Lennon Regretted Political Statements?
Joe Flannery, The Beatles’ booking agent during the band's early career, claims John Lennon confessed that he had gone overboard with his political statements and had made a "t**" of himself.
Lennon was also planning to return to his hometown of
According to
"'We should start talking about me coming home, before that b**tard Nixon gets me', he said. I was rather taken aback and asked him to explain. John launched into a diatribe against the former president. He was convinced that even out of office Nixon carried power and wanted him dead.
"He felt some kind of curse was hanging over him... His tone bothered me a little, expressing as it did what sounded like a touch of paranoia. 'It would be good to come home for a bit', he finally stated... He even suggested that I should fly out to
Lennon’s ‘65 Ferrari Up For Auction
John Lennon’s first car, a blue 1965 Ferrari 330GT, will be going up on the auction block in July.
Lennon paid a little over $10,000 (about $171,000 in today’s inflation-adjusted dollars) and put just over 20,000 miles on the car before selling it in October 1967.
As one of just 500 of this model Ferrari made and one of the few still with the original engine and chassis, this vehicle would be a valuable commodity on its own. But with its rare history the car is expected to sell for nearly $340,000.
Pop Star Perry, High School Choir Guest with the Stones
The Rolling Stones welcomed pop star Katy Perry and the
Perry duetted with Mick Jagger on ‘Beast Of Burden.’
Once again Mick Taylor, in addition to highlighting ‘Midnight Rambler,’ joined the band for the final encore of ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.’
The
Choir director Kim Ritzer said she thought it was a joke when she first got a message on Facebook from someone she didn't know inviting them to sing backup. She later learned a friend who teaches music at the
"When I announced it to the kids, I think their parents were more excited than they were because some of them didn't even know who the Rolling Stones were," Ritzer told KLAS-TV.
They sealed the deal with an audition via Skype for a representative of the band in
"I called my dad. He was screaming at me over the phone and said, 'Are you kidding me?'" said Kyle Sorenson, a freshman in the Green Valley High choir.
Organizers of Toronto’s Stratford Festival will hold a special daylong event to celebrate the upcoming opening of a revival of the stage musical based on The Who‘s 1969 rock opera, ‘Tommy.’
As part of the promotional extravaganza, dubbed “Pinballpalooza,” one-hundred pinball machines will be set up in the lobby of
The event also will offer special ticket deals for the new ‘Tommy’ production and performances by some of the cast members. A special ‘Tommy’-themed video pinball game can be played online at StratfordFestival.ca.
The revamped version of the ‘Tommy’ musical is in previews now at the Avon Theatre in
Astronaut Covers Bowie In Space, Posts Video
A Canadian astronaut has paid tribute to David Bowie, appropriately covering ‘Space Oddity’ while 230 miles above Earth.
Commander Chris Hadfield recorded his version to mark the end of his time on the International Space Station, posting his music video online on Sunday (12 May 13) ahead of his scheduled return to Earth the following day (13 May 13).
In the clip, Hadfield sings
In a post on his Twitter.com page, Hadfield writes, "With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here's Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World."
Hadfield has spent the last five months aboard the Iss, and has become an Internet sensation by tweeting regular updates about his experiences in zero gravity.
Foreigner: Gramm Recalls Brain Tumor
Just published is ‘Juke Box Hero: My Five Decades In Rock N’ Roll’ by original Foreigner frontman and co-founder, Lou Gramm. The book discusses Gramm’s experiences in Foreigner as well as his successful battle with substance abuse and near fatal brain tumor in 1997.
Lou Gramm shed some light on the tumor that threatened to permanently derail his career and possibly kill him: “It was a non-cancerous tumor, but it was the size of a large egg and it was in my frontal lobe and it had tentacles wrapped around my pituitary and optic nerve.”
Gramm was asked how he first realized that something was critically wrong with him: “I started getting incredible headaches — worse than any hangover I’d ever had. My long and short-term memory started to become spotty, and my eyes would cross once in a while. And I went for an
Sabbath: ‘CSI’ Behind the Scenes Video Posted
CBS has released a special behind-the-scenes video of the season finale of ‘CSI,’ which features a special appearance by Black Sabbath.
In the three-minute clip, star Ted Danson explains that the episode centers around the search for a serial killer, with three potential suspects, leading to a season-ending cliffhanger. At some point, Danson and co-star Marc Vann wind up at a club where Black Sabbath are performing. The episode will feature the premiere of the studio version of ‘End of the Beginning,’ from Sabbath’s album ‘13,’ which will be released June 11.
“It’ll be my first Black Sabbath concert,” Danson said. “How cool is that?”
For bassist Geezer Butler, a longtime fan of the show, the feeling was mutual. “I’ve watched every episode since it started,” he said while barely able to contain his excitement. “‘Cause I like crime stuff, and it was realistic.”
However, Ozzy Osbourne noted that playing a rock singer on a television show is considerably difference from being one, due to the delays that pop up during filming. “I’m not an actor,” he said. “It’s like a hurry-up-and-wait. When you see it on TV, it’s all done, but when you’re filming, there’s a lot of stuff going on.”
The episode will air this coming Wednesday (May 15) at
Sabbath Starved During Early Years
Black Sabbath struggled to book shows in their native
The band landed a residency in
He tells Mojo magazine, "It was f**cking horrible. We were literally starving. Sometimes I'd cry because I'd be so hungry. But we couldn't get any gigs in
"You couldn't afford the petrol to go for just one gig so you had to stay there for two or three weeks. We used to push the van across
Mellencamp Musical To Tour In The Fall
‘Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,’ the Southern gothic musical with lyrics by Stephen King and music by John Mellencamp and T-Bone Burnett, will embark on a 20-city American tour beginning in October.
Mellencamp sparked the collaboration, which took place over a 13-year span, when he mentioned that a pair of brothers had met a grisly end in a cabin on his land. The first was accidentally killed as the two siblings battled over a girl, and the doomed couple then died not long after in a car accident. King quickly drew up an outline for a play, and work commenced from there in an off-and-on fashion.
“John can make rock ‘n’ roll records and I can write books for the rest of our lives,” King says in a news release. “But that’s the safe way to do it — and that’s no way to live if you want to stay creative. We were willing to be educated, and at our age, that’s an accomplishment.”
Set in the village of Lake Belle Reve, Miss., the ‘Ghost Brothers’ narrative fills in an imagined backstory even while new songs — performed by an ensemble cast of 15 actors and a live four-piece band — help frame their character’s emotions.
“This is a gothic story-driven rock concert,” director Susan Booth says. “I want the emphasis to be on this fantastic score and our great singers and how the story advances us from song to song. In most musicals, the songs advance the narrative. With ‘Ghost Brothers,’ the story will advance the songs.”
Tickets for the tour, which begins in
’Ghostland Brothers’ Tour Dates
October
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16
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24 Ft. Wayne,
25 Madison, Wisc. – Overture Hall
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27 Appleton, Wisc. – Fox Cities Performing
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November
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Thin Lizzy: Lynott Statue Damaged
Investigators are looking for information after a statue of Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott in
Irish paper the Journal reports that two youths pushed over the monument in the early morning hours on Friday (May 10), tearing its bronze coat in the process. Investigators say the two young men then took off on foot, and they intend to speak to a group of people who came along and lifted the statue back up, as well as a delivery driver who may have been in the area at the time.
“It seems now that it was just a bunch of high spirited boys, who meant no harm,” Lynott’s mother, Philomena, tells Hot Press magazine. “So I am not annoyed with them. I’m only hoping that none of the lads got hurt.”
The life-sized statue of Lynott was unveiled at a ceremony in 2005 that was attended by a number of Lynott’s music industry peers. The attraction is a fixture of
