Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Rock News Update for Wednesday November 7th, 2012

 
 
Well folks, sadly the sickness that wiped me out at the weekend came back and hit me again, late Monday morning when first thing I actually had felt great.
So Monday afternoon I was laid out again and all day today, I've been sick, although Rhonda picked up this evening, my anti-biotic the Doc called in for me and so I've felt a little better.
Hopefully it's not false hope!
Anyway, sorry I don't have much for you here, but I'm really not 100% yet so it is what it is.
 
I guess we now have the Presidential Election over and done for another four years.
Barrack Obama it seems has been re-elected ... In my eyes, I really don't know if it's a good thing or bad thing, as so many politicians lie or cannot come through with promises made during their campaigning.
Did US readers vote? Boy, it seemed to be a very close one this time for a while there, but I guess not ...
If you didn't vote though, when you are entitled to, don't be bloody moaning about the outcome!
 
No doubt there are other's like you thinking there's no point, it's fixed or whatever, but I say nothing ventured, nothing gained!
 
No vote for me, Green card boy, no citizenship as yet but I do plan on applying for dual citizenship, why? So I can continue to as Night Ranger say, 'Rock in America!'
Read on peeps!
 
Cheers, Al
 
 
 
JOURNEY AND WHITESNAKE ANNOUNCE
2013 UK TOUR
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS THUNDER
 
 
Journey and Whitesnake, along with special guests Thunder, are set to appear onstage together for the first time ever in May 2013, taking in eight dates across the UK. Tickets go on sale 10am on Friday 9th November priced at 45 (regionally) & 48.50 (London) (subject to booking fee) and are available from www.livenation.co.uk or www.ticketmaster.co.uk

Journey, one of the most popular American rock bands of all time, are responsible for creating some of the best-known songs in modern music. Over the years they have gained multiple accolades - including 19 Top 40 singles, 25 Gold and Platinum albums and single 'Don't Stop Believin'' holding the #1 digital catalogue song in history. In 2011 they drew nearly a million fans to their 2011 Eclipse World Tour which included a sold-out UK leg and ranked in the Top 15 Tours of the year. In the same year the band were awarded the prestigious "Legend Of Live Award"at the Billboard Touring Awards in honour of the band's significant and lasting contributions to live music and the touring business, and in acknowledgement of their commitment to the fans and the art of performing live. Journey will be joining the tour with their line-up of Neal Schon (guitars, backing vocals), Jonathan Cain (keyboards, backing vocals), Ross Valory (bass, backing vocals), Deen Castronovo (drums, percussion, backing vocals) and Arnel Pineda (lead vocals).
Journey's Neal Schon said of the tour: "Looking forward to getting back to the UK and playing our best for you all. You guys are the very best, cheers and see you soon. We will be rocking!"
Co-headlining the 2013 tour are the legendary Whitesnake who carry a rightful & righteous reputation as one of the world's leading rock'n'roll bands. Founded and formed by Deep Purple singer David Coverdale, the band have earned multi-platinum albums and multiple top 10 hits worldwide, including 2 number 1 singles with 'Here I Go Again' and 'Is This Love' as well as the unforgettable hammer of 'Still Of The Night'. Bombast, bravado, talent and passion have helped establish Whitesnake as the perennial platinum favourite they have become and they're back with a vengeance in 2013, with plans to release a live DVD ahead of the tour as well as a double album. "Unfinished business..." as Coverdale says slyly. "We all wanted the last tour to continue as we got closer to the end...After a year in the studio we're ready to rock on stage again...We're coming back for more..."
Harnessing Coverdale's blues and soul roots & fueled by incendiary guitarists Doug Aldrich & Reb Beach you have all the elements needed to shape the 'Snake's hard rock identity.

Special guests Thunder will also be joining the UK dates. In 2009 the band went their separate ways, only to return in 2011 for a triumphant live performance at the High Voltage festival in London, followed by 2 sell out Christmas shows. Thunder returned for another 2 sell-out Christmas shows in 2012, with the date first selling out in just 6 hours. The band has been lured back on to the stage for next year's tour with Journey and Whitesnake. Perhaps this could re-ignite their desire for more.

Singer Danny Bowes says: "We'd already discussed possibly doing some shows next year, so this is perfect, and it's a great bill, like they used to be back in the day, it'll be a brilliant night out".
Journey, Whitesnake and Thunder will play the following:
 
MAY 2013

 Saturday May 18th - Glasgow SECC
 Monday May 20th - Motorpoint Arena Sheffield
 Wednesday May 22nd - Metro Radio Arena Newcastle
 Thursday May 23rd - Manchester Arena
 Saturday May 25th - Capital FM Arena Nottingham
 Sunday May 26th - Motorpoint Arena Cardiff
 Tuesday May 28th - LG Arena Birmingham
 Wednesday May 29th - Wembley Arena London
 
 
 
 
Offical weblinks:
 
 
 
 

Asia on TV November 7th (Tonight!) on AXS TV!
 
 

Yes, as I post this, it is already Wednesday 7th November here in Detroit and I have to say, I would have posted this yesterday, but, being wiped out as I was,
it just wasn't going to happen. Sorry.
 
This show, featuring the fantastic Asia you really need to check out folks!
I saw the band on the second night of their current US dates and it was a really enjoyable show.
Review link:

The band has so much history, so much talent and you should see this band live!
John Wetton, Geoff Downes, Steve Howe and Carl Palmer collectively ARE Asia!
 
The band's show in San Francisco, CA, at The Regency Ballroom, is to be broadcast live!
 
Check out this AXS TV promo to see for yourself:
 

For all other things Asia, the original Asia with all four original members, go here:
 
 
 
 
US PRESS RELEASE
MASCOT LABEL GROUP ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF STEVE
LUKATHER'S TRANSITION ON JANUARY 22, 2013
 
 
 
 
New York -- The Mascot Label Group has announced a January 22, 2013 release date for Steve Lukather's Transition.  The guitarist has been busy since the release of his last solo album All's Well That Ends Well, enjoying current tenure in Ringo Starr's touring band, appearances across the globe in G3 with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, and bringing Toto back arenas overseas.  The new album finds Lukather delivering that perfect balance of style, power and imagination as he takes risks and challenges himself as he has for  nearly four decades, as his career has gone from the studios of Los Angeles to the world’s biggest concert halls.
 
Lukather shares, "I’ve got a lot to be thankful for, and now is a perfect time for me to take stock of that, which is part of what Transition is about."  Over the previous decade a series of trials including divorce, the death of his mother and business hassles had dampened his joy in music making — a passion that drove Lukather to excel since seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan as a seven-year-old growing up in San Fernando Valley. But today the guitar guru is happy, healthy and strongly reconnected to his muse, and the lushly expressive Transition, his second Mascot album, finds him at a creative pinnacle.  Lukather offers, "I equate recordings to paintings and I wanted to make Transition a big, beautiful album with lots of fine details and shadings and colors. That’s what I do and what my favorite albums — Sgt. Pepper’s, Dark Side of the Moon, Electric Ladyland, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road — are all about. So if it’s a sin to make massive sounding records with huge production values, then I’m going to Hell.”
 
Transition’s heavenly sonic architecture — erected with the help of such A-list musical friends as Def Leppard’s Phil Collen, superstar bassists Lee Sklar, Nathan East, John Pierce, and Tal Wilkenfeld,  live band members Steve Weingart, Renee Jones, and Eric Valentine, along with mega-drummers Gregg Bissonette, Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tos Panos, and Lukather’s longtime keyboard foil and co-writer / co-producer C.J. Vanston — actually weaves a tale of redemption.   Beginning with the snarling rhythmic heartbeat of the cutting “Judgment Day” and the evil kiss-off blues “Creep Motel,” the album builds to the pivotal title track.   Lukather reveals, "‘Transition’ is a turning point for the album and a turning point for me.  As we were writing the songs, I was thinking about everything I’ve seen — all the people I’ve lost in my life, the great and the difficult experiences I’ve had, and how ultimately it was time to get it together and embrace things for what they are, because we’ve only got one life to live and we’ve got to make the most of it.”
 
Transition finds Lukather singing better than he ever has.  He shares, "I’ve been working really hard on my vocals.  For me, these days it’s all about the song and the performance. I’m not interested in being the fastest gun in the West. I want to make beautiful music that means something."  Transition was recorded over a 10-month period during breaks in Lukather’s juggernaut 2012 touring schedule, which included dates with Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan, the reunited Toto, the guitar-riffic G3 tour with Satriani and Vai, and Ringo Starr.  He reflects, "Honestly, playing with Ringo and Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, and my high school friends in Toto helped make this the best year of my life.  Getting the call from Ringo was a childhood fantasy realized.  I play music because of the Beatles, and to be standing on stage playing a Beatles song while I look back at the drum kit and see Ringo… unbelievable! He’s such a wise, funny and gracious man.” 
Lukather has also worked with George Harrison and Paul McCartney — just part of a historic resume that began when he was in his teens, playing recording sessions in LA and learning about life on the road with Boz Scaggs after Scaggs’ landmark album Silk Degrees.
 
A five-time Grammy Winner and member of the Musicians Hall of Fame, Lukather has worked with an A-list of fellow guitar giants: Eddie Van Halen, Robben Ford, Lee Ritenour, Larry Carlton, Slash, Zakk Wylde, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, and Joe Bonamassa among them. He’s also co-led Toto with fellow founder David Paich through every twist of the band’s platinum lined history while playing on albums by Michael Jackson, Warren Zevon, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Nicks, Don Henley, Miles Davis, Roger Waters, Cheap Trick and other rock and pop royalty. And he’s done all that while writing hits for the Tubes and George Benson, plus maintaining a parallel solo career of his own that began with his 1988 solo debut Lukather.
 
Seven solo albums later, Lukather reflects: “I’d like to say this is the best album I’ve ever made, but that’s a cliché. But I do think I’ve realized my goal of moving forward, so let me say that Transition is possibly the best reflectionl of who I am in 2012.”
 
Official links:
 
 
 
 

Frontiers Records Presents
20th Anniversary - Special Edition
Royal Hunt
 
 

Frontiers Records is pleased to announce the release of ROYAL HUNT celebrative Box Set release entitled “20th Anniversary – Special Edition” on November 23rd in Europe and January 21st in North America.
 
After the highly successful 20th anniversary tour in support of their latest album "Show Me How To Live", ROYAL HUNT celebrate the band’s 20th Anniversary with this very special “Best of” package including 3 CDs and one DVD.
 
The release will include the best Royal Hunt songs from all 11 albums, a brand new song plus 3 newly recorded acoustic version of three additional songs and a DVD including all the promotional videoclips shot by the band during their long ride...
 
The tracklisting shows the incredible amount of amazing songs that the band wrote and performed during their long and successful career.
 
Disc 1:
Flight; Kingdom Dark; Stranded; Clown In The Mirror; Wasted Time; Epilogue; Time; Far Away; 1348; River Of Pain; Tearing Down The World; Message To God.


Disc 2:
Cold City Lights; Follow Me; Surrender; The Mission; Can’t Let Go; Paper Blood; Season’s Change; The First Of Rock; Tears Of The Sun; The Well; Shadowman; Hard Rain Is Coming; Half Past Loneliness.

Disc 3:
Save Me (New song); One by One (new recording, unplugged version) ; Bodyguard (new recording, unplugged version) ; Restless (new recording, unplugged version); Bad Luck; Double Conversion; U-Turn; Sixth Sense; Day is Dawning.

Disc 4 DVD:
Videoclips for:
Land of Broken Hearts, Day In Day Out, Clown in the Mirror, Far Away, Last Goodbye, Stay Down, River of Pain, Tearing Down the World, Martial Arts, Third Stage, Wasted Time, Interview, Message to God.


 
Royal Hunt mastermind, writer and keyboard player Andre Andersen says: “To our fans, this will be a great journey through memory lane and for the new fans, a chance to poses a sample of the BEST there is to offer from the Royalty itself! Enjoy!”.
 
 
ROYAL HUNT is:


Andre Andersen - keyboards
DC Cooper - vocals
Allan Sorensen - drums
Andreas Passmark . bass
Jonas Larsen - guitars
 
Official weblinks:



 
 
And Finally ... And by no mean least ...

FIREFEST 2013
 
Melodic hard rock fans around the world are you ready for the annual premier event of the AOR / Melodic Rock world, that takes place in the UK, every October?
 
Yes, it's Firefest 2013 - 10th Anniversary event!
No bands / artists named yet, but they promise it will be special!
Here's the poster to get you warmed up!
 
 
 
Official weblinks:
 
 
 
 


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