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Neil Young is bringing new meaning to “Rockin’ in the Free World,” announcing plans to give his Ukrainian fans a free concert during his upcoming European tour. News of Young’s upcoming concert were announced by the Canadian music veteran on his own Neil Young Archives website. “Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts will open the […]
Joey Molland, the guitarist and last surviving member of the rock band Badfinger, has died. He was 77.
Molland passed away on Saturday (March 1) while surrounded by his longtime partner, Mary, his two sons and other family members, according to a post on Badfinger’s Facebook page. While a cause of death was not specified, Molland had faced ongoing health challenges in recent years, including a recent battle with pneumonia.
“Thank you, Joey…for keeping the band’s music alive for so long and for being a friend to us all,” the Facebook post read.
Badfinger, originally known as the Iveys, was one of the first bands signed by The Beatles‘ Apple Records. Molland joined the group in 1969, after the recording of their debut album, Maybe Tomorrow, which featured the Paul McCartney-written hit “Come and Get It.” The song reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1970.
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Molland’s first album with Badfinger was No Dice (1970), co-produced by Beatles road manager Mal Evans. The set featured two of the band’s most iconic tracks: “No Matter What” and “Without You.” The latter became a hit after being covered by Harry Nilsson and Mariah Carey.
Badfinger’s main lineup of Molland (guitarist), Pete Ham (singer/guitarist), Tom Evans (bassist) and Mike Gibbins (drummer) recorded five albums together through 1974, producing hit singles like “Day After Day” and “Baby Blue,” both co-produced by George Harrison. “Baby Blue” was notably featured in the closing scene of the final episode of Breaking Bad in 2013.
After the death of Ham, who died by suicide in 1975, Molland and Evans (minus Gibbins) reunited to revive Badfinger, with the guitarist taking on a larger role in songwriting and vocals for the albums Airwaves (1979) and Say No More (1981).
Outside of his work with Badfinger, Molland contributed to Harrison’s All Things Must Pass and The Concert for Bangladesh albums, and played guitar on John Lennon’s 1971 classic “Jealous Guy” and Imagine‘s “I Don’t Wanna Be a Soldier.”
Throughout his career, Molland recorded music both as a solo artist and as a member of the band Natural Gas. In the early 1980s, he formed his own version of Badfinger, known as Joey Molland’s Badfinger, and continued to tour with the act until the summer of 2024.
Molland was the last surviving member of Badfinger’s core lineup, following the deaths of Ham, Evans (who also died by suicide in 1983) and Gibbins, who passed away from natural causes in 2005.
David Johansen, frontman of the pioneering punk group New York Dolls and solo “Hot Hot Hot” hitmaker as his alter ego Buster Poindexter, has died. He was 75. “David Johansen died at home in NYC on Friday afternoon holding hands with his wife, Mara Hennessey, and daughter Leah, surrounded my music, flowers and love,” his […]
Falling in Reverse scores its fourth No. 1 and second in a row on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, as “Bad Guy,” featuring Saraya, lifts a spot to lead the March 8-dated survey.
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The song follows the band’s Jelly Roll team-up “All My Life,” which ruled for five weeks beginning last July.
The Ronnie Radke-led act first topped the chart in 2020 with “Popular Monster,” followed by “Zombified” in 2022.
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The rockers first reached the tally in 2015 with “God, If You Are Above…,” which peaked at No. 28.
“Bad Guy” is Saraya’s first Billboard ruler, earned with her first charted title. The professional wrestler dated Radke for six years through last year. (Another Saraya, fronted by vocalist Sandi Saraya, made Mainstream Rock Airplay four times in 1989-91, paced by the No. 9-peaking “Love Has Taken Its Toll.”)
Concurrently, “Bad Guy” ranks at No. 16, after reaching No. 14, on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 2.4 million audience impressions in the week ending Feb. 27, according to Luminate.
On the most recent multimetric Hot Hard Rock Songs survey (dated March 1, reflecting data accumulated Feb. 14-20), “Bad Guy” ranked at No. 6 (it debuted at its No. 4 best last August). In addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 711,000 official U.S. streams.
“Bad Guy” is the latest single from Popular Monster, which debuted at No. 1 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart in August 2024 and has earned 892,000 equivalent album units to date.
All Billboard charts dated March 8 will update Tuesday, March 4, on Billboard.com.
Sam Fender has soared to the top of the U.K. Albums Chart with the biggest opening week for a British solo act since 2022 (Feb. 28). His third album, People Watching, took the No. 1 spot with 107,000 units across physicals and streaming. People Watching is now Fender’s third No. 1 album in the U.K., […]
Justice and Tame Impala’s collaboration “Neverender” lands both acts their first No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart, leaping three places to top the March 8-dated tally.
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For electronic duo Justice, “Neverender” is its first No. 1 on any airplay-based chart. The tune previously became its first entry on any radio ranking since “D.A.N.C.E.,” which peaked at No. 25 on Dance/Mix Show Airplay in 2007.
Meanwhile, “Neverender” marks the first Alternative Airplay ruler for Tame Impala, the project of Kevin Parker, in his eighth appearance. Parker, who first made the list with the No. 8-peaking “Elephant” in 2013, has two previous No. 2s in “Lost in Yesterday” (2020) and as featured, alongside Bootie Brown, on Gorillaz’s “New Gold” (2023).
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Tame Impala boasts two No. 1s on Adult Alternative Airplay: “Lost in Yesterday” and “Is It True,” both in 2020.
“Neverender” gives Alternative Airplay its second and third newcomers to the top spot on the chart in 2025. Almost Monday snagged its first leader in early February with “Can’t Slow Down.”
“Neverender” reigns in its 25th week on the ranking and just over 10 months after its April 25, 2024, release.
Concurrently, the song bounds 22-11 on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 2.9 million audience impressions, up 37%, in the week ending Feb. 27, according to Luminate.
On the most recent Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart (dated March 1, reflecting data Feb. 14-20), “Neverender” appeared at No. 9 for a sixth total week; it reached No. 8 in May 2024. In addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 826,000 official U.S. streams last week.
“Neverender” is on Hyperdrama, Justice’s fourth studio album and first since 2016’s Woman. The former bowed at No. 1 on the Top Dance Albums chart in May 2024 and has earned 84,000 equivalent album units to date.
All Billboard charts dated March 8 will update Tuesday, March 4, on Billboard.com.
R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe has made it clear over the years that the beloved indie rock godheads are definitely done. But on Thursday night (Feb. 28), the original quartet were back on stage together for just the second time since their split in 2011 to play a high-spirited version of their 1984 classic “Pretty Persuasion.”
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The totally unexpected moment came during a show by actor Michael Shannon as part of his latest tour with Verbow singer/guitarist Jason Narducy performing full R.E.M. albums, in this case the group’s 1985 Southern Gothic jangle classic Fables of the Reconstruction. Not only did Stipe take the stage with former bandmates guitarist Peter Buck, bassist/singer Mike Mills and long-retired drummer Bill Berry on tambourine, but they did it at the 40 Watt Club, the legendary 500-capacity venue in their hometown of Athens, Georgia that has been the launching pad for dozens of local bands and a favorite haunt for R.E.M.’s members over the years.
In a thrilling video posted by the 40 Watt, Stipe, wearing red shades and sharing the mic with Mills and Narducy, belts out the lyrics “It’s gone and won/ Hurry and buy/ All has been tried/ Hurry and buy,” as the packed-in crowd jump and clap and, of course, hold up their phones to capture the once-in-a-lifetime moment.
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It was only the second time that Berry has performed alongside his former bandmates since leaving the group in 1997 citing a desire to quit touring after suffering a brain aneurysm on stage in Switzerland in 1995. R.E.M. soldiered on after Berry’s departure and released five more albums as a trio before calling it quits for good in 2011. They had not all been on stage together since until last year when they stage a surprise get-back at the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame induction to perform another of their most iconic anthems, “Losing My Religion.”
Though the 40 Watt is in a different spot now, it has long been an incubator for the local music scene, hosting a number of prominent hometown indie bands (Pylon, Love Tractor, Gudalcanal Diary, Drive-By Truckers, B-52s, Widespread Panic, Vic Chesnutt) over the years, as well as acts that went on to global stardom that popped in for early gigs or serious underplay shows, including Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, as well as Iggy Pop, Run-DMC and Snoop Dogg, among countless others.
And while the second surprise reunion by R.E.M. in a year surely stirred excitement among fans, Stipe has made it clear that their performing and recording days are over. In a 2021 interview with WYNC’s All Of It, Stipe responded to a question about a possible third act by saying, “That’s wishful thinking at best. We will never reunite. We decided when we split up that that would be really tacky and probably money-grabbing, which might be the impetus for a lot of bands to get back together. We don’t really need that. And I’m really happy that we have the legacy of 32 years of work that we have from 1980 to 2011.”
R.E.M.’s last full concert was in November 2008 in Mexico City. Since then the only other time they’ve performed was at a private party for their manager, Bertis Downs, in 2016.
Check out the video of R.E.M. playing “Pretty Persuasion” below.
Neil Young has added a major festival date to his upcoming summer run with new band the Chrome Hearts. Young, 79, will headline a July 11 date at the annual BST Hyde Park summer concert series in London, where he will be joined by “Peace Train” singer Yusuf/Cat Stevens and Van Morrison, with more support acts to be announced later.
American Express U.K. card members can grab tickets now through 9 a.m. on March 5, with a BST Hyde Park pre-sale slated to open at 10 a.m. on Monday (March 3) and a general on-sale kicking off at 10 a.m. on March 5; all times GMT.
The gig will be Young’s first at BST Hyde Park since a 2019 co-headlining gig there with Bob Dylan. Young’s show will join a growing roster of 2025 BST Hyde Park headliners, which also include Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Zach Bryan, Noah Kahan and Jeff Lynne’s ELO.
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The addition of the Hyde Park show expands the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s burgeoning 2025 road roster, after this week’s announcement of the dates for the first leg of the European/North American Love Earth tour, which is slated to kick off in Europe on June 18 at Dalhalla in Rättvik, Sweden before moving on to gigs in Norway, Denmark, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
The tour will then hit the U.S., beginning with an August 8 show at PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte, N.C., before moving on to Detroit, Cleveland, Toronto, New York, Chicago, Denver and Vancouver, with the last currently scheduled date set for Sept. 15 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles; a spokesperson said more date will be added to the run later.
Young will be accompanied on all the shows by the Chrome Hearts band, featuring his longtime collaborator keyboardist/organist Spooner Oldham, as well as Promise of the Real members Micah Nelson (guitar/vocals), Corey McCormick (bass) and Anthony LoGerfo (drums). The group released the grungy anthem “Big Change” in January. Young debuted the Chrome Hearts band last year and has said an album from the group is tentatively slated for release in April.
Check out the poster for Neil Young at BST Hyde Park below.
Garbage are back, announcing their first new album in almost four years.
Dubbed Let All That We Imagine Be the Light, the new LP will be their eighth, and follows on from the release of 2021’s No Gods No Masters and a pair of EPs in recent years. Their new record arrives on May 30 via Stun Volume.
“Our last album was extremely forthright. Born out of frustration and outrage – it had a kind of scorched earth, pissed off quality to it,” singer Shirley Manson explains in a statement. “With this new record however, I felt a compulsion to reach for a different kind of energy. A more constructive one. I had this vision of us coming up out of the underground with searchlights as we moved towards the future.
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“Searching for life, searching for love, searching for all the good things in the world that seem so thin on the ground right now. That was the over-riding idea during the making of this record for me – that when things feel dark, it’s best to try to seek out that which is light, that which feels loving and good.
“When I was young, I tended towards the destruction of things,” Manson adds. “Now that I’m older I believe it’s vitally important to build and to create things instead. I still entertain very old romantic ideals about community, society and the world. I don’t want to walk through the world creating havoc, damaging the land and people. I want to do good. I want to do no harm.”
Recorded in a number of locations – including Los Angeles’ Red Razor Sounds, Butch Vig’s Grunge is Dead studio, and Manson’s bedroom – the album’s announcement notably hasn’t been accompanied by a lead single. Rather, the band have promised that a preview will arrive “in the coming weeks”.
The new record also arrives following a few months of downtime for the band, with Garbage announcing in August they were forced to cancel the remainder of their 2024 tour dates due to Manson requiring “surgery and rehabilitation” for an undisclosed injury suffered while on tour in Europe. The group are slated to return to the road in March for a run of South American tour dates.
The impending release of Let All That We Imagine Be the Light will also become Garbage’s fourth album since they resumed activity in earnest in 2010, following a five-year period of hiatus.
Their debut self-titled album, Garbage, released in 1995, achieved double-platinum status and peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200. Their follow-up album, Version 2.0, released in 1998, reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200 and further cemented their reputation as one of the leading bands of the era.
Garbage have remained busy with musical projects in recent years, including 2021’s, No Gods No Masters. The album debuted at No. 95 on the Billboard 200 and included tracks like “The Men Who Rule the World.” They also collaborated with artists like Screaming Females and Brody Dalle on a special edition of the album, and toured with Alanis Morissette on her Jagged Little Pill anniversary tour in 2022.
Beabadoobee has used her recent time Down Under to share a cover of a beloved New Zealand classic, covering Bic Runga’s “Sway” for Like a Version, the long-running segment from Australian radio station triple j.
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Recorded during the 24-year-old singer’s latest trip to Australia as part of the Laneway Festival, Beabadoobee offered up two performances for the session, including her original “Beaches” and a take on Runga’s 1997 single “Sway”.
Originally released on Runga’s debut album Drive, “Sway” peaked at No. 7 on the local New Zealand charts and has since gone on to be considered as one of the country’s most beloved songs. In 2001, the track was ranked at No. 6 on APRA’s (the Australasian Performing Right Association) list of the top 100 New Zealand songs of all time.
“ I chose to cover this song because my mum used to play it a lot when I was growing up and I mean, she’s badass,” Beabadoobee explained in a post-performance interview. “It was just really nice seeing an Asian woman kind of playing indie music like that.
“I was scared I wasn’t gonna do it justice,” she added. “But I love this song so much and if anything, I’m doing it for my mum and she doesn’t know that I’m actually covering this song so I’m really excited. Every cover I’ve done in my career has been for my mum, so I hope she likes this one too.”
Indeed, this isn’t the first cover that Beabadoobee has delivered in recent months. Back in October, she joined the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge to share her take on Sabrina Carpenter’s “Taste,” blended with a little bit of The Corrs’ “Breathless.”
The BBC performance also included a performance of “Beaches,” which was featured on Beabadoobee’s third album, This Is How Tomorrow Moves. The record has been her most successful to date, becoming her first to top the U.K. charts, and even reached No. 34 on the Billboard 200. It also hit No. 6 on the Independent Albums and Top Album Sales charts, and snuck into No. 10 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart.
Beabadoobee is also up for British artist of the year and best alternative/rock act at the Brit Awards, which will be handed out on Saturday (March 1).
