Tag Archives: band divorces

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After A Decade + At The Mic; Vocalist Nick Tart Has Left Diamond Head!

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Hey so here is some shocking news for you fine readers. Now while I am currently still in the midst of running around at the 2014 NY Comic Con, I wanted to be sure to get you some of the news that I chanced upon when I returned home last night after all of my running around. I saw this on Facebook but its official and it appears as though Nick Tart, lead singer for the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal legends Diamond Head was moving on from the group after eleven years at the microphone. You can read the official statement that he posted online below and also enjoy some of the photographs that I shot of him when they played in NYC in 2011.

Statement from Nick:

“After 11 years of being the singer for Diamond Head I now feel it’s time for me to move on. As most are aware they have already started the October tour with a replacement singer and I wish them nothing but the very best. I haven’t heard the new guy yet but I’m sure he will be great; Brian has good quality control over Diamond Head and I don’t believe he would continue touring unless he had found a singer who could pull it off. They are a very powerful band to front, so the best of luck to him, no doubt I will be snooping into you tube to see what they sound like.

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Diamond Head’s Nick Tart by Ken Pierce (2011)

Continue reading After A Decade + At The Mic; Vocalist Nick Tart Has Left Diamond Head! →

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You Are Not Imaginaeruming Things; Nightwish & Anette Olzon Have Parted Ways

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Kind of shocking isn’t it. I know that I never expected any news like this, but let’s recap the story as it played out from the other day until early today. My Saturday morning on 9/29 was begun by coffee to wake me from the needed slumber after Down’s killer NYC show, when the Finnish Ambassador (my friend Sam in reality) sent a text to inform me that Anette Olzon had fallen ill, was in the hospital and that Nightwish had performed without her by using Alissa White-Gluz and Elize Ryd as Metal Understudies for lack of a better word.

The band wrote to the public saying:

“We were in hell today. Vocalist in a hospital. Show about to be cancelled… But nobody gave up an inch. With the help from the ladies Elize and Alissa from Kamelot we actually managed to pull of a relaxed and great show! The crowd doing the mass karaoke with the band playing was absolutely amazing. We were humbled and grateful at the same time. This is unity and help from friends and fans. Anette is already recovering thanks to the medical staff and whatever powers there exists. The shows will go on. We give our greatest respect to Alissa, Elize and the crowd in Ogden Theatre, Denver. You rule!!!”

My personal take on this was that the guys had no choice but to do the show because the amount of money to be lost would really compromise the efforts for a lot longer than any band wants to have happen. Remember a cancellation only finds the band themselves losing money but everyone else still must be paid out for their work. Since Kamelot had two capable female singers along for the tour, Nightwish was smart to ask both Alissa White-Gluz and Elize Ryd (from The Agonist and Amaranthe respectively by the way) to act as understudies for Anette. Sure the show would be a little looser than preferred but at least it would still happen and be something that kept the ball in motion and allowed Anette the chance to get back to necessary Metal fighting strength.

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The Ryche Empire Asunder: Queensryche Fires Geoff Tate!!!

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Back at the beginning of the month I posted a blog narrative which spoke to the developments that had been going on within the Queensryche camp and touched upon the issues that were brewing with their founding member, vocalist Geoff Tate. You can read HERE first if you need a little bit of refresher. It was not a pleasant set of circumstances to say the least. Here are the latest developments….

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Queensryche members have announced that Todd LaTorre is their new singer after officially parting ways with Geoff Tate. I’m really of mixed opinion on all of this because I love Geoff as a legendary Metal vocalist and really enjoy what I have heard Todd bring to the table as a member of Crimson Glory and in his samples of the classic Queensryche tunes. I really never wanted to see it come down to this because it also divides the fans in some sense. One has to envision this as similar to the time when the world saw Tim “Ripper” Owens taking over the vocals in Priest. The band did record some solid tunes but they really suffered as far as attendance and album sales.

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As a fan of Geoff’s overall creativity and legacy I wish him well, and as a very longtime fan of what Queensryche has meant to the Heavy Metal music scene I wish the guys well in this interesting new chapter. I don’t think I ever mentioned to my readers that I first saw Queensryche when they had opened up for KISS on the “Animalize” tour back in 1984 or 85. They were brand new to the larger Metal audiences back then for sure.

queensryche, geoff tate, queensryche concert photos

Read more on the Bravewords report from Billboard.com HERE; Let’s see what happens. I expect a veritable shit storm of postings on all of the news sites and many already feel we shall find more postings on these resources than we found happening when Mike Portnoy decided to leave Dream Theater. Only time will tell right?

Official Website: http://www.queensryche.com

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K.K. Downing Has Left Judas Priest? I Must Be Hearing Things

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Wow. Even though this new column idea of mine has been offering up some of my shock about certain events in the Metal Republic, this is one event that I didn’t expect at all. Despite that feeling, the news is true – K.K. Downing has retired from the ranks of Judas Priest. At the time of this announcement two days ago, Downing had been a member of the band for over forty years. As one of its founders he knew bassist Ian Hill and original drummer John Ellis since they were boys.  The band Judas Priest was formed in 1970 to best of my knowledge and Downing has been in the role of guitarist in the lineup since that day.

Mr. K.K. Downing, Formerly of Judas Priest

While the news shocked me, I guess I do kind of understand it because they had been going almost non stop since their inception.  Yes there were some shifts in the vocal duties and these caused some slowdowns in their touring agenda but the band was always on the active side and never broke up in the official sense of the word.  The original news was that Priest was going to be doing one final major go round of the world and call it their “Epitaph” tour.  After this had hit all the proper spots on the globe the band was going to call it a day.  It was acceptable news to some as the band had really offered up a lot of good for the Metal realm and no one could argue with their wanting to rest and relax instead of always running around in buses and planes at their age.  Shortly after that it came to pass in the news that the band would do some more recordings and smaller tours but that K.K. Downing would not be taking part in them and in his place would be guitarist Richie Faulkner.  On April 20th, 2011 he officially announced his retirement from the band.

The amusing thing is that while this has happened I somehow get the feeling that we have not seen the last of K.K. Downing on the stages with Judas Priest.  Remember when Ozzy retired?  That was more than a decade ago and he has been going strong since his “return”.  This is all that some of these guys know, so maybe this is more like a leave of absence.  Only time will tell.   Since this news followed similar information about Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy, I was actually wondering who was going to surprise us next.

Stay tuned I guess.

Official Website: http://www.judaspriest.com