BEATLES NEWS ROUNDUP

Yoko Ono issued an official statement on the death of Michael Jackson. Her statement reads: "With his enormous talent, Michael kept giving us power, inspiration and joy. Yet he knew that the world was not kind to him for many reasons, some of it going right back to racism. That must have been so hard for him. His various attempts to be loved by the world equaled the pain he received from it."

She closed by saying, "Michael, now you are free from all that. Rest well in Peace. We will always remember you and love you for what you were to us.

Two new Paul McCartney tour dates were posted on his lead guitarist Rusty Anderson's My Space site before being pulled down. Maccareport.com reported that in addition to upcoming gigs in Los Angeles and Chicago, McCartney has yet-to-be-announced shows scheduled for August 17th in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the Bank of Oklahoma Center, and on August 19th at a venue TBA in Dallas, Texas.

Mirror.co.uk reported that Ringo Starr's 38-year-old daughter Lee Starkey and longtime boyfriend, British rocker Jay Mehler of Kasabian are expecting triplets.

Starr already has a granddaughter Tatia by his son Zak, and a grandson Louie by his son Jason.

ROCK QUICK HITS

Aerosmith's Wednesday night (July 1st) concert at the Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati, Ohio was postponed "due to an injury within the band," according to a posting on the venue's web site. The rescheduled date will be announced soon. Aerosmith's publicist did not have any further information at press time on which band member was injured and what the injury was. (Blabbermouth)

Velvet Revolver and ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash was joined by Ozzy Osbourne, Rolling Stones axeman Ron Wood and Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie during his headlining appearance on Tuesday night (June 30th) at the Quart festival in Kristiansand, Norway. Slash's backup band included Led Zeppelin drummer Jason Bonham, Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 plus former members of Jane's Addiction and Scars On Broadway. The 19-song set included songs from both Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver, as well as selections from Zeppelin, AC/DC, Michael Jackson, the Stones, Black Sabbath and Ozzy's solo catalog. (Blabbermouth)

NEW GRATEFUL DEAD VAULT RELEASE CELEBRATES 1974 'WALL OF SOUND' TOUR

Out now is the latest Grateful Dead "official" bootleg, Road Trips Volume 2 Number 3. The new set features the band caught live in Des Moines, Iowa and Louisville, Kentucky in June of 1974 with their legendary 'Wall Of Sound' show. The Dead's '74 gigs were unlike any others, and featured a pioneering state-of-the art sound with "an array of speaker towers that sprawled across the stage and rose to a height of more than two stories."

The soundstage was comprised of nearly "650 loudspeakers powered by 50 giant McIntosh amplifiers, and unlike traditional left-right P.A. systems which gave each instrument its own vertical array, and vocals emanated mostly from a center honeycomb cluster above the band."

The tracklisting to Road Trips Volume 2, Number 3 is:
Disc One -- Recorded live at State Fairgrounds, Des Moines, IA, June 16th, 1974: "China Cat Sunflower," "I Know You Rider," "The Race Is On," "Eyes Of The World," "Big River," "U.S. Blues," and "Playing In The Band."
Disc Two -- Recorded live at Freedom Hall, Louisville, KY, June 18th, 1974:
"Loose Lucy," "Eyes Of The World," "China Doll," "Weather Report Suite/
Jam/Other One/It's A Sin Jam," and "Stella Blue."
Bonus Disc -- Featuring tracks from both the Des Moines and Louisville shows:
"Morning Dew," "Around And Around," "Deal," "Greatest Story Ever Told," "Truckin'," "Nobody's Jam," "Wharf Rat," "Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad," and "Sugar Magnolia."

The third bonus disc is available while supplies last. For ordering details, log on to dead.net.

Bob Weir says that the Dead archives are an imposing and impressive place: "I've been in the vault a few times. I knew what was in there. I've known what was in there. It's not so much an awakening, as it's a challenge to get it all digitized and stored. The storage is gonna be the biggest challenge of all of it. The archiving is no problem."

The Dead will perform on Saturday (July 4th) at the Rothbury festival in Rothbury, Michigan at the Double JJ Resort.

DAVE GROHL, JOSH HOMME, JOHN PAUL JONES START BAND

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and Queens Of The Stone Age singer/guitarist Josh Homme have started a new group, with Grohl playing drums. According to Spinner.com, Grohl talked about starting the band as far back as a 2005 interview with Mojo magazine. A source told us that the trio has already completed work on their debut album in Los Angeles, although a name for the band and a release plan for the record have yet to be nailed down.

Grohl has played with both artists before. Jones conducted an orchestra behind Foo Fighters at the Grammy Awards, while he and Jimmy Page also joined the band onstage last year at England's Wembley Stadium.

Grohl also played drums on Queens Of The Stone Age's 2002 album, Songs For The Deaf.

Jones has kept a relatively low profile since Led Zeppelin's one-off reunion show in December 2007, while Homme has mostly been on the road behind the most recent Queens album, 2007's Era Vulgaris.

Foo Fighters have been on vacation since finishing the touring cycle for their sixth effort, 2007's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace.

NEW PAUL SIMON COLLECTION AVAILABLE AT STARBUCKS

Newly-released exclusively through Starbucks stores is the Paul Simon Opus Collection: This Better Be Good. The 16-track career-spanning compilation features such Simon standards as "Kodachrome, "Late In The Evening," "Slip Slidin' Away," and "Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard," among others.

The tracklist for the Paul Simon Opus Collection: This Better Be Good is: "Kodachrome," "Peace Like A River," "Loves Me Like A Rock," "Late In The Evening," "Slip Slidin' Away," "Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard," "Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes," "Mother And Child Reunion," "American Tune," "Under African Skies," "Senorita With A Necklace Of Tears," "Bernadette," "Train In The Distance," "The Obvious Child," "Father And Daughter," and "Sure Don't Feel Like Love."

Art Garfunkel first sang Simon's "American Tune" at the duo's 1981 reunion in New York's Central Park, and has kept it in his solo shows ever since then: "I love Paul's 'American Tune,' and felt such an identity with that kind of song, it's a Bach chorale, that I do it in my show all the time. I never recorded it, but I identify with it, I kind of made it mine. Because it was in the nature of the material. There's a bunch of Paul's things over the years that kill me that I could do my own version of it. Yeah, I suppose that's an interesting album, Garfunkel Does Simon."

The Paul Simon Opus Collection: This Better Be Good can be ordered directly by logging on to starbucksstore.com.

Simon & Garfunkel perform tonight (July 2nd) in Perth, Australia. There has been no announcement made regarding North American dates.

ROLLING STONES UPDATE

Ron Wood joined Slash and Jason Bonham onstage Tuesday night (June 30th) at the Quart Festival in Kristiansand, Norway, according to iorr.org. Wood who was playing his signature black and silver Tony Zemaitis "metal front" guitar performed during Slash's set and tore through such Rolling Stones, Faces, and Bob Dylan favorites as "Honky Tonk Women," "Stay With Me," "Knocking On Heaven's Door," and "It's Only Rock N' Roll."

Jeff Beck told The Word magazine that he feels that turning down the Rolling Stones in 1975 actually saved his life. Beck, who along with Peter Frampton, and others were on the shortlist to replace Mick Taylor following his abrupt departure from the band in 1974. Beck recalls: "I had this flash that said, 'Don't do it, you'll never get on with Mick (Jagger) and Keith (Richards) musically because you're heading in a different direction'. There's the thing. There's the crossroads. If I'd turned left I'd have been a multi-millionaire Rolling Stone -- and dead.

Beck, who recorded with Jagger in the mid-'80s before backing out of being his lead guitarist on the eve of his 1988 solo tour, added, "Not that I wouldn't want to experience some of the things that went on with them but I was into speed and detail and gung-ho playing, and the way they were drinking I just don't think it would have worked. I thought, 'This is a life of booze and women. Who needs that?' So I caught the next plane out."

Monday (July 5th) marks the 40th anniversary of the Rolling Stones' legendary comeback gig in front of 200,000 fans at London's Hyde Park. The free show, which took place two days after the death of recently departed guitarist Brian Jones, had originally been announced to serve as the coming out gig of new guitarist Mick Taylor, but was hastily rearranged to serve as a tribute to Jones.

For the show the Stones were joined by the Ginger Johnson's African Drummers who danced and added dancing percussion to the concert's finale "Sympathy For The Devil."

The Setlist: "Eulogy for Brian Jones," "I'm Yours, She's Mine," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "No Expectations," "Mercy Mercy," "Stray Cat Blues," "I'm Free," "Down Home Girl," "Love In Vain," "Loving Cup," "Midnight Rambler," "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," "Honky Tonk Women," "Street Fighting Man," and "Sympathy For The Devil."

U2 PAYS TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL JACKSON AT TOUR OPENER

U2 paid tribute to fallen pop icon Michael Jackson during the opening night of the band's U2 360 tour on Tuesday (June 30th) in Barcelona, Spain. Singer Bono dedicated the song "Angel Of Harlem" to the late Jackson, saying, "We wrote this one for Billie Holiday but we are going to play it tonight for Michael Jackson." The group also wove bits of Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "The Man In The Mirror" into the song, according to RollingStone.com.

The crowd of 90,000 was also treated to the debut of U2's massive new stage, called "The Claw," which towered above the audience on four arching legs and allowed for maximum audience capacity, as well as a 21-song set that featured a number of tracks from the band's latest effort, No Line On The Horizon, as well as several hits plus a few rarely played cuts like Achtung Baby's Ultraviolet (Light My Way)."

At one point early in the show, according to reports, Bono got on the phone with astronauts on the International Space Station, asking, "Commander, can you see Barcelona?" to which the crew replied, "Right now the most beautiful sight in our cosmos is the blue planet earth," leading into U2's performing "Beautiful Day."

During the song "Walk On," the band handed out masks of imprisoned Burmese president Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest despite being the country's elected leader.

U2 plays in Barcelona again on Thursday night (July 2nd) before hitting the rest of Europe. A North American run begins on September 12th in Chicago.

U2 opening night set list:
"Breathe"
"No Line on the Horizon"
"Get On Your Boots"
"Magnificent"
"Beautiful Day"
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
"Angel Of Harlem"
"In A Little While"
"Unknown Caller"
"The Unforgettable Fire"
"City Of Blinding Lights"
"Vertigo"
"I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight"
"Sunday Bloody Sunday"
"Pride (In The Name Of Love)"
"MLK"
"Walk On"
"Where The Streets Have No Name"
"One"
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"Ultraviolet (Light My Way)"
"With Or Without You"
"Moment Of Surrender"