News

The Who released their landmark LP Who’s Next in 1971, and before the year was out they’d played seven of the nine songs live in concert. The two exceptions were “The Song Is Over” and “Goin’ Mobile.” It took 54 years and more than 1,000 concerts, but they finally broke out “The Song Is Over” Sunday evening at London’s Royal Albert Hall on the second of their two charity shows for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

“We dedicate this to all the fans that heard the 2016 setlist a 100 times,” Pete Townshend told the audience.

The Who played their first show of 2025 Thursday night at London’s Royal Albert Hall as part of the annual Teenage Cancer Trust benefit concert series. It was their live performance of any sort since they played the same event a year ago, and the rollout of Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend’s new, stripped-down band that now features only drummer Zak Starkey, guitarist Simon Townshend, bassist Jon Button, background vocalist John Hogg, and keyboardist/backing vocalist Loren Gold. (In recent years, they toured with a lager group of musicians,...

In the documentary “Resynator,” director Alison Tavel resurrects a synthesizer prototype that her late father, Don, invented.

Tavel, who lost her father when she was just 10 weeks old, initially wanted to make a short film doc about the synthesizer, which her father called the Resynator. The late-1970s invention generated a lot of buzz but never reached mass production. Tavel’s curiosity about the instrument ultimately led the director on a journey that helped her not only understand the Resynator and how it worked, but also who her father really was.

Tavel’s short doc eventually turned into a 96-minute film that includes interviews with estranged family, friends, inventors and celebrated musicians including Peter Gabriel, Fred Armisen and Jon Anderson.

Variety spoke to Tavel ahead of the doc’s SXSW world premiere on March 10.

What inspired you to make this documentary?

I had been on tour with [musician] Grace Potter for...

The Replacements will release a newly and properly mixed version of their 1989 Don’t Tell a Soul alongside a slew of rarities and previously unheard tracks on an upcoming box set, Dead Man’s Pop, out September 27th via Rhino.

Don’t Tell a Soul became the Replacement’s best-selling record, but upon its release, the band was unsatisfied with the way it sounded. For Dead Man’s Pop, the band tapped the LP’s producer Matt Wallace to completely reimagine the record based on the 1988 master tapes the Replacements snuck out Paisley Park studios.

The piano where Paul played, the microphone where George hummed, the bed where John lay... are all part of the myth that is Abbey Road Studios.

When the iconic London landmark opened its doors earlier in the year, the demand to get inside was so overwhelming that the studio bosses have decided to do it all again - in March 2013.

Based in Studio 2 - home to recordings by Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Kate Bush and a certain Liverpudlian quartet - there will be a series of talks, taking in archive footage, recordings and a chance to experience the celebrated echo chamber.

The Beatles in all their glory (as celebrated by the Royal Mail)

While music historians Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, who will host the events, are happy to celebrate the legend that was the era of the Beatles at Abbey Road, they also stress that a lot else went on,...

Abbey Road Studios will open its doors to the public on March 10. As part of the studio's 80th anniversary celebration, ticketholders will have access to the building to attend a lecture titled '80 Years of Recording at Abbey Road Studios' from Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan. The authors of Recording The Beatles will give a presentation in the famous Studio Two, where The Beatles, Oasis, Pink Floyd, Kate Bush and others have recorded. The lecture will also cover the recording of film scores at the studio, including The King's Speech, as well as the Star Wars, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings series. Vintage equipment, including instruments, microphones and studio hardware, will also be on display. (more)...

There are still three-and-a-half musically fruitful months left in 2010, but there is already a whole lot of excitement over a handful of releases set to appear in 2011. Next year, we'll probably hear new music from Lady Gaga and Ke$ha (both of whom talked about new albums recently) as well as the long-awaited Blink-182 reunion album, the return of U2 and a load of other high-profile releases. For a certain segment of the population, there is one piece of album news that is especially exciting: According to drummer and producer Charley Drayton, the spring of 2011 will welcome a brand new album by Fiona Apple.

"Hate to brag but I heard a couple new Fiona Apple tracks today," singer Michelle Branch wrote on Twitter last week. "Amazing."

The news of new Apple music is thrilling, especially considering how long it has been since we last heard from the 33-year-old songwriter. Her last release,...