Cher is taking a stab at horror movies. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the iconic singer is teaming up with her son, Chaz Bono, to executive produce the horror flick Little Bites.
The film will star Krsy Fox as a young widow and mother trying to protect her young daughter from a flesh-eating monster named Agyar by allowing the creature to feed on her body.
Bono, who has appeared in American Horror Story and Curb Your Enthusiasm, will also have a role in the film. The rest of the cast includes well-known horror stars Barbara Crampton, Heather Langenkamp and Bonnie Aarons,along with Elizabeth Caro, who'll play Fox's daughter, and Jon Sklaroff as Agyar.
The Queen musical We Will Rock You reopened at the London Coliseum this week, and the gala performance featured a special appearance by none other than Queen guitarist Brian May. The rocker rose up to the stage through a trap door in the floor to join the performers for the guitar solo on "Bohemian Rhapsody.”
May shared video of the moment on Instagram, describing it as “just about the greatest gift any guitar player could have.”
“The shot of adrenaline it gives ME is massive - literally knocking the breath out of me,” he writes. “That risky stuff is very similar to jumping off a cliff under a ‘parapente’ wing ( I know, because I’ve done it) or going on the biggest roller coaster in the park (we’ve all done it - right?) - but in this case I’m on my own with no safety net."
He did add, "[It's] Not quite so terrifying as playing live on the roof of Buckingham Palace to an audience of half a billion - but not far off.”
We Will Rock You runs until August 26. Tickets are on sale now.
A long-in-the-works movie about TheBeatles manager Brian Epstein is one step closer to finally hitting the big screen, although it’s now having to get past another hurdle.
Deadline reports the film, Midas Man, is in post production, but it has just brought on its third director, JoeStephenson, who directed the 2023 film Doctor Jekyll.
Stephenson takes over the project after Vinyl director Sara Sugarman left, reportedly due to creative differences and scheduling problems. She took over the project from Jonas Åkerlund, who left in 2021 following disagreements with producers.
The film stars The Queen’s Gambit’s Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as Epstein, with four newcomers playing the Beatles — Jonah Lees as John Lennon, Blake Richardson as Paul McCartney, Leo Harvey Elledge as George Harrison and Campbell Wallace as Ringo Starr.
In addition to director problems, Deadline reports the film has had issues with funding and scheduling.
The film’s producer Perry Trevers tells the site, "With principal photography now being finished we are incredibly happy at what has been shot and look forward with excitement at being able to share it with the world.”
KISS just kicked off the European leg of their End of the Road tour and it’s got Gene Simmons reflecting on the band's legendary career. In an interview with Good Morning Britain, Simmons says he feels “pride in a half a century of defying the critics.”
"We use them as mulch. You know what that is? You grind 'em up and you put 'em in the dirt. They don't mean anything,” he shares. “If it was up to critics, we wouldn't have our favorite things — Star Wars and, you know, all the fun stuff in life. We completely ignored them.”
As for the decision to stop touring, Simmons notes, “You have to have a little pride and self-respect. Know when to get off the stage," joking, "It's been half a century, and boy, do I look good."
He adds, “I can't tell you how much it means to us to be in front of the fans and put on the spectacle of all spectacles.”
Finally, he says of the end, “It's gonna be happy, because of the amazing journey we've had, but sad, of course, because it's gonna be heartbreaking."
KISS' End of the Road tour hits Prague on June 10. They wrap the tour for good December 1 and 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. A complete list of dates can be found at kissonline.com.
Neil Young recently revealed he's hitting the road this summer on a West Coast solo tour, and now we have the dates.
Young’s Coastal Tour, featuring special guest Chris Pierce, will consist of 13 dates, kicking off with a four-night stand at Los Angeles’ John Anson Ford Theatre on July 1, 2, 4 and 5.
The tour will hit California cities like Santa Barbara, San Diego and Paso Robles, plus stops in Washington and Oregon, before wrapping July 23 in Napa, California. A complete list of dates can be found at neilyoungarchives.com.
Tickets for all shows go on sale Wednesday, June 14, at 10 a.m. local time. To cut down on scalping, tickets purchased through Ticketmaster can only be resold through Ticketmaster’s Face Value Exchange.
As previously reported, Young revealed in a Zoom with Neil Young Archives subscribers that the tour will focus on songs he hasn’t actually played live before. The tour will be Young's first since before the pandemic.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s historic global concert telecast and double live album Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite — and the milestone isn’t going unnoticed.
The celebration will be marked with the release of a newly remixed and remastered 50th anniversary edition of the album, coming August 11. It will be released digitally, and as a three-CD and Blu-ray package, along with a two-LP version.
And fans are getting a taste of what to expect with the release of Elvis’ live performance of James Taylor’s “Steamroller Blues,” which is out now on streaming services.
But that’s not all. During Elvis Week 2023 at Graceland, there will be an Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii 50th Anniversary Concert happening on August 16, along with a Q&A and listening event at the Guest House Theater earlier that day. Tickets for both can be purchased at ElvisWeek.com.
On January 12 and January 14, 1973, Elvis hit the stage at the Honolulu International Center Arena, performing in front of about 6,000 people. The January 14 show was broadcast to more than 1 billion TV viewers via satellite, live to Asia and Oceania, with a one-day delay to Europe. A 90-minute version was aired on NBC in April 1973, which went on to become the year’s highest-rated program for the network.
A double album of the broadcast was released on February 4, 1973, landing at #1 on both the Billboard pop and country charts.
Eric Clapton is giving fans another taste of his upcoming box set The Definitive 24 Nights, dropping June 23. The latest is a previously unseen performance, “Key to the Highway (Live At Royal Albert Hall).”
The Definitive 24 Nights features six hours of music from Clapton’s historic 24-night run at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1991, including 35 never-before-released performances. During the run, Clapton performed with three lineups — a rock band, a blues band and an orchestra; “Key to the Highway” was featured in the blues section of the shows.
The Definitive 24 Nights will be released in a six-CD or eight-LP set. There will also be standalone versions of each genre — 24 Nights: Rock, 24 Nights: Blues and 24 Nights: Orchestra. All options are available for preorder now.
The Rolling Stones released the album Some Girls, which was their first album to feature guitarist Ronnie Wood as a full-time member.
The album, which went to #1 in the U.S., featured the #1 song “Miss You,” along with future classics “Beat of Burden,” which peaked at #8 on the chart, and “Shattered.”
There was some controversy surrounding the album’s artwork, which featured the band members in drag, alongside pictures of famous females like Lucille Ball, Farrah Fawcett, Liza Minelli, Marilyn Monroe and more. Several of them threatened to sue over the use of their likeness without permission, and the cover was reissued without the celebrities images.
In marking the anniversary of the Some Girls release on Instagram, the band noted that the album “became the longest-running studio album on the American chart in the Stones history,” adding it was their first studio album to earn a Grammy nod for Album of the Year.
Fans of The Rolling Stones can look forward to a lot of new vinyl in 2023 and beyond. ABKCO Records is continuing its campaign to reissue 16 titles from the band's back catalog, with the latest being the U.K. version of the Big Hits compilation, High Tide and Green Grass, out now.
The plan is to continue to reissue Stones vinyl throughout the year and into early 2024, focusing on releases from 1963 to 1970. The next reissue will be the U.S. version of High Tide and Green Grass and 1967’s Flowers, coming June 16.
Future releases include: 1975's rarities collection Metamorphosis on July 14; 1965’s Out of Our Hands (U.S. & U.K. versions) on September 15; 1964’s England’s Newest Hit Makers on October 6; 1969’s compilation Through The Past Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) (U.K. version) on October 20; 1969’s Through The Past Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2)(U.S. version) on November 10; 1965’s The Rolling Stones No. 2 and December’s Children (And Everybody’s); and 1966's Got Live If You Want It! on December 1.
Plus, 2024 will see the vinyl reissues of The Rolling Stones, Now! and The Rolling Stones (U.K. version).
ABKCO Records' reissue campaign kicked off earlier this year with the releases of 1967's Between The Buttons and 1966's Aftermath, the first time in 37 years they’ve been out on standalone vinyl.
Queen is back with episode 20 of their weekly YouTube series Queen The Greatest Live, this week looking at one of their classic performances of “Is This the World We Created…?”
The performance was recorded at one of their Magic Tour sell-out shows at London's Wembley Stadium in July 1986, and shows how the acoustic performance, featuring just Freddie Mercury and Brian May, can captivate an audience just as much as their more epic tunes.
The song, from 1984’s The Works, was penned by Mercury and May after watching a documentary on the African famine of the eighties. A year earlier they had performed the song for the Live Aid concert at the very same venue.
June 10 marks the 40th anniversary of Stevie Nicks’ sophomore solo album, The Wild Heart, which peaked at five on the Billboard 200 Album chart, spending seven weeks in that position. It went on to spend over a year on the chart.
Released almost two years after her monster solo debut, Bella Donna, The Wild Heart featured the hit single “Stand Back,” which peaked at five on the Billboard Hot 100. The song featured an uncredited cameo by Prince on synthesizers; he got a 50% writing credit, reportedly because Nicks took inspiration for the song from his hit “Little Red Corvette.”
Nicks infamously shot two videos for “Stand Back,” the first featuring lavish production and a big price tag. Stevie rejected that clip, reportedly because she thought she looked fat. Instead she released a lower budget clip, featuring footage of her singing and dancing, along with a choreographed dance group.
In addition to Prince, Toto’s Steve Lukather appeared on “Stand Back,” while the album also featured guest appearances by Tom Petty on “I Will Run To You” and Fleetwood Mac’s Mick Fleetwood on “Sable on Blond.”
The Wild Heart went on to be certified double Platinum by the RIAA.
Also turning 40 on June 10 is The Kinks’ 20th studio album, State of Confusion, which peaked at #12 on the Billboard album chart.
The album’s success was aided by the single “Come Dancing,” which peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. The tune was a tribute to Ray Davies’ older sister Rene, who passed away from a heart attack during a night out dancing. The video for the song became a staple on MTV, helping the tune become one of the band’s highest charting U.S. singles of their career, tying with their 1965 track "Tired of Waiting For You."
Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson is featured in the latest episode of Gibson TV’s My First Gibson, and in it he explains that he was 12 years old when he got his guitar.
“I wanted to play guitar because I just thought it was such a cool instrument, I thought it sounded really cool," he shares. "You know, when I listened to music that had guitar music in it, particularly like The Beach Boys in that period, in the mid '60s, it was just the driving force of the music and it just kinda spoke to me I think.”
He says when he was in his teens, every Saturday he’d go to a music store in Toronto called Long and McQuade’s and take down a guitar and play until a sales person would kick him out. He talks about all the guitars he used to try out, until he finally got himself a Gibson, noting, “I just couldn’t believe how easy it was to play.”
Lifeson says that guitar was his main axe until Rush got their record deal, and he and the band went back to Long and McQuade's to buy new instruments; that was when he was able to purchase his first Les Paul.
“It was so cool doing that, it was like a dream come true for any young musician," he says.
Gov’t Mule heads out on their June tour starting Friday, June 8, and the lineup will look a little different at the shows.
The band announced on social media that bassist Jorgen Carlsson is leaving the group, and he’s being replaced by bassist Kevin Scott. No reason was given for Carlsson's departure.
“We thank Jorgen Carlsson for all his incredible work, including on ‘Peace…Like A River,’ and wish him the best,” the band shares, referring to their new album, which drops June 16. “Some of you may have seen Kevin with us last year when he stepped in for a few shows, so you know he’ll do a great job out there with us.”
The tour kicks off in Jacksonville, Oregon, with dates confirmed through June 24 in Fargo, North Dakota. A complete list of tour dates can be found at mule.net.
Here’s a chance to get up close and personal with Peter Frampton. The legendary guitarist just announced he’s taking part in Tommy Emmanuel’s Guitar Camp USA, set for September 21-24 at the Grand Hyatt in Nashville.
"I’m honored and very excited to be joining Tommy and lots of other great players for this wonderful event,” Frampton shares on Instagram, adding with a wink, “You never know what’s gonna happen.”
The four-day festival offers a plethora of activities for guitar players of all levels: performances by Emanuel and instructors, open mics, intimate groups and more, with workshops “strictly about immersing oneself in the joys of music and our lovely surroundings!”
A new reimagining of the musical version of The Who’s Tommy, featuring a cast of 28, a nine-piece band and brand new staging, is set to open at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre later this month, and demand for tickets has been so great its run has already been extended.
The show is set to begin previews on June 13, with opening night set for June 26. The run has now added eight more performances, which means it will run through July 30.
And fans are getting another behind-the-scenes look at the production, with interviews from the show’s lead, Ali Louis Bourzgui, and choreographer Lorin Latarro.
"I wanted to do something that will never go out of style so I’m trying to stick with a modernism that is classic,” Latarro says about her choreography for the show. Bourzgui adds, “Tommy will forever evolve itself as pop culture evolves. I can’t wait to bring Tommy to Chicago audiences.”
Based on The Who’s 1969 album and 1975 film, the original production of Tommy opened at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, California, on July 1, 1992. It opened on Broadway on April 22, 1993, and closed on June 17, 1995. It won five Tony Awards, including Best Direction for Des McAnuff and Best Original Score for The Who's Pete Townshend.
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