Summer Sonic Shakeup

A number of interesting changes were made recently to the lineup for Summer Sonic, which takes place the weekend of Aug. 13 simultaneously in Tokyo and Osaka.

The death of Clarence Clemons, who was slated to play the festival, opened up a hole in the schedule on the Tokyo Beach Stage that was filled by The Village People, the only act who will be playing both days in Tokyo.

More interestingly, Ne-Yo withdrew from the festival.

The R&B singer was one of the few acts, major or minor, that didn’t cancel its previous planned tours following the nuclear disaster that accompanied the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

His replacement is Avril Lavigne, who did cancel an even bigger tour in April (several of the arena shows were sold out). Lavigne also announced that she would return to Japan in February to make up for the canceled dates.

In other tour announcements, Aerosmith will play eight dates in Japan in November, including two nights at the Tokyo Dome.

According to media reports, Joe Perry has said the band will perform in areas that were devastated by the earthquake and tsunami, but so far none of the announced dates are in those areas.