The Cult have announced Electric 13, a ten date tour across the UK this October. 

“The Cult’s life blood has always been playing live, we are between albums and decided to continue the momentum created by Choice of Weapon, stay in people’s hearts and minds. As Love Live was such an incredible experience we have decided that performing the Electric album, an event that has been demanded by our fans and followers as the perfect live set to play in 2013.” - Ian Astbury.

The Cult are one of the most influential and controversial bands of the late 20th century, making their mark selling millions of albums, headlining venues worldwide  and fusing the worlds of art and fashion with music. Electric, released in 1987 is one of the bands most successful albums and saw them reach new levels of popularity around the world. 

The band will perform Electric, raw and unfiltered on tour in 2013, an event branded as Electric 13. This will be one not to miss as The Cult have never performed the album in its entirety. The live show will also include a second set pulling from the band’s eight other studio albums.

Tickets are onsale from 9am on Friday 17th May. 

Crashdiet have issued a statement and a plea following the tragic death of their manager Michael Sunden in an awful accident last month. Sunden, a very respected professional, died after falling and hitting his head at Rock City music venue in Nottingham. 

Following his death, the band have been left in a bit of a financial mess, as Sunden was the sole keeper of their money, transactions etc, and his passing has left them questioning how they are to carry on. The guys said in an official statement, “We have borrowed money from everywhere to be able to begin the tour as planned on Wednesday, but our situation is very insecure to say the least. It looks like we’ll be in debt for years to come. We have managed to get through rough times before, but this time we can’t do it alone.”

This is where you can help! Crashdiet have set up a support campaign right here where you can donate money to them in order to keep them on tour, and keep them together! They in return are offering ‘I Saved The Tour’ t-shirts, signed memorabilia and tour laminates valid for life, amongst other things.They have already managed to raise 168% of their target, but every little bit helps, and the campaign will run for another ten days. 

It is approaching that time of year again, in a few months festival season will be upon us, and once again hundreds and thousands of people will be descending on many a field ready for a chaotic camping experience, but where will you be?

Well, thousands of Brits seem to be turning their back on UK festivals in search for nicer weather and heading overseas for their festival of choice. As great as the Download line up looks this year, not many of us fancy another weekend potentially up to our eyes in mud right? Right. So, let us tell what we reckon is the place to be this Summer, Hellfest! 

Hellfest is located in Clisson, close to Nantes in France and is increasingly becoming more and more popular with rock and metal fans all over the world. It has been a well established festival for over a decade and continues to grow and grow each year. It relocated in 2012 meaning it could house even more music fans and ore stages and more bands than ever before!

2013 looks set to be one of its greatest line ups yet with hundreds of bands across many genres making an appearance. American giants KISS will headline, alongside Brit-pioneers Def Leppard and the super cool ZZ Top, i mean that in itself is pretty fantastic. Well, they will also be joined by the likes of Twisted Sister, Whitesnake, Korn, NOFX, Saxon, Hardcore Superstar, Down, Danzig, Volbeat….the list is endless, truly something for everyone. 

This years event takes place on 21-23 June and promises to be a killer time to be had by all. So what do you think? Will you be making a trip to Hellfest this year? We certainly will be!

You can find all the info you need on tickets, travel and the full line up over at www.hellfest.fr and special travel packages are available for us Brits at www.argon.co.uk. See you down the front!

Black Sabbath are set to perform a brand new song from new album 13 on the final episode of the current season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, premiering Wednesday, May 15 on CBS.

Producer of the show, Don McGill said the band approached them… “When we first heard that Black Sabbath was interested in premiering a song on CSI from their first studio album in 35 years, we were all really excited. So many of us are longtime fans. And seeing as the album is titled 13 and this is the finale of CSI‘s Season 13, it seemed like the perfect match. We couldn’t be more thrilled.”

Sabbath have also just announced that they are to set out on a European tour later this year in support of the album. The dates are:

Nov 20: Hartwall Arena, Helsinki, Finland
Nov 22: Friends Arena, Stockholm, Sweden
Nov 24: Telenor Arena, Oslo, Norway
Nov 26: Forum, Denmark, Copenhagen
Nov 28: Ziggo Dome, Holland, Amsterdam
Nov 30: Westfalenhalle, Dortmund, Germany
Dec 2: Bercy, Paris, France
Dec 5: Fiera Arena, Milan, Italy
Dec 7: 02 Arena, Prague, Czech Republic
Dec 10: 02 Arena, London, UK
Dec 12: Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Ireland
Dec 14: Arena, Sheffield, UK
Dec 16: Hydro, Glasgow, UK
Dec 18: Arena, Manchester, UK
Dec 20: LG Arena, Birmingham, UK

Tickets for the UK leg are on sale this Friday (12.04) at 9am! Don’t miss this one!

Alter Bridge have announced they are to return to the UK this October, bringing Shinedown and Halestorm with them for a set of arena dates. 

The band are currently busy in the studio writing their new album, with Myles Kennedy tweeting over the weekend that they are almost ready to go into pre-production, hopefully meaning it shall be out in time for this tour!

The dates are as follows:

Wed 16th Oct – NOTTINGHAM Arena
Thu 17th Oct – BIRMINGHAM NIA
Fri 18th Oct – LONDON Wembley Arena
Sun 20th Oct – CARDIFF Motorpoint Arena
Mon 21st Oct – GLASGOW Hydro
Tue 22nd Oct – MANCHESTER Arena

Tickets go on sale this Friday 5 April, but special presales are available from tomorrow morning at 9am fromalterbridge.seetickets.com.

This looks set to be a cracking show, don’t miss out! 

Yesterday we were treated to a new video from the studio and a little chat with Rick Rubin about the ongoing recording sessions for the new Sabbath album 13.

13 will be released in June via Vertigo and was recorded in LA, with Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk joining original Sabbath members Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler for the recording sessions.

The album is available for pre-order over at www.blacksabbath.com and is available in the following formats:

• Standard CD album
• Deluxe double CD album in a deluxe soft-pack (includes a second disc of exclusive bonus audio material)
• Vinyl: 12″ heavyweight (180g) vinyl album in a gatefold sleeve
• Super Deluxe Box Set: limited edition 12″ clamshell box set which contains:
- Deluxe double CD album
- 12″ heavyweight (180g) vinyl album in a gatefold sleeve
- Exclusive DVD containing ‘Black Sabbath–The Re-union’ documentary
- 5 behind-the-scenes videos
- Download card containing exclusive track by track interview with Black Sabbath
- Exclusive ’13′ art print
- 13 exclusive photographic prints and hand written album lyrics

HMV has finally followed the likes of such titans as Woolworths, Zavvi and many many others and have called in the administrators and will sadly be closing its doors imminently.

Ignoring the very sad fact that up to 4500job will be lost due to its closure, HMV are responsible for around 40% of physical music sold in the UK, which is a huge loss and a huge gap to fill. Record companies will lose their biggest customers and consumers their biggest supplier, but amongst all the sadness and tragedy of its demise, can you truly say you ever actually purchased your music from there?

Most consumers, me included, were continually treating HMV as a last resort, as online retailers became much more convenient, and in some cases, cheaper. For me visiting a store became a way of passing time, browsing, pricing things up, but rarely to purchase. Even deals and offers became tedious when it was the same CDs/DVDs featured each time. That said however, it will be sad to see it disappear from the high street.

The days of physical releases are more or less well and truly over, but for those who, again like me, like to buy CDs/records and have something to look at, something to hold, there is still always your local independent record shops, which will inevitably boom due to the death of its greatest competitor.

For me, visiting a record shop is an exciting affair. I can literally spend hours in my local, chatting to the owners, talking recommendations and new artists to look for, its more than just shop. The annual Record Store Day is always special too. Limited edition releases that cannot be bought anywhere else, pretty awesome if you’re as much of a geek as me. They need your money and support to survive however, a fresh breed of customers who are actually bothered about music.

Those of you who moaned and groaned about the administration of HMV, ask yourselves why? To put it simply, you weren’t spending enough money in their stores, we can’t blame anyone but ourselves. What can you do now? Go and support your independent stores, because if you don’t then very soon the physical release will be obsolete.

Caris Smith 

Yes! Billy Corgan is back this summer with a handful of shows in the UK this Summer. 

The rock legends return for 3 live shows in July, including Wembley Arena, and the tickets go on sale this Fri Feb 1. 

The band will be visiting:

01 Manchester, Academy
02 Glasgow, O2 Academy
22 London, Wembley Arena

We all know the success story that was the incredible Ginger Wildhearts Pledge Music campaign last year and what became the phenomenon of 555%. Since this amazing achievement more and more bands and artists have turned to Pledge in order to raise funds to keep producing music. The key to this is it keeps music independent, cutting out the middle man and getting the product of everyone’s hard work direct from artist to fan. Amazing right? 

Well, Todd Kerns, of Slash feat. Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators, Sin City Sinners, and formally of Age of Electric and Static in Stereo has gone and released his very own pledge music campaign!

He will be releasing a brand new acoustic solo album titled Hello Cruel World, and as a little bonus there will be an exclusive EP available to pledgers only, Near Life Experience which will be a covers EP of some of Kerns pre released songs in acoustic form. There is also a whole host of other goodies on offer for those who pledge, well worth a look! Check out the video below for all you need to know…

“I couldn’t be more excited about the prospects of such a venture together. This feels like an adventure the musician and the audience go on as a singular unit. I’m super excited about the possibilities of what a system like this could bring to us music lovers in the future. ”

We are super excited about this one, and you should be too! Nearly at 100% within the first 24 hours of going live, this campaign looks set to grow and grow! So do yourselves a favour and hit the link. Keep music exciting and alive and pledge pledge pledge!

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/toddkerns

Fresh from their recent win at the Classic Rock Awards, Breakthrough Act Rival Sons have released a second video from their third album Head Down. Until The Sun Comes features a plastic figure motorcycle riding through the desert; we’ll leave the end discovery to find out yourself!

Check out the video premier here on the NME website