Category: Concerts

Paul McCartney Returning to Fenway Park for Summer Tour

Paul McCartney already has a few dates lined up for 2013, and the former Beatle will visit Boston’s Fenway Park this summer as part of his upcoming tour. McCartney will play at the ballpark on July 9th while the Red Sox play an away game against the Seattle Mariners. McCartney last played at Fenway with two shows in August 2009.

Tickets will go on sale April 5th at 10 a.m. EST at Live Nation and the Red Sox’s website. McCartney has three shows on May 4th, 6th and 9th in Brazil, and will play this year’s Bonnaroo, which takes place June 13th-16th. He also has a June 22nd date set in Warsaw, Poland, and will visit Italy on the 22nd and Austria on the 27th to close out the month.

McCartney is also at work on the follow to last year’s album of standards, Kisses on the Bottom, having recorded new songs with Mark Ronson, who’s worked with Adele and Amy Winehouse, among others.

Mumford & Sons Announce North American Tour

Mumford & Sons will tour through out North America this summer before embarking on their Gentlemen of the Road Stopover festival-type tour. The Summer Stampede 2013 tour will run through the U.S. and Canada. The tour will kick off on May 21 in Calgary, AB and end on June 20 in Colorado. The folk-rock band will be headlining Bonnaroo and Sasquatch.

The band were reportedly to headline Lollapalooza but won’t be able to due to scheduling. They will be performing at Montreal’s Osheaga Festival during Lollapalooza.

Mumford & Sons will start their Gentlemen of the Road Stopover tour on August 23. “The Gentlemen of the Road Stopovers are all about live music. We get to put them on in towns not normally frequented by touring bands in busses or splitter vans,” they said in a statement last month. “We deliberately look for towns that have something unique, or some vibe of which they are proud, explore them and enjoy what they have to offer.”

Pre-sale tickets to their North American tour will be available on March 25 and the rest on April 5.

Check out the tour dates below:

May, 21 Calgary, AB – Scotiabank Saddledome
May, 22 Edmonton, AB – Rexall Place
May, 24 Surrey, BC – Holland Park
May, 26 George, WA – Sasquatch Music Festival
May, 27 Portland, OR – Rose Garden Arena
May, 29 Berkeley, CA – Greek Theatre
May, 30 Berkeley, CA – Greek Theatre
May, 31 Berkeley, CA – Greek Theatre
June, 02 San Bernardino, CA – Glen Helen Regional Park
June, 03 Chula Vista, CA – Sleep Train Amphitheatre
June, 05 Phoenix, AZ – Desert Sky Pavilion
June, 06 Taos, NM – Kit Carson Park
June, 08 Austin, TX – Austin 360 Amphitheater
June, 09 Austin, TX – Austin 360 Amphitheater
June, 11 Dallas, TX – Gexa Energy Pavilion
June, 12 The Woodlands, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
June, 13 New Orleans, LA – Mardi Gras World
June, 15 Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo Music Festival
June, 17 Bonner Springs, KS – Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre
June, 20 Telluride, CO – Telluride Bluegrass Festival
August, 2-04 Montreal, QC – Osheaga Festival
August, 23-24 Simcoe, ON – Gentlemen of the Road Stopover
August, 30-31 Troy, OH – Gentlemen of the Road Stopover
September, 6-7 Guthrie, OK – Gentlemen of the Road Stopover
September, 13-14 St. Augustine, FL – Gentlemen of the Road Stopover

Paul McCartney tops Bonnaroo music festival lineup

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) – Paul McCartney will perform at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee in June along with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Mumford & Sons, Bjork and Wilco, festival organizers said on Tuesday.

“Top to bottom, this is one of the strongest lineups we have ever had,” Bonnaroo spokesman Jeff Cuellar said in an interview. “Looking at the festival landscape out there … no other American festival has Mumford & Sons, Paul McCartney and Bjork all under one roof.”

Bonnaroo is among the top live music gatherings of the year, much like the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California and the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts in Britain.

Up to 100,000 fans flock to the annual festival in Manchester, Tennessee, to see singers, comedians, art and films.

The 2013 concert lineup announced on Tuesday also included R. Kelly, Wu-Tang Clan, David Byrne & St. Vincent, ZZ Top, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Gov’t Mule and Dwight Yoakam.

Tickets for the festival go on sale February 23 on bonnaroo.com.

Sting tour to take him from B.C. to St. John’s

Former Police frontman Sting is returning to Canada this spring with a tour that includes many smaller cities, starting in British Columbia and extending through Ontario and Atlantic Canada.

Sting took his music back to the basics in October 2011, playing with a five-piece band after spending two years on a reunion tour with the Police and a year of playing with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Extending his Back to Bass Tour, he is joined by his longtime guitarist Dominic Miller, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, David Sancious on keyboards, Peter Tickell on electric fiddle and vocalist Jo Lawry.

For this run, the British singer will perform many of his biggest hits, including Roxanne and Synchronicity, in concert.

The tour, which kicks off in B.C., includes the following Canadian dates:

May 30: Kelowna, B.C. (Prospera Place).
May 31: Victoria, B.C. (Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre).
June 17: Kitchener, Ont. (Memorial Auditorium).
June 18: Kingston, Ont. (K-Rock Centre).
June 24: Summerside, P.E.I. (Credit Union Place).
June 26: St. John’s, N.L. (Mile One Centre).

Sting will also take his latest tour through the United States, Ireland, France, Denmark and Norway.

Bob Seger and Silver Bullet Band to Tour in Spring

Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band will hit the road this spring for the first leg of their Rock & Roll Never Forgets Tour. It starts in Toledo, Ohio, on February 27th, then rolls through the Midwest, West Coast and Canada.

Seger took a long break from music after wrapping up a tour in support of his 1995 LP, It’s a Mystery. He returned 11 years later with a new album, Face the Promise, and an American tour. He did another tour in 2011 and has been slowly chipping away at a new album, though it’s unclear when that will come out.

Generally, Seger’s shows focus on his deep catalog of hits, including “Night Moves,” “Hollywood Nights,” “Turn the Page,” “Rock & Roll Never Forgets,” “Roll Me Away” and “Old Time Rock & Roll.” In a 2011 interview with Rolling Stone, Seger said he didn’t know how much longer he was going to remain active. “My career’s winding down,” he said. “What can I say? I can’t do this much longer. My manager is 70. We’ve been together for 45 years now and we need to stop pretty soon and turn it over to the Kid Rocks and Eminems. I guess we’re in the final stages here.”
T
ickets for most shows will go on sale on January 19th, and Bob Seger fan club members will have early access to tickets at the rocker’s website. A full list of dates are below, and more will be announced soon.

2/27 Toledo, OH – The Huntington Center
3/5 Grand Rapids, MI – Van Andel Arena
3/7 Green Bay, WI – Resch Center
3/12 Winnipeg, MB – MTS Centre
3/19 Calgary, AB – Scotiabank Saddledome
3/21 Edmonton, AB – Rexall Place
3/23 Saskatoon, SK – Credit Union Centre
3/27 Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena
3/29 Seattle, WA – Tacoma Dome
3/30 Portland, OR – Rose Garden
4/2 – Denver, CO – Pepsi Center

Green Day to Resume Tour in March

Green Day have rescheduled their canceled 2012 tour dates and postponed 2013 shows and will be kicking off a tour on March 28th at Chicago’s Allstate Arena. “We want to thank everyone for hanging in with us for the last few months,” the band said in a release. “We are very excited to hit the road and see all of you again, though we regret having to cancel more shows.”

Green Day were forced to cancel and push back tour dates after frontman Billie Joe Armstrong threw a tantrum at the iHeartRadio festival in September and subsequently entered rehab. “Dear friends . . . I just want to thank you all for the love and support you’ve shown for the past few months. Believe me, it hasn’t gone unnoticed and I’m eternally grateful to have such an amazing set of friends and family. I’m getting better everyday,” Armstrong said in a release. “So now, without further ado, the show must go on.”

Here are the tour dates:

3/28 Chicago, IL – Allstate Arena
3/29 Moline, IL – I Wireless Center
3/31 Pittsburgh, PA – Consol Energy Center
4/1 Rochester, NY – Blue Cross Arena
4/3 Philadelphia, PA – Liacourias Center
4/4 Fairfax, VA – Patriot Center
4/6 Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
4/7 Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center
4/9 Providence, RI – Dunkin Donuts Center
4/11 Toronto, ON – Air Canada Centre
4/12 Quebec City, QC – Quebec Colisee

McCartney to fill in for Cobain

Sir Paul McCartney is to fill in for Kurt Cobain as the surviving members of Nirvana reunite at the Superstorm Sandy benefit in New York on Wednesday.

Grunge stars Dave Grohl and bassist Krist Novoselic have reportedly enlisted the Beatle to play onstage with them at the Madison Square Garden charity gig.

The Fab Four legend reveals Grohl invited him to “jam with some mates”, but admits he had no idea he was filling in for tragic rocker Cobain, who committed suicide in 1994.

Sir Paul tells Britain’s The Sun, “I didn’t really know who they were. They are saying how good it is to be back together. I said, ‘Whoa? You guys haven’t played together for all that time? And somebody whispered to me, ‘That’s Nirvana. You’re Kurt.’ I couldn’t believe it.”

The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, The Who, and Eric Clapton are also on the bill for the 12-12-12 Concert for Sandy Relief.

Green Day Scraps More Shows, Moves Up ‘Tre!’ Release

Green Day has announced the cancellation of seven tour dates and the postponement of 21 more, following last month’s announcement that frontman Billie Joe Armstrong is in treatment for substance abuse.

All of the trio’s remaining 2012 tour dates, which included a West Coast run through late November and early December, have been cancelled. Green Day had announced earlier this month that it would not be performing at the Voodoo Festival in New Orleans, which took place last Saturday (Oct. 27).

In addition, the North American leg of Green Day’s 21-date 2013 tour, set to kick off in Green Bay on Jan. 7, has been postponed. The dates had been announced in mid-September in support of the group’s new trio of albums, “Uno!,” “Dos!” and “Tre!”

“Obviously the timing for this isn’t ideal, but Billie Joe’s well-being is our main concern,” says bassist Mike Dirnt in a press statement. “We are happy to say that Billie Joe is doing well, and we want to thank you all for the outpouring of support and well wishes that we have received, and we can’t wait to see you all again soon.”

Green Day has also bumped up the release of “Tre!,” from Jan. 15, 2013 to Dec. 11. “Uno!” was released in September, while “Dos!” is coming on Nov. 13.

“We feel bad we have to delay our tour, so to make up for it we want to give our fans the music earlier than we had planned,” says drummer Tré Cool. “If we couldn’t be there to play it for you live, the least we could do was give you the next best thing.”

The band announced that Armstrong would be seeking treatment for substance abuse last month, after the 40-year-old frontman had a profanity-filled onstage meltdown at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas. Days later, “Uno!” was released, and sold 139,000 copies in its first week according to Nielsen SoundScan, good for a No. 2 debut on the Billboard 200.

Along with “Dos!” and “Tre!,” Green Day has a new song, “The Forgotten,” coming out on the “Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2” soundtrack, also hitting stores on Nov. 13. “Stray Heart,” the first single from “Dos!,” is out now.

Grey Cup halftime show to feature Bieber, Jepsen, Lightfoot

The Canadian Football League is offering a diverse mix of performers for the halftime show of the 100th Grey Cup.

Teen heart-throb Justin Bieber, singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, pop-rock group Marianas Trench and pop star Carly Rae Jepsen will perform at halftime of the league’s championship game Nov. 25 at Rogers Centre, the CFL announced Saturday.

Country artist Johnny Reid and rocker Burton Cummings will headline a special kickoff show before the game.

“We are absolutely thrilled to unveil an all-Canadian, all-star lineup that features the biggest pop star in the world, the woman who gave us one of the biggest songs ever, one of the hottest young bands in the country, an iconic balladeer, a rock and roll legend, and one of this country’s leading entertainers,” CFL commissioner Mark Cohon said in a release.

“This array of stars will command a huge and diverse audience, entertaining our most loyal fans and attracting new ones to our game’s greatest showcase. It spans genres and generations. And it’s quintessentially Canadian and undoubtedly world class, at the same time.”

Nickelback played last year’s Grey Cup halftime show in Vancouver.

Bon Jovi Announce ‘Because We Can’ Tour

Bon Jovi will embark on a world tour of stadiums and arenas next year with the “Because We Can” tour, set to begin with a Canadian leg Feb. 13 in Montreal.

The first dates announced include Toronto, Edmonton, Ottawa, Calgary and Winnipeg. With U.S. dates to be announced in the coming weeks, Bon Jovi will also tour Europe, the Far East, Africa, Latin America and Australia. The tour will once again be produced globally by AEG Live and will be in support of the upcoming album “What About Now,” to be released in Spring 2013.

An elite touring band for years, Bon Jovi has found a new gear in this millennium, with more than 500 shows at stadiums and arenas around the globe since 2000, moving just under 13 million tickets, resulting in a gross just shy of $1 billion at the box office, according to Billboard Boxscore. Bon Jovi tours finished as Billboard’s highest-grossing tour of the year twice in three years, 2008 and 2010, a feat only accomplished by the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead.

The “Circle” world tour wrapped in the summer of 2011 with a $365 million total gross, according to Boxscore, making it seventh all time among the highest grossing tours in history. The preceding “Lost Highway” tour found the band not only building its North American and European audiences, but also selling out shows in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South America and grossed over $210 million.

In an interview with Billboard last year, front man Jon Bon Jovi talked about the band’s global popularity and the broad demographic of the band’s fans.

“I’m very aware that there are two generations of fans out there,” he said. “We’ve known that for the last decade. But I don’t look like the fat old guy yet, either. I’m not in the ‘fat Elvis’ suit yet.”

Canadian Tour Dates (U.S. Dates To Be Announced):
Feb. 13: Montreal (Bell Centre)
Feb. 17: Toronto (Air Canad Centre)
Feb. 20: Ottawa (Scotiabank Place)
April 2: Calgary (Scotiabank Saddledome)
April 3: Edmonton (Rexall Place)
April 5: Winnipeg (MTS Centre)