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Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Rock News

Bassist Tom Hamilton will be back with Aerosmith when they tour South America and Europe this spring and summer. Hamilton, who sat out the band's 2006 tour with Motley Crue because of treatment for throat cancer, says, "It feels really good to be up and running and looking forward to going on the road. It's still very weird to think about missing a whole last tour. Many times I felt like I needed to be out there with the unit pulling my weight, but now I can savor what we're about to do. We've got a busy year coming up." After the European tour, Aerosmith will head back into the studio to finish their next album, which they started working on last year.

There are no plans to release Let It Be, the last film from The Beatles, anytime soon. Neil Aspinall, who heads up the band's Apple Corps, tells FOX News that the "controversial" nature of the film, which captured the band arguing, is still "controversial [and] it raised a lot of old issues." Up next for the Beatles is the re-release of their catalog, which has been remastered, as well as their music being available for download.

Hello magazine is reporting that Heather Mills, the estranged wife of Paul McCartney, will appear on the T-V reality show Dancing With the Stars. Mills, who lost the lower part of her left leg in 1993 after being struck by a police motorcycle, will donate her earnings from the show to Viva, an animal welfare charity. When Heather is not dancing, she is using her legs for something else. Last week she allegedly kicked a photographer who tried to take her picture outside her sister Fiona's home in Hove, England. Heather is said to have leaned into the photographer's car window to grab his camera. He then got out of the car and she told him he was the "scum of the Earth" before knocking his hat off and kicking him. And we can believe her: if Heather Mills calls someone Scum Of The Earth, it's because she recognizes them from the Scum Of The Earth Meetings, which she attends regularly...

With Van Halen announcing that they are reuniting with original singer David Lee Roth for a tour this summer, comes Van Halen: A Visual History 1978-1984, a 192-page coffee-table-size book of photos. Photographer Neil Zlozower was given exclusive access to the band during their days with Roth, who wrote the foreword for the book. It also contains captions and comments from their producer, Ted Templeman, Gene Simmons, Jimmy Page, Motley Crue, Def Leppard's Joe Elliot, Alice Cooper, and many more. The book can be ordered through Van-Halen-Store-dot-com.

Former Styx singer-keyboard player Dennis DeYoung is working on a new album, his first rock release since 1988. On his website, he writes, "The working title is The Grand Pieces of Paradise. I have decided to return to my roots, and I feel this is my edgiest and rockin'est record ever. Hell, everybody says this same B-S, don't they? Truth be told, the songs do not suck, and if your interested in a middle-aged white guy who can still sing high you just might like it." The working title is a combination of three Styx album titles -- The Grand Illusion, Pieces of Eight and Paradise Theater.