Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts Wanted to Play Queen’s Concert

There’s plenty of activity this week surrounding The Rolling Stones.

First the Stones delayed their 50th anniversary tour by a year, and then drummer Charlie Watts said he’d liked to have been on the bill for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert.

He told the Daily Express: “I’d love to have done the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, because that’s a great thing, I think, but I don't think we'd have the time to do it. It’ll be a night of the Sirs, won’t it, with Paul McCartney and Elton. Lovely guy, Elton.”

The televised concert will take place at Buckingham Palace in London on June 4. The lineup so far features Ed Sheehan, JLS, Jessie J, Annie Lennox, Madness, Cliff Richard, Shirley Bassey, Elton John and Paul McCartney.

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Jason Newsted Joins Metallica at Anniversary Concert

This week, Metallica are hosting a series of concerts to celebrate their 30th anniversary as a band. At Monday night’s kick-off show at the Fillmore in San Francisco, they brought out a number of special guests, including former bassist Jason Newsted, according to Rolling Stone.

Frontman James Hetfield announced Newsted as “someone who lived with us, and toured with us and did stuff with us for 14 years.” Newsted then played “Harvester of Sorrow” with the band, including his replacement Robert Trujillo. Afterward, Hetfield begged Newsted to stay for another song, and he and the band played “Damage Inc.”

Other guests at Monday night’s concert included host/comedian Jim Breuer, members of Diamond Head, John Marshall from Metal Church, Apocolyptica and Soul Rebels.

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Concert Recap: Disturbed, A Perfect Circle and More Play Rock on the Range 2011 (With Photos)

As Disturbed burst into the chorus of the turbulent “Indestructible” at Columbus Crew Stadium on Sunday, vocalist David Draiman paced back and forth on stage, sporting his trademark black jumpsuit, while lead guitarist Dan Donegan gutted out machine-gun sounding riffs balanced out by melodic passages.

The Chicago-based hard rock group was part of a lineup of bands on 2011’s Rock on the Range music festival, which also featured P.O.D., Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet for My Valentine, Black Label Society, Staind, Hinder, Art of Dying, Puddle of Mudd, Korn, A Perfect Circle and more. Tens of thousands crowded the Columbus, Ohio, outdoor stadium on Saturday and Sunday for the festival’s fifth annual appearance – many traveling from as far as Florida, California and even overseas.

For Puddle of Mudd and frontman Wes Scantlin, this was a surprise performance. Stone Sour was originally scheduled to perform, but they had to cancel last-minute due to drummer Ray Mayorga suffering a minor stroke. Mudd took the challenge head-on, delivering a blue-collar brand of modern rock that gave nods to Alice in Chains and Nirvana with grungy, over-driven guitars and Scantlin’s full-throated style of singing. “Control,” “Blurry” and “Drift & Die” brought cheers from the crowd, even as rain hit hard though half of the band’s set.

A Perfect Circle, the festival’s headliner, brought a soft, experimental end to the heavy event, with Billy Howerdel’s swelling, atmospheric guitar textures and Maynard James Keenan’s delicate vocals and overall eccentricity.

“Sorry about the whole rapture thing,” Maynard joked, referring to the supposed “end of the world” that was set for the previous night. The crowd cheered, as he then went into hits “The Outsider” and “Blue” off 2003’s Thirteenth Step.

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Rolling Stones Planning Anniversary Concert?

Keith Richards has suggested that The Rolling Stones may be playing a 50th anniversary gig next year in England. Their first-ever show as The Rolling Stones (actually The Rollin’ Stones) happened the Marquee Club in London on July 12, 1962.

According to NME, the band have a notion to mark the occasion. Richards told The Sun: “The idea is there. We kind of know we should do it, but nobody’s put their finger on the moment yet.”

The Stones guitarist also said he and Jagger had patched up any differences that arose from Richards’ memoirs, published last year.

“Mick pouted a bit, as is his wont, ” he said. “I told him, ‘It’s water under the bridge. I want to talk about the future. We’re larger than a little bitching.’”

News came out last week that Jagger has been working with a new group, Super Heavy, alongside Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, Joss Stone, A.R. Rahman and Damian Marley, while Richards has been working with his X-pensive Winos band.

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Garth Brooks New Concert Dates

Country music legend Garth Brooks has announced he will play more concerts at the Encore Theater at the Wynn Las Vegas, Nevada.

Brooks, who had retired to raise his kids in 2000, started playing again in 2009 in Las Vegas. This year’s shows will see Brooks doing two shows a night on Fridays and Saturdays in Vegas on select dates in August, September, October and November.

Tickets will be available starting Saturday, May 21 via Ticketmaster.com or 1-877-65-GARTH. Showtimes will be 8 and 10:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Garth Brooks Las Vegas concert dates:

August 19, 20
September 9, 10
September 23, 24
October 7, 8
October 21, 22
November 4, 5

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The Shins Announce First Concert in Two Years

After a prolonged hiatus, indie rockers The Shins are returning to the stage. The Portland, Oregon, band have announced that they will play the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, which runs August 12-14, according to NME.com.

Frontman James Mercer spent his time off working on a collaboration with Danger Mouse called Broken Bells. The band underwent a few major changes, too. Keyboardist Marty Crandall and drummer Jesse Sandoval left the band and were replaced by Ron Lewis and Joe Plummer from Modest Mouse. The Shins also left Sub Pop Records for Mercer’s label – Aural Apothecary.

Reportedly, the band are working on their first release on the label, due later this year. The Shins’ last album was 2007’s Wincing the Night Away.

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