KISS’ 12th studio album, Animalize, is turning 40 this year, and to celebrate the band has launched a new 40th anniversary merch collection, complete with two limited-edition vinyl variant bundles.
One of the bundles includes an Animalize 40th anniversary picture disc, along with a T-shirt with the album’s track list. It was limited to only 500 and has already sold out.
The second, limited to 2,500 units, includes a 40th anniversary black-and-white cornetto color vinyl, wrapped in a mirrored sleeve, that comes with a poster. It also includes an Animalize jersey that reads “if it’s too loud, you’re too old.”
In addition to the packages, there’s plenty of other merch for the KISS Army, including an Animalize print button-up shirt, several T-shirts, jerseys and a sweatshirt, as well as a duffle bag, nail stickers, buttons and a bumper sticker.
Released Sept. 17, 1985, Animalize was part of KISS’ commercial resurgence that also included 1983’s Lick It Up. The album was certified Platinum and featured the hit song “Heaven’s On Fire.”
A wax figure of the late Sinéad O’Connor has been pulled from Dublin’s National Wax Museum following uproar from the public, it was revealed on RTÉ Radio’s Liveline.
The figure was unveiled Thursday, the day before the one-year anniversary of Sinéad’s death, and drew tons of backlash on social media. Sinead’s brother John O’Connor also voiced his displeasure.
“When I saw it online yesterday I was shocked. I thought it looked something between a mannequin and something out of the Thunderbirds,” O’Connor said on Liveline. “I thought Sinéad would have been very fond of looking well, and she certainly did, and if it was supposed to be a representation of her in her early 20s when she did ‘Nothing Compares 2 U,’ it just looked nothing like her. I thought it was hideous.”
He added, “A friend of mine said to me last night that he’d seen better in Shaws [department store], in the window.”
John also suggested a statue of Sinéad in Dublin would be a better way to honor her.
The museum has since decided to remove the statue, with museum director Paddy Dunning apologizing to the family. He also blamed the blunder on the statue’s sculptor, PJ Joseph Hegarty, noting he delivered it the night before the unveiling.
“When I had a look at the statue, I walked in to launch it, and when I saw it, I too didn’t get that feeling that I normally get from PJ’s fantastic work,” he said. “My heart sunk a bit.”
He later noted, “I had to take the decision to cancel the statue and we’ll go again and we’ll remodel and we have to do better on this occasion.”
Back in June, The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White, who’ll star as Bruce Springsteen in the upcoming movie Deliver Me From Nowhere, told Variety he had yet to meet The Boss — but it looks like that may change soon.
Speaking again to Variety, this time on the red carpet at the Prelude to the Olympics event at Paris’ Fondation Louis Vuitton museum, Allen revealed that he’s now “texted and emailed” with Springsteen. He’s hoping to finally come face to face with the rocker at his Saturday show at London’s Wembley Stadium, the final stop on Springsteen’s current European tour.
White added, “I’m really excited to see him perform.”
When asked how Bruce texts, a smiling White responded, “like a boss.”
Deliver Me From Nowhere, based on Warren Zanes‘ book Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, follows Springsteen’s efforts to make his solo album Nebraska.
Released on Sept. 30, 1982, Nebraska featured 10 acoustic songs Springsteen originally recorded as demos on a four-track recorder. Springsteen had planned to rerecord the songs with The E Street Band but instead opted to release it as a solo acoustic record. It featured such songs as “Atlantic City,” “Johnny 99” and “State Trooper.”
B-52s founding member Kate Pierson is set to drop the new solo album Radios and Rainbows on Sept. 20. The album is Kate’s first solo album since her solo debut, 2015’s Guitars and Microphones.
“It’s an eclectic group of songs, anthems, dance things, a disco song,” Kate shares. “Overall, the album has an upbeat vibe because I wanted to put out something positive in these dark times. I wanted to make it fun!”
As a preview of what to expect, Kate has released the new single “Evil Love,” with a video descried as “think Lana Turner gone punk.”
Kate says the tune’s “a feel-good song about revenge. A film-noir style short story,” adding, “It’s atmospheric – and it’s danceable!”
Radios and Rainbows also includes the tune “Every Day is Halloween,” which Kate co-wrote with Sia and released in October.
And it sounds like fans will soon get to hear Kate perform these songs live, as she says she plans to hit the road and play some intimate venues, which will allow her to “let the emotions and the feelings of the songs come through, showcasing my vocals.”
Paul McCartney is the latest musician to pay tribute to legendary British blues/rock guitarist John Mayall, who passed away Monday at the age of 90.
“In the 1960’s we would meet at one of the late-night music clubs and often go back to his house where he had a huge and glorious collection of records,” McCartney writes on Instagram. “During these moments he became a mentor and would educate me on a lot of the blues guitarists playing at the time.”
“I would lounge back in the armchair, and he would play tracks by people like BB King, Buddy Guy, Albert King and many other great players. He would then play me tracks by Eric Clapton who was later in his band The Bluesbreakers,” McCartney continued. “The more he played the more I could see the links between all these great guitarists. Besides being very entertaining, it was a great education noticing the similarities between these stunning players.”
He concludes the post by sharing, “John was a lovely, down to earth man from the North of England so we found it easy to relate to each other and I will always thank him for his love of music, the blues and his willingness to turn others on to what he knew.” He ended the post with a simple, “Thanks John, love you!”
Mayall’s band Bluesbreakerswas a breeding ground for future well-known rock stars. Different incarnations of the band featured such artists as Clapton, Fleetwood Mac’s John McVie, Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green, The Rolling Stones’ Mick Taylor and Cream‘s Jack Bruce.
Mayall is due to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in October in the Music Influence category.
Neil Young is ready to release the third installment in his Archives series.
Young is set drop Archives Vol. III (1976-1987)on Sept. 6. As the title suggests, it focuses on Young’s career from 1976 to 1987, complete with music recordings and film, as well as lots of content that has never been heard or seen before.
The limited-edition deluxe edition of the set, described as “one of the most extensive anthologies in his recorded history,” will come with 22 discs, made up of 17 CDs and five Blu-rays. It includes 198 musical tracks, with 121 previously unreleased versions of songs, including live and studio recordings, and new mixes or edits. There are also 15 previously unreleased songs.
The Blu-rays will feature 11 films, four of which have never been released before. They contain 128 tracks and over 14 hours of film.
But that’s not all. Young will also release a separate 17-CD limited-edition Archives Vol. III box set, as well as a double vinyl LP, Takes, which has 16 tracks, featuring one song from 16 of the 17 CDs.
Archives Vol. III sets are available for preorder at the Greedy Hand Store at Neil Young Archives. Those who preorder the set will get a CD with the songs from the Takes vinyl included. The 17-CD set will also be available at music retailers.
Bruce Springsteen helped one of his fans pop the question at his show at Wembley Stadium in London on Thursday.
Video posted to YouTube shows Bruce noticing a sign in the audience as he finishes performing the tune “The Promised Land.” He grabs it and holds it to the cameras, showing the crowd that it reads “boyfriend will propose to me if he can have your harmonica,” and then Bruce starts calling the guy over.
Bruce hands over the harmonica to the smiling boyfriend and, after he secures the goods, he pulls his girlfriend over for a kiss, with the big smiles on their faces suggesting he fulfilled his end of the bargain.
As for Bruce, after the camera panned in on the kiss, he quickly broke into his next song, which, according to setlist.fm, was “Hungry Heart.”
Bruce has one more show at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, which will be the final night of his European tour. The new U.S. leg of the tour kicks off Aug. 15 in Pittsburgh. A complete list of dates can be found at brucepsringsteen.net.
The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, born Michael Philip Jagger, was born in Dartford, Kent, England.
Now considered one of the world’s best rock ‘n’ roll frontmen, Jagger was studying at the London School of Economics when a chance meeting with childhood friend Keith Richards at a train station changed the course of his future: the two formed a musical partnership that eventually became The Rolling Stones.
In their 60-year career, The Stones have become one of the bestselling artists of all time. They’ve had nine Billboard #1 albums and eight #1 singles, selling over 200 million records. They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.
Jagger’s personal life has also kept him in the headlines over the years, although he’s technically only been married once — to Bianca Jagger, from 1971 to 1978. He’s had several high-profile relationships, including a four-year relationship with Marianne Faithfull and an unofficial marriage to model Jerry Hall.
He has eight children with five different women. His youngest, son Deveraux, with current girlfriend Melanie Hamrick, is 8.
The Rolling Stones recently wrapped their Hackney Diamonds tour, and they are giving fans a unique way to memorialize their experience at the concert.
The band is now selling limited-edition Hackney Diamonds 2024 tour crystal tickets, each individually numbered, with only 1,000 available worldwide.
“Forget paper – this isn’t your ordinary ticket stub,” reads a description of the unique memento. “Inspired by the tour’s name, the design shimmers with a unique diamond-like bevel, incorporating the tour date and name into this one-of-a-kind ticket. It’s a collector’s dream.”
But the ticket isn’t cheap. It sells for $358, although it comes in a keepsake box, a certificate of authenticity and a display stand.
They are available to order now and will ship Oct. 4.
The Rolling Stones kicked off their Hackney Diamonds tour of North America on April 28 in Houston, and wrapped it with a hits-filled show in Ridgedale, Missouri, on Sunday. So far they haven’t announced any other dates for the tour.
After 104 monthly shows over 10 years — and 1.9 million tickets sold — Billy Joel finally brought his residency at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden to a close on July 25 … with help from special guests Jimmy Fallon and Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose.
When Billy noted early in the evening that it was the final show of the residency, fans booed — and Billy responded, “We don’t want to leave either, but it’s time.” He called the 10-year residency “the most amazing gig that we’ve ever done, ever.”
He then proceeded to reel off a list of his impressive other gigs: The first rock act to play at Yankee Stadium, the final act to perform at Shea Stadium, playing in front of the Colosseum in Rome, playing in Berlin as the Wall came down, performing in Cuba and being one of the first Western rock acts to perform in the Soviet Union.
But, Billy said, “THIS is the best!” He then added, “We’ll come back.”
Billy’s pal Jimmy Fallon was on hand to announce that a banner was being raised to the rafters of the Garden commemorating the fact that overall, the Piano Man has played 150 concerts at the legendary venue — the most lifetime performances by any artist. “No one else has done this!” Jimmy yelled. “We are part of history!”
A bit later, Axl Rose joined Billy to perform Paul McCartney‘s James Bond theme “Live and Let Die,” which GN’R had covered on their 1991 album Use Your Illusion I. Rose also performed AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell,” which was fitting, considering that he filled in as AC/DC’s lead singer in 2016. Rose returned to join Billy and the band for the final number, “You May Be Right.”
Billy was also joined onstage by his two youngest daughters: Della, who’ll be 9 in August, and Remy, 6. While Remy sat on the piano and waved at the crowd, Della sang along with every word of her dad’s hit “My Life,” acting out the lyrics when appropriate. At the end, she commandeered the mic to yell, “Thank you, Madison Square Garden!”
After a visibly moved Billy regained his composure, he joked, “I guess it’s HER life now!”
As for the rest of the set list, Billy stuck to hits like “Only the Good Die Young,” “You May Be Right” and “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” and fan favorites like “Vienna,” “Zanzibar” and “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.” The only unexpected number was “This Is the Time,” a romantic ballad from his 1986 album The Bridge which he played by special request of his wife, Alexis.
“Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)” “Pressure” “The Entertainer” “Zanzibar” “Vienna” “My Life” “Start Me Up” (snippet) “An Innocent Man” “Downeaster ‘Alexa'” “Don’t Ask Me Why” “New York State of Mind” “Allentown” “This Is the Time” “Live and Let Die” (With Axl Rose) “Highway to Hell” (With Axl Rose) “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” “Only the Good Die Young” “The River of Dreams”–> Ike & Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High” (vocals: Crystal Taliefero) –> “The River of Dreams” “Nessun Dorma” (vocals: Mike Guidice) “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” “Piano Man” Encore: “We Didn’t Start the Fire” “Uptown Girl” “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” “Big Shot” “You May Be Right” (With Axl Rose, snippet of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock & Roll”)
