UK Metal Masters VENOM INC, who recently signed a global deal with ALPHA OMEGA Management, are currently touring North America. On January 20th they performed at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco, California. On that same night Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan celebrated his birthday, receiving also some special guests, METALLICA‘s James Hetfield and Steffan Chirazi, who’s running Metallica fan club since years.
Comments Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan: I was excited to be playing San Francisco as for many years one of my favourite US cities. It’s the home and birth place of some of my fav bands and sounds from the 80’s. I invited some people as it was my birthday also and not only was the show and the audience fucking killer but Stefan Chirazi, Whiplash and James Hetfield all came down!!! Steffan is my good old friend who runs the Metallica fan club since years, and one of James best mates.
Making an incredible night something completely off the fucking map!!!!! All the bands were on fire too!! To James and my friends and to the whole SF crowd,Thankyou for a great great birthday night!!
Following yesterday’s revelations that METALLICA had threatened serious legal action against a group of their own fans who have been performing covers of the metal band’s music. SANDMAN, also known as “Canada’s Tribute To Metallica” were served with the 41 page cease and desist letter right before their very own gig, but now according to rollingstone.com, METALLICA have apologised for their ‘overzealous attorney.’
“We hear that a Canadian Metallica tribute band is a little upset with us and with a little digging, figured out why,” the band tells Rolling Stone. “It turns out that a certain letter was delivered to the band Sandman that neither we nor our management were aware of until it surfaced online. Lucky for us, the band was kind enough to post it for us to see, and it turns out that we have a very overzealous attorney who sent this letter without our knowledge.”
The group pointed to “Garage Inc.”, their 1998 covers album, as proof of their support of groups covering other artists’ work. “We have a long history of not only enjoying tribute bands, but we started as one,” the group says. “Heck, we even recorded a two-disc album of covers! We will always remember those days and continue to enjoy tribute bands, even inviting them to support us on various tours over the years.”
Guitarist Joe Di Taranto says that Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich called him on Wednesday to apologize and quash the situation. “He gave me and the band his full blessing to continue on as we were,” says the musician. “They want us to continue paying tribute to Metallica with their full blessing and approval. We will continue to fly the Metallica flag, loud and proud!!” The band says they will continue using their logo with impunity.
As for the original cease and desist order, Metallica has rescinded the letter. “Sandman should file the letter in the trash,” the band says. “Keep doing what you’re doing … we totally support you! And in the meantime, our attorney can be found at SFO catching a flight to go permanently ice fishing in Alaska.”
METALLICA is threatening serious legal action against a group of their own fans who have been performing covers of the metal band’s music. SANDMAN, also known as “Canada’s Tribute To Metallica” were served with the 41 page cease and desist letter right before their very own gig, reported rockfeed.net.
“Metallica owns, and has registered, their name and trademark METALLICA”, the letter scolds. Quite humorously, the letter goes on to tout Metallica’s success. (As if their own fans didn’t already know)
The legal papers reference the cover act using their “official, stylized” logo when distributing information to bring attention to their gigs.
The legal paperwork references the band’s Facebook and YouTube profiles in the documents, which means Metallica probably has a team of people who actually scour the internet looking for people playing their music. (!!!)
It’s pretty brutal that the band was served with legal paperwork at their very own show. Sadly, they’re all probably pretty bummed that their favorite band is threatening legal action against them, which will probably require them to stop playing the music that they love. It makes you wonder how much money they actually made as a small time cover band performing Metallica songs.
Most local cover bands only make a few hundred dollars to split among themselves, playing together only as a hobby — using what little money they make to cover equipment and transportation expenses. Clearly, Metallica doesn’t seem to care about any of that.
Over time, Metallica has taken a lot of heat for their aggressive stance against those who use their intellectual property — though it’s clear they really don’t care what anybody thinks.
On Saturday, January 9th , the world came together to celebrate the life of MOTÖRHEAD frontman Lemmy Kilmister at Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery in Hollywood, California, reports bravewords.com.
With almost 300,000 watching on YouTube and millions more thinking about a man that changed the face of heavy metal it was difficult to hold back the tears.. And what a face … an image. An icon. Kinda like James Dean … but for us metalheads, much more of presence in life. Manager Todd Singerman led the ceremony: “Man, I hate using these words in past tense!”
He proceeded to pass the mic to Lemmy’s son Paul: “He had a feeling something was wrong in August. We will know the pain he was in … all of his years he was a stage warrior. Having moved mount Everest, the show would go on. He wasn’t just a musician and songwriter … he was a figurehead. He set the bar. It was about keeping it real. Performing was everything to him. He was Lemmy all the time. He wasn’t a poseur. He paid his his dues. Motörhead’s last album was a struggle … it never revealed his frailed health. Born to lose, live to win. He wasn’t religious, but he was profoundly spiritual. He never tolerated anybody talking over music … especially his! Music wasn’t a background to him. Nobody on this earth posed his brand of of humour. He was 100% real. I won the lottery when I got Lemmy. You were perfect. You are on the road to the great great gig in the sky.”
The elite of heavy metal praised the man, the legend.
Guns N’ Roses Slash: “Lemmy was somebody that I feel blessed to be friends with. He was such a a fucking great example of what my peers wanted to be. More integrity than anybody. 100 loyal. All these fine attributes. When I got sober he was so disappointed when I didn’t greet him with a flask of Jack Daniels!”
Judas Priest‘s Rob Halford: “Over the years we’ve had some amazing times. We always looked forward to seeing the lads! When I was in the the presence of lord Lemmy. I was overwhelmed! As we know, the music lives forever!”
Anthrax‘ Scott Ian : “Elvis you taught us how to dress, how to look. It was Carl Perkins and Little Richard how to sound. And it was The Beatles who taught us we could to write our own songs. And Lemmy it was you who taught us that we could be fucking real.”
Metallica’s Lars Ulrich: “I lived and breathed every note they sang! Lemmy was so hospitable and the ultimate party host. I’ve always cited Motorhead and Lemmy as in the inspiration and the primary reason Metallica exists musically and attitude wise. So thank you Lemmy for shaping who I am today.”
Foo Fighter‘s Dave Grohl: “There is not enough time to tell you what Lemmy meant to me. He’s my person … he’s the one that bridged my love of ACDC and Sabbath and Zeppelin … and my love with GBH, the Ramones and Black Flag.”
Lemmy Kilmister died on December 28th at the age of 70 following a brief battle with an aggressive cancer.
Camille and Kennerly, the identical twin dual harpists have released their cover for METALLICA‘s “One”. Watch it below.
Known as the “Harp Twins”, Camille and Kennerly perform internationally as a dynamic acoustic and electric rock Harp Duo. More information at: http://www.HarpTwins.com
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently sat down with Dan Lilker (ex-ANTHRAX) founder of thrash pioneers NUCLEAR ASSAULT at Heavy Montreal Festival in Montreal Quebec Canada. Dan talked about his song writing credits in ANTHRAX, his memories of helping out METALLICA in the early days and about the bands new E.P. Pounder.
On his song writing contributions on Fistful of metal and other Anthrax Albums
I would say I wrote about 75% of the music on that record, the records after that I am not really on, that sound a bit different, I guess. But it’s hard for me to comment because I was very involved in it, but yeah I wrote a bunch of that shit, put it that way
On his recollections of when Anthrax took care of Metallica in Rochester, New York when Metallica was working on their debut album Kill’em all
They were a long way from home, they were living in adverse conditions so they could record Kill em All and do some shows. I brought Dave Mustaine over to my house so he could take a shower, we looked out for him.
On whether he thought Dave Mustaine at the time came across to him like a raging alcoholic
Not really all those guys drank a bunch maybe he just smoked more weed then the rest of them
On whether Metallica was justified in throwing Dave Mustaine out for Drug and alcohol problems
They bought a bus ticket and dropped him off on Jamaica Avenue. It’s hard for me to say I don’t know the internal dynamics of the band. I wasn’t going to pry they had their reasons which they thought were justified we were kind of surprised and then they brought in this kid Kirk Hammett and he looked pretty nervous but he pulled it off, he was constantly looking over at James making sure he was playing all the parts right might have been a little nerve racking for him
On his thoughts of Metallica’s Load and reload
They are doing what they want to do and what they want to do isn’t as heavy as it used to be, then that is their personal and artistic decision
On his thoughts on Metallica’s Lulu
CRAP
On why Nuclear Assault decided on doing an E.P. instead of a full length album
We all don’t live in the same cities and we don’t get to jam every few days like other bands that live around the corner from each other. So we decided 4 songs is more realistic it’s quality control. We are booked in the studio right up to Christmas to do another 4 song E.P. because it’s the same logic, it’s easier to do 4 songs at a time if you are not living near each other
