Talk About Rock Music

A 17 year old girl has died overnight after an alleged drugs overdose.  She was ruched into hospital from the Australian music festival, Australia’s Big Day Out.  No name has been released, but she apparently took 3 Ecstasy tablets at the sold out festival at Claremont Showground in Perth.  She was said to have taken them all in one go to prevent them being detected by the police sniffer dogs.

The official site for Austrailia’s Big Day OUt released the following statement.

“Big Day Out does not condone the use of drugs at the event.  The same laws of the outside world apply inside the event. Over three million people have attended the Big Day Out in its 17-year history and this is the first time an incident of this nature has occurred.”

They have refused any further comments on the story.

Australian police are now investigating who supplied the teenage girl with the tablets and so far, over 70 people have been charged with drug related offences at the event.

Was does Talk About Rock Music say?  Don’t be stupid enough to take drugs in the first place.  They are no good for you and can have all sorts of side effects, unfortunately, including death.  Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the young girl who has passed but don’t let it be you!

If it wasn’t fantastic enough that The Prodigy are releasing a new album and that Dave Grohl from The Foo Fighters is drumming on one of the tracks, I can tell you that they are headlining atthis years Isle of Wight Festival!

The Ting Tings and Basement Jaxx have also been confirmed and will all be playing on the first day of the festival on the main stage which kicks off on the 12th of June.

This festival is getting bigger and bigger ebery year.  Last year saw the Sex Pistols and The kaiser Chiefs on the main stages for just over 50,000 people.  The Rolling Stones, The police, The Who and Coldplay have also performed in previous years.

It is the eighth year the festival has been running for now and the organisers say it will be the most electric year yet.

The Isle of Wight Festival was originally started many years ago when acts such as The Doors, Jimi Hendirx and Bob Dylan frequented the stage.  With a big revamp the festival is getting stronger and stronger each year with big acts all signing up to play there.

Bands are finding new ways to get their music heard.  With CD sales down and online purchasing on the increase each year, there seems to be less and less ways of getting your music out there and into the ears of eagerly awaiting music fans.  However, Metallica have chosen a different path to go down.

Fan Art of the Guitar Hero Metallica Game

Guitar Hero Metallica is going to be released at some point in the first half of next year and can be played using the guitar or in band mode in various well known venues all over the world.  With 28 Metallica songs and a few from other bands such as Foo Fighters, Queen and Alice in Chains, a new expert+ difficulty level and Metallica themed attacks, this looks set to be a big seller in 2009.

In a recent interview discussing the new game that has taken the world by storm, Lars Ulrich said,

“I was first introduced to Guitar Hero in my house about a year ago by my kids.  They became big fans of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath and all the bands I grew up on. It seemed like this was the first video game that really brought the family together. We were all sitting there and we were all sharing it. It wasn’t something that was just about the person playing, it was about everybody. It became a collective thing.”

“Certainly, as I have seen with my kids, it is a way to get kids passionate and involved in music.  In between arguing with them about homework and vegetables and whatever else, I can say, ‘Hey, look, maybe you are thinking Dad is a complete dork, but he’s got his own video game.’ And at least that’s worth something.”

Guitar Hero Metallica will be hitting our stores next year and will be available at all major retail outlets.

So we have reached the end of November with quite a bit of news reported this month in the rock world that we all know and love.

My top three this month has to be Nickelback finally giving us dates for the new tour in 2009, Guns N’ Roses releasing Chinese Democracy and the sad news that Richey Edwards has been legally declared dead.

It has been a bit of a weird month this month with lots of small stories that we haven’t reported on.  Here are a few of them:

- After promising every American a free can of fizzy drink if Guns N’ Roses managed to release a new album this year, Dr.Pepper could not cope with demand and ended up failing miserably, much to the disappointment of the band, the fans and the rest of the world who were watching.

- Rick Astley won the “Best Act Ever” at the MTV Europe Music Awards. beating the likes of U2 and other legendary acts.

- The Jackson (as in Jermaine, Randy and the rest of the fab five) have moved to the south west coast of England (Its been on tv and everything!)

- Amy Winehouse went in to rehab, or came out of rehab? One of the two anyway.  This line repeats every month!

- About 20 more bands decided to make a comeback.  I’m not naming them all but it seems to be the “in” thing at the moment (Fingers crossed for Bucks Fizz to be next!!!!)

- Madonna and Guy Ritchie got divorced and then she has a sell out tour - any publicity is good publicity right?

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Legendary US rockers Lynard Skynard are set to amaze the UK with a tour in 2009.  Yes! You heard me right!  They will be gracing us with their fantastic songs and catchy riffs and will be the first time the band has set foot on our shores in 6 long awaited years.

Any band’s history seems to be incomplete without some form of tragedy but Lynard Skynard tops all billboards with theirs.

The band formed in 1964 when Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington and Allen Collins joined forces to create “The Noble Five”.  In 1965, Bob Burns and Larry Junstrom joined the band and the name was changed to “My Backyard” and they won the Battle of The Bands in 1968.

Billy Powell, a former roadie for the band joined as the keyboard player and the name was changed again.  This time to a more familiar name of “Leonard Skinnerd, which was a joke tribute to a high school’s gym teacher, known for his school policy enforcement of no long hair for boys.

With a few more band members leaving and joining over the next couple of years, the band was finally spotted by producer, Al Kooper of former Blood, Sweat and Tears and from there, the name was changed to Lynard Skynard.  They were signed to MCA records and their fan base grew and grew.

With further changes to the band lineup, backing singers, The Honkettes were added and soon after, Cassie Gaines starting pushing for her younger brother to audition for the band.  Steve Gaines was given an audition and blew the band away.  What they felt had been missing from their music had finally been found and Gaines became a star in his own right and the band toured with their idols, The Rolling Stones.

Shortly after, Rossington and Collins were both seriously injured in car accident which set the band back but both made a full recovery.  With various members of the band trying to combat alcohol and drug abuse, they released “The Smell”, a cautionary tale of addiction.

In 1977, on October 20th, just a few days after the release of their fifth album and four days into their most successful tour, the band’s plane, Convair 240 suffered major machanical problems .  The pilots tried in vain to make an emergency landing but the plane ran out of fuel and crashed into a forest.  Ronnie Van Zant, Cassie and Steve Gaines, Dean Kilpatrick, the assistant road manager at the time and the 2 pilots were killed instantly.  Allen Collins, Leon Wilkeson, Gary Rossington, Leslie Hawkins, Steve Lawler, Gene Odom and Billy Powell had sustained major and some life threatening injuries.  Artimus Pyle, drummer, crawled through the woods with two members of the road crew to a nearby farm to get help, all with broken limbs.  With most of the band no longer living, the rest of the band split with the memories of the tragedy never far behind them.

Later on that year, Rossington, Wilkeson, Powell and Collins formed the Rossington-Collins Band and they even release 2 albums.  They wanted to be different to Lynard Skynard and not be compared to their original sound.

With tours and the other living members doing their own thing, everyone seemed to be moving on but in 1980, Collins wife died during a miscarriage from their third child.  In the years that followed, Collins life spiralled out of control and in 1986, while drink driving with his girlfriend, he crashed the car which left him paralysed and killed his girlfriend instantly.  He eventually cuaght pneumonia and passed away in 1990.

More tragedy followed with Leon Wilkeson found dead in a hotel room due to lung and liver disease in 2001.  Hughie Thomasson died in 2007 of a heart attack.

With all this death in the history, you may think it would be reason enough for the band to give up but the remaining members have reformed to give tribute to the rest of the band and to move forward with their music.

The current Lynard Skynard

Tour dates for Europe are as follows:

May 20 - Kuopio Arena in Kupio, Finland
May 21 - Ice Hall in Helsinki, Finland
May 23 - Spektrum in Oslo, Norway
May 25 - Palladium in Cologne, Germany
May 27 - Auditorium in Glasgow, UK
May 28 - NIA Academy in Birmingham, UK
May 30 - Apollo in Manchester, UK
May 31 - Brixton Academy in London, UK
June 2 - Freilichtbuhne Killisberg in Stuttgart, Germany
June 3 - Palasharp in Milan, Italy
June 4 - Sportzentrum Tagerhard in Wettingen, Switzerland
June 6 - Azkena Rock Festival in Vitoria–Gasteiz, Spain

Tickets are not on sale yet but you so have the chance to buy presale tickets by joining the Lynard Skynard fan club.

We wish Lynard Skynard all the best with their tour and look forward to hearing your comments.

With the new single and new album released this year, we can hope to see tour dates appearing soon for a 2009 world tour with the every changing Guns N’ Roses phenomenon.

Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses

Chinese Democracy has been under massive speculation for over 10 years since it was announced they were working on new material.  With the new album just being released and a complete change in band members, obviously excluding Rose himself, we would imagine they will be pushing this to the maximum and move out of their own shadow with Appetite for Destruction.

I’ve heard the new single and I love it.  I have not yet listened to the rest of the album but Chinese Democracy promises to be a corker.

With no news yet as to any kind of tour, be it local in the US or a planned world domination, stay tuned for more info.  They have hinted at a US tour early next year, but again, as always, these are just rumours.  You can currently stream the album on AOL but it is set for release in 2 days.  Check out the Chinese Democracy site for a countdown to the release.

Rise Against, the Chicago punk rockers, are releasing a new album due out on the 7th of October, titled “Appeal to Reason”.  The band got together in 1999 and consists of Tim McIlrath on vocals and guitar, Zach Blair on guitar, Joe Principe on bass and bringing up the rear on drums is Brandon Barnes, although this wasn’t the original line up.

The band was originally the former members of 88 Fingers Louie and Baxter.  88 Fingers Louie split so the first line up included Tony Tintari on drums and Mr. Precision on guitar.  They never actually played live with Tony and Mr. Precision but they did release a demo in 2000 called Transistor Revolt.

Tony left the band after recording the demo and Mr. Precision left a year later in 2001.  Keving White then picked up where Mr. Precision left off and he was then replaced with Todd Mohney. A few other changes took place across the years and in 2007  they finally have the infamous group they have now.

The new album, “Appeal to Reason” is due out this month but had been available on pre-order from iTunes.  We wish the boys luck with their new album and look forward to them touring with the new material which we are sure will be as great as previous albums.

Check out the Rise Against site for tour dates, news, music and videos.

A new teen horror movie called Twilight is to be released this December and is to feature two new songs by Paramore.  The vampire film, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, has been adapted from a series of popular books.

Paramore will be shooting a video to one of the soundtrck songs, titled “Decode” and will also be released as a single.

Paramore are getting prepared to shoot a live concert which will be released in November and will be titled “The Final Riot”.

The band formed in 2004 in Franklin, Tennessee and released their first album, “All We Know Is Falling” a year later.  Their follow up album, “Riot”, in 2007 which went platinum in the UK, Ireland and the US.

Current band members are:

Vocals/Keyboard - Hayley Williams
Lead Guitar -Josh Farro
Bass - Jeremy Davis
Drums - Zac Farro

The most recognised single has to be “Misery Business” which you can see below.

All these rumours going round at the moment and absolutely no credibility to them whatsoever.  Its driving me a little nuts.  Last week it was Robert Plant touring back with the legendary Led Zeppelin and now it’s Rage Against the Machine in the midst of recording a new album.  This is doing nothing but getting up the hopes of fans only to be shot down days later when the truth comes out.

The band have been touring but are all working on their own projects at the moment and although they are enjoying the live shows, they have absolutely no plans to start recording new material.

Some kind of media source, and we all know how reliable they are, supposedly from the band’s label, Sony, said they were ready to start recording for a new album to be released in 2009.

Well, I can assure you that the media source was talking rubbish and a spokes person for Tom Morello stated the the tall tale was,

“officially and unequivocally without merit. I can categorically deny this rumor. The band has no plans on recording new material.”

They may continue with the live shows but nothing is set in stone.  Morello has just released a second album called The Nightwatchman, The Fabled City and singer, Zach de la Rocha, is working with a new band called One Day As A Lion.

There are no more live Rage Against The Machine shows for this year but keep your eyes peeled for next years listings.

Here’s a little live video from RATM performing Darkness which was on the soundtrack to The Crow.

Alice in Chains are planning to record a new album, the first album in 13 years.  The band will be fronted by William Duvall who has a tough job ahead of him in the eyes of long term Alice in Chains fans as he would be replacing the late Layne Staley who passed away in 2002 from a drugs overdose.

Baldy, an associate of the band stated on the Alice in Chains official site

“October will arrive and Alice In Chains will reconvene to record the new album.

“So, as 2008, winds down, band activity will be gearing up, and at some point in 2009 you’ll finally hear what I’ve been raving about for the last several months.”

Current band members are

Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar - William DuVall
Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals - Jerry Cantrell
Bass/Backing Vocals - Mike Inez
Drums/Percussion - Sean Kinney

Duvall has been a friend of Jerry Cantrell’s since 2000 and became Jerry’s goto guy.  He has been on tour with Jerry and has taken the place of Staley and toured with AIC supporting the likes of Velvet Revolver and Kill Hannah.

For classic Alice in Chains and Staley’s last public appearance with the band, see below for the video form the ‘Unplugged’ album, No Excuses.