For a band that wasn’t here for a long time, The Traveling Wilburys’ musical feast for the ears remains as fulfilling as when it first sounded.

Popular music heavyweights George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison came together by happenstance in 1988, recording two critically acclaimed albums and winning a 1990 Grammy Award before disbanding — a move influenced by Orbison’s sudden death in late 1988 which preceded the second album’s release.

While the formation of The Traveling Wilburys came about as the result of a series of circumstances, the formation of tribute band The Traveling Milburys was very deliberate, according to band founder John Cassano — who also performs as “Otis Milbury”, the tribute band’s take on Jeff Lynne’s “Otis Wilbury” persona (each member of The Traveling Wilburys had adopted a tongue-in-cheek pseudonym as half-brothers from a fictional Wilbury family of travelling musicians).

“It’s an all-star band paying tribute to an all-star band,” explains Cassano.

“The first call I made was to Gerry Parsons. He’s in a tribute band called Practically Petty. The second call I made was to Jerry Boyer. He’s in a tribute band called The Liverpool Four. The third call I made was to Roy Leblanc. He is one of the world’s premiere Elvis and Roy Orbison tribute artists. And the fourth call I made was to Matt Greenberg (coming on board now, replacing Randy Shook). He did a tribute to Bob Dylan called The Dylan Tree which was widely acclaimed across Canada.”

“These are the top tribute artists dedicated to these particular artists that I could find in Canada.”

VIDEO: Introducing The Traveling Milburys

On Friday, November 29th, The Traveling Milburys will perform the songs of The Traveling Wilburys — as well as selected songs written by the band’s individual artists — at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre (140 Charlotte St. Peterborough).

Assigned seating tickets to the 8 p.m. performance are $35 including fees, available at the Market Hall box office, by phone at 705-749-1146, or online at markethall.org.

“When we got together, I was pretty insistent that we had all the right instruments, so we’re full to the brim with Rickenbackers, Gretschs, and Gibsons,” notes Cassano.

“We’ve produced a video for each song, so there’s eye candy for each and every song. And then there’s audience participation with lots of sing-alongs and trivia and prizes. We have a lot of fun with it. We don’t take ourselves too seriously on stage — other than the fact that we produce a performance that’s as true to the original as possible.”

Back in the early 1980s, Cassano started a Beatles tribute band that also performed New Wave music hits that were popular at the time. Later, working full-time as a creative director with a number of Toronto advertising agencies, Cassano kept up his musical chops, gravitating particularly toward the music of the Electric Light Orchestra, fronted by Lynne.

When he first considered putting together The Traveling Milburys, Cassano penciled himself in for Lynne’s role but not before “going back and rechecking out a lot of their songs and making sure I could hit those notes.”

Like countless popular music fans of his generation, Cassano is as taken by The Traveling Wilburys’ sound as he is by the story of how it came together.

As the story goes, in April 1988, Harrison was asked by his record company for a new song to serve as the B-side for the European release of “This Is Love”, his third single from his Cloud Nine album. While enjoying a meal with Lynne and Orbison, he asked Lynne to help him record the track and invited Orbison to come along.

VIDEO: “Milbury Twist”

That recording took place at Dylan’s garage studio in Malibu, which was available on short notice. Petty was invited to come along when Harrison went to his home to retrieve his guitar.

The resulting track, “Handle With Care”, was deemed too good to be relegated to B-side status. Their mutual admiration for each other serving as an anchor, the five musicians got together to record and release Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, with “Handle With Care” among its 10 tracks. Released in October 1988, the album brought multi-platinum sales in the United States, Canada, Australia, and England.

In March 1990, still devastated by the loss of their friend Orbison, the remaining four musicians recorded their second album, the mischievously named Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 — with the 2007 CD reissue including two bonus tracks: covers of Cy Coben and Mel Foree’s “Nobody’s Child”, first recorded by Hank Snow, and Del Shannon’s “Runaway”.

VIDEO: “You Got It”

“I had seen them individually in concert, except for Bob Dylan, but when you combine those voices, the sound that they made was a treat,” marvels Cassano. “Each one was a fan of the other. Egos were checked at the door.”

“George had everyone sing a version of whatever song they were doing, and then they sat around the studio and decided which one they liked best. It was a labour of love from when it started.”

When Petty passed away in October 2017, Cassano was drumming with a Top 40 tribute band. Deciding he no longer wanted to do that, he decided to look into forming a Traveling Wilburys tribute act.

“The atmosphere when we first got together was electric,” he recalls.

“We were all grinning because we all secretly wanted to do something like this. When it happened there was electricity in the air. We started learning the songs. Because we were all in tribute bands dedicated to one of the Traveling Wilburys artists, we all loved that component of it.”

VIDEO: “I Won’t Back Down”

Having played a number of dates across Ontario and in Nova Scotia, The Traveling Milburys incorporate into their set a sprinkling of hit songs by the five Traveling Wilburys members as individual artists.

“Because members of The Traveling Wilburys had such longevity, their music transcends the Baby Boomer crowd,” says Cassano of the enduring and all-ages appeal of the songs they perform.

“Ours is a performance for all the senses. When I put this thing together, I didn’t want a band that just played the songs. It needed to be an experience with audience participation. It also needed to be a visual experience. The result is a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere. It’s a fun night out.”

While Cassano is uncertain what’s in store for The Traveling Milburys in the future, he’s encouraged by the response so far.

“We all have day jobs and we’re getting up there in years,” he says. “Can we do this once our real careers are done? It’s growing, as more people are discovering what the band is all about, so who knows where it will go?”

For more information on The Traveling Milburys, visit travelingmilburys.com.

On Sunday, October 27th, local filmmakers Michael Hayes and Brendan Fell welcome your family to take a trip down the old stairs and into the creepy basement as they premiere their new film The Basement Monster at Showplace Performance Centre in downtown Peterborough.

The family-friendly screening is also a charity event raising funds for Habitat for Humanity Peterborough & Kawartha Region, an organization that helps local families achieve home ownership.

The Basement Monster stars Michael’s young daughters Zoe and Emma Hayes and co-stars local actress Kellie McKenty in a short film the filmmakers call a “family fantasy”.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon at The Silver Bean Cafe, I met with Brandon and Michael, along with eight-year-old Zoe and seven-year-old Emma, to talk about the film.

Zoe is bright and talkative, engaged in people watching and scoping out dogs, while Emma is much more subdued, listening intently to the conversation and once in a while having something funny to say.

The girls not only are the stars of the film, but had a big role in its development as well.

“As we developed the script, I realized it was a love letter to my daughter Emma,” Michael says. “While Zoe is outgoing and easily makes friends, Emma is shy and quiet — but once you get to know her she’s bright and clever kid.”

“We always talk about being brave and not being afraid of the world,” Michael adds. “So the movie really plays on that idea: the entire film is about being brave. The mom is going through some stuff and she has to be brave to move forward into a new life. The girls need to be brave. Even the monster has to be brave.”

The Basement Monster is the story of two little girls who move into a new house and discover a small creature living in their basement. Unsure at first if the monster is good or bad, the two eventually team up to help it find its way home.

“The Basement Monster started when we moved into our new house,” Michael says of the genesis of the film.

“It has a really spooky basement with old fieldstone. We were already involved in the Kawartha film industry and I was going to put the word out that we had a spooky basement if anybody wanted to film anything. But then I stopped and thought ‘Maybe I can make something instead.'”

“At the time I was commuting from Lindsay and Peterborough and I was stewing on the idea of doing something in a spooky basement,” Michael explains. “I really wanted to make a fantasy film, but I also realized that nobody makes short family films for kids.”

“Usually short films are impactful or send a message, or they’re upsetting with very heavy subject matter. Few people make anything that’s light and fun and a feel-good short film.”

“I remember I was driving back home through Omemee and I had one little idea: ‘The kids find a monster in the basement and have to get it back to its mom.’ That was all I had, but Brendan and I sat down a lot and just crafted the story over three months.”

Although the story is about a monster in a creepy basement, The Basement Monster harkens back to 1980s’ fantasy films such as Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, The Neverending Story, and especially E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial.

The production team had a monster puppet created for the film by Omemee-based special effect and makeup artist Rhonda Causton.

“I liked that we could do something that had a creature effect,” says Brendan. “I know that’s something that is dear to our heart. That was a fun element.”

“The original design for the monster actually came from Zoe,” Michael says proudly. “When we were first talking about the script, we’d bounce the ideas off of the girls. When hearing about the monster, Zoe started sketching little doodles of monsters, and she drew this little creature that looked like a potato with stick legs and three eyes.”

I ask Zoe to tell me about the monster. She simply says, “It has three eyes, it’s a baby monster, and she’s cute.”

“We never identified in the script if it was a boy or a girl, but Emma started identifying it as a ‘she’,” Michael says.

“It was at that point we realized this film passed the Bechdel test. All the characters in the film are female, they never talk about a guy, they’re not fighting with each other, and they are talking to each other. It wasn’t intentional, but we are proud of that.”

Co-starring alongside the girls in a supporting role is Kellie McKenty, who plays the girl’s mother. Going through her own emotional crisis, which is never fully explained, the mother’s personal drama leaves her distant from the girls, allowing their basement adventure to go virtually unnoticed under her feet.

“Something that really excited me about the story was the fact that we had a layer to the story with the mom’s story, which is not front and centre,” says Brendan.

“You have the sense that she’s gone undergone some transformation herself, because she is fairly stressed through the whole thing. But by the end you can tell that, somehow, things have resolved for her.”

The script for The Basement Monster is fast and clever and beautifully executed by the young actresses. But, as their father tells, even the dialogue came from real-life experiences with his girls.

“Some of the dialogue was directly from the girls,” Michael says. “The big moment near the end, when Zoe gives Emma the pep talk about being brave, was written by Zoe. I gave Zoe the scenario, and said ‘What would you tell Emma in this situation?’ and we wrote down what she would say. In the beginning, where Emma is playing with the dolls, is something I heard the girls doing while I was writing the script.”

Meanwhile, there is a special language between Emma and the monster that has a deeper meaning than just words.

VIDEO: “The Basement Monster” – Teaser Trailer

“That’s the dialogue that anybody is dealing with in their head when it comes to being brave,” Brendan points out. “It’s that eternal battle.”

The production team is currently working with the Applied Projects program at Sir Sanford Fleming College to help keep The Basement Monster alive after its Showplace screening.

“We met with the students and they are coming up with proposals to market the film,” says Michael. “We’ll be doing marketing up to the premiere, but then we’re looking at ways to keep it going afterwards.”

“We are looking at a lot of local screenings. Beyond that, we’ll be entering it into film festivals.”

While it does have a few chills and thrills (the filmmakers says kids under five “need to be brave”), at its core The Basement Monster a funny and moving family film that explores both the power of sisterhood and being kind and accepting of others who are different.

Michael and Brendan encourage audiences to bring their kids (children under eight are admitted into the screening for free) to this 30-minute film.

After the screening, there will be a chat with the cast and crew and a bonus outtakes video, making it a unique Halloween outing for the entire family.

The Basement Monster premieres at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 27th at Showplace Performance Centre (290 George St. N., Peterborough). Tickets are $10 (free for kids eight and under) and are available online at eventbrite.ca/e/the-basement-monster-premiere-tickets-71299910953a.

Every Thursday, we publish live music and performance events at pubs and clubs in Peterborough and The Kawarthas based on information that venues provide to us directly or post on their website or social media channels. Here are the listings for the week of Thursday, October 17 to Wednesday, October 23.

If you’re a pub or club owner and want to be included in our weekly listings, please email our Nightlife Editor at nightlife@kawarthanow.com.

On Thursday, October 24th, Cordwainer Productions makes its overdue return to Market Hall in downtown Peterborough with their revival of the cult musical Spring Awakening.

Directed by Dane Shumak with musical direction by Justin Hiscox, Spring Awakening is a dark coming-of-age musical featuring an incredibly talented cast fronted by Kevin Lemieux, Alessandra Ferreri, and Ryan Hancock, which tackles a plethora of difficult, yet timely, subjects such as underage sex, abortion, consent, abuse, suicide and grief.

Based on an 1891 play by German playwright Frank Wedekind, which was written as a cutting criticism on sexual repression, Spring Awakening once was a notorious theatrical oddity that was universally banned for more than 80 years, but became a surprise theatrical hit in 2006 when it was turned into a musical by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater. The show became a cult sensation, amassing a primarily teenage fan following who went to see the show over and over again, earning it eight Tony Awards as well as a Grammy for best original cast soundtrack.

Plot-wise, Spring Awakening isn’t very complex. Instead, it’s a character-based piece punctuated by a powerful pulsating rock-flavoured score that elicits strong emotional reactions. The story follows group of sexually curious school kids growing up in 1890s’ Germany.

At the centre of the drama is the relationship between Wendla Bergman (Alessandra Ferreri), a sweet and innocent young girl, and Melchoir Gabor (Kevin Lemieux), a clever free thinker who has declared himself an atheist and revolutionist. Adding to the drama is the major plotline dealing with Melchoir’s neurotic best friend Moritz, who is haunted by sexual thoughts and bullied by society, increasing his paranoia and desperation as he tries to figure out where he fits into the world.

A true passion project for its director, this is Dane Shumak’s second time doing Spring Awakening in Peterborough, which he originally presented through Trent University’s Anne Shirley Theatre Company in 2013. That original production was interesting yet problematic at times.

However, a lot has changed in six years and Dane — more experienced and working with a stronger and more mature cast — has had time to iron out a few wrinkles in the original production to spearhead one of the best theatrical musicals to come through Peterborough in a long while.

I recently attended a full dress rehearsal at Catharine Parr Traill College and this show isn’t like anything you’ve seen before — it’s something special altogether.

The strength of Spring Awakening truly lies in the cast that Dane has assembled. A ridiculously good-looking and talented group of performers, the cast is powerful and energetic, and brings the depth needed to make the characters in the show matter enough for the audience — so that the dramatic points of the show can create an impact that will brand itself onto the audience’s memory.

It’s the maturity of the cast that allows this to happen. Although playing young teenagers, most of the cast are adults. But through their youthful energy, combined with their ability to harness their emotions, the cast creates musical moments so potent I often felt myself physically reacting to the performance. Words can’t express the power of the musical performances. It’s not an easy score to sing, but when the company is singing all together it’s magical.

Kevin Lemieux reprises his role as the show’s hero Melchoir Gabor and, like Dane, years of experience and growth have helped Kevin recreate his character into the perfect dramatic hero. In many ways, Melchoir is the most centred character in the show. He’s wiser and more mature than the other characters, and through most of the show is the most grounded.

A Coldwainer mainstay, Kevin’s performances have consistently grown stronger and more dynamic with each show I’ve seen him in. Compared to his last outing as Melchoir (which was his first acting experience), I feel like I’m watching a completely different actor.

Strong, charismatic and confident, this is Kevin’s greatest performance to date.

Ryan Hancock also returns to Spring Awakening to reprise the role of Moritz. Always a solid actor and singer who has starred in some of the most memorable musicals I’ve covered for kawarthaNOW, Ryan plays the show’s most complex character.

A comical character at the beginning, Moritz is potentially the most tragic, and Ryan is able to bring Moritz to a dark and frightening place as the show continues.

It’s interesting to watch the character devolve from a sexually frustrated and confused teenager into a giant open wound that refuses to scab over. Ryan brings on the pain and passion and makes the character even darker in his reprisal of Moritz.

But the revival of Spring Awakening gets a real gift in the presence of Alessandra Ferreri, who takes on the role of the show’s heroine Wendla. Highly expressive and captivating to watch, Alessandra is able to harness a character at a unique stage of life: caught between still being a young girl but with the desires and curiosity of a woman.

Wendla seems innocent, but at times also seems to be the wisest character. She is painfully naive, yet the most knowing. Alessandra manages to take these opposing character traits and weave them into a beautifully tragic figure.

Watch her eyes. They will both charm and haunt you at the same time.

As previously stated, the entire cast is strong, and each cast member has his or her own moments in the spotlight, including some character vignettes that outline minor sub-plots.

Caitlin Currie, who is always an interesting stage performer, pairs up with Kalene Lupton to perform “The Dark I Know Well”, outlining physical abuse, while Drew Mills and Carl Christensen explore their characters’ attraction to one another in “The Word of Your Body”. And Rowan Lamoureux steps out for a dynamic solo performance in “Touch Me”.

But it’s in the musical numbers featuring the entire main cast — which also includes Amiee Gordon, Joseph Roper, and Sarah Hancock — that are the most phenomenal. Pulsating rock numbers like “The Bitch of Living” and “Totally Fucked”, and the emotional finale “The Song of Purple Summer”, are the show’s biggest moments.

A special shout-out goes to Keith Goranson and Meg O’Sullivan who perform all of the adult character roles in the show. It’s a bit awkward at first to decipher if they are playing the same adult roles or not, but once you realize they aren’t, it’s fairly seamless.

Much has been written about the controversial nature of the play and, for some audience members, the subject matter may be triggering and difficult, especially in regards to it being a show about teenage sexuality. But Spring Awakening is a very important show, and even more important now than ever before.

In a society that seems to be dangerously slipping backwards into an ultra-conservative social nightmare, the conversations that may result from Spring Awakening are important and needed. Be informed before going in, but tread bravely into Spring Awakening with an open mind and an open heart.

I’ll be blunt: Spring Awakening is not the feel-good musical of the year, but it could be the best one. It is easily one of the best shows to be done in Peterborough in 2019. The intensity and passion put into this show is so white hot that I could feel my heart throbbing all the way in my throat after it was over.

Don’t even second-guess getting tickets to this show. I see a lot of theatre over the course of a a year, and this is one of my favourite shows thus far.

Spring Awakening will be performed in Peterborough at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre (140 Charlotte St. E., Peterborough) from Thursday, October 24th to Saturday, October 26th. Tickets are $28 ($23 for students). There is also a group rate of $20 per person for groups of 10 or more. Tickets are available at the Market Hall box office, by phone at 705-749-1146, or online at markethall.org. Performances starts at 8 p.m.

Additionally, the company will be performing Spring Awakening in Whitby on Friday, October 18th and Saturday, October 19th at the Whitby Centennial Building (416 Centre St. S., Whitby). Tickets are $25 plus fees (with the $20 group rate also available). Advance tickets are available via Eventbrite.

Note: Spring Awakening deals with mature themes and is not recommended for audiences under 14 years of age.

On Saturday, November 2nd, the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra (PSO) will draw up the curtain on a musically rich 53rd season with “Between Us”, a concert at Showplace Performance Centre (290 George St. N., Peterborough) sponsored by Bryston.

The program premieres the new season beautifully with the PSO taking up where they left off, presenting an exciting and inspiring season of music from many countries and cultures spanning over centuries of creativity — a season the PSO is labelling “Hear the Vision”.

“Our orchestra has grown exponentially over the past couple of years in its artistic depth, which allows us to bring even more great music to you than ever before,” says Michael Newnham, the PSO’s Music Director and Conductor.

“Between Us” will take the audience through Robert Schumann’s great Symphony No. 3, Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major, Clara Schumann’s Prelude and Fugue No. 3, and Violet Archer’s Fanfare and passacaglia, in an exploration of the meaning of friendship and love, as well as a celebration of the emergence of women composers over the last century.

Opening the concert is Fanfare and passacaglia, composed by Violet Archer, a seminal figure in Canadian music.

“When I listened to an old tape recording of her Fanfare and passacaglia, I was struck by two things: the power of the piece and the sense of occasion,” Maestro Newnham. “Because it begins with a brass and percussion fanfare, it is a very good season opener.”

Following is Schumann’s “Rhenish” Symphony. After the intermission is Prelude and Fugue No. 3 by Clara Schumann and, to close, Brahms’ Violin Concerto.

“The passacaglia is a musical form which composers had been using since well before the time of Bach,” Maestro Newnham says on the interrelation between the pieces.

“Brahms and Schumann were also masters of the variation form, including the passacaglia,” he adds. “They were also pioneers in rediscovering ‘old’ music and using older musical forms in newer contexts. In particular, the fourth movement in Schumann’s Rhenish Symphony is also directly inspired by baroque music — Bach, in particular.”

Concert narrator, musician, and CBC Music’s Shift host Tom Allen will speak about the relationships between composers Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, and Johannes Brahms.

In choosing to have a narrator, Maestro Newnham explains:

“The stories and relationships between these three individuals are complicated and fascinating. We wanted to create a concert experience that goes ‘beyond the music’ and has the spoken word to help make some of these connections for the audience. There is nobody better than Tom Allen to do this. He is the ultimate musical storyteller, with a gift of inspiring and engaging people in the world of music with his insights and humour.”

Canadian violin virtuoso and Peterborough favourite Jonathan Crow performs Brahms’ epic Violin Concerto in D major. Jonathan is concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, artistic director of Toronto Summer Music, associate professor of violin at the University of Toronto, and founding member of the Juno Award-winning New Orford String Quartet.

He is also husband to cellist Molly Read, father to two musically talented girls (one of who’s cast-off pink lunch box he carries to work, stating, “It’s getting pretty ratty, but it’s a great lunch bag — insulated and everything!”), and caretaker of two cats.

Jonathan describes Brahms’ Violin Concerto as “epic, exhausting, exhilarating. This is one of the cornerstones of the violin repertoire, and one of the greatest pieces ever written for the violin.”

On having Jonathan as guest artist for this piece, Maestro Newnham says “Violinists often say that Brahms’ Violin Concerto is one of the most challenging pieces in the repertoire, and so I feel very spoiled by having the great Canadian violinist Jonathan Crow back to the PSO to play this great monumental work.”

The concerto had an inauspicious premiere with the applause being lukewarm, although this was perhaps due to the audience being distracted by Brahms’ failure to properly hook up his suspenders, but is now considered a favourite of the concert hall.

In May 1853, Johannes Brahms, an as-yet-unknown composer, and Joseph Joachim, a brilliant up-and-coming violinist, met. They established an immediate friendship, and future musical history was to be made. The violin concerto was written for and dedicated to Joachim, and it was Joachim who introduced Brahms to the Schumanns — beginning a most fabled relationship in music.

Even though the first movement is distinguished for its improvised cadenza, Jonathan will be performing the Joachim cadenza.

“I’ve written my own cadenza to this and other concerti, but I always come back to the Joachim for performances,” Jonathan says. “His connection to Brahms and contributions to the creation of this piece are just too strong for me not to play his cadenz.”

Jonathan will be playing a 1742 del Gesu that is on loan to him.

“It’s an amazing violin and has everything you could ever want from an instrument,” he says. “Exploring the different sounds and colours that it holds is a lifelong journey.”

The work is uncharacteristically egalitarian in nature. While the first movement is in sonata form (that being a composition for an instrumental soloist), it is the orchestra that begins with an extended introduction and development of theme, followed by a subsequent presentation of the intimate second theme by a solo oboe, before the dramatic entrance of the violin soloist over a timpani roll.

The second movement, a “poor Adagio” — which had replaced the two middle movements that “fell apart” in an originally planned and unprecedented four-movement scheme — is unique for its foundational solo oboe melody with orchestral accompaniment, again before the violin enters with a passionate variation on the theme, and then a return to the melody played by the orchestra.

The third movement is a collaborative relationship between soloist in virtuosic fashion — multiple stopping, broken chords, rapid scale passages, and rhythmic variation — and orchestra in merry gypsy spirit.

VIDEO: Schumann: Symphony No. 3 “Rhenish” / Rattle – Berliner Philharmoniker

The PSO extends a special welcome to first-time concertgoers for “Between Us.”

“It is rare that we have two illustrious guests at one of our concerts, and I am greatly looking forward to this very special opening concert for a very special concert season,” says Maestro Newnham.

On playing with the orchestra, Jonathan says that he “had a great time last time performed with the PSO and Michael — it’s an orchestra with a great attitude! It was amazing to see every musician committed to make something incredible onstage, and having a great time while doing it.”

If you are feeling intimidated by the thought of a classical music concert, don’t be. Jonathan suggests just removing the word “classical”.

“Music is music,” he points out. “It doesn’t really matter what kind of music it is. There is something amazing about every concert and everything on stage. Brahms didn’t write a ‘classical’ concerto — he just wrote a piece that meant something to him. And hopefully to everyone in the audience!”

“We’ve all heard and loved classical music in films and in pop songs, but somehow we think of an orchestra concert as something different and foreboding — it’s not.”

“Between Us” will be performed beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 2nd at Showplace Performance Centre (290 George St. N., Peterborough). Tickets are $49, $39 or $20 for adults and $10 for students, and are available in person at the Showplace box office, by phone at 705-742-7469, and online.

Concert ticket holders are invited to attend “Meet the Maestro”, a popular ‘behind-the-music’ pre-concert talk with Maestro Newnham, at 6:40 p.m. in the Showplace theatre.

It’s not an April Fool’s joke — the original gothic rocker, Alice Cooper, will be bringing his “Ol’ Black Eyes Is Back” tour to the Peterborough Memorial Centre (PMC) on April 1, 2020.

Born Vincent Damon Furnier in Detroit, Cooper began performing more than 50 years ago, first as the frontman of the Alice Cooper band — discovered by Frank Zappa in 1969 in Los Angeles, where he signed them to his record label — and then as a solo artist.

The Alice Cooper band’s collaboration with young record producer Bob Ezrin led to the break-through third album Love It to Death, which hit the charts in 1971, followed by Killer, School’s Out, Billion Dollar Babies, and Muscle of Love.

In 1975, Cooper released his first solo album Welcome to My Nightmare in 1975, accompanied by the legendary groundbreaking theatrical Welcome to My Nightmare concert tour.

In September, Cooper released his The Breadcrumbs EP, a tribute to some of the garage rock heroes from his hometown Detroit Inspired by the city’s punk scene in the late ’60s and early ’70s, Cooper returned to his roots and the raw garage sound his fans love.

The Bob Ezrin-produced EP consists of six brand new recordings, featuring legendary Detroit musicians, including Johnny “Bee” Badanjek from the Detroit Wheels, Grand Funk’s Mark Farner, and MC5’s Wayne Kramer.

VIDEO: “Poison” – Alice Cooper

VIDEO: “School’s Out” – Alice Cooper

Known for his grisly theatrics and black humour, Cooper’s concerts draw from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock, with props including electric chairs, guillotines, fake blood, and boa constrictors.

The 71-year-old musician’s Peterborough concert will kick off his spring 2020 tour and is his only Ontario date.

British-born American heavy metal guitarist Lita Ford (The Runaways) will be opening.

Single tickets range from $49 to $89 (plus fees and taxes) and go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. on Friday, October 18th (PMC Scoop presale begins on Thursday, October 17th at 10 a.m.). VIP packages are available ranging from $259 to $929.

Tickets are available online at www.memorialcentre.ca, over the phone 705-743-3561, or in person at the Grant Thornton Box Office located inside the PMC (151 Lansdowne St. W., Peterborough).