Ricky Nelson Remembered: music at the Merrill Auditorium

I was pretty excited the other day when the promoter of Ricky Nelson Remembered asked me to tell area seniors about the show at the Merrill Auditorium April 5. Ricky Nelson Remembered is a music/video/multi-media extravaganza starring Gunnar and Matthew Nelson, Ricky Nelson’s twin sons. They are 46 now, no longer rocking long blond hair, but they sound great.

The promotor has given Maine Senior Guide readers a code for $5 off Ricky Nelson Remembered tickets. You can use the code word GARDEN to receive the $5 off discount on tickets purchased online, via phone, or in person. Port Tix is the box office for Merrill Auditorium, and the Ricky Nelson Remembered tickets are $40-$55. Don’t be fooled by ticket offerings on other websites that charge hundreds of dollars per ticket. That’s crazy talk!

We have orchestra seats for the Ricky Nelson Remembered concert that we’re giving away as part of the Spring Senior Expo March 20, 2013, at St. Max Hall, Black Point Road in Scarborough. If you loved Ricky Nelson, come on out to the Expo. We have two tickets in the grand door prize basket, and two tickets as booth give-aways at the Maine Senior Guide booth.

I loved Ricky Nelson, even though I was pretty young when the show went off the air, in the mid-60s. As he became a bigger recording star, he was allowed to add more music to his family’s Tv show, so every second or third show would have Ricky Nelson showing off a somewhat innocent rock ‘n roll song.

The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet was just one of a long list of family-based sitcoms, but this family was real. Ozzie Nelson had been a big band leader in the 40’s, while Harriet was a singer. They started out as radio performers with the Ozzie and Harriet Show, and eventually segued into television when Rocky was 12 in 1952. The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet went on to become one of the longest running sitcoms on TV.

The show at the Merrill Auditorium Friday, April 5, Ricky Nelson Remembered, is by his sons, who were 18 when Ricky was killed in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve in 1985 , at the age of 45. Gunnar and Matthew Nelson are older now than their dad was when he died, but proof that rock lives on.