Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on November 18th, 2023

Bob Geldof, co-organizer of the legendary 1985 Live Aid benefit concert, has revealed their are plans to release a new Live Aid IMAX film. Recently speaking at the EnergaCamerimage cinematography film festival, Geldof reflected on his career as a concert organizer and frontman of the Boomtown Rats before revealing that an IMAX film about Live Aid could be on the way to cinemas soon. "As the media landscape spreads through streaming, etc., the need for content grows, I know for a fact that they're looking at doing an IMAX film on Live Aid, and there's a Disney series -- four-part or six-part series -- on Live Aid, and there's a musical about Live Aid at the end of January in opening in London," he said. "So, that stuff will just continue." Live Aid, held in two different venues on July 13, 1985 -- Wembley Stadium in London and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia -- was attended by a total of about 161,000 fans, and an estimated 1.9 billion peple from across 130 couintries watched the TV broadcast. Geldof, along with ex-Ultravox singer Midge Ure, organized the concert to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. A 20th anniversary event called Live 8 was held in 2005 at venues in G8 countries and South Africa. - New Musical Express, 11/18/23...... Blondie guitarist/songwriter Chris Stein announced details of a new memoir, Under a Rock, on Instagram on Nov. 16. "OK here we go. I've been working on this memoir for two years and it'll show up allegedly in 2024," Stein said, adding he "wrote the whole... thing myself" and "it's got a lot of weird ass stuff that actually happened even if it might seem made up... I'm quite looking forward to people interacting with it." Described as a "no-holds-barred" memoir, a synopsis from publisher Macmillan added: "[Blondie frontwoman] Debbie Harry defined iconic band Blondie's look. Chris Stein her performing partner, lover, and lifelong friend was its architect and defined its sound.... Chris Stein knows how to tell a story. Under A Rock is his nothing-spared autobiography. It's about the founding of the band, ascending to the heights of pop success, and the hazards of fortune." Harry has written the foreword for the book, which will hit stores on June 12, 2024. This summer, Stein announced the news of his daughter Akira's tragic death in a Facebook post, revealing that she died from a drug overdose in May. Stein has been absent from tours with Blondie over the last year, including a slot on the Pyramid Stage at the UK's Glastonbury 2023 festival, due to what he described as "a dumbass condition called Atrial Fibrillation or AFib which is irregular heart beats and combined with the meds I take for it I'm too fatigued to deal." - NME, 11/17/23...... In a rare public remark from the stage during his concert at New York's Beacon Theatre on Nov. 16, Bob Dylan offered up unequivocal support for Rolling Stone magazine Jann Wenner, who was bounced from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame foundation's board of directors in September after making sexist/racist remarks in a New York Times interview. "All right, like to say hello to Jann Wenner who's in the house. Jann Wenner, surely everybody's heard of him," Dylan can be heard saying in a recording tweeted out by the Dylan.FM Podcast of his comments to the crowd at the show. "Anyway, he just got booted out of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame -- and we don't think that's right, we're trying to get him back in." Wenner sparked a huge backlash when he told the Times that women were not "as articulate enough on this intellectual level" about rock music and that Black artists "just didn't articulate at that level" in an interview about his new book, The Masters. He later apologized, admitting they "diminished the contributions, genius, and impact of Black and women artists and I apologize wholeheartedly for those remarks." Rolling Stone, whose president and CEO is Wenner's son, Gus Wenner, has issued a statement amid the controversy distancing itself from the RS founder. - Billboard, 11/17/23...... Dolly Parton has shared a video for "World on Fire," her first single from her new rock-themed album RockStar, on YouTube. Her 30-track LP clocks in at over two hours, with nine original tracks and nearly two dozen cover songs, and features contributions from the likes of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Mick Jagger, Elton John, John Fogerty, Miley Cyrus, Pink and Lizzo, among many others. Dolly recently remarked on the power of her voice on many of the recordings: "When you think of rock, you've got to do it with passion [and] power. I've always had a good range and fairly good pitch, so I knew that my voice would open up to it. I thought, 'Well, if I screw this up, I've screwed up big time because I've got to do it good.' I wanted the rock artists, the rock field, to be proud of me if I was going to do it." The famously buxom superstar also nixed any plans to run for president of the US, quipping "I think we've had enough boobs in the White House." RockStar, which dropped on Nov. 17, can be streamed in full on Spotify.com. - Billboard, 11/17/23...... On Nov. 17, the estate of John Denver released The Last Recordings, a collection of new masters of some of the biggest hits recorded by soft-spoken singer before his death in a late 1997 plane crash at age 53. Late in his career, Denver had become alienated from his longtime label RCA Records, calling them "an organization of pure opportunists" in his autobiography Take Me Home and declaring the label "not only lacked interest in promoting my albums, they were no longer interested in releasing them." With backing band regulars such as bassist Alan Deremo and the late guitarist Pete Huttlinger, Denver created new masters for the old songs, to be owned exclusively by his indie label, Windstar Records. Windstar put the songs out as a limited-edition European album, but they never came out officially in the US until the release of The Last Recordings. "It's always a good time to release what we have," says Amy Abrams, who co-manages Denver's estate. "John would have been 80 this year. We recently passed 25 years since he passed away. We want to make sure fans have access to those recordings." Abrams says Denver's estate, which includes his children Zak Deutschendorf, Anna Kate Hutter and Jesse Belle Denver, has a "fine working relationship" these days with RCA and its parent company, Sony, which has put out box sets such as 2011's 25-disc John Denver: The RCA Albums Collection. The most striking thing about The Last Recordings is Denver's voice -- deeper and a touch more gravelly than the one on his '70s hits. "He lost a lot of the boyish quality that his voice had early on," bassist Deremo says. "It ripened into a really full, beautiful-sounding instrument." Denver released his final RCA studio album All Aboard!, a collection of train-song covers that came out shortly before his death, in 1997. The album won a Grammy for best musical album for children in Feb. 1998, his only Grammy win. - Billboard, 11/16/23...... In a new interview with TheMessenger.com, Ozzy Osbourne's son Jack Osbourne said his dad will never tour again. "I don't think he'll tour again," Jack said, adding: "But he's gunning to do one-off shows -- like festivals, gigs, things like that. He's not done yet." Ozzy's last full concert was in 2018, and the following year he suffered a fall, which dislodged metal rods that were put into his body after a quad bike crash in 2003. He was also diagnosed with Parkinson's in early 2020. Ozzy had announced his retirement from touring in Feb. 2023, calling off his scheduled European and UK tour dates in the process. Later that month, however, he said that he hoped to return to the stage at some point in the future. - NME, 11/16/23...... Late Motörhead frontman and bassist Lemmy Kilmister may be honored with a statue in his birthplace of Burslem, Stoke-On-Trent, UK, if his statue plans are approved by the Stoke-on-Trent City Council. Kilmister was born on Dec. 24, 1945 in Burslem, one of the towns that is part of the city of Stoke-On-Trent in Staffordshire, prior to him and his family moving to Newcastle-under-Lyme. The majority of his childhood was spent in Wales before founding Motörhead in 1975. Lemmy's statue would be created by North Staffordshire sculptor Andy Edwards -- the same artist who created the world-famous Beatles statue on Liverpool's waterfront -- and be placed in Burslem's Market Place. Lemmy began his career in the late 60s and worked as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix before joining the space rock band Hawkwind in 1971. He sang lead vocals for their hit "Silver Machine," and was sacked from the band in 1975 after an arrest over alleged drug possession. That same year, he went on to create Motörhead. The metal band reached its peak in the 1980s with their hit UK single "Ace of Spades" and their chart-topping live album No Sleep 'til Hammersmith. Kilmister passed away in 2015 at the age of 70 just two days after he revealed that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. - NME, 11/16/23...... In a new interview with New Musical Express, former Kinks frontman Ray Davies recalled being shot almost 20 years ago, and explained that he now has some sympathy for the gunman. In 2004, Davies was involved in a shooting in New Orleans when he and a female friend were walking home from dinner. A mugger attacked them both, threatening the woman with a gun before taking her handbag and piling into a getaway car. Davies chased after the assailant, who turned, aimed the gun and shot him in the leg at point-blank range, leading him to be hospitalized for a short time. NME asked Davies how it felt to relive the incident in his 2013 memoir Americana: the Kinks, the Road and the Perfect Riff. In response, he said it was a "cathartic" experience because he "didn't feel like the good guy" when he replayed the scene on the page. "Just before he shot me, he looked afraid -- and he had a gun. You know, I was thinking of the world he came from, the challenges in his life... It's utter desperation." Davies also spoke about a potential of a full reunion of The Kinks, and revealed that they have enough material to create "about 20" new songs. As for the prospect of a full-blown comeback, Davies told NME that the idea remains "in the lap of the gods," and would only come to fruition if they could lock in "a show that gives us the credit we deserve." - NME, 11/15/23...... Gene Simmons has said KISS' farewell tour is the "end of the road for the band, not the brand" and hinted at what's to come. During a new interview with 519 Magazine, the musician explained that the group's imminent retirement doesn't necessarily mean the end, and teased some other potential KISS-related projects. "This tour is the end of the road for the band, not the brand," he told the outlet. "KISS is a universe of its own -- movies, merchandise, maybe even Broadway. The band will end, but the KISS experience it's immortal." He continued: "It's the end of touring. You're very smart in seeing that. We are the hardest-working band on stage. I've got 40 pounds of armor and all the rest of it and seven-inch platform heels. Each of the dragon boots weighs as much as a bowling ball. Physically, it's tough to do that." He went on to acknowledge the possibility of KISS continuing the music side of their career in a different style, given the band's elaborate and demanding stage persona. I could do it into my [old age], like The [Rolling] Stones if I was like Keith [Richards], not [Mick] Jagger, because Jagger keeps pushing the limit," Simmons said. "But you could put on a comfortable pair of sneakers and a t-shirt and strum your guitar; you wouldn't have to break your back." He added: "If any of these -- The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, or whoever -- had to put on my outfit, spit fire, and do that on seven-inch platform heels for two hours, they'd break their back." - NME, 11/16/23...... AC/DC fans have launched a campaign to try and get the band to a Number One UK single for Christmas 2023. A push to get the Aussie headbangers to the Number One spot on the charts in time for Christmas was first launched in 2013 when fans created a campaign to get their track "Highway To Hell" to the top position to celebrate their 40th anniversary. Created on the AC/DC We Salute You page on Facebook, the push led to the 1979 classic reaching Number Four, becoming the band's first-ever Top 10 single in the UK. Now, 10 years on, the people behind the page have announced a new campaign to mark half a century since the iconic metal band formed, hoping this time that they can get one of their tracks to top the 2023 charts. "In 2013 we all came together to celebrate 40 years of AC/DC by giving them their highest ever UK Singles Chart placing 'Highway To Hell' at No.4," an update from the page reads. "Well, we're going to choose another track and see if we can get 3 places higher for their 50th anniversary. Are you in? If so join this group and invite everyone," it added, "Big Balls to Ladbaby!" It's not yet clear which song from AC/DC's discography will be the one chosen to push for the peak position on the charts, although "Back in Black," "Touch Too Much," "Thunderstruck," "Mistress For Christmas" and "Hells Bells" are among the top fan suggestions. After taking a hiatus from playing for seven years, AC/DC made their live comeback at the huge Power Trip festival in California in October. It remains unclear whether the band have any plans to continue performing live in 2024. - NME, 11/15/23...... Richard Carpenter has announced he's set to thrill UK fans of the legendary pop duo Carpenters by telling the stories behind the group's hits on stage for the first time. Carpenter, 77, says he'll hit the road in the UK from September 2024, and be both performing and sharing tales of how the group's biggest songs were created. Richard -- who was left devastated by the death of his bandmate sister Karen Carpenter aged 32 in 1983 after her nightmarish battle with anorexia -- said about his upcoming An Evening With Richard Carpenter shows: "After too long an absence, I'm very much looking forward to performing for the UK audiences once again." A press release announcing the tour said: "Richard will share anecdotes and reflections on how he and his late sister, Karen Carpenter, took the world by storm, becoming one of the most successful duos in music history -- as well as performing these iconic and timeless songs." First performing together as a duo in 1966, during their 14-year career the Carpenters won three Grammys and were nominated for 15 of the awards. A total of 10 of the Carpenters' singles were million-sellers, and by 2020 combined worldwide sales of the duo's albums and singles well exceeded 150 million copies. Tickets for An Evening with Richard Carpenter - UK Tour 2024 are available from www.tdpromo.com or venue box offices. - Music-News.com, 11/14/23...... A selection of the Beatles' catalog has been added to YouTube Shorts for the first time. In total, 75 songs from the legendary band's recently reissued greatest hits compilations "The Red Album" and "The Blue Album" are now available on the platform, with the aim of introducing "a new generation of fans to the incredible history of one of the most important bands in modern music, opening up a whole new way for fans to creatively engage with their catalog." Also available on YouTube shorts is the recent single "Now And Then," the last track to feature all four Beatles members. The single, which was released Nov. 2, has topped the UK Charts 60 years after their first Number One. It is the band's 18th Number One single, with the last being 1969's "The Ballad Of John And Yoko." This feat means that the band now boast the longest period between an artist's first and last Number One single -- with their first being "From Me to You"' in May 1963 (60 years and six months ago). Previously, Elvis Presley held the record with 47 years and six months between his 1957 hit "All Shook Up" and a reissue of "It's Now or Never" that was released in 2005. - NME, 11/13/23...... As she continues to promote her new holiday album Christmas, Cher has announced a live in-person event for fans in London this December. The pop icon will participate in an In Conversation event at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on Dec. 1. The discussion -- hosted by Greatest Hits Radio's Ken Bruce and Magic Radio's Harriet Scott -- will see Cher discuss highlights from her career and her Christmas album, along with a Q+A. Recorded primarily in LA and London, Christmas was produced by Cher's longtime collaborator Mark Taylor, who worked with the singer on her 1998 hit album Believe. - NME, 11/13/23...... George Brown, the Kool & the Gang drummer who gave the iconic funk-rock band its propulsive, infection beats, died on Nov. 17 after a battle with cancer, a Universal Music Enterprises spokesperson announced. He was 74. Brown -- whose nickname was "Funky" -- was one of seven school friends from Jersey City, N.J., who came together in 1964 as an instrumental-only jazz and soul group calling itself the Jazziacs. Other members included Robert "Kool" Bell on bass, brother Ronald Bell on keyboards and Charles Smith on guitar. Eventually renaming themselves Kool & the Gant, they signed to De-Lite records and released their first LP, the all-instrumental Kool and the Gang, in 1970. By 1973, they incorporated emerging disco trends in its sound, cracking the U.S. Top 10 with "Jungle Boogie" in 1973 and "Hollywood Swinging" in 1974. After a period of decline, they roared back in 1979 with top-10 hits "Ladies Night" and "Too Hot" and the following year reached No. 1 -- their only song to top the chart -- with "Celebration." Other hits include "Get Down on It," "Fresh," "Cherish" and "Joanna." Brown has co-written many of the band's iconic songs, including "Ladies Night," "Too Hot," "Jungle Boogie," "Celebration" and "Cherish." When asked to describe his music, Brown always replied, "The sound of happiness." Nile Rodgers of Chic posted on X/Twitter that his "heartfelt condolences go out to (Brown's) family, friends and the funk." Brown, who released a memoir this year titled Too Hot: Kool & the Gang and Me, is survived by his wife, Hanh, and children Dorian, Jorge, Gregory, Jordan, Clarence and Aaron. Donations can be made in his honor to the Lung Cancer Foundation of America. - The Hollywood Reporter, 11/17/23...... Stephen Kandel, a prolific TV screenwriter whose work over four decades in television spanned Sea Hunt to Star Trek, Batman to Barnaby Jones and Mannix to MacGyver, died on Oct. 21 of natural causes in his Boston apartment, his daughter Elizabeth Englander has announced. He was 96. Mr. Kandel also wrote multiple episodes of such shows as The Millionaire, The Rogues, Gidget, I Spy, Ironside, The Wild Wild West, It Takes a Thief, Dan August, The New Mike Hammer, Mission: Impossible, Room 222, The Magician, Medical Center, Cannon, Hawaii Five-O and Hart to Hart. Born in New York City on Apr. 30, 1927, Stephen David Kandel was the son of Aben Kandel, a writer on films including Manhattan Moon (1935) and I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957). Raised in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and Los Angeles, Stephen Kandel graduated from high school at age 16, served in Germany with the U.S. Army during World War II and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1950. He then wrote the screenplays for the films Singing in the Dark (1956), Magnificent Roughnecks (1956) and Frontier Gun (1958). He shared a Humanitas Award for the 1979 NBC telefilm Son-Rise: A Miracle of Love, a drama about an autistic child that starred James Farentino and Kathryn Harrold. And in retirement, he wrote a 2020 political-themed book, The Lyin' King: A Tragical Tale of Tawdry Trumpery. Survivors include his wife of 66 years, Anne; and children Jessica, Anthony, Elizabeth and Joanna. His late sister was Beat Generation poet Lenore Kandel. - The Hollywood Reporter, 11/13/23.

A leather jacket worn by Michael Jackson in a 1984 Pepsi New Generation commercial has sold for £250,000 ($306,000) in an auction conducted by memorabilia dealer Propstore. The jacket had been expected to fetch between £200,000-£400,000 at the Propstore London auction on Nov. 10. It was among more than 200 pieces of music memorabilia sold, alongside a George Michael jacket and a hairpiece that belonged to Amy Winehouse. Elsewhere in the auction, a Gibson guitar that belonged to AC/DC's Angus Young did not sell, nor did a limited edition Yellow Submarine Beatles jukebox. - NME, 11/13/23...... KISS announced on Nov. 10 that the final night of their farewell tour at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 2 will be livestreamed on a pay-per-view basis and is set to stream exclusively on PPV. The livestream will begin at 8:00 pm ET, meaning that fans can watch the show in real-time. No further details about the show have been shared, although the band said that it "promises to be a massive event." "50 years of Rock 'n' Roll. 1 Final Show," the band wrote on Instagram, announcing the livestream event with a teaser trailer- which showed clips of their elaborate live performances. "Rock out with @kissonline one last time! Their final concert ever, LIVE." First announced back in 2019, then put on due to the pandemic, KISS's "End Of The Road" shows are the latest of the impressive number of farewell tours the band have embarked on over the years, the first of which took place 23 years ago. - NME, 11/10/23...... In a new interview with The Washington Post, Rush bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee says he'd be open to a Rush reunion with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson. Fans assumed Rush had broken up for good after the death of Rush drummer Neil Peart in 2020 before quietly battling brain cancer for three years. During tribute for late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins in Los Angeles and London, Lee and Lifeson played Rush songs alongside a host of musical friends including the Foo's own Dave Grohl and other musicians from Tool and Red Hot Chili Peppers, about which Lee explained: "It was nice to know that if we decide to go out, Alex and I, whether we went out as part of a new thing, or whether we just wanted to go out and play Rush as Rush, we could do that now." Lee added that "It had been a taboo subject. And playing those songs again with a third person was the elephant in the room, and that kind of disappeared." Following Peart's death, Lee seemed to suggest that Rush's touring days were definitely behind them, and Lifeson reiterated that as recently as July. - New Musical Express, 11/13/23...... American broadcast, podcast and radio streaming platform iHeartRadio announced on Nov. 10 that a bevy of rock icons including Cher and Elton John will take over its Adult Contemporary and Classic Hits stations nationwide and its iHeartRadio app on Nov. 22 as it begins its annual flip to holiday music on more than 85 stations across the US. Hosted by Mario Lopez, the two-hour special event will also feature interviews with Train, David Foster and Katharine McPhee, Meghan Trainor, Rob Thomas and Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic discussing their favorite holiday songs and traditions. "Listeners look forward to that special day when we convert so many of our stations to Christmas music because it means that the holiday season has really started," said Tom Poleman, chief programming officer for iHeartMedia, in a press statement. Cher has recently released her first ever holiday album, Christmas, and John is celebrating the 50th year of his jingly yuletide single "Step Into Christmas." iHeart's North Pole Radio will be hosted by Santa Claus and feature a message line where kids can leave Christmas wishes for Jolly Old Saint Nick himself. To find all of iHeart's generous Christmas music options, including Country, Jazz, R&B and Rock, you can search "iHeart Holiday" in the iHeart app. - Billboard, 11/10/23...... The Grateful Dead has tied Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra for the most career top 40-charting albums in the 67-year-old history of the Billboard Hot 200 album chart. The band achieves its 58th top 40 album with its latest live archival release, Dave's Picks, Volume 48: Pauley Pavilion, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 11/20/71, as the set debuts at No. 33 on the Billboard 200 dated Nov. 11. The three-CD album, part of the band's continuing live archival release series, captures a previously unreleased show recorded at the university's Pauley Pavilion on Nov. 20, 1971. The collection also includes bonus live material recorded at an Oct. 24, 1970, concert at the Kiel Opera House in St. Louis. - Billboard, 11/8/23...... In another amazing Billboard chart feat, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones have appeared together in the Top 10 of a Billboard chart 59 years after first appearing on the tally for the week of Dec. 12, 1964. On that date, the Beatles' "I Feel Fine" rose to No. 5 from No. 22 in its second week on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, jumping over the Stones' "Time Is on My Side," which held at No. 6. Now the two iconic bands are together again in the top 10 of a Billboard ranking, with the Beatles' "Now and Then" debuting at No. 9 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart, dated Nov. 18, 2023, with the Stones' "Angry" reaching a new high of No. 6 in its ninth week on the list. "Now and Then" marks the Fab Four's first time in the Top 10 of a radio ranking since "Free As a Bird" debuted and peaked at No. 8, in the song's lone week in the top 10, on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart dated Dec. 9, 1995. "Now and Then" also marks the Beatles' first Top 10 song on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart. - Billboard, 11/10/23...... In other Rolling Stones news, guitarist Keith Richards has revealed that he and his bandmates have "plenty more material" and will keep making albums until they "drop." In an interview with SiriusXM NPR, Richards said: "There's plenty more stuff left over from Hackney Diamonds to work on. There'll always be another one until we drop. We can put our feet up for a little bit, but you know. You're into this thing all the way. This is what we do. We've gotta see this Rolling Stones through." During the interview, Richards also shared that he has no plans to stop performing because he still "loves it", adding: "It keeps me on my toes and keeps my fingers moving. And I'm still finding different ways of playing things. Even though you're getting to be around 80, believe me, it don't stop." The Stones recently released their 24th LP Hackney Diamonds, their first album in 18 years, which earned the No. 1 spot on the UK charts and the No. 2 spot on the Billboard Top Rock charts upon its release. The band recently became the first act with Top 10 albums in each decade since the '60s. - NME, 11/8/23...... The mystery behind the identity of the man on the iconic album cover of Led Zeppelin's 1971 LP Led Zeppelin "IV" has been resolved. The image of a grey-bearded man stooping over, a bundle of thatched wood on his back and a walking aid propping him up, has been an enigma ever since the album was released 52 years ago, but now an academic in Wiltshire has uncovered the origins of the photograph. Brian Edwards, a visiting research fellow at the University of the West of England, says the man in question is a Wiltshire thatcher named Lot Long, who was born in Mere, Wiltshire in 1823, and died in 1893. The photograph was taken in the late-Victorian era. According to The Guardian, Edwards came across the original image while curating an exhibition at the Wiltshire Museum. The show in question displayed artifacts relating to the public and cultural history of the county, and while searching for early photographs of Stonehenge, he came across the familiar image. "Led Zeppelin created the soundtrack that has accompanied me since my teenage years, so I really hope the discovery of this Victorian photograph pleases and entertains [surviving Led Zep members] Robert [Plant], Jimmy [Page] and John Paul [Jones]," Edwards said. The identity of the man in the painting had been a mystery since the album's original release on Nov. 8, 1971. Led Zep frontman Robert Plant is believed to have purchased a copy of the photograph from an antique shop near guitarist Jimmy Page's house in Pangbourne, Berkshire. Lot Long, who is sometimes referred to as Lot Longyear, was believed to be a widower at the time the photograph was taken, living in a small cottage in Shaftesbury Road, Mere. The photograph was discovered in an album titled Reminiscences of a visit to Shaftesbury. Whitsuntide 1892. A present to Auntie from Ernest. The Ernest in question is the photographer, Ernest Howard Farmer (1856-1944). Led Zeppelin "IV" has sold more than 37 million copies worldwide, and was ranked as the 58th greatest album of all time in a 2020 Rolling Stone magazine poll. - NME, 11/8/23...... The Stevie Nicks limited edition Barbie doll, which arrived to buyers on Nov. 10, sold out almost instantly when it was first announced in early October. Nicks, 75, revealed that a tambourine-toting doll fashioned after her 27-year-old self would be released by Mattel during a show at Madison Square Garden, and she later announced the news on X/Twitter. Nicks and her team worked directly with Mattel on the doll's design. There were several iterations of the face and outfit, with the team ultimately styling it after Nicks' iconic look from the cover of Fleetwood Mac's 1977 classic, Rumours, and Nicks even sent the actual outfit she wore on the album cover to Mattel for accuracy. The doll -- already selling for more than twice its sticker price on the secondary market -- isn't likely to generate vast revenue and wasn't intended to, however it's lifting all areas of Nicks' business. "It wasn't as much about a financial win as much as it was about marketing," says Jeff Straughn of Primary Wave, which acquired a majority stake in Nicks' publishing copyrights as well as her name and likeness in 2020. The real benefit is the buzz that's lifting all parts of Nicks' and Primary Wave's businesses. Straughn reports that streams of Nicks' music have gone up since the doll's announcement, and that it has brought multiple queries about synching her work for other campaigns. - Billboard, 11/9/23...... In other Nicks-related news, Dolly Parton has revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that her song "What Has Rock and Roll Ever Done to Me" duet with Stevie from her upcoming Rockstar album was originally written as a song for Fleetwood Mac. Speaking of the track, Parton said: "Our song, 'What Has Rock and Roll Ever Done to Me', she [Nicks] said, 'This a song I wrote back when we were in the heat of our stuff It's a song I love but they didn't think it was good enough to be on a record.' She said, 'I have an old demo of it. Can we do this one, because I wrote it about someone I was involved with that was also in the rock 'n' roll field when we had an affair?'" Parton continued: "She wrote that about their relationship because they had fun about it. 'What has rock 'n' roll ever done for you?' They said, 'Well, everything,' because they were both famous and rich. She just said, 'I just love this song. I'd like to do it just to commemorate that time in my life and that person.' We talked about stuff like that." Parton's new album Rockstar (out Nov. 17) is a 30-track compilation of new songs and covers of classics like Heart's "Magic Man," Prince's "Purple Rain," The Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and many more. - NME, 11/7/23...... In her new memoir My Name Is Barbra (out Nov. 7), Barbra Streisand digs deep into her past, from her childhood in Brooklyn spent yearning to please her mother to her big Broadway break and award-winning turns in films like Funny Girl, The Way We Were and A Star Is Born. There are also musings on her personal life, including a flirtation with Marlon Brando ("About three hours into the conversation, he looked into my eyes and said, 'I'd like to f--- you.' I was taken aback. 'That sounds awful,' I said. After a moment of thought, he said, 'Okay. Then I'd like to go to a museum with you.' 'Now that's very romantic. I'd like that,' I said."), a romance with former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, an eight-year marriage to Ellliott Gould (with whom she shares son Jason Gould, 56) and finally, lasting love with actor James Brolin, her husband of 25 years. Nine hundred and ninety-two pages may seem a hefty weight for a memoir, but when you consider all the lives Barbra Streisand has lived, it makes sense. Already, the book has gained the label of a No. 1 bestseller on Amazon, as well as a 4.6 star rating, in the first week of its release. - People, 11/20/23...... Deadline.com is reporting that Bruce Dickinson of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden has signed on to star in an ABBA-inspired zombie-themed horror flick, titled Bjorn of the Dead. The movie will center on an ABBA tribute band who get trapped in a nightclub with other tribute acts just as an apocalypse starts. "Bjorn and his band must work together to save themselves, humanity, and the future of music," according to a press release. The Iron Maiden frontman is one of several famous faces from the rock and metal scene to appear in Bjorn Of The Dead, according to Deadline, although no other names have been announced at the time of writing. Bjorn of the Dead was written by Dickinson's son, Austin, who is also a rock vocalist for the London bands As Lions and Rise To Remain. - NME, 11/10/23...... As a historical biopic of 19th century French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte with Joaquin Phoenix in the titular role hits US theaters on Nov. 22, Black Sabbath's original manager Jim Simpson has said that the use of Sabbath's "War Pigs" in the trailer for Napoleon was a "perfect" use of the song. When the trailer for the film (available on YouTube) was released this summer, it featured Sabbath's anti-war song, "War Pigs,", which was released on the band's second studio album Paranoid in 1970. Jim Simpson recently told Westside BID that using "War Pigs" in the trailer was "absolutely perfect." "In the trailer for a film set more than 200 years ago, you can hear a crystal-clear Ozzy [Osbourne] singing Geezer's [Butler] lyrics in the anti-war song 'War Pigs': 'Generals gathered in their masses, just like witches at black masses' and it sounds absolutely perfect," he said. "Like Beethoven, Mozart and all of the other great composers, you can imagine Sabbath's made-in-Birmingham music will still be played and appreciated in 200 or more years' in the future, too." Meanwhile, Ozzy's wife Sharon Osbourne recently revealed that she is opening an Ozzy museum in the singers's hometown of Birmingham, UK. "He's having all of his awards [in the museum], all his stage clothes, posters, old posters from [the pre-Black Sabbath band] Earth days. I've got so much memorabilia," she said on a recent The Osbournes podcast. - NME, 11/10/23...... In April 1972, the United States received its first giant pandas, named "Hsing-Hsing" and "Ling-Ling," from China after Pres. Richard Nixon told then-Chinese premier Zhou Enlai that he loved animals. Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling received national acclaim and attention during their 20-year stay, to be succeeded by "Mei Xiang" and "Tian Tian," and their 3-year-old cub "Xiao Qi Ji," at Washington, D.C.'s Smithsonian National zoo. The presence of pandas in the US came to be understood as a symbol of goodwill between China and the US, or what some call "panda diplomacy." The pandas remained in the US under a loan agreement with their Chinese counterparts, until the agreement expired this year and zookeepers reluctantly began preparing the animals for their return to China. On Nov. 8, the pandas were transported on a 19-hour flight to a panda reserve in Chengdu, which is in China's Sichuan province, traveling on a Boeing 777F plane called the "FedEx panda express." Panda experts told the New York Times the animals had reached the age when they should return to China. "They are at the age when they should be in China," said Melissa Songer, a conservation biologist at the National zoo. "I don't want to have a panda pass away outside of China." The departure of Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and Xiao Qi Ji means that the Atlanta zoo will be the only zoo in the US with the popular giant pandas, and they are set to return to China in 2024. The National zoo says it plans to ask Chinese officials for a new pair of pandas, though there is some speculation that rising tensions between the US and China may prevent another agreement from going into effect. - The Guardian, 11/8/23.