Rod Stewart is set to release his 2012 Christmas album on vinyl for the very first time.
Merry Christmas, Baby, which features Rod’s take on such holiday classics as “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” “Santa Claus is Coming To Town,” “White Christmas” and more, will be released on two-LP blue ice vinyl on Oct. 4.
The vinyl will also include two bonus tracks that previously appeared on the deluxe edition of the album, covers of “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)” and “Silver Bells.”
Originally released in October 2012, Merry Christmas, Baby, was a top 10 hit for Rod, peaking at #3 on the Billboard 200 album chart. It features collaborations with Mary J. Blige, Chris Boti, Michael Bublé, CeeLoGreen and more.
Elton John‘s new documentary is screening at multiple film festivals this fall, but you’ll be able to watch it at home in December.
Elton John: Never Too Late will arrive on Disney+ on Dec. 13. It’ll take a look at Elton’s extraordinary 50-year career through the lens of preparations for his final North American tour date at LA’s Dodger Stadium. The movie will also feature a new, original song by Elton. There’s no word on whether that song will be included on the new album that Elton and Bernie Taupin have said they’ve completed.
If you’d rather see Elton on the big screen, the doc will also have a limited theatrical run starting Nov. 15 in the U.S. and the U.K. And if you want to see the actual concert that Elton is preparing for, you can watch Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium on Disney+ now. Elton became an EGOT winner in January 2024 when he won an Emmy for that special.
As previously reported, Never Too Late will get its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September, followed by screenings at the New York Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival.
Previously unseen footage of David Bowie has just been released to help promote the upcoming Dolby Atmos release of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.
The footage, shot by late Bowie collaborator and photographer Mick Rock, is taken from the 1972/1973 U.K. Ziggy Stardust tour and has Bowie performing the album’s classic track “Starman.”
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars’ first ever Dolby Atmos release is coming to streaming services and Blu-ray audio on Sept. 6. The release features four iterations of the album: the 2024 Dolby Atmos mix, 2024 Stereo and two different versions of the original 1972 Stereo Mix – 2012 remaster.
“(Bowie) was so theatrical I think being able to put him into an immersive place makes this a really good choice for an Atmos mix,” Ken Scott, who co-produced Ziggy Stardust, shares. “My whole philosophy with this has been to make it more like a live experience. Hopefully it just feels as if you’re in the theatre with this amazing show going on.”
The Beatles manager Brian Epstein died at the age of 32.
Epstein died from a drug overdose and was found by his butler in his London home, although his staff removed any drug paraphernalia from the house before calling the police. His death was officially ruled an accident. None of The Beatles attended Epstein’s funeral in order to avoid any unnecessary media attention.
Epstein, known as The Fifth Beatle, managed the band from 1962 to his death. He met them in December 1961 when they performed at The Cavern Club in Liverpool and was the one who was tasked with firing original drummer Pete Best, who was later replaced by Ringo Starr.
Epstein managed other artists during his career, including Gerry and the Pacemakers, Cila Black and The Moody Blues.
A movie about Epstein, Midas Man, recently premiered at the 2024 Toronto Jewish Film Festival. It stars Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as Epstein, with a cast that also includes Emily Watson, Eddie Marsan, Jay Leno and Eddie Izzard.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Gordon Parks Foundation
Patti Smith is one of several famous New Yorkers fighting to save a public garden in Manhattan, and it’s a location that’s very important to the rock legend.
The Elizabeth Street Gardens in Little Italy is set to be demolished, but artists like Smith, Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese have sent a letter to Mayor Eric Adams to try to stop it.
In an interview with The New York Post, Patti shares that the garden has served as a safe space for her creativity.
“I’ve written poems there. I like to sit and think. It’s a good place just to think and contemplate,” Smith tells the paper. “I’m working on a book. It’s a work in progress and when I was in the garden I was writing about my mother.”
Patti, who’s written such books as Just Kids and M Train, has also performed at the garden, noting that “it’s not like (a) raucous atmosphere — it’s a very light-hearted, benevolent atmosphere where people are listening.”
She adds, “It’s inspiring. But it’s also calming. Sometimes I might want to go to the garden not to work, but to exist — just to feel blessed by my surroundings.”
“I’ve lived in the city off and on for over half a century, and these type of areas are fast diminishing,” Patti says. “And they’re worth fighting for.”
The Elizabeth Street Garden was built in the early ’90s by developer Allan Reiver. According to the paper, the demolition is expected to “begin in a matter of weeks” and is being done to make room for affordable housing.
In the letter to Adams, Smith described the garden as “an oasis of green space within our city,” adding it “truly stands as a work of art.”
“Affordable housing and green spaces are both essential assets and should not be pinned against each other,” she added.
The battle between Joey Ramone’s brother Mitchel Hyman (better known as Mickey Leigh) and Johnny Ramone’s widow Linda Cummings-Ramone continues, with the latest court documents filed by Mickey.
In documents filed in New York Friday, Mickey’s lawyers argue Linda’s violating federal trademark law by using the Ramones name, since Johnny’s real last name wasn’t Ramone.
The suit describes Linda as a “former Ramones groupie” who “has had an insatiable personal desire to shine a spotlight on herself,” adding she’s been “riding on the coattails of the Ramones.”
The suit calls out her use of the Ramones name, especially since it wasn’t any of the band members’ real last names, noting, “’Linda Ramone’ never existed while her husband, John Cummings (p/k/a Johnny Ramone) was alive.”
“Ms. Cummings-Ramone has made and continues to make blatant attempts to exploit and personally capitalize on and benefit from the name, goodwill and legacy of the Ramones — that is, to try to push the false narrative that she is the heiress to … the Ramones’ legacy,” the document reads. “She most certainly is not. She is nothing more than a blatant self-promoter and an infringer.”
Mickey is suing Linda for trademark infringement, trademark dilution and unfair competition.
Linda was the first to file a lawsuit in the battle between the pair. In January, she sued Mickey over a variety of issues, including what she called an “unapproved and unauthorized Ramones-based biopic” based on Mickey’s memoir, I Slept with Joey Ramone, referring to Netflix’s planned movie starring Pete Davidson as Joey.
Mickey responded by saying the claims were “baseless,” since she had agreed to the movie in March 2006, adding it was “not a ‘Ramones biopic’ but rather one based on a family memoir.”
Earlier this year, Eminem sampled Steve Miller Band’s ’80s classic “Abracadabra” for his track “Houdini,” and Miller says he’s amazed at how fast the song became a huge hit.
In an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune, Miller says the release of the tune gave him “a lesson about what social media has done to the record business.”
“When I put out ‘Abracadabra’ in 1982, it became the #1 record in the world and that took about 12 months,” he says. “With Eminem, two days after we signed our agreement, he released ‘Houdini’ at 12:01 a.m. on a Friday. Within 30 minutes, 60,000 people had watched the video on YouTube. By 10 a.m. it was 3 million. Nearly 50 million people streamed it, worldwide, in just the first week.”
He adds, “I’d never seen anything like that. It was crazy, just instantly. So, that was a real lesson.”
Miller describes Em as “very cool” and says of the collab, “It feels good that a whole other group of people are listening to my music (through Eminem) and digging it.”
Miller is currently the special guest on the Journey/Def Leppard Summer Stadium tour. The tour hits San Francisco on Wednesday.
During the first U.S. leg of their M72 tour in 2023, Metallica uploaded a video of fans being offered free passes to the exclusive Snake Pit section of the crowd, only to turn them down without realizing what they were saying no to. A year later, it appears people haven’t learned their lesson.
In a sequel video filmed during their current U.S. leg, a Metallica employee walks around the venue trying to give away Snake Pit wristbands, which give fans access to the part of the crowd right next to the stage. Some people skeptically accepted, while others just flat out ignored the offer. A number of fans, though, recognized the Snake Pit passes immediately and took them with great excitement.
“Just a reminder that if someone approaches you with Snake Pit passes… take them!” Metallica says.
Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour is set to launch a solo tour this fall in support of his upcoming solo album, Luck and Strange, and it seems he’s changed his mind about whether he plans to play any Pink Floyd songs on the trek.
Gilmour previously suggested in an interview he didn’t want to “revisit the Pink Floyd of the ’70s” on the tour, but it sounds like that’s no longer the case.
“One has to wake up to reality once in a while,” he tells Rolling Stone. “I think I will be doing one or two things from that time, but it just seems so long ago.”
He adds, “I know people love them, and I love playing them. I’ll be doing ‘Wish You Were Here,’ of course I will. And some of the things that started with me anyway.”
Gilmour also noted it’s “quite likely” the set will include “Comfortably Numb,” but probably not “Money” “if that’s your reason for coming.”
Gilmour also seems to be backtracking on previous comments he made suggesting Luck and Strange was the best album he’s made since Pink Floyd’s 1973 classic The Dark Side of The Moon.
“It’s a flip statement, really,” he says. “I mean, it’s not like Dark Side the Moon is even my favorite album. I think I prefer Wish You Were Here.”
He adds, “Anyway, it feels to me like it’s the best thing I’ve done in more or less my living memory, because some of those things feel like they were someone else, back in those eons ago.”
Gilmour will release Luck and Strange on Sept. 6. He’ll launch his solo tour on Sept. 27 in Rome, Italy, with U.S. dates kicking off Oct. 25 in Los Angeles. A complete list of dates can be found at davidgilmour.com.
Looks like Tom Petty fans have something to look forward to.
The late rocker’s official Instagram account just teased that they have some big news to share and folks will be finding out soon.
“We’ve been working on something really special for a long time for the core Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers fans,” the post reveals. “We’ve dropped a few clues along the way, but we think you’ll be delighted at what’s to come this fall.”
The Petty website also launched a countdown to the announcement, which appears to be coming on Friday.
Petty passed away in 2017 at the age of 66. An all-country Petty tribute album, Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty, was released earlier this year.
