Oh! You Pretty Things' David Bowie + Elvis Presley Birthday Bash, to be held at (Le) Poisson Rouge on Sunday January 15.
The show will feature the Oh! You Pretty Things orchestra along with Michael T and the Vanities performing larger-than-life arrangements of hit songs from their catalogue. Formika and Queen V will emcee the event, which will also feature performances from Lady Circus, Hickry Hawkins, Corey Tut, Rob Roth, Saphin and many more, along with burlesque by The Flying Fox and Brewster.
Eddie Clendening who originated the role of Elvis in the Broadway production of Million Dollar Quartet and now plays the role Off-Broadway at New World Stages will also participate in the show.
We brought you this story yesterday about the Mackenzie family who were robbed outside Graceland on Christmas Day. The family is in Memphis while their 13 year old son, Dustyn is being treated at St. Jude Children's Hospital for leukemia.
Shannon MacKenzie said her son gave Memphis police a description of the man, who has not been identified.
"He said after he took my purse, he turned around and started laughing about it," MacKenzie said. She said she was not sure which aspect of the incident was more painful.
Even more discouraging, MacKenzie said officials at Graceland have not been very helpful to her.
"They've been hateful," MacKenzie said. "They said they didn't want this kind of publicity and did not file an internal report like they were supposed to."
MacKenzie said Graceland officials provided video surveillance to authorities in Memphis, but said the footage was poor. She said after the incident, she and her family have sworn off visiting any other parts of the city.
"We just go to the hospital and back to where we are staying," MacKenzie said. She said authorities have kept her updated on the incident.
MacKenzie said when the thief stole her purse, he also took a cellphone, cash, prescription medication, Dustyn's St. Jude information, credit cards and a food stamp card. She said police have located and returned the phone to her, and the thief used some of the cards.
"They said they think he still has the food card," MacKenzie said. "If he uses that, we should be able to find him."
Calls and emails to the Memphis Police Department were not returned.
If it's true Graceland staff said this would be bad publicity, treating a St. Jude family this way is far worse publicity! And just so unElvis like!
Many of us often think we are safe by Graceland especially by the gates. It's Elvis' house and we are surrounded by fans, right? NO! We are surrounded by criminals in a high crime area. Be alert! It was not long ago that a family was car jacked at the gates. So while it is understandable, Graceland would not want to advertise the crime rate in the area, it's not exactly good for business. They still have a responsibility to make the area safe. They are encouraging people to travel from all over the world to patronize their business and therefore, they owe it to the public to make it safe. Graceland has yet to comment so we can not put them on blast yet. Let's just hope that this latest crime is an eye opener. Let's hope a murder or violent crime does not have to occur before something is done. God forbid.
Just at the end of the Graceland wall is a very dark small alley where I have personally witnessed a night walker or two crawl out of, that needs to be addressed. As well as more cameras (and better equipment considering this footage was such bad quality), more lighting, signs posted to not leave cars unlocked, unattended. And instead of guards sitting in the guard shack all night, they should come out and greet people who drive up to the gate at night. Their presence alone would deter criminals from hanging around the gates and keep visitors safe.
If you are traveling to Memphis for the birthday celebration, be alert and very aware of your surroundings at all times!
Imelda and Bono tear it up as audience dances recession away
Sunday December 18 2011
Looking like an Old Testament preacher on a festive jolly, Guggi was sitting next to me on Friday night at The 02 in Dublin. The artist smiled quixotically at me when I told him what was about to happen next was the worst-kept secret in Ireland.
Then, seconds later, Guggi's best friend, a messianic fella by the name of Bono, joined headliner Imelda May and her band onstage for an audacious version of Desire by his band U2 (the rumour that Larry Mullen was to play drums proved unfounded).
The 12,000 crowd went mental. Harry Crosbie, who owns the venue, had told me earlier in the bar that tonight "we would be witnessing a magical piece of rock 'n' roll history -- it was 23 years ago that U2 filmed music for the movie Desire in this building".
When Bono and Imelda did another duet together -- a suitably festive and out-of-kilter version of Phil Spector's Christmas: Baby Please Come Home -- everyone, including Guggi beside me and doubtless Harry elsewhere, was up on their feet dancing the recession away.
But this was Imelda May's night. It is some achievement that the beautiful belle from the Liberties in Dublin sold out Friday and again last night at the country's biggest venue. Wearing a tight-fitting silver dress that wouldn't have looked out of place on Marilyn Monroe, she held the audience in thrall for a good two hours with her sassy blend of retro cool, surf guitars and rockabilly with a razor's edge.
The music throughout, courtesy of Imelda's bewitching voice, was evocative of what you'd hear in a David Lynch film. I could see why Rolling Stone described her as exuding "the dangerous allure of a Fifties pulp pin-up, the kind with race-car red lips and a dagger in her boot".
A bluesy rendition of Spoonful by the Chicago bluesman Hubert Sumlin (who only died on December 4) was followed by Psycho, Tear It Up and Big Bad Handsome Man, with her own big bad handsome man, husband Darrel Higham, on guitar beside her.
"The music he plays, the way he moves me and sways," she sang. "Rocks me to the core/When he sings in my ear/He makes me shiver and leer/Leaves me wanting more and more."
It was the sentiment of the audience watching her perform, too. She has bona fide star quality; the authenticity of her music emphasises that star quality.
Ireland's First Lady of Rockabilly isn't anything you could remotely call manufactured. She isn't pretending to be Wanda Jackson or Patsy Cline or Billie Holiday. She only knows how to be one thing and that's herself.
She charms the crowd almost as much with her raw Dublin girl lingo as she does with her songs that have charmed everyone from Jools Holland to Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck to Van Morrison.
Imelda will be making steps (with a dagger in her boot or not) to the Forum in Waterford tomorrow, the INEC in Killarney on Thursday and the Big Top in Limerick on Friday.
Impossibly hip Irish band The Last Tycoon are the (very) special guests on the last two shows.
"We're delighted to be asked to open for Imelda again," Tycoons frontman Stephen Fanning told me -- he and his band flew specially from their base in Berlin for the gigs.
"We played with her in Berlin last May and after seeing us, she invited us on the rest of her German tour, which was amazing. She's been really supportive of us and her fans were great to us as well," Stephen said, before adding that the hotly tipped group have their own headline show in the Workman's Club in Dublin on December 28 with a new album on the way in 2012.
