chameleon

The Rise and Fall Of The NEW Four Seasons - Chapter 8 - The 'Break-Up'

 

It is a sad anniversary to remember but exactly 33 years ago today The NEW Four Seasons we had come to love in 1976 and 1977 performed for the last time together at The Aladdin Las Vegas. Coincidentally it is today that The Rise and Fall of The NEW Four Seasons reaches it’s most surprising section. Chapter 8 – The ‘Break-Up’ documents the last days of the group that gave us the ‘Who Loves You’ and ‘Helicon’ albums and memories of great ‘live’ concerts we would never forget. 

It is a story that may shock some but perhaps not those who knew the music business back then. Why did it have to happen?. Well we have some clues and ideas but when and how it happened is now revealed. Click the links below to download the pdf’s for the Chapter in two parts 

Part 1

Part 2

We hope to have the last Chapters ready before  Christmas covering the ‘Aftermath’ and the attempts to recover the reputation and record sales of Valli and a partially ‘Re-united’ group along with our final editorial.

Casey Chameleon 

Photo above is our last of the group performing together at the Radio City Music Hall ‘Farewell’ concert on October 8^th 1977. Photo courtesy of Frank Rovello

 

 

Hey Guys…whatever happened to your other ‘lead singer’..Frankie somebody?

[Gerry Polci - outside Southport Theatre 1980 -courtesy of Brian Lomas]

Perhaps the most striking news of Thursday night’s concert for the debut of the Hit Men was the fact that Gerry Polci’s two children were able to see him perform the songs he made famous in the 1970’s with The Four Seasons for the first time and suddenly me being reminded that they are Frankie Valli’s grandchildren!! I'd forgotten that he married the bosses daughter.

And ‘Oh! What a night it was as the Mexicalilive showroom New Jersey sold out for the debut of the Hit Men. And whilst the group did a great repertoire of 70s numbers they also did the Seasons hits they performed on tour and their solo numbers as the Four Seasons as well as Decemeber 63 and Who Loves You even without former lead singer Frankie Valli. The crowd went wild and now all we are waiting for is the official revue and the video highlights.

The band thoroughly enjoyed themselves and as Lee said after the show….”when Gerry and Don and I looked at each other across the stage as we played we all felt transformed back to those days and the great feeling we always had playing as a band” And although one former member couldn’t be there, he was there in spirit. John Paiva sent us this message…”I love that you are letting everyone know about "The Hit Men." Lee, Don and Gerry are friends and all so talented, I feel it correct that they be out there showing what they can do. Teamed up with other great artists now, I predict the show will be a gas. If I were living in the States, I am confident I would be part of the show and naturally I would just love to do exactly that. But as this is not possible, I reside here on the side lines (in Germany) wishing them great happy success with "The Hit Men."

So stay tuned to this blog for news of future NYC dates and the possibility of a European visit if we can find an agent who will make it happen.

 
 
 

The Rise and Fall Of The NEW Four Seasons - Chapter 7

So ‘Jersey Boys’ 5^th Anniversary has been the big news this week but for us long-standing fans (call us ‘purists’ if you like) the Jersey Boys Show is NOT the “Story Of The Frankie Valli and Four Seasons” as it is billed. Well perhaps the first half is close to the truth but with no credit to the guys who recorded ‘Who Loves You’ and ‘December 63’ it falls short of the ideal. But it is a great show and we have all flocked to see it and been hugely entertained every time.

But in the spirit and aims of this ‘collectors’ group we are able to 'put the record straight' to some extent as we publish  the real story and this time we present Chapter 7 of our epic e-book ‘The Rise and Fall Of The NEW Four Seasons’ titled ‘The Plans for a NEW Four Seasons’. It tells the story of how the Four Seasons Partnership told us all and the group that they would be launched as ‘The Four Seasons’ under the Warner-Curb banner as Frankie Valli went 'solo' and how we all bought into it. Packed with unique stories of 1977 and the World Tour and using rare and in some cases unique photos Frankie Valli and  of the Four Seasons tell how they planned to ‘split’ and pursue separate careers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For ease of download the 17 page Chapter is in 4 parts below. Click to download the pdf files

 

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

 

And by sheer coincidence 3 of the stars of that 1977 line-up are appearing as the Hit Men on Thursday Night at Mexicalilive in New Jersey Thursday 11^th November 2010. Catch them if you can.

Visit WWW.THEHITMENSITE.COM

Anniversary News

5th Anniversary of Jersey Boys on Broadway

 

Jersey Boys premiered in 2004 at the La Jolla Playhouse and went onto win Tony, Olivier and Grammy awards.  It also became the longest running show in the 85-year history of Broadway's August Wilson Theatre after 2037 performances last month and globally has been seen by over 7 million people in New York, Las Vegas, London, Sidney and across the US on the national tour. in a series of anniversary events. 

To mark this 5th Anniversary the Empire State Building in New York will be lit up from top to bottom in Jersey Boys colours of white, red and yellow and on the 7th November a section of 52nd Street between Broadway and 8th Avenue will be renamed "Jersey Boys Walk" with Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli being joined by the show's co-authors Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice and the current cast. After the Sunday matinee New York City Commissioner Katherine Oliver will present a Mayoral Proclamation honouring Jersey Boys for its five-year Broadway run.

On the 8th November Valli, Gaudio, Brickman and Elice will be honoured with caricatures that will be unveiled at a private reception. That evening, the four we are told will participate in "The Crowd Goes Wild: Five Years of Jersey Boys"--a discussion of the legacy of the Four Seasons and the production of Jersey Boys at the Paley Center for Media, where archival performance clips will also be screened.

See the crowd reaction here

The caricatures here

The Walk here

The Empire State Re-lit here

50th Anniversary of Sherry and The Olympic Games

 

Jersey Boys is set for its biggest ever global promotion. The 2012 Olympics in Great Britain coincide with the 50th anniversary of Sherry and the likely release of the Jersey Boys movie. Sir Philip Elms sent us details from The Times London’s Theatre Diary which says:

"The Spice Girls' performance of a song from Jersey Boys at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics remains unconfirmed, but to judge by their diary fixtures it's in the bag. Geri Halliwell attended the musical last week in order to gain the support of the cast and Victoria Beckham and Emma Bunton are booked to see the show in the coming weeks. Apparently, Jersey Boys is a favourite and they want to perform a version of the Four Seasons' Beggin' at the opening ceremony. The idea is that the actors who play Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons will come on singing Beggin' followed by the Spice Girls singing a remixed version of the song."   That will well and truly put us on the global map and perhaps a good excuse for another get together and a big party!

 The story of Sherry’s success was told in our Billboard articles Blog post (click here)

And here for the full story of 3 successive Nr 1 records.

Russ McClelland tells us the 45 was released on 19th July 1962 but wouldn’t break until a crucial TV appearance re-created in Jersey Boys..but check out the only surviving screen shots to see the guys performed in ‘plaid’ suits….the red ones in ‘Jersey Boys’ are better of course

Lynn Boleyn

 

 

“Oh What A Night” For BBC Children In Need!

What could be better—seeing Jersey Boys and raising money for BBC Children in Need—there will be a special gala performance at the Prince Edward Theatre in the West End on Wednesday 17th November 2010 and tickets are selling very fast.

BBC London's 94.9FM presenters Gaby Roslin, Paul Ross, Vanessa Feltz and Danny Baker will be introducing this special gala performance. All money raised will go towards helping disadvantaged children and young people in the UK. Gaby and Paul are both huge fans of the hit musical—Paul has seen the show 3 times now and says he is still hungry for more!  We’ve lost count now how many times Tina (aka Gypsy Woman) has seen the show—must be well over 100 times now! 

Julian Stoneman, Executive Producer of Jersey Boys London said he is thrilled and honoured to continue its association with Children In Need for a further year and said that the entire creative team, cast, musicians, technical crew and theatre staff know how important a collaboration with BBC Children In Need is in changing the lives of disadvantaged children and young people across the UK.

The London cast is now headed by Ryan Molloy as 'Frankie Valli', Stephen Ashfield as 'Bob Gaudio',

Jon Boydon as 'Tommy DeVito' and Eugene McCoy as 'Nick Massi'.

Tickets from £20 can be purchased from the Prince Edward Theatre box office and online by clicking the above link. The 24 hour credit card line is 0844 482 5151. Booking fees apply for all purchases unless made in person at the box office. The face value of all tickets (minus VAT) will be donated to Children in Need. Booking fees apply. Booking fee donated to Children in Need if booking through the theatre or in person. Some credit card charges may apply.

To Donate directly to Children In Need Click here to donate 

 

 

Is Valli on the run as ‘The Hit Men’ appear in New Jersey?

Frankie Valli’s acting career was unceremoniously ended with a gun on the Soprano’s and his links with the mafia are well known from the phenomenal success of Jersey Boys and now we find he may be the target of ‘hit men’!!!!!!  Is his stage presence  perhaps threatened by the appearance of appropriately named ’The Hit Men’ a new group….which includes 3 former ‘Four Seasons’ who had a UK Top Ten hit in their own right.

 Although currently protected by his young ‘minders’ in the shape of the singing and dancing ‘Four Seasons’ as he continues to tour at the age of 77, will this new group really challenge his future? At  77 he’ll probably say….”who cares!”……..or ‘hey, I know those guys!”…… but what a thrill for former Four Seasons fans particularly those in New Jersey

Offering long-standing ‘Four Seasons’ fans the chance to see once again three of the line-up that helped Frankie project the group to a world-wide Number one hit in 1976 is going to have some appeal. So Who are ‘The Hit Men’….

 

The show will certainly capture the sounds of the 70s and as one former 1970s female fan put it on hearing the news of their debut night in New Jersey on 11^th November 2010…

“I checked this place out - and it got great reviews.  The place is about an hour away from our house.  I would really, really, really love to go  I promise - if I get the chance to go - I WILL BE THERE!  I would love to see and listen to Don, Lee & Gerry.   How much fun would that be!?  Do you have their schedule for the rest of the year so I can tell my friends”?”

So having been promised the chance of being launched as the Four Seasons in their own right in 1976… they now find themselves back together on stage able to perform in their own right and we will hopefully see that the talent we saw back then hasn’t faded. Unfortunately it will be without our good friend and now jazz guitarist John Paiva who lives in Germany but we have 75% of the group we were promised back then....plus Larry and Jimmy two more fine musicians.

We’ve asked Lee to make a video available and we’ll have full fan reports and photos for you on this blog and we’ll try to get an interview or two. So if you can, go grab your tickets and give the group a fantastic welcome back to the stage doing their own music that they all helped into the charts.

 
Visit WWW.THEHITMENSITE.COM

At Last - News Of 'Jersey Boys - The Movie'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has taken years but at last it is announced that the staggeringly successful stage show 'Jersey Boys' is to become a film. Described as a groundbreaking deal by Graham King's GK Films it is accepting quite a challenge to capture the magic of the show in a real life setting. With Valli and Gaudio as executive producers this is a challenging close to their careers and will hopefully leave them a legacy that future generations can enjoy. But will they expand the script..and correct some of the anomalies....and will the Four Seasons of the 70s responsible for 'Who Loves You' and 'December 63' so crucial to the shows success be given any credit?

With Marshal Brickman and Rik Elice retained to script the film lets hope it exceeds our expectations and does the group's career justice as well as recognising the original members.

Our old friend Lawyer Peter Bennett negotiated the deal for Bob and Frankie.....quite an achievement in a career which has stretched back to 1969 representing The Four Seasons Partnership. Congratulations to all concerned on behalf of all us long-standing and new fans.

No news on the timing and casting yet but we will keep you posted.

As our very own Phil Elms sums it up..."The News  will please a lot of people, especially as Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli believe the project is in safe hands. Will the stage / screen transfer work? Let's stay hopeful. Certainly keeping Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice as screenwriters was a no-brainer and the possibility that Martin Scorcese might be in the director's chair adds kudos. Speculation is going to be rife on who will be cast as the Four Seasons. From my experience( and many others) you could mix and match from Broadway and West End casts past and present and be delighted at the result. My guess is that the producers will trawl the market place again and come up with a fresh quartet. Whatever the choice, it needs to be the right one. After all, this will be cast that represent the Four Seasons' legacy as the movie is shown on TV for the next sixty years at least!"

Whilst the old You Tube videos of the groups Live performances do capture the music...the secret of the show is how the arrangements and harmonies are intensified to bring all the emotion out of the script. A friend who is a Hollies fan recently told me on seeing Jersey Boys in London that he thought the first half of the show was a bit slow but that the second half was tremendous. Of course the climax with "Who Loves You' and the reprise of 'December 63' brings the house down. Wonder what Don, Lee, Gerry and John  think when they see THEIR contribution reproduced each night(and now to be on film) without them getting any credit.(only Joe Long and Charlie Calello are given credit as former Four Seasons in the play) Oh well that is the music business!!

Check out the GK Blog here!

Casey Chameleon

‘This Is Goodbye’ – but not yet!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seemed ironic when Ray Nichol told me that this old 45 has become a ‘bubbling under’ floor filler on the Newcastle Northern Soul scene as evidenced by its sale on E-bay at 35 UK pounds as in my case this summer it nearly was ‘goodbye’ after a heart attack and a double heart by-pass operation.

And when I read Simon Parke’s quote in an English newspaper I was struck by it’s siginificance…both personally and with regard to the aims and achievements of the Four Seasons fans and the UK Appreciation Society.

“Each Day we are given small things, for our life is comprised of small events. There are no big things just small things one after another ….small things well lived. Tomorrow’s small things remain a mystery, of course, as they are unfolding way beyond our sight……..And anyway, today’s are quite enough, arriving like a string of pearls one after the other. As to what they will become…who knows.”

I was recovering from the post operative trauma of the operation and each day I needed to be focused on small improvements….and as I considered with Casey Chameleon when (or if) to resume our research and our blog this newspaper piece put things in perspective for me.

Small things add up I thought looking back through our blog, which is nearly 4 years old, has 92 posts on the history of the Four Seasons and has had 63,000 visitors. Plus our web site and the officially ‘unofficial’ GILG web site and I could see the resources and library of information available to Four Seasons fans all as a result of dedicated fans doing ‘small things’.

“As the artist Vincent Van Gogh said…..”Great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together”

So resuming our publication was just a matter of time particularly as my ‘heart’ benefits from Four Seasons music and stories…..so my cardiologist tells me. ‘You should feel more energy over time….like that TV bunny with the battery……” Now where have I heard that before? So we’ll “just keep going and going and going, chasing the music” and the stories behind it.

Over the winter months we will be posting a series of blogs and articles which would normally have been part of our paper Newsletters…….but having gone digital it now seems best to stay that way.

Soon we will have the remaining Chapters of the Rise and Fall Of The NEW Four Seasons which will run through 1978 to 1982…and already our researchers are searching out background stories for Chapter 1 back in 1966 when Bob Gaudio took control of the production and sound of the Four Seasons and sought a new style and direction.

We’ve also completed drafts of the story of Bob Crewe’s female Four Seasons ‘The Rag Dolls’ with Jean Thomas’s insights into how the group was conceived and set up as well as her solo work with Bob Crewe, Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell.

Our CD Discography will get a winter update as more CD’s from the past are unearthed and we’ll update reviews and sound quality evaluation scores.

Lynn Boleyn will be reviewing ‘Jersey Boys’ London another year on as we prepare for a new actor to play Frankie Valli.

And special thanks go out to a long-standing Geordie (ie Newcastle) Seasons fan, Tom Cramlington, who has contributed a vinyl sessionography of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons from 1953 to 1974, we are editing and updating this as we discover more details and prepare it for publication in 5 parts.. Searching out session notes from the Partnership’s archive managers doesn’t seem to be an option but we may well explore that avenue but we will also seek to verify what the group and Valli really did record at Motown and hopefully find people with information who are prepared to share it with the fans.

As was said above in Simon Parke’s quote… “Tomorrow’s small things remain a mystery, of course, as they are unfolding way beyond our sight…….. As to what they will become…who knows.”

Follow our blog and we hope the small things that arrive through our network of friends and music detectives will add to your knowledge of the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and hopefully will entertain you. And of course I still have to check with our sound engineers what possible ‘digital’ gems might be uncovered in the next year. Who knows?

Ken Charmer

 

And News from Casey Chameleon just in……..

During the week of Sept. 13 one of Valli's tour buses was involved in a traffic accident, and Valli came through bruised but not broken.  Valli looks like he'll do another 60+ dates during 2011. 

The lawsuit against "The Boys In Concert" is to be dropped pending that "The Boys..." change their name within 30 days of notice.

JB is celebrating the 5th anniversary on Broadway with a fan invited celebration between the matinee and evening performances on November 6. But will ‘Gypsy Woman’ get an invite ….she certainly deserves one!!

Wednesday  29^th September saw the re-union of two great Four Seasons John Paiva and Joe Long in Las Vegas where John is on holiday….re-united after 35 years!! Fantastic!. We’ll get John and Joe’s comments soon. 

 
 
 

The Rise and Fall Of The NEW Four Seasons - Chapter6

Back in August last year we published our first Chapter of ‘The Rise and Fall Of The Four Seasons’, our major work which traces the story of how Bob Gaudio created a NEW Four Seasons with Frankie Valli which was not based on his incredible falsetto but which retained the harmonic principles the group had always engendered.

In Chapter 5 we covered the creation of a new line-up of young talented musicians as the contract with Motown was terminated.

Well now we have Chapter 6 which describes the recording, release and promotion of the incredible ‘Who Loves You’ album.

Packed with unique quotes re the creation of the music, interviews background and never before seen photos, it is the most in-depth story ever told re the re-surgence of the groups popularity in 1976.

It comes in pdf form in 3 parts to aid file download. Just click on the links below.

PART1

PART2

PART3

Due to the serious illness of 2 of our researchers this will be the last blog post of the summer but we hope to be back with the remaining Chapters up to 1982 later in the year.

 

Casey Chameleon 

PS Now corrected re 'Who Loves You' writing credits. Corrections to the UK Tour list and links to the TOTP videos here and here. Thanks for feedback and to the GILG website.

The Four Seasons and Motown

 

Kingsley Abbott (author of ‘500 Lost Gems Of The Sixties) joined us for a project to examine the links between the Four Seasons and Motown production techniques. With the help of legendary producers Charlie Calello and Sandy Linzer, we were able to show the impact of this in 1965 and 66.

 Click here for the full article

And here for the story behind one of Frankie Valli’s Motown-like dance classics. Ironically the sound achieved on the record could never be matched live…which is a tribute to arranger Herb Bernstein and 'The Angels' - Denise, Peggy and Bernadette….The ‘Jersey Girls’.