Archive for News Canada
ECMA gala goes online-only - Artists regret lack of national televised audience
The East Coast Music Awards will be handed out on Sunday night in Sydney, N.S., but anyone interested in watching the gala will have to cozy up with their computer.
The annual celebration of East Coast musicians will not be broadcast on television this year — instead it will be streamed online.
The decision to offer only online coverage of the gala event has some artists regretting the lack of national exposure that would come with a televised event.
In years past, ECMA nominees were able to perform on a national television broadcast or at least get their names mentioned during the event which would be broadcast across the country.
Steve MacDougall, a member of Slow Coaster and the musical director for the gala, said the decision is a loss for the ECMAs.
“Well, I mean, obviously it’s just less exposure to the common Canadian,” MacDougall said.
“Usually, sitting down in a farm in Winnipeg this time of year, people would turn it on.”
Cost-saving move - or sign of the times
Television broadcasts are expensive and CBC said last year’s ECMA ratings weren’t great.
However, Su Hutchison, the ECMAs’ executive director, said those two factors didn’t play a huge role in the decision.
She said the switch to a webcast is more a sign of the times.
“It made sense to us that [the internet] is where the community is going to get their content,” Hutchison said.
“That content is in an online world. It gives you the complete flexibility to curate your own experience, which television just isn’t able to do anymore for us.”
Saint John’s Jessica Rhaye said the switch away from a televised awards ceremony is unfortunate, but she said she sees an opportunity for artists too.
“It’s really a matter of the artists getting out there and promoting the show,” Rhaye said.
“Maybe put a splash on your website saying go to this link and watch this award show.”
As far as the buzz on the ground, Rhaye said, the event is as exciting as ever.
Source: cbc.ca
Iron Maiden Cdn tour announced
Darryl Sterdan
QMI Agency
Run to the hills, haters — Iron Maiden are headed back to Canada this summer.
The British metal sextet will play seven shows from Vancouver to Quebec on their Final Frontier 2010 North American tour, the band announced Thursday. The tour is named after the band’s 15th studio album Final Frontier, expected to be released after the tour.
“We really wanted to get out and play some shows before the release of the new album later this year, so we thought what better way to kick off the tour than by going back to Canada,” vocalist Bruce Dickinson said in a statement. “This time ’round, we will be playing a few more cities we haven’t visited for some time.
“We’re still working on the set list for these summer shows, but this time it will cover the whole history of the band, and I can hint that we will be playing a taster from the new album,” he continued. “This summer tour will be a bit of a preview for the fans.”
Tickets for the Canadian shows go on sale to the public on Sat., March 13 at 10 a.m. at the usual outlets. Iron Maiden fan club members can access tickets on March 11. Prog-rockers Dream Theatre are slated to open all the concerts, with the exception of the Winnipeg date. An opening act for that show hasn’t been named. For more information, go to www.ironmaiden.com.
Iron Maiden Final Frontier Canadian Tour Dates June 24 | Vancouver | GM Place June 26 | Edmonton | Rexall Place June 29 | Saskatoon | Credit Union Centre June 30 | Winnipeg | MTS Centre July 3 | Toronto | Molson Amphitheatre July 7 | Montreal | Bell Centre July 9 | Quebec City | International Summer Festival
Source: torontosun.com
Neil Young, Avril Lavigne and more play Olympics closer
Robert Thompson
A wide-ranging group of Canadian performers headlined the closing ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, including a surprise appearance by Neil Young, as well as songs from the likes of Michael Buble and Avril Lavigne.
The performers had been kept as a closely guarded secret until the show, which followed the conclusion of the games, but some names, including Canadian rockers Nickelback, and hip-hop act k-os, had leaked out prior to the show at BC Place in Vancouver last night (Feb. 28).
Nickelback performed its song “Burn It To the Ground” at the show. Young, whose work was celebrated during the games as part of the Cultural Olympiad by acts like Lou Reed and Mark Kozelek, sang “Long May You Run,” as the Olympic flame was extinguished.
Among those spotlighted were Nikki Yanofsky, whose “I Believe” was the theme for television network CTV. Buble, who hails from Vancouver, dressed as a Mountie to open his performance.
Other Canadian acts who played at the show included Alanis Morissette, who sang “Wunderkind,” while Lavigne sang her hit “Girlfriend.” Artists rounding out the show included Montreal’s Simple Plan, Winnipeg’s Inward Eye, Quebec singer Marie Mai, and Vancouver band Hedley.
Source: montrealgazette.com
Pickle is more popular than Nickelback on Facebook
Lee Ferguson
Wednesday night, as Canucks across the country were watching the Canadian men’s hockey team emerge victorious from its Olympic quarter-final match against Russia, there was an equally nail-biting Canadian competition unfolding online.
I’m talking about the Facebook-inspired showdown between Canadian rockers Nickelback and… a pickle. And, as of late last night, it’s looking like the pickle has trounced the wildly successful hard rock band.
Started as a bit of a lark by Facebook member Coral Anne on February 3, the Facebook group entitled, “Can this pickle get more fans than Nickelback?” has become a hit of How You Remind Me proportions, picking up unexpected momentum in the last three weeks, until the plucky little dill finally surpassed Chad Kroeger and co. late yesterday. At last count, the pickle has more supporters (1,489,737) than the Nickelback fan page (1,422,984 members strong) has acquired in its existence on the popular social networking site.
No word yet on what the band thinks of the online upset, but the founder of the pickle-inspired Facebook fan group has weighed in on the outcome, taking pains to say the page was always meant to be funny and her intent “was pro-pickle, more than anti-Nickelback.”
Source: cbc.ca
Horror rockers scare up a tour - Zombie, Cooper will haunt Rexall on April 28
The “gruesome twosome,” a.k.a. Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper, promise to rattle cages in Edmonton this spring with their ghoulish night of horror and hard rock.
Their all-ages concert happens Wednesday, April 28 at Rexall Place. Tickets range from $45 to $59.50 plus service charges at all Ticketmaster outlets. They go on sale Friday at 10 a.m.
Zombie and Cooper are travelling across North America with their Gruesome Twosome Tour, something they’ve been talking about for 15 years. Cooper calls the show Dracula vs. Frankenstein; Zombie says the dream/nightmare is finally coming true.
Zombie, who founded the heavy metal band White Zombie, is touring with his latest album, Hellybilly Deluxe 2. The record recently debuted in position eight on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart.
Zombie is also known as a horror film director, with credits including The Devil’s Rejects (2005), the 2007 remake of Halloween and its 2009 sequel.
Cooper is an American rock icon whose career spans more than four decades. His musical and famously gory performance innovations have earned him the status of legend and pioneer. Cooper’s most recent solo album, Along Came a Spider, was released in 2008, and the singer will be performing the Theatre of Death Tour show from that album.
Both Zombie and Cooper have been nominated for several Grammy Awards.
Source: edmontonjournal.com
More is less from Clapton and Beck
Robert Everett-Green
Eric Clapton & Jeff Beck
- At the Air Canada Centre
- In Toronto on Sunday
Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck played in the same band (the Yardbirds), but not together. In some people’s minds, that fact has stood like a promissory note, demanding payoff in some kind of joint project by these guitar heroes.
Never mind that they are dissimilar in almost every way.
On second thought, let’s take careful stock of those differences, which may explain why Sunday’s Beck-Clapton matchup was such a gigantic fizzle.
The kid: That was Beck, looking just like he did in ’68 but wrinklier, playing his solo set as if it were his first big gig. He opened with a virtuoso jam that put me in mind of the proverbial kitchen sink, and returned frequently to high-dazzle mode. I don’t recall so much bluster during his Massey Hall gig of some years ago. On the other hand, it doesn’t hurt to play as if you have something to prove, when you consider the alternative.
The codger: Clapton, who at 64 is the younger of the two, began his set on a kitchen chair, chugging out old-time blues numbers much as he did during his Robert Johnson tribute tour six years ago. Haggard and owlish behind his big dark frames, he looked as if he’d been roused off his front porch after years of inactivity. That really happened to Mississippi John Hurt and Son House, but they both came back with an element of grit that has been washed clean out of Clapton. He played the blues like the very best student in the class, everything careful and neat.
The sound: As usual, there seemed to be no limit to the sounds Beck could extract bare-handed from his guitar, which turned quite skronky during a few crunchy numbers that were to rock music as bebop is to jazz. Clapton was more inclined to stick to a single sweet option, both on acoustic and electric guitars.
Left hand versus right: Clapton’s bent notes and vibrato all came from the left hand. Beck did all that with his whammy bar, which was hardly ever still. Clapton’s technique was the more physically demanding: You have to do a lot of yanking and flailing to get those sounds on the fretboard. But, somehow, they didn’t deliver a lot of punch. Beck’s more subtle manipulations of his bar could be quite raw in effect, as for example in the mind-bending middle section of his cover of the Beatles’s A Day in the Life.
The singing tone: When he wasn’t tearing up the fretboard, Beck played beautiful long melodies, again relying on his whammy bar to give the tone the slight variances typical of a singing voice. Unfortunately, his showpieces in this line were Puccini’s Nessun dorma and Henry Mancini’s Moon River, both played with orchestra, both sounding like abrupt left turns that brought him smack into the middle of the road.
The leap of faith: That’s what you needed to hear any urgency or hunger in Clapton’s sauntering acoustic version of Layla, his biggest hit. “You’ve got me on my knees,” he sang quite listlessly, as if that position were available only in theory.
The big match-up: There’s a reason most bands have only one lead guitar, and Clapton saw the logic, moving into rhythm-guitar mode for most of his joint set with Beck.
In return, Beck subdued his proggish tendencies and played blues rock for the rest of the night (except for Moon River). Muddy Waters’s You Need Love drew into sharp focus everything that was wrong with this picture: the blandness of Clapton’s singing, the recreational quality of the alternating solos from both men, and the feeling that the people on stage were thinking about the clock.
The show was nearly three hours old before Beck and Clapton attempted a real duet, and that was over in less than a minute. I guess they just weren’t into it and, by then, neither was I.
Source: theglobeandmail.com
Neil Young doesn’t show, but spirited Olympic tribute a hit with fans
Nick Patch
The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER, B.C. — Neil Young didn’t show up for his Olympic tribute on Thursday night, but the more than two dozen artists who took the stage captured his spirit closely enough with a show that was heartfelt, stirring and delightfully rambling.
Lou Reed, Elvis Costello and Ron Sexsmith were among the performers who took the stage at a packed Queen Elizabeth Theatre to play songs drawn from Young’s expansive catalogue in Hal Willner’s Neil Young Project, a part of the Cultural Olympiad.
Much of the three-and-a-half hour setlist focused on more obscure Young tunes while renditions ranged from studiously faithful to almost unrecognizable in the show, which was scheduled for a second performance on Friday.
Reed, clad in all black with a demeanour that could only be described as all business, hammered his guitar through a performance of “Helpless” before accompanying vocalist Jenni Muldaur on a rendition of “Harvest.”
Costello brought a finger to his lips to hush the cheering crowd before crooning a version of “Love in Mind” (culled from Young’s 1973 live record, “Time Fades Away”) then, later, whipped the same crowd into a frenzy with strutting renditions of “Cowgirl in the Sand” and “Cinnamon Girl.” When the latter inspired a standing ovation, Costello - one of the evening’s most energetic showmen - doffed his spotted fedora.
Where Reed and Costello sang Young’s songs in their own inimitable styles, a few of the evening’s other performers opted to hew more closely to the originals.
Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning, Sam Goldberg and Bill Priddle each channelled Young’s high-pitched voice as they performed. And a section of the show just prior to the intermission seemed to sag as a series of artists attempted faithful versions of Young’s early-career ballads.
But the evening’s highlights were borne from riskier renditions of Young’s tunes.
Eric Mingus - the son of jazz legend Charles Mingus - brought the house down with a spare, insistently urgent take on “For the Turnstiles” (from 1974’s “On the Beach.”) Accompanied by bass, drums, handclaps and, eventually, saxophone, Mingus bellowed and shook while he sang. The next time he was set to arrive onstage to chant the lyrics to “On the Way Home,” the crowd cheered appreciatively at the mention of his name.
Meanwhile, avant-garde blues guitarist James Blood Ulmer’s searing version of “Scenery” was almost unrecognizable. The 68-year-old tossed up the devil horns as he ambled offstage to an ovation from the crowd.
The entire evening, in fact, had a likably ramshackle feel to it.
Willner - an American producer and the music supervisor on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” since 1981 - didn’t tell the artists which songs he wanted them to perform until the days leading up to the show. As a result, many had to read music and lyrics as they played.
Oddly, there wasn’t much by way of banter between the performers and the audience. When singer-songwriter Julie Doiron acknowledged Young specifically toward the end of the show - the first time anyone had done so - she almost acted as though she were speaking out of turn.
“I know we all grew up listening to Neil Young,” the Sackville, N.B., native announced.
“It’s been a thrill and an honour to be here.”
If the collective onstage seemed to be enjoying themselves, so was the enthusiastic throng in the crowd.
Each time Reed took the stage, the audience united in chants of “Loooooooou” (Reed acknowledged them once, holding his guitar up in salute). And just prior to Emily Haines’ gorgeous version of “A Man Needs a Maid,” an overeager spectator shouted “Whoa, mama!” as the slim blonde singer walked onstage.
The wilfully obscure setlist didn’t seem to dampen their spirits in the slightest - and some diehard Young fans in the crowd even said they appreciated it.
“I’d rather see that than all the hits,” said Mark Hamilton, a fan who had just arrived after flying out from his home in Guelph, Ont.
“I’d be really happy if they played something off of ‘Trans,”‘ contributed Paul Dickson of Vancouver before the show, referring to Young’s vocoder-heavy 1982 experimental album.
Performers made few efforts to engage the audience, too.
During a performance of “Walk On,” Jason Collett marvelled at how well-behaved the crowd had been (”It’s very Canadian of you,” he said) before asking them to follow along through some audience “participation,” which involved fingers snapping and hands clapping against thighs.
But ultimately, hours of listening to Young’s songs - even with the man of the evening absent from the festivities - was enough for most fans.
“I love it,” said Tim Harris of Vancouver. “I’m singing along to all of it. I listen to a lot of Neil.”
Source: The Canadian Press
Wilco rocks out for a wet crowd
Graeme McRanor
Special To The Sun
Wilco
With Default and Califone When: Saturday Night
Where: LiveCity Yaletown (David Lam Park)
If you’re keen on attending any of the LiveCity evening concerts during the Winter Games, the rule, however redundant, is simple: Get there early.
A colossal lineup to get into the Yaletown venue snaked around the block Saturday night as thousands of folks dutifully shuffled one by one through 10 airport-style metal detectors before being searched by security guards toting hand-held metal wands.
Reportedly, though, the line moved reasonably quickly considering its imposing length, but the already wet Lead singer Tim Rutili, clad in a parka, scarf and toque with earflaps, occasionally channels the onstage demeanour of former Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Jennifer Heil’s silver medal in women’s moguls, polite cheers and chants for Wilco indicated the crowd had waited long enough.
Rain fell faster as Wilco took the stage, fronted by a shaggy-haired, scraggly-bearded Jeff Tweedy.
Fittingly, the band opened its lengthy set (more than 90 minutes) with Wilco (the song), from their latest, self-titled album.
The boys then bridged into I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, from their highly acclaimed album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, a song that culminated in a sustained instrumental melee that, to be frank, didn’t sound very good.
In fact, during the first quarter of its set, the band sounded mediocre.
But things seemed to improve during a couple of the band’s slower-paced, more melodic songs and continued to pick up right through to the end of what turned out to be a fairly solid set and a nice cross-section of the group’s material.
Don’t get me wrong: These guys are all great musicians. I just occasionally (especially earlier) found myself thinking that things were getting a bit clangy.
I tried moving around to various points in the venue and, sure enough, there were some weird spots for sound, particularly near the front of stage right near the Coke pavilion, where there was a noticeable echo. This probably explains the sound’s occasional jaunts into mash land. That said, Tweedy and his mates looked like they were genuinely enjoying themselves onstage, and the crowd, in spite of the rain, certainly seemed to appreciate the band’s efforts.
Now, if only the weather would try to cooperate.
Source: www.vancouversun.com
Burning love affair with Elvis 75 years after his birth
Misty Harris
Canwest News Service
If the greatest love affair celebrities have is with their fans, Elvis Presley was our Don Juan.
Though entertainers inspired adulation long before, and indeed long after The King’s arrival, it was the feral attraction to Presley — who on Jan. 8 would have turned 75 — that forever changed the way we consume entertainment.
“He wasn’t just a famous musician. He ultimately became a commodity: a brand, a symbol and a vehicle, not only for selling products but also for selling fantasies,” says sociologist Patricia Leavy, an associate professor at Stonehill College in Massachusetts. “Elvis was really the beginning of consumer culture as we experience it now.”
A sequin-swaddled star, Presley set the course for an entire industry. Even now, 32 years after his death, the entertainer’s influence is evident in everything from the border-crossing music of Eminem to the gyroscopic invitation of Britney Spears’ hips.
Forbes consistently ranks the singer among the top-earning dead celebrities, with his 2009 income swelling to $55 million U.S.. That fortune is only expected to grow with this year’s 75th birthday exhibits and a new “Viva Elvis!” Cirque du Soleil show opening in Las Vegas.
“He’s probably the most important, influential figure in all of popular music,” says biographer Alanna Nash, author of the new book Baby Let’s Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him.
“Nobody was prepared for the level of fame to which he ascended. He literally couldn’t go out without being mobbed . . . I think the only time he was ever truly happy was when he was on stage and felt that unconditional love.”
The initial romance between the artist and his fans, however, devolved into a fatal attraction for a self-destructive star in decline — a seemingly different man altogether, who history would mockingly remember as “Fat Elvis.”
“Elvis rolled out the blueprint for a lot of the behaviour that modern-day rockers take for granted: excessive women and substance abuse,” says Nash. “But he would hate to think that was his legacy.”
The morbid fascination with Presley’s decay set a tone for tabloid stories about celebrities that endures to this day. Fortunately for the singer, planting the seeds of schadenfreude meant he didn’t experience the full ugliness of its outgrowth.
The sexual dalliances laid bare in Baby Let’s Play House, for example, are enough to make Tiger Woods’ indiscretions look like fodder for Seventeen magazine. Lest we forget that, among countless other improprieties, Presley began courting future wife Priscilla when he was 24 and she was 14.
But, save for conservative fearmongering over his swivelling midsection, Presley’s tawdrier exploits went largely unreported.
“I suspect there’s an awful lot of stuff Elvis did that we don’t know about,” says Robert Thompson, one of North America’s foremost experts on popular culture. “And even if the press were aware of the more unsavoury stories, they were often reluctant to cover them; look at how they gave Kennedy a pass.”
Though the passion still flourishes 75 years after the musical titan’s birth, it’s an informed love that recognizes Presley as a complete person — both flaws and fortes — and as a foundational piece in a much bigger picture.
“Elvis Presley was the beginning of a new era in celebrity culture and obsession, which manifested itself in what now seem like charming, innocent ways,” says Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “Michael Jackson represents the end of that chapter, with it becoming totally toxic and ultimately deadly.”
Source: canada.com
Twain recalls impoverished past to help charity
Canadian country pop singer Shania Twain has started a charity called Shania Kids Can that she hopes will open opportunities for talented boys and girls from underprivileged backgrounds.
Speaking on CBC Radio’s The Current on Thursday, Twain said she relates to underprivileged children because she grew up poor herself.
Twain will host The Current on Friday, when she will speak more about her plans for Shania Kids Can. She will also interview Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, who created 1GOAL, a charity that aims to reach the 72 million children worldwide who do not have access to education.
Twain said in an interview that she began singing as a teenager for $25 or $50 an engagement, money that immediately went to the family finances.
“We went in and out of different phases, and I’m sure that’s what’s happening to many families,” she said. “My dad had a job from time to time, and we could shop for groceries every week, but sometimes we’d go for a month without shopping,” she said.
Twain, who was born in Windsor, Ont., and grew up in Timmins, said her family was not troubled or abusive, just poor. She recalled washing clothes by hand because they couldn’t afford the laundromat and having the heat turned off because her parents had to choose which bill they would pay — the heat or the electricity.
“It’s an endless chain of trying to get by and living in a world of haves when you were a have-not,” said Twain, now 44.
“You were humiliated by the fact you went to school and your clothes weren’t clean or you didn’t have a lunch.”
Twain loves her hometown and has great memories of growing up there, she said. She was in Timmins on New Year’s Day to carry the Olympic torch as part of the national relay leading up to the Winter Games in Vancouver next month.
Twain said she wants to make a difference in the lives of today’s children.
She said growing up poor “taught me to be resilient, to be patient, that life has its ups and downs,” Twain said. “I don’t regret it — it made me strong — but I don’t want anyone else to have go through it.”
Twain, who achieved international success 15 years ago with The Woman In Me, said her achievements owe something to her background, but a lot to chance.
“I’ve reached a point I never imagined, and luck played a big role in that, and it’s a shame if we leave luck to do it,” she said.
Her Shania Kids Can charity aims to give underprivileged children the chance to play music or take lessons their families could not otherwise afford. She intends to be closely involved, visiting schools and finding out how to make a difference in children’s lives.
Source: cbc.ca
