The Altamont Speedway Free Festival kicked off in the Bay Area of California, headlined by The Rolling Stones and featuring a lineup that included Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers and Crosby, Stills& Nash.
The counterculture concert, attended by nearly 300,000 people, was marred by the presence of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle club, who had been hired as security for the day. The group clashed with concertgoers, which led to the stabbing death of one of the attendees, 18-year-old Meredith Hunter, and three accidental deaths, as well as numerous injuries and property damage.
Footage from the concert was featured in the 1970 Rolling Stones documentary, Gimme Shelter.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s classic holiday tune, “Happy Christmas (War Is Over),” has inspired a new animated short film, spearheaded by the couple’s son Sean Ono Lennon.
Sean tells The Hollywood Reporter that his goal with the movie is to remind folks the tune is not only a holiday song, but a song about peace. He says it “just felt like it deserved some kind of piece to help get it out there for another generation,” noting previous video ideas for the song “almost felt goofy.”
After discussing his feelings about the project with Pixar animator Dave Mullins, John and Yoko became inspired by the World War I Christmas truce between British and German soldiers, who wound up playing soccer together. Mullins wrote and directed the film, working with Peter Jackson and his visual effects company, WetaFX, on the animation.
The 11-minute War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko follows a game of chess, with a heroic carrier pigeon helping the game continue across enemy lines. It ends with the classic tune playing over the closing credits.
“For me, it’s very sad that my parents’ message of peace and love is still relevant to this day. It seems like such an old story,” Sean says, adding, “It’s something I was raised to believe and I still believe it.”
War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko had a brief run in theaters in the fall in order to qualify for Oscar contention. As of now, there’s no word on when it will get a wide release, as it’s currently looking for a distributor.
Bonnie Raitt is set to headline Brandie Carlile‘s second annual Mothership Weekend, happening May 10-12, aka Mother’s Day Weekend, in Miramar Beach, Florida.
Bonnie is set to close the festival on May 12, with a lineup that also includes Brandi and S.G. Goodman. The rest of the weekend includes performances by Brandi, Black Pumas and the Hanseroth twins on May 10, and Sara Bareilles, Nickel Creek and Devon Gilfillian on May 11.
Raitt was actually on the bill for the first festival last May, but was forced to pull out in order to undergo surgery for an undisclosed ailment.
A ticket presale is now happening and runs until Sunday, December 10. More info can be found at topeka.live/mothership24.com.
Paul McCartney has paid tribute to his former Wings bandmate Denny Laine, who passed away December 5 at the age of 79.
“I am very saddened to hear that my ex-bandmate, Denny Laine, has died,” McCartney writes, recalling his “fond memories” of the days when The Beatles toured with Laine’s band Moody Blues.“Our two bands had a lot of respect for each other and a lot of fun together.”
“Denny joined Wings at the outset. He was an outstanding vocalist and guitar player,” McCartney shares. “We had drifted apart but in recent years managed to reestablish our friendship and share memories of our times together.”
Finally, he notes, “Denny was a great talent with a fine sense of humour and was always ready to help other people. He will be missed by all his fans and remembered with great fondness by his friends.”
Laine teamed with McCartney and wife Linda to form McCartney’s first post-Beatles band, Wings, in 1971. Over his 10 years with the group, they released seven studio albums, including the bestselling Band on The Run, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Bon Jovi continues to spread the holiday cheer. The band just dropped the music video for the recently released holiday tune, “Christmas Isn’t Christmas.”
The clip is set at a bar called Santa’s Pub, where Jon Bon Jovi is singing for the patrons, including his Bon Jovi bandmates. While some of the folks in the bar seem to be having fun and doing karaoke to the tune, there are others who seem to be identifying with the song’s themes, leaving them blue for the holidays.
“’Christmas Isn’t Christmas’ is a song that I wrote about family,” Jon previously shared. “The sentiment that Christmas really isn’t Christmas without YOU which can bring up a lot of memories for people.” He added, “I also liked to turn it around and know that because of you Christmas IS Christmas.”
Bon Jovi has given fans plenty of ways to get into the holiday spirit in the past, releasing the original Christmas track “I Wish Everyday Could Be Like Christmas” as well as covers of “Please Come Home For Christmas” and “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).”
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Barbra Streisand on the big screen, and fans shouldn’t expect that to change anytime soon.
When asked by Peopleif she planned on making any more movies, she replied, “No, not really,” adding that in 2009, she spent years trying to make a Gypsy movie to no avail. She notes, “In other words, it gets exhausting, trying to come up with the structure of the movie and then have it not happen.”
Babs says there have been plenty of films she wanted to make that didn’t get done, noting, “They were about things I cared about, very interesting subjects.”
The last time Streisand was on the big screen was in 2012 in the comedy Guilt Trip. She last directed 1996’s The Mirror Had Two Faces.
Streisand, who recently released her memoir, My Name is Barbra, says she’s also partly to blame for not having a bigger movie resume.
“I had many movies that I wanted to make and then I get lazy. I go, ‘Oh yeah, to do this one, I have to have all these fittings for period clothes. This one, I’d have to live in Arkansas to do this one,’” she says. “I don’t know. It’s complicated, but I am complicated, I guess… I get lazy.”
She adds, “Bette Davis made 80 movies. I made 19. She’s a wonderful actress and she liked working. I like time off.”
Denny Laine, co-founder of Moody Blues and co-founder and guitarist for Paul McCartney& Wings, passed away Tuesday, December 5, at the age of 79.
News of his death was confirmed by his wife, Elizabeth Hines, who shared on social media that he had been in the hospital battling interstitial lung disease. She writes that “he fought every day,” but his disease was “unpredictable and aggressive,” noting “each infection weakened and damaged his lungs.”
Laine co-founded the Moody Blues in 1964 with Graeme Edge, Mike Pinder, Ray Thomas and Clint Warwick. They had their first big hit with “Go Now,” a U.S. Top 10 hit on which Laine sang lead and played guitar. Though Laine left the band in 1966, a year before they released their seminal album Days of Future Passed, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018 as a member of the group.
Following his Moody Blues departure, Laine formed several other groups, including Electric String Band with Trevor Burton, and played in Ginger Baker’s Air Force in 1970.
Then, in 1971, he teamed with Paul McCartney and wife Linda to form McCartney’s first post-Beatles band, Wings. Over his 10 years with the group, they released seven studio albums, including the bestselling Band on The Run, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Other hit singles from the group during Laine’s tenure include the James Bond theme “Live and Let Die,” “My Love,” “Silly Love Songs” and “Let ‘Em In.” Laine left Wings in 1981, and the group disbanded, though he contributed to McCartney’s early ’80s albums Tug of War and Pipes of Peace.
Laine also embarked on a solo career, releasing 12 solo albums, starting with 1973’s Ahh…Laine. In 1996, he released Wings at the Sound of Denny Laine, featuring reworked versions of Wings tunes. His final solo album, The Blue Musician, came out in 2008.
Adam Ant is hitting the road next year for his first U.S. tour in five years.
The “Goody Too Shoes” singer just announced dates for his ANTMusic 2024 U.S. tour, featuring special guest TheEnglish Beat.
The trek kicks off March 21 in St. Louis, Missouri, with stops in Minneapolis, Chicago, Boston, New York, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Seattle and more. It wraps May 11 with an appearance at the Cruel World festival in Pasadena, California.
A complete list of tour dates and ticket information can be found at adam-ant.com.
Dave Mason is hitting the road. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, best known for his work with Traffic, just announced dates for his 2024 Traffic Jam tour, which kicks off February 29 in Tallahassee, Florida, and wraps April 13 in San Antonio, Texas.
The tour, which features dates with Pat Travers, Jimmy Hall, The Outlaws and Jefferson Starship, will have Mason performing fan favorites, deep cuts from Traffic and more.
A complete list of tour dates, along with ticket information, can be found at davemasonmusic.com.
The tour news comes just weeks after Mason released a new version of the Traffic classic “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” featuring guitar great Joe Bonamassa.
“‘Dear Mr. Fantasy’ has been a favorite song of mine since its release in 1967,” Mason shared. “I’ve played it live for years in a number of different arrangements. As I’ve often said, there are no old songs, just good songs, and ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy,’ in my mind, is one of the finest examples around.”
You can listen to “Dear Mr. Fantasy” now via streaming services or watch the video on YouTube.
A Tom Petty classic is featured in the trailer for the latest installment of the popular video game Grand Theft Auto.
The clip for Grand Theft Auto VI features the Petty tune “Love Is A Long Road,” from his 1989 debut solo album, Full Moon Fever. The tune was the B-side to the hit single “Free Fallin’,” Petty’s highest charting Hot 100 hit, which landed at #7.
While “Love Is A Long Road” wasn’t officially released as a single, it still got airplay and peaked at #7 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart.
