Newsbites: Drinks are on the Rolling Stones

Satisfaction: Stones aim to refresh (pic Suntory Liquors)

The Rolling Stones have marked their 50th anniversary with the release of a range of alcoholic drinks. Japanese firm Suntory Liquors will sell the Stones Bar line including Rolling Hop beer, Rolling Gold cocktail and Citrus Highball.

Tom Morello has thanked the hundreds of Occupy activists who joined him in New York City on May Day to reinvigorate the protest movement. He led his “GuitArmy” through a live jam, then walked with them through the city before they joined a bigger group and played their set again. He said: “I travelled 3000 miles to march with you today. It is an honour to march these streets with you, to sing these songs with you, letting the powers that be know we will be heard.” [Rolling Stone]

Players of the iPhone version of EA’s Rock Band game have erupted in fury after receiving a message inside the app telling them it will stop functioning on May 31. The title is still on sale for £2.99 in Apple’s App Store and in-game purchases, costing 69p per track, are still available. Avid players have invested significant amounts of money extending the gaming experience since Rock Band launched in 2009. EA have made no further comment.

Lynyrd Skynyrd will release their thirteenth studio album, Last of a Dying Breed, on August 21. Gary Rossington says: “We kind of went back old-school – all of us playing together in the studio as a band. The music really flowed for us. That’s when you know you’re onto something good.” the band have replaced bassist Ean Evan, who died in 2009, with the Black Crowes’ Johnny Colt.

Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson says he chose Wales as the location for his new aviation business because of its historical links with the trade. He’s launching Cardiff Aviation, a maintenance and overhaul firm, after the collapse of Astreus, the airline which employed him as pilot and PR exec. Dickinson says: “South Wales has long had an association with the aircraft industry and I’m delighted to have a small part in its continuation. A cautious projection is that we’d expect to create up to 1000 jobs within 18 months.” [Wales Today]

A concert to mark the birthday of Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham will take place in the House of Blues, Los Angeles, on May 31. It’s set to star a house band with guest sticksmen including Mike Portnoy, Steven Adler, Carmin Appice, Bobby Blotzer, Ray Luzier, Simon Wright and others. Each will perform on a replica Bonham kit. Whitesnake’s Brian Tichy, who’s masterminded this and previous Bonzo Birthday Bashes, says: “There are no rules other than to have fun putting your own groove and character. It’s such a unique night, seeing how all these great drummers approach the same drum set.”

Ringo Starr and Dave Stewart are working on a music-themed movie for Paramount Pictures. It’s called Hole in the Fence and tells the story of “a group of kids who form a band to escape their depressing mining town.”

Greg Allman will begin his book promo tour next week after it was delayed while he underwent heart tests. He was given the all-clear on Friday.

Stone Sour‘s fourth album will be released in October. The follow-up to their groundbreaking 2010 release Audio Secrecy hasn’t been named yet, but guitarist Josh Rand says: “Lyrically, the album follows one character to that complex moment in his life, when he finally has to decide which path to take. It’s a spiritual and moral power play for control of what this man will be for the rest of his life. Each song will tell the story from different sides of the character’s personality, with the listener ultimately deciding how the story ends.”

Members of Thunder and the Union are gearing up to take part in their second charity motorbike ride across the USA. Danny Bowes, Ben Matthews, Luke Morley and Peter Shoulder will ride Harleys during the Great British Invasion in July in support of Childline Rocks. Limited places are available for those who want to join them, with the stipulation that each rider must be able to raise £1000 for the charity. Find out more.

Skip Pitts, the guitarist who played on Isaac Hayes’ iconic Shaft theme song, has died in a Memphis hospital. He was 65. Pitts joined Hayes’ band in 1970 and remained until the frontman passed away in 2008. Collaborator Scott Bomar says: “”He took a little bit of the Bo Diddley rhythm, the Northern soul of Curtis Mayfield and the Memphis sound of Steve Cropper and Reggie Young – and somehow came up with his own thing, a style that no one had.” [The Commercial Appeal]

Heart‘s Nancy Wilson last week married music exec Geoff Bywater in a ceremony held at a restaurant owned by Sammy Hagar. She divorced previous husband Cameron Crowe in 2010. Meanwhile, it’s been confirmed that Kings of Leon bassist Jared Followill got engaged to his girlfriend, model Martha Patterson, last month.

Dave Grohl has released a short trailer for the documentary he’s making about the iconic Sound City Studios in California. He came up with the idea after buying the establishment’s mixing desk when it closed last year. The gear was used by Nirvana and other big-name acts including Guns n’Roses, Fleetwood Mac, Rage Against the Machine, Tom Petty and Neil Young. Grohl says: “Sound City is a film about America’s greatest unsung recording studio. Deep in California’s sunburnt San Fernando Valley, it was the birthplace of legend. It was witness to history.”