mcfly power to play tour setlist

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Average setlist for tour: Power To Play Tour

Note: only considered 27 of 29 setlists (ignored empty and strikingly short setlists)

• Where Did All the Guitars Go? Play Video
• Land of the Bees Play Video
• One for the Radio Play Video
• God of Rock & Roll Play Video
• Friday Night Play Video
• Corrupted Play Video
• Lies Play Video
• Route 55 Play Video
• I'm Fine Play Video
• That Girl Play Video
• Too Close for Comfort Play Video
• Everybody Knows Play Video
• Star Girl Play Video
• Happiness Play Video
• Obviously Play Video
• Not Alone Play Video
• All About You Play Video
• Shine On Play Video
• Red Play Video
• Forever's Not Enough Play Video
• Honey I'm Home Play Video
• 5 Colours in Her Hair Play Video

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5 Songs We’d Love To See Live On McFly’s Power To Play Tour

We know, Galaxy Defenders, we’ve been right there in the trenches with you, fighting for our lives in pre-sales this week to secure our Power To Play tickets. But it’ll all have been worth it once we get to see McFly back up on that stage. We’ve had some time to think while we were sitting in those ticket queues, and here are five songs that we would love to see on the setlist alongside the new album!

From what we’ve heard so far from Power To Play, McFly are really ramping up the Rock and Roll for this album, and we cannot wait to hear the rest of it. Their lead single, ‘Where Did All The Guitars Go?,’ and the recent drop ‘God of Rock & Roll’ have gotten us so excited for the album that June 9th feels so far away. We’re loving McFly leaning into the 80’s rock sound, and we can’t wait to hear what else is to come. It’s safe to say that based on what we’ve heard so far, we’re going to want to see the whole of Power To Play back-to-back live, but here are a few songs we think would really add to the setlist.

‘Five Colours in Her Hair’

One day in 2004, my parents decided to pick up Room On The 3rd Floor, the debut album of this new band, McFly, which had a lot of buzz. That album changed the trajectory of my life and helped to shape young Emily’s music taste for life. This album still hits just as hard as it did back then, and the debut single, ‘Five Colours in Her Hair,’ has been part of the soundtrack to so many lives. We cannot state enough how brilliant a debut this was. The uptempo, high-energy track feels like it would mesh really well with the Power To Play tour vibes. So much fun, and who doesn’t want to see this live?

‘Growing Up’ Ft. Mark Hoppus

McFly are legends in their own right, but when they collaborated with Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus , our world’s shifted. The song is all about retaining your youth by just being you and not giving an f about other people’s opinions – a message we can truly get behind. Along with the rest of the Young Dumb Thrills album, this song is a certified banger, and we’d love to see this added to the setlist . We recommend you watch the video for full viewing pleasure because it’s hilarious, top-tier content.

‘One For the Radio’

We think ‘One For the Radio’ is one for the setlist. This 2008 song is an absolute anthem and fits right into the rock and roll , punk vibes we’re anticipating with the new album. No need to ask, ‘Where Did All The Guitars Go?’ – they’re right here! This is the perfect opportunity to rock out with the crowd.

‘Star Girl’

Come on, Galaxy Defender; you didn’t think we’d leave this one out, did you? Many of us grew up listening to ‘Motion In The Ocean’ and pop it back into the CD player anytime we need a little serotonin boost. There was a point in time when if you put on Chris Moyles’ Radio 1 Breakfast Show on a Friday, you’d hear ‘Star Girl’ every single week as part of his McFlyDay feature. Every week. For Years. It’s just that good. ‘Star Girl’ still rules our skies, and so ‘Obviously’ (wink wink), we couldn’t leave this one out.

‘Love Is On The Radio’

It’s just so wholesome and fun; we will never stop loving ‘Love Is On The Radio,’ and if previous tours are anything to go by, this track provides a really great atmosphere. We’d love to see them slip this one onto the setlist. If you need a little boost today, just sit down with us for a second and watch this music video.

You’ve still got time to try and grab some tickets to tour if we’ve managed to tantalize you with all the setlist possibilities! The general sale starts at 9 am BST this Friday (May 5th); get the link set up on your laptop here so you’re ready to go the minute they go live.

So what do you think? Did we include your favorite McFly track, or is there something you’re dying to hear on the setlist? Let us know in the comment section below, or drop us a Tweet @ TheHoneyPOP ! We’ll also be hanging out on our  Facebook  or  Instagram , so head over there, too and let us know if you managed to snag some tickets.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MCFLY: FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | YOUTUBE

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McFly announce Power To Play UK tour in support of seventh album

McFly will hit the road later this year with their ‘Power To Play’ UK tour. 

The group will perform 18 shows as part of the nationwide run, which kicks off with two dates at the O2 Academy Bristol on October 23 and 24.

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Mcfly extend power to play tour as latest album rockets up uk charts, mcfly: ‘we lost ourselves in trying to be a commercial band’.

They’ll play shows in Norwich, London, Bournemouth, Southampton, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester, before wrapping in Nottingham on November 22. 

We’re stoked to be heading back out on the road with @lostalone ! Pre-order Power to Play from our official store by 3pm Tues 2nd May for exclusive access to tickets before anyone else. Tickets go on general sale on Fri 5th May! See you at the front🤘🏻 https://t.co/JAaFlkLPMF pic.twitter.com/fdA87leISE — mcfly (@mcflymusic) April 26, 2023

It follows a summer of outdoor shows from the boy band, including dates at Dreamland Margate’s Summer Series and Trentham Live. 

Tickets for McFly’s ‘Power To Play’ UK tour go on sale May 5 at 9 am BST. 

The full list of tour dates is below.

23 – O2 Academy, Bristol 24 – O2 Academy, Bristol 25 – Nick Rayns LCR, Norwich 27 – Alexandra Palace, London 28 – BIC, Bournemouth 29 – O2 Guildhall, Southampton 31 – O2 Academy, Birmingham

1 – O2 Academy, Birmingham 2 – Nick Rayns LCR, Norwich 4 – Usher Hall, Edinburgh 5 – O2 City Hall, Newcastle Upon Tyne 6 – O2 City Hall, Newcastle Upon Tyne 8 – Barrowland, Glasgow 13 – O2 Academy, Leeds 16 – O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester 19 – O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester 21 – Rock City, Nottingham 22 – Rock City, Nottingham

Due this summer, ‘Power To Play’ sees Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Harry Judd and Dougie Poynter return to the guitar-driven pop rock that earned them their earliest success , with lead track  Where Did All The Guitars Go?   a sure fire sign of what’s to come.

“At the start of the process, we all got together and said what they wanted this new album to be. We all had this one thing in common, and it was guitars,” says the band of the 11-song record, which is produced by Danny, alongside their good friend Jason Perry. 

“We love being on tour and playing live, and we hate this weird pressure where you don’t get played on the radio if you have guitars in your songs. That was always in the back of our heads, so we decided to forget all about it and that same day Tom wrote  Where Did All The Guitars Go?  on the way home.” 

They add: “On every album, there’s a song which becomes a foundation, a lightbulb moment, and this was it. Guitars, honesty, energy, all these personality traits are what give us the band’s identity. We want to reach that kid with long hair, get them excited about music and make them want to pick up a guitar and jump on their bed. That’s what this record is about.”

‘Power To Play’ is out June 9 via BMG and  available to pre-order now . 

Connor Gotto

Founder and editor of RETROPOP. Self-proclaimed pop aficionado. Usually seen with a wine in hand.

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McFly tour: what are door times in Leeds and Power To Play concert start times?

McFly's Power to Play tour will come to O2 Academy in Leeds

The door times for McFly's Power to Play tour show in Leeds have been confirmed.

The pop rockers will be on the road across UK and Ireland throughout October and November. Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Harry Judd and Dougie Poynter are throwing off the shackles of expectations to deliver their biggest, boldest and most brilliantly noisy statement yet.

McFly's next show will be in Leeds on Monday, November 13. If you have tickets, you might be wondering about timings for the event - and what the setlist is.

Here's all you need to know:

What time do the doors open?

The doors will open around 6pm/ 6.30pm for McFly shows - based on previous dates on the tour.

When does the McFly concert start?

The shows are scheduled to begin at 7pm, based on previous performances. Before McFly take to the stage later in the night, a support act will perform.

McFly will be joined by LostAlone as the openers throughout the Power to Play tour. During the previous dates on the tour, McFly have played around 21 songs each night - including an encore.

The show will end by 11pm, based on UK curfew rules.

Nicole McFly

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Here’s What Cyndi Lauper Must Play on Her ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour’

The singer is going out with a bang in 2024 — she’s got the concert tour of a lifetime, a new documentary and an immersive stage show.

Edna Gundersen,

Her true colors? All of them. In a career stretching 47 years, Cyndi Lauper, 70, has taken on pop, punk, dance, funk, blues, country and Broadway . And don’t forget the literal colors, from her shifting Day-Glo hair and kaleidoscopic eyeshadow palette to a vibrant, flamboyant fashion sense that would startle a peacock.

The singer-songwriter is bringing her four-octave vocal range, eccentric style and brash-tawkin’ personality to the road one last time on her “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour,” a 23-city trek that starts Oct. 18 in Montreal and wraps up Dec. 5 in Chicago . It’s her first major outing since 2016’s “Detour Tour.”

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Lauper will be joined by special guests to be announced later, according to Live Nation. Stay tuned to AARP for updates.

The Brooklyn-born singer is also the subject of Let the Canary Sing , a new documentary streaming on Paramount+. The film traces Lauper’s career from a rebellious, struggling bar singer in Queens to global superstar, MTV darling, committed feminist and tireless activist. It’s directed by Alison Ellwood, 62, who made the music docs Laurel Canyon and The Go-Gos . The title derives from a lawsuit brought against Lauper by a former manager after she left the band Blue Angel. When the judge ruled for Lauper, he pounded his gavel and pronounced, “Let the canary sing.” Legacy Recordings has released a companion album, Let the Canary Sing , available on vinyl and in a digital expanded edition.

Note:   Paramount+ provides a discount to AARP members  and pays AARP a royalty for the use of its intellectual property.

The singer also appears in The Greatest Night in Pop , a documentary on Netflix that revisits the 1985 recording of megahit charity song “We Are the World,” and in this AARP video True Talk With Cyndi Lauper: Don't Listen to the Haters .

And she just sold a majority share of her music to Sweden’s Pophouse Entertainment Group, founded by ABBA singer Björn Ulvaeus, 79. Pophouse created ABBA Voyage , the immersive virtual concert that featured digital avatars subbing for the vocal group onstage. Lauper envisions a less glittery production that replicates New York and focuses on her upbringing with the women that influenced her most: her mother, grandmother and aunt.

But if you want to see the wacky, eclectic songbird in the flesh, the farewell tour is the best bet. Lauper has a deep well of material to draw from: her 11 studio albums, soundtrack contributions, covers and collaborations. Here are a dozen songs on our fantasy set list (and we won’t be surprised if she does a few of them).

‘True Colors’ (1986)

Impassioned vocals, a strong melody and an uplifting message about self-empowerment made this an instant classic and a gay anthem. Written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, the song was rejected by Anne Murray before being sent to Lauper.

‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ (1983)

Robert Hazard wrote this song with a randy wink from a male perspective, but Lauper flipped the tone and message, creating a lasting hit that’s both a bubblegum romp and a feminist anthem.

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‘Time After Time’ (1984)

The beautiful, heartfelt ballad and vocal showcase became a Lauper signature and a ubiquitous love song deployed in movies and TV . Lauper wrote the song with Rob Hyman of the Hooters when both were having difficulties with their romantic partners.

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‘I Drove All Night’ (1989)

This pining, passionate ballad, driven by Lauper’s mature, confident vocal, scored a Grammy nomination. Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly wrote the song for Roy Orbison, who recorded it in 1987, the year before he died, but his version stayed in the vault until 1992.

‘Money Changes Everything’ (1984)

Lauper pulls out the stops with a no-frills, strapping vocal on a hard rocker that decries the ways money poisons relationships. The song was originally released by Atlanta rock band the Brains and written by its front man, Tom Gray, in 1978, but Lauper’s hit eclipsed it artistically and commercially.

‘She Bop’ (1984)

The joyful, zany pop tune about female self-pleasure sparked controversy and landed on the “Filthy Fifteen” list compiled by the Parents Music Resource Center, whose efforts led to the imposition of Parental Advisory stickers on recordings.

‘All Through the Night’ (1984)

Lauper put her stamp on the Jules Shear love song, turning his folkier original into a robust, electronics-pumped vehicle that flaunted her vocal range without sacrificing the romantic ballad’s bittersweetness.

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‘Sally’s Pigeons’ (1993)

Lauper, who cowrote this song in 1991 with Mary Chapin Carpenter, 66, based the tragic narrative on a childhood friend who died after having a back-alley abortion in her teens. A new version was released in 2022 after the repeal of Roe v. Wade.

‘I’m Gonna Be Strong’ (1995)

Lauper belts this wrenching ballad with gusto, drama and all the hurt the lyrics demand. She first recorded it in 1980 as a member of Blue Angel, but the tune has a longer history. Written by Barry Mann, 85, and Cynthia Weil, it was initially recorded by Frankie Laine in 1963 and became a hit when Gene Pitney released it in 1964.

‘My First Night Without You’ (1989)

The second single from the excellent but commercially disappointing A Night to Remember album barely registered on the charts, despite Lauper’s stunning, emotional performance. The powerful, heart-rending ballad deserves a proper live send-off.

‘At Last’ (2003)

Etta James lays claim to the definitive version of this Mack Gordon/Harry Warren standard that every diva aspires to summit. Lauper shines with a stripped-down, bluesy arrangement and luscious, reined-in vocals.

‘The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough’ (1985)

Hired by Steven Spielberg , 77, as the musical director for The Goonies soundtrack, Lauper cowrote the playful, charging pop-rock tune for the project, initially dubbing it “Good Enough.” Warner Bros. changed the song’s name to incorporate the film title. While the singer confessed that she never liked this hit song, she slowly added it to set lists due to fan demand.

Edna Gundersen, a regular AARP music critic, was the longtime pop critic for  USA Today .

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Sarah McLachlan Is Resurfacing

The Canadian songwriter became a superstar through a series of defiant decisions. After slowing down to be a single mother, she has returned to the stage and studio.

Sarah McLachlan is on tour celebrating “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy,” the 1993 album that turned her into an avatar for the sensitive, mysterious singer-songwriters of ’90s radio. Credit... Alana Paterson for The New York Times

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By Grayson Haver Currin

Reporting from Vancouver, British Columbia

• Published May 30, 2024 Updated May 31, 2024

Sarah McLachlan was just 30 hours from beginning her first full-band tour in a decade, and she could not sing.

She was in the final heave of preparation for eight weeks of shows stretching through late November that commemorate “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy,” the sophisticated 1993 album that turned her into an avatar for the sensitive, mysterious singer-songwriters of ’90s radio. But three days into a string of seven-hour rehearsals, her voice collapsed, the high notes so long her hallmark dissolving into a pitchy wheeze.

So onstage in a decommissioned Vancouver hockey arena, a day before a sold-out benefit for her three nonprofit music schools, McLachlan only mouthed along to her songs, shaking her head but smiling whenever she reached for a note and missed.

“It only goes away when I project, push out,” she said backstage in a near-whisper following the first of the day’s mostly mute run-throughs. She slipped a badge that read “Vocal Rest” around her neck and winked. “Luckily, that’s only a third of what I do.”

For the last two decades, McLachlan, 56, has contentedly receded from the spotlight and the music industry she helped reimagine with the women-led festival Lilith Fair . Since 2008, she has been a single mother to India and Taja, two daughters from her former marriage. With rippling muscles that suggest a lean triathlete, she is now a devoted surfer, hiker and skier who talks about pushing her body until it breaks. Though she writes every morning, waking up with a double espresso at the piano in her home outside Vancouver, she has focused on motherhood and the Sarah McLachlan School of Music , offering free instruction to thousands of Canadian children since 2002.

A few years ago, she finished a set of songs about a pernicious breakup but reckoned the world didn’t need them; she hasn’t released an album of original material since 2014. “What do I want to talk about?” she said months earlier during a video interview from her home, swaying in a hammock chair. “I’m just another wealthy, middle-aged white woman.”

McLachlan, though, now may be on the verge of a renaissance. She is amassing a $20 million endowment for her schools, and exhaustive interviews for a Lilith Fair documentary just wrapped. In a year, her youngest, Taja, will head to college. For the second time, McLachlan’s life is opening toward music.

While revisiting her catalog to build this two-hour concert, which begins with a clutch of personal favorites before pivoting into a muscular interpretation of “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy,” she flew to Los Angeles for multiple sessions with the producer Tony Berg, who has worked with Phoebe Bridgers and Aimee Mann. She has cut at least a dozen songs there, including a gently psychedelic cover of Judee Sill’ s “The Kiss.” She has more to write. “I’m so energized by music, now that I’m living and breathing it every moment,” she said. “It’s a very different feeling.”

During the day’s second rehearsal, however, she tempered her enthusiasm with tacit worry about her voice. She told her tour manager that Taja would soon be backstage, probably with a prednisone prescription. “Mom, I’m already here,” the 16-year-old screamed, 20 rows back in an otherwise empty arena. “I have your medicine! Do you want it?”

McLachlan couldn’t hear her. She nodded to her band and started a song called “Fallen,” humming to herself.

DURING SUMMER BREAK between sixth and seventh grades, McLachlan’s friends in Nova Scotia labeled her a lesbian. She had indeed kissed another girl, practicing for a boy. She instantly became a pariah, a middle-class kid from a conservative family surrounded by wealthy bullies.

“I became poison. Then they started calling me ‘Medusa,’ because I had long, curly hair,” she said. “There was physical abuse, too. I thought, ‘I am on my own.’”

There was little quarter at home. McLachlan was the youngest of three adopted children that she said her father never wanted. Since he tormented her older brothers, her mother — unhappy with marriage, depressed by circumstance — responded to her daughter with equal disdain, ensuring everyone was miserable. “I didn’t have a relationship with my father, because my mother wouldn’t allow it. If I showed him any attention, she wouldn’t speak to me for a week,” McLachlan said, lips pursed.

Music, however, became her refuge. She graduated from ukulele at 4 to classical guitar at 7 after the family moved to the provincial capital. She struggled in school, skipping class to hide in the empty gymnasium and play piano there. Though she despised the hard stares and high expectations of recitals, she begged to join a band. Her parents relented to a few hours of Sunday practice. The group’s first show, for several hundred dancing kids in a student union, was transformational.

“I was being seen, and I was being accepted,” she said. “It was the first time I felt that way.”

That night’s headlining act included Mark Jowett, who was then running a small label, Nettwerk, in Vancouver. Stunned by McLachlan’s voice and verve, Jowett urged her to move west and start writing songs. Her parents insisted she finish high school and college. Soon after meeting the label’s co-founder Terry McBride, she defied them, anyway. They barely spoke for two years. “She was green but really disarming,” said McBride, McLachlan’s manager until 2011, in an interview. “Her ambition was to get out.”

McLachlan soon cut a ponderous debut informed by the folk of her youth — Cat Stevens, Simon and Garfunkel, Joan Baez. Jowett and McBride wanted a producer to push her. When they asked Pierre Marchand, who had worked with the Canadian folk royalty of Kate and Anna McGarrigle, what he’d do with McLachlan’s music, he seemed flippant, saying he’d find out in the studio. “My manager was like, ‘I don’t like this guy.’ But I’m like, ‘I love this guy,’” she recalled. “It was all about exploration.”

The pair decamped to the New Orleans studio of the iconoclastic producer Daniel Lanois, where their professional relationship turned physical. (“We wrote a lot of songs naked,” Marchand admitted, laughing.) That intimate bond proved critical when an ascot-sporting representative from McLachlan’s American label, Arista, stopped by to listen. When he didn’t hear a marketable single, they didn’t capitulate. They told him to leave.

“It was a defining moment for me in deciding how I wanted to control my future,” McLachlan said. “I thought, if this is what being famous and successful means, to compromise this thing that feels so important, I don’t want it.”

They gambled correctly. The success of “Solace,” McLachlan’s second album, drifted from Canada into the United States, where it was released in 1992, buying her and Marchand good will. They spent a year and a half in a studio in the Quebec countryside, McLachlan often walking home by moonlight while Marchand built late-night loops and atmospheres. The result, “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy,” remains an uncanny singer-songwriter record, her frank observations on betrayal, friendship and lust warped by his outré sensibilities. “I like it when it’s complex, when there’s not one feeling,” Marchand said. “It’s like a person.”

Marchand and McLachlan added the layered grandeur of U2 and the supple strength of Depeche Mode to these testimonials of yearning and loss. Critics lauded it as smart and sensual. Sales were stronger still: It went quintuple-platinum in Canada and sold more than three million copies stateside.

“I was in a punk band listening to a lot of hardcore — and, strangely, Sarah McLachlan,” said Leslie Feist , the Canadian songwriter who will open the U.S. leg of McLachlan’s tour. “I could hear her power, but it was being expressed more fluidly. It wasn’t about aggression. It was about conviction.”

As McLachlan’s profile grew, letters from stalkers mounted at Nettwerk’s offices, especially from an Ottawa programmer named Uwe Vandrei. They met once, and he slipped her a scarf. But after she read one of his pleas, she asked not to see more. Still, in the album’s opener, “Possession,” where bass pulses and guitars radiate above droning gothic organs, she worked to mirror his mind, to articulate his misplaced passions. When it became a hit, he sued, alleging McLachlan had lifted his words. Vandrei died before trial.

“I felt a strange sense of relief,” McLachlan said haltingly. “But then I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is somebody’s son. Should I have tried to reach out? Tried to talk some sense into him?’”

The success of “Fumbling” — and the draining circus that followed, including conspiracy theories about label involvement in Vandrei’s death — helped spur McLachlan’s most historic defiance. She demanded to not headline every show, to be partnered with acts who could share celebrity’s weight. Promoters balked at the idea that women could carry such a docket, rankling McLachlan. She named a genre-jumping touring festival for Lilith, a woman repeatedly lambasted in sacred texts. Lilith Fair not only dominated the summer concert scene of the late ’90s but showed onlookers and executives that women were not music’s second-class citizens.

“I busked outside of Lilith and applied when I was 16,” said the singer-songwriter Allison Russell , who made her onstage debut by performing McLachlan’s “Mary” alongside high school friends in Montreal. “She changed the landscape for women. She resisted what everyone told her she had to do.”

When McLachlan was the kid being bullied at school or alienated at home, music made her feel valuable. After her hit-laden 1997 album “Surfacing” (“Building a Mystery,” “Adia”) and Lilith Fair, it had also made her wealthy and famous, affording her a family and an activist legacy. She no longer needed the spotlight’s validation, getting it instead from her daughters and dogs, her music school and morning music practice. Her career steadily slowed, with more years passing between albums and her experimental ardor fading. She didn’t mind.

“I’m a middle-aged woman. You kind of became invisible,” she said, leaning in with a wide grin. She whispered: “And I really like that.”

THE ENCORE BREAK on McLachlan’s new tour is brief, maybe 40 seconds. At her benefit show in Vancouver, soon after the band faded from the title finale of “Fumbling,” McLachlan slipped through a black curtain and rushed to her polished Yamaha grand. She’s making a new record, she told the crowd, and she wanted to try a song alone: “Gravity,” her balletic ode to perseverance, to letting others lift you. If McLachlan discarded an album of breakup songs, this is a hymn for what comes after.

It is also a fitting prelude for “Angel,” the poignant 1997 ballad that became a maudlin punchline after scoring a commercial for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

“I see it at the end of the day, and it’s like, ‘Hi, I’m Sarah McLachlan, and I’m about to ruin your day,’” she said of filming the commercial as a favor. “But that’s just not me.”

Before “Adia,” McLachlan told the audience she never explained that song, because it immortalized her taboo transgression — ruining a relationship by dating her best friend’s ex. “We needed to part ways for a while,” she said. “And I swear it was the hardest breakup I’ve ever been through.”

But they fixed the friendship, which has since endured divorces, children and new love. For years, that friend, Crystal Heald, urged McLachlan to take “Fumbling” on tour. “Thank goodness she forgave me,” McLachlan continued.

McLachlan is candid about her prospects. Relevance, she admitted, is a young person’s game that she has long resisted. She’ll be at least 57 by the time she releases new music, and she knows most people only like the old stuff. Still, when she told her forgiveness tale, the arena erupted with a wave of recognition for bygone mistakes and second chances, for comebacks. Her audience has aged with her; stepping back into the spotlight, she is ready to have that conversation.

“I didn’t talk for the first 10 years of my shows. When the music was happening, I knew what I was doing. Take the music and my voice, and I’m 12 again,” she said two months before stepping onstage. “But in the last 10 years, I say whatever comes to mind. I feel more freedom daily to be who I am.”

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Gotta get back in time: "Back to the Future: The Musical" begins tour at Proctors - an interview with writer Bob Gale

The 2022 Olivier Award-winning Best New Musical, " Back to the Future: The Musical " is taking off from Proctors Theatre in Schenectady, New York this week. The Broadway and West End hit show is based on the Universal Pictures legendary film. It will play Proctors from June 6 to June 8.

Marty McFly is a rock ‘n’ roll teenager who is accidentally transported back to 1955 in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his friend, Dr. Emmett Brown. But before he can return to 1985, Marty must make sure his high school-aged parents fall in love in order to save his own existence.

"Back to the Future: The Musical" has a book by Bob Gale, new music and lyrics by Emmy and Grammy Award-winning Alan Silvestri and six-time Grammy Award-winning Glen Ballard, with additional songs from the film including “The Power of Love” and “Johnny B. Goode.”

Bob Gale is the co-creator and co-writer of the "Back to the Future" film trilogy.

Diana Ross, Eminem, Jack White and Many More Light Up Detroit’s ‘Concert From Michigan Central’

By Caryn Rose

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When your all-star Detroit concert opens with none other than Miss Diana Ross gliding down the stage catwalk in an enormous cloud of orange chiffon singing “I’m Coming Out,” you are setting the bar high from the jump — especially if you’re kicking off an event with Eminem , Jack White , Jelly Roll, Common and many others.

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But six years ago, the Ford Motor Company decided to save the building, and now, after years of painstaking renovation and restoration, the building has reopened as an “innovation hub.” In theory, the concert is in celebration of the station’s revival — but in reality, it was a declaration: Detroit isn’t back, says the sizzle reel — it never left. (The concert, called “Live From Detroit: The Concert At Michigan Central” and produced by Oscars and Super Bowl Halftime veteran Jesse Collins, will air on NBC as a one-hour primetime special on June 9 starting at 7 p.m. ET/PT.)

Big Sean performed at the 2018 groundbreaking ceremony where Ford declared their intentions, and he was back tonight, visibly stoked to be on stage in front of the old train station, and his set reflected that: 2024’s “On Up,” a song about his son, along with “Blessings” and closing with “Bounce Back,” an absolutely relevant Detroit almost-anthem. This was followed by a tribute to 79-year-old local hero Bob Seger featuring Melissa Etheridge, Fantasia, and Jelly Roll. Etheridge’s smoky alto worked well on the low-key “Mainstreet,” but Fantasia’s turned up for a Tina Turner-esque rendition of “Shakedown,” Seger’s 1987 contribution to the “Beverly Hills Cop II” soundtrack. And Jelly Roll’s “Turn the Page” perfectly captured the original’s pathos. The three finished the tribute with a joint version of “Old Time Rock and Roll” — a predictable but energizing cap on their set.

Veteran rapper Common appeared with Slum Village in tribute to J Dilla in a segment that was introduced by the late, pioneering hip-hop producer’s mother, Maureen “Ma Dukes” Yancey. Dilla passed in 2006 but his stamp on hip-hop is indelible and continues to unfold in current artists influence and his absence are still very real to his friends, fans, and collaborators, as evidenced by the emotional performance tonight. 

Introductions tonight were handled by an array of popular local celebrities, sports figures, politicians —Governor Gretchen Whitmer made an early appearance before concluding with a verbal mic-drop, “Big Gretch, out!” — and Ford executives. Throughout the night, the train station’s iconic facade was creatively utilized as a backdrop, illuminated with lighting, special effects and tasteful implementations of pyrotechnics. The production was staged by Jesse Collins Entertainment, known for their work on large spectacles from the Super Bowl halftime show to countless awards shows. There was a clear roof over the stage just in case — the day before, a tornado had touched down in a nearby suburb during dress rehearsal — but Thursday night the problem wasn’t rain, it was wind so strong that the production could not fly the speaker columns or the video screens until the last few acts. Even with those challenges, the sound was stellar throughout Roosevelt Park, the grounds in front of the station where the free event took place in front of a crowd of approximately 20,000.

Techno City got its props during the set change before Jack White when DJ Skyy Jetta performed a tribute to genre pioneers the Belleville Three. Detroit is widely considered to be the birthplace of techno, and the genre’s history isn’t an afterthought here. Jetta’s brief but innovative set kept everyone moving as the anticipation for the end of the night approached. 

The always color-coordinated White, who grew up not far from where he was now performing, turned Michigan Central blue as he told the audience he was going to play some songs that were written “a few blocks from here.” After opening with “Here My Train a’ Comin” (OK he didn’t write that one) and “Hotel Yorba,” he was off and running. White is gifted with the ability to fill any space, no matter the size, with wall to wall rock and roll, and his set tonight was colossal. “Seven Nation Army” had the entire crowd singing and clapping along; they could probably hear the noise in the traffic on the Ambassador Bridge that crosses the Detroit River to Canada, just beyond the station. 

Any attendees who thought they were being smart and beating the traffic by leaving after White’s set probably regretted that decision when they got home. The between-set changeover took longer than others because it required making room for the entire Detroit Symphony Orchestra — who were there to accompany none other than Eminem, who executive produced the event. Every phone was held aloft the minute he walked onstage; his name wasn’t part of the official lineup, but attendees fervently believed he would be there anyway. 

Anticipation aside, it was an enormous, emotional performance that began with “Houdini” (and brought back Jelly Roll to sing the song’s sample from Aerosmith’s “Dream On”), “Sing for the Moment,” “Welcome 2 Detroit” — guest appearance by Trick Trick included — before finishing up with “Not Afraid.” This wasn’t any kind of vanity appearance — at the end of a night like this, Eminem hit the stage and delivered with all of his energy and intensity.

“Detroit, we up,” he announced at the end of “Not Afraid.” “We love you. Our city’s up. Let’s fucking go!” There was pyro. There were fireworks.  Michigan Central turned Ford blue, and the crowd headed out towards Michigan Avenue. (Head here for a full recap of Eminem’s set .)

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