Classic Hits

Sean Ono Lennon, only son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, has shared his thoughts on Sam Mendes’ upcoming Beatles films, and he sounds pretty happy with the project.

Sean tells NME that he’s “met everyone on the film set” and notes that Harris Dickinson, who plays his dad in the film, “is amazing.”

“I think he’s really smart and I did hear him do my dad’s voice a little bit – and it was so good,” he says. “It was kind of spooky actually. But there’s also something really funny about meeting someone half your age who is supposed to be your dad.”

Shōgun actress Anna Sawai plays Sean’s mom, Yoko Ono, and he says he was already familiar with her.

“Yeah, I know Anna. We kind of hung out a little bit,” he says. “She’s a very studious person. She would ask me questions about my family and she was really serious, you know, taking notes and thinking about it.”

He adds of the two actors, “They both understand the craft. I have a lot of faith in them to play those roles.”

Sean notes that Sawai hasn’t met with his mother about the role.

“She’s retired now. She’s 93,” he says. “She’s not going to micro-manage this project.”

The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event, opening in April 2028, will consist of four films, each told from the perspective of one of band members. In addition to Dickinson and Sawai, it stars Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr.

The cast also includes Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney, Mia McKenna-Bruce as Ringo’s wife Maureen Starkey, and Aimee Lou Wood as Harrison’s wife Pattie Boyd.

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Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band have had to make a scheduling change to their Land of Hope And Dreams American Tour.

With two Philadelphia teams in the playoffs – the Flyers in the NHL playoffs and the 76ers in the NBA playoffs – Springsteen has just announced that his May 8 concert at Xfinity Mobile Arena has been moved to May 30.

The current Philly sports schedule has the Flyers facing off against the Carolina Hurricanes at Xfinity Mobile Arena on May 7 and 9, with the 76ers taking on the New York Knicks May 8 and 10 at the same venue.

All tickets for the May 8 show will be valid for the rescheduled date. The Philadelphia show will now be the final stop on the tour.

Next up, Springsteen and The E Street Band bring the Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour to UBS Arena in Belmont, New York on Tuesday. A complete list of dates can be found at BruceSpringsteen.net.

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If you weren’t around in the ’90s, you may not be aware that the title track of Lizzo’s new album is based on an iconic song from that decade — a song that was pretty controversial in its day.

The single, “Bitch,” which Lizzo just dropped Friday along with a music video, takes its chorus from the song “Bitch” by Meredith Brooks. Released in 1997, it peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned two Grammy nominations. At the time, it was controversial, not only because of its lyrics, which the record label didn’t censor, but because some felt it was an Alanis Morissette rip-off.

In the song, Meredith sings, “I’m a bitch, I’m a lover, I’m a child, I’m a mother/ I’m a sinner, I’m a saint, I do not feel ashamed/ I’m your Hell, I’m your dream, I’m nothing in between/ You know you wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Lizzo sings the same thing but changes one line: “I’m a mess/ I’m a Queen/ and everything between” for “I’m your Hell, I’m your dream/ I’m nothing in between.”

On Instagram, Lizzo wrote, “This song is dedicated to the women who get called a bitch for having boundaries, for being sexual, for speaking up for themselves, for working hard and owning businesses… If we don’t smile and perform all the time we’re ‘ungrateful.’  If we run a strict program we’re ‘mean.’ If we enjoy sex we’re ‘sluts’ and shamed. This WOMANIFESTO is a declaration of independence from the b*******.”

Meredith replied in the comments, “Yessss!!” with a heart. She also reposted Lizzo’s video on her Instagram Story and captioned it, “Yess!! Queen!”

She then shared an Entertainment Tonight report on the connection between the two songs.

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The Rolling Stones appear to once again be teasing fans.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers posted a 13-second video on Instagram that starts with a crumpled piece of paper that opens up to show their lips logo. The paper then rips through the center, to display a new version of the logo. All of this is happening while a snippet of what could be a new song plays in the background. The caption of the post included a stuck out tongue emoji and a CD emoji.

The post follows several other teases from the band that seem to be hinting that new music is on the way.

The Stones recently posted photos on Instagram of billboards that had been popping up in cities around the world, with the words “Foreign Tongues” written in several languages and the band’s famous lips logo in the corner. This led to speculation that Foreign Tongues could be the name of the band’s rumored new album.

The Stones’ website is also teasing fans with a series of videos that appear to be surveillance clips of them in the studio.

If this is all leading up to a new album announcement, it will be the band’s 25th studio album. It will also be  their first new album since 2023’s Hackney Diamonds.

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Stevie Nicks is reflecting on her sixth studio album, Trouble in Shangri-La.

The album was released on May 1, 2001, and the two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer shared an Instagram post to mark the album’s 25th anniversary.

“25 years ago you all visited my Shangri-La for the first time,” she wrote. “This record gave me not only one of the most fun & creative times in my life but also my friendship with @sherylcrow. I owe it so much.”

The post was accompanied by a clip of the video for the song “Sorcerer,” a collaboration with Crow. In addition to “Sorcerer,” Crow co-produced several songs on the album and wrote the track “It’s Only Love.”

Trouble in Shangri-La debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200, giving Nicks her highest-charting album since her second solo record, 1983’s The Wild Heart. It would go on to spend 20 weeks on the chart and be certified Gold by the RIAA.

Stevie hasn’t released a solo album since 2014’s 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault, although in 2025, while being inducted into the Pollstar Live! Hall of Fame, she said she was working on a new record. So far there’s no word on when that album may be released.

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The Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert recording Live at the Paradise Rock Club, 1978 was released on splatter vinyl for Record Store Day in April, and folks who didn’t get their hands on the fan favorite now have a second chance to own it.

The Tom Petty Estate has just released the Boston concert on pink and green split dye color vinyl, limited to only 3,000 copies.

The release, part of the celebration of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 50th anniversary, marks the first-ever official release of the previously bootlegged concert, recorded on the You’re Gonna Get It! tour during the earliest days of the band.

“This glimpse of the past shows the power of the band and the acceptance of the band by the city leading to a great fan base there that only grew as we moved on to play both the Old Garden and also Fenway in the ensuing years,” said Alan “Bugs” Weidel, the Heartbreakers’ longtime equipment manager and Petty’s trusted right-hand man. “The band developed a love of Boston and the fans there that made it a memorable place we were always excited to visit. So listen and imagine yourself in that small venue, discovering one of the all-time great bands.”

Here is the track list for Live at the Paradise Rock Club, 1978. It is available now:
“Anything That’s Rock ‘N’ Roll”
“Don’t Bring Me Down”
“Band Intros”
“You’re Gonna Get It”
“Breakdown”
“Too Much Ain’t Enough”
“Shout”
“I Fought The Law”
“(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66”
“I’m A King Bee”

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Peter Gabriel is out with the fifth single off his upcoming album o/i.

The latest track is “Won’t Stand Down,” which Gabriel notes is “a song to encourage some sort of activism.”

Gabriel says the song was initially inspired by TheElders.org, a group of people whose “currency is not based on military power, economic power or political power, but just the moral authority they have from having lived extraordinary, selfless lives.” With the song, he notes he wanted to offer “a hope that can help us start envisioning a just, peaceful and fairer world.”

“I think people generally respond much better to positive pictures of what’s coming than they do when they are bombarded and scared by negative ones,” he says. “We are much more likely to engage if we feel hope.”

Gabriel adds, “Right now, we don’t see so many positive visions of the future, at least they’re not being projected so strongly as the negative, so I think it’s really important that we start looking for visions to which we can aspire and looking for people who can provide that.”

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.

“Won’t Stand Down” is now available via digital outlets.

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Duran Duran just dropped the new song “Free to Love,” featuring Nile Rodgers, which puts a message of positivity and love out in the world. Bassist John Taylor tells ABC Audio he “100%” believes the song’s message is one that’s particularly important right now.

“I mean, look, we’ve never been a political band,” he says. “But sometimes just dancing is a political statement.”

Taylor says the groove for the song came out of a recording session with Rodgers two years ago. Now that it’s finally out, he almost can’t believe it.

“I think whenever we’re able to pull something off like this we’re all a bit taken aback that we actually did it,” Taylor says. “But, you know, I couldn’t be happier with this song.”

Accompanying the single is a video directed by Jonas Åkerlund, which Taylor says was “so much fun to shoot.”

“It was really done as an homage to the great British pop music TV show Top of the Pops,” he says, noting the program “was the great democratizing music show of the ’70s and into the ’80s. And everybody did it.”

Duran Duran will next headline BeachLife Festival in Redondo Beach, California, on Friday. Taylor says he loves playing festivals, where the audience may not be filled with only Duran Duran fans.

“I love the opportunity to play for people that … have a, you know, half-formed idea of what the band is about,” he says, adding that the festival audience experience is “just different.”

“People need to get together. They need to occupy the same space,” he says. “I just think people will appreciate any kind of opportunity to get together and just hang out and have a good time.”

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Like a lot of people, Paul McCartney likes to share his musical discoveries with his family, and in the latest edition of his You Gave Me the Answer series on his website, McCartney reveals that one of the ways he does that is by making playlists.

“If we’re having a party and I want a dance list, I’ll make one,” he says. “I’ve also done it with my grandson, Arthur, which has been really nice. We sort of cobbled one together; a mix of old rock ’n’ roll favourites and some newer tracks. It turned out pretty good.”

McCartney says the playlist he created with Arthur starts out with Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville,” noting he was “big friends” with the late singer. It also features songs from Daft Punk and Tame Impala, which are bands Arthur likes.

Other songs on the playlist include The Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset” and Donovan’s “Sunny Goodge Street,” along with Dominic Fike’s version of “Kiss of Venus,” a song from McCartney’s 2020 solo album, McCartney III.

As for whether he and Arthur have similar tastes, or if they’re introducing each other to new music, McCartney says it’s “a bit of both.”

“I’ll show him things I think will work, and then he adds to it, we’ve got a collaborative playlist,” he says. “A friend of his who’s a painter even knocked up a little cover for it.”

McCartney is getting ready to release his new solo album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, on May 29. He’s also set to be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on May 16.

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Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Jackson Browne and Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh are among the artists taking part in concerts featuring the music from director Wes Anderson’s movies.

The shows take place July 10, 11 and 12 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The sets will feature score and soundtrack selections from throughout Anderson’s filmography, which includes The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Others participating include Beck, Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, Spoon’s Britt Daniel and actor Jeff Goldblum. The lineup of performers will vary over the three nights.

For ticket info, visit HollywoodBowl.com.

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