We Will Rock You

Legendary guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton have  announced three concerts in North America in what is presumed to be a warmup for a longer tour. The pair are both in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame and both got their start in the Yardbirds, so these concerts are widely anticipated. Similar shows have already been announced in Japan and for London in February 2010.

Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck
February 18 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
February 21 – Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Center
February 22 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Center

FROM WWW.BILLBOARD.COM:

Jimmy Buffett says he felt a greater level of engagement on his new album, “Buffet Hotel,” than he has on many of his other recent efforts.

“With a band this good and with people this good around you, you kind of get in a routine,” Buffett tells Billboard.com, acknowledging that previous “listening and fixing” was done primarily by Coral Reefer Band collaborators Mike Utley and Mac McAnally. But on “Buffet Hotel,” Buffett says that “we got back to doing things like we did in the old days. Instead of doing it in the afternoon, I said, ‘Let’s go back like we did in the old days and do those red wine and reefer vocals…at midnight.’ I’d get a little buzz on red wine and get my singing chops, get in that mood, and then I’d send ‘em over the Internet to Utley and Mac and say, ‘Alright, I know they were midnight. You got red wine vocals there. You can throw ‘em away or tell me what you think,’ and they’d go, ‘Do more of those!’ ”

Buffett adds that ProTools also allowed him to keep the project going even while he was touring. “Mac and I could sit and discuss things in the hotel rooms and look in stuff that he was working on, and the I could work on ‘em,” he says. “I was totally involved at that level, just wanting to tweak little things…up to the end, but without beating it to death.”

“Buffet Hotel” started life with the recording of the title track in Mali when Buffett attended the Festival in the Desert (and discovered the album’s namesake, Hotel De La Gare Buffet, in the Bomako Train station). He also worked on the album’s 12 songs in London, Nashville, Chicago, Long Island and Muscle Shoals, Ala., with songwriting contributions by Will Kimbrough, Roger Guth, Jesse Winchester and others, as well as a cover of Bruce Cockburn’s “Life’s Short.” Buffett and company previewed several of the songs during his 2009 concerts, notably “Summerzcool” and “Surfing in a Hurricane,” the first surf rock song he’s ever written.

“Mac told me on the last night of the tour we’d done seven of the new songs off the album over the summer, and I’d never done that before,” Buffett recalls. “Usually you’re lucky to get one or two songs from a new album into the show, so it was a complete reversal.”

Buffett is planning a full-scale “Buffet Hotel” tour for 2010 and intends to start the year in Australia and the Pacific Rim. He’s toying with the idea of playing entire albums next year and hopes to play 1983’s “One Particular Harbor” in Tahiti. He’s also putting into motion into a special performance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival with “Buffet Hotel” guests Sonny Landreth and Toumani Diabate. And while he says that he’s “out of the movie business” at the moment, Buffett is working on a documentary about his trip to Mali with director Margaret Brown.

Buffett also has two books in the works, a collection of short stories set in the Pacific and “a rock ‘n’ roll novel” called “Mudbath” that is “based on a real-life adventure, but hopefully you won’t recognize any of the characters.”

FROM WWW.BILLBOARD.COM:

It’s a cool, crisp November evening in Nashville, Tenn., and Bruce Springsteen knows where the hell he is.

 A few days ago, Springsteen committed what he called “every frontman’s nightmare” by confusing Michigan during an onstage callout with neighbor and rival Ohio. But if Springsteen gets mixed up occasionally as to which city or state he might currently be about to rock mightily, it’s understandable.

 Springsteen and his titan E Street Band have been on a seemingly endless global touring run since 2007, through two albums cycles, appearances at both the Super Bowl and presidential inauguration, first-time appearances at major festivals, and a full slate of other milestones. Even for an artist who has largely built his career on epic shows, Springsteen and the E Streeters have managed to find yet another gear at this stage in their legendary career.

 Similarly, Springsteen has been unusually prolific in the studio, releasing albums of new material in 2007 (”Magic”) and this year (”Working on a Dream”), while at the same time acknowledging his beloved albums of the past by playing full sets of classic recordings in concert. On this night in Nashville, his 1975 breakthrough album “Born To Run” will get the live treatment, to stunning effect.

 In his dressing room at the Sommet Center — four nights before this marathon trek ended in Buffalo, N.Y. — Springsteen seems anything but fatigued, but rather remains enthusiastic about his own future and that of his E Street Band. What the Boss is most concerned about is his pending show, blowing the roof off yet another house as he rolls on in front of this speeding train. And this Bruce will do, repeatedly assuring the ecstatic crowd that he knows he’s in Nashville and is thrilled to be there.

 Billboard: The last couple of years for you have been pretty exceptional in terms of productivity, both live and in the studio.

 Springsteen: We were talking about it the other day and we said, “I don’t know if we’ve been this busy since 1985, or ever.” It’s just the way things worked out. Some of those things we planned, and some of them just happened. I’ve been prolific with my songwriting, so I’ve been able to just get more music out there, which is something I always wanted to do. I found my 50s to be very, very fruitful. The songs came — I don’t want to say easily, but they came in a continuous flow. I had a lot of things I wanted to write about, so it allowed us to record quite a bit, and then back it up with the touring.

 With the end of these shows, we’re coming to the end of a decade-long project that really was a tremendous renewal of the power, the strength and the service that our band hopefully provides. A decade ago, I wasn’t quite sure if I wrote in a style that was suited to the band anymore. I wasn’t quite sure how we functioned as a unit, and to sort of see the whole thing just have so much vitality and power, it’s just one of the sweetest chapters in our entire time together.

 The productivity has been remarkable; before “Working on a Dream” (2009) and “Magic” (2007), there were “The Rising” (2002), “Devils & Dust” (2005) and “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions” (2006), plus a Greatest Hits album. As a kid, I remember waiting three years for “Darkness on the Edge of Town” (1978). Why so prolific?  

 Looking back, I was very interested in shaping what I was about and who what I wanted to be. For every record we released, there was a record I didn’t release. I was very cautious and wanted my records to have very strong identities and be about a very particular thing. The nice thing about where we are now is that the rules are much fewer and further between. I had this huge folk band that I toured and recorded with, and that was a wonderful experience. I toured solo and I loved that, and I have the E Street band at full power. I can do all these things now and really record whatever kind of music comes into my mind. Who you are and what you do is already established, so you don’t have those identity concerns that you had back in the day.

 So you were less cautious about it and just turned it loose?  

 Yeah, and your craft improves. You become better at discerning your good songs from your not-as-good songs. The writing process is shorter because you refine what you leave in and what you leave out to a higher degree. You’re able to do more work in a compressed amount of time without the quality suffering in any way.

NEXT: Springsteen on playing for a new generation of fans.

Rocker Annie Lennox shocked fans at a recent performance by openly wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “HIV Positive”, setting off a round of online speculation that the famed singer had in fact contracted AIDS. Now Lennox has taken to YouTube and her official web site to explain that she is using her fame to bring attention to the plight of AIDS-stricken women and children in Africa. Below is a video that explains her work with sing, or visit www.annielennoxsing.com for more details.

PRESS RELEASE:

FROM WWW.SPINNER.COM:

Tom Petty has come clean about his upbringing and says he still has nightmares about his violent father. According to Petty, his old man didn’t understand his love of the arts and thought he was homosexual because he had no interest in playing football or baseball. Petty also says he loathed joining his dad, an outdoorsman, on hunting trips.

“(My father) was scary and violent,” Petty said in the new issue of Rolling Stone. “He beat the living hell out of me, and there was constant verbal abuse.”

“Looking back on it, he probably was disappointed that I was so drawn to the arts,” the rocker added. “He probably thought I was gay. I wasn’t interested in sports. I didn’t know the names of any baseball players. I liked films and books and records.”

“He liked to fish and hunt,” Petty explained. “He’d drag me on these trips, and it was a nightmare. Shooting something repelled me.”

FROM WWW.SPINNER.COM:

The Rolling Stones are set to go on a world tour next year, if guitarist Ronnie Wood’s Russian girlfriend is to be believed. Although the band hasn’t announced anything, Ekaterina Ivanova reportedly let the cat out of the bag last week.

“She’s not supposed to talk about it, things haven’t been finalised but she couldn’t resist telling a few friends,” a source told UK’s The Sun. Wood also revealed that he has been in touch with fellow Stones Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts and that everything was “great” between them, putting to bed rumors that the guitarist might be booted for his partying ways.

The Rolling Stones earned £300 million during their last trek in 2007. The band, which first formed in 1962, could easily surpass that payday with a 2010 world tour.

FROM WWW.CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM:

Ronnie James Dio is suffering from cancer – but fortunately, this seems to have been caught in time for treatment to be successful.

An official statement from his management says:

‘Ronnie has been diagnosed with the early stages of stomach cancer. We are starting treatment immediately at the Mayo Clinic. After he kills this dragon, Ronnie will be back on stage, where he belongs, doing what he loves best, performing for his fans.

‘Thanks to all the friends and fans around the world that have sent well wishes. This has really helped to keep his spirit up.

‘Long Live Rock And Roll, Long Live Ronnie James Dio.’

It goes without saying that our best wishes go out to Ronnie Dio.

For further updates, go to www.ronniejamesdio.com.

FROM WWW.CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM:

AC/DC have finally won an ARIA.

This is the Aussie equivalent to the Grammys and the Brits, and AC/DC actually received two awards, for Best Rock Album and Highest Selling Album at the ceremony. Both for the album Black Ice.

Although the band were inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame in 1988, they’ve never actually won an award until now – which astonishes us.

FROM WWW.CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM:

Guns N’ Roses’ touring plans continue to take shape for next year.

Having previously announced 13 shows in Canada between January 13 and February 4, the band have confirmed they’ll be doing a month-long tour of South America from March 10. Exact dates will be announced shortly.

So far, there’s no sign of anything happening in the UK. But that could all change very fast.

In fact, GN’R have already announced a date for London – this being on January 25 at the John Labatt Centre in London, Ontario, Canada, however!

Additionally, GN’R are scheduled to perform in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan in December.

The website Backstageaxxess.com recently asked lead guitarist Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal what fans could expect when the band finally hit the road.

Thal replied: “I can’t give anything away as we are trying to keep it a surprise until we do it. We will be playing a lot of old stuff, newer stuff, a lot of bombs and pyro [laughs]. I’m dodging the question – you know, the stuff you see at a big rock show.”

That’s cleared that one up, then.

For further info, go to www.gunsnroses.com