Iron Maiden - 'Maiden Heaven'

Iron Maiden invited 15 of their favourite bands to record covers of Iron Maiden songs for a tribute CD to be given away with Kerrang! with the 19 July issue.

Kerrang! ran a competition for its readers to design cover artwork for the CD. The competition was won by Felipe Franco of Bogota, Colombia.

Machine Head who recorded Hallowed Be Thy Name for the CD, played it at the Rock in Rio festival in Portugal on 5 June.

Metallica: the new album title

After a week or so of teasing us with images of new artwork, adding a couple of letters each day, Metallica have announced the title for their 9th studio album - Death Magnetic. It's due for release in September.

DOES BRUSSELS IMPREGNATE THE POLICE?

Ever wanted to generate your very own hysteria inducing headings, just like the Daily Mail? Well you can now with Daily Mail-o-matic, a handy little widget created by Chris Applegate.

I was going to give the generator a sophisticated grammar for more varied sentences, until I realised the Mail’s grammar is nearly always the same.

Why not also try the David Blunkett policy maker, Michael Howard Sings The Smiths, or Alastair Campbell’s Wheel of Retribution?

Harry Hill goes back to school

Yesterday Harry Hill paid a visit to his old primary school in Kent, to help with a campaign to get their playing field back. BBC South East today report here.

Staplehurst School has been without a playing field for two years, since it sold some land to the local PCT for a new medical centre to be built. During this time the children have not had a sports day.

The field has been fenced off after work to improve the drainage was inspected and ruled unsafe. Google Maps shows the drainage work quite clearly.

Harry hoped to return for sports day when everything was sorted:

Maybe, who knows, I could race someone at the egg and spoon race as that was my particular area of expertise.

Monk On Fire!

Balakov's photostream 'Classics in Lego' has some great recreations of iconic images from the 20th century, all made from Lego, including Monk On Fire:

Another tough decision of whether to use the smiley face or not.

There is also a recreation of Martin Elliott's 1976 Tennis Girl.

New Metallica album - what to expect

Metal Hammer have heard most of the pre-mastered version of the forthcoming, as yet untitled, Metallica album.

Is it St Anger? No.

Does it suck? Fuck no!

Are the solos back? Fuck yes!

There are no individual song titles for the ten track, 75 minute album, but it is being referred to as 'nine epics and one song'.

The Dads are alright!

Punks Not Dad recently played their second gig at the Barfly, Cardiff. Photos and a couple of videos are on the website, where you can also hear their new 50 quid E.P. 'Allen Key in the UK'.

The kids don't understand us,
They think we're full of sh*te
But we are The Dads,
AND THE DADS ARE ALRIGHT!

"They're really good. And they're really skiffle…"

In The Observer newspaper this week, Mark Kermode wrote of his 20-year love affair with the joy of skiffle and mentioned how he met Railroad Bill while travelling with his own band, the Railtown Bottlers:

On our travels we met up with other street skiffle acts like the terrific Railroad Bill, sharing tips on how to play the kazoo, and swapping carnival huckster spiel for working a busking crowd…

…'The real thing is on our site,' wrote Dan from Railroad Bill, and indeed it is. If you go to skiffle.co.uk you can see Railroad Bill ('Lonnie Donegan on speed') leaping around with tea-chest, washboard, saw, ukulele, kazoo and (in one instance) a ripping roll of Sellotape. They're really good. And they're really skiffle…

Check out their myspace page for tour dates and music.