Classic Hits

The Scorpions, who recently launched their “Sin City Nights” Las Vegas residency, will head to New York City in May to headline a concert at Madison Square Garden celebrating the 50th anniversary of the country of Bangladesh’s independence.

The Golden Jubilee Bangladesh Concert will take place on May 6, and Chirkutt, one of Bangladesh’s most prominent rock bands, will open the show.

Proceeds from the concert will benefit the United Nations Development Programme’s global campaign to raise awareness about cyber security programs for the young people, particularly underdeveloped nations.

Tickets for the concert go on sale to the general public this Monday, April 4, at 10 a.m. ET via Ticketmaster.com. Members of The Scorpions Rock Zone fan club will have exclusive access to pre-sale tickets starting this Thursday, March 31, at 10 a.m. ET. For more information, visit The-Scorpions.com/RockZone.

Madison Square Garden also was the site of the famous Concert for Bangladesh, which was organized by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar to raise aid and awareness for people affected by the country’s war for independence. The August 1971 event included performances by Harrison, Shankar, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston and other stars.

As previously reported, The Scorpions’ “Sin City Nights” residency is a nine-show engagement taking place at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino that began this past Saturday, March 26, and runs through an April 16. Tickets are available now via Ticketmaster.com.

After the residency and the Madison Square Garden concert, the band will launch a lengthy European tour leg that begins May 10 in Lisbon, Portugal. The Scorpions currently are supporting their latest studio album, Rock Believer, which was released in February.

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Fleetwood Mac singer/keyboardist Christine McVie has revealed that she has a new solo project that will be released in the coming months and will feature reworked versions of her best-known songs.

During an interview this past week with Take That singer Gary Barlow on his BBC radio program We Write the Songs, McVie announced that she’s “just finished an album,” called Songbird, that’s due out in June.

She described the record as “a compilation of my biggest hits, but they’ve all been produced again by [acclaimed British producer] Glyn Johns,” adding that the tracks feature strings arranged by Grammy-winning composer and arranger Vince Mendoza, who previously has worked with Joni Mitchell, Sting, Chaka Khan and many others.

Christine noted that among the songs on the album is a “fantastic version” of her 1977 Fleetwood Mac ballad “Songbird,” which she said has been recut “with a complete string orchestra and it sounds beautiful.”

She also pointed out the the new recordings “sound completely different” from her original versions.

Asked whether she might schedule some concerts in support of the upcoming album, the 78-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer replied, “That I daren’t comment on yet! I’m very cagey about things like that.”

Christine’s last new music project was her 2017 collaborative album with Lindsey Buckingham, which was simply titled Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie.

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Fifty years ago this week, America‘s self-titled debut album and single “A Horse with No Name” reached #1, respectively, on the Billboard 200 and Billboard Hot 100.

America’s Dewey Bunnell, who wrote “A Horse with No Name,” tells ABC Audio that the song was inspired by his memories the southwestern U.S. when he was young. Bunnell and co-founding band mates Gerry Beckley and Dan Peek were the sons of U.S. military members stationed in the U.K., and formed the group after graduating from the same London high school.

“By the time I wrote that [my family] had been in England about four or five years, so I was really reminiscing about the U.S.,” explains Bunnell. “My dad [was stationed in California] for about a year, [and] we would do day trips into Southern California and over to New Mexico and then Arizona, and [we’d] go through the desert. And I loved the desert.”

Bunnell says the song’s music was influenced by the alternate guitar tunings devised by David Crosby and Joni Mitchell.

“I was playing around with those tunings and came up with one of my own,” Dewey recalls. “[A]nd I found the classic three chords that went together well, and I just started trying to paint a picture of that desert scene.”

Bunnell admits that the success of “A Horse with No Name” caught him off guard. He recalls that during America’s first U.S. tour in early 1972, he was surprised to hear the song all over the radio airwaves.

Shortly after returning to the U.K., the band received word that the single had hit #1 in the U.S.

“I mean, you don’t expect those things,” says Dewey, “and we celebrated accordingly.”

America currently touring the U.S. The band’s next show is Thursday in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

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Heart‘s Ann Wilson has debuted another advance track from her forthcoming solo album, Fierce Bliss, a hard-rocking original tune called “A Moment in Heaven.”

Wilson explains that the song “tells the story of a one-hit-wonder in the star-maker machinery of Hollywood: the sublime cruelty of transient fame.”

Ann, who’s had her fair share of sobering dealings with the entertainment industry, further notes, “It’s one of those anti-Hollywood screed things, the meat grinder of the music image maker machine and what it feels like to be on the inside of that.”

She adds, “All of a sudden, it’s ‘happening’ on all thrusters, you’ve got a number one record and everyone’s pouring champagne telling you how much you ‘deserve this.’ You’re in heaven! But then the cruel reality comes down…what’s the next one? Can you follow that? It’s all about the short-lived glamour and ecstasy of being successful in the rock business.”

“A Moment in Heaven” is available now via digital formats, while a lyric video for the tune has premiered on her official YouTube channel. The clip features a mix of animation and live action, including footage of Wilson performing with her backing band.

“A Moment in Heaven” is the third advance tune that Ann has released from Fierce Bliss, following an original song called “Greed” and a cover of Eurythmics‘ “Missionary Man.”

As previously reported, Fierce Bliss will be released on April 29, and can be pre-ordered now. Wilson will kick off a series of tour dates with her backing band The Amazing Dawgs in support of the album with a May 4 concert in San Francisco. Among her forthcoming performances are two Canadian shows opening for Journey, on May 13 in Toronto and May 16 in Quebec City.

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The full list of performers for the 2022 edition of Milwaukee’s annual Summerfest has been announced and, as usual, it features popular artists from a wide variety of genres, including quite a few veteran acts.

Among the dozens of stars who will entertain the crowds this year at the festival grounds are Steve Miller Band, Heart‘s Ann Wilson, John Fogerty and KC & the Sunshine Band.

The 2022 Summerfest will take place across three weekends — June 23 to June 25, June 30 to July 2, and July 7 to July 9 — at Henry Maier Festival Park in downtown Milwaukee. The 10-day event features more than 100 acts performing on 12 stages.

Other artists on the bill include Rick Springfield, The Commodores, War, Todd Rundgren, Modern English, A Flock of Seagulls, The Fixx, The Black Crowes, Howard Jones, E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg, The Tubes, Foghat and Blue Oyster Cult.

Tickets to Summerfest will grant you access to performances at the various ground’s stages, although premium seats for select headlining shows will be available for an additional charge. Multi-day passes also are being sold.

Also, a series of separate ticketed events will be held at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater. These include a previously announced July 7 concert featuring Rod Stewart and Cheap Trick.

To buy tickets and check out a full lineup and schedule, visit Summerfest.com.

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Here’s some happy news from Peter Frampton, who announced that he will finally resume his Finale: The Farewell Tour this fall.

The guitar wiz has confirmed three U.K. concerts, scheduled for November 5 in Stoke-on-Trent, November 6 in Glasgow and November 8 at London’s famed Royal Albert Hall.

“My band and I have been chomping at the bit to play and can’t wait to keep our promise to play for you again,” Frampton says in a message posted on his official website and social media sites. “Thanks for your patience.”

Tickets for the shows go on sale to the general public on Wednesday, March 30. Pre-sale tickets also are being offered today; visit SeeTickets.com for more info.

Frampton launched his farewell tour with a North American leg in June 2019 after announcing that he’d been diagnosed with a degenerative muscular disease that he expects will eventually rob him of his ability to play guitar. A European portion of the trek initially had been scheduled to kick off in June 2020, but was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Peter’s health issue made it uncertain whether he would be able to finish his planned tour, so news of him scheduling shows certainly is a positive sign.

In April 2021, Frampton released his latest studio album, Frampton Forgets the Words, a collection of instrumental covers of some of his favorite songs, including tunes by Sly and the Family Stone, Radiohead, Marvin Gaye, Roxy Music, George Harrison, Stevie Wonder and David Bowie.

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“Nights like this I wish raindrops would fall”– Those were the lyrics sung throughout just about every Black household after the iconic movie, The Five Heartbeats was released on March 29, 1991.

The timeless film, co-written by Keenen Wayans and created, directed by and starring Robert Townsend, journeys the rise and fall of a fictional 1960’s Black vocal group. Chronicling the highs and lows of an amateur all-guy group during early 60s segregation in Chicago, the loosely-based-on-true events story highlights the realities of the music industry and the personal struggles of each group member.

In addition to Townsend, the group was comprised of stars Michael Wright, Leon Robinson, Harry J. Lennix and Tico Wells.

The film didn’t see great success upon its release in theaters – it earned a 39% rating on top critic site Rotten Tomatoes  – but over the course of the next 20 years and throughout its 31 year history, the movie cemented itself as a classic among the Black community.

One of the most notable aspects of the movie is the music. While the actual actors performed real-life concerts to promote the project, most of the hit tunes were produced by ’60s R&B group, The Dells. Additionally, songs “Nights Like This” and “A Heart is a House for Love” by R&B group After 7, went on to become Billboard chart-topping hits.   

The Five Heartbeats airs every so often on BET and is available to watch on streaming services like Prime Video. 

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As the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ new album Unlimited Love arrives at midnight on Friday, so will a new video for one of the albums 17 tracks.

This video is for the song “These Are the Ways,” and judging from the poster artwork the band posted on Instagram, it seems like it’ll be quite the cinematic experience, involving cops, a distraught woman and some kissing.

Ahead of the album’s release, the band will get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this Thursday, March 31. On Sunday, April 3, a Chili Peppers Pop-Up shop at the Melrose Trading Post flea market at Faifax High School in LA will be selling the new album and exclusive merch from 9 a.m to 5 p.m.

The Peppers will launch a worldwide tour in support of Unlimited Love in early June. A U.S. leg kicks off on July 23 in Denver.

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In an exclusive interview with Variety, Mick Jagger discusses working on “Strange Game,” the theme song to the new Apple TV+ espionage series Slow Horses, which premieres this Friday, April 1.

As announced earlier today, Jagger co-wrote and sings the tune, and the Rolling Stones frontman tells Variety that before getting involved in the project, he’d already read and was a fan of author Mike Herron‘s book series on which the show is based.

“I knew the vibe really well, so as soon as [composer Daniel Pemberton] sent the track to me, I just dashed off a few pages of notes of what I thought it was about,” Mick explains. “It came very, very quickly, which is always a good sign.”

Pemberton, an Oscar-nominated composer who co-wrote “Strange Game” and composed Slow Horses‘ score, says his collaboration with Jagger took place via Zoom, text and email starting in December 2021.

“I played him the track on guitar,” Pemberton reveals. “I’m not even a good guitarist. That was very weird, playing guitar for Mick Jagger on the Zoom line.”

Jagger says he then recorded his ideas on his iPhone and sent the track back to Pemberton, who loved it.

Mick adds, “And then we had to do a bit of crafting, trying to get a chorus…and trying to get the verses from the point of view of the main character.”

That character is Jackson Lamb, portrayed by Gary Oldman, who’s the head of a branch of the U.K. counter-intelligence agency MI5 that’s populated by failed agents hoping to redeem themselves.

“It’s quite irreverent, but the Gary Oldman character is irreverent,” Jagger notes. “It’s also slightly eerie, so it combines those two things. You don’t want to make it too serious.”

“Strange Game” will be released Friday.

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Today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of The Scorpions‘ eighth studio album, Blackout, which saw the German rockers achieve their first significant chart success in the U.S.

The album peaked at #10 on the Billboard 200, and featured the melodic rock anthem “No One Like You,” whose popularity was propelled by a memorable music video that went into heavy rotation on MTV.

Much of the clip was filmed during an overnight shoot at the site of the infamous former prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. It included a scene where frontman Klaus Meine is strapped into a prop electric chair.

Meine tells ABC Audio that the experience of filming the video on Alcatraz “was fantastic.”

“It was a little spooky,” the singer recalls. “When you went outside, the whole bay, it was very foggy…and it was pretty cold. And we went to different places inside the prison.”

Meine also remembers that the electric chair that had been brought to island for the shoot became quite popular with the tourists who began arriving the next morning.

“I remember the first boat arrived with some Japanese tourists,” Klaus recalls, “and when they spotted the electric chair, they were lining up, taking pictures of [it], thinking Al Capone was grilled there or whatever.”

Blackout went on to be certified Platinum by the RIAA for sales of 1 million in the U.S.

The Scorpions’ popularity in the wake of Blackout‘s success led to the band getting a slot at the 1983 US Festival’s “Heavy Metal Day,” just before headliners Van Halen.

Meine says the band, performing in front of a crowd of over 300,000 people in California’s San Bernardino Valley, “played one of the best shows in our life.”

Here’s Blackout‘s full track list:

“Blackout”
“Can’t Live Without You”
“No One Like You”
“You Give Me All I Need”
“Now!”
“Dynamite”
“Arizona”
“China White”
“When the Smoke Is Going Down”

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