Simply the Best Halftime Show Ever

Posted on July 15, 2014 by mike

First, a disclaimer. Every performance featured on Newport 65 is selected because it’s been deemed extraordinary. Ninety-nine percent of the time, that also means the performance is excellent. But sometimes, as in this case, we’ll leave the descriptors at extraordinary.

Here is a very limited backstory: A group of failed contestants from the Dutch version of Pop Idol are tasked with performing Tina Turner’s Simply the Best during halftime of a soccer match. Chaos ensues. In this version and every other, the video cuts off during a dance break after the second chorus. It’s anybody’s guess what happened next.

Surely this video will generate mixed reactions. But it looks like our brave singers all enjoyed themselves, so who are we to judge?

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Ed Sheeran Plays One More Song

Posted on July 11, 2014 by mike

If the name Ed Sheeran makes you think top 40 radio, sappy songs, and a teeny bopper audience, fair enough. Those things have made him very famous and very rich. But before all that he put in the work, played over 300 shows in a year, and knows how to command a stage with the best of them.

The video below is from Ed’s encore at the 2012 iTunes festival, which he closed with You Need Me, I Don’t Need You. It’s hard to fill out a big venue without a full band, but here Ed Sheeran does it with only a guitar, a mic, a loop pedal, a few guest rappers, covers of In Da Club by 50 Cent, Red by Laid Blak, Welcome to Jamrock by Damian Marley, and The Sound of the Police by KRS-One, crowd participation, some role play from The Sound of Music, and that’s pretty much it.

If you have twenty minutes to spare, press play.

Posted in Covers, Rap/Hip-Hop, Singer/Songwriter | 1 Comment

Beyoncé Strips Down

Posted on July 6, 2014 by mike

Musically. Beyoncé strips down musically. Sorry for any misunderstanding.

The problem with concerts of pop megastars is that you are likely to see one of three things:  1. They dance around on stage while their record plays, 2. they sing along while their record plays, or 3. they sing with no recorded track and it sounds, let’s say, different from the record you’re used to.

So when all that production is actually around someone with real raw talent, it’s refreshing. Like here – Beyoncé showing crazy vocal skills singing Halo with just an acoustic guitar. Well, an acoustic guitar and a small gospel choir that I assume just follows her wherever she goes.

Also, this was in the cancer ward of Singapore’s National University Hospital. So, bonus points Beyoncé. Well done.

Posted in Pop, Soul/R&B | Leave a comment

Otis Redding Don’t Want to Go

Posted on July 3, 2014 by mike

Before Otis Redding played Monterey Pop in 1967, his shows had been primarily for black R&B audiences. But Monterey was mostly white flower children (you can get a good idea of the demographic from the first couple minutes of the video). With the help of Booker T and the MG’s, it’s safe to say Otis left with a few more fans than he came with.  Folks got turned on to something special that night.

Otis and the band closed the show with Try a Little Tenderness, and he sang an extra chorus before leaving stage, saying “I got to go, y’all, I don’t want to go”. Pretty fitting, as he died in a plane crash 6 months later, just 26 years old.

Gone too soon, but we still have this. For all the miniskirts. Now dig.

Posted in Soul/R&B | Leave a comment

Damien Rice is Very Very Mad at Someone

Posted on May 18, 2014 by mike

Damien Rice doesn’t hold back. And maybe sometimes he overreacts. Take the song Cheers Darlin’, for example. It’s got lyrics in it like “I die when you mention his name”. Turns out that song is about a girl he met one time, in a bar, and she had a boyfriend.

But still, real emotion is hard to miss. And when you see an artist on stage delivering it with full commitment, it’s something special. This is a great example – Damien playing Woman Like a Man at the Union Chapel in London. By the time he gets to the third chorus he is pure rage.

The video isn’t great quality, but the performance is. Enjoy, and be glad the song’s not about you.

Posted in Singer/Songwriter | Leave a comment