Classic Rock News

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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R.E.M. released its debut EP, Chronic Town, 40 years ago this August, and to mark the milestone, the band will be reissuing the five-song collection on August 19 in multiple formats.

The EP will be made available for the first-time ever as a standalone CD, and also will be released on cassette and as a vinyl picture disc. Chronic Town‘s co-producer, Mitch Easter, has written new liner notes for the reissue.

Released on August 24, 1982, Chronic Town arrived about a year after R.E.M.’s debut single, “Radio Free Europe,” and preceded the band’s classic 1983 debut studio album, Murmur.

“One might fancifully say that Chronic Town was the sound of an expedition, ready for anything, setting forth,” says Easter about the EP. “If R.E.M. ‘Radio Free Europe’ single was a signpost, the Chronic Town EP was the atlas.”

The EP included the early gems “Wolves, Lower,” “Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)” and “1,000,000,” and features singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry coming together to create the jangly “College Rock” sound that has influenced so many other artists over the years.

You can preorder the Chronic Town reissue now. Here’s the full track list:

“Wolves, Lower”
“Gardening at Night”
“Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)”
“1,000,000”
“Stumble”

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Pearl Jam has announced the Tour Edition of the band’s latest album, Gigaton.

The expanded set includes a bonus disc featuring live versions of nearly every song off the original album, recorded during PJ’s festival shows in 2021.

Gigaton (Tour Edition) will be released July 8 and is available to preorder now.

The original Gigaton was released in March 2020 and marked the first Pearl Jam album in seven years. The band’s planned headlining tour, which was postponed from 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, finally launched this year, though the U.S. leg was cut short after both drummer Matt Cameron and bassist Jeff Ament tested positive for COVID-19.

Pearl Jam is currently on tour in Europe and will return to North America for a round of U.S. and Canadian dates in September.

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Robert Plant opened the first chapter of his post-Led Zeppelin career 40 years ago today with the release of his debut solo album, Pictures at Eleven.

The eight-track collection peaked at #5 on the Billboard 200, while reaching #2 on the U.K. albums chart. Four of the tracks broke into the top 20 of Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock tally — “Burning Down One Side,” “Worse Than Detroit,” “Pledge Pin” and “Slow Dancer.”

“Burning Down One Side” was the most successful single released from the album, peaking at #3 on Mainstream Rock chart and at #64 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Phil Collins played drums on six of the album’s eight tracks, while journeyman rocker Cozy Powell was behind the kit for the other two songs. Other musicians featured on Pictures at Eleven included guitarist Robbie Blunt, keyboardist Jezz Woodroffe and bassist Paul Martinez. In addition, sax player Raphael Ravenscroft, best known for his memorable playing on Gerry Rafferty‘s “Baker Street,” lent his talents to the song “Pledge Pin.”

Plant co-wrote all of the tunes with Blunt, with Woodroffe also helping to write three songs — “Burning Down One Side,” “Fat Lip” and “Far Post.”

Plant produced the album, which was recorded in Wales at Rockfield Studios, a famous facility where Queen worked on “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Pictures at Eleven has been certified Platinum for sales of over 1 million copies in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Plant launched a European tour with his Raise the Roof collaborator Alison Krauss last Friday with a performance at England’s Glastonbury Festival. The trek runs through a July 20 gig in Berlin and will be followed by a second 2022 U.S. leg that begins August 15 in San Diego.

Here’s Pictures at Eleven‘s full track list:

“Burning Down One Side”
“Moonlight in Samosa”
“Pledge Pin”
“Slow Dancer”
“Worse Than Detroit”
“Fat Lip”
“Like I’ve Never Been Gone”
“Mystery Title”

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In celebration of Def Leppard‘s 45th anniversary, the band has partnered with Rock and Roll Beauty to launch a limited-edition line of themed beauty products.

The 19-piece collection includes a colorful eyeshadow palette designed to resemble Def Leppard’s famed diamond-shaped logo, as well as eyeshadow sticks, lipsticks, highlighters, scented candles, makeup brushes and sponges, nail decals and accessories.

Among the items are blush-and-highlighter packs designed to look like backstage passes, and cosmetic bags featuring the Hysteria album cover art and replicating an old audio cassette. The line also features eyeshadow sticks named after four Def Leppard songs — “Come Undone,” “Gravity,” “Let’s Go” and “Your Touch.”

The Def Leppard x Rock and Roll Beauty collection is available exclusively in Ulta Beauty stores across the U.S., and online at Ulta.com and RockandRollBeauty.com.

Def Leppard is currently co-headlining The Stadium Tour with Mötley Crüe. The next stop on the trek, which also features Poison and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, takes place this Tuesday, June 28, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Def Leppard is promoting its recently released studio album, Diamond Star Halos.

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