Three albums by the late Robert Palmer will be released on vinyl for the very first time.
The records, Live at the Apollo, Drive and Rhythm & Blues, will be released on vinyl on Feb. 14, and will also be reissued on CD and digitally the same day.
Rhythm & Blues, Palmer’s 13th studio album, was originally released in 1999. Drive came out in 2003, and would wind up being Palmer’s 14th and final studio release before his September 2003 death.
Live at the Apollo, released in May 2001, was Palmer’s first-ever complete live album. It was recorded in New York on the final U.S. date of his 1988 Heavy Nova tour and features performances of hits like “Addicted To Love,” “Simply Irresistible” and “I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On.”
Legal documents pertaining to the break up of The Beatles are set to go up for auction in December.
The U.K. auction house Dawsons will handle the sale of the more than 300 pages of documents relating to the band’s official split in 1974. The pages, from advisers and legal reps, were discovered in a cupboard sometime in the last year, although the exact location of the find was not revealed.
Denise Kelly, from Dawsons, tells the BBC that the docs are “fascinating,” noting, “I just couldn’t put them down until I had read every page.”
“As I read the minutes of meetings – notes which included discussions between the legal teams and accountants – I wondered how on earth they were going to sort everything out, and at times I could sense panic in the room as more and more complexities came to light,” she shares. “One of the lawyers even suggested during one meeting when they had gone round and round and round in circles: ‘Would it be easier if The Beatles just retired?’”
The auction is set to take place Dec. 12, with the pages estimated to sell for between $6,000 and $10,000.
Tragedy struck The Who’s concert at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati when 11 fans were trampled to death trying to get into the venue.
The concert was using “festival seating,” and fans waiting in the front of the line were crushed as others in line thought the band’s soundcheck was the actual concert and tried to push their way in.
In addition to the deaths, 26 fans were injured.
The Who were not told about what happened so the show went on as planned. Authorities kept them in the dark, fearing how the crowd would react if the show was canceled.
The Who did not return to Cincinnati for another 43 years; they played their first concert in the city since the tragedy in May 2022.
The Village People’s Victor Willis wants everyone to know the band’s classic song “Y.M.C.A.” is not a gay anthem.
In a post on Facebook, Willis addressed President-elect Donald Trump’s use of the song at rallies and any suggestion that it’s strange he’d use a gay anthem.
Willis notes that he let Trump use the song because he seemed to “genuinely like Y.M.C.A. and he’s having a lot of fun with it.”
“As such, I simply didn’t have the heart to prevent his continued use of my song in the face of so many artists withdrawing his use of their material,” Willis adds, noting the song has “benefited greatly” from Trump’s use, particularly financially — the tune has grossed “several million dollars.”
But then Willis addressed the suggestion that the 1978 disco track is a gay anthem.
“As I’ve said numerous times in the past, that is a false assumption based on the fact that my writing partner was gay, and some (not all) of Village People were gay, and that the first Village People album was totally about gay life,” he writes. “This assumption is also based on the fact that the YMCA was apparently being used as some sort of gay hangout and since one of the writers was gay and some of the Village People are gay, the song must be a message to gay people.”
He adds, “To that I say once again, get your minds out of the gutter. It is not.”
“The true anthem is Y.M.C.A.’s appeal to people of all strips including President Elect Trump,” Willis writes. “But the song is not really a gay anthem other than certain people falsely suggesting that it is. And this must stop because it is damaging to the song.”
The all-star Soulshine benefit concert raised $4.5 million for hurricane relief and recovery efforts in North Carolina and Florida.
The sold-out concert took place Nov. 24 at New York’s Madison Square Garden and featured sets by Warren Haynes Band, Dave Matthews Band, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats and Goose, along with special guests Trey Anastasio, Mavis Staples, Trombone Shorty, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks and more.
“The damage and destruction caused by Hurricane Helene to my beloved home of Asheville and all of Western North Carolina has truly devastated me,” Haynes shared when the concert was announced. “Every year, it is my honor to host the Christmas Jam and give back to the community there, but this year, we need to do things a bit differently.”
The money raised from the show will benefit the SOULSHINE Concert Fund at the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, which will be distributed to a variety of nonprofits on the ground in North Carolina and Florida.
James Taylor has announced his first concert for 2025.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is set to play Milwaukee Summerfest, where he’ll headline the American Family Insurance Amphitheater on June 21.
Taylor will be backed by his All-Star Band for the show, which will feature special guests Jason Mraz and Tiny Habits.
Tickets go on sale to the general public starting Friday at 10 a.m. CT.
Milwaukee Summerfest takes place over three weekends — June 19-21, June 26-28 and July 3-5 — with shows at a variety of venues across the city. So far a complete lineup has not been announced.
It’s been one year since KISS played the final date of their End of the Road world tour, and they are apparently feeling nostalgic.
The band just shared an almost 20-minute video recap of the Dec. 2, 2023, show at New York’s Madison Square Garden, which was their final goodbye to the road.
The clip kicks off with Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons descending to the stage on platforms while playing “Detroit Rock City” as pyro goes off around them. It also features clips of them performing “Heaven’s On Fire,” “I Was Made For Lovin’ You,” “Rock and Roll All Nite” and more.
The video ends with the introduction of the “new KISS era,” with video debuting their KISS avatars.
“While it’s true we stopped touring, this is not the end,” Simmons said. “I wish I could tell you the amazing things that are brewing but you will soon be able to experience it beyond anything you’ve experienced.”
Stanley added, “You’re not forgotten, the 50 years aren’t forgotten and the years to come will not be forgotten either.”
Finally, Simmons noted, “Hang in there. KISS is forever.”
KISS announced their End of the Road world tour in September 2018 following a performance on NBC’s America’s Got Talent. They launched the tour in January 2019 in Vancouver and wrapped it with two Madison Square Garden shows in 2023, Dec. 1 and Dec. 2.
Madonna onstage with daughter Mercy; Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Live Nation
After a year of loss, Madonna marked Thanksgiving this year by gathering her family around her.
Madonna posted a series of photos of herself posing with all six of her children, as well as her 93-year-old father, Silvio, over the Thanksgiving holiday. Her boyfriend, Akeem Morris, was also part of the celebration; one of the pictures showed them embracing.
She wrote in the caption, “We are born into families and we create our own. As time goes by I am more and more appreciative of these microcosms of life that Dance around me and teach me lessons every day.”
“My Family has experienced many losses this year,” she continued, referring to the fact that her brother Christopher died in October, just a month after her stepmother Joan passed away.
“My father has endured with Dignity,” Madonna wrote. “Watching him cry in the cemetery when we buried my brother Christopher -right after he lost his wife. Was a moment I will never forget. Spending time with him and all my children on Thanksgiving was Medicine for the Soul.”
The photos include several scenes of Silvio deep in conversation with Madonna’s eldest son, Rocco, and kissing her eldest daughter, Lourdes. There’s a shot of Rocco and Madonna’s other son, David, standing together wearing sharp suits, and multiple shots of Madonna’s other daughters Mercy, Stella and Estere posing together.
We also see Madonna on the back of a horse, posing with a dog and cuddling with her dad while wearing a fur hat. Silvio is also pictured alone, wearing a black leather motorcycle jacket.
Barry Manilow has been playing Las Vegas for years, and it looks like he’ll be playing it for years to come.
Pollstar reports that Manilow has signed on for a “lifetime residency” at the Westgate Resort & Casino, where he’s been headlining a residency in the hotel’s International Theater since 2018.
“Barry Manilow is a generational artist and a dear friend,” David Siegel,Westgate’s founder and executive chairman, shared. “Over the years, we have built a personal and professional relationship that is truly special, and I am honored to offer Barry the opportunity to perform at Westgate for a lifetime.”
“It’s been an incredible journey performing at the International Theater,” Manilow adds. “David Siegel and the Westgate team have been like family to me, and I am deeply grateful to have the opportunity to call Westgate home for the rest of my career.”
Manilow has already played more than 630 shows at the Westgate and currently has dates confirmed through 2025. He’ll kick off A Very Barry Christmas at the venue on Thursday. A complete list of dates can be found at barrymanilow.com.
It’s not uncommon for David Lee Roth to share somewhat bizarre videos of himself dancing to other people’s music, but in his latest clip he’s showcasing one of his own songs.
The rocker has posted a new video of what appears to be him singing along to Van Halen’s “Panama,” although the caption notes it’s the solo version of the tune he recorded with his Roth Band.
“Panama” was the third single off Van Halen’s hit album 1984 and was a top-20 hit.
Roth released his new version of “Panama” back in September 2022. It was one of several Van Halen tracks he rerecorded on his own. Others include “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love,” “Dance the Night Away,” “Unchained,” “You Really Got Me,” “Everybody Wants Some!!,” “Atomic Punk” and “Jump.”
