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Queen guitarist Brian May has teamed up with 10cc frontman Graham Gouldman for a new song called “Floating in Heaven,” which was released Tuesday in celebration of the historic first images sent to Earth from the James Webb Space Telescope.

The song was written and sung by Gouldman, who also played a number of instruments on the track, while May contributed lead guitar and backing vocals.

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched in December 2021, entered into Earth’s orbit in January of this year and became operational this week. It’s the most powerful telescope ever launched into space and is intended to succeed NASA’s Hubble telescope.

May, of course, has long been passionate about astronomy and earned a PhD in astrophysics from London’s Imperial College in 2007, while Gouldman is also enthusiastic about space science.

“Floating in Heaven” is available now via streaming and as a digital download. To accompany the melodic, atmospheric tune, an animated video depicting the James Webb Space Telescope being launched and activated has debuted on Queen’s official YouTube channel and the Space Telescope Science Institute’s YouTube channel.

You can check out the initial images that the telescope sent to Earth at NASA.gov.

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Three men were arraigned Tuesday on charges they conspired to illegally possess and sell 100 pages of notes and lyrics from the Eagles album Hotel California, including Don Henley‘s lyrics to the songs “Hotel California,” “Life in the Fast Lane” and “New Kid in Town.”

A biographer of the band stole the handwritten manuscripts in the 1970s. In 2005 he sold them to Glenn Horowitz, a rare books dealer and one of the three people charged Tuesday. Horowitz then sold them to Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinski, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

The charges include conspiracy, criminal possession of stolen property and hindering prosecution.

“There is no room for those who would seek to ignore the basic expectations of fair dealing and undermine the public’s confidence and trust in our cultural trade for their own ends,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

After learning Inciardi and Kosinski were trying to sell portions of the manuscripts, Henley filed police reports, told the defendants the materials were stolen and demanded the return of his property. The defendants responded by engaging in a yearslong campaign to prevent Henley from recovering the manuscripts, prosecutors said.

According to the indictment, Horowitz and Inciardi worked to fabricate the manuscripts’ provenance. Between 2012 and 2017, Inciardi and Kosinski attempted to use that false statement of provenance to coerce Henley into buying back his stolen property.

The men also sought to sell the manuscripts through Christie’s and Sotheby’s auction houses, and requested that Sotheby’s hide Henley’s claims from potential buyers prior to offering the manuscripts for sale at public auction in 2016.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office retrieved Henley’s stolen manuscripts from Sotheby’s and from Kosinski’s New Jersey residence, including 84 pages to songs from Hotel California.

Shortly thereafter, Horowitz attempted to exploit the recent death of founding Eagles member Glenn Frey to prevent criminal prosecution, claiming that the material originated from Frey.

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The Metallica Scholars program is coming back for a fourth year.

The initiative, which the metal legends launched in 2019 through their All Within My Hands charity foundation, supports workforce education for community college students.

In its first year, Metallica Scholars benefited 10 different community colleges. The program has expanded each year and now includes 32 schools on its roster.

“Our goal for the Metallica Scholars Initiative is to shine a light on workforce education and support the next generation of tradespeople,” said Peter Delgrosso, executive director of All Within My Hands, in a statement.

“With the addition of the 2022-2023 Metallica Scholars program, our grants will reach over 2,000 men and women in 32 community colleges across 27 states,” the statement continues. “We are honored to support these students of all ages and backgrounds and look forward to growing the program even farther in the future.”

For more info, visit AllWithinMyHands.org.

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Today, July 12, marks the 60th anniversary of the first show that The Rolling Stones played under their famous moniker.

As explained in an article posted on BMG.com, the performance took place at London’s famous Marquee Club on Oxford Street. The show came about when British blues outfit Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, which had a residency lined up at the club, was offered the chance to play a live BBC broadcast that evening and accepted, leaving an opening at the venue.

Singer Mick Jagger, who occasionally performed with Korner’s group, was given the chance to fill in that night with the new band he’d been working with, although they didn’t have a name at the time and needed to choose one for the gig. Guitarist Brian Jones came up with The Rolling Stones, taken from a Muddy Waters song.

The band’s lineup for the show featured Jones — who was using the stage name Elmore Lewis at the time, Jagger, guitarist Keith Richards, piano player Ian Stewart and bassist Dick Taylor. There remains some disagreement about who, if anyone, played drums with the group that night.

The Rolling Stones played a 16-song set at the show that featured a mix of blues and early rock ‘n’ roll tunes. Here’s the full set list:

“Kansas City” – Wilbert Harrison
“Honey What’s Wrong” — Billy Fury
“Confessin’ the Blues” — Chuck Berry
“Bright Lights, Big City” — Jimmy Reed
“Dust My Blues” — Elmore James
“Down the Road Apiece” — Chuck Berry
“I Want to Love You” — Charles Smith
“I’m a Hoochie Coochie Man” — Muddy Waters
“Ride ‘Em On Down” — Robert Johnson
“Back in the USA” — Chuck Berry
“I Feel a Kind of Lonesome” — Jimmy Reed
“Blues Before Sunrise” — Elmore James
“Big Boss Man” — Jimmy Reed
“Don’t Stay Out All Night” — Billy Boy Arnold
“Tell Me That You Love Me” — Fats Domino
“Happy Home” — Elmore James

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The nominations for the 2022 Emmy Awards were announced today, and two Beatles-related documentary series came away with multiple nods.

The Beatles: Get Back, the three-part Disney+ docuseries about the January 1969 recording sessions that yielded the band’s Let It Be album, scored five nominations. The program will vie for the Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series award, as well as for trophies honoring outstanding directing, picture editing, sound editing and sound mixing.

In addition, the Hulu documentary series McCartney 3,2,1 received three nominations, for outstanding cinematography, sound editing and sound mixing. The six-part program featured Paul McCartney talking with producer Rick Rubin about the music that he created with The Beatles and as a solo artist.

Meanwhile, Hulu’s Pam & Tommy miniseries, which tells the story of Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and Baywatch star Pamela Anderson‘s infamous sex tape, received 10 nominations.

Both Sebastian Stan and Lily James, who played Lee and Anderson, respectively, earned nominations and will be competing in the categories of Outstanding Lead Actor and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Seth Rogen, who played the role of the person who stole the tape, is up for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

Pam & Tommy, itself, is nominated for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series and is up for several awards in sound, costuming and casting categories.

You can check out the full list of nominations at Emmys.com.

The 2022 Emmys will air September 12 on NBC.

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Metallica can run up that hill, too.

After Stranger Things helped propel Kate Bush‘s 1985 single “Running Up That Hill” to the top five of the Billboard Hot 100, the Netflix sci-fi series’ use of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” in its season four finale has resulted in the 1986 thrasher’s debut appearance on the chart.

“Master of Puppets” currently sits at #40 on the ranking and gives Metallica their first Hot 100 entry since the Death Magnetic single “Cyanide” reached #50 in 2008.

If you’re curious, Metallica’s highest-charting single on the Hot 100 is not “Enter Sandman” or “Nothing Else Matters” but 1996’s “Until It Sleeps,” the lead single off the metal outfit’s first post-Black Album studio effort, Load, which peaked at #10.

Following the premiere of the Stranger Things season four finale on July 1, Metallica issued a statement saying that they were “beyond psyched” and “totally blown away” by the placement of “Master of Puppets.” They even released a TikTok of them shredding along to the scene where the character Eddie Munson plays the song.

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Moonage Daydream, the first David Bowie documentary to be officially sanctioned by his estate, has gotten a release date.

According to DavidBowie.com and Bowie’s social media pages, the film will open on September 16 in IMAX cinemas and other theaters around the world. A new official poster for the flick has also been unveiled.

As previously reported, Moonage Daydream was written and directed by Brett Morgen, whose previous films include The Kid Stays in the Picture, the Rolling Stones documentary Crossfire Hurricane and Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck. The new movie is described as “a sublime kaleidoscopic experiential cinematic odyssey that explores Bowie’s creative, spiritual, and philosophical journey.”

Moonage Daydream will feature Bowie’s own narration and includes unseen footage and performances as well as unheard music. The film includes 47 musical tracks, mixed from the original recordings. David’s longtime friend, collaborator and co-producer Tony Visconti, is serving as the musical producer of the project.

Billboard recently reported that the movie will get its TV premiere on HBO and HBO Max in the spring of 2023.

The first trailer for Moonage Daydream debuted in May. You can watch it now on YouTube.

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Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band‘s return to North American stages for the first time since 2016 will begin in February of 2023.

Bruce and the band will kick off their 2023 world tour with 31 U.S. dates starting February 1 in Tampa, Florida, and will wrap things up April 14 in Newark, New Jersey, before launching their previously announced European leg. After the European trek, which runs from late April through late July of 2023, Springsteen will return to North America for another leg starting in August.

Tickets for the U.S. arena shows will go on sale starting July 20 at 10 a.m. local time, via Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan platform. You can register for Verified Fan starting now through July 17 for the chance to score tickets. If you receive an access code via the platform, you can buy tickets between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. local time. Any tickets left will then go on sale that same day at 3 p.m. local time, no code required.

For shows in Houston; Philadelphia; Cleveland; and Brooklyn, New York, the on-sale starts at 10 a.m. local time with no code required.

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Graham Nash launches a U.S. summer leg of his “An Intimate Evening of Songs and Stories” tour this Wednesday, July 13, in Red Bank, New Jersey.

The new outing, which will visit various venues in the Northeast, is mapped out through an August 8 concert in Ocean City, New Jersey, and follows a March-April trek that saw the 80-year-old folk-rock legend playing mainly in the Midwest and Southern U.S.

The early-2022 concerts featured Graham performing songs he recorded with Crosby, Stills & Nash, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Hollies and from his solo career, as well as select covers.

Nash tells ABC Audio that for his upcoming concerts, he wants to add some brand-new tunes to his set that will appear on his next solo album, which he revealed recently is almost finished, but he admits that this may be a challenge.

“There’s only so much time,” Graham notes. “[W]hen you have the amount of songs that I have [that fans want to hear], plus all the stuff that I want to do in between, plus…the new stuff, I have to really do some serious thinking about which songs not to play.”

During his April-March trek, Nash performed such interesting covers as his ex-girlfriend Joni Mitchell‘s “A Case of You,” Neil Young‘s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” and the Stephen Stills-penned CSNY tune “4 + 20,” but it remains to be seen if those tunes will appear in his upcoming sets.

Nash also has a fall leg lined up that will stop in cities throughout the Western U.S., and will run from a September 29 concert in Tacoma, Washington, through a three-show stand, October 27-29, in Park City, Utah. Check out his full schedule at GrahamNash.com.

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All-star hard-rock band The Dead Daisies have announced plans for a new U.S. tour that will take place this September.

The cross-country out features nine shows and is mapped out from a September 7 concert in Vineland, New Jersey, through a September 24 performance in Seattle. Along the way, the band will stop in such major cities as Nashville, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon.

Tickets are available for the shows now, and The Dead Daisies are also offering a special “Have a Drink on Us” ticket bundle that includes a beverage and an exclusive T-shirt. Only 100 bundles will be sold per show.

Coinciding with the tour announcement, The Dead Daisies have released a new single called “Shine On,” from their upcoming sixth studio album, which is due out in late September. The track is available now for streaming and download, and you also can check out an official music video for the tune on the group’s YouTube channel.

“Shine On” is the second advance digital track from the band’s upcoming album, following “Radiance,” which was released about a month ago along with an animated companion video.

Known for their rotating lineup of well-known rock musicians, The Dead Daisies currently feature former Deep Purple member Glenn Hughes on lead vocals and bass, ex-Whitesnake guitarist Doug Aldrich and former Billy Idol, Whitesnake and Foreigner drummer Brian Tichy, as well as founding guitarist David Lowy.

The Dead Daisies are currently on tour in Europe, where they’re opening for Judas Priest on select dates, as well as playing some festivals and headlining shows. Check out their full schedule at TheDeadDaisies.com.

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