Dear Fanshakers,

The whole Fanshake Team wishes you a Happy New Year. Thank you very much for this great year 2009 we spent by your side. May the year 2010 bring you all the best you deserve as well as plenty of new great artists and unforgettable gigs to come.

2010 be ready here we come! - Sorry couldn't resist, I am just really enthusiastic about 2010 for Futurama to be back on TV!

Billie Joe Armstrong - Sobriety is his New Year

The Green Day star – who was arrested by police in January 2003 for drinking and driving after being pulled over for speeding – admits he now feels too old to cope with the effects of consuming illegal substances.

The 37-year-old rocker said: “What will I never do again? Methamphetamine. I’d rather be huffing gas than sticking speed up my nose.

“I can’t do acid anymore, either. I would end up naked on top of the building, sucking my thumb and trying to find a happy place if I was ever to drop acid again.”

Despite his vow, Billie Joe insists he isn’t worried about getting older and is looking forward to turning 40 in a few years time.

He said: ‘I don’t mind getting older. I wouldn’t trade my future with anybody else’s.’

Green Day:

Source: Music-News

Jimmy Owen Sullivan

Avenged Sevenfold member Jimmy Owen Sullivan has died, it has been announced.

The drummer, nicknamed The Rev, passed away on December 28th at his home in southern California, reportedly from natural causes.

Sullivan was 28.

The band posted the news of their bandmate’s death on their website in the early hours of yesterday morning, paying tribute to the drummer.

“It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that we tell you of the passing today of Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan,” they wrote on Avengedsevenfold.com.

“Jimmy was not only one of the world’s best drummers, but more importantly he was our best friend and brother. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jimmy’s family and we hope that you will respect their privacy during this difficult time. Jimmy you are forever in our hearts. We love you.”

The Orange County Coroner’s Office is now investigating the death.

Avenged Sevenfold:

Source: NME

Kanye West

Kanye West spent the Christmas weekend helping the homeless.

The Grammy-winning rapper and his girlfriend Amber Rose - who he is reportedly hoping to marry next year - visited the nonprofit organisation Los Angeles Mission in California, helping out and serving lunch.

Speaking to The Boom Box, the 32-year-old said: “It’s just important to give back when you’re very blessed.

“It’s nice to spread your blessings and take time out, especially during the holidays to appreciate people who never get that appreciation.

“It makes me feel really good to come out here, with my family, and I just thank y’all [the Los Angeles Mission] for allowing us to be a part of this.”

Kanye West:

Source: Music-News

Artificial Horizon by U2

U2 fans only will be able to get their hands on the album `Artificial Horizon`. U2 is releasing the album for fan club members only.

‘Artificial Horizon’ is a compilation of remixes with some unreleased tracks. It includes Trent Reznor’s remix of ‘Vertigo’, Jacknife Lee’s ‘Fast Cars;, David Holmes ‘Beautiful Day’ through to the Fish Out Of Water mix of ‘Get On Your Boots’.

U2 ‘Artificial Horizon’ will be shipped to registered members of the U2 fan club in late January 2010.

According to other sources ‘Artificial Horizon’ should include the following tracks:

1. Elevation (Influx Mix)
2. Fast Cars (Jacknife Lee Mix)
3. Get On Your Boots (Fish Out Of Water Mix)
4. Vertigo (Trent Reznor Remix)
5. Magnificent (Falke Radio Mix)
6. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight (Live U2360 Remix)
7. Beautiful Day (David Holmes Remix)
8. Staring At The Sun (Monster Truck Remix)
9. Happiness Is A Warm Gun (Danny Saber Mix)
10. Get On Your Boots (Justice Remix)
11. City Of Blinding Lights (Hot Chip 2006 Remix)
12. If God Will Send His Angels (Grand Jury Mix)
13. Staring At The Sun (Brothers in Rhythm Ambient Mix)

In other U2 news the DVD ‘It Might Get Loud’ was released on December 22nd. It features The Edge, Jack White and Jimmy Page telling you how they make music and making music together.

U2: Become a fan!

Source: Music-News

Status Quo works hard for their fans

Status Quo have been recognised as the hardest-working band in the British music industry.

The Performing Rights Society list also included Cliff Richard And The Shadows, Take That, Coldplay and Kings Of Leon, who took the second, third, fourth and fifth spots respectively, according to BBC News.

The list was compiled based on the number of fans bands performed to in the UK during 2009.

Status Quo played to 250,000 people at 27 arenas, putting them at the top of the list.

Frontman Francis Rossi said: “Performing in front of thousands of fans is the ultimate experience for any band.”

PRS is the body that collects royalties for songwriters.

Status Quo: Become a fan!

Source: NME

James Gurley

James Gurley, the innovative guitarist who helped shape psychedelic rock’s multilayered, sometimes thundering sounds as a member of Big Brother and the Holding Company, the band that propelled Janis Joplin to fame, has died of a heart attack. He was 69.

Gurley was pronounced dead Sunday at a Palm Springs hospital, two days before his 70th birthday, the band announced on its Web site.

One of many prominent guitarists to emerge from San Francisco’s psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s - others included the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, Jefferson Airplane’s Jorma Kaukonen and Barry Melton of Country Joe and the Fish - Gurley was hailed by many as the original innovator of the sound.

“I would say all of my guitar-playing contemporaries strived to have their own sound, but I think James was a huge influence on all of us because he wasn’t afraid to break the boundaries of conventional music,” Melton said Thursday. “What one thinks of that genre of music is that place that it takes you to where the beat is just assumed and the whole thing is transported to another place, and James is the guy who started that.”

Doing things like using an electric vibrator as a slide on his guitar, and picking up amplifiers and shaking them during performances, Gurley created a loud, esoteric sound that was the driving force behind Joplin’s voice on such classic songs as “Ball and Chain,” “Piece of My Heart” and “Summertime.”

“Some of the innovations were the result of the fact he came from kind of a progressive bluegrass school of music where weirdness was encouraged,” said Peter Albin, the group’s bass player.

One of the few rock guitarists to use finger picks rather than a flat pick, Gurley had taught himself to play by listening to old Lightnin’ Hopkins blues records as a teenager.

He was playing acoustic guitar in a coffee house in San Francisco in 1965 when legendary counterculture figure Chet Helms, founder of the Family Dog commune, introduced him to the other band members.

Although Joplin would become the public face of the band when she joined in 1966, Albin recalled Gurley as being the true force of nature who introduced the other members to alternative lifestyles, psychedelic drugs and musical innovation.

“He was very influential to the whole band early on, and even later, just by being a guy who had strange tastes and played guitar in a very bizarre manner,” Albin told The Associated Press.

When he first met Gurley, Albin said, the guitarist was living in a walk-in closet with his wife and young son and told him that before that he’d lived in a cardboard house along the California coast and with indigenous people in the mountains of Mexico, where he had taken part in hallucinogenic religious ceremonies.

After Joplin left Big Brother in 1968, the group disbanded but has since reformed and continues to perform to this day. Gurley, however, left for good in the late 1990s after a falling out with the other members.

Born in Detroit in 1939, Gurley was the son of a stunt-car driver and, according to the band’s Web site, would sometimes perform as a “human hood ornament” when his father drove a car through a flaming plywood wall.

After leaving Big Brother, he lived quietly in Palm Desert, occasionally working on solo projects. He released the album Pipe Dreams in 2000.

He is survived by his wife, Margaret, and sons Hongo and Django.

Band members plan to hold a memorial sometime next month in San Francisco.

Big Brother and the Holding Company:

Source: Pollstar

Andy Nicholson

Former Arctic Monkeys bassist Andy Nicholson has joined Reverend And The Makers.

Although Nicholson, who left Arctic Monkeys in 2006, has played with Reverend And The Makers before, he has not officially been a full member until now.

The band’s frontman Jon McClure revealed the news viaTwitter/JonMcClure today (December 23).

McClure wrote: “I’m made up to let u no my brother Andy Nicholson will be joining Rev and the Makers in the new year. Get ready pal.”

Nicholson worked with McClure and Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders by curating Sheffield’s Tramlines festival earlier this year, and the trio recorded the Mongrel album together.

It is not currently clear how Nicholson will fit into the existing line-up.


Reverend and the Makers:

Arctic Monkeys:

Source: NME