After Janet Jackson’s Titgate scandal back in 2004, the NFL has turned to classic rockers to rock the always insipid and incredibly cheesy and quite lame half-time show. Following in the footsteps of The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Prince, U2 and Tom Petty, The Boss will pick up the mantle and run with it, as he and The E Street Band will perform live at Super Bowl XLIII’s Halftime show on February 1st 2009, in Tampa Bay.
The rumor mill has been in overdrive these past few weeks, with every rumor taken for fact “Zeppelin will tour this year”, “Page, Jonsey and Bonhnam will tour without Plant”. RockHeap Rules!”(OK that one is fact). But all these rumors came to a Hindenburg type ending twith this release: “Robert has no intention whatsoever of touring with anyone for at least the next two years,” a statement on Plant’s official website reads. “Contrary to a spate of recent reports, Robert Plant will not be touring or recording with Led Zeppelin. Anyone buying tickets online to any such event will be buying bogus tickets.”
Plant then added “It’s both frustrating and ridiculous for this story to continue to rear its head when all the musicians that surround the story are keen to get on with their individual projects and move forward,” Plant said. “I wish Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham nothing but success with any future projects.” Plant is currently on tour with Alison Krauss to promote their album Raising Sand. Wow, that sucks. Nothing more we can say.
40 years after the Beatles were banned from playing Israel, Paul McCartney got his Matzo Ball on when he played his first ever concert in Tel Aviv today in front of 40,000 fans. McCartney even busted out some Hebrew to wish the crowd a happy Rosh Hashanah next week. Check the setlist after the jump.
Rumors are a-swirling. Supposedly on Wednesday, there was a vendor convention held by Best Buy in Dallas and at this supposed convention Guns manager Andy Gould told the Best Buy employees that the 62 year in the making Chinese Democracy album will be released on November 25 and sold exclusively at Best Buy. Like we said about AC/DC we are getting sick of this exclusive shit, but enough of that for now. The Guns manager then played 3 tracks. He also confirmed that the track “If The World” would be in the new Leonardo Dicaprio and Russell Crowe movie Body Of Lies, it would close out the movie as the credits role. Now take this rumor with a grain of salt, actually make that a keg of salt. Who knows if it’s bullshit or not, but man that Dr. Pepper is gonna taste sweet. They’re saving me .75 cents. Man, what a great world.
AC/DC has announced it won’t release it’s new album, Black Ice, on iTunes on October 20th. The groups guitarist Angus Young was quoted as saying, “We don’t make singles, we make albums.” Ohhh, excuse us, you have integrity! Hmmm, considering you have also made a deal with the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, to be the exclusive seller of this upcoming CD of yours, you’ll excuse us while we vomit on ourselves. Hey Angus and Co., fuck you and your sanctimonious bullshit preaching. Did you ever think about people who don’t live near a Wal-Mart or perhaps all the independent mom and pop record stores out there who will lose business because you slack ass jackals have sold out to the man. So don’t lecture us you dipshit. Maybe we would buy the album if 8 out of the 10 songs didn’t suck.
Steven Tyler of Aerosmith is suing a group of unknown bloggers for impersonating the frontman on the internet. Huh? How exactly do you sue someone who is unknown? In the lawsuit, Tyler complains that bloggers writing as Tyler provided intimate details concerning the singer’s actual life, including discussing the death of Tyler’s mother and impersonating Tyler’s girlfriend. Double huh?? How exactly does this person or persons know such intimate details? This isn’t the first time Tyler was hit by fake blogs. In 2007 Google shut it down. In 2008 Blogspot was the host of the “Fake” Tyler blogs, but those sites have since been shut down. The lawsuit accuses the unknown bloggers of “public disclosure of private facts, making false statements and misappropriation of likeness.” The suit also seeks an injunction to prevent the bloggers return in 2009. Yet again we ask, who exactly is Tyler suing?
On the verge of launching their 40th anniversary tour this summer; YES lead singer Jon Anderson suffered a severe asthma attack and was diagnosed with acute respiratory failure and the dates were cancelled. ‘Nuf said. Reschedule the tour for 2009 when Anderson is healthy. Especially given the fact that he has been the lead singer for 40 years and is only sick, not dead. If you’re a YES fan, this would suck, but better he’s healthy and you would see them next year. Now comes news that YES will in fact go on with the 40th Anniversary tour without Jon Anderson. Say what? In what’s become a disturbing and quite frankly, lazy and lame ass trend, YES has turned to You Tube. They have hired Benoit David, a singer for a YES tribute band, to fill in for Anderson touring the tour. Anderson has posted the following on his website in response:
Disappointed, and very Disrespected
Disappointed that, with the exception of one phone call from Alan, none of the guys have been in touch since my illness, just to find out how I am doing, and how we will foresee the future for YES. And disappointed that they were not willing to wait till 2009 when I’m fully recovered.
And I feel very disrespected, having spent most of this year creating songs and constant ideas for the band, spending time with Roger Dean creating a stage design, also working with VH1 and Sirius and XM Radio to help promote the welfare of YES.
Getting sick was not “on my radar”, and I thank my own angel Janeee and my family for helping me through this difficult time, and the many well wishers, friends and fans alike, for understanding that ”things happen”.
Of course I wish the guys all the best in their ’solo’ work, but I just wish this could have been done in a more gentlemanly fashion. After all YES is a precious musical band.
This is not YES on tour…
I send best wishes to one and all,
Jon Anderson
September 2008
We couldn’t agree more with Anderson. The whole point of the 40th Anniversary tour is to celebrate YES. Why would you want to tour without your lead singer? On top of that you have your keyboardists son sitting in as well. Rick Wakeman’s son Oliver will be handling his father’s duties. Where the hell is Tony Kaye? So only 3/5 of the members are YES. Then to do this without Anderson even knowing, while he is sick, that is the definition of low. How fucking greedy can you be that you can’t wait for six months until he recuperates? Hiring a lame ass cover band hack to fill in. I mean what self respecting YES fan would give their hard earned money to see this abortion? To Chris Squire, Alan White and Steve Howe, RockHeap says shame on you, you backstabbing, money grubbing pieces of un-cool dog shit. Jon Anderson might be a fruity elf wanna be, but damn if he’s not the soul of YES.
Metallica, Run-DMC and The Stooges are among the nominees for the 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class. The 2009 ceremony will be held April 4th in Cleveland, which is the actual home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Other nominees include Jeff Beck, Chic, Wanda Jackson, War, Little Anthony and the Imperials and Bobby Womack.
First-time nominees Metallica have grabbed the honor in only their second year of eligibility, while fellow first timers, The Stooges, have been eligible for well over a decade. This marks the fifth time that Chic has been nominated for the Hall. For the first time ever tickets for the ceremony — which will be held at Cleveland’s Public Hall — will be made available to the public. At least the crowd will be enthusiastic, as opposed to those pompous record company dick heads who usually attend the ceremony.
According to Rolling Stone magazine, Journey’s new lead singer, Arnel Pineda, isn’t finding touring the world nearly as fulfilling as his bandmates are. He misses his girlfriend and son, and the grueling pace is grinding him down. “It’s very, very sad,” he says. “There are days I just break down and cry. This is a job I’m doing for my family. That’s all the consolation I’m getting.” Traveling around America isn’t what he expected. “It’s all buses, stage, microphone,” he says. “I never really get to go around and walk. They wake me up for soundcheck, then I wait until the show at nine. It’s a fantastic job, but at the same time it’s a curse. . . I told Neal that the only thing that will make me quit this is if I get sick. I guess that’s the same reason Steve Perry bailed out.” Are you fucking kidding me? Grow some balls Arnel. When are the morons in Journey and that monkey’s ass Steve Perry gonna bury the hatchet and do it up right already, this is just getting silly, don’t ya think? RockHeap sure does.
Self-proclaimed Republican Rocker Ted Nugent has sent a copy of his new book “Ted, White & Blue: The Nugent Manifesto”, to Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Palin was at the top of Nugent’s list to receive an advance copy of the book, which documents Uncle Ted’s ideas on “how to fix America.” In a letter to Palin, the Nuge writes, “As a proud fellow American hunter, fisherman and lover of Alaska’s soul cleansing magnificent Spirit of the Wild, we who live our American Dream by God, truth, logic, goodwill and decency, thank you for bringing such defiant common sense and self evident truth back to the GOP and politics.” Rockheap would like The Nuge to send America an apology for the two Damn Yankees albums he released in the 90’s.
Richard Wright, keyboardist and founding member of Pink Floyd has died. His family announced that Richard passed away Monday after a short battle with cancer. Wright was remembered by his friend and bandmate David Gilmour. “No-one can replace Richard Wright — he was my musical partner and my friend,” he said. “In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick’s enormous input was frequently forgotten. He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognised Pink Floyd sound.”
AC/DC have scheduled the North American leg of their upcoming Black Ice world tour, the band’s first since 2001. How Angus still fits in his school boy outfit still amazes us and creeps us out. The “Rock N Roll Train” opens in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on October 28th and wraps up on December 18th in Charlotte, NC (more North American dates will be added soon). AC/DC will then take the train to South America, Asia and Europe before returning to the U.S. for a run through stadiums in the summer of 2009. Tickets go on sale September 20th. Click below to see all the dates.
David Gilmour says there will never be a full on Pink Floyd reunion. The British rock icon and one of the wealthiest musicians in all of the U.K. raised fans’ hopes when the band performed at the Live 8 charity concert in London in 2005. It was the first time in almost a quarter of a century that Gilmour and estranged bandmate Roger Waters had appeared onstage together. But apparently once was enough. “The gig itself was excellent, really enjoyable,” said the 62-year-old guitarist and singer from The Astoria, his houseboat/recording studio on the River Thames. “The rehearsals were less enjoyable. The rehearsals convinced me it wasn’t something I wanted to be doing a lot of.”
He has a famously testy relationship with bassist and singer Waters, who walked away from Pink Floyd in 1985. “There have been all sorts of farewell moments in people’s lives and careers which they have then rescinded, but I think I can fairly categorically say that there won’t be a tour or an album again that I take part in”. “It isn’t to do with animosity or anything like that. It’s just that I’ve done that. I’ve been there, I’ve done it.” Gilmour’s latest project is a solo album and tour, captured on “David Gilmour Live in Gdansk,” a double concert album and DVD to be released Sept. 23 on Columbia Records. Gilmour says he’s happy these days to play the old Floyd songs. “I don’t like the idea of going out without a new album, without some new music to play,” he said. “But people have come long distances and paid a lot of money to see a show. I want to give them a bit of what they expect and will enjoy”. He says music is “one of the important things in my life, but it’s not the only thing. My family are more important. If I had to give one up, I wouldn’t be giving my family up”.
At The Toronto International Film Festival Jimmy Page was asked about rumors that he, John Bonham’s son Jason and John Paul Jones are recording right now and that a reunion is on the horizon. Page said, “We’re not actually recording. Playing at the 02, that was our reunion and it was one day and it was at the 02 in London”. Page ws referring to the December 10, 2007 benefit concert in honor of late Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. He went on to say, “And basically that was it because if you’re going to do a reunion, you need four members. John Paul Jones, myself and Jason would sort of jam afterwards but it was nothing as monumental as people are speculating.” Can these assholes either shit or get off the pot? Do it or don’t do it, but stop dropping half ass clues like jamming together or showing up at award shows together, it’s really driving us nuts.
I couldn’t resist making this our classic clip. Check this performance out from Cal Jam 2 in March of 1978. Look at the size of the crowd! Other notables that performed at this show were Ted Nugent, Aerosmith, Santana, Dave Mason and Foreigner.
Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has the nickname “Barracuda”. So the brain trust at the McCain campaign figured they would use the Heart rocker of the same name as her theme song. The only problem? No one asked the ladies of Heart. The band released a statement Thursday afternoon announcing they had sent a cease-and-desist letter asking the campaign to stop using the song. “The Republican campaign did not ask for permission to use the song, nor would they have been granted that permission. We have asked the Republican campaign publicly not to use our music. We hope our wishes will be honored.” Their wishes were not honored, as after John McCain’s RNC-ending speech last night, Palin joined him onstage to the sound of “Barracuda”.
This set off Nancy Wilson, who told EW.com, “I think it’s completely unfair to be so misrepresented. I feel completely fucked over.” Soon after, they issued another, more scathing statement: “Sarah Palin’s views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song “Barracuda” no longer be used to promote her image. The song “Barracuda” was written in the late ’70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The ‘barracuda’ represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there’s irony in Republican strategists’ choice to make use of it there.” Ouch. RockHeap would like to see it settled in a hot oil bikini match between Palin and Nancy Wilson. Ann not so much.
U2 have penned roughly “fifty to sixty” tracks during their recent studio sessions that stretch from Morocco to Dublin to France. Bono wrote in to U2.com to discuss the band’s new album, now due out in the early stages of 2009 rather than this coming holiday season. We’ll take 10 good tracks. Leave the 50 shitty ones in the vault please, Thank you…. “We’ve hit a rich songwriting vein and we don’t want to stop,” Bono said. “This is our chance for us to defy gravity once again.” Bono said this new album — coming on the heels of two “very personal” albums in All You Can’t Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb — attempts to recapture “the transition that took us from The Joshua Tree to Achtung Baby.”
Who knew some tongue could cost so much. Over the weekend a London museum purchased the original Rolling Stones’ tongue-and-lips logo for $92,500. “The Tongue” was created by John Pasche in 1970 and first showed up on 1971’s Sticky Fingers, in what was perhaps one of the first cases of rock brand marketing. When approached by Mick Jagger to create a logo for the Stones, Pasche once said “Face to face with him, the first thing you were aware of was the size of his lips and his mouth”. The logo will be showcased at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Great White has reached a settlement with the families of victims and survivors of the 2003 Station nightclub fire that claimed 100 lives. The band agreed to pay a combined $1,000,000 to the more than 300 defendants. As part of the settlement, the band deny any wrong doing in the February 2003 fire. While band members were never charged with any crimes, Great White manager Daniel Biechele served half of a four-year jail sentence after pleading guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter. The state of Rhode Island and town of Warwick also settled with defendants last month for $10 million.
A live DVD documenting the Sex Pistols’ 2007 reunion will be released on October 14th. “There Will Always Be An England” features the band’s Brixton Academy concert from London as well as ninety minutes of bonus footage. Wow, 50-something anarchists, just what the world needs.
