15 November 2011
VVN Music
Two rockers have entered the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction best sellers list. The big winner is Ace Frehley's book, No Regrets: A Rock 'N' Roll Memoir, debuts at number 10. That beats out the first week placing of Kris Jenner's new memoir even though she has been on a heavy-duty promotional tour of all the talk shows.
Further down at 35 is Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi's memoir, Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell With Black Sabbath.
An autopsy conducted on the late rapper Heavy D proved inconclusive to the cause of his sudden death last Tuesday at the age of 44. The Los Angeles coroner has said that they will need to wait for the results of toxicology tests before moving forward.
UFO have announced that their new album will be titled Last of the Bone Riders. The album will be released by SPV/Steamhammer in late February.
The Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame welcomed in their class of 2011 last Thursday night which included Nokie Edwards and Bob Bogle of the Ventures and Jesse Ed Davis who played with artists as diverse as Taj Mahal, Gene Clark and Eric Clapton.
The members of GWAR paid tribute to late-guitarist Cory Smoot at a show last Wednesday night in Portland, OR by taking off their costumes to perform. They performed Maggots and Sick of You with comments about Smoot in between.
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum have announced that their final guest for 2011 in the quarterly series Poets and Prophets: Legendary Country Songwriters will be Wayne Carson. Carson is an award winning songwriter, producer and musician in both pop and country who penned such classics as The Letter and Soul Deep for the Box Tops, Always on My Mind, which has been recorded by literally hundreds of artists, and Slide Off Your Satin Sheets for Johnny Paycheck.
The U.K. retail chain John Lewis licensed the song Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want from the Smiths for an ad campaign. Even though the original record wasn't used, the decision by the group to allow their music to be used hasn't set well with a number of their fans on Twitter who are labeling them "sell outs."
