from Billboard.com--

Petty, Heartbreakers To Rock Super Bowl Halftime


Tom Petty

December 02, 2007, 11:05 PM ET

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers will play the coveted halftime slot at the Super Bowl in Arizona on Feb. 3. This year, nearly 140 million Americans watched Prince play at the football extravaganza.

Other recent acts have included the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and U2. The most infamous performer was Janet Jackson, who bared her breast during the 2004 event, triggering a bipartisan political crackdown on televised smut.

The National Football League's annual championship game will be held at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, near Phoenix. It will be televised by Fox.

Petty's performance will mark a rare occasion where the veteran rocker is closely aligned with a corporate sponsor, in this case the North American arm of Japanese tire firm Bridgestone Corp, which has lent its name to the halftime event.

Gee - wonder if he'll play "American Girl"!???!
I just about shit myself when the Goo Goo Dolls played that on some award show a few years back. Highlight of their career!

This is great, unless they try and add guest stars to sing along with him (anyone besides Stevie Nicks, that is, who has actually recorded and toured with TP&TH), like they did with Aerosmith a few years back (what a disaster!).

Wonder who will "sing" the national anthem?

Britney Spears.

Wonder who will "sing" the national anthem?

Menudo.

Wonder who will "sing" the national anthem?


Roseanne Barr/Arnold

Ashlee Simpson

Amy Winehouse?

Back at The Garden in June...my friend Chris already phoned me about getting tickets. We'll be going.

Does anyone know if & when there will be a Petty performance/"press conference" on NFL network like Prince did last year? If you didn't see it, the Prince "Press Conference" was a better show then the actual super bowl performance.

Pollstar is listing Petty and Steve Winwood on the same bill for Atlanta. Wow.

I've seen Tom Petty in concert twice and enjoyed both concerts. I would love to see him again.

http://www.uncut.co.uk/news/uncut/news/11003



TOM PETTY ACCUSED OF MIMING AT SUPER BOWL SHOW

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have been accussed of miming at yesterday's (February 3) Super Bowl half-time show.

The singer and his band played a four-song set including classic 'American Girl'-- but US newspapers this morning have picked up on the possibilty that he was lip-synching throughout their half-time show.

The Dallas Morning News has commented that many signs of the show being mimed were present, including Petty’s vocals being too pristine for a live show and that his lungs did not seem to be expanding as much as they should have.

Previous Super Bowl half-time artists to have also been accused of miming include Sir Paul McCartney at the game in 2005, and Janet Jackson in 2004.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2njDC5YaHo[/youtube]

It looked like the age old trick of recording a new version and lip synching to it. What kills me is the way the fans are cut loose to the stage as if The Beatles are up there, and the fake excitement, with the 2 finger Heavy Metal salutes all over the place. One big hype.

I wonder about the miming...IMO he started out a little flat...he seemed stiff during the first verse or two of American Girl...actually I was a little disappointed at the beginning, but then he appeared to be loosening up, and the rest of the set was pretty good...also Mike's solo's were a little sloppy - not terribly so, but enough to question a pre-recording...

My wife was loving it, and I picked up some decent seats for the Chicago show this a.m. for her B-day...

Pure genius that he put his tickets on sale the morning after the SB.

I only saw him once, when the HBs were Dylan's backing band, so this should be a good time.

The sound guys were obviously pulling his mic down during the choruses to "Free Fallin'" and playing it from the CD. On the last one, they didn't get his mic back up quick enough to catch his comment. That's the only instance of "miming" I caught in the whole performance.

He's twenty years older...it's a high note...give him a break.

I felt it strange that such a older mellow artist like Petty is considered a Super Bowl Halftime Show artist. No younger hipper artists available in this whole country?

To see all those young people run towards the stage like its Insync or something did seem staged.

Ever since Janet they've gone for the older, "safe" artists. It's funny because in each case (McCartney, Prince, Petty) these were artists who were controversial in the peak of their fame.

I strongly disagree. Personally, I felt that Petty's vocals on opening song "American Girl" were a little strained, like he was nervous or slightly hoarse, or that he was perhaps thirty years older (like the rest of us) than when he first recorded the song, so of course he sounded different. When he started "Won't Back Down" and the other more recent hits, he sounded more relaxed and more like I am used to hearing his vocals. I thought he and the band played great, though, and I only wish they could have played a few more vintage tunes like "Refugee".

The Dallas Morning News claims: Perhaps the real giveaway came during his "ad-libbed" aside in "Free Fallin' ": He backed away from the mike a split-second before his voice trailed off. Oh, really? Yeah right, the cable/satellite digital audio feeds were COMPETELY in sync with the video feed during the entire game, sure. And if the reporter who wrote the article were actually in attendance at the game instead of watching it on TV, then he has obviously never before attended a live concert in a big venue, where the acoustics play tricks depending on where you sit: near the stage, in the press box, the nosebleed section, etc. The only "blip" that I thought was awkward was it sounded like someone missed a note entering the coda to "American Girl".

Now, is it possible that the band lip-synched to a pre-recorded live track, possibly from their soundcheck? I guess it is within the realm of possibility, and for all we know, the NFL may have MANDATED the performers before and during the game to sync to a prerecorded performance. Does anyone really think they would trust a neophyte like Jordin Sparks to hit every note perfectly in one-take before billions of people? I am sure Petty does not have the clout of the Rolling Stones, who the all-knowing reporter insisted definitely played "live" during last year's game.


P.S. I apologize for the rambling nature of this missive. It made sense when I was driving to work, but now looks like it came out a jumbled mess with no clear point . Guess I got a little too emotional about this issue.

No danger of a Nipplegate with Petty/ McCartney....maybe a little with Prince.

No way would Petty stoop to miming the whole thing. It sounded live to me and it was live-hell, all the songs were cut short for God's sake. Campbell ripped off some good solos and they were a little sloppy which I liked.
As for the idiots "rushing"-of course that's staged, but trust me, Petty is HUGE with the young crowd. Every single kid that comes into my coffeehouse worships Petty. These kids are 14-23. (OK, I do consider a 23 year-old young!). Petty tix for Philly are on sale this week and they're all trying to get them.
Also, when I saw Petty in Philly in 2002 (with Jackson Browne as special guest) we were surrounded by college kids and late high schoolers. Seriously, Petty has major cred with the young folk, which is pretty damn cool.
One other thing-anyone with ears easily could hear Petty's performance in the background when halftime started, so it wasn't even shown as it happened. My guess is they delayed it in case he said a naughty word, which would make it even more live anyway.