All photos by Mini’s Memories. You can contact her at minismemories@hotmail.com
Photo Gallery: Frankie Ballard at Niagara Falls’ Fallsview Casino
Guns n’ Roses: Back and Stronger Than Ever
When asked which rock legends are truly deserving of ‘icon’ status, few people would hesitate to include Guns n’ Roses in their reply. The band, fronted by Axl Rose and Slash, are among the most widely-celebrated and critically-acclaimed acts in music history, leaving a mark on the genre of rock that will continue to influence new artists for generations to come.
Their hard rock hits such as Welcome to the Jungle, Sweet Child o’ Mine, and Paradise City are enjoyed by countless millions of fans and continue to be among the most streamed songs ever on platforms such as Spotify and YouTube. While long-time fans will be aware of the continuing success of Guns n’ Roses since the abrupt end of their two-decade hiatus, others may be less aware of what the band has been up to since their heyday. Read on to find out exactly why Guns n’ Roses are back with a vengeance.
The Guns n’ Roses Empire
Although the band initially parted ways over twenty years ago, rarely appearing together in public during their hiatus, they did manage to build one of the most successful and lucrative rock empires of all time. Their merchandise empire is reported to be one of the most valuable in the world, with the band selling clothes, vinyl, badges, posters, and even home products such as Christmas baubles and flasks to millions of eager customers.
In the gaming world, their legacy is even more pronounced. For example, major real-money online gaming platforms such as Genesis Casino video slots offer an official Guns n’ Roses game, where fans can re-live all of the greatest hits via a 5-reel slot. In addition, band members have reportedly made hundreds of thousands of dollars licensing their music to video game franchises such as Guitar Hero. Arguably, it is the business-savvy empire that the band has created that has helped keep their legacy alive.
The Tour to End All Tours
Of course, the story doesn’t end there. Last year, the band made headlines around the world by announcing that they would be coming back together for a mammoth world tour across two dozen countries. Since kicking off back in 2016, the Not in This Lifetime Tour has gone on to become one of the highest-grossing ventures of all time, generating a staggering $563.3 million. Massive arenas sold out in seconds, as fans flocked for a chance to see Axl and Slash together on stage again, despite them both saying a few years previously that such a thing would never happen.
The extensive tour continues until July 2020, making the four-year stretch one of the longest in rock history. One of their next big appearances will be at the Superbowl Music Fest in Miami at the end of January, where RnB legend Snoop Dog will be opening for them in front of thousands of people.
Other legends that have had the honor of opening for Guns n’ Roses on the tour include ZZ Top, Billy Talent, Lenny Kravitz, and Alice in Chains. The fact that A-list artists are still falling over themselves for a chance to share the stage with Axl and Slash is a testament to their staying power.
The Guns n’ Roses tour may be ending this year, but that doesn’t mean they’re going anywhere. Watch this space for
How to Prepare Your Car for Winter Season?
In winter season, winter roads can be dangerous for car drivers especially during a winter storm. Proper servicing of your car preparation is compulsory along with an emergency winter kit to protect you and your family during the winter season. Car conditions have great values in the winter season, and to meet with different circumstances on behalf of the well efficient resources. Best remedies and treatments can help for the people to get ready to follow the useful tips and tricks efficiently to best manage their cars even for a winter storm. A number of threats to the health of your car badly impact the values and the overall condition of a car to handle the specific situations efficiently. Before the arrival of winter seasons, ensure your car operates successfully. Buy the best quality spare parts online shop Rexbo.co.uk. Maintenance, preparation, and arrangement of required tools help to people to make sure about the best available resources to meet with swear winter season efficiently.
Useful Tips and Tricks to Winterize your Car
- Make sure your tire tread and inspect your tires properly
- Cooling system Maintenance
- Inspection of your car battery
- Fix your car heater properly without any damage
- Check air pressure in your all tires and fill up air properly in your tires to run car on dangerous winter roads
- Regular maintenance is compulsory to carefully inspect your car conditions to face the different circumstances efficiently before arrival of Winter season
- Brake and transmission fluid are also be confirmed
- Emergency flares or reflectors
- Stay alert, in control, and slow down
- Choose fruit and veggies and best food during your drive on Winter roads
- Always prefer to use a high-quality filter for your car
- your engine coolant and antifreeze levels should be confirmed to face the actual conditions and to handle the operations during winter season
- Use winter windshield wiper fluid
- Always wear your seatbelt properly
- Remove snow or ice from your car
- Arrange Gloves, Blanket and other winter clothing
Stay Active, Comfortable and Relaxed by Advance Arrangements in Winter Season
Winter driving safety operations and acknowledgment about the useful tips and tricks can save lives and help people to prepare ready to face the winter effects with their best preparation. Winter driving safety is the best tricks to efficiently manage the conditions to adopt the follow the useful suggestions and ideas to get ready and to handle the specific issues. Spending your best time to prepare yourself in the winter season is the best to efficiently manage the operations in winter seasons. Best preparation means having useful acknowledgment to meet with different circumstances efficiently. Prepare yourself and do everything to face the situations and to handle the sudden situations on behalf of your full active mind and having acknowledgment to best manage yourself to face the swear effects of winter. During drives and heavy snow falling, roads can be closed or your car stay inside your cars so advance level preparation is must before your long drives to go anywhere where sudden situations can occur.
Learn how Björk worked with AI on her new composition, Kórsafn
Björk brings her choral arrangements to Sister City hotel in a generative soundscape powered by Microsoft AI. The installation builds off of Julianna Barwick’s 2019 installation for Sister City, but pushes the technology even further.
You’ll wish you danced like nobody’s watching like this guy
You may like to party, but you will never party as hard as this guy.
Dad records his baby’s coos for a year, syncs them to AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ and IT’S THE BEST THING YOU’LL WATCH ALL WEEK
Matt MacMillan realized his son’s baby talk made an excellent instrument, and impressively made a video that has gone viral.
Brits dancing awkwardly to the world’s first electronic hit single: Gershon Kingsley’s ‘Popcorn’ in 1969
Composer Gershon Kingsley (of Perrey and Kingsley) first recorded “Popcorn” for his 1969 album Music to Moog By. In 1971 the track was rerecorded by Kingsley’s band First Moog Quartet; later he released a version under the name of The Popcorn Makers and was this the version that hit most successfully the charts. The record was one of a rash of Moog synthesizer-based releases, following the Billboard albums chart success Wendy Carlos had in 1968 with Switched-On Bach, and which characterized electronic music of the future.
Blood Orange Announces 2020 North American Tour Dates
Blood Orange – aka Dev Hynes – is heading out on tour in March 2020. He will headline shows in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, DC and Radio City Music Hall in New York City, with special guest Tei Shi. These dates follow a massive run of shows this fall opening for Tyler, The Creator in arenas across the country.
Blood Orange 2020 Tour Dates:
March 7 – Okeechobee, FL @ Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival
March 9 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse *
March 10 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse *
March 13 – Chicago, IL @ The Vic Theatre *
March 14 – Detroit, MI @ Saint Andrew’s Hall *
March 16 – Toronto, ON @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre *
March 18 – Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre *
March 20 – New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall *
* Tei Shi support
2019 has been a remarkable year for Hynes, who recently released the original motion picture score for the acclaimed film Queen & Slim. As Blood Orange, he released the mixtape Angel’s Pulse this past summer, in addition to directing a video for Beck, writing a collection of classical music with Third Coast Percussion, directing and releasing a series of his own videos, and being called one of the Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People for 2019.
Smithsonian Folkways to Re-Issue Three Seminal LPs of Global Music from the Gambia, the Sahel, and the Caribbean
Coming January 31, 2020, Smithsonian Folkways will re-issue three seminal LPs on vinyl from their extensive collection of music dating back over seventy years. These LPs are coming as part of Smithsonian Folkways Vinyl Reissue Series, which brings to light hidden gems and revisits some of the most iconic and influential albums released by the label. Each LP was a seminal recording at the time, influencing the development of global music in the 20th century.
Tuareg Music of the Southern Sahara, released in 1960, traces the origins of today’s more popular Tuareg bands like Tinariwen and Bombino, and provided a very early glimpse into a tradition that was barely known at the time. Gambian Griot Kora Duets, released in 1979, marked a watershed music in the appreciation of West African traditions, and featured master Gambian musician Dembo Konte at the beginning of his international career alongside his father Alhaji Bai Konte. Calypso Travels featured master calypsonian Lord Invader shortly before his death in 1961. Lord Invader’s calypso had a sharp bite, an art form derived from bloody street battles and a channel to speak truth to power, a powerfully resonant inclusion in Folkways’ extensive collection of protest music.
These reissues were remastered from the original tapes by GRAMMY Award winning engineer Pete Reiniger and are presented in the iconic Folkways fold-over, paste-on jackets, replicating the feel of the original releases. “Smithsonian Folkways is very excited to bring a diverse array of albums from around the world back onto vinyl for the first time since their original release,” says Associate Director John Smith. “They are incredible examples of the rich history and diversity in the Folkways catalog and are just as fascinating and relevant now as they were decades ago.”
Tuareg Music of the Southern Sahara
In the 21st century, the music of the Tuareg people, a diverse group spread across the Sahara encompassing Mali, Niger, and beyond, has reached an unprecedented international audience. Groups including Bombino, Mdou Moctar, Tinariwen, and Les Filles de Illighadad have incorporated the mesmerizing, repetitious qualities of the region’s folk music into rollicking, full-band rock and roll, bringing countless new ears to these styles developed in the African desert. Tuareg Music of the Southern Sahara, originally released on Folkways in 1960, traces the origins of these sounds and styles, focusing on the ecstatic vocalizations and singing accompanied by sparse instrumentation. These raw, extemporaneous recordings offer a glimpse at the musical traditions dating back hundreds of years from many tribes and localities from throughout the Sahel.
Lord Invader – Calypso Travels
Lord Invader was one of the most iconic and well-regarded calypso musicians of the mid-20th century. Coming from humble beginnings in the musical hotbed of Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, Invader gained notoriety for his unique voice and lyrical prowess. Calypso Travels, his final album released just before his death, was produced in New York in 1960 by Folkways founder Moses Asch. The album showcases Lord Invader’s talent for biting lyrics that reference contemporary happenings, such as the rise of Fidel Castro, his experience at the 1956 World Fair in Belgium, the arrival of the Little Rock Nine in 1957 desegregating the public schools in the United States, and his touring experiences in Europe in the 1950s. An icon of Caribbean music, and one of the major forces exporting it to the world, Lord Invader epitomizes the spirit of calypso – boisterous, acerbic, and joyful.
Alhaji Bai Konte, Dembo Konte, Ma Lamini Jabote – Gambian Griot Kora Duets
The hypnotic, delicate strum of the kora, the harp-like instrument strung on a halved gourd, has been a trademark of West African music for centuries. Gambian Griot Kora Duets (1979), featuring the master player Alhaji Bai Konte, his equally influential son Dembo Konte, and Ma Lamini Jobate, is a remarkable recording that documents an evolution in the kora’s use in the traditional music of the Gambia. The album, made in Dembo and Alhjai Bai Konte’s living space, shows the musicians incorporating complex, polyrhythmic arrangements. Though these musicians are intrinsically linked to the Jali tradition of griot families in West Africa, in which kora players are the historians and record keepers of local cultures, these recordings, with their stylistic flourishes, marked a new beginning for international interest in the kora. Dembo Konte went on to tour internationally, performing on John Peel’s legendary BBC program in 1989 and collaborating with the influential group Mustaphas 3.