The Rolling Stones have announced that they will not be playing Glastonbury festival this year, following speculation that they were due to headline the June bash.

The band released a statement to NME.COM saying that the festival rumours were false and that they would not be touring at all in 2010.

"Following recent UK media speculation, The Rolling Stones would like to make it clear there are no plans at the moment for the band to tour in 2010," a spokesperson for the band said.

At present, U2 are the only band confirmed to headline Glastonbury, which takes place on June 25-27.

Source UNCUT

Following his recently announced departure from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, guitarist John Frusciante will appear with a number of artists on an upcoming David Bowie tribute album.

Frusciante is teaming up with the band Swahili Blonde (led by percussionist/vocalist Nicole Turley) for a cover of the Bowie song Red Money.

It will be interesting to hear how Frusciante and Swahili Blonde tackle the song, as it's had something of an odd history. It began as Sister Midnight, with music written by Bowie and guitarist Carlos Alomar and lyrics by Iggy Pop, and appeared on Pop's 1977 album The Idiot, which Bowie produced.

Sister Midnight

In 1979, however, Bowie wrote new lyrics and recorded the song under the title Red Money. This version was featured on his album Lodger.

Red Money

The David Bowie tribute album will boast 28 tracks in all, with proceeds going to the charity Warchild. The set is due for release in May.

The tracklisting for the record is as follows:

Space Oddity - Exitmusic
John, I'm Only Dancing - Vivian Girls
Sound + Vision - Megapuss
Absolute Beginners - Carla Bruni
World Falls Down - Lights
Heroes - VOICEsVOICEs
Boys Keep Swinging - Duran Duran
TBA - MGMT
Always Crashing In The Same Car - Charlift
African Night Flight - Aska w/ Moon & Moon
Suffragette City - A Place to Bury Strangers
Theme From Cat People - The Polyamorous Affair
Life On Mars - Keren Ann
Red Money - Swahili Blonde feat. John Frusciante
Art Decade - Marco Benevento
Be My Wife - Corridor
The Superman - Aquaserge
Ashes To Ashes - Warpaint
Quicksand - Rainbow Arabia
Afraid Of Americans - We Are The World
Within You - Laco$te
Ziggy Stardust - Ariana Delawari
Modern Love - Pizza!
Secret Life Of Arabia - St Clair Board
Starman - Caroline Weeks
The Man Who Sold The World - Amanda Jo Williams
Ashes To Ashes - Mick Karn
TBA - Soulwax

Source musicradar

The 46-year-old singer, who made his name in the pop band alongside Andrew Ridgeley in the 80s, claimed it would be impossible to re-capture the feel of the group 20 years later.

He said: 'Wham! was about being young and exuberant and you can’t recreate that feeling at a certain age.

'Andrew Ridgeley and I are still good friends but I’m afraid we’ll never get back together. We both agree on that.'

Although George is proud of the duo’s legacy, there is one song he isn’t keen on – their 1984 hit 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’.

The 'Fastlove’ singer said: 'I’m not keen on that song. I haven’t sung it for a long time.'

As well as being unsure about some of the band’s songs, George has previously confessed he made some fashion faux-pas while in Wham!.

He said: 'When I see myself. I cringe mostly! Take the blonde hair. I wanted to have long, blond, straight hair because I didn’t really want to be me.

'Looking back, I suppose I could have done without those curtain rings in my ears as well.'

Source music-news

LED ZEPPELIN'S JIMMY PAGE has spoken about two brand new compositions - titled Embryo Number 1 and Embryo Number 2 - as unveiled in the It Might Get Loud documentary. He has also hinted at a stockpile of unheard material just waiting for the right opportunity and musicians to record it.

"The most important thing for me now is to make some new music," Page told MOJO Editor-In-Chief Phil Alexander in the course of an exclusive interview for MOJO magazine.

Meanwhile, Page recalled a recent, emotional return to legendary Led Zep IV recording site Headley Grange as part of the guitar-orientated film, which also features The White Stripes/Raconteurs mainman Jack White and U2 guitarist The Edge. "I went into the room I slept in and the room where the fire was where we used to try and keep warm," said Page, "and it was quite overwhelming."

Page revealed that the owners of the manor have not always been so glad of its musical heritage. The former poor house's gates were stolen in the run-up to Led Zeppelin's 2008 reunion show, presumably by hunters of rock memorabilia. "I felt bad about that," he told MOJO.

MOJO magazine, featuring the Page interview, exclusive rare photographs from his forthcoming pictorial autobiography and a rundown of the records that changed his life, is on sale now...

Source MOJO

Cheap Trick will perform at SXSW 2010 in Austin, Texas in March.

The classic rock band is celebrating 35 years together.

Cheap Trick back in 194 in Rockford, Illinois and still has the same line-up. Robin Zander, Rick Nieslen, Tom Petersson and Bun E. Carlos will perform songs from their catalogue as well as their new album 'The Latest’ for the SXSW audience who come to the music conference from all over the world.

For Bun E. Carlos it will be a return to SXSW. Carlos played SXSW last year in the supergroup Tinted Windows, featuring members of Hanson, Fountains of Wayne and Smashing Pumpkins.

SXSW 2010 music festival and conference is on March 17-21.

Source music-news

WILLIE MITCHELL, TRUMPETER, bandleader, producer and one of southern soul's great sonic architects, has died in Memphis at the age of 81. Mitchell's son Lawrence revealed that his father suffered a cardiac arrest on December 19 and died at Memphis' Methodist University Hospital this morning (Tuesday, January 5).

Born in 1928 in Ashland, Mississippi, Mitchell cut his teeth with Tuff Green and Al Jackson Sr.'s big bands while still in high school - his trumpet playing can also be heard on several of B.B. King's early recordings. In 1950, he was drafted into the army, soon joining a band fronted by singer Vic Damone. Heading to Memphis in 1955, Mitchell quickly became a mainstay of the local music scene. His band would play host to a slew of Memphian jazz stalwarts including future drummer with Booker T & the M.G.'s, Al Jackson.

His tenure with Hi Records began in 1961. After a few minor jazz instrumental hits with the label he turned his attentions to the new sound ricocheting through the streets Memphis - soul. He would go on to work with Bobby 'Blue' Bland, O.V. Wright, Syl Johnson, Otis Clay, Ann Peebles and, most successfully, Al Green, who he first met in 1968 while enjoying a Top 10 hit with Soul Serenade. Green's voice immediately melded with the house band (the Hodge Brothers, drummer Howard Grimes) Mitchell had been honing. The pair formed a soulful, sophisticated partnership with Willie going on to produce and arrange the punchy horns and elegant strings that would shoot Green's songs to the top of the charts. Between 1970 and 1977, Hi ruled the world of soul, as Mitchell's musical nouse and natural leadership (he began running the label in 1970) were matched by his ever-growing technical prowess in the studio. In 1981, he started his own label, Waylo Records, and was making music in his Royal Recording Studios in South Memphis right up until his death.

He is survived by his son Lawrence, his daughters Lorrain and Yvonne, his two grandsons and a granddaughter.

A full obituary will appear in a future issue of MOJO magazine.

Al Green - Tired Of Being Alone

Source MOJO