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John Mayall, the pioneering British blues rock legend, has died at the age of 90.

“It is with heavy hearts that we bear the news that John Mayall passed away peacefully in his California home yesterday, July 22, 2024, surrounded by his loving family,” a statement from the musician’s family read. “Health issues that forced John to end his epic touring career have finally led to peace for one of this world’s greatest road warriors.”

Born in 1933 in Cheshire, England, Mayall developed a love for the blues at an early age. Influenced by his guitar-playing father, he became well-versed in American jazz and blues artists, and taught himself guitar and harmonica. In the late 1950s, he began performing with bands, and by 1963, he had relocated to London and earned a place in the local music scene.

From there, he became the leader of a band known as the Bluesbreakers, which would...

John Mayall, the newly minted Rock and Roll Hall of Famer whose group the Blues Breakers helped nurture many British music legends including Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and several future members of Fleetwood Mac, died Monday in California. He was 90.

His family released a statement on social media confirming the news but gave few details other than citing “health issues.”

“It is with heavy hearts that we bear the news that John Mayall passed away peacefully in his California home yesterday, July 22, 2024, surrounded by his loving family,” the Instagram post reads. “Health issues that forced John to end his epic touring career have finally led to peace for one of this world’s greatest road warriors.”

Heralded as “The Godfather of British Blues,” singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mayall had a love of American blues and jazz — and a gift for spotting young talent. In a 2014 interview with The Guardian, he...

The David Bowie World Fan Convention brought the artists who worked with David Bowie to the audience who grew alongside his mythical output. Prior to the festivities, singer, fashion model, and actor Ava Cherry discussed the profound influences she brought to the singer-songwriter. Cherry was also quite open about how Bowie attempted to return the gestures, if not always the clothes he borrowed.

After Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars finished their mission, and just prior to recording Diamond Dogs, Bowie put together a trio he hoped would take off on their own orbits: Ava and the Astronettes. Front and center was his girlfriend, Ava Cherry.

After hearing Cherry harmonize with the top soul voices at an afterparty for Stevie Wonder’s Carnegie Hall concert, Bowie recruited Ava to go on the road to end the Ziggy Stardust tour in Japan. “David said ‘You’re a singer?’” Cherry tells Den of Geek.

George Tickner has died. Tickner’s death was announced by his former bandmate, Journey’s co-founder and lead guitarist Neal Schon, on Facebook July 4. Tickner, the band’s original rhythm guitarist, was 76. A cause of death was not immediately available.

“Journey Junkies, I have some very sad news. George Tickner, Journey’s original rhythm guitarist and songwriting contributor on their first three albums, has passed away. He was 76 years old,” Schon wrote. “Godspeed, George…thank you for the music. We will be paying tribute to you on this page indefinitely.”

“Our condolences to his family and friends, and to all past and present band members,” he continued. “So heartbreaking. I think we need to do a group hug, JJ’s!”

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A post shared by Neal Schon (@nealschon)

Schon added, “Rest peacefully, Dr. George Tickner.. you will be missed immensely! Thank you for your incomparable contributions to Journey’s early years.

George Tickner, the original rhythm guitarist for classic rock band Journey who left in 1975 to pursue a medical degree several years before the group’s breakthrough single “Wheel In The Sky,” has died. He was 76.

His death was announced by Journey co-founder and lead guitarist Neal Schon. A cause of death was not disclosed.

“Journey Junkies, I have some very sad news,” Schon wrote on Facebook. “George Tickner, Journey’s original rhythm guitarist and songwriting contributor on their first three albums, has passed away.”

Although Tickner officially played on only one on the band’s albums – 1975’s Journey – to pursue a medical degree on full scholarship at Stanford University, he is credited with writing songs on that album as well as the band’s subsequent two, Look Into The Future (1976) and Next (1977).

The band’s big breakthrough came with the arrival in 1977 of singer Steve Perry and the 1978 album Infinity,...

George Tickner, a co-founding member of legendary classic rock act Journey, has died at the age of 76, according to a social media post made by the band’s guitarist Neal Schon.

“Rest peacefully, Dr. George Tickner. You will be missed immensely,” Schon posted on Facebook.

Schon also posted: “Dear George … ‘Of a Lifetime’ is still one of my favorite songs ever. Rip brother God Speed.”

Journey formed in 1973 with a lineup featuring Schon, Tickner — brought in by Journey manager Herbie Herbert, who road-managed Tickner’s previous band Frumious Bandersnatch — along with bassist Ross Valory, singer Gregg Rolie, and drummer Prairie Prince (later replaced by Aynsley Dunbar).

While Journey are best known for their FM classic rock hits, the group actually played progressive rock early in its career, prior to singer Steve Perry joining the band. Journey’s 1975 self-titled debut is held in high regard among prog circles, and it’s...

Over three hours worth of newly-unearthed Frank Zappa receives an official release as a compilation called Funky Nothingness. Available as of today, the music is believed to have been intended for a sequel to Hot Rats, the avant-garde rocker’s 1969 solo debut.

Freshly dug out from the Zappa vault, Funky Nothingness will include 25 unreleased and rare tracks, as well as compositions, covers, and miscellaneous jams from 1970 studio sessions with Zappa’s core group: Aynsley Dunbar, Don “Sugarcane” Harris, Ian Underwood, and Max Bennett.

“Funky Nothingness delivers on all fronts, showcasing Zappa’s love for rhythm and blues, picking up where Hot Rats left off with extended instrumental workouts fusing rock, jazz, and classical elements into music that can only be described as Zappa,” reads a statement from “Zappa vaultmeister” Joe Travers, who also compiled the collection along with Zappa’s son Ahmet Zappa.

Funky Nothingness arrives just shy of a...

The late Frank Zappa’s “vaultmeister” has unearthed 23 previously unreleased and rare recordings that Zappa may have been considering for a sequel to his beloved jazz-rock masterpiece, 1969’s Hot Rats.

The apocrypha, which totals three-and-a-half hours of music, will finally come out on June 30 via a three-disc set titled Funky Nothingness.

Zappa’s estate is previewing the set with Zappa’s interpretations of two songs from 1954 by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, “Work With Me Annie/Annie Had a Baby,” with violinist Don “Sugarcane” Harris singing lead:

The recordings, cut...

Jeff Beck, one of the most influential guitarists of the 20th century, died Wednesday at the age of 78. The cause was bacterial meningitis. Beck had been in good health recently, touring with Johnny Depp following the recording of their (mostly) covers album, “18.”

While Beck himself never achieved the household name status of his peers like Eric Clapton or Jimmy Page, those in the know would cite him as just as foundational. He also spanned genres, from British Invasion pop to hard rock to jazz fusion to whatever kind of jammy six-string concrète was laid down on the 1989 “Guitar Shop” album or 1999’s “Who Else?!”

In 1965, at the age of 21, Beck joined The Yardbirds, a blues-y pop-rock outfit, replacing the exiting Eric Clapton. There could be no bigger shoes to fill at the time, as British fans of the period idolized Clapton to the point of public nuisance—the phrase “Clapton...

16 December 2022 – In 1972, following the aftermath of being pushed off stage at the Rainbow Theatre in London by a crazed attendee, Frank Zappa found himself recuperating for months in his home in the hills of Los Angeles. Although he was confined to a wheelchair and in immense pain, his work ethic could not be tamed, and he would end up having one of the most prolific years of his hugely prolific career. During this time, he managed, among other things, to assemble an ensemble that quenched his thirst and desire to work with a large “Electric Orchestra.” Ultimately, he contracted a 20-piece group for recording sessions and an eight-city tour. Shortly thereafter, a scaled down 10-piece configuration, now popularly known as the “Petite Wazoo” toured for almost two months. After all was said and done, Zappa finished the experiment with two albums in the can – Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo...

With Peter Jackson’s re-cut of The Beatles: Get Back coming at the end of November, we are reminded the Beatles were cinematic stars as well as musical artists. Beyond the group’s films, John Lennon played Private Gripweed in Richard Lester’s How I Won the War, and Ringo Starr acted in quite a few films. His choices were far more in keeping with the underground and independent air of the time. Starr starred with Peter Sellars in the anti-capitalist satire The Magic Christian, as the villain in the Spaghetti Western Blindman, and the voyeuristic Mexican gardener Emmanuel in the sex farce Candy. But his most counterculture and independent nod was as Frank Zappa in the film 200 Motels (1971). A special edition of its soundtrack, Frank Zappa 200 Motels 50th Anniversary Edition, is coming out on Dec. 17.

Written by Zappa, who co-directed with Tony Palmer, 200 Motels is a musical...

Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels is an education in musical composition, soundtrack recordings, and rock history. In celebration of its 50th anniversary, Zappa Records, UMe, and MGM assembled a definitive Super Deluxe six-disc box set of the soundtrack, which drops on Nov. 19. The 200 Motels 50th Anniversary Edition was remastered by Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering, and includes unreleased and rare material from the Zappa music vault.

The sound quality is excellent, the separation gives the multitude of instruments and voicings enough space to hear what is going on very clearly, though the music is still very dense. The players included Ian Underwood on keyboards and woodwinds, George Duke on keyboards and trombone, drummers Aynsley Dunbar and Jimmy Carl Black, with Ruth Underwood on an orchestra drum set. Zappa plays guitar and bass, because there was a change in personnel, between bassists Jeff Simmons and Martin Lickert, partway through recording and filming.

Stand Up And Shout For Ronnie James Dio’S Birthday, Saturday, July 10 global virtual concert produced by Rolling Live Studios, has added a wealth of talent to the already star-studded lineup that will bring together unusual musical pairings for one-of-a-kind performances, special birthday messages and artist interviews.

The event, hosted on rollinglivestudios.com beginning at 2:00Pm Pacific time (Pdt), will benefit The Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund (www.diocancerfund.org), founded in memory of the late heavy metal icon who was the voice of Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Dio before losing his battle with gastric cancer in 2010.

The global fundraising event will bring together celebrities and fans all over the world to honor Dio’s undeniable impact both on and off the stage. Among the artists joining the roster for conversations and/or performances are Rob Halford (Judas Priest); Sammy Hagar; Tenacious D’s...

The Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund will hold a star-studded virtual fundraiser on what would have been the heavy-metal firebrand’s 79th birthday, July 10th.

In addition to archival footage of Dio from throughout his life, the event will feature guest performances, interviews, and birthday wishes from Tony Iommi, Dio and Black Sabbath drummer Vinny Appice, Lita Ford, Glenn Hughes, Anthrax’s Joey Belladonna, and Testament’s Chuck Billy, among many others. It will take place on RollingLiveStudios.com at 5 p.m. Et.

The charity, which...

John Mayall has dropped a 1967 recording of “Curly” with fellow Bluesbreakers Peter Green and John McVie.

Recorded for the BBC Sessions on February 3rd, the track also features drummer Aynsley Dunbar. The instrumental clocks in at two minutes, with Green performing a blazing solo. Green — who died at age 73 in July — would leave the band with John McVie that summer to form Fleetwood Mac.

“Curly” is included on Mayall’s upcoming massive box set The First Generation: 1966-1974, out January 29th, 2021. The 35-disc collection features newly remastered versions of the Decca & Polydor albums,...

A few years before Roy Thomas Baker gained fame as the producer for some of the greatest albums by Queen and the Cars, he was one of several engineers to work with the ever-prolific Frank Zappa.

A new four-disc box set, The Mothers 1970, spotlights some of the work Baker did with Zappa, including a rare early mix of “Sharleena,” the track that closed out Zappa’s Chunga’s Revenge LP.

Interestingly, it’s cleaner sounding and doesn’t have as much of the mushy background guitar that creeps up in the Chunga version,...

Unheard recordings from Frank Zappa’s short-lived but beloved 1970 lineup of the Mothers feature in the upcoming box set The Mothers 1970, a four-disc set featuring 70 unreleased studio and live tracks out of the legendary guitarist’s Vault.

The Zappa Trust announced the June 26th-bound release with the newly unearthed “Portuguese Fenders,” a searing live instrumental boasting a fiery Zappa solo; the track was discovered among other live performances Zappa recorded himself on his personal tape recorder.

The release celebrates the 50th anniversary of that Mothers (formerly “of Invention”) iteration, which...

Jean-Paul Gaster still remembers the moment he realized the first heavy-metal band were playing jazz.

Growing up near Washington, D.C., the drummer — who for nearly 30 years has brought a loose-limbed swagger to the rhythms of esteemed hard-rock band Clutch — would sit with his father and watch live concerts on public television. Performances by big-band jazz greats Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa made a particularly strong impression on him.

A few years later, heavier sounds came onto his radar via bands like Black Sabbath and Zz Top. At first, Gaster...

For many, the story of Fleetwood Mac begins with the 1974 arrival of Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, the talented yet combustible American duo who ignited an explosive string of hits that continue to define the band. But Mick Fleetwood wants to move past those rumors. Fans of the group’s pop jewels would hardly recognize their original incarnation as one of the most respected British blues bands of the ’60s. Now the founding drummer is telling the tale of those formative years in Love That Burns: A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac, Volume One 1967–1974, a lavish new book by Genesis Publications due out Sept.

Journey fans have stopped believing in a reunion performance.

The American rock band was joined by former lead singer Steve Perry at Friday evening’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Perry, 68, was there with former bandmates Neal Schon, Jonathan Cain, Steve Smith and Ross Valory, along with current lead singer Arnel Pineda, who was not included in the band’s honor.

Train’s Pat Monahan inducted them with kind words. “Tonight I’m here to live out a life-long dream, to induct the heart of San Francisco music into the rock hall,...