Oasis and Placebo Cancel; Lily atThe Ashes; Luke Steele with Jay-Z;

The biggest names in rock n roll are dropping like flies. Last week I reported several tour and show cancellations due to illness or injury within a band. This week matters only grew worse with Placebo frontman Brian Molko collapsing on stage during the band's performance at the massive Summer Sonic Festival in Japan. The cause of the sudden collapse has been attributed to fatigue, jet lag and a form of Asian Flu. Unfortunately the band has had to cancel their entire forthcoming American tour which was to run through September and October. The band hopes to make up for those shows as soon as possible. According to the band's management this is only the 3rd time Placebo has cancelled shows in their careers. On the other side of the world over 75 000 eager fans in Chelmsford England were anticipating Oasis' headlining performance at the V Festival. But only a matter of hours before they were scheduled to hit the stage and less than 18hrs after playing in Staffordshire the Britpop heroes called off the show due to a viral infection which had brought down lead singer Liam Gallagher. It was meant to be the final show of the band's 15 month world tour.

As much as it pains me to write about this I will include this. English pop starlet Lily Allen has spent much of the past week (along with most Poms and Aussies) following the 5th and final Ashes Test Match. Lily was spotted in the crowd with a new "friend" watching the game and listening to the BBC commentary on the radio. She also played the main stage at the V Festival which was being held nearby. During her set she praised the English teams performance at one stage exclaiming "I fucking love the cricket!". Her set was dominated by songs from her highly successful second album It's Not Me, It's You.

The most incredible piece of news to be announced this week was the inclusion of West Australian artist Luke Steele on the opening track of Jay-Z's highly anticipated Blueprint 3 album. The Sleepy Jackson and Empire of the Sun star will more than likely be singing on the chorus of the song. Steele's second band Empire of the Sun which also includes Pnau frontman Nick Littlemore has enjoyed enormous success in the UK and the lead single of its latest album Walking on a Dream is starting to receive solid exposure in the US. This might just give the band the extra boost they needed to crack the difficult American market.

Kasabian, Jet and Aerosmith Frontman under the weather

There seems to be something going around the world of rock n roll.

British rockers Kasabian are down under at the moment doing some promotional work. Unfortunately frontman Tom Meighman has gone down with swine flu like symptoms and has been admitted to hospital in Sydney. Subsequently the rest of the band has been quarantined in their hotel rooms. There was a special acoustic show scheduled on Wednesday night which had to be cancelled. Guitarist Serge did talk with Triple J. The interview can be downloaded here

Jet frontman Nic Cester has been rushed to hospital after collapsing onstage at a gig at The Hard Rock Café in London.The singer first collapsed after performing only two songs, however then got straight back up joking that he must have swine flu. Three songs later Cester collapsed for a second time and was then taken from the stage and rushed to hospital. Jet's 3rd album Shaka Rock will be released on 25th August.

Rock band Aerosmith have called off the remainder of their summer tour in the wake of singer Steven Tyler's on-stage accident last week. Aerosmith had been scheduled to tour Canada and the US until 16 September. Tyler suffered head and shoulder injuries after falling off stage at a concert in South Dakota. He was subsequently airlifted to hospital before travelling to Boston to consult with his own doctors.

Grohl + Homme + Led Zep; Michael Jackson This Is It Movie; Wolfmother Album Details; No More Radiohead Albums - 12/08

It has been a little while since I updated everyone on music news. So here is all the biggest news from the last few days.

First up is an update on the rumours flying around in early July about Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, Queens of the Stone Age songwriter Josh Homme and legendary Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones collaborating together in a new supergroup. It was all confirmed last week when the trio announced themselves under the name of Them Crooked Vultures. They have set up the essentials for every 21st century rock band with a new website and Twitter page. Furthermore the band played their debut gig in Chicago on the 9th. Hitting the stage after midnight Grohl got behind the drums, Homme played guitar and unsurprisingly Jones was on bass and keys. They ripped through 12 songs which they recorded together in Los Angeles in July. Below is a sample of the new band's music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qR59OKj0CI

Last weekend a LA court gave the greenlight to producers of Michael Jackson's This Is It tour to release a film created from the hundreds of hours of footage that was captured during rehearsals for the singer's cancelled London shows. The movies will be released into cinemas around the world on October 28. Some of the footage captured in the Staples Center will be shown in 3D and the entire film will be reviewed by the Jackson family and associates, ensuring that in no part of the film is Jackson portrayed in a negative light.

Aussie rockers Wolfmother have set a release date for their 2nd album. The band which now only includes one of its original members will be drop the follow up to their self-titled debut on October 12. The album titled Cosmic Egg will have 12 tracks including the first official single off the record New Moon Rising which will be released on October 5. The only taste of the re-shaped band fans have had so far has been the track Back 'Round which will not feature on the album. There are also strong rumours that Guns N Roses guitarist Slash will be on the album.

In Rainbows may just be the final Radiohead album we ever hear. Despite having spent the last few months in the studio with long time producer Nigel Godrich, the band apparently have no intentions of releasing a new LP anytime soon. In a recent interview Thom Yorke commented that 'we can't possibly dive into that(album releasing) again. It'll kill us." Instead the band will plan bring out singles and EP's. Nothing is certain at this time but what is certain is that in two weeks time the band will headline the Reading & Leeds Festival in the UK, which boasts one of the, if not THE best line ups for any festival anywhere in the world this year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_and_Leeds_Festivals_line-ups#2009

RHCP ARE BACK

On 3rd August Red Hot Chili Pepper's drummer Chad Smith told the media that the band was planning re-banding in October to start planning out their next album after a 2 year hiatus. During this time each member has pursued their own projects. Bassist Flea has made guest appearances on several albums as well as studying Music Theory at USC for a year. On the other hand lead guitarist John Frusciante brought out his 10th solo album The Empryean back in January but did not do a tour in support of it. RHCP frontman Anthony Kiedis produced a TV series about his own life in LA. During 2009 Chad Smith was part of the rock n roll supergroup Chickenfoot along side greats like Joe Satriani and Sammy Hager. The band released an album this year which was unfortunately poorly received nonetheless the band has sold out their American Tour which will end in October.

RHCP's last album Stadium Arcadium was released in 2006 and has sold over 8 million copies worldwide. The band tour on the back of it for close to 18 months playing 140 shows the last of which was at the Leeds Festival in August 2007. At this stage there has been no official confirmation from any other members of the band or their management. Some sources close to the band claim that all 4 members are on board and are looking forward to begin writing.

Pearl Jam Stadium Tour; All Points West Festival; Coldplay on Simpsons

( This writer will attempt to hold in his excitement about the following piece of news)

American rock band Pearl Jam have announced their Australian/New Zealand Tour for November 2009. It will be an all-stadium tour and will visit each major city in both countries. This will be Pearl Jam's first tour down here since 2006 which saw the band play Newcastle for the first time. The tour will be in support of their forthcoming release Backspacer coming out on in September. The band has stated that the shows will be one-night-only events.

November 14, Perth, Perth Oval
November 17, Adelaide, Adelaide Oval
November 20, Melbourne, Docklands
November 22, Sydney, Sydney Football Stadium
November 25, Brisbane, QSAC Stadium
November 27, Auckland, Mt Smart
November 29, Christchurch, Lancaster Park

Tickets go on sale August 17. WOOOHOOO!!!

Jersey's All Points West Festival came to a close on Sunday night with British soft rock megastars Coldplay headlining the main stage. The opening day of the festival was marred by heavy storms which delayed the start of the festival by 4 hours. Things eventually got going at 4:10PM leaving the tens of thousands of fans frustrated and angry. Headlining Friday night was local legend Jay-Z who was replacing The Beastie Boys, he dedicated his set to the band's ill member Adam Yauch. Other highlights on the night were Fleet Foxes and Yeah Yeah Yeah's. Homegrown band Vampire Weekend survived heavy storms to complete an excellent set in front of a very large crowd. The mood of the festival changed entirely on Saturday as the main stage was taken over by prog rockers Tool and their graphic imagery. Also on stage were Brits Arctic Monkeys and a surprise performance from Ice-T. Sunday was host to a stunning line up of bands including Coldplay, MGMT, Elbow and Mogwai . Coldplay frontman Chris Martin had some fun with the muddy weather telling the crowd "We're four people from Britain who grew up in the mud and the rain,so we take our hats off to you New Yorkers and New Jerseyers for surviving what could only be described as a mud jacuzzi." The New York Times described the festival the next morning as 'All Points Wet'

Briefly, Coldplay are set to appear in an forthcoming episode of The Simpsons. The band will reportedly be hired by Homer to play a private concert for him and Bart after he wins the lottery.

Pirate Bay Shutdown; Bloc Party Over; Elbow Elbowed; Dead Letter Circus News

Associated Press is reporting that the massively popular torrent website The Pirate Bay has been ordered by a Dutch court that must block traffic between the site and the Netherlands within 10 days. The website provides torrent files which allow users to share copyrighted material including movies, music and games, the court has ordered its operators to block these infringements of copyright or they will face charges of $US 42 000 a day. Similar sites such as Mininova and Torrentz remain in full operation but are being monitored by the IFPI. The music industry is estimated to have lost over a billion in 2008 due to music piracy and file sharing. On the other hand legal digital downloads are increasing exponentially.

In Australia for the Splendour in the Grass festival and a couple of very exclusive intimate shows, British rockers Bloc Party spoke to Triple J radio's Music Director, Richard Kingsmill. In the interview frontman Kele Okereke stated " we’re out of contract now so we might never make a record again or we might head straight back in and do a record. " Such comments are not uncommon from bands who have been on the road supporting an album for a long time, Kele and the boys have an exhaustive tour schedule ahead of them still, with an extensive tour through the UK finishing in late October before concluding in Osaka, Japan in mid-November. This wraps up the band's world tour which began last August. The interview can be found here - http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/triplej/livemusic/splendour_2009/bloc_party/interview.mp3

Staying with the British rock theme, Mercury Prize winning act Elbow were scheduled to play the Late Show with David Letterman last night (29th). Unfortunately Letterman ran overtime leading to the band's performance being scrapped. This is not the first time a band has been invited to the show and not had the chance to perform. Previously indie band Grizzly Bear were set to appear on the show but for similar reasons to Elbow were unable to make the stage. No news on whether 4 piece will get another chance. Grizzly Bear performed Ready, Able on the show last week, the video of which can be found in the Youtube section.

Finally, Brisbane's finest hardcore-ish punk band Dead Letter Circus have announced a large national tour in support of their latest single The Space On The Wall. The tour begin in September and concludes on October 4 in Fremantle, WA and will see the band hit all the major cities including Sydney on the 4th of September at the Annandale Hotel. The band will be supported by MM9 and Sydonia. There is no update on the status of the band's highly anticipated debut album.

Metallica song live debut; Humbug Leaked; M.I.A. Verse

Metallica fan forums have gone into meltdown in the last 48hours as the world's heaviest touring band played 2 of their songs live on stage for the first time. Suicide and Redemption from the band's latest release Death Magnetic and the Grammy-nominated Ecstasy of Gold were both played in full in front of 18 000 hardcore Metallica fans in Copenhagen's Forum on the 27th and 28th of July respectively. The track Ecstasy of Gold was originally composed by Ennio Morricone for the film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and has been used by the band as the introduction music for their shows since 1983. In 2007 the band recorded the instrumental song officially. Ecstasy of Gold is one of the few songs where frontman James Hetfield plays the solo.





Metallica recorded their performance on July 7 in Nimes, France and plan to release it on DVD exclusively in France through their official website. Furthermore the band has shot parts of their Latin American tour for a South America only DVD release.

Continuing with the story mentioned yesterday, Arctic Monkey's 3rd album Humbug has been leaked in its entirety today. The band has not issued any statements yet on their reaction to the leak, which has occured almost 4 weeks before its official release date. I will review the album in full this weekend but in respect for the band I will refrain from posting any of the leaked tracks.

2009 has been relatively quiet year for British rapper-singer M.I.A. in terms of music after giving birth to her first child. Earlier this year she made appearances at the Grammy Awards and California's Coachella Festival. The influential artist has now appeared on a new mix from DJ Major Lazer. She provides a verse on the Keep Watch series which is avaiable here. M.I.A. starts at 11:20 on the song.

Arctic Monkeys Leak; David Bryne on U2; MGMT with Jay-Z - 29/07

More tracks have been leaked from the forthcoming Arctic Monkeys album Humbug. Due to be released on August 24, the follow up to 2007's Favourite Worst Nightmare was produced by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme. Over the few days 5 songs have been unofficially leaked onto the internet and shared through a number of fan forums, these include My Propellor, Secret Door, Cornerstone, Dance Little Liar and Pretty Visitors. The songs vary from a strong Last Shadow Puppets vibe to outright stoner rock with an indie touch to them. Including Crying Lightning, 6 out of the 10 songs from the album are now available. If you are interested in getting the links then sign up to any of the fan forums. www.arcticmonkeys.com

Former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne has spoke out against U2's current 360 world tour. He describes it as being 'overkill' and goes on to add that it is 'a wee bit out of balance given all the starving people in Africa and all'. That wasn't all Byrne had to say against the Irish megaband. "Maybe it's the fact that we were booted off our 'Letterman' spot so U2 could keep their exclusive week-long run". During the 80s Talking Heads and U2 both worked with legendary producer Brian Eno. http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2009/07/071409-budapest.html

More details have been released on the rumoured collaboration between psychadelic pop kings MGMT and rap legend Jay-Z. The duo will make a guest appearance on Jay-Z highly anticipated The Blueprint 3 alongside some of the biggest names in the urban music world including Kanye West and Timbaland. The album is set for release on September 11, exactly 8 years since the release of The Blueprint- one of the most critically acclaimed rap albums of all time. http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSTRE56J06220090720