Classic Hits

The Alarm’s Mike Peters is healthy and ready to share new music. The band has just released the new song “Next,” which follows a year of Peters battling a relapse of leukemia, which he was first diagnosed with in 2005.

“The lyrics of the song were conceived while I was being treated for a leukemia relapse and a lung that had filled with blood,” Peters explains. “Being able to play music to myself kept me going, and I’m convinced that it helped me make the transition back to life.”

The video for the song was filmed in hospital corridors, a place he became very familiar with in the past year.

“I wanted to film something that captured the elation of knowing you are going home, moving on, going forwards ready for what lies ahead, for what’s next,” he says. “At night and in between IV sessions, I would walk the very same empty hospital corridors of the North Wales Cancer Centre, trying to preserve whatever human strength I could hang on to.”

And now that Peters has got his strength back, he’s already back onstage. He returned to performing at the band’s annual The Gathering concert in North Wales last month. They have two shows scheduled at New York’s Gramercy Theatre on June 23 and 24.

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A new collaboration between Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach was released Friday, just two days after Bacharach’s death at the age of 94.

Variety reports the song, “You Can Have Her,” was a previously unreleased track recorded by Costello in 2021. He’s backed by a full orchestra for the recording, which was released digitally on Friday. The track is believed to have been recorded in one of the last sessions Bacharach took part in.

The song had always been planned for release on Friday to help promote Costello and Bacharach’s upcoming box set, The Songs of Bacharach and Costello, which drops March 3. It features, among other things, the new collection Taken From Life, featuring unreleased songs from a proposed Painted From Memory musical score. It is available for preorder now.

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Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band brought their tour to Dallas this weekend, but it was short a few people. Three members of the E Street Band had to sit out the show: Steven Van Zandt and Soozie Tyrell due to COVID and Springsteen’s wife, Patti Scialfa, for an undisclosed reason.

“We got a few members missing tonight,” The Boss told the crowd, according to Rolling Stone. “Stevie Van Zandt – COVID, Soozie Tyrell – COVID, Patti Scialfa … But goddammit, we’re gonna give Dallas the best show they’ve ever seen.”

Van Zandt later took to social media to confirm his COVID diagnosis, telling fans, “Thank you all for your best wishes and positive vibes. I’ve got a very mild case and hope to be back for Houston or Austin at the latest.”

But being down three members didn’t stop Springsteen from rocking the American Airlines Center. He played a 27-song set that featured a tour debut of “Detroit Medley,” along with such classics as “The Promise Land,” “Thunder Road,” “Born to Run,” “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out” and more.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s next show is happening Tuesday in Houston, Texas.

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On This Day, February 13, 1950 …

Peter Gabriel was born in Surry, England. The musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and activist gained fame as the original lead singer of the rock band Genesis and appeared on the band’s first six albums.

He left the group in 1975 and went on to have a hugely successful solo career, releasing his self-titled debut that year, which featured the future classic “Solsbury Hill.” His fifth studio album, 1986’s So, became his bestselling album, moving over 5 million copies in the U.S. It featured the number one song “Sledgehammer,” as well as songs like “Big Time” and “Don’t Give Up” with Kate Bush.

Gabriel is the winner of six Grammy Awards, as well as 13 MTV Video Music Awards, nine of which went to the video for the “Sledgehammer.” He’s also a two-time member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, being inducted in 2010 as a member of Genesis and in 2014 as a solo artist.

Gabriel is expected to release his first new album in 20 years, i/o, sometime in 2023. He’s already released two new singles from the record, “Panopticom” and “The Court (Dark-Side remix).”

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Neil Young is finally returning to the stage. Rolling Stone reports the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, who hasn’t performed live since September 2019, is set to headline the Light Up the Blues charity show, put on by his Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young bandmate Stephen Stills and his wife, Kristen.

“We’ll be there to ‘Light up the Blues’ with Stephen, Kristen and the family,” Young tells the mag in a statement, “doing or [sic] first show in four years with old friends for our autistic people around the world.”

The concert, taking place April 22 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, will also feature performances by Stills, along with his sons Chris and Oliver, plus Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real and special guests. 

This is the sixth year of the Light Up the Blues charity show, which raises money for 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.”

Tickets for the concert go on sale February 17 at 10 a.m. local time.

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The Moody Blues’ John Lodge is set to kick off a new tour this month in which he’ll perform the band’s sophomore album, Days of Future Passed, in its entirety. And it will feature a very special moment for fans: the late Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge will appear in a video clip. John says Graeme’s contribution was something he was eager to make happen.

“I went to see Graeme and I said, ‘I’m thinking about doing Days of Future Passed.’ I said, ‘Would you record the poetry for me?’ And he said, ‘I’d be delighted,’” Lodge tells ABC Audio. “He said because he’s never, ever recorded his own spoken word before and he was really excited.”

Lodge videotaped Graeme’s contribution just a few days before his death in November 2021; Lodge said Graeme was fully behind the Days of Future Past tour. Lodge notes, “He just said, ‘Keep the Moody’s music going, John.’ Because Graeme was always a Moody Blue, nonstop.” 

And that’s not the only special moment planned for the tour. Jon Davison of YES is due to join Lodge on the tour to perform special renditions of “Nights in White Satin” and “Tuesday Afternoon.” 

John Lodge’s Days of Future Passed tour kicks off February 18 in Lexington, Massachusetts. A complete list of dates can be found at johnlodge.com. 

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Def Leppard has announced a special livestream event tied to their most recent album, Diamond Star Halos. The Diamond Star Halos track by track livestream event will take place February 25 at 4 p.m. ET, with the band sharing behind-the-scenes stories of the making of their latest release, which came out in May.

The event, which will also have them answering fan questions, will air inside the Def Leppard Vault. Tickets are now on sale at Leppardvault.com. 

Diamond Star Halos is Def Leppard’s 12th studio album and their first new album since 2015’s Def Leppard. It landed in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 album chart and at number two on the Rock charts.

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Earlier this week, the Pink Floyd feud seemed to escalate when Polly Samson, wife of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, lashed out at his bandmate Roger Waters on Twitter. Days later things aren’t cooling down, with Waters now having a few choice words for Gilmour and his other bandmates.

While talking to The Telegraph, Waters seems to suggest the main issue is jealousy. “They can’t write songs. They’re not artists,” he said, referring to Gilmour and Rick Wright, who died in 2008. “They have no ideas — not a single one between them. They never have had, and that drives them crazy.” 

Waters, who recently revealed that he’s rerecording The Dark Side of the Moon, also argued that he was really the brains behind the album. “Let’s get rid of all this ‘we’ crap,” he said. “Of course we were a band — there were four of us, we all contributed — but it’s my project and I wrote it, so, blah.” 

As for what fans can expect from the rerecorded The Dark Side of the Moon, the author of the article got to hear some of it and shared some insight. While he says “parts are very good indeed,” he notes, “But, surprisingly, Waters seems to have decided that what was wrong with the original album’s beautiful instrumental tracks was that they didn’t have Waters talking all over them. Now they do.”

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Pete Townshend is teasing fans with new music. The Who rocker revealed on social media that he has a new solo single “coming soon.”

Although he didn’t reveal the title of the track, he says it was written by his wife, Rachel Fuller, and shared the artwork, which was by artist Damien Hirst. 

The song is expected sometime this month, with proceeds being donated to Teenage Cancer Trust.

Pete did note in his announcement that he’s only releasing a single, not a solo album. His last solo studio album was 1993’s Psychoderelict.

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It sure looks like U2 fans may finally be getting confirmation about the band’s much rumored residency at the new high-tech arena MSG Sphere in Las Vegas. 

The Irish rockers are set to appear in an ad during Sunday’s Super Bowl, per their publicity team. They’ve also shared the new website U2xsphere.com, which so far only has a photo of the Las Vegas skyline, with a baby’s face in a bubble superimposed over it. 

Reports of the U2 residency at MSG Sphere have been circulating since July, when Billboard first reported the rumors. Just last month, Bono commented on the alleged residency during an appearance on the SmartLess podcast, sharing, “If this happens it will be really extraordinary.”

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