Free Republic

In some ways Yoko Ono is still an amateur. At “We Are Plastic Ono Band,” mixing concert and tribute at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Tuesday night, her voice could be shaky and her stage patter giggly and unplanned. She looked genuinely surprised when the audience interrupted her and sang “Happy Birthday.” (She turns 77 on Feb. 18.) She’s also untamed. She can still let loose the bleats, wails, yips, howls and shrieks that alienated Beatles fans in the 1960s and inspired avant-rockers soon afterward. Ms. Ono’s well-preserved air of naïveté — and the license it gives her to...

Yoko Ono has recruited Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, Bette Midler and more artists for the first Plastic Ono Band show in 40 years: a special concert on February 16th at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. The “new” Plastic Ono Band will be comprised of Ono’s son Sean Lennon plus Japanese musicians like Cibo Matto’s Yuka Honda, Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Haruomi Hosono and Cornelius, who also worked on Ono’s 2009 album Between My Head and the Sky. Both Clapton and bassist Klaus Voorman, who’s also confirmed for the Brooklyn event, were...

Three members of The Faces reunited on stage when Ronnie Wood and Ian McLagan joined Rod Stewart at his gig at the Hollywood Bowl. Wood, who left the band to join the Rolling Stones, accompanied Stewart on five songs, including the finale of Ooh La La as McLagan played organ. Monday's performance was the first time Stewart and Wood have worked together since an MTV session in 1993. When Wood joined the Stones in 1975 Stewart concentrated on his solo career.