Classic Rock News

With the holiday season approaching, Blondie has released a new three-track EP featuring a rare 1981 Christmas tune called “Yuletide Throwdown” that the band recorded with hip-hop legend “Fab 5 Freddy” Brathwaite, as well as a new remix of the song created by DJ/producer Cut Chemist.

“Yuletide Throwdown” originally was released on a flexi-disc given away by U.K. magazine Flexipop, and was co-written with and co-produced by Fab 5 Freddy. The song features Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry and Freddy rapping Christmas-themed lyrics over what actually is the original music for the band’s chart-topping 1981 smash “Rapture.”

The Yuletide Throwdown EP is available now digitally and via streaming services, while a limited-edition 12-inch vinyl version will be released on November 5, pressed on either black or magenta-colored vinyl.

“Yuletide Throwdown” recently was rediscovered while Blondie was going through its personal archives in preparation for a new box set that will be released in August 2022.

“It has been an impossible amount of time since I believed in Santa Claus, but I could very well believe again if he was Freddy Brathwaite!!” says Harry in a statement. “Some of my best times have been making music with [Blondie guitarist/songwriter] Chris Stein and Freddy B.”

Adds Stein, “Freddy has done as much as any multi-platinum selling Hip-Hop star to promote rap culture.”

Meanwhile, Fab 5 Freddy notes, “In the beginning of my journey into pop culture, Chris & Debbie were among the first to take me and my ideas about hip hop culture seriously and were like mentors to me shining a light along the road and assisting my quest. I’m happy after all this time the world can now hear this fun holiday tune we did way back then!”

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Founding Romantics guitarist Mike Skill has just released his debut solo album, Skill…Mike Skill, which is available now via digital formats, with a vinyl version due out later in 2021.

The 12-track collection features Mike’s recently issued version of The Romantics’ 1980 power-pop classic “What I Like About You,” as well as several other songs he released as digital singles over the last few years and some new tunes recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Skill, who has co-written all of his band’s best-known songs, tells ABC Audio that one of the reasons he decided to put together the solo album was that The Romantics weren’t enthusiastic about working on new music during the pandemic.

“So I’m just kind of living in Mike Skill world, and…showing [what] my sound…is, and my voice and my name,” he explains.

One of the album’s tracks, “’67 Riot,” which was first released as a single, features contributions by one of Mike’s guitar heroes, The MC5‘s Wayne Kramer.

Skill says he was initially hesitant to ask Kramer to play on the song, but after Wayne heard it, “he loved it, loved the lyrics, he loved the whole attitude,” noting that the tune “had that throwback sound to late-’60s, ’70s kind of Detroit sound, that…high-energy rock.”

Skill worked on a number of the tracks with longtime Romantics drummer Brad Elvis, while Brad’s wife, singer/musician Chloe F. Orwell, also contributed her talents to some tunes.

Mike says Chloe wrote the lyrics for “Carrie Got Married,” a power-pop anthem that was penned as a sequel to the 1980 Romantics song “Tell It to Carrie.”  Chloe also sang and played sax on the soul-flavored track “So Soul Alone.”

For more about the album, visit MikeSkill.com.

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On the eve of what would’ve been the late John Lennon‘s 81st birthday comes word that “Imagine,” the classic peace anthem Lennon co-wrote with wife Yoko Ono, has been certified triple Platinum by the RIAA for sales of three million units in the U.S.

“We are thrilled to present this award to Yoko for John & Yoko Ono Lennon’s ‘Imagine,'” says Universal Music Enterprises president Bruce Resnikoff. “‘Imagine’ remains a timeless global anthem, and John & Yoko’s message of peace is just as relevant today as when it was first written.”

Ono recently said of the inspiration for “Imagine,” “John and I were both artists and we were living together, so we inspired each other. The song ‘Imagine’ embodied what we believed together at the time. John and I met — he comes from the West and I come from the East — and still we are together. We have this oneness and ‘the whole world would eventually become one’ is the sense that we will all be very happy together.”

“Imagine” and the album of the same name on which it appears were released 50 years ago this past September 9.

As has become an annual tradition to mark Lennon’s birthday on Saturday, the Imagine Peace Tower, the memorial art piece Ono conceived as a tribute to her late husband in Reykjavík, Iceland, will be illuminated at 4 p.m. ET, and will remain lit until December 8, the anniversary of John’s death. You can check out a livestream of the tower at ImaginePeaceTower.com.

Coinciding with the lighting of the tower, a special edition of Tim’s Twitter Listening Party, hosted by U.K. radio host and musician Tim Burgess, will be held at 4 p.m. ET. The show will present the recent “Ultimate Mixes” version of the Imagine album.

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Sammy Hagar‘s 2021 edition of his annual Birthday Bash is taking place this week, featuring three special performances by the Red Rocker and his band The Circle at the Catalina Casino on California’s Catalina Island.

The festivities began Thursday with a sold-out a VIP event that featured a hybrid acoustic/electric performance, as well as a segment where Sammy and the band — bassist Michael Anthony, drummer Jason Bonham and guitarist Vic Johnson — shared stories and took questions from the audience.

The show featured a 10-song set that included covers of Led Zeppelin‘s “When the Levee Breaks” and Depeche Mode‘s “Personal Jesus,” as well as versions of Montrose‘s “Bad Motor Scooter,” Chickenfoot‘s “Sexy Little Thing” and Van Halen‘s “Right Now,” “Humans Being,” “Mine All Mine” and “Finish What Ya Started.”

The bash continues tonight and Saturday with full-length rock shows. For those who can’t make it out to the concerts, Saturday’s event will be available for streaming via nugs.net. Visit nugs.net/SammyHagar for more details.

Fans attending the Catalina Island shows will be required to show proof that they’re fully vaccinated for COVID-19.

During the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Hagar was unable to hold his birthday bash at its usual location — his Cabo Wabo Cantina in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Instead, Sammy and The Circle played a socially distanced concert on October 8 on Catalina Island. With the pandemic still an issue in Cabo San Lucas, Hagar decided to bring the bash back to Catalina this year.

Hagar’s actual birthday is October 13. He’ll be 74.

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A rare duet between Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, featuring the famed singer/songwriters performing Taylor’s song “You Can Close Your Eyes” in October 1970 at a concert at London’s Paris Theatre, was released digitally for the first time today.

The entire London Theatre performance, which featured Taylor joining Mitchell for the second half of the show, is one of a few full-length concerts that will be included on Joni’s forthcoming archival box set Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971), due out on November 12.

Taylor, who was dating Mitchell at the time of the London concert, had recently written “You Can Close Your Eyes” for Joni. He wound up recording his own version of the tune, which appeared on his classic 1971 album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon.

Mitchell’s Paris Theatre show originally was broadcast in December 1970 on the BBC Radio program In Concert, which was hosted by famed British DJ John Peel.

In an interview with Cameron Crowe that appears in the Archives Vol. 2 liner notes. Joni reflected on performing with James in London.  “That’s when we were dating,” she recalled. “He really locked up to my dulcimer, playing great with his guitar. Those two instruments together sound great. It sounded like one instrument. Musically, we were a great couple.”

As previously reported, Joni Mitchell: Archives Vol. 2, which you can pre-order now, is available as a five-CD set and a limited-edition 10-LP vinyl collection that features previously unreleased live, studio and demo recordings from Mitchell’s early career, leading up to the release of 1971’s Blue.

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Moody Blues singer/bassist John Lodge revealed earlier this year that he planned to release a live album featuring performances from his stint as an opening act on the Yes-headlined 2019 Royal Affair Tour.  Now official details about the record have been announced.

Titled The Royal Affair and After, the album will be released on December 3 on CD and digital formats, with a limited-edition blue-vinyl LP version due out January 28, 2022.

The 10-track collection, which you can pre-order now, features performances by John and his 10,000 Light Years Band from a Las Vegas stop on the tour, as well as select songs recorded during Lodge’s subsequent U.S. solo trek.

The Royal Affair and After includes renditions of several well-known Moody Blues songs written by Lodge, including “Steppin’ in a Slide Zone,” “Isn’t Life Strange,” “I’m Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band)” and “Rise My See-Saw,” the latter of which features a guest appearance by current Yes frontman Jon Davison.

Also on the album, John pays tribute to his Moody Blues band mates Justin Hayward, Graeme Edge, Mike Pinder and the late Ray Thomas. Davison lends guest lead vocals to a version of the Hayward-penned classic “Nights in White Satin,” while Lodge and his group also perform The Moodies’ “Sunset” and “Legend of a Mind,” written by Pinder and Thomas, respectively.

In addition, The Royal Affair and After boasts a version of the Edge-penned Days of Future Passed interlude “Late Lament,” featuring a recording of Graeme reciting the spoken-word piece made especially for Lodge’s tour.

In other news, Lodge has announced initial dates for a 2022 solo tour that’s currently scheduled to kick off March 16 in Annapolis, Maryland.

Here’s the The Royal Affair and After live album’s full track list:

“Steppin’ in a Slide Zone”
“Saved by the Music”
“Legend of a Mind”
“Sunset”
“Late Lament” (with Graeme Edge)
“Nights in White Satin” (with Jon Davison)
“Gemini Dream”
“Isn’t Life Strange”
“I’m Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band)”
“Ride My See-Saw” (with Jon Davison)

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This Saturday, October 9, marks what would’ve been John Lennon‘s 81st birthday, and to commemorate the special day, the third annual “Dear John” charity tribute concert will be held virtually at Veeps.com starting at 3 p.m. ET.

The star-studded event, which is organized by U.K. rock band Blurred Vision, will feature performances or appearances by Peter Frampton, ex-Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum, Lennon’s pre-Beatles group The Quarrymen, former David Bowie guitarist Earl Slick, actors Martin Freeman and Matt Lucas, and many others.

In addition to paying homage to Lennon, the show raises funds for the War Child UK charity, which seeks to help children affected by war around the world.

Tickets for the virtual concert can be purchased at BlurredVision.Veeps.com.  The event will be available to watch on demand until October 17.

To raise additional money for War Child, a new song called “Dear John” that Blurred Vision recorded with Frampton and Mollie Marriott — the daughter of late Small Faces/Humble Pie frontman Steve Marriott — has been released and is available now digitally and via streaming at OpenEyesRecords.com.

You also can check out a music video for the tune at Blurred Vision’s official YouTube channel.

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In addition to inspiring countless metal musicians the world over, Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi has now inspired the name of a newly discovered fossil.

The fossil, uncovered by a team of scientists in Russia, is named Drepanoistodus iommii. It’s part of the conodont species, an “extinct clade of marine vertebrates” from the Middle Ordovician geological period.

In the etymology section of the research paper, which was published via the European Journal of Taxonomy, the scientists write, “Named in honor of legendary guitarist Tony Iommi, founding member of heavy metal band Black Sabbath.”

Last month, another team of scientists announced that they’d named three newly discovered fossils after the band Gojira. Meanwhile, Metallica previously inspired the name of a deep-sea crustacean, and a venomous snake species was named after frontman James Hetfield.

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Foo Fighters have released a new version of their song “Chasing Birds” in collaboration with acclaimed New Orleans jazz outfit the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

The updated recording, dubbed a “Re-Version,” takes the original, psychedelic-tinged ballad and gives it a bit of a brighter vibe, thanks to a horn section and a shuffling drum beat. You can download it now via digital outlets.

“Chasing Birds” appears on the new Foo Fighters album Medicine at Midnight, which was released in February. It’s the second Medicine tune to get a “Re-Version,” following the Foos’ collaboration with Mark Ronson on “Making a Fire.”

The two “Re-Versions” will be released together as a seven-inch vinyl single on November 26 as part of Record Store Day’s Black Friday event.

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Neil Young is among the music artists and entertainers who will take part in a virtual charity event called CAMP-A-THON on October 28 that will raise funds for The Painted Turtle, a free camp for chronically ill children and their families.

The event will be hosted by comic and actor George Lopez, a longtime supporter of the camp, and also will feature appearances by Young’s wife, actress Daryl Hannah, Los Lobos, Danny DeVito, Cheech Marin, singer/songwriter Brett Dennen, legendary Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela and others.

The event will feature stories about The Painted Turtle camp that will stream throughout the day, as well as performances from Young, Los Lobos, Marin and Dennen. The fundraiser will conclude with a virtual “Campfire” at 7 p.m. PT.

“This summer kids couldn’t go to the campsite and have a week long experience,” Lopez says, “but what The Painted Turtle did was bring Camp to all the campers wherever they may be, home or the hospital, and they delivered what they always deliver; hope, magic, and a whole lot of fun!”

The Painted Turtle is a nonprofit founded by late actor Paul Newman that’s located in Lake Hughes, California.

The CAMP-A-THON event is free, although viewers can make donations to the charity by visiting ThePaintedTurtle.org.

Young previously helped raise money for The Painted Turtle at his Harvest Moon: A Gathering concert, which took place in September 2019 at the camp.

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