Paul McCartney’s ‘The Boys of Dungeon Lane’ (MPL/Capitol Records)
Looks like Paul McCartney may have another hit on his hands in the U.K.
The Beatles legend’s latest solo album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, is on track to top the U.K. Official Albums chart this week.
If it does hit #1, it will be McCartney’s eighth solo #1 in the U.K., although the chart includes albums released with Wings among his other solo hits. McCartney’s first non-Beatles #1 came in 1971 with Ram, although technically the album is credited to both Paul and his wife Linda McCartney. His last solo #1 was 2020’s McCartney III.
A new #1 would also move McCartney to #14 on the list of artists with the most #1 albums.
McCartney’s The Boys of Dungeon Lane, produced by Andrew Watt, features songs about McCartney’s childhood in Liverpool, early adventures with future Beatles bandmates George Harrison and John Lennon, and more.
Vivian Campbell, Joe Elliott, Rick Allen, Rick Savage and Phil Collen attend Def Leppard Honored With Star On Hollywood Walk Of Fame on October 09, 2025 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Def Leppard has extended their 2026 world tour.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers have announced an Oct. 15 show in Hollywood, Florida. That will be followed by a tour of Mexico and South America, featuring special guests Extreme.
The Mexico dates kick off Oct. 17 in Querétaro, followed by stops in Mexico City and Guadalajara. The band then heads to San Salvador, El Salvador, on Oct. 24, followed by shows in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia and Argentina. The tour wraps Nov. 8 in Santiago, Chile.
A complete list of dates and ticket information can be found at DefLeppard.com.
Next up, Def Leppard will launch a European and U.K. tour starting June 13 in Rättvik, Sweden, and wrapping July 8 in Paris. They’re also booked to play Wacken Open Air 2026 in Wacken, Germany, which runs from July 29-Aug. 1
Michael Stipe attends Apple TV’s “Shrinking” special FYC event at Quality Italian on May 02, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by John Nacion/Getty Images)
Michael Stipe is headed to late-night TV.
The R.E.M. frontman is set to be the musical guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Tuesday night, where he’ll be joined by producer Andrew Watt.
Stipe and Watt recently teamed up to record the song “I Played the Fool,” which served as the theme to Steve Carell’s HBO series The Rooster. The song featured blink-182’s Travis Barker on drums and former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer on guitar and piano.
Back in April, Stipe made an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he debuted an unreleased song, “The Rest of Ever,” from his upcoming debut solo album. During the appearance he revealed that the long-in-the-works album, which Stipe’s been teasing since at least 2022, will finally be released at the end of 2026.
L-R) Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards attend The Rolling Stones Album Launch Event at The Weylin on May 05, 2026 in Brooklyn, New York. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
While Keith Richards recently said The Rolling Stones had no plans to tour this year, it sounds like Mick Jagger is itching to get on the road.
During an appearance on BBC Radio 2’s Tracks of My Years, which also featured bandmate Ronnie Wood, Jagger made it known that he wants to tour again.
“I’d love to go on tour, I can’t wait,” he said, although he did concede, “I don’t think it’s going to be this year. But hopefully it’s going to be as soon as possible.”
The last time The Stones hit the road was in 2024, headlining a North American tour in support of their 2023 release, Hackney Diamonds.
The appearance on Tracks of My Years comes ahead of the release of The Rolling Stones’ 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues, which is due out July 10.
Paul McCartney makes an appearance on the new album, as he did on Hackney Diamonds, and Jagger said working with him “was great.”
“We’re in Los Angeles and he did two days and he played on one song, was a punk song, and then this one’s more like a, more like a funk bass,” said Jagger. “So that was very exciting and … he was very quick, very quick learner.”
Cover of Peter Gabriel single “A Hard Lesson Artwork by Francis Alÿs(Real World Music Ltd / Sony Music Publishing/Peter Gabriel Ltd.)
Peter Gabriel dropped another song from his upcoming album, o/i.
The latest, released on Sunday to coincide with May’s second full moon, is “A Hard Lesson,” which Gabriel describes as “the oldest track of the project.”
“It probably started in the late 80s or early 90s when I was in Senegal,” Gabriel explains. “I was falling in love with the music I heard there. I loved the tension created by the use of polyrhythms, particularly the threes and fours, so that was the start of this song.”
He adds, “It’s a quirky, strange and long track but it’s a journey. It’s about trying to find a place, your place, how you fit in.”
As he did with his last album, 2023’s i/o, Gabriel is releasing a new song from o/i with each full moon of the year. The entire album will be released by the end of 2026, along with Dark-Side and Bright-Side mixes handled by Tchad Blake and Mark “Spike” Stent, respectively.
“A Hard Lesson (Bright-Side Mix)” is now available via digital outlets.
CELINE DION PARIS 2026 2027 poster (Robin Galiegue)
Céline Dion hasn’t sung one note of her Paris residency yet, but she’s already making plans to continue it into 2027.
She’s expanding her planned residency by 10 dates, which will take place in May of 2027 at Paris La Défense Arena. The residency, which will mark her first full concerts since 2020, gets underway Sept. 12 and will run through Oct. 17 of this year. The new dates are May 8, 12, 14, 15, 19, 21, 22, 26, 28 and 29.
A select number of fans who registered for the original artist and venue presales but failed to get tickets the first time around will now get a dedicated sales window during which they’ll have another chance to purchase tickets. They’ll receive emails with instructions.
The artist presale for the new dates starts June 3 at 10 a.m. Central European Summer Time; the venue presale starts June 4 at the same time. Tickets and hotel packages will be available starting June 3 at the 10 a.m. CEST via eventtravel.com.
Céline’s choice of Paris as the city for her return to the stage is fitting: Her first public performance after revealing her stiff-person syndrome diagnosis took place at the Eiffel Tower during the 2024 Olympics.
Stewart Copeland of The Police (Photo credit: Jessica Lehrman)
The Police drummer Stewart Copeland is getting ready to launch Have I Said Too Much – The Police, Hollywood, and Other Adventures, a spoken word tour described as an evening of conversation with Copeland that will include photos and videos, along with a Q&A.
After debuting the show in the U.K. in 2025, this will be Copeland’s first time bringing it to theaters across North America, and it’s something he’s looking forward to.
“The vibe of walking into those theaters and just telling stories and jokes, and getting the room laughing and everything is really a blast,” he tells ABC Audio, noting it’s much easier than a music tour that involves a sound check, road crew and more.
“I just breeze in at five o’clock, tell some fun stories and get a lot of laughs,” he says.
Copeland says he originally had a few concerns about the tour, explaining he “worried that it would be tough telling the same stories every night.”
“I know that it’s not tough playing the same song every night,” he says. “And it turns out to also be true of telling fun stories.”
Of course, some of those stories are going to be about his days in The Police, and Stewart insists it will all be in good fun.
“It’s all pretty light,” he says, adding of his former bandmates Sting and Andy Summers, “I posit the notion that we are so tight, the three blond heads, we are like brothers. We are so close that we can take the piss out each other with love and admiration.”
The tour kicks off Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with dates confirmed through Nov. 22 in Charlotte, North Carolina. A complete schedule can be found at StewartCopeland.net.
Paul McCartney leaves ‘The Late Show’ following the taping of the final episode on May 21, 2026 in New York City. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)
Paul McCartney has submitted himself to the experience of Chicken Shop Date, and the results are now available to watch on YouTube.
In the YouTube series, host Amelia Dimoldenberg eats fried chicken and fries while Sir Paul munches on vegan chicken nuggets and answers a variety of quirky questions.
McCartney was asked to recall the time he set a condom on fire in Hamburg, Germany, whether he’d ever get a tattoo, and how often he thinks Amelia should go to the dentist. She then hit him with perhaps the most outlandish question of all.
“Who’s your favorite Beatle?” Amelia asked.
After noting that there’s “only one left” besides himself, McCartney replied, “Now, currently it’s Ringo. During the Beatles, I think we all used to look up to John, ’cause he was like the leader, even though there wasn’t an officially a leader of the group.”
“He was very witty and he was great to have in the group,” he continued. “I think all of us might’ve said John was our favorite Beatle.”
McCartney also told a heartwarming story about his late wife, Linda McCartney. He said he once heard that Greek billionaire Aristotle Onassis gave his wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis a bracelet inscribed with “JILY,” which stood for “Jackie I Love You.” That inspired him to get Linda a bracelet that read “LILY,” for “Linda I Love You.”
“Oh, that’s gorgeous. Wow, that’s very thoughtful of you,” Amelia responded. “She’s a lovely girl,” McCartney responded.
Among the other topics the two discussed were whether Sir Paul has ever autographed someone’s butt, the last time he did a headstand, how many guitars he owns, gardening tips and whether Amelia should start taking drugs.
Kansas performs at the Ryman Auditorium on August 19, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
Kansas, former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett and Asia are among the artists performing on the 2027 Cruise to the Edge.
The prog-themed concert cruise sets sail from Miami on April 2 and will make stops in Cozumel and Costa Maya, Mexico, as well as Harvest Caye, Belize, before returning April 8.
“This isn’t just a cruise,” the Cruise to the Edge website reads. “It’s a Progressive Rock odyssey across sunlit seas, where legendary artists, intimate venues, and stunning concert cruise destinations collide in a festival unlike any other.”
Grateful Dead, ‘Steal Your Face’ (50th Anniversary) (Rhino Records)
Fifty years ago, America celebrated its 200th birthday — and a lot of great albums were released.
That’s why Rhino Records has launched a Spirit of ’76 vinyl reissue campaign, with independent record stores carrying new editions of 23 albums that first arrived in 1976. It gets underway July 17 with the release of Bad Company’s Run with the Pack, Black Sabbath’s Technical Ecstasy, the Faces’ Snakes and Ladders/The Best of Faces and the Ramones’ self-titled debut.
On July 24, releases include X, the Grammy-winning album by Chicago; the Grateful Dead’s live album Steal Your Face; Linda Ronstadt’s Hasten Down the Wind; The J. Geils Band’s live album Blow Your Face Out; Todd Rundgren’s Faithful; and Rod Stewart’s A Night on the Town.
The campaign ends July 31 with Jethro Tull’s M.U. – The Best of Jethro Tull, the Ramones’ Live at the Roxy, 1976, War’s Greatest Hits and ZZ Top’s World Wide Texas Tour.
