MUSICARES® TO HONOR PAUL MCCARTNEY
AS 2012 PERSON OF THE YEAR
Paul McCartney And Friends Will Perform At Sold Out Tribute
In His Honor That Will Benefit MusiCares’ Emergency Financial Assistance
And Addiction Recovery Programs
WHO: Performances by 14-time GRAMMY®-winning artist Paul McCartney and other artists to be announced shortly.Attendees include Neil Portnow, President/CEO of MusiCares®and The Recording Academy®; Scott Pascucci, MusiCares Foundation Board Chair; and Paul Caine, MusiCares Board Chair Emeritus. Tribute co-chairs are John Eastman, Bob Iger, Sir George Martin, and Lorne Michaels.Tommy LiPuma is the evening’s musical director in association with David Paich. Past MusiCares Person of the Year honorees include Tony Bennett, Bono, Natalie Cole, Phil Collins, David Crosby, Neil Diamond, Gloria Estefan, Aretha Franklin, Don Henley, Billy Joel, Elton John, Quincy Jones, Luciano Pavarotti, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, Sting, Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, and Neil Young. In addition, a host of celebrities, along with prominent music industry and entertainment executives, are scheduled to attend.
WHAT: Iconic artist and philanthropist Paul McCartney will be honored as the 2012 MusiCares Person of the Year at a special event celebrating his exceptional artistic achievements as well as his philanthropic work. Proceeds from the annual Person of the Year tribute— now in its 22nd year — provide essential support for MusiCares, which ensures that music people have a place to turn in times of financial, medical and personal need.
GALA: The 2012 MusiCares Person of the Year gala will begin with a cocktail reception and silent auction sponsored bythe Starkey Hearing Foundation that will offer an exclusiveandunparalleled selection of luxury items, VIP experiences, and one-of-a-kind celebrity memorabilia for bidding guests. The auction will be followed by a gala dinner sponsored by AEG Live, and a star-studded tribute concert sponsored by Acura/ELS. This year’s red-carpet press arrivals area will be sponsored by Kinect for Xbox 360 and Dance Central 2. MusiCares would also like to thank Centerstaging –A SoundCheck LA Company, Classic Wines of California, Delta Airlines, Double Platinum, Gibson, Global Art, Heineken, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Jackson Limo, Korbel, Patron Spirits Company, Pepsi, and Sweetwater. The MusiCares Person of the Year tribute is one of the most prestigious events held during GRAMMY Week. The celebration culminates with the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards on Sunday, Feb. 12 at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles. The telecast will be broadcast live on the CBS Television Network at 8 p.m. ET/PT. This event is completely sold out.
WHY:
MusiCares offers programs and services to members of the music community including emergencyfinancial assistance for basic living expenses including rent, utilities and car payments; medical expenses including doctor, dentist and hospital bills; psychotherapy; and treatment for HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, hepatitis C, and other critical illnesses. MusiCares offers nationwide educational workshops covering a variety of subjects, including financial, legal, medical and substance abuse issues, and programs in collaboration with healthcare professionals that provide services such as flu shots, hearing tests and medical/dental screenings. The MusiCares MAP Fund® allows access to addiction recovery treatment and sober living resources for members of the music community. Staffed by qualified chemical dependency and intervention specialists, MusiCares Safe Harbor Rooms offer a support network to those in recovery while they are participating in the production of televised music shows and other major music events. MusiCares holds weekly addiction support groups for people to discuss how to best cope with the issues surrounding the recovery process. The MusiCares Sober Touring Network is a database of individuals across the United States who can take music people to recovery support meetings while on the road. For more information, please visit www.musicares.org.
WHERE: Los Angeles Convention Center, West Hall
1201 S. Figueroa St.
Los Angeles, CA 90015
Parking:
West Hall Lot, off Cherry Street; cost: $12 (no valet available)
WHEN: Friday, Feb. 10, 2012 5 p.m. Media Check-In (at Gilbert Lindsay Plaza) 5:30 p.m. Red Carpet Arrivals, Cocktail Reception, and Silent Auction 7:30 p.m. Gala Dinner 9 p.m. Concert & Award Presentation
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: If you are interested in covering this event, you MUST request credentials no later than Weds., Feb. 1. Credentials will be picked up at media check-in on the day of the event. All crews must be self-contained, ENG crews. All satellite truck/van parking must be coordinated with Joe Schneiderno later than Weds., Feb. 1. ALL MEDIA MUST BE CREDENTIALED for this event.
Established in 1989 by The Recording Academy, MusiCares provides a safety net of critical assistance for music people in times of need. MusiCares’ services and resources cover a wide range of financial, medical and personal emergencies, and each case is treated with integrity and confidentiality. MusiCares also focuses the resources and attention of the music industry on human service issues that directly impact the health and welfare of the music community. For more information, please visit www.musicares.org. For breaking news and exclusive content, please like “MusiCares” on Facebook at www.facebook.com/musicaresand follow @MusiCares on Twitter at www.twitter.com/musicares.
Established in 1957, The Recording Academy is an organization of musicians, producers, engineers and recording professionals that is dedicated to improving the cultural condition and quality of life for music and its makers. Internationally known for the GRAMMY Awards — the preeminent peer-recognized award for musical excellence and the most credible brand in music — The Recording Academy is responsible for groundbreaking professional development, cultural enrichment, advocacy, education and human services programs. The Academy continues to focus on its mission of recognizing musical excellence, advocating for the well-being of music makers and ensuring music remains an indelible part of our culture. For more information about The Academy, please visit www.grammy.com. For breaking news and exclusive content, join the organization’s social networks as a Twitter follower at www.twitter.com/thegrammys, a Facebook fan at www.facebook.com/thegrammys, and aYouTube channel subscriber atwww.youtube.com/thegrammys.
2011 – Paul McCartney to debut 2012 with awesome cover tunes album on This Day in Rock Music History. Inspired by songs that influenced John and Paul in the early days of the Beatles, the album will also have two new originals.
“When I kind of got into songwriting, I realized how well structured these songs were, and I think I took a lot of my lessons from them,” McCartney said in a statement.
“I always thought artists like Fred Astaire were very cool. Writers like Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, all of those guys — I just thought the songs were magical. And then, as I got to be a songwriter I thought it’s beautiful, the way they made those songs.”
Working with Grammy-winning Diana Krall and producer Tommy LiPuma is a highlight for Paul. Approaching in a new way, he recorded all the vocals alone in a booth without music.
“It was very spontaneous, kind of organic, which then reminded me of the way we’d work with the Beatles. We’d bring a song in, kick it around, when we found a way to do it we’d say ‘Okay, let’s do a take now’ and by the time everyone kind of had an idea of what they were doing, we’d learnt the song. So that’s what we did, we did the take live in the studio,” said McCartney.
Also playing on the album are Stevie Wonder on “Only Our Hearts” and Eric Clapton on “My Valentine.”
All the facts about rock hisory you need in one easy place. With a database of over 25,000 records and growing daily, we update posts about Elvis, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, Jet, My Chemical Romance and many more. We include Video from YouTube, lyrics, and all the juicy facts that happen to your favorite stars. Tell you friends, leave comments, and enjoy history.
2011 – On this day in Rock, 50 years after the Beatles honed their skills, created Beatlemania, and changed the world… The Cavern Club is revived for a tribute today.
A 16 year old, Alex McKechnie, relates his experiences in a tribute by the BBC of the days of glory of the Famous club, and the band that Rocked the world into crying, “Please Please me”!
See the full interview: Alex McKechnie was speaking to BBC News entertainment reporter Ian Youngs.
The Cavern is celebrating the anniversary with a series of tribute events on Wednesday. A documentary about the first gig will be broadcast on ITV1 at 2240 GMT on Wednesday.
2011 – Beatles memorabilia museum opens in Buenos Aires
A brick from The Cavern Club, a check for 11 pounds signed by Ringo Starr, an “authentic” Beatles wig. These and thousands of other objects related to the “Fab Four” are luring Beatles fans to a new museum in Buenos Aires.
The museum is the product of the particular “Beatlemania” obsession of Rodolfo Vazquez, a 53-year-old accountant who became a fan at the age of 10 when he got their “Rubber Soul” record. “With the song “In my life” I fell in love with the Beatles,” he told The Associated Press.
Vazquez scooped up all the memorabilia he could find in Buenos Aires about history’s most famous rock band, an obsession that grew until he made it into Guinness World Records in 2001 as having the planet’s largest collection.
At that point, Guinness noted that he had 5,612 items in the attic of his home in Buenos Aires. His hoard has grown to more than 8,500 records, gadgets, puppets and games since then, more than 2,200 of which are on display in the Beatle Museum that just opened this month on Avenue Corrientes, in an area of the capital where tourists throng.
There are Beatles museums in Liverpool, England, and Hamburg, Germany, that display memorabilia along with objects from the band members’ lives, and other private collections as well — Julian Lennon has many that show the more personal side of the four band members, published in the book “Beatles Memorabilia. The collection of Julian Lennon,” including drawings his late father sent him when the Beatles were on tour.
But this storefront museum stands out for the sheer quantity of pieces, carefully arranged in display cases and on the walls. There are objects for all tastes: a box of condoms with the name of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, a wig that says it adjusts to any head size, and signed pictures of the four musicians.
“The idea is to show my collection permanently. In a year I would like to rotate the items on display with others from my collection,” Vazquez said. Otherwise all of it would be closed into boxes and trunks without anyone being able to enjoy them.”
Vazquez also keeps accumulating objects, either buying or trading for them with other collectors around the world.
“In Britain and Spain I found many fans. By mail I’ve received things from Japan, Britain and Brazil, and I’m still doing it,” he said.
The Beatles broke up in 1970, but there’s no letup in interest about the band: When their song list was added to iTunes last year, more than 2 million individual songs and 450,000 copies of Beatles albums were sold in the first week.
The Beatles never performed in Argentina, but people here seem to have a soft spot for them, ensuring that cover bands have regular gigs. Many such bands play in Vazquez’s “The Cavern Club,” a bar next to the museum named after the Liverpool nightclub where the band got its start.
Each year, Vazquez organizes a “Beatle Week,” in which cover bands from around Latin America compete to be named the best imitators. The winners travel to a Liverpool music festival.
Vazquez claims he doesn’t know the total value of his private collection, which also includes record covers, autographs, toys, original pictures, concert programs, and cups and plates with Beatle images.
Vazquez said that he has a special fondness for 64 boxes of chewing gum in the form of miniature albums that allude to the 16 Beatles records.
Other rarities are four music boxes with figures of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Vazquez even has certified copies of their birth certificates.
In one display case, there’s a brick — one of about 5,000 pulled from the demolition in 1983 of the original Cavern Club.
There’s also a hunk of the stage of Hamburg’s Star Club, a strip club where the musicians worked as the house band, at that point with Pete Best as drummer. A pair of drumsticks signed by Best, who was replaced by Ringo Star in 1962, is in the Buenos Aires museum.
There’s also a piece of the floor of Strawberry Fields, a Salvation Army orphanage near Lennon’s boyhood home whose name inspired the 1967 psychedelic rock tune “Strawberry Fields Forever.”
Vazquez said nearly 2,000 people have visited since the museum opened on Jan. 3. Some have been thrilled.
“This museum is killing me,” said Facundo Gonzalez, an Argentine visitor. “I want to steal everything and scream like a little girl. I am very excited. I find it incredible.”
Dalton Araujo, a Brazilian, said he traveled to Argentina specifically to visit the museum.
Getting the chance to show his treasures to fellow fans is immensely satisfying to Vazquez, but he says there’s one thing he hasn’t been able to do: meet the surviving Beatles themselves.
“What I am missing is to shake hands with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, hug them and chat with them a little bit,” he said.
“It is what would complete me and I would be the happiest collector on earth.”
2011 – Lennon’s white ‘Abbey Road’ suit sells for $46,000
STAMFORD, Conn. – The white two-piece suit John Lennon wore on the cover of the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album has been sold at auction in Connecticut for $46,000.
The suit and other Beatles memorabilia were sold Saturday at the Braswell Galleries’ annual New Year’s Day auction to an online bidder who wished to remain anonymous.
Owner Kathy Braswell tells the Connecticut Post the holiday auction is their biggest event of the year.
The suit was custom made for Lennon by French designer Ted Lapidus.
Hank Gioiella of Darien paid $5,500 for a rusted green 1972 Chrysler station wagon Lennon and Yoko Ono owned.
2010 – Fans rejoice, The Abbey Road zebra crossing in north London, made famous after appearing on a Beatles album cover was given Grade II listed status. The crossing, the first of its kind to be listed, was being recognised for its “cultural and historical importance” following advice from English Heritage. The Beatles were photographed on Abbey Road in Ian Macmillan’s iconic cover shot for the 1969 album ‘Abbey Road’.
2010 – Lennon’s ‘Abbey Road’ suit among auction items
NORWALK, Conn. – The white, two-piece suit John Lennon wore on the cover of the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album will be among items auctioned in Connecticut less than a month after the 30th anniversary of the singer-songwriter’s death.
The suit, the blazer Lennon wore in the “Imagine” music video and a 1972 Chrysler station wagon that once belonged to Lennon and Yoko Ono are among the memorabilia being auctioned by Braswell Galleries of Norwalk, Conn., on New Year’s Day.
Auction house co-owner Gary Braswell tells The Hour newspaper that the suit’s current owner decided to sell after experiencing some economic hardship. He did not disclose the seller’s name.
Braswell said he did know how much the wool-blend suit would fetch, but noted that the suit and blazer together sold for $120,000 in 2005.
Music fans marked the 30th anniversary of Lennon’s death on Dec. 8.
Apple has acquired the rights to sell Beatles music on its online store. Looking for Hype to gain more momentum, Apple caused a frenzy Monday with speculators.
“Well, let’s not start deleting our iTunes libraries just yet”, sqeacked the Wall Street Journal, “the big news is that iTunes will finally start carrying The Beatles’ catalogue”.
BITCHIN’… for iTuner’s.
WSJ and Billboard agree that “another day”, Paul McCartney’s song off of his solo Record RAM, might be a marketing cheap plug. WOW
2010 – VATICAN CITY – The Vatican has finally made peace with the Beatles, saying their drug use, “dissolute” lives and even the claim that the band was bigger than Jesus are all in the past — while their music lives on.
Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano paid tribute to the Fab Four in its weekend editions, with two articles and a front-page cartoon reproducing the crosswalk immortalized on the cover of the band’s album “Abbey Road.”
The tribute marked the 40th anniversary of the band’s breakup.
“It’s true, they took drugs; swept up by their success, they lived dissolute and uninhibited lives,” said the paper. “They even said they were more famous than Jesus,” it said, recalling John Lennon’s 1966 comment that outraged many Catholics and others.
“But, listening to their songs, all of this seems distant and meaningless,” L’Osservatore said. “Their beautiful melodies, which changed forever pop music and still give us emotions, live on like precious jewels.”
It is not the first time the Vatican has praised the legendary band from Liverpool.
Two years ago, Vatican media hailed the Beatles’ musical legacy on the 40th anniversary of the “White Album.” And last month the Vatican paper included “Revolver” in its semiserious list of top-10 albums.
Now, L’Osservatore says that the Beatles’ songs have stood the test of time, and that the band remains “the longest-lasting, most consistent and representative phenomenon in the history of pop music.”
Giovanni Maria Vian, the editor in chief of L’Osservatore Romano, said Monday that he loves the Beatles.
He said that at the time of Lennon’s sensational statement, Osservatore “commented that in reality it wasn’t that scandalous, because the fascination with Jesus was so great that it attracted these new heroes of the time.”
2010 – RIAA, say Beatles still on top! Utilizing Nielsen SoundScan data, which dates to 1991, Guns N’ Roses have totaled 24,914,000 albums sold in the U.S. 1991′s “Use Your Illusion 2″ leads with 5,587,000 units, followed closely by “Use Your Illusion 1,” at 5,502,000.
In that span, Metallica has sold 52,271,000 albums in the U.S., led by 1991′s “Metallica” with sales to date of 15,525,000.
According to the Recording Industry of America (RIAA), whose data encompasses the bands’ entire careers, Metallica leads Guns N’ Roses, 59 to 43.5 million. Among all artists, Metallica ranks 18th, Guns N’ Roses 30th.
It does help Metallica that the band has released more albums. The band has placed 14 titles on the Billboard 200, compared to G N’ R’s eight.
As for why the bands’ totals are so much closer using RIAA data as opposed to SoundScan’s, Guns N’ Roses’ opus “Appetite for Destruction” was released in 1987, four years before the advent of SoundScan information. Since 1991, the set has sold 5,008,000 copies. The RIAA, however, has certified the album with sales of 18 million dating to its release.
How does the RIAA stack up the U.S.’ top-selling rock groups of all-time? The list looks like this:
Rank, Artist, Certified Units (in millions)
1, the Beatles, 170
2, Led Zeppelin, 111.5
3, Eagles, 100
4, Pink Floyd, 74.5
5, AC/DC, 71
6, Aerosmith, 66.5
7, the Rolling Stones, 66
8, Metallica, 59
9, Van Halen, 56.5
10, U2, 51.5
11, Fleetwood Mac, 48.5
12, Journey, 47
13, Guns N’ Roses, 43.5
14, Santana, 43
15, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, 41
2010 – U.K. Declares Abbey Road A Historic Site
February 23, 2010
2010 – With all the talk about EMI possibly selling Abbey Road Studios, the U.K. government has stepped in and declared it a historic site so that no radical changes can be made. Culture Minister Margaret Hodge declared the iconic venue a “Grade II” listed building, which means that although changes to its interior are permitted, any proposed alterations must respect the character and preservation of the site. In a statement, Hodge said the listing had been granted “overwhelmingly on the historic merit of the studios” and because “it has huge cultural importance and a very special place in the hearts of recording artists and music lovers alike.”
“The Abbey Road Studios have been listed in acknowledgement of their outstanding cultural interest and to ensure that recording artists for generations to come can continue to make and record music in the same rooms as musical icons of years gone by,” said Hodge’s statement. “Music – of whichever genre – is the thread that follows us through all our lives and Abbey Road Studios have produced some of the very best music in the world. It’s a testament to both the importance of music in people’s lives as well as the passion this kind of issue stirs up, that so much interest has been generated by the perceived threat to the future of Abbey Road.”
Among those calling for the studios to be saved were Sir Paul McCartney and Andrew Lloyd Webber, who signaled that he was a potential buyer. However, EMI said over the weekend that it did not want to sell Abbey Road, although it was talking to other parties about revitalizing the site. EMI said it had been in discussions since November 2009 to find ways to regenerate the studios.
“EMI confirms that it is holding preliminary discussions for the revitalization of Abbey Road with interested and appropriate third parties,” the company said in the statement. “We believe that Abbey Road should remain in EMI’s ownership.”
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