Classic Rock News

A new documentary featuring U2 is set to open the 2023 Tribeca Festival in New York City.

Kiss the Future, produced by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Sarah Anthony, follows a group of underground musicians and creatives during the siege of Sarajevo, which lasted from April 1992 to February 1996. The doc includes footage of U2’s memorable 1997 concert at Koševo Stadium celebrating the country’s liberation, along with interviews with Bono, the Edge and Adam Clayton.

“Ben and I are proud of this film and are honored that it has been selected to open the Tribeca Festival,” Damon shares. “We are grateful to the people of Sarajevo and to U2 for giving us the opportunity to help tell this special story.”

Bono adds, “We know U2’s marquee is helpful in getting the lives of these local heroes to a wider audience, but even at my most puffed up I couldn’t have imagined our tiny role being given so much care, attention, and screen time by (director) Nenad Cicin-Sain.”

He notes, “If defiance is the essence of romance, then the people of Sarajevo are the most romantic figures. Viva Sarajevo!”

Kiss the Future will get its North American premiere on the festival’s opening night, June 7, at the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center.

This year’s Tribeca Festival has a lot of music-related documentaries in the lineup, including the new Carlos Santana doc, Carlos, with the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer set to perform at its June 17 opening at the Beacon Theatre.

Tickets for the Tribeca Festival, which runs from June 7 to 19, go on sale May 2 at tribecafilm.com.

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Mötley Crüe‘s Vince Neil and Kip Winger are among the rock stars taking part in AXS TV’s new music competition series Banded, which debuts May 13 at 9 p.m. 

The show, hosted by Brandon Jenner, with American Idol finalist Didi Benami serving as co-host, will see 25 artists who can play, write and sing broken up into five new multiple-genre bands, giving fans a behind-the-scenes look into the art of creating music. The eight-episode show will see the bands guided by a group of Grammy-winning and Grammy-nominated songwriters, producers and artists, culminating in a battle of the bands featuring newly created material.

The show will feature a host of well-known musicians and industry insiders each week, who’ll serve as mentors and guest judges: Neil and Winger, along with Vans Warped Tour creator Kevin Lyman, drummer Mark Schulman, country star Steve Azar and others.

More info on the show can be found at bandedtv.com.

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The band Brad, featuring Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard, has announced a new album called In the Moment That You’re Born.

The seventh studio effort from the group — and their first since 2012’s United We Stand — is due out July 28. It will also mark the final Brad album and features vocals recorded by late singer Shawn Smith prior to his death in 2019.

You can listen to the In the Moment That You’re Born title track now via digital outlets.

Fittingly, the album news arrives on the 30th anniversary of the debut Brad album, 1993’s Shame. A limited edition CD and vinyl reissue of Shame will also be released on July 28.

Here’s the track list for In the Moment That You’re Born:

“In the Moment That You’re Born”
“Pieces of Sky in My Hand”
“Straight to the Hoop”
“Stars n You”
“Meadow in Autumn”
“Take Me Back Home”
“Without Guns”
“Hey Now What’s the Problem”
“I’m Diggin U”
“Simple Subtraction”

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t’s been over two years since Eddie Van Halen passed away, and his former bandmate Sammy Hagar is still missing him terribly.

“I cherish him more than ever,” Hagar tells USA Today. “I miss his unique creativity. He’d play something and I’d go what, where the hell did that come from? He was so out of left field, so original, that creativity always lifted me.”

Hagar had a successful solo career before joining Van Halen in 1985, but he admits being in the band was “the peak of my musical career.”  

“My ego wants to say I was doing great as a solo artist. Well, yeah, I was doing fine,” he says, “but Van Halen was some other thing man. It was a four-headed monster, and I miss Ed dearly.”

Van Halen and Hagar had been estranged for several years before the guitarist’s October 2020 death, and Hagar says, “What happened with us at the end was such a shame.”

“It’s what happens when alcohol and drugs are involved, and I’m going through a divorce. It’s such a shame,” he says. “If Van Halen were still together today, we’d be headlining every one of these festivals all over the world.”

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On This Day, April 27, 1981…

Ringo Starr married actress and model Barbara Bach, who he met in 1980 on the set of the film Caveman.

While the movie was critically panned, it did at least result in a lasting relationship, as the couple is still married to this day. 

The marriage was the second for both stars, with Ringo having previously been married to Maureen Cox from 1965 to 1975, with whom he had three children.

In 2008, Starr gained a fellow rocker as a brother-in-law when The Eagles’ Joe Walsh, a former member of Ringo’s All-Starr Band, married Barbara’s sister Marjorie.

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Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Carl Palmer is recovering after undergoing a heart procedure this week. A post on Palmer’s social media accounts reveals that he “underwent a successful ablation procedure to restore sinus rhythm as he was previously in Atrial Fibrillation.”

The post went on to thank Palmer’s doctors and the staff at Sir Reginald Wilson Ward at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, and shared pictures of Palmer before and after the surgery.

Palmer does have some time to recover before he has to get back to work. His The Return of Emerson, Lake & Palmer 2023 Summer Tour, which has him performing alongside footage of his late bandmates Keith Emerson and Greg Lake, is set to kick off July 8 in West Jefferson, North Carolina. A complete list of dates and ticket information can be found at carlpalmer.com.

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Some unique and original drawings by Bob Dylan will be on display in New York this week. Billboard reports that the drawings, which Dylan made during the 1967 recording sessions for The Basement Tapes, will be on display at the 63rd annual ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, taking place April 27 to 30 at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan. 

The three captioned drawings all appear on the side of a Columbia Records Handelok record bag. One drawing depicts a man waving with a guitar and saying a line similar to a lyric from the tune “Long Distance Operator.” Another shows a figure ready to strike a person who’s telling them to shut up. The third picture looks like an object with guitar strings and features captions identifying the “swift key,” “gas lock,” “tune-up supporter” and more. 

And Dylan fans with some money to spare have a chance to own the rare piece of memorabilia. It’s up for sale at the Schubertiade Music & Arts gallery for $60,000. 

“There’s a lot of fake stuff on the market,” the gallery’s owner, Gabe Boyers, tells Billboard. “It’s not just a rare item. We know exactly when this was created, who it was made for, and who the other person’s handwriting is on it. It’s a special piece.”

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Music fans are about to learn a lot more about Carlos Santana. Sony Pictures Classics has just landed the worldwide rights to the new feature-length documentary Carlos, chronicling the life and career of the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer. 

The film, directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Rudy Valdez, is described as “an intimate and exhilarating look inside the mind of an elemental force of contemporary music,” featuring archival footage and music that has never been seen or heard before.

“I am honored and humbled to tell Carlos Santana’s story as a director,” Valdez shares. “Carlos is a true trailblazer who has meant so much to so many people. My hope is that this film is a celebration of a life defined by humanity. I’m thrilled to be putting this story out into the world.”

So far there’s no word on when Carlos will be released.

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Queen + Adam Lambert have added another performance to their busy schedule. The group is set to perform at the 2023 Formula 1 Lenovo United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

Queen is set to close out the Germania Insurance Super Stage on Saturday, October 21, following the F1Sprint, while The Killers will open the festival, headlining Friday, October 20, following the F1 qualifying.

The show is one of many Queen + Adam Lambert have planned for 2023. Their North American Rhapsody tour kicks off October 4 in Baltimore, Maryland. A complete list of dates can be found at queenonline.com.

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When you’re a kid and you’re not allowed to listen to “forbidden” music, you get creative — which is how Pete Davidson says he inadvertently became a Rod Stewart fan.

The comedian and Edie Falco, the co-star of his new Peacock series Bupkis, appear on the cover of a limited-edition Mother’s Day issue of Good Housekeeping. Inside, Pete interviews Falco and his wisecracking mother, Amy, who jokes that what she does on Mother’s Day is “usually, Pete’s laundry.” Pete also shares a story about how he tried to hide his favorite album from his mom.

“When I was younger, I bought the uncensored Eminem Show CD, which of course I wasn’t allowed to have,” Pete recalls. “So I kept it in a Rod Stewart jewel case.”

“My mom noticed, and for years she’d play Rod Stewart to have something we could bond over,” he continues. “I’d be sitting in the car and suddenly she’d say ‘It’s Rod!’ and start singing along to ‘Maggie May.’ I had to learn the songs just to keep the lie going.”

As a result, Pete admits, “I kinda learned to like Rod Stewart.”

Bupkis, described as a “fictionalized account of Pete Davidson’s real life,” starts streaming May 4.

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