Classic Hits

If you’re upset at having to pay 50 bucks for a Taylor Swift tour t-shirt, this’ll make you feel better: Some of Elton John‘s tour merchandise is going for more than $2,000 a pop.

For the current U.K. leg of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, Elton has teamed up with the upscale department store chain Selfridges for a special collection of merchandise. The items include regular stuff like t-shirts, mugs and socks, but those fans with deeper pockets can purchase a $300 candle shaped like a platform boot, a $400 Elton teddy bear, a $2300 suitcase, a $2500 polka-dot jacket, a $2200 clutch purse and a $2100 silk bathrobe.

Other Elton-branded items include boxer shorts, rugs, ceramic vases and plates, eyewear, and a yellow Snoopy figurine wearing Elton-style glasses that’ll set you back $425.

You can order all these items online from Selfridges if you’re not in the U.K. for the tour.  Elton’s currently in the middle of a string of shows at London’s O2 Arena which runs through April 17.

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The Beatles have influenced a lot over the years, including hairstyles, clothes and other musicians. And apparently that also includes comics.

A new exhibit at the Liverpool Beatles Museum, curated by former Spider-Man editor Tim Quinn, examines that influence on comics, including a variety of artwork featuring the legendary band from several world-famous cartoonists.

“The exhibition all started after I came across a comic which referenced the Beatles. Back in 1963, I was cutting these comics out and sticking them in a scrapbook as each Beatles reference came out,” Quinn tells the Liverpool Echo. “I then realized that the Beatles, as their fame grew, were just about everywhere in newspapers and magazines, and that somebody needed to compile this. I’ve been preparing for this exhibition for 60 years!”

The exhibit, which is now open to the public, plans to continuously add new artwork. In addition to Quinn, it will be curated by Roag Best, who is the brother of former Beatles drummer Pete Best. 

Best shares, “We know about the movies, we know about the records, we know about all these different aspects, but we felt that the Beatles in comics had been overlooked.”

He adds, “After sitting with Tim and discussing the exhibition, it seemed like a no brainer that we should do something to represent the Beatles in comics.”

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Patti Smith does not want your hair. That’s the message she’s shared with fans after someone claiming to be her rep reached out to fans asking for them to send her a piece of their hair. 

“This is the stupidest thing ever,” she shares in a video posted to Instagram. “If somebody calls you, emails you, or any of the other ways people communicate supposedly on my behalf asking for something, like perhaps your hair so that they can make me … say, [a] wig, it’s obviously [not me].” 

She also assures fans “if I want something, I’ll ask for it myself,” insisting she doesn’t wear wigs.

“I don’t have anything against [wigs], I just don’t wear them,” she adds. 

In the caption to her post she wishes her fans a happy spring, writing, “take care of yourselves and find ways to be happy and productive. As for me, my hair is ancient but fine.”

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Melissa Etheridge’s daughter Bailey and Sammy Hagar’s son Andrew are among the celebrity offspring featured in the upcoming Paramount+ docuseries Family Legacy. 

The show, originally announced last December as an MTV project, features the children of famous musicians “reliving some of entertainment’s most iconic moments and giving viewers an intimate look at their favorite artists.” 

A new trailer for the series is out now, in which Bailey is heard describing herself as “the OG lesbian baby.”  Bailey’s mom is Etheridge’s ex Julie Cypher, and her biological father is the late Rock & Roll Hall of Famer David Crosby, who was the former couple’s sperm donor.

Family Legacy premieres April 25 and also features the children of the late Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington, Brandy, Boyz II Men and more.

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Are George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic ready to give up the road? Well, the answer may be yes, based on what they are calling their just-announced tour.

Dubbed the Just For The Funk Of It Final Tour?!?, the trek, featuring special guests Fishbone, Dumpstaphunk and George Porter Jr., kicks off July 27 in Reno, Nevada, and wraps August 26 in Louisville, Kentucky, although they have also confirmed a November 25 concert in Oakland, California.

The band hasn’t officially come out and said this is the final tour, and based on the question marks in the title it may just be a tease. The trek comes four years after Clinton launched what he claimed would be his last tour, before coming out of retirement in 2022. A complete list of cities and dates can be found on Clinton’s Instagram page.

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Bon Jovi fans are used to seeing David Bryan behind the keyboards, but usually it’s in front of thousands of screaming fans. Well, some lucky folks in New York got to experience him tickling the ivories in a very different setting. 

The New York Post reports that Bryan gave a spontaneous performance Friday at the Manhattan hot spot Silver Lining inside the Moxy Lower East Side hotel, treating the crowd to his take on the classic “Great Balls of Fire.”

A source described the performance as an “unforgettable evening,” noting the 61-year-old keyboardist “left the crowd cheering.”

As for when we’ll see Bryan back onstage with Bon Jovi, that’s anybody’s guess. So far the band has no tour dates planned for this year.

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Talking Heads are the latest artists to pay tribute to Sire Records founder Seymour Stein, who passed away Sunday at the age of 80.

“Talking Heads are deeply saddened to learn that Seymour Stein has died. He was our champion. He fought bravely for us and he remained loyal to us until the end,” read a post on the band’s official Instagram page. “Some people can spot a diamond in the rough and Seymour was one of them.”

“Seymour’s life was one of great success and also great tragedy, but through it all he remained crazy about music,” they add. “He was a mensch that we and the music business will never forget.”

Talking Heads’ Chris Frantz also wrote a tribute to Stein for Variety, in which he recalled the story of the first time Stein heard their band, and how he waited a year and a half for them to be ready to record their first record. 

“Seymour was a good match for us,” he shares. “He understood us and accepted our eccentricities. He liked that we were smart and knew about art. Not very many record company guys understood or even cared about Talking Heads at that time, but Seymour believed in us from the beginning and his support never wavered.”

He adds, “He was our champion from the beginning to the end and for that, Seymour, we thank you.”

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Joe Walsh and Willie Nelson have been added to Stephen Stills’ upcoming autism benefit, Autism Speaks Light Up The Blues 6. The event, hosted by Stills and his wife, Kristen, takes place April 22 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.

Sharon Van Etten also joins the lineup, which already includes Stills with his sons Chris and Oliver; Neil Young in his first concert appearance since September 2019; and Lukas Nelson + Promise of the Real. Comedian Jeff Garlin is on board as host, and Amanda Kloots and Camryn Manheim will be appearing as presenters. 

Proceeds from the Light Up The Blues 6 benefit will support Autism Speaks, which is “dedicated to promoting solutions, across the spectrum and throughout the life span, for the needs of individuals with autism and their families.”

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The BBC has debuted what is believed to be the earliest known full recording of a live Beatles concert, recorded 60 years ago by a 15-year-old named John Bloomfield.

The audio, which debuted on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, is from a concert at Stowe boarding school in Buckinghamshire, England. The band was playing the school’s theater for the birthday of a student named David Moore, who had reached out to the band’s manager, Brian Epstein. Epstein agreed to the concert, charging Moore $125 for the booking, which Moore paid for by selling tickets to his fellow students.

The now 70-year-old Bloomfield recorded the concert on a reel-to-reel tape; the show featured the band performing songs off their first album, Please Please Me, along with some covers. Bloomfield played it for Front Row, which was doing a special on the concert’s anniversary.

“The opportunity that this tape presents, which is completely out of the blue, is fantastic because we hear them just on the cusp of the breakthrough into complete world fame,” Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, one of only two people who’ve heard the full tape, shares. “I think it’s an incredibly important recording, and I hope something good and constructive and creative eventually happens to it.”

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On This Day, April 4, 1964…

The Beatles made chart history by holding the top five spots on the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously.

The songs in the top five included: “Please Please Me” at five, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” at four, “She Loves You” at three, “Twist and Shout” at 2 and “Can’t Buy Me Love” at 1.

The Beatles went on to become one of the most successful acts in the history of the U.S. charts. Over the course of their career, they have had 20 number one hits, and 34 top 10 singles. Their last number one single was in 1970 with “The Long and Winding Road,” from the Let It Be album.

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