This is the time of year we get to break out that perennial favorite, Spring Fever, dust it off and play it at a few shows before the season changes. One such opportunity occurred on March 11th at The Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. Once again, Orleans returned to The Wolf Den … and this time we were joined by co-founder, former bandmate and ex-Congressman John Hall.

That performance is now immortalized in this YouTube video

While you’re over at our YouTube Channel, please consider subscribing. That way you’ll be among the first to know any time we upload something new … and we do have some very cool things in the can waiting for upload.

Among them is a video of 17 year old Samantha Hoppen (Lance’s daughter) singing onstage with her dad at his annual Big Birthday Bash Show this past January. Anyone want to see that?

How about a 1982 lip-synched rendition of Still the One from the TV show “Solid Gold“? … complete with the Solid Gold Dancers, Rex Smith, Marilyn McCoo and much younger, thinner versions of Lance, Larry and Lane Hoppen as well as guitarist Michael Mugrage and drummer Nick Parker? Now that’s something you don’t see every day! (not sure how long that one will stay up due to content ownership rules)

And there’s more where that comes from. So come join us at the OrleansOnline YouTube Channel!

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]]> http://orleansonlineblog.com/2012/04/spring-fever-is-back/feed/ http://orleansonlineblog.com/2012/04/registering-to-comment-is-again-enabled/ http://orleansonlineblog.com/2012/04/registering-to-comment-is-again-enabled/#comments Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:23:45 +0000 Lance http://orleansonlineblog.com/?p=70 If it was a snake, it woulda bit me!

For the longest time, I could not figure out WHY nobody could comment on this blog. People USED to be able to do that, so why did that function cease to work?

Well, actually, it didn’t cease to work, but you had to be registered in order to comment. And the ability to register had disappeared from the site menu. Hmmmm …

So , I went searching in the Settings area of this blogsite and, lo and behold, right there in front of my eyes, was an item that said “Anyone can register” … and it was NOT checked! So, in other words NO ONE can register. Duh! How’d that happen?

Anyway, I checked the box, then and I checked the site, and … Hurray!

Now anyone CAN register!

So, please do. It’s simple and easy.

The Register link is right there in the menu in the upper right side of this site. Go ahead … Click it. It won’t bite (promise!). All it asks for is a username (you pick that) and an email address so it can send you a temporary password. When you have that, you can login, change your password to something you can easily remember, and you’re good to go with Comments, etc.

Ya know, it gets lonely just talkin’ at ya. I’d much prefer talking WITH you. And you can also communicate with each other as a community. Imagine that!

So come one, please Register and Comment. Talk amongst yaselves!

Lance

Friday, October 14th - 9 PM
Orleans - full band
Ogeechee Seafood Festival
J.F. Gregory Park
Richmond Hill, GA

Just $5 gets you into the park for ALL the festivities. Looks like there’s a classic car show, a carnival and, of course, GREAT seafood to be had!

Saturday, October 15th -8 PM
Orleans - full band
Ithaca College Alumni Weekend Event
Ithaca College New Event Center
Ithaca, NY

Sorry, but this is a PRIVATE show for the Ithaca College alumni. A few of you are on our email list.

As it turns out, LARRY is an Ithaca College alumnus, although he didn’t go the distance … instead, he dropped put to pursue a career in Rock ‘n’ Roll. Go figure!

NEXT weekend, it’s off to Europe! More about that soon.

Wally Steinhauser and all the folks at Wingard’s Nursery treated us like kings! BEAUTIFUL setting, absolutely gorgeous weather, great production gear and techs to run it … and the FOOD! After the show they insisted on treating us to a late night dinner at their lakefront homestead, featuring Spanish Paella! VERY hard to resist! (and the show wasn’t bad, either )

We had gotten quite a lot of feedback from the email sent out post-John Hall in Clearwater, FL and pre-Felix in SC. I’ve copy/pasted a few of the responses below, so you can get to see and share in what I see.

The thing is, by using the “Comment” functon on this blog, YOU can add YOUR 2 cents, too! It’s easy … all you do is register with a username and password so you can post, and you’re in!

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From: vin garofoli
To: Orleans (the band)
Subject: Re: Orleans with Felix Cavaliere this Friday!Dear Lance,

Felix defined the early Rock parameters for the B3, just as Booker T. defined them for Soul right here in Memphis.  I, too, played (alternately) lead guitar and bass (and lots of Rascals and Vanilla Fudge and Traffic covers) in a couple of groups in HS and college and was privileged to have a B3 and a great keyboardist behind it as stage company.  There’s no greater sound and, as they said in Memphis studios (Stax, Phillips and Ardent, to name 3), “Ain’t nothin’ a B3 can’t fix!”  To share the stage with Felix must be a real rush, and I hope you and the lads enjoy it. Wish I could be there. 

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Reply —

You’re right, Michael. Sharing the stage with Felix IS an incredible rush! Beyond enjoyable. I know Larry had a Cheshire grin on his face while Felix helped us out on Still the One, just before we ended the show with Good Lovin’. Doesn’t get much better than having your hero join you where you live. 

AND — I will get the pleasure of playing bass/singing in Felix’s Rascals once again - in Akron, Ohio on Friday, Dec 2nd - subbing for my buddy, Mark Prentice. It’s not on his online calendar yet, so I don’t know the name of the venue, but how many Casinos can there be in Akron? See some of y’all there, I hope.

 —————————————————————

From: Marli Stahler
To: Orleans (the band)
Subject: Re: Orleans with Felix Cavaliere this Friday!

I remember my last day of high school taking my mom’s white Dodge Charger convertible (with the red leather seats) driving thru the park and listening to the Rascals’ “It’s a Beautiful Morning”. Boy, wish I could be in SC. Ted just applied for a job in Beaufort, SC…..

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Reply —

OK. It’s YOUR turn now! If you’ve got something to add, just register a username and chime in.

We ALL want to hear from YOU!

Lance

was a success on all counts.

It was great to welcome back John Hall to the stage for that particular show.

We did a brand new song of his called I Told You So. Judging by the crowd’s reaction, the message got across loud and clear.

You can see John’s video of this song posted on his own site at www.JohnHallMusic.com

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Friday, October 7th - 8 PM
Orleans with special guest, Felix Cavaliere (formerly of The Rascals)
Art in the Garden VI
Wingard’s Nursery & Garden Center
Lexington, SC

One of the great pleasures of becoming elder statesmen of Pop/Rock is that, at this point, we get to work with not only some of the best talents out there … we sometimes get to work with an icon who influenced our own paths.

Larry and I can tell you that, as teenagers growing up on Long Island, there was no cooler band than our own home-grown Rascals. Personally, I played many of their hits in the 9-piece (horns included) band I was in in high school (called The Koloring Book :-))

This Friday, once again, we’ll be joined on stage by none other than the awesome Felix Cavaliere!

We get to be his back-up band, playing such hits as Groovin’, Good Lovin’, People Got to Be Free, Lonely Too Long … just to name a few.

Geez! … do we have to play any Orleans songs? OK … we will.

I know it’s geographically impossible for most of you to physically be there, but please join us in spirit, knowing the music goes out to ALL of you.

Friday, Sept. 23rd — 8 PM
Uptown Theater
3700 Broadway
Kansas City, MO 64111
816-753-8665
Tickets

This particular concert features 1970s / 80’s Rock music legends Larry Hoppen (Orleans), John Cafferty (Beaver Brown Band / Eddie and the Cruisers), Robbie Dupree, David Pack (former lead vocalist of Ambrosia) and Jimmy Hall (from Wet Willie) performing a blend of their iconic hit songs  …

like “Dance with Me“, “Steal Away“, “Keep On Smilin‘”, “Still the One“, “You’re The Only Woman“, “On The Dark Side,” “Biggest Part Of Me“, “How Much I Feel” and many, many more.

Mostly, I would like to just now be getting off a Southwest flight from Connecticut, where we were supposed to be last night … playing the Ridgefield Playhouse with our friends Chris Barron (lead singer, Spin Doctors) and Wally Palmar (lead singer and guitarist, The Romantics). But, due to forces outside our control, the show was cancelled just a few days ago. Why? Not exactly sure, but most likely a convergence of our generally sluggish economy and, specifically, that the area was hard hit by both hurricanes Irene and Lee, in quick succession. None of that helped ticket sales. Oh, well …

Our apologies to the many fans who DID buy tickets for the show. We’ve heard from you about your disappointment over the cancellation (and you know who you are :-). We truly appreciate that but, really, no one is more disappointed than WE are that we didn’t get to play this particular show  … ’cause I can tell you, it would have TOTALLY ROCKED!

I was SO looking forward to playing Spin Doctors hits (Two Princes, Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong, Jimmy Olsen’s Blues). I’d been practicing my slap/pop style for weeks! And what’s not to like about the sheer FUN of The Romantics‘ What I Like About You, Talkin’ in Your Sleep, and Rock You Up?

I know my bandmates share my disappointment. Maybe we can put this bill together again somewhere, soon. We can try. We’ll keep you posted.

Some have already found this one, which slipped unannounced into the OrleansOnline.com store about a week ago.

Orleans: Then and Now … greatest hits and MORE! is a brand new compilation of all the A-list stuff that people ask for all the time at the live shows. It just made sense to put it all on one disc and make it available at the “merch” table.

Thing is, we only made 200 of ‘em to start (218 to be exact) … and more than half of them disappeared on the first weekend out. The next gigs are at the end of May, so we thought it might be best to offer the remaining 80 or so up online in the meantime … AND include a seriously cool bonus for you!

That’s the other secret … and we’ll get to that in a moment.

Thing about these CDs is there will only EVER be 218 of them made. This is a first-edition “shortrun”. Sure, we’ll make more, but the next run will have a different kind of packaging, maybe even be a double-disc (which this WILL become, sooner or later). But there won’t ever be any more of THIS version. So …

If you’re the kind of collector fan who simply has to have everything, then this is definitely a MUST for you! And you can read ALL about it HERE (sorry … this promotion is over)

We’ve been sitting on master recordings of two brand new songs, written last fall by Larry and me with a couple of Nashville hit writers. We both love the tunes so much we EACH insisted on singing them. So we wound up with a dilemma … TWO fine versions of each song and no clear “better” ones to release. What to do?

In the end, we agreed we would leave that decision up to YOU … the die-hard fans. So …

When you get your limited-edition copy of Then and Now, you will also get download links to FOUR high-quality Mp3s — two versions each of these two new songs.  PLUS …

We invite you to take a brief online survey to let us know which ones you like better and why … anonymously, of course, so you don’t have to worry about hurting our feelings. Based on your feedback, we will choose which recordings to release as THE versions … and include them on Then and Now when it morphs into a double-disc.

Well, that’s the gist of it all. If this offer is calling your name, better answer it fast at the OrleansOnline store. Those 80 … oops 75 copies won’t last long!

The band includes Tony Levin (bass), David Sancious (keys) and Terry Silverlight (drums). Guest artists include the late, great Cornelius Bumpus, Billy Squier, Michelle Mailhot (Toxic Audio), Beth Shafer, Lance Hoppen, Charlie Morgan and Jim Campagnola.

You’ll want this one in your car, for sure! Full of instrumental and vocal work from  numerous talented freinds, there’s lots of musical variety here with a strong thread running throughout.

The packaging’s nice, too.

Larry will personally sign every order.

PLUS —
Order by April 15th, 2011 and he’ll send you an MP3 of his/Orleans‘ release of Spring Fever.Every CD purchased donates another US$1 to Red Cross Int’l for Japan’s disaster relief fund

HEAR MORE AND ORDER HERE