Rolling Stone reports

"From the annals of We'll Believe It When We See It: A friend of ours with a retail source has told us that the long awaited Guns N' Roses album, Chinese Democracy , has gotten a firm release date of November 21st. Under normal circumstances we'd laugh at such an assertion — after all, this album has reportedly cost more than $13 million and has been “due out” since 1998. But whenever somebody has actually managed to get Axl to speak in the past few months, he's said it's coming out before the end of the year. Plus, there was that G n' R tour announcement the other day that alluded to a release date some time in the next two months. Dare to dream, folks. Dare to dream."

Source Rolling Stone

Rod Smallwood, Iron Maiden manager posted the following message about Iron Maiden in Hartford:

"It's early Thursday and l am trying to get this to you all before we leave for the drive to Boston. And l have a bit of a sore head as we had a bit of a post-first gig celebration at the Irish pub again.

"Anyway, to what you want to hear about the first show last night... Basically, it was amazing. Everything worked (which on a first night is always a massive bonus) and the band played really well — they obviously did enough rehearsal to be ready!!

"Yes, we are playing the whole album, start to finish, with 'Different World' being the set opener. And personally l loved it — but it's no secret what l think of the new album! It's the best! We followed this with 'Fear of the Dark', 'Iron Maiden' (of course) then '2 Minutes To Midnight', 'Evil That Men Do' and 'Hallowed be thy Name'.

"l won't go into detail on the show itself as it would spoil it for you, but the set, lights and 'special effects' (a.k.a. what Eddie did next) are really stupendous. It's as good a show as we have ever done. And the reaction of the Hartford crowd was, l am sure, the best we have ever had there — and we have played there many times including opening our 2003 tour there too (so thanks to everyone who turned up for us).

"After the gig we invaded the Irish pub — McKinneys??? — all the band, tour managers, a couple of [guys from] BULLET [FOR MY VALENTINE] (who went down really well, which is good to see ), various friends who came along for the first gig from all over America, some guys from our label and Jimmy from Best Buy.

"Nicko [McBrain, MAIDEN drummer] has already gone off to Boston to get in a round of golf and tonight we are all going out for dinner then tomorrow is Boston which has been sold out for a couple of weeks. It will be the first time we have played in the actual city for many years as we have tended to play around there like Worcester. It's a new basketball arena and l am told by our agent it's a terrific gig. We know Boston is a great metal town and has always been good to us so definitely looking forward to it."

Source: MaidenNorway.com

Don Dokken of Dokken has posted the following message on his website:

"Hi, everyone. It's me, that singer guy who seemed to drop off the planet for the last six months, I figured it's about time to write and let everyone know what's up in DOKKEN land which isn't easy when you type with one finger.

"As you might know Mick [Brown, drums] and Barry [Sparks, bass] just finished a grueling tour with everyone's favorite hunter 'Uncle' Ted Nugent. I saw them at the House Of Blues [in West Hollywood] and they rocked. It was interesting to watch my bros play from the audience.

"I have to say that Ted is one of the coolest guys you'll ever meet. I first met him 20 years ago at Cal Jam. A lot of people in this business change as time goes on — some for the better some not. He's still the same straight-ahead tell-it-as-he-sees-it, endless-amount-of-energy guy I first met.

"After the show, I thought I'd give them some space to chill but Mick and Barry dragged Jon [Levin, DOKKEN guitarist] and I into the dressing room right away for a hug since we hadn't seen each other in months. They had just played a two-hour show and had about five minutes to cool off before the dressing room filled up with friends and the usual amount of celebs, which always seems to be the case in Hollyweird. Ted took the time to say hi to everyone before he even had a chance to chill out. He really is a gracious guy.

"After Jon and I watched the show, it made me miss playing with the guys even more.

"I had decided for us not to tour this summer since I had four CDs to finish — yes, four. First, my way overdue solo CD which I'm happy to say is finally done. You'll be able to hear samples of the songs at Dokken.net, DonDokken.com and DOKKEN MySpace in a few days. I've just finished mixing DOKKEN 'Live '81', which was recorded before 'Breaking the Chains' came out in the U.S. There are three unreleased tracks on it that are pretty cool. I'm playing guitar and doing some solo harmonies with George [Lynch]. Now that's a trip!

"Jon and I have been working on a new studio album called 'Lightning Strikes Again' and to top it all off we recorded a new 'Greatest Hits' with Mick and Barry when they had time off from Ted, which wasn't much, so it took some time.

"As if all this didn't keep me busy enough, I bought an old house in the Santa Monica Mountains, which kept my hammer busy all summer. I've always wanted a place where you can walk out your door and pick apples, peaches or plums for breakfast. So now I have Gene Simmons for a neighbor. The only difference between his house and mine is that his garage is bigger than my entire house [lol].

"As some of you might know, we did a few shows in Virginia a few weeks ago. It was great to be on stage with my partners in crime again. Now the boys are home were finishing up our music and going on tour starting Dec. 1 until a few days before Christmas. After that, we're planning on doing a U.S. tour and Europe starting around May — we just don't know where we'll start first, but as soon as I know, you will.

"So there it is, I do read your posts and if I ever learn how to type I'll try and write back more often. The good news is there's going to be a lot of new DOKKEN music out there soon and I hope you all enjoy it. We should have our December dates posted in about a week. I hope to see you at the shows."

Source Dondokken.com