Today's Top Stories

Ginger Baker Recovering From Open Heart Surgery

Last year Ulrich's bandmate Kirk Hammett confirmed it, saying: "We were unhappy, and we might have grumbled something to someone." Now Ulrich tells Metal Forces: "It's certainly not something that I was ever aware of.

"When you have a collective entity like Metallica that's been together for 35 years, there are times on that journey where the idea of what to do next has brought different options.

"There were times when Kirk was kind of floating out there, and there were a couple of times Hetfield was floating out there, and there were times when I was floating out there.

But with the situation showing no signs of improvement, and facing the possibility of the total removal of his tongue, the sticksman chose an experimental immune therapy called immunotherapy - a treatment which stimulates the immune system to fight cancer. As a result, the tumor has almost been completely eradicated.

Rockett tells the San Diego Union-Tribune: "I just didn't feel right. This should be getting better, not worse. I should be eating better, I should be swallowing better - what the hell's going on?"

He underwent a scan which showed that the original tumor was still present. "The lymph nodes on my right side lit up, the lymph nodes on my left side lit up, and on the side of my tongue there was stuff," Rockett says.

Topping a new list of the Top 60 biggest UK records in sync with this month's 60th anniversary of the Official Albums Chart, the project stands alone as the first and only album to have sold over 6 million copies in the UK, with 6.1 million sales to date.

"What a great bit of news to wake up to!", says guitarist Brian May. "The most popular album? Well, I always thought the band showed promise, but this is beyond our boyhood dreams! Thanks folks!"

Lenchantin of A Perfect Circle and Zwan fame began working with the group for their 2014 tour, taking the place of original bass player Kim Deal and Paz has now been confirmed as the group's official bassist.

"I was very nervous in the beginning when I went to that first rehearsal," said Lenchantin in the announcement. "There were these shoes I felt I had to fill and I tried to do the best I could for the fans, to make the live performances sound true to the originals.

"I spent three years learning to understand what being a Pixie meant, and now, my heart, spirit, and love for their music is embedded in me and I feel like I have become a Pixie. We had been more about the history of the Pixies, but now, we are about going forward."

The group's new album was produced by Tom Dalgety (Killing Joke, Royal Blood)and will be entitled "Head Carrier" and is set for released on September 30th. The first single from the effort, "Um Chagga Lagga" can be streamed here.

The band also revealed that they will be offering a special limited edition deluxe box set of "Head Carrier" via their website that will include the album on CD, a heavy-weight/180 gram black vinyl version, a 24-page book featuring the lyrics and Vaughan Oliver's cover art.

Twisted Sister performed on the Jagermeister stage at the festival on June 24 and Sapp says the band faced a two-and-a-half hour trip from their hotel to the site before being given too few backstage passes to accommodate their entire crew.

Tickets for the special event will be limited to two per customer and only available in person Banquet Records in Kingston from 10am on July 8th (Friday).

Biffy's seventh album Ellipsis is also released on July 8 and they are scheduled to perform at the Reading and Leeds festivals next month, as well as a show at Glasgow's Bellahouston Park on August 27 with Fall Out Boy and Cage The Elephant.

The Word Alive are currently touring the US in support of their latest album Dark Matter. Frontman Tyler 'Telle' Smith said of the record: "Dark Matter is the result of our most in-depth writing and recording session we've done, and is something we consider to be our most dynamic and expansive album to date.

That comment moved Tyler to say that "jealousy runs deep in this family," but Kramer doesn't feel threatened by the frontman's desire to branch out. The drummer tells Eddie Trunk Live (via Blabbermouth): "If he's doing a couple of songs off his album and the rest Aerosmith songs, you put two and two together and it's not what you would call a solo career.

He tells One On One Mitch Lafon: "We're pencilled in to reconvene in December and begin writing, so that's the plan. We'll start writing at the end of this year, we'll possibly have something out by 2017. We'll see how the process goes when we get under way in December."

Sounds From The Heart Of Gothenburg was recorded in November 2014 during the band's performances at Hovet in Stockholm and Scandinavium in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The night will "pay tribute to Kate Bush, one of the most influential songwriters of our time" and features Pollock along with other artists including Roddy Hart, Twilight Sad's James Graham, Admiral Fallow's Sarah Hayes and Field Music's Peter Brewis.

The band said: "This album is as much yours as it is ours. We wouldn't be here doing what we love right now if it weren't for the endless support we've received from our friends and fans across the world over the last two years.

Singer/guitarist Chris Theor tells TeamRock: "Elderflower is the title track to the EP and really encapsulates the main thematic thread that ties all the tracks together, that of change in the face of resistance.

The band had the following to say about the anniversary trek: "This year sees us celebrate 20 years of being InMe, so we're heading out in October with some friends of ours."

The pair had been touring in the months before Renbourn's passing and recorded 13 songs - one of them an original piece called Balham Moon. Jones says: "It was always a great pleasure to meet up with John and play the odd gig together over the 50 plus years that we've known each other, so when the opportunity arose about three years ago for us to tour together - I jumped at the chance.

It was originally a watch and clock repair shop, but its watchmaker and musician founder Jacques Albert began selling instruments and sheet music in store, before expanding into publishing, recording and artist management.

Outgoing CEO David Albert tells Billboard: "It's positive for the business and for the future. But the other emotion is, all the family feels there's a sense of sadness that it's the end of a 131-year era.

"Wake Up" was written at a pretty tough time for me. My home life was at its lowest point and the only way to really vent my frustrations, was through music. The band, at the time, was at a standstill. Constant line-up changes and problems arising just made being in the band even more difficult than it was.

Me being a huge guitar nerd, I love melodies and intricate playing of all sorts. So when it came to writing "Wake Up", it was quite difficult to find the right melody to set the song off. After about 4-5 hours of noodling on the guitar, I came across what would be the chorus of the song. The "IT" riff. And right then and there, every problem that I had in life seemed to have vanished and that's when the song started to take shape. I spent the next few days constructing the song, figuring out arrangements and what not but I felt uncertain about the song. I wasn't sure stylistically if this was a song that really represented the band and myself as a player. I was hesitant at first to show the rest of my band, but it had hit me.

There's no boundaries in metal; or music for that matter for what you can do or sound like. And at that point I was content with the musical direction I was heading. I knew right there at that moment; this is the rebirth of this band.