Legendary rocker Alice Cooper will be on hand to sign autographs at this spring’s edition of the Chiller Theatre toy, model and film expo in Parsippany, New Jersey. The three-day event will take place April 27-29 at Hilton Parsippany.
For more information, visit ChillerTheatre.com. Source: Blabbermouth.net
Dollar Loan Center CEO Chuck Brennan pulled out all the stops at his annual company holiday party recently. Bringing in his famous friends from around the country, the business owner and philanthropist helped raise nearly $300,000 for charity while giving 500 employees and guests a night to remember including $250,000 in cash and prizes.
“If there is a ‘best boss in America’ award, Chuck Brennan deserves it,” said Shon McKee, senior manager for Dollar Loan Center. “We got to experience an evening we will never forget and truly live like rock stars for the night.”
Brennan, a long-time rock music lover and former music industry executive, opened the evening with THE DOORS‘ Robby Krieger playing “L.A. Woman”, followed by “Roadhouse Blues” with actor Val Kilmer, who famously portrayed Jim Morrison in the 1991 movie about the iconic band.
Brennan then introduced comedian-musician Gary Mule Deer, who entertained the audience before they were treated to a musical set that included rock legend Alice Cooper, Jack Blades of NIGHT RANGER and Mick Fleetwood of FLEETWOOD MAC. The trio was accompanied by rock music legends Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer of the band KISS while Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley cheered in the audience. Brennan is long-time friends with the band and can always count on KISS when it comes to help raising money for great charities.
“It was an incredible, star-studded evening and I’m thrilled that everyone had such a good time,” said Brennan, “To be able to raise nearly $300,000 in a matter of minutes is very humbling.”
Over $200,000 of the donations are going directly to Alice Cooper‘s Solid Rock Foundation. The Phoenix based, non-profit organization provides programs and resources for at-risk teens. “Chuck and his wife Mary are our biggest contributors and this event is absolutely amazing,” said Cooper, “They need to televise this event each year so everyone can witness it!”
During the evening, Brennan also announced a $20,000 donation to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in the name of Robby Krieger as well as a $10,000 donation to Rupert’s Kids, the nonprofit organization founded by SURVIVOR‘s Rupert Boneham who was also a guest at the event.
Throughout the evening, famed “Speed Painter” Rock Demarco showcased his talents with artwork that was created live at the event and auctioned off for more than $100,000.
“And, of course, Dollar Loan Center employees got their own surprises during the evening,” said Brennan. “Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Tommy Thayer, and Eric Singer helped me give away four brand new KISS Mini Coopers to our staff” said Brennan. “Everyone walks away happy at our annual celebration. The prizes ranged from $100 in cash to a new car!”
Dollar Loan Center is a premier provider of payday loan alternatives in 50 locations throughout Nevada, South Dakota and Utah. Brennan, the company and its employees gave over half a million dollars last year to charitable organizations across the country.
Dollar Loan Center is the largest provider of short term credit services in South Dakota and Nevada. In 2007, Entrepreneur magazine listed the company among its “Hot 500” fastest-growing businesses and entrepreneurs.
A five-minute video clip featuring highlights from the event can be seen below. Source: Blabbermouth.net
British metal legends IRON MAIDEN will headline Summerfest‘s Marcus Amphitheater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 4 along with ALICE COOPER.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. March 3 and include Summerfest admission; information on prices is not yet available. Tickets can be purchased at the Marcus Amphitheater box office, Walmart stores, Ticketmaster outlets, Ticketmaster.com, (800) 745-3000 (live agent) and (866) 448-7849 (automated).
Summerfest is an 11-day festival with 11 stages featuring over 700 acts. This year, Summerfest runs runs from June 25 through July 1 and July 3 through July 8.
For more information, visit www.summerfest .com.
Following the massively successful “Final Frontier World Tour 2010-11”, IRON MAIDEN is back on the road this summer with a series of arena, amphitheater and festival shows in the USA and Canada, opening in Charlotte, North Carolina on June 21 and finishing in Houston, Texas on August 18, to be followed by further dates around the world in 2013. The “Maiden England World Tour” will closely mirror, in terms of production and content, the original 1988 concert video of the same name, shot on the “Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son Tour”. This opening section of the world tour is the band’s most extensive visit to North America for many years and includes a number of cities the band have not played in a very long time, such as Charlotte, Atlanta, Buffalo, Indianapolis and Salt Lake City.
“Maiden England” marks the third chapter in the history of IRON MAIDEN, a journey which began in 2004 with “The Early Days” DVD and subsequent 2005 “Early Days Tour”. Part two followed in 2008 with the “Live After Death” DVD — the seminal 1984 concert recorded at Long Beach Arena in California during the “World Slavery Tour” — and the band embarking on their groundbreaking “Somewhere Back In Time World Tour 2008/9”, which saw them play to over two million fans in almost 40 countries.
Comments vocalist Bruce Dickinson: “We have great fun playing the history of MAIDEN tours because it gives us an opportunity between new albums to go out and play songs from our earlier catalogue. It’s always fantastic seeing the crowd reaction from a new generation of fans who have never experienced some of these tracks performed live before, and of course we know our longstanding fans will enjoy seeing the original ‘Seventh Son Tour’ revisited — with many other surprises! Our intention is to play about two thirds of the original track list of ‘Maiden England’, including some songs we have not played live in a very,very long time, plus other favourites we just know the fans are going to want to hear! We always try to give our fans a great show musically, but we have always tried to make it as entertaining and memorable an experience as we can visually. And we all feel this show is going to do that splendidly! We can’t wait to get started in Charlotte.”
“Maiden England” 1988 longform video VHS track listing:
* Moonchild
* The Evil That Men Do
* The Prisoner
* Still Life
* Die With Your Boots On
* Infinite Dreams
* Killers
* Can I Play With Madness
* Heaven Can Wait
* Wasted Years
* The Clairvoyant
* Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
* The Number Of The Beast
* Hallowed Be Thy Name
* Iron Maiden
Source: Blabbermouth
ALICE COOPER, BAD BRAINS and KVELERTAK are among the confirmed artists for the 2012 Bonnaroo Music And Arts Festival. The 11th annual four-day camping and music festival will be held on June 7-10 on the same beautiful 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles south of Nashville. The final Bonnaroo 2012 lineup will total over 125 bands and over 20 comedians performing on 13 stages over four days.Tickets for the event will go on sale on this Saturday, February 18 at 12 noon EST exclusively at Bonnaroo.com.
After an unforgettable 10th year celebration in 2011, festival organizers have come back with one of the most eclectic and striking lineups to date, drawing from an astounding range of music scenes to create what is sure to be another incomparable weekend for the ages. The breadth of the programming is consistently innovative each year and has become one of the key signature aspects of this legendary festival, whose uniquely open minded yet discerning and passionate community thrives on its intelligent diversity. A consistent power in music discovery, Bonnaroo once again will expose its fanbase to legends, current favorites as well as new artists who are about to break.
As the only round-the-clock major U.S. music festival, Bonnaroo packs an unparalleled amount of entertainment options into its four days. The event has offered its attendees the amenities and community spirit of a small city, with 24 hours of activities including a comedy theater, cinema festival, broo’ers festival, silent disco, salon, sustainable gardening lessons, arcade, Internet cafés, restaurants, yoga classes and hundreds of high-quality food and craft vendors.
Festival organizers are also excited to announce their new partnership with YouTube creating Bonnaroo365, a new entertainment channel on YouTube featuring original programming, daily content and legendary live festival performances all created and curated by the Bonnaroo producers. Bonnaroo365 will be an unprecedented destination for the community to celebrate “Good Stuff,” the literal definition of Bonnaroo. This extension of Bonnaroo represents its transition from being mainly an annual terrestrial event to having a presence in the day-to-day life of likeminded entertainment fans worldwide. Specific programming details and schedules will be released in the coming months.
Source: Blabbermouth.net
On Saturday, February 11th, legendary pop singer WHITNEY HOUSTON’s publicist confirmed to the Associated Press that she has passed away. According to an update from CNN, Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55pm PST at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, CA. She was 48 years old.
There were “no obvious signs of criminal intent,” said Beverly Hills Police Lt. Mark Rosen. Medics removed her body from the hotel room early Sunday morning and an autopsy has been scheduled. But the county coroner’s office could not say when.
Her string of Billboard No. 1 hits included ‘Saving All My Love for You’, ‘How Will I Know’, ‘The Greatest Love of All’, ‘Where Do Broken Hearts Go’ and ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)’.
In 1992 she released the soundtrack to her movie The Bodyguard, one of the top ten biggest-selling albums of all time.
More artists from the hard rock world have been hit hard by the news as her music crossed genres. Some new tributes can be read below:
SLASH: “Shattering news about Whitney. RIP.”
ALICE COOPER: “What a loss. Every single girl – every diva – was trying to be like Whitney. She was the Barbra Streisand of her music. She had the purest voice of anybody.”
MORBID ANGEL: “Deeply saddened with the news of the death of Whitney Houston….RIP..!!”
WITHIN TEMPTATION: “Sorry to hear, Whitney Houston (48) passed away. Thinking of her it brings back a lot of childhood memories.”
Anette Olzon (NIGHTWISH): “Whitney Houston dead-48 years young. It’s so tragic and for me, who has been singing Whitney’s songs in talent shows when I was a teenager and have been inspired by her way of singing, I just think its so tragic. Whitney was one of the biggest voices and the world lost someone special this weekend. So sad for her family. Rest in peace, Whitney…”
KIP WINGER: “Sad to lose such a one of a kind talent, RIP Whitney Houston.”
TRAIL OF TEARS: “RIP Whitney Houston! Another great voice has been silenced.”
GLENN HUGHES: “RIP Whitney”
ROCK STAR SUPER STAR PROJECT: “RIP, Whitney Houston, a real Superstar.”
GOD FORBID: “Another waste of talent in the ground. R.I.P. Whitney Houston.”
Source : Bravewords.com
Original ALICE COOPER guitarist Steve Hunter has announced via his Facebook page that he will not be joining the legendary rocker on the road this year. Steve‘s statement reads as follows:
“Hello all my peeps and fans. I have an announcement to make. I have spent many weeks mulling this over…losing sleep.
“For many reasons, both personal and professional, I have reluctantly decided not to join Alice Cooper onstage this year. None of the reasons has to do with my health, which is very good at the moment. Nor do any have anything to do with my poor eyesight, because I was able to find ways around my impairment to enable me to perform and play guitar onstage. Nor is Alice any part of the reasons I have made this decision. He is a brother to me, and we share a real history.
“I think it’s time I move on. I have a solo album to finish among other things.
“I will miss all the beautiful people I met last year. I will miss glancing over to my right and seeing Alice belting out ’18’ again.
“I hope you all understand and aren’t disappointed in me. But I think I have to do this.
“I hope to see you all out there again one day soon. Thanks for understanding and God bless!”
Hunter appeared on five classic ALICE COOPER albums: “Billion Dollar Babies”, “Welcome To My Nightmare”, “Lace And Whiskey” and “Alice Cooper Goes To Hell”. Hunter was also featured on Cooper‘s 2011 album “Welcome 2 My Nightmare”, which was produced by Bob Ezrin, who helmed the original multi-platinum “Welcome To My Nightmare” album in 1975.
Source: Blabbermouth.net
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