An extremely eclectic lineup has been announced for this year’s Ottawa Blues Festival, and includes LMFAO, Norah Jones and Iron Maiden, among many others.

Now technically known as the RBC Royal Bank Bluesfest, the festival will be held in Ottawa from July 4-15. According to the official website of the festival, this year’s festival will be “Electrofied.”

Other notable acts playing the festival include Lauryn Hill, Skrillex, Mastodon, Alice Cooper, the Hold Steady, John Mellencamp, Seal, Billy Bragg and David Gray. Of course, the festival would not be complete without a slew of Canadian artists. This year’s local artists include Nickelback, Metric, K’naan, City and Colour and Weeknd.

This year’s festival will go “cashless,” which means festival goers will receive a “Bluesband” that can be charged with money and can be used like a debit card while at the festival. Funds on the bands that remain unused at the end of the festival will be refunded.

Last year’s Ottawa Bluesfest was marred by a stage collapse caused by a wind storm while Cheap Trick played the festival. Fortunately no one was killed in the incident, though five injuries were reported, and one was serious. Speaking to CTV news, Bluesfest executive Mark Monahan addressed the issue and said that the festival has hired an “independent engineer” from Toronto that specializes in outdoor structures.

“[The engineer] is going to be giving us sort of a stamp of approval on all the setup for the infrastructures in the park,” Monahan said. He added that an independent weather service will provide “very accurate” weather updates throughout the festival.

A Canadian Ministry of Labour investigation into the incident is currently under review by lawyers. After the review, it will be determined if any legal action will be taken concerning the incident. There is as of yet no word on how long the review will take.

Milwaukee’s annual Summerfest is celebrating its 45^th anniversary this year, and organizers have announced a partial lineup for this year’s event.

The festival was proclaimed the “World’s Largest Music Festival” by the Guinness Book of World Records in 1999, and it just may also have one of the most eclectic lineups of any festival. Though there have been a few performers already announced for the festival, a far more extensive lineup was released yesterday, and includes big names like Neil Diamond, Lady Antebellum and Iron Maiden.

Exact set dates and times will be released in a future announcement, but the festival itself will take place from June 27 – July 1 and July 3-8. A partial list of the other notable names that will play the festival this year include the Beach Boys, the Zac Brown Band, the Avett Brothers, Atmosphere, Steve Miller Band, Common, Cake, Gary Clark, Jr., Head and the Heart, MuteMath and Gavin DeGraw. More artists will be announced in the future.

There seems to be something for everyone at the festival, and music fans have multiple options when it comes to buying tickets. General admission tickets are $14 a day, with weekday admission at a discounted $7. Three day passes run $36 while fans can opt to purchase a full 11 day pass for just $45.

Summerfest’s official website offers more details about the festival:

Each year for 11 days, Henry Maier Festival Park comes alive with music from today’s hottest stars, regional favorites and emerging talent. The 23,000 capacity Marcus Amphitheater and 11 additional stages host over 700 bands, while fans can also enjoy over 40 diverse food and beverage vendors and four unique marketplaces. Set against the scenic Lake Michigan and downtown Milwaukee backdrops, Summerfest delivers a setting and experience like no other! Let’s Fest!

Also known, appropriately, as “The Big Gig,” the festival typically attracts between 800,000 and 1 million people each year.

Iron Maiden will spend most of this summer on the road in North America, and they’re bringing Alice Cooper and Coheed and Cambria along for the ride.

The tour will kick off in Charlotte, N.C. on June 21 and will continue through August 18, when it will conclude in Houston. In all, there will be 29 shows on the tour, and Alice Cooper will provide support on all dates through July 21, and Coheed and Cambria will meet up with the tour then. Other cities the tour will hit include Atlanta, Washington D.C., Chicago, Quebec, Toronto, Detroit, San Francisco, Denver and Dallas.

Dubbed the “Maiden England World Tour,” the tour will resemble, in both production and song selection, the 1988 concert video, “Maiden England.” Frontman Bruce Dickinson explains on the official Iron Maiden website why the group wants to recreate that tour.

“We have great fun playing the “History of Maiden” tours because it gives us an opportunity between new albums to go out and play songs from our earlier catalog,” he said. “It’s always fantastic seeing the crowd reactions from a new generation of fans who have never experienced some of these tracks performed live before, and of course we know our longstanding fans will enjoying seeing the original “Seventh Son Tour” revisited – with many surprises.”

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was the band’s seventh album, released in 1988, and the tour for that album resulted in the “Maiden England” video. Iron Maiden hasn’t released a studio album since 2010’s The Final Frontier.

Later in the statement, Dickinson reveals what attendees can expect to hear on the new tour.

“Our intention is to play about two thirds of the original track list of “Maiden England,” including some songs we have not played live in a very, very long time, plus other favorites we just know the fans are going to want to hear!”

Rock metal icons Tony Iommi, Nicko McBrain, Jon Lord and Ian Gillan – members from bands Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Iron Maiden – are joining forces for a charity single that will help them raise funds to rehabilitate an Armenian music school.  The track is reported to carry the title “Out of My Mind”.

The rock icons wanted to help Armenian youngsters receive formal musical training through the said school which was originally built through the efforts of Ian Gillan and Tony Iommi.  However, the current establishment, which was severely affected by the recent earthquake that struck the nation, was no longer serving its purpose and a rebuilding or rehabilitation was deemed necessary.

Aside from Iommi and Gillan, David Gilmour from The Rolling Stones, Chris Squire and Bruce Dickinson also took part in the foundation of the music school which they managed to do by releasing the charity single “Smoke on the Water” which was aimed at funding Armenian communities in their rehabilitative efforts amidst the devastating effects of the earthquake.

When Bruce Dickinson, lead vocalist of heavy metal punk band Iron Maiden, is not rocking in the recording studio or banging heads with his band mates in front of thousands of their fans, he is busy taking flight, and we meant that literally.

A seasoned pilot, Dickinson now plays a vital role not only in the aviation industry per se, but in the corporate aspect of the said industry as well, as the singer has just been promoted as marketing director of one of the leading charter airlines in London, Astraeus.  The airline is based in London’s Gatwick Airport.

The Guardian spoke to the airline’s chief commercial officer Shaun Monnery and praised Dickinson’s grace under pressure, whether as a pilot, the head of the company’s marketing department or in commanding the legion of Iron Maiden fans in a concert.  “In a demanding industry he is a man who can cope with pressure…Whether as a 757 captain or in front of 50,000 Iron Maiden fans, or senior airline and aviation managers,” Monnery said.

Everyone thought that iconic rockers Iron Maiden will finally give themselves a well-deserved rest, even band leader Steve Harris gave Maiden an ultimatum of 15 releases then it’s over.

Then “The Final Frontier”, Maiden’s 15th album, was released and it garnered positive reviews from critics and fans alike.  So much so that now, the rock vets will hit the road again to further the reach of the said album, since their most recent tour, “Somewhere Back in Time” two years ago only featured one track from the said album, “El Dorado”.

“We’ll carry on as long as we’re having fun”, says vocalist Bruce Dickinson in an interview with English tabloid, The Sun.  He even adds that whenever they all treat every tour as if it were their last, by the time the tour ends, they all mumble “is this is?” in despair.  Seems like the boys could just not get enough of the thrill and joy touring brings, and how it motivates them to finally collect all of their greatest hits and place it in one great repertoire for a “greatest hits” road show.

“We should be looking at a big resumé tour – an unashamed tour with all the greatest hits”, Dickinson adds as he refers to the band’s plan to embark on such a huge tour feat after wrapping up “The Final Frontier” album tour.

When asked on what makes Iron Maiden tick even after more three decades of creating rock-hard music, Dickinson simply puts it that they have always given their fans “what they want” – directness, simplicity, honesty and no beating around the bushes – simply put, they are not sell-outs.  “You won’t find any rock star extravagance backstage” the singer adds.

Iron Maiden makes a huge comeback at the charts with their 15th release to date, “The Final Frontier” toppling over Eminem’s comeback release “Recovery” at the peak of this week’s album charts.

It has been almost 20 years since the British rock heavyweights have nailed the top spot in the album charts with their 1992 release “Fear of the Dark”.  Maiden’s  “The Final Frontier” proves that these guys still has the wits to turn an album into a chart-topper and a critically acclaimed record especially with its 11-minute closing cut “When the Wild Wind Blows”, which is a tribute to “When the Wind Blows”, the popular graphic novel created by Raymond Briggs.

Meanwhile, the rest of the album charts this week saw a handful of unexpected new entries and a remarkable long-standing entry – 100 weeks old long – from Kings of Leon’s fourth release “Only by the Night”.  This week’s highest new entry belongs to all-female quintet The Saturdays with their mini-LP “Headlines” at number three.

The Hoosiers snagged the no.10 spot in the list with their sophomore set “The Illusion of Safety”, a ranking which is nine spots lower than what their debut set, “The Trick to Life” has achieved in 2007.

Other new titles in the charts include those from Andy Burrows a.k.a I Am Arrows at no.38, the folk tandem of Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell at no.29 and the album from Irish artist David Gray at no.18.

As for the top 40 singles, the top five includes “Beautiful Monster” by Ne-Yo at no.5, “We Speak No Americano” by Yolanda B Cool at no.4, last week’s chart-topper “Club Can’t Handle Me” by Flo Rida and David Guetta down two spots to no.3, “Love the Way You Lie” by Eminem and Rihanna at no.2 two weeks in a row and topping this week’s list is “Green Light” by Roll Deep.

The top 40 also saw the entry of three new tracks to the list: “Let You Go” by Chase and Status at no.11, “Amazing” by Inna at no.14 and “Say You Don’t Want It” by One Night Only at no. 23 which has a video featuring Emma Watson of “Harry Potter” fame who was rumored to be dating the band’s lead vocalist George Craig after the they met in a Burberry ad campaign.

Iron Maiden, the heavy rock band, got to have an experience that was out of this world, when they visited Texas’ NASA  Space Center.

The rockers launched the band’s Final Frontier Tour in Dallas on June 10.  While in Texas they accepted an official invitation for touring the Houston facility.

Michael J. Massimino, an astronaut, gave the band a guided tour.  They saw a space shuttle up close and took turns using the flight simulator at the institute.

Singer Bruce Dickinson said he was thrilled with their visit to the Space Center and thanked NASA officials for their hospitality.

Dickinson said, it seems we have lots of fans at NASA. It was a pleasure meeting some of them, in particular someone who’s a bonafide astronaut that’s made space walks.  Michael showed us the shuttle and space station and an up close view of the Saturn V rocket.  There were even fans who work inside their mission control room who put up band pictures on the big screens that usually show the rocket taking off.

All of got to be on the simulator and fly the space shuttle and land.  It was really thrilling.  We are very fortunate and hope our fans at NASA and Michael enjoyed our show in Houston as much as we did visiting them.

Massimino said the visit from the band was an honor and gave the whole NASA team a huge morale boost.

Iron Maiden is making their song “El Dorado” free as an MP3 download ahead of “The Final Frontier,” the band’s 15th studio album.  The Europe release date is August 16th.  Artwork is also available for the song.

Singer Bruce Dickinson said, “El Dorado” previews our upcoming studio album.  It will be included in our “Final Frontier World Tour” set.  We thought about how great it would be to thank our fans as well as get them ready for “The Final Frontier” by giving this song away before the tour and release of the album.

Recording the album was the band’s nod to their past.  They reunited with Kevin Shirley, producer, and recorded the set in Compass Point Studios, the studio where they also recorded “Somewhere In Time,” “Powerslave,” and “Piece of Mind.”  Dickinson said, the studio had that exact same vibe.  It was just like 1983, exactly.  Nothing had changed.  There was the same carpet, the same broken shutter sitting in the corner.  It was very spooky.  We did feel very relaxed in that well-trodden and familiar environment.  It shows with our playing I think and the album’s atmosphere.

Metal outfit Iron Maiden will be spending their summer sunning in North America supporting their upcoming release entitled “The Final Frontier.” The band will launch the effort on June 9 in Dallas, Texas and run through July 20 closing up shop in Bristow, Virginia. For full Iron Maiden tour dates, checkout the listing below.

Tickets for the upcoming concert dates go onsale on March 20 for US residents and the Canadians get a stab at them a week earlier on March 13. Prog-rock group has been recruited to provide musical support on the upcoming tour.

Iron Maiden is putting the finishing touches on their latest album “The Final Frontier.” The release marks their 15th album and first since 2006s “A Matter of Life and Death.” It is due for release in late-summer. Last year, Iron Maiden released a documentary “Iron Maiden: Flight 666” that mapped the band’s 2008 tour. The film took home the “24 Beats per Second” award in the category of Best Documentary at last year’s SXSW Film Festival.

2010 Iron Maiden Concert Tour
June 2010
9 – Dallas, TX – Superpages.com Center
11 – The Woodlands, TX – The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
12 – San Antonio, TX – AT&T Center
14 – Englewood, CO – Comfort Dental Amphitheatre
16 – Albuquerque, NM – The Pavilion
17 – Phoenix, AZ – Cricket Wireless Pavilion
19 – Devore, CA – San Manuel Amphitheater
20 – Concord, CA – Sleep Train Pavilion at Concord
22 – Auburn, WA – White River Amphitheatre
24 – Vancouver, British Columbia – General Motors Place
26 – Edmonton, Alberta – Rexall Place
29 – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan – Credit Union Centre
30 – Winnipeg, Manitoba – MTS Centre

July 2010
3 – Toronto, Ontario – The Molson Amphitheatre
7 – Montreal, Quebec – Bell Centre
11 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center
12 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden Arena
14 – Burgettstown, PA – First Niagara Pavilion
15 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Blossom Music Center
17 – Clarkston, MI – DTE Energy Music Theatre
18 – Tinley Park, IL – First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
20 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live