Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on March 18th, 2019

A new 3-disc Rolling Stones compilation called Honk will be released on CD, vinyl and digitally on Apr. 19, the band announced on Mar. 14. The "best of" collection will consist of classic tracks and big hits from every Stones studio album from 1971 onwards, as well as recent recordings of 10 live tracks with the likes of Ed Sheeran, Dave Grohl and Florence Welch. A special, fan edition deluxe 4-LP coloured vinyl will also be released. - NME, 3/14/19...... A rep for Ringo Starr confirmed on Mar. 17 that the former Beatles drummer "has been working on a new record for months." This comes three days after Ringo's recording engineer, Bruce Sugar, posted a pic of himself, Ringo and Steve Lukather of Ringo's All-Starr Band on Facebook with the caption, "Another great day in the Studio..." Starr later tweeted the same day: "In the studio again with the great Steve Lukather what a guy peace and Love." Ringo's most recent album, Give More Love, peaked at No. 128 on the Billboard 200 in October 2017. There's no word on when the new album will be released. Ringo and his band will kick off a 2019 US tour on Mar. 21 in Funner, Calif., followed by nine shows in April in Japan. He'll be back performing in Canada and the U.S. starting Aug. 1, including the 50th anniversary Woodstock music festival. - Billboard, 3/17/19...... In other Beatles-related news, a letter written by John Lennon in 1971 which details his anger with his record label and the music industry at large over the Two Virgins album he released with Yoko Ono has been put up for auction, with bids expected to reach as much as £15,000. Addressed to "Martin George of Rock Ink," who is interpreted to be either Beatles producer George Martin or, more likely, underground Ink music mag journalist Martin George, the letter states: "Yoko and I got 'Two Virgins' out in spite of [which is underlined] being past owners of Apple. We made it in May and they f---ed us about till November! Then E. M. I. (who have the real control) wrote warning letters to all their puppets around the world telling them not handle it in any way (this after Sir Joe [Lockwood, chairman of EMI] had told us face to face that he would do 'everything he could' to help us with it - and asking us for autographed copies!!)." Lennon continues: "In the States it came out on Tetragrammaton which vanished leaving a few thousand spares (it was sold discretely wrapped in a brown paper bags). Retailers here and there were too scared to handle it and it sold very few - it's very well known but not many people could actually get it. In most other major markets, e.g. Japan, it has never been released." After railing against the censorship of the word "fuck" and the "banning" of Ono's 'Open Your Box', Lennon concluded the letter with: "Just thought you'd like to know." - New Musical Express, 3/13/19...... The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana has announced its upcoming Roger Ebert Eberfest film festival will feature the premiere of a restored version of Aretha Franklin's "lost" 1972 concert film Amazing Grace. The 1972 film directed by Sydney Pollack, which has been stored in a vault for decades, has now been restored and released. It will kick off this year's Ebertfest followed by a live community choir performance. Franklin died at the age of 76 in August 2018 from pancreatic cancer. The annual festival honors Ebert, the late Chicago Sun-Times film critic and UI graduate, and runs from Apr. 10-13 at Champaign's Virginia Theatre. - AP, 3/18/19...... As the Brexit issue comes to an apparent climax in the U.K., The Who's Roger Daltrey has told reporters for Sky News that Britain's controversial withdrawal from the European Union won't affect British musicians. Daltrey, who has previously defended his pro-Brexit views, was asked whether Brexit would be "bad for British rock music." "No. What's it got to do with the rock business?," Daltrey said. "How are you going to tour in Europe?" the interviewer replied. "Oh dear. As if we didn't tour Europe before the f---ing EU," he said. "Oh give it up!" Daltrey then compared the EU to the mafia, saying: "If you want to be signed up to be ruled by a f---ing mafia, you do it. Like being governed by FIFA." The Who will kick off a North American tour on May 7 in Grand Rapids, Mich. - New Musical Express, 3/17/19...... A huge Lou Reed archive that personal notes, photographs and more than 600 hours of recordings is now available at the New York Public Library. The archive was acquired by the library after Reed's wife, performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson, decided to share it with an institution that could preserve and showcase the archive. In an interview with the New York Times, Anderson says her late husband never discussed what to do with his belongings before his death in 2013. She says she thought the archive should be accessible to young musicians and anyone interested in his life. Reed was the lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter for the '60s band The Velvet Underground before launching a solo career that spanned decades. - AP, 3/18/19...... The Jacksons performed a "medley tribute" to their brother Michael Jackson on Mar. 16 during a concert in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Performing songs such as "I Want You Back," "ABC," "The Love You Save' and "Dancing Machine," all of which feature Michael as the lead vocalist, The Jacksons member Tito Jackson says that their current world tour is "a tribute to MJ... He is everything and will be represented on the stage." In addition to Tito, the The Jacksons consist of Marlon, Jermaine, Randy and Jackie Jackson. However due to an illness Jermaine was unable to make the trip to Sao Paulo. The group will end their visit to South America on Mar. 23 with a concert in Chile. Meanwhile, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis announced on Mar. 15 that it plans to remove three Michael Jackson items from exhibits after the new documentary Leaving Neverland renewed allegations of child sexual abuse against the late singer and Gary, Ind. native. The Indianapolis Star reports a fedora and glove Jackson wore onstage and a Jackson poster are no longer on display at the museum, which says it wants items on display to tell stories of "people of high character." On Mar. 14, Jackson's daughter Paris Jackson posted on Twitter that "There's nothing I can say that hasn't already been said in regards to defense," of her late dad, noting that her cousin Taj Jackson "is doing a perfect job on his own and I support him." "I'm just (trying to) get everyone to chill out and go with the flow, be mellow and think about the bigger picture. that's me," she added. Taking a more aggressive approach to defending the memory of the late King of Pop are three of his fan club groups, who are suing his accusers for "sullying his memory." The Michael Jackson Community, the MJ Street, and On The Line fan clubs have filed a lawsuit in France against Wade Robson, 26, and James Safechuck, 41, who claim in the Dan Reed-directed film that they were sexually abused by Jackson when they were children. Their attorney, Emmanuel Ludot, told AFP on Mar. 15 that they are suing Jackson's accusers for "sullying his memory" and for "lynching" the late star. The groups, he added, "want to discredit the accusations of paedophilia." Ludot previously successfully sued Jackson's personal physician Dr. Conrad Murray for causing distress to his fans by giving him the drugs that killed him in 2009. - New Musical Express/AP/Billboard, 3/18/19...... Bernie Tormé, a former guitarist with Ozzy Osbourne's band in the early 1980s, died on Mar. 17 at age 66. The Irish guitarist's official website confirmed the news of his passing and his family issued a statement on Mar. 18, which read, "Bernie Tormé passed away peacefully on the 17th March 2019, one day short of his 67th birthday, surrounded by his family. He had been on life support for the past four weeks at a London hospital following post-flu complications. Bernie will be remembered for dedicating his life to his music for five decades. He will be sorely missed." Tormé came to prominence in the mid-1970s when he played in a series of bands that lead to a gig as the lead guitarist in Gillan, the hard-rocking group fronted by former Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan. His three-year stint ended in 1981, after which he briefly joined Osbourne's solo band for a handful of live dates as the replacement for Randy Rhoades, following Rhoades death in a plane crash in 1982. While that gig was short-lived, Tormé continued to write, record and tour with bands that performed under his name, including Tormé and Electric Gypsies. Osbourne and wife/manager Sharon Osbourne sent their best wishes to Tormé in February upon hearing of his illness. Tormé briefly teamed up with Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider in the group Desperado, whose only album was never offically released, and then formed the supergroup Guy McCoy Tormé in 2006 with former Gillan bassist John McCoy and drummer Robin Guy. - Billboard, 3/18/19...... Speaking at the South By Southwest Conference and Festival in Austin, Tex. on Mar. 13, former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne screened and answered questions about the acclaimed 1986 Talking Heads documentary True Stories, as well as the music industry in general. The first of the digitally submitted questions asked Byrne to weigh in on the current economies of the music industry -- which producer T Bone Burnett focused a great deal of his time on during his talk in the same Hilton Hotel ballroom just before Byrne spoke. "Yes, things are changing very rapidly," Byrne told the overflow crowd. "In some ways what we as musicians do feels like it's been devalued over the years. It's become kind of free wallpaper or whatever." Byrne then noted that his personal antidote has been playing live. "I find that for me, at least, performance is still a thing that I do fairly often," Bryne said. "That experience as an audience or as a performer lives outside the commodification of music. That, to me, is a good sign. There's an opportunity for things to be heard beyond the gatekeepers." Byrne added that the changes in the music business have not really changed his creative practice, either. "I just kind of find other kinds of media, whether it's film or (his new Reasons To Be Cheerful) projects," he said. "I have been lucky enough to make enough money from touring -- not so much from records anymore, but from touring -- that I have the luxury of being able to say, 'Oh, I want to do this' and can dedicate my time and pay people to collaborate with me on things. That's not that different than what I used to do." Byrne says he launched his Reasons To Be Cheerful project as a response to the current state of division and divisiveness in America and other parts of the world -- through his own investigations as well as through musical projects such as his 2018 album American Utopia and the widely acclaimed tour that supported it. - Billboard, 3/13/19...... In other David Byrne news, the singer/songwriter will be among those inducting artists into the 2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class on Mar. 29 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. Byrne will be inducting Radiohead, with Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor doing the honors for The Cure, Queen's Brian May for Def Leppard, The Bangles' Susanna Hoffs for The Zombies and Duran Duran's Simon LeBon, John Taylor for Roxy Music, and Harry Styles for Stevie Nicks. Although no details have been formally announced on which acts will perform, Def Leppard, Nicks, the Zombies and Roxy Music are expected to take the stage. - Billboard, 3/13/19...... Chauncey "Chick" Crumpacker, best known as the producer and music exec who brought Elvis Presley to RCA Victor Records, died of natural causes on Mar. 12. He was 91. Mr. Crumpacker's career in music began in 1953 in RCA Victor's A&R department shortly after moving to New York City. During his time in A&R, he played a key role in bringing Presley to the label from Sun Records and then toured and traveled with the now-iconic rocker. He also tried to bring Johnny Cash to the label, but was ultimately unsuccessful after the label failed to support the move. Mr. Crumpacker also wrote Grammy-nominated liner notes for many records at RCA and spent many of his last years in the label's archive, cataloging and researching. - Billboard, 3/15/19...... Eddie Lambert, a veteran music exec who who worked at companies including ABC/Dunhill, Motown and EMI-Capitol during his five-decade career, died on Mar. 4 at his home in West Hills, California, after an 18-month battle with cancer. He was 76. In 1974, Lambert and his brother, songwriter/producer Dennis Lambert, launched Haven Records, and Eddie Lambert, as vice president and GM, signed the newly reunited Righteous Brothers as well as Evie Sands, Player and The Grass Roots. He also worked closely with Dennis on the Tavares and Glen Campbell albums that his brother and Brian Potter produced for Capitol. He also supervised and coordinated the soundtrack albums for The Big Chill (1983) and A Fine Mess (1986). A number of those LPs were produced or co-produced by his brother. He retired in 2017 because of his illness. - The Hollywood Reporter, 3/13/19...... Dick Dale, known as "The King of The Surf Guitar" whose biggest hit "Miserlou" soundtracked one of the most iconic opening sequences in film in Pulp Fiction, died on Mar. 16 after quietly suffering health issues for many years. He was 81. Born Richard Anthony Monsour in Boston, Mass. in 1937, and first coming to prominence in the early '60s with his band, The Del-Tones and "Miserlou," Mr. Dale's take on the traditional Greek folk tune featured his furious, signature strum and served as the venerable hit of his 1962 debut LP, Surfer's Choice. The single enjoyed a later renaissance thanks to director Quentin Tarantino, who blasted it during the opening credits of 1994's Pulp Fiction 32 years after the song's release. The Black Eyed Peas notably sampled "Miserlou" in their 2006 hit "Pump It," which peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100. Not only did Mr. Dale create an entirely new style of music, he was also credited with creating custom amplifiers for Fender that could handle his often powerful sounds and slides. His distinctive sound was influenced by his Lebanese heritage, and his 1961 hit "Let's Go Trippin'" is credited for sparking a sound that encompassed a budding Southern California surf culture. Among his movie credits were Beach Party, Muscle Beach Party and Back To the Beach with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funacello, and Let's Make Love starring Marilyn Monroe. His music was also featured in such movies as Escape from L.A., Space Jam, Barbed Wire and Jesus's Son, and he made appearances in such TV shows as Beverly Hills 90210, Beavis & Butthead, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, The David Letterman Show and the Conan O'Brian Show. In 1996, he was inducted into the Hollywood Rock Walk of Fame, and in 1989 the Surfing Hall of Fame. In 1963, he was the first rock guitarist to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show, the nation's number one national show. In a 2015 interview with Billboard, Mr. Dale, who toured well into his twilight years, was candid about the various health issues he faced -- including renal failure, diabetes and more -- as he continued to travel the country and perform. "Even with my illnesses and diseases," he said, "I'm faster with my hands than I've ever been." MTV original VJ Kurt Loder shared his condolences to Mr. Dale on Twitter, while actor Seth Rogen admitted his affinity for the guitar hero. "Once I drove an hour and half to see Dick Dale perform at a horse track, and it was wonderful. RIP," Rogen wrote. He is survived by his longtime love, Lana, and son Jimmie. - Billboard/The Daily Mail/DickDale.com, 3/17/19.

Movie studio MGM announced on Mar. 9 that its upcoming Aretha Franklin biopic Respect will hit U.S. theaters on Aug. 14, 2020. In 2018, MGM set the project in motion when it announced Oscar-winning actress/singer Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls) had been personally selected by the Queen of Soul to play her in the film. Screenwriter Callie Khouri (Thelma & Louise) is writing the script for Respect, which follows the rise of the singer's career -- from a child singing in her father's church choir to a superstar. Meanwhile, the theatrical release of the Franklin documentary Amazing Grace, which was shot in 1972 at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles during the recording of Franklin's double-platinum album of the same name, will take place on Apr. 5, following its Oscar-qualifying run in NY and LA at the end of 2018. - Variety.com, 3/9/19...... After brisk ticket sales for his June 29 show at the 20,000-capacity T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Paul McCartney has just added a second show at the same venue a day earlier. The concert is the latest addition to the U.S. leg of Sir Paul's "Freshen Up" tour, his first extended stateside run since the "One On One" tour that played to some two million fans around the world between 2016-2017. The tour, with the 76-year-old superstar playing for three hours each night, gets underway on May 23 at New Orleans' Smoothie King Arena, hits mostly medium-sized markets including Raleigh, NC; Greenville, SC; Lexington, KY; Green Bay, WS; and Arlington, TX. It will wrap on July 13 at L.A.'s Dodger Stadium. - Billboard, 3/12/19...... The New York Post's PageSix.com site is reporting there might be a sequel to the hugely successful Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. Rudi Dolezal, who directed several Queen videos including "One Vision," told Page Six that he expects the group's legendary manager, Jim Beach, will back a second biopic about the band and its late frontman, Freddie Mercury. Beach produced Bohemian Rhapsody, which won several major film awards earlier in the year including Best Picture at the Golden Globes and numerous Best Actor awards for Rami Malek, who portrayed Mercury in the blockbuster. However the site also noted that Queen nor its management have supported Dolezal's claims. Queen fans will be able to indulge in more of the band's history when a new documentary about Queen and current frontman Adam Lambert airs in the US this spring. The two-hour film, The Show Must Go On: The Queen + Adam Lambert Story, is set to be shown on ABC on Apr. 29. - NME, 3/11/19...... '70s New Wave icon Joe Jackson's "Four Decade" tour hit L.A.'s picturesque Orpheum Theater on Mar. 10, with Jackson delivering a 24-song set that traveled across decades and genres with easy assurance. He cast his set as a scrapbook flipping through the '70s, '80s, '90s and 2000's, bookending the show with "Alchemy" from his new LP, Fool. "Thank you for supporting us for all these years," Jackson said with clear sincerity near the end of the evening. - Billboard, 3/11/19...... While airplay of Michael Jackson songs after the premiere of the new HBO Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland has dipped, there has been a bump in streams and sales of the King of Pop's catalog of music in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music. Jackson's combined album and song sales -- including his work with the Jackson 5 and The Jacksons -- increased 10 percent in the shadow of the Neverland premiere. His combined sales on March 3-5 totaled nearly 9,000, up from the little over 8,000 on the previous Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (Feb. 24-26). The first part of Leaving Neverland premiered on HBO on Mar. 3., and the second two hours bowed on the network a day later. Viewing Jackson's radio airplay picture, spins of his songs fell by 13 percent to 5,200 plays across all monitored U.S. terrestrial and satellite radio stations on March 3-5 (down from 6,000 on Feb. 24-26). Notably, there was a marked decline in plays for Jackson's songs on Tuesday, March 5 (the day after the second part of Neverland's airing) versus Sunday, March 3 (the day of the premiere of Neverland). It's unclear if any of Jackson's albums or songs will see any major impact on the Billboard charts (dated March 16, reflecting the sales and streaming week ending March 7). - Billboard, 3/8/19...... In a recent interview with the UK music mag Metal Hammer, Ozzy Osbourne revealed that he "died twice on the way to hospital" at one point during his chemically-fuelled younger years. Osbourne was hospitalized in February after suffering complications from the flu. In a later update, he said that he had developed pneumonia and was forced to cancel his planned tour to recover at home. Now, the former Black Sabbath frontman has discussed sobriety while recalling his earlier days of rock 'n' roll debauchery. Ozzy says that he thought he would die young as a result of his addictions and lifestyle. "If you'd said to me years ago, 'How long do you think you'll last?' I would've said, 'I'll be dead by 40!'" he explained. "Luck has shadowed me all the way," the 70-year-old rocker added. "If you'd read a news story that said, 'Ozzy Osbourne has been found dead in his hotel room!', you wouldn't go, 'Oh, really?' would you? You'd say, 'Well, obviously!'" Reeling off his previous lucky escapes, Ozzy remembered: "I've fallen out of lift shafts and windows. I broke my neck on a quad bike. There was one time when I died twice on the way to hospital. I might be unsinkable!" - New Musical Express, 3/12/19...... Surviving The Monkees members Micky Dolenz and Mike Nesmith are paying tribute to both late Monkees members Davy Jones, who died on Feb. 29, 2012 after suffering a heart attack, as well as Peter Tork, who died more recently on Feb. 21 at age 77 after a battle with adenoid cystic carcinoma. "We went through (mourning Tork) last year," Dolenz says, noting that when Tork told him and Nesmith that he could not be part of shows with them during 2018, his death on Feb. 21 at the age of 77 "did not come as a surprise, not like David's (Jones) did... Peter acknowledged a few years ago, in fact, that he had some health issues. So Mike and I sorta went through (the mourning) last year, 'cause we had an idea what was coming." Dolenz and Nesmith will be playing their "The Monkees Present: The Mike & Micky Show" shows through Mar. 16, including makeup dates for the four postponed last year when Nesmith needed heart bypass surgery. Dolenz says the duo has recorded, though not fully filmed, The Mike & Micky Show for release on CD, and while some sort of live document is possible, he says a follow-up to 2016's successful Good Times! album and 2018 Christmas Party set is not in the offing. "Not at this point -- not yet, anyway," Dolenz says. "After the success of Good Times! there was talk about following it up, and the general consensus was, 'How the hell are we going to top that?!'" - Billboard, 3/8/19...... The Charlie Daniels Band are hitting the road with country superstar Travis Tritt this spring for a joint co-headlining tour dubbed the "Outlaws & Renegades Tour." The trek kicked off on Mar. 8 in St. Augustine, Fla., and will run through Aug. 25 in Tuscon, Ariz. The Cadillac Three will serve as special guests throughout the tour with additional support from the Marshall Tucker Band and Love & Theft on select shows. - Billboard, 3/8/19...... A private gift of art and lyrics sent by Joni Mitchell will be released in book form on Oct. 22, publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced on Mar. 11. Morning Glory on the Vine: Early Songs and Drawings collects materials the singer-songwriter assembled in the early 1970s and sent to friends -- just 100 copies, all signed. The forthcoming release will include a new introduction by Mitchell and additional paintings not included in the original edition. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will also publish a signed, limited edition of Morning Glory on the Vine. The book announcement follows the one-night only screening of the Joni 75th birthday tribute concert Joni 75 on Feb. 7, and its companion album on Mar. 8. - AP, 3/11/19...... Posting on his official Twitter account on Mar. 8, Elton John said he plans on releasing his "first and only autobiography later in 2019. "My life has been one helluva roller coaster ride and I m now ready to tell you my story, in my own words," John captioned a video in which he announced the news. In the clip, Elton added: "Here I am in my favourite bookshop, John Sandoe in Chelsea, in London. I just wanted to tell you I have a book coming out, which is my first autobiography." The as-yet-untitled book will be released in October 2019 and will be published by Macmillan's Henry Holt & Co. On their website, the publisher said: "A multiple Grammy-winning legend and flamboyant superstar, Elton is the most enduringly successful singer/songwriter of all time. Fans have been eagerly waiting for him to tell his story. Now the wait is (almost) over." John first revealed he was writing his memoir in 2017. "I'm not prone to being a nostalgic person," he said at the time. "I'm often accused of only looking forward to my next gig or creative project. It's come as quite a surprise how cathartic I am finding the process of writing my memoirs. As I look back, I realise what a crazy life I have had the extreme privilege of living." Elton is currently touring the US as part of his "Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour," which will be his last ever. Meanwhile, a biopic focusing on his breakthrough years is due for release on May 24. Rocketman will star Taron Egerton as John, while Bryce Dallas Howard, Richard Madden and Jamie Bell will also appear. - New Musical Express, 3/8/19...... In related news, Olivia Newton-John's new memoir Don't Stop Believin' was released in the US on Mar. 12. In the book, first released in her native Australia in 2017, Newton-John reveals she took on a secret battle against cancer in 2013. "I just decided I wanted to go through it myself," Olivia said on the American show Today on Mar. 7. "It was just a decision to keep it to myself that time." The "Physical" hitmaker also addressed rumours from earlier this year which suggested she was near death. "It was like, they were telling me I was dying and I thought, 'I don't feel like it. I feel pretty good'," she laughs. "Rumours start and then it gets out of control and I decided, 'No, I'm gonna come out and talk about it, because I have many friends and family all around the world and I can't call everyone, so I need to let them know I'm OK'." - WENN/Canoe.com, 3/8/19...... The former residence of imprisoned record producer Phil Spector and his wife in Alhambra, Calif., where actress/model Lana Clarkson was murdered by Spector in 2003 has been put on the market with an asking price of $5.5 million. The turreted mansion, known as the "Pyrenees Castle," has been put on the market just one month after the 16th anniversary of the actress' death. The 8,700 square foot home boasts nine bedrooms, seven full bathrooms, three half bathrooms, two home offices, a hair salon and a butler's pantry. It also comes equipped with a two full kitchens, a games room and an employee quarters, complete with a separate staff entrance. Spector, 79, is currently serving a sentence of 19-years to life for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson in the home's foyer in 2003. The 40-year-old actress who starred in the cult film Barbarian Queen was found dead at the property on Feb. 3, 2003. She had suffered a single gun-shot to the mouth and her teeth were found scattered over the floor. Speaking to Esquire magazine in 2003, Spector claimed Clarkson's death was an "accidental suicide" and that she had tried to "kiss the gun" before it inadvertently went off. In an emergency call from Spector's home, the music virtuoso can be heard saying "I think I killed someone." - DailyMail.co.uk, 3/10/19...... A demo that is thought to be among the first recordings of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars track "Starman" has sold at auction in the U.K. for £51,000. The recording was made in 1971 by Bowie and his Spiders from Mars guitarist Mick Ronson, who later handed it to Kevin Hutchinson, a close friend and aspiring musician who wanted to learn the now iconic track. Despite initial estimates that the tape would sell for £10,000, it went under the hammer for £51,000 at Merseyside's Omega Auctions on Mar. 12. "Now I'm 65 and I played it, I just couldn't believe how good it is," Hutchinson told a UK press association. "But at the time, I thought: It's not bad. At 16 you're not totally impressed, nothing impresses you," he noted. Hutchinson says he discovered the tape when he retrieved his old tape recorder out of hisloft and threaded the tape into the machine. On the demo, Bowie can also be heard telling Ronson that he had not finished the song when he tries to end the recording. "You can tell that Mick has never heard the song before because at the end he is just about to turn the tape recorder off and Bowie says: 'Hang on. There's a little bit more'," Hutchinson says. - New Musical Express, 3/13/19......Celebrated musician, award-winning writer, artist and publisher Artie Wayne, who played a major part in the success of such artists as Quincy Jones, Ringo Starr and Olivia Newton-John has died aged 77 in Palm Springs, Calif. As a songwriter he had more than 250 covers recorded by such artists as Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Tony Orlando and Dawn, Rick Nelson, Paul Anka, Cher and The 5th Dimension. Born in New York City, Wayne began his career on Broadway, working as a songwriter for the publisher Don Kirshner, co-writing and producing his first million selling hit in 1963 Joey Powers' "Midnight Mary." In 1968, Wayne moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as general manager of Warner Brothers Music, helping to develop the careers of artists including Jimmy Webb, Jackson Browne and the Eagles, before running A&M's publishing house, Irving Almo. In his first week at the company Wayne put Olivia Newton-John together with the song "I Honestly Love You," which became the singer's first number-one single in the United States and was Record of the Year in the 1974 Grammys. As well as guiding artists to best-selling songs, Wayne continued to enjoy success as a songwriter himself. In 1973, with George Clinton, he wrote "Little Christmas Tree" for Michael Jackson, which was featured on the Motown compilation LP A Motown Christmas which hit the top of the Billboard 200 in 1973, as well as co-writing "Touch the One You Love" for the star. In the same year he co-wrote "Sending My Good Thoughts to You" with Patti Dahlstrom, which was dedicated to their late friend, the singer Jim Croce who had recently died in a plane crash. In later life, Wayne retired to Palm Springs for health reasons, where he pursued his interest as a painter, and wrote a blog about his experiences in the music industry that reached an audience of over 2 million. - AP, 2/23/19...... Sidney Sheinberg, a former Universal Studios executive who discovered and nurtured Steven Spielberg, putting Jaws into production and helping to turn Hollywood into a blockbuster-focused business, died on Mar. 7 at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 84. His death, following years of Parkinson's disease, was confirmed by his son, Jonathan. - The New York Times, 3/9/19...... Actor Jan-Michael Vincent, the '80s heartthrob best known for his role on TV's Airwolf, died in a North Carolina hospital after suffering cardiac arrest on Feb. 10, it was reported on Mar. 8. His CBS hit, Airwolf, made him into a huge star. At the time, he was reportedly the highest-paid actor at $200k per episode. Vincent played helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke on the show, but the series lasted only a couple seasons largely in part to the star's cocaine abuse. His acting career would ultimately suffer from it. He nearly died in 2012 from an infection that required his right leg to be amputated. Vincent also starred opposite Burt Reynolds in the 1978 film, Hooper, and co-starred with Kim Basinger in the 1981 film, Hard Country. He was a steady working actor in Hollywood for three decades, and appeared in a slew of old TV classics like, Lassie, Bonanza and Gunsmoke, as well as the 1971 TV movie Tribes and the 1974 feature film Buster and Billie. His most recent role was in the 2002 movie, White Boy. - TMZ.com, 3/8/19...... Legendary session drummer Hal Blaine, a virtual one-man soundtrack of the 1960s and '70s who played on the songs of Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys among countless others, died on Mar. 11 of natural causes at his home in Palm Desert, Calif. He was 90. The winner of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award last year, Mr. Blaine's name was known by few outside the music industry, even in his prime. His drumming can be heard on songs that included Presley's "Return to Sender," The Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man," Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were," the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations," dozens of hits produced by Phil Spector, and the theme songs to Batman, The Partridge Family and dozens of other shows. "Hal Blaine was such a great musician and friend that I can't put it into words," the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson said in a tweet that included an old photo of him and Blaine sitting at the piano. "Hal taught me a lot, and he had so much to do with our success -- he was the greatest drummer ever." Ringo Starr also paid his respects to Mr. Blaine, tweeting, "God bless Hal Blaine peace and love to all his family Goodbye Hal an incredible musician." As a member of the Los Angeles-based studio band "The Wrecking Crew," which also featured keyboard player Leon Russell, bassist Carol Kaye and guitarist Tommy Tedesco, Mr. Blaine forged a hard-earned virtuosity and versatility that enabled him to adapt quickly to a wide range of popular music. According to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he played on 40 No. 1 hits, 150 top 10 songs. Mr. Blaine also played on eight songs that won Grammys for record of the year, including Sinatra's "Strangers In the Night" and Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water," and may be the only drummer to back Presley, Sinatra and John Lennon. Mr. Blaine nicknamed himself and his peers "The Wrecking Crew," because they were seen by their more buttoned-down elders as destructive to the industry -- an assertion that Kaye and others disputed. Many members of The Wrecking Crew worked nonstop for 20 years, sometimes as many as eight sessions a day, a pace that led to several marriages and divorces for Mr. Blaine. As more bands played on their own records and electronic drums arose, business dropped off in the 1980s even as younger musicians, such as Max Weinberg of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, cited his influence. His memoir, Hal Blaine & The Wrecking Crew, came out in 1990 and he continued to appear at symposiums and workshops into his 80s. Mr. Blaine also was seen in the 2008 documentary The Wrecking Crew and was played by Johnny Sneed in the Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy. The son of Jewish immigrants, Mr. Blaine was born Harold Simon Belsky in Holyoke, Mass. on Feb. 5, 1929. By age 8, he was already drumming, using a pair of dowels he removed from a seat in the living room. He was a professional by age 20 and within a few years switched from jazz to rock. He is survived by his daughter Michelle Blaine, and seven grandchildren. - AP, 3/11/19.