Van Halen Did Make Moves To Setup Reunion

Plant debuted the new group at a surprise show at the Sparc Theatre in Bishop's Castle at the end of last month and followed up with some appearances with Fairport Convention and a show with Kiki Dee and Carmelo Luggeri.

The legendary singer has yet to officially announce the group and wanted to keep the shows under wraps but word got out and Fairport Convention confirmed that Saving Grace would be their special guests.

They wrote, "Our dear friend Robert Plant has a lovely new band called Saving Grace. He asked us if we could help by having them play some gigs on our current tour. We have tried to keep the 3 dates they are doing with us 'hushed up' but the worst kept secret of 2019 is out now and we are letting Fairport Fans get in quick with obtaining tickets."

Torme, best known for his brief stint with Ozzy Osbourne and as the guitarist in Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan's solo band, was hospitalized recently and also revealed that on top of his health issues, he is having trouble collecting money that he says that he is owed from Pledgemusic.

Gillan reacted to the hospitalization news with the following on social media this past weekend, "I just heard about Bernie Torme's struggle with pneumonia, and now it's hard to concentrate on anything else. So I, like many, will focus all my thoughts and love on channeling positive energy in his direction. I have a lot of affection for Bernie as a man, and great respect for his music, so let's all give him a hug when he really needs it."

Torme's Facebook page offered this update, which included the trouble with Pledgemusic, "This has been a very stressful situation for Bernie, exacerbated by the lack of communication coming from Pledge and, despite their promises, no sign of coming through with any solution to clear up the mess they have created. Bernie remains in intensive care for virulent double pneumonia."

After learning about Bernie's trouble with the crowd funding site, Andy Worthington organized a Just Giving page to help raise money to Torme. Andy had this to say on the page, "Bernie Torme has spent years making his fans happy touring the U.K. and globally. Bernie has recently been admitted to intensive care with major health issues, this has possibly been contributed to by the battles he has had trying to recover funds from pledge music. Here's hoping us loyal fans can help Bernie and his family with short term bills etc. Until we can hopefully see him onto the long road to recovery. You know Bernie; he would never ask... but perhaps this time we owe it to Bernie and his family."

The footage from the February 11 concert opens with longtime supporter Tom Morello delivering the group's famous intro from 1977's "Alive II" before the band launches into the opening song of the evening.

The new batch follows the reissue of the band's first four albums last November and this time they are issuing the new versions of 1984's "Powerslave", 1986's "Somewhere In Time," (in both a standard and deluxe package), 1988's "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son" and 1990's "No Prayer For The Dying."

Morton's debut solo record "Anesthetic" is set to hit stores on March 1st and he will be teaming up with Light the Torch (featuring Howard Jones of Killswitch Engage fame, and former members of Bleeding Through and All Shall Perish) for a coheadlining tour a couple weeks later.

Mark recently revealed the lineup of his solo band. He said, "I'm thrilled to announce the remaining members of the band for my upcoming tour in support of Anesthetic!

"Joining me will be Mark Morales (Sons Of Texas) on lead vocals, Doc Coyle (Bad Wolves) on guitar, Nick Villarreal (Sons Of Texas) on bass, and Art Cruz (Prong, Winds Of Plague) on the drums.

Jaime has teamed up with Chester's early band Grey Daze to rerecord some of the group's material from the early 1990s with Korn's Brian 'Head' Welch and James 'Munky' Shaffer, along with Bush star Chris Trainer and P.O.D.'s Marcos Curiel.

The four date event will be taking place at Infinity Downs in Arrington, VA on August 22nd through 25th and will feature headline performances from Trey Anastasio Band Feat. Derek Trucks, Tedeschi Trucks Band Feat. Trey Anastasio, Bob Weir and Wolf Bros Feat. Susan Tedeschi and Joe Russo's Almost Dead.

The latter leads the lineup for the first night (Thursday, Aug 22nd), which will also feature performances from Gary Clark Jr., Khruangbin, Chris Robinson Brotherhood, and Andy Frasco & The U.N.

As the name suggests, the record will find the band revisiting some of the songs from their first decade with recorded versions. Frontman Shane Told explains, "The goal was to update the recordings and make them sound the best they can - not change the songs from what has made them resonate with people for so long.

"You're going to hear the clarity and dynamics in a new way, but the magic of the original songs is kept intact. It's going to be fun for fans to crank these up and really hear the songs the way they were meant to be heard.

It's the third song issued in advance of the March 1 release of the band's 15th record, following the lead single, "Man The Machine", and "Dark Reverie."

"The Verdict is the most metal and the most progressive record we have made in a long time," says guitarist Michael Wilton. "I couldn't possibly be more excited for everyone to hear this."

Frontman John Strickland had this to say about the song, "We all have experienced and been in a moment of excruciating emotional pain and 'Empty Chamber' was written during one of those moments.

"The song has an upbeat tempo and happy melodic vibe but the lyrics are depressing and filled with anxiety. Sometimes everything in life can be going great but you still struggle with emotional pain and confusion. I feel 'Empty Chamber' embodies that emotion." -

I was an 80s child. I also grew up on easy listening. I never wrote "Silhouettes" with either in mind, but like every one of my songs, I never know how or where things will end up. There's adventure in that.

I don't recall much of the songwriting process of "Silhouettes." I just remember that, as it was developing, I noticed some pretty strong, passing similarities (of the first half, at least) toward a particular easy listening song that many of us 80s kids probably remember. I'm not sure if others will agree with me, but the verse sections remind me of a certain duet from 1986, sang by a certain soap opera actress and an already established R&B singer. This song was also featured in Family Guy, for what it's worth. I don't want to name the song, but I'm curious if some of the readers can figure it out. My engineer/co-producer and I wanted to make sure we only flirted with the easy listening vibe, that it maintained some edge to it. I think it was a success, and it was both fun and stressful riding that line (it's a hard line to ride): how much saccharine can we get away with? The second half of the song moves closer to shoegaze and post punk, with some fugue-like tritones in six-measure segments.

Then there are the lyrics, which, if one were to take a closer look, would see the overt sexuality and fetishism. I normally don't write songs with a particular individual in mind, but this one was an exception. She doesn't know I wrote it about her, and we don't speak anymore. I won't go into it more than that, and I'll leave the analysis up to others.