An official unveiling of a huge mural of David Bowie in Sarajevo, Bosnia took place on May 28 to pay tribute to Bowie's humanitarian work during the Bosnian war. Inscribed with the words "Fashion changes, but you'll always be my heroes" (a nod to the way Bosnia has changed since the 1992-95 conflict), the 13 meters (43 feet) high and 10.5 meters (34 feet) wide painting adorns a damaged university building in the capital, close to the infamous street once known as Sniper Alley. More than 300 people attended the unveiling, the brainchild of local musician Vedad Trbonja, as Bowie's "Space Oddity" played over loudspeakers. Bowie died at the age of 69 on Jan. 10. - Billboard, 5/31/16...... 
A series of new U.K. postage stamps honoring Pink Floyd was announced by the Royal Mail on May 26. The limited edition, 10 stamp collection will pay tribute to the legendary prog rockers' 50 years as professional musicians. Due to go on sail at U.K. post offices on July 7, the stamps will feature classic Floyd album covers, including The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Atom Heart Mother, The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Endless River, as well as concert photos. "We're celebrating Pink Floyd, one of the most influential and successful British bands of all time, with a superb range of stamps, limited edition souvenirs and gifts," declares Royal Mail, which says it "worked closely" with the band on its collection. Pre-orders for the stamps began on May 26 at the RoyalMail.com website. - Billboard, 5/26/16...... To commemorate what would have been jazz legend Miles Davis' 90th birthday on May 26, Sony/Legacy Recordings has collated data from more than 2,000 Wikipedia pages mentioning Davis for The Universe of Miles Davis, a new immersive, interactive website. Users can interact with the platform by scrolling down, hovering over images and utilizing the search bar within the infographic. Davis' birthday is further commemorated with a new album featuring reimagined reinterpretations of his music. Everything's Beautiful features contributions from such artists as Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu and former Davis band member, jazz guitarist John Scofield. - Billboard, 5/26/16...... 
On May 19, Frank Zappa's son Dweezil Zappa issued a multi-thousand-word rebuttal to his brother Ahmet Zappa's recent open letter to him on Facebook. In what he characterized as "a tedious undertaking," Dweezil countered Ahmet's assertions that he was uncommunicative and intransigent and that he created a false impression of the family's disagreements by giving an "incomplete, misleading story" to The New York Times, in an article published in April that quoted both brothers. The Zappa siblings -- Dweezil, Ahmet, Moon Zappa and Diva Zappa (but particularly Ahmet and Dweezil, who recorded two albums together) -- have been battling each other over the rights to Frank's vast catalog of songs since their mother, Gail Zappa, died in 2015. After Gail died in October, control of the trust passed to the two youngest Zappa siblings, Ahmet and Diva, who serve as the estate's trustees. Dweezil and Moon remain beneficiaries of the estate. Dweezil has complained that "although my father was Frank Zappa, I am not allowed to use the name on its own." Ahmet has countered that he "isn't standing in the way of Dweezil playing the music... He would just have to be in accordance with the family trust." - Billboard, 5/19/16...... The Rolling Stones have announced they're hooking up with St. Tropez-based men's swimwear manufacturer Vilebrequin for a collection of men's trunks to go on sale in June. Using a slew of images from the band's iconic discography -- created by artists including Andy Warhol, Robert Frank and David Bailey -- the swimwear includes the signature Moorea ($280), flat-waisted Merise ($295), and black T-shirt ($135) with the band's iconic tongue and lips logo. "The Rolling Stones' style has always been colorful, unconventional and fresh, all with an allure that is very inspiring for us," says Vilebrequin CEO Roland Herlory. - Billboard, 5/20/16...... Joe Jackson, the 87-year-old father of Michael Jackson and his siblings, was hospitalized on May 13 after becoming weak during a routine checkup with his doctor, but son Jermaine Jackson says his dad is doing much better now. "He's just tired, -- he's 87 -- and we're just trying to hold onto him as long as we can... My father's very strong. He's up there telling jokes. He's doing fine." - TMZ.com, 5/18/16...... 
A new Iggy Pop and the Stooges documentary titled Gimme Danger premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 19. Named after a song from one of Iggy and the Stooges most iconic albums, 
Former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne has announced plans to turn the 15th century story of Joan of Arc's life into an off-Broadway musical. Posting on his official website, Byrne said: "Everyone certainly knows how it ends, which I like. Why has this story endured over centuries and been made into so many plays and movies? Because it's about someone -- a nobody, a teenage girl -- who inspired others to act, to overthrow their oppressors and take charge of their lives." Byrne says he's already written the music for the show, which is yet to be given an official title, and it's set to premiere in the spring of 2017 at New York City's Public Theater. Byrne previously produced the 2013 musical "Here Lives Love," a stage adaptation of an album he did with Fatboy Slim. - Billboard, 5/20/16...... On May 17, an attorney for the plaintiff in the upcoming 
A remastered collection of 16 of Lou Reed's albums the late musician recorded for RCA Records and the RCA-distributed label Arista is due Oct. 7 in the U.S. 
Legendary 60 Minutes correspondent Morely Safer, an Emmy-winning newsman who was one of the first reporters to convey the brutality of the Vietnam War to America's TV viewers, died on May 18. He was 84. Born in Toronto, Mr. Safer began his career as a newspaper reporter in Canada and England. He moved into broadcast journalism as a producer and correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. He first became a correspondent for CBS News in 1964, based in the London bureau. In 1965, he opened the CBS News bureau in Saigon, serving two tours in the Vietnam war. In 1967, he became CBS News' London bureau chief, covering Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He also returned to Vietnam to provide continuing coverage of the war. The airing of one of his reports on the CBS News with Walter Cronkite in which he accompanyied U.S. Marines on a military action into a complex of villages called Cam Ne was one of the first to document the unsettling details of Vietnam for U.S. audiences, marking a turning point in public opinion of the war. Mr. Safer was called a communist for undermining the war effort, and Pres. Lyndon Johnson's administration attempted to discredit him and the network. Mr. Safer joined 60 Minutes as a correspondent in Dec. 1970, following in the footsteps of Harry Reasoner. He remained with the program for the rest of his career, more than 40 years. Later in his career, Mr. Safer also appeared on TV shows and in films about journalism, playing himself on a 2003 episode of Murphy Brown, and in the 1990s, he provided narration to documentaries on PBS, including episodes of The American Experience and American Masters. Mr. Safer won his first News and Documentary Emmy in 1979 for "Teddy Kollek's Jerusalem," a profile of the mayor of Jerusalem. Mr. Safer, the 12-time winner of News and Documentary Emmys, including a lifetime achievement award in 2003, had announced his retirement just the previous week. He is survived by his wife, the former Jane Fearer, and a daughter. - AP, 5/19/16...... Actor Alan Young, who gamely played straight man to a talking horse for five years in the classic '60s sitcom Mr. Ed, died on May 19 at the Motion Picture and Television Home in Woodland Hills, Calif. He was 96. On the series, which ran from 1961-66 on CBS, Mr. Young played architect Wilbur Post, who was married to Carol (played by Connie Hines, who died in 2009) and kept a horse, Mr. Ed, in their suburban stable. Mr. Ed, voiced by Allan "Rocky" Lane, would speak only to Wilbur, but given Mr. Ed's rather outlandish personality and the superbly mild affect of Young's Wilbur, just who owned whom could occasionally be a matter of debate. Mr. Young also voiced Scrooge McDuck and numerous other animated characters, as well as guesting on dozens of TV shows. - Variety, 5/19/16.
Eric Clapton says his new album, I Still Do, was initially conceived "as an homage to a family member, an old auntie who passed away a couple of years ago." "She used to say that she (had) liked me as a little boy, 'and I still do.' But that ended up just being the title," says Clapton, who at age 71 admits that "a lot of pals around my age seem to be kicking off." Reflecting on the recent deaths of such rock stars as Glenn Frey, Maurice White, Paul Kantner and his fellow British legend, David Bowie, Clapton revealed he didn't know Bowie well -- "I only met him a few times, and we never worked together." Clapton says his version of the wistful standard "I'll Be Seeing You" on I Still Do was recorded to "say goodbye to all these people." The album has Clapton reuniting with renowed producer Glyn Johns, who teamed with him on the 1977 classic Slowhand. Clapton reunited with Johns -- also noted for his work with the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and the Who -- when they "met up a couple of years ago and realized that all this time had gone by," Clapton recalls. "We were having dinner and I said, 'We should do something again.'" For his part, Glyn Johns says, "my principle was to capture him playing (guitar) live as much as possible. Eric is probably the most inspirational player I've worked with. He's a very emotive player -- it goes straight from his heart to his fingers. His brain doesn't get in the way. And he's playing and singing as well as he ever did. In my view, actually, he's really developed as a singer." Clapton, who doesn't tour much these days, said he has had "some health issues going on in this year, some trouble with my hands and back," but he tries to stay fit, "to get away from sugar and wheat and preservatives. ...I suppose the way it works for me is that I try to keep my side of the street as clean as possible. I have a will, I stay current. And I try to pay a little attention to the legacy I'm leaving, you know?" - USA Today, 5/15/16...... Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone of the legendary '60s British Invasion band the Zombies performed an intimate show at New York City's Rough Trade venue on May 12. Best known for such hits as "Tell Her No," "She's Not There" and "Time of the Season," the latter from their acclaimed 1968 album Odessey And Oracle, the Zombies performed a tidy 30-minute set featuring their trademark electric pianos and harmonies. Argent and Blunstone also made room for a pair of recent cuts, "Edge Of The Rainbow" and "Moving On," both of which appeared on their 2015 album Still Got That Hunger. - Billboard, 5/12/16...... Thousands of CD and vinyl copies of the indie rock band Car Seat Headrest's new album Teens of Denial have been recalled after an unauthorized sample of the Ric Ocasek-penned the Cars song "Just What I Needed." According to a statement issued by the label, Matador Records, a license for the song in question, "Just What I Wanted/Not Just What I Needed," had been negotiated "in good faith months ago, only to be told last week that the publisher involved was not authorized to complete the license in the United States, and that Ric Ocasek preferred that his work not be included in the song." Ocasek, who has also served as a record producer and worked in major label A&R teams, has yet to comment on the matter. An updated version of the song has been cut to replace the original, and is now called "Not What I Needed," and physical copies of the album will be available in July. - Billboard, 5/13/16...... 
An actor who is set to appear in the 2017 Showtime reboot of the famous David Lynch-directed TV series Twin Peaks says that David Bowie was slated to appear in the new Twin Peaks before his untimely Jan. 2016 death. Henry Goaz, who will appear as Deputy Andy Brennan in the new show, says Bowie was set to make a cameo as Agent Phillip Jeffries, who he portrayed in the 1992 Twin Peaks film spinoff Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. An air date for the reboot, which will feature a massive cast of 217 actors including original stars Kyle MacLachlan and Sherilynn Fenn, has not been announced. - Billboard, 5/13/16...... In other Bowie news, the late singer's son, filmmaker Duncan Jones, said on May 11 that his late father influenced his film work. "My dad was obviously prolific in music, but he also acted and I think I had the most fun when we were on film sets... I think I got the (directing) bug back then," said Jones, who is best known for his films Moon and Source Code. "Because the musical gene did not express itself in the way one might have hoped, my main hobby with my dad was shooting little one-stop animations and I just always carried that interest in film," added Jones, whose latest directorial project is Warcraft, a cinematic adaptation of video game franchise World Of Warcraft. Warcraft stars Travis Fimmel and Dominic Cooper and is set to open on June 3 in the UK and on June 10 in North America. - New Musical Express, 5/13/16...... The final recording by late country music great Merle Haggard, "Kern River Blues," premiered on Willie Nelson's SiriusXM's Willie's Roadhouse channel, and was later made available to download on merlehaggard.com/music.html and iTunes. Penned by Haggard and featuring his son Ben Haggard on electric guitar, "Kern River Blues" is about the singer's memories of leaving Bakersfield in the late '70s, according to a post on Haggard's website. The track was recorded Feb. 9 at the singer's Hag Studios as he was battling with the pneumonia that would ultimately take his life on Apr. 6 at the age of 79. Haggard's family say they decided to release the song as a way of thanking everyone" for their "tremendous outpouring of love and prayers" for the artist, and that 10% of all gross proceeds from its sale will be donated to homeless charities. - Billboard, 5/12/16...... 
Alice Cooper has announced that he and the surviving members of the original Alice Cooper band -- guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith -- are working together again on new music for the shock rocker's next album. "Neal Smith and Mike Bruce and I wrote five songs in Phoenix," Cooper said on May 11. "Dennis wrote four or five songs in Connecticut. You never know what's going to make it on an album, but I think we've got a lot of stuff that has a good chance of being there." Members of Cooper's current band are also contributing songs for the set, which has led to a welcome plethora of material. "I don't care where a song comes from; If it fits the idea, what the album's going to be, then we go with it," Cooper says. "We'll see which ones make the album." Cooper and his band formed in Phoenix in the mid-'60s and recorded seven albums together, starting out with Frank Zappa's Straight Records label, then moving to Warner Bros. for a string of hit albums and singles. The group broke up acrimoniously after 1973's Muscle of Love, with Bruce, Dunaway and Smith going on to form the short-lived Billion Dollar Babies band. Cooper, who is currently touring with his own band as well as with his side project the Hollywood Vampires, says there's no timetable when his next album will come out. - Billboard, 5/12/16...... The Rolling Stones have commented on the upcoming three-day Desert Trip concert extravaganza, which is set for Oct. 7-9 at the site of the Coachella festival in Indio, Calif., and will feature such acts as the Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters and the Who. On the Friday night, it's going to be us and Bob Dylan, so there will be masses of musicians, actually masses of guests of all the musicians, and it's a fun time for everyone," Mick Jagger told Rolling Stone magazine on May 12. "How many trips can you take to the desert, man? The line-up is just amazing," added Keith Richards. "I can't believe we're all going to be stuck in this little town together. I mean, never have we ever all in the same place at the same time." Richards continued to say that he would love to work with Dylan: "I'd work with Bob any[where]. I'd work with Bob in hell or heaven. I love him." The pricey tickets for the festival, which is aimed at an older, more affluent audience, went on sale on May 11, and reportedly sold out in just three hours. 70,000 three-day tickets for each of the festival's two weekends are believed to have been sold, 140,000 tickets in total, although the promoters have yet to confirm the reports. - NME, 5/13/16...... In other festival news, Ozzy Osbourne and the band Slipknot are joining forces for a festival set for Sept. 24 and 25 at the San Manuel Amphitheater and Festival Grounds in San Bernardino, Calif. "Ozzfest Meets Knotfest" will feature more than 40 acts, with Ozzy's Black Sabbath headlining the Sept. 24 show, their last ever show in California. "We are here to create havoc and history. Let the madness begin," Osbourne said during a press conference in Hollywood on May 11. - NME, 5/12/16...... 
Barbra Streisand's longtime manager Marty Erlichman announced on May 16 that the legendary diva will embark on a 9 city North American tour in late summer behind her forthcoming studio album, Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway. Streisand, who hasn't toured since her 2012 "Back To Brooklyn" jaunt, launches the tour on Aug. 2 at L.A.'s Staples Center, followed by dates in San Jose (8/4), Las Vegas (8/6), Chicago (8/9), her hometown of Brooklyn (8/11, 13), Boston (8/16), Washington, D.C. (8/18) and Philadelphia (8/20) before wrapping in Toronto on Aug. 23. Streisand's 35th studio album, Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway sees the singer pairing with some of Hollywood's biggest stars to sing Broadway classics. The LP will be released after the tour is completed, but before the end of 2016, and those who purchase tickets online will receive a free CD copy of the album. Her last album, 2014's Partners, was another duets LP that rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. - Billboard, 5/16/16...... Journey has filed a lawsuit against the electronics company Monster Products after the company realized it couldn't pay Journey's $500,000 fee to perform at a company gathering. According to their attorney Howard King, Journey was booked in Oct. 2015 and cancelled only a month later once the company realised they couldn't afford to pay their hefty fee. Journey is suing the company to get their fee, as well as pre-judgment interest and the costs of the lawsuit. - New Musical Express, 5/15/16...... The alternative rock band Train, best known for their hit "Drops of Jupiter," has announced plans to cover Led Zeppelin's 1969 album Led Zeppelin II in its entirety for their next LP release. "They are so hard to record, especially when you are trying to get as close a version as you can to the original," says Train's Pat Monohan. "The mixes, the time that they put in, it's crazy how great they were as a band." - NME, 5/13/16...... Dionne Warwick told reporters at a Cannes Film Festival party on May 12 that Lady Gaga will be playing her "musical nemesis" Cilla Black in an upcoming biopic about Warwick titled Dionne. After Lady Gaga's film reps initially releaesed a statement saying that Gaga "is not attached and will not appear in this project," Warwick said it was "just a question of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing," and though Gaga's music reps knew about the deal, her film reps did not. Dionne is set to begin production later in 2016. - The Hollywood Reporter, 5/13/16...... The Fox TV network has announced it will produce a new drama based on the classic 1973 horror film The Exorcist. In the remake, two priests (Ben Daniels, Alfonso Herrera) try to solve a case of demonic possession. The series, which will air on Friday nights at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT in Fox's fall 2016 schedule, will also star Geena Davis. - USA Today, 5/16/16...... 
Tony Barrow, the longtime Beatles press officer who is credited with coining the term "Fab Four," died on May 14 at his home in Morecambe, England. He had turned 80 just three days prior. Mr. Barrow served as the Beatles' publicist during the legendary band's heyday, from 1962-1968, and worked with a string of Hall of Fame acts through his career. Mr. Barrow was born in the Liverpool suburb of Crosby in 1936, and joined the team at Decca Records as a teenager, writing liner notes for the label and contributing record reviews to the Liverpool Echo. In the early '60s, he was approaced by Beatles manager Brian Epstein to help lift the profile of the then-unsigned band. With Mr. Barrow's help, the band scored an audition for the Decca label, which famously passed on signing the future global superstars. But Brian Epstein recognized Mr. Barrow's talents and he hired the talented young writer away, reportedly with the offer of twice the salary he was earning with Decca. Mr. Barrow also wrote features for the fanzine Beatles Monthly, often using a pseudonym or attributed to members of the band, and he penned the liner notes for the first three Beatles albums. He also drew the cartoon featured in the sleeve notes for Magical Mystery Tour. After leaving the Beatles' employ in 1968 (a year after Epstein's death), Mr. Barrow established his own PR firm, where he worked with the likes of the Kinks, the Monkees and the Jackson Five. Mr. Barrow, who survived by his wife, Corrine, and their two sons, also authored a few books on his time with the Beatles, including Meet the Beatles and the memoir John, Paul, George, Ringo & Me - The Real Beatles Story. Posting on Twitter on May 15, Paul McCartney described Mr. Barrow as " a lovely guy who helped us in the early years of The Beatles. He was super professional, but always ready for a laugh... He will be missed but remembered by many of us." - Billboard, 5/15/16...... In other Beatles news, Paul McCartney and Elton John were among those paying their respects to late Beatles producer Sir George Martin at a memorial service in London on May 11. Over 600 mourners attended the service for Martin, dubbed the "fifth Beatle," at St. Martin In The Fields church in Trafalgar Square. McCartney delivered a eulogy praising Martin's impact on the Beatles' music, and James Bay and comedians Alexander Armstrong and Bernard Cribbins performed at the memorial. - New Musical Express, 5/12/16.
Gene Simmons is apologizing for comments he made during a recent interview with Newsweek in which he blamed Prince for ending his own life with drugs and alcohol. "But how pathetic that he killed himself," Simmons told the media outlet. "Don't kid yourself, that's what he did. Slowly, I'll grant you... but that's what drugs and alcohol is: a slow death." Simmons also told Newsweek that he has never been "high or drunk in my life," with the exception of a "dentist's chair where they knock you out." "I can almost understand drinking or getting high if it made my schmeckel bigger, or made me smarter, but nothing happens," he said. After a swift and furious fallout from Prince fans as well as Simmons' own Kiss bandmate Paul Stanley, who described Simmons' remarks as "cold" and "clueless," Simmons took to Twitter to apologize for the outburst, blaming his "big mouth" and admitting he "didn't express myself properly." "I just got such sh-- from my family for my big mouth again. I apologize - I have a long history of getting very angry at what drugs do to the families/friends of the addicts. I get angry at drug users because of my experience being around them coming up in the rock scene," Simmons posted. He also placed some of the blame on reporters who he accused of "quote-mining things l've said in the past and applying it to new situations." "It doesn't make my past quotes any more tactful, but still -- be wary of click bait. The uglier they can make it seem, the more views they will get," he said. - Billboard, 5/11/16...... In related news, the Minnesota House of Representatives has introduced a new bill named the PRINCE Act (Personal Rights in Names Can Endure Act), which would protect usage of a deceased person's likeness -- including their name, image and voice -- for 50 years after the person's death. The May 9 legislation is intended to give extended control to the person's estate, and similar laws already exist in 17 US states. Hearings were set for May 10 and May 11, and the law must be passed within the next two weeks to come into action. Although Prince has no known children, it was recently reported that upwards of 700 people are claiming to be entitled to a share of his estate. Meanwhile, Prince's family members say they are planning an official memorial service "in the near future." In a statement, the family said that "since Prince influenced so many people that we feel inspired to celebrate his life and legacy in just the right way." Prince died on Apr. 21 at his Paisley Park home and recording complex in suburban Minneapolis, and the cause of death remains under investigation. - New Musical Express/AP, 5/10/16...... Ozzy Osbourne's wife Sharon Osbourne has responded to reports about an apparent tiff between her longtime rock star hubby that reportedly caused her to kick him out of their home amid rumors that he had cheated on her with celebrity hairdresser Michelle Pugh, or possibly relapsed back into substance abuse. On May 10 on the CBS morning show The Talk which she co-hosts, Sharon said that she had indeed kicked Ozzy out of the house, but right now "he's back and I'm out of the house." Sharon says although she is still on speaking terms with Ozzy, she hasn't yet decided on her next move. "I don't know where I'm going, who I'm going with," she later told US Weekly. "And I just need time to think. And really think about myself, about what do I really want because I'm 63 years of age and I can't keep living like this," she added. The previous day, Ozzy released a statement saying the disagreement with Sharon had nothing to do with a drug relapse, telling E! News that "I have been sober for three and a quarter years." Osbourne said he still plans to honor a public appearance on May 12, where he's promised a "very special announcement" alongside Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor. Ozzy and Sharon, who have been married almost 34 years, split previously in 2013 when Ozzy's drug and alcohol habits became too much for Sharon, though she took him back after he sought treatment. - Billboard, 5/10/16...... An original UK pressing of David Bowie 1969 self-titled second album (later renamed Space Oddity) has fetched $6,826 (£4,722) in a recent auction on the record collectors' website Discogs.com. "Finding a good copy of the first UK pressing of [Bowie's] album is no easy feat. Is it almost $7k difficult? Maybe not," reads an announcement on the website's blog. The post also noted that the buyer of the record was anonymous: "I'm not sure where this expensive record is going. I don't know who is looking after it now. But I hope, wherever it is, it's being treasured in whatever way the buyer finds appropriate." - NME, 5/11/16...... 
Journey guitarist Neal Schon says he'd have to give serious thought before participating in any Journey induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "After reading and talking to Steve Miller about what went on with him and how it was not a good experience, I don't really care right now one way or the other," Schon recently told Billboard. "I'd have to see what the situation is for real. I'm not about to pay money to anybody to get in anywhere. I would never do that. And at this point there's so many people in there that are not even rock 'n' roll, I don't really care about being in there at all." Miller, who was formally inducted during a ceremony in April, alleges that the organization only provided tickets for he and his wife, and wanted his band members to pay $10,000 a piece to watch the ceremony. "It's not going to make or break my life for who I've come as an artist or a person," Schon added. "I'm like an aspiring artist that needs to move forward and you don't move forward by settling in on what you've attained in your past. I think you're only as good as what you are right now." But Schon acknowledged that Journey is considered by some to be one of the RRHOF's greatest slights, and he would be eager to please the band's many fans. Schon says that [former Journey vocalist] Steve Perry has not wanted to do it until Perry releases his new solo record, which is supposed to come out later in 2016 and he's hearing that Journey is "supposed to get in this year." Meanwhile, Journey is prepping for the kickoff of a summer tour with the Doobie Brothers that gets underway on May 12. The band is also planning a symphonic album, building off a charity concert it performed on June 20, 2015, with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. As for a studio followup to its last album, 2011's Eclipse, Schon says "there's no reason to do it... Nothing is going on in records and you'll never sell any records and you won't get played on the radio.'" - Billboard, 5/9/16...... AC/DC performed with its new frontman Axl Rose for the first time on May 7 in Lisbon, Portugal. Kicking off with "Rock Or Bust," the Aussie headbangers plowed through a 22-song setlist that also included the first live performance of "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation" for 13 years and "Riff Raff," which hasn't been played since 1996. Axl Rose, who is recovering from a recent leg injury which also affected his planned Guns N' Roses reunion shows, performed seated on a "throne." The band currently has 12 European live dates booked in for May and June, including two UK shows in London on June 4 and Manchester on June 9. Rose will then rejoin Guns N' Roses for their "Not In This Lifetime" North American tour, which runs from June 23 - Aug. 22. - New Musical Express, 5/8/16...... Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band announced on May 9 that they'll be extending their summer The River tour into the fall. Eight additional dates in August and September, including East Rutherford, N.J. (8/23, 25), Chicago (8/28), Washington, D.C. (9/1), Virginia Beach, Va. (9/3), Philadelphia (9/7), and Pittsburgh (9/11) will be played, before the tour wraps on Sept. 14 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. The band's recent 36 dates grossed $75,956,686, with 581,619 national ticket sales. Before then, it will play a string of European dates, which kick off May 14 in Barcelona. - Billboard, 5/9/16...... The Who vocalist Roger Daltrey announced on May 9 that the band plans to lauch a limited edition champagne to mark the band's 50th anniversary. The bubbly, entitled Champagne Cuve Roger Daltrey, will be available to purchase beginning in June for £95, with a percentage of the proceeds will go to Teen Cancer America, which was founded by the band. "I am very excited to have this opportunity to express my passion for champagne through this limited edition cuve. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do," Daltrey said. A limited-edition ice bucket, made by L'Orfvrerie d'Anjou, will also be made available. Like the bottle itself, the buckets are moulded and decorated with The Who bullseye as well as Daltrey's signature. The champagne ice bucket is available in ten colours in a limited edition, each of which is numbered and priced at £650. More information can be found at Eminent-life.com. - NME, 5/9/16...... Neil Young launched his new live album 
After fans of The Doors marked up a scenic cave on the California coast with psychedelic graffiti, authorities have closed the cave indefinitely for cleanup. The trend began with a social media myth that late Doors frontman Jim Morrison wrote songs in Corral Canyon Cave in Malibu Creek State Park, and although the popular hiking spot always had some vandalism, it has recently spiraled out of control and the cave now looks almost tie-dyed with multicolored swirls inside and out. Doors lyrics such as "love me 2 times" and "try to set the night on fire" are scrawled on its walls. There also are declarations like "Use your third eye" and "Try LSD," along with more crude tags. "It exploded over last summer, and graffiti has been increasing ever since," California State Parks District Superintendent Craig Sap says. "People are posting pictures of the cave 30 or 40 times a day." The now-closed cave will be blasted with walnut shells, which will clean off the graffiti without damaging the rock walls. The cleanup will cost $40,000, and there's no word on when hikers can head back to it. Sap added that it is a misdemeanor to go to the cave, with a fine of nearly $400, and a felony to spray-paint on it. - AP, 5/6/16...... Evidence relating to claims of sex abuse by British pop singer Cliff Richard have reportedly been passed from police to prosecutors, according to the UK paper The Guardian. Richard, 75, had been interviewed "under caution" by authorities in 2014 following allegations of a sex crime involving a young boy in the 1980s, but he was not arrested or charged. The "Devil Woman" singer was then interviewed again in 2015 year by police investigating alleged sexual assaults. Richard has denied any wrongdoing, and described the allegations as "absurd and untrue." - NME, 5/10/16..... Scott Bennett, a keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist known for his work with Brian Wilson, was convicted of rape by instrumentation and sexual battery on Apr. 29 after a week-long trial at Rogers County District Court in Claremore, Okla. Bennett was found guilty of raping a then 21-year-old woman at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa in December 2014. Video footage described by the prosecutor as "very, very disturbing" was shown to the jury during the trial. The jury has recommended a two-year sentence for the sexual battery charge and three-year sentence for rape by instrumentation, and Bennett's attorney Shannon McMurray has said her client, who has denied sexual intercourse occurred, intends to appeal the conviction. Bennett has worked with Brian Wilson since 1998, touring live with the Beach Boys legend as well as co-writing and co-producing his solo albums. His latest recording credit was on Wilson's 2015 album No Pier Pressure. - NME, 5/9/16...... Blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa will perform a free "invitation only" concert at the legendary Cavern Club venue in Liverpool on June 27, as a "thank you" to all the fans that have helped his career grow from playing small clubs to sold-out arena tours worldwide. Bonamassa will pay homage to the music of such fellow guitar legends as Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page during an intimate concert in front of 300 people. He'll be previewing material that he will perform at five special concerts in the UK this July -- in Lancashire (7/2), Glasgow (7/3), Bristol (7/5), Greenwich (7/7) and Nottinghamshire (7/8). "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me," Bonamassa says. "I'm so excited to be performing the British Blues Explosion concerts for very first time at the Cavern Club, the same venue where the Beatles first played. It's the perfect venue for me to showcase the music of Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Page. I hope my fans will get a kick out of it as much as I do." - Noble PR, 5/9/16...... 
Veteran character actor William Schallert, best known as the dad on The Patty Duke Show, died on May 8 in Pacific Palisades, Calif. He was 93. A familar face to TV and movie fans across several generations, Mr. Schallert also appeared in such sitcoms and series as The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Leave It to Beaver, The Waltons, The Twilight Zone, The Wild Wild West, Get Smart and Hawaii Five-O. He also earned a spot in the Star Trek hall of fame for his role as Nilz Baris in the popular episode from the original series, "The Trouble with Tribbles." Mr. Schallert later turned up as Baris in the Deep Space Nine hour Trials and Tribble-ations, and then in another guest star role as Varani in the DS9 episode Sanctuary. But his role as patriarch Martin Lane on the popular 1960s sitcom The Patty Duke Show was among his most memorable, and it landed him on TV Guide's 2004 list of the 50 Greatest TV Dads. Born on July 6, 1922, Mr. Schallert began his career with film roles in the 1940s and worked fairly consistently through 2014, appearing in recent shows including 2 Broke Girls, Desperate Housewives, How I Met Your Mother and My Name is Earl. Most recently, he appeared on shows like True Blood, in which he played Mayor Norris. Mr. Schallert was the head of the Screen Actors Guild from 1979-1981, also establishing the committee for Performers with Disabilities during his time in office. He is survived by his wife Leah Waggner and their four children. - CNN, 5/9/16.
Speaking of Steven Tyler, the Aerosmith frontman wowed a sold-out crowd at Lincoln Center in New York on May 2 with a hit-packed set entitled "Steven Tyler... Out on a Limb." Two days later, Tyler announced the dates for his upcoming 19-city summer North American tour of the same name. The outing kicks off on July 2 with a show at the Venetian Theater in Las Vegas, also visiting such cities as Los Angeles (7/5), Seattle (7/8), Vancouver, B.C. (7/10), San Francisco (7/14), Phoenix (7/2), and Denver (7/23). The tour will wrap Sept. 13 at Toronto's Sony Centre for the Performing Arts. - Billboard, 5/4/16...... The Philly soul songwriting team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff are set to be honored on May 6 in Nashville, Tenn., as part of the National Museum of African American Music's "My Music Matters" Week celebration. At a gathering at Warner Music Nashville the previous evening, the duo described how they approached songwriting. "We'd just sit down every day and just talk and laugh," Kenny Gamble said. "And something might come up where we're looking at the news (and one of us would say), 'The world is so crazy, they need a love train.' Then we'd say, 'Uh oh! We got one!' So then we'd go to the piano and stomp it out." As the songwriting and production partners at Philadelphia International Records, Gamble and Huff are responsible for more than 800 mostly R&B cuts, including such classics as "Love Train," "Me and Mrs. Jones," "For the Love of Money" and "If You Don't Me By Now," and it has been estimated their music is played every 13.5 minutes somewhere in the world. - Billboard, 5/5/16...... Neil Young was among the headliners on the final day of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on May 1. As it had during much of the festival, rain bogged down much of day seven of the festival at Fair Grounds Race Course, with Young and his backing band Promise of the Real appearing at 3:15 p.m. After ten minutes of jamming out, Young played his first song, "F--kin' Up," from his 1990 LP Ragged Glory with Crazy Horse. Other numbers included the live favorites "Love and Only Love" and "Keep On Rockin' in the Free World" before the finale, "Powderfinger." Also appearing were Mavis Staples and the event's annual closing act, Trombone Shorty. - Billboard, 5/2/16...... The planned three-day fall concert extravaganza in Indio, Calif., featuring such acts as the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and the Who has been given a name, Desert Trip, and if it sells out as expected it could rake in a $50 million box-office gross. Set for Oct. 7-9 at the site of the Coachella festival, Desert Trip has a reported talent budget of over $35 million, with each day's show scheduled to start at sunset and feature a stadium-level set from each act. On the revenue side, reserved ticket prices for all three nights of the self-proclaimed "concert of the century" range from $699 to $1,599, and sources say there will be 30,000 reserved seats and 40,000 general-admission tickets, with the latter priced at $399. In early May, Dylan, McCartney, the Stones, the Who and Roger Waters all posted videos on their respective sites, making a cryptic reference to "October." The top headliners on the bill are guaranteed as much as $7 million each, with the possibility of a second weekend still being discussed. - Billboard, 5/5/16...... 
James Taylor helped commemorate the 125th anniversary of NYC's Carnegie Hall on May 5 by coheadlining a gala concert at the revered venue that also included performances by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman and singer/pianist Michael Feinstein. Taylor admitted he didn't remember his first Carnegie Hall gig some 40 years ago because "we celebrated...That's why I don't remember it that well," but it was "sort of cultural sign" that he had reached a certain level of stardom. The 68-year-old singer-songwriter sang the George Harrison-penned "Here Comes the Sun" accompanied by Yo-Yo Ma and paid tribute to Prince when he inserted "purple" before "rain" in "Shower the People." - Billboard, 5/6/16...... Sony/ATV, the current music publisher of the Beatles, has licensed a song by the Fab Four for use in China for the first time ever. The band's "Hey Jude" appears in Yesterday Once More, a coming-of-age film from noted Chinese director Yao Tingting. The nearly four-minute synch, which features the two Chinese leads singing the 1968 classic in English, commanded a six-figure sum, believed to be one of the highest fees ever paid for usage in China. Sony/ATV exec Esther Friedman noted that since the film is aimed at a younger demographic with its story of high school friends grappling with the complexities of first loves, it can help introduce the Beatles' music to a new audience. "That always plays into the decision," she adds. "It was a compelling reason to say yes to this one." - Billboard, 5/5/16...... In other Beatles-related news, Paul McCartney met two African American women who helped inspire his 1968 "The White Album" track "Blackbird" for the first time in Little Rock, Ark., where his One On One U.S. played on Apr. 30. Thelma Mothershed Wair, and her friend Elizabeth Eckford, were members of the "Little Rock Nine" who were enrolled at the previously all-white Little Rock Central High School in 1957 after the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The nine were initially prevented from entering the school when Arkansas' governor, Orval Faubus, called out the National Guard to block them before Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower sent federal troops to ensure they could attend classes. The students were credited with introducing a young McCartney to the civil rights struggle and inspiring the poignant lyrics to "Blackbird." "Incredible to meet two of the Little Rock Nine--pioneers of the civil rights movement and inspiration for Blackbird. pic.twitter.com/QrnOQnqrFX," McCartney posted on Twitter on May 1. As Paul's tour visited Minneapolis on May 4, the Beatles legend paid tribute to Prince by covering "Let's Go Crazy" in the late music icon's hometown. During the first gig of a two-night stand at the Target Center, Macca told the crowd, "Thank you Minneapolis, thank you Prince," after ripping off a double-time version of "Let's Go Crazy" in front of a projection of Prince's iconic love symbol. Earlier in the show McCartney announced he was dedicating the show to Prince and described spending New Year's Eve with the "Purple Rain" singer at a show in St. Barts. "I've been a fan of Prince's a long time, and I've been to many of his concerts in London," McCartney said. "But I was very lucky this New Year's Eve. He played a little show in a little club, and I happened to be there, so we saw the new year in together. It was beautiful. God bless you, Prince!" - Billboard, 5/2/16...... Meanwhile, Prince's 1984 song "Purple Rain" has topped Billboard's Hot Rock Songs chart for the week dated May 14 after his unexpected Apr. 21 passing. Other Prince songs also appear in the top 10, including "When Doves Cry" (No. 2), "Little Red Corvette" (No. 4), "Let's Go Crazy" (No. 5), "Darling Nikki" (No. 9) and his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony rendition of the Beatles's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (No. 10). Prince has also set a record on the Billboard charts by being the first act to concurrently chart five albums in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 200 since the list merged its previously separate mono and stereo albums charts into one overall list in 1963. The artist is found at Nos. 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7 with The Very Best of Prince, Purple Rain, The Hits/The B-Sides, Ultimate and 1999, respectively. In total, Prince has a record 19 albums on the list. - Billboard, 5/5/16...... A new documentary based on music mogul Clive Davis's 2013 New York Times-bestselling memoir The Soundtrack of My Life will feature contributions from such artists as Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Pattie Smith and the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir. A sneak peak of Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives was presented in the form of a 10-minute reel of early footage from the film on Apr. 16 at New York's Cutting Room during a first-ever Arista Records reunion party of artists Davis had signed when he helmed the label. "It's very special to see because I didn't know who [would participate] in the film," Davis, 84, said at the event. - Billboard, 5/5/16...... 
Pink Floyd announced on May 6 that they will reissue their entire back catalog on vinyl this summer, starting in June with the first four full-length Floyd LPs (1967's 
An attorney for rock & roll legend Little Richard is denying recent rumors on the Internet that the 83-year-old singer is in poor health and "clinging to life." "I just spoke to him today," Little Richard's attorney William Sobel told Rolling Stone. "He said, 'You know, I want you to talk to [the press] because I'm really annoyed. This thing started on Facebook. Not only is my family not gathering around me because I'm ill, but I'm still singing. I don't perform like I used to, but I have my singing voice, I walk around, I had hip surgery a while ago but I'm healthy.'" Little Richard, who was inducted into the first ever Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, has taken a step back from the limelight recently and hasn't performed live in the past two years. Also, his friend Bootsy Collins had posted on Facebook that Richard was "not in the best of health" and that he "needs our love [and] understanding right now." - NME, 5/4/16...... Dolly Parton has announced she plans to renew her vows to husband Carl Dean on the couple's 50th wedding anniversary on May 30 in the kind of ceremony the two couldn't afford the first time around. As the story goes, Parton met Dean in a Wishy Washy Laundromat on the day that Parton moved to Nashville in 1964. The two were married in Ringgold, Ga., on May 30, 1966, with only Parton's mother as a witness. Although the couple have rarely been photographed together through the years, Parton always has maintained that the two have a good marriage and Dean is simply a private person with no interest in the spotlight. Dean ran his own asphalt paving business in Nashville and rarely attended Parton's public events. Parton, who turned 70 in January, plans to sell the photos of her "wearing a beautiful wedding dress" as part of a benefit for her charity, the Imagination Library, which gives books to children each month. - USA Today, 5/5/16...... The producers of Sesame Street have threatened to send a cease and desist letter to a company for featuring Bert and Ernie in STD awareness ads. Mately, which sells at-home kits for HIV and STD testing, featured the chummy duo in an ad campaign, and the Sesame Street makers say this is an unauthorized use of their famous puppets. The company responded saying it "got the message loud and clear" and has now removed all Bert and Ernie images from its site. "There was no intent to tarnish the Sesame Street brand," it said. Previously, Sesame Street has already had to clarify that Bert and Ernie are not gay and "do not have a sexual orientation." - Jezebel.com, 5/4/16.