Classic Rock News

Earlier this year, Asia announced that it was organizing a new tour to mark the supergroup’s 40th anniversary that would kick off this summer, but now, plans for the trek have been revised.

The tour, a joint outing with The Alan Parsons Live Project, originally was supposed to have launched in August, but the trek has been delayed because of a medical procedure Alan Parsons underwent recently. The tour is now being rescheduled for early 2023, and new dates will be announced soon.

Asia’s current lineup features two original members, drummer Carl Palmer and keyboardist Geoff Downes, as well as bassist/singer Billy Sherwood and lead vocalist/guitarist Marc Bonilla.

Sherwood joined Asia in 2017 after original lead singer and bassist John Wetton‘s death, while Bonilla was recently welcomed into the band to replace singer/guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, who began playing with the group in 2019.

Bonilla is a former member of late Emerson, Lake & Palmer keyboardist Keith Emerson‘s solo band.

“We were hoping to be out this August, however moving the tour to early next year so we can remain on a co-bill with The Alan Parsons Project will be well worth it,” says Palmer. “I am so thrilled that ASIA has finally been able to return to performing after three years off the road due to the pandemic; we have much to celebrate.”

Adds Downes, “ASIA has been through a lot during these last four decades, but the music has always endured…This tour will be historic.”

In addition to celebrating its 40th anniversary, the band also will be promoting its recently released multi-disc box set, ASIA in Asia — Live at The Budokan, Tokyo, 1983, which focuses on a historic concert the band played in Japan that featured ELP’s Greg Lake stepping in for Wetton.

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Metallica has canceled the band’s headlining performance Wednesday at the Frauenfeld Rocks festival in Switzerland due to a “member of the Metallica family” testing positive for COVID-19.

“We are beyond sorry to disappoint those of you planning to attend the show,” the metal legends write in a statement posted early Wednesday morning. “It was our intention to reschedule a show in Switzerland as soon as possible, however in overnight discussions with the local promoters, sadly it became apparent that schedules and venues do not line up for the remainder of this year or next.”

The festival will still take place as scheduled with sets from Five Finger Death Punch, FEVER 333 and others. With Metallica now out of the lineup, though, organizers are offering ticket holders a partial refund for those who still plan to attend. Ticket holders who decide not to go at all because of the Metallica’s cancellation will receive a full refund.

Metallica’s next scheduled concert is set to place this Friday, July 1, at Belgium’s Rock Werchter festival. Rock Werchter organizers tweeted Wednesday that they’re “in contact” with the Metallica camp, adding that the group is “hopeful to play.”

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Graham Nash‘s latest solo studio album, This Path Tonight, was released over six years ago, but the folk-rock legend says he’s finally almost finished with a follow-up record.

“I think I’m two songs from completing it,” Nash tells ABC Audio. “I’ve got 10. I want to add a couple more. I know what I’m gonna add. So it is almost done.”

Nash, who turned 80 in February, says “the most interesting thing” about the new album is that “it was done completely remotely.”

Explaining how the songs came together, Graham notes, “I have a small, tiny studio in my bathroom in Manhattan. I would put down a song on an acoustic guitar and a vocal track. I would send [the tracks] to [guitarist] Shane [Fontayne] in California. He’d put on the bass, his guitars and a harmony vocal. He would then send all those files to [keyboardist] Todd Caldwell in Brooklyn…who would put on all the keyboards and a harmony vocal. He would then send them…to his brother, [drummer] Toby [Caldwell,] in Lubbock, Texas, who would then put on all the drums.”

Nash adds that the audio files would then be sent back to him and Todd, who is producing the album, and Caldwell “would then make a thing of it.”

Graham reports that the new album is being mixed by Kevin Killen, who also mixed his recent concert album, Graham Nash: Live — Songs for Beginners/Wild Tales.

Meanwhile, Graham is preparing to launch a new U.S. summer tour on July 13 in Red Bank, New Jersey, and he says he plans to include some of the new material in his sets. The trek, which will visit various venue in the Northeast, is mapped out through an August 8 concert in Ocean City, New Jersey.

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An archival Alice Cooper concert album that captures the shock rocker performing at a Dallas record store with the surviving members of his original band will get its official wide global release. Live from the Astroturf will come out on multiple formats September 30.

The album was originally released as a limited-edition vinyl disc. The new release will be available as a colored-vinyl LP packaged with a DVD featuring the 2019 documentary about the reunion performance; a CD/Blu-ray set also featuring the audio and the documentary; and a digital version of the record.

The reunion show took place in 2015 at Good Records in Dallas and featured Cooper joined by guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith from the original Alice Cooper band as well as guitarist Ryan Roxie from Alice’s current touring band, who stepped in after the late Glen Buxton died in 1997.

The performance was a surprise to the attendees, who had gathered at the record shop for a special in-store signing event intended to promote Dunaway’s memoir, Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs!

The concert featured Cooper and company running a selection of songs from the group’s early-1970s albums, including classics like “I’m Eighteen,” “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” “Under My Wheels,” “Elected” and “School’s Out.”

The band’s performances of “I’m Eighteen and “Under My Wheels” will be featured on the Live at the Astroturf DVD and Blu-ray in addition to the documentary about the event and a lengthy interview with Dunaway, Bruce and Smith.

Physical versions of Live at the Astroturf can be preordered now at Ear-Music.net.

Here’s the full Live from the Astroturf track list:

“Caught in a Dream”
“Be My Lover”
“I’m Eighteen”
“Is It My Body”
“No More Mr. Nice Guy”
“Under My Wheels”
“School’s Out”
“Elected”
“Desperado” (Instrumental Bonus Track)

DVD/Blu-ray:
–Documentary
–Music Video: “I’m Eighteen”
–Music Video: “Under My Wheels”
–Extensive Interview with Dennis Dunaway, Michael Bruce and Neal Smith

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The lineup of the 2022 Aftershock festival is going through some shake-ups.

Organizers for the California hard-rock extravaganza announced Tuesday that Judas Priest and several other acts — including Bullet for My Valentine and Alice Cooper touring guitarist Nita Strauss — have dropped off the bill. A tweet announcing the news did not give a specific reason for the change, noting only that those acts are “no longer able to perform at Aftershock 2022.”

As replacements, Danzig and In Flames are among the artists that have now joined the Aftershock lineup.

Aftershock 2022 takes place October 6-9 in Sacramento. The lineup also includes KISS, Stone Temple Pilots, Slipknot, Rob Zombie, Papa Roach, Shinedown, My Chemical Romance, Helmet, GWAR and Evanescence.

Judas Priest had been scheduled to perform on October 7, the same day KISS is headlining the event. The appearance had been the first scheduled date on the fall 2022 leg of Priest’s 50 Heavy Metal Years tour, which now will kick off with an October 13 concert in Wallingford, Connecticut.

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The Who‘s Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend have donated a signed electric guitar to a charity auction that will raise money for Music Support, an organization that helps people in the U.K. music industry who are dealing with mental health and addiction issues.

Daltrey and Townshend have signed a white Fender Stratocaster “Player” model that’s up for bid at CharityStars.com. As of Tuesday evening, the highest bid for the guitar was $1,220. Bidding will continue until July 5 at 3 p.m. ET.

Several other items are being auctioned at CharityStars.com to benefit Music Support, including a snare-drum head played and signed by The Clash‘s Topper Headon, a Fender Strotocaster guitar autographed by all six members of Iron Maiden and a Fender Squier guitar signed by each member of Coldplay.

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Jon Bon Jovi may be from New Jersey, but he’s been a player in the New York City real estate market for a while. Back in 2015, he sold a six-bedroom penthouse for $34 million. Now, he’s unloaded a four-bedroom Manhattan property for $22 million.

The New York Post reports that Jon listed the West Village home last February for $22 million, so he got his asking price. The buyer is Michael Ovitz, the former president of the Walt Disney Company. The home is a 14th floor unit that Jon bought in 2017 for just under $19 million. It features a 40-foot-long living room, oak floors, floor-to-ceiling windows and a chef’s kitchen with a balcony.

The building itself features a screening room, a gym with a 75-foot pool and a golf simulator, a garden and a reflecting pool.

The Post notes that during the pandemic, Jon purchased a $43 million mansion in Palm Beach. He also owns properties in New York’s ritzy Hamptons.

Earlier this month, Jon popped up onstage with Paul McCartney, wishing the legendary former Beatle a happy 80th birthday during McCartney’s concert at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.

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One of Elton John‘s most iconic stage outfits is the sequined and bedazzled Los Angeles Dodgers uniform he wore when he headlined Dodger Stadium for two nights in 1975. It’s been on display at the world’s first Hard Rock Cafe, at Old Park Lane in London, but now he has it back.

Elton stopped by the Hard Rock Cafe on Tuesday to do a surprise performance, a few days after performing at the BST Festival in Hyde Park. While he was there, he presented the cafe with one of the Gucci suits he’s been wearing on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. In exchange, he got back the Dodger uniform — and the Hard Rock Cafe made a $100,000 donation to the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

“It’s an honour to have my Gucci suit join the Hard Rock collection and a joy to have my Dodger’s outfit once more,” Elton wrote on Instagram.

In a full-circle moment, Elton John’s three final shows in the U.S. will take place this November in Dodger Stadium. The last show, on November 20, will mark his 2,000th U.S. concert. By then, he will have performed in all 50 states.

No word on whether or not Elton plans to wear the uniform at those shows, but it’s unlikely given that, well, he’s not exactly the same size he was back in 1975. But who knows — he may use the old uniform as a guide to have a fabulous new uniform designed just for the occasion.

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Whitesnake pulled out of their performance at the Rock Imperium Festival in Cartagena, Spain this past Saturday because drummer Tommy Aldridge was “under the weather.” Now, the band has canceled three more shows on the European leg of its Farewell Tour as frontman David Coverdale has taken ill.

The affected concerts were scheduled for Tuesday, June 28 in Milan, Italy; June 30 in Vienna, Austria; and July 2 in Zagreb, Croatia.

In a message posted Monday on Whitesnake’s official website, Coverdale explains, “I started feeling a bit under the weather two days ago, and was just diagnosed with an infection of the sinus & trachea. The doctor recommends 5 days of no singing and bed rest. Sadly, that means that we are not going to be able to do the upcoming shows in Milan, Vienna and Zagreb.”

The 70-year-old singer continues, “I’m very sorry to all the fans who had planned to come see our Farewell Tour in each of those cities — it’s my intention to get better as soon as possible and be able to pick up with the remaining shows of the European Farewell Tour. You are all in our hearts!!”

Coverdale also points out in the note that the Cartagena concert was the first show that Aldridge had ever missed in his career, adding, “The GOOD news is that he is feeling better and is anxious to get back out there to perform for all of you.”

Whitesnake’s next scheduled concert is now a June 4 show in Budapest, Hungary. The European trek winds down July 19 with a gig in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The band will launch a North American leg of its Farewell Tour on August 17 in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire.

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You can now enjoy the shredding of Slash in virtual reality.

The Guns N’ Roses guitarist and his solo band, Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators, have teamed up with Soundscape VR to release a virtual reality edition of their Live at Studios 60 performance.

“I’m really excited about this cool VR interpretation of our live performance at Studios 60,” Slash says. “It’s a new and immersive visual that gives it a great ‘in the room’ feel.”

Soundcape VR is available to download via Steam VR and Oculus Home. For more info, visit SoundscapeUniverse.com.

Live at Studios 60 was originally released on vinyl as part of this year’s Record Store Day. It includes a full live performance of the new Conspirators album, 4, along with four other songs.

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