Aerosmith and Rage join AC/DC at Download Festival

Aerosmith and Rage Against The Machine have been announced as the remaining headliners to join AC/DC on the bill at this year's Midlands-based Download Festival.

Although Aerosmith fans will be wondering who will be fronting the band, with recording of a new album cancelled and singer Steven Tyler going into rehab, Download organiser Andy Copping insisted on his Twitter feed this morning that it is definitely Tyler himself who will take to the stage at Donington Park.

The remaining members of Aerosmith had been talking about going on tour with another singer, with rumoured replacements including Lenny Kravitz, Billy Idol and Sammy Hagar.

Rage Against The Machine hit the headlines with they scored the Christmas Number 1 spot with Killing In The Name Of as part of an anti-X Factor online campaign. They will be performing a free concert at Finsbury Park, London on the June 6, a week before Download opens.

Among those also on the bill for the Download Festival, which runs from Friday, June 11, to Sunday, June 13, at Donington Park are supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, Motorhead, Megadeth, Billy Idol and Wolfmother, with many more acts to be announced.

Weekend tickets cost from £145. For further information visit www.downloadfestival.co.uk

Elsewhere, Heaven and Hell - the non-Ozzy Osbourne version of Midlands rock legends Black Sabbath - are due to headline the Bloodstock heavy metal festival at Catton Hall in Derbyshire, which runs from August 13-14, as well as appearing at Britain's newest rock festival, High Voltage.

Fans will be hoping that singer Ronnie James Dio recovers from treatment from stomach cancer which caused him to cancel a solo tour last year.

Other bands on the Bloodstock bill include Behemoth, Fear Factory, Cannibal Corpse and Children of Bodom. Tickets start from £104.90. Weekend tickets cost from £135. For more details visit www.bloodstock.uk.com

High Voltage is at London's Victoria Park on Saturday July 24, and Sunday July 25, with headliners ZZ Top and ELP as well as artists including Foreigner, Marillion, Asia, Black Label Society and Joe Bonamassa. For details visit www.highvoltagefestival.com

The UK's other major heavy rock festival, Sonisphere, runs from July 30 to August 1 and Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire and this year features Iron Maiden, Rammstein, Alice Cooper, Motley Crue and The Cult among many more. Tickets cost from £132.50. For further details visit http://uk.sonispherefestivals.com

See also - our interview with Joe Perry of Aerosmith