigation is to kind of define the stage space," said project director Josh Anderson, kneeling beside a hole that showed evidence of a fence that kept 400,000 fans from the stage area. "We can use this as a reference point," Anderson added. "People can stand on that and look up at the hill and say, 'Oh, this is where the performers were. Jimi Hendrix stood here and played his guitar at 8:30 in the morning.'" "This is a significant historic site in American culture, one of the few peaceful events that gets commemorated from the 1960s," added Wade Lawrence, director of The Museum at Bethel Woods. He said the archeologists' work will help the museum plan interpretive walking routes in time for the concert's 50th anniversary next year. The excavation revealed some non-mind blowing artifacts: parts of old aluminum can pull tabs, bits of broken bottle glass, and possibly the spot where a chain-link fence on the side of the stage area met the wooden "Peace Fence" that ran in front of the stage. Now they can match concert photos to a specific spot in the field. That could help them estimate where the corners of the stage were 49 years ago. "There's just something about this place that -- and I'm not the only one -- that draws people here," 67-year-old Woodstock veteran Charles Maloney said as he stood by the plaque. "I mean, this area here could have 200 people. And you can still hear the silence." - AP, 6/21/18...... John McElrath, a cofounder and former member of the '60s rock group The Swingin' Medallions, died on June 17, after a battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 77. McElrath was the group's keyboardist and one of the vocalists, and though he was no longer performing with the band, his two sons had joined the group over the years. The Swingin' Medallions' "Double Shot of My Baby's Love," released in 1966, climbed briefly into Top 10 on the Billboard charts, and it remains popular today. A memorable part about the record is the background "party noise" that duplicated the sound of fraternity parties the band would play on weekends while its members were still in college. The band made 2,000 copies of the song and sold them at parties. A copy found its way into the hands of a disc jockey in Birmingham, Ala., and when a national label picked it up, the band was on the brink of a natinal breakthrough. Some radio stations wouldn't play the record because of the phrase "worst hangover that I ever had" so another version was made. The announcement of McElrath's death came as the current incarnation of the group was scheduled to perform in Sandy Springs, Ga., on June 17.