Classic Rock 93.9

Christine McVie‘s untimely death last week seems to have led to some impressive sales figures at the auction of Fleetwood Mac instruments and memorabilia, held over the weekend by Julien’s Auctions.

According to the auction house, McVie’s maxi dress, which she wore on the back cover of Fleetwood Mac’s biggest album, Rumours, sold for $56,250 — five times its original estimate of $10,000. A dress she wore to the 1976 Rock Music Awards went for $31,250, while her two American Music Awards dresses from 1978 went for $16,000 and $12,800. Her piano accordion, which she used to perform “Tusk” live onstage, sold for just over $11,500.

In addition, McVie’s speaker and microphones sold for $37,500 — some 37 times their original estimate. Her two Hammond B3 Organs went for $28,125 and $18,750.

Items from John McVie and Mick Fleetwood were sold, as well. John’s custom fretless bass guitar, which he used to record the classic song “The Chain” and played live onstage from 1976 to 1980, sold for $100,000.

The star of the auction, though, was the set of wooden balls that Mick Fleetwood wore on the cover of Rumours. The balls were originally part of the pull chains on the toilets in a club the band played early on in his career, and Fleetwood stole them and took to wearing them onstage. The balls brought in $128,000.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Red Hot Chili Peppers have not one but two albums’ worth of new material, so they’ll have plenty of songs to perform on their just-announced 2023 tour.

The tour, which comes in support of the band’s two number one 2022 albums — Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen — will start March 29 in Vancouver and run through July 23 in Glasgow, Scotland. The Glasgow show is a rescheduled date that was originally going to take place this past summer; existing tickets will be valid, but will be reissued for the new date.

The tour includes stadium dates and stops at music festivals, and the rotating slot of opening acts include The Strokes, Iggy Pop, The Roots, The Mars Volta, St. Vincent, Thundercat, King Princess and City and Colour.

Prior to the tour kicking off, RCHP will play eight shows in Australia and New Zealand in January, with opening act Post Malone.

Tickets go on sale Friday, December 9 at 10 a.m. local time via redhotchilipeppers.com.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Sorry Aerosmith fans, the band has cancelled another Las Vegas show. 

The band was set to take the stage as part of their Deuces Are Wild residency at the city’s Dolby Live at Park MGM Monday, but backed out due to their lead singer Steven Tyler needing “more time to rest.” 

“Unfortunately tomorrow’s show, Monday December 5th, in Las Vegas has to be cancelled,” a statement posted to Twitter reads. “Steven Tyler said ‘on the advice of my doctor, I’m taking more time to rest… There is nowhere we’d rather be than on stage surrounded by the greatest fans in the world.'”

“We sincerely apologize,” the band concluded. 

Refunds will be automatically refunded for those who purchased through Ticketmaster.com, with all other refunds processed at point of purchase. 

This is the second show that the “Dream On” artists have cancelled in the last four days. They cancelled their Friday, Dec. 2 show last minute telling fans at the time, “It is with great disappointment that we are forced to cancel tonight’s show in Las Vegas due to Steven feeling unwell and and unable to perform.”

There was no mention on whether Aerosmith will make-up the dates. Their final two performances for the Deuces Are Wild residency are scheduled for Dec. 8 and Dec. 11.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On Friday, a Guns N’ Roses fan complained that she’d been badly bruised by a microphone that singer Axl Rose threw into the crowd. As a result, Axl is now vowing to end his microphone-tossing tradition, which he’s been doing for decades.

On Twitter, Axl posted a statement in which he notes, “Obviously we don’t want anyone getting hurt or to somehow in any way hurt anyone at any of [our] shows anywhere.”

He goes to explain that he always thought fans looked forward to him throwing the mic into the crowd, stating, “Having tossed the mic at the end of [our] show for over 30 years, we always felt it was a known part of [our] performance that fans wanted, and were aware of, to have an opportunity to catch the mic.”

But, he continues, “In the interest of public safety from now on, we’ll refrain from tossing the mic or anything to the fans during or at [our] performances….a BIG THANKS to everyone for understanding.”

Axl also used the statement to criticize “those that, for their own reasons, chose to frame their reporting regarding this subject in a more negative n’ irresponsible out of nowhere light which couldn’t b [sic] farther from reality.”

As previously reported, the fan who was injured, Rebecca Howe, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the mic hit her in the face, resulting in bruises under her eyes and across the bridge of her nose. She said she wanted to go public with her story as a “warning” to other fans. 

Guns N’ Roses will conclude their current tour of Australia and New Zealand on December 10.  They’re booked to perform at London’s BST Festival in Hyde Park next June.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Now that Pat Benatar and her husband and musical partner Neil Giraldo have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, they’re focusing on their pet project: Invincible, a musical featuring their songs. But if you see the show, don’t expect to hear much of Benatar’s signature hit.

The show, Invincible, had its official premiere Friday night in Beverly Hills, where it will run through December 18.  It’s a reimagining of Romeo & Juliet, and in addition to hits like “Heartbreaker,” “We Belong,” “Love Is a Battlefield” and “Shadows of the Night,” it also features some lesser-known songs, all of which have been, Giraldo tells Variety, “twisted…a little bit, to have more fun with it.”

“We didn’t wanna do a jukebox musical with the exact same songs the way they were,” he tells Variety.

As for “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” probably Benatar’s best-known song, she tells Variety, “We have one chorus of that that comes in the middle of another song, only as an homage to everyone who’s gonna go crazy if we don’t have it, but it’s literally in there for, like, 10 seconds.”

As previously reported, Benatar has stopped performing the song at her concerts as well, out of respect to the families of mass shooting victims.

Benatar, Giraldo and their collaborator Bradley Bredeweg hope to eventually bring their musical to Broadway. For a former musical theater kid like Benatar, the show is a “full-circle” moment, while Bredeweg says it’s fitting that these songs are retelling Shakespeare‘s famous tale of star-crossed lovers.

“Everyone used to say they were considered the Romeo and Juliet of the rock ’n’ roll industry,” he tells the New York Times of Benatar and Giraldo. “Everyone tried to break them up at every step along the way.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

December 7 will mark what would have been the late Harry Chapin‘s 80th birthday, and that milestone is being celebrated with a worldwide screening of a star-studded documentary about the singer, songwriter and activist.

The 2020 documentary, called Harry Chapin: When In Doubt, Do Something, will be shown in movie theaters around the world on December 7 at 8 p.m. local time, with all ticket proceeds going to The Harry Chapin Foundation, Long Island Cares and WhyHunger, the nonprofit organization that Chapin co-founded.

The documentary features interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Graham Nash, Pat Benatar, Chicago‘s Robert Lamm, Sir Bob Geldof, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of Run-DMC and the late artists Pete Seeger, Richie Havens and Harry Belafonte. It focuses on Chapin’s impact on the world, not only through his hits like “Taxi” and “Cat’s In the Cradle,” but also through his tireless work in ending world hunger.

In addition to the documentary, the screening will include 15 minutes of never-before-seen live footage from a recent Chapin Family concert. Some of those same family members will also participate in a live chat that will take place as part of the screening.

Chapin’s son Jason helped produce the documentary and says in a statement, “My family is incredibly excited and grateful for the special event … to celebrate my father’s 80th birthday, 50th anniversary of his first hit ‘Taxi’ and his lasting legacy as a musician and humanitarian. We’re also thrilled that proceeds will benefit three charities that carry on his mission to help end hunger.”

For tickets, visit Kinema.com or ChapinEvent.com.

Chapin was killed in July 1981 in an auto accident en route to a benefit concert on Long Island, New York. He was 38.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Former Talking Heads mastermind David Byrne has a new Christmas song out, and if you purchase it, you’ll be giving him a nice holiday gift.

Byrne is releasing the track “The Fat Man’s Comin'” exclusively through Bandcamp. The song, which is about Santa Claus, dates back to 2013, but was never released. It also comes with a video comprised of the hand-drawn storyboards Byrne created for a more elaborate video that was never produced. The song is available as a pay-what-you-can download, with a minimum contribution of one dollar.

All proceeds from the song will go to Reasons To Be Cheerful, the nonprofit online magazine founded by Byrne in 2019. The magazine focuses on positive stories detailing “proven, evidence-based responses to the world’s most pressing problems.” For example, one recent story is about a supermarket in the United Kingdom that’s offering interest-free microloans to help shoppers buy groceries.

In a statement announcing the song, Byrne says that “The Fat Man’s Comin'” dates back to when he was collaborating with rocker St. Vincent aka Annie Clarke a few years ago. “It wasn’t right for Annie and me – the story of a fat man in rather odd attire who breaks into people’s homes and leaves mysterious packages,” he notes, adding that he wanted it to sound “sort of old-school creepy.”

Byrne concludes that supporting another year of Reasons To Be Cheerful is “a good reason to resurrect this song,” adding, “Enjoy and thanks for listening/watching.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Taylor Hawkins is posthumously featured on Iggy Pop‘s upcoming album Every Loser. Speaking with NME, the Godfather of Punk shares what it was like to work with the late Foo Fighters drummer.

“Taylor came in with incredible style,” Pop shares. “I’m very fortunate to have that color on the record.”

Hawkins contributes to two Every Loser songs: “Comments” and “The Regency.”

“He drums up a storm on those tracks, and you can really hear it,” Pop says of Hawkins’ contributions to the record. “He has this sort of bubbling quality, it’s really percolating.”

Pop adds that he was “really sad and shocked” when he heard about Hawkins’ unexpected death earlier this year.

“The whole thing was something else,” Pop says. “He did have a wonderful career doing what he wanted to do, and by all accounts, a good life.”

Every Loser is due out January 6. The album, produced by Andrew Watt, also features Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan, Blink-182‘s Travis Barker, Jane’s Addiction‘s Dave Navarro and Eric Avery, Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard and ex-RHCP guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

After much speculation by fans — and some pretty blatant hints — it’s now official: Elton John’s final U.K. show of his Farewell tour will take place at Great Britain’s most prestigious music festival: Glastonbury.

“We are incredibly excited to announce that the one and only @eltonjohn will headline the Pyramid Stage on Sunday night at Glastonbury 2023,” the festival announced. The show will take place June 24. Unfortunately, all the Glastonbury tickets sold out in an hour last month, though resales of returned tickets will take place next spring.

On Instagram, Elton wrote, “I couldn’t be more excited to be headlining the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2023 and celebrate the greatest festival in the world!!”

He continued, “Every week I speak to new artists on my radio show and Glastonbury is often cited as a pivotal moment in launching their careers – the festival’s genuine, enthusiastic support for the best emerging talent is something I’ve long admired. Thank you for having me…for my final UK show – it’s going to be emotional.”

Elton has never played Glastonbury before.

Fans began speculating that Elton would headline the legendary event after he said he was going to announce one more show, and they noticed a gap in his schedule from June 21 to June 24, which coincides with the dates of the festival.

Then, the BBC’s Glastonbury Twitter feed seemed to confirm the speculation when it posted a link to a webcam shot of the festival’s Pyramid Stage with a rocket — as in Rocket Man — flying above it.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

A Guns N’ Roses fan who attended the band’s concert in Adelaide, Australia, earlier this week claims that she was injured when frontman Axl Rose threw his microphone into the crowd.

Rebecca Howe tells Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the mic hit her in the face after Rose tossed it following a performance of “Paradise City.” She also provides a photo showing bruises under her eyes and across the bridge of her nose.

In talking about the alleged incident, Howe wants to spread a “warning” to any other GN’R fans planning to attend a show.

“If Axl sings ‘Paradise City’ get ready to duck for cover,” Howe says, adding that her “intentions were not to gain anything” in speaking up.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has reached out to GN’R’s rep for comment.

Apparently, microphone-related injuries in Australia are something of a thing for Guns N’ Roses. A man was hit in the mouth with Axl’s mic during a 2013 show in Perth.

Guns N’ Roses will conclude their current tour of Australia and New Zealand on December 10.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.