Newsbites: Roger Waters offers guitar in anti-poverty bid

Donation: Roger Waters plays the signed guitar

Roger Waters has donated a signed acoustic guitar to TECHO-Chile, a charity raising money for poverty-stricken people in the South American nation. Waters made a video of him playing the instrument during a rendition of Wish You Were Here, and the guitar and DVD will be auctioned on Wednesday, November 21.

Radio Futuro DJ Hernan Rojas, who’s fronting the campaign, and formerly worked as a studio engineer with Fleetwood Mac, Frank Zappa, The Band and many others, says: “The fact that Roger has donated his Martin and recorded a unique version of Wish You Were Here is just huge – and shows his big heart. Those 120 families have been living with no running water, sewer, electricity or basic infrastructure. They live in isolation through freezing temperatures in winter with no heating in their clapboard makeshift homes.

“The objective is to raise money that will help 120 families in extreme poverty in a slum on the outskirts of Santiago. Enter the auction through http://www.futuro.cl until Wednesday at 11am. The five biggest bids will access the final bidding at a live event that night. If any offers were made by foreign bidders, they will be connected in real time to make more offers during the final auction.”

Waters – who last week confirmed a series of European dates for his The Wall open-air show – previously donated enough money to build 300 family homes in Chile.

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Sub Pop co-founder Bruce Pavitt has published an ebook detailing a 1989 trip to Rome to help balance the mental state of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. The iconic musician was struggling under the pressure of a hectic tour and suffered a meltdown onstage, appearing to consider throwing himself off an amp stack then announcing he’d split the band. Pavitt and colleague Jonathan Poneman took him for a day off in Rome, and the book Experiencing Nirvana documents the days surrounding those events. Pavitt says: “It has for the most part a very positive feel to it, even though there was a little drama in the beginning. You see Kurt with his friends, you see him going to London. You see him playing, just raging it in front of people, and you see the crowd’s reaction. You see the legs in the air, the crowd going crazy. What young musician wouldn’t want to tap into that fantasy?” [Rolling Stone]

Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry says that while he enjoyed working with producer Brendan O’Brien, the band couldn’t complete and album with him. Perry explains: “Brendan has a way of working that’s good for some bands, but it just didn’t click with us. He was a big help to me when I recorded my last solo record. But with the band and him it just didn’t click. I don’t think we were ready – we didn’t have the material. Not everybody was on the same page at that point.” [MusicRadar]

Mick Jagger says pop group One Direction remind him of the young Rolling Stones. “I watched a concert on TV the other night, just to check it out,” he reports. “It reminded me very much of our early concerts, when we were pushed around among the audience and we would kind of float. They looked really uncomfortable – I remember that same uncomfortable feeling.” [Rolling Stone]

Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell has filed for divorce from wife Julie after 25 years of marriage. He’s cited “irreconcilable differences” in papers filed at Los Angeles County Superior Court. The musician wants joint custody of his daughters, 11 and 13. [TMZ]

Killing Joke frontman has launched a PledgeMusic campaign to support the release of his book and second symphony. He says: “Letters from Cythera outlines how the occult sciences have shaped my philosophical outlook. I document my endeavours in tackling this epic undertaking. In short, it is the antithesis of a conventional rock biography. It’s the first of two books.” He continues: “This beautifully bound volume will include an unreleased recording of my second symphony, The Island, as a companion work. The Island Symphony was composed in 1997 to celebrate my New Zealand citizenship.” Find out more.