ZZ TOP AND GOOD CHARLOTTE SET TO ROCK ITM400

ZZ Top and Good Charlotte will join Kiwi V8 Supercar drivers, Fabian Coulthard and Shane van Gisbergen in Hamilton next April (15-17) for the new-look, new format 2011 ITM400 Hamilton V8 Supercar Championship Series street race.

On Saturday night following the day’s racing rock legends ZZ Top will take the stage at Seddon Park.

Life after 40 for ZZ Top

USA - After more than 40 years together ZZ Top continue to tour worldwide. In 2010 they continued the long tradition of Bandit Lites, also 40 plus years old, as their illumination supplier. Tour manager Pablo Gamboa, production manager Rob Kern and long time lighting designer Chris Stuba all worked with Bandit VP Michael Golden through the year to "deliver Texas to the world".

Stuba's design involves VL 3000 Spots, VL 3500 Washes, VL 2500 Spots, MAC 2000 Washes, Atomic Strobes, Color Blasts and Grand MA consoles. Bandit Jeff Archibeque travels the world keeping continuity to Stuba's crew, wherever the show may be.

PhotoShots of Recent Performance By ZZ Top In St Petersburg

MOSCOW, RUSSIA. OCTOBER 28, 2010. Members of USA's band ZZ Top Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill R perform at the Yubileiny Jubilee Palace of Sports. Photo ITAR-TASS/ Ruslan Shamukov Photo via Newscom

ZZ Top Working with Rick Rubin

Billy Gibbons has revealed that ZZ Top are working on their first studio album since 2003 and that it’s being produced by producer extraordinaire Rick Rubin. Gibbons told Spinner.com that his Texas trio will return to the studio following a small stint touring with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (who have also worked with Rubin).

“He’s very instrumental in striking a resonant chord,” Gibbons said. “He’s able to find ways to pull things out that you might not know were there in the first place.”

Although ZZ Top remain a popular band and a concert draw, they haven’t had a Top 10 album since 1990’s Recycler. Does Gibbons think that Rubin’s golden touch might return the band to the charts?

“There's more music now in every shape and form – something to please everybody,” he said. “I think the bigger challenge is: Where do you go to discover it? If you’re lucky, maybe word of mouth. Somebody will make a recommendation, and if you trust them, you might take the time to check it out.”

However, on the whole, he feels fortunate about ZZ Top’s standing in the music world.

“We’re kind of in the cat-bird seat,” Gibbons said. “We’re very fortunate that we’ve established a gangload of fans that may not have a place to go buy a CD but, by hook or by crook, they will either beg, borrow or steal it.”

ZZ Top lure peoples to fair

ZZ Top concert gates opened at 7 p.m. and people take their tickets from 5 to 8 p.m. before the concert began. At the gate Steve Bennett and they friends group take tickets ready.

Bennett said to a salem native, "My favorite song is ZZ Top 'Pearl Necklace".

Waiting to pick up tickets to Keith Watson of Salem, said he's been a ZZ Top fan "since way back." Although from the band he doesn't have a favorite song, he's appear them perform various times.

He said, "Haven't appear 'em in a long time and can't wait to see them again". "They've been nice and every time."

Vendor Jenny Armitage has art paintings and mud work set up in Artisan's Village.

She said about the performances at the village stage, "You never know what you're going to get. There was a good to combine of people, blues and Native American drumming.

He said, "At the fair this is our first time. But we're gettin' the same love we do at home."

Doing a little dancing to Ty Curtis' tunes, Jerry and Patty Hall of Keizer said they came to see ZZ Top.

"We're going to come back on Sunday with the grandkids," Patty Hall said. "Today we saw the dinosaur exhibit, the Timbersports, and, well, basically everything."

Also in town to see ZZ Top, Crystal Parman and her boyfriend, Kevin Halloway of Eugene, said they've seen the Ty Curtis Band a couple of times before.

"But I haven't been to the fair since I was 5," Parman said.

Just behind the Spirit of Oregon Stage, a group of girls tested their skills on the mechanical bull.

Amy Mattson Velansky of Vancouver said she brings her two daughters, Reese, 4, and Simone, 6, to meet friends at the state fair every year.

ZZ Top, Prince Albert of Monaco rocks to Iggy Pop

Front of the Royal Palace in Monaco, Prince Albert and his fiance rocked to Iggy Pop and ZZ Top in a rousing concert where everyone let down their hair, metaphorically at least.
In special, Albert's intended, South African Olympian Charlene Wittstock, and Albert's sister, Princess Caroline of Hanover seemed to be jumping around and dancing with joy, truly enjoying the tunes of these legendary musicians.
The gig was great for all involved as Iggy Pop and The Stooges as well as ZZ Top had the whole place hopping, including Prince Albert of Monaco. Enjoy the Associated Press photos of the European concert that actually did rock!

ZZ Top Four decades can't stop

ZZ Top guitarist vocalist Billy Gibbons (right) and Dusty Hill rock the MTS Centre Tuesday night.
Sure, you can play the blues with long beards, but when you actually want to get down and dirty, the right hat you still need.
And sunglasses. The cheaper the better.
Before ZZ Top launched into some authentic Delta blues at the MTS Centre Tuesday night, bearded guitarist vocalist Billy Gibbons changed into a fedora like his evenly hairy partner Dusty Hill in order to properly perform a cover of Willie Brown's Future Blues.
The shtick got a few laughs and added to the over all feel good vibe that the veteran Texas blues rock trio created during their 95-mintue set for a crowd of 4,000 fans.
The group -- Gibbons, bassist-vocalist Hill and drummer Frank Beard (you know, the one without any facial hair) -- mainly stuck to favourites from the 1970s and singles from the '80s, avoiding any material off their last studio album, 2003's Mescalero, and almost avoiding everything post 1983 entirely.
Not that anyone minded. It was the hits the audience wanted and the hits it got, along with a few covers from the likes of Brown, B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix.
The group took to the sparse stage and launched instantly into boogie-rocker Got Me Under Pressure, from 1983's Eliminator, ZZ Top's most successful album.
Next it was a double shot of tracks from 1973's Tres Hombres, with the mid-tempo Waitin' For the Bus and fuzzy sludge of Jesus Left Chicago, before 1994's Pin Cushion, a gravelly rocker that sounded like a Motorhead homage.
After four decades together, the band is perfectly in synch and there are no surprises. Gibbons and Hill even have some minimal stage moves down, moving their instruments and shuffling their feet together in time. They aren't the most dynamic group to watch, but it's about the music with ZZ Top, and these guys can still play -- Gibbons isn't considered a blues guitar God just because of his collection of customized axes.
The music isn't overly flashy and neither is the stage setup, which featured two sets of speaker cabinets strung together to look like they were tumbling, and a video screen behind the band showing a variety of images from car parts to girls.
The pace picked up during the end of the main set, when the trio of Eliminator hits -- Gimme All Your Lovin', Sharp Dressed Man and Legs -- followed each other in quick succession, with Gibbons and Hill playing their famous furry white instruments during Legs.
They returned for a three song encore, throwing out a version of Viva Las Vegas before the one-two punch of La Grange and Tush.
Straight from the "Those-guys-are still-a-band!?" file, Saskatoon's Wide Mouth Mason warmed up the crowd with a decent, if pedestrian, set of funkified blues based rock highlighted by an electrifying mid set guitar solo from Shaun Verreault.
The frontman announced that the group was about to begin work on a new album with ex Big Sugar/Grady leader Gordie Johnson, who was handling bass duties for the trio.