Classic Rock News

“Do They Know It’s Christmas?,” the song that invented the concept of the all-star charity record, is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The occasion will be marked with a special new version of the song, featuring vocals from the artists who’ve sung on different versions of the song over the years mashed together.

The original “Do They Know It’s Christmas?,” spearheaded by Bob Geldof, was released in 1984 and credited to Band Aid, a collection of U.K. stars that included U2‘s Bono and Adam Clayton, Sting, Phil Collins, Duran Duran, Paul Young and dozens more. The song was later revived in 1989, 2004 and 2014, each time with the artists who were popular at that moment.

According to the BBC, the 40th anniversary “ultimate mix” will be released Nov. 25, and a new video will be released featuring archival footage of the late David Bowie introducing the singers. The song will be part of a compilation album due out Nov. 29. 

The BBC reports that voices appearing on the new version will include Sting, Bono, Boy George, Sam Smith, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Harry Styles, Ed Sheeran, the late George Michael and the late Sinéad O’Connor, singing to music recorded over the years by Paul McCartney, Collins, members of Radiohead, Blur and more.

“Do They Know It’s Christmas?” raised millions for famine relief in Ethiopia and led to the 1985 all-star benefit concert Live Aid. Over the last 40 years, the Band Aid Charitable Trust has raised nearly $180 million for that cause and others.

The original version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” was the bestselling single in U.K. history until it was eclipsed by Elton John‘s Princess Diana tribute, “Candle in the Wind ’97.”

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Elton John can afford to eat at any restaurant in the world, but there’s one course he can’t eat: dessert. That’s why he says if he was on death row, his final meal would contain nothing but dessert.

Elton and his husband, David Furnish, are the guests on the latest episode of the podcast Ruthie’s Table 4, hosted by British chef Ruth Rogers of London’s Michelin-starred restaurant The River Cafe. During their discussion, Elton reveals that he’s “semi-diabetic,” so he’s sworn off sugar completely — he hasn’t eaten it “for a long time,” he says.

“What I crave is chocolate and ice cream, I can’t have any ice cream,” Elton says. “I love ice cream.” All that he’s allowed, he says, is “an apple” or “a bit of melon.”

As a result, Elton says, “If I had a death row meal, it wouldn’t contain anything except sweets, because I can’t eat them now. So I’d have ice cream, doughnuts, apple pie, rhubarb crumble, blah blah blah.”

Elton and David also talked about their first date, which involved food. A lot of food.

The two initially met at a dinner party at Elton’s house — he was a friend of a friend, David says. Elton asked for his number that night, called him the next day and invited him over for a dinner of takeout Chinese food.

“I arrived at the house and there’s four giant cardboard boxes on the kitchen counter and the table is set for two,” David recalls. “I said, ‘Who else is coming? What’s all this food for?’ Elton didn’t know what I like, so he ordered the entire menu.”

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Rush’s Alex Lifeson is launching yet another new guitar. The rocker’s company Lerxst has just revealed the new Grace limited-edition signature guitar, made in partnership with Canadian manufacturers Godin Guitars.

The new axe is inspired by Lifeson’s Hentor Sportscaster guitar that he used in 1984 while recording and touring behind Rush’s 10th studio album, Grace Under Pressure. Like the original, Grace is red with a mirror pickguard.

This is the second guitar launched by Lerxst. The first, the Limelight guitar, was inspired by the Hentor Sportscaster that Lifeson used before recording Rush’s 1981 album, Moving Pictures.

“We were blown away by the positive feedback we got from the release of Limelight earlier this year and knew that we wanted to do another one,” Lifeson shares. “With Grace, we wanted to pay tribute to the 40th Anniversary of Grace Under Pressure by building off of my favorite guitar from that period and – much like Limelight – evolving the concept to create an instrument with a sound and playability that would speak to modern players.”

He adds, “It’s a beautiful instrument that suits many different styles of playing and the mirrored pickguard comes in handy for late night sessions when you need, um, to check, ah, your hair or something.”

More information on the Lerxst Grace can be found at the official Lerxst Reverb Shop.

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U2’s Larry Mullen Jr. has teamed with pop star GAYLE, best known for the tune “abcdefu,” on a new song, “Between the Lines,” which they co-wrote for the new movie Left Behind, Billboard reports.

The film tells the story of the New York City mothers who fought to open the city’s first public school for dyslexic children; it’s personal to both artists, as GAYLE and Mullen’s son both have dyslexia.

“I was really anxious that when I agreed to do [the song] that somebody who actually had dyslexia was involved and they would do the lyrics,” Mullen tells Billboard. “It was just completely fortuitous and luck that myself and GAYLE kind of fell into each other.”

Mullen, who is one of the film’s producers, said creating the song with his two co-writers and GAYLE was “a collide of cultures, two different eras coming together. And the collision is kind of a beautiful one despite the musical differences.”

Mullen only recently returned to music, having been sidelined by neck surgery that caused him to sit out U2’s residency at Sphere Las Vegas.

“It was great to be able to do this track because I could play on it, whereas six months ago, I couldn’t,” he said.

Left Behind will premiere Jan. 17 in New York City.

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The Experience Hendrix Tour, celebrating the music of the legendary Jimi Hendrix, has announced new dates for 2025.

The trek, which returned in 2024 for the first time in five years, features an all-star lineup that includes guitarists Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Zakk Wylde and Eric Johnson, along with Devon Allman, Samantha Fish, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and Marcus King, who’s joining the tour for the first time.

The 2025 tour is set to kick off March 11 in Cincinnati, hitting such cities as Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit and Washington, D.C., before wrapping April 12 in Atlanta.

“It’s a beautiful and powerful phenomenon to witness!” Janie Hendrix, president and CEO of Experience Hendrix and co-founder of the tour, says. “We have all of these incredibly talented musicians, each with their own special vibe, coming together in celebration of Jimi and his music.”

She adds, “You can feel the energy and the love being poured out on stage and every audience adds to the electricity! It’s amazing!”

The lineup for each Experience Hendrix show varies depending on the city. A complete schedule, with lineups and ticket information, can be found at experiencehendrixtour.com.

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Lynyrd Skynyrd is set to play several dates on the 2025 Rock the Country touring festival, which will be headlined by Kid Rock and Nickelback. 

Skynyrd is confirmed for five festival dates: April 5 in Livingston, Louisiana; April 26 in Knoxville, Tennessee; May 3 in Poplar Bluff, Montana; May 31 in York, Pennsylvania; and June 14 in Hastings, Michigan.

Depending on the day, the bill will also feature artists including 3 Doors Down, Travis Tritt, Hank Williams Jr., Staind‘s Aaron Lewis and Lee Greenwood.

Tickets go on sale Friday, and presales are open now. For more info, visit RocktheCountry.com.

Next up, Lynyrd Skynyrd is set to play the Rock N’ Support hurricane relief concert in Palmetto, Florida, on Nov. 15, with special guest Marcus King. A complete list of Skynyrd dates can be found at lynyrdskynyrd.com.

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Roger Daltrey has confirmed that The Who will be back on the road next year.

The Belfast Telegraph reports that the rocker told the PA news agency that The Who has “a couple of things planned for next year.”

Daltrey just announced a new 2025 solo tour of the U.K., but shared, “The Who aren’t finished yet, I feel that I’m singing possibly better than I have for years.”

“Our music is very, very different than most rock music, we should keep doing it,” he adds. 

When it comes to touring with The Who again, Daltrey says that he “can’t go through the motions,” noting, “I have to be totally committed, and then if the money comes, that’s great.”

He describes the band’s last tour with an orchestra as “the pinnacle” and says fans can expect something different with the next one.

“The only place we can go now is back to the beginning, when we’re raw, small and raw, and bring back the jamming, because we used to do a lot of that,” he says. “Maybe we should do a bit more of, let’s give them what we feel like giving them, and dig in and maybe we’ll find something else.”

He adds, “It maybe needs to get a bit more dangerous.”

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Bruce Springsteen took a break from his Canadian tour to travel to New York and perform at the 18th annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit Monday night at David Geffen Hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

According to setlist.fm, The Boss played a four-song acoustic set that included “The Power of Prayer,” “Land of Hope and Dreams,” “Dancing in the Dark” and “Long Walk Home.”

Fan-shot video posted online shows that he called “Long Walk Home” “a small prayer for our country.” During his post-election show in Toronto on Nov. 6, he called the tune “a fighting prayer for my country.”

In addition, as he’s done in the past at Stand Up For Heroes, Bruce treated the audience to a few dirty jokes. According to Rolling Stone, they included jokes about a woman who takes her husband to a strip club where everyone knows him, and a guy who’s surprised to find his girlfriend pregnant.

Stand Up For Heroes, with a lineup that also included Norah Jones and DJ Questlove, along with comedians Jim Gaffigan, Jon Stewart, Jerry Seinfeld and Mark Normand, raised over $29 million for the Bob Woodruff Foundation, which supports our nation’s veterans, service members and their families.

Springsteen is set to return to Canada on Wednesday with a show in Winnipeg. The Canadian leg of the tour wraps Nov. 22 in Vancouver.
 

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On This Day, Nov. 12, 1988 …

U2 topped the Billboard 200 Album chart with Rattle and Hum, the soundtrack to their documentary of the same name.

The album, produced by Jimmy Iovine, featured a combination of live and studio recordings. Live tracks included performances of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “Pride (In The Name of Love)” and “Bullet The Blue Sky,” as well as a live cover of The Beatles track “Helter Skelter.”

It also featured studio tracks “Desire,” a top five hit for the band, “Angel of Harlem” and “When Love Comes to Town” featuring B.B. King.

The album would be U2’s second #1 record, spending six weeks on top of the chart. They went on to have a total of eight #1 albums over the course of their career, their last being 2017’s Songs of Experience.

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Bryan Adams, Steve Winwood and The Doobie Brothers are among the contenders for the 2025 class of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. 

The organization just announced the artists in the running for induction next year, with Adams, Winwood and Doobie Brothers members Tom Johnston, Patrick Simmons and Michael McDonald getting nominated in the performing songwriters category.

Others nominated in that category include The Beach Boys’ Mike Love, Boy George, David Gates of Bread, George Clinton, Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette, Janet Jackson, Eminem, Tommy James and Dr. Dre, Easy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella of Public Enemy.

In the non-performing category, the nominees include the folks who wrote or co-wrote hits like Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Pat Benatar‘s “Love Is A Battlefield,” The Foundations‘ “Build Me Up Buttercup,” The Four Tops‘ “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got),” The Commodores‘ “Nightshift” and Whitney Houston‘s “How Will I Know.”

Some of the people nominated this year have been in the running for the Hall of Fame in the past, including Adams, Winwood, The Doobie Brothers and Clinton. 

Nominees become eligible 20 years after their first “significant commercial release of a song.” Voting will run through Dec. 22, and the inductees will be celebrated at a gala event in New York City next year.

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