Friday, June 28, 2013

Legacy Recordings Celebrates Harry Nillson As July's Arist of the Month

  "Nilsson's my favorite group" – JOHN LENNON 
 
The profound musical gifts of singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson, an artist whose fans ranged from all four Beatles to the Monkees, Randy Newman, Keith Moon, Jimmy Webb, and dozens more, are celebrated in July 2013 as Legacy Recordings honors Nilsson as "Artist of the Month."  Released to coincide with the month-long celebration is Harry Nilsson's The RCA Albums Collection, a 17-CD box set released by RCA/Legacy.

The RCA Albums Collection  will be a must-have for Nilsson devotees, and a seductive lure for those whose awareness is limited to his Grammy Award®-winning versions of Badfinger's "Without You" (#1) and Fred Neil's “Everybody’s Talkin’” (a #6 hit from the soundtrack to Midnight Cowboy, 1969).  Then there are the notable covers of his own songs by Three Dog Night (“One”), the Monkees (“Cuddly Toy”), the Yardbirds (“Ten Little Indians”), and Blood, Sweat & Tears (“Without Her”).  Others will recall the duo of hits that appeared alongside "Without You" on 1971's Nilsson Schmilsson album, “Coconut” (#8) and "Jump Into The Fire."  Finally, the playful “Me And My Arrow” (from the soundtrack of his animated film The Point!) and “Girlfriend” (theme of the early ’70s sitcom The Courtship Of Eddie’s Father) have their own coterie of admirers.

The RCA Albums Collection  presents the definitive 14 albums in Nilsson's RCA Records U.S. discography, from his 1967 debut Pandemonium Shadow Show (among whose high points are his takes on the Beatles’ “You Can’t Do That” and “She’s Leaving Home”) to his final album for the label in 1977, Knnillssonn.  Bonus material on those albums add up to 65 tracks, of which 26 are previously unreleased.  Adding to the box set’s historical provenance are three newly-compiled CDs, Nilsson Sessions 1967-1968, Nilsson Sessions 1968-1971, and Nilsson Sessions 1971-1974, containing a total of 58 tracks, exactly half of which (29 tracks) are previously unreleased.         

The release of The RCA Albums Collection coincides with the July 18th arrival of Nilsson: The Life of a Singer-Songwriter by Alyn Shipton.  Published by Oxford University Press, this is the first ever full-length biography of Nilsson, drawing on interviews with family, friends, and associates, plus material from Nilsson’s unfinished autobiography.  Shipton is a jazz critic for The Times in London, a jazz presenter on BBC radio, and an award-winning author of more than 20 books on music. In the book, Shipton outlines Nilsson’s fatherless childhood in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, through his teenage years in Los Angeles where he found his legs as a singer-songwriter, ultimately winding up at the epicenter of the music revolution that engulfed the world in the late 1960s.

Both lifelong fans of Nilsson and those new to the man and his music are invited to explore the artist's rich history during Legacy Recordings' "Artist of the Month" campaign in July.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Hal Leonard Publishes The Rickenbacker Electric Bass - 50 Years As Rock’s Bottom

Ever since the mid-1950s, Rickenbacker basses have been establishing the musical bottom for rock, jazz, and funk. Rickenbacker’s iconic 4001 bass is just one of nearly 40 distinct models produced in the last six decades.

Players and collectors have longed for a reference for the different models, features, finishes, and details. The Rickenbacker Electric Bass – 50 Years As Rock’s Bottom provides hundreds of color photos and descriptions, along with the history to sort out the legend from the lore.

“I took a ‘field guide’ approach to the content, not just providing the history and photos. Each model is illustrated with an ‘identifying features’ page that uses close-up photos and call-outs to point out ‘field marks’ of that particular Rickenbacker bass model,” says author and Rickenbacker aficionado Paul Boyer.

This book is for people like Boyer: bass players and collectors. But musical instrument dealers, pawn shops, and auction houses will also find the book of great help when assessing instruments.

“There have been several books on Rickenbacker guitars,” Boyer explains, “and some of them include mentions of the basses. There are lots of books on electric basses, and some of them include mentions of Rickenbacker basses. But my book is the only one devoted only to Rickenbacker basses.”
The Rickenbacker Electric Bass – 50 Years As Rock’s Bottom traces the history of the iconic guitar, from its prototypes through its explosion of popularity in such bands as the Beatles, Yes, Deep Purple, and Motörhead.

Lavishly illustrated with archival shots, this is a must-have book not only for anyone who plays the Rick but for all bass players and those interested in the instruments played by rock heroes of the 1960s through the present.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Classic John Lennon, Mick Jagger Interviews To Be Released

Journalist, broadcaster and Oscar-winning documentarian Howard Smith's radio interviews with the likes of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger and Frank Zappa are to be made available for the first time in 40 years.

Over 100 interviews, which only aired once, are to be released in monthly installments via iTunes and Amazon MP3.

The Smith Tapes feature five interviews with Lennon & Yoko Ono, beginning with the couple's Bed-In for Peace, which the radio personality covered for his Village Voice column.

Smith played edited segments from his indepth chats with celebrities and cultural figures during his weekly WPLJ-FM radio broadcasts in New York and meticulously saved and filed the original uncut audio reels in the back of his West Village loft, where they sat unheard for four decades.

The unearthed interviews, which are now being made available to fans, have been restored and remastered, and are available in their entirety.

Highlights include one of Jagger's final interviews weeks before the Rolling Stones ill-fated gig at Altamont, a chat with Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda following the release of cult movie Easy Rider at the Cannes Film Festival, and an in-depth conversation with Janis Joplin recorded just days before her death.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Outside Lands Single-Day Tickets On Sale Wednesday

Outside Lands organizers announce that a limited amount of Single-Day GA and Single-Day VIP tickets to the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival will go on sale Wednesday, June 26 at 10am PDT via www.SFOutsidelands.com.

The world's only gourmet music festival will once again take place in San Francisco's historic Golden Gate Park August 9 - 11, 2013. A significant portion of every ticket sold will directly benefit San Francisco's Recreation and Park Department.

The single-day artist lineups have been confirmed -- the full breakdown is below. Friday features the legendary Paul McCartney closing out the evening, as well as Pretty Lights, The National and D'Angelo, who is back after taking a 12-year break from the stage. Saturday includes one of the first performances by Nine Inch Nails since their 2009 tour, and also features Phoenix, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Jurassic 5. The Red Hot Chili Peppers will cap off the festival weekend on Sunday, which also boasts sets by Kaskade, Vampire Weekend, Daryl Hall & John Oates and many more.

Outside Lands is also announcing additions to the 2013 lineup. Confirmed additions are Baauer, Rhye, Griz and Cherub. The DJ lineup for The Dome by Heineken has also been finalized with the following highlights including Stanton Warriors, The Plump DJ's, Krafty Kuts, DJ Pierre, Lazy Rich, Gene Farris, DJ Sam Spiegel (NASA) and much more.

The Outside Lands Single-Day Music Lineup is below:

FRIDAY

Paul McCartney
Pretty Lights
The National
D'Angelo
Band of Horses
Yeasayer
Zedd
Rhye
Jessie Ware
Surfer Blood
Chromatics
Smith Westerns
Wavves
The Heavy
Twenty One Pilots
Daughter
Anuhea
Wild Belle
The Men
Midi Matilda
Houndmouth
Foy Vance
Naia Kete
The Plump DJ's
Stanton Warriors
Motion Potion
All Good Funk Alliance
Lexel

SATURDAY
Nine Inch Nails
Phoenix
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Jurassic 5
Grizzly Bear
Young The Giant
The Head and The Heart
The Tallest Man on Earth
Youth Lagoon
Gary Clark Jr.
Baauer
The Mother Hips
Griz
The Growlers
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
Bombino
Milo Greene
Atlas Genius
The Soft White Sixties
James McCartney
The Lone Bellow
Cherub
LoCura
Krafty Kuts
Lazy Rich
DJ Shotnez (Balkan Beat Box)
DJ Sam Spiegel (NASA)
Dub Gabriel

SUNDAY
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Kaskade
Vampire Weekend
Willie Nelson & Family
Daryl Hall & John Oates
Matt & Kim
A-Trak
Foals
Dawes
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
Kurt Vile and the Violators
Emeli Sandé
Dillon Francis
Camper Van Beethoven
Rudimental
Fishbone
King Tuff
Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk
MS MR
Deap Vally
Kopecky Family Band
Little Green Cars
Bhi Bhiman
The Easy Leaves
DJ Pierre
Gene Farris
Sleight of Hands
Whitenoize
Griffin Camper

Friday, June 21, 2013

Lou Reed: Music, Mortality And The Genius Of Andy Warhol & Kanye West

From AdWeek

Still looking extremely frail following his recent liver transplant, Lou Reed nonetheless made it to Cannes Lions for the Grey Music Seminar here Thursday, and spoke about his legendary career, his time with Andy Warhol and the irreversible passing of time.

For those who wondered why he made the trip, Reed's comments early on may have cleared that up.

"In the world of downloading, the only people who will pay you for what you do are you guys," he said to Tim Mellors, global creative chief at Grey. "Nowadays, people say, 'Oh, that was a great ad.' Before, it used to be, 'You fucking sellout." But what's fair is fair. And the ad people play fair with you."

Reed largely bemoaned the current state of the music business—the squeeze on artists but also the lack of real talent. However, he did reveal his admiration for one of today's big stars.

"The only person who's out there really doing something is Kanye West," he said. "This guy is really serious, trying to do something. This new album of his is hard to believe. It's incredible—the mixture of genres, the melodies, the sounds. He's really good, whatever you might think of him on other levels. And he's also very, very funny."

Reed also looked back at his legendary career, particularly the time when he and the Velvet Underground were Andy Warhol's personal band and entourage. When they got their first record on the radio, Reed recalled, "We got a royalty check for two dollars and six cents. That's pretty much what I get from downloads now. I'm back where I started! I understand that younger people were brought up downloading. Steve Jobs tried to make it into some kind of business, which benefits Apple. But as an artist, you get about a sixteenth of a penny."

Reed was inducted with the Velvets into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and is blunt when assessing their impact on the history of rock.

"I always thought we were easily the most sophisticated, articulate group in the world," he said. "We didn't get to keep going because of strife. But there was no one near us—to this day. If you look note by note, word by word, subject by subject, my idea was essentially: What would happen if you had the lyrics of Tennessee Williams or William Burroughs and you put it in a rock context? That was my idea, and I was trying to write up to that."

Reed remains stunned by Warhol, the singular genius he's known in his life. "I was just writing down everything that was going on around me," Reed said of his songwriting at the time. "And look where I was. I was next to the greatest artist of the 20th century. Not that I knew that at the time. But you'd have to be profoundly stupid to look at Andy and not say, 'Wow. Look at that.' … He was an astonishing person in every way.

"He would say to me, 'Lou Reed, you're so lazy. How many songs did you write today?' And I would say, 'Three.' And he'd say, 'Three?! What's wrong with you? How do you ever think you'll be anything? You're so lazy. I can't believe it. What do you do with the rest of your time?' Meanwhile, he'd be doing his art 24 hours a day."

At the end of the session, Reed remarked about how the 45 minutes had passed in what felt like a moment—which put him in a reflective mood.

"How can time go that quickly? It never ceases to amaze me," he said. "Just the other day, I was 19. I could fall down and get up, no big deal. Now, if I fall down, you're talking about nine months of physical therapy, make sure you take your vitamins. 'Is he OK?'"

"The most important thing is, you are here," Mellors said. "At this moment, you are here."

To which Reed replied: "And that is the only moment that counts."

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Joe Satriani, Steve Morse Align For Late Summer U.S. Tour

Joe Satriani has announced a US tour in support of his new album The Unstoppable Momentum.

Shows begin August 29 in San Diego, CA and are scheduled to wrap up October 26 in Oakland, CA. Significant stops along the way include the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles on August 31 and the Beacon Theatre in New York City on September 26.

Joining Satriani on the road are veteran bandmate Mike Keneally (Frank Zappa, Steve Vai) on keyboards, along with a new rhythm-section, featuring bassist Bryan Beller (Dethklok, Dweezil Zappa) and drummer Marco Minnemann (Adrian Belew, Steve Wilson). The Unstoppable Momentum, released in May, is Satriani’s 14th studio album.

The Steve Morse Band will open the shows. This year has found Morse juggling his time between Deep Purple, touring Europe behind their latest album, What NOW?!, and now his own band, who are hitting the road for the first time in a long time, supporting Satriani in the States.

For anyone into guitar playing at its highest level, this is a must-see.

Joe Satriani w/ the Steve Morse Band 2013 US Tour

Aug 29 - Balboa Theatre - San Diego, CA
Aug 30 - Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort - Las Vegas, NV
Aug 31 - Orpheum Theatre - Los Angeles, CA
Sep 01 - Talking Stick Resort Ballroom - Scottsdale, AZ
Sep 02 - Kiva Auditorium - Albuquerque, NM
Sep 04 - Historic Paramount Theatre - Denver, CO
Sep 05 - Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center - Midland, TX
Sep 06 - Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie - Grand Prairie, TX
Sep 07 - House of Blues - Houston, TX
Sep 26 - Beacon Theatre - New York, NY
Sep 27 - Orpheum Theatre - Boston, MA
Sep 28 - Tower Theatre - Upper Darby, PA
Oct 26 - Fox Theater - Oakland, CA (no Steve Morse)

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Black Sabbath Earns First No. 1 Album On Billboard 200 Chart

Almost 43 years after Black Sabbath debuted on the Billboard 200 chart, the iconic rock band earns its first No. 1 album this week with the arrival of 13. The set starts at No. 1 with 155,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

13 is the band's 23rd chart entry, and first studio album with singer Ozzy Osbourne since 1978's Never Say Die. The new release is only the group's second Top 10, following 1971's Master of Reality, which reached No. 8. Sabbath made its Billboard 200 debut the week of Aug. 29, 1970, with its self-titled album.

13's launch of 155,000 is also easily the biggest sales week for the band since SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991. Their previous best frame came when the live set Reunion bowed with 62,000 back in 1998 at No. 11.

Front man Osbourne has yet to tally a solo No. 1 album, despite seven top 10 titles. He's gone as high as No. 3, with 2007's Black Rain. Black Sabbath's debut this week also beats Osbourne's best solo SoundScan-era sales frame, when his 2001 album Down to Earth bowed with 153,000 at No. 4.

While Sabbath's nearly 43 year wait for its first No. 1 is long -- it's not the longest. Tony Bennett waited 54 years for his first No. 1 -- 2011's Duets II. The pop singer's first charting album was 1957's Tony, which debuted on the Feb. 23, 1957 chart.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Brian Wilson Invites Jeff Beck To Upcoming Greek Theatre Show

Following the announcement that Jeff Beck is guesting on his upcoming Capitol Records studio album, Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson has announced that the guitar icon will be joining him at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, October 20th.

Brian’s former band mates Al Jardine & David Marks, fresh off last year’s successful Beach Boys’ 50th Anniversary tour, will join Wilson and Beck for an evening of historical collaboration.

“Jeff is one of the most amazing guitarists I’ve ever worked with and his vibe is inspiring,” says Wilson. “I feel like this is a cool continuation of what we did last year with the exciting addition of Jeff Beck. We’ve got some new tunes we want to try out on a live crowd as well as doing some great music from our catalogs.”

Wilson, Jardine and Marks will be diving into the Beach Boys rich catalog and Beck will join them on some of his favorite Beach Boys songs as well as performing a jewel from Brian’s upcoming album. Beck will also be performing a set of his own classics with his stellar band.

Tickets available at The Greek Theatre box office, online at Ticketmaster.com, at all Ticketmaster outlets or charge-by-phone at (800) 745-3000.

For more information, visit GreekTheatreLA.com.



Monday, June 17, 2013

Upstate NY Venue To Host Annual Farm Aid Show


Singer Willie Nelson is taking his annual Farm Aid benefit concert to upstate New York with an all-day festival of music and locally grown food.

The event in Saratoga Springs, 28 miles north of Albany, will feature Nelson and other Farm Aid board members John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews, as well as other artists to be announced soon. Tickets go on sale to Farm Aid members June 18 and to the general public June 28.

The concert takes place September 21 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Nelson said the Northeast is fertile ground for new farmers and sustainable agriculture. Farm Aid's mission is to keep family farmers on the land and support the movement toward healthy, locally grown food, he said.

"There's a whole lot of small family farmers in upstate New York," Nelson told reporters on his tour bus in Albany before heading south for an appearance at a country music festival at Hunter Mountain in the Catskills. "I think this is a great place to try to reach some family farmers."

Nelson said Farm Aid exists because government agricultural policies often favor large corporate-owned farms rather than small farmers. "Small family farmers really need help; the big corporate farmers are doing OK," he said.

Nelson said he wants to encourage more young farmers to get back on the land and encourage people to feed their families wholesome food from farms closer to their homes. "More and more people are asking about where their breakfast comes from, why it comes from 1,500 miles away when there's a farm next door," Nelson said. "A lot of people are thinking about what we're feeding our kids. Young people are trying to stay healthy, wondering who's watching out for our food supply."

In New York, there's a heated debate in farm country over shale gas development, which currently is under a moratorium while state officials complete an environmental and health review. Some farmers see gas leases as a solution to their financial struggles, while others oppose gas drilling for fear of accidents causing water and air pollution.

"I'm against it," Nelson said. "It's bad for the land, bad for the farmers, bad for the soil. It's just all-around a bad idea."

"If farmers could make a good enough living farming, they wouldn't feel pressured to lease their land for drilling," said Cara Fraver, an organic farmer from Easton in Washington County who spoke to reporters on Nelson's bus.

"We need to guarantee farmers a living wage for what they do," Nelson said.

Farm Aid, which has been held almost every year since 1985, provides concert-goers with a Homegrown Village that features local farmers and foods as well as educational activities related to the Good Food Movement, which promotes humane, organic, sustainable agriculture.

The organization has raised more than $43 million since 1985 to support programs that help small family farms, expand the Good Food Movement and promote locally grown food. Farm Aid has made grants of more than $2.5 million in the Northeast during the past 28 years, according to the organization.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Bonnaroo 2013 Webcast: Watch Live Video Stream 6/14-16


From Billboard

Bonnaroo 2013 is now underway, but with a daily two-channel live webcast straight from the festival,  you don't have to actually be out in the fields of Manchester, Tenn. this weekend (June 14-16) to see a lot of the multi-stage musical action as it happens.

Paul McCartney, Wilco, Wu-Tang Clan, Jim James, and a Superjam featuring RZA, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Earl Sweatshirt and more are among the many acts whose sets will be part of of Bonnaroo's live Ustream broadcast today (June 14) beginning at 5pm ET (4pm CT, which is the festival's time zone).

Tomorrow (June 15), tune at 4:45pm ET (3:45pm CT) to watch A-Trak, Gov't Mule, Nas, The Lumineers and several more. The live video stream continues Sunday (June 16) beginning at 3:30pm (2:30pm CT) with sets by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, The National, Kendrick Lamar, A$AP Rocky and more.

Follow Bonnaroo 2013, which runs through Sunday, June 16, at http://www.ustream.tv/bonnaroo.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Allman Brothers Band's Classic Brothers And Sisters Album Reissued

When the Allman Brothers Band’s fifth album, Brothers and Sisters, was released on Capricorn Records in August 1973, the legendary southern blues-rock group had already achieved world-wide fame with their 1971 live album, At Fillmore East. This success was followed by the tragic loss of their founder, leader and musical visionary, guitarist Duane Allman, who died in a motorcycle crash on October 29, 1971. Arguably at the peak of their popularity, the band's album followed the release of the two-disc Eat a Peach, which came out on February 12, 1972, the last recording to include contributions by Duane.

While regrouping under the leadership of singer/organist Gregg Allman and guitarist/vocalist Dickey Betts—the last guitarist standing in a group noted for its dual leads—the Allman Brothers Band soldiered on with Brothers and Sisters, which turned out to be their most successful selling recording to date, spending five weeks at #1 and the first to achieve platinum status. To mark its 40th anniversary, the original classic recording,--which includes such Allman standards as “Ramblin’ Man,” “Wasted Words,” “Jessica” and “Come and Go Blues”—will be re-released in re-mastered form on both CD and vinyl, with deluxe two-CD and four-CD box sets that include previously unreleased rehearsals, jams and outtakes on Universal Music Enterprises.

Brothers and Sisters documents a band reinventing itself and finding a new direction after a traumatic loss,” says UMe Chairman/CEO Bruce Resnikoff. “The two deluxe editions, through these previously unreleased rehearsals, jams and outtakes, offer a priceless glimpse inside that creative process.”

The album’s famous front cover features a photo of Vaylor Trucks, the son of drummer Butch Trucks, while the back sports a shot of Brittany Oakley, the daughter of bassist Berry Oakley. The gatefold pictures the entire Allmans family: band members, roadies, wives, girlfriends, children, dogs, all in a seemingly idyllic Southern setting, capturing the family nature of the project.

The deluxe two-CD edition of Brothers and Sisters includes the original remastered recording as well as previously unreleased rehearsals of “Wasted Words,” “Trouble No More,” “One Way Out,” “I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town” and “Done Somebody Wrong”; outtakes of the instrumental “Southbound,” “Double Cross” and “Early Morning Blues,” as well as the brand-new archival find, “A Minor Jam.” 

The four-CD set includes two discs devoted to a live performance at Winterland in San Francisco, Sept. 26, 1973, right after Brothers and Sisters’ release, featuring an introduction by Bill Graham and previously unavailable live versions of “Done Somebody Wrong,” “Stormy Monday,” “Midnight Rider,” “Statesboro Blues,” “You Don’t Love Me” (which includes “Amazing Grace”), “Les Brers in A Minor,” “Blue Sky,” “Trouble No More” and “Whipping Post,” along with two Brothers and Sisters tracks in “Come and Go Blues” and “Jessica.”

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Beatles' HELP! Is On Its Way To Blu-Ray

On June 24 (June 25 in North America), HELP!, the Beatles’ second feature, makes its eagerly awaited Blu-ray debut in a single-disc package pairing the digitally restored film and 5.1 soundtrack with an hour of extra features, including a 30-minute documentary about the making of the film, memories of the cast and crew, an in-depth look at the restoration process, an outtake scene, and original theatrical trailers and radio spots. An introduction by the film’s director, Richard Lester, and an appreciation by Martin Scorsese are included in the Blu-ray’s booklet.

HELP!’s Blu-ray edition follows the 2012 release of the Beatles’ digitally restored Yellow Submarine and Magical Mystery Tour feature films on Blu-ray, DVD and iTunes with extensive extras.

The restoration for the HELP! 2007 DVD debut wowed viewers, earning five-times platinum sales in the U.S. and praise from a broad range of top media outlets around the world, including USA Today heralding the DVD as “a grand re-release,” The Guardian’s appreciation of the film’s director, Richard Lester, saying “Lester matches The Beatles’ ‘star’ power with smart, colourful visuals and casual surrealism,” The Los Angeles Times’ restoration rave:  “With dynamic compression that was standard in the 1960s lifted for the digital age, the full range of the group’s musicality comes through – it’s like several coats of dust have been cleaned off an old master’s painting,” and four-star reviews from Rolling Stone and MOJO with the latter saying, “They really don't make them like this anymore.”

Directed by Richard Lester, who also directed the band’s debut feature film, 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night, HELP! follows the Beatles as they become passive recipients of an outside plot that revolves around Ringo's possession of a sacrificial ring, which he cannot remove from his finger. As a result, he and his bandmates John, Paul and George are chased from London to the Austrian Alps and the Bahamas by religious cult members, a mad scientist and the London police.

In addition to starring the Beatles, HELP! boasts a witty script, a great cast of British character actors, and classic Beatles songs “Help!,” “You're Going To Lose That Girl,” “You've Got To Hide Your Love Away,” “Ticket To Ride,” “I Need You,” “The Night Before,” and “Another Girl.”

HELP!’s Blu-ray package pairs the digitally restored original film with these extra features: 
  • “The Beatles in Help!” – a 30-minute documentary about the making of the film with Richard Lester, the cast and crew, including exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of The Beatles on-set.
  • “A Missing Scene” – a film outtake, featuring Wendy Richard
  • “The Restoration of Help!” – an in-depth look at the restoration process
  • “Memories of Help!” – the cast and crew reminisce
  • 1965 Theatrical Trailers – two original U.S. trailers and one original Spanish trailer
  • 1965 U.S. Radio Spots (hidden in disc menus)

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Ex-Journey Singer Steve Perry Recovering From Melanoma Surgery

Onetime Journey frontman Steve Perry has revealed that he recently was diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer, and that he has undergone two surgeries to remove the cancer cells.

"They think they got it all," wrote the "Don't Stop Believin'" singer, who fronted Journey from 1977-87 and 1995-98, on his Fan Asylum personal blog last Thursday.

Perry, who included with the post a photo of himself and former MTV DJ Martha Quinn taken after the surgery (Quinn also tweeted a similar photo, below), said that the diagnosis came after a "routine mole" was removed from his face.

He said he believed "no other treatments were required."

But there was a second, more tragic aspect to the birthday post he sent to his fans.

Perry, 64, wrote of how he fell for a woman named Kellie Nash after seeing her during a 2011 edit session of Lifetime's breast cancer special "Five." Nash a psychologist who was undergoing cancer treatment, caught his eye with her smile and he asked his friend if she could connect the two of them.

But his friend warned Perry that Nash might not have long to live; she was in Stage 4 of the cancer. He emailed her anyway, and the two became a couple. "I never felt like this before," he wrote. "I had finally found her."

Nash died of her cancer in December 2012. "She helped me in so many ways," wrote Perry.

"She was so strong, so courageous and we really loved each other so very much," he wrote. "I've been trying to grieve and not run from this loss so for the last 5 months that's what I've been doing along with recalling everything being in Love with Kellie taught me."

Monday, June 10, 2013

Tom Petty Disputes Fire Marshall Shutdown Of Hollywood Show

Twenty-four hours after the fire marshal brought an abrupt end to Tom Petty's fourth concert at the Henry Fonda Theater, the rocker was already considering remedying the situation himself.

"We had to quit a little early last night," Petty said early in Sunday's set between "Listen to Her Heart" and "Honey Bee." "I don't like to assign blame, but it wasn't me. I'm absolutely sure we're going to work this out. If I have to pay it myself, everyone will be reimbursed."

Petty and the Heartbreakers were 90 minutes into their two-hour show Saturday when the fire marshal decided there were too many people on the main floor of the 1,300-capacity venue in Hollywood. Naturally, 100 people were not about to leave to allow the concert to continue.

On Sunday morning, the band issued a statement that read, in part, "The number of tickets sold was NOT above the legal capacity of the building. The venue and Ticketmaster documentation confirms this. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and our representatives rely on the concert promoter and venue representatives to give us an accurate breakdown of the legal capacity for every part of the building and to provide security and other staff to enforce this."

The Sunday show felt less crowded than the opener on June 3. Petty and the Heartbreakers have used this run to play what he calls "deep tracks" and covers -- only seven songs have made it into each of the five sets -- and Sunday's show was the bluesiest of the bunch. Petty kept the musical pace about mid-tempo for much of the night offering Willie Dixon's "I Just Want to Make Love to You," Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and J.J. Cale's "13 Days."

Guitarist Mike Campbell and Petty turned "It's Good to be King," the Traveling Wilburys' "Tweeter and Monkey Man" and "Good Enough" into intense, extended jams; "Wildflowers," "Rebels" and a sharply played "Walls" provided softer moments.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Paul McCartney Dips Into Vault At Brooklyn's Barclays Center


Paul McCartney has toured nearly every year in the past decade, and acting on the assumption that many concertgoers would have seen him in concert fairly recently, he promised that his 2013 "Out There" jaunt would bring out some deep cuts. During the interminable retrospective video that opened his Saturday night show at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, some of us (who had strenuously avoided setlists posted online in order to preserve the surprise) played a parlor game, guessing some songs he might play.

SPOILER ALERT: Suffice it to say that when McCartney opened with "Eight Days a Week" followed by the 1974 single-only "Junior's Farm" and then "All My Loving," we knew it was no idle promise.

At 71, Paul doesn't need to tour – clearly, he's doing it because he wants to, but unlike the road-addicted Bob Dylan, even when reaching deep into the vault, he's much more about pleasing crowds than confounding them. He remains a masterful showman and a supremely engaging performer, regaling the crowd with comic asides and stories from back in the day, smiling and waving and pointing at random audience members like they're his old pals. He also had fun with the hand-written signs that crowd members waved at him: "'Please sign my wife'? I can't be signing wives at this stage of my career!" "Did you really name your English bulldog Macca?"

His veteran four-piece band renders the songs faithfully but with a flair that largely comes from powerhouse drummer Abe Laboriel, who also provided some stellar harmonies (and gave Paul a lift in spots where he couldn't quite hit the notes he could when he was 25). Likewise, the production was world-class, with a dazzling but unobtrusive light show and pyro on "Live and Let Die" -- and a neat trick for the nosebleed seats we hadn't seen before: the visuals projected behind the band were also projected onto the stage floor, which really must mess with the musicians' sense of balance at times.

And while McCartney's voice showed some wear in places – whose wouldn't after playing nearly three-hour shows for five weeks, let alone five decades? – he remains a formidable musician, showing off his bountiful gifts not only as a singer and songwriter but also as a bassist, pianist and not least as a lead guitarist, with a remarkably fiery style for someone so often associated with prettiness and poppiness.

Clad in a sleek black suit with a white shirt and throwback Cuban heels, his look reflected the moment: modern but backward-looking, and unmistakably Macca.

As for crowd pleasing, he could barely put a foot wrong: The 36-song set featured exactly two songs released after 1975, and focused heavily on psychedelic-era Beatles and the Band on the Run album, which vies with Harrison's All Things Must Pass and Lennon's Plastic Ono Band as the best Moptop solo LP. Some highlights: "Paperback Writer" (where he played the same Epiphone guitar that he used for the song's recording nearly 50 years ago); "I've Just Seen a Face"; "And I Love Her"; "Blackbird" ("How many people have tried to play this song on the guitar?" – nearly half the house cheered); and a brace of mid-'60s deep cuts including "Lovely Rita," "Your Mother Should Know,"  "Eleanor Rigby" and Lennon's "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite," which was probably the biggest did-not-see-that-coming in a night filled with them.

As usual, the evening featured many tributes: "Here Today" for Lennon; "Something" for Harrison; "Maybe I'm Amazed" for Linda; a vamp on "Foxy Lady" dedicated to Hendrix (Paul talked about a Jimi show in London where the guitarist opened with "Sgt. Pepper" two days after the album was released); "Another Day" for legendary producer/engineer Phil Ramone, who died earlier this year.

The show's second encore was a McCartney career microcosm: "Yesterday" followed by "Helter Skelter" and then the "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End" medley that closes "Abbey Road." It was a skillful finale to a masterful show that left us with only one complaint: He didn't play "Jet" …

Setlist:

Eight Days a Week
Junior's Farm
All My Loving
Listen to What the Man Said
Let Me Roll It/Foxy Lady (instrumental)
Paperback Writer
My Valentine
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
The Long and Winding Road
Maybe I'm Amazed
I've Just Seen a Face
We Can Work It Out
Another Day
And I Love Her
Blackbird
Here Today
Your Mother Should Know
Lady Madonna
All Together Now
Lovely Rita
Mrs. Vanderbilt
Eleanor Rigby
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Something
Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da
Band on the Run
Back in the U.S.S.R.
Let It Be
Live and Let Die
Hey Jude

Encore:

Day Tripper
Hi Hi Hi
Get Back

Encore 2:
Yesterday
Helter Skelter
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Jefferson Airplane Drummer Joey Covington Dies In Car Crash

Drummer Joey Covington, who played with Jefferson Airplane from 1970-72 and later in the offshoot band Hot Tuna, died in a car crash in Palm Springs on Tuesday. He was 67 years old.

His death was confirmed by a post on Jefferson Starship’s Facebook page Wednesday that simply read, “Rest in peace, Joey.”

According to local paper The Desert Sun, Covington crashed his Honda Civic into a retaining wall near Belardo Road and South Palm Canyon Drive. The drummer, a resident of Palm Springs, was not wearing a seat belt.

A guest at a nearby hotel tried to resuscitate Covington, to no avail. The Desert Sun reported that police don’t suspect alcohol or drugs were involved. Friend Keith McCormick, owner of McCormick’s Classic Car Auctions, is quoted as saying that Covington’s common-law wife believes a stroke or heart attack led to the crash.

Covington paid his dues with several Bay Area bands in the 1970s -- first drumming for Pacific Gas & Electric, known for the 1970 hit “Are You Ready?," followed by Jefferson Airplane and then side project Hot Tuna, which featured Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady.

The self-taught drummer can be heard playing percussion on Airplane's Volunteers album and Jefferson Starship's "With Your Love," which he co-wrote.

He was described as a “down-to-earth, kind, considerate and jovial person.”

Monday, June 3, 2013

Yes Announce First-Ever Yestival

Yes have announced their first-ever festival: Yestival, a day-into-night musical adventure in full quadraphonic sound on Saturday, August 3 at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, NJ.

The progressive rock legends — performing their classic albums 1971’s The Yes Album and 1972’s Close To the Edge in their entirety and more — will be joined by like-minded artists such as The Musical Box, Renaissance featuring Anne Haslam, Carl Palmer's ELP Legacy, and other acts TBA.

Tickets go on sale Friday, June 7 at 10 AM EST and will start at just $35. Tickets will be available at Ticketmaster.com, Susquehanna Bank Center Box Office, Live Nation Box Office, Ticketmaster outlets or by phone at 800-745-3000. Yestival is presented by Live Nation.

Says Yes bassist Chris Squire: "This is a concept we've been trying to put into motion for some time, and only now we've been able to turn it into reality. We're looking forward to starting Yestival out in the Philadelphia area, which has been a Yes stronghold since the '70s."

The Musical Box is a band that is internationally acclaimed for its historically accurate re-enactment of Genesis early work. As part of the 40th commemorative anniversary, the band will perform the Foxtrot Show as presented by Genesis in 1973. The Musical Box, exclusively licensed by Peter Gabriel and Genesis, has become the reference in the interpretation of contemporary music. Peter Gabriel saw a performance and said, "The Musical Box recreated, very accurately, what Genesis was doing.” Genesis co-founder Michael Rutherford added, “It was better than the real thing.”

Carl Palmer's ELP Legacy will be performing innovative versions of classic Emerson, Lake & Palmer hits. Palmer, named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 10 greatest drummers of all time, has been performing for audiences for nearly four decades with some of music’s most memorable bands like Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Asia.

Renaissance is a band which for 44 years has been acclaimed for their unique blending of progressive rock with classic and symphonic influences.

Yestival will also feature a second stage of all-day entertainment with performances by up-and-coming progressive rock bands such as Scale The Summit and a special appearance by The School Of Rock, as well as an art showing by Roger Dean, whose visuals and album covers for many bands including Yes, Uriah Heep and Asia have played an important part in the history of progressive rock.

Meanwhile,  The Yes North American tour will continue, starting July 6 in Paso Robles, CA and includes stops in Anaheim, CA, Las Vegas, NV, Atlanta, GA, Washington, DC and Montreal, CAN, wrapping up on August 12 in Indianapolis, IN.

Go to www.yesworld.com for the latest tour dates and ticket links.

For tickets and special VIP packages to Yestival go to www.ticketmaster.com.

In addition, CID Entertainment is offering travel packages to Yestival with accommodations in Philadelphia and your choice of VIP tickets at www.cidentertainment.com/home/yestival.php.

Jeff Lynne's ELO Announces 2024 North American Fall Tour

  Jeff Lynne’s ELO is set to embark on the band’s final tour dubbed “The Over and Out Tour.” The 27-date trek, produced by Live Nation, will...