Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on October 9th, 2018

Cher has just tied her solo-career best ranking on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart as her new LP Dancing Queen debuted at No. 3 for the week ending Oct. 13, and it is also the top-selling album of the week with 150,000 copies sold. Dancing Queen also earned the biggest sales week of 2018 for a pop album by a female artist, and it is the diva's largest sales week since Nielsen Music began electronically tracking music sales in 1991. Dancing Queen -- comprised entirely of ABBA covers -- bowed with 153,000 units, of which 150,000 are in album sales. Cher also reached No. 3 with her previous studio set, 2013's Closer to the Truth, and the singer was also one-half of Sonny & Cher, who peaked at No. 2 on the chart in 1965 with Look at Us. - Billboard, 10/7/18...... On Oct. 9 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced 15 nominees for induction into its 2019 Rock Hall class. The Cure, Def Leppard, Devo, Janet Jackson, John Prine, Kraftwerk, LL Cool J, MC5, Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Roxy Music, Stevie Nicks, Todd Rundgren, Rufus & Chaka Kahn and The Zombies are the candidates up for induction at the Rock Hall's 2019 induction ceremony, set for March 29, 2019 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. Nine of the 15 artists have been nominated before, with hip-hop star LL Cool J and electronic pioneers Kraftwerk having been nominated four times before each, and influential '60s U.K. rockers the Zombies having seen three previous nominations. First-time nominees include hard rock hitmakers Def Leppard, Fleetwood Mac singer Nicks, new wave icons Devo, art-rockers Roxy Music, folk hero Prine, and the enigmatic studio whiz-kid Rundgren. Not a single one of the 15 acts nominated were acts eligible for the first time, despite such major names as Beck, Sheryl Crow and OutKast all being newly eligible for induction. Radiohead, Nicks, Jackson, The Zombies, Def Leppard, Rage Against the Machine and MC5 are said to be among the most likely inductees for 2019. The RRHOF Class of 2019 is decided by an international body of more than 1,000 voting members, however fans can impact the vote by going to www.RockHall.com and casting a ballot (one a day) for the artist they think needs to be in the Hall's ranks. Voting starts Oct. 9 and goes through Dec. 9, 11:59 pm ET. The top 5 artists the public selects will comprise a "fans' ballot" that is tallied along with the other ballots. Fans can also vote in-person at the Rock Hall in Cleveland. Tickets for the induction ceremony will go on sale in January. - Billboard, 10/9/18...... The Eagles announced on Oct. 4 they'll extend their 2019 world tour down under with five dates in Australia and New Zealand, beginning with a Feb. 26 show at Auckland's Spark Arena. The California country-rockers will then play the NZ south island city of Dunedin for a date March 2 at Forsyth Barr Stadium. The band then heads west to Oz, performing in Melbourne (Mar. 5 at Rod Laver Arena), Brisbane (Mar. 9 at the Entertainment Centre) and wrapping in Sydney (Mar. 13 at Qudos Bank Arena). The leg marks the band's first visit to Australia and NZ in four years. Meanwhile, on Nov. 2 the band releases Legacy, and new box set that will include all seven of the band's studio albums, three live albums, and a compilation of singles and B-sides. - Billboard, 10/4/18...... In other Eagles-related news, guitarist Joe Walsh and his wife Marjorie were honored on Oct. 8 by the nonprofit group "Facing Addiction with NCADD" for the couple's support of the recovery movement and their efforts to raise awareness about drug and alcohol abuse. Walsh, sober for 25 years, and Marjorie told the audience of their own stories of alcohol and drug dependence, with Joe reminiscing about his rocky childhood in the 1950s struggling against what are now recognized as attention-deficit disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Asperger's syndrome. "There was no awareness of what that was. ... You were just difficult. I was difficult," the 69-year-old rocker said. "I was different that way from the other kids, and because of that I was terrified. I was truly terrified because I felt stupid and alone and that nobody understood. ... In my late teenage years I tried to play guitar in front of some people and I couldn't do it. I was so scared. I could not do it. I hyperventilated. I started shaking. I started crying." Walsh said he chose to drop the traditional anonymity of AA members to help others, and because "most of the world knew I was a mess anyway." Walsh and his wife, who is the sister of Ringo Starr's wife Barbara Bach Starkey, helped launch Facing Addiction on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 2015. Ringo and Barbara were also in attendance at the event, which featured entertainment from Walsh, Eagles member Vince Gill, and former Doobie Brothers member Michael McDonald. The Walshes were presented with the Adele C. Smithers Humanitarian Award, named for a longtime advocate of the cause and a former board member of the NCADD. - AP, 10/9/18...... After the new Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody recently premiered in London and San Francisco, the first reactions to the long awaited film have been shared online. There appears to be a lot of love for Rami Malek's turn as iconic Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, even if the film itself isn't entirely spectacular. "Bohemian Rhapsody is a straight-on biopic with plenty of Queen music and a strong performance by Rami Malek", tweeted IndieWire's critic Anne Thompson. "It will get mixed reviews. It might play with audiences," she added. New York Times reviewer Kyle Buchanan posted that "Bohemian Rhapsody is a glorified Wikipedia entry but Rami Malek plays Freddie Mercury (and wears his wonderful costumes) with incredible gusto," with critic Wolf Mantz gushing, "HOLY HELL!! #BohemianRhapsody is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!! A rousing emotional cinematic champion that will rock you!" Meanwhile, a teaser video was released in late September that showed the extensive training undertaken by Malek as he prepared to become Mercury. The film will be officially released on Oct. 24. - New Musical Express, 10/8/18...... After announcing on Oct. 6 that he was canceling a concert that night at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Calif., due to surgery for an infection in his hand, Ozzy Osbourne released a presser on Oct. 8 saying he will be postponing two additional shows as he recovers. Osbourne has also rescheduled his Oct. 9 show at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre in Chula Vista and his Oct. 11 concert the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Those shows will now occur Oct. 15 at the Hollywood Bowl and Oct. 18 at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre. The Mountain View show was previously rescheduled for Oct. 16, but will now be held on Oct. 20 at Shoreline Amphitheatre. Tickets for the rescheduled concerts will be honored at the new dates. Refunds are also available at the point of purchase. Ozzy's North American "No More Tours 2" tour will resume in Las Vegas on Oct. 13 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. - Billboard, 10/8/18...... Paul McCartney treated fans a the 17th annual Austin City Limits Festival to a historic headlining set on Oct. 5. Sir Paul performed only two tracks from his latest chart-topping album Egypt Station: the piano-pounding stomp-and-shouter "Come On to Me" (sandwiched by Wings' "Letting Go" and "Let Me Roll It") and "Fuh You." His 31 career-spanning tunes also included 19 classic Beatles tracks, and one obscure track from the Fab Four precursors The Quarrymen, the simple yet lovely acoustic ballad "In Spite of All the Danger." McCartney is also scheduled to play the second weekend at the long-running U.S. festival, and his perfomance was said to have drawn the biggest crowd in its entire history, save for Willie Nelson's 2016 show. Also performing during this year's festival are Metallica, David Byrne, Arctic Monkeys, Deftones, St. Vincent, the National and Greta Van Fleet. - Billboard, 10/6/18...... In other Beatles-related news, a new John Lennon box set entitled Imagine: The Ultimate Collection dropped on Oct. 5. The release is by far the most extensive of all the Imagine reissues, spanning four CDs and two Blu-Ray discs in a visually arresting, Yoko Ono-curated package. "This is it for Imagine, as far as I can imagine," engineer Paul Hicks says with a chuckle. "There's nothing else. We've gone through all the tapes." - Billboard, 10/4/18...... Elsewhere on the Fab Four front, the legendary AIR Studios in London whiich was originally founded by Beatles producer Sir George Martin in 1969 has just been sold to a Russian investor for an undisclosed sum. The studio was put up for sale earlier this year by its owners Richard Boote and Paul Woolf, both aged in their late 60s, who wanted to pass it on to someone younger who could grow the business. The new owner is rumored to be Maxim Demin, a Russian businessman who has fully owned British Premier League soccer club Bournemouth since 2013. Woolf says the new owner was committed to investing in the business and preserving AIR's status as one of the world's premier recording facilities. Originally founded by Martin in 1969 and based at Lyndhurst Hall since 1991, AIR studios has been used by some of the biggest names in music with Paul McCartney, Adele, Coldplay, U2, Muse, George Michael, Kate Bush, Liam Gallagher, David Gilmour, Mumford & Sons, Scott Walker and Katy Perry among the many world famous artists to have recorded there. - Billboard, 10/4/18...... Former Journey principal Steve Perry released his first solo album in almost 25 years, Traces, on Oct. 5 via Fantasy Records. Traces features the previously released tracks "No More Cryin'," "No Erasin'," and "We're Still Here," as well as a heavenly cover of the Beatles' "I Need You." "My new life... is going to be about recording anything that comes to my heart because I've rediscovered the passion for music and it's something I don't want to let go of ever again," Perry recently told NPR's "All Things Considered." - Billboard, 10/5/18...... A new 38-track, 2-CD Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers hits collection called The Best of Everything - The Definitive Career Spanning Hits Collection will drop Nov. 16 via Geffen Records. The release includes all of Petty's hits with the Heartbreakers, his solo work, and his early work with Mudcrutch, with liner notes from award-winning screenwriter, director and journalist Cameron Crowe - Billboard, 10/5/18...... Bette Midler has issued an apology after tweeting the title of the controversial John Lennon/Yoko Ono song "Women Are the (N-Word) of the World" in response to the recent controversial nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. "The too brief investigation of allegations against Kavanaugh infuriated me," Midler posted on Oct. 5. "Angrily I tweeted w/o thinking my choice of words would be enraging to black women who doubly suffer, both by being women and by being black. I am an ally and stand with you; always have. And I apologize." The quote received an influx of criticism that claimed Midler was undermining the historical struggles of black women and systematic oppression. In a since deleted tweet, following the quote, Midler wrote that women are "Raped, beaten, enslaved, married off, worked like dumb animals; denied education and inheritance; enduring the pain and danger of childbirth and life IN SILENCE for THOUSANDS of years They are the most disrespected creatures on earth." - Billboard, 10/5/18...... Rod Stewart has scored his ninth U.K. solo No. 1 album with his latest LP Blood Red Roses. Stewart's new album beat out Cher's new release Dancing Queen for the top spot on the latest U.K. Official Charts Company survey, which he first topped in 1971 with Every Picture Tells a Story. Stewart's new Blood Red Roses set logged 41,000 combined units on the chart. The 13-track collection is Stewart's 30th studio album. - Billboard, 10/5/18...... Among the revelations in the upcoming Tina Turner autobiography My Love Story is that the famed rock/soul singer once considered assisted suicide before undergoing a secret kidney transplant. Turner writes the several attempts to treat her high blood pressure with homeopathic treatments led to her kidneys functioning at just 20 per cent. She says she was then urged by doctors to start dialysis, as the chances of her receiving a kidney were "extremely low," but the "Private Dancer" singer says she refused to live on a machine and thought about assisted suicide -- which is legal in her home country of Switzerland where she lives with her husband Erwin Bach -- and signed up to be a member of Exit, an assisted dying organization. "I couldn't eat. I was surviving, but not living," the 78-year-old Turner wrote in the excerpt published by Britain's Daily Mail newspaper. "I began to think about death. If my kidneys were going, and it was time for me to die, I could accept that. It was OK. When it's time, it's really time. I didn't mind the thought of dying, but I was concerned about how I would go," she added. Turner said it was then that her husband and German music executive Bach, who she married in 2013, offered up his own kidney. "He said he didn't want another woman, or another life," Turner wrote. "Then he shocked me. He said he wanted to give me one of his kidneys." The operation went ahead in April of 2017, and the Grammy award-winning singer is "revelling in the sheer joy of being alive" after the generous gift from her husband. Bach is now fully recovered after the operation, however Turner says she must continue to take strong doses of immunosuppressants to prevent her body from rejecting the new organ. My Love Story hits bookstores on Oct. 16. - WENN/Canoe.com, 10/6/18...... On Oct. 8 the BBC announced details of a new David Bowie documentary, The First Five Years. The film follows the 2013 Bowie doc Five Years, which told the story of Bowie's creative peak between "Ziggy Stardust" and the end of his "Berlin period," and The Last Five Years, which gave insight into his final work on The Next Day and Blackstar. The new film will relive the period before the iconic star shot to fame and features exclusive interviews with Bowie's first cousin and lifelong-friend Kristina Amadeus, former girlfriend and muse Hermione Farthingale, producer Tony Visconti, and Woody Woodmansey, the last remaining Spider from Mars, among others. The documentary will air on BBC Two in 2019, while the BBC have confirmed that they'll also be televising Bowie's full Glastonbury 2000 performance for the first time later in October in conjunction with a release of a David Bowie - Glastonbury 2000 reissue on Nov. 30. A new box set of Bowie's '80s material, Loving The Alien, will be released on Oct. 12. - New Musical Express, 10/8/18...... Grammy-winning producer Quincy Jones is set to be honored with a "Legendary Genius Honor" at Spotify.com's Secret Genius Awards on Nov. 16 at The Theatre at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles. "It has been absolutely incredible to have collaborated with so many different artists throughout the last seven decades and it is an absolute honor to have been chosen as a recipient of the Legendary Genius Honor," Jones said in response to the news. "Thank-Q Spotify, and I hope my work will serve as an inspiration to the next generation of creators," he added. Spotify's Secret Genius Awards are made up of 14 categories and include Songwriter of the Year, Producer of the Year, Breakthrough of the Year, Social Message and more. Additional presenters and performers for the event will be announced at a later date. - Billboard, 10/5/18.

As predicted, Earth, Wind & Fire's 1978 hit "September" has returned to the Billboard Digital Song Sales chart after the "21st... of September," which is included in its opening lyric. The song's 9,000 downloads helped it debut at No. 26 on the chart, marking a 215% surge, in the week ending Sept. 27, according to Nielsen Music. "September" has also concurrently hit No. 1 on the R&B Digital Song Sales chart for the first time, leaping from No. 10, and re-entered the R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales chart at No. 10, a new peak. Not surprisingly, "September" saw its sharpest gains on Sept. 21, when it sold 5,000 downloads, a 788% increase from the day before. A post on Earth, Wind & Fire's official Twitter account included a poll on Sept. 21 asking their followers, simply, "Do you remember?" Of the half-million users who responded, 88% replied "yes." "September" originally peaked on the Hot 100 at No. 8 in Feb. 1979, after spending a week at No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. - Billboard, 10/3/18...... The producers of a new musical based on the life of legendary soul singer Tina Turner announced on Oct. 3 that "Tina: The Tina Turner Musical" will be heading to Broadway in the fall of 2019. "Tina," which premiered in London in April, has continued to play to sold-out houses. "Tina," presented with the cooperation of Turner herself, follows the singer as she rises from humble beginnings and triumphs over adversity to become one of the world's most successful singers. "Bringing this musical to life on stage and working with this team has meant so much to me, I feel that it is in many ways a culmination of my career," she said in a statement. "London audiences have been and continue to be extraordinary. Now, the bright lights of Broadway are calling, and I'm very excited to share this beautiful show with New York audiences next year," she added. Turner is currently played by Tony-nominated actress Adrienne Warren. Casting, performance dates, and the venue for the Broadway "Tina" will be announced at a later date. - Billboard, 10/3/18...... In related news, a play by Conor McPherson based on and including songs by Bob Dylan which opened in London in the fall of 2017 is now playing at The Public Theater in New York. "Girl from North Country" is described as a mysterious and dark story, populated by characters that could have walked out of Dylan songs, and set in the 1930s in Duluth, Minn., where the rock bard himself was born. The play is about the father of a baby carried by Marianne, a young African-American woman who was abandoned by her own parents and adopted by Nick and Elizabeth Laine, who own the boarding house where the play is set. The first two songs the audience hears are two lesser known Dylan tunes called "Sign on the Window" and "Went to See the Gypsy" from his album New Morning, so the play is hardly a "jukebox musical" in the vein of "Mamma Mia!" - Billboard, 10/2/18...... Meanwhile, a musical based on the director Cameron Crowe's '70s retro film Almost Famous is being turned into a stage musical, it was announced on Sept. 25. Tony-winning composer Tom Kitt ("Next to Norma"l) will provide the score, while Crowe will pen the book for the stage adaptation of his 2000 Oscar-winning film, coming-of-age story of a 15-year-old music enthusiast named William (played by Patrick Fugit), who scores a life-changing assignment at Rolling Stone magazine. The film, which also featured Kate Hudson in a career-making role as a groupie, won Crowe an Oscar for best screenplay, and Hudson and Francis McDormand, who played William's mother, were both nominated in the best supporting actress category. Crowe will also co-write the lyrics to the musical with Kitt. So far, there is no official word on casting or a timeline, though the production team suggests the show is Broadway-bound. - The Hollywood Reporter, 9/25/18...... In Twitter post on Oct. 1, Mick Jagger confirmed that he's working on some new music. Jagger shared a photo of his guitar along with the caption: "Writing lyrics #newmusic." The post comes after Jagger shared an earlier post in September with himself playing "new tunes" accompanied by his harmonica. Whatever that new music is would mark Jagger's first release since the 2017 double-sided single release "Gotta Get a Grip"/"England Lost," responding to the anxiety and instability in a post-Brexit U.K. The Rolling Stones have not released new, original music since A Bigger Bang in 2005. In 2016, they released Blue & Lonesome, an album of old blues covers. - Billboard, 10/2/18...... Elvis Costello has commented on his recent cancer scare, which forced him to cancel six tour dates in July while he recovered. "I went back on the road a bit too early -- I didn't leave enough time to get my energy back," he says. The 64-year-old New Wave icon continued: "The English tabloids chose to make it sound as if I was in some sort of mortal struggle. It was my choice to initially be private about this, because I didn't want to have to worry my 91-year-old mother or my 11-year-old twin boys. It has taken until I just [recently] visited England to get it straight. This, thankfully, was a relatively joyful thing to be able to say: 'I'm fine.' And all of the people writing to me that have never met me [is] fantastic. I couldn't be happier to know that people care." Costello reteamed with his go-to band The Imposters for a new LP, Look Now, out Oct. 12. - Billboard, 10/2/18...... Musicians around the world took time to pay homage to iconic rocker Tom Petty on Oct. 2, the one-year anniversary of his death. John Fogerty, The Lumineers and Eddie Vedder are just a sample of artists who posted one-of-a-kind renditions of Petty songs, exclusive covers, and heartwarming posts on the internet as they remember the rocker's music, legacy and impact on the rock world. "Tom Petty was truly as good as it gets. The pain we feel from his loss is indescribable, but lucky for us the music will love on forever!," John Fogerty posted on his Twitter account, while The Lumineers released a stripped-down version of Petty's "Walls." During his annual Ohana Fest in California on Sept. 28, Eddie Vedder took the time to pay tribute to Petty by covering both the iconic 1989 "Won't Back Down" and "Wildflowers" alongside the Heartbreaker's own Scott Thurston. A new Petty box set curated by Petty's daughter Adria and wife Dana, An American Treasure, was released on Sept. 28. The Pettys say that future posthumous releases of Tom's music could include more studio rarities and 15 years of recorded live shows, including a legendary 20-song stand at Fillmore West. - Billboard, 10/2/18...... Joe Strummer 001, a fascinating new release of the late The Clash singer's uneven solo music career, will drop on Oct. 5. Strummer's solo career, which he never wanted, began in 1986 after the Clash disbanded and ended in 1999, when he formed The Mescaleros. It finds Strummer creatively adrift, bouncing from one obscure movie soundtrack to the next, and for a while dropping off the map altogether. Joe Strummer 001, which shows Strummer's California drivers license photo on the front, will also be released as a 2-disc deluxe edition and a 4 LP vinyl edition. - Billboard, 9/28/18...... Lindsey Buckingham was the musical guest on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Oct. 1, and the former Fleetwood Mac singer/guitarist rocked host Jimmy Kimmel and the audience with a rendition of "Soul Drifter" from his upcoming Solo Anthology - The Best of Lindsey Buckingham, which hits stores on Oct. 5. He also performed his solo hit "Trouble," which maintained the laid-back vibe of the original recording. - Billboard, 10/2/18...... Neil Young and his backing band Promise of the Real played the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y. on Sept. 27 as part of a sort of mini-tour after Young's Sept. 22 set at Farm Aid. The set started out with Young exploring some of hiss lesser-known songs and even took some detours into Promise of the Real's material, but by the end of the show, Young and the band were jamming like a slightly more countrified Crazy Horse. Young opened with Harvest's "Out on the Weekend," then got mellow with "World on a String" "Albuquerque," and "Speakin' Out" -- the last of which he played on piano. He closed with "Ohio," a ferocious "Rockin' in the Free World," and an encore of "Mansion on the Hill," with its apt chorus -- "psychedelic music fills the air." - Billboard, 9/28/18...... Renowned Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz has released a new tell-all autobiography, Who Is Michael Ovitz?, which includes a story about how one of his clients, Michael Jackson, once wanted to become the first black James Bond. Ovitz says he struggled to take the King of Pop seriously during a meal at his L.A. home when Jackson's iconic black hat fell in a dish of guacamole. Jackson, Ovitz says, became engraged and stalked off, but after listening to Jackson once more, Ovitz says he had to let him down gently -- admitting that he was "thinly built, you're too sensitive, you won't be credible as a brutal block of stone." Although Jackson's Bond ambition was never realised, he went on to star in a variety of big screen roles throughout his career -- including leading roles in The Wiz and Captain EO. - New Musical Express, 10/2/18......After bowing out of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band in 2017, Todd Rundgren has announced he'll play three all-star David Bowie tribute shows, joining former Bowie guitarist Adrian Belew, Fishbone's Angelo Moore, Paul Dempsey and others on Oct. 3 in Los Angeles and Oct. 7-8 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Rundgren say the latter locale is part of the reason he signed on to sing "Life On Mars," "Changes" and more during the week. I like doing these kinds of events where I get to play with other musicians, some of whom I do not know, and that's part of the fun of it -- and the fact we're going to Iceland, which I've never been to before and would like to see," Rundgren says. "It's kind of a no-brainer in some ways." Rundgren says he saw Bowie and his Spiders From Mars' first show at New York's Radio City Music Hall and struck up a friendship with Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson after he took up residence in Rundgren's hometown of Woodstock, N.Y. "David and I were never pals hanging out and talking or anything like that," Rundgren recalls, "but I would run into him on occasion at Max's Kansas City and things like that." Keyboardist Roger Powell from Rundgren's '70s band Utopia also played with Bowie later in the decade with Belew, "so you can see there's all kinds of little threads that sort of tie it together." Rundgren says his leaving Starr's band is "kind of a relief." "This one stayed together for a long time, but after six or so years of doing it and play substantially the same set every night I was ready to move on and I think it was probably good for the band as well to get some other players in there so they could work on some other material," he says. Rundgren did, however, reunite Utopia for a spring tour earlier in 2018, which although he says was satisfying is unlikely to happen again. Rundgren is also currently playing his own shows and has contributed to new music by the likes of Neil Finn, Steve Vai, Rivers Cuomo and Iggy Pop. He also hopes to publish his memoir, The Individualist, which he's been working on since the '90s but "just kept getting distracted." "I don't get into elaborate descriptions of evenings of debauchery or anything like that... But it is revealing about things that have happened to me and causalities and results of all that." - Billboard, 10/1/18...... Speaking of David Bowie, a new live Bowie release of his legendary headline set at the 2000 Glastonbury festival is set to be released this fall for the very first time. David Bowie - Glastonbury 2000 will drop on Nov. 30 on double CD, DVD, and a triple LP vinyl, complete with liner notes from Caitlin Moran, rare photos, and Bowie's tour diary, originally written for Time Out. "As of 1990 I got through the rest of the 20th century without having to do a big hits show," wrote Bowie in his diary entry. "Yes, yes, I know I did four or five hits on the later shows but I held out pretty well I thought big, well known songs will litter the field at Glastonbury this year. Well, with a couple of quirks of course," he added. While often regarded as one of the greatest sets in the venerable UK festival's history, Bowie's Sunday night closing show has never been released on video or audio in its entirety. Meanwhile, a new box set of Bowie's '80s material, Loving The Alien, will be released on Oct. 12. - New Musical Express, 10/2/18...... Bruce Springsteen jammed with punk rockers Social Distortion at the inaugural Sea.Hear.Now festival in Asbury Park, N.J., on Sept. 30. Springsteen dropped in at the even organized by his longtime photographer, Danny Clinch, for a jam of Social Distortion's signature cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire." Thousands shouted out the Jersey mating call "BROOOOOOCE!!!" as their home state hero also laid down some guitar on Social Distortions's "Bad Luck" and "Misery Loves Company." The festival also included sets from Jack Johnson, Kaleo, Brandi Carlile, Incubus, Ben Harper, Blondie and Frank Turner. Springsteen has also previously collaborated on live and studio projects with Social D's Ness. - Billboard, 10/1/18...... Art Garfunkel has announced details of a 10-city Spring 2019 UK tour that will kick off on Apr. 6 in Oxford, also visiting Brighton (4/7), Cambridge (4/9), Cardiff (4/12), Manchester (4/14), Liverpool (4/16) and Birmingham (4/17) before wrapping in Gateshead on Apr. 20. Garfunkel released his last solo album, Some Enchanted Evening, in 2007. - NME, 10/2/18...... Cher has recently been named a recipient of the prestigious Kennedy Center honor, and although she says the news was certainly welcome, she says she really wanted to receive it during the presidency of Barack Obama instead of Donald Trump. A regular at anti-Trump rallies and marches, Cher ranks among the most outspoken celebrities against the current U.S. president, and her participation in the upcoming ceremony might make for an awkward gathering. The White House has said no decisions had been made on whether Pres. Trump would participate in this year's Kennedy Center Honors program. The Kennedy Center prize is given to those in the performing arts for lifetime contributions to American culture, and this year's other recipients include composer and pianist Philip Glass, country music entertainer Reba McEntire, and jazz saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter. Meanwhile, the man recently arrested at Cher's Malibu, Calif., home in late September has just been slammed with a series of drug and weapons charges. Donovan Ruiz has been hit with counts including possession of narcotics for sale, possession of a controlled substance, possession of methamphetamines, and possession of a baton, according to court documents. All seven of the charges against him are felonies. Cher was not at home when cops raided the property and arrested Ruiz, who is Cher's assistant's son, on a tip that allegedly linked him to the death of a drug dealer. - PageSix.com/WENN/Canoe.com, 10/1/18...... In a new interview with the UK's Evening Standard, Bjrn Ulvaeus of ABBA suggested the famous foursome could release a new album following recent recording sessions. Ulvaeus said the band's time in the studio this year could lead to "a new album, possibly." "Or four songs or something like that -- that's possible," he continued, before repeating his insistence the band would not tour. "But for us to perform on stage that's just not going to happen. That's a definite." While a full-length ABBA record has not been officially confirmed at present, a new ABBA song titled "I Still Have Faith In You"' will reportedly premiere on the BBC in December. - New Musical Express, 10/2/18...... Willie Nelson unveiled a new political song called "Vote 'Em Out" on Sept. 29 while performing at an Austin rally for Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke. Nelson, 85, has been openly supporting O'Rourke's bid to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in the upcoming midterms, drawing ire from some of his "red state" Texas Trump-supporting fans. Together, Nelson and O'Rourke, who delivered a typically styled speech with electrifying progressive populism, drew tens of thousands of supporters, which Democratic Coalition co-founder Scott Dworkin said was more "than any Trump rally I've seen this year." - SplinterNews.com, 9/30/18...... In an interview with the long-running CBS newsmagazine 60 MInutes on Sept. 30, Paul McCartney revealed he sometimes relearns his widely-recognized tracks as he often forgets his chart-topping hits. "When I'm doing shows I listen to a lotta music, Beatles music, Wings music, to see what ones we're gonna do. And to learn them," the 76-year-old music legend said. Surprised by his remarks, the interviewer asked Sir Paul whether he often forgets his tracks, to which he responded: "There's too many. Too many words. Too many notes. They're very hard. I mean, you know, it's not like they're all three chords." McCartney is promoting his new No. 1 album, Egypt Station. - DailyMail.co.uk, 10/1/18...... In other Beatles-related news, the band's chief recording engineer, Geoff Emerick, died from a massive heart attack on Oct. 2. He was 72. Remembered as an innovator behind the desk, Emerick was just 15 when he began working at Abbey Road Studios. He was assistant engineer on such songs as "Love Me Do," "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "She Loves You," and "A Hard Day's Night." Just prior to turning 19, he became the Beatles' main engineer and helmed Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road, as well as much of Magical Mystery Tour and The Beatles ("The White Album"), which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its release this year with an expansive box set. Later, he worked on recordings with Elvis Costello, Michael Jackson, The Zombies, Cheap Trick, Stevie Wonder and many more. During his career, Emerick won four Grammy Awards -- three for best engineered album, for Sgt. Pepper's, Abbey Road and the Paul McCartney and Wings album Band on the Run. In 2003, he was awarded a technical Grammy for "pushing the boundaries of studio recording techniques of creativity and imagination." He was also the author of a 2006 autobiography, Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles. Emerick had been scheduled to participate in a symposium at Monmouth University during Nov. 8-11 on the Beatles' "White Album." "I'll always remember [Geoff] with great fondness and I know his work will be long remembered by connoisseurs of sound," Paul McCartney posted on his website on Oct. 3. "He also paid tribute to the engineer s humour and skill in the studio, saying he was always open to the many new ideas that we threw at him." - Billboard, 10/3/18...... Texas native Peggy Sue Gerron Rackham of Lubbock, who was immortalized in the 1958 Buddy Holly song "Peggy Sue," died on Oct. 1 at University Medical Center. She was 78. Ms. Gerron was married to drummer Jerry Allison, from Holly's rock 'n' roll band The Crickets. The couple later divorced. Her son-in-law, Tom Stathos, told KCBD-TV in Lubbock that the song "Peggy Sue" initially had a different name. "It was originally going to be Cindy Lou [Holly's niece] and that he [Allison] wanted to impress Peggy Sue so he got Buddy to change the name." Holly wrote several other popular songs, including "That'll Be the Day" and "Maybe Baby," in addition to a "Peggy Sue" song-sequel, "Peggy Sue Got Married." Holly died in a Feb. 3, 1959, plane crash in Iowa that also killed Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. - AP, 10/2/18.