Month: October 2022

Lindsey Buckingham’s European tour is ending early, due to “ongoing health issues.”

The Rock And Roll Hall of Famer “sends his deepest apologies to all his fans who were planning to attend and hopes to return to Europe in the future,” reads a statement on his social channels.

The 73-year-old singer and guitarist was midway through a run of rescheduled U.K. shows, which were originally set to take place earlier in the year but were postponed when he and members of his band and crew contracted COVID-19.

It’s unclear what health problems are behind the latest postponement.

Buckingham has had an eventful couple of years. He was sensationally fired from Fleetwood Mac in 2018 ahead of a major tour. Later, he sued the band he had joined in 1975, for an estimated $12 million to $14 million in lost wages — a suit that has since been settled.

The following year, in February 2019, he suffered a heart attack that required triple-bypass surgery as well as the insertion of a breathing tube that temporarily damaged his vocal cords. Then there was a divorce filing from his wife of 21 years in June of 2021.

Also in 2021, Buckingham enjoyed a major payday, as he sold his catalog to Hipgnosis, which included all of his hit songs recorded with Fleetwood Mac — including “Go Your Own Way,” “The Chain,” “Big Love,” “Never Going Back Again” and “Tusk” — plus 50% of the artist’s unreleased compositions.

Buckingham’s latest tour is in support of his self-titled seventh studio album from 2021, a recording which he claims was at the heart of his falling out with his Fleetwood Mac bandmates.

As a member of Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. And in 2011, he appeared in Rolling Stone’s list of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time,” coming in at No. 100.

Read his full tour statement below.

Due to ongoing health issues, Lindsey Buckingham is regrettably having to cancel the remaining shows on his current European tour. Refunds will be available from the point of purchase. Lindsey sends his deepest apologies to all his fans who were planning to attend and hopes to return to Europe in the future.

Sam Smith and Kim Petras school their U.K. chart competitors as “Unholy” (via EMI) flies to No. 1.

“Unholy” accumulates 5.9 million streams, the Official Charts Company, to leapfrog David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s “I’m Good (Blue)” (via Parlophone), the leader at the halfway mark.

With this latest chart feat, Smith now boasts an eighth U.K. No. 1 single, equal with Oasis and the Rolling Stones in the list of homegrown artists with the most leaders. It’s Kim Petras’ first-ever U.K. chart leader.

Smith previously lead the singles survey with “La La La” with Naughty Boy (from 2013), “Money On My Mind” (2014), “Stay With Me” (2014), “Lay Me Down” featuring John Legend (2015), “Writing’s On The Wall” (2015), “Too Good At Goodbyes” (2017) and “Promises” with Calvin Harris (2018).

Meanwhile, David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s viral hit “I’m Good (Blue)” slips 1-2, just 1,400 chart units between the leader. “I’m Good (Blue)” is the most downloaded song of the chart cycle, the OCC reports.

Further down the chart, there are new peaks for singles by Chris Brown (“Under The Influence” up 8-7 via RCA) and Luude & Mattafix (“Big City Life” up 10-8 via Warner Records), while Steve Lacy makes his first U.K. top 10 appearance as “Bad Habit” (L-M/RCA) lifts 11-9.

Brit Award-winning homegrown hip-hop star Stormzy makes his 25th top 40 splash with “Mel Made Me Do It” (0207/Merky). It’s new at No. 12.

Meanwhile, D-Block Europe lands three new entries on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, published Friday, Sept. 30, with “4 The Win” at No. 23; Burna Boy collaboration “She’s Not Anyone” at No. 30; and “Conor McGregor” at No. 39. Those three debuts, all of which appear on the hip-hop collective’s new album, Lap 5 (via D-Block Europe), lift the number of D-Block Europe’s top 40 singles to 26.

One of the highest climbers of the latest cycle is Rema with “Calm Down” (Mavin), zooming 32-25, and Fred Again and Swedish House Mafia’s “Turn On The Lights Again” (Atlantic) up 36-33.

5 Seconds of Summer score a hattrick as 5SOS5 blasts to No. 1 on the U.K. chart.

The Australian pop-punk band finishes the chart week on top in what the Official Charts Company is describing as a “last-minute photo finish.”

Indeed, 5SOS5 showed a fresh set of legs in the second half of the week, having coming in at No. 3 on the midweek chart.

Physical sales (78%) pushed 5SOS5 into the lead, the OCC reports, as the Sydneysiders earn a third U.K. albums chart crown after Sounds Good Feels Good (from 2015) and CALM (2020).

Close behind at No. 2 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart is homegrown hip-hop collective D-Block Europe, with their second studio album Lap 5. It’s “comfortably” the market-leader on streams, according to the OCC, for DBE’s seventh U.K. Top 40 appearance, and third top 5, after 2019 mixtape PTSD (No. 4) and 2020 debut studio album The Blue Print: Us vs Them (No. 2).

Just 1,300 combined units separated the top two albums, when the chart was published Friday (Sept. 30).

The all-new top 3 is completed by Sports Team’s second studio album Gulp!. It’s new at No. 3 on the national chart, and the best-seller on wax this week.

Coming in at No. 5 on the Official Chart is Take That singer Mark Owen’s fifth solo studio LP Land Of Dreams. It’s Owen’s best-placed solo effort, and 14th top ten appearance in total, including his releases with Take That.

Also new to the Top 10 is veteran British alternative rock act Editors with their seventh studio album EBM. It’s new at No. 10, the Birmingham, England band’s seventh top 10 title in the U.K.

Further down the tally, Beth Orton bags a sixth top 40 album with Weather Alive (No. 27), while, Hastings, England punk act Kid Kapichi capture a first-ever top 40 appearance with Here’s What You Could Have Won, new at No. 38.

A home where entertainers Mark and Donnie Wahlberg’s family once lived was damaged by fire Sunday (Oct. 2) in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, the fire department said.

The blaze began in a nearby home at around 10 a.m., but spread to another three buildings because of strong winds, Fire Commissioner Paul Burke said. Two firefighters suffered injuries and one resident was taken to the hospital. There was no immediate word on the cause of the fire.

One of the homes involved was 25 Peverell Street, where the Wahlberg family used to live. Mark Wahlberg visited the home during the production of his Netflix movie Wonderland in 2018 and 2019. In one video posted on social media, the actor stands shirtless in front of the house, describing it as “where it all started.”

The homes affected by Sunday’s fire were a type of classic Boston architecture called a triple decker, a three-family home that’s common in the city.

“It was a total of four three-deckers that were on fire, mostly in the rear of the buildings on the porches,” the fire commissioner told WCVB-TV. “It’s a very tight street.”

Boston Fire Department spokesperson Brian Alkins said 15 people were displaced by the fire. He estimated damage to the buildings at $2 million.

Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti is back atop the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Oct. 8) for a 12th nonconsecutive week, as the set steps from No. 2 to No. 1 with 87,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 29 (down 6%), according to Luminate. The last album with more weeks at No. 1 was Drake’s Views, with 13 nonconsecutive weeks on top in 2016.

Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200, 5 Seconds of Summer’s new 5SOS5 bows at No. 2, while Alice in Chains’ Dirt re-enters the chart at No. 9 following its 30th anniversary reissue.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Oct. 8, 2022-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (Oct. 4). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Of Un Verano Sin Ti’s 87,000 equivalent album units earned, SEA units comprise 85,000 (down 6%, equaling 119.8 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks), album sales comprise 2,000 (down 16%) and TEA units comprise less than 1,000 (down 19%).

5 Seconds of Summer notch their sixth top 10-charting album on the Billboard 200 with 5SOS5, as it debuts at No. 2 with 48,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise 36,000, SEA units comprise 12,000 (equaling 15.82 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible number. All six of the band’s top 10 albums have placed in the top two of the tally, with three having hit No. 1.

A quartet of former No. 1s is next on the Billboard 200, as Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album rises 4-3 (46,000 equivalent album units earned; down 4%), BLACKPINK’s Born Pink falls 1-4 in its second week (40,000; down 60%), Harry Styles’ Harry’s House climbs 7-5 (36,000; up 5%) and Beyoncé’s Renaissance is a non-mover at No. 6 (34,000; down 5%). The Weeknd’s compilation The Highlights descends 5-7 (28,000; down 29%) while Rod Wave’s former leader Beautiful Mind bumps up 9-8 (26,000; down 8%).

Alice in Chains’ Dirt re-enters the Billboard 200 at No. 9 with 26,000 equivalent album units earned (up 641%), following the album’s 30th anniversary remastered reissue on Sept. 23. The set, first released in 1992, bounds back onto the list for the first time since 1994. It logs its highest rank on the chart since Oct. 24, 1992, when it placed at No. 8 in its second week on the list, after debuting and peaking a week earlier at No. 6.

Dirt’s re-entry is largely powered by sales of its double vinyl album, with 22,500 sold across its three available pressings (a widely available standard black LP, a red-colored variant exclusive to Walmart and an orange-colored LP exclusively sold through the band’s webstore).

The 13-track Dirt album is Alice in Chains’ longest-charting effort on the Billboard 200, with 103 weeks on the list (including the current week). The Grammy Award-nominated set launched five top 40-charting hit songs on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart: “Would?” (No. 19), “Them Bones” (No. 24), “Angry Chair” (No. 34), “Rooster” (No. 7) and “Down in a Hole” (No. 10).

Closing out the Billboard 200’s new top 10 is Zach Bryan’s American Heartbreak, which rises 11-10 with 25,000 equivalent album units earned (down 1%).

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

HARDY is recovering from “significant injuries” following a tour bus accident.

The country music artist, whose real name is Michael Wilson Hardy, took to social media on Sunday (Oct. 2) to share a statement about his medical condition, and the health of his road crew, after being involved in a crash early Sunday morning following his appearance at Country Thunder Bristol in Tennessee.

“Following last night’s show, our tour bus was in an accident on our way home from Bristol,” HARDY wrote in his statement, which was shared on Twitter. “There were just four of us, including myself, on the bus, however we were all treated for significant injuries. Our friend, and bus driver needs your prayers as he is still in the hospital. His family is with him while he is being treated and we’re all pulling and praying for him.

The “Beers on Me” singer added that he was released from the hospital following the incident, but that doctors have ordered him to “recover for the next few weeks which may cost us at a couple of shows. My team and I will keep the fans updated on that as I rest in the coming days.”

At press time, HARDY’s website listed upcoming support dates for Morgan Wallen’s Wall to Wall Tour, including an Oct. 8 concert in Arlington, Texas. HARDY’s representatives tell Billboard that there is no further information beyond his statement on social media.

HARDY closed his statement by asking fans to pray for the recovery of his team. “Please keep our road family in your prayers and I promise to keep you updated in the days to follow,” he wrote. “God bless our medics and local and state officials for their quick response and incredible service.”

See HARDY’S statement about the bus accident on Twitter below.