Classic Rock News

Originally released in September of 1992, The Police compilation Greatest Hits is being reissued on vinyl for its 30th anniversary.

The album had a limited vinyl release because of course back in the day, all anybody wanted was CDs.  As a result, it’s long been out of print, but it’ll be back on April 15.  The two-LP set was remastered at Abbey Road and cut at half speed. It comes as two heavyweight vinyl discs packaged in a gatefold sleeve. You can pre-order it now.

The album includes 16 tracks spanning the band’s five studio albums, from “Roxanne” from Outlandos d’Amour, to “Tea in the Sahara,” from Synchronicity.

Meanwhile, the three members of The Police are keeping busy: Sting resumes his world tour in March and his Las Vegas residency in June, while Andy Summers will tour his latest photo exhibit this July and his one-man multimedia music show in October.  Stewart Copeland will be performing with an orchestra in North America and Europe this year, and premiere his latest opera, The Witches Seed, in Italy in July.

Here’s the Greatest Hits track listing:

Disc One

Side A
“Roxanne”
“Can’t Stand Losing You”
“So Lonely”
“Message in a Bottle”

Side B
“Walking on the Moon”
“The Bed’s Too Big Without You”
“Don’t Stand So Close to Me”
“De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da”

Disc Two

Side A
“Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”
“Invisible Sun”
“Spirits in the Material World”
“Synchronicity II”

Side B
“Every Breath You Take”
“King of Pain”
“Wrapped Around Your Finger”
“Tea in the Sahara”

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If you’re craving more Dave Grohl metal, we’ve got good news.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, the Foo Fighters frontman reveals he’s planning to release an entire metal album under the moniker Dream Widow in connection with the band’s upcoming horror-comedy movie, Studio 666.

In the film, Dream Widow is a fictional band that previously occupied the house where the Foos are recording a new album. In a fit of insanity stemming from creative differences, the Dream Widow lead singer kills his band members and himself, thus bringing demonic forces to the now-haunted mansion.

The Dream Widow album Grohl will release, then, is meant to represent the group’s “lost” album that they were recording before all the murder and demon stuff happens. Grohl tells Rolling Stone that he hopes to have the record ready by Studio 666‘s theatrical premiere on February 25.

“I mean, I work fast, but f***, this deadline is going to kill me,” Grohl says. “Yes, I’ll get it out for the movie. By February 25th, there will be a Dream Widow record.”

For a preview, you can check out the Foo Fighters-as-Dream Widow song “March of the Insane,” which was released earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Grohl and company also talked about Studio 666 on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! Wednesday.

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After announcing on his socials earlier this month that he’d be touring North America this summer with Cheap Trick, Rod Stewart has now revealed the full list of dates for the trek, as well as the on-sale dates.  But Rod says when it comes to his set list, it’ll pretty much be the hits and nothing but the hits.

The 38-date tour, which officially kicks off June 10 in Vancouver, Canada, is Rod’s first in four years. And while his new album, The Tears of Hercules, came out last year, he says fans may not hear much more beyond its first single at his shows.

“Yeah, ‘One More Time‘ will be in there,” he says of the song he released last year. “But, you know, I give people what they want: They all want to hear the same songs.”

Rod adds, “As much as I’ll try and say, ‘Look, please let me play a few new songs!’ they want to hear the old ones. As would I!” 

That’s right: Rod knows what it’s like to want to hear your favorite artist play your favorite songs, because that’s what he’d want to hear…if he could.

“If my idols were alive today, I would want to hear Sam Cooke sing ‘Cupid,’ Otis [Redding] sing ‘Dock of the Bay,’ David Ruffin sing ‘My Girl,'” he admits. “I’m a give-[’em]-what-they-wanter type of bloke.”

Right now, Rod’s tour is scheduled to wrap up September 17 in Edmonton, Canada. Tickets for most dates go on sale to the public on February 25 at 10 a.m. local time; Canadian dates go on sale March 4 via LiveNation.com.  Details on pre-sales, which start on Monday, can be found at RodStewart.com.

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Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard‘s Stadium Tour just got a bit bigger.

The two bands have announced an additional five dates to their upcoming joint outing, which will also feature Poison and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts on the bill. The new shows will take place August 8 in Toronto, August 16 in Indianapolis, September 2 in Vancouver, September 4 in Edmonton, and September 9 in Las Vegas, which will mark the final date on the tour.

Tickets go on sale next Friday, February 25, at 10 a.m. local time via Live Nation.

The Stadium Tour was first announced back in 2019, and marked the reunion of Mötley Crüe just four years after they played what was billed as their “final” show, effectively voiding the group’s “cessation of touring agreement.”

Originally planned for 2020, the Stadium Tour has been delayed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s set to finally launch this year starting June 16 in Atlanta.

For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit Motley.com.

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Fender has created a limited-edition replica version of George Harrison‘s 1968 rosewood Telecaster, which the late Beatle used during the 1969 sessions for the band’s Let It Be album and played at the group’s historic rooftop concert in London, as seen in the acclaimed Disney+ docuseries The Beatles: Get Back.

The instrument is available for a list price of $2,900, and only 1,000 copies will be produced.

The original 1968 rosewood Telecaster was a prototype model that Fender gave to Harrison in late 1968.

The guitar’s features include a chambered rosewood body, a late-1960s “C”-shaped rosewood neck, a rosewood fretboard, two vintage 1964 Telecaster pickups, “F”-stamped tuners and a neckplate that boasts an engraved George Harrison’s signature and his tradmark Om logo.

In a YouTube video promoting the George Harrison Rosewood Telecaster, Fender product manager notes that the guitar “has a sound all its own, with bell-like highs, smooth mids and punchy lows.”

The guitar comes packaged in a hardshell case.

Visit Fender.com for full details.

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At least one moment in Pam & Tommy didn’t actually happen.

In the most recent episode of the Hulu limited series, which tells the story of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee‘s infamous sex tape, the Mötley Crüe drummer, played by Sebastian Stan, gets into a tiff with Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins, portrayed by Jeffrey Conway.

The scene, which takes place in 1996, finds Lee angry that his band was booked in a smaller studio than where they usually record, which is now occupied by the up-and-coming “Semi-Charmed Life” rockers. When Lee confronts Jenkins and company, he learns both bands are signed to the same record label, Elektra.

“They booked these a**clowns in the big room over us?” Lee exclaims in disbelief.

However, as the real life Jenkins tells Variety, the scene is all fiction.

“Mötley Crüe and I’ve never been in the same studio,” Jenkins says. “I recorded my whole first album in Northern California. So we were across the state from each other at the very least.”

Jenkins adds that he hasn’t watch the Pam & Tommy scene, explaining, “I feel strange watching myself being portrayed.”

“Just the idea is making me kind of smile,” he says. “I hope whoever played me on TV was pretty.”

As for why the Third Eye Blind scene was included if it didn’t happen, Pam & Tommy executive producer Rob Siegel says that he felt the “Jumper” outfit was the “perfect band” to represent where Mötley Crüe was in the music industry at the time.

“I did a little quick Google search…Who else was on Elektra? Third Eye Blind,” Siegel says. “The timing was perfect…So the scene is fictional, but I like to think it absolutely could have happened!”

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Now we know why Journey‘s upcoming North American trek is called the 2022 Freedom Tour. Guitarist Neal Schon took to his Instagram page today to reveal that the band’s new studio album is titled Freedom.

Schon posted a photo that shows Journey’s logo, the title Freedom and the record’s 15-song track list, along with a message that reads, “Teaser…it’s coming and it’s loaded.”

The album includes lead single “The Way We Used to Be,” which was released back in June of 2021, as well as songs titled “Together We Run,” “Still Believe in Love,” “After Glow,” “Let It Rain,” “All Day All Night” and “United We Stand.”

Schon also posted a note today on his Twitter feed about the forthcoming album, writing, “I wanted to stick true artistically to the times and values of older albums where every track means something and it’s meant to be played from top to bottom and take you on a ride…no pun intended ‘JOURNEY FREEDOM.'”

No word yet on a release date.

Freedom will be Journey’s first new studio album since 2011’s Eclipse. It’s also the band’s first new album since the 2020 firings of longtime bassist Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith, who were replaced, respectively, by Randy Jackson and Narada Michael Walden.

Journey’s current lineup features Schon, keyboardist Jonathan Cain, singer Arnel Pineda, keyboardist/backing singer Jason Derlatka, and drummer Deen Castronovo. It’s not clear whether Jackson or Walden will be touring with the band.

Journey’s Freedom Tour 2022, featuring special guest Toto, kicks off February 22 in Pittsburgh.

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A partial list of artists who will perform at the 2022 Beale Street Music Festival was revealed in December, but now the full lineup has been announced for the event, which takes place April 29 to May 1 in Memphis, Tennessee.

Van Morrison, Stone Temple Pilots, Weezer and Elvin Bishop are among the artists who have joined the bill. Other notable new additions to the lineup include Counting Crows, Sarah McLachlan, Indigo Girls, Grace Potter, Patty Griffin, Chevelle, Spoon, and Death Cab for Cutie.

Previously announced artists set to play the festival include Lindsey Buckingham, Foo Fighters, The Smashing Pumpkins, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Modest Mouse, rap star Lil Wayne, and blues guitarist Sue Foley.

This year’s event will take place at the Fairgrounds in Liberty Park, since the Memphis festival’s traditional site, Tom Lee Park, is undergoing renovations.

For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit MemphisinMay.org.

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Limited-edition vinyl discs from The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Doors and U2 are among the exclusive releases that’ll be available at independent record stores for the 2022 installment of Record Store Day.

The Rolling Stones’ Record Store Day offering is a 50th anniversary reissue of their classic 1972 two-LP compilation More Hot Rocks, pressed on glow-in-the-dark vinyl.

The Who are releasing an expanded 40th anniversary reissue of their 1982 album It’s Hard. The two-LP collection features bonus tracks, and one orange and one yellow disc.

The Doors are issuing a four-LP collection culled from last year’s deluxe 50th anniversary reissue of L.A. Woman featuring over two-and-a-half hours of outtakes that appeared as bonus content on the 2021 release.

U2’s offering is a vinyl single that features two versions each of the rarities “A Celebration” and “Trash, Trampoline and the Party Girl,” including a previously unreleased studio outtake of “A Celebration.”

This year’s Record Store Day features over 320 titles in all, including releases from Alice in Chains, Allman Brothers Band, Asia, Bad Company, David Bowie, Chicago, Alice Cooper, Def Leppard,  Foo Fighters, Peter Gabriel, Billy Gibbons, The Grateful Dead, Metallica‘s Kirk Hammett, Joan Jett, Elton John, Judas Priest, The Kinks, Joni Mitchell, Motorhead, Stevie Nicks, Pearl Jam, Iggy Pop, Ramones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lou Reed, Keith Richards, Santana, Slash, Patti Smith, Ringo Starr and Pete Townshend.

Record Store Day 2022 takes place April 23. Additionally, organizers are setting aside June 18 as a “safety net” drop date for any planned release that can’t make it to stores by April 23 due to issues including manufacturing or shipping delays, which have been prevalent amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the full list of releases and participating stores, visit RecordStoreDay.com.

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Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards will headline the sixth annual edition of the star-studded Love Rocks NYC! benefit concert, which will take place March 10 at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.

The show will feature Richards reuniting with his solo band The X-Pensive Winos. The lineup also includes Melissa Etheridge, Mavis Staples, ex-Allman Brothers Band singer/guitarist Warren Haynes, Hozier and many more.

The Love Rocks NYC! concert raises money for the God’s Love We Deliver charity, which provides nutritious meals to seriously ill people in the New York City area.

The show will be co-hosted by comedian Mario Cantone and actors Gina Gershon, Kiefer Sutherland, Steve Schirripa and Michelle Buteau.

The event’s house band will be led by longtime CBS Orchestra bassist Will Lee, and will include one-time Bob Dylan and Levon Helm touring guitarist Larry Campbell, Eric Clapton touring drummer Steve Gadd and Fleetwood Mac touring keyboardist Ricky Peterson.

You can sign up for more information about the concert at LoveRocksNYC.com and GLWD.org. The website also is offering a free encore stream of the 2021 Love Rocks NYC! show, which included performances from Jon Bon Jovi, ZZ Top‘s Billy Gibbons, Haynes and many others. Those who watch the event are encouraged to donate money to God’s Love We Deliver.

Richards performance with The X-Pensive Winos at the benefit show takes place just eight days before the release of the 30th anniversary reissue of Keith’s 1992 solo album, Main Offender, which he mainly recorded with the members of the band.

The X-Pensive Winos feature acclaimed drummer/producer Steve Jordan — who became The Rolling Stones’ touring drummer in 2021 — guitarist Waddy Wachtel, bassist/keyboardist Charley Drayton and keyboardist Ivan Neville.

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