Classic Rock News

The Zappa Band, a group mostly made up of former members of the late Frank Zappa‘s backing bands, will launch its first-ever headlining tour in June, a series of dates in the Northeast that will follow a trio of concerts in California.

First up for The Zappa Band are California shows on May 22 in Banning, June 3 in Escondido, and June 5 at the famed Los Angeles-area club the Whisky a Go Go.

The U.S. trek kicks off in earnest on June 12 in Homer, New York, and winds down with a June 26 concert in Plymouth, New Hampshire. The 11-date outing also includes a June 16 stop at Sony Hall in New York City.

The Zappa Band lineup includes lead singer/guitarist Ray White, guitarist/keyboardist Mike Keneally, bassist Scott Thunes and keyboardist/sax player Robert Martin, who all performed live and recorded with Frank. Rounding the group are two former members of Dweezil Zappa‘s Zappa Plays Zappa tribute group — guitarist Jamie Kime and drummer Joe “Vaultmeister” Travers, the latter of whom also served as a Zappa archivist.

“A lot of amazing Frank Zappa music played with intensity, humor and love,” says Kenneally with regard to what fans can expect from Zappa Band concerts. “We’ll be enjoying the opportunity to play different material from night to night; we know that often people like to attend multiple shows, and our repertoire is presently large enough to be able to change things up.”

You can check out a list of the group’s confirmed shows at The Zappa Band’s official Facebook page.

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This Saturday marks the 40th anniversary of the release of The Clash‘s fifth and most commercially successful studio album, Combat Rock.

Released on May 14, 1982, the album was the final Clash studio effort recorded by the lauded British punk band’s classic lineup of singer/guitarists Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, bassist Paul Simonon and drummer Topper Headon.

Combat Rock peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, and featured the singles “Rock the Casbah” and “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” as well as such gems as “Know Your Rights” and “Straight to Hell.” “Rock the Casbah” became the group’s only top-10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching #8, while “Should I Stay or Should I Go” peaked at #45 on the chart.

The music for “Rock the Casbah” was notably written by Headon on piano. The song’s popularity was bolstered by a music video that went into heavy rotation on MTV.

The album also found the band experimenting with a number of musical styles. “Ghetto Defendant” features spoken-word vocals by famed beat poet Allen Ginsberg, while “Overpowered by Funk” includes rapping by New York City-based graffiti artist Futura 2000.

Combat Rock was co-produced by The Clash and famed rock producer Glyn Johns, and was certified double Platinum by the RIAA.

As previously reported, a special expanded Combat Rock reissue, titled Combat Rock/The People’s Hall, will be released on May 20 in honor of the album’s 40th anniversary.

The People’s Hall is a 12-track collection compiled by The Clash that includes unheard, rare and early versions of songs recorded at the same time as the Combat Rock sessions. You can pre-order Combat Rock/The People’s Hall now.

Here’s Combat Rock‘s full track list:

“Know Your Rights”
“Car Jamming”
“Should I Stay or Should I Go”
“Rock the Casbah”
“Red Angel Dragnet”
“Straight to Hell”
“Overpowered by Funk”
“Atom Tan”
“Sean Flynn”
“Ghetto Defendant”
“Inoculated City”
“Death Is a Star”

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Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron missed the band’s show in Oakland Thursday after testing positive for COVID-19.

Frontman Eddie Vedder explained Cameron’s absence ahead of a performance of the song “Why Go,” proclaiming that the drummer is a “true artist and…a force of nature.”

Vedder then added, “However, even his superhero status could not prevent him from testing positive [for COVID-19].”

With Cameron sidelined, Pearl Jam recruited a pair of guest drummers to fill in for him: ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, who joined PJ last year as a multi-instrumentalist touring member, and Richard Stuverud, who’s previously collaborated with bassist Jeff Ament.

For the night’s closing song, Vedder invited a fan named Josh Arroyo to play drums on “Yellow Ledbetter.”

A post-show photo of the set list revealed which drummer played on which song.

Pearl Jam’s tour is set to continue Friday with another show in Oakland.

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Founding Talking Heads singer/guitarist David Byrne has led a wild, wild life, and this Saturday, May 14, the talented, quirky and prolific musician celebrates his 70th birthday.

Byrne was born in Scotland, and his family moved to Canada when he was two, then subsequently relocated to the Baltimore area when he was eight or nine.

Byrne briefly attended the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island, where he met drummer Chris Frantz, with whom he formed a band called The Artistics in 1973. After that group broke up, Byrne, Frantz and Chris’ then-girlfriend and future wife Tina Weymouth, relocated to New York City, and the trio formed Talking Heads there.

The band soon became part of the New York punk scene, playing regularly at the famed club CBGB. The group’s classic lineup was solidified when Jerry Harrison, formerly of The Modern Lovers, joined as the keyboardist and second guitarist.

Talking Heads went on to become among the most popular and influential punk and New Wave bands. Byrne became known for his eccentric stage persona and, eventually, his inventive dance moves. He wrote or co-wrote all of the Talking Heads’ original songs, including “Psycho Killer,” “Life During Wartime,” “Once in a Lifetime,” “Burning Down the House,” “Road to Nowhere” and “Wild Wild Life.”

In 1986, Byrne co-wrote, directed and acted in the film True Stories, which featured a soundtrack by Talking Heads. In 1981, David released My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, a collaborative album with Brian Eno, and his debut solo album, Rei Momo, followed in 1989.

He won a 1988 Oscar for Best Film Score for his work on The Last Emperor.

Talking Heads split in 1991, and since then, Byrne has forged a wide-ranging solo career that’s included various film, stage, recording and multimedia projects. Talking Heads were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

In 2019, Byrne premiered his popular Broadway stage production David Byrne’s American Utopia, which was honored with a Special Tony Award in 2021.

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The new archival Rolling Stones concert album Live at the El Mocambo, featuring performances from two shows that the British rock legends played at the famed Toronto club on March 4 and 5, 1977, was released today.

The album, which is available as a two-CD set, a four-LP collection on either black or neon vinyl, and digitally, features The Stones’ full March 5 concert plus three bonus performances from the previous night. The tracks are newly mixed by renowned studio engineer Bob Clearmountain.

The performances at the 300-capacity El Mocambo club were booked as secret gigs, attended by fans who’d won tickets to see what they thought were shows headlined by Canadian rockers April Wine. Billed as the support act for the two nights was an unknown band called The Cockroaches, who turned out to be the real headliners — the one and only Rolling Stones.

The Stones’ Mocambo set list included such covers as Muddy Waters‘ “Mannish Boy,” Bo Diddley‘s “Crackin’ Up,” Big Maceo‘s “Worried Life Blues” and Willie Dixon‘s “Little Red Rooster,” as well as classic originals like “Honky Tonk Women,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Let’s Spend the Night Together” and “Tumbling Dice.” The band also presented live of “Worried About You,” which later would be released on 1981’s Tattoo You.

Only four songs from the El Mocambo concerts had been officially released previously, appearing on 1977’s Love You Live album.

Live at the El Mocambo is available now.  Here’s the full track list for the two-CD version:

CD 1
“Honky Tonk Women”
“All Down the Line”
“Hand of Fate”
“Route 66”
“Fool to Cry”
“Crazy Mama”
“Mannish Boy”
“Crackin’ Up”
“Dance Little Sister”
“Around and Around”
“Tumbling Dice”

CD2
“Hot Stuff”
“Star Star”
“Let’s Spend the Night Together”
“Worried Life Blues”
“Little Red Rooster”
“It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It)”
“Rip This Joint”
“Brown Sugar”
“Jumpin’ Jack Flash”
“Melody”
“Luxury”
“Worried About You”

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Elton John made a splash on The Nanny when he made a cameo in 1997 in the season five episode “First Date.”  Star Fran Descher revealed just how hard she worked to get the music great to appear on her sitcom.

“It took me a year or two get him on the show,” she told USA Today. “I was always an Elton John AIDS Foundation supporter and we were very warm to each other at all of his events.”

The episode was about Fran going on her first date with Maxwell Sheffield, played by Charles Shaughnessy, and hilariously pulling all the stops  to prevent Elton from recognizing her after a prior embarrassing run-in. 

As for how they got Elton to agree to appearing on the beloved sitcom, Drescher said it came down to good timing.

“When his documentary Tantrums & Tiaras was coming out, his publicist said, ‘Maybe this would be a good time to put him on the show to promote the documentary,'” she recalled.  “There’s a scene (in the film) where he throws a tantrum because he’s trying to play tennis and a fan starts saying, ‘Yoo-hoo! Yoo-hoo!’ So we thought it’d be funny if Fran was actually the ‘Yoo-hoo’ lady and gets in trouble when she has the opportunity to meet him through Mr. Sheffield.”

The sitcom star praised Sir Elton for being such a good sport. “That was an amazing episode and he couldn’t have been more gracious,” she said, adding that the cast came up with a special way to thank him. “We heard that he loves red roses, so we filled his dressing room with red roses.”

The Nanny ran for six seasons on CBS.

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In 2021, Rod Stewart announced that he’d extended his Rod Stewart: The Hits residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas into an 11th year. Those dates begin Friday, May 13, and run through May 21. What keeps the legendary singer coming back to Sin City? Well, the money, of course, but also, Rod just really, really likes the Colosseum.

“I do get paid rather nicely, to be honest,” Rod tells ABC Audio. However, he adds, “It’s probably the best venue in the world to see your favorite rock star. Or see anybody...your favorite juggler! Yeah, the seats are gorgeous, the best sound…it’s just a privilege to play there.”

Plus, Rod notes, “You only have to play for an hour and a half…you play any longer, they grab you by the neck and drag you off!”

Rod’s exaggerating, but it’s true that Las Vegas shows are generally kept somewhat short, for obvious reasons.

“They want to get everybody back into the casino, gambling,” Rod laughs. “‘Mr. Stewart, only 90 minutes, please!’ ‘Cause I sometimes go on for two hours!”

If you can’t see Stewart during this run, he’ll be back in Las Vegas from September 30 to October 1. But he’s also coming to you: His North American summer tour with Cheap Trick starts June 10 in Vancouver, Canada, and wraps up September 17 in Edmonton, Canada.

In between, Rod will play the Hollywood Bowl, as well as Denver, Phoenix, Nashville, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and other major cities. Visit RodStewart.com for the full itinerary.

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Lindsey Buckingham was supposed to launch his first-ever solo tour of Europe in Dublin, Ireland, this Tuesday, May 17, but the former Fleetwood Mac singer/guitarist has had to postpone the trek because he recently contracted COVID-19 and hasn’t recorded yet.

A message on Buckingham’s social media sites shared the bad news, saying, “It is with great sadness that we are announcing the postponement of Lindsey’s European tour which had been due to begin next week. Along with other members of his band and crew, Lindsey contracted COVID-19 at the end of his latest North American tour, forcing that to end prematurely. Unfortunately he’s still recovering and has no choice but to move the upcoming tour to a later date.”

The note continues, “This is heartbreaking for Lindsey, he was so excited to come to Europe for the first time as a solo artist this spring. We’re currently working on rescheduling the dates and hope to have some news to share on that very soon.”

The 11-date tour had been scheduled to run through a June 2 performance at Denmark’s Heartland Festival 2022.

Late last month, Lindsey announced that the last few shows of his spring 2022 North American tour had to be canceled because of a COVID outbreak in his touring party, which we now know included him.

The canceled concerts included an April 28 show in Tysons, Virginia; and April 30 gig in Louisville, Kentucky; and a May 1 performance at the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, Tennessee.

Buckingham continues to promote his latest solo album, a self-titled collection that was released in July 2021.

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Triumph: Rock & Roll Machine, the 2021 documentary about the Canadian power trio Triumph, gets its global streaming premiere via the nugs.net platform tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET. The event will begin with an exclusive live Q&A session with the band’s three members — singer/guitarist Rik Emmett, drummer/singer Gil Moore and bassist/keyboardist Mike Levine.

Levine tells ABC Audio that the Q&A will last about 25-to-30 minutes, and he, Emmett and Moore will be together at Gil’s Metalworks Studios near Toronto, where they’ll answer fan-submitted questions.

“[We’re going to] try and not laugh our way through, ’cause we’re really good at that when the three of us get together,” the 72-year-old rocker says. “We’re gonna try and be serious. I’m not sure it’ll work.”

The movie profiles the Toronto-based rockers’ rise to popularity during the late 1970s and ’80s, the fallout from Emmett’s unexpected split with the group in the late 1980s, and the band’s surprise 2019 reunion performance during a special invite-only event.

Part of the film is dedicated to some longtime Triumph fans who share their backstories as they prepare to attend the event, not knowing the band’s intends to perform.

Levine says he and his band mates were “really ecstatic” about how the movie turned out, noting, “[A]s opposed to just a straight documentary…I think it’s more of a film, myself, because it touches you emotionally. It’ll make you laugh or it’ll make you cry…and documentaries usually don’t do that kind of thing.”

Tickets for the event cost $19.95, and are available at nugs.net/Triumph. Those who purchase tickets can stream the documentary on demand for 48 hours after pressing “play.” On-demand access will be available through May 30.

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This Sunday, The Who will play their first concert in Cincinnati since the band’s infamous December 1979 show at the Riverfront Coliseum, where 11 young people lost their lives as fans rushed the doors of the venue before the event.

Sunday’s Who performance will be the first concert ever at Cincinnati’s new TQL Stadium, and the British rock legends have chosen a very special opening act for the show: a local band named Safe Passage, with a personal connection to the tragic 1979 event. Two of Safe Passage’s members, Walt Medlock and Mike Simkin, were friends with three of the victims of the tragedy — Stephan Preston, Jackie Eckerle and Karen Morrison — and attended the same high school, Finneytown.

Safe Passage performs at an annual benefit for the P.E.M. Memorial — named after Preston, Eckerle and Morrison — which helps fund three scholarships each year for graduating seniors at Finneytown High School.

In an interview with local ABC-TV affiliate WCPO, Medlock notes, “We will be the first band to perform ever at TQL Stadium,” while Simkin adds, laughing, “And we happen to be opening with a little band called The Who.”

Regarding his band being asked to perform with one of the world’s most famous groups, Simkin says, “It was an almost like Godzilla walking down your street, something that’s so unreal, it’s just hard to believe.”

Adds Melock, “This is an amazing chance to live that for 25-30 minutes, I’ve got to thank The Who management.”

Safe Passage, whose set list usually includes some Who songs, will be playing a mix of originals and covers on Sunday.

Meanwhile, The Who will donate some proceeds from the Cincinnati the concert to the P.E.M. Memorial.

First up for The Who will be a show on Friday, May 13, in Memphis, Tennessee.

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