Classic Rock News

The Who is set to headline Teenage Cancer Trust benefit shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall on March 18 and 20, but Pete Townshend wants fans to know he will not be taking part in a separate Teenage Cancer Trust concert celebrating his bandmate Roger Daltrey. 

Townshend announced on Instagram he won’t be able to make the March 24 show, Ovation, a Celebration of 24 Years of Gigs for TCT, because of his commitments to Tommy the Musical, which opens on Broadway on March 28.

The concert is a celebration of Daltrey’s tenure as host and curator of the annual Teenage Cancer Trust concerts; he’s stepping down from the post after this year.

“I’m sorry for anyone who feels I have let them down,” Townshend shared in his post, “my New York dates have been in my calendar for several months and I have tried to address this calendar conflict with Roger and Who management without any result.”

He adds, “That said, Roger is perfectly capable of blowing your minds in a solo show without me, and has a wonderful array of guests lined up to celebrate his 24 years of producing and performing at the annual Teenage Cancer Trust Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall.”

“I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, Roger should have a knighthood for his Teenage Cancer Trust campaigning,” Pete writes.
 

As for those “wonderful array of guests” who’ll be joining Roger, they include Robert Plant with Saving Grace, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Stereophonics’ Kelly Jones and Paul Weller.

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Iron Maiden has announced a collaboration with the video game Dead by Daylight.

In Dead by Daylight, players can either be a Killer or one of four Survivors. As their titles suggest, the Killer is tasked with eliminating the Survivors, who must work together in order to do just that.

As part of the partnership with Maiden, Dead by Daylight players can now choose from a variety of costumes inspired by albums including Powerslave and Senjutsu for the Killer character to wear. Survivors can also suit up in a Maiden tour T-shirt.

You can check out a trailer now via the Dead by Daylight YouTube.

Iron Maiden has long been involved in the video game world with their Legacy of the Beast mobile game. In Legacy of the Beast, you play as Maiden mascot Eddie as you try to defeat different enemies. It’s also featured crossovers with bands including Disturbed, Ghost, Motörhead, Avenged Sevenfold and Five Finger Death Punch.

In Iron Maiden music happenings, the metal legends will launch a U.S. tour in October. Meanwhile, frontman Bruce Dickinson will release a new solo album, The Mandrake Project, on March 1.

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U2’s 1991 album Achtung Baby has won Ireland’s RTÉ Choice Music Prize for Classic Irish Album. 

In announcing the choice, the judging panel, made up of Irish music media and industry professionals, said “you cannot deny the album’s authenticity and significant cultural impact as one classic song after another unfolds over 55 minutes.”

They add, “To this day, it still resonates as a collection of songs that capture the spirit of change at both a personal as well as a societal level, when the Berlin wall came tumbling down, and Ireland sensed a change in the air.”

The panel also points out how the band’s Zoo TV tour “helped to reinvent the studio show,” and how U2 is doing that again with their Las Vegas residency dedicated to the album, U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere.

The RTÉ Choice Music Prize was established in 2005 to highlight the best in Irish music and “promote and showcase the health and growth of the local industry both within Ireland and overseas.”

The first-ever Classic Irish Album Award was handed out last year to Sinéad O’Connor’s 1990 release I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got.

U2’s Achtung Baby, produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, went to #1 on the Billboard 200 chart and featured two top 10 hits, “One” and “Mysterious Ways.” The band is playing the album in full during their Las Vegas Sphere residency, which only has four dates left: February 23 and 24, and March 1 and 6.

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Billy Joel is set to play a venue he’s never played before. That’s because it hasn’t actually opened yet. 

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer just announced a one-off show at the brand new Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, on October 15.

The venue, the future home of the Los Angeles Clippers, is expected to open in August, with Billy one of the first artists to announce a concert there. 

A presale for tickets kicks off Monday, February 26, at 10 a.m., with the general sale starting Friday, March 1, at 10 a.m.

Joel, who recently released “Turn The Lights Back On,” his first new single in 17 years, returns to the stage on Saturday, February 24, for a co-headlining show with Sting in Tampa, Florida. A complete list of Billy dates can be found at billyjoel.com.

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Judas Priest has dropped yet another track from their upcoming album Invincible Shield, which drops March 8. The latest is the song “The Serpent and the King,” described as “the most fist pumping track on the album.”

You can listen to “The Serpent and the King” via digital outlets and on YouTube.

This is the fourth single Priest has released from Invincible Shield. They launched the album with “Panic Attack,” followed by “Trial By Fire” and “Crown Of Horns.”

Invincible Shield, Priest’s first since 2018’s Firepower, is available for preorder now.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers are set hit the road in support of Invincible Shield in March. They kick off a U.K. and European tour in Glasgow, Scotland, on March 11 and will bring the tour to the U.S. starting April 18 in Wallingford, Connecticut. A complete list of dates can be found at judaspriest.com.

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Gibson Guitars has announced a new collaborative partnership with legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.

The news was announced during the launch of Gibson Garage London, which officially opens to the public on Saturday, February 24. It’s the guitar company’s first flagship store outside of the U.S.

“When I met with (Gibson President and CEO) Cesar (Gueikian) and he explained what the future of Gibson looked like, I knew I needed to be involved,” Page shares. “There is a spirit in the place; after seeing the people working at the factories and getting a connection with them, I knew that picking up that Les Paul Custom and the Doubleneck all those years ago was certainly the right decision.” 

Details regarding the partnership have not yet been revealed, but Gibson previewed the collab with a video trailer featuring Page posing with his doubleneck guitar.

And Page wasn’t the only superstar guitarist at the Gibson Garage London launch. Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi and Queen’s Brian May were on hand for the celebration, with May sharing a photo with his fellow guitar greats on Instagram.

“The new Gibson Garage London will be just what we all used to dream a guitar shop should be, a place where a young player can feel welcome and mix with the finest instruments, amps, and ancillary gear-and NOT be told to keep their hands to themselves! It’s a new era in Rock – and the Twang is still the Thang,” May said. 

“It’s really great that Gibson have chosen London to create a new Gibson Garage,” Iommi adds. “It’s not your average guitar shop-it’s a place where musicians can go to get inspired.”

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Eddie Vedder and Post Malone have shared a full video of their collaborative live rendition of Pearl Jam‘s “Better Man.”

As previously reported, the two teamed up onstage during a recent benefit concert supporting the EB Research Partnership, which Vedder co-founded with his wife, Jill. The performance featured Vedder and Post playing acoustic guitar and trading vocals.

Before launching into the song, Vedder said, “I’d like to dedicate to his brother.” Post has previously said that “Better Man” reminded him of his brother.

You can watch the Eddie Malone performance of “Better Man” on YouTube. Stay tuned until the end, when Vedder slips in a bit of Post’s song “Better Now.”

EB Research Partnership raises money toward finding a cure for epidermolysis bullosa, a rare genetic disorder that causes painful skin blisters. The benefit concert, which took place February 17 in Shelbyville, Tennessee, raised over $1 million.

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If the first day is any indication, Elton John stands to make a bundle from the Christie’s auction of the contents of his Atlanta, Georgia, home.

The first day of the sale, February 21, brought in $8 million, according to ArtsandCollections.com. All 49 lots were sold, with the big-ticket item being a work by famed artist Banksy called Flower Thrower Triptych. That went for more than $1.9 million. Another big item was Elton’s 1990 Bentley Continental, which sold for $441,000.

A pair of Elton’s signature silver leather platform boots from 1971 sold for $94,5000, more than 19 times the estimate, while a pair of his equally signature sunglasses went for $22,680, more than 11 times the estimate.

Among the other lots were luxury wristwatches, including a Cartier watch that sold for more than $277,000, and a bunch of Versace silk shirts that went for more than $30,000.

The auction continues Thursday, February 22, and Friday, February 23, and there are two other sessions, February 27 and February 28.

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Ace Frehley has dropped a new video for “Cherry Medicine,” the latest single off his new solo album, 10,000 Volts.

“This is one of my favorite tracks on the album, and we definitely had fun making the video,” the former KISS guitarist shared on Instagram.

The clip opens with Frehley getting out of a cherry red Ferrari, and features a bevy of leather-clad women who frolic with each other, and with the rocker and his band as they are performing the track.

To coincide with the video’s release, Frehley is releasing a limited-edition “Cherry Medicine” vinyl variant. Only 750 copies of the 12-inch are available on 180g half silver/half clear vinyl, with red and blue splatter.

Frehley’s 10,000 Volts, his first solo release since 2020’s Origins Vol. 2, comes out February 23 and is available for preorder now.

Frehley has several performances on the calendar for 2024, including an appearance on the Monsters of Rock Cruise, which runs from May 2-6 out of Miami, Florida. A complete list of dates can be found at acefrehley.com.

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A lawsuit accusing Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler of sexual assault in the ’70s has been dismissed after a judge ruled the plaintiff waited too long to file her case.

The suit was filed in New York in November on behalf of former child model Jeanne Bellino, who claimed she was assaulted by Tyler in the summer of 1975 when she was 17. She accused him of forcibly kissing and groping her. 

Although the alleged assault happened in the ’70s, Bellino filed her suit under New York City’s Victim of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act, which granted a two-year window to file suits that would have otherwise fallen outside the usual statute of limitations.

But U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed Bellino’s case, noting that to qualify under the Victim of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act, she would have had to show Tyler’s actions posed a “serious risk of physical injury,” but she didn’t.

Tyler is still facing another lawsuit. In December 2022, a woman named Julia Misley filed a lawsuit in California accusing Tyler of sexual assault, assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Tyler and Misley were in a relationship for three years starting in 1973, when she was 16 and he was in his 20s. She claimed she was “powerless to resist” the rock star’s “power, fame and substantial financial ability,” and said he “coerced and persuaded” her into believing their relationship was a “romantic love affair.”

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