Rockblog

Australian rock band AC/DC have announced a string of summer stadium concerts in Europe as part of their Black Ice tour.

AC/DC have sold out all of their European spring Black Ice tour dates scheduled between February and April next year. The new summer tour dates will hopefully quell some of the demand on ticket resellers who have made a killing by snapping up as many of the spring tour tickets as possible and selling them on for obscene profits.

The announced AC/DC Black Ice stadium tour dates are:

I will be trying to get tickets for the Wembley Stadium concert when tickets go on sale. We already have tickets to see the band at the O2 Arena in April, but I can think of nothing better than rocking outside with AC/DC on a sunny (hopefully!) summer’s evening.

But getting AC/DC tickets still might be easier said than done. The spring dates all sold out in no time at all and their latest album Black Ice spent a month at the top of the combined European album chart. Fingers crossed I’ll be able to get tickets again.

The Top Ten songs most often used to prepare prisoners for interrogation at Guantanamo Bay have been released by Stop The Music Torture, a campaign set up by human rights group Reprieve.  

There are some pretty good rock songs making the top ten. In fact, the playlist looks a hell of a lot better than any of the local radio stations I can pick up.

The Top Ten Guantanamo Interrogation Songs:

1. Enter Sandman – Metallica
2. Bodies – Drowning Pool
3. Shoot to Thrill – AC/DC
4. Hell’s Bells – AC/DC
5. I Love You, from the Barney And Friends children’s TV show
6. Born In The USA– Bruce Springsteen
7. We Are The Champions – Queen
8. Babylon – David Gray
9. White America – Eminem
10. Sesame Street – theme from the children’s TV show

With the exception of Barney, David Gray, Eminem, and Sesame Street that’s not a bad list of songs. And I’d take the Sesame Street theme over Mr Rodgers’ Neighborhood any day.

This would be like a vacation compared to the crap music I’m assaulted with when going into any of the shops in the local shopping centre. If they really want to torture these people with music, I’d suggest tuning to any of the UK analogue radio stations. They repeat the same shit songs over and over and over. It’s enough to drive you crazy.

The Rockblog would like to wish all its readers a Happy Thanksgiving and take this chance to list some of the things the Rockblog has been thnkful for over the past twelve months.

The first thing to be thankful for is the Norton Records release of the Dictators collection Every Day is Saturday. I’m not usually into collections of rarities and alternate versions, but Dictators releases are too rare as it is. It helps that the alternate version of “Sleeping With the TV On” from the Manifest Destiny album pisses all over the original release and most of the Bloodbrothers album that is included sounds great as well. Throw in some very early Dictators songs including the best song ever written about an episode of the original 1950’s Superman TV series, “Fireman’s Friend”, and you’re on to a winner.

Sticking with the Dictators, the Rockblog is not only thankful, but eternally grateful, for the Spanish tour the band did in October and easyjet for providing cheap flights to Spain. The Barcelona show was easily one of the best I’ve ever been to and it was a pleasure meeting Ross the Boss, Handsome Dick Manitoba, and Andy Shernoff after the show.

The Rockblog is also thankful for getting to see Neil Young again at the Hammersmith Apollo and Ace Frehley at the Astoria. Hell, I enjoyed seeing Ace more as a solo artist then I did when I saw him with KISS in 1996.

I’m thankful I got the chance to catch up with old friends in the Grateful Dead tribute band the Cosmic Charlies. It’s a shame the UK market for a Dead tribute band is so small because these guys are good. Hopefully it won’t be so long between shows the next time I see them.

I’m thankful AC/DC added a second date at the O2 in London. I was still trying to buy tickets for the sold out first gig when Ticketmaster notified me tickets were on sale for another date at the arena.

And speaking of the O2, I’m thankful to Metallica for the £5 tickets to their Death Magnetic release party gig held at the arena.

I’m thankful Guns N Roses finally released Chinese Democracy. I may not like the album, but the coverage in the music press became almost as tedious as that of the Presidential election and should die out within the next couple of weeks. I’m also glad Dr Pepper screwed up on their free soda deal. Why should us in the UK not be able to get a free Dr Pepper?

And that brings me to some things I’m thankful to look forward to in 2009. A new album from the New York Dolls. Tours from George Thorogood and Lynyrd Skynyrd. And hopefully a tour from Alice Cooper with a full stage production of his latest album Along Came A Spider.

I almost forgot, I’m also thankful to Today.com for providing beer money to blog about something I really love. Check them out, you too could earn some extra cash blogging about something dear to your heart.

Have a happy and rockin’ Thanksgiving.

Australian rockers AC/DC see their album Black Ice hold on to the number 1 spot in the combined European album chart for the fourth straight week.

According to Billboard, Black Ice remained on top in Germany and Greece and regained the top spots in Hungary and Sweden after slipping to numbers 4 and 2 respectively. Black Ice held at No. 2 in Switzerland and the Belgian region of Wallony and No. 3 in France and Austria, but fell from 1 to 2 in Denmark and Flanders, 2 to 3 in Norway, 3 to 6 in Italy and 9 to 11 in the United Kingdom.

AC/DC knocked Metallica off the number one spot four weeks ago. Metallica’s Death Magnetic was the European number 1 for six weeks before being knocked out of the top spot by Black Ice.  

That makes a total of ten straight weeks of rock at the top of the European charts. With the release of the long awaited Chinese Democracy by Guns ‘N’ Roses this week, there is a strong possibility of an eleventh straight week of rock sitting on top in Europe.

Can AC/DC retain the top spot for a fith week or will Guns ‘N’ Roses make it a hard rock hat trick? While I’m not a big fan of Chinese Democracy, I hope it takes the top spot if Black Ice can’t hold on another week as I’m sure it is better than any of the pop, hip-hop, or R&B alternatives.