Classic Hits

Duran Duran will headline the opening ceremony for the 2022 edition of the Commonwealth Games sporting event, which will run from July 28 to August 8 in the band’s hometown of Birmingham, U.K.

The Commonwealth Games is an international multiple-sport competition held every four years featuring athletes from countries in the Commonwealth of Nations.

Duran Duran will perform during the finale of the ceremony, which will take place July 28 at Alexander Stadium. The band, which will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this November, will play four classic songs from their back catalog with accompaniment from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

“The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games is a momentous event for the great city of Birmingham,” frontman Simon Le Bon says. “And we in Duran Duran are honoured to be a part of it in our home town.”

Adds drummer Roger Taylor, “We are so proud to be returning to our home town to close the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony. It is a true honour to be part of a global event that will bring sportspeople of all cultural backgrounds around the world together as one. Another milestone in a most incredible year for us.”

The opening ceremony will also feature a variety of other noteworthy local musicians, including Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, who will perform with sax player Soweto Kinch and R&B vocalists Indigo Marshall and Gambimi.

For more information about this year’s Commonwealth Games, visit Birmingham2022.com.

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Former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora is gearing up to release his first new music since before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sambora was interviewed earlier this month by Red Carpet News at the 2022 Nordoff Robbins O2 Silver Clef Awards in London, and he revealed, “I have a new record that’s ready to go, and I’ve been kind of holding it through the pandemic. And I’d say in the fall we’re gonna put it out.”

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer was also asked if he found it difficult not to be able to perform live or play music with other artists because of the health crisis.

“It was interesting for me because it was probably one of the first times there I had a chance to, forcibly, slow it down,” he admitted, noting that the downtime gave him the opportunity to practice a lot and write songs every day.

Sambora added, “I played a lot of piano too. So it was actually a decent time for me because it slowed me down on purpose.”

As for what fans can expect from his new music, Richie said, “I’m very proud of it. I don’t write bad songs anymore…it just doesn’t happen….[I]t’s not hard for me. I’m just lucky that way. And plus, I just write all the time, so it’s like a daily exercise for me.”

He concluded by telling fans, “Get ready, there’s some good stuff coming. I’m sorry it’s been so long, but the pandemic kind of held things up.”

Sambora’s last project was 2018’s Radio Free America, a collaborative album with his then-girlfriend, Australian guitar whiz Orianthi. 

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Here’s wishing a supernaturally happy birthday to Carlos Santana, who turns 75 today.

The legendary guitarist helped create a groundbreaking fusion of rock, blues, pop, Latin music and jazz with his namesake band Santana.

Santana came to global prominence after an incendiary performance at the 1969 Woodstock festival, which showcased Carlos’ blistering and intense playing. The group’s self-titled debut album came out that same month, featuring classics like “Evil Ways” and the instrumental “Soul Sacrifice.” The band’s next two studio albums, Abraxas and Santana III, topped the Billboard 200 and included such hits as “Black Magic Woman,” “Oye Como Va” and “Everybody’s Everything.”

From the early 1970s through the ’90s, Santana’s lineup changed frequently as the band’s popularity fluctuated.

Santana was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, then experienced a huge career resurgence thanks to 1999’s Supernatural. The album, which featured Carlos and company collaborating with various guest artists, yielded two #1 hits — “Smooth” with Matchbox Twenty‘s Rob Thomas, and “Maria Maria” with Wyclef Jean and The Product G&B. Supernatural topped the Billboard 200 for 12 nonconsecutive weeks and went on to win nine Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year.

More recently, Santana was saluted at the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors in 2013.

Santana’s latest album, Blessings and Miracles, was released in October 2021. Following a similar template to Supernatural, Blessings and Miracles features collaborations with various guest artists, including Thomas, Steve Winwood, Metallica‘s Kirk Hammett and Diane Warren.

On July 5, Santana collapsed onstage during a show in the Detroit suburb of Clarkston, Michigan — reportedly because of heat exhaustion and dehydration — leading him to postpone a series of shows. The band currently is scheduled to return to the road this Saturday, July 23, in Paso Robles, California.

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Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the official formation of Heart, and frontwoman Ann Wilson has revealed that plans are in the works for some kind of celebration marking the milestone.

“I’m not at liberty to say exactly what they are yet because it’s such early days, but sure,” Wilson tells Grammy.com. “It will be next year. And we’re doing a thing. Definitely. We’re still formulating it now.”

The celebration would mark the first time Ann and her sister, Heart co-leader Nancy Wilson, will have worked together since the band ended its Love Alive tour in 2019. The siblings have recently been at odds over the direction of the group, and both have been focused on solo projects during the last few years.

Nancy released her debut solo studio album, You and Me, in 2021. She also recently launched a new group called Nancy Wilson’s Heart that features powerhouse lead singer Kimberly Nichole and members of Heart’s most recent touring lineup.

Ann released a new solo studio album called Fierce Bliss in April and has been touring with her own backing band, The Amazing Dawgs, that mainly features a group of Nashville session musicians who accompanied her on most of the record’s songs.

Ann tells Grammy.com that she’s expecting to make another album with The Amazing Dawgs.

“What I can do now with these ideas I have is just get ’em down and go in with this group of excellent musicians,” she notes. “What we have is really energized, fiery and sharp. I think it’s working for us right now. It’s real.”

You can check out Ann’s 2022 tour schedule with The Amazing Dawgs at AnnWilson.com.

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A new compilation from the NOW That’s What I Call Music folks — which focuses specifically on popular alternative-rock songs from the 1990s — will be released on August 5.

NOW That’s What I Call ’90s Alternative Rock! is an 18-track collection that will be available on CD and digital formats.

The album consists of memorable tunes from many rock acts that emerged in the 1990s, including Spin Doctors‘ “Two Princes,” Lenny Kravitz‘s “Are You Gonna Go My Way,” Blues Traveler‘s “Run Around,” Gin Blossoms‘ “Hey Jealousy” and Blind Melon‘s “No Rain.”

The compilation also features hits from Toad the Wet Sprocket, Third Eye Blind, Sublime, Cake, Len, Tonic, Vertical Horizon, 311 and more.

NOW That’s What I Call ’90s Alternative Rock! can be pre-ordered now.

Here’s the complete track list:

“Are You Gonna Go My Way” — Lenny Kravitz
“My Own Worst Enemy (No S*** Mix)” — Lit
“Inside Out” — Eve 6
“Everything You Want – Vertical Horizon
“If You Could Only See” — Tonic
“Lightning Crashes” — Live
“Interstate Love Song” — Stone Temple Pilots
“No Rain” — Blind Melon
“All I Want” — Toad the Wet Sprocket
“Hey Jealousy” — Gin Blossoms
“Run Around” — Blues Traveler
“The Way” — Fastball
“The Distance” — Cake
“Semi-Charmed Live” (Radio Edit) — Third Eye Blind
“Down” — 311
“Steal My Sunshine” (Single Version) — Len
“Two Princes” — Spin Doctors
“What I Got” — Sublime

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Veteran Scottish rockers Simple Minds have sold much of their key music interests to BMG.

The agreement, which was struck by the band’s core co-founding members — singer Jim Kerr and guitarist/keyboardist Charlie Burchill — encompasses the publishing rights to over 240 songs, as well as the neighboring rights and royalties to the group’s entire catalog of recorded music.

Simple Minds already had a long relationship with BMG, which previously served as administrator of the band’s music publishing and released the group’s latest studio album, 2018’s Walk Between Worlds. Simple Minds’ recently announced next album, Direction of the Heart, also will be issued by the label on October 21.

Among the noteworthy songs that are part of the publishing deal are “Love Song,” “Promised You a Miracle,” “Glittering Prize,” “Waterfront,” “Someone Somewhere in Summertime” and “Alive and Kicking.” The group’s biggest U.S. hit, the chart-topping “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” was written by an outside songwriter, Keith Forsey, and therefore doesn’t fall under the publishing agreement, although recorded and neighboring rights royalties generated by the track will be collected by BMG.

“There are few bands who can claim to have changed music, but over a period of 45 years Simple Minds have done precisely that,” says BMG executive Alistair Norbury. “We are thrilled that BMG is now the musical home of Simple Minds, past, present and future.”

Adds Kerr, “We are very pleased to have struck this deal. It feels like the right time for us and our families. We look forward to working with everyone at BMG.”

Simple Minds recently returned to the road for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The band is currently in the middle of a lengthy European tour.

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Queen‘s 1981 Greatest Hits compilation has long been the best-selling album in U.K. history, and now, the collection has reached a new milestone in the band’s home country.

According to the Official Charts Company, Greatest Hits has become the first album ever to reach the seven-million mark in sales in the U.K. The record-breaking sales figure includes physical sales, downloads and streams.

The album has amassed a whopping 1.26 billion total streams in the U.K. with “Bohemian Rhapsody” being the most-streamed track, notching over 240 million. Greatest Hits also has spent more than 1,000 weeks on the Official Albums Chart, making Queen the first British artists ever to achieve this feat.

In celebration of the sales milestone, Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor recorded a video thanking fans.

“We’re here to bring you the joyous news that Queen’s Greatest Hits album has sold 7 million copies, which nobody has ever done before,” says May in the clip that’s been posted on OfficialCharts.com. “No album has done this before in history. Thank you, we appreciate it.”

Adds Taylor, “The British public in their infinitely great taste have made this the biggest-selling album in history. Thank you very much; we’re humbled and honored. We salute you!”

In other Queen news, today is May’s 75th birthday. He has continued to lead the band alongside Taylor since the 1991 death of frontman Freddie Mercury and is responsible for many of the group’s major hits. May wrote six songs on Greatest Hits, including “Fat Bottomed Girls,” “Save Me,” “Now I’m Here,” “Flash” and “We Will Rock You.”

Queen and singer Adam Lambert currently are on tour in Europe. The band’s next show takes place Wednesday, July 20 in Stockholm, Sweden.

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The new documentary The Day the Music Died: The Story of Don McLean’s “American Pie” gets its television premiere today on the Paramount+ streaming service.

The film, which focuses on Don McLean‘s enduring 1971 anthem “American Pie” and its legacy, features new interviews with the singer/songwriter, as well as with country star Garth Brooks, Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson, actor Peter Gallagher, “Weird Al” Yankovic, and others.

The film also tells the story of the 1959 plane crash that killed rock ‘n’ roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper — the incident that serves as a launching point for the tune — and features McLean, for the first time ever, sharing details about the tune’s creation and the meaning behind its lyrics.

McLean had previously been reluctant to discuss the song’s enigmatic lyrics, but he tells ABC Audio that he recently had a change of heart, noting, “I’m at the last portion of my life, and I feel if people want to know, I’ll tell them everything I can tell them.”

Don recalls that as he was shooting his last interview for the film, “I said, ‘You know what? We’re missing the most important thing. I’ve got to talk about the lyrics of this song and how I did this, and what I was thinking.'”

Among the revelations McLean offers up are whether some of the enigmatic characters he mentions in “American Pie” actually were intended to represent such legendary music figures as Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, The Beatles and The Byrds.

The documentary also includes segments about the recording of “American Pie,” and about McLean’s performance this year at the Surf Ballroom — the Iowa venue where Holly, Valens and The Big Bopper played the night they were killed — on the 63rd anniversary of the tragedy.

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Peter Frampton and Toto‘s Steve Lukather are among the talented guitarists who will participate in a new edition of Joe Satriani‘s G4 Experience guitar camp and concert series, taking place January 3-7, 2023, at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa in Henderson, Nevada.

Other musicians who will be jamming and sharing their musical expertise at the four-day event include Deep Purple‘s Steve Morse, Testament‘s Alex Skolnick, longtime Rob Zombie guitarist John 5, Five Finger Death Punch‘s Andy James and blues rocker Eric Gales.

The G4 Experience, which is returning for the first time since 2019, offers guitar workshops, jam sessions, nightly concerts, meet-and-greets, photo opportunities, autograph-signing sessions, recreational activities and more.

The nightly concerts will feature Satriani performing with his longtime backing band — drummer Kenny Aronoff, bassist Bryan Beller and keyboardist Rai Thistlethwayte. It also will include appearances by special guests and faculty members.

In a message about the event, Satriani says about the diverse list of guest instructors, “We bring together this eclectic mix to show all the different sides of playing guitar. They’re all brilliant musicians with styles that are all over the map.”

He adds, “They all have such different jobs, they’ve made millions of people happy with their playing, and yet they do it so differently. Every one of these players comes with fantastic new insights and innovations on playing guitar.”

Visit G4Experience.com for more information and to reserve your place at the camp. Those who register now will receive a 10% discount.

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Police drummer Stewart Copeland has collaborated on a new rock opera with The Pretenders‘ Chrissie Hynde and others called The Witches Seed that will get its world premiere on July 22 at the Tones Teatro Natura venue near Oira, Italy.

Copeland composed the music for the production, which was inspired by the history of the witch hunts in Europe during the bloodiest years of the Inquisition.

The Witches Seed includes some songs written by Hynde and features a libretto by award-winning British playwright Jonathan Moore, who has worked with Copeland on several previous opera projects.

The production features innovative video sets created by Edvige Faini, an acclaimed concept artist who has a long history working with Hollywood production studios, as well as with noteworthy video game producers.

The opera tells the tale of three women who are falsely accused of being witches during a time when the plague and other crises were causing great upheaval across Europe.

Irene Grandi, an Italian singer/songwriter who has scored many chart hits in her home country, has a starring role in the production.

The premiere of The Witches Seed is part of the 2022 Tones on the Stones Festival.

Meanwhile, Copeland has several of his “Police Deranged for Orchestra” concerts lined up for this year in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. The shows feature performances of reimagined orchestral versions of songs by his old band. Visit StewartCopeland.net for his full schedule.

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