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May 31, 2007

YOU CANT STOP ME NOW!!!

STOP PRESS: Here's another review that got sent to us - very kind words! And also we have ALREADY filled THREE of the seven tattoo slots available at the Roxy show. If you are thinking about getting inked at a Circus Diablo show, dont waste too much time, cos these slots will fill up. Get tattooed by Shamrock for $50 - the deal of a lifetime!!. OK - back to normal programming...... I haven't updated this frequently in months!! Stand back - here comes another post!! I figured I should get in while I have the time - today is a day off from shooting Evilution, but I am back on set tomorrow, and I have even managed to entice Circus Diablo guitarist Ricky Warwick to join me. Yep - Ricky has a part in the movie now too ...... and I get to bite THE SHIT outta him!! Loads of fake blood and prosthetic body parts this weekend. I'll do my best to get some cool pics while we are both on set. However, I digress.....

The reasons for this post. First of all, although our partner Dave Navarro will be in Las Vegas this weekend celebrating his birthday, (HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE!!) Donovan and myself will be holding down the fort at the radio station, making sure that we continue to bring you live CFR every week that we can. And to that end, we have invited RockStar Supernova frontman, Lukas Rossi, down to the show to join us for a chat, some phone questions, and hopefully some special acoustic performances. We'll see how we do, but I suggest you guys tune in and listen this weekend. I presume a 'birthday' phone in from our boy Dave would also be in order. If the proceedings are still mellow enough to get him on the phone, that is!! Camp Freddy Radio, this Saturday night, at 6.00pm - only on Indie 103.1FM or www.indie1031.fm.

Next piece of info - Circus Diablo will be holding somewhat of an event at the Roxy Theater on July 20th. As part of the touring schedule for the summer, we have decided to hold a little album launch party in conjunction with some of our friends. Thanks to Dave's new company, Spread Entertainment, Indie 103.1FM and our own label, Koch Records, we are gonna have some niceness for you all that evening. The bill is Diablo, The Bangkok Five, and Dirty Harry, but we also have some performance art, tattooing by Shamrock Tattoos, and even a few tasty girls in lingerie feeding you all candy!!! Trust me, its gonna be a great night. And to give you lot a chance here, I want to let you all be the first to have a chance at getting tattooed that night. Thanks to Mark Mahoney, we are going to be offering $50 Flash tattoos, and there are only SEVEN slots available. Each tattoo will take approx half an hour and will cost $50 - the choices will be old school flash artwork directly from Marks famous store, The Shamrock Social Club on Sunset Blvd. BUT ....... our Circus Diablo logo, the CD as seen here, will be available as well, and if you choose to get that ..... it will be done FREE!!! So if you want to be one of the seven people to get tattooed on the evening, drop us an email at info@circusdiablo.com, and tell us why you should be one of the seven, and if you would want OG Flash, or the CD logo.

And finally I can tell you that Diablo will be doing Rockline on July 9th. We are very excited to do this as the show is an institution, and I will have more details as they come in. But I know we are confirmed, so I want you all to phone in and have your questions ready. I think they will have some neat competition prizes as well. For now, thats all I know.

So have fun, take care, be nice, and I'll see ya soon.

Billy

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Posted by vivelerock at 04:02 PM | Comments (31)

May 30, 2007

MORE MOVIE MAKING MADNESS

I thought I should add to this post as I just received the very first review of the Circus Diablo album, by pivotalalliance.com, and I figured you guys would like to see it. Hopefully we can have a reviews section here as more come in, but as i get them I will post them. Enjoy.

It really is a huge "Hurry up and wait" business, this movie making thing. I mean I spent 8 hours on set yesterday BEFORE I even went into make up! Literally not needed, but kept on hold ..... just in case! I dont mind it, though - it gives me a chance to learn about it all. To watch the professionals work, and to see what goes into a film. I spent the day watching them get the consistency of splattered brains just right. I watched as a complete apartment was built from the ground up, in the basement of an abandoned wing of a hospital. I saw them making rubber prosthetic veins, glow in the dark drugs and a bubbling bullet wound in an actors chest. And then at night, I got to do my scenes, alongside actor Noel Guglielmi (bad ass gangster in just about everything! Training Day, Crank, SWAT...) Lots of fun - check out my teeth from yesterday (the picture below) as they made me up to be a junkie ........ not exactly the best in dental care when you're on the streets shooting smack and smoking crack!

So I also wanna let you all know that apparently LOADED will be available on I-Tunes as a single soon. They will send me the details and I'll get it all linked up so that its easy to find and buy, so make sure you all support the band and purchase the song. Lots going on behind the scenes as the song goes to radio and we get closer to the album release date of July 3rd. The tour is looming and I'll switch back to singer from actor - wow - NEVER thought I would be saying that!! Its ALL fun and games, and I enjoy everything I do. But I have to say that touring the Diablo album will be close to my heart. I hope you lot are gonna come out and see us.

Thats really it from me. Getting up so early every day to be on set, or to squeeze in a bunch of radio promos BEFORE heading out of the house and down to the film, has been taking its toll, and I am pretty tired right now. But today is an off day, which means Pilates, Cardio and a whole bunch of errands. And then the Diesel party thats happening tonight in Hollywood. Its been ages since I went out, so I am looking forward to that. Should be a welcome change from wearing a green hooded sweat top, and having my teeth painted brown. Last weeks CFR is up on the Podcasts page, but you really should all now be subscribed in I-Tunes and getting the Podcasts delivered to your doorstep automatically when you open I-Tunes. If not, why not??!! See ya.

Billy

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Posted by vivelerock at 07:41 AM | Comments (13)

May 26, 2007

EVILUTION

So here I am, live and direct from the set of the movie, EVILUTION, written by Brian Patrick O’Toole, directed by Chris Conlee and starring James Duval, Jonathan Breck, Eric Peter-Kaiser …….and featuring bits and pieces by me!! Yep, I am now officially on my second movie here folks, and loving every minute of it. The folks at Island Gateway films gave me a part in this horror film and I am reporting live from the set – which has to be seen to be believed! It is a HUGE old abandoned hospital, and when I say abandoned, I mean literally everybody just left! There are still records from the 70’s in cabinets, old boxes of medicine and equipment just gathering dust, and a real morgue in the basement. Trust me, this place is CREEPY! Check out the pic of the bloody deer wall that I stumbled across in the basement of the building. I am sure I've seen it on TV or in a movie. Any ideas?

And I play a junkie (yes I know – a bit of a stretch, but I’m a professional here!!) that breaks into an apartment and discovers a weird looking substance. Of course, I do what any self respecting addict would do …….shoot the stuff up straight away …….and I begin the whole rampage/killing/zombiefest that is the rest of the movie. SO MUCH FUN. Today we shot some externals and some dialogue between myself and the lead, but next week we do some of the bloody prosthetic biting shit! Cant wait.

They are letting me out to do Camp Freddy Radio with Donovan (and we have Scott Thomas from Ringside popping by for a quick in-studio appearance) so apart from being in character it’ll be business as usual tonight. Gotta remember not to bite a big hole in Dono’s neck. And other than that, its just another fun filled, thrill packed Saturday in the Morrison household. The sun is shining in LA, I get to be on a movie set, do a radio show, and go home to my wife at the end of the day. I have to say that it is a beautiful thing and I am immensely greatful for everything in my life. Including you lot, who keep showing up, reading my drivel that I post, and being 100% supportive in all my endeavors. Its turning out to be a very interesting year so far. Lets see what all that crazy summer touring brings for Diablo. Until next time.

Peace

Billy

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Posted by vivelerock at 01:10 PM | Comments (17)

May 24, 2007

WELL THAT DIDNT WORK!

As a lot of you know, I tried to elicit some kind of security/sign in procedure here yesterday because I am getting fed up with having to delete junk posts every day. But due to my complete lack of technical ability I was unable to get it to work. And as I am (as always) pretty busy with everything, I just don't have time to figure it out. If anyone knows what was wrong, email me - I was trying to use Typekey as a login system, and we were all able to create accounts, but when we tried to post here, we all got messages saying this site was not configured for that ...... but it was. Anyway - boring. Three more confirmed dates - SAN DIEGO Brick By Brick on Sunday 22nd July, CHICAGO Double Door on Thursday 9th August and PROVIDENCE Living Room on Friday 17th August. They just keep adding them in and the itinerary now looks more like an invasion strategy! I know we'll be wiped out at the end of it all!! I can also tell you that we will be doing an acoustic thingy on Dave's new internet TV show - Spread TV - on Thursday July 5th. Have you seen it yet? Tune in tonight for episode two. The Roxy show in Los Angeles on July 20th is building nicely - we have a few plans to make it a special night out for everyone. The Bangkok 5 are playing with us again, along with Dirty Harry (another UK transplant now living in LA - check her out) and we aim to have a couple of 'entertaining' sideshows as well. Maybe some tattooing going on ..... maybe some Performance oriented art...... we'll see. Thats it from me - just remember to tune in this Saturday for some fresh CFR with Dave and myself - Indie 103.1FM from 6.00pm PST. Have a great day everyone - I am off to catch up on my life. See ya.

Peace

Billy

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Posted by vivelerock at 09:06 AM | Comments (26)

May 18, 2007

ACOUSTICS GALORE

The acoustic evening over at Gibson last night was a really fun time. Lots of people came out, and I even took my folks!! We all had a good night, and Rob, Ricky and myself played three songs – Loaded, Shine and Ziggy Stardust – which all seemed to go down wonderfully. It was interesting playing Loaded acoustically….I am pleased with the arrangement we did, and quite honestly we could and should do this again. I like the whole ‘unplugged’ vibe, so maybe we will do a few ‘guerilla style’ acoustic events during the tour. Anyway, it was nice to get out with the guys and do something, and a big thank you to Nicole, as well as Gibson Guitars, for putting on such a great evening. Oh yeah, and the Camp Teddy boys were outside and gave me a copy of ….. their ALBUM!! Well done guys – it sounds great. Now we really should get to finishing the FREDDY one, right??!! And with that I am going to move straight into questions ………

Fred – Ah yes, the Ibanez RG series!! Well, I do own a couple, and I bust them out occasionally in the studio, but as far as a live show? …..all Les Pauls these days. Although Rob Patterson, our touring guitarist, is endorsed by Ibanez and plays a nice white Iceman shape guitar.

Jess – Wow! New Zealand, huh? I have no idea if the album will be released there – although I would love to think so!! It’ll probably be an import situation for you, so make sure your local store knows that you want it.

Colin – Yep. As previously reported, we will be playing all 24 Ozzfest shows.

Merc – Ha Ha!! Jen most certainly does NOT come on tour with me!! She is WAY too clued in to do that!! She’s seen exactly how boring, dull and mind numbing a tour can be, so she just flys out to a few choice, fun cities to come and visit for a few days. I can’t imagine that spending more than a couple of days on a bus with all that male testosterone floating around would be at ALL appealing!!

Bratty – Hmmm, well I would say that I would love to perform with Trent Reznor or Adam Ant. Both would ‘float my boat’, so to speak. The one person who has influenced my career the most? – probably Steve Jones, with his tone, the white Les Paul, and his Fuck You attitude!!

Max – OK, well I didn’t choose LA, it kinda chose me. I didn’t decide to leave the UK and then figure out where I was going. It was a case of getting out of England and coming home to LA – I have always felt more at home here than anywhere else in the world. And I have absolutely no expectations AT ALL for the Circus Diablo album!! My only hope was for it to be released, and that is happening on July 3rd. I can TRULY say that I will be a happy man on that day. I don’t care what it sells, how many ‘units’ it shifts ….. ALL that bullshit is exactly what brings bands to their knees. Good Luck to it, I say, and hope that it brings a smile or two to a few people.

Sue – Technically, you could send the files electronically after they are mastered. But the best quality file is produced from the Mastering Session and CD’s are given to the band at the end of the day. The plant needs a physical CD to begin their process of making the CD’s that you get in the stores. They are not just duplicated blanks like we do on our computers. So seeing as at some stage, someone would have to actually ‘MAKE’ a master CD for the plant, its best that WE actually do it during mastering …… and that’s why we end up with a physical product that needs FedExing.

Spencer – Really? I know we have the tracks set so that they cant be downloaded, but I thought people could set them as tracks to be played on their profiles. Am I wrong? I will look into it.

Justin – I haven’t heard of Gallows, but your description makes me wanna check em out. Google It Google It Google It …… I’m on it – thanks for the tip.

Claire – I haven’t made a film about my life. I made a five minute trailor cos it seemed like a fun thing to do. EVENTUALLY, I would like to make a documentary, because I love the medium of film, and love the creativity and processing that is possible with it. That doesn’t mean I wont also write a book!! Who knows – I like doing it all. There’s just not enough hours in the day!!

HJ – Yes I did attend the Musicares Event this year. I was talking about it on last Saturdays CFR – and yes, the Dave Gahan thing was a big highlight. The whole evening was a fantastic success and I had a great time. Like you say – congrats to Chris and Jeff.

Mike B – Well, you could write to Gibson and tell them they should produce the Camp Freddy guitar!! Or you could order one to be completely custom made at the Custom Shop (but you should let your bank manager know first – it would be VERY pricey!!). The ones I have (and Dave Navarro has one as well) are all one off’s, made for the band exclusively.

K – Setlists for Diablo are pretty much a case of ……Ozzfest – play the best 7 songs we have. Club Dates – play ALL the songs we have, plus a few covers!! Camp Freddy? That’s a different animal – I do the setlists based on who the guests are, and what we all know and what will sound the best.

So there you have it – questions asked and answers given. Just how I like it. I hope everyone has a great weekend, and I will be back next week – maybe we can do some V-Blogging from the Diablo rehearsals. Don’t forget that Dave and I will be up to our usual tricks on Saturday evening – 6.00pm on Indie 103.1FM or www.indie1031.fm - See you lot soon.

Peace

Billy

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Posted by vivelerock at 07:34 AM | Comments (20)

May 14, 2007

FAMILY TIES

STOP PRESS: We have just added our debut single, LOADED, to the MySpace profile, so make sure you take a trip over there and give it a listen. CLICK HERE FOR THE CIRCUS DIABLO MYSPACE PAGE.

Its all happening around Chez Morrison at the moment! As well as the slow and inexorable build up of Loaded going to radio, the album being released and the band going on tour……as well as Circus Diablo rehearsals next week, as well as beginning to shoot the movie the following week, as well as starting a series of guitarist to guitarist audio interviews for Modern Guitars Magazine …… as well as all this and way more …..my parents are visiting!!!! It’s the annual two week visit, and I am right in the middle of a juggling act so acutely precarious, that I really should be applying to join the Circus. Hold on …..wait …… I’m already IN THE CIRCUS! Ha ha! Oh shit, I’m full of good ones today! Anyway you get the idea. Yes, its really busy, and yes, my folks visiting is added time away from work, but I love them, I’m greatful for everything in my life, and at the end of the day, who cares really!!

So here’s the deal. I have not had time to read all the questions from the past few posts, so how about we start again, and you can all feel free to ask any questions you like on this post and I’ll definitely do a Q+A at the weekend. Promise. Ask away, and if you are repeating a question, I apologize – this time I’ll read them all.

Last weeks CFR is up now on the Podcasts page, thanks to Paul. You gotta hand it to the guy – he stays up every week until 4.00am to record the show for all you lot. Its not for me – I already heard it…..I was there!! So its done for the love of this site, and I appreciate it. I hope everyone else does too.

What else? Well, two more shows added to the ‘Off Dates’ – the days when we are not doing the Ozzfest shows. This time its 08/07/07 Peabodys, CLEVELAND, OH and 08/13/07 Badger Theater, REEDSBURG, WI. Still more dates getting added and a few exciting things being talked about to slot into the itinerary as we troll around America for a couple of months. More details as they come. I did hear today that the album will be released in Japan in August, and Europe/UK in September. That’s good news because it strengthens our case for traveling overseas and coming to play those markets. Nothing as yet, so don’t ask! But it’s a step in the right direction. We are also beginning to think about a video for Loaded, and if the concept doing the rounds right now comes to fruition, it should come out looking amazing. We’ll see. Also in the current edition of METAL EDGE MAGAZINE is the following two page spread on Diablo - an interview with Brett and myself. A jolly good read!!

So not a lot else to tell you – its family time right now – although Rob, Ricky and myself are still doing the acoustic thing at Gibson on Thursday. We ran through a couple of Diablo songs the other day on acoustics and they sounded great. Should be a blast. And lastly I wanna let everyone know that Daves SPREAD TV debuts on Thursday night as well. See www.6767.com for details - and I want to wish him all the best for his debut show. That guy is actually DOING what a lot of people just talk about doing, and for that we should ALL support him. Thats it - I am outta here – all questions will, as promised, get answered at the weekend. Have fun, stay safe, and see you all this summer.

Peace

Billy

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Posted by vivelerock at 10:58 PM | Comments (27)

May 07, 2007

PRESS RELEASE, PODCAST, PATTERSON and PERFORMANCE

I love a bit of alliteration in the morning!! Except its night time, but what the hell. I thought I would do a quickie, so that I could put the official Koch press release up here, tell you about our alternative lead guitar touring plans, get last Saturdays CFR up on the site, and let you know about the acoustic thingy that we are gonna do at Gibson next week. And I couldn't resist the title of this post - it was begging for it! So, let me see - well, first of all, this is the official KOCH RECORDS press release.

KOCH RECORDS DOES DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
(New York, NY) — KOCH Records’ first signing for its new metal division is the Los Angeles based hard rock outfit, CIRCUS DIABLO. The band features members past and present from The Cult, Fuel, The Almighty and Camp Freddy. The self-titled debut album will be released on July 3rd, 2007 and features the single, “LOADED”.

CIRCUS DIABLO is Billy Morrison (vocals), Billy Duffy (lead guitar), Ricky Warwick (guitar), Brett Scallions (bass), with Charles Ruggiero of Slunt beating the skins live, while Velvet Revolver’s Matt Sorum performed all the drum tracks on the album, courtesy of RCA Records.
“Koch got this because they got this”, remarked front man Morrison, “and we couldn’t be at a better place”. Morrison, the founder of the legendary, mega-star studded, Hollywood based cover band Camp Freddy continued, “I will not be pining for some lost love while I hover over a piano, not even close, rock exists below the belt and we intend to deliver rock the way it was meant to be, hard, fast, and dirty.”

The band hits the road this summer in support of their debut album, with touring plans continuing through 2008. You can catch CIRCUS DIABLO at OZZFEST, and at press time the band has confirmed a co-headling tour with Nick (Queens Of The Stone Age) Oliveri’s Mondo Generator.

I LOVE the piano bit!!! Did I say that? I have no idea.....but its a great read! So.... thats the press release, and what I can add to that is our good friend, Rob Patterson (who just spent a couple of years in KORN) will be hopping on the bus and taking part in the Church Of Diablo initiation rituals (including goats, tomatoes and a very sticky paste-like substance!!) and playing lead guitar when Mr Duffy is not around.

Next up is the acoustic performance that I will be doing next week at the Eco/Green thing over at Gibson Beverly Hills. Everyone knows that I am 100% Gibson friendly, don't play anything else, and always say yes to anything they ask ..... and so I find myself appearing there next week, doing a couple of acoustic songs with Ricky and Rob. Should be a lot of fun. As I said, the Podcast is now up, and I have run out of things beginning with P to write about. So I'm off. See ya!!

Billy

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Posted by vivelerock at 08:36 PM | Comments (34)

May 03, 2007

MORE DIABLO DATES FOR SUMMER

Things are moving very quickly around here, and as you will see below, we are adding dates to the summer touring schedule. I am pleased to announce a very special show in Los Angeles on July 20th (Twas The Night Before Ozzfest!!) at The Roxy Theater on Sunset Blvd, presented by Indie 103.1FM and Spread Entertainment. We have invited The Bangkok 5 to appear with us that night, and Dave Navarro will be picking the third band on the bill. I am very excited that Dave has agreed to get on board with this show, as I believe his vision for Spread Entertainment is a vision of the future. Multi media companies that host TV shows, promote gigs, hold art exhibitions ...... and ALL directly produced by the artist. I will be asking Dave more about Spread on Saturdays Camp Freddy Radio show, and I am sure we will be talking about this show too. Which reminds me - we have Rose Apodaca (Fashion Editor of the LA Times) as an in-studio guest this coming weekend. So put on your best jeans before tuning in!!! Here are a list of the added shows so far - they are all with Nick Oliveri and Mondo Generator, except for The Roxy show. More shows are being added as we speak so keep your mouse pointed right here.

07/13/07: TACOMA, WA. South Sound Garage.
07/15/07: PORTLAND, OR. Outlaws.
07/18/07: SAN FRANCISCO, CA. Cafe Du Nord.
07/20/07: LOS ANGELES, CA. The Roxy Theater.
07/27/07: DENVER, CO. The Larimer Lounge.
07/29/07: SALINA, KS. The Blue Goat.
08/01/07: HOUSTON, TX. The Meridian.
08/25/07: WARREN, MI. The Ritz.

Apart from extending the touring, we are also excited that LOADED will be going to radio very soon. The album release date of July 3rd will be upon us before we know it! But before all that happens, I will be shooting a movie for three weeks, starting very soon. The movie is a horror film called "Evilution", and I will have plenty of time to bring you some v-blogs from the set. That will be an interesting period for me, as regular readers will know that I love doing film. Three weeks of shooting is a long time, and I am really looking forward to getting into character and ......er.......killing lots of people!

STILL trying to find time to edit the V-Blog together from the Diablo mastering session, and I have tons of your questions to answer. Oh well - there are only so many hours in the day, and mine are all full up right now. I'll get around to all of it at some point. For now, I figured you would all wanna know the extra dates. I'll be back very soon.

Peace

Billy

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Posted by vivelerock at 09:42 AM | Comments (27)