News

John Lydon has slammed the reissue campaign surrounding the Sex Pistols' seminal album 'Never Mind The Bollocks…'. Speaking to NME, the Public Image Ltd. frontman said that although he was happy the album was being "re-released properly" and given a sonic overhaul, he was keeping himself "distant" from the media furore.

Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon has said that he plans to 'walk away' from his double Grammy award winning act. Speaking to 89.3 The Current - via The Daily Swarm - Vernon said of the band: "I really feel the need to walk away from it while I still care about it. And then if I come back to it – if at all – I'll feel better about it and be renewed or something to do that."

AC/DC singer Bon Scott, who died aged 33 in 1980, is to have a monument honouring him erected in his birthplace. Scott was born in Kirriemuir in Scotland in 1946, before his family moved to Australia when he was six, and a community group want to honour their local hero by erecting a statue. DD8 Music, who are also behind the annual Bon Scott music festival in the town, have approached sculptor John McKenna to design a statue as a lasting tribute, reports The Daily Record.

Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder helped raise $1.7million at a fundraiser for US President Barack Obama's re-election campaign. The singer performed two Pearl Jam Songs, "Rise" and "Without You", along with covers of James Taylor's "Millworker" and Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World", at the $20,000 ticket event at the home of singer-songwriter Don Miggs in Tampa, Florida.

Charles Manson has sent Marilyn Manson an open letter from his prison cell. The rocker, whose real name is Brian Warner, took the latter half of his moniker from Manson's surname and his first half from actress Marilyn Monroe. A number of Manson's bandmates took similar stage names, with the likes of Twiggy Ramirez, Ginger Fish and Madonna Wayne Gacy also inspired in the same way. The postcard, which leaked online via Loudwire earlier this week, is largely abstract, but has a slightly threatening undertone to a number of its passages.

The surviving members of Led Zeppelin have refused to rule out another reunion. Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones made a rare public appearance today (September 21) to launch their new Celebration Day concert film of their 2007 show at the London's 02 Arena. After a screening of the film at the Odeon West End, the bandmates answered questions from the assembled press.

The new issue of Uncut, out today (September 21), features The Byrds, Neil Young, Siouxsie & The Banshees and LCD Soundsystem.

Neil Young has reportedly given up smoking cannabis and drinking alcohol to write his forthcoming memoir, Waging Heavy Peace. Speaking to the New York Times, Young said, "I did it for 40 years. Now I want to see what it's like to not do it. It's just a different perspective." Young, aged 66, said he has been sober for about a year.

Bob Dylan is now second favourite to win the Nobel prize for literature this autumn, thanks to a wave of bets on the singer. Dylan is now 10/1 to win the prestigious award, with Japanese writer Haruki Murakami topping the bookies poll with odds of 7/1, The Guardian reports. According to a spokesperson for bookmakers Ladbrokes, Dylan has been "backed from 33/1 into 10/1 thanks to some decent £100-plus bets… One of the big bets comes from Norway, the others are UK-based". The average stake on Dylan to bag the Nobel is around £40, they said.

Yoko Ono is set to give the biennial Lennonono Grant For Peace to five different activists and campaigners, including the partially imprisoned Russian punk collective, Pussy Riot. As well as Pussy Riot, the award will be presented posthumously to peace activist Rachel Corrie, who died in 2003, and to the late writer Christopher Hitchens. Author John Perkins will also receive the award, as well as a fifth, to-be-announced person.