Legendary rockers Status Quo collected their OBEs from the Queen at Buckingham Palace today and declared: 'We're no longer the wild men of rock - we're the old men of rock!'

During their heyday the band, comprised of lead singer Francis Rossi, 60, and guitarist Rick Parfitt, 61, inspired the legendary music 'mockumentary' This Is Spinal Tap with their hardcore lifestyle and open abuse of drink and drugs.

And while both men freely admitted that they 'could barely remember the 80s', they actually looked the picture of health in smart pin-striped suits and ties as they walked through the palace gates.

'Unfortunately given our ages I think OBE stands for Old Boys Entertaining,' joked Rossi, who last year cut finally cut off his trademark pony tail and had popped to the hairdresser for a short back and sides especially for the occasion.

'I wondered if our wild pasts may have counted against us,' added Parfitt, 'but I was in tears as I walked through the gates. I can't tell you how honoured I am.'

Both men, who have been playing together for more than 40 years and chalked up 22 British Top 10 hits including Rockin' All Over The World and Whatever You Want, sported hooped earring in their left ears - the one remnant of their rebellious pasts - but admitted they were now 'fully signed up members of The Establishment.'

Parfitt described the ceremony as 'the most amazing experience of his life.'

'When I went up to the Queen she smiled broadly and said 'aren't you a duo?'. I said "the other one is waiting in the wings" and she gave me a lovely grin and laughed,' he recalled.

'She said that she couldn't believe that we had been together for so long. She was absolutely charming. I'm quite besotted.'

Rossi added: 'It's one thing going out to play in front of 50,000 people but talking to the Queen - well that's quite another.

'We were both so humbled by the experience. I mean, this is the Queen after all. She is England, isn't she? We have grown up with her as our figurehead since we were tiny children and she's still going strong at 83. Not a very rock and roll thing to say I know, but she is simply amazing.

'Afterwards we sat in the audience watching all the other ladies and gentleman go up when we heard the band above us in the ballroom balcony playing a familiar tune. I looked up and the cellist peered down and winked at me. It was only then I realised that they were playing Rockin' All Over the World. What a day, man!'

The pair, who have spent almost eight years in the singles charts and are known as the hardest working men in rock, and are about to fly to Australia to begin a world tour that will see them play 90 dates this year.

'Most marriages don't last as long as we have been together,' said Rossi, before the two men went off with their (no doubt long suffering but extremely glamorous) wives for separate celebratory lunches.

More photos and video interview at MailOnline

Bob Dylan and Joan Baez will both play Washington later this week almost 50 years after they first sang during the Martin Luther King-led Jobs and Freedom March in 1963.

In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement, is set to take place on Wednesday (February 10) and will see the pair join a bill that already includes Smokey Robinson and John Mellencamp.

Reports that Dylan and Baez will perform together currently remain unconfirmed. The concert will be streamed live via whitehouse.gov.

Of course, the former lovers/musical partners have performed together on several occasions over the years. Here are three of their finest moments:

When The Ship Comes In
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom - August 28, 1963.

With God On Our Side
Newport Folk Festival, 1964

Blowin' In The Wind
The Rolling Thunder Revue, 1975

Source MOJO

Rage Against The Machine have just announced that they will play London's Finsbury Park on 6 June for the grand price of...nothing!

As you no doubt recall, the band promised Britain a free gig if their song Killing In the Name made the Christmas Number One slot ahead of The X Factor winner Joe McElderry's version of The Climb.

Guitarist Tom Morello described their victory as "historic" and said the group had "toppled the X Factor giant." Referring to the free show, he added: "Well...here we come. June 6, Finsbury Park, the celebration/party/revolution is ON!!"

The details

Fans need to register for a chance to gain tickets to the event via theragefactor.co.uk. Registration is open now until midnight on Sunday (14 February). A lottery will then be held from 9am on 17 February. The gig is open to all ages but those under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

Source musicradar

Many readers of this blog will have read, or at least read about, Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point. For the uninitiated, it claims to show how many social, economic and cultural ideas, products and trends grow slowly in popularity until a point when they 'tip' and quickly snowball into mainstream popularity.

Partly in tribute to Gladwell, I would like to point out the existence of The 'Oh Dear God Almighty, That Really Is ENOUGH' point.

I'm not sure whether my theory has enough substance to fuel a global bestseller, but nonetheless you will surely understand what I'm driving at. The ODGATRIE point occurs when a trend grows way past the aforementioned tipping point and becomes ubiquitous, which is when normally tolerant members of society feel a strong impulse towards serious violence whenever they encounter it.

And the ODGATRIE point is approaching right now for the trend of abusing auto-tune on R&B and pop records. I'm not talking about the barely detectable studio trick of correcting the vocalist's pitch - I'd rather that than everyone sounding like your sister singing in the shower - but the wildly fashionable gimmick of using it to create an electronicised, vocoder-style effect on the singer's voice.

OK, so futuristic popsters have been fond of such tricks ever since Kraftwerk. And the current trend actually had a false start back in the late 1990s (remember Cher's Believe?). But now it's back, like a pandemic returning in more virulent form. Turn on a chart radio station and more than half of the pop or R&B tunes on there will feature it.

While the current wave began as the trademark schtick of hip-hop mediocrities like T-Pain, now it dominates the airwaves like an all-conquering robot smurf.

Even the singer-songwriters are at it. Owl City's smash hit Fireflies may sound inoffensive enough but their new album is awash with electro-voiced disco watered down to MOR gloop. Meanwhile, the hotly tipped likes of Ellie Goulding, Ke$ha and Daisy Dares You feature heavily on 'tips for 2010' lists, and their self-penned efforts boast the overpowering scent of the chipmunk on virtually every song.

A backlash of sorts began in the US nearly a year ago, with Jay-Z's D.O.A (Death Of Auto-tune) and Death Cab For Cutie's endorsement of a semi-official 'anti-auto-tune campaign'. But their emphasis was on that always worthy-but-dull cause, 'authenticity'.

Pop history teaches us that spurious notions of 'real' singers and songs go in and out of fashion, but the old adage 'Familiarity breeds contempt' will always hold true.

That is why I strongly suspect the current inescapability of auto-tune will be its Achilles heel, and we will see the back of it very soon. Yet things can only get worse before they get better.

You may remember back in around 1990 when every other commercial hip hop record featured that 'Wooh... yeah!' James Brown/Lyn Collins sample loop. Barely two years after Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock had a hit using it on It Takes Two, everyone was at it, but during the decade afterwards, any artist with the slightest modicum of taste avoided it like a farmyard virus.

We had already passed The ODGATRIE point for that sample when middle-aged UK children's presenter Timmy Mallett was among the last to use it, on his sensitive reading of Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. The beginning of the end for any trend is when even your parents - and Ellen DeGeneres - are jumping on the bandwagon.

That thought was reinforced when I recently turned on my car radio to the traditionally middle-of-the-road BBC Radio 2 to hear Steve Wright In The Afternoon using auto-tune for his signature jingle. The death knell of a trend, encapsulated in three toe-curling seconds. And not a minute too soon.

Source MOJO

Jeff Beck is to release his first new album in seven years on April 13.

Called 'Emotion & Commotion', the album sees Beck team up with a number of musicians including Joss Stone. He also recorded tracks with a 64-piece orchestra, something he says he first experienced on his 2005 version of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5.

"It turned out amazingly well," Beck explained of the album, which features covers of Jeff Buckley's interpretation of 'Corpus Christi' and a version of 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' from the 'Wizard Of Oz'. "But I didn't want to commit to an entire album of classical music. What appealed to me instead was the idea of bringing together these seemingly contradictory sounds on different kinds of non-classical music.”

The tracklisting for 'Emotion & Commotion' is:

'Corpus Christi'
'Hammerhead'
'Never Alone'
'Somewhere Over The Rainbow'
'I Put A Spell On You' (featuring Joss Stone)
'Serene' (featuring Olivia Safe)
'Lilac Wine' (featuring Imelda May)
'Nessun Dorma'
'There’s No Other Me' (featuring Joss Stone)
'Elegy For Dunkirk' (featuring Olivia Safe)

Beck is set to play two nights at London's O2 Arena with Eric Clapton this weekend (February 13, 14), and also tours solo in October.

Jeff Beck plays:

Bournemouth BIC (October 15)
Brighton Centre (16)
Birmingham Symphony Hall (17)
Glasgow Clyde Auditorium (20)
Manchester Apollo (21)
Sheffield City Hall (22)
Bristol Colston Hall (24)
Cardiff St David’s Hall (25)
London Royal Albert Hall (26)

Source UNCUT

Everyone knows more Foreigner than they think, classics such as 'Cold As Ice', 'Waiting for a Girl Like You' and the number 1 hit 'I Want to Know What Love Is' have cemented the band’s status one of the most popular rock acts ever. Foreigner's mix of blustery blues and impeccably crafted pop continues to captivate generation after generation of music fans.

And after racking up 70 million album sales worldwide, they now have a brand new studio album 'Can’t Slow Down' - their first for 15 years!

'Can’t Slow Down’ is released 1st March on Edel’s international rock and pop label, earMUSIC. The album features 13 brand new songs and is produced by Marti Frederiksen (Aerosmith/Buckcherry) and celebrated Grammy Award winning producer Mark Ronson (Amy Winehouse).

This is an album that grabs you from the outset, with straight rock opener 'Can't Slow Down,' which stands strong beside melodic mid-tempo songs such as 'Angel Tonight' and 'Too Late' and beautiful ballads 'When It Comes To Love' (one of the strongest tracks on the album and surefire hit) to the last chord of the Ronson production 'Fool For You Anyway'.

Founder member Mick Jones - lead guitars and vocals - is joined by Kelly Hansen on lead vocal (ex Hurricane); Tom Gimbel (long term touring with Aerosmith) on guitar, saxophone, flute and backing vocals; on keyboards, Michael Bluestein (Stevie Nicks, Enrique Iglesias and Anastacia); Jeff Pilson (ex Dokken, Dio and MSG) on bass; and on drums, Brian Tichy (Ozzy Osbourne, Slash's Snakepit, Glenn Hughes, Billy Idol).

Of the album and the line up, Mick Jones (the band’s founder and legendary songwriter/guitarist) says, 'Our music has touched a lot of people worldwide. Unwittingly, we've weaved into the fabric of people's lives and this new line-up is working extremely hard to live up to the high bar that was set years ago. This is the most dynamic line-up that we’ve had since the early days.'

Available on CD, 'Can’t Slow Down' is also available as part of a 2CD/1DVD set (Disc 1: Can’t Slow Down Studio Album, Disc 2: Foreigner Live Disc 3: DVD featuring live footage, backstage footage and interviews) in 5.1 sound, and Collectors Edition which features signed 7' vinyl & CD.

Source music-news