NEWS DIGEST: Friday, August 10

10:10 AM GMT 10/10/2008

Guns N' Roses' long-awaited Chinese Democracy is to be released in the US on November 23. Although, don't hold your breath - this is not the first time the album has been scheduled to appear.

After a mammoth 18-year gestation period, Axl Rose has reportedly stopped tinkering with the project he began soon after the original members of the band packed their bags in 1993.

Ahead of the release, a new track, Shackler's Revenge, will premiere via the Rock Band 2 video game, while If The World - another song featured on the album - will soundtrack the closing credits of Ridley Scott's next movie Body of Lies.

A vinyl-only re-issue of the band's classic 1987 debut, Appetite For Destruction, will also appear at the end of November.

Rufus Wainwright's first opera, Prima Donna, is to premiere in Manchester in July 2009. There are five performances scheduled, the first due to take place on July 10. Tickets are available now from www.mif.co.uk.

Trust Brian Eno. The ambient producer and former art-rocker has found a way to transform the iPhone into a musical instrument. Following a venture into video game soundtracking, Eno’s latest creation with Peter Chilvers is an iPhone application called Bloom - released by iTunes this week. Phone users touch different points on the screen to produce varying sounds and create a pattern. Goodbye to the days of making self-produced albums in your bedroom, hello to the future of masterpieces made on the bus to work.

Elsewhere, a biopic charting the life of Louis Armstrong is set to go into production next summer with Oscar winner, Forest Whittaker playing the lead role of the inimitable jazz legend . What A Wonderful World will also be directed by Whitaker, who recently told Variety: “Armstrong left a monumental mark on our lives and our culture. He lived an amazing life and, through his art, shifted the way music was played and would be heard after him, not just here in the U.S. but all over the world."

And finally...Happy Birthday David Lee Roth! The stretchy Van Halen frontman is celebrating 53 years on the planet today.

Here he is Runnin' With The Devil...

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 10:10 AM GMT 10/10/2008

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