On one hand it's depressing that in two out of the three auctions there was only one bid placed but on the other hand, as there were 4 tickets in each lot, it means that $1,240 was raised to help buy instruments for musicians affected by Hurricane Katrina last year. (Someone also pointed out to me that lots of fans of The New Cars will have bought their tickets when the concerts first went on sale so won't have bid on the auction.)

Meanwhile in a non-charity auction Dodge Theatre, Phoenix, AZ have ten seats of two seats in the Pit. The opening bid is $160 per ticket (so $320 for each auction lot) and currently there has only been one bid of $160 on one of the lots. The auction ends next Tuesday (18th).

The New Cars - a foot-tapping band!:

Many thanks to Noble PR for this photo.

Noble PR are still showing the release date in US as 9th May and in Europe as 12th June.

The release date for the album in Europe is unchanged at 12th June.

The single release from the album Not Tonight is a new entry at #29 on the Triple A National Airplay chart on RadioAndRecords.com with 111 plays this week! Last week the single was on the Most Increased Plays list.

Many thanks to J-Roo for this info.

The interview is with Greg Hawkes and Elliot Easton but there are a few nice mentions of Kasim Sulton:

"I’d like to be doing this for a long long time and the band we have is a band of great players. Kasim is a wonderful bass player and great singer – in fact he sings ‘Drive’ in the show. He has that sweet voice that Benjamin could do. Prairie Prince from The Tubes is just a powerhouse drummer. It just feels great with a really rocking rhythm section. We’ve got deeper grooves than we could achieve before. I love the old band and I’m proud of the work we did and I’m not trying to compare or say this is a better band, but this is a really great band that’s fun to play with."

"The plan is to do this tour and the hope is that we will be received well enough to warrant a world tour through 2006 and after that the plan would be to do a studio album of new material."

" It’s perfectly natural that Todd brings in his songs... he’s got a legion of fans who’ll come to see him and wonder ‘what’s he doing with these guys?’ It’s a perfectly natural acknowledgment of not just Elliott and I’s history, but his and Kasim’s as well."

The article also talks about how the band came to play together and the footnote says that The New Cars will be touring the UK and Europe in September 2006.

The show is on from 5.00pm until 5.30pm EST today. Click here (at the top of the page) for the Internet stream. Although it's unlikely that Kasim Sulton will be interviewed the blurb mentions both Meat Loaf and Todd Rundgren:

"Kate Thornton explores albums which have each sold in excess of 10 million copies worldwide, revealing what was at work in the tracks that appealed to so many people.

1/4. Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell Meat Loaf revisits his 1977 release, reflecting on the music he created with Jim Steinman, the maverick producing style of Todd Rundgren, the way the record company tried to sabotage the record and the reception he received on arriving in the UK the summer of 1978.

With Meat Loaf currently in the studio putting the finishing touches to Bat Out of Hell 3, it is an appropriate time to return to the original masterpiece in this opening edition of 10 Million Can't Be Wrong."

If you miss this airing then Radio 2 often repeats some of their shows on the Internet for the next week.

Many thanks to Ana for forwarding this info.

Apparently the conference was more successful than ever before as it had an exhibitor growth of 5% and a ten percent increase in visitor numbers. The conference passed the 100,000 visitors mark for the first time too with 101,166 visitors.

Besides a further increase in the number of visitors from outside Germany compared to 2005, there were also more German visitors to the fairs. The bulk of the 35,790 foreign guests (+16.1 %) from 120 countries came from Europe, e.g., the Benelux countries, Switzerland, Italy, Great Britain, Sweden, Austria, Czech Republic, Greece and France. 65,376 visitors (+ 6.8 %) came from Germany.

MusikMesse Frankfurt will take place next year from 28 to 31 March 2007.

The thread also contains (in English) a nice story of him meeting Sherrie Williams in Clearwater, FL in 2004.

Many thanks to Stephanie Regan for finding these photos.

If you use the cheapest special package then they are only offering a seat in the 7th row of the second block back (that's the block behind the $76.25 seat) for $169. The most expensive package at that venue is $395 and has a seat in the third row of the front block (plus a non-Kasim Meet and Greet).

(Incidentially I bought a ticket for this concert when it first went on sale for the second row of the front block for just £76.25, plus charges).

However, the best single seat available currently for the concert in Hollywood, Florida on 15th June at the basic price of $70 (plus charges) is in the third block back (43 rows away from the stage).

The cheapest package at this venue costs $179 and has a single seat in the 14th row from the stage and the most expensive package here costs $405 but offers a seat in the third row from the stage (on Kasim's side of the stage!) with the non-Kasim Meet and Greet.

This one is a Vox Electric Semi-hollow guitar and was manufactured in Italy in the Mid 60's - the serial number on the backplate of the neck is #296385. The auction started last Monday and ends on this coming Monday. The opening price was $99 and it's currently $100 (after two bids) but the reserve has not yet been met. (There is also a "Buy It Now" price of $450.) The page also contains 8 photos of the guitar which were taken in Kasim's home studio (I recognize the mats!)

This guitar is Kasim's Washburn Acoustic Electric 12 string guitar which he used on a Meat Loaf tour. The serial number of the guitar is 9200810. The opening price for this auction was $99 and the auction is currently at $270 after 12 bids. The auction started last Tuesday and ends next Tuesday. The reserve has also not yet been met and there are photos of Kasim's guitar on this page too.

Kasim has 100% positive feedback on E-Bay.com!

Click here for the link to the photos. Direck links to the best of the new photos are:
Kasim and his signature bass
An interesting look on his face
Just Kasim

(This is also another great photo but it does make it look as though his right hand is deformed!)

Many thanks to the kind person who sent me this link.

Classic Rock Revisited has a review of the album The New Cars: It's Alive. They give it a grade of B which means "Buy it". As reviews of albums often disappear from external websites, it says:

"The Cars without Ric Ocasek? What are they thinking? Wouldn’t that be like The Stones without Mick or Jethro Tull without Ian Anderson? How could they think they could pull this off? How can they think the fans would support this? Surly this is one big joke! After all, there are only two members of the original band in this line up; Elliott Easton and Greg Hawkes.

That is what I thought before receiving this CD. Now, after several listens – at first begrudgingly and later with the volume cranked – I have become a fan of The New Cars. The rest of the band contains some pretty huge names. The main attraction, taking the spot of Ocasek, is rock legend and musical genious Todd Rundgren. Hmm, that is interesting. The Tubes' Prairie Prince is on drums and from Utopia and Meat Loaf is Kasim Sulton. That is a great band. Maybe, just maybe this is a rare case where it will work.

Let’s take a gander at the track listing. Hmm, we have "Just What I Needed," "Let’s Go," "You’re All I’ve Got Tonight," "Bye Bye Love" and "Dangerous Type." They are playing huge hits but also pulling out several forgotten gems from the band’s first two albums. We also have "You Might Think" and "Drive" as well as "Moving In Stereo" and "Candy-O." There is a pretty decent version of the Rundgren track called "I Saw The Light." The band are probably better live than the old Cars. Easton seems to be playing better than ever with a serrated edge that is much sharper than before. Prairie’s drumming is awesome and Sulton is a great bass player and adds strong background vocals.

Sure, it would be better if Ric was there but the fact is that he does not want to tour. He does not seem to want to have anything to do with the band that he once led. Why should Easton and Hawkes suffer for it? At least they had the decency to change the name and get the best batch of musicians they could for the project. It is wonderful to hear these songs come back to life. So, if you are in the market for a new set of wheels then take The New Cars for a test drive. If you like it then sign on the dotted line and put the pedal to the metal to catch up with the band on tour with Blondie at a venue near you."

Many thanks to J-Roo for finding this review.

1) On Saturday 1st April it was reported here about the start of the online auctions to help buy instruments for musicians affected by Hurricane Katrina last year. 4 tickets are available for 3 of The New Cars' concerts plus each winning bid will receive an autographed Epiphone guitar (the guitar may not be autographed by all the band). The bid price is per ticket and all 4 tickets at each concert are one lot. The auctions end on Tuesday 11th April so now that it's about halfway through the auctions the latest postitions seem to be:

(I find this a bit depressing considering that the tickets are for concerts featuring both The New Cars and Blondie. I looked at a couple of Def Leppard / Journey combined concerts also in the auction for the same charity and their tickets are up to $200 and $250 (after starting at $100). Even one of the Sammy Hagar tickets in the same acution are $250 and they started at $60!)

2) Meanwhile the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona started a "Premium Ticket Auction" 4 days ago. The auction runs until 18th April and is for the four front rows (in the Pit area of the venue). Click here to view the auction but there are 50 packages available of 2 tickets per package. The minimum bid (per ticket) is $160 (so $320 for the pair).

The auction started on Monday and so far there has only been one bid placed of the lowest possible bid of $160 per ticket. There have been no bids placed so far on the other 49 packages.

(To be fair to Dodge Theatre, this venue is one of the most expensive of the whole tour for just basic seats too.)

3) Chris Stein of Blondie posted on Blondie.net (the official Blondie website) on Saturday:

"I have to straighten one thing out... about the meet and greets, we just thought it felt sort of exploitative and that's why we are not doing them... now together with some of my comments about sometimes not being able to sign autographs people are coming to some mistaken conclusions... we will of course try and sign autographs, we always do... we don't like to sign guitar pick guards, drumheads and other obvious E-Bay items... but beyond that I have signed every f**king thing from clothing to cigarette packs!"

It appears that some other websites were linking directly to The New Cars' videos on my servers and therefore using my bandwidth so the links to these videos have been changed as this has cost me money.

The article in the graphic to the right appeared in Uncut magazine (described as "Music and Movies with something to say") in UK today.

Many thanks to NoblePR for forwarding this article.