Ageing rockers David Gilmour, Keith Richards set for a comeback

'Tis the season of ageing rockers. Three members of classic rock bands - David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones and Don Henley of Eagles - are set to unleash new albums over the next few months.

'Tis the season of ageing rockers. Three members of classic rock bands - of Pink Floyd, of The Rolling Stones and of Eagles - are set to unleash new albums over the next few months.

The rockers may be a little long in the tooth - their combined age is 208 years - but previews of tracks released from the three albums hint that their fans have much to look forward to.



David Gilmour and Keith Richards will roll out their new sets on September 18 while Don Henley will follow a week later with his first album in 15 years.



Gilmour, who has kept the Pink Floyd brand alive in recent years after an acrimonious split with Roger Waters, unveiled the title track from his new album Rattle That Lock on July 17. This is his first solo album since On An Island in 2006.



Rattle That Lock by David Gilmour

The 69-year-old guitarist co-produced Rattle That Lock with Roxy Music member Phil Manzanera and shared song-writing duties with his wife, novelist Polly Samson.

Gilmour has said that the song Rattle That Lock, which features some tasty guitar licks, was inspired by a four-note jingle that precedes announcements at railway stations operated by France's state-owned SNCF railway company.

English musician David Gilmour is best known as the guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. (davidgilmour/Facebook)

"I was in Aix-en-Provence station visiting friends, I heard (the jingle) as you often do. So I then turned my iPhone on, held my phone up nearer the speaker and waited for the next announcement, took that sample from that and that's what I've used for this track," he said.

The lyrics for the track were inspired by Book II of John Milton's Paradise Lost.

Rattle That Lock will be available in a 10-track standard CD edition with a clothbound 22-page booklet and a CD-plus-Blu-ray special edition with four non-album audio tracks, four films of jam sessions featuring Gilmour and his band, four documentaries and two hardback books. The album will be followed by a brief North American tour in early 2016.

Seventy-one-year-old Keith Richards, the long-time guitarist for The Rolling Stones, recorded his new solo album Crosseyed Heart with frequent collaborator Steve Jordan, the drummer for the John Mayer Trio.

Trouble by Keith Richards

Crosseyed Heart features a duet with Norah Jones on the ballad Illusion and guest appearances by veterans such as Spooner Oldham, Aaron Neville and the late Rolling Stones saxophonist Bobby Keys.

The 15-track album is only Richards' third solo outing and his first release in 20 years. The first single Trouble has already been released to several streaming music outlets.

Don Henley, who scored a string of solo hits away from the Eagles in the 1990s, will release the country-influenced Cass County on September 25.

Don Henley is an American singer-songwriter and the founding member of rock band, Eagles. (donhenley/Facebook)

The album by Henley - the youngest of the trio at 68 - is named after the Texas county where he was raised and will be available as a 12-track standard CD edition and a 16-track deluxe version.

The album, produced by Henley and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers member Stan Lynch, features guest appearances by Mick Jagger, Merle Haggard, Martina McBride, Vince Gill and Dolly Parton.