Reivews of Manchaster gig and more

* Please find the online reviews for Todd’s Manchester Academy 2 gig on Thursday 6th November:

Get Ready To Rock - Todd Rundgren: Manchester gig review (Nov 7)
http://www.getreadytorock.com/reviews2008/todd_rundgren_gig3.htm

Manchester Evening News – Rundgren: Manchester gig review by Dan Stubbs (Nov 7)
http://www.citylife.co.uk/music/review/15378_rundgren_s_rock_defies_fashion

Six Tame Sides – Rundgren: Manchester gig review (Nov 7)
http://sixtamesides.blogspot.com/2008/11/todd-rundgren-manchester-academy.html

The Scotsman – Rundgren gig preview (Nov 7)
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/features/What39s-on-today.4670909.jp

Sunday Mail (Scotland) – Rundgren news story (Nov 2)
http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/opinion/columnists/billy-sloan/2008/11/02/guitar-hero-s-apollo-terror-78057-20862127/

Concert Review: Citylife.co.uk

http://www.citylife.co.uk/music/review/15378_rundgren_s_rock_defies_fashion

Todd Rundgren By Dan Stubbs


"THIS is a very small venue for an Arena show," said Todd Rundgren at one point during Thursday night's gig.

It didn't stop him turning the amps up and letting the vocal chords shred like he was at Wembley.

Rundgren's a veteran rocker whose career dates back to '60s noiseniks Nazz.

Going solo in the '70s, he made his name as a singer, songwriter and producer, and recently, he's been touring with a new line-up of new wave rockers The Cars. This tour sees him defaulting back to his all-riffing, all-soloing, heavy rocking best.

Dispatch

But when the first handful of tracks saw Rundgren dispatch with most of his best-known tracks, including a half-hearted breeze through his greatest hit, the lovely, lilting I Saw The Light, alarm bells started to ring as loudly as his twiddly-diddly, flange-filled guitar playing.

Rundgren introduced I Saw The Light saying he'd "toss us a bon bon" ahead of "something special" he had planned.

The special something turned out to be a track-by-track run through his whole new album, aptly titled Arena.

The fans put a brave face on and allowed Rundgren his hour-long indulgence, which he joked they could record on their mobiles and save themselves the price of a download.

And to be fair, the new material sounded much like his more familiar material, an occasionally exciting, often gruelling hour of chugging blues, "sports rock", boogie woogie and power anthems.

At a time when most performers seems bent on reinvention and relevance in their golden years, be it Tony Christie covering Arctic Monkeys or Glen Campbell doing Green Day, it's refreshing to see one who's sticking with his guns.

To hell with fashion, Rundgren's got rock and that was enough for this joss stick-scented room.

Todd : Europes rock and roll fantasy camp

todd attended the rock and roll fantasy camp in the Uk this weekend

Pictures: more of Todd from the classic music awards

click on image to see full size

Phone Interview List magazine Scotland

The List magazine in Edinburgh recently conducted a phone interview with Todd Rundgren when TR was in Hawaii a few weeks ago. The result is a fascinating insight into the mind of one of rock’s true innovators.

The List – Todd Rundgren interview: Full Transcript (Scotland, November 6th)
http://www.list.co.uk/article/14145-todd-rundgren-interview-full-transcript/#comments

The interview dovetails TR’s concert at the Edinburgh Picture House on Friday November 7th.

Todd kicks off European tour

http://www.antimusic.com/news/08/nov/06Todd_Rundgren_Kicks_Off_Tour.shtml
(PR) Todd Rundgren's highly anticipated UK tour kicks off this Thursday in Manchester.Rundgren will be touring the UK to promote his critically acclaimed new album "Arena".
On Monday 3rd November, Rundgren attended this year's Classic Rock Magazine Awards in London, and presented the Tommy Vance Lifetime Achievement Award in honour of this year's recipient, the late Syd Barrett.

When Rundgren's UK tour kicks off this Thursday, the legendary rock innovator and record producer will be joined on stage by bassist Rachel Haden (daughter of the renowned jazz bassist Charlie Haden), former Tubes drummer Prairie Prince, Jesse Gress (guitar) and 'Kasim Sulton' (guitar, keyboards, vocals).

Rundgren will also perform music from his new album on The David Letterman Show on Monday 22nd December.

* Manchester Academy 2 - Thursday 6th November
* Edinburgh Picture House – Friday 7th November
* Norwich Waterfront - Saturday 22nd November
* London Kentish Town Forum - Sunday 23rd November

Todd Presenter at Londons Classic Music Awards

On Monday November 3rd, Todd Rundgren attended the Classic Rock Magazine Awards in London. Todd presented the Tommy Vance Inspiration Award to the late Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd. Todd presented the Award to Syd’s sister, Rosemary Green.
http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/page/classicrock?entry=classic_rock_roll_of_honour

HDNet tv broadcast of ARENA SHOW

News about HDNet

This just in—the HDNet special premieres Sunday Night December 14 at 8PM EST.
taken from lynn at todd's myspace page.

interview goldmine magazine

http://www.goldminemag.com/goldmine-radio/
click on link to listen to interview

Guardian.co.uk todds playlist >>>>>>>>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/03/popandrock

Todd Rundgren The polymathically peverse singer-songwriter and studio wizard reveals the tunes that opened up his third earAs told to Joe Stannard guardian.co.uk, Monday November 03 2008 16.14 GMT Article history
Todd Rundgren ... a wizard and a true star. Photograph: Mark Mawston

James Cotton Blues Band - The Sky Is Falling

James Cotton is a famous blues harp player. We had a lot of great players on the Taking Care of Business album, like Johnny Winter and the late Michael Bloomfield. It was an attempt to bring him a little bit into the ... I don't know, I guess he'd be an artist of the 50s and we were trying to bring him not necessarily into the 70s, but into the early 60s if we were lucky (laughs). We had a great opportunity to work with some people who really admired him, like Johnny, Michael and myself. There are some fond memories there.

Grand Funk Railroad - We're An American Band

The first and probably last time I'll ever see the music business operating like a well-oiled machine, a time when when you could expect a certain number of record sales and you could assume the record would chart no matter what it sounded like, because of the band's previous history. We were not so much trying to challenge commercial assumptions as artistic assumptions. Everyone had a very low opinion of the band, mostly because of terrible prior productions. Their manager produced their records and he wasn't very good at it (laughs). So we did We're An American Band and then a follow-up production called Shine It On and it was just amazing to me to see how everything fell into place once we got a decent record made. It didn't take long to make and actually, before we had completed the album itself, we had a record already in the Top 20.

Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell

This wasn't a record in which I saw any great commercial success. I looked at it as a Bruce Springsteen spoof, as he was the biggest thing happening then. The songs were all too long and too dramatic, but still depended on a rudimentary, roots-oriented view of rock. The changes were all simple with straightforward chord structures, which we made rock'n'roll-y in terms of bombast and arrangement tricks. Meat Loaf didn't even have a band when he first auditioned for me, it was just him, Jim Steinman on the piano and two backing singers. They acted out the whole record with nothing but a piano! None of us really expected that it would become the huge commercial success that it was.

Cheap Trick - You Say Jump

The singer, Robin Zander and the guitarist, Rick Nielsen, and maybe one of the other guys, had been in a band with members of the Nazz before they became Cheap Trick, so we had a pre-connection. I had always thought that they were one of the best performing bands ever, and that Rick was one of the great rock/pop songwriters, so I always thought it would be good for us to work together. And it turned out to be a pretty good fit except for the fact that the record label was still hung up on trying to find a follow-up to I Want You to Want Me. Every record had to have a version of I Want You to Want Me somehow (laughs). The original song was on a previous album, In Color, but it was the live version on their At Budokan album that was the giant radio hit.

XTC - Dying

Every other act that I'd worked with could be expected to go and play the record live, or already had played some parts of the record before we began to record it. But lead singer Andy Partridge had acute stage fright, which meant that the band never performed live and that their musical life revolved around their studio recordings. For me to become as involved as I did in the making of this record was almost like me barging my way into the band (laughs) and there was some reaction to that, especially from Andy, because he was used to being rewarded from the record-making process with no expectation that it would ever be played anywhere. Andy's style is cerebral, whereas Colin Moulding writes about things that seem like they are important and integral to him. Dying is a good example, it's an extremely simple song and the lyric is just deadpan, straightforward. It's not trying to be clever in any way - it's all about a feeling.

The Pursuit of Happiness - I'm An Adult Now

I did two records with this band in the early 90s, and this was one of the lost gems of music to me, the fact that this band could not seem to find their audience and succeed, where other bands with much less talent and character had. It was kind of a disappointment. They were both great records, both comparatively effortless. The first was called Love Junk, and I'm An Adult Now was something of a white rap (laughs), all about the responsibilities of growing up.

Todd Rundgren - Courage

My new album Arena was produced in a bizarre way. When I first got into my workspace and into the recording process, I booted up my Pro Tools system but no sound was coming out because I live in Hawaii and the air is so humid that it can eat away at a computer's insides. I got fed up and decided I had to make progress without messing around with this equipment. So I did a tiny bit of research about what there was out there and discovered that with just an audio interface, a laptop and a couple of software tools, I could make a record that sounded as if I had done it in a studio. Having the flexibility to just carry my laptop into the linen closet to do some vocals or into another room because this room isn't sound-isolated enough, gave me a whole new perspective. This new-found freedom to my working day is one of the reasons why I don't have the healthy production schedule I used to.

Todd Rundgren November tour dates:

Manchester Academy 2 (Nov 6)
Edinburgh Picture House (Nov 7)
Norwich Waterfront (Nov 22)
London Kentish Town Forum (Nov 23)

Tickets: 08700 603 777 www.seetickets.com.

Todd's new album Arena is available on Cooking Vinyl

cd review Huddersfield Examiner (UK)

click on image to see full sized

TODD TO SPEAK @ conference offering inspiration and solutions for bold executives....

Jack Myers Posted November 3, 2008 | 06:50 AM (EST) huffington post

Todd to speak @ A Conference Offering Inspiration and Solutions for Bold Executives

On December 11, an extraordinary group of hundreds of thought leaders, brimming with MacArthurs, Oscars, Emmys, Tonys, Kennedy honors, Nobels and more, will convene at the Monterey Conference Center for eg: the entertainment gathering (www.the-eg.com).

The conference, founded by TED impresario Richard Saul Wurman and now directed by Michael Hawley, is worlds away from typical industry conferences. "It's organized around one thing," says Hawley. "It is simply about bringing together the best of the best in our most creative enterprises." Hawley is well-calibrated to know. His technology career has included pioneering work in digital cinema at Lucasfilm, computer music at IRCAM in France, degrees from Yale and MIT, and leading research for more than a decade at the Media Lab where he became one of the world's most visible and active researchers and innovators. He also plays the piano (and won the Cliburn competition in 2002). This is the kind of event where speakers go to meet the audience, which includes presenters (and past "alums"), captains of industry. Folks like Matt Groening, Amy Tan, Jeff Bezos, John Markoff, Herbie Hancock, Steve Wozniak and HEROES creator Tim Kring all attend. The typical audience snapshot: roughly 40% President / "CxO" level execs; 30% are Founder/Director/Chairman/General Partner; 10% Professor/Dean/Educator. "And the rest? God knows. But everyone is exceptional," says Hawley. "Some are billionaires and some are rising stars. Some are national treasures and some are yet to be discovered."

As a long time TED attendee and previous eg participant, I can attest that both are exceptionally engaging, motivating, stirring, emotional, provocative, fun and relevant. TED has expanded in recent years, but eg in many ways recaptures TED's original freshness and intent. "Expansion is a cooling process. eg is still small, intimate, bubbly and it's in a cozy setting where you can probably meet everyone. In a conference, size does matter and eg strikes the right balance between critical mass and intimacy" Hawley commented in an interview with Jack Myers Media Business Report.

Hawley acknowledges the $4,000 fee may seem pricey, but in fact, it is considerably less than many other premium affairs. "We all hunger for inspiration and in business, you can't afford to be without a good idea. Life has to move forward: the future is for the bold. This is a conference of, and for, bold people. The people who come are among the most talented in their organizations. For them, attending eg is a serious commitment because they know it is a font of ideas and connections that will stick with them for years. You often forge new lifelong friendships. It's like panning for gold – new ideas and new people of this caliber simply do not surface from traditional markets and conferences."

The focus of eg is emphatically on the live event, advises Hawley. "The conference is limited to the capacity of the room. There is no overflow. There is no webcast. Seats are not refundable or transferable. You are either there, or you are not. To be part of a great event means breathing the same air, and more important, it means immersing yourself in moments that you will remember vividly for the rest of your lives. Last year, Jonathan Winters told his life story: the audience was laughing and crying at the same time. It was unforgettable. That kind of thing simply does not happen through a screen. A typical reaction from Jeff Hayzlett, the Chief Marketing Officer of Kodak: 'Damn, I wish my wife were here!' When was the last time you were part of an event that transcends industry and becomes something so humanly valuable, yet recharges all of your business batteries?"

Hawley adds "A lot of people have felt stuck this year --- wedged between global economic horrors and a paralyzing presidential campaign. One school of thought says that mass digital media swamps people with massive amounts of the same brain-constipating garbage, causing everyone to think the same stuff and talk about the same gossip --- it gums up the works, like a LaBrea tarpit of the mind. There's some truth to that, but at the same time, it also surfaces more solutions and good ideas than ever before. After a year of crippling, public handwringing, the world is simply starving for fresh ideas, great communicators, and inspiring people who slice through the nonsense." Without a doubt, eg brings the best and brightest thinkers, performers, inventors, executives and creators into an energetic, idea-driven environment.

Speakers at the December 11 to 13 event include: rock star Todd Rundgren, Oscar & Tony winner Marshall Brickman, MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte, New York Times columnists David Pogue and Mark Bittman, urban explorer Miru Kim, portrait photographer Dana Gluckstein, inventor Bran Ferren, game designer Scott Kim, MacArthur laureate dancer Jacques D'Amboise and many others. It is a staggeringly good lineup. Presentations are limited to 20-minutes each and must be original and never presented before.

For the current slate of speakers, visit www.the-eg.com/latest
and to register: visit www.the-eg.com

To communicate with or to be contacted by the executives and/or companies mentioned in this column, link to the JackMyers Connection Hotline.

John Legend // hello its me

John Legend is a favorite singer of mine and here is a great version of Todds hello its me

Concert announcement :Sundaymail.uk.co

http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/tv-showbiz-news/music-news/music-reviews/2008/11/02/guitar-hero-s-apollo-terror-78057-20862127/

Guitar hero's Apollo terror
Nov 2 2008 Billy Sloan

TODD RUNDGREN still breaks out in a cold sweat when he thinks about his first gig in Scotland.

The US music legend said: "It was in the 70s with my group Utopia at the late, great Glasgow Apollo.

"I remember how far it was from the stage to the floor and being petrified of falling into the pit.

"And I remember how nuts the fans were."

Todd makes a welcome return to headline the new Edinburgh Picture House next Friday.

It's part of a rare UK tour to showcase his latest album, Arena, his first release in four years.

The 60-year-old says he was inspired to play music by British guitar legends.

He told me: "My music heroes were The Yardbirds. They were a factory for great guitar players. First I wanted to be Jeff Beck, then I wanted to be Clapton."

In his 40-year career Todd has produced acts including Patti Smith, The New York Dolls and The Tubes.

He masterminded Meat Loaf's classic 1977 album Bat Out Of Hell which has sold 37 million copies.

In 2006, Todd led the reformed Cars on a US tour.

He said: "There aren't a lot of bands with the hits The Cars have which made fronting the band a lot easier."