It's now official. Aussie hard rockers Rose Tattoo will be supporting Mötley Crüe in Australia. Here is today's Press Release:

For Immediate Release

ROSE TATTOO JOINS MÖTLEY CRÜE FOR AUSSIE TOUR

The original “bad boys” of rock Rose Tattoo have been announced as the special guests on the Mötley Crüe Australian tour.

Arguably Australia’s best hard rock band, the Tatts are a powerhouse addition to the bill for the tour, which begins on November 22.

The Rose Tattoo lineup - Angry Anderson (voc), Pete Wells (gtr), Rob Riley (gtr), Steve King (bass) and Paul DeMarco (drums) - have just returned from Germany, where they played at the huge Wacken Open Air 2000 concert. The show was recorded for an upcoming live album, which the band have just finished mixing in Hamburg. It is described as “absolutely live and raw........ with no overdubs”. The album’s title and release date are not yet confirmed.

With tracks like “Bad Boy For Love”, “We Can’t Be Beaten” and “Rock’n’Roll Outlaw”, Rose Tattoo stamped their claim as one of the best live bands in Australia. News that they are performing live again will be greeted with delight by Aussie fans.

Meanwhile in America, Mötley Crüe continue to win rave reviews on their 50-date “New Tattoo” tour. The band are incredibly excited at returning to Australia for their first time since 1990.

Tour dates are:

November         22                    Canberra, AIS Arena
                         23                    Wollongong, Entertainment Centre
                         25                    Melbourne, Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne Park
                         27                    Newcastle, Entertainment Centre
                         28                    Sydney, Entertainment Centre

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

So there you have it. I think that is great news, and I'm glad I perhaps played a part in it, as I told you in the last chapter. I know Randy will be pleased by the news, and I assume the rest of the Crüe will be as well. Rose Tattoo's live album "25 To Life," recorded at their recent Wacken Open Air Festival performance in Germany, is expected to be ready for release late October/early November as well. Here's some more information on the history of Rose Tattoo.

This morning an email came in from the Melbourne promoter about the proposed after-show party at the Cat Club, which has just been renamed - Hell's Kitchen. She says, "I have recd an email today from MC Management advising the Band would be unable to attend. Thank you for your kind offer." Damn hey! Oh well, we can only try these things. I called the promoter to see if there was a reason why, but there was none given it seems. My guess is that they prefer not to overcommit, only to disappoint if they can't attend. Perhaps we'll try again once they are here.

Tickets for the Mötley tour are moving slowly. Sell-out shows were never expected, but I get the feeling that the promoters were certainly expecting more tickets to have moved at this point. 

I talked with the promoters some more about promotional activity to try and stir the pot. It seems the Herald Sun newspaper in Melbourne will feature Mötley as a cover story inside an issue soon which will provide some great exposure. More ads are to run in Melbourne's street press - Beat and Inpress. In Canberra, an interview with the band will be published in the local street press, BMA. TV don't really want to consider anything but the Olympics for the moment, although I've received emails saying some of you have seen the TV ad in Newcastle. The current affairs story will need to wait.

Radio are not keen on playing the Crüe it seems. That means we need to get a radio campaign happening! The promoter said, "What we really need is to get the single on air - it has been serviced but if you guys can request it and try and get it some exposure it would be fantastic." I'm currently getting together a list of radio stations that were serviced, along with request details for each station, to make it easy for you all to go hammer and tong! Get your dialling fingers ready gang.

Thanks to the 20 of you that have put your hand up to assist promotions by being part of the Street Teams. I have now forwarded all your postal address onto both the Australian Tour Promoter and Americoma Records, as per your indications. Your supplies will be posted to you soon for distribution in pubs, clubs, record stores, and any other rock pig hangouts you can think of.

And finally, it looks like South Australian tattoo artist and Crüehead, Russell Bennett, has instigated a cool Competition. You may have seen Russell's Sinister Studios linked from the footer of pages on the official Mötley web site. Russell wanted to run a competition in Australian Tattoo Magazine, but there was not enough time to make it happen. It now seems like Picture Magazine are going to run a competition where there'll be 5 prizes of a New Tattoo CD plus 2 tickets to the Melbourne concert, and a grand prize of a New Tattoo CD plus 2 front row Melbourne tickets plus a Meet & Greet with the band. How do you win? All the details are still being worked out, but it seems likely you'll have to submit a photo of your new tattoo... and the more Mötley your tattoo, the more chance of winning! More on that when I have it.

Oh, and by the way, did you know Rose Tattoo's slide guitarist and founding member, Pete Wells, currently works as a tattoo artist at House of Pain Tattoos, 53 Parramatta Rd, Annandale NSW 2038, Sydney Australia?

53 sleeps until Mötley arrive in Oz, and just 1 more sleep until my birthday!

Rock on
Paul Miles*

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