Many classic rock fans will be familiar with the concept and hostory of Tom Galley’s Phenomena project. It began in 1983 and played host to a revolving cast of musicians – Glenn Hughes, Keith Murrell, Cozy Powell and many others. With three albums released between 1985-1991, the Phonema project was then rested.

In 2010, with the support of Escape Music, the project was revived and two more albums were released, again featuring a host of classic/melodic rock musicians. The next phase of the project is now complete, and ‘Awakening’ will be released on March 27th 2012.

Once again, the project features a host of familiar names, including Shy’s Lee Small, ex-Saga man Rob Moratti, Ralf Scheepers, Terry Brock of Strangeways and Masterplan/ex-Riot voice Mike DiMeo.

Official track listing:
01. Smash It Up
02. Reality
03. Homeland
04. Going Away
05. Gotta Move
06. How Long
07. Shake
08. Fighter
09. Dancing Days
10. Stand Up For Love

To read a review of the provious Phenomena album, click here.
To read a review of Lee Small’s ‘Jamaica Inn’, click here.
To read a review of Terry Brock’s ‘Diamond Blue’, click here.
To read a review of Rob Moratti’s ‘Victory’, click here.
To read a review of Strangeways ‘Perfect World’, https://www.realgonerocks.com/2010/10/strangeways-perfect-world/.

They’ve toured together before, but that doesn’t mean that in 2012 it’ll be less of a spectacle!

The first dates have now been announced for the ‘Midwest Express’ tour featuring REO Speedwagon, Styx and the Motor City Madman, ‘Uncle’ Ted Nugent.

The tour takes in the following cities:

May 01 – Hidalgo, TX – State Farm Arena
May 03 – Albuquerque, NM – Hard Rock Casino Albuquerque Presents The Pavilion
May 04 – Tucson, AZ – Anselmo Valencia Amphitheatre (no Ted Nugent)
May 05 – Las Vegas, NV – Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino
May 06 – Los Angeles, CA – Greek Theatre
May 08 – Denver, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
May 10 – Council Bluffs, IA – Mid America Arena
May 11 – Oklahoma City, OK – Zoo Amphitheatre
May 12 – Houston, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion (no Ted Nugent)
May 13 – Corpus Christi, TX – Concrete Street Amphitheatre
May 17 – Charlotte, NC – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
May 19 – Virginia Beach, VA – Farm Bureau Live Amphitheatre
May 20 – Alpharetta, GA – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Jun. 21 – Kansas City, MO – Starlight Amphitheatre
Jun. 22 – St. Louis, MO – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Jun. 23 – Ft. Knox, KY – Godman Army Airfield
Jun. 24 – Chicago, IL – Charter One Pavilion
Jun. 26 – Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center
Jun. 28 – Detroit, MI – DTE Energy Music Theatre
Jun. 29 – Scranton, PA – Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain
Jun. 30 – Cleveland, OH – Blossom Music Center
Jul. 01 – Atlantic City, NJ – Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa Event Ctr
Jul. 03 – Verona, NY – Turning Stone Resort Casino
Jul. 05 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
Jul. 06 – Big Flats, NY – Summer Stage
Jul. 07 – Gilford, NY – Meadowbrook U.S. Cellular Pavilion

As usual, there are no plans for this tour to hit the UK…

The first selection of bands for the UK Sonisphere Festival have been announced.

Faith No More have secured the headline slot for the third day, making a rare UK appearance, while KISS and Queen featuring Adam Lambert will headline the Friday and Saturday nights respectively.

Also set to appear are Lacuna Coil, Cypress Hill, Marilyn Manson, comedian Tim Minchin and Incubus.

The festival takes places at Knebworth Park on 6th-8th July 2012.

REAL GONE says: It’s great that Faith No More are going to appear in the UK again. However, the other supposed big draws are very tired… The KISS show is great, but a bit creaky compared with a few years ago, while “Queen” featuring a talent show winner? There are no words to describe this. A festival priced ticket to watch what’s effectively the most overpriced tribute act in the world??? No way. Dear Mr May – Queen is dead. Just by putting the Queen logo on things does not make it Queen and it never will. The Queen cash cow has been milked to death; the milk has gone sour. Stop it…please. Just stop.

Chris Cornell’s 2011 release ‘Songbook’ saw the sometime Soundgarden vocalist revisit works from across his career in an acoustic format.  The release was supported by a selection of live dates across the US.

This summer, Europe and the UK will get their first taste of these acoustic shows when Cornell performs in various European locations.

The confirmed dates for the European leg of Cornell’s ‘Songbook’ tour are as follows:

June 16 – Manchester, UK – Lowry
June 18 – London, UK – Palladium
June 19 – Birmingham, UK – Symphony Hall
June 20 – Newcastle, UK – City Hall
July 04 – Putte, Sweden – Parkern Festival

Cornell also appears with his reformed band, Soundgarden, this summer.  Soundgarden will be in the special guests slot at the 2012 Download Festival on Sunday before the reformed Black Sabbath are set to take the stage.

Somewhere back near the beginning of The Devin Townsend Project, Devin Townsend announced the “Project” would be completed with four live shows dedicated to playing each of the DTP albums (‘Ki’, ‘Addicted’, ‘Deconstructed’ and ‘Ghost‘) in their entirety and filmed for a box set release at a later date.

Reports suggest that the DVD box set – now entitled ‘By A Thread’ could appear as early as June 2012 and now looks to be bigger and more expansive than previously thought.

In addition to the four live DVDs – all filmed in London in November 2011 – the box is said to contain soundtrack CDs of each gig. Since CDs can only hold up to 80 minutes of audio, taking the encores into consideration, this means each gig is too long to fit on a single CD, so according to Townsend himself, ‘By A Thread’ now looks likely to be “like, a 10-disc set or something ridiculous…”

Also during his interview with AOL music, Townsend announced his plans to start on a new record in March. His first new work for 2012, ‘Epicloud’ is said to combine various elements of his past work.

Townsend: “Over the course of the full record, there’s sort of new agey stuff, jazzy stuff, really heavy stuff. We basically cover the gamut. ‘Epicloud’ is the first record that I felt confident enough to include all those things on one record so it goes between melodic hard rock to schizophrenic heavy metal to country to really ambient stuff and it’s all in one place. I’m using a gospel choir, a string section and a horn section for this one as well. On ‘Deconstruction’, I got to use the Prague Philharmonic and really go far into making an absurd album as over the top as possible and on ‘Epicloud’ I’m trying to take the same advantages to make some things musically very pleasing, as opposed to just claustrophobic.”

[quotes courtesy of AOL Music]