Some British Bon Jovi Fans Not Having A “Nice Day”

A number of fans in the U.K. who purchased concert tickets for the Bon Jovi Show that was billed to be the opening show for the new Wembley stadium have learned that the bands has since scheduled a show on the previous day, this depriving the original ticket holders of being in attendance for the show that opens the new stadium.

The band says that they scheduled the additional show due to “phenomenal demand”.

Since Nickleback will be opening for Bon Jovi on both dates, they will technically be the band that opens the new stadium.

NBC’s Today Show Takes Viewers Behind The Scenes At Aerosmith Show

Aerosmith fans are likely to enjoy a little behind the scenes look at a recent Aerosmith show, courtesy of NBC’s Today Show.

The piece, part of the Today Show’s “How Does It Work?” series, shows a little of how life goes for roadies and other behind-the-scenes support staff as they make all the preparations for the show.

Currently the video is available online at the Today Show home page, but that could change in the near future. I suspect using the “Search” feature of their site could probably lead someone to the video clip location when it is no longer available through a link on their home page.

Album of Covers Coming From Def Leppard

After this year’s successful tour with Bryan Adams, Def Leppard has plans in the works to release an album of cover songs this spring.

Titled “Yeah!,” the new album will feature songs such as “Street Life” by Roxy Music, “10538 Overture” by E.L.O., “Don’t Believe A Word” by Thin Lizzy and The Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset as well as others.

After another summer tour, the band is planning to begin work on a new studio album.

Rush Sues Florida Cops

Apparently, Alex Lifeson and his fellow Rush band mates aren’t about to let that nasty incident in Florida a couple of years ago be forgotten.

It is being reported by contactmusic.com that the band has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the Florida cops that allegedly roughed up Lifeson and his son.

Speaking of rock stars who do not fit the stereotype of hard-partying wild men (see previous post here), Rush has to be the poster kids for good off-stage behavior. How many other bands spend their touring downtime taking French lessons and scouting out dining establishments that serve fine wines?

I’ll grant you that I have never spoken with or met Rush in person, but I have heard enough about them and seen them in a few interviews and I honestly cannot imagine Alex Lifeson starting a physical altercation with the cops.

Since I have had a lot of association with law enforcement in the past (one of my best friends is a state police lieutenant), I can also say they I have heard about and witnessed my share of bad behavior on the part of cops as well. Like any other group of human beings, there are good cops and there are bad cops.

Although it has taken me a while to make up my mind, I have to come down on Lifeson’s side on this one. I’m hoping Rush comes out on the winning side of their lawsuit.

On Stage/Off Stage – Like Night And Day

I’ve often found it interesting to hear a little about the off-stage lives of my favorite musicians and although most rockers seem to be easily stereotyped as hard drinking party animals, quite often, just the opposite is true.

A little bit about how the Rolling Stones appear and behave off-stage is revealed in an article in The Gazette out of Canada.

Apparently some security guard at the venue where the Stones were performing was unable to believe that the short, skinny, old dudes that were standing a short distance from him were, indeed, the Rolling Stones in the flesh.

That security guard’s experience mirrors my limited personal experience with a few personalities I have met after watching them perform on the stage.

Back in the 1970’s and early 1980’s there was a local band in the Boston area called Image. They were one of the best (if not the best) local bands working in the area at the time. And since myself and the people I traveled with to see the band were all involved in music, we were not driving around New England to see these guys just because these guys played cover tunes that we liked – it was because they played cover tunes we liked and they played them superbly. They were all amazing musicians.

Since a couple of my relatives knew the band members personally, we met and spent a little time with both the guitarist (Joe) and drummer (Dave).

What struck me at the time (I was about 18 years old) was how soft-spoken, polite and generally quiet these guys were. So very different from their “cool” on-stage rock musician persona. Frankly, I was kind of happy to see that they were more like regular guys than I would have imagined.

Surely, there are wild-eyed, party animal rockers out there who live up very admirably to the stereotype. There are also famous performers that leave the stage and return to lives as more regular folk who you might never associate with rock music if you saw them on the street.

Given the chance to hang out with and get to know some famous rockers, I’d have to choose the latter classification of “rock star” every time.

Aerosmith Nearing The End?

If you have a hankerin’ to see Aerosmith live, you might want to step it up a bit and make it to one of their shows before it is too late.

According to contantmusic.com, the band may be thinking about hanging it up before too long. Guitarist Joe Perry has reportedly been saying things like “We’re definitely closer to the end than to the beginning, and the number of times that we are going to play is a finite number.”

He is also quoted as saying: When you’re young or even middle-aged, you figure that you’re going to live forever and you don’t care. But it’s different when you get to the end of it.”

Hey, who can blame them? There is a lot more to life than rock concerts and with all the money these guys must have, there are a lot of other things they could be doing to enjoy life.

Alex Lifeson Talks With Sound & Vision Magazine

A recent interview with Alex Lifeson appears in the February, 2006 issue of Sound & Vision Magazine.

In the interview, conducted by Mike Mettler, Lifeson talks about the techniques used to record the live performance for the Rush R30 DVD and how the recording gave him a feeling for what it might be like to be in the audience at a Rush concert.

He is obviously very pleased with the R30 live footage and I have to say I cannot blame him. As I have mentioned before, I am not a big fan of live recordings. I enjoy seeing my favorite artists perform, but the live sound is always a turn off for me. This R30 performance, although certainly not studio quality, is one of the best live recordings I have ever heard.

It’s not clear if the interview that appears on the Sound & Vision web site is the complete interview or just an excerpt of what appears in the printed version of the magazine.

Aerosmith To Team Up With Motley Crue For Tour

Ultimate Guitar reports that Motley Crue’s Vince Neil talked recently with Opie and Anthony on their XM Satellite radio program and reveled plans for a tour with Aerosmith.

Additionally, Motely Crue will be performing with the Rolling Stones this summer in Europe.

Motely Crue is also scheduled to receieve their own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on January 25 in front of the Musician’s Institute.

Rush R30 Concert Footage To Air on VH1 Classic

VH1 Classic will present concert footage from the recently-released R30 DVD set featuring a performance by Rush that was recorded in 2004 during their 30^th Anniversary tour.

The performance is scheduled for broadcast on Friday, January 13 at 9:00 pm, Saturday, January 14 at 10:00 am and 10:00 pm and Sunday, January 15 at 9:00 am and 9:00 pm (Eastern time).

In addition, VH1 Classic will present encore presentations of “Hangin’ With Rush,” which features in-studio interviews with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson.

“Hangin’ With Rush” will air Friday, January 13 at 3:00 pm and 3:00 am and Saturday, January 14 at 9:00 am and 9:00 pm (Eastern time).

Source: PR Newswire

Broaden Your Classic Rock Horizons

When you think of classic rock bands like Journey, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith may come to mind. However, there are a few classic rock groups out there that you may have never heard of and who deserve as much attention as the aforementioned artists.

Reading a recent article got me to thinking about classic rock and how many potential fans there might be out there that are too young to be familiar with a lot of the great music from the past few decades. I have to agree strongly with the author of the article in question. He sums things up pretty well with the following statement: “The public is tired of the poor-quality garbage being forced on them. It’s time we got back to real music.”

As much as I enjoy many of the well-known classic rock groups like Rush, Heart and Yes, there are a few others that are not as well-known and who I enjoy just as much. Lovers of classic rock who are not familiar with these groups might be surprised to learn that there is more great classic rock out there just waiting to be discovered.

For now I will limit the discussion to two of my all-time-favorite “unknown” rock groups.

The first is Saga, a Canadian group that managed to get a few videos on MTV back in the 1980’s but never really caught on here in the U.S. in a big way. They probably also managed some radio airtime back then, but to be honest I can’t recall for sure.

Saga seems to fall generally within the category of “progressive rock,” although that doesn’t do their unique sound justice. I can’t compare them with any other bands of that era that I can think of.

I don’t know what it is about somewhat obscure Canadian rock bands that I am drawn to, but my second choice happens to fall under that category as well: Max Webster.

In my opinion, Max Webster is one of the best undiscovered classic rock groups of all time. Make no mistake, these guys are rockers and man, could they play. Their front man, Kim Mitchell also has a few solo albums that are very similar in style and sound and are also well worth checking out.

I can take my entire collection of Saga or Max Webster MP3’s and que them up in my player and enjoy every track with the exception of one or two of them. The exceptions being the track or two that were thrown in as an experiment or gag — especially in the case of Max Webster.

You can still get a lot of this stuff on Amazon, so if you care to check it out, head over there and do a search for “Saga” or “Max Webster” and see what you think.