Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Yeah Right. I don't Think So.

Carly was over on Facebook checking out the what was happening. Vicki sent her the latest Facebook message that Brian Murphy had posted. In his Facebook post Brian was thanking his fans for all their years of support and love. He mentioned that after the UK shows that was going to be it when it came to touring. Carly thought Brian was so full of BS. She knew he'd be back on the road again. Maybe not for long stretches  but short stretches. Brian never learned how to pace himself. He just kept going and going which was not a good thing. At least Barry knew how to pace himself so he wouldn't be burned out. This Sunday June twelfth was the Tony Awards. Carly had her dress for the night. Then on Monday Barry was getting up bright and early six am to get ready to go to JFK. Carly was taking him to the airport to say goodbye to him. Barry flight was at eleven fifteen am New York time. Barry was headed off to London. He would start his Palladium run on Thursday June sixteenth.  The BMIFC's convention started on Wednesday June fifteenth and ended Sunday June nineteenth. Carly wasn't going to the convention. Her friends Janice, Kate and Vicki weren't to happy about that at all. July twelfth was  Carly's first wedding anniversary she wanted to spend it with Barry. So he would be leaving Friday July eighth at ten thirty am on Delta airlines. Carly was staying in London till July seventeenth. She was going to see three of Barry's Palladium shows, Once Barry got back home from the UK they were going on vacation. Now of course they were going by Amtrak.  San Francisco was where Barry thought they might go. While there they could go to Napa Valley which is wine country. Barry's friends Brian Murphy, Dave Koz and Michael Lington kept after him about getting his own wine. Brian had his M wine, Dave had his Koz wine and Michael had his Lington Wine. Because Michael also smoked cigars he had his own cigar line. Barry told those guys he'd think about it. Carly heard her phone ring so she picked it up. It was Janice. Hello she said. Janice wanted Carly to know she. Kate and Vicki got much sought after tickets to Brian Murphy's O2 show on June twenty fourth. The O2 was the last show Brian was doing in the UK. Right now Brian was up in  Edinburgh for one show.  Then it was on to Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff and Bournemouth. With London's O2 being the last show. However Barry told Carly that Brian was adding one more show for Saturday June twenty fifth. Carly made Janice aware of that fact incase the girls wanted to go on Saturday to see Brian.  Barry's Palladium run was going thru Saturday August twenty seven.
Then Barry wouldn't be busy again until  November eighth when he would be at Rough Trade in Williamsburg for an album signing.  That was the day his secret album was being released. The album was coming out on CD and vinyl formats. Barry was surprising his fans with a couple of songs off that secret album during the Palladium shows. Then came the New Years Eve shows at Radio City Music Hall. Barry would then be off till March when he toured Canada. Next summer was the big sheds tour. During summer sheds tour Barry was doing three nights at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in July. The Colorado Symphony Orchestra with guest conductor Andrew Litton would be on stage with him for all three shows. The three shows were being audio and video taped for a CD and DVD combo set. Since his dear friend John Denver was from Aspen Colorado Barry decided to pay tribute to him. He was going to start all three Red Rocks shows singing some of John's classic songs. Barry had chosen Music Is You, Welcome To My Morning (Farewell Andromeda), Rocky mountain High, Leaving On A Jet Plane, Fly Away and Calypso. What none of the fans knew was  that Barry had taken up the acoustic guitar . He bought himself a Yamaha FG 180 acoustic guitar. He had secretly been taking guitar lesions and actually he was pretty good at it. Barry could play guitar,  keyboards, piano and synthesizer. Barry had a Yamaha C2X baby grand, a Yamaha Avant Grand, a Yamaha Disklavier, a Yamaha CP4 Stage Digital piano, a Yamaha MOTIF FX synthesizer and now a Yamaha Acoustic FG 180 guitar. Barry had all his musical instruments and his recording equipment insured. So if anything got stolen it could be replaced. His Yamaha C2X baby grand cost over fifty thousand dollars alone. Barry saw Garry who was over in London. His wife Denise was a huge Brian Murphy fan. So he promised her he'd take her to see Brian in the UK. They went to the Newcastle concert and Garry said there were loads of people down in front video taping the show. Boy was Gregory Knoffler going to have a field day telling those people to take down their streaming videos. Also having their Youtube accounts deleted. That was one thing Barry never had to worry about. From the beginning of Barry's concert career Barry had his concerts filmed.  Once the internet became popular he started his BTV channel. The BTV channel was for his fans to watch the concerts that had been filmed over the years since nineteen eighty four. Nineteen eighty four was the first time Barry toured. That tour the Paradise Café Tour was a huge success. Every concert was standing room only. It was the highest grossing concert of nineteen eighty four. Beating out artist Whitney Houston. Which made Clive Davis very upset since he was also on Arista Records at the time. Clive hated Barry Alan Manilow with a passion. When Barry was born back in nineteen forty three he was named Barry Alan Pincus. When he turned thirteen his relatives wanted his name changed Barry kept his first name and middle name. He just changing his last from Pincus to Manilow which was his mom Edna's madden name. The reason Clive hated Barry was the fact that his first album 2:00AM Paradise Café was such a huge success. The album came out certified quadruple platinum. It entered the Billboard Hot 200 album chart at number one. Billboard Jazz chart number one. First single Paradise Café was certified quadruple platinum when it came out. It debut on Billboard's  Hot 100 singles chart at number one. Grammy Awards nineteen eight five  2:00AM Paradise Café  Grammy Award for Best Jazz album.  Barry Manilow Grammy for Best Jazz Artist. Every album after that the same things would happen. When LA Reed took over Arista Records Barry was so glad to leave Arista Records. In two thousand one Barry went to a dinner party where he met Glen Barros the head of Concord Records. Glen had heard of Barry and knew his successful track record. So he quickly signed him to the Concord Records Concord Jazz label. Which is where Barry's been ever since.

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