_{There are two NI Rocks Shows each week on Rock Radio NI. These are the playlists for those shows for the month of January – all of which are still available from the On Demand Player. There are tracks by over 120 different artists on the Shows this month. Playlists for December were published previously and these Shows are also available via the On Demand Player – http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/news/rrni-updates/3276-ni-rocks-playlists-for-december-2017.html}

_{There were two guests on the Friday NI Rocks Show this month – Marco Mendoza (talking about his new solo album, The Dead Daisies and much more) and Toschie from Audrey Horne (talking about the new album). There were also a couple of promotional segments on the Shows featuring Zakk Wylde and Magnum.}

_{I didn’t know much about Norwegian based band Ammunition until they appeared amongst the upcoming Frontiers Music releases recently. When I saw that Erik Mårtensson of Eclipse and W.E.T. was part of the band I was rather keen to check out their self-titled album which was released via Frontiers on 26th January. The track “Freedom Finder” is included on the Friday NI Rocks Show this week.}

_{“Lione – Conti” is the debut album from a partnership between Italian vocalists Alessandro Conti and Fabio Lione and it was released via Frontiers Music on 26th January. It’s promoted by the label as an Italian version of the Allen / Lande partnership featuring vocalists Russell Allen and Jorn Lande and that seems a reasonable comparison. The track “Ascension” is included on the Friday NI Rocks Show this week.}

_{Delta Deep is a side project started by Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen back in 2012 and is described as “an extreme blues project”. They released their self-titled debut album in 2015, but that is being released by Frontiers Records on 26th January along with a new live album called “East Coast Live”. This is actually a recommendation therefore for two albums as both are very much worth checking out. I included the live version of “Down In The Delta” on the Friday NI Rocks Show this week.}

_{The Temperance Movement come to Belfast on 28th February 2018 to play a gig in The Empire Music Hall. The show is part of a European tour that commences on 19th February, just three days after the release of their latest album entitled “A Deeper Cut”. The album is released via Earache Records. The track “Caught In The Middle” is included on the Friday NI Rocks Show this week (uploaded 25th Jan).}

_{“Love Hate Conspiracies” is the new album from English rockers Blood Red Saints and it is released on 26th January on the AOR Heaven label. Singer Pete Godfrey was my guest on the Friday NI Rocks Show in December 2015 after the band released their debut album “Speedway”. This is a great follow-up to the debut album, and if anything is a little heavier, which when comes to the melodic rock genre, is generally a good thing. I included the track “Live & Die” on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 5th January and on the NI Rocks A-Z Show on 16th January.}

_{Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan was set to record vocals for hard rock band Bad Wolves’ cover of “Zombie” this past Monday, January 15th, the day of her tragic passing. On Friday the band released their version of “Zombie” in her memory, with proceeds going to O’Riordan’s three children.}

_{“It was the greatest honor to know she liked our version and wanted to sing on it,” says Bad Wolves singer Tommy Vext. “We’re deeply saddened by the sudden loss of Dolores and by the fact that she’s leaving behind three children so we are donating the proceeds from the song to her kids.”}

_{Def Leppard have announced a show in the SSE Arena, Belfast on 2nd December. This follows a show in Dublin the previous night and starts a 10 date UK tour during which they will be playing the “Hysteria” album in full. Tickets go on sale at 9am on 26th January. Support on the tour comes from Cheap Trick. This tour follows an extensive North American tour alongside Journey which was announced on the same day. The third announcement on Friday was that Def Leppard would be making all their music available via streaming and download platforms for the first time.}

_{On the same day that three of the biggest rock bands of the 80’s announced shows in Belfast (Def Leppard and Cheap Trick in the SSE Arena on 2nd Dec and Europe in the Ulster Hall on 11th Sept) there was an announcement that we finally had a release date for the debut album from a local band that formed way back in 1983. The self titled debut from No Hot Ashes will be released via Frontiers Music on 23rd March. The band had previously released the EP “Reunion” following their reformation in 2013.}

_{Vixen singer Janet Gardner was a guest on the Friday NI Rocks Show in July, talking about her new solo album. We wish her well and a speedy recovery from her recent emergency operation. She has just released a video for the track “Candle”. This was one of the tracks she chose to play on the Show and this is what she had to say about it –}

_{“The song “Candle” is the power ballad. I wrote that about a phase where a lot of people in my life passed away – both my parents within a few years of each other, Jan the original founding member of Vixen and lead guitarist passed away. There was just a whole bunch of that going on all at once. It was definitely therapeutic for me to put it in a song – my feelings; you don’t want to be selfish or keep people here that are not well or able to have a good life, but it’s hard to let go. That’s what that one is about.”}