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METALLICA DRUMMER LARS ULRICH SAYS THE BAND IS GEARING UP FOR “A PRETTY IN-YOUR-FACE YEAR”

Other than the pre-Super Bowl show last month, Metallica have been lying low so far this year. Nevertheless, they’re anticipating a very busy 2016. Although they have no tour dates on the books as of right now, Lars Ulrich tells Kory Grow of Rolling Stone that will change once they get past one big hurdle.

“I think it will be a pretty in-your-face year, at least the back half of it,” the drummer says. “Obviously, we’ve gotta finish the new record now. But, thankfully we’re quite far along. Hopefully we should be able to knock that on the head this spring, I would guess. So, we will be gearing up and playing shows and doing all that fun stuff again soon.”

As the group has been keeping an eye toward the future with the new LP, the band members have also been keenly aware of the records that got them to this point in time. In addition to writing and recording the LP, Metallica have also been prepping deluxe reissues of their debut, 1983’s Kill ‘Em All, and its follow-up, 1984’s Ride the Lightning, in time for Record Store Day, when they’ll also put out a live album they recorded at Paris’ Bataclan to benefit charity. They’ve also worked with author Matt Taylor on his book, Back to the Front, which covers the making of 1986’s Master of Puppets and is due out later this year.

“There’s been this dichotomy between the new record, moving the band forward, and all this great stuff that’s happening in the future, and then really seeing the Matt Taylor book and reissues,” Ulrich says. “We’ve had one foot in the past, sifting through old photos and old memorabilia and listening to old songs, and another in the new album. It’s been a confluence of all these different energies, and I’m not even sure exactly what to make of all of it.”

Read more at Rolling Stone.

source: rollingstone.com

ORIGINAL UFO BASSIST, PETE WAY, REMINISCENCES ABOUT THE TIME BAND RECORDED WITH BEATLES PRODUCER GEORGE MARTIN, WHO PASSED AWAY TWO DAYS AGO

Former UFO bass player Pete Way has looked back on the recording of his band’s album No Place To Run, made during a sun-soaked two months in 1980 at AIR Studios Monserrat with George Martin, the producer of The Beatles, who died on Tuesday.

“George was a really nice guy,” he says, “and getting to make a record with him was a complete honor.”

In an out-of-frying pan-into-fire scenario, UFO had re-appointed former Lone Star guitarist Paul “Tonka” Chapman (a member during the mid-1970s) to replace Michael Schenker, who’d quit after the double-live album Strangers In The Night. The album that became No Place To Run ended a string of recordings made with Ron Nevison. Way recalls that Chrysalis had hoped Martin – who operated out of the record company’s London office – might make the band sound poppier, perhaps even tease out a hit single.“They wanted us to do what Styx and Foreigner had done – take things to the next level,” he says, laughing at the notion’s ridiculousness.

To this end they were happy to send UFO to the small Caribbean island of Monserrat, where Martin had built a studio, having fallen in love with the place during his days in the Navy. From the label’s viewpoint its atmosphere of sophistication — and a distinct lack of bars — made the place a far less dangerous workplace than London or Los Angeles.

“Rubbish!” Way snorts. “This was UFO! If you wanted to do so, you could get so completely drunk on rum that you’d fall over.”

And that’s exactly what happened, despite the band reigning in their after-hours entertainment during working hours. And make no mistake, Martin operated to a strict timetable.

“You’d start at around 11 o’clock [am] and at six [pm] there’d be a break. A gentleman in a white jacket would bring him a gin and tonic, and we’d head into the main house for a meal,” the bassist relates. “It was all very colonial and civilized – though it didn’t stay that way when Martin retired for the evening.”

According to Way, Martin had “no problem” with alcohol being consumed in the studio, and he favoured a relaxed, friendly approach.

“Sometimes in the evening we’d all meet up at the beach, of course it was warm and bright,” he recalls. “George would go into the sea and swim for miles – he was incredibly fit.”

Although Way counted himself a fan of the Beatles his real loves were the Stones, Zeppelin and Sabbath, so he wasn’t in awe of the producer, or his trusty engineer Geoff Emerick, who’d also worked on Sgt Pepper.

“George was like one of the boys, really,” he muses. “He never threw his weight about or reminded you of his reputation. He was very interested in the way that we liked to work, because it really was an experiment on both sides of the equation. For instance, he wasn’t used to recording the backing tracks first.

“Sometimes he’d ask, ‘Is Phil [Mogg] coming in today?’ because he was used to John and Paul having their lyrics ready. George would get anxious about the [lack of] words and we’d have to placate him, ‘Oh, don’t worry, they’re done’, when we all knew very well that Phil was down at the beach waterskiing.”

For their own part, UFO were flummoxed by the quietness of Martin’s studio playbacks. “They sounded like a transistor radio,” says Pete. “After George had left, Paul Chapman and I would rachet up the volume to the point where I’m surprised the place still had a roof.”

In the end, UFO were unable to come up with the elusive hit single, Young Blood stalling at Number 36 and being tucked away at the beginning of side two of No Place To Run’s original vinyl edition.

source: classicrock.teamrock.com

JUDAS PRIEST STREAM “METAL GODS” AND “BREAKING THE LAW” FROM “BATTLE CRY”

Judas Priest have released live video versions of Metal Gods and Breaking The Law from the band’s forthcoming Battle Cry film, recorded at the Wacken Open Air festival in Germany last August on the Redeemer Of Souls tour.

The set is available as a 15-track live CD or a 17-track DVD/Blu-ray, accompanied by three bonus tracks recorded in December at the The Ergo Arena, Gdansk, Poland.

Battle Cry is released on March 25th. To view a track list from this release, and to read more about it, please click here.

To view a track list and to read more about Battle Cry, please click here.

additional source: classicrock.teamrock.com

GREAT WHITE GUITARIST MARK KENDALL CLAIMS THE “OFFICIAL” VERSION OF THE BAND WAS NOT PLAYING THE NIGHT OF THE STATION FIRE IN RHODE ISLAND

Ethan Sacks of the New York Daily News reports:

A wildly differing account of the deadly 2003 Rhode Island nightclub fire has flared up long-simmering tensions among the former members of Great White.

Original guitarist Mark Kendall, performing at the time of the fire that left 100 dead, told TMZ Tuesday that the band that played that night wasn’t the “official” lineup of Great White, but singer Jack Russell’s solo act.

“I sat in with his band because his solo tour wasn’t doing very well,” Kendall told a TMZ videographer.

“Then that tragedy happened and CNN just ran out and said it was Great White like it was the original band.”

As proof he pointed to Jack Russell Touring as the defendant in the lawsuits that resulted in the aftermath.

But several sources, including Russell himself, debunked that claim to the Daily News.

They all said Great White was the official name of the band that hit the stage of The Station in Warwick, R.I., on Feb. 20, 2003.

“I just wanted to throw up when I heard he said that,” says Russell. “I’m not saying it’s anyone’s fault. But to not acknowledge that he was there, and trying to distance himself from the event … why even bring it up now?”

An insider close to the band also told the News that Kendall toured with Russell as Great White for two years after The Station tragedy to raise money for the families of the victim.

“Ridiculous,” the source said. “It was a Great White tour. Nobody else was touring as Great White. Jack was the lead singer, and was the only one who had not quit the group at one time or another.”

Russell, who formed the band with his childhood friend Kendall when they were teens, believes the recent salvo stems from the discord over the use of the Great White name.

The singer tours as Jack Russell’s Great White and Kendall plays with the band’s first drummer, Audie Desbrow, in Great White.

All of the hard rockers have also had been haunted by the horrific blaze that killed 100 people and injuring 200 others when pyrotechnics engulfed the foam lining the club’s walls and ceiling.

…A rep for Kendall’s Great White declined to elaborate on the guitarist’s comments further.

“It’s sad,” says Russell. “I started the band with him when I was 17 years old…”

Read more at the New York Daily News.

source: nydailynews.com

AC/DC’S BRIAN JOHNSON SAID RACING CARS WERE TO BLAME FOR HEARING LOSS, NOT MUSIC

AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson has been openly discussing his hearing loss since at least 2014, when he told Howard Stern that rock n’ roll wasn’t entirely to blame.

“I’ve obviously had some hearing loss,” Johnson told Stern. “I’ve got hearing loss in me left ear. I didn’t get it from music. I got it from sitting in a race car too long without ear plugs. I heard my ear drum burst, because I forgot to put me plugs in under my helmet. That’s how it happened. Music had nothing to do with it.”

AC/DC have postponed the remaining dates of their U.S. tour after doctors pulled Johnson off the road, saying he risked total hearing loss if he continued to perform. The band has committed to making up those dates, mentioning the possible use of a replacement singer. Johnson has been the band’s singer since 1980.

It’s unclear when the racing mishap happened to Johnson. He noted that he got very dizzy because of the inner-ear damage, and when he removed his racing helmet, he found blood. “It’s just like a tininess, like tinnitus or something,” said Johnson, who said to Stern that it didn’t slow him down. “You forget about it after a week.”

AC/DC have already lost both guitarist Malcolm Young and drummer Phil Rudd to health and legal issues, respectively, since 2014. Young was replaced by his nephew Stevie after a diagnosis of dementia. Former AC/DC drummer Chris Slade stepped in for Rudd, who was facing a series of charges. The band started this run of U.S. dates on Feb. 2 in Tacoma, Wash.

source: ultimateclassicrock.com

RUSH GUITARIST DISCUSSES THE BAND’S NEBULOUS FUTURE

Kory Grow of Rolling Stone reports:

When Rush wrapped their R40 tour last summer, the group issued a press release stating that the jaunt would “most likely be their last major tour of this magnitude.” Drummer Neil Peart had been ambivalent about hitting the road for a long trek as early as January 2015, saying he felt upset about leaving his then-5-year-old daughter at home. “Should I be excited about leaving my family?” he posited at the time. “No, and no one should.”

Now, guitarist Alex Lifeson confirms to Rolling Stone that Peart won’t be entertaining the idea of another lengthy run in the future, even though R40 went well.

“We had such a great time on the tour,” Lifeson tells Rolling Stone. “And it was really nice to go through all the material in reverse chronology, and I think our fans really enjoyed it. I think that no matter how long it would have been, it would have been too short. Neil was prepared to commit to 30 dates and he told us that right from the very beginning. He didn’t even want to do the tour, to be honest with you. It’s been increasingly difficult for him, but he committed to the tour and we got through it. As far as he was concerned, that was the end of touring.”

In addition to wanting to stay home with his family more, Peart struggled with the physicality of touring on R40. “His shoulders were hurting, his arms were hurting, his elbows, his feet, everything,” Lifeson says. “He didn’t want to play anything less than 100 percent. He was finding it increasingly difficult to hit that mark on this last tour. So, all those things combined, I get it. I’m disappointed and I think Geddy [Lee] is very disappointed and we’d love to continue this tour a little bit longer, but we’re off now.”

The trio has not discussed the state of the band beyond that tour. They could still play one-off shows or short runs in the future and could still record music. It’s a prospect Lifeson has yet to discuss with his bandmates.

…[However], Lifeson is optimistic about the future. “You never know,” he says. “Maybe next fall or something like that, we’ll plan something. We took a year off before the last tour and we didn’t discuss anything about the band or work, and everybody had a great time, and we came back from that.” He laughs. “We’re getting older and it’s getting tougher, but I don’t know. We’ll see.”

Is there a scenario where Lifeson and Lee would tour together without Peart? Lifeson’s reply is perfectly sarcastic: “Well, we have been saying that every 40 years, we fire our drummer and get a new one,” he says with a big laugh.

Read more at Rolling Stone.

source: rollingstone.com