Classic Hits

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd‘s landmark 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon, and according to Aubrey “Po” Powell, who helped create many of the band’s album covers, big plans are in the works to celebrate the milestone.

Along with the late Storm Thorgerson, Powell co-founded the English graphic-design firm Hipgnosis, which began collaborating with Pink Floyd on the band’s second album, 1968’s A Saucerful of Secrets. Most recently, Po created the updated cover of the 2022 reissue of the band’s 1977 record, Animals, and he tells ABC Audio he’s now working on a new project marking The Dark Side of the Moon‘s 50th anniversary.

While Powell doesn’t share specific details about the project, he explains, “We’re planning to do a lot of things, is all I can say. And, you know, if it all comes off, great. But, you know, who knows?”

He adds, “[A]t the moment, it’s looking very positive to a great year of celebration of Dark Side of the Moon next year. It is.”

Powell also comments about the iconic album cover, which he and Thorgerson designed, “[It] still seems to stand the test of time, which is wonderful. And I’m very proud of that.”

Released on March 1, 1973, The Dark Side of the Moon was Pink Floyd’s eighth studio album and its first to top the Billboard 200. The album has gone one to be certified 15-times Platinum by the RIAA for sales of over 15 million copies in the U.S.

The album featured the band’s first top-40 hit in the U.S., “Money,” which peaked at #15 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also included such enduring songs as “Breathe (In the Air),” “Time,” “Us and Them,” “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse.”

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Horrified by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Rod Stewart is taking action. After bringing supplies to Ukraine, the singer is now personally helping a displaced Ukrainian family get back on its feet.

The legendary singer has rented out a home in Berkshire, England, for the family of seven and will be taking care of their bills for at least a year. He spoke to Daily Mirror about what inspired his good deed, which he says is his job as a knight.

Stewart was knighted in 2016 because of his philanthropic and musical efforts.

“I usually keep all my charitable efforts nice and quiet and just do it. But I thought, ‘I am a knight, I have been given this knighthood because of the things I’ve achieved in my life and the charity work I’ve done over the years,'” he explained. 

Stewart added he couldn’t sit back as he watched reports of Ukraine being torn apart by the war. He said, “Words couldn’t describe what we were watching. The bombing of innocent children, the bombing of hospitals and ­playgrounds. Like everyone else, we were completely beside ourselves. I don’t wish that one anyone. This is evil, pure evil.”

The singer adds he was born after World War II and spoke of how the memories impacted his family. “That’s how devastating it was to me. I didn’t think we would see the likes of land war with tanks again,” he added.

He and wife Penny Lancaster are assisting couple Rostyslav and Olena, as well as their five children. Their youngest child is 2 and their eldest is 17.

Stewart says the family fled Ukraine when Russia began its invasion in February. They met when he drove 16 refugees to Berlin after bringing supplies to Ukraine.

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Bryan Adams has premiered a new music video for his recent song “Kick A**,” which appears on the veteran Canadian rocker’s latest studio album, 2022’s So Happy It Hurts.

The catchy song begins with a spoken-word monologue delivered in the form of a Biblical-style sermon by legendary Monty Python’s Flying Circus member John Cleese, sporting a fake white beard and dressed in a white toga. The clip also features Adams and his backing band dressed in white and playing white instruments inside a white cubicle.

“I understand from Bryan that he thought it was wonderful to work with me. I wish I could say the same,” Cleese quips. “The smell of lentils was overwhelming.”

Added Adams, “John was amazing on set, I’ve never worked with someone so woke.”

The video was directed by Adams, who co-wrote the song with producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange. The clip arrives in advance of the October 28 release of a super deluxe, expanded version of So Happy It Hurts, a two-CD set that includes a bonus disc featuring 12 of the tracks that appeared on Adams’ 2022 Classic and Classic Pt. II digital albums.

The Classic albums, which were released in March and July, respectively, boast newly recorded versions of many of Bryan’s best-known tunes.

Meanwhile, a two-LP, 14-track vinyl edition of the Classic recordings is due out on January 18, and will be available on standard black vinyl and limited-edition orange vinyl. Both versions will feature a laser etching of Adams’ silhouette on the fourth side.

You can preorder the two-CD version of So Happy It Hurts and the Classic two-LP sets now.

Adams currently is on tour in Canada. His next show takes place Tuesday, October 18, in Peterborough, Ontario.

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Will Rolling Stones fans finally get to hear some new music in 2023? That’s the word from U.K. tabloid The Sun, which reports that an unnamed source has confirmed that the band intends to put out its first new album of original material in 18 years next summer.

According to The Sun, Stones members Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood took part in recording sessions during the past two weeks at New York City’s famed Electric Lady Studios. The report claims that they worked with “a raft of world class session musicians” as well as longtime Stones touring bassist Darryl Jones and drummer Steve Jordan, who joined the group’s touring lineup in the wake of drummer Charlie Watts‘ death last year.

The newspaper also reports that the source says The Rolling Stones will likely launch a major tour following the album’s release that would include shows in the U.S., South America and Europe.

The Sun says the source noted that after Watts’ death, the band was unsure about whether it would continue, “But now they’ve had time to reflect they all feel it’s the right thing to keep doing what they’ve always done as a band, make new music and hopefully hit the road again to perform it to their fans.”

A new album would be the first that the band ever recorded without Watts. In March, Richards revealed in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning that he, Jagger and Jordan had been writing new songs together. The Rolling Stones’ last album of original tunes was 2005’s A Bigger Bang.

Earlier this year, the band launched a 60th anniversary tour, a European trek that ran from June to August.

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Former Wings drummer Denny Seiwell and current Yes bassist Billy Sherwood are among the artists who have contributed to Shadows in a Jar, the sixth album by veteran guitarist and songwriter Earl Kayoss‘ Life on Mars project.

Shadows in a Jar will be released November 18 and can be preordered now at CherryRed.co.uk, as well as multiple other online retailers.

Kayoss’ main Life on Mars collaborator is Fernando Perdomo, a veteran producer and guitarist whose credits include the star-studded 2021 album Ram On, a tribute to Paul and Linda McCartney‘s 1971 Ram record, and 2021’s Energy Overload, a collaboration with Vanilla Fudge drummer Carmine Appice. Seiwell also played on Ram On, as well as on the original Ram album.

You can check out a video for the Shadows in a Jar track “After All,” which features Sherwood on vocals, bass and drums, on Kayoss’ official YouTube channel.

Here’s the full track list of Shadows in a Jar:

“Ego”
“The Key”
“Stray Dog”
“After All”
“Technology”
“Rabbits”
“And Besides…”
“She’s Already Gone”
“Rock People”
“Nancy’s Finger”
“Only One”
“Hurricane Jane”
“Shadows in a Jar”*

* = bonus track.

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Chicago will return to Las Vegas’ Venetian Theatre for an eight-show residency in February and March 2023.

Marking the sixth consecutive year the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees will visit the theater, which is located inside The Venetian Resort, the performances are scheduled for February 24 and 25, and March 1, 3, 4, 8, 10 and 11.

Tickets for the new Vegas shows will go on sale to the general public on Monday, October 24, at 10 a.m. PT. Chicago fan club members will be able to buy presale tickets starting Thursday, October 20, at 10 a.m. PT. Live Nation and Ticketmaster customers and members of The Venetian Resort’s Grazie loyalty program can purchase presale tickets beginning Friday, October 21, at 10 a.m.

You can purchase tickets via Ticketmaster.com, VenetianLasVegas.com, the box offices at The Venetian and by calling 702-414-9000 or 866-641-7469.

Chicago, which released new studio album Born for This Moment in July, has 10 U.S. tour dates left on its 2022 schedule. The shows run from an October 20 concert in Memphis, Tennessee, through a November 2 performance in Lubbock, Texas.

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Veteran pop singer Gary Puckett, who scored a series of high-charting hits with his group The Union Gap during the late 1960s, celebrates his 80th birthday on Monday, October 17.

Puckett and The Union Gap’s biggest hits were 1967’s “Woman, Woman,” and 1968’s “Young Girl” and “Lady Willpower,” which peaked at #4, #2 and #2, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100.

The band followed those up with three more top-20 singles, 1968’s “Over You,” and 1969’s “Don’t Give In to Him” and “This Girl Is a Woman Now,” which reached reached #7, #15 and #9 on the Hot 100.

“Young Girl,” “Lady Willpower” and “Over You” were written by Jerry Fuller, who also produced The Union Gap’s first three albums.

Puckett and The Union Gap were nominated for Best New Artist at the 1969 Grammy Awards, but lost out to Jose Feliciano.

Puckett parted ways with The Union Gap in 1971 and launched a moderately successful solo career. He withdrew from the music business in the early ’70s, but returned to performing and recording in the early 1980s. Since then, he has performed regularly on the oldies circuit, often with a backing band called The Union Gap, and has sporadically released solo albums.

Puckett and the current Union Gap are taking part in the Sixties Gold tour in the United Kingdom, which runs through late November. They also have several U.S. shows lined up. Visit GaryPuckettMusic.com for more information.

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Founding R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry is back. He’s in a new group called The Bad Ends, who, like his former band, hail from Athens, Georgia.

The Bad Ends also feature singer/guitarist Mike Mantione of the veteran Athens band Five Eight, as well as Dave Domizi on bass and vocals, Geoff Melkonian on keyboards and vocals, and Christian Lopez on guitars and mandolin.

The group will release its debut album, The Power and the Glory, on January 20, 2023. The first track from the record, “All Your Friends Are Dying,” is available now as a digital single.

The Bad Ends have also debuted a music video for the tune, which you can watch on the New West Records label’s YouTube channel.

The clip features cameos by R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills and Pylon singer Vanessa Briscoe Hay, and much of the footage was shot at Berry’s home near Athens. The video includes scenes of The Bad Ends members driving ATVs and performing around a swimming pool, where they eventually appear as zombies.

Berry, who hadn’t played in a full-time band after leaving R.E.M. in 1997, recalls in a new SPIN article that he wound up joining The Bad Ends after “a chance pedestrian encounter in downtown Athens” with Mantione in 2017.

“At that point it had been over two decades since I’d involved myself with the record-making process and here was a man Peter Buck recently described as ‘the unsung hero of Athens rock and roll’ offering an opportunity to play in the game again,” Berry explains. “It was energizing to once again play with top-notch musicians.”

The Bad Ends will make their live debut at the Athens Uncovered concert in Athens, GA on November 27.

You can preorder The Power and the Glory now.

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Mariah Carey seemingly gave fans the go-ahead to begin thinking about Christmas.

The so-called Queen of Christmas took to Twitter to tease something festive and ominously captioned it, “It’s almost time…” She also shared a photo of her bathtub and an embossed bath mat embedded with her initials, but it’s the curious red robe draping off the steps that has fans humming with excitement.

Mariah followed up with a video of her in her bubble bath with her back turned to the camera, along with the word “but…” She’s wagging a finger as the sound of a clock ticks in the background.

She then finished the post trilogy with a cheeky video of her splashing in her bubble bath alongside the caption, “not yet.” In the video, she joyfully responds with “not yet” to a child asking if they can decorate the tree and listen to her smash hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

Unfortunately, that’s all we have so far from Mariah regarding the holidays. Considering we haven’t even celebrated Halloween yet, she might be saving up for a big announcement once we get closer to Christmas.

Still, this is causing fans to celebrate that the self-professed Queen of Christmas is “thawing.”

In other Mariah news, she has her children’s book The Christmas Princess coming out in a few weeks. The book, which features “Little Mariah,” hits the shelves on November 1.

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After Melissa Etheridge saw one of her heroes, Bruce Springsteen, do his Springsteen on Broadway show, she figured she could do the same thing: telling her life story on stage, and using her songs to illustrate it.  That idea is now a reality: Last week, Melissa Etheridge –My Window: A Journey Through Life opened at New York’s New World Stages…which is technically Off-Broadway, but is literally in the heart of the theater district.

“Dreams come true,” Melissa told ABC Audio a few months ago about doing a show like this. “Y’know, as a kid…what performing, what music, what the entertainment industry was, as I was growing up in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s…it was all Grammys and Oscars…and Nashville and New York and Vegas and Broadway. These are the entertainment icons.”

She added that she was “really excited” about doing something on Broadway, which she calls an “amazing place for entertainment.”

In the show, Melissa takes the audience through her entire life, from the day she was born right up to the present day. On a mostly bare stage, she tells her story with the help of some vintage photos and video, a trippy light show, a hilarious female “roadie” — played by physical comedienne Kate Owens — and instruments ranging from a piano and guitar, to a clarinet, bass and drums.

With plenty of humor, Melissa details her musical development, her sexuality, her very public relationships, motherhood, her breast cancer battle, her spiritual awakening and the 2020 loss of her son to opioid addiction. And, of course, you’ll hear many of her greatest hits, from “Bring Me Some Water” and “I’m the Only One” to “I Want to Come Over” and, of course, “Come to My Window.”

Melissa Etheridge –My Window: A Journey Through Life  runs through October 29.

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