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Thursday, January 25, 2007

Rock News

Van Halen and David Lee Roth are meeting this weekend, not yesterday as Billboard mistakenly reported, to sign the contracts for a summer tour of amphitheaters. This will mark the first time that Roth will front the band on stage since 1984. And if what Eddie Van Halen recently said is true, then it will be his 15-year-old son Wolfgang on bass instead of Michael Anthony. Van Halen's last tour was in 2004 with Sammy Hagar. Asked if he can tour with Van Halen and never speak to them, since his relationship with Eddie has always been tempestuous. DLR said "Oh yeah, I have no problem with that." There is also talk of another Van Halen compilation album later this year.

Pete Townshend says he and Roger Daltrey are starting to lay out plans into 2009. Townshend writes on his website that he met with Daltrey on Tuesday, and they discussed celebrating the 40th anniversary of Tommy in 2009 because "we may not be around for the 50th." The Who also plan to launch a new website later this year.

Jimi Hendrix now has his own beverage. Liquid Experience is an energy drink named after Jimi's second album, Are You Experienced. The drink makes its debut at the Experience Music Project museum in his hometown of Seattle in April before going on sale in the rest of North America, Europe and Asia. And Hendrix is also the subject of a new computer music software program, which recreates his amp and effects rig. Supposedly you just plug your guitar into your computer and AmpliTube, the Jimi Hendrix Edition, enables you to emulate Jimi's guitar sound

Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson tells a Canadian radio station that the band is mixing its next album with plans to release it in late spring or early summer and with a North American tour scheduled to start on either June 12th or the 13th, followed by dates in Europe and South America later in the year. There are two working titles for the album floating around -- Snakes and Arrows and Snakes and Ladders.