Stuff by Woody
Tower City have withdrawn from Firefest, a statement from lead singer Larry Saltis states that he feels he cannot sing the songs as well as he did two decades ago and during rehearsals he made the hard decision to pull out from the show rather than deliver a sub-standard performance to the loyal and dedicated Tower City fan base. They have already been replaced with Cult early 80’s pomp rockers Touch, Mark Mangold and Doug Howard return and they have a new singer in the form of Goran Edman, one of the genre’s current fan favourites.
House of Lords have just released their latest album ‘Precious Metal’ and you can check out the first video lifted from it for the track ‘Battle’ below. House Of Lords perform live in the UK this March supporting Robin Beck – they hit the Midlands for a show at The Robin on March 24th.
British super group Asia return this March with ‘Gravitas’ lined up for release on Frontiers Records. This is the first Asia album to feature new guitarist Sam Coulson who was recommend for the role by Mr Big’s Paul Gilbert. Tracks included are ‘Valkyrie’, ‘The Closer I Get To You’, ‘I Would Die For You’ and ‘Till We Meet Again’. Here’s the video for ‘Valkyrie’.
Glenn Hughes has once again teamed up with Black Country Communion drummer Jason Bonham for their new band California Breed. The power trio is completed by young emerging guitarist Andrew Watt who has built up quite a reputation as an exciting new musician. The debut album is slated for a May release but a single for ‘Midnight Oil’ will hit us first – so keep an eye out for that!
British super group Snakecharmer have already announced their return to The Robin in Bilston after their successful show there a few weeks ago – so put January 16th in your diaries!
Vadenberg’s Moonkings have just released their first videos for the track’s ‘Breathing’ and ‘Lust & Lies’. Remember these guys are bringing the rock to The Robin, Wolverhampton on April 23rd. We’ll be running an interview with Adrian very soon.
Popular Swedish rockers H.E.A.T will release their latest album ‘Tearing Down The Walls’ on earMusic on April 14th. Remember they will be headlining one of the nights at this year’s Firefest.
They’ve just released a video for their first single from the new album ‘A Shot At Redemption’.
Melodic Metallers Eden’s Curse hit the road this May for their first UK headline tour in support of their fourth album ‘Symphony Of Sin’. They play The Slade Rooms in Wolverhampton on the 22nd of May; get it in your gig diaries!
In shock news ‘Curse drummer and co-writer Pete Newdeck has left the band but he will continue fronting his own band Tainted Nation, – who might be supporting the Curse in Wolvo – and drumming duties with AOR hero, Newman. He has been replaced by Scottish drummer John Clelland who you might know from Code Of Silence who Curse bass man Paul Logue worked with on the ‘Dark Skies Over Babylon’ album last year.
A new British melodic rock band emerges this year. Three Lions features vocalist Nigel Bailey, guitarist Vinny Burns (Ten/Dare) and drummer Greg Morgan (Ten). Their self titled debut album will be out in April on the Frontiers Records label. Tracks to be included are ‘Trouble In A Red Dress’, ‘Twisted Soul’, ‘Just A Man’ and ‘Don’t Let Me Fall’.
Look out for new female fronted rockers Linda & The Punch who release their debut album this March via Escape Music. It features the tracks ‘What A Shame’, ‘Wake Up Dreaming of You’, ‘Nothing Of Anything’ and ‘Love Kills Me’.
A new Spanish AOR act emerges this year featuring members of cult band 91 Suite. Secret will release their debut album ‘The End Of The Road’ later this year. It will featuring the following tracks ‘Since I Fell For You’, ‘Just To Hear You Say’, ‘Trust Someone’ and ‘Angeline’.
Ged Ryalnd’s Rage Of Angels have announced that their new full time singer is Jason Morgan. He will be the band’s touring singer and will share the stage with Danny Vaughn with the band at this year’s, and final ever, Firefest in October.
Midlands rocker Daniel Trigger returns with his latest album ‘Army Of One’ which was released on February 8th and available from all the usual download outlets!
Neonfly have been announced as the official support for Magnum on their forthcoming UK tour!
Swedish melodic sleaze rockers Dynazty release their fourth opus ‘Renatus’ on February 28th. These guys will also perform in the UK at the HRH AOR Festival at the end of March. ‘Starlight’, their first video from it can be viewed below and it’s not what I was expecting at all – very heavy, very fast –
Ex-Nightwish and Alyson Avenue vocalist Anette Olzon releases her first solo album ‘Shine’ through earMusic in late March. It will include the following tracks ‘Lies’, ‘Falling’, ‘Invincible’ and ‘Watching Me From Afar’.
Here’s Anette’s new video for the track ‘Lies’.
Coldspell have released another new video from their third album ‘Frozen Paradise’. Coldspell hit the UK this March for a handful of dates and HRH AOR in North Wales – no dates in the Midlands, so if you’re a fan best prepare for a road trip. Enjoy the video for ‘Soldiers’ below.
Lillian Axe will release their mammoth three disc live acoustic album One Night In The Temple via Melodic Rock Records on April 15th.
Stuart Smith’s Heaven & Earth are coming to the UK for a few live shows including a date at the O2 Academy in Birmingham on June 26th.
Gotthard release their new album Bang! on April 4th, it’s the second to feature vocalist Nic Maeder. A few tracks to be included are ‘Feel What I Feel’, ‘Jump The Gun’, ‘Spread Your Wings’ and ‘I Won’t Look Down’.
They have just released the first video for the track ‘Feel What I Feel’. After their last extremely lacklustre and disappointing album Firebirth, it’s great to see them come back with such a killer song while it seems that Gotthard have got their mojo back!
Skintrade have released a new video for the track ‘Monster’, which is lifted from their latest album Refuelled out on AOR Heaven in March.
WAMI is a new hard rock super group featuring, Doogie White, Vinny Appice, Marco Mendoza and 16 year old Polish guitarist Iggy Gwadera. Their album Kill The King will be released in May and will feature the following tracks, ‘Young Blood’, ‘Guardian Of Your Heart’, ‘Heart Of Steel’ and ‘I Don’t Wanna Lose You’.
Ex-Skid Row vocalist Sebastian Bach returns with a new solo album Give Em Hell which will be unleashed in April via Frontiers Records. It’ll feature the following songs, ‘Push Away’, ‘Gun To A Knife Fight’, ‘Taking Back Tomorrow’ and ‘Forget You’.
FM will have a new EP out at the end of March called Futurama and it’s available for pre-order from the band now. It features 12 songs, but most interestingly four brand spanking new recordings – ‘Futurama’, ‘Cold Hearted’, ‘Bad That’s Good In You’ and ‘Preying On My Mind’.
Thunder has just released a new live album Back To The Black Country – it was recorded during the band’s two Christmas shows at Wolverhampton Civic Hall last year. You can grab it direct from the bands website
Download Festival has added another batch of melodic rock acts. It’ll be intriguing to see how these bands are placed on the billing and on which stages they perform, so joining the line-up are Winger, Tyketto, Twisted Sister and Dan Reed Network.
Winger will return after a five year absence with new album Better Days Comin’ out in April via Frontiers Records. It’ll contain the following tracks ‘Tin Soldier’, ‘Storm In Me’, ‘Ever Wonder’ and ‘Be Who You Are, Now’.
Black Country pop-rockers East Of Eden now officially known as EofE, have released a video for their cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘Dirty Diana’. The guys play HRH AOR at the end of March, enjoy!
Well that’s all the juicy bits of news from the past month; I’ll be back in a month’s time with even more news and gossip from the world of AOR and melodic rock.
