I cannot believe I missed this announcement of Yes on tour in the UK, Yes just happen to be my favourite band alongside Simple Minds.

The line up is without Jon Anderson on vocals, which given his health problems and the reason for the previous cancellation of the tour, it is not surprising. His role has been taken over by David Benoit and has erringly similar unique vocals of Jon, which I am sure will not disappoint the the Yes officialdom, check out the video below.

Jon is of course a lot better and is on tour in his own right at the moment, I assume due to other commitments making it impossible to do the Yes tour this year.

The other missing from the line up is the awesome Rick Wakeman on keyboards, who managed to get a heart attack in his 40’s, no mean achievement in itself. In his case it will be his son Oliver Wakeman taking over the keyboards.

Other than that the group is made up of Steve Howe Chris Squire and Alan White for me the original and the best.

I of course will be hoping to make it to see them at the Apollo in Manchester on Sunday 22nd November at 2009 – 7.30pm tickets can be bought here

At the forefront of Canada’s nu-rock movement, Nickelback mix grungey guitars with emo-style angst to produce a mature, emotional and damn powerful sound. With their debut album ‘Silver Side Up’ a huge seller on both sides of the Atlantic and debut single ‘How You Remind Me’ already a rock anthem, world domination beckons

They will be preforming on Friday 22nd May 2009 – 7.30pm at the MEN Arena on my birthday would you believe! Anyway tickets are available from here.

In all honesty I do not know too much about the band but the video below should give you a feel

Blur of Britpop fame, were one of the biggest band of the nineties, with songs such as There’s No Other Way, Country House, Girls And Boys, Song 2 and Parklife decorating their enormous back catalogue. Blur are one of the few bands of the era who have managed to both maintain their status and move with the times, thereby giving an incredible mix of music.

So after a short period of the band members doing their own thing, they have got together with Coxon for their 2009 tour and it should be a good one.

You can see them at the MEN Arena on Friday 26th June and the tickets are available from here.

This Northern Irish and Scottish Alternative rock band should feel comfortable at the MEN Arena. One of their most well know songs was Signal Fire which featured and written for Spider-man 3 and reached number 4 in the UK charts.

have been nominated for three BRIT Awards and have won five Meteor Ireland Music Awards. Worldwide, the band have sold over 7 million albums.

The band will be preforming on the 7th March and tickets will be available from here and I am sure they will be playing the critically acclaimed Chasing Cars, video below.

I always impressed when non mainstream alternative rock band come over from the states to try there hand in the UK and good luck to them I say.

They are from Chicago and have had some success to date with a short career starting in 2001 and having already been Grammy nominated.

Personally I do not know too much about the band but some of you may recognise the video below or maybe you remember the one with the monkeys (the primates not the band!)

The will be proforming at the MEN Arena on Thursday 5th March and tickets are available from here