Ex-Fleetwood Mac singer/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, Foo Fighters and The Smashing Pumpkins are among the acts that will be playing the 2022 Beale Street Music Festival, held from April 29 to May 1 in Memphis, Tennessee.
Other artists on the bill include Modest Mouse, The Glorious Sons, Toad the Wet Sprocket, rap star Lil Wayne, blues guitarist Sue Foley and more. Additional acts will be announced at a later date.
Buckingham and The Smashing Pumpkins were originally on the 2020 Beale Street lineup before the festival was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 festival was scrapped, as well.
Meanwhile, Buckingham is scheduled to be playing the final concert of his 2021 solo tour tonight in Boulder, Colorado.
George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Leon Russell at The Concert for Bangladesh; Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the release of The Concert for Bangladesh, the three-LP set that featured highlights from two star-studded benefit shows headlined by George Harrison at New York’s Madison Square Garden on August 1, 1971.
The show and album also included performances by Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell, Ravi Shakar and many other musicians.
The shows were organized by Harrison and his friend and musical mentor Shankar to raise awareness about, and funds for, refugees from the Pakistani region of East Pakistan during the brutal war that led to the creation of the nation of Bangladesh.
The concerts marked the first time Harrison had performed a full concert since The Beatles stopped touring in 1966.
The shows began with classical Indian music performance by Shankar and his group. Harrison then took the stage with a huge collective of musicians that included Clapton, Russell, Preston, Starr, drummer Jim Keltner, bassist Klauss Voormann, the members of Badfinger, a horn section and various backing singers.
Harrison played select songs from his 1970 album All Things Must Pass and several Beatles tunes, including a version of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” that featured a guitar duel with Clapton.
Russell sang a medley of The Rolling Stones‘ “Jumping Jack Flash” and The Coasters‘ “Youngblood,” while Ringo performed his solo hit “It Don’t Come Easy.”
Dylan played a short set showcasing several of his classic songs.
The concerts ended with a performance of the new Harrison song “Bangla Desh,” which he’d released as a charity single in July 1971.
The album reached #2 on the Billboard 200, and topped the U.K. chart. Between the shows, the album and a 1972 concert film, millions of dollars were raised.
Here’s the full track list for The Concert for Bangladesh:
Side One
“George Harrison/Ravi Shankar Introduction”
“Bangla Dhun” — Ravi Shankar
Side Two
“Wah-Wah” — George Harrison
“My Sweet Lord” — George Harrison
“Awaiting on You All” — George Harrison
“That’s the Way God Planned It” — Billy Preston
Side Three
“It Don’t Come Easy” — Ringo Starr
“Beware of Darkness” — George Harrison, Leon Russell
“Band Introduction” — George Harrison
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” — George Harrison
Side Four
“Medley: Jumpin’ Jack Flash/Young Blood” — Leon Russell
“Here Comes the Sun” — George Harrison
Side Five
“A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” — Bob Dylan
“It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” — Bob Dylan
“Blowin’ in the Wind” — Bob Dylan
“Mr. Tambourine Man” — Bob Dylan
“Just Like a Woman” — Bob Dylan
Side Six
“Something” — George Harrison
“Bangla Desh” — George Harrison
In an interview with Empire magazine, director and writer Matt Reeves explains how the late Nirvana frontman helped inspire his characterization of the Dark Knight in the upcoming film, The Batman.
“When I write, I listen to music, and as I was writing the first act, I put on Nirvana’s “Something in the Way,'” Reeves shares. “That’s when it came to me that, rather than make Bruce Wayne the playboy version we’ve seen before, there’s another version who had gone through a great tragedy and become a recluse.”
Reeves adds he was reminded of the 2005 Gus Van Sant film Last Days, a fictional film that’s loosely based on Cobain’s death.
“I started making this connection to Gus Van Sant’s Last Days, and the idea of this fictionalized version of Kurt Cobain being in this kind of decaying manor,” Reeves says.
The Cobain connection to The Batman is already clear in the film’s trailer, which is soundtracked by “Something in the Way.” The movie, which stars Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader, hits theaters March 4, 2022.
By the way, The Batman isn’t the first superhero film to use Nirvana’s music. “Come as You Are” is featured in Captain Marvel, while Black Widow opens with a choir version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
Steve Perry age 8, courtesy Steve Perry; Steve Perry 2021, photo: Myriam Santos
This Christmas has brought us the gift of Steve Perry‘s first holiday album, The Season. He says the songs on it will transport you emotionally to past Christmases — because that’s exactly what happened to him while he was recording it.
Perry tells ABC Audio that while recording “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” for the album, he suddenly had a vision of being in his grandmother’s house during the holidays.
“As I was singing it, I [could] see…her yellow kitchen tile. I could see her in the kitchen,” Perry recalls. “I’m looking through the door jamb where I used to hang the mistletoe…into the living room, to this massive tree she used to put up.”
After shaking off the vision, Perry says, “I went, ‘Wow, that was pretty weird.’ I emotionally was right there, standing in front of that door, looking at that tree.” He credits the spooky experience to “the power” of these “timeless” holiday songs.
The other thing that transports Perry to past Christmases is cooking the dishes his grandmother and mother used to make.
“Deviled eggs have to be there for Christmas. But the most important thing is the stuffing,” he shares. “The stuffing was my grandmother’s recipe and I make it from memory, just watching her, because I never wrote it down. And I’ll tell you, the stuffing is the secret to make it feel like holidays to me.”
And while he’ll skip roasting a turkey in favor of turkey burgers, Perry explains, “Cooking is one of the things I love to do during the holidays, because it’s kind of like music, you know? It’s another way to connect.”
“I mean, I can get pretty verklempt cooking,” he says, using the Yiddish expression for “overcome with emotion.” “Because it just throws me back to watching them cook for me.”
The song is available now as via streaming services. According to a post on The Wild Things’ official website, the band has been working with Townshend on a number of tracks for its forthcoming second studio album. The group is led by actress/singer Sydney Rae White, who has appeared in the BBC comedy series Uncle and the 2017 action film American Assassin.
In other Who-related news, Townshend recent posted a series of video clips on his Instagram page in which he discusses plans for a 50th anniversary reissue focusing on his band’s classic 1971 album Who’s Next and on the expansive abandoned Lifehouse sci-fi rock opera for which the songs from Who’s Next originally had been intended.
In one of the videos, which were shot at his studio, Townshend reveals that he’d been checking out some old demos for the “Who’s Next/Lifehouse reissue,” which will be released in 2022.
Pete also says he’s trying to recover a rare outtake from the project titled “Ambition.”
In the final clip, Townshend explains, “So you see, it’s not just Who’s Next were talking about here, but Lifehouse,” then notes that the 50th anniversary reissue should have been released this year because Who’s Next came out in 1971.
He adds, “We missed the boat, and you can blame COVID.”
Queen‘s Brian May is the latest musician to test positive for COVID-19.
Displaying a positive result on a home COVID test, the 74-year-old guitarist wrote on Instagram, “Yep. The shocking day finally came for me. The dreaded double red line. And yes – definitely NO sympathy please – it has been a truly horrible few days, but I’m OK. And I will tell the tale.”
“PLEASE take extra care out there, good folks,” he added. “This thing is incredibly transmissible. You really do NOT want it messing up YOUR Christmas.”
Over the past few weeks, various pop and rock musicians, from Bryan Adams to singer/rapper Lil Nas X, have revealed positive COVID tests. May’s test comes as the omicron variant sweeps through his native U.K.: In London alone, there have been 65,525 new confirmed cases in the past week, and more than 26,000 in the past 24 hours alone.
Earlier in the year, May spoke out against anti-vaxxers, saying, “There’s plenty of evidence to show that vaccination helps. On the whole they’ve been very safe. There’s always going to be some side effect in any drug you take, but to go around saying vaccines are a plot to kill you, I’m sorry, that goes in the fruitcake jar for me.”
When Stevie Nicks canceled all of her scheduled 2021 performances a few months back over concerns about COVID-19, one of the shows was a headlining appearance at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass festival. Well, the Fleetwood Mac singer has now been announced as one of the headliners for next year’s edition of the Colorado fest, making it her first confirmed concert of 2022.
Nicks is one of three headliners announced for Jazz Aspen Snowmass’ 2022 Labor Day Experience, set for September 2-4 in Snowmass, Colorado. The other two headliners are country star Chris Stapleton and R&B singer Leon Bridges.
Early bird three-day passes will go on sale starting Monday, December 20, at 10 a.m. MT. In addition to general admission passes, you can buy Deck Passes, which entitle you to complimentary grille food, as well as access to a private bar and restrooms.
The Labor Day Experience was reinstated last year following a COVID-19 pandemic-related cancellation in 2020. As of now, Jazz Aspen Snowmass plans to require attendees show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination, or a negative test result taken within 72 hours.
Jazz Aspen Snowmass is a non-profit organization founded in 1991 that aims to “present and preserve jazz and related forms of music through world-class events, performances and education programs,” according to its website.
Meanwhile, Nicks is featured on a track called “Stolen Car” on Elton John‘s new collaborative album, The Lockdown Sessions, which debuted at #10 on the Billboard 200 chart.
As previously reported, Elton John and Ed Sheeran have reworked their holiday hit “Merry Christmas” into a new song called “Sausage Rolls for Everyone” — a charity collaboration with the British couple who call themselves LadBaby. Now, all four of them are starring in a new music video for the song, which has them dressing as sausage rolls, eating sausage rolls and singing about sausage rolls, all in an attempt to raise money for the hungry.
In the clip, the male half of LadBaby, Mark Hoyle, smuggles Elton and Ed into the recording studio dressed as giant sausage rolls. They start the song, with Ed playing a guitar decorated like a sausage roll. Mark, his wife and musical partner Roxanne and Ed are sporting Santa hats and Elton-style glasses, while we see Elton behind the mic chomping away on a sausage roll.
The whole project — the song and the video — raises money for The Trussell Trust, a charity that supports food banks throughout the U.K. and works to end hunger.
“Every pound for this song goes to helping the people along/Sausage rolls for everyone,” they sing. At the end, Elton says, “I haven’t had a sausage roll for years!”
Now, “Sausage Rolls for Everyone” will be directly competing with Ed and Elton’s original version of “Merry Christmas” for the coveted title of the U.K.’s Christmas Number One — the song that will be on top of the chart on Christmas. The winner will be revealed December 24.
If the LadBaby track wins, they’ll be the first act ever to score four Christmas number ones in a row. Their three previous songs were also charity singles with funny lyrics about sausage rolls, set to the music of pre-existing hits like “Don’t Stop Believin'” and “I Love Rock ‘n Roll.”
Cinderella front man Tom Keifer‘s solo band is teaming up with two other glam-metal groups that also emerged during the 1980s — L.A. Guns and Faster Pussycat — for a 2022 trek dubbed the Sonic Slam Tour.
The outing kicks off on June 1 in Liverpool, New York, and currently is mapped out through a July 16 performance at the Picktown Palooza event in Pickerington, Ohio, with more shows expected to be added in the coming weeks.
“#keiferband is amped for the ‘Sonic Slam’ 2022 tour with our friends L.A. Guns and Faster Pussycat!” Tom declares. “Get ready for a 100% live, raucous, loud & slammin’ rock show. Looking forward to seeing everyone in 2022.”
Adds L.A. Guns frontman Tracii Guns, “I’m excited [my band] will be heading out on the road with Tom Keifer. We are really looking forward to touring again.”
Faster Pussycat singer Taime Downe also pipes in, saying, “Faster Pussycat has toured with Tom’s band and L.A. Guns before, but never all of us together. The shows were always amazing, and you can expect the same this summer. There’s going to be three decades of friendship and great music all under one roof.”
Before the Sonic Slam trek, the Tom Keifer Band will be headlining the M3 Rock Festival on May 7 in Columbia, Maryland. Visit TomKeifer.com to check out the group’s full schedule. The Keifer Band’s most recent album, Rise, was released in 2019.
Legendary British Invasion band The Dave Clark Five‘s 1964 debut U.S. album Glad All Over was reissued today as a limited-edition white vinyl LP.
This marks the first time Glad All Over has been available on vinyl since 1964.
The album reached #3 on the Billboard 200 chart, and yielded three hit singles — the title track, “Bits and Pieces” and “Do You Love Me,” which peaked at #6, #4 and #11, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100. The song “Glad All Over” also was a #1 hit in the U.K.
In 1965, the Glad All Over album was certified gold by the RIAA for sales of 500,000 copies in the U.S.
The reissue was remastered at London’s Abbey Road Studios by band leader and drummer Dave Clark himself.
The Dave Clark Five went on to score six more top-10 hits during the 1960s — “Can’t You See That She’s Mine,” “Because,” “I Like It Like That, “Catch Us If You Can,” “You Got What It Takes” and the chart-topping “Over and Over. The group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.
Here’s the full Glad All Over track list:
Side A
“Glad All Over”
“All of the Time”
“Crying Over You”
“Stay”
“Chaquita”
“Do You Love Me”
Side B
“Bits and Pieces”
“I Know You”
“3406”
“Time”
“Who Do You Think You’re Talking To”
