I heard a rumour John may be planning to tour other parts of the world in 2016.  Do you know if this is true?  I would very much like to attend his show/s if he returns to the UK/Europe.

Thanks for taking this up, Turmbird.  I live in the UK and want to pre-order this too.  Now I will :-)

Also, I can't wait for a world tour and very much hope the UK is included as a leg.

Alex

Thanks for this, Tony.  Just looked up "Mellencamp Carrywear" in New Zealand ... they look more like a retail outlet for bags and fashionware rather than a 'label' as such.  They don't have their own website, in any event. 

I thought the Alain Robert "Mellencamp" jacket looked custom-made for hom (it certainly did not look like any of the Mellencamp jackets I have ever seen through this website or on ebay) but it was still a rather odd image, given the unusualness of the name and the fact he did not have his own name emblazoned on the jacket. 

Still, I would like to think this counts as a pseudo-"Mellenmoment" ... :-)

I was watching a UK news program yesterday and was pleasantly surprised by a news story about "urban climber" Alain Robert, the so-called "French Spiderman" famous for scaling the Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House, the Golden Gate Bridge and numerous other landmarks around the world.  In this story, he was wearing a black leather jacket with "Mellencamp" emblazoned across the back and down his left sleeve.  I then googled him and found this Blog, with photos of him wearing a similar (red) leather jacket with "Mellencamp" emblazoned across the back:

http://www.danhimbrechts.com/blog/2009/06/french-climber-alain-robert-appears-in.html

Given that one does not hear Mellencamp's music much on UK television or radio these days, or come across references to him in popular media here all that often, I found this story rather tantalizing.  Robert is something of a celebrity in France and, I am guessing, a John Mellencamp fan.  His jacket is great and I am curious about its history.

Does anyone know anything about Robert's interest in "Mellencamp" and/or the history of his jacket?

Alex

I was watching a UK news program yesterday and was pleasantly surprised by a news story about "urban climber" Alain Robert, the so-called "French Spiderman" famous for scaling the Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House, the Golden Gate Bridge and numerous other landmarks around the world.  In this story, he was wearing a black leather jacket with "Mellencamp" emblazoned across the back and down his left sleeve.  I then googled him and found this Blog, with photos of him wearing a similar (red) leather jacket with "Mellencamp" emblazoned across the back:

http://www.danhimbrechts.com/blog/2009/06/french-climber-alain-robert-appears-in.html

Given that one does not hear Mellencamp's music much on UK television or radio these days, or come across references to him in popular media here all that often, I found this story rather tantalizing.  Robert is something of a celebrity in France and, I am guessing, a John Mellencamp fan.  His jacket is great and I am curious about its history. 

Does anyone know anything about Robert's interest in "Mellencamp" and/or the history of his jacket?

Alex

Thanks for the info: I'll look forward to the new shirts.  I hope that Live Nation might get around to a reprint or two.  No problem if they don't, however: there is always ebay.com ... :-)

I guess this is a question for the moderator/s of this site: are there any plans to produce new or additional fan merchandise for sale through the JM shop on this site?  I am looking to replenish some of my favourite t-shirts for which stocks seem to have now been used up.  I would also be curious to know if new merchandise is planned as I like to buy gifts for other members of my family who are also Mellencamp fans.  Any information would be much appreciated, Alex

My condolences ... John and his family will be in our prayers.

This is absolutely brilliant news!  I will look forward to purchasing the CD and hope that the show might come to the UK!

Two songs that have definitely grown in stature with me are ''To M.G (Wherever She May Be)'' and ''Sugar Marie'' i never much cared fo much of John's pre American Fool music, but when i heard the versions on the Rural Route box set they became two of my favorite Mellencamp songs, i think John's at his best when he keeps it simple.

I agree completely - those songs were real eye-openers on the Rural Route box set.  I also love the version of 'Colored Lights' on that set, from his pre-American Fool albums.  But these two songs are a really good example of what I mean - songs to which one might not have paid much attention initially, but which grow on you later, or which you hear again (sometimes as another version) and find refreshing and startlingly good.  I felt this when I heard the acoustic version of 'Lonely Ol Night' - a song I thought was okay before, but never my favourite track from Scarecrow - that Mellencamp played at the Walter Reed Memorial Hospital concert in the early 2000s.  It was stripped down, with just Mellencamp, guitar and mouth organ, and it was absolutely brilliant.  When kept simple, Mellencamp's songwriting genius is particularly clear.

We all have our favourite Mellencamp songs, often (but not always) his hits.  My favourite song, when I first fell in love with his music, was 'Check It Out' (I was twelve when I first encountered him, in the form of 'The Lonesome Jubilee', which was climbing the charts at the time in Australia, where I grew up).  However, while I still love this song, it is no longer my favourite of his, though I would still count it in my top twenty (or thirty).  So my question to fellow Mellenheads is whether, and how, your favourite songs of his have grown on you, or changed for you, over time? 

For example, I did not like 'Rain on the Scarecrow' when I first heard it as much as many other songs on the 'Scarecrow' album but after seeing Mellencamp play the song live in concert recently, it is now one of my all-time favourites.  It seemed to me that when he first sang that song, it was fuelled by a righteous anger that has morphed, in the years since, into a seething rage that underscores the importance, relevance and vitality of that song to a contemporary audience, which made it all the more powerful for me.  It is a song that has grown with age, so to speak.  Has anyone else found a love and respect for a Mellencamp song that did not excite them initially (perhaps unsurprisingly, given that he has written so many brilliant songs) until later in life?

I agree: I would love Mellencamp to release a live CD/DVD (preferably both).  While I can live with bootlegs, I love collecting his albums on CD and vinyl etc.  But I would live two live CDs: one from his Scarecrow/Lonesome Jubilee days, with long, meandering rock versions of 'Pink Houses' and 'Small Town', etc, as well as one of No Better Than This Tour.  I went to his Glasgow concert and was blown away by how fresh songs like 'Jack and Diane' sounded in their stripped-down, folky guise, and thought 'Rain on the Scarecrow' was astonishing after 25 years: it seemed to speak with so much more anger and vitality and relevance, after all these years, which I guess is not surprising given the injustices of the song, written in the mid-1980s, have been barely addressed since, and so much time has now passed.  And who could not love 'Save Some Time to Dream' and 'Walk Tall' ... I could go on.  But yes, the old Mellencamp ANd the new is what I would like to hear: he is probably the best performer I have ever seen live and as a loyal, long-time fan, I feel it would be fulfilling to have a permanent collection of his live music.

Happy Thanksgiving to you too!

Mellenq: if you did have a spare disc of that concert, I would be incredibly grateful to get a copy.  The concert I recorded, which played nationally, was broadcast in my hometown (Adelaide) by SAFM.  It's filled with adverts for sunblock and cricket, etc.  Quite amusing.  I remember recording it and being paranoid about missing songs if I switched the cassette recorder off at the wrong time.  It played at 11pm on a hot summer's night and I remember being very excited about the upcoming Whenever We Wanted concert.

Let me know if you succeed in finding a spare copy of the concert on CD and perhaps we can take things from there?

Speak to you soon,

Alex

Thanks for this, WalkTall2010.  I would absolutely LOVE to get a copy of that show - the track list includes songs that are not the list for the CD I saw.  I am assuming the latter is some kind of bootleg but it does include songs that could not have been part of a Lonesome Jubilee tour (Pop Singer, Now More Than Ever, Get a Leg Up, Big Daddy of Them All, Martha Says).  Do you know if it possible to get other recordings of Mellencamp live?

Incidentally, I come from Australia (though I now live in Scotland - recently took my daughter to see Mellencamp play live in Glasgow) and remember a 'live' show being broadcast on Australian radio to promote his Whenever We Wanted world tour in 1991.  I recorded it at the time - on a cassette! - with advertisements left intact and everything.  It's like a snapshot of Australian radio from twenty years ago as well as a terrific Mellencamp concert.  It concluded with an 8 or 9 minute version of Pink Houses, which I absolutely adore, and was supposed to be of a concert in Dallas ... I wonder if this is the same recording?  It would be great to have it on my computer or CD for the car - I no longer have a cassette player to listen to the recording ....

Many thanks,

Alex