Sara Bareilles Leads Campaign to Preserve New York’s Rockwood Music Hall

The New York Jets and their high-profile new quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, will be the focus of this year’s installment of HBO’s long-running Hard Knocks, according to multiple media reports.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Fresh off a summer concert run headlining Re:Set Concert Series and more, Boygenius — Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus — have announced further touring dates for the fall in support of their debut full-length album “The Record.” Kicking off in September in Boston, the band will make stops in New Haven and Philadelphia before two final performances at venues Madison Square Garden and a special Halloween event at Hollywood Bowl.  Support comes from Muna, Samia, and Palehound and a special Halloween event with 100 Gecs and special guest, Sloppy Jane (for whom Bridgers used to play bass — a guest appearance seems inevitable). 

The New York Comedy Festival, considered the largest comedy festival in the U.S., is about to get larger: In its 19th year, the 2023 NYCF will expand from seven to ten days, running Friday, Nov. 3 to Sunday, Nov. 12.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Global Citizen Festival will return to Central Park Sept. 23 for another ticketed-but-free concert, with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ms. Lauryn Hill set as the day’s headliners. Megan Thee Stallion, Conan Gray and Stray Kids are also on the day’s bill.  As always, tickets to the show on the Great Lawn are free, but require fulfilling a task as part of the international advocacy organization Global Citizen’s initiative to raise awareness about hunger, poverty, climate change and inequities facing women around the world, among pressing related concerns. The broadcast component will be produced by Done and Dusted; broadcast partners have not yet been announced. The show is being presented by  by Citi and Cisco. 

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds gig in New York was cancelled midway through due to a bomb threat.During Gallagher’s show at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs on Saturday (July 8), a message appeared on screens in the venue instructing people to proceed to the exits, which read: “Due to circumstances beyond our control, the show will not continue.”The NYS Park Police later confirmed that a bomb threat was the reason for the show’s abrupt cancellation.A statement from the police read: “New York State Police, City of Saratoga Springs Police, Troy Police, and Saratoga Co. Sheriff’s Department responded to a bomb threat at Saratoga Performing Arts Center Saturday. Out of an abundance of caution, the concert was suspended at 9:40 pm Saturday and concert attendees were evacuated without incident.”Update: It was a bomb threat, per NYS Park Police.

the Broadway musical based on the Martin Scorsese movie, is on its last legs, sources told The Post.A person close to the production said the end of the poorly received nostalgia show at the St. James Theatre could come as soon as this month.

There’s another update on Madonna’s condition – and don’t worry, it’s good news!

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The Eagles, one of the most successful and longest-running acts in the history of popular music, have announced the first of what they say are their “final” tour dates. After 52 years, more than a thousand concerts and over 150 million albums sold, the group has announced the initial 13 dates of their final farewell tour, beginning on Sept. 7 in New York, with more to be added. According to the announcement, the Eagles — Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit, with Vince Gill and Deacon Frey — will perform “as many shows in each market as their audience demands.” The tour is expected to continue into 2025. 

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Fifty years ago today, on the stage of London’s Hammersmith Odeon, David Bowie killed Ziggy Stardust. Of course, it was not a conventional murder: Ziggy was Bowie’s creation, a character he’d created, a vessel for his rise to fame behind his blockbuster 1972 album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars,” which led to one of the fastest and most meteoric rises to superstardom in pop-culture history and created something of a self-fulfilling paradigm, involving the rise of the titular rock star whose fame went to his head and maybe died, maybe didn’t. After nearly a decade of trying and mostly failing to become famous as himself, Bowie apparently figured it might be easier to do it as someone else — as a “totally credible plastic rock star,” as he would later describe it.

Madonna was hospitalized after presenting a “serious bacterial infection.” The news of her health were shared by her manager, Guy Oseary, who revealed Madonna had experienced a several day stay at the ICU. “Her health is improving, however she is still under medical care,” reads his post. Madonna’s health update: Rosie O’Donell comments on her recovery processMadonna’s health scare has profoundly impacted her family: ‘Everyone believed that we may lose her’A post shared by Guy Oseary (@guyoseary)Following the statement, social media was flooded with well wishes from celebrities of all ages.

Madonna has been forced to postpone her global tour after falling ill and needing to stay in intensive care for a few days.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Madonna’s forthcoming “Celebration” tour has been postponed, according to an Instagram post from her manager Guy Oseary. The tour had been scheduled to launch in Vancouver on July 15. “On Saturday, June 24, Madonna developed a serious bacterial infection which led to a several-day stay in the ICU,” he wrote. “Her health is improving, however she is still under medical care. A full recovery is expected. “At this time we will need to pause all commitments, which includes the tour. “We will share more details with you as soon as we have them, including a new start date for the tour and for rescheduled shows.”

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Unless you’ve got a “Succession”-sized story of ludicrous wealth combined with horrible behavior, it can be very challenging for a documentarian to make the life of an executive seem exciting — even one as colorful as that of Ron Delsener, one of the greatest concert promoters of all time… which is what makes “Ron Delsener Presents,” a documentary on that colorful life, all the more impressive. While the 90-odd-minute doc is a bit overlong and based largely on wealthy old music-biz veterans telling war stories from their rough-and-tumble years, director Jake Sumner uses deep research, fascinating concert and other archival footage, animation and snappy editing to create a very entertaining, if slightly smoothed-over, film that doubles as a sort of mini-history of the American concert business.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Highly touted British rapper Central Cee has signed a joint venture agreement with Columbia Records in partnership with Sony Music U.K., Variety has confirmed. Known to fans as “Cench,” the rapper became the first-ever British male rapper to be included in XXL magazine’s influential annual “Freshman Class” list, which was unveiled on Wednesday. Central Cee will also perform at this week’s 2023 Glastonbury festival, the largest festival in the U.K. The deal was led by Columbia executive vice president Bu Thiam with Central Cee’s manager, Bello. The fiercely independent rapper was the object of a heated bidding war in recent weeks; while terms of the Columbia deal were not announced, the joint venture suggests that he is likely to retain ownership of his recordings, as he has to date.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music BMG has acquired a “substantial stake” in the work of legendary songwriter and two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Paul Simon, the company announced Thursday. The acquisition includes his royalty income in Simon & Garfunkel recordings as well as his neighboring rights income; Simon sold his publishing catalog to Sony Music Publishing in 2021. According the the announcement, the deal includes such songs as ‘The Sound Of Silence’, ‘The Boxer’, ‘Mrs Robinson’ and ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Paul Simon was represented in the transaction by Gene Salomon and Don Passman at Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman. 

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Grammy-winning Songwriters Hall of Fame member Cynthia Weil — who co-wrote “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” “On Broadway,” “Make Your Own Kind of Music,” “Walking in the Rain,” “You’re My Soul and Inspiration,” “Uptown,” “He’s So Shy,” “Kicks,” “Here You Come Again,” “Through the Fire,” “Somewhere Out There” and many other hits, mostly with her husband and Brill Building colleague Barry Mann — died earlier this month at the age of 82. She was one of the top “Brill Building” songwriters that came out of the Midtown Manhattan building of the same name (although much of the work actually was done a couple of blocks uptown at 1650 Broadway) and spawned literally hundreds of hits throughout the 1960s for the Righteous Brothers, the Ronettes, the Drifters, the Monkees, the Animals, multiple Phil Spector productions and many others. Along with Mann — to whom Weil was married for some 62 years — the coterie included another young married couple, Carole King and the late Gerry Goffin.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Carolines Entertainment has tapped Horizon Sports & Experiences as its agency of record to develop sponsorship, brand activation, experiential and hospitality strategies to engage audiences across a variety of platforms on behalf of the 2023 New York Comedy Festival. HS&E, part of Horizon Media, will provide sponsors its full suite of data and analytics services and solutions. The 19th annual festival is slated to return in November. In an era when a writers strike has advertisers wringing their hands about how to align their brand messages with new comedy content, the festival, which started in 2004, may provide an alternative, says Neal Gluckman, HS&E’s senior vice president and head of sales, in an interview. “Brands still need to be out there,” he says, and the festival attracts a young, engaged base and also generates a lot of social-media content as comedians, venues and fans share their expereinces.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Omar Apollo, Brandy Clark and Coco Jones performed and three people were honored Tuesday night at the first T.J. Martell Foundation since 2019, which raised more than $1.3 million for cancer research. The honorees included Warner Records Co-Chairman and COO Tom Corson, who received the Lifetime Music Industry Award; Def Jam Chief Creative Officer and executive VP Archie Davis, who received the Rising Music Superstar Award; Grammy Award-winning and Tony-nominated songwriter/producer Shane McAnally, who received the Spirit of Music Award. The event was hosted by Gala Co-Chairs and Board Chairman John Esposito, Tunji Balogun, Aaron Bay-Schuck, Robert Carlton, Steve Gawley, Laura Swanson and Julie Swidler.

It was a big night of celebration for Sara Bareilles at the premiere of the Waitress the Musical pro-shot!

The 2023 Tony Awards took place last night and there were so many moments that happened backstage that you didn’t get to see on TV.