The pair had previously discussed the possibility of taking the stage together after the death of keyboardist Ray Manzarek brought them together earlier this year. They hadn't been on speaking terms for nearly a decade following the launch of a spate of lawsuits.

Krieger and Densmore appeared side-by-side on December 5 to mark what would have been frontman Morrison's 70th birthday. They were only expected to take part in a question-and-answer session, but they surprised and delighted the audience at the Los Angeles County Museum Of Art by playing a set including People Are Strange and Love Me Two Times.

Metallica set a world record on December 8, 2013 by becoming the first and only band in history to perform concerts on all seven continents in under a year.

"This was the most unique show Metallica has ever done," posted the group. "The band, contest winners, research station scientists (from Russia, South Korea, China, Poland, Chile, Brazil and Germany), and the ship crew, all crammed in this little dome out on the helipad of Carlini Station in Antarctica! The energy in the little dome was amazing! Words cannot describe how happy everyone was."

The news emerges almost exactly a year after he told fans he was "pulling the plug" in 2013. And last week he reiterated via Facebook: "For anyone who doesn't already know, I am retiring. But there are still have a bunch of shows to do that could not physically be placed into 2013."

But in a video interview with Metal Force, Di'Anno says: "It's not an actual retirement retirement. All I'm doing is retiring the Iron Maiden sh*t. I'm sick of it. I'm f**king done, mate.

Muffs member Shattuck last week reported: "Super disappointed to learn that my time with the Pixies ended today. Amazing experience." While the band haven't commented on her departure, they say of Lenchantin's arrival: "Joining the Pixies as touring bassist for the North American, South American and European summer concerts will be Paz Lenchantin (A Perfect Circle, ZWAN, The Entrance Band).

"We are really looking forward to playing with her on these dates. Working with different bass players is very new for the band, but we're having a great time doing it."

"Full on flu," explained Wyndorf to fans in the announcement. "Voice-killer, gig-destroyer... I'm so sorry. I hate it more than anybody. We'll make it up, I swear."

"We are all totally bummed the rest of the tour is cancelled," added guitarist Phil Caivano. "Dave is really sick. We were trying to go day to day, only for him to get worse. I'd like to thank everyone who came out and all of you who planned to. No one is more bummed then us. We will be back."

Alter Bridge recently wrapped up a headlining tour of Europe in support of their new album, "Fortress." The record debuted at No. 12 on the US Billboard 200 chart following first week sales of 30,000.

It was recorded at Rottweill, Germany in May 2011 during their brief tour of the country, on which he was accompanied by Maggie Bell, Zoot Money, Miller Anderson, Colin Hodgkinson and Pete York.

His management explain on his official website: "Jon Lord Blues Project fulfilled Jon's desire to branch out from his orchestral world and focus on the Hammond organ through a series of club gigs across Central Europe."

Coverdale � the so-called "singing salesman from Redcar" who was plucked from obscurity to replace Ian Gillan � made his stage debut with Mk III line-up of Purple 40 years ago today, on December 9, 1973.

The singer has posted the following message on the Whitesnake website: " It was 40 years ago this very day, December 9, 1973, when I had the indescribable honour of walking on stage with the extraordinary talents of Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Ian Paice and Glenn Hughes at the KB Hallen in Copenhagen, Denmark for the very first time.

"The Burn album had yet to be released, but it showed the balls of the guys in the band to go out and play brand-new, unheard songs to a rapturous Danish audience. An unforgettable experience for me."

The songwriters continue to rake it in from royalties, with over �500,000 already earned during 2013. The Pogues' Fairytale Of New York is the second-biggest grossing seasonal single of the year, with Mariah Carey in third place.

Frontman M Shadows explains: "The animated series is funny stuff � we hope it gives you something entertaining to watch over your holiday break. We felt this was the best way to tell the story and give you an idea about the type of game we're creating.

"We didn't feel passionate about doing a full-on typical music game. We wanted to do something differen so we came up with the idea of turning some of our songs and art work into a living, breathing, evil world. We wanted to bring the story of the Deathbat to life and allow you to control its destiny."

Let It Rawk celebrates Los Angeles' legendary Sunset Strip in its 80s rock glory days via a new multi-media show. They'll play the music of such hair-band legends as RATT, Motley Crue, W.A.S.P, Dokken, Stryper, Guns N' Roses, Black N Blue, L.A. Guns, Bon Jovi and Warrant.

The band, which formed in early 2012 and recently played a Lou Reed tribute at New York's Sidewalk Cafe, has taken a few of the more well known tracks like "Stephanie Says" and made them sound a lot more delicious. That one in particular is now called "Papa John Says," which is about getting stuck with a mushroom pizza even though you specifically said no mushrooms.

The Nico led "These Days" has been turned into "Cheese Days," while "Femme Fatale" has been transformed into "Pizza Gal," a song about a girl who will eat you out of house and home: "Better hide your slice. She'll eat it all so you have none. It's no fun."

They've even given a few of Lou Reed's solo tracks the pizza treatment. Reed's song "Perfect Day" is now "Pizza Day" while "Walk on the Wild Side"has been turned into "Take a Bite of the Wild Slice," complete with a mention of Pizza Hut's cheese-filled crust and a kazoo solo by Macaulay himself.

Cornell will play his song "Misery Chain", which appears on "Music From And Inspired By 12 Years A Slave", the soundtrack to the new pre-Civil War film based on the true story of Solomon Northrup.

Festival founder George Wein tells the BBC: "He changed the structure of folk music. The minute he went electrics all these young people said, 'Bobby's going electric � we're going electric too.'"

It's the London-based Kiwis' second full-length record, which has been available in New Zealand and Australia for some time. It follows their debut album Expand/Contract and two EPs, all launched before the four-piece relocated to England in 2008.

We've described their work as "a hip-shaking groove that melts into moreish vocals" but you can decide for yourself � and you can also grab a free download of their track Made Of Gold as part of Incendia Management's Christmas compilation.

He backed a host of big name musicians during his career, including B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and David 'Honeyboy' Edwards. Michael Frank, boss of his label Earwig, tells the Chicago Tribune: "Aaron was a serious two-handed player with a strong left hand. A lot of blues piano players are good on the right hand; not too many are navy on bass. He was a master at that. He was a great boogie-woogie player and a real strong singer too."

He'd been born in 1918 on a Mississippi plantation and learned piano from his mother. In 1951 he moved to Chicago and his first gig was with pianist Roosevelt Sykes, who became his mentor.

It had previously seemed likely that the band would never be seen again in Britain following the cancellation of shows in August as a result of guitarist Poncho Sampedro breaking his hand.

He later played with Elmore James and continued to release tracks, with Stoop Down Baby receiving acclaim but little airplay due to its sexually explicit lyrics.

Frontman Roye Albrighton says: "We can promise high-quality performances wherever we play. I know I speak on behalf of the band when I say we're all looking forward to it."

But Clemons is also forging his own musical path: on his downtime from the E Street Band, he began work on his debut EP, Embracing Light, released earlier this month. The singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist tells Radio.com that he started working on his own music in 2010, but had to put his own project on hold when E Street came calling.

"Picking up again with my band this year was really exciting, we hadn't been together for two years," Clemons said. "I had been recording songs in hotels all over the world and sending them back to the guys in the states."

Despite being the nephew of a legend, his career in rock and roll was far from a guaranteed thing. Though Clarence was a legend, Jake's musician father actually frowned on rock music in a big way.

"My father, being in the Marine Corp Band, so I was into [marching] band music," he explained. "John Philip Sousa, that was my first introduction to music. Classical music was what we'd listen to in the car a lot, and then gospel � Shirley Caesar and Andra� Crouch. We weren't allowed to listen to rock and roll. I was taught as a young person that it was noise, and it was bad. My first experience with rock and roll was [going to see the] E Street. Seeing that as an 8-year-old, it blew my mind, I remember it being really loud, I had never been exposed to distorted guitars before. The communal experience of it was what really blew my mind. That's what stuck with me."

A few years later came another revelation, courtesy of another family member. "He [my brother] is seven years older than me, and I was in his car and he was blasting [Nirvana's] Nevermind over and over again, and I decided that I needed to find some value in this," Clemons explained. "And I found that thing, and by the time I got out of the car, I was in love with that record. Hearing Kurt Cobain sing was the realest thing you could hear. That just opened up my world completely. Even my understanding of how to enjoy music, I would go out of my way to find things that I didn't love initially, because people like it! Somebody likes it! What is it that they're really finding? The '90s, for sure, was a really big influence on me. It was my first love for rock music."

But it was another vocalist who convinced Clemons that he, too, could get on the mic. "I didn't become a singer until I heard Glen Hansard in the movie Once," he said. "That blew my mind. Glen Hansard has an amazing voice, it's an expression of: 'I'm going to be vulnerable and honest and this is real.' That's also what stuck with me about Kurt Cobain."

In a bit of cosmic coincidence, it was one of Cobain's bandmates who gave Jake the encouragement he needed to stick with songwriting. Shortly after he began writing songs, singing and playing guitar, he was performing some of his originals at a wedding that Dave Grohl happened to be attending. "He heard me play a few of my songs, and came and approached me afterwards and said, 'You're a great songwriter.' That changed my whole world."

As if his personal rock history could go more full circle, it was yet another Seattle legend � alongside Hansard � that helped Clemons get through his darkest hour.

Plant appeared at the famed festival alongside Ali Farka Toure, Tinariwen and many others. The latest episode opens with Plant and band playing "Win My Train Fare Home", before sharing footage of some of the other performers.

The two-hour show was recorded in May at the Salamandra 2 club in Barcelona. The band say: "This was such a great little gig � there were only about 200 people there but they knew how to make a band rock their pants off.

"The recording came out quite nice, but essentially it's a bootleg. We hope we always sound this good�"

From Australia and launched in 2011, Motorhead Shiraz has a very fruity aroma with flavours of vanilla, blackberries, plums, eucalyptus and liquorice. It is full-bodied with soft rounded tannins and packs a real punch.

"The wine reflects Motorhead's spirit," says drummer Mikkey Dee. "Like the band, this wine is rock hard on the outside, but dark and intriguing on the inside."

"Crash & Burn" first came about as an idea for a pre-chorus. We were on tour and Nate was taking a driving shift. I was itching to write, so I grabbed a guitar and played in the passenger seat. Then together we came up with the chords, vocal melody, and lyrics for that section, which was only a couple of lines.

Fast forward to a few months later and we had just decided to write and record a full length album. We have been through a lot of ups and downs as a band, so when we all got together and wrote the album (with producer Jon King), the rest of the words just kind of blurted out.

It was an interesting song to write, we would tackle a few lines, get completely stuck and have to move on to another song. The last day of writing, after almost giving up completely, we remembered how happy we were with the pre-chorus and decided to spend as long as it took to finish the song. It ended up being one of the strongest songs on our record and my personal favorite to perform.

Pre-chorus: "You had me right where you wanted me. Thought you knew me better, better than I ever"

It talks little about how we had felt betrayed at times as a band and the trials we overcome almost daily. Ultimately we wanted to express how deeply determined we are. We won't let anyone or anything stand in our way.

"Watch and learn, you're gonna crash and burn when you hit the bottom"