Sly Stone, new album era (Summer 2010)

[busyboy]

Sly Stone Schedules Rare Live Performance

Sly Stone-- he of the musical innovation, the recent catalog reissuing, and the one-time blonde mohawk-- doesn't get out much. If you were so inclined, you could probably count his live performances from the past 20 years on two hands with fingers to spare.

So it's a treat that Mr. Stone will add one more performance to that short list with a July 28 appearance at the Opera House in Bournemouth, England.

In addition to Stone himself, the show will also feature original members of the Family Stone in his band. It will be their first performance in the UK in more than two decades. Hardly a reunion, but we'll take what we can get.

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For a bit of musical history...

pulsemusic.proboards48.com/index.cgi?board=opinion&action=display&thread=1177493274

[busyboy]

Sly Stone is to join the Family Stone for their first European tour in over twenty years

The funk group are to play a one-off date in the UK - at the unlikely venue of The Opera House in Bournemouth on England's South Coast.

The show on July 28 will be Sly's first show with the family in Britain since 1987.

The reclusive musical genius has made very few appearances in the last few years, though he did join the group for a very short performance at last year's Grammy Awards.

Sly Stone joins original family members, trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, and sister Vet Stone on the nine-date European tour.

The full line-up reported by the Guardian newspaper includes: Lisa Stone, Skyler Jett, Anthony Yates, Joseph Yates, Stefon Dubose, Mike Rinta, Johnnie Bamont, Tony Stead, Alfia Fisher and Funn Robertson.

See Sly at the following events and shows this July:

Umbria Jazz - Umbria, Perugia, Italy (12)
Montreux Jazz Festival - Montreux, Switzerland (13)
Blue Note Festival - Gent, Belgium (14)
North Sea Jazz Festival - Rotterdam, Holland (15)
Nice Jazz - Nice, France (19)
Pori Jazz festival - Pori, Finland (20)
Olympia Hall - Paris, France (23)
Jazzaldia - San Sebastian, Spain (27)
Opera House, Bournemouth Opera House (28)

Tickets for all venues are on sale now.

[joker]

Sly's the man, and it's cool that he's coming out of hibernation.... I hope he's better off than he was a couple years ago during that Grammy tribute mess.

[busyboy]

He's alive! And kicking enough to provide material for a 7-page feature on Vanity Fair...

Sly Stone's Higher Power

[busyboy]

Sly live in Amsterdam last Sunday.

[busyboy]

Sly And The Family Stone play first UK show in 20 years
The funk legends perform at London's Lovebox weekender

Funk legend Sly Stone made his first appearance on a British stage in over 20 years last night (July 21).

With a new version of his band, The Family Stone, the star headlined the first night of a rain-hit Lovebox Festival in Victoria Park, east London.

The frontman did not initially appear as the band - fronted by his sister Vet - performed hits such as set opener 'Dance To The Music' and 'Everyday People'.

When Stone did appear, he sang lead vocals on 'If You Want Me To Stay' and 'Sing A Simple Song' before telling the crowd he "needed a piss".

Stone did return though, leading the band through euphoric versions of 'I Wanna Take You Higher' and 'Stand!'.

[busyboy]

Sly and the Family Stone Line Up U.S. Dates

If you want Sly and the Family Stone to stay, well, it ain't gonna happen today. Come April 25, though, the funk-soul icons will embark on a brief and all-too-rare U.S. tour that will find them singing their not-so-simple songs in California twice and Minneapolis and Chicago once apiece.

In the case of the reluctant traveler Mr. Stone, the briefness of said plans ain't a complaint, just an observation: Given all the piss-poor "reunions" going down at every state fair in the country this and every summer, it's always nice to see a crew of un-boring living legends like Sly and company getting a little more time in the limelight.

Sly and the Family Stone:

04-25 Anaheim, CA - House of Blues
04-26 Los Angeles, CA - House of Blues Sunset Strip
05-02 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
05-03 Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre

www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/49673-sly-and-the-family-stone-line-up-us-dates

[busyboy]

Runnin' Away
Behind the scenes at the Sly Stone show

by Gabe Meline

The insane circumstances surrounding Sly Stone's bizarre appearance in Santa Rosa last Friday, Oct. 18, were told to me by several people involved with the show. Crazy doesn't begin to describe it. Here's how it went down.

The morning of the show, Sly Stone is in Los Angeles. He fires his business manager. Sly tells the promoter that he's his own boss now, that he's the one who's going to get paid at the show and that he needs $3,000 wired to the bank account of an Iranian BMW saleswoman before he'll even get on the plane to San Francisco.

And about that plane: it was supposed to arrive from Los Angeles at 11:30am. No Sly. The limo waits at the airport. Sly's next flight becomes 1:30pm, then 2:30pm, 3:30pm and 5:30pm. No one can get a hold of him at all. The promoter drives to the airport in the slim hope that Sly might walk through one of the gates.

Finally, at 7:30pm, with his young Japanese girlfriend in tow, the 65-year-old Sly shows up at the airport. He's an hour and a half away from the show—which starts in a half hour—and he demands to go to the hotel. The young girlfriend finally talks him out of it, and he agrees to go to the show, but he's still talking about getting paid.

He sleeps all the way to Santa Rosa.

Sly doesn't hit the stage at the Wells Fargo Center until 10:30pm, during the fifth song of the set. He walks off the stage 25 minutes later, in the middle of "I Wanna Take You Higher," telling the crowd, "I gotta go take a piss. I'll be right back."

But Sly never comes back. The band continues on without him, killing time for 30 minutes. During the last song, a man appears on the stage, whispering into band members' ears.

Meanwhile, backstage, Sly is demanding to be paid. The show is still going on, and the promoters are telling his handlers to get him back out to perform more. But his handlers know the drill. It's been this way for years. What can they do?

Before the show is over, Sly is out in the parking lot, still in his white suit, trying to get into the promoter's car. All the doors are plainly locked, but he keeps trying. Finally, a woman drives by, picks him and his Japanese girlfriend up, and they whiz away. Word of his departure gets inside.

It's not too hard to figure out what the man on the stage was whispering to the band. How about: Sly's making a getaway? How about: Sly's driving off right now? How about: You'd better chase after him if you want to get paid?

And after quickly finishing the song and exiting the stage, that's exactly what they do.

The band members pile in their cars and find Sly precisely where they thought he'd be: the Fountaingrove Hilton. Except he's not in his room. All the rooms are reserved under the business manager's name, whom Sly fired that morning. So Sly's there, fuming about not being able to get into his room, when the rest of his band suddenly pull up.

"Get me out of here," he's heard telling his driver, and they peel out.

It is not an uncommon sight to see cars racing down Mendocino Avenue on a Friday night. But it's a different story altogether when the lead car giving chase contains an absolute funk music legend, pursued by five more cars driven by band members, some of whom have played with him for 40 years and are actual, literal family members. Six cars race down the street, weaving in and out of lanes.

Finally, past midnight, Sly's car is cornered at a gas station. A long stand-off ensues between him and the band while the young Japanese girl cries hysterically in the car. A gas station on Mendocino Avenue in Santa Rosa. That's where it all falls apart.

At press time, no one can get a hold of Sly Stone—not his management, not his band mates, not his family. The last anyone sees of him, he's headed south on Highway 101. Everyone's got a pretty good idea how he's spending the money, but no one knows where he is. And no one ever wants to play with him again.

www.bohemian.com/bohemian/10.22.08/music-slystone-0843.html

[Active Aggressive]

This should be viewed as a public service announcement against drugs.

[busyboy]

On June 30, a 40th-anniversay edition of Stand! will be released.

[busyboy]

Apr 22, 2009 12:53:18 GMT -5 @busyboy said:

On June 30, a 40th-anniversay edition of Stand! will be released.

It has the original 1969 album on the first disc:

01. Stand!
02. Don't Call Me n***er, Whitey
03. I Want To Take You Higher
04. Somebody's Watching You
05. Sing A Simple Song
06. Everyday People
07. Sex Machine
08. You Can Make It If You Try

And their previously unreleased set at Woodstock on August 17, 1969, on disc two:

01. M'Lady
02. Sing A Simple Song
03. You Can Make It If You Try
04. Everyday People
05. Dance To The Music
06. MEDLEY: Music Lover / Higher
07. I Want To Take You Higher
08. Love City
09. Stand!

Also on June 30, Playlist: The Very Best of Sly & the Family Stone will be released:



01. Family Affair
02. Stand!
03. Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)
04. Hot Fun In The Summertime
05. Sing A Simple Song
06. Dance To The Music
07. Everybody Is A Star
08. Everyday People
09. (You Caught Me) Smilin'
10. I Want To Take You Higher
11. M'Lady
12. If You Want Me To Stay
13. You Can Make It If You Try
14. I Get High On You

[busyboy]

From Billboard... :o

R&B/funk legend Sly Stone has signed with Los Angeles-based Cleopatra Records. The former Sly & the Family Stone frontman is recording an album for release in early summer 2010, featuring new original material and re-recorded versions of his greatest hits. Cleopatra (cleopatrarecords.com), distributed in the U.S. and Canada by E1 Entertainment, is headed by founder/CEO Brian Perera.

[Carlitoz]

Wow. Now THAT'S a surprise.
I wonder if he'll do promotion at all.