An injury to his shoulder sustained during a family vacation in Costa Rica has forced guitarist Warren Haynes to postpone upcoming concerts.  The Allman Brothers Band and Gov't Mule member broke his scapula when he landed badly in a fall on a slick, hard surface. We send along rapid recovery wishes to him

 

Peter Gabriel was in the house but not on the stage when Genesis played it's final concert in London. He did drop in backstage, though. Phil Collins let fans know their former band mate was in attendance by telling them jokingly that Gabriel was the one in the crowd calling for the band to do Supper's Ready. We expect invitations were probably extended to both Gabriel and Steve Hackett to appear for at least a song or two. Either or both of them joining their former band mates would have made the special occasion even more special.

 

The last Genesis concert ever took place last night in London. The 25 song, two set + encore performance featuring the three principle members of the legendary band willing to perform together included songs from every era of the group's 55 years. 'That's All" was performed, but not as the final song. To the delight of the fans that consider the early to mid 70''s to be the years that the group produced it's best music, the final song was Carpet Crawlers from 1974's Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

Joey Kramer is opting out of Aersmith's upcoming Las Vegas residency. His drum tech will fill-in for Kramer, as he did in 2019 while Joey was sidelined with a shoulder problem. The extent to which the band is addressing his absence for the Vegas run of concerts was limited to a statement that read he "regrettably made the decision to sit out the band's concerts in 2022 so he can focus his full attention on his family during these uncertain times", and went on to say that the band looks forward to his return to the group in the future.

 

Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died Friday night (2/25) in Bogotá, Columbia. The social media post by the band regarding his death provided no information about the circumstances or the cause. The group was in the city to do one of the last concerts of its South American tour.

 

Update, 3/27/2022: Sadly, the toxicology tests indicate that Hawkins had multiple substances in his system the night he died, making it likely that they caused or contributed to his untimely death.

Photo: Heritage Auctions

A Gibson guitar owned and played by Eric Clapton and Gregg Allman is up for auction. Clapton ordered the instrument from Gibson in 1969 and presented it to Gregg as a gift shortly after Duane Allman lost his life in a motorcycle crash in October,1971. About a decade later, Gregg left the Les Paul custom as a gift to his Anna Marie Island, Florida neighbor. She said she thought Gregg had left it by mistake after a visit to play it at her place. When she contacted Allman about it, he let her know he'd left it as a gift to her. She, in turn, gave it to her daughter, Kendra Presswood, who had an interest in learning to play guitar. She's owned it ever since, but now wants it in the hands of a more deserving musician.  Heritage Auctions is handling the same of the guitar, which comes in its original case with a letter of authenticity and a signed gifting note from Allman.

 

 

With prospects slim to none that the surviving members of Pink Floyd will ever again share a stage together in concert, some quite impressive cover bands have been filling the Floyd void. Foremost among them are Brit Floyd and The Australian Pink Floyd. These bands and Steve Hackett's and Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets tours performing mostly true to the originals live renditions have been well received. The Gilmore Project, a group comprised of several musicians with pretty impressive credentials, plans to take a different approach by performing Pink Floyd classics as its members imagine its namesake might arrange and present them if he were to do them live today. As the group's COVID delayed US tour is gets underway, we'll be interested to hear and see what they come up with and how well it goes over.

https://youtu.be/JPPywwTujmw

A Macon, Georgia house is Gregg Allman lived in is now listed on Airbnb. The house at 839 Orange Terrace is owned by a couple that didn't learn that the Allman Brothers Band member resided there in the early 1970's until after they had bought it a couple of years ago.  A couple from Arkansas that are fans of the ABB stopped by the house and let its new owner know that he'd bought one of a the places the keyboard great had called home.  It's a fact he probably wished he'd been aware of before starting to renovate the home as a rental investment property. He also bought the house next door, which Gregg apparently also spent some time living in.

Photo: cc 3.0 calansingh

 

Rush fans and collectors will get the chance to take posession of a number of instruments and other personal items belonging to guitarist Alex Lifeson during a Julien's Auction hosted at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City May 20-22.  The collection of more than 100 items will include some iconic guitars, among them Whitie, the 1976 Gibson that Alex most often played in the studio and live, which is expected to top the final tally list in value at something close to $300,000.  Also up for bids is his 1980 custom crafted Hento Sportcaster played on the recording of Limelight and the 1981 Gibson Fusion guitar Lifeson played on the Moving Pictures tour.

Neil Young is packaging three 80's works of his into and an EP that was only available in Japan and Australia into an April 29th release. The CD or vinyl set includes Hawks & Doves, Re•ac•tor, and This Note’s for You, and the Eldorado EP that has a pair of tracks Young hasn't previously released, Cocaine Eyes and Thunder Love.

 

 

Def Leppard serves up a new album on May 27th with the release of Diamond Star Halos.

 

Drummer Bill Bruford has compiled a quite comprehensive retrospective featuring tracks he is proudest of during his muti-decade career. The 6 CD set titled Bill Bruford Making Song and Dance - A Complete Career Collection includes 70 songs featuring him on drums with Yes, King Crimson, UK, Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe, Bill Bruford's Earthworks, Roy Harper and others. The set drops on April 29th

 

Aimee Mann took an artful approach on her Instagram account to express her disappointment and bewilderment over being dropped as the opening act on Steely Dan's upcoming tour.

With Keith Richards saying on CBS Sunday Morning the the band is writing new songs and Mick Jagger popping an updated tongue and lips logo onto his Twitter account, it's looking almost certain the Rolling Stones plan to embrace the group's 60th year with a new album and will probably tour again, as well. Keith says Mick and drummer Steve Jordan have been working up new songs at an unprecedented pace, with eight or nine already done. The group released a blues covers album in 2015, but hasn't dropped an album of new original material since 2005. A new studio album this year or next would be the 25th for the Stones in the US.

Daryl Hall has mined his archive to pull together a retrospective album that will include songs ranging from long ago to relatively recent ones from his highly regarded Daryl's House series. The double disc release due April 1 will also feature some interesting previously unreleased collaborations.

Months before Dusty Hill died, ZZ Top got together in a funky rural dance hall northeast of San Antonio and recorded a live set. That performance, recorded with only the band, crew and a few others present, will get released on July 22. Billy Gibbons says recording it that way was the trio's way to shed the trappings and complications of its success and reconnect in a real basic way with the music they love making together. With the Raw album release, the band, now including former guitar tech Elwood Francis on bass, will launch it's Raw Whiskey Tour. Of losing bass player Hill, Billy says, "The Dust may have left the building, but he is still very much with us."

 

Bruce Springsteen earned a reputation of giving everything he had every night he hit the stage, but when The Boss and the E Street Band played Cleveland, he always seemed to give even more. That extra came through loud but not too clear on bootlegs of his 1978 concert at the Agora, which was added in better form to his archive collection in 2014. Another example became available this week. His Nov. 10, 2009 concert in Cleveland, one of the last to include Clarence Clemons before his untimely death.

Concert bohemoth Live Nation has announced that lawn passes for the upcoming season at amphitheaters it operates or books tours into are going on sale. With the price of shed seats routinely exceeding $100 and often double that, the $199 cost of getting a seasons worth of shows at around the price of getting a seat for a single one is a decent deal. Most of the venues included have big screen projection viewable in general admission areas, and we know of some where the sound on the lawn is actually better than it is in the reserved seating sections.

Some things to know... the deal excludes fees, and we all know how onerous those can be. They hadn't started selling them when this was being written or we would have looked a few over to give you an idea of how much they will add to the cost. Also check each venue's exclusions. Some include parking, some don't. There are also apt to be some concerts that are excluded. In the case of one venue we checked, that even applied to a cover band, all be it a very good one, Brit Floyd. Each pass applies to just one venue.