Category : LATEST NEWS

“AEROSMITH ROCKS DONINGTON 2014” TO LAUNCH “CLASSIC MUSIC SERIES” IN MOVIE THEATERS ON FEBRUARY 26TH

Fathom Events, Cinema 1 and Eagle Rock Entertainment are partnering to present a monthly “Classic Music Series” to start off by legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, Aerosmith.

Fans will be blown away by Aerosmith on the big screen for a special one-night concert event on Thursday, February 26th, 2015 at 7 p.m. local time. Captured live at Donington Park in Leicestershire, UK, in June 2014 as part of the band’s critically acclaimed 2014 Let Rock Rule definitive rock & roll event. Rock’s most lethal army–Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Joey Kramer, Tom Hamilton, and Brad Whitford–rocked audiences in 16 countries with electrifying performances. The Aerosmith Rocks Donington 2014 19-song set list includes the band’s iconic hits Love In A Elevator, Janie’s Got A Gun, Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing, Dude Looks Like A Lady, Walk This Way, Dream On, Sweet Emotion and many more.

Tickets for Aerosmith Rocks Donington 2014 are available at participating theater box offices and online at FathomEvents.com. The event will be presented in more than 300 select movie theaters around the country through Fathom’s Digital Broadcast Network. For a complete list of theater locations visit the Fathom Events website (theaters and participants are subject to change).

“It’s always an absolute hoot that leaves me howling at the moon, performing at Donington we couldn’t have had a better time on stage that night,” says Steven Tyler. “I could feel the vibes of all the greats pulsing through the stage like AC/DC, Rage Against the Machine, Metallica and so many more.”

“We have played Donington many times but this performance was one of our best,” said Joe Perry. “Thanks to our fans who were there who helped us make it a night to remember. We are proud to have it be part of this theatrical series and it will give our fans who weren’t there around the world a chance to relive an ass kicking night of rock and roll.”

“We’re really proud and grateful to have been chosen to headline the Download festival at Donington for 2014,” Tom Hamilton says. “It was an awesome experience and I think this film captures it. Special thanks to the insane fans who stuck with us through mud and rain.”

“Aerosmith are rock legends and I am very proud Cinema 1 is a part of bringing this incredible band’s live concert performance to theaters across America,” said Ray Carolin, CEO of Cinema 1. “I am certain their fans are going to be blown away when they experience ‘Aerosmith Rocks Donington 2014’.”

The first event in the “Classic Music Series,” Aerosmith Rocks Donington 2014, will be followed monthly by a who’s who of rock and pop which will be revealed shortly. Expected events include: a singer with a history of hits since the ‘50s face-to-face with a modern pop mega-star, the beloved progenitors of the jam band genre, one of the UK’s greatest and most influential rock acts, a lauded guitar god and many, many more.

Fathom Events Vice President of Programming Kymberli Frueh-Owens said, “Aerosmith fans won’t ‘wanna miss a thing’ with Aerosmith Rocks Donington 2014. Music aficionados across the nation have a year full of great tunes ahead of them as the ‘Classic Music Series’ is set to bring the best of the best to the big screen all throughout 2015.”

GUITARIST JEFF LABAR ON A NEW CINDERELLA RECORD, “I DON’T KNOW HOW THAT WOULD WORK”

BigMusicGeek.com spoke with Cinderella guitarist Jeff LaBar about his solo material and Cinderella. Excerpts from the interview appear below.

BMG: As far as songwriting is concerned, how much did you contribute to the proverbial “heydey” of Cinderella?

Jeff: With Cinderella, Tom wrote most of the songs, so we all had our hand in arranging them. Throughout the Cinderella years, (bassist) Eric (Brittingham) and I, our place was to take Tom’s songs, his skeletons of songs and arrange them. Basically, all we did was add bridges, breakdowns and solo sections. Stuff like that. But Tom was the main songwriter there. The difference between then and now being that I am the songwriter in all of my solo stuff. These are songs that I’ve written over the years since the heyday of Cinderella. I’ve compiled some guitar riffs that didn’t have any vocals or lyrics and I’ve compiled lyrics that didn’t have any music. I actually got down to business in 2012 and started putting it together from all of the different stuff I had from over the years.

BMG: Realistically speaking, will there ever be an all new Cinderella record? There’s certainly a demand for it…

Jeff: The last time we had a label behind us was back in 2000 and those are the demos that turned into Tom’s solo record. I don’t know. Record labels these days… I don’t think anybody is signing. We could make a record ourselves and present it to a label, but it’s probably not going to happen. We could do all kinds of records on our own. I would love to record as a band…as Cinderella again. I would image that some record labels would dig it and come try to sign us, but I just don’t know. That’s a very tough question. I don’t know how that would work.

BMG: As the nostalgia for the ’80’s continues unabated, will we see Cinderella touring on a more frequent basis?

Jeff: The problem is when we tour, we are essentially a nostalgia act. In reality, it’s the older people that love the old records that come out. I’ve seen REO Speedwagon, Journey and all of them in concert and it’s always the older people that come out and want to hear the old hits. Unfortunately, we are kind of in the same boat, but at the same time, there are several bands from our genre like Poison, Ratt, Warrant and Winger that still put out records. But how many people actually buy them? That’s the problem. Who’s actually going to buy them? That’s the rub. …We would absolutely love to put out a new record and get lumped in with all of the other ’80s bands out there that still record and put out records that nobody really buys. …I know it’s terrible, but it’s true, ain’t it?

BMG: In retrospect, how did it feel to tour with Bon Jovi at the height of the Slippery When Wet (1986) success? I would imagine a portion of the successes Cinderella achieved was directly due to the groups touring together…

Jeff: Oh my God, that was awesome. When we first we went out, we opened for the very first David Lee Roth solo tour. So Poison and us were on tour together for both of our first tours, opening up for Loudness. And then both us and Poison were up for the first David Lee Roth solo tour and we got it. And we thought ‘Oh, this is it.’ We did five months opening for David Lee Roth, which was unbelievable and the most fun, and the biggest life lesson I’ve ever had. Then we went out with Bon Jovi, who helped us get signed and then released Slippery When Wet. Jon and (ex-guitarist) Richie (Sambora) actually put in a good word for us and the guy that signed Bon Jovi, Derek Shulman, signed us as well. They were like “Obviously, we should put Cinderella on tour with Bon Jovi. We got two bands from the same record label.” Back then, you didn’t need a third or fourth band to sell a concert ticket, so, yeah, us and Bon Jovi together for seven months. During that seven months, Bon Jovi went to number one and Cinderella went to number three. We were selling out four and five nights in arenas per city. We did four shows at the Spectrum in Philadelphia and we sold out five shows in Detroit. …We were set up in two different arenas. I think it was Joe Louis (Arena) and Cobo (Hall). We also did five shows in St. Louis. …Both of us were on the same label, so that was obviously a very good idea, but those days are long gone now.”

BMG: Cinderella toured with Loudness? That seems like such an unlikely pairing. Were you familiar with them?

Jeff: It was the only tour we could get at the time. …I was a big fan of Loudness and gotten to know them and gotten to be friends with them. It was just a small tour that was going out. We were doing like auditoriums and small theaters and it was just what was going on at the time. It just so happened, Cinderella was on the east coast and Poison was on the west coast and they both needed someone to open for and we got thrown together. That’s how our history with Poison started. …Since then, we’ve toured with Poison at least a half a dozen times.

Read Jeff LaBar’s entire interview with BigMusicGeek.com here.

source: bigmusicgeek.com

PRODUCER, SONG WRITER KIM FOWLEY, BEST KNOWN FOR HIS WORK WITH THE RUNAWAYS, PASSES AT AGE 75

Lina Lecaro of L.A. Weekly reports:

Legendary L.A. producer, songwriter and perpetual provocateur Kim Fowley is dead after a long battle with cancer at the age of 75, several outlets are reporting. Best known for his work with all-girl rockers The Runaways, Fowley had struggled with health problems in recent years and had been bed-bound for the last several months, keeping friends and fans up to date on his life via his Facebook page. He is survived by his wife Kara Wright, whom he married in September of last year.

Credited with putting the young girls of The Runaways (Joan Jett, Cherie Currie, Lita Ford, Sandy West, Jackie Fox) together via a meetup at Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco on the Sunset Strip, Fowley has often been called the band’s “Svengali.” He shares writing credits with Jett on the band’s self-titled 1976 debut, The Runaways, including its most famous track, Cherry Bomb, and its follow-up release, Queens of Noise.

In the 2010 film about the band based loosely on Cherie Currie’s book, Neon Angel, he was portrayed brilliantly, if rather maniacally, by actor Michael Shannon. Despite his role in The Runaways’ success, his treatment of the girls and battles over their royalties were heavily documented. There were recent reports of Currie making peace with Fowley and visiting him in the hospital; but in fact, as documented by L.A. Weekly, the two had buried the hatchet at a Hollywood Hills party back in 2008.

The Runaways will always be huge part of Fowley’s legacy, but his resume is extremely impressive even without them. He wrote or co-wrote songs for KISS, Alice Cooper, Blue Cheer, Helen Reddy and The Modern Lovers among many others. He also worked with Warren Zevon and Cat Stevens early in their careers, and enjoyed performing as a solo artist as well.

Read more at L.A. Weekly.

CALIFORNIA BREED IS KAPUT

California Breed, the band initially consisting of bassist and vocalist Glenn Hughes, guitarist and vocalist Andrew Watt, and drummer Jason Bonham and then Bonhams’s subsequently replaced by Joey Castillo, have posted the following message on their Facebook page:

“The band is over…what a logo though right?”

Andrew Watt elaborated further on the situation by saying, “To the California Breed fans here…I put everything I had into this band…all I can say is I was in it for the long hall…I have a lot of new music for you guys…going to be announcing my plans soon…I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you supporting us, buying our music, coming to our shows…this is not the end…it is truly the beginning…cannot wait to continue the quest to bring rock n roll back to the people that are hungry for it…what an amazing learning experience for me here and introduction to an amazing world of people and fans that share love for the same thing.”

additional source: bravewords.com

IRON MAIDEN JOINS THE FIGHT AGAINST TICKET SCALPERS

Iron Maiden is joining in the fight against ticket scalpers. The band’s manager Ron Smallwood was among 80 representatives from the music and sports businesses who signed an open letter asking the U.K. government to crack down on secondary sellers.

The letter published in The Independent asks officials to “put fans first” and help ensure that anyone who buys tickets to shows and games is getting a fair price.

Smallwood tells BBC News they care about the fans and “the future of this business.” They’re asking for changes to be made to a Consumer Rights Bill currently going through Parliament.

The battle against ticket scalpers is also being fought on this side of the Atlantic. The Foo Fighters recently brought attention to the issue by selling tickets to their upcoming tour in-person rather than online.

source: q1043.com