Joplin's old band hunt for a new 'Pearl'
Sam Andrew will soon embark on what mildly might be called a challenging task: to replace his rock band's long-dead singer - Janis Joplin.

This time around, his band's recruitment may not involve seduction, wild sex, drinking and drugs as legend says happened with Joplin's induction and adventures with Big Brother and the Holding Company.

Rather, if the aging San Francisco-area rockers have their way, the 21st century auditions to replace a 1960s icon will become a television reality show called Search for the Pearl, a reference to Joplin's nickname.

"In one way or another since the 1960s I've been searching for Pearl," Andrew said, a guitarist who played with Joplin on some of her best-known hits, including Piece of My Heart, Summertime and I Need a Man to Love.

Big Brother

Forty years ago, Andrew founded Big Brother, a band along with the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane that helped make San Francisco the centre of the 1960s counterculture of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

"The bass player and I were such terrible singers that we said we just need a singer, so that was our 'Search for Pearl' in 1965," Andrew said, 63, who lives on a remote hillside in Marin County north of San Francisco.

"To replace her, my life has been a constant search for Pearl since then."

Joplin first landed in San Francisco in 1963 but moved back to Texas after her career did not take off amid drug abuse.

Big Brother's manager lured Joplin back in 1966 by sending a charming emissary to convince her to audition.

Joplin departed Big Brother after the 1968 hit record Cheap Thrills but kept working with Andrew until shortly before her 1969 Woodstock performance.

Hard work

Despite the hippie mantra of "turn on, tune in, drop out" Joplin and the band worked hard to succeed.

"We were asking people to drop out and express themselves and all that and we had a full-time job that we worked really hard," he said.

"It was that built-in contradiction."

Big Brother faltered and collapsed soon after Joplin's 1970 death, and Andrew said he was addicted to heroin for the next five years.

The band, reunited in 1987, embarks on a month-long European concert tour in April.

-Reuters

http://www.abc.net.au/new...338499.htm

I also heard that a Joplin biopic is in the works, starring Pink.


No shame.

this is slander to Janis's memory....all i can say is Karma...

ehhhh...if they find somone talented through the process then good for them...its not like they are calling themselves "the janis joplin review" or anything...

to market the show, i hear they're going to manufacture an electric toothbrush in the shape of janis spinning in her grave.

sosgemini said:

Stax said:

lets not forget that ella appeared on Showtime At The Appollo.....

ya never know when and where lighting will strike...

sosgemini said:

Ok, but call the show Old Rockers Need a Singer. Don't capitalize on Janis by titling the show Search for the Pearl. Of course, if they didn't use Janis' nickname, the old boys would have no show. Which is how it would be if there was any decency left in the world.

Stax said:

hey...i think they are on to something...The Revolution should do a reality show to find a replacement for Prince.....