James Taylor has shared another classic performance with fans. The latest release from Taylor’s vault is a “recently re-discovered and restored” performance of “Sunny Skies,” from his November 16, 1970, BBC concert special. He was just 22 when the performance was broadcast.
The clip is one of many Taylor has been sharing on his YouTube channel. He also posted a classic performance of “Sweet Baby James” from the same concert, as well as archival performances of “You’ve Got A Friend,” “Fire and Rain” and more.
And fans will be able to see the 75-year-old Taylor perform these classic songs and many others on the road this summer. He’s due to kick off a new tour on May 25 in Woodinville, Washington. A complete list of James Taylor tour dates can be found at jamestaylor.com.
A Belgian rock band called Black Box Revelation has shared a cover of the Foo Fighters classic “My Hero” while accompanied by 100 drummers in honor of the late Taylor Hawkins.
The performance was filmed at Belgium’s Sportpaleis Antwerp arena and is streaming now on YouTube. Its release coincides with the one-year anniversary of Hawkins’ passing on March 25, 2022.
You may recall that the Rockin’1000 project also put out a performance of “My Hero” shortly after Hawkins died, featuring 1,000 musicians playing together simultaneously. Rockin’1000 previously convinced Foo Fighters to play a town in Italy with their viral cover of “Learn to Fly.”
Night Ranger has postponed a trio of shows after bassist/vocalist Jack Blades had to be hospitalized for an undisclosed ailment.
“First and foremost, we want to apologize to the fans,” the band shared in a statement posted to social media. “You guys know better than anyone we don’t take this lightly, earlier this afternoon Jack was admitted to the hospital. He is in good hands, but on the advice of medical staff we will not be able to perform any of our next 3 shows.”
They add, “We have to prioritise Jack’s health and safety, and we cannot thank you enough for your understanding. This is not the message we wanted to be sending and we cannot wait to rock with all of you again soon.”
The postponements began with Thursday’s scheduled show in Anaheim, California, and also include concerts Friday and Saturday in Ivens, Utah, and Stateline, Nevada, respectively. They have already been rescheduled to October. A complete list of Night Ranger dates can be found at nightranger.com.
He’s been teasing it for weeks, and now The Who’s Pete Townshend has finally released his brand new solo single, “Can’t Outrun The Truth.” The new tune was composed and produced by his wife, Rachel Fuller, under her nom de plume, Charlie Pepper.
Rachel previously shared that the song was inspired by the feelings of isolation many were dealing with during the beginning of the pandemic: “I really started to think about how unbelievably difficult this period of time was going to be for so many people.”
“Can’t Outrun The Truth,” which features cover art from renowned artist Damien Hirst, is Townshend’s first solo single in 29 years. He’s also released a video for the track, which is his first solo video in 40 years.
A portion of each “Can’t Outrun The Truth” download will be donated to the Teenage Cancer Trust.
Van Halen released their seventh studio album, 5150, which was their first record with new lead singer Sammy Hagar, following the departure of original frontman David Lee Roth.
5150, named after guitarist Eddie Van Halen‘s home studio, is a reference to the California law that allows a mentally disturbed person to be placed on an involuntary psychiatric hold. It went on to become the band’s first number-one album and contained three pop hits: “Dreams,” “Why Can’t This Be Love” and “Love Walks In.”
5150 went on to be certified six-times Platinum by the RIAA.
Neil Young is the latest artist to blast Ticketmaster for their business practices.
In a post on his archives website titled “CONCERT TOURING IS BROKEN,” Young blasts the ticket-selling service for its 30% ticket fees. He shared an article about The Cure’s recent attempt to keep ticket prices down and how they were able to get Ticketmaster to refund fans a portion of its “unduly high” fees.
“It’s over,” Young writes. “The old days are gone.”
Young notes that fans have written to him complaining about the $3,000 price tag for tickets to an upcoming benefit he’s a part of, but he writes, “That money does not go to me or the benefit.”
He adds, “Artists have to worry about ripped off fans blaming them for Ticketmaster add-ons and scalpers.”
He ends the post by sharing, “CONCERT TOURS are no longer fun. CONCERT TOURS not what they were.”
That benefit Young is talking about is Stephen Stills’ Light Up the Blues charity show, which raises money for Autism Speaks. The show, which will be Young’s first concert appearance since September 2019, is happening April 22 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.
Queen + Adam Lambert are bringing their Rhapsody Tour back to North America. The tour first kicked off in North America in 2019, and now they’ve expanded and updated it for a second leg.
“Our last tour featured our most ambitious production ever,” guitarist Brian May shares. “So we decided to rip it apart and get even more ambitious.”
“Watch out world.” Lambert adds. “I can’t wait to tour North America one more time with the Rhapsody tour alongside the two unbelievably talented legends that are Brian May and Roger Taylor.”
The Rhapsody Tour kicks off October 4 in Baltimore, Maryland, hitting such cities as Toronto, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas, Denver and more, and wraps November 11 in Los Angeles, California. You can find a complete list of tour dates at queenonline.com.
Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday, March 31 at 10 a.m. local time. In an attempt to keep the tickets away from scalpers, the band announced that all tickets will be non-transferrable and can only be resold through Ticketmaster’s Face Value Exchange. That’s not the case for the shows in New York, Illinois and Colorado, because of laws in those states that prohibit the artist from restricting transfers.
Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died one year ago this Saturday.
On March 25, 2022, Dave Grohl and company were set to headline a festival in Bogotá, Colombia. That night, the Foos tweeted, “The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins.” He was 50 years old.
Hawkins was born February 17, 1972. After playing drums in Alanis Morissette‘s live band in the mid-’90s, Hawkins joined Foo Fighters in 1997 and remained with the group until his death. Hawkins was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame along with the rest of the Foos in 2021.
Following Hawkins’ passing, Foo Fighters canceled all their tour dates and live appearances, including a scheduled performance at the Grammys the following weekend.
Eventually, the Foos returned to the live stage in September 2022 with two giant tribute concerts to Hawkins, taking place in London and Los Angeles. The marathon events, which both lasted around six hours, featured guest performances by artists including Paul McCartney, Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich, AC/DC‘s Brian Johnson, Joan Jett and Miley Cyrus, as well as members of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rush, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Def Leppard, Blink-182 and Black Sabbath.
Both concerts ended with Foo Fighters performing alongside guest drummers, including Hawkins’ teenage son Shane, who memorably manned the kit for the song “My Hero.”
On New Year’s Eve, Foo Fighters announced they intended to continue as a band without Hawkins. A new drummer has yet to be announced. The group’s first show back is scheduled for May 24 in New Hampshire, and they’ll play a number of festivals, including Bonnaroo, Boston Calling, Sonic Temple and Outside Lands.
Blood, Sweat & Tears’ 1970 State Department-sponsored tour of Iron Curtain countries Yugoslavia, Romania and Poland is the subject of a new documentary, What The Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears?, opening in theaters in New York and Los Angeles Friday.
The film features interviews and archival footage from the controversial tour, which resulted in the band suffering backlash from fans. While it may not have been the best decision to go on that tour, BST drummer and co-founder Bobby Colomby says they really didn’t have the option not to do it.
“We just did a tour because (lead singer) David (Clayton-Thomas) didn’t have a green card anymore, and we couldn’t play in the United States and David’s Canadian,” Colomby tells ABC Audio. “So it was, you know, the State Department saying, ‘We’ll get you the green card, can you do us a favor?’”
He described it as “quid pro quo in the classic sense.”
Colomby says while there were definitely issues on the tour, he does have positive memories of the trek, especially the people. But he notes, “It was horrifying in certain aspects, especially Romania, which was dark ages.”
The political backlash that followed from both the right and the left really surprised the band, whose self-titled second album beat The Beatles’ Abbey Road for the Album of the Year Grammy. Colomby says it was very out of the ordinary for a band that tried to stay out of politics.
“You know, it’s funny, we weren’t a political group,” he says. “We were just truly, you know, as David says in the beginning, we’re just musicians. We’re just trying to play music, influence other musicians make stuff that people will enjoy.”
We may soon see Joni Mitchell’s life on the big screen. The website Above The Line is reporting that Oscar-winning filmmaker Cameron Crowe is planning to write and direct a movie about the legendary singer, and has been working on it with Mitchell for the past two years.
The report claims the film won’t be a “traditional biopic in the conventional sense of the word,” adding that it’s not a documentary either, describing it as “akin to an autobiography.” A source says Mitchell’s story will be told in Crowe’s “singular voice,” so it will be from his point of view, as opposed to hers.
Mitchell and Crowe have been friends for a while — he even escorted her to Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy party in 2017, just two years after she suffered a brain aneurysm. He also interviewed her for the Los Angeles Times in 2021 in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of her legendary album Blue.
The movie will be the first one Crowe has written and directed since 2015’s Aloha, although since then he created the 2016 Showtime series Roadies and directed the 2019 David Crosby documentary David Crosby: Remember My Name.
