Rock Encyclopedia

Legendary rocker Bret Michaels brings his rock hits and hot ballads to Viper Alley Friday, Dec. 9 at 10 pm in the only Chicago area appearance in his Get Your Rock On tour. Doors open at 8 pm. Kitchen opens at 5 pm.

Tickets, starting at $40, go on sale Tuesday, Nov. 15 at noon and are available at www.viper-alley.com.

As front man for the gritty and glam 80s rock band Poison, Bret Michaels has sold 30 million albums worldwide, with 10 singles hitting the Billboard Hot 100.

The multi-platinum-selling rocker’s 25 years with Poison have produced eight studio and four live albums, with hits including “Talk Dirty to Me,” “Something to Believe in,” and “Nothing But a Good Time,” and the #1 “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.”  Michaels has since branched out with a chart-topping solo career, with his latest release, “Custom Built,” reaching #1 on the Billboard Hard Rock charts last year.

Equally successful for Michaels is his reality TV career, which includes “Rock of Love,” one of the most popular shows in VH1 history; a VH1 docu-series in 2010 called “Bret Michaels: Life As I Know It,” and Donald Trump’s series on NBC, “Celebrity Apprentice.” On “Apprentice,” Michaels, a lifelong diabetic, went head-to-head with top business-minded celebrities, donating his $250,000 prize to diabetes research and becoming an American Diabetes Association spokesperson. (more…)

Blizzard Entertainment announced that Foo Fighters will headline the closing concert of this year’s sold-out BlizzCon, taking place October 21-22 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

While tickets to the convention are currently sold out, viewers can watch at home by ordering a BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, offering comprehensive live coverage of the event (including Foo Fighters’ performance) globally over the Internet and also on DIRECTVin the United States.

Over the course of their 16-year career, the Foo Fighters have sold tens of millions of records, won half a dozen Grammy awards, and raised countless voices in singalongs of iconic anthems like “Everlong,” “My Hero,” “Learn to Fly”, “All My Life,” “Best of You,” and “The Pretender.” Foo Fighters’ BlizzCon debut marks founder Dave Grohl’s triumphant return to the convention after playing drums for Tenacious D in last year’s show, and comes during an international arena, stadium, and festival tour promoting their seventh album, the international #1 record Wasting Light. (more…)

The Moody Blues will embark on their first cross-Canadian Fall tour in more than a decade, playing in 16 markets around the country.  The Canadian tour titled “Precious Cargo” will begin on September 15 in Halifax, NS and will continue through October 8 in Victoria, BC (see tour dates below).  The band will be touring in support of their new upcoming Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) greatest hits collection which will be released in two editions on July 19, as part of their highly successful Icon series.

The latest Icon series releases available on July 19 — Icon and Icon 2 — single disc and double disc formats — will include The Moody Blues’ legendary hits and fan favorites from their 14 studio albums that have spanned more than 35 years of groundbreaking music:  Days Of Future Passed (1967), In Search Of The Lost Chord (1968), On The Threshold Of A Dream (1969), To Our Children’s Children’s Children (1969), A Question of Balance (1970), Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1971), Seventh Sojourn (1972), Octave (1978), Long Distance Voyager (1981), The Present (1983), The Other Side Of Life (1986), Sur La Mer (1988), Keys Of The Kingdom (1991) and Strange Times (1999). The two-disc set will also include a bonus track from the band’s holiday December (2003) album. (more…)