Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on November 8th, 2019

Billy Joel will be playing his first-ever solo stadium gig at the 40,000-capacity Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati on Sept. 11, 2020. The announcement was made on Twitter by former Cincinnati Reds baseball great and Hall of Famer Johnny Bench. "I am a huge Billy Joel fan," Bench said during his announcement. "His iconic songs will play beautifully in our ballpark, giving all of Reds Country the opportunity to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer live." Joel's Cincinnati gig is just one of the many stadium dates he's booked for the rest of 2019 and into the middle of 2020, including an Oct. 12 show at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas and a March 6 gig at Foro Sol in Mexico City. He'll also perform Apr. 18 at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. and on June 20 at Notre Dame Stadium in Notre Dame, Ind. In September, MGM Television announced that it is teaming with Universal Music Publishing Group to bring the Piano Man's music to life as a scripted "arc-thology" called Scenes From an Italian Restaurant. - Billboard, 11/7/19...... The Band's 1969 seminal self-titled album, which will be released as a deluxe 50th anniversary edition on Nov. 15, will feature their entire 11-song performance at the legendary 1969 Woodstock festival, including a cover of The Four Tops' "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever." The Band: 50th Anniversary Edition has been newly remastered and will also include 13 previously unreleased, alternate versions of the album tracks. The Band's Robbie Robertson says says pulling out the Woodstock tapes took him right back to the classic 1969 festival. "When I listened to it, I had this flashback," Robertson says. "We played on the final night and it had just gotten dark out and it was the perfect time to play, but we kinda thought, 'I dunno if we fit in here.'" Robertson adds The Band's set "was the equivalent of going out and playing hymns," and not what the partying crowd was looking for. "Their arms weren't in the air anymore. It was like they went into a spell, a whole different feeling. So we played and left and then they went back to the party," he says. The Band's 1969 LP debut includes such Band classics as "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," "Rag Mama Rag" and "Up On Cripple Creek," and was co-produced by John Simon and recorded at a residential home in the Hollywood Hills previously owned by Sammy Davis Jr. It's unique sound was a mix of rock, folk, blues and country -- Americana, before the genre was termed. On Sept. 20, Robertson released Sinematic, his first new solo effort in eight years, with guest appearances by Van Morrison, Citizen Cope and Derek Trucks. - Billboard, 11/7/19...... Speaking of Woodstock, original 1969 festival organizer Michael Lang says that Japanese investor Dentsu turned out to be the wrong choice for his failed attempt at a 50th anniversary Woodstock festival this summer. "It really started to come apart for me a week before we signed with Dentsu," Lang said during Billboard Live Music Summit in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Nov. 5. Lang said that Dentsu had been brought on to Woodstock 50 in 2018 for media and sponsorships exclusively "[but] somewhere along the line they asked if they could do funding. We had other people who were lined up but it just seemed convenient." According to Lang, Dentsu's co-producer title gave them partial control of the festival, even though they had no experience putting on an event of that caliber. "When [Dentsu] decided that they had an opinion, it could throw a wrench into anything -- and did," said Lang. While Woodstock 50 never occurred, Lang said he spent the anniversary weekend at the original festival location and continues to get people coming up to him to thank him for the 1969 event. "Everybody who's ever come up to me, and there have been in thousands of people, say [Woodstock '69] changed my life for the better," said Lang. - Billboard, 11/5/19...... Interviewed in a "recovery" special edition of the showbiz publication Variety, Elton John revealed how he feared he wouldn't be able to perform sober after taking a year-long break to seek treatment for addiction. "After I finally surrendered and decided to seek treatment for my addiction, there came a point when I wondered if I would ever go back to work as Elton John again. When the day arrived, I was terrified, but I did manage to get through the performance. It was the only time I stepped on a stage that year, and I had to do it on my own without the band. In retrospect, I'm glad I went straight in at the deep end That show gave me confidence to know that I could still perform sober," said John, who attended extensive Narcotics and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in 1990. Elton also discussed his battles with drugs and alcohol in his recent memoir Me, in which he recalls one time when he mistook Bob Dylan for his gardener while high, describing him as "scruffy." - New Musical Express, 11/6/19...... Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh will headline his third annual VetsAid benefit concert on Nov. 10 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Tex. Walsh -- the son of a Gold Star veteran who died while on active duty when Walsh was just 20 months old -- launched VetsAid in 2016 to help fund local, grassroots veterans aid agencies. So far the charity has distributed nearly $1.2 million in grants. The 2019 VetsAid benefit will also feature the Doobie Brothers, ZZ Top, Brad Paisley, Sheryl Crow and Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit. "I aimed it at the little vet-run organizations in the Midwest and stuff that didn't have a budget," Walsh explains. "If a vet gets home and he's pretty alone and not a lot of people understand him, that's the beginning of the depression and the isolation, and that's the seed of the suicides. So it's so important to keep those organizations going, and that's what we've been able to do." Walsh says VetsAid will continue to play different cities each year rather than settle into one city. Meanwhile he's also touring with the Eagles, which kicked off a tour in October in Las Vegas, playing Hotel California in its entirety, accompanied by orchestras and choirs. "There's stuff on that album we never played," notes Walsh. We had to go back and figure 'em out, and it was a lot of work. I had to go back and really study, so playing the whole thing live really took some focus, and somehow we tamed the orchestra so it doesn't overwhelm the show -- it enhances it. When I got a chance to finally just sit back and be part of it and hear the orchestra behind us, I got emotional." - Billboard, 11/6/19...... Speaking of performing classic '70s albums in their entirety, Neil Young says he "turned down millions of dollars" to perform his chart-topping 1972 album Harvest in a new interview with AARP magazine. "I was just offered millions of dollars for a tour to do Harvest," says Young, who halted his seven-year hiatus from music to release his 13th studio album Colorado on Oct. 22. "Everyone who played on Harvest is dead. I don't want to do that. How about planting instead of harvesting? If I decide to go on the road, I'd like to do a documentary tour next year with different people that keep changing. Not right or left. Democracy is not you on this side and me on that side just to see who wins," he added. The legendary rocker also says he isn't "closing the door" on a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young reunion. "[David] Crosby could write an introspective book: 'Why People Won't Talk to Me Anymore.' He made a lot of great music for a long time. I don't know what happened with David. I got nothing to say," Young said. "I love Stephen [Stills]. I love Graham [Nash]. If a reunion happens, it would be a surprise. I won't close the door on anything. I can hold a grudge with the best of them but only if there's a reason for it." - Billboard, 11/5/19...... Dolly Parton's new series Heartstrings premieres on Netflix on Nov. 22, and sees the country legend sharing the origin stories behind eight of her seminal song. The anthology series, a trailer for which has been shared on YouTube, will take on hour-long love stories, family dramas, revenge comedies, westerns and inspirational tales to dissect eight of Parton's hits -- "These Old Bones," "If I Had Wings," "JJ Sneed," "Jolene," "Cracker Jack," "Sugar Hill," "Down From Denver" and "Two Doors Down" -- which also double as the episode titles. An all-star cast including Kathleen Turner, Delta Burke, Gerald McRaney, Ginnifer Goodwin, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Timothy Busfield, Melissa Leo and Julianne Hough will be featured in each stand-alone episode. During a premiere of the series at her Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., on Oct. 29, Parton revealed why the much anticipated sequel to her classic 1980 comedy 9 to 5 co-starring Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda has been nixed. "Well, actually I think we dropped that whole idea," Parton said. "I don't think we're going to do the sequel. We never could get the script where it was enough different than the first one, and that one turned out so good." She did add however that she, Tomlin and Fonda are open to other future collaborations. "We're thinking we might do a completely different thing together, Jane, Lily and I," Parton hinted. "We may do something different altogether, but I don't think we're going to continue with that." - Billboard, 11/5/19...... Speaking of '70s country superstars, Charlie Pride became first person to receive the Crossroads of American Music Award during a ceremony on Nov. 1 in his native Mississippi at the Grammy Museum Mississippi. The museum says the award honors "an artist who has made significant musical contributions influenced by the creativity born in the cradle of American music." Pride, a three-time Grammy winner, was born in 1938 in the Mississippi Delta town of Sledge, and he now lives in Texas. He started his recording career in the 1960s, and his hits include "Kiss an Angel Good Morning" and "It's Gonna Take a Little Bit Longer." - AP, 11/3/19...... KISS reportedly announced via television screens on their KISS Kruise, which ran from Oct. 30 to Nov. 4 on the luxury cruise ship the Norwegian Pearl, that they are extending their "End Of The Road" world tour with 75 new dates for 2020, including a slate of summer shows in Europe surrounding their previously announced headlining slot at the UK's Download Festival. The new batch of tour dates begins with a North American tour leg that runs from Feb. 1, 2020 in Manchester, N.H. to March 15 in Biloxi, Miss. KISS will then perform in South America from Apr. 24 to May 19, covering El Salvador, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and more. The band then heads to Europe, kicking things off in Paris on June 9 before headlining Download Festival alongside Iron Maiden and System Of A Down. After Europe and a stop in Johannesburg, South Africa, KISS will return to the US for more tour dates until Oct. 3. During the KISS Kruise, KISS vocalist/guitarist Paul Stanley also announced that the "End Of The Road" tour will come to an end on July 17, 2021 in New York City, and that original KISS members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss have been approached about performing with the group at their final concert. Criss was replaced by drummer Eric Carr in 1980, while Frehley was replaced by Vinnie Vincent two years later. Both Frehley and Criss have returned to KISS for short periods since their departures. - NME/Canoe.com, 11/4/19...... In a new interview in the British heavy metal mag Heavy Consequence, Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford revealed that he once dreamed of forming the UK's "Big Four" metal bands with Black Sabbath, Motörhead and Iron Maiden. "My dream had always been to have like 'The Big Four of the UK', without turning this into a kind of depressing way," Halford said, but acknowledged that the death of Motörhead's Lemmy Kilmister and the retirement of Black Sabbath would make that difficult to accomplish: "Sadly, two-fourths of that has gone, but the music lives forever. That's the main thing." Halford also expressed his enthusiasm for a Judas Priest and Iron Maiden joint tour, which his bandmate Ian Hill had previously supported. "I think both bands would look to do that," Halford said. "It's all about the timing of doing such a thing. We're good friends." In October, both Motörhead and Judas Priest were announced as nominees for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 2020. - New Musical Express, 11/6/19...... On Nov. 4, Ringo Starr announced upcoming 2020 North American tour dates for his Ringo and his All Starr Band. Starr and the band's 20-show run will kick off May 29 with back-to-back nights at Casino Rama in Rama, Ont., before hitting major U.S. cities like Pittsburgh (6/20), Philadelphia (6/21) and Atlanta (6/23, 24) and wrapping up June 28 at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Fla. The tour will also include three shows at New York City's iconic Beacon Theatre on June 2, 3 and 5, with support from the Avett Brothers on three of the tour's dates, and Edgar Winter on two dates. Ringo released his 20th solo album, What's My Name, on Oct. 25. - Billboard, 11/4/19..... The estate of Michael Jackson and MIJAC Music, Jackson's personal publishing company, announced on Nov. 4 they have acquired majority ownership of the U.S. rights to the publishing catalog of Sly and the Family Stone, will retain long-term administration rights. The Jackson estate already owns the entirety of the band's catalog outside the U.S. through MIJAC, which acquired those rights in 1983. The acquisition includes a trove of the Bay Area funk band's '60s and '70s classics, like "Family Affair," "Dance to the Music," "Everybody Is a Star," "Hot Fun in the Summertime" and "Everyday People." Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. When asked to comment, bandleader Sly Stone only commented, "Thank You Mijac (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" -- a reference to his 1969 song "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)." MIJAC Music was created by Jackson in 1980. Its first acquisition was for the publishing rights to Sly and the Family Stone's catalog in 1983. The company also includes all of the songs written by Jackson, plus hits made famous by artists like Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Elvis Presley. The deal comes ahead of the starting date when Sly Stone (real name Sylvester Stewart) could reclaim his publishing ownership under the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act. Under that law, songs written after 1978 can be reclaimed 35 years after they were issued and songs written before 1972 can be reclaimed after 56 years. As such, Sly and the Family Stone songs from 1968 would be eligible for reversion beginning in 2024. The acquisition announcement of the Stone catalog comes at a busy time for the Jackson estate, which is currently continuing to fight HBO's controversial Finding Neverland documentary, preparing a Broadway musical about Jackson, and commemorating the 10th anniversary of Jackson's This Is It, among other projects. - Billboard, 11/4/19...... In a new interview with the UK's The Big Issue magazine, the Who's Pete Townshend said his past behaviour in which he smashed up his instruments on stage was "a waste of time" despite it helping to get people to listen to his band. "I was always pretty snobby about rock and roll," said Townshend, who added that he was "in it for the art." "Getting into auto-destruction was straight out of art college. People still say that I should never have smashed instruments," he said, before concluding: "F--- off. It is how I got you to listen to me." Elsewhere in the interview Townshend said that his generation of "the hippy era" of the '60s "misused the power" for social change. "My generation felt disenfranchised," he said. "That is a complex word for feeling like we had nothing to live for. It made us not so much angry as loose. We were loose-living. And when psychedelic drugs and more importantly the pill came along, away we went. Then we took power. But I think we misused the power to a great extent. The hippy era could have turned into something much better than it did." - NME, 11/4/19...... Olivia Newton-John's iconic Grease leather jacket and skintight pants fetched $405,700 during an auction on Nov. 2 in Beverly Hills. According to Julien's Auctions, the leather jacket sold for $243,200 and the pants, which Newton-John famously had to be sewn into, went for $162,500. Other Grease memorabilia included a Pink Ladies jacket that went for $50,000 and a poster signed by Newton-John, John Travolta, director Randal Kleiser and producer and songwriter John Farrar, which sold for $64,000. The proceeds from the jacket and pants, as well as a portion of the other items sold, will go the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre in Australia. Meanwhile, a pair of Michael Jackson's sparkly socks worn during his first ever "moonwalk" as he performed "Billie Jean" during the 1983 Motown 25th anniversary are expected to command up to $1 million (or £776,000) during an auction organised by GottaHaveRockandRoll.com which begins on Nov. 13. In Chippenham, U.K., a rare copy of the Sex Pistols' single "God Save the Queen" fetched £13K. One of the rarest and most sought after records in the world, it was expected to fetch between £12,000-£15,000. - AP/NME, 11/4/19.

In a new interview with the British paper The Guardian as she promotes her just published book Touched by the Sun: My Friendship with Jackie, Carly Simon revealed that Pres. Donald Trump "was all over me like ugly on an ape" and she found him "repulsive" during an encounter with Trump one time at an event in New York. The "You're So Vain" singer said she met Trump once at a luncheon for Benazir Bhutto, the late lady prime minister of Pakistan, when Trump was a reality TV star on The Apprentice. "When I came into the room, there was Trump and a whole bunch of New York dignitaries. Trump wasn't paying any attention to me at all. Why would he?," Simon recalled. "Benazir Bhutto summoned me and asked me to go into the bedroom with her and so I went and we sat on the bed and she held my hands and said: 'I just love your music.' We talked about different songs that were her favourites and it maybe lasted three minutes." However Simon says her bedroom chat with Bhutto caused Trump to view her in a different light. "When I went out of the bedroom, obviously I had all of a sudden become important through the eyes of Donald Trump. So he was very anxious to meet me and invited me to Mar-a-Lago [his luxury estate in Florida] and was all over me like ugly on an ape." Simon says she turned down the offer straight away "because I thought he was kind of repulsive." Simon's new book, which details her relationship with former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, hit stores on Oct. 22. - New Musical Express, 11/3/19...... The entertainment site Deadline.com reported on Oct. 31 that Paramount Pictures, a new producer and financier company named Sister, Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King, and Steven Spielberg's production company Amblin are teaming up to develop a biopic on the eight-time Grammy winning pop group the Bee Gees. Paramount purchased the life rights to the Gibbs family estate, which includes deceased Bee Gees members Maurice and Robin Gibb and sole surviving member Barry Gibb, with the help of King, which ensures original Bee Gees music will be featured in the biopic. A Bee Gees project would mark a return to the rock biopic world for both Paramount and King, with the studio still enjoying critical acclaim and modest financial success from its Elton John biopic Rocketman, which has the possibility of Academy Award success similar to Bohemian Rhapsody's 5 Oscar nods and 4 wins, including Best Actor for Rami Malek and Freddie Mercury. The Bee Gees film has not been written yet, and no roles have been assigned. The Gibb brothers formed their pop trio in their native Australia in 1958, rising to popularity in the late '60s to early '70s with the rise of the disco era and selling over 220 million records worldwide. The were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. - Deadline.com/Billboard/Hollywood Reporter, 10/31/19...... Michael Jackson has once again been named the highest earning dead celebrity after the late King of Pop topped the latest list for 2019 compiled by Forbes magazine. The news comes after the estate of Jackson, who died in 2009 aged 50 following an overdose of the anaesthetic propofol, earned over £46 million in the last 12 months, with his streaming numbers "surging" according to Forbes despite the controversy that followed the release of the controversial MJ documentary Leaving Neverland earlier in 2019. "With proceeds flowing from his Mijac Music catalogue, a Las Vegas show and a long-term deal with Sony, he retains his post mortem cash crown for the seventh consecutive year," Forbes reports. Coming in right behind Jackson on the list was Elvis Presley, whose estate made over £30 million in the past year. - New Musical Express, 11/1/19...... The three-year stretch when Bob Dylan laid low after his 1966 world tour which, although considered his creative peak, saw him living behind dark glasses and flying on amphetamines while in the throes of drug abuse and paranoia is captured on Dylan's latest Columbia release, Travelin' Thru, 1967 - 1969: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 15. The release, which hit stores on Nov. 1, features recordings beginning in 1967, when he headed to Nashville's Columbia Studio A and made the earthy John Wesley Harding, and in 1969, he recorded the breezy Nashville Skyline at the same studio. The 1967-69 era is often seen as a peculiar one for Dylan -- partly due to his voice, which changed from harsh and nasal to a mellow country croon in the Nashville Skyline era. The studio outtakes and live cuts on the release offer their own simple, subtle pleasures, as the pop bard played with rhythms and tempos and collaborated with country music superstar Johnny Cash, with all of their approximately 20 collaborations featured on the set. - Billboard, 11/1/19...... Electric Light Orchestra mastermind Jeff Lynne says he wasn't particularly focused on making an album to follow up 2015's Alone in the Universe under his Jeff Lynne's ELO banner, but inspiration for his just released JLE album From Out of Nowhere came from, well, out of the blue. "I suddenly thought 'This is good already.' I had just started like the first five minutes," Lynne says of the album's title track. "From out of nowhere, the tune came. It was just one of those songs that comes really quick." Lynne's latest LP comes after a flurry of activity in recent years from the British studio wizard and ELO creator, who returned to the road with the re-branded Jeff Lynne's ELO in 2015 after nearly a 30-year hiatus. His new band has toured frequently since, and he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. The new album features plenty of ELO's trademark layered instrumentation -- though with perhaps fewer strings than some past efforts -- and stacked vocals across 10 largely upbeat tracks. "I try to make them positive and have a positive vibe and just get on with it and have fun," Lynne says as he prepares for an upcoming concert in England for the BBC. Lynne adds that he "loves to play all the instruments and handle all the vocals" by himself. "My favorite thing is when I'm overdubbing instruments onto a track and I love to play them. So that's why I choose to do them," he says. "I could easily get anybody to play them, probably, but I come up with the ideas and I like to play them and I've got all the gear, all the keyboards, all the guitars and the drums, the bass. As a player, it's just so much fun to do that. I'd rather do that than anything else." The genial pop maestro adds that "I just hope I can keep coming up with something different, something new. Just keep trying. I just love making music so it's what I love to do best of all. So I'll just keep at it and try and come up with the best one ever one of these days." - Billboard, 11/1/19...... In a new Rolling Stone interview conducted by Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl, Ringo Starr opens up abou the moment he was told the tragic news of his Beatles bandmate John Lennon's 1980 death. "When John went, I was in the Bahamas. I was getting a phone call from my stepkids in L.A. saying, 'Something's happened to John'," Ringo explained. "And then they called and said, 'John's dead'. And I didn't know what to do." Revealing that he "still well[s] up that some bastard shot him," Starr went on to detail his actions in the immediate aftermath of John's death. "I just said, 'We've got to get a plane'. We got a plane to New York, and you don't know what you can do," he remembered. "We went to the apartment. 'Anything we can do?' And Yoko [Ono] just said, 'Well, you just play with Sean [Lennon, John's son]. Keep Sean busy'." "And that's what we did. That's what you think: 'What do you do now?'" Ringo released his 20th studio album, What's My Name, on Nov. 1 via UMe. It features a cover of Lennon's 1984 song "Grow Old With Me" alongside Paul McCartney, which Ringo describes as "a very emotional experience for me." - New Musical Express, 10/30/19...... Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood has released a trailer to YouTube for his upcoming documentary Somebody Up There Like Me, in which he discusses he struggles with addiction. "I was in the hands of destiny all my life and being the right place at the right time," the guitarist says at the beginning of the trailer, before discussing his ongoing struggles with addiction. Wood is now nine years sober. Talking about his recovery, his wife Sally Humphries adds: "Ronnie's always a happy person. I just feel that if you're talking to a sober person, you've got the real person." Somebody Up There Like Me hits theaters on Nov. 26 and features interviews with Wood, Humphries, his Rolling Stones bandmates Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and his former Faces bandmate Rod Stewart, among others. - New Musical Express, 10/30/19...... In conjunction with the Nov. 22 release of the new Harry Nilsson box set Losst and Founnd which collects the final recordings made by the late Grammy-winning pop singer, Warner Chappell Music has announced a new four-part limited podcast series detailing the "long and fascinating narrative" behind the release. Entitled Final Sessions and hosted by Billboard contributor Joe Levy, the podcast -- each season of which will delve into another of "music's most notable releases" -- will also explore Nilsson's music, his close friendship with the Beatles, his family life and how his backstory informed his songs. The first episode of Final Sessions was released on Nov. 1 on all platforms. A new episode is slated to air every Friday in November leading up to the album's release. Produced by Mark Hudson (Ringo Starr, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne), Losst and Found features nine Nilsson originals as well as covers by songwriter Jimmy Webb and Yoko Ono. It is the first album of new material from Nilsson since 1980's Flash Harry. Nilsson, who died in 1994 of a heart attack at the age of 52, released a total of 15 studio albums and racked up three top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart: "Everybody's Talkin'," "Coconut" and the No. 1 single "Without You." - Billboard, 11/1/19...... A Cornell University music professor has unearthed a previously unknown suite of songs recorded by the late Lou Reed for pop artist Andy Warhol, who was a collaborator of Reed's former band Velvet Underground and the band's onetime manager. Prof. Judith Peraino says she came across a cassette tape of the songs in 2017 while doing research at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. On Oct. 30, Peraino published "I'll Be Your Mixtape: Lou Reed, Andy Warhol, and the Queer Intimacies of Cassettes" in The Journal of Musicology. One side of the cassette contains live recordings that Reed had put together from his 1975 tour. The other was labelled "Philosophy Songs (From A to B & Back)" and contained 12 songs and a fragment of a 13th, all featuring Reed singing alone with his guitar. For the lyrics, Reed drew on the book Warhol had published that year, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B & Back Again). "This tape is Lou Reed working out what he does best," Peraino told the New York Times, "which is figuring out the character of his song, telling the stories, being as brutally honest as he is in many of his writings." Reed's widow Laurie Anderson told the paper she had not known about the songs' existence, though Reed had talked about "some things that he had made for Andy." It's an open question whether the tape will remain property of the Warhol Museum, or if it will be claimed by Reed's estate or his former record label. It's also unclear if the songs will eventually be made publicly accessible. The cassette is still at the Warhol Museum, and access is restricted to professional scholars. Reed died on Oct. 27, 2012, from liver disease. An updated volume of his lyrics, I'll Be Your Mirror, will be republished on Nov. 7 after several years out of print. - New Musical Express/New York Times, 10/31/19...... Elton John's "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour, which played 14 concerts during the month of September, earned $28.9 million from 216,004 tickets according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, which gives the English pop star the top spot on the publication's Top Tours chart. $28.9 million is the highest one-month total so far for Elton's tour, surpassing the $28.5 million he earned in October 2018. John has been a consistent presence on the Top Tours chart, netting his fifth month in the Top 10 and sixth on the chart. Elton's 14-show sprint in September brought him up along the west coast through Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and San Francisco before five Canadian dates in Vancouver and Edmonton. - Billboard, 10/31/19...... As the third installment of the female-charged big screen reboot of the hit '70s TV detective series Charlie's Angels hits theaters in the US on Nov. 15, an 11-track soundtrack album hits stores on Nov. 8 that was executive-produced by Ariana Grande, who features on five of its songs. Grande's contemporaries Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey also appear on the soundtrack of the new movie, which stars Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, Ella Balinska and Elizabeth Banks, who directed and wrote the screenplay. The new movie follows the Angels from across the globe as they work to protect society after a systems engineer blows the whistle on a dangerous technology. - Billboard, 11/1/19...... A rare vinyl copy of the Sex Pistols 1977 single "God Save the Queen" is expected to fetch thousands of pounds when it goes under the hammer in the U.K. at Wessex Auction Rooms at Westbrook Farm in Chippenham. The record is described by the auctioneers as "a superb copy of one of the rarest and most sought after records in the world," as it is contained in original A&M sleeve, and within card sleeve with A&M Records sticker." Speaking to a local paper, auctioneer and vinyl expert Martin Hughes said: "I have had the privilege of selling many rare records but this is certainly the most exciting of them all. The Sex Pistols will always be the most iconic punk band, and perhaps also one of the most culturally significant. This is a chance for a collector to own a piece of music history." Meanwhile, the '70s punk icons are reportedly being considered for a big screen biopic treatment, with the U.K. firm Starlight Films working on the early stages of a Sex Pistols movie for the last 18 months. - NME, 10/29/19...... The sexy outfit worn by Olivia Newton-John in one of the final scenes of her 1978 movie Grease which as legend has it she was literally zipped into is being auctioned by the Australian pop/movie icon to help raise funds for her cancer treatment center in her native country. The outfit is just one of 500 items Newton-John is selling to help her cause, which also include her original Grease script, the gown she wore to the Grease premiere, and a custom Pink Ladies jacket. "It took quite a few months to weed through boxes and storage containers. But it was a fun venture. It just took a lot of time and sorting," Olivia told the U.K. paper The Guardian. Newton-John noted her Grease pants "have a broken zip and I had to be stitched into them because they were made in the 50s." Newton-John was diagnosed with breast cancer for the third time earlier in 2019. In January, she released a video that clarified that, contrary to reports, she was not on her death bed, and was in fact doing quite well. - Jezebel.com, 10/29/19...... Oscar-nominated screenwriter Bernard Slade, known for creating such TV series as The Partridge Family, The Flying Nun and Bewitched as well as the enduring romantic comedy "Same Time, Next Year" for Broadway" and its movie adaptation, died peacefully on Oct. 30 at his Beverly Hills home from complications of Lewy body dementia. He was 89. In the 1960s and 1970s, Mr. Slade also created NBC's The Girl With Something Extra which like The Flying Nun also starred Sally Field, ABC's Love on a Rooftop featuring Judy Carne and Pete Duel, and CBS' Bridget Loves Bernie starring David Birney and Meredith Baxter. Both original Broadway and movie versions of "Same Time, Next Year" starred Ellen Burstyn, who won a Tony in 1975 for her stage performance, then earned an Oscar nomination for best actress. She starred opposite Charles Grodin on Broadway and with Alan Alda in the 1978 feature. Slade's work netted him Tony and Oscar noms as well. Mr. Slade was married to actress Jill Foster for 64 years before her death in 2017. He often credited her as the inspiration for many of his favorite female characters, including Doris in "Same Time, Next Year." - The Hollywood Reporter, 10/30/19...... Tom Draper, a black music industry pioneer who during his 12-year stint with Warner Bros. Records helped the label become a leading force in black music with a roster that included Prince, Chaka Khan, Al Jarreau, the Staple Singers, Ashford & Simpson and Bootsy Collins, among others, died Oct. 25 in Atlanta after a short illness. He was 79. Born and raised in Detroit, Draper attended the University of Detroit, where he earned a bachelor's degree in marketing. He worked in promotion for RCA Records' newly established black music department and was subsequently promoted to VP of A&R before moving to Warner Bros. Records and became a Time Warner VP in 1987. Draper also supported various social causes including the Children's Defense Fund and the Institute for Black Parenting. - Billboard, 11/1/19.