ARAB TIMES, SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

27NEWS/FEATURES

Trey Anastasio (from left), Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead perform at Grateful Dead Fare Thee Well Show at Soldier Field on July 3, in Chicago, Ill. (AP)

Colorful envelopes decorated by tick-et-seekers for Grateful Dead showsare shown on display at the FieldMuseum in Chicago, Illinois on

July 2. (AFP)

Trainor Scott

Variety

NEW YORK: Meghan Trainor is post-poning two shows because of a hemor-rhage on her vocal cords.

The 21-year-old pop singer made theannouncement on Instagram lateThursday. She said “doctors want me oncomplete vocal rest until they are healed.”

The “All About That Bass” singer hadbeen scheduled to perform in AtlanticCity, New Jersey, on Friday andUncasville, Connecticut, on Saturday.

Trainor wrote that she’s never missed alive show and that she’s “truly sorry toeveryone who has bought tickets andmade travel plans.”

Her next show will be on Tuesday inLansing, Michigan. The Grammy-nomi-nated performer’s hits include “Lips AreMovin’” and “Dear Future Husband.” (AP)

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DANVILLE, Ill: The childhood home ofactor Dick Van Dyke could be torn downafter a central Illinois city condemned thedilapidated building.

The (Champaign) News-Gazette reportsthat the 89-year-old actor took to Twitterthis week to call attention to the Danvillehome he and brother Jerry lived in duringhigh school after relocating fromMissouri.

The star of “Mary Poppins” and televi-sion’s “The Dick Van Dyke Show” recalledthe “happy memories drifting around inthere” in a tweet to his 85,200 followers.

Van Dyke told the (Danville)Commercial-News he’d like to know ifthe home is fixable.

“If it could be fixed maybe we could dosomething like take a collection up orsomething,” he said. “Danville is myhome and I do still care.”

Mayor Scott Eisenhauer said the citydidn’t know the Van Dyke connectionwhen it condemned the house inDecember. The property’s last owner diedin 2011. (AP)

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LOS ANGELES: After winning KarlovyVary Film Festival’s East of the Westcompetition with “House With a Turret”in 2012, Ukrainian helmer-writer EvaNeymann world preems her third feature“Song of Songs” in the main event.Exquisitely lensed and beautifully styl-ized, it uses the stories of SholemAleichem to create the now-extinct worldof Russian Jewish shtetls.

Previously a documaker, Neymannturned to fiction with adaptations of two

Singer Maman Mouhamed Vall performs on the opening night of the first edi-tion of the Salam Festival in Dakar on July 2. Created by Senegalese singerand politician Youssou N’Dour, the religious music festival will see perform-

ances by artists from Senegal, Egypt, Morocco and Mauritania. (AFP)

works by Friedrich Gorenstein. WhySholem Aleichem? Neymann says: “‘Songof Songs’ to me was a treasure in which

simplicity and fragility are the strong-holds. Here you have real beauty, thedeepness that allows one to soar high ...

The novel is very special and stands outfrom his other works, in fact, in the film Ihave used directly and indirectly frag-

ments from across the whole of SholemAleichem’s collected works.”

Neymann works again with talentedd.p. Rimvydas Leipus, of whom shesays, “I wish to keep working with himuntil retirement us do part.” Together theycreate images of mesmerizing beauty. Shenotes: “We mainly tried to create our ownworld, inspired by observation of dailylife, memories, impressions and dreams.”(RTRS)

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LONDON: A judge has delivered sweetmusic to the Ukulele Orchestra of GreatBritain, ruling that a rival ensemble can’tcall itself the United Kingdom UkuleleOrchestra.

Judge Richard Hacon has said thatsimilar names had confused fans of theHawaiian stringed instrument and “causeddamage to the Ukulele Orchestra Of GreatBritain’s goodwill.”

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain,founded in 1985, took legal action againstits rival, founded in 2009 and made up ofBritish musicians based in Germany.

Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britainfounder George Hinchliffe said the rulingmade it clear “that copycat musical per-formances cannot trade off the reputationof established groups.”

The orchestra says it has played morethan 1,000 concerts and performed along-side Robbie Williams, Cat Stevens,Madness and the Kaiser Chiefs. (AP)

Dr Dre launches newshow on Apple MusicNEW YORK, July 4, (AP): Dr. Drewill be busting through your speak-ers with a new radio show on AppleMusic.

On Friday, the 50-year-old rapmogul announced a new radio showcalled “The Pharmacy,” which wasto premiere Saturday at 6 pm EST.The hour-long show dedicated toWest Coast music will stream everyother Saturday.

Apple Music made its debut thisweek. Apple bought Dre and JimmyIovine’s Beats by Dre company lastyear.

Apple’s new streaming servicefeatures live radio programming,including shows hosted by ZaneLowe, Ebro Darden and JulieAdenuga.

The service is giving users a freetrial for three months and will latercost $10 per month.

Music‘Lot of soul’

Beverly, Mazereturn to ‘fest’NEW ORLEANS, July 4, (AP): For15 years, thousands of fans dressedall in white entered the Superdomeon the final day of the EssenceFestival anticipating the soulfulsounds of Maze featuring FrankieBeverly, who also dressed in hissignature white pants, shirt andbaseball cap, would sing into thewee hours of the next day.

Then in 2010, that experienceended when a new festival produc-er decided to end the long traditionof Maze as the festival’s closer —

to the disap-pointment ofmany despitethe great talenttapped toclose, includ-ing Beyonce,Mary J. Blige,Lionel Richie,ArethaFranklin andEarth, Windand Fire.

This year,Beverly and his group are back onthe festival’s main stage. And,although he’s not scheduled toclose the entire affair, fans welcomehis return and the return of the mas-sive Electric Slide held on theSuperdome’s floor.

“Frankie Beverly and Mazedefined the Essence Festival,” saidAnita Brown of New Orleans.“They keep you out of your seatthroughout their shows. I haven’twitnessed that type of atmospherewith any other soul artist or group.To reunite them with the festivalmeans that I need to bring my danc-ing shoes!”

Kevia Stroder, of Richmond,Texas, said Beverly’s presence wasmissed.

Presence “A lot of people I know stopped

going to the festival because he wasnot a part of the lineup. But I’m look-ing forward to seeing them this yearand I will be dressed in all mywhite,” she said. “We love Maze andFrankie’s music because they singwith a lot of soul and he sings fromthe heart. We just need his presencethere and he can leave the rest to usbecause you know the crowd willsing everything for him.”

In an interview with TheAssociated Press, Beverly said he’sas eager to return to the festival ashis fans are.

“We were doing that thing for 15years and it was very hard not to bethere,” he said. “They (festivalorganizers) seemed to want tochange it. I didn’t think it was agood idea because it’s a fantasticfestival, up there ranking with someof the best in the world. It seemedsilly to change something that was-n’t broken.

“But I’m very excited about thisperformance.”

Although Beverly, 68, didn’tplay Essence Festival, he was stillperforming regularly in NewOrleans, including at the NewOrleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Bigger “Once we started playing Jazz

Fest, those people down there real-ly got geeked up. The crowds keptgetting bigger and bigger and itturned into a godsend. It makes usfeel good to have a city that lovesus with all their heart. It’s morethan a blessing.”

Michelle Ebanks, president ofEssence Communications Inc, saidBeverly and Maze are a treasureand their appearance coincides withthe festival’s recognition of the 10-year anniversary of HurricaneKatrina.

“Friday night, we will celebratethe resilience of New Orleans withan epic performance by the leg-endary Maze featuring FrankieBeverly. The Superdome will lightup with a sea of all-white as Mazecloses out Friday night’s concertswith classic hits that express love,triumph, joy, pain and happy feel-ings,” she said.

Also:KINGSTON, Jamaica:Government officials, lawyers andartists participated in a conferencelast Wednesday to hash over waysof giving Jamaica a competitiveadvantage from reggae, the home-grown music that long ago wentglobal.

Industry Minister AnthonyHylton described reggae as “part ofthe heart and soul” of Jamaica. Buthe acknowledged that the island’sstruggling music industry needs tobe better protected and monetized.

“Reggae has given Jamaica muchin the way of international prestigebut there remains more that we canachieve on the economic side ofthings,” Hylton said at the “interna-tional reggae day” gathering.

Starting in the late 1960s,Jamaica’s exuberant music scenehelped transform the Caribbeanisland into a cultural powerhouse.Reggae’s global popularity explodedin the 1970s with the rise of BobMarley, Peter Tosh and othercharismatic Rastafarian reggae stars.

Beverly

Psychedelic send-off

Grateful Dead prepare to quit stageCHICAGO, July 4, (AFP): As rocklegends the Grateful Dead retire fromthe stage, their thousands of tie-dyedfans are gathering one last time in anenduring sign of how the band pio-neered alternative culture.

In one of America’s most sought-after tickets in years, the GratefulDead are putting on three shows inChicago from Friday in what the agingartists say will likely be their finale.

The Independence Day weekendconcerts also celebrate the 50thanniversary of the Grateful Dead,whose phenomenal connection with“Deadhead” fans comes even thoughthe band only once entered the main-stream Top 10 chart — in 1987, late intheir career, with the song “Touch ofGrey.”

Instead, the Grateful Dead bothhelped define the countercultural spir-it that blossomed in the 1960s andbecame a harbinger of later alternativescenes by creating a community thatbonded precisely because the bandwas out of the mainstream.

Deadheads, many sporting tie-dyeshirts and dabbling in the drugs of theera, would travel from show-to-showas much for the music as for the com-munal experience.

Opportunity“It was almost like you were going

to church. You went and you felt ener-gized, you got cleansed,” said GregGriffith, who traveled to Chicago fromVirginia and said he has gone to morethan 100 Dead shows starting in 1973.

“You would always just wait for thenext opportunity to see them,” he said.

Formed in the cultural ferment ofthe San Francisco area in the 1960s,the Grateful Dead were generallydescribed as psychedelic rock butbrought in elements of blues, country,bluegrass and jazz.

The Dead adopted jazz’s definingtrait of improvisation, which con-vinced traveling Deadheads that eachshow would be different and not arepeat of the night before.

‘Large int’l fan base’

X Japan to play concert, premiere film in LondonLONDON, July 4, (AFP): X Japan,one of the country’s biggest rockbands, will play in the 12,000-capacity SSE Arena Wembley inLondon next year as it wins anincreasingly large international fanbase.

The concert will come after therelease of their first studio album in20 years and a documentary on theiconic band, digital ticketing plat-form AXS said Friday.

The group’s sixth studio album,and first since 1996’s “Dahlia”, willbe released on March 11, with theshow at the 12,000-capacity SSEArena in Wembley in northLondon happening the followingday.

Tickets go on sale Saturday.The live performance will be

accompanied by the world pre-miere of an as-yet-untitled film

directed by US filmmaker StephenKijak that “chronicles the evolutionand groundbreaking history ofJapan’s most iconic rock band,”AXS said.

The band played at MadisonSquare Garden in New York lastyear.

More details on the album and apossible tour are expected to beannounced by drummer Yoshiki atthe Japan Expo event in Paris onSaturday, and he will be joined bysinger Toshi at London’s HyperJapan on July 11 to debut a songfrom the new album.

X Japan are one of the definingJapanese heavy metal bands,quoted as a major influence byother major Japanese rock bandsLuna Sea and L’Arc-en-ciel, andhave enjoyed a large fan base thatincludes former Japanese Prime

minister Junichiro Koizumi.The band formed in the 1980s

are considered founders of the“Visual Kei” genre, which sawJapanese rockers sport outra-geous make-up and hairstyles rem-iniscent of the country’s Kabukitheatre tradition.

X Japan disbanded in 1997 aftera series of end-of-year stadiumconcerts at Tokyo Dome and leadguitarist Hide died the followingyear.

The band reformed in 2007 buthas only released a handful oftracks since, including “I.V.”, whichwas used to accompany the clos-ing credits of US horror movie SawIV.

In 2014, Yoshiki released a clas-sical piano album which wasaccompanied by an extensiveworld tour.

The Grateful Dead also pursuedmarketing strategies that were ground-breaking at the time but inspired manycopycats.

The band set up its own label andticket office and personally recordedmessages on a telephone hotline forfans.

The legacy endures, even as theband also sold tickets online for thefinal shows. Fans drew colorful Dead-themed artwork on envelopes seekingtickets — hundreds of which were puton display at the Field Museum acrossfrom the Soldier Field football stadi-um where the band is playing.

Many Deadheads went on to promi-nence including late Apple founderSteve Jobs and former vice presidentAl Gore.

Deadhead Patrick Leahy, the senior-

most US senator, told AFP after theconcerts were announced that theDead had a “unique sound” and revo-lutionized interaction with fans.

“It’s not surprising that very succes-ful people find the music compellingand engaging, because it’s complex,”said Rebecca Adams, a professor whohas studied Deadhead culture.

“You have to have certain sensibili-ties to get the music and, whateveryour economic background is, youhave to be pretty smart,” said Adams,director of the gerontology program atthe University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

Adams said that Deadheads hadsome antecedents, such as the NewAge movement, but that the band man-aged to nurture an enduring communi-ty.

“They made some decisions thatcreated a structure that brought peopleinto touch with each other ... and led alot of people to form identities aroundthem,” she said.

Nearly 500,000 people sought tick-ets online for the Chicago shows whenthey went on sale in February, settinga record for vendor Ticketmaster, inaddition to thousands who sent old-fashioned money orders by mail.

As resellers tried to fetch more than$1,000 per ticket, the Grateful Deadadded two additional shows that tookplace last weekend near San Francisco.

By one measure, the Grateful Deadare 2015’s top attraction, drawing 65percent higher sales per show thanconcerts by pop superstar TaylorSwift, according to ticket resale siteStubHub.

Music