2004

Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson will hit the road together this summer, visiting minor league baseball parks across the United States. Kicking off Aug. 6 at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, N.Y., home to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the 22-date Bob Dylan Show will close Sept. 4 at Community America Ball Park in Kansas City, Kan.

“What we aim to do with this tour is hit the ball out of the park, touch all the bases and get home safely,” quips Dylan in a statement.

Tickets for the first 13 shows go on sale Saturday (June 26) via Ticketmaster, with the balance of the other dates set to go up July 10.

While its not the first time Dylan and Nelson have shared the stage in their storied careers, the Bob Dylan Show outing marks the pair’s first tour together. The tour will also feature Austin, Texas-based Western swing act the Hot Club Of Cowtown in the opening slot.

“Having produced several of Bob Dylan’s concerts in these types of venues over the years, we found that the special atmosphere of a minor league ballpark adds a unique element to his already great shows,” Jerry Mickelson of tour promoter Jam Productions says. “A complete tour of these ballparks will have fans, young and old, experiencing a great evening of music.”

Dylan, who closed out a brief slate of stateside dates at the recent Bonnarroo festival in Manchester, Tenn., is currently on the road in Europe. That touring leg plays Newcastle, England, tomorrow (June 22) and will wrap July 18 in Portugal.

Having recovered from endoscopic carpal tunnel release surgery, Nelson is slated to appear Thursday (June 24) at a fundraising event for expected Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry in Los Angeles. He’ll be back on the road beginning July 3 at Merle Haggard’s annual UFO Music Fest in Roswell, N.M., and his own Fourth of July Picnic following day in Fort Worth, Texas.

Here are the Bob Dylan Show tour dates:

Aug. 6: Cooperstown, N.Y. (Doubleday Field)
Aug. 7: New Haven, Conn. (Yale Field)
Aug. 8: Brockton, Mass. (Campanelli Stadium)
Aug. 10: Wappinger Falls, N.Y. (Duchess Stadium)
Aug. 11: Altoona, Pa. (Blair County Ballpark)
Aug. 12: Aberdeen, Md. (Ripken Stadium)
Aug. 14: Salisbury, Md. (Arthur W. Perdue Stadium)
Aug. 15: Richmond, Va. (The Diamond)
Aug. 17: Charleston, S.C. (Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park)
Aug. 18: Sevierville, Tenn. (Smokies Stadium
Aug. 20: Jackson, Tenn. (Pringles Park)
Aug. 21: Lexington, Ky. (Applebee’s Park)
Aug. 22: South Bend, Ind. (Coveleski Stadium)
Aug. 24: Comstock Park, Mich. (Fifth-Third Ballpark)
Aug. 25: Peoria, Ill. (O’Brien Field)
Aug. 27: Madison, Wis. (Warner Park)
Aug. 28: Des Moines, Iowa (Sec Taylor Stadium)
Aug. 29: Sioux City, Iowa (Lewis & Clark Stadium)
Aug. 31: Lincoln, Neb. (Haymarket Park)
Sept. 1: Wichita (Lawrence-Dumont Stadium)
Sept. 3: Oklahoma City (SBC Bricktown Ballpark)
Sept. 4: Kansas City, Kan. (Community America Ball Park)

Source billboard.com.

2004 edition of the Lollapalooza tour has been abruptly cancelled due to poor ticket sales, according to the event’s official Web site. “This morning (June 22), tour organizers and concert promoters, faced with several million dollars of losses, made the very tough decision to pull the tour,” the site says.

Morrissey, the Pixies, Wilco, String Cheese Incident, Modest Mouse and Sonic Youth were among the acts set to appear at various dates. The tour was to run from July 14 in Auburn, Wash., through Aug. 25 in Dallas.

My heart aches along with the bands, and all of our employees, whose hard work developed one of the most exciting and important tours that this nation was to see,” says Lollapalooza co-founder Perry Farrell. “My heart is broken.”

Adds booking agent/tour co-founder Marc Geiger, “I am in utter disbelief that a concert of this stature, with the most exciting line-up I’ve seen in years did not galvanize ticket sales. I’m surprised that given the great bands and the reduced ticket prices that we didn’t have enough sales to sustain the tour. Concert promoters across the country are facing similar problems. Many summer tours are experiencing weak ticket sales.”

Refunds will be available at points of purchase.

Source billboard.com.

A month after promoters declared the concert industry healthier than ever, big summer tours such as Ozzfest, Fleetwood Mac, the Dead and Lollapalooza have run into a concrete wall of slow sales. “Ticket sales are mixed, and in some cases they appear to be substantially off from the past,” says Alex Hodges, executive vice president of House of Blues Concerts, one of the three major U.S. promotion companies.

The summer’s success stories so far are big-buzz superstar events such as Prince and Madonna, plus low-cost packages including the long-running Warped Tour, Alanis Morissette/Barenaked Ladies and No Doubt/Blink-182. Also, the three-day Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, recently scored its third annual sellout, with 90,000 tickets. Otherwise, sales have been universally slow.

Promoters and agents list several reasons for the unexpected ticket-buying malaise: Once fans spend their summer-entertainment money on Prince and Madonna, they have little left over for Kiss or Ozzfest; some of 2003’s biggest draws, such as Fleetwood Mac and Aerosmith, have already toured several summers in a row at high prices; and the core baby-boomer audience is finally getting tired of amphitheater lawns.

“What consumer wants to sit out at night in Phoenix, Arizona, in 105 degrees to watch Daryl Hall and John Oates?” says Dennis Arfa, president of Writers and Artists Group International, an agency representing Metallica, Rod Stewart and others. “People don’t have an unlimited amount of funds. In the amphitheater business, there is some concern.”

Nobody’s panicking — yet. In early 2003, promoters expressed similar gloom, until Bruce Springsteen, the Eagles and others barnstormed the country. Says Seth Hurwitz, whose company, I.M.P. Productions, books the Merriweather Post Pavilion near Washington, D.C.: “Over the last ten years, I’ve heard ‘This is the worst yet’ every year.”

Source rollingstone.com.

After releasing their latest album, Undermind, whose cover resembles the Beatles’s last released record, Let It Be, Phish has decided to do another Beatles-esque move: playing on top of a building. As posted on the band’s website – the Vermont quartet is hoping to make their last tour memorable in more ways than one.

When Phish plays the Late Show with David Letterman on Monday night, they will perform from the top of the Ed Sullivan Theatre marquee (about two stories up from the street) at 53rd and Broadway in New York City. The band will perform their first song at the end of the Letterman taping. After the show ends, the band will perform an additional 20-25 minutes for fans.

The best place to watch the band perform will be on the far side of the street opposite from the Ed Sullivan Theater. The band will not perform until 6:25 PM.

In other Phish news, fans got more than they bargained for on Friday night, in Brooklyn, N.Y., as rapper Jay-Z joined the veteran jam band for two songs during its show at KeySpan Park near Coney Island. Phish provided the backing for Jay-Z as he ran through his hits “99 Problems” and “Big Pimpin’,” much to the delight of the stunned audience.

Percussionist Cyro Baptista, a member of Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio’s solo band, also guested on the tunes.

The guitar Eric Clapton used to record the album that included one of his biggest hits, “Cocaine,” is going on the auction block to benefit the drug and alcohol rehabilitation center the legendary rock musician founded.

The Fender Stratocaster, nicknamed “Blackie,” is one of 58 guitars that rock and blues master Clapton, 59, is donating as part of a June 24 auction to benefit the Crossroads Centre Antigua in the West Indies.

The guitar is practically the only one Clapton used on stage and in the studio from late 1970 to 1985.

Christie’s, the New York auction house handling the sale, estimated the instrument would fetch between $100,000 and $150,000. But if past sales are any indication, the guitar could bring in much more money.

At a 1999 Christie’s auction that also benefited Crossroads, an anonymous bidder paid a record $497,500 for “Brownie,” a 1956 Fender Stratocaster that Clapton used on the Derek and the Dominos hit, “Layla.”

That auction of 100 of Clapton’s guitars brought in over $5 million.

“Blackie,” a composite of three guitars from 1956 and 1957, is on the cover of Clapton’s 1977 album “Slowhand,” which includes such hits as “Cocaine” and “Wonderful Tonight.”

He also used it to record the albums “461 Ocean Boulevard,” “No Reason To Cry” and “Just One Night,” as well as his first music video for the song “Forever Man.”

“This was his favorite guitar for a long time,” said Kerry Keane, a musical instrument specialist for Christie’s. “Through his battle with substance abuse, the instrument was by his side.”

The condition of the guitar shows its extensive use. Large areas of black paint have worn off, and the springs in the back are exposed.

Guitar virtuoso Clapton has also donated a Gibson ES-335 that he bought in 1964 and used through stints with The Yardbirds, Cream, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and Blind Faith as well as his solo career.

The estimated price is $60,000 to $80,000.

The 1939 C.F. Martin & Co. acoustic guitar that Clapton played during his famous MTV “Unplugged” appearance in 1992 is also expected to sell for between $60,000 and $80,000.

Other items in the auction include guitars donated by such musicians as Carlos Santana and Peter Townshend of The Who, as well as several of Clapton’s stage suits designed by Gianni Versace.

Clapton, a longtime Antigua resident who has spoken openly about his recovery from drug and alcohol abuse, founded Crossroads in 1998 and is its chairman of the board.

Crossroads Executive Office Tim Sinnott said Clapton has given at least $10 million of his own money to the rehabilitation center and its halfway house.

Source CNN.com.

New York rock act Interpol will release its highly anticipated sophomore album, “Antics,” Sept. 28 via Matador. The 10-track set is highlighted by the dancefloor-worthy “Slow Hands,” the slow, fragmented “Public Pervert,” the foreboding “Length of Love” and “NARC,” which veers from jagged guitars in its verses to lush chord changes in its chorus.

The latter two cuts were previously debuted live on tours in support of 2002’s “Turn on the Bright Lights,” which reached No. 4 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart and No. 5 on the Top Independent Albums tally. The set has sold 289,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

In conjunction with the release of “Antics,” Matador is sponsoring a contest to create 10 short films inspired by Interpol’s music. Interested parties are asked to submit treatments to the label by July 5, with 10 finalists to be bestowed with $1,000 and a 60-second fragment of music from the album in which to create their films. Visit the label’s Web site for full details.

As previously reported, Interpol will play the main stage of the Cure’s Curiousa Festival alongside the Rapture and Mogwai. The tour kicks off July 24 at the Sound Advice Amphitheater in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Here is the track list for “Antics”:

“Next Exit”
“Evil”
“NARC”
“Take You on a Cruise”
“Slow Hands”
“Not Even Jail”
“Public Pervert”
“C’mere”
“Length of Love”
“A Time To Be So Small”

Source billboard.com.

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Phish’s last 2 concerts as part of the COVENTRY festival to be held on August 14th and 15th in their home state of Vermont is officially sold out. The band’s management posted the following message on their website.

COVENTRY is officially sold out.

There will be NO tickets sold at the gates. People without tickets will be turned away. Unless all passengers in a vehicle have tickets, the vehicle will be turned away.

To those who have purchased tickets, please discourage those without tickets from coming to COVENTRY. Ticket-less travelers compound the traffic congestion, add unnecessary stress to our staff, the police and the local community and ultimately diminish the quality of everyone