Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on November 2nd, 2024

Elvis Costello has said that suing Olivia Rodrigo over her song "Brutal," which seemingly took inspiration from his angsty 1978 anthem "Pump It Up," would be "ludicrous." "[Sometimes] artists allude to [other songs] in their own arrangements. Like Olivia Rodrigo's producer obviously did," Costello said in a new interview with Vanity Fair. "Now, I did not find any reason to go after them legally for that, because I think it would be ludicrous. It's a shared language of music. Other people clearly felt differently about other songs on that record," the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer explained. Costello is seemingly referring to a series of copyright issues with Rodrigo's singles, including "Deja Vu," which she once said was partly inspired by Taylor Swift's "Cruel Summer" before quietly retroactively crediting Swift as a co-writer. For her single"Good 4 U," she retroactively credited and split royalties with Paramore's Hayley Williams and Josh Farro after listeners pointed out similarities between the song and "Misery Business." - Billboard, 10/30/24...... In related news, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled on Nov. 1 that Ed Sheeran's hit "Thinking Out Loud" did not infringe the copyright to Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On", saying the two songs share only "fundamental musical building blocks" that cannot be owned by any single songwriter. In a ruling issued more than a decade after the contemporary pop star's chart-topping hit was first released, the court rejected an infringement lawsuit filed by Structured Asset Sales, a company that owns a small stake in the rights to Gaye's song. The case argued that Sheeran's song copied a chord progression and rhythm from Gaye's 1973 No. 1 hit, but the appeals court said the lawsuit was essentially seeking "a monopoly over a combination of two fundamental musical building blocks." Sheeran has faced multiple lawsuits over "Thinking," a 2014 track co-written with Amy Wadge that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and ultimately spent 46 weeks on the chart. He was first sued by the daughter of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the famed 1973 tune with Gaye. That case ended in a high-profile trial last year, resulting in a jury verdict that cleared Sheeran of any wrongdoing. Although the ruling is a major victory for Sheeran, he still faces another lawsuit from SAS claiming his song violates the copyright covering the sound recording to "Let's Get It On" rather than the written music. - Billboard, 11/1/24...... In other Motown-related news, NBC has announced it will be ringing in the holiday season with A Motown Christmas special. Hosted by Smokey Robinson and Halle Bailey, the two-hour special will feature Motown legends (Gladys Knight, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, The Temptations) and contemporary stars (Ashanti, Andra Day, BeBe Winans, Jamie Foxx) performing more than 25 of the label's timeless hits as well as holiday favorites. A Motown Christmas will air Dec. 11 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and the next day on Peacock. Prior to A Motown Christmas, NBC has aired two Motown television specials: Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever and Motown Returns to the Apollo. Each won the Emmy Award for outstanding music or comedy program. - Billboard, 11/1/24...... R.J. Cutler, the co-director of the forthcoming Elton John documentary Never Too Late, has spoken about how the early part of Elton's career came at a "dark time." Cutler, who directed the film with John's husband David Furnish, said that despite being prolific at the start of his career in 1970, it was an uncertain time in the music industry following the deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. "I shared with David that there was a great story to be told about the first five years of [Elton's] career," Cutler told IndieWire.com. "Between 1970 and 1975, Elton released 13 albums in five years, seven of which went to Number One. It was a remarkable creative output at a time when rock and roll didn't know what its future was. The Beatles had broken up, the [Rolling] Stones weren't touring. Jimi [Hendrix] was dead. Janis [Joplin] was dead. It was a dark time." Elton John: Never Too Late aims to "pull back the curtain" on John's life, featuring "never-before-seen concert footage of him over the past 50 years, as well as hand-written journals and present-day footage of him and his family." It follows the musician as he reflects on his life and 50-year career as he prepared for his final North American stadium show at Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium in Nov. 2022. The documentary received its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, and will have a limited theatrical release on Nov. 15 in the US and the UK before its worldwide premiere on Disney+ on Dec. 13. - New Musical Express, 10/31/24...... As a newly remixed and restored edition of Queen's 1973 debut album hit stores on Oct. 25, Queen guitarist Brian May explained to Britain's Mojo magazine why he decided to revamp all the guitar parts for the reissue. "I'm not saying the original version was bad -- it just wasn't what we dreamed of," he told the outlet. "Freddie [Mercury, singer] and John [Deacon, bassist], too, were always conscious of this thing in our past which seemed like it couldn't be fixed." May went on to explain that "everything" from the original version had been improved on the reissue. "Every instrument has been re-examined from the bottom up. The guitars were originally recorded very dry, so we've remedied that," he added. May then recalled some criticism he had received from his father about the sound of Queen's debut record. "I remember my dad saying, 'There's no ambience, Brian. I don't feel like I'm in the room with you playing next to me'," he said. But we weren't in a position to lay down the law, and we felt that if we stepped out of line we would lose the opportunity altogether." Queen I - 2024 Mix is available on single CD and vinyl formats, as well as a 6-CD/1-LP deluxe boxset. - NME, 10/30/24...... Jeff Lynne's ELO announced on X/Twitter on Oct. 29 they have extended their UK "Goodbye Tour," adding two new UK dates for 2025. The first of the two new dates will be a homecoming show -- held on July 5 and taking place at the Utilita Arena in the band's home base of Birmingham. The second will be held at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester on July 9. The announcement comes just days after the band shared details of what would be their final tour -- confirming a farewell show at London's BST Hyde Park on July 13. The band's 2025 London show marks their first slot at the outdoor music series in over a decade. They last took to the stage at Hyde Park in 2014, and that gig marked their first festival performance in 30 years. - NME, 10/29/24...... Grateful Dead guitarist/vocalist Bob Weir threw his support behind the Democratic presidential ticket of Vice Pres. Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz on Oct. 28, taking to Instagram to share a photo of himself wearing a Dead-inspired Harris-Walz 2024 shirt, alongside a snap of Walz holding the tee and another with his wife, Natascha Muenter, holding up a Harris sign. Weir is the latest musician to put his support behind Harris as the presidential election nears. Most recently, Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin were among the artists who showed support for the VP after a speaker at a recent Donald Trump rally made a racist joke about Puerto Rico. Meanwhile a 50th anniversary edition Grateful Dead lyric book has found its way back to the top of Amazon.com's bestselling chart for music bibliographies and indexes. The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, originally published in Oct. 2015, offers an in-depth guide for Deadheads curious about the stories behind your favorite GD songs. It's even been given GD's stamp of approval with founding member Weir saying, "this book is great... Now I'll never have to explain myself," according to the book's official description. - Billboard, 10/28/24...... In more election-related news, the estate of Aretha Franklin has given its blessing to a new Kamala Harris campaign ad that uses the Queen of Soul's 1968 classic "Think" in the background. As Harris reminds voters of freedoms achieved over the decades over historic footage -- including the right to vote for Black Americans and women, as well as a woman's right to "make decisions about her own body" -- the song's "Freedom" refrain plays. Franklin's estate reportedly reached out to the Harris campaign after Harris expressed her love for Franklin at the Democratic National Convention. The estate made her music available and specifically suggested "Think" as a good option. The campaign fully embraced the idea for the get-out-the-vote ad, which is running on YouTube and other online outlets, as well as connected TV/premium streaming services. Franklin, who passed away in 2018, supported Democrats for decades, including performing the national anthem at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. She sang a majestic version of "My Country, Tis of Thee" at Barack Obama's presidential inauguration in 2009. She also sang at a farewell event for Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder, in 2015. - Billboard, 10/30/24...... In a new interview with MSNBC's Morning Joe program, Stevie Nicks revealed she didn't vote until age 70, and she regrets it. "I never voted until I was 70, but I regret that. I've told everybody that onstage for the last two years," Nicks, 76, said. "I regret that and I don't have very many regrets. There's so many reasons. You can say, 'Oh, I didn't have time. I was this and that.' In the long run, you didn't have an hour? You didn't have an hour of your time that you could have gone and voted." The Fleetwood Mac frontwoman also discussed the inspiration behind her recently released track, "The Lighthouse", a song inspired by the fight for abortion access following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. "We have to find a way to bring back Roe vs. Wade," she explained, noting that musicians should speak out more about causes in their music. "In the end of the 50s and 60s and into the 70s, everyone was writing protest songs. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Stephen Stills -- it was lots and lots and lots. I would say to all my musical poets that write songs to write some songs about what's happening like I did." Nicks' full Morning Joe interview can be streamed on MSNBC.com. - Billboard, 10/30/24...... Bruce Springsteen and John Legend performed during a Kamala Harris rally in Philadelphia on Oct. 28. Alongside speeches from Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, and former Pres. Barack Obama, the event at Temple University's Liacouras Center also featured a handful of songs performed by Legend and Springsteen. Springsteen's three-song acoustic set followed Legend's performance, opening with a rendition of his 1978 single "The Promised Land," and featuring a version of 2001's "Land of Hope and Dreams." The New Jersey rocker closed his performance with a rendition of "Dancing in the Dark," which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984 and marks the highest-charting song of his career. Fan-shot footage of the performance has been shared on Instagram. Springsteen's appearance at the Philadelphia rally took place just days after he appeared at Harris' rally in Georgia, wherein he told supporters that while Harris is "running to be the 47th president of the United States, Donald Trump is running to be an American tyrant." Meanwhile in a new interview with the UK paper The Telegraph, the Boss lashed out at Trump, describing him as "mentally ill." "This is a guy who is committed to none of these things. He's an insurrectionist," Springsteen said. "You know, he led a coup on the United States government, so there's no way he should be let anywhere near the office of the presidency." He also chimed in after his friend, manager and producer Jon Landau described Trump's message as the polar opposite of former President Barack Obama. "Not to mention, he's mentally ill," Springsteen said. Meanwhile on Oct. 28, Disney's 20th Century Studios shared the first look at actor Jeremy Allen White, who will portray Springsteen in a new biopic of the music icon due in 2025, with a new photo. Wearing a very Springsteen-esque combo of a black leather jacket and a slightly unbuttoned red flannel shirt, White gazes pensively into the distance with his darkened curls perfectly capturing a younger version of the "Born in the U.S.A." singer. "I only had to see him on The Bear, and I knew he was the right guy, because he had that interior life, but he also had a little swagger," Springsteen recently told The Telegraph of his of his new movie doppelgänger. - Billboard/NME, 10/30/24...... Appearing at the Detroit Opera House on Oct. 28 to promote her new book Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty, former First Lady, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that here eighth book (fifth as the sole author) was inspired by watching Joni Mitchell sing "Both Sides Now" -- the hit song that gave Clinton's book its title -- at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in February. "I saw her and she sang 'Both Sides Now,' which is one of my all-time favorite songs," said Clinton, who suggested the "young people" in the crowd Google it. "It's about life and love and I listened to her sing it. She'd had a cerebral aneurysm [in 2015] and there she was back on stage singing that incredible anthem about what you think of life, what you think of love at different points of your own journey. I heard that song in my twenties. Obviously I've heard it in every decade of my life, and I wanted to take a moment to write some essays about where I see my life now, and particularly about my family, about my friends, about some of these experiences I've had, like being First Lady of our country, but also politics, which I care deeply about." - Billboard, 10/29/24...... Jackson Browne will be among the headliners for Steve Earle's 10th Annual Benefit to Help the Keswell School for Autistic Students concert at Town Hall in New York on Nov. 4. Earle's son, John Henry, was diagnosed with autism when he was 19 months old and for the past decade, Earle has used his artistry and career-long friendships to raise funds to help the school with an annual performance. The show is a rare opportunity to see Browne in a small venue. "Jackson and I have been showing up for each other's causes for a long time," says Earle. Presented by Earle and City Winery, the benefit will feature a guitar pull format, "all four artists on stage at the same time, just kind of swapping songs and telling stories," Earle says. "It's a unique experience for the audience." Earle will draw from his repertoire of classics like "Guitar Town" and "Copperhead Road," which he recently re-recorded live for his new solo acoustic concert album Alone Again. Other performers on the bill include Bob Dylan collaborator Margaret Glaspy and the husband-and wife duo of Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams. - Billboard, 11/1/24...... Speaking to the UK's Evening Standard, Pete Townshend says that The Who will "definitely return" in 2025. Townshend recently told the paper that the band will "do something next year," and though he never explicitly shared what the band's plans entail, his comments suggest that the band could be hitting the road sometime in 2025. Now he has revealed that he had "met with Roger [Daltrey] for lunch a couple of weeks ago," and that they're in "good form." "We love each other. We're both getting a bit creaky, but we will definitely do something next year," he said. The guitarist went on to explain: "The album side of it Roger's not keen. But I would love to do another album and I may try to bully him on that. The last big tours that we've done have been with a full orchestra, which was glorious, but we're now eager to make a noise and make a mess and make mistakes." In March, Townshend teased that the band had one "final" thing left to do before they "crawl off to die" and teased a farewell tour. Less than a month later, he retracted his statement, saying he was "being sarcastic." On another note, Townshed said he was "disappointed" that UK alternative faves Oasis have decided to reunite for a highly anticipated upcoming world tour, "because I really like their solo albums." Oasis's Liam Gallagher has released three solo records from 2017-2022, while brother Noel Gallagher made four records with his band High Flying Birds, that latest being 2023's Council Skies. - NME, 10/29/24...... Michael Jackson has scored his fifth entry in YouTube's "Billion Views Club" with his 1988 gangster-themed single "Smooth Criminal." The track from Jackson's seventh album, 1987's Bad, was brought to vivid life by director Colin Chilvers, who tapped into a 1930 gangster nightclub vibe for one of MJ's most beloved videos. Jackson also paid homage to one of his musical and dancing heroes in it via a white suit and matching fedora that tipped its hat to dancer/actor/singer Fred Astaire. The nearly 10-minute mini movie also features the King of Pop's signature "anti-gravity lean." "Smooth Criminal," which can be watched on YouTube, joins a handful of other all-time-classic MJ videos with more than one billion YouTube views, including such beloved hits as "Beat It," "Billie Jean," "They Don't Care About Us" and MJ's Halloween-appropriate 14-minute scarefest, "Thriller." - Billboard, 10/30/24...... A star-studded concept album inspired by the 1979 cult film The Warriors has debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Compilation Albums chart, and in the top 25 on both the Top Album Sales and Top Current Album Sales rankings (all dated Nov. 2). The new 26-song project, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis, was released on Oct. 18 and boasts such artists as Cam'ron, Ghostface Killah, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Marc Anthony, Nas, Billy Porter, Busta Rhymes, RZA and Shenseea. In addition, two cast members from the 1979 film also appear on the album: James Remar and David Patrick Kelly. Warriors was available to purchase in its first week as a CD, digital download and vinyl LP. - Billboard, 10/29/24...... Prolific actress/singer/dancer Terri Garr, who brought her buoyant personality to Mel Brooks' 1974 classic Young Frankenstein and was Oscar-nominated for the 1982 romantic comedy Tootsie, died on Oct. 29 after a long battle with multiple sclerosis. She was 79. An influential performer to comedians including Tina Fey, Garr was a familiar face in dozens of TV shows and films of the 1970s, '80s and '90s. Born in Ohio, she moved to Los Angeles, graduated North Hollywood High School, and attended Cal State Northridge before moving to New York to study acting. Starting out as a go-go dancer, she can be seen shimmying behind the performers in filmed rock concert The T.A.M.I. Show and in six Elvis Presley features, most choreographed by her mentor David Winters. During the 1960s and 1970s, she had bit parts on sitcoms including That Girl, Batman, The Andy Griffith Show, M*A*S*H, The Odd Couple and The Bob Newhart Show. Garr's first speaking role came in The Monkees' offbeat feature film Head, written by Jack Nicholson, whom she had met in an acting class. On the "Assignment Earth" episode of Star Trek, she played a ditsy secretary, the first in a string of many such roles. She became a regular singer and dancer on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour before landing a role in Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation. Coppola cast her again in One From the Heart. Among her other roles were the wife of John Denver's character in Oh, God the mother of the boy protagonist in The Black Stallion and roles in Dumb and Dumber and Mom and Dad Save the World. She hosted Saturday Night Live three times and appeared frequently on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Night With David Letterman. Her career slowed in the late 1990s, though she continued to take on small roles in films including Dick and Unaccompanied Minors, and as the voice of Mary McGinnis in two Batman animated films, Batman Beyond: The Movie and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. On the TV sitcom Friends, she played Phoebe Abbot in three episodes in 1997 and 1998. She published an autobiography, Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood, in 2006. The actress revealed in 2002 that she had been diagnosed with MS, and she suffered an aneurysm in 2006. She is survived by her daughter, Molly O'Neil, and grandson Tyryn. - Variety, 10/29/24.

Bruce Springsteen is pushing back on a July report in Forbes magazine that the blue collar hero had an estimated fortune that it pegged as "conservatively north of $1.1 billion." "I'm not a billionaire. I wish I was, but they got that real wrong," Springsteen, 75, told the U.K.'s Telegraph paper on Oct. 27 without offering up a more accurate net worth. He did, however, note that the figure was even less likely because, he's spent "too much money on superfluous things," again without specifically describing what those things are. The Boss did, however, reveal to another publication that he pays the members of his E. Street Band -- which include the band's six longest-tenured core members, as well eight additional live performers and a four-man horn section -- "a tremendous amount of money... that greases the wheels pretty good." Springsteen, who sold his catalog to Sony in 2021 for an estimated $500 million, was speaking to London's Business Insider to promote his new Hulu doc, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. On Oct. 24, Springsteen performed at a political rally for Vice Pres. Kamala Harris in Atlanta, treating the crowd to "The Promised Land," "Land Of Hope And Dreams" and "Dancing In The Dark." Before launching into his acoustic performance, Springsteen hit out at opposing Presidential candidate Donald Trump. His performance can be viewed on YouTube. Springsteen has long been political in his music, but first publicly endorsed a President in 2008 when he announced his support for Barack Obama. Since then, he's endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, going as far as to narrate his campaign ad and perform at his inauguration in early 2021. Meanwhile, James Taylor joined Harris' VP choice, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, during his rally in Wilmington, N.C. on Oct. 24. Taylor performed alongside his wife, Kim, and his son, Henry. - Billboard/NME, 10/28/24...... In related news, Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters took to X/Twitter on Oct. 28 to urge his followers not to vote for either Harris or Trump, due to their respective stances on the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. Waters claims both candidates "both support murdering children... they are both evil beyond all imagination... there is no lesser evil." The controversial musician then urged followers to vote for independent candidates Dr. Jill Stein, Butch Ware, Cornel West, Melina Abdullahor Socialist Equality candidate Joseph Kishore, instead. Waters has frequently spoken on the issue since October 2023 when over a thousand Israelis were killed by Hamas forces at a music festival. In still more election-related news, Stevie Wonder is teaming up with John Legend and other contemporary African-American artists as part of the Democratic National Committee's Black Voter Outreach Campaign. On Oct. 28, the DNC announced a historic "I Will Vote" ad campaign targeting Black voters through ads in 55 Black publications and on 48 Black radio stations across the United States. Wonder, Legend, and former Destiny's Child member LeToya Luckett-Coles are set to lend their voices to the campaign, alongside Emmy-winning actress and producer Kerry Washington. Some of the Black digital and print publications that will feature the new ad campaign include African News Digest, The Baltimore Times, Ebony News Today, The New Orleans Tribune, Pride Magazine, Star of Zion, Word In Black and The Villager. - NME, 10/28/24...... Promoting his new memoir Brothers, Alex Van Halen has told Rolling Stone magazine that his brother Eddie Van Halen took a whole bottle of steroid pills shortly before he died because he liked the "superhuman feeling" they gave him. Alex says Eddie took the pills not in an effort to harm himself, but to chase the feeling he thought they would give him, explaining that Eddie had the pills as medication to combat swelling after surgery to remove a brain tumour. "Common sense was not Ed's strong point," he said. "If two's good, twenty's better. That was our mantra." Alex recently shared the full six-minute version of "Unfinished," the final song that he and Eddie wrote and recorded together, on YouTube. - NME, 10/26/24...... Grateful Dead, a band that was never even nominated for a Grammy but nevertheless became one of the most legendary live rock acts in history despite charting only one Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart, will be honored as the 2025 MusiCares Persons of the Year during Grammy Week in January. The 34th annual Persons of the Year benefit gala will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Jan. 31, 2025, two nights before the 67th annual Grammy Awards at Crypto.com Arena. Grateful Dead is the third band to receive the honor, following Fleetwood Mac in 2018 and Aerosmith in 2020. Marking the band's 60th anniversary in 2025, original members Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Bobby Weir will be recognized for their contributions to music, their philanthropic efforts and their pioneering role in fostering communities through their concerts and activism. The event will also include posthumous tributes to Jerry Garcia, one of the band's founders, who died in 1995 at age 53, and Phil Lesh, who died on Oct. 24 at age 84 (see below). "It's simple: we all need music. It speaks to each of us, offering what we need to face what life presents -- enhancing our joys, helping us spread them, and making our sorrows easier to bear. We can't imagine a world without it," the band said in a joint statement. "As our ol' pal, Jerry, used to say, 'You get some, you give some back,' a tremendously effective way to share those benefits... We also want to recognize the community of Dead Heads for their unwavering support over the years -- we wouldn't be here without you." Formed in 1965, Grateful Dead is one of the most influential bands in American history, renowned for their distinctive blend of rock, folk, jazz and avant-garde music. In December, the band will be included in the 47th class of the Kennedy Center Honorees, alongside Bonnie Raitt, Arturo Sandoval, Francis Ford Coppola and the Apollo Theater in Harlem. - Billboard, 10/25/24...... Eagles guitarist and solo star Joe Walsh's 2024 VetsAid annual benefit show, which was set for UBS Arena in Belmont Park, NY on Nov. 11, has been canceled by its organizers, citing "reasons beyond their control." Despite the cancellation, VetsAid will still disburse $400,000 in grants to the recently announced grant recipients. "The wellbeing of our veterans and their families remains my foremost concern and the primary mission of VetsAid," Joe Walsh said in a statement announcing the cancellation. "While I am disappointed in the cancellation of this year's event and apologize for any inconvenience to our fans, I am thrilled to share that VetsAid will provide $400,000 in grants to these fine organizations who will focus these funds on the ground in New York and New Jersey to veterans who have sacrificed so much and asked for so little in return." Walsh added that Ticketmaster will be contacting all ticket holders with refund instructions. The first VetsAid took place in 2017 and featured Walsh -- a Gold Star son -- jamming on his own songs and collaborating with Zac Brown Band, Keith Urban and Gary Clark Jr., while subsequent editions welcomed the likes of Chris Stapleton, Ringo Starr, ZZ Top, Brad Paisley, Eddie Vedder, Gwen Stefani, Nine Inch Nails, Black Keys, Dave Grohl, Jeff Lynne's ELO and Stephen Stills. To date, the events have distributed $3.5 million. More info about VetsAid can be found on its website. - Billboard, 10/25/24...... In 1980, King Crimson co-founder Robert Fripp contributed lead guitar to David Bowie's album track "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" for Bowie's Scary Monsters album. Now to celebrate Halloween, Fripp and his wife Toyah Wilcox have covered "Scary Monsters" as part of their ongoing Sunday Lunch video series. The duo's performance clip can be viewed on YouTube. This December, the duo will hit the road for their Christmas Party 2024 tour of the UK, which will see them visit Edinburgh, Sunderland, Bath, and London before wrapping in Wolverhampton days before the yuletide holiday. Meanwhile, King Crimson has just released a 50th anniversary edition of their 1974 album Red, which features new mixes of its songs by producer and band manager David Singleton dubbed as the "Elemental Mixes." - New Musical Express, 10/28/24...... Queen's Brian May has revealed that the band's ex-bassist, John Deacon, "still has a 'yes' or 'no' say" in Queen. May made the revelation in a new interview with the UK's Mojo magazine, telling them Deacon still had input in Queen's decisions -- despite officially retiring in 1997 (and having only performed periodically with the band since Freddie Mercury's death in 1991). "John still has a 'yes' or 'no' say," May said.. "We get messages that he's happy with what we're doing, but he doesn't want the stress of being involved creatively, and we respect that. Freddie [Mercury] we can't talk to, sadly. But the four of us worked as a team for so long that Roger [Taylor] and I have a pretty good idea what our fellow Queen members would be saying. This thing is longer that anybody's marriage." Recently, Taylor has been teasing new Queen music to come, which will be their first new material after 30 years. - NME, 10/24/24...... The console used to record the Beatles' legendary Abbey Road album has been restored and is up for sale on Reverb.com. The EMI TG12345 recording console -- which was used by the Fab Four to create their final LP in 1969 -- was created specially for EMI studios in 1968 and was the first of 17 consoles created by EMI. It played an important role in the ambitious sound that the band sought for Abbey Road The recording console, which disassembled and remained unused for over five decades, took five years to restore under the guidance of Beatles collaborator and former EMI engineer Brian Gibson. Gibson and a team of audio engineers and technicians were able to assemble the console with 70 per cent of its original parts and "faithfully reproduced the replacement parts to seamlessly work alongside their older counterparts." Speaking about the console on Reverb.com, Dave Harries -- who participated in numerous Beatles recording sessions with the machinery in the 1960s -- shared: "Abbey Roadis one of the best albums that's ever been made, and it sounds so good because of this recording console. Because of the way that Abbey Road was recorded, the album has a distinctive sound that hallmarked the future of pop recording." He continued: "This particular console is a one-off. It's unique. You can't replace it. It sounds so good that it holds up against any modern console and, in many respects, it's probably better. Because in those days, it was built to a different standard -- cost, no object. EMI built this to be the best in the world." After the Beatles' breakup in 1970, the console was also used for various solo projects by all four members -- John Lennon ("Instant Karma!"), George Harrison ("All Things Must Pass"), Ringo Starr (Sentimental Journey) and Paul McCartney. A video presentation of the console by Reverb has been shared on YouTube. - NME, 10/23/24...... In other Beatles-related news, a rendition of the group's classic "Michelle" by late soul singer-songwriter Luther Vandross is among the 21 tracks featured on Vandross's upcoming album Never Too Much: Greatest Hits. The compilation, due Dec. 13, is part of the celebration underscoring the Nov. 1 theatrical premiere of the new Vandross documentary Luther: Never Too Much. In announcing the release of "Michelle" and Never Too Much: Greatest Hits, Epic Records and Sony Music's catalog division Legacy Recordings note that additional details about the recording "remain a mystery." What is known is that is longtime friend and background vocalist Fonzi Thornton discovered a cassette labeled "Luther Vandross Michelle 6/1/89." However, no further information about the recording such as location or session players has yet come to light. Vandross's "Michelle" can be streamed on YouTube. - Billboard, 10/25/24...... In a new interview with CBS Sunday Morning on Oct. 27, Stevie Nicks explained why she decided to champion the historically polarizing cause of abortion in her new song "The Lighthouse," which was inspired by the fight for abortion access following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. "Because everybody kept saying around me, not to me, just around me, 'Well, somebody has to do something...somebody has to say something,'" she told correspondent Tracy Smith. "And I'm like, 'Well, I have a platform,'" she continued. "I tell a good story. So maybe I should try to do something. I was also there. I was, been there, done that." Nicks has previously been open about having sought reproductive care when she was younger. In a recent Rolling Stone interview, she reflected on getting an abortion in the late '70s after getting pregnant by her "Leather and Lace" collaborator Don Henley. "Don was the first guy I actually went out with after Lindsey [Buckingham] and I broke up," she told the publication. "I go to my GYN, and he says, 'Well, you've been protected by your Copper-7 IUD, but you have a tipped uterus. That IUD is only protecting half of you, and we didn't know that.'" "Now, what the hell am I going to do?" she continued. "I cannot have a child. I am not the kind of woman who would hand my baby over to a nanny, not in a million years. So we would be dragging a baby around the world on tour, and I wouldn't do that to my baby. I wouldn't say I just need nine months. I would say I need a couple of years, and that would break up the band, period. So my decision was to have an abortion." Women's healthcare is one of the reasons the "Edge of Seventeen" singer is backing Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. Nicks' full interview can be viewed on X/Twitter. Meanwhile in a new interview with Rolling Stone Nicks said she hopes Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce get married and have kids "if she wants that," and that she gave her former Fleetwood Mac bandmate and romantic partner Lindsey Buckingham"300 million chances" before cutting him off for good. - Billboard, 10/25/24...... Dolly Parton has been named the 2024 recipient of the PEACE Through Music Award, which honors an American music industry professional, artist or group who has played an invaluable role in cross-cultural exchanges and whose music works to advance peace and mutual understanding globally. The award is presented jointly by the Recording Academy and the U.S. State Department. Parton, a 10-time Grammy winner who also received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2011, was celebrated on Oct. 25 at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. She was not in attendance, but sent a video acceptance. "To say that I was honored to accept the PEACE Through Music Award from the Recording Academy and the U.S. State Department would be putting it mildly," Parton said. "I was very touched and moved by that. If I have been an inspiration in any way through some act of kindness or through some music that I have written, well, that makes me feel like I have done my job properly. Thanks again for such a great honor." - Billboard, 10/25/24...... Blondie co-founder, guitarist and photographer Chris Stein took to his official Instagram account on Oct. 25 to reveal that Blondie will be releasing a new album sometime in 2025. Stein shared a black and white photo of Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry sitting in the studio, with the caption "New Blondie album next year." The band's last full-length release was 2017's Pollinator, which marked their 11th studio LP and featured contributions from Johnny Marr, Joan Jett, Laurie Anderson, Sia, Dev Hynes and Dave Sitek. The album was recorded at the famous NYC recording studio The Magic Shop, which is where David Bowie laid down his final album Blackstar. - NME, 10/25/24...... In a new interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, director Cameron Crowe has revealed that he expects to release his new Joni Mitchell biopic Christmas 2025. "I'm super excited. We're going to start in by the end of this year and hopefully have it done for Christmas next year," the Almost Famous director revealed. While he did not share any information on the film's cast, or the specific periods of Mitchell's life that the movie will explore, Crow likened the biopic to the 1983 Tom Petty documentary Heartbreakers Beach Party. "It's Joni's life, not through anybody else's prism. It's through her prism. It's the characters who impacted her life that you know and a lot that you don't know. And the music is so cinematic," he noted. Earlier in 2024, it was reported that Meryl Streep -- a close friend of Mitchell -- has been in talks to portray an older version of the singer-songwriter in the upcoming biopic. Neither Crowe, Streep or Mitchell have confirmed the casting. Meanwhile, Mitchell performed her first headlining concerts in Los Angeles in 24 years on Oct. 19 and 20, and also hosted a secret star-studded jam backstage that included Elton John, Chappell Roan, Brandi Carlile, Lucy Dacus and more. A full video of the backstage antics has been shared on Instagram. - Billboard/NME, 10/24/24...... Billboard magazine's inaugural Top Movie Songs chart has just debuted, and the Bee Gees' "Tragedy" claims the first No. 1 spot after its synch in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. The film, a sequel to the 1988 favorite Beetlejuice, was released on Sept. 6 and again stars Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O'Hara alongside franchise newcomers Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe and more. In September, "Tragedy," which peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in 1979, earned 3.8 million official on-demand U.S. streams and earned 2,000 downloads, according to Luminate. "Tragedy" also featured in one of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice's pre-release trailers. The movie has topped the US box office in its first three weeks of release. - Billboard, 10/23/24...... The Rolling Stones' "Hackney Diamonds Tour" has been confirmed as the biggest summer tour ever of their vaunted career. The tour kicked off at Houston's NRG Stadium on Apr. 28, bringing the Stones to more than 40,000 fans. By the time the band wrapped at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on July 17, it had scored the highest-earning summer of its career. Its 2022 jaunt, "Sixty," earned $120.8 million, and the biggest of its four "No Filter Tour" legs brought in $177.8 million in 2019. While they've made more money on yearslong treks, Mick Jagger & co. have never earned more than $200 million in a single season. The tour was in support of the band's Hackney Diamonds album, released in Oct. 2023. The set marked the Stones' first album of original material since 2005's A Bigger Bang. Hackney Diamonds debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 200 -- the group's highest-charting album since Bang also hit No. 3 -- and extended the band's record for the most top 10s on the chart. - Billboard, 10/24/24...... Former Commodores and '80s solo superstar Lionel Richie has announced he'll be heading back to the UK and Ireland for a summer 2025 arena tour. The tour will be Richie's first UK and Ireland shows since 2016. The tour kicks off at the SSE Arena in Belfast on May 31 before moving on to Glasgow on June 4 and stopping off in London, Sheffield, Birmingham and two nights in Manchester. The run of dates will conclude with another night in London on June 15. - NME, 10/24/24...... Actor Ron Ely, the hunky and handsome Texas native who portrayed the Lord of the Jungle on the first Tarzan series for television in the 1960s, died on Sept. 29 at the home of one of his daughters near Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 86. The 6-foot-4, blue-eyed Mr. Ely had appeared opposite Clint Walker in The Night of the Grizzly and with Ursula Andress in Once Before I Die in films released in 1966 when he was hired to don the loincloth in a new NBC series executive produced by Sy Weintraub. Mr. Ely was offered the Tarzan gig after former NFL linebacker Mike Henry, who had played the Edgar Rice Burroughs creation in three '60s films, abruptly quit after he was bitten in the jaw by a chimp. (He would go on to sue over unsafe working conditions.) Tarzan, which also filmed in Central America and Mexico, premiered in Sept. 1966, and Mr. Ely had to perform his own stunts during the two-season, 57-episode run. (Since he was wearing hardly any clothing, it was hard to find a look-alike stunt double, he said.) Ronald Pierce Ely was born on June 21, 1938, in Hereford, Tex. He graduated from Amarillo (Texas) High School in 1956 and then attended the University of Texas at Austin for a year before heading to California. He made his screen debut playing a pilot in the 1958 film adaptation of "South Pacific", then signed a contract with 20th Century Fox. A year later, he tried to smooch Betty Anderson (Elinor Donahue) on an episode of Father Knows Best, played the older brother of Dwayne Hickman's character in the pilot for The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and appeared with Barbara Eden on the syndicated TV version of How to Marry a Millionaire. He also starred as the pulp adventurer Doc Savage in a 1975 film and replaced Bert Parks as host of the Miss America pageant. In the 1990s, he played a retired Superman on Superboy and a big-game hunter in the syndicated Tarzan the Hunted and had published two novels that featured private eye Jake Sands. A tragedy in Mr. Ely's life occurred on Oct. 15, 2019, when his second wife, former Miss Florida Valerie Lundeen Ely, 62, was stabbed to death in their Santa Barbara-area home by their son, Cameron, 30, who deputies found outside the house and fatally shot. Survivors include his daughters Kirsten and Kaitland. "The impact he had on others is something that I have never witnessed in any other person -- there was something truly magical about him," Kirsten said in a statement. - The Hollywood Reporter, 10/23/24...... Singer Jack Jones -- the velvet-voiced crooner who had such hits as "Wives and Lovers" and "The Impossible Dream (The Quest)," but may be best-known today for singing TV's The Love Boat theme -- died on Oct. 23 at Eisenhower Medical in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He was 86. His widow, Eleonara Jones, said the cause of his death was leukemia, which he had battled for two years. Mr. Jones had three No. 1 hits on Billboard's Easy Listening chart (now known as Adult Contemporary): "The Race Is On" (1965), "The Impossible Dream (The Quest)" (1966) and "Lady" (1967). Mr. Jones received a Grammy nod for best vocal performance, male for "The Impossible Dream," the standout ballad from the Broadway musical "Man of La Mancha." The song, which also received a Grammy nod for song of the year, was so popular on TV variety shows and in nightclubs that it became a cliché. Earlier in the 1960s, Mr. Jones won two Grammys for best vocal performance, male for his renditions of Tony Velona's "Lollipops and Roses" and Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Wives and Lovers." Mr. Jones had three top 20 albums on the Billboard Hot 200: Wives and Lovers, Dear Heart and The Impossible Dream. Mr. Jones' death comes just seven months after Steve Lawrence, a singer of similar quality and style, died at 88. They were two of the finest singers of what was then known as easy listening music -- music that fell out of favor as rock boomed in the late 1960s and 1970s. That music has seen a rebirth in recent decades under a new branding -- traditional pop -- with such new stars as Michael Bublé. Mr. Jones, born in Los Angeles on Jan. 14, 1938, was married to actress Jill St. John from 1967-69. They were one of the top celebrity couples of that era, each with a highly successful career. It was one of Mr. Jones's six marriages. He continued to perform in casinos, performing arts centers and cabarets until shortly before his death. In addition to his current wife Eleonora Donata Peters, he is survived by two daughters and two stepdaughters. - Billboard, 10/24/24...... Grateful Dead bassist and co-founder Phil Lesh "passed peacefully" on Oct. 25, according to a statement from his family. He was 84 and died of as yet undisclosed causes. "He was surrounded by his family and full of love. Phil brought immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love. We request that you respect the Lesh family's privacy at this time," the statement read. Born in Berkeley, Calif. on Mar. 15, 1940, Mr. Lesh was originally a classically trained trumpeter and appreciator of avant-garde classical and free jazz. After short-lived studies at a variety of music schools, he met bluegrass banjo player Jerry Garcia in 1962. He was part of the original line-up of Grateful Dead in 1965, alongside Garcia (on lead guitar and vocals), Bob Weir (on rhythm guitar and vocals), Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (on keyboards, harmonica, and vocals), and Bill Kreutzmann (on drums). He was the last to join the band under their original name of the Warlocks before they changed it to Grateful Dead. At the time of joining, Mr. Lesh had never picked up a bass guitar but grew to develop a distinctive style influenced by jazz in particular that sometimes made his instrument sound like a second lead guitar. He contributed especially significantly to some of the band's earliest works and played on all 13 of the Dead's studio releases and 10 official live albums between 1967 and 1990. Following the death of Garcia in 1995, Mr. Lesh participated in various touring iterations of the band including the Other Ones (1998-99), the Dead (2003-04, 2008-09) and Furthur (2009-13). The surviving members performed publicly together for the last time on the "Fare Thee Well" tour shows in Northern California and Chicago. Mr. Lesh was not a part of the recent incarnation Dead & Company featuring Weir and the band's other significant drummer Mickey Hart alongside John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Chimenti and Jay Lane. He did, however, play in Phil Lesh and Friends and with the Terrapin Family Band, an offshoot of his family-run music hall and restaurant Terrapin Crossroads, which opened in California in 2012. Mr. Lesh had run into health issues in the final decades of his life, including a liver transplant in 1998. He was treated for prostate cancer in 2006 and later bladder cancer in 2015 before undergoing surgery on his back in 2019. In 2017, Bass Player magazine ranked Mr. Lesh as the 57th greatest bassist of all time. "More an improvising composer than mere bassist, Lesh elevated the Grateful Dead from hippie jam band to an artistic ensemble capable of reaching heights of interactive ecstasy," the magazine wrote. "Balancing roots with bouncy, offbeat upper-register figures, he could spin long motivic statements sometimes lasting over a minute, often steering the band into daring new harmonic territory." - NME/Billboard, 10/25/24.