PRESENTS

Welcome to my op-ed page, The Grapevine News & Views. I started this section in 2002 so that I'd have a place to air my views on my own website. (Go figure.) Who knew blogging would become such a phenomenon! If you've sought this page out, here you will find my views about anything I find or am sent about Johnny Mathis on the Internet and elsewhere, that had been overlooked by the "official" sites. I also find Mathis connections, people, places, and events that have been touched by the influence of Johnny Mathis, and oftentimes I simply ramble. So thanks for reading what I have to say, and thanks for coming by.

VOL. 5 NO. 2 - MARCH 25, 2006

MOST EXCELLENT NEWS: Not just the UK, but all of Europe should rejoice! After God-Knows-How Long, Johnny Mathis returns to Great Britain! To top it off, he's not playing any puny concert hall, either, but the MEN Arena in Manchester (formerly Nynex Arena), Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre Arena, and Middlesex's venerable WEMBLEY STADIUM. With the exception of Birmingham's facility, these are SOCCER STADIUMS, people! The biggest opera house you know of won't even compare! Plenty of room for French, German, Norwegian, and anybody else in Europe who wants to show that yes, Johnny Mathis IS a viable concert draw, even in 2006. I'll be willing to bet that he sells out all three stadiums! Tickets for all three UK events went on sale Friday, March 24th.

This is HUGE! To think of Johnny Mathis at Wembley; to think of all the great concerts that have been held there. Huge acts that draw huge crowds, like the Rolling Stones, and Elton John (who shares a birthday today with Aretha Franklin) and Michael Jackson and Tina Turner and Lionel Richie and Diana Ross (whose birthday is Sunday) and Celine Dion (birthday March 30th). The late great Luther Vandross sold out Wembley stadium. And don't forget 1985's LiveAid! And now Johnny Mathis gets his turn to fill Wembley. Why a concert that's destined to be this big is on a WEDNESDAY NIGHT is beyond me. I guess they figure the people who will be attending aren't working for a living anyway; but I find this a tad short-sighted. I don't see a lot of people going overseas from America, but possibly Canadians may go, especially those from the eastern provinces. People from continental Europe can take the train in from France and make a night of it; oh, wow. This will be huge. Just huge.

Wouldn't it be great if, to honor his 50th anniversary (as of this month) they put together a new live concert DVD of the occasion?? Out just in time for Christmas, of course... If such a thing were to be in the works, I think the British should get first crack at it, because after all, THEY are the ones who put Johnny Mathis back on the map. I've noticed a British-based PR agency in place for handling newspaper interviews, called Noble PR. Oh, and please note that besides the ticketline site, Ticketmaster is also selling tickets through their UK site. Check my See Mathis Live links for information.

You know, there's nothing that makes a point quite like cold, hard cash, is there? It took a top-ten album to prove to the music promoters who refused to believe otherwise that Johnny Mathis is a big draw overseas. Brazilians, please take note. If you want him down in your country as well, put his album on the charts, HIGH on the charts, and the people with reals or pounds or dollarsigns in their eyes will take notice and act accordingly. Because let's face it; you can tell someone until you're blue in the face how great Johnny Mathis is, but when a 70-year-old man has a best-selling album, that's going to be hard for even the money-grubbing youth-driven music business to ignore.

SPECIAL PACKAGING FROM WAL-MART:I don't see this mentioned ANYWHERE else, but you'll see it here. Wal-Mart, that store people love to hate, is offering Mathis' stellar album Isn't It Romantic as a music download complete with BONUS INTERVIEW! The weird part about it, though, is that it's apparently unable to be played by the iPod. WHAT ELSE IS THERE?! At any rate, with the album "padded" with interview exerpts the frustratingly short recording becomes 52 minutes long.

How people experience music has certainly changed. We've gone beyond the packaging and drooling on album covers to the pure experience of the music, from that which produces the music (stereo or computer) to that which processes the music (our ears). The other four senses are pretty much left out of it! That being said, being able to bypass CDs and their ancestors LPs altogether means a lot less storage space and stuff to dust and clean! So I guess ultimately, one takes the good with the bad.

©2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Iris Gross Georg. All rights reserved. Absolutely NO part of this website may be used without my written permission.

Back to the Mathis Chronicles