Summer Catch-up: Tom Petty returns in sold-out show
By Jennifer Popeil
The Independent Florida Alligator - Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Tickets for the upcoming Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers concert sold out within 30 minutes in July.
About 8,000 tickets were sold the morning they went on sale, said Lynda Reinhart, assistant director of the Stephen C. O'Connell Center, where Petty and his band will play.
Tickets for the public went on sale at 10 a.m., July 22. About 870 tickets were sold during the fanclub presale July 18 at 10 a.m. and the local radio presale July 21 at 10 a.m., Reinhart said.
Tickets for the floor seats and on lower levels sold for $59.50, and seats were $49.50, plus service charges.
The concert is set for Sept. 21 at 7:15 p.m. The Strokes will open for Petty.
This will be the first Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers concert in Gainesville since 1993.
The band has sold more than 50 million records in the past 30 years.
Editor's Note: "Life is a Highway" is Tom Cochrane, not Tom Petty.
Petty leaves youngsters behind with Highway Companions
By Jessie K. Finch
The Collegian - Tuesday, August 29, 2006
With such treasured songs as "Free Fallin'" and "Life is a Highway," what's not to love about the care-free, if sometimes overly-reflective Tom Petty? I'll tell you what: His new album Highway Companions. Now, I love the classic Petty as much as the next Heartbreaker, but there is something too introspective about his new album. Wait -- did you hear that sound? Perhaps it was mine and Tom Petty's generations' gapping.
Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto | September 8, 2006 | Rating: 4/5
By Bill Harris
CANOE - September 9, 2006
TORONTO - They may have been around for 30 years, but Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have not become Tom Petty and the Heart Monitors.
Playing a crisp, heartfelt set at the Molson Amphitheatre last night, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers proved that they have aged very well.
It could have been 1976, or 1986, or 1996 instead of 2006. Whether playing old favourites (like Refugee and I Won’t Back Down), new songs (like Down South and Square One) or more obscure favourites from their personal memory banks (like I’m A Man and Too Much Monkey Business), this is the kind of combo that has a winning sound and doesn’t muck with it.
Sound Advice
Review by Tom Groening
Bangor Daily News - September 15, 2006
"Highway Companion" (American) -- Tom Petty
In late middle age, after a rough personal spell, Tom Petty is on the road. It's not a journey of discovery or conquest he's singing of in his third solo record, "Highway Companion," but of resignation, regret and returning, a humbler man, to his roots.
Petty's strong suits have always been the easygoing guitar grooves and good-natured Southern drawl he brought to his tunes, and both are evident here. But for the first time, he has added something more personal.
Instead of "Running down a dream, that never would come to me," as he sang on his first solo effort, 1989's "Full Moon Fever," Petty observes that "Livin' free is gainin' on me, can't keep ahead of my dreams," on Highway Companion's "This Old Town."
Dependable Petty delivers standards, plus a few surprises
By Joshua Klein
Chicago Tribune - September 16, 2006
Tom Petty's been a superstar, unlikely MTV icon, new wave hotshot, old school traditionalist and even, in his youth, an unlikely punk. But no matter what his guise, the gangly 55-year-old Florida native has remained a paragon of consistency.
If that means Petty's performance at the Charter One Pavilion on Thursday night, the first of two shows, was generally by the numbers, so what? Most acts (including openers the Strokes) would kill for those numbers. Several of the songs Petty played over the course of his modest two-hour set have long since become standards, the likes of "American Girl" and "Refugee" up there with the best American rock 'n' roll classics. And if Petty didn't make much of a case for his fine but not particularly memorable new album, "Highway Companion," neither did songs such as "Saving Grace" or "Square One" stick out as conspicuous deviations from his canon.
Memories of Petty: How singer found way in area
By Alice Wallace
Gainesville Sun - Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Rumors abound when it comes to the specifics of Tom Petty's days as a fledgling rocker in Gainesville.
Did he drop out of high school to focus on music? Where exactly was the infamous "Mudcrutch Farm?"
Petty's friends and former bandmates know the answers, and Petty himself discussed many of those details in his recent book, "Conversations with Tom Petty." Yet friends say the most vivid memories they have of "Tommy" are of a mostly quiet Southern boy with a quirky sense of humor and a serious mind for music.
Destined for success: Before he was a rock star, Tom Petty was just a quiet, driven kid from Gainesville
By Alice Wallace
Ocala Star-Banner - Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Rumors abound when it comes to the specifics of Tom Petty's day as a fledging rocker in Gainesville.
Did he drop out of high school to focus on music? Where exactly was the infamous "Mudcrutch Farm"? Petty's friends and former bandmates know the answers, and Petty himself offered many of those details in his recent book, "Conversations with Tom Petty." Yet friends say the most vivid memories they have of "Tommy" are of a mostly quiet Southern boy with a quirky sense of humor and a serious mind for music.
"The thing about Tom, musically, is that he is as big a fan as he is an artist," says former Gainesville musician Marty Jourard, who recalls Petty sitting down to listen to Bob Dylan's album "Slow Train Coming" from beginning to end without saying a word when it was first release.
Oh my my, oh hell yes!
By Joe Hunter
The Independent Florida Alligator - Friday, September 22, 2006
Gainesville hadn't seen Tom Petty in 13 years. No wonder the crowd wouldn't back down.
Homecoming isn't until October, but no one told Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.
Petty, along with Heartbreakers Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Ron Blair, Scott Thurston and Steve Ferrone, performed Thursday night at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center to a sold-out crowd.
Read more: The Independent Florida Alligator - September 22, 2006
No heartbreak at Petty's Gainesville homecoming
By Dave Schlenker
Ocala Star-Banner - Friday, September 22, 2006
Petty and Heartbreakers given keys to Gainesville at news conference
GAINESVILLE - It has been 13 years since home-grown hero Tom Petty plugged into an amp on Alachua County soil. And, to be sure, this city has missed him.
Fact is, the University of Florida celebrated homecoming - of sorts - two weeks early when more than 8,000 fans wildly greeted Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers the second the band stepped onto the O'Connell Center stage Thursday night. Fans came from out of state and all points in Florida, from Jacksonville to Palm Beach to the Panhandle to - naturally - Ocala and every corner of Gainesville.
They went berserk - stomping, screaming and causing a rumble that rivaled the neighboring Swamp on game day.