Champagne

Photo from  The REAL Peter Tork (Official) Facebook page.

Best wishes for a festive New Year’s Eve and a successful 2023 to all who read this blog. Whether you choose to hit the town or party at home, be sure to keep safe tomorrow night.

First, a champagne toast to Davy Jones and Mike Nesmith of The Monkees, who were both born on December 30. Happy Birthday, guys, and keep rocking in paradise. We’ll never forget you. Or Peter Tork.

The always fun rockabilly/garage rock band Amazing Heeby Jeebies will be ringing in the new year at Montrose Saloon tomorrow night, along with The Metalliques and Forbidden Kingdom. The Metalliques are a masked, mysterious, and female-fronted band that performs chilling but engaging techno jazz. Forbidden Kingdom features Eric Chial from Bon Mots on guitar and his son Gustaf on drums; Ellis Clark from Social Act on keyboards and his son Andrew on bass; and Jared Chase Eisenmann on guitar. Montrose Saloon is located at 2933 W. Montrose Avenue on Chicago’s north side.

Vivienne Westwood, who along with Malcolm McLaren managed the iconic Let It Rock shop in London, has passed away at age 81. The duo is widely recognized for giving birth to the provocative punk rock fashion that erupted in the late 1970s and remains to this day. Westwood maintained a successful designing career throughout her life, while actively supporting worthwhile causes like saving our planet from global warming. Several well-known rock stars paid tribute to her on social media the past few days.

EXPO ’76, the equally unpredictable and entertaining covers band made up of musicians from some of the area’s best original groups, will return to Hey Nonny in Arlington Heights tomorrow night for what’s bound to be a joyous New Year’s Eve celebration. In related news, the Hey Nonny Women’s Jazz Festival runs on the weekend of January 6 – 8.

Sending out December 30 Happy Birthday wishes to punk/alt rock priestess Patti Smith and Electric Light Orchestra founder and Traveling Wilburys member Jeff Lynne. And Happy Birthday to rock and roll pioneer Bo Diddley, who was born on this day in 1928.

The fourth annual Winter Mini Fringe, an offshoot of the Elgin Fringe Festival, will be staged at the Elgin Public House on January 21. The event features the comedies Party Cops and It’s That Time Of The Month, along with Cats That I Know presented by Danny Wightkin. Admission is $15 per show or $30 for all three. The event kicks off at 4:00 pm and is being produced by Side Street Studio Arts with support from the Elgin Cultural Arts Commission, and Elgin Public House.

Just in time for viewing on long winter nights when it’s too cold to go outside, English pop masters Squeeze have begun posting HD videos with new audio of some of their best-loved tracks on YouTube. So far, the list includes “Cool For Cats,” and “Up The Junction.” 

Bric-A-Brac Records and Collectibles, a friendly and imaginative store on Chicago’s north side, is in need of help after a “burst pipe disaster.” A recent Facebook post states, “We have insurance and shouldn't have trouble getting compensated for our losses, but the real issue is replacing the inventory.” People are being asked to sell records, toys, VHS, cassettes, etc. to Bric-A-Brac but I’m sure the store wouldn’t mind donations. Wouldn’t it be great if Bric-A-Brac received stuff from around the globe? The address is 2845 N. Milwaukee Avenue/Chicago, IL  60647. Another way to help is to purchase special t-shirts and tote bags designed by Ryan Duggan available from the Bric-A-Brac website. 

According to an Instagram post, the Reckless Records location on Belmont in Chicago also suffered a burst pipe incident and needed to close for a while in order to to clean up. A more recent post noted that quick-acting employees and customers “allowed us to mostly avoid disaster.”

The Pretenders have a series of gigs coming up next February in Manchester, Newcastle, London, Brighton, and Bristol that will align with Independent Venue Week in the U.K.

Congratulations to The Bodeans on selling out their show tonight at The Arcada Theatre in St. Charles.

Reggies in the south loop has a four-band showcase coming up on January 12 featuring Silver Abuse, Voice Of Addiction, The Handcuffs, and Vortis. Each act will perform a half-hour set. People around these parts have been picking The Handcuffs’ Burn The Rails as one of the best albums of 2022, and I’d have to agree.

Dreaming in Colours. The Dream Syndicate has an upcoming tour in the U.K., and has sold out its  March 15 concert at The Lexington in London. The Los Angeles-based band recently added a March 16 date at the Colours venue, also in London. Fellow original Paisley Underground member Vicki Peterson of The Bangles will be a guest performer at both gigs.

Congratulations to Chicago-based musician/actor Common on his Broadway debut in Between Riverside and Crazy, the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Stephen Adly Guirgis.

Tickets are now on sale for The Chicago Independent Venue League’s CIVL Fest coming to various locations around the city February 8 – 26. The event will benefit will help fund Venue Staff and Artist Mental Health Programs; Venue Safety Initiatives; and Equal Access And Equity Campaigns. The full schedule is yet to be worked out, but so far, the venues involved are Beat Kitchen, Berlin, Harold Washington Cultural Center, Metro, Patio Theatre, Reggies, Rosa’s Lounge, and Sleeping Village.

The third installment of It’s Karma It’s Cool’s quest to offer six digital singles in three months was just released, and despite being named “Winter Coats,” it’s not a holiday tune. The English band describes its catchy, original tunes as power pop with bite, and this new one definitely fits that description. As with the first two songs, Peter Holsapple from The dB’s joins It’s Karma It’s Cool on keyboards.

I’ve been reading at least a chapter a day of Bono’s SURRENDER: 40 Songs, One Story and it’s continually fascinating to discover the inspiration for some of U2’s biggest hits. As I’ve noted previously, Bono comes across in this memoir as honest, funny, and interesting. 

The immersive exhibit Bob Marley: One Love Experience, having already made stops in London and Toronto, will come to the Ovation Hollywood venue in Los Angeles on January 27. Its features include photography, music, concert videos, and a One Love Forest.

If These Walls Could Sing, Mary McCartney’s new documentary about the amazing history of Abbey Road Studios in London is now streaming on Disney +. 

 

Musician Jason Narducy, musician/actor Michael Shannon, and their friends will perform songs by The Modern Lovers at SPACE on January 19. 

Nine Liars, the latest novel in Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious series is now available. The story finds young and brilliant sleuth Stevie Bell investigating a murder in England.