Beth Orton to play a run of UK live shows in November/December

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It’s been four years since Beth Orton released her last album ‘The Comfort of Strangers’. For the last three years, she’s been largely out of the spotlight altogether.

This year, she returns with a long awaited new album. The title and release date for the album are still unconfirmed, but Orton has confirmed a short run of live dates scheduled for the end of the year, including one at London’s Union Chapel.

The confirmed dates are as follows:

Sheffield City Hall (November 27th)
London Union Chapel (December 5th)
Nottingham Rescue Rooms (December 6th)
Bristol Thekla (December 7th)
Manchester Royal Northern College Of Music (December 9th)
Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms (December 10th)
Glasgow Oran Mor (December 13th)

Editorial Comment: Def Leppard to re-record entire back-catalogue? No thanks.

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It has been announced that Def Leppard are planning to re-record their entire back catalogue.

The news comes following a royalties dispute with Universal. Frontman Joe Elliot has said “We’ll just replace our back catalogue with brand new, exact same versions of what we did“.

Exact same? It’s never going to be. Not ever. It can’t be. After all, not only does Joe Elliot sound different these days (although he’s supposedly working on getting his old voice ready for the new recordings), but rather understandably, Rick Allen doesn’t play in the same way he did pre-’87. Vivian Campbell is a superb guitarist, but do we really want repackaged versions of the band’s early albums with him playing Steve Clark’s guitar parts, no matter how great they’ll be? Steve Clark’s memory is kept alive by his recordings with Def Leppard throughout the 80s, and the idea of replacing those recordings is incredibly insensitive.

At REAL GONE, we love Def Leppard but this news is an absolute travesty. This dispute over royalties could lead to the Leps pissing on their legacy. This could turn out far worse than when Ozzy Osbourne issued remasters of ‘Blizzard of Ozz’ and ‘Diary of Madman’ with completely new rhythm tracks.

The crux of the matter is essentially this: Re-recordings can be fine, but the fact that Def Leppard plan to completely replace classic albums like the multi-million selling ‘Pyromania’ and ‘Hysteria’ leaves a very bad taste in the mouth. Granted, most existing fans should already own most – if not all – of the back catalogue already but the idea that, in the future, any new fans will only be able to buy potentially inferior re-recordings can surely only harm the band’s reputation.

The only people who hope to gain anything from this are the band themselves. Although long-term supporters and fans may welcome new recordings as an alternative, they shouldn’t be a replacement. New fans could always track down second hand copies of the proper recordings and, in the event of this all actually happening, would be strongly recommended to do so. If they did, Def Leppard wouldn’t earn any extra royalties from those either, of course, so this is potentially a losing situation for everyone concerned.

The band have already recorded new versions of their classic hits ‘Rock of Ages’ and ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’. It is not known how long the process of re-recording the complete albums will take.

Let’s hope this is just a band mouthing off, making threats and the whole sorry mess gets sorted quickly. That way a run of great albums (and even the poor ‘Euphoria’) will be allowed to stay as they are.

July 2012

I Like Trains: Autumn tour dates + new EP news

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In October, Leeds prog/alt-rock band I Like Trains (formerly iLiKETRAiNS) will be releasing a new EP.

‘Beacons’, a four track release, features ‘Beacons’ from the band’s 2012 full-length ‘The Shallows’ plus three brand new songs.

To tie in with the release, the band will embark on a lengthy European tour, visiting the following places:

OCTOBER

Sat 13th, City Museum, Leeds, UK
Mon 15th, Captains Rest, Glasgow, UK
Tue 16th, Cluny, Newcastle, UK
Thu 18th, Deaf Institute, Manchester, UK
Fri 19th, Guildhall, Leicester, UK
Sun 21st, Hare & Hounds, Birmingham, UK
Mon 22nd, Cargo, London, UK
Tue 23rd, Cooler, Bristol, UK
Wed 24th, Buffalo Bar, Cardiff, UK
Thu 25th, The Cellar, Southampton, UK
Sat 27th, La Maroquinerie, Paris, FRANCE
Sun 28th, De Boerderij, Geleen, NETHERLANDS
Mon 29th, Gebaude 9, Cologne, GERMANY
Tue 30th, Paradiso (Upstairs), Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS
Wed 31st, Rotown, Rotterdam, NETHERLANDS

NOVEMBER,

Thu 1st, Knust, Hamburg, GERMANY
Fri 2nd, Zoom, Frankfurt, GERMANY
Sun 4th, Magnet, Berlin, GERMANY
Mon 5th, Kranhalle, Munich, GERMANY
Tue 6th, Chelsea, Vienna, AUSTRIA
Thu 8th, Beatpol, Dresden, GERMANY
Sat 10th, Biomill, Laufen, SWITZERLAND
Sun 11th, Salzhaus, Winterhur, SWITZERLAND

‘Beacons’ is released on October 15th.

Lengthy interview with Russell Allen posted online

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Linearock.it recently conducted a lengthy interview with vocalist Russell Allen, which you can view below.

Allen is considered to have one of the finest voices in progressive metal and has lent his talents to most of the Symphony X back catalogue, as well as a trilogy of albums with Jorn Lande.

Currently, Allen fronts all-star metal band Adrenaline Mob, where he offers his talents alongside bassist John Moyer (Disturbed), guitarist Mike Orlando (Sonic Stomp) and oft-praised drummer Mike Portnoy (ex-Dream Theater).

Adrenaline Mob’s debut full-length release ‘Omerta’ (released in March 2012) was well received by fans and critics and peaked at #70 on the Billboard 200.

New Gallows video posted online + tour dates

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Hardcore punks Gallows will release their new album in September. The self-titled record will be the first Gallows full-length to feature ex-Alexisonfire man Wade MacNeil on vocals. MacNeil made his studio debut with the UK punks on their 2011 EP ‘Death Is Birth’. [Read a review here]

Paving the way for that September release, the band have posted a new song and video online. The video for ‘Last June’ can be seen below.

Gallows will be appearing at the Reading and Leeds festivals in August and also embarking on a UK tour to support the release of the album in the autumn.

GALLOWS AUTUMN TOUR DATES

Oct 03 The Haunt Brighton, United Kingdom
Oct 04 The Cavern Exeter, United Kingdom
Oct 05 The Fleece Bristol, United Kingdom
Oct 06 Club Academy Manchester, United Kingdom
Oct 08 Academy 2 Newcastle, United Kingdom
Oct 09 King Tuts Glasgow, United Kingdom
Oct 11 Rock City Basement Nottingham, United Kingdom
Oct 12 Corporation Sheffield, United Kingdom
Oct 13 Sugarmill Stoke, United Kingdom
Oct 14 Central Station Wrexham, United Kingdom
Oct 15 Cockpit Leeds, United Kingdom
Oct 16 Club Revolution Peterborough, United Kingdom
Oct 17 O2 Academy 2 Birmingham, United Kingdom
Oct 19 The Underworld London, United Kingdom