Eddie Money, the '70s and '80s classic rock star who became rock radio's most relatable "everyman" with such top 40 hit singles as "Baby, Hold On," "Two Tickets to Paradise" and "Take Me Home Tonight," died on Sept. 4 after being diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer earlier in 2019. He was 70. Born Edward Mahoney in Brooklyn on Mar. 21, 1949, Money was the son of a New York City policeman who seemed destined to follow in his dad's footsteps when he attended the New York Police Academy. At night, however, he moonlighted as Eddie Money in a rock & roll band and decided he loved rock more than police work. Money quit the academy and moved to Berkeley, Calif., where he sang in Bay Area bars and became managed by local promoter Bill Graham, who negotiated a contract for the rough-voiced singer with Columbia Records. His self-titled debut LP was released in 1977 and spawned two Top 40 hits, "Baby, Hold On" and "Two Tickets to Paradise," which became his signature turnes and eventually were certified double-platinum by the RIAA. Money continued to release hit albums and singles for the next several years, including 1979's Life For the Taking and 1982's No Control, which followed his debut album to platinum status. After the latter LP he maintained a low profile for about three years as he worked to overcome a drug problem, but made a huge comeback in 1986 with "Take Me Home Tonight," which would become his biggest hit.The single -- which featured '60s pop legend Ronnie Spector and borrowed the iconic hook and drum beat from her own biggest smash with The Ronettes, "Be My Baby" -- peaked at No. 4 on the pop chart, while its striking black and white video established Money as an MTV star as well as a radio one, and he became a familiar face in the early days of MTV. He continued his chart success with such singles as "I Wanna Go Back" (No. 14, 1987), "Endless Nights" (No. 24, 1987) "Walk on Water" (No. 9, 1988) and "The Love in Your Eyes" (No. 24, 1989). His final top 20 entry came in 1990 with the greatest hits LP single "Peace in Our Time," and he faded from the mainstream with the rise of alternative rock in the '90s. 
Nevertheless, Money remained a draw on the touring circuit, his songs continued to be heard on classic rock radio and also appeared in a variety of commercials, TV shows and movies -- with "Take Me Home Tonight" even providing the title of a 2011 retro comedy film set in 1988. Money's engaging presence made him a natural fit on reality TV, and he starred in the AXS cable channel family show Real Money in 2018, during which his recent health struggles were revealed. His final album, Brand New Day, had been scheduled for release this July, but delayed after the singer was forced to undergo a heart valve procedure earlier that month, which reportedly led to him developing pneumonia. "I missed the boat when it came to the big money," Money once said, perhaps referring to AOR giants in his field like Bruce Springsteen or john Mellencamp, but his attitude remained positive. "The kids aren't in jail, they're not in rehab, nobody's wrecked the car this week and there's still milk in the refrigerator," he said in a 2018 interview with Rolling Stone. "I'm having a good month." A statement from his family on Sept. 13 said that Money "passed away peacefully early this morning." It continued: "It is with heavy hearts that we say goodbye to our loving husband and father. We cannot imagine our world without him. We are grateful that he will live on forever through his music." Among the fellow rock stars paying tribute to him on Twitter were Sammy Hagar ("He put up a good fight. And his songs will play on forever"), Paul Stanley ("I remember his first album which I LOVED. A fine singer through the years), and Rick Springfield ("So sad to hear our rock and roll brother Eddie Money passed away this morning. Love to your family and great memories of you Eddie"). - Billboard, Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock, 9/13/19.
Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, who plays a wealthy art dealer in the new movie The Burnt Orange Heresy, attended the Venice Film Festival on the first weekend of September to help promote the closing film from director Giuseppe Capotondi. Jagger, with actor Donald Sutherland who also appears in the film, quickly turned political when they were asked to comment on a peaceful demonstration about climate change and anti-immigration policies that overtook the red carpet earlier in the day. "I'm absolutely behind that," said Jagger of the protest. "I'm glad they're doing that because they're the ones who are going to inherit the planet." He then blasted U.S. Pres. Donald Trump for pulling out of the Paris Agreement. "We are in a very difficult situation at the moment, especially in the U.S., where all the environmental controls that were put in place -- that were just about adequate -- have been rolled back by the current administration so much that they are being wiped out," he said. "The U.S. should be the world leader in environmental control but now it has decided to go the other way," Jagger added. Jagger also talked about his role in the new movie. "I'm not really a collector. I throw things away," he said. "I buy things and then lose them. I'm a completely hopeless collector. I'm the complete opposite." - The Hollywood Reporter, 9/7/19...... 
I Am Woman, a biopic of '70s Australian singer and women's rights pioneer Helen Reddy, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 5. The principal cast ofI Am Woman is Tilda Cobham-Hervey as Reddy, Evan Peters as Reddy's manager and (now ex) second husband Jeff Wold, and Danielle Macdonald as trailblazing music journalist and Reddy's close friend Lilian Roxon. While director Unjoo Moon knew Reddy well, met Jeff Wold and had the "whole family involved" in the biopic, its star, 24-year-old Cobham-Hervey, chose not to meet Helen in preparation for the role. Hers is not the voice we hear in the film, but rather a combination of Reddy and Australian singer Chelsea Cullen. The soundtrack includes an original song, "Revolution," sung by Reddy's granddaughter Lily Donat and written and produced by Alex Hope (Alanis Morissette). Moon says that Reddy is endorsing his film "absolutely." "She really gave it her blessing. She really enjoyed it. And her whole family, 'cause obviously it includes a lot of them in the film," he says. Moon added his film is still in need of a distribution deal. Reddy, who scored 15 top 40 singles on the pop chart with her signature tune "I Am Woman" going all the way to No. 1, officially retired in 2002 but still performs periodically, most recently in Las Vegas in 2015. She also sang "I Am Woman" a cappella at the 2017 Women's March in Los Angeles. Moon says he's still looking for a distributor for I Am Woman. - Billboard, 9/6/19...... English New Wave singer Gary Numan, who scored a No. 9 single in the U.S. in 1979 with "Cars," has reflected on the 40th anniversary of his sole U.S. hit and top 20 album The Pleasure Principle from which the single was taken. "I'd been out to buy a bass guitar, because I wanted to learn to play bass guitar better... I thought it would be useful in the studio," Numan says. "Still living in my mum and dad's house, I came home from London, and having bought the guitar -- I've still got it, actually -- I took it out of the case, I put it on my lap, and I played [the first four notes of 'Cars']. And I thought, 'Oh, that sounds all right.' The very first thing! The very first four notes that I played when I picked the thing up, having not been a bass player, was f---ing 'Cars'! There is no way you can put that down to any kind of talent... That is just as lucky as you can get!" Numan added that it "took me 10 minutes to write that entire song, all the parts for it. I mean, there's only three... another 20 minutes to put the music to the lyrics, but I think I'd done the whole song in 30 minutes... It's the quickest song I ever wrote, and I'm still learning ridiculously well from it today, 40 years later. That's luck! So for me to ever feel that I was special would be ridiculous." Numan, who has scored more than a dozen top 20 singles in the U.K., says he still hopes to have another hit in the U.S. "Every time I make a record and I put out a single, I still think that there's a chance that it might do something. I'm amazed that I've got the credibility that I've got in the U.S., having only had one big single, really. I don't know how that happened or why that happened. It may be the begrudging recognition that I'm still trying... I'm extremely optimistic." - Billboard, 9/7/19...... It was announced on Sept. 4 that Elton John and his Rocketman doppelgänger Taron Egerton will perform together at a Rocketman concert at L.A.'s Greek Theatre on Oct. 17. The concert will feature the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra playing live-to-picture all the songs from the Paramount Pictures film -- scored by Matthew Margeson -- under the direction of principal conductor John Beal. The film's music producer Giles Martin will produce the music for the performance. "I'm thrilled to debut 'Rocketman: Live in Concert'," Sir Elton said in a statement. "I can think of no better city than Los Angeles to bring the magic of this movie to life and perform live with the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra. I can't wait for the audience to experience the film in a new and profound way." It is unclear what song or songs John and Egerton will perform. Public ticket sales begin Sept. 6 via the Greek Theatre and AXS.com and will be available from $44.50 to $230. When purchasing tickets, fans will also have the opportunity to preorder John's forthcoming autobiography, Me, which will be hit shelves from Macmillan on Oct. 15. - The Hollywood Reporter, 9/4/19...... 
A new box set of Freddie Mercury solo material was announced on Sept. 5, what would have been the late Queen frontman's 73rd birthday. Never Boring will be the first ever curated selection of Mercury's music as well as his spoken words and visuals. Consisting of three CDs with 32 tracks, a Blu-ray and DVD featuring 12 promo videos and a 10 3x10 3 hardback book, Never Boring provides fans with the chance to delve into the musician's work outside of Queen. Never Boring's titled comes from actor Rami Malek, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Mercury. "Freddie was extreme. He was absolute, he was all or nothing, he was always or never. Freddie Mercury was never boring," Malek once said. Never Boring will hit stores on Oct. 11. - New Musical Express, 9/5/19...... Details of a new David Bowie deluxe box set called Conversation Piece that tracks the rocker's development through 1968 and 1969 were announced on Sept. 5. Conversation Piece will bring together home demos, BBC radio sessions, studio recordings with John "Hutch" Hutchinson, and tracks from the experimental music and mime group Feathers. It will also feature 12 previously unreleased tracks and demos from that era alongside a new mix of the David Bowie (aka Space Oddity in the U.S.) album by long-time Bowie producer and collaborator Tony Visconti. The set will also include a 120-page hardback book featuring exclusive memorabilia from Ken Pitt, Bowie's former manager and the David Bowie Archive. A 2019 mix of "Space Oddity" will also be available separately and will come as a CD, standard digital, 96/24 digital, and vinyl release. - NME, 9/6/19...... Meanwhile, Bowie's sometime collaborator Iggy Pop has just released his 18th studio album, Free. Free arrived on digital music platforms on Sept. 6 and includes the previously released tunes "James Bond," "Sonali" and the title track. Free, the follow-up to Pop's 2016 LP Post Pop Depression, has been described by Iggy as having "virtually nothing in common sonically with its predecessor -- or with any other Iggy Pop album." - Billboard, 9/6/19...... A new mix of the Beatles' 1969 track "Oh! Darling" has been freshened up by producer Giles Martin for the 50th anniversary release of the Fab Four's Abbey Road album on Sept. 27 via Apple Corps/Capitol/UMe. Giles freshened up the sound of "Oh! Darling," which can be heard on YouTube, to make Paul McCartney's heartfelt vocals sound sharp as ever. The deluxe Abbey Road will contain 23 outtakes and demos, as well as 17 original songs, remixed by Giles from the original multi-track tapes recorded by his father, the band's longtime producer George Martin. "The Beatles recording journey had gone through many twists and turns, learning curves and thrilling rides," McCartney wrote in the foreword for the anniversary edition packages. "Here we were -- still wondering at the magic of it all." Additionally, Apple Corps unveiled another version of "Oh! Darling," an unreleased "Take 4" from the band's Abbey Road sessions, featuring a Hammond organ from Billy Preston. - Billboard, 9/6/19...... In other Beatles-related news, Paul McCartney says headlining the 50th anniversary Glastonbury Festival could be a "remote possibility" next year. Sir Paul is the English bookies' favourite to headline the 2020 Glastonbury fest, alongside the likes of Fleetwood Mac and Elton John, and on the BBC 2's Breakfast Show on Sept. 5 he did little to quell the speculation. "I mean people are saying that it would be good if I did it, so I'm starting to think about whether I can or whether it would be a good thing. My kids are saying 'Dad we've got to talk about Glastonbury' and I think I know what they mean," said McCartney, who previously topped the Glastonbury bill in 2005. "...It is a great festival and we played there quite a long time ago so, maybe it is time to go back, I don't know, I'd have to put a few things in place and try and do that but it's starting to become some sort of remote possibility... I mean it's definitely not fixed yet but people are starting to talk about it," he added. - New Musical Express, 9/5/19....... Director Ron Howard, who co-produced the new Robbie Robertson and The Band documentary Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band, has announced a worldwide distribution deal for the movie outside of Canada. "Magnolia is going to distribute the movie theatrically around the world. We've very excited about this collaboration and partnership," Howard announced at the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 6, where the film had its world premiere. Also attending the press conference was Howard's business and creative partner Brian Grazer, Once Were Brothers director Daniel Roher, and Robertson himself. Once Were Brothers is based on Robertson's 2016 memoir, Testimony, and covers the first three decades of his life. It was also executive produced by Martin Scorsese, who directed The Band's 1978 swan song concert doc The Last Waltz. - Billboard, 9/6/19...... 
Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford has announced he'll be releasing a holiday-themed album, Celestial, on Oct. 18 via Legacy Recordings. Halford says the album blends holiday favorites with some of his new compositions. "[Heavy metal] can look pretty intimidating. And it is a very strong, powerful experience," Halford says. "But it comes at different levels. I think the music that we've made on Celestial, for example, gives a display of that. Metal maniacs -- as we call ourselves -- are just as ready for the holidays as everybody else. And what we've tried to do with this music is to reach out to as many of those metal dimensions as we possibly can." Celestial also taps into the holiday spirit by including Halford's family, with his brother on drums, his nephew on bass, his sister on bells, and the twin guitar tandem of Robert Jones and Jon Blakey. "[The holidays are] a beautiful thing as far as bringing families together," Halford adds. "So, what better way to celebrate it than with your family, friends... and music. You must have music at Christmas time." - Billboard, 9/6/19...... For the first time since 1986, vinyl records have outsold CDs, according to a mid-year report from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The 2018 RIAA reported revealed that CD sales are dying three times as fast as vinyl sales are growing, and it's more of the same in this year's. Vinyl revenue grew by 12% in the second half of 2018 and first half of 2019, and CD rates barely changed. The report also revealed that, despite vinyl's growing popularity in relation to CD sales, it still accounts for a relatively small percentage of overall music purchasing, accounting for only 4% of overall revenues. Paid subscriptions to streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, meanwhile, accounted for 62%. - New Musical Express, 9/7/19...... Valerie Harper's only child Cristina Cacciotti reportedly made a loving and funny speech about her mom's toughness during an emotional tribute to her mother on Aug. 30 at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles before her late mom was laid to rest. "I don't have balls, I have steel ovaries," Cristina remembered her mother saying. Rhoda director/producer James L. Brooks, actor Elliott Gould and actress Frances Fisher were some of the guests who came to pay their last respects. Harper suffered through years of health problems, including leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, lung cancer and brain cancer, and reportedly sunk $3 million into cancer treatments to try and stay alive, according to RadarOnline.com. Harper died at age 80 on Aug. 3. - American Media Inc./Canoe.com, 9/8/19...... Former James Bond star Sean Connery says he's recovering after riding out the recent Hurricane Dorian at his home in the Bahamas. Connery, 89, says he opted not to evacuate from his property on New Providence as the monster storm battered the islands and now admits he and his wife Marcheline are "lucky to be alive." "We are both fine," Connery told the UK's Daily Mail paper. "We were lucky compared to many others and the damage here was not great. We had been prepared for the storm, everything was ready in advance -- we weren't taking any chances and knew what to do," he added. Dorian, a Category 5 storm, levelled much of the Bahamas and claimed the lives of more than 20 people. - WENN/Canoe.com, 9/6/19...... Session guitarist Jimmy Johnson, the co-founder of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and the guitarist of the studio's sessioning group The Muscle Shoals Swampers, died on Sept. 5 of as yet unannounced causes. He was 76. Johnson started out his career in the early '60s, working as a session guitarist at Rick Hall's FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala. There, he lent his guitar skills to records by acts such as Paul Simon, Rod Stewart and Lynyrd Skynyrd. He also went on to play sessions alongside soul and R&B icons such as Aretha Franklin, Etta James and Clarence Carter. Johnson later left FAME with the studio's other backup musicians Roger Hawkins, Barry Beckett and David Hood to establish the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, where they recorded albums by Levon Helm, Russell Smith and Delbert McClinton. In 1969, the Rolling Stones recorded part of theirSticky Fingers album at their studio. Johnson was credited as a recording engineer on three tracks on the LP, including "Wild Horses," "Brown Sugar" and "You Gotta Move." "Recording was in Jimmy's blood," a Facebook post by the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio read, adding that "Jimmy was a part of the family at the studio, often stopping by during tours. He was always happy to share a story about his sessions." - New Musical Express, 9/6/19...... 
Actress Carol Lynley, a former child model who had an intense film acting career mirroring the country's transformation from the modest Eisenhower era into the sexually frank 1960s, died of a heart attack on Sept. 3 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 77. Ms. Lynley may be best remembered as the nave, soft-spoken adolescent who becomes pregnant by her equally wide-eyed boyfriend, played by Brandon De Wilde, in the 1959 film Blue Denim. It was a role she had originated on Broadway the year before, when she was 16. The blond beauty then made at least a half-dozen Hollywood movies over the next eight years, but by the time she was in her mid-20s her star had faded, and she was never directly in the public eye again. Still, she did make a notable if brief comeback in 1972, when she turned up wearing hot pants and go-go boots in the disaster movie The Poseidon Adventure, singing (or at least lip-syncing) the Oscar-winning song "The Morning After." Born Carole Ann Jones in New York City on Feb. 13, 1942, Ms. Lynley made her film debut, The Light in the Forest, in 1958, followed by Blue Denim and Hound-Dog Man in 1959. Her portrayal of more knowing characters began in 1961 with Return to Peyton Place followed by Under the Yum-Yum Tree with Jack Lemmon in 1963. She was 23 when she posed discreetly nude in Playboy magazine and played the title role in Harlow (1965), a biographical film about the 1930s screen star and sex symbol Jean Harlow. That same year, she won positive reviews as a distraught young mother in Otto Preminger's London-set thriller Bunny Lake Is Missing, but neither critics nor fans responded to her in the same way as they had during her teenage years. Ms. Lynley was was a favorite guest star on television throughout the 1970s and among a handful of actors that Fantasy Island producers turned to multiple times a season, never playing the same character twice. She worked steadily till 1991, just doing a handful of things after. Her later projects included Vic (2006), a 30-minute short about an older actor, directed by Sage Stallone, a son of Sylvester Stallone, and A Light in the Forest (2002), in which she played the grandmother in a family-oriented fantasy. That film had no connection to Ms. Lynley's first movie, which had almost exactly the same title. Ms. Lynley was married from 1960 to 1964 to Michael Selsman, a film industry publicist, and they had a daughter, Jill, who survives her. She also had a long on-again, off-again relationship with the television host David Frost. - The New York Times, 9/6/19...... Cable channel HGTV will premiere A Very Brady Renovation on Sept. 9 at 8:00 p.m. EDT, where the original Brady Bunch kids take the real home in Los Angeles that served as the exterior for the series and remake the inside to match the famous set. - AP, 9/9/19.
Gerry Beckley of America has shared a video of a new ballad called 
A new Robbie Robertson and The Band documentary entitled Once Were Brothers has proved to be the hottest ticket at the Toronto International Film Festival, which is set to premiere the film at the gala's opening night on Sept. 5. Once Were Brothers, the first-ever Canadian documentary to win the coveted opening night spot, is directed by Canadian director Daniel Roher and presents the people, the era and the extraordinary music of The Band through present-day conversations with Robertson and various colleagues including Ronnie Hawkins, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Martin Scorsese and Eric Clapton. Robertson, 76, shows no signs of slowing down and much is made of his work ethic in the documentary. On Sept. 20, he'll release 
The UK's Royal Mail announced on Sept. 9 it is honoring Elton John's half-century of contributions to music with an upcoming set of 12 UK postage stamps, including eight that honor the singer's classic albums. Among the records featured on the collection of commemoratives are his acclaimed 1972 breakthrough album Honky Chateau, as well as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy and Made in England. Other stamps in the collection will feature images of John performing live throughout his five-decade career, from a 1973 show at the Hammersmith Odeon in London to a 2018 show at Madison Square Garden in New York. Sir Elton is only the second individual solo music artist to be featured on a set of stamps from the Royal Mail, following a 2017 edition honoring David Bowie. Images of the stamps can be viewed on 
KISS singer/guitarist Paul Stanley has weighed in on the recent rash of mass shootings in the U.S. after the most recent attack in Odessa and Midland, Tex., by a man in his mid-30s using an AR-style rifle resulted in the deaths of seven people and the wounding of at least 22 more, including a 17-month-old baby girl. "We don't have more 'crazy' or 'mentally unstable' people in the US," Stanley tweeted on Sept. 1. "What we DO have are commonplace mass shootings with automatic and semi-automatic high powered firearms. THAT cannot be disputed. Tell me what we and our government must do. Prayers and sympathy are not enough." Stanley posted his thoughts over a picture of the aftermath of the most recent Texas shooting. A short time later, Stanley added some response to those who said the veteran rocker should mind his own business. "I DON'T KNOW THE ANSWER but am asking for everyone's thoughts. Anyone who thinks I should 'stay in my lane' should leave now," he wrote. "This is MY house. If you DO have opinions why shouldn't I? In this case I will leave up some of those dopey comments for your enjoyment. Not again." - Billboard, 9/2/19...... Cable channel HLN will premiere a new David Cassidy documentary, David Cassidy: How It Really Happened, on Sept. 8 at 9:00 p.m. EDT. The special delves into Cassidy's death in 2017 at age 67 from organ failure related to alcoholism. "He was happiest on stage. But happiness off stage was hard to find, and Cassidy was keeping gloomy secrets from everyone he loved. In the end, even his death was surrounded by mystery leaving his family, friends and fans with more questions than answers," the network said in a statement. - The Orlando Sentinel, 9/4/19...... Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont sponsored another 50th anniversary Woodstock tribute on Aug. 30 at the annual fair in Woodstock, Conn., which included a battle of the bands. Gov. Lamont, who says his parents would not let him attend the original 1969 festival in New York, spent $17,000 of his own money to finance the tribute. Gov. Lamont, wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt and dancing, served as a judge for the bands, who were required to play at least one song from the original Woodstock. The winner, a band called Last Licks, received $7,500. Gov. Lamont, a Democrat, was joined on stage by Republican state senator George Logan who played a Jimi Hendrix-style national anthem on his guitar, just as he had done at Gov. Lamont's inaugural ball in January. - AP, 9/1/19...... John Travolta's latest film, The Fanatic, has bombed at the U.S. box office in its opening weekend. The Fanatic, directed by Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, took in a paltry $3,153 on Aug. 30 from 52 cinemas, with final totals for the Labor Day weekend yet to be confirmed. The psychological thriller stars Travolta as Moose, an avid movie fan who becomes obsessed with fictional action hero Hunter Dunbar. When Moose is cheated out of his chance to meet Dunbar, Moose's actions take a increasingly terrifying turn. An official synopsis teases that Moose's fixation turns from "stalking to ambition of destroying the star's life." The movie is said to have been inspired by the real-life story of a fan that once stalked Durst. The Fanatic's poor showing marks the Saturday Night Fever star's fourth box office bomb in a row, according to The Hollywood Reporter. - NME, 9/3/19...... 
Crystal Gayle will release her latest LP, 
Sitcom actress Valerie Harper, best known for playing the brash, Bronx-accented upstairs neighbor to Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) on 
"Even with all the feminism we had gone through, being married was equated with success," she once told the TV Academy. In 1986, Ms. Harper starred in the NBC series Valerie, but left after two years in a salary dispute. The series continued without her, with several name changes before finally becoming The Hogans, and she won a $1.4 million judgment against Lorimar Productions and 12.5% of the profits. Ms. Harper went on to guest on familiar series such as The Love Boat, Melrose Place, That '70s Show, Sex and the City, Hot in Cleveland and Desperate Housewives. On the big screen, Ms. Harper had roles in Freebie and the Bean (1974), Blame it on Rio, The Last Married Couple in America and, more recently, the horror pic Shiver. She ran for president of the Screen Actors Guild in 2001, but lost to Melissa Gilbert. Later in her career, she returned to the stage, portraying such figures as Golda Meir and Tallulah Bankhead, and won a Tony for the latter role in "Looped" in 2010. A vocal supporter of the women's movement, Ms. Harper campaigned to get the Equal Rights Amendment passed. Though she was diagnosed with cancer 10 years ago, she continued working and competed on Dancing With the Stars in late 2013. Ms. Harper is survived by her second husband, Tony Cacciotti, and their adopted daughter, Christina. Christina tweeted the news of her mom's passing on Aug. 30: "My dad has asked me to pass on this message: 'My beautiful caring wife of nearly 40 years has passed away at 10:06am, after years of fighting cancer. She will never, ever be forgotten. Rest In Peace, mia Valeria. - Anthony.'" Ms. Harper's Mary Tyler Moore Show co-star Ed Asner told People that his friend was "a brilliant artist with a myriad of ideas on how to make the character more interesting; and was a fighter for those less fortunate.” Later on Twitter, the 89-year-old posted the actress was “a beautiful woman, a wonderful actress, a great friend and with balls bigger than mine... Goodnight beautiful. I’ll see you soon.” - Variety, 8/30/19.
Speaking of Brazil, longtime Amazonian rainforest advocate Sting has issued a dire warning about continued inaction on the fires in the area which are up 85% from last year alone. "Legend has it that the Emperor Nero 'fiddled while Rome burned.' While obviously bristling at the dubious factoid that such a stupid man could have been a musician, none of us, including me, can be complacent about the tragic dimensions of the disaster taking place in the Amazon as I write," Sting and his wife Trudie Styler posted on Facebook on Aug. 27. "Amazonia is on fire at an unprecedented rate - 80% up from last year and with 39% more deforestation - and the world is suddenly taking notice. Populist leaders citing nationalist agendas, or claiming that climate change and its handmaidens are a hoax, are guilty of much more than standing by and doing nothing. This is criminal negligence on a global scale," he added. Sting also appealed to the Brazilian government to change the policies and what he calls "nationalist rhetoric" that have opened up the rainforest to exploitation by farmers and ranchers who have been cutting down trees and burning land to clear it for commerical farming and raising cattle. "The President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has openly voiced that he is no friend to the indigenous people and now he is reneging on land treaties already signed, opening up new territories and dismantling the scientific and human rights organisations in Brazil to enable this," the former Police frontman posted. Sting ended his urgent plea by noting that the Rainforest Foundation Fund, which he founded back in 1987, has been working with indigenous peoples for three decades to protect their lands and rights, urging Bolsonaro to rethink his policies. "This is no time for fiddling; the world is burning." - Billboard, 8/28/19...... Van Morrison has announced he'll play five nights at the London Palladium next spring, from Mar. 20-25. The Celtic crooner is also preparing for a UK tour beginning this October, performing in Bournemouth, Cardiff, Oxford, and Nottingham with a stop at Brighton in early December. He'll then pick things up on New Year's Eve with three consecutive nights at Belfast's Stormont Hotel. The dates follow Morrison's two London shows at the Roundhouse as part of Inversions Festival. Morrison is also preparing for another residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. - New Musical Express, 8/27/19...... Yusuf/Cat Stevens has signed with the United Talent Agency for representation in all areas, it was announced on Aug. 27. Yusuf, whose fourth studio album Tea for the Tillerman will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2020, is currently furthering his philanthropic efforts with the launch of the "Peace Train" project, named after his timeless anthem for hope. The initiative is focused on providing relief, medical aid, and education to individuals in need, as well as promoting harmony and respect amongst children of diverse backgrounds. Yusuf was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 and also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame earlier in 2019. He continues to be managed by Yoriyos Adamos at Catch Bull Management. - Billboard, 8/27/19...... 
On Aug. 29, Pink Floyd announced details of a huge 16-disc box set covering their output from 1987 forward. 
Lionel Richie has debuted on Billboard's Artist 100 chart for the week ending Aug. 31 for the first time since the list's launch in 2014. The Artist 100 measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay, streaming and social media fan interaction to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity. The former The Commodores member's reign on the list comes from the strength of his new live album 
Former Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry performed at Los Angeles' Greek Theater on Aug. 29 in a nearly sold-out show that dipped from Roxy's 1972 debut album through his solo LPs. At 73, Ferry is every bit as debonair as he was during Roxy Music's glam-rock '70s heyday, and he seldom spoke to the audience other than to say "thank you" and introduce 1978's "Can't Let Go" by saying he "wrote it in Canoga Park." Ferry's 23-song set contained seven songs from 1982's Avalon, Roxy Music's final studio album and its best seller in the U.S. Ferry's backing band is composed of musicians who have played with him for decades, including guitarist Chris Spedding, and others who are new additions, including guitarist Vanstiphout and saxophonist Jorja Chalmers. - Billboard, 8/30/19...... Iggy Pop has shared 
On Aug. 24, Eddie Money revealed on his AXS television series Real Money that he's currently battling stage 4 esophageal cancer. "I thought I was going in for a check-up and [the doctor] told me I have cancer," Money says in the video. "We found out that I had cancer and that it was stage 4 and that it was in my liver and my lymph nodes and a little bit in my stomach... It hit me really, really hard." The "Two Tickets to Paradise" singer's wife, Laurie, noted specifically that her husband has been diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer. "It's in his esophagus, it's in the top of his stomach -- it's where the tumor is -- and it's also spread to his liver," Laurie says. Earlier this summer, Money announced he was canceling his summer tour dates after developing pneumonia following a recent heart valve surgery, but according to Rolling Stone, the rocker still plans to tour later in 2019. "What I don't want to do is I don't want to keep the fact that I have cancer from everybody," he says. "It's not honest. I want to be honest with everybody. I want people to know that cancer [treatment] has come a long way and not everybody dies from cancer like they did in the Fifties and Sixties. Am I going to live a long time? Who knows? It's in God's hands." - Billboard, 8/24/19...... After being the subject of a Grammy salute special earlier in 2019, the legendary Motown record label is continuing to celebrate its 60th anniversary this year with the premiere of the new documentary Showtime with Hitsville: The Making of Motown which debuted on the Showtime network on Aug. 24. A Los Angeles premiere attended by Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder was held earlier in August, and on Aug. 23 members of Martha and the Vandella and the Funk Brothers attended a premiere at an invitation-only screening hosted by the Motown Museum in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak. "There's a good vibe to the film," says Funk Brothers guitarist Dennis Coffey. "Everyone involved told a good story about Berry [Gordy Jr.]'s vision and how it came to fruition." In addition to the Showtime run, Hitsville is accompanied by a soundtrack album, while a home video release is planned for the future. A Hitsville Honors concert featuring the Temptations, the Four Tops, Mary Wilson of the Supremes and Martha Reeves is also set for Sept. 21. - Billboard, 8/24/19...... Speaking of anniversaries, the next 50th anniversary event up in 2019 is Elvis Presley legendary "comeback concerts" at the Las Vegas' International Hotel in the summer 1969. From his invitation-only July 31 show to the Aug. 28 closing date, the King of Rock & Roll laid the groundwork for a Vegas comeback that cemented his near-mythological status in pop culture. In conjunction with the anniversary, Sony Legacy released a limited edition deluxe 11-disc box set, 
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Ozzy Osbourne revealed that he's been recording new music as he recovers from his recent neck surgery after a fall in his LA home in January caused him to "re-injure his back, neck and shoulders." The injury and subsequent surgery forced Ozzy to reschedule all of his 2019 live dates on the "No More Tours 2 Tour" for 2020. Osbourne said after the surgery he "was in agony beyond anything I ever experienced before in my life" and kept himself occupied by recording new music. The Black Sabbath frontman also said that he didn't think he could perform right now ("I'll go, 'Hello,' and that's it"), but he's "keeping his fingers crossed" to be fit for the first rescheduled tour date in January. Ozzy will kick off his 2020 UK and Ireland concerts on Jan. 31 at Nottingham's Motorpoint Arena, and wrap on Feb. 14 in Birmingham. Meanwhile, a new huge career-spanning vinyl box set from Ozzy entitled See You on the Other Side is due on Nov. 29. Featuring 16 albums across 24 vinyl records, the collection will feature B-sides, live albums and rarities in addition to all of Osborne's solo work to date. It will include all of Ozzy's solo work from 1980's Blizzard of Ozz to 2010's Scream. The concert LP's Live & Loud and Live at Budokan, as well the EPs, Mr Crowley and Just Say Ozzy, will also be included. - New Musical Express, 8/22/19...... Uriah Heep keyboardist Phil Lanzon has just released his second solo album, 
Former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne announced on Aug. 25 he's launching a new online magazine called "Reasons To Be Cheerful." "It often seems as if the world is going straight to hell," Byrne says. "I wake up in the morning, I look at the paper, and I say to myself, "Oh no!" Often I'm depressed for half the day. I imagine some of you feel the same. Recently, I realized this isn't helping. Nothing changes when you're numb. So, as a kind of remedy, and possibly as a kind of therapy, I started collecting good news. Not schmaltzy, feel-good news, but stuff that reminded me, 'Hey, there's positive stuff going on! People are solving problems and it's making a difference!' I began telling others about what I'd found." After the positive feedback Byrne says he received, he decided to "make the endeavor more formal" and assembled a team to commission stories from other writers and redesigned the website. In 2018, Byrne released his latest solo album, American Utopia, and launched a critically acclaimed tour behind the new LP. - New Musical Express, 8/25/19...... Michael Jackson's former manager Raymone Bain announced the establishment of the MJ Legacy Foundation during a press conference in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 22. Bain says the foundation will endeavor to "preserve, protect and defend his name while supporting the numerous organizations he supported during his life." "[Jackson] may no longer be with us, but through the foundation we're hoping he'll continue to live among us," she added. Bain also defended Jackson against the allegations of abuse which were made against the singer in the controversial Leaving Neverland film, which she labelled as "a biased, one-sided documentary." Meanwhile, cable channel HBO is calling for the Jackson estate's $100 million lawsuit against Leaving Neverland to be dismissed. In a motion for dismissal filed on Aug. 20, HBO claims that their documentary is protected under the First Amendment and California Code of Civil Procedure. "HBO's distribution of this documentary -- which recounts the personal stories of two individuals who describe in detail how, as young boys, they were sexually abused for years by Michael Jackson, arguably one of the world's most famous public figures -- constitutes protected activity under the First Amendment and California Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16," the motion reads. A hearing on the motion has been set for Sept. 19. - NME, 8/22/19...... David Bowie's live session for the VH1 Storytellers series is finally being released on vinyl, some 20 years after the original session. Bowie performed on the show on Aug. 23, 1999, and delivered a career-spanning setlist that also featured some lesser-known gems including "Can't Help Thinking About Me" and "Word on a Wing." 
Pop instrumentalist and former record label head Herb Alpert will release his new solo album,