Classic Rock News

As previously reported, a new exhibit opening in June at London’s National Portrait Gallery will feature never-before-seen photos taken by Paul McCartney during the height of Beatlemania. Well, if you can’t get to London to see them, you’re in luck, because they’ve been compiled into a new book. 

McCartney’s 1964: Eyes of the Storm will be released June 13, featuring 275 photos taken in late 1963/early 1964 just as The Beatles were exploding across the world. These photos were all taken on a 35 mm camera and were rediscovered by McCartney in 2020.

The book includes a forward by McCartney, and focuses on photos of him and his bandmates, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, in six cities — Liverpool, London, Paris, New York, Washington, D.C., and Miami — with McCartney providing an introduction for each city. 

“Anyone who rediscovers a personal relic or family treasure is instantly flooded with memories and emotions, which then trigger associations buried in the haze of time,” Sir Paul shares. “This was exactly my experience in seeing these photos, all taken over an intense three-month period of travel, culminating in February 1964. It was a wonderful sensation to be plunged right back.”

He adds, “Here was my own record of our first huge trip, a photographic journal of The Beatles in six cities, beginning in Liverpool and London, followed by Paris (where John and I had been ordinary hitchhikers three years before), and then what we regarded as the big time, our first visit as a group to America.”

The book sells for $75 and is available for preorder now.

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Ozzy Osbourne, Joan Jett and Gary Clark Jr. will be appearing in an upcoming Super Bowl commercial.

The three rockers will appear in an ad for the company Workday, which provides enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources.

Ahead of the game, Workday has shared clips from the commercial featuring Osbourne and Clark. In the Ozzy clip, the Prince of Darkness sports a shirt and a tie as he interacts with his confused co-workers, while Clark accepts a “rock star” compliment that his colleague thinks is for him.

According to a press release, the full ad will also feature “a few more well-known rockers.”

“Workday knows that it takes a ‘rock star’ to drive transformation, keep employees engaged, and run businesses efficiently,” says Pete Schlampp, Workday’s chief marketing and strategy officer. “If you high-five your co-workers as a rock star after seeing our ad in the Big Game, that’s a win in our book.”

Super Bowl LVII takes place February 12 in Glendale, Arizona.

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Uriah Heep is giving fans another taste of their upcoming album. The band just dropped the new single “Hurricane” from their 25th studio album, Chaos & Colour, which comes out Friday. 

“Simon (Pinto) and I wrote the song about how our ancestors looked at storms and how these can be interpreted as being messages from the Gods,” drummer Russell Gilbrook, who co-wrote the tune, shares. “Their power is awesome and a great inspiration for a rocking track!” 

“Hurricane” is the second track Uriah Heep has released from Chaos & Colour, following “Save Me Tonight.” The album is available for preorder now.

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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers fans are getting a new look at the band’s famed 20-show residency at San Francisco’s iconic Fillmore back in 1997. The band just released a 12-minute video, The Fillmore House Band – 1997 (Short Film 2), which features footage from the shows, along with commentary from the band members.

“You feel the history; you feel the ghosts,” guitarist Mike Campbell shares about the venue. “And you feel the magic that’s happened – it’s sort of dripping on the walls.” 

“The Fillmore to me is an event, it’s a place in time,” keyboardist Benmont Tench adds. “Being that close to the fans was better … When you’re in a smaller space that’s enclosed like that, then the concentration of the energy, the concentration of the band, the focus, is different.” He noted, “That’s got a really serious kind of magic … It’s incredible.”

The video follows the November release of the Live at the Fillmore (1997) box set, which featured performances recorded during the final six shows of the residency, and included guest appearances by The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn and blues legend John Lee Hooker.

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Foo Fighters will headline Germany’s 2023 Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals, taking place June 2-4.

Dave Grohl and company take the place of the reformed Pantera, which was dropped from the lineup earlier this week.

Statements posted to both festivals‘ Facebook pages read, “In the last few weeks, we have had many intensive conversations with artists, our partners and you, the festival fans, we have continued to deal with the criticism together and decided to remove the band from the program.”

According to German news site DW.com, said criticism stems from when Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo yelled “white power” while giving the Nazi salute during a performance at the 2016 Dimebash concert, held in honor of late guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott.

Other artists on the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park lineups include Machine Gun Kelly, Rise Against, Limp Bizkit, Evanescence and Bring Me the Horizon. For more info, visit Rock-am-Ring.com and Rock-im-Park.com.

For Foo Fighters, Rock am Ring and Rock im Park are part of the band’s live comeback this year following the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins in 2022. The group is also set to headline this year’s Bonnaroo, Boston Calling and Sonic Temple festivals.

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Metallica’s new album, 72 Seasons, is dropping April 14, but fans will now have a chance to hear the whole thing one day early, thanks to a just-announced global listening party. 

The one-night-only 72 Seasons global premiere, presented by Metallica and Trafalgar Releasing, is coming to movie theaters worldwide on April 13 and will feature the album played in full in surround sound, accompanied by a new music video for each track. The band will also talk fans through each track with exclusive commentary. The band promises “a few surprises” for attendees. 

“This is a monumental opportunity for Metallica fans to be the first to hear the new album,” Kymberli Frueh, of Trafalgar Releasing, shares. “We are thrilled to be a part of this historical global moment—connecting Metallica with their fans once again.”

Tickets for the listening party go on sale March 2 at metallica.film.

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Photographs taken by Paul McCartney during the height of Beatlemania will be the subject of a new exhibit at London’s National Portrait Gallery. 

Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm is set to run from June 28 to October 1 and feature never-before-seen photographs taken by the Beatle. The portraits on display are from McCartney’s own archive and were taken between December 1963 and February 1964. They give fans an insight into McCartney’s point of view as the band members were becoming international superstars.  

The BBC reports that gallery director Dr. Nicholas Cullinan says Sir Paul approached them in 2020 about the photos, “which he remembered taking but thought had been lost.” Cullinan notes, “We sat down with him and began going through the photographs and they are really extraordinary.”

Paul McCartney Photographs will be the National Portrait Gallery’s first major exhibition when it reopens June 22 after three years of renovation. Tickets to the McCartney exhibit are available for preorder now.

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In addition to fronting KISS, Paul Stanley has had a successful career as an artist for over 20 years. While he has made millions on his pieces, that’s not necessarily what he considers a success.

“If I love what I do. If it validates, and even surprises me,” he tells INC of how he measures success. “When I’ve done a piece and think, ‘If I saw this somewhere else, I would like it.'” He adds, “The key, and the basis to everything, is to love what you’re doing. If I don’t love what I’m doing, it’s not worth doing. It’s a waste of time, and time is precious.”

He also encourages others to not be intimidated by making art themselves. “I tend to tell people to enjoy themselves,” he says. “Create. Paint. Don’t be limited by other people’s definition of ‘good.’ When you live by other people’s definitions, you’ll sell yourself short.”

And those skills can certainly apply to more than just art. “If you’re drawn to doing something, do it. Don’t worry about what other people think,” he shares. “I’ve always found that if I do something I like, lots of other people will like it too, because people aren’t that different.”

He adds, “Whether it’s music, or theater, or painting … I’m not catering. I’ve only ever catered to myself. Please yourself, and other people will enjoy it too — and that’s the bonus.”

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Grunge pioneers Mudhoney have announced a new album called Plastic Eternity.

The 11th full-length effort from the “Touch Me I’m Sick” rockers will arrive April 7. You can listen to lead single “Almost Everything” now via digital outlets.

“We like each other and we like being in a band together,” says frontman Mark Arm of Mudhoney’s continuing output. “Some people have poker night or whatever the f***, and they have the excuse to get together with their friends. For us, this [band] is that. This is what we do.”

Plastic Eternity is the follow-up to 2018’s Digital Garbage. Here’s the track list:

“Souvenir of My Trip”
“Almost Everything”
“Cascades of Crap”
“Flush the Fascists”
“Move Under”
“Severed Dreams in the Sleeper Cell”
“Here Comes the Flood”
“Human Stock Capital”
“Tom Herman’s Hermits”
“One or Two”
“Cry Me an Atmospheric River”
“Plasticity”
“Little Dogs”

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Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony are celebrating the 28th anniversary of the Van Halen album Balance, and marked the occasion by sharing a performance of the song “Amsterdam” from The Jon Stewart Show, which aired on MTV in 1995.

“Happy anniversary to ‘Balance’! The ‘Balance’ record was such a great record, but it was during hard times for the band, and a very hard record to make,” Sammy shares. “A lot of painful dark images, bickering amongst the band, health issues, but this live performance of ‘Amsterdam’ on the Jon Stewart show shows how great this band was live.”

Anthony adds, “By the time the ‘Balance’ record came out, there was lots of tension within the band, personally, and professionally.” He noted, “One thing that was understood though was that the music was the important thing, and when we got together to play live we kicked a**, be it in concert or guesting on a TV show.” He adds, “This clip of us on Jon Stewart shows we were still delivering the goods!!!” 

Balance, Van Halen’s 10th studio album, was released January 24, 1995, and was the last to feature Sammy on vocals. It went to number one on the Billboard 200 album chart and in 2004 was certified triple Platinum by the RIAA.

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