Their six-storey mansion in East Sussex is midway through extensive renovations, during which builders discovered a 150cm pipe-shaped device which caused alarm.

The event marked the first time the band had played the city in more than a dozen years, and acted as a warm up show to the group's upcoming headline appearance at Download next month.

Music retailer HMV ran the poll to mark the Queen's diamond jubilee and Maiden's loyal followers came out in droves, securing more than nine percent of the entire vote. Around 55,000 people made their choice from 60 albums online.

A special performance of his 2008 release, "Durham Concerto," is set for July 6 in Hagen, Germany.

Astbury first appeared with original members Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger in 2002 and performed over 150 shows with them. For legal reasons the outfit has been variously known as The Doors of the 21st Century, D21C and Manzarek-Krieger.

In a forthcoming Guitar World interview Slash admits that he enjoys "just putting together guitar ideas on my own." He also says, "I try not to overwork it. I'll come up with two or three parts, and that's it. Then I like to bounce things off other guys and see what they can come up with."

Of the just-released Apocalyptic Love album, Slash adds. "Myles could do whatever he wanted when he was writing his parts. And sometimes that even changed my parts. For instance, there's a song on the new album called 'No More Heroes' that is a classic example of a 50/50 kind of collaboration between us, where I had a riff and a whole arrangement that I put together, but it was all still open to interpretation.

The prog giants hired Benoit David in 2008 after Anderson suffered a near-fatal respiratory condition. The frontman insists they didn't tell him he'd been dismissed.

A few days after the announcement, singer David Lee Roth explained the situation, saying "As usual, we bit off way more than we can chew when it came to scheduling. The band is winning, but our schedule has been sidelined for unnecessary roughness. If we continue past July 4th and all the way into Australia and Japan, then we're asking for the robot zombie tour."

"We're gonna take a break because this tour is gonna take us about two years," added Roth.

"The band is getting along famously, better than we have in quite some time, and I think the shows reveal that through the miracle of YouTube," Roth said. "I think we're one of the few bands who relishes you bringing whatever camera � if you can carry it in and pull the trigger on it yourself, then please do. And through the eye of YouTube, you can see that we're having ourselves a hell of a time, and I think that translates into the music."

The pop-rock giants announced in 2010 that Carlos would no longer be their touring drummer, and replaced him with guitarist Rick Nielsen's son Daxx.But the sticksman hopes they can rebuild their relationship at some point in the future � despite believing they'll never make an album to follow 2009 release The Latest.

"I don't see a next Cheap Trick record, really. I haven't heard any new songs from the songwriters in ten years," Carlos tells PunkGlobe. "Every album we do, we get the tapes out and find out if we have enough for a record. We made The Latest the same way we make every record � but there weren't very many brand-new songs laid out."

Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson was asked by Metal Express Radio if this was the plan when he first started discussing musical ideas with bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee. "I don't know, really. I'm never sure what the plan is," said Alex. "We sort of start on the day and it takes its shape and we kind of go with it. I think probably with this record, we really wanted to play and wanted to stretch out a little bit. We wanted to have fun playing and also to strip things down a little. I think 'Snakes & Arrows', in retrospect, was a little bit dense, because it was written on acoustic guitar, which played a major role in the production. We layered a lot of acoustics and electrics and I think we got just a little cloudy at times. I really like the record, but with hindsight of living with it for a while, we realized that we kind of overcooked it a bit."

The British national anthem was also a "de facto" anthem for the United States before the adoption of "The Star Spangled Banner." But as a Canadian, Young is still a member of the British Commonwealth.

"Written in the 18th century with possible melodic roots in the 17th century, this anthem has been sung throughout the British Commonwealth and may have been sung in North America before the American Revolution and Declaration of Independence in 1776, which rejected British sovereignty," Young notes of the song's pedigree.

Mars co-wrote "Boss's Daughter," the new single from Michigan hard rockers Pop Evil; the track appears on the group's 2011 release, "War Of Angels."

The metal icons headlined the opening night of this year's festival, with 250,000 people expected during the five-day event.

Other headliners include Smashing Pumpkins (May 26), Lenny Kravitz (Jun 1), Stevie Wonder (Jun 2) and Bruce Springsteen (Jun 3).

The group's first album in five years, it debuted at #1 back in October, after selling 127,000 copies in its first week.

LP kick off a North American tour on August 11 in Bristow, VA; in the meantime, they are out playing the European festival circuit, and fired things up with an appearance at Rock In Rio in Lisbon on Saturday.

Along with singer Myles Kennedy, Slash took part in an acoustic performance in the studios of SiriusXM satellite radio last week in front of 20 lucky listeners.

On Friday, the Atlanta band played the opening night of the Rock In Rio festival in Lisbon, Portugal on a bill headlined by Metallica.

Footage of the performance was filmed by Darren Parker, who has proclaimed himself one of Nuno's biggest fans. The band and fans know him as NunoFreak.

Darren has an inoperable brain tumor, rendering him unable to work as his medical bills are mounting.

Giant music festivals have a way of being remembered for a lot of things besides music. Woodstock was about the hippies, Altamont was about the Hell's Angels and the US Festival became known for losing a ton of money for Apple Computer founder Steve Wozniak.

In 1982, Wozniak had paid to bulldoze a site and then construct an open-air music venue near Devore in southern California. His idea was to hold a three-day festival that would feature top music acts on the big stage, but also the latest in computers and technology in an air-conditioned tent. The first US Festival took place on Labor Day weekend of 1982, but it wasn't a big success. Despite landing top acts like Fleetwood Mac, The Police and Tom Petty, 110-degree heat and other factors kept many people away and the enterprise lost Wozniak an estimated $12 million.

Undeterred, Wozniak planned to have a second US Festival the following Memorial Day, which began on this day in 1983. This time, it was a four-day fest (with the last day taking place the following Saturday) and each day revolved around a loose theme. So, Saturday was "New Wave Day" with The Clash, Men at Work and the Stray Cats; Sunday was "Heavy Metal Day" with Van Halen, Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne; Monday was "Rock Day" with David Bowie, The Pretenders and U2 and the following Saturday was "Country Day" with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Jr.

Unfortunately, for Wozniak, the second installment didn't improve much on the first. For one thing, the weather was even hotter (115-degree highs) and the bands demanded more money up front. Van Halen agreed to play the festival for $1 million� until they found out David Bowie was getting the same amount. Because there was a clause in their contract that specified they were to be paid more than any act at any festival they played, Van Halen earned $1.5 million for their US Festival appearance.

On the other hand, the members of The Clash were upset by what their perceived as the crass commerciality of the event. They demanded that Wozniak and some of the other big-ticket bands donate a portion of fees to charity groups.

It's not clear if this position or something else caused a backstage argument between The Clash's and Van Halen's respective frontmen, Joe Strummer and David Lee Roth. Some have said the altercation arose from a quote Eddie Van Halen had given to Rolling Stone magazine about The Clash's music ("that's like what I played in my garage when I was a kid, man"). Regardless, the next day, Roth went on to insult the band's drinking habits during Van Halen's performance.

In contrast to perceptions, the Van Halen-headlining day (or "Heavy Metal Day") was a pretty big success, if taken on its own merits. The day, which also featured Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot, M�tley Cr�e and more, set the record for single-day concert attendance (375,000). Cr�e singer Vince Neil would later claim, "It was the day new wave died and rock 'n' roll took over."

But Wozniak probably wouldn't share Neil's happy assessment of the event. Reportedly, it lost him another $12 million and put an end to any future US Festivals � although the site is now home to San Manuel Amphitheater. Many Clash fans will recall the event as featuring the last-ever appearance of guitarist Mick Jones as a member of the band.