Ringo Starr has unveiled updated plans for his 2022 North American tour with his All Starr Band that include a newly confirmed kickoff date and a lineup change.
The latest All Starr Band trek, which has been postponed twice since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, will get underway with a just announced May 27-28 engagement at Casino Rama in Rama, Canada.
This will mark the fifth time that Ringo and the All Starrs will begin a tour at the Canadian venue, after 2001, 2003, 2006 and 2014.
The group’s 2022 itinerary also features a new concert in Canandaigua, New York, on May 30 and a second show in Atlanta on June 21, which joins a previously announced June 22 Atlanta gig. In addition, previously confirmed concerts on May 31 in Asbury Park, New Jersey; June 3 in Worcester, Massachusetts; and June 21 in Richmond, Virginia, are no longer on the All Starr Band’s schedule.
As for the lineup change, veteran rocker Edgar Winter will be rejoining the group in place of founding Santana and Journey singer/keyboardist Gregg Rolie, who had played with the All Starrs since 2012. Winter previously was a member of the All Starr Band from 2006 to 2011.
The rest of Ringo’s All Starr Band remains the same — Toto guitarist Steve Lukather, Men at Work frontman Colin Hay and former Average White Band guitarist/bassist Hamish Stuart, as well as sax player/percussionist Warren Ham and drummer Gregg Bissonette.
“I can’t wait to get back out on the road and play,” says Ringo. “This is the longest I’ve been off the road in years — up until 2020 I was touring every year with the All Starrs — and I’ve really missed it.”
Layne Staley & Mike Starr in 1992; Ebet Roberts/Redferns
The estates of late Alice in Chains members Layne Staley and Mike Starr have sold their music rights to the music publishing company, Primary Wave.
According to a press release, Primary Wave now owns “a stake in [Staley and Starr’s] music publishing catalog, as well as master royalty income stream.” The deal includes royalties to AiC classics including “Man in a Box,” “Would?” and “Rooster.”
In a statement, Primary Wave Publishing Partner David Weitzman says, “Primary Wave is pleased to partner with the estates of Layne Staley and Mike Starr to honor their musical legacies as part of the classic era lineup of Alice in Chains, who created the amazing songs and records that comprise the albums Dirt and Facelift, and the acoustic EPs, Jar of Flies and Sap.”
“These projects represent the greatest works from one of the best artists of the iconic ’90s Seattle-based grunge era,” Weitzman adds.
Both Staley and Starr were original members of Alice in Chains. Frontman Stayley died in 2002, while bassist Starr, who left AiC in 1993, passed in 2011.
Last year, Elton John‘s Oscar viewing party went virtual, but this year, it’s returning in-person.
The event on March 27 in West Hollywood Park will be the 30th annual installment of the event, which over the years has raised $515 million for Elton’s AIDS Foundation and the global fight against HIV/AIDS.
Last year, Elton John‘s Oscar viewing party went virtual, but this year, it’s returning in person.
The event on March 27 in West Hollywood Park will be the 30th annual installment of the event, which over the years has raised $515 million for Elton’s AIDS Foundation and the global fight against HIV/AIDS.
Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile, a good friend of Elton’s who appears on his Lockdown Sessions album, will perform at the bash. Other performers are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
In a statement, Elton says, “[My husband and manager] David [Furnish] and I are so grateful to celebrate 30 years of the Foundation and especially grateful to Brandi Carlile and the many fabulous guests supporting us for another magnificent night in West Hollywood Park.”
He continues, “Our success reflects the passion, commitment, and generosity of our supporters. Together, we are making a difference and bringing light and hope to people living with HIV around the world.”
Brandi adds, “Getting to perform for such a significant milestone of one of the most legendary Oscar Parties is an absolute honor.”
Elton currently has a concert scheduled for March 27 in Lincoln, Nebraska, so ABC News has confirmed that unfortunately, he won’t be able to attend the party himself.
If an album of 17 new Red Hot Chili Peppers songs isn’t enough to satiate your needs, then we have good news.
Speaking to NME, frontman Anthony Kiedis teases “another wheelbarrow of songs” to follow the band’s just-announced new record, Unlimited Love.
“We’re gonna put out music by the handful — literally,” Kiedis says.
“Don’t be surprised if another wheelbarrow of songs comes your way in the near future,” he shares. “We have a lot of s*** to turn people onto.”
Returning guitarist John Frusciante adds that the Peppers already have a “loose plan” for an Unlimited Love follow-up.
“We definitely have enough material that we love,” Frusciante says, revealing that the leftover tunes have a “relaxed energy that’s distinct from the intensity” of Unlimited Love.
Before we get to hear those songs, we’ve got a two-month wait for Unlimited Love, which drops April 1. Lead single and opening track “Black Summer” is out now.
Red Hot Chili Peppers will embark on a world tour in support of Unlimited Love this summer. The U.S. leg launches in July.
Nikki Sixx kickstarted his weekend by dissing Pearl Jam as “one of the most boring bands in history.”
The Mötley Crüe bassist was responding to an interview Eddie Vedder recently gave to The New York TimesMagazine, in which the PJ frontman said he “despised” Sixx’s band.
“I hated it,” Vedder said of the “Girls, Girls, Girls” outfit. “I hated how it made the fellas look. I hated how it made the women look. It felt so vacuous. Guns N’ Roses came out and, thank God, at least had some teeth.”
In a tweet this past Saturday, Sixx fired back with, “Made me laugh today reading how much the singer in Pearl Jam hated @MotleyCrue.”
He added, “Now considering that [Pearl Jam is] one of the most boring bands in history it’s kind of a compliment isn’t it?”
Vedder, who’s currently on tour in support of his forthcoming solo album Earthling, has not yet publicly responded to Sixx’s comments.
Mötley Crüe, meanwhile, is preparing for the band’s long-in-the-works reunion tour, which is set to kick off this June, which has been delayed since 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year, Roger Daltrey said that The Who would return to the stage in April of 2022, and he wasn’t lying. The band has announced The Who Hits Back! Tour for North America, kicking off April 22 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
The spring leg of the tour wraps May 28 in Bethel, NY and the fall leg gets underway October in Toronto. Those dates are scheduled through two shows in Las Vegas on November 4 and 5. In May, for the first time in 43 years, the band will perform in Cincinnati, the site of the 1979 incident in which 11 people were killed when fans rushed the doors of the Riverfront Coliseum ahead of the Who’s show there.
The dates will feature the Who’s full live band — including Zak Starkey on drums, Jon Button on bass and Simon Townshend on guitar and vocals — as well as local orchestras.
In a statement, Daltrey says, “Pete and I said we’d be back, but we didn’t think we’d have to wait for two years for the privilege. This is making the chance to perform feel even more special this time around. So many livelihoods have been impacted due to Covid, so we are thrilled to get everyone back together — the band, the crew and the fans”.
We’re gearing up for a great show that hits back in the only way The Who know how: by giving it everything we’ve got,” Daltrey adds.
Tickets go on sale February 11 at 10 a.m. local time via LiveNation.com. The Who Fan Club pre-sale starts Tuesday, February 8th at 10:00 a.m. local time and runs through Thursday, February 10th at 10:00 p.m. local time.
On Friday, longtime Elton John guitarist and music director Davey Johnstonereleased his first solo album in almost 50 years, Deeper than My Roots.
Johnstone tells ABC Audio that the project started coming together when Elton’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour was postponed in 2020 album because of the COVID-19 pandemic and he unexpectedly found himself with extra time on his hands.
As he amassed new songs, aided by some lyrical help from his friend, actor and poet Rick Otto, Davey says he got the idea to enlist several of his musically inclined children to contribute to the album, which he notes became “a complete family affair.”
Early in the project, he asked his youngest son, Elliot, to sing on a track, while his son Charlie, an accomplished keyboardist, also played on that song and engineered it.
“[I]t was suddenly sounding really magical,” Johnstone notes, “and I thought, ‘Well, this could be the basis for this record. It could be…me writing all this material and then involving my kids.'”
Elliot wound up singing lead on most of the tracks. Johnstone reports that his other family members who contributed to the album included “my middle son, Jesse, [who] played drums remotely on about four, maybe five songs, [and my] eldest son, Tam, who…produced and mixed a couple of the tracks.”
Davey tells ABC Audio that he titled the album Deeper than My Roots because it’s “got a lot of different influences,” including 1960s and ’70s pop and rock, and “Scottish and Irish traditional music.”
Johnstone also reveals that his famous boss “was blown away” when he listened to the record, pointing out that Elton said, “[T]his is sweetest album I think I’ve ever heard,” and was particularly impressed by Elliot’s vocals.
Oliver Wakeman, longtime Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman‘s oldest son who followed in his dad’s footsteps to play with the U.K. prog-rock legends from 2008 to 2011, will be releasing a new three-CD box set on April 11 featuring some of his noteworthy collaborative recordings.
Collaborations features expanded reissues of Oliver’s 2001 album with Yes guitarist Steve Howe, The 3 Ages of Magick, and his 2013 project Ravens & Lullabies, which he made with respected British folk and prog-rock guitarist Gordon Giltrap.
The box set’s third disc is a previously unreleased acoustic live album, From a Stage, recorded at a Christmas concert Oliver and Giltrap played several years ago with current Sweet lead singer Paul Manzi.
Ravens & Lullabies also features contributions from Manzi, as well as from ex-Yes frontman Benoît David.
The reissues of The 3 Ages of Magick and Ravens & Lullabies feature a few bonus tracks.
Collaborations comes packaged with a 16-page booklet and individual art prints of the three albums’ cover art.
In advance of the box set’s release, a new music video for the Ravens & Lullabies track “Moneyfacturing” has debuted on Oliver Wakeman’s official YouTube channel.
“This is one of my personal favorite band tracks I have ever written and recorded, allowing me to make use of a lot of my collection of keyboards,” Oliver says of the tune. “It is a radio-friendly song which also reminds people what a great electric guitar player Gordon is!”
You can pre-order the Collaborations box set now at BurningShed.com.
Elton John‘s recently relaunched Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour has put him on top of a new weekly chart: Pollstar‘s Artist Power Index.
The ranking combines concert ticket sales data with streaming, radio airplay and social media of the top 1,000 artists to determine which ones are truly the most popular. The concert ticket sales data is more heavily weighted, since it usually generates the most revenue.
Elton tops the first chart, because not only is his tour doing well on the road, but he also is ranked fairly high when it comes to airplay and streaming. The top 10 also includes Elton’s former tour mate Billy Joel at #6, and Bryan Adams at #8. Further down the tally are Santana at #12 and Van Morrison at #23.
In coming up with the ranking, Pollstar takes into account headline performances over the last 30 days, and an average of ticket sales over the past 36 months.
Pollstar says the new ranking truly reflects “fan passion, audience consumption, and consumer engagement.”
