Posted by Administrator on November 12th, 2024
On Nov. 11 The Who's Roger Daltrey announced plans for a 2025 UK solo tour set to launch on Apr. 20 at Brighton Dome. Daltrey will also play London (4/21), Southend-on-Sea (4/23), Wolverhampton (4/24), Dundee (4/26) and Glasgow (4/28), Edinburgh (4/30), and Gateshead (5/1) before wrapping at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall on May 4. "Here we go again!," Daltrey said about the tour. "After touring the US with this band of phenomenal musicians, I can't wait to get back on the road in the UK with these shows. It's a joy to be on stage performing -- up close and personal for the audience, chatting with them and playing familiar songs in an unfamiliar way." Meanwhile, Daltrey's surviving Who co-founder Pete Townshend recently revealed that he found Daltrey's pro-Brexit stance "very problematic." Townshend himself voted "Remain" in the 2016 EU referendum and told the UK's Daily Telegraph he didn't agree with his bandmate's stance on Brexit: "[That was] very problematic for me. I think he was wrong. But we are a nation divided down the middle." Despite Daltrey's views on Brexit, the guitarist added: "He's not a fascist Right-winger, he's a very decent man. But it felt to me that with respect to the arts, and particularly to music, the free flow of life from all of the history of Europe was going to be denied to our young people." The Who recently confirmed they would "definitely" return in 2025, according to Townshend. - New Musical Express, 11/11/24...... The estate of Jerry Garcia has partnered with an AI voice company to bring the late Grateful Dead guitarist, singer and songwriter's AI-recreated voice to its Iconic Listening Experience on the ElevenReader app. Now, Deadheads using the app can hear Garcia's voice read out audiobooks, e-books, articles, poetry, fan stories, PDFs and more in 32 different languages. In addition to the ElevenReader, Garcia's voice model will also be used in various upcoming projects associated with the Jerry Garcia Foundation. This could include narrated documentaries, audio art exhibits and more. Garcia is the latest in a string of partnerships between ElevenLabs and the estates of famous celebrities. Already, the AI voice company has rolled out voice models for Judy Garland, James Dean, Burt Reynolds and Sir Laurence Olivier to its Iconic Listening Experience. According to a company spokesperson, ElevenLabs worked "in close collaboration with the Jerry Garcia Estate to ensure that the reproduction of Garcia's voice was as authentic and true to his legacy as possible." - Billboard, 11/11/24...... Bruce Springsteen opened his first post-election concert in Toronto on Nov. 6 with a rousing performance of "Long Walk Home." "This is a fighting prayer for my country," Springsteen told the crowd at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto as he and the E Street Band launched into the 2007 song "Long Walk Home" from 2007's Magic album. The band then tore into the mid-tempo rocker whose lyrics felt especially timely in light of Springsteen's vocal, emphatic support of Vice President Kamala Harris' losing campaign against former and now future president Donald Trump. "Last night I stood at your doorstep/ Trying to figure out what went wrong," he sang on the song with the poignant refrain: "It's gonna be a long walk home/ Hey pretty darling, don't wait up for me/ Gonna be a long walk home." Though he didn't comment further on the relevance of the song's themes, their plainspoken poetry did the talking for him. "My father said 'Son, we're lucky in this town/ It's a beautiful place to be born/ It just wraps its arms around you/ Nobody crowds you and nobody goes it alone,'" he sang, followed by another verse layered with Springsteen's signature dream of a better tomorrow and faith in the resilience of the American spirit: "Your flag flyin' over the courthouse/ Means certain things are set in stone/ Who we are, what we'll do and what we won't." The Boss had been all-in for Harris, throwing his weight behind the 11th-hour candidacy by filming the moving "Hope and Dreams" campaign video in which he said, "This election is about a group of folks who want to fundamentally undermine our American way of life. Donald Trump does not understand this country, its history, or what it means to be deeply American. I want a president who reveres the Constitution, who wants to protect and guide our great democracy, who believes in the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power, who will fight for women's rights and a woman's right to choose, and who wants to create a middle class economy that serves all our citizens." Fan video of the performance can be viewed on YouTube. - Billboard, 11/7/24...... Appearing on Steve-O's Wild Ride! podcast, Paul Stanley has said KISS' upcoming avatar show will be like "Cirque Du Soleil meets Star Wars and a KISS concert." The future production will be overseen by Pophouse Entertainment, the company behind ABBA's Voyage show, in which the Swedish pop quartet were represented by holographic virtual avatars on stage. "What we'll be doing with these amazing avatars will take us to another place, another level. Now, those [preview images] images at the Garden were really -- I had mixed feelings about showing those because they're so early on, they look nothing like that," the guitarist/vocalist said. He continued: "I mean, the avatars are identical. I mean, they look like us. And I think the idea was really just to show people that we're going to move on and continue, but it won't be like that. And what we're putting together with George Lucas and Pophouse, this amazing company out of Sweden, is an immersive experience that you'll come to, and there'll be heat and fire and wind and things flying around. The idea of us making a recreation of a concert, I mean, how long can you look and go, 'Wow, that looks just like an amplifier'? That's not what we're doing. I would say it's Cirque Du Soleil meets Star Wars and a KISS concert. So it's gonna be amazing." Pophouse acquired KISS' catalog, brand name and IP in April, while the band first unveiled their 'new era' at the final show of ftheir farewell tour last December in Madison Square Garden. After leaving the stage, the band members' avatars were revealed, and they went on to perform "God Gave Rock And Roll To You." Stanley's full interview can be viewed on YouTube. - NME, 11/9/24...... David Gilmour brought the first of five nonconsecutive shows in November to New York's Madison Square Garden on Nov. 9. Prior to the show beginning in earnest, Gilmour's bassist Guy Pratt (also a member of Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets band) came out to politely but firmly urge the audience to stay "present" throughout the show and avoid the urge to watch the entire thing through the screen of a cell phone -- and more importantly, keep your phone's flashlight off ("David hates that"). The songs from The Dark Side of the Moon in the first half of his set got the biggest roar of approval, and while it was immensely satisfying to hear faithful renderings of tunes like "Breathe (In the Air)" and "Time," his stripped-down take on "The Great Gig in the Sky" during the night's second half was arguably more memorable. The visuals on this tour behind his new solo album Luck and Strange aren't quite as theatrical or prop heavy as what former bandmate Roger Waters brings to the road, but it boasts its fair share of production flourishes, from bouncing inflatable balls during "High Hopes" to harrowing video animations to blazing green lasers. For the encore, Gilmour and his band performed "Comfortably Numb" from what looked like a prison cell of white lights. Despite the show featuring eight songs from Luck and Strange, the MSG crowd stayed present, riveted, mostly seated and "comfortably numb" until the very end. Meanwhile, in a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, Gilmour claims he was "bullied" into making the final Pink Floyd album The Endless River in 2014. Gilmour explained that while recording The Division Bell in 1994, they'd produced many hours worth of ambient music that was originally meant to make up a new instrumental record. However, when this release never happened, Gilmour claims their record label then insisted that the ambient recordings were released. Gilmour explained: "I'll tell you: When we did that album, there was a thing that Andy Jackson, our engineer, had put together called 'The Big Spliff' -- a collection of all these bits and pieces of jams [from the sessions for The Division Bell] that was out there on bootlegs. A lot of fans wanted this stuff that we'd done in that time, and we thought we'd give it to them. My mistake, I suppose, was in being bullied by the record company to have it out as a properly paid-for Pink Floyd record. It should have been clear what it was -- it was never intended to be the follow-up to The Division Bell. But, you know, it's never too late to get caught in one of these traps again." Gilmour also addressed rumors that Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon was written to synchronize with the 1939 classic movie The Wizard Of Oz during a Nov. 7 appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. When asked if the theory was true, Gilmour joked: "Well of course it was." He went on: "We listened to it Polly [Samson, Gilmore's wife] and I, years ago. Somebody said you put the needle on and on the third roar of the MGM lion, you put the needle on for the beginning of 'Dark Side' and there's these strange synchronicities that happen." Gilmour then admitted: "There are these strange coincidences." In 2016, it was also suggested that the album syncs perfectly with Star Wars: The Force Awakens by another fan theory after a video was uploaded of the album playing in time with the movie. Gilmour's Tonight Show interview has been shared on YouTube, as well as his performance of "Dark and Velvet Nights" from Luck and Strange. - Billboard/NME, 11/10/24...... Robert Plant has starred in a new commercial for Italy's Trenitalia rail service and its Frecciarossa high-speed trains. The new ad, which has been shared on YouTube, features clips of the singer at a terminal in Rome, travelling on a train, and performing with his acoustic band, Saving Grace -- whose cover of Low's "Everybody's Song" soundtracks the ad. Plant is also seen having coffee with Saving Grace vocalist Suzy Dian at the first-class Freccia Lounge, and chatting to her in another moment while travelling in one of Frecciarossa's Executive Class train cars. Earlier in 2024, Plant and Dian completed a UK headline tour, and performed as part of this year's Teenage Cancer Trust concert series at London's Royal Albert Hall in March. Following the UK dates, Plant and Alison Krauss set off on a North American tour that wrapped in September, having last toured together in 2022, which itself was their first complete tour in 12 years. In June, they shared a new version of Led Zeppelin's classic track "When The Levee Breaks," the duo's first single since their second collaborative album Raise The Roof was released in 2021. The pair also performed Zeppelin classics "The Battle Of Evermore" and "Rock And Roll," as well as a medley that includes "Gallows Pole." It was recently revealed that the long awaited Zeppelin documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin has been completed and is finally set for a cinema release. The authorized film features new interviews with Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, as well as rare archival interviews with the late John Bonham, who died in 1980. An official release date for the documentary is yet to be announced. It is the first time that Led Zeppelin have participated in a documentary in 50 years. - NME, 11/8/24...... In other Led Zeppelin-related news, Jimmy Page's ongoing feud with neighbor Robbie Williams has reignited over plans to fell a "fungus-infested" tree. Williams has made a request to the Kensington and Chelsea Council to axe a tree in his garden, after his tree surgeon Michael Goatly has said the Norway maple is reportedly afflicted with honey fungus. But now an objection has been apparently submitted by Williams' neighbors. Page has not been explicitly listed in the objection, but he did previously object to Williams' plans to cut down trees last year. "There is no explanation as to why this tree need be felled, only a series of photos showing parts of it are damaged," the objection reads. "Should there not be a written report that accompanies each proposed felling and what courses of action could be done before the final resort of felling this tree?" The pair, who live in West London, have been involved in a long-running feud since 2014. Page originally objected to Williams' home renovations after concerns its vibrations would cause "catastrophic damage." Despite the Take That frontman being granted permission to renovate his reported £17.5 million home, Williams complained that he couldn't move into his home, and later calling the Led Zeppelin guitarist "mentally ill" -- for which he then apologized. The feud flared up once again in 2018 after reportedly Williams wanted to build an underground gym and pool, with Page once again citing his fears that the vibrations caused from the renovations could cause "irreversable damage." That same year, Kensington and Chelsea Council granted the singer permission to go ahead with the changes. - NME, 11/8/24...... On Nov. 8 The Beatles' purported "final song" "Now and Then" was nominated for Record of the Year and Best Rock Performance at the 2025 Grammy Awards -- marking the first time a song created with the assistance of artificial intelligence has earned a Grammy nomination. When "Now and Then" first came out in late 2023, the disclosure that it was finalized utilizing AI caused an uproar. At the time, many fans assumed that the remaining Fab Four members -- Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr -- must have used generative AI to deepfake the late John Lennon. That was not actually the case. Instead, the Beatles used a form of AI known as "stem separation" to help them clean up a 47-year-old, low-fidelity demo recorded by Lennon around 1977 and to make it useable in a finished master recording. However, some fans have drawn attention to the use of AI to isolate Lennon's original demo recording in the song. One post on X/Twitter noted (in Spanish): "Everything is fine with The Beatles - But this Grammy nomination is quite forced - And on top of that with AI to try to separate John Lennon's vocals from the piano of the original demo." This was countered by another X user, however, who argued: "The Beatles DID NOT USE AI to create a song but rather to isolate John Lennon's voice from a record that already existed and recorded new parts in a traditional way. winning the Grammy would be the least they could do for the last song made by the greatest band of all time." The two nominations for "Now and Then" mark the Fab Four's first nominations at the Grammy Awards in decades and the fourth time the group has been nominated in the Record of the Year category. They were first nominated in the category in the mid-1960s with "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and were later nominated for "Hey Jude" and "Let It Be" as well. The Beatles have never won in this category. With this nomination, the Beatles are setting the record for the longest span between nominations for any artist in history. However, Lennon and Harrison, who died in 1980 and 2001 respectively, do not meet Grammy eligibility requirements as they did not contribute newly recorded elements to the track, and are not listed in the official nomination. The winners of the 68th Grammy Awards are set to be revealed at a ceremony on Feb. 2, 2025 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. - Billboard/NME, 11/8/24...... In other Grammy-related news, former president Jimmy Carter is on track to become the oldest Grammy winner ever for his audiobook Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration. Pres. Carter, 100 years old, is nominated for best audio book, narration and storytelling recording. If Pres. Carter wins, this would be his fourth Grammy, which is more than any other president. He previously won in 2007 for Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis, in 2016 for A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety, and in 2019 for Faith -- A Journey for All. Two other former U.S. presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, have each won two Grammys. The oldest Grammy winner record is currently held by blues pianist Pinetop Perkins, who was 97 in 2011 when he won best traditional blues album for Joined at the Hip. He is followed by the late Tony Bennett (95 in 2022), and the late George Burns (also 95 in 1991). Carter, who was president from 1977-1980, has had the longest life of any U.S. president. - Billboard, 11/11/24...... Sting has said he had doubts about appearing on as a mega mentor for Gwen Stefani and Snoop Dogg's teams on NBC's singing competition series The Voice on Nov. 11. "I was reticent, to be honest," Sting says. "The premise of the show is frightening to me, this sort of competition. I think art and music aren't really competitions. If you win the U.S. Open, you are the best player at that particular time. But singing is different. Everybody's voice is unique." But the former The Police frontman says he found the experience rewarding. "It was very nourishing to see a small piece advice that you're given and then their next run through, they put that into action and the whole thing is raised," he says. Sting, a former schoolteacher, adds he found the contestants needed very little instruction. "I'm still a student of music, but I've been doing it for a long time, so I can give them a tiny hint," he says, "but the standard of singing is so high, there's nothing you can say. They know how to sing. There's little bits of presentation or posture or the way that you present yourself I can probably help, but technically, they're great singers." As far as the best advice he ever got from a mentor came from his dad and he clearly took it to heart. "He said go to sea. See the world. Make something of yourself," he says. "Basically, take a risk." On Nov. 12, Sting's stripped-down "Sting 3.0" tour starts a five-date run in Los Angeles. The outing wraps in Sweden in July. Meanwhile, Sting has revealed his thoughts on the legacy of The Police's "Every Breath You Take" following the numerous allegations against Sean "Diddy" Combs. In 1997, Diddy sampled The Police's 1983 chart-topping song for his own release, "I'll Be Missing You." Now that Diddy is facing charges for sex trafficking, racketeering and transporting for prostitution, Sting has shared his thoughts on the disgraced rapper's sample. In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, Sting replied when asked if he thought the Police hit had been polluted by Diddy's cover: "No. I mean, I don't know what went on [with Diddy]. But it doesn't taint the song at all for me. It's still my song." In 2023, Diddy said that he was forced to pay Sting £4,020 ($5,000) each day for the rest of his life for the sample. However, he quickly backtracked the comment, saying he was "was joking! It's called being facetious! Me and @OfficialSting have been friends for a long time! He never charged me $3K or $5K a day for 'Missing You.' He probably makes more than $5K a day from one of the biggest songs in history." Diddy was first arrested in September, and was charged with sex trafficking, transporting for prostitution and more. He was denied bail after offering a $50 million bond and was reportedly placed on suicide watch as he awaits trial in a Brooklyn, NY jail. The artist has since appealed against the bail denial. His trial date is scheduled for May 5, 2025. - Billboard/NME, 11/8/24...... Quincy Jones was laid to rest in a private ceremony in Los Angeles on Nov. 10, a week after his death in the Bel Air section of L.A. on Nov. 3 at age 91. The family of the 28-time Grammy-winning producer, arranger and composer said in a statement to The Associated Press that the "intimate ceremony included Mr. Jones' seven children, his brother, two sisters, and immediate family members." The family did not reveal the cemetery where the ceremony took place, and added that they remain "enormously grateful for the outpouring of condolences and tributes from his friends and fans from around the world." A larger, more public memorial is also being planned. Tributes to the music giant after his death came from some of the biggest figures in media and politics. Saturday Night Live, which he once hosted, paid tribute to him a night before his service with a memorial photo in a quiet moment of the show. In lieu of flowers, Jones' family asks for donations to JazzFoundation.org. - Billboard, 11/11/24.