Classic Rock 93.9

If you’ve been dying to get your children to appreciate The Beatles, now’s your chance. The legendary band’s music has been added to the audio platform Yoto, which is aimed at children.

Three new Yoto cards of music from The Beatles and Paul McCartney are now available. Two of them feature music from The Beatles’ 1962-1966 (The Red Album) and 1967-1970 (The Blue Album), including “Love Me Do,” “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand” from Red and “Penny Lane,” “All You Need Is Love,” “Hey Jude” and “Let It Be” from Blue.

The third, titled Paul McCartney: Say Hello to Paul McCartney, features a McCartney curated collection, including the themes to Paul’s children’s books, Hey Grandude and Hey Nandude.

All three cards are available now for $14.99 each.

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Two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Graham Nash is featured in a new video for the nonprofit Pass It On, which uses uplifting videos to inspire people to act with kindness, respect and generosity.

The latest video from the group features Nash’s tune “A Better Life” from his May release, Now.

“In a way, ‘Better Life’ is kind of an extension of my song ‘Teach Your Children,’” Nash says in the video, referring to the song made famous by his band, Crosby, Stills & Nash. “Even though they may be only 25% of our population, children are 100% of our future and we have to realize that. We have to take care of our kids.” 

He adds, “Life is full of actions, you can think and you can talk all you want, do something. And even at 81 you can still rock. … Let’s make this world a better place.”

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Blondie and Simple Minds are among the artists confirmed for the annual Cruel World Festival, happening May 11 in Pasadena, California. 

The festival features a lineup heavy on acts from or influenced by the ’80s alternative and new wave scene. Duran Duran is set to headline the fest, which also features The Alarm, Soft Cell, Adam Ant, Gary Numan performing his 1979 album The Pleasure Principle, and The Motels, along with Interpol, Placebo, Ministry and The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Registration is now open, with ticket passes going on sale Friday, December 8, at 12 p.m. PT. The full lineup and all ticket info can be found at CruelWorldFest.com.

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James Taylor is heading Down Under this spring.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer just announced dates for a new tour of Australia and New Zealand. It will be Taylor’s first return to the area since 2017.

The nine-date trek kicks off April 12 in Perth, hitting Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and more, before heading to New Zealand for two shows — April 30 in Auckland and May 1 in Wellington.

Tickets for all shows go on sale Wednesday, December 6. A complete list of dates can be found at jamestaylor.com.

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Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson have given fans a smidgeon of hope that they may one day come together to play the band’s music again.

During an appearance on CBS Sunday Morning, both were asked whether they could go on following the death of drummer Neal Peart — and they didn’t rule it out. 

“It’s difficult to figure out what that chapter is without him,” Lifeson shared. Lee added that he and Lifeson have discussed hiring a drummer to go out on tour with them, noting, “It’s not impossible, but at this point, I can’t guarantee it.”

But it sounds like Lifeson is a bit more hopeful that it may happen one day, sharing, “It’s just not in our DNA to stop.” 

Lee, meanwhile, is still out on his book tour promoting his recently released memoir, My Effin’ Life. It hits Detroit, Michigan, on December 4 and wraps December 7 in Toronto.

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U2 is giving fans yet another chance to see them live in Las Vegas.

The Irish rockers just announced the final four dates for their Vegas residency, U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere, at The Venetian. 

The dates are scheduled for February 23 and 24, and March 1 and 2, with a fan club ticket presale open from now until Tuesday, December 5, at 10 p.m. PT. The general onsale kicks off Friday, December 8, at 11 a.m. PT. 

U2 launched U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere back in September, becoming the first artists to play the state of the art venue. Their next show is happening Wednesday, December 6. A complete list of dates can be found at U2.com.

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R.E.M. fans have been anxiously awaiting a solo album from the band’s frontman, Michael Stipe, and it sounds like it may be on its way…eventually.

In a new interview with The New York Times, conducted over the course of a year, Stipe gives an update on the  project, which appears to still be a work-in-progress.

The article mentions several songs that Stipe had been working on, with names like “I’m the Charge” and “Time Keeps Changing,” as well as a duet with Courtney Love for an upcoming project. 

It also describes a recording session at Electric Lady Studios in New York, where he met Taylor Swift and chatted with her producer Jack Antonoff and The 1975‘s Matty Healy.

As for what’s taking the record so long, the article notes that Stipe’s life simply got in the way. He also dealt with what he describes as “terrible writer’s block” but said he “completely flourished as a writer after that.”

And while Stipe hasn’t narrowed down when fans may hear the music, he did at least offer some sort of update on the project.

“We can say for the piece that I finished the songs, and by God, I will finish them before the piece comes out,” he says, referring to the article. “How about that? Let’s leave the piece closing with: I finished the songs.”

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Special releases by The Doors, U2 and more were among the bestsellers on Record Store Day Black Friday this year. 

The Doors’ Live From Bakersfield, August 21, 1970, which captures a 1970 concert around the time of Jim Morrison‘s indecent exposure trial, landed at #4 on the list of bestsellers, followed by U2’s remastered Under a Blood Red Sky at #6.

Two Grateful Dead related albums also sold well. The March 2, 1969, Dead concert at San Francisco’s Fillmore West, which was released as a five-LP package, landed at #8, while Pure Jerry: Marin Auditorium, San Rafael, CA – February 28, 1986, a recording of a performance by Jerry Garcia and John Kahn, landed at #12.

Also making the top 25 is Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark Demos, at #15, and The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album, at #16.

Meanwhile, artists seeing the best sales on Record Store Black Friday include The Doors, who had the second-best overall sales, Grateful Dead at #6 and U2 at #8.

Overall, it seemed to be a great Black Friday at independent record stores this year, with weekend year-over-year increases up as much as 40%.

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Music fans will be able to say their final goodbyes to the late Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan later this week.

RTE reports that a funeral for MacGowan will be held Friday, December 8, in Tipperary, Ireland, with the mass at St. Mary’s of the Rosary Church in Nenagh, which will be open to the public.  

There had been plans for a procession from Dublin, but that is reportedly no longer happening.

MacGowan passed away November 30 at the age of 65. His wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, told The New York Times that he died from pneumonia, although he had also been battling viral encephalitis at the time of his death.

“He wasn’t ready to give up,” Clarke told RTE. “He wasn’t ready to stop fighting – but his body did it for him.”

Meanwhile, U2 paid tribute to MacGowan during the Friday, December 1, show of their Las Vegas residency, U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere.

Fan-shot footage posted to YouTube shows the Irish rockers performing the Pogues classic “A Rainy Night in Soho” for the Vegas crowd. 

The band had previously paid tribute to MacGowan on social media, writing, “Shane MacGowan’s songs were perfect so he or we his fans didn’t have to be.”

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On This Day, December 4, 1988…

Roy Orbison performed what would be his final concert at the Front Row Theater in Highland Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.

The concert featured performances of such Orbison classics as “Crying,” “In Dreams,” “Only the Lonely,” “Oh, Pretty Woman” and more. 

After the show, Orbison returned home to Hendersonville, Tennessee, where he died from a heart attack on December 6. He was 52.

Orbison’s many accolades include being a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Musicians Hall of Fame. He won five Grammy Awards and was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

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