Rock goliaths U2 will be the subject of a new 3-D film.

The news was revealed at the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas yesterday (March 15), with producers calling it the first film to be shot, posted and exhibited entirely in 3-D.

The film will be a combination of the band’s concerts in South America, lasting up to 90 minutes and containing around 15 songs.

Distributors were treated to a trailer and a performance of 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday', all in 3-D.

The creators, Real D, are still working on how to make it viable to be played in regular cinemas, but expect it to be available in 3-D capable cinemas (such as IMAX) late 2007- early 2008.

Source Gigwise

A year and a half after announcing their reunion via full-page newspaper ads,

In a message on its Website, the Chicago-based band said it will forgo the typical Tuesday release date for a relatively rare Saturday release, making the album available exactly at 7:07 a.m. on July 7, aka 07-07-07.

To build a buzz about the disc and their highly anticipated return, the Pumpkins will take to the road with a series of festival gigs in Europe, starting with the Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands on May 28 and continuing with stops in Germany, Portugal, and Italy before wrapping up June 17 at Interlaken, Switzerland.

The band also confirmed that their only scheduled North American concert appearance this year will be headlining the second night of Toronto's inaugural Virgin Music Festival, sponsored by billionaire mogul Richard Branson's Virgin Music Group, on Sept. 9. Other acts on the bill include Björk, who's slated to headline the Sept. 8 show, Interpol, the Killers, Paolo Nutini and Amy Winehouse, among others.

While Pumpkinheads will be glad to see the band's guitarist/frontmant/leader Corgan rejoined by drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, there's no word on the rest of the lineup. Guitarist James Iha and bassist D'Arcy Wretzky remain MIA from the reunion, as does Wretzky's replacement, former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur, who joined the quartet for some post-Machina gigs.

One possible fill-in is former Jane's Addiction bassist Eric Avery, who confirmed to MTV News last year that he was rehearsing with the group in the studio.

The Smashing Pumpkins first got together back in 1988. The band's debut album, Gish, came out in 1991, but it was their breakout major-label debut, 1993's Siamese Dream, with the hits "Today" and "Disarm," that turned them into alt-rock superstars.

The Pumpkins followed with Pisces Iscariot in 1994 and hit their peak in 1996 with the Grammy-winning, VMA-dominating double-album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, which spawned the singles "Bullet with Butterfly Wings," "Tonight, Tonight," "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" and "1979." But at the height of their popularity, touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died of a drug overdose and Corgan subsequently fired Chamberlin, who was battling his own drug problems.

The Pumpkins stuck with a drum machine for their next release, 1998's Adore, which failed to match the sales of their previous releases.

Chamberlin was allowed back into the band for the recording of Machina in 1999, but Wretzky left shortly thereafter to pursue an acting career. The band played its final show at Chicago's Metro on Dec. 2, 2000.

Corgan and Chamberlin went on to form Zwan, which put out one forgettable disc, before he embarked on an equally inauspicious solo career culminating with the release of 2005's The Future Embrace.

Source Yahoo News

Beach Boys co-founders Al Jardine and David Marks will team up with Jan & Dean's Dean Torrence for a special performance at South Carolina's Myrtle Beach Festival on May 12th. The trio will be backed by Torrence's Surf City All-Stars, which features Jardine's son Matt Jardine on vocals and percussion.

David Marks says he understands why Al Jardine has fought so hard to retain his title of Beach Boy after being forced out of the band in the late '90s: "Because it's a spiritual thing, man. That's why. You're used to being this guy for your whole life, doing one thing and then boom! It's gone. And you're going, 'Well, now what? I've got a beautiful farm in Big Sur which is nice to come home to...'Wouldn't you miss going on the road and playing those songs?"

Marks and former touring Beach Boy and current Brian Wilson sideman Jeff Foskett are on a UK promotional tour to publicize the new Marks biography, titled The Lost Beach Boy.

The book was written by noted Beach Boys author Jon Stebbins, and chronicles Marks' childhood friendships with Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, forming the band with the brothers and Mike Love, and his journey through substance abuse.

The Lost Beach Boy is due out in the U.S. in May.

Source IceBergRadio

Bruce Simon from Icebergradio reports that

With his Face The Promise tour wrapping up tomorrow (Saturday, March 17th), Bob Seger is hoping to get some last-minute work done and shoot footage for a concert DVD. The show will be his third this week at home in Detroit, and Seger told us that he really hopes things work out better this time than they did back in December at some other hometown gigs: "The first night, the sound sounded great and the lighting was bad, second night, the lighting was a little bit better, but too much light, and it didn't look real, and then the sound was horrible, because the guy went to Turkey! So I'm hopeful that we'll be able to do these three (shows in Detroit) and get a better product. I just didn't think the product was very top-notch. I thought the band played good, but the sound wasn't great -- but the look was the thing that I didn't like, the lighting wasn't good."

The show tomorrow is at Cobo Hall in Detroit, where Seger recorded his 1976 concert album Live Bullet.

Seger's never said this is his last tour, but he is planning to take off at least until October before deciding if he wants to go back out again.

Source IceBergRadio

US rock veterans Steely Dan have announced that they will headline a one-off UK show in Liverpool on July 6.

The show is part of the city's Summer Pops festival, taking place at Aintree Racecourse, and which already boasts Amy Winehouse, Deacon Blue, OMD and McFly as headliners.

Founding members Of Steely Dan, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen have not played in Liverpool since their 70s hey day and are looking forward to returning to revel in their four decade catalogue with a ten-piece band.

Donald Fagen said: "We can't wait to visit Liverpool again, with it’s very special place in pop and rock history, it’s one of those cities that always mean that little bit extra to all musicians.”

The concert will also ironically see Steely Dan perform the night after another of their biggest admirers, Liverpool favourites Deacon Blue, who take their name from a classic Steely Dan song.

Promoter for Summer Pops, Chas Cole said: “The beauty of hosting the Pops in Liverpool is that we can attract legendry acts of the calibre of Steely Dan. The bill is now really starting to take shape, there’s a real buzz starting to build about this year’s event, and there’s going to be a very exciting announcement still to come this week.”

Steely Dan are currently on an extensive tour of North America. No word , as yet, if further UK dates will be announced.

Tickets for Steely Dan at Summer Pops will go on sale next Friday (March 23) at 9am.

Source Uncut

New Joni Mitchell songs are to be aired exclusively on BBC Radio 2, six months before her first LP in ten years is released.

Mitchell's "Shine" is the first album of new material in a decade, and also features the singer's setting of Kipling's poem "If."

The world exclusive preview of the songs will take place over the next two weekends, as part of a two-part documentary based around an in-depth "conversation" between Mitchell and British singer-songwriter Amanda Ghost.

The radio series "Come In From The Cold: The Return Of Joni Mitchell" sees Mitchell explain the reasons behind her change of mind about recording music again.

Mitchell's last album of new material "Taming The Tiger" appeared in 1998
prior to the announcement of her retirement from music in 2002.

The new album comes as part of a busy period of renewed activity and interest for Mitchell - "Dancing Joni", a collaboration between the singer-songwriter and Alberta Ballet opened in Canada last month and next month sees the release of "A Tribute to Joni Mitchell", a collection of her songs reinterpreted by the likes of Bjork, Annie Lennox, Prince, kd lang, James Taylor, Elvis Costello and Emmylou Harris.

Come In From The Cold: The Return Of Joni Mitchell will be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on March 20 and 27 at 8.30pm.
"Shine" is expected to be released in the Autumn.

Source Uncut