Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on June 1st, 2019

The Who wrapped the first leg of its ambitious Moving On tour in Pittsburgh on May 30 before it heads to England for a July 6 show at London's Wembley Stadium. On the tour, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and company have been delving into some of the most iconic rock opera tracks of all time as they're backed by an orchestra, opening the show with the first five tracks from Tommy before diving into a frenzied "Pinball Wizard" and "We're Not Gonna Take It." During the show, the orchestra is onstage for an hour and 40 minutes before The Who take over for 25 minutes or so for band-only runs through hits and deep tracks, such as "Won't Get Fooled Again" and "Tea & Theatre." The orchestra then returns for the final Quadrophenia set, ending with an explosive "Baba O'Riley." "We've had glitches every night," says orchestra conductor Keith Levenson. "But it's The Who. It's a dangerous band. It's not like we're doing Rod Stewart Sings the American Songbook, where you play one note all night and you're not playing with one of the greatest drummers in the world [Zak Starkey]." The Who will return to America for a second leg of the tour this summer. - Billboard, 5/30/19...... Carlos Santana has shared a new video for "Candombe Cumbele," the closing track from his new studio album Africa Speaks. "Candombe Cumbele" is, according to the Grammy-winning guitarist and bandleader, "the basket that will hold the things that I want to do in the future." "It's a Budu ritual," Santana explains. "When you hear this, the closest thing we've had is on Christmas Eve, when you have the Pope going 'the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, Nabisco, Fig Newson, Amen.' You're drinking the blood of Christ, right, to account for the sins of mankind. That's a ritual; I don't care what people call it -- anything that has to do with blood and sacrifice is a ritual, whether it's Catholic or Haiti or Africa or American Indian or whatever. A ritual is a ritual, and 'Cumbele' is ground zero. Santana says Africa Speaks was culled from 200 tracks he'd accumulated for the project; 49 were recorded from which the 11 were chosen (13 for a Target exclusive edition). "Sometimes we were recording, like seven songs a day, one right after the other," Santana says. Santana will be playing some Africa Speaks material during his summer Supernatural Tour, which kicks off June 22 in Phoenix, celebrating not only the 20th anniversary of his Grammy Award-winning Supernatural album but also the 50th anniversary of his band's recording career. An Africa Speaks tour, he says, will take place during 2020, playing in theaters. He's also booked to play on the original Woodstock festival anniversary weekend at both the Bethel Arts Center (Aug. 17) on the original site and at the embattled Woodstock 50 in Watkins Glen, N.Y. Africa Speaks hits stores on June 7. - Billboard, 5/30/19...... A monthlong "Unfiltered" exhibit of photos of Keith Richards and some of rock's other legendary acts opened on May 23 at West Hollywood's Sunset Marquis Hotel. Photographer Timothy White says that Richards "was just easy" to work with. "Here I am with this like rock idol god, you know?" White says. "And he was unpretentious. Shows up by himself, met him in a bar, had a drink, played a little pool, went for a walk, just started taking pictures on the street. Like, who does that, you know?" White's photos from that day's session -- during which Richards was notably mobbed by a swarm of fans and police officers -- were just a few of many represented at the exhibition, whose opening gala drew the likes of Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood and ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons. Other photos taken by such legendary rock photographers as Bob Gruen, Lynn Goldsmith, Norman Seeff, Gered Mankowitz and Michael Joseph are also on display. The exhibition runs from May 24 to June 22, with concurrent showings at the gallery's New York and Maui outposts. - Billboard, 5/28/19...... A full tape of the Beatles' only performance on the long-running UK show Top of the Pops has been found in an attic. The Fab Four appeared on the show in June 1966, weeks before their last-ever gig at San Francisco's Candlestick Park. Fab Four fan David Chandler used a wind-up camera to record the band's performance of "'Paperback Writer" when it aired and says he was compelled to try and find it after hearing about the discovery of a short 11-second clip of the appearance in Mexico in April. The footage lasts for 92 seconds and has been donated to Kaleidoscope, a UK organization which specializes in locating missing TV footage. Chandler's footage had no sound and slowed down where the camera was wound up but has now been remastered by Kaleidoscope. The company's CEO called the footage "phenomenal," and says it be shown in Birmingham on June 1 at Birmingham City University. Other performances from Top Of The Pops will also be screened, including ones by The Troggs, The Hollies and Small Faces. - New Musical Express, 5/30/19...... The Beach Boys co-founder Mike Love released a cover of the Ramones' classic "Rockaway Beach" on May 30. "It felt so natural to sing it," says Love, who turned 78 in March. "It fits beautifully in the Beach Boys surfing song genre. Not only is it a great song, it's also right in my vocal range. It's almost as if it was designed for me to sing, and that's why I am so eager to play it live." The current Beach Boys lineup (which includes Love and long-time Beach Boy Bruce Johnston) will feature "Rockaway Beach" in their live act this summer. Love's version of "Rockaway Beach" will also feature on his upcoming solo album 12 Sides of Summer, which drops on July 19. It also features covers of "Summertime Blues" and "California Sun," along with re-boots of BB classics "Surfin' Safari" and "Surfin'." Legendary rock producer Ed Stasium, who produced the Ramones original version of "Rockaway Beach" (and added both guitar and harmony vocals to the track), says the Beach Boys were never far from the Ramones' mind. "Every one of the Ramones expressed their admiration for The Beach Boys on numerous occasions," notes Stasium, who produced five albums for the Ramones between 1977 and 1984. "When we recorded 'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker' in the spring of '77, Johnny [Ramone] asked specifically if I could play a guitar bit that would reflect the 'plonky' guitar on the Beach Boys' 'Little Honda'." - Billboard, 5/30/19...... In related news, recently deceased surf guitar great Dick Dale was remembered with a California beach memorial on May 26 when a crowd gathered at the Huntington Beach Pier to remember Dale, who died in April at age 81. A group of surfers then took to the water for a "paddle-out," the traditional ceremony held for fellow surfers when they die. Dale was famous for his pounding, blaringly loud power-chord instrumentals in the 1960s on songs like "Miserlou" and "Let's Go Trippin." - AP, 5/27/19...... Bruce Springsteen confirmed on May 28 that he and his E Street Band will head back into the studio later in 2019 before hitting the road again in 2020. Speaking to Italian news site Repubblica, he explained: "I'll record with the E Street Band in the autumn, and when we are done, we'll go on tour [next year]." It comes after Springsteen teased the record in an interview with Martin Scorsese to promote the new documentary Springsteen on Broadway. "About a month or so ago, I wrote almost an album's worth of material for the band...There'll be another tour!" The Boss explained. Springsteen is gearing up to released his latest solo LP, Western Stars, on June 14. On May 30, Springsteen unveiled "Tuscon Train," the third preview track from Western Stars. Accompanied by a string and horn section and a train track beat, the mid-tempo love song about waiting for a lover to arrive mixes anxiety, anticipation and regret in a lush Wall of Sound-style arrangement. The black-and-white performance video was directed by acclaimed collaborator Thom Zinny, who also worked on Springsteen on Broadway. - NME, 5/28/19...... Tom Petty's widow Dana Petty filed new appeals in Los Angeles County court on May 29 and 30 against her daughters Adria and Annakim Petty in the family's escalating battle over the late rocker's trust. In two separate petitions, Dana asks the court to deny a previous petition filed by Adria demanding that Dana immediately fund Petty Unlimited, an LLC set up to receive assets (a.k.a. "artistic property") from Petty's trust. Instead, Dana wants to fund and execute an operating agreement for Tom Petty Legacy, a separate LLC that she established on her own. In Adria's petition filed in April, she accused Dana of withholding Petty's assets from Petty Unlimited in order to keep her and Annakim from "participat[ing] equally" in the management of those assets, as stipulated in the trust. Dana's new petitions dispute that characterization, instead claiming that as "sole successor trustee" of Petty's trust, she is "exclusively authorized" to form any entity of her choosing to be the beneficiary of Petty's assets so long as all three women are given equal participation in its management. The attorney for the daughters, Alex Weingarten, says that "Dana and her lawyer are basing their case on smoke and mirrors. Every claim they make is demonstrably false. Adria and Annakim are laser focused on one thing -- honoring and protecting their father's legacy and enforcing the terms of his trust, as written." Petty died of an accidental drug overdose on October 2, 2017, at the age of 66. - Billboard, 5/30/19...... Prince's former bodyguard Kirk Johnson was deposed for seven hours on on May 29 in Minneapolis as part of a wrongful death lawsuit filed by relatives of the late rock star. His attorney told reporters that the deposition for his client, who considered Prince a good friend, "was traumatic event for my client." "He feels very sad over the loss of a good friend of his. To have to come back and go through this and re-litigate this whole matter has been very difficult," the attorney siad. The lawsuit names Dr. Michael Schulenberg as a defendant. Authorities say Schulenberg admitted prescribing oxycodone, a different opioid, to Johnson in the days before Prince died, knowing the drug would go to Prince. Schulenberg has disputed that, although he paid $30,000 to settle a federal civil violation alleging the drug was prescribed illegally. Schulenberg's attorney has said his client stands behind the care Prince received. - AP, 5/30/19...... Iggy Pop has announced he's prepping a career retrospective book entitled 'Til Wrong Feels Right that will highlight lyrics from more than 100 of his songs along with photos, memorabilia and previously unseen notes from the punk godfather. Billed as offering Pop's insight into his creative world-with the complete lyrics for 100 songs brought to life by full-color photos, his own memorabilia, never-before-seen notes, short essays by Iggy, and commentary from other music legends-from T. Rex's Mark Bolan to Blondie's Debbie Harry," the 288-page book is due out on Oct. 1 from Penguin Random House. Meanwhile, Iggy fans can see the rocker in cult director Jim Marmusch's new zombie comedy The Dead Don't Die, which also stars Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Adam Driver, Selena Gomez, Danny Glover and Steve Buscemi and hits theaters on June 14. - Billboard, 5/30/19...... In related news, Blondie's Debbie Harry will release her memoir, Face It, on Oct. 1 via Dey Street Books. In a statement, the New Wave legend said she originally didn't want to write the book, but took on the project anyway. In the book, Harry writes about her years in 1970s New York and her rise with Blondie and shares stories about everyone from fellow New York bands Talking Heads and the Ramones to encounters with Rita Hayworth and David Bowie. Harry said parts of her life were funny and warm and others chilling "to the bone." She says writing the book led to her discovery that she had led "a very full life." Her memoir is also expected to provide new details about her claims that she narrowly escaped the deadly clutches of infamous serial killer Ted Bundy. Harry has previously spoken of the time she once hitched a ride from a handsome stranger in New York City the early 1970s, not realizing she was within a hair of an untimely trip to the morgue, but was able to bail herself out of the car after realizing she'd made a big mistake. - AP, 5/29/19...... As his Farewell Yellow Brick Road world tour hit Verona, Italy on May 29, Elton John took time out to weigh in with reporters on the UK's controversual Brexit issue. "I'm sick to death of politicians, especially British politicians. I am sick to death of Brexit. I am a European. I am not a stupid, colonial, imperialist, English idiot," Elton said. John has previously spoken out on Brext, telling The Guardian in 2018 that "I don't think people in Britain were told the truth to start with They were promised something that was completely ridiculous and wasn't economically viable. [Brexit was like] walking through Hampton Court maze blindfolded, being turned around 16 times and trying to find your way out." Meanwhile, Elton has revealed that he found his new biopic Rocketman, which premiered in the US on May 31, "difficult" to watch as it delves into the darker moments of his life. "This is how my life was, and I didn't want to cover it and gloss it over. And it's difficult to watch because I thought, 'God, I don't want to go back there. Thank God I came out of it'," he said. Meanwhile, the son of record mogul Dick James, who is portrayed in Rocketman as a foul-mouthed cockney in the movie, is hitting out at the film's depiction of his dad. Stephen James insists that his late father "just wasn't like that." He instead claims that he had been "like a surrogate father" to the singer and says he and his dad "only ever tried to do the best for him and to promote his career." "They basically depict my father in the film completely opposite to the way he was in real life. It's rather upset me because my father was a nice guy. Elton's own father had run off and wasn't around. He treated my father at the time as very much a father figure, and my father treated Elton very much as if he was a son." Describing how his father had been reduced to "stereotypes," he added: "They have turned him into this stereotype with a big fat cigar, swearing every other word." Elton initially fell out with Stephen and Dick in 1985 after a High Court battle over royalties. Dick died of a heart attack only three months after the legal dispute came to an end. In other Rocketman news, it has been revealed that Justin Timberlake was once in the running to play Elton in the movie, a role that eventually went to Taron Egerton. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, John's husband and Rocketman producer David Furnish said Timberlake, who had previously portrayed John in the music video for "This Train Don't Stop There Anymore" in 2001, was the first person the star thought of when first beginning work on the movie, "but we never formally approached Justin because we weren't ever at a stage where it was the right time to approach him." - New Musical Express, 5/31/19...... In a new interview with the music publication Kerrang!, Ozzy Osbourne revealed that he wishes Black Sabbath could have finished their recent farewell tour with co-founding Sabbath drummer Bill Ward. The sticksman was due to go on tour with Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, and bassist Geezer Butler, when they announced a final reunion tour in 2011. But at the time Ward cited an "unsignable" contract, and parted ways with the iconic metal band. They wrapped up their final two hometown gigs in Birmingham, in 2017. "[stand in drummer] Tommy [Clufetos] did great, but the four of us started this, and it should have been the four of us ending it," Osbourne said. "Those final gigs in Birmingham were bittersweet because you think of how far we came, and how much we did, and it would have been good to have shared that together. Maybe one day there'll be one last gig, I don't know." Ozzy recently announced a rescheduled run of shows for 2020, after serious illness forced him to postpone his farewell tour. - New Musical Express, 5/27/19...... In other Heavy Metal news, Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford became irritated at a fan who was filming him with a mobile phone during a Priest concert in Rosemont, Ill. on May 25, and kicked the phone out of the fan's hand mid-concert. The band was performing the song "Judas Rising," when suddenly, Halford sends a front-row fan's phone flying with a swift and powerful kick. - NME, 5/31/19...... Sammy Hagar has released "Affirmation," the third video from his first studio set from his current band, the Circle. Hagar will be releasing Space Between: The Affirmation, an album-length short film later in 2019. "The reason I like this movie is it gives the album more legs. It's not just a record, and when you see this movie you're gonna go back and listen to the record and go 'Oh!' It elevates your listening and viewing experience." Hagar released his new CD with the Circle, Space Between, on May 10. - Billboard, 5/28/19...... Robert Plant has announced he'll be launching a new career retrospictive podcast, Digging Deep, on June 3. "I'm going to be picking out some songs from here and there along the way, mixing constant shifts in sound and in tension," the former Led Zeppelin singer explained. In a one-minute teaser for the new podcast, Plant describes going back and listening to some of the songs he's recorded during his five-decade career and marveling at them, finding the players in the room to be, "out of sight... they found me to be something that they hadn't been used to dealing with." The podcast promises to uncover the "moments, people and places that have inspired some of his most treasured music." Plant has not announced how many episodes the podcast will run. The podcast announcement comes on the heels of news in May that a Led Zeppelin "in their own words" documentary with new interviews from Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones and directed by Bernard MacMahon (American Epic) is in the works. Plant is on the road this summer playing a series of festival dates and amphitheater shows in support of his 2017 Carry Fire album. - Billboard, 5/28/19...... HBO has won the first round of a lawsuit brought by Michael Jackson's estate over the recent controversial Leaving Neverland documentary. Ahead of its premiere in March 2019, Jackson's estate sued the HBO network while protesting the late star's innocence. Claiming that his accusers are seeking financial gain, the complaint to Los Angeles Superior Court read: "Michael is an easy target because he is not here to defend himself, and the law does not protect the deceased from defamation, no matter how extreme the lies are." Following a recent hearing, a federal judge has rejected a motion from Jackson's estate to throw the case to an arbitrator, and it will remain open in court. The estate alleges that Leaving Neverland constitutes a breach of a non-disparagement clause in an agreement that is 27 years old. It's said that the deal provided the network with rights to air a Michael Jackson live show around the time of his 1991 album, Dangerous. HBO has claimed that the decades-old deal had expired, and therefore does not cover the Leaving Neverland film. The broadcasters hit out at legal action set in motion by Jackson's estate, claiming it was a "transparent effort to bolster their publicity campaign against the documentary." - NME, 5/29/19...... Fans of the 1977 sci-fi classic Star Wars will be able to attend a music festival later this year in the desert where the iconic movies were filmed. Les Dunes Electroniques was founded in 2014 but has not been held for the last three years. In September, it will return with 30 hours of "uninterrupted music" from a line-up of Tunisian, French, and international electronic artists. Although the line-up is yet to be confirmed, tickets are on sale now for the festival which will run from Sept. 21-22. - NME, 5/29/19...... Neil Young defied a strict 10:00 p.m. curfew put in place by California's BottleRock Napa Valley Festival on May 25 when he finished his set with his iconic "Rockin' In The Free World," even if it meant finishing off with an acoustic flourish. Videos posted on YouTube show the 'Heart of Gold' singer and his band continuing to play after the plug has been pulled, much to the delight of the huge crowd in attendance. The California festival is known for its strict curfew, with Foo Fighters previously getting the plugged pulled after they dared to defy the rule at the very same event. - NME, 5/29/19...... Country/pop crossover icon Kenny Rogers has been admitted to a Georgia hospital for dehydration, according to his official Twitter account. A statement posted on May 31 said the singer would remain there for physical therapy to "get his strength back" before being discharged. The statement said the 80-year-old Rogers appreciated the well wishes from fans and wanted to assure everyone that "he plans on sticking around through the years to come." Rogers retired from touring in 2017 after a 60-year career spanning jazz, folk, country and pop, with hits like "The Gambler," "Lucille" and "Lady." - AP, 5/31/19...... Elvis Presley's ex-wife Priscilla Presley has sold her L.A. mansion for $3.8 million after she put it on the market to bail out her debt-riddled, drug-challenged daughter Lisa Marie Presley. The sale of the Brentwood area home brought in a huge cash windfall for the daughter who was in a legal battle with her divorce and financial woes. Lisa Marie has claimed that her business manager squandered her famous father's $100 million fortune and she was left virtually penniless in the process. Her mother, who never lived in the 1950s style ranch home, put the mansion on the market for $3.6 million but earned a whopping $200,000 more in the final deal, according to Variety. Priscilla purchased the home for $170,000 in 1976, three years after she divorced Elvis. - Canoe.com, 5/30/19...... Legendary Tin Pan Alley/jazz interpreter Leon Redbone died on May 30 of undisclosed causes, his family has confirmed. He was 69. "It is with heavy hearts we announce that early this morning, May 30th 2019, Leon Redbone crossed the delta for that beautiful shore at the age of 127," read the statement, which channeled the same whimisical air that Redbone portrayed in his jester musical persona. "He departed our world with his guitar, his trusty companion Rover, and a simple tip of his hat," the statement continued. Over the course of more than a dozen albums, Redbone took a deep dive into his love of all things jazz, country, ragtime, blues and vaudeville, reaching back to a bygone era of the 1920s and '30s through his natty onstage attire -- which invariably included his ever-present white Panama hat, matching suit and dark shades -- on songs such as the whistle-assisted, taking-its-time jazz ramble "Lazybones" from his 1975 debut, On the Track. Despite seeming perpetually out of time, Redbone's singular style shone through even in the midst of the heady rock of the mid 1970s, with two guest musical appearances in the debut 1975-76 season of Saturday Night Live (and again in 1977 and 1983) as well as multiple The Tonight Show spots. His final studio album of new material was 2014's Flying By on his own August Records imprint, with fan Jack White re-releasing Redbone's 1975 Warner Bros. debut album and the pre-fame collections of unheard tracks Long Way From Home in 2016. "I don't do anything mysterious on purpose," Redbone once said about why he nevery directly answered questions about his age, origin or family background. "I'm less than forthcoming, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm mysterious. It just means I'm not inclined to go there." - Billboard, 5/30/19...... Legendary Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr died on May 26 at the age of 85, the team announced. The Packers announced Starr, a catalyst of Vince Lombardi's powerhouse NFL teams of the 1960s, died in Birmingham, Ala., citing his family. "We are saddened to note the passing of our husband, father, grandfather and friend, Bart Starr," family members said in a statement. Starr "battled with courage and determination" after a serious stroke in September 2014, but "his most recent illness was too much to overcome," family members said. The Packers selected Starr out of the University of Alabama with the 200th pick in the 1956 draft. He led the team to six division titles, five NFL championships and wins in the first two Super Bowls. Until Brett Favre came along, Starr was known as the best Packer ever. The team retired his No. 15 jersey in 1973, making him just the third player to receive that honor. Four years later, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. In 1965, Starr and his wife, Cherry, helped co-found Rawhide Boys Ranch in New London, Wisconsin, a facility designed to help at-risk and troubled boys throughout the state. The couple dealt with tragedy in 1988 when their son Brett died at 24 due to complications from cocaine addiction. They also had another son, Bart Jr. - Fox News, 5/26/19.

Elton John has written an article for the UK paper The Guardian about his new biopic, Rocketman in which he reveals he fought hard for the film's R-rating. "Some studios wanted to tone down the sex and drugs so the film would get a PG-13 rating. But I just haven't led a PG-13 rated life," Elton wrote. "I didn't want a film packed with drugs and sex, but equally, everyone knows I had quite a lot of both during the 70s and 80s, so there didn't seem to be much point in making a movie that implied that after every gig, I'd quietly gone back to my hotel room with only a glass of warm milk and the Gideon's Bible for company." John also writes that some movie studios had wanted a more traditional biopic instead of Rocketman's more surreal elements, "but that was missing the point." "Like I said, I lived in my own head a lot as a kid. And when my career took off, it took off in such a way that it almost didn't seem real to me. I wasn't an overnight success by any means -- I'd been slogging around the clubs, making records, writing songs with [songwriting partner] Bernie [Taupin] and trying to sell them to people who weren't interested for four or five years before anything big happened. But when it happened, it went off like a missile: there's a moment in Rocketman when I'm playing onstage in the Troubadour club in LA and everything in the room starts levitating, me included, and honestly, that's what it felt like." Meanwhile in a new interview on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show on Apple Music, the singer explained why Taron Egerton was the ideal candidate to play him in the movie. "I'd heard him sing 'I'm Still Standing' on the Sing soundtrack," Elton said. "I knew he could sing and I definitely wanted in this movie people to know that it wasn't me singing. I didn't want lip syncing. So he was given the brief of 'you're going to sing everything'. My songs aren't easy to sing. I know because loads of musicians have told me that they're hard to sing." Explaining that he stayed away from the recording sessions for the soundtrack, John said Egerton's work "blew his mind" when he heard the results. "What he's done is quite extraordinary because he sounds like me, but he also sounds like Taron," he said. "And that's down to Giles [Martin, producer] giving him the confidence in the studio as well. As well as featuring Egerton singing some of John's classic tracks, the Rocketman soundtrack also boasts a brand new song performed by the actor and the musician. '(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again' was written by Taupin and plays out over the film's credits. Rocketman opens in theaters in the US on May 31. - Billboard/New Musical Express, 5/26/19...... Shortly before accepting an International Achievement Award at the 2019 Ivors Awards in the UK on May 24, Deep Purple's Ian Gillan told reporters that younger artists should not have heroes and make a space of their own. "When I was in my formative years, I rejected Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Andy Williams and Dean Martin," Gillan said. "I now realise they were all great artists but at the time as a young man, you have to clear the decks. There's this sort of psychological vandalism that takes place for yourself." Gillan added: "The only advice I can give is to absorb as much as you can from as wide a spectrum as you can. If you're in a rock band and only soak up Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple kind of beginnings then you're not going to have much leeway. We soaked up everything from Beethoven to Chopin to Jimi Hendrix to Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan." Deep Purple will kick off a lengthy US tour this fall in September. - New Musical Express, 5/24/19...... The 100th birthday of folk legend Pete Seeger was honored on May 23 during the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater benefit concert in Albany, N.Y. The Pete Seeger Centennial Concert at The Egg, the performing arts center in Albany, was one of several international events honoring Seeger, but few were as intimate as the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater benefit with such Seeger muses as Arlo Guthrie, Dar Williams, Dan Zanes and Guy Davis sharing songs and memories of the man they knew and loved deeply. "What a night," said Guthrie, who led the evening's bill. "I don't do a lot of tribute things. But this is one I could not say no to." Arlo's father, Woody Guthrie, was Seeger's longtime friend, and Arlo toured with Seeger for some four decades. "He brought humanity together with his actions, not just as a performer but as a human being," Guthrie said after Seeger's death in 2014. The concert was a benefit for the Hudson River sloop Clearwater, a 106-foot-long wooden replica of a Dutch sailing vessel, which Seeger launched 50 years ago on May 17, 1969. The most-enduring activist organization with its roots in music, the Clearwater is widely recognized for its role in the decades-long cleanup of the Hudson River, for its advocacy of environmental and social justice campaigns and for its education programs to train a new generation of environmental activists. For the show's finale, Guthrie was joined by all the artists for "This Land Is Your Land," which his father had written but Seeger had popularized. - Billboard, 5/25/19...... The Rolling Stones have given The Verve leader Richard Ashcroft back the royalties and profits from The Verve's 1997 single "Bitter Sweet Symphony." The song sampled a four-second segment of Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham's orchestral recording for the Stones' "The Last Time," and the only deal Ashcroft could reach that allowed him to keep Urban Hymns, the album the song featured on, on shelves was to sign away all of his rights and royalties to the track. "It gives me great pleasure to announce as of last month Mick Jagger and Keith Richards agreed to give me their share of the song 'Bitter Sweet Symphony'," Ashcroft said in a statement after receiving an Outstanding Contribution to British Music award at the Ivor Awards on May 23. "This remarkable and life-affirming turn of events was made possible by a kind and magnanimous gesture from Mick [Jagger] and Keith [Richards], who have also agreed that they are happy for the writing credit to exclude their names and all their royalties derived from the song they will now pass to me." The news follows Ashcroft filing a lawsuit in 2018 in the hopes of reclaiming some of the royalties from "Bitter Sweet Symphony." "Someone stole god knows how many million dollars off me in 1997, and they've still got it," he said at the time. "In terms, in normal basic terms, I don't care where you come from, that's a serious matter. The Verve split up in 1999, but later reformed from 2007-2009, including a headline set at Glastonbury. - NME, 5/23/19...... The estate of Michael Jackson and Jackson's former manager Tohme Tohme have settled a long-running dispute mid-trial over whether Tohme was owed commission from as far back as 2008. Tohme had sued the estate in 2012, claiming he was owed a 15 percent commission on money Jackson made during the last year of his life, a cut of the Jackson movie This Is It's revenues and a finder's fee for a loan that stopped Neverland Ranch from going into foreclosure. The estate had argued Tohme was terminated before Jackson's death and that he breached his fiduciary duty, among other claims. The trial began May 14, but ended after just five days in court when the two parties announced they had reached a confidential settlement. - The Hollywood Reporter, 5/24/19...... Eddie Levert of The O'Jays has reflected on the sudden chart success of The O'Jay's' 1972 chart-topping smash "Love Train" in a new podcast with Billboard. Levert said what he remembers most about the song was how it was created right in the studio. "When it came out, it just shot up the Billboard charts," he recalls, noting that it felt surreal because the thing he had always dreamt of was happening. His fellow O'Jays member Walter Williams added that the band had to "hustle to catch up with it," when it came to things such as their live shows and their uniforms. "It really went to the top, and we were not ready," he explains. "You have to get ready for it being at the top of the charts, because it puts you in places that you were never gonna be without that No. 1." The O'Jays released their latest studio album, The Last Word, on Apr. 19.- Billboard, 5/24/19...... Preston Epps, a renowned percussionist whose 1959 instrumental hit "Bongo Rock" helped introduce bongos and conga drums to mainstream pop, has died. He was 88. Born on July 19, 1930, in Mangum, Okla., Mr. Epps attended grade school in Tulsa and moved as a teenager to Oakland, where he attended junior high and high school. He served in the Air Force in Okinawa during the Korean War. He became fascinated with the drums in the early '50s when he visited a San Francisco jazz spot called Bop City. He started as a percussionist but took to the bongos after he saw an African group perform in the City of Hope and they gave him his first drum. Mr. Epps was the main percussionist on "Earth Angel," first recorded by The Penguins in 1954. Mr. Epps followed "Bongo Rock" with other tunes like "Bongo Bongo Bongo," "Bongo in the Congo," "Bongo Rocket" and "Bongo Boogie." He also toured and performed with such artists as Ray Charles, Jackie Wilson, Little Richard, Johnny Otis, Sam Cooke, Jewel Akens and Clifton Eddie, and appeared as a headliner in Las Vegas. Mr. Epps also helped to establish and manage the West Hollywood nightclub Pandora's Box, where he discovered Lou Rawls. Mr. Epps performed until he was 85, with his final gig coming in 2014 at the Tiki Oasis in San Diego before more than 3,000 people. - The Hollywood Reporter, 5/21/19.