Rikki Rocket Contest

The deadline for the RIKKI ROCKETT contest previously mentioned has been extended until Monday, March 20. Go to http://hometown.aol.com/clubrkt/CASpromotion.html to enter. The tracklisting for the latest TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA opus "Beethoven's Last Night" is as follows: 'Overture', 'Midnight', 'Fate', 'What Good This Deafness', 'Mephistopheles', 'What Is Eternal', 'The Moment', 'Vienna', 'Mozart', 'The Dreams Of Candlelight', 'Requiem (The Fifth)', 'I'll Keep Your Secrets', 'The Dark', 'Fur Elise', 'After The Fall', 'A Last Illusion', 'This Is Who You Are', 'Beethoven', 'Mephistopheles Return', 'Misery', 'Who Is This Child', and 'A Final Dream'. On a late spring night in 1827 Vienna, an exhausted Ludwig Von Beethoven sits slumped over his piano, having just completed his Tenth Symphony. This is to be his last night on earth Fate informs him. At the stroke of midnight, Mephistopheles appears to collect his soul. Faced with eternal damnation, a terrified Beethoven stalls for time, claiming he has yet to finish his greatest work. But the Lord of Darkness has a bargain in mind. Thus begins Paul O'Neill's latest TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA opus Beethoven's Last Night, scheduled for release by Lava/Atlantic in April 2000. The 22-song rock opera has all the O'Neill hallmarks that have made TSO's previous two albums Christmas Eve And Other Stories and The Christmas Attic unique success stories. The composer, lyricist and producer is joined once again with longtime collaborators Jon Oliva and Robert Kinkel and a fluid line-up of talented musicians and vocalists, turns O'Neill's vision into musical reality. "The story," O'Neill explains, "is 50 per cent history that did happen and 50 per cent history that might have happened. I think people are attracted to epic subjects. We love big movies like Amadeus and Ben Hur. Beethoven is certainly a larger than life figure. His music is so powerful yet his life was tragic in so many ways.going deaf half way through his career, being the greatest composer and never being able to hear your music. We all deal with frustrations in life but the way he triumphed over them makes our own problems seem small." "Beethoven took a lot of people's music and did the exact same thing," he says. "All artists to some degree stand on the shoulders of all the artists who came before them. You do that because you want to see a bit further. There's no point in backtracking over what someone else has already figured out for you." "Beethoven's music is so wonderful, so inspirational," O'Neill notes. "At first you think, I better keep my day job. But then it gives you a push to try and keep up. I believe that anything that keeps his music alive, that introduces his music to people who might not know it, is great. For people who have heard it, it re-introduces his life in a completely different way. There's always room for fresh insights as the recent discovery of a new Beethoven work proves." If VH1's Behind the Music profiles have left you wanting more, you can find it on the Web--the cablenet's site, vh1.com, now includes streaming video from selected episodes with insider commentaries from the show's producers. SOULFLY's sophomore effort is currently being put together in Phoenix with producer Toby Wright. Guests on the record include Chino Moreno from THE DEFTONES and Grady from WILL HAVEN... Ex-GREAT WHITE bassist Tony Montana's site http://www.tony-montana.com has information on his new solo album, Tombstone Shuffle. The lineup is as follows: Montana - guitars, vocals; Bryant Markovich - percussion, Ethan Gladstone - guitars. An MP3 of 'Little Queen' is downloadable, and more MP3s are said to be coming soon. The album is out now in Japan on BigMF/Zain with the bonus track 'San Antonio', but it will hopefully come out in Europe and North America later this year. An upcoming single will sport a "live in the studio" version of 'San Antonio', and Montana hopes to tour Europe and the US soon. In related news, over at http://www.garyholland.com, there's info on ex-Great White drummer Gary Holland. Besides the early Great White releases, who knew he sang and played on BRITTON's Rock Hard, TWISTED SISTER's Come Out And Play, DON DOKKEN's Up From The Ashes, and a couple Ozzmosis-era OZZY OSBOURNE tunes? He worked on a couple of EPs that were released last year, Sidewinder by BAD LUCK AND TROUBLE, and a solo release called Proud As I Am. RealMedia samples from both EPs are available at the site, which also accepts mail orders for the EPs... GUARDIAN's JAMIE ROWE says he will perform at the STRYPER Expo in New Jersey in May. "I will do a 4-5 song set with new power pop artists THE FRANTICS backing me up. We also plan to do some spring touring together," he says, directing those interested to stryperexpo.com for more info. Guardian's Live album, which includes a cover of U2's "Pride," is now available.