ATELLO are getting really good at getting noticed. On Friday June 16, BON JOVI played to the largest crowd ever for the TODAY show outside Rockefeller Center. WDHA (who currently has ATELLO in rotation) chartered a bus filled with BON JOVI (and ATELLO) fans & camped outside the stage area. No less than FIVE times on national TV, a HUGE banner saying "BON JOVI & ATELLO ROCK NEW JERSEY" appeared on screen. Check www.ATELLO.com soon for a picture of the banner.
If you check their itinerary on pollstar.com, you'll notice that THIN LIZZY is scheduled to play some smaller U.S. venues in July and August.
Here's the track listing for the new DAVID COVERDALE disc: Into The Light/The River Song . She Give Me . Don't You Cry . Love Is Blind . Slave . Cry For Me . Living On Love . Midnight Blue . Too Many Tears (re-recording of the Restless Heart album track) . Don't Lie To Me . Wherever You May Go. The album is released in Japan August 30 and in Europe in September. The first single is likely to be "Love Is Blind"
The KISS auction, held June 24-25 on the Paramount lot in Los Angeles and on the Internet and via telephone, brought in $1.6 million from sales of stage costumes, instruments, artwork, and other memorabilia from the band's personal archives. A set of four costumes from the 1996-97 Alive Worldwide tour on lifesize mannequins sold for $189,500 and another set from the Psycho Circus tour went for $145,500. Four more from the Love Gun /Alive II tour reaped $86,250. A GENE SIMMONS' costume from the same tour sold for $32,200, and several basses brought prices ranging from $16,100 (the signed axe bass prototype) to a silver Spector from Love Gun/ Alive II at $21,850 and another axe bass from the Creatures of the Night tour for $40,250. A PAUL STANLEY 'star' guitar from 1980 sold for $34,500 and one of his Dynasty costumes on a mannequin went for $16,100. An original painting of the Destroyer album cover brought $11,500, and the original Love Gun cover painting sold for $25,875. On Friday night, a pre-auction party was held at Paramount, and although the band members didn't attend due to their tour schedule, BRUCE KULICK was there as well as JOHN LOWERY of MARILYN MANSON. Now mixing the new album set for September release, Manson may headline the Family Values tour this fall. Also possibly taking part in the tour: SLIPKNOT, PAPA ROACH (whose Infest CD has just gone gold), ORGY and DEADSY but not KORN or LIMP BIZKIT.
If you saw the mockumentary, This is Spinal Tap, you know all about how drummers can vacate a band very easily. As reported previously, MÖTLEY CRÜE's RANDY CASTILLO, recuperating from stomach surgery, is being replaced by SAMANTHA MAHONEY of HOLE for at least the first part of the Maximum Rock tour; it appears that KORN's DAVID SILVERIA won't be able to reclaim his drum seat from MIKE BORDIN in time for the Summer Sanitarium tour, as he's still having problems with his wrist; and COAL CHAMBER's MIKEY COX's shoulder injury forced cancellation of eight headlining tour dates so he can recuperate in time for the start of the Tattoo the Earth tour on July 15. What's more, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY's tour kickoff gig in Anaheim, California on Friday night was cut short when drummer PHIL ONDICH fell ill five songs into the set and had to be taken to the hospital (cause unknown, but a bug contracted in Japan may be to blame). CROWBAR's SID MONTZ filled in, jamming with BLS on "War Pigs" and "Sweet Leaf," and will do double duty at the show in Albuquerque, New Mexico (the gigs in Tempe and Tucson, Arizona were canceled).
Will AEROSMITH, AC/DC, BLACK SABBATH or QUEEN make it into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year? All are once again on the list of semifinalists. AEROSMITH's STEVEN TYLER and JOE PERRY will be part of a spoken-word album called World Voice 2000, a CD of readings from POPE JOHN PAUL II's prayer books, which is due in September.
TOMMY SKEOCH has been replaced on BAR 7's current tour by fellow ex-TESLA guitarist FRANK HANNON. No explanation was given but insiders suspect that Skeoch's old drug problems may have resurfaced. Past efforts at keeping these problems under wraps usually hasn't worked out too well for the guys in Tesla, so if it was drug related, chances are we'll get a confirmation soon.
Former PARIAH members KYLE ELLISON (guitar) and SHANDON SAHM (drums) have joined THE MEAT PUPPETS, now signed to Breaking Records, HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH's imprint at Atlantic Records.
