Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on January 10th, 2026

As director Baz Luhrmann was making his 2022 Elvis Presley biopic Elvis, the filmmaker and his team found a treasure trove of long-hidden film negatives and footage in the Warner Brothers vault from the previous Elvis '70s documentaries That's The Way It Is and Elvis On Tour, in addition to never-before-seen 8mm footage and never-before-heard audio of Elvis musing about his life. This inspired Luhrmann to make another Presley film, EPiC: Elvis Presley Live in Concert, which will have its global theatrical release on Feb. 27, with a one-week exclusive IMAX run a week earlier on Feb. 20. The soundtrack to EPic, featuring 27 of the Elvis songs heard in the film alongside new remixes and medleys of classic songs from Presley, will also drop on Feb. 20. Luhrmann's 2022 Elvis grossed more than $288 million worldwide and is No. 2 on Billboard's list of the highest-grossing music biopics of all-time. In addition to the soundtrack's release on digital and CD on Feb. 20, a 2-LP vinyl version of EPiC will follow on Apr. 24. "Wearin' That Night Life Look," one of the songs from the soundtrack, can be streamed on YouTube. - Billboard, 1/8/26...... Neil Young has kicked off 2026 with a scorching editorial of his longtime nemesis, Pres. Donald Trump. Posting on his Neil Young Archives, Young wrote: "Wake up, people! Today the USA is a disaster. Donald Trump is destroying America bit by bit with his staff of wannabes, people with no experience or talent, closet alcoholic wife beaters, inexperienced leaders who only know how to lie to keep favor with Trump's falseness so they can hold their unearned positions in his inept government, a Congress full of Republicans acting like idiots with no conscience. He has divided us. How did we elect these creeps who have no spin, no values, no conscience, no way to save the USA." The editorial hit days after 37-year-old protester Rennee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, sparking protests in cities all over the US. "We need to take Trump at his word," Young wrote. "Make America Great Again. It won't be easy while he is trying to turn our cities into battlegrounds so he can cancel our elections with marshal law and escape all accountability. Something has to change this. We know what to do. Rise up. Peacefully in millions. Too many innocence people are dying." Young concluded with a sharp barb at the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agency: "No soldiers in the streets before Trump. Every move he makes is to build instability so he can stay in power. He knows nothing about love. He does not know you are. Use your love of life, your love of one another, your love of children and theirs and ours. Peacefully. Now." Young and his Chrome Hearts band have announced they'll kick off a 2026 European tour on June 19 in Manchester, England. No firm US dates have been announced as yet, but Young recently told a fan they do plan on playing at least some American shows this year. "There will be some dates," he wrote. "Not a lot." - RollingStone.com, 1/9/26...... Long before he became David Bowie, a young David Jones lived at a modest traditional British home in Brixton, southeast London that had a living and dining room/kitchen downstairs, and two bedrooms upstairs. That fabled house, 4 Plaistow Grove in Bromley, is now set to be a place of pilgrimage for Bowie fans when it is restored and reopened to the public in the coming years. The announcement of the heritage project comes on what would have been Bowie's 79th birthday (Jan. 8), and just days before the 10th anniversary of his Jan. 10, 2016, passing. Bowie moved to the property with his mother and father in 1955 and lived there until 1967, around the time that he released his self-titled debut album on Decca Records, though he returned often in the following years. Geoffrey Marsh, who co-curated the acclaimed David Bowie Is exhibition that toured the world, will assist in restoring 4 Plaistow Grove alongside a never-before-seen archive. The site will also host creative and skills workshops for young people, with the trust saying that the house will act as a "solid foundation for the next generation" and will focus on teaching confidence and communication skills in the arts. The Jones Day Foundation, a charitable foundation funded by attorneys and staff of the Jones Day law firm, will contribute £500,000 ($672,024) toward the restoration. A public fundraising campaign will be launched later in January for additional funds. Bowie is not the first British star to have their childhood home enshrined. Paul McCartney and John Lennon's childhood homes in Liverpool are owned by the UK National Trust and open to visitors. In other Bowie news, the Thin White Duke's 1977 classic "Heroes" is seeing a major resurgence on streaming platforms following its prominent placement in the finale of Netflix's Stranger Things, which premiered Dec. 31. On the day of the finale and the three days since (Dec. 31-Jan. 3), "Heroes" accumulated 1.4 million official on-demand U.S. streams, a 143% jump over the previous period of Dec. 27-30 (613,000), according to Luminate. The placement marked a full-circle moment for the series, which has become closely associated with 1980s music throughout its run. - Billboard, 1/8/26...... Fifty-five years after The Doors released their 1971 classic "Riders on the Storm," surviving Doors John Densmore and Robby Krieger have reunited to re-create the song with musicians from across the globe as part of Playing for Change's annual Songs Around the World project. Contributing musicians include Don Was, Rami Jaffee, Sierra Ferrell, Aaron White, Micah Nelson, and Micah's brother Lukas Nelson. "Vocally, Lukas Nelson filled Jim Morrison's leather pants quite well!" Densmore says in a statement. "Ray would be proud of the way Rami Jaffee 'channeled' the piano solo. Mark Johnson masterminded a beautiful video." Adds Krieger: "Seeing musicians from different cultures come together around this song means a lot. Playing for Change is doing important work to unite people across the globe." Over the past two decades, Playing for Change has teamed up such rock icons as Keith Richards, Robbie Robertson, Bono, Buddy Guy, David Crosby, Steve Miller, Tom Morello, Ringo Starr, Bunny Wailer, and many others, racking up over 2 billion YouTube views. Songs to get the Playing for Change treatment have included "Fly Like an Eagle," "The Weight," "No Woman No Cry," "Peace Train," and "When the Levee Breaks." The Doors, meanwhile, spent the past year celebrating the group's 60th anniversary. Densmore is largely retired from the road, but Krieger continues to keep the band's music alive on concert stages, and has announced a special 80th birthday gig at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles on Mar. 28. The new "Riders on the Storm" video has been shared on YouTube. - RollingStone.com, 1/9/26...... Taking to his YouTube channel in early January, Ronnie Wood shared some insight into his early years in the music industry, and explained how he first began working with Jeff Beck back in 1967 -- a period when the guitarist left The Yardbirds and formed the Jeff Beck Group. It was after a show at the historic 100 Club in London, the 78-year-old musician explained, when Beck came up to him and asked if he'd "consider playing bass." Responding, Wood said that he told Beck: "'I love a challenge. I don't mind it' So that's when I went on to the bass." Continuing to perform with Beck's band in the following years, Wood then went on to say that when he played in America it was none other than Jimi Hendrix who became a fan, and would frequently attend their shows and share praise for Wood's abilities. "Jimi Hendrix used to come and jam with us. He used to say to Jeff, 'Hey, Jeff, let the bass player have a solo,'" he continued on the video. "He loved my bass playing, and so that was a feather in my cap." That period of the '60s, he added, led to him and Hendrix "sharing a flat with him in Holland Park for a couple of weeks" while both tried to get more live shows lined up. "It was great fun," he added. By the end of the decade, Wood would go on to play in The Faces alongside Rod Stewart, and then eventually joined The Rolling Stones in 1975 -- replacing Mick Taylor and staying in the line-up for over five decades. Their latest album, the Grammy-winning 24th studio LP Hackney Diamonds was released in 2023 and marked their first since the death of drummer Charlie Watts. Wood has said that a new Stones album will be released in 2026, however it has also been confirmed that the band will not be touring this year. - NME, 1/7/26...... It was hailed, sadly by many, as the end of an era when MTV recently announced it was closing down a lot of its 24-hour music-only channels -- including five in the UK -- on Dec. 31. Now someone on Reddit has announced on the site that an online alternative has been created. Called MTV Rewind, the site plays music videos all day without any modern ads (though you might see a few vintage commercials thrown in) or reality TV shows. It hosts a staggering 27,000+ music videos from the 1970s onwards, and visitors can filter by decade, step back in time with Yo! MTV Raps or Headbangers Ball, or simply shuffle the vast archive and leave it to fate. As it says on the site, "No ads, no algorithm, no login, just pure random discovery. Pick a decade. Press play. Let the chaos begin." MTV first launched in the US in 1981, and the first video to play on the channel was "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles. A European version arrived in 1987, opening with Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing," and a dedicated UK channel came ten years later. - NME, 1/6/26...... ZZ Top, famed for their elaborate facial hair over the years (ironically barring clean shaven drummer Frank Beard), have been rumored for many years to have turned down a hefty sum of money to shave off their distinctive beards. Now in a new interview, ZZ Top frontman Billy Gibbons has confirmed that it's true. Speaking during a recent appearance on the Mohr Stories podcast, Gibbons shared that each bandmember was offered $1 million back in the 1980s by razor company Gilette, and in exchange, they had to get rid of the facial hair on television. "They deny it," the "La Grange" singer said of Gillette. "[But] it was a million dollars per man." He also said that he called up his publicist, Bob Merlis, after hearing about the offer, who gave a witty response in return. "'The money's good, you might as well consider doing it but I'm not so sure any of you guys know what's under there'," Gibbons said. The hirsute look of the "lil' ol band from Texas" goes back to their early days, when they started the band at the end of the '60s, and toured extensively up until the mid-'70s. When asked in 2025 why they first grew out the beards, Gibbons told The Big Interview that it was because of "one word: lazy." "We started ZZ Top in 1969. We carried on non-stop until the bicentennial year of '76," he said. "And at that time, we were looking at an invitation to join the ranks of the Warner Bros. Group." He then added that he and bassist Dusty Hill began growing out the beards "as a disguise" initially, but then realized it had "turned into a trademark." After wrapping a run of live shows in 2025, the trio will be performing live again later this year, with a huge run of US live shows scheduled between March and May, and a run of live shows and festival appearances planned for Europe later in the summer. Last year, the band issued a statement to say that Beard would "temporarily" be stepping away from live shows as he had to "attend to a health issue requiring his focus in the near term." ZZ Top's longtime tech member John Douglas stepped in to perform at the shows in his place. - NME, 1/7/26...... Pink Floyd's iconic 1973 No. 1 album The Dark Side of the Moon is nearing its milestone 1,000th week on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart, nabbing its 996th nonconsecutive week on the list on the chart dated Jan. 10. Those 996 nonconsecutive weeks would be the equivalent of more than 229 months, or more than a whopping 19 years, in total. The Billboard Hot 200 began publishing on a regular weekly basis in March of 1956. The Dark Side of the Moon became the longest-charted album in the history of the list in 1983 and has held the title ever since. The Dark Side of the Moon was released in March 1973, hit No. 1 for one week that April, and contains the band's first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, "Money," which reached No. 13. Dark Side became the longest-charted album on the Billboard 200 on the chart dated Oct. 29, 1983. That week, it captured its 491st week on the list, surpassing Johnny Mathis' long-standing record of 490 weeks with Johnny's Greatest Hits. - Billboard, 1/7/26...... Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones has announced he is auctioning off a range of studio equipment, and it includes an amp that was blown after being left at Dave Grohl's house. The auction is being organized by a UK company called Soundgas, which specializes in the sale of vintage and rare recording equipment and instruments. According to a description, the Zeppelin legend is wanting to sell much of his gear because, while he "is still very active musically -- writing, recording and performing," he "but no longer requires so much studio equipment." It goes on to state that Jones has owned most of the items going to sale since they were brand new, and is letting go of them as "he feels it should be in the hands of people who will put it to good use." "It is offered here without formal provenance, with the intention that it continues to be used as intended," the description reads. Among the items up for grabs is a a rare Simmons SDS V electronic drum kit, a pair of AKAI digital samplers, a pair of Yamaha NS-10M speakers, and a sought-after Arbiter Soundimension mechanical echo unit that dates back to the '60s. One eye-catching item listed is also a Guild Thunderbass amplifier, which was used by the iconic bassist during his time with the supergroup, Them Crooked Vultures. The band comprised Jones, Foo Fighters' frontman Grohl and Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, and a description for the amp says it was left at Grohl's house where it went out on a loan, and returned to Jones with the speakers blown. Despite it being worse for wear, the amp -- which is currently untested -- is predicted to sell for roughly £1,300. Soundgas has clarified that the items going to auction are from the artist's own private studio and were not used with Led Zeppelin. Meanwhile, Jones has written a 20-minute composition for mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly, which was performed for the first time on Jan. 7 at London's Wigmore Hall. - NME, 1/6/26..... Former KISS drummer Peter Criss has said him beating cancer was a "miracle." Speaking to the KISS FAQ podcast, Criss reflected on this difficult period of his life. "I had breast cancer a while back, and I prayed. I'm a very religious guy, so I really prayed very, very hard," he remembered. "I was at church probably more than the pastor, and I really prayed hard. And God gave me my miracle. And I felt, and I kid you not, that I really could walk on water." The 80-year-old musician, who released his first solo album in 18 years in December, revealed that he wrote his new track "Walking On Water" about his cancer journey. "Have you ever watched that Being There movie with Chauncey Gardiner?" he asked. "And at the end he walks on water, and you realise he's an angel. I love that movie. And I felt like that. "I felt like I could walk on the ocean, and it was such a high. I was so elated that I was cured. And so I wanted to write a religious song, and I wanted to write about the experience that I was feeling inside, 'cause I always sing from the heart." He continued: "Everything comes from my heart. And that's one of my favourite songs. I'm glad you brought it up, because 'Walking On Water' is special." The drummer/vocalist also vowed to "never stop" making music "until they put me in the box," adding: "Music is a gift from God." - NME, 1/6/26...... Eric Clapton has become a grandfather for the third time, as his daughter, Ruth Clapton, welcomed a baby girl with her partner, Peter Greenwood, on Jan. 6. Taking to her Instagram to share the exciting news, Ruth posted an adorable picture of the little girl wrapped up in a cardigan and lilac hat. "Cecelia Rose Clapton-Greenwood. Born 6th Jan 9.21am," she penned. Ruth is already mum to two sons, aged 12 and nine, with her ex-husband Dean Bartlett, from whom she split in 2020. She went on to find love with British musician Greenwood in Aug. 2023. Clapton secretly fathered Ruth during an affair with studio manager Yvonne Kelly, while he was married to model Pattie Boyd. Her existence was kept secret from the public until 1991, when she attended the funeral of Clapton's four-year-old son, Conor, who fell to his death from a window of a New York skyscraper. In an interview for his MTV special the year after Conor's tragic death, Clapton acknowledged Ruth, saying, "Ruth has been a tremendous support." - Music-News.com, 1/9/26...... Ted Nugent has kicked off the new year slamming his fellow Detroit musicians Tom Morello and Jack White. The comments came during one of Nugent Let's Talk Music podcasts on New Year's Day (Jan. 1), during which the MAGA rocker appeared to go blank on the name of the "guy in The White Stripes," while referencing Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and fellow Detroit native Jack White. Unlike Nugent, a vocal supporter of Pres. Donald Trump, White has been a loud and proud enemy of the White House, repeatedly lambasting Trump for everything from his "vile," hate-filled post about the recent murder of beloved filmmaker Rob Reiner to mocking the president's gaudy, gold-plated White House makeover. "Jack White, is that his name? Jack White. No, I think The White Stripes, is that his name?," Nugent said, acting as if he was unaware of the name of one of the city's biggest modern rock icons, and giving him a "four or five" rating on a scale of 10. Nugent had some shade for his old pal Tom Morello as well, whose name he also seemed to fumble over. "Tom Morello, Is that his name? Tom Morel?," Nugent said of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member. "Who played with [Bruce] Springsteen and Rage Against the Machine, when actually they are the machine. Come on Tom, you got to know that. You're not raging against the machine. You are the machine." - Billboard, 1/5/26..... Celebrity author Michael Schumacher, who wrote biographies of Francis Ford Coppola and Eric Clapton, died of as yet unnanounced causes on Dec. 29. He was 75. Schumacher's books include Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life; Crossroads: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton; and Dharma Lion: A Biography of Allen Ginsberg, the influential Beat Generation poet. Schumacher also chronicled sports and comics history, wrote Mr Basketball: George Mikan, the Minneapolis Lakers & the Birth of the NBA and Will Eisner: A Dreamer's Life in Comics and he wrote extensively about maritime disasters. He was born in Kansas but spent most of his life in Kenosha, Wisc. He studied political science at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside but his daughter Emily said he left there just one credit short of graduating. - DailyMail.co.uk, 1/6/26.

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.