Finn Revives Crowded House Music
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ARAB TIMES, SUNDAY, JUNE 6, 2021 NEWS/FEATURES 13 People & Places Television ‘Nobody can do it’ Voice of Jeopardy! keeps going at 92 LOS ANGELES, June 5, (AP): Johnny Gilbert, who decided to stick with “Jeopardy!” after Alex Trebek’s death, faced the wrenching question once again as production for next season neared. This time it would mean adjusting to the quiz show’s yet-to-be-named host, as opposed to the succession of celebrities who have been fi lling in since Trebek suc- cumbed to pancreatic cancer last November. “It’s not easy for me because I worked with Alex for 37 years, and I never thought of anybody replacing him,” he said. “Nobody can do it like he did it, you know.” No one does it like Gilbert either, who at age 92 has decided he’s not ready to call it quits on the show busi- ness career he began pursuing as a teenager. Last year, when he was re- luctant to continue after losing his admired and longtime col- league, others with the show urged Gilbert to consider his role as a comforting touchstone for viewers who also were in mourning for Trebek. “If you just listen to the way Johnny articulates each name, each word, he has a voice and Gilbert even more importantly, de- livery, unlike anyone else,” said Mike Richards, the show’s executive producer. Without Trebek, “the fact we can still rely on Johnny is obviously very impor- tant to us as well.” “This is ‘Jeopardy!’” is Gilbert’s richly booming introduction that opens each episode and belies his years. In turn, he’s acknowledged with thanks from the host and, occasionally, has been shown at an oth- erwise off-camera stage perch. This photo provided by Crowded House shows Neil Finn of the band Crowded House performing at a concert in Auckland, New Zealand, April 24, 2021. (AP) During the pandemic, he’s been taping his contri- butions remotely from the Los Angeles-area home he shares with his wife, Sheree Gilbert. They’ve been together for several more years than his “Jeopardy!” stint, the sort of marital and career longevity that’s rare in Hollywood. Music Born near Roanoke, Virginia, and raised in the coastal city of Newport News, Gilbert had something different in mind when he fi rst dreamed of being an entertainer - singing - and his parents supported their Chloe x Halle, H.E.R. part of Apple Music Juneteenth playlist only child’s aspirations. “I started taking voice lessons when I was still in high school, got a job with a little band and traveled around in that area for a while,” he said. “That was the beginning of it all.” Finn revives Crowded House Impressive NEW YORK, June 5, (AP): Touring anyone else on the planet,” Finn said. It has left them eager to play more. A winding path followed, one with bumps and by- as a member of Fleetwood Mac in Liam, a guitarist, and Elroy, a drum- Finn’s time with Fleetwood Mac, ways that included military service, but Gilbert wasn’t 2018-19 made Neil Finn appreciate the mer, have their own independent mu- where he and Tom Petty’s former to be deterred. His advantages, besides an impressive memorable band in his own history. sic careers and have also worked with guitarist, Mike Campbell, replaced vocal range: determination and a willingness to adapt Two years later, Finn has brought Neil before on projects, minimizing Lindsey Buckingham, was “a glorious to the work at hand. that group, Crowded House, back to life any awkwardness that comes from be- experience because I didn’t expect it. He was 18 when a newspaper want-ad for a band with his sons Liam and Elroy, producer ing in a band with dad. “It’s good to be cast in a different singer sent him to Jacksonville, Florida. Turned out Mitchell Froom and original bass player The new Crowded House started re- role and not be the frontman for a the act had already hit the road but instead of back- Nick Seymour. A new album, “Dream- cording new music in a Los Angeles change,” he said. “I really wanted to do tracking home, he searched out a local talent manager. In this 2014 image provided by Jeopar- ers Are Waiting,” arrives Friday. studio, but the COVID-19 lockdown a good job of playing and representing A club on the outskirts of town was looking for an dy Productions, Inc., shows announcer “There’s a sense of occasion at- forced them to abandon the session someone else’s music. It was good for emcee, the manager told Gilbert, who had to admit he Johnny Gilbert, (left), and game show tached to that band, in my head, I sup- before fi nishing. “Dreamers Are Wait- me. It is a sometimes very insular and host Alex Trebek appear on the set pose,” Finn, 63, said on a video call ing” was completed remotely. not always healthy experience to be was unfamiliar with the term. Master of ceremonies, of ‘Jeopardy!’ Gilbert worked with explained the manager, who was undaunted when Gil- Trebek for 37 years and was reluctant from his native New Zealand. “We were forced by circumstances obsessed with your own music.” bert said he had no experience. to continue after losing his admired col- “Coming off of Fleetwood Mac, to throw things in the air and reassem- Any future with Fleetwood Mac, “He taught me how to introduce people on the stage league. But others with the show urged when we surprisingly had the opportu- ble them,” Finn said. such as recording new material, was nity to be part of a great, classic band, left open-ended, he said. and take them off the stage,” he recalled. He got the him to consider his role as a comforting Reintroduce job and the opportunity to sing with the club band, a touchstone for viewers who also were it reminded me of the gravitas and hon- “It’s a big mountain to move to get gig that lasted for about six weeks and set the pattern in mourning. (AP) or that comes with that,” the singer and They chose the energetic cuts “Playing everyone in the same frame of mind for his fl edgling career. songwriter said. “In the audience there with Fire” and “Whatever You Want” to at the same time,” he said. “There’s a It was America in the 1950s, dotted with nightclubs were young people who had grown up make videos and reintroduce Crowded lot of work that goes into going from, and supper clubs, and Gilbert made the most of the with the songs, and were singing them House to the world, although the album’s ‘Yeah, that would be fun,’ to actually opportunities. He started in the South and worked “my as if they were just as current today as heart is arguably revealed in a more moody making it happen.” way all across the country,” he said. they were 30 years ago.” middle, with songs “Start of Something” The draft interrupted his career but not his stage One singalong included in the set and “Too Good for This World.” Also: work: Gilbert’s talent was noticed and he was as- was Finn’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” “Each of the fi ve persons has deep NEW YORK: Artists including Chloe x signed to a US Army special services entertainment from the 1987 Crowded House debut connections to the origins of the band Halle, Black Thought of the Roots and unit in Germany. that also produced the hit “Something but are also brimming with ideas for H.E.R. have recorded songs honoring He was back on the nightclub circuit post-service So Strong.” how good it possibly could be,” he Juneteenth for Apple Music. when an agent suggested to a delighted Gilbert that Crowded House never matched that said. “That feels like a really good Some artists recorded cover songs, he give television a try. He started in New York with early success in the United States but place for a band to be.” while others composed new tracks for game shows including “Music Bingo,” then moved to remained popular worldwide with The new Crowded House has also the exclusive “Juneteenth 2021 Freedom LA to host “Beat the Odds” and back again to New Hilderbrand Bailey songs like “Better Be Home Soon,” been able to experience something few Songs” playlist, which launches Friday on York as work dictated. “Weather With You” and “Distant other musical acts have over the past the streaming platform. It comes about two Among his many other TV credits are “The Joker’s Sun.” They called it quits with a fare- 15 months - an honest-to-goodness weeks ahead of the annual holiday, also Wild,” Dinah Shore’s talk show “Dinah!” and “The well concert outside the Sydney Opera concert tour before packed arenas. known as Emancipation Day and Freedom $25,000 Pyramid.” Then the syndicated version of Variety House in 1996 that drew a crowd esti- They played a dozen gigs in New Zea- Day, that commemorates when the last former network series “Jeopardy!” beckoned in 1984, mated around 200,000 people. land, where the smaller, island country enslaved African Americans learned they with both co-creator Merv Griffi n and Trebek in his The band reconvened twice in the was able to open things up more swift- were free on June 19. corner, Gilbert said. NEW YORK: Elin Hilderbrand has 2000s with Matt Sherrod replacing ly than elsewhere in the world.