Archive for the Uncategorized category.
Billy Joel and Elton John were supposed to be touring through this month and most of November too. But first John was sick, the flu or something. It was pretty strong. Then after that Joel was sick too. So they keep canceling dates and it’s going to be awhile before we will be able to see them back in tour. In fact, it will be nearly a month. Over last week, we started hearing stories that Billy Joel’s daughter was arrested for drunk driving or some other such work. There are also reports that she overdosed on sleeping pills last week too. We hope that she’s ok, and she definitely has a great resource in her father, who has gone through the same problems in the past and will hopefully help her, if these are indeed the problems that we have heard reported.
Liam Clancy was one of the best Irish folk musicians of the last half century. With his brothers Pat and Tom, they formed an important musical group that influenced many other folk musicians as well as the burgeoning folk rock artists at the end of the 60s. He had been ill for a long time and passed away at the end of this week. But his music will live on for a long time. His talent for ballads was especially clear back in those older days. The music of the Clancy Brothers was Irish in nature, but was more uptempo than the slower ballads that had been performed by Bing Crosby and others in the decades leading up to it. It became very popular in the early 60s, when they were singing their top hits on Ed Sullivan and in big concert halls all over. We wish his family well going forwards, and thank him for his great music. He was 74.
The newest CD from Rihanna is so different from anything else she has produced in her career. She was just a regular pop music singer with the same dull background music that anyone else has. She had attitude but a playful style too. But her newest album is the first since the February incident that has made her and Chris Brown the center of the domestic violence discussion. In the CD the first few songs are kind of typical, with a woman in her prime, at the top of her career, famous. Then somewhere around the middle, she sings a song about being stupid. The voice in the song went back to a man who was bad to her and she declares herself stupid. It’s a shocking amount of candor and insight for a performer who hasn’t been much about the “deep” lyrics, preferring instead typical love songs. Perhaps she has some real artist inside!
The newest big show is Star Wars live in concert, which has become one the shows that a lot of people are excited to see at the moment. While the show seems like it’s just going to be a live playing of the Star Wars music, it is much more than that. People really enjoy that the music is live and powerful. The narration makes things even better and then you can enjoy a lot of fun scenes from the movie up on the screen too. If you take a look at the descriptions and reviews, they almost all have told us that this is a show that might be a classic. Even if you don’t get to see it for a few weeks or months, it’s worth it. See Star Wars In Concert this year when it comes to your area.
Jennifer Lopez performed at the AMA awards this weekend. It wasn’t the main story that people were talking about the next day though. The press seemed split on whether to talk about Adam Lambert’s over the top performance which culminated in him kissing one of his musicians and several other similarly provocative things. Other people were talking about J. Lo falling down during a rather odd dance number. Still others were continuing the debate about whether Taylor Swift is totally deserving of all the awards she’s been receiving of late. It was a star studded evening, but only controversy seems to be following the event.
It’s been a big couple of weeks for Lady Gaga. After the whole uncertainty about whether she would go on tour with Kanye West (it didn’t pan out), she has struck out on her own, with some fun in store for her new tour. As you may already know, she’s got a new CD out, which is full of her great pop hits. The tour will be packed with hits like these and you will be glad to be part of it. This is a singer who is like the new Madonna, in some ways. She has got the imagination of many people and critics are also enjoying her work a lot too. Have you seen her in concert before? Perhaps during her previous tour? The Monster Ball Tour is one of the most anticipated series of concerts of this year or next. Get your Lady Gaga tickets and enjoy this great new talent performing at her best!
Gustavo Dudamel has suddenly become the hottest thing in classical music. He is one of those directors that has a great reputation and a personality that attracts people to the music. He is young, but his fans are getting younger somehow. He walks down the street and children (according to the Times) will come up to him asking for an autograph. Is it the hair? Is it the music? Is it the attractive style that he uses in his interviews and music? Probably all of that. But Hollywood is really enjoying having him there, and he is doing a great job with the LA Philharmonic. It’s been a long time since a person brought so much new audience to the classical music scene and got them to come to performances. The Argentinian has that X factor that major symphonies are always looking for.
In his new tour of mid-level venues, Jay-Z is clearly prepping for his much bigger set of performances next year. He hasn’t really been a huge headliner in previous years, but now he’s climbing the ranks in a way that no one would have expected before. This coming year, there are big plans for him to perform in New York, Chicago, LA and all kinds of other places, bringing his noted hip hop sound and giving the audiences what they would expect from such a talented musician. His first performances in the preceding set of concerts have been reviewed by Variety and others as some of the best shows of the year. They expect that his energy, talent and overall exciting concert skills will take him all the way to great success.
Usually we don’t review movies in this space, but since we talked about the Michael Jackson concert series that was planned back last summer, it seems fitting. The documentary film was originally intended as a big concert film that was supposed to show the behind the scenes of the biggest shows of his career. Michael Jackson’s background is shown in this film and it’s really beautiful. While he might not be as meek in the rehearsals as in public, he’s still calm and kind. He is also clearly in charge. He was involved with every part of the performance, from auditions to the music to the movie shown in the background. He was clearly a perfectionist and it’s great to see how good he was at what he did, even though it’s a little bittersweet to see since his passing.
There are some reports that a Mamma Mia sequel might be in the works for the upcoming year. Interviews with some of the actors have indicated that they feel ready to do the movie and it will be interesting to see if these plans work out. It remains to be seen if there is anything that a person can put into a second movie. It seems like the first one stands alone quite well and a sequel doesn’t have much more to offer. But maybe I’m wrong and they’ll come up with something amazing. They’ll have to delve deeper into ABBA’s music, unless they just want to write their own “wall of sound” style music? Anyway, the plans are very early right now, so they probably haven’t figured out all of these issues themselves!
