Wordpress Beating Blogger

So far I have found Wordpress slightly handier to use than Blogger/Blogspot, thanks in part to the hit counter being nicely presented on the dashboard so I know who is reading what on the page. The multi-blog reader on Blogspot makes this site worth visiting regularly for me personally, but Squatney Steel posts will be primarily over on http://squatneysteel.wordpress.com for the time being.

OFT inquiry into LiveNation and Ticketmaster Merger

The BBC, reports that the Office of Fair Trading (click here for info) is to look into whether LiveNation's merger with Ticketmaster is legal or if it unfairly hampers their competition and disadvantages customers.

The US authorities have recently launched an investigation themselves.

The joint company officially provided tickets for the Download Festival and between them pretty much every medium-to-massive metal/rock band's tours over the last coupe of years including In Flames, Judas Priest, Trivium, Opeth, Gallows, Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Bullet for My Valentine and a gazillion others. Perhaps that's a reason why they could be getting into hot water...

They also sell tickets for all other kinds of music too, obviously.

Download Festival is Nigh!

1) Stage times have been announced. They are on the official website here.

They have tried to avoid clashes between a lot of the bands on the first and second stages, which is good. Although new comic glam hair metallers Steel Panther clash with Whitesnake on Old Skool Sunday, or at the very least will make fans late for Whitesnake. Given how much of the weekend features no hair metal, it's surely going to piss quite a few people off that these two are on at almost the same time (not to mention people who don't want to listen to old skool big hair metal at the time...). Faith No More and Motley Crue's overlap is probably going to annoy a lot of people too.

I'll give it til approximately 11.35 each day before the running order falls completely behind and out of synch anyway.

2) If you're not yet going, weekend camping tickets have sold out, but weekend arena and day tickets are still available here. Presumably you'll be able to pick them up on the day, considering the backlog of tickets that Ticketmaster haven't yet sent out to loads of people who bought there's ages ago.

3) If you're not going at all, lots of live footage will be screened on the internet via the official Download website. This is presumably for those whose baggy jeans are too wide to fit out of the door and hence can't get to Nu-metal Friday.

Once I recover, there will be some sort of review on here a.s.a.p. next weekend.

OMFG

There have been a lot of shredders from east London over the years, but I don't think there have been any like this guy before.

Benjamin Teacher, 25, was this week briefly featured on MTV. It may not be the last time you hear of him.

Proof that record companies aren't all bad...

Newly independent extreme industrial metal band The Berzerker have recently recorded a cover of Tatu. Yes, Tatu. The Russian teen lesbian pop sensations.

Now I used to like these Aussie heavyweights quite a bit, but there is something a little wrong with this.

If you are planning to record a cover of this song for attention then I think a sensible adviser might pose the following questions before you start:
1) Given that people viewing the video will just be perving over the women in it, is there anything here that is any better than they could find on a million other websites? They have to log on to the internet to watch the video after all. And there are a lot of ladies doing rude stuff on the internet (so I hear).
2) Are the second lot of women, the 'controversial schoolgirls', even better looking than the girls from Tatu's original?
3) Are the second pair of girls in the video even particularly good looking?
4) Is the song any good?
5) Is the song even funny?

If the answer to the majority of those questions is 'no' then what really is the point of the video?

Summer Festival Preview

Glorious weather is finally here (however briefly) and that can only mean that the summer festival scene is nearly upon us.

Out of the larger festivals Reading/Leeds, having had quite a metal-tinged line up last year, seems to have all but abandoned metal this time around with The Deftones appearing as the one token act. They still have their Lock Up stage featuring hardcore and punk bands if that’s your bag though, and there are more line up announcements still to come so things could change.

Glastonbury doesn’t normally feature anything metal, but it does have Spinal Tap this year…

So for a big festival it is really between Download and the new Sonisphere festival. Download is headlined by Faith No More, Slipknot and Def Leppard. Sonisphere by Metallica and Linkin Park. Download costs £130-£160 for three days of music and five of camping and Sonisphere costs £135 or £157.50 for two days. Metallica have previously headlined Reading/Leeds Festival 2008, Download 2006, Download 2004, Reading/Leeds 2003, appeared at Download 2003 and toured the country earlier this year. Linkin Park headlined Download 2007 and toured last year. Faith No More are reuniting just before Download, Slipknot have never headlined major UK festival (though cancelled an appearance at Reading last year at the last minute, and have toured regularly) and Def Leppard haven’t either, and have only played two before (though they did tour last year).

Lower down the bill at Dowload there is the return of Limp Bizkit and Skin amongst others, the crowd-drawing likes of Marilyn Manson, Korn and Motley Crue plus loads of great underground bands (such as Sylosis), and a crossover appeal to dance fans in the shape of Pendulum and The Prodigy. Sonisphere has Heaven and Hell (who may or may not have their minds on other legal issues), Nine Inch Nails and Fear Factory, apart from whom there is little that’s particularly remarkable. Sonisphere still has some line-up announcements to make, but given that Download has already sold out camping tickets and Sonisphere (which has a smaller capacity) hasn't, may suggest that the people have declared which is the best big summer festival for metal heads this summer.

On the slightly smaller festival side, Bloodstock always has pretty good line-up. This year it features Carcass, Blind Guardian, Arch Enemy, Cradle of Filth and Fear Factory. It also has Europe for some odd reason. And it's only £99 including booking fee and camping.

More on summer festivals soon.

Welcome to Squatney Steel

Welcome to Squatney Steel, a blog about all things metal, including news, reviews and previews. It will be covering a bit of the underground, a bit of the overground, and whatever I feel about writing about really. Being based in London/Essex it will probably have a slight bias towards the south of the UK, but this is unfortunately inevitable.

I am new at blogging (but not writing, fortunately for you dear reader), and know nothing about making a decent layout, but I am going to be comparing Blogspot and Wordpress in order to see which is better whilst I go along. I may report back on this from time to time.

If you have to ask what Squatney means, you don't deserve to be told.