Elton John to play a handful of Ontario and BC dates this summer

Elton John has announced that he will be heading to Canada this summer to play select cities in Ontario and BC. Toronto? Nope. Vancouver? Forget it. The biggest venue he’ll be playing is Copps Coliseum in Hamilton. The dates and cities are as follows: Friday, July 9, 2010, K-Rock Centre, Kingston, Ontario, Canada (Tickets $89.50-$149.50; [...]

Gaga and Elton to Team Up on New Bond Theme?

Although the next James Bond film isn’t scheduled to start filiming until later this year, there are already early rumblings that diva of the moment Lady Gaga has been approached to perform the film’s theme song. And Elton John, with whom Gaga performed at this year’s Grammys in one of the evening’s more memorable performances, [...]

Elton John+Leon Russell+T-Bone Burnett = Can’t Miss

This might be old news to some, but just in case you’re hearing about this for the first time, well then my job is done. It appears that EJ has has been writing and recording with Leon Russell, with T-Bone Burnett behind the board for the project. There is no album title or release date, [...]

The “Why is the Subway so bloody slow today?” Shuffle Report

The Shuffle Report: 10 songs I listened to, in order, on my iPod in shuffle mode at a given point in time. No editing, no skipping. It is what it is. I don’t understand. The ride to work on the subway this morning to forever. Not sure what the reason was, but it was so [...]

One Hit Wonder Wednesday: Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)

A novelty classic from 1974 that managed to reach the Billboard Top 10. Although the song is credited to the group “Reunion”, it’s essentially a group of studio musicians fronted by singer and producer Joey Levine. Levine was a bubblegum music pioneer whose previous successes included the 1968 hit Yummy Yummy Yummy by The Ohio [...]

Elvis Costello Finally Makes a Spectacle of Himself

I’ve been a fan of the musical chameleon otherwise known as Elvis Costello for a long time. Not that everything he’s ever released has appealed to me but for the most part I’ve been happy to be along for the musical ride for the last 30-plus years. In his first season as TV host with [...]

From the Ticket Stub Vault: Elton John

Elton John–November 4th, 2006 (Air Canada Centre, Toronto) Third time seeing Reg, and it far outshined the previous two occasions. The first time was in 1980 with opener Judy Tzuke (who you ask? Exactly. Actually, she was signed to Elton’s Rocket Records label at the time. Guess Elton was hoping to give her career a [...]

The Best of Both Worlds

So it’s Sunday night, and the weekend’s winding down. I was relaxing, doing a little channel surfing on the ol’ Aquos when I landed on an episode of the Simpsons from 2002 called “How I Spent My Strummer Vacation”. It’s one of my favourites. It’s the episode when Homer goes to a rock and roll [...]

You always remember your first one

My musical tastes as a wee lad were forged by what I heard on the radio, and by the records my older brothers brought into the house. But at the same time, there were songs that while not exactly rock ‘n’ roll, I was totally hung up on. Songs like Downtown by Petula Clark, and [...]