Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan is celebrating the 60th anniversary of his first album’s release with a series of European concerts that will kick off in Rome this May. The flower power pioneer will perform some of his most popular songs, including his first global hit “Catch the Wind.”
The May 14 Donovan concert is set to be held at Rome’s Teatro Manzoni, where the mellifluous folk-rock artist will play his other 1960s hits including “Sunshine Superman,” “Hurdy Gurdy Man,” “Colours” and “Mellow Yellow.” Tickets go on sale Jan. 17, but the intimate event will also be filmed and made visible on Donovan’s website. Other unspecified Donovan events are also planned in Rome May 9-15.
“I simply want to say: ‘Thank you!’ to my fans,” Donovan told Variety. “But not in the usual sense that used to happen where one would do a 50-city tour around the world making as much noise as possible.”
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Donovan added that he thought about this a lot while making “The Tale of the Gael,” his two-hour recitation/ photographic history of the ‘60s music revolution that he recently released exclusively on Variety and then on his website. “I thought, well, most people can’t really go out much these days and they can actually experience it [the concert] at home or on a mobile device,” he said.
Donovan also plans to perform at the prestigious Théâtre de l’Athénée in Paris, where he will also be fêted with a screening at the Cinéma du Panthéon of Jacques Demy‘s 1972 film “The Pied Piper,” in which Donovan plays the titular, magic-flute-playing troubadour. He’s also set his sights on Stockholm “and also on my homeland: Scotland,” Donovan said.
Donovan has close ties to Italy, where he was honored last March for his contribution to Franco Zeffirelli’s “Brother Sun, Sister Moon” as the composer of the recorded songs for the film’s English version. A restored version of “Brother Sun, Sister Moon” screened in Rome’s Quirinale Palace for Italian President Sergio Mattarella and a select group of officials, as well as in Florence, the late Zeffirelli’s birthplace, where the Zeffirelli Foundation held a free screening open to the public attended by a copious contingent of Franciscan monks.