The American rock guitarist Ronnie Montrose was an influential, highly-rated player whose crunchy riffs, fluid licks and mesmerising solos lit up FM radio during the 1970s. Briefly a member of the Edgar Winter Group, he appeared on They Only Come Out At Night, the 1972 album which contained the barnstorming, chart-topping instrumental "Frankenstein" and the equally infectious "Free Ride", two tracks that have become staples of classic rock stations and the video game Rock Band 3.

i Newspaper
 
TheIPaper
The Independent around the web
E-break Time
Independent Crossword

Business Diary: Battle of the banks is on

Hats off to the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, for its plan to hold a fascinating debate – The City: Asset or Liability? – next month. It will pit Angela Knight, the former Economic Secretary to the Treasury who these days runs the British Bankers' Association, against Chuka Umunna, the Streatham MP and former member of the Treasury Select Committee who is carving out a name for himself, not least as a critic of the banks'. That's a recipe for fireworks, we reckon.

Take me down to the paradise city: Slash comes back home to Stoke

The Guns N' Roses guitarist is to perform for the first time in the city he left at the age of six

BB King, Royal Albert Hall, London

The thrill is still there for blues king

Business Diary: Pancakes are too expensive to drop

If you can't afford to toss quite so many pancakes today, you know whom to blame – like everything else, it is the fault of the bankers, of course. The cost of many staple foods has risen very sharply in recent months – the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation says food prices are now at a record high – and one reason for this is market speculators have caused a bubble to develop, claims the World Development Movement, the anti-poverty campaigner. Try not to drop them.

Cyberclinic: Has Google stopped searching for answers?

It's an ambition of mine to become a verb. Ideally, "to Rhodri" would mean to pen vast tracts of moving prose, display superhuman musical virtuosity, and be effortlessly charming. Sadly, it's not going to happen. It won't even come to mean "to moan about stuff", which is a better reflection of my personality. But Google managed it, the lucky so-and-sos, by creating the most efficient search tool the internet had seen. It made its competitors look so laughably bloated and inept that we deserted them like they were train carriages with a large, ticking parcel left in the aisle. Even today, with Microsoft's Bing doing all it can to challenge – including, say, dealing with Google copying its results – we're continuing to show loyalty to the search giant; more than two-thirds of the world's searches are handled by it.

They thought it was game over, but finally Duke Nukem is back

The Duke is back, but boy did he take his time. When Duke Nukem 3D hit the shelves in 1996 it revolutionised the computer games industry. The Duke, a muscle-clad, cigar-smoking alpha-male who stormed across the galaxy fighting hordes of mutated aliens, was the brashest, most controversial character to appear in pixelated form at the time. He swore like a trooper, paid for strippers and killed both the guilty and innocent alike in Tarantino-esque orgies of button-bashing violence.

Axl Rose 'greatest lead singer'

Guns N'Roses star Axl Rose, who kept the world waiting 15 years for his comeback album, has been declared the greatest lead singer of all time.

Missiles force Guns N' Roses off stage

Concert organisers stopped Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose walking out on a gig after unruly fans fired plastic glasses at his band.



Axl hits the headlines (but not the notes)

The weekend's expletive-laden sets show Guns N' Roses' frontman still has his appetite for destruction, writes Jerome Taylor

Leading article: Rambling rose

What is it that is so horrifying about the ageing rock star who just won't hang up his guitar and accept that the final curtain ought to have come down? We don't object to actors coming out of retirement for yet another final performance. Perhaps it is because the rock star is an emblem of youth and sex appeal, so when they return, looking like wrecked pastiches of their former selves, it sends a shiver up our spines, reminding us that we're mortal too.

Axl Rose ends Leeds set with foul-mouthed rant

Rock singer Axl Rose launched a foul-mouthed tirade against police and promoters as he left the stage at a festival.

First Night: Guns N' Roses, Reading Festival

Axl flounders as Reading made to wait for its rock fix

Axl Rose's Twitter page hacked

If you believed Axl Rose's Twitter account on Sunday night, the Guns N' Roses frontman had unilaterally canceled the band's upcoming European tour.

Career Services

Day In a Page

Next in line – but public just can't warm to idea of Charles in charge

Next in line – but public just can't warm to idea of Charles in charge

'Independent' poll finds less that half want him to take throne as ministers moan of interference
Nothing's sacred: the illegal trade in India's holy cows

Nothing's sacred: the illegal trade in India's holy cows

Andrew Buncombe reports from Kaharpara on a bloody war between rustlers and border guards
Mogul grounded: Desmond gives up his jet deal

Mogul grounded: Desmond gives up his jet deal

Media tycoon's company pays £1m to cancel his order for a £36m private jet after drop in profits
How Ai Weiwei built a pavilion in London – by remote control

How Ai Weiwei built a pavilion in London – by remote control

The artist tells Clifford Coonan how he used Skype to escape confinement in Beijing
Nature, nurture... or neither? The new twist in an age-old argument

Nature, nurture... or neither?

The new twist in an age-old argument
Radio 4 to shed its cosy image with a 'sexy' Ulysses drama

Radio 4 to shed its cosy image with a 'sexy' Ulysses drama

New station controller wants to reflect the current period of 'turmoil and uncertainity'
Alcohol: I drink therefore I am

Alcohol: I drink therefore I am

New guidelines warn Britons to drastically reduce their boozing. But is a life without liquor worth living? Hell no, says John Walsh
The Cable News Nightmare: CNN (and Piers Morgan) in audience crisis

The Cable News Nightmare

CNN (and Piers Morgan) in audience crisis
Like a barbie, but better: The Big Green Egg can griddle, roast, and smoke food - and even make pizza

The Big Green Egg: Like a barbie, but better

It can griddle, roast, and smoke food - and even make pizza...
The 10 Best chopping boards

The 10 Best chopping boards

Whether you want to dice veg, chop meat, or just slice up a salad, there’s a surface here to suit every culinary need.
Flat and fabulous: From wraps to foccacias, our appetite for new and exotic breads knows no limits

Flat and fabulous: Exotic breads

Lucy McDonald visits the bakeries of Tel Aviv to to find out what we'll be eating next.
Brendan Rodgers: Just like Mourinho... only different

Brendan Rodgers: Just like Mourinho... only different

Obsessive, ambitious, eager to learn and with no playing career; can the Northern Irishman be Liverpool's Special One?
Gary Lewin: Players need winter break

Gary Lewin: Players need winter break

The England physio tells Patrick Barclay that this spate of injuries is due to the non-stop demands of the Premier League

Countdown's rudest ever moments

Yesterday a contestant spelt the word 'minge'.
Special report: Tamil asylum-seekers to be forcibly deported

Special report

Tamil asylum-seekers to be forcibly deported