Classic Rock News

A unique piece of John Lennon memorabilia is set to go up for auction in October.

The tinted prescription glasses the Beatles legend wore during his “Lost Weekend” era of 1973 to early 1974 are set to go on the auction block as part of Propstore’s Music Memorabilia Live Auction. 

Lennon’s “Lost Weekend” was a period of 18 months where he was separated from wife Yoko Ono and in a relationship with his former assistant May Pang. 

The round metal frames, known as Windsor Glasses, were first worn by Lennon during the filming of the 1967 Richard Lester movie How I Won The War. They also appeared on the cover of his 1973 single “Mind Games.”

Lennon infamously lost the glasses during a fight at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in March 1974, which started after Lennon and musician Harry Nilsson got drunk and began heckling the Smothers Brothers during their performance at the venue.

The glasses were originally part of a Sotheby’s Collector’s Carousel auction in June 1987. They were then sold again during Christie’s Popular Culture: Rock & Pop Memorabilia Auction in July 2008.

They are estimated to sell for somewhere between $200,000 and $400,000. Bidding will open in person and online on Oct. 23. More info can be found at Propstoreauction.com.

In other Lennon news … A video has been released for the song “Sunday Bloody Sunday” from John and Yoko’s Plastic Ono Band with Elephant’s Memory.

The song is part of the upcoming box set Power to the People (Super Deluxe Edition), produced by the couple’s son, Sean Ono Lennon. It will be released Oct. 10, on what would have been John’s 85th birthday.

It is available for preorder now.

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KISS founding member Ace Frehley has canceled a Friday concert appearance in California after injuring himself in a fall.

“Dear Rock Soldiers, Ace had a minor fall in his studio, resulting in a trip to the hospital,” read a post on the guitarist’s social media pages. “He is fine, but against his wishes, his doctor insists that he refrain from travel at this time.”

“As a result, he is forced (to) cancel his performance at the Antelope Valley Fair in Lancaster, California on Friday, September 26th,” the post continues.

Frehley’s page encourages fans to go to the show anyway and check out Quiet Riot and Vixen, who are also on the bill.

The post also gave fans an update on what Ace has been up to, noting he “looks forward to continuing on his tour and finishing work on his next album, Origins Vol. 4.”

Origins Vol. 2 is a covers album that was released in 2020. Origins Vol. 3 is expected out sometime in 2025, although no release date has been revealed.

Frehley’s next scheduled concert is Oct. 11 in Decatur, Illinois. A complete list of dates can be found at AceFreheley.com.

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The debut album from Robert Plant and Saving Grace, titled Saving Grace,  is out now, and to mark the release the artists have shared a video for one of the tracks.

The clip is for their cover of Moby Grape’s “It’s a Beautiful Day Today,” a track penned by Bob Mosley for the album Moby Grape ’69.

Plant and Saving Grace — drummer Oli Jefferson, guitarist Tony Kelsey, banjo and string player Matt Worley, cellist Barney Morse Brown and vocalist Suzi Dian — have been touring together since 2019, but this is their first album.

Plant describes Saving Grace as “a song book of the lost and found.” In addition to the Moby Grape tune, it has them covering songs by Memphis Minnie, Blind Willie Johnson and Low.

Robert Plant and Saving Grace are set to kick off a North American tour Oct. 30 in Wheeling, West Virginia, wrapping Nov. 23 in Valley Center, California. A complete list of dates can be found at RobertPlant.com.

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Guns N’ Roses, Foo Fighters and Foreigner are among the artists contributing songs to The Majesty of Rock, a digital tribute album to the mock-rock band Spinal Tap.

The officially sanctioned album, which also features contributions from Tool, Queens of the Stone Age, System of a Down, The Go-Go’s, Kyuss, Robyn Hitchcock, Soul Asylum and more, is raising money for the nonprofit Teen Cancer America, which aims to improve the lives of teens and young adults who have cancer.

“The spirit of Spinal Tap has always been about turning it up to 11, and that’s exactly what we aim to do for young people with cancer,” Shannon Sullivan, executive director of Teen Cancer America, says. “This tribute album is a fun, powerful way to raise crucial funds and awareness for the unique challenges facing this age group.”

She adds, “We are incredibly grateful to the brilliant artists who have lent their talents to this project and to the creators of Spinal Tap for allowing us to celebrate their genius for a cause that is so important.”

The Majesty of Rock features 32 covers from the Spinal Tap catalog, including a performance from Teen Cancer America’s Play It Back Players. Only 5,000 digital copies are available for download for a minimum donation of $19.84, a tribute to the year the original This is Spinal Tap was released.

This is Spinal Tap was directed by Rob Reiner and starred Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer. It followed a fictional heavy metal band being filmed for a documentary.

The film’s sequel, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, is in theaters now.

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Mötley Crüe is celebrating the 40th anniversary of their third studio album, Theatre of Pain, with a new limited-edition deluxe vinyl box set.

Dropping Nov. 14, the box set includes a remastered version of the album on colored vinyl with reimagined artwork, as well as an LP of rare demos and a double-LP of a never-before-released 1985 concert in Long Beach, California, both of which also come on colored vinyl. It also comes with a 76-page hardcover book with never-before-published photos from the band’s Theatre of Pain tour.

As a preview of the set, Mötley Crüe has shared a previously unreleased live version of their classic tune “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” from the 1985 Long Beach concert. It is now available via digital outlets.

The Theatre of Pain anniversary will also be marked with several other reissues, including a standard CD and LP, an exclusive CD and LP variant at Walmart, exclusive LPs at Amazon, Urban Outfitters and independent retailers, and a limited-edition 40th anniversary cassette on the band’s online museum, Crüeseum. The album will also be released in standard audio and Dolby Atmos.

Theatre of Pain (40th Anniversary) is available for preorder now.

Released in June 1985, Theatre of Pain was Mötley’s first album to reach the top 10 in the U.S., peaking at #6. It featured future Mötley classics “Smokin’ in the Boys Room,” which became their first top-20 hit, and the power ballad “Home Sweet Home,” a song the band recently released as a collaboration with Dolly Parton.

Mötley Crüe is currently in the middle of their Las Vegas residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM, which runs through Oct. 3. Their next show is on Friday. A complete list of dates can be found at motley.com.

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Bruce Springsteen is set to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live! when the ABC host brings his late night show to Brooklyn from Sept. 29 to Oct. 3.

The Boss is confirmed as a guest for the special week in New York, as is The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White, who plays Springsteen in the upcoming movie Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, opening Oct. 24.

This is Jimmy Kimmel’s seventh time bringing the show to Brooklyn. Springsteen previously appeared on one of Kimmel’s Brooklyn shows back in 2019.

All Brooklyn episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! will tape in front of a live studio audience from the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House.

Other guests during Brooklyn week include Emily Blunt, Stephen Colbert, Tom Hanks, Josh Johnson, Spike Lee, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Kumail Nanjiani and Ryan Reynolds, along with musical guests Geese, Living Colour, Public Enemy and Reneé Rapp.

In other Springsteen talk show news … Actor Jeremy Strong, who plays Bruce’s manager Jon Landau in Deliver Me From Nowhere, appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Thursday, where he revealed that he was a big Springsteen fan and even had Springsteen’s “If I Should Fall Behind,” from 1992’s Lucky Town, played at his wedding. 

As for appearing in the movie, about Springsteen’s making of 1982’s Nebraska, Strong shared, “Nebraska is an album I’ve always loved, so to give back even a modicum of something to give back to someone who has given so much to all of us was a real privilege.”

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On This Day, Sept. 26, 1979 …

U2 made their recording debut with the release of a three-song EP, aptly titled Three.

The release featured the songs “Out of Control” and “Stories for Boys,” which were both later rerecorded for their debut album, Boy. The other song on the release was the B-side “Boy/Girl.”

U2, of course, went on to huge success, releasing 14 studio albums and selling over 150 million records worldwide. They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.

Three was later reissued in November 2019 as part of Record Store Day Black Friday, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of its original release.

U2’s last release was 2023’s Songs of Surrender, which featured reworked versions of previously released songs. They have reportedly been working on a new album, which frontman Bono has described as a “an unreasonable guitar record.”

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Ozzy Osbourne may be gone, but his unmistakable voice now lives on … for a good cause.

A charity version of the Black Sabbath classic “War Pigs” has been released: It’s a collaboration between Judas Priest and the late Prince of Darkness. Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton, who suffers from Parkinson’s as Ozzy did, performed on the track, and all proceeds will go to The Glenn Tipton Parkinson’s Foundation and Cure Parkinson’s.

Judas Priest usually uses “War Pigs” as their walk-on song, and they released their own version of it on July 2 as a tribute to Black Sabbath, because they weren’t able to perform at the band’s final Back to the Beginning show in Birmingham due to previous touring commitments.

Priest frontman Rob Halford later said in an interview that Sharon Osbourne liked their version of the song so much that she suggested Ozzy be added to the recording. When Priest suggested the song be released to raise money for Parkinson’s, the Osbournes approved.

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The inaugural CBGB Festival is taking place Saturday at Under the K Bridge Park in Brooklyn, New York, but if you can’t make it, you can watch it online.

The event features Iggy Pop — doing his first New York show in more than a decade — as well as Jack White, Sex Pistols, Johnny Marr, The Damned, Melvins, Lunachicks and Marky Ramone, plus current acts like The Linda Lindas.

The streaming platform Veeps will livestream the festivities Saturday starting around 4:30 p.m. CT, and it’ll be free for fans worldwide. The only catch? You’ll have to watch it live, because there won’t be a replay option. Claim your free ticket now at Veeps.com/cbgb.

If you decide you want to attend in person, tickets are still available at CBGBFest.com.

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Paul McCartney, Patti Smith and R.E.M.‘s Michael Stipe are among the artists contributing original artwork to an upcoming benefit for Housing Works NYC.

The Turn it Up art benefit will take place at Housing Works’ Crosby Street location on Oct. 9, with donated pieces auctioned off to benefit the organization’s mission to provide housing, health care, and other services to people living with HIV/AIDS and other chronic conditions.

Other musicians contributing pieces to the benefit include Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Sean Lennon, Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, Interpol’s Paul Banks and Chappell Roan, with more artists expected to join.

Information on tickets can be found at housingworks.org/events.

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