Classic Hits

Foo Fighters have announced the lineup of performers who’ll appear at the first of two planned upcoming tribute concerts for the band’s late drummer, Taylor Hawkins.

As previously reported, the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concerts will take place at London’s Wembley Stadium on September 3 and Los Angeles’ Kia Forum on September 27 and will feature Hawkins’ “bandmates and his inspirations playing the songs that he fell in love with, and the ones he brought to life.”

The artists who’ll be joining the Foos on stage in London include Queen‘s Brian May and Roger Taylor, Police drummer Stewart Copeland, Rush‘s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, The Pretenders‘ Chrissie Hynde, Liam Gallagher, Wolfgang Van Halen, Josh Homme, Mark Ronson, bassist Chris Chaney of Jane’s Addiction and Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders and legendary drummer/producer Omar Hakim, who has worked with Foo Fighters, David Bowie, Dire Straits, Miles Davis, Journey, Kate Bush and dozens more.

Plus, comedian Dave Chappelle will make a special appearance, and Hawkins’ cover band, Chevy Metal, is also on the bill.

The guests for the September 27 show in Los Angeles will be announced at noon Wednesday. The charities that will benefit from both shows — chosen by the Hawkins family — will be announced shortly. For ticket information, join the Foo Fighters’ mailing list.

Plus, comedian Dave Chappelle will make a special appearance, and Hawkins’ cover band, Chevy Metal, is also on the bill.

The guests for the September 27 show in Los Angeles will be announced at noon Wednesday. The charities that will benefit from both shows — chosen by the Hawkins family — will be announced shortly. For ticket information, join the Foo Fighters’ mailing list.

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Today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the Steve Miller Band‘s 12th studio album, Abracadabra.

Powered by the chart-topping title track, Abracadabra peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200 and was the group’s last album to enjoy significant commercial success in the U.S. The song “Abracadabra” spent two nonconsecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September of ’82. The tune was only one of two tracks that frontman Steve Miller wrote on the album, along with “Give It Up.”

Steve Miller Band drummer Gary Mallaber co-wrote the album’s remaining eight songs, four of which in collaboration with Miller Band guitarist John Massaro.

“Cool Magic” and the aforementioned “Give It Up” were also released as singles, although they only reached #57 and #60, respectively, on the Hot 100.

“Abracadabra” is the Steve Miller Band’s final top-40 hit to date. Its popularity was bolstered by a music video that received heavy airplay on MTV.

The album, which was co-produced by Miller and Mallaber, has been certified Platinum by the RIAA for sales of over 1 million copies in the U.S.

Here’s the full Abracadabra track list:

“Keeps Me Wondering Why”
“Abracadabra”
“Something Special”
“Give It Up”
“Never Say No”
“Things I Told You”
“Young Girl’s Heart”
“Goodbye Love”
“Cool Magic”
“While I’m Waiting”

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Ringo Starr‘s first NFT collection was sold Monday, June 13, at an online sale hosted by Julian’s Auctions.

The “Ringo Starr NFT Collection — The Creative Mind of a Beatle” included a total of 20 NFTs based on five unique works of art created by the legendary Beatles drummer. All 20 NFT packages, each of which included an animated digital version of a Starr painting and a 25-by-25-inch canvas print of the same artwork signed by Ringo, were sold.

Winning bids spanned from $5,760 to $10,240, and the 20 packages sold for a cumulative total of $127,360. You can check out the full results at JuliensLive.com. As previously reported, most of the NFTs also incorporated a custom-made drum track played and recorded by Starr.

The paintings that served as the basis for the NFTs included self-portraits and colorful spin art pieces.

Those who purchased an NFT package will also be given access to a virtual gallery of Starr’s digital art, called RingoLand.

A portion of the proceeds raised by the auction will be donated to Ringo’s Lotus Foundation, which funds and supports charitable projects that focus on various social welfare causes.

In conjunction with reducing the carbon footprint associated with the creation of the NFTs, a donation was made to the CarbonFund.org climate-change organization.

Meanwhile, as announced Saturday, the last 12 concerts of the first leg of Ringo and his All Starr Band’s 2022 tour have been postponed until September after two members of the group — Edgar Winter and Steve Lukather — tested positive for COVID-19. The rescheduled dates are expected to be announced soon.

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Alannis Morissette is part of the lineup of Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder‘s 2022 Ohana Encore festival, taking place October 8-9 in Dana Point, California.

As its name suggests, Ohana Encore is a companion to the Vedder’s Ohana Festival, which will be held this year the prior weekend, from September 30 to October 2.

Vedder and Morissette will headline the first day of Ohana Encore, while The Black Keys and HAIM will top the bill on the second day. Other artists on the lineup include The Afghan Whigs, The Roots and Band of Horses.

Tickets to Ohana Encore go on sale this Friday, June 17, at 10 a.m. local time, with a pre-sale beginning Thursday, June 16, at 10 a.m. local. For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit OhanaFest.com.

Vedder founded Ohana Festival in 2016. Ohana Encore made its debut in 2021.

The 2022 Ohana Festival lineup includes Vedder, Stevie Nicks, Pink, founding Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and his current group The Dirty Knobs, Jack White, St. Vincent and Brittany Howard. Tickets are on sale now.

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Veteran Scottish rockers Simple Minds will release their 18th studio album, Direction of the Heart, on October 21.

The nine-track collection, a follow-up to 2018’s Walk Between Worlds, can be pre-ordered now. It will be available on CD, as a deluxe CD book package, on cassette, via digital formats and as a vinyl LP pressed on either 180-gram black vinyl or limited-edition silver vinyl. The deluxe CD and digital versions will include two extra tracks.

The band, which continues to be led by founding singer Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill, has released the song “Vision Thing” as an advance digital single, while a visualizer video for the track has premiered on Simple Minds’ official YouTube channel.

The tune, which was co-written by Kerr and Burchill, pays tribute to Jim’s “best pal,” his father, who died in 2019.

Most of the songs on Direction of the Heart were written and demoed on the Italian island of Sicily, where Kerr and Burchill both reside. The album was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic at Hamburg, Germany’s Chameleon Studios and features guest contributions from Sparks frontman Russell Mael and Scottish singer/songwriter Gary Clark, who used to play with current Simple Minds bassist Ged Grimes in the pop-rock group Danny Wilson.

Kerr says of the new album, “How to make a feel-good ‘Electro-rock’ record, during the very worst of times? Direction of the Heart is the result of that challenge. Who would have thought we’d have so much fun creating it?”

Simple Minds recently launched a European summer tour that’s plotted out through an August 13 concert in Edinburgh, U.K.

Here’s Direction of the Heart‘s full track list:

“Vision Thing”
“First You Jump”
“Human Traffic”
“Who Killed Truth?”
“Solstice Kiss”
“Act of Lone”
“Natural”
“Planet Zero”
“The Walls Came Down”
“Direction of the Heart (Taormina 2022)”*
“Wondertimes”*

* = available on digital and deluxe CD versions only.

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Kenny Loggins reflects on his decades-long career in a new memoir, Still Alright, which was released today.

In the book, Loggins details his many musical endeavors, including his work as a member of the popular duo Loggins & Messina, his collaborations with Stevie Nicks and Michael McDonald, and his 1980s solo heyday as the “King of the Movie Soundtracks” thanks to hits featured in films like Top Gun, Footloose and Caddyshack.

Also in the memoir, Kenny shares his recollections of participating in the all-star 1985 charity single “We Are the World.”

In addition, Loggins discusses his two divorces, his struggles with addiction and his difficult relationship with his older brother, singer/songwriter Dan Loggins, who inspired the hit “Danny’s Song.”

Loggins tells ABC Audio that one of his favorite stories in the book involved the making of his 1991 album Leap of Faith.

Kenny explains that he was while working on the record, a truck that was transporting the master tapes and some musical gear to another studio was stolen. This happened at a time when the project was already overbudget, and when his label’s new president, Don Ienner, demanded to hear the album before deciding whether or not to drop Kenny.

Loggins says he took a chance and kept working on overdubs with hopes that the tapes would be recovered, and they were a few weeks later. After finishing the album, Kenny says he played it for Ienner, who loved it, and it wound up yielding five singles.

“[I]t turned out to be probably the most commercial record I ever had,” Loggins notes.

Meanwhile, Loggins will take part in a livestreamed event this Wednesday, June 15, at 3 p.m. ET at PremiereCollectibles.com during which he’ll sign copies of Still Alright that will be available at the website.

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The Rolling Stones have now postponed a second show following frontman Mick Jagger‘s positive COVID-19 test.

After calling off their show in Amsterdam on Monday, the band has announced on their socials that this Friday’s show in Bern, Switzerland, is also postponed.

The statement adds, “The Rolling Stones are deeply sorry for tonight’s postponement, but the safety of the audience, fellow musicians and the touring crew has to take priority.”

As of now, The Stones will perform at their next scheduled date in Milan, Italy, on June 21. Details on the rescheduling of the Friday show will be announced soon, the band says, and tickets that have already been purchased for the Bern concert will be honored for the new date.

So far, Jagger hasn’t made any public comment about this latest postponement, nor has guitarist Keith Richards. Both of them took to social media to comment on the Amsterdam postponement.

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Pat Benatar and her husband, guitarist Neil Giraldo, have added a September 3 concert in Las Vegas at the Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort to the end of the upcoming summer leg of their De Novo 2022 Tour.

The couple’s 39-date North American trek kicks off this Saturday, June 18, in Cincinnati.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Benatar and Giraldo’s show is the first new performance to be confirmed for the venue, which last hosted a concert in March 2020.

Tickets for the Vegas show go on sale to the general public this Friday, June 17 at 10 a.m. PT at Ticketmaster.com.

Citi cardmembers will be able to purchase presale tickets starting today, June 14 at 10 a.m. PT via the Citi Entertainment program; vist CitiEntertainment.com for more information.

Members of the Palms resorts Club Serrano, as well as Live Nation and Ticketmaster customers, will be able to buy presale tickets beginning this Thursday, June 16, at 10 a.m. PT.

As previously reported, Benatar and Giraldo are among the artists who will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year at a ceremony held November 5 in Los Angeles.

In other Benatar-related news, Invincible — The Musical, a new stage production featuring the music of Pat and Neil, will gets its world premiere this fall at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California, according to Playbill.com.

The musical, which offers a modern-day reimagination of William Shakespeare‘s Romeo and Juliet, will open on November 22 and run through December 17. The production includes orchestrations and arrangements by Giraldo.

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Def Leppard is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year, and to commemorate the milestone, the award-winning Swedish spirits producer Brands for Fans has released two premium gin products inspired by the veteran British hard rockers.

The new gins are named after two songs from Def Leppard’s chart-topping 1987 album Hysteria, “Animal” and “Rocket,” both of which reached the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100.

Def Leppard “Animal” gin is a London Dry Gin with intense flavors that include juniper, lemon peel and botanicals.

Def Leppard “Rocket” gin is a premium distilled liquor with bold flavors that include juniper and herbaceous tones, as well as lavender and lemon. Lavender is included in the flavor profile as a nod to the lavender labyrinths in the band’s hometown of Sheffield, England. “Rocket” gin also contains no added sweeteners.

Both gins were created by Brands for Fans’ in-house master blender Daniel Henriksson.

The liquor was produced for Def Leppard by Brands for Fans in partnership with the Epic Rights licensing company.

The gins are available now in the U.S., the U.K. and mainland Europe. They can be ordered by visiting BrandsforFans.com.

As previously reported, Def Leppard recently released a new studio album titled Diamond Star Halos, and the band is set to launch a 36-date North American trek dubbed The Stadium Tour with Mötley Crüe, Poison and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts this Thursday, June 16, in Atlanta.

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With Aerosmith temporarily sidelined as frontman Steven Tyler addresses sobriety issues, guitarist Joe Perry has lined up a trio of shows next month with his side group, The Joe Perry Project, while also announcing plans to release a new solo album this year.

The concerts are scheduled for July 21 in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire; July 22 in Boston; and July 23 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Boston show will feature Perry and his group opening for ZZ Top. Tickets for the July 21 and July 23 concerts will go on sale this Friday, June 17.

Perry’s band for these performances will include Extreme frontman Gary Cherone and original Joe Perry Project drummer Joe Pet, as well as keyboardist Buck Johnson and bassist Chris Wyse. Johnson and Wyse have previously played with Perry in the Hollywood Vampires.

The guitar legend says that his set lists at the shows “will have a couple of new songs, a couple of my other solo songs, and a couple of Aerosmith songs that Aerosmith usually doesn’t play, and everything in between.”

As for the upcoming solo album, Perry says it will be titled Sweetzerland Manifesto MKII and will be released on vinyl “later this year.”

P says the new album — a follow-up to 2018’s Sweetzerland Manifesto — will include a song called “Quake” that he recorded with his sons Tony and Roman and that features Cherone on vocals, and a tune titled “Fortunate One” that’s sung by Chris Robinson, of The Black Crowes.

Perry adds that Aerosmith will return to the road this year in celebration of their 50th anniversary. The band’s 2022 itinerary includes a September 4 concert in Bangor, Maine; a September 8 show at Boston’s Fenway Park; and a new Las Vegas residency that kicks off September 14.

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