Between the release of his new Apocalyptic Love album, getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Slash is having quite a year. And it’s only going to get busier.
The rock titan has announced the next batch of tour dates for him, singer Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators. The boys will be hitting the road for a fall North American tour, beginning September 4 in San Diego. Foxy Shazam will open most of the dates on the trek, which runs through October 3 in Los Angeles, according to hennemusic.com.
Of course, Slash and company will have plenty going on between now and then. The guitarist will get his Walk of Fame star on July 10 and will begin the first leg of his North American tour on July 12. Plus, his latest single, “You’re a Lie” just hit #1 on Billboard’s Active Rock chart.
Slash Fall North American Tour:
Sept. 4 - San Diego, CA - House of Blues
Sept. 5 - Phoenix, AZ - Celebrity Theatre
Sept. 7 - Austin, TX - Stubbs
Sept. 8 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues
Sept. 9 - Houston, TX - House of Blues
Sept. 11 - New Orleans, LA - House of Blues
Sept. 12 - Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle
Sept. 16 - Hampton Beach, NH - Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
Sept. 18 - New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom
Sept. 19 - Cleveland, OH - House of Blues
Sept. 21 - Cincinnati, OH - Bogart’s
Sept. 22 - Detroit, MI - Fillmore
Sept. 23 - Toronto, ON - Sound Academy
Sept. 25 - Indianapolis, IN - Egyptian Room
Sept. 28 - Chicago, IL - Riviera Theater
Sept. 29 - Springfield, MO - O’Reilly Family Events Center
Oct. 2 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theater
Oct. 3 - Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern
Aerosmith have pushed back the release of their new album until November. Music From Another Dimension previously had been set to come out in August.
No reason has been given for the delay, although there have been reports that Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were still mixing the album tracks when Aerosmith began its Global Warming Tour with Cheap Trick earlier this month.
The album will be Aerosmith’s first original release since 2001’s Just Push Play. The band’s summer tour continues through August 8, with a final stop planned in Tacoma, Washington, according to the band’s website.
Keith Richards and Jack White go back a few years. The two worked on a few (unreleased) recordings in 2009 and the former White Stripe joined The Rolling Stones on stage in 2006 (as seen in Martin Scorsese’s Shine a Light).
When asked by Rolling Stonemagazine if Jack might be in consideration to produce his band’s next album, Keef seemed into the idea. “That’s always a possibility,” Richards said. “The door is wide open.”
It wouldn’t be the first time White has worked his magic on a music legend’s album, having produced LPs for Loretta Lynn and Wanda Jackson.
Of course, it’s not a foregone conclusion that the Stones will record a new album anytime soon. Richards said that the band is meeting in London in July to talk about future plans.
The archetypal west coast band of the ’70s, the Eagles reached a creative and commercial peak in 1976 with their Hotel California album.
Looking back, Glenn Frey, according to the Daily Express, feels the magnitude of their success brought too much pressure on the group.
He told BBC News: “If I had known what I know now, I would have just had the Eagles have a vacation for a while, we’re getting on each other’s nerves, that’s what the Stones used to do... It’s not really ego, it’s the pressure to follow ‘Hotel California.’ Trying to get better every time out, and you just can't be better every time out, every record can’t be ‘Hotel California,’ every song you write can’t be ‘Desperado.’”
Model Bobbie Brown – immortalized as “The Cherry Pie Girl” thanks to her involvement in the video for the Warrant classic – is wrapping up work on an autobiography.
Titled Sex, Drugs and Cherry Pie, the book is scheduled for release early in 2013.
Meanwhile, Brown has just finished filming a new reality television series titled Ex Wives Rock, which begins airing on August 29 on the Slice network.
The program is co-produced by Loraine Lewis with narration by Shannon Tweed-Simmons – of course, the co-star of her own reality show, Gene Simmons Family Jewels.
As reported by Metal Sludgelast year, Ex Wives Rock features Brown (ex-Jani Lane and Tommy Lee), Athena Lee (ex-James Kottak of Scorpions and sister of Tommy Lee), Susan Dixon (ex-Jerry Dixon of Warrant) and Sharise Neil (ex-Vince Neil). During the course of the series, the cast spends time at locations including the Rainbow Bar & Grill on West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip (see Gibson.com's Van Halen-inspired tour of the Sunset Strip here) and struggle with the passing of Jani Lane, who died during the filming of one of the episodes.
Congratulations are in order for Rush! The Canadian prog-rockers have matched their highest chart spot ever on the Billboard 200 with their new album, Clockwork Angels, which debuted at #2 on the chart this week. The album pushed 103,000 copies in the U.S. in its debut week, the band’s highest sales showing since 2002’s Vapor Trails, which sold 110,000 units. Rush also previously had a #2 hit with their 1993 album, Counterparts.
Rush will support the release of Clockwork Angels with a massive North American tour this fall. The Clockwork Angels Tour sets off at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire, on September 7 and continues for 33 days before wrapping up at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, on December 2.
What to expect from the band on the tour? Speaking with Rolling Stone, guitarist Alex Lifeson recently stated that Rush are planning to play “a major portion” of the album on the road.
But they won’t go all the way and play Clockwork Angels in its entirety on this initial trek. “Not on the first leg of the tour,” Lifeson said. “But perhaps if people become more familiar with it, or if it becomes a very strong demand, then we’d consider it for the second leg.”
A fair share of publications have created lists of the best songs in rock history, and to celebrate 60 years in print NME has announced its own list.
So who took the #1 spot: The Beatles? Led Zeppelin? Elvis Presley? Bob Dylan? No, NME chose Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” as their list-topper. #2 is Pulp’s “Common People” and #3 is David Bowie’s “Heroes.”
Quite surprising, perhaps, is that the Fab Four don’t enter the conversation until #15, with “A Day in the Life” and that Elvis Presley didn’t crack the top 20. However, The Stone Roses have two entries in the upper echelon.
Check out NME’s Top 20 entries below:
1. Joy Division – “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
2. Pulp – “Common People”
3. David Bowie – “Heroes”
4. The Beach Boys – “Good Vibratons”
5. New Order – “Blue Monday”
6. The Stone Roses – “She Bangs the Drums”
7. The Smiths – “There is a Light That Never Goes Out”
8. The Specials – “Ghost Town”
9. Dizzee Rascal – “Fix Up, Look Sharp”
10. Oasis – “Wonderwall”
11. The Rolling Stones – “Sympathy For the Devil”
12. The Ronettes – “Be My Baby”
13. Michael Jackson – “Billie Jean”
14. Sex Pistols – “God Save the Queen”
15. The Beatles – “A Day in the Life”
16. The Cure – “Boys Don’t Cry”
17. Bob Dylan – “Like a Rolling Stone”
18. The Beach Boys – “God Only Knows”
19. Madonna – “Like a Prayer”
20. The Stone Roses – “I am the Resurrection”
Hot off the rumors that The Rolling Stones were going to play their final gig at 2013’s Glastonbury Festival (which was denied by the band’s reps), Keith Richards says the boys will get together in July to set their 50th anniversary plans. Keef told Rolling Stone magazine that, ideally, he’d like to play at least one show by the end of the year.
“I’d like to get a couple of shows down and see how it goes,” Richards said. “But I’d love it.”
Although “it’s all very hush-hush,” the guitarist said that the band members will meet next month in London, following a New York-based jam session in April. He said that the gang will decide if they will be making a new record – which would be their first since 2005’s A Bigger Bang.
“We’re going to talk about that in July and see. I mean, I’d love to get some tracks down and see what songs we’ve got,” he said. “And that goes along with part of getting the band back together and getting things moving. So I’d love to cut some tracks, yeah.”
Def Leppard have re-recorded “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and “Rock of Ages” to coincide with the launch of their Rock of Ages U.S. tour and the release of the new Rock of Ages film, starring Tom Cruise.
Why?
“It was, well, let’s just say a sensible business decision on our part,” Joe Elliott tells MTVHive. “How can I put this politely? We were having a major disagreement with our ex-record label about the digital rights for our back catalog. We couldn’t come to a mutual understanding that seemed fair for both sides. So we finally just decided to re-record all our hits. We started with ‘Sugar’ and ‘Rock of Ages,’ and I think we did a pretty good job. It’s hard work trying to recreate something you did 30 years ago.”
Elliott insists Leppard didn’t attempt to update or amend their original recordings for a new generation.
“We tried to do it as closely as we could,” said Elliott. “We got the same sounds, the same key, the same tempo. It was a 100% forgery. That was the idea, anyway. It’s not like a live version, where everything’s a bit looser and you’ve got the ad-libs and the slightly longer guitar solos and the crowd screaming in the background. We were very conscious of the fact that when people download our songs from iTunes, they want it to sound like they remember it.”
Def Leppard have no beef with Rock of Ages movie star Tom Cruise. A year ago, Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen gave the project his approval.
Most Metallica fans know that guitarist Kirk Hammett is an avid collector of all things horror-related. Now, he’s ready to share his assembly of rare items with the world via a new book, Too Much Horror Business – The Kirk Hammett Collection, due out this October.
The hardback book will include 300 images of items from Hammett’s stash, with captions written by the guitarist and a three-part interview about his passion for horror.
“This is my gift to all the other horror nerds out there who are just like me,” Kirk said in a press release. “It’s been made with great love for all the many characters and movies which guided me through childhood, into adulthood and which still keep me on track today.”
Of course, fans attending Metallica’s new Orion Music + More festival this weekend (June 23-24 in Atlantic City, New Jersey), will get a very special look at Hammett’s collection. An area of the fest will host Kirk’s Crypt, which will feature some of the guitarist’s prized items.
CNN has released a new film that sees Bruce Springsteen talking about the making of his latest studio album, Wrecking Ball.
The candid film is based around an interview that Springsteen conducted in front of a live studio audience earlier this year. You can watch the movie, Bruce Springsteen and The Working Man, at CNN.
U.K. magazine Uncut has also launched an iPad app dedicated to the history of “The Boss.” It chronicles the history of the man from the early to mid-’70s, right up to the release of Wrecking Ball in 2012. The app is titled Bruce Springsteen: The Ultimate Music Guide and you can grab the first chapter for free via iTunes.
Contrary to stories circulating recently, The Rolling Stone say they have no plans to quit with a 2013 Glastonbury appearance.
Stones’ representatives told U.K. newspaper The Guardian that there was no truth in the stories of retirement and that they would not be playing Glastonbury.
A Glastonbury spokesman said: “Everybody in the year off thinks they’ve come up with the perfect Glastonbury lineup. But at the moment there isn’t anything to confirm or deny.”
Rush will be utilizing a string section for their upcoming Clockwork Angels tour. According to Music-News.com, guitarist Alex Lifeson said there would be eight to ten string players in the ensemble.
He told Billboard: “It’s just something different for us, and I can’t wait to hear what it sounds like. As far as what the set list will look like, there will be a number of songs from the new album.
“The set list is quite fluid these days. We’re dropping and replacing songs constantly, and that’s the way it always goes before we get into rehearsals. There’s a great deal of pressure on us now to do the whole record, which we don’t anticipate. I think our intention is probably to prepare the whole thing; whether we’ll do it or not we’re still not sure, especially on the first leg of the tour.”
Gibson.com wishes Paul McCartney Happy Birthday today. Few lives have been as thoroughly documented as the life of Paul McCartney. Biographies – both of The Beatles and Sir Paul – number in the hundreds, many filled with minute details about the public and private life of the former Beatle. Still, we managed to unearth a few interesting tidbits that may have eluded all but the most avid fans. Feel free to chime in, in the comments section, with interesting McCartney facts we might have missed.
10. The artist who showed him the option to play guitar left-handed was … Slim Whitman.
McCartney’s father bought him a trumpet for his birthday when McCartney turned 14, but the young lad had his Dad exchange it for a cheap acoustic. The future Beatle struggled mightily with the instrument until he happened upon a photograph of Slim Whitman, the country yodeler who played guitar lefty-style. McCartney flipped his guitar, modified the string setup, and soon wrote his first song, a ditty titled “I Lost My Little Girl.”
9. Long before the edict came down from Brian Epstein, McCartney himself insisted that he and Lennon be nattily attired.
In the very first show McCartney did with The Quarrymen, he outfitted the band in matching shirts and string ties. Furthermore, to set himself and Lennon apart from the others, he came up with the idea that the two frontmen should wear matching cream-colored blazers. All of 15 at the time, McCartney muffed his first turn in the spotlight when he botched his featured guitar solo on the Arthur Smith tune, “Guitar Boogie.”
8. “Yesterday” is the most recorded song in history. But nipping at its heels is a song by … Tony Orlando and Dawn.
According to Guinness World Records, more than 1,600 different cover versions of “Yesterday” have been recorded to date. The popular standard, “Stardust,” ranks second, with more than 1,500 recorded versions. Incredibly, however, the 1973 Tony Orlando and Dawn hit, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,” rates nearly as high, with well over 1,000 recorded versions out there, somewhere.
7. It was he who salvaged The Beatles’ legendary summit with Elvis Presley.
While in Los Angeles in 1965, The Beatles went to Elvis’s house in Bel Air to meet The King for the first time. According to McCartney biographer Peter Ames, Lennon irritated Presley with talk of Vietnam and by flirting with Elvis’s wife, Priscilla. McCartney saved the day with the words, “Can we play some music?” An impromptu jam ensued (with Elvis on bass) wherein the group played a clutch of Presley hits.
6. The only instance in which McCartney has utilized a string quartet, other than on “Yesterday,” was on a tribute song he wrote for John Lennon.
String sections have been employed on lots of McCartney’s songs, of course, both with the Beatles and post-Beatles. But with the exception of “Yesterday,” the only time McCartney enlisted a string quartet was on “Here Today,” the moving remembrance of John Lennon he wrote for his 1982 Tug of War album. Tug of War also marked McCartney’s reunion with George Martin, who produced the disc.
5. One of the first bands he tried to sign to Apple Records was … Chicago.
During a trip to Los Angeles in the spring of 1968, when McCartney was trying to get the newly-launched Apple Corps off the ground, he went to the Whisky a Go Go to take in a B.B. King show. An upstart group called Chicago Transit Authority happened to be on the bill as well. Impressed, McCartney tried to recruit them as an Apple artist, but alas, the group were already in talks with Columbia Records.
4. His favorite band at the dawn of 1965 was … The Who.
Released in January 1965, The Who’s “I Can’t Explain” impressed McCartney to the point that he proclaimed The Who his favorite band. Coming at a time when groups like Herman’s Hermits and Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders were dominating the charts, McCartney’s proclamation was remarkably prescient. Throughout that year, The Who would assail the singles charts with soon-to-be classics like “Anyway Anyhow Anywhere” and “My Generation.”
3. Before they became Wings, McCartney’s post-Beatles band nearly became … a paint thinner.
In August 1971, when he was trying to get his post-Beatles band off the ground, McCartney was having a terrible time coming up with a name for the nascent group. Among the top name-candidates floated were The Dazzlers and, for reasons unknown, Turpentine. Alas, while praying for his wife, Linda, as she was giving birth to their daughter, the image of “wings” kept springing to mind.
2. He began reversing The Beatles’ “Lennon-McCartney” songwriting designation as early as 1976.
Although The Beatles first album, Please Please Me, featured songs credited to “McCartney-Lennon,” McCartney famously acceded to pressure to henceforth adopt the designation, “Lennon-McCartney.” But when Wings released their live triple-album, Wings Over America, in 1976, McCartney elected to designate the five featured Beatles songs as “McCartney-Lennon” compositions. He continued the practice on other post-Beatles albums.
1. His 1980 hit, “Coming Up,” was a prime factor in John Lennon’s decision to get back into music.
This charming ditty, from McCartney’s homespun 1980 album, McCartney II, was first heard by Lennon as he was traveling with his assistant, Fred Seaman. The next morning, Lennon confessed to Seaman that he couldn’t get the song’s distinctive riff out of his head. Seaman later said the track stirred the muse in Lennon. “If Paul was writing decent music,” Seaman wrote, in his memoir, “John felt compelled to take up the challenge.”
The Rolling Stones have moved quickly to shoot down a rumor which broke overnight that the band would play their last-ever concert at the Glastonbury festival in the U.K. in 2013.
The report in The Mirror in the U.K. quotes “a band insider” as saying, "All four members have agreed that next year is the right time to have one final hurrah and put on the gig of their lives. It’s a case of now or never, and obviously Glastonbury is the most important festival on the circuit. Everybody’s incredibly excited ... it’s a final bow.”
However, when The Guardian contacted the band’s representatives they were told that not only is the talk of retirement false, but the band isn’t even planning to play Glastonbury.
Earlier, outspoken journalist and commentator Paul Cashmere wrote on Noise11: “So The Rolling Stones are going to play their last ever show at Glastonbury in 2013 are they? Not bloody likely.”
Cashmere goes on to say it would be extremely unlikely for Mick Jagger to agree to saying farewell at somebody else’s gig, especially with the potential for merchandise rights, pay-for-play, movie rights, live TV rights, live streaming rights, DVD rights and ongoing repeats. “When The Stones go they will go by their own rules, at their own gig, with their own audience AND keep all the money,” Cashmere wrote.
Cashmere expects some activity in the Stones camp, aside from a 50th anniversary book being released next month, likely involving former members Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor.
In 2011 the Scorpions announced their decision to call it a day after one final tour. But as new concert dates and recording projects were added to their plans, they – like many bands – have decided they will carry on.
“We called it the farewell tour thinking believing it would be the last time we would play,” says guitarist Matthias Jabs, “but the tour is still going, due to demand from the audience.” He now confirms that the band have quit their plan to quit. Much like fellow metal veterans Judas Priest, however, they will no longer play long tours.
“The Scorpions will not break up,” he told AZCentral, “We’re giving up the constant touring – into the studio, out of the studio, back on the road. There’s a routine of making an album and touring the world for two and a half years. We said, ‘Can we go in the studio in 2013, Klaus [Meine, vocalist] will be 65, and then do another world tour?’ It might get shaky.”
But Jabs did add talk of new recording sessions. “We have a project which we will probably release next year. We have so much film material. We will work on something like an anthology, some kind of box set.”
Jabs talked of some “new” old songs leftover from the ’80s and ’90s - “resurrecting unfinished songs from what some people say was our best time – leftovers from Blackout, Love at First Sting, Crazy World and Savage Amusement. There’s so much strong material, there was a definite spark in those old recordings. The idea is to redo them with today’s technology and take it further.”
Animal rights organization PETA has marked Sir Paul’s 70th birthday with a special card. The campaigners made a birthday card of various people dresses as animals crossing London’s Abbey Road. The ‘animals’ are carrying signs that say: "Happy Birthday, Paul! Thank You for Loving Us, Not Eating Us.”
"PETA couldn't be happier to celebrate Sir Paul's birthday", said PETA Manager Mimi Bekhechi. “He has done so much to help animals during his legendary career, and we can't think of a person more deserving of celebration."
Sir Paul became a vegetarian more than 40 years ago. He says: "I would never go back. I enjoy being vegetarian. It's a thrill, and I can walk past a field of animals with a clear conscience.
“If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you could do. It's staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty."
Poison frontman Bret Michaels has teamed up with a stellar cast for a new solo album that’s slated to arrive late July.
Bret Michaels and Friends: Get Your Rock On will include guest appearances by Aerosmith‘s Joe Perry, Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley, ex-Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, Def Leppard‘s Phil Collen and Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s Rickey Medlocke and Peter Keys. The record also will feature a few major artists from outside the world of rock — Jimmy Buffett, country legend Loretta Lynn and rapper Lil Jon.
Talking to Billboard about the album, Michaels says, “I have either jammed with, partied with, or hung out with every friend that joined me on this album. There is such an awesome and diverse mix of talent on this record…It was truly one of the highlights of my career.”
Michaels recently debuted a video for the first single from the album, the title track. The tune features guitar work by Def Leppard’s Collen, whose band will be joining Poison and Lita Ford this summer for the Rock of Ages Tour 2012.
Rock legend Joe Walsh stopped by the Gibson Showroom in London yesterday. The Eagles and James Gang guitar great, who has just released a terrific solo album, Analog Man, was at Gibson to deliver a very special master class.
Joe sat down with a group of competition winners and discussed guitar setups, his favorite riffs, altered tunings and mastering slide guitar.
We'll have the full set of videos from this incredible master class available online later today at the Gibson Guitar Facebook page.
Brian Johnson has been chatting about some of the unexpected risks that come with being singer for AC/DC.
Johnson told Fox News that for three decades he’s been burned every time the cannon fires during “For Those About to Rock We Salute You.”
“I could write a book about standing under the cannon for 30 years,” he said. “These horrible sparks come out of them – at the end of the show I have burn markets all over my shoulders.”
Johnson also discussed his pre-gig warm up routine: “I just go into the bathroom, make a big loud noise and then come back to the boys and say. ‘Well, that’s me ready’.”
Alice Cooper hopes to become the artist with the most consecutive dates at London’s Wembley Arena on October 28.
According to Music Week, Cooper will have played that venue every decade since the ‘70s.
The show is part of Cooper’s Halloween Night Of Fear tour. Alice said: “What would Halloween be without me anyway? I mean, I practically invented it.”
Slash will be honored with his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The ceremony takes place by the Hard Rock Cafe on Hollywood Boulevard on 10 July 10.
According to BBC News, Ana Martinez, producer of the Walk of Fame ceremonies, said:
"We are proud to place his name among the stars on our fabled Hollywood Walk of Fame."
Slash has a new album, Apocalyptic Love, in stores now.
Geddy Lee says Rush brought a new level of playing into the studio during the making of the band’s just-released album, Clockwork Angels. In an interview conducted by the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, hosted by FMQB, Lee said the group’s most recent tour had a key impact on the sessions. “We don't leave much room for jamming or a momentary burst of inspiration,” said the singer-bassist, “but we did on this last tour, and we noticed that we kind of went to a really fun and interesting and a little bit dangerous place some nights. We just kind of elevated the thing into a new zone of intensity. Furious was the best way to describe it."
Corgan later asked Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson about the impact Rush has had on other musicians. “It's a wonderful compliment to have passed along something,” Lifeson said. “The role of teacher is quite an honorable one. We like to take chances. We like to push ourselves. We try to do all those things that so many musicians aspire to, you know, that freedom to do what you want and the way you want to do it.”
Keith Richards has been filling some of his down-time from The Rolling Stones by stepping into the role of record producer. Blue Note Records has just announced that a new album by Aaron Neville, scheduled for release this fall, was co-produced by Richards and longtime Rolling Stones producer Don Was. Richards also contributed guitar to several tracks on the yet-to-be-titled disc, a covers album featuring classic songs from the doo-wop era.
“It's a huge honor to welcome [Neville] to Blue Note Records and to be involved, along with the legendary Keith Richards, in the production of this album,” said Was, in a prepared statement. “Aaron Neville is one of the most expressive and soulful artists of all time. It's such a thrill to hear him sing. His vocals have a way of reaching into your heart and stirring something really deep inside.”
Neville will kick off a U.S. summer tour on June 23, in Greensboro, N.C.
Last month, Van Halen surprised fans by announcing their A Different Kind of Truth tour would be cut short, ending with a June 26 show in New Orleans. In a just-published interview with USA Today, Eddie Van Halen expounded on the reasons that decision. "We bit off more than we could chew," he explained. "This record took a lot out of us. And we went on tour earlier than we wanted to so we could play Madison Square Garden (in March, before a renovation), and that threw the schedule out of whack."
He quickly added that the tour would resume in November, in Japan, and hinted that surprises may be in store for U.S. fans. “… in the new year we’ll possibly do something special, but I can’t talk about it,” he said.
The legendary guitarist went on to dispel rumors that he and singer David Lee Roth were feuding. “Dave's the same as he's always been, funny, witty," he said, with a laugh. "Sometimes I can only take that in small doses, because he just goes on and on."
Fans, scribes and musicians have been describing Jeff Beck’s unparalleled mastery on the guitar for decades, but the phrase that most accurately fits his playing is “effortless genius.” His attack, invention, energy, ferocity and imagination seem instinctual. His instruments, whether the 1954 Les Paul he used during his historic Blow By Blow era or the array of guitars that have followed, are extensions of his body, and he makes them bark, howl, cry, moan or purr with something akin to a flick of the wrist.
At his core, however, Beck — who turns 68 on June 24 — is as much a blues player as a rock maven and a student of jazz. His musical roots embrace not only Les Paul and Cliff Gallup, but B.B. King and Steve Cropper.
• “Blues Deluxe”: Beck’s first turn as leader was the Jeff Beck Group, an outfit that brought both him and singer Rod Stewart to international prominence. And the blues was the backbone of their newfound stardom. The Group’s 1968 debut album Truth hosts several of Beck’s greatest blues performances, including this song, which evokes the sound of the classic ’60s line-up of the Muddy Waters Blues Band with Nicky Hopkins’ Otis Spann-inspired piano work and Beck’s intriguing musical shorthand. His phrases and rhythm are implied rather than overtly performed until nearly the five-minute mark, when he jumps into a solo that evokes Muddy’s protégée Buddy Guy on a rabid tear.
• “You Shook Me”: Both Beck and Jimmy Page borrowed this gem from the catalog of the famed blues songsmith Willie Dixon. The Led Zeppelin version is considered definitive, but the Jeff Beck Group was there first. The difference between both versions is that Beck’s rendition on Truth is an ensemble performance — again, more beholden to the Chicago blues tradition — and Zep’s, which is a tour-de-force for Page.
• “I Ain’t Superstitious”: Another brave entry from Truth is the Group’s take on Howlin’ Wolf’s “I Ain’t Superstitious.” It’s Stewart’s best performance on a blues tune, and one of Beck’s truly epochal works. It defines his ken for sonic experimentation with a series of dot-and-dash wah-wah exhortations, radical bends and keening slide. After nearly 45 years this cut still must be heard to be believed.
• “Sweet Little Angel”: This studio out-take from 1969’s Beck-ola sessions surfaced in 2006 for the disc’s CD reissue. The tune was composed and recorded by the electric slide genius Robert Nighthawk before B.B. King used Lucille to put his stamp on it. Beck goes for contrast here, injecting the song’s sweet lyric with six string menace via an ungodly heavy tone and his barbed wire call-and-response with Stewart’s voice.
• “Going Down”: Some consider the Jeff Beck Group’s 1972 version of this song, cut for their eponymous album, to be definitive, but that honor rests with Gibson ES- 345 and ES-350 legend Freddie King, who put this tune by Memphis songwriter Don Nix on his 1971 steamroller Getting Ready. Nonetheless, Beck’s take on this juggernaut tune was a staple of FM rock radio for decades — and wait for the absolutely insane whammy bar maneuvers just past the three minute mark. It’s the most demented twang bar work-out since Ike Turner’s ’50s ripper “Prancin’.”
• “Black Cat Moan”: The short-lived union of Beck, Vanilla Fudge bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice produced one of ’70s rock’s greatest bands, the aptly named Beck, Bogert & Appice. Their eponymous album from 1973 is a diamond and Beck brings his slide guitar prowess to the fore on “Black Cat Moan,” a track that challenges Z.Z. Top’s early blues ‘n’ boogie primacy.
• “I’m So Proud”: BBA also tackled — although a better word is caressed — Curtis Mayfield’s romantic “I’m So Proud” on their debut album. Beck put the blues in this soul masterpiece, carefully weaving single-note lines and graceful, floating chords around Bogert’s sweet ‘n’ mellow voice
• “’Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers”: Stevie Wonder’s ornate blues composition got the complete soul guitar work-out in Beck’s hands on his career-defining hit album Blow By Blow in 1975. Beck’s version is a tribute to Roy Buchanan and borrows from Buchanan’s vocabulary of bends, long-held notes, abrupt ripping phrases and volume swells. Overall, it’s a study in Beck’s most sensitive and eloquent playing.
• “Farther On Up The Road”: This live performance from 1981’s Secret Policeman’s Other Ball charity album is an over-the-top duel between Beck and his fellow British blues titan Eric Clapton. Beck wins handily, but both players slash and burn while still keeping the heart of this Bobby “Blue” Bland classic beating.
• “Brush With the Blues”: Beck’s 1999 Who Else! album was mostly a flirtation with electronic experimentation, but this track is an unabashed return to his roots. This time Beck’s the lead voice, since the track’s instrumental, and he favors variations on a single note melody while still pushing the sonic envelope, defining the space between edgy and soulful.
The Zappa Family Trust has signed a deal to release 60 of the rock legend’s recordings.
The project starts in July with 12 albums, with another dozen to be released monthly through the end of 2012.
“The ink is not yet dry on The Zappa Family Trust's worldwide deal with Universal Music Enterprises,” said Gail Zappa in a statement. “They made us the offer we couldn't refuse—for all the right reasons. It is a win-win for all of us, but mostly for Frank Zappa. Long may his baton wave. We are so ready to go.”
Frank Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.
For more information, go to www.zappa.com.
The first 12 re-mastered albums will be released July 31.
Gibson icon Slash has told Kerrang! magazine that he enjoys touring and playing shows the best.
According to Music-News.com, Slash said: “This new album is really great to get on the road with because it's all tailor-made to playing it live. That's the only real reason I do this. I mean, I love playing guitar, don't get me wrong, and I like writing and I like recording, but it's always been, ever since I picked up a guitar, to go out and (expletive deleted) do concerts and big shows like Download.
"So I make records, but touring and playing is the icing on the cake."
Black Sabbath performed the second of three planned 2012 shows this weekend at the Download festival at Donington Park in Leicestershire, United Kingdom.
As with their warm-up show at the 3,800-person O2 Academy in Birmingham, England (Black Sabbath's home town), original members Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler were joined by Ozzy's solo band drummer Tommy Clufetos in place of Bill Ward.
Other bands on the three-day Download festival included Soundgarden, Lamb Of God, Black Label Society, Tenacious D, Steel Panther, Trivium, Black Veil Brides, Fear Factory, Slash, You Me At Six, Periphery, Devil Townsend Project and three quarters of thrash's Big Four: Megadeth, Anthrax and Metallica (with the latter performing their 1991 self-titled album in its entirety but in reverse order).
The remaining Black Sabbath show for the year is a headlining slot at the Lollapalooza festival in August.
Setlist:
“Black Sabbath”
“The Wizard”
“Behind the Wall of Sleep”
“N.I.B.”
“Into the Void”
“Under the Sun”
“Snowblind”
“War Pigs”
“Sweet Leaf”
“Drum Solo”
“Iron Man”
“Fairies Wear Boots”
“Tomorrow's Dream”
“Dirty Women”
“Children of the Grave”
As if recording with Ke$ha on his recent Welcome 2 My Nightmare album wasn't a radical enough foray into the pop world, shock rock pioneer Alice Cooper performed an even more daring feat this weekend: a cover of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way."
Cooper performed the song during his set at the Bonnaroo Music And Arts Festival.
Gaga wasn't there in person but she appeared in spirit: a gigantic 'Frankengaga' towered over Cooper's band on stage.
Fans shouldn't be too surprised though: Cooper had previously spoken of his admiration for Gaga: "She can sing, write and play piano — she's not just a costume queen ... you can be as outrageous as you want as long as you back it up with the music," Cooper said.
It's a big year for mass awareness of Cooper: his cameo in Tim Burton's latest film, Dark Shadows, is perhaps the greatest musician movie guest appearance since his own turn in Wayne's World back in 1992.
Metallica’s Lars Ulrich said he found watching the new movie about a disabled fan’s mission to meet Metallica, ‘deeply moving.’
According to the Daily Express, the movie, Mission to Lars, focuses on Tom Spicer, who has Fragile X syndrome, and his sister Kate as they attempt to meet the band and Tom’s hero, Lars.
Ulrich said: "I thought the film was deeply moving. Meeting Tom and Kate, when they came out to film, it was an experience in itself. But seeing the film and reconnecting with the team was another experience.
"It's not something we're directly involved in - it's their film, their journey. But we're supportive of their endeavor. We don't want to take it over and have it turn into some kind of vanity project.
"It's a great testament into a world I didn't know much about and a great testament to the importance of music and what it means to different people."
It's sad to hear that former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Bob Welch hass died of an apparent suicide. He was the focal point of the band in the early 70's before Buckingham/Nicks came aboard. He was with the band for four albums, and probably best known for his song "Hypnotized." He was 65 years old.
On 5 June 5 AC/DC vocalist Brian Johnson was interviewed by Bay Area rock station 107.7 The Bone. When asked about when fans can expect to hear a new studio album from AC/DC, Johnson said, "I'll be getting together with [AC/DC guitarist Malcolm Young] in a couple of weeks, and then we're going to London to meet up with Angus [Young, AC/DC lead guitarist], hopefully. And that's usually how we'll start.
“We're just a bunch of pals from the projects, still. Even though we've done well, we still have the same roots that we stick by that we did when we had nothing, basically. And that's the work ethic. And it has to be right for the boys to do anything. When we're sitting down and [we're talking about], 'Can we do this? We're not gonna be a pale shadow of our former selves?' We'll talk about it and make sure that we've all got it. We're just five pieces of a card, and if one of us is not really [able to perform at 100 per cent], the whole thing would just collapse, I think."
AC/DC also plan to tour, but maybe not as before. "Well, I think it wouldn't be like the last one,” Johnson says. “That was two years… just nuts. For guys our age at the time, to tour the world to sell-out audiences everywhere, it gives you a good feeling. And the great thing was to look out into the audiences and have a look at the generations of people… I mean, it was unbelievable… Kids there that were 7-8 [years old], teenagers…"
Malcolm Young recently confirmed to Classic Rock magazine that AC/DC are working on the follow-up to 2008's Black Ice. But he said fans may have to wait longer than expected, and he is wary of Johnson’s plans.
"You know what Brian's like. He just says things and then walks away," Malcolm said. "It'll be a little while — a year or two anyway.
He added, "I've been doing some jamming on some song ideas but I do that all the time, as do the rest of the band. We are still working. But we had a long rest between Stiff Upper Lip and Black Ice, so I think we need a couple of years to recuperate and work on it a bit more."
The Official Charts Company in the U.K. has announced that The Beatles are Britain’s biggest selling singles act in the past 60 years.
NME.com reports that the Liverpool group toppled Elvis into second place with British favorite Cliff Richard coming in third.
The 60 top selling U.K. singles:
1. The Beatles
2. Elvis Presley
3. Cliff Richard
4. Madonna
5. Michael Jackson
6. Elton John
7. Queen
8. Abba
9. David Bowie
10. Rihanna
11. Paul McCartney
12. Kylie Minogue
13. Rolling Stones
14. Rod Stewart
15. Take That
16. Stevie Wonder
17. Oasis
18. Eminem
19. Whitney Houston
20. Spice Girls
21. George Michael
22. Robbie Williams
23. Bee Gees
24. U2
25. Shakin' Stevens
26. Britney Spears
27. Status Quo
28. Lady Gaga
29. Boyzone
30. Blondie
31. Slade
32. Black Eyed Peas
33. Boney M
34. Westlife
35. Celine Dion
36. Beyonce
37. UB40
38. Olivia Newton John
39. Mariah Carey
40. Tom Jones
41. Madness
42. Police
43. Wham!
44. Phil Collins
45. Diana Ross
46. Jam
47. Bryan Adams
48. Pet Shop Boys
49. David Guetta
50. Adam Ant
51. Duran Duran
52. Frank Sinatra
53. Frankie Goes To Hollywood
54. Prince
55. Katy Perry
56. Wet Wet Wet
57. Everly Brothers
58. Shadows
59. Pink
60. Coldplay
The former Beatle played some of his ‘60s classics as he closed the star studded Diamond Jubilee concert in London.
The legend performed “Magical Mystery Tour,” "All My Loving, "Let It Be" and "Live And Let Die" before the closing the celebrations with an and all-star sing-a-long version of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da."
Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee concert featured a host of top pop and rock acts including Elton John, Grace Jones, Annie Lennox, Madness, Cliff Richard, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Will.I.Am and Stevie Wonder.
The Canadian rock star may have cancelled a planned 30-gig Buffalo Springfield tour last year, after just seven shows, but he’s not opposed to trying again in the future.
Young told Rolling Stone that there could be another tour:“That could happen, but it's not happening now. I'd be on a tour of my past for the rest of (expletive deleted) time, which I can't do. I have to be able to move forward. I can't be relegated. I did enough of it for right then, but there is this seed of something great still there. It's worth exploring again.”
Buffalo Springfield were one of America’s premier bands in the mid-‘60s till they split in 1968. Young organized a reunion in 2010 for his Bridge School Benefit concert.
Ozzy Osbourne has told NME that Black Sabbath have written around fifteen songs together so far since reuniting with a view to recording a new album.
"We've written about 15 songs so far," Osbourne said. "Whether they'll get on an album… You just keep on writing." Ozzy also hinted that the album may already have a name. "Next year - 2013 - is a good clue of what we'll call the album."
The new material would be the first new original Sabbath music with Ozzy since "Psycho Man" and "Selling My Soul" for the 1997 Reunion live album. [Read about Ozzy and Sabbath's reunions: Black Sabbath - The Ozzman Cometh Again]
Bass legend Geezer Butler told NME that producer Rick Rubin used an interesting strategy as kindling for the creative spark: "He sat us down, put the first album on and said 'Listen to this, then imagine it's 1969. You've just done that - what would you do next?"
Meanwhile Tony Iommi told the magazine that the band's warm-up show at O2 Academy Birmingham last month have him a boost amidst his cancer treatment. "It was great," Iommi said. "Going through what I've gone through over the past year has been like living in a different world - being onstage and to get that [reaction from the fans] is just fantastic, it really boosts you up."
Black Sabbath will close the Download festival on Sunday, June 10.
Joe Walsh says his twenty year break between solo albums can be traced back to two events in 1994: the Eagles' decision to get back to work and release Hell Freezes Over, and his own decision to get sober.
In an interview with Classic Rock Revisited, Walsh said that after the Hell Freezes Over tour, he never gained momentum at starting a solo record. "I also decided that it was time to get sober," he said. "I had to reinvent and start from scratch and learn to do everything sober – that took a lot of time. It opened up a whole life and a way of looking at things. I was able to get healthy again and I wanted to go check that out and see what it was all about."
But now Walsh is back as a solo artist with a new album, Analog Man, and a new way of working. "The last album I made was on recording tape and there were knobs; now there is a mouse," he said. "Those of us who were analog guys had to make some adjustments with this new technology." The title track refers to the digital world and the disconnect people experience when they begin to live a large amount of their time online. "There are people who are texting and they smash into the car in front of them because they didn’t look up. There are people who are trying to do things in both worlds and it doesn’t work too well."
Analog Man is released on June 5 by Fantasy Records/Concord Music Group.
A new edition of Jimi Hendrix’s 1970 performances at the Berkeley Community Theatre is coming to DVD and Blu-ray. The restored and expanded concert will be released on July 10, according to Brave Words.
The documentary showcases the two performances Hendrix gave on May 30, 1970. This edition has been restored from the original 16mm negative, and includes more than 15 minutes of unseen footage. Among the new performances are “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” “Machine Gun” and “Hear My Train a Comin’” – none of which were included in the original film.
In addition, July 10 will see the first stand-alone release on Blu-ray of Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child. The documentary film directed by Bob Smeaton (The Beatles Anthology) was previously included on DVD in the West Coast Seattle Boy box set.
