Classic Rock News

Green Day has announced a new live album, The BBC Sessions.

The 16-track set collects each of the punk trio’s four performances at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios, recorded in 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2001, together for the first time on one album. It’ll be released December 10.

Leading up to the record’s arrival, Green Day will be dropping one song from The BBC Sessions each week. The first selection is the 1994 rendition of the song “2000 Light Years Away,” which you can download now via digital outlets.

Last month, Green Day wrapped their Hella Mega stadium tour alongside Weezer and Fall Out Boy. The band’s most recent album is 2020’s Father of All…

Here’s the track list for The BBC Sessions:

“She” (Live at the BBC June 8 1994)
“When I Come Around” (Live at the BBC June 8 1994)
“Basket Case” (Live at the BBC June 8 1994)
“2000 Light Years Away” (Live at the BBC June 8 1994)
“Geek Stink Breath” (Live at the BBC November 3 1996)
“Brain Stew/Jaded” (Live at the BBC November 3 1996)
“Walking Contradiction” (Live at the BBC November 3 1996)
“Stuck with Me” (Live at the BBC November 3 1996)
“Hitchin’ a Ride” (Live at the BBC February 12 1998)
“Nice Guys Finish Last” (Live at the BBC February 12 1998)
“Prosthetic Head” (Live at the BBC February 12 1998)
“Redundant” (Live at the BBC February 12 1998)
“Castaway” (Live at the BBC August 28 2001)
“Church on Sunday” (Live at the BBC August 28 2001)
“Minority” (Live at the BBC August 28 2001)
“Waiting” (Live at the BBC August 28 2001)

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Expanded and remastered versions of The Band‘s fourth album, Cahoots, will be released on December 10, in commemoration of its recent 50th anniversary.

Released in September 1971, Cahoots peaked at #21 on the Billboard 200 and featured such notable tunes as “Life Is a Carnival,” the Canadian-American roots-rock group’s rendition of Bob Dylan‘s “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” and the Van Morrison collaboration “4% Pantomime.”

Among the versions of the 50th anniversary Cahoots reissue is a Super Deluxe box set featuring two CDs, a 180-gram vinyl LP, a Blu-ray disc, a 7-inch vinyl single, a photo booklet and more.

The updated version of the album was mixed by lauded engineer Bob Clearmountain, and overseen by Band guitarist/main songwriter Robbie Robertson.

Robertson explains, “I told Bob, ‘There are no rules. So, every mix we do, I want to start from scratch. I don’t even want to listen to the original. I want to listen to the way we hear it now and be fearless and experimental with it.”

The expanded reissue also features alternate versions of six of the album’s songs, two outtakes from the sessions, and 11 performances from a May 1971 concert at the Olympia Theatre in Paris.

The LP features the remastered original album, while the Blu-ray includes three mixes of Cahoots and some of the bonus tracks — a Dolby Atmos, a 5.1 surround sound and the new stereo mix. The seven-inch single features “Life Is a Carnival” backed with “The Moon Struck One.”

The new mix of “Life Is a Carnival” has been made available as an advance digital track.

The Cahoots reissue, which you can pre-order now, is also coming out as a two-CD set, digitally, and on vinyl.

Here’s the track list of the reissue’s CDs:

CD 1:
“Life Is a Carnival”
“When I Paint My Masterpiece”
“Last of the Blacksmiths”
“Where Do We Go from Here?”
“4% Pantomime”
“Shoot Out in Chinatown”
“The Moon Struck One”
“Thinkin’ Out Loud”
“Smoke Signal”
“Volcano”
“The River Hymn”

Bonus Tracks
“Endless Highway” (Early Studio Take, 2021 Mix)
“When I Paint My Masterpiece” (Alternate Take, 2021 Mix)
“4% Pantomime” (Takes 1 & 2)
“Don’t Do It” (Outtake — Studio Version, 2021 Mix)
“Bessie Smith” (Outtake)

CD 2:*

Live at The Olympia Theatre, Paris, May 1971 (Bootleg, Partial Concert)
“The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show”
“We Can Talk”
“Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever”
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”
“Across the Great Divide”
“The Unfaithful Servant”
“Don’t Do It”
“The Genetic Method”
“Chest Fever”
“Rag Mama Rag”
“Slippin’ and Slidin'”

Bonus Tracks
“Life Is a Carnival” (Instrumental)
“Volcano” (Instrumental)
“Thinkin’ Out Loud” (Stripped Down Mix)

* = tracks are previously unreleased.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Slash has announced a new album with Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators.

The fourth studio effort from the Guns N’ Roses shredder and his solo band is fittingly titled 4, and will arrive February 11, 2022.

Our first preview of 4 is the previously teased single “The River Is Rising,” which you can download now via digital outlets.

Slash and company will launch a U.S. tour next year in support of 4 starting February 8 in Portland, Oregon. Tickets go on sale to the general public starting next Friday, October 29, at 10 a.m. local time, with various pre-sales happening throughout the week.

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

Here’s the 4 track list:

“The River Is Rising”
“Whatever Gets You By”
“C’est la Vie”
“The Path Less Followed”
“Actions Speak Louder than Words”
“Spirit Love”
“Fill My World”
“April Fool”
“Call Off the Dogs”
“Fall Back to Earth”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Are you ready to rock ‘n’ roll with Ringo Starr? The famed ex-Beatles drummer has debuted a music video for his new cover of the Bill Haley and His Comets classic “Rock Around the Clock,” which appears on Starr’s recently released Change the World EP.

The tune features Ringo’s brother-in-law, Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, ripping through a couple of wailing solos.

The video, which you can check out on YouTube, features footage shot at Starr’s Roccabella West home studio of Ringo singing and playing drums, as well as Walsh doing his thing on guitar.

Session bassist Nathan East and Starr’s frequent studio collaborator Bruce Sugar also appear in the clip. The track also features backing vocals from Amy Keys and Windy Wagner.

Ringo says he decided to record his own version of “Rock Around the Clock” because he was reminiscing about the impression the song had on him when he first heard it on his 15th birthday.  His grandparents took him to see the movie Blackboard Jungle in a theater then while he was recovering from tuberculosis.

Starr recalls that when the song came on, the audience “ripped up the cinema!!! They just threw the chairs and went crazy. I thought, ‘WOW this is great!’ I remember that moment like it was yesterday, it was incredible. And the song just rocks.”

“Rock Around the Clock” is one of four songs featured on Change the World, along with “Let’s Change the World,” “Coming Undone” and “Just That Way.” The EP is available now on CD, cassette and digitally. A 10-inch vinyl version will be released on November 16, and can be pre-ordered now.

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Guns N’ Roses are cashing another major paycheck after wrapping the U.S. leg of their 2021 Tour.

Billboard reports that the hard-rock legends sold a whopping 363,000 tickets during their rescheduled tour, which was postponed last year when COVID-19 shut down the entertainment industry. That number of tickets sold amounts to a $50 million payday for GN’R.

Originally called the 2020 Tour, the outing started on Super Bowl Weekend in January of last year at American Airlines Arena in Miami. About 11,200 tickets were sold for the event, which translated into $2.7 million in cold hard cash.

GN’R eventually pumped the brakes as the pandemic worsened and the tour was moved to summer 2021. However, the delay did little to dampen the cash flow because when the tour picked up again on July 31 at Pennsylvania’s Hersheypark Stadium, the outing made history at the time for becoming the concert with the best single-night earnings during the pandemic-era. That summer concert earned a resounding $2.3 million in ticket sales.

As the tour went on, that record was continually broken — for example, the band raked in $4.5 million at New Jersey’s Metlife Stadium on August 5.

Now, with their U.S. leg in the rearview mirror, the band is taking a breather before hitting the road again next year for the third leg of their tour, which kicks off in Lisbon, Portugal on June 4.

The tour is slated to wrap December 10, 2022 in Auckland, New Zealand.

That said, it’ll be awhile before we find out how their pandemic-era trek measures up to their previous Not in This Lifetime… Tour, which ran for four years and earned $584.2 million in ticket sales — making it the third highest-grossing concert tour in history.

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Don McLean‘s classic anthem “American Pie” and album of the same name were released 50 years ago this Sunday, October 24.

With “American Pie,” which was the album’s lead track and centerpiece, McLean used the tragic 1959 plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper — referred to in the tune as “the day the music died” –as a launching point to metaphorically trace the history of rock ‘n’ roll through the turbulent 1960s, while also reflecting on the loss of innocence America experienced during the era.

“American Pie” spent four weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1972, while the album topped the Billboard 200 for seven weeks around that time. American Pie also featured a second hit, the acoustic ballad “Vincent,” an homage to painter Vincent Van Gogh that peaked at #12 on the Hot 100.

“American Pie,” of course, has become among the most enduring songs of its time.

“It’s been a hit record on steroids,” McLean tells ABC Audio. “[O]ther hits have been forgotten that were around or…if you listen to them now, they sound silly…This song is majestic and it continues to grow.”

Reflecting on the song, Don says, “[I]t’s entertaining on a number of levels…I had a blast writing it and thinking about it and laughing and thinking, ‘Oh, this is funny, I’ll do this,’ or ‘I won’t do that.'”

As for “Vincent,” McLean notes with a laugh, “I hear people saying that the song has actually made [Van Gogh] famous, more famous than he was before. That makes me feel funny…because he was already a god, really, in [the realm of art].”

As previously reported, McLean will launch a 50th anniversary American Pie tour this January in Honolulu.

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For many years, Doors guitarist Robby Krieger and his friend, sports artist Scott Medlock, teamed up to organize an annual celebrity golf tournament and all-star concert to benefit the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. However, with Medlock himself battling cancer, this year’s edition of the event will feature Krieger joined by various musical friends at a special show to raise money for Scott’s medical bills.

The event, dubbed the “Celebration of Friendship” All-Star Concert — Scotty, Robby & Friends, takes place this Sunday, October 24, at Bogie’s Bar in the Los Angeles suburb of Westlake Village, California.

“Unfortunately, Scotty has got cancer and it’s gotten…bad,” Krieger tells ABC Audio. “So we’re just doing it for him and his family this year, trying to raise some money for them, because it’s amazing how much drug companies will charge for chemotherapy.”

While an official lineup for the show hasn’t been announced, Krieger reveals that the event will feature performances by “a lot of cool people,” including ex-Chicago drummer Danny Seraphine and his current group, a couple of members of Boston, and former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora and his collaborator and one-time girlfriend Orianthi.

“It should be fun,” Robby says.

You can check out the various tickets and VIP packages that are available for the benefit concert by visiting TheMedlockKrieger.org and Eventbrite.com.

Some ticket packages include an autographed copy of Krieger’s new memoir, Set the Night on Fire: Living, Dying, and Playing Guitar with The Doors, which was released earlier this month.

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Hey, Dave Grohl, another rocker needs to use your throne.

On Wednesday, Wolfgang Van Halen revealed that he’d sprained his ankle after he “ate s*** walking off the bus” while on tour with his Mammoth WVH solo band. He also shared a photo of the boot he was to wear for the next month or so, adding that he was going to be “Dave Grohl-ing” it for Mammoth’s show Hunstville, Alabama, last night.

Grohl, of course, broke his leg after falling off the stage during a 2015 concert. For the Foo Fighters tour later that year, he sat on a giant, guitar-adorned throne while his leg healed.

Following the Huntsville concert, Wolf posted photos of him playing the show while sitting on a much more humble stool.

“Welp…Never done that before, but we pulled it off!” Wolf wrote in the caption. “Thanks to Huntsville for making it such a special show!”

Mammoth’s tour continues Thursday in Knoxville, Tennessee. They’ll also be playing this weekend’s Shaky Knees festival in Atlanta along with Foo Fighters, so maybe Grohl can bring the throne then.

Grohl previously lent the throne to Axl Rose to use after he broke his foot in 2016. Just last month, Grohl sent it to Darin Wall, the bassist for the Seattle-based metal band Greyhawk, who was recovering from being shot in the leg while defending others from a gunman outside an Idaho music venue.

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The soundtrack to the new psychological thriller film Last Night in Soho features a variety of memorable 1960s tunes by British artists, including The Who, The Kinks and Dusty Springfield.

The album will be released on Friday, while the film is scheduled to open in theaters on October 29.

Last Night in Soho focuses a character named Eloise, an aspiring fashion designer who can travel back in time to 1960s London, where she meets a wannabe pop singer named Sandie, portrayed by The Queen’s Gambit star Anya Taylor Joy.

The movie was written and directed by Edgar Wright, whose previous films include Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Baby Driver. Wright curated the soundtrack and says the songs he assembled for the film actually inspired the script and story.

The soundtrack includes The Who’s cover of the Motown classic “(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave” and The Kinks’ “Starstruck,” as well as songs by Dusty Springfield, Peter & Gordon, The Searchers, Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw and The Walker Brothers. The movie’s title is taken from a song of the same name by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, which also is featured on the soundtrack.

In addition, Taylor Joy recorded multiple versions of Petula Clark‘s classic pop hit “Downtown” for the soundtrack and the film’s original score, and she’s featured performing the tune in the movie.

You can check out a video of Taylor Joy performing the “Downtempo” version of “Downtown” on YouTube now.  The track’s also been released as an advance digital single from the Last Night in Soho — Original Score album.

You can pre-order the soundtrack and score now.

Here’s the full track list of the Last Night in Soho soundtrack:

“A World Without Love” — Peter & Gordon
“Wishin’ and Hopin'” — Dusty Springfield
“Don’t Throw Your Love Away” — The Searchers
“Beat Girl” (1993 Remaster) — The John Barry Orchestra
“Starstruck” — The Kinks
“You’re My World” — Cilla Black
“Wade in the Water” (Live at Klooks Kleek) — The Graham Bond Organisation
“I’ve Got My Mind Set on You” — James Ray
“(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave” — The Who
“Puppet on a String” — Sandie Shaw
“Land of 1000 Dances” — The Walker Brothers
“There’s a Ghost in My House” — R. Dean Taylor
“Happy House” — Siouxsie & the Banshees
“(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me” — Sandie Shaw
“Eloise” — Barry Ryan
“Anyone Who Had a Heart” — Cilla Black
“Last Night in Soho” — Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
“Neon” (Soundtrack Edit) — Steven Price
“Downtown” (A Capella) — Anya Taylor-Joy
“Downtown” (Uptempo) — Anya Taylor-Joy

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More details have been announced about the upcoming Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne biopic.

According to Variety, the film will be produced Polygram Entertainment in partnership with Osbourne Media, the company of Ozzy and Sharon’s children Jack and Aimee. Sony Pictures is also handling development.

Meanwhile, the film’s script will be written by Oscar-nominee Lee Hall, who previously penned the 2019 Elton John biopic, Rocketman.

As previously reported, the movie is set to focus on the lives of the heavy metal couple through the lens of their relationship. Variety reports that it will include music from Black Sabbath and Ozzy’s solo career.

“Our relationship at times was often wild, insane and dangerous but it was our undying love that kept us together,” says Sharon in a statement to Variety. “We’re thrilled to partner with Sony Pictures and Polygram to bring our story to the screen.”

In a Rolling Stone article published last summer, Sharon said she wanted the film to feel different from the 2018 Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, which she called a “Hallmark rock movie.”

“Our film will be a lot more real,” Sharon said. “We don’t want it to be squeaky, shiny clean and all of that. We’re not making it for kids. It’s an adult movie for adults.”

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