Classic Rock News

Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest airs on ABC Friday night, but on Wednesday, two of the stars scheduled to perform in New York’s Times Square — LL Cool J and Chloe — pulled out, LL due to a positive COVID test. Ryan Seacrest, however, says the show must go on.

“In our minds, the show is always going to happen. There’s always going to be a ball that drops, whether there are people there or not. I think we learned that last year!” he tells ABC Audio. 

And while there will only be a quarter of the usual crowd in Times Square, Ryan notes, “Over these years…we’ve faced real challenges and we still turn the page and a new year still starts.”

As for the loss of two marquee performers, Ryan explains, “Over the years, there have been situations where we thought…a performer couldn’t make it in or they weren’t going to be able to get there to perform. So we are trained to know how to react to last-minute changes.”

“We’re going to pivot — we’re going to put Journey” — a previously announced Time Square performer — “in [LL Cool J’s] spot,” Ryan adds. “We have enough performers and enough different moving parts that the show will always fill any gap.”

This year marks the show’s 50th anniversary, and first-time co-host Liza Koshy says the show will “commend the incredibleness that Dick Clark began.”

“There are so many clips that we have that we’re playing back from the ’80s, ’90s, 2000s…it’s been an incredible journey,” she says. And with additional performances in L.A., Puerto Rico and New Orleans, Liza  notes, “People are going to be tuning in to just layers of performance and entertainment the whole night!”

As for why New Year’s Rockin’ Eve is still rockin’ 50 years later, Ryan says, “There’s a mixture of nostalgia and relevance…[It’s] a part of our DNA as kids…and also an extreme relevance when you look at the artists that are performing.”

This year, those artists include Ciara, Billy Porter, Måneskin, Avril Lavigne, AJR, Travis Barker, Polo G, Walker Hayes, Daddy Yankee, OneRepublic and many more.

Those things, he adds, will “hopefully continue to make this the franchise that it is for another 50 years!”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Foo Fighters have released a full playback stream of their show at New York City’s Madison Square Garden this past June.

The nearly three-hour set, which marked MSG’s first full-capacity concert since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, included a particularly emotional opening rendition of “Times Like These,” as well as a cover of Radiohead‘s “Creep” with comedian Dave Chappelle on lead vocals, and the live debut of the Dee Gees, the Foos’ Bee Gees tribute act.

You can watch the show in its entirety streaming now on YouTube.

Along with the MSG show, Foo Fighters returned to the road in 2021 to celebrate their 26th anniversary after scrapping all of their 25th anniversary plans in 2020 due to the pandemic. They’ll be touring again in 2022 beginning in February at the Arizona Innings Festival.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.) 

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Perhaps the most memorable moment of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales on September 6, 1997 was Elton John‘s emotional performance of his rewritten version of “Candle in the Wind,” in which he sang, “Goodbye England’s Rose.”  Now, new files released from the British National Archives reveal that the head of Westminster Abbey, where the funeral took place, made a personal plea to Buckingham Palace to have Elton included in the service.

According to the BBC, the files reveal that the Very Rev. Wesley Carr, Dean of Westminster at the time, wrote to the Palace and pointed out that having Elton sing at the service would be “imaginative and generous,” and would help the millions of people who felt “personally bereaved” by the Princess’ tragic death.

Carr urged “boldness” and the “inclusion of something of the modern world that the princess represented” in the service.  If Elton was a no-go, the files show that the backup plan was to have a saxophone player perform a solo.

In his autobiography ME, Elton writes that a few days after Diana’s death, Richard Branson called him and told him that many people were signing the book of condolence at St. James’s Palace by quoting from the original “Candle in the Wind,” and that radio stations were playing it a lot as well.  According to Elton, it was Branson who then asked Elton to rewrite the lyrics and sing it at the funeral, and he surmised that Branson had been contacted by Diana’s family to make the request.

After singing the song at the funeral, Elton went straight into the studio and recorded “Candle in the Wind 1997” as a charity single. It went on to became the best-selling single in both U.K. and U.S. history.   But Elton has never performed the song since and says he never will, unless Princes William and Harry ask him to.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

In late November, Beatles fans were treated to the docuseries The Beatles: Get Back, a joyous, reverent and lengthy look at the January 1969 recording sessions that yielded the band’s final studio album, Let It Be.

Directed by Lord of the Rings filmmaker Peter Jackson, Get Back was a three-part presentation running for a total of more than seven-and-a-half hours that premiered on the Disney+ network on November 25, 26 and 27.

The series was created from dozens of hours of previously unseen footage shot for what became the film Let It Be.  But while the Michael Lindsay-Hogg-directed 1970 movie focused more on the tensions between the band members during the sessions, Get Back offers a more well-rounded look at The Beatles’ relationships as they came together to create that music.

Besides showing the Fab Four working on the songs that eventually appeared on Let It Be, Get Back also captures the group jamming on covers and older Beatles tunes, playing songs that would be featured on Abbey Road and the band mates’ future solo albums — joking, arguing, chatting and more. Some of the jams included the affable and talented soul/R&B keyboardist Billy Preston.

The Beatles: Get Back ends with footage of the entire surprise performance that The Beatles on the roof of their Apple company’s headquarters in London’s Savile Row, which turned to be the last time the band played together in public.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

A month before The Beatles: Get Back debuted, an expanded reissue of Let It Be was released, sending the album back into the top five of the Billboard 200 after it topped the chart back in 1970. A companion The Beatles: Get Back coffee-table book also was released in October.

Meanwhile, surviving Beatles members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr both had eventful years.

Sir Paul began 2021 with his latest solo album, McCartney III, debuting at #2 on the Billboard 200 after hitting stores at the end of December 2020. In April, an album titled McCartney III Imagined was released, featuring various artists remixing or covering the songs on McCartney III.

In July, the documentary miniseries McCartney 3,2,1 featuring Paul in conversation with producer Rick Rubin, premiered on Hulu. Then in September, McCartney published the illustrated children’s book Grandude’s Green Submarine, a sequel to his 2019 book, Hey Grandude!

In early November, Paul released the book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, which offers a self-portrait of the music icon while profiling 154 songs he’s written throughout his long career. The Lyrics was named Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year, and also was picked by People magazine as one of 2021’s top-10 books. Also in November, McCartney got the good news that McCartney III had received a 2022 Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album, while a song from the record, “Find My Way,” scored a nod for Best Rock Song.

As for Ringo, he released two EPs of new songs during 2021 — Zoom In and Change the World — that were packed with guest collaborators, including McCartney, Joe Walsh, Dave Grohl, Sheryl Crow, Lenny Kravitz, Toto‘s Steve Lukather and Joseph Williams, and more.

2021 also saw deluxe reissue of classic solo albums by late Beatles members John Lennon and George Harrison — John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and All Things Must Pass.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Stone Temple Pilots bassist Robert DeLeo has revealed he’s contracted COVID-19.

“Well, like so many others this virus has come to pay me a visit,” DeLeo writes in an Instagram post alongside a photo of him holding a rapid antigen test showing two pink lines, signifying a positive result.

“Yes, double lines…Jackpot!,” the post reads. “Except this time you don’t win anything but a nice chunk of time by yourself doing the ‘q’ word.”

“Omicron, Robotron, Lexicon, whatever they wanna call it, it’s the CRUD!” DeLeo adds. “A new year is upon us and I hope and pray everyone stays healthy and safe. Let’s all make this new year a positive and forward moving experience filled with everything we all love!”

STP’s 2022 plans include a tour of Australia kicking off in March.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Robert DeLeo (@stprobertdeleo)

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The Go-Go’s had five West Coast concerts scheduled for this week and next, spanning from a December 28 show in San Francisco through a January 3 performance in San Diego, but all of the events have been postponed because a member of the band’s team recently tested positive for COVID-19.

A message from The Go-Go’s announcing the unfortunate news explains, “ALTHOUGH WE ARE, OF COURSE, VERY DISAPPOINTED, we will be following proper protocols and postponing our upcoming west coast dates.”

The band adds, “We will be announcing new dates VERY soon and look forward to getting back to performing and celebrating with everyone. WISHING EVERYONE A WONDERFUL AND SAFE HOLIDAY SEASON, AND SEE YOU IN THE NEW YEAR!”

The three other postponed concerts were scheduled for tonight, December 29, in Los Angeles, and on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day in Las Vegas.

The Go-Go’s were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on October 30 in Cleveland and performed a three-song set at the ceremony. They also played a special club show on December 14 the the Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood, California.

The band’s next scheduled concerts will take place this June, when the group will serve as Billy Idol‘s opening act at a series of U.K. shows.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

In 2021, all those collaborations that Elton John had been doing for the past year or so really paid off, as he returned to the charts for the first time in decades.

In August, Elton teamed up with his new BFF Dua Lipa, who he became friendly with in 2020, to release “Cold Heart.” The mashup of four Elton songs — “Sacrifice,” “Rocket Man,” “Kiss the Bride” and “Where’s the Shoorah?” — was created by Australian dance act Pnau, with whom the music legend had previously collaborated.

–“Cold Heart” proved to be an unexpected smash, returning Elton to the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 for the firs time since 1999.  It also officially gave him a 50-year span of singles on the top 40: the longest for any artist in Billboard history. 

–“Cold Heart” was an even bigger hit in the U.K. When it hit the top 10, it made Elton the only act in the history of the singles chart in that country to score a top-10 hit in six different decades.  Then in October, “Cold Heart” topped the U.K. chart, becoming Elton’s first number-one in his home country in 16 years.

–“Cold Heart” also became Elton’s first-ever number one on Billboard‘s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, and his first Australian number-one since 1997, making him, at 74, the oldest person ever to top the Australian chart.

–The number-one success of “Cold Heart” in the U.K. was helped along by Elton’s pal Ed Sheeran.  After his song “Shivers” had been number one for four weeks, Ed actively encouraged his fans to stop streaming his song and stream Elton’s instead, writing, “Who doesn’t wanna be knocked off [the top] by Elton anyway?”

–After the release of “Cold Heart,” Elton surprised fans by announcing The Lockdown Sessions, an album featuring Elton duetting with everyone from Miley Cyrus, Lil Nas X and Nicki Minaj, to Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder and Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder.

–Released in October, The Lockdown Sessions became Elton’s first top-10 album since 2016 in the U.S., and his first number-one album in the U.K. since 2012.

–In November, Prince Charles presented Elton with the Order of the Companions of Honour, which was first established in 1917 to reward “outstanding achievement.”

–In December, Elton and Ed teamed up for the festive holiday song “Merry Christmas,” which debuted at number one on the U.K. chart.  The duo then partnered with the British duo LadBaby to create a parody of their song called “Sausage Rolls for Everyone,” a charity single which raised money for British food banks.  The parody went on to become the U.K.’s much-coveted Christmas number one for 2021. It gave Elton his third U.K. number one of 2021.

–The one negative thing that happened to Elton in 2021 was that he had to push back his European tour dates because he had to have a hip operation. But his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour is one of the most anticipated of 2022.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Elton John (@eltonjohn)

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Rush is set to be immortalized as a pinball machine.

A silver ball game dedicated to the Canadian prog legends is about to be released. Manufacturer Stern Pinball will debut the Rush machine during a virtual event at the 2022 Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, taking place January 5-8, after which it’ll be coming to an arcade near you.

You can watch a teaser video for the Rush pinball machine, which promises that it’ll be “traveling soon,” now on YouTube.

Stern has also created machines inspired by bands including Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Aerosmith, AC/DC and KISS. To find a Stern pinball game in your area, visit SternPinball.com.

In addition to your local arcade, you can also hear Rush’s music live on tour next year, albeit played by Primus. The “My Name Is Mud” outfit will be launching a 2022 leg of their A Tribute to Kings tour in April, during which they perform Rush’s 1977 album A Farewell to Kings in its entirety.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The Rolling Stones made some very sad and very happy news in 2021. The sad news was that the band lost its beloved drummer, Charlie Watts, who died in August at the age of 80 after playing with the group for over 58 years.

The happy news was that, after postponing a planned U.S. tour in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Stones returned to the road in the fall of this year for a stateside leg that became the highest-grossing tour in the world for 2021.

The Rolling Stones unveiled their plans for a new U.S. leg of their No Filter Tour in late July. Just a couple weeks later, however, it was announced that Watts would likely not be able to join the band on the trek because he was recuperating from a medical procedure, and that he had personally chosen acclaimed session drummer Steve Jordan to fill in for him.

The Stones reportedly had expected Watts to make a full recovery, but he passed away on August 24 in a hospital, surrounded by family members.

With Jordan behind the drum kit, The Rolling Stones officially launched their 2021 tour on September 26 in St. Louis. The band dedicated the trek to Watts, and at the start of every show, a video presentation paying tribute to Charlie was shown on the venue’s screens. The 14-date trek wound down with a November 23 concert in Hollywood, Florida. Pollstar announced in December that the first 12 dates of the tour brought in $115.5 million — the final two shows took place after the calculation cut-off date — making the trek easily the highest-grossing in the world this year.

In other noteworthy Rolling Stones-related news that happened in 2021, Mick Jagger released a new collaborative single in April called “Eazy Sleazy” that featured Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl on guitar, bass and drums. Also, October saw the release of an expanded 40th anniversary reissue of The Stones’ classic 1981 album Tattoo You. The deluxe versions of the reissue included a bonus disc titled Lost & Found made up of previously unreleased tracks enhanced with newly added vocals and guitars.

Looking forward to seeing you at a show soon, keep safe! pic.twitter.com/sDPDsCvYjg

— The Rolling Stones (@RollingStones) September 24, 2021

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason‘s current band, Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, has announced that its planned North American tour, scheduled to begin in January, has been postponed.

A message on the band’s official Twitter feed announced, “It is with great regret that due to the uncertainty surrounding the Covid pandemic, it has been decided to postpone the North American tour until later in the year. Apologies for any inconvenience or disappointment due to this.”

“We are working on rescheduling the dates and will announce them as soon as we can,” the message continued. “Ticket holders are advised to await further information from the venue and/or ticket company where they purchased their tickets.”

The trek, called the Echoes Tour, had already been postponed for over a year due to the pandemic.  This time, it was set to kick off January 18 in Toronto and wrap up February 23 in Vancouver, with 23 U.S. concerts in between.

Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets performs Pink Floyd music that predates the band’s classic 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon. The group also features Spandau Ballet guitarist Gary Kemp, longtime Pink Floyd and David Gilmour touring bassist Guy Pratt, and veteran session musicians Lee Harris and Dom Beken on guitar and keyboards, respectively.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.