Barry's Latest Google + Message

Hi Gang!
It's me Barry your editor in chef of the BMIFC Barry Gram. This is the  holiday issue 2017 cover. The photo on the cover is a fan favorite. Most of the holiday issue is finished. I'm putting the last bit of finishing touches to this issue. I chose to introduce you all to someone I met in 2003 when I did my A&E A Barry Manilow Christmas Live By Request Special. My guest for the special were my friend an saxophone player Kenny G. and female singer Cyndi Lauper. Cyndi and I instantly became friends after that.special In January I'm headed to the UK for my Williamsburg autobiography book signing tour. I am also taking part in a concert at the O2 to benefit "Don't Bully Me." an anti-bulling campaign. Cyndi and I are going to be on stage together to sing one of her songs True Colors. At the end Cyndi, myself and all the rest of the artists are coming out to one more song. Together we will all sing my song One Voice. I will come out first to star singing my song One Voice. Then Cyndi will come out to join me. Then all the rest of the artists will come out and join us as we all sing my song One Voice. A local London church chorus will also be singing with all of us on One Voice. The "Don't Bully Me." anti-bulling benefit concert will take place the Sunday before I go on my book signing tour. Now before I leave  London I'm doing two night at the O2. I wanted UK fan to see my Williamsburg Tour that I did last summer. That's when I played all the outdoor amphitheater's. I had a blast last year on tour. So thanks to all my US fans for filling each outdoor venue to capacity. Every night the pavilion was filled and so was the lawn. The BMIFC Denver Convention was great. The barbecue on Saturday was a blast. I did get yelled at for eating a hotdog. Barry your Jewish and Jewish people don't eat pork. I told them it was a Hebrew National hotdog. Their slogan is "We speak to a higher authority." That's because Hebrew National is a kosher all beef hotdog. I had ketchup, mustard and relish on mine. Then after the concert we all went back to the place  where we had our barbecue. A bonfire had been built there and we toasted marshmallows. We put the marshmallows in between two graham crackers and some Hershey's chocolate to make s'mores. Boy were they good . Yum! We did a three part round on Brian Murphy's song Can't Smile Without You. Now a three part round is where you split a large group into three equal groups. The first group starts then in comes the second group and finally the third group comes in. We had blast doing that. I truly enjoyed being on the road this summer. I haven't played the outdoor sheds as I use to call them in a long time. Next year is the Australian and New Zealand leg of my Williamsburg Tour. The BNIFC is having their convention down under in Melbourne. The convention will be Thursday June 14th thru Sunday June 17th. I learned  my dear friend John Denver's song Sing Australia so I can sing it while I'm on tour down under. I'm also going to sing Calypso and Leaving On A Jet Plane by John Denver too. I'm bring my Yamaha  LS-TA transacoustical guitar with me. I played it the five nights I was at Red Rocks Amphitheater.  Surprises the heck out of the fans who were there. None of them knew I could  play an acoustic guitar. Everyone knows I can play assorted types of pianos and keyboards. They also know I prefer Yamaha brand keyboards and pianos. Before I went on my four city concerts to benefit Hurricane Nate. I went to Jack Feldman's house to see the new piano he got. It's Sauter Anbiente elegance purisum  piano designed by Peter Maly. Sauter pianos are made in Germany. I loved the feel of Jack's new piano. He told me where he got his Sauter piano at. I went to the Sauter dealer in New Jersey. I ordered the Sauter Ambiente piano for myself. It came a week before I went to do the four benefit concerts. I took that one with me when I did the four benefit concerts. Now all my fans know that besides playing keyboards and pianos I can play an acoustic guitar. All five nights at  Red Rocks I opened with a tribute to my late friend John Denver. John had a home up in Aspen Colorado. The top floor of his house was glass enclosed on four sides. John would go up there to write his songs. The views were breath taking. You could see hawks, eagles and other birds flying around. I visited him twice while he lived there. John is sorely missed by me and all who loved him his family, friends and fans. When I sang Rock Mountain High I could feel his presences there. both John and I got to meet Jacques Cousteau. I got to go on two expeditions with Jacque Cousteau. One was to the Alaskan coastline the other was off the coast of Australia and New Zealand. On my bucket list of albums to do is a tribute album to my friend John Denver. Carly said one of her friends Kathy Rooney Henry sent her this article on Brian Murphy. She passed the article on to me so I could see the photos that went with the article. I could not believe how tight Brian's face looked. Carly said she figured with a tight face like that he must have recently had more plastic surgery. One of the other photos in the article was a head to shoe photo. It showed how super skinny Brian is. I know that Brian does not like to eat. So that's why he's super skinny said Barry. Me I consider myself a foodie
that's because I love eat. That's why I don't consider myself super skinny like Brian Murphy.  I don't consider weighing 170 pounds being super skinny do you? Being 6'1" and weighing 145 to me is very skinny in my book. One other thing I discovered that my once friend Suzie told the website Vegas Chatter that I had signed to do a residency at the Westgate Casino Resort starting in April of 2018. Brian Murphy is going back to Las Vegas. He was at the LV Hilton from February 2005 to December 2009. Then he signed with the Paris Casino Resort which is on the strip. Brian signed a two year contract with the Paris. Starting in April of 2018 Brian Murphy will once again be a headliner in Las Vegas. The Westgate Casino Resort use to be the Las Vegas Hilton Casino Resort. Elvis Presley played there in the seventies. But then Elvis finally left there after seven years.

Atlantic City Tropicana Starting Friday July 5, 2018

Don't worry I'm not going to charge an arm and leg for my Tropicana tickets. Everyone of you fans should be able to come see my shows in Atlantic City at the Tropicana Casino Resort. I signed a five year contract with Tropicana Entertainment. Now tickets for next years  July, August, November and December Tropicana shows will go on sale starting  in February of next year. Monday February 5th at 10AM ET is when BMIFC tickets go sale. Monday February 19th at 10AM ET is when tickets go on sale to the general public. Can't wait to see you all there.
Love,
Barry

Hi Gang,
It's time for another dose of Ask Barry? questions.
Nanilow asks. Barry Who are some of your celebrity friends?
Barry Most of my celebrity friends are in the music business. They are Brian Culbertson, Kenny G.,  David Grohl, Peter Cincotti, Billy Joel, Bette Midler, Cyndi Lauper, Melissa Manchester and Carol King. Thanks for asking.

Dawn D. asks. Barry What are some of your favorite venues that you've performed at?
Barry Some of my favorite venues are in no order Royal Albert Hall  and The Palladium  in London,  Albert Hall and O2 Apollo Manchester, Radio City Music Hall NYC, Wang Center Boston, Benedum Center Pittsburg, The Chicago Theatre Chicago, Paramount Theatre Denver, Pantages Theatre LA, Paramount Theatre Seattle, Keller Auditorium Portland OR and Tobin Center for the Performing Arts San Antonio. Thanks for asking.

Diane B. asks Barry What are some of your favorite cities in the world?
Barry Some of my favorite cities are London, Manchester, Glasgow, Boston,  New York City, Baltimore, Atlantic City, Chicago,  Denver, San Antonio, Portland OR, Seattle, Montreal, Vancouver, Brisbane and Melbourne. Thanks for asking.

Ally Hicks asks Barry If you weren't an arranger,  Broadway songwriter, composer, producer, singer and songwriter. What would you be?
Barry I would have been a photojournalist. Photojournalist go all over and take photographs that they share on blogs or in coffee table books and ETC. That's one of passions besides music is taking photographs of the places I've been to. One day I'll go through all my photos put them into a coffee table book for you fans to enjoy. . Thanks for asking.

Well it's time to let Aji, Maggie and Max out to do their business. Then it's lunch time so I can make my lunch. Leftover strip steak, veggies, flowered tortillas and salsa that I will turn into steak fajitas. Yum!
Later everyone,
Barry

Wbat The Bleep?

What the bleep? said Carly. She was over on Twitter reading some tweets. She saw a tweet that her friend Rita Zuckerman tweeted. The tweet came from this one groups twitter account. Carly knew that this group had a Facebook page. However she did not know that they had a Twitter account.
The tweet that Rita Zuckerman re-tweeted said that Barry had signed with a Las Vegas Casino Resort to do a residency. Carly wondered where they got that information from. Carly soon got her answer it was on an online LV site called Vegas Chatter. They were the ones were saying that Barry had signed with a casino resort in Las Vegas. I'll make sure my husband Barry is told about this. So he can tell Marc and David. Barry could also tell Garry his friend and former manager. Carly kind of knew who the group owners were. She ran into them at the BMIFC's New York City Rhythm Convention in June of 2015. Carly was with her usual group of Barry Buddies sisters Rita and Zoey Zuckerman and AllyHicks. Wednesday June 17th the night of Barry's Birthday Dinner Party. Carly and her Barry Buddies went to their assigned table.  Their table was next to this groups table. So when Carly and Barry Buddies got to their table the groups co- owners stuck there tongues out and their nose up in the air at them. Carly, Ally, Rita and Zoey  just  ignored them. The owners of the group let other Barry Manilow fans think they knew Barry Manilow, Bruce Sussman, Garry Kief and Marc Hulett. She knew these fans didn't know Barry, Bruce, Garry and Marc at all. Carly thought " If you think you know Barry you really  don't ". You've always made other fans think your friends with Barry, Bruce, Garry and Marc. Barry, Garry and Marc are friends with a few select Barry Manilow fans.
Barry, Garry and Marc are very careful about the fans they choose to friends with. Barry hates Las
Vegas and he's never been there in his entire life. Atlantic City is another story. Barry loves Atlantic City with it's boardwalk. He's played there many times at Caesar's Circus Circus, Boardwalk  Hall and Resorts Casino. Barry's always said if Atlantic City had more hotels he would play there. Barry came down stairs to give his wife the exiting news that he was going to be doing a residency at the
Tropicana Casino Resort in Atlantic City starting in July 2018. He told Carly she could tell her Barry Buddies the exiting news. Carly called Rita to tell her she had something to tell her, Zoey and Ally at their girls get together lunch today. Once all four girls got together Rita said come on Carly tell us the news we're dying to know. Carly said the news is that Barry's signed a five year contract with the Tropicana Casino Resort in Atlantic City. Barry starts his Tropicana run in July 2018. He will be at the Tropicana July, August, November and December. September and October is when At The Mayflower does it's second regional run at the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Now
Vikki and Barry will be working on the BMIFC It's Just Another New Years Eve Weekend for the end of December of next year. The actual weekend will be Thursday December 27th thru Sunday December 30th of next year. Fans going to the weekend will get tickets to all four of the shows Thursday December 27th, Friday December 28th,  Saturday December 29th and Sunday December 30th. Barry had always said if Atlantic City had more casino resorts he'd do a residency there. The four of us will have to go opening weekend. Which is Thursday July 5th thru Sunday July 8th. Barry also commented he could take Amtrak down to Atlantic City instead of flying down there. Barry only flies on Delta Airlines whether it's domestic or overseas said Zoey. I know other fans thought that Barry only flew "The friendly skies of United Airlines." when he flew. They also thought that Barry flew on private planes like Viscount. That's Brian who flies on private planes said Carly. Brian also has bodyguards with him when he goes out anywhere. Barry has zero bodyguards when he's out and about by himself. On tour it just him and his personal assistant Eric Schaefer and no bodyguards at all. Barry is very accessible to his fans.Barry will let fans know if he's in a hurry to get somewhere. He's very polite when he has to say "Sorry I can't stay longer. But I have somewhere I have to be." As Barry leaves he turns around a blows everyone a kiss. Barry is way more friendly towards his fans than Brian Murphy is to his fans. Brian still acts like the pop star he was back in the seventies. Barry is over at Cyndi Lauper's condominium to rehearse their song for the Anti Bulling benefit at the O2 in January of next year. Barry and Cyndi are doing a duet on her song True Colors. Barry and Cyndi became friends after Cyndi was a guest on A&E Live By Request A Barry Manilow Christmas.  It aired on Friday December 5, 2003. Barry's special guests were saxophonist Kenny G. and Cyndi Lauper. Barry also taped a performance with his friend Bette Midler. Barry gave Bette a gold record for her Bette Midler Sings The Rosemary Clooney Songbook. Barry also produced Bette's  Bette Midler Sings The Peggy Lee Songbook. Barry was on The Today Show with Bette Midler when she introduce her Rosemary Clooney album. Barry played piano and sang with Bette on Slow Boat To China. The two also talked about their collaboration on the Rosemary Clooney album. Barry has also talked about collaborating on an album with Cyndi Lauper. It's going to be  a Joni Mitchell album. Songs pegged for the album are 1.Both Sides Now, 2.Big Yellow Taxi, 3. River, 4. Free Man In Paris, 5. Help Me, 6.Chelsea Morning, 7. Stormy Weather, 8. Talk To Me, 9. Underneath The Streetlights and 10. You've Changed. Barry and Cyndi are doing duets on River and Both Sides Now.

Fictional Barry Manilow's Tropicana Poster.

Fictional Barry M.'s Tropicana Casino Resort poster ad.

Late Breaking News

Hi Gang,

It's me Barry with some exiting news. Plans for next year have changed slightly. I'm having to cancel both my two Ravinia shows in August and my holiday shows in London December and January  of 2019. Now before you freak out, have a kitten and get really pissed at me. I have some great news for all of you fans. So you better sit down while you read the rest of this this message. Here goes. "I'm going to be a headliner. I'm going to be a headliner." You heard me right I'm going to be a headliner at the Tropicana Casino Resort in Atlantic City NJ. I'll be performing at the Showroom which is the Tropicana's entertainment venue. I'm starting my Tropicana run on Thursday July 5th. I'm doing three weeks each month I'm there. With four show Thursday thru Sunday of each week I'm there. This is my schedule so far for 2018. The calendar above has the dates I'm performing marked with an X. So far I'm there July, August November and December. During September and October My musical At The Mayflower will be at The Forrest Theatre for it's second regional run. I've signed up for a five year run. So I'll be at the Tropicana till 2022. Tickets for July, August, November and December  Tropicana shows will go on sale starting Monday January 15th 10AM EST. Ticket prices are $250, $175, $125 for main floor balcony is $95 and $65. Tropicana Casino Resorts entertainment venue is
called the Showroom which seats 2,000 people with no obstructed view. Vikki and I will be working on the BMIFC.s Just Another New Years Eve Weekend at the Tropicana. The New Years weekend will start on Thursday December 27th and go thru Sunday December 30th. More details on that next year. The first time I played in Atlantic City was in October 1985. That's when I took my Copacabana Tour to Caesars Circus Circus showroom. I remember I started the show with I'm Your Man. Then I sang At The Dance and during the song I invited a fan on stage to dance with me.  I took Brian Murphy's song Can't Smile Without You to do as a duet. I invited a lady in a sparkly jacket up on stage to sing it with me. That lady was my mom Edna who sang Can't Smile Without You with me.
I opened the second half with Copacabana. I then did Who Needs To Dream. I did a duet on Blue with Muffy Hendricks and a duet with James Jolis on  Big City Blues. I had dubbed that my rock and roll tour. I wore black leather pants, a  black or white buccaneer shirt, blue bolero jacket blue tie and black sued tie shoes. Then second half was the white pants, shirt, vest, bolero jacket and tie shoes. Powder blue socks and bow tie. I knew better than to wear pink. The only pink I have is a salmon pink tie. I'll let you all digest this exiting news. See you soon.

Take Care,

Barry

My Music Quote.

Your what? thought Barry. Your music will tell fans more about you than you ever will. Now really Brian! said Barry. One hundred percent of  the music you've sung was written by other songwriters. You don't play any musical instruments at all said Barry.  The only way your fans will ever get to know who you are is if you tell them about yourself. Try doing an all about me on your Facebook page. That way your fans will get to know you better. You don't hid anything from your fans except what you do in your bedroom sexy wise. Unlike you I've never hid anything from my fans except what I do in my bedroom sexy wise said Barry.  That's why I started my Ask Barry? column. So my  fans can ask me just about anything within reason. I will not and won't answer any questions about my sex drive. Nor what I do and with whom I do it with under the covers. Yes I've shook the sheets. But that's not my fans business with whom I've shook the sheets with. All I will say is I've never shook the sheets with any guys. Yes Suzie would like everyone to believe that I am gay which I am not. I happen to be a happily married straight guy.  I wear a wedding ring on my left ring finger. I fooled most everyone.Yes a few people knew that we got married on Sunday July 21, 2014. But
they were told not to tell anyone. Sunday July 21, 2014 was also the day that Brian Murphy and Gregory Knoffler got married. Suzie was Brian's best woman, Same as the best man only Suzie is a woman not a man. Brian and Gregory got married in their backyard. Which use to be my house before I sold it in 2004 13 years ago. You could say I planed it that way so Suzie wouldn't be at my wedding. However someone told Scott Nevins that I was getting married on Sunday July 21, 2014.
He showed up to ruin our wedding day. Scott always thought all wedding ceremonies had the line.
"If anyone of you has reasons why these two should not be married, speak now or forever hold your peace." The line was used mostly in the movies not in real wedding ceremonies. In fact nothing like is used in a traditional Orthodox Jewish wedding ceremony. Any way Scott figured out how he could
interrupt our ceremony. My father-in-law John Simon paid for the tuxedo clothed detectives to be there. Once Scott started his rant they came a took him away. Scott spent the night in jail. I heard Suzie wired him bail money. That was how she found out I had gotten married. Boy was she pissed about that. Now Barry had only two more benefit concerts left to do. Orlando 11/13 and Pensacola 11/16. After that it was back home for him. Barry couldn't wait to meet the newest furry member of the family Aji Carly's Labrador retriever puppy. Finally Barry was home from his four city hurricane relief benefit concerts. The minute he opened the door this little ball of champagne colored fur came running. Hello puppy said Barry as he scooped him up. Oh my you must be Aji Carly's new puppy. Aji licked Barry's face. Carly heard a voice coming from the entry way. She came from the kitchen to see who it was. I see you met Aji said Carly. Yes I did said Barry. Boy is his fur is so light colored he said. Carly replied Aji's a champagne color which comes from both parents having the dilution gene  dd. Aji is in the yellow Labrador Retriever family along with the red fox and white. Aji came from the Retriever Rescue Group. They rescue Golden Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers from puppy mills. Aji was the runt of the litter. Peggy one of the people who works at Retriever Rescue said that because he was the runt nobody wanted him. My beagle Charlie came from a beagle rescue. Beagles INC is a rescue group who rescues beagles from animal testing sites. I took Aji to Brooklyn Pet Care so Dr. Jeff could take a look at him. I told Jeff that the Retriever Rescue had a veterinarian who gave Aji all his shots. He was also dewormed while he was there. Maggie been kind of mothering him. I seem to find those two curled up on Maggie's doggie bed a lot. Putting the dogs beds by the sliding glass doors to the backyard is the perfect place with all the sunlight that comes in. Monday  I went over to Rachel Ray's Nutrish website to see if there was any new products that Brooklyn Pet Care could carry. I found out Nutrish comes in a puppy formula called Bright Puppy. I wrote a reminder in my calendar that we needed to order some. I needed a few groceries so I went to Trader Joe's over on 445 Gold St. Down in the dog food aisle I found a bag of the Nutrish Bright Puppy so I bought it for Aji. Just like Maggie and Max like Nutrish Dish chicken and brown rice and beef and brown rice. Aji loved the Nutrish Bright Puppy food. Later I went over to Rachel Ray's twitter account to thank her for making a puppy food formula. I said a lot of the owners who bring their dogs to Brooklyn Pet Care have been asking if Rachel Ray would some day make a Nutrish puppy formula. They will be happy to know that you do make a Nutrish puppy formula. Also Brooklyn Pet care will be proud to carry this as well. Dr. Carly Manilow DVM Brooklyn Pet Care. Carly then went over and gave Barry a kiss on his lips. Here's the latest rumor on Brian Murphy. Which we know is true. This comes from Vital Vegas. According to them "Hearing Brian Murphy has signed on for Westgate residency starting in April. Same place he performed 2005-2010." Not including Mexico City January 25th and 26th , San Antonio January 3st, Grand Prairie (Dallas) February 1st, Sugar Land (Houston) February 2nd,  Sarasota February 16th,  Jacksonville February 18th and Estero February 20th which have also been announced. I'm sure there might be a few more Florida dates added. Pensacola, Orlando, Tampa and Miami. What was that Brian said about no more touring? said Barry. Las Vegas again! Doesn't Brian remember what happened last time? He announced a five year run at the then LV Hilton. Brian said "Now you can come see me and I don't have to come see you." You know what happened his fans starting complaining that Vegas was to expensive so they couldn't go. Starting in 2006 and continuing to now Brian went outside Las Vegas to do shows all over the US, Canada and UK. Yes Brian still keeps bugging me to headline in Las Vegas. He keeps saying You'll really love it Barry.
Now Brian knows I hate Las Vegas said Barry. Besides I'd much rather play allover the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand. Now those are the only places I go to perform.. I played in Cologne Germany. I came out to the intro to I'm Your Man then I started to sing. I got half way through the song when I heard booing from the audience. So I left and refunded their money back. Same with Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, Madrid and Lisbon I got booed off the stage. They got their money back too. That was back in 1985 when I did my first concert tour  to promote 2:00AM Paradise Café and Manilow. I also did songs from my earlier musical and rearranged some of the song I wrote for Brian Murphy. Most of the people in those cities didn't care for jazz. They only wanted pop music like Brian Murphy does. I never went back  to Asia, Mexico, South America, Europe and Russia. Those people didn't know what they were missing. I did a two hour concert with encores back then and I still do that even today. My concerts are always very high energy. Unlike Brian Murphy who's scaled down his shows to doing seventy to ninety minutes with or without an opening act. So far I still have the Brooklyn NY and Montreal Canada concerts for this year. Next year it's London, Australia, New Zealand and London again for the holidays Along with getting At The Mayflower my latest musical up for two regional runs San Antonio and Philadelphia.  I'm going to let you fans give me suggestions for next years holiday concert city or cities.