Sweden Rock Festival has just announced Whitesnake’s appearance at the 2011 fest which will be held on June 8th to 11th on their usual grounds near Sölvesborg. The announcement certainly ain’t no stranger to hype:

…We’re mostly referring to certain very special guest performers. We won’t reveal who — let’s just say that any fan of Whitesnake will be very thrilled to see them. If you are one of them, you definitely do not want to miss this concert.

Let the speculations run wild.

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

Whitesnake have revealed title and artwork for their new album. It will be called Forevermore and will be released in late March 2011 on an Italian metal label Frontiers Records.

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson and BraveWords for the info.

“Stay Tuned” is the title of Austrian drummer Bernhard Welz’ first solo album released on December 18 2010.

It features a slew of prominent guest musicians, including Roger Glover, Steve Morse, Don Airey, Ian Paice (live drum solo 2002) and Jon Lord – along with Neil Murray, Steve Lukather, Mike Stern, Mark King, Katrina (Ex-Katrina and the Waves) and many more.

The album was originally planned for release in May 2010, but things didn’t go according to plan, explains Bernhard Welz:

– Due to some unforeseen technical problems and hardware failures in the mixing process, we had a very long delay, for which I want to apologize to everybody, who pre-ordered the album. We tried our best to finish the additional editing and mixing during our short tour breaks, which we finally did now. Thank you again for your patience and I hope you will enjoy the record.

Jon Lord features on a limited edition of 1.000 copies, that include a bonus live recording of “Child In Time” with the late Steve Lee on vocals (Gotthard) and Bernhard Welz on drums. This was recorded with the Nota Bene Symphony Orchestra in Zürich, Switzerland January 2009.

The studio tracks were recorded between April 2009 and March 2010. Most of the international guests recorded their parts at home, but not all, explains Bernhard Welz.

– I worked in the studio with Steve Lukather, Mike Stern, Ernesto Ghezzi (Zucchero, Eros Ramazotti), Kaitner Z Doka, and most of the local artists.

– There was one funny incident. When I recorded with Steve Lukather in Frankfurt, I had come straight from a show in Stuttgart. We talked about travelling and then he asked me “did you do it in A440″. I said “no A81″. I meant the motorway I’d used to get there. He meant tuning the guitar in 440 Hz! He looked at me like I was a ghost, then he said: “Ah, nevermind, I play everything.”

Sales of the album supports the Childhood Foundation, founded by H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden.

Order and listen to sound clips.

Concerto’99 officially known as Deep Purple In Concert with the London Symphony Orchestra Live at the Royal Albert Hall has just been released on vinyl by a boutique label Night of the Vinyl Dead. The release is said to be limited to 500 copies and contains the album spread over no less than 4 LPs with colored innersleeve and inlay.

Side I
Pictured Within
Wait a While

Side II
Sitting in a Dream
Love Is All
Via Miami

Side III
That’s Why God Is Singing the Blues
Take It off the Top
Wring That Neck

Side IV
Pictures of Home

Side V
Concerto for Group and Orchestra, Mov. 1

Side VI
Concerto for Group and Orchestra, Mov. 2

Side VII
Concerto for Group and Orchestra, Mov. 3
Ted the Mechanic

Side VIII
Watching the Sky
Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
Smoke on the Water

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Black Country Communion promised a summer tour of Europe and the dates are starting to roll in. Below are the scheduled dates so far. They will also play the Azkena Rock Festival in Spain. The festival takes places June 23-25 but it’s not yet clear which day BCC will play. Do we dare to guess they will show up on other big festivals as High Voltage in the UK and Sweden Rock Festival too?

THURSDAY 30 JUNE 2011
Freilichtbühne Killesberg
Stuttgart, Germany

FRIDAY 01 JULY 2011
Jahrhunderthalle
Frankfurt, Germany

SATURDAY 02 JULY 2011
Leipzig Parkbühne
Leipzig, Germany

MONDAY 04 JULY 2011
Zenith
Munich, Germany

TUESDAY 05 JULY 2011
Zitadelle Spandau
Berlin, Germany

WEDNESDAY 06 JULY 2011
Stadtpark
Hamburg, Germany

THURSDAY 14 JULY 2011
Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle Bonn
Bonn, Germany

Glenn’s performance in Programma Todo Seu on December 9th:

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

Steve Morse writes in his blog:

Well, it’s been a long time on the road. I’ve been able to use up every minute of every day without ever catching up on all the things I should get done. This tour seems like 2 lifetimes ago that it started, and indeed it’s close to 2 months gone by the time I get home.

Musically, things have been great, we started with a different set list, with a lot of different songs in reserve to change around. Most everybody liked the list that we settled on in the first 2 weeks, so it’s sort of stayed that way. For the first time I can ever remember, I have been able to get online, in some fashion, almost every day, albeit sometimes unfathomably slowly.

Continue reading on SteveMorse.com.

Members of Whitesnake have donated several items to a charity auction for the benefit of Y&T bass player Phil Kennemore, who is battling metastatic cancer. Items available are Doug Aldrich’s Fender Telecaster, a 1987 tourbook signed by Coverdale, Coverdale/Page CD signed by both of them, and an original print of a photograph by Timothy Drury. The auction ends on December 31st.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Billboard has an article about a new state of the art Jukasa Studios built last year on a native reservation in Canada, just an hour outside of Toronto. Enjoying the tax exempt status, the studio can save it’s clients paying the 13% Ontario tax on it’s services. Nick Blagona is the chief engineer and he’s been busy:

…Now, Jukasa’s chief engineer Nick Blagona is mixing Ian Gillan of Deep Purple’s new solo album there…

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

Rainbow’s Down to Earth album remaster will be released (presumably in the UK) at the end of January (on the 24th if you believe Classic Rock or on the 31st if you believe Amazon). The track list, however, seems to be finalized and will span 2CDs as follows.

CD1:

1. All Night Long
2. Eyes Of The World
3. No Time To Lose
4. Makin’ Love
5. Since You Been Gone
6. Love’s No Friend
7. Danger Zone
8. Lost In Hollywood
9. Bad Girl (single B-side)
10. Weiss Heim (single B-side)

CD2:

1. All Night Long (instrumental outtake)
2. Eyes Of The World (instrumental outtake)
3. Spark Don’t Mean A Fire
4. Makin’ Love (instrumental outtake)
5. Since You Been Gone (instrumental outtake)
6. Ain’t A Lot Of Love In The Heart Of Me
7. Danger Zone (instrumental outtake)
8. Lost In Hollywood (instrumental outtake)
9. Bad Girls (instrumental outtake)
10. Ain’t A Lot Of Love In The Heart
11. Eyes Of The World (instrumental outtake – take two)
12. All Night Long (Cozy Powell mix)

The “instrumental outtakes” are most likely from the instrumental demos that surfaced on the bootleg market a few years ago, allegedly originating from the late Cozy Powell’s estate.