Classic Rock News

As Graham Nash prepares for the November 16 release of his new photo book A Life in Focus, which offers a career-spanning look at his photography, the 79-year-old folk-rock legend also has some interesting music projects on the horizon.

Nash tells ABC Audio that one project reunites him with his childhood friend and Hollies co-founder Allan Clarke.

“I’m actually working on an album with Allan Clarke, my friend since I was six years old,” he reveals. “We’ve been remotely recording. We’ve got eight tracks, and it’ll be a really fun album.”

Clarke, who was The Hollies’ lead singer, retired from the group in 1999, partly due to vocal-cord issues, but he returned to the music in 2019 with a new solo album, Resurgence.

“[Allan’s] singing…really, really well,” Nash says. “He’s a very underrated singer. He’s one of the most underrated lead singers in a pop band ever…He’s got a great voice, and it’s back.”

Meanwhile, Graham also reports that he’s continuing to work on a follow-up to his most recent solo album, 2016’s This Path Tonight.

Nash already had reported that he had seven songs left over from writing sessions for This Path Tonight that he plans to include on his next album, and now he tells ABC Audio that he’s continued to write during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has recorded five tracks remotely with his touring musicians.

As Graham explains, he records acoustic guitar and vocal tracks, which he sends to Shane Fontayne, who adds guitar and bass. The recordings are then sent to drummer Toby Caldwell and then Toby’s brother, keyboardist Todd Caldwell. After Todd records keys, he sends all the tracks back to Nash for mixing.

Graham says the process is “an interesting sonic journey.”

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After topping the charts in this native Britain, Elton John’s “Cold Heart” — his collaboration with Dua Lipa and Australia’s Pnau — has now hit number one in Australia, and it’s earned him yet another chart record.

As Billboard notes, Elton is now, at 74 years and seven months, the oldest person ever to top the official Australian singles chart.  The previous record-holder was Paul McCartney, who was 72 when he hit number one with the 2015 song “FourFiveSeconds,” a collaboration with Rihanna and Kanye West.

“Cold Heart” is also Elton’s first number-one in Australia since 1997’s “Something About the Way You Look Tonight”/”Candle in the Wind 1997.”  He’s had three there overall.  Meanwhile, it’s Dua’s first Australian number one, and the first for Pnau as well.

“Cold Heart” is from Elton’s album The Lockdown Sessions, which features collaborations with Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj and other artists.

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Jethro Tull has announced official details about its forthcoming studio album, The Zealot Gene, which will be released on January 28, 2022.

The 12-track collection of the first new studio album from the veteran prog-rock band led by singer/flutist Ian Anderson in more than 18 years.

Coinciding with the announcement, an advance track from the album, “Shoshana Smiling,” has been made available via digital formats, and a companion music video has premiered at the group’s official YouTube channel. The black-and-white clip features enigmatic masked stop-motion animated figures and shadow puppets.

Jethro Tull began work in The Zealot Gene in 2017, and the album includes a number of songs that incorporate biblical imagery while examining religious themes.

“While I have a spot of genuine fondness for the pomp and fairytale story-telling of the Holy Book, I still feel the need to question and draw sometimes unholy parallels from the text,” Anderson explains. “The good, the bad, and the downright ugly rear their heads throughout, but are punctuated with elements of love, respect, and tenderness.”

The Zealot Gene, which you can pre-order now, will be available in multiple formats and configurations, including a CD digipak, a two-LP/CD set, limited-edition two-CD/Blu-ray artbook, and a limited-edition deluxe three-LP/two-CD/Blu-ray artbook.

The limited-edition versions feature a second CD offering demos and recordings of early song ideas, as well as extended liner notes and a new interview with Ian. The deluxe edition’s LPs are pressed on white vinyl and one of the discs features the aforementioned demos.

The Blu-ray features a 5.1 surround sound mix of the album.

Here’s the full track list of The Zealot Gene:

“Mrs. Tibbets”
“Jacob’s Tales”
“Mine Is the Mountain”
“The Zealot Gene”
“Shoshana Sleeping”
“Sad City Sisters”
“Barren Beth, Wild Desert John”
“The Betrayal of Joshua Kynde”
“Where Did Saturday Go?”
“Three Loves, Three”
“In Brief Visitation”
“The Fisherman of Ephesus”

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KISS‘ Paul Stanley is mourning the death of his father, William Eisen, who has passed away at 101 years old.

“My dad William Eisen has left this earth after 101 years & 7 months,” Stanley tweeted Sunday alongside a photo of him and his dad.

“His thirst for knowledge never [waned],” the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer added. “He could speak on virtually any subject. His pride in my accomplishments was heartwarming as was seeing his love of my family. He said he’d always be with me and he will.”

Stanley, 69, and KISS are currently off the road after playing the KISS Kruise earlier this month. Their planned Las Vegas residency, which was scheduled to kick off in December, was recently canceled.

My dad William Eisen has left this earth after 101 years & 7 months. His thirst for knowledge never wained. He could speak on virtually any subject. His pride in my accomplishments was heartwarming as was seeing his love of my family. He said he’d always be with me and he will. pic.twitter.com/uKWHP9Okax

— Paul Stanley (@PaulStanleyLive) November 8, 2021

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Billy Joel announced last week that tickets for his show on September 23, 2022, at Houston’s Minute Maid Park would go on sale this Friday. However, those plans have now been put on hold following the tragedy at this weekend’s Astroworld festival, which left eight people dead and hundreds more injured.

“Out of respect for the Houston community after the events at Astroworld on Friday, organizers for the upcoming Billy Joel concert scheduled for Minute Maid Park in Houston…announced they are delaying the on sale until further notice,” reads a statement on Billy’s website. “Organizers will provide an update shortly on when ticket sales will begin.”

On Friday night in Houston, the Astroworld festival, organized by and featuring rap superstar Travis Scott, ended in disaster when the crowd of 50,000 surged forward; many fans were crushed or trampled and multiple people collapsed. 

The concert’s promoter reportedly agreed to halt the show, but Scott continued to play. Two concertgoers have already filed lawsuits in the festival’s aftermath as of early Monday. 

Scott has said he’ll pay funeral costs for the victims, and will provide refunds for anyone who bought tickets to the event.  He described himself as “absolutely devastated” by the tragedy, and said he is “working closely with everybody to get to the bottom of this.”

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So, The Beatles are the greatest band of all time, right? Not if you ask Paul McCartney.

Sir Paul himself feels that The Everly Brothers deserve the honor.

British newspaper the Daily Mail reports that, according to a passage in his new book The Lyrics, the former Beatle says he and band mate John Lennon were plenty inspired by the pioneering American rock ‘n’ roll duo.

“The biggest influence on John and me was The Everly Brothers. To this day, I just think they’re the greatest,” McCartney expressed. “And they were different.”

“You’d heard barbershop quartets, you’d heard [British pop trio] the Beverley Sisters — three girls — you’d all heard that. But just two guys, two good-looking guys? So we idolized them. We wanted to be them,” he remarked.

The Everly Brothers, comprised of brothers Don and Phil Everly, are credited for pioneering the country-rock genre.  The duo also experimented with infusing pop elements into their music, which include the hit singles “Bye Bye Love,” “Wake Up Little Susie” and many more. Other artists influenced by the duo included Simon & Garfunkel, The Beach Boys, The Bee Gees and The Hollies.

Don passed away in August of this year.  He was predeceased by Phil, who died on January 3, 2014.

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Sting recently turned 70, but unlike fellow rock star Elton John, he has no plans to retire any time soon…or ever, actually.

Speaking to USA Today, Sting says asking him to imagine never touring again would be like “asking a fish what it’s going to be like without water.” He adds, “I can’t imagine life without working onstage. I love it.”

In fact, Sting’s busier than ever. On November 19, he’ll release a new album, The Bridge, which he says he recorded “as a way to save his mental health” during lockdown.  He also launched his first-ever Las Vegas residency, My Songs, which he jokes is “better” than Elton’s residency, The Red Piano.

On top of that, Sting did a comic turn as a murder suspect in the hit Hulu series Only Murders in the Building, starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez.

“I’ve worked with both Steve Martin and Martin Short many times over the years and they knew I could say lines at least,” Sting says of getting the part. “I’d never worked with Selena, and she was fabulous. It was fun.”

Sting’s Las Vegas show, at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, runs through November 13, and will then return in June for more dates. Sting also has a European tour kicking off in March.

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With Led Zeppelin celebrating the 50th anniversary today of the release of its classic 1971 untitled studio album, better known as Led Zeppelin IV, comes news that the record has just been certified 24 times Platinum by the RIAA for notching 24 million equivalent album unit sales in the U.S.

This moves Led Zeppelin IV into a tie with The Beatles‘ White Album for the fifth-best-selling album ever in the States.

The only albums ahead of Zeppelin IV are the Eagles‘ Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, at 38-times platinum; Michael Jackson‘s Thriller, at 34-times platinum; the Eagles’ Hotel California, at 26-times platinum; and AC/DC‘s Back in Black, at 25-times platinum.

Led Zeppelin recorded most of Led Zeppelin IV‘s basic tracks while staying at a country house called Headley Grange in Hampshire, England, using The Rolling Stones‘ mobile studio.

Led Zeppelin IV featured several of the band’s best-known tunes, including perhaps their most famous song of all, the epic rock anthem “Stairway to Heaven.”

Robert Plant recalls that he was at Headley Grange when he began writing the lyrics for “Stairway to Heaven.”

“I was sitting next to Jimmy [Page] in front of the fire…He’d written this chord sequence and was playing it to me,” Plant remembers. “I was holding a pencil and paper and suddenly my hand is writing the words ‘There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold…’ I sat there, looked at the words and almost leaped out from my seat. Looking back, I suppose I sat down at the right moment.”

Late drummer John Bonham said around the time of Led Zeppelin IV‘s release that he felt it was the best album the band had made up till that time.

“I love it,” he added.

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Van Morrison is being sued for libel by Northern Ireland Health Minister Robin Swann after the singer called the politician “dangerous” in a series of recent outbursts criticizing Swann over his policies related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sunday Life newspaper reports.

According to the paper, Swann has hired libel lawyer Paul Tweed, who has represented such high-profile clients as Harrison Ford, Justin Timberlake and Jennifer Lopez, and is preparing for a High Court showdown with Morrison this coming February, unless the case can be settled before that.

Swann’s lawyers claim that Van’s public comments were equivalent to accusing the minister of misusing his office and endangering the public, and maintain that the singer falsely suggested that Swann had misrepresented facts regarding the pandemic.

The lawsuit stems from three separate incidents where Morrison verbally attacked Swann. The first occurred at a June concert in Belfast where Morrison, angered that some of his upcoming concerts had been canceled because of the pandemic, attempted to lead the audience in a chant of “Robin Swann is very dangerous.”

The second incident occurred when a Sunday Life reporter asked Van to comment about whether he regretted his remarks about Swann at his Belfast show and Morrison responded, “No, no I don’t regret it…Of course he’s dangerous.”

The third instance cited was a pair of videos Van posted on his YouTube channel in which he explains why he feels Swann is dangerous, while also expressing disdain for the politician over a then-recent op-ed piece Swann wrote for Rolling Stone in which he criticized Van’s anti-lockdown views and his series of recent protest songs he’d released in which he expressed those views.

Starting last year, Morrison began releasing songs protesting U.K.-imposed regulations meant to curtail the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. Van believes the regulations are taking away people’s freedoms and destroying musicians’ livelihoods.

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Finally, Foo Fighters are starring in their own movie.

Dave Grohl and company have announced Studio 666, an upcoming horror-comedy film set to premiere in domestic theaters February 25, 2022.

In Studio 666, the Foos enter a creepy mansion to record a new album, only to find themselves battling “supernatural forces that threaten both the completion of the album and the lives of the band.” You may recall that, leading up to the release of the new Foo Fighters album Medicine at Midnight, Grohl repeatedly said the house in which they recorded it was haunted.

“After decades of ridiculous music videos and numerous music documentaries under our collective belts, it was finally time to take it to the next level,” Grohl says. “Like most things Foo, Studio 666 began with a far fetched idea that blossomed into something bigger than we ever imagined possible.”

“Filmed at the same house where we recorded our latest album Medicine at Midnight (told you that place was haunted!) we wanted to recapture the classic magic that all of our favorite rock and roll movies had, but with a twist: hilarious gore that f***ing ROCKS,” he continues. “Be ready to laugh, scream, and headbang in your popcorn. Studio 666 will f*** you up.”

In addition to the six Foo members, the Studio 666 cast includes Whitney Cummings, Leslie Grossman, Will Forte, Jenna Ortega and Jeff Garlin.

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