SIMON & GARFUNKEL ADD MORE SHOWS IN AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND JAPAN

Simon & Garfunkel's tour has expanded with newly added dates in Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, Nagoya and Sapporo. Here's a complete calendar of the tour so far.

5/13/09

SIMON & GARFUNKEL TO PLAY IN JAPAN

Simon & Garfunkel return to Japan for three very special dates, to go on sale on April 25:

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND SNARE THE WORLD'S ONLY CONFIRMED CONCERTS FOR SIMON & GARFUNKEL IN 2009

What was called an early Valentine's gift for New York fans, today became a love letter penned exclusively for Australia and New Zealand.

Simon & Garfunkel, ranked among the greatest artists of all time, are to tour the Antipodes for eight concerts in June promoter Michael Chugg, Executive Chairman of Chugg Entertainment, announced today.

The world's first and only confirmed 2009 tour dates for the beloved duo; the news comes just weeks after their surprise three-song performance at New York's Beacon Theatre on Valentine's eve.

Having not visited Australia for more than 25 years, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel will kick off their antipodean tour in New Zealand playing Auckland's Vector Arena on Saturday June 13.

Across the Tasman, the prodigious-pair start their Australian Tour at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on June 17 before two concerts at both Sydney's Acer Arena on June 20 and 21 and Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena, June 25 and 26. They will play the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on June 30 before finishing at Perth's Burswood Dome on July 2.

Tickets go on sale on April 17 at these links
Auckland: http://www.ticketmaster.co.nz/event/24004281CDF518D2
All Australian Performances: http://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=SIMONGAR09

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel last toured Australia and New Zealand in 1983 with their Summer Evening Tour. They return with their Old Friends In Concert Tour, which wowed US and European audiences in 2004, the last time the twosome teamed up.

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel have been friends, but more like family, for more than 50 years.

For the six years from 1964 to 1970 Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel changed the world's musical landscape. They made songs that when you hear them are time immortal. They painted an essential soundscape to an era with stroke after stroke of genius, including The Sound of Silence, Bridge Over Troubled Water, The Boxer, Mrs. Robinson, Homeward Bound, Scarborough Fair/Canticle, I Am a Rock, A Hazy Shade of Winter, and America to name just some in example of their virtuosity.

As a duo, Simon & Garfunkel have sold more than 40 million albums in the U.S. alone; received five Grammy Awards - including the 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award - and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

"We're the first and only territory in the world that Simon and Garfunkel have confirmed concerts for," said Michael Chugg.

"It's been 25 years since they've been here and I'd put money on the table this will likely be the last time for us with these two legends together.

"This is probably a twice in a lifetime chance, but the last time you'll get to take it I'd say.

And finally, to the words of one reviewer who saw them last month at the Beacon, "...the two of them proceed to do something no one else in the world can do. It's magic."

The artistry and intelligence of Simon and Garfunkel in concert is not to be missed.

Tickets for all Australian shows go on sale 9am, Friday 17 April through www.ticketek.com.au or 132 849

Tickets for New Zealand go on sale 9am, Friday 17 April through www.ticketmaster.co.nz or (09) 970 9700.

4/2/09

SIMON & GARFUNKEL, LIVE 1969

Songs from Sounds Of Silence and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme and Bookends and Bridge Over Troubled Water - part acoustic, part electric backing

New live archive treasure from Columbia/Legacy arrives at both physical and digital retail outlets on April 14, 2009


"Several shows on the '69 tour were recorded in anticipation of what was earmarked to be their sixth album, the follow-up to Bridge. That live LP never came to be (until now, that is); in fact, there was no follow-up of any kind, mainly because Simon & Garfunkel were in the final months of their partnership."
- from the liner notes written by Bud Scoppa


In the fall of 1969, at the absolute pinnacle of their decade-and-a-half working association - and with two Grammy Awards, four multi-million selling Columbia LPs and nearly a dozen hit singles under their belts, including the #1's "The Sounds Of Silence" and "Mrs. Robinson," and their penultimate album masterpiece, Bridge Over Troubled Water, newly recorded (but not yet released) - Simon & Garfunkel undertook a major North American tour, which turned out to be their last live dates together until 1982.

Though there were occasional surprise reunions down the years, the litany of Simon & Garfunkel's powerful work has always resided in the 1960s. Of their work onstage, only a few sanctioned live concert recordings were made by Columbia, but not a note of it was heard on any official album until the Legacy era in 1997 - when the three-CD Old Friends box set unveiled five songs from the Lincoln Center concert in New York of January 1967. In 2002, the entire concert was finally issued as Live From New York City 1967, on Columbia/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.

Chronologically situated in the aftermath of Woodstock and shortly before Altamont, SIMON & GARFUNKEL, LIVE 1969 is a 17-song chronicle of the tour which took places between the recording and release of Bridge Over Troubled Water. Gathering songs that were recorded during October and November in six cities - Long Beach (CA), New York, Carbon-dale (IL), St. Louis, Toledo, and Detroit - reissue producer Bob Irwin (who has overseen every release of Simon & Garfunkel material for Legacy over the past decade) has seamlessly re-created the magic of those concerts. This eagerly anticipated CD from Columbia/Legacy will be available at both physical and digital retail outlets starting April 14, 2009.

"The performances on LIVE 1969," writes Bud Scoppa in his liner notes, "were impeccably recorded, and that is a good thing indeed, because Simon & Garfunkel were in absolute peak form at the time, their imminent estrangement notwithstanding." Scoppa also penned the notes for the five individual original albums that were packaged together as expanded editions in the 2001 box set Simon & Garfunkel: The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964-1970) - namely Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. (1964); Sounds Of Silence (early-1966); Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme (late-1966); Bookends (1968); and Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970).

Three major differences set LIVE 1969 apart from its predecessor, the 18-song Live From New York City 1967, beginning with the fact that the latter was a single concert, while the new release is a compilation of definitive performances from different cities on different nights.

Second, in purely chronological terms, the 1967 concert was (for the most part) comprised of songs drawn only from the first three Simon & Garfunkel LPs. (The exceptions were two songs, both singles, that had not yet found their way onto albums, "A Hazy Shade Of Winter" and "You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies.") The lion's share of seven numbers at the 1967 concert originated on Sounds Of Silence. The duo had rigorously toured in North America and Europe in support of that album for all of 1966 into '67, during which they landed three LPs and four singles inside the top 30 on the Billboard charts - no mean feat.

In contrast, of course, LIVE 1969 broadens the scope of songs as the timeline moves ahead nearly three full years. Now the concerts encompassed the release of Bookends and looked forward to the imminent release of Bridge Over Troubled Water in late-January 1970. On tour in 1969, in addition to dropping any songs from Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., Scoppa sums up "the 17 songs gathered on this collection include four apiece from Sounds Of Silence and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme (both released in 1966), three from Bookends (1968) and five from Bridge." Scoppa continues, "The obvious inspiration for the lone outside selection, the Gene Autry-co-written 'That Silver-Haired Daddy Of Mine,' was the Everly Brothers, who'd sung it on their autobiographical 1958 LP, Songs Our Daddy Taught Us."

Third and perhaps most importantly - and certainly most interestingly - is that 1967 presented an acoustic folk duo onstage. LIVE 1969 begins and ends with the acoustic folk duo, but Simon & Garfunkel play "the meat of their sets" (Scoppa) with four superb and legendary studio musicians who were among the stellar backing cast of the Bridge Over Troubled Water sessions. After reportedly spending more than 800 hours over a two year span recording the album - and after three previous albums that employed full complements of studio musicians - it came as no surprise when fans saw the duo onstage in the company of Hal Blaine (drums), Joe Osborn (bass), and Larry Knechtel (keyboards) - mainstays of Hollywood's so-called 'Wrecking Crew' - and Nashville A-Team guitarist Fred Carter, Jr.

Bridge Over Troubled Water took on a life of its own around the world as one of history's greatest achievements in recorded music. But by early 1970, not long after its release, the partnership of Simon & Garfunkel had run its course. Through the years, hopes and dreams of reunions have been fulfilled in unexpected ways - among them, their benefit performance at Madison Square Garden for 1972 Presidential candidate George McGovern; an appearance on NBC's Saturday Night Live in 1975 to promote a one-off single, "My Little Town" (that both artists included on their solo albums at the time) and a return to SNL in 1977; a collaboration with James Taylor on an update of Sam Cooke's "(What a) Wonderful World" in '78, intended for Art's solo album at the time; their record-setting free concert in New York's Central Park, September 1981, subsequently issued as a double-LP in '82, followed by a European tour that year and a U.S. tour in '83; a performance at their induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1990; and their sold-out 21-show run at the Paramount Theatre of Madison Square Garden in 1993.

A full decade passed before they sang together in public again, in recognition of their Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys in 2003. The event inspired a two-month North American tour from October through December that year. In conjunction with the tour, Legacy "inducted" the duo into its prestigious series of double-CD retrospectives with The Essential Simon & Garfunkel. The 33-song collection spanned recordings from 1964 to 1975, including every song to hit the Hot 100 on Columbia, plus 10 album tracks, and eight live performances.

It was a perfect companion to Old Friends, the three-CD box set from 1997, which contained 59 tracks - their entire output of chart singles and a majority of the album tracks from their five original LPs, plus 15 previously unreleased tracks, including unissued demos, Christmas songs, newly-discovered masters (of unissued songs), and ten live performances.

Most recently, in March 2004, The Paul Simon Songbook made its historic reappearance on Columbia/Legacy. A virtually impossible-to-find LP in the Simon & Garfunkel canon, it was recorded by him during his 1965 sojourn in London, the year after the release of Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. Songbook contained Simon's early versions of six songs that would be recorded in new versions in New York in 1966 for Sounds Of Silence.

The release of SIMON & GARFUNKEL, LIVE 1969 fills a significant gap in the duo's history. It sheds light not only on their development but on the American cultural and political landscape at the height of the Civil Rights and free speech and Anti-War movements that involved so many of their listeners and concert-goers. It was, "a time of great extremes, a tumultuous era," Scoppa writes. "In short, it was an era similar in many ways to the one we're now living through. We needed Simon & Garfunkel then, and we could very much use their equivalent now, 40 years later."

3/26/09

'FROM THE BIG APPLE TO THE BIG EASY: THE CONCERT FOR NEW ORLEANS'

LANDMARK BENEFIT CONCERT HELD AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN IN NEW YORK CITY TO AID VICTIMS OF HURRICANE KATRINA

LINEUP FEATURES BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO; JIMMY BUFFETT; RY COODER; ELVIS COSTELLO; JOHN FOGERTY; ELTON JOHN; LENNY KRAVITZ; DAVE MATTHEWS; THE ORIGINAL METERS; BETTE MIDLER; THE NEVILLE BROTHERS; THE REBIRTH BRASS BAND AND SIMON & GARFUNKEL

100% OF NET PROCEEDS FROM THE SALE OF THIS DVD TO BENEFIT VICTIMS OF HURRICANE KATRINA

On August 22, 2006, Rhino Entertainment, in association with MSG Entertainment (MSGE), will release a double disc DVD of the landmark Katrina benefit concert, From The Big Apple To The Big Easy: The Concert For New Orleans, which was held on September 20th, 2005 at Madison Square Garden to support the long-term relief and rebuilding efforts following Hurricane Katrina. As the one-year anniversary of the disaster approaches (August 29), Rhino Entertainment and MSGE invite you to bring home the DVD of the live concert performance that has touched so many lives. From The Big Apple To The Big Easy unites the biggest names in music with New Orleans legends to create a poignant musical journey. The live concert raised approximately nine million dollars to benefit long-term hurricane relief efforts. 100% of net proceeds from the sale of this DVD will continue to raise money and awareness for those victims. Purchase DVD

8/16/06

Old Friends: Live On Stage

Old Friends: Live On Stage DELUXE CD AND DVD SET CHRONICLES SIMON & GARFUNKEL "OLD FRIENDS TOUR"
Historic Release Features Bonus Audio Track Of Revived Vintage Song

Purchase Simon & Garfunkel Albums

Old Friends: Live On Stage, a deluxe double CD and DVD package capturing the historic 2003-2004 Simon & Garfunkel "Old Friends Tour" will be released November 30th on Warner Bros. Records. Along with the deluxe two CD and DVD edition, Old Friends: Live On Stage will be released as a two CD set as well as in a DVD-only configuration.

Featuring a wealth of classic material from the legendary pair, who recently toured together for the first time in over twenty years, Old Friends: Live On Stage spans the duo's unparalleled career and includes such enduring Simon & Garfunkel favorites as "The Sound Of Silence," "I Am A Rock," "Scarborough Fair," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Mrs. Robinson," "A Hazy Shade Of Winter," "The Boxer" and a host of others. Old Friends: Live On Stage also features a bonus audio track "Citizen of the Planet," originally written by Paul Simon in the early 80's to be a part of the duo's repertoire but never recorded until Art Garfunkel added vocals especially for this release.

"'Citizen of the Planet' was a demo that Paul made some years ago," Garfunkel recently remarked. "I always liked it, but we'd never put it on anything. I came across it in my kitchen just last year, played it again and loved it again. I'm a big protagonist of 'Citizen of the Planet.'"

The package also spotlights a treasure of extras including liner notes by acclaimed music journalist David Wild, a photo gallery and rare footage from a 1970's Simon & Garfunkel television special. Also included are performances on the DVD of "Wake Up Little Susie" and "All I Have To Do Is Dream" by special guests The Everly Brothers as well as "Bye Bye Love," on both the CD and DVD with the Everlys and Simon & Garfunkel.

Material for both the CD set and the DVD was taken from the duo's 5 SRO performances at New Jersey Meadowlands' Continental Airlines Arena and New York City's Madison Square Garden, December 3rd-8th, 2003.

A complete track listing of Simon & Garfunkel's Old Friends: Live On Stage is as follows:

CD Disc 1

1. Old Friends/Bookends
2. A Hazy Shade of Winter
3. I Am A Rock
4. America
5. At the Zoo
6. Baby Driver
7. Kathy's Song
8. Tom and Jerry Story
9. Hey, Schoolgirl
10. The Everly Brothers Intro
11. Bye Bye Love (The Everly Brothers with Simon & Garfunkel)
12. Scarborough Fair
13. Homeward Bound
14. The Sound of Silence

CD Disc 2

1. Mrs. Robinson
2. Slip Slidin' Away
3. El Condor Pasa
4. The Only Living Boy in New York
5. American Tune
6. My Little Town
7. Bridge Over Troubled Water
8. Cecilia
9. The Boxer
10. Leaves That Are Green
11. Bonus Track: Citizen of the Planet


DVD
Act 1
1. Opening Montage (America inst.)
2. Old Friends/Bookends
3. A Hazy Shade of Winter
4. I Am A Rock
5. America
6. At the Zoo
7. Baby Driver
8. Kathy's Song
9. Tom and Jerry Story
10. Hey, Schoolgirl
11. The Everly Brothers Intro
12. Wake Up Little Susie
13. All I Have To Do Is Dream
14. Bye Bye Love (The Everly Brothers with Simon & Garfunkel)
15. Scarborough Fair
16. Homeward Bound
17. The Sound of Silence

Act 2
18. Opening Montage
19. Mrs. Robinson
20. Slip Slidin' Away
21. El Condor Pasa
22. Keep The Customer Satisfied
23. The Only Living Boy in New York
24. American Tune
25. My Little Town
26. Bridge Over Troubled Water
27. Cecilia
28. The Boxer
29. Leaves That Are Green
30. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)

10/26/04