Category: Concerts

Police reunion tour starts in Van.
LOS ANGELES — The Police 30th Anniversary reunion world tour will kick off May 28 at Vancouver’s GM Place and travel through North America until early August.
The official tour announcement will be made this morning at legendary Sunset Strip club Whiskey A Go Go by singer-bassist Sting, 55, drummer Stewart Copeland, 54, and guitarist Andy Summers, 64.
Other Canadian dates are Edmonton on June 2 (venue TBA), Toronto’s Air Canada Centre on July 22 and Montreal’s Bell Centre on July 25.
Ticket prices are expected to be in three ranges — approximately $225, $90 and $50 — with Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal on sale Saturday (Feb. 17) and Edmonton’s on-sale date still TBA.
‘REHEARSALS’
There is also a chance there will be multiple shows in some markets that sell out fast.
Last week, the three members of the ’80s British New Wave band invited select media and a small group of fans to the Whiskey A Go Go today for late-morning “rehearsals, where a special announcement will be made.”
Last night, The Police kicked off the Grammy Awards at the Staples Centre in L.A. with their uber-hit Roxanne and have been spotted around Vancouver over the past two weeks where they were rehearsing at Lions Gate Studios on the city’s North Shore.
The trio is expected to rehearse elsewhere before returning to the West Coast for more fine-tuning leading up to their tour launch.
BREAK IN AUGUST
The trek, The Police’s first since 1984’s Synchronity tour, will make its way through North American arenas and stadiums, although there are some specialized events on the schedule, until the first week of August before a break.
From late-August until mid-October, the trio will play the U.K. and Europe, before returning to North America in late October and then travelling beyond to Mexico, South America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
The Police 30th Anniversary tour is being produced by onetime Torontonian Arthur Fogel, currently Live Nation’s L.A-based chairman of global music. Fogel’s most recent tours have included those by Madonna and U2.

John Mayer takes ‘Continuum’ tour to Canada
Singer/songwriter John Mayer has added an eight-date Canadian leg to his tour supporting his critically acclaimed September release, “Continuum.”
Mayer is currently in the midst of a US outing that hits cities from the Midwest to the East Coast and wraps up Feb. 28 at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The performer will pair up with Ben Kweller for an Australian run April 1-12, then it’s off to Canada beginning April 17 in Toronto. North American dates are listed below; Australian shows can be found at Mayer’s website.
Members of Mayer’s official fanclub, Local-83, have access to ticket pre-sales and are eligible to attend pre-show soundcheck parties. Details can be found at the Local-83 website.
“Continuum” is Mayer’s third studio album and his first shot as producer. The blues-infused set follows 2003’s “Heavier Things” and 2005 live album “Try!” by the John Mayer Trio, which is the singer’s collaboration with drummer Steve Jordan and bassist Pino Palladino.
A blog written by Mayer at his website says the trio plans to record a studio album before too long.
Mayer, already a three-time Grammy winner, is up for five more trophies this year: Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for “Continuum,” Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for the song “Waiting on the World to Change,” Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for “Route 66,” and Best Rock Album for “Try!”
Mayer is also scheduled to perform at the Grammys with fellow nominees John Legend and Corinne Bailey. The Feb. 11 ceremony at Los Angeles’ Staples Center will air live on CBS-TV.
Here is Mayer’s tour itinerary. Check with official artist websites, ticketing sources and venues for late updates.
February 2007
6 – Knoxville, TN – Knoxville Civic Coliseum
7 – Roanoke, VA – Roanoke Civic Center
8 – Columbia, SC – The Colonial Center
13 – St. Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center
14 – Madison, WI – Alliant Energy Center
16 – Murray, KY – Murray State University
17 – Bloomington, IL – US Cellular Coliseum
18 – Omaha, NE – Qwest Center
20 – Dekalb, IL – NIU Convocation Center
22 – Grand Rapids, MI – Van Andel Arena
23 – Columbus, OH – Nationwide Arena
24 – Lexington, KY – Rupp Arena
26 – Amherst, MA – Mullins Center
27 – Syracuse, NY – Oncenter Complex
28 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
April 2007
17 – Toronto, Ontario – Air Canada
18 – Montreal, Quebec – Bell Centre
20 – Ottawa, Ontario – Scotiabank Place
22 – London, Ontario – Labatt Centre
26 – Winnipeg, Manitoba – MTS Centre
28 – Edmonton, Alberta – Rexall Place
30 – Victoria, British Columbia – Save on Foods Memorial
May 2007
1 – Vancouver, British Columbia – Pacific Coliseum

Fall Out Boy’s Honda Civic dates announced
The itinerary for the Honda Civic Tour is finally in. Fall Out Boy will headline the seventh annual trek, which kicks off April 18 in Charlotte, NC, and travels all over North America, wrapping with a two-night stand June 10-11 in Fall Out Boy’s hometown of Chicago.
Tickets are set to go on sale Feb. 17 in most cities. Pre-sales are available starting tomorrow (2/6) through a promotion with Target stores or Feb. 14 through the Honda Civic Tour website. Dates are listed below.
The tour, which organizers tout as a combination of hot acts, moderate ticket prices and environmental consciousness, will also be used to promote the Honda Civic Hybrid. The members of Fall Out Boy designed custom features for one of the vehicles, which will be showcased at each venue and given away to a lucky concertgoer who enters a drawing, according to a press release.
Fall Out Boy’s next album, “Infinity On High,” will hit stores tomorrow (2/6)–the same day the band embarks on one-day, three-city, publicity-stunt tour for which the members will jet from New York City to Chicago to Los Angeles.
Later this month, Fall Out Boy will take off on an international jaunt, visiting Japan, New Zealand, Australia and Europe into April. Those shows are listed at the band’s website.
Here is their tour itinerary:
April 2007
18 – Charlotte, NC – Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
19 – Atlanta, GA – HiFi Buys Amphitheatre
20 – Tampa, FL – Ford Amphitheater
21 – West Palm Beach, FL – Sound Advice Amphitheater
23 – Houston, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
24 – Dallas, TX – Smirnoff Music Centre
25 – San Antonio, TX – Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
27 – Phoenix, AZ – Cricket Pavilion
28 – Las Vegas, NV – The Orleans
29 – San Diego, CA – Coors Amphitheater
May 2007
1 – Marysville, CA – Sleep Train Amphitheatre
2 – Los Angeles, CA – The Forum
3 – Anaheim, CA – The Honda Center
4 – Concord, CA – Sleep Train Pavilion
6 – Vancouver, British Columbia – Pacific Coast Coliseum
7 – Tacoma, WA – Tacoma Dome
8 – Portland, OR – The Rose Garden Arena
10 – Salt Lake City, UT – The E Center
11 – Denver, CO – Coors Amphitheater
12 – Kansas City, MO – Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
13 – Council Bluffs, IA – Mid America Rec. Center
15 – Moline, IL – Mark of the Quad Cities
16 – Minneapolis, MN – Target Center
17 – Milwaukee, MN – The Bradley Center
18 – St. Louis, MO – Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
20 – Cleveland, OH – Blossom Music Center
21 – Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center
22 – Pittsburgh, PA – Post-Gazette Pavilion
23 – Virginia Beach, VA – Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheater
25 – Montreal, Quebec – The Bell Centre
26 – Toronto, Ontario – Molson Amphitheater
27 – Detroit, MI – DTE Energy Music Theater
28 – Buffalo, NY – Darien Lakes Performing Arts Center
30 – Saratoga, NY – Saratoga Performing Arts Center
31 – Boston, MA – Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts
June 2007
1 – Philadelphia, PA – Tweeter Center at the Waterfront
2 – Hartford, CT – New England Dodge Music Center
4 – Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion
5 – Wantaugh, NY – Nikon at Jones Beach Theatre
6 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center
8 – Indianapolis, IN – Verizon Wireless Music Center
10-11 – Chicago, IL – Charter One Pavilion at Northerly Island

Princes’ pop concert 10 years after Diana death
LONDON (Reuters) – Princes William and Harry announced plans on Tuesday to mark the 10th anniversary of their mother Princess Diana’s death with a pop concert at the new Wembley Stadium in London.
Artists scheduled to appear include Elton John, Duran Duran, Joss Stone, Pharrell Williams and Bryan Ferry. The English National Ballet will also perform and Andrew Lloyd Webber will perform a medley of songs from his shows.
There will also be a church memorial service for Diana who died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.
“We both wanted to put our stamp on it. We want it to represent exactly what our mother would have wanted,” Prince William said in a statement.
“So therefore the church service alone isn’t enough. We wanted to have this big concert full of energy, full of the sort of fun and happiness, which I know she would have wanted.”
The concert, on July 1 next year, will be one of the first to be held in the new Wembley sports stadium in west London.
A long-awaited British police report into Diana’s death due this week is expected to rule out foul play and could finally lay to rest conspiracy theories that she was murdered rather than that she died the victim of a tragic accident.

Princes to organize Wembley concert to honour Diana
Princes William and Harry plan to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of their mother, Diana, with a massive concert featuring pop superstars, according to several British newspapers.
Both the Sunday Mirror and the Mail say the brothers are arranging the event themselves. They said it is to take place in London’s Wembley Stadium on July 1, 2007 ó on what would have been the 46th birthday of the late Princess of Wales.
“We’re considering a number of options on how best to commemorate next year,” said Paddy Harverson, a spokesperson for Prince Charles.
“William and Harry will make a decision in due course.”
The stadium can hold 90,000 people. Proceeds from the concert, expected to be shown live on television, are said to be going to several charities supported by Diana.
Elton John, a friend of Diana who performed Candle In The Wind at her funeral, is expected to be invited. Other artists who are likely to take part include Beyonce, George Michael and Kylie Minogue, according to the Sunday Times.
Diana, boyfriend Dodi Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul, died when their car smashed into a concrete wall in a tunnel in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997. At the time, Diana had already been divorced from Charles for a year.
A French judge ruled in 1999 the crash was an accident and concluded Paul had been drinking and taking prescription drugs as well as driving too fast.
However, conspiracy theories kept cropping up and a British inquest into their deaths is expected to begin in the new year.
Lord John Stevens, the former head of London’s Metropolitan Police, has been investigating the crash for two years and will table his report at the inquest.

Prince debuts Vegas show
Prince unveiled a pared-down weekly show Friday in something of an unlikely place.
The pop star, known for his grandiose arena shows, put on a low-production but high-energy performance Friday in the intimate 3121 club at the Rio hotel and casino just off the Las Vegas Strip.
Under a deal made public this month, Prince will play shows for the next several Friday and Saturday nights at the club. The announcement surprised some fans who still consider Prince a musical innovator and think of Las Vegas as a place for stars in the twilight of their careers.
“I just didn’t think he was at the has-been stage, yet,” Pat Ellen, a 36-year-old social worker from Chicago, said before Friday’s show.
But bandmates say Prince, who is more than 20 years removed from his megahit album and movie Purple Rain, remains on the cutting edge.
“I think he wants to bring a new element to Vegas; that’s the whole point, to bring a new, fresh vibe,” said Maya McClean, a Prince spokeswoman and half of The Twinz, the backup group performing with the star.
The Prince shows are expected to run “a couple of months” before the group goes on tour, McLean said.
Private-party feel
The 3121 club ó renamed from Club Rio ó and an album released in March are named after the street address of the Los Angeles home where Prince once held intimate, private performances. The new show is intended to recapture that private-party feel in the club, which seats about 700.
Prince will also book performers for Wednesday night at the club, and holds a stake in the new 3121 Jazz Cuisine restaurant at the Rio.
Friday’s performance started at midnight and ran nearly two hours, later and longer than most Vegas shows. Tickets cost $125 US.
The show featured an even mix of classics and new material, guitar solos, soulful ballads and funk. Prince’s racier hits, such as Cream and Kiss, offered a contrast to the tamer songs released since the star became a Jehovah’s Witness.
“You don’t have to be dirty to be sexy,” Prince advised the Sin City audience before launching into a sweet love song. “Let me show you.”

Genesis to reunite for European tour
LONDON – Genesis will reunite next year for a “Turn It on Again” tour of Europe, their first tour in 15 years. The 20-date stadium tour, announced Tuesday, will open in Helsinki, Finland, on June 11 and end with a free concert in front of the Colosseum in Rome on July 14.
Genesis last toured in 1991. Phil Collins, who quit the band to go solo in 1996, said the reunion wasn’t motivated by money.
“I think we are all loaded enough not to worry about where the next million or two is coming from,” the 55-year-old singer said Tuesday. “I just felt now was the right time to have a go at it.”
A series of U.S. dates will follow the European tour, said Collins, Mike Rutherford, 56, and Tony Banks, 56.
Genesis was founded in the mid-1960s by Rutherford, Banks, Anthony Phillips and Peter Gabriel, who left the group in 1975 and was replaced on vocals by drummer Collins. They became one of the biggest bands of the 1970s and `80s, with hits such as “Turn It on Again,” “Follow You, Follow Me,” “That’s All” and “Invisible Touch.”
Banks said the tour would let fans hear a side of the band that went beyond their hits.
“Genesis has another side to it, a more complex area of music,” he said. “One side gets slightly more attention than the other. We are trying to reacquaint people. Genesis is not particularly a group mentioned very much these days and we want to remind people we did do a lot of things.”

Concertgoer throws drink at Streisand
SUNRISE, Fla. – The funny girl wasn’t laughing. Barbra Streisand had a drink lobbed at her Monday after a mid-concert skit poking fun at President Bush.
Streisand’s publicist, Dick Guttman, said a paper cup filled with some sort of liquid was thrown on stage but apparently did not hit Streisand during her second performance in this Fort Lauderdale suburb.
Streisand’s manager, Martin Erlichman, said she shrugged off the incident and responded to the angry audience member by saying: “It’s a free country and they’re entitled to express their opinion.”
It’s at least the third time the skit, which includes a George W. Bush impersonator, has angered Streisand’s audience. A heckler targeted her at the Philadelphia opening of her 20-city comeback tour, Guttman said, and Streisand made headlines with her response to a jeerer at Madison Square Garden last month.
Erlichman said Streisand, 64, believed the skit was in good fun and noted impersonator Steve Bridges, who wrote it, is a Republican.
“This skit has been so massively covered by media, it’s impossible that it still could come as a surprise to any of the Bush admirers who bought tickets,” Erlichman said.
Despite the controversy, Erlichman said the skit would remain a part of the tour.
“It stays in the show except for the few performances where Steve has a conflicting commitment,” Erlichman said.
Streisand, an outspoken liberal, is touring the country after a 12-year absence from the stage, offering fans a repertoire of her four decades of hits.

The Hip announce ’07 Cdn. dates
The Tragically Hip have announced dates for their upcoming two-month Canadian winter tour.
In an email message to fans, the group revealed they will play 19 dates in January and February on a tour that is moving from west to east.
Tickets for all shows go on sale on October 27 and October 28. A special presale for registered users at thehip.com will be able to get first crack at the best seats in the house starting tomorrow (Oct. 24).
The tour is in support of the band’s latest album, “World Container.”
The band are currently gearing up for the bigger tour with intimate club dates in select cities across the country.
Here are the ’07 dates:
January 8th — Save On Foods Memorial Centre, Victoria, BC
January 10th — Interior Savings Centre, Kamloops, BC
January 12th — CN Centre, Prince George, BC
January 13th — Canada Games Arena, Grande Prairie, AB
January 14th — Rexall Place, Edmonton, AB
January 16th — Enmax Centrium, Red Deer, AB
January 17th — Enmax Centre, Lethbridge, AB
January 19th — Brandt Centre At Ipsco Place, Regina, SK
January 20th — Mts Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba
January 22nd — Fort Williams Gardens, Thunder Bay, ON
January 23rd — Steelback Centre, Sault St. Marie, ON
January 25th — Barrie Molson Centre, Barrie, ON
January 27th — Sudbury Arena, Sudbury, ON
January 29th — Memorial Centre, Peterborough, ON
January 31st — General Motors Centre, Oshawa, ON
February 2nd — Scotiabank Place, Ottawa, ON
February 5th — John Labatt Centre, London, ON
February 6th — Copps Coliseum, Hamilton, ON
February 8th — Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON

Streisand has outburst at NYC concert
NEW YORK – The most riveting moment of Barbra Streisand’s Madison Square Garden concert was one of the only unscripted ones.
Streisand endured jeers as she interjected a political skit into Monday night’s show, exchanging zingers with a celebrity impersonator playing George Bush as a bumbling idiot.
Though most of the crowd offered polite applause during the slightly humorous routine, it went on a bit too long, especially for those who just wanted to hear Streisand sing.
“Come on, be polite!” the well-known liberal implored. But one heckler wouldn’t let up. And finally, Streisand let him have it.
“Shut the (expletive) up!” Streisand bellowed, drawing wild applause. “Shut up if you can’t take a joke!”
With that one F-word, the jeers ended. And the message was delivered ó no one gets away with trying to upstage Barbra Streisand, especially not in her hometown.