The chemistry between Axl Rose (William Bruce Rose, Jr) and Slash (Saul Hudson) cemented the bands image and sound, and together they propelled Guns N Roses to become the biggest rock band in the world. But excess lifestyles soon took his toll and Guns N Roses incurred many line-up changes, the main one being the parting of Slash.

I’m not a big fan of Guns N Roses but love their version of Wings‘ Live & Let Die.  In fact, its the only cover version I can think of where I love both the original and the cover equally.

Here G N R play live at Noblesville, Indiana in 1991.

Following many fights with Axl Rose, Slash left Guns N Roses in 1996 and was soon followed in 1997 by the other remaining members from the Appetite For Destruction era. And in 1998 Axl Rose had formed a new Guns N Roses.  But it wasn’t until 2001 that Guns N Roses would play live again. They played two shows in Las Vegas followed by the Rock In Rio Festival.

In 2002 they toured North America and in 2008 Guns N Roses released their sixth studio album, Chinese Democracy. This year they returned to the UK to headline the Reading & Leeds Festival. The band caused problems by arriving on stage late only for the promoters to force them to shorten their set due to licensing laws.

Guns N Roses return to the UK in October to play four arena concerts in London, Manchester and Birmingham.

Wednesday 13th October
O2 Arena, London

Thursday 14th October
O2 Arena, London

Sunday 17th October
LG Arena, Birmingham

Monday 18th October
MEN Arena, Manchester

Guns N Roses Tickets

viagogo makes it easy and simple to buy or sell Guns N Roses tickets.  viagogo is your online ticket exchange for concert tickets, sports tickets and theatre tickets.

A true pop classic in every sense of the word the double A sided single Maggie May/Reason To Believe became the fist single ever to top both the UK and US charts simultaneously.

Although the single has been played to death on the radio in the many years since, it still retains a freshness particularly in the context of the album Every Picture Tells A Story from whence it came.

As well as his solo career Stewart was also frontman of one of the greatest rock bands of all time, the original good time band The Faces and during the early seventies both the band and singer enjoyed the time of their lives.

But it was Stewart’s solo career that really took off racking up hit after hit in the seventies and with the premature demise of The Faces, the singer veered from his early blues/rock leanings toward mainstream pop music.

Risking losing his hardcore fans, Stewart instead built an army of new admirers with his more polished vocals and catchy singalong melodies.

By the time he released Do Ya Think I’m Sexy in 1978, Stewart was appealing to a new fan base entirely, leaving critics and die hard fans gob smacked but selling more records than ever, appealing to worldwide audience.

To his credit Rod Stewart has maintained his position as one of the most original voices ever and even on his most recent American Songbook offerings, he has won over a new audience of listeners.

With such a rich and diverse history Rod Stewart’s live shows are not to be missed, a true entertainer who can call on an unprecedented back catalogue of hit songs, he remains at his best when up on stage performing to a live audience.

Rod Stewart kicks off his UK tour with the first of two nights at Edinburgh Castle Esplanade on July 14th and ends up in Belfast on July 30th, so be sure to book your tickets now.

Rod Stewart Tickets
At viagogo, every Rod Stewart transaction is 100% guaranteed to be safe and secure. As well as making it easy and simple to buy Rod Stewart tickets or sell Rod Stewart tickets, viagogo ensure their safe and prompt delivery with online tracking.

cirque du soleil

It all started back in 1982 when a group of street performers known as the Club des Talons Hauts (The High Heels Club) decided to organise a street entertainers festival in Quebec.

Within two years Cirque Du Soleil was born, creating a new concept that incorporated the street entertainers flair within a striking, dramatic circus environment.

Operating within the confines of Canada for a few years, the group performed in North America’s Californian state in 1987 with its We Re-invent The Circus tour, capturing a new audience that would encourage them to travel around the world with their unique arts and theatre productions during the following years.

The unique and colourful entertainment designed by Cirque Du Soleil has led to the group receiving awards in every year since 1987, including the Best Theatre Production in 1998 awarded by Live Award for their London show.

As you will have guessed Cirque Du Soleil bears little resemblance to what we in the UK call a circus, but is a massive no expense spared entertainment extravaganza that incorporates the thrills of circus performance into an innovative and forever changing family show.

As well as creating original live performances the company also uses its innovative spirit to produce music, TV, DVD and film which are marketed by Cirque Du Soleil around the world, often helping to develop the careers of emerging artists.

Arriving in the UK to perform their Saltimbanco show, Cirque Du Soleil will wow the crowds across the country from May 20th to June 11th, with no less than twenty performances in four city arenas.

Starting the tour in Sheffield with five  shows at the Sheffield Arena, the performance moves to the Echo Arena in Liverpool for six shows, six more in Glasgow’s SECC and finally three shows at Manchester’s MEN Arena.

This is a unique oportunity to experience real and original family entertainment, the show is designed to thrill and captivate the audience through music dance and circus theatre and Cirque Du Soleil – Saltimbanco tickets are now on sale for all the UK performances.

Viagogo make it easy to buy and sell Cirque Du Soleil tickets online. Every ticket transaction is supported by their customer service team which can be contacted by phone and e-mail.

Their self-titled album was released in August 2009 on Young Turks Records and received critical acclaim from such luminaries as the NME in the UK and Rolling Stone magazine in the United States.

Another admirer is Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Futurama, who has personally chosen The XX to perform at this summer’s All Tomorrow’s Parties he is curating in May in Minehead.

The XX debut album has so far spawned four singles: Crystalised, Basic Space, Islands and most recently VCR which was released in January 2010.

Their music is intense and low-fi, sparse and brooding. Their appeal may be the quality of the songs, coupled with the fact that they sound so distinct in a world of carbon copy music.

The XX use analogue synthesizers and drum machines alongside bass and guitars and have been likened to Hot Chip and Four Tet. The whispering vocal delivery also reminds me of Massive Attack.

Last year they supported the likes of The Big Pink but 2010 looks like it’s going to be their year as they set off in March to headline their first UK Tour.

Concert tickets for The XX tour are now on sale.  The dates include Brighton, London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Edinburgh.

The XX UK Tour Dates

1 March
Komedia Theatre
Brighton

2 March
Shepherds Bush Empire
London

3 March
Shepherds Bush Empire
London

5 March
O2 Academy
Birmingham

6 March
Manchester Academy 2
Manchester

8 March
The Cockpit
Leeds

9 March
Studio 24
Edinburgh

viagogo is an online ticket exchange that allows people to buy and sell live event tickets in a safe and guaranteed way.

Alan Wilder replaced Vince Clarke in 1981 and eventually left the band in 1995, leaving Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher to continue working together as a trio.

Their success has continued non-stop over the past three decades with forty-seven singles in the UK Charts. They have also achieved number one albums in UK, US and throughout Europe, selling over 75 million albums worldwide in the process.
Such success might be comparable to was replaced by Alan Wilder (keyboards, drums, production) with Gore taking over song writing. Wilder left the band in 1995 and since then Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher have continued as a trio.

According to Q Magazine, “[Depeche Mode are t]he most popular electronic band the world has ever known”.

To be honest I felt their early material was pretty weak and thin. Throw away synth pop in a time where New Romantic image allowed boys and girls to indulge in a post-punk glam rock nonsense. But with each album Depeche Mode moved away from their synth pop roots and began making deeper, darker music; and listening to their albums over the years, it’s easy to see how they managed to keep their original fan base where other bands from that era became stagnant and dissolved.

It was with Black Celebration, their fifth album, released in 1986 that I really started to take notice of how much their sound had changed. And by the time they released their ninth album and my favourite, Ultra, in 1997 the band and its members has quite literally been to hell and back.

Vocalist Dave Gahan had struggled with heroin addiction in the 1990’s which resulted with him literally losing his life before being brought back to life. I believe the drugs and other excesses that surround Depeche Mode around this time influenced their music. Classic tracks like Useless, It’s No Good and the awesome Barrel Of A Gun reflect this period of the band’s history, as much as their personal lives.

Depeche Mode have continued to play to huge sold out audiences and return to London next month to play two concerts at The Royal Albert Hall on 17th February and the London O2 Arena on 20th February. And one thing is for sure Depeche Mode concert tickets will be difficult to comeby.

No doubt they will be playing a selection of their most popular songs and giving a great live performance to a sold out audience. Here is a performance of It’s No Good & Barrel Of A Gun live on French TV from 1997.

Depeche Mode Concert Tickets

At viagogo, every Depeche Mode transaction is 100% guaranteed to be safe and secure. As well as making it easy and simple to buy Depeche Mode tickets or sell Depeche Mode tickets, we ensure their safe and prompt delivery with online tracking.

I Look to You Tour Poster

Back in 1985 when Whitney Houston released her self titled debut album she took the popular music market by storm, creating the biggest selling debut album by a female artist, spawning the hits  You Give Good Love, HowWill I Know, Saving All My Love For You and The Greatest Love Of All.

The follow up in 1987, called  Whitney, cemented her success in the music industry. The album became the first by a female artist to debut at number one in both the UK and US charts, while the first four single released from the album also reached the top of the singles charts.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody, Didn’t We Almost Have It All, So Emotional and Where Do Broken Hearts Go all hit number one for Whitney while the fifth single Love Will Save The Day also reached the top ten.

Whitney Houston was among the top R&B/Urban Soul Performers of the eighties and in 1992 she married Bobby Brown and starred in the film The Bodyguard, releasing the monster soundtrack title I Will Always Love You, a song that would spend an eternity at the top of the singles charts in the UK and USA.

Having divorced in 2006, Whitney revealed via the Oprah Winfrey TV show just what she had been through during the marriage and how glad she was that it was all over. The R&B singer will embark on a World Tour in December 2009 arriving in Europe and the UK in April 2010.

With an extensive back catalogue of number one hits Whitney Houston tickets are bound to be very popular and are already on sale for the European and UK dates.

The full European and UK dates and venues for Whitney Houston’s ‘I Look To You’ tour can be found on the Viagogo site.

Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You (Live)

bon jovi-the circle album & tour

New Jersey rock band Bon Jovi have been rocking audiences world wide since forming in 1983 and are still going strong having recently released their eleventh studio album The Circle, preceded by the lead single We Weren’t Born To Follow in November.

Uniquely in rock music Bon Jovi have managed to keep going with the same line up that they started out with over 25 years ago, with Jon Bon Jovi on vocals, Richie Sambora on lead guitar, David Bryan on keyboards and Tico Torres on drums.

In February 2010 Bon Jovi start an ambitious three leg tour to be known as The Circle Tour, that will encompass both North America and Europe, featuring a ten night residency at London’s O2 Arena in June. The residency will be split by a single date in Paris, France on June 16th.

Always a fantastic ‘live’ experience, Bon Jovi tickets are on sale now for the UK and Paris dates, but demand is bound to be high, so don’t miss out.

To mark 25 years in the music business Bon Jovi featured in a rockumentary, When We Were Beautiful, in April 2009. The film was made by Phil Griffin and debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival.  It charts the ups and downs of a lifetime spent together as a band and includes footage from The Lost Highway Tour that took place between October 2007 and July 2008, to promote the bands Lost Highway album.

In June 2009 Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora were inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame, the pair later that month recorded a version of Stand By Me with Iranian singer Andy Madadian, in support of victims of violence in Iran.

This is the current video for the new single;

Bon Jovi – We Weren’t Born To Follow

The Circle UK and Paris dates:

07.06.2010 United Kingdom O2 Arena, London, United Kingd
08.06.2010 United Kingdom O2 Arena, London, United Kingdom
10.06.2010 United Kingdom O2 Arena, London, United Kingdom
11.06.2010 United Kingdom O2 Arena, London, United Kingdom
13.06.2010 United Kingdom O2 Arena, London, United Kingdom
16.06.2010 France Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, Paris, France
17.06.2010 United Kingdom O2 Arena, London, United Kingdom
19.06.2010 United Kingdom O2 Arena, London, United Kingdom
20.06.2010 United Kingdom O2 Arena, London, United Kingdom
22.06.2010 United Kingdom O2 Arena, London, United Kingdom
23.06.2010 United Kingdom O2 Arena, London, United Kingdom

Bon Jovi Ticket Information
At viagogo, every Bon Jovi transaction is 100% guaranteed to be safe and secure. As well as making it easy and simple to buy Bon Jovi tickets or sell Bon Jovi tickets, viagogo ensure their safe and prompt delivery with online tracking.