Talk About Rock Music

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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Nickelback have finally announced the first leg of their Dark Horse tour so you eager Nickelback fans can book it in your diaries and make sure you have the time off work, school, college, anniversaries and all that!!

This is a Live Nation Tour so you can buy tickets from December 5th 2008 at the Live Nation Site.

The tour kicks off on the 25th February and support acts Seether and Saving Abel have been confirmed as support acts.

Fanclub members can buy presale tickets from 28th November - yes thats in 2 days!! - by logging into the fan club website.  If you are not yet a fan club member, join now to get access to the early tickets and you also get some other freebies and offers which are well worth the one off payment.

If you are a Citi card holder, you will be able to buy tickets from the 1st December by logging in to the Citipress site.

The following dates have been confirmed:

Wed/Feb-25 - Nashville, TN - Sommet Center - Sat/Dec 13
Fri/Feb-27 - Lexington, KY - Rupp Arena - Sat/Dec 13
Sat/Feb-28 - Detroit, MI - Joe Louis Arena - Sat/Dec 13
Mon/Mar-02 - Toronto, ON - Air Canada Centre - Fri/Dec 5
Tue/Mar-03 - Hamilton, ON - Copps Coliseum - Fri/Dec 5
Thu/Mar-05 - Worcester, MA - DSU Center - Sat/Dec 13
Fri/Mar-06 - East Rutherford, NJ - IZOD Center - Sat/Dec 13
Sun/Mar-08 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun  Arena - Sat/Dec13
Mon/Mar-09 - Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Center - Sat/Dec 13
Wed/Mar-11 - Columbus, OH - Nationwide Arena - Sat/Dec 13
Thu/Mar-12 - Rosemont, IL - Allstate Arena - Sat/Dec 13
Sat/Mar-14 - Milwaukee, WI - Bradley Center - Sat/Dec 13
Sun/Mar-15 - Moline, IL - i Wireless Center - Sat/Dec 13
Tue/Mar-17 - Omaha, NE - Qwest Center - Sat/Dec 13
Wed/Mar-18 - Des Moines, IA - Wells Fargo Arena - Sat/Dec 13
Wed/Apr-01 - Edmonton, AL - Rexall Centre - Fri/Dec 5
Thu/Apr-02 - Calgary, AL - Pengrowth Saddledome - Fri/Dec 5
Sat/Apr-04 - Saskatoon, SK - Credit Union Centre - Fri/Dec 5
Sun/Apr-05 - Winnipeg, MT - MTS Centre - Fri/Dec 5
Tue/Apr-07 - Minneapolis, MN - Target Center - Sat/Dec 13
Wed/Apr-08 - Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center - Sat/Dec 13
Fri/Apr-10 - Tulsa, OK - BOK Center - Sat/Dec 6
Mon/Apr-13 - Bossier City, LA - CenturyTel Center - Sat/Dec 13
Tue/Apr-14 - San Antonio, TX - AT&T Center - Sat/Dec 6
Thu/Apr-16 - Houston - Toyota Center - Sat/Dec 6
Fri/Apr-17 - New Orleans, LA - New Orleans Arena - Sat/Dec 13
Sun/Apr-19 - Little Rock, AR - Alltel Arena - Sat/Dec 13
Wed/Apr-22 - Jacksonville, FL - Veterans Memorial Arena - Sat/Dec 13
Thu/Apr-23 - Columbia, SC - Colonial Life Arena - Sat/Dec 13

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.

After 14 years of wondering what has happened to Richey Edwards, he has now been officially declared as presumed dead.  Richey Edwards was the former guitarist with Manic Street Preachers and has been sorely missed by his family, friends, the band and by thousands of fans across the globe.

Following a turbulant time with depression, alcohol and self mutilation, Richey supposedly abandoned his car on February the 1st, 1995 and took his own life although his body has never been found and several alleged sightings have been seen of him since, although none have been confirmed.  He was 27 at the time of his disappearance.

Richey’s family said they would never file for court order to change his legal status but 14 years is a long time to have been missing with no contact and the family have decided it is time to move on and straighten out his affairs, although he will never be forgotton and they won’t give up hope that he will one day be found and they would like to say that they have not accepted that he has passed on.

Richey left no will so his parents have full control of his estate.  They have made no comment on the proceedings at this time but it is understandably a difficult time for them and we hope to hear their thoughts and feelings in the near future.

The Manic Street Preachers are to release a new album that has been written by Richey with Lyrics that he had left before his disappearance.

If you would like an unbiased list of events of the Preachers, you can view a time line at the Richey Edwards site.

May Richey have peace wherever he is and our thoughts are with him, his family and friends and to all the fans who haven’t given up.

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.

Oh look! Another reunion!! There has been speculation since ex band members of Blink 182 have started speaking again that they are set for a reunion. The unfortunate death of Jerry Finn, who was their producer and Travis Barker’s close call in the tragic plane accident that happened a couple of months ago, got the band talking again.

The band split in 2005 and was apparantley quite messy, but since they have become friends again, Blink 182 fans are dusting off hte t-shirts ready for a tour.

Get a grip people. They are old friends who have just started speaking following a horrific crash that killed 6 people! Give them a break and let them get on with things. Barker and Mark Hoppus have been recording as +44 and Tom Delonge became front man for Angels and Airwaves. They are continuing with their current projects until further notice.

Mark Hoppus commented on the recent contact with the others.

“We’re just reconnecting as friends after four years of not talking. It’s a good thing. Obviously the first question for a lot of people will be, ‘Does this mean a Blink-182 reunion?’ The answer is none of us know. We haven’t talked about it at all. Right now it’s just good for the three of us to see one another, reconnect and let the past be the past.”

16/02/2009 - Update - See latest Blink 182 reunion post

Music is not just rythmical noise and sound but envokes a number of feelings, helps recalll certain memories and is often found to be therapeutic and helps people through certain life changing experiences.

I’ve often wondered why music can bring you through so many emotions changing as often as the track on the radio and it got me thinking about what I choose to listen to and why.  Depending on what I’m doing or what is going on in my life, I will pick certain artists or songs to play in the background while I am getting on with daily tasks or songs that I will sit and listen to in a dark room just because I feel like it.  I came to realise that I split my music into to 2 types.  Tunes for a good mood, be it listening to while you are getting ready for a night out or just to get you motivated in the morning when your driving to work and songs that I relate to a certain points or emotions in my life like a break up or a row with a friend or something more sinister like the death of a loved one.

So rather than getting too heavy, I thought I would share my top ten happy songs that I HAVE to listen to before going on a night out.

I cannot possibly put these in any order so I’m just going to list them and add videos so you can see and hear for yourself how great these songs are.

When you have finished looking at them, let me know if I should make any changes and if you have any better songs for me!

Theory Of A Deadman - No Surprise

Terrorvision - Tequila

Nickelback - Animals

Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar On Me

Buckcherry - Crazy

Aerosmith - Dude Looks Like A Lady

Nickelback - The Next Contestant

Theory of A Deadman - Say Goodbye

Bon Jovi - It’s My LIfe

Nickelback - Figured You Out

What did you say?  Kiss to record again?  I don’t believe you!!

I know, I know.  But it it one of the latest rumours to be hitting the music pages all over the world.  It may actually turn out to be more than a rumour too.  I’ve given up posting theories on this site as they are all shot down in minutes this comes from the horses mouth.

The 70s rock Starchild, Paul Stanley, recently had an interview with Classic Rock Magazine where he discussed the possiblilty of new material.

“the new Kiss line-up with Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer is proving to be so good, so strong in spirit, it would interesting to see how we perform in the studio.”

Over the last few years, the guys haven’t been interested in recording any new material and wanted to spend their time continuing to promote their already iconic albums which span a couple of decades, but with the new line up of the band, things are starting to change. (Sorry, but I have no pictures of the newbies)

When asked about what type of music the new album would be, Stanley responded,

“a Kiss album in the style of our ’70s recordings. A classic Kiss album, unmistakably.”

So to all those Kiss fans out there, keep your eyes, ears and other bodily parts peeled and let me know AS SOON as you know anything so we can let the rest of the world know!

Following on from The Killers making a surprise appearance at teh Mencap Little Noise Sessions at the Union Chapel in Islington London, Biffy Clyro obviously didn’t want another band to be the talking point of the event!  The Scottish rock band thought it a fantastic opportunity to debut a new song “God and Satan” on Wednesday’s event.

They had support from Friendly Fires and Frank Turner and are currently in the middle of writing material from their fifth album, which is where the song came from.  Frontman, Simon Neil, in an interview with rock magazine NME, told them that the were not going to mention the name of the track due to the setting of where they were playing.  He stated,

“There’s another one that we’re not even going to play because the lyrics are even more ‘edgy’. Too edgy for a chapel!  So I’m not going to announce it later. I can’t say that, because it’ll just be too much. I’ll sing about it though.”

They opened their set with “Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies”  and played a variety of old favourites including “Mountains” and “Got Wrong” and finised with an encore of “Scary Mary”.

We look forward to hearing from their new album soon and well done boys for earning yourself a mention on Talk About Rock Music!!!

Meanwhile, here is one of my favourite Biffy videos!

After all the complaining I have been doing about stupid fees when you purchase tickets seems to have done the trick!  OK, so it probably wasn’t anything to do with me but Ticketmaster are going to be experimenting with no fee ticket sales.

The entertainment president of Ticketmaster and the CEO, Sean Moriarty, spoke recently on a conference call to their investors that they want to try eliminating the purchase fees when customers buy online.

Moriarty spoke about customers using the TicketFast system.

“We’re already testing the program on certain upcoming tour on-sales.  We look to lead the way with this dramatic new approach, and fundamentally change the way tickets are sold in the live entertainment industry.”

Well this is great news if they decide to go ahead with this, which they are!  The first event to be trying this out is none other than legends The Eagles, current client of Front Line Management of which Ticketmaster now own the controlling interest in.  The event has been advertised as a “no-fee event”.

Moriarty stated,

“Our combination with Front Line and Irving Azoff’s approach to getting things done is already dramatically changing the live entertainment landscape.  We’re really proud that Ticketmaster Entertainment is the leader in this important new aspect of the artist and fan experience.”

Ticketmaster will be announcing their latest experiment in a press release this week and The Eagles concert is so far the only act to be trying this out but we can only hope there will be more to follow.

The TicketFast system allows you to print your tickets via an email link given when you purchase tickets to an event. This new system will remove the need to wait for direct mail services to deliver your tickets just a few days before an event.