Tribeca announces Storytellers Series talk with Michael Stipe

Courtesy of Tribeca Festival

New York City’s Tribeca Festival has announced a talk with R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, which will be part of their 2024 Storytellers Series.

Stipe is set to appear at the SVA Theatre on June 12. As for what he’ll be talking about, you’ll have to attend to find out, but he has been working on his debut solo album. 

The Tribeca event is set to take place one day before Stipe and his R.E.M. bandmates — Mike Mills, Peter Buck and Bill Berry — will be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 13 during a ceremony that will also take place in New York City.

For more info, visit TribecaFilm.com.

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Deep Purple releases “Portable Door,” the first single from upcoming album ‘=1’

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Deep Purple has shared the first preview of their upcoming album, =1.

The band just dropped the new single “Portable Door,” along with a video that has them performing the track in front of a backdrop of the album’s artwork. 

“The new album will reflect what the five of us create in the rehearsal room. Many of the songs, like ‘Portable Door’, were written in the first sessions and literally came together in five or 10 minutes,” guitarist Simon McBride, who joined the band in 2022, shared in a recent interview. “It all was so easy and natural.”

Ian Gillan added, “Throughout Deep Purple’s history, our best songs have always been those that were written in no time at all. We’ve played what felt good and developed songs as we have always done.”

You can listen to “Portable Doors” now via digital outlets.

=1, Deep Purple’s first album of new material since 2020’s Whoosh!, will be released July 19. It is available for preorder now.

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Joni Mitchell’s ‘The Asylum Albums (1976-1980)’ to be released in June

Rhino

Joni Mitchell is once again revisiting her archives for a new collection coming in June.

The Asylum Albums (1976-1980) will feature remastered versions of four albums: 1976’s Hejira, 1977’s Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, 1979’s Mingus and the 1980 double live album Shadows and Light.

Fans are getting the first preview of the set with a remastered version of the Hejira track “Coyote,” which is available now via digital outlets.

The collection will feature cover art of a Mitchell landscape painting and include an essay written by lifelong Mitchell fan, Oscar-winner Meryl Streep.

“It’s not just the artifact – music and lyrics – that Joni gives us. Her artistry leaves us, ourselves, changed,” writes Streep. “She has shifted things around inside us. And that’s how artists change the world.” 

The Asylum Albums (1976-1980) will be released June 21 in a variety of formats, including digitally, as a five-CD set and as a limited edition six-LP set with only 5,000 copies available. All formats are available for preorder now.

Joni previously released The Asylum Years (1972-1975) in September 2022, which focused on her first four albums with the label. Then in October 2023, she released Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975), featuring never-before-heard demos, performances, and early and alternative versions of songs from three of her albums: 1972’s For the Roses, 1974’s Court and Spark and 1975’s The Hissing Of Summer Lawns.

Joni’s Archives series is set to continue with the next installment, Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 4, which will focus on unreleased and live Joni recordings. More info on the set is expected later this year.

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‘The Who’s Tommy’, David Byrne earn Tony Award nominations

CBS

Nominees for the 2024 Tony Awards were announced on Tuesday, April 30, with The Who’s Tommy and Talking Heads frontman David Byrne both earning nominations.

The Who’s Tommy is nominated in the Best Revival of a Musical category. The 1993 original run won five Tony Awards, including Best Direction for Des McAnuff and Best Original Score for The Who‘s Pete Townshend.

Byrne and Fatboy Slim earned a nomination in the category of Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre for Here Lies Love, about the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines. Also nominated in that category is former Arcade Fire member Will Butler for the Stereophonic.

This isn’t Byrne’s first time being recognized by the Tonys. In 2021, he won an honorary Tony Award for his production American Utopia.

The Tony Awards, hosted by Ariana DeBose, will air live on CBS on Sunday, June 16, at 8 p.m. ET and stream live and on demand on Paramount+.

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On This Day, April 30, 1977: Led Zeppelin set new attendance record at the Pontiac Silverdome

On This Day, April 30, 1977…

Led Zeppelin set a new attendance record when 76,229 fans came out to see them perform at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan.

According to Guinness Book of Records, it was the largest attendance to that date for a single act show. It surpassed previous record holder The Who, who set a record with an audience of 75,962 people at the same venue.

The night’s set list featured performances of such Zeppelin classics as “The Song Remains the Same,” “The Battle of Evermore,” “Going to California,” “Kashmir,” “Stairway to Heaven” and more.

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Sean Ono Lennon, Elvis Costello attend special screening of The Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’ in New York

Courtesy of Disney+

The restored version of The Beatles 1970 documentary, Let It Be, was shown at a special screening in New York City on Monday, April 29, with stars like Sean Ono Lennon, Elvis Costello and Paul Shaffer in attendance.

The evening included a special Q&A with the film’s original director, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, and Apple Corps Ltd.’s Jonathan Clyde.

The film, restored from the original 16mm negative by Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post Production, premieres May 8 on Disney+, marking first time the film has been available in over 50 years. The audience at the screening also got to see the premiere of the new trailer for the film, which is out now.

Originally released in April 1970, Let It Be takes Beatles fans inside the studio as they recorded their album Let It Be and includes footage from their January 1969 Apple Corps rooftop concert. It was released one month after the Beatles officially broke up.  

Footage from the film was used in Jackson’s 2021 Emmy-winning docuseries, The Beatles: Get Back, which also aired on Disney+.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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This house is not for sale: Jon Bon Jovi has no interest in cashing in on his catalog

ABC/Heidi Gutman

Back in 2016, Bon Jovi released an album called This House Is Not For Sale, and that’s currently where Jon Bon Jovi stands when it comes to cashing in on his catalog, as so many other artists have done recently.

While artists ranging from Bob Dylan and Justin Bieber to Sting and Bruce Springsteen have made multimillion deals to sell the rights to their music over the past few years, Jon tells Yahoo Entertainment, “I have no desire.”

“Our catalog has done nothing but go up [in value] exponentially. I know matter of factly, it’s really exploded to, like, 15-year highs, and [our new] record is not even out yet,” he continues. “So I have no need to or desire to. Those are my babies.”

Another thing Jon has turned down is the chance to do a residency at the Sphere Las Vegas, where U2 recently completed an acclaimed run of shows. However, Jon notes there “are some benefits” to playing in one place for an extended period of time: “You’re doing 10, 15 nights in one venue and it gets nice. You can leave your shoes there at night. That’s not bad.”

However, he tells Yahoo, “For me personally, the desert isn’t all that appealing — to be out in Vegas for a long period of time. And the Sphere is otherworldly. That’s a serious commitment. So, for me, not at this time.”

The four-part docuseries Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, documenting the band’s 40-year history, is now streaming on Hulu and their new single, “Legendary,” is climbing the charts.

He says, “That we can sit here and talk … 40 years later, and we’ve got a hit record out … it’s nothing short of a miracle.”

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George Harrison’s sitar sells for more than $66,000 at auction

Ann Limongello/ABC

George Harrison’s first sitar sold for more than expected at a recent auction.

The instrument, which The Beatles member used during the recording sessions for “Norwegian Wood,” sold for $66,993 at Nate D. Sanders Auctions, well above the minimum bid of $25,000. 

Harrison purchased the sitar in 1965 at Indiacraft on Oxford Street in London. It would go on to inspire his further involvement, and lifelong passion, for Indian music, culture and the Hindu religion. In 1966 he became the first Beatle to travel to India, where he would study the sitar under musician Ravi Shankar.

Nate D. Sanders Auctions was also auctioning off a Keith Richards custom-made guitar, which was used during the Rolling Stones‘ Some Girls recording sessions, tour and music video, although it apparently failed to bring in its $400,000 minimum asking price. It is still available, though, on an offer basis.

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Bill Wyman says it took two years for The Rolling Stones to accept his departure

David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images

Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman reveals that almost two years passed before his bandmates accepted that he had actually quit the band.

In a new interview with The Mirror, Wyman says that while he left the group in 1991, “they wouldn’t believe me.”  

“They refused to accept I had left. It was not until 1993, when they were starting to get together to tour in 1994, when they said, ‘You have actually now left, haven’t you?’ And I said, ‘I left two years ago,’” he explains. “They finally accepted it, so they say I left in 1993.”

As for why he quit, Wyman shares, “I just had enough. It was half my life and I thought, ‘I have got other things I want to do.’” He added, “I just had this whole other life I wanted to live.” 

The Rolling Stones just launched their ’24 Hackney Diamonds tour, and while Wyman is no longer with them, he hasn’t forgotten what life on the road is like and even dreams about it.

“The weird thing is ever since I’ve left, up until the present day, I still dream I’m on tour, like we are in a dressing room or we are in a hotel,” he says. “I still dream those dreams and I dream of other friends like David Bowie. They are all very nice but very confusing.”

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The Alarm postpones Live Today, Love Tomorrow tour following return of Mike Peters’ cancer

Photo credit: Jules Peters

The Alarm front man Mike Peters has revealed that his cancer has returned, forcing the band to postpone their upcoming U.S. tour.

“I have no doubt that the following news will come as a complete shock to you in the same way that it has also come as a bolt out of the blue to me and my family,” Peters shares. “On Sunday morning April 21st, I awoke with a large swollen gland on the left side of my neck.” 

Peters, who was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2005, then had an emergency biopsy and CT scan, which revealed that his cancer had “undergone a transformation into a High Grade Lymphoma.” 

He is awaiting the results of more tests before a treatment can be put in place, but because of that he can no longer travel to the U.S. for the tour.

I am still reeling from the consequences of this new and completely unforeseen diagnosis and doing my best to process what is happening,” he says. “I’m grateful for the love and understanding of everyone affected by the tour postponement and hoping and praying with all that I have, that this is just a pause in the story of my life, and that normal service will be able to resume soon.

He adds, “Cancer has been chasing me for 29 years now, and in all that time, I have managed to outrun the disease and stay alive. My focus and resolve remain the same, and I’m determined to keep running even harder to stay one step ahead and resume my life as a husband, father, and musician as soon as possible.” 

The Alarm’s Live Today, Love Tomorrow, featuring Jay Aston‘s Gene Loves Jezebel and Belouis Some, was due to kick off May 1 in New Orleans.

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