Foo Fighters have announced a tour of Australia and New Zealand for later this year.
The outing kicks off November 30 in Perth, and will wrap up mid-December. For the full list of dates and ticket info, visit FrontierTouring.com.
The news comes after Dave Grohl and company headlined Australia’s GMHBA Stadium last Friday, which marked the country’s first full-capacity stadium concert headlined by an international act since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020.
Foo Fighters are scheduled to launch a U.S. headlining tour in May. In addition to catching them on the road, you can see the Foos on the silver screen in their new movie Studio 666, in theaters now.
Some new details have been announced regarding the sixth annual edition of the star-studded Love Rocks NYC! benefit concert, which is being headlined by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and takes place this Thursday, March 10, at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.
In addition to being a ticketed in-person event, the show also will now be available to view as a livestream. You’ll be able to access a link to watch the event for free by signing up at LoveRocksNYC.com, where you’ll also be encouraged to contribute funds to the charity, which is offering a special “$20 = 2 Meals” donation option.
The Love Rocks NYC! concert raises money for the God’s Love We Deliver charity, which provides nutritious meals to seriously ill people in the New York City area who have difficulty leaving their homes.
In other news, singer/songwriter Ben Harper has joined the show’s lineup. As previously reported, Richards will be reuniting with his solo group The X-Pensive Winos to headline the event, while the bill also features Melissa Etheridge, Mavis Staples, ex-Allman Brothers Band singer/guitarist Warren Haynes, Hozier, Jimmy Vivino and many more.
The show will be co-hosted by Mario Cantone, Gina Gershon, Kiefer Sutherland, Steve Schirripa and Michelle Buteau.
The event’s house band will be led by longtime CBS Orchestra bassist Will Lee, and will include former Bob Dylan and Levon Helm touring guitarist Larry Campbell, Eric Clapton touring drummer Steve Gadd, and Fleetwood Mac touring keyboardist Ricky Peterson.
You can find out more information about the concert at LoveRocksNYC.com and GLWD.org.
Todd Rundgren is one of several well-known musicians who are taking part in the 2022 edition of the “It Was Fifty Years Ago Today: A Tribute to The Beatles” tour, which kicked off last week.
While the 2019 edition of the trek showcased songs from The Beatles’ 1967 self-titled album, aka The White Album, this tour focuses on 1965’s Rubber Soul and 1966’s Revolver.
Todd, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year, tells ABC Audio that while he’s a fan of Rubber Soul, Revolver is his very favorite album by the Fab Four.
“When they did Revolver…[they] actually redefin[ed] the [rock] genre,” Rundgren notes, “adding tape loops and backwards guitar solos and things like that, all sorts of studio techniques that nobody had used before.”
Todd says when it came time to choose songs to perform on the trek, he immediately “nabbed” two Revolver tunes that were among The Beatles’ first forays into psychedelia — “She Said, She Said” and “Tomorrow Never Knows.”
“I said, ‘No one else is doing those but me,'” Rundgren recalls with a laughs. “No one else has taken as many drugs as me in this band, and therefore I qualify.”
Joining Todd on the outing are Christopher Cross, founding Moody Blues and Wings member Denny Laine, Badfinger‘s Joey Molland and former Chicago singer/bassist Jason Scheff. Each artist performs several Beatles tunes, as well as a couple of the best-known tunes from their own careers.
Rundgren says the tour members’ own hits actually “get an equally great response” as the Fab Four songs during the show.
The tour continues tonight in Red Bank, New Jersey, and winds down on March 27 in Kansas City, Missouri. Visit GlassOnyonPR.com for a full list of dates.
A new video capturing Deep Purple performing Love‘s 1966 garage-rock gem “7 and 7 Is” during a live rehearsal has debuted on the earMUSIC label’s official YouTube channel.
The band shot the clip in a warehouse in Germany in November 2021 during a promotional tour of the country. Deep Purple’s music video for their recent cover of Fleetwood Mac‘s “Oh Well” was shot at the same time.
Deep Purple’s studio versions of “7 and 7 Is” and “Oh Well,” appear on the band’s latest album, Turning to Crime, which was released last November 2021. Turning to Crime, recorded remotely during the COVID-19 lockdown, is the group’s first album made up entirely of songs by other artists.
The 12-track collection, which was produced by the band’s frequent collaborator Bob Ezrin, also includes versions of Bob Dylan‘s “Watching the River Flow,” Little Feat‘s “Dixie Chicken,” The Yardbirds‘ “Shapes of Things,” Cream‘s “White Room” and more.
Deep Purple has launched a website dedicated to the new album, TurningtoCrime.com, and you also can order the record at the site.
Last month, Deep Purple kicked off its 2022 tour itinerary with a pair of concerts in Florida, and the band also took part in the latest edition of the Rock Legends Cruise. Next up for the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers will be a May 22 show in Tel Aviv, Israel, that will be followed be a series a European concerts.
The 35th annual Tibet House US Benefit Concert was held Thursday night as a virtual event that streamed live on Mandolin.com, and among the many highlights were performances by Patti Smith and Phish‘s Trey Anastasio, as well as appearances by Paul Simon and Iggy Pop.
Smith kicked off the concert by singing a moving rendition of the Ukrainian National Anthem in tribute to the people of Ukraine, as Russia continues its invasion of the country. Later in the show, Patti performed her song “Peaceable Kingdom” with her daughter, Jesse Paris Smith.
Smith, accompanied by her band, also sang “Happy Birthday” to the event’s artistic director, influential composer Philip Glass, who turned 85 in late January.
Anastasio played a set that included the deep cut “Snowflakes in the Sand. “
Meanwhile, Simon and Iggy were among several special guests who were on hand to deliver spoken-word messages. Others included New Order‘s Bernard Sumner and Stephen Colbert.
The performance lineup also included Laurie Anderson, Nathaniel Rateliff, Angélique Kidjo and country artists Jason Isbell and Margo Price, as well as actor Keanu Reeves, who recited the Alan Ginsberg poem “Pull My Daisy.”
The concert wrapped up with Patti performing her classic 1988 anthem “People Have the Power,” which has become a tradition at the long-running annual event.
The stream of the 2022 Tibet House US Benefit Concert will be available for viewing at Mandolin.com until this Sunday, March 6, at 11:59 p.m. ET.
Money raised by ticket sales benefit Tibet House US, a non-profit organization that works to preserve Tibetan culture.
Additional money is being raised for the charity via a CharityBuzz auction that runs through March 8 and features guitars signed by Simon and Pearl Jam, among other memorabilia.
Founding Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and his current band, The Dirty Knobs, released their second album, External Combustion, today.
External Combustion, a follow-up to 2020’s Wreckless Abandon, is an 11-track collection that features guest appearances by Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople fame, Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench, and alt-country artist Margo Price.
Campbell wrote most of the songs on External Combustion during the past year, although two tunes date back to the 1990s and were recently rediscovered by Mike in his vault of unreleased tracks.
Campbell and The Dirty Knobs kick off a U.S. tour in support of External on March 9 in Tampa, Florida. After a series of headlining shows that runs through a May 1 concert in Austin, Texas, the band joins country star Chris Stapleton‘s trek as an opening act from early June until late July. Visit TheDirtyKnobs.com for the group’s full schedule.
Here’s the complete External Combustion track list:
“Wicked Mind”
“Brigitte Bardot”
“Cheap Talk”
“External Combustion”
“Dirty Job” — featuring Ian Hunter
“State of Mind” — featuring Margo Price
“Lightning Boogie”
“Rat City”
“In This Lifetime”
“It Is Written”
“Electric Gypsy”
Coinciding with the announcement, Beckley has released one of the album’s tracks, a catchy pop gem titled “Friends Are Hard to Find,” via streaming services.
Gerry explains that the new song “seeks to relieve the isolation all of us felt during the last nearly two years,” and was written with inspiration from “the spontaneous creativity” of famed songwriter Jimmy Webb, who is Beckley’s good friend.
Aurora is an 11-song collection that Gerry recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic at his two home studios, in Sydney, Australia, and Venice, California. The tracks on Aurora include tunes that began as unfinished demos and scratch recordings that date back as far as the early 1970s, as well as brand-new songs written during the past two years.
Beckley co-wrote one of the new songs, “Tickets to the Past,” with his America band mate Dewey Bunnell, marking the first time a tune that they wrote together will not first appear on an album by their band.
Aurora is sequenced like a traditional two-sided vinyl LP, with songs that are arranged to flow with a beginning, a middle and an end. Reflecting on the new collection, Gerry says, “When you hold a mirror up to your life, it’s hard to control how much of your life is in that reflection. I don’t want to say it’s about one thing in particular, I’d rather leave it more open-ended.”
America’s currently on tour in the U.S., and has more than 20 upcoming dates lined up this year. The band’s next concert is March 11 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
Here’s the full Aurora track list:
“Aurora”
“I Fall Down”
“Never Know Why”
“Tickets to the Past”
“Way to Go”
“Friends Are Hard to Find”
“Peace of Mind”
“Indy’s Gatho”
“Aerial”
“Superscope”
“Tears”
Red Hot Chili Peppers have shared another preview of their hotly anticipated new album, Unlimited Love.
The latest cut is called “Poster Child,” and is available now via digital outlets. An accompanying animated video is streaming now via Facebook.
“Poster Child” is the second Unlimited Love track to be released, following lead single “Black Summer.” The album, which marks the return of both longtime guitarist John Frusciante and frequent Peppers producer Rick Rubin, arrives in full on April 1.
RHCP will launch a worldwide stadium tour in support of Unlimited Love in June. The U.S. leg begins in July.
Randy Newman is postponing his 2022 U.K. and European tour dates while he recovers from a broken neck.
“Recently, I noticed I was shrinking. People over whom I had towered now towered over me. Could this be payback for having written ‘Short People’? Turns out, my neck was broken,” the Oscar-, Emmy- and Grammy-winning songwriter wrote in a statement posted on his official website and Instagram account.
“They operated on me successfully, I think. For even now, I look less like an anteater and more like a folk rock artist from the early sixties,” the 2013 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee continued. “But the doctor said I’m not quite ready to tour. I was really looking forward to coming to Europe to perform. I miss performing a great deal and I look forward to a time when I can come. I’m sorry I won’t see you this time but I will see you soon.”
Newman, 78, was set to kick off his An Evening with Randy Newman tour in Dublin, Ireland, on March 15, with subsequent stops in the U.K., Sweden, Norway, Germany and France. This marks the third time Newman has postponed the tour. It was originally set to begin in 2020, but was pushed to 2022 due to the pandemic. He was also scheduled to swing by Australia and make his first-ever trip to New Zealand, but put those shows on hold in January 2020 following hip surgery.
The statement promises “new dates to be announced as soon as possible,” and that current ticket holders will be contacted with additional info about the rescheduled dates in the future. The status of Newman’s recently announced May 1 appearance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival remains unconfirmed.
Paul McCartney has confirmed the online speculation: He’ll be headlining the U.K.’s prestigious Glastonbury Festival on Saturday, June 25. The festival is returning in person this year after the last two editions were canceled due to the pandemic.
On February 24, McCartney tweeted what appeared to be a Wordle score, with the stats, “Wordle 121 25/6.” Since those numbers don’t actually make sense in Wordle world, fans suspected something was up, and one spelled it out: “I think 121 25/6 is saying 121 days to Glasto and Saturday Glasto is 25th June. Guessing he is headlining.”
If you’ll recall, McCartney had been slated to play a headlining set at the 2020 Glastonbury Festival, but that event was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, as was the 2021 edition of the fest.
As previously announced, Billie Eilish will be the headliner at this year’s festival on Friday, June 24, while rapper Kendrick Lamar has just been announced as the headliner for Sunday, June 26.
Also on the bill: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds,The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream and dozens more.
