The good news is that Mike Nesmith did indeed play a Monkees 50th anniversary show with the other two surviving band members, Peter Tork and Mickey Dolenz, as he promised.
The bad news is that fans got the impression that he’d play the entire show. He didn’t.
The enigmatic singer-guitarist only showed up for an encore, according to VVN.
In June, Nesmith joined the other guys on Skype for one song during one of their NYC gigs – big whoop. Friday, he made 1,300 fans wait until the very end before joining Mickey and Peter for a much anticipated four-song encore.
The trio delivered two songs written and sung by Nesmith, “Circle Sky” from their 1968 “Head” soundtrack and “Papa Gene’s Blues” from their 1966 self-titled debut album; Michael Martin Murphy’s “What Am I Doing Hangin’ Round” that featured Nesmith’s lead vocal when it appeared on their fourth studio LP and third in 1967, “Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.”; and the concert closer, “I’m a Believer,” that wrapped their second album, the 5-time-platinum, “More of The Monkees” that was sung by Micky.
Micky and Peter’s 50th anniversary tour plays the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood on Sept. 16 and the City National Grove of Anaheim on Oct. 21 (don’t expect that other surviving member at either show) before taking the tour Down Under to New Zealand and Australia in November and December.
BENNETT TURNS 90, PLANS ANOTHER ALBUM WITH GAGA
On Aug. 3, Tony Bennett turned 90. The crooner-jazz singer, who was discovered by singer Pearl Bailey in 1949 and who cut his first record, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” for Mitch Miller the following year, told Billboard at his birthday party at the Rainbow Room at Radio City Music Hall that he and Lady Gaga are talking about making another album together.
Their 2014 CD, “Cheek to Cheek,” topped both Billboard’s Top 200 album chart and its jazz album chart and won the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
Said the 19-time Grammy winner and 2005 Kennedy Center honoree: “She’s busy right now, but at the beginning of next year we’ll start doing an album. The first one went way over a million, and it’s still selling.”
Regarding potential songs, he said: “There’ll be just wonderful songs that she and I both like.”
On Nov. 15, Bennett’s memoir, “Just Getting Started,” will be published. The autobiography written with NPR host Scott Simon looks at his numerous relationships, friendships and encounters over the years, including with his pal Frank Sinatra, as well as Charlie Chaplin, Bob Hope (who, he says, gave him his first break in showbiz), and Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as Gaga and Amy Winehouse, who he tried to get straight in the months before her death five years ago at age 27 from alcohol poisoning (their duet on the standard, “Body and Soul,” was her final recording).
YUSUF, AKA STEVENS, SETS INTIMATE U.S. TOUR
Cat Stevens, who changed his name to Yusuf Islam in 1978, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of his first hit single, “I Love My Dog” with a 12-date North American tour that the announcement on his website is calling, “a limited run of stripped-down, introspective performances.”
“I Love My Dog” was released in September 1966. It hit No. 28 in his native Britain and barely made the charts here, only reaching No. 118. It did better in Canada (No. 47) and much better in The Netherlands (No. 21).
His A Cat’s Attic Tour kicks off Sep. 12 in Toronto at the 3,200-seat Sony Centre for the Performing Arts and plays Philadelphia, Boston, New York City, Washington D.C., Chicago and San Francisco before ending with a pair of shows at Hollywood’s 2,700-seat Pantages Theatre on Oct. 6-7.
One of his stops is in NYC’s Central Park on Sept. 24, where he’ll play the star-studded Global Citizen Festival that also stars Metallica, Usher, Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder, Coldplay leader Chris Martin (who is the festival’s creative director), Selena Gomez, Kendrick Lamar, British singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding and others.
The annual festival, broadcast live on MSNBC, is “a continued effort to end extreme poverty by 2030, as proposed by the United Nationals Sustainable Developmental Goals.”
FRENCH ICON AZNAVOUR TO TOUR U.S.
Singer-songwriter Charles Aznavour is a cherished living legend in France, where he’s called “the French Frank Sinatra” (the two sang together one time on record, “You Make Me Feel So Young,” on Sinatra’s 1993 album, “Duets”).
He was discovered by another French legend, Edith Piaf, shortly after the end of World War II. Piaf invited him to be her opening act on her tours of France and the United States from 1947-1948.
Charles Aznavour is still around. Better than that, he’s still performing – and he’s coming back here for another U.S. tour, albeit a brief one.
A member of the Songwriting Hall of Fame since 1996, he begins the first of his five shows on Oct. 15 at the 5,600-seat Theatre At Madison Square Garden. He’ll wrap up the short jaunt in Hollywood at the Pantages Theatre on Oct. 28.
A true European gentleman, during his eight-decade long career, he has written and recorded more than 1,200 songs, and he’s done so in eight languages, including in his native French as well as a whole slew of albums in English, Spanish, Italian, and German. He released his most recent studio album of new songs, “Encore,” last year.
MICK FLEETWOOD SOLO TOUR
Fleetwood Mac is on hiatus this year, except for one private party it played last month for the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium, and the band has been cooling its heels. So, drummer Mick Fleetwood has decided to hit the road with his Mick Fleetwood Blues Band.
The band includes singer-guitarist Rick Vito, who was a member of Fleetwood Mac from 1987-1991, years after singer Stevie Nicks and singer-guitarist Lindsay Buckingham quit the group (and before they returned to the fold in 1997 (save for a one-off reunion at Bill Clinton’s first Inaugural Ball, where they played his campaign theme, their “Don’t Stop”).
Fleetwood’s 13-show tour runs Sept. 13 in Aspen, Colorado, through an Oct. 2 gig in Victoria, British Columbia. The SoCal shows are Sept. 20 at the 1,200-seat John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, cross the freeway from the Hollywood Bowl, and Sept. 21 at the 600-capacity Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, just north of the Del Mar Racetrack and Fairgrounds.
UNRELEASED WRIGHT ALBUM OUT
A long-forgotten 44-year-old Gary Wright album featuring George Harrison has just been released.
In 1967, Yank Wright moved to London, where he formed the hard rock cult band, Spooky Tooth, with, among others, future founding Humble Pie bassist Greg Ridley.
A couple years later, he met George Harrison through Beatle pal-Manfred Mann bassist Klaus Voorman (he designed the “Revolver” album cover, and was briefly rumored to replace Paul McCartney in The Beatles had the other three decided to continue).
Wright and Harrison became buddies. Throughout 1970, Wright played on Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass” triple album, and Harrison returned the favor by playing on Wright’s second solo LP, 1971’s “Footprint” under the pseudonym George O’Hara.
In 1972, Wright wrote, recorded and produced an album, “Ring of Changes,” at The Beatles Apple Studios at 3 Savile, (The Beatles Apple Corp. business empire was also headquartered there) with future Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones, Lindisfarne bassist Tom Duffey and powerhouse drummer Bryson Graham.
Harrison’s slide guitar solo is featured on “Goodbye Sunday.” Wright recalls: “We were in the studio and I was showing him the song. He just started playing slide guitar and came up with that line, which I think really worked.”
Wright’s label, A&M (that would also become Harrison’s Dark Horse Records distributor in 1976), didn’t like it. The LP was never released and forgotten – until now.
Of “Ring of Changes,” the Dreamweaver says: “I hadn’t listened to it in 40 years, but when I put it on, I thought to myself, ‘I can’t believe this was never released’. It was more of a rock album than what I had done, but I think it stands up alongside anything that you might hear being played on classic rock radio around the world. I hope that people will be surprised by the material. I’m proud of it and I’m glad it’s finally coming out so everyone can hear what we did all those years ago.”
Wright will hit the road with co-headliner Al Stewart for four West Coast shows in early October (Stewart and his trio without Wright and his band plays the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza on Sept. 24).
FORBES NAMES BIGGEST MONEY-MAKING COUNTRY STARS
American business magazine Forbes released its list of the biggest country music moneymakers from June, 1, 2015 through June 1, 2016. Taken into account were record sales, touring revenue and merchandise, and other income such as endorsements and books.
As might be imagined, Garth Brooks was El Supremo, with $70 million. Since Taylor Swift ditched country music for the world of pop, she wasn’t included (Shania Twain was the highest ranked female).
Brooks was followed by Kenny Chesney ($56M), Luke Bryan ($53M), Toby Keith ($47.5M) and Jason Aldean ($36.5M).
The list continues with The Zac Brown Band ($30M), Shania Twain ($27.5M), Carrie Underwood ($26M), Blake Shelton ($24M), Keith Urban ($22M), Florida Georgia Line ($20M), Rascal Flatts ($19.5M), Dolly Parton ($19M), Brad Paisley ($18.5M) and Miranda Lambert ($18M).
BENTLEY TO KICK OFF NFL SEASON
Country biggie Dierks Bentley will be the featured performer at a nationally-televised concert that kicks off this year’s NFL season. OneRepublic will also perform.
The “2016 NFL Kick Off,” an hour-long pregame show held at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver, home of the Super Bowl defending champion Broncos, airs on NBC and the NFL Network on Sept. 8.
Earlier this year, the 40-year-old Bentley released his eighth studio album since 2001, “Black,” and his single, “Somewhere on a Beach,” became his 11th No. 1 country 45.
Bentley’s tour touches down at the 16,100-seat Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre on Sept. 10, and the 20,500-seat Sleep Train Amphitheatre in Chula Vista.
LENNON’S AND MERCURY’S STAMP COLLECTIONS ON EXHIBIT
Like most kids, John Lennon and the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury collected stamps. The childhood collections of these two long-departed rock legends will be on display at the Autumn Stampex, “Britain’s Largest Stamp Exhibition” at the Business Design Center in central London. The stamps will be on exhibit from Sept. 14-17.
Mercury grew up in Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous group of islands that are part of Tanzania in East Africa, which was part of the British Empire at the time. He collected stamps when he was between the ages of 9 and 12.
His collection was bought in 1993 by The National Postal Museum, predecessor of the current Postal Museum, with all proceeds from that sale donated to The Mercury Phoenix Trust, an AIDS charity set up to remember Queen’s singer who died of the disease in November 1991 when he was 45. His collection features mostly stamps from his native Zanzibar and throughout what was then the British Empire.
Lennon started collecting stamps when he was 10 after an older cousin gave him a starter batch. The bulk of his stamps came from America and New Zealand. In typical Lennon fashion, The Beatle drew mustaches on the stamps featuring the portraits of Queen Victoria and King George VI.
ROGERS SETS FINAL HOLIDAY TOUR
Kenny Rogers will embark on his 35th and final Christmas tour, he says on his website.
The 77-year-old Gambler’s 16-date Christmas & Hits Tour kicks off Nov. 25, the day after Thanksgiving in Independence, Missouri, outside Kansas City, at the 5,800-seat Silverstein Eye Centers Arena. There aren’t any shows west of the Mississippi. Instead, he’s concentrating on Missouri, the Great Lakes states and New England.
OBIT: DIXIELAND GREAT FOUNTAIN
New Orleans’ legendary Dixieland clarinetist Pete Fountain died Saturday of heart failure at 85 in a hospice in New Orleans, the city of his birth, reports AP. To many, the virtuoso reedman with the quick wit and irresistible laugh epitomized New Orleans and, according to one source, “knew how to let the good times roll.”
He recorded more than 100 albums under his own name, many in the Dixieland style his so loved, but he recorded albums in virtually every jazz style.
In 1959, his recording of “Just a Closer Walk With Thee” sold more than a half million copies. He also hit the Top 30 adult contemporary singles chart three times between 1965-1969 with “Mae,” the theme to “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Les Bicyclettes De Belsize.”
Fountain was a local biggie when he was discovered by a talent scout for ABC-TV’s “The Lawrence Welk Show.” In 1957, he joined the “wonnerful, ah wonnerful” host and his Champagne Music Makers becoming a featured soloist for two seasons.
He reportedly quit the popular weekly music show when he wanted to “jazz up” a traditional holiday song for Welk’s 1958 Christmas show and the host shot him down. Another story says Welk got mightily upset with Fountain when he jazzed up “Silver Bells” on that show despite Welk’s edict, leading to his departure. As Fountain said at the time, “Champagne and bourbon don’t mix.”
Regardless, he was always most appreciative to Welk for giving him his start, and after Welk’s death in 1992 at age 89, Fountain joined the Welk orchestra for occasional reunion gigs.
Such was his popularity that he made 56 appearances on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.”
He opened his first nightclub on famed, bawdy, wild and crazy Bourbon Street in 1960 and moved to a larger location in the ‘70s. Later, he owned Pete Fountain’s Jazz Club at the Riverside Hilton in downtown New Orleans.
In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed his mansion outside New Orleans. He moved around the area a bit, eventually settling in Hammond, Louisiana, a few miles north of the Big Easy, where he told the New Orleans Daily Star: “We went from 10,000 square feet to 1,500. That’s really what you would call downsizing.”
In 2007, Fountain was elected to the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
Steve Smith writes a new Classic Pop, Rock and Country Music News column every week. It can be read in its entirety on www.presstelegram.com. Like, recommend or share the column on Facebook. Contact him by email at Classicpopmusicnews@gmail.com.
