"Three nighter" in Ontario!

Just announced on Ticketmaster:

The Avalon Ballroom Theater at Niagara Falls View Casino, Niagara Falls, ON

January 29, 30 & 31

Tickets on sale Friday, October 10


Photo by Susan Fortune

November shows announced

River Spirit Casino
Tulsa, OK
November 7, 2014
Full band show

Golden Nugget
Atlantic City, NJ
November 29, 2014
Full band show


Photo by Anissa Sherman

Macomb, IL concert review

Review & photo by B. Minett

Saturday, September 13, 2014

WIU – Q-Lot

Macomb, IL

Set List:

Living in Oz

I’ve Done Everything for You

I Get Excited

Our Ship’s Sinking

Affair of the Heart

Roar (Katy Perry cover)

Happy Birthday (asked audience sing to him)

I Hate Myself

 

Bop medley (Bop ‘Til You Drop/ Celebrate Youth/ Calling All Girls/ Jessie’s Girl snippet/ Don’t Walk Away/ State of the Heart/ What Kind of Fool Am I) 

 

Love is Alright Tonight

Surf guitar music

Wild Thing (The Troggs cover)

Don’t Talk to Strangers

Love Somebody

Jessie’s Girl  

Concert Notes:

* This FREE concert was part of Family Day at Western Illinois University (WIU). The stage was set up outside in the tailgating parking lot before the college football game (cars and tailgaters were set in the back of the lot). Many fans were waiting hours before the concert start time, to secure their place by the stage (though security wouldn’t let anyone stand right up at the stage, but wanted an emergency aisle left open between the stage and the audience). Those  who were there earlier, were able to watch the sound check, minus Rick. During sound check, George N said this was probably the earliest time (1:30-2:30PM) they had played a show, but Matty said maybe it was the earliest George had, but Matty remembered a concert years ago at 7:30AM. By the time the concert started at 1:30PM, the parking lot section set aside for the concert was full of people, many wearing WIU’s school colors, purple (which Rick noted during ‘Jessie’s Girl’ after the ‘where can I find a woman like that’ line, by saying, “I’m pretty sure she’s wearing purple!”).  

* The weather was perfect for an outdoor concert, with sunny, blue skies and not-too-warm temperatures. The past few days before had been very gray, rainy, and unseasonably cold in IL, so it was nice to have a beautiful fall day for the concert.   

* The set list was shorter than usual, with no encore, as Rick was only scheduled to play for one hour.  Because this was an outdoor concert during the daytime, there were no screens and videos to accompany the songs. Nonetheless, Rick gave a very high-energy performance, so it didn’t seem as if anything was missing without the videos. After the concert, I spoke with a WIU college student, who raved how much he enjoyed the show. He said he attends to a lot of concerts, and this was one of the best performance-wise he has ever seen – something he wasn’t expecting. He said he’d even PAY to see Rick again! 

* As much as I enjoy hearing Rick perform the cover songs, with a shortened set list, I wish he had left them out and played a few more of his own songs. When he started playing ‘Roar’, I heard some fans behind me trying to figure out what song it was, because although they knew Rick’s music, they hadn’t seen him in concert in a while, and didn’t know Katy Perry’s song was a part of his current set list (and he didn’t really introduce it except to quickly say he liked a girl anthem as much as the next guy). 

* Rick asked the audience to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him, because he said he likes to celebrate his birthday the month before and after his actual birthday. He also commented how birthdays seem to arrive faster now. After asking the audience if they knew how old he is – fans up front yelling out the correct age - he said he still feels 17.  

* Because the stage was set very high, with no stairs at the front of the stage, Rick wasn’t able to go out into the audience for ‘Don’t Talk to Strangers’, but instead stood at the edge of the stage and motioned for people to come forward; he said he wasn’t calling to anyone in particular, just anyone who was brave enough to step forward to sing. He only had one person from each side of the stage sing, and then a 6-year-old girl was boosted onto stage to dance and sing with Rick. There didn’t seem to be many young children in the audience, which was surprising since this concert was part of WIU’s Family Day. 

* As Rick was leaving the stage at the end of the concert, he stopped at the far left side of the stage to sign autographs on things people were holding out to him. Since he didn’t play ‘Human Touch’, wasn’t able to go out into the audience and wasn’t coming back for an encore, it would have been nice if he had walked along the entire length of the stage for high-fives and autographs. I’ve been to concerts where other performers will do this, walk the length of the stage for handshakes, autographs, and even selfies, at the end of the show. People on the right-side of the stage started holding up things for Rick to sign, too, and were disappointed that he didn’t head back that way before walking off the stage.  

* Who was there: Rick on lead guitar and vocals, George B on guitar, George N on bass, Jorge P on drums,  Paul on keyboards and guitar, Matty (sound guy), and guitar tech, Ruben – so nice to see him back doing what he loves! And all of Rick’s guitars were tuned right, with no obvious guitar issues. 

* What he wore: Rick came out in a black leather jacket, red tee, black jeans, black high-top converse sneakers, and sunglasses. He took the sunglasses off after the first song, and he took the jacket off after the first three songs.

 

* Rick had a full beard (peppered with gray), which he said he had grown for his upcoming movie role. He joked that he would be in the movie with an “up-and-coming actress”, saying “I don’t know if you heard of her? Meryl Streep? I hear she’s gonna be pretty big.” He also was constantly having to hike his pants up, and said that was because they wanted him to “get skinnier” for the movie role and he forgot to bring his belt.

Albany, NY show added

A new tour date has been added to Rick's schedule:

The Egg
Albany, NY

November 21, 2014
Stripped Down show

Australian tour cancelled

Cameron Adams National music writer

From: News Corp Australia Network          

       

RICK Springfield has cancelled his first Australian tour to film a movie with Meryl Streep instead. 
   

The Jessie’s Girl musician and actor was due to start the tour in October. Springfield has some of the most patient fans in Australia; they have waited 30 years to see the Sydney-born musician tour here.

Australian promoter Aldo Lennard has stated the axing was not due to low ticket sales.
“I don’t use excuses like ‘scheduling conflicts’ or ‘routing difficulties’,” Lennard said.
“The shows had actually sold really well, most venues were half full if not almost sold out. We’ve had female fans crying on the phone today.

“We were about to do a second burst of promotion for the tour when we got wind this movie role was coming up. We didn’t want to cancel the tour until Rick signed the contract, which he did today. He’s filming in New York at the exact same time as he was meant to be touring in Australia. I’m positive if he hadn’t got this role he would have toured here. He was born in Australia, his mum still lives in Melbourne, he was really keen to get back here and tour the country for the first time.”

  

"Ricki and the Flash"

Rick Springfield to Rock Out With Meryl Streep in 'Ricki and the Flash'

The Hollywood Reporter - Aug‎ ‎06‎, ‎2014  

By Rebecca Ford and Borys Kit

 

The Jessie’s Girl singer will play one of Streep’s bandmates in the TriStar Productions film.

 

Meryl Steep will have a musician with more than four decades of experience appearing by her side in her upcoming film, Ricki and the Flash.

  

Rick Springfield, the musician behind hits like “Jessie’s Girl,” “Don’t Talk to Strangers” and “Affair of the Heart,” has been cast in Tom Rothman's TriStar Productions film, which is in pre-production and will begin shooting in October.

 

Written by Diablo Cody and to be directed by Jonathan Demme, Ricki and the Flash centers on a rock n’ roll loving woman (Streep) who chased her musical dreams at the price of her family, but is given one last chance to, perhaps, make things right.

Springfield will play a band member who has a crush on Ricki (Streep), and he’ll be showing off his skills on the guitar in the project.

 

Marc Platt and Mason Novick are producing the film. TriStar, which has several high-profile projects in the works including Jodie Foster's Money Monster starring George Clooney and The Lady in the Van starring Maggie Smith, has slated the film for release on June 26, 2015.

 

 

Rock for Ruben Benefit Concert

Rick will be performing at a benefit concert to raise funds for his guitar tech, Ruben Velasco who is battling cancer. 

When: Wednesday, August 20 - 8 pm
Where: House of Blues Sunset Strip

For more information visit Rick's website:
Rock for Ruben Benefit Concert