GREEN DAY SET TO PLAY PHILADELPHIA SPECTRUM FOR THE FIRST & LAST TIME

When the Bay Area-based punk-rock trio Green Day performs its first concert at Philadelphia’s Wachovia Spectrum on Tuesday, July 21, it will be the 930th different band to take the Spectrum stage in the venue’s 42-year history. It will also be the band’s final show at the Spectrum, as the building is scheduled to be razed later this year.

Green Day’s Philadelphia show will be part of a tour in support of the forthcoming album 21st Century Breakdown, which will be released worldwide by Reprise Records on Friday, May 15.

Tickets for Green Day's July 21 Philadelphia show, priced at $25 and $49.50, go on sale this Friday, May 8 at 10:00 a.m. They will be available at ComcastTIX.com, LiveNation.com, the Wachovia Complex Box Office, by phone at 800-298-4200 and at select ACME locations.

Singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool have been writing, arranging, and recording 21st Century Breakdown since early 2006 with producer Butch Vig, known for his work with Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, and his own band, Garbage. The first single from the album, “Know Your Enemy” is currently the No. 1 track at Alternative radio.

21st Century Breakdown is Green Day’s first studio album since 2004’s two-time Grammy Award-winning American Idiot, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, spawned five hit singles, and went on to sell more than 12 million copies worldwide.

According to advance reports, 21st Century Breakdown is another full-fledged “punk-rock opera.” The musically and thematically ambitious 18-song set is divided into three acts, and tells the story of a young couple, Christian and Gloria, growing up in the early 21st century. It offers commentary on topics ranging from politics to religion, to war to love.

“The main message is trying to make sense out of desperate times and chaos,” Armstrong says in a Billboard Magazine interview.

To recreate the complex sound of 21st Century Breakdown and American Idiot in concert, the band is augmented on stage by guitarists Jason White and Jeff Matika, and keyboardist Jason Freese.

After the success of American Idiot, the notion of Green Day creating a three-part concept album doesn’t seem at all out-of-place. When I interviewed Mike Dirnt in 2003 in advance of Green Day’s first (and only) Delaware appearance, he hinted that the band’s next album (American Idiot) would be a “mini rock opera.” Given that most of the group’s material to that point consisted of three-chord punk rock anthems, I thought he was joking.

With the 1994 release of its major label debut CD, Dookie, Green Day became one of the first bands to successfully bring punk rock to the American mainstream. The songs “Longview” and “Basket Case” became MTV staples, “When I Come Around” hit the Top-40, and the album went on to sell over 12 million copies worldwide.

Some punk purists cried “sellout,” apparently preferring that the band continue to release albums on an obscure independent label. But Green Day paved the way for the commercial success of similar bands like Blink 182, Good Charlotte, and the Offspring. Ironically, Green Day’s biggest hit to date, “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life),” is an acoustic ballad complete with a string arrangement.

Some fans prefer the raw, early version of the band, while others like the more commercial sound. Dirnt (his stage name is the sound a bass makes) says that with so many albums to choose from, it’s natural that some fans identify with one version of the band over another.

“Every fan is especially attached to one record more than the other ones,” he said. “Whether they got into us on our first record, or because of “Time of Your Life,” they consider that their Green Day record. We like to pull songs from the entire catalog when putting the set list together.”

Here’s Green Day performing “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” live:



Dirnt (born Mike Pritchard) and Armstrong formed their first band, Sweet Children, in Rodeo, California when they were 14 years old. By 1989, the group had added drummer Al Sobrante (born John Kiffmeyer) and changed its name to Green Day.

Later that year, they independently released their first EP, 1,000 Hours. Its success led to a contract with Lookout! Records, a local independent label. The band’s first full-length album, 39/Smooth, was released later that year. Shortly thereafter, Sobrante quit the band and was replaced with Tre Cool (born Frank Edwin Wright, III).

Throughout the early 90's, Green Day continued to cultivate a strong cult following. The underground success of their second album, 1992's Kerplunk, led to the band signing with Reprise Records.

Dirnt says that while Green Day grew out of the San Francisco Bay area punk scene, they’re don’t hesitate to explore other styles of music.

“In a lot of ways, the word 'punk' carries a stigma to it,” he says. “The music comes first, it’s not like we’re stuck in any ditches. Everybody has lots of different influences. We grew up listening to all kinds of things. I was addicted to Top-40 radio when I was a kid. When I first started getting into rock ‘n’ roll, I remember the first things I really liked were AC/DC’s Back In Black album, and Billie Joel’s ‘It’s Still Rock ‘n’ Roll To Me.’”

Rather than alienate punk purists, Dirnt says that Green Day’s forays into more commercial material have simply allowed them to broaden their audience.

“The range of people at our shows is really insane,” he says. “Most of our fans tend to be guys between 14 and 30, but we have kids as young as 6 up to people in their 50’s, and even older. Girls, women, punks, and college kids… the mix is just incredible.”



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THE PRETENDERS RE-GROUP FOR "BREAK UP"

When a veteran band releases a new album that captures the energy or spirit of its youth, it has become almost cliché to suggest that the band has “rediscovered its roots.” But when Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders set out to write music for Break Up the Concrete, her group’s first album in six years, that’s just what she had in mind.

Touring in support of the album, the Pretenders play Philadelphia’s Electric Factory Friday, February 6.

In Hynde’s case the roots were both musical and geographical. The Akron, Ohio-born singer had lived mostly in England since the early 70s, but in 2007 she opened a vegan restaurant in her hometown and found herself spending more time stateside so that she could be near her parents.

While early Pretenders albums had been slightly influenced by British punk and new wave, most of the band’s body of work was in more of a traditional pop-rock vein, including hits like “Brass In Pocket,” “Talk of the Town,” “Back on the Chain Gang” “Middle of the Road,” “Don’t Get Me Wrong,” and “I’ll Stand By You.”

But Hynde wanted to explore a decidedly American sound on Break Up the Concrete.

“I had something of an epiphany when I took part in a tribute to Jerry Lee Lewis,” she said in an interview with MusicRadar.com. “Just to be on the same stage as Jerry Lee was a miracle. I guess it came off rather well, because the next day the guy who runs my record company called me up and asked me if I ever thought of making a country album, and of course my answer was ‘no.’”

While far from a “country album,” Break Up the Concrete does showcase a variety of musical styles deeply rooted in Americana. To achieve that sound, Hynde shook up the band’s studio line-up, adding Eric Heywood on pedal steel, and Jim Keltner on drums. In a recent telephone interview, original and touring Pretenders drummer Martin Chambers said he was fine with the arrangement.

“[Former guitarist] Adam [Seymour], Chrissie, [bassist] Nick Wilkinson and I had made a record, but Chrissie wasn’t happy with it,” Chambers said. “She [fired] Adam. Luckily, through a bass player friend of mine I knew James Walbourne and introduced James to Chrissie. They hit it off real good. It’s lit a fire underneath us again and I think it’s probably the best lineup since the original band.”

The original band formed in Hereford, England in 1978 and included Chambers, Hynde, guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon. After only two albums, both Honeyman-Scott and Farndon were dead. Both deaths were drug related.

“At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2005, Chrissie described us as a tribute band,” Chambers said. “I understand what she meant. We’re paying tribute to Jim and Pete all the time.”

Fans who come to Friday’s show at the Electric Factory can expect to hear new tracks like “Boots of Chinese Plastic” and “Love’s A Mystery,” interspersed with the band’s hits and fan favorites. Martin says they’ll sound just like fans remember them.

“Sometimes there’s a bit of a different arrangement going on, but the heart and guts of the thing are the same,” he says. “I will approach ‘Tattooed Love Boys’ or ‘Bad Boys Get Spanked’ exactly the same. I don’t play them any different than the way I played them back then.”

At 57, Martin admits he’s “feeling [his] age.” But even though it takes a physical toll on him, Martin says he won’t compromise his aggressive drumming style.

“I could sit there and tap away and make nice sounds like I do on the record,” he says, “but I want to be physical as well. That’s why I have my cymbals higher, so I’m leaning over and throwing myself around. It’s hard work, but it’s the way I want to play.”

As singer, songwriter, and guitarist, the Pretenders are Chrissie Hynde’s band. While fans regard Martin’s presence and powerful, visual drumming as vital elements of the group, these days Martin considers himself “a hired hand.”

“Chrissie’s got to carry the band,” Chambers says. “She’s the front person. I understand that. I’m not in competition with her. I’m there to make her sound good, and I’ve been doing that for 31 years.”

Martin prefers to remain positive and pragmatic when he contemplates his role in the group.

“I get to go on the road and be a rockstar for a couple of months,” he says. “You never know when something is at the end. As far as I’m concerned, every tour we do is a bonus for me. That’s the benefit of hindsight. It gives you an idea of how lucky you are. I’ve known many drummers I consider far better than me that are taxi drivers in Cardiff.”

Tower of Power Rocks On

With a career spanning 39 years and 21 albums, the Bay-area soul-funk band Tower of Power is a true musical institution.

In fact, founding member Emilio Castillo who plays tenor sax and sings background and lead vocals, compares the group to an institution of higher learning.

The ten-man group includes original members Castillo, and baritone saxophonist Stephen “Doc” Kupka. Notable alumni include saxophonist Richard Elliot, trumpeter Lee Thornburg, Saturday Night Live musical director Lenny Pickett, and saxophonist Steven Eugene Grove (Euge Groove).

“It's kind of like a college – people come in and they're really good players and they leave even greater, and along the way we help each other out,” he said last week in a recent telephone interview. “Afterwards, it's always a source of pride to say [they] played with us.”

It's also a source of pride to Castillo to name some of the artists that he and Kupka, as the Tower of Power horns, have toured and recorded with. The list includes the Monkees, Santana, Elton John, John Lee Hooker, Rod Stewart, Jefferson Starship, Heart, Spyro Gyra, Aerosmith, P. Diddy, and many others.

When asked to list some of his favorites, Castillo says, “I'm very proud of the work we did with Little Feat. And certainly, Huey Lewis and the News…. I [toured] almost four years with them in the ’80s. They were an excellent musical group and we saw eye to eye musically, and Huey promoted my band at every turn. He was pretty responsible for getting us back on track in our career. I also enjoyed playing with the Rolling Stones, and the Eurythmics.”

Tower of Power is about halfway through recording its latest album, a collection of covers of both well-known and obscure soul classics. Because of exposure on the Internet and through first-generation fans, Castillo says the band's audience is getting younger, especially in Europe and Japan.

After nearly 40 years, Castillo says he still loves what he does.

“We stay at nice hotels, eat great food, play really nice places, and we travel all over the world…. I'm totally blessed. I love the job.”

Irish Kisses

Along with the leprechaun and the unicorn, the Pogues are creatures of Irish myth and legend. Unlike the diminutive, bearded pranksters and the horny, winged horses however, the Irish folk/punk pioneers really do exist.

As anyone familiar with the band's volatile Guinness and whiskey-soaked history will tell you, it's best not to look too far ahead when the subject is the Pogues. The Pogues' recent fall U.S. tour consisted of only 11 dates on the West Coast. The band's management knows better than to keep the group on the road for too long. In the past, marathon tours led to alcohol abuse, which led to infighting, which led to a breakup.

As to the band's current state of health, different storytellers tell different stories. Some reviews of Pogues concerts talk of shows of unparalleled power and elegance, others of performances marred by incoherent drunkenness. Guitarist Philip Chevron is currently on "medical leave" and not performing with the group. The focal point of contradiction is always Shane MacGowan — singer, songwriter, and enigmatic leader of the group — the man who's equally responsible for the Pogues' greatest achievements as well as its occasional downfalls.

MacGowan is considered by many critics to be one of the greatest rock lyricists to ever live, but recent profiles portray him as a blathering old drunk whose talent has long since been sidelined due to drugs and alcohol. As the very least, he is an intriguing figure, a man who at 49-years-old apparently enjoys embodying all the excessive clichés of the drunken Irish romantic/philosopher/poet.

MacGowan's drinking is mentioned in, if not the focus of, nearly every article and review ever written about the Pogues. One wonders if it could all be a ruse — the mischievous MacGowan playing the part, and delighting in how many people fall for it. There's no doubt that alcohol and drugs were a problem for MacGowan in his youth, but recently he's argued that tales of his ongoing inebriation are exaggerated.

"It's a story," MacGowan said in a November 2004 interview for British newspaper The Guardian. "Every time I pick up a drink there's a photographer and it becomes, 'Oh look, Shane's pissed again.'"

Still, he doesn't always fight preconceptions — in the 2006 Johnny Depp film, The Libertine, MacGowan has a bit part playing a drunken minstrel.

Amidst the boozy distractions, it's easy to forget the music — vivid, politically charged lyrics set to a unique blend of punk rock and traditional Irish folk — that established the Pogues in the first place.

By the early '80s, MacGowan and his friend Peter "Spider" Stacy (tin whistle) had been kicking around London's punk scene for a few years, achieving moderate success in various bands. In 1981, they joined with James Fearnley (accordion) to form Pogue Mahone, which is an Anglicization of a Gaelic phrase that translates to "kiss my ass." The trio began playing traditional Irish tunes in London pubs and streets, eventually adding Jeremy "Jem" Finer (banjo, guitar), Andrew David Ranken (drums), and Cait O'Riordan (bass) to round out the band.

The group began performing more and more of MacGowan's original songs, and used traditional instruments like the mandolin, concertina, dulcimer, and bodhran to further distinguish its sound. The unique combination of Irish folk instruments played with punk attitude clicked, and the band soon earned a reputation as an exciting live act.

Shortening their name to the Pogues, the group released an independent single, "Dark Streets of London," in early 1984 and supported the Clash on a summer tour. Later that year, they signed with Stiff Records and released their critically acclaimed debut Red Roses for Me.

Early in 1985, the band added guitarist Philip Chevron and recorded Rum Sodomy and the Lash with producer Elvis Costello. The album was an underground success and helped broaden the Pogues' fan base in the U.S., where they were becoming college radio staples.

By 1988, O'Riordan, who had left the band to marry Costello, was replaced by Darryl Hunt, and banjoist Terry Woods had joined the group. The Pogues signed to Island Records and released the Steve Lillywhite-produced If I Should Fall From Grace With God. The album remains the group's best-selling, and contains their only bona fide hit single, "Fairytale of New York," a melancholy Christmas themed duet featuring the late Kirsty MacColl.

The Pogues recorded two more albums (1989's Peace and Love and 1990's Hell's Ditch), but the drinking and drugging of MacGowan, Stacy, and other band members was taking its toll on the group. Depending on which version you believe, MacGowan was either fired or quit the band in 1991.

The group carried on, with Stacy taking over vocal duties. Two post-MacGowan albums met a lukewarm response, and other members fell away from the group. MacGowan formed another band, the Popes, with which he released three albums. In 1999 singer Sinead O'Connor reported MacGowan to the police for snorting heroin. It was a wake-up call that helped him kick his habit.

The classic eight-man line-up of the Pogues reunited in 2001. While there's been no new music from the group, they've matured enough to stay together for six years, even if just for the occasional tour.

For his part, MacGowan says he still enjoys performing, and despite the rocky road he's traveled, he has no regrets.

"I like the pay. I like performing on stage. I'm a poser," he says. "I took a 10-year break and it is exciting again. I mean, you are as young as you feel. I don't wish I had done anything different."

The Police: Back on the Beat

“Well, if the Grand Canyon were to rejoin itself, maybe there would be a possibility. We got back together for my wedding. It made me firm in my belief that it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie.”

— Sting in a July 2000 Webchat for JAM, on the possibility of the Police reuniting for a tour.

“We started 30 years ago, so it would be nice to do something to celebrate. We don’t quite know what, but we’re talking about it. I’m very proud of the band we were in.”

— Sting, 2007

The Police, featuring lead singer and bassist Sting, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers were one of the true supergroups of the 1980s. From their punk-pop origins, the trio became one of the most popular and critically acclaimed bands of the decade. Their hits include “Roxanne,” “Message in a Bottle,” “Every Breath You Take,” “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” and “King of Pain.”

Although there was no official breakup, the band had not toured since March 1984. On Saturday, Nov. 3, thousands of fans will pack Boardwalk Hall to welcome the Police back to Atlantic City for only the second time in the group’s history (their other concert here was in 1984). Tickets range from $50 to $350. Fiction Plane (featuring Sting’s son, Joe Sumner) will be the opening act.

“The reunion they said would never happen” is a line often used to hype the reunion tours of supergroups. However, the “they” is usually not a member of the band itself. Before this year, Sting’s stock response to reunion questions was, “What would be the point?”

It wasn’t that Sting, who was born Gordon Sumner, felt the Police had done everything artistically that they could do. Simply put, Sting was disliked by his bandmates, and vice versa.

Things were especially testy between Sting and Copeland, who were rumored to have come to blows on more than one occasion. During the making of Synchronicity, the band’s fifth and final studio album, things got so bad that Sting would record his parts during the day and Copeland would record the drum parts at night. Remarkably, not only was the album completed, but it went on to become the group’s first No. 1 album in the United States, and its biggest seller worldwide.

Over the years friction between the band members subsided and they became, if not friendly, at least less adversarial. The trio performed an impromptu set at Sting’s wedding to Trudie Styler in 1992, and played a three-song set at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2003. Today, Copeland says the stories of constant fighting are overblown.

“We used to read in the papers about how we were fighting all the time,” he said in a recent interview for the New York Post. “I don’t know what we were doing, but it wasn’t fighting. When we did argue, it wasn’t about petty stuff, it was about the music, because we’re passionate about what we do.”

Copeland formed the Police in England in 1977 along with Sting and original guitarist Henry Padovani. Copeland and Sting had strong backgrounds in jazz, but Copeland envisioned a power trio to join the burgeoning London punk scene. Padovani lacked musical skills, but he brought punk credibility to the group.

Sumner joined shortly thereafter, and the Police performed briefly as a quartet. After an attempted recording session exposed Padovani’s weakness as a guitarist, he was asked to leave the band. The group decided to continue as a trio.

Realizing that they were too old to play straight out punk rock, they developed a sound that combined the energy of punk with a strong reggae influence and even some jazz overtones. Over the years, even as the group became a commercial success, it never abandoned its experimental nature.

Early this year, when it was announced that the reunion tour would take place, there was much speculation as to whether the trio could actually pull it off. Thus far, the tour has received almost unanimously positive reviews.

To their credit, Sting (56), Copeland (55), and Summers (64) are all in great shape, both physically and musically. Rather than a lot of bells, whistles, and backing musicians, the tour features just the three musicians performing on an uncluttered, half-circle stage. The trio plays all the hits in a generous, 20-song set. While some arrangements have been updated, most of the songs sound just like you remember them.

While some critics have dismissed the Police reunion as an attempt by the aging trio to cash in on their legacy, most fans are happy to have the chance to see the group perform at least one more time. Other bands notorious for internal fighting have let bygones be bygones. If the Eagles, Kiss, and three-fourths of Van Halen can do it, why not the Police?

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The Police Files: Things You May Not Know:

• Copeland chose the name, “the Police” because his father was a CIA officer and his mother served in the British intelligence.

• Stewart Copeland’s brother Miles Copeland, who managed the Police, also started I.R.S. Records in the ’80s, home to the Go-Go’s, R.E.M., Squeeze, and others.

• Sting got his nickname while he was a member of a group called the Phoenix Jazzmen. He once performed wearing a black and yellow jersey with hooped stripes, and bandmate Gordon Solomon told him he looked, “like a bumblebee.”

• Sting’s love for literature found its way into his lyrics: “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” includes a reference to Nabokov’s Lolita, and “Tea in the Sahara” includes a line about The Sheltering Sky, the title of a Paul Bowles novel. Ghost in the Machine is a book by political writer Arthur Koestler; “Synchronicity” a well-known essay by Carl Jung.

• Each of the band’s five album covers featured some representation of the three members’ faces, from the straightforward portraits on Outlandos d’Amour, Reggatta de Blanc and Zenyatta Mondatta, to the three colored stripes on the cover of Synchronicity. The cryptic cover of Ghost in the Machine is actually digital clock-style depictions of the three faces, with spiky-haired Sting in the middle.

• After one of the early reunion concerts in Vancouver, British Columbia, Copeland posted a satiric review trashing the show on his Web site (http://www.stewartcopeland.net/). For example, Copeland about one of Sting’s mistimed stage moves, “The mighty Sting momentarily looks like a petulant pansy instead of the god of rock.” Many in the media took Copeland’s post seriously, and predicted that tempers were already flaring among the band members.

• Prior to the reunion tour, the last official shows performed by the Police took place in June 1986, when the band reunited to play three concerts for the Amnesty International.

• The bleached-blonde hair sported by the trio on the cover of their debut album, Outlandos d’Amour was not a marketing ploy. The band members all dyed their hair blonde so they could do a Wrigley Doublemint Gum commercial.