MUSIC NEWS: TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016
TRAGICALLY HIP SUITS
Gord Downie has always been a flamboyant showman.
For the Tragically Hip's latest tour, he's wearing that style on his sleeve.
Downie has been sporting a collection of brightly coloured metallic leather suits during the band's Man Machine Poem Tour, which kicked off in Victoria on Friday.
Izzy Camilleri, a Toronto-based clothing designer, worked on the bold creations with Downie, which include hot pink, turquoise, silver and gold suits.
Camilleri says she and Downie started collaborating on the look last September, before he learned he had terminal brain cancer.
Camilleri says Downie kept his wardrobe plans secret from his bandmates.
He only revealed his wild look at the tour's kickoff in Victoria on Friday, when he strode onto the stage in the hot pink suit.
She says Downie wears the suits well and is having a lot of fun with the look.
(The Canadian Press)
GUNS N' ROSES SHOW - ARRESTS
At least 30 people were arrested during the Guns N' Roses concert outside New York on Saturday, including one woman accused of assaulting police. Investigators say 30-year-old Kimberly Goodman was charged with aggravated assault against two state troopers. They received minor injuries. Other arrests include solicitation without a permit, disorderly conduct, criminal trespassing, simple assault, drug offences, harassment and open lewdness.
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RORY FEEK - MEMOIR
Now that enough people know who Rory Feek of Joey and Rory is, he will publish his life story. He writes on his ``This Life I Live'' blog he always wanted to write a book and even met with some agents. He was told Joey and Rory were not famous enough.
He says the sad part is that it took Joey's death and his chronicles of her struggle with cancer to make them famous enough for agents to care. Feek says his book will be about ``a man so lost, it's a miracle that he was ever found.'' He describes himself as a ``corrupt person'' until Joey came along. The book is scheduled to come out on Valentine's Day.
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PASSENGER - BUSKING MOMENT
Michael David Rosenberg, A-K-A Passenger, owes a lot of what he does onstage to being a street musician. Rosenberg says it was such a thrill as a busker to draw a crowd. Sometimes an audience member stood out. Rosenberg says one wet day when no one would listen to his music, an old woman stopped and slowly ate a muffin in front of him. After a while, she put the half-eaten muffin into his guitar case and moved on. Rosenberg says he has no idea if that meant she liked him or she didn't. He says it was straight out of a David Lynch movie.
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PAUL McCARTNEY DEMO - AUCTION
A long-lost demo that Paul McCartney recorded for Cilla Black is expected to sell at auction for as much as 26-thousand dollars. Black turned the Lennon-McCartney song ``It's For You'' into a Top-10 UK hit in 1964. The demo was lost for 52 years until Black's family found it among her things after her death last year. The family assumed it was just a copy of her single and took it to a Beatles expert Stephen Bailey to value. Bailey says he was ``shaking with excitement and speechless'' after realizing it was McCartney singing, not Black. The Beatles Liverpool Auction will sell the demo on August 27th. You can hear 20 seconds of it at their website at beatlesauction-dot-co-dot-uk.
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JACK WHITE - RECORD IN SPACE
Jack White will celebrate the seventh anniversary of his Third Man Records by trying to play a phonographic record in space. A custom-made turntable attached to a high-altitude balloon will be launched at an undetermined time, and the results revealed on Saturday. The record will be a gold-plated 12-inch master of ``A Glorious Dawn'' by Carl Sagan, culled from Sagan's ``Cosmos'' series. It was one of the first records Third Man released.
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SHARON JONES - FILM
Sharon Jones will give it all onstage and then she needs her down time, perhaps more than any other performer.
Jones was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2013 and it went into remission, only to recur last year. Jones says she does chemotherapy to prepare her for touring. She says she has ``to worry about the shows and getting up there and having the energy and the strength to get through those.'' Jones, who is 60, could just rest, but she says she doesn't want to be laid up, wishing she had done that gig. A documentary about her struggle called ``Miss Sharon Jones!'' will be in limited release this week.
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LOLLAPALOOZA - HOSPITALS PREP
A Chicago hospital just over two-kilometres from where Lollapalooza will be staged is ready for the weekend. The Chicago Tribune reports Lurie Children's Hospital held a simulation last week to prepare for its busiest weekend of the year for alcohol-related visits. Dr. Karen Mangold says they're expecting more patients than usual because Lollapalooza has extended to four days. Last year, Chicago emergency rooms treated 88 intoxicated teenagers during Lollapalooza. The festival starts Thursday.
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MICHAEL HUTCHENCE - FILM
The man who directed the ``What You Need'' video for INXS will make a documentary about late frontman Michael Hutchence. Billboard reports Australian filmmaker Richard Lowenstein has been working on the film for years.
Lowenstein says he wants to get into the heart and soul of ``this complex, shy, poetic and exceptionally charismatic man.'' The film is expected to be released at the end of 2017.
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OBIT - MARNI NIXON
She was the voice of ``West Side Story,'' ''The King and I`` and ''My Fair Lady.`` Actress Marni Nixon has died. It was her voice that was dubbed into the singing scenes of some of Hollywood's classic movie musicals. She subbed for the likes of Natalie Wood, Deborah Kerr and Audrey Hepburn. Nixon had a wide-ranging music and theatre career. But her biggest audiences of the 1950s and '60s never saw her face. Her talent agency says Nixon died Sunday in New York. She was 86.
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(The Associated Press)
