Classic Rock 93.9

Paul Stanley is a Swiftie. The KISS rocker took to social media to praise Taylor Swift after taking his wife and daughters to see her Eras Tour at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. 

“Took Erin, Sarah and Emily to see @taylorswift Last Night!” he writes next to a picture of him in an Eras Tour T-shirt. “6 shows at SoFi Stadium for a total of A HALF MILLION PEOPLE and I know why… PHENOMENAL SHOW BY A PHENOMENAL ARTIST.”

He added, “Thanks to her staff for rolling out the red carpet for us.”

Swift wraps her SoFi Stadium stand on Wednesday, August 9. Meanwhile, KISS is currently on a break from their End of the Road tour. Their next show is happening September 1 in Crandon, Wisconsin, with their final shows taking place December 1 and 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York. A complete list of dates can be found at kissonline.com.

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Paul McCartney is heading to Brazil. The two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has just announced dates for a Brazilian leg of his Got Back tour, his first return to the country since 2019. 

The trek kicks off November 30 in Brasília then hits Belo Horizonte, São Paulo and Curitiba, before wrapping December 16 in Rio De Janeiro. 

“We have such great memories from all our visits. I love coming to Brazil because you guys like to rock, sing and party all at once,” McCartney says. “We’re really excited. Let’s have fun. Let’s rock. Let’s roll. Let’s stomp. Let’s stroll. And Brazil, let’s have a great time.”

A ticket presale kicks off Tuesday, August 8, at 10 a.m. local time, with a general onsale set for Thursday, August 10, at 12 p.m. local time. 

And that’s not all. McCartney has added a new date to the Australian leg of his Got Back tour, which kicks off October 18 in Adelaide. He’s added a second date in Sydney and will now play Allianz Stadium October 27 and October 28. A ticket presale is happening Wednesday, August 9, followed by a general onsale on Thursday, August 10.

A complete list of Paul McCartney’s Got Back dates can be found at paulmccartney.com.

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Stewart Copeland is giving fans yet another way to enjoy The Police’s music.

Earlier this year, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame drummer released Police Deranged, featuring orchestral versions of the band’s classic tunes. Now, he’s announced the upcoming release of Police Beyond Borders, an album of the band’s greatest hits interpreted by musicians from around the world. He teamed with Ricky Kej for the project, a collaborator on the Grammy-winning album Devine Tides.  

“The flavors of all these amazing languages on Police Beyond Borders light up these tunes that are so familiar,” Copeland shares. “The Police were always a global band, and Sting wrote songs about the bigger picture of humanity.” He adds, “Music brings us together, and my humble hope is that this record can contribute to that special human bonding experience that we need now more than ever.”

Police Beyond Borders will be released digitally August 18.

Here is the track list for Police Beyond Borders:

“King of Pain” (feat. Berklee Indian Ensemble)
“Roxanne” (feat. Mzansi Youth Choir)
“Message in a Bottle” (feat. Salim-Sulaiman, Masa Takumi)
“Tea in the Sahara” (Cui Jian)
“Don’t Stand So Close To Me” (Soweto Gospel Choir, Ron Korb)
“Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” (feat. Berklee Indian Ensemble)
“Can’t Stand Losing You” (Mzansi Youth Choir, Max ZT)
“Murder By Numbers” (Alison Balsom, Shankar Mahadevan, Max ZT)
“Demolition Man” (featuring Serj Tankian)
“Every Breath You Take” (Soweto Gospel Choir)

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Metallica‘s M72 World Tour finally came to the U.S. with shows in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Friday, August 4, and Sunday, August 6.

Both concerts featured the live debuts of songs off the new ‘Tallica album, 72 Seasons. Night one got the track “Shadows Fall,” while night two featured “Too Far Gone?” in the set.

The M72 tour, which first launched in Europe in April, finds Metallica playing two shows featuring completely different set lists in each city.

For the full set lists, visit Metallica.com.

The M72 tour continues with a detour to Canada’s Quebec City on August 11 and 13, before returning to the U.S. for shows in Arlington, Texas, on August 18 and 20. The Texas shows will be broadcast live in movie theaters worldwide.

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On This Day, August 7, 1987…

Lindsey Buckingham quit Fleetwood Mac, one day after a contentious group meeting at Christine McVie’s house led to a physical altercation between him and Stevie Nicks.  

With a tour starting in a month, the band replaced Lindsey with Billy Burnette and Rick Vito and hit the road for the Shake the Cage Tour.

Buckingham would eventually return to Fleetwood Mac when they reunited in 1993 to perform “Don’t Stop” at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration. They then reunited in 1997 for a live concert, which was recorded for the live album The Dance and followed by an arena tour.

Buckingham remained with Fleetwood Mac until 2018, when he was fired over a disagreement about touring. He was again replaced by two guitarists, Crowded House’s Neil Finn and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell.

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Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band are ready to bring their tour back to the States, and guitarist Nils Lofgren is certainly happy about it.

Lofgren tells ABC Audio he’s thrilled to be back in the U.S. after their recent tour of Europe and the U.K., especially because he’ll be able to stop back home a bit more. 

“How lucky and blessed we all are is not lost on any of us,” Lofgren says about working with such a great band and great boss. “Once you walk out there, that’s just a joy and a dream and a gift for all of us.” 

He adds, “I really feel like this band is as good or better than we’ve ever been. And of course, you know, mainly it’s Bruce doing the heavy lifting, but he’s in it, man, he’s down in it and he’s giving it.”

Lofgren says being in The E Street Band is good for his “musical soul,” and while other artists who write their own music like he does may not enjoy being in the background, he insists, “I love it.”

“Past earning a living and a salary, there’s some emotional hit you get if you’re still in love with performing after half a century,” he says. 

The second leg of Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band’s North American tour kicks off with a two-night stand at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, August 9 and 11. A complete list of dates can be found at brucespringsteen.com.

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John Gosling, who played keyboards on 10 albums by The Kinks, has died, the band announced on social media on August 4. He was 75.

The band posted a video of Gosling dressed in goggles with a pair of wings on his back running back and forth in a backyard, set to their song “Supersonic Rocket Ship.” In the caption, they wrote, “We are deeply saddened by the news of the passing of John Gosling. We are sending our condolences to John’s wife and family.” Separately, head Kink Ray Davies wrote, “Condolences to his wife Theresa and family. Rest in Peace dearest John.”

Ray’s brother and bandmate Dave Davies added, “I’m dismayed [and] deeply upset by John Gosling’s passing. He has been a friend and important contributor to the Kinks music during his time with us. Deepest sympathies to his wife and family. I will hold deep affection and love for him in my heart always. Great musician and a great man.”

Kinks drummer Mick Avory wrote, “Today we lost a dear friend and colleague, he was a great musician and had a fantastic sense of humour … which made him popular member of the band, he leaves us with some happy memories. God Bless him.”

Joining The Kinks in 1970, Gosling’s debut with them was “Lola,” restablishing the band as a commercial force in the U.S. for the first time since the mid-70’s.  Gosling went on to play on 10 Kinks albums, including Muswell Hillbillies, Everybody’s in Show-Biz, Sleepwalker and Misfits. 

Gosling left The Kinks in 1978 and later founded the band Kast Off Kinks, which featured former Kinks members. He retired in 2008.

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Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe played together 40 years ago, but on their current co-headlining tour, which resumes August 5 in Syracuse, New York, they say things aren’t quite as debauched as they were back then.

Whereas there were plenty of drugs around back in the day, Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott tells People magazine that nowadays, the only thing that Crüe drummer Tommy Lee gets high on is pranks. 

Elliott says if you fall asleep around Lee or touring Crüe guitarist John 5, they’ll put “plant pots” on your head and “take pictures” of you while you’re asleep. “So God help you—just don’t shut your eyes,” he says. Guitarist Phil Collen cracks, “At least Tommy’s smuggling plants now instead of cocaine. Bonsai trees, that’s his latest obsession.”

Childish hijinks aside, Collen says, “It’s been really nice being semi-grown up and actually appreciating all that we do.” However, guitarist Viv Campbell notes, “You never really grow up in this industry. You can’t.”

Elliott agrees, saying, “I think the wonderment of what you do is part of what keeps your mind young. The childhood dreams, when they go, it starts to fall off.”

But Elliott says the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees now have the maturity to look back and marvel at the fact that they’re still together, despite all they’ve gone through.

“History tells you, with a car crash, death, cancer, whatever the hell we’ve survived, we’ve always had this underpinned strength of, it’s the music that kept us all together,” says Elliott. “We’ll survive anything that gets thrown at us.”

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Sinead O’Connor‘s death in July at age 56 has caused fans to revisit her catalog, or to check it out for the first time.

Billboard reports that in the days after her death on July 26, streams of O’Connor’s songs increased by nearly 2,900%, while downloads of her songs increased by more than 5,000%. Meanwhile, sales of her albums were up more than 1,300%.

As a result of all that activity, O’Connor’s biggest hit, the 1990 #1 single “Nothing Compares 2 U,” has topped Billboard‘s Rock Digital Song Sales and Alternative Digital Song Sales charts. It’s also entered the top 10 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart.

Two of O’Connor’s well-known songs, “Mandinka” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” also reached #16 and #17, respectively, on the Alternative Digital Song Sales chart; the songs are #24 and #25 on the Rock Digital Song Sales chart.

Two days after her death, O’Connor’s producer told Rolling Stone that her new album, No Veteran Dies Alone, was one track away from completion. As for when, or if, it’ll be released, he said, “This is up to her family and estate, and I will gladly do as I’m told.”

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Megadeth and Marty Friedman have reunited for another performance.

The guitarist, who played with Dave Mustaine and company from 1990 to 2000, rejoined the thrash metallers during their set at Germany’s Wacken Open Air festival on Friday, August 4. According to Setlist.fm, Friedman jammed with Megadeth on the songs “Symphony of Destruction,” “Holy Wars… The Punishment Due,” “Tornado of Souls” and “Trust.”

Prior to the set, Mustaine shared a throwback photo of him and Friedman alongside the caption, “We have a special surprise for you. You’re not going to want to miss it!”

Friedman played alongside Megadeth for the first time in 23 years in February during a show in Japan, where he’s long lived.

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