Classic Hits

The Victoria & Albert Museum in London is set to open the David Bowie Center next year, which will be the new home of the David Bowie Archive.

The center, which was first announced in February, will open Sept. 13 at the new V&A Storehouse at East Bank, in the new cultural quarter in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The Storehouse is opening May 31.

The Bowie opening will mark the first time fans will have access to the over 90,000 items in the Bowie Archive, with the items tracing the rocker’s “creative processes as a musical innovator, cultural icon, and advocate for self-expression and reinvention.”

It will include costumes from the Ziggy Stardust era, lyrics to songs like “Fame” and “Heroes,” and a whole lot more. The center will be split into three different zones, with curated displays and audio visual installations, as well as areas where visitors can explore the archives on their own. 

But the Bowie Center is only one part of the new V&A Storehouse. It will also include over 500,000 creative works, including the Glastonbury Festival Archives and Elton John’s costumes.

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Fresh off the celebration of the band’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, Foreigner has announced more dates for their Farewell tour, which originally launched in 2023.

The latest additions kick off March 13 in Hollywood, Florida, and wrap Oct. 10 and Oct. 11 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

And Foreigner is planning to have some special guests with them for upcoming shows.

The band just announced that original members Rick Wills and Al Greenwood, who were inducted into the Hall of Fame with Lou Gramm and Mick Jones on Saturday, will join Foreigner for their upcoming eight-show residency at The Venetian in Las Vegas, which kicks off Friday.

In addition, original lead singer Gramm is in talks to take part in 2026 shows, which will mark the 50th anniversary of the band.

A complete list of Foreigner dates and ticket information can be found at ForeignerOnline.com.

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The recording console used to track The Beatles’ final album, 1969’s Abbey Road, is going up for sale in October. 

The fully restored EMI TG12345 console will be sold through the Reverb shop of London’s recording studio experts, MJQ Ltd, on Oct. 29.

“Abbey Road is one of the best albums that’s ever been made, and it sounds so good because of this recording console,” said Dave Harries, who worked with the console during numerous Beatles recording sessions. “Because of the way that Abbey Road was recorded, the album has a distinctive sound that hallmarked the future of pop recording.”

The console had been sitting unused for more than five decades, and it took five years for it to be fully restored, using 70% of its original parts.

In addition to Abbey Road, the console, custom built in 1968 by EMI Studios, was used for several other Beatles solo projects, including John Lennon’s “Instant Karma!,” Paul McCartney’s solo album McCartney, George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass and Ringo Starr’s Sentimental Journey, all of which were released in 1970.

More info on the sale can be found at reverb.com.

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ABBA‘s Björn Ulvaeus is one of several musicians and actors who’ve signed a petition protesting the use of training generative AI with their work without their consent. 

“The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted,” the statement reads. 

Others who’ve signed the petition include the five members of Radiohead, The Cure frontman Robert Smith and actors Kevin Bacon, Julianne Moore and Rosario Dawson.

For more info, visit AITrainingStatement.org.

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Alex Van Halen’s new memoir, Brothers, is out now, and in it he sets the record straight about the reports that Van Halen’s rider would demand M&M’s in their dressing rooms, minus the brown ones.

“I know. We sound like jerks,” he writes in the book, according to People. “Like rock star prima donnas looking to make some poor kid sit around picking through candies till he goes blind. But it wasn’t about a power trip, and it wasn’t about some strange aversion to the color brown.”

While Alex writes that over the years the band “played it up for yuks,” when asked why they put that in their rider, he now says there was a very good reason for doing so.

“If we see brown M&M’s, we know: we are not in the hands of professionals,” he writes, because it meant that they didn’t read the rider carefully. “If they didn’t bother with this, what else didn’t they bother with, what other corners are being cut?”

Brothers, described as Alex’s love letter to his late brother, Eddie Van Halen, was released Tuesday. Alex is currently on a book tour supporting the release and will be in Northvale, New Jersey, on Tuesday, and Culver City, California, on Thursday.

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Duran Duran is leaning into their love of Halloween. The band just announced they’ll release a concert film of their 2022 Halloween show in Las Vegas.

The film, Secret Oktober, was recorded at the Encore Theatre at Wynn, Las Vegas, and serves as the origin story to their most recent album, Danse Macabre, as the show inspired them to record the spooky-themed record.

The band broke out several rarities during the concert that fit with the night’s theme, including “Secret Oktober,” the first performance of the song since 2011; “Love Voodoo” for the first time since 2017; and “Nightboat” for the first time since 2005. It also featured several covers that they’ve never played before.

“October 31st, 2022 is where our strange journey into the world of Halloween began,” keyboardist Nick Rhodes shares. “It was dark, we didn’t have a torch and we somehow wandered down a pathway that led us to some surprising places.” 

Secret Oktober is set to debut Oct. 25 via the StagePlayer+ app. Any fans who purchase the film will get a free digital download of the recently released Danse Macabre De Luxe.

Duran Duran is set to kick off a new North American tour on Wednesday, which includes another Halloween show at New York’s Madison Square Garden. A complete list of dates can be found at duranduran.com.

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Jimmy Page has announced a pair of new signature guitars with Gibson.

The Jimmy Page 1964 SJ-200 and 1964 SJ-200 Collector’s Edition are inspired by the Led Zeppelin icon’s own mid-’60s Gibson SJ-200 acoustic, which he used to record the “Stairway to Heaven” outfit’s debut album.

Speaking about the new guitar in a video for Gibson, soundtracked by Zep’s version of “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” Page shares, “It was so authentic, and yet it was so new at the same time.”

The Jimmy Page 1964 SJ-200 is limited to just 100 pieces and costs $12,999. The Collector’s Edition goes for $19,999, and only 50 will be made.

For more info, visit Gibson.com.

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The Rolling Stones will revisit their 1999 concert at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London for a new release.

Welcome to Shepherd’s Bush is a recording of the band’s June 8, 1999, club show. The concert was a “secret gig” by The Stones, happening just a few days before they played two sold-out shows at Wembley Arena. 

The concert was witnessed by a star-studded crowd, including such big names as The Who‘s Pete Townshend, Lenny Kravitz, Led Zeppelin‘s Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Aerosmith, Jon Bon Jovi and more.

The concert featured several rarely played tunes, including the only known performance of the Voodoo Lounge track “Moon Is Up,” and “Melody” from Black and Blue, which had only been performed once prior. It also featured a guest appearance by opening act Sheryl Crow on “Honky Tonk Woman.”

Welcome to Shepherd’s Bush will be released Dec. 6 on 4K Ultra High Definition with a Dolby Atmos audio option, the first time a Stones video has been released in that format. It will also be released as a Blu-ray + two-CD set; a limited-edition two-CD package; a two-LP black vinyl package; and a two-LP set in 180-gram white vinyl.

Welcome to Shepherd’s Bush is available for preorder now.

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On This Day, Oct. 22, 1969 …

Led Zeppelin released their second studio album, aptly titled Led Zeppelin II, produced by the band’s guitarist, Jimmy Page.

The album was the rocker’s first #1 hit in both the U.S. and U.K., and featured the future Zeppelin classic “Whole Lotta Love,” which peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was a top 10 hit in several other countries around the world. 

Other fan favorites on the album include “Ramble On” and “Thank You.”

The album was the band’s first commercial success and went on to be certified 12-times Platinum by the RIAA. It is considered by many critics to be one of the most influential albums of all time.

It also earned a Grammy for Best Recording Package.

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Joe Walsh’s annual VetsAid concert is happening in November, and he’s giving fans a chance to land a one-of-a-kind VIP experience.

The Eagles guitarist has just launched a new Fandiem sweepstakes, with the grand prize being round-trip travel for two to New York City, plus special VIP passes to VetsAid, which will be held Veterans Day, Nov. 11, at UBS Arena in Belmont Park, New York. 

The prize also includes seats in the friends and family section, access to a special friends and family VIP lounge with food and drink, a possible meeting with Walsh, access to soundcheck and a special VetsAid merch package.

To enter, fans need to make a donation to VetsAid, which raises money for charities helping veterans.

The 2024 edition of VetsAid will feature performances by Walsh, Post Malone, Toto, Eric Church and newly minted Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Kool and the Gang. Tickets are on sale now.

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