Rock Gone Wild Officially Canceled

This was just posted on the official Rock Gone Wild forum:

Press Release August 7, 2009 4:52 pm CST

Rock Gone Wild, an Iowa based LLC was informed by Diamond Jo Casino, LLC legal counsel on August 5, 2009, that “the event cannot take place anywhere on the licensed premises”.

Due to Diamond Jo Casino, LLC refusing to honor its obligation to provide the venue, we are unable to produce the event as planned. This matter has been referred to legal counsel.

All inquires should be addressed to:

Sporer & Flanagan, PC Law Firm

Attn: Ted Sporer
Office: 515-244-5575
Cell: 515-669-0940
Email: TFSporer@sporerlaw.com

Steven Tyler Suffers Broken Shoulder, This Aerosmith Tour is Cursed

Earlier this week, Aerosmith performed at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota. During that show, lead singer Steven Tyler fell off the catwalk. The story went that Steven fell into the crowd and security rushed to his side, but he got up on his own and was joking with doctors. Later, he was airlifted to a nearby hospital and the remainder of the show was canceled.

Now, there's word Steven's injuries are a little more serious than once thought: he has a broken shoulder and received stitches in his head and back. To me, this means the tour is just about done. How can it possibly go on? At this rate, everyone in the band - save drummer Joey Kramer and guitarist Joe Perry - has been on the disabled list for some sort of ailment, injury or freak accident. Please remember guitarist Brad Whitford had surgery after hitting his head while getting out of his Ferrari. Bass player Tom Hamilton recently required surgery and still isn't back on the road with the band. Let's not forget Steven's earlier injury to his foot which caused several show cancellations - including mine. Those shows have not been rescheduled.

At this point, I'm looking for a refund on those tickets. I just don't see how the band can stay on the road - and that's ok. I'd rather have a happy and healthy Aerosmith than a band that's battered, bruised and bitchy. No, I don't think the band should retire...but maybe a nice vacation is in order. Thoughts?

From the 'House of Hair' Regarding Rock Gone Wild

Just received this from the House of Hair (with Dee Snider):

The HOH has learned that Rock Gone Wild, the four-day rock festival in Iowa, which was supposed to take place August 20-23 at the Diamond Jo Casino in Northwood, has encountered some bumps along their rock 'n' roll road.

Late Wednesday evening, the HOH received an email from Donnie Frizzell, managing partner of Rock Gone Wild, which said,"I . . . was informed on August 5, 2009, by email from legal counsel representing Diamond Jo Casino, that 'the event cannot take place anywhere on the licensed premises.' "

Just last month, the festival organizers had moved the Rock Gone Wild festival from Freedom Park in Algona to The Diamond Jo Casino in Northwood.

"The size of the festival necessitated the change," Donnie said at the time. "Thus, the move to Diamond Jo's will allow us to best serve the fans of the festival who have already bought tickets, all of the great bands we've booked, our employees and those who are still making plans to attend." According to our inside intel, ticket sales were very good.

In an exclusive interview, Frizzell informed the HOH late Thursday night that Rock Gone Wild will issue a press release tomorrow, Friday, August 7, at 4pm CST detailing the fate of the show. At this time, everything else you've heard is only speculation. Please follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/houseofhair to get the news first tomorrow afternoon. The HOH will also post the press release on our website HouseofHaironline.com after 4pm CST tomorrow.

Bring Back Glam! will also post any official release as soon as it is received.

Another Report Regarding Rock Gone Wild

This report comes from our friends at KIMT-TV.

Click here to access. Full story follows.

Diamond Jo says "No" to Rock Gone Wild


Northwood, IA- The future of a major rock festival is uncertain.

The General Manager of Diamond Jo Casino in Worth County tells us they're not allowing Rock Gone Wild to happen on any of the casino's licensed grounds.

Promoters are planning to issue a press release at 4:00pm on Friday. They were hoping for a crowd of ten thousand people, now they’re working with lawyers to come up with a plan.

We talked to several of the Management Companies who oversee some of the headlining acts. Some believe the event is still on while others think its all but dead.

Hundreds of people who had bought tickets to see major acts are wondering what will happen to their money; others living in Worth County invested a lot more.

Rodney Hagen has dreamed of creating an RV oasis right in his backyard for a long time.

"5 years ago I started kicking it around and last year we started digging the pond and just kept on going from there I guess," Hagen said.

But when he found out a major rock festival featuring international acts like Twisted Sister, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, And Puddle of Mudd had moved from Algona to just three miles away, he kicked his plans into high gear hoping to score some business.

"We were supposed to have a bulldozer here today and start hauling rock roads in tomorrow so we would have made it, it would have been close but we would have made it," he said.

With just five weeks notice, Hagen isn't the only one who rushed to make preparations for the event.

"Usually if something this big happens then we usually have about a year or so to get ready for something like this, but we're given basically five weeks to start looking into it and figure out what we're going to need and if we can take care of some things here," said Worth County Sheriff Jay Langenbau.

Langenbau says a meeting to discuss event safety and security with local emergency officials on Thursday afternoon was postponed. And there are more signs the event isn't happening as scheduled in Northwood.

Two weeks away from the concert there's still no agreement between the landowner who owns the property where the concert was planned and concert promoters. The landowners also tell us they're hesitant to move forward without support from the casino.

Hagen says whether it happens or not, the event won't make or break his plans.

"We just did it a lot faster than we would have planned on, maybe would have done a few things different, but no, we didn't go too crazy," Hagen said.

We're awaiting official word from rock gone wild promoters on the future of the festival.

On a Rock Gone Wild online discussion board, ticket holders are writing in with questions of a possible venue change.

Rock Gone Wild Festival Update

Questions still swirl about the fate of Rock Gone Wild, set to take place August 20 - 23 at the Diamond Jo Casino in Northwoods, Iowa. Bring Back Glam! just spoke with an official at the casino regarding the festival, preparations and ticket sales.

“I’m not able to say it will or will not happen,” says Scott Smith, Marketing Director for the Diamond Jo casino.  

Rock Gone Wild general manager Nathalie Faghihi posted this online just hours ago: "Rock Gone Wild was notified on August 5, 2009, by email from legal counsel representing Diamond Jo Casino, that... 'The event cannot take place anywhere on the licensed premises.'"

That may or may not be true. According to Smith, the festival was never really going to take place on festival grounds anyway. Smith says Rock Gone Wild promoters were supposed to use grounds to the north of the casino. “We’re not a sponsor,” he adds. “More like a landmark.”

“It is our understanding ticket sales are good, but we don’t have official numbers,” says Smith. He also adds all the rooms in the casino are not booked for the weekend of August 20-23.

“We’ve been referring everyone back to the Rock Gone Wild website.”  Smith also adds the casino itself is in limbo and isn’t in a position to say whether the event is on or off. “I’ve not heard from a promoter regarding a confirmation.”

The last time anyone at the casino received official word from Rock Gone Wild was Monday, via email. Specific details of that email were not disclosed.

“[The] majority of people around here are excited for Rock Gone Wild. The prospect of having thousands of people [in town] only helps everyone,” concludes Smith.

Bands booked for Rock Gone Wild include Twisted Sister, Saving Abel, Candlebox, Lita Ford, Kix, Puddle of Mudd and many more.

Rock Gone Wild is (Probably) Canceled

I've spent the past three hours trying to independently confirm that Rock Gone Wild, the new multi-day festival in Iowa, is canceled. Rumors started flying that the festival was off days ago and then Stevie Rachelle, owner of Metal Sludge posted this on his website:

Save your money, cancel your plans, do NOT fuck yourself. I got friends who are getting fucked by this, and i am NOT happy about it.

This event is about as likely to take place as a full solar eclipse over IOWA at noon tomorrow while Slipknot plays a set of all covers by KIK TRACEE.

Don't ask me how, but I know.

Then later:

It's sad that the people who are behind this have left everybody hanging as long as they did. I have been hearing inside rumblings that shit was gonna hit the fan for a while now. So I confronted the "powers that be" and was told repeatedly all was okay.

I have fans, friends and family who were making ALL kinds of arrangements and are out money.

As of 11:30pm last night I was being told "hold on another 2 days"

Fuck that. I put the word out ASAP. Sent my post to every major outlet on the web. Bands, fans, friends, etc.. are e-mailing me, calling and texting asking if this is just a "rumor". No it's not.

Anyone who still believes this event is still gonna play is a moron.

Blabbermouth posted a similar story earlier today. Most significant, however, is the post left on the Fevertalk.net forum by the festival promoter herself. In it, Nathalie Faghihi writes:

"Rock Gone Wild was notified on August 5, 2009, by email from legal counsel representing Diamond Jo Casino, that... 'The event cannot take place anywhere on the licensed premises.'"

Bring Back Glam! has left two voice mails with the Diamond Jo Casino regarding the festival. Two different switchboard operators have never heard of the festival. I await official word one way or another regarding the fate of this festival.

Remember, Rock Gone Wild moved locations just weeks ago for unspecified reasons. For months, the festival was billed as taking place in Algona, Iowa. Diamond Jo Casino is located in Northwood, Iowa.

Penny Lane Release 'Midnight Tales from the Funhouse: Part 1'

Classic-turned-modern Glam outfit Penny Lane just released a new disc called Midnight Tales from the Funhouse: Part 1 (RSR/Garden House Records). The album features Steve Summers (Pretty Boy Floyd) and Keri Kelli (Alice Cooper). Kelli produced the disc in addition to helping with guitar duties.

Midnight Tales from the Funhouse: Part 1 features 12 tracks and just about every song was written by some conglomeration of the band. This means it wasn't just a case of Steve and Keri coming in to play - they really contributed 100%.

Now here's the interesting thing: there's lyrics about school, just like classic Pretty Boy Floyd. This surprised me because the songs on this Penny Lane disc are new...and no one in the band is anywhere near school age.

"California Man," "Waiting for You" and "Blood from A Stone" are exceptionally strong tracks. I especially like "Blood from A Stone" - the chorus and main riff are cool. Also cool is a cover of The Cars song "Dangerous Type." If you're looking for a good ballad, "Best of Friends" might be what you need. The song is sweet and the guitar work nice.

If you like Pretty Boy Floyd, you'll like the new Penny Lane effort. There's a lot of cross-over similarities here. Yes, part of that is because of Steve Summers, but also many of the song lyrics and themes are similar. Basically, this is just a fun Glam record.

Ray C. and Billy Gash are regular members of Penny Lane. You can order the disc by clicking here.