Weekly News Roundup – 24th April 2009

Faith No More have surprised many people by self-confirming an appearance at Reading and Leeds. The reformed band, who were previously believed to be using their headlining appearance at Download as their only UK date this summer, have confirmed that they will play the festival on the Friday at Reading and Sunday at Leeds. Whilst it is unknown where on the bill they will perform I am willing to guess that it will be between Kings Of Leon and the Kaiser Chiefs. The organisers, Festival Republic, will announce the first batch of names for the Lock Up Stage next week.

Papa Roach have responded to claims about a fan shitting in a moshpit during a gig in Manchester. Jacoby Shaddix, the vocalist, wrote to Rock Sound saying: “Fucking hell – this story is hilarious. The first we heard about this was when we were asked about it during an interview, the funny thing is that we did an interview before the UK gigs and Tobin said ‘bring your diapers because we are going to rock the shit out of you’. It looks like it really happened!” Well, no shit Jacoby.

In other news:

The splits for the Download Festival have been released. Joining Slipknot, Def Leppard and Faith No More as headliners are six other artists who share the top billing on two other stages. Motley Crue, The Prodigy and Trivium will top the imaginatively titled Second Stage whilst Meshuggah, Anvil and Go: Audio will top the Tuborg Stage.

Mastodon have announced a brief UK tour. The band will play four dates in June in Sheffield, Manchester, Glasgow and London. Full dates are up on their website.