Randomly Blogged: Kot Tweet, James McCartney, Bert Jansch

Twitter / Greg Kot

Last week, Chicago Sun critic Greg Kot tweeted:

"Just spoke to Neil Young. Says death of Ben Keith means "I won't be able to perform 70% of my repertoire with a band ever again."

The tweet has caused somewhat of a collective gasp of disbelief in the micro-blogosphere.

Our thoughts are that we shouldn't despair that we've seen the last of those classics like "Heart of Gold & "Old Man". If you may recall, Neil once said he would never play Hey Hey My My after Kurt Cobain's suicide yet he has gone on to play the song quite frequently since 1994.

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Bert Jansch Cancels Upcoming Tours

From a statement by Bert Jansch:

Bert Jansch is sorry to announce that he has to undergo an urgent operation to deal with complications arising from his recent lung cancer. As a result, he has sadly had to pull out of the upcoming Gulf Coast leg of Neil Young’s current solo tour as well as cancel a series of solo shows on the East Coast where Pegi Young was due to open for him with her band. Bert is deeply disappointed to be missing the shows, and apologises sincerely to all the fans who were hoping to see him. He has enjoyed every moment of touring with Neil over the last few months, as well as the West coast shows he did with the wonderful Pegi Young band opening, and is looking forward to getting back on the road as soon as possible. Bert is also very disappointed to be missing an appearance at Farm Aid, which he was very much looking forward to. His doctors tell him he should be fit and well again soon, so Bert is looking forward to resuming touring as soon as he can.

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YouTube - James McCartney covers Neil Young Old Man O2 Academy 25th Feb 2010 1st Live Performance

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Neil Young Photos Needed for Upcoming Book

The author of an upcoming book on Neil Young is looking for photos from fans for use in the book. These would include anything from concert shots, private shots, to any cool memorabilia they might be able to scan and submit as a jpeg. Submissions would be uncompensated, but fans submitting pictures that are used would be fully credited in the book.

If you have something to submit, contact Glen Boyd at alkiguy1@q.com

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Greendale News of the Moment:

From Climate Progress | NASA reports hottest January to August on record:

It seems all but certain we will outpace 1998, which currently ties for fourth hottest year in the NASA dataset (though it is technically described by NASA folks as tied for the second hottest year with 2005 and 2007).

Outpacing 2005, the hottest year on record, will be closer. In NASA’s surface-based dataset, we are unlikely to set the record monthly temperatures for the rest of this year; last month wasn’t close to the hottest August for NASA. We have entered a moderate La Niña, which NOAA says is “expected to last at least through the Northern Hemisphere winter 2010-11.”

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