Cyndi Lauper
2005-Present: The Body Acoustic & current projects
Lauper's album The Body Acoustic, released in 2005, featured acoustic reinterpretations of tracks from her back catalog as well as two new songs (Above the Clouds) which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best female vocals Performance. It featured guest appearances by Shaggy, Ani DiFranco, Adam Lazzara, Jeff Beck, Puffy AmiYumi and Sarah McLachlan. Since the album's release, Cyndi Lauper's star has been on the rise, especially in Canada. She continues to tour the world performing live and is noted as an energetic live performer. Despite not having released a proper follow-up to 1997's Sisters of Avalon, she has maintained a devoted dedicated fanbase and lives in New York with her husband and their son. As of 1998, Lauper also had a home in Stamford, Connecticut.[1] In 2005, Lauper also appeared on Nellie McKay's sophomore album on the track "Bee Charmer."
Also in 2005, she appeared on Showtime's hit show, Queer As Folk in a scene performing a new remix of Shine.
In 2006 she made her Broadway debut in a revival of The Threepenny Opera.
In the second quarter of 2006, Lauper directed a television commercial for the Totally 80's edition of the board game Trivial Pursuit. The commercial features her old WWF "rival" Rowdy Roddy Piper along with 80's celebrities Tiffany, Downtown Julie Brown, Corey Feldman, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and others.[2]
On October 16, 2006, Cyndi Lauper was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.[3]
Lauper plans to record an album of all-new original material which she says will be released sometime summer 2007. She describes it as a mainly dance album with good rhythm.[4] With her latest tour, Lauper has been giving fans a sneak peek at the album by singing some of the new songs at concerts. The songs so far are "Still With Me" and "The Other Side of Here." Lauper started work on the album in November, 2006. The album title has been revealed as Savoir Faire.
Lauper was the headline act at the New Year 2007 celebrations at Universal Studios Orlando. Recently seen during the week of January 21, 2007 at the Bamboo Garden in Elmsford, New York. On January 31, 2007, she appeared on The Howard Stern Show and was complimented on her physique.
The pop girl group Girl Authority remade her classic "Shine" to be featured on their sophomore album, Road Trip.
Lauper is headlining the True Colors Tour 2007 for Human Rights through the United States in June 2007, with Deborah Harry, Erasure, Dresden Dolls and Gossip, with Margaret Cho as MC. The tour, sponsored by Logo, the MTV Networks channel targeting gay audiences, will provide information to fans who attend, as well as purple wristbands with the slogan "Erase Hate" from the Matthew Shepard foundation, named for a gay youth killed in a hate crime. A dollar from every ticket sold will be earmarked for the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people
Toto
Falling In Between
In early 2006, Toto released Falling In Between, their first album of new material since 1999. With very positive reviews from critics and fans alike, Toto release the successful single, "Bottom of Your Soul", which hit #1 on many single charts in Europe. Since the record's release, Toto has embarked on an extensive world-wide tour. They have recently begun the second leg of the Falling In Between Tour, with Leland Sklar filling in temporarily for Mike Porcaro on bass. A DVD was recorded in late March 2007 and is planned to be released around Sep/Oct.
Thompson Twins
The final years
Thompson Twins, 1987
Leeway left the band in 1986, after a reported disagreement with manager Hade, and the remaining duo carried on making music for another seven years, occasionally puncturing the singles charts and twice making the U.S. Top Forty. 1987 saw the release of Close To the Bone and the single "Get That Love" which made it to number thirty-one in the U.S.. 1989 saw the release of another album, Big Trash, and a new record deal with Warner Bros. Records. The single "Sugar Daddy" peaked at number twenty-eight in the USA and would be their last brush with mainstream chart success. 1991's Queer would be the band's swansong, and was supported by various techno-induced singles under the moniker of Feedback Max (in the UK) to disguise club DJs of the source of the records. The single "Come Inside" reached number seven in the U.S. Dance Chart and number one in the UK Dance Chart. However, once it was discovered that the Thompson Twins were behind the record, sales dropped and the album never had a UK release.
In 1988, Bailey and Currie had their first child together, and in the following years they spent a lot of time writing material for other artists including the hit single "I Want That Man" for Debbie Harry. In 1991, Bailey and Currie got married in Las Vegas and the following year moved to New Zealand with their two children. In 1992, the Thompson Twins contributed the song "Play With Me" to the soundtrack of the Ralph Bakshi film Cool World; Tom Bailey alone contributed a second track, "Industry and Seduction". The following year, the group finally formally disbanded, and Bailey and Currie teamed up with engineer Keith Fernley to form a new group called Babble. The Thompson Twins have declined to follow the examples of many of their contemporaries and reform to tie-in with a nostalgic rebirth of the 1980s.