Ty Stephens Romantasy
In Monaco

August 12 - August 17

Legions!

Well, it's all over but the shoutin'. With but one full week remaining in the Monaco Sporting Club season, Ty Stephens Romantasy,
for all intents and purposes, combines with The All Night Long Tamla And Motown Revue for the next five days, culminating
(somewhat bombastically) with a two day, closing salvo, headlined by world renowned guitarist, Eric Clapton.

Yes, it has been quite a ride but guess what? We have been contracted to extend our singular performances for two weeks at
Monte Carlo's brand spanking new nightclub, MOODS, where I am certain that we will blow the doors off the joint, considering that the
acoustic and performance shackles of our Sporting Club Opening Act edict finally will be shattered. Ah! Exhalation.

Meanwhile, last week, we watched how the rich Italians and the hoi-polloi party as we celebrated Italy Week in this, our penultimate Sporting Club installment:

A native of Milan and its suburb, Rozzano, Antonacci broke into music as a drummer. He got his first break at the SanRemo Music Festival, in 1988
and like most of us who are bitten by the performance bug, hasn't looked back since. Now singing for his supper, he toured, locally, benefitting both from
performance as well as from radio and early internet exposure. Balancing his musical vocation with a dedication to local and national social causes,
Biaggio Antonacci slowly rose in European popular culture until worldwide recognition came in 2005, when he received an award, in Hollywood,
for Best Selling Italian Male Artist. I've coined a phrase to describe his music - Euro-Funk/Rock.

Antonello Venditti was born in Rome and quite interestingly, is something of a musical historian, actually singing many of his songs in Roman dialect.
A pianist by education, he discovered his strong voice to be the ticket out of the parochial venues he early on found himself to be frequenting.
Singing songs themed around negative social conditions, national apathy and political denunciation, Venditti, developed a post-hippie,
rabblerouser following, even once being arrested, charged and subsequently acquitted of blasphemy. Sticking to his guns since 1972, Antonello Venditti
continues to provoke his longstanding throng even as he piques the interest of his followers' accompanying children.

Here she is, the Italian version of Mick Jagger! Gianna is a 52 year old rock dynamo, who, while not displaying the caricatured frenzy that depicts
the Rolling Stones' leader, still comes to the fore with a Brett Farve verve - she hits you right in the numbers with everything she's got.
She's even made a foray into Hip-Hop (albeit, Euro style... Um ain't hatin' - Um just sayin') in a recent performance with the Italian rapper, Fabri Fibra.
I guess that all of her energy is the perfect foil for one who, when the stage is dark, holds a University of Siena degree in philosophy.

They're back! It's wall to wall and wings to wings Soul and Rhythm & Blues, until week's end.
The Monaco crowd really is loving the All Night Long Tamla And Motown Revue, as they are serenaded until midnight with selections from the books of
Motown's sensual stable of passionate poets. Furthermore, the multitudes are thrilled to spectacles of period costuming and vignettes, featuring impressions of
Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, Mary Wells, The Temptations, The Supremes, Gladys Knight And The Pips and The Marvelettes.
We're having a ball setting up for this youthful troupe, who, no doubt, is getting a comprehensive and challenging education in the old axiom:
"SO YOU WANTED TO BE IN SHOW BUSINESS?"

Jusqu'a la prochaine fois!

Fino alla prossima volta!