Classic Rock News

A selection of special coins honoring The Beatles‘ Paul McCartney brought in over $750,000 at auction.

The rare currency auction house Stack’s Bowers Galleries handled the auction, which consisted of one gold and four silver pieces. Each weighed 5 kilograms, with all four bringing in a total of $753,600.

The gold one, which took 250 hours to make — including three days of polishing — was signed by the rocker during his 2024 Got Back tour in Paris. It sold for $600,000, making it one of the most valuable modern British coins ever sold.

The four silver coins, which have hand-enameling in the design of Paul’s psychedelic Magic Piano, sold for $38,400 each, way above their $5,400 value.

All of the coins came with a certificate of authenticity signed by McCartney. 

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Stevie Nicks is set to be inducted into the Pollstar Live! Hall of Fame, which honors artists, executives and venues “who have left an indelible mark on live music.”

The two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer will be honored during a ceremony at the 36th annual Pollstar Awards, taking place April 16 in Los Angeles.

“This year’s inductees have not only reached the pinnacle of success but have made an indelible impact on the industry, shaping its future and inspiring generations to come,” said Tim Leiweke, chairman and CEO of Oak View Group, which launched the Pollstar Live! Music Hall of Fame. “It’s an honor to celebrate these artists, executives, and venues whose passion and innovation continue to drive live entertainment forward.”

This year’s other honorees include promoters Barrie Marshall and Louis Messina, and the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.

The Pollstar Live! Hall of Fame launched in 2018, with Garth Brooks the first-ever inductee.

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Sting is set to headline a brand-new festival in Mexico.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer will headline the inaugural Mexican Caribbean Music Festival on May 17 at Zamna in Tulum, Mexico. The stop will be part of his Sting 3.0 tour, which has him backed by longtime guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas.

The festival will be a free event, although attendees will have to reserve tickets in advance.

Next up, Sting brings his tour to Cape Town, South Africa, on Tuesday. The tour returns to the U.S. with a three-night stand at Denver’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre, May 19, May 20 and May 22. A complete list of dates can be found at Sting.com.

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Foreigner is headed up north this fall for a Canadian tour that will feature the band fronted by guest vocalist Geordie Brown, who is quite familiar with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band’s music.

Brown starred as the male lead in the workshop production of the Foreigner musical, Juke Box Hero, The Musical, during its runs in Calgary in 2018, and Toronto in 2019.

“I was most impressed by Geordie’s performances of Juke Box Hero, The Musical in Canada,” Foreigner founding member Mick Jones shares. “He is not only a consummate vocalist, but a verified Broadway actor to boot. We look forward to welcoming him at our shows on Foreigner’s 2025 Canadian tour.”

The tour will actually serve as a lead-up to the launch of Juke Box Hero, The Musical, which is scheduled to go into production next year.

Foreigner’s Canadian tour is set to kick off Oct. 21 in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and wrap Nov. 7 in Kelowna, British Columbia. The band’s next U.S. show is June 11 in Highland, California.

A complete list of Foreigner dates can be found at foreigneronline.com.

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Dead & Company paid tribute to late Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh during their Dead Forever residency at the Sphere Las Vegas on Saturday night.

Fan-shot footage posted to social media shows the band playing Lesh’s classic tune “Box of Rain.” According to setlist.fm, it was the last song of the night and the first time they played the tune since Lesh’s passing in October.

During the performance the screens at the Sphere displayed archival photos of the Grateful Dead and Lesh.

Dead & Company — which features Bobby Weir and Mickey Hart, two of the last three surviving original members of The Dead — kicked off their latest Sphere residency on March 20. They will return to the venue on Thursday, with dates running through May 17. A complete list of shows can be found at deadandcompany.com.

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Eric Clapton, Elton John and Robert Plant are among the artists who have backed an open letter written by singer Ed Sheeran to U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, asking him to fund music education in schools.

The letter, which Sheeran shared on Instagram, is also backed by such artists as Coldplay, Harry Styles, members of Mumford & Sons, Snow Patrol and more. It asks Starmer to approve a music education package worth more than $300 million to “repair decades of dismantling music.”

“Learning an instrument and getting up on stage – whether in school or a community club – is now a luxury not every child can afford,” reads Sheeran’s letter. “As an industry, we bring [nearly $10 billion] into the U.K. economy, yet the next generation is not there to take the reins. Last year was the first in over 20 years without a UK global top 10 single or album in the charts. … The time to act is now.”

“Artists and industry can’t deliver on the world stage for the U.K. without schools, youth clubs and stages at home,” it continues. “Music in and out of school should be for all, not a few.”

Among the specific things the letter asks for: funding music in schools in the same way that sports are; training up 1,000 music teachers and stopping the closures of university music departments; launching 500 music apprenticeships nationwide; and diversifying the music curriculum.

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It appears that David Lee Roth has expanded his return to performing.

Back in January it was revealed that Roth would be one of the headliners at the annual M3 Rock Festival at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, in May. Now it looks like he’s added a new date to his schedule.

Although Roth hasn’t officially announced the second show, The Mountain Winery in Saratoga, California, has him on its calendar for a concert on Sept. 12.

A ticket presale is set to kick off Tuesday at 10 a.m., with tickets going on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m.

Both Roth shows will be the former Van Halen frontman’s first live performances since March 2020. He was supposed to play a Las Vegas residency in December 2021/January 2022, which was billed as his final shows, but it was canceled and he retired from performing.

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Carlos Santana has announced a new set of dates for his Las Vegas residency, An Intimate Evening with Santana: Greatest Hits Live.

Santana has added 15 new shows at the House of Blues inside Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in September and November, kicking off Sept. 17 and wrapping Nov. 16.

A fan presale begins Tuesday at 10 a.m. PT, followed by a Live Nation and Ticketmaster presale starting Wednesday at 10 a.m. PT. Tickets will then go on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. PT.

Santana will next return to the House of Blues on May 14 for a set of residency shows, but before that he’ll launch his Oneness tour on April 16 in Highland, California. A complete list of dates can be found at Santana.com.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is also set to release the new album Sentient on Friday. It is available for preorder now.

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On This Day, March 24, 1977…

Fleetwood Mac released the single “Dreams,” written by Stevie Nicks. The song was the second single off the band’s multiplatinum album Rumors.

“Dreams” went on to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming Fleetwood Mac’s only #1 single.

The song sold over one million copies, and also went to #1 in Canada.

In 2020 “Dreams” returned to the chart after a TikTok video created by Nathan Apodaca, in which he was skateboarding to the tune, went viral. The song returned to the Billboard Hot 100 at #22, peaking at #12 a week later.

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The next Metallica album won’t have any shortage of riffs.

Speaking with the Rolling Stone Now podcast, guitarist Kirk Hammett shares that he’s written 767 new riffs for the band’s follow-up to 2023’s 72 Seasons.

But while Hammett is stockpiling guitar parts, he says that he “[doesn’t] foresee us starting the next album for at least another year because we’re still finishing the 72 Seasons tour.”

“Once we fully finish this and go to all the outlying places like Asia and Australia and New Zealand, I think we’re gonna take a little bit of a break,” Hammett says. “Not too much of one, and then we’re gonna get right back into it.”

Meanwhile, Hammett says he’s also working on a full solo album to follow his 2022 instrumental EP, Portals.

“I guess the best way to describe it is it’s gonna be a fusion of all sorts of styles,” Hammett says of the upcoming solo record. “All of a sudden I’m writing classical progressions, and all of a sudden I’m writing more heavy stuff and all of a sudden I’m writing, like, a funk thing.”

“There will be vocals because the songs that I wrote scream for vocals this time around,” he continues. “So I’m like, ‘O.K., who’s gonna be doing the vocals?’ I don’t know. I hope I’m not — I already have too much to do on stage.”

Metallica will resume their tour in April.

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