Classic Hits

Alex Van Halen’s upcoming autobiography, Brothers, will offer a treat to fans who decide to listen to it as an audiobook.

A description of the release posted to the Van Halen website reveals that the audiobook, narrated by Alex, will feature the added bonus of a previously unreleased song, “Unfinished,” which was written by Alex and his late brother, guitar great Eddie Van Halen. It is described as “the last piece of music they wrote together.”

Brothers, which Alex described as a love letter to Eddie, will be released Oct. 22. It will include previously unseen photos from Alex’s private collection and will delve into the brothers’ childhood. It also includes “tales of musical politics, infighting, and plenty of bad-boy behavior.”

Brothers is available for preorder now.

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On This Day, Aug. 22, 1979 …

Led Zeppelin released their eighth and final studio album, In Through the Out Door, in the United States.

The record went to #1 on the Billboard 200 Album chart, where it spent seven weeks, tying it with Led Zeppelin II for the Led Zeppelin album with the most weeks at #1. The album’s best known songs include “All of My Love” and “Fool in the Rain.”

In Through the Out Door wound up becoming the last studio album from the legendary rockers. Their drummer, John Bonham, died in September 1980 and they disbanded that December.

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A former club in Liverpool that once hosted performances by The Beatles has now been turned into an Airbnb, the BBC reports.

The Casbah Coffee Club was opened in 1959 by the mother of original Beatles drummer Pete Best. The venue, in the basement of the Best home, closed in 1962 — but not before The Beatles performed there more than 40 times. John Lennon’s band the Quarryman also played there.

Now Best and his younger brother Roag have turned the rooms above the club into a place any Beatles fan would love to stay. It features rooms named after Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, as well as original bassist Stuart Sutcliffe and Best, with each room featuring a “sprinkling” of Beatles-related décor, like posters and photos.

There is no room named after Ringo Starr, who replaced Best before the band took off, but Roag insists it’s not a slight at Ringo.

“It’s nothing to do with Pete and Ringo and what happened,” he says. “Everything we do is about being authentic and The Beatles that performed and partied here were John, Paul, George, Pete and Stuart.” He notes, “Ringo was never a member when he was here.”

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Duran Duran is set to headline New York’s Madison Square Garden on Halloween, and they’re giving fans a chance to design the artwork for the show.

The band has teamed with design platform Oditi for a new contest in which they’re asking the public to come up with poster artwork for the show that they’ll share on their social media accounts. The description of the contest notes, “You have creative freedom here, Duran Duran want to see what you come up with.”

While contestants can come up with any design they want, Oditi has provided the official poster of the show for those participating to reference. It says all submissions must include “Madison Square Garden,” “New York City,” “Halloween 2024” and “Duran Duran.” 

The cutoff date for entries is Sept. 15, with voting closing on Sept. 18. Duran Duran will then choose the winner, who will be announced on Sept. 27. The winner will receive a $300 prize.

More info on the contest can be found at oditi.com.

Duran Duran’s Oct. 31 Danse Macabre Halloween show at MSG is part of an East Coast tour that kicks off Oct. 21 in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It includes stops in Connecticut, New Jersey and Maryland before wrapping Nov. 2 in Manchester, New Hampshire. A complete list of dates can be found at duranduran.com.

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After teasing fans on social media, U2 has now confirmed that a movie of their Sphere residency is coming, but you’ll have to go to Sin City to see it.

The band and Sphere Entertainment just announced that V-U2 An Immersive Concert Film at Sphere Las Vegas will open at the Sphere on Sept. 5. It gives fans a glimpse at the band’s residency, U2: UV Achtung Baby, which opened in September 2023.

The film, directed by U2 guitarist The Edge and his wife, Morleigh Steinberg, was shot using the ultra-high-resolution camera system developed by Sphere Entertainment. The screenings will use Sphere Immersive Sound, with the audience watching from haptic seats, which, according to a press release, “use vibrations so guests can ‘feel’ the experience.” 

“The goal was to give the immersive movie goers as close to the live U2:UV concert experience as possible — and then some,” says The Edge. “I’ve never seen a U2 show. I’m so relieved I caught a great one.”

Steinberg adds, “We knew all the tremendous capabilities of the technology, but we didn’t know what to expect from the process of making this film. The end result is a cinematic experience that transports viewers into the energy and beauty of the live show.” 

Tickets to V-U2 An Immersive Concert Film at Sphere Las Vegas go on sale to U2.com subscribers Thursday. The general ticket sale starts Friday at 10 a.m. PT. Tickets start at $100.

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Bryan Adams is getting ready to drop a new video on Friday.

The rocker shared a tease of the clip on social media with the caption, “You better watch out…23rd August #warmachine,” revealing it’s a video for “War Machine,” his take on one of two songs he co-wrote in the ’80s with Jim Vallance and Gene Simmons for KISS.

The black-and-white tease shows Adams walking through a field holding a white flag with a peace sign, then cuts to scenes of a war-torn city. It ends with the words “War Machine” on the screen, followed by “Launching Soon 23.08.2024.”

Earlier in August, Adams dropped his version of the other song he co-wrote for KISS, “Rock and Roll Hell.” Both tracks appeared on KISS’ 1982 album, Creatures of the Night.

Adams’ versions will be released as a limited-edition double A-side 7-inch single on Aug. 30 and are available for preorder now at bryanadams.com.

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Paul McCartney surprised fans at a concert in the Hamptons, New York, on Tuesday, jumping up on the stage to perform two songs. 

The Beatles rocker was the surprise guest during a set by producer Andrew Watt and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, featuring guitarist G.E. Smith, at the venue Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett.

Fan-shot footage posted to social media shows McCartney joining the musicians for The Beatles’ classic “I Saw Her Standing There” and Neil Young’s “Rockin’ In The Free World.”

And it seems like this won’t be the only collaboration we hear from McCartney and Watt. In an October interview Watt did with Rolling Stone about the The Rolling Stones record Hackney Diamonds, which Watt produced, he revealed he was also working on music with McCartney.

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Janet Jackson is preparing to take on Sin City. After traveling across the world for her Together Again tour, she announced she’s playing at one location for a few shows. Her Las Vegas residency, Janet Jackson: Las Vegas, will see her perform 10 shows at Resorts World Theatre at Resorts World Las Vegas starting Dec. 30.

“Janet Jackson is undoubtedly one of the biggest names in pop music,” Bobby Reynolds, senior vice president at AEG Presents Las Vegas, said in a statement. “We could not be more thrilled to close out 2024 with her return to the Las Vegas Strip and her venue debut at our award-winning Resorts World Theatre, and to kick off 2025 with a run of sure-to-be-unforgettable shows. This is a residency fans won’t want to miss.”

Tickets will go on sale Aug. 28 at 10 a.m. PT on AXS.com. The dates for the shows are as follows:

• December 2024: 30, 31
• January 2025: 3, 4
• February 2025: 5, 7, 8, 12, 14, 15

This marks another Las Vegas run for Janet, who previously took the Park MGM stage for the Metamorphosis residency back in 2019.

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Is a movie of U2’s Sphere Las Vegas residency on the way? It looks like the Irish rockers may be hinting that it’s gonna happen.

On Monday, Sphere posted a trio of emojis on social media — a movie camera, a bucket of popcorn and an arrow with the word soon — suggesting movies either of the Sphere or to the Sphere were coming soon.

What made the post more interesting was the retweet it got from U2’s account, which added its own emoji: a set of eyeballs, suggesting there was something to see there, possibly indicating that a film about their U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere residency is on the way.

U2 was the first band to play the Sphere, opening the venue in September 2023. The show had them performing an Achtung Baby-heavy set accompanied by stunning visuals. They wrapped the residency after 40 shows in March.

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Welsh rocker Dave Edmunds is revisiting his time with Swan Song records with a new box set coming this fall.

Swan Songs: The Singles 1976–1981, out Oct. 27, will feature 39 songs, made up of both the A and B sides of his released singles during that time period.

Tracks on the album have all been remastered and include such tunes as “Here Comes The Weekend,” which was cowritten with Nick Lowe; covers of John Fogerty’s “Almost Saturday Night” and Bob Seger’s “Get Out of Denver”; “Queen of Hearts,” a track made famous by Juice Newton; “Bad Is Bad,” which later became a hit for Huey Lewis & the News; and “Girls Talk,” written by Elvis Costello.

Swan Songs: The Singles 1976–1981 will be released as two-LP and two-CD sets. It is available for preorder now.

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