Classic Rock News

Legendary rock band 10cc is set to hit the road this summer on what will be their first North American tour in over 30 years. 

The Ultimate, Ultimate Greatest Hits Tour will have the band playing 20 cities starting July 24 in Montclair, New Jersey. The trek hits New York, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Nashville, Dallas, Los Angeles and more before wrapping August 17 in San Francisco.

The live band will consist of founding member Graham Gouldman, Rick Fenn, Iain Hornal and Keith Hayman.

As the title suggests, the tour will have the band performing their greatest hits, including such classics like “The Things We Do For Love,” “I’m Not In Love,” which appeared on the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack in 2014, and “Dreadlock Holiday,” which was included in 2010’s The Social Network.

“They don’t seem to date,” Gouldman says of the band’s hits. “We never followed any trend we simply wrote for our own pleasure. The fact that the songs are being played as often on the radio as they ever were shows how true that is.”

Ticket info and a complete list of dates can be found at 10cc.world.

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Lily Gladstone did not go home Sunday with an Oscar, but perhaps, a shoutout from Pearl Jam‘s Jeff Ament might be a nice consolation prize.

In a Facebook post paying tribute to the Killers of the Flower Moon star, the bassist and fellow Montana native writes, “Let’s all celebrate Lily Gladstone! So proud to watch a fellow small town Montana artist grow in to such a force of talent, passion and grace.”

“Native stories and storytellers are finally beginning to receive the recognition they deserve,” Ament continues. “Well done Lily and congrats to Blackfeet Nation and Indian Country everywhere.”

Gladstone was nominated for Best Actress and would’ve become the first Native American to win in the category. However, the Oscar went to Poor Things‘ Emma Stone.

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Sting is hitting the road this fall on a brand new tour that will see him performing with a much smaller band in much smaller venues.

The rocker just announced dates for the Sting 3.0 tour, which will have him playing multiple nights in theaters across the country, backed by guitarist and longtime collaborator Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas. 

The tour will kick off with a two-night stand at The Fillmore Detroit on September 17 and 18, and wrap with two nights at The Wiltern in Los Angeles on November 12 and 13. The tour will also feature multiple night stands in Toronto, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Chicago and San Francisco, plus single nights in several other cities.

A presale for Sting fan club members kicks off Monday, March 11, with a Citi presale starting Tuesday, March 12, at 10 a.m. Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday, March 15, at 10 a.m.

Next up for Sting, he plays San Diego’s Petco Park with Billy Joel on April 13. He’s also booked to headline California’s Beachlife Festival on May 3. A complete list of Sting dates can be found at sting.com.

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The late Jimmy Buffett will be celebrated with an all-star tribute concert coming to Los Angeles in April.

Keep The Party Going: A Tribute to Jimmy Buffett will take place April 11 at the Hollywood Bowl, featuring performances by several of Buffett’s friends and collaborators, including Paul McCartney, who appeared on Buffet’s final album, Equal Strain on All Parts, the Eagles, Jon Bon Jovi and Jackson Browne.

Buffett’s longtime backing band The Coral Reefer Band is also booked for the special one-night only concert, as are Kenny Chesney, Sheryl Crow, Brandi Carlile, Zac Brown, Jack Johnson, Eric Church, Jake Owen, Pitbull, Mac McAnally and more. The show promises more special guests.

An American Express presale kicks off Wednesday, March 13, at 10 a.m., with tickets going on sale to the general public on Friday, March 15, at 10 a.m. 

Buffett passed away September 1 after a four-year battle with Merkel cell skin cancer, a rare and aggressive form of skin cancer. He was 76. 

He will also be celebrated at this year’s Jazz Fest in New Orleans. The Coral Reefer Band is scheduled to play the festival’s closing night, Sunday, May 5, with their set dubbed Celebrating Jimmy Buffett.

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On This Day, March 11, 1970…

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young released Déjà Vu, the second album released by David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, and the first to feature Neil Young. 

The album spent one week at #1 and featured three Top 40 singles, “Woodstock,” “Teach Your Children” and “Our House,” as well as the classic track “Carry On.”

Déjà Vu has landed on several lists of the greatest albums of all time, and in 2012, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2023, it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry.

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Elton John‘s annual Academy Awards Viewing Party has been going on for 32 years, but this year’s edition was the most successful yet.

The start-studded event, co-hosted by Elton and husband David Furnish, Neil Patrick Harris and husband David Burtka, and Tiffany Haddish, raised a record-breaking $10.8 million for Elton’s AIDS Foundation. It also featured a performance from Elton, who took the stage with special musical guest, the band Gabriels, for his 2003 U.K. hit “Are You Ready for Love.”

A huge chunk of the money raised came from an auction held during the party. A Yamaha piano bedazzled in crystals and signed by Elton sold for over $360,000 after Elton joined the auctioneer onstage and played “Tiny Dancer” on the instrument. Two Elton pinball machines went for $200,000 each. 

Other items that were auctioned off included two of Elton’s Gucci bomber jackets, a meet-and-greet with Elton and David at their upcoming photography exhibit at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, and a Rolex from Elton’s personal collection, engraved to commemorate his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.

“So far, this has been an extraordinary year beyond my wildest dreams, including the honor of achieving the EGOT, but it’s tonight’s gathering that is the ultimate highlight,” Elton said in a statement. “I’m so grateful to everyone who comes out each year to have a lot of fun and do a whole lot of good together. We’ve been loud and proud about showing compassion and ending the dreadful stigma that follows HIV, and we won’t stop until we achieve our mission.”

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The early days of Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles career was explored in the first volume of the book The McCartney Legacy, and now the second volume is on its way.  

In celebration of National Book Day, a post on The McCartney Legacy social media account announced that Volume 2 of the series will be released on December 10, 2024.

The new edition will pick up where Volume 1 left off, covering McCartney’s life and career between 1974 and 1980, a time when he was enjoying huge success with his band Wings. 

The McCartney Legacy Volume 1, written by Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair, was released in December 2022. It covered the years between 1969 to 1974, delving into McCartney’s creative life right after The Beatles broke up. It featured interviews with fellow musicians, tour managers, producers and more.

Of course, McCartney has released his own book about his life, although it focused more on his music. The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present was released in November 2021.

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The Oscars saved the best for last when it came to performances of the Best Original Song nominees.

Best Supporting Actor nominee Ryan Gosling, wearing a pink sparkly suit, took the stage to perform a show-stopping rendition of the show-stopping number from Barbie, “I’m Just Ken.”  Joining him onstage were some of the other Kens from the film, including Simu Liu and Kingsley Ben-Adir, plus dozens of other male dancers, all wearing suits and black cowboy hats.

At one point, Gosling was lifted onto the shoulders of the dancers and the camera shot him from above, stretched out and surrounded by giant cut-out faces of a ’50s-era Barbie doll.  Then, the guitarists who performed on the recorded version of the song — Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen — appeared onstage to shred along with the song’s co-writer, Mark Ronson.

While all this was going on, the song’s lyrics flashed on giant screens in the theater, and Gosling went down to the front row to allow Barbie director Greta Gerwig and co-stars America Ferrera and Margot Robbie to sing along with the tune.

The overwhelming ‘Kenergy’ earned a standing ovation from the crowd.

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A short film inspired by John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s classic tune “Happy Christmas (War Is Over),” took home an Oscar Sunday night. 

War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko won the award for Best Animated Short Film, with the couple’s son Sean Ono Lennon on stage to help accept the award alongside filmmakers Dave Mullins and Brad Booker.

“John Lennon and Yoko Ono wrote a song that inspired us,” filmmaker Dave Mullins said in his speech. “It is an anti-war message that we tried to honor with this film.”

Sean used his time to give a shout out to his famous mom. “My mother turned 91 this February, and today is Mother’s Day in the U.K.,” he said. “So could everyone please say, ‘Happy Mother’s Day, Yoko!'” 

The 11-minute film follows a game of chess, with a heroic carrier pigeon helping the game continue across enemy lines. It ends with the classic tune playing over the closing credits.

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Pearl Jam‘s new single “Dark Matter” matters a great deal on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.

The title track off the grunge titans’ upcoming album has hit #1 on the tally, and, in doing so, has set a new Billboard record.

Prior to “Dark Matter,” Pearl Jam hadn’t led Mainstream Rock Airplay since 1998, or 26 years and two weeks ago, with “Given to Fly.” No other act has gone that long in between number ones in the 43-year history of Mainstream Rock Airplay. The next closest is Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who ended his 20-year, 11-month drought at the top of the chart in 2019 as a featured artist on Five Finger Death Punch‘s cover of his song “Blue on Black.”

The album Dark Matter drops April 19. Pearl Jam will launch a U.S. tour in May.

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