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Day in Rock Report for 03/18/2015


Stone Temple Pilots Settle With Scott Weiland

Stone Temple Pilots appear to have settled their legal issues with their former frontman Scott Weiland and have now reverted to using their original name without appending "with Chester Bennington."

The Linkin Park and new STP frontman spoke about the resolution of the legal issues in an interview with AltWire. "We can't wait to get out and perform again, and you know, it'll be fun to go out as just Stone Temple Pilots [laughs]. That's exciting, because it really bothered me to see Stone Temple Pilots with Chester Bennington. So I'm glad that's gone and glad that that's over."

Bennington also discussed how the new album Stone Temple Pilots are currently working on will sound different from their 2013 High Rise EP. "I think it's a lot different. I really don't like talking about music that people aren't hearing because it's hard to describe what the music sounds like, but it's super energetic. The riffs are really cool and the playing has been really insane."

He adds, "So, I think there's going to be a lot of our STP fans out there that are super happy. Every guitar player in the world is going to want to learn how to play these riffs, whether it's guitar or bass. Eric has done amazing too. Really it's now coming down to making great melodies and coming up with some good lyrics."

Read the full interview here.

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KISS Slammed By Twisted Sister's Dee Snider

(hennemusic) Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider is slamming KISS for its reuse of original makeup by non-original band members Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer.

Thayer dresses in original lead guitarist Ace Frehley's makeup and stage outfits while Singer does the same with original drummer Peter Criss' gear, while each perform songs by their original counterparts.

"I don't see how people could accept this," Snider tells Eddie Trunk. "Tommy Thayer? I'm sorry. It's insulting. Not only did he play with a tribute band of Kiss, he's imitating Ace in his entire act!"

Snider takes particular exception to Thayer performing Frehley's track, "Shock Me", from 1977's "Love Gun." "Oh, my God, that's disgraceful," adds the singer. "When Kiss replaced Ace and Peter, and they brought in guys (drummer Eric Carr and guitarist Vinnie Vincent) who had their own makeup and their own thing, that was acceptable. That was awesome. They were their own characters."

The pair discussed the difference between longtime fans who care to differentiate between the men behind the makeup and those who simply want to see the KISS live experience regardless of which musicians are involved.

"My theory is, they forgave Kiss for 'I Was Made for Loving You,' and anything is acceptable after that," says Snider. "It was a disco song, people! It's not okay! It was never okay, and they're playing it live now. Unbelievable. They play 'I Was Made for Loving You,' a fricking disco song!"

Last fall, frontman Paul Stanley defended the use of original makeup by Thayer and Singer. Read what he had to say and listen to the Dee Snider interview here.

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The Offspring Create Fight Club For Clowns

(Radio.com) So, a mime breaks up a fight club for clowns. No, really, that's what happens in The Offspring's twisted video for their latest single "Coming for You." The song, is the first single from their forthcoming 10th album, expected to be released sometime later this year.

"It's pretty hard to resist when somebody suggests an idea like Fight Club, but with clowns!," frontman Dexter Holland told Mashable of the video's inception. According to Holland, the concept was dreamed up by director Josh Forbes. "He was a very collaborative guy and we got to work on it together, but really, nearly all of it came out of his head."

And it's not just clowns fighting clowns. There are Juggalos fighting Juggalos, gallons of blood spilled, disembowelment, beheadings and shots fired--it's a whole lotta clown-on-clown crime.

But in the end, it's a mime who turns the tables on the blood-thirsty pranksters, or so he thinks. Watch it here.

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Free's Andy Fraser Dead at 62

(Classic Rock) Free bassist Andy Fraser has died at the age of 62, it's been confirmed.He passed away on Monday morning. His cause of death has not been confirmed, but he'd been dealing with AIDS and cancer in recent years.

An official statement says: "Andrew McLan Fraser passed away on Monday at his home in California. He leaves behind his daughters Hannah and Jasmine Fraser, and their mother Ri, his sister Gail, brothers Gavin and Alex, and many friends and associates in the industry.

"A survivor of both cancer and AIDS, Andy was a strong social activist and defender of individual human rights." Fraser was born in London in 1952 and was a founding member of Free at the age of just 15. As well as his work with Free, he had success with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and Sharks. Read more here.

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Gregg Allman and the Doobie Brothers Announce Tour

Gregg Allman and the Doobie Brothers have announced that they will be teaming up for a short coheadlining tour that will take place in late summer in a handful of cities in the United States.

The tour will be kicking off on August 19th at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion in Boston, MA and wrapping up on September 4th at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY.

The tour will include seven stops in all in cities across the eastern U.S. with stops in New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey and North Carolina.

Gregg Allman had this to say about the tour, "I've loved The Doobie Brothers since I can remember. Those guys can play! And I love their songs -- so many classics. I'm honored to tour with my old pals. We always have a good ol' time."

The Doobie Brothers' Tom Johnston says, "We've played shows with Gregg and The Allman Brothers over the years, starting in 1974. It's always been something I've looked forward to and enjoyed for the high energy and soulful experience that it is!"

Patrick Simmons adds, "Gregg Allman is a national treasure, and it's such a pleasure to be doing shows with one of our oldest friends. Not only is Gregg one of the finest musicians you could ever hope to hear, he is also one of the nicest people I know. His music, as well as ours, was born out of that great blues tradition, so I think this show is going to be a treat for you blues freaks! We're so looking forward to these gigs, and I know there's bound to be some jammin' going on at some point." See the tour dates here.

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The Devil Wears Prada Lose Founding Member

The Devil Wears Prada have announced that they have amicably parted ways with founding lead guitarist Chris Rubey who left the group to spend more time with his family.

The band released the following, "At the end of October, upon completing our run of shows in Mexico, Chris decided that it was time to stay home and be with his wife and daughter. While losing a founding member might seem to be a bumpy transition to announce, we find ourselves terrifically proud and enthused to continue moving forward with touring and writing new material.

"The upcoming Space EP is a testament to what we're capable of and the always truthful fact that TDWP is a collective collaboration rather than any single member or component. We're happy to say that parting ways with Chris couldn't have been more amicable: we understand and wish him the very best at being with his family.

"In the meantime, our good friend Kyle is playing with us: a fine gentleman and an excellent guitarist who helped out tremendously in the making of Space EP. The Zombie 5 Tour is off to a fantastic start, and we look forward to seeing all of you at an upcoming show."

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Linkin Park Release Video Of Chester Bennington's Accident

(TeamRock Radio) Linkin Park have released video of the moment frontman Chester Bennington broke his ankle. The band were forced to call off a run of shows in January after the incident, which took place while he and colleagues were playing basketball.

The clip, part of the latest episode of LPTV, shows Bennington on the ground, writing in pain. He explains: "I landed on the bottle. I was in full lay-up, I landed on the water bottle and my ankle turned."

He's treated by a first aider then taken away in a wheelchair with his leg strapped up. Bandmates later reported he was making a fast recovery. Watch the video here.

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Original Molly Hatchet Member Bruce Crump Dead at 57

(Classic Rock) Original Molly Hatchet drummer Bruce Crump has died at the age of 57. No details of the stickman's death have been revealed but the band has released a statement.

The band say: "Condolences are sent from the entire Molly Hatchet organisation to the family of Bruce Crump. Our thoughts and prayers are with them at this time. God Bless."

Memphis-born Crump played on Molly Hatchet's biggest albums, including the self-titled 1978 debut and the following year's Flirtin' With Disaster. He had two spells with the group, first leaving in 1982 before returning from 1984 to 1990 when he left for the final time.

He recently joined the band China Sky, with whom he recorded this year's comeback album China Sky II. China Sky say: "This sudden tragedy is like a kick to the gut. We could not have lost a more truly decent human being than Bruce. Our hearts go out to his wife Kristen, his mom, children, and family." Read more here.

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Phil Anselmo Teams With Horror Movie Actor For New Mini-Album

(TeamRock Radio) Down and former Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo teamed up with Bill Moseley, the star of The Genetic Opera and House Of 1000 Corpses, on the collaboration called Phil And Bill: Songs Of Death And Despair.

Moseley tells Little Punk People: "The music that I made with Phil Anselmo, we're gonna put out like a mini-CD. We did four songs in three days. That ought to be another cheerful, cheerful, addition to the music world."

Moseley has previously worked on music with former Guns n' Roses guitarist Buckethead in the band Cornbugs. The mini-album format fits with Anselmo's recent output with Down - he said last year that the band would never make another full-length album. The vocalist has also been busy with his reunited band Superjoint Ritual, who will appear at this summer's Hellfest in France. Check out the video interview here.

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Gov't Mule Giving Away Song Download

(The Blues Warren Haynes continues his bid to have audiences think of Gov't Mule in new ways and the latest effort includes a free download of their track Reggae Soulshine.

It was recorded in 2006 and appears on Dub Side Of The Mule, a companion to recent titles Dark Side Of The Mule and Stoned Side Of The Mule, which saw them covering Pink Floyd and Rolling Stones tracks respectively.

Haynes recently said: "Each song on our 2013 album Shout! has its own personality - it sounds like Gov't Mule but doesn't sound like anything we'd ever done. These archive releases further that concept. They allow us to highlight some of our influences as well as how far we've come since the first album."

Dub Side - which features Toots Hibbert of Toots And The Maytals - is released on April 6 via Mascot Label Group and it's available for pre-order now in 3CD+DVD, standard CD and double-vinyl editions. Read more and download the track here.

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Eric Clapton's Forever Man Set For Release

A new Eric Clapton retrospective collection called "Forever Man" will be released in various formats ahead of his of planned 70th birthday concerts this spring.

Reprise Records will be releasing "Forever Man" on April 28th in various formats including 3 disc CD package, a double CD package, a 2-LP vinyl set and digitally.

The 3-disc set will include 51 tracks and feature material from Clapton's years at Reprise that spans three decades including studio tracks on one disc, live tracks on a second disc and a special blues themed disc.

The 2-disc collection will feature studio track collection on one disc and the blues themed tracks on the second disc and the vinyl collection will feature the studio tracks.

As we reported last week, Clapton will turn 70 on March 30th and he announced that he will be celebrating with fans with two concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City on May 1st and 2nd. See the tracklistings here.

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Megadeth Avoiding KISS Like Reunion

(TeamRock Radio) David Ellefson has cited Kiss as an illustration of why a classic Megadeth lineup reunion probably wouldn't work. He believes the glam icons' 1990s return to makeup was fun, but lacked musical creativity - and Dave Mustaine's band might face the same problem.

Megadeth haven't yet confirmed who'll replace Chris Broderick and Shawn Drover, who quit last year. Several former members have been the subject of rumors, but the suggestions are that Lamb Of God drummer Chris Adler and Angra guitarist Kiko Loureiro could be in the frame.

Ellefson tells Blood, Sweat And Metal: "Me and Marty Friedman were second row at the Kiss reunion in 1996 in Phoenix, Arizona. We were there as friends, as bandmates, watching our favourite band put the makeup back on.

"There's part of me that said, 'Lose yourself in the fantasy of being 14 years old all over again.' And I did. Then there's the other part of me that went, 'But they're all in their 40s and this is just a recreation.

"'There's nothing new being created here - this is just a recreation of past stuff.'" The bassist thinks the same might apply to Megadeth. The bassist thinks the same might apply to Megadeth. "We can other go back and create past glory days, which would probably sell a lot of tickets and make a lot of money," he reflects.

"But Megadeth has never been about that, ever. It's about creating the next chapter in our story. That really is the page-turner right now." Check out the full interview here.

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Tremonti Announce Release Of New Album 'Cauterize'

(hennemusic) Tremonti, the band led by Alter Bridge/Creed guitarist Mark Tremonti and featuring Wolfgang Van Halen- have confirmed their second album, "Cauterize", will be released on June 9.

The follow-up to 2012's "All I Was" was produced by Michael "Elvis" Baskette (Alter Bridge, Slash). Tremonti hits the road for a spring US tour starting April 25 in Orlando, Florida.

In the meantime, the band have issued an advance listen to the track "Flying Monkeys" following recent previews of several songs from the project. Check out the song preview here.

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The Kinks Dave Davies' Challenges Ray's Account Of 'You Really Got Me'

(Radio.com) The legendary British band the Kinks have not played together in nearly two decades, although principal members Ray Davies and his brother Dave Davies have talked about why they won't reunite, or why they might reunite, often.

One thing that seems to be a sticking point between the brothers: who came up with the tone in the Kinks classic "You Really Got Me." In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Ray mentioned the oft-told story that he stuck knitting needles into Dave's guitar amp, which he says helped to create the jagged tone on that song.

But in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, a letter from Dave was published in the "Correspondence: Love Letters and Advice" section. "I'd like to correct my brother Ray's statement about the guitar on 'You Really Got Me," he wrote. "I alone created the guitar sound for the song with my Elipco amp that I bought. I slashed the speaker with a razor blade, which resulted in the 'You Really Got Me' tone. There were no knitting needles used in making my guitar sound."

In a recent interview with Radio.com, Dave Davies spoke about his relationship with his brother: "Ray and I, we obviously love each other very, very much. We can't not love each other. Our personalities are so different. I think that we've always needed each other, and both resented that we do. 'I'm on me own!' But you think about the work in the early days, 'You Really Got Me,' the great body of work that we're fortunate to be involved with, you realize the power we had--or have--when we're working together." Read more here.

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Ozzy Osbourne Biographic Comic Book Set For Release

(hennemusic) Ozzy Osbourne is getting the comic book treatment with this week's release of "The Metal Madman", a new biography by Bluewater Productions. Written by Michael L. Frizell and Jayfri Hashim with art by Hashim and a cover by famed horror artist Stefano Cardoselli, the bio - available in both print and digital editions - traces Ozzy's history from Black Sabbath to solo superstardom.

"Ozzy's legacy is well-known," said Frizell. "A lot of research went into creating the script. One misstep, and the fans will know! Jayfri and I wanted to respect that legend - and the fans - by giving them something both familiar and unexpected.

"Writing about real people is often difficult, and when it's someone like Ozzy who's made himself tough to define and is a mainstay in the tabloids, we are challenged to find new ways to tell that well-known story." Read more here.

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Gallows Release Short Film About Their Forthcoming Album

(TeamRock Radio) Gallows have released a short film about their fourth album Desolation Sounds. The band release Desolation Sounds on April 13 via Play It Again Sam and Part One of a documentary has been issued, in which Gallows discuss the making of the record.

In May, they play headline shows in Glasgow, London and Manchester with support from Baby Godzilla. They are also set to appear at the Slam Dunk Festival in Leeds, Hatfield and Wolverhampton.

Desolation Sounds is named after an expanse of water in frontman Wade MacNeil's native Canada. It features 10 songs and runs for 36 minutes.

Guitarist Laurent Barnard says: "It's the record I've dreamt about making. I think the album sounds really fearless. It's the sound of a band that's comfortable with playing music together, rather than trying to fit into a certain scene or zeitgeist or any preconceived notion of what the band should be.

"We just ignored the outside music world and made an album that felt good in our guts." Watch the video here.

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Metalocalypse Was Cancelled By Adult Swim

(TeamRock Radio) The future of animated series Metalocalypse is in doubt after its creator revealed TV bosses passed on airing a fifth season. Metalocalypse centers on fictional death metal band Dethklok and the news of the show's demise led to a petition from fans calling for it to be saved.

Brendon Small says via Twitter that the show - which was aired on the Adult Swim channel - would not return for a fifth season, which he intended to be the finale.

Small says: "For those complaining about lack of season 5. Was a network decision - I wanted to do it as a final big mini series. They said no. True story." Read more here.

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Trail Of Dead Release 'Lie Without A Liar' Video

(Prog) ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead have launched a video for their track "Lie Without A Liar." It's taken from last year's album IX, released via Superball Music.

Guitarist and drummer Jamie Miller, the most recent addition to the Texan outfit's lineup, says: "'Lie Without a Liar is the first song I wrote and sang as a member of the band, and my brothers felt strong enough about it to release it as a single.

"Playing it at all the great festivals we're invited to is a personal milestone - it's gonna be a fun summer!" Trail Of Dead appear the Marble Factory, Bristol on May 28 then the Camden Rocks festival on May 30. The shows are part of a wider US and Europe tour. Watch the video here.

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Korn's Brian 'Head' Welch Discusses Band's New Music Plans

(TeamRock Radio) Korn guitarist Brian 'Head' Welch wants to write the band's 12th album with live audiences in mind. He says that's the way they used to work - and revisiting their debut release on stage recently has turned his thoughts back to those early days.

The focus on performance echoes recent comments by bandmate Munky, who suggested the possibility of delivering DJ-style sets featuring sections of songs instead of full ones.

Head tells Puregrain Audio: "We're talking at the moment about taking a couple of months off and going in straight away as it will probably take the rest of the year for us to do the album."

Asked whether revisiting their self-titled 1994 debut has affected their thinking on material, the guitarist replies: "I'm hoping. We won't go back and do that record again, obviously - but I was telling Jonathan Davis that I wanted to do some more faster-tempo stuff again.

"When Korn wrote songs we'd think about the live show. You can write good songs all day long, but if they're not fun live then you're stuck playing them for years." Read more here.

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Paramore's Hayley Williams Starting Her Own Business

(TeamRock Radio) Paramore's Hayley Williams says she's not sure what's up next for the band - but she has big plans outside of the music world. The singer is to launch her own hair dye company, and she's planning her wedding to New Found Glory lead guitarist Chad Gilbert.

In a blog on the Paramore website, Williams She says, "I've had enough free time since Monumentour to work on a couple of other projects, One being an entire business that I'm starting from the ground up - my own hair dye line.

"As soon as I know with 100% certainty that it's okay to talk about publicly in detail, then you can bet I'll be screaming it from the top of internet mountain.

"Did I leave anything out? I didn't talk much about wedding planning did I? I'm pinching myself in between pulling my faded and frizzy orange hair out. It's amazing." Read more here.

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Rush Juno Awards Video Montage Goes Online

(hennemusic) Rush were honored with the 2015 Allan Waters Humanitarian Award as part of Canada's Juno Awards last weekend, and producers are sharing video of the band's introductory montage from the event.

The honor recognizes outstanding Canadian artists whose contributions have positively enhanced the social fabric of Canada. Bassist Geddy Lee was on hand to accept the honor on the band's behalf.

"We are sincerely grateful to be recognized as this year's recipients of the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award," said the band. "We are proud, honoured and humbled to be in the company of all Canadians who find it within their hearts to help those in need."

Over the course of their 40-year career, the members of Rush have supported a wide variety of causes - the Toronto Food Bank, United Way, amFAR, Doctors Without Border, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Kidney Foundation Of Canada, Little Kids Rock, Grapes For Humanity Canada, the Chilean Red Cross and Alberta Flood Relief, among others.

Watch the video here.

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Grateful Dead Memorabilia And Rarities To Be Auctioned

(Classic Rock) Grateful Dead memorabilia and rarities including Jerry Garcia's gun and some of the group's original handwritten lyrics is being put up for auction next month.

The private collection of items owned by friends and former employees of the band will go under the hammer at Donley Auction Services in Union, Illinois, on April 11 and 12.

The late Garcia's colt .25 pistol and original lyrics for Fire On The Mountain and He's Gone are included in the Grateful Dead Family Jubilee Auction, alongside a kitchen table from the band's office in San Rafael, California, and original Rick Griffin and Stanley Mouse artwork. Read more here.

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Def Leppard's Joe Elliott Talks Thin Lizzy

(Radio.com) For years the band had been building to this moment, piece by piece, guitarist by guitarist. Then in 1976, Thin Lizzy released Jailbreak and changed the world.

It is without hyperbole one of the Top 10 greatest rock albums of all time that shows a band playing at its absolute peak in both artistry and craft. Jailbreak is deceptively simple, wholly personal, and of course, full of melodies from those twin-lead guitars.

Before he would go on to front one of the largest bands of the '80s, before Jailbreak even came out, Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott was a scrappy kid from Sheffield, England, who was excited at the possibility that lay in Lizzy's first hit, "Whiskey in the Jar." It seemed to be a sign of something big on the horizon.

Elliott, and the rest of the world, would have to wait another three years before hearing anything from Lizzy again. But after that, Elliott formed a bond with the band--specifically guitarist Scott Gorham--and since has became intrinsically tied to them.
In 2011, Elliott and Gorham set about to remix Jailbreak, and two other Lizzy albums, 1976's Johnny The Fox and 1978's double live LP, Live and Dangerous, hardening the production to give it bit more edge. They even found an unheard verse from the late Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott on "The Boys Are Back In Town" and reformatted the song.

This is all to say: Elliott and Lizzy are extremely close. In honor of the most famous rock band in Irish history, we spoke to Joe Elliott about his relationship with Thin Lizzy, his favorite song, his favorite album and how Phil Lynott blamed Def Leppard for splitting up the band.

Radio.com: What was your first memory of Thin Lizzy?

Joe Elliott: My first memory of Lizzy was "Whiskey in the Jar," which was kind of a minor hit in the UK back in '73. I remember buying the single on Decca records, and thinking, "Jimi Hendrix look-a-like, nice songs, we'll see where he goes from there" sort of thing because everybody gets excited when they're kids at new music. A band comes along whether it's Bowie or T-Rex or whatever and you're just wondering what's going to happen next. Is it going to be a sustained attack or something? Is it just going to be this one hit? And after that there wasn't anything else for three years, and you kind of forgot all about them. This was me in Sheffield, of course. You talk to somebody in Dublin and they'll be like, "Oh no no no we heard them all the time."

But the next time I heard them was when the next time everybody heard it, which was when "The Boys Are Back In Town" became a huge hit. And a huge hit for a rock band was Top 20 because you were fighting "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" and the likes of. And anything from "Radar Love" by Golden Earring, Thin Lizzy, Argent, "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You" infiltrated Top 40. But with Lizzy, it's almost like the singles are accidental. I don't think they ever set out to be a pop band, it was just something they just drifted into being one. By then I was 16 and I was starting to go to gigs so I saw the classic lineup, not on that particular tour, because I didn't see them until the Johnny The Fox album which would've been '77.

Radio.com: When you formed your own band, did you carry anything over from Lizzy? A sound you liked?

Joe Elliott: Other than the first song we ever learned to play was "Suffragette City," the next song we learned to play was "Rosalie." In front of an audience we regularly did 'Rosalie' and 'Jailbreak' and 'Emerald.' We played those songs with a passion and quite often. It was a big deal for us. I'll never forget the first time [former Def Leppard guitarists] Pete Willis and Steve Clark actually nailed the middle section of 'Emerald' and got it right. It was a big moment, that's when I realized we were actually a good band.

Lizzy were a big influence, listen to our first album you can hear elements of their music in what we were writing. There's a song on our first one called "It Don't Matter" which is Thin Lizzy through and through. The beginning bit of "Lady Strange." The twin-harmony guitars is certainly more Lizzy than it was Wishbone Ash or Allman Brothers. It wasn't just the twin-guitar thing, it was the simplicity of their songs. I mean, God knows what the chord sequence is for 'The Boys Are Back In Town' it's certainly not simple, but "Jailbreak" is moronically simple. I mean that as a compliment. How come nobody had ever written that before, it was staring everybody in the face.

Radio.com: The opening lyric is almost famously bad, too: "Tonight there's going to be a jailbreak/ Somewhere in this town." I would bet that the jailbreak would be at the jail.

Joe Elliott: Yeah, if you're gonna find them, they'd be at the jail. Yeah, that's been knocked out in a lot of sarcastic English magazines over the years. But that's the thing about rock 'n' roll, we don't all have to be Bob Dylan. The thing about Lynott was, he was a bit of a poet. If he was from the phonetic point of view to get the point across: "Tonight there's going to to be a jailbreak somewhere in this town," it just sounds good. If he's doing that with a kind of an Irish brogue sense of humor, I'll follow it.

Radio.com: When did you first hook up with Scott to remix Jailbreak?

Joe Elliott: I first hooked up with Scott in 1980 when we signed to Polygram, through the obvious, "Hey can you get us on the guest list" type situation. And when we got on the guest list their tour manager said, 'Oh there's this young band called Def Leppard' obviously they must've been "Oh yeh yeh yeh yeh yeh I heard about those guys bring them back let's say hi" kind of thing. We met them at the hotel and Scott was the one guy out of the four of them who was like, "Hey you wanna drink? Come on over here, baby!" one of those kind of guys.

I'll never forget when we were mixing the X album in London. We were getting out of the cab and there he was walking down the street and we were like "Scott!" We invite him in to hear the album and he's raving about it, and we were just hanging out and you know about that same time I had started working with a guy called Ricky Warrick, and he's been in a band called The Almighty, and he wanted to do a solo record. So we had Scott come over and I had him doing stuff he was never doing in his life. I was like, 'Scott, if this doesn't work, or if we like it and you don't, we'll put a false name on it. But we need you to play slide guitar and we need you play solos like you were in The Stooges. Just rip the f-king wammy bar off the f-king thing.' He sounded great, he was happy enough then to put his name to it. We stayed in touch ever since. Read more here.

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We Are Harlot Streaming New Song 'Never Turn Back'

(Classic Rock) We Are Harlot have unveiled a stream of their new track "Never Turn Back," which is taken from their self-titled debut album that is out on March 30th.

The band, fronted by former Asking Alexandria vocalist Danny Worsnop and featuring former Sebastian Bach guitarist Jeff George, have previously released two singles: last year's Denial, and Dancing On Nails, which came out in January.

"Never Turn Back was yet another song that started in that original batch of songs that myself, Danny and Bruno worked on back in 2011 when we lived together," says George. "Originally it was called Rainmaker.

"We all love guitar driven rock songs and that's definitely where this one resides. The driving rhythm and that four on the floor bass drum feel is of course a rock n roll staple.

"And we knew we wanted to incorporate some type of live call and response feel to the lyrics so that live we could engage the audience more, and you hear that in the 'Get back-Get Back' segments. This song was definitely created to be a big song live, but once we started recording it, it soon became one of everyone's album favourites as it kicked just as much in the recording."

Check out the song here.

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The Gentle Storm Tease 'Shores of India' Video

(Prog) Arjen Lucassen is seen in a colourful exotic outfit in the video for The Gentle Storm track Shores Of India, to be launched next week. He and collaborator Anneke van Giersbergen both appear in the teaser clip.

It's taken from their album The Diary, which includes a set of tracks recorded twice in "gentle" and "storm" variants. Lucassen said last week in a Prog video premiere:

"I asked the fans on Facebook, 'What would you guys want to hear from me next?'" That led to the concept: "Why don't I split it up - do 10 songs in two completely different versions?"

A stream of Shores Of India (Gentle Version) was launched earlier this month. The Diary is released on March 23 via InsideOut. Watch the teaser video here.

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King Crimson Expand Late Summer UK Tour

(Classic Rock) King Crimson have added three more dates to their UK tour. The latest incarnation of Robert Fripp's outfit bring their Elements Of King Crimson show to Britain at the end of August, featuring Jakko Jakszyk, Mel Collins, Gavin Harrison, Bill Rieflin and Pat Mastelotto.

In addition to their previously-announced appearances they'll play second shows in Salford, Birmingham and Edinburgh. Crimson recently released Live At The Orpheum, recorded during their comeback US tour last year. Fripp confirmed in November that they were working on at least three new studio tracks.

Bassist Levin said in January: "I'm thrilled that King Crimson is back doing stuff, and doubly thrilled that I'm in it. It's on the table, the possibility that we'll come up with some new music - and maybe, eventually, a new album. That would be great." Read more including the dates here.

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Dan Aykroyd Confirms Blues Brothers Record Label Plans

(Classic Rock) Blues Brothers star and genre aficionado Dan Aykroyd has confirmed the launch of a new blues record label that is named after the cult movie characters.

He and Judy Belushi - widow of co-star John - want to nurture new talent with their project, to be distributed by Blue Note Records. Aykroyd tells Billboard:

"The recorded music industry today presents huge challenges, but also great opportunities. We're excited to partner with the master-ear for talent, Don Was, in fulfilling the true 'Mission From God' - to find end develop emerging blues performers.

"That's where American music began. Now it's in the hands of the next generation." Read more here.

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Bill Bailey Announces London Residency

(Prog) Bill Bailey has announced a 22-date London West End residency starting in December. The comedian and prog stalwart's Limboland show will run at The Vaudeville Theatre, the Strand, from December 14 to January 10, excluding December 17, 21, 24 and 25 and January 1 and 4.

Bailey says the show's subject is "the gap between how we imagine our lives to be and how they really are." It includes stories about his travels around the world, including a disastrous trip to Norway to see the Northern Lights and other experiences that demonstrate how the world "doesn't match up to our expectations."

Musical elements include Bailey's take on the classic protest song, a country ballad played on a Bible, and a "fabulously downbeat" version of Happy Birthday. Read more here.

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