Escape Music and Phantoms Opera are pleased to reveal the new vocalist in the band - Terry Brock. You can hear Terry's vocals on the Boston Tribute album too. Terry Brock is also a solo artist of Frontiers Label. Terry Brock will be gusting on VOICES project album amongst other guest vocalists which is in the progress at this moment by Tommy Denander and Chris Ousey remixed and remastered.
www.escape-music.com

The best Classic Rock festival in the states have now the complete lineup (including regional bands)ready to go. All tickets and camping are on sale now. Some of the bands playing are: Dio, Scorpions, Journey, Deep Purple, Firehouse, Poison, Loverboy, Toto, Meatloaf, Ted Nugent etc. Date 17-21 July, They will also have a band playing Wednesday night in the new permanent beer pavilion at the top of the hill. For all info check:
www.rock-fest.com

Escape Music will be releasing the debut album by Mechanix, a five piece band from Arizona/USA. Thay are supposed to be playing hard hitting rock that shakes buildings to the foundations and they are masters of their profession. So, if anyone out there has found themselves playing albums by Tour De Force, Artica and the US band Fortune they are in for a big treat. Anyone not familiar with these bands can simply be told that Mechanix are purveyors of huge anthemic melodic rock that is driven by massive guitar hooks and solos, along with keyboard passages to die for and a lead vocalist who can sing his heart out. Release dat 10th Of April.
www.escape-music.com

Next up to bat at the Sweden Rock Festival are... FREAK KITCHEN. Fronted by Mattias "IA" Eklundh (ex. Fate), they are one of the better live acts around. More info at:
www.swedenrock.com

Sebastian Bach, former Broadway star and lead singer of the metal band Skid Row, was charged with making terrorist threats and drug possession after a dispute with a bartender at a restaurant. Bach, whose real name is Sebastian Bierk, was released Thursday on $10,000 bail. He also was charged with disorderly conduct, possession of under 20 grams of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Authorities said the 33-year-old was at the Lincroft Inn on Wednesday night when he went outside with a drink. He became angry when a bartender told him to come back inside, police said. Bach told police who arrived at the restaurant that he was going to return to his Middletown home, get a gun and shoot a bartender and others in the bar area, authorities said. At police headquarters, Bach reportedly became verbally abusive when a detective tried to explain the charges against him and continued to make threats against the bartender. Police said that when Bach was asked whether he understood the charges, he replied: "Yeah, because I smoked a lot of weed." His manager, Carol Kaye, declined to comment.

Believe it or not Sammy Hagar & David Lee Roth are talking about touring this summer! Sammy was blown away at how well they got along together. Hagar said: "If this happens, this would have to be the party of a lifetime"!! Find more info at the official Sammay Hagar website:
www.redrocker.com

PHIL LYNOTT
‘Live In Sweden 1983’

Deluxe limited edition 2 CD box set featuring John Sykes, Brain Downey & Mark Stanway.

Contains unpublished photos, exclusive tracks and bonus second night CD ONLY available as part of this set.

£19.99 inc. P&P – available March 28th!

www.zoomclub.com

From Marillion's newsletter (sent 12 March):

We're sending this eWeb out as a bit of an emergency measure.

Today, tickets for the 'Brave' warm-up show in Cardiff went on sale, and within 5 minutes, the server crashed. We apologise for the problem, but unfortunately our system is currently unable to handle the unprecedented traffic. We are working on a solution to this, and hope to have the server back up and running within the next half-hour.

Obviously, the demand for this show is more than we expected, and if you experience problems in ordering, you may have to try at a later time. Please also note that we will not be answering emails about the problems with the server - an automatic reply with this information will also be automatically sent to anyone contacting racket@marillion.com.

As a note, contrary to some discussions on various Marillion internet groups, there are 800 tickets available for this event, which even with current levels of demand, we do not anticipate selling out within the day. We hope this information may lessen the immediate demand for tickets, and while we would request that you try ordering at a later time, we do understand that the demand is high, and will come up with the best solution to allow you to order as soon as possible.

If you do place a ticket order, we would ask that you leave the marillion.com website as soon as you receive your confirmation, to reduce the load on the server.

We thank you in advance for your patience!

Regards,

Racket Records

After long negotiations an agreement has been reached re the recording of new material by the classic line up of Norwegian legends TNT. TNT released 4 classic albums between 1984 - 1992 "Knights Of The New Thunder", "Tell No Tales", "intuition" and "Realised Fantasies". The reformed line up features Tony Harnell, Ronni Le Tekro, Morty Black and Diesel Dahl and work will commence during May on new material. Lead singer Tony Harnell commented: It's great to have finally worked out a plan for TNT. R We're starting with an EP for Z because Universal in Norway is releasing a new "Best Of" album and we decided that we'd record a new song for that and at the same time record a couple more new ones for the rest of the world just to kick things off. The plan is to tour Europe and possibly Japan in the fall to support both releases. We would like to see a new full length album out sometime in 2003.
www.zrecords.net

In addition to the ambitious "Leonardo" project and the fourth Magellan album, Trent Gardner has written material for a new Explorers Club project. Special guests include drummer Terry Bozzio, Dream Theater bassist John Myung, Kerry Livgren (Kansas), Gary Wehrkamp (Shadow Gallery), Mark Robertson (Cairo), Marty Friedman (Megadeth), Steve Walsh (Kansas) and James LaBrie (Dream Theater)Terry Brown mixed the album. Dave McKean has designed an incredible package for this 2nd Explorers Club release. Magellan - "Hundred Year Flood" will also be released later this spring.
www.magnacarta.net

Second album from Locomotive Breath featuring ex Overdrive Guitarist Janne Stark. Powerful and diverce melodic hard rock cooked in Sweden. With a touch King's X and a piece of Pride And Glory, spiced with a big doze of originality in their music backpack they are rocking hard. They are really standing up to the name of their new album. This is Heavy Machinery. Guest appearances on the album by Roland Grapow (Helloween), Mattias "IA" Eklundh (Freak Kitchen), Tommy Denander (Radioactive, Bruce Gaitch, ATC etc), Micke "Nord " Andersson (Roxette etc ), Pontus Norgren (Talisman). Release date: April 15th

THE REGULATORS - Above The Law Now here we have something extra vaganza. Led heavy southern rock in the veins of Molly Hatchet & Lynyrd Skynyrd, but with a more powerful approach to their music and with songwriting skills that really stands out. This is the bands second CD. The first one was released on Polygram in 1993 and reached a big success. One of the tracks from that album was featured in the Steven Segal movie 'Under Siege' and another track in Christian Slaters 'Kuffs' This European edition contains 1 bonus track called 'Leadfoot' , and the whole CD is remixed and remastered.
www.rhcd.net

BABYLON A.D.s Front man/songwriter Derek Davis and drummer James Pacheco have a new five song Blues CD. "Derek Davis and the American Blues Box" Derek sings the blues with amazing conviction, playing a mean diesel fueled sounding bottle neck slide guitar that pay's homage to the Urban City blues greats, Elmore James and Muddy Waters. All five songs, three covers and two originals are very impressive and have a distinct Delta/Chicago vintage blues feel to them. For live dates and more info check out www.americanbluesbox.com The new CD is available through
www.perrisrecords.com

Roxx Gang Update and shows: Here's all the latest riots going on with Roxx Gang. The band is currently in the recording studio working on a new full length CD to be released next year. The boys will be releasing their new CD and video on Perris Records, but they will make MP3 downloads available on their web site www.roxxgang.com before the CD hits stores. In concert news the band has been ripping up the Florida concert trail lately, with crowds spilling into the streets at most their shows.
Friday April 5th Gasoline Alley Clearwater
Thursday April 25th Ringside Café St. Petersburg
Friday May 24th Bourbon Street New Port Richey
Thursday May 30th Ringside Café St. Petersburg

Shameless T Shirts The brand new Shameless shirts are available. All shirts where designed by Alexx himself. Please visit the Shameless Website 2 get your Shameless gear www.shamelessrock.com

David Wayne of REVEREND, (Metal Church) have asked Davey Lee and Notch Vara of the band BYFIST to join. Needless to say they both have agreed ,and are looking forward in writing the next REVEREND album with the rest of the guys." We are very excited about this and welcome the opportunity that this union will bring" When asked about the future of BYFIST, Davey Lee commented by saying " We will always keep BYFIST close to heart and will continue to tour and write BYFIST Records"

FastLane Records (FLR) are excited to announce the signing of Zinny J. Zan to their roster. A true veteran of the Rock’n’Roll scene from abroad. Including his starts with his Swedish homeland bands such as ‘Easy Action’, ‘KingPin’, and his most famous band to date the very talented ‘Shotgun Messiah’. Since Zinny’s demise from SM in the early 90’s he delved into other projects from ‘Dream Police’, ‘Grand Slam’ to his last release with ‘Zan Clan’.

Zinny, never really left the electric rodeo of the limelight, he just laid low until the time was right and he felt he had a contribution to make to the rock world. After the set-backs he suffered off/on for the last 10yrs in his personal life as well as professional life. Zinny, has carried on steadfast and true in his Rock’n’Roll roots he has kept the formula the same and on track through many diversities in his career. The albums release is 1st of April.
www.fastlanerecords.com

While Iron Maiden is take a break, vocalist Bruce Dickinson and his solo band (including Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith) will be playing at the Swedish Rock Festival this summer. For more info of all the bands that are playing, check
www.swedenrock.com

New Jersey's Hard Rock act Zyris has finally inked a deal at CHAVIS RECORDS. Zyris will be releasing their new effort later this spring or early summer. Zyris is best known for their classic straight ahead guitar driven Rock N' Roll sound, never deviating to follow trends or give in to the current markets. CHAVIS RECORDS welcomes Vocalist Johnny I, Guitarist Gary Roz, Bassist Paulie Krason, and Drummer Scott Skocypec.

Phil Naro [24K / Naro] will be appearing at the Bright Eyes Fund show with Lou Gramm on April 19th @ Water Street Music Hall, 204 N Water St. Rochester, NY 14604-1122 - Phone (716) 325-5600 Michael Staertow, Andy Knoll, Rob Mount, Steve Pelliccia and Phil will be playing music from Lou's days with Foreigner, his solo material, and Shadow King! Don't miss it... Scheduled to go on from 8-12pm. All admission will be donated to the "Bright Eyes Fund" which is at Strong Memorial Hospital, which in turn goes to the Children's Brain Tumor Foundation.

Bonfire's Strike Ten will be released shortly. The Z version will now also contain 2 bonus tracks: Angel In White and Take Me By The Hand. The album's release has now been rescheduled to March 28th.

From Marillion's newsletter:

We here at Fort Los Marillos, Bucks, have decided it would be wise to play a warm up gig before the international fanclub bash at Brean Sands. This will be at Jumpin' Jaks, Cardiff on Wednesday 3rd April. We've taken this decision as we haven't played Brave live for over eight (!!!) years and we want to make sure the proverbial plane flies before we board passengers at the convention! This is a club gig specifically arranged to tighten up the music and, as such, we won't be incorporating the production effects and theatrics until the performance at the Marillion Weekend. We apologise to any fans who may find this gig impossible to attend, but it's important to us to have Brave fully rehearsed and ready for the convention, which is also being filmed.

Now the nitty-gritty. Tickets are £15.00 each and only available direct from Racket Records. To give everyone a chance at tickets, we will be putting them on sale at 12:00 GMT on Tuesday, 12th March - so now you know in advance! Full details are available at: http://www.marillion.com/tickets

So if you happen to be able to get over to Cardiff on Wednesday night, we'll see you there and you can witness the first live performance of Brave in living memory (well - the living memory of any of the five of us anyway!..) Rumour has it that Barry's popping over from Barry Island...

Frontiers Records and Now & Then Productions announce the European release of two new projects tied to the extended family of Royal Hunt.

The first album signed is the new solo work from Royal Hunt leader and main songwriter ANDRE ANDERSEN, entitled "Black On Black". Following his solo debut "Changing Skin", the new cd encompasses all musical styles dear to the great Russian-Danish composer, that is to say neoclassical metal, symphonic rock and classic hard rock music.

The line up appearing on "Black on Black" features none other than ELEGY singer Ian Parry, plus Rene Rieland on Guitars and Kaj Laege on Drums.

The full tracklisting is: Coming Home, Tell Me Why, Arena, Desperate Times, Life, Black On Black, Eclipse, Sail Away, Piece Of My Heart

The release date is tentatively scheduled for June 2002.

The other ROYAL HUNT family album which has been signed to the Anglo/Italian label is EARTHMAKER, the solo project from the bands amazing singer JOHN WEST.

EARTHMAKER features an incredible all star line-up which includes: Chris Caffery (Savatage) and Mike Chlasciak (Halford) on Lead Guitars, Lonnie Park (Cozy Powell, John West) on Keyboards, Ray Riendau (Halford) on Bass and Bobby Jarzombek (Halford) on drums.

Also scheduled to appear are: Vitalij Kuprij (Artension), Andre Andersen (Royal Hunt), Steen Mogesen (Royal Hunt / Cornerstone) and Jeff Plate (Savatage).

Some of the song titles which will appear on the album are: Sleep of The Dead, Earthmaker, Soul To Soul, Love Is Pain, Stand Sentinel, Soul Of The Beast, Warrior Spirit, White Man Red Man, Mystic Wings, When Worlds Collide (which will feature an amazing "duel" between keyboards virtuosos Andre Andersen and Artension's very own Vitalij Kuprij).

The release of the album is tentatively scheduled for late summer 2002.

The recording of the Genius Rock Opera Ep.1 "A Human Into Dreams World" is finally completed and the album is currently being mixed by Mike Slamer in his studios in Los Angeles.

As a last minute addition we were able to ensure that none other than MECCA vocalist, Joe Vana took the last part available and will appear as King McChaos Consultant. Also appearing will be ex TRILLION vocalist Thom Griffin on harmony vocals.

The tracklisting of the cd shall be:

Without Me Today; The Right Place; Paradox; Twin Spirits Land; All Your Acts; Dreams; My Pride; There's A Human; Father; I'm Afraid.

The album release has not been scheduled yet and the label is looking at a late 2002 streetdate.

Drive, She Said have finally completed the recording of the new album "Real Life".

The songs titles recorded so far are:

Real Life, What's It Gonna Take?, When Will It Be Love?, How Can I Be Sure?, Find Your Place As A Man, Overdrive, Silver White, Hold Me, All Your Heart, Stronger, Al's Song, We Live For Love, Always and Forever, We All Need.

On a related note, keyboard wizard and Drive, She Said member Mark Mangold will appear as special guest star at Lokerse Feesten in august 2002 during the VAUGHN concert. He will perform songs from his latest solo record and Flesh & Blood, the band in which Mangold and Danny Vaughn worked together.

The long awaited DARIO MOLLO / TONY MARTIN - THE CAGE new album, simply entitled "2" has been completed and is scheduled for a simultaneous European and Japanese release on May 22nd 2002.

The final tracklisting is: Terra Toria; Overload; Life Love and Everything; Balance Of Power; Amore Silenzioso; II; Wind Of Change; Theater Of Dreams; What a Strange Thing Love Is; Dazed And Confused; Guardian Angel; Poison Roses.

It has been confirmed that Lost Weekend will record their third album, "New Religion" in April. The band will be recording the album in Canada and it will be produced by Murray Daigle & Mike Dmitrovic from Emerald Rain!

Don't forget you can check out the soundbytes of the demos recorded for this album at http://www.lostweekend.supanet.com. The tracks that can be downloaded are :

1. Who's The One To Blame 2. New Religion 3. Can't Get You Out Of My Mind 4. By Now 5. Shining Star 6. Faith

The self-titled debut album from TALON has been completed and mixing has just been finished by Mikey Davis and John Parker at Mikey Davis's Studio in Los Angeles.

The album is currently being mastered by Mark Chaleki (Megadeth, Creed) at Capitol Mastering in Hollywood, CA.

The final tracklisting is: Wrecking Ball; Fire in your Soul; Still you Run; Calling you Tonight; Talon in my Heart; Falling Star; Mother Mary May I; Holding you Soon; All is not Forgiven; Livin' for your Love; Rock 'n' Roll Runaway.

The album has a scheduled release date in Europe on May 22nd 2002.

Ex Black Sabbath vocalist Tony Martin makes a welcome return to the International live scene and will be fronting Bailey's Comet the explosive British rock band formed by none other than the infamous Bailey Brothers (MTV, Donington Monsters Of Rock, etc). The all star line up also includes ex members of Saxon. European shows are planned in June and the band will be headlining the Rock N Roots festival in Belgium on June 22nd. Check out our Tour Dates section for UK dates.

The Bailey's say "Tony Martin is an exceptional singer it's a shame he couldn't have done the album but we are looking forward to hitting the road and sharing the stage with him we go back a long way. It also sends out a clear message to everyone because although the Bailey's continue to promote other acts we are equally adapt at making our own music and are very optimistic that Baileys Comet will carry the eternal rock flame for many years to come."

A few surprises are planned for the tour and it could also be Tony Martin's debut performance on the violin. "He played Celtic Warrior with the band in rehearsals and every one was amazed" says Mick Bailey. Classic cuts from Sabbath and Martin's solo album will also be heard live along side songs from Judgement Day in what's destined to be the show that puts the smile back on rocks grim face.

Liverpool based rockers CONTAGIOUS will be appearing at London's Camden Underworld this Friday. Doors open 7:30pm and the band will hit the stage at 9pm. For details call tel: 0207 267 3939.

Unfortunately due to illness fellow label mates FRICTION have been forced to cancel their appearance

Meanwhile the bands forthcoming tour with Dokken has been put back to mid May, details will be announced shortly

CONTAGIOUS TO ROCK SPAIN

UK Rockers CONTAGIOUS will play their first ever show within Spain on Saturday September 21st. The band will play at Ritmo y Compas, Madrid. Tickets are priced at €15 and further info re their appearance can be obtained by calling tel: +34 917242270 or by visiting www.zrecords.net

Robin Brock is touring Europe in April. She will be performing in the UK, and Benelux on this leg of her tour, supporting her new album, "Hidden Power", released on A2 records. She will be joined by a new band, which includes John Mitchell on guitar (Arena, John Wetton), John Jowitt on Bass (IQ, Arena), and Paul Cook "(IQ) on drums. See our Tour Dates section for details.

SILENT RAGE are currently finishing up their forthcoming album "Still Alive" at The French Brothers Studio, in Burbank, Ca. The band are producing the tracks, and Michael French is engineering. Song titles to be included on their forthcoming cd "Still Alive" are:

SILENT RAGE "STILL ALIVE"
STILL ALIVE - LIVIN' FOR THE MOMENT - UNCHAINED - WHEN THE NIGHT IS OVER - REMEMBER ME - IS IT MY BODY - WHISKEY WOMAN - THE HUNGER - AT MY COMMAND - WE'RE BACK ( not in the order of release]

Four more bands have been presented for the 2000 Decibel-festival, which will be held May 18th in Bengtsfors, Sweden (180 km north of Gothenburg). The bands are 2 Ton Predator, The Project Hate, Opeth and last but definitely not least Hypocrisy.

Already confirmed for the festival are Dream Evil, Entombed, Evergrey, F.K.Ü., Human Race, Lost Horizon, Maninnya Blade, Soilwork and Witchery. As an extra bonus Magnus Rosén, HammerFall's bassplayer, will open up the festival with part of the bass show that he have toured South America with.

Unfortunately Spiritual Beggars won't play this years festival. Arch Enemy, Michael Amott's other band, will tour America in May. We hope to be able to present a replacement, and also the last band for the festival, soon.

What makes 2000 Decibel special is the fact that it's the only festival that is totally dedicated to Swedish Hardrock and Metal.

Archived News, February 2002
Archived News, January 2002
Archived News, December 2001
Archived News, November 2001
Archived News, October 2001
Archived News, September 2001
Archived News, August 2001
Archived News, July 2001
Archived News, June 2001
Archived News, up to May 18th, 2001