Classic Rock 93.9

A new festival named after ground zero for punk rock in New York City has been set for this September.

The CBGB Festival, named after the legendary club on New York’s Bowery where many punk and new wave legends got their start, will take place Sept. 27 at Under the K Bridge Park in Brooklyn. The lineup features Iggy Pop — doing his first New York show in more than a decade — as well as Jack White, the Sex Pistols, Johnny Marr, The Damned, Melvins, Lunachicks and Marky Ramone, as well as current acts like The Linda Lindas.

You can register for a presale now at CBGBFEST.COM. Presale tickets go on sale May 15 at 10 a.m. ET; the general sale begins May 16 at 10 a.m. ET.

New York residents under 25 will be eligible for a “Young Punk” discounted GA ticket, which you can get in person only at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on May 17 at noon. The limited batch of tickets will cost just $73 — a reference to 1973, the year CBGB opened. There are only 350 tickets available, in a nod to the capacity of the original club.

And speaking of Sex Pistols, the reunited punk icons have added more dates to their upcoming U.S. tour, including Riot Fest, taking place Sept. 19-21 in Chicago, and a Las Vegas show at the Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort on Oct. 17. The band’s lineup includes original members Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock, as well as singer Frank Carter. A complete list of dates can be found at SexPistolsFeaturingFrankCarter.com.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

John Mellencamp is teasing fans with a new album coming next year.

The rocker shared a clip on Instagram of him reading lyrics to a song called “Eternity,” noting it would be featured on his “upcoming 2026 album ‘Orphan Train.'”

“There will surely come a time when every crime and every sign of corruption will be washed away and we will join in and share the enlightenment we find there from now until eternity,” John says in the clip. “Our time will slip away and the years and the days like the sun will shine a ray of a little bit of brightness on our face from now until eternity.”

“Eternity, eternity just waiting now for you and for me,” he adds.

Mellencamp didn’t give an exact date for the release of Orphan Train. It will be his first album since 2023’s Orpheus Descending, which was his 25th studio album.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Foreigner is set to play the season 27 finale of NBC’s The Voice, airing May 20 at 9 p.m. ET.

The band is expected to play a medley of their greatest hits, including “Feels Like The First Time,” “Juke Box Hero” and “I Want To Know What Love Is.”

It was recently announced that a new musical, Feels Like The First Time – The Foreigner Musical, directed by Rent’s Adam Pascal, will have its world premiere at Long Island University’s Little Theatre in April 2026. The show, featuring the band’s greatest hits, is set to have workshops and staged readings this fall.

Foreigner recently completed a tour of South America, for which they were joined by original frontman Lou Gramm. They are set to kick off a U.S. tour on June 11 in Highland, California. A complete list of dates can be found at Foreigneronline.com.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On This Day, May 12, 2017…

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of their #1 album The Joshua Tree, U2 kicked off a world tour in Vancouver, Canada.

The tour had the band playing the 1987 album in order in its entirety, which included the live debut of the track “Red Hill Mining Town.”

The tour hit North America, Europe and South America, and then U2 came back in 2019 to bring the tour to Oceana and Asia.

The 2017 leg grossed $317 million and was the highest grossing tour globally, selling more than 2.71 million tickets from 51 shows.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Pearl Jam’s music has played a significant role in the HBO zombie apocalypse series The Last of Us, and now the band is leaning into that collaboration.

The Seattle rockers have just released a new four-song EP, titled The Last of Us, featuring songs “inspired by the show,” with all the tunes appearing on the drama.

The 12-inch EP includes studio versions of “Future Days,” from 2013’s Lightning Bolt, and “All or None,” from 2002’s Riot Act, as well as a live version of “Future Days” recorded at the Ohana Festival, and “Present Tense (Redux),” a new version of a track that appeared on 1996’s No Code.

The EP will come on 45 RPM colored vinyl described as “clear with black smoke,” and is available for purchase through Pearl Jam’s website, while supplies last. It is also available via digital outlets.

Pearl Jam has long been connected to The Last of Us universe. “Future Days” was featured in the 2020 The Last of Us Part II game, while “All or None” featured on soundtrack for show. Eddie Vedder also performed “Future Days” at the 2020 Game Awards, during which The Last of Us Part II won Game of the Year.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Bruce Springsteen is revisiting his 1999 reunion tour with the E Street Band for the latest release in his Live Archives series.

The New Jersey rocker just released a live recording of his Oct. 28, 1999, concert at Oakland Arena, which was the final show of a three-night stand in Oakland, California.

The 24-song set opens with the Darkness on the Edge of Town track “Adam Raised a Cain,” and features performances of “Prove it All Night,” “Atlantic City,” “The Promised Land,” “Out in the Streets,” and “Land of Hope and Dreams” as well as a stripped down version of the title track to Springsteen’s solo album The Ghost of Tom Joad, and another song from the same album, “Sinaloa Cowboys,” which was the only full band performance of that song ever.

The set also features an appearance by Southside Johnny on “Hungry Heart,” as well as such Springsteen staples as “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out,” “Backstreets,” “Thunder Road” and “Born to Run,” with the night ending with his Greetings From Asbury Park N.J. track “Blinded by the Light.”

The show is now available to stream or purchase at nugs.net.

Springsteen and The E Street Band are getting ready to launch a new tour. They’ll kick off the Land of Hope and Dreams tour of Europe and the U.K. on May 14 and 17 in Manchester, England.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Julien’s Auctions has unveiled the complete lineup of items that will be up for grabs at their upcoming Music Icons auction happening May 30 and May 31 at the Hard Rock Café in New York City.

The auction includes plenty of guitars, including Ronnie Wood’s Telecaster in metallic blue finish, which is signed and includes a handwritten “Midnight Rambler” lyric. There’s also Eddie Van Halen’s stage played and signed Charvel Art Series guitar in black with red and white stripes, Joe Perry’s stage played and signed Gibson Les Paul, plus guitars from Eric Clapton, Brian May, Bob Dylan, Kurt Cobain, Slash and more.

Also included are clothing, personal effects and jewelry previously owned by such stars as Elton John, Chrissie Hynde, Jimi Hendrix, Freddie Mercury, Christine McVie and Cher, plus gear from AC/DC, the Eagles, Neil Young, Aerosmith and others.

Also up for grabs are handwritten works from Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, John Lennon, Cobain, David Bowie and more, including Bob Dylan’s vintage handwritten lyrics for “Lay Lady Lay.”

Highlights from the exhibit will be on display in the window of the Hard Rock Café Piccadilly Circus in London until May 13 and then at the Hard Rock in Times Square from May 21-31.

A complete list of items up for auction can be found at JuliensAuctions.com.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

KISS has shared another fan-curated playlist, this time created by music journalist Allison Hagendorf.

The playlist, titled “My Kiss,” features 40 tracks, including “Love Gun,” “Black Diamond,” “Detroit Rock City,” “God Gave Rock & Roll to You II” and more. It can be found on Spotify and YouTube.

“This playlist is my celebration of KISS in full,” Hagendorf shares. “I wanted to create something that touches every era of their career—something that captures the essence of what made them so iconic but also feels personal to what I love about them.”

KISS launched their fan-curated playlist series in November 2024, with the first dedicated to hidden gems. The last one was released in February 2025 for Valentine’s Day.

The playlist drop comes just weeks after KISS announced a new fan convention, KISS Army Storms Vegas, which will feature an “unmasked” KISS performance from Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, and Tommy Thayer, their first show together since their final concerts at New York’s Madison Square Garden in December 2023. The convention’s happening Nov. 14-16 at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas and will feature a Q&A with Simmons and Stanley.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Elton John‘s been a superstar for more than 50 years, and during that time, he’s sported endless pairs of glasses, some of which were incredibly elaborate. He recently had to go through them to get ideas for a new signature line of eyewear he’s created for a British company called SpecSavers — which means he finally got a full count on just how many he has.

Elton’s husband and manager, David Furnish, tells Hello! magazine, “We have catalogued and in storage about 15,000 pairs of eyewear.”  He keeps a large part of that collection in his home in Windsor, England, and David says they didn’t realize just how many pairs they had until, “We emptied all the drawers and all of the cabinets and cupboards in the house.”

“They completely filled the dining room table, which seats 14 people,” he adds. “And that was when we started to play around and group them and realized they’re almost like chapters of his story.”

“Eyewear has given him a wonderful opportunity to be so individual, so expressive, and to decide what face he wants to put on the world every time he goes out the door,” David explains. “It’s an integral part of him. He doesn’t feel complete until he’s wearing the right frame.”

Elton used to own far more than 15,000 pairs of glasses, but over the years, he’s auctioned them off in periodic purges of his many possessions.  Last year, just one pair of his glasses sold for nearly $23,000 at auction.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Pink Floyd has landed a new #1 album in the U.K.

The recently released soundtrack to the band’s 1972 concert film, Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII, tops the U.K. Albums chart this week, making it the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band’s seventh U.K. #1 album.

Their previous U.K. chart toppers include 1970’s Atom Heart Mother, 1975’s Wish You Were Here, 1983’s The Final Cut, 1994’s The Division Bell, 1985’s Pulse (Live) and 2014’s The Endless River.

Interestingly their iconic album The Dark Side of the Moon only made it to #2.

Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII was also big on vinyl, with the album landing at #1 on the Official Vinyl Albums chart as well.

Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII is a film of the band’s October 1971 performance at the ancient Roman amphitheatre in Italy, which was the first live concert ever to take place at the site. A remastered version of the movie was released in theaters in April.

The release of the soundtrack marked the first full-length live record of the concert.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.