Vinyl Record News & Music Notes

great to see more of Roger Dean's incredible art work!!

YES: 'Fly From Here' Album Details Revealed

The most influential and ground-breaking progressive rock 'n' roll band in history, legendary rockers and Grammy Award winners YES, will release their first studio album in a decade, "Fly From Here", on July 1 in Europe and July 12 in North America through Frontiers Records. The group's long-awaited 20th studio LP is the follow up to 2001's "Magnification" and marks the band's reunion with producer Trevor Horn, who helmed YES' chart-topping 1983 album "90125" and also sang for YES on the "Drama" LP in 1980.

"Fly From Here" will be released in four different configurations: CD, CD plus a bonus DVD including a documentary "Making of the Album" in digipak edition, a gatefold vinyl and a special box set limited edition including the CD, DVD, vinyl, t-shirt, poster, sticker and a lithograph of the cover art.

Read the rest of the story and get the tracklist at Blabbermouth



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Green Day Says 'We have a ton of new songs'

Billie Joe Armstrong tweeted that the band are very hard at work on new material

Green Day have "a ton of new songs" written for their next album, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has recently revealed.

The band had previously not revealed any details of when they would be recording the follow-up to their 2009 eighth studio album '21st Century Breakdown', but Armstrong has now said they are hard at work on new material.

According to Armstrong: "OK. Here's the scoop. Green Day has been jamming new songs everyday. There's a tonne of new songs. The direction is fresh and high energy. Feels great."

"I don't want to give away too much, but just know that Me, Mike Dirnt – [bassist], Tre [Cool - [drummer] and Jason White – [touring guitarist] are collaborating and having the best time playing music."

Cool, can't wait, they are reaching legendary status in my music world!

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Ozzy Osbourne to be given Kerrang! rock legend award

Ozzy Osbourne will be honoured as a legend at this year's Kerrang! rock awards.

The 62-year-old will be given the prize at a ceremony in London on 9 June.

The singer is also playing a show in the capital in the same month to mark the rock magazine's 30th anniversary.

He said: "It's an incredible honour to be the second recipient of Kerrang's legend award. I'm looking forward to you going crazy at the 30th Anniversary on 21 June in Hammersmith."

Read more at bbc.co.uk

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stunning cover art!

Opeth Reveal Colorful Cover Art For Heritage

by Chris Harris

Called Heritage, Opeth’s tenth album drops September 20 through Roadrunner Records.

The CD was produced by Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt and was recorded earlier this year at Atlantis studios in Stockholm. Mixing duties were handled by Steven Wilson and Åkerfeldt. Longtime collaborator Travis Smith also worked with Åkerfeldt to create, design and execute the album’s artwork.

Heritage will be released in a number of configurations: a standard version; a special edition loaded with extras; a box set exclusive to the Roadrunner and the band’s own official Omerch webstore; and a double LP

Read more at gunshyassassin.com











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fantastic look at one of the most cherished musical works of the 60's, well worth the read!

‘It’s Certainly a Thrill’ – The Story Of The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’

By Live4ever

It’s hard to imagine a world without ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band‘. The physicist C.P. Snow once said if Einstein hadn’t locked himself away, indulged in a spot of chin-stroking and eventually conceived the General Theory of Relativity, which revolutionised the way we think about science, we’d still be waiting for that idea to occur to someone else now. In the same vein, you have to wonder that if The Beatles hadn’t locked themselves away in Abbey Road during those few fruitful months over 40 years ago, following their self-imposed exile from live duties in 1966, whether we might equally still be waiting for a band to revolutionise the face of popular music today.

It may be a stretch to say Sgt. Pepper’s invented the modern idea of an ‘album’.

Read more at live4ever.uk.com





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Coldplay Releases Cover Art, Lyrics To New Single ‘Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall’

By Sierra Marquina

Check out your first look at Coldplay‘s single art for their upcoming track “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall” above!

The band released the official cover art and lyrics for the soon-to-be-hit via their website and Twitter, leaving us fans in much anticipation for our hearts to “start beating to [our] favorite song” Friday, June 3rd, when the track is released digitally.

The band will also be streaming the track on their official website Friday, as well as debuting the song live when they perform at Rock im Park in Germany this weekend.

Read more and get the lyrics at ryanseacrest.com












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It wasn't a rip off; it was a love in

An inflammatory article in The New York Times provoked the following letter from John Lennon in 1971, defensively penned on a couple of sheets of in-flight stationery as the Beatle crossed the Atlantic. Journalist Craig McGregor's piece, entitled 'The Beatles Betrayal,' was clear in its accusation: that a number of white bands — The Beatles in particular — were "ripping off" black music without so much as a nod to the original artists, many of whom were struggling to make ends meet whilst the Fab Four accumulated a fortune off the back of their efforts.

Clearly the charge stung.

The vendor of this lot wrote the article in The New York Times, entitled 'The Beatles Betrayal'. In it, he accused the Beatles, and other white artistes, of imitating and exploiting black music. John was stung into sending this response and it is clear that he was a little upset at the charges levelled against him and his fellow musicians. It is a concise summation of how much the Beatles and their contemporaries admired American black music and the debt they owed to it. John's comment about the Beatles' own early writing skills is particularly interesting as, in less than a decade after John and Paul had first met in 1957, they were ranked amongst the 20th century's greatest popular music composers.

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Alice Cooper Forced to Call Off Show Due to Food Poisoning; First Show Cancellation in 30 Years

Alice Cooper is one of the hardest working men in rock, as is shown by his over thirty years of touring without cancelling a date. Unfortunately, that amazing run has come to an end.

Cooper was scheduled to appear in Santiago, Chile when he suffered from food poisoning. Alice was on his way from Mexico City to Santiago and had Chilean Sea Bass on the plane.

Read more at our friends at vintagevinylnews.com

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Ringo Starr press conference and performance to be broadcast live

Ringo Starr press conference and special performance to be broadcast live on www.muzu.tv/ringostarr

On June 1st 2011 at 15:00 BST Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band will be inviting fans around the world to join them online for a live press conference and special performance.

Following a short musical performance, Ringo Starr will introduce the members of his All Starr Band as they prepare to embark on their 2011 European tour.

Read the rest at music-news.com

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Metallica voted the best rock group of the last 30 years

The 'All Nightmare Long' group topped the poll compiled by British magazine Kerrang! of the most influential groups of the last 30 years, beating My Chemical Romance, Slipknot, Green Day and Foo Fighters.

Drummer Lars Ulrich said: "it gives me a very warm and fuzzy feeling that Kerrang! Magazine have voted Metallica as the band that most changed their lives. I remember the first issue of the magazine in 1981. I had made a pilgrimage to England because I was obsessed with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. I travelled all over the country and that first issue accompanied me everywhere."

Read the rest and see the top ten at music-news.com





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and in music history for today:

The peerless Patsy Cline had her first recording session at Coral Records in 1955.

The Everly Brothers debuted on the Grand Ole Opry in 1957.

Also in 1957, Sam Cooke recorded the immortal "You Send Me" at Radio Recorders Studio in Los Angeles. The song will rise to the top of the US chart next December and become the first of Cook's 29 Billboard Top 40 hits.

In 1959, "The Battle Of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton hits the top of both the Country and Pop charts in the US, where it will stay for an amazing two months straight. The song was originally a poem written by high school teacher James Morriss in 1936, which he put to the music of an old fiddle tune known as "The Eighth Of January". Horton's version would become one of the largest selling records of the year and later won a Grammy Award.



In 1961, FM stereo was heard for the first time by listeners in Schenectady, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The FCC would adopt the standard a year later.

In 1963, Lesley Gore started a two week run at #1 on the U.S. singles chart with the Quincy Jones (then a staff producer for Mercury Records) produced “It's My Party.”

The Rolling Stones arrived in New York to begin their first tour in the US in 1964.

In 1966, during a 12 hour session at Abbey Road studios, The Beatles added overdubs on “Yellow Submarine,”with John Lennon blowing bubbles in a bucket of water and shouting "Full speed ahead Mister Captain!" Roadie Mal Evans played on a bass drum strapped to his chest, marching around the studio with The Beatles following behind (conga-line style) singing "We all live in a yellow submarine."

In 1967, in Britain, "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was released by the Beatles. It was released June 2 in the U.S.

In 1968, Simon and Garfunkel reached the top of the US charts with "Mrs. Robinson", which was featured in the soundtrack of the film The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman and Ann Bancroft. The song went on to win a Grammy Award for the Best Contemporary Pop Performance by a Vocal Duo or Group.

Also in 1968, 24-year-old Merrilee Rush enters the Billboard Top 40 for the first and only time with "Angel Of The Morning", which will reach #7. Juice Newton would take the same song to #4 in 1981. "Angel of the Morning" was written by Chip Taylor (James Wesley Voight), the younger brother of the actor Jon Voight and the uncle of actress Angelina Jolie.

In 1971, Gladys Knight is the last musical guest to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show, which was canceled the next day after 23 years on the air. It was TV's longest running variety show and was a springboard for nearly every major music act in the 60's. Sullivan was so angry about the cancellation that he refused to do a final show, although he would return for several TV specials and a 25th-anniversary show in 1973. Ed Sullivan died of esophageal cancer at age 73 on October 13th, 1974.

In 1984, Nate Nelson, lead singer of the doo-wop group the Flamingos, died at the age of 52. He was with the group when they recorded their biggest hit, "I Only Have Eyes For You" in 1959 and joined the Platters three years later.

The #1 album in 1991 was 'Out of Time' by R.E.M.

In 1991, David Ruffin (Temptation) died in Philadelphia of a cocaine overdose. Ruffin sang lead vocal on some of the Temps biggest hits, "My Girl" and "Ain't Too Proud Too Beg". As a solo artist, he had hits with "My Whole World Ended The Moment You Left Me" and "Walk Away From Love", as well as "The Way You Do the Things You Do / My Girl medley" with Hall and Oates.

In 1996, Alan Blakely, rhythm guitar player for The Tremeloes, who scored a pair of 1967 hits in North America, "Here Comes My Baby" and "Silence Is Golden", died of cancer at the age of 54.

In 2003, Staind were at #1 on the U.S. album chart with 14 Shades Of Gray, the bands second U.S. #1.

birthday wishes to (among others), Pat Boone (77), Ronnie Wood (Faces, Jeff Beck Group, Rolling Stones) (64), Alan Wilder (Depeche Mode) (52), Simon Gallup (Cure) (51), Michael Joyce (Smiths) (48) and Alanis Morissette, who was born in 1974 (you do the math!)