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Elton John Won’t Resume Farewell Tour in US Until January 2022, Most of 2021 Cancelled Except European Dates in the Fall

Roger Friedman
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Elton John Won’t Resume Farewell Tour in US Until January 2022, Most of 2021 Cancelled Except European Dates in the Fall

For Elton John, 2021 is basically not happening, at least in the US.

Sir Elton has just announced the resumption of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour on January 19th in New Orleans. Before that he’ll play dates in Europe and the UK in the fall of 2021 if, of course, this whole mess is over. Or goes away by itself, as Donald Trump thinks.

He’ll hit New Zealand in 2023. So who knows when the actual end of the Farewell tour will happen, or where? Back in New York, I suspect, for a big goodbye at Madison Square Garden. 2024? (Elton took pages from Cher and The Who’s farewell tours, still going on after all these years.)

Knowing Elton, this doesn’t mean we won’t be hearing from him until then. My guess is he’ll make a record or do something because like rust, he never sleeps!

Elton does have a huge compilation box set coming soon with lots of demos and intimate recordings we’ve never heard before. That alone should give everyone enough Elton John to dine on for the next few months!

He says on social media: “I’ve been enjoying my time at home with the family while the world navigates its way through the COVID pandemic. But, I really miss being on the road and performing for my beloved fans in my Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour. While the scientists are making great progress, we are making big plans for a return to touring that will allow us to ensure the health and safety of everyone. I will be starting my tour again in Europe and the UK in the Fall of 2021. And I will be back in North America starting in January 2022.  This means my New Zealand dates will be postponed until 2023. Don’t worry about me.  I’m using my downtime to keep myself fighting fit and healthier than ever. I’m raring to go! As always, thank you so much for your loyal support. I look forward to seeing all you wonderful Elton John fans soon. In the meantime, please stay safe and be well. Thank you!”

 

Pop: Justin Bieber’s “Holy” Single, Movie Off to Slow Start with Disappointing Sales, Streaming Numbers

Roger Friedman
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Pop: Justin Bieber’s “Holy” Single, Movie Off to Slow Start with Disappointing Sales, Streaming Numbers

Justin Bieber fans are not exactly scooping up his new single called “Holy.”

Over the weekend, “Holy”– featuring Chance the Rapper — sold just 16,500 copies on iTunes and other download services. The single did better on streaming, where fans could just listen via their subscriptions. They played “Holy” enough times to make the equivalent of about 95,000 in sales.

That’s not really a lot. On the Apple iTunes streaming chart, “Holy” has been holding at number 6. On Spotify it’s number 3.

Over on YouTube, “Holy” is closing in on 30 million views over four days.

It’s not clear from the video what “Holy” is supposed to be, and the actual record doesn’t help. Chance the Rapper’s rap in the middle of it is jarring, referencing people like Joe Pesci out of the blue.

The lyrics to the song suggest that Justin’s object of affection makes him feel “holy.” He also repeats many times something about running “like a track star” to the altar. It’s one of the worst lyrics in history. “Holy” is a song that lacks any poetic imagery.

Right now “Holy” is number 2 on iTunes. “WAP” has moved back into the number 1 position. Crazy.

 

Rolling Stone’s New Top 500 Albums List Panders to the Current Headlines: Jann Wenner Must Be Turning in His Grave (He’s Not Dead, Don’t Worry)

Roger Friedman
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Rolling Stone’s New Top 500 Albums List Panders to the Current Headlines: Jann Wenner Must Be Turning in His Grave (He’s Not Dead, Don’t Worry)

Rolling Stone? Jann Wenner must be turning in his grave. (He’s not dead, but you know what I mean.) The new people at the moribund magazine– including Wenner’s son– have updated their list of Top 500 albums of all time.

The idea is to include albums that have come out since 2003, as if many of those would have an impact on such a list. The result, though, this laughable. The new list strains to put a black artist at the top of the heap because pandering to current headlines is what this is all about. But it’s backfired.

The new number 1 is Marvin Gaye’s seamless album, “What’s Going On,” from 1971. It’s a work of genius. I know every sound uttered on that record. I probably listened to it every day from its release, for a year. But number 1? You’re saying that now? No, Rolling Stone, you’re only saying that because you feel you have to.

The actual number 1 album of all time is the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Without “Sgt. Pepper,” you don’t have the rest of the top 500. But the geniuses at Rolling Stone have demoted it to number 24. They’re very clever.

But not so clever really. If they wanted to be taken seriously, they would have found a contemporary black artist for the top of their chart. Invoking Marvin Gaye’s work now is not going to dig you out of 50 years of basically ignoring black artists. An early Kanye album from his heyday, Public Enemy or something like that would have shown some gumption. The Marvin Gaye choice is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic in house magazine. Even Marvin Gaye would tell you that.

(In fact, if these people knew what they were doing along this path they would have anointed Donny Hathaway’s debut 1970 album “Everything is Everything” which preceded “What’s Going On” as the seminal urban statement.)

Waaay back in the prehistoric era I won a big contest at WBCN in Boston for the top 104 albums of all time. How did I do it? My roommate and I labored over albums that changed the game either for the artist or for music in general. So “Blonde on Blonde” was far more important than “Blood on the Tracks.” The latter, which I love, is more commercial. But it wasn’t a game changer. It was a ratification of “Blonde on Blonde.”

The whole new Rolling Stone list is a pander to what’s commercial, popular, and appropriate. I didn’t even go beyond the top 50 because it’s so lame. And Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue”? Uh, no. Greatest jazz album, yes. On this list, no. “Pet Sounds” is better than the Beatles? It’s cool to say if you’re a freshman at the University of Nothing, but no. Even Joni Mitchell will tell you that “Court and Spark” is more groundbreaking than “Blue.” And Stevie Wonder knows that “Talking Book” reinvented everything and made “Songs in the Key of Life” possible.

So, Rolling Stone publishes these lists to get attention and press, All magazines do. It’s just to rile up the crowd. In the end, it’s meaningless. But this just shows that their influence is over, they ceded it a long time ago. This just cements the deal.

Vanity Fair Blinks: After 2 Diverse Covers It’s Back to Blonde Basics with Elle Fanning, Hounds on the Cover

Roger Friedman
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Vanity Fair Blinks: After 2 Diverse Covers It’s Back to Blonde Basics with Elle Fanning, Hounds on the Cover

Vanity Fair blinks this month.

After two diverse covers in a row– Viola Davis, then Breonna Taylor* — the magazine for someone no one can remember has gotten back to basics.

Elle Fanning, blonde and 21, is on the cover, with hounds. If you didn’t know better, you’d swear it was Town & Country. The byline is Rolling Stone veteran Jancee Dunn, which reflects the influence of the Entertainment Weekly crowd that came in to revive VF’s Hollywood status. It also guarantees a nice People kind of cover, with no revelations. I was sort of hoping Jancee would ask Elle and Dakota Fanning about being sisters competing for acting roles. This could have been Olivia deHavilland and Joan Fontaine 2.0. Alas, crickets.

The new Vanity Fair cover has cut lines about royals, Richard Avedon, and Vera Wang which is code “It’s safe to read this now that Ta-Nehisi Coates is gone.”

Will Elle and pals revive VF’s readership? Who knows? Right now they’ve partnered with Astra Zeneca to produce a pandemic vaccine that will guarantee an Oscar party on April 25, 2021. Knowing the mag, they will arrange with the city of Los Angeles for their guests to be inoculated first before all other SoCal residents.

*PS that Breonna Taylor issue had a very short lifespan on sale, didn’t it?

 

Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent Could Be Back in the Oscar Race with “The Duke,” Sony Pictures Classics Buys Venice Hit

Roger Friedman
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Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent Could Be Back in the Oscar Race with “The Duke,” Sony Pictures Classics Buys Venice Hit

Oscar winner Helen Mirren and nominee Jim Broadbent could be back in the Oscar race with “The Duke.”

Sony Pictures Classics has picked up the Venice Film Festival hit for release in the US and most of the world. So far “The Duke” — which also stars Matthew Goode — has a 100 on Rotten Tomatoes from the 8 reviewers who’ve posted their thoughts.

Roger Michell directed “The Duke.” Among his credits is “Notting Hill.” Richard Bean and Clive Coleman wrote the script. “The Duke” is set in 1961 when Kempton Bunton, a 60-year old taxi driver, stole Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London.  It was the first (and remains the only) theft in the Gallery’s history. Kempton sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the government agreed to provide television for free to the elderly. What happened next became the stuff of legend.  Only 50 years later did the full story emerge – a startling revelation of how a good man set out to change the world and in so doing saved his son and his marriage.

SPC’s Michael Barker and Tom Bernard could get this film out for January or February and make the Feb 28 Oscar cut off. They’ve already got “French Exit” with Michelle Pfeiffer, but you never know how any of these things is going to work out. We need some good SPC action this season.

 

 

Review: Miranda July’s Very Cool “Kajillionaire” Stars Debra Winger, Richard Jenkins, Evan Rachel Wood Weirdly Grifting Sort of Sideways

Roger Friedman
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Review: Miranda July’s Very Cool “Kajillionaire” Stars Debra Winger, Richard Jenkins, Evan Rachel Wood Weirdly Grifting Sort of Sideways

Miranda July’s “Me and You and Everyone We Know” is one of my favorite indie sort of avant garde movies ever. From 2004, it still packs so much charm it’s a pleasure to see it again from time to time. I hope it has grown an audience over the years.

Now comes “Kajillionaire” which is just as weird, fun, off beat, and sideways. It also has a quad of superb actors including two Oscar level players– Debra Winger, nominated thrice, and Richard Jenkins, nominated twice. They’re counterbalanced by the outstanding Evan Rachel Wood and Gina Rodriguez. And then, of course, there are some odd types played by actors you’ve never seen before and want to know better.

Winger and Jenkins are a couple, professional grifters in Los Angeles called the Dynes. Wood is their 26 year old adult daughter, Old Dolio, who is addicted to them and their lifestyle living in life’s sidewalk cracks. Indeed, they are so off the grid that their “apartment” is the office of a Bubble Factory, which seems to produce soap bubbles. The bubbles seep into the office, and the Dynes’ job is to contain the bubbles and dispose of them. Don’t think about this too much.

Wood’s Old Dolio comes up with a con and in the process they meet the Gina Rodriguez character on a plane. She is a little more of this world, but not much and soon she is embedded in this crowd. There is some kind of plot. The Dynes are behind in their rent at the Bubble Factor and must raise fifteen hundred dollars. Their landlord, I’d say, is not very demanding and quite eccentric, so there’s no real threat of eviction. But it’s a plot device in a movie that lives on story, character, and texture more than on common sense or reality.

Miranda July is a fantasist. I looked it up on Wikipedia and I’m glad to see she’s still married to Mike Mills, director of some other great great indie films like “20th Century Women” and “Thumbsucker.” Miranda — from the Catskills Grossinger family — is simply a wonderful artist who dabbles in many genres, from film to fashion and short stories, etc. Everything she does is interesting. In this time of serious dread, with almost sci-fi like problems pressing on us, her sense of whimsy and non linear thought is a blessing.

In other hands, “Kajillionaire” wouldn’t work. But Miranda has matured as an artist, and her cast is so committed to the cause, that this whole thing slowly stitches itself together. Winger, I’m sure, had a ball. She even limps, we don’t know why, and though you think she’s a hippie fruitcake, she’s quite savvy. Jenkins, also one of my favorite actors, makes total sense of this thing. (But think of him as the dead funeral director from “Six Feet Under.” He owns whatever he’s doing.) When the central story moves to Wood and Rodriguez, they are more than capable of taking over.

Look, this is not a cineplex movie. This is a film for people who are willing to think sideways, keep an open mind, and listen for rhythms that are not obvious. I feel about “Kajillionaire” like I felt about the original indies, like “Repo Man” or a Jim Jarmusch movie. I want to watch it a few times. I’m just so glad it exists, and I miss the people from it already. See it in a theater, see it at home, just see it.

PS I’m really impressed that Focus Features is releasing it, too. I’m sure they’re going to take good care of it.

Watch Yo Yo Ma’s Beautiful Tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, A Special Performance of Rachmaninoff’s “Vocalise”

Roger Friedman
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Watch Yo Yo Ma’s Beautiful Tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, A Special Performance of Rachmaninoff’s “Vocalise”

You almost forget there’s a civilised world anymore what with Donald Trump’s attempted annihilation of it. But the great cellist Yo Yo Ma has posted a tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg with his friend Sarah Wolfensohn. This is what you do when a remarkable person passes away, not walk all over her memory. Thank you to these artists. This is a performance of Rachmaninoff’s “Vocalise.”

TV: If the Emmys Just Went to Broadcast Television Shows, This is What and Who Would Have Won

Roger Friedman
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TV: If the Emmys Just Went to Broadcast Television Shows, This is What and Who Would Have Won

Now that we’ve seen another round of Emmy Awards go just to cable TV and streaming, and the Emmys get their lowest ratings yet, here’s the big question: what if the Emmys were really for shows on television, from broadcast networks? What shows would have won? Which actors? Because this begs the question, how could Linda Hunt have been on TV for so long and not gotten an Emmy? Because “NCIS: LA” is on a network and not HBO?

I’ve left out mini series and movies of the week because I can’t think of any on network TV.

Here are my ideas. You tell me at showbiz411@gmail.com what your choices would have been. Maybe people would watch the Emmys with these winners.

 

 

  • OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES Tracee Ellis Ross, Blackish
  • OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES Ty Burrell, Modern Family
  • OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES, Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine Nine Nine
  • OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES Laurie Metcalf, The Conners
  • OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES, “Blackish”
  • OUTSTANDING VARIETY TALK SERIES, Late Night with Seth Meyers
  • OUTSTANDING COMPETITION PROGRAM, “Shark Tank”
  • GOVERNORS AWARD, Tyler Perry
  • OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES  Sterling K. Brown, “This is Us”
  • OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES, Mariska Hargitay, “Law & Order SVU”
  • OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES, Richard Schiff,”The Good Doctor”
  • OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES, Linda Hunt “NCIS LA”
  • OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES “Law & Order SVU”

 

“Schitt’s Creek” Wins Big, Takes Up First Hour of Emmys, Tanks Ratings Because No One’s Ever Seen it

Roger Friedman
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“Schitt’s Creek” Wins Big, Takes Up First Hour of Emmys, Tanks Ratings Because No One’s Ever Seen it

“Schitt’s Creek” was the big winner on the Emmy Awards last night– 7 awards. The rally took up the first hour of the Emmy show on ABC and tanked the ratings completely.

Why?

No one has ever seen “Schitt’s Creek.” On PopTV, that show’s highest rating was 501,000 for its finale on April 7th. It averaged around 300,000 viewers every week during its sixth and final season.

Prior to that, the average was around 250,000. In fact, their third season was higher than their fourth season.

If anyone’s seen “Schitt’s Creek,” it’s been on Netflix, although the streaming platform has never listed it as one of its most highly viewed shows.

And thus, we have the problem. A cult show loved by a small, devoted audience was not going to propel ratings for the Emmy Awards.

Most of the broadcast TV audience was watching football. Or doing something else. Maybe in Canada they watched, considering “Schitt’s Creek” comes from that country.

At least Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy finally got Emmy Awards. That’s some consolation. Now go watch all the Christopher Guest movies they’ve been in. See why they deserve lots of awards all the time.

Emmy Ratings: Virtual Show Plummets By More Than a Million Viewers from Last Year to Lowest Ever, a 39% Decrease

Roger Friedman
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Emmy Ratings: Virtual Show Plummets By More Than a Million Viewers from Last Year to Lowest Ever, a 39% Decrease

The virtual Emmy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on ABC, were a ratings disaster. The show started with 5.8 million, dropped to 5.2 million and ended with just 4.2 million viewers in the final hour. This means at least 1 million viewers left at 10pm and didn’t bother to see the end of the show.

Last year the the Emmys on Fox garnered 6.9 million total viewers, which was down 32% from 2018 (10.2 million total viewers) to a new record low. The 2019 Emmys, which were host-less and also on a Sunday, declined 33% in ratings among adults 18-49, falling from a 2.4 to a 1.6.

That’s a 39% decrease from last year to the final hour this year.

This is no surprise. It wasn’t that the production values were poor. They were fine. And despite Kimmel and Jennifer Aniston almost burning down the Staples Center, the show improved as it went along. Some bits worked, others didn’t. But overall it was almost a relief to not have all the backslapping that comes with a regular awards show.

But the Emmys have faced the same problem for years: the shows they honor are not on broadcast TV, so the Emmys audience is commensurate to cable shows ratings. The Emmys have become the Cable ACE Awards. “Schitt’s Creek” never had many viewers despite its popularity. So the whole first hour of the Emmys devoted to that show didn’t help. It was unclear by 10pm who was still watching aside from entertainment press and nominees.

Will the other awards shows this year face the same apathy? We’re in a perilous situation, to be sure.

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