Rock on Tour

Time to gas up the tour bus and get ready to rock the road!

AC/DC
With the release of a new album coming up, an AC/DC tour was all but inevitable. It's a whopper. An 18-month world tour for the hard rockers from Down Under will begin in October, coinciding with the release of their new only-at-Wal Mart album. It'll be the band's first album (and tour) since 2000's Stiff Upper Lip, and their 15th studio album since they switched on the High Voltage in 1976.

Fleetwood Mac
Reversing the usual order, Fleetwood Mac plans an early 2009 tour that will probably be followed by a new album. Why the switch of the usual format of using a tour to promote a new album? Says guitarist/vocalist Lindsey Buckingham to London's VIP News, "I think maybe there was ... a sense that we would make a better album if we went out and hung out together first on the road ... maybe even sowing some seeds musically that would get us more prepared to go in the studio rather than just going in cold." There has been some scuttlebutt about Sheryl Crow possibly being involved, but Buckingham says that idea "has lost its momentum." Buckingham, meanwhile, follows the more traditional path as he embarks on a solo tour in September to promote his new album, Gift Of Screws.

Deadheads and Violins
If he had lived, Jerry Garcia would be turning 65 on August 1. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra isn't forgetting that fact. They'll be commemorating it with the debut performance of Dead Symphony No. 6, written by classical composer Lee Johnson, inspired by the music of Grateful Dead. The performance (complete with psychedelic light show) is expected to be a sellout. The venue, Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, can accommodate something over 2,000 Deadheads.

^{Fleetwood Mac photo by Kevin Winter / Getty Images; Jerry Garcia photo by Henry Diltz}