Rockers visiting London have a new itinerary item thanks to a generous grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The organization doled out close to $2 million to restore the inside of the flat Jimi Hendrix called home to the state it was in while the guitar legend lived in the apartment he once said was the only home he ever had. The attic of the Georgian townhouse at 23 Brooke Street was being rented by Jimi's girlfriend, Kathy Etchingham, when he first occupied it in 1968. The apartment was opened to the public briefly not long ago and the level of interest music historians and fans showed in seeing it made a convincing case for the space being converted into a full-time museum. The space has been used as an administrative office for a museum dedicated to another famous composer/musician - George Frederic Handel, a former neighbor at 25 Brooke Street.
Telegraph.co.uk
Jimmy Page will close out this year and start the next combing through more potential material to include in the 2014 Led Zeppelin catalog reissue. Speaking to Pulse Of Radio, the guitarist revealed that he hasn't come up with much from the group's first couple of album sessions but said there is good stuff the group laid down in the studio whiLe working on Led Zeppelin III. As for the quality fans can expect, Page says, 'Technology has moved on since the last set of remasters and you can hear the difference on these new versions. They're quite something.' No release date has been set for the deluge of material.
A caretaker suffered a knife wound during a robbery at the Bahamas home of Iron Maiden bass player Steve Harris last month. The just recently revealed robbery took place November 29th. The property manager of the estate told Tribune242 the caretaker was assaulted by thieves that '...put a knife on his throat and left him in a pool of blood, wrapped in duct tape.' Three men were taken into custody and around $5,000 of the estimated $8,000 in items boosted in the robbery were recovered after friends of the caretaker undertook an island wide campaign to identify the perps.
Tom Scholz is recognized as a perfectionist and control freak, so it's no surprise that the new Boston album was developed under his total control. Speaking with the Globe, Scholz acknowledged that although he tries to keep fans in mind when working on songs, in the end, '...it's all about what I like'. That preoccupation is why Boston is perceived by many to be more a man than a band and why Scholz has a reputation for being so difficult to work with. Boston's 6th album finds Scholz takes full credit as the producer, arranger and engineer. True to form, Life, Love & Hope is a product of Scholz spending months in his basement studio - 99% of the time alone, where there is '...no one else who is going to tell me if something is good or bad'. As to outside influences, Scholz professes to have none, claiming he stopped listening to anyone's music other than his own sometime before 1973. Asked about a slide guitar part on the new album that is reminiscent of Joe Walsh on Rocky Mountain Way, Scholz acknowledged having learned a lot from listening to Walsh with the James Gang and Rocky Mountain Way came out, '...after I stopped listening to music. James Gang Rides Again (1970) was the last album I ever bought'. Whether the result of being such a recluse is good or bad in the ears and minds of fans remains to be seen. 
The Grammy nominations have been announced and include veteran's Paul McCartney, Black Sabbath, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Neil Young along with a crop of relative newcomers like Kings Of Leon and Gary Clark Jr., Queens of The Stone Age and Jack White.
Van Halen fans will have to wait until mid way through 2015 for a new album David Lee Roth says ground work is underway for. Roth told BoneYard that the group is getting together to play a few times a week at Eddie Van Halen's house. Roth says deciding which songs to use and arranging and recording them is only a part of why a new album will take so long to get done. The front man says every band member participates in every aspect of the album, including artwork and the development of any and all merchandise associated with the album and the stage set-up for tours. 'Any idea you have is 85 phone calls'... and, '87 phone calls that are about to follow to make sure it came out the way we decided.'
