Andy Gray

Assorted ramblings from the world of entertainment:

• Local audiences won’t need a passport and a plane ticket to watch the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert at London’s Wembley Stadium on Sept. 3.

Along with Taylor’s Foo Fighters bandmates, members of Nirvana, Queen, AC / DC, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Oasis, The Pretenders, Rush, The Police and others will be on hand to honor Hawkins, who died earlier this year.

Paramount+, the same streaming service that carries Dave Grohl’s “From Cradle to Stage” docuseries, will broadcast the concert in its entirety starting at 11:30 a.m. It also can be viewed on MTV’s YouTube channels.

CBS will air an hourlong version of the concert 9 p.m. Sept. 3, and MTV will air a two-hour version of the event later that month.

A second concert is planned on Sept. 27 in Los Angeles.

Proceeds from concert ticket sales and merchandise sales from the two events will benefit Music Support, a UK charity that helps those affected by mental illness and addiction, and MusiCares, a U.S.-based charity that helps musicians with mental health and addiction recovery services as well as other health and financial needs. Both beneficiaries were selected by Hawkins’ family.

• Congratulations to Brad Savage, program director for The Summit radio station, who was named 2022 Triple-A Program Director of the Year earlier this month at the radio conference SummitFest in Boulder, Colo. (with that conference name, how could he lose?)

The Akron-based radio station is simulcast on WKTL-FM (90.7) in Struthers and recently added an Athens station to its reach. Savage’s fellow nominees represented much larger radio markets in New York City, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Los Angeles. Triple A refers to the Adult Album Alternative radio format.

“Honestly, I just love seeing Akron, Ohio, right next to stations from much larger markets,” Savage said in a statement released this week. “Our region has a rich history of music discovery, and together we will continue to celebrate the past, present and future of recorded music. I want to thank my talented colleagues, and especially our loyal station members, for their continued support.”

Savage was hired by The Summit in 2015 after programming stations in Charlottesville, Va.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Madison, Wis.; and Columbia, Mo.

• The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame along with New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music and The Pop Conference, announced the winners of the 2022 Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Awards this week.

The award honors books from around the world that showcase the exciting and diverse landscape of writing on popular music. The three winners will selected from more than 70 books submitted for consideration, and the three recipients will split a $10,000 cash prize.

Daphne A. Brooks took first place for “Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound,” published by Harvard University Press. “Singing Like Germans: Black Musicians in the Land of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms” by Kira Thurman won second place and “Songbooks: The Literature of American Popular Music” by Eric Weisbard finished third.

The award is named for Ralph Gleason, a highly perceptive jazz, pop and rock music critic and co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine.

An event honoring the winners will be held at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame later this year.

Andy Gray is the entertainment editor of Ticket. Write to him at agray@tribtoday.com.