Dream pop duo Mazzy Star have been confirmed to appear at next year’s Field Day Festival.

Following the release of a 7″ single and download containing the duo’s first new material in a decade and a half, the duo will appear at the festival which takes place at London’s Victoria Park on June 2nd next year.  Mazzy Star have more than tentative plans to release a new full-length LP at some point during the year.

Mazzy Star join Spector, The Vaccines and confirmed headliners Franz Ferdinand on the festival bill.

Confirmed Field Day Festival acts so far:
Afrocubism
Andrew Bird
Baxter Dury
Beirut
Errors
Fennesz
Franz Ferdinand
Gold Panda
Here We Go Magic
Hudson Mohawke
Julio Bashmore
Mazzy Star
Metronomy
Outfit
Maya Jane Coles
Papa M
R. Stevie Moore
Revere
Rocketnumbernine
Rustie
SBTRKT
Spector
Tortoise
The Vaccines
Zulu Winter

Pulp’s first three full length releases ‘It’ (1983), ‘Freaks’ (1987) and Sepearations are to be released via Fire Records in February 2012.

The band’s pre-fame releases have attracted a cult following over the years and have been reissued various times previously, but the 2012 releases are set to be the definitive versions of the early works of the fledgling Pulp.

‘Freaks’ deluxe tracklisting:

DISC ONE
1. Fairground
2. I Want You
3. Being Followed Home
4. Master of the Universe
5. Life Must Be So Wonderful
6. There’s No Emotion
7. Anorexic Beauty
8. The Never-Ending Story
9. Don’t You Know
10. They Suffocate at Night

DISC TWO

11. Little Girl (With Blue Eyes)
12. Simultaneous
13. Blue Glow
14. The Will To Power
15. Dogs Are Everywhere
16. The Mark Of The Devil
17. 97 Lovers
18. Aborigine
19. Goodnight
20. Tunnel
21. Manon

‘Separations’ expanded traclisting:

1. Love Is Blind
2. Don’t You Want Me Anymore?
3. She’s Dead
4. Separations
5. Down By The River
6. Countdown
7. My Legendary Girlfriend
8. Death II
9. This House Is Condemned
10.Death Goes To The Disco
11.Is This House
12.Countdown (extended version)

‘It’ expanded tracklisting:

1. My Lighthouse
2. Wishful Thinking
3. Joking Aside
4. Boats and Trains
5. Blue Girls
6. Love Love
7. In Many Ways
8. Looking for Life

Horror punks Misfits are to return to the UK in February 2012 for a run of six live dates.

The gigs are to promote the band’s 2011 studio album ‘The Devil’s Rain’ and will see the band visiting the following venues, kicking off with London’s Islington Academy on Feb 1st:

O2 Academy Islington London (1)
Reading Sub 89 (2)
Birmingham Ballroom (3)
O2 Academy Newcastle (4)
Brighton Concorde 2 (5)
Bristol Fleece (6)

The current Misfits line up includes founder member Jerry Only on bass and vocals, Eric Arce on drums and Ex-Black Flag man Dez Cadena on guitar.

A sixteen minute chat between Saxon frontman Biff Byford and Get Ready To Rock contributor Pete Feensta has been posted on YouTube. The lengthy interview between Byford and Feenstra took place in November and can be viewed below.

There’s a fair bit on the horizon for legendary rockers Saxon throughout 2012. According to Byford himself, the band plan to finish work on an acoustic record, while other reports suggest yet another Saxon DVD is in the works – this time featuring five complete shows from Germany’s Wacken Festival.

Saxon’s 2011 album, ‘Call To Arms’ was well received by many important rock magazines and websites, showcasing the sound of a classic, hard-working band which fuses the styles perfected on the more recent Saxon releases while harking back to the past a little more than usual in others.

In 2010, the band released a DVD, ‘Heavy Metal Thunder: The Movie’, available only via the internet. A two disc set, this featured a two and a half epic documentary telling the band’s life story plus a whole bunch of extras including almost two hours of live footage. A single disc release featuring a shorter documentary without any bonus materials was said to be release in stores later, but to date, this has still not materialised.

Read a review of ‘Call To Arms’ here.
Read a review of ‘Heavy Metal Thunder: The Movie’ here.
Read a review of ‘Rock The Nations’ here.
Read a review of ‘Saxon’ here.

GuitarMessenger.com have conducted an in-depth video interview with progressive metal guru Devin Townsend, which you can now view in it’s complete and unedited form below.

The interview comes at the end of Townsend’s US tour with Children of Bodom and Obscura. It’s been a busy year for Townsend: Not only has he released the last two albums in his four album ‘Project’, but he’s also repackaged all four of those albums with a host of extra material as a box set. In addition, he’s played a number of live shows – including two separate trips to the UK, one of which was a four night run of ‘complete album’ shows, each filmed for a later DVD release.

Read a review of The Devin Townsend Project’s ‘Ghost’ here.