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CucumberJones View Drop Down
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Points: 8 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Todd Rundgren's A Wizard, A True Star,London,UK
    Posted: May 23 2009 at 07:32
Prog rock innovator, guitar genius, interactive progenitor, consummate singer/songwriter and record producer Todd Rundgren, will perform his paradigm shifting 1973 album, A Wizard, a True Star (known to the cognoscenti as AWATS) in its entirety for the first time ever in Britain on Saturday February 6th 2010 at the London HMV Hammersmith Apollo.
 
This is Todd's only UK performance of the seminal album which is hailed as an influential masterpiece from Daft Punk to Hot Chip. Tickets for this historic concert will go on sale at 9am on Wednesday May 27th.
 
This rare British premiere will be Rundgren's first and only UK concert since last year's Arena album tour. In addition to his being a multi-talented musician and singer/songwriter and performer, Rundgren is also regarded as one of the best record producers of all time (XTC, Meat Loaf, Patti Smith Group, XTC, Grand Funk Railroad). His most recent critically acclaimed album production, 'Cause I Sez So, reunited him for the first time in 36 years with the legendary New York Dolls.
 
Although Rundgren's breakthrough 1972 album, Something/Anything? is considered by many to be his masterpiece, the psychedelic impact and bordering-on-disturbing innovation of the follow-up, AWATS,is arguably Rundgren's most experimental and influential album. Stand-out tracks include the International Feel, Rock & Roll Pussy, You Don't Have To Camp Around, Sometimes I Don't Know What To Feel, Zen Archer and Just Another Onionhead.

The album's closer, Just One Victory, has been included as an encore favorite in both Rundgren's and Utopia's live sets over the decades, but this will be the first time in Britain that he will perform the whole record live onstage, from start to finish. The first half of the concert will feature a selection of Rundgren's songs throughout his career, while the second half of the show will consist of the entirety of A Wizard, a True Star.

A Wizard, A True Star is hailed as one of the most influential and pioneering progressive rock album recordings of all time. Originally released in 1973 (the longest running album on vinyl, clocking in at nearly one hour of running time: 55:56), much of the album is an extended medley after the fashion of The Beatles' late recordings. The effect of the songs merging one into another was immediate, infectious and dazzling; the lyrical content was often at once both tongue in cheek and hallucinogenic.
 
Side One of the album includes a cover version of Never Never Land from the Broadway version of Peter Pan.  Side Two features a legendary medley of covers of doo-wop and pop soul hits, including I'm So Proud, Ooh Baby, Baby, La La Means I Love You and Cool Jerk. Arthur Wood illustrated the psychedelic cover painting that graced the original packaging.

First editions of the vinyl LP were die-cut and included a "band aid" poem written by the punk poet Pattie Smith, and a short bio about the album, as well as a postcard encouraging purchasers to send their name to be included on a poster in Rundgren's next album; the eponymous Todd.
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Points: 29625 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 23 2009 at 09:20
Hmm, is planning to revisit Utopia and Ra?
Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...
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Points: 2459 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 23 2009 at 13:34
I love the album, but I think they're taking the whole "revisit" thing too far... First Brian Wilson, then Lou Reed, then Van Morrison and now this... It's too much nostalgia fever!
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Points: 16164 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 23 2009 at 14:14
Hi,
 
I have had this album since day one ... and still ... it is as prog as prog will ever be, even if it is just a bunch of songs and it is fun, crazy and totally nutz ... but it is a fabulously enjoyable listen.
 
What made it hard to do in those days in concert was that the synthesizers all through it were a lot of work and Jean-Yves Labat had to come along, not to mention a ton or 2 or 3 of equipment ... nowadays this is all easy stuff and it can be easily sampled and played with ...
 
And don't forget ... Todd is also a computer programmer and he should have excellent knowledge of synthesizers and it's workings and he will probably know fairly well how to reproduce the sounds and get the results ... given today's technology and specially if he brings another keyboard player or two, this will be even better than it ever was ...
 
I'm gonna call him ... he needs me to design and direct the stage show to go with it ... and I want 50 dancers ... and lots of props! And wait until you see the Salvador Dali sketch! Or .. better yet ... we need to get  Gerald Scarfe to do all the cartooning here ... he would trip Dali inside out and make onions look even better ... ohhhh and can you imagine ... "can you think of anything but sex? ... on the cartoons?
 
There are times when I wish I was a rich fart ... this is a definite must see show.


Edited by moshkito - May 23 2009 at 14:16
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Points: 8 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 23 2009 at 18:37

A Wizard, A True Star is one of those rare albums that remains timeless.  The fact that Rundgren has decided to perform the album in its entirety after in 36 years is a remarkable thing.  Although it sounded fantastic back in the day, no doubt the new version of the music will sound spectacular.  It will be interesting to see who will make up Todd's band.

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Points: 7 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 24 2009 at 10:02

The first one of these Todd Rundgren "A Wizard, A True Star" (AWATS) gigs will be in Akron, OH on September 6, 2009 at the Akron Civic Theatre.  Over 75% of the tickets have already been sold in less than a month and a sell out is expected.  All the info is available at

www.AWATSlive.com

if any of you are interested in attending.  Todd will be performing a minimum of 30 minutes of other material from his vast catalog before embarking on the entire AWATS album.  So, there might be some of the Utopia prog rock music at this gig.

I'm biased because I'm promoting this Todd in Akron gig, but I love it that so many artists are doing these album shows.   The fans love it and it's not like they are limiting themselves to just doing album shows.  It's about performing great music the fans want to hear because their lives were influenced by it.
 
Prog on!
www.RundgrenRadio.com
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Points: 19236 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 24 2009 at 13:52
Originally posted by fuxi fuxi wrote:

I love the album, but I think they're taking the whole "revisit" thing too far... First Brian Wilson, then Lou Reed, then Van Morrison and now this... It's too much nostalgia fever!


It's all for the mighty Dollar,Pound,Euro.....etc....etc....etc.
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Points: 7 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 24 2009 at 13:58
Iggy is getting in on the action too ...
 
"Iggy Pop to reform with the Stooges and play Raw Power for first time in 36 years"
 
Not sure about the rest of you but I typically work for money and have no problems with musicians doing the same Clap.
www.RundgrenRadio.com
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Points: 8 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 25 2009 at 09:22
Prog rock innovator, guitar genius, interactive progenitor, consummate singer/songwriter and record producer Todd Rundgren, will perform his paradigm shifting 1973 album, A Wizard, a True Star (known to the cognoscenti as AWATS) in its entirety for the first time ever in Britain on Saturday 6th February 2010 at the London HMV Hammersmith Apollo.
 
This is Todd's only UK performance of the seminal album which is hailed as an influential masterpiece from artists ranging from Daft Punk to Hot Chip. Tickets for this historic concert will go on sale at 9am on Wednesday May 27th.
 
This rare British premiere will be Rundgren's first and only UK concert since last year's Arena album tour. In addition to his being a multi-talented musician and singer/songwriter and performer, Rundgren is also regarded as one of the best record producers of all time (XTC, Meat Loaf, Patti Smith Group, XTC, Grand Funk Railroad). His most recent critically acclaimed album production, 'Cause I Sez So, reunited him for the first time in 36 years with the legendary New York Dolls.
 
Although Rundgren's breakthrough 1972 album, Something/Anything? is considered by many to be his masterpiece, the psychedelic impact and bordering-on-disturbing innovation of the follow-up, AWATS,is arguably Rundgren's most experimental and influential album. Stand-out tracks include the International Feel, Rock & Roll Pussy, You Don't Have To Camp Around, Sometimes I Don't Know What To Feel, Zen Archer and Just Another Onionhead.

The album's closer, Just One Victory, has been included as an encore favorite in both Rundgren's and Utopia's live sets over the decades, but this will be the first time in Britain that he will perform the whole record live onstage, from start to finish. The first half of the concert will feature a selection of Rundgren's songs throughout his career, while the second half of the show will consist of the entirety of A Wizard, a True Star.

A Wizard, A True Star is hailed as one of the most influential and pioneering progressive rock album recordings of all time. Originally released in 1973 (the longest running album on vinyl, clocking in at nearly one hour of running time: 55:56), much of the album is an extended medley after the fashion of The Beatles' late recordings. The effect of the songs merging one into another was immediate, infectious and dazzling; the lyrical content was often at once both tongue in cheek and hallucinogenic.
 
Side One of the album includes a cover version of Never Never Land from the Broadway version of Peter Pan.  Side Two features a legendary medley of covers of doo-wop and pop soul hits, including I'm So Proud, Ooh Baby, Baby, La La Means I Love You and Cool Jerk. Arthur Wood illustrated the psychedelic cover painting that graced the original packaging.

First editions of the vinyl LP were die-cut and included a "band aid" poem written by the punk poet Pattie Smith, and a short bio about the album, as well as a postcard encouraging purchasers to send their name to be included on a poster in Rundgren's next album; the eponymous Todd.
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Points: 2459 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 25 2009 at 09:44
Originally posted by CucumberJones CucumberJones wrote:

A Wizard, A True Star is one of those rare albums that remains timeless.  The fact that Rundgren has decided to perform the album in its entirety after in 36 years is a remarkable thing.  Although it sounded fantastic back in the day, no doubt the new version of the music will sound spectacular.  It will be interesting to see who will make up Todd's band.



Are you one of Todd's concert promoters as well?
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dolfandoug View Drop Down
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Points: 7 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 25 2009 at 10:30
I guess I'd have to answer yes now that I've officially gone over to the dark side Big smile.  
 
I'm the host at RundgrenRadio.com and we did a couple of semi-private gigs with Todd but those weren't really at the same level as this AWATS gig and so we were really just a few fans putting together a party with a Todd concert. 
 
The AWATS gig is an official public Todd gig and I am one of the promoters along with my co-host.  So, technically we are promoters.  We are also avid Todd fans.  I'm guessing that makes it a unique situation in the industry.  Fans first, promoters second.  
 
By the way, I found you guys while doing a google search for "Todd Rundgren A Wizard A True Star live".  Your thread on this site shows up on the first page which is very impressive. 


Edited by dolfandoug - May 25 2009 at 10:36
www.RundgrenRadio.com
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