It has been announced that britpop heroes Blur will headline the Swedish Way Out West Festival.

The festival, held in Gothenburg between August 9th-11th will also feature The Black Keys, Refused, Florence + The Machine, Billy Bragg, Bon Iver and Feist.

Blur’s record sales in the UK, meanwhile, have rocketed since the band made an appearance at the 2012 edition of The Brits awards ceremony, where they were given the “Outstanding Contribution to Music” award, which is industry back-slapping parlance for “We wanted to give you something, but you haven’t released any new music for over a decade…” PARKLIFE!

Canadian electronic pop/rock outfit Metric have announced the arrival of their fifth full length album.

‘Synthetica’ will be released offiicially on June 11th, although no tracklisting has been revealed at this time.  The band’s previous release, 2009’s ‘Fantasies’ was well received.  Teaming up with Spotify, Metric promoted ‘Fantasies’ with a campaighn of heavy advertising which culminated in a limited offer of allowing fans to purchase a full album download for ninety nine pence.

Physical copies of the album were also released, beginning with a lavish special edition (available only via the Metric website) followed by a 2CD retail edition featuring some of the special edition content, a couple of acoustic tracks and a couple otherwise unavailable numbers.

It is not yet known whether the band intends to take a similar route to promote ‘Synthetica’.

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.