5 weeks ago
Jon Bon to Advise President...
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Obama taps Jon Bon Jovi for new advisory board
Looks like all those years of performing for Democratic candidates has paid off: President Obama is tapping rocker Jon Bon Jovi to serve on a new presidential advisory council.
The White House announced Tuesday that Bon Jovi (or is it just Jovi?) will join the new 25-member White House Council for Community Solutions, a panel established to provide advice on "the best ways to mobilize citizens, nonprofits, businesses and government to work more effectively together to solve specific community needs."
The 2009 Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act established the panel, which also includes eBay CEO John Donahoe and Starbucks Vice President Paula Boggs and Rockefeller Foundation President Judith Rodin.
Jovi, the formerly big-haired rocker, is a well-known Democratic Party supporter who once made a cameo in support of fictional Democratic presidential candidate Matthew Santos on NBC's "West Wing."
More recently, Bon Jovi performed at Obama's inaugural concert and promoted the Obama administration's United We Serve initiative during his recent world tour.
But, on a serious note, the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation has partnered with public and private organizations to help combat homelessness. The efforts have yielded more than 260 units of affordable housing for low income individuals and families, according to his spokeswoman.
Obama has tapped several other celebrities to serve on presidential commissions and councils. Yo-Yo Ma and Sarah Jessica Parker are on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, for example.
source Read more...
The Votes are In...
And our boys did NOT make the Hall of Fame this year. Maybe next year guys!
Neil Diamond, Alice Cooper, Tom Waits Inducted Into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The votes are in and next year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class will include Neil Diamond, Alice Cooper, Tom Waits, Darlene Love and Dr. John. Leon Russell will be receive The Award For Musical Excellence (formerly the sideman category) and industry legends Jac Holzman and Art Rupe will both receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award. The ceremony will be held March 14 at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel and it will be broadcast live on Fuse.
Artists are eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25 years after the release of their first single or LP. All of this year's inductees, however, started in the 1960s — with the lone exception of Tom Waits, who released his first LP Closing Time in 1973.
Dr. John, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Was 'Surprised' By the News
Love feels that the long wait was well worth it. "I was on my way to Atlantic City in a limo when I got the call," she says. "I started screaming and I thought, 'I sure hope the driver doesn't think that my husband's trying to kill me.' I was laughing and crying at the same time."
Darlene Love, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Says She's on Cloud Nine
The ceremony falls right in the middle of Neil Diamond's Australian tour in March. Nothing is set yet, but Diamond hopes to re-shuffle some dates so he can make it. "I'll get in somehow," he says. "They are working on the details right now. I 'm very hopeful it'll work out because I don't want to miss this ... Any club that has Chuck Berry and Little Richard and The Everly Brothers is a club that I want to be a part of."
Neil Diamond, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Says He Feels 'Very Lucky'
When Alice Cooper got the news he immediately called his former bandmates in the original Alice Cooper band. "I said 'Well, remember when we started in high school?" he says. "Here we are. It only took 45 years."
Alice Cooper, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Was 'Elated' When He Got the News
Cooper plans on performing with the band, something he's only done a handful of times since they broke up in 1976. "We're trying to figure out if we do 'School's Out,' do we send balloons of confetti into the audience?" he says. "I doubt there'll be a snake there though...If you look at the list of past inductees it's all of my heroes, from Pete Townshend to The Yardbirds to The Beatles to The Stones. It's everybody that we listened to in order to become Alice Cooper, so it's pretty amazing that those are the same people that actually voted for us."
source Read more...
Review: Bon Jovi - Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane...
Bon Jovi joins rock royalty in huge fortnight of international gigs for Brisbane
THERE'S nothing complicated about the Bon Jovi formula: fist-pumping anthems, loads of sha-la-la's, sing-with-mes, hand claps and simple positive messages.
Add the magic ingredient of frontman Jon Bon Jovi - doesn't dance as well as Mick Jagger but makes women feel weak at the knees - plus the guitar heroics of Richie Sambora and it's music made for blasting from car radios in the suburbs.
It plays out pretty well in a place like Suncorp as well, which they played to a sold-out crowd on Tuesday night.
It is music that reaches out to people in the farthest rows and implores them to have a good time.
Their music has proved far more durable than most of their contemporaries from the '80s.
Like their haircuts, their songwriting has improved over the years and they can now deliver a set with sturdy newer tunes like Lost Highway and It's My Life.
This is mostly meat-and-potatoes rock-n-roll but for variety?
There is a U2-ish new song in When We Were Beautiful and they do a rollicking cover of The Rolling Stone's Start Me Up.
It's a big show with a vast video screen and semi-circular ramp in front of the stage to allow the frontman to get closer to the adoring masses.
Bon Jovi are touring on the back of a new greatest hits release and that's what they gave the crowd with songs from every part of their 26-year career.
The lyrics tell the story: "We weren't born to follow, I'll sleep when I'm dead, Anyone want to party?"
Compared with U2's shows last week there's not much nuance and no emotional clout, and no one but me in this crowd seemed to mind.
source Read more...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
