Due to popular demand, Australian power rock trio “TRACER” kick off their first nationwide headline UK tour at London’s Islington O2 Academy on Tuesday 24th April.

Planet Rock (www.planetrock.com) will start a 48-hour ticket pre-sale for Planet Rock listeners from Wednesday 1st February at 9am. www.ents24.com will start their 24-hour pre-sale on Thursday 2nd February. Tickets will then go on sale to the general public from 10am on Friday 3rd February via the 24 hour box office: 0844 478 0898 and www.thegigcartel.com.

Tracer was recently voted third place in Planet Rock’s “Best New Band” listeners’ poll. Over the past four months Planet Rock has played the singles Too Muchand Devil Ride, two songs taken from Tracer’s debut critically acclaimed album Spaces In Between.

Tracer has captured the excitement and adrenalin rush of rock ’n’ roll. Tracer’s sound embodies the same raw dynamics and edge to that of Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Queens of the Stone Age and Black Sabbath.

Richie Kotzen is coming back to Europe for a 4 week live tour with his band to support his new album, ’24 Hours’! The tour starts February 29th 2012 in Luxemburg and ends March 24th in Turkey including March 5th at Islington Academy in London & March 6th at the Robin 2 in Wolverhampton.

He’s also putting together a VIP Experience for fans which includes the following;

• Attend sound check with Richie! (sound check time will be e mailed to you separately)
• A meet and greet with Richie! Come meet Richie, have your photo taken with him and get ONE personal item signed.
• An autographed, limited edition RICHIE KOTZEN ’24 HOURS’ COMMEMORATIVE POSTER! (In addition to your personal item, Richie will also personalize the poster for you at the meet and greet if you’d like)
• A RICHIE KOTZEN VIP COMMEMORATIVE LAMINATE!
• A RICHIE KOTZEN ’24 Hours’ T-SHIRT.
• A copy of Richie’s new CD ’24 HOURS’

In the meantime, to get you in the mood check out the video to ’24 Hours’.

I’ve been looking forward to seeing Joanne Shaw Taylor since I interviewed her back in September . Both her debut album ‘White Sugar’, and 2010’s follow-up ‘Diamonds in the Dirt’ are full of classic soul drenched blues and her playing has a maturity rarely seen in guitarists of her age. However live Joanne is on a different level altogether and the quality of her guitar playing is at times breathtaking.

Interestingly Joanne was without her blonde telecaster for this gig instead favouring a candy apple red Fender Stratocaster through a Blackstar Artisan 30. Joanne’s guitar sound however had a pretty raunchy, stripped down feel which suited the energy of many of the tracks. ‘Can’t keep living like this’, ‘Dead and Gone’ and ‘Diamonds in the Dirt’ from the new album sounded great live and featured stunning guitar solos.

Having seen  Kenny Wayne Shepherd a couple of weeks earlier, the bar had been set extremely high however Joanne and her band really delivered. Joanne had mentioned that she had found some great musicians in Detroit and her drummer and bass player provided a super tight rhythm section which really let Joanne off the chain during the set.

Of particular note was her drummer who put in one of the finest drumming performances I’ve seen in a while and managed to pull off a drum solo that not proved both technically outstanding and a crowd pleaser. The only disappointment was a rather bizaare moment of silence after one of the tracks which proved a little awkward and the fact that the gig was poorly attended. In my opinion paying £15 to see an artist of this calibre is a bargain and I certainly hope the turnout will be better on the rest of the UK tour dates. You’ll rarely see a blues guitarist this talented for so little money so do yourself a favour and make sure you check out Joanne live if you get the chance!

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If you like what you see then head on over to www.theanswer.ie to find out more about the band.

The official video for ‘Ghosts & Angels’, the first Everything Burns single from their second album. Fretpoint was lucky enough to spend some time with the band whilst they were recording the new album and trust me, the new material sounds awesome!

For more details about the new record check out the Everything Burns website.

I honestly thought that this would be one of the biggest heavyweight showdowns in rock n’ roll history however it now looks like the battle could be over before it has even started. Could Chickenfoot vs Van Halen be more like Tyson vs Spinks?

In the red corner you have one of rock music’s greatest contenders, the mighty Van Halen in it’s largely original line-up, complete with possibly the biggest mouth in rock, David Lee Roth. The band are supposedly putting the final touches on their first record since 1998 (the album that we shall not speak of) and have legions of die hard fans eagerly awaiting the new material.

In the blue corner we have Chickenfoot, featuring the outspoken frontman Sammy Hagar, ex Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani and Chad Smith from the Red Chilli Peppers on drumming duties. Chickenfoot is by its very nature a true super group and like a phoenix from the ashes of Van Halen, Hagar has risen once again to prove he has the midas touch, not just in business but in the music world too.

He has put something very special together in Chickenfoot and the band, like all great groups is more than just the sum of it’s parts. With Joe Satriani, the band has a truly world class guitar player that is capable of pulling off anything Eddie Van Halen could dream up, a player that is also a hugely talented composer. Michael Antony is probably Van Halen’s greatest loss as not only was he an integral part of the Van Halen sound but has an incredible knack for knowing just how much to play. Combined with the hilarious and equally talented Chad Smith on drums the band have a chemistry that shines through everything they do. The band love playing together and it shows.

With the Van Halen camp however it looks like it’s trouble in paradise… again (Alex and Eddie have already had two short lived reunions with Roth in 1996 and 2006) . It seems like there is nothing but bad news circulating about the group. Rumors started back in August when the Australian Soundwave Revolution Festival, which was due to take place in Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth was cancelled. The official line was that the organisers have decided to cancel the festival after they failed to book a co-headliner. However some thought that Van Halen had deliberately pulled the plug.

In September a report in The Hollywood Reporter (via Melodic Rock) quoted a source saying that the band had switched record labels (from long time label Warner records, to Sony’s Columbia Records) ahead of the new album being released.

The latest rumour (again from Melodic Rock)  reports that the dates the band were supposed to be playing around Europe next summer (including Download Festival in the UK in June) have all being cancelled before they were even announced.

Now don’t get me wrong, this is not an anti Van Halen rant, I really hope the band comes out punching and delivers a kick ass album of epic proportions but somehow I think that the change of record label and string of cancelled dates means that all is not well with Messrs Van Halen and Roth.

All the while Hagar et al are busy enjoying the limelight with the critical and commercial success of both their self titled 2009 debut and the cheekily titled Van Halen III follow up. Right now it looks like the true heavy weight champion of the world is the mighty Chickenfoot.

For one night only, on Tuesday November 1st at 7:30pm, participating Vue Cinemas will screen Black Country Communion’s debut concert film “Live Over Europe” in high definition and Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound.

Black Country Communion is the Anglo-American rock group featuring the talents of bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Trapeze), blues rock guitarist/vocalist Joe Bonamassa, drummer Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin), and keyboardist Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater).

“Live Over Europe” was filmed using 14 HD cameras during BCC’s first ever world tour in the summer of 2011. Recorded across three nights in Hamburg, Munich and Berlin, the band’s set includes 18 songs taken from both of BCC’s albums; 2010’s eponymous debut, and 2011’s follow-up album release “2”.

This one-night-only rock and roll cinema experience includes an exclusive filmed introduction from all four members of Black Country Communion, read the full press release here.

By pre–booking tickets via www.myvue.com/bcc, fans who attend each of the 16 participating cinemas, will be automatically entered into a prize draw to win a guitar signed by the band.

The participating Vue Cinemas are as follows –

• - London West End
• - Cambridge
• - Oxford
• - Portsmouth
• - Exeter
• - Bristol
• - Doncaster
• - Leicester
• - Hull
• - Leeds
• - York
• - Birmingham
• - Edinburgh
• - Dublin
• - Bury
• - Swansea

Marshall Amplification has shaped the sound of rock music for almost 50 years and left a lasting legacy in combination with guitar icons such as Jimi Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore, Randy Rhoads and Slash. Thanks to the awesome people at Modern Music we had a taste of that legacy when the Marshall Roadshow rolled into town at the William IV, Truro.

Hosted by the incredibly talented Chris George and his equally gifted band, the attentive crowd at the William IV were taken through demonstrations of a range of Marshall combos and signature heads. Chris played several tracks off his album which is pretty awesome if you haven’t heard it yet. It’s no surprise to see a guitarist like Chris (Guitarist Magazine’s ‘Young Guitarist Of The Year 1997′) fronting the Marshall band, his ballsy ‘classic rock’ inspired playing is perfect for Marshall and really shows off the tone you can expect when these amps are in the hands of an experienced player.

Highlights included the JVM stack, the 1974X (part of the handwired series) and the Slash signature head. However it was the Yngwie Malmsteen YJM100 signature head that really blew me away. This amp is something else and as Chris ripped through dozens of classic rock riffs during the crowd pleasing finale it was hard to think of a better sounding classic rock amplifier.

It’s also worth noting that thanks to some very generous prize donations from Andy Pascoe at Modern Music and Marshall, the event raised quite a bit of money for a local children’s hospice, a subject close to the hearts of many of the crowd including Andy Pascoe himself. All in all this was a great night and I hope it won’t be too long before we see the Marshall band back in Kernow!

You can check out more photos from the night over at the Fretpoint Facebook page.

THE UNION is for those of you that don’t know is the band fronted by ex THUNDER guitarist/songwriter Luke Morley and former Winterville vocalist/guitarist Peter Shoulder. Their self titled debut was well received by both fans and critics and managed to bring a fresh approach to the classic blues/rock  genre.

“The Union is, quite simply a stunning debut album” 9/10 Classic Rock Magazine

Their new album ‘Siren’s Song’ is now set for release on 3 October and was recorded between touring activities at various times this year at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales.

However in a bold move, the band have made the album available to stream free of charge. You can listen to the whole album via the player below.

As well as the standard album release there is a limited edition deluxe format available which contains:

• Numbered 12″ gatefold hardback cover signed by Luke & Pete
• Two 12″ sized, 24 page full colour booklets;
• Booklet 1; ‘Words’ containing all song lyrics, track by track comments from Luke & Pete
• Booklet 2; ‘Pictures’ containing many exclusive photographs shot by Marty Moffatt of the band at work and play.
• In addition to the standard album, an exclusive bonus CD featuring;
  • Save Your Goodbyes (previously unreleased)
  • Dust To Dust (previously unreleased)
  • Down In The Underworld (previously unreleased)
  • If I Could Make You Mine (acoustic version)
  • Make Up Your Mind (acoustic version)
  • Siren’s Song (Live In Holland 2011)
  • Black Monday (Live In Holland 2011)
  • Saviour (Live In Holland 2011)
  • A brand new album-themed t-shirt!

If you also  pre-order ‘Siren’s Song’ you get and instant download of the track ‘The Remedy’ from the new record.

The band also have a great website and you can find out more the album and forthcoming tour dates via the Union Online.

This is a great new video from Premier Guitar who caught up with Thin Lizzy during their North American tour.  Chris Kies interview’s Thin Lizzy guitar tech Coty Allinson regarding Scott Gorham and Vivian Campbell’s guitar rigs.

During the interview Coty Allinson shows off some of Campbell’s multiple, glammed-out Les Pauls and Gorham’s Les Paul Axcess. Interestingly Viv plays with metal picks (ala Brian May) and favours some pretty heavy gauge strings on his Les Pauls. Scott Gorham also plays his Les Paul Axcess throughout the entire set and only falls back to his custom stratocaster if there’s a problem which is pretty rare these days.

Check out the video below