Genesis landed their first and only #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Invisible Touch,” the title track of the band’s 13th studio album.
The tune was the first of five consecutive Top 5 singles from the band; the others being “Land of Confusion,” and “Throwing it All Away,” which both went to #4, and “In Too Deep” and “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight,” which both went to #3.
Interestingly, the week “Invisible Touch” was at #1, Genesis’ former frontman Peter Gabriel was just behind them at #2 with “Sledgehammer,” which eventually went to #1 a week later.
One of Joe Strummer’s iconic final concerts is going to be released later this summer.
Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros: Live at Acton Town Hall is a recording of Strummer’s November 2002 London benefit concert for striking firefighters. It featured a surprise reunion of Strummer and his former The Clash bandmate Mick Jones — their first performance together in almost two decades.
The concert wound up being one of Strummer’s final shows — and his last in London — as he passed away a month later. It featured performances of The Clash tunes “Bankrobber,” “White Riot” and “London’s Burning” as well as early version of songs that would later appear on 2003’s posthumous album, Streetcore.
Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros: Live at Acton Town Hall was previously released as a limited edition Record Store Day exclusive in 2012. The new remastered reissue, coming August 15, is being released on CD for the first time ever and as a special edition two-LP clear vinyl set featuring never-before-seen show photos and new liner notes. Both are available for preorder now.
Here is the track list for Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros: Live at Acton Town:
“Shaktar Donetsk”
“Bhindee Bhagee”
“Rudie Can’t Fail”
“Tony Adams”
“(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais”
“Mega Bottle Ride”
“Get Down Moses”
“Police and Thieves”
“Cool ‘N’ Out”
“Police On My Back”
“Johnny Appleseed”
“Coma Girl”
“I Fought The Law”
“Bankrobber” (featuring Mick Jones)
“White Riot” (featuring Mick Jones)
“London’s Burning” (featuring Mick Jones)
Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top are getting ready to hit the road on The Sharp Dressed Simple Man tour, and Skynyrd frontman Johnny Van Zant can’t wait.
“Those guys have been friends of ours for just multiple years … I’m looking forward to getting back out on the road with ’em,” Van Zant tells ABC Audio. “You know, you go out on the road sometimes with people and you don’t really know ‘em. But for us to get together with ZZ, we’re friends. It’s going to be a family reunion.”
Guitarist Rickey Medlocke feels the same way, adding that it’s a great time for both bands to be out together: Skynyrd’s celebrating the 50th anniversary of their debut album, (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd), while ZZ Top celebrated the milestone back in 2019.
“We’re excited about it, it seems like the fans are excited about it, and I think that it’s going to be a great combination for people to come out and celebrate both bands’ 50 years in existence,” he says.
And Van Zant is also particularly interested in seeing if fans will get decked out for the shows. He jokes, “I’m hoping that there will be some really sharp dressed, simple men that show up. Let’s see their outfits. Man, that’ll be great.”
The Sharp Dressed Simple Man tour kicks off Friday, July 21, in West Palm Beach, Florida. A complete list of dates can be found at lynyrdskynyrd.com.
Dead & Company has been raising money for charity throughout their Final Tour, and now that it’s over, the totals are in — and they’re quite impressive.
According to the voting rights nonprofit Headcount, the band raised $2 million over the course of the tour. Most of that money came from auctions of guitars, with more from their Participation Row. They also donated $2 from each ticket sold throughout the tour to charity. Since the band’s formation in 2015, they’ve raised over $4 million.
All money raised will be donated to causes important to the band, including HeadCount, as well as the environmental organization REVERB.
Headcount revealed that the final shows in San Francisco raised over $700,000 for the organizations. Some of that money came from the auction of an official tour guitar, which sold for $275,000, as well as a guitar memorializing the San Francisco concerts, which went for $238,000.
Dead & Company announced in September 2022 that this summer’s tour would be their last. They wrapped the trek with a three-night stand, July 14-16, at Oracle Park.
Neil Young is going to help the famed West Hollywood venue The Roxy celebrate its 50th anniversary.
Pollstar reports that Young is scheduled to headline a special performance at the venue on September 20, almost 50 years to the day after he first performed for the venue’s opening.
The club’s founder, Lou Adler, revealed the news of Young’s performance, sharing that the concert will be a benefit for two organizations: The Painted Turtle, a camp for children with serious medical conditions, and The Bridge School, which educates children with severe speech and physical impairments.
So far there’s no word on when tickets will go on sale.
Young opened The Roxy with a three-night stand September 20-22, 1973. A recording of the concerts, Roxy: Tonight’s The Night Live, was released as a live album in April 2018.
Mick Jagger is expanding his harmonica line. The Rolling Stones frontman just announced edition two of his harmonica line.
“I was blown away by the response to our first range of harmonicas!” Jagger shares. “I hope everyone has enjoyed playing their harps, and that more people are falling in love with my favourite instrument.”
According to the description, The Mick Jagger Series: Edition Two is a “meticulously designed harmonica that faithfully replicates the exact specifications used by Mick Jagger throughout his iconic career,” giving fans a chance to replicate “that unmistakable Jagger blues sound.”
Like the original, it is a collaboration with harmonica company Lee Oskar that features the signatures of both Jagger and Oskar and comes in a Jagger-branded case.
In addition to the single harmonica, a limited edition box set is available featuring three harmonicas in diatonic keys of C, A and G. Only 300 are available, and they come in a vegan leather case, with a hand-numbered printed art card.
Yes is returning to the road this fall. The band, made up of Steve Howe, Geoff Downes, Jon Davison, Billy Sherwood and Jay Schellen, have announced a new U.S. leg of their Classic Tales of Yes tour.
The trek has the band performing tracks from their 50-year catalog along with songs from their 2023 release, Mirror to the Sky. It will kick off September 24 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and wrap November 4 in Riverside, California.
“We’re putting together a great setlist covering the length and breadth of Yes’ career,” Howe shares, with Downes adding, “As always, we are committed to pushing new boundaries and are very excited to be performing another chapter in the rich legacy of the band.”
Tickets for the new dates go on sale Friday, July 21. A complete list of dates and ticket information can be found at yesworld.com.
Some of today’s top musicians are opening up about their voices in a new book set for release this September.
The Singers Talk – The Greatest Singers of Our Time Discuss the One Thing They’re Never Asked About: Their Voices features interviews with artists like Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Nicks, Roger Daltrey, Chrissie Hynde,Michael Stipe, Brian Johnson, Dionne Warwick and more, all discussing one of the keys to what made them famous: their vocal chops.
Written by Jason Thomas Gordon, the lead singer and drummer for the Los Angeles-based rock band Kingsize, the book also discusses several famed voices that are no longer with us: Stevie Van Zandt talks about Little Richard, producer Butch Vig discusses Kurt Cobain, Nile Rodgers shares thoughts on David Bowie, Jimmy Iovine discusses Tom Petty and more.
The Singers Talk will be released September 5, with proceeds going to a good cause. All royalties will be donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which was founded by Gordon’s grandfather, famed entertainer Danny Thomas.
Paul McCartney gave fans insight into his songwriting process in his bestselling book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, and now, fans will be able to hear him talk about his songs in a new podcast premiering this fall.
McCartney: A Life In Lyrics will feature The Beatles legend and his The Lyrics collaborator Paul Muldoon chatting about the creative process, with each episode focusing on a specific song from the rocker’s more than 60-year career.
Season one will consist of 12 episodes, with Sir Paul discussing such songs as “Eleanor Rigby,” “Let It Be,” “Penny Lane,” “Live and Let Die,” “Helter Skelter and more. Season two will consist of another 12 episodes to follow in February 2024.
“When we listened back to the tapes, we realized there was something very special happening in these conversations,” Muldoon explains. “It was McCartney unfiltered.”
McCartney: A Life In Lyrics will drop weekly wherever podcasts are available.
Pete Townshend’s magnum opus Life House — parts of which became The Who‘s 1971 album, Who’s Next — will finally be released as he intended when he first started working on it over 50 years ago.
Dropping September 15, the Who’s Next/Life House Super Deluxe edition will feature a whopping 155 tracks, with 89 songs that have never been released and 57 fresh remixes. That includes Townshend’s Life House demos, various session recordings and two complete concerts from 1971: one recorded at London’s Young Vic theater and one recorded at San Francisco’s Civic Auditorium.
Townshend had hoped to tell one story with Life House but eventually scrapped the project, instead evolving it into Who’s Next. In a statement about the new releases, he describes the story as a “portentous polemic about the coming of a nation beaten down by climate issues and pollution.”
The story also features a sort of proto-internet called the grid, to which people are forced to plug into for entertainment.
Noting the timeliness of his concept, Townshend writes, “Songs that depicted a dystopian world in which faceless corporations control our lives may have been fiction at the time, but they have come to be more like documentary.”
The Super Deluxe edition will be released as a 10-CD set, with a 100-page hardcover book, new sleeve notes, the newly commissioned Life House – The Complete Graphic Novel, which tells the story behind project, plus concert posters, programs and more. The novel will also be available separately in a limited edition of 1,000 signed by Townshend and Roger Daltrey.
Also coming is a limited-edition four-LP set that includes the 1971 San Francisco concert, a two-CD set and various other vinyl configurations.
