Classic Rock 93.9

Thursday is Global Beatles Day, which celebrates the anniversary of the legendary band’s 1967 live performance of “All You Need is Love” on the BBC’s Our World special. Now fans at home can relive the performance.

This year marks the first time Apple Corps Ltd, the company founded by The Beatles, has officially recognized the fan celebration, which was launched in 2009 by lifelong fan Faith Cohen. To celebrate, The Beatles have released a colorized version of the Our World performance to YouTube for the first time.

The performance, originally broadcast to over 400 million people across 26 countries, was shot at Abbey Road Studios with The Beatles singing live over prerecorded vocals. The band is backed by an orchestra and surrounded by such superstar friends as Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Keith Moon and Marianne Faithfull.

But that’s not the only way Global Beatles Day is being celebrated.

Ringo Starr posted a message on Instagram, writing, “All you need is love, love peace and love. I send you all peace and love love love no matter what you choose. Choose love” with #GlobalBeatlesDay. Paul McCartney also acknowledged the day on Instagram, posting black-and-white shots of the band and writing, “Have a great time on what is now Global Beatles Day (good group!).”

Plus, the music collective Rockin’1000 released a video of 1,000 musicians performing “All You Need is Love” during a sold-out concert at Allianz Stadium in Turin, Italy. According to the video description, “(T)his song became something more than a performance. For a few minutes, there were no strangers among us. Just instruments, voices, arms around each other, and one song connecting thousands of people.”

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On This Day, June 25, 2022…

Paul McCartney headlined the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England, performing a 38-song set on the Pyramid Stage.

The concert took place one week after McCartney turned 80, making him the oldest solo headliner ever to play the festival.

McCartney’s set opened with The Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love” and was filled with Beatles and Wings tracks, as well as solo material.

It also included a special guest appearance by Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, who joined him on “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Band on the Run.”

Bruce Springsteen also made a surprise appearance, performing his Born in the U.S.A. hit “Glory Days” with McCartney. They also teamed up for The Beatles’ “I Wanna Be Your Man.”

Both Springsteen and Grohl came out at the end of the set to help McCartney close the show with The Beatles’ “The End.”

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David Clayton-Thomas, lead singer and songwriter of the jazz rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears, died Wednesday at 84, the singer’s publicist confirms to ABC News.

According to the publicist, Clayton-Thomas “died peacefully” at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.

Born David Henry Thomsett in Surrey, England, on September 13, 1941, Clayton-Thomas joined Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1968, following the departure of the band’s original frontman Al Kooper. He landed the gig after folk singer Judy Collins heard him performing and told Blood, Sweat & Tears drummer Bobby Colomby about him.

With Clayton-Thomas singing lead, Blood, Sweat & Tears’ 1968 self-titled sophomore album became a huge hit, spending seven weeks on top of the Billboard Albums chart and winning the Grammy for album of the year in 1970, beating The Beatles’ Abbey Road.

The album spawned three hits: “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy,” “Spinning Wheel” and “And When I Die.” All three songs peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent 13 weeks in that position.

In 1970, following the album’s success, the band went on the State Department-sponsored Iron Curtain tour visiting countries Yugoslavia, Romania and Poland, which drew criticism from fans. The tour was the subject of a 2023 documentary, What The Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears? 

The band continued to release hit albums, including 1970’s Blood, Sweat & Tears 3, which spent two weeks on top of the Billboard 200, and 1971’s Blood, Sweat & Tears 4, which was a top-10 hit.

Clayton-Thomas left the group in 1972 to pursue a solo career, releasing his self-titled solo debut that year. He went on to release nearly a dozen solo albums over the course of his career, his last being 2020’s Say Somethin’.

Clayton-Thomas was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1996, and Blood, Sweat & Tears’ iconic track “Spinning Wheel” was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007. Clayton-Thomas also received a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2010.

Clayton-Thomas’ life and music will be celebrated with a memorial concert at a later date. Proceeds will benefit  Peacebuilders Canada.

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The Beatles are getting not one but four biopics, thanks to Sam Mendes’ project The Beatles – A Four Film Cinematic Event, and it sounds like Mick Jagger is open to having a similar thing happen for The Rolling Stones.

In a new interview with British GQ, Jagger was asked about whether he’d like to see that “kind of treatment” for The Stones, to which he replied, “Yeah, it interests me.”

“I don’t want to impart it to you, but, I know how I see it,” he says of a possible film. “There’s lots of ways of doing biopics.”

Referring to the Bob Dylan film A Complete Unknown, Jagger explains, “So most of the time when you do a biopic, you do one small section of someone’s life bookended by some other stuff. Take the Bob Dylan movie. You do the moment when Bob went electric.”

“You’d have to think, what are you going to zero in on?” he continues. “And where’s your two years of interest? I mean that Bob Dylan one was two years, [the] James Brown one that I produced was slightly more.” The latter is a reference to 2014’s Get On Up, which starred the late Chadwick Boseman.

So, which portion of The Stones’ career would he like a movie to focus on?

“I don’t know which section, because it’s a long period,” Jagger says.

As for whether he has an idea for someone who could play him in a film, Jagger says, “No.”

As fans wait for a future Rolling Stones film, they can simply enjoy The Stones’ music. They’ll release the new album Foreign Tongues on July 10.

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Billy Idol and longtime collaborator Steve Stevens have been inducted into Guitar Center’s Hollywood Rockwalk.

The pair took part in a handprint ceremony outside Guitar Center’s flagship location on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood Tuesday night.

“I’ve had a fantastic time with Steve, he’s made a lot of my crazy ideas come true,” Idol said during the ceremony. “You can never really ask for anything more than that. It really is special and incredible, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. It’s great to be honored together by Guitar Center on the Rockwalk.”

“It’s humbling to now be amongst this incredible group of musicians on Guitar Center’s Rockwalk,” Stevens added. “More than anything, this is a testament to over 45 years of great laughs, great songs that now belong to the world, and a great friendship.”

Idol and Stevens now join the more than 150 artists and innovators represented on the Rockwalk, which began in 1985. Others who’ve been honored on the Rockwalk include Eric Clapton, Aerosmith, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath and The Ramones.

The honor comes ahead of Idol and Stevens’ induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November.

Next up, Idol will launch the next leg of his It’s A Nice Day To … Tour Again! tour on Aug. 7 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He will also headline the weeklong Hot in the City Las Vegas residency at the Fontainebleau from Aug. 28 to Sept. 5. A complete list of dates can be found at BillyIdol.net.

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Rush has run into their first glitch on their Fifty Something tour.

The rockers were supposed to be headlining the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, on Wednesday. But according to a post on Instagram, the show has now been postponed “(d)ue to unforeseen travel and border-related delays impacting our touring production following our recent Mexico City tour dates.”

The Fort Worth show, the opening night of a four-night stand at the venue, has now been moved to July 2, with tickets for Wednesday’s show valid on the new date. Refunds will be provided to those who can’t make the new date.

The tour will resume on Friday in Fort Worth, with the band also scheduled to play there Sunday and Tuesday.

“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding,” they wrote. “[W]e look forward to seeing everyone starting this Friday!”

Rush launched their Fifty Something tour on June 7 in Los Angeles. It is the band’s first tour since August 2015, and also Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson’s first time on tour since the 2020 death of Neil Peart.

A complete list of tour dates can be found at Rush.com.

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Deep Purple has shared another preview of their upcoming album, SPLAT!

The band has released the new single “Guilt Trippin’,” which, according to a press release, “imagines God and Charles Darwin sharing a drink in a pub, reflecting on how things on earth have not exactly worked out according to plan.”

“The song starts, and I’m in the studio. I don’t have any words for it yet,” says frontman Ian Gillan of the track. “So I just start screaming. It was the pure joy of yelling it.”

The 80-year-old adds, “I vowed when I was 40 that I’d stop screaming by the time I was 60. Now I’m looking back and thinking, ‘Whatever happened to that?’ So we’ll give it a go.”

This is the third single Deep Purple has released from SPLAT!, following “Arrogant Boy” and “Diablo.” It is available now via digital outlets.

SPLAT!, Deep Purple’s first album since to 2024’s =1, will be released July 3. The album explores the idea of the end of humanity as a transformation rather than a destruction, with the album’s description noting it sees the end “not in any crude apocalyptic sense but as a metamorphosis beyond physical existence.”

Deep Purple will launch a North American tour Aug. 4 in Raleigh, North Carolina. A complete list of dates can be found at DeepPurple.com.

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The Rolling Stones have announced another collaboration in connection with their upcoming album, Foreign Tongues.

The latest has the band teaming with NASCAR for a line of officially licensed co-branded NASCAR merchandise, including T-shirts, a sweatshirt and a signature racing jacket. There will also be two limited-edition NASCAR-themed Foreign Tongues vinyl variants.

In addition, the campaign will include a fan experience at locations around Chicago leading up to NASCAR’s Chicagoland race weekend, July 4-5. It will feature a Rolling Stones listening lounge, where fans can enjoy Foreign Tongues inside a custom-designed Rolling Stone-inspired NASCAR show car.

The launch of the collaboration also includes a new video featuring NASCAR drivers Jesse Love, Connor Zilisch and Carson Hocevar, as well as YouTube creator and driver Cleetus McFarland, set to The Stones’ latest single “In the Stars.”

The NASCAR collab is one of many The Rolling Stones have announced in connection with Foreign Tongues, which comes out July 10. They previously revealed collabs with FIFA and Marvel.

More info can be found at Store.NASCAR.com and TheRollingStonesShop.com.

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Iron Maiden has issued a statement regarding the band’s show in Paris Monday, which was cut short due to a power outage. 

As previously reported, the La Défense Arena went dark in the middle of the set while Maiden was performing the song “2 Minutes to Midnight.” The power was eventually restored and Maiden retook the stage about an hour later, but between the delay and the venue’s curfew, the show ended without the band’s usual encore.

The incident was especially inconvenient since Maiden was filming the show for an upcoming concert film documenting their Run for Your Lives tour.

“Despite everything the audience and atmosphere last night were fantastic and, like every other challenge Iron Maiden have faced over the years, we’ll find a way to deal with and overcome the missing songs in the encore when it comes to the final film,” frontman Bruce Dickinson says in a post to Maiden’s website. “We know that many of you travelled long distances, waited patiently throughout the interruption, and were looking forward to experiencing the complete Run For Your Lives show. We share your disappointment. No one is more frustrated than the band and crew, who were eager to deliver the full performance you deserved.”

“What we will remember most from last night is the incredible spirit inside the arena,” Dickinson continues. “Your patience, understanding and unwavering support through an extremely challenging situation meant the world to us. The energy in the room was remarkable and is exactly what we have to come to expect from Paris, and a reminder of why we always love playing here.”

The Run for Your Lives tour, which celebrates Maiden’s 50th anniversary, will continue through Europe into mid-July before coming to North America in late August.

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The Zombies frontman Colin Blunstone is returning to the U.S. this fall.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has announced dates for a 19-city tour with The Fixx and Peter Asher.

The trek will hit the Northeast and Midwest, starting Sept. 2 in Somerville, Massachusetts, with stops in New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Nashville and more. It wraps Sept. 30 in Troy, New York.

In a post on Instagram, Blunstone writes that he’s “thrilled” to be heading out on tour again, noting fans can expect to hear “songs from my solo career and some Zombies classic tunes.”

Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. local time.

Blunstone wrapped his Believe in Miracles U.K. solo tour on May 28 in London. In a post on Instagram he called it “one of the most enjoyable tours I’ve ever been on,” noting that he hopes he and his band can do another solo tour in the U.K. early next year.

In addition to the upcoming U.S. tour, Blunstone is scheduled to perform at The Zombies’ annual Begin Here festival, taking place Oct. 30- Nov. 1 in their hometown of St. Albans, England. More info can be found at TheZombiesmusic.com.

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