Classic Rock News

Leon Russell’s 2001 album, Signature Songs, is getting a reissue next month. The long out-of-print release, containing a collection of solo piano and vocal recordings of some of Russell’s classic tunes, is being released digitally and on CD, and on vinyl for the first time, on March 17.

The album, being released by Dhani Harrison and David Zonshine’s Dark Horse Records, features recordings of such songs as “A Song For You,” “Tight Rope,” “The Masquerade” and “Lady Blue.”

It is available for preorder now. 

Here’s the track list for Signature Songs:

“A Song for You”
“One More Love Song”
“Tight Rope”
“Stranger in a Strange Land”
“Hummingbird”
“Back to the Island”
“Out in the Woods”
“Lady Blue”
“Delta Lady”
“Magic Mirror”
“This Masquerade”

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Def Leppard is currently on the next leg of their joint world tour with Mötley Crüe, and their guitarist, Phil Collen, seems to be having a blast with them.

“It’s great. We’ve known ’em for years,” Collen shares in an interview with Radioacktiva Colombia. “It’s like being at school with all of your best friends. It’s really fun. We’ve got this airplane that all of us are on there. And it’s great.” 

Collen says the fact that both bands are still rocking “means more as you get older.” He explains, “There’s this thing being young … but there’s something about really doing it still later on that makes you — I don’t know — appreciate it more.” 

The Mötley Crüe/Def Leppard tour hits Lima, Peru, on Tuesday.

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Def Leppard is currently on the next leg of their joint world tour with Mötley Crüe, and their guitarist, Phil Collen, seems to be having a blast with them.

“It’s great. We’ve known ’em for years,” Collen shares in an interview with Radioacktiva Colombia. “It’s like being at school with all of your best friends. It’s really fun. We’ve got this airplane that all of us are on there. And it’s great.” 

Collen says the fact that both bands are still rocking “means more as you get older.” He explains, “There’s this thing being young … but there’s something about really doing it still later on that makes you — I don’t know — appreciate it more.” 

The Mötley Crüe/Def Leppard tour hits Lima, Peru, on Tuesday.

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On this day, February 28, 1983…

U2 released their third studio album War, produced by Steve Lillywhite. The album, which is considered the band’s first overtly political record,  featured two future U2 classics, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Year’s Day,” which became the band’s first single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

The album became the band’s first U.K. number one, knocking Michael Jackson’s Thriller out of the top spot. In the U.S., it peaked at 12 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and went on to become the band’s first album to be certified Gold by the RIAA.

A remastered version of the album was released in July of 2008, including a deluxe version that featured a bonus CD made up of B-sides, live tracks and rarities.

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Foo Fighters have announced a trio of U.S. headlining shows.

The newly added dates include stops in Gilford, New Hampshire, on May 24; Rogers, Arkansas, on June 14; and Pelham, Alabama, on June 16.

Tickets go on sale Friday, March 3, at 10 a.m. local time. For all ticket info, visit FooFighters.com.

The concerts mark the first headlining Foo Fighters shows of 2023, joining previously announced festival sets at Bonnaroo, Boston Calling and others. Dave Grohl and company are making their live comeback this year following the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins last March.

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The Alarm is back and ready to release new music. The band is set to drop the new album Forwards on June 2, and they’ve just dropped the title track.

The album comes after a year of frontman Mike Peters dealing with some major health issues, including a battle with pneumonia and a relapse of his leukemia.

“I literally took my guitar into [the] hospital with me,” Peters shares. “I was on the ward for such a long time, I started writing these songs in between IV sessions and the first people to hear the music were the very people who were trying to keep me alive.”

The result is 10 new life affirming songs. “I’ve been to places only deep suffering can take the human spirit and, in the darkness, I clung onto every piece of light I could find to work my way back to life,” Peters shares. “This was the energy that drove me to write and record Forwards.” 

The album will be released on both CD and vinyl, with two vinyl options available, a classic green and white star white vinyl edition, and a limited edition metallic green vinyl available only at independent record stores.

Here’s the track list for Forwards:

“Forwards”
“The Returning”
“Another Way”
“Love and Forgiveness”
“Next”
“Whatever”
“Transition”
“Love Disappearing”
“New Standards”
“X”

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Let it be known that Metallica isn’t behind the times when it comes to social media.

The metal legends have taken to TikTok to tease a new song, presumably off their upcoming album, 72 Seasons. The clip features James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Robert Trujillo jamming together remotely while inviting fans to join them.

Metallica previously used TikTok to share a mash-up of Hetfield jamming “Master of Puppets” alongside the famed scene in Stranger Things featuring the song.

72 Seasons will be released on April 14. It includes the previously released songs “Lux Æterna” and “Screaming Suicide.”

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April 20 marks the 50th anniversary of David Bowie’s classic album Aladdin Sane. The Southbank Centre in London will be celebrating with a slew of events, including live performances and a monthlong exhibition dedicated to the album’s iconic artwork.

The artwork exhibition is set to run from April 6 to May 28. It was curated by Chris Duffy, the son of photographer Brian Duffy, who shot the cover, and Geoff Marsh. 

“My father’s image of Bowie is often called the Mona Lisa of Pop,” Chris shares. “It’s extraordinary how it’s lasted and been endlessly reworked. Wherever I go in the world, it’s always somewhere on a t-shirt.”

The celebration will also include a tribute concert to Aladdin Sane on April 21 at the Royal Festival Hall, featuring Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears, Mercury Prize nominee Anna Calvi and others performing the album in full.

Other planned events include a free display celebrating Bowie’s history with the Southbank Centre, dance parties, talks and poetry events.

A full list of Aladdin Sane events, plus ticket information, can be found at southbankcentre.co.uk.

News of the Aladdin Sane celebrations comes just days after it was revealed that 80,000 objects from Bowie’s archives have been acquired by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, the largest donation in the museum’s history. The archive will eventually be housed in the V&A’s new site at East London’s Olympic Park, in The David Bowie Centre for the Study of Performing Arts. It is expected to open in 2025.

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The Beale Street Music Festival returns to Memphis, Tennessee, in May and has nabbed quite a lineup.

The festival, taking place May 5 to 7 at Tom Lee Park, features headliners Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, along with Living Colour, Gov’t Mule, Earth, Wind & Fire, Ziggy Marley and more.

Also headlining the three-day fest are The Lumineers and Greta Van Fleet, with the lineup also featuring The Roots, Live, Gary Clark Jr., Lucinda Williams and 311.

For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit MemphisinMay.org.

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An exhibition of Linda McCartney’s 30-year photography career just opened in Tucson, Arizona. The Linda McCartney Retrospective, co-curated by Paul and Mary McCartney and the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, has been traveling the globe since 2013, but this is its first stop in North America.

As part of the exhibit, CCP students got to ask Sir Paul some questions about Linda’s work, including what parts of her photography most excited her. 

McCartney notes that she was “excited about all her photography, because it was her life,” sharing that when she started out her photography was focused on the music scene, but then shifted to “family life with the kids, horses, countryside and landscapes.”

He notes, “Whatever situation she was in she would use it for her art, and her craft naturally developed that way.” 

McCartney also shared whether or not his and Linda’s creative partnership extended to photography. “I was very into photography, so I could relate to what she was doing. But I knew she was better,” he says. “There was never any question of that. I admired her skills, and we could talk about photography.”

The Linda McCartney Retrospective is running until August 5 at University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography. It is free to visit.

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