With this horrible year finally coming to an end, Digital filmmaker Garren Lazar thought that he would make another Peanuts Parody video to help celebrate this holiday season. Ladies and gentlemen, here’s another Peanuts music parody – this time they play “Roundabout” by Yes!
Toronto City Hall Live Spotlight Series Kicks Off With Award Winning Colombian-Canadian Artist, Lido Pimienta
Today, Mayor Tory announced that the City of Toronto, in partnership with Unison Benevolent Fund, is launching City Hall Live Spotlight, a weekly livestreamed concert series to support the local music industry and provide Toronto residents with music experiences at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Residents are encouraged to make a night of it by ordering in their favourite food and settling in for a concert in the comfort of their home.
City Hall Live Spotlight will feature professionally produced livestreamed videos of Toronto musicians performing at shuttered music venuesand other affected music-related businesses around the city. Each performance will be accompanied by a brief introduction to the location and its role in Toronto’s music industry.
City Hall Live Spotlight kicks off on January 14 from the Phoenix Concert Theatre at 7:30 p.m. at Happin.App and is scheduled to run weekly through the spring. The first performance of the series will feature Colombian-Canadian artist Lido Pimienta, a Grammy Award nominee for her 2020 album Miss Colombia and winner of the 2017 Polaris Music Prize for her album La Papessa.
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant economic impact on Toronto residents and businesses, including the music industry. During each City Hall Live Spotlight performance, viewers who are able to can choose to make a donation, 100 per cent of which will support the Unison Benevolent Fund’s vital work to help musicians and music industry workers in crisis.
To support Toronto’s restaurant industry, which has similarly been impacted by the pandemic, viewers are also encouraged to order dinner from their favourite local restaurant at http://www.ToGoToronto.com, a free online listing of restaurants offering safe takeout and delivery by Destination Toronto in partnership with the City.
City Hall Live Spotlight will also be available on Happin.app, a new Toronto-based livestreaming platform that enhances the music concert fan experience and improves revenue streams for artists. Backline for City Hall Live Spotlight has been provided by Yamaha Canada.
Confirmed shows include:
January 14 – Lido Pimienta Live from The Phoenix Concert Theatre
January 21 – Little Magic Sam Live from The Dakota Tavern
January 28 – Vi Live from Hole in the Wall
February 4 – Azalyne Live from Poetry Jazz Cafe
February 11 – Goodbye Honolulu Live from The Garrison
Since 2016, local artists have performed on Nathan Phillips Square as part of City Hall Live’s music series. The series provides paid performance opportunities for Toronto musicians across all genres and works with numerous Toronto music organizations, festivals and events to curate the schedule. At the beginning of the pandemic, City Hall Live moved online from April to July and featured 120 performances by local artists, livestreamed from their homes. All told, City Hall Live has showcased more than 335 local acts and partnered with over 81 local organizations.
In recognition of the ongoing financial challenges facing live music venues, in 2020 the City introduced a tax relief program to support this essential part of Toronto’s music ecosystem. Forty-eight establishments received a combined $1.7 million in property tax relief last year as a result of the City’s expansion of the Creative Co-Location Facilities Property Tax Subclass. Last October, City Council made this important program permanent.
That same month, the City and the Canadian Live Music Association, in partnership with Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area and Ontario Creates, released the results of a Toronto venues study called Re:Venues: A Case and Path Forward for Toronto’s Live Music Industry. Among other findings, the study confirmed that the total economic impact of Toronto live music venues is $850 million annually, providing the equivalent of 10,500 full-time jobs. The study is available here.
City Hall Live Spotlight is a part of the City’s ShowLoveTO initiative, launched in association with Founding Sponsor American Express and in partnership with Destination Toronto, to help Toronto businesses, neighbourhoods and residents safely recover and rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic. More information about ShowLoveTO programs is available at http://www.toronto.ca/showloveto.
UK fans turn to music to get through 2020 as a new wave of artists fuels streaming growth
Official figures released by record labels’ association the BPI, based on Official Charts Company data1, show that recorded music consumption in the UK rose by 8.2% in 2020, with 155 million albums or their equivalent either streamed or purchased by fans.
The increase in consumption was achieved despite the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has had such a devastating effect on the live sector. Demand initially dipped around the start of the first lockdown, but listening rebounded across streaming and physical formats and grew throughout the year.
This year’s Top 5 albums: 8 of the top 10 are by British artists:
Lewis Capaldi: Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent
Harry Styles: Fine Line
Dua Lipa: Future Nostalgia
Billie Eilish: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Stormzy: Heavy Is The Head
Growth was led by streaming fuelled by record label A&R and marketing investment
With nearly 200 artists achieving over 100 million streams or more in the UK over the past 12 months, their success contributed to an overall total of 139 billion audio streams in 2020, up by more than a fifth (22.0%).
Streaming now accounts for four-fifths (80.6%) of UK music consumption, with people of all ages using it for their daily music choices, but also collecting their favourite albums on CD, vinyl and other physical formats. A new wave of artists, who are harnessing the global reach of streaming, are each generating hundreds of millions of streams in the UK alone. Backed by rising label A&R investment, which in 2019 rose to above £250 million, and creative marketing, these new stars know how to unlock the potential that streaming offers to achieve chart success and to forge a successful career.
Major established artists such as Ed Sheeran, Adele, Stormzy, Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, The 1975, Lewis Capaldi, Calvin Harris and Arctic Monkeys have been joined recently by the likes of Mabel, Dave and Jorja Smith, as the next generation of diverse British talent – drawn increasingly from rap, hip hop, dance and other genres – is emerging fast. Acts including D-Block Europe, Aitch, AJ Tracey, Headie One, J Hus, KSI and Nines, plus dance artists Joel Corry and Jax Jones, IDLES and Sports Team, Tom Speight and Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Cinnamon are just some of the exciting new names that are finding new audiences largely through streaming.
Streaming has made access to music easier for fans, but also increased competition for attention – and popularity remains the key driver of commercial success
Streaming has made it easy and affordable for fans to access more music, and also for more artists to reach more fans. At the same time it has recalibrated success. The top 10 streaming artists in 2020 each achieved over half a billion streams in the UK alone. But below them in the top 200 there were many artists achieving more than 200 million streams, while further down still, even artists ranking between 500th– 1,000th achieved between 43 million and 21 million UK streams. A million streams may sound a lot out of context, but 8,000 different acts now exceed this threshold annually.
The market has become much more competitive, with many more artists able to access distribution and streaming platforms. Even at the lower end of streaming volume has surged, with more than six times as many artists achieving 100,000 streams as the equivalent number of sales in 2007. This means competition for consumer attention has intensified, requiring 24/7 fan engagement and marketing. And this is where labels are stepping up with £250m of A&R investment, helping British artists to continue to lead the world.
Physical remains a key element of the music ecosystem as fans collect the albums they love on vinyl & CD
As recently reported by the BPI, whilst the continued growth in streaming underpinned much of the rise in consumption, the remarkable performance of vinyl, which jumped by over a tenth (11.5%) to almost 5 million (4.8m) copies purchased – representing a 13th year of consecutive growth – confirmed the enduring appeal of the format. The continuing revival of the audio cassette, which almost doubled (94.7%) in sales to 156,542 copies – the highest total since 2003 – also demonstrated the fan appeal of music in tangible formats as a complement to streaming.
Demand for CD continued to reflect long-term trends, but, with 16 million copies sold representing 10.3% of recorded music consumption, the format continues to show its resilience and play a key role in shaping chart success. Physical remains a ‘kingmaker’ for No.1 albums: in the majority of weeks (28) in 2020, it accounted for 50% of chart-eligible sales of the Official Charts No.1 artist album. Digital albums also continued their long-term trend, down by 19.0%, but they still contributed 5.9 million unit purchases to the overall AES total.
Eight of the best-selling artists on album format were British, led by Lewis Capaldi, Harry Styles and Dua Lipa – all three of whom also achieved nearly half a billion streams or more in 2020 in the UK alone and billions more streams globally. Their chart success made it an all-British Top-34. See Charts in Notes.
It was another hugely successful year for Lewis Capaldi, reinforcing his arrival as a major new force in music – his debut album Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent finishing 2020 as the best-selling album of the year, as it did in 2019. The album was also the sixteenth best-selling album on vinyl this year, and the Scottish singer also saw success in the best-selling singles chart, with Before You Go and Someone You Loved, which won Song of the Year at the BRIT Awards 2020.
Harry Styles can also celebrate a successful 2020 as a fully established global star, with his album Fine Line finishing up as the second biggest-selling album of the year. Released at the end of 2019, it was also the fifth biggest selling title on vinyl, fuelled by popular singles Watermelon Sugar and Adore You, which finished at tenth and sixteenth respectively in the end of year Official Singles charts. As well as being nominated for two BRIT Awards at the start of the year, Harry was nominated for three Grammy Awards in November.
Dua Lipa continued her rise to pop superstardom, with her album Future Nostalgia the third best-selling album of the year, and the top seller released in 2020. Her self-titled debut album also featured in this year’s top 25. The three time BRIT Award winner also saw success in the end-of-year singles chart, with Don’t Start Now, the lead single from Future Nostalgia, being the sixth best-selling single of 2020, while Physical also featured in the top 20. The album also shifted significant quantities of cassettes, finishing up as the eighth best-selling album in the format. Now without a doubt a global star, Dua is also nominated for six Grammy Awards, including in the prestigious Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year categories.
Other UK artists to make the Top-10 included Stormzy with Heavy Is The Head at No.5, Ed Sheeran with No.6 Collaborations Project at No.7, and Elton John’s Diamonds compilation. The top ranked international act was Billie Eilish, whose debut album When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go? made the year’s Top-5. Kylie Minogue celebrated huge physical sales, with her 2020 album Disco the seventh biggest selling cassette of the year, and sixth biggest selling album on vinyl. IDLES and Fontaines D.C. both had continued success in the best-selling vinyl charts, with Ultra Mono and A Hero’s Death finishing tenth and seventeenth respectively.
The biggest-selling singles of the year were Blinding Lights by The Weeknd, Dance Monkey by Tones & I, and Roses by Saint Jhn. Lewis Capaldi had two tracks in the Top-10 with Before You Go (No.4) and Someone You Loved (No.8), while fellow Brits Dua Lipa, Joel Corry (with MNEK), and the Stormzy and Ed Sheeran Own It collaboration (with Burna Boy) also made the Top 10. Despite the disruption to the showcasing of new releases and artist promotion brought about by the pandemic, there were some UK artists who had their first No.1 albums in 2020 – Gerry Cinnamon, IDLES, Nines, Headie One, and Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott. Additionally, Joel Corry attained his first No.1 on the Official Singles Chart as well as being streamed over 200m times in the UK. Many of these newly emerged artists – also including Aitch, D-Block Europe, J Hus and AJ Tracey achieved hundreds of millions of streams each in the UK alone in 2020.
Peter Hook and The Light Perform Virtual Cover of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’
As part of the recent Yamaha Guitars ‘Open House Online’ event, Former Joy Division and New Order co-founder and bassist Peter Hook and his band The Light performed a socially distanced live version of Love Will Tear Us Apart.
Toronto Funeral Director SAGEN PEARSE Drops “Haunted” Music Video Under His HOLLOWSAGE Moniker
Funeral director by day, songwriter by night, Toronto singer/songwriter Sagen Pearse has just released the latest music video from his debut album, Nuclear Home. The three-minute, 15-second spanning folk song is called “Haunted” and was released under the moniker Hollowsage & the Three Mile Islanders.
“Haunted,” some might ask?
As someone who clocks in and bears witness to the frontlines of human grief on a near-daily basis, it’s understandable that the up-and-coming musician would cover the ground of dark subject matter.
Monsters, death and darkness… You name it, he’s written it.
Ultimately though, Sagen always wanted to use his platform and natural storytelling abilities to share soothing songs for people who are struggling with the unfortunate and necessary truths of life; as a body of art that might help them cope with the bittersweet nature of reality.
Sagen began performing covers at a local open mic night hosted by producer Kevin Ker (Future History) a few years back. After his debut performance, he was encouraged to attend weekly and play some of his original music. Since then, Sagen has garnered a dedicated following across Canada by playing intimate shows to crowds all across Ontario and beyond.
Prior to “Haunted,” “Monsters” and “Naturally Disastrous” were released as standalone singles before the release of Hollowsage & the Three Mile Islanders’ debut album, Nuclear Home, this past February. As described by Sagen, Nuclear Home is a collection of folk tracks filled with stories of heartache, honesty and overall hope.
Along with “Haunted,” the remainder of Hollowsage’s record was recorded in the span of only three days at Union Sound Studio in Toronto. Sagen wrote the entire 12-track release, while Ker produced it. Additionally, Ker contributes electric guitar in the band.
The two remaining Three Mile Islanders, as Sagen calls them, are Markham-based drummer Justin Dillon and bassist/keyboardist Quincy Bullen, also from Markham.
During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Sagen has encouraged his fans to stay safe by staying at home to help mitigate the risk of spreading the virus. As an added measure, the Sault Ste. Marie-born, Markham-based musician opted to play online shows only until the global health crisis is merely an issue of the past.
Linus Entertainment Acquires Borealis Records Catalog
After 25 years of proudly putting out some of the best Canadian folk and roots music, the principles of Borealis Records – Grit Laskin and Bill Garrett – have announced that as of January 1, 2021 the Borealis catalogue will shift to the management of Linus Entertainment, a leading Canadian rights management company whose portfolio of labels includes True North Records, Stony Plain Records, The Children’s Group, and Solid Gold Records.
In a joint statement, Laskin and Garrett said of the transition, “We have partnered with Linus Entertainment for some 13 years in distribution and they have been our partners in the best sense.”
Geoff Kulawick, President and CEO of Linus Entertainment, said of the transition, “It has been a joy to work with Grit and Bill and their wonderful artists. Taking on the responsibility of managing the Borealis catalog, which includes many ever-green musical gems of Canadian culture and folklore was a natural fit as we know the music well, so transition for the artists and our global distribution partners will be seamless.”
Laskin and Garrett continued, “We have been most fortunate in being able to work with a large number of very fine artists over the years. Their music has been a constant source of inspiration and the friendships made will be life-long. Although we leave the business of running a record company behind we by no means will be leaving music.”
Grit Laskin continues to craft some of the best acoustic guitars made anywhere and Bill Garrett is in demand as a producer.
Virtual Maple Blues Awards Launch From Four Cities
The Toronto Blues Society’s annual Maple Blues Awards will be a little different this year in that, like many arts awards and programs, it will be held virtually and streamed from four cities across Canada on each Monday of the month of February.
Multiple Maple Blues Awards have been selected to host and perform for the awards events beginning with Alana Bridgewater and Johnny Max hosting from Toronto on Monday, February 1st with a performance from Dione Taylor, who has been nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year, new Artist / Group of the Year, and Songwriter of the Year. Also performing is Jack de Keyzer, who has been nominated along with his bandmates for Entertainer of the Year, Electric Act of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Recording / Producer of the Year, Guitarist of the Year, Horn Player of the Year (for Richard Thornton), and Bassist of the Year (for Alan Duffy).
On Monday, February 8th Angelique Francis and Matt Sobb will be hosting the stream from Ottawa and the evening will feature a performance from JW-Jones, who has been nominated along with his bandmates for Entertainer of the Year, Electric Act of the Year, New Artist / Group of the Year (for Jones’ other project HOROJO Trio), and Recording / Producer of the Year. Also streaming a performance from Ottawa is Nashville-based Indigenous artist Crystal Shawanda, who has been nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, and Recording / Producer of the Year.
Monday, February 15th the Maple Blues Awards will be streamed from Montreal and hosted by Dawn Tyler Watson and Ben Racine and will feature a performance from Durham County Poets, who are nominated for Songwriter of the Year and Recording / Producer of the Year. Matt Andersen, who has been nominated for Acoustic Act of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year will also be performing.
The final night of the Maple Blues Awards stream will be coming from Vancouver Island on Monday, February 22 and will be hosted by Dalannah Gail Bowen and Jim Byrnes and will have performances from 13-year old New Artist / Group of the Year nominee Liam Docherty and Drummer of the Year nominee Lindsay Beaver, streaming from Halifax for a true coast-to-coast MBA experience.
The 24th Annual Maple Blues Awards will be streamed at 8:00 PM Eastern via Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TorontoBluesSociety
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain Performs An Even Happier Version of Pharrell Williams’ ‘Happy’
This week’s Sunday offering from the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is a clip taken from their 2018 Le Poisson Rouge, NYC show. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain live streamed a concert to promote their upcoming US tour. This version of ‘Happy’ is taken from that live show.
UOGBTV presents the Ukulele World Service Episode 2, our second pay-per-view show, available to stream now from their website. For £5 you will be able to access the video stream for 5 days. You can watch as many times as you like within those 5 days.
Get your Virtual Tickets here – https://www.ukuleleorchestra.com/world-service.
OutKast’s Isolated Vocals For “Ms. Jackson”
OutKast’s “Ms. Jackson” was released as the second single from their fourth album, Stankonia, and topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for one week on February 17, 2001, and also reached number one in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. In October 2015, NME placed it at number 81 on its list of the, “150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years” and in June of the same year Rolling Stone ranked it at number 55 in their, “100 Best Songs of the 2000s”
Video: Vintage Footage Of Robin Williams And Jim Varney Hanging Out Together Will Make You Miss Them Both
Robin Williams and Jim Varney hang out backstage and riff off each other for a minute and half.