Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on February 25th, 2021

Blondie have shared details of a new graphic novel, Blondie: Against the Odds, that the band is set to appear in. Described as "an imaginative take on an oral history of the band, interspersed with artistic interpretations of 10 songs from their catalogue," the graphic novel is being distributed by Z2 Comics and will be written by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti, who are credited with bringing the Harley Quinn character back to prominence with their 2013 series for DC Comics. The cover artwork for Blondie: Against the Odds has been shared on Z2 Comics' Instagram page, which encourages Blondie fans to "immerse yourself in the grit and friction of New York City as Blondie fights for prominence -- among beautiful pages filled with artistic takes on 10 of their iconic songs." Z2 Comics has previously published graphic novels focusing on such other music acts as The Doors, Cypress Hill and Machine Gun Kelly. Blondie recently announced a run of UK arena shows with Garbage. Their 10-city "Against the Odds" tour is due to begin in Liverpool in Nov. 2021. - New Musical Expess, 2/25/21...... Bruce Springsteen pleaded guilty to one of the three charges related to his November arrest at Gateway National Recreation Area in Sandy Hook, N.J. According to his attorney Mitchell Ansell of the Ansell, Grimm & Aaron law firm, the musician "voluntarily plead[ed] guilty to a violation of consuming an alcoholic beverage in a closed area, agreeing to a fine of $500." Ansell added that the charges of driving under the influence and reckless driving were dropped because the prosecutor was "unable to provide the necessary evidence." Ansell said his client was "pleased with the outcome of today's court appearance," also noting that Springsteen had no previous criminal record. When news of Springsteen's arrest broke on Feb. 10, a spokesperson for the National Park Service said he was "cooperative throughout the process." According to New Jersey's Asbury Park Press paper, Springsteen's blood alcohol content at the time of his arrest was .02, a quarter of the legal limit of .08. A court filing noted that Springsteen had told an officer that he did two shots in 20 minutes, and declined to take a breath test, and it was also reported that the officer wrote in the report that he saw Springsteen take a shot of tequila before getting on his motorcycle. News of the arrest caused Jeep to pause their new ad featuring the New Jersey rocker, which aired during the Super Bowl on Feb. 7. "As we stated previously, we paused the commercial until the facts were established. Now, that the matter has been resolved, we are unpausing the film," Jeep said in a statement. Meanwhile, the first two installments of an 8-part podcast conversation between The Boss and Pres. Barack Obama were shared on Spotify.com on Feb. 22. In a trailer for the Renegades: Born In the USA podcast, Obama noted: "On the surface, Bruce and I don't have a lot in common. He's a white guy from a small town in Jersey. I'm a black guy of mixed race, born in Hawaii. He's a rock 'n' roll icon. I'm... not as cool." However Pres. Obama added that the pair had been on "parallel journeys, looking for a way to connect our own individual searches for meaning, truth, and community with the larger story of America." In the podcast trailer, Obama and Springsteen are seen talking about a variety of subjects, from their relationships with their fathers and masculinity, to the rock star's beginnings in music. Springsteen and the 44th president first met while the latter was on the campaign trail ahead of his 2008 election victory and became friends. In 2017, they went on a yachting holiday together, along with Oprah Winfrey and Tom Hanks. The remaining six installments of the podcast will arrive in the coming weeks. - NME, 2/22/21...... Pete Townshend of The Who has teased a new Who album could be ready for release in a post-lockdown world. Speaking to Uncut magazine, Townshend said he's been working on new music during the pandemic and "wants to make another" record after lockdown if it makes financial sense. "There's pages and pages of draft lyrics," he said, adding: "If the moment comes, I'll go in and start." The Who released their last album, WHO, in 2019, and recently cancelled their upcoming UK and Ireland tour due to ongoing coronavirus concerns. Cancelling their upcoming 10-date jaunt around the UK and Ireland, which was due to kick off in Dublin on Mar. 5 and end in Manchester on Mar. 29, Townshend and Who vocalist Roger Daltrey said: "We are very sorry that we have to cancel our planned March 2021 UK and Ireland shows. Please excuse the delay but we wanted to wait as long as possible to see if we could indeed play them. However, as you can see the current situation makes this impossible. Thanks for all your wonderful support and we hope to see you in the future when conditions allow." - NME, 2/22/21...... On Feb. 24 Paul McCartney announced a career-spanning biography titled The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present will be released on Nov. 2. Featuring 154 songs from his back catalog, The Lyrics will recount the iconic musician's life through his earliest boyhood compositions, songs by the Beatles, Wings and from his lengthy solo career, and feature previously unseen drafts, letters and pictures from his personal archive. Arranged alphabetically to provide a kaleidoscopic rather than chronological account, The Lyrics was co-authored with Pulitzer Prize winning writer Paul Muldoon and establishes definitive texts of McCartney's song lyrics for the first time and describes the circumstances in which they were written, the people and places that inspired them, and what he thinks of them now. "More often than I can count, I've been asked if I would write an autobiography, but the time has never been right," said McCartney in a statement. "The one thing I've always managed to do, whether at home or on the road, is to write new songs. I know that some people, when they get to a certain age, like to go to a diary to recall day-to-day events from the past, but I have no such notebooks. What I do have are my songs, hundreds of them, which I've learned serve much the same purpose. And these songs span my entire life. I hope that what I've written will show people something about my songs and my life which they haven't seen before. I've tried to say something about how the music happens and what it means to me and I hope what it may mean to others too," he added. A trailer for The Lyrics has been shared on YouTube. - NME, 2/24/21...... The first trailer for the upcoming Tina Turner documentary Tina has been shared on YouTube. First announced at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, Tina will premiere exclusively on HBO on Mar. 27 from 8 to 10 p.m. ET and be available to stream on HBO Max the same day. It will offer a revealing look at the life and career of the musical icon, from her early success in the '60s to her resurgence as a global phenomenon in the '80s. After divorcing from her then-husband and the other half of the Ike & Tina Turner duo in 1978, the singer launched one of the greatest comebacks in music history and landed her first and only No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, "What's Love Got to Do With It," in 1984. Tina will present intimate interviews with Turner herself in her current hometown of Zurich, Switzerland, as well as the Turner biopic What's Love Got to Do With It star Angela Bassett, Oprah Winfrey, journalist and former MTV veejay Kurt Loder. Turner's husband, Erwin Bach, will also be featured in the doc alongside never-before-seen footage, audio tapes and personal photos. - Billboard, 2/23/21...... Iggy Pop has shared a new video for his 2019 song "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," which sees the punk rock icon reading the famous Dylan Thomas poem over music composed by Noveller. The simple but effective new visuals, directed by Simon Taylor, feature an intense close-up shot of Pop reciting the lyrics, and can be streamed on YouTube. "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" originally appeared on Pop's album Free, which one reviewer described as "contemplative and eerie" [and] "finds the middle-ground between the avant-garde, which Iggy is prone to explore, and the grimy garage-rock that made his name." - NME, 2/24/21...... Turner's occasional collaborator Mick Jagger has narrated an emotional tribute to London's Royal Albert Hall to celebrate the iconic venue's 50th birthday. The short film, which can be viewed on YouTube, finds Jagger reading a portion of English poet W.H. Auden's 1964 ode to friendships past and present at a time when the building that has hosted everyone from Bob Dylan to Jimi Hendrix to Led Zeppelin to Foo Fighters over the years but currently sits in silence a year into the Covid-19 pandemic. "Distance and duties divide us But absence will not seem an evil/ If it make our re-meeting/ A real occasion. Come when you can:/ Your room will be ready," Jagger says over footage of performances by the above musicians, as well as the likes of Jethro Tull, Adele, George Michael, Diana Ross, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Queen's Freddie Mercury, Eric Clapton and The Who. While it was unknown at press time when the RAH might re-open, under new recently released guidelines limited capacity indoor shows may begin in the UK on May 17 with a possible wider opening after June 21. - Billboard, 2/23/21...... Queen drummer Roger Taylor is pushing back on long-established rumors that '80s star George Michael turned down the chance to become the band's new frontman after Freddie Mercury's death. Michael fronted Queen for three songs during 1992's Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium, leading to speculation that he would become the band's full-time vocalist. Now Taylor tells Classic Rock magazine that Michael was never offered the gig and that the late singer "wouldn't have suited the group" as a long-term replacement. Queen instead joined forces with former Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers, who provided vocals for Queen between 2004 to 2009. Queen then selected American Idol contestant Adam Lambert in 2011, who remains their current vocalist. Roger Taylor's comments arrived a few days after he became the latest high-profile name to criticize the UK government's Brexit deal, after it failed to secure visa-free touring for musicians. He described it as a "dreadful retrograde step" during a recent appearance on BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend. "Borders are a dreadful invention of mankind, and so we are just putting up another one, and I think it's a dreadful retrograde step," he said. Taylor also revealed the effect it could potentially have on Queen's road crews -- who have already faced a financial hit after coronavirus forced the band to postpone their European tour. "I know our road crew, all the guys that make our touring work, they are the one that have suffered," he said. Taylor's comments come after the UK government admitted that they are currently not negotiating with EU member states over touring arrangements for artists and crew, despite hearing that the music industry was "in crisis" and in urgent need of action. Meanwhile, Queen are set to head out on their rescheduled UK tour in 2022. - NME, 2/24/21...... In related news, Aerosmith have rescheduled their upcoming UK and European tour dates to 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Boston-based rockers had been hoping to tour in June of 2021 after their initial 2020 live plans were scrapped due to the worldwide health crisis. Now their forthcoming live dates in the UK and Europe have been moved for a second time, with the band now set to complete a series of gigs in June and July 2022 -- on June 22 at London's O2 Arena; June 28 at the Manchester Arena; and July 1 at Sheffield's FlyDSA Arena. "Due to current conditions and for the safety of our fans, the 2021 European Tour has been rescheduled to 2022," the band said in a statement. "Please stay tuned for more information regarding the new dates or contact your point of purchase. All tickets will be valid for new dates." Other rescheduled Aerosmith tour dates can be viewed at Aerosmith.com/tour. - NME, 2/23/21...... 80's pop rocker Rick Springfield, who first hit the US charts in Sept. 1972 with the No. 14 "Speak to the Sky," has reflected on his 1981 breakthrough LP, Working Class Dog, on the 40th anniversary of its release, Feb. 24. Springfield tells Billboard he only has "all good feelings" about the album and he "had great times recording it" in the wee hours of the morning at the same studio where Tom Petty had been recording earlier. Springfield says he hopes to reissue the album, which he produced with Bill Drescher and Keith Olsen, to include demos of the songs that didn't make it onto the finished set, which shot to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart and spawned three Top 20 hits including the No. 1 "Jessie's Girl." Though the coronavirus pandemic has pushed back a 40th anniversary tour Springfield had planned for Working Class Dog, he says he plans to play the album in its entirety when he's able to return to the road and has been relearning the tracks. "When I first started, they were the only songs that I had so I played everything," he says. "But I haven't played the whole record since '81." - Billboard, 2/24/21...... British husband and wife blues rock duo When Rivers Meet released their new single "Walking on the Wire" on Feb. 26. "Walking On The Wire" is the third single taken from their debut album We Fly Free and follows hot on the heels of their previous singles "Battleground" and "Did I Break The Law." The new single is by a music video filmed in the Essex countryside utilizing stunning aerial drone footage. In Nov. 2020, the band released their debut album We Fly Free which attracted rave reviews from Classic Rock and several other music mags. "When Rivers Meet are heavy enough to get your attention and quirky enough to hold it, with songs that kick at you, but leave a boot-print on your heart," Classic Rock wrote. A music video trailer for "Walking On The Wire" can be viewed on YouTube. - Noble PR, 2/23/21.

Dave Grohl and his band Foo Fighters have recorded a cover of the Bee Gees' 1976 hit "You Should Be Dancing" which he shared in a recent interview with BBC Radio 2's Sofa Session with Jo Whiley. Grohl says the cover, in which he sticks pretty closely to Barry Gibb's falsetto although the Foo Fighters do add a touch of rock to it, came about when they were in the studio with a to-do list that included recording a cover song for Whiley and one of guys asked Grohl if he had seen the recent HBO Bee Gees documentary How Can You Mend a Broken Heart. "I was like the last person on Earth -- the only person -- that hadn't seen it," Grohl says. "So I was just like, 'Why don't we do a Bee Gees song? Someone was like, 'How do you want to do it?' And I said, 'Well, let's do it like the Bee Gees.'" Grohl added that he "didn't realize that my voice could [sings in a high voice like Gibbs']. I sang the song -- and it was like six minutes -- and I was done. I should have been singing like this for the last 25 years!" A clip of the cover can be streamed on Twitter, and the entire song and interview can be heard on the BBC's website. The Foo Fighters, who have recently been nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, released their 10th album, Medicine at Midnight, on Feb. 5. - Billboard, 2/18/21...... In an interview with Good Morning Britain on Feb. 19, Elton John's husband David Furnish said Sir Elton has embarked on a fitness and diet regime to help him shed the pounds during the Covid-19 lockdown. "(Elton) has embarked on a fitness regime and a diet, he's been losing weight, he's been looking after himself really, really well," Furnish told host Richard Arnold. "We've been really busy, happy and fulfilled and also, more important than anything, spending more time together as a family and loving it," he added. Furnish also detailed how the time has drawn the couple closer together. "We work together at home, we produce his radio show, we get on really well, we just enjoy each other's company and we're happy as a family. I want my kids to go back to school," Furnish shared. Asked if their children have experienced any negativity for having two dads, Furnish explained: "We've been very fortunate within their school and within their community everybody's been really warm, really welcoming to us, treated us the same as any other family, so they've not witnessed any of that." John recently appeared in a UK public service ad filmed at London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital encouraging people to get the Covid-19 vaccine. - Music-News.com, 2/20/21...... In related news, KISS member Paul Stanley has revealed he just got his second Covid-19 shot in a Twitter post on Feb. 16. "I got my SECOND COVID SHOT this morning! So grateful and THRILLED. PLEASE, let's ALL stay safe as possible and continue to watch out for each other," Stanley wrote. The 69-year-old rocker recently told Variety he's been keeping in shape during the Covid-19 downtime. "The best way to be in shape is to be in shape, and once you get there, stay there," he said. "Once you have that momentum, it's much easier to maintain than to create." - Billboard, 2/18/21...... Fleetwood Mac keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie has clarified the comments she made in a recent radio interview with BBC Radio 2 in which suggested Fleetwood Mac would never tour again. Earlier in February, McVie told Sounds of the 70s host Johnnie Walker that her ex-husband John McVie and fellow bandmate Stevie Nicks had made it clear they wouldn't be up for another band trek. She also stated she was "getting a bit too old for it now" and Mick Fleetwood was the only band member keen to tour. Now Christine has addressed the fall-out from her comments in a new Rolling Stone interview, telling the magazine she's "thrilled" to see so many people are interested in Fleetwood Mac's future. "I'm thrilled to see that everyone still cares so much about Fleetwood Mac, how humbling to know what a lasting impact this band has had," she said. "To clarify my recent comments, I was specifically asked if Fleetwood Mac would tour again. I gave a cheeky answer indicating that the band might be 'done with that' or 'you just never know'. I always intended to convey that, particularly after the last year, we just don't know what the future holds." McVie added that "in no way" are any members of the band "done" with being part of the legendary group. "If anyone took that from my statement, that was a misperception and not intended. Fleetwood Mac is part of the DNA of who I am, and I know the same is true for Stevie, Mick and John. As for future touring... Who knows. We continue to hope for the best," she said. Fleetwood Mac has been on hiatus since the conclusion of their "An Evening With Fleetwood Mac" tour in Nov. 2019 -- the group's first tour since parting ways with Lindsey Buckingham and replacing him with Neil Finn and guitarist Mike Campbell. - Music-News.com, 2/18/21...... American musician and journalist Questlove has announced he's working on the follow-up to his acclaimed recent directorial debut, Summer of Soul, and it will be a documentary about musician/producer Sly Stone. Questlove says his as-yet-untitled rockdoc will capture the rise of Sly as a forerunner of funk as the vocalist of Sly and the Family Stone to his legacy as a fashion icon. "It goes beyond saying that Sly's creative legacy is in my DNA... it's a Black musician's blueprint. To be given the honor [sic] to explore his history and legacy is beyond a dream for me," Questlove told Consequence of Sound. Questlove's Summer of Soul documentary chronicled the events of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which welcomed the likes of Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone and The Staple Singers for a musical celebration of African-American culture. It recently won this year's Grand Jury prize at Sundance Film Festival, and is set to premiere on Hulu later in 2021. - New Musical Express, 2/20/21...... Clothing manufacturer Happy Socks has just unveiled a new David Bowie sock collection that includes two limited-edition designs based on iconic moments in the late rock star's career. The Silver Lining socks -- matte black wrapped in silver foil --- are based on the silver zebra outfit that Bowie wore on his 1976 Station to Station album. According to Happy Socks, the Ziggy Special is inspired by the Japanese concept Basara, which is "characterized by colorful attention-grabbing garments." The collection launched on Feb. 16 and will be sold on the Happy Socks website and its retail stores as well as some other retail outlets. Images from the collection can be viewed on the Happy Socks Twitter page. - Billboard, 2/16/21...... Motörhead has announced a new live album and concert film, Louder Than Noise... Live in Berlin, will be released on CD/DVD, vinyl and digital formats on Apr. 23. The album was recorded on Dec. 5, 2012 at the Berlin Velodrom during the band's "Kings of The Road Tour" and is "a crowning, definitive statement as to the power the trio had long held" according to a press release. "Theirs was a line-up (Ian 'Lemmy' Kilmister, Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee) which had spent decades cracking sound barriers, bending ears and decimating lawns worldwide, consistently delivering the Motörgospel to hundreds of thousands of fans, and this line-up was Motörhead's longest serving by a considerable distance," it added. A preview of Louder Than Noise in the form of "Over the Top" has been shared on YouTube. - NME, 2/17/21...... Publisher Permuted Press has announced the autobiography of late heavy metal vocalist Ronnie James Dio will be officially released in July, 11 years after his death. Dio, who was considered to be one of the genre's greatest vocalists, had been working on his memoir Rainbow in the Dark before he died from stomach cancer in 2010. The book has now been completed by music writer Mick Wall and will finally arrive on July 27th. Permuted Press said the memoir will tell the story behind Dio's 50-year career fronting some of metal's most influential bands, including Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Heaven & Hell. In 2020, Dio's widow Wendy confirmed that a new documentary on her late husband is in production. Directed by Don Argott and Damian Fenton, the upcoming film will include "never-before-seen archival footage and photos from his personal archives" and feature "scenes with his closest peers, friends and family." - NME, 2/17/21...... The Beach Boys have announced they've sold the rights to their intellectual property to music industry veteran Irving Azoff's Iconic Artists Group. The amount Azoff has paid in the deal has not yet been made public, but in return, he now owns the group's master recordings, the rights to the Beach Boys' name, their likenesses, a share of their publishing rights and all memorabilia. As part of the deal, the band will still own an interest in their assets, but Iconic Artists has the power in their business decisions. "The Beach Boys, in a sense, are not just a band. They're a lifestyle. They're a consumer brand. And they've never really exploited that," Iconic Artists CEO Oliver Chastan told Rolling Stone. Chastan added that Iconic was keen to explore technological avenues. "That includes VR, AR, 3D, CGI, natural language processing, et cetera," he said. He also suggested the band could be digitally replicated and de-aged, like the actors in Martin Scorsese's 2020 film, The Irishman. In recent months, the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham have all sold off the rights to their back catalogues. - NME, 2/18/21...... Dolly Parton has nixed plans to erect a statue of her outside the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville because she doesn't think it's a good idea for right now. Tennessee House of Representatives member John Mark Windle first proposed the statue plan in January, and the measure passed in the Naming & Designating Committee. It was headed to the State Government Committee for further approval when Parton herself put the brakes on the idea. In a statement on Feb. 18, Parton said although she was "honored and humbled by their intention... given all that is going on in the world, I don't think putting me on a pedestal is appropriate at this time." "I hope, though, that somewhere down the road, several years from now or perhaps after I'm gone, if you still feel I deserve it, then I'm certain I will stand proud in our great State Capitol as a grateful Tennessean," she continued, adding: "In the meantime I'll continue to try to do good work to make this great state proud." Windle wanted to honor Dolly with a statue to mark her 75th birthday and all the singer's contributions to her home state, including the Imagination Library, theme park Dollywood, and a recent $1 million (£720,000) donation to Vanderbilt University's COVID-19 research that assisted in the development of the Moderna vaccine. - Music-News.com, 2/19/21...... Rising singer Arielle's new album features a new guitar designed by Brian May of Queen exclusively for Arielle. "This is the very first guitar that Brian May guitars has ever offered that is not based on my original Red Special," says Brian May about the guitar, the BMG Arielle. "Designed by, and named after Arielle, it's a new dimension. To understand why this guitar was irresistible to me, you have to hold her in your hands. The guitar is light, smooth and agile. She sings like a bird," May added. Arielle is described as "a 21st century classic rock artist who recorded half of the new album in digital, and the other half in tape, to try and capture the impact the music of the 60's and 70's had on her." Arielle has premiered the music video on her official site for her new single, "Peace Of Mind," from her new album, Analog Girl in a Digital World, which drops on May 7. The BMG Arielle guitar is being released Mar. 2021 and can be pre-ordered from Brian May Guitars. - Noble PR, 2/12/21...... The death certificate of Cloris Leachman, who was best known as the nosy neighbor Phyllis on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and died in January at the age of 94, has revealed that a stroke, a.k.a. a cerebrovascular accident, ended her life. Ms. Leachman's death certificate as released by the County Of San Diego also said that although she had suffered from Covid-19 and it was a factor in her death, it was not the cause of her stroke. In the wake of her cremation on Feb. 7 her ashes have been with her daughter Dinah Englund whom TMZ.com reported was also with Cloris when she died. The Oscar and Emmy-winning actress was adamant about not retiring and remained so busy until the end that she has two movies lined up to be released posthumously -- High Holiday and Not To Forget. - DailyMail.co.uk, 2/19/21.