By Nick Krewen Special to the Star For what was potentially its second last performance ever in Canada, Genesis turned it on again for the Toronto crowd for the first of two shows at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday night. It was a bittersweet event. On one hand, the core trio of singer and ex-drummer Phil Collins, bassist Mike Rutherford and keyboardist Tony Banks – in their first local appearance since…
The 13-time Juno Award winner who has entertained more than 165 audiences at the venue says he would have been in the building for the reopening regardless of whether he was performing. By Nick Krewen Special to the Star Well, we almost had a Massey Hall reopening without a Gordon Lightfoot concert. Reached at home by phone on Monday, Lightfoot admits that even though his Nov 25-27 dates to welcome patrons…
By Nick Krewen Special to the Star Sometimes no plans are the best plans. According to British pop superstar Sir Elton John, his star-studded, upcoming 32nd studio album, The Lockdown Sessions, out October 22, wouldn’t have happened without an invitation from Charlie Puth, the L.A.-based singer and songwriter of the hits “Marvin Gaye,” “Attention” and “How Long,” to write in his studio. “I had no plans to make any music at all,…
March 22, 2021 By Nick Krewen Special To The Star A year and a bit after the Canadian live music industry suddenly ground to a halt with the advent of COVID-19, Toronto venue owners are ranging between guarded optimism and gnawing uncertainty as to whether their businesses are going to reopen before the end of the year. “It’s a tricky one,” says Shaun Bowring, proprietor of Toronto clubs The Garrison and…
By Nick Krewen Special to the Star For his new, brilliant gospel-flavoured soul album Heavy Sun, seven-time Grammy winner Daniel Lanois had to convince a Shepherd to leave his flock. Describing himself as a “now-and-again” guitarist for the Hallelujah Train band at the Shreveport, Louisiana-based Zion Baptist Church run by Brady Blade Sr., the Hull, Québec-born artist and award-winning producer of blockbuster albums by Peter Gabriel, U2 and Robbie Robertson says…
