As we usher in 2022, Journey will be there to remind us all, “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers will be performing live in New York’s Times Square on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2022, airing on ABC at December 31. The show is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Others acts who’ll join Ryan Seacrest and co-host Liz Koshy in Times Square this year include fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Famer LL Cool J, R&B/pop star Chlöe and Latin star Karol G.
Meanwhile, co-host Billy Porter will be singing aboard a riverboat in New Orleans, and reggaeton superstar Daddy Yankee will perform from his hometown of Puerto Rico.
Keyboardist Jonathan Cain tells ABC Audio that he’s “really excited” about the concert, which he says will be filmed.
Cain also reports that the band will be accompanied by a 24-piece orchestra led by a conductor from the University of Las Vegas, and the performance will showcase his band’s greatest hits.
“It should be an amazing evening,” he adds.
Jonathan hints that Journey’s latest single, “The Way We Used to Be,” also will be featured in the show. He tells ABC Audio that while the band is in Vegas this month, it’s planning to record a new version of the song with an orchestra.
Cain admits that he’s been disappointed with how “The Way We Used to Be” has been received since its release in June. Jonathan says he loves the song, and insists that it will remain in Journey’s live set.
“So…if you don’t like the song, too bad,” he declares. “You’re gonna have to sit and listen to it.”
Explaining why the song appeals to him, Cain says, “It’s just something different. We don’t we don’t have anything like it in our set…And [guitarist] Neal [Schon] played so well on it. And the fans really receive it, you know?”
Meanwhile, Jonathan says Journey may do a few more symphonic shows while on tour next year. “Just where we can, where we have people that want to go do it,” he maintains.
Journey’s Freedom Tour 2022 kicks off on February 22 in Pittsburgh. Billy Idol will serve as the trek’s opening act through April 5, when Toto takes over.
Titled Fast & Loose, the collection includes previously unreleased shots of the “Ace of Spades” legends taken between 1977 and 1982 by photographer Graham Mitchell, who was also the band’s tour manager.
“I somehow knew how important it all was,” Mitchell says of taking the photos. “I knew I needed to capture at least some of those moments. I’d see the band to the stage and then immediately go out into the house, jostle with the punters, and get what I could.”
Mitchell adds that the photos reflect the oft-uttered Motörhead motto: “Take no f***ing prisoners.”
“It always made sense to me,” Mitchell says. “I like to think these photos capture that in all its (occasionally grotty but never boring) glory.”
Fast & Loose is out now in the U.S., and will be released in the U.K. on December 30.
Wednesday, December 15, marked the 30th anniversary of Green Day‘s sophomore album, Kerplunk! In celebration of the milestone, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong shared a series of photos from the Kerplunk! days, as well as a retrospective essay written by Larry Livermore, co-founder of the punk label Lookout Records, which first released the album.
The photos, which Armstrong shared in an Instagram post, is about par for the course for what you might expect from the then-teenage punk trio in 1991, including a shot of Billie smoking a makeshift bong.
The essay, meanwhile, finds Livermore reflecting on Kerplunk!‘s unusual week-before-Christmas release date, and recalling how his “idiotically large” order of 10,000 copies sold out in a single day. Livermore also wrote about his inspiration for the infamous “Laurie L” character, whose letter declaring she’d killed her parents so they couldn’t stop her from touring with Green Day.
Mostly, though, the essay paints the picture of a band on the precipice of becoming world rock stars.
“People typically assume Dookie, which came out in 1994, was Green Day’s breakthrough, but it was with Kerplunk!, more than two years earlier, that the band reached escape velocity,” Livermore wrote. “We who had known them since the beginning could only watch in awe as they headed for the stars.”
Veteran Canadian power trio Triumph has just launched an expansive and in-depth website called the Triumph Vault celebrating the band’s history and music.
The website is packed with rare archival photos, images of memorabilia, newspaper articles, concert posters and much more, curated by Triumph’s three members — singer/guitarist Rik Emmett, bassist/keyboardist Mike Levine and drummer Gil Moore.
Some of the images are accompanied by newly recorded audio commentary from the band members. One of the sections offers a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Triumph’s most-successful album, 1981’s Allied Forces, which has been RIAA-certified Platinum for sales of over a million copies in the U.S.
The Triumph Vault also features an online shop that offers various pieces of limited-edition merchandise and collectibles, including signed copies of the band’s 40th anniversary Allied Forces box set.
New images and other content will be added regularly to the site.
To mark the launch of the Triumph Vault, fans who register for updates at the website will be automatically entered into a contest offering the winner a Dean Flying V guitar, along with a personal note from the band.
“We’re super excited to have our loyal fans experience the launch of the Triumph vault,” says Moore. “Finally, after years of touring and recording, we’re able to unearth and display rare elements and artifacts from Triumph’s history.”
Eric Clapton has won a court case he brought against a 55-year-old German woman who put up for sale on eBay a CD featuring a bootlegged performance of a concert Clapton played in the U.S. during the 1980s.
German news website DW.com reports that a regional court in Dusseldorf sided with Clapton in issuing an injunction stopping the woman from selling the disc after Eric sent an affidavit that said the recordings were illegal.
According to the German newspaper Bild, the woman, who was identified only as Gabrielle P., was ordered to pay legal fees of 3,400 euros, or about $3,850 U.S.
The woman, who was selling the CD for 9.95 euros — about $11.30 — claimed that she had inherited the disc from her late husband, recalling that he told her he’d purchased it at a well-known department store, and that she didn’t realize the disc was bootlegged.
The court ruled that it didn’t matter that the defendant was unaware of the status of the CD. Bild also reports that if the woman continues to try to sell the disc on eBay, she could face a fine of 250,000 euros — about $283,000 — or six months in prison.
Nash and Taylor, both of whom were romantically involved with Mitchell back in the day, are among a variety of artists who’ll pay tribute to Joni at the event by performing her classic songs.
The bill also includes Herbie Hancock, Brandi Carlile, Jon Batiste, Leon Bridges, country star Mickey Guyton, Pentatonix, singer/songwriter Maggie Rogers and Black Pumas.
“We are crafting a once-in-a-lifetime evening in honor of Joni,” says MusiCares executive director Laura Segura. “I thank each of these artists for lending their talents to celebrate Joni and her impact on the music community.”
Carlile and Batiste also will serve as the evening’s artistic directors. Earlier this month, Carlile and Hancock were tapped to pay tribute to Mitchell at the 2021 Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C.
Hancock’s album of Mitchell covers, River: The Joni Letters, was named Album of the Year at the 2008 Grammy Awards.
In addition to the tribute concert, the MusiCares Person of the Year gala features a dinner and a silent auction offering VIP experiences, celebrity memorabilia and more. The event benefits the MusiCares Foundation, which provides medical, financial and personal assistance to in-need members of the music community.
A restored and re-edited version of Pink Floyd‘s 1995 concert video Pulsewill be released on February 18, 2022, as a two-Blu-ray set and a two-DVD package.
The marks the first time that the Pulse movie will be available on Blu-ray as a standalone release: It first appeared in Pink Floyd’s massive 2019 box set The Later Years.
Pulse captures Pink Floyd on tour in support of the band’s 1994 album The Division Bell at an October 20, 1994, concert at Earls Court in London. The show featured a full performance of The Dark Side of the Moon, a selection of other popular Pink Floyd tunes and four songs from The Division Bell.
The two-disc sets also feature bonus content that was included on The Later Years, including music videos for songs from The Division Bell, Pulse tour rehearsal footage, on-stage visuals, a Pulse TV ad, documentaries, behind-the-scenes interviews with the road crew, footage from Pink Floyd’s 1996 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and more.
In addition, the new release boasts updated artwork and a 60-page booklet, and reintroduces the pulsing red light featured on the original 1995 Pulse CD package, operated by two replaceable AA batteries.
At the time of Pulse‘s original release, drummer Nick Mason said of the concept behind the blinking light, “Essentially, it’s a device which we thought was entertaining. It’s an idea of [Hipgnosis artist] Storm Thorgerson‘s, which related to The Dark Side Of The Moon and the pulse, and it’s a live album, so the box is ‘alive.'”
The Byrds‘ three surviving original members, Roger McGuinn, David Crosby and Chris Hillman, have come together to collaborate on a new deluxe photo book focusing on the influential band’s early years that will be published next year.
The 400-page tome, titled The Byrds: 1964-1967, features over 500 images taken by such lauded photographers as Henry Diltz, Jim Marshall, Linda McCartney and Barry Feinstein, as well as restored pics from the Columbia Records archives and from the personal archives of the group’s original manager.
The book also features commentary penned by McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman, who share their recollections about the group, which pioneered folk rock, psychedelic rock and country rock, as well as about their late band mates Gene Clark and Michael Clarke.
The Byrds: 1964-1967 is the first in-depth photo book about the group, and the book on which the surviving founding members have collaborated. The project also marks the first time that Roger, David and Chris have all worked together since recording a few new songs for The Byrds’ 1990 retrospective box set.
Four versions of the book will be published: a Standard Version, a Deluxe Limited Edition, a Super Deluxe Limited Edition, and a Super Deluxe Limited Edition that comes with a fine art print.
The Super Deluxe Limited Editions, which will be released in October 2022, can be pre-ordered now at ByrdsBook.com, and are the only configurations signed by all three surviving founding Byrds members. When copies of the Super Deluxe versions sell out, they will not be reprinted.
Those purchasing the Super Deluxe Limited Edition with a print will be able to choose one of three images — McGuinn photographed by Diltz in 1967, Crosby photographed by Marshall in 1965 or Hillman photographed by Feinstein in ’65.
Gov’t Mule, the group fronted by ex-Allman Brothers Band singer/guitarist Warren Haynes, recently released a new studio album titled Heavy Load Blues that’s the jam band’s first full project dedicated to the blues.
Haynes and company must have done something right, because the album currently is spending its third week at #1 on Billboard‘s Blues Albums chart.
Heavy Load Blues features a mix of covers of songs by blues legends like Howlin’ Wolf, Bobby Blue Bland, Elmore James and Junior Wells and original tunes Warren wrote that were inspired by some of his blues heroes.
Haynes tells ABC Audio that he’s been planning to make a blues album with Gov’t Mule for years, but kept putting it off because of his busy schedule, that is until the COVID-19 pandemic freed up some time for him.
“During the whole COVID lockdown thing, I wrote five or six blues songs…and I had also for several years been compiling a list of blues covers that eventually I would want to tackle,” Warren explains. “And I think the whole lockdown thing just forced that to the forefront…[I]t seemed like the right time to do this.”
Haynes says some of his goals for the record was to include songs by artists that Gov’t Mule hadn’t covered live before, to explore various blues subgenres, and to make the album sound like a vintage recording.
A deluxe version of Heavy Load Blues features several bonus tracks, including, interestingly, a heavy blues interpretation of the 1973 Elton John song “Have Mercy on the Criminal.”
Haynes notes, “[O]ur version is a little heavier and darker [than Elton’s], but it’s perfect that way. It’s a great song and a great story.”
Here’s the album’s full track list:
“Blues Before Sunrise”
“Hole in My Soul”
“Wake Up Dead”
“Love Is a Mean Old World”
“Snatch It Back and Hold It”/”Hold It Back”/”Snatch It Back and Hold It”
“Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City”
“(Brother Bill) Last Clean Shirt”
“Make It Rain”
“Heavy Load”
“Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home”
“If Heartaches Were Nickels”
“I Asked Her for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)”
“Black Horizon”
Deluxe Version — Bonus Tracks:
“Hiding Place”
“You Know My Love”
“Street Corner Talking”
“Have Mercy on the Criminal”
“Long Distance Call”
“Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home” (Extended Version)
“Need Your Love So Bad” (Live)
“Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” (Live) — with Hook Herrera
