|
|
|
JENNIFER JASON LEIGH
PAT DINIZIO PERSONAL APPEARANCES
A DATE WITH THE SMITHEREENS, KENNY'S CASTAWAYS, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK (PAT KENNY MEMORIAL CONCERT/BENEFIT)
JUNE 11
LIVING ROOM CONCERT, WILKES-BARRE, PA
JUNE 12
THE SMITHEREENS, MORRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY, "SHARK BAR",
JUNE 13
THE SMITHEREENS AT "EVOLUTION", WILLIAMSVILLE, NEW YORK
JUNE 14
PAT DINIZIO AT "THE LEARNING ANNEX" NEW YORK CITY
JUNE 26
THE SMITHEREENS IN CONCERT, 9:30 CLUB, WASHINGTON, D.C.
JUNE 27
THE SMITHEREENS "FORWARD FEST" BENEFIT CONCERT, N.J.
JUNE 28
THE SMITHEREENS, HOBART, INDIANA
JULY 2
THE SMITHEREENS, AKRON, OHIO
JULY 3
THE SMITHEREENS, DAYTON, OHIO
JULY 4
PAT DINIZIO LIVING ROOM CONCERT, CARY, ILLINOIS
JULY 5
THE SMITHEREENS IN CONCERT, DTE ENERGY THEATRE
CLARKSTON, MI
JULY 9
PAT DINIZIO IN CONCERT, CABARET METRO, 3730 N. CLARK,
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
KATIE McCLOSKEY MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND BENEFIT CONCERT
JULY 16
LIVING ROOM CONCERT, NORTHFIELD, ILLINOIS
JULY 18
THE SMITHEREENS IN CONCERT, BROOKFIELD, ILLINOIS, FESTIVAL
JULY 19
PAT DINIZIO IN CONCERT, DOWNERS GROVE, ILLINOIS
MICHAEL CASEY BENEFIT CONCERT
JULY 20
PAT DINIZIO & STARBELLY, AIRMONT, NEW YORK
AUGUST 9
PAT DINIZIO LIVING ROOM CONCERT, FALLS CHURCH, VA
SEPTEMBER 12
PAT DINIZIO LIVING ROOM CONCERT, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
SEPTEMBER 20 & 21
THE SMITHEREENS IN CONCERT, THE STATE THEATRE,
FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA
OCTOBER 11
THE SMITHEREENS IN CONCERT, at The Potawatomi Casino in Milwaukee, WI
OCTOBER 16
THE SMITHEREENS, THOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA,
THOUSAND OAKS CIVIC CENTER W/BERLIN & THE MOTELS
OCTOBER 18
MARSHALL CRENSHAW/PAT DINIZIO SOLO ACOUSTIC
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND AT "TATTOO"
NOVEMBER 8
|
THE UPCOMING NEW TWO-CD SET "THIS IS PAT DINIZIO"
INTRODUCING...
PAT DINIZIO
Born 47-years-ago in the innocent town of Scotch Plains, New Jersey, Pat is the founder, lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the singing group "The Smithereens." He attended Seton Hall University, New York University and the Art Students League in New York City. To the best of our knowledge he had a happy childhood.
Over the years Pat DiNizio's name has become a household word - at least in those households that lay claim to a sense of good taste. His work, almost in its entirety, has appeared with "The Smithereens" for the last twenty-three years and much of it is available for posterity in the best-selling collections:
Especially For You, Green Thoughts, Smithereens Eleven, Blow-Up, A Date With The Smithereens, Blown To Smithereens, Attack Of The Smithereens, Songs And Sounds, and God Save The Smithereens.
In addition to his vocal and instrumental talents, Pat is quite adept at composing. Pat's interest in music began at the age of 8, when he enthusiastically took up the guitar - an instrument that proved to be a natural for him. At 15, Pat began singing and accompanying himself on guitar. He played at several clubs around the Northeast, then went to New York City, where he was signed to a recording contract.
He works mostly in New York City in what looks like an unsuccessful private eye's office. DiNizio daydreams almost constantly, and, in his own view, is generally quite lazy.
My name is PAT DINIZIO.
For the past 22 years, I have been the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter for the American rock n' roll band known as THE SMITHEREENS.
We have toured non-stop since the inception of the band, and have recorded and released many albums throughout the course of our career; several certified Gold and Platinum, among them, "ESPECIALLY FOR YOU,", "GREEN THOUGHTS", "SMITHEREENS ELEVEN", "BLOW-UP", "A DATE WITH THE SMITHEREENS", "BLOWN TO SMITHEREENS", "ATTACK OF THE SMITHEREENS", AND "GOD SAVE THE SMITHEREENS"; albums that spawned Top 40 radio hits such as "A GIRL LIKE YOU", "TOO MUCH PASSION", "BLOOD AND ROSES", "ONLY A MEMORY" and "BEHIND THE WALL OF SLEEP"...
In 1997, I released a solo record entitled "PAT DINIZIO-SONGS AND SOUNDS", and toured extensively throughout the United States in support of that disc.
I am also Spokesperson and Chairman of the Advisory Board for B.E.A.M. (Benefitting Emerging Artists in Music), awarding over $100,000 a year in grant monies to Unsigned Musicians and Emerging Artists on behalf of Jim Beam Brands.
This is my web site, and this is where I will post information that may be of interest to Smithereens friends and supporters, and those interested in my various projects and endeavors.
Welcome!
Please explore this website at your leisure, and check in with me from time to time.
Thanks for stopping by...
|
Hello again, everybody!
We are 95% finished with principal photography on my debut independent film "KING LEISURE -S.O.B." (STRAIGHT OUTTA THE 'BURBS) and are scheduled to begin editing on the film within two weeks time. As soon as the film is edited and the sound mixing is completed, I will immerse myself once more into the world of songwriting and record production as we begin work on my new solo CD, "THIS IS PAT DINIZIO"...
The "Patrons & Artists Together" program is beginning to bear fruit - Thanks to the funding provided by the good folks who have come onboard in support of this new model, I am now able to do charitable and fundraising events for good causes and individuals in need, at absolutely no cost to the organizers of the events. This is a good thing, and you can see some of the events I'll be performing at in the near future by checking out my upcoming gigs list on this web page. Thanks, everyone!
THE SMITHEREENS will be performing a memorial benefit concert at our original NYC stomping grounds, KENNY'S CASTAWAYS (we did our first NYC concert there and Pat Kenny & Co. nurtured and helped develop the band and our career for a solid five years before we got a record deal)to honor the life and memory of our dear, departed friend and mentor, Pat Kenny. This will probably be the very last time The Smithereens perform at this historic venue, so if you want to see us in the place where it all began, stop by Kenny's (Bleecker and Thompson, NYC) this Wednesday, June 11th - The show will be long and varied, and probably very emotional as well, and begins promptly at 8:00 P.M. See you there-
Hey- we are having a ton of fun shooting my first low-budget indie feature film "KING LEISURE, S.O.B." (Straight Outta the 'Burbs) right here in New Jersey and in nearby NYC. If you're interested, please go to www.kingleisuremovie.com for more details! Making a movie is a real challenge, but a real pleasure as well, and a lot different than making a record. I have cast only non-actors in this comedic film and we have been shooting with these really cool Panasonic DV video cams that are the closest thing to film you've ever seen; We're wrapping principal photography this Wednesday, and I am delighted with most of the scenes we've shot. I think you'll like the movie, and I'll keep you posted with more details soon- This is truly a dream come true for me, as I always wanted to be a moviemaker, and shot my first film (a super 8mm re-make of the James Bond film "ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE") way back in 1969 when I was in ninth grade!
I want to sincerely thank all of you who have subscribed to my P.A.T. Program, and for the new folks who have recently come onboard; I know the economy is bad right now, and that this is perhaps not the best time to launch something as unique as this, but despite all that, you still came through, and you guys have once again, as always, proven to be "THE GREATEST" - a million thanks for your belief in me and for all the love and support- I'm waiting for a few more folks to come onboard so we can begin planning tour itineraries, events, and a recording schedule, and release dates for the new material- I'll be calling all of you soon!
Also, for those of you who have recently e-mailed me inquiring about my availability to do Living Room Concerts this summer; The answer is "yes", but in a limited capacity, as THE SMITHEREENS Touring schedule and live dates are my first priority, and I have to shift into the "PATRONS & ARTISTS TOGETHER" mode very soon, and devote myself to that project. So if you're interested in hosting a Living Room Concert, please e-mail
me soon, as available dates are disappearing fast, thanks.
ANOTHER VERY NICE E-MAIL
Hey Pat I just was on the web site and saw the story about the donor. I can't tell you how much I appreicate both her generosity as well as you thinking of me and this project. With all the hellish stuff going on in the world these days, it really feels good to know that there are people like you and MH out there ready to step in and make a difference. I am going to make this music therapy camp a reality, and your positive attitude and generous spirit have been a great inspiration to me Thanks again Pat and let me know how I can get in contact w/ MH If possible I'd love to thank her myself. If not, please let her know how grateful I am. Take care, my friend hope to talk w/ you soon
Matt Brown in Maine
Somebody really nice and very thoughtful out there did a wonderful thing for someone else, and I'd like to let you know about it.
I received an e-mail recently from MH (who wishes to remain anonymous) down in Tampa, Florida, expressing her desire to take part in my "Patrons & Artists Together" Program, but she came up with an entirely new idea that sort-of rocked my world- Instead of subscribing and keeping the new music content and the live concert and the fund-raising event and the other stuff for herself, she asked me to locate someone I knew or might have have been in contact with involved in working with special needs children who might benefit from P.A.T. but perhaps couldn't afford to participate, so that she could DONATE THE SUBSCRIPTION TO THAT PERSON. She used the expression "Silent Partner"...
What a wonderful and thoughtful thing to do!
I had been corresponding with Matt Brown up in Maine (Matt hosted a Living Room Show last year) who had been inspired to start a music therapy school for autistic children, and I thought that he might be the perfect recipient for this gift. So there it is; Through the generosity and thoughfulness of a complete stranger, we'll hopefully be able to help Matt make his music therapy school for autistic children a reality.
Anyway, I thought you might be interested in hearing that nice story.
In about two weeks, maybe less, we will have a brand-new patdinizio.com website!
I am very excited about this - I have seen the website "work-in-progress" being designed by my very talented and generous friend John Carmody of Washington, DC (www.johncarmody.net)and it is pretty stunning.
John is a musician and long-time Smithereens supporter,
as well as a designer of websites for organizations like AMTRAK, YMCA, HONEYWELL & the ACLU, among others.
The new website will have much the same vibe and attitude as the current one, but it will be much, much easier to navigate, contain a lot more information, be a lot better organized (!) and be much more interactive -
I think you will really like this "new look"...
OTHER FUN NEWS;
Within two weeks or so, I will be posting a FREE MP3 song demo download for you to grab every week for the next 52 weeks.
There is some absolutely wonderful and very rare song demo material of tunes I wrote for The Smithereens that I know you are going to like, and I want to thank my friend Todd Sinclair for helping compile and organize the tracks for me - He did a great job selecting the songs.
Again, these downloads are free.
This is my way of saying "thank you" for your friendship, support and "positive vibrations."
I sincerely hope that you enjoy the new website and the free song demo downloads.
I hope to see you in your town soon!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 2003
PAT DiNIZIO TO SHARE THE PROFITS
EARNED THROUGH HIS NEW SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE
Half of income generated via songs created through Patrons & Artists Together will be distributed among subscribers
Scotch Plains, N.J.: Smithereens leader Pat DiNizio has added a new element to his recently launched Patrons & Artists Together program, an artist-to-fan subscription service that includes limited-edition music, intimate concerts, charitable events and free music to anyone with a computer and a modem.
The new feature is a unique artist subscriber/investor partnership.
Here's how it works -- if any of the songs DiNizio writes and records as part of his upcoming Patrons & Artists Together album releases are used in television shows, movies, commercials, media outlets, or presented to recording artists who are looking to record outside material, and whenever a song is used or covered, DiNizio will distribute 50 percent of the profits among the people who helped fund the creation of the work.
"This is a way for Patrons & Artists Together subscribers to get a monetary return on their investment," says DiNizio, who will retain all publishing rights. "This will be done most likely through a K-1 Partnership, wherein subscribers have no liability whatsoever, and there will be no third-party investors."
The core of DiNizio's service is recorded music, and the first release will establish the foundation for setting the music free. Autographed full versions of This Is Pat DiNizio, a two-CD set of originals that's a cross between The Beatles' "white album" and Johnny Cash's recent Rick Rubin-produced recordings, will be available to subscribers only and never be sold in stores, at shows or online. An abbreviated version of this initial album (14 songs or so) will be available online for free, along with downloadable CD artwork, to anyone with a computer and a modem.
Every four months or so, subscribers will receive another new, signed, limited-edition DiNizio studio album; abbreviated versions of each title will be available online for free at a later time. Other planned releases include Dark Standards, an album of Frank Sinatra-type standards and Bjork-style remixes; and a DiNizio demo collection of songs that will be included on the upcoming Smithereens album.
DiNizio's service, payable in monthly installments over a period of a year, is limited to 100 subscribers. His Patrons & Artists Together membership package includes a Pat DiNizio Living Room concert (a concept he launched in 2000), CD and DVD copies of the Living Room/home performance for all in attendance and a fund-raising event/appearance for the charity of choice, one day before or after the Living Room show (patrons' support also will enable DiNizio to bring the healing properties of music to children's hospitals, special-needs children and veterans hospitals across the United States). Subscribers also will receive 50 extra copies of each new CD and two Patrons & Artists Together T-shirts, as well as two Smithereens concert tickets and backstage passes to a show of choice.
Formed in 1980 and still active with all four original members, The Smithereens released two EPs prior to their debut album, 1986's Especially For You. Green Thoughts followed in 1988. The 11 collection (1989) spawned "A Girl Like You," the band's first Billboard Top 40 pop hit. "Too Much Passion "(from 1991's Blow Up) reached No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1992. Other Smithereens albums include 1994's A Date With The Smithereens and 1999's God Save The Smithereens.
DiNizio's other music ventures have included a full-time job in Washington, D.C., and New York as the program director, on-air personality and artistic director of the XM Unsigned channel for XM Satellite Radio. DiNizio also was the longtime host of the syndicated college radio shows The Maxwell House Coffeehouse Sessions, The Citibank/Visa Coffeehouse Sessions and The Kit-Kat Acoustic Break; he previously served as an alternate host for Global Satellite's Rockline.
He currently is a co-chairman for B.E.A.M. (Benefiting Emerging Artists in Music), a Jim Beam-brands division that provides grants to emerging musicians. DiNizio also is a talent scout for Columbia Records, and he serves on the board of governors for the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, aka the Recording Academy.
For more information on his Patrons & Artists Together program, visit www.patdinizio.com. To arrange for an interview, contact DiNizio at patdinizio@patdinizio.com or (212) 358-1659.
THE BEGINNING OF "THE MAGNIFICENT 100"!
JOE SALERNO, TAMPA, FLORIDA
ELLEN SHAPIRO, MAPLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY
VICKI NEILSON & DONNA JO WEBSTER
ROCKVILLE, VIRGINIA
EMILY & DIANA PRICE, MAGNOLIA, NEW JERSEY
LEE TANNENBAUM & FAMILY, AIRMONT, NEW YORK
ANONYMOUS SUPPORTERS, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
THE BELANGER FAMILY, GROSSE POINTE, MICHIGAN
STEPHEN SPEELMAN, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
JIM DOMIZIO & SEAN CONNELL, ARLINGTON, TEXAS
MARK VERHEIDEN, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
KIRK WALDROP, ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA
STEVEN KANTOR, WILLIAMSVILLE, NEW YORK
CHRISTOPHER COOPER, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
LOU KLUBENSPIES, BOSTON, MASS.
ROBERT BLOMQUIST, BAYSHORE, NEW YORK
CHRISTA WATKINS, NASHVILLE, TN
BECKY & TOM ROGERS, EATON, OHIO
CAROLYN BYRNE & DARREN DEAN, HALEDON, NJ
WYATT PETERSON, DENTON, TEXAS
EDWARD ELLIOT, TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA
AZ NYHUS, RAHWAY, NEW JERSEY
CRAIG CROSSER, NOBLESVILLE, INDIANA
MICHAEL GOWDER, ESCONDIDO, CALIFORNIA
BRIAN GRESSER, WHITEHALL, PENNSYLVANIA
THE KOCHMANN FOUNDATION,
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
JOHN GOLOMB, HOWELL, NEW JERSEY
GARY NOORIGIAN, HILLSDALE, NEW JERSEY
THE ARLOOK FAMILY, STUDIO CITY, CALIFORNIA
MICHAEL AND ARLENE ROSOL, SOMERSET, NJ
M.H. ("SILENT PARTNER"), TAMPA, FLORIDA
(DONATED TO MATT BROWN OF PORTLAND, MAINE)
TRACEE & DAVID ALTERS, DALLAS, TEXAS
CONNIE HILL, TAMPA, FLORIDA
THE POTTS FAMILY, BARRINGTON, ILLINOIS
|
MY UPCOMING NEW SINATRA-TYPE BOSSA NOVA JAZZ QUARTET CD
"DARK STANDARDS"
MY NEW PROJECT
Please take a moment to read my mission statement below-
Thanks!
I am already planning out the rest of the year as well as 2004, and I believe I have come up with something truly interesting and revolutionary.
As this War progresses, it may seem inappropriate to talk about it, but nonetheless, I am very excited and eager to share my new ideas with you (and you know I'm never at a loss for those!) and besides, music heals- It really does help all of us, and it really does help all of us to get through the bad times that all of us go through from time to time...I truly believe that I was put here to spread that message and to perhaps help out a little through my music and songs.
In any event, here goes-
I am launching a new subscription program entitled "PATRONS & ARTISTS TOGETHER" within the next two weeks or so that will combine Living Room Concerts, fundraising benefit concerts, charity events & appearances, Brand-New Studio Recordings/CD albums delivered directly to your door every three months, and a whole lot of other really cool things that have never been done before.
"Patrons & Artists Together" will be an extremely radical yet amazingly simple new way of creating music that will scare the hell out of the music industry and perhaps change the way music is marketed and distributed forever.
Throughout history, artists and musicians have had sponsors; "Patrons of the Arts" who sponsored and funded the works of these individuals and helped to bring the beauty of music, art, and literature to the world and sustain and nurture the work of artists such as Michelangelo, Mozart, Shakespeare, and Beethoven. Indeed, most of the great works of art created throughout history would not have been created without the patronage of certain individuals who realized the true value and importance of art and music.
A similar idea was brought forth several years ago by Danny Goldberg at Artemis Records in NYC when I partnered up with Todd Rundgren, Patti Smith, Les Paul, Peter Wolf, and Ornette Coleman is an effort known as "PATRONET", an online music subscription service that would give supporters and admirers of these artists unique and personal online access to their music.
That version of PATRONET failed, never seeing the light of day, and was, indeed, years ahead of its time.
With your help, I can take the patron concept to a new level.
I realize that it is extremely difficult to put forth forth a new idea like this and convinvce others to join up- But this WILL work.
Living Room Concerts, Benefits and Charitable Fundraising events, a ton of great limited-edition music on CD available only to patrons or subscribers, and lots of other very cool stuff.
I truly believe that this could be the new model-
There are artists like myself, Glen Tilbrook from Squeeze, Marshall Crenshaw, Graham Parker (tons more, really) who while still at the peak of their creative powers, have no record deal, and who have been literally cast aside by an greedy and short-sighted industry that no longer recognizes or values their contributions.
Just imagine if an extremely small group of supporters of any artist in this situation banded together as partners and patrons of the arts in order to keep the music of their favorite songwriters and musicians alive.
It would put the music back in the hands of the people and the artists, and out of the hands of the corporations who have effectively killed the music that you love.
Our gesture of setting the music free together would set an important, pioneering, and precedent-setting example for others to follow; It might perhaps pave the way for a new way of getting the music to the people.
The fact is, most artists no longer sell enough records to sustain a career because of online file sharing, and I, personally, have seen my income from catalogue sales of CDs go down from a decent amount of money to absolutely zero within a period of five years or so, because everyone believes that music should be free.
So be it.
I realize that there is no way around this, and that despite the efforts of the music industry and the politicians they and their lobbyists buy off, people are still going to download- In fact, there is an entire generation of kids who have NEVER BOUGHT A CD!
And they're not going to, either.
Not anytime soon.
The "genie" has been let out of the bottle...and no one can stop it.
It's merely the tip of the iceberg and it's about to hit the film industry as well.
It's only going to get worse and worse, until your musical choices are limited to only a few big "brand names", just like what you're hearing on what is laughingly referred to "radio" today; the same 7 or 8 songs played over and over again and again and again...
It's time to take back control.
Online filing sharing is killing the music you love, and robbing your favorite songwriters and artists of any incentive to create the music that nurtures YOU in some way.
That's what music is all about!
My solution to this problem is to EMBRACE the fact that people want their music for free, and in partnership with a few brave, music-loving visionary individuals, GIVE IT AWAY, and in the process, create together a brand-new and highly effective way for music to be funded, created, and distributed...
Funded, created, and distributed WITHOUT the help of the record labels, or the retailers, or the two corporations that own all the radio stations in the country and control everything that you hear.
This visionquest can be achieved with the help and support of the patrons, who in return, and in sincere appreciation of the fact they they have FUNDED the work, receive a ton of really cool limited-edition music, one-of-a-kind items, and several live concert events, one of them for their favorite local hometown or community charity.
Their support will also enable and fund my music therapy work with kids, and their names will be attached to the other charitable events and work I will do.
Together, we will be able to put a downloadable version of my main solo studio album and its artwork ONLINE this year and GIVE IT AWAY to anyone in the world with a computer and a cable modem!
I sincerely believe that all of these gestures will change things for the better;
And might effectively SOLVE the problem of file sharing online by GIVING the music away instead of trying to find a way to STOP folks from downloading new music.
In the meantime, the record industry and retailers have formed a consortium of sorts that purports to have a plan to co-opt online file sharing and turn it into a workable, lucrative business model that they figure they can make of money off of-
I'm here to tell you that IT AIN'T GONNA WORK!
My "Patrons & Artists Together" Program will be limited to only 100 subscriptions.
The first of eight album-length subscription-only CD releases, "DARK STANDARDS", is pictured above.
Here's what you get;
1. A Pat DiNizio Living Room Concert in your Home, Living Room or Backyard- this time taking it to the next level with an two-set acoustic/electric concert with the Pat DiNizio Trio.
2. Everyone in attendance gets a DVD of the show they've just seen an hour after the show has ended (We have figured out a way to do this and it WORKS!)
3. All in attendance at your concert get a audio CD of your concert event in the mail a month or so after the concert.
4. A Fundraising or Charitable Concert event/appearance for your favorite local cause or charity in your community or hometown the day before or after your event. In addition, your sponsorship will fund and enable me to travel across the USA doing charitable and fundraising events for children's hospitals, orphanages, schools, VA Hospitals, special needs children, individuals and charitable organizations in need, and other worthy causes, and to bring the healing properties of music wherever I am needed, free of charge.
5. A limited-edition, personally signed and numbered, never to be commercially released brand-new Pat DiNizio studio CD every four months or so, available only to the 100 patrons who have sponsored and funded the work, as well as 50 additional copies of each new release for you to give away as gifts to family and friends, also personally inscribed to your specifications. These collector's item CDs will never be sold at gigs, online, in stores, or anywhere!
The new studio recordings will include;
"DARK STANDARDS"; My long-awaited Frank Sinatra-type "standards" CD recorded with a jazz quartet and big band. There will also be a modern "techno" re-mix CD of all the songs included in this package as well.
"CARBINE WILLIAMS"; My exciting new "all-star" side band project, musically influenced by the bands and artists I grew up with from the 70's, like Black Sabbath, Cream, Robin Trower, and Led Zeppelin. An offshoot project of my other group "THE WILD BUNCH".
"THIS IS PAT DINIZIO"; The unedited non-download full-length version of my ultimate solo project, a 2 CD 30 song collection influenced by The Beatles' legendary "White Album" and the recent amazing solo recordings of Johnny Cash. The free downloadable version will be different and contain less songs.
"THE LITTLE SCHOOLHOUSE"; My first children's record- An educational and entertaining musical adventure for your kids to listen and learn with.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS WITH THE PAT DINIZIO TRIO"; A collection of some the best Christmas and Holiday songs ever written performed by me and the group.
"PAT DINIZIO DEMO RECORDINGS FOR THE NEXT SMITHEREENS ALBUM" (which, you, of course have sponsored the writing of!)
"SONGS BY MY FAVORITE UNSIGNED BANDS" My cover versions of some of the most absolutely amazing songs from the greatest bands and songwriters you never heard of before; Bands and Solo Artists I discovered during my two-year tenure as Program Director of XM Satellite Radio's "UNSIGNED" channel.
"THE FEARMAKERS"; A collection of music from my long-dreamed of instrumental surf combo!
6. Two free Smithereens tickets and backstage access next time we're in your town, or for the Smithereens gig of your choice anywhere!
7. Two Pat DiNizio/"PATRONS & ARTISTS TOGETHER" T-Shirts
Another wonderful aspect of your involvement with this project is that your support and funding will enable me at some point to be able to do a FREE concert tour of small venues in major cities like NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Dallas, New Orleans, Detroit, Washington, DC, Detroit, and many others.
It is my desire to fly totally in the face of convention and to make these events free of charge to anyone who wants to attend.
It's a very cool idea indeed that I believe will change things, and you will be an essential and intergral part of it- A true partnership between artist and audience. It is a sorely-needed and timely new model; One which will keep the music alive and which will also enable us to make the music free to anyone in the world with a computer and a modem.
There's a link to PayPal below if you'd like to immediately partner up in this new 100 patrons-only endeavor, and it accepts monthly payments spread out over 12 months so that the entire subscription doesn't have to be paid for all at once.
But I would recommend that before doing so, and only if you're seriously interested in taking part, that you e-mail me, so that we can exchange numbers and then have an in-depth phone conversation about all the aspects of my "Patrons & Artists Together" program.
Anyway, if you're interested in partnering up with me in this "visionquest" (and that's what it is!), please take a moment to e-mail me at patdinizio@patdinizio.com for more details.
I am very excited about this and I hope that some of you will get in touch with me to have a discussion about this new idea.
THANKS.
I'll see you soon,
Pat
|
The Booted Beatle
Before Ringo -- and Before Fame -- Pete Best Was Drummed Out Of the Band
By David Segal
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 5, 2003
LIVERPOOL, England
In the long history of near-fame experiences, is there any tale as wrenching as Pete Best's? Really, who's even close? The guy is booted from the Beatles right before the band hippy-hippy shakes into history, a few months before "Love Me Do" sends a few million teens into shrieking fits. While his former band mates are recording "Back in the U.S.S.R." in 1968, Pete is slicing bread in a bakery.
So close. Best drummed behind John, Paul and George for two years starting in 1960, the early days in Liverpool and Hamburg, where the Beatles played seven-hour shows to drunken Germans in the city's red-light district. They shared groupies. He and John Lennon once tried to mug a sailor. Best was behind the kit for that anxious audition that persuaded Parlophone Records to sign the quartet to a deal.
And then one day -- Aug. 16, 1962, to be precise -- he's out. Ringo Starr is in. Manager Brian Epstein delivered the bad news in a brief morning meeting in his office. The next year, Brits alone would spend more than $12 million on Fab Four vinyl. Best's cut of that haul was nil. None of the other Beatles, he says, ever spoke to him again.
"I suppose the frustration is the fact that this was very much a case of it had been done behind your back," Best says on a recent evening, standing in the back yard of the home where he grew up. "The lads weren't there at the actual dismissal. They'd left it up to Brian. If they were there, maybe we could have resolved the problem. You know, 'Okay, what is wrong, what is your hang-up?' That never happened."
Now 61 years old, Best has bushy gray hair and a mustache. Wearing blue jeans and a light blue sweater, he looks more like the kindly owner of a pizzeria than the heartthrob of the Beatles, a guy with such smoldering good looks that his fans claimed he was fired for distracting "birds" from the others. He is shy and so soft-spoken it's hard to hear what he's saying.
"Yes, there was anger," he nearly whispers. "You've got to be honest about that. One minute you're in the top band in Liverpool, and the next you're not."
And then everyone wants to know, "Hey, what's it like to almost rule the world?" It's a question Best will surely answer again, next week, during a New York visit to promote "The Beatles: The True Beginnings," a coffee-table volume he co-authored with his half brothers, Roag and Rory. In it, the Bests tell an under-exalted chapter in the story of the Beatles' rise: the tale of the Casbah Coffee Club. Before the matching suits, before "P.S. I Love You" and before they became local sensations at the downtown Cavern Club, John, Paul, George and Pete were regulars at the Casbah. The four ultimately played the venue 90 times, crammed into a low-ceilinged room big enough for about 25 fans, if they all held their breath.
For Pete, getting to the club meant simply walking down a flight of stairs. The Casbah was in the basement of the Best house. His mother, a free-spirited beauty named Mona, decided in 1959 that the neighborhood kids needed a place to listen to an American import called rock-and-roll. Mo, as she was known to everyone, spent five months with some friends clearing debris from the cellar, and then interviewed the Quarrymen in her search for a band to play opening night. She offered 3 pounds for the show. Then she handed them paintbrushes. On the walls, John Lennon painted potbellied figures, Paul McCartney painted a rainbow, and George Harrison and a drummer named Ken Brown painted stars. Pete joined the group a year later, when it was known as the Silver Beatles. "She loved music," Best says of his mother, who died in 1988. "She had the idea and the courage to follow through. She turned a humble coffee club into the catalyst for the Mersey sound" -- a shorthand for Liverpool rock acts of the day -- "and every band that played here still speaks rapturously about the place."
The Casbah was nothing but a musty storage space after it closed in 1962. Last November it was refurbished, and the Bests are lobbying the city for permits to turn it into a working club again. For now, it's open only for special events.
Like tonight's. Best is here at the Casbah this evening, chatting with fans and old friends and celebrating the end of the latest tour of the Pete Best Band. The group started in 1988 as a one-off lark for a Beatles fan convention in town. Soon after that, clubs called and, decades after he'd thrown a sheet over his snare drum, Best began touring again, this time in oldies cavalcade concerts or as a headliner in small venues around the world. The set list: Beatles tunes from the days before "Please Please Me" went global, the era of the Casbah Coffee Club.
It's packed here and smoky, just as in the old days, and filled with former regulars, many of whom can tell you about the nights they spent watching "the lads" back when. They have to speak over the din of a band, four teenagers reprising tunes from the Beatles' days as a cover act, in the same claustrophobic crucible where a pop revolution was fired to life. The drummer of this combo is wearing a black T-shirt with two words in bold white letters: "Not Pete."
"I thought it was a bit off, what the Beatles did to Pete," says an old friend, Peter Newton, who is drinking a pint near the Casbah's bar. "I didn't think Ringo was quite as good a drummer." He pauses for a moment and then adds with a slight shrug, "But after Pete left, they really took off."
Drumming on the Outside
Liverpudlians seem split about Pete Best. Some are appalled that he and the latest incarnation of his band trade on his rusted link to the Beatles. To others, he's an ex-contender and the only living local trace of the band that turned this city, however briefly, into the musical epicenter of the world. It doesn't matter that he was pre-Fab. In rock's book of Genesis, he's a walk-on character in some pivotal early chapters. Drummers were scarce in Liverpool circa 1959. The Quarrymen were always in search of one, and by the time the group had been renamed the Beatles a year later, they needed a full-timer to join them in Hamburg, where rock-and-roll was the rage and where a promoter had offered them a decent weekly salary. Pete Best passed an impromptu audition just before the band departed. The four, plus art student and Lennon pal Stu Sutcliffe, would play dozens of gigs together, in Germany and Liverpool. For a time, Pete handled bookings, too.
But if Best was in the band, say those who knew him then, he wasn't quite of it.
"He was a loner, and in a group you can't be a loner," says Tony Sheridan, on the phone from Germany. Sheridan, now 63, was the biggest star in Hamburg during the Beatles' second visit there, and he shared a stage with them for eight-hour shows at a club called the Top Ten. He and the Beatles also recorded a sock-hop version of "My Bonnie."
"He was a very quiet guy, too. Never said a thing. But I think there was some jealousy about Pete in there as well, because half the gig in those days was to look the part, and the music was almost secondary. Lennon looked like a schoolteacher -- he couldn't see a thing without his glasses. Pete looked like a movie star."
All the while, Ringo Starr was playing in Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, the biggest act in Liverpool. During the Hurricanes' tour of Hamburg and in clubs back home, he'd hang out with the Beatles and occasionally sit in on drums. John, Paul and George thought Ringo the superior talent -- but as important, they have said, is that he simply fit in better than Pete.
"When Ringo was around," Harrison said in the Beatles' oral history, "Anthology," "it was like a full unit, both on and off stage."
"The myth built up over the years that . . . Paul was jealous of [Best] because he was pretty and all that crap," Lennon testified on the same page. "They didn't get on that much together, but it was partly because Pete was a bit slow. He was a harmless guy but was not quick. All of us had quick minds, but he never picked that up."
Was Best really a mediocre drummer? Sheridan, who played with both Pete and Ringo at various shows in Hamburg, remembers screaming at both of them for missing the backbeat -- a problem common to Liverpool drummers, he says. But Ringo seemed more ambitious. "He was more intent on becoming a good drummer," Sheridan explains. "Pete was less intent. He was a bit lazy."
And at times he looked bored, the Beatles recalled, the wrong image for a band bent on causing riots. The final shove came from producer George Martin, who thought Best's performance so substandard during the Parlophone audition that he urged the band to ditch him. McCartney worried that the label might pass on them unless they changed the lineup. "Our career," as he put it, "was on the line."
It's hard to argue with the band's decision. Not only did Ringo become a highly influential if perennially underrated drummer, but his hangdog persona so complemented the Beatles that it's hard to imagine the group without him. Faulting the way Best was dismissed is easier. Our lovable mop-tops waited until Best was a pen-stroke from the big time. After he'd played hundreds of shows, slogged thousands of miles, managed the band's business and welcomed them into the club that doubled as his basement.
"It was," writes Mark Lewisohn, author of "The Complete Beatles Chronicle," "the most underhand, unfortunate and unforgivable chapter in the Beatles' rise to monumental power."
The fans, at least initially, were steamed. At shows in the days after Ringo's arrival, some shouted "Pete forever, Ringo never" or "Pete is Best." Brian Epstein had to hire a bodyguard to accompany him to clubs.
This divorce, though, was final -- and it had a soap opera angle that isn't well known. A family friend named Neil Aspinall had been living at the Best house, and he became the Beatles' first roadie. When Pete was canned, Aspinall had to choose between loyalty to the band and loyalty to a friend, a decision complicated by Aspinall's relationship with Pete's mother. Neil and Mona had become lovers, and they later had a son, Roag.
Aspinall chose the band, becoming a fixture of the Beatles' innermost circle, serving them well after the group disbanded. Today he manages Apple Corps Ltd., which handles the band's ongoing business. (He didn't return a call last week for this story.) Early on, he was miffed enough about Pete's firing that he refused to set up Ringo's drum kit. But, Ringo says in "Anthology," he quickly got over it.
Best put together a band called the Pete Best Combo and recorded a bunch of songs whose very titles suggest a man in distress: "Why Did You Leave Me Baby?" "I Can't Do Without You Now," "I'm Checkin Out Now Baby," "I Wanna Be There." But the backdraft of the Beatles didn't sweep Best to stardom. It felt, he wrote in his autobiography, "Beatle: The Pete Best Story," as if an invisible shield blocked him from winning acclaim beyond his home town.
Surrounded by Beatlemania and growing more depressed by the month, he barricaded himself in a bedroom above the Casbah Club and attempted suicide one day in 1965. Rory kicked down the door and revived his brother, who was breathing the fumes of an old-fashioned gas fire. He put together another band, which fared poorly, and filed a libel suit against his former band mates after Ringo implied in an interview that Pete had been ejected because of drug abuse. (Four years later, the suit was settled without a trial for an undisclosed sum.) By then Best had a wife and child and, without steady income, he reluctantly put away his sticks. Even easing into the regular working world, however, wasn't easy.
"They'd say at job interviews, 'You've got the qualifications and everything else, but you've been a rock drummer in the eight years since you left school.' They were frightened that someone would come along and dangle the [show biz] carrot, and off I'd go."
When he heard of an apprentice job in a bakery, he took it, just to prove that he'd really left music in his past. A year later, the civil service offered him a job. Ironically, for a guy renowned for getting fired, it was in the career placement office.
Skipping a Beat
A couple of Fridays ago, a few hundred fans nearly filled the Royal Court Theater, where the Pete Best Band played at a concert called "Mersey Meets Motown." All the acts -- such as the Searchers, the Velvettes -- peaked decades ago, if they peaked at all. The highlights came from the mostly over-50 audience, which kept shouting one-liners at the emcee and the bands. "Kiss me, whip me, take me shopping!" a woman screamed at one lead guitarist.
Best was introduced as "the man who put the beat in the Beatles." He and his band opened the show, wearing black leather and rehashing oldies like Ray Charles's "What'd I Say" and "Love Me Do." Best was stashed in the background and hard to see, though he twice grabbed the microphone and center stage to pep-talk the crowd. He glowed but looked awkward and, even with the help of amplification, he was hard to hear.
A few measures into their first number, something very strange became glaringly clear. Best wasn't the only the drummer onstage. He wasn't even the lead drummer onstage. Roag was. Each time a tricky fill arrived, Pete stopped playing and arched both sticks toward Roag as if to say, "Take it away." When the basic 4/4 beat resumed, Pete went back to work.
A Bite of Apple at Last
Despite his historic heave-ho, Best says he bears no grudge against the band. "If you'd asked me 15 years ago would I ever meet up with the Beatles, I would have said no," he says at the Casbah. "But the door's open, and I have a strange and very strong feeling that we'll meet up again."
Best's feelings about the band changed, in part, because of money. He finally received a pile of it in 1995, when the Beatles put together the first of their three-part "Anthology" series of albums, which includes 10 early songs with Best in the band. After decades of silence, representatives of Apple Corps Ltd. came calling. A sum was negotiated, permission granted, royalties paid.
"I think the number needs to remain private," Best says, smiling. "It's security for my family and my grandchildren. I didn't move to a 35-story mansion with a swimming pool and three Ferraris. I'm very happy with the life I've got, so there's no need to change it."
There's nothing false-seeming about Best's serenity. Pitying him these days seems idiotic, and not merely because he is probably rich. Tonight he's buttonholed at the Casbah by fan after fan who wants an autograph or a photograph -- a crush that is so steady that by 11:30 he's had enough. His wife waits for him to wade through the crowd; she's standing outside the club with their daughter, who is a knockout, and their grandchild, asleep in his mother's arms.
When Best finally escapes the Casbah, he pauses before a few more flashbulbs and then walks down the driveway with his family, into the night and in search of a cab.
Shafted? Compared with whom? Maybe Ringo. Not compared with his friends here this evening, not compared with the millions who never played with the Beatles. Pete Best stumbled into the greatest rock band ever, a job that, by many accounts, he was ill equipped to handle. But today he's financially set, with a loving family and a quintet that's booked around the world. And if you catch him in a quiet moment, he'll tell you all about playing "Long Tall Sally" for a crowd of German hookers, with three men who changed pop culture for good.
Some people have all the luck. Others get a big chunk early on and, in their golden years, they feast on it to their hearts' content.
|
|
|
|
Building a Cruise Missile in His Backyard
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand handyman with a passion for jet engines says he is building a cruise missile in his backyard using parts and technology freely available over the Internet.
Bruce Simpson, a 49-year-old Internet site developer, has a site entitled "A DIY Cruise Missile" on which he says he was prompted to build the missile because so many people had told him it could not easily be done.
"I decided to put my money where my mouth is and build a cruise missile in my garage, on a budget of just US$5,000," he said on his Web site (www.interestingprojects.com).
"I like to think of this project as a military version of 'Junkyard Wars'," he says referring to a television program about teams building big machines from scrapyard materials.
He said he would publish step-by-step instructions on his Web site about how to make the jet-powered missile, which would be able to fly 100 km (60 miles) from his home, north of the main city of Auckland, in less than 15 minutes.
The missile could carry a small warhead weighing 10 kg (22 lb), would be hard to detect on radar, and would be impossible for the New Zealand Air Force to stop, Simpson said.
"Obviously the goal is not to provide terrorists or other nefarious types with plans for a working cruise missile but to prove the point that nations need to be prepared for this type of sophisticated attack from within their own borders."
The New Zealand Herald newspaper reported Simpson had imported a radio control transmitter, global positioning equipment, and a flight control system, among other things, without encountering problems from New Zealand customs.
"We are aware of the initiative," a Defense Force spokesman told Reuters, but declined any further comment.
|
Building a Cruise Missile in His Backyard
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand handyman with a passion for jet engines says he is building a cruise missile in his backyard using parts and technology freely available over the Internet.
Bruce Simpson, a 49-year-old Internet site developer, has a site entitled "A DIY Cruise Missile" on which he says he was prompted to build the missile because so many people had told him it could not easily be done.
"I decided to put my money where my mouth is and build a cruise missile in my garage, on a budget of just US$5,000," he said on his Web site (www.interestingprojects.com).
"I like to think of this project as a military version of 'Junkyard Wars'," he says referring to a television program about teams building big machines from scrapyard materials.
He said he would publish step-by-step instructions on his Web site about how to make the jet-powered missile, which would be able to fly 100 km (60 miles) from his home, north of the main city of Auckland, in less than 15 minutes.
The missile could carry a small warhead weighing 10 kg (22 lb), would be hard to detect on radar, and would be impossible for the New Zealand Air Force to stop, Simpson said.
"Obviously the goal is not to provide terrorists or other nefarious types with plans for a working cruise missile but to prove the point that nations need to be prepared for this type of sophisticated attack from within their own borders."
The New Zealand Herald newspaper reported Simpson had imported a radio control transmitter, global positioning equipment, and a flight control system, among other things, without encountering problems from New Zealand customs.
"We are aware of the initiative," a Defense Force spokesman told Reuters, but declined any further comment.
|
|
|
|
