Classic Hits

Former Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman launched the 2021 U.S. leg of his Even Grumpier Old Rock Star Tour earlier this month, but many of the originally announced dates wound up being postponed because of issues regarding COVID-19 restrictions.

As he continues playing a portion of his 2021 stateside outing, Wakeman has now revealed new dates for most of the postponed concerts, which will take place in early 2022. The run of rescheduled shows begins with a February 22 performance in Seattle and is mapped out through a March 11 concert in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The 72-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer’s next show is scheduled for this Friday, October 22, in Huntington, New York, and his final 2021 U.S. date will take place on November 1 in Woodstock, New York.

A concert scheduled for November 6 in Wichita, Kansas, has been canceled, and refunds will be available at the point of purchase. Wakeman notes that news will be announced soon about postponed shows that haven’t been rescheduled yet in Albany, New York; Chicago; Kent, Ohio; and Buffalo, New York. You can check out Rick’s full schedule at RWCC.com.

As previously reported, Wakeman’s Even Grumpier Old Rock Star Tour shows feature him playing solo piano versions of Yes classics, material from his solo albums, and well-known songs by other artists to which he contributed, including hits by David Bowie and Cat Stevens. Rick also presents his arrangements of a few Beatles tunes at the concerts, as well as telling bawdy jokes and humorous anecdotes.

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Al Stewart‘s hit 1978 album Time Passages has been reissued as a limited-edition four-disc box set featuring three CDs and a DVD-Audio disc.

The expanded collection’s CDs feature a newly remastered version of the album created by original producer Alan Parsons, single edits, 1977 demos, an album outtake called “Tonton Macoute,” and a full previously unreleased concert that Stewart played in October 1978 at a Chicago radio station.

In addition, the DVD boasts a new 5.1 surround-sound version and an original remastered stereo mix of Time Passages by Parsons.

The box set also comes with an illustrated 68-page book that includes an essay featuring an exclusive interview with Stewart, plus a replica promo poster and four postcards.

Released in September 1978, Time Passages was British singer/songwriter Stewart’s eighth studio album, and followed his 1976 breakthrough record Year of the Cat. Time Passages‘ title track became Stewart’s highest-charting single in the U.S., reaching #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on Billboard‘s Adult Contemporary chart. A second single, “Song on the Radio,” peaked at #29 on the Hot 100.

The album reached #10 on the Billboard 200 and went on to be RIAA-certified Platinum for sales of one million copies in the U.S.

The Time Passages box set follows a similar deluxe reissue of Year of the Cat that was released earlier this year.

To order the Time Passages box set and check out its full track list, visit CherryRed.co.uk. A two-CD version of the reissue also is available.

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In honor of late Rush drummer Neil Peart, Modern Drummer magazine has announced the launch of an annual scholarship in his name that’s geared toward inspiring a young drummer to pursue a career as a musician.

The “Neil Peart Spirit of Drumming Scholarship” will provide the chosen recipient with 52 weeks of free drum lessons from respected drum instructor Dom Famularo, as well as a one-year subscription to the Modern Drummer All Access service, and a selection of classic Rush albums.

Entrants must be between 14 and 21 years old, not a professional musician, and not under any entertainment contract or sponsorship that Modern Drummer would consider a conflict with scholarship’s spirit.

To be considered for the scholarship, potential recipients must submit a video displaying their drumming skills running two minutes or less, as well as a brief essay explaining why the scholarship will make a significant positive impact on their life and playing, and how they’ve been inspired by Peart and his legacy.

Submissions, which can be made at ModernDrummer.com, must be received before November 26 of this year.

The scholarship originally was announced during the 2020 Modern Drummer Festival by Neil’s widow, Carrie Nutall-Peart. The first recipient of the scholarship will be revealed at this year’s festival, and the honoree will be featured in an upcoming issue of Modern Drummer.

Peart, widely considered one of the greatest rock drummers of all time, died in January 2020 of brain cancer. He was 67.

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The friendship between James Taylor and Carole King has lasted 50 years, and now it’s being examined in a new concert documentary that’s coming to CNN and HBO Max.

The movie is called Carole King & James Taylor: Just Call Out My Name, and is being directed and produced by Frank Marshall.  Marshall is pretty comfortable with projects involving superstars of the 1960s and ’70s: He directed HBO’s acclaimed Bee Gees documentary How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, and produced Hulu’s McCartney 3, 2, 1.

The documentary takes as its starting point the concert that Carole and James did together in 2007 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Los Angeles’ famous club The Troubadour, where they’d first played together in 1970. The ’07 show, which featured them collaborating on songs like “You’ve Got a Friend,” led to a 2010 arena tour.

The film documents the tour and also features interviews with the now-legendary session musicians who played with the duo in 1970, 2007 and 2010, including guitarist Danny Kortchmar, bass player Lee Sklar and drummer Russ Kunkel.

On October 30, King will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for the second time; she was previously inducted as a songwriter in 1990.  Inducting her will be Taylor Swift, who, incidentally, was named after James Taylor.

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Sammy Hagar and his current band The Circle will be heading to the Lone Star State this December for four special shows that also will celebrate the recent launch of Sammy’s Beach Bar Cocktail Co., the Red Rocker’s new line of canned sparkling rum cocktails.

Hagar & the Circle’s “A Toast to Texas” tour will feature concerts on December 3 in Fort Worth, December 4 in San Antonio, December 6 in Austin and December 8 in Houston.

Tickets for the shows go on sale to the general public this Friday, October 22, while pre-sale tickets will be available starting October 20. Visit RedRocker.com for more information.

“We chose cool, smaller venues on this tour so we could throw a party like we do in Cabo,” says Hagar, referring to his Cabo Wabo Cantina club in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. “It’s about the whole experience, fans can sample my new…sparkling rum cocktails, along with some Santo Tequila and Beach Bar Rum, while listening to The Circle jam. We’ll be back next summer with the big rock shows, this is a party we’re throwing just for Texas.”

Prior to the Texas shows, Hagar will kick off his six-date “Sammy Hagar & Friends” Las Vegas residency at The Strat that runs from October 29 through November 13. All of those performances are sold out.

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Billy Idol has debuted an official lyric video for “Rita Hayworth,” one of the four brand-new songs featured on the pop-punk veteran’s recent released EP, The Roadside.

The clip, which you can watch now on Idol’s official YouTube channel, mixes grainy footage apparently taken from the car driving around the streets of Hollywood mixed with ominous cartoon animations depicting the song’s theme of a young woman navigating the seedy side of the movie business.

In the hard-driving tune, Idol sings about the woman being approached by “some nothin’ producer” who tells her she looks like Hollywood legend Rita Hayworth. “You’re swimming with Jaws/ This dream town will swallow you whole,” Billy belts out in the chorus. “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

Idol co-wrote “Rita Hayworth” with his longtime lead guitarist Steve Stevens, along with songwriters Sam Hollander and Grant Michaels.

The Roadside was released on September 17, and also features songs titled “Bitter Taste,” “U Don’t Have to Kiss Me Like That” and “Baby Put Your Clothes Back On.”

The bulk of the EP was written, recorded and mixed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The record, which was produced by Butch Walker, is Idol’s first collection of new original songs since his 2014 album Kings & Queens of the Underground.

Idol currently is halfway through a four-date Las Vegas residency at The Cosmopolitan that will wrap up this week with shows on Friday and Saturday. Billy then will head to Playa Mujeres, Mexico, for an October 26 performance at the star-studded 80s in the Sand festival. Idol also has acoustic duo gigs with Stevens in four U.S. cities in late November and early December.

Visit BillyIdol.net for his full schedule.

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Sweet has just released a new single, an updated version of their song “Everything,” which originally appeared on the veteran U.K. glam-rock band’s 2002 studio album, Sweetlife.

Sweet’s current U.K. incarnation is led by the band’s sole surviving original member, guitarist Andy Scott, who says he was inspired to record a new rendition of “Everything” while watching his group’s latest lineup rehearse the tune.

“During the rehearsals for Sweet’s forthcoming UK tour 2021, we were trying out various songs from our back catalogue that could be added to the set list,” explains Scott. “As soon as I heard Paul Manzi and Lee Small‘s vocals on the song ‘Everything,’ I knew that we needed to get it down and record it as our new single.”

He adds about “Everything (2021),” “I think the new version is a far superior production. It’s much closer to how I envisaged it when I co-wrote the song back in the day.”

“Everything (2021)” is available now via streaming services, and you also can check out a music video for the song at Sweet’s official YouTube channel.

Sweet kicks of their 2021 U.K. tour in late November. Check out their full schedule at TheSweet.com.

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Todd Rundgren, who will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame next week, has just released the latest in a series of collaborative singles, a smooth, funk/soul-flavored tune called “Godiva Girl.”

The song features the prolific and eclectic singer/songwriter teaming up with acclaimed hip-hop/soul group — and The Tonight Show‘s house band — The Roots.

“Godiva Girl” features Rundgren blending throaty vocals with some falsetto highlights as he delivers tongue-in-cheek lyrics in which he compares the object of his desire to all kinds of sweet confections.

You can check out a lyric video for the tune at the Cleopatra Records’ official YouTube channel. The clip features the song’s metaphor-heavy lyrics appearing inside a decorative red heart, and includes an interlude where raspberries fall in slow motion into liquid chocolate.

“Godiva Girl” is available now as a digital download and via streaming services, and also will be featured on Todd’s forthcoming studio album, Space Force, which is due out in 2022.

Space Force also will include the three other collaborative singles that Todd has released since September 2020: “Espionage,” with Iraqi-Canadian hip-hop artist Narcy; “Down with the Ship,” with Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo; and “Your Fandango,” with veteran quirky sibling duo Sparks.

As previously, Rundgren is among the artists who will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on October 30 in Cleveland. Todd, who has long expressed disdain for the Rock Hall, won’t be attending the ceremony and, in fact, will be playing a concert in Cincinnati that evening.

In a new interview with Cleveland.com, Todd notes of his induction, “My fans wanted this so badly. I’m just glad they finally got it and I don’t have to hear about it anymore.”

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Paul McCartney is not shying away from retelling the highs and lows of his career — emphasis on the prior in his upcoming memoir The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, due out November 2.

He shared an excerpt with The Times of London on Sunday, which focused on the time Bob Dylan hooked The Beatles up with some potent marijuana.

“What happened is that we were in a hotel suite, maybe in New York around the summer of 1964, and Bob Dylan turned up with his roadie,” the excerpt begins — adding the event took place right after Dylan released his fourth studio album, Another Side of Bob Dylan.

McCartney continued, “We were just drinking, as usual, having a little party. We’d ordered drinks from room service — scotch and Coke and French wine were our thing back then — and Bob had disappeared into a back room.”

Apparently, band mate Ringo Starr left the room around the same time, only to return a while later “looking a bit strange,” according to Sir Paul. “He said, ‘I’ve just been with Bob, and he’s got some pot,’ or whatever you called it then.”

“And we said, ‘Oh, what’s it like?’ and he said, ‘Well, the ceiling is kind of moving; it’s sort of coming down.’ And that was enough,” McCartney who was in his early 20s at the time, continued. “After Ringo said that, the other three of us all leapt into the back room where Dylan was, and he gave us a puff on the joint.”

McCartney confessed that the band “were giggling, laughing at each other” and described a “hilarious” moment where he ran after George Harrison “like a cartoon chase.”

“We thought, ‘Wow, this is pretty amazing, this stuff,'” Paul reminisced, adding that night went on to become an inside joke with everyone involved.

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Matt Sorum played an integral role in the making of ZZ Top frontman and guitarist Billy Gibbons recently released solo album, Hardware, as the ex-Guns N’ Roses member co-wrote, co-produced and played drums on the entire record.

Sorum tells ABC Audio that he’s honored to have had the opportunity to work on the project with Gibbons, and is proud of the album, which they recorded with second guitarist Austin Hanks last year at a studio in California’s High Desert region.

“Billy’s the coolest there is,” Matt declares. “He looks cool, but he is cool.”

Sorum says the project came together after he and Gibbons teamed up early on during the COVID-19 pandemic to work on some new material, and after recording a couple of tracks at Matt’s studio, Billy said suggested they make a full album.

“The pandemic was happening, we were all off the road, so we went up to Pioneertown, California, and we lived at this old ranch, about 140 acres,” Sorum notes. “And it was the coolest thing.”

Matt says the desert setting had a major influence on the songs they wrote and the sound of the album, noting, “I really felt that the record came out great because of that energy around the environment we were in.”

As an example, Sorum shares how one of the tracks, the atmospheric, spoken-word tune “Desert High” came about after he explained to Gibbons that country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons — who was pals with The Rolling Stones‘ Keith Richards — had died at a motel room down the road from the studio.

“So Billy goes, ‘He died in Room 8 and left it all to Keith?'” Sorum recalls. “And I went, ‘That’s the line!’ And we put it in [the song].”

Hardware is available now.

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