Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on September 4th, 2023

After Alice Cooper called gender-affirming care for trans kids a "fad" in an interview with Stereogum.com in late August, the shock rocker's new line of makeup products, released in collaboration with Vampyre Cosmetics, have been dropped from the cosmetics brand's website. "I find it wrong when you've got a 6-year-old kid who has no idea. He just wants to play, and you're confusing him telling him, 'Yeah, you're a boy, but you could be a girl if you want to be'," Cooper said in the interview. "I mean, if you identify as a tree & I'm going, "Come on! What are we in, a Kurt Vonnegut novel?' It's so absurd, that it's gone now to the point of absurdity," he added. Research shows that gender-affirming care significantly reduces rates of depression and suicide among transgender youth. Alice also shared common anti-trans rhetoric about access to public bathrooms, claiming that allowing transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity would lead to violent crimes. In a statement posted on social media on Aug. 25, Vampyre Cosmetics wrote, "In light of recent statements by Alice Cooper we will no longer be doing a makeup collaboration. We stand with all members of the LGBTQIA+ community and believe everyone should have access to healthcare. All pre-order sales will be refunded." All of Cooper's makeup products have been removed from the company's website, vampyrecosmetics.com. The company describes itself as a "women owned, disabled owned and LGBT+ owned" on its site. "Our products are vegan, cruelty free and talc free. They are also super long lasting as they were specifically formulated for stage and screen." - Billboard, 8/26/23...... The cause of Jimmy Buffett's death on Sept. 1 at his home in Sag Harbor on Long Island, N.Y., has been revealed. According to a statement on his website, which was updated after the initial news of his death, the 76-year-old "Margaritaville" singer died from skin cancer. "Jimmy had been battling Merkel cell skin cancer for four years," the post reads. Merkel cell skin cancer is a rare type of skin cancer that usually appears as a single painless lump on sun-exposed skin and tends to spread quickly to other parts of the body, according to the National Cancer Institute and the Mayo Clinic. Buffett continued performing while undergoing cancer treatments, according to the statement, with his last performance a surprise 45-minute set during a Mac McAnally concert in Portsmouth, R.I., on July 2. News of the musician's death was confirmed on his website and social media accounts. He was "surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs," according to his site. Meanwhile, tributes continue to flow in after the loss of the legendary singer-songwriter. Elton John, Paul McCartney, Sammy Hagar, James Taylor and Pres. Joe Biden are just a few of the celebrities and dignitaries mourning Buffett on social media. "Jimmy Buffett was a unique and treasured entertainer," Elton John posted in an Instagram story. "His fans adored him and he never let them down. This is the saddest of news. A lovely man gone way too soon. Condolences to (his wife) Jane and the family from (my husband) David (Furnish) and me." Paul McCartney posted on his Instagram account: "It seems that so many wonderful people are leaving this world, and now Jimmy Buffett is one of them. I've known Jimmy for some time and found him to be one of the kindest and most generous people." Sammy Hagar, a rocker who shared Buffett's entrepreneurial spirit, called Buffett "the Godfather of lifestyle." "Jimmy started it all and took it farther than anyone. He taught us all how to live. Jimmy taught us all how to wear shorts, flip-flops and a worn out T-shirt, walk on stage or to your favorite restaurant, and be comfortable." Hagar continued: "Jimmy turned us onto Corona beer, tequila, and margaritas. The first time I met Jimmy he said 'Oh you're the guy that's trying to get my job' and I said, 'Of course, we all want to be you.' Rest in paradise, Mr. Buffett." Posting on Instagram, James Taylor said that Buffett "invented his own character, which, in a sense we all do: invent, assemble, inherit, or fall into our inner identity... But Jimmy was the founder of an actual tribe: tens of thousands of us made our way to where he was holding court, just to be near him." Pres. Biden noted that he and First Lady Jill Biden "had the honor to meet and get to know Jimmy over the years, and he was in life as he was performing on stage -- full of goodwill and love." Meanwhile, several of Buffett's songs have posthumously entered the Spotify.com charts following his death. According to music data site Kworb, Buffett's 1977 hit "Margaritaville" has made the sixth most played song in the United States. The singer's 2003 collaboration with Alan Jackson, "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere," is at No. 12, "Cheeseburger in Paradise" at No. 30, "Come Monday" at No. 44, and "Knee Deep" with Zac Brown Band at No. 45. - Billboard/Music-News.com, 9/3/23...... The Rolling Stones have shared a snippet of a new song titled "Angry" which will be featured on their forthcoming album Hackney Diamonds, which they first teased on their website www.hackneydiamonds.com in late August. In the latest hint of what's to come, a new post on X/Twitter links to a site called dontgetangrywithme.com, which takes users to a 16-second clip of "Angry." However, there have been reports of the website having trouble loading the teaser, oftentimes asking visitors to refresh the site and try again. Many fans have pointed out the issue to the band, whose social media manager has responded to the complaints with "Don't get angry with me," rather than offering any help. This potentially raises the possibility that the glitch was intentional. Hackney Diamonds would be the Stones' first new album of original material since 2005's A Bigger Bang, and their first music since the death of drummer Charlie Watts, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 80. - New Musical Express, 9/3/23...... Former Talking Heads guitarist/vocalist Jerry Harrison says that the recent re-release of their acclaimed 1983 Jonathan Demme-directed concert film Stop Making Sense has been somewhat of a "healing experience" for the band. Interviewed on the Kyle Meredith With podcast, Harrison said although the band underwent a tumultuous break-up, revisiting the film -- which has been restored to 4K and distributed by A24 -- has helped the members settle their differences, and played a significant role in bringing himself and the other former Heads -- David Byrne, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz -- together. "We own the film together, [so we had] to work together to make a decision," he told the host. "'Is A24 the right distributor for us, the right partner for us?' We had to have conversations about that, and this is something we did together. Then A24 is going like: 'Here's the offer -- we're going to get really behind this, if you help us.' And so it was like, 'obviously, we need to work together to make this a success.'" He continued, sharing that, luckily for fans, reuniting helped put aside any bad blood between them and made them realise that they could move on from past conflicts. "I think it's been somewhat of a healing experience for everybody," Harrison continued. "It's like, 'Yeah, we actually can work together and do this.' And this is something we're all proud of." Talking Heads will be appearing together on Sept. 11, for a live Q&A at the restored Stop Making Sense premiere at Toronto's International Film Festival. The film will then be screened in non-IMAX cinemas around the US on Sept. 22. The bandmates have had a complicated relationship since their breakup in 1991. They had previously reunited in 1999 to promote the 15th-anniversary reissue of the film and, in 2002, came together to perform four songs at the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony -- their only live performance since 1984. Meanwhile, a new 40th anniversary reissue of the film's accompanying soundtrack album has hit the Billboard Top 10 for the first time. The reissue of Stop Making Sense includes the complete concert for the first time, including two previously unreleased songs from the Pantages' shows. The expanded album was issued via digital download and vinyl LP. All versions of the album, old and new, are combined for tracking and charting purposes. In total in the week ending Aug. 24, Stop Making Sense sold 12,000 copies (up from a negligible sum the previous week) in the U.S. -- the act's best sales week for an album since Luminate began tracking music sales in 1991. Of the album's sales for the week, 95% came from vinyl sales -- about 11,000 copies. That, too, is the band's best sales week on vinyl in the Luminate era. On the Vinyl Albums chart, Stop Making Sense debuts at No. 4. - NME/Billboard, 8/31/23...... Today Aaron Neville describes himself as a happy, healthy 82-year-old man living on the New York farm he shares with his wife, photographer Sara A. Friedman, 56. Surrounded by animals and fresh air, the Neville Brothers frontman and five-time Grammy winner says he's found a peace that had long eluded him in a life as rocky as his tenor is smooth. An early stint in jail for stealing cars, along with a decades-long struggle with heroin addiction, brought him to his knees time and again. Neville, who credits his Catholic faith for giving him strength in his darkest times, relives the highs and lows of his tumultuous journey to success and sobriety in his new memoir Tell It Like It Is (out Sept. 5). "It's time," he says of writing the book. "I didn't want anyone else writing it. I was there, I know." - People, 9/11/23...... Aerosmith kicked off their US farewell tour with their first performance of "Adam's Apple" in five years, and a cover of a classic Fleetwood Mac track, "Stop Messin' Around," during a show at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Sept. 2. The band started their 18-song setlist with the hit "Back In The Saddle," (shared on YouTube) taken from their fourth album Rocks, followed by "Love In An Elevator." From there, they also broke out into renditions of "Cryin'" and "Janie's Got A Gun," before surprising fans by playing their 1975 track "Adam's Apple" -- the first time the song has been played live since 2018. Another highlight of the Philadelphia show came in the latter half of the set, when the Boston-based delivered a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Stop Messin' Around" to fans, with guitarist Joe Perry taking the lead on vocals. From there, the band delivered back-to-back classic tracks to close out the set, ending with performances of "Toys In the Attic," "Dream On" and "Walk This Way." Aerosmith announced details of their "Peace Out" farewell tour in May when they told fans that the upcoming tour would be their last and, although "it's not goodbye", it is "peace out" to their days on the road. This came over 50 years after they formed. The remainder of the tour resumes on Sept. 6 with a show at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, and follows through to Jan. 26, 2024, where the band will take their final bow in Montreal. Meanwhile, a new Aerosmith best-of package has debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Hard Rock Albums chart dated Sept. 2. Aerosmith's Greatest Hits earned 19,000 equivalent album units in the U.S., according to Luminate. That sum includes 10,000 units from album sales. The new compilation also starts at Nos. 4 and 7 on Top Rock Albums and Top Rock & Alternative Albums charts, respectively. Released Aug. 18, Greatest Hits Deluxe is the band's first such compilation that spans Aerosmith's full discography since its entire catalog was collected at Capitol/UMe. Previously, the group's catalog was housed at two labels -- Sony's Columbia and Universal's Geffen. Columbia released the act's studio albums from its debut in the 1970s through 1982, and again from 1997 through 2012. Geffen released Aerosmith's studio sets from 1985 through 1993. - NME/Billboard, 9/4/23...... Michael Jackson's daughter Paris Jackson and her siblings have led tributes to their father on what would have been his 65th birthday on Aug. 29. Michael died in 2009 at the age of 50, and Paris said in a series of Instagram Stories that he hated celebrating his birthday. "So today's my dad's birthday, and back when he was alive, he used to hate anybody acknowledging his birthday, wishing him a happy birthday, celebrating it, nothing like that," Paris told fans on social media. "He actually didn't want us to even know when his birthday was because he didn't want us to throw a party." Going on to criticize pressure from "superfans" for her to acknowledge his birthday, she added: "If you don't wish someone a happy birthday via social media, it apparently means that you don't love them, you don't care about them. There have been times where I don't post anything for my dad's birthday, and people lose their f---ing minds. They tell me to kill myself. And they're basically measuring my love for my own father based off of what I post on Instagram." Paris then shared a clip of herself onstage while opening for rock band Incubus in Colorado earlier in the day. - NME, 8/30/23...... ABBA's Agnetha Fältskog has returned with her first new music in 10 years, releasing the single "Where Do We Go From Here?" on Aug. 31 from her forthcoming new album A+, a reimagining of her 2013 solo album A. "A couple of years ago I heard one of the songs from my last album A on the radio," Fältskog says. "I have lots of fond memories from making that album, so I couldn't help but smile, time flies. Suddenly it hit me, what would the album sound like if we had made it today? I couldn't stop thinking about it. I reached out to the boys who produced A back in 2013 -- 'What would you guys think about reimagining A and making a totally new version of it?' They loved the idea! 'Let's try!'" She continued: "A while later I heard the first reworked song, and I must say I absolutely loved it! It sounded so fresh and modern, even better than I had imagined it!" "Where Do We Go From Here?" has been shared on Spotify.com, and A+ is due out Oct. 13. Meanwhile, Agnetha has hinted all four members of ABBA could reunite at the 2024 edition of Eurovision, the song contest that propelled them to superstardom in the 1970s. In an interview with the UK paper The Sun, Fältskog said "You never know anything about ABBA and when we're going to... well, I won't say anything about that. I'd rather be quiet" when asked if there were any plans to perform with her fellow ABBA members at Eurovision. The ABBA Voyage virtual concert series is currently set to run in London into 2024, with plans reported for the experience to be taken on a world tour. - NME/Music-News.com, 8/31/23...... A tribute band that was sued by Earth, Wind & Fire for trademark infringement is firing back with a bold counterargument: That the famed R&B act has actually abandoned any intellectual property rights to its name. In a court filing on Aug. 30, the smaller band -- which calls itself Earth Wind & Fire Legacy Reunion -- argued that the original group had allowed so many tribute bands to use its name without repercussion that it can no longer claim exclusive rights to it. Due to the unchecked third-party use of the phrase, [EW&F] has abandoned 'Earth, Wind & Fire,' and [the name] has lost its trademark significance," wrote attorneys for Substantial Music Group, which operates Legacy Reunion." According to Earth, Wind & Fire's lawyers, the use of "Legacy Reunion" was not a clear enough distinction. The lawsuit cited alleged examples of angry consumers who mistakenly bought tickets for the wrong band, including one that read, "This was not Earth Wind and Fire. NO Philip Bailey or Verdine White. It was just a band playing Earth Wind and Fire music. I purchased 3 tickets and I was very disappointed. It was truly false advertisement. I want my money back!!!!!" The filing came as a so-called "answer and counterclaims" -- a standard response to any lawsuit, in which a defendant like Legacy Reunion can formally deny the accusations and level their own at their opponent. In its counterclaims, Legacy Reunion argued that the band's lack of enforcement against other tribute bands means that its trademark to "Earth, Wind & Fire" should be formally "cancelled." - Billboard, 8/30/23...... In 1976, Cindy Wilson was inspired to form the B-52s with her brother Ricky Wilson and fellow musicians Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider and Keith Strickland following an impromptu jam session at a friend's house in Athens, Ga. After more than 40 years and hits like "Love Shack" and "Roam," the B-52s are still rocking. "It's been wonderful," says Wilson, 66. "When we started out, we were just letting our own freak flag fly. But we represented for a lot of people being proud of who you are." Since 2022 Wilson, Pierson and Schneider (Ricky died of AIDS in 1985, while Strickland announced in 2013 he would no longer join the band on the road) have been on their farewell tour, set to wrap in November. "There's an element of sadness," Wilson says. "But we try to be in the moment and have a good time. We've kept our playfulness." Wilson -- who has two adult children with her husband of 38 years, Keith Bennett -- recently recorded the new solo album Realms, out now. And with a documentary about the B-52s in the works, she says fans have yet to see the last of them. "You'll hear about us!" - People, 8/28/23...... A global search appeal for Paul McCartney's original Höfner 500/1 Violin Bass guitar which the Beatles legend played on such hits as "Love Me Do," "She Loves You" and "Twist and Shout" has been organized by husband and wife team Scott and Naomi Jones, who are journalists and TV producers, and the Höfner guitar company. Since launching on Sept. 2, "The Lost Bass" project has received hundreds of strong leads to track down "the most important bass in history" after the Höfner company's Nick Wass told the BBC that Sir Paul asked him about the guitar during a recent conversation, which kickstarted the search to find it. "It's not clear where it was stored, who might have been there," Wass said. "For most people, they will remember it it's the bass that made the Beatles." The bass, which disappeared in Jan. 1969 when the Beatles were in London recording the "Get Back/Let It Be" sessions, was the first bass McCartney ever bought -- he purchased it in 1961 for the equivalent of $38 in Hamburg, Germany. Jones first became interested in the guitar's whereabouts after watching McCartney headline Glastonbury last year. He approached Höfner only to discover they were already having conversations about tracking it down: "Paul said to Höfner 'surely if anyone can find this guitar, it's you guys', and that's how it all came about," Jones said. "Now we're working together on this. Nick has more technical knowledge about this guitar than anyone on the planet, and me and my Naomi are bringing some investigative skills." Since the project launched, the team has already received hundreds of emails, with Jones saying that two in particular were picked out because the information "instantly marries up with something that was known before." "We didn't expect to get necessarily thousands of super-hot leads instantly what I'm anticipating is that people who know something will probably just sort of reflect on what they know and then come forward at some point," he added. Jones concedes that it was possible someone could "innocently" own the bass "without realizing what they've got." He added that it's "worth looking at [finding] the John Lennon acoustic guitar" that he used to write "I Want To Hold Your Hand." "That guitar was stolen from a Beatles Christmas show in Finsbury Park in 1963 but it turned up 51 years later in America and somebody bought that guitar for innocently for 175 dollars." A photo of McCartney playing "The Lost Bass" in 1969 has been posted on TheLostBass.com's Twitter/X page. - Billboard, 9/4/23...... In 1965, New Yorker Bob Guccione founded Penthouse magazine and became one of the wealthiest men in America, taking on Playboy and pushing the world of adult entertainment further than ever before. The new A&E two-part series, Secrets of Penthouse, premieres Sept. 4 and 5 at 9:00 p.m./8:00 central and streams on the network's app the next day. Secrets of Penthouse reveals the extraordinary story behind the rise and fall of Guccione, whose magazine featured more explicit erotic content than Playboy, a special style of soft-focus photography, and in-depth reporting of government corruption scandals and the art world. When Guccione died in 2010, he had lost his entire fortune. Now, with access inside the family and to those who knew him best, many of whom have never spoken before, this series reveals the truth about Bob Guccione and explores the impact he had on those closest to him. - Canoe.com, 9/2/23...... Jack Sonni, known as the "other guitar player" in Dire Straits, died on Aug. 30 at the age of 68. Born Dec. 9, 1954 in Indiana, Penn., Sonni's passion for music began at a young age, when he learned various instruments, including piano, trumpet and the six-string, which he mastered. Sonni furthered his career with a relocation to New York, and he'd make his mark in the history books as the "other guitar player in Dire Straits," a reference he was happy to share on his official biography. Dire Straits' lead guitarist is, of course, frontman Mark Knopfler, widely recognized by his peers as one of the finest to ever play the instrument. The two axemen reportedly met in a guitar shop, after which Sonni was invited to record parts for the band's fifth studio album. The result was Brothers In Arms, which led the Official U.K. Albums Chart for 14 weeks, and reigned over the Billboard 200 for nine weeks in 1985. The album smashed records around the world, shifting an estimated 30 million copies worldwide, and won two Grammys (best music video, short form for the title track, and best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal for the Billboard Hot 100 leader "Money For Nothing"). When the rockers embarked on a major world tour in support, Sonni wore a distinctive red coat. That tour, too, was a record-setter. In Australia, fans bought more than 950,000 tickets, a record that stood for decades. Sonni played guitar synthesizer on album cut "The Man's Too Strong" and performed on stage with the band for the Wembley Stadium leg of the historic 1985 Live Aid concerts. Following the birth of his daughters, Sonni calling time as on his career as a musician in 1988, instead pivoting to marketing. He went on serve as vice president of marketing for Guitar Center, a role that kept him connected with his beloved instrument. In recent years, he played alongside fellow alum on Dire Straits Legacy, "born from our love and respect for the music of Dire Straits, and to bring the music to fans who have been starved of hearing it played live by the musicians who made it, for far too long," DSL wrote in a 2018 statement. His cause of death has not yet been revealed. - Billboard, 9/1/23.

Jimmy Buffett, the singer-songwriter who turned his beach-bum lifestyle into a billion-dollar empire of restaurants, resorts and frozen liquor concoctions, died on Sept. 1 of an as yet undisclosed cause. He was 76. "Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs," according to a statement posted to Buffett's official website and social media pages. "He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many." In May, Buffett acknowledged that an unspecified illness had forced him to reschedule summer concerts, and that he had been recently hospitalized. Born James William Buffett on Christmas day 1946 in Pascagoula, Miss., and raised in the port town of Mobile, Ala., Buffett graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Miss., and went from busking the streets of New Orleans to playing six nights a week at Bourbon Street clubs. "Down to Earth," his first record, was released in 1970 and seven more would follow before his breakthrough hit "Come Monday," from his fourth studio LP Living and Dying in Time, peaked at No. 30. Then came his signature hit "Margaritaville." Released on Feb. 14, 1977, "Margaritaville" is the unhurried portrait of a loafer on his front porch that quickly took on a life of its own, becoming a state of mind for those "wastin' away," an excuse for a life of low-key fun and escapism for those "growing older, but not up." "What seems like a simple ditty about getting blotto and mending a broken heart turns out to be a profound meditation on the often painful inertia of beach dwelling," Spin magazine wrote in 2021. "The tourists come and go, one group indistinguishable from the other. Waves crest and break whether somebody is there to witness it or not. Everything that means anything has already happened and you're not even sure when." Taken from his 1977 album Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes, "Margaritaville" spent 22 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 8. In 2016, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for its cultural and historic significance, and became a karaoke standard that helped brand Key West, Fla., as a distinct sound of music and a destination known the world over. "There was no such place as Margaritaville," Buffett told the Arizona Republic in 2021. "It was a made-up place in my mind, basically made up about my experiences in Key West and having to leave Key West and go on the road to work and then come back and spend time by the beach." Buffett said he was actually in Austin, Tex., when the inspiration struck for "Margaritaville." He and a friend had stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant before she dropped him at the airport for a flight home to Key West, so they got to drinking margaritas. "And I kind of came up with that idea of this is just like Margarita-ville," he said. "She kind of laughed at that and put me on the plane. And I started working on it." The song soon inspired restaurants and resorts, turning the musician's alleged desire for the simplicity of island life into a multimillion brand. He would land at No. 18 in Forbes' list of the Richest Celebrities of All Time with a net worth of $1 billion. Although music critics were never very kind to Buffett or his catalogue, a mix of country, pop, folk and rock added instruments and tonalities more commonly found in the Caribbean, his legions of fans, called "Parrotheads," regularly turned up for his concerts wearing toy parrots, cheeseburgers, sharks and flamingos on their heads, leis around their necks and loud Hawaiian shirts. "It's pure escapism is all it is," he told the Republic. "I'm not the first one to do it, nor shall I probably be the last. But I think it's really a part of the human condition that you've got to have some fun. You've got to get away from whatever you do to make a living or other parts of life that stress you out. I try to make it at least 50/50 fun to work and so far it's worked out." Buffett's evolving brand began in 1985 with the opening of a string of "Margaritaville"-themed stores and restaurants in Key West, followed in 1987 with the first Margaritaville Café nearby. Over the course of the next two decades, several more of each opened throughout Florida, New Orleans and California. The brand expanded to dozens of categories, including resorts, apparel and footwear for men and women, a radio station, a beer brand, ice tea, tequila and rum, home dcor, food items like salad dressing, Margaritaville Crunchy Pimento Cheese & Shrimp Bites and Margaritaville Cantina Style Medium Chunky Salsa, the Margaritaville at Sea cruise line and restaurants, including Margaritaville Restaurant, JWB Prime Steak and Seafood, 5 o'Clock Somewhere Bar & Grill and LandShark Bar & Grill. There also was a Broadway-bound jukebox musical, "Escape to Margaritaville," a romantic comedy in which a singer-bartender called Tully falls for the far more career-minded Rachel, who is vacationing with friends and hanging out at Margaritaville, the hotel bar where Tully works. Buffett also was the author of numerous books including Where Is Joe Merchant? and A Pirate Looks At Fifty and added movies to his resume as co-producer and co-star of an adaptation of Carl Hiaasen's novel Hoot. Among those paying tribute to the laid-back musician on Twitter/X are former president Bill Clinton, who wrote Buffett's music "brought happiness to millions of people. I'll always be grateful for his kindness, generosity, and great performances through the years." Former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones posted that Buffett "lived life to the fullest and the world will miss him." Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys wrote: "Love and Mercy, Jimmy Buffett." Buffett is survived by his wife, Jane; daughters, Savannah and Sarah; and son, Cameron. - AP, 9/2/23.