Classic Hits

Sting is replacing Neil Young at yet another festival.

It’s already been announced that the former Police frontman would be filling in for Young at Kentucky’s Bourbon & Beyond music festival on Sept. 19, and now he’s set to do the same at the Eddie Vedder-curated Ohana Festival on Sept. 28. Sting will be taking the stage with guitarist and longtime collaborator Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas.

Young canceled his entire tour with backing band Crazy Horse in June due to health reasons, although he was recently announced as one of the performers at Farm Aid, happening Sept. 21 in Saratoga Springs, New York.

The Ohana Festival, taking place Sept. 27 to Sept. 29 in Dana Point, California, also features two headlining sets by Pearl Jam, on Sept. 27 and Sept. 29, as well as sets by Alanis Morissette, Garbage, Crowded House, The Breeders and more.

In other Sting news, he’s set to premiere a new song as he helps French high-wire artist Philippe Petit celebrate the 50th anniversary of his high-wire walk between the two towers of the World Trade Center. 

As previously reported, Sting will be performing at Petit’s anniversary celebration, taking place Aug. 7 and Aug. 8 at Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. It turns out the performance will include the debut of a song written about Petit, along with two other tracks.

Petit’s illegal walk between the two buildings in lower Manhattan happened on Aug. 7, 1974; during the celebration he plans to get back on the high wire for an artistic recreation of his original walk.

Tickets to the event are on sale now. 

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Hermann Hesse’s classic novel Siddhartha is being reimagined as an illustrated novel and album, authored and composed by Pete Townshend’s wife, Rachel Fuller, with The Who rocker providing additional songs for the album.

The project is titled The Seeker, which also happens to be the name of a Who song. The book has been narrated by the late Christopher Plummer and will feature Pete, plus special guests Elton John, Emeli Sandé, South African singer Nakhane, British actor Layton Williams, Indian singer Sunidhi Chauhan and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and choir. 

“The creation and realization of The Seeker in musical and book form has been part of my own spiritual journey,” Fuller shares. “I feel truly blessed to be a part of it and hope that the story resonates with listeners and readers in today’s world, where we need the energy of love, peace, and hope more than ever. Music and art has been and forever will be universal.”

Fans will get their first taste of the project with a podcast series featuring conversations with special guests, including Townshend. The illustrated novel, with artwork by Emelia Wharfe, and the album are set to drop Nov. 7. The project will also be performed at a special concert at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London on Nov. 6, featuring members of the cast along with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and choir.

Tickets for the concert will go on sale in September.

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U2 is revisiting their ’90s ZOO TV tour with a new EP coming out in August.

ZOO TV – Live In Dublin 1993, dropping Aug. 30, features performances from the band’s two-night hometown stand at RDS Arena in August 1993. This marks the first official release of songs from those shows, with the EP consisting of five performances, including “Mysterious Ways,” “Zoo Station” and “Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around the World.”

Launched in February 1992, U2’s ZOO TV tour was in support of their 1991 album Achtung Baby, although the band also recorded and released the album Zooropa during that time. The tour consisted of five legs and 157 shows, with the band playing to 5.3 million fans before wrapping in December 1993. One of the Dublin shows was also broadcast to more than 700 million fans via a live global radio broadcast.

ZOO TV – Live In Dublin 1993 will be released on CD, 12-inch vinyl and digitally, including Spatial Audio/Atmos remixes. It is available for preorder now. 

Here is the track list for ZOO TV – Live In Dublin 1993: 

“Zoo Station”
“Mysterious Ways”
“Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World”
“Stay (Faraway, So Close!)”
“Love Is Blindness”

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Stevie Nicks took the stage in Glasgow, Scotland, Wednesday after previously postponing her show in the city, and she explained to fans what kept her from performing in the first place.

In fan-shot footage posted to YouTube, Stevie revealed she got an infection that led to her hospitalization.  

“When I got here I was just really excited to be in Glasgow,” she told the audience. “And I don’t know what happened, I just got this weird infection, and it just went crazy.”

Stevie shared that she had gotten to Glasgow a few days early in order to enjoy the city and was staying at a castle when she realized something was wrong.

“I finally looked at my assistant, it was like 2 in the morning, and I said, ‘I think we need to go to emergency,’ and she looked at me and I just said, ‘I’m not kidding, I think we need to go to the hospital,'” she said.

The butler then sped Stevie to the hospital, where she wound up staying for two days. 

“They let me go back to the castle, and we canceled this show,” she said. “This whole tour I’ve been fighting what started here, and I would be damned if I wasn’t coming back here.” 

Stevie’s Glasgow show was originally supposed to take place on July 6, with the postponement blamed on “a recent leg injury requiring a minor surgical procedure that will need a few days of recovery time.” She also postponed a show in Manchester.

Wednesday night’s makeup show was the last date of Stevie’s European tour. She has two more U.S. shows on the books for 2024: Sept. 24 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Sept. 28 in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

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Alanis Morissette appears in a new ad for UScellular that, ironically, encourages customers to use their phones less. It features dozens of references to her song “Ironic,” as well as the song itself, and but it also shows Alanis being guilty of being on her phone, too, which was her idea.

“Initially there was an element of me kind of pointing fingers,” she tells ABC Audio, calling it “very un-Canadian.” She laughs, “And so, being Canadian, I thought, well, the most compelling version of this would be if I were busting my own chops.”

The ad also includes a shot-by-shot recreation of the car scene in the original “Ironic” video, where four different Alanises wear four different outfits and hairstyles.

“It felt like putting on an old suit,” she says. “And I have to give the director tons of credit for having nailed everything, right down to costumes.”

Mother-of-three Alanis knows what it’s like to try to limit screen time and says what works for her is to encourage her kids to really think about what it is they’re watching.

“I’ll just sit next to them and I’ll become as involved as I can,” she says. “I’ll say, ‘Oh, that’s misogynistic,’ or ‘Ooh, that sounds really disconnected’ … and that’s been one way for me to address it.”

The partnership offers fans a chance to win a trip to see Alanis on her current tour, during which she lets a fan sing the first verse of “Ironic.”

“The feedback I’ve gotten is that’s the song that has become … the most sung-along with,” she notes. “And I just thought, if there were a song that there might be some lyrics super-memorized, it might be that one.”

She adds, “It’s a happy one to sing along with, even though the lyrics can be kind of harrowing.”

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Mick Fleetwood is the latest artist to pay tribute to British blues/rock guitarist John Mayall, who passed away Monday at the age of 90.

Fleetwood was a member of Mayall’s band the Bluesbreakers in the ’60s, where he played with his future Fleetwood Mac bandmates John McVie and Peter Green.

“The news of John Mayall’s passing …. in many ways hit me as losing a musical father!!” Mick wrote on social media. “John Mayall was a guiding light to so many of us young English players! To have spent time as part of his band the ‘Blues Breakers’ led the three of us, Peter Green, John McVie, and myself to form Fleetwood Mac back in 1967!!”

He adds, “He is owed much gratitude from so many in the musical world. John Mayall, you will be missed!” 

Mayall’s Bluesbreakers formed in 1963, and different incarnations of the band featured artists who would go on to be huge rock stars of the ’60s and ’70s. In addition to the three future Fleetwood Mac members, rockers like Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones’ Mick Taylor and Cream‘s Jack Bruce played in the band. 

Mayall is due to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in October in the Music Influence category.

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After 10 years, Billy Joel is finally ready to wrap his Madison Square Garden residency Thursday, with what will be the 150th show of his career at the iconic New York venue. 

“It is an honor to be here. I’m kinda flabbergasted that it did last as long as it did,” he told reporters during a June 2023 press conference announcing plans for the residency’s end. He joked that his team told him he could keep on going if he wanted, but said with 150 shows, “It’s ‘Alright, already!'”

Joel launched the residency on Jan. 27, 2014, and ever since he’s been packing the house for one show a month, with only some random illnesses and the COVID-19 pandemic keeping him from his scheduled appointment with the Big Apple crowd.

Joel took the monthly gigs as a chance to have some fun onstage, mixing his set with classics like “Piano Man,” “Only The Good Die Young,” “You May Be Right” and “Big Shot” with deeper cuts like “Los Angelinos,” “Zanzibar,” “Summer of Highland Falls” and “Everybody Loves You Now.”

He also surprised fans with plenty of musical guests, including Tony Bennett, Sting, Jon Bon Jovi, Elvis Costello, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, AC/DC’s Brian Johnson and John Fogerty.

Other guests included his daughters Alexa, Della and Remy, and even comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who in March helped raise a banner marking Billy’s 100th consecutive sell-out residency show. A taped special of that performance aired on CBS and was recently nominated for an Emmy award.

“I’m going to miss doing it a lot,” he told USA Today about the residency. “I love it. The band loves it. The crowd is a New York-crazy crowd. The minute you walk onstage you’re aware they’re rooting for you.”

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The Police are giving fans some insight into the making of their #1 single “Every Breath You Take” ahead of the upcoming 40th anniversary reissue of their multi-Platinum album Synchronicity.

The band just released a demo of the song, which, according to a post on Instagram, was “Recorded at London’s Utopia Studios, around two months before the version that we all know today.” 

“Every Breath You Take,” The Police’s first and only #1 song, spent seven weeks on the top of the charts. The song earned The Police two Grammy Awards, Song of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

The 40th anniversary edition of Synchronicity will be released Friday in a variety of formats, including a six-CD super deluxe box set featuring 55 previously unreleased tracks, made up of alternate takes, instrumentals, demos and live recordings. It is available for preorder now.

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Lenny Kravitz has just dropped the video for “Paralyzed,” the third single off his recent album Blue Electric Light.

The clip, directed by Anthony Mandler, begins with Lenny, in leather pants, a leather jacket and no shirt, walking in the desert toward five women covered in red robes. According to the video’s description, they “symbolize Kravitz’s hypnotic affection for the woman” he’s singing about in the song.

As the clip continues, the video cuts to footage of Kravitz playing with his band, and of the girls dancing alone and around a shirtless Kravitz. The clip also features an epic guitar solo from the rocker.

Blue Electric Light, Lenny’s first new album since 2018’s Raise Vibration, was released in May.

The rocker is currently on tour in Europe. He plays Stuttgart, Germany, on Thursday and brings his show to the U.S. for a five-night stand at Dolby Live in Las Vegas starting Oct. 18. A complete list of dates can be found at lennykravitz.com.

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Billy Joel will play the final show in his residency at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Thursday, and the legendary venue is sending the Piano Man out with a bang.

Starting Thursday, fans can see a “Defining Moments” exhibit on the Garden’s sixth-floor concourse, which will feature memorabilia from Billy’s entire career run of 150 shows, including a pair of his Ray-Bans, set lists, photos, ticket stubs and a replica of one of his banners, which are currently hanging in the rafters. Fans will also be able to write a special message to Billy.

Meanwhile, fans who attend the final show will be able to enjoy special foods at the venue’s concession stands, including a “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”-themed menu of items like cannoli and chicken vodka parmesan heroes.

And everyone — not just ticket holders — can access a pop-up merch shop at Chase Square at the Garden. It’s  open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday and features a range of merchandise celebrating the final show, including varsity jackets, T-shirts, posters, prints, hats, tote bags and mugs.

Billy’s Instagram has posted a carousel of photos showing some of the famous guests he’s welcomed during the residency, which started in January 2014. Among them: Tony Bennett, Sting, Miley Cyrus, Jon Bon Jovi, Elvis Costello, Jimmy Fallon, Bruce Springsteen, Phish frontman Trey Anastasio and Billy’s daughters Alexa, Della and Remy.

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