(From 3/15/2019) In July, while on a second tour of Australia, Frank caused an uproar by describing journalists there – who were aggressively pursuing his every move and pushing for a press conference – as “bums, parasites, fags, and buck-and-a-half hookers”. After he was pressured to apologize, Sinatra instead insisted that the journalists apologize for “fifteen years of abuse I have taken from the world press”.
Union actions cancelled concerts and grounded Sinatra’s plane, essentially trapping him in Australia. In the end, Sinatra’s lawyer, Mickey Rudin, arranged for Sinatra to issue a written conciliatory note and a final concert that was televised to the nation. In October 1974 he appeared at New York City’s Madison Square Garden in a televised concert that was later released as an album under the title “The Main Event – Live”. Backing him was bandleader Woody Herman and the Young Thundering Herd, who accompanied Sinatra on a European tour later that month. Here is “The Lady Is A Tramp” from that performance. Enjoy!!
Reminder… You can click in the lower right of a YouTube video to make it full screen. Also, you can use the Posts menu item to filter news posts to a specific category – e.g. Music Videos – to just show those. Enjoy!