Happy Birthday to Ringo Starr, undoubtedly one of the coolest people on this planet. His message of Peace And Love is genuine and needed more than ever these days. Ringo’s official Facebook page is one big virtual party, with several videos submitted by fans and organizations to celebrate his special day.
I saw Ringo Starr perform with an All-Star Band that featured Gregg Rolie from Santana and Journey; Colin Hay from Men At Work; Graham Gouldman from 10CC; and Steve Lukather from Toto at the Chicago Theatre in 2018. Here’s the final paragraph of the review I posted a few days later: The set list stretched back to the early Beatles days for “I Wanna Be Your Man” and up to Starr’s own contribution to the White Album, “Don’t Pass Me By.” The entire audience sang along with the iconic “Yellow Submarine,” and Starr also did well with “Act Naturally” and “Matchbox.” He performed his solo hits “It Don’t Come Easy,” “Photograph,” and “You’re Sixteen,” as well as the more recent and aptly named “Anthem.” The final song, “A Little Help From My Friends,” felt like classic understatement as Starr, his band mates and everyone in the Chicago Theatre joined together on the vocals.
Marie and Rosetta, writer George Brant’s play with music about rock and roll pioneers Rosetta Tharpe and Marie Knight, opened yesterday at Northlight Theatre in Skokie. The show is directed by E. Faye Butler, and features Bethany Thomas and Alexis J. Roston.
As reported in a recent Associated Press article, the Fender guitar company has opened a three-story flagship store in the swinging Harajuku district in Tokyo, Japan. Writer Yuri Kageyama states, “the flagship store is designed to serve as a kind of museum-cum-amusement park for Fender lovers.”
The Square Roots Festival kicked off today in Lincoln Square (near The Old Town School Of Folk Music) and runs through Sunday. The music lineup includes Superchunk; Jon Langford and Sally Timms; Eleventh Dream Day; Steve Dawson And Lucid Dreams; Split Single; and Urban Twang. The festival will also showcase local craft breweries and food vendors.
Several musicians will be taking part in the Nilsson Pandemonium Tribute Show at Molly Malone’s Irish Pub in Los Angeles next Thursday. The event is named after the late Harry Nilsson’s second album Pandemonium Shadow Show. There’s a $15 cover charge.
Belinda Carlisle from The Go-Go’s is in town for a show this Sunday night at the North Shore Center For The Performing Arts in Skokie. As reported by Selena Fragassi in today’s Chicago Sun-Times, Carlisle released a new EP titled Kismet in May that features songs by well-known composer Diane Warren.
Pretenders are offering another preview of their upcoming album Relentless with a video for the delicate and orchestral ballad “I Think About You Daily.” It’s completely different from the hard-edged “The The Sun Come In,” the first preview from Relentless, which proves yet again that Chrissie Hynde can come across as tender or tough as nails. The album comes out September 15, and in the mean time the Pretenders are touring throughout Europe.
Let’s do the time warp again. Some of us have literally been listening to WXRT for decades, but the Chicago FM station is once again giving listeners of all ages a chance to experience how it would have sounded if they had tuned in quite a while ago. Today’s programming was devoted to the 1970s, tomorrow brings the 1980s, and on Sunday, we’ll get the 1990s.
Fans of Chris Stamey's melodic and clever tunes with The dBs will find a lot to like on his latest solo effort The Great Escape, which came out today. It’s an easygoing effort that features Stamey working with fellow dB’s Peter Holsapple and Will Rigby, as well as Don Dixon, Eric Heywood, Caitlan Cary, and other musicians. The title track is particularly fetching, and other highlights include “Realize” and the playful “The One And Only Van Dyke Park.”
Go Time singer-guitarist Scott Niekelski has been doing acoustic solo gigs around the Chicago area for a while now, and he’ll be at Buckledown Brewery in Lyons next Friday from 6:00 to 9:00 pm.
Squaring The Circle (The Story Of Hipgnosis) is a new documentary guaranteed to delight aficionados of album cover art. Directed by Dutch film director-photographer Anton Corbijn and featuring Hipgnosis co-founder (with the late Storm Thorgerson) Anton Corbijn, the film explores some the most dazzling art that graced album covers since the 1970s. Squaring The Circle (The Story Of Hipgnosis) had a recent run at select movie theaters, and will be available on home video soon.
The Southport Art Fest will feature paintings and sculptures by local artists tomorrow and Sunday at Waveland Avenue and Southport Avenue on Chicago’s north side. The Millennium Art Fair takes place next Friday through Sunday July 14 – 16 at Lake Street and Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago.
As someone who’s spent my entire career either proofreading or working in retail (along with a couple stabs at telemarketing), I was immediately drawn to Emily McClanathan’s recent review of The Factory Theater’s Lane Call: A Night Of Closing in the Chicago Tribune. She describes the play as “a nostalgic workplace comedy about a Midwestern discount department store chain that thrived in the 1979s and ‘80s.” Venture, to be exact, which was where the play’s writers, Len Foote and OKen actually worked. Lane Call: A Night Of Closing runs through July 22 at The Factory Theater. I used to dream of creating sitcoms based on my experiences working at Montgomery Ward and Borders Books.
Former Credence Clearwater Revival leader John Fogerty will have several hit songs (“Bad Moon Rising,” “Fortunate Son,” “Susie-Q,” etc.) when he brings his Celebration Tour to Ravinia in Highland Park this Sunday.
David Bowie tribute band Super Creeps will perform “two full sets of Bowie classics and deep cuts” at Montrose Saloon next Wednesday night, according to a Facebook post. The music starts at 7:30 pm.
Action Skulls, the trio of Vicki Peterson from The Bangles, John Cowsill from The Cowsills, and actor-musician Bill Mumy, recently released a single titled “Find The Good!” It’s available on various streaming sites, and is from their upcoming album From A Running Horse.
Facets, Chicago’s long-running venue devoted to independent films, is hosting Finntastic: New Films from Finland next weekend, July 13 – 15. The venue’s Facebook page states the event will “focus on a young generation of prize-winning female directors.” Facets is located at 1517 W. Fullerton on the city’s north side.
The Who recently finished a series of concerts in Spain, Italy, Germany, and France, and returned to the UK yesterday for another batch of The Who Hits Back 2023 concerts. Meanwhile, Chicago area fans of The Who can still buy tickets to The Who’s Tommy, which is being staged at The Goodman Theatre through August 6.
Graham Parker, whose tuneful though biting new single “We Did Nothing” is now available from Big Stir Records, will perform at The Old Town School Of Folk Music on July 14. Other Brits coming to the venue include on The Zombies on October 15, and Nick Lowe on November 20.
The Northman Riverwalk Beer And Cider Garden at 233 E. Riverwalk in downtown Chicago offers outdoor concerts in the late afternoon and early evening just about every day. The power pop band Magnaphonic has created a nifty steam punk inspired clip to promote its performance there on Saturday, July 15.
Alt rock/country band Dolly Varden will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its For A While album at SPACE in Evanston on July 15.
The State Of Sound exhibit continues all through July at Festival Hall A in the lower level lobby at Navy Pier. This is a pop-up version of the award-winning exhibition that was held at the Abraham Lincoln Museum in Springfield, and celebrates Illinois-based major stars of popular music.
Personality - The Lloyd Price Musical, continues it run throughout July at the Fine Arts Building.
Cheap Trick will headline Metro’s 40th Anniversary Celebration Finale on July 16. The event also features the band Brokeback.
The 94-piece exhibit Andy Warhol Portfolios: A Life In Pop continues its run through July at McAninch Arts Center at the Cleve College Of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
