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JOURNEY’s classic song “Don’t Stop Believin'” has reached 1 billion listens on Spotify.

JOURNEY guitarist Neal Schon commemorated the milestone by posting a screenshot of the band’s Spotify page, and he included the following message: “Wow!!! Thank you Fans!! We are Over 1 Billion Streams on Spotify Don’t stop Believin QUEEN is the ONLY other band at this point. Congratulations guys”.

He added in a separate tweet: “JOURNEY and QUEEN the Only 2 Bands Ever to Attain more then 1 Billion Streams individually for ‘Dont stop Believin’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Cheers Friends”.

In a 2009 interview with CBC’s “Q” cultural affairs show, former JOURNEY singer Steve Perry said he always thought “Don’t Stop Believing” — which is also the top-selling digital download of a track not originally released in this century, according to Nielsen SoundScan — had potential as a single. It was always a hit with live audiences, though it didn’t get great radio play at the time it was issued, he said.

“When we were doing the song in 1981, I knew something was happening, but honestly, when I saw it in the film ‘Monster’ with Patty Jenkins, I started think, ‘Oh my goodness there’s really something.'”

He added: “The lyric is a strong lyric about not giving up, but it’s also about being young, it’s also about hanging out, not giving up and looking for that emotion hiding somewhere in the dark that we’re all looking for. It’s about having hope and not quitting when things get tough, because I’m telling you things get tough for everybody.”

Current JOURNEY singer Arnel Pineda, who has been fronting the band for 14 years, told CBS News in 2012, “Even before I discovered ‘Don’t Stop Believin”, it has been my motto — you know, to never stop believing in myself. The life that I’ve gone through, all those hardships, I never stopped believing that someday there is something magical that will happen in my life.”

Last year, at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, “Don’t Stop Believin'” had become a rallying call for patients recovering from COVID-19 at two hospitals in New York and Michigan. The 1981 hit was being played at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan and the New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital during celebrations for patients prevailing over the coronavirus.

Wow!!! Thank you Fans!! We are Over 1 Billion Streams on Spotify Don’t stop Believin Queen is the ONLY other band at this point. Congratulations guys ???????♾?@NealSchonMusic @JourneyOfficial @TheJonathanCain @StevePerryMusic @Spotify pic.twitter.com/FKoinW7XpX
— NEAL SCHON MUSIC (@NealSchonMusic) February 25, 2021

JOURNEY and QUEEN the Only 2 Bands Ever to Attain more then 1 Billion Streams individually for “Dont stop Believin” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” Cheers Friends ♾ pic.twitter.com/PdCa1nWIlR
— NEAL SCHON MUSIC (@NealSchonMusic) February 25, 2021

Echo has announced the AC/DC 2021 Poster Series. This officially licensed limited-edition series will showcase some of today’s biggest and brightest visual artists, creating works inspired by the music and career of AC/DC.

First in the series is a print by artist Tom Whalen, commemorating the performance from the start of AC/DC’s “Back In Black” tour, on July 31, 1980 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philly was the second U.S. date on the tour and one of the first shows to feature Brian Johnson as the band’s new singer. This poster will be available starting Friday, February 26 at 2 p.m. EST / 11 a.m. PST.

Said Whalen: “The brand new ‘Back In Black’ cassette tape that I packed for our family trip to Orlando became the soundtrack of my summer of ’91. I played it over and over and over and couldn’t wait to get back home so that I could explore the rest of AC/DC’s catalog. I’ve been hooked ever since. I’m beyond grateful to being asked by Echo to produce a poster honoring AC/DC, a band that has been a part of my life for so long.”

This seven-color screen print measures 18″x24″ and will be available in these limited edition variations:

* AC/DC July 31, 1980 Philadelphia, PA (Fire Edition) – 175 pcs / $55
* AC/DC July 31, 1980 Philadelphia, PA (Midnight Edition) – 75 pcs / $65
* AC/DC July 31, 1980 Philadelphia, PA (Fire Gold Foil Variant) – 75 pcs / $80
* AC/DC July 31, 1980 Philadelphia, PA (Midnight Lava Foil Variant) – 75 pcs / $80

In the future, look for AC/DC posters in the series from artists Frank Kozik, Dirty Donny, Tom Whalen, Adam Stothard and other artists that have not yet been announced.

Echo is also excited to present the AC/DC Poster Series 2021 subscription. Subscribers will receive exclusive subscription variants of all six posters in the 2021 series. These variants will be screen printed on creamy pearlescent gallery stock with a semi-metallic finish, and only available via this subscription. In addition to the six series posters, subscribers will get an additional (and exclusive!) seventh poster, plus a host of other cool surprises shipped directly to their doorsteps in three separate shipments during 2021. Only 50 of these subscription sets are available.

Go to echoprintgallery.com for more information.

DEF LEPPARD drummer Rick Allen, who has been expressing himself in recent years through his artwork, is working on a painting of late VAN HALEN guitarist Eddie Van Halen.

The Van Halen piece is apparently part of Allen’s “Legends” series, which consists of lifelike-yet-impressionistic portraits of musicians who have influenced him, from Jimi Hendrix to Freddie Mercury to John Lennon.

Allen, who started painting at an early age before he ever picked up the drums, posted a picture of his Eddie Van Halen tribute to Instagram, and he included the following caption: “Legend… work in progress”.

In a 2018 interview with The Hype Magazine, Allen stated about his use of light or some sort of bright object in his art: “Reality is very difficult to do, but it’s my attempt to painting the object or whatever it is. It’s a study of how the light bounces off of the object. Some of the more recent pieces — there was one that I did of [late DEF LEPPARD guitarist] Steve Clark; then there was one I did of John Lennon; I did one of Jimi Hendrix, the ‘Legends’ pieces — that, to me, was a study at how you’re really not painting the person’s face, you’re painting how the light bounces off of the person. If you look closely at some of the pieces, they make no sense when you look at them up close. When you stand back and you start to view it from a distance, it’s almost like your mind fills in the blanks and it creates the illusion of reality.”

Two years ago, Rick told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about his artistic process with his paintings: “I take a photograph I really like of the person, and I’ll poster-ize it and sketch the poster-ization onto the canvas, and that’s when I can come up with my whites, blacks and grays. After I do the under painting, I’ll start to choose colors. When I do the ‘Legends’, I normally listen to the music of the artist I’m painting.”

In a 2019 interview with Atlantic City Weekly, Allen stated about his “Legends” series: “I started out with Steve Clark who, was my best friend obviously really inspiring to me, given the music that he left us all with. So I did a painting of Steve and that went over really well. People really liked it. And then I moved on to John Lennon. He has always been a huge inspiration ever since I was a kid. And then I did a Jimi Hendrix which is so cool — I love it. And all of these pieces, when I finally finish making them, I wish I never had to give them up to the gallery. I really wanted to keep them for myself, but, unfortunately, I couldn’t.”

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Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. today released financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2020. The company’s concert revenue plunged to $1.46 billion for 2020 from $9.43 billion the previous year, and ticketing dropped to $188.4 million from $1.54 billion in the same period, and sponsorship and advertising was down to $203.7 million from $590.3 million. Live Nation ended 2020 with $1.86 billion in revenue, down 84% from from the previous year, with a 92% drop in revenue in the fourth quarter.

Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino said in a statement: “Over the last year, leaders across all our business lines of concerts, ticketing and sponsorship have been analyzing ways to improve their businesses. Some of our key initiatives include: re-organizing to become more nimble while also reducing our cost structure by $200 million; Building concert streaming and direct to consumer businesses to expand our revenue streams; Advancing our technology initiatives globally while accelerating the shift to digital tickets to meet changing needs of fans, venues and artists; and reinforcing our balance sheet to endure this period, while maintaining a strong position to build our business for the future and act on opportunities as we identify them, such as our recent acquisition of the streaming platform Veeps and a continued pipeline of bolt-on acquisitions throughout the globe.

“So while this past year has been challenging for the company, our employees, fans, artists and so many others globally impacted by COVID, I have never been more excited about the opportunities in front of us.

“We continue to have a substantial tailwind in the live event industry, as consumers more than ever are looking to spend on experiences. The supply-demand fundamentals of the concerts business remain strong, with artists ready to get back on the road and fans eager to reconnect at events. All our data continues to show that there is substantial pent-up demand for concerts on the consumer demand side. The $2.4 trillion projected surplus in savings in the U.S. alone by June is a key indicator of consumer spending potential. At the same time, surveys demonstrate the high demand for concerts globally, with 95% of fans likely to attend a show when restrictions are lifted. This is proving out in fan behavior as well, with 83% of fans continuing to hold onto their tickets for rescheduled shows.

“On the artist side, there is a broad desire to get back on stage — to connect with their fans and to provide economic support to their bands, crew, and the hundreds of others employed each night putting on the show. Given the limited touring activity in 2020 and 2021, the pipeline for 2022 is much stronger than usual, with almost twice as many major touring artists on cycle in 2022 than a typical year — about 45 artists versus the usual 25. And there remains plenty of scheduling availability at arenas, amphitheaters and stadiums to accommodate these additional tours, with over two-thirds of these venues’ nights unused by sporting events or major concerts in a typical year.

“It appears that the timing to release the pent-up supply and demand is now approaching. Vaccine distribution is accelerating and declines in Covid cases throughout most of the world gives us even more confidence that a safe and meaningful return to shows will soon be possible. For both the U.S. and U.K., projections indicate that everyone who wants to get vaccinated will be able to do so by May or June, with Europe and most other markets following a few months later. Given the massive social and economic toll that the lockdown has had on the public, we believe there will be strong momentum to reopen society swiftly as soon as vaccines are readily available. And we believe outdoor activities will be the first to happen.

“So while the timing of our return to live will continue to vary across global markets, every sign points to it beginning safely in many countries sometime this summer and scaling further from there.”

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, Live Nation had total cash and cash equivalents of $2.5 billion, which includes $643 million of free cash. This free cash, along with $962 million of available debt capacity and taking into account the additional $417 million of net cash added to the balance sheet with the debt raise in early January, gives the company $2.0 billion of available liquidity. The company believes this level of liquidity provides it with the ability to fund operations until the expected return of concerts in the summer of 2021, preceded by ticket sales earlier in the year.

The global refund rate for the company’s concerts that are rescheduled and are in or have gone through a refund window is 17% through the end of the fourth quarter of 2020. Festivals have generally canceled this year’s event, but for festivals where fans can retain their tickets for next year’s show, approximately 63% of fans are keeping their tickets.

Across both concerts and festivals, since March the company has refunded $282 million for rescheduled Live Nation shows and $842 million for canceled Live Nation shows. Of this $1.1 billion total, $460 million was from funds held by third-party venues and $663 million was from Live Nation-held funds.

The company still has some shows in the process of rescheduling, or that are rescheduled but not yet offering refunds. In addition, refunds may occur in the future for additional cancelations or rescheduled events resulting from the global shutdown of our live events. Based on current and estimated future impacted events and fan behavior, Live Nation has recorded $102 million in additional fan refunds from Live Nation-held funds. As a result, the company has reclassified these funds from deferred revenue to accrued ticket refunds as of the fourth quarter of 2020.

The company’s deferred revenue for events over the next 12 months was $1.5 billion as of December 31, 2020 as compared to $1.4 billion as of September 30, 2020. This increase was due to ticket sales for future events, sales for events scheduled for Q4 2021 shifting from long-term to current deferred revenue as well as currency impacts on Live Nation’s international deferred revenue balances.

Omnibus Press has set a September 9 release date for “Evenings With Led Zeppelin: The Complete Concert Chronicle (Revised And Expanded Edition)”.

“Evenings With Led Zeppelin” chronicles the 500-plus appearances LED ZEPPELIN made throughout its career.

From its earliest gig in a Denmark school gymnasium on September 7, 1968, through to the last gig that Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones ever performed with John Bonham, in Berlin on July 7, 1980, this is the LED ZEPPELIN story told from where their legend was forged — on stage.

Impeccably researched by Dave Lewis and Mike Tremaglio, “Evenings With Led Zeppelin” traces the group’s rapid ascent from playing to a few hundred at London’s Marquee Club to selling out the 20,000-capacity Madison Square Garden in New York — all in a mere 18 months.

Illustrated throughout with rarely seen concert adverts, posters, venue images, ticket stubs and photos, this is LED ZEPPELIN as never chronicled before — now in a fully revised, updated and expanded edition.

Regarding the original concept for the book, Lewis told Tight But Loose’s Gary Foy: “It initially came out of an idea to funnel Mike’s amazing LED ZEPPELIN research in some way. We had been collaborating for many years — in fact, Mike’s tour logs began to be a cornerstone of every Tight But Loose magazine from around 2007. I was incredibly impressed at his level of detail and archive research.”

Added Tremaglio: “It’s intended to fully cover LED ZEPPELIN’s 12-year concert history on a gig-by-gig basis. Over the past decade-plus, the explosion of archival material, particularly newspaper archives, has provided much insight into the band’s performances across the globe. For fans who’d seen the band live it gives them the opportunity to relive it, and for fans who hadn’t seen them, the background text and countless visuals provide key insight into what the excitement was all about.”

Asked how this books differ from other LED ZEPPELIN books, Lewis said: “I think the depth of information gathered offers a real perspective on what LED ZEPPELIN was really all about – which was playing live for as many people as possible. As I’ve said before, I’d like to think it reads as more than a mere list of dates. Within the format we adopted, it does clearly illustrate all the peaks and troughs of their career: the great nights, the not-so-great nights, all the craziness of their travels across America and beyond. This is no mere train spotters guide. I view the book as a result of a thirst for knowledge that paints as complete a picture as possible on the subject.”

As for whether the book is just for the LED ZEPPLIN die-hards or if it has a broader appeal, Lewis said: “While the main appeal is obviously LED ZEPPELIN fans, I’d say it definitely has a broader appeal. For anyone interested in the heritage of rock music and its development during the 1960s and 1970s, this book reveals much about how the touring scene evolved. As Richard Cole, ZEP’s tour manager, notes in the foreword, single-act stadium concerts were a rarity back then — until LED ZEPPELIN made the bold move into performing to masses of fans, and with no support act. This intensive documenting of their live appearances also reveals much about the evolution of the entertainment touring industry in the late 1960s and 1970s.

“As the band moved from gig to gig, there’s a vivid sense of progression and momentum. Their performances carried energy, speed and vitality, leaving stunned audiences in their wake. Following the story gig to gig, that energy and speed is more than evident as they elevate from performing to a few thousand people at the Fillmore East in New York to selling out the 20,000-capacity Madison Square Garden in the space of a mere nineteen months.”

In which we pit Death’s Scream Bloody Gore vs. Possessed’s Seven Churches in the battle for old-school death metal supremacy.
The post Fight Fire with Fire: ‘Scream Bloody Gore’ vs. ‘Seven Churches’ appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD singer M. Shadows spoke to Pablo of the Minneapolis, Minnesota radio station 93X about the progress of the recording sessions for the band’s long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s “The Stage” album. He said (see video below): “We’re working on stuff. We have pretty much 70 percent of the record done. We have some things we can’t finish right now ’cause of COVID — string players, et cetera. We know Andy [Wallace, AVENGED SEVENFOLD’s longtime mixer] doesn’t wanna travel, or his management doesn’t want him to travel because of COVID. So there’s just a lot of things going on.”

As for when fans can expect to see the new AVENGED SEVENFOLD LP released, M. Shadows said: “It doesn’t make sense for us right now to put out a record and not be able to tour it. The world has changed. Putting out a record on Spotify without touring for a rock band, it just doesn’t make sense to us. So we’re gonna wait till everything is back, then we’ll come out with the record, finish it up, and all will be good.”

Earlier this month, AVENGED SEVENFOLD guitarist Zacky Vengeance told Detroit’s WRIF radio station that he and his bandmates have done “lots and lots of writing — at a lot slower pacer than usual’ — during the coronavirus pandemic. “Now that we are a little bit older, we move around a little bit slower, but [we’ve done] tons of writing,” he said. “We’ve gone to the studio. It was kind of a weird time to do anything in 2020, but that’s when we felt like it was a good time to go out there and start tracking all the stuff that we had in us.

“But, like I said, we’re doing it at a slow pace, so we’re still in the process of recording,” he explained. “We’re taking it really, really slow, making sure everything is the way we like it. We’re not in a big rush to get anything out, mainly ’cause we wanna get on the road, and we wanna be able to bring it to life. We wanna tour, we wanna travel, we wanna play songs that people wanna hear; we wanna expose them to some new stuff. ‘Cause I just feel like rushing to put something out right now and letting it dissipate because of the void, while people are worried about where their next meal is coming from or the paycheck, the last thing in the world on people’s minds is, ‘AVENGED SEVENFOLD’s gonna put out a new album, and that’s gonna be the saving grace for us all.’ And I feel like we’ll take it slow, let the world get a little bit back to normal, and when people are ready, we’ll know — we have a good sense of that. We’ll slowly finish it up, and then unleash it when the world’s ready.”

Last December, M. Shadows told Kerrang! magazine about the musical direction of the new AVENGED material: “The [new] record sounds nothing like ‘The Stage’ — it’s a completely new direction, and it sounds nothing like anything we’ve done. That’s all I’ll say about it: it’s over the top, and it’s very eclectic and wild.”

AVENGED SEVENFOLD kept a low profile during 2019 and will likely not return to the road until the end of this year or early 2022. A blood blister on M. Shadows’s vocal cords forced the band to cancel a summer 2018 tour with PROPHETS OF RAGE and THREE DAYS GRACE.

Asked if he is fully healed up now, M. Shadows told 93X: “I feel good, man. I’m just working on a new technique so that I can make sure I don’t have any problems anymore. For the last year, that’s what I’ve been doing — is switching up a lot of things, singing from a different place, and just making sure that when I hit the stage again, I don’t resort back to old bad habits.”

“The Stage” was surprise-released in October 2016. The release of the disc, which was announced the night it went on sale, earned the lowest sales of an AVENGED SEVENFOLD album in 11 years. It sold 76 thousand copies in its first week, 73 thousand of which were physical.

“The Stage”, AVENGED’s debut for Capitol, sold less than half as many copies in its first week as the group’s two previous efforts, 2010’s “Nightmare” and 2013’s “Hail To The King”.

I wish I lived in California. To be honest, I’d settle for Uruguay. Unfortunately, life’s a bitch and marijuana is still firmly illegal in the UK, and so I cannot possibly enjoy the new AMON ACID in the way that nature intended. A terrible shame, of course, but you’re stuck with the cards you’re dealt. Luckily, “Paradigm Shift” is sufficiently freaked-out and mind-expanding to almost negate the need for a giant spliff prior to consumption.

Purveyors of a uniquely syrupy but rough-hewn strain of psychedelic doom, AMON ACID have nailed their aesthetic by this point: if you like old horror movie soundtracks and tripping your tits off, songs like the serpentine stoner rumble of “Monarch” and the stuttering, synth-laced “Fear Of Space” occupy a similar atmospheric space, but with several layers of mischievous glee making the disorientation even more profound. There’s an endearing lo-fi quality to these recordings that makes them sound like feverish ‘eureka!’ moments erupting from some spooky, fog-shrouded shed at the bottom of the garden. Benevolently embellished with a veritable shit-ton of space rock sparkle ‘n’ woosh, something like “Overlord” sounds wickedly out of step with most modern takes on pot-addled heaviness. An unmistakable debt to the Krautrock movement, and the most out-there experiments of AMON DÜÜL II in particular, makes perfect sense, given AMON ACID’s obvious taste for gentle subversion.

But while its fine details and cracked-mirror approach are major pluses, AMON ACID also deliver plenty of slow, crushing riffs and hypnotic, overdriven scree. The closing title track is the indica-sodden payoff at the end of a long day’s trip, as a colossal central riff grinds onwards and up into the stratosphere, chin-deep in cavernous reverb and heavy with the threat of unnamed spectral horrors. Halfway through this 13-minute behemoth, another, even better riff crackles into life, and AMON ACID start the slow, disorientating descent into madness that this brilliantly weird and wonky album promised from the start. Whether you’re able to get monstrously stoned or not, “Paradigm Shift” does a lot of the mind-altering work for you.

Legendary rock musician Ann Wilson has released another new single, “The Hammer”. It is one of several songs the HEART frontwoman recorded last fall in Seattle with the help of local musicians, including current HEART bassist Andy Stoller and keyboardist Dan Walker. In addition to “The Hammer”, Wilson recorded “Tender Heart” as well as covers of Steve Earle’s “The Revolution Starts Now” and ALICE IN CHAINS’ “Rooster”, all three of which have already been released as singles, plus another as-yet-unreleased original, “Black Wing”.

Ann said: “‘The Hammer’ talks about that moment when the rubber meets the road, when all dreams, fantasies, and excuses fall by the wayside. The moment of truth. The edge of reality.”

Released last year, Ann’s version of “The Revolution Starts Now” — which marked her first new music in more than two years — was met by universal acclaim from the likes of Rolling Stone, which praised it for “a sense of urgency that arrives like a jolt to the heart.” “With thrumming guitar and crashing high hat/kick drum combination, ‘The Revolution Starts Now’ is propulsive,” agreed American Songwriter. “Classic hard rock, it swells on the chorus, then falls away. Her voice is strong, somewhat dusky, retains its power.”

Ann Wilson is a true icon, known far and wide as lead singer and songwriter of the groundbreaking rock band HEART. Led by Wilson’s extraordinary vocal power, HEART has thrilled audiences for more than four decades, earning sales of more than 35 million and well-deserved induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2013. Wilson’s second solo album, 2018’s “Immortal”, saw her putting her unique stamp on songs made famous by a number of hugely influential artists, including David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty, Amy Winehouse, and more. Produced by longtime HEART collaborator Mike Flicker, the album earned widespread critical acclaim, with Associated Press declaring it “an exciting, eye-opening look at largely obscure songs by big-name artists” and Goldmine praising Wilson for “her mighty vocal firepower and a far ranging creative spirit.”

Photo by Criss Cain