The Revolution, the backup band Prince used when he recorded his biggest hits from 1979-1986, will undertake its first tour in three decades, the group posted on its Facebook page.
The band’s classic mid-‘80s lineup with guitarist Wendy Melvoin, keyboardists Lisa Coleman and Matt Fink, bassist Brownmark, and drummer Bobby Z, will play six late-April gigs starting with a pair of shows at Prince’s Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota. The tour then heads to Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia.
Prince used The Revolution on his multi-platinum “1999” and “Around the World in a Day” albums as well as the biggie, the 25-million-selling soundtrack to “Purple Rain.” They also backed him on Prince’s No. 1 singles “When Doves Cry,” “Let’s Go Crazy” and “Kiss.”
The Revolution reunited for the first time in 30 years last April after Prince of an accidental drug overdose at Paisley Park. They played a couple tribute shows at Paisley Park.
It’s possible that this brief jaunt is to test the waters in order to determine how well they all get along and if they want to continue this reunion.
MARLEY TAPES DISCOVERED
Previously undiscovered live recordings of reggae legend Bob Marley’s shows in London and Paris from 1974 to 1978 have been found in a London hotel where Marley used to stay during that time, according to Britain’s Guardian.
After nearly 40 years, the 13 reel-to-reel tapes were found in a cardboard box in the rundown Kensal Rise Hotel. The tapes are recordings of four concerts made using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, a 24-track portable system put together by The Stones keyboardist Ian Stewart that proved immensely popular in the ‘70s.
Among the albums recorded on the Mobile were most of Led Zeppelin’s “Led Zeppelin III,” “Led Zeppelin IV,” “Houses of the Holy” and “Physical Graffiti”; Deep Purple’s “Machine Head”; Bad Company’s “Run with the Pack”; and Fleetwood Mac’s “Penguin” and “Mystery to Me.”
The Marley tapes suffered severe water damage and were thought to be irreparable, but they were given to sound technician Martin Nichols, who was able to restore the quality. In fact, the restored tapes were described as so good as to “send shivers down one’s spine.”
At press time, the tape’s owner, Joe Gatt, hadn’t decided what to do with the tapes. One of the concerts one the tapes, Marley’s 1975 show at the Lyceum Theatre in London, was released in December that year as “Live!” Part of another show on the tapes, at the Rainbow Theatre in London,” was released on the 2001 deluxe edition of “Exodus.”
DAVID CASSIDY TO RETIRE
Former Partridge Family teen idol David Cassidy posted a message on his website (davidcassidy.com) announcing that he will retire at the end of the year.
Cassidy says his concerts on Feb. 18 at the Canyon in Agoura Hills and Feb. 19 at the Santa Barbara Performing Arts Center are the last he will ever perform on the West Coast.
In his Feb. 3 statement, the 66-year-old wrote: “This has been a very difficult decision for me that nobody can possibly understand. 49 YEARS of doing concerts!!! … I’m not going to disappear. I’m just no longer going to fly and play and travel and fly and play again, etc.”
On Feb. 7, he updated his message: “I still love very much to play and perform live. But it’s much more difficult for me now.” He didn’t elaborate about his current difficulties, but he’s battled alcoholism for years and has been convicted several times since 2010.
He then told his fans: “I’m not going to vanish or disappear forever. I’ll be able to communicate much more through my website and my Facebook page. As you can imagine this has been truthfully THE MOST DIFFICULT DECISION I HAVE EVER MADE IN MY ENTIRE LIFE.”
During his years as Keith Partridge on TV’s “The Partridge Family” from 1970-1974, Cassidy, who was in his early ‘20s, was a pop culture phenomenon and one of the biggest teen idols in music history.
Most of his albums, both as a solo artist and those released as The Partridge Family were million-sellers. “The Partridge Family Christmas Card” hit No. 1 and was the biggest selling holiday album of 1971.
The Partridge Family’s biggest single, “I Think I Love You” in 1970, sold five million copies, more than The Beatles’ “Let It Be” that year.
His concerts in sports stadiums around the world sold out in minutes and the result was termed “Cassidymania.”
One gig at 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden resulted in riots from attending teenyboppers. Over one weekend in 1973, he sold out six shows at London Wembley Stadium before 75,000 screaming teens at each concert. When 33,000 kids went bonkers after his show at Australia’s Melbourne Cricket Ground there was a constant cry to have him deported.
Regardless of all this fame and adulation and all the hits, Cassidy wasn’t happy. He always desired credibility as a bona fide rocker, a la Mick Jagger and Alice Cooper. It didn’t happen. Consequently, for decades he grew to despise his teen idol label.
It wasn’t until much later in life that he came to appreciate and embrace the success he achieved when he was younger – and also the music he made back then, to the delight of his fans, who, like him, are now boomers and seniors.
BLACK SABBATH PLAYS FINAL SHOW
After 49 years, heavy metal gods Black Sabbath played their final show. Appropriately, the last concert on their year-long worldwide The End Tour gig took place where it all started, in their hometown, Birmingham, England, reports Ultimate Classic Rock.
The 15-song set last Saturday before 16,000 fans at the Genting Arena was the same that singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler (each of whom are 68 years old) and drummer Tommy Clufetos (who replaced longtime drummer Bill Ward, who opted out of the tour in a financial dispute with the other three band members) performed during rest of the tour.
Concentrating on early material, the quartet opened with the title song from their 1970 debut LP, “Black Sabbath” and closed with “Children of the Grave” from the third album, 1971’s “Master of Reality,” before encoring with the title song from their second album, 1970’s “Paranoid.”
Just before the show, Ozzy told the BBC: “Since I got to this building today, I’ve been happy, I’ve been tearful … One of the proudest things I have in my heart is the fact that Black Sabbath wasn’t a band that was created by some big mogul. It was four guys who said ‘let’s have a dream,’ and it came true beyond our wildest expectations.”
While Iommi and Butler have yet to announce any post-Sabbath plans, Ozzy scheduled a headlining gig on July 16 at the Chicago Open Air Festival. He is also reportedly working on his next solo album.
Still, Iommi doesn’t appear ready to say goodbye to the band. The guitarist told Planet Rock, that while his battles with lymphoma and subsequent cancer treatments have forced him to stop touring, he’s convinced that the band isn’t done.
He still hopes the band will reunite for an occasional one-off concert.
“It’s just the touring for me. It’s time to stop roaming the world and be at home for a bit. When you’re touring, you’ve got to go out for six, eight or 12 months or whatever, and you’ve got a schedule that you have to do. Now, if I want to do some TV for a month, I can do that.”
He also believes the band might get together to record a new album, although it’s not something he’s discussed with the other guys. He says he’s thinking that “it would be nice.”
GARLAND’S REMAINS MOVED TO HOLLYWOOD
Nearly a half-century after her accidental drug overdose death in London at age 47, the body of legendary actress-singer Judy Garland has been disinterred and relocated to Hollywood, reports People.
Her family made the move because her plot at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York, 24 miles north of Manhattan, didn’t have any room for her children, Liza Minnelli and Lorna and Joey Luft, or their kids. Garland was reinterred at the famed Hollywood Forever Cemetery, final resting place to hundreds of individuals from the entertainment industry.
At Hollywood Forever, Garland is in good company. For fans of film, television and music stars, the cemetery is a gold mine of the famous. Other singers, musicians and composers buried in the cemetery include guitarist Johnny Ramone and Dee Dee Ramone of The Ramones, Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver singer Scott Weiland, as well as composer-producer-manager Kim Fowley, and arranger-producer-musician Jack Nitzsche.
Also, Garland’s singing and dancing film partner Mickey Rooney is there. At Hollywood Forever, Garland is at last reunited with Toto, her dog in “The Wizard of Oz,” as he is also buried there.
GAGA ANNOUNCES WORLD TOUR
Capitalizing on the success of her spectacular Super Bowl halftime show performance, Lady Gaga announced The Joanne World Tour, promoting her most recent studio album that hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart shortly after its release in October.
The 48-show tour kicks off Aug. 1 in Vancouver at the 19,000-seat Rogers Arena and includes an Aug. 8 stop at the 17,500-seat Inglewood Forum.
It will make a one-night stop in South America on Sept. 15, when she’ll headline the massive Rock in Rio Festival in Rio de Janeiro. The show is expected to draw more than one million fans. From there, she’s off to Europe and Britain before returning to North America in November. She’ll ring down the curtain in the tour on Dec. 14 in Salt Lake City at the 15,000-seat Vivint Smart Home Arena.
By the way, Gaga’s 13-minute halftime show was the second most watched in Super Bowl history, drawing nearly 118 million viewers. The most watch show was put on by Katy Perry, who drew nearly 212 million viewers in 2015.
ABC reports that after her performance digital sales of Gaga’s music surged more than 1,000 percent. She sold roughly 150,000 digital albums and songs in the U.S. on Sunday alone. This was a huge increase from the day before, when she sold approximately 15,000 units, according to a new Nielsen Music report.
STREISAND SETS FIRST GIGS OF 2017
Barbra Streisand, who battled stage fright for years but who appears to have warmed to performing in recent years, announced her first concerts of 2017.
The 74-year-old Brooklyn native will once again return to her old stomping ground for a pair of concerts. On May 4, she’ll open the newly renovated 18,100-seat Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, approximately 10 miles up Long Island from Brooklyn. The next night, she’ll be spending Cinco de Mayo in Brooklyn proper at the 19,000-seat Barclays Center.
At press time, there is no word about Streisand adding any shows out here.
SPRINGSTEEN PLAYS SURPRISE WHITE HOUSE GIG
During the past eight years, Bruce Springsteen loved being invited to the White House, be it as a performer or a guest at a special event, or last year, when his friend President Obama awarded the Boss our nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
It has come out that a few weeks ago, as the Obama’s were saying goodbye to the place they called home, the 67-year-old Springsteen returned to perform a special surprise acoustic set in the East Room.
The performance was his way of saying thank you to the White House and the First Couple’s staff for their hard work and the manner in which he and his wife, Patti, were always made so welcome, according to Backstreets, a Springsteen fan website. The President and First Lady also attended.
Backstreets reports that Springsteen spoke to the 250 staffers in between many of the 15 songs from a dozen different albums he showcased. Sometimes, he discussed politics and what he felt was Obama’s impact on culture and the nation, while other times he told tales related to the songs he was about to perform.
He began this most private gig with a deep cut, “Working on the Highway” from 1984’s “Born in the U.S.A.” and continued with “Growin’ Up” from his 1973 debut LP, “Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ” and the melancholy “My Hometown” from “Born in the U.S.A.”
In between such chestnuts as “The Wish” from 1998’s “Tracks,” and “Long Walk Home” from 2007’s “Magic,” he thrilled his delighted audience with the hits “Born in the U.S.A.,” “Thunder Road” from 1975’s “Born to Run,” and “Dancing in the Dark” from “Born in the U.S.A.” He wrapped up his set with “Land of Hopes and Dreams” from 2012’s “Wrecking Ball.”
The Springsteens were at the White House a week earlier when the Obamas threw their going away party. Fellow partiers that night included Beyonce and husband Jay Z, comic Jerry Seinfeld, and Paul McCartney with his wife Nancy.
OBIT: OUTSIDERS AND CLIMAX LEAD SINGER GARACI
Sonny Geraci, the lead singer on both “Time Won’t Let Me” by The Outsiders and Climax’s “Precious and Few,” died in his native Cleveland at age 69 (some sources say he was 70), reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Garaci had battled health problems since suffering a brain aneurysm in 2012.
The Outsiders were formed in the late-‘50s as The Starfires by Garaci and future James Gang drummer-organist Jim Fox and three others. In 1965, the band changed its name to The Outsiders.
The Outsiders’ debut 45, “Time Won’t Let Me,” hit No. 5 early in 1966. The band’s next three singles that year were all hits, “Girl in Love” (No. 21), “Respectable” (No. 15) and “Help me Girl” (No. 37) that was arranged by jazz flugelhorn player Chuck Mangione and was released the same time as Eric Burdon’s version when Burdon was in between his original blues-based Animals and new psychedelic Animals (Burdon’s take reached No. 29).
The Outsiders released a trio of album that failed to deliver any more hits and also a live set that was actually recorded in the studio with audience cheering, clapping and other crowd sounds dubbed in.
The Outsiders broke up and in 1970, Garaci formed Climax in Los Angeles. The following year, their fourth single, the romantic ballad, “Precious and Few,” featuring Garaci’s smooth as silk vocal, became a huge hit, hanging at No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot 100 pop singles chart for three weeks, selling more than one million copies. On the Cashbox Top 100, it made it to No. 1.
Despite the success of “Precious and Few,” the band’s debut album, “Climax Featuring Sonny Garaci,” was also their last. By 1975, Climax was done.
He attempted a comeback in 1983 under the pseudonym Peter Emmett, playing shows in the Cleveland/Akron area, before pretty much retiring. During the first half of 2002, he emerged from his retirement to front The Grass Roots, filling in for his friend Rob Grill.
From 2007-2012, he performed as Sonny Garaci and The Outsiders, until, in April 2012, he suffered a brain aneurysm that landed him in Intensive Care.
In November 2013, a large contingent of Garaci’s friends organized by former Buckinghams lead singer Dennis Tufano staged a pair of benefit concerts in Streetsboro, Ohio, starring Tufano, The Archies’ Ron Dante, The Rip Chords, Playboys leader Gary Lewis, Terry Sylvester of The Hollies, Steam’s frontman Gary DeCarlo, Frank Stallone, Badfinger’s Joey Molland, Billy Joe Royal, The Vogues, The 1910 Fruitgum Company, Spiral Staircase singer Pat Upton, and Jim Sohns and is band The Shadows of Knight.
Steve Smith writes a new Classic Pop, Rock and Country Music News column every week. Like, recommend or share the column on Facebook. Contact him by email at Classicpopmusicnews@gmail.com.
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