Classic Hits

As previously reported, Queen’s Brian May is revisiting his 1983 all-star collaboration, Brian May + Friends: Star Fleet Project with a new box set. The project featured Eddie Van Halen, Alan Gratzer, Phil Chen and Fred Mandel, and now May’s sharing some insight into how the project came to be in the first place.

In a new mini documentary, May explains that in 1983, after years of recording and touring, the members of Queen had become “slightly, I think, irritated with each other,” noting, “We decided we needed a break.”

“What I remember most vividly was, waking up in LA, one of my favorite places, thinking, ‘I could do anything today. Sun is shining, I got some friends here. Why don’t I make some phone calls?’” he says. “That’s what happened. I got on the phone with Ed Van Halen.” 

May got Van Halen to come to the studio, along with all the others, and soon had an idea for what he wanted to record.

“The biggest idea was I wanted to bring this TV series thing into kind of a rock domain as I saw it. I wanted to experiment with it,” he explains, referring to “Star Fleet,” a tune from a Japanese kid’s science fiction series, noting he “wanted to explore making the song into some sort of rock anthem.”

He adds of the group’s time in the studio, “It was just charged with electricity, excitement and anticipation,” adding, “it was a great feeling just to go in there and have this completely new interaction with people, all of whom I really respected.”

Brian May + Friends: Star Fleet Project will be released July 14 and is available for preorder now.

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While in the past Bruce Springsteen has taken song requests from fans in the audience, that hasn’t been the case on his current tour with The E Street Band. Well, that all changed at his recent show at Letzigrund Stadion in Zurich, Switzerland.

For the first time this tour, and the first time since February 2017, The Boss played his Born in the U.S.A. track “My Hometown” after a group of fans in the audience held up signs requesting the song.

According to Jambase.com, the effort to get the song played was the brainchild of a Swiss radio personality named Judith Wernli, who got the word out on her show and on social media. That resulted in fans designing their own signs and bringing them to the concert, although huge banners were not allowed in the stadium.

And all that effort seemed to work, with fan-shot footage posted to YouTube showing Springsteen acknowledging the campaign during the show.  

“My first question is why?” Springsteen asks. “Why are there so many signs that say ‘My Hometown’? I’m puzzled! I’m slightly puzzled. But, the people have spoken,” and then he launched into the tune. 

Next up, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street hit Birmingham, England, on Friday, June 16. The tour returns to North America with a two-night stand at Chicago’s Wrigley Field on August 9 and 11. A complete list of dates can be found at brucespringsteen.net.

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Another John Fogerty tune has joined Spotify’s Billions Club.

The singer’s Creedence Clearwater Revival hit “Fortunate Son” has now been streamed on the service 1 billion times. It is his second tune to achieve the milestone, following CCR’s “Have You Ever The Rain,” which reached 1 billion streams in March.

“I am humbled and honored to have my song ‘Fortunate Son’ achieve one billion streams [on Spotify],” Fogerty shares. “I wrote this song to express my outrage about the unequal treatment of people in our culture. These words came straight from my heart, and I still feel the same today. I am looking forward to celebrating this song with my fans.” 

Released in October 1969, “Fortunate Son” appeared on CCR’s album Willy and the Poor Boys. The track peaked at #3 on the Billboard charts and wound up becoming an anti-war movement anthem during the Vietnam War. In 2013 it was chosen by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Recording Registry.

And speaking of that celebration with fans, Fogerty is set to kick off a new leg of his North American tour on July 9 in Ravinia, Illinois. A complete list of tour dates can be found at Fogerty.com.

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On This Day, June 15, 1999 … 

Santana released their 18th studio album, Supernatural, featuring collaborations with Lauryn Hill, Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews Band and, most famously, Rob Thomas.

The album reached number one in 11 countries and topped the Billboard 200 for 12 nonconsecutive weeks, reviving Santana’s career. It featured his first-ever U.S. #1 song, “Smooth,” featuring Thomas, which spent 12 weeks at number one. “Maria Maria,” featuring The Product G&B, went to #1 as well, spending 10 weeks on top.

The album, which sold 30 million copies, went on to win nine Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, making Carlos Santana the first Hispanic artist to win the award.

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A new documentary about Wham! is set to debut on Netflix in July and we are now getting our first peek at it.

The streaming service just released a trailer for the doc, aptly titled Wham!, which gives fans insight into the hit pop group made up of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley.

The film is helmed by Fyre director Chris Smith, who earns praise from Ridgeley, telling Rolling Stone, “He has come as close as anyone might to making tangible that which is the essence of Wham! and has done so with veracity and affection.”

The trailer features archival footage of the duo, home movies, interviews and more, and includes clips of Michael and Ridgeley discussing how they met, how they created the band and how stardom affected them. 

“The documentary is a genuinely authentic representation of Wham!’s ascent to worldwide success and a place in the hearts of many,” Ridgeley shares. “And I have no doubt that George would recognize [it] as being as close to our experience of that wonderful chapter in our lives, as any account might be.” 

Wham! debuts July 5 on Netflix.

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Sinéad O’Connor brought Outlander star and fellow Ireland native Caitriona Balfe to tears with her new rendition of the show’s theme song.

The singer lent her voice to “The Skye Boat Song” for season 7 of the Starz hit series, which premieres on Friday, June 16.  

“First of all, I cried. Not going to lie. I did,” Balfe, who stars as Claire Fraser, tells ABC Audio about hearing O’Connor’s version. “And I think it’s the most amazing thing ever. She’s an icon. She is somebody who is such a legend and she sounds just amazing. And that voice is just so powerful and so full of emotion.”

Sam Heughan, who plays Jamie Fraser, adds, “Absolutely. It’s a great, great fit for the show.”

The song marks the first new recording from O’Connor since she announced her intention to retire from music after the release of her 2021 memoir. She later said she had changed her mind about retirement.

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When Santana played Woodstock in 1969, they were a relatively unknown band that shot to superstardom after their performance. But according to Carlos Santana, it’s surprising the set went off as well as it did.

In a new interview with People, the guitar great, whose documentary Carlos premieres at the Tribeca Festival on June 17, says he was high as a kite during the performance thanks to the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, who handed him some hallucinogens right before he took the stage. 

“It was a real test, and the test was, ‘You are higher than an astronaut’s butt right now with whatever Jerry Garcia shared with me,'” Santana says. “When I came out onstage, I was like, ‘Oh my God, am I going to be able to play? I can’t even touch my nose.'” 

Santana says, “It was like being inside a kaleidoscope. And then somebody told me, ‘Trust in God. Just ask him to keep you in time and in tune.’ So I said, ‘God, I really believe in you. If you help me right now, I won’t poo my pants in front of everybody.’ Next thing I knew, we hit the notes and the people went, ‘Wooo!'”

And Santana certainly thinks he and the band pulled it off, telling the mag that while Sly Stone’s set was the “absolute best,” followed by Jimi Hendrix, “Anybody else had to fight for number three with me and with our band.”

He says, “When I look at the video, and even though I was there, it was Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix and Santana, and then there was everybody else.”

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Actor/comedian Suzy Eddie Izzard and Downton Abbey’s Ed Speleers have joined the film Midas Man, the long-in-the-works biopic about The Beatles manager Brian Epstein, according to Variety.

Izzard has signed on to play Allan Williams, the band’s first manager, who went on to be known as “The Man Who Gave Away The Beatles.” Speleers will play Epstein’s love interest, Tex Ellington. 

As previously reported, Midas Man is currently in post production and recently brought on its third director, Joe Stephenson, who directed the 2023 film Doctor Jekyll. He took over the project after Vinyl director Sara Sugarman left, reportedly due to creative differences and scheduling problems. She took over the project from Jonas Åkerlund, who left the project in 2021 following disagreements with producers.

The film stars The Queen’s Gambit’s Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as Epstein, with four newcomers playing the Beatles— Jonah Lees as John Lennon, Blake Richardson as Paul McCartney, Leo Harvey-Elledge as George Harrison and Campbell Wallace as Ringo Starr. The cast also includes Emily Watson, Eddie Marsan and Jay Leno, who plays legendary talk show host Ed Sullivan.

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The Turtles singer Mark Volman is getting ready to release his new memoir, Happy Together, on June 20. He reveals in the book that back in 2020 he was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, the same disease comedian Robin Williams had.

“I remember slurring, and I wasn’t sure what was going on,” Volman tells People of the first symptoms he experienced. “My brain wandered. I’d go off track. It made no sense.” 

People who live with LBD can experience hallucinations, and Volman says his included seeing Civil War soldiers outside his house, and faces in the furniture and appliances. He also experiences tremors.

While the life expectancy is typically about eight years following diagnosis, Volman isn’t letting it slow him down and is even taking part in The Turtles’ annual Happy Together music fest. He says he’ll travel by bus for the tour, noting, “it’s the safest place for me to be. I can’t get lost or hurt.”

LBD can be debilitating, and even led Williams to take his own life in 2014, but Volman, who manages his condition with medications and exercise, isn’t ready to give up. 

“I got hit by the knowledge that this was going to create a whole new part of my life. And I said, ‘Okay, whatever’s going to happen will happen, but I’ll go as far as I can,’” he says. “The challenges of this world affect everybody, and it’s been kind of fun being on the other side of a challenge like this and saying, ‘I feel good.’”

He adds, “My friends are here. I’m still here. And I want people to connect with me.”

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Many fans were upset when The Police broke up in 1986, and while they did reunite for a tour in 2007, it sure sounds like guitarist Andy Summers wishes they could have made more music.

In an interview with Loudersound, Summers says he felt a “huge sense of loss” when the group disbanded, and he felt something similar when they went their separate ways after the reunion tour.

“If it was up to me I wouldn’t have let it go. It’s an interesting subject, and to do [it] with fragility, frailty, ego and all that,” he shares. “I thought we could have gone on and played for years. We could have made some great new records.” 

He adds, “It’s sad. We could have done more, but it wasn’t to be. One of the greatest bands of all-time got short shrift, I’m afraid to say.”

Of course, The Police’s legacy continues with their songs, and Summers notes, “That’s why it’s one of the greatest bands in history. The songs won’t go away.”  

Andy just announced dates for his The Cracked Lens + A Missing String solo tour, which combines his music and photography. It kicks off July 21 in Beverly, Massachusetts. A complete list of dates can be found at andysummers.com.

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