Classic Rock 93.9

Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett is set to release the new live album Live Magic At Trading Boundaries on Jan. 17.

The album is a compilation of various recordings taken from years of shows at the intimate venue in Sussex, England, with Hackett performing stripped down versions of classic tracks, including solo material, and Genesis tunes like “Blood On The Rooftops” and “Horizons.”

“It’s always a joy for me to play at Trading Boundaries, a magical intimate place full of beautiful lights and exotic imagery, illuminating the darkest time of year over Christmas and New Year,” Hackett shares. “It’s the perfect location for my acoustic set.”

Coinciding with the announcement, Hackett has shared the first track from the record, a performance of “Ace of Wands,” a tune from his 1975 debut solo album, Voyage of The Acolyte. 

Hackett has been playing Trading Boundaries yearly since 2016, and has shows coming up on Jan. 18 and Jan. 19. A complete list of tour dates can be found at hackettsongs.com.

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Sean Ono Lennon says the only reason he decided to learn to play music was to get closer to his late father, The Beatles‘ John Lennon, who was killed in 1980 when Sean was only 5. 

“I never played music because I was good at it,” he tells People in a new interview. “I lost my father and I didn’t know how to fill that void. Learning how to play his songs on guitar was a way to process the loss with an activity that made me feel connected to him.”

He adds, “When you’ve lost a parent, things like that motivate you — because you’re trying to find them. Making music always made me feel like I was getting to know him better.”

Sean continues to learn more about his dad by managing John’s legacy, being involved in things like the recent Mind Games box set and more. And the more he works on these projects, the more connected he feels to his dad, especially since many of the archival tapes include John interacting with his fellow musicians.

“You’re constructing somebody out of fragments,” he explains. “I grew up mostly knowing my dad through pictures and recordings, because he wasn’t around. So whenever I hear my dad saying anything that I haven’t heard before, even just a little moment, it means so much to me.”

He adds, “It’s like gold. It’s precious because it’s like getting more time with him.”

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On This Day, Nov. 22, 1950 …

E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt was born in Winthrop, Massachusetts. Born Steven Lento, he took the name Van Zandt after his mother remarried. The family then moved to New Jersey, where his musical career began.

While performing with his bands on the Jersey Shore he met Bruce Springsteen, which would lead to a musical partnership that continues to this day.

Prior to joining the E Street band, Van Zandt, who’s gone by the nicknames Little Steven and Miami Steve, co-founded Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. He also produced Southside Johnny’s first three records.

Although he’d worked with Springsteen for years, Van Zandt officially joined the E Street Band on guitar in 1975 and remained with the group until 1984, when he left to pursue a solo career. He rejoined the band in 1995, has been with them ever since and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the group in 2014. 

A solo artist and songwriter in his own right, Van Zandt wrote the all-star anti-apartheid song “Sun City.” He also penned the track “I Am A Patriot,” which has been covered by Jackson Brown, Pearl Jam and more. 

In 1999 Van Zandt launched an acting career, starring as Silvio Dante in HBO’s The Sopranos, and then in 2011 starred in Lilyhammer, Netflix’s first original series.

Van Zandt was recently the subject of an HBO documentary, Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple, which just earned a Grammy nomination.

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U2 has released another previously unheard track.

The latest is “Luckiest Man in the World,” which appears on the How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb shadow album, How to Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb, which is now available on digital outlets.

The shadow album contains 10 previously unreleased tracks from the band’s archive, with the songs all coming from the original recording sessions for How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, the Irish rockers’ 11th studio album. They previously released three of those tracks: “Happiness,” “Country Mile” and “Picture of You (X+Y).”

Physical copies of How to Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb will be released Nov. 29 as an exclusive for Record Store Day Black Friday.

Also out Nov. 22 is a special 20th anniversary remastered edition of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, as well as a package with the remaster and the shadow album together, dubbed How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (Re-Assemble Edition), plus various box sets on vinyl and CD.

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Pearl Jam‘s Vitalogy has been waiting and watching the clock for three decades now.

The third studio effort from Eddie Vedder and company was first released on Nov. 22, 1994, 30 years ago Friday. Following in the footsteps of their 1991 breakout debut, Ten, and its 1993 follow-up, Vs., Vitalogy further cemented Pearl Jam’s status as among the biggest bands in rock, even as the grunge phenomenon was fading.

Like Vs., Vitalogy reached #1 on the Billboard 200, though it didn’t debut in the top spot. It actually began at #55 thanks to an initial vinyl-only release, before arriving on CD and cassette two weeks later, which vaulted it to #1.

At the time, Vitalogy set the record for most vinyl copies sold in a single week since tracking data started in 1991. Pearl Jam held onto that record for 20 years and was finally beat by Jack White‘s Lazaretto in 2014.

Vitalogy produced rock radio hits in “Spin the Black Circle,” “Not for You” and “Immortality.” It also spawned two of Pearl Jam’s most enduring songs, “Better Man” and “Corduroy,” though, amazingly, neither track was released as an official single. 

Today, Vitalogy is certified five-times Platinum by the RIAA.

While by all accounts Vitalogy was a smash success — it also received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year — the era was not without its difficulties. Drummer Dave Abbruzzese, who played on Vs., was fired toward the end of recording and replaced by original Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons. Additionally, the subsequent tour was hampered by Pearl Jam’s continued boycott of Ticketmaster, which lasted until 1998.

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Friday marks the 50th anniversary of Genesis’ sixth studio album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, the last Genesis record to feature frontman Peter Gabriel.

The album was a concept record conceived by Gabriel, with a bit of a bizarre story centered around a Puerto Rican youth named Rael who goes on a spiritual journey of self-discovery.

But recording the album was not without problems. Guitarist Steve Hackett tells ABC Audio there was some concern within the band about whether Gabriel would finish the record, as he was dealing with some personal pressures surrounding the birth of his first child.

“I think that it was probably the most difficult album that Genesis ever got to make because we weren’t sure if Peter Gabriel was going to be in the band or not,” he says.

The album went on to be a top 10 hit in the U.K. and peaked at #41 in the U.S.

Genesis supported the record with an extensive tour, playing the album in its entirety. The tour featured lots of theatricality, with Gabriel donning multiple costumes, but it seems he had some even bigger ideas for the production.

“It’s an album that was as much about the visuals as it was … the grooves,” Hackett says. “So the last time we were talking about doing that in its entirety with Pete, Pete was already talking about avatars even then, several years ahead of ABBA.”

During the tour, Gabriel let the band know that he’d be leaving at the end of it. They would go on to have even more success with drummer Phil Collins as frontman.

Genesis will celebrate the album’s anniversary with The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition), dropping March 28.

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Believe it or not, Bob Dylan is now responding to comments on social platform X.

On Tuesday, Dylan shared a post about seeing Nick Cave perform the song “Joy” in Paris, which prompted a dancer to share her disappointing encounter with the rock legend.

“My Joy was taken away after rehearsing as one of the Backup dancers for your set on the Grammys in NYC 1991,” Cheryl Henry wrote, detailing how she walked by Dylan, who made a comment about her red hair.

“By the time I reached the exit door at Radio City I had been told not to return,” she added, sharing that the dancers had been told not to make eye contact with the him. “I guess I snuck a peek as I passed you !”

Well, apparently Dylan took issue with her comment.

“Saw your reply. Just want you to know I’ve never told anybody not to make eye contact with me,” he replied. “That is just ridiculous. And the next time you see me please look straight into my eyes.”

And Cheryl seemed to be happy with the response, replying, “I knew it wasn’t coming from you ! I look forward to it ! XXXX OOOO.”

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Yes’ Steve Howe has now responded to the copyright lawsuit filed by musician Riz Story.

Story, whose legal name is Rudolph Zahler, is claiming Howe and current Yes frontman Jon Davison stole the music from his song “Reunion” for the Yes song “Dare to Know,” which appeared on the band’s 2021 album, The Quest.

In a post on Yes’ Facebook page, Howe wrote, “Jon Davison did not write ‘Dare to Know.’ I did, and it was based on a theme I’ve been developing since 1973.”

“Early versions can easily be found in our demo and studio recordings from the time and on the internet – some were released on an expanded version of ‘Tales From Topographic Oceans’ in 2002,” he adds.

Yes’ account then shared a link to a Soundcloud recording, which they say “demonstrates how Steve Howe has a version of this exact same melody in a 1974 recording (‘The Ancient’).”

The post notes, “Here is proof of Steve exploring that very same idea in 1974 and it should be obvious that it’s much more likely the source of this melody.”

Davison previously responded to the suit by his former bandmate Story, calling it “utterly fictitious” and filled with “blatant lies.”

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Toni Cornell, the daughter of late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, has premiered a new song called “Sunset of Your Love.”

Toni sings in the chorus, “‘Til you find me/ I’ll be waiting/ in the sunset of your love.” 

“There’s a lot more where this came from,” Toni says. “My new song ‘Sunset of Your Love’ is out on all streaming platforms. Love u guys.”

Toni previously described “Sunset of Your Love” as “my first song,” though she did put out a track called “Far Away Places” in 2019.

Over the years, Toni’s performed during several TV appearances, including in 2017 when she covered Leonard Cohen‘s “Hallelujah” on Good Morning America in honor of her father and late Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington, who died within months of each other that year. She also covered Sinéad O’Connor‘s “Nothing Compares 2 U” on The Tonight Show and The Late Late Show.

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Elton John could be in the running for another Oscar this year.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the movies that qualified for consideration in the Documentary Feature Film category, and the rocker’s upcoming doc, Elton John: Never Too Late, is one of 169 films to qualify. The film debuts Dec. 13 on Disney+.

Elton previously won two other Oscars, both for Best Original Song, in 1994 for The Lion King track “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” and in 2019 for the Rocketman song “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again.”

Other music docs eligible for consideration include Eno, about music producer Brian Eno; The Greatest Night in Pop, about the making of “We Are the World”; Luther: Never Too Much, about Luther Vandross; I Am Celine Dion and Indigo Girls: It’s Only Life After All.

Also eligible is Kiss the Future, the Matt Damon/Ben Affleck-produced documentary about the siege of Sarajevo, which features U2.

The 97th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, March 2, live from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on ABC. It will be broadcast in over 200 territories worldwide.

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