FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Joyce Linehan, 617-282-2510 or [email protected] Update to Oct. 4 release: Tanya Donelly added to Magnetic Fields show at Symphony Hall; Jenny Dee & The Deelinquents added to Lee Fields show at Jordan Hall FIRST NIGHT BOSTON ANNOUNCES SOME FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS RESERVED SEATING AVAILABLE FOR SELECT SHOWS ON SALE NOW MAGNETIC FIELDS WITH TANYA DONELLY AT SYMPHONY HALL; LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS WITH JENNY DEE & THE DEELINQUENTS AT NEC’S JORDAN HALL; JOHN SCOFIELD AT BERKLEE; AND A MIDNIGHT FIREWORKS CRUISE High resolution images available on request (BOSTON—Nov. 1, 2012) First Night Boston announces some highlights of the 37th edition of the country’s oldest and largest New Year’s Eve arts festival. A reserved seating section has been set aside for some events, so people may purchase a guaranteed seat if they wish. These premium package tickets for select performances are $35, and each ticket purchase includes a First Night Boston 2013 button, which is the ticket for admission to all First Night indoor events. All First Night events take place on Monday, Dec. 31, 2012 and tickets are on sale now at www.firstnight .org. Approximately 30% of the venues for those shows listed below will be set aside for advance reserved seating sale, while the rest of each venue will be open to all First Night button holders on a first come, first served basis as usual. All other First Night indoor venues are open to all button holders. Complete festival programming, which will include over 1000 artists in 200 exhibitions and performances in 35 different locations, will be announced in mid-November. Reserved seating is on sale today for the following: - Magnetic Fields with special guest Tanya Donelly at Symphony Hall, 9 p.m. - Lee Fields & The Expressions with special guests Jenny Dee & The Deelinquenta at NEC’s Jordan Hall, 9 p.m. - John Scofield at Berklee performance Center, 8:45 p.m. In addition, tickets are on sale now for First Night’s Midnight Fireworks Cruise on Boston Harbor. These tickets are $50, and also include a First Night button. This cruise will be open to ticket holders only. - Midnight Fireworks Cruise on Boston Harbor, 11 p.m. (open to ticket holders only) The complete programming line-up for First Night Boston 2013, which will include over 1000 artists and 200 exhibitions and performances in 35 Boston locations, will be announced in mid- November. Magnetic Fields with special guest Tanya Donelly at Symphony Hall The Magnetic Fields are the music of songwriter- producer- multi instrumentalist Stephin Merritt. In their two decade career, which began in Boston and then relocated to New York City, the band has released ten albums, including their seminal 3-disc masterwork “69 Love Songs.” That album, released in 1999, continues to be celebrated as one of pop music’s great achievements; Tim Page described it as “an encyclopedic, flabbergastingly ambitious, opera- length work that riffed off everybody from Cole Porter to Steve Reich, Gilbert and Sullivan to Kurt Weill –(and) established Stephin Merritt as one of the leading composers of his generation.” Stephin Merritt arranges and produces all his albums, playing many of the instruments as well. Additional instrumentation is provided by his band members: cellist Sam Davol, guitarist John Woo, percussionist/pianist Claudia Gonson, and singer Shirley Simms. The band has been touring throughout 2012 to support their new album, “Love at the Bottom of the Sea,” (Merge Records). This will be their First Night debut. Tanya Donelly is a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, and co-founder of the bands Throwing Muses, the Breeders, and Belly, and has also released four solo albums. Her latest project is a series of collaborations with various authors and musicians, which will be begin release in early 2013. Some of the collaborators involved so far are authors Rick Moody, Mary Gaitskill, Wesley Stace/John Wesley Harding, songwriters Kristin Hersh and Bill Janovitz, Claudia Gonson and Sam Davol of Magnetic Fields, One Ring Zero, Dylan in the Movies, and more to come as the series continues. Lee Fields & The Expressions at NEC’s Jordan Hall There aren't too many artists making soul music today who had a release in 1969, back when R&B was first beginning to give the drummer some. Lee Fields, however, is one such artist--or maybe he's better labeled a phenomenon. Since the late 60’s, the North Carolina native has amassed a prolific catalog of albums and has toured and played with such legends as Kool and the Gang, Sammy Gordon and the Hip-Huggers, O.V Wright, Darrell Banks, and Little Royal. With a career spanning 43 years, releases on 12 different record labels, and having toured the world over with his raucous-yet-tender voice, it's mind-blowing that the music he's making today with Brooklyn's own Truth & Soul Records is the best of his career. With a catalogue that ranges from James Brown-style funk to lo-fi blues to contemporary Southern soul to collaborations with French house DJ/producer Martin Solveig, Lee Fields has done it all. Today, with The Expressions--Truth & Soul's house band, Lee Fields continues to evolve, enmeshed into the group's sweeping, string-laden, cinematic soul sound. Their first full-length together, My World , released in June 2009 on Truth & Soul, was called "one smoking mother of an old-sound soul record" and a "throwback done right" by Pitchfork . Treacherous followed in 2011, with Faithful Man, which paired Fields with the Truth & Soul house band the Expressions, arriving in 2012. John Scofield’s Überjam at Berklee Performance Center First Night is pleased to host the first reunion show of jazz guitar master John Scofield with his legendary Überjam . 2013 will reunite this legendary band both on the road and in the studio. This group pioneered Scofield’s fusing of jazz, funk and electronic music to become one of the defining bands of his career. The original Überjam record was released in 2002 with Up All Night the following year – recordings that documented Scofield’s fruitful collaboration with guitarist/computer manipulator Avi Bortnick, drummer Adam Deitch and bassist Andy Hess. The group will be joined in the studio this winter by drummers Louis Cato and Adam Deitch for a release due out in May on Emarcy/Universal, before hitting the road for the remainder of 2013. The superstar guitarist is a 1973 alumnus of Berklee. This performance, a partnership between First Night, Berklee College of Music and 89.7 WGBH, will be broadcast live in Boston on 89.7 and on stations across the country as part of NPR’s annual New Year’s Eve broadcast “Toast of the Nation.” Midnight Fireworks Cruise on Boston Harbor See the traditional First Night midnight fireworks from a boat on Boston Harbor. The boat departs at 11 p.m. and returns at 12:30 a.m. Enjoy the cash bar and DJ entertainment on board. Tickets for this cruise are $50 per person. Everyone on the boat must have a ticket. This event has sold out quickly every year First Night has presented it, so interested people are advised to buy tickets early. First Night Boston, the original citywide festival of art and culture, is the country’s oldest and largest New Year’s Eve celebration. On Monday, December 31, 2012 from noon to midnight, First Night presents its 37th annual day-long festival of art, music, dance, ice sculpture, and more. First Night welcomes children, families and revelers of all ages to celebrate community through the arts. All First Night outdoor events are free, though supported by sales of the First Night button, which is the ticket for admission to indoor events. Buttons are $18 (children under 4 admitted free) and will be available at dozens of locations, including Shaw’s Tedeschi’s, and Au Bon Pain. Buttons are available now at a special web price of $15 only at www.firstnight.org through Dec. 23. For more information, call 617-542-1399 or visit www.firstnight.org. First Night Boston, Inc. is an independent, 501(c)3 non-profit organization. It is supported by public and private contributions, sponsorships, and through the admission sales of the First Night button. First Night Boston is grateful for the support of its major sponsors: The City of Boston, Thomas M. Menino, Mayor; Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau; LogMeIn, Inc.; FedEx; Karmaloop/Future of Boston Alliance; Massachusetts Convention Center Authority; Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, Massachusetts Cultural Council and WBZ-TV. .