Date: Fri 05-Jun-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNON

Quick Words:

Stewart-Sinatra-Spice-Road

Full Text:

ON THE ROAD/SHANNON HICKS

ROD STEWART will be rehearsing for his 1998 tour at the Meadows Music Theatre

in Hartford. Makes sense if you look at the calendar, because June remains

very quiet at the stage at the venue, as does much of July. When Stewart is

done with rehearsals for the new tour, supporting the album When We Were The

New Boys , he will also launch the tour from the Meadows.

Tickets go on sale Saturday morning (6/6) at 10 am for a Wednesday, July 15,

performance by Stewart. No word yet on whether there will be an opener, but

with ticket prices as high as Stewart's hair used to reach, there'd better be

a great opener or Stewart had better plan on putting on quite a show. Lawn

seats are $28 apiece, and then Pavilion seats are a whopping $48 or $78 each .

That's before sales tax, and any of those service charges get added on. Yow!

Tickets will be available through Pro-Tix phone charge (860/422-0000) or at

any Strawberries Record & Tapes store.

This is not in the vein of music this column usually approaches, I know, but

it isn't every day we lose a legend like FRANK SINATRA. So I'm going to

mention a neat event that will be in Newtown next Friday night: "The Ritz

Ballroom Hour's" TOMMY DORSEY DANCE PARTY at The Fireside Inn. Walt Andrus,

the touring vocalist with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, will lead the HAROLD

ZINNO QUINTET in an evening of "cocktails, crooning and cruising." Tickets are

$25 per person.

(The evening is being co-hosted by Jeffrey C. Williams and Lynn DiMenna. Mr

Williams is the host of "The Ritz Ballroom Hour," a radio program heard every

Sunday at 7 pm on WICC 600 AM.)

A cash bar cocktail party will open the evening from 7-8 pm, accompanied by a

hot and cold hors d'oeuvres buffet. Live music from 8 pm to midnight will

follow, by Mr Andrus and the Zinno quintet. Tommy Dorsey standards will be

performed, along with a mid-evening musical tribute and champagne toast to

Frank Sinatra. Ol' Blue Eyes was at one time a vocalist with the original

Dorsey band, during the 1940s.

Sinatra-related trivia questions, with prizes and other surprises, will add to

the fun. Door prizes and a jitterbug contest with prizes will also be part of

the festivities. Forties period dress for the party is strongly encouraged,

with prizes for best outfits.

Singles and couples will be welcomed, and a special seating area will be set

up for those wishing to listen only. Interested? Call 800/529-8497 for

reservations.

Paradise Alley will be at Tuxedo Junction next weekend, in its newest

incarnation: ALIENPOP. The band returns to the Danbury club June 12. DOG

VOICES, not Dog Star -- the band of superhunk (but boring actor) Keanu Reeves

-- is in town the following night.

So GINGER SPICE has decided she doesn't want to be a Spice Girl any more. What

a travesty! And just before the girls go on their first American tour. Why,

that's like one of the Musketeers going solo. It's like having a McDonald's

Big Breakfast, hold the hash brown. It's worse than buying a collection of

all-80s songs on CD but having the track by DURAN DURAN skip.

It's just not the full deck of cards anymore. It's a grilled cheese sandwich

without the cheese, or a BLT without the bread. Until next week, I'll be

seeing you... on the road, searching for the elusive missing link.