Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on May 15th, 2019

Actress Peggy Lipton, who rose to stardom in the late 1960s as a co-star of the counterculture police series The Mod Squad and later became a cast member of the acclaimed series Twin Peaks, died on May 11 after a battle with cancer. She was 72. Born in New York on Aug. 30, 1946, the blonde beauty began a successful modeling career at age 15, then four years later made her TV debut on the sitcom The John Forsythe Show, which led to appearances on such series as Bewitched, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and The Virginian. At 21, she rocketed to fame in 1968 as the street-smart flower child Julie Barnes, one of a trio of Los Angeles undercover "hippie cops" on the ABC crime series The Mod Squad, one of the first TV shows to feature an interracial cast. Lipton was nominated for four Emmys during the series' five year run, and in 1971 she won a Golden Globe award for best actress in a TV drama. Her role and later marriage to music producer Quincy Jones in 1974 put the actress in the center of country dealing with racial tensions, but she later said she found the spotlight uncomfortable. "I never saw myself as trend-setting," Lipton told The Los Angeles Times in 1993. "We were always working. Fame really drove me into my house. I was very paranoid. I didn't like going out. I had no idea how to be comfortable with the press. I was very young. It was really hard for me." Meanwhile, she parlayed her TV fame into a singing career, enjoying chart success with her cover versions of "Stoney End" and "Lu" by Laura Nyro and "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" by Donovan. With the exception of a Mod Squad reunion TV movie in 1979, Lipton stepped away from her acting career to raise her two daughters with Jones, actresses Kidida and Rashida Jones. After her divorce from Jones in 1989, she decided to return to acting, landing the role of Norma Jennings on the cult TV series Twin Peaks. More recently, she made occasional supporting role appearances in such films as When in Rome and A Dog's Purpose and TV series like Alias, Crash and 2017's Twin Peaks revival. In her 2005 memoir Breathing Out, Lipton wrote of her struggles with fame and the racism she and Jones faced as an interracial couple and revealed that she had been diagnosed with and treated for colon cancer the previous year. Her death was announced by her daughters on May 11. "She made her journey peacefully with her daughters and nieces by her side," they said in a statement. "We feel so lucky for every moment we spent with her.... Peggy was and will always be our beacon of light, both in this world and beyond. She will always be a part of us." - The Los Angeles Times, 5/11/19...... Screen legend and singing star Doris Day, whose wholesome, all-American image guaranteed box-office and record-chart hits in the '40s, '50s and '60s, died in the early hours of May 13 at her Carmel Valley, Calif., home, nearly two months after celebrating her 97th birthday, her Doris Day Animal Foundation announced shortly later. Born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff in Cincinnati, Oh., on Apr. 3, 1922, the daughter of a music teacher and a homemaker, the crystal-voiced pop soprano changed her surname to Day when, as a teen, she began singing on the radio. After appearances with the Big Bands of Barney Rapp and Bob Crosby, she joined Les Brown's Band of Renown and had her first hit with "Sentimental Journey." Going solo in 1947, she successfully auditioned for Warner Bros. the following year and was cast in the studio's attempts to compete with the romantic musicals that were the specialty of rival MGM. By the mid-'50s came better roles at other studios including 1954's Love Me or Leave Me, a fictionalized biopic of '20s singer Ruth Etting, which she considered her best film. In 1956, she costarred with James Stewart in The Man Who Knew Too Much, in which she introduced the Oscar-winning song that became her signature, "Que Sera Sera." In 1959, she was paired for the first time with leading man Rock Hudson in the racy (for its time) romantic comedy Pillow Talk, which resulted in her one and only Best Actress Oscar nomination, and also in her greatest box-office success. Two more vehicles with Hudson (and sidekick Tony Randall) followed, as did similar comedies in which Ms. Day -- sometimes as a career woman, but always squeaky clean -- costarred with the likes of Cary Grant, James Garner and Rod Taylor, prompting Hollywood musician and resident Oscar Levant to famously quip, "I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin." In 1967, she was offered the role of Mrs. Robinson in the box office smash The Graduate by director Mike Nichols, however Ms. Day wasn't interested. "I could not see myself rolling around in the sheets with a young man half my age whom I'd seduced," she recalled later. "I realized it was an effective part... but it offended my sense of values." As the '60s wound down and her wholesome image went out of fashion onscreen, Ms. Day turned to TV, having been forced there by a contract signed by her third husband and manager Martin Melcher without her knowledge. CBS's 1968-73 The Doris Day Show never rose above the level of being a poor man's Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Ms. Day herself was highly critical of it. Melcher died unexpectedly in 1968, leaving Ms. Day in financial straits. Her husband's reliance on attorney Jerome Rosenthal for business advice proved disastrous: The lawyer went through Ms. Day's millions with bad investments in oil wells, cattle and hotels. But despite an ever-changing format, The Doris Day Show ran for five seasons, gave her financial stability, and kept her working as she coped with the loss of her spouse of 17 years. Ms. Day sued Rosenthal for mismanagement and won a $20 million-plus verdict in 1974 after years of litigation (she later settled with insurers). In 1976, Ms. Day married for a fourth time at age 52, to businessman Barry Comden. By the mid-'70s, Ms. Day withdrew from the limelight in her Monterey, Calif., home to focus on animal rights and set up the Doris Day Animal League and Doris Day Animal Foundation. "All my life, I have never felt lonely with a dog I loved at my side, no matter how many times I've been alone," Ms. Day said in her memoir. As a staunch advocate for animals, she briefly came out of retirement to host a cable TV pet show called Doris Day's Best Friends, which included an emotional reunion with three-time co-star Rock Hudson shortly before his death in 1985. Perhaps her closest friend, son Terry Melcher, a music producer, died in 2004 at 62. There was talk of comebacks: She reportedly was offered Murder, She Wrote and the Debbie Reynolds role in Mother in 1996. But she resisted Hollywood overtures. In 2015, she batted down reports she was to appear in a Clint Eastwood film. Ms. Day once told People magazine that humor had always been her secret weapon. "I love to laugh," said the star who made so many others laugh and sing. "It's the only way to live. Enjoy each day -- it's not coming back again!" Ms. Day passed away surrounded by a few close friends at her Carmel Valley home. She had celebrated her 97th birthday just last month with nearly 300 fans who gathered in Carmel to celebrate with her. - People.com/CNN, 5/13/19...... Beloved comedian Tim Conway, a five-time Emmy winner who reveled in cracking up straight man Harvey Korman on CBS's variety series The Carol Burnett Show and before that as Charles Parker in the 1962-66 sitcom McHale's Navy, died from complications of Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH) on May 14 in Los Angeles. He was 85. Born in Willoughby, Oh., on Dec. 15, 1933, Mr. Conways' 50-year-plus career kicked into gear with his role as Ens. Charles Parker in the 1962-66 ABC sitcom McHale's Navy, opposite titluar star Ernest Borgnine and other regulars including Gavin McLeod and Joe Flynn. Although the series wasn't a massive hit, it aired more than 130 episodes and spawned a pair of movies in which he co-starred: McHale's Navy (1964) and McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force (1965). In the latter, his Ens. Parker is mistaken for a pilot, which gets his ship's crew somehow into the unfriendly skies. After McHale's Navy ended its run in 1966 -- only to live on in reruns and be discovered by younger comedy fans in the ensuing decades -- Mr. Conway starred in the 1967 Western sitcom Rango for ABC. His title character was an, of course, bumbling Texas Ranger who is assigned to the state's loneliest outpost, where it was assumed he would stay out of mischief. The midseason series lasted fewer than 20 episodes. But Mr. Conway became best known for his work on The Carol Burnett Show after joining its cast as a regular member in 1975, winning viewers over with characters like the Oldest Man and Mr. Tudball, whose accent he has said was inspired by his Romanian mother. Mr. Conway was known to ad-lib his sketches -- even surprising his scene partners -- and won a Golden Globe Award for the series in 1976, along with Emmys in 1973, 1977 and 1978. Emmys were also awarded to him for guest spots on such series as Coach (1996) and 30 Rock (2008). At a 2013 event promoting his memoir, What's So Funny? My Hilarious Life, Burnett, 86, painted her collaborator as an on-set prankster. "Tim's goal in life was to destroy [costar] Harvey Korman," she told the crowd, with Mr. Conway chiming in, "in the dentist sketch you can actually see Harvey wet his pants from laughing." Mr. Conway also was known for Dorf, the diminutive character -- he performed it on his knees, where fake shoes were placed -- who appeared in a litany of how-to videos launched during the 1980s, including Dorf on Golf (1987). Originating as a skit on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Dorf introduced Mr. Conway to a new generation of fans while tickling his longtime ones. "I'm heartbroken," Carol Burnett said in a statement after learning of her longtime friend's passing. "He was one in a million, not only as a brilliant comedian but as a loving human being. I cherish the times we had together both on the screen and off. He'll be in my heart forever." Mr. Conway is survived by his wife of 35 years, his stepdaughter, his six biological children and two granddaughters. - People.com/Deadline.com, 5/14/19.

Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour has just made his entire 2016 Live at Pompeii concert film available for free streaming on YouTube. Gilmour put on the special two-night concert event in Pompeii in July 2016, 45 years after Pink Floyd staged a similar show in the same city. Gilmour's full performance was released in 2017 as a concert film, which incorporated footage from the Pink Floyd Pompeii gig, and live album. Originally screened in cinemas for one night only, the film was later released on DVD and Blu-ray. - New Musical Express, 5/11/19...... Brian Wilson and recent Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees The Zombies are teaming up this summer for a North American tour in celebration of their music from 1968, fittingly titled the "Something Great From '68" tour. Wilson will most perform songs from two of his favorite Beach Boys albums, 1968's Friends and 1971's Surf's Up, with former bandmates Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin joining him onstage. The Zombies will open each show with a full performance of their 1968 album, Odessey and Oracle, in addition to other classics in their set. The 15-city trek kicks off Aug. 31 in Las Vegas, also hitting such major markets as Phoenix (9/6), Los Angeles (9/12), Oakland (9/13), Seattle (9/16), Denver (9/20), Milwaukee (9/22) and Detroit (9/24) before wrapping on Sept. 26 at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. - Billboard, 5/7/19...... Acclaimed '70s/'80s singer Rickie Lee Jones will release a new album of covers, Kicks, on June 7. Jones, best known for such hits as "Chuck E.'s in Love," "Young Blood" and "A Lucky Guy" as well as her 1979 self-titled debut album which hit No. 3 on the charts, already has three all-covers albums to her credit: 1991's Pop Pop, 2000's It's Like This and 2012's The Devil You Know, in which she took well-known songs by Donovan, Frank Sinatra and Steely Dan and molded them in her own image. Kicks will feature renditions of such '70s rockers as Elton John ("My Father's Gun"), Steve Miller Band ("Quicksilver Girl"), and Bad Company ("Bad Company"), alongside such jazz classics as "Nagasaki" and "Mack the Knife." One highlight of the new set is a cover of America's "Lonely People." While Jones says the breezy pop band "weren't A-listers" in their time, she found a deep well of sentimental value in "Lonely People," a friendly ode to the isolated. "You have to get over how you perceive a thing and look for the treasure in the music," she says. Jones has also released a video for "Lonely People" which features her changing from costume to costume while poking fun at her own image. - Billboard, 5/10/19...... John Lennon's personal copy of the legendary Beatles Yesterday and Today "butcher cover" album has brought £180,000 -- the third-highest price ever paid for a vinyl record -- after being auctioned by Julien's Auctions at The Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool, England on May 9. The "butcher" Yesterday and Today, which showed the Fab Four covered in raw meat and decapitated baby dolls before it was withdrawn from sale in 1966, was sold to an anonymous collector as part of a wider sale of Beatles memorabilia. At the time of release, the graphic image was replaced by a cover that showed the band standing around a travel trunk. It was said to be the only Beatles album to lose money for Capitol Records. Lennon's copy previously adorned the wall of his New York The Dakota apartment until he gifted it to Dave Morrell, a lifelong Beatles fan and bootleg collector. With signatures by Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, it is is believed to be the only "butcher" album featuring three Beatles' signatures. Darren Julien of Julien's Auctions said an American collector had "bought the record as an investment believing it will increase in value in the years to come." Julien added the market is still developing "so we anticipate in the next five years this same record could bring $500,000-plus (£385,000). This was a world record for a Beatles butcher cover and the third-highest price paid for a vinyl." Other Beatles items to go under the hammer the same day included a baseball signed by the band at their final US performance, which fetched £57,600 ($75,000). The "butcher cover" sale comes after Ringo Starr's rare copy of the band's "White Album" became the most expensive vinyl in 2015, when it sold for $790,000 (£ 522,438). - New Musical Express, 5/10/19...... A lawsuit brought seven years ago by Michael Jackson's singer's mysterious ex-manager, Tohme Tohme, is finally set to get underway in Los Angeles on May 14. Tohme, who filed the suit all the way back in 2012, alleges he provided the necessary "advice, guidance and skillful work" to improve Jackson's public image, alleviate the singer's financial situation, and put his client in a position to make a final tour. Tohme claims the Jackson estate owes him a 15 percent commission on compensation that Jackson received during the last year of his life, before he died from an overdose of propofol at age 50 on June 25, 2009, and also wants a cut of revenues relating to This Is It, the concert film that grossed hundreds of millions of dollars. Finally, Tohme is seeking a finder's fee for securing a loan that prevented foreclosure on Jackson's Neverland Ranch home. The trial is being split into two phases: a contractual interpretation, in which Tohme is hoping to bring experts to the witness stand to testify that post-termination commissions are customary in the entertainment industry, and a second phase which may get into the nitty-gritty of the relationship between Jackson and Tohme -- for instance, whether or not Jackson actually fired Tohme is a point of controversy among the parties and something that would be dealt with if necessary at the later stage. Tohme alleges that he only took 15 percent after Jackson proposed becoming 50/50 partners. Although Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark A. Young may see reason to delay the trial once agaain, it will likely commence quite soon. - The Hollywood Reporter, 5/9/19...... In other Jackson-related news, his eldest son Prince Jackson, whose real name is Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., graduated from Loyola Marymout University in Los Angeles on May 11. Prince, 22, graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration. The day was celebrated in social media posts from Prince, who was 12 when his father died almost 10 years ago, and relatives in his famous family. Michael has two other children, 21-year-old Paris Jackson and 17-year-old Prince Michael Jackson, known by the nickname Blanket. - New Musical Express, 5/11/19...... Billy Joel celebrated his 70th birthday with a blowout concert at New York's Madison Square Garden on May 9. "Welcome to my birthday. This is kind of a weird night," Joel said, as he looked out at the 18,000-plus crowd packing the venue. "But what else am I gonna do?" he deadpanned. Joel's birthday bash included video happy birthday wishes from the likes of Paul McCartney, Don Henley, Garth Brooks, Pink and Brian Johnson of AC/DC. Peter Frampton showed up in person to jam on "Show Me The Way" and "Baby, I Love Your Way" with the Piano Man, and Joel's daughters Alexa Ray, 34, and 3-year-old Della Rose appeared onstage to sing "Happy Birthday" to their dad. Joel wrapped the show with four high-energy hits: "We Didn't Start the Fire," "Uptown Girl," "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" and "You May Be Right," and encored with his signature tune, "Piano Man." The show was Joel's 64th consecutive sell-out at the Garden, a continuation of the record-setting residency he launched in December 2013. The Garden has already announced the 70th show in the MSG residency for Nov. 15, which will be Joel's 116th all-time performance at the arena. In January, Joel announced his sixth consecutive year of playing stadium shows, including a concert June 22 at Wembley Stadium in London. - Billboard, 5/10/19...... Speaking of Peter Frampton, the '70s rocker will release a new album of blues covers, All Blues, on June 7. All Blues will feature such classic blues songs as B.B. King's "The Thrill Is Gone," which Frampton says "is not a song I would ever have done" before meeting King when the late blues legend was part of his 2013 Peter Frampton's Guitar Circus tour. "I went to his bus to meet the King, and I'm very nervous and sort of stuttering and stuff in front of him," Frampton recalls with a laugh. "He could see I was having a little trouble, and he said, 'Peter, sit down, boy. Just tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it for you.' I couldn't believe it. He just put me at ease -- such a modest man and the nicest, easiest to get along with person you could ever dream of." The Thrill is Gone" is one of 10 blues covers on All Blues, and will be the first in a series of albums Frampton and his Peter Frampton Band have been making since October. "We must have done nearly 40, 45 tracks, and we're still going," reports Frampton, who was diagnosed with Inclusion-Body Myositis (IBM) some years ago but only made it public in 2019. He reckons he has three albums done already "and we're working on a fourth right now, and after that I think it's time for a Christmas album!" "I want to go out playing really well," says Frampton, who pulled the plug on a planned co-headlining trek with Alice Cooper this summer because he felt it was the right time for his farewell tour. His farewell tour kicks off June 18 in Oklahoma, and he promises "it won't be a static playlist... I'll change it every night." Meanwhile, in between touring, a book project, and his Sirius XM radio show, Frampton is also being treated for his IBM at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and he plans to take part in a drug test study after the farewell tour wraps during mid-October. - Billboard, 5/9/19...... Pop/gospel legend Mavis Staples celebrated her 80th birthday at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem on May 9, the first of several star-packed 80th birthday parties she has planned. Staples, who won't officially turn 80 until July 10, first played the Apollo in 1956 with her family band, the Staple Singers; a portrait of her alongside her father, Roebuck "Pops Staples, and sisters, Yvonne and Cleotha, hangs on the storied venue's staircase leading up to the mezzanine. Staples' performance included duets with Valerie June and Maggie Rogers on such songs as "Living On a High Note" (which June penned for Staples) and "May The Circle Be Unbroken" (the first song Pops Staples taught his children), and with former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne on Byrne's own "Slippery People." The night reached a peak in the effervescence of the Staple Singers No. 1 hit "I'll Take You There." Staples will continue to celebrate her birthday on May 15 with a concert at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium and on May 22 at Los Angeles' Theatre at the Ace Hotel. - Billboard, 5/10/19...... Sammy Hagar released a new album with his all-star band The Circle, Space Between, on May 10. The Circle -- which includes Hagar's longtime guitarist Vic Johnson, founding Van Halen bassist and Hagar's Chickenfoot bandmate Michael Anthony and drummer Jason Bonham -- has been together for about seven years, to this point playing favorites from his past and an assortment of Led Zeppelin covers. The group released a live album, At Your Service, in 2015, but Hagar acknowledges until now he was "scared to make a record" of original material with the group. "But I think we did it," Hagar says. "Touring seven years together, playing, we knew what we were all about. It was like starting over, like when we were kids and paid all our dues together -- and then we made an album. The album is really about money, greed, enlightenment and truth. It's greed that's the problem. Guys like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, you can't be mad at them for being so rich. These guys build hospitals, build schools for children and other countries. Those are good guys. That's what you can do with money." - Billboard, 5/9/19...... An attorney representing the Woodstock 50 concert is seeking an injunction on behalf of the troubled festival to force its main investor, Japanese media company Dentsu, to return $17.8 million it allegedly "misappropriated" from a bank account used by anniversary event organizers. "Dentsu's actions have caused a worldwide uproar over its efforts to kill the Festival's commemoration of one of the most iconic cultural events of the 20th century," attorney Marc Kasowitz wrote in a filing in New York state court on May 9. Kasowitz, a well-known trial lawyer who has represented Pres. Donald Trump, wants Dentsu to return the money and agree to not disparage the festival or interfere with Woodstock co-founder Michael Lang's attempts to stage Woodstock 50 at Watkins Glen International in upstate New York this August. With just 100 days to go before the scheduled festival was to begin, Kasowitz argues the injuction is needed to save the event before it's too late, arguing that "the only true impediments to that success are Dentsu's ongoing interference with W50's contractual right to produce the festival, Dentsu's theft of the festival's funds, and Dentsu's active effort to disparage W50 and the festival through lies and mischaracterizations intended to destroy W50's business relationships." In late April, a rep for Dentsu announced that it was canceling the festival because organizers with Woodstock 50 had failed to meet certain goals and benchmarks on the festival site allowed in the company's contract. Kasowitz also wants Dentsu officials to agree to "cooperate with W50 in connection with W50's continued planning of the Festival" and "produce bank records relating to removal of funds from the bank account" and "communications between Dentsu and any person or entity involved in the planning or production of the festival." - Billboard, 5/9/19...... In other Woodstock-related news, a cool $800 is the list price for a new 38-disc, 432-song Woodstock 50th anniversary box set, Woodstock 50 - Back to the Garden - The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive. Set for release on Aug. 2, the 36 hour limited-edition behemoth promises to be the first definitive collection featuring every artist who played the original concert. The collection will come in 1,969 limited-edition, numbered box sets released worldwide, with fully restored audio and 267 previously unreleased tracks. For those who can get by on a lesser Woodstock fix, 10-disc and three-disc versions, as well as a 5 album vinyl collection, will also be available on June 28. Woodstock has been commemorated before, in 1970 with a three-LP album of highlights, as well as in 2009 with a 6-disc set. - Billboard, 5/9/19...... German electro-pop titans Kraftwerk recently wrapped up their Asia tour with ive shows in Japan and one show in Seoul, followed by a gig at Hong Kong's Star Hall on Apr. 29 as their final stop. Kraftwerk -- Ralf Hütter, Henning Schmitz, Fritz Hilpert, and Falk Grieffenhagen -- fused music with art, with visuals tailored to every city Kraftwerk has visited. For the Hong Kong performance, the group merged shots of the Hong Kong skyline with futuristic animations, including a UFO flying over the city, all presented in 3-D to give audiences an enhanced concert experience. Kraftwerk's next show is June 1, when they will close the second day of the Best Kept Secret Festival in the Netherlands. - Billboard, 5/8/19...... Marie Osmond announced on May 7 that she will join the panel of the CBS daytime talk show The Talk, replacing Sara Gilbert one month after the Roseanne star announced her departure. Osmond -- who last appeared on the small screen in her short-lived Marie daytime talk show on the Hallmark Channel in 2013 -- has been a regular guest host on The Talk over the years. The singer/actress will join the current panel of rapper/actress Eve, Carrie Ann Inaba, Sharon Osbourne and Sheryl Underwood when The Talk kicks off its 10th season on Sept. 6. I could not be more thrilled," Osmond said in video to fans. Osmond recently announced that she and brother Donny Osmond -- her co-star in the 1970s Donny & Marie variety show -- would end their 11-year run in Las Vegas later this year. "Thrilled for my sister @MarieOsmond as she takes on new role @TheTalkCBS," Donny tweeted on May 9. "Working 2 shows at once will be a challenge, but if anyone can do it, it's Marie. She makes a perfect co-host. Ladies of #TheTalk, good luck getting a word in edgewise... I ve been trying for years!," he added. - Billboard, 5/8/19...... A new documentary on Led Zeppelin is heading to the Cannes market for distribution. Bernard MacMahon, the director of the Emmy-nominated 1920's music documentary series American Epic, is helming the as-yet-untitled doc, which will feature new interviews with band members Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, as well as rare archival interviews with the late John Bonham. Currently in post-production, the documentary is billed as the "definitive telling of the birth of the world's biggest-selling rock band" and will be told solely from the band's perspective, with never-before seen archive film footage and photographs and state-of-the-art audio transfers of the band's music. "When I saw everything Bernard had done both visually and sonically on the remarkable achievement that is American Epic, I knew he would be qualified to tell our story," Jimmy Page said in a statement. - The Hollywood Reporter, 5/8/19...... Meat Loaf reportedly suffered a broken collarbone after he fell off a stage during a speaking engagement in Texas on May 4. The 71-year-old "Bat Out of Hell" vocalist, whose real name is Marvin Lee Aday, was taking part in a Q&A at the Dallas horror film convention Texas Frightmare Weekend when he suffered the fall. According to TMZ.com, Meat Loaf was treated for a broken collarbone at a local hospital and was kept in overnight. Organisers of the horror convention took to Facebook following the incident to offer their statement. "As everyone knows Meat Loaf fell today. We wanted to keep you updated as soon as we knew something," the convention wrote. "We just found out that the hospital is keeping him overnight for observation. He will not be able to return on Sunday but he has already confirmed that he will be back in 2020! He's a trooper and we are praying a speedy recovery!" Meat Loaf collapsed on stage in June 2016, and subsequently underwent a new diet and fitness regime and an emergency back operation. He told fans on Twitter in January about the current state of his health, writing: "Living in constant pain is a pain. I just what to go to work. Love you all. May you never know constant pain. Those that do I feel for you. God bless you." - New Musical Express, 5/7/19...... Robin Trower, Maxi Priest and Livingstone Browne have joined forces for a nationwide UK tour in October 2019. The three musicians have recorded a new album, United State of Mind, which will be released later in 2019. Their tour kicks off at The Picturedrome in Holmfirth on Oct. 24, then hits The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh (10/25); Boiler Shop, Newcastle (10/27); Town Hall, Birmingham (10/28) and Shepherd's Bush Empire, London (10/29). Special guest on the tour will be American blues rock vocalist Sari Schorr. - Noble PR, 5/9/19...... '70s glam-rockers Sweet will embark on a 16-date tour of the UK on Nov. 28 beginning on Nov. 28 in Frome. Currently comprised of Andy Scott (lead guitar, vocals), Bruce Bisland (drums, vocals) Tony O'Hora (lead vocals, bass) and Paul Manzi (guitar, keyboards, vocals), still tour the world extensively and have a string of top 10 records in the UK and Europe, including "Blockbuster," "Hellraiser," "Ballroom Blitz," "Teenage Rampage" and "The Sixteens." In the US, they became known in 1975 with their "Fox on the Run" hitting the No. 3 spot. "Love is Like Oxygen," written by Scott, also became a worldwide hit in 1978. Other cities on the tour include Holmfirth, Nottingham, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Islington, Exeter and Southampton before the tour wraps in Bexhill on Dec. 21. Tickets went on sale May 8 via www.planetrocktickets.co.uk and www.thegigcartel.com. - Noble PR, 5/8/19...... The Who kicked off their "Moving On!" North American tour on May 7 in Grand Rapids, Mich. Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and company were accompanied by a 49-piece orchestra on 18 of the night's 22 songs, tastefully blending rock and richness in material from Tommy and Quadrophenia. The latter's instrumental "The Rock," in fact, was the show's best moment, replicating the original album version with genuinely exciting precision. Songs from the rest of the Who's catalog varied, meanwhile, with some faring better (the rare "Imagine a Man," "Emminence Front") than others ("Who Are You"). After a particularly messy "Join Together," Townshend -- who also poked fun at the sheet music on a music stand in front of him -- even told the crowd, "It's all a bit too much, I think." The band delivered a roaring show-closing rendition of "Baba O' Riley," spotlighting touring violinist Katie Jacoby. But 28 more North American shows across two legs gives Townshend and Daltrey plenty of time to build it up to its promise, and the duo could still be credited with trying on a new challenge when it could have easily played the age-old favorites in a traditional manner yet again. - Billboard, 5/8/19...... J. R. Cobb Jr., a founding member of the '60s band Classics IV and later the '70s group Atlanta Rhythm Section, died on May 4 of a heart attack. He was 75. Born James Barney Cobb Jr. in Birmingham, Ala., and raised in Jacksonville, Fla., Cobb was a co-founder of Classics IV, which formed in Jacksonville in 1965, and co-wrote such hits as "Spooky," "Stormy" and "Traces" with Buddy Buie, the band's manager and producer. "Spooky" reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart in 1968 and was later re-recorded by ARS on their 1979 Underdog album. In the spring of 1970, Cobb, who had already moved to Atlanta, worked as a session guitarist at Doraville's Studio One, where he played in a session band with members of Classics IV and The Candymen. Two years later, Cobb, along with three former members of the Candymen -- Rodney Justo, Dean Daughtry and Robert Nix -- formed ARS with Justo on vocals, Daughtry on keyboards, Nix on drums, Cobb on guitar, Barry Bailey on guitar and Paul Goddard on bass. ARS charted seven Top 40 singles on the pop chart from 1974 through 1981, their biggest hits being "So Into You" (1977) and "Imaginary Lover" (1978), which both reached No. 7. Cobb left ARS in 1986, and in 1993 he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. His death was shared by his family and bandmates on the ARS Facebook page. - 5/6/19....... Zoologist Jim Fowler, best known as the longtime host of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, has died at the age of 89. Mr. Fowler first co-hosted Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins beginning in 1963, then became its main host starting in 1986. Fowler, who helped preserve and protect endangered species through his educational and outreach work, made hundreds of appearances on television, including Omaha's KETV NewsWatch 7, and he would visit schools whenever he visited the city. Dennis Pate, the director of Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium praised Mr. Fowler's service. "Jim Fowler was an early ambassador of wildlife conservation along with Marlin Perkins. He continued that wildlife stewardship late into his career and throughout his life. Jim set the stage for many others to follow in advancing wildlife conservation." In 2003, Mr. Fowler was honored with the Lindbergh Award for his 40 years of dedication to wildlife preservation and education. He was president of the Fowler Center for Wildlife Education, with a mission of educating the public about wildlife so they may help protect habitats and influence government policy. - AP, 5/9/19.