The Sun Guns N' Roses will headline this year's Reading and Leeds Festival, alongside Arcade Fire and Blink 182.
The American trio will each close one night of the three-day event, which takes place on August 27-29 and rotates between the two sites.
They will be supported by a reformed Libertines, rapper Dizzee Rascal, chart-topping rock band Paramore, Biffy Clyro and Queens of the Stone Age.
Although legendary rockers Guns N' Roses are still fronted by Axl Rose the rest of the original line-up - including guitarist Slash - will NOT be performing. They have been replaced by a completely new band.
The gig will mark GN'R's first ever Reading appearance, although they headlined the Leeds leg in 2002.
UPCOMING GN'R TOUR DATES:
April 1 - Quito, Ecuador April 4 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil April 7 - Panama City, Panama April 9 - San Jose, Costa Rica April 11 - San Salvador, El Salvador April 13 - Guatemala City, Guatemala April 15 - San Juan, Puerto Rico
June 5 - Helsinki, Finland June 12 - Norje, Sweden
Regarding one of his other bands, namely Loaded, Duff McKagan issued the following update yesterday,
"We are still ass deep in writing songs for the next record. We have a ton of stuff and more just keeps pouring out. Like we have said before, we can't wait for all of you to hear it. More so, we can't wait to rock, sweat and laugh with all of you soon! Along with with writing new songs, we here in LOADED don't fuck around! Whether it's writing much-anticipated novels, playing music or just hanging with Mickey Mouse, none of us are just sitting around getting massages and eating grapes? I guess you just never know when and where one of us is gonna pop up?"
TMZ Axl Rose has allegedly been hogging some of Guns 'N Roses' profits - and now one company says it's looking to get its hands on his money, honey.
Front Line Management claims it was hired to be Axl's personal manager in 2008 - and was promised via an oral agreement, a 15% cut of all the cash Guns N' Roses raked in ... but never got a penny.
In the lawsuit, filed Thursday in LA County Superior Court, Front Line claims the band made in excess of $12,470,000 while performing throughout Asia, Canada and South America.
The company says it wants at least $1,870,500.
Azoff is widely credited for having helped to get Guns N' Roses' 2008 album, Chinese Democracy, finally released after a 15-year wait.
Headed 4 Lima! Was great gettin' back 2 Buenos Aires!! The crowds everywhere on this tour r unique un2 themselves. Don't get much rowdier or energetic than here n' as w/ Belo Horizonte n' Santiago etc. very humbling. Sure there's excited idiots who throw shit or whatever but 4 the most part the fans r so enthusiastic, positive n' we mean so much 2 them it sets u bk n' makes u work hard to feel u can earn a small part of the respect they show u. So many of these shows we have trouble w/r sound on stage to b able to hear 'cuz the audience is singing along so loud which is amazing!!
It's also nice to visit places that aren't as jaded n' influenced by peer pressure or media nonsense. They know what they like n' stand up 4 it rather than b told what they should n' shouldn't b in2. I grew up w/the preppies n' jocks w/their pink Izod's where Bowie, Cooper, Zeppelin etc. were considered garbage n' when The Cars, The Police, The Clash, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols etc were "gay", whatever.
South American fans have always been so good to us, I'm happy we were able to find a way to play for those we've been fortunate enough to have seen so far!! Obrigado, Gracias n' Thank You!! N' to the officials who gave us extra time in Buenos Aires a triple Thank You!! Peace!!
I am not sure if any of you have heard the rumors about me getting a book deal. I just wanted to announce here first that it is in fact true. The reason for any announcement at all is twofold, actually:
1. Most important, I want to thank the readers of my column for really pushing me to write this book. Those constant suggestions and prodding really made me take a look at what I was saying, and indeed at how I was writing it. The Weekly staff have also been invaluable to me--certain editors here have made a big difference as far as what they expect from me. That too makes for a better product.
2. I want to also make clear that this book is not a GN'R "tell-all" or some other such "rock" book. There are a lot of those at this point. Sure, I will touch on all of that, as it is part of my story, but only just a part of it. Rather, it will be a story of an ordinary guy who met with extraordinary circumstances, and the circumnavigation through these situations. If you have been a reader of my column, then you get the general idea of my headspace. I WILL be writing this myself, thick or thin.
Touchstone, a division of Simon and Schuster, will publish my book in Fall 2011. Stacy Creamer, Touchstone VP and Publisher, will be my editor. I am excited that Tim Mohr, my old editor at Playboy, will be joining me too on this challenging venture and chapter of my life. Tim has edited the likes of Hunter S. Thompson. I look forward to him throwing out thousands of my words and telling me that I am full of shit on a daily basis!
I am in London this week looking at a bunch of unsigned bands for a new venture that I am part of. It is fresh and fun to see some of these bands: startled kids with huge and hopeful eyes that see a world that is theirs for the taking, energetic, unjaded, and full of piss and vinegar. I need to see this now and again to remind me what music should be all about. It also reminds me of the first time I came over here: It was with GN'R in July of '87, a few weeks before Appetite for Destruction came out.
The year before, we had put out the Live Like a Suicide EP. This fast and furious collection of songs sort of just died everywhere else in the world except for the UK. Unbeknownst to us, a cult following of fans was building over here who were chomping at the bit for any news on the band. When Kerrang magazine sent a photographer to Los Angeles to shoot us for the cover, we couldn't actually believe it. We had received press coverage in LA at this point, but KERRANG?! Are you kidding me?
After we finished Appetite and were waiting for its release and tour opportunities, we were approached to go to London and play the famous Marquee club. The only place I had been outside the US was Vancouver, BC, to play punk-rock shows with my various Seattle bands when I was a teenager. This was BIG! Huge! Magnificent!
I think it's assumed these days that GN'R kind of "broke" straight from the get-go after the release of AFD. Truth is, it took us nearly a year of straight touring before anyone paid attention to us in a significant manner--except for the UK.
An odd clash of circumstances occurred in Britain about a year before Live Like a Suicide came out. Back then and before the Internet, the youth over here would sort of latch on to one rock-and-roll band and identify it as their clarion light. That band was Hanoi Rocks, an amazing group of Finns who had relocated to England and were writing some of the best and dirtiest rock songs. When Hanoi finally came to tour America for the first time in 1985, their drummer Razzle died in a car crash while making a booze run with Vince Neil in LA I had just moved to Hollywood, and Slash and I had tickets to that Hanoi gig that never happened. It was an incredibly sad moment not only in rock and roll, but all the way around. Hanoi Rocks never quite recovered.
Flash forward to our gig in the UK, July 1987. After the first Marquee gig sold out in record time, they added a second date. That sold out just as fast, so they added a third. By the time we arrived here (we stayed at a rent-by-the-week apartment because it was much cheaper than a hotel), we were kind of like little mini-celebrities. There were times that people would stop us on the street and they actually knew who we were! It was quite weird, even on a small scale.
I learned to ride the tube everywhere, and it just seemed that there were great gigs every night we were there. Slash and I went out to a suburb one night to see the Replacements, and got so drunk that we lost track where we were. We caught a tube to somewhere that was not anywhere even close to our apartment in Kensington. We got into a drunken fight when we got to the end of the line, and realized that there were no more trains running and that we didn't have anything close to the amount of money to take a cab. Come to think of it, I doubt we even knew the address of where we were staying; we only knew how to get there from our local tube stop. To this day, I am not sure how we ever got back that night. Did we sleep in the train station? Ah, the luck and providence shown to the young and drunken and foolish!
But the real reason we were here, of course, was to fucking rock. I must say that back in that period of the band's career, nobody did it with more purpose, sneer, and reckless bad intent than us. This is not me bragging - it's just that we were hitting on all the right cylinders at the same time. When we walked to the Marquee on that first night, we were met by the crowd that was in line surrounding the block. We were absolutely fucking amazed that all these people came to see us. We hung out there in the street with them before and after those three gigs. We found that we had suddenly become "that" band that the youth of England had been looking for to fill the void left after Hanoi Rocks' tragic demise. Within four years, we would be headlining in stadiums here.
I am here now as a real grown-up, an adult doing very "adult-like" business and meeting with real-life businessmen. I am glad to be taken seriously in these meetings, and for certain feel that I have earned the right to be doing the things that I do outside of just playing music. Coming back to London, though, always puts a smile on my face. That first 10-day stay here as a young man will forever be a brilliant memory that will always keep me from becoming jaded. REVERB
UPDATE: "Starlight" is now streaming on the ESPN website. Great song. (Thanks goes to RockNFR)
Amazon.com is doing a countdown to the release of Slash's solo album. Each day they are going to stream one song from the album. They are also hosting videos where each day Slash talks about that particular song from the album.
Today (March 23) they are streaming "Ghost" which features former Guns N' Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin and The Cult's Ian Astbury on vocals. Josh Freese and Chris Chaney play drums and bass.
You can check out Amazon's Slash store here, stream the song and watch the video.
via Rolling Stone Sales of physical albums have steadily decreased over the past half decade, and now one major label is hoping to stem the decline by adopting a daring new strategy: lowering the price of CDs. Universal Music Group has revealed a plan to reduce the wholesale cost of their albums in order to decrease the retail price of single-disc albums to $10 or less, Billboard.biz reports. Under the new plan, sales of CDs will only boast a 25 percent profit margin, but UMG hopes the increase of CD sales volume will help reinvigorate their revenues.
While some may deem UMG’s strategy as “too little, too late,” the move does put the price of physical discs in line with what digital music services like iTunes charge for full album downloads, making physical discs a more attractive option. “We think it will really bring new life into the physical format,” Universal Music Group Distribution president/CEO Jim Urie said. UMG revealed that they plan on selling more deluxe editions of albums, however those discs will carry a higher price tag.
While retailers are applauding the move, Billboard.biz writes that the other major labels aren’t too pleased with UMG’s price shift. “Why does Universal feel the need to get below $10?,” a distributor at a competing major wondered. However, there is precedent for UMG believing their new strategy will work: When Trans World Entertainment, who runs music stores like f.y.e. and Wherehouse Music, tested out a $9.99 price plan, CD sales jumped 100 percent.
Spinner Axl Rose is quickly learning that the jungle isn't always that welcoming, as Guns N' Roses were forced to cancel Sunday's show in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil due to the stage collapsing from heavy rains. Rose explained via Twitter that the show might go on tonight or at a later date, as they're still assessing the damage. But it's not to say injuries weren't suffered.
"There fortunately are no fatalities but there are injuries from both our camp and Rio crews," Rose wrote, also revealing that a truck affiliated with openers the Sebastian Bach Band rolled over several times en route to Rio as well. He later updated to say "all injuries appear to be minor." Bach also posted a picture of the mangled stage, which Rose said may have been hit by a tornado.
So things aren't going well for old Axl in South America. Australia's News.com reports that this past Thursday, a riot broke out at a Sao Paulo club where the band was supposed to perform a secret gig, a la the recent Fashion week performances. Attendees reportedly mounted the stage and destroyed whatever they could once they found out that the band was pulling a "no show."
That resentment seemed to carry over to the official gig on Saturday night at Sao Paulo's Estádio do Palmeiras, where Axl was pelted with a bottle during the band's opening number, causing him to stop the song and say, "C'mon, coward. You wanna fuck up the show for everybody? 'Cause I've got no problem - I will leave. We will all leave. You wanna play games? You can fuck yourself or we can have some fun. You guys wanna have fun? Then I don't need no little fucking pussies like we had the other night at that club. You wanna fuck with me and my boys? We will leave."
Guns N' Roses resume their tour tomorrow night at Porto Alegre's Gigantinho and are scheduled to play through April 1, where the road show concludes at Quito, Ecuador's Estadio Olimpic Atahualpa.
torontosun.com Slash heard the reports about his former bandmate Axl Rose banning fans wearing Slash-related T-shirts and top hats from the current Guns N’ Roses tour but he’s not sure he believes it.
“I give him the benefit of the doubt,” the 44-year-old former GN'R guitarist told QMI Agency Friday while taking a break from his duties at Canadian Music Week.
“I hate to think someone would be that petty, so it might be more of a rumour.
“There is a little bit of infighting between fans now, too. There’s like Guns fans who support the Axl thing and then there’s Guns fans who support the Slash thing. And God knows where it originated.
“We (Slash and Rose) obviously haven’t actually sat together and talked so there’s definitely some bad blood there but at the same time it’s been, you know, 15 years and I don’t like to perpetuate the negative stuff because I don’t really have the kind of harsh feelings for him that the media exaggerates.”
Slash’s debut solo album, Slash, featuring him performing with various singers including rock legends Ozzy Osbourne and Iggy Pop, is due April 6.
Then later that month he’ll head out on the road with a touring band that will include Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge) on vocals; Bobby Schneck (Weezer, Green Day) on rhythm guitar; Dave Henning (Doug Pinnick, Big Wreck) on bass; and Brent Fitz (Alice Cooper, Vince Neil) on drums. Chinese Democracy sounds just as Slash expected
The sound of Guns N’ Roses’ long-awaited release, Chinese Democracy, released after a near 15-year wait, didn’t surprise former GN'R guitarist Slash. At all.
“I thought it was exactly what I thought it would sound like,” he said.
“It was very indicative of what I thought he would do. So it was absolutely no surprise. ’Cause we had sort of like the Guns N’ Roses sound, which was just a straight-ahead rock band, and along the way Axl started to get very sort of techno, or had a lot of techno influences. And when I say that I mean like synthesizers and a lot of digital influence. And of course we sort of kept an old-school approach, and I think besides everything else musically, we sort of went off in different directions. And this record of Axl’s is definitely very digital and very Pro-Tool and very synthesized — whatever sounds are augmented by outside sources.”
Slash actually still was in GN'R when the concept for Chinese Democracy was in its infancy stage but he said, “We didn’t really do all that much.”
In Slash's own words. You can read the whole thing here at MusicRadar.com
"I’m like a music whore. I wanna go out and fuck everybody."
If you want to hear the Slash solo album first, 7 April will see Classic Rock magazine’s special Classic Rock Presents Slash fan pack released. This will feature a 132-page deluxe edition of the magazine along with a limited edition poster, patch and CD containing all 14 album tracks plus two special bonus cuts.
That’s right, we said all 14 LP tracks. In addition to the tracklisting reported previously, another song featuring Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy entitled "Back From Cali" has been squeezed in at the last minute. So if you order the Classic Rock Presents Slash fan pack, you now get 16 songs in total.
Read Slash's track-by-track guide of his entire album here at MusicRadar.com
