Funeral For a Friend may currently be on tour, but there’s seemingly no stopping the Welsh five-piece. They’ve announced more tour dates for 2011.
In the autumn, they’re scheduled to play the following venues in the UK:
October
23 – Wulfrun Hall Wolverhampton
24 – Queen Margaret Union (QMU) Glasgow
25 – O2 Academy Newcastle
27 – Rock City Nottingham
28 – Academy 1 Manchester
29 – O2 Academy Bristol
30 – Roundhouse London
The work of Bruce Springsteen seems almost omnipresent. Only yesterday whilst out shopping, I heard ‘Cover Me’ and ‘Dancing In The Dark’ playing in two different locations. Most of us know the hits. While Springsteen’s throaty growl can be seen as an acquired taste, the musical arrangements of his songs are meticulously crafted, thanks to his regular band of musicians – The E Street Band.
On Saturday 19th June 2011, that band lost, perhaps, it’s most important member. Saxophonist Clarence Clemons lost his life after suffering a stroke. His stroke followed surgery between 2010-2011 for two knee replacements between 2010-11. A strong man, he joked that he was now “almost totally bionic”.
A member of the band since 1973, first appearing on Springsteen’s often overlooked debut ‘Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ’, Clarence’s sax contributions were often pivotal to the end results. Think about ‘Born To Run’ – that huge solo, with its hugely rousing, fiery delivery; it’s the number’s most notable thing after Springsteen’s story telling. Few, if any, musicians would have played the part with even half the gravitas that Clemons bought to it; the same goes for the almost cinematic sax work featured during the epic ‘Jungleland’. Better still, take 1978’s ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’. As an album, it’s a little light on brass contributions owing to a sometimes darker nature, but when Clemons is there, he’s spectacular, his horn cutting through the arrangements like a beacon in the fog.
The E Street Band will never be the same again.
Outside his work withthe E Street Band, Clemons was also highly prolific. In addition to a solo career – spanning five studio and two live albums – he also performed a number of Zucchero albums, as well as sessions for Aretha Franklin, Todd Rundgren, The Four Tops, Roy Orbison, Joe Cocker and many others. His last recorded work can be heard on Lady Gaga’s 2011 release ‘Born This Way’.
Goodbye big man. Bill and Ted were so right when they proclaimed you to be one of “the three most important people in the universe”.
Mike Portnoy, whom last year, quit his post as Dream Theater’s drummer after more than two decades has unveiled details of his new musical venture.
Adrenaline Mob is an all-star affair, and features Symphony X vocalist Russell Allen, Stuck Mojo/Fozzy guitarist Rich Ward, Sonic Stomp guitar player Mike Orlando and Nena bassist Paul DiLeo.
The are currently working on a debut album and will make their live debut in New York next week on June 24th.
September 2011 will see the release of four expanded Jimi Hendrix releases, overseen by the Hendrix Family.
A four CD set comprising live recordings made at San Francisco’s Winterland and an expanded version of ‘Hendrix In The West’ will be issued on CD on September 13th, while expanded versions of Hendrix’s appearances on ‘The Dick Cavett Show’ and at The Isle of Wight festival will be released on DVD.
The new version of ‘Blue Wild Angel: Live at The Isle of Wight’ is expected to have a running time approximating 3 hours, which is a huge improvement on the currently available 60 minute version (first issued in 2002).
‘Hendrix In The West’, a compilation of live recordings made between 1969/70 – first issued in January 1972 – has been out of print in the US since 1974 and never available on CD in it’s original form in the US., although all tracks from the original LP were subsequently issued as part of the ‘Experience’ box set, first issued in September 2000. The new CD version of ‘Hendrix In The West’ will feature 3 previously unreleased cuts.
Full details for all four releases can be found here.
Ex-White Zombie frontman and film-maker/solo artist Rob Zombie has been awarded Metal Hammer’s “Golden God” award. Presented the award by the legendary Alice Cooper, Zombie is celebrating over a quarter of a century in the music business.
Other awards given out at the ceremony included “Metal Icons”, awarded to stalwarts Judas Priest, whose debut album was released 37 years ago. Priest are about to embark on their “final tour” – their first without long-serving guitarist KK Downing – and can be seen in the UK at the following dates:
15th July Newport Centre, Newport, UK
16th July The Apollo, Manchester, UK
17th July The Dome, Doncaster, UK
19th July SECC, Glasgow, UK
20th July Newcastle Arena, Newcastle, UK
21st July Wolverhampton Civic, Wolverhampton, UK
23rd July High Voltage Festival, London, UK
24th July BIC, Bournemouth, UK
