Classic Rock News

The musical legacy of Asia cofounder, singer and bassist John Wetton will be celebrated with a new eight-CD box set dropping November 24.

John Wetton: An Extraordinary Life will feature remastered versions of Wetton’s six solo albums, with each containing bonus tracks and two bonus discs featuring live and unreleased recordings curated by Wetton archivist Rick Nelson.

The six solo albums in the box set include 1980’s Caught in the Crossfire, 1994’s Battle Lines, 1997’s Arkangel, 2000’s Welcome to Heaven, 2003’s Rock of Faith and 2011’s Raised in Captivity. 

The set, which has the blessing of Wetton’s wife Lisa and son Dylan, also includes a 64-page book featuring an intro by artist Roger Dean and sleeve notes by Nick Shilton, who wrote the Wetton biography, An Extraordinary Life, which came out earlier this year.

John Wetton: An Extraordinary Life is available for preorder now. 

The box set news comes ahead of the all-star John Wetton memorial concert taking place August 3 at Trading Boundaries in East Sussex, England. It will feature performances by Wetton’s Asia bandmate Geoff Downes, Yes’ Rick Wakeman, former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, Squeeze’s Chris Difford and more.

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The new documentary Kiss the Future, featuring Irish rockers U2, is set to open the 2023 Sarajevo Film Festival this August.

Screen Daily reports that the film, which received its world premiere in February at the Berlin Film Festival and also opened New York’s Tribeca Festival in June, will be part of Sarajevo Film Festival’s Open Air program on August 11.

Kiss the Future, directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain and 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.

The film also features interviews with Sarajevo Film Festival founder Mirsad Purivatra. He started the festival during the conflict in 1995, and only stepped down as director last year.

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Foo Fighters paid tribute to the late Sinéad O’Connor during their set Saturday, July 29, at Japan’s Fuji Rock festival with some help from Alanis Morissette.

The “You Oughta Know” artist joined Dave Grohl and company for a rendition of O’Connor’s song “Mandinka,” a track off her 1987 debut album, The Lion and the Cobra.

You can watch footage of collaborative cover posted to Foo Fighters’ Instagram Story.

O’Connor’s death was announced Wednesday, July 26. She was 56.

Along with their mutual love for O’Connor, Foo Fighters and Morissette share another connection: late drummer Taylor Hawkins played in Morissette’s band before he joined the Foos. She played “You Oughta Know” alongside Foo Fighters during their Los Angeles tribute concert to Hawkins in September 2022.

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A new documentary about the legendary session musicians of the 1970s has been picked up by Magnolia Pictures, with plans for a December release, The Wrap reports.

The documentary, Immediate Family, is the follow-up to director Denny Tedesco’s 2008 documentary, The Wrecking Crew, which focused on session musicians of the 1960s.

Immediate Family tells the story of session musicians Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel and Waddy Wachtel, and features interviews with a host of A-list stars, including James Taylor, Keith Richards, Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Carole King and Linda Ronstadt.

“I’m so happy to be working with the Magnolia team again for my follow-up to The Wrecking Crew,” said Tedesco. “When The Wrecking Crew was released, it went beyond all of our expectations and continues to find new fans even today. I look forward to the same experience with Immediate Family.”

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Billy Idol released the expanded edition of his self-titled album debut on July 28, and to coincide with the release, he’s dropped a video for a previously unreleased 12-minute Clubland Extended Remix of his classic tune “White Wedding.”

The clip reworks the song’s original video and even comes with a warning about strobe effects that may be sensitive to some viewers.

In addition to the remix of “White Wedding,” the two-CD Billy Idol Expanded Edition features a separate album with a previously unreleased concert, recorded August 12, 1982, at The Roxy in West Hollywood, California. It features performances of such tracks as “Hot in the City,” “Mony Mony,” “White Wedding” and more.

Billy Idol Expanded Edition is available now.

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Roger Waters is sharing more info about his upcoming release, The Dark Side of the Moon Redux, set to drop October 6. 

In a new YouTube video, Waters talks about all the musicians on his reimagining of Pink Floyd’s classic album, including Joey Waronker on drums, Gus Seyffert on “synthesizers and things,” Johnny Shepherd on Hammond organ, Azniv Korkejian on vocals, Jonathan Wilson on guitar and Jon Carin on synthesizers.

Of the album, Waters says, “People have to listen to it before they can form a view of what it is,” noting, “I’m very proud of it.” He adds, “I hope it will be a rallying point for people. Not just people who like music; people who like love and life.”

For fans who may be worried he strayed too much from the classic album, Waters insists that’s not the case. “The rest of it is, it’s Dark Side of the Moon,” he says. “You all know all the bloody songs for god’s sake, we’ve all known them for 50 years.”

The Dark Side of the Moon Redux is available for preorder now. It features reworkings of all the tracks on the original album. A double LP edition of the release will include a 13-minute bonus track titled “Original Composition,” which was inspired by the rerecording.

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R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe has paid tribute to the late Sinéad O’Connor, whose death was revealed Wednesday, July 26. She was 56.

Stipe shared a photo with himself and Sinéad on Instagram, writing, “There are no words.”

Stipe and R.E.M. also shared a link to a YouTube video of R.E.M. covering Sinéad’s track “The Last Day of Our Acquaintance.” The performance took place at a VH1 Honors special in Los Angeles on April 28, 1996. 

“The Last Day of Our Acquaintance” is a track from Sinéad’s second studio album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, the same album that features her #1 single “Nothing Compares 2 U.”

Rod Stewart also paid tribute to Sinéad with a performance. The singer shared a video of him covering “Nothing Compares 2 U” at a show, captioning the clip, “My heart goes out to Sinead O’Connor’s family. What a loss.”

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Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers has shared another single from his upcoming album Midnight Rose, which drops September 22.

The latest is the track “Take Love,” which may not be completely new to fans. Rodgers used to perform the song live during the five years he spent as frontman of Queen. 

This is the second single Rodgers has shared from the album, following the track “Living It Up.”

You can listen to “Take Love” now via digital outlets and watch its accompanying video streaming now on YouTube. 

Midnight Rose is Rodgers’ first solo album in almost 25 years. He previously described it as “a celebration of a storied career and a feel-good, hopeful look towards the future.” 

Midnight Rose is available for preorder now.

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Now that Elton John‘s tour is over, he’ll likely be spending more time at home, which means he may have time to walk all the new dogs that he and his husband David Furnish have been adding to their menagerie.

Back in June, David posted a photo of an adorable black puppy named Jacob and announced that his and Elton’s two sons, Elijah and Zachary, would be “co-fathering” the dog, with him and Elton as “grandparents.”

On July 28, David revealed the family had acquired two additional dogs: French bulldog puppies named Regine and Nicole. “Here we grow again,” wrote David, adding the hashtag #obsessed.

In March of this year, David revealed that his and Elton’s beloved cocker spaniel Marilyn had passed away just shy of her 18th birthday.

Jacob, Regine and Nicole join the pair of “pandemic puppies” Elton and David bought for their songs in 2020: two impossibly cute German shepherd pups.

It’s not clear just how many dogs Elton owns at this point: Some reports have stated that he owns or has owned as many as 20. His late cocker spaniel Arthur, Marilyn’s mate, was even the best man when he and David had their civil partnership ceremony in 2005.

Despite having a song called “Honky Cat,” Elton’s clearly a dog person; he doesn’t own any felines.

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Rhino is celebrating its 45th anniversary with a series of limited edition red vinyl reissues, dubbed Rhino Red, focusing on albums from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. 

The series kicks off July 28 with four red vinyl releases from the ’60s, including The Doors’ 1968 Japanese compilation Golden Album. This is the first time the album’s been made available worldwide. It contains songs from three studio albums — The Doors, Strange Days, and Waiting for the Sun — and comes with a bonus seven-inch that features five songs from the compilation, including the classic “People are Strange.”

Only 5,000 copies of the Rhino Red Golden Album are available and can be purchased exclusively at thedoors.com and rhino.com.

Also being released on July 28 is Aretha Franklin‘s Soul ’69, limited to 3,000 copies; Otis Redding’s Love Man, limited to 2,000 copies and Love’s Da Capo, also limited to 2,000 copies.

There’s also more to come with 1970s albums by Doobie Brothers, the Ramones, Todd Rundgren and Chicago dropping August 25, and 1980s albums by Foreigner, B-52’s, Zapp and Starship coming September 22.

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