Classic Rock News

British Invasion greats The Hollies will return to the U.S. next year for the first time in two decades for a series of shows celebrating the band’s 60th anniversary.

The five-date tour kicks off on April 2 in Morristown, New Jersey, and also will visit Washington, D.C., on April 4; New York City on April 5; and Chicago on April 7, before winding down in Los Angles on April 7.

The Hollies have long been led by two members of the band’s classic lineup — lead guitarist Tony Hicks and drummer Bobby Elliott. Rounding out the group’s current incarnation are lead singer Peter Howarth, bassist Ray Stiles, keyboardist Ian Parker and rhythm guitarist Steve Lauri.

“We felt like this is something no other band gets to do, celebrate six decades together,” says Hicks. “Sixty years of this band and these songs means so much to us and so many others.”

Adds Elliott, “We’re incredibly excited performing for everyone on what will be some of the most special shows in the history of The Hollies.”

The group, which was co-founded in 1962 by singers Allan Clarke and Graham Nash, scored a string of hits in the 1960s and early ’70s, including “Bus Stop,” “Stop Stop Stop,” “Carrie-Anne,” “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother,” “The Air That I Breathe” and “Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress).”

Tickets for The Hollies’ U.S. tour are on sale now and can be purchased by visiting TheHolliesOfficial.com.

Prior to the trek, the band will be making a special appearance on March 31 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as part of the 2022 Flower Power Cruise, which sets sail from Miami on March 28.

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Dion DiMucci has just released his new studio album, Stomping Ground, the doo-wop and rock ‘n’ roll great’s second star-studded collaborative project in just over a year.

A follow-up to 2020’s Blues with Friends, this record includes contributions from Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen and wife Patti Scialfa, ZZ Top‘s Billy Gibbons, Mark Knopfler, Peter Frampton, Boz Scaggs, Rickie Lee Jones and more.

Dion tells ABC Audio that he had a lot of fun working on Stomping Ground, and he couldn’t be happier with the project.

“I’m writing some of the best songs in my life, singing better than ever, the way I express stuff,” he maintains. “I have more confidence than ever, and I have these great tracks with the greatest guitar players on the planet on them, and making music with great artists and friends, and making friends with this music.”

Clapton lent his guitar talents to a song called “If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Dion says that when it came time for Eric to record his part, “he said…’I’m gonna play this standing up like I’m playing for 20,000 people.’ And he did, man. He walked in the studio and did this thing, and I tell you, it sounded like he was 19 years old.”

Springsteen and Scialfa, who also appeared on Blues with Friends, are featured on the new song titled “Angel in the Alleyways,” with Patti singing and Bruce contributing harmonica and tremolo guitar. Dion says Springsteen told him that Scialfa was responsible for “the whole arrangement” of the tracks they recorded.

Gibbons, another Blues with Friends contributor, plays guitar on the tune tune “My Stomping Ground.”

Dion says of Billy, “His guitar playing is so simple and recognizable…and so potent.”

Here’s the full Stomping Ground track list:

“Take It Back” — with Joe Bonamassa
“Hey Diddle Diddle ” — with G.E. Smith
“Dancing Girl ” — with Mark Knopfler
“If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll” — with Eric Clapton
“There Was a Time ” — with Peter Frampton
“Cryin’ Shame ” — with Sonny Landreth
“The Night Is Young ” — with Joe Menza and Wayne Hood
“That’s What The Doctor Said ” — with Steve Conn
“My Stomping Ground ” — with Billy Gibbons
“Angel in the Alleyways ” — with Patti Scialfa and Bruce Springsteen
“I’ve Got to Get to You ” — with Boz Scaggs, Joe Menza and Mike Menza
“Red House ” — with Keb’ Mo’
“I Got My Eyes on You Baby ” — with Marcia Ball and Jimmy Vivino
“I’ve Been Watching ” — with Rickie Lee Jones and Wayne Hood

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Deep Purple has released a cover of Huey “Piano” Smith‘s classic 1957 tune “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” as the third single from their upcoming studio album, Turning to Crime, which arrives this Friday, November 26.

The track is available now via digital formats, while an animated music video for the tune has debuted at the earMUSIC label’s official YouTube channel.  The clip tells the fantastical story of the rise and fall of a piano that plays music by itself.

As previously reported, Turning to Crime is the first Deep Purple album made up entirely of songs originally recorded by other artists. The band made the album remotely during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Regarding why the band chose to record “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu,” Deep Purple keyboardist Don Airey explains, “I’m supposed to say it’s a song I always wanted to do since I was a child, but at the same time it was quite new to me. I didn’t know the original very well, but I knew Professor Longhair‘s version, which is the one that inspired my arrangement.”

He adds, “I just love the whole thing, that style of piano playing…Very, very hard to replicate. It was a bit of a challenge. And when it came back from the other members of the band with all this other music on it, I just thought: ‘Wow, that worked out. What an insane arrangement!'”

Probably the best-known version of “Rockin’ Pneumonia” is the one by Johnny Rivers, which hit #6 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973.

Turning to Crime also includes covers of Fleetwood Mac‘s “Oh Well,” Bob Dylan‘s “Watching the River Flow,” Cream‘s “White Room” and more.

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Flowers will be blooming to the sound of new Megadeth music next year.

The long-awaited 16th album from Dave Mustaine and company, titled The Sick, the Dying…and the Dead!, is finally set to arrive in spring 2022.

That news comes courtesy of a recent interview Mustaine conducted with American Songwriter magazine. In the piece, Mustaine discusses the album’s title track, which he describes as a “historical journey” through Earth’s plagues and pandemics, starting with the Black Death bubonic plague that beset Eurasia and North Africa in the 1300s.

The Sick, the Dying…and the Dead!, the follow-up to 2016’s Dystopia, will be Megadeth’s first record to follow the firing of bassist David Ellefson, who was let go from the band after sexually explicit videos of him leaked online. The bass parts he’d already recorded prior to his departure are being re-recorded by someone else.

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Here’s wishing a very happy 80th birthday to singer/songwriter Jesse Colin Young, who came to fame as the frontman of the popular folk-rock band The Youngbloods.

The Youngbloods are most famous for their 1967 rendition of the oft-covered Chester Powers-penned peace anthem “Get Together.” Upon its initial release, the song only reached #62 on the Billboard Hot 100, but it was re-released in 1969 after it was used in a religion-themed TV and radio campaign and wound up going to #5 on the chart.

Young also wrote many original songs for The Youngbloods, including the popular 1969 tune “Darkness, Darkness,” which was later covered by various artists, among them Mott the Hoople, Eric Burdon, Robert Plant and Ann Wilson.

Jesse had released a couple of solo albums before The Youngbloods were formed, and after the band broke up in 1972 he went back to his solo career.

His most successful solo effort was 1975’s Songbird, which peaked at #26 on the Billboard 200. His most recent collection of new songs is Dreamers, released in 2019.

Last year, Young teamed up with Steve Miller for a new version of “Get Together” that was released as part of the WhyHunger charity’s SongAid campaign. Young also recorded a new rendition of the tune with acclaimed ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro that appears on the latter artist’s new collaborative album Jake & Friends.

Young’s newest single is a cover of the 1971 Cat Stevens tune “Trouble” that Jesse recorded as a duet with his daughter, Jazzie Young.

The track, which is available now via digital formats, celebrates the 50th anniversary of Harold and Maude, the quirky film that featured “Trouble” on its soundtrack.

You can check out a music video for the duet at Young’s official YouTube channel.

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Just in time for the holidays, Blackmore’s Night, the renaissance folk-rock band led by former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and his wife, singer Candice Night, has released an expanded and remastered version of its 2006 Christmas album, Winter Carols.

Available as a two-CD set and digitally, the updated Winter Carols features the original album’s tracks, as well as a brand-new recording, a rendition of the 16th century tune “Coventry Carol”; the four songs from the group’s 2020 holiday EP, Here We Come A-Caroling; five live performances that previously were released as part of a 2013 Winter Carols reissue; and more.

Blackmore’s Night’s version of “Coventry Carol” also features added lyrics by Night and new musical arrangements by Blackmore.

Coinciding with the release of the expanded Winter Carols, an animated music video for the original Blackmore’s Night tune “Christmas Eve” has premiered at the band’s official YouTube channel.

The festive clip features computer-animated images of Santa Claus and his gift-filled, reindeer-drawn sleigh flying over a snow-covered town as children go ice skating and people walk around a brightly lit Christmas tree in the town square.

Here’s the full track list of the expanded Winter Carols album:

CD 1
“Coventry Carol”
“Deck the Halls”
“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”
“O Christmas Tree”
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/O Come All Ye Faithful”
“I Saw Three Ships”
“Winter (Basse Dance)”
“Ding Dong Merrily on High”
“Ma-O-Tzur”
“Good King Wenceslas”
“Simple Gifts (Lord of the Dance)”
“We Three Kings”
“Wish You Were Here” (2021 Version)
“Emmanuel”
“Christmas Eve”
“We Wish You a Merry Christmas”

CD 2
“Crowning of the King”
“Here We Come A-Caroling”
“It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”
“O Little Town of Bethlehem”
“Silent Night”
“Christmas Eve” (2013 Version)
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/O Come All Ye Faithful” (Live from Minstrel Hall)
“Emmanuel” (Live from Minstrel Hall)
“We Three Kings” (Live from Minstrel Hall)
“Ma-O-Tzur” (Live from Minstrel Hall)
“Good King Wenceslas” (Live from Minstrel Hall)

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Earlier this month, U2 returned with a new tune called “Your Song Saved My Life.” As guitarist The Edge tells Rolling Stone, there’s more where that came from.

“We are firmly locked in the tower of song and working away on a bunch of new things,” The Edge reveals.

“I’m just having so much fun writing and not necessarily having to think about where it’s going to go,” he explains. “It’s more more about enjoying the experience of writing and having no expectations or limitations on the process.”

U2’s November has also included the 30th anniversary of their hit 1991 album, Achtung Baby. Having previously hit the road in support of The Joshua Tree‘s 30th anniversary, The Edge is open to bringing back the Achtung Baby Zoo TV tour three decades later.

“I would love that and I couldn’t rule it out,” The Edge says. “I think [Zoo TV] is such a current thought. Back then we were we’re dealing with the overload and kind of the whiplash of 24/7 news cycles, which hadn’t been known before. It was the overload of cable TV and hundreds and hundreds of channels.”

He adds, “Little did we know that that was just the beginning of this avalanche of channels to kind of draw your attention.”

However, The Edge cautions that nothing yet has been officially planned. “We haven’t actually got to the point of doing anything more than this kind of talk, but I wouldn’t rule it out again,” he says.

In the meantime, you can hear “Your Song Saved My Life” on the soundtrack for the new animated film, Sing 2.

U2’s most recent album is 2017’s Songs of Experience.

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Whitesnake has parted ways with bassist Michael Devin, who’s been a member of the band since 2010.

The David Coverdale-fronted rock group announced the news Sunday in a post on the singer’s and his band’s social media pages.

The message reads in part, “WHITESNAKE & bassist Michael Devin have decided to go their separate ways after an amazingly successful decade together…We all wish Michael every success in his life & all his endeavours…We sincerely thank him for being part of our journey & for all his exceptional gifts he brought to WHITESNAKE…God speed, Michael…Know we love you & will miss you…& we wish you well. Once a snake…always a snake.”

The band also revealed that it’s “secured a new bass player who will be announced very soon.”

Besides taking part in many Whitesnake tours, Devin contributed his talents to three of the band’s studio albums — 2011’s Forevermore, 2015’s Deep Purple tribute The Purple Album and 2019’s Flesh & Blood.

Whitesnake’s current lineup features Coverdale, longtime drummer Tommy Aldridge, guitarists Reb Beach and Joel Hoekstra, keyboardist/backing vocalist Michele Luppi and multi-instrumentalist/backing singer Dino Jelusick. Jelusick joined the band earlier this year.

Last month, Whitesnake released a deluxe 25th anniversary reissue of their 1997 studio album Restless Heart. The band currently is scheduled to return to touring next year for their first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a European leg that kicks off May 10 in Dublin, Ireland.

❤️🔥❤️🔥💔❤️🔥❤️🔥 pic.twitter.com/YZcVxGVHP2

— David Coverdale (@davidcoverdale) November 21, 2021

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An acoustic guitar once owned and played on stage by Eric Clapton was the priciest collectible sold at a memorabilia sale hosted by Julien’s Auctions that took place November 19-20 at the Hard Rock Café in New York City.

The instrument, a 1968 Martin D-45 model that was played by Clapton at the debut live performance of his group Derek and the Dominos at London’s Lyceum Theatre in June 1970, fetched $625,000. The guitar was gifted by Clapton to singer/guitarist Dave Edmunds in 1976.

Another Clapton collectible, a partially handwritten working draft of the lyrics to Eric’s classic song “Layla” written on a Miami Beach, Florida, hotel’s stationery, was auctioned for $37,500.

Selling for the second-highest price at the auction was a 1976 Gibson Explorer electric guitar owned and stage-played by U2‘s The Edge, which brought in $437,500. Another guitar that belonged to The Edge, a blue Gibson Les Paul model, went for $96,000.

A cream-colored Fender Stratocaster Vintage ’57 reissue electric guitar that Pink Floyd‘s David Gilmour owned and played on stage with the band during the 1980s and ’90s sold for $200,000.

A Martin D-28 acoustic guitar that the late Elvis Presley played both on stage and off during the mid-to-late ’70s fetched $187,500.

An electric guitar belonging to another member of U2, frontman Bono, a green 2005 Gretsch Irish Falcon model, brought in $115,200. The instrument was signed in gold marker by Bono, who also drew gold flowers on it.

Also, an EVH Fender “Frankenstrat” guitar that the late Eddie Van Halen played on stage and that he and his brother, Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen, both signed, sold for $83,200.

Check out the auction’s full results at JuliensLive.com.

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Sammy Hagar is famously known as the Red Rocker, but he may be donning silver and black this afternoon, when he’ll be performing during the halftime show at the Las Vegas Raiders’ game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Sin City’s Allegiant Stadium.

Hagar will be joined by guitarist Vic Johnson, a member of Sammy’s backing groups The Circle and The Wabos, and the two musicians will be accompanied by the Raiders House Band.

Hagar’s set will include renditions of his former band Van Halen‘s “Right Now” and his 1982 solo song “There’s Only One Way to Rock.”

“It’s going to be a blast to come out…and rock the Raiders’ halftime show,” says Hagar in a statement. “I have a great deal of respect for [Raiders owner] Mark Davis and it’s incredible what he and the team have brought to Las Vegas, which is like a second home to me…I’ve done some cool things in my life, and this is up there.”

Sammy recently wrapped up a run of sold-out “Sammy Hagar and Friends” residency shows at the Las Vegas venue The Strat.

Hagar becomes the latest in a series of music stars who have performed at Raiders home games this season, joining Carlos Santana, electronic music artist DJ Marshmello and rappers Ludacris, Too $hort and Ice Cube.

The Raiders-Bengals game begins at 4:05 p.m. ET/1:05 p.m. PT.

Meanwhile, Hagar and The Circle will wrap up their 2021 tour schedule next month with the “A Toast to Texas” trek, a four-show outing taking place December 3 in Fort Worth, December 4 in San Antonio, December 6 in Austin and on December 8 in Houston.

Visit RedRocker.com for more details about Hagar’s itinerary.

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