Classic Rock News

After postponing the first two dates of his new run of European concerts this week because he recently contracted the COVID-19 virus, Eric Clapton has now postponed two more shows — a pair of performances that had been scheduled in Bologna, Italy, this Friday and Saturday, May 20 and 21.

A message posted on the official Where’s Eric website explains, “Clapton, whilst feeling fine in himself, has again tested positive for Covid this morning. Whilst there is a strong body of medical opinion that after several days since the first positive test, a person is no longer infectious, it is by no means agreed by all. Accordingly, Eric does not want to travel while still testing positive and take the risk of infecting others.”

The note adds that, under the circumstances, it’s possible that “the Italian authorities would not…permit [Eric’s] entry into Italy.”

All four postponed concerts, which also include shows originally scheduled for May 17 in Zurich, Switzerland, and May 18 in Milan, Italy, will be rescheduled by the end of 2022. The new dates will be announced within the next two weeks, and tickets purchased for the postponed concerts will be valid for the rescheduled dates.

Clapton’s next scheduled show is now a May 29 performance in Berlin. According to the message on the Where’s Eric site, “by [that] time we have every hope that there will be no obstacle to Eric being able to perform that concert and the remainder of the scheduled concerts.”

Visit EricClapton.com to check out Clapton’s full tour schedule.

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Last Monday, May 16, R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills was presented with an honorary doctor of humanities degree at Mercer University in his childhood hometown of Macon, Georgia, during the school’s commencement ceremony.

Prior to receiving the degree, the 63-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer played a version of his band’s classic song “Losing My Religion,” and a video of the performance has been posted on the university’s official YouTube channel.

Mills co-founded R.E.M. while attending the University of Georgia in Athens, although he never graduated college.

Before performing at the commencement, Mike addressed Mercer’s graduating students, saying, “I am truly and deeply humbled to be standing here today … You’re about to accomplish something I never did, which is to graduate from college. So as you continue your journey, I wish you good luck and Godspeed.”

Mills plays an electric guitar while singing the song, and he was accompanied by his friend, acclaimed violinist Robert McDuffie, who founded Mercer University’s Robert McDuffie Center for Strings in the Townsend School of Music.

In presenting Mills with the honorary degree, the university’s president, William D. Underwood, said, “[T]his region has a great history of producing great musical geniuses, from Little Richard to Otis Redding to the Allman Brothers Band to Chuck Leavell and Robert McDuffie. As great as these musical geniuses have been, none of them had more impact with the genius of their work than Mike Mills.”

Mills was born in Orange County, California, and his family moved to Macon while he was still a baby. In high school, he met drummer Bill Berry, and the two began playing music together, eventually forming R.E.M. with singer Michael Stipe and guitarist Peter Buck in 1980. R.E.M. disbanded in 2011.

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Rod Stewart has announced that six of his upcoming North American concerts with Cheap Trick that were scheduled for June have been postponed until August 2023 because of “production delays,” while six more shows scheduled for September have also been pushed back to next year.

The affected June concerts, which were to have been part of the beginning of Stewart’s summer 2022 trek with Cheap Trick, were scheduled for June 10 in Vancouver, Canada; June 11 in Seattle; June 17 in Mountain View, California; June 18 in Santa Barbara, California; June 24 in Phoenix; and June 26 in Denver.

Two June 2022 dates are not being postponed — a June 14 concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and a June 21 performance in Chula Vista, California. Also, all of Stewart’s shows with Cheap Trick plotted out from July 1 through September 3 will go on as planned.

The affected September 2022 gigs include a September 7 concert in Pittsburgh, as well as five concerts in Canada — September 9 in Montreal, September 10 in Ottawa, September 14 in Saskatoon, September 16 in Calgary and September 17 in Edmonton.

Rod’s tour with Cheap Trick initially was scheduled to take place in 2020, but it’s been delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stewart currently is winding down his latest Las Vegas residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace with performances this Friday, May 20, and Saturday, May 21. Rod will also play a five-show engagement at The Colosseum in late September and early October, and will finish off his 2022 schedule with a U.K. tour mapped out from November 16 to December 20.

Check out Stewart’s full concert schedule at RodStewart.com.

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Vangelis, the Greek composer and keyboardist best known for his chart-topping theme and Oscar-winning score to the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, has died at age 79, U.K. newspaper The Guardian reports.

According to the paper, representatives for the musician confirmed that he passed away at a French hospital, where he was being treated for an undisclosed illness.

Born Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou, Vangelis gained his greatest notoriety for composing the theme and the soundtrack to Chariots of Fire, which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 during the spring of 1982. His score to the movie also won an Academy Award.

Vangelis also released several collaborative albums with Yes frontman Jon Anderson under the moniker Vangelis and Jon during the 1980s and ’90s.

His other film work included composing the scores to 1982’s Blade Runner and Missing, 1984’s The Bounty, 1992’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise and 2004’s Alexander.

Early in his career, Vangelis was a member of the popular Greek prog-rock band Aphrodite’s Child, which was together from 1967 to 1972.

During his long career, Vangelis also released many solo studio albums, and composed music for ballets and stage productions.

His most recent album, 2021’s Juno to Jupiter, was inspired by NASA’s Juno probe.

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Variety has debuted an exclusive clip from the new film Spinning Gold, a biopic about late Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart, that features actors portraying KISS delivering a performance of the band’s classic song “Rock and Roll All Nite.”

Spinning Gold, which went into production in 2019, is being screened this week for buyers at the Cannes Film Festival market.

The movie, which was directed by Bogart’s son, Tim, tells the story of how Neil founded the Casablanca Records label, which helped launch the careers of KISS and other well-known artists, including Donna Summer, Parliament Funkadelic and Village People.

The preview clip shows Bogart, played by Tony-nominated actor Jeremy Jordan, being led backstage at a KISS concert just as the band is playing their signature song for an enthusiastic crowd. KISS singer/guitarist Paul Stanley and drummer Peter Criss are portrayed, respectively, by X Ambassadors vocalist Sam Harris and All Time Low‘s Alex Gaskarth, while a young actor named Casey Likes plays singer/bassist Gene Simmons.

According to Variety, the Spinning Gold cast also includes Wiz Khalifa, Ledisi, Jay Pharoah, Michelle Monaghan, Jason Isaacs, Jason Derulo, Sebastian Maniscalco, Chris Redd, Michael Ian Black and Vinnie Pastore.

Ledisi plays Donna Summer, while actress-singer Tayla Parx portrays Gladys Knight. Variety reports that a special beach party celebrating the industry-only film screening will take place in Cannes Thursday night, and will feature Ledisi and Parx performing hit songs by Summers and Knight.

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Guitars signed by Journey‘s Neal Schon, Judas Priest, The Grateful Dead‘s Bob Weir and former Traffic member Dave Mason are among the items currently up for bid in a benefit auction that will help provide free mental health therapy to members of the music industry in need.

The Backline organization and the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund have teamed up to organize the auction with the hope of raising $100,000 for Sweet Relief’s Music’s Mental Health Fund, which will provide mental health resources to about 250 music industry professionals and their family members.

The sale, which is being hosted by the Propeller social-impact platform, includes a Player Plus Stratocaster guitar signed by Schon, an ESP LTD M-200FM model autographed by the members of Judas Priest, a D’Angelico Excel guitar signed by Weir and a Classic Vibe ’50s Stratocaster autographed by Mason.

The auction also is offering the chance to win tickets to select concerts and events, including front-row seats to Jackson Browne‘s July 26 show at New York City’s famed Beacon Theatre, plus a special merch pack.

To check out the full list of items and to place a bid, visit Propeller.la.

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Elton John‘s classic fifth studio album, Honky Château, was released 50 years ago today, on May 19, 1972.

The album was Elton’s first to top the Billboard 200, spending five consecutive weeks at #1 in July and August of ’72 and beginning a run of six straight chart-topping studio efforts in the U.S. for Elton.

Honky Château included two songs that reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, “Rocket Man” — one of Elton’s signature tunes — and “Honky Cat,” which peaked at #6 and #8, respectively.

The album was recorded in France at Château d’Hérouville, an 18th century manor house, and was Elton’s first full album to feature contributions from his classic backing band of guitarist Davey Johnstone, drummer Nigel Olsson and bassist Dee Murray.

Johnstone tells ABC Audio that he had basically just met Olsson and Murray for the first time at the airport before the sessions began, but he says they quickly developed a chemistry while working on the album.

“[W]ith Elton on piano, Nigel on drums, Dee on bass and me on guitars, and then us all doing background vocals, we it had tailor-made,” Johnstone says. “[We were a] four-piece … rocking outfit. And with Bernie Taupin supplying the lyrics, it was like, suddenly we were this unstoppable force.”

Johnstone notes that with everyone staying at the chateau, songs often would come together very quickly.

“[W]e’d come down in the morning and have a coffee and a baguette or something, and we’d just immediately start rehearsing some of these songs,” Johnstone recalls. “And in some cases, we’d rehearse the song and we’d say, ‘Oh, that sounds great. Let’s just go over to the studio and cut it right now.’… So it was very, very fast.”

Here’s Honky Château‘s full track list:

“Honky Cat”
“Mellow”
“I Think I’m Going to Kill Myself”
“Susie (Dramas)”
“Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to Be a Long, Long Time)”
“Salvation”
“Slave”
“Amy”
“Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters”
“Hercules”

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Metallica is once again teaming up with Walmart for an exclusive run of colored vinyl.

The collection includes new wax variants of 1996’s Load, 1997’s Reload, 2003’s St. Anger and 2008’s Death Magnetic, as well as the 1998 covers compilation Garage Inc.

Each of the five titles will be available separately or altogether as part of a bundle. They’ll be available in Walmart stores and online beginning June 17. You can preorder your copies now via Walmart.com.

Metallica previously linked up with Walmart in 2020 for exclusive colored vinyl reissues of their first five albums, from 1983’s Kill ‘Em All to 1991’s Black Album, as well as their latest release, 2016’s Hardwired… to Self-Destruct.

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Queen Elizabeth II‘s Platinum Jubilee celebration, which will mark her 70th year on the British throne, just got a lot more star-studded.

The lineup for the Platinum Party at the Palace, a massive concert set for June 4 in front of Buckingham Palace in London, has been revealed. Sir Elton John and Sir Rod Stewart are among the performers, as are, fittingly, Queen + Adam Lambert.

The bill also includes Duran Duran, Diana Ross, Elbow, Alicia Keys, Andrea Bocelli, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Also part of the lineup are several pop artists who are well known in the U.K. but less familiar in the U.S., including Sam Ryder, Mabel, George Ezra, Craig David, Sigala & Ella Eyre, Mica Paris, Celeste and Mimi Webb.

There are just 10,000 tickets available, which are being allocated on a first come, first served basis. Visit the BBC’s website for more information. It’s not clear yet if the BBC’s broadcast of the event will air in North America.

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Another Pearl Jam member has tested positive for COVID-19, forcing the band to cancel upcoming shows in Sacramento, California, and Las Vegas.

The grunge rockers announced Wednesday that bassist Jeff Ament had contracted the virus, a week after drummer Matt Cameron tested positive. While they had kept the tour going without Cameron by using guest drummers — including original Ten drummer Dave Krusen, and ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist and current PJ touring member Josh Klinghoffer — Ament testing positive means Pearl Jam’s whole rhythm section is now sidelined.

“This is horrible for everybody involved and we are especially sorry to those out there who have made plans to attend these shows,” Pearl Jam writes. “Our attention to staying inside the bubble has been constant. We have truly done all that we could have to remain clear of infection.”

The Sacramento date was scheduled for tonight, May 18, while the Las Vegas show was supposed to happen this Friday, May 20. Refunds will be issued to ticket holders.

“We are so very sorry,” PJ’s statement concludes. “Be safe out there.”

The Vegas concert was also the last stop on the first leg of Pearl Jam’s North American tour, which was already rescheduled from 2020 due to the pandemic. The next leg is set to launch September 1 in Quebec.

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