The Week in Light & Sound
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The event, which was originally billed as part of the Barclaycard presents BST series, went ahead as a solo concert without any sponsorship. That's after he refused to perform at a festival bearing the name of what he called "a fossil fuel-funding entity".
Young and Dylan had played on-stage together previously in 1992 - alongside George Harrison and Eric Clapton - at a New York gig to mark 30 years of the American's music, and before that at The Band's last-ever gig in 1976, which was captured on film by Martin Scorsese in The Last Waltz. Whispers murmured around Hype Park that it could happen again during Dylan's set, but it was not to be.
Barclaycard resumes its Hyde Park summertime takeover this weekend with performances from Florence + the Machine, The National and Robbie Williams.
Sound Tracks - First Night Records, an independent label which specialises in West End and Broadway cast recordings, has been acquired by Warner Music Group. As part of the deal - the value of which has not been disclosed - First Night will be overseen by WMG’s Arts Music division, led by its president Kevin Gore. First Night was founded by John Craig and Tony Edwards in 1984, with their recording of Singin’ in the Rain. It has since recorded more than 150 productions. These comprise all of Cameron Mackintosh’s shows, including Mary Poppins, Miss Saigon, and the original and all subsequent cast albums of Les Misérables. Craig will join the Arts Music team under a multi-year agreement “to identify and record musical theatre productions in the UK”.
Warner Music Group is owned by Leonard Blavatnik’s Access Industries. Last year, Blavatnik moved into theatre ownership with a £45m purchase of the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
Pet Sounds - The Pet Shop Boys are composing new music for a forthcoming stage adaptation of My Beautiful Laundrette. The adaptation of Hanif Kureishi’s screenplay for the stage will open at Curve in Leicester on 20 September.
Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are creating predominantly instrumental music for the production, which is set in the 1980s. “It’s wonderful to be part of the team bringing My Beautiful Laundrette from the screen to the stage and we’ve enjoyed writing mainly instrumental music to be presented within a British Asian context,” Tennant and Lowe said.
(Jim Evans)
16 July 2019
