Classic Rock 93.9

Sting is currently touring North America, and he’ll head to Europe for a string of dates that run through December. But he has no plans to slow down in the new year: He’s just announced two concerts for March.

Sting will perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra on March 8 and March 9 in the City of Brotherly Love. Unusually, each show will begin at 5 p.m. It’ll be the second time Sting’s done this: He first performed with the orchestra in 2010 at the Philadelphia Academy of Music’s 153rd anniversary concert.

Sting is an old hand at playing his songs with an orchestra. In 2010, he teamed up with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to record Symphonicities, an album of orchestral versions of his hits. That was followed by a world tour with the orchestra and a live album.

A presale for the March dates will start October 11 at 10 a.m. ET for members of the Sting.com fan club and orchestra members. The general onsale is Monday, October 16, at 10 a.m. ET.

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Illness has forced Steely Dan to drop off several dates of the Eagles’ The Long Goodbye Tour.

The Indianapolis Star reported that Steely Dan frontman Donald Fagen had been hospitalized, although ABC Audio has learned Donald is not hospitalized and expects to be back on the road soon.

Michael Leonhart, who is currently on tour with Steely Dan, posted on Instagram, “All is fine. Just a little illness. We’ll be back on stage soon.”

Steely Dan has actually been off the Eagles bill since Friday, October 6, when Sheryl Crow filled in for them in Denver. The Steve Miller Band then took over for the Indianapolis shows on October 9 and 10 and will again fill in October 13 in Detroit and October 17 in Cleveland. Current Eagles member Vince Gill and the Nashville Band will open the October 15 show in Pittsburgh.

Once those shows are over, Eagles aren’t back onstage until November 2 in Atlanta, Georgia. A complete list of tour dates can be found at eagles.com.

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While The Rolling Stones certainly don’t seem like they’re about to slow down anytime soon, the band members are getting older. For Keith Richards, all the guitar playing over the years has apparently taken a toll on his hands.

In a new interview with BBC, Richards discusses how he deals with arthritis in his hands and reveals it has affected his playing.

“Funnily enough, I’ve no doubt it has, but I don’t have any pain, it’s a sort of benign version,” he says. “I think if I’ve slowed down a little bit it’s probably due more to age.” 

He adds, “And also, I found that interesting, when I’m like, ‘I can’t quite do that anymore,’ the guitar will show me there’s another way of doing it. Some finger will go one space different and a whole new door opens. And so you’re always learning. You never finish school, man.” 

The Stones are about to release their new album, Hackney Diamonds, on October 20, and it sounds like fans may soon be seeing Keith play guitar on the road again. He says the band plans to tour next year “if everybody is still standing.”

“We’re all in good fettle. We’re not looking at each other and saying, ‘time’s up,’” he shares.  

As for whether he sees a time when they will hang it up, he jokes, “My answer is I’m not Nostradamus.” He adds, “Of course it’s going to end some time, but there’s no particular rush. We’re having great fun doing this.”

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On This Day, October 10, 2013…

Beatle Paul McCartney surprised fans in New York City with an impromptu free concert in Times Square, announcing the show on social media about one hour before it occurred. 

The rocker was promoting his 16th studio album New and treated fans to four songs off the record: “Save Us,” “Everybody Out There,” “Queenie Eye” and the title track.

Fans who could not make it to the Big Apple were able to enjoy the concert at home thanks to a Times Square webcam.

New, which was McCartney’s first album of new material in six years, was released one day later on October 11.

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Bryan Adams is returning to London’s Royal Albert Hall next year with a trio of special shows.

The three-night stand will have Adams playing a full album each night, plus other songs. It kicks off May 13 with Adams playing his 1996 album, 18 ‘Til I Die, followed on May 14 by a show celebrating the 40th anniversary of his 1984 hit, Reckless, and wrapping May 15 with his 2022 release, So Happy It Hurts.

Tickets for all three shows go on sale Friday, October 13, at 9 a.m. local time.

This isn’t the first time Adams has played full albums at Royal Albert Hall. In fact, he’s releasing a new box set of his 2022 three-night stand, where he played 1983’s Cuts Like a Knife, 1987’s Into the Fire and 1991’s Waking Up the Neighbors. It’s due out December 8 and available for preorder now.

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As part of the ongoing 50th anniversary celebration of Pink Floyd‘s classic album The Dark Side of the Moon, the band is releasing a new 30-minute documentary, Eclipse, giving fans a look at the special Dark Side event they held in Australia that coincided with a rare solar eclipse.

The once-in-a-lifetime event took place at a secluded beach at Ningaloo (Nyinggulu) Marine Park in Exmouth, Western Australia, on April 20. A handful of fans won a trip to the beach, where they listened to Dark Side in full — timed so that the closing line, “but the sun is eclipsed by the moon,” would play at the exact moment of the eclipse.

Fans will be able to check out the documentary on Pink Floyd’s YouTube channel starting Friday, October 13, as part of Pink Floyd Fridays. A preview clip is available now on YouTube.

And the band hopes fans will continue the celebration with the upcoming annular solar eclipse, which will be visible in America on October 14. They are urging fans to listen to The Dark Side of the Moon while it’s happening, then share video and photos of the experience to social media using #pfeclipse. Pink Floyd will then share some of those posts on their social media accounts. 

Pink Floyd kicked off the 50th anniversary celebration of The Dark Side of the Moon earlier this year with the release of a new box set, featuring a remaster of the classic album and a whole host of extras. A stand-alone version of the newly remastered album will be released on CD, LP and Blu-ray on October 13.

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Monday, October 9, would have been the late John Lennon’s 83rd birthday, and in honor of the occasion a new deluxe and expanded version of Imagine (The Ultimate Collection) has just been released to stream and download.

The new release features the entire collection on Hi-Res Stereo and Spatial Audio/Dolby Atmos, with each of the five sets of songs – Ultimate, Elements, Evolution, Raw Studio and Out-Takes – released as separate albums instead of one long playlist.

Imagine: The Ultimate Collection was originally released in October 2018. It featured four CDs and two Blu-ray discs and included previously unheard demos, rare studio outtakes and more.

And that’s not the only way Lennon was remembered on his birthday. His former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney marked the occasion on social media, sharing a photo of himself onstage, with Lennon’s image projected behind him, writing, “Celebrating the birthday of my wonderful friend and collaborator, @johnlennon.”

The late George Harrison’s estate also remembered Lennon, sharing a short video featuring pictures of both Harrison and Lennon, along with some drawings, captioning the clip, “Remembering John on his Birthday.”

And Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, marked both John and their son Sean Lennon’s birthday on social media, sharing a photo of them together with the caption, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAN! i ii iii i love you.”

Lennon’s birthday is also being remembered with the new video “Dear John” from singer Sepp Osley. The track features Peter Frampton on guitar and British singer Mollie Marriott, with the video featuring cameos from the likes of Peter Gabriel, Matt Sorum, Geddy Lee, actor Martin Freeman, comedian Matt Lucas and more.

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Once Upon a One More Time, the Broadway show built around the songs of Britney Spears, may have closed in September, but a new musical built around the songs of Madonna recently opened in Paris.

The New York Times reports that the two-hour show, Holidays, is performed in French and features 15 Madonna classics, from “La Isla Bonita,” “Open Your Heart” and “Express Yourself” to “Papa Don’t Preach,” “Secret” and “Like a Prayer.” 

The Queen of Pop isn’t involved in the show, but its director, Nathan Guichet [gee-SHAY], says he was inspired to create it after seeing a 2012 interview in which Madonna said, “I would sanction my songs to be made into a musical, but I wouldn’t do it myself.”

The show, which is set to run through January 28, features just four performers and one set. Here’s the plot, according to the Times: Louise, an heiress who’s about to get married, invites three pals who she hasn’t seen in more than 10 years to her childhood home. In their youth, the four friends would gather every August 16 to celebrate Madonna’s birthday. Now they come together as adults in Louise’s old bedroom, which is a pink altar to Madonna. Louise’s doubts about her upcoming marriage and a secret gay romance between two of the four women help drive the plot.

In its review, The New York Times notes, “Holidays is a welcome reminder that Madonna’s catalog has rare staying power.” It concludes that until Madonna’s Celebration tour arrives in Paris in November, the show is “an entertainingly upbeat stand-in.”

Madonna kicks off the Celebration tour October 14 in London.

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The band Metal Allegiance — featuring ex-Megadeth bassist David Ellefson, former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick and bassist/songwriter Mark Menghi — has announced a concert celebrating their 10th anniversary.

The show will take place January 25, 2024, at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California.

“It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since we started Metal Allegiance out on the Motörhead Motörboat Cruise,” Ellefson says. “But here we are, a couple of albums and a whole bunch of shows later, celebrating the strength and resilience of heavy metal together.”

Along with the core four Metal Allegiance members, the concert will feature guest performances by artists including Mastodon‘s Brann Dailor and Troy Sanders, Testament‘s Chuck Billy, Bad Wolves‘ Doc Coyle and Slayer‘s Gary Holt.

Tickets go on sale Friday, October 13. For more info, visit MetalAllegiance.com.

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Roger Waters took the stage at London’s Palladium on Sunday, October 8, to perform The Dark Side of the Moon Redux, his recently released reimagining of Pink Floyd’s classic album, but it turns out he had more in store for his audience. 

According to a review of the show by The Times of London critic Will Hodgkinson, Waters spent the first 30 minutes of the show ranting about Julian Assange and reading from his unpublished memoir.

“One story involved a duck that came to live in the family home,” Hodgkinson wrote. “Another began promisingly as a memory of Floyd’s original leader, Syd Barrett, but revealed nothing more than that Barrett wrote a lot of songs and had an innocent air about him.”

Hodgkinson noted that Waters only played two songs during the first half of the show and wound up getting heckled by the audience for his lack of performing, to which he responded like “a scary headmaster shouting down naughty kids at assembly, which simply had the effect of making everyone feel nervous and awkward.”

In addition to the readings, the show included a 20-minute film in which Waters described making The Dark Side of the Moon Redux.

“Roger Waters has suffered for his art,” the critic concluded. “That didn’t mean that the audience at the Palladium had to suffer for it too.”

Waters returns to the stage for a second show at the Palladium on Monday, October 9.

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