Classic Hits

As previously reported, Elton John closed out the U.K.’s Glastonbury festival on Sunday, June 25, and it turns out, a lot of people tuned into see what was likely his last U.K. performance.

Deadline reports that in addition to the massive crowd that gathered to see him live at Worthy Farm, over seven million people tuned in to watch his set on BBC. Data shows Elton’s set was one of the most-watched TV shows of the year, and it drew almost three times the audience that tuned in to see Paul McCartney in 2022.

“Thank you, Glastonbury!” Elton wrote on Instagram after the show. “The energy last night was like nothing else, and I couldn’t be more grateful to the crowd and the people watching at home for all your love and support. You will be in my heart and soul forever,” adding, “UK, what a farewell. I love you.”

Fans who caught the concert got to see Elton perform such tracks as The Who’s “Pinball Wizard,” “Tiny Dancer,” with The Killers’ Brandon Flowers, “Benny and The Jets,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Your Song” and more.

Elton still has a few more shows left of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. Next up, he plays Paris, France, on June 27 and 28, and wraps the whole tour with two nights in Stockholm, Sweden, on July 7 and 8. A complete list of dates can be found at EltonJohn.com.

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On This Day, June 26, 2021…

After a 471 day closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Broadway theaters finally reopened in New York.

The first official show was a performance of Bruce Springsteen’s critically acclaimed Tony-winning show, Springsteen on Broadway, at the St. James Theatre, which featured The Boss telling his life story through his songs.

This was the second Broadway run of Springsteen on Broadway. It initially opened at the Walter Kerr Theatre on October 12, 2017.

Proceeds from the post-COVID opening night were donated to various charities, including the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund. 

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The Baseball Project, the supergroup featuring R.E.M.’s Mike Mills and Peter Buck, The Minus 5‘s Scott McCaughey, The Dream Syndicate’s Steve Wynn and Filthy Friends‘ Linda Pitmon, will release their fourth studio album, Grand Salami Time!, on June 30.

It’s been almost 10 years since their last album, 2014’s 3rd, and McCaughey tells ABC Audio it’s something they’ve been “trying to do for a long time.” But due to other commitments and the COVID-19 pandemic, it took longer than expected. They worked on the new record with Mitch Easter, who produced R.E.M.’s debut EP, Chronic Town, and their debut album, Murmur. 

McCaughey says of the album, “We got a little bit of the R.E.M. magic maybe in there, and I think it came off really, really well.”

As with previous Baseball Project albums, the songs all have baseball themes. McCaughey admits it got “a little harder” to do that by the fourth record. “I mean, the first one was so wide open. You could just write about 150 years of history in baseball,” he explains. But, he says, with baseball “new things come along.”

To record the album, the band decided to get into the studio together. “I prefer being in a room working,” Buck says. “What I like about music as a listener is the interplay of the musicians.”

But is it much different for Peter to be in the studio with these musicians as compared to R.E.M.?

“Things are different. You know, with R.E.M., there were four of us and it was a democracy and democracies don’t really work in a way,” he says. “But we’re older … No one’s really uptight about it.” He adds that since he’s known his current bandmates for a long time, “it felt pretty familiar.” 

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Elton John headlined England’s Glastonbury Festival on Sunday, June 25, a performance that is expected to be his final U.K. show ever.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer drew a massive crowd to his closing set on the main Pyramid Stage, opening the show with his 1975 cover of The Who’s “Pinball Wizard,” which, according to SetList.fm, was the first time he performed the song since 2009

Elton also brought out some special guests, although despite rumors, Britney Spears wasn’t one of them. Instead, he was joined by The Killers’ frontman Brandon Flowers on the classic “Tiny Dancer,” and also brought out Jacob Lusk of Gabriels, Rina Sawayama and Steven Sanchez.

Other songs in the set included such classics as “Benny and the Jets,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” ”Your Song,” ”I’m Still Sanding,” “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” which he dedicated to the late George Michael on what would’ve been his 60th birthday, and more. He ended the set with his hit “Rocket Man.”

Elton still has a few more shows left of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. Next up he plays Paris, France, on June 27 and 28, and wraps the whole tour with two nights in Stockholm, Sweden, on July 7 and 8. A complete list of dates can be found at EltonJohn.com.

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Eric Clapton‘s The Definitive 24 Nights box set is out now, and to coincide with the release he’s shared the set’s unreleased version of “Crossroads (Live at the Royal Albert Hall 1991).”

The Definitive 24 Nights is made up of six hours of music from Clapton’s historic 24-night run at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1991, which broke his own record for the longest run of concerts at the venue. During the run, Clapton performed with three lineups — a rock band, a blues band and an orchestra; “Crossroads” was part of the rock set.

The Definitive 24 Nights is available now as a six-CD or eight-LP set. There are also standalone versions of each genre —24 Nights: Rock, 24 Nights: Blues and 24 Nights: Orchestra.

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Music fans will soon be able to enjoy some classic albums like never before.

Rhino is set to release several iconic 1970s albums in quadraphonic sound, or 4.0 surround sound. The latest are The J. Geils Band’s Nightmares…and Other Tales from the Vinyl Jungle, Jefferson Starship’s Red Octopus, Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies and Black Sabbath’s Paranoid.

All four have been transferred from the original four-track quad mixes, marking the first time they’ve been available in quadraphonic audio in almost 50 years. They are available to purchase on Blu-ray both separately and as a four-album bundle. 

This isn’t the first time Rhino has reissued albums in quadrophonic sound. It previously released The Doobie Brothers: Quadio in 2020 and Chicago Quadio in 2016. 

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On This Day, June 23, 1973 … 

George Harrison’s third studio solo album, Living in the Material World, landed at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, where it spent five weeks. The album actually knocked Paul McCartney and Wings‘ Red Rose Speedway out of the top spot. 

Living in the Material World was Harrison’s second #1 album, following 1970’s All Things Must Pass, and the first release since his successful live charity album, The Concert For Bangladesh, which went to #2.

The album, which featured the hit song “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth),” was certified Gold by the RIAA two days after its release.

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Queen is back with episode 22 of their weekly YouTube series, Queen The Greatest Live, and this week they’re once again looking at the process of adapting songs for the stage. The new episode focuses on their classic tour closer, “We Will Rock You,” and how it has evolved over the years.

The clip features an archival performance of the News of the World track at Budapest’s Népstadion on July 27, 1986, which comes close to the studio version, with another clip from a 1977 Houston, Texas, concert showing a completely different and sped up version of the song.  

The video also features a performance from Queen’s 1982 concert at Milton Keynes Bowl in England, as well as a performance at the Montreal Forum in November 1981, where “We Will Rock You” actually opened the show.

Next week – “Another One Bites The Dust.”

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The Black Crowes’ Rich Robinson recently talked to Guitar World about the legendary guitarists who helped influence his sound, including Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Jimi Hendrix and Stephen Stills. Not surprisingly, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page also makes the list, and Robinson doesn’t understand why anyone would have anything bad to say about him. 

“Anyone who calls him sloppy or whatever, f*** that,” Robinson says. “He’s a God of guitar, which should be obvious.”

He adds, “Jimmy meant as much to me as anyone, and maybe even more because I got to play with him on tour with the Crowes,” referring to their concerts together in 1999 and 2000. “I mean … to sit there and play with Jimmy Page was an experience I’ll take with me forever.” 

Robinson goes on to praise Page’s “compositional approach, acoustic playing, and rhythm playing,” noting they “were all on a plane he only existed in.”

Finally, he shares, “What can I say? He’s f****** unbelievable. Jimmy is straight-up amazing.”

Next up, The Black Crowes are set to join Aerosmith on their Peace Out! tour, which kicks off September 2 in Philadelphia. A complete list of dates can be found at theblackcrowes.com.

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Brian May has shared another video giving insight into his 1983 side band Star Fleet Project, this time introducing folks to his bandmates, Eddie Van Halen, Alan Gratzer, Phil Chen and Fred Mandel.

In the clip, May calls Van Halen “a phenomenon,” sharing that they met through Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi and that he saw him play for the first time when Van Halen opened for Sabbath.

May says his first reaction to seeing Eddie play guitar was, “Wow, what is this, what is this guy, what is he doing. I can’t even begin to figure out how his fingers are moving,” adding, “It was a bit like seeing Jimi Hendrix for the first time.”

May says they got to meet up after and he felt there was an “instant bonding” there, with Eddie telling May he had been “massively influenced” by Queen.

As for the rest of the group, May recalls bassist Chen as “full of sunshine, full of life,” and says Gratzer “hits the drums pretty much harder than anyone I’ve ever known.” He describes Mendel as “a character,” adding that he’s also “a virtuoso keyboard player.”

May will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Star Fleet Project with the release of a new box set, Brian May + Friends: Star Fleet Project, on July 14. It is available for preorder now.

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