Weekend pictures

Thanks to Dwight McCann you can see what Steely Dan looked like on stage at the Chumash Casino on January 19. Great pics! Just click here.

It arrived today!

And we're not talking about the monthly paycheck, but rather the latest official Steely Dan Newsletter!

It lists two more shows that have been added to the Heavy Rollers 2007 tour:

May 06 The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, New Orleans, LA
May 12 Hard Rock Live, Orlando, FL

The newsletter also answers the question Will There Be More?

"Yes, more dates will be added!

However ----
there will be no single posting
of a complete schedule this time.
Instead, dates will be announced
as we go along.

Given this rolling announcement schedule,
we will *not* send a newsletter every time
a new date is added.

This means interested fans should monitor steelydan.com
for the very latest on confirmed shows,
on-sale dates, and buy-ticket links."

Not a word about the rumoured European dates in July/summer. And since last years talk about Donald Fagen solo shows in Germany and Italy proved to be just rumours we at Radio Dupree have decided to disregard any rumours, thoughts and hopes of European Steely Dan shows in 2007 until the actual dates are posted over at steelydan.com!

Steely Dan rocks zombies?

Following the Steely Dan corporate show a funny comment over at donaldfagen.com. It starts with:

1/17/07 From The National Occult Newsletter:
ZOMBIES IN VEGAS
January 17:
Several hundred bonafide zombies attended a Steely Dan concert last night in a ballroom at the Four Seasons hotel on the Las Vegas strip. The venue had been booked to hold a dinner and a concert as part of KingWorld Productions' annual Confab. There seems to be some controversy as to whether the zombies were masquerading as KingWorld executives or if authentic KingWorld executives were themselves zombies.

Read the full account over at http://www.donaldfagen.com/lexisays.php

Donald plays a solo gig and Steely Dan surprises

With Steely Dan's small venue Heavy Rollers 2007 tour up to three announced shows so far, Donald Fagen has decided to play two solo dates. On February 2-3 he'll be at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock.

Sharing the bill with Fagen will be the roots-rock-gospel ensemble Ollabelle and Phoebe Snow.
One of Ollabelle's members is Amy Helm daughter of Fagen's wife Libby.

Ollabelle will open the show, then serve as the backing band for Fagen and Snow. Fagen will be performing Steely Dan songs.

Steely Dan will do a first for the group; play a corporate gig. It's the annual National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE)convention who'll cough up the dough to get an exclusive show for the convention participants. The convention takes place in Las Vegas January 15 - 18.

Saxophonist Michael Brecker dies

Saxophonist Michael Brecker died of leukemia Saturday. He was 57.

Brecker recorded and performed with numerous jazz and pop music artists, including Frank Zappa, Aerosmith, James Brown, Lou Reed, Funkadelic, John Lennon, Elton John, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, James Taylor, Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell. He played on two Steely Dan albums; Katy Lied and Gaucho as well as Donald Fagen's The Nightfly.

Michael and his brother Randy started the successful 70's jazz-rock fusion group the Brecker Brothers.

His solo career began in 1987 with his latest album Wide Angels released in 2004.
Apparently Brecker managed to record a final album, as yet untitled, that was completed just two weeks ago.

Arnold Layne competition

Record your own version of the Pink Floyd classic Arnold Layne and get a day at Abbey Road studios!
That's the thing being offered through Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour's website.
Radio Dupree has picked two favourites among the uploaded stuff:

* Philemon A - Makes a funky and stompy interpretation but still quite close to the original version.
Vote for this version by clicking 1 to 5 stars below the RANK IT! text, then "SUBMIT" and enter an email address. You can only vote once per computer.

* The Tonic - The new chord changes in the verse adds new energy to the composition.

We urge you to visit http://www.davidgilmour.com/arnoldlayne/
Listen, pick your own favourite and then register to vote.
But hurry. The competition closes Monday 22nd of January.

Ooops! Looks like somebody forgot to renew elonjohn.com!

Today anyone trying to access the official homepage of Elton John just found the following message:
"eltonjohn.com expired on 01/02/2007 and is pending renewal or deletion."

The site was there yesterday and had just recently announced that a new look was coming. We're pretty sure this is not what they had in mind.

Eltonjohn.com has been run in a ... let's say "lacklustre" way since it started, but had in the past couple of months showed signs of finally coming alive and delivering what you can expect from the official site for one of the most poular and successful artists of the past 40 years.

It'll be interesting to see how long it will take for the site to come back online. Even if they're switching to another host it's remarkable to find a major recording artists site go offline like this.

30 years ago this year... The Police to reform?

It's 30 years since drummer Stewart Copeland founded The Police, and rumours are getting stronger that the successful three man band will be back together this year to celebrate the occasion with a few gigs ... maybe even enough to call it a tour.

Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers have been eager to reunite the band, but singer Sting has - so far - been against.
Since the breakup in 1986 they've played together two times; at Sting's wedding in 1992 and the band's 2003 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
We'll see what happens... And while we wait: