News Roundup 2011: December

A bizarre rumour was spread by website Daily New Blog International that Jon Bon Jovi had died in a hotel in New Jersey. In response Jon posted a photo online which looked very much like the perkiest proof of life hostage photo ever taken featuring the date and time, and a line that said "Heaven looks a lot like New Jersey". It turns out that the blog in question had used an amended version of an LA Times piece on the death of Michael Jackson in 2009.

Metallica played four shows in their hometown of San Francisco for fan club members only to celebrate their 30th anniversary. The shows featured a plethora of collaborations with the likes of Lemmy, Ozzy & Geezer from Black Sabbath, Biff Byford, Diamond Head, Megadeth, Lou Reed, Marianne Faithful, Rob Halford and many more. They also saw former bassist Jason Newsted join the band onstage each night for a couple of songs. And each night the band performed one previously unreleased song from their Death Magnetic sessions before releasing an EP called Beyond Magnetic containing all four songs.

Of all the rock stars to end up in a piece of grubby tabloid journalism, we would have put Neal Schon fairly low on the list of likely candidates. But after nude photos of the Journey guitarist were stolen from an old mobile phone and placed on the internet he was forced to issue pretty swift and firm legal proceedings against anyone publishing the pictures.

An impending battle between former bandmates is brewing after Jack Russell revealed that he was starting a new version of Great White. The original Great White, however, didn't react too kindly to the announcement though, saying "Jack Russell does not have the right to start his own Great White or use the name without our names in the lineup. We will litigate any promoter that books ‘Jack Russell's Great White’ or uses any logo featuring the name Great White."

Chickenfoot went some way to explaining what happened to their mythical second album, Chickenfoot II, with an extended Behind The Music video. We think they may be joking, though.

Vince Neil surprised Crue fans with the revelation that he's contemplating leaving the band after their run of shows in Las Vegas in February. "This is all about me thinking about the second half of my life," Neil said, "thinking about my future, and that future might not include Mötley Crüe after Vegas. There are so many opportunities that are in front of me that I’m really excited about. I just don’t want to look back later in life and regret that I didn’t pursue them."

While Ian Anderson is touring Thick As A Brick, Martin Barre has revealed that he is planning to take some of his other Tull bandmates out on the road to play rarities from the band's back catalogue. "I want to play some of the songs that we haven’t done in a very long time,” Barre told Ultimate Classic Rock. "I really am not tired of playing those songs. I enjoy them.”

And the final word of the year goes to Van Halen, who left it late to issue a teaser trailer for a forthcoming tour. The band are widely expected to release a new album in 2012, with tour dates to accompany it. There's still no word on how far and wide the band will travel but they are expected to at least leave North America for the first time in nearly fifteen years.