Todd Rundgren: uk live date

TODD RUNDGREN
To perform the British Premiere of
'A Wizard / A True Star'
Live in concert at the
London HMV Hammersmith Apollo
Saturday 6th February 2010

Tickets on sale 9am, Wednesday 27th May 2009
Ticket Hotline: 08700 603 777
www.seetickets.com
Agency and credit card bookings subject to a fee

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Rock'n'roll icon, 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, which will be Todd's only UK performance of the seminal album which is hailed as an influential masterpiece by today's new bands, including Hot Chip.

Tickets for this historic concert will go on sale at 9am on Wednesday May 27th. Tickets are priced£48.50, £45.00, £40.00, £32.00 (Agency and credit card bookings subject to a fee).

Date:Saturday 6th February 2010
Venue:London HMV Hammersmith Apollo
Tickets:£48.50, £45.00, £40.00, £32.00
Ticket Hotline:08700 603 777
Online Booking:www.seetickets.com
Venue Box Office:08448 44 47 48
Venue Website:www.hammersmithapollo.net
Venue Address:45 Queen Caroline Street, London, W6 9QH

This rare British premiere will be Rundgren's first and only UK concert since last year'sArenaalbum 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.

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TODD RUNDGREN - Photo credit: © Jean Lannen

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.

About the album A Wizard, A True Star -

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 andCool 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.

Todd Rundgren - Biography

A Wizard, A True Star. The title of Todd Rundgren's 1973 solo album aptly sums up the contributions of this multi-faceted artist to state-of-the-art music. As a songwriter, video pioneer, producer, recording artist, computer software developer, conceptualist, and, most recently, interactive artist (re-designated TR-i), Rundgren has made a lasting impact on both the form and content of popular music.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Rundgren began playing guitar as a teenager, going on to found and front The Nazz, the quintessential '60's cult group. In 1969, he left the band to pursue a solo career, recording his debut offering, the legendary Runt. But it was 1972's seminal Something/Anything?, on which he played all the instruments, sang all the vocal parts, and acted as his own producer, that catapulted Todd into the superstar limelight, prompting the press to unanimously dub him 'Rock's New Wunderkind'.

It was followed by such landmark LPs as The Hermit of Mink Hollow A Wizard, A True Star, and the hit singles as I Saw The Light, Hello It's Me, Can We Still Be Friends, and Bang The Drum.

In 1974, Todd formed Utopia, an entirely new approach to the concept of interactive musicianship, and embarked on an extensive round of touring and recording. Standout Utopia offerings included Oops! Wrong Planet, Adventures in Utopia, and Oblivion. Along the way, Utopia combined technical virtuosity and creative passion to create music that, for millions, defined the term "progressive rock."

Rundgren's myriad production projects include albums by Patti Smith, Cheap Trick, Psychedelic Furs, Meatloaf, XTC, Grand Funk Railroad, and Hall and Oates. Rounding out his reputation as rock's Renaissance Man, Rundgren composed all the music and lyrics for Joe Papp's 1989 Off-Broadway production of Joe Orton'sUp Against It (the screenplay commissioned by The Beatles for what was meant to have been their third motion picture). He also has composed the music for a number of television series, including Pee Wee's Playhouse and Crime Story.

His first studio CD of all new music in more than 10 years, Liars, was released in 2004, followed by last year's universally acclaimed Arena.

In 1998 Todd debuted his new PatroNet technology which for the first time allows fans of a musical artist to subscribe directly to the artist's musical output via the Internet. This caps a long history of groundbreaking early multimedia "firsts", including:

• 1978: The first interactive television concert, broadcast live over the Warner/QUBE system in Columbus, Ohio (the home audience chose each song in real time during the concert by voting via QUBE's 2-way operating system).

• 1978: The first live nationally broadcast stereo radio concert (by microwave), linking 40 cities across North America.

• 1979: The opening of Utopia Video Studios, a multi-million dollar state-of-the-art facility. The first project produced by Todd there is Gustav Holst's The Planet, commissioned by RCA SelectaVision as the first demonstration software for their new videodisc format.

• 1980: Creation of the first color graphics tablet, which was licensed to Apple and released as The Utopia Graphics Tablet.

• 1981: Time Heals, the first music video to utilize state-of-the-art compositing of live action and computer graphics (produced and directed by Todd), becomes the second video to be played on MTV (after Video Killed the Radio Star).

• 1982: The first live national North American cablecast of a rock concert (on the USA Network), simulcast in stereo to over 120 radio stations.

• 1982: The first two commercially released music videos, one of which was nominated for the first-ever Grammy awarded for "Best Short Form Video" in 1983.

• 1992: The release of "No World Order", the world's first interactive record album on CD-i. Also the first commercially available music downloads via CompuServe.

• 1994: The release of "The Individualist", the world's first full-length Enhanced CD.

• 1995: The world's first interactive concert tour. The London Forum shows were filmed and released on DVD.

• 1998: Launches PatroNet, the world's first direct artist subscription service

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TODD RUNDGREN - Photo credit: © Jean Lannen

TODD RUNDGREN - ALBUM PRODUCTION DISCOGRAPHY

ARTISTALBUM TITLEYEAR

The American Dream"The American Dream"1969
Great Speckled Bird"Great Speckled Bird"1969
The Band"Stage Fright"1970
The Butterfield Blues Band"Live"1970
The Butterfield Blues Band"Sometimes I Feel Like Smiling"1971
Jericho"Jericho"1971
Half Nelson"Half Nelson"1971
James Cotton Blues Band"Taking Care of Business"1971
Jesse Winchester"Third Down, 110 To Go"1972
Mark Moogy Klingman"Moogy"1972
Badfinger"Straight Up"1972
New York Dolls"New York Dolls"1973
Grand Funk"We're An American Band"1973
Fanny"Mother's Pride"1973
Grand Funk"Shinin' On"1974
Felix Cavaliere"Felix Cavaliere"1974
Daryl Hall & John Oates"War Babies"1974
Hello People"The Handsome Devils"1974
Hello People"Brick"1975
Steve Hillage"L"1976
Meat Loaf"Bat Out Of Hell"1977
Mark "Moogy" Klingman"Moogy II"1978
Tom Robinson Band"TRB2"1979
Rick Derringer"Guitars and Women"1979
The Tubes"Remote Control"1979
Patti Smith Group"Wave"1979
Shaun Cassidy"Wasp"1980
New England"Walking Wild"1981
Jim Steinman"Bad For Good"1981
Psychedelic Furs"Forever Now"1982
The Rubinoos"Party of Two"1983
Cheap Trick"Next Position Please"1983
Jules Shear"Watch Dog"1983
Will Powers"Dancing For Mental Health"1983
The Lords of the New Church"Live For Today"1983
Zerra"Zerra I"1984
The Tubes"Love Bomb"1985
What Is This"What Is This"1985
XTC"Skylarking"1986
Hunter"Dreams Of Ordinary Men"1987
Bourgeois Tagg"Yoyo"1987
The Pursuit of Happiness"Love Junk"1988
La Ppisch"Karakuri House"1989
Jill Sobule"Things Here Are Different"1990
Hiroshi Takano"Cue"1990
The Pursuit of Happiness"One Sided Story"1990
Hiroshi Takano"Awakening"1992
Paul Shaffer"The World's Most Dangerous Party"1993
Splender"Splender"1998
12 Rods"Separation Anxiety"2000
Bad Religion"The New America"2000
New York Dolls"Cause I Sez So"2009

Todd Rundgren - Official MySpace Page
http://www.myspace.com/toddrundgrenmusic

Todd Rundgren – Official Site
http://www.tr-i.com/

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