If you have the chance to go to Meltdown, there’s another place offering the tickets:

click here and hurry up.

If you are able to go to the Meltdown this year, tickets will be available from Thursday, on the event’s official website, rfh.org.uk.

Have fun and be happy because many of us cannot even dream of going…anywhere.

From NME

The initial line-up for PATTI SMITH�s MELTDOWN has been confirmed.

This year’s event takes place at the South Bank Centre in London between June 11-26.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Smith’s seminal album Horses, and to celebrate the singer will perform the album in its entirety at the Royal Festival Hall on June 25. The album’s producer John Cale is the evening’s special guest.

Elsewhere in the festival Smith and Steve Earle will appear at the same venue on June 19.

The other events confirmed so far are:

Yoko Ono (Queen Elizabeth Hall, June 17)
Rachid Taha with special guest Patti Smith (Royal Festival Hall, 17)
Songs Of Innocence, Protest Songs and Lullabies, Feat. Patti Smith, Beth Orton, Sinead O’Connor, Kristin Hersh plus more (Royal Festival Hall, 18)
Billy Bragg (Queen Elizabeth Hall, 18)
Steve Earle and Patti Smith (Royal Festival Hall, 19)
The Coral Sea 0 Text: Patti Smith Music: Patti Smith, Kevin Shields, Cat Power (Queen Elizabeth Hall, 22)
A homage to Bertolt Brecht. Feat. Patti Smith, Antony, Dresdon Dolls, Marc Almond, Neil Finn, Tim Finn, London Sinfonietta and more (Royal Festival Hall, 23)
Antony And The Johnsons (Queen Elizabeth Hall, 24)
Patti Smith performs Horses with Special Guest John Cale (Royal Festival Hall, 25.)
SONGS OF EXPERIENCE The work of Jimi Hendrix and the music that inspired him Feat. Patti Smith, Jeff Beck, Flea, John Frusciante and more (26)

The whole show is now available as 19 files you can download from http://www.frusciantefanclub.com

TO GET THE AUDIO:
Go to members’ area, then “Audio/ Live shows”, then “John Frusciante live at the ATP festival, 23rd April 2005″ and right-click to download the songs, because left-click will lead you to a surprise for bandwidth-thiefs. No streaming allowed, that is.

TO GET THE VIDEO:
Go to members’ area, then click “Videos” and scroll to the bottom of the page. Three ATP videos should be there for you to download, same instructions and restrictions [as for the audio] apply.

There will be more things. It’s just that the resident worker-bee has to arrange them, link them up and put copyright where needed; and it’s hard because she’s connected to the internet via dial-up modem. I apologise for any mistake that might have been made. Feel free to yell at me if anything’s wrong.

If you cannot access the members’ area and you HAVE registered to the BBS, try this

ATP regular John Frusciante decided this year he would perform solo at the event and we are happy to announce he is the latest addition to the bill.

(from festival’s webbsite)

This is an update on the post about revealing of Johnny Ramone’s statue, an article from Rolling Stone where John is mentioned.

Several of Johnny Ramone’s friends — including Eddie Vedder, Rob Zombie, Pete Yorn, John Frusciante, Anthony Kiedis and Nicolas Cage — gathered at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Friday, January 14th, to unveil a four-feet tall bronze statue of the guitarist, who according to Cage’s speech, “willed the Ramones to happen.”

About a thousand fans gathered for the mid-afternoon ceremony, to hear speeches by many of those closest to Johnny Ramone (whose real name was John Cummings), and to see the $100,000 statue, which Ramone bought himself. “He saw it as something for the fans to come see,” former Ramones’ drummer Tommy Ramone said in the makeshift backstage area of the cemetery just behind a cathedral.

Though it’s been about four months since Johnny Ramone passed away after a long battle with prostate cancer, the day stirred a lot of emotion in his friends, starting with former bandmate C.J. Ramone, who broke down several times as he recalled the influence Johnny had on his life.

Frusciante was also visibly shaken as he recalled his friendship with the guitarist. “Johnny Ramone had an immense heart and was as sweet and kind as can be,” the Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist said from the podium. “No one has ever been consistently kinder to me. The music he made, as well as his thoughts about music will always have a powerful effect on any music I will make.”

You can read the whole article on rollingstone.com.

According to Los Angeles Times and many picture sites plus some other reliable sources, the statue of the punk rock legend Johnny Ramone was unveiled on 14th January in Hollywood at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

And here are the links to the images from the unveiling of Johnny Ramone statue…unfortunately, until/if someone with passwords doesn’t pop up, they’re all watermarked.

click
click
click

Hint: on most of the active message boards, you fill find really good versions of the pics. I don’t think I’m allowed to post them here.

Just for the sake of curiosity: on one of the sites, John was renamed into “Fajanta” and in the other one to “Fruschiante”. People can’t spell and it’s a fact.

For the first, fresh article on the whole thing, click below. I’d like to thank Jenn who mentioned the article and Lizzy who found it.

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