I haven't received a confirmation about this information, so please consider this a rumor until it is confirmed or denied!
According to the latest reports, Dio's next album should be called Magica and it should be out in October 1999. No song titles have been announced yet, but the album should be a concept piece and return to the classic Dio style. The album will be recorded at Rumbo Studios and is going to be produced by Ronnie himself. The record label will be Spitfire Records and they're going to reissue both Angry Machines and Inferno: The Last In Live to coincide with the Magica release.
The line-up for Dio will be Ronnie on vocals and Tracy G on guitars, Jeff Pilson on bass. The drummer will be a new face in Dio, Aynsley Dunbar. Scott Warren will continue behind the keyboards.
There have been rumors that Ronnie would appear on Nikolo Kotsev's next album, but supposedly because of Ronnie's busy schedule with the next Dio album and summer tour, Ronnie won't be able to do it.
Dio plays at a few rock festivals around Europe in the summer. The forthcoming dates can be found here. Other bands at those festivals include for example Deep Purple, Manowar, Motorhead, Scorpions and W.A.S.P.
The Japanese version of Gamma Ray's newest album, Powerplant, has a cover of Rainbow's Long Live Rock 'N' Roll.
The ex-Dio guitarist Vivian Campbell supposedly plays on a song called "Don't Look Down" on the forthcoming Graham Bonnet album.
Def Leppard with Vivian Campbell is going to release a new album this summer and start touring in late June.
While recording The Last In Line for the forthcoming Dio tribute album, Iced Earth decided that things just weren't clicking like they wanted them to, so they scrabbed the whole idea.
Current status of the Dio Tribute Album can be found here.
Some sources claim that Primal Fear is going to do Kill The King for the forthcoming Rainbow Tribute album.
The remastered Rainbow CDs should finally be released by the end of April in the USA. They were originally scheduled for March 23rd, 1999.
There are some rumors floating around that Ronnie James Dio would join Black Sabbath at Sabbath's last-ever gig in Los Angeles in July. Those are only rumors, at least I haven't heard any even remotely official source mentioning anything about that and I really believe this is just another rumor.
Black Sabbath is going to headline this year's Ozzfest tour in the USA.
Ritchie Blackmore's current project, Blackmore's Night, is going to release their new album soon. The album will be called Under A Violet Moon.
According to Tony Webster, http://www.en.com/users/tw/, Helloween's drummer Uli Kusch has organized a Rainbow tribute album. It's track listing should be the following:
The following musicians are behind this album:
The release date for the album is currently unknown. The record label, however, will be again Century Media.
Dio will play two gigs in Russia in early March: March 4th at Youbileyey Concert Hall in St. Petersburg and March 5th on Monsters of Rock festivals at Olympijskij in Moscow. The Moscow gig should feature a bunch of Russian bands and both of these gigs may have Yngwie J. Malmsteen on the bill as well. Dio's lineup include Ronnie on vocals (Surprise;-), Tracy G on guitars, Bob Daisley on bass, Simon Wright on drums and Scott Warren on keyboards.
Check out the Dio Tribute Album news page here. I'll put there updates about the project every time I hear something new.
Dio's guitarist from Lock Up The Wolves album and tour, Rowan Robertson, is nowadays in a band called Vast. They're going to do a US tour shortly, here are the tour dates:
Mar 3 1999 9:00PM VAST MASON JAR PHOENIX AZ
Mar 5 1999 8:00PM VAST WHISKY HOLLYWOOD CA
Mar 12 1999 10:00PM VAST CROCODILE CAFE SEATTLE WA
Mar 18 1999 6:30PM VAST METRO CHICAGO IL
Mar 19 1999 6:00PM VAST SAINT ANDREWS HALL DETROIT MI
Mar 20 1999 9:00PM VAST MAIN EVENT TOLEDO OH
Mar 21 1999 7:00PM VAST NEWPORT MUSIC HALL COLUMBUS OH
Mar 23 1999 7:30PM VAST CHAMELEION CLUB HARRISBURG PA
Mar 25 1999 8:00PM UMBILICAL BROTHERS IN THWAK WESTBETH THEATRE
NEW YORK NY
Mar 28 1999 8:00PM VAST MASQUERADE ATLANTA GA
Blind Guardian has recorded a cover of Don't Talk To Strangers for the forthcoming Dio tribute album. For more information about this project, please read further on this page.
Iced Earth are going to do The Last In Line on the forthcoming Dio tribute album. For more information about the tribute album, please read further this page.
There is a Dio cover band based in Rhode Island, USA. They're called HolyDiver and they've got a gig in Providence, RI on February 12th. For more information, check out Genady Perchenko's excellent Dio pages at address http://www.angen.net/~diofan/.
Cozy Powell tribute album is in the works at the moment. The album will feature for example Ritchie Blackmore and Neil Murray and it should be out on May 1st, 1999.
Rumors tell that the first four Rainbow albums (Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Rising, On Stage and Long Live Rock 'N' Roll) will be released as remastered versions on March 23rd. No idea about the record company or even where those albums will be released yet.
Simon Wright, who rejoined Dio on the "To Hull And Back? 1998" world tour, is going to play drums also on the next Dio album. The album has a working title, but it hasn't been announced yet. The album is expected to be out some time around October 1999-February 2000.
Elf's reunion news look good - they're going to record an album and do some touring after both their and Dio's albums have been released.
Humanary Stew - A Tribute To Alice Cooper has finally been released at least in the Europe. European release date was January 25th, even though some record stores started to sell this earlier than that. The US release should've been released a day later, on January 26th. Ronnie James Dio sings the song Welcome To My Nightmare on the album.
From "the Ronnie James Dio family" the album also features Bob Daisley on bass (School's Out) and Carmine Appice on drums (No More Mr. Nice Guy).
On the forthcoming Dio tribute album, Fates Warning will be doing a cover the Black Sabbath song Falling Off The Edge Of The World off the Mob Rules album.
Ex-Dio drummer Vinny Appice is currently back-up drummer for Black Sabbath on Sabbath's current reunion tour. If Sabbath's drummer Bill Ward won't be able to play, Vinny will step in. Vinny left Dio on May 22nd, 1998 to help Black Sabbath on their European tour as Bill Ward had a heart attack.
Vinny Appice hurt his leg at some point on the Black Sabbath tour, so it looks like he won't be playing there.
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Rising, On Stage and Long Live Rock 'N' Roll albums have been digitally remastered and re-released in miniature LP cardboard sleeves in Japan. These have been limited to the initial pressing only.
Simon Wright is going to play drums on UFO's forthcoming album. The release date for the album is currently unknown. It is unknown as well, whether Simon will return back to Dio after the UFO album has been finished.
There are rumors about a possible Dio tour in Russia and Turkey around early March. Moscow gig could be on March 5th. No official word has been mentioned yet.
New Dio album is tentatively scheduled to be released by late 1999. The band is supposed to start working on it already early this year. No further information about it is available yet, except that it might be a concept album.
Ronnie's band from early 1970s, Elf, is probably going to reunite. Ronnie and his cousin David "Rock" Feinstein have already done some demos together and keyboardist Mickey Lee Soule is also interested in the project. They're thinking about recording an album, but I've no idea whether they'll tour after the album release.
Dio's European record company, SPV, is working on a Dio tribute album. The organizer is the editor of the German metal magazine Rock Hard. The track listing is mostly unknown at the moment, but it should feature Egypt (The Chains Are On) sung by Doro Pesch (ex-Warlock singer).
Alice Cooper's tribute album will be titled Humanary Stew. Ronnie will sing the song Welcome To My Nightmare on it. The album is finally scheduled to be released in February, 1999. The full track listing can be found here.
Aerosmith's tribute album is also in the works. Ronnie is probably going to sing the song Dream On on it. At the moment I've got no idea when this will be out, possibly later on this year. The record company is Cleopatra Records.
Ronnie is supposedly going to sing the song Mother Mary on the forthcoming UFO tribute album.
The young guitarist from the Lock Up The Wolves album and tour, Rowan Robertson, has a new band called Vast. At the moment it is unknown whether they've released anything yet. Rowan was a little while in a band called Violet Demise and recorded an album with them, but the record company decided not to release it.
Artist called Bunny Brunel released a new album on November 20th, 1998 on Shrapnel Records, titled L.A. Zoo. Bunny Brunel plays bass, ex-Dio guitarist (1982-1986) Vivian Campbell plays guitars, Brian Auger keyboards and John Wackerman drums. Special guest appearances by Ray Gomez and Mike Stern.
This page is maintained by Tapio Keihänen,
E-mail: dio@iki.fi.
The page has been updated on 03.05.1999
URL: http://www.dio.net/news/archive.html,
the front page http://www.dio.net/.