Sting, Lionel Richie and Blondie are among the artists confirmed for England’s Lytham Festival, taking place June 28 to July 2 in Lancashire, England.
Sting is set to headline the June 30 show, with Blondie also on that bill, while Lionel will headline July 1, sharing the bill with Kim Wylde and others.
The festival’s other headliners include Jamiroquai on June 29, George Ezra on June 30, and Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard set for July 2. The rest of the lineup includes Jake Shears, Fun Lovin’ Criminals and Kaiser Chiefs.
Elvis Costello paid tribute to his friend and collaborator Burt Bacharach at the kickoff for his 10-night residency at New York’s Gramercy Theatre Thursday. Bacharach died Wednesday at the age of 94.
“It’s been a tough day,” Costello told the audience, as reported by Variety. “You know, a really great man left us yesterday. And people say, when somebody leaves you who’s a great age, they say, well, it was a good ending. Yeah, but it’s never time to say goodbye to somebody if you love ‘em. And I’m not ashamed to say I did love this man.”
Costello went on to play three Bacharach-penned tunes: “Baby It’s You,” recorded by The Shirelles and The Beatles; “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” made famous by Dionne Warwick; and “Please Stay,” recorded by The Drifters. Costello had previously recorded two of those songs, “Baby It’s You” with Nick Lowe and “Please Stay,” for his all-covers album Kojak Variety. Costello also said he was planning to perform some of the songs he wrote with Bacharach later in the residency when his pianist, Steve Nieve, joins him.
In 1998 Bacharach and Costello teamed up for the album Painted From Memory, which went on to earn the pair a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for the song “I Still Have That Other Girl.” A box set of their work, The Songs Of Bacharach & Costello, including the new collection Taken From Life, featuring unreleased songs from a proposed Painted From Memory musical score, is due out March 3. It is available for preorder now.
The Who’s Roger Daltrey is still working hard on his planned biopic about the band’s late drummer, Keith Moon, and in a new interview with Vulture he gives fans an update on the progress being made.
“I just finished a script, and I’m hoping to do my biopic of Keith within the next couple of years,” he says. “I’m very pleased with the script. I want people to get an understanding of him and his life, and the complete genius he was.”
Daltrey says he already has an idea of an actor “who’s a role model” to play Moon, although he worries the unidentified actor, who he says is around 40, may be “too old.” However, Daltrey thinks it still could work, because “Keith looked 50 when he died. He was 32, but he looked 54.”
“But there’s an actor who I’ve seen and when I look at him I go, ‘God, it’s Moon,’” Roger says. “It’s all to do with the eyes. The eyes are all important. You virtually wouldn’t need to say any dialogue because you could read it in his eyes.”
And it sounds like Roger won’t stop until the movie is made, noting, “I’m driven by this project. It came to me in a dream 30 years ago.”
Daltrey also gave a little insight into what he hopes is in the future for The Who, including an orchestrated Quadrophenia.
“That’s my ambition. But I can’t tell you I could physically handle it,” the almost-79-year-old says. “It’s a challenging piece of work and it deserves respect. But who knows. We’ve gone on far longer than I ever thought we would. I didn’t think it would last until the end of the week.”
Carole King released her second album, Tapestry, which went on to be a massive hit for the singer/songwriter. It featured several songs that went on to be King classics, including “It’s Too Late,” “I Feel the Earth Move,” “So Far Away,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “You’ve Got a Friend” and others.
Tapestry spent 15 straight weeks at number one and won four Grammy Awards, on its way to becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. It holds the record for the most consecutive weeks at number one by a female artist, and until 2017 held the record for the longest-charting album by a female solo artist in the U.S. The record was broken by Adele’s 21.
Several songs on Tapestry also became hits for other artists, including “You’ve Got a Friend,” which was recorded by James Taylor and went to number one, and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” which became a classic thanks to Aretha Franklin.
Queen is back with the latest edition of their YouTube seriesQueen The Greatest Live. This week the band wraps up their look at the rehearsal process, sharing footage of Brian May and Roger Taylor at soundcheck for a 2012 concert in Kyiv, Ukraine.
The rare and unseen footage gives fans a peak at the important few hours the band has at the venue before the show, revealing how they use that time to make sure everything is ready to go for showtime. It features clips of them rehearsing the track “39” from A Night at the Opera.
The show was a particularly important one for the band, as it was their first full concert with new frontman Adam Lambert. It took place at Kyiv’s Independence Square, where they performed in front of more than 35,000 fans, as well as a TV audience.
Legendary composer Burt Bacharach passed away Wednesday at the age of 94. Bacharach worked with a whole host of artists over the years and several of them, including Dionne Warwick and Elton John, paid tribute to him on social media.
Warwick, who teamed up with Bacharach for such hits songs as “Walk On By” and “I Say A Little Prayer For You,” shared on Twitter that Bacharach’s death “is like losing a family member.”
“These words I’ve been asked to write are being written with sadness over the loss of my Dear Friend and my Musical Partner,” she wrote. “On the lighter side we laughed a lot and had our run ins, but always found a way to let each other know our family, like roots, were the most important part of our relationship.”
Elton, who recorded “That’s What Friends are For” with Warwick, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder, shared a picture from the recording session, writing, “@burtbacharach ,the amazing composer and songwriter, has left us with a treasure trove of unique melodies to savour forever. He was the Rolls Royce of songwriters.”
Knight also paid tribute to the composer, sharing, “Rest well my dear friend Burt Bacharach… Your soul will be missed and your art and impact here forever cherished.”
And Richard Marx, who collaborated with Bacharach on the song “Always,” called him a “remarkable talent” and “an extraordinary man,” offering, “I’m completely heartbroken over this loss but so filled with gratitude that I got to be in his company and even better, to create something so beautiful with him.”
Other artists took to social media to pay tribute:
Sheryl Crow – “One of the great thrills and honors of my life was getting to know @BurtBacharach – one of the greatest songwriters of all time. There will never be anyone like him and as a songwriter, he set the bar. Burt, you will be missed but your music will live on. My love to his family.”
Tony Bennett – “‘Music breeds its own inspiration. You can only do it by doing it.’ – Burt Bacharach. Saddened to hear about the passing of the great American composer Burt Bacharach. Rest in peace.”
Brian Wilson – “I’m so sad to hear about Burt Bacharach. Burt was a hero of mine and very influential on my work. He was a giant in the music business. His songs will live forever. Love & Mercy to Burt’s family.”
Kiss’ Paul Stanley– “Burt Bacharach… What a loss but what a treasure of amazing songs he’s left us. His work with Hal David, Carole Bayer Sager and others, share an effortless combination of simplicity & sophistication. Walk On By? That’s What Friends Are For? Alfie? This Guy’s In Love With You? WOW.”
Elvis Costello is set to kick off his 10-night residency at New York City’s Gramercy Theatre on Thursday, which will have him going through a good portion of his music catalog.
Dubbed 100 Songs and More, the residency will have him performing a different set each night, amounting to over 200 songs in total. The first five nights will have Costello performing solo. He’ll be joined by his longtime pianist Steve Nieve for the final five shows. The residency is set to run through February 23.
Fans who go to the shows will at least know a little bit about what to expect. Costello has already revealed 10 songs that will be featured on each night’s set list, with at least 10 more to be added each night.
Opening night is set to include:
“Welcome To The Working Week”
“Hoover Factory”
“Red Shoes”
“Stranger In The House”
“Poison Moon”
“Wave A White Flag”
“Radio Sweetheart”
“Mystery Dance”
“Cheap Reward”
“Alison”
Songs featured on the other nights can be found at elviscostello.com.
REO Speedwagon’s Kevin Cronin is one of the rockers set to appear on Dolly Parton’s upcoming rock album, Rock Star, and he’s spilled the tea on the track they’ve recorded together.
While chatting with the Totally 80s podcast, Cronin revealed he and Dolly recorded a cover of the band’s classic “Keep On Loving You,” although he notes their version is a “dark duet.”
In the song Cronin sings about his woman’s infidelity and his decision to stay with her, but says he realized, “I kind of portrayed myself as more of the good guy than perhaps I was.”
“Perhaps it takes more than one snake in the grass, ‘all coiled up and hissing,’ to tango — if you catch my drift. That’s the reality of the song, you know?” he explains. “So, it gave me the idea that Dolly could sing the first verse, and in the first verse, I’m cheating on her. But then I take the second verse, and in the second verse, I go, ‘Oh yeah? Well, I know all about those men!’”
The two then come together and sing the chorus in harmony, but he notes, “It just slays me, because that’s how the song was meant to be performed; I just didn’t realize it until Dolly called me the other day. So that’s how we’re doing it, and I’m just so stoked.”
The Rolling Stones are the subject of a new Vevo-hosted YouTube series that launched on Thursday. The Rolling Stones Chronicles, co-produced by BBC Motion Gallery and ABKCO, is comprised of six documentary shorts, with each focused on a different Stones hit from the ’60s.
Each clip features interviews with the band, along with historical documentary footage of world events that were taking place at the time.
The weekly series kicks off with The Last Time (EP1), soundtracked by the top five single of the same name, which reveals how early rock ‘n’ roll and Chicago blues influenced the band. In addition to archival interviews with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards,it features footage of B.B. King, Little Richard and others.
“The Rolling Stones Chronicles puts the band’s music in context with history,” says Robin Klein, executive producer of the series. “While they were very much of that time, The Rolling Stones themselves served as a vehicle for, and reflected and inspired change.”
Future episodes will be set against such Rolling Stones classics as “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “She’s A Rainbow,” “Street Fighting Man” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” wrapping March 16 with an episode featuring “Gimme Shelter.”
Linda Ronstadt is the latest artist to see a chart resurgence thanks to one of her songs being featured in a popular series. In Ronstadt’s case, it’s the tune “Long Long Time,” which has jumped back on the chart thanks to its inclusion in the third episode of the hit HBO series The Last Of Us.
Billboardreports the song, which originally appeared on the 1970 album Silk Purses, tops the Rock Digital Songs Sales, LyricFind U.S. and LyricFind Global charts, with the latter two ranking the tracks gaining momentum on lyric searches and usages.
From January 27 to February 2, “Long Long Time” went from negligible downloads to 6,000, which was an increase of 11,181% and enough to land it on top of the Rock Digital Song Sales chart. The song also saw a 1,042% increase in official streams during that week, from 79,000 to 903,000.
“Long Long Time” is just one of several songs that has seen renewed interest thanks to a popular series. Depeche Mode’s “Never Let Me Down Again” returned to the charts thanks to its appearance in The Last Of Us’ premiere episode, and of course, Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (Deal With God)” landed in the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 after it was featured on Netflix’s Stranger Things last year.
