#96 Jan 31, 2012: First ABBA song in 18 years, America, Barry Gibb, Glen Campbell, Van Halen, Deep Purple, Townshend & The Who, Al Green, Miles Davis, Bellamy Brothers, Happy Mondays, Paul Weller, The Spice Girls, Exile & more

FIRST ABBA SONG IN 18 YEARS

On April 23, ABBA will release its first previously unreleased song in 18 years, reports Britain’s Guardian. The song, “From a Twinkling Star to a Passing Angel,” is included on the upcoming rerelease of its final album, “The Visitors,” in 1981. The song was recorded for the album but was omitted.

“The Visitors” was more serious than the usual light sunny pop music that made the Swedish quartet one of the most successful pop acts in music history. Worldwide, ABBA has sold more than 200 million records. They continue to sell more than a million records a year.

The last time ABBA issued previously unheard songs occurred in 1994, when a batch of unreleased songs was released as a box set, “Thank You for the Music.”

The singing foursome, Anna Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Frida Lyngstad, broke up the following year after a British TV appearance from Stockholm on December 11, 1982. They appeared together only once in the past 29 years, at the July 4, 2008 Swedish premiere of film based around their music, “Mama Mia!”

AMERICA GETTING A STAR

Soft pop artists, America, that won the 1972 Grammy for Best New Artist, are getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The ceremony takes place at 11:30 A.M. on February 6 at 6752 Hollywood Blvd., outside the Musicians Institute. Speakers will include actor-musician Billy Bob Thornton and actor and sometime-Beach Boys drummer John Stamos.

The following evening, America will perform a concert and hold a question and answer session at the Grammy Museum in Downtown Los Angeles.

America is Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell. The third original member, Dan Peek, who left the band in 1977 for a solo career in Christian music, died last summer at age 60.

Other recording artist to be honored by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce with stars on the Walk of Fame this year are Texas-born ranchera, mariachi and pop singer Pepe Aguilar, who is the son of legendary Mexican actor-singer Antonio Aguilar; Boyz II Men; song lyricist Hal David; Canadian pianist-composer-producer-arranger David Foster; Vince Gill; Jennifer Lopez and rocking sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart. Soul and R&B heartthrob Barry White, who died in 2003 at age 58, will receive a posthumous star.

BARRY GIBB U.S. CONCERT

Former Bee Gee Barry Gibb will play his first-ever solo concert in the U.S. at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida on February 21, according to Pollstar. 

The concert marks the first show for the 65-year-old, who the Guinness Book of World Records lists as the second most successful songwriter in music history behind only Paul McCartney, since 2009 when he performed a benefit in Sydney, Australia for the victims of that country’s massive wildfires.  

The other surviving Bee Gee brother, Robin, recently completed two months of intensive chemotherapy to combat a particularly aggressive form of liver cancer.

In other Bee Gees news, the trio will get the “Glee” treatment when the smash Fox TV show pays tribute to the brothers Gibb’s best-selling “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack album that has sold more than 15 million copies in the U.S. alone since it’s 1977 release. The show’s executive producer, Ryan Murphy, told TV Guide that he’s been working with Barry Gibb on this episode that will air sometime in April.

GLEN CAMPBELL GRAMMY PERFORMANCE

Glen Campbell, who, at 75, is retiring because of Alzheimer’s, will perform with country music’s The Band Perry and Blake Shelton at the Grammy Awards on February 12 at the Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles. The awards will be telecast that night on CBS.

Other performers include Paul McCartney, The Foo Fighters, Coldplay with Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean with Kelly Clarkson, and newbys Trinidad-born R&B and hip-hop singer Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown, and pop and soulster Bruno Mars.

English pop singer Adele, who had the best-selling album of 2011 with “21,” will also perform for the first time since surgery on her vocal chords in November.  She also announced that she’ll perform at the Brit Awards in London on February 21.

In a private ceremony the night before the Grammys, Campbell  will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award along with fellow country music legend George Jones, The Allman Brothers, Diana Ross, Brazilian bossa nova songwriter-guitarist Antonio Carlos Jobim, Stax Records’ famed  Memphis Horns and the late jazz and soul poet Gil Scott-Heron, who died last May at age 62.

Campbell, who is on his farewell tour, appears at the Pala Casino in San Diego County on February 17. The final date scheduled thus far is in Bayfield, Wisconsin on June 30, but it’s possible that the tour will be extended.

VAN HALEN STUFF

Chickenfoot and Wabos bassist Michael Anthony, who played with Van Halen from its formation in Pasadena in 1972 until his firing from the band in September 2006 was announced, says he’s interested in hearing his former band’s upcoming album, “A Different Kind of Truth.” This is because the newly recorded album is entirely comprised of songs, riffs and bits and pieces of songs that the band originally wrote and recorded during 1975-77, when he was a band member in good standing.

The 57-year-old Glendora resident told Planet Rock that he’s not particularly interested in the songwriting credits from the new record. “I don’t want to do anything. I just let it be, and hey, it’ll be nice to hear some of the old songs again that I haven’t played in a long time.”

Former Van Halen singer Sammy Hager isn’t so diplomatic. Talking with Radio Metal, the 64-year-old who lives in Mill Valley, just across the Golden Gate Bridge north of San Francisco, said that in terms of talent, his and Anthony’s band, Chickenfoot, that also includes guitar deity Joe Satriani and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, smokes their old band. “If you take Satriani versus Eddie, you take David Lee Roth versus me, (20-year-old bassist) Wolfie Van Halen versus Mikey (Anthony), Chad Smith or (substitute touring drummer) Kenny Aronoff versus Al Van Halen…I mean, come on!”

He continued, “Man for man, who can sing the best? Dave or I, today? Who can play the best? Joe or Eddie, today? Who could sing or play the best? Wolfie or Mikey? I think it’s a joke.”

“A Different Kind of Truth” comes out February 7. Van Halen with Roth begins their extensive tour on February 18 in Louisville, Kentucky. The guys make stops in SoCal on June 1 at the Staples Center, June 12 at the Honda Center in Anaheim and June 14 at the Viejas Arena in San Diego. Hagar and Anthony’s two bands, Chickenfoot and The Wabos, have no upcoming concerts scheduled.

DEEP PURPLE IN THE STUDIO

Deep Purple’s drummer Ian Paice says his band is hitting the studio this year to record their 19^th studio album.

In an interview with the Toronto Sun, the 63-year-old Paice, who was a founding member of the Hertford, England, band in 1965, said, “I believe that we have another good record in us. I want to do it just because I think it’s good that we keep coming out with new music.”

The group that was once listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as “the loudest pop group,” and has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, has a Canadian tour beginning this week that continues through the month, and a European tour from November 9 through December 6.

THE WHO SELL OUT

Pete Townshend, mastermind behind the music of The Who, has sold the songwriting rights to both his band’s catalog as well as the rights from his successful solo career to independent music publisher, the Spirit Music Group. All future work is included as well, reports Business Week. Financial details were not made available.

Townshend will work with the publisher to license his songs in film, television, advertising, musical stage productions, multimedia presentations, and new media projects.

The publisher owns the publishing for songs by Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, Barbra Streisand, Alice Cooper, The Grateful Dead, Santana, B.B. King, Chicago, Aretha Franklin, Lou Reed and many more recording artists.

Neither The Who nor Townshend as a solo artist has any shows scheduled. However, the band’s singer Roger Daltrey is on tour, performing his group’s iconic 1969 rock opera, “Tommy,” in its entirety. Daltry will be in Paris at the famed Olympia on March 15 before taking his band and the “Tommy” tour to Australia and Japan for nine concerts in April.

SURVIVOR SUES NEWT

Chicago-based rockers Survivor have sued Newt Gingrich and his presidential campaign of what they claim is the unauthorized use of their trademark No. 1 1982 theme song from “Rocky III,” “Eye of the Tiger” at his campaign rallies, reports NBC News. The suit charges that the former Republican Speak of the House has been using the song for the past three years when he enters political rallies.

Gingrich is not the first politician to be sued for unauthorized use of a recording artist’s songs. Last June, former GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann was served with cease and desist orders by Tom Petty and also from Katrina & The Waves. Bachmann had been using Petty’s and The Heartbreakers’ 1977 hit recording of “American Girl” and Katrina’s 1985 smash, “Walking on Sunshine” at her campaign appearances without receiving permission.

Last November, Survivor singer Jim Jamison announced that the band was working on a new album for release later this year.

OBAMA SPURS AL GREEN SALES

President Obama soulful crooning on a bit of Al Green’s 1971 No. 1 classic, “Let’s Stay Together” at a political rally at the Apollo Theatre in New York City has resulted in a weekly sales increase of the song by a whopping 490%, reports Billboard. The president sang a portion of the song when he noted that Green was in attendance.

MILES DAVIS STAMP

More than two decades after his death at age 65 in 1991, the hugely influential trumpet-playing jazz legend Miles Davis will be honored with a postage stamp in June, announced the USPS. The late French ballad singer Edith Piaf, best known here for her 1946 love song, “La Vie en rose,” will also be honored.

NEW RELEASES

Among the recent CDs, re-issues and deluxe box sets out include a 2-CD import, “Satchmo: The Louis Armstrong Collection”; Glen Campbell’s “It’s Just a Matter of Time’; Leonard Cohen’s “Old Ideas”; a 3-CD import, “Songbooks: The Absolutely Essential Ella Fitzgerald”; “K new You Were Waiting: The best of Aretha Franklin 1980-1998”; an import, “Don’t Let Go” from Isaac Hayes; “Jabulani,” an import from South African trumpeter Hugh Masakela; an EP, “Beyond Magnetic,” from Metallica; “Ringo 2012” from The Beatles’ drummer; an import “Bonnie Pointer” from the former member of Pointer Sisters; a 2-CD, “Diana Ross 1976: Special Edition”; and The Thymes’ “So Much in Love.”

The new DVDs include The Talking Heads’ “Chronology,” and former Fairport Convention guitarist Richard Thompson’s “Live at Celtic Connection.”

BELLAMY BROTHERS ROBBED

Country Music vets The Bellamy Brothers were robbed while they were filming a music video in the Florida Everglades, reports the Boot. The Florida natives said that thousands of dollars worth of production equipment was taken when thieves broke into the rental cars and trucks. David Bellamy said, fortunately, the video cameras and guitars were not taken, probably die to their size.” The duo’s ongoing 2012 tour continues this week mostly through the South and Midwest throughout the year. 

HAPPY MONDAYS REUNITE

Manchester alt-rockers Happy Mondays, who formed in 1980, are reuniting with their original lineup for the first time since 1992 for a 10-date British tour over two weeks in May, reports the BBC. Since the band broke up in 1993, various members have reunited over the years, but this reunion with the entire original lineup is a rarity.

PAUL WELLER HIS AMERICA

Brit Paul Weller, who founded two successful pop outfits, New Wave punkers The Jam in 1972 and the more soulful Style Council in 1983, is a music god in his native England. Now, 53, the singer-guitarist, who rarely plays in the U.S., has slowed his touring schedule these days. Weller released a surprise announcement. He is coming to America, according to Pollstar. However, his entire tour, in fact, the only two concerts on his schedule this year, will both take place at New York City’s Best Buy Theatre on May 18 and 19.  He’s doing the shows to promote his upcoming 11^th solo album, “Sonik Kicks,” that comes out March 27.

SPICE TIME?

Former Spice Girl Mel B, aka, Scary Spice, says she and the girls might reunite to perform at Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee, reports Britain’s Sun. The five-some, who were incredibly popular for a brief time in ‘90s, reunited for tours in 2007 and 2008. The Diamond Jubilee, celebrating the queen’s 60^th anniversary as monarch, is a four-day gala held in London June 2-5, weeks prior to that city’s hosting the Summer Olympics. When asked about a reunion for either an Australian tour or an appearance at the Olympics, she said, “Well, we do have the Diamond Jubilee coming up. Whoo, did I really say that?”

EXILE BACK FROM … EXILE

Kentucky pop outfit Exile, who hit it big in1978 with their No. 1 soft rock hit, “Kiss You All Over,” will release its first album in 15 years. “People Get Ready” is a five-song EP featuring four new cuts as well as an a cappella version of Curtis Mayfield’s title song, according to a press release from the band.

The band also announced that they will appear at the April 10 “All For The Hall” benefit at Nashville’s Bridgestone Auditorium. Other acts on the bill include co-headliners Vince Gill and Keith Urban, and Alabama, The Oak Ridge Boys, and Rascal Flatts.

NOW PLAYING

Classic acts from the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s continue to perform. Here’s what some of them are doing.

The Jefferson Starship, former co-leader of The Jefferson Airplane Paul Kantner’s band on and off since 1974, is playing a gig in Miami on February 18 and Chicago on March 8 before heading to New England for four dates in mid-March.

American International’s number one beach boy, Frankie Avalon, who’s “Venus” spent five week at No. 1 in 1959, is touring the east coast with his highly successful “Golden Boys of Rock and Roll” pals Bobby Rydell and Fabian. On April 14, he’ll do his solo show at the Lancaster (CA) Performing Arts Center on April 14 and he’ll be at the Ventura County Fair on August 7. He heads back to Florida, to Ft. Lauderdale for Holland America’s Malt Shop Memories cruise from October 27 – November 3, before beginning a three-night run at the South Point Hotel in Las Vegas, November 16-18. 

New Jersey rockers, The Smithereens, who formed in 1980 and scored a ton of FM radio rock  and roll classics, such as “Blood and Roses,” “Only a Memory,” “A Girl Like You,” and “Blues Before and After,” are heading north, to the Skagit Valley Casino in Bow, Washington, outside Bellingham, for shows February 10-11. Also, group leader Pat Dinizio continues his successful ongoing run with his show, “Confession of a Rock Star” at the Riviera in Las Vegas.

In 1961, , Acker Bilk wrote "Stranger on the Shore” for a British TV show. The song was notable for his signature deep, quivering clarinet. The single was not only a big hit in the UK, where it hit #1 & stayed on the charts for 55 weeks, but ACKER was the first British artist to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The 83-year-old Bilk is still very active. He's got a full touring schedule through Britain 2012, including a May 10 date at the Grand Theatre in Swansea, Wales.