Classic Hits

An updated version of Rush‘s 2019 screening event Cinema Strangiato will be shown in select theaters for one night only on September 9 in honor of the 40th anniversary of the legendary Canadian prog rockers’ 1981 album, Moving Pictures.

Rush: Cinema Strangiato — Director’s Cut will feature an alternate version of the film, which boasts highlights from the 2015 concert film R40 Live, plus behind-the-scenes segments and soundcheck footage.

The updated flick features bonus performances of “One Little Victory” and “Red Barchetta,” as well as the Neil Peart drum medley “Cygnus X-1″/”The Story So Far,” which is described as Neil’s “final recorded drum solo masterpiece.”

R40 Live features performances filmed in 2015 at a number of stops on Rush’s 40th anniversary trek, which turned out to be the band’s farewell tour. Peart died of brain cancer in January 2020.

Cinema Strangiato also includes interviews with The Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan, Foo Fighters‘ Taylor Hawkins, Rage Against the Machine‘s Tom Morello, The Trailer Park Boys, Rush producer Nick Raskulinecz, and others.

Tickets for Cinema Strangiato — Director’s Cut are on sale now in the U.S. at CinemaStrangiato.com. Tickets will be available for screenings in Canada on September 1.

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On August 6, in celebration of the release of the 50th anniversary reissues of the late George Harrison‘s 1970 album All Things Must Pass, a temporary living-art installation depicting the album’s cover opened at London’s Duke of York Square.

Now, a mini documentary about the creation of the installation, featuring appearances by George’s son, Dhani, and widow, Olivia, has premiered at Harrison’s official YouTube channel.

The All Things Must Pass cover features a photo of George seated on a stool on the lawn of his Friar Park estate outside of London, surrounded by several garden-gnome statues. For the installation, which will remain open until August 20, celebrated floral artist Ruth Davis created two giant gnomes out of flowers and foliage.

The display also features a wooden stool and oversized rubber gardening boots, similar to the ones Harrison wears in the album’s cover pic.

The documentary features an interview with Dhani at Friar Park discussing his father’s passion for gardening at the estate, noting that “the connection with nature…that’s how he meditated and prayed.”

Dhani also explains how the florist was given a tour of Friar Park’s grounds and conferred with Olivia Harrison about the types of foliage to use for the display, “trying to deconstruct Friar Park and then build it in the center of London as a gnome.”

The video ends with Olivia visiting the finished installation.

Checking out the display, Olivia gushes, “It’s the most joyous thing I’ve ever seen!”

She then notes, “I know how I feel so I know that George [would]…be over the moon with this. He loved nothing more than being in a garden, and his association with gnomes precedes him. It’s beautiful and skillful…and it’s very creative.”

The All Things Must Pass reissues are available now.

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Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler‘s Janie’s Fund charity has partnered with the CITIZEN-T project and visual artist Brian Fox to offer a limited-edition designer T-shirt featuring a portrait of the rock legend, each one signed by Tyler.

Only 100 shirts are available, priced at $300, and money raised by the sale will benefit the Janie’s Fund’s LifeSet program, which provides therapeutic support for young women between the ages of 17 and 22 that have experienced various forms of abuse.

The T-shirts are previously used or recycled items that are given new life with the Tyler portrait art, and are presented in zero-waste packaging. You can buy the shirts now at JaniesFund.org; purchases are limited to five per person.

“The fusion of art, sustainable fashion and recovery is perfectly aligned with our values,” says Janie’s Fund executive Richard Shaw. “We’ve been fortunate to partner with artist Brian Fox since Janie’s Fund was launched in 2015, and this CITIZEN-T collaboration is directly bringing our passion forward to create more awareness to this issue that Steven cares deeply about.”

Adds CITIZEN-T founder Stephanie Dillon, “Many of us have been inspired by Aerosmith’s artistry for years but this work to bring awareness and raise funds to help others overcome their trauma is something I’m deeply connected to, and it’s so very timely and needed. We hope this is just the first of what will be many collaborations to help girls and the environment heal.”

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If Mariah Carey was going to sell any sort of alcoholic beverage, you’d figure it’d be spiked eggnog, right?  Well, the elusive chanteuse has confounded our expectations once again by launching her own brand of Irish cream liqueur: Black Irish.

“Introducing BLACK IRISH. Two years in the making. Truly a cause for celebration,” Mariah wrote on her socials. “A cause for celebration” is a lyric from Mariah’s 2005 track “It’s Like That.”

Available in original, white chocolate and salted caramel, the liqueurs are 17% ABV, and made by blending “aged Irish whiskey and superior dairy sourced from Irish farms.”

According to Food & Wine magazine, Mariah dubbed her liqueur Black Irish as a “a playful nod to her Black and Irish lineage.” Her mom is of Irish descent, while her late father was Black and Venezuelan.

Food & Wine quotes Mariah saying in a statement: “I have been putting my heart into this project for almost two years and I am so excited to finally share this news with you all. I wanted to create something that embodies the holidays and gives everyone a reason to celebrate year-round, and I really think we have done that with Black Irish.”

Black Irish is now available online.  And should you ever get so drunk that you forget whose product it is, the bottlecaps are emblazoned with an “MC” as well as Mariah’s signature butterfly.

 

 

 

 

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Congratulations to Don McLean, who was honored with the 2,700th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday.

The honorary plaque is located at 6314 Hollywood Boulevard in front of The Pie Hole restaurant, which is at the corner of Vine St.

“This is a very special day for me,” the “American Pie” singer and songwriter said. “Awards are given every year on those television programs, and every year a new person is named a favorite; however, this award is forever. This is an honor I get to share with friends, fans, and whoever walks down Hollywood Boulevard.”

McLean’s friend “Weird Al” Yankovic was on hand to introduce Don, and the members of the country vocal group Home Free also took part in the ceremony.

“Weird Al” recorded a Star Wars-themed “American Pie” parody in 1999 called “The Saga Begins,” which featured a humorous recounting of The Phantom Menace‘s plot told from Obi-Wan Kenobi’s point of view.

Home Free teamed up with Don last year for an a cappella version of “American Pie.” The group led fans gathered for the unveiling ceremony in a sing-along of McLean’s famous anthem, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

You can check out a video of the entire ceremony at the Walk of Fame’s official YouTube channel.

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Madonna celebrated her 63rd birthday by going back to her Italian roots and taking her family along for the fun.

In video posted yesterday on her Instagram captioned “Mambo Italiano,” Madonna and her children are shown traveling on a private plane, and one of her twin daughters says in French, “We’re going to Italy.”  We then see Madonna striking a pose against a stone balustrade, smoking and declaring, “Happy Birthday to me!”

As Dean Martin‘s classic song “That’s Amore” plays, we see Madonna walking hand in hand with her boyfriend, Ahlamalik Williams, to a massive dining table set up outdoors, surrounded by what we assume are all her birthday guests.  There is also plenty of video of Madonna seductively licking an ice-cream cone, both with and without her boyfriend.

A separate post shows Madonna and all her children having fun during the party, and there’s more footage of the birthday preparations and surroundings on her Instagram Stories.

Last week, Madonna said that for her birthday she wanted fans to contribute money to purchase more beds for the pediatric hospital she established in Malawi four years ago.

Yesterday, Madonna announced a huge new deal with Warner Music Group that will, in part, see her reissuing deluxe editions of some of her classic albums in 2022 to mark the 40th anniversary of her recording debut.

 

 

 

 

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After their End of the Road farewell tour was put on hold last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, KISS is set to relaunch the trek on Thursday in Mansfield, Massachusetts. Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth was the tour’s original support act, but in a new Rolling Stone interview, KISS bassist/singer Gene Simmons confirms that Diamond Dave is no longer part of the outing.

While Simmons doesn’t explain specifically why Roth isn’t touring with KISS anymore, he says, “[I]t bears noting that during Dave’s heyday, nobody did what he did. He was the ultimate frontman. Not [Robert] Plant, not Rod Stewart, nobody. He took being a frontman way beyond anything. And then, I don’t know what happened to him…something. And you get modern-day Dave. I prefer to remember Elvis Presley in his prime. Sneering lips, back in Memphis, you know, doing all that. I don’t want to think of bloated naked Elvis on the bathroom floor.”

It’s worth noting that Roth did open the first run of KISS dates in early 2020 before the pandemic began. The support act for KISS in 2021 will be rock painter Garibaldi.

Meanwhile, with COVID-19 continuing to be an issue in the U.S. and around the world, Simmons has a message for fans coming to his band’s shows.

“I would highly recommend for everybody to get two Pfizer or Moderna shots, please — for the rest of us,” he says. “Even if you believe the Earth is flat, it’s not.”

Gene adds, “The entire road crew must be vaccinated twice. Nobody gets backstage or onstage without wearing masks, and everybody stays at a safe distance and you’ve got to wash your hands and do everything else the CDC says.”

Check out KISS’ full concert schedule at KISSOnline.com.

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A woman who claims she was groomed and sexually assaulted by Bob Dylan when she was a minor has filed suit against the music icon.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court, identifies the now 68-year-old alleged victim only as J.C.

The woman claims that the alleged abuse happened in 1965 when she was 12 years old, saying Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, took advantage of her at his Chelsea Hotel apartment 56 years ago.  J.C. claims Dylan used his fame to gain her trust and began to groom her “as part of his plan to sexually molest and abuse,” according to the legal documents.

“Bob Dylan (‘Dylan’), over a six-week period between April and May of 1965 befriended and established an emotional connection with the plaintiff, J.C., to lower her inhibitions with the object of sexually abusing her, which he did, coupled with the provision of drugs, alcohol and, threats of physical violence, leaving her emotionally scarred and psychologically damaged to this day,” the suit claims.

J.C. claims she was sexually abused several times by the singer, which has led her to allegedly grapple with “permanent” anxiety, depression and humiliation over the years.  She claims to have sought medical treatment because the mental toll had “incapacitated plaintiff from attending her regular activities.”

Speaking to The New York Post, J.C.’s attorney, Daniel W. Isaacs, said of the lawsuit, “She provided a lot of detailed information regarding the time in question that leaves no doubt that she was with him in the apartment during the time in question.”

J.C. is requesting a jury trial and seeks unspecified damages.

A representative for Dylan, 80, denies the account and told The New York Post, “This 56-year-old claim is untrue and will be vigorously defended.”

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Mari Under the Volcano, a new documentary about the state-of-the-art recording studio that late Beatles producer George Martin built on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, was released today via digital, streaming and video-on-demand platforms.

AIR Studios Montserrat opened in 1979 and was used by some of the world’s biggest music stars until the island was devastated by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Then, in 1995, a volcanic eruption made most of Montserrat uninhabitable.

The film features new interviews with many artists who recorded at the facility, including The Police‘s three members, Dire Straits‘ Mark Knopfler, Jimmy Buffett and Duran Duran‘s Nick Rhodes.

Police guitarist Andy Summers, whose band recorded 1981’s Ghost in the Machine and 1983’s Synchronicity on Montserrat, tells ABC Audio that he considers Under the Volcano “an ode to…Martin.”

“[H]e had this vision to go and build this place on…this very funky island,” Summers says. “That kind of interested me, how he first went there and fell in love with it.”

Andy also notes that The Police felt like they’d really made it when they got to work on Montserrat, noting that it was “the ultimate rock star dream to go to the Caribbean” to record.

Summers recalls an incident during the Synchronicity sessions where the notoriously contentious band members decided to ask Sir George if he’d produce them to help resolve conflicts they were having.

Summers says he visited Martin at his home across the island, and, over a spot of tea, George told him, “I think you’re gonna sort this out. I don’t think I need to come over there.”

Andy says that after Martin’s “calming” words, the band “went through the rest of the album without a hitch.”

Visit UndertheVolcanoMovie.com for more info about the film.

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A collection of artwork created by late Cars frontman Ric Ocasek will go on display starting September 1 exclusively at all nine Wentworth Galleries, which are located in Florida, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Ocasek’s pieces also will be available for purchase.

“Art is a way to release tension and to organize my thoughts,” the singer, guitarist and songwriter once explained. “It’s something I do while pondering an outcome. The drawings start with a shape and explode from there.”

Ric’s art was partly influenced and inspired by late pop-art legend Andy Warhol, who directed the music video for The Cars’ 1984 hit “Hello Again.”

Discussing Warhol’s work, Ocasek said that “his stuff I loved not only because it looked amazing, but it was different than everyone else’s and had an idea behind it.”

You can check out examples of Ric’s paintings and drawings at WentworthGallery.com.

“When I saw Ric’s art for the first time, I was struck with the emotion it captured,” notes Wentworth Gallery president Christian O’Mahony. “You can sense a part of Ric in the art. It really gives a snapshot into the mind of an artistic genius. I am honored to showcase and sell his art in my galleries.”

Ocasek died of natural causes on September 15, 2019. He was 75.

Here’s the full list of Wentworth Gallery locations:

Florida
Boca Raton — Town Center Mall, 6000 Glades Rd.
Fort Lauderdale — 819 E. Las Olas Blvd.
Hollywood — Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, 5804 Seminole Way

Georgia
Atlanta — Phipps Plaza, 3500 Peachtree Rd. NE

Maryland
Bethesda — Westfield Montgomery Mall, 7101 Democracy Blvd.

New Jersey
Atlantic City — Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, 1000 Boardwalk
Short Hills — The Mall at Short Hills, 1200 Morris Tpke.

Pennsylvania
King of Prussia — King of Prussia Mall, 690 West Dekalb Pike

Virginia
McLean — Tysons Galleria, 1807 U. International Drive

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