Lostprophets Release Statement About Ian Watkins’ Guilty Plea

When news hit that Ian Watkins formerly of Lostprophets has pleaded guilty on all charges that had been filed against him, most of the world, fans included, wondered just what could make someone want to abuse and rape children and then plea not guilty about it.

When Watkins was first arrested, the remaining members of Lostprophets had released a statement letting fans know that they would no longer be a band following what had transpired with their singer. Now that Watkins has officially plead guilty to his charges, the band have finally written another statement on be half of the rest of the members.

In the statement that was posted online, the remaining members express how shocked they were about the charges as well as the fact that it wasn’t just a misunderstanding. They also explain that things were getting a little tense between them and their former frontman due to his “battles with drugs, egotistical behavior and frustration.”

The official statement released can be read below:

Earlier this week, we learned that the allegations of child sexual abuse against Ian were true, and that he would not be contesting them in court. Until then, we found them extremely difficult to believe and had hoped it was all a mistake. Sadly, the true extent of his appalling behaviour is now impossible to deny.

Many of you understandably want to know if we knew what Ian was doing. To be clear: We did not. We knew that Ian was a difficult character. Our personal relationships with him had deteriorated in recent years to a point that working together was a constant, miserable challenge. But despite his battles with drugs, his egotistic behaviour, and the resulting fractures and frustrations within our band, we never imagined him capable of behaviour of the type he has now admitted.

We are heartbroken, angry, and disgusted at what has been revealed. This is something that will haunt us for the rest of our lives. Being in a band has always been a labour of love and a platform to inspire people, not to take advantage of them. It’s still hard to believe this is happening and that someone we were once so close to has destroyed so many lives, lying every step of the way.

Our hearts go out to Ian’s family, the fans and friends he betrayed, and most importantly, the victims of his crimes and others like them. We hope for justice, but also that Ian will truly take responsibility for what he’s done. We would urge any other victims to contact the authorities.

Jamie, Lee, Luke, Mike and Stu

The Pixies Part Ways with Fill In Bassist

Another bites the dust for The Pixies.

After just a few months of joining The Pixies, the band has officially kicked out their fill in bassist, Kim Shattuck. The Muff frontwoman took to both her Facebook and Twitter to announce the departure from the band.

“Super disappointed to learn that my time with the Pixies ended today,” she wrote. “Amazing experience. Looking forward to focusing my attention back on the Muffs and our upcoming new album. All the best to everyone.”

Shattuck took over the bassist position when the group’s original player, Kim Deal decided to leave the band back in July in the midst of recording their recently released EP, EP-1. Instead of just calling it a day because of Deal’s departure, the group just decided to continue and successfully released the EP a few months after.

At the time, the complete reason for Deal’s departure had been unknown, but in an interview with Rolling Stone earlier this year, manager Richard Jones said, “[Deal] just had enough…She didn’t want to do all the things that go with releasing new music, as in all the traveling and touring. She just decided that she wanted to move on.”

In the same interview, The Pixies frontman Black Francis, said that the band knew that they needed to replace Deal, but instead of going for a male, they realized they needed a female, “A lot of our songs have that romantic loss, romantic gain, sexuality thing,” he said. “We need the female and male represented.”

Not even a month after Deal’s departure, Shattuck had officially been on board with them. As of now, there has been no comment on what’s going to happen with the new vacancy; the band are scheduled to head out on tour starting on January 15 in Toronto.

My Chemical Romance Greatest Hits Album Work Revealed

When a website had leaked that My Chemical Romance would be coming out with an album in 2014, fans of the now defunct band started to get excited that it might be an album with new tracks.

It was confirmed that same exact day, that the release of that information was a little preempted, but the truth was, that no new material was on the way for eager fans. Instead, former frontman, Gerard Way had confirmed that the album was just a greatest hits compilation that their record label, Warner Brothers would be putting out.

Way went on to confirm that he would be doing all the artwork for the album and after giving his followers on Twitter a slight glimpse at what would be gracing the cover of the album. The cover features a bust of Way via The Black Parade era, crumbling to the ground in a cemetery with the words “the end” written in white.

As of now, no official title has been given for the greatest hits album, but we have a suspicion that it might be called, May Death Never Stop You, but we do know that the album should be out on January 24, 2014.

U2 Release First New Song in Four Years

U2 revealed earlier this month that they would be putting out a new album sometime next year and word on the street was that they would officially be releasing information about it during one of the spot during  Super Bowl XLVIII in February.

While the information about the new album is scare at this point, they have released a new song which is featured on the Nelson Mandela bio-pic, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, which stars Luther star, Idris Elba as the South Africa leader and Naomie Harris as his wife, Winnie Mandela.

While being interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, The Edge did tell them that they have yet to pick a release date for their new album, even though some sources were pegging an April release date. The Edge also explains that the reason the reason that the release date has not officially been chosen was because they were given a once in a lifetime chance to work on “Ordinary Love” for the Mandela film.

Check out “Ordinary Love” with its unique lyric video.

 

First Two Performers for Brit Awards Revealed

The Brit Awards, one of Britain’s top music industry awards, doesn’t peahen until February 2014, but they have already announced two of the performers that will be taking the stage during the show.

Katy Perry and Sheffield’s own Arctic Monkeys have already been confirmed for the bill. For fans of the Arctic Monkeys this might come as a surprise because the band have not had a good relationship with the awards show in the past.

In 2006, they refused to attend even though they did proceed to win “Breakthrough Act.” In 2007, the band sent in a mocking video message with the members of the band dressed up as characters from The Wizard of Oz. In 2008, they did attend the award ceremony to accept their award in person, but dressed as country squires and made a really drunk “acceptance speech” even though they were given the award by Gandalf himself, Sir Ian McKellan; the video can be seen here.

Media outlets are reporting that the band have finally come to peace with the awards show after they came to terms with the fact that they have become one of the U.K.’s biggest band; you really can’t get bigger than headlining Glastonbury Festival or performing at the opening ceremonies of the London Summer Olympics last year.

As for Katy Perry, the American pop star said, It’s an honor to play at such a prestigious event where musicality shines at its brightest.”

While those in the United States might not privy to see the show since it is a British-based award show, those in the U.K. will be able to watch the show on ITV. Taking hosting duties once again will be Tony-award winning actor turned presenter and writer, James Corden. The organizers for the event have also reveal that this will be Corden’s fifth and last time taking over the hosting duties.

Riot Fest Announced 2014 Dates

Wasn’t Riot Fest just a few weeks ago? Actually, it was more like a few months ago, but the feeling of seeing the complete awesome line-up and wishing to have the chance to go to Chicago and see it is still fresh in our minds and the people behind the event don’t want you to forget about them either.

Today, the dates for 2014’s festival have already been unveiled and that’s not all,the first batch of holiday pre-sale tickets went up earlier in the day, only to already be sold out. Talk about hardcore fans out there, but then again, it is the 10th anniversary of the concert tour and chances are that the line-up for that anniversary should kick 2013’s line-up out of the water.

The festival organizers took to their Facebook page to advise fans not to worry about not being able to get early bird tickets; there would be other opportunities for them to get them in the near future.

As for the dates for the event, only the dates for the Chicago shows have been announced which will be September 12-14. So far, no other word on whether they will be doing the other cities like they did this year.

Black Flag Singer Fired Mid-Show

Well, this is definitely one way not to let someone know that they have been fired.

In a Facebook post that was posted yesterday, Ron Reyes, the Canadian-born singer who had taken over he singing duties in the newly reincarnated Black Flag, had revealed that the band had fired him while in the middle of their final show in Australia.

Reyes goes on to explain that band founder and guitarist, Greg Ginn, ruled the revised band with an “iron fist” and part of the reason why they had ousted him was because he refused to “treat someone like an infallible Pope figure.” Kind of curious as to who that person might have been.

This isn’t even the first batch of bad publicity the newly recreated group have gotten this year. They were highly criticized for their new album that was released this past month as well as for its album art work.

For now, you can read the complete statement that Reyes posted about his ousting here.

On November 24th 2013 the last night of the Australian Hits and Pits tour with two songs left in the set Mike V comes on stage stares me down, takes my mic and says “You’re done, party’s over get off it’s over…” He said something else to me but it was a lie so I won’t repeat it here.

So with a sense of great relief that it was finally over I left the stage and walked to the hotel room.

They finished the set with Mike V on vocals. There is much more that can and perhaps should be said. But for now I will spare you the gory details. The writing was on the wall since before we played our first show. So many things went wrong from the start.

I was into things like having a good drummer, rehearsing and spending time on things like beginnings and endings of songs, being a little less distracted with tour life and a little more on the ball. You know things that would make our efforts worthy of the name Black Flag… Yes it is my opinion that we fell very short indeed and the diminishing ticket sales and crowds are a testament to that.

However It was made clear to me that raising these issues was tantamount to a blasphemous stab in the back to Greg. How could I question him, his efforts and hard work? How could I dare be a fan of OFF! And or be friends and a fan of Flag? I was told that I had to choose sides. But I refuse to treat someone like an infallible Pope figure. No guitarist deserves such unquestioning blind devotion.

And so I have been excommunicated in a very strange fashion. I truly feel sorry for anyone who had to witness the infantile behaviour and the relentless provocation I was subjected to both on and off the stage. I regret that under such fierce provocation and taunting I sometimes responded in manners bellow my standard.

I am grateful for the opportunities Greg gave me. There were some magical moments at first. I was naive enough to believe in the promise of potential. But in the end the good was no match for the overwhelming bad. It am proud of my contributions including the new album and its cover.

Come on folks it’s only rock n roll. I would not be surprised if Mike V becomes the new singer for Black Flag.

It is my opinion that they have been planning this for some time. I wish them well. Mike is a true disciple of Greg and so they have a good working relationship. And ironically the tension over the last weeks has brought out some of Greg’s best playing. So it could be interesting. I will miss playing with Dave Klein. He is a great kid and truly an outstanding bass player. Dave was an anchor that kept me from losing my place on a nightly basis. Trust me that was no easy task for either of us.

I truly apologize for being in or more accurately “appearing” to be in competition with “Flag”. They know my heart on this matter. From the beginning I was happy for them and fully supported and understood why they would want to rock those songs and have a good time with friends and family.

Yes I questioned their use of the name and logo but in no way questioned their motivation or right to do their thing. I envy them for they have succeeded in ways that were never possible with “Black Flag”. And once again for the record, I agreed to do Black Flag before I knew there was a Flag. I mean no malice towards Greg or Mike although they will most likely see things very differently. I wish them luck and prosperity. I have learned many valuable lessons this year. And these lessons will enrich my personal and musical endeavours.

Cheers.

Ron Reyes. 

Bon Jovi, Taylor Swift and….Prince William?

What happens when you combine two American singer one from New Jersey and another from Tennessee and a real life prince? Well, you get a pretty cool performance.

About a month or so ago, it was announced that his Prince William had sent out invitations to Jon Bon Jovi and Taylor Swift to attend the Winter White Gala, a 200-person charity dinner at Kensington Palace in London.

It only took a matter of time for the country singer and the royal to join Jon Bon Jovi on stage for a performance of one the band’s greatest hits, “Livin’ on a Prayer.”

Thanks to someone in the audience at the event, footage for the trio singing the hit song was uploaded onto Instagram with the caption reading, “Classic Tuesday night with Jon Bon Jovi performing Living on a Prayer with Taylor Swift and HRH.” It was almost instantly that the video started to surface everywhere.

The Winter White Gala s gala for Centrepoint, the homeless-youth charity William took on for his mother Princess Diana after she passed away in 1997. Also at the event were the rest of Bon Jovi, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michelle Dockery, but noticeably missing was William’s wife, Duchess Katherine and son Prince George.

The small family does live at the palace full-time, but for the event, Kate reportedly stayed at their nearby apartments with baby George.

Anyways, check out the video below (the top is from the audience member and the bottom one is the official video).

http://instagram.com/p/hMlxLvyEF9/

Dave Grohl to Release Collaboration with Zac Brown Band

We know that Dave Grohl can do just about anything he puts his mind to, and now he might have his eyes set on country music….well, kind of.

Before you start converting to the Church of Country, you might want to back track a second and listen to (okay fine, read) what we have to say. When the Foo Fighter frontman was  at the 2013 Country Music Awards earlier this month, he was seated right next to the Zac Brown Band. Turns out, it might have not been one of those publicity stunts that award shows like to pull; Grohl and the group are actually releasing a real EP in December.

The collaboration that they worked on, “Day of the Dead,” will be featured on The Grohl Sessions Vol. 1 due out on December 10 through iTunes. The song also happens to be the same one that they performed on the CMAs. But, like anything that Grohl does, there is more to come. It was also announced that a Vol. 2 is currently in the works and should be out some time in 2014 right alongside the physical release of Vol. 1.

While speaking with AP, Brown described just how the meeting occurred between the country singer and the iconic drummer. They met while Brown was waiting in line at John Varvatos’ Hollywood store to pick up altered clothing for the Grammys when they struck up a conversation over their mutual  love of analog recording gear. From then on, you can say it was history.

“I don’t know how I tricked him into working with us, but it’s really cool,” Brown said, about Grohl and his desire to work with them. But then again, Grohl is a die-hard music fan, and if you don’t believe it, just look at his resume.

Check out some of the footage from their session in the studio.

The Killers Release Video for ‘Just Another Girl”

When The Killers released their greatest hits compilation, drummer Ronnie Vannucci had said that they band could have probably gone another ten years before they would make one, but things were not completely in their favor.

Instead of making the compilation, Direct Hits purely their greatest hits and single, the band decided to out in two new tracks into the album. A month or so ago, the band has released the video for one of the two tracks, “Shot at the Night” which had been produced by M83’s head honcho, Anthony Gonzalez.

The second new track, “Just Another Girl” has now gotten the music video treatment and for Gleeks, you might just see a familiar face in the music video; Dianna Agron!

In the video, the 27-year-old actress impersonates frontman, Brandon Flowers and his ensemble from the band’s previous music videos including “All These Things That I Have Done” and “When You Were Young.”

After the video premiered, officially yesterday, the actress tweeted, “Thanks for the trends you set for the video release!! Happy to hear all of the enthusiasm & support. They’re one of my favorite bands. Xx.”

Check out the video below and see if Agron does a pretty good job as playing Flowers.