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Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson will perform the band’s classic album Thick as a Brick on tour to mark the album’s 40th anniversary next year.

The tour will begin in Great Britain in mid-April 2012, before heading through Europe in the late spring and summer, and winding up with U.S. dates spanning September, October and November. Anderson jokes that the tour will feature “a more theatrical production with video, additional musicians and a troupe of dancing elephants. (Just kidding about the dancing elephants: they don’t dance…)”

Thick as a Brick was a #1 Billboard album featuring a single song spanning almost 45 minutes. It has not been performed in full since 1972.

Meanwhile, the 40th anniversary of the band’s Aqualung album will be marked by two reissues: a collector’s set and a special edition, including new mixes by Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson. The collector’s set includes a 180g heavyweight LP, 2CDs, a DVD and a Blu-ray disc including various unreleased materials, a new stereo mix, the original Quad mix, and 5.1 DTS and Dolby Digital Surround. It also includes a 48-page hardback book with liner notes, interviews and memoirs. The special edition includes just the two CDs. Both are due for release on October 31.

Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson will pilot one of the first flights out of New York following Hurricane Irene, his spokesman said.

The rocker, who has had a pilot’s licence for years, regularly flies for charter airline Astraeus.

He will fly around 200 passengers from Newark, New Jersey to Reykjavik for budget airline Iceland Express.

The Boeing 757 will be painted in Iron Maiden colours as it is the same plane used by the band during their seven-month world tour, which ended just over three weeks ago.

Meanwhile a British Airways (BA) spokesman said the carrier hoped to add an extra flight on Tuesday night from Newark to London Heathrow in a bid to help some of the many holidaymakers stranded in the US.

Airlines resumed full schedules after American airports reopened following the 500-mile-wide storm which battered the east coast.

But as high winds and torrential rain cleared New York and charged from the US coast towards Canada, travellers were warned they face further delays because flights bound for Britain are already full.

BA and Virgin Atlantic were among those forced to suspend passages to New York and other eastern cities on Saturday.

Both carriers said they were now operating as normal.

However, those without pre-booked tickets were advised not to travel to airports because there are no spaces on flights during what is traditionally a busy holiday period

The storyline of David Bowie’s 1969 single “Space Oddity” has been used for a new children’s book. The lyrics have become the basis of a colorful book written by author/artist Andrew Kolb, according to Ultimate Classic Rock.

In less than 40 pages, the kids’ book recounts the story of astronaut Major Tom, who goes into space and becomes a media hero back on earth. Yet, when Tom ventures out to explore even further, something goes horribly wrong.

Fans can check out a free, full PDF file of the book at Kolb’s website (although the site seems to be experiencing some technical difficulties – much like Major Tom’s spacecraft).

Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell has released his new song “The Keeper,” lead track on the original motion picture soundtrack for forthcoming movie “Machine Gun Preacher.”

Based on a true story, the movie is directed by Marc Forster (“Finding Neverland”, “Monster’s Ball”) and stars Gerard Butler (“300″, “The Phantom Of The Opera”) as Sam Childers, a former drug-dealing criminal who finds faith leading him on a path to East Africa. Shocked by the mayhem in Sudan, Childers becomes a crusader for hundreds of refugee children fleeing death and enslavement.

Today, August 30, the song will be available for sale on iTunes and the full soundtrack album is released September 20.

More than 250 letters and cards sent by John Lennon to his family and friends are to be published for the first time.

Author Hunter Davies, who wrote the only official biography of The Beatles in the 1960s, is trying to track down every missive written by the singer.

“I’ve found a lot of letters that nobody’s ever seen,” he said.

Davies, whose book comes out next year, said it was the first time Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono had given permission for his private letters to be published.

The author said there were “no dramatic revelations” but that the letters gave an insight into Lennon’s life and his humour.

“You see him as a tortured soul,” he said. “You see him being funny, you see him showing off, you see him depressed, you see him in different stages.”

Davies has tracked down some correspondence through auction houses that have sold Lennon memorabilia over the years.

Relatives, members of the Beatles inner circle, memorabilia dealers and collectors have also given access to letters.

“His first reaction to any emotion, whether it was fury or amazement or hatred, was not really to go to the piano or the guitar,” the author said of Lennon.

“He was just as likely to pick up a pen and write it. And he wrote such amusing letters.

A letter to Lennon’s first wife Cynthia was auctioned at Christie’s in 2006 “When he wrote a letter or a postcard to somebody, he saw it as a challenge to write a unique piece for them and to amuse them and respond to their humour.”

Mr Davies was speaking at the annual Beatles Convention in Liverpool, part of International Beatle Week, which drew fans from around the world for tribute bands, talks, tours and a memorabilia fair.

The speakers also included Lennon’s half-sister Julia Baird, who wrote the story of their family in her memoir Imagine This: Growing Up With My Brother John Lennon.

She said she had to set the record straight after being confronted by inaccuracies in accounts by Beatles experts.

“When I die I will know that I didn’t let my mother’s name be sullied and do nothing about it,” she told the BBC.

“I was exasperated for a long, long time, and then I thought, you’ve got to do something with that energy. So I decided to write.”

The event also saw John Lennon’s original band return to the high school where they founded the group that would become The Beatles.

On Saturday, The Quarrymen performed in the school hall at Quarry Bank School, now called Calderstones School, where they played with Lennon as teenagers in the 1950s.

Banjo player Rod Davis – who was replaced by Paul McCartney in the band – said: “It was great fun.

“The school hall looks even better than I remember it 50-odd years ago. We actually played on that stage for a couple of school dances. So it was pretty authentic really.”

Bret Michaels has been busy touring this summer with Poison for their 25th Anniversary, as well as working in his solo shows to the schedule.

Now that the US tour with Motley Crue has wrapped up, Michaels is off next to Australia next month to open shows for the Crue on his own.

While all this is going on, Bret’s continues to work on his autobiography – set for release next year – and, he’s also been spending some time working on his next solo album, “Get Your Rock On,” and he’s been lining up some special guests to lend a hand to the proceedings.

The project will feature Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott and Phil Collen, Stevie Nicks, possibly members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, and younger groups such as Pop Evil and My Darkest Days.

“I’m in the process of doing it as we speak,” Michaels tells Billboard. “When you’re having other artists perform with you, it’s about working with their time schedule and a lot of taking care of some of the business before you can enjoy the pleasure of just jamming together. I try to keep it pretty organic. We have to make sure everyone’s good with the timing and can get into the studio to sing. But I think we’re going to have a blast making this record.”

Michaels already has Elliott and Collen targeted for “Get Your Rock On’s” title track, while other collaborations will be determined in the near future. He says the album may also include a live version of “Margaritaville” he performed with Jimmy Buffett and his Coral Reefer Band during 2010 at the DTE Energy Music Theatre in suburban Detroit.

As for a timetable, Michaels is hoping to have a first single — likely the title track — out by the end of the year, digitally if not on CD.

Check out more of Bret’s plans from his session with Billboard here.

Red Hot Chili Peppers are celebrating the release of their new album, I’m With You, with a song-by-song live concert performance, via satellite, to select movie theaters around the world.

They will perform the entire album in sequence, followed by some of their greatest hits, in a special high-definition cinematic in-theater event tonight, August 30th.

Red Hot Chili Peppers LIVE: I’m With You is the first – and only – time the new album will be performed in its entirety by the band

New Chickenfoot is on the way.

The band’s sophomore disc, “Chickenfoot III” is due September 27, but fans can now check out 90-second preview clips of the full album at iTunes here.

Singer Sammy Hagar tweeted the preview news while also issuing a challenge for fans:

“can’t wait for you to hear this! listen to the clips and tweet which song you think will smoke the most live!”

Live Chickenfoot is now a sure thing this fall, as the band announced Kenny Aronoff will handle drum duties while Chad Smith works his day job with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose new album drops Tuesday.

Chickenfoot will also release the first video from the project, “Big Foot,” on Tuesday, August 30.

Classic rockers Aerosmith are the latest to get on the iTunes bandwagon, as Apple’s iTunes has signed a new agreement to add previously unreleased digital forms of Aerosmith’s popular music to the service.

Apple and Columbia Records are making Aerosmith recordings between 1973 and 1987 available on iTunes on September 6, reports the New York Post.

This comes after the groundbreaking deal between iTunes and The Beatles and their record company, EMI, in November 2010.

Aerosmith, led by the charismatic Steven Tyler, have always made their newer songs available on iTunes, but they never allowed classic tracks, such as “Sweet Emotion” and “Walk This Way,” to be sold on the site.

Aerosmith will gain millions from the new deal, says music industry sources.

As for Tyler’s reality TV stint, according to the Hollywood Reporter, Aerosmith’s album sales increased 260 percent since Tyler became a judge on Fox’s American Idol, Aerosmith are currently writing and taping their first release since 2004’s Honkin’ on Bobo.

Ozzy Osbourne’s kin, Jack and Kelly, are fueling rumors that Black Sabbath is planning a massive reunion with the original members in tow.

Speaking with Artisan News Service (via NME), Kelly said that Ozzy was devoting his time to “something very exciting.”

“My dad is… I don’t know if I’m allowed to tell you. But he’s doing something that is very, very exciting. He’s just finished a tour. But he’s doing something very exciting. I’m not allowed to talk about it, though,” she said.

Jack didn’t deny that the illustrious heavy metal band were plotting to get back together: “I can neither confirm or deny who he is with or where he is,” he said.

Are your fingers crossed for a Black Sabbath reunion?