Classic Hits

Moody Blues singer/bassist John Lodge revealed earlier this year that he planned to release a live album featuring performances from his stint as an opening act on the Yes-headlined 2019 Royal Affair Tour.  Now official details about the record have been announced.

Titled The Royal Affair and After, the album will be released on December 3 on CD and digital formats, with a limited-edition blue-vinyl LP version due out January 28, 2022.

The 10-track collection, which you can pre-order now, features performances by John and his 10,000 Light Years Band from a Las Vegas stop on the tour, as well as select songs recorded during Lodge’s subsequent U.S. solo trek.

The Royal Affair and After includes renditions of several well-known Moody Blues songs written by Lodge, including “Steppin’ in a Slide Zone,” “Isn’t Life Strange,” “I’m Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band)” and “Rise My See-Saw,” the latter of which features a guest appearance by current Yes frontman Jon Davison.

Also on the album, John pays tribute to his Moody Blues band mates Justin Hayward, Graeme Edge, Mike Pinder and the late Ray Thomas. Davison lends guest lead vocals to a version of the Hayward-penned classic “Nights in White Satin,” while Lodge and his group also perform The Moodies’ “Sunset” and “Legend of a Mind,” written by Pinder and Thomas, respectively.

In addition, The Royal Affair and After boasts a version of the Edge-penned Days of Future Passed interlude “Late Lament,” featuring a recording of Graeme reciting the spoken-word piece made especially for Lodge’s tour.

In other news, Lodge has announced initial dates for a 2022 solo tour that’s currently scheduled to kick off March 16 in Annapolis, Maryland.

Here’s the The Royal Affair and After live album’s full track list:

“Steppin’ in a Slide Zone”
“Saved by the Music”
“Legend of a Mind”
“Sunset”
“Late Lament” (with Graeme Edge)
“Nights in White Satin” (with Jon Davison)
“Gemini Dream”
“Isn’t Life Strange”
“I’m Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band)”
“Ride My See-Saw” (with Jon Davison)

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This Saturday, October 9, marks what would’ve been John Lennon‘s 81st birthday, and to commemorate the special day, the third annual “Dear John” charity tribute concert will be held virtually at Veeps.com starting at 3 p.m. ET.

The star-studded event, which is organized by U.K. rock band Blurred Vision, will feature performances or appearances by Peter Frampton, ex-Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum, Lennon’s pre-Beatles group The Quarrymen, former David Bowie guitarist Earl Slick, actors Martin Freeman and Matt Lucas, and many others.

In addition to paying homage to Lennon, the show raises funds for the War Child UK charity, which seeks to help children affected by war around the world.

Tickets for the virtual concert can be purchased at BlurredVision.Veeps.com.  The event will be available to watch on demand until October 17.

To raise additional money for War Child, a new song called “Dear John” that Blurred Vision recorded with Frampton and Mollie Marriott — the daughter of late Small Faces/Humble Pie frontman Steve Marriott — has been released and is available now digitally and via streaming at OpenEyesRecords.com.

You also can check out a music video for the tune at Blurred Vision’s official YouTube channel.

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Madonna‘s new documentary that captures her Madame X tour is now streaming on Paramount+.  But if you don’t have Paramount+, you can still experience it with your ears.

Madame X — Music from the Theater Xperience, a companion soundtrack to the film, is now available on all digital download and streaming platforms.  The soundtrack and the film were both recorded in January of 2020 in Lisbon, Portugal. In addition to live performances of songs from Madonna’s Madame X album, the soundtrack features live versions of hits like “Like a Prayer,” “Frozen” and “Vogue.”

Here’s the full track listing:

“Intro”
“God Control”
“Dark Ballet”
“Human Nature”
“Vogue”
“I Don’t Search I Find”
“American Life”
“Batuka”
“Fado Pechincha” (featuring Gaspar Varela)
“Killers Who Are Partying”
“Crazy”
“Welcome To My Fado Club”
“Medellin”
“Extreme Occident”
“Breathwork”
“Frozen”
“Come Alive”
“Future”
“Like A Prayer”
“I Rise”

In other Madonna news, during her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Thursday night, she talked about her upcoming biopic, explaining, “The reason I’m doing it is a bunch of people have tried to write movies about me, but they’re always men…there’s nobody on this planet that can write or direct or make a movie about me better than me and that is just the truth!”

Madonna also revealed that she turned down the chance to play the role of Catwoman in Batman Returns — which she says she regretted — and the lead in Showgirls, which she didn’t regret.  Her biggest regret, however, was turning down a role in The Matrix, which she calls “one of the best movies ever made.”

“I wanted to kill myself!” she told Jimmy of the choice.

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It’s been 17 years since Tears for Fears have released new music but on Thursday, the English rockers confirmed they have a new album on the way. The “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” singers revealed that their seventh studio album, named The Tipping Point, is due out early next year.

“‘The Tipping Point.’ out feb 25, 2022,” the band tweeted, along with a link to a video for the title track, which is about the grief of watching someone you love lose a long battle with disease.

Tears for Fears, comprised of members Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, last released new music in 2004 with their sixth studio album, Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, which fans waited nine years to hear following their 1995 album Raoul and the Kings of Spain.

Of their reunion, Curt Smith says, “When you’ve known each other as long as we have, and have worked together as long as we have, there’s a bond there that becomes familial…It’s the kind of bond that you can’t really break. It can fall apart at times. You separate for periods, which I also think is healthy, really. But in the end, we always seem to find each other again.”

You can pre-order The Tipping Point on the official Tears for Fears website.

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Neil Young is among the music artists and entertainers who will take part in a virtual charity event called CAMP-A-THON on October 28 that will raise funds for The Painted Turtle, a free camp for chronically ill children and their families.

The event will be hosted by comic and actor George Lopez, a longtime supporter of the camp, and also will feature appearances by Young’s wife, actress Daryl Hannah, Los Lobos, Danny DeVito, Cheech Marin, singer/songwriter Brett Dennen, legendary Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela and others.

The event will feature stories about The Painted Turtle camp that will stream throughout the day, as well as performances from Young, Los Lobos, Marin and Dennen. The fundraiser will conclude with a virtual “Campfire” at 7 p.m. PT.

“This summer kids couldn’t go to the campsite and have a week long experience,” Lopez says, “but what The Painted Turtle did was bring Camp to all the campers wherever they may be, home or the hospital, and they delivered what they always deliver; hope, magic, and a whole lot of fun!”

The Painted Turtle is a nonprofit founded by late actor Paul Newman that’s located in Lake Hughes, California.

The CAMP-A-THON event is free, although viewers can make donations to the charity by visiting ThePaintedTurtle.org.

Young previously helped raise money for The Painted Turtle at his Harvest Moon: A Gathering concert, which took place in September 2019 at the camp.

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They won’t be stopping in Kokomo, but The Beach Boys will be hitting the high seas with some other famous music stars next year on a new musical-themed nautical extravaganza, The Beach Boys Good Vibrations Cruise.

The three-day cruise will set sail from Miami on March 25 and will visit Nassau in the Bahamas on the 27th before returning to port on March 28.

Joining The Beach Boys to perform on the cruise will be The Monkees and The Temptations, as well as comedian Joe Piscopo, popular tribute act The Yacht Rock Revue, Sugar Ray frontman Mark McGrath and more.

“I can’t wait to celebrate 60 years of The Beach Boys’ music on The Good Vibrations Cruise, setting sail this March,” says founding lead singer Mike Love. “With endless music and activities, it’s going to be an unforgettable vacation and we’re so excited to share it with friends and fans old and new.”

Besides the many performances, the cruise will feature events, attractions and activities including a Q&A session with The Beach Boys, photo opportunities with many of the artists, theme nights, an onboard Beach Boys museum, an on-shore excursion in Nassau and more.

Tickets for the cruise go on sale on Friday, October 8, at 2 p.m. ET. Visit TheBeachBoysCruise.com for all the details.

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Back in 1991, Natalie Cole released “Unforgettable,” a Grammy-winning “virtual” duet with her father, the late, legendary Nat “King” Cole.  Now, some other other famous singers are getting the chance to posthumously duet with the late crooner.

Gloria Estefan and Johnny Mathis are among the guests on A Sentimental Christmas with Nat “King” Cole and Friends: Cole Classics Reimagined, a collection of Cole’s holiday recordings featuring restored vocals and new arrangements that’s due out due October 29. 

The album was co-produced, mixed and mastered by the same guy who mixed the “Unforgettable” duet, and the recordings are mostly sourced from Cole’s 1963 LP The Christmas Song, plus other material from his catalog.

The album, features Gloria singing with Nat “King” Cole on “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square,” and Mathis lends his voice to a duet of “Deck the Halls/Joy to the World.”

The album also features John Legend adding his vocals to Cole’s signature holiday classic, “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire),” and Broadway star and actress Kristin Chenoweth singing “The Very Thought of You” with Cole.

The Legend duet of “The Christmas Song” — Cole’s original recording of which is marking its 75th anniversary this year — is the first single; it’s available now on all digital streaming platforms.

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A new episode of the Song Exploder online audio series focusing on the late John Lennon‘s 1970 solo song “God” debuted this week.

The presentation, which was created by the Song Exploder team in partnership with Lennon’s estate, features a new interview with Plastic Ono Band bassist and longtime Beatles associate Klaus Voormann, as well as archival interviews with John, Ringo Starr and late keyboardist Billy Preston, all of whom played on the track.

To produce the episode, which takes an in-depth look at the creation of “God,” Song Exploder was given access the John Lennon Estate’s extensive interview archives, as well as the song’s master recording, original demo and outtakes.

“I’m a big fan of Song Exploder and the way [host] Hrishi [Hirway] analyzes songwriting and recording using the multitracks and sessions and the creator’s voice,” says John’s son, Sean Ono Lennon. “The shows are always intelligent, well-researched and beautifully edited, so we felt comfortable and confident opening up the archive to them to tell the story of this important song’s creation.”

“God” appears on Lennon’s first solo studio album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, and famously features lyrics in which John declared that he’d put his famous band behind him, including, “I don’t believe in Beatles/ I just believe in me/ Yoko and me.”

Much of the music used in the Song Exploder episode was taken from the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band — The Ultimate Collection box set, which was released in April.

The Lennon interview featured in the episode was taken from a December 1970 conversation with Rolling Stone‘s Jann Wenner. Starr’s audio comes from the 2008 Classic Albums documentary about John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.

You can listen to the episode at SongExploder.net, and via Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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That famous photo of Britney Spears and Madonna locking lips at the 2003 MTV VMAs is now reportedly being auctioned off as an NFT, a.k.a. a non-fungible token.

TMZ reports that the photographer, John Shearer, is teaming up with Cryptograph to sell the collectible digital token for a good cause.

The auction, which kicks off Thursday and lasts 72 hours, will share a portion of the proceeds with GLAAD.

The 2003 VMAs opened with the now-iconic performance from Madonna, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. The trio sang Madonna’s hits “Like a Virgin” and “Hollywood” and the performance concluded with Madonna kissing both Britney and Christina — though the Britney kiss garnered way more attention.

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Red Hot Chili Peppers have revealed the details of their upcoming 2022 world tour.

The global outing is set to kick off with a European run starting June 4 in Seville, Spain, before arriving stateside for a U.S. trek beginning July 23 in Denver. Dates are currently scheduled through a September 18 performance in Arlington, Texas.

The Peppers will be joined at various dates on the tour by a wide array of opening acts, including Beck, The Strokes, St. Vincent, HAIM, A$AP Rocky, King Princess, Thundercat and Anderson .Paak & the Free Nationals.

Tickets go on sale to the general public next Friday, October 15, at 10 a.m. local time. A fan pre-sale for the U.S. dates begins October 9, and October 13 for the Europe and U.K. shows.

For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit RedHotChiliPeppers.com.

The tour is RHCP’s first since guitarist John Frusciante rejoined the band at the end of 2019.

(Video contains censored profanity.)

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