A Bill Edwards Presents Inc. production, tickets for July, August and September performances of “Sgt. Pepper Live” featuring Cheap Trick are now on sale. Tickets are priced at $50, $100 and $125 with limited VIP Golden Circle.  All ticket prices include applicable tax and fees and may be purchased at the Paris Las Vegas box office or on-line at www.sgtpepperlive.com or www.ticketmaster.com, or by calling 1.888.374.7469. Additional show dates now on sale include August 3–4, August 6–7, August 10–11, August 13–14, August 17–18, September 9–11 and September 16–18. Showtime is 8 p.m.

A celebration of The Beatles’ influential album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the show is an energetic performance that features a 32-piece orchestra, authentic Indian sitar ensemble and legendary rockers Cheap Trick performing the entire album live.  In addition, audiences are treated to select Cheap Trick songs such as “I Want You To Want Me,” “Dream Police,” “Surrender,” and other classic favorites.

Since beginning their Las Vegas limited engagement Cheap Trick has performed to packed houses, including celebrities such as Siegfried Fischbacher, Bobby Vinton, Rachel Ray, Emeril Lagasse, the Board of Directors from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and many others.  The band was recognized by the City of Las Vegas where Mayor Oscar B. Goodman welcomed the super group to Sin City by declaring June 11 “Sgt Pepper Live Day.”  The show has been featured in USA Today and the L.A. Times and lauded by the Las Vegas Review Journal, Las Vegas Magazine and countless other media outlets.

“’Sgt. Pepper Live’ is a great addition to the entertainment offerings of Paris Las Vegas and we are pleased to extend this limited engagement with these 16 additional performances,” said Marilyn Winn, president of Paris Las Vegas.  “With its combination of timeless music, exceptional production values and the world-class rock band Cheap Trick, the show has proven to be a hit with our guests.”

Geoff Emerick, the renowned engineer of The Beatles’ classic 1967 album and producer of other iconic Beatles’ recordings, supervises the audio production of the show. Never performed in its entirety by The Beatles due to the complex studio technology of the day that was employed in the making of the album, “Sgt. Pepper Live” allows Cheap Trick to incorporate their brand of power pop into the classic songs while paying tribute to music legends in an unforgettable musical experience.

“The performances at Paris Las Vegas have been a special experience,” said Robin Zander, lead singer of Cheap Trick.  “We are much honored to have the opportunity to celebrate this timeless music in our style and to do so at such a great venue as Paris Las Vegas.”

“To be on the Las Vegas Strip we knew we needed a big show, and this show really delivers. It has a full orchestra, sixty-foot wide set, Indian sitar band and, of course, the world-class rock band Cheap Trick, all powered by some of the most talented production people in the business, including the renowned Geoff Emerick,” said Bill Edwards, Executive Producer.   “We have appreciated the support of Paris Las Vegas and the Las Vegas community and we are so happy to extend our run and continue performing to the great audiences Las Vegas provides.”

About Paris Las Vegas

From its dramatic 50-story replica of the Eiffel Tower to authentic architectural reproductions, Paris Las Vegas features elegant décor, European-inspired boutiques and a distinctive array of fine cuisine, including Chef Joho’s acclaimed Eiffel Tower Restaurant, Les Artistes Steakhouse and French-bistro Mon Ami Gabi.  The resort celebrates the romance and excitement of the European City of Light.   In the heart of the famous Las Vegas Strip, the passion and sophistication of Paris Las Vegas transports guests to Europe’s most romantic city. Paris Las Vegas is a Harrah’s Entertainment Resort.

About Bill Edwards Presents Inc.

A premier live entertainment company, Bill Edwards Presents Inc. has been producing world-class concert attractions for more than a decade.  With a mission to maximize the live concert experience, Bill Edwards Presents Inc., is committed to booking, producing and marketing live concerts for artists around the globe. Based in St. Petersburg, FL, the company has produced events in marquee venues around the United States and the world with artists such as Cheap Trick, Alicia Keys, John Mayer, Josh Groban, Kool & The Gang and countless others.

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Ken Miller

Photo: Tom Donoghue/www.donoghuephotography.com

I came for Sgt. Pepper, but stayed for Cheap Trick.

The band who gave us one of rock’s greatest live albums (Live at Budokan) rendered a completely yeoman’s effort at reproducing the Beatles’ game-changing 1967 album at Le Theatre des Arts at Paris Las Vegas, ably assisted by a small orchestra perched atop one end of a tall set and a men’s chorus on the other end. Yet, Cheap Trick did so much more, borrowing not only from other Beatles’ albums, but from their own, as well. The only way to describe the evening is the “best of both worlds.”

Several other things struck me during the Pepper performance:To set the scene, the band began with a performance of “I Am the Walrus” from the band’s Magical Mystery Tour album, nearly letter perfect in reproducing the Beatles’ sound. Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander and Tom Petersson then barreled through the 1967 classic, with Rick’s son, Daxx, on drums (longtime drummer Bun E. Carlos is sadly absent). There’s an almost obsessive quality in how loyal the band is to the source material; they even enlisted the help of producer Geoff Emerick, who worked with the Beatles on Pepper. I’ve been a big fan of Emerick for eons; Imperial Bedroom is one of my favorite albums, as much for his involvement as Elvis Costello’s. So when Nielsen introduced him and I suddenly realized he was sitting only four feet away from me in his production booth, I have to admit I got more than a little starstruck.

1. ) Zander has lost almost none of his vocal ability. “She’s Leaving Home” is not an easy song to sing, yet he pulls it off effortlessly;

2.) Nielsen is still one of the coolest men on the planet, flicking guitar picks into the audience by the dozens and (deliberately?) flubbing his lines while hawking his band’s DVD of the performance.

3.) This might have been a Strip show, but it really had the ambiance of a concert.

Once the Pepper performance came to a close, things really heated up. Anyone still in their seat didn’t stay there long, as the band launched into some of their own greatest hits, including “I Want You To Want Me,” “Dream Police” and “Surrender.” I had completely destroyed my voice screaming for a U.S. victory in the World Cup at the Crown & Anchor earlier in the day, yet I simply could not stop myself from more vocal chord destruction. These songs made me feel 17 again. For about 20 minutes, Le Theatre des Arts became a well-behaved mosh pit, as young and old alike pumped fists, shook hips and generally screamed for more. For that 20 minutes, there was nowhere else in the universe I would rather have been.

That would have been the perfect end to an exhilarating evening, but Cheap Trick wasn’t done. The band performed a couple of new songs, ending with a few tracks off the Beatles’ Abbey Road (“Golden Slumbers,” “The Weight” and “The End”) before bringing things to a close with “All You Need Is Love,” dropping pink paper hearts from the rafters in the process.

I attended this performance with a former colleague who will be leaving Las Vegas at the end of this week for Minnesota. She cried several times during the performance; part of me thinks it’s because she’ll miss this kind of thing, but another part of me thinks it’s just because it was a damn great show. Got to give it up when appropriate, you know?

Sgt. Pepper Live, featuring Cheap Trick. 8 p.m., June 18–19, 22–23, 25–26 and 29–30. $75-$250. (888) 727‑4758 or parislasvegas.com.

By John Katsilometes · June 13, 2010 · 12:18 PM

Questions you might have, and I know I did, as Cheap Trick’s “Sgt. Pepper Live” returns to Las Vegas at Paris Theatre:

Where’s Bun E.? At the hop! (That is a joke ripped off from John Lennon, actually, when he recorded “I’m Losing You” with Cheap Trick.) In fact, the most noticeable change in the production from its previous incarnation at the Las Vegas Hilton is that Bun E. Carlos is not playing drums. This is remarkable because he has been Cheap Trick’s drummer for, well, ever. Rick Nielsen’s son Daxx played Saturday, and Daxx is a genuine rocker, so no dip in musicianship there. But it begs the question, “Eh?”

The explanation is that Carlos is off with Taylor Hanson (long of Hanson), Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha and Fountains of Wayne bass player Adam Schlesinger in Tinted Windows. It was announced last year that Carlos no longer was Cheap Trick’s touring drummer, and this does count as a touring effort, as it is onstage. I’m told Carlos might rotate into the show in Vegas, but he’s not listed anywhere in the show’s program.

White is to Robin Zander as black was to … Johnny Cash. Zander even wears white leather pants. He is the white spy from Mad magazine.

How many guitar picks did Rick Nielsen toss into the audience or about the stage? Easily 100.

Is he still about the coolest guy ever? Oh yeah.

This orange Cheap Trick pick — did I actually catch that? No, Ron Futrell gave it to me. He caught two.

They played several Cheap Trick songs, right? Please tell me “Surrender” was among them. Yes, as were “I Want You to Want Me,” “Dream Police” and “Smile.”

What was the best non-vocal musical moment? “The Flame?” All orchestra. Even so, that was the song in my head when I walked out.

Was that the irrepressible Beth Lano on French horn? And the equally irrepressible Lisa Viscuglia on violin? Yes indeedy.

Will naming those musicians specifically lead to requests from other musicians and backing vocalists to also be named? Yes, and we’ll do that sporadically.

Did the sitarists find their way back to the production? Yes, for “Within You Without You,” and I did learn something — there are different styles of sitars. Some have many knobs, others have but three knobs.

What goes through your head as Zander sings, “When I’m 64?” That Paul McCartney, whowrote the song at age 16 and recorded it at age 24, turns 68 on Friday.

What was the best treatment of a “Sgt. Pepper” song? “A Day in the Life,” with the orchestra roaring to the song’s conclusion.

What was the best treatment of a non-“Sgt. Pepper” song? “All You Need Is Love,” under a blizzard of white paper hearts. You know it’s a high-caliber production when you get home and you have white hearts in your shoes.

What did producer Bill Edwards say when I asked, “Are you bringing this show back next year?” “I hope so!”

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.

On Friday at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., the Flaming Lips will stage their dramatic reworking of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, aided by a psychedelic stage and light show and backing from the group Stardeath and White Dwarfs.

The Lips already mined the work for a New Year’s Eve show last year and a cover album released in December and found the tunes “very resilient,” frontman Wayne Coyne says. “Dark Side is not going to be damaged at all by what we do.”

Also on Friday, Cheap Trick kicks off an extended engagement of its Sgt. Pepper Live show at Paris Las Vegas resort, honoring the 43rd anniversary of The Beatles’ work. The veteran pop-rockers have performed the entire album — something The Beatles never did — at several one-off events in recent years and at a nine-date stand last fall at the Las Vegas Hilton resort. For this go-around (43 dates have been booked so far), Cheap Trick will be backed by an orchestra and an Indian sitar band, with sound production overseen by original Sgt. Pepper engineer Geoff Emerick.

Producer/promoter Bill Edwards, who is pricing most tickets at less than $100, says the show gives Baby Boomers “the feeling that they had growing up and listening to the music. It’s timeless.”

A handful of other time-tested album revivals also are rolling out:

•Rush will perform its 1981 multiplatinum Moving Pictures album on a 40-city tour launching June 29 in Albuquerque.

•Rappers get into the act at Rock the Bells, the traveling hip-hop festival that begins Aug. 21 in San Bernardino, Calif., then heads to Mountain View, Calif. (Aug. 22), New York City (Aug. 28) and Columbia, Md. (Aug. 29).

Headliners Wu-Tang Clan will perform debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). The group will be preceded by three other acts revisiting their pasts: Rakim (playing Paid in Full), KRS-One (Criminal Minded) and Slick Rick (The Great Adventures of Slick Rick).

•The Sept. 3–5 indie-rock All Tomorrow’s Parties fest in Monticello, N.Y., devotes most of its first day to the concept: Iggy & the Stooges play Raw Power, preceded by Sleep (Holy Mountain), Mudhoney (Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles) and The Scientists (Blood Red River).

•Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters embarks on his 49-date North American tour Sept. 15 in Toronto, built around a performance of the group’s 1979 album The Wall.

Leila Navidi

Robin Zander sings during “Sgt. Pepper Live” featuring Cheap Trick Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009 at the Las Vegas Hilton.

By John Katsilometes · June 7, 2010 · 5:05 PM

The question is so simple: Does the dry climate in Las Vegas affect your voice?

But somehow, in a phone interview from Atlanta with Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander, that question meanders, halts and U-turns like a hamster lost in a maze.

“We’ve talked to a lot of vocalists over the years about this: Johnny Mathis, Tony Bennett, Pat Benatar. Celine Dion had misters at the front of the stage to help keep her voice from drying out. They all said that the climate here was hard on their vocal chords. You’ve sung here a bunch of times over the years — I saw you perform three times in one year, 2006 — and I’ve not noticed any particular problem. You have trouble with the climate here, drying out our voice? Is it worse than other places — you’re in Atlanta now, which is really humid — you have performed? Is it harder for you to sing here than other places?”

Whew. Funny, when I test-drove that question to myself, it went a lot smoother.

The response:

“No.”

Zander’s curt answer was Lennonesque, which was appropriate as we were discussing Cheap Trick’s return to Las Vegas for its stage tribute to “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The show, titled “Sgt. Pepper Live” opens at 8 p.m. Friday and runs for a total of 20 dates through July 31. (Tickets are $75, $100, $125 and $250 (plus tax and fees). Go to Paris Las Vegas’ website for details).

For fans of either or both bands, it might be a good idea to book tickets for this run. As Zander said, the rest of the year is slammed for all four members of the band. And as for performing a version of this production in 2011, he said, “I don’t like to say we’ll never do it after this year, but can’t imagine that.”

The well-received show moves from the Las Vegas Hilton Theater, where it was staged in the fall of 2009, to the recently renamed Paris Theatre (renamed when Barry Manilow moved in earlier this year). As before, Cheap Trick and a 25-piece orchestra will power the production. The sextet of sitarists return, too, for the dizzying “Within You Without You.” Bill Edwards is still producing the show, and its music director remains the great Geoff Emerick, who worked on the original “Sgt. Pepper” recording sessions in 1966-’67.

But there will be changes. There are no “guest” performers. Joan Osborne, Rob Laufer and Ian Ball won’t take center stage to sing such classics as “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Across the Universe,” and “I Am the Walrus.” Zander says songs other than the “Sgt. Pepper” numbers will be played by the orchestra.

“I’m not sure what will be played, but for us, we’re planning just the album,” he said. “We do plan some surprises, though.”

Such as, performing Cheap Trick songs?

“Who let the cat out of the bag on that?” he shot back, in mock horror? “I thought that was supposed to be a secret.”

Zander said that if Cheap Trick were not allowed to perform their own songs — and there will likely be three or four — “I can’t imagine we’d do this again.”

The band first was asked to perform the classic album during the spring of 2007, for an August concert at Hollywood Bowl. Zander liked the idea because he likes the album, likes the Beatles and likes the Hollywood Bowl. But it’s not his favorite Beatles album.

“It really isn’t,” he said. “If I were to have to pick a favorite, I’d take ‘Revolver.’ I like ‘Rubber Soul,’ a lot, too. But it is a brilliant, important record, and everyone loves the Beatles, so we’ve just had a lot of fun doing it.”

Zander said one of his favorite Beatles shows is “Love,” at The Mirage, and it has been rumored that MGM Mirage was looking for a way to bring the show to one of its properties but could not because it would compete with that Apple Corps-authorized production.

“We’re really a compliment to what they’re doing,” he said. “It’s not the same type of show, but you can enjoy them both, definitely.”

Asked if the band would consider performing a similar show for yet another legendary band — say, “Houses of the Holy” by Led Zeppelin or the recently re-released “Exile on Main Street” by the Rolling Stones — Zander laughed.

“I know we COULD do it,” he said. “But it would cost a lot of money. An awwwwwful lot of money.”

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.

Sgt. Pepper Live is the latest chapter to Cheap Trick’s enduring legacy

By Chris Carney

Paris 8 p.m. June 22–23 & 25–26, $75-$125 plus tax and fee. 888.727.4758

There is a long held maxim in the music world that the truly great bands make their mark on the stage and not in the studio. Whether
it was the operatic crescendo of The Who, the smoke and grime haze of the Grateful Dead or the present-day masters of mass musical hypnosis, My Morning Jacket, every truly great band killed it live.

Perhaps more than any other band, American rockers Cheap Trick owe their career to their raucous, humorous, adrenaline-pulsing live shows. Formed in Rockford, Ill., in 1975, Cheap Trick toured the numerous bowling alleys, dive bars and warehouses throughout the Midwest. These shows led Epic Records’ Jack Douglas to sign them, after the prolific producer had seen them perform in Wisconsin, perhaps between strikes of the bowling ball. In 1977, they released their critically lauded but commercial dud self-titled debut. Their next two albums, In Color and Heaven Tonight, also failed to earn them a huge American following, despite featuring future hits “Surrender” and “I Want You to Want Me.” Cheap Trick had taken its three swings at stardom and a return to the well-worn bench of the never-were seemed imminent.

Then something strange happened. Japan came calling. While Cheap Trick had failed to muster the legions of fans they would soon be able to lay claim to in the United States, the Japanese had made all three albums gold records. In reward Cheap Trick traversed the ring of fire and filmed two of their shows at the Nippon Budokan, the Madison Square Garden of Tokyo. The resultant double live album, At Budokan, became the breakthrough Cheap Trick had prayed for.

At Budokan was the essence of what the Japanese knew and the world was about to learn: Cheap Trick rocked. Their mishmash of humor, melodic vocals and hard rock riffs worked brilliantly onstage. Robin Zander’s vocals melded perfectly with Rick Nielsen’s guitar cavorting, especially when Nielsen attacked his peacock feather-inspired five-neck guitar.

Cheap Trick had hit it big on the backs of a one-time import-made-multiplatinum domestic release. From there they toured ceaselessly, released a further 14 studio albums, At Budokan II and contributed to numerous soundtrack albums.

Cheap Trick has endured the decades when other bands have faded like background radiation from a dying star. They continue to innovate, entertain and occasionally illuminate.

For Cheap Trick it ends where it all began, on the stage. They return to Las Vegas together with the Sgt. Pepper Symphony Orchestra for a series of shows at Paris Las Vegas, June 22–23 & 25–26, to perform a complete live rendition of The Beatles’ legendary album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

This full-length homage to this seminal 1967 record features a full orchestra, lights, sounds and video, plus some of the band’s very own hits. Cheap Trick is live once more. Rejoice.

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