Mike Campbelland The Dirty Knobs have announced new fall co-headlining dates with singer Lucinda Williams.
The Alone Together: Come Hell or High Water tour kicks off Sept. 10 in Midland, Texas, hitting such cities as Austin, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Oakland, Los Angeles and more, before wrapping Sept. 29 in Del Mar, California.
Tickets for all shows go on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. A complete list of dates can be found at thedirtyknobs.com.
Mike Campbell and The Dirty Knobs recently released their third studio album, Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits, which features a guest appearance by Williams on the song “Hell Or High Water.”
The life and career of Whitney Houston continues to be celebrated in her absence. According to People, the Whitney E. Houston Legacy Foundation and Primary Wave will celebrate her 61st birthday at their third annual Whitney E. Houston Legacy Foundation Gala, taking place on her actual birth date, Aug. 9. The event will also commemorate the 30-year anniversary of Whitney’s three history-making performances in South Africa following Nelson Mandela‘s presidential win.
Whitney took the stage at King Park Stadium in Durban on Nov. 8, 1994, Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg on Nov. 12, 1994, and Green Point Stadium in Cape Town on Nov. 19, 1994, becoming the first major musician to visit and perform in the nation post-apartheid. Some of the proceeds benefitted local South African children’s charities.
The Whitney E. Houston Legacy Foundation Gala, hosted by Whitney’s sister-in-law Pat Houston and Kevin Frazier of Entertainment Tonight, will go down at the St. Regis Hotel in Atlanta. Set to hit the stage are headliner Yolanda Adams, Whitney’s brother Gary Houston, and Gregory Sams and Denisia Denisa, who recently won the Whitney E. Houston Legacy Foundation’s cover song competition. There will also be an online and silent auction, as well as a presentation of scholarships to HBCU students studying the arts.
ZZ Top’s Billy F Gibbons is playing a special concert to help raise funds for an upcoming documentary on Antarctica.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer announced that he and his band the BFGs, featuring Mike Flanigin and Chris Layton, will headline a July 30 fundraiser at Villa at the Vineyard in Driftwood, Texas.
The concert is raising money for the feature documentary TrueSouth: An Antarctica Story, from National Geographic award-winning photographer Rodney Bursiel and Australian filmmaker James Douglas Cooper. Production on the film is scheduled to begin in February.
“Will you help us on our bold mission to create a cinematic, world-class, award-winning independent feature documentary and photography series worthy of a worldwide audience?” reads a post on Gibbons’ Instagram account.
The filmmakers will be at the event, which will include food, drinks and a special auction.
Legendary rockers Faces are about to share more of their BBC Sessions with the world.
Following two Record Store Day releases made up of some of the BBC recordings and various studio sessions, Rhino will release the new box set, Faces At The BBC — Complete BBC Concert & Session Recordings 1970-1973, on Sept. 6
The eight-CD/Blu-ray set is made up of recordings discovered in the Faces archives. It includes a whole host of previously unreleased material, now remastered with the full participation of surviving Faces band members Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones. It includes performances of such Faces classics as “Bad ’n’ Ruin,” “Had Me A Real Good Time,” “Miss Judy’s Farm,” “Too Bad” and “Stay With Me.”
The Blu-ray features restored footage of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band’s April 1, 1972, appearance on the BBC’s Sound for Saturday program. And as a preview of what fans can expect, the band has released a performance of their classic “Stay With Me” from that appearance.
The set also includes a 48-page booklet with liner notes, featuring new contributions from the surviving members, as well as archival quotes from late Faces band members Ronnie Lane and Ian McLagan, as well as the late BBC broadcaster John Peel.
Faces At The BBC — Complete BBC Concert & Session Recordings 1970-1973 is available for preorder now.
Simon Kirke,drummer for legendary rock bands Bad Company and Free, is ready to share all he’s learned over his more than 50-year career with campers at the upcoming Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp in New York.
Kirke has done about nine previous camps, and tells ABC Audio that he got involved years ago when he was touring with Ringo Starr and was asked by the promoter, who also ran the camp, whether he’d be interested in teaching. He says the idea intrigued him.
“I know this sounds a little trite, but it was a chance to give something back to the fans and people who follow me and my bands over the years,” he says.
Kirke can see how music fans get a lot out of the experience, sharing, “When you get a chance to hang out with your ‘heroes,’ it’s wonderful. And once you put all that sort of aside, you want to learn from them.”
And the campers aren’t the only ones who learn a thing or two at these camps.
“I mean, I learn a lot by teaching,” Kirke says. “When you’re trying to impart knowledge to a beginner or relative newcomer, it helps you hone your own knowledge, as it were.”
He adds, “And I do love doing it.”
Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp’s Rock The Apple is happening Thursday through Sunday. In addition to Kirke, counselors include Foreigner’s Lou Gramm and Cheap Trick’s Rick and Daxx Nielsen. More info can be found at rockcamp.com.
Grateful Dead’s Bobby Weir has announced a set of shows that will have him backed by symphonies from each city he plays in.
Billed as Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros featuring The Wolfpack, the fall tour hits three cities, starting Nov. 13 in Cincinnati, backed by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. They’ll then play Chicago Nov. 17-18, with the Chicago Philharmonic, before wrapping the trek Nov. 22-23 in New Orleans, backed by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.
Tickets for the shows in New Orleans and Chicago go on sale Friday at 10 a.m., while the Cincinnati show goes on sale Monday at 10 a.m.
Until then, Weir will continue to perform with Dead & Company at their Dead Forever residency at the Sphere Las Vegas. The band returns to the venue Aug. 1, with shows confirmed through Aug. 10. A complete list of dates can be found at deadandcompany.com.
Madonna: ARNAL/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images; Garner: y Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
In early 2023, Madonna‘s planned biopic, starring Julia Garner as the Queen of Pop, was officially delayed because of the star’s Celebration tour. But it appears as though the film is back in play.
On Tuesday, Madonna posted a series of photos on Instagram showing her working on what appears to be a script on a typewriter. In one shot, we can see the title: Who’s That Girl. That was the title of Madonna’s 1987 movie and the first single from the movie’s soundtrack, which hit #1.
She captioned the post, “I Need A-lot of Bandz to make this………..OKAY (Story of my life).” “Bandz” is slang for a lot of money.
Entertainment Weekly confirms that Garner is still attached to star in the film.
News of the movie first emerged in 2020, when Madonna said she and Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody were working on the script. They parted ways in 2021, and Madonna continued to work on it with Erin Cressida Wilson. As EW notes, the title page in Madonna’s photo has an “ECW” credit on it, so she’s apparently still involved.
Speaking about the film with Jimmy Fallon in 2021, Madonna said, “The reason I’m doing it is a bunch of people have tried to write movies about me, but they’re always men … there’s nobody on this planet that can write or direct or make a movie about me better than me and that is just the truth.”
John Lennon fans are being encouraged to check out some classic memorabilia through a new John Lennon Memorabilia Treasure Hunt that was just launched by Hard Rock International and the John Lennon Estate.
The hunt coincides with the recent release of Lennon’s Mind Games – The Ultimate Collection, as well as the launch of the new John & Yoko social website citizenofnutopia.com, where fans can access meditation affirmations, leave messages of gratitude for John and Yoko and more.
“We’ve been working on the box sets of Mind Games for years now. Initially I thought, ‘Mind Games’.. game… What if we ‘gamified’ Mind Games?” John and Yoko Ono’s son, Sean Lennon, shares. “So that’s all I’ll say for now, but there are many levels to this release, including the box sets and far beyond – that will slowly unravel – and I hope will potentially entertain and engage everyone for many years to come.”
Fans are encouraged to check out Lennon memorabilia at Hard Rock locations across the globe, then scan QR codes that will reveal more stories about what they are seeing.
Items featured in the hunt include a black suit worn by Lennon during The Beatles’ 1965 U.S. tour, at the Hard Rock Café Bucharest; Lennon’s 1966 Guild Starfire 12-sting guitar, at the Hard Rock Honolulu; Lennon’s tan trademark collarless suit, at the Hard Rock Atlantic City; and handwritten “Help!” lyrics at the Hard Rock Cafe New York.
Aa part of the treasure hunt, Hard Rock is offering discounts to any members of John and Yoko’s Citizens of Nutopia site, and participants can earn points and rewards through the Hard Rock Unity loyalty program.
An upcoming Prince documentary is reportedly being held up because there’s just too much of it.
Puck News reports that back in 2018, Netflix made a deal with the Prince estate for a documentary that was initially supposed to be directed by Ava DuVernay. She was replaced by O.J. Made in America director Ezra Edelman, who was allowed to use Prince’s music and archives for the project.
But while reports claim the documentary has been finished for a while, the problem is Prince’s estate and executors don’t like it.
Sources tell Puck News the estate has issues with parts of the doc they deem inaccurate, and they are using a technicality to keep Netflix from airing it. It seems the contract Netflix has with the estate calls for the streamer to make a six-hour doc, while Edelman’s final cut is nine hours. The estate is using the difference to hold up the doc.
While the two sides are trying to come to an agreement, so far they haven’t been able to. It doesn’t help that the Prince estate is divided between Prince Legacy, made up of his family and friends, and Prince OAT Holdings, controlled by Primary Wave Music, and the two sides must agree on anything Prince related.
A source tells the New York Post the estate is “incredibly nitpicky” when it comes to anything having to do with Prince’s legacy.
“You never saw Prince release anything subpar. Everything was carefully curated and fine-tuned. The estate still holds that high standard,” says the source, who notes the series “does not accurately portray the legendary Prince.”
Stewart Copeland, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame drummer for The Police, was born in in Alexandria, Virginia.
The Police were formed in London in 1977 and released their first album, Outlandos d’Amour, in 1976. They released five studio albums in total, including their fifth, final and most successful release, 1983’s Synchronicity.
Synchronicity spent 17 weeks at #1, with the single “Every Breath You Take,” their only #1 song, spending eight weeks on top.
After a tour to support the album, The Police went on hiatus in 1984 and eventually disbanded in 1986.
In 2003 they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and reunited to perform three songs together. It was their last live performance together until they reunited in 2007 for a tour that lasted until 2008. They broke up again after that.
Outside of The Police, Copeland has composed music for several films, including Wall Street and Men at Work, and has released several solo albums, including his most recent release, 2023’s Police Deranged for Orchestra.
