Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks teaming up for concert tour

The pair made their announcement and performed on an episode of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." This concert will feature both artists focusing on the biggest hits from their careers, according to a spokeswoman for Live Nation, the tour's promoter.

The Stones To Tour in 2011?

A day after Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards made headlines for telling BBC Music that the band is eyeing a new album and tour in 2011, the band's representatives have released a statement clarifying that nothing has been made official for a new Stones album and tour.

Some websites and other media have reported that the Stones might have European stadium concert dates for the summer of 2011.  However, that time line seems unlikely, because if the Stones do launch a tour in 2011, it probably won't be earlier than the last quarter of 2011.  According to people in the biz, a Rolling Stone tour takes at least a year to plan.

Van Halen Set To Tour Again

Van Halen will return to the road in 2011 — or so said Live Nation Ticketmaster chairman Irving Azoff, in a meeting with analysts meant to show that the outlook for next year's concert circuit will brighten. Van Halen, with David Lee Roth, last toured together in June 2008. According to USA Today, Azoff, who is also Van Halen's manager, named Van Halen, Christina Aguilera, Fleetwood Mac and the cast of Glee as some of the artists that are expected to pack stadium and arenas when they embark on tours next year. Van Halen's 2008 tour grossed $93 million for Live Nation.  No official word from Van Halen…not even David Lee Roth!

Lennon Coin

Most British coins bear the likeness of Queen Elizabeth II — but now she's been joined by John Lennon, honored Friday with a commemorative coin struck by the Royal Mint.

"It's entirely fitting that John Lennon has been chosen by the public in what would have been his 70th year," said Dave Knight, director of Commemorative Coin at the Royal Mint. "The massive proportion of the vote he received shows clearly just how much his untimely death still resonates with the nation. He ranks alongside, and even ahead of, some of the greatest names in history."

The former Beatle will join William Shakespeare, Winston Churchill, Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale among British luminaries whose images have graced special coins.

The issuing of the silver commemorative coin marks one more step in the British establishment's posthumous embrace of

The airport at Lennon's home town of Liverpool has been named after Lennon, and there is a statue of him in the city center.

Lennon, whose political stance and open drug use brought him into conflict with authorities in the late 1960s before he moved to New York, where he was murdered in 1980.

The limited edition coin shows Lennon with long hair and sideburns and his trademark round glasses. It will have a face value of 5 pounds ($8) but will be sold for 44.99 pounds. Only 5,000 will be offered for sale.

The Royal Mint also plans to produce a single coin in 24 karat gold that will be given to Lennon's estate.

McCartney Goes Digital

Paul McCartney's company, McCartney Productins Limited (MPL) has announced that they will digitize McCartney's library of music, artwork, paintings, film, and videos.
More information is available at th website paulmccartneye former Beatle's.com

Frank Zappa Ceremony

Seventeen years after the rock legend’s death, Zappa drew a large, fittingly eclectic crowd to a ceremony in the city where he was born.The festivities included a concert by Zappa’s son, Dweezil, and his band, Zappa Plays Zappa; a library exhibit, "Zappa’s Baltimore: Rebels and Iconoclasts in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave," and a temporary name for the street in front of the library, "Frank Zappa Way."The bronze bust of the mustachioed Zappa — one of rock’s great iconoclasts — was donated by Zappa fans from Lithuania, which has had its own Zappa sculpture in its capital of Vilnius since 1995. Although Zappa never visited the Baltic country, he was admired there for his advocacy of free expression as well as for his music.Zappa’s widow, Gail, attended the ceremony, along with Dweezil and two other children, Ahmet and Diva. A group of Lithuanians flew to Baltimore for the event.

The Real 'Lynyrd Skynyrd' Dies

    Leonard Skinner, the basketball coach and gym teacher who inspired the name of the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, died Monday in Florida, he was 77 years old. Skinner was working at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville Fl in the late 1960's when he sent a group of students to the principal's office because their hair was too long. Those students later went on to form a fucking rockin' band, adopting a variation of Skinner's name as their own and well...you know the rest of the story...

Queen Borat?

   “Borat” star Sacha Baron Cohen has been signed up to star in a movie about flamboyant rock star Freddie Mercury, producers said Friday. Producers say Peter Morgan, who wrote “The Queen”, is working on a screenplay about the front man of the band Queen, who died of AIDS in 1994.The announcement was made by GK Films, which is producing with Robert DeNiro’s Tribeca Productions and Queen Films.Founded in 1971 by Mercury, guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor, Queen scored hits with songs including "We Are the Champions," "We Will Rock You" and "Bohemian Rhapsody."Brian May told the BBC that the band supports the project, and May and Taylor will oversee the music for the film. There was no word on whether Baron Cohen will try to imitate Mercury's grandiose singing style, but the comedian has appeared in several musicals, including Tim Burton’s film version of “Sweeney Todd”.

40th Anniversary of the Death of Jimi Hendrix

     
    Saturday was the fortieth anniversary of the death of guitar and music legend, Jimi  Hendrix.  Hendrix,who is widely considered to be the greatest electric guitarist of all time, was just 27 at the time of his death.  Despite forty years having passed, there is still a bit of mystery with regards to the circumstances of his death.  The last person to see Hendrix alive was girlfriend Monika Dannemann, whom Hendrix had left a party on the night of September 17th with, returning to her Notting Hill flat.  According to testimony by Dannemann (which varies widely from interview to interview), Hendrix then took a massive dose of her sleeping pills, Vesperax, though it was unbeknown to her until it was too late.  Rather than a suicide attempt, however, it was thought to be a simple misunderstanding, as the pills were foreign.  Dr. John Bannister, the surgeon who first attended to Hendrix, said that Hendrix died from asphyxiation, drowning in his own vomit, which consisted mainly of red wine.  Last year, however, around the time of the 39th anniversary of Hendrix's death, James "Tappy" Wright, a former roadie, wrote a book stating that Hendrix's former manager, Mike Jeffery, admitted to him that he had murdered Hendrix, with the reason being that he had wanted out of his contract.  Though no charges came to fruition in light of the revelation, Bannister, the doctor who had found him, said that the story was "plausible".

You Say It's His Birthday?

John Lennon’s 70th birthday tribute concert is scheduled in November(Lennon’s birthday is October 9) with a line-up including Jackson Browne, Patti Smith and Cyndi Lauper. The concert will be held in New York at the Beacon Theatre on November 12. In addition, proceeds will go to the Playing for Change Foundation, which promotes peace with music.

Free As A Bird...NOT!

Mark David Chapman, the man convicted of killing John Lennon, had his request for parole denied by a New York parole board for the Attica Correctional Facilility for the sixth time since 2000. Chapman was originally sentenced to 20 years to life.

Founding Member of ELO Dies in Freak Accident

A founding member of rock band Electric Light Orchestra was killed on Friday in a freak accident with a giant runaway bale of hay.

Cellist Mike Edwards died instantly after the 1,320-pound bale came tumbling down a steep hill and onto the van he was driving through Devon, England. The bale is believed to have fallen from a tractor working nearby.

Edwards swerved into another vehicle as he was struck but the other driver was uninjured in the crash.

Now authorities are reaching out to the Edwards' relatives to help with their investigation and formally identify the musician, who was 62.

Sergeant Steve Walker of the Devon and Cornwall police says, "This was a tragic accident and we have now identified the victim as Michael Edwards, a founder member of ELO.

"We have used photographs and YouTube footage to identify him but we now need help contacting his family for formal identification."

Edwards quit the band at the height of its fame in 1975 to become a Buddhist.

Oh No...Yoko!

Yoko Ono paid an emotional visit to John Lennon’s childhood home and school on a fast tour of Liverpool.

 The artist was greeted by dozens of screaming children when she dropped in to Dovedale junior and infant schools, in Mossley Hill, yesterday.

 She also surprised visitors at Mendips, Lennon’s boyhood home in Menlove Avenue, by turning up at the end of their tour for a chat.

 To mark the former Beatle’s 70th birthday, EMI is releasing 11 remastered Lennon albums, in an initiative overseen by Yoko, entitled “Gimme Some Truth”.