Classic Rock 93.9

The Who‘s Roger Daltrey, Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder, Iggy Pop and Billy Idol were among the A-list talent who played a holiday party in New York on Friday.

According to setlist.fm, the bash for Eldridge Industries took place at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester and also featured Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes, Elvis Costello and Lisa Fischer, backed by Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, music producer Andrew Watt, legendary guitarist G.E. Smith and more. 

Partygoers got to hear Daltrey perform several The Who classics, including “Pinball Wizard,” “The Real Me,” “I Can’t Explain,” “I’m One,” “The Seeker,” “Baba O’Reily” and “My Generation,” while Vedder treated the crowd to Pearl Jam tunes “Corduroy” and “Better Man,” as well as a covers of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers‘ “The Waiting,” The Beat’s “Save It For Later” and The Mono Men’s “Watch Outside.” He also fronted an ensemble performance of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ In The Free World.”

Costello performed his classic “Pump It Up,” as well as The Clash’s “Should I Stay Or Should I Go,” while Haynes took part in a performance of The Allman Brothers Band‘s “Whipping Post.” Idol sang “Dancing with Myself” and “Mony Mony,” as well as the Sex Pistol’s “Pretty Vacant.”

Among the night’s other performances, Iggy performed “The Passenger” and “Search and Destroy,” Fisher and Idol teamed up for The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter,” and Watt fronted covers of Prince’s “Purple Rain” and Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.”

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A happy birthday goes out to ZZ Top guitarist Billy F. Gibbons, who turns 75 on Monday.

Gibbons, known for his signature long beard, formed ZZ Top in 1969, recruiting Dusty Hil on bass and vocals, and drummer Frank “Rube” Beard. The trio released their debut album, ZZ Top’s First Album, in 1971, incorporating a variety of musical genres, including blues, hard rock and Southern rock. They went on to release 15 albums over the course of their career, selling an estimated 50 million records.  

ZZ Top’s most commercially successful album is 1984’s Eliminator, which peaked at #9 on the Billboard Album chart and sold over 11 million copies in the U.S. The album included four hit singles: “Legs,” “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “Sharped Dressed Man” and “TV Dinners.”

Gibbons was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with ZZ Top in 2015. 

In addition to the band, Gibbons has had a successful solo career, releasing his debut solo album, Perfectamundo, under the name Billy Gibbons and the BFG’s in 2015. He’s also spent his career collaborating with other artists and has even dabbled in acting, playing Angela’s rock star dad on the hit Fox series Bones.

Known for his live performing, it’s no surprise Gibbons will be celebrating his 75th onstage. He’s set to kick off his three-night Birthday Jam at the Troubadour in Los Angeles on Wednesday, where he’ll be joined by a group of special guests, including Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, Joe Bonamassa and The Doors’ Robby Krieger.

He’s also set to launch a solo tour with a two-night stand in Austin, Texas, Dec. 27 and Dec. 28, with a ZZ Top tour kicking off March 5 in Dotham, Alabama.

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Art Garfunkel has shared more details about his recent reunion with singing partner Paul Simon.

Back in November, the musician shared that he and Simon had an emotional lunch together, noting he cried when Simon told him how much he had hurt him with comments he made in an old interview. Those comments led to their yearslong estrangement.

In a new interview with NME, Garfunkel admits he likely said the things he said intentionally to hurt Simon. 

“Paul said to me, ‘Arty, it’s not that you spoke to the British press and that you didn’t do it well. I know you said you wanted to put spice into the image of Simon & Garfunkel. I know you felt that we were too conservative,'” Garfunkel said. “Well, my idea of spice meant a certain candor that must have hurt Paul’s feelings. I realized; I did hurt his feelings.”

“He said, ‘I felt you wanted to hurt me. That’s what got me.’ And I thought, ‘That’s true.’ I wanted to hurt him,” Garfunkel added. “The next thing I knew, I burst into tears.”

“The admission of the truth is psychological. You give it up and admit that you wanted to hurt somebody. You’re touched by your own confession. And then there were hugs,” he said. “It was a wonderful moment for Simon & Garfunkel. It basically ended the years of detachment.” 

Garfunkel also had some great things to say about his former singing partner.

“Paul’s very funny. The basis of the Simon & Garfunkel relationship is laughter and jokes – even more than music,” he said. “Right from the beginning, we laughed all the time, and it was the source of our connection.”

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Bruce Springsteen and The Rolling Stones were among the top worldwide touring acts of 2024, according to a new report by Pollstar.

While Taylor Swift topped the list with her Eras tour grossing over $1 billion, Springsteen & The E Street Band landed at #5, bringing in over $250 million from 44 shows worldwide, while The Stones are at #6, grossing over $235 mil. 

Other acts making the worldwide list include Metallica at #9 and Madonna at #10.

Meanwhile, The Stones had the top North American tour for 2024, with their over $235 million coming from 18 Hackney Diamonds shows in just the U.S. and Canada.

The Pollstar report also notes that the Las Vegas Sphere, which this year hosted shows by U2, Dead & Company, Eagles and Phish, was the highest-grossing arena for 2024, bringing in $367.2 million from 70 shows.

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Fans of The Beatles were out in full force for Record Store Day Black Friday.

Billboard reports that the Fab Four’s “I Want To Hold Your Hand”/”I Saw Her Standing There” 7-inch vinyl was the top-selling single on Record Store Day Black Friday, while the 3-inch vinyl release of “All My Loving” came in at #5.

Stevie Nicks also had one of the bestselling singles, with the white-colored 7-inch vinyl of her latest single, “The Lighthouse,” landing at #3 behind Pearl Jam‘s “Waiting for Stevie (Live)”/”Wreckage (Live)” vinyl. 

U2 was also a big draw at independent record stores, with the How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb black and red colored vinyl the sixth-bestselling album on Record Store Day. Van Halen’s Live in Dallas 1981 on red colored double vinyl was #8, the Ramones’ Greatest Hits on red colored vinyl was #9 and the Grateful Dead’s four-vinyl LP set, Veterans Memorial Coliseum, New Haven, CT 5/5/77, was #10.

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Pete Townshend is once again sharing some information about the future of The Who. 

In an interview with Variety, the rocker continued to tease a possible Who tour next year, sharing, “I know that if Roger (Daltrey) and I do tour again, as I’m sure we will, it will probably be one of the last periods that we tour.”

Pete made similar comments about a Who tour back in October, telling The Standard, “We’re both getting a bit creaky, but we will definitely do something next year.”

As for new music from the band, that seems less likely. 

“I would love to do another album with Roger,” Pete tells Variety. “I really enjoyed doing the last one, but he doesn’t really want to do that — I feel like with the Who, I’m still trying to push this elephant up the hill, with Roger being resistant to doing new creative work. He always says to me, ‘Pete, you’ve done enough. We did enough in the early days. That’s what people want here. Let’s just do that.’”

As for non-Who-related projects, Pete says he’s “thought about doing solo work,” adding, “I’m still a conceptualist; I still want a story to hang the music on.”

“For me it’s about pencil sketches, poems, song lyrics, playing with the latest electronic toy, doing books. It’s about all kinds of things,” he explains. “I may have 10 years left to work, but I work very, very slowly, so one thing I’m trying to do is speed things up a bit.”

Finally, he notes, “So I may dump a couple of the projects that I’ve been working on for a long time and I may decide just to do a one-man show.”

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Blue Öyster Cult’s new live album, 50th Anniversary Live – Third Night, is out now, and to celebrate the release the band has debuted a new performance video for the track “I Love The Night.”

The album features a concert recorded during the final night of the band’s 2022 three-night stand at Sony Hall in New York. The shows had BOC playing their first three albums in their entirety, one each night, with the final night dedicated to their third album, Secret Treaties.

Blue Öyster Cult has already released live albums dedicated to the first two shows. The first, 50th Anniversary Live – First Night, where they played their self-titled debut album, was released in October 2023. 50th Anniversary Live – Second Night, dedicated to their sophomore release, Tyranny and Mutation, came out in August.

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Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour is giving fans a taste of his most recent solo tour, which wrapped in November. The rocker just released a live recording of “The Piper’s Call,” which was the first single off his latest solo album, Luck and Strange.

“The Piper’s Call Live Around The World” is a mash-up of performances from throughout his Luck and Strange tour. It features clips from The Brighton Centre in Brighton, England, Rome’s Circus Maximus, London’s Royal Albert Hall, Los Angeles’ Intuit Dome and New York’s Madison Square Garden, edited together to form one song.

“On the Luck and Strange tour, I played with the best band I’ve ever had. Their personalities, playing abilities and enthusiasm for my new music have made for a fabulous experience for Polly and me,” Gilmour shared, referring to his wife and co-songwriter, Polly Samson. “Thank you to everyone who attended the shows in Europe and America and thank you for buying Luck and Strange. I hope you found as much enjoyment in the music as we did while performing it.”

Released in September, Luck and Strange was Gilmour’s first album of new material in nine years. The album debuted at #1 in the U.K. and at #10 in the U.S.

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U2’s Larry Mullen Jr. has issues with numbers, and it’s more than just not being good at math.

In an interview with the U.K.’s Times Radio, the U2 drummer shared that he’s recently been diagnosed with dyscalculia, a learning disability that results in difficulty learning or comprehending arithmetic, sometimes referred to as “math dyslexia.” 

“I’ve always known that there’s something not particularly right with the way that I deal with numbers. I’m numerically challenged,” he shared. “And I realized recently that I have dyscalculia, which is a subversion of dyslexia. So I can’t count [and] I can’t add.” 

His issues with numbers can cause a problem when playing music, with Mullen sharing it’s often the reason he seems to have a “pained” face while drumming with the band.

“When people watch me play sometimes, they say, ‘You look pained.’ I am pained because I’m trying to count the bars,” he explained. “I had to find ways of doing this — and counting bars is like climbing Everest.” 

This is the first time Mullen has talked about his learning disability, and he made the revelation while promoting the new documentary Left Behind, which he co-produced. He also wrote two songs for the film, “Between The Lines” featuring GAYLE and “One of Us” featuring Welsh singer Donna Lewis, which are out now.

The film tells the story of the New York City mothers who fought to open the city’s first public school for dyslexic children. The subject of the film is a personal one for Mullen; his son is dyslexic.

Left Behind is set to open Jan. 17 for a weeklong engagement at New York City’s QUAD Cinema. It will then expand to select theaters nationwide.

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On This Day, Dec. 13, 2008 …

Joe Walsh married Marjorie Bach in Los Angeles, California. Bach is the sister of actress Barbara Bach, who has been married to Ringo Starr since 1981, meaning the union made Walsh Ringo’s brother-in-law.

This was the fifth marriage for the 77-year-old Eagles guitarist. He was previously married to Margie Walsh in the ’60s, Stefany Rhodes from 1971 to 1978, Juanita Boyer from 1980 to 1988 and Denise Driscoll from 1999 to 2006.

In addition to being related, Walsh and Starr have worked together several times. Walsh was part of Starr’s All-Starr Band from 1989 to 1992, and has occasionally guested with the group between 1995 and 2019.

Walsh is currently busy performing with the Eagles at their Sphere residency in Las Vegas. Their next show is Friday.

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