Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on February 20th, 2022

Elvis Costello & The Imposters unveiled details of a summer 2022 North American tour on Feb. 17. The 15-city tour kicks off on Aug. 6 in Huber Heights, Oh., also visiting such major markets as Toronto (8/8), Buffalo, N.Y. (8/9), New York (8/11), Boston (8/15), Denver (8/23), Salt Lake City (8/25), and Anaheim, Calif. (8/30) before wrapping on Sept. 3 in Las Vegas. Costell and The Imposters will be touring behind their latest LP, The Boy Named If [And Other Children's Stories], which dropped in January. Before travelling across the pond, Costello and the band will also mount a 13-city UK tour in June at Brighton Dome on June 5, wrapping on June 23 in London's Eventim Apollo. - NME, 2/17/22...... Aerosmith announced on Feb. 17 they've inked a deal with Epic Rights for a multi-category worldwide retail program for the Boston-based rockers that will include Funko pop figures and 3D vinyl collectibles in the coming years. "We are thrilled to have Aerosmith, one of the all-time greatest rock icons, on the Epic Rights roster," said Epic Rights senior vp of global licensing Lisa Streff in a press release. "In anticipation of the upcoming 50th anniversary activities, we're excited to be developing a global licensing program that will celebrate and illustrate the band's career at retail," she added. The announcement follows the recent news that Aerosmith signed a career-spanning, multi-faceted deal with Universal Music Group in advance of their 50th anniversary. In 2023, Aerosmith will celebrate the 50th anniversary of their self-titled debut album, the 45th anniversary of Draw the Line, and the 30th anniversary of Get a Grip. - Billboard, 2/17/22...... Paul McCartney announced on Feb. 18 that he'll be hitting the road in 2022 for his first live shows in three years. Macca's "Got Back" arena/stadium tour is slated to kick off on April 28 at Spokane Arena in Spokane, Wash., his first-ever show in that city. The 13-city, 14-date outing will also find the Beatles legend playing East Rutherford, N.J.'s MetLife Stadium for the first time since 2016 on the tour's wrap date June 16. "I said at the end of the last tour that I'd see you next time. I said I was going to get back to you. Well, I got back!," McCartney, 79, said in a statement. Other stops on the 13-city, 14 date tour include Seattle (5/2, 3), Oakland, Calif. (5/6), Los Angeles (5/13), Fort Worth, Tex. (5/17), Winston Salem, N.C. (5/21), Hollywood, Fla. (5/25), Orlando, Fla. (5/28), Knoxville, Tenn. (5/31), Syracuse, N.Y. (6/4), Boston (6/7) and Baltimore (6/12). Tickets for the tour will go on sale to the general public beginning Feb. 25 at 10 a.m. local time. McCartney concluded his 39-date, 12-country "Freshen Up" tour in July 2019. - Billboard, 2/18/22...... In other Beatles-related news, a statue of the band's early manager, Brian Epstein, has been given planning permission by Liverpool council, according to a Twitter post by a local newspaper on Feb. 17. The statue of Epstein, who also worked with such "60's British invasion" acts as Cilla Black and Gerry and the Pacemakers, will be erected near his family's former record shop in the Whitechapel neighborhood. Jane Robbins, one of the statue's sculptors and Paul McCartney's cousin, says she showed Paul McCartney the photograph of the final clay model of the statue and that he "spent several minutes looking at it and he was delighted." "I don't know if there was an actual a tear in his eye but he was very moved to see the clay and that, I think, speaks volumes," she added. A date for the statue's installation is expected to be announced in the coming months. In related news, director Sara Sugarman (Vinyl, Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen) was hired to helm an upcoming biopic of Epstein in 2021. Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, (Wolf Hall, The Queen's Gambit), will play Epstein in the biopic, which will chart the entrepreneur's huge influence on pop music within the 1960s. - New Musical Express, 2/17/22...... Citing concerns over the Covid pandemic, a rep for Willie Nelson announced on Feb. 15 that the country-pop legend will be cancelling several of his headlining indoor concerts in 2022. According to the publicist, all of Willie's March shows have been canceled, with the exception of Nelson's 10th annual, 40-artist headlining Luck Reunion show on Mar. 17, which is held at Nelson's ranch outside of Austin, Tex. Among the indoor March shows listed on Nelson's website (including some previously canceled shows) are two Nashville performances at the CMA Theater on Mar. 10-11, as well as concerts at New Orleans' Saenger Theatre (Mar. 13), Houston's 713 Music Hall (Mar. 14), Fort Worth's Billy Bob's Texas (Mar. 19) and San Antonio's Majestic Theatre (Mar. 21-22). An April 20 indoor show in Peoria, Ill., has also been canceled, as well as an April 22 show in New Buffalo, Mich., and an April 25 show in Nashville, Ind. Nelson also added an outdoor show to his schedule on April 22 at Tuscaloosa Amphitheater in Tuscaloosa, Ala. He will also play an outdoor show on April 24 in Simpsonville, S.C. Nelson is also set to release his latest album, A Beautiful Time, on Apr. 29, to coincide with the entertainer's 89th birthday. - Billboard, 2/15/22...... After revealing he is a big fan of cryptocurrency earlier in February, KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons said on Feb. 20 that he'll accept cryptocurrency as payment for his Las Vegas mansion, which he recently put on the market for $13.5 million (£9.93 million). "I have been an outspoken proponent of cryptocurrency from the beginning. It is the future of money, and it just makes sense to offer interested parties the option of using cryptocurrency to purchase the estate," said Simmons, who bought the house in 2021 for $10.8 million (£7.95 million) but says that he and his family rarely stay at the property. The property, which can be viewed on Instagram, is described as a "distinctive and modern estate offers unparalleled artistic beauty unrivalled anywhere in the Las Vegas Valley." Meanwhile in other KISS news, vocalist/guitarist Paul Stanley said on Feb. 16 that he would be open to making music with the Foo Fighters if the opportunity ever came up. "[Foo Fighters frontman] Dave [Grohl] and I, we had children in the same school, so I've known Dave for a while," Stanley said at the red carpet premiere of Studio 666, a new horror-comedy starring the Foos, at the TCL Mann Chinese Theater in Hollywood. After praising Grohl as "arguably one of the biggest rock stars in the world," Stanley said that "at some point, I'm sure we'll do something -- we'll make some noise together. That's what makes music so fun." Not just the collaboration process, Stanley confirmed, but "not knowing what's coming tomorrow." In December, Gene Simmons brought Grohl onstage during a KISS concert in Las Vegas. Grohl told the audience he was one of the many young KISS fans who had posters of Simmons on his wall as a child. - New Musical Express, 2/20/22...... On Feb. 17 a federal judge held the son of late Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons in contempt of court for using his father's name and likeness to sell cannabis and other products without permission, including a $250 per day fine until he stops. Clarence Clemons III, also known as Nick, was sued by a family trust that controls his late dad's assets in 2021 for allegedly launching "Big Man Blazed Baked Goods" ("Big Man" being the nickname Springsteen and his band gave to Clemons Sr.) and other products without their permission, but Nick never responded to the lawsuit nor has he stopped using his father's name and likeness -- even after a judge ordered him to do so. "Defendants have taken no actions to comply with the order since receiving it, U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp wrote. "They have not responded to any filing in this action [and] more troublingly & plaintiffs detail defendants' extensive and ongoing violations of the order," he added. The judge also ordered Nick and Big Man's West to repay more than $7000 in legal fees incurred by the trust in seeking the contempt order. Nick Clemons has responded that the lawsuit was "frivolous" and that he had "totally disregarded it." He also said he was a part owner of the trust entity and that you "cannot sue yourself," and that he was "not even considering complying with the order, but might file a response" later in the week. After decades playing saxophone in The E Street Band, Clemons died suddenly in 2011 at the age of 69, after complications from hand surgery led to a blood clot that caused a stroke. Before his death, he established a legal trust to control his assets, naming Nick and three other siblings as beneficiaries. But under the terms he established, the trust itself has sole control over the rights to his name and likeness until his youngest song, Jarod, reaches the age of 25 in 2023. - Billboard, 2/18/22...... In a new interview with The New Yorker, Stevie Nicks revealed she has nearly 50 years of meticulous journals to help jog her memory. "When I keep my journal, it's big, like a telephone book, because I always feel that that will never get lost. So what I do is I write on the right side of the page, and then on the left-hand side I write poetry, which I usually take right out of my prose," Nicks told actress/writer Tavi Gevinson. "So lots of times, when I go back to them, it's to look at the poetry for songs. I would rather spend the time writing a new journal entry than going back and reading old journal entries, because if you go back you're not going to go forward. I just try to keep going forward," Nicks said. The 73-year-old musician also opened up about her burgeoning friendship with rising singer Lorde ("a really great writer and she's really good at doing her own recorded stuff"), the very important, prescient advice she gave to pop star Katy Perry in a hotel lobby 10 years ago ("We don't have rivals. That's just ridiculous."), and what she's learned from her longtime bandmate Christine McVie. The full interview can be read at NewYorker.com. - Billboard, 2/16/22...... In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Pete Townshend admits he "doesn't deserve to be alive." "Eighty is a strange number. I didn't expect ... To be absolutely brutal, I don't deserve to be alive today," the 76-year-old rocker said. "I have not been a perfect man. I think what I have done in the past 20 or 30 years has probably much more useful to society than anything I did as a young musician. I know I can continue to do good work in society as someone involved in public service and education and all those things. If that sounds pompous, then f--- you. It's the truth. It's a "f--- you" truth that I have to accept about myself," he added. Townshend continued: "But I have to say, 'Listen, if I live to be 80, that'll be one of the only useful things I'll be able to do.' [Laughs] I certainly won't be able to jump seven feet in the air without wires." However Townshend says the he and his surviving Who band member Roger Daltrey have to plans to retire from touring in the immediate future. "We're not saying that, but what's interesting is ... I had a conversation with Roger. I said to him, 'I don't want to be like one of these guys that dies on tour.' I do want to retire. And by 'retire' I don't mean retire from being a musician or artist or creator, but retire from the idea that it requires me to say yes to touring for a load of people to get a smile on their face and go home to their wife and go, 'Hey, honey! Everything is fine! The Who are going back on tour!'." The Who's UK shows were hit by several delays owing to the Covid-19 pandemic in the past two years and they plan to complete the run in 2023, beginning on May 1 in Birmingham. - Music-News.com, 2/20/22...... The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and his band The X-Pensive Winos will be among the headliners at the sixth annual Love Rocks NYC benefit concert on Mar. 10 at New York's historic Beacon Theatre. The show -- which donates all proceeds to God's Love We Deliver, a charity dedicated to providing meals for clients unable to shop/cook on their own -- Mario Cantone and Kiefer Sutherland, among others, with all proceeds going to God's Love We Deliver, a charity dedicated to providing meals for clients unable to shop/cook on their own. Also on the lineup are Warren Haynes, Melissa Etheridge, Allison Russell, Larkin Poe, Tyler Bryant and Anders Osborne, among others. - Billboard, 2/15/22...... Although he's attracted an extremely loyal base of fans throughout his career as one of the most famous pop crooners in history, authorities in New Zealand have decided Barry Manilow's music is good for deterring protestors upset about the country's Covid-19 mandates. Some of Manilow's biggest hits, including "Mandy" and "Could It Be Magic," were played on a 15-minute loop in an attempt to disperse the crowds in Wellington on Jan. 14. Truckers and other people participating in NZ's ongoing "Freedom Convoy" congregated at the parliament building, camping out in front of the government headquarters to protest the vaccine mandate issued by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. (Similar protests originated in Canada, with a convoy of truckers making their way to Ottawa to air their grievances about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.) The federal government hit back at the unrest clogging up public spaces by putting together a playlist featuring the greatest hits of Manilow, English pop singer James Blunt, an out-of-tune version of Celine Dion's Titanic theme "My Heart Will Go On," and even Los del Rio's inescapable 1996 dance hit "Macarena." The playlist -- interspersed with promotions for Covid-19 vaccines -- was the brainchild of Trevor Mallard, Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, and the decision to use the music was not made by law enforcement. However the crowds of protestors fought back by playing Twister Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It." The move is a bit ironic, given lead singer Dee Snider's full and vocal support for vaccine requirements at concerts and other live events as well as Covid-19 vaccination in general. Snider even condemned anti-mask protestors for using the song back in Sept. 2020, slamming their stance as "moronic." - Billboard, 2/14/22...... Diana Ross is among the headliners confirmed for The Los Angeles Philharmonic's upcoming celebration of the Hollywood Bowl's 100th season this summer. Beginning in June, the Hollywood Bowl will host shows with Ross, Sheryl Crow, John Fogerty, Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina, Boyz II Men, Billie Eilish, The Roots, Duran Duran, Ricky Martin, Grace Jones, TLC, and more. The venue will also feature a tribute to Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra with special guests Eilish, Debbie Harry, Diane Reeves and Brian Stokes Mitchell. The famous outdoor venue's centennial season will also feature 10 nights with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a Fourth of July fireworks celebration, and the free 101 Festival, which includes two nights of music at the Bowl and neighboring venue The Ford. In addition, the LA Phil will perform alongside beloved movies for the "Film at the Bowl" series. This year's titles will include Back to the Future, Amadeus, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 and more. In honor of the iconic venue's 100th anniversary, the LA Phil is releasing a limited-edition book, Hollywood Bowl: The First 100 Years, by Derek Taub. In addition, a vinyl box set of seven LPs will also be available featuring recordings from the Hollywood Bowl between 1928 and 2021. The book and box set will be exclusively sold at LA Phil and Hollywood Bowl stores beginning opening night. The current Hollywood Bowl season is scheduled to run from June 11 through Sept. 29. - Billboard, 2/15/22...... American conservative satirist P.J. O'Rourke, died on Feb. 15 of complications from lung cancer. He was 74. Known as "one of the major voices of his generation," O'Rourke defied the leftward trend of American humour -- particularly the "gonzo" style of irreverent journalism popularized by writers like Hunter S. Thompson -- by offering a more conservative, but equally cutting and iconoclastic, critique of the nation's culture and politics. O'Rourke authored over 20 boooks, including the best-sellers A Parliament of Whores and Give War a Chance. A member of the Baby Boom generation, O'Rourke first debuted on the national stage as editor of the storied humour magazine National Lampoon in the 1970s. He went on to work as a freelancer for Atlantic Monthly, Esquire and Vanity Fair, and serve as foreign-affairs desk chief for Rolling Stone. One of his more memorable lines was that Democrats promise that government will make you "smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn," while "Republicans say that government doesn't work -- then get elected and prove it." O'Rourke was a fellow at the conservative Cato Institute, but also a regular guest on the left-leaning MSNBC news network and a panellist on the the NPR faux-game show, Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me. He frequently criticized Democratic presidents, but in 2016 endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton over Republican Donald Trump. "His insightful reporting, verbal acuity and gift at writing laugh-out-loud prose were unparalleled," his publisher Grove Atlantic said in a statement. A native of Toledo, Oh., O'Rourke attended college at Miami University, and earned a graduate degree in English from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He was married twice and had three children. - The BBC, 2/16/22.

Elton John has given a shout out to 22-year-old U.S. figure skater Nathan Chen, who recently performed a golden routine to a medley of Elton tunes, including "Rocket Man," at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. "Congratulations @nathanwchen for winning Gold skating to Rocket Man in the free skate finals in Beijing," John posted to his Twitter page on Feb. 10. Elton's own "golden run" of late includes a U.K. No. 1 album, The Lockdown Sessions, and three leaders on the U.K. singles chart, included the coveted Christmas No. 1, the charity fundraising song "Sausage Rolls For Everyone." - Billboard, 2/10/22...... Sting announced on Feb. 10 that he's selling his entire song catalog -- from his early days in The Police through his long solo career -- to the Universal Music Publishing Group. The deal brings Sting's publishing and master recordings back together under the UMG roof and gives the label group a strong hand in licensing both his Police and solo classics. While terms of the deal were not disclosed, Billboard previously reported that Sting had been shopping a music asset bundle that produced an annual royalty income stream of about $12-$13 million, and he was looking at a roughly $360 million payday. "I could never have imagined that someday I would get to lead a company that will be the guardian of Sting's remarkable songwriting legacy," UMPG chairman & CEO Jody Gerson said in a statement. "Every one of us at UMPG looks forward to this work with a sense of honor, responsibility and enormous excitement about what we can achieve for his music in the future," the statement added. For his part, Sting said: "I am delighted to have Jody and the team at UMPG curate and manage my song catalog... It is absolutely essential to me that my career's body of work have a home where it is valued and respected." That catalog includes such songs as "Roxanne," "Every Breath You Take," "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You," "Fields Of Gold," "Message in a Bottle" and "Englishman in New York." Between the Police and his solo career, Sting has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, according to UMG, which has been Sting's label home for his entire career through A&M, Interscope and Cherrytree Records. - Billboard, 2/10/22...... Neil Young has debunked an internet conspiracy theory that his music publishing is overseen by the Covid-19 manufacturer Pfizer. In a since-deleted letter posted to his NeilYoungArchives.com website, Young addressed the rumour that his recent highly publicized views on vaccines were dictated to him by Pfizer -- who, according to the conspiracy theory, own Young's music publishing. However the misunderstanding seems to stem from the fact that a former CEO at Pfizer now serves as a senior advisor for asset manager Blackstone, which currently has a partnership with music publisher Hipgnosis -- with whom Young presently works. In his letter, Young described the conspiracy theory as "clever but wrong," while also quipping "so much for Pharm Aid" -- a reference to both the common conspiracy theory trope of "big pharma" and his own charity Farm Aid. "The publishing share Hipgnosis has in my copyrights is in the Hipgnosis Songs Fund, that is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange," Young explained. "The Blackstone investment went into a separate Hipgnosis Private Fund, and none of that money was used for the Hipgnosis Songs Fund. Pfizer has not invested in Hipgnosis, but a past Pfizer CEO is a senior advisor for Blackstone," he added. The "Pharm Aid" conspiracy is part of an ongoing conservative backlash against Young -- most recently expressed by right-wing American rocker Ted Nugent, who described Young as a "stoner birdbrain punk" for his recent protest against Spotify and podcast host Joe Rogan. Speaking on his "Friday Free For All" edition of The Nightly Nuge on Facebook on Feb. 11, Nugent said: "Well, Neil Young, God bless him. I'm sure that there's many people that appreciate Neil Young's creativity and his talents and his creation of wonderful music for those people who love that kind of music. I'm not a big fan. I happen to know that he's got a lot of soul... But now that I've praised him for all the positives, the guy is a complete punk." Nugent went on to accuse Young of taking "mind-altering chemicals throughout [his] life" and called him a "stoner birdbrain punk [who] delivers misinformation." - New Musical Express, 2/15/22...... Actor Kingsley Ben-Adir has been confirmed to portray Bob Marley in a forthcoming biopic of the reggae legend. Ben-Adir, who most recently portrayed '60s activist Malcolm X in One Night in Miami, will portray Marley in the as-yet-untitled film by Paramount Pictures. It was first announced back in 2018 that a Marley biopic, produced by Ziggy Marley, was in the works, before Reinaldo Marcus Green, director of Oscar-nominated tennis drama King Richard, was revealed to be attached to the film in 2021. In an interview at the time, Green said that the film will focus on the making of Marley's classic album Exodus with The Wailers, which he recorded after moving to London following an unsuccessful assassination attempt in Jamaica. Meanwhile, an immersive Bob Marley exhibition has recently opened in London. The Marley "One Love Experience" eceived its global premiere at the Saatchi Gallery before heading out on a multi-city U.K. tour. According to a press release, the "unique experience will showcase unseen Marley photographs and memorabilia whilst immersing audiences on a journey through his lifestyle, passions, influences, and enduring legacy." - NME, 2/12/22...... On Feb. 11 Paul McCartney issued a statement through PETA to both show his support for the nonprofit animal rights organization's new "Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics European Citizen's Initiative" to uphold the ban of animal testing for cosmetic items, and vehemently oppose the European Chemical Agency's current practices. "We all thought the battle was over and that cosmetics tests on animals in Europe were a thing of the past, but sadly, that's not the case," Sir Paul's statement reads. "The European Chemicals Agency continues to demand the use of thousands of rabbits, rats, fish, and other animals in cosmetics ingredients tests. But you can help put a stop to it. No animal should suffer for beauty, so if you re an EU citizen, please go to SaveCrueltyFree.eu and sign the European Citizens Initiative to protect the ban. Signing the petition takes only a minute and it will help save lives," he added. The Beatles legend also teamed up with PETA for his 78th birthday in 2020, when a video for the organization titled "Glass Walls" showed how horrific animal slaughterhouse conditions are. Most recently he urged leaders at COP26 -- the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference -- to address that animal agriculture has a detrimental effect on the environment. - Billboard, 2/11/22...... In other Beatles-related news, the Fab Four's legendary final concert on the rooftop of Apple Corps' Savile Row headquarters on Jan. 30, 1969 is getting an extended theatrical run in the UK market in 2D beginning on Feb. 18. The concert will be optimized for IMAX screens, digitally remastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience with proprietary IMAX DMR (Digital Remastering) technology. Director Peter Jackson said in a statement that he is "excited to partner with Disney to bring Get Back to an entirely new stage and give Beatles fans everywhere a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch and hear their heroes in the unrivalled sight and sound of IMAX." The 65-minute concert is included in the new Beatles documentary The Beatles: Get Back, which was released on Blu-ray and DVD on Feb. 8 in the U.S. - Music-News.com, 2/13/22...... In a chat between Eddie Vedder and Bruce Springsteen that can be viewed on Vedder's YouTube channel, the two rock stars discussed Vedder's new solo album Earthling as well as politics and musical influences. Speaking about the track "Long Way," Springsteen commented that he could hear "the ghost of Tom [Petty]" in the song. "I thought I was coming up with some really interesting [chords] that'd never been played before," Vedder said. "It was very simple chords and that was kind of how Tom Petty would write.... got to be fairly close to Tom and maybe subconsciously you start writing songs or you write songs that you need to hear. We thought we should put some B3 [organ] on it and we know Benmont [Tench] from The Heartbreakers, so we called Benmont and he came down. I think it was the first time he had pulled the organ out of storage since the last show. It was very, very powerful." Dropping on Feb. 11, Earthling features duets from the likes of Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Ringo Starr. - NME, 2/12/22...... Heart legend Ann Wilson has shared a new single, "Greed," taken from her upcoming solo LP Fierce Bliss. Wilson says she wrote the feisty new anthem out of anger: "'Greed' is that thing in our animal nature that makes us want MORE. Whether it be money, sex, power or ecstasy, it fires our craving! It happens with all of us. When you turn around and catch yourself making decisions because you want the money, or because you're caught in the headlights of glory, well, those are greedy moments." She added: "I think people who claim to have made every decision from a root of pure idealism, and never done anything dark or greedy, is lying. I think everybody who ventures into especially the music industry hoping for a career with big success, ends up making these Faustian bargains at some point even if only briefly. It's an aggressive song and I think I write best when I'm angry." Along with new songs, the singer has recorded a cover of the Queen classic "Love of My Life" featuring country star Vince Gill, and Jeff Buckley's "Forget Her." Warren Hayes of Gov't Mule also contributed. Fierce Bliss hits stores on Apr. 29, and Wilson will hit the road behind her new LP with her "An Evening with Ann Wilson of Heart and The Amazing Dawg's" tour of the US on Feb. 19 at L.A.'s Family Gras in Metairie. Her upcoming tour dates behind the new album can be found at www.annwilson.com/tour. - Music-News.com, 2/9/22...... In a new interview with host Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Mick Fleetwood said he felt like the "Grim Reaper" when he had to tell Stevie Nicks that her song "Silver Springs" wouldn't be on Fleetwood Mac's classic 1977 set Rumours. "I ended up in a car park having to tell young Stevie that... a great song -- and truly, truly, truly, truly, we were so intent on [including it]... at that point when you master an album, getting it to sound, and we simply couldn't, unless we sacrificed the level of the dynamic of the album, when you put the needle down," Fleetwood said. "And we just felt something had to go, and then that was the song... But that song became legendary, but no doubt was really supposed to be part of this album. And it was a forever... Like I was the Grim Reaper in the car park, that had to break the news, and Stevie's made me suffer inordinately ever since," he added. - Music-News.com, 2/10/22...... Dolly Parton announced on Feb. 9 that her Dollywood Park complex in Tennessee will help out any of the company's employees who are intent on continuing their education. The Dollywood Co. announced that it will cover 100% of tuition, fees and books for any employee who is furthering their education, beginning Feb. 24. The program will be available to all seasonal, part-time and full-time employees at Dollywood Parks & Resorts. Parton's The Dollywood Co. includes the 160-acre Dollywood theme park; the 35-acre Dollywood's Splash Country; Dollywood's DreamMore Resort and Spa; and Dollywood's Smoky Mountain Cabins. Parton is famously dedicated to education, and opened the Imagination Library in 1995 in her native Sevier County, Tenn. The Imagination Library gifts books free of charge to children from birth to age 5, and gifts more than 1 million free books each month to children around the world. Meanwhile the country legend is set to host the Academy of Country Music Awards on Mar. 7, and was recently announced as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of 2022 nominee. "I'm not expecting that I'll get in. But if I do, I'll immediately, next year, have to put out a great rock and roll album, which I've wanted to do for years, like a Linda Ronstadt or Heart kind of thing," Dolly says. "So this may have been just a God-wink for me to go ahead and do that. It's just nice to be nominated." Parton also recently teamed with author James Patterson for the novel Run Rose Run, which will release Mar. 7, with a companion album from Parton to release Mar. 4. - Billboard/Music-News.com, 2/14/22...... The veteran British rock band Status Quo says its baffled by the enduring popularity of its cover of the John Fogerty track "Rockin' All Over the World." Status Quo covered the song in 1977, and though artists including Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay and Bon Jovi have offered their take on the song over the years, Status Quo's version is viewed as the definitive one and remains one of their most popular anthems across the world. "I don't know why ours has become this classic 'raaaawk' song," Status Quo singer/guitarist Francis Rossi says. "We played Sweden Rock festival and all these people dressed head to toe in black were in front of the stage going, 'This is great!' I'm looking at them going, 'What the f---- are you thinking?... Even my dental hygienist sent me something the other day to say they were all singing it at some wedding reception," he added. Rossi recalled the band being skeptical when late SQ guitarist Rick Parfitt originally brought the track to his mates. "It sounded a bid piddly, to be honest. But me and Rick used to joke that we could Quo-up anything with a guitar on it. So that's what we did...," Rossi recalled. He added that he has particularly fond memories of kicking off their set at the legendary Live Aid charity concert in 1985 with the song. "Nobody wanted to go on first, so we went, 'F--- it, we'll do it -- get the f--- on, get the f--- off.' But when we started playing that song, there was a total sense of euphoria. Everything slotted in. The sense of love from the audience was something else." Status Quo will kick off a spring tour of the UK on Feb. 27 in Belfast, then later begin a fall run on Nov. 25 in Aberdeen. - Music-News.com, 2/6/22...... Producer-director Ivan Reitman, whose wildly successful comedies of the '70s and '80s included the madcap, wildly successful frat comedy National Lampoon's Animal House and the blockbuster spookfest Ghostbusters, died on Feb. 13. He was 75. Bornon Oct. 27, 1946, in Komamo, Czechoslovakia and raised in Toronto, Canada (where he first met such young comics as his later stars Dan Aykroyd and Rick Moranis), Reitman made his first major impression as the producer of Animal House, then quickly segued into feature directing, and his first two hits lofted another SNL luminary, Bill Murray, to the upper echelon of movie stardom: Meatballs (1979), which featured Murray as an anarchic camp counsellor, and the military service comedy Stripes (1980), which co-starred actor-writer Harold Ramis. As formidable as those pictures were at the box office, they were only a warm-up for Reitman's biggest smash, which he produced and directed. Co-written by Aykroyd and Ramis, who co-starred with Murray, Moranis and Sigourney Weaver, Ghostbusters was the perfect mating of wiseguy humour and creative, big-budget special effects. Though none of Reitman's subsequent features scaled similar box-office heights, he maintained his producing/directing profile with a series of comedies that reconfigured the career of beefcake action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger: Twins (1988), Kindergarten Cop (1990) and Junior (1994). He also produced the family-friendly Beethoven comedies starring the titular St. Bernard. In 2009, he co-produced Up in the Air, a comedy-drama starring George Clooney as a corporate downsizing specialist. Directed and co-written by his son Jason Reitman, the film garnered an Academy Award nod as best picture and collected the Oscar for best adapted screenplay. Reitman is survived by his wife Genevieve; his son; and daughters Catherine, a TV actress-writer-producer, and Caroline. - Reuters, 2/13/22...... Jon Appleton a composer, professor and pioneer in electronic and electro-acoustic music, who helped develop the Synclavier (an early digital synthesizer), died on Jan. 30 in White River Junction, Vt., at the age of 83, his son JJ Appleton disclosed on Feb. 9. Mr. Appleton, who was born in Los Angeles, became part of the faculty at Dartmouth College in 1967 and developed one of the first programs and studios for electronic music in the country. "That really was a pioneering vision of his to create a center for electronic music at Dartmouth and it propelled Dartmouth very quickly to the forefront of the work in electronic, electro-acoustic music," said colleague and friend Theodore Levin, the Arthur R. Virgin Professor of Music at Dartmouth. Levin added that Mr. Appleton "couldn't have been farther" from the stereotypical geek or gearhead, whirling knobs and moving slider bars to make weird sounds. Instead, "he was at heart a kind of musical romantic... his interest in electronic music was on the side of "electro-acoustic," as a way to extend the expressive possibilities and potential of acoustic musical instruments and the human voice. "I think he regarded his electronic music as a kind of folk music for our age," Levin added. The Synclavier, developed in 1975 by Appleton, Dartmouth Thayer School of Engineering research professor Sydney Alonso and student Cameron Jones, went on to become the Rolls Royce of the music industry, selling for $75,000 to $500,000, and used by Sting, Stevie Wonder, Frank Zappa, and many other musicians, according to Dartmouth Engineer magazine. "He was beloved by many of his students," said JJ Appleton. "He was a composer, a very accomplished one, but he was also a very accomplished professor and mentor to a lot of people." - Billboard, 2/10/22...... Musician Ian McDonald, a multi-instrumentalist who co-founded the highly influential prog rock outfit King Crimson and later became a founding member of the hard rock group Foreigner, died on Feb. 9 at his home in New York City. He was 75. McDonald's rep said the musician "passed away peacefully [while] surrounded by his family," and while no cause of death has been officially provided, his son said he died of cancer. Born in Osterley, England on June 25, 1946, McDonald gravitated to music as a youth, learning to play multiple instruments -- guitar, keyboards and reeds -- and playing in rock bands and orchestras. "I really liked jazz -- the big bands, Stan Kenton, stuff like that," he said. "When the rock 'n' roll came around, it didn't seem like a great leap to me. There was a great energy there that appealed to me." Guitarist Robert Fripp recruited McDonald, along with drummer Michael Giles, for the first lineup of King Crimson and the recording of the landmark In the Court of the Crimson King album during 1969; McDonald is credited as a co-writer on all five of the album's tracks, and "21st Century Schizoid Man" includes part of an instrumental piece "Three Score and Four," that he'd written prior to the band's formation. After Court and King Crimson's first lineup change, he and Giles formed a spin-off group that released one album, while McDonald returned as a guest for Crimson's 1974 album Red. His session work, meanwhile, included T. Rex's Electric Warrior album, Silverhead's Sixteen and Savaged, Herbie Mann's London Underground and more. After a subsequent move to New York he befriended future Stories singer Ian Lloyd, who suggested McDonald to guitarist Mick Jones as he was forming Foreigner. McDonald was with the band for its first four years and tours, serving as co-producer on the group's self-titled 1977 debut, Double Vision the following year, and Head Games in 1979, all of which went multi-platinum. "People used to say, 'How come you're doing this rock 'n' roll thing with Foreigner when you did all the prog rock things before," McDonald recalled. "It's not as if I'm someone learning a new trade or something like that. I just apply myself to whatever situation I'm in and try to make things as musical as possible. That's what I do, and that's what I look for when I produce records." McDonald was cut loose from Foreigner when Jones let half the band go in 1980, but bygones were bygones when he began playing occasional reunion dates 37 years later. "I actually left King Crimson sort of myself -- with Foreigner it was a different situation," McDonald explained. "Mick wanted to pare the group down to a four piece, so that's what happened. I didn't make the cut." He managed to stay busy, however, recording with former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett and Roxy Music/Uriah Heep/UK/Asia bassist-vocalist John Wetton. He reunited with Fripp to play on Judy Dyble's 2009 album Talking With Strangers and was also part of the 21st Century Schizoid Band with other King Crimson alumni. He worked with former King Crimson bandmate Greg Lake and Keith Emerson during their duo shows in 2019, and a guest performance with Asia in 2009 appeared on the group's Spirit of the Night: Live two years later. His first solo album, Drivers Eyes, came out during 2009, followed by Take Five Steps a decade later. Original Foreigner keyboardist Al Greenwood posted a message to his Facebook page saying McDonald was, "like a brother to me. A true musical genius, Ian's musicianship was an integral part of launching both King Crimson and Foreigner into legendary status. His contribution to Foreigner's success was immense. Ian was a dear friend, a kind and wonderful man, and I will miss him terribly." - Billboard/NME, 2/11/22.