BBCNews reports that Johnny Marr has been reunited with his treasured cherry red 1964 Gibson SG. Fan Stephen White, 38, admitted stealing the guitar after a Johnny Marr and the Healers show at the Scala nightclub in Kings Cross, London. He had kept the stolen Gibson in his north London living room since 2000.

White expressed remorse at a London court, saying that he was "disgusted" with himself for taking the instrument. The court sentenced him to 200 hours of community service. Marr had been so upset at the loss of his treasured Gibson SG, worth an estimated $45,000, that he offered a reward for information leading to its return.

PC Christopher Swain said that Marr "bears no malice" against Mr. White. A spokesman for Marr, who is currently in New Zealand with his band The Cribs said: "He is obviously very happy to have his guitar returned."

Johnny Marr rose to prominence in the ‘80s as the guitarist with the groundbreaking Smiths. He more recently worked with The The, Electronic, Modest Mouse and, in 2008, he joined The Cribs. Marr played his beloved 1964 Gibson SG on the road with Electronic and his solo band, the Healers, before it was stolen in 2000. The King of the Jangle is a Gibson aficionado, and a proud owner of several Gibson classics, including a Gibson 330, a 1961 Les Paul that he played on most of his Electronic work, and a prized 1959 Les Paul that he used with The The and to back up Simple Minds at the historic Mandela Day at Wembley Stadium in London in 1988.

Billy Idol has tapped Gibson artist Billy Morrison to join him on his upcoming tour dates in Europe and North America. 

On his blog, the British guitarist said he started rehearsing with the platinum-haired rocker a few weeks ago, joining a lineup that includes Idol’s longtime guitarist Steve Stevens, bassist Stephen McGrath and keyboardist Derek Sherinian, and fellow new recruit, drummer Jeremy Colson.

“The twin guitars of Steve Stevens and myself sound amazing on the Idol material and I am excited to get out there and start playing shows,” Morrison said.

Morrison, who has an extensive collection of Les Pauls, is the frontman for Circus Diablo and one of the founding members of Camp Freddy, a cover band made up of a revolving cast of veteran musicians that includes Dave Navarro, Matt Sorum, Donovan Leitch Jr. and Chris Chaney. He has also played with The Cult, Stimulator, and Into a Circle.

Idol’s summer tour begins in Moscow on June 5, and includes stops at the Malmo Sweden Rock Festival and the Download Festival in the U.K. North American dates will be announced shortly.

Billy Idol 2010 Tour Dates:
 
Sat 6/5 Moscow, Russia -  SCCH Russia
Mon 6/7 St. Petersburg, Russia -  Ice Hall
Wed 6/9 Helsinki, Finland -  Ice Hall
Sat 6/11 Malmo, Sweden -  Sweden Rock Festival
Sun 6/13 Donington Park, UK -  Download Festival
Wed 6/16 Nr Nurenburg, Germany  - Arbenburg, Burg
Fri 6/18 Athens, Greece -  Karaiski Stadium
Sun 6/20 Skopje, Macedonia -  Skopsko Lizgaliste
Mon 6/21 Belgrade, Serbia -  Belgrade Arena
Tue 6/22 Zagreb, Croatia -  T Music Festival
Thu 6/24 Ljubjiana, Slovenia -  Hala Tivoli
Fri 6/25 Vienna, Austria -  Danube Island
Sun 6/27 Prague, Czech Republic -  Sasazu
Tue 6/29 Ravensburg, Germany -  Oberschubenhalle
Thu 7/1 Sopron, Hungary  - Volt Festival
Sat 7/3 Germany -  TBA
Sun 7/4 Bremen, Germany -  Freeload Festival
Thu 7/8 Bonn, Germany -  Museumplatz
Fri 7/9 Huttweil, Switzerland -  Rocksound Festival
Sun 7/11 Weert, Holland -  Bospop Festival

Baldwin pianist Arthur Hanlon has been nominated for an Emmy at the upcoming 53^rd Annual New York Emmy Awards. Hanlon is nominated in the Craft Specialty category as artist, composer and arranger of “Esta Navidad,” a jingle produced by New York television WXTV Univision 41 during its 2008 Christmas campaign.

“Esta Navidad” was written by Hanlon and top Latin songwriter Claudia Brant, who has worked previously with Josh Groban, Santana, II Divo, Kenny G, Jennifer Lopez and David Bisbal. The WXTV Univision 41 Christmas spot featured Hanlon on his signature blue Baldwin piano with guest singer Janina. “‘Esta Navidad’ was written as a song of hope at a time when many people had lost hope,” says Hanlon. “It was a privilege to have Univision take that musical message to viewers around the country.”

Arthur Hanlon, raised in Detroit by Irish-American parents, found his musical niche in Latin music and is the first pianist to reach the Billboard Latin airplay charts in more than a decade.

Hanlon’s 2009 album, Piano Sin Fronteras, features collaborations with some of the top names in Latin music, including Colombian rocker Juanes, Italian diva Laura Pausini, Mexican pop group Manás guitarist Sergio Vallín, Brazilian superstar Alexandre Pires, Venezuelan singer/songwriter, Ricardo Montaner, Puerto Rican pop and TV star Luis Fonsi and Chilean balladeer Myriam Hernandez.

Arthur Hanlon was recently a weekly guest artist on the Univision network's reality music show Viva el Sueno. His new instrumental single, “No Borders,” is currently playing on jazz stations nationwide. The New York Emmy Awards will presented at a black-tie gala on Sunday, April 18, 2010 at The Marriott Marquis, Times Square in New York City.

Linkin Park are going to tide over fans that have patiently been waiting for new material from the band with an avalanche of professional live recordings from their tour in support of 2007's Minutes To Midnight.

LP Archives: Official Tour Bootlegs, which features more than a hundred full concerts to choose from, will be made available for download to members of the band's LP Underground fan club.

Each show download will cost $9.99, but fan club members can take advantage of a 25 percent discount on purchases made during the first two weeks they are available.

"We originally decided it would be cool to let our fans buy a recording of the show they just attended," said drummer Rob Bourdon. "Once we saw the positive response to that, we figured it would be even better to make all of the shows available to anyone who would like to download them. We wanted to make the highest quality recordings available to all of our fans."

The band is currently in the studio working with Rick Rubin on their next album. Earlier this year, MC Mike Shinoda told SPIN that the band’s new record would prominently feature keyboards and drum machines.

"It sounds brand new," he said. "The thing is, there are so many different ways to make music these days with virtual instruments, software applications, physical instruments and computer programs. Then when you get in the position of being able to use almost any of it — that's what we did on Minutes To Midnight. We wanted to play with as many instruments and sounds as we could."

Earlier this year, Linkin Park released a new song through Linkin Park 8-Bit Rebellion Apple iPhone and iPod Touch app. Its track “Not Alone” also appeared on the all-star Download To Donate album benefiting Haiti.

Billy Corgan has as much as placed a help wanted ad to find a new bassist and keyboardist for The Smashing Pumpkins, who will gear up for a new world tour later this year. This week Corgan issued a press release that kicks off an “open audition process” for both vacant band member spots.

Last year, after the departure of longtime Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, Corgan found drummer Mike Bryne in the same way.

“We were lucky enough to find drummer Mike Byrne through an open audition process,” said Corgan. “So why not open the doors again to anyone who might be interested for the bass or keyboard position? As you can see from our past and present, age, race or a person’s background is not an issue. Everyone is truly welcome to audition.”

Wannabe Smashing Pumpkin members have until March 31 to email a resume and video clips of themselves performing to pumpkinsbass@gmail.com or pumpkinskeys@gmail.com.

Until a permanent keyboardist is named, Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin will fill the spot. Tulin toured with Corgan last year as part of the Spirits In The Sky supergroup.

Meanwhile, bassist Ginger Pooley, who embarked on world tours with The Smashing Pumpkins in 2007 and 2008, has left the band because she wants to stay home with her new baby.

“Although I’ve been blessed beyond belief over the past few years through playing with the Pumpkins, my priority now is to keep our little family unit together, which includes my husband and my baby,” Pooley said.

The split appears to be on the best of terms, though Corgan has perhaps resigned himself to the Pumpkin’s oft-changing lineup.

“Although I am heartbroken that Ginger is leaving the group, I really respect her decision to put her family first,” Corgan said. “I appreciate everything that she has contributed to The Smashing Pumpkins, and I’m proud of her for being such a great musician and friend.”

Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch, who’s been benched with salivary cancer since last year, told Entertainment Weekly that though his recovery is significant, he and bandmates Adam Horovitz and Mike Diamond have decided to again postpone the release of their album Hot Sauce Committee, Part One.

“I feel better,” Yauch said on Friday, while at the Independent Spirit Awards in L.A. “It was touch and go there for a while, but I am finally getting my energy back.”

The MC has undergone a series of medical procedures to treat his cancer since announcing its existence to the public this past July. Beastie Boys subsequently canceled a stint of summer tour and festival dates they had mapped out and initially postponed the release of their album, saying they could look toward its early 2010 release.

Now Yauch says that September 2010 is a more realistic drop date.

“It was really disappointing to have to hold the record and postpone the tour, but doctor’s orders,” said Yauch. “We may or may not [release the album], depending on how my health is, come September. We want to, but we have to play it by ear.”

Hot Sauce Committee, Part One was recorded more than a year ago — giving the Beastie Boys more than enough time to ponder tweaking it.

“We want to take a look at it and reevaluate and make sure it is what we want to put out there and that we are still happy with it,” Yauch said. “I don’t think we will change it up too much.”

Beastie Boys last released The Mix-Up, a 2007 instrumental album that scored them a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album.

Slash had earmarked his collaboration with Ozzy Osbourne (a song called “Crucify the Dead”) as the first single from his forthcoming self-titled solo album, but the Gibson signature artist said this week that he has since nixed those plans.

There was concern, Slash said, that his single would detract attention from Osbourne’s own solo album, which will hit stores in June.

Slash told The Pulse of Radio, “The problem with this record is, because I do have all guest singers, you run the risk of, you know, getting singles rights and interfering with the release of other people’s records. So that’s really what the issue was, making sure that whatever single I was using wasn’t sort of stepping on the toes of that artist’s own record. And Ozzy’s got a new record coming out.”

Slash will feature collaborations with a number of high-profile artists, including Chris Cornell, Dave Grohl, Kid Rock, Fergie, Lemmy Kilmister, Iggy Pop and more. The album will be released April 6.

Instead of the Osbourne song, Slash has chosen “By the Sword” as his first single. Sung by Wolfmother’s Andrew Stockdale, the song can currently be heard on Slash’s MySpace page.

In addition to anticipating the release of his new Gibson Slash Appetite For Destruction Les Paul on April 1, Slash is at work on his world tour schedule for this year.

“I will have Europe, Japan and Australia dates to announce by next week,” he said in a MySpace blog on Monday. “South America, Mexico and U.S. dates will soon follow.”

Keith Richards has told Rolling Stone that The Rolling Stones might head into the studio this year, though no plans have been set in, ahem, stone.

“There’s no definite plans, but I can’t see any of them stopping,” Richards said in a phone interview. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we did some recording later this year.”

The band’s last studio album was 2005’s A Bigger Bang.

Richards also contemplated a new Stones tour, saying, “Maybe we’ll search for a different way for the Stones to go back on the road, maybe not the football stadiums anymore. Maybe something different. You can’t go around there in lemon-yellow tights forever.”

The 67-year-old guitarist also addressed talk that he and Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood had quit drinking together following Wood’s arrest on assault charges this past December.

“Listen, the rumors of my sobriety are greatly exaggerated,” Richards says. “And we’ll leave it at that.”

On May 18, The Rolling Stones will reissue their iconic Exile On Main Street (1972), which will include 10 previously unreleased tracks.

TheMetalDen.com has uncovered an original, isolated guitar track from the Ozzy Osbourne song “Crazy Train,” as performed by the late Randy Rhoads. The guitarist — a Les Paul loyalist — died tragically in a freak plane crash in 1982 at age 25, but not before building a lasting legacy with his electrifying guitar work.

Among his other contributions to the Osbourne catalog, Rhoads co-wrote the hit song “Crazy Train,” which appeared in 1980 on Osbourne’s first solo album (The Blizzard of Ozz).

Rhoads fans are going nuts over this Internet find, especially because it lets them listen in detail to the guitarist’s famous solo (rated the ninth best guitar solo of all time by 25 million Guitar World readers). Critics are also honing in to determine if the track was recorded in one or two takes, using one guitar — the 1972 Les Paul Custom he was primarily using at the time — or two.

“At first listen, the rhythm track might sound like one guitar in a stereo spread,” muses MusicRadar.com’s Joe Bosso. “Upon closer inspection, however, it could be two guitar performances as there are slight variations between the channels in the harmonics and the odd minor timing, not to mention different lengths of pick scrapes … Of course, this could be an illusion created by two different mics on the same amp/take being panned hard as different mics will pick up different harmonics. But to our ears it sounds like two very similar but separate takes.”

Decide for yourself. Listen to the track in its entirety here:

Dave Grohl dashed rumors that Foo Fighters were on hiatus, telling a Rolling Stone reporter Friday night at the Independent Spirit Awards that “Me and [Foos drummer] Taylor [Hawkins] have already started demoing songs.”

Grohl, who was a presenter at the awards ceremony, revealed that Foo Fighters’ seventh album will be produced by Butch Vig, the man behind Nirvana’s Nevermind, which celebrates its 20th anniversary next year.

“I think this could be our heaviest album yet,” Grohl said.

Also in the works is a Foos documentary that’s set to debut alongside the band’s new album; it will follow the album’s making and look back over the band’s 16-year history together.

Making a decided return to his garage band roots, Grohl said that Foo Fighters will record their album in Grohl’s garage in Encino, Calif. The Foo Fighters recorded their last two releases — Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007) and In Your Honor (2005) — at their own Studio 606 in Northridge, Calif.

Last month Hawkins told Spinner.com, “We’ve already got together and worked on a little bit of stuff, but very tenatively, just ideas. We’re just gonna take our time.”

“It would be hard for us to go a year without making music together,” Hawkins continued. “We have fun being together. That’s the whole trip — we still enjoy that, whether it’s a Neil Diamond cover or whatever. We still like to get in the jam room.”