New url for Peach Buzz
Bookmark this new url for Peach Buzz.. We have moved to Wordpress!
Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2008 > September > 01
Monday, September 1, 2008
Brown took stage — and took control
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Labor Day 2008, Buzz thought it appropriate to recognize “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business,” who played his final Atlanta concert at Chastain Park five years ago this weekend.
Augusta’s own R&B legend, the late James Brown, is the subject of the brand new “I Got the Feelin’: James Brown in the ’60s,” a fascinating, sometimes horrifying, three-DVD set from Shout Factory.
The package contains the ultra-rare April 5, 1968, concert Brown performed at the Boston Garden, just 24 hours after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. American cities had descended into chaos as racial tensions spilled into the streets and Boston officials were desperate to keep the peace.
At the last minute, Boston Mayor Kevin White opted against canceling Brown’s scheduled show in his city. Instead, White urged Bostonians to stay home. Just hours before the show, White contacted WGBH and requested the station broadcast the show live.
WGBH producer and director Russ Morash and crew turned up. Today, Morash is best known as one of the creators of “The French Chef,” Julia Child’s ground-breaking public television cooking show. Suffice it to say, Morash didn’t know much about soul music.
Says Morash in the set’s excellent accompanying doc: “To have a madman belting it out and destroying our equipment was not something we were used to.”
Facing a mostly empty venue, an unseen TV audience and a small squadron of cops lining the stage, Brown got up on stage and performed an epic 90-minute concert. His jacket soaked through with sweat, Brown was about to launch into his encore of “I Can’t Stand Myself” when things threatened to unravel.
In the DVD’s most-difficult-to-watch sequence, a young fan gets up on stage to dance with his idol and a uniformed cop flings him off the stage.
Other fans and cops rushed the stage when the singer stopped the show.
“Wait a minute, wait a minute!” Brown tells both parties as the lights come up. “We are black, don’t make us all look bad. I asked the police to step back because I thought I could get some respect from my own people. Are we together or ain’t we?!”
The crowd and the cops did as the Godfather of Soul instructed.
Brown finished the show and promptly mash-potatoed off stage.
WGBH re-aired the concert throughout the night. Calm was maintained.
CORRESPONDENCE FROM CELEBRITY
Local jewelry designer Mickey Lynn got a star-studded surprise when she opened her mail this month and found a handwritten note from none other than A-list celeb Courteney Cox. Lynn had sent Cox a special necklace from her zodiac collection aimed at moms (Cox and her daughter are both Geminis). Considering Cox probably gets tons of swag from more well-known designers, the note was super sweet, especially the un-Courteney-like pink ink with which it was written.
1980S LIVE ON
A nearly full house at Chastain Park Amphitheatre on Friday night got a four-hour dollop of ’80s nostalgia.
The Human Regeneration tour featuring Naked Eyes, Flock of Seagulls, ABC, Belinda Carlisle and the Human League wrapped up in Atlanta with a big push by B98.5 pegged to the arrival of Steve McCoy and Vikki Locke.
Many of the acts were loose and happy. Pete Byrne, lead singer of Naked Eyes, changed the lyrics to one of his songs for a gal in the front row: “How’s your sandwich?” He then had fans in 1980s garb dance on stage to “Promises, Promises.”
Martin Fry, lead singer of ABC, had purchased Halloween masks of Barack Obama and John McCain and had his two keyboardists wear them during “Look of Love.” And he high-fived the front row, saying, “If Neil Diamond can do this, so can I!”
And Belinda Carlisle looked and sounded great at age 50, getting the crowd pumped with Go Go’s classics such as “We Got the Beat” and “Our Lips Are Sealed.” She even bounced back with a smile after tripping backward on a floor speaker during “Leave a Light On.”
“I haven’t done that in a long time!” she mused on stage.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Comedian-actress Lily Tomlin is 69. Singer Barry Gibb (above) of the Bee Gees is 62. Talk show host Dr. Phil is 58. Singer Gloria Estefan is 51. Actor Ricardo Antonio Chavira (“Desperate Housewives”) is 37. Guitarist Joe Trohman of Fall Out Boy is 24.
Contributing: Rodney Ho, Nedra Rhone and news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |
Smooth Jazz, Hot, Praise lose air staff
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Radio One, which owns Hot 107.9, Smooth Jazz 107.5 and Praise 97.5, cut air staff this week locally and nationally. Among the victims: Morning man Griff and mid-day jock Maria More at Hot, veteran DJ Rene Miller at Smooth and mid-day host Sonja Hamm at Praise.
This appears to be a cost-cutting measure, though bosses at Radio One have not returned calls for comment. For now at Hot, Rashan Ali and Emperor Searcy will continue to hold the fort on the morning show, the A Team, minus standup comic Griff.
In a written statement to the press, Griff thanked God for his time at Hot: “When I got home today, I read a book that said: ‘On this day the will of God is done in my life.’ That was all the closure I needed.”
Kevin Watson, manager for comic Rickey Smiley, told Buzz Friday that Smiley is in negotiations to add his syndicated show to Hot, but nothing has been finalized yet.
Smiley is in 20 markets nationwide including Dallas and Miami. Radio One handles syndication for Smiley.
CON, FOOTBALL FANS INVADE DOWNTOWN
It’s Tigers vs. Trekkies today in downtown Atlanta as a fun little clash of cultures plays out. Tens of thousands of fans of Alabama and Clemson football are here for the Chick-fil-A College Kickoff, and tens of thousands of revelers are here for DragonCon, the massive pop culture and fantasy convention.
Actually, maybe the two groups will get along very well wherever they encounter one another. Both have lots of hard-core obsessives who like to dress up in eye-catching outfits and paint their faces. Both are partial to insider jargon and intense group bonding. And both have been known to get a little drink on.
The Con folks have their big parade at 10 a.m. today, starting at Woodruff Park and working north on Peachtree Street. That’s where you will find your grown-ups dressed as Imperial Stormtroopers from “Star Wars.”
The College Kickoff FanFest and FanZone for both teams’ fans starts at noon at Centennial Olympic Park. That’s where you’ll find your grown-ups with tiger paws painted on their faces. Is this a great city or what?
‘LIKE’-ING IT AT NO. 1
According to the Billboard Hot 100 chart at least, pleading guilty to federal weapons possession charges has only enhanced rapper T.I.’s sales figures.
This week, the Atlantan scored a new record for the biggest jump to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as his latest single, “Whatever You Like” rocketed up the charts from No. 71 to No. 1 in its third week on the chart.
According to Billboard, “A No. 1 opening on Hot Digital Songs with debut-week sales of 205,000 downloads is the impetus for the record-setting Hot 100 move, which surpasses the 64-1 hike taken by Maroon 5’s ‘Makes Me Wonder’ in the May 12, 2007, issue.”
Billboard also observes that “Like” is T.I.’s first chart-topper as a lead artist (he contributed to Justin Timberlake’s 2006 chart-topper, “My Love”) and his opening-week digital sales is the best by a rap track since Nielsen SoundScan began compiling download data in 2003.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Saturday: Country singer Kitty Wells is 89. Actor Bill Daily (“I Dream of Jeannie,” “The Bob Newhart Show”) is 81. Actor-turned-politician Ben Jones (“The Dukes of Hazzard”) is 67. Actress Peggy Lipton (“The Mod Squad”) is 61. Comedian Lewis Black (“The Daily Show”) is 60. Actor Michael Chiklis (“The Fantastic Four,” “The Shield”) is 45. Actress Cameron Diaz is 36. Guitarist Ryan Ross of Panic At The Disco is 22.
Sunday: Singer Van Morrison is 63. Actor Richard Gere is 59. Drummer Gina Schock of The Go-Go’s is 51. Singer Deborah Gibson is 38. Actor Chris Tucker (“Rush Hour”) is 36. Actress Sara Ramirez (“Grey’s Anatomy”) is 33.
HIGH FIVE
Music
The top-selling albums this week at Decatur CD:
1. Randy Newman, “Harps and Angels”
2. Stereolab, “Chemical Chords”
3. Gentleman Jesse, “Gentleman Jesse”
4. Janelle Monae, “Metropolis”
5. Matthew Sweet, “Sunshine Lies”
Courtesy: Decatur CD
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I cried my eyelashes off.”
Talk show queen, faux eyelash and Barack Obama supporter Oprah Winfrey to the Associated Press following his acceptance speech Thursday night.
Contributing: Rodney Ho, Phil Kloer and news services.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
