Classic Rock News

On This Day, May 11, 1981 …

Reggae legend Bob Marley died from cancer at a hospital in Miami, Florida, at the age of 36.

In July 1977, Marley was diagnosed with a type of malignant melanoma under a toenail. By the fall of 1980, the cancer had spread to his brain, lungs and liver, and he played his final concert in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 23, 1980.

After the cancer spread throughout his body, he went to Germany to undergo an alternative cancer treatment, but during his flight home his health got worse and he was taken to the hospital in Miami, where he passed away.

He was laid to rest with a state funeral in Jamaica on May 21, 1981.

Marley is best known for his 1984 album Legend, which is the bestselling reggae album of all time. It features a live version of the Marley classic “No Woman No Cry,” along with other classics like “I Shot the Sheriff,” “One Love,” “Is This Love,” “Get Up Stand Up” and more. 

Marley was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

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The Pretenders are back with their first new album in three years. The rockers are set to drop the new studio album Relentless on September 1 and have shared the first single from the record, “Let The Sun Come In.”

In discussing the album’s title, frontwoman Chrissie Hynde shares, “I enjoy seeing the various meanings and origins of a word. And I liked the definition: ‘showing no abatement of intensity.’ So when it came to an album title, it seemed fitting. You know … to keep doing it.”

She adds, “I think anyone in a band is constantly questioning if they should keep going. It starts as a youthful pursuit and eventually, it makes you wonder, why am I doing this? It’s the life of the artist. You never retire. You become relentless.” 

Relentless is the follow-up to 2020’s Hate for Sale, and is the second consecutive album where Hynde and Pretenders guitarist James Walbourne collaborated on all the songwriting. The album’s closing track, “I Think About You Daily,” features Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, who provided the string arrangements for the tune.

“I met Jonny a couple of times and we’re obviously big fans of him because he’s done some incredible music over the years,” Hynde says, noting she was “thrilled and very surprised” when he said he wanted to do something together.

Relentless is available for preorder now.

Here is the track list for Relentless:
“Losing My Sense Of Taste”
“A Love”
“Domestic Silence”
“The Copa”
“Promise Of Love”
“Merry Widow”
“Let The Sun Come In”
“Look Away”
“Your House Is On Fire”
“Just Let It Go”
“Vainglorious”
“I Think About You Daily”

Next up, The Pretenders kick off a U.K. tour on Friday, May 12, in Brighton, England. They are set to open for Guns N’ Roses on their European tour starting in July. A complete list of dates can be found at thepretenders.com.

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August marks the 50th anniversary of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s debut album, (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd), and now a new coffee table book is looking at the band’s early history through photos.

Pronounced: A Photographic History of Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1973 to 1977 will be released by Rufus Publications this fall. Compiled by legendary photographer and longtime Skynyrd fan Ross Halfin, the book “is a true celebration of the band’s classic period.”

The book features more than 340 pages, with hundreds of rare and unseen images from photographers like Michael Zagaris, Tom Hill, Dick Polak, Barry Plummer and others, along with written contributions from Halfin, music journalist Pete Makowski and Sounds editor Geoff Barton. 

The book will be released in three different formats, including a standard edition and a deluxe collectors edition. Only 450 numbered copies will be available, each personally signed by Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington before his March 5 death. There’s also a leather and metal edition, limited to only 50 copies and also signed by Rossington, which is supersized, bound in recycled leather and enclosed in a metal slipcase.

Presales of Pronounced begin May 12, with the copies set to ship in October.

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While he’s most famous for being the drummer of The Rolling Stones, the late Charlie Watts recorded a lot of jazz music — and now that side of his career is being explored in a new collection from BMG.

Anthology, dropping June 30, will focus on Watts’ catalog of jazz recordings covering a span of close to 20 years. The collection features Watts’ drumming as part of a quartet, quintet, tentet and with an orchestra.

But it’s not Watts all alone, with the set featuring a variety of collaborators, including bassist Dave Green, saxophonists Peter King, Evan Parker and Courtney Pine, trumpeter Gerard Presencer, drummer Jim Keltner and vocalist Bernard Fowler, a member of the Rolling Stones’ live band.

Anthology will be released in double vinyl and double CD formats, with both including liner notes by music journalist Paul Sexton, who wrote Charlie’s Good Tonight: The Authorized Biography of Charlie Watts.

Anthology is available for preorder now.

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Folks still can’t get enough of The Beatles. The legendary band just became the latest to join Spotify’s Billions Club, thanks to their classic single “Here Comes The Sun.”

The song is the first Beatles track to make Spotify’s list, which features 405 other tunes. 

“Here Comes The Sun,” written by George Harrison, was featured on The Beatles’ 1969 album, Abbey Road. A remix of the song was released in 2019 to promote the Abbey Road 50th anniversary reissue.

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Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks played their final Genesis show back in March 2022, and Rutherford admits it was an emotional experience.

“The actual show felt bizarre,” Rutherford tells Classic Rock magazine of the concert at London’s O2 Arena. “I was kind of okay until I saw on my setlist that there were just four songs left. Seeing that in print made me emotional, but having got through all of the problems with Covid, it felt very good to see things through.”

Rutherford says it was nice to see fans’ reactions, noting, “I tend to forget how much the music means to people’s lives,” adding that seeing sold-out shows in cities they hadn’t played in years “proves what a lovely reach Genesis had.” 

“There was some sadness, but I thoroughly enjoyed our last tour,” he says. “It’s always a joy to be onstage with Phil and Tony.”

Rutherford is currently on a U.K. tour with his other band, Mike and the Mechanics. A complete list of tour dates can be found at mikeandthemechanics.com.

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The Who has added a new show to their European and U.K. tour, bringing their music to a very special venue. 

The band will bring their The Who Hits Back tour to the Eden Sessions at the Eden Project in Cornwall, England, on July 25. The location is the home of the world-famous Biomes, which house thousands of plant species. 

“We’re so thrilled to welcome legends The Who to Eden, in what will be a momentous moment in the Sessions history – and a great occasion for Cornwall,” Rita Broe, managing director of Eden Sessions Ltd, shares. “To see them grace our stage with a live orchestra will be one of the highlights of the summer: creating lasting memories. Don’t miss this!”

Tickets for the special show go on sale Monday, May 15, at 5:30 p.m. BST. More information can be found at edensessions.com.

The Who’s European and U.K. tour, which has them playing with an orchestra, is set to kick off June 14 in Barcelona, Spain. A complete list of dates can be found at thewho.com.

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Judas Priest has been working on a new album to follow 2018’s Firepower. Speaking with ABC Audio, guitarist Richie Faulkner shares that the actual recording of the album is “almost finished.”

“I think we have some vocals to do, and then we’ve gotta mix and then master,” Faulkner says.

What comes after that, though, is a little bit more up in the air.

“We gotta finalize artwork and actually manufacture the stuff … make the vinyl and get that done,” Faulkner explains. “I think vinyl takes a little while these days, so it depends how long that takes to actually manufacture the physical product. So that’s the question mark.”

Still, Faulkner is optimistic that “it shouldn’t be too long now” before the next Priest album is officially done and ready to go. He adds that he and frontman Rob Halford spent some time in the studio recently recording vocals.

“It’s sounding great, man,” Faulkner says. “Hearing some new Priest stuff that we haven’t heard before with that legendary voice on is always an exciting thing to be a part of.”

While you wait for that, you can hear Faulkner shred with his new band Elegant Weapons. The group’s debut album, Horns for a Halo, drops May 26.

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Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan just dropped a new three-track EP, This Is The Song, to help highlight Mental Health Awareness Month.

McKagan says he wrote the EP “in the middle of a panic attack,” sharing, “I couldn’t breathe and couldn’t see straight and lately, I have thankfully found my acoustic guitar as a refuge. If I just hold on to that guitar, play chords, and hum melodies, I can start to climb my way out of that hole.”

“For those of you who have never experienced something like this, count yourselves blessed,” the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer offers. “To those of you who recognize what I am talking about: YOU ARE NOT ALONE!”

The EP, which is McKagan’s first new solo music in almost four years, has been released to all digital outlets and streaming services. Duff has also shared an official video for the EP’s title track.

Here is the track list for This Is The Song:

“This Is The Song”
“Pass You By”
“It Can’t Come Too Soon”

Next up, McKagan hits the road with Guns N’ Roses on a worldwide tour that kicks off June 1 in Abu Dhabi. It hits the U.S. August 11 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. A complete list of dates can be found at gunsnroses.com

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On This Day, May 10, 1960 …

Paul David Hewson, better known as U2 frontman Bono, was born in Dublin, Ireland.

U2 was formed in 1976 after Bono and friend David Evans aka the Edge responded to an advertisement posted on a bulletin board by Larry Mullen Jr. seeking musicians interested in forming a rock band. 

U2 released their first album, Boy, in 1980. The follow-up, 1983’s War, propelled them to stardom thanks to hit singles “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Pride (In The Name of Love).” 

The band has gone on to release 15 studio albums and won 22 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for 1987’s The Joshua Tree. They’ve sold between 150 million and 170 million records and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005 in their first year of eligibility.

In addition to U2, Bono is known for his activism and philanthropy, and has worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the plight of the people of Africa. In 2004 he launched the One Campaign, with a goal of eliminating extreme poverty and disease in Africa.

In November 2022, Bono released his memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story. He just wrapped up a series of performances of his one-man show Stories of Surrender — based on that memoir — at New York’s Beacon Theatre.

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