Classic Hits

Bon Jovi is on the charts once again.

The band’s latest album, FOREVER, debuts at #5 on the Billboard 200 Album chart, making it the band’s 14th top-10 hit. 

The New Jersey rockers moved 52,000 equivalent album units to land in the top five. Thanks to 50,000 of that being complete album sales, FOREVER also debuts at #1 on the Top Album Sales chart.

FOREVER is now Bon Jovi’s 22nd album to chart on the Billboard 200. Their first was 1986’s Slippery When Wet, which was also their first #1 album.  

Bon Jovi also landed #1 albums in the ’90s, 2000s and 2010s, so with FOREVER, they join AC/DC, Def Leppard, Metallica and U2 as the only bands to have a top-10 album in each of the last five decades.

Meanwhile, in the U.K., after a close battle for the top spot, FOREVER wound up debuting at #3 on the Official Charts, behind Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department at #1 and Charli XCX’s BRAT at #2.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Paul McCartney has added more dates to his Got Back tour.

The latest leg will have the two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer headed to Europe, with shows in Spain, France and the U.K.

The European tour will kick off with two nights in Paris, Dec. 4 and Dec. 5, followed by two nights in Madrid, Dec. 9 and Dec. 10, and two nights in Manchester, Dec. 14 and Dec. 15, before wrapping with two nights in London, Dec. 18 and Dec. 19.

The shows will be McCartney’s first in the U.K. since he headlined the Glastonbury Festival in 2022. It will also be his first time playing Paris in six years, and the first time in Spain in eight.

Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. local time. More information on presales can be found at PaulMcCartney.com.

The European tour dates come just one week after McCartney announced a tour of South America, which kicks off Oct. 1 in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Stevie Nicks has shot down any hope Fleetwood Mac fans have that the band will one day tour again. Nicks tells MOJO that a tour isn’t possible following the 2022 death of singer/keyboardist Christine McVie.

“Without Christine, no can do,” she says. “There is no chance of putting Fleetwood Mac back together in any way. Without her, it just couldn’t work.”

Fleetwood Mac previously toured without McVie between 1998 and 2014, but they still had Lindsey Buckingham in the band at that time. Buckingham split from the group in 2022, and Stevie doesn’t see him coming back.

“Even if I thought I could work with Lindsey again, he’s had some health problems,” she says, a reference to Buckingham’s 2019 heart surgery. “It’s not for me to say, but I’m not sure if Lindsey could do the kind of touring that Fleetwood Mac does, where you go out for a year and half. It’s so demanding.”

Regarding Christine’s death, Stevie shared, “It was all stunningly strange, because there wasn’t any lead up to it.” 

“We got a call, and I was going to rent a plane and go see her, but her family said, ‘Don’t come, because she may not be here tomorrow.’ And the next day, she passed away,” she says.

Stevie adds that she wanted a chance to sing to Christine, joking, “which definitely would have made her pass away faster.”

“But I needed to be with her. And I didn’t get to do that. So that was very hard for me. I didn’t get to say goodbye.”

Meanwhile, Nicks postponed her June 15 concert in Hershey, Pennsylvania, just hours before she was supposed to take the stage “due to an illness in the band.” So far a new date for the show hasn’t been announced.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Duran Duran frontman Simon LeBon has been named a Member of the Order of the British Empire by King Charles, recognizing his services to music and charity.

“What an incredible and totally unexpected honour,” Simon shared. “It is fitting that the honour has been awarded not just for my role in music, but also for the work I’ve been fortunate to be involved with outside the band for some of the causes I believe in. To name but two of them, I hope this moment helps to raise awareness for the Blue Marine Foundation and the importance of their conservation work, and for Centrepoint.”

He later shared his feelings about the honor on social media, noting, “Blimey this is a SURPRISE! I have to begin by saying that right now, I am experiencing the most severe case of IMPOSTER-SYNDROME.”

He went on to thank the band’s fans, noting, “I think it’ll help if I feel that I can share the honour with you all. It’s true to say that without you Duran Duran supporters, there would be no service to music; there’d be no service to charity; there’d be no MBE. So please, I want you to to feel the honour. Thank you.
WHOOOSH!”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On This Day, June 17, 1972 …

The Rolling Stones hit #1 with their double album Exile on Main St., which went on to spend four weeks on top of the chart. 

Recorded mostly in a villa in the South of France, where the band had moved to escape paying U.K. taxes, the album featured such classics as “Happy” featuring Keith Richards on vocals, “Tumbling Dice,” “Rocks Off,” “Rip This Joint” and “All Down the Line.” 

The album was one of nine #1 albums The Stones have had over the course of their career. Others include 1965’s Out of Our Heads, 1971’s Sticky Fingers, 1973’s Goats Head Soup, 1974’s It’s Only Rock and Roll, 1976’s Black and Blue, 1978’s Some Girls, 1980’s Emotional Rescue and 1981’s Tattoo You.

In October, The Stones released Hackney Diamonds, their first album of new material in 18 years. It debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 Album chart.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

As rumored, Pete Townshend joined the cast of The Who’s Tommy for a performance on Sunday’s 77th annual Tony Awards 

Dressed in a  suit and red hat, Townshend took the stage to introduce a performance from the show, which began with a snippet of “See Me, Feel Me.” Then Townshend really kicked things off with the opening chords of “Pinball Wizard” before the full cast joined in for the song. 

The Who’s Tommy was nominated for Best Revival of a Musical at this year’s Tonys, but lost out to Merrily We Roll Along.  The 1993 original run of the show won five Tony Awards, including Best Original Score for Townshend.

The Who’s Tommy is currently running at Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Longtime Moody Blues singer/guitarist Justin Hayward is ready to launch the latest leg of his Blue World tour, which is a unique concert experience.

In addition to performing, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer shares some stories about his songs, but he tells ABC Audio the tales don’t distract from what’s really important to him.  

“Really, it’s about the music,” he says. “And then, I often feel that it needs an introduction, sometimes a bit of explanation and context of what was happening. I kind of get sidetracked into talking about things because I’m encouraged to.”

Hayward plans to play new songs, fan favorites and even some deep album cuts during his shows, and he says it’s always a bit of a challenge to come up with the right set list that will please fans.

“You know, I’m sorry to say this because it sounds like showing off, but it’s never what I play, it’s what I leave out,” he says. “But that’s what keeps it all fresh and keeps it going.”

Justin loves that he can connect with fans through music, sharing that when he was growing up he and his brother would “live our lives” through music and their records, which is something fans can relate to.

“You know, I can feel it when you can see people going, ‘Oh, there’s the guy who sang it, that’s him and he’s doing it right now’ kind of thing,” Justin says. “It creates a wonderful kind of magic in a room. It’s brilliant.” 

Justin Hayward’s Blue World tour kicks off June 18 in Sacramento, California. A complete list of dates can be found at justinhayward.com.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The 77th annual Tony Awards are happening Sunday in New York, with The Who‘s Pete Townshend previously confirmed as a presenter. Well, he may be doing more than that. 

Deadline is now reporting that Townshend is actually going to perform on the show, joining the cast of The Who’s Tommy for “Pinball Wizard.”

The Who’s Tommy is nominated this year for Best Revival of a Musical, where it’s up against Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, Gutenberg! The Musical! and Merrily We Roll Along.

Townshend previously won the Tony for Best Original Score for Tommy’s original run in 1993. The show won a total of five Tonys that year.

The 77th annual Tony Awards air Sunday at 8 p.m. ET live on CBS from Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

U2 has released the next installment in their digital series, U2 To Love and Only Love – Deep Dives and B-Sides, this time dedicated to the track “Mofo,” from their ninth studio album, Pop.

The series will consist of 12 newly remastered collections, released throughout the year, which are made up of songs that until now were only available on vinyl, CD or cassette.

This sixth collection includes five different remastered “Mofo” remixes: Phunk Phorce Mix, Mother’s Mix, Black Hole Dub, House Flavour and Romin Mix.

And to coincide with the playlist, U2 has released a limited-edition 2024 reissue of a “Mofo” T-shirt that reads “Mother Sucking Rock And Roll.” It is available for preorder now.

U2 launched To Love and Only Love – Deep Dives and B-Sides in April and so far has released collections  dedicated to Pop songs “Discothèque,” “Staring at the Sun,” “Last Night on Earth,” “If God Will Send His Angels” and “Please.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Paul McCartney & Wings’ live album One Hand Clapping is finally out, and to celebrate the release, McCartney has shared a fully restored performance video of the track “Soily.” 

The video is taken from footage recorded by director David Litchfield in August 1974, when McCartney and the band hit Abbey Road Studios to film what was to be a video documentary and possible live studio album. That live album was never officially released until now, although portions of it have appeared on bootlegs.

One Hand Clapping includes live recordings of such Wings hits as “Live and Let Die,” “Band on the Run,” “Jet” and “My Love,” as well as Paul’s solo song “Maybe I’m Amazed” and reworked versions of Beatles tracks like “Let It Be,” “Lady Madonna” and “The Long and Winding Road.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.