Classic Hits

A new video capturing Deep Purple performing Love‘s 1966 garage-rock gem “7 and 7 Is” during a live rehearsal has debuted on the earMUSIC label’s official YouTube channel.

The band shot the clip in a warehouse in Germany in November 2021 during a promotional tour of the country. Deep Purple’s music video for their recent cover of Fleetwood Mac‘s “Oh Well” was shot at the same time.

Deep Purple’s studio versions of “7 and 7 Is” and “Oh Well,” appear on the band’s latest album, Turning to Crime, which was released last November 2021. Turning to Crime, recorded remotely during the COVID-19 lockdown, is the group’s first album made up entirely of songs by other artists.

The 12-track collection, which was produced by the band’s frequent collaborator Bob Ezrin, also includes versions of Bob Dylan‘s “Watching the River Flow,” Little Feat‘s “Dixie Chicken,” The Yardbirds‘ “Shapes of Things,” Cream‘s “White Room” and more.

Deep Purple has launched a website dedicated to the new album, TurningtoCrime.com, and you also can order the record at the site.

Last month, Deep Purple kicked off its 2022 tour itinerary with a pair of concerts in Florida, and the band also took part in the latest edition of the Rock Legends Cruise. Next up for the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers will be a May 22 show in Tel Aviv, Israel, that will be followed be a series a European concerts.

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The 35th annual Tibet House US Benefit Concert was held Thursday night as a virtual event that streamed live on Mandolin.com, and among the many highlights were performances by Cyndi Lauper and Patti Smith, as well as appearances by Paul Simon and New Order‘s Bernard Sumner.

Lauper made her debut this year at a Tibet House US benefit show, and performed her classic hit “True Colors.”

Smith kicked off the concert by singing a moving rendition of the Ukrainian National Anthem in tribute to the people of Ukraine, as Russia continues its invasion of the country. Later in the show, Patti performed her song “Peaceable Kingdom” with her daughter Jesse Paris Smith.

Smith, accompanied by her band, also sang “Happy Birthday” to the event’s artistic director, influential composer Philip Glass, who turned 85 in late January.

Meanwhile, Simon and Sumner were among several special guests who were on hand to deliver spoken-word messages. Others included Iggy Pop and Stephen Colbert.

The performance lineup also included Phish‘s Trey Anastasio, Nathaniel Rateliff, Laurie Anderson, Angélique Kidjo and country artists Jason Isbell and Margo Price, as well as actor Keanu Reeves, who recited the Alan Ginsberg poem “Pull My Daisy.”

The concert wrapped up with Patti performing her classic 1988 anthem “People Have the Power,” which has become a tradition at the long-running annual event.

The stream of the 2022 Tibet House US Benefit Concert will be available for viewing at Mandolin.com until this Sunday, March 6, at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Money raised by ticket sales benefit Tibet House US, a non-profit organization that works to preserve Tibetan culture.

Additional money is being raised for the charity via a CharityBuzz auction that runs through March 8 and features guitars signed by Simon and Pearl Jam, among other memorabilia.

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Founding Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and his current band, The Dirty Knobs, released their second album, External Combustion, today.

External Combustion, a follow-up to 2020’s Wreckless Abandon, is an 11-track collection that features guest appearances by Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople fame, Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench, and alt-country artist Margo Price.

Campbell wrote most of the songs on External Combustion during the past year, although two tunes date back to the 1990s and were recently rediscovered by Mike in his vault of unreleased tracks.

Earlier this week, Campbell and The Dirty Knobs released their collaboration with Price, “State of Mind,” as a digital single. It was the third song from the album that was released as an advance track, after “Wicked Mind” and “Electric Gypsy.”

Campbell and The Dirty Knobs kick off a U.S. tour in support of External on March 9 in Tampa, Florida. After a series of headlining shows that runs through a May 1 concert in Austin, Texas, the band joins country star Chris Stapleton‘s trek as an opening act from early June until late July. Visit TheDirtyKnobs.com for the group’s full schedule.

Here’s the complete External Combustion track list:

“Wicked Mind”
“Brigitte Bardot”
“Cheap Talk”
“External Combustion”
“Dirty Job” — featuring Ian Hunter
“State of Mind” — featuring Margo Price
“Lightning Boogie”
“Rat City”
“In This Lifetime”
“It Is Written”
“Electric Gypsy”

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Co-founding America singer/songwriter Gerry Beckley will release his latest solo album, Aurora, on June 17.

Coinciding with the announcement, Beckley has released one of the album’s tracks, a catchy pop gem titled “Friends Are Hard to Find,” via streaming services.

Gerry explains that the new song “seeks to relieve the isolation all of us felt during the last nearly two years,” and was written with inspiration from “the spontaneous creativity” of famed songwriter Jimmy Webb, who is Beckley’s good friend.

Aurora is an 11-song collection that Gerry recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic at his two home studios, in Sydney, Australia, and Venice, California. The tracks on Aurora include tunes that began as unfinished demos and scratch recordings that date back as far as the early 1970s, as well as brand-new songs written during the past two years.

Beckley co-wrote one of the new songs, “Tickets to the Past,” with his America band mate Dewey Bunnell, marking the first time a tune that they wrote together will not first appear on an album by their band.

Aurora is sequenced like a traditional two-sided vinyl LP, with songs that are arranged to flow with a beginning, a middle and an end. Reflecting on the new collection, Gerry says, “When you hold a mirror up to your life, it’s hard to control how much of your life is in that reflection. I don’t want to say it’s about one thing in particular, I’d rather leave it more open-ended.”

America’s currently on tour in the U.S., and has more than 20 upcoming dates lined up this year. The band’s next concert is March 11 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

Here’s the full Aurora track list:

“Aurora”
“I Fall Down”
“Never Know Why”
“Tickets to the Past”
“Way to Go”
“Friends Are Hard to Find”
“Peace of Mind”
“Indy’s Gatho”
“Aerial”
“Superscope”
“Tears”

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Paul McCartney has confirmed the online speculation: He’ll be headlining the U.K.’s prestigious Glastonbury Festival on Saturday, June 25. The festival is returning in person this year after the last two editions were canceled due to the pandemic.

On February 24, McCartney tweeted what appeared to be a Wordle score, with the stats, “Wordle 121 25/6.” Since those numbers don’t actually make sense in Wordle world, fans suspected something was up, and one spelled it out: “I think 121 25/6 is saying 121 days to Glasto and Saturday Glasto is 25th June. Guessing he is headlining.”

If you’ll recall, McCartney had been slated to play a headlining set at the 2020 Glastonbury Festival, but that event was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, as was the 2021 edition of the fest.

As previously announced, Billie Eilish will be the headliner at this year’s festival on Friday, June 24, while rapper Kendrick Lamar has just been announced as the headliner for Sunday, June 26.  Also on the bill: Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Diana Ross, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Crowded House, Pet Shop Boys, HAIM, Lorde, Herbie Hancock, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream and dozens more.

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ESSENCE has revealed the lineup for its 27th Essence Festival of Culture this year, and Janet Jackson and The Isley Brothers are among the many stars slated to perform at this year’s event, which after being held virtually the last two years will take place live and in person from June 30 to July 3 in New Orleans.

“This is Not a Drill ESSENCE FEST has returned to NOLA with an All-Star lineup that literally can’t be touched!” ESSENCE wrote in an Instagram announcement.

In addition to Janet and The Isleys, ESSENCE has lined up a variety other big names to help celebrate the theme for this year’s fest, “It’s the Black Joy for Me,” including Nicki Minaj, New Edition, The Roots and Friends, Jazmine Sullivan and comic Kevin Hart.

Over the course of four days, festival-goers will have the opportunity to enjoy good food and free daytime experiences, take advantage of career advancement workshops and, of course, witness many musical performances.

“As the nation’s largest festival by per day attendance, the ESSENCE Festival of Culture is a staple that celebrates community and empowers equity,” says ESSENCE CEO Caroline Wanga. “We are excited to welcome the family back live to New Orleans and thrilled to connect with more of our diasporic family through new digital experiences.”

Additional talent and experiences will be announced soon. Tickets for the festival are on sale now at EssenceFestival.com.

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Jon Bon Jovi celebrated his 60th birthday on Wednesday, and the New Jersey rocker had a message of thanks to share with all of his fans who wished him well on his big day.

In a video posted on his Twitter, Jon says, “Thank you with all my heart for all of the birthday wishes, all of the love that’s out there. I’m a very lucky man, and I want you to know that there’s not a day of this I’ve taken for granted. So on this occasion of my 60th birthday, it fits. I feel good about it.”

With Bon Jovi, the band, preparing to launch a U.S. tour next month, Jon notes, “I’m looking forward to making music with the guys again. We’re in rehearsal. It’s going great. I look forward to seeing your smiling faces again, getting all this COVID behind us.”

The singer concludes by saying, “I wish you all the same kind of love that I got today on my special day. Until I see you again, thank you, thank you, thank you for all of my life.”

In honor of Jon’s milestone, the Bon Jovi Twitter posted a note that reads, “The happiest of birthdays and lots of love to the one and only, @jonbonjovi,” and asked fans to leave their own birthday messages for him in the comments section, which you can read here.

Bon Jovi’s 2022 U.S. trek kicks off April 1 in Omaha, Nebraska.

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Def Leppard will be playing stadiums this summer, but fans of the band will have the chance to see drummer Rick Allen performing in much smaller venues in three U.S. cities this month.

Allen will be accompanying his wife, singer/songwriter and healing artist Lauren Monroe, at intimate concerts taking place on March 21 in New York City, March 22 in Philadelphia and March 24 in Washington, D.C.

The shows will celebrate the arrival of Monroe’s new single, “Kiss Me Now,” which will be released on March 18. You can check out a preview clip of the song at Lauren’s SoundCloud page. Among the musicians who contributed to the track were longtime Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers drummer Steve Ferrone and acclaimed session bassist Bob Glaub.

At Monroe’s concerts, attendees will be able to view two pieces of art that Allen and Monroe created together, which will be auctioned online to benefit Raven Drum Foundation — the charity founded by the couple that seeks to support, educate and empower military veterans dealing with PTSD and combat trauma, as well as other at-risk populations.

The concerts and the single’s release coincide with National Complementary Therapy Week, which is observed March 20-27 in the U.S. and U.K. Through performance, storytelling and art, Allen and Monroe hope to present an intimate experience that will demonstrate how music can help people heal and grow.

For each performance, Raven Drum Foundation will be teaming up with local veterans organizations to nominate veterans who will get to attend the shows for free.

People also can visit e.givesmart.com, where they can purchase tickets that will be donated to veterans who would like to attend a Monroe concert.

Def Leppard’s The Stadium Tour with Motley Crue, Poison and Joan Jett kicks off June 16 in Atlanta.

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Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason‘s current band, Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, has joined the growing list of artists who have canceled concerts in Russia in the wake of that country’s invasion of Ukraine.

A statement from Mason’s group reads, “Due to the current events happening in Ukraine, we are cancelling all of our shows in Russia that were due to take place this summer. Our thoughts and support are with all those in Ukraine.”

Saucerful of Secrets’ Russian shows had been scheduled for June 10 in St. Petersburg and June 11 in Moscow. The band’s 2022 European tour begins April 13 in Dublin, Ireland.

Meanwhile, Mason’s former Pink Floyd band mate David Gilmour is among the rockers sharing their support for Ukraine.

Earlier this week, Gilmour posted a note online that reads, “Russian soldiers, stop killing your brothers. There will be no winners in this war. My daughter-in-law is Ukrainian and my grand-daughters want to visit and know their beautiful country. Stop this before it is all destroyed. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin must go.”

To accompanying his message, Gilmour posted the animated music video for his 2015 song “In Any Tongue,” which is about the futility of war.

The Who‘s Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend also shared their support for Ukraine, in a note posted on the band’s social media pages this week.

“We stand by the people of Ukraine at this particularly harrowing time as we will stand for all whose freedoms are violated,” Daltrey and Townshend said in a joint statement.

The message also includes a quote from late U.S. historian, playwright and philosopher Howard Zinn that reads, “There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.”

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Night Ranger guitarist Brad Gillis and Mr. Big bassist Billy Sheehan are both considered virtuosos at their chosen instruments, so perhaps it’s not surprising that they’re now part of the lineup of a new band called Skills.

The group, which also features singer Renan Zonta of the Brazilian rock act Electric Mob and drummer David Huff of the band Giant, will release its debut album, Different Worlds, on May 13.

Skills have released an advance track from the album called “Stop the World,” along with a companion video that you can check out at Frontiers Music’s YouTube channel.

The video features a young woman sitting on her couch and flipping through channels on her television set, when footage of Skills performing “Stop the World” takes over the screen and she is unable to click to a different channel. Frustrated, she turns the TV off and heads out of her apartment. As she wanders a deserted street, she’s drawn to another building and when she enters, she finds herself in a room with dozens of TV sets all showing the members of Skills playing their song.

You can pre-order Different Worlds now. The album is available digitally, on CD and as a limited-edition LP pressed on white-marble-colored vinyl.

Here’s the full Different Worlds track list:

“Escape Machine”
“Blame It on the Night”
“Different Worlds”
“Losing the Track”
“Writings on the Wall”
“Show Me the Way”
“Just When I Needed You”
“Need to Fall”
“Stop the World”
“Hearts of Stone”
“Don’t Break My Heart”

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