The voting for this years Top Of The Pops Awards is officially open. Slipknot have been nominated in the ‘Top Tour’ category and Nickelback for ‘Top Single’ & ‘Top Rock’! You can vote for them online HERE ! Just click on the relevant category and cast your vote. Much luck to both our bands.

By now all of you are probably well aware that legendary hip-hop DJ Jam Master Jay was shot and killed October 30th at his studio in Queens, New York. We’d like to take this moment to express our condolences to all family, friends, and fans… For those of you who are not aware, Jam Master Jay – for all intents and purposes – was a pioneer, a hero to the rap community. He is most well known as the DJ from Run-DMC, a rap act which basically started it all. Can you name anyone scratching records prior to Jam Master Jay? A pioneer…everything started from there, including the mixture of rap and rock together. Which, like it or not, has been taken to extreme heights. The music industry, if you are unaware, is extremely incestuous…or, perhaps, it is just a small, small world. Roadrunner Records actually has a tie with Jam Master Jay: During the early thru mid nineties, Roadrunner had a band from the New York/New Jersey area called Dog Eat Dog. These are the cats that schooled the Limp Bizkit’s and the P.O.D.’s of the world before they ever were… Well, it just so happens that we had Jay Master Jay re-mix/re-record/re-work a Dog Eat Dog track. The song, “No Fronts” (Jam Master Jay’s Main Edit). In remembrance, we offer up this track to you. It can be streamed via Real by clicking HERE.

A very Happy Birthday to Dave Chavarri of Ill Nino, a Halloween baby 35 years ago today. Dave is spending the night playing an Ill Nino show in Exeter and says of scary Halloween tales, that “turning 35 is scary enough!” The band have been playing around the UK all week, having endured a bumpy ferry crossing at the weekend from France to Dover. “The wind musta been 90km/hour,” says Dave, “It was fuckin’ crazy. The boat was just jumpin’ up and down, a couple of the guys got sick… it was like a rollercoaster ride! The 1.5 hour trip took like 7.5 hours…” “It’s been an amazing European tour though. Many of the shows have been completely sold out, and both the press and all the kids at the shows have been really receptive to us. We’ve seen a lot of old fans too like in Portugal and Spain from when we played there with P.O.D. It’s been nice to see familiar faces.. all these people now wearing Ill Nino shirts!” “Ya know we’ve been touring for 20 months straight… only 75 days at home in that entire time. And when we get back off this tour, we’re going out in the US again from Nov 21st-Dec 21st so we still only really get a couple weeks at home.” Even then Dave won’t be having much rest. He’s been hard at work producing some songs for British band Violent Delight, spending some time in a studio here in London, and once he gets home, the VD boys are flying out to the US to keep working in that small touring gap there. “Wolverhampton last night was totally sick”, Dave grins, talking about the UK shows this week. “And that one you were there for at the weekend, the Brighton show. But they’ve all rocked.” Plans are afoot to film a couple of the songs from tomorrow night’s London Astoria show for possible future use where who knows?! “Yeah, maybe we’ll film ‘What Comes Around’ and ‘Unreal’, get some really nuts crowd shots from the stage or something,” he explains. Are they gonna be playing ‘With You’ as has been talked about? “Oh yeah, that’s been said.. I dunno man. Maybe we’ll check it out tonight and see how it is…” He laughs. “We’ll play the song from the CD on the way out.. our outro. No-one said we were gonna play it LIVE! We just said we’d play it… Shhh don’t tell them!” As for Halloween, sorry to disappoint but the band have no plans to appear in Exeter in costume tonight. “I don’t wanna see a ton of guys dressed as women tonight,” Dave laughs, “if I see too many of them, I’m gonna refuse to play!” “Hey Cris!…” we hear him shout… “you gonna get up and sing tonight in a dress for Halloween?!” Loud laughter wafts down the phone line… distant discussion of Jagermeister and availability of a dress can be heard. Moving on… The Roadrage tour. Killswitch Engage, 36 Crazyfists, and Five Pointe O play in Berlin, Germany tonight. Jerry Cantrell plays tonight in Chicago. Theory Of A Deadman play Louisiana. Probably the most hallorific of all, the Murderdolls will be spending Halloween holed up in a tourbus somewhere between Germany and Scotland. Chimaira will be spending the night in a studio. Caught up with Chris earlier. “For Halloween we are going to work on our album! Can’t slack off – we are hard at work and almost ready to record! Two years ago Mark and I went trick or treating… walked over to this wealthy housing development and grabbed a few king size candy bars! Last Halloween was spent with Slayer… that fucking ruled!!” Hmm, so no costumes in the studio then. If you were going to dress up in costume, what would you dress up as? “A Ghostbuster. I did it last weekend at an early Halloween party!” Did you make the costume? “Yea. Went into our attic and found my old ghostbuster backpack! The straps were too small so I tied shoelaces to it! But the marshmallow man would be the ideal costume. The marshmallow man is the greatest villain of all time.” So now you know. Have a spooktacular time, wherever you haunt.

So, Ill Nino played Brighton last Saturday (Oct 26) night. A literally stormin’ show it was, the band tearing it up inside the Concorde 2, the wind and rain tearing it up outside. Post-show band, label staff, and friends hung out in the venue as long as possible to avoid the marvelous British weather. How was the time passed? For Roadrunner’s Paul, it was getting engaged to his girlfriend Gemma. Naturally, a congratulatory toast or ten was made… with what else but Jagermeister. We fear it was the Jager that led to Roger’s (Ill Nino’s percussionist) written promise to be Gemma’s bridesmaid… and we offer up the following photographic evidence for use in future enforcement. Exhibit A Exhibit B Exhibit C Exhibit D Exhibit E Exhibit F Exhibit G Many congratulations going out to Paul, Gemma, and Roger.

Hello to all our regional radio and club DJ people out there… we know you read this site and that you remember our Mindee, currently on maternity leave. We’re thrilled to share the news that Dalisay Maria was born at the weekend and both mum and baby are doing fine. How’s Mindee finding motherhood? “The screaming doesn’t bother me – pales into insignificance alongside some of our bands…” Welcome to the world, Dalisay. Mindee, all our love and congratulations…

Roadrage. The latest. Just got word in from Copenhagen – in the form of an email from Janus from Universal Music Denmark… read on. Just a little report from Roadrage yesterday in Copenhagen! It was a great show, much greater than I expected and I had big expectations 🙂 It also seemed as if the guys were a little surprised about the response from the audience… people was screaming along and jumping for 3 straight hours! See you! Venlig hilsen (kind regards) Janus – Universal Music Denmark Awesome news Janus – thanks for the line. Back in the UK from November 22nd… meanwhile, from this Saturday (Nov 2), stay glued to Kerrang! TV for an extraspecial Roadrage Kerrang! ‘Talk’ featuring interviews with all three bands and live clips from the shows!

Ill Nino will do a live phone interview with Zane Lowe for XFM’s Music Response TONIGHT, October 31st, at 7.45pm! Be sure to tune in your radio and check it out! Yes, that will be shortly before the band take the stage in Exeter!

Change is afoot in the Coal Chamber camp. The band has parted ways with drummer Mike Cox and management company Left Bank. Founding members Dez and Meegs wish both all the best for their future endeavours. Replacements are not yet known.

Hi, I am a member of the VH1.com site and we recently lost one of our loved Nickelback board members Catherine (cersei). She meant a lot to me and others on that board. I was hoping that as a sign of respect for her if you could put this email onto the Nickelback section as I know she loved them so much. We would all really appreciate it if you did. Thank you so much from Bec and all the board members at VH1. Sorry to hear about your loss Bec… rest in peace Catherine.

Due to a last minute addition, a couple of the dates on the December MURDERDOLLS UK tour have been rearranged. You can now catch the guys at the following shows. The ‘Dead In Hollywood’ single is out this Monday 4th November and is limited to just 3000 copies so don’t hang around or you’ll miss out. Wed 4 Dec – Wolverhampton, Wulfrun Hall Fri 6 Dec – Sheffield Leadmill Sat 7 Dec – London Mean Fiddler (K-Fest show) Sun 8 Dec – Norwich Waterfront Mon 9 Dec – Nottingham Rock City Tue 10 Dec – Liverpool University Wed 11 Dec – Newcastle University Thu 12 Dec – Edinburgh Liquid Rooms Tickets are on sale now and are priced 퉌£10 regionally and 퉌£12.50 in London. You can also buy online at www.ticketmaster.co.uk or by credit card on 0870 400 0688.