Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on October 19th, 2019

The Beatles' Apple Corp. Ltd. and Capitol Records announced on Oct. 16 that a new limited-edition vinyl box set of the Beatles' UK singles will go on sale on Nov. 22. The Singles Collection will feature all remastered versions of all 22 of the band's UK singles which were released between 1962 and 1970, while an exclusive new double A-side single -- for the mid-1990s-issued tracks "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" -- is also included. The 46 tracks will be released on 23 180-gram seven-inch vinyl singles, while each single is adorned with an individual international picture sleeve from its original release. The set is accompanied by a 40-page booklet with photos, ephemera and detailed essays by noted Beatles historian Kevin Howlett. - New Musical Express, 10/16/19...... On Oct. 15, the Cleveland-based Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced the 16 nominees for the Rock Hall Class of 2020. Nine artists received nominations for the first time in their careers: Pat Benatar, Dave Matthews Band, The Doobie Brothers, Motörhead, The Notorious B.I.G., Soundgarden, T. Rex, Thin Lizzy and Whitney Houston. Also nominated were Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, MC5, Nine Inch Nails and Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, all who have been nominated up to five times before, along with Judas Priest who were recently nominated for the Class of 2018, and Todd Rundgren who was nearly tapped for the RRHOF Class of 2019. The Doobie Brothers' Tom Johnston told Billboard that "we're all honored to be nominated." "I'm sure we've all paused to reflect, and I think I speak for all the other guys when I say that it seems rather odd we haven't been selected before. But at the same time we don't take it for granted and we are honored to be nominated, and if we can just carry it all the way to getting in it would be awesome," he added. The 35th RRHOF induction ceremony will take place May 2, 2020 in the organization's hometown of Cleveland, Oh. The RRHOF Class of 2020 is decided by an international body of more than 1,000 voting members, but fans can impact the vote. Starting Oct. 15 and running through 11:59 pm ET on Jan. 10, 2020, fans can go to Google and search "Rock Hall Fan Vote" or any nominee's name plus "vote" to cast a ballot with Google, vote at RockHall.com, or at the Museum itself in Cleveland. The five artists who receive the most fan votes comprise a fans' ballot that will be tallied along with the others to determine the 2020 inductees, which will be announced in January 2020. - Billboard, 10/15/19...... Two rock songs featured in Warner Bros.' new The Joker film, Cream's "White Room" and Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll, Part 2," are experiencing a surge in sales after the movie premiered in the US on Oct. 4. "White Room," which was originally a No. 6 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart in 1968, has debuted at No. 15 on Billboard's Hot Rock Songs chart for the week ending Oct. 19. The track, which also has a tie-in by the recent death of Cream drummer Ginger Baker on Oct. 6, gained by 687% to 2,000 downloads sold and 78% to 1.5 million U.S. streams, according to Nielsen Music. Meanwhile, "Rock and Roll, Part 2" surged by 971% to 1.5 million streams and 800% to 2,000 sold. The song's inclusion in the film came under fire due to that fact that Glitter is a convicted pedophile currently serving a 16-year prison sentence after being found guilty of attempted rape, indecent assault and sex with a minor. Although Glitter sold away his master recording and publishing rights to the song years ago, he isn't directly receiving sync fees or royalty payments for most of the song's streams. However Glitter could receive a smaller source of revenue from digital performance royalties from the song's non-interactive streams on Pandora, SiriusXM and other webcasters. By law, those royalties are collected by the rights management organization SoundExchange, which then distributes the money primarily to the main artist and the owner of the recording, which is commonly the label. If Glitter is registered with SoundExchange (which does not reveal its client list due to privacy rules), he should be receiving those payments, and may profit from the song despite no longer owning its rights. Likewise, Glitter is likely still collecting performance royalties for "Rock and Roll Part II" as a songwriter because the way performance rights organizations generally work. Although the NFL banned crowd participation favorite from being played in stadiums after Glitter's conviction in 2006, a cover version was still used and even adopted as the New England Patriots' touchdown anthem. A source close to Warner Bros., which likely paid between $100,000-$200,000 to license the song, says there are no plans to remove the song from the Joker soundtrack or future versions of the film, contrary to recent reports. And the only official soundtrack currently available for listening is the film score. - Billboard, 10/18/19...... Paramount Pictures screened its summer Elton John biopic hit, Rocketman, in its entirety on seven large and small screens at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on Oct. 17 as the latest in a boomlet of "live-to-film experiences." The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Beal, was also onstage to play live. Although none of the actors, including lead actor Taron Egerton in John's role, sang live during the screening, but a highlight came at the end of the film when John and Egerton came onstage together to perform "(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again," the jubilant song which Elton and his longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin co-wrote for the film. Rocketman director Dexter Fletcher then introduced Taupin, who said, "The music is what keeps us alive and keeps us going -- and I'm just getting started." Taupin introduced two actors from the film, Jamie Bell, who played him as a voice of reason and Elton's most loyal friend, and Bryce Dallas Howard, who played Elton's cold and indifferent mother. "This has been the greatest creative episode of my life. The people on this stage are going to be friends for life," said Egerton. Rocketman grossed $96.3 million at the U.S. box office in its three-month theatrical run, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, however that is only half as much as the 2018 Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. Nevertheless, Rocketman is the fourth highest-grossing music biopic since 1978 according to BoxOfficeMojo. - Billboard, 10/18/19...... Meanwhile, as Elton continues on his publicity tour for his riveting newly released autobiography Me, the rock legend stopped by for an interview with DJ Jim Kerr at the iHeartRadio theater in Burbank, Calif., on Oct. 16. Elton told Kerr that he has no plans to disappear from the music scene after he ends his 350-show "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" farewell tour. "It's not to say I'm going to stop doing things. I'm going to make records, I'm going to write musicals and I will do the odd show, here and there, maybe a residency, but it won't be traveling," he said. "I will never be in Australia again or all over Europe. I'll be in England or America and that's it but I don't know where, I don't know when and I don't know if it will even happen. Life throws curveballs at you," he added. In another interview with Britain's GQ magazine, John also revealed he's seen Disney's 2019 photorealistic remake of The Lion King, and he thinks it's a "huge disappointment." "Music was so much a part of the original and the music in the current film didn't have the same impact," John said. "The magic and joy were lost... they really screwed up the music." Elton composed and performed songs for the original 1994 The Lion King, whose soundtrack became the best-selling album of the year. - Billboard/New Musical Express, 10/17/19...... Bruce Springsteen and his wife Patti Scialfa were in attendance at the New York premiere of his new Western Stars movie, in which he performs songs from the album backed by a band and full orchestra at his family's Stone Hill Farm in Colts Neck, N.J. "I was surprised, because I hadn't seen it in so long," Scialfa said on the blue carpet before the premiere. "I hadn't even remembered that we did all those silly things. So, it's actually very, very sweet. It's really a lovely surprise," she added. Between each song Springsteen shares commentary and draws connections to his own life, and his voice accompanies archive footage and home movies of his family. Several amusing scenes from their honeymoon touched Scialfa, who missed the September world premiere of the film at the Toronto International Film Festival. Springsteen says he has no plans for a Western Stars tour, instead he's heading back into the studio to work on a new E-Street Band record. He laughed at the notion of incorporating recent social and political upheavals in the lyrics of the band's new music, instead saying he's "leaning toward the personal." "Most of what I've written so far ruminates a little bit about some of the things from my past," he said. Also attending the NYC premiere were Steven Van Zandt, Ralph Lauren, Clive Davis, Jon Stewart, Edward Burns, Harvey Keitel and music mogul Jimmy Iovine. A Western Stars soundtrack album will be released on Oct. 25 - AP, 10/18/19...... Bob Seger, currently on a farewell tour with his Silver Bullet Band, became sentimental during his show at Pittsburgh's PPG Paints Arena on Oct. 17. Just before his "Travelin' Man"/"Beautiful Loser" medley, the Michigan rocker pronounced "I'm gonna miss you, Pittsburgh" and then reminded the packed house that his Sept. 28, 2017 stop there wound up being the last date of his "Runaway Train Tour." Two days after that show, Seger postponed the rest of the tour in order to have spinal surgery, which kept him off the road until he launched his "Roll Me Away" farewell tour in November 2018. "I'm gonna miss you, Pittsburgh... I'm all better now, thank goodness," Seger noted, then performed a nearly two-hour, 22-song show loaded with hits and occasional rarities such as "You Take Me In" from is 2014 Ride Out album. Seger also revealed to the crowd that he had welcome commiseration from good friend Bruce Springsteen. "He said 'I had exactly the same operation in exactly the same place,' between the fourth and fifth vertebrae," Seger said. "People who sing hard, I guess that's what happens to them." Seger and his band have five more dates on the "Roll Me Away" tour before wrapping in Philadelphia on Nov. 1. - Billboard, 10/18/19...... The Nashville, Tenn.-based Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum announced on Oct. 17 that it will honor the legendary A-list sessions musicians known as The Hit Men with its inaugural "Road Warrior" award. "It's an incredible honor to be recognized for the work we've each put into our careers supporting the greatest names in the music industry," founding member Lee Shapiro said. The MHOFM opened in 2006 and showcases the often-unsung musicians who have backed legendary pop performers. Among its famous inductees are the Wrecking Crew, the group of L.A. studio musicians that played on numerous '60s pop hits; and the Funk Brothers, Motown Records' house rhythm section. The Hit Men was originally assembled in 2012 in a basement studio in Fair Lawn, N.J. by former members of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, and has toured steadily since then. Its Oct. 28 concert at Nashville's City Winery will close a month of shows in California, Arizona, Maine, Louisiana and Tennessee. - AP, 10/17/19...... In a new interview with PlanetRock.com, Queen drummer Roger Taylor has hit back at critics of the group's 2018 Oscar-winning biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. "The trouble with us is, we're too f---ing popular, and a lot of the media just hate that," Taylor said. He added that although there were a handful of "decent" reviews, "there were many that were kinda sneering and superficial." "I thought, 'You just don't get it, do you?'," the drummer said. "You weren't moved, and whatever, but fuck you actually. F--- you all the way to the bank, actually... I think people know a lot more than film critics, and the word of mouth via social media is so much more powerful than review from a guy who probably watches 40 movies a week, and has probably lost the essence of the joy of a movie," he added. Meanwhile, Queen has blocked Pres. Donald Trump from using their music once again, after Trump featured Queen's 1977 iconic rock anthem "We Will Rock You" in a new campaign video. "Don't expect this video -- which uses Queen's "We Will Rock You" in its entirety -- to remain up for long," wrote Buzzfeed's Adam B.Vary on Oct. 10. "A rep for Queen told me tonight that the band 'has already entered into a process to call for non use of Queen song copyrights by the Trump campaign. This is ongoing'," Vary added. It's believed that the clip was eventually taken down on Oct. 13. While Trump is yet to delete the tweet, an official notice now states: "This media has been disabled in response to a report by copyright owner." Queen previously locked horns with Trump in 2016, when the then Republican presidential nominee walked onstage at the Republican National Convention to "We Are the Champions." The band said they did not want their "music associated with any mainstream or political debate in any country" and said they didn't want the 1977 song "to be used as an endorsement of Mr. Trump and the political views of the Republican Party." Prince and Nickelback have also made similar moves against Trump from using their music at campaign rally and in campaign ads in recent weeks. - New Musical Express, 10/17/19...... In related news, Lynyrd Skynyrd is pushing back over the use of their classic 1973 signature sone "Free Bird" in a violent video aired during a recent gathering of Donald Trump supporters during a conference at the president's Trump National Doral Miami golf club in Florida. A spokesperson for the band has confirmed that the group had not authorized the use of "Freebird" in the nearly four-minute video that appears to use doctored footage from the 2014 video game "Kingsman: The Secret Service" in order to depict Trump murdering reporters and anchors from CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Buzzfeed, PBS, Politico and many other media organzations using a handgun and a knife inside the so-called "Church of Fake News." "The use of Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Freebird' in the video as depicted was unauthorized," the band said in statement. The mock rampage also shows Trump attacking, striking and killing such political rivals as former Pres. Barack Obama, former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, late Sen. John McCain, Sen. Bernie Sanders and a member of Black Lives Matter. The video ends with a smiling Trump putting the head of a CNN reporter on a stake. - Billboard, 10/16/19...... Country star Kacey Musgraves, who has been covering Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" on her current tour, was joined by Gaynor on Oct. 15 for a rendition of the 1978 disco classic during the first of her two shows at New York City's Radio City Music Hall on Oct. 15. Musgraves surprised the audience by inviting Gaynor to join her on stage to perform the track together. Speaking to the crowd, Gaynor, who was proclaimed as "the queen of disco" by the country singer, said: "I recorded this song 40 years ago, and I can't tell you how pleased I am that Kacey is carrying on the tradition, helping you all to survive." Fan-shot footage of the pair performing the song can be seen on YouTube. - New Musical Express, 10/16/19...... Pop songstress Dionne Warwick has teamed up with such acts as Aloe Blacc, Andra Day, Johnny Mathis, Michael McDonald, The Oak Ridge Boys and John Rich for a new Christmas album, Dionne Warwick & The Voices of Christmas, which hits stores on Oct. 18 via BMG. "Every song, I felt, suited my duet partner. That's why it's called The Voices of Christmas," eight-time Grammy winner Warwick says. "Each of the songs felt suited to each one of the people I was singing with and that's how we chose them. That's the approach I wanted to take, and I wanted to do arrangements of the song to suit that particular person as well." Produced by her Warwick's son Damon Elliott, also known as Buck 22, the project was recorded in Nashville, Los Angeles, New York and Las Vegas this past summer. "It was wonderful," she says of working with Elliott. "He's earned the right. He's a wonderful producer." A video of her song featuring Aloe Blacc, "This Christmas," has been shared on YouTube. The 78-year-old Warwick says dates are still being determined for her upcoming Christmas tour, but she's hoping John Rich will be able to join her on a few of those dates. - Billboard, 10/16/19...... Santana and Journey co-founder Gregg Rollie has premiered a video called "What About Love" from his new album, Sonic Ranch. "The message really comes from playing with Ringo [Starr]," Rolie, said Rolie, who has been a member of Ringo's All-Starr Band since 2012. "He's been relentless on 'peace and love' forever. He's been saying it for years, and he's right. I just took it a step further and did it a little stronger. The song is like, 'Hey, wake up! What ABOUT this?'" Rolie is also working on new material with former Journey drummer Deen Castronovo and bassist Marco Mendoza (both part of the Journey spin-off band Journey Through Time), his son Sean and with Yayo Sanchez, the 26-year-old who became a viral sensation jamming with Foo Fighters. - Billboard, 10/16/19...... The Grateful Dead veteran Phil Lesh has postponed his annual "Phil-O-Ween" Halloween shows after undergoing back surgery. The shows had originally been scheduled for Oct. 31, Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 at the Capitol Theatre in New York, but is has been announced that The Darkstar Orchestra will replace Lesh for those three days. "I want you all to know I'm very disappointed I'm not going to be able to make these shows," Lesh explained in the video. "I'm feeling really good but the doctors recommend that I take more time to recover from the surgery that I recently had." - Billboard, 10/15/19...... Six months after Grease rights-holders Paramount announced a Grease feature film prequel of the hit 1978 movie, a live-action TV spinoff based on the movie is in the works. WarnerMedia-backed streamer HBO Max has handed out a straight-to-series order for musical Grease: Rydell High, with its name stemming from the school at the center of the beloved original. The TV series will be produced by Paramount Television, the studio behind Fox's Emmy-winning 2016 one-off Grease: Live. The TV spinoff reimagines the original movie and will feature some characters from it. The series is still set in the 1950s and will feature big musical numbers from the era combined with new original songs. It will explore the peer pressures of high school, the horrors of puberty, and life in middle America with a modern sensibility. - The Hollywood Reporter, 10/15/19...... In a new documentary on Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Wood reveals he used to take a Bunsen burner with him to parties to smoke cocaine. "I enjoyed the shit out if it," Wood says of his experience with the drug. "Took it with me wherever I went. I thought it was the best thing going. I would take it to parties and go, Everybody try this , get [a] great big Bunsen burner out, the pipes, the works, freebase and everything. And people would be going, 'You're f---ing crazy', but I would love it," he adds. Discussing his sobriety in the documentary, the former Faces guitarist explained: "It's very difficult because you go through a period of dry and you go, 'I've done it. I've cleaned up now. I can have just one'." Meanwhile, the Stones are gearing up to release a live album and film of their 1998 Buenos Aires concert, Bridges to Buenos Aires, on Nov. 8. - NME, 10/16/19...... Beloved TV sitcom star Bill Macy, best known as Maude Findlay's (Bea Arthur) husband Walter Findlay on the 1972-1978 Norman Lear-produced CBS series Maude, died on Oct. 17. He was 97. Mr. Macy also appeared in cult 1979 comedy movie The Jerk starring Steve Martin and the films My Favorite Year, Me, Myself and I, Analyze This and The Holiday, among others. As well as Maude, Mr. Macy's TV credits included roles on Law & Order, St. Elsewhere, Chicago Hope, The Facts of Life and Seinfeld. Tributes to Mr. Macy on twitter included posts by Illiana Douglas, Ali Adler and comedian Gilbert Gottfried, who described him as "funny and crazy and loved a good Kosher herring." - WENN/Canoe.com, 10/18/19...... Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind the iconic children's show Sesame Street, announced on Oct. 16 that a new season of Sesame Street will return in the fall of 2019 for a historic 50th anniversary season. The season will kick off on Nov. 9 with a primetime special, Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration, on HBO. The episode is set to feature guest appearances by the likes of Patti LaBelle, Elvis Costello, Meghan Trainor, Norah Jones and Nile Rodgers. The regular season will premiere the following week on Nov. 16. Special guests making their way to Sesame Street over the course of Season 50 will include Charlie Puth, Maren Morris, Dave Grohl and Chrissy Teigen. Following its debut on HBO, Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration will air Nov. 17 on PBS and PBS Kids. - Billboard, 10/16/19.

As Halloween approaches, a lyric chart compiled by Billboard, the LyricFind Global Chart, shows internet surfers getting into the holiday spirit with a slew of spooky tunes topping the tally. Michael Jackson's "Thriller" leads the list, re-entering at No. 1. Originally a No. 4 Billboard Hot 100 hit in March 1984, the song reaches the LyricFind Global chart for a second time, having previously appeared at No. 20 in Nov. 2016. "Thriller" is followed by Aqua's "Halloween," with Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers' "Monster Mash," R. Dean Taylor's "There's a Ghost in My House" and Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell" rounding out the top five at Nos. 2 through 5, respectively. In all, 16 of the chart's 25 positions are occupied by songs that can be considered themed around Halloween. - Billboard,10/11/19...... Speaking of Michael Jackson, among the revelations in Elton John's upcoming biography Me is Elton describing the King of Pop as "mentally ill" and a "disturbing person" in his final years. Elton wrote that he first met the pop star when Michael was a teen, but it wasn't until Jackson's later years that John questioned "what prescription drugs he was being pumped full of." "He was genuinely mentally ill, a disturbing person to be around," John wrote. Revealing details of a time the two had lunch together in the 1990s, Elton said Jackson appeared sick and donned a face full of makeup and plaster. "The poor guy looked awful, really frail and ill," John revealed. The alarming lunch encounter grew worse when John recalled Jackson disappearing from the table "without a word." He was later found inside of the cottage of John's housekeeper "quietly playing games" with her 11-year-old son. "For whatever reason, he couldn't seem to cope with adult company at all," John wrote. Elton concluded that Jackson appeared to have "totally lost his marbles" in the 2000s. Me will hit bookstores on Oct. 15. - American Media Inc./Canoe.com, 10/11/19...... In other Michael Jackson news, it was announced on Oct. 10 that the upcoming Jackson bio-musical, "MJ the Musical," will make its bow on Broadway in the summer of 2020. The production -- previously titled "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," after the late King of Pop's 1979 hit -- will begin preview performances July 6 with an official opening set for Aug. 13 at the Neil Simon Theatre. In February, the producers of the show the Michael Jackson Estate and Columbia Live Stage) canceled its pre-Broadway engagement in Chicago, citing scheduling difficulties following this year's strike by Actors' Equity. Performances in the Windy City were originally set to kick off Oct. 29. "MJ the Musical" is still in development at studios in New York. A teaser for the musical has been shared on YouTube. - The Hollywood Reporter, 10/10/19...... Dolly Parton celebrated 50 years as a member of the Grand Ole Opry on Oct. 12 with two sold-out performances that were filmed as part of an upcoming Nov. 26 television special on NBC titled Dolly Parton: 50 Years at the Grand Ole Opry. "The night that I actually became a member 50 years ago was one of the highlights of my whole life because it was a true dream of mine," Parton said during a press conference before the Opry performances. "You never know what's going to happen to you in your life. You never know if your dreams will come true." Parton, 73, has several other film and television projects on the horizon as well as numerous collaborations and co-hosting duties on the upcoming CMA Awards in November. Meanwhile, Dolly recently revealed to ELLE magazine that she's been sexually harassed with unwanted advances over her 50-year career. "I've certainly been harassed in my life. I've certainly had to put up with a lot of BS," she says. "I was always strong enough to walk away from it and not to have to fall under it. I was lucky that I was in a good country town, where the men in the business have wives, and sisters, and cousins, and children," she added. In more Dolly news, Parton's Dollywood theme park is being sued by the copyright owners of the famous theme song in the 1965 A Charlie Brown Christmas special. Los Angeles-based Lee Mendelson Film Productions, which owns the copyright to the song written by Lee Mendelson and Vince Guaraldi, charge the East Tennessee theme park has used the song without permission in live Christmas performances since 2007. They're asking for $150,000 for every time the song has been used, as well as seeking an injunction against Dollywood from playing their music. Dollywood declined to comment on pending litigation. - Billboard/AP/New Musical Express, 10/13/19...... Wayne Newton has sold his former home, Casa de Shenandoah near Las Vegas, for $5.56 million according to Clark County records. The 36-acre ranch sold for $5.56 million in July and in addition, a nearby commercial property that was home to a gift shop and theater was sold in September. Current owner ICSD purchased the properties in 2010 and transformed them into a tourist attraction. However, the tourist attraction closed three years later and was placed into Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Newton, who has been a Vegas staple for around 60 years, originally purchased the property in 1966. - AP, 10/13/19...... Eddie Van Halen is reportedly suffering from throat cancer which he believes he contracted after years of sucking on his metal guitar pick. Van Halen, 64, was diagnosed with cancer nearly 20 years ago and has been travelling between the United States and Germany for treatment, according to TMZ.com. He had a third of his tongue removed in 2000 and had reportedly been declared cancer free in 2002 but has now been to Germany to get radiation treatment over the last five years. Although the veteran rocker is a former "heavy smoker," he is said to blame holding the metal pick in his mouth while performing on stage for his diagnosis. A source told TMZ "for the most part it's worked to keep the disease in check" and he is "doing okay." In 2015, he told Billboard that "I used metal picks -- they're brass and copper which I always held in my mouth, in the exact place where I got the tongue cancer. Plus, I basically live in a recording studio that's filled with electromagnetic energy. So that's one theory. I mean, I was smoking and doing a lot of drugs and a lot of everything. But at the same time, my lungs are totally clear. This is just my own theory, but the doctors say it's possible." Van Halen's namesake band last performed in October 2015 at at L.A.'s Hollywood Bowl and there were rumors the band's classic lineup were set to perform for the first time since 1984. "Him and (brother) Alex [Van Halen] are sitting there laying back and they're waiting to see what happens next. I think they're on a hiatus," his friend Steve Lukather of Toto said in a podcast in Septmber. In 2012, Eddie underwent emergency surgery for a "severe bout of Diverticulitis" -- small pouches formed in the wall of the intestine that can cause a great deal of pain when inflamed or infected. As a result of his operation, the group postponed the Japan leg of their tour. - TheDailyMail.uk, 10/13/19...... Neil Young has just shared a trailer for his new documentary Mountaintop on YouTube. Mountaintop goes behind the scenes of the making of Colorado, Young's first album in seven years with Crazy Horse. Earlier in 2019, Young announced that he would be postponing the rest of his 2019 tour plans to focus on completing 15 unfinished film projects, one of which was a "making of" documentary filmed to tie into the release of Colorado. Young has said he believes the new project with Crazy Horse will be able to "stand alongside Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, Rust Never Sleeps, Psychedelic Pill and all the others." He adds Colorado will "feature 10 new songs ranging from around 3 minutes to over 13 minutes." Besides CD and digital versions of the record, there will also be a double vinyl release comprising three sides of music and a 7" exclusive single not on the album. - New Musical Express, 10/12/19...... A list of the UK's best-selling albums of the past 50 years has been revealed to coincide with the country's National Album Day on Oct. 12. The results for the 1970s are as follows: Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970 and 1971); the TV-marketed compilation 12 Dynamic Hits (1972); Elton John - Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player (1973); The Carpenters - The Singles: 1969-1973 (1974); The Stylistics - The Best of The Stylistics (1975); ABBA - Greatest Hits (1976); ABBA - Arrival (1977); Saturday Night Fever - Soundtrack (1978); and Blondie - Parallel Lines (1979). - New Musical Express, 10/12/19...... A play inspired by Queen's classic 1975 album A Night at the Opera called "Q: A Night at The Kabuki" by Japanese theater troupe NODA MAP opened Tuesday (Oct. 8) in Tokyo. The play, written and directed by veteran playwright Hideki Noda, isn't about the rock legends themselves but a reworking of the Shakespearean tragedy "Romeo and Juliet." "Q: A Night at The Kabuki" came about after the publisher of Queen's catalog in Japan, Sony Music Publishing, approached the band about creating a play visualizing the world depicted in A Night at The Opera. All the album's 12 tracks are effectively featured in the production to enhance the understanding of the storyline, while the costumes juxtapose the styles of the band members when the album was first released and 12th century Japan. The play runs from Oct. 8-15 in Tokyo; Oct. 19-27 in Osaka; Oct. 31-Nov. 4 in Fukuoka; and returns to Tokyo from Nov. 9-Dec. 11. - Billboard, 10/11/19...... Diana Ross has been confirmed for the "Legends Slot" during the 2020 Glastonbury Festival in the U.K., set for Michael Eavis' Worthy Farm next June. "I am delighted to say that one of the all-time greats, the wonderful Diana Ross, is coming to Glastonbury to play the Sunday legend slot on the Pyramid next year," Glastonbury co-organizer Emily Eavis tweeted on Oct. 10. "This is a dream come true," Ross responded the same day. "To all the fans across the world, this is my tribute to you. I'm coming to Glastonbury, with love," she added. Previous performers in the coveted "Legends Slot" include Dolly Parton, Jeff Lynne's E.L.O. and Lionel Richie. Other names linked to the 2020 festival include Elton John, Foals and Paul McCartney -- who recently claimed that Glastonbury was looking like a "distinct possibility." However two other acts that were rumoured to be considering a Glastonbury performance, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin, have been ruled out of playing the festival in 2020 by organizers. - Billboard, 10/10/19...... In a new interview with BBC 6 Music, Ringo Starr has confirmed the Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road was not meant to be the group's final album. Until recently, it was thought that the band went into recording the Abbey Road knowing it would be their last until a tape, uncovered by Beatles expert Mark Lewisohn, revealed that the band were discussing a follow up album. "We did do Abbey Road and we was like, 'Okay that's pretty good -- but none of us said, 'OK, that's the last time we'll ever play together'. Nobody said that. I never felt that," Starr said. "We'd made this record, and then we would go off and do whatever we wanted to do. And then Paul [McCartney] would call us and say, 'Hey, you want to go in the studio lads?' and we'd do another one. So it was not the end -- because in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make. So I never felt it was in stone," he added. "It's a revelation," Lewisohn told The Guardian about the tape. "The books have always told us that they knew Abbey Road was their last album and they wanted to go out on an artistic high," Lewisohn said. "But no -- they're discussing the next album. And you think that John [Lennon] is the one who wanted to break them up but, when you hear this, he isn't. Doesn't that rewrite pretty much everything we thought we knew?," he added. - NME, 10/11/19...... In other Beatles news, a recently unearthed interview has revealed that John Lennon's least favorite Beatles song was Rubber Soul's "Run For Your Life." "I never liked Run For Your Life, because it was a song I just knocked off," Lennon told Rolling Stone in a 1970 interview. "It was inspired from -- this is a very vague connection -- from (Elvis Presley's) Baby Let's Play House," Lennon said. "There was a line on it, I used to like specific lines from songs, so I wrote it around that ("I'd rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man") but I didn't think it was that important." - NME, 10/11/19...... The estate of Prince has blasted Pres. Donald Trump for playing Prince's hit "Purple Rain" during a rally in Minneapolis on Oct. 10 without consent, and even after promises it wouldn't ever happen. The president tried working the North Star State crowd with some hometown hits, and Prince's 1984 classic could clearly be heard playing from speakers during the early phases of the event. Soon after, the official Prince account on Twitter responded. "President Trump played Prince's 'Purple Rain' tonight at a campaign event in Minneapolis despite confirming a year ago that the campaign would not use Prince's music," the tweet reads. "The Prince Estate will never give permission to President Trump to use Prince's songs." The tweet also carried a photo of a letter confirming that, nearly one year ago to the day, the Trump campaign would "not use Prince's music in connection with its activities going forward" after previously using Prince songs during its rallies. During the rally, the president also got in jabs at such musicians as Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé and Jay-Z. "I didn't need Beyonc and Jay-Z. I didn't need little Bruce Springsteen," Trump said of his 2016 election triumph. He went on to claim Springsteen would "do about two songs, then leave, and everyone leaves with him. And (Hillary Clinton is) still speaking in front of the same lousy crowd. Craziest thing I've ever seen." Springsteen, who is neither little in stature or in size (he's listed at 177cm tall), probably laughed off the insult. In an interview published in Esquire magazine in 2018, the veteran rocker said, ""[Trump] has no interest in uniting the country, really, and actually has an interest in doing the opposite and dividing us, which he does on an almost daily basis. So that's simply a crime against humanity, as far as I'm concerned. It's an awful, awful message to send out into the world if you're in that job and in that position. It's just an ugly, awful message." - Billboard, 10/11/19...... Fans of Jethro Tull will be in for a treat this fall as the classic English prog-rockers will be doing a little "living in the past." Tull frontman Ian Anderson says first up will be a four-CD, two-audio DVD expansion of Tull's 12th studio album Stormwatch. Stormwatch: 40th Anniversary Force 10 Edition will drop on Oct. 18 and feature an unreleased early version of "Dun Rungill," which the band has shared a video of on Soundcloud.com/rhino-uk. That will be followed in November by The Ballad of Jethro Tull, a sanctioned biography featuring more than 200 photos, many from Anderson's personal collection, and downloads of two new songs, "The Ballad of Jethro Tull" and "Marmion." "There is always new music afoot," Anderson says, "but these (archival) projects raise their heads with some regularity now. Twenty, 30 years ago, no major record company could be bothered with doing anything special with old catalog. It was just too much trouble. But now, in the harsh reality of the modern age and rapidly dwindling sales of physical production, anything they can do to make a small profit (is) for them, very important. And the fans are the ones who benefit. They get the result of all that work and effort, which they would never have gotten 20 or 30 years ago. So everybody's a winner." Anderson says some of the remembrances by Tull members John Evan and Dee Palmer in the new Ballad of Jethro Tull book were "amusing to read -- and they were quite funny. It was quite upbeat and good to read." Anderson says he and the current incarnation of Jethro Tull have already done some rehearsing for shows during 2020 -- which unfortunately won't include the U.S. after Anderson's visa expired during September. Plus, he adds, "I've played the USA so many times for so many years, and in many ways I'm feeling that I've run out of places to play. So I keep saying to my agent, 'Look, can we find something different to do? Different cities? Different venues?' Getting visas for me and the band and the crew is really a pain in the ass, so I'm not going to do that until I have enough in the way of some fresh challenges to justify all the hassle." In the meantime, the band will play other territories and continue to work on new music -- and perhaps the band's first new release since The Jethro Tull Christmas Album in 2003. - Billboard, 10/9/19...... In a post to Twitter on Oct. 9, Ozzy Osbourne said that he's been forced to cancel European tour dates that had been scheduled for January and February after suffering a "bad fall" early this year he "screwed up all the vertebrae" in his neck. The 70-year-old rocker added however he's recovering enough that he's keeping North American tour dates that start in May 2020 on the calendar. "I'm bored stiff being stuck in bed all day," said Ozzy, who had to cancel North American shows in 2019 because of health troubles. - Billboard, 10/9/19...... Aerosmith has been chosen as the MusiCares Person of the Year for 2020, the Grammys' Recording Academy has announced. The 30th anniversary gala and tribute will take place on Jan. 24, two days before the 62nd Grammy Awards take over the Staples Center in Los Angeles. As always, proceeds for the bash will go to MusiCares, which provides financial and other support for music people in times of need. Following a dinner, Aerosmith will be honored with a tribute concert featuring well-known musicians and other artists and, finally, the Person of the Year award presentation. Aerosmith has a long history of supporting charitable organizations, most notably frontman Steven Tyler's Janie's Fund initiative, which supports vulnerable girls and young women who have survived abuse and neglect. Aerosmith joins other recent MusiCares honorees, including Dolly Parton, Fleetwood Mac and Tom Petty. They are only the second band to be chosen for the honor, following Fleetwood Mac. - Billboard, 10/4/19...... Folk-rock legend Judy Collins will release a 10-song set of seasonal songs, Winter Stories, on Nov. 29. The album was recorded with Norwegian singer Jonas Fjeld and special guests Chatham County Line in Asheville, N.C. -- where Collins also created Come Rejoice! A Judy Collins Christmas 25 years ago. The set includes versions of Joni Mitchell's "The River" and Jimmy Webb's "Highwayman," as well as an epic, seven-minute treatment of Collins' own "The Blizzard." The LP continues a prolific stretch of work for Collins, including a lengthy tour with former boyfriend Stephen Stills to promote their 2017 set Everybody Knows. "I've got a lot to do and a lot on my plate and a lot of things I'm thinking about," Collins says. "I love what I do and it's a creative time, so...why not? As long as you're well and healthy and love what you do, as I do, there are a lot of opportunities that are going to come up." Collins is also preparing another album, Resistance and Beauty, for 2020 which features the topical "Dreamers," a song she began performing with Stills in 2018. "There's a song (on it) called 'The Grand Canyon,' which I think is maybe one of my best songs, and a song called 'Arizona'," Collins says. "Nature prevails in my songs, I think. I can't get away from it." - Billboard, 10/9/19...... Oscar nominated actor Robert Forster died on Oct. 12 aged 78 after losing a battle with brain cancer. The prolific actor amassed over 100 film and TV credits during his career, but scored his Academy Award nomination for his role as Max Cherry in Quentin Tarantino's 1997 film Jackie Brown. His last movie role was a reprisal of his Breaking Bad character, Ed, in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, which was released on Netflix the same day as his death. Forster made his movie debut opposite Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor in 1967's Reflections in a Golden Eye. He went on to have a celebrated career, which even included stints on Broadway, beginning in 1965 with "Mrs. Dally." He is survived by his children, Bobby, Elizabeth, Kate and Maeghen; his grandchildren, Tess, Liam, Jack and Olivia; and his longtime partner, Denise Grayson. - WENN/Canoe.com, 10/12/19.