Apparently the ex-Kinks member and legendary Brit singer-songwriter Ray Davies is working on a new album of Kinks classics with special guests dueting with Davies. These guests include a couple of little known NJ rockers, Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi.

Davies, who kicks off an acoustic tour at the Borgata in Atlantic City Friday night, says he hopes to have the album done by year’s end.

According to an interview Davies did with the NJ Star Ledger, he is open for a Kinks reunion, but says it’s up to his brother Dave Davies.

Says Davies about his younger bro, “Mick Avory and I are going through lots of tapes that we recorded with Dave, and we’re sifting through the archives. We’ll see if he wants to get involved again. It’s in the works. It’s really up to Dave.”

Recently the Tropicana Casino & Resort teamed with Planet Rose Karaoke Bar & Cocktail Lounge — located in The Quarter at the Trop — to start Trop Live Radio from 6-10pm, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

Broadcasting live interviews, promotions, special events and music, Trop Live Radio utilizes a unique means of keeping guests informed of everything the casino/hotel has to offer.

Last Friday and Saturday, Nov. 27-28, the Beach Boys played two packed shows at the Tropicana Showroom before dining and having their caricatures unveiled at The Palm restaurant. Pictured above, Planet Rose owner Dave Pena (left) interviews the Beach Boys’ Mike Love. Trop Live Radio DJ Rick McIver is in the background. Pictured right: the caricatures of Beach Boys members Love and Bruce Johnston grace The Palm’s wall.

It can really be a blast when you get the chance to interview celebrities. Of course you have to be professional and not gush too much, and for the most part, you get the same professionalism in return.
Doing an interview is not like talking with somebody you really know, because that person is selling himself and is therefore on his best behavior but some nuggets of truth can be found in the answers. Some people, you can just sense they are being totally honest.
This was certainly true when I had the opportunity to review my favorite singer, Bonnie Raitt. It certainly helps when you are a 30-year fan who has every album and can recall favorite album cuts. But the main objective is to not inject yourself into the interview; readers want to hear what the celebrity has to say.
Here is my favorite quote from that 2005 interview:
After that period of mainstream stardom in the early ‘90s, where do you see your career at now?
Really blessed to have the loyalty of my fans these 35 years. The core fans buy the show tickets before anyone else. And then the extra fans that we got, the millions of records I was able to sell after Nick of Time went to No. 1, that’s been an unbelievable bonus. I’m in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, I’ve won all these Grammys — I want to stretch and play something new to keep it fresh for myself, and also for my fans. If I start coasting and just playing the big hits or turning into an oldies act that would be so boring.

In general I’ve found that comedians are ultra serious about their career, while very often, singers are the ones dying to tell a joke. Some of my favorite comic interviews over the years have been with George Carlin, Jackie Mason, Dom Irrerra and Richard Jeni.

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Danny has Paula's back.

I had a chance to chat with American Idol third place finisher Danny Gokey this afternoon, for a story that will run in the Aug. 6 issue of AC Weekly (the Idol Tour hits Boardwalk Hall Aug. 7). However as a nice teaser, here was Gokey’s reaction when I asked him about the negotiations that appear stalled regarding Paula Abdul’s status as an Idol judge.

Danny did not hesitate or hedge. Says Gokey, “I think they need to bring her back. I think they need to up her contract. It’s none of my business, I should make that clear. She brings compassion and kindness that the show needs. She’s the only one that really brings that. It’s a very balanced show with all the judges bringing different emotions and different flavors. The show will not be the same without her.”

Katy with Kitty Purry. (Photo credit: Cobrasnake)

Pop song stylist Katy Perry (“I Kissed A Girl”) does not hold back in an interview. She says what she thinks and what she thinks is smart, sassy and funny. Perry, who makes her AC debut at the Borgata next Thursday, July 30, in support of her platinum debut album, One of The Boys, talked with AC Weekly about her breakout year, disappointments earlier in her career and what’s next from her. Her complete interview was too long for the pages of AC Weekly so we’ve provided the full-length interview here.

Can you sum up how the past year has gone for you?
I found my lucky star and I’ve been holding on. It’s been like a hurricane but I feel like I live in the eye of the hurricane. I pace myself and I do my job and I’m very focused, but there’s been a lot going on. I’m in Istanbul, Turkey today and tomorrow I’ll be in Dublin. For this little European run I’ve been in a different city with a different language practically every day. It has been a wreck trying to order room service.

Several labels dropped you before Capitol/EMI came along. Any revenge fantasies against those labels?
I definitely don’t need to say anything. Some of them folded or had to melt into other companies because of [financial] problems. Well, I could have kept your company alive. Obviously, success is the sweetest revenge. It wasn’t easy [being dropped] but it isn’t easy for anybody. It’s a different music industry. I really respect the new artists who are coming in and making a career of it. It’s kind of easy to be a flash in the pan. It’s really hard to [sustain] a career.

It’s great to get discovered via the Internet, but so much of that aspect of the music business involves fans looking for the next new thing. That has to be tougher for maintaining a career.
That is how our world is. Everybody wants it now. Fast. Yesterday. To me it feels like an over-sensitized ADD world, where it is hard to get people’s attention and keep their attention. It’s kind of a one in a million chance to have a big success these days. I love the Internet and I use it to my advantage. I twitter and I blog. I just did it before the record came out; it wasn’t like somebody told me to do it to be part of a marketing scheme. It’s something that makes me happy, to share my weird, funny silly goofy side through that. With [the internet exposure] you are getting people to buy singles. After putting out four singles, finally people are realizing, ‘Maybe there is other stuff on the record so I should go buy the record.’ It’s takes a little bit longer to win over the fans, but they come around if you stick with it.

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We’ve been cracking up at the various YouTube clips featuring comedian Dave Attell (interviewed in this week’s coming issue and doing a show at Borgata this weekend), but couldn’t find one without any profanity. Since this is a family site, we offer this great clip courtesy of the late great comedian Mitch Hedberg, filming backstage during a high school stop on tour with Lewis Black and Attell.

I watched a great documentary film on the late musician Joe Strummer (The Clash, The Mescaleros) called Let’s Rock Again! last night. An hour long and directed by Dick Rude (who played the character Duke in the extraordinary cult classic Repo Man), the film follows Strummer on tour with his band the Mescaleros towards the much-too-early end of his life in December 2002.

One of the coolest parts for someone who works in the Bayport One building on the Black Horse Pike (where the Atlantic City Weekly offices are located as well as numerous radio stations) was to see Strummer — en route to a gig at The Shell at Trump Marina in Atlantic City at the Trump Marina in August 2002 — roll up to the front door of the Bayport One building — after turning to the camera from his car seat and saying “Welcome to Pleasantville” — to plug his show on the local rock station WZXL 100.7. Unannounced.

With it being a weekend, the doors were locked, so Strummer (and cameraman Rude) went behind the building where the back-door entrance and intercom is located. We see Strummer try the back door, dial up the station on intercom, get brushed off by someone there (a WAYV part-timer at the time) and then — finally — inside the station talking on and off air with DJ Steve Raymond (who was two songs away from playing a Clash tune!) about The Mescaleros’ new album and the show in Atlantic City. Later in the doc, we see Strummer on the Atlantic City Boardwalk handing out fliers to his own concert (video link at end of this post). Only one person seems to recognize the legendary punk-rock bandleader.

So….although it’s print deadline day for us here at AC Weekly, I had to go downstairs to talk with Raymond about the experience. I just did.

“I wasn’t supposed to work that day,” Raymond told me. “My wife and I were headed to Delaware for the day when I get a call that the part-time weekend DJ called out sick. I was so upset, but I had to come in. I was spitting nails coming up the Parkway.”

A little later that day, Raymond, as he put it, “was in the right place at the right time.”

As the film shows, Raymond goes to the back door of Bayport One and greets Strummer — in awe. “It turns out he was the greatest guy. I just wished I had prepared more for an interview!”

Strummer was finishing up a tour in Atlantic City and was headed to Japan. He died four months later.

“So it turns out that I — [along with the DJ from KROQ in Los Angeles, also shown in the film] — was the last American radio DJ to interview Strummer before he died,” said Raymond. He recalls Strummer signing a copy of his latest “biscuit” Global A Go-Go (released in July 2001) and WZXL giving it away to a lucky caller that same day. Strummer also signed a Rolling Stone music encyclopedia for Raymond.

WZXL DJ Steve Raymond holds up his Joe Strummer autograph inside his radio booth

For fans of the Clash, Atlantic City miscellany or Strummer, the very thoughtful, funny and talented man, add Let’s Rock Again! to your Netflix queue right now. Check out the great clip below of Strummer pitching his show on the Boardwalk circa August 2002:

Joe Strummer on Atlantic City Boardwalk

Vince Gill performs at Caesars June 13.

I had a chance to talk with country great Vince Gill, for a story in the next issue of AC Weekly. He was just as nice on the phone (with that adorable giggle of his) as you would expect. While you will have to wait to read the entire interview online next Thursday, June 11, I’ve given you a sneak preview here. Tickets are still available for his show at Caesars on June 13.

In your long career, you’ve seen so many changes in country music and what’s popular. Is country music and country radio in a good place right now?
It’s not my favorite era. There are some neat records being made, great, talented people, but there’s not as much country music as I like. I love modern music, I love pop music, but not at the expense of my country music. It’s done this many times [changed directions]. I don’t worry about it — the music always comes back around. At the same time you can’t make young people be what they don’t want to be. Artists are going to record the kind of songs they like. The artists of today didn’t hear Buck Owens growing up, didn’t hear Ray Price.

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AC Weekly columnist David Spatz spoke with Robin Williams — who’s at Borgata this weekend for two shows — on Wednesday after this week’s issue of AC Weekly had been put to bed. However, here are some great excerpts from the interview. See David’s “Curtain Call” column in this week’s issue.

Writes Spatz in today’s Web exclusive:

When Republican presidential hopeful John McCain chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, Robin Williams knew he’d made the right decision to go out on tour for the first time in six years.
“It’s the gift the keeps on giving,” the comedian and Oscar-winning actor told me during an exclusive interview Wednesday ahead of his Friday and Saturday shows at Borgata. “As [President Bush] leaves, you get another one, you know? How did they find her, ‘Project Running Mate?’ It’s like a political reality show that has comedians saying thank you, thank you so much. I mean, she made Katie Couric look like the cutting edge of journalism. She hasn’t been on Larry King yet, has she, because that would make him look like Walter Cronkite.”
A conversation with Robin Williams is a lot like taking a ride in a supersonic F-16 fighter with a member of the United States Air Force Thunderbirds. There isn’t much to do except strap yourself into the cockpit, hang on for dear life and let someone else do the flying.
All I did was throw out a question and he took over the controls. The words veritably flowed. It was almost a stream-of-consciousness thing as he lapsed in and out of characters and voices, which — just as he does on stage — he uses as much to demonstrate his answers as to punctuate them. Here, then, are some highlights from our chat:

On his decision to tour for the first time in six years:
“The last time [I toured] was after 9/11. It’s interesting, after the shows people are saying like ‘Yeah, we need this.’ It was just time for me emotionally and financially to get back out, but it was also the idea of people coming up to me and saying, ‘Oh, dude, we need
this.’”

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American Idol champ David Cook is an intense and gracious young man. In a quick interview before his appearance in Atlantic City, I had a chance to see if he is as genuine as he appeared during the TV show. Quick answer: He is.

You’re on quite a hectic schedule these days.
The worst day on the tour still beats the best day of whatever I was doing before this.
How it’s like performing before 10,000 fans?
I grew up idolizing people in this position, so to have this be my life is a little strange. It’s cool. I’m very happy to be where I’m at.
Any tour dates that really stand out?
Actually, a couple of nights ago in Newark, our second night there, I was doing the single “The Time of My Life,” and the audience started singing the song back to me … It was just one of those moments when the vibe was perfect. When the tour is over, it will be that little memory to keep in my pocket.
How’s the album going?
The record is moving right along. We’re got about 60 songs and we’re trying to find the cream of the crop and put out the best record possible. I’m working with producer Rob Cavallo; he did Green Day’s American Idiot and the last My Chemical Romance record. My old guitar player that I played with in Tulsa is working on the record. Everything is just falling into place. I think this record will really be indicative of who I want to be as an artist.

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