Sons Of Apollo and former Guns N’ Roses Guitarist Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal will release an unplugged covers EP featuring Soundgarden, Asia and more On ‘Barefoot 3’ EP this Friday via Bandcamp. “Barefoot 3” takes the “Barefoot” series up a notch, with intricate guitar arrangements, big backing vocals, and drummer Kyle Hughes.Continue reading
Queen are sharing their famous 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness via Youtube. The band is raising money to donate to COVID-19 relief efforts and they’ll be sharing the show for 48 hours via their Youtube live on Queen’s Youtube from 2pm EST on May 15th. May. Queen’s’ Benefit Concert took place in London’s Wembley Stadium on Easter Monday (20th, April). The surviving members of the band: Brian May, John Deacon, and Roger Taylor wanted to perform the benefit concert in memory of Freddie Mercury, who had passed away the previous November. The concert featured Queen and friends like David Bowie, Elton John, Axl Rose, and James Hetfield among others to pay tribute to Freddie Mercury. The setlist included some real treats like Bowie’s ‘Heroes’, ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’, and a special rendition of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
The ninth album from Greek power metallers Firewind finds the band introducing their latest vocalist Herbie Langhans, the former Sinbreed frontman replacing fellow German Henning Basse earlier this year. And the eponymously titled Firewind (AFM Records) is a fine way to get things rolling with their new frontman.Continue reading
Arguably the architect of the Rock music genre that spawned Rock N Roll as a cultural phenomenon, Little Richard, has passed away. He was 87 years old. The musician’s son, Danny Penniman, confirmed the pioneer’s death to Rolling Stone but said the cause of death was unknown. Born Richard Wayne Penniman in Macon, Georgia in 1932, Richard’s incredible songwriting, unmatchable singing voice, and flamboyant androgynous, yet taboo-shattering mix of sexual energy and religious music in his personality became the playbook for all young rockers to follow. Rolling Stone Magazine eloquently said his “fervent shrieks, flamboyant garb, and joyful, gender-bending persona embodied the spirit and sound of that new art form.” His influence can be felt from The Beatles, to The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Elton John, Billy Joel, Keith Emerson, KISS, Motörhead, MotörheadLed Zeppelin, Tom Jones, Van Morrison, as far back as Elvis, and even into the early stages of Heavy Metal with Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Rainbow, and Pentagram, his musical touch will be eternal. Starting a string of hits to start his career with ‘Tutti Frutti’, ‘Long Tall Sally’, ‘Rip It Up’ all in 1956,’Lucille’, ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’ those early hits shaped generations of fans. We send out sympathy to Little Richard’s family, friends, and fans at this time.
If there’s one name in the annals of rock history known to absolutely everyone, it’s Ozzy Osbourne. It doesn’t matter if you know him from his time with Black Sabbath, his solo career, his reality TV series, his wife, the bat story, or any of the other utterly insane stories which usually start with the excessive consumption of alcohol, or use of illegal substances. The fact is you know the name, you know the face, and you know the legend.Continue reading
Ozzy Osbourne has released his new album, and his best in some time, “Ordinary Man” today via epic records, available at all streaming DSPs and via merch bundles. Yesterday Ozzy made history by the largest global tattoo sale and album listening event ever across 50 cities worldwide on Thursday, February 20. Fans heard the record before anyone and were the first to choose from a collection of exclusive Ozzy-inspired tattoo designs. Today, Ozzy returns to the world-famous Amoeba Records (where he last hosted an in-store in June 2010) in Hollywood, California at 5:00 p.m. To attend, purchase “Ordinary Man” (available on CD, LP or picture disc) in-store at Amoeba Hollywood on February 21. Additionally, Ozzy today unveils the Golden Ticket Sweepstakes with the release with up to 300 different prizes for fans. In the U.S. only, all physical copies of the album (CD, vinyl, cassette, and pre-saves) are bundled with a unique code. Beginning today, fans may enter their codes at ordinarymansweepstakes.com to redeem for once-in-a-lifetime Ozzy prizes. The prizes range from a trip for two to Los Angeles to have dinner with Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, a signed guitar, a “Blizzard Of Ozz” platinum plaque, “See You On The Other Side” box set, and more.Continue reading
If you are like us at Ghost Cult, you go to a lot of concerts every year. We actually pay for many shows we cover, and the fees on top of the tickets, especially for major festivals, event-type shows and tours are astronomically over-priced. And the company that owns the most venues and puts on the most tours in the entire world thinks we are getting away cheap! According to a new report by Marketwatch, Ticketmaster and their parent Live Nation feel they have been charging fans too little and there is a “great opportunity” to earn more money by charging more for tickets in 2020 and beyond. According to the report, the average ticket price for the largest worldwide tours has increased by more than 20% in the past five years and is approaching $100 per ticket. This timeline coincides with the biggest bands and tours in the world, including major tours the last few years Guns N Roses’ “Not In This Lifetime Tour”, Metallica’s “Worldwired World Tour”, Slipknot’s “Slipknot Roadshow”, The Eagles, The Who, Elton John’s farewell tour, KISS’ “End of the Road” tour, Slayer’s “The Final Campaign Tour” on their way to retirement, Tool’s new tour, and next year’s big-ticket tours from My Chemical Romance, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett and The Blackhearts. This is not counting the secondary and resale market, which includes Ticket master’s murky relationship with resellers and bots (see Metallica’s S&M2 ticket debacle last summer), StubHub and other companies that gouge fans for profits. Continue reading
Pollstar, the music industry bible of data for recording artists has released their list of Highest-grossing Touring bands of the last decade and ranking on the list were Rock and Metal heavy hitters like Bon Jovi, Metallica and Guns N’ Roses. Other top bads include U2, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Roger Waters, and The Eagles. Continue reading
Forbes has released their annual list of the worlds highest-paid celebrities and on the strength of their massive grossing world tours, Metallica and Guns n Roses made the list. Metallica is back on the list after missing in 2018, ranked No. 21 this year with $65 million. GNR also failed to make the list last year but landed at No. 71 in 2019 with $44 million. The annual Celebrity 100 ranks the world’s highest-paid celebrities in music, sports, and entertainment according to what they made over the last 12 months. Sadly, Taylor Swift is still the highest-paid celebrity in the world, earning $185 million over the past year. Music industry trade magazine Pollstar recently named Metallica one of the top-earning hard rock and metal tours of the “2019 Midyear” reporting period, which covered the six-month range from November 22, 2018, to May 22, 2019. The ongoing “WorldWired” trek continued to be a hot ticket, as the group’s 21 North American arena shows during the reporting period grossed a total of $41.7 million, good for an average per-show gross of $1.99 million. With an average attendance of more than 16,000, the band moved nearly 350,000 tickets altogether. Guns’ “Not In This Lifetime” tour is believed to be the second-highest-grossing tour of all time, having generated more than $500 million since it began three years ago. The trek began in April 2016, and after 159 shows in 41 countries, it played its last date at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 8, 2018. Continue reading
“The pivotal one that stands out for me was seeing Elton John on the Great Lawn in Central Park on Sept 13th, 1980. This was actually my first rock concert, my mom took me – I was ten years old.”Continue reading