Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on January 5th, 2026

In a new interview with the UK paper The Sun, producer Giles Martin says no more "secret" Beatles tracks will ever be released. "I don't think there's anything. I always say that then something turns up. But I don't think there's anything," he said, adding how it's "incredible how much interest there still is over Beatles stuff." "You do [hear new] things on this Anthology box set," he said. "There's that first round of Helter Skelter, which for me is great because it's really raw. It's proper in your face music. And then people go, 'Well, how come we haven't released the 20-minute long version of Helter Skelter?' I think we're done." Giles' father, Sir George Martin -- who died in 2016 -- was known as "the fifth Beatle" for his work with the band and Giles said he's enjoyed going through his father's work. "Their music and what they did really makes people feel better about themselves. So to work on this material and to be close to my dad is a great thing." Giles curated the new Anthology 4 album and remastered the entire collection for the 2025 re-release of the Beatles' Anthology series. He is also working with director Sam Mendes on the four upcoming Beatles biopics, which will each focus on a different member of the band. - Music-News.com, 1/3/26...... Co-founding Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen has revealed that he is working on a new album with Toto guitarist Steve Lukather. "I'm getting ready to do this record with Lukather and a couple of other people," Alex said on the Metal Sticks podcast hosted by Iron Maiden's Nick McBrain. "It should be exciting." Van Halen did not elaborate whether the new project will be a VH album proper or a side project. VH's last studio effort was 2012's A Different Kind of Truth, and have been inactive since Eddie Van Halen's death from complications from throat cancer in 2020 at the age of 65. Reports of a potential Van Halen/Lukather collaboration first surfaced in 2025, with Alex saying: "[Eddie] and Steve Lukather were very good friends and they often worked together. There is no one who can do this process with me as well as he can." Alex has said in the past that there are "three or four" more VH records to be made from the music that is saved in the band's vault: "There was some good stuff in there. And you have to remember, when in the thick of it, sometimes the really great stuff kind of passes you by. And it's not until you revisit it going, 'Whoa, I forgot about that. This kicks ass.' But that takes time. And you wanna do it right. I wanna do it right." Alex's most recent projects include the release of the full six-minute version of "Unfinished," the final song he wrote with Eddie, in 2024 as part of the release of the audiobook of his memoir Brothers. - New Musical Express, 1/4/26...... Barry Manilow's legion of fans received some good news on Jan. 2 when the "Copacabana" hitmaker shared a positive update of his recent health struggle on Instagram, posting a grinning selfie that appears to have been taken in a hospital bed while wearing a gown. The photo, seemingly sent through text, shows a gray message bubble that reads, "Better today!" In late December, Manilow announced his cancer diagnosis in a statement on his social media accounts, sharing how he recently went through six weeks of bronchitis followed by a relapse of another five weeks. "Even though I was over the bronchitis and back on stage at the Westgate Las Vegas, my wonderful doctor ordered an MRI just to make sure that everything was OK," he wrote. "The MRI discovered a cancerous spot on my left lung that needs to be removed. It's pure luck (and a great doctor) that it was found so early. That's the good news." He added that he would be undergoing surgery to have the cancer removed. "The doctors do not believe it has spread and I'm taking tests to confirm their diagnosis," Manilow wrote. "So, that's it. No chemo. No radiation. Just chicken soup and I Love Lucy reruns." Manilow also apologized to fans for postponing his January shows, and said he was "counting the days" until he can return to his residency at the Westgate Las Vegas "for Valentine's weekend concerts on Feb. 12-13-14 and throughout 2026." - Billboard, 1/3/26...... Billy Joel surprised fans in Florida on Jan. 2 by delivering his first performance since revealing in May 2025 that he has normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH), a type of brain disorder. Joel, 76, joined the Billy Joel tribute band Turnstiles at a village amphitheater in Wellington, Fla., which was celebrating its 30th anniversary, and teased throughout the show that a "special guest" would appear. The Piano Man joined Turnstiles onstage accompanied by his wife, Alexis Roderick, and their two daughters, Della and Remy. After asking for permission to use the microphone, Joel performed "We Didn't Start the Fire" and "Big Shot," while his daughters danced beside him. Following his NPH announcement, Joel canceled all scheduled concerts to begin physical therapy to manage his symptoms, performing his last full concert in Feb. 2025. NPH occurs when cerebrospinal fluid builds up in the skull and puts pressure on the brain, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The condition can affect thinking, memory, balance and movement, and is often treated with a surgically implanted shunt to drain excess fluid. In July 2025, Billy appeared on Bill Maher's Club Random podcast, telling the comedian he was feeling okay but noted that his condition was ongoing. "It's not fixed... it's still being worked on," he said. "My balance sucks. It's like being on a boat. [My condition] used to be called 'water on the brain.' Now it's called normal pressure hydrocephalus." Fan-captured footage of Joel's performance can be streamed on YouTube. - Billboard, 1/3/26...... Slightly more than five months after the death of his Black Sabbath bandmate Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi has revealed that he will "definitely" release a solo album in 2026. In his traditional New Year's Eve video uploaded to his official YouTube channel, Iommi revealed that as part of his plans for the year ahead, he intends to release the follow-up to his last solo record, 2005's Fused. "There's a Gibson documentary coming out very, very soon," he said. "And then, of course, in 2026, I shall have, definitely, definitely, my solo album out. I'm really looking forward to that. I'm enjoying doing it. It's been great fun, and I really, really hope you enjoy it, but I'll keep you more up to date as we go on with what's happening with that, and when it's going to be released." Iommi also reflected on the historic final Sabbath show "Back To The Beginning." "The amount of bands that turned up to support Sabbath at that was just fantastic," he said. "What a great event. And, of course, it raised a lot of money for charity." He also acknowledged the death of Ozzy just weeks after the show. "It's just unfortunate and sad that Ozzy passed away a couple of weeks after that," he said. "May he rest in peace." - NME, 1/3/26...... Streams of the Prince hits "Purple Rain" and "When Doves Cry" have more than doubled on Spotify.com following the finale of hit Netflix show Stranger Things. The fifth and final season of Stranger Things was broadcast on New Year's Day and saw the heroic group of Hawkins residents come together one last time, on the anniversary of Will Byers' disappearance, to battle Venca and destroy The Upside Down for good. Alongside the star-studded cast, including Finn Wolfhard, Winona Ryder, David Harbour and Millie Bobby Brown, the series also came with an impressive soundtrack featuring '80s hits from the likes of Prince, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, ABBA, Kate Bush and more. According to Variety, since the last episode debuted, "Purple Rain" has seen a 243% increase in global streams and a 577% surge in global "Generation Z" streams specifically. "When Doves Cry" also saw a 200% boost in global streams, as well as a 128% increase in Gen Z streams, while overall streams of Prince's catalogue have climbed 190%, with an 88% increase in solely Gen Z streams. Other big musical moments spurned by the finale included the classic David Bowie single 'Heroes' playing out as the final song of the entire series. - NME, 1/3/26...... The end of an era for music videos ended on Dec. 31 when cable TV's MTV channel closed down their remaining dedicated music video channels, ending with the Buggles "Video Killed The Radio Star." The network closed its final 24-hour music video stations across the UK, with MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV and MTV Live all being removed from platforms like Sky and Virgin Media. The flagship MTV channel will remain active in the UK, and it is expected to continue to primarily broadcast reality series. The flagship MTV channel will remain active in the UK, and it is expected to continue to primarily broadcast reality series. As a sign-off, they played the video for 1979 new wave classic by the Buggles, a symbolic choice at it was also the first video that MTV ever aired when it launched in the US in 1981. MTV's parent company, Paramount Skydance, has also shuttered the same channels in Ireland, Germany, Austria, Poland, France, Hungry, Australia and Brazil. After the launch of MTV in 1981, its counterpart channel MTV Europe followed in 1987 -- opening with Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing" -- and MTV UK arrived in 1997. That channel stopped showing music videos in 2011. MTV quickly became a staple of pop culture after its launch, and was tied to countless historic moments in music, including the world premiere of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video and the 16-hour broadcast of the Live Aid concerts in 1985. There has been a marked shift in viewing habits since the channels' heyday, with music videos now more commonly consumed on YouTube and social media rather than television. When Paramount Global merged with Skydance Media in an $8 billion deal in Aug. 2025, CEO David Ellison was said to be eager to cut costs, but was considering ways to revitalize MTV, and there has been speculation that there have been discussions about turning it into an online streaming service to rival YouTube and Spotify. - NME, 1/1/26...... Stevie Wonder's 1972 hit "Superstition" has been voted the Ultimate Stevie Wonder Song in a poll conducted by BBC Radio 2. A massive audience vote saw fans choose "Superstition" from a shortlist of his 60 most-played solo tracks. The results were revealed by legendary UK broadcaster Trevor Nelson during a special New Year's Day countdown, celebrating 50 years since the release of Wonder's landmark 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life. Released in 1972 on the album Talking Book, "Superstition" remains a cultural phenomenon. Noted for its iconic Hohner Clavinet opening, the track earned Wonder Grammy Awards for Best Rhythm & Blues Song and Best R&B Vocal Performance. It was his second US number one, arriving a decade after he first topped the charts as a 13-year-old with "Fingertips, Pt 2." "It's a stone-cold classic and a guaranteed floor-filler," said Nelson. "It has one of the best intros to a song ever made. The Radio 2 listeners have spoken, and it's hard to disagree with them." Rounding out the Top 10 of Wonder hits chosen by fans was "Sir Duke," "For Once In My Life," "As," "Isn't She Lovely," "You Are The Sunshine of My Life," "Master Blaster (Jammin')," "Living For The City," "I Just Called To Say I Love You" and "Lately." - Music-News.com, 1/3/25......Glenn Tilbrook, co-founder of the '70s new wave band Squeeze along with Chris Difford, has revealed that he and Difford aren't friends. Speaking the Britain's MOJO magazine, Tilbrook said although he and Difford still perform and make music together, they are no longer as close as they used to be and don't have a relationship outside of the band. "Mine and Chris' relationship effectively ended as a friendship in, I'd say, 1976," Tilbrook said. "But as a band, we could still carry on and be productive. I think Chris and Jools [Holland] were far closer than Chris and I were." "During that time, I began to feel the pull of Chris wanting to be doing something different to what we were doing. And that was a bit weird for me," he noted. Even after Squeeze split for the first time in 1982, Chris and Glenn recorded their Difford + Tilbrook album together in 1984, but were barely on speaking terms. Tilbrook admitted: "Difford + Tilbrook was a very difficult period where we didn't talk to each other for a year, but we were making a record and it was crazily difficult to understand anything. Chris was really horrible to be around at that point. OK, he may well say the same thing about me, I don't know, but the degree of any trust that we could have in each other was completely gone by then." - Music-News, 1/1/26.