posted by david on Tue 29 Oct 2002 @ 02:05 PM

Tom Dowd, producer of the classic Derek and the Dominos album "Layla", has died. He was 77. During his career, he worked with Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, John Coltrane, Rod Stewart, Otis Redding, Bette Midler, Ray Charles, the Allman Brothers and many more. His background in engineering saw him working on the Manhattan Project and he later built the first stereo and 8-track recording consoles at Atlantic Records. Earlier this year he was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award for his considerable contributions to the music industry over his career. Given the scope of his accomplishments over the years, that seems well deserved.

links: United Press - Herald Tribune - Billboard - Wired

posted by david on Sun 27 Oct 2002 @ 01:24 AM | read or post comments (1)

There's a whiff of money about Kasey. No, I'm not talking about how many albums she has sold (and she's sold a few). Based on her performance tonight, I'm beginning to wonder what drives what: does the money drive the music or does the music drive the money? When she generously gave her two support acts over an hour to play their music to her sold out crowd, there was a sense that it was going to be a rollicking big night of music. But then Kasey played a main set that ran for less than an hour, and after only 70 mins on stage, including the requisite encore, she called it a night. Don't get me wrong, she's very entertaining and her music is robust but it struck me as one of the shortest main sets I've seen over the past couple of years from any performer. Why did she plug her merchandising twice during the show? Why did anyone carrying a camera (ie.myself and others, including a press photographer) get hassled by venue staff, more so than I recall at other "big" shows I've seen in Melbourne (eg. Art Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris)? Why didn't she play a second encore, when there was sufficient applause after the first encore to warrant it? Throughout the show she grinned whenever the lively crowd showed their appreciation, but was she grinning at their enthusiasm or the fact that she had sold out the venue two nights in a row? I don't have the answers to any of these questions but for someone who is supposedly so passionate about music, there was something in her performance that suggested she was just going through the motions. Has she streamlined the whole Kasey Chambers sideshow to the point that more time is being devoted to the business side of things than to the music itself? These aren't questions that have ever crossed my mind before so it's disappointing that upon leaving the venue tonight, these are the questions that came to my mind.

posted by david on Tue 15 Oct 2002 @ 09:33 PM

Late last week, the Victorian State Government copped some flak for not disclosing the amount of the financial inducement made to Paul McCartney and his tour promoters to stage a show in Melbourne. Whatever the amount, it seems absurd for a government to throw tax payer dollars at one of the richest men in England. I'm sure many Melbourne musicians would have preferred to see that amount spent on supporting the local industry. Any hopes that the concert will boost the local economy is presumably based on the assumption that there will be an influx of out-of-state visitors, but in light of the announced ticket prices, I'd imagine that only the truly nutty or very wealthy fans will be able to afford both the travel costs and the ticket price. To quote the Ticketmaster email: Ticket prices will start at $99.50 for Bronze, $174.90 for Gold Circle and selected Platinum tickets at $299.50. A very, very limited number of Diamond Circle tickets will also be available. $300 for a pop concert? In a cavernous stadium venue? So far they haven't disclosed the price of the "Diamond Circle" tickets but somehow I don't think they'll be very affordable. I guess what really saddens me is that when the real legends of pop and rock music come to town, the prices are so extreme that your average aspiring musician has little hope of being part of the experience. It's obscene Paul, it's simply obscene and you should be ashamed of yourself. update: Were they having trouble selling tickets? Some have asked that question in light of the decision to postpone/cancel the concert. Paul has cited the Bali bombing as the reason for not going ahead with the show, which seems strange given his prominent involvement in New York concerts and fundraisers after September 11. Steve Vizard from the govt "Major Events" group has claimed that 30,000 tickets for the show had been sold (which would represent revenue of at least $3 million, given the ticket prices). Everyone has been promised a full refund (including the Ticketmaster handling charge?) so we'll have to wait and see whether the show is merely postponed or cancelled altogether. It all feels very fishy. another update: The Age has another story about the cancellation.

posted by david on Sun 6 Oct 2002 @ 10:29 PM

I don't fully understand the story of English performer John Otway but his current antics warrant a little attention. It seems that once upon a time, he had a bit of a hit and for his 50th birthday, his fans decided to give him another hit single. To do it, John recorded a bunch of songs and sent out a CD to his fans for them to choose the best song. For a b-side, he recorded a cover of 'House of the Rising Sun' complete with a cast of 1000 backing vocalists (all fans). The song they chose as the A-side, 'Bunsen Burner', was released this week in the UK. Predictably, the fans have all rushed out and bought all three formats of the single release so that it managed to make it into the top 10 in the mid week charts. Some radio stations have been supporting it and now everyone is sitting on the edge of their seats waiting to see how it fares in the final charts for the week. The announcement will be made as part of John's Sunday night show at the London Palladium. While the success of the single will be mostly due to the novelty of the whole fan-run project, it does prove that generating a hit single requires more money than talent - even with fans trying to buy the single, some music stores have been worried about it preventing them from stocking releases that they've been paid to promote. It will be interesting to see the final results of the fan effort. update: According to the BBC, the single debuted at number 9 on the UK charts. I wonder whether all of the free press coverage will help the single do any better next week?

press coverage: BBC - Guardian - The Sun