Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on October 6th, 2014

Paul Revere, the longtime leader and organist of the popular mid '60s/early '70s pop group Paul Revere & the Raiders, died at his home in Idaho on Oct. 4 of undisclosed causes. He was 76. The news was revealed in a lengthy on the band's official website and no cause of death was given, however Revere had been battling cancer over the past year and posted about his health issues on his Facebook page this past July. Revere, born Paul Revere Dick in Harvard, Nebr., on Jan. 7, 1938, was known for his Revolutionary War-style clothing that helped earn him the title of "the madman of rock n' roll" and refused to slow down despite his illness. "Even though I've had some health issues, nothing can stop the old man. I'm like the Energizer Bunny! I jump on my tour bus and go from city to city, packing a trunk full of great Raider songs, tight pants and bad jokes -- all against doctor's orders, by the way!" he posted on Facebook. Formed in 1960 in Portland, Ore., Paul Revere & the Raiders began their career a year earlier as The Downbeats, a raunchy rock & roll band. They emerged from the Northwest to become a national pop success with ponytailed Mark Lindsay, who worked as a delivery boy at Revere's drive-in restaurant, fronting the band and having enormous teenybopper appeal. In mid-1962, they changed their name and started wearing pseudo-Revolutionary War costumes. Columbia signed the group after hearing an unsolicited tape, and in mid-1963 their cover of Richard Berry's "Louie, Louie" was released. Although popular in the Northwest, their version was beaten out across America by The Kingsmen's hit. In early 1965 they relocated to California and began to focus on a cleaner, more pop-oriented sound, and went on to release four Top 10 singles in the 1960s with with "Kicks," "Hungry," "Good Thing" and "Him or Me, What's It Gonna Be." The group had their biggest hit in 1971 with their No. 1 U.S. smash "Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)." In 1976, they capitalized on America's bicentennial with a tour and album. While Lindsay forged a successful career singing commercials, Paul Revere and his band toured some 250 nights a year, until Revere announced his retirement in Aug. 2014 due to a serious health issue, which was rumored to be brain cancer. - Billboard/Rollings Stone, 10/5/14.

Roger Waters posted an angry message on his Facebook page on Oct. 1 concerning his lack of involvement in the new Pink Floyd album, The Endless River. "Some people have been asking Laurie, my wife, about a new album I have coming out in November. Errhh? I don't have an album coming out, they are probably confused. David Gilmour and Nick Mason have an album coming out. It's called 'Endless River'. David and Nick constitute the group Pink Floyd. I on the other hand, am not part of Pink Floyd. I left Pink Floyd in 1985, that's 29 years ago. I had nothing to do with either of the Pink Floyd studio albums, Momentary Lapse Of Reason and The Division Bell, nor the Pink Floyd tours of 1987 and 1994, and I have nothing to do with Endless River. Phew! This is not rocket science people, get a grip." The Endless River, which will include music recorded with late Pink Floyd multi-instrumentalist Richard Wright, is due on Nov. 10. Mason said in 2013 that he would be interested in a full band reunion with Waters, but doubted it would ever happen. - New Musical Express, 10/2/14...... A deluxe 45th anniversary release of the Velvet Underground' third, self-titled 1969 album will drop on Nov. 24. The release will include a previously unreleased LP, which was recorded with the intention of getting the band free from their MGM contract. The first disc will feature an album stereo mix of the record, the second a 1969 pressing called the "The Closet Mix" and the third is a promotional mono mix. The entire release will be made up of 65 songs and feature liner notes written by Rolling Stone's David Fricke. - New Musical Express, 10/1/14.

A post by Ted Nugent on the conservative website WorldNetDaily.com on Oct. 1 contained a lengthy diatribe by the controversial Classic Rocker in which he slammed "Ferguson thugs" and the "plague of Black violence." "Our national propaganda ministry reported ad nauseum the detailed description and race of Michael Brown and that of the police officer who killed him," Nugent wrote. "Based on crime stats in Ferguson and elsewhere, it would be a safe bet to assume the two thugs the police are looking for are black males between the age of 15 and 25... a safe bet the two thugs being searched for were raised by a single parent, have criminal records, are high school dropouts, don't have jobs and are very likely to be members of a gang," he added. Nugent then turned to liberalism as the culprit behind the struggles that have "decimated and destroyed so many black families and their communities." "It is deaf, dumb and blind liberalism that has shoveled over $20 trillion into Fedzilla's welfare crack programs over the past 50 years," he added, closing with "The road to peace and prosperity in America is to reject the big liberal lie and all those who endorse it. Liberalism is a lie. Liberalism is a scam. Liberalism is a killer." Nugent made headlines earlier in 2014 with another rant in which he referred to Pres. Barack Obama as a "subhuman mongrel." - The Huffington Post, 10/2/14.

Blues guitar legend B.B. King has canceled the remaining eight shows on his current tour after falling ill on Oct. 3 during a performance at the House of Blues in Chicago. King, 89, was evaluated by a doctor and diagnosed with dehydration and exhaustion. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who has released over 50 albums, King had shows scheduled at his own B.B. King Blues Club and Grill in New York in mid-October. Earlier in 2014, King issued a public apology to fans after an erratic performance in St. Louis led to audience catcalls and early departures. His publicists called it "a bad night for one of America's living blues legends." - AP, 10/5/14...... Director John Landis, who helmed the original 14-minute music video of Michael Jackson's "Thriller," has announed that the video will be getting the 3D treatment in 2015. "It is going to reappear in a highly polished and three-dimensional way that is very exciting on the big screen," Landis told New York Daily News. Landis says his lengthy legal battle with Jackson's estate kept the idea of a revamped "Thriller" in limbo for years, but now that the dispute is over, he wants to bring it to theaters and Blu-ray in the near future. There are also hopes that a short 3D Francis Ford Coppola-directed film that Jackson starred in back in 1986, Captain EO, will also be coming to Blu-ray soon as well. - Billboard, 10/3/14...... Fleetwood Mac played their first full show with original band member Christine McVie since 1997 on Sept. 30 when they kicked off their "On With The Show" tour at the Target Center in Minneapolis. The career-spanning, 24-song set included the Stevie Nicks-penned hits "The Chain" and "Gold Dust Woman," and McVie was introduced by the band who said "our songbird has returned," after which she performed such hits as "You Make Loving Fun" and "Songbird." The band previously reunited without McVie, who left in 1998, for a large-scale tour including several dates at London O2 Arena in Sept. 2013. At one O2 performance, however, McVie joined the band on stage for a rendition of "Don't Stop." The tour will continue across North America thorughout the remainder of 2014, and their are rumours they could headline the UK's Glastonbury Festival in 2015. - New Musical Express, 10/2/14...... A Gretsch 6120 guitar that John Lennon used to co-write and record the Beatles' hit "Paperback Writer" is expected to fetch around £600,000 at auction conducted in at the Le Meridien Hotel in London later in October. Lennon gave the guitar to his cousin David Birch in 1967, and according to Birch he asked Lennon for "one of his spare guitars" during a visit to his Weybridge, Surrey, home after he told his famous relative that he was looking to start a band of his own. "I had my eye on a blue Fender Stratocaster that was lying in the studio but John suggested the Gretsch and gave it to me as we were talking," says Birch, whose mother Harriet was the younger sister of Lennon's mother Julia. Lennon most notably used the Gretsch 6120 on "Paperback Writer," which was recorded in April 1966 at Abbey Road Studios for the album Revolver. Meanwhile, a rare vinyl LP of the Beatles' 1963 debut Please Please Me signed by all four members of the band recently fetched $36,655 at auction on eBay. The item received 39 bids throughout the auction and was eventually sold to an undisclosed bidder in the U.S. - New Musical Express, 10/6/14...... In related news, thousands of items from late country music star Wayon Jennings' estate went on the auction block on Oct. 5 online and at the Music Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Ariz. Among the items for sale are a red Ariel Cyclone motorcycle given to him as a birthday gift by members of Buddy Holly's band The Crickets. Jennings, who was a close friend of Holly's and was supposed to have been in the same plane that claimed Holly's life in 1959, kept the motorcycle in his living room until he died in 2002. Also included in the sale is a pair of Willie Nelson's braids, which where snipped off and presented in 1983 as a gift to celebrate Jennings' sobriety at a party thrown by Johnny Cash. Jennings died in 2002 at age 64 of diabetes-related health problems, and some auction proceeds will benefit Phoenix Children's Hospital per the wishes of Jennings' widow, Jessi Colter. - AP, 10/4/14...... Todd Rundgren is the latest musical contributor to the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim show Squidbillies. Squidbillies has a history of getting well-known artists to lend their voices to the animated show's theme song, which follows the Cuyler family of squids living in Georgia. Previous seasons benefitted from contributions by George Jones, Alabama Shakes, Dwight Yoakum, Lucinda Williams and Billy Joe Shaver. Squidbillies, featuring a demented, glitched-up treatment of its theme song by Rundgren, airs Sundays at 11:45 pm. - Billboard, 10/3/14...... Convicted child-sex offender Gary Glitter's '70s hit "Rock and Roll Part 2" is quietly fading from play at sports arenas across the U.S. after Glitter's fall from grace in the late 1990s, the most recent example being the National Hockey League's Nashville Predators. Previously, each time the team scored a goal, Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part 2," a.k.a. "The Hey Song," was played, but fan complaints led to the team's management to decide to stop playing the song. Glitter's version of the song was banned by the National Football League after his conviction in 2006 of sex offenses with girls aged 10 and 11, but a cover version was widely aired and even adopted as the New England Patriots' touchdown anthem. The league asked teams to avoid the song in 2012, however "Rock and Roll Part 2" -- which Glitter co-wrote with producer Mike Leander -- still generates about $250,000 in annual performance royalties. Fred Traub, founder of Pro Sports Marketing, says Glitter's play has dropped noticeably since the NFL ban, but added that newer songs like The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" are pushing aside many decades-old favorites. "Music moves on and people try to capture the zeitgiest," he says. - Billboard, 10/3/14...... Actor Barry Williams, who played eldest son Greg Brady on the iconic '70s sitcom The Brady Bunch, will star in the Great American Country TV network's new original series A Very Barry Branson. The six-episode, half-hour series, which will premiere in early 2015, will follow Williams as trades Hollywood for America's heartland in Branson, Mo., as he launches his own '70s-era musical variety show. The series, which will premiere in early 2015, will follow Williams as he works to create and promote his stage show, gets to know the locals and attempts to make Branson his home. Along the way, he'll take cues from other Branson entertainers, including family band The Haygoods, host former Brady Bunch co-stars, and do anything he can to build an audience. - The Hollywood Reporter, 10/2/14.

During a listening event for the new Led Zeppelin remasters of Led Zeppelin IV and Houses of the Holy at Olympic Studios in London on Sept. 30, Jimmy Page ruled out any chance of the band playing together ever again and said he is planning to start his own, career-spanning band. "I don't think it looks as though that's a possibility or on the cards, so there's not much more I can say about that," Page told the New Musical Express. "I'm not going to give a detail-by-detail account of what one person says or another person says. All I can say is it doesn't look likely, does it?" When pressed on whether this was down to frontman Robert Plant, Page added: "I've just said it doesn't look very likely." His comments come after Plant recently said that he felt "disappointed and baffled" after Page dropped repeated hints about wanting to play with the band again. The guitarist also said that he was "fed up" with his bandmate for delaying his plans. Led Zeppelin last played together in 2007 for a one-off tribute to Atlantic Records' Ahmet Ertegun at London's O2 Arena. Page went on to confirm that he is likely to form his own band and play live material right across his whole career, including his Zeppelin work, in the near future. "If I was to play again it would be with musicians that would be some of the names might be new to you. I haven't put them together yet but I'm going to do that next year. If I went out to play, I would play material that spanned everything from my recording career right back to my very, very early days with The Yardbirds. There would certainly be some new material in there as well." Page previewed tracks from the latest Zep reissues in a theatre against a backdrop of old tour posters and photos of the band in its prime. The two reissues are due on Oct. 27 and follow a reissue campaign earlier in 2014 of the band's first three albums. - New Musical Express, 9/30/14.

A restored one-room schoolhouse in Tennessee where Tina Turner once attended classes opened on Sept. 26 as a museum honoring the singer's career and recalling her childhood in the small West Tennessee town of Brownsville. More than 100 people attended an opening ceremony, ribbon cutting and tour of the Tina Turner Museum at Flagg Grove School, located on the grounds of the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center in Brownsville. The museum features gold-and-platinum records and glittering outfits and dresses worn during performances by Turner, whose Grammy-winning singing career includes hit songs "Nutbush City Limits," ''Proud Mary" and "What's Love Got To Do With it." Turner, who lives in Zurich, Switzerland, did not attend the ceremony, but she recorded a video that was played for those in attendance. Turner said she did not attend because she has problems with flying long distances ."My spirit is with you," Turner said in the video as she thanked those involved with the project. "Have a wonderful day. Ciao." Turner, whose given name is Anna Mae Bullock, attended the Flagg Grove School while growing up in nearby Nutbush, located about 50 miles northeast of Memphis. Local officials hope that travelers interested in cultural and music tourism who fly into Memphis, known for its blues and rock and roll bloodlines, will make the 50-minute car ride eastbound on Interstate 40 and spend money in their hamlet. - AP, 9/26/14.

Music producer Phil Spector, who has been imprisoned since 2009, has reportedly not spoken in nine months as he battles illness in prison, where he is serving a 19-year sentence for the murder of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson. Spector's lawyer Chuck Sevilla described Spector's situation as "very dangerous" and that Spector can't speak "due to polyps in his throat which they keep telling him they're going to perform surgery on, which they have not done." Sevilla, who communicates with his client through handwritten letters, expressed his concern for Spector's safety in his current condition: "The prison won't give information about his medical condition. We are trying to get his needs attended to. I will be writing the warden today to try and get that done. Can you imagine being in a prison and you need help and you can't speak? It's very dangerous." A spokesperson for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had no comment when approached for a statement. Spector made his name with his "wall of sound" production technique and produced the Beatles album Let It Be in 1970. - New Musical Express, 9/28/14.

Earth, Wind & Fire will release its first ever Christmas album, Holiday, on Oct. 21 via Sony Legacy. The 13-track set, EWF's 21st studio album and second for Legacy, is comprised of such seasonal fare as "Winter Wonderland," "Sleigh Ride," "Joy to the World" and "Jingle Bell Rock," as well as "December," a song inspired by their 1978 hit "September" and featuring EWF lead singer/co-founder Philip Bailey dueting with the original master vocals of fellow co-founder Maurice White. Holiday is the followup to 2013's Then & Forever, the group's first LP of new music since 2005. In related news, Kenny Rogers has announced a Christmas-themed 25-date tour of North America that will launch on Nov. 12 in Niagara Falls, Ontario. "The Gambler" singer's trek will visit mostly mid-sized markets and wrap Dec. 23 at Westbury, N.Y. Special guest Linda Davis will join the country legend on his "Christmas & Hits Through The Years" trek, his 33rd Christmas tour. Rogers, who has sold more than one hundred million records worldwide, was formally inducted as a new member of the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville in October 2013 and has received three Grammys, 11 People's Choice Awards, 18 American Music Awards, eight Academy of Country Music awards and six CMA awards. - Billboard, 10/1/14...... A South Carolina man named Stephen Coronel who was a contributor to several KISS songs and a former guitarist in the pre-KISS band Wicked Lester was arrested on Sept. 26 and charged with uploading child pornograpy. Coronel, 63, was charged with five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor following a police search of his apartment. When officers entered his apartment with a warrant, Coronel was reportedly found to have four videos playing or uploading depicting children between 3-12 engaged in sexual acts. In 1970 and 1971, Coronel was a member of the New York-based rock band Wicked Lester with KISS principals Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley that was signed to Epic Records but never released a record. He later co-wrote KISS' "Goin' Blind" from 1974's Hotter Than Hell and "She" from 1975's Dressed to Kill with Simmons. - Billboard, 9/29/14...... Judas Priest kicked off a major U.S. 40th anniversary tour on Oct. 1, after having described its Epitaph World Tour in 2010 as a "farewell" run. Lead singer Rob Halford says the group was so energized by the sessions for its latest album Redeemer of Souls -- especially after the departure of group co-founder K.K. Downing in 2011 -- that he's already "ready to jump into the next Judas Priest record." "Maybe we're chasing the elusive finale, but right now I feel like it's amazing to think what might come next from Priest," Halford says. With a catalog of 17 studio albums that have sold more than 45 million copies worldwide, and such heavy metal anthems as "Living After Midnight," "Breaking the Law," "Screaming for Vengeance" and "You've Got Another Thing Comin'," Priest also enjoys a legacy as one of heavy metal's most influential groups. 2014 marks the 40th anniversary of the band's debut album, Rocka Rolla, which was released five years after the group formed in Birmingham, England. - Billboard, 9/29/14...... Ozzy Osbourne stated in a new interview that Black Sabbath will begin working on a new studio album -- which Ozzy says will be Sabbath's last -- in early 2015 with producer Rick Rubin. "The whole Sabbath experience this time around was great. We all made friends, we didn't f--- around, we all knew that we had a job to do, and we did it. It was a lot of fun. So we're going to do one more album, and a final tour," Ozzy told the publication Metal Hammer. As for when the album and tour will materialize, Osbourne says it will be "sooner rather than later" and hinge on the health of guitarist Tony Iommi. "(Tony)'s obviously got his cancer treatment, but we'll get onto it next year. I don't know if we'll be writing in England or L.A., but I'll fly to the f---ing moon for it if I have to!," Ozzy said. The 2013 Black Sabbath reunion album 13 earned the band its first No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 155,000 copies in its first week of release. - Billboard, 9/29/14...... On Sept. 30 the family of AC/DC guitarist Malcolm Young confirmed to People magazine that Young is suffering from dementia. "Malcolm is suffering from dementia and the family thanks you for respecting their privacy," Young's relatives said in a statement to the magazine, confirming rumours that the illness caused the band to announce his departure the previous week. Malcolm is currently beaing cared for in a Sydney nursing home, and Stevie Young, Malcolm and Angus Young's nephew, played guitar on the band's last album and will join them on next year's world tour. The band will release its next album, Rock or Bust, on Dec. 2. - Billboard, 9/30/14...... Neil Diamond returned to his old high school on Sept. 29 for his first-ever show in his native Brooklyn. Diamond, 73, took the stage to loud applause and noted that the setting, Erasmus Hall, had an enormous impact on his life, recalling that it was in this very room that, during an hour-long stint in detention, he heard a classmate practicing the piano, and decided to take up the instrument. "This is a meaningful places," he said. "My mind changed in this place." After performing such hits as "Kentucky Woman," "Brooklyn Roads," "Forever in Blue Jeans," Cracklin' Rosie" and "Sweet Caroline," the 73-year-old Diamond thanked the audience and the school for a special night, and invited everyone to come back and see him on his upcoming Melody Road Tour in the spring of 2015 at Brooklyn's new Barclays Center. Diamond will release Melody Road on Oct. 21 via Capitol Records. - Billboard, 9/30/14...... A trial date of March 9, 2015 has been set for the "Midnight Rider" trial for filmmakers of the beleaguered Gregg Allman biopic, almost one year after a camera assistant on the project, Sarah Jones, was stuck and killed by a train in Feb. 2014 on the set of the film. On Sept. 30, the film's first assistant director Hillary Schwartz, director Randall Miller and producers Jody Savin and Jay Sedrish were re-indicted, with Schwartz, who was just charged with involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass earlier this month, added to the indictment. All four defendants pleaded not guilty. Involuntary manslaughter carries a potential sentence of 10 years in prison under Georgia law; criminal trespass is a misdemeanor and carries a potential sentence of 12 months. Several civil suits have also been filed against Miller, Savin, Sedrish and other individuals and entities associated with the film, the production of which has since been suspended, with star William Hurt, who was on set when Jones was killed, pulling out of the project. - The Hollywood Reporter, 9/30/14...... A film production company named The Record Company filed a lawsuit against Glen Campbell on Sept. 29, claiming Campbell's upcoming documentary I'll Be Me violates an agreement it made in June 2011 to develop a project about the country music icon with him and director/producer James Keach, whose credits include producing the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line. The studio is suing Campbell and Glen Campbell Enterprises for breach of contract, claiming Campbell is excluding it from any credit, ownership and revenue for the I'll Be Me documentary. The company is also claiming breach of fiduciary duty and demanding an accounting of Campbell's earnings from the film. Campbell, who has won five Grammys and a Lifetime Achievement Award, and is an inductee of the Country Music Hall of Fame, announced his diagnosis with early stage Alzheimer's in 2011. The 78-year-old singer was moved into an assisted care facility earlier in 2014 as his health deteriorated. - The Hollywood Reporter, 9/30/14...... Aretha Franklin performed the Adele hit "Rolling in the Deep," the lead single from her upcoming diva covers album Great Diva Classics, on CBS's The Late Show with David Letterman on Sept. 29. Franklin's new 10-song LP, which arrives on Oct. 21, also features such classic and contemporary hits as Barbra Streisand's "People," Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive," Alicia Keys' "No One," Etta James' "At Last" and Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U." Great Diva Classics, co-produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmunds and Andre 3000, among others, reunites the 72-year-old "Queen of Soul" with longtime collaborator Clive Davis. "I mean, it is great," Davis said in an interview. "For her to do all these songs, it's very exciting." - Billboard, 9/30/14...... A host of musicians including Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys paid tribute to the late George Harrison at a special tribute concert at L.A.'s El Rey Theatre on Sept. 28. "George Fest: A Night To Honour The Music of George Harrison" also featured cover versions of the former Beatle's hits from the likes of Weird Al Yankovic and TV host Conan O'Brien. O'Brien hosted a week of tribute performances on his TV show Conan in late September, with artists including Norah Jones, Beck, and Harrison's son Dhani Harrison. A comprehensive box-set compiling Harrison's first six records entitled The Apple Years 1968-75. also has been released. - New Musical Express, 9/29/14...... She took "selfies" before selfies were cool. As Stevie Nicks prepares the release her new LP 24 Karat Gold - Songs From the Vault on Oct. 7, a number of her own self-portraits taken with a Polaroid camera from 1975-1987 will be displayed in an exhibition titled "24 Karat Gold" at New York City's Morrison Hotel Gallery at 201 Mulberry Street on Oct. 10 and 11. "I used to stay up half the night when I was on tour, because I wanted to learn to be a great photographer," Nicks recalls. But because of her schedule, she was usually the subject of her pictures. "I couldn't find anyone to model for me, because I worked so late at night," she adds. "I was a ridiculous, obsessive photographer." On the day of her album's release, Nicks will play New York's Madison Square Garden with Fleetwood Mac, the fifth date of the band's On With the Show North American concerts, which continues through December -- the first leg of a planned world trek. - Billboard, 9/29/14...... A 62-year-old divorced dad named Paul Anton has revealed he is the NYC subway-riding Rod Stewart look-a-like in photos that have appeared all over the Internet in recent weeks, but he insists he has never attempted to dupe anyone into believing he is the British rocker. "I have never pretended to be Rod Stewart," Anton told the New York Post on Sept. 29. "I am a respected businessman with children, I have never asked for free drinks. I pay my own way. People do mistake me for Rod, but I always say I'm not him. I would like to shake Rod's hand and say I am not an imposter. I love his music, but I wouldn't pretend to be him." Stewart's manager Arnold Steifel also confirmed that Anton is not the "Maggie Mae" singer. "That's not Rod, he's in California... The real Rod has seen the picture, and he thought it was funny, but he said, 'Please let people know it isn't me'... This has been going on for years," Steifel said. - WENN.com, 9/30/14...... Outkast's Andre 3000, who stars as Jimi Hendrix in the new Hendrix biopic Jimi: All Is By My Side, as revealed concerns that he was "too old" to play the legendary axman. "I didn't know if I was too old to play the part. But John [Ridley, writer/director] was really persistent, and he kept at it. So I just kind of said, 'All right, let's do it,'" says Andre, whose real name is Andr Benjamin. Covering a defining year in the life of Hendrix, All Is By My Side follows the young musician as he lands in London in 1966. The film, however, will not feature any songs recorded or composed by Hendrix himself, as the late guitarist's estate refused to give filmmakers the necessary permission. Instead, songs by the Beatles and Muddy Waters, that Hendrix himself covered in the '60s, will be featured. Andre played guitar for six hours a day in preparation for the Hendrix role. While Benjamin prepared to perform as Hendrix on-screen, guitarist Waddy Wachtel took on the job of re-recording songs for the film's soundtrack. All Is By My Side is in current release in the U.S., and hits screens in the U.K. on Oct. 24. - New Musical Express, 9/26/14...... Queen have revealed a slowed down version of the Freddie Mercury single "Love Kills," recorded before the frontman's death, which will appear on the band's upcoming November release Queen Forever. The album features three previously unreleased tracks with Mercury on vocals, including a collaboration with Michael Jackson and this new version of "Love Kills." Meanwhile, Queen are set to tour the UK with American vocalist Adam Lambert in Jan. 2015 as part of a wider European tour. The 7-date tour gets underway on Jan. 13 in Newcastle and wraps Jan. 24 in Nottingham. - NME, 9/30/14...... StarVista Entertainment/Time Life released Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, a deluxe box set of the iconic 1983 Motown TV special, on Sept. 30. The formats include in a single-disc package, a 3-DVD set and a deluxe 6-DVD set, the latter two featuring several hours of bonus, unreleased performances and documentary features from the making of the special. The Motown 25 DVDs also offer insights into the show via interviews with its production principals, including director/producer Don Mischer and head writer Buz Kohan, as well as Motown artists and executives. - Billboard, 9/26/14...... Family and famous industry friends of the late Robin Williams' gathered to celebrate his legendary life on Sept. 28 in San Francisco. The private tribute -- held at the Curran Theatre -- drew hundreds of guests and included music and video tributes as well as emotional speeches from Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, Bobcat Goldthwait, Bonnie Hunt, Eric Idle, and Williams' three children, Cody, Zelda and Zak and his wife, Susan. Williams was found dead inside his home in Tiburon, Calif., on Aug. 11 as a result of suicide. He was 63. - The Hollywood Reporter, 9/28/14.