EXCLUSIVE! THE HUDSON BROTHERS TO REUNITE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 28 YEARS; ONE CONCERT & DOCUMENTARY FILM; 300 TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR PERFORMANCE!

The Hudson Brothers are preparing to perform together for the first time in 28 years.

The announcement that the Seventies teen idols-- one of the top rock and comedy acts of the decade-- would reunite for a single concert performance and documentary film feature was announced this afternoon in a message posted at 5:11 pm by youngest Brother Brett Hudson on the Hudson Brothers MySpace page:

Hi,
This is Brett Hudson... My brothers and I are about to do a documentary feature about our lives and career. We will be doing a "one time only" concert. It will be the first time in 28 years that the three of us have performed together. There will only be 300 tickets available and the audience will be a part of the movie. www.myspace.com/bhudson1.

The announcement has already caused hysteria among Hudson Brothers fans across the Internet, who have remained faithful to their heroes for decades, and managed to freeze Brett's site where he directed inquiries.

The reunion is prompted by unprecedented demand for the DVD release of the Hudson's Saturday morning show from the Sebenties, The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show. Amazon.com is carrying the set and has sold out several times in the past week.

Little word has been released about the film project, though Brett confirms it will be produced by our pals at Frozen Pictures and cover the Hudsons' career through the reunion.

The reunion of Bill, Mark and Brett has been hinted at in the past weeks, in wake of the world premiere of The Seventh Python, the Neil Innes biopic produced by Brett, with Mark Hudson as musical supervisor and Bill contributing to the audio production. Mark and Brett appeared onstage together at The Fest for Beatles Fans in Las Vegas last month and will be at the Fest in Chicago August 8-10.

Brett Hudson talks about Hudson Brothers highs

With the Hudson Brothers revival in full swing with the release of the Razzle Dazzle Show on DVD this week, Tabloid Baby pal Brett Hudson from Frozen Pictures is back in the spotlight. Since Toronto is where the Razzle Dazzle Show was filmed, journo Marc Weisblott of Toronto's Eye Weekly has the inside track with a great article on the Brothers' illustrious decade. Be sure to click here for the original piece with all the artwork and lots of vintage Hudson Brothers video. Meanwhile some highlights from The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle follow, including Bret's artful plugging of the premiere of The Seventh Python:

...The Hudson Brothers were welfare-raised Italian teens from Portland, Oregon who won a battle-of-the-bands contest in 1967, the prize being a single released under the name of its automotive sponsor — The New Yorkers. From there, the trio traded up through a series of record labels, each one willing to take a gamble on heartthrobs who could harmonize, and be America’s own Bee Gees.

“To be perfectly honest, it was usually the female assistants and secretaries that got us in the door,” Brett Hudson, now a 55-year-old film producer, tells Scrolling Eye. “And once we got in, put the three of us together, would own the room. We might have been overpowering, overbearing, or borderline obnoxious, but we knew we were entertaining. I think the confidence came through because we were real brothers who wore our hearts on our sleeves.”

There was enough momentum to move to Hollywood, even if it meant lodging together in the empty cells rented out as hostel space in the Santa Monica Jail. Their willingness to wallpaper the house of a record executive for a party, in exchange for being able to attend, led to a deal with the Playboy Records label...
Hudson, the album, didn’t produce any hits. But they didn’t need to work as hard for the party invitations, either — their next contract was with Elton John’s startup record company, Rocket, and Bernie Taupin was flying them to France to try working his magic on a follow-up, Totally Out of Control.

Just before leaving, though, they met Sonny and Cher’s television producer Chris Bearde — who was bowled over by how the brothers intuitively crossed one leg over another in synch when they sat down on the couch to talk.

...They were asked to come in to CBS Television City to improvise before cameras, not thinking much of the results. Turned out, they were edited just right to get them a five-week stint as the summer replacement for Sonny and Cher, whose supporting cast were brought over from Toronto, where the earlier seasons had been filmed.

While those primetime episodes were slated to air through August 1974, a deal was struck to make the Hudson Brothers a half-hour fixture on Saturday mornings — translating the formula of the prime-time music and comedy shows for a younger audience. The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show would also allow them to salvage the services of Sonny and Cher’s sidekicks...
While the early 20s Hudson Brothers had top billing on the program, the episodes start with them admonished by a redheaded runt television executive. Razzle Dazzle might’ve been unearthed from the vaults sooner had the role gone to another kid who auditioned for the part, Mike Myers...
Brett had already perfected his own recurring character, Chucky Margolis, based on an insufferable dweeb who’d hover around the Hudson Brothers shows in Portland, desperate for anyone to listen to him slur tall tales — the kind of character unlikely to be mocked in a modern-day kids show.
“The whole motivation for me as a performer was to make my brothers laugh,” says Brett. “And I know they felt the same way. But, in general, the things we did back then are things we’d either get arrested or sued for today. Just a few years later, suddenly the qualification to create sketch comedy on television was a degree from Harvard, because that’s who executives related to.”

Where the Hudson Brothers found a kindred spirit for a year, following their return to Los Angeles, was John Lennon — who, it turned out, recognized them immediately at a party: “You’re the kings of Saturday morning.”
“What we had in common was that working-class mentality,” says Brett. “You could have been in the Beatles, but you never get over looking for the cheapest drink.” The Hudsons also spent a long evening at Harry Nilsson’s house where Lennon was arguing that he didn’t have a good enough singing voice. Finally convinced otherwise after hours of needle-drops, he serenaded them with “In My Life” on a battery-powered portable piano at 5:30am.

“It’s not simply that these things don’t happen to me anymore,” says Brett. “The fact is, these things don’t happen to anyone anymore.”
Two singles broke into the top 30 during Razzle Dazzle’s run: “So You Are a Star” and “Rendezvous”.
...From there, the brothers retained the stature of on-call television personalities good for ad-libbing on any chat show, although that didn’t translate into sales of the records they kept getting deals to make. The Hudsons tried kids television again, following The Muppet Show formula of going to the UK to produce Bonkers!, syndicated across the pond in 1978. There was also a comedy-horror movie, Hysterical, in 1983 — a disaster that led them to amicably call the act off.

Bill Hudson was married to Goldie Hawn, co-producing a future movie star in the process. Then he was married to Cindy Williams... and they later produced The Father of the Bride movies.
Mark Hudson stuck it out in music, frequently collaborating with Aerosmith and Ringo Starr...
Brett Hudson, on the other hand... landed behind the scenes, initially pitching and selling, if not necessarily writing a finished product. But his efforts have built momentum over the past few years, leading to the recent completion of a documentary about a kindred spirit of sorts, Neil Innes, called The Seventh Python. Premiering next week at the Mods & Rockers film festival in Hollywood, plans are afoot to shop it around this fall at the Toronto International Film Festival.
...And typical for someone whose day job involves rifling through other people’s archives, Brett isn’t in a hurry to sit down and watch 34-year-old footage of his 21-year-old self.
“I’ll get around to watching an episode or two eventually,” he says. “But I can already tell you what my reaction will be: Who the fuck put us in those outfits?”

Razzle Dazzle release delayed!

We told you that the deluxe 3 DVD set , The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show - The Complete Series, was to be released tomorrow, June 3rd.

But Tabloid Baby pal Brett Hudson tells us the folks at Video Service Corp need a couple of more weeks to bring out the Saturday morning kid-warping variety sketch show from the Seventies.

The new release date is set for June 17th.

Viral marketing for the new Hudson Brothers DVD in the New York Times magazine?

The Hudson Brother Razzle Dazzle Show comes out on DVD on June 3rd. Check out "77 DOWN" in today's New York Times magazine crossword puzzle:



A tip of the Tabloid Baby hat to Daniel Brown for being smart enough to complete the puzzle and for the heads-up.

Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle DVD out June 3rd

We've been telling you about the major revival of Seventies superstars The Hudson Brothers, including a new MySpace fan page, grassroots campaign to get them into he Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in February, the upcoming DVD release of their freaky Saturday morning kiddie extravaganza, The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show.

Now the details are in:

VSC (Video Service Corp.) is releasing a 3-disc DVD set on June 3rd.


The set includes every episode from the second series, along with a bonus episode from the original prime time version of the show.

Also, Brett Hudson's basement-dwelling-kid character "Chucky" gets spotlighted in a bonus featurette "The Best of Chucky Margolis."

Cost for The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show - The Complete Series is $29.98 SRP for 355 minutes' running time.

Bill, Mark and Brett Hudson moved from rock ‘n’ roll to prime time TV comedy in the summer of 1974 with their two CBS television shows as well. The first was the brief (5-episode) prime time series The Hudson Brothers Show. Then CBS moved it from Wednesday nights to Saturday mornings, expanded the program's already family-friendly variety format to appeal even more to kids, and renamed it The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show (their pal John Lennon renamed them The Kings of Saturday Morning”).

Look for Mark and Brett at the Fest for Beatles Fans June 29-July 1 in Las Vegas and in Chicago, August 8-10, signing the DVD and other memorabilia-- and performing. (Brett, one of our pals from Frozen Pictures will be screening his new film, The Seventh Python in Chicago—along with the film’s star, Neil Innes.

The Razzle Dazzle DVD has a placeholder page on Amazon.com.

...and a tip of the Tabloid Baby hat to Stephie for the tip...

COLLECTORS' ITEM ALERT: Check out the photo of the original Razzle Dazzle box art we posted back in February-- when it was advertised as a two-DVD set!