Classic Rock News

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band will be spending even more time in Europe next year.

The rockers had already planned to be overseas in 2025 to make up for three 2024 shows that had to be postponed due to vocal issues, and now they’ve expanded the trek, adding eight new dates in cities they’ve never played before.

The tour will kick off with a two-night stand in Manchester, England, on May 17, with new shows in Lile, France; Liverpool, England; Berlin, Frankfurt and Gelsenkirchen, Germany; and San Sebastian, Spain.

The trek will include the rescheduled dates in Marseille, France; Prague, Czech Republic; and Milan, Italy, where they’ll end the tour with two nights June 30 and July 3.

A complete list of dates and ticket information can be found at brucespringsteen.net.

Bruce and the band are currently on a break from the road. They launch a Canadian tour on Oct. 31 in Montreal. In addition, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, a documentary giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at the tour, is set to debut Oct. 25 on Hulu and Disney+.

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Tuesday marks the 40th anniversary of U2’s fifth studio album, The Unforgettable Fire.

Following their fourth studio album, War, which featured future classics “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Year’s Day,” U2 decided on a change in direction, replacing longtime producer Steve Lillywhite with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois in hopes of moving them away from the more conventional hard rock sound of their previous release.

The album, recorded at Dublin’s Slane Castle and Windmill Lane Studios, produced the band’s first hit single, “Pride (In The Name of Love),” which featured a tribute to the late Martin Luther King Jr. The track was a top 40 hit for the Irish rockers, peaking at #33 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

And while “Pride” was the only hit single off the record, several other tunes — including the title track, “A Sort of Homecoming” and “Bad” — went on to become fan favorites. In fact, “Bad” is frequently performed at U2’s live shows, with the most notable performance happening at 1985’s Live Aid, in which Bono pulled a fan from the audience and danced with her. The performance served as a breakthrough for the band, exposing them to an audience of millions thanks to the TV broadcast of the concert.

The Unforgettable Fire was a #1 hit in the U.K. and peaked at #12 on the Billboard Album chart, matching the chart performance of War. It has since gone on to be certified triple Platinum by the RIAA.

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The Alarm’s Mike Peters has shared the good news that he is in complete remission following his latest battle with cancer. 

Peters was first diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2005; in April he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of blood cancer known as Richter’s syndrome. 

But now he says that after completing a blood cancer clinical trial and chemotherapy at The Christie Hospital in Manchester he is in remission.

“This means that I am also now in position to have a Stem Cell Transplant from an unrelated matched donor,” he shares, calling it “momentous news” since back in April he was told that without treatment he had a life expectancy of between two and 12 months.

“The ordeal is not over yet however, in fact the toughest challenge of the Stem Cell Transplant can only be faced once the search for the matching blood stem cell donor is complete,” Peters writes. He also urged folks to register themselves in order to save a life.

Peters thanked the staff at The Christie Hospital who treated him, as well as his wife, Jules, and two sons, Dylan and Evan. He also thanked his fans, noting, “I will be forever grateful to them for sharing in the concert experiences over these challenging last few months.”

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Lenny Kravitz is showing love for Frankie Valli after the pair saw each other out in public. 

The rockstar bumped into the The Four Seasons frontman while at the airport, prompting Kravitz to snap selfies of the pair and pen a message to the 90-year-old music great, which was posted to Instagram on Saturday.

“Just ran into the legendary Frankie Valli at the airport,” wrote Kravitz. “Nothing but respect for you sir. Endless hits and still touring at 90 years young. Love !”

Kravitz appeared in his usual leather jacket with dark sunglasses, with the “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” singer in a zip-up jacket for his airport outing.

Kravitz was recently recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His daughter, actress and filmmaker Zoë Kravitz, honored him with a sweet message. 

Valli, who has a star on the Walk of Fame himself, rose to fame in the 1960s, leading The Four Seasons to several hit songs, including “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)” and “Walk Like a Man.” The group also inspired the musical Jersey Boys.

Valli is currently on his Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons: The Last Encores tour. Kravitz kicks off his Blue Electric Light Las Vegas residency at the Park MGM on Oct. 18.

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A previously unreleased video from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers has just been released. 

The clip, “Between Two Worlds (French TV),” is a newly rediscovered video that was shot at the Record Plant in 1982 for French TV and features never-before-seen footage from the Petty Archive. 

The track is one of 12 rediscovered tunes included in the upcoming deluxe edition of Petty’s 1982 album, Long After Dark. Also included are Petty’s versions of his songs “Never Be You” and “Ways to Be Wicked,” which were previously recorded by Rosanne Cash and Lone Justice, respectively.

The Long After Dark reissue will released Oct. 18 in various configurations, including digital; a two-LP vinyl set pressed on red with black splatter vinyl; a three-disc CD and Blu-ray set; and various other color vinyl versions.

It is available for preorder now.

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Artists like U2, John Mellencamp, Sammy Hagar and more have taken to social media to pay tribute to actor/singer/songwriter Kris Kristofferson, who passed away Sept. 28 at the age of 88.

U2 shared a picture of frontman Bono and Kristofferson, along with a clip of Bono singing an a cappella version of the Kristofferson-penned tune “Help Me Make It Through The Night.” They captioned the clip, “Kris, may you rest in the peace you offered so many.” 

Mellencamp also shared a photo of him and Kristofferson, writing, “Thank you for the time you gave us and the beautiful music you made. Your name is written in the stars.”

And Sammy posted a picture of himself and Kristofferson on a boat showing off their catch of the day, captioning it, “heynow old friend. I hope the fishin’s good where you’re going. we’re all gonna miss you. RIP.”

Other stars paying tribute to Kristofferson on social media include Metallica, Green Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong, Melissa Etheridge, Sheryl Crow and Russell Crowe.

Kristofferson’s death was announced Sunday with a post on his official Facebook account, revealing he “passed away peacefully,” although a cause of death was not revealed. Some of Kristofferson’s most famous songs include “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night.”

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Billy Joel has announced two new shows for 2025, which he says will be his only European dates for the year.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is set to play Scottish Gas Murrayfield in Edinburgh, Scotland, on June 7, and Anfield Stadium in Liverpool, England, on June 21.

Tickets for both shows go on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

The two new shows are just the latest additions to Billy’s 2025 schedule. He recently announced four new shows with Sting, in Indianapolis, Syracuse, Charlotte and Salt Lake City, and one with Stevie Nicks in Detroit, with tickets for all shows going on sale Friday. 

As for the rest of this year, Billy has two more shows with Sting on the books, in San Antonio and Las Vegas, plus a solo show in Inglewood, California, and a New Year’s Eve show in Long Island, New York. A complete list of dates can be found at billyjoel.com.

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Imagine playing with The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who and The Kinks, and then going on to play with all four Beatles separately — not to mention Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart, Peter Frampton, Jerry Garcia, The Jefferson Airplane and more. Such was the life of piano player Nicky Hopkins, one of the most prolific and gifted session men in rock history. His story will now be told in a new documentary called The Session Man: Nicky Hopkins, which hits Amazon Prime and other platforms on Nov. 5.

The documentary features commentary and interviews by the Stones’ Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Bill Wyman, plus The Who‘s Pete Townshend, Peter Frampton, The Kinks‘ Dave Davies, E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren, Benmont Tench of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Spinal Tap‘s Harry Shearer and many more, as well as interviews with Hopkins recorded before his death in 1994 at age 50.

Hopkins, who inspired The Kinks’ song “Session Man,” was a founding member of the Jeff Beck Group and played onstage with Jefferson Airplane at Woodstock. But overall, his ill health — caused by Crohn’s disease — kept him from being able to tour regularly as a group member.

Hopkins can be heard on Joe Cocker’s “You Are So Beautiful” and The Beatles’ “Revolution.” He played on more than 250 albums in all, including such classics as The Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet, Exile on Main St. and Let It Bleed; The Who’s Who’s Next and The Who By Numbers; Jeff Beck‘s Truth; The Kinks’ Face to Face and Something Else; John Lennon‘s Imagine; Ringo Starr‘s Ringo; Rod Stewart‘s Blondes Have More Fun; Carly Simon‘s No Secrets; and Paul McCartney’s Flowers in the Dirt.

The Session Man: Nicky Hopkins will be available on DVD later this year.

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The Black Crowes have been forced to cancel an upcoming concert in Kentucky due to the devastation of Hurricane Helene.

“Due to travel complications caused by Hurricane Helene, The Black Crowes show scheduled for Oct. 1 in Pikeville, KY at Appalachian Wireless Arena has unfortunately been canceled,” reads a message on the band’s Instagram Story. 

All ticketholders will receive refunds for their purchase.

The Black Crowes kicked off the second leg of their Happiness Bastards tour on Sept. 27 in Northfield, Ohio. Their next show is scheduled for Oct. 3 in Simpsonville, South Carolina. A complete list of dates can be found at theblackcrowes.com.

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On This Day, Sept. 30, 1983 …

Bruce Springsteen released the solo album Nebraska.

The album featured 10 acoustic songs Springsteen originally recorded as demos on a four-track recorder. He’d planned to rerecord them with the E Street Band but instead released them as a solo acoustic record.

The album was a critical darling and peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200 album chart, with his biggest hit being “Atlantic City,” which reached #10. 

Some of the songs on the demo that didn’t make it on Nebraska were later rerecorded with the band and wound up on Springsteen’s multi-Platinum #1 record, Born in the U.S.A.

The film Deliver Me From Nowhere, an adaptation of Warren Zanes‘ 2023 book about the making of the album, is currently in the works with The Bear star Jeremy Allen White starring as The Boss.

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