It’s been almost three years since Paul McCartney last played a full-length concert — with his long hiatus due, of course, to the COVID-19 pandemic — but the former Beatles star finally is ready to get back on the road, with a new U.S. tour kicking off tonight in Spokane, Washington.
McCartney’s trek, dubbed the Got Back tour, features a total of 16 dates, and runs through a June 16 performance at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The outing includes three multiple-night engagements — May 2-3 in Seattle; May 6 and May 8 in Oakland, California; and June 7-8 at Boston’s famed Fenway Park.
With Sir Paul and his band just about ready to kick things off, McCartney has posted a video on his YouTube channel and social media sites featuring some behind-the-scenes and rehearsal footage, as well as audio of a performance of “Get Back.”
In the clip, McCartney says, “Very excited. Final days of rehearsal, and we’re gonna get back out. We’re really excited to see those happy faces, and try and bring ’em some peace, love and a little bit of joy in these dark days.”
The video also features some comments from drummer Abe Laborial Jr., who notes, “I can’t believe how much I’ve missed this. You know, I thought maybe having a couple months off would be nice. Wasn’t expecting it to be two-and-a-half years, so I’ve really missed my family. I’ve missed all of these people.”
Devo is among the nominees for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, marking the third time that the quirky and influential New Wave band has been in the running for the honor.
Founding Devo member Gerald Casale tells ABC Audio that “it’d be nice” if the band is chosen for induction, and “a feather in [our] cap,” while admitting, “I won’t cry if it doesn’t happen.”
The 73-year-old musician says if Devo is selected to inducted, the band will be up for performing at the ceremony. He notes that if he had to choose the songs that the group would play, “they would have to be the tent poles of Devo, [and]…would certainly have to…include ‘Whip It!,’ ‘Uncontrollable Urge’ and ‘Beautiful World.'”
Gerald also has ideas about who he’d like to see induct Devo into the Rock Hall, pointing out that since David Bowie is no longer with us, “Neil Young would be the first logical choice.”
Young was not only an early Devo devotee, he featured the band in his apocalyptic 1982 cult comedy film Human Highway, and collaborated on some recordings with the group around that time.
“We loved working with him. We actually loved him,” Casale tells ABC Audio. “We had no idea that the…grandfather of granola rock would take to Devo so well and he’d be such an interesting, iconoclastic person, and easy to talk to and [with a] full sense of humor and still [with] boy-like enthusiasm and energy for new music.”
The Rock Hall’s 2022 inductees will be announced in early May. Voting for the online fan poll, which only has minor influence on who gets inducted, ends this Friday, April 29. Devo currently is ranked ninth out of the 17 nominees.
Go behind the scenes of the making of The Godfather starting today, with the new Paramount+ series The Offer. It focuses on the obstacles producer Al Ruddy faced in trying to get the film made.
Series showrunner Nikki Toscano tells ABC Audio those obstacles involved battling not budgets and casting, “but the real life mafia in order to get this movie made.”
“I think that there’s a lot of the sort of life and death stakes of trying to get your film made, while also contending with the Mafia is a pretty, pretty big one,” she continues.
“Every movie goes through the problems of, oh, can we raise enough money? Can we come in on budget? Who’s against us? Who’s trying to kill the movie?” adds Russell Rothberg, The Offer‘s executive producer. “But when it comes to who’s trying to kill the movie and it’s the Mafia, that’s kind of a very unique story with big stakes.”
Juno Temple, who plays producer Al Ruddy’s assistant Bettye McCartt in the film says a lot of details about The Godfather surprised her, but the revelation she found most shocking? “That Al Pacino almost got fired — that was shocking. Like what? On what planet? You know what I mean?”
Adds Temple, “Can you imagine if Al Pacino had been fired? We wouldn’t be sitting here talking about it.”
Miles Teller, who plays Ruddy in the movie, was more fascinated to learn how the sausage was made.
“People say they don’t want to know how the sausage is made, they just know they like sausage. For this it’s the opposite,” he explains. “Now that I know how it’s made, it even makes me like sausage even more. I love sausage. Can’t get enough of it.”
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military earlier this month launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, as it attempts to capture the strategic port city of Mariupol and secure a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 28, 5:01 am
Russia accuses Ukraine of war crimes
Russia on Thursday accused Ukraine of committing war crimes by indiscriminately attacking civilian areas in Ukrainian cities.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that the Ukrainian Armed Forces “launched a massive attack” using ballistic missiles and multiple rocket launchers on residential areas of Kherson in southern Ukraine late Wednesday.
“The indiscriminate missile attack launched by the nationalists targeted kindergartens, schools and various social facilities in residential areas near Ushakova avenue,” the ministry said in a statement Thursday. “Russian air defense units have repelled the attack of the Ukrainian troops launched at the residential districts of Kherson.”
The ministry also claimed that Ukrainian troops had launched indiscriminate attacks on residential areas of Izyum in eastern Ukraine.
“The Kyiv nationalist regime’s indiscriminate attacks on residential areas of Izyum and Kherson are a war crime and a gross violation of international humanitarian law,” the ministry added.
Ukraine did not immediately respond to the allegations.
Apr 28, 4:55 am
Putin ramps up nuclear threats, as US weapons head to Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted at the possibility of nuclear warfare during his Wednesday address to the council of legislators.
“If someone from outside moves to interfere in the current developments, they should know that they will indeed create strategic threats to Russia, which are unacceptable to us, and they should know that our response to encounter assaults will be instant, it will be quick,” Putin said, according to Russian state media.
Putin claimed Russia’s response to strategic threats from outside Ukraine would be “immediate.”
“We have all the tools to do it, tools that others can’t boast of at the moment, but as for us, we won’t be boasting,” Putin said.
Putin said that Russia is prepared to use those “tools” if “the need arises,” adding that he “would like everyone to be aware of it.” A nuclear attack has been on the table since the onset of the “special military operation” in Ukraine, Putin said. He had ordered his nuclear forces to be put on high alert on Feb 27.
Putin’s remarks came as Pentagon press secretary John Kirby announced that “more than half” of the 90 howitzers the U.S. agreed to send to Ukraine were now in the country, adding that around 50 Ukrainian troops have already been trained to operate the weapons.
“We finished up earlier this week, the first tranche of more than 50 trainers that are going to go in and train their teammates,” Kirby said during a press briefing on Wednesday, a moment later adding, “But there was another tranche of more than 50 that we’re going to go through training in the same location outside Ukraine.”
The U.S. Department of Defense on Wednesday tweeted pictures of more howitzers “bound for Ukraine” that were being loaded onto US Air Force aircraft. Additional training opportunities on Howitzers and other weapons systems were also being explored, Kirby said.
As U.S. weapons head to Ukraine, Russia is increasing the pace of its offensive in almost all directions, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Thursday.
The U.S. is considering the legal aspects of officially listing Russia as a state-sponsor of terrorism, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told lawmakers on Wednesday. Officials said they haven’t yet determined whether Russia’s actions meet the legal standard required for the designation, Blinken said.
The designation, called for by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, would further cripple Russia’s trade potential, including bans on defense exports and limits on foreign aid.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Oakland 1, San Francisco 0
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Chi White Sox 7, Kansas City 3
Tampa Bay 3, Seattle 2
NY Yankees 5, Baltimore 2
Minnesota 5, Detroit 0
Boston 7, Toronto 1
Houston 4, Texas 3
LA Angels 9, Cleveland 5
NATIONAL LEAGUE
St. Louis 10, NY Mets 5
Arizona 3, LA Dodgers 1
Milwaukee 3, Pittsburgh 1
Philadelphia 7, Colorado 3
San Diego 8, Cincinnati 5
Miami 2, Washington 1
Chi Cubs 6, Atlanta 3
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PLAYOFFS
Milwaukee 116, Chicago 100
Golden State 102, Denver 98
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Winnipeg 4, Philadelphia 0
Montreal 4, NY Rangers 3
Chicago 4, Vegas 3 (SO)
Arizona 4, Dallas 3 (OT)
Los Angeles 5, Seattle 3
(OAKLAND, Calif.) — Teachers in Oakland, California, will be going on a one-day strike Friday to protest school closures the district has planned for this year and next year. A teachers’ union said the Oakland Unified School District is going back on a 2019 agreement with the closures.
The Oakland Education Association, a union made up of nearly 3,000 educators including teachers, counselors and social workers, said the school district and the union made an agreement to end a strike in 2019 which requires the district to engage in at least one year of community engagement and engagement with stakeholders before any school is considered for closure.
“The district ignored that agreement. And early this year, the majority school board hastily passed a resolution to close three schools for this year, the 2022 school year. And they have voted to close seven schools for the 2022 – 2023 school year,” Keith Brown, the president of the Oakland Education Association, told ABC News.
The district says this agreement did not happen, according to a letter that Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell sent to the community.
“As for the statement that the District previously bargained the issue of school consolidations as part of the negotiations to end the February 2019 strike, it is demonstrably untrue: The list of negotiated items, as delineated in the fact finding report, leading up to the 2019 strike does not include school consolidations,” the letter said.
According to Brown, the district currently has 85 schools. The closures will impact thousands of students, he said.
“Closing schools hurts families and it hurts neighborhoods,” Brown said.
The district called the strike “illegal” in the letter it sent out, saying OEA can not strike on the basis of an unfair labor charge it has brought against the school district over school closures because there has not been a final ruling on the charge.
“The District is pursuing all legal means to prevent this action from happening. We are hoping that OEA will change course, but we are also putting plans in place in case the strike occurs,” Johnson-Trammell said in the letter.
She added, “We respect the rights to collectively bargain, protest, and disagree with District decisions. But it must be done within the bounds of the law. We have and will continue to strongly urge OEA to reconsider its illegal activity.”
The district asked parents not to send their kids to school due to the anticipated absences.
Brown said closing schools puts a burden on families to find means for transportation to find schools outside of their neighborhoods.
“There’s a recent Stanford study that shows that closing schools impacts black students and accelerates gentrification in communities of color,” Brown said, citing a study released by the Stanford Graduate School of Education on March 28.
The district argues that school closures will save money, Brown said. “But studies have shown that school closures [do] not save a significant amount of money for school districts,” he said. “The district claims that there’s a budget shortfall and there’s no choice but to close schools. But there’s always a choice and we must make a choice for for our students.”
(WASHINGTON) — Judge Robert Summerhays of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana has issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Department of Homeland Security from phasing out Title 42 for at least the next two weeks.
Title 42 is a policy instituted under the Trump administration that allowed migrants seeking asylum along the southern border to be expelled under the public health emergency authority of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Lit has premiered a new song called “Mouth Shut,” a track off the band’s upcoming album, Tastes Like Gold.
The cut features drums from No Doubt‘s Adrian Young. You can listen to it now via digital outlets.
Tastes Like Gold, the first new Lit album in five years, drops June 17. It also includes the previously released songs “Yeah Yeah Yeah” and “Kicked Off the Plane.”
Lit will launch a U.S. tour ahead of Taste Like Gold’s arrival May 13 in Columbia, South Carolina.
Alt-J has premiered the video for “The Actor,” a track off the band’s new album, The Dream.
The highly choreographed clip follows a woman as she tries to reanimate the body of a man she finds lying on the ground. Alt-J previously described “The Actor” as an “alternative re-telling of John Belushi‘s death, or the events leading up to it.”
You can watch the video for “The Actor” streaming now on YouTube.
The Dream, the fourth Alt-J album, was released this past February. It also includes the single “U&ME.”
Earlier this month, Alt-J wrapped a tour win support of The Dream alongside Portugal. the Man.
Ace Frehley and Gene Simmons in 2017; Hannah Foslien/Getty Images for The Children Matter
KISS bassist/singer Gene Simmons has extended an invitation to the band’s founding lead guitarist, Ace Frehley, to join the group during encores at some of the upcoming shows on KISS’ End of the Road farewell tour.
Simmons’ invite was part of a birthday message he sent via Twitter to Frehley, who turned 71 today.
“Happy Birthday Ace…And many more,” Gene wrote. “The invitations still stand. Jump up on stage with us for encores. The fans would love it.”
Frehley last performed with KISS in 2018, when he joined the band’s current lineup to play a few songs during the group’s annual KISS Kruise. That same year, Ace released the solo studio album Spaceman, which included two tracks on which he collaborated with Simmons.
In interviews around that time, Frehley said he wasn’t opposed to rejoining KISS to tour, but insisted the money had to be right.
Meanwhile, as reported last month, Frehley is slated to reunite with original KISS drummer Peter Criss to perform a few songs during the first day of Nashville’s Creatures Fest event, which runs from May 27 to May 29.
KISS’ next show on its End of the Road tour takes place on Thursday, April 28, in Curitiba, Brazil. The band begins a new U.S. leg of the trek on May 11 in Milwaukee.
![Devo’s Gerald Casale says induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame would be “a feather in [our] cap”](https://s3.amazonaws.com/syndication.abcaudio.com/files/2022-04-27/Getty_Devo630_042722.jpg "Devo’s Gerald Casale says induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame would be “a feather in [our] cap”")
