Bay State musicians took the stage at TD Bank Garden Thursday (5/30) to deliver the Boston Strong message loud & clear.  On a night that featured both tender tunes like Shower The People from James Taylor and Carole King to raucous performances by Aerosmith and the J. Geils Band, the event called on television and online viewers to contribute to One Fund Boston, the charity established to help offset treatment costs for those injured in the Boston Marathon bombing.  Jimmy Buffett, who counts Fenway Park as one of his most memorable concerts, was joined by JT on Mexico.  Aerosmith delivered a late night set featuring Sweet Emotion, Walk This Way, Living On The Edge and Dream On, which Steven Tyler introed by saying, 'If they think they can keep us down, they can dream on!'  Th night ended after midnight with rousing renditions of Come Together and, of course, Dirty Water, the Standells 1960's hit that is a crowd favorite at Red Sox games.
BostonHerald.com
 

The next U2 album is earning high marks from a former producer for the band. Daniel Lanois has told the Globe & Mail music writer Brad Wheeler that the project sounds adventurous and calls the sound of the album 'amazing' and 'big'. The producer added that being on the sidelines for this one is fine with him because, 'I don't know if I'd survive the experiment.'  Danger Mouse is heading up the new release, which could be out before year's end.
Bono and The Edge recently put in an appearance at the 1,000th performance of the Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark musical the pair provided the score for.
HuffingtonPost.com
 

MORE U2 INSIGHTS

Jon Bon Jovi will perform in Madrid, Spain June 27 at no charge in order to keep ticket prices low enough for still struggling Spaniards.  Jon elected to waive his fee in order to get a stop in the economically hard-hit country added to his European tour schedule. 'When we were planning the tour we did a study and found that, due to the economic situation, Spain was not on the road map', the singer told El Mondo.  The Madrid date at no charge at the singer's insistance because he, '...didn't want to stop playing to the fans of a country that's treated me so well for 30 years'.  Tickets for the date are scaled at a rate that will just off-set the expenses for the concert and cover the crew's hotel and meal costs.
ClassicRockMagazine.com

MORE BON JOVI INSIGHTS

Legislators are close to having a portion of State Route 375 in Woodstock, New York renamed  in honor of Levon Helm. A Bill designating the change has already won approval in the Senate and the Assembly.  The next step is up to the Governor, Andrew Cuomo.  State Senator Cecelia Tkaczyk wants the state's chief executive to put pen to paper on the Bill because, 'Helm is a true American hero. And as a critically acclaimed international star he could have lived anywhere in the world, but made his home in Woodstock and did so much for his community and for the local economy.'
TimesUnion.com

MORE LEVON HELM INSIGHTS

Former Stone Temple Pilots front man Scott Weiland is blasting the group for continuing to use the name without him as the lead singer.  The group has enlisted Chester Bennington of Linkin Park as its new vocalist.  Weiland's rant on his Facebook page called the group '...misleading and dishonest for touring under the STP name without him in the lineup, adding, .I don't give a fuck what they call themselves, but it's not Stone Temple Pilots.'

AntiQuiet.com

Richie Sambora says his absence from the Bon Jovi tour has nothing to do with a substance abuse relapse and that comments from Jon Bon Jovi suggesting that's the case only make it less likely he will elect to resume touring as Jon's lead guitarist.  Sambora went so far as to infer that Bon Jovi wants to keep him away longer so he can see whether ticket sales slacken when he's not in the lineup. He went on to say that fans forking over ticket money to see Bon Jovi with a stand-in guitarist in his role arw, '...not getting the whole deal.'

ClassicRockMagazine.com

Of all the rules and laws Keith Richards has bent or broken during his illustrious career in Rock, the one blemish on his reputation he might have the most  misgivings over is his failure to return library books on time.  Speaking with The Sun, the Rolling Stones guitarist confessed to being overdue by a half century on lots of fines on books he took out of the Dartford, Kent library as a teenager.  Richards said he treasured his time spent at the library, calling it the place he first got '...a hint there was a place called civilization'.  No doubt, there is a librarian in Kent hoping that Keith will cut a check to clear his conscience. The paper calculates that the 50 years of interest on the fines could push what Richards owes into the $25,000 range.
NME.com

MORE KEITH RICHARDS INSIGHTS

STONES JOINED BY DAVE GROHL

 

Nearly a quarter of U2 fans weighing in on what they expect from the band's next album expect it to be only 'okay', 'bad' or 'terrible'.  The 22% expressing skepticism about the group being able to recapture the magic that made the Irish Rockers one of the biggest album and tour draws in music history was countered by 78% that believe the group will come up with a release that will be 'good' (33%) or 'terrific' (45%).  U2's last effort, No Line On The Horizon, fell well short of expectations for the vast majority of fans and ultimately became a project band members themselves acknowledged as being a bit of a stiff.
AtU2.com

MORE U2 INSIGHTS

Tom Petty & The Hearbreakers launched their 5 night run at New York's Beacon Theatre with a version of the Byrds So You Want to Be a Rock 'n Roll Star and romped through a set of 22 songs, adding covers of Chuck Berry's Carol, the Monkees I'm Not Your Stepping Stone (a band first), Tweeter and the Monkey Man from Petty side band the Traveling Wilburys and Little Feat's Willin'. The evening included several catalog favorites of their own like I Won't Back Down, Refugee, Runnin' Down a Dream, American Girl in a set that was also spiked with less frequently played titles Fooled Again (I Don't Like It, Cabin Down Below, Melinda, Rebels and Billy The Kid.
JamBands.com



MORE TOM PETTY INSIGHTS

They pushed the boundaries musically, socially and politically and while Jim Morrison rightly deserves athe lion's share of the credit for making the Doors one of the most influential bands of their era, Ray Manzarek's keyboard work had a lot to do with what made the band stand out musically.  On so many of the band's songs, Ray's work on the keys accounted for a lot of what made the Doors recognizable musically before Morrison even sang a note.  Ray Manzarek passed away Monday (5/20) at a treatment facility in Rosenheim, Germany.  The keyboard player was 74. He sat last December with Ben Fong Torres to discuss the release of the Doors Hollywood Bowl concert and the legacy of the band.
Telegraph.co.uk

MORE RAY MANZAREK INSIGHTS

Paul Stanley made it pretty clear that he thinks Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner is largely responsible for his band not having been inducted by the Rock Hall of Fame.  Speaking to the Huffington Post, the lead singer of the group that considers itself the 'hottest band in the world' said the prospect for KISS getting admitted to the Cleveland Rock shrine probably comes down to '...who lives longer, us or Jann Wenner.'  If Wenner is partly to blame, he is not alone. Music critic Dave Marsh, who also has a good deal of influence in the nomination process of the Hall, once proclaimed to MTV, 'KISS is not a great band, KISS was never a great band, KISS never will be a great band, and I have done my share to keep them off the ballot.'

A custom build VOX guitar played by both John Lennon and George Harrison brought a top bid of $408,000 during an auction Saturday (5/18) conducted by Julien's Auctions at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York. An anonymous high bidder now owns one of the more unique musical instruments in Rock history.  The top bid beat projections by more than 100k.  The semi-hollow body guitar was played by Lennon in a video shoot for the song Hello, Goodbye and was used by George Harrison when practicing his guitar parts for I Am The Walrus, according to Julien's.  The rare instrument was apparently gifted to Yanni Mardis, and engineer for the Apple record label.
Today.com/entertainment  Reuters

MORE BEATLES INSIGHTS

Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Stephen Stills and Electric Flag veteran Barry Goldberg have formed a new musical alliance that will release an album this summer. The Rides has titled the debut album Can't Get Enough.  The 10 track collaboration seems to have had pretty organic origins. Goldberg suggested inviting Shepherd into the fold.  Stills rates the five days the three of them spent playing and recording at his house as '...one of the best times I've had in my music career'.  The album will be released August 27. Here is a behind the scenes look and listen at what's in store.

A Scottish civic group eager to see a statue commemorating the late Bon Scott is turning to KickStarter to try and raise the funds to get one commissioned.  DD8 Music in the late singer's home town of Kirriemuir hope the online funding campaign can generate the $76,000 it figures it needs to raise to get the monument to the AC/DC front man built.  The group has staged an annual Bon Scott Festival since 2006 and has been successful in getting a street named in his honor.  If enough money is generated by the appeal, the design for the work will be unveiled during the 2014 Scott Festival on May 3 of 2014.
SleazeRoxx.com

 

John Fogerty is combining his birthday and album release into a party at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles that will be televised live by AXS TV on Tuesday (5/28).  The performance will presumably draw some of the artists that joined Fogerty on Wrote A Song For Everyone, the album featuring reworked versions of several Creedence Clearwater Revival classics. Start time for the music and festivities is 8:30 (Pacific).  Rockers appearing on the album include Bob Seger and Foo Fighters.  Here's a sample of the recharged version of Fortunate Son we can expect from the Fogerty-Dave Grohl collaboration.
HenneMusic.com

 

The Wednesday (5/15) episode about  a serial killer on the CBS show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation will include footge of Black Sabbath performing End of the Beginning, a new track from the group's soon to be released album 13 (June 11).  Ozzy called the experince of being on the set a bit tedious because of the time involved in staging scenes, saying there was a lot of 'hurry up and wait' time.
 

Brother & Sisters, the first album the Allman Brothers released following the deaths of Duane Allman and Barry Oakley in motorcycle accidents, will get a 40th anniversary expanded editions release on June 25.  Sets will be available in double and 4 CD versions. A 1973 concert recorded in '73 at Winterland in San Francisco may also be available with the June 25 release.
TheMortonReport.com

MORE ALLMAN BROTHERS INSIGHTS

The International Space Station hosted an American astronaut that performed a flute duet with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. Now, the home away from home for scientists can boast of another first.  Canadian astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield ended his 5 month stint on the craft by singing David Bowie's Space Oddity, the song inspired by the lunar landing in 1969.  Floating in a most peculiar way while delivering those very lyrics works quite well.
Telegraph.co.uk
 

The blue, 1965 Ferrari John Lennon chose over rival rides pitched to him by Jaguar, Maserati and Aston Martin will be auctioned by Bonhams on July 12.  The 2+2 configured Coupe, purchased by the Beatle for the US equivalent of $9,978, is expected to bring a top bid between$280 and $340 thousand.  Lennon selected the car on an afternoon that Ferrari and reps from the other highly regarded manufacturers brought cars to his mansion for him to look over and choose between.

RushLane.com

MORE JOHN LENNON INSIGHTS

We can only imagine the phenomenal music that might have come out of a band featuring Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Paul McCartney and drummer Tony Williams but had Hendrix lived longer, that supergroup could very well have come together.  The Jimi, Miles and Tony Williams collaboration was pretty much set to happen.  Less known was that the three dispatched a telegram to Paul McCartney inviting him to join them on bass. In a cable delivered to Apple Records on October 21, 1969 and now a part of the Hard Rock Cafe treasure trove of memorabilia, a message signed, 'Peace Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Tony Williams' reads, 'We are recording and (sic) LP together this weekend. How about coming in to play bass', and advises McCartney to contact producer Alan Douglas if he was interested and available.  Whether Paul even got the message is not certain. A reply, sent on his behalf by
Peter Brown, an assistant to the Beatle,  informed the senders that Paul was vacationing and would not return for two weeks.  Whether Hendrix, Davis and Williams actually got around to recording that weekend with someone else on bass is also a mystery.  If it did happen, Hendrix producer Eddie Kramer would have loved to have been there, commenting, 'Lord knows where it would have gone; those huge egos in the studio at the same time!'.
Boston.com

MORE JIMI HENDRIX INSIGHTS  MORE PAUL McCARTNEY INSIGHTS

Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, the John Mellencamp, T Bone Burnett musical, is being put into concert form for a tour of 20 Midwest and Southeastern cities, starting close to Mellencamp's home in Indiana with an October 10 concert in Bloomington.  The full stage production, set in Mississippi and based on a '...tale of fraternal love, lust, rivalry and revenge', has been doing performances in Atlanta.  More than a dozen members of the cast will participate in the tour. It is not clear how many of the album participants will be on the tour.  In addition to Mellencamp and Burnett, Elvis Costello, Kris Kristofferson, Rosanne Cash and Sheryl Crow are on the album, which gets released June 4.
USA Today

MORE JOHN MELLENCAMP INSIGHTS

Wednesday night (5/8) in San Jose, CA, the Rolling Stones added Bonnie Raitt and Creedence Clearwater Revival veteran John Fogerty to the linup of guests popping on stage with them.  Fogerty joined the band on the night's version of It's All Over Now, while Raitt contributed guitar and vocals to the first live performance of Let It Bleed that the Stones have done in concert since 2007.  Former Stone Mick Taylor came out for his nightly cameo on Midnight Rambler and You Can't Always Get What You Want gave members of the San Jose State Choraliers bragging rights few other college choruses will be able to trump.
JamBands.xom

MORE ROLLING STONES INSIGHTS 

All things Doors is the promise for fans of Jim Morrison & Co. through an official Doors app now available for Apple platform devices.  In addition to the lyrics for every song then band recorded, app owners can use the device to get a look at the equipment the band members used during recording sessions, learn about the circle of people group members were close to, access a band timeline controlled using the knobs on the radio that was in Jim Morrison's Shelby GT Mustang, check out video footage and memorabilia and even use the app as a tour guide to scenes important to the band in and around LA.

 

It took a mere 5 minutes to sell out Boston Strong, the benefit concert to raise funds for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing.  The concert featuring Aerosmith, Boston, Jimmy Buffett, James Taylor, the J. Geils Band, Extreme Godsmack, Carole King, New Kids On The Block, Dane Cook & Steven Wright is being staged at TD Bank Garden, the home of the Boston Celtics and Bruins.  The facility is being provided rent free for the event. In an effort to prevent scalpers from turning the event into a benefit for themselves, organizers opted to sell digital passes instead of paper tickets.
Boston.com

Add an ex-President to the list of people that have failed to convince the members of Led Zeppelin to reunite.  CBS has learned that Bill Clinton made a personal plea to the band to come together and perform at the Hurricane Sandy benefit concert in New York City.  The Robin Hood Foundation's David Saltzman and movie exec Harvey Weinstein urged the former President to pitch the band on doing the one-off.  They say he enthusiastically accepted the challenge and gave it his all, telling them, 'I really want to do this, this will be a fantastic thing. I love Led Zeppelin.' The mission to get Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones on the Madison Square Garden on 12-12-12 proved to be as futile as his attempts to broker peace in the Middle East.
BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

MORE LED ZEPPELIN INSIGHTS

The Dropkick Murphys will re-record their song Rose Tattoo with Bruce Springsteen to raise money for those injured in the Boston Marathon bombing.   Guitarist James Lynch says Bruce contacted the band directly on the day of the terror attack on the group's home town to ask about doing something to help. Speaking with Backstreets.com, Lynch said, 'We didn't have to reach out. He was there for us.'

A concert many consider one of the best of any era of Grateful Dead live performances is among the live recordings in a 14 disc set that includes 5 concerts that followed the May 8, 1977 show at Barton Hall on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, New York.  The June 11 release titled Magical, Mythical Tour is available as a digital download and on CD and on.  The lp version of the release is limited to 15,000 pressings.  The physical versions include a book documenting each of the concerts.  The other concerts included in the collection were staged at the St. Paul MN Civic Center (5/11), the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago (5/12&13), the St. Louis Arena (5/15) and the University of Alabama Coliseum in Tuskaloosa (5/17). 

A woman that has trekked around the globe after Robert Plant has been reportedly hit with a restraining order requested by the former Led Zeppelin front man.  Alysson Billings reportedly started sending the singer disturbing messages and unwelcome packages after Plant and singer Patti Griffin became a couple.  Billings, who apparently imagines that she and Plant are in a relationship, reportedly sent one note that read, 'Your betrayal with another woman still stabs my mind.' and another that warned, 'This woman is literally evil for you and your life. You are about to fall for that evil old crotch.  And I'm not joking, I cannot, will not and shall not live this way any more.'  In addition to the restraining order, Plant has beefed up his and Patti's safety by arranging for some additional guards to accompany the couple in public.
Mirror.co.uk

MORE ROBERT PLANT INSIGHTS

Around The World Live is the title of a 4 DVD collection of Jethro Tull concert performances due out June 25 from Eagle Rock Entertainment.  The set includes two songs recorded during the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival as well as sets  captured live in Tampa, Florida in 1976, Munich and Dotmund, Germany in 1980 & '82, Santiago, Chile in 1996, Hilversum, Holland in 1999, London in 2001, Montreux, Switzerland in 2003 and Lugano, Switzerland in 2005.

News that Indonesian law enforcement authorities discovered a bombing plot against the Myanmar embassy is being cited as the reason Aerosmith has decided to pull out of a concert schedule for Jakarta Saturday.  Two would-be bombers were taken into custody.  While there appeared to be no connection between their alleged plot against the embassy and the concert, the promoter and the band elected to scuttle the show as a precaution.  More than 15,000 tickets had been sold for the Boston band's date in the capitol city.  There appear to be no immediate plans to reschedule.
Stuff.co.nz

MORE AEROSMITH INSIGHTS

A growing number of artists has joined the Global Citizen Tickets program to help fight poverty by donating tickets to their concerts that go into a lottery and are awarded to concert goers that earn points toward them by raising money for charities that assist the poor.  They can also earn tickets by encouraging support through their social media accounts for programs that effectively fight poverty.  Organized by Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis, the campaign has also enlisted Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Black Sabbath and My Morning Jacket, Beyonce and Kanye West.
Exminer.com

A British Columbia judge has declared founding Bachman Turner Overdrive guitarist Tim Bachman not guilty on charges of having sexually abused a 14 year-old girl ten years ago because the justice concluded the woman's statements about the alleged incident were inconsistent enough to create doubt about the case.  Supreme Court Justice Neill Brown let Bachman walk out of the court a free man after concluding that the 24 year old accuser provided evidence '...unreliable to rest a criminal conviction' on.  The woman testified that Bachman had groped and fondled her when she was living in his home in what she described in court as a 'sick relationship'. No claim involving actual sex was made in the case.
GlobalNews.ca

A 53 year old patient at a St. Cloud, Minnesota hospital could face a felony theft count for allegedly checking in as David Gilmour, the Pink Floyd guitarist.  Phillip Michael Schaeffer was admitted to the hospital for treatment that ended up costing close to 100k.  Star struck staffers at the facility were slow to catch-on.  The man was eventually outed when a member of the hospital's security staff pulled photos of the man from security cameras during his admittance and compared them with online pictures of Gilmour.
ContactMusic.com

MORE (REAL) DAVID GILMOUR INSIGHTS

A chest infection has forced bassist Tom Hamilton to withdraw from the Aerosmith Australian tour.  The band has called in David Hull, who has filled in for Hamilton in the past, to join them for the remainder of the Down Under dates. Hamilton plans to return to the road as soon as he recovers.

List.co.uk