Classic Rock News

The Who recently announced dates for a new two-leg 2022 North American trek dubbed The Who Hits Back! tour, marking the British rock legends’ return to the road after their postponing tour plans multiple times because of COVID-19.

In a new Rolling Stone interview, guitarist/songwriter Pete Townshend, 76, notes that although the new outing is “not a farewell tour,” he is hoping to retire from the road at some point.

“I had a conversation with [singer] Roger [Daltrey]. I said to him, ‘I don’t want to be like one of these guys that dies on tour,'” Townshend notes. “I do want to retire. And by ‘retire’ I don’t mean retire from being a musician or artist or creator.”

He adds, “Roger is of the opinion that he wants to sing until he drops. That’s not my philosophy of life. There are other things that I want to do…and will do, I hope. I hope I’ll live long enough to do them.”

For now, Townshend says The Who are committed to keep touring at least through 2023, when he says the band will be rescheduling the U.K. trek they postponed.

Meanwhile, Townshend says he been “very, very busy” working on various music projects, both for himself and with other artists.  One project is music for a previously reported art installation connected to his 2019 novel, The Age of Anxiety.  Another is a charity project to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust that involves “old music that’s been re-recorded,” and “possibly a podcast.”

Pete also has been collaborating with U.K. folk artist Reg Meuross “on a podcast [and a song cycle] about Woody Guthrie called Fire and Dust,” as well as with a group called the Bookshop Band that “write songs about novels and fictional books.”

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Former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne‘s acclaimed stage production David Byrne’s American Utopia has announced dates for a final run of Broadway performances at the St. James Theatre.

The show’s engagement, which previously had been scheduled through March 6, now is scheduled to close after a performance on Sunday, April 3.

Six performances of the show are scheduled during a standard week — at 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Saturdays and at 3 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets can be purchased by visiting AmericanUtopiaBroadway.com/tickets.

In addition, a limited number of discounted $44 tickets are available via an online lottery at LuckySeat.com. Ticket requests are limited to one or two per entrant, and entries open at 10 a.m. ET on the Monday of the week prior to the performance. Those chosen to receive tickets will receive an email with digital tickets on the morning of the performance.

As previously reported, the American Utopia show features Byrne accompanied by 11 musicians, dancers and singers who move freely about an almost-empty stage. The production includes several Talking Heads songs, material from David’s 2018 American Utopia album, and other tunes from his solo catalog.

The show’s original Broadway run took place from October 2019 to February 2020 at the Hudson Theatre. After an 18-month layoff because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the production began a new run at the St. James Theatre in September of last year.

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Ringo Starr‘s recently announced latest photo book, Lifted: Fab Images and Memories of My Life with The Beatles from Across the Universe, has officially been released and can be purchased now exclusively at JuliensAuctions.com, coinciding with Valentine’s Day.

Two editions of the limited-edition book are available — a Collector’s Edition that’s priced at $59 and a Signature Edition that costs $495. The Signature Edition, limited to just 500 copies, features a color cover of The Beatles signed by Ringo and comes housed in a special slip case.

Lifted pays tribute to Starr’s years with the Fab Four and features many rare, unseen and newly discovered photos of the band members, as well as recollections and anecdotes written by Ringo.

Starr put together the book with help from noted pop-culture journalist and author David Wild while quarantining during the COVID-19 lockdown. Besides images from his personal archives, Ringo also “lifted” photos of the band from the internet that caught his eye, which are featured in the book.

Starr explains in a statement, “These fantastic images came back to me in recent years from here, there and everywhere — online and off — and have somehow helped me get back to seeing my life with The Fab Four through fresh eyes.”

Proceeds from Lifted will benefit Ringo’s Lotus Foundation, which funds and supports charitable projects that focus on various social welfare causes.

Meanwhile, Ringo has shared a photo on Facebook of him, his brother-in-law Joe Walsh and their wives, Barbara and Marjorie Bach — who are sisters — celebrating the Los Angeles Rams’ Super Bowl victory on Sunday. The pic shows all four wearing Rams jerseys, accompanied by a note from Ringo that reads, “We are the champions go Rams go peace and love.”

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Fresh off their post-Super Bowl virtual reality performance, Foo Fighters have announced a new batch of shows in the real world.

The fall outing will kick off September 18 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and will make its way through Canada before returning to the U.S. to wrap things up October 7 in Bend, Oregon.

Tickets go on sale this Friday, February 18, at 10 a.m. local time. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit FooFighters.com.

The newly added shows follow the Foos’ previously announced spring and summer North American headlining tour, which includes dates in May, July and August.

In addition to the live stage, you can also catch Dave Grohl and company on the silver screen when their new horror-comedy movie Studio 666 premieres in theaters February 25.

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The ninth installment of the star-studded Rock Legends Cruise, which originally was supposed to take place sail in February 2021, but was postponed because the COVID-19 pandemic, finally sets sail today from Port Canaveral, Florida.

One of the nautical rock extravaganza’s headlining acts this year is Deep Purple, and the famed British hard-rock band’s founding drummer, Ian Paice, tells ABC Audio that this is the first time his group has ever played this type of event.

Asked how he feels about doing the cruise, Paice explains, “I’m not trying to get any pre-formed ideas about it. I’m sure it’ll be very nice to spend a week in Florida in the middle of winter on a boat where I don’t have to work too hard, and I can wander off to a bar whenever I feel like and have a nice exotic tropical drink.”

To warm up for the cruise, Deep Purple played two gigs in Florida this past week, which were among the band’s first live performances since the pandemic began in 2020. Since that time, Deep Purple has released two studio albums — 2020’s Whoosh! and last year’s covers collection Turning to Crime.

Paice says the band likley won’t include too much material from the new albums on the cruise, noting that the performance time is limited and “the people on that boat are gonna want to hear those classic songs.”

Deep Purple currently has no other U.S. shows scheduled for this year, but Paice says, “[A]ssuming that everybody is fit and healthy and still wants to do it…then [the band will tour the States in] 2023.”

The Rock Legends Cruise IX runs through February 18, and also features Styx, Don McLean, ex-Eagles guitarist Don Felder, Blue Öyster Cult and many more.

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With Valentine’s Day taking place this Monday, Neil Young & Crazy Horse have debuted a new animated lyric video for their song “Don’t Forget Love,” which appears on the group’s latest album, Barn.

The clip, which was directed by Neil’s wife, actress Daryl Hannah, features a series of animated drawings created by Gary Ward. Among the many images depicted in the art are a human heart, a couple kissing, a hand flashing a peace sign, a hand holding a few roses, a rain cloud, a rainbow, the sun shining on the moon and the Earth, and animals including bears, an owl, a dove and a blackbird.

The delicate song features sparse instrumentation, driven by piano, with lyrics that encourage “don’t forget love” when negative things are happening in your life.

In a brief video interview with Young posted in December on his YouTube channel, Neil explains, “I wrote that song for myself so that whenever I start to lose it I can just listen to that and go, ‘I wrote that. Why can’t I just do that?’ So, you know, a lot of it’s cheap therapy. Very cheap.”

As previously reported, Barn was recorded last June in a restored 19th century barn Young owns in the Colorado Rockies, and was released in December. A documentary about the making of the album, also called Barn and which Hannah also directed, premiered around the same time as the record’s release, and currently is streaming for free on Neil’s YouTube channel.

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Sting‘s latest solo album, 2021’s The Bridge, features a song titled “For Her Love.” Now the former Police frontman has released a Spanish-language version of the tune called “Por Su Amor.”

The new track, which is available now globally via digital outlets, was recorded during Sting’s recent trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where he was inspired by the scenery of Baja, California, and the views of the Gulf of California.

The Spanish lyrics for “Por Su Amor” were written by musician, songwriter and producer Martin Kierszenbaum, who is also Sting’s manager. Martin also co-wrote of “For Her Love” and co-produced The Bridge album with Sting, as well as contributing contributed keyboards to “Por Su Amor” and The Bridge.

You can check out a lyric video for “Por Su Amor” at Sting’s official YouTube channel.

Sting will give “Por Su Amor” its premiere performance on the 2022 edition of the long-running Latin music awards show Premio Lo Nuestro, which will air February 24 on Univision.

Sting has recorded other songs in Spanish in the past, as well as in Portuguese and French.

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This Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of the release of The Allman Brothers Band‘s classic fourth album, Eat a Peach.

The record, a two-disc set that includes a mix of studio tracks and live performances, is the band’s last album to feature founding slide guitarist Duane Allman, who died in a motorcycle crash at age 24 on October 29, 1971, not long after the sessions began.

Although Eat a Peach had no hit singles, it features what became many of The Allman Brothers Band’s most popular songs, including “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” and “Melissa,” both written by lead singer/keyboardist Gregg Allman; “Blue Sky,” penned by singer/guitarist Dickey Betts; and a memorable cover of blues great Elmore James‘ “One Way Out.”

The live tracks — “One Way Out,” “Trouble No More” and the epic “Mountain Jam” — were recorded at the same run of 1971 New York City shows that yielded the band’s At Fillmore East album.

“Mountain Jam” is a 34-minute-plus improvised instrumental based on British folk-rocker Donovan‘s 1967 hit “There Is a Mountain.” To fit the jam onto the album, it was split into two parts and took up two full sides of the double LP.

Eat a Peach peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200, The Allman Brothers’ highest-charting album up to that time, and has been certified Platinum by the RIAA for 1 million units sold in the U.S.

In 2020, Eat a Peach was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Here’s the album’s full track list:

“Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More”
“Les Brers in A Minor”
“Melissa”
“Mountain Jam” (live)
“One Way Out” (live)
“Trouble No More” (live)
“Stand Back”
“Blue Sky”
“Little Martha”

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Rush‘s best-selling, multi-platinum 1981 album Moving Pictures is being reissued in celebration of its 40th anniversary.

The expanded package will be released in a number of different formats — including the elaborate Super Deluxe Edition — on April 15.

Inside the Super Deluxe, you’ll find the 2015 remastered version of Moving Pictures on CD for the first time, plus two discs of previously unreleased live recordings from a 1981 hometown concert in Toronto. An additional disc features Blu-ray audio of Moving Pictures, along with a new “YYZ” video and remastered video promos for “Tom Sawyer,” “Limelight” and “Vital Signs.”

The Moving Pictures album and the Toronto live recordings are also spread across five vinyl LPs.

In addition to all the music, the Super Deluxe boasts a number of exclusive memorabilia items, including a pair of signature Neil Peart drumsticks, metal-embossed guitar picks engraved with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson‘s signatures, and a 44-page hardcover book of unreleased photos and new artwork.

The book also includes liner notes by Soundgarden‘s Kim Thayil, Primus‘ Les Claypool, Foo Fighters‘ Taylor Hawkins, Mastodon‘s Bill Kelliher, and Three Days Grace‘s Neil Sanderson.

The 40th anniversary Moving Pictures reissue is available for pre-order now. For the full track-listings and all configuration details, visit Rush.com.

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Back in December, Styx and REO Speedwagon announced plans for a 35-date 2022 North American trek dubbed the Live & Unzoomed Tour featuring Loverboy as their special guest.  Now the veteran rockers have added 10 new dates to the outing.

The new concerts run from a September 3 performance in Duluth, Minnesota, through a September 18 show in Bangor, Maine.

Tickets for the new dates will go on sale to the general public on starting Friday, February 18, at 10 a.m. local time at LiveNation.com. Styx and REO Speedwagon will be making available VIP packages and exclusive pre-sales starting Tuesday, February 15, at 10 a.m. local time at StyxWorld.com and REOSpeedwagon.com.

Citi card members also will be able to buy presale tickets beginning February 15 at 10 a.m. local time; visit CitiEntertainment.com for more details.

As previously reported, the Live & Unzoomed Tour kicks off May 31 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the initially announced run of shows had been scheduled through an August 21 performance in Wantagh, New York.

When the trek was first announced, a hilarious video promoting the trek premiered on YouTube featuring Styx’s Tommy Shaw and Lawrence Gowan, REO Speedwagon’s Kevin Cronin and Dave Amato, and Loverboy’s Mike Reno showing what they’ve been up to at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now a follow-up “bloopers” clip has debuted on YouTube featuring the various band members having fun while filming the original promo clip.

(Video contains uncensored and censored profanity.)

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