More Than 12,000 Bands Compete for Your Vote as Part of the Hard Rock Rising Global Battle of the Bands

Orlando, Fla., January 25, 2012 – You vote – They Rock! Hard Rock Rising gives fans the power to decide who performs at Hard Rock Cafes worldwide as the battle of the bands gears up for the local, live music phase of the competition. More than 12,000 bands have entered the Hard Rock Rising competition for the chance of a lifetime, to be on the bill with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and additional headlining performers at Hard Rock Calling 2012 in London.

The Rise of a Local Legend
Beginning on Wednesday, January 25, 2012, Hard Rock Rising allows fans to choose the live performance lineup for local events at Hard Rock Cafes around the world. Fans can vote by downloading free tracks from bands of their choice at their local Hard Rock’s city-specific, Facebook page.

After fans choose their favorites, participating Hard Rock Cafe locations around the world will host a series of live competitions featuring the local bands who received top votes. Bands will then be judged live by a panel of local industry experts and participating bands’ representatives, with one winner being selected from each location. For full rules and a list of participating locations visit www.hardrock.com/hrrising.

“At Hard Rock live music is at the core of our brand, in 2011 we put on more than 17,000 live music events across our properties,” said John Galloway, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Hard Rock International. “We are privileged be able to offer the hottest up-and-coming bands a chance to showcase their talent on our local cafes stages and the shot to play at Hard Rock Calling 2012.”

Hard Rock Cafe Oslo recently had the amazing, awesome, and incredible honor of hosting a pre-party and after-party for the one and only Motörhead! The guys were in town for a show, naturally, and, as always, were looking for a cool place to hang out, have some beers, jam a little, and meet some great people. HRC Oslo has that in spades, so it, of course, is the place for Lemmy, Mikkey, and Phil.

As it turns out, Victory Motorcycles had a little present for the guys, too. Well, actually, three presents, one for each of 'em: a custom Victory motorcycle. Man, it must be nice to be a rock star! We heard that the guys hung out until after 4 in the morning, carousing and having a good ol' time. We wish we coulda been there. We got these pics, though, so we wanted to share them with you, so that you, along with us, can live vicariously through them and pretend that you were having a beer with Lemmy and listening to them jam all night long at Hard Rock Cafe.

The Signature Series T-Shirt line started as a means for musicians and artists to collaborate with Hard Rock, in an effort to raise awareness and funds for deserving charities. Hard Rock International honors legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix with the launch of the brand's Jimi Hendrix Signature Series: Edition 29 pin and T-shirt, featuring a visual representation of the music legend's most recognizable songs, conceived by Hendrix himself and relayed to Alan Aldridge, famed artist and creator of the iconic Hard Rock Cafe logo.

The limited-edition merchandise will be available in stores and the Online Rock Shop, with 15% of the retail price of both the pin and t-shirt benefiting The Fender Music Foundation and The Jimi Hendrix Park Foundation. The Jimi Hendrix Park Foundation is raising funds for a park in Seattle that will motivate youth and others to achieve in music and art. The Fender Music Foundation provides resources for music programs across America, so that kids and adults alike will have an opportunity to experience the joys of music.

01.18: To tell yet another little tale from the days of disco, we bring you the soaring and sad tale of one Studio 54, perhaps the most famous club in the history of NYC. Every time you watch a documentary about disco or about New York in the late '70s, you hear about Studio 54, about its bacchanalian days of sex, drugs, celebrities, and disco, about the hordes of people attempting entry into its maw, into its pleasure-filled space. Opened in 1977, the club became an immediate hit with celebrities, jet-setters, and ordinary people alike. When Bianca Jagger (Mick's then-wife) rode through the club on a white horse for her 32nd birthday, people wanted a piece of that, wanted to be there just in case they might see something like that, wanted to be a part of something bigger than anything else New York City had to offer at the time. Well, besides the rise of punk at CBGB in the West Village or hip-hop in the Bronx, but those are two entirely different stories, kids, and those two movements, which would leave far more of an impression than disco could ever dream of, received far less press and media attention than the drug-fueled insanity of Studio 54 and disco. Imagine that. Something real and based in human emotion being trumped in the media by a hyped-up seen-and-be-seen flash-in-the-pan party. But we digress. On this day in 1980, disco's beating heart seized and collapsed when the owners of Studio 54 were sent to prison for 3½ years, though they only served 13 months, for tax evasion. The club failed to survive their loss. They'd been skimming off the top for years, failing to pay taxes on much of the club's profit, and the IRS eventually came a callin', especially after Steven Rubell, the face of the club, repeatedly boasted in the press about how much money the operation pulled in. Not smart, Steven, not smart at all. The building was sold in 1981 and reopened under the Studio 54 moniker, but nothing could touch the debaucherous good times oft told about the original incarnation.

01.19: Janis, Janis, Janis…..what have you done to us? Janis Lyn Joplin, you totally captured our soul with your bourbon-and-cigarette-soaked voice, your hippy-dippy ways, with "Me and Bobby McGee." Then, you ripped out our heart with your self-destructive ways, your thirsty liver. That doesn't mean, though, that we won't celebrate your life whenever we get the chance. Like today, for instance. On this day in 1943, your presence on Earth became reality and we just wanted to wish you a happy birthday. We wish we could do it in person. You'd be 69 today. That woulda been awesome. Alas, 'twas not to be. Like all the greats who have gone away, however, we're thankful for what you left us, for those songs we can throw on anytime, remembering the musical goddess that walked amongst us.

"I have a dream...

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

that all are created equal."

- Martin Luther King Jr. (excerpt quote)

ALL IS ONE.

01.09: Songbird Joan Baez flew into this world, and into, eventually, many a dirty hippy's heart, on this day in 1941. While her music and words are held in high esteem by many within the music community, many consider them to be fluff and her delivery to be grating. We dig her. Nuff said on that. We're celebrating another birthday today, as well, and we totally dig the fratastic stylings of one Mr. David John "Dave" Matthews who danced, very goofily, we might add, into this plane of existence on this day in 1967, in a little town known as Johannesburg, South Africa. Yeah, we know, it's not cool, in many music circles, to like Dave Matthews Band, but we do, so nanny, nanny, boo, boo, and get over yourself.

01.09: Jimmy Page. That's it. Jimmy Page. The man, the myth, the guitar god joined us on this plane of existence on this day in 1944. He probably joined us from some far off land, where guitars are the only means of communication, where he was the finest orator in all the land, holding sway over the masses, bidding them do as wished. Kinda like he does here on Earth, too, as a matter of fact. Being that he makes his guitar sing, that he brought a new, sometimes-ethereal dimension to the blues and to rock, alike, Jimmy Page is one of the most influential guitar players of all time. With Led Zeppelin, he brought the blues to arenas and stadiums the world over. Not an easy task, to say the least. Taking a music genre that'd been born in the backwoods of rural America and bringing it to the world, bringing it the the fore of music in the '70s, Jimmy and Led Zeppelin led the rock dominance of that decade. Most guitarists, whether they know it or not, from the late '60s on, have been influenced by his mammoth playing, his epic sweeps around the the auditory canal. Yeah, we said it. Auditory canal. He totally rocks ours, and we are thankful for his presence in music, in rock, in the blues, and in life. Happy birthday, Jimmy!

We've said it before, and we'll say it forever, Hard Rock likes to have a good time. You now what's even better than having a good time? When we are joined by friends and fun people in our good times. And music helps, too. And great food. Music + great food + fun people = good times! We might've stumbled onto something there. You know where you can find that equation in full effect? Hard Rock on New Year's Eve! (Well, anytime, really, but especially NYE.)

This year, Hard Rocks around the globe were joined by some of the coolest people in the world, helping us ring in 2012 in style. We just wanted to share a few pictures with you from some of those Hard Rock's around the globe. Just remember when December 2012 rolls around that Hard Rock is the place you want to be when that clock strikes midnight and the calendar rocks and rolls into a new year.

01.02: On this day in 1978, Ozzy Osbourne rejoined Black Sabbath. Wait, what? When did Ozzy leave Black Sabbath? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? We’ve got the answer to that conundrum, kids, so fear not. You’ll be sleeping well tonight in the knowledge that Ozzy had left the band in fall of ’77, tired of the whole band thing, tired of the routine. He just wanted his own routine. You know, sleeping late, drinking all day, getting high on goofballs all night. Ah, the life of a rock star. So, Ozzy took off for a couple of months, leaving the other guys in the studio without a singer. Bummer. What to do? Well, they hired another singer and got to work writing an album. Of course, when Ozzy showed back up on their doorstep a few months later, they got rid of the interim singer they’d hired in his stead and let Ozzie back in the band. Over the next five months, they recorded their seventh album, Never Say Die!, which was fairly well received in the U.K. and pretty much landed with a thud in the U.S. The band officially fired Ozzy a year later, after the poor album performance, the escalation of Ozzy’s every-increasing addictions, and a lazy world tour, during which a new band of hard rocking kids opening for them, somebody called Van Halen, showed up Sabbath up at every stop. Don’t worry about Ozzy or the guys, though. Ozzy went on to amazing solo success (thanks to his new guitar player, the incredible Randy Rhoads), and Sabbath took a new singer and a new direction when the Hobbit of heavy metal, Ronnie James Dio, joined the band and they put out the phenomonal Heaven and Hell. Ah, we love a happy ending.

12.26: On this day in 1963, Napster’s arch nemesis and Metallica’s beat maker, Lars Ulrich, was born. As one of the founding members of the biggest thrash metal band of all time and, perhaps, the biggest metal band of all time, Lars' career of the past 30 years is quite different from his intended career: tennis player. Believe it. Lars "Drummer For The Biggest Metal Band In The World" Ulrich wanted to be a tennis player. Now, to put this in context, Lars' dad Torben was a professional tennis player in Europe, so the thought of Lars yearning to reach the top of the tennis world isn't entirely out of the realm of reality, but we're kind of glad that he instead gravitated toward the world of metal instead, eventually hooking up with one Mr. James Hetfield, via a classified ad in a musician magazine, and the rest, as they so often say, is rockin' awesome history.

12.19: On this day, the Kiss Army celebrates the birth of one of its generals. Peter Criss, the cat's meow behind the Kiss drum kit, was born George Peter John Criscuola today in 1947 in Brooklyn, New York. Beginning his love of music with jazz, Criss moved on to rock, eventually placing an ad, after stints in a few different bands, in the back of Rolling Stone, extolling his skills as a pounder of skins, which elicited a call from a couple of fellow NY lads by the name of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. With the formation of Kiss in December of 1972 came gobs of wacked-out makeup, rock 'n' rollin' all night, and the theme song for every Beth in the world. "Beth" became, and remains, Kiss' biggest hit. Peter was the only member of the band in the recording studio for that song. "Beth" is Peter Criss and wouldn't exist without him. While his first stint in Kiss only lasted until 1980, his work in the group's canon is yet held in high regards by the army of followers, old and new alike.

12.21: Frank Zappa, one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, was born on this day in 1940. His influence among musicians is as widespread as the ignorance of his work amongst most other people. From Black Sabbath (the progenitors of heavy metal) to John Frusciante (red hot guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers), from Bill Frisell (modern jazz composer) to George Clinton (latter and modern day funk master), from his son Dweezil to his daughter Moon Unit, Zappa's prodigious influence continues to be explored, 18 years after his death. The month of December saw his birth and his death, bringing his life full circle, or as circular as the life of someone so left field, so known/unknown could be. Happy birthday, Frank. We miss you, sir.