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Band's tour affected

Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton has been diagnosed with throat cancer.

According to Aerosmith.com Hamilton has missed dates of the band's Route Of Evil tour due to treatment.

The post reads: "Tom Hamilton will be sitting out a few gigs at the beginning of he band's upcoming Route Of Evil tour.

"Hamilton has just completed a seven week course of radiation treatment for throat cancer. He will be with his family recovering and will join the tour in mid-October. He and his band mates look forward to his return.

"Filling in for Hamilton will be David Hull a longtime friend of the band who played in the Joe Perry Project."

Hamilton formed Aerosmith with core members Steven Tyler and Joe Perry in 1970.

Antony Hegarty is on board too for album recreation tour

Lou Reed has revealed plans to tour his 1973 album 'Berlin'.

He has also confirmed the concerts will feature contributions from Antony Hegarty of Antony & the Johnsons.

The album, thought by many to be one of the most depressing albums of all time, has never been performed live.

St Ann's Warehouse in New York will host performances of the 'theatrically realised' version of the album.

The concerts run from December 14-17.

Rapper to design trainers

Eminem has teamed up with Nike to create limited edition versions of its Air Max trainers.

Profits from the sale of the shoe will go towards raising money for the rappers Marshall Mathers Foundation, which funds organisations working with troubled youth and refugee children's charity ninemillion.org.

Eminem and his design team will produce 64 pairs of shoes, that will be numbered, autographed, then auctioned off over a month at Nike stores across the world and on eBay from tomorrow (August 31).

In a statement on Eminem.com, the Detroit rapper said: "We're always looking for new ways to try to raise money and awareness for the foundation.

"So when Nike approached us we jumped at the chance. Who wouldn't want to design their own lines of Nikes? And to do it for charity makes it that much better."

With their former Blink-182 colleague Tom DeLonge entrenched with his new band Angels & Airwaves, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker have formed (+44). The group's debut, "When Your Heart Stops Beating," was produced by Jerry Finn and will arrive Nov. 14 via Interscope.

(+44), named after the international dialing prefix for the United Kindgdom, also includes ex-Nervous Return member Shane Gallagher and Craig Fairbaugh, who played with Barker in the Transplants. "Mark and I have a natural chemistry after playing together for so long and it's only gotten stronger," Barker says.

On "When Your Heart Stops Beating," Hoppus handled all the singing and also played guitar in addition to bass, while Barker dabbled in keyboards.

After a handful of shows in Europe next month, (+44) will showcase its new material during an Oct. 14 appearance at the Bamboozle Left festival in Pomona, Calif. Dashboard Confessional, Yellowcard, Brand New and Thrice are also on the bill for the two-day event.

Linkin Park, one of the few major acts that had yet to make its music available via Apple's iTunes Music Store, has changed course and pacted with the service. Three of the group's albums are available beginning today (Aug. 29), each with two bonus tracks and a third iTunes exclusive cut.

In addition, iTunes is selling the video content featured on the group's "Live in Texas" and "Collision Course" DVDs. We were really excited when iTunes told us that we were one of their most requested acts," group member Mike Shinoda says. "We will never ignore our fans and the timing seemed right to make our music available, with some special additions."

In late July, Metallica made its music available on iTunes for the first time, leaving the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Radiohead and Garth Brooks among the remaining major holdouts.

Meanwhile, Linkin Park is still at work on the follow-up to 2003's "Meteora" with producer Rick Rubin. The as-yet-untitled new album was originally expected by the end of the year via Warner Bros., "but at this point we don't see that happening," Shinoda told fans last week during an online chat. "We're doing really well, but we just need a little more time."

"We have narrowed it down to about 30-50 songs, and some of those are heavy, some are softer and some are in between," he continued. "So far it has a different sound that I cannot describe. It sounds like it's older, but not vintage. More organic in some spots, like just yesterday we recorded a song with no samples that is completely raw. Other songs are full of samples."

One new song, provisionally named "Qwerty," was debuted earlier this month in Japan. "We did those lyrics on the plane on the way to Japan," Shinoda said. "I'm not sure if it'll make the album, but we liked the song enough to play it."

In related news, Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington makes a cameo in the film "Crank," which opens Friday (Sept. 1) in U.S. theaters.

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.