Classic Rock 93.9

James Taylor, Van Morrison, Sting and Deep Purple are among the artists booked to play the 2026 Montreux Jazz Festival, taking place in Montreux, Switzerland, July 3-18.

All four artists are booked to play the festival’s Auditorium Stravinski, with Sting performing on July 4, Deep Purple confirmed for July 13, and Taylor and Morrison set for July 18.

Deep Purple, of course, has quite a connection to Montreux. The band’s iconic tune “Smoke on the Water” was inspired by the 1971 fire that burned down the Montreux Casino; the title’s a reference to smoke from the fire spreading over Lake Geneva. They last played the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2024.

Tickets go on sale Wednesday at noon local time.

This year marks the 60th edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival. The festival is returning after a two-year hiatus.

A complete lineup and more ticket information can be found at MontreuxJazzFestival.com.

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Dave Grohl has shared a preview of the vinyl version of the upcoming Foo Fighters album, Your Favorite Toy, in an unboxing video.

“I’ve never done an unboxing thing before,” Grohl says in the clip. “Honestly, this is the first time I’ve ever seen this.”

Grohl then opens the package to reveal the record sleeve and the LP inside. He also pulls out the included lyric sheet, if you want to pause and enhance to see the words to some of the currently unreleased songs on the record.

“This is amazing, I’m very happy, we put a lot of work into this one,” Grohl says. “Our team of genius artists helped us make something really nice for you.”

Your Favorite Toy, the follow-up to 2023’s But Here We Are, is due out April 24. It includes the released songs “Asking for a Friend,” “Caught in the Echo” and the title track.

Foo Fighters will play a one-off show in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on April 28, followed by headlining sets at the Welcome to Rockville and BottleRock Napa festivals in May. They’ll launch a full North American stadium tour in August.

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The Moody Blues’ singer/guitarist Justin Hayward is hitting the road on The Story In Your Eyes tour, where he’ll perform songs from every era of his career, share stories with the audience and take part in a Q&A.

Hayward tells ABC Audio that preparing for the tour has been quite nostalgic for him, but says, “I’m finding out things about these songs at the same time.” He notes, “Some of these things I’ve never done onstage before.”

“I find I’m just looking at things that just kind of resonate right now with me,” he adds.

When it comes to picking songs for his set, Hayward says he knows there are tunes “the audience would be disappointed if I didn’t do,” mentioning tracks like “Nights in White Satin” and “Tuesday Afternoon.”

“I think I have to kind of put myself in a position of someone from in the audience and what I would like if going to see artists that have really meant something to me,” he says. He also thinks about the person coming to see him for the first time.

“Because these shows aren’t always about nostalgia or about people coming again and again to see me or the Moodys,” he explains. “So I’m very much aware of that as well, because then the audience evolves too.”

When it comes to the stories he’ll share with the audience, the 79-year-old Hayward says they won’t necessarily be just about the music.

He says he likes to share stories of the band people may not already know and talk about “the affection that we have for each other,” noting their relationship was “quite unique really in my experience.” 

Justin Hayward’s The Story In Your Eyes tour begins Tuesday in Cerritos, California. A complete list of dates can be found at JustinHayward.com.

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Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band kick off their Land of Hope and Dreams American tour on Tuesday at the Target Center in Minneapolis, and The Boss is giving fans at home a chance to experience at least a part of it.

Springsteen has announced that the first two songs of the show will stream live on YouTube and for subscribers in the nugs.net app. Audio of the full concert will also be available after the show in the nugs app.

“We are living through dark, disturbing and dangerous times, but do not despair — the cavalry is coming! Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band will be taking the stage this spring from Minneapolis to California to Texas to Washington, D.C. for the Land of Hope And Dreams American Tour,” Springsteen said in a video announcing the tour in February. “We will be rocking your town in celebration and in defense of America — American democracy, American freedom, our American Constitution and our sacred American dream — all of which are under attack by our wannabe king and his rogue government in Washington, D.C.”

The tour is set to wrap with an outdoor show on May 27 at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. A complete list of dates can be found at BruceSpringsteen.net.

Ahead of the tour, Springsteen was in Minnesota Saturday to perform his new protest song “Streets of Minneapolis” at the No Kings rally at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul.

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Traffic co-founder Dave Mason has released his first children’s book, Hole in My Shoe, a reimagining of his 1967 song, which he wrote when he was just 19 years old.

“‘Hole In My Shoe’ was the first song I ever wrote,” says Mason. “Released by Traffic in 1967, it spent 14 weeks on the U.K. charts, climbed to #2, and has carried its charm ever since. Now, it’s been reimagined as a children’s book for all ages.”

He notes, “I’ve had the lyrics beautifully illustrated and re-recorded the song, which is included as a download inside the book—and it’s the only way you can hear it.”

The new version of “Hole in My Shoe” features guitarist John McFee of The Doobie Brothers, with Mason’s wife contributing the spoken word passages to the song. The book includes a QR code for a free download of the updated recording.

“It brings great satisfaction [to] revisit my first creative endeavor,” he says of the book, which features illustrations by Jillian Dister. “A lot of miles and music have happened since then, and that song opened a door to a life bigger and better than I ever imagined.”

The book is available for purchase now at DaveMasonMusic.com.

In September, after more than 60 years in music, the 79-year-old Mason announced that he was retiring from touring due to ongoing health issues. While this is his first children’s book, he previously released his memoir, Only You Know and I Know, in 2024.

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Deep Purple has announced dates for a new North American tour.

The “Smoke on the Water” rockers are set to hit the road this summer joined by special guests Kansas, with Jefferson Starship joining them on select dates.

The tour will take them across the U.S. and Canada, launching Aug. 4 in Raleigh, North Carolina, with stops in Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, California, and more, before wrapping Sept. 12 in Sparks, Nevada.

A presale for tickets begins Tuesday at 10 a.m. local time, with tickets going on sale to the general public Thursday at 10 a.m. local time.

Deep Purple’s next live show is April 11 in Tokyo, Japan. They will also bring their tour to Europe starting June 11 in Finland.

A complete list of Deep Purple tour dates can be found at DeepPurple.com.

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Led Zeppelin celebrated the 50th anniversary of their iconic album Physical Graffiti in 2025, and now guitarist Jimmy Page is giving fans some insight into how one of the songs on the album came to be.

The rocker just released an early home demo of an instrumental piece that would eventually become the track “Ten Years Gone.”

“As a footnote to Physical Graffiti, I thought you might like to hear the original home demo, recorded in my studio at Plumpton Place of a piece of music that was going to surface as Ten Years Gone,” Page wrote on Instagram. “I presented this rough mix to the band at Headley Grange in order to do this for real. Robert Plant came up with some lyrics for my music that were extraordinary and then we arrive at the song Ten Years Gone.”

Physical Graffiti, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band’s sixth studio album, was released on Feb. 24, 1975. It was a double album and the band’s first to be released under their own label, Swan Song Records.

The album was a critical and commercial hit for the band. It spent six weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, and also hit #1 in the U.K. and Canada. It was the first album to go Platinum from preorders alone and has since been certified 16-times Platinum in the U.S.

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On This Day, March 30, 1985 …

Phil Collins hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “One More Night,” the first single from his third studio album, No Jacket Required, which went to #1 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart.

The song spent two weeks at #1, before being knocked out by the all-star charity single “We Are the World.”

The track was one of seven solo #1 hits for Collins. Others include: “Another Day in Paradise,” “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now),” “Two Hearts,” “Groovy Kind of Love,” “Separate Lives” and “Sussudio.”

Collins is currently nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. He was inducted in 2010 as a member of Genesis.

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Eric Clapton is bringing back his Crossroads Guitar Festival yet again.

The three-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer will hold his seventh annual festival Sept. 26-27 at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, with a lineup that includes the first-ever appearance from The Who’s Pete Townshend.

Clapton will perform both nights of the festival. Other artists on the bill include ZZ Top’s Billy F Gibbons, John Mayer, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Joe Bonamassa, Gary Clark Jr., Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, Marcus King, and more, with Phish’s Trey Anastasio, Tommy Emmanuel and Julian Lage also set to make their first Crossroads appearance.

This year’s festival will celebrate the 28th anniversary of the Clapton’s Crossroads Centre Antigua, which provides treatment and education to chemically and alcohol dependent persons and their families.

Tickets for Crossroads Guitar Festival go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. local time. A full list of performers can be found at CrossroadsGuitarFestival.com.

Clapton’s first Crossroads Guitar Festival took place in June 1999 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The last festival took place in September 2023 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

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Rush fans just got a taste of what to expect on their upcoming Fifty Something tour.

The band made a surprise appearance at the 2026 JUNO Awards in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Sunday,  performing “Finding My Way,” the lead-off track from their 1974 self-titled debut album.

The appearance marked Rush’s first-ever performance at the JUNO Awards, and Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson’s first public performance with new Rush drummer Anika Nilles.

Rush is set to kick off their Fifty Something tour on June 7 in Los Angeles with North American dates running through Dec. 17. The tour will also hit Europe and South America.

The trek will be the band’s first tour in 10 years, and their first since the 2020 death of their drummer Neil Peart. A complete list of date can be found at Rush.com.

Also at the JUNO Awards, Joni Mitchell received the Lifetime Achievement Award, and was celebrated by Sarah McLachlan and Allison Russell, who performed a medley of Mitchell’s hits. The celebration ended with Joni joining them for an all-star jam of her classic “Big Yellow Taxi.”

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