Van Halen’s sixth studio album, 1984, hit number two on the Billboard album chart and stayed there for five weeks. The album was denied the top spot by Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” – which features guest guitar work from Eddie Van Halen.
The album never reached number one, but did go on to sell more than 10 million copies.
1984 was the last Van Halen album to feature original frontman David Lee Roth, until 2012’s A Different Kindof Truth. It was also the last full-length album to feature all four original members of Van Halen, as bassist Michael Anthony was replaced by Eddie’s son Wolfgang Van Halen on the 2012 album.
Queen’s deep dive into their live performances continues with episode nine of Queen The Greatest Live taking a look at the importance of lighting in a show.
The episode, “Under the Lights,” looks at the production that has gone into their tours, with Brian May and Roger Taylor sharing their thoughts on why lighting is such an important part of their stage show.
“For that 2 1/2 hours that we’re onstage, we are in complete control of the environment – that means the sound, the lights, the temperature, everything,” May shares. “We’ve always thought the lights are not just objects to illuminate, they’re objects in themselves and they’re part of the environment. And that’s a kind of rock ‘n’ roll thing, I think. I think we imbibed that from seeing stuff that we enjoyed when we were kids.”
Taylor notes they took inspiration from their peers, such as Pink Floyd, when coming up with their lighting, but sought to go even further. “There were so many acts going around that had hundreds of lights, all different colors, and it just made white,” he shares. “So, we had this idea of just having red, green and white. And it was very effective.”
Queen was one of the first bands to use a lighting rig called the “crown,” which could be raised and lowered during the show, as well as what May calls the “pizza oven,” which was a wall of lights above them that got incredibly hot.
But even Roger notes that sometimes all that stuff isn’t necessary. He explains, “Sometimes the most effective light is one single powerful spotlight, to focus the entire arena on that performer.”
U2 fans have a lot to keep them busy this weekend. The band’s new album, Songs of Surrender, is out now, featuring 40 rerecorded and reimagined U2 classics. The opening track is the Achtung Baby classic “One,” while the album closes, appropriately enough, with the War song “40.”
Curated and produced by The Edge, each of the album’s four parts are named after one of the band members. Each song on the album is a completely new recording, with new arrangements and in some cases new lyrics.
“It’s both a vanity project and a grudge match,” Bono tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe of their reason for making the album. “The grudge match is, [what] we were trying to prove, or else maybe obfuscate, was if our songs could stand up with the best songs, our favorite songs. And so that was it. We wanted to see.”
The Edge adds “just serving the songs … was the overarching idea for this collection. And to serve the song, but to serve the voice, which meant the voice was the centerpiece of every single arrangement.”
In addition to the album, U2 and The Edge star alongside David Letterman in the new Disney+ special Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming, which premieres Friday. The special finds the longtime bandmates returning to their hometown of Dublin, Ireland, while being interviewed by famed talk show host.
Nirvana‘s Krist Novoselic and R.E.M.‘s Peter Buck guest on another new song from Cuban musician Hector Tellez Jr.
The track is called “Where’s My Phone” and is available now via digital outlets.
Novoselic and Buck previously played with Tellez on the song “Silver Blue Jellyfish.” The tracks were recorded during a session in Seattle produced by Barrett Martin, former drummer for Screaming Trees and the grunge supergroup Mad Season.
Tellez will release his debut album, The Great Unknown, this summer.
U2‘s Bono and The Edge are out and proud fans of ABBA — but they once viewed their music as “the National Anthem for young mothers.”
Speaking to BBC’s The Radio 2 Piano Room, the rockers chatted about their love of the band and explained why they tried to hide it when they were younger.
Bono recalled feeling a certain pressure to appear macho, and to do that, it meant consuming punk music over pop songs.
Edge explained that, although they didn’t “want to own up to ABBA,” his perspective on their music has now shifted. “I’ll tell you what, they’re just better songs. You can’t be empirical about everything in art,” the guitarist said.
Bono added, “I didn’t have the courage to own up to this next band when I was 16 in the middle of punk rock.” He also recalled being confused about why ABBA was such a phenomenon when he was younger, saying, “At closing time at our local pub, often young women would sing ‘Thank You for the Music’, and I would sing it — and I was very thankful for the music.”
They now understand why ABBA was and continues to be a phenomenon. “We’re big fans of this Scandinavian band, appreciators of their work in a way that grew over years,” said Edge.
He continued, “We’re fans of lots of great songwriters who aren’t necessarily seen as very hip, and I guess we’re just appreciators of their work.”
Bono also reflected on the time U2 “murdered ‘Dancing Queen'” at a concert in 1992 alongside ABBA singers Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson.
The two then dove into a Johnny Cash-twist on the classic ABBA song “S.O.S.”
The New York Dolls’ David Johansen is the subject of a new documentary set to premiere next month on Showtime. Personality Crisis: One Night Only, directed by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi, will debut April 14 at 8 p.m., and a new trailer for the film has just been released.
The doc, which had its world premiere at the 2022 New York Film Festival, tells Johansen’s story alongside footage of a January 2020 performance of his cabaret show at the Café Carlyle in New York.
“I’ve known David Johansen for decades, and his music has been a touchstone ever since I listened to the Dolls when I was making Mean Streets,” Scorsese shares. “Then and now, David’s music captures the energy and excitement of New York City.”
He adds, “I often see him perform, and over the years I’ve gotten to know the depth of his musical inspirations. After seeing his show at the Café Carlyle, I knew I had to film it because it was so extraordinary to see the evolution of his life and his musical talent in such an intimate setting.”
Paul McCartney was celebrated at a tribute concert in New York City Wednesday night, with an all-star lineup performing some of theRock & Roll Hall of Famer’s classic tunes.
The Music of Paul McCartney, a benefit show put on by New York City entrepreneur Michael Dorf, featured performances by Graham Nash, Nancy Wilson, Wings guitarist Denny Laine, Bruce Hornsby, Natalie Merchant and more, with a special surprise appearance by Patti Smith.
Showbiz 411 reports that Smith treated the crowd to a performance of The Beatles track “She’s Leaving Home,” while the concert also featured performances of “Band on the Run” by Wilson and Laine, “For No One” by Nash, “Yesterday” by Lyle Lovett, “Maybe I’m Amazed” by Betty LaVetteand“Let It Be” by New York’s Resistance Revival Chorus.
The night ended with a finale that featured all the performers singing “Hey Jude.”
Dorf has been organizing these tribute shows since 2004, with previous concerts paying tribute to such artists as The Who, Van Morrison, David Bowie and The Rolling Stones. The concerts raise money for organizations that provide music education programs and opportunities for underserved youth.
While U2 certainly has a lot of fans, there are also plenty of people who think they take themselves a bit too seriously, and now Bono is apologizing for that … sort of. In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, the rocker reads off a so-called apology, before pretty much taking it all back.
“I apologize for having the unreasonableness of youth as I enter my 60s,” he shares. “I apologize for being a singer who will get in your face whatever direction you’re looking. I apologize for not being shy or retiring and for loudly giving thanks for where I go to work. I apologize for stretching our band to its elastic limit.”
He also apologizes for his desire to make “an unreasonable guitar record that rattles my cage and others,” and for “repeating over and over that rock ‘n’ roll is not dead, it’s just older and grumpier, and occasionally makes fireworks out of its mood changes.”
But in the end, he’s not really apologizing for anything: “But most of all, I apologize for apologizing.”
The interview comes as U2 is set to drop their new album, Songs of Surrender, on Friday. Their Disney+ special, Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming, also premieres Friday.
Grand Funk Railroad is hitting the road this year in celebration of the 50th anniversary of their Platinum single “We’re An American Band.”
The American Band Tour kicks off March 18 with an appearance at the Clewiston Sugar Festival in Clewiston, Florida, followed by an April 1 headlining date in Akron, Ohio. The tour concludes with Grand Funk Railroad’s appearance as a “special guest” at Kid Rock’s July 14 and 15 hometown shows in Detroit, Michigan.
A complete list of tour dates and ticket information can be found at grandfunkrailroad.com.
Released July 2, 1973, “We’re An American Band,” written by founding member Don Brewer, was the title track of the band’s seventh studio album and became the band’s first number one single.
Stevie: Erika Goldring/WireImage; Billy: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks continue to add dates to their co-headlining tour. The latest addition is a December 8 concert at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. Tickets for the new date go on sale Friday, March 24, at 10 a.m. local time.
As previously reported, the Billy/Stevie tour kicked off last Friday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, with the two Rock & Roll Hall of Famers teaming up for a pair of duets: “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” Nicks’ duet with the late Tom Petty, and Joel’s “And So It Goes,” from his 1989 album, Storm Front.
The pair’s next date together is April 8 in Arlington, Texas. A complete list of dates can be found at billyjoel.com and stevienicksofficial.com.
