“Green Day” The Lancaster London hotel hosts

“Green Day” the Lancaster London is hosting its fifth annual on Tuesday 14 September to coincide with Organic Fortnight (3 – 17 September 2010).
The event aims to increase sentience of the hotel's green policies amongst guests, staff and suppliers. Staff are encouraged to learn more about the hotel's environmental policies and to gather information about how they can make improvements.
The hotel will be lit with green LED lighting, with green silk cascading from the top of the building; Island Restaurant & Bar will be introducing a menu of entirely sustainable and organic food, with the air miles listed for each dish and tasting stands will be set up in the lobby to allow guests to sample some organic and sustainable produce. In addition, a honey menu will be featured in Island with dishes made using the honey produced by the hotel's own bee hives and electric cars and scooters will be showcased in the forecourt.
The hotel offers two restaurants, the award winning Nipa and super chic Island Restaurant and 16 conference rooms which have the ability to cater for a variety of events, from small business meetings to large receptions for up to 3,000 people.

Green Day fans will enjoy latest version of 'Rock Band'

Green Day fans, it’s time once again to pick up your Gibson. No, not the one you bought to pick up girls in high school, recently collecting dust in some remote area of your parents’ basement, that plastic one the one with the five colored buttons. Yes, “Green Day: Rock Band” has finally come to pass, after nearly 23 years of rocking amps and ears, the band is ready to rock your Xbox (PS3 and Wii as well). So how does it stack up?
Using three venues, “Green Day: Rock Band” spans the band’s catalogue of major albums. Starting with the intimate, albeit fictionalized, The Warehouse, players rock through nearly every song from the band’s hit “Dookie.” Next up is a pretty faithful reproduction of the U.K.’s Milton Keynes National Bowl, where players can jam out through Green Day’s transformation era, with hits as varied as “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” “Minority” and “Nice Guys Finish Last.” For the last act, the game brings you to Oakland’s Fox Theater, which again switches to a one album set consisting of 12 songs from their 2009 album, “21st Century Breakdown.”
In all, 47 tracks are available in the game, with downloadable content already for sale at the Rock Band store (of course).
If any of this setup seems familiar, it’s likely because you’ve heard of the forefather of this game, “The Beatles: Rock Band.” Indeed, it seems Harmonix, the ongoing developers of the Rock Band series and original creators of “Guitar Hero,” plans on using this template again in the near future with a possible Jimi Hendrix collection rumored for later this year. Speculation about the future aside, The Beatles and Green Day versions of Rock Band offer exactly what you expect — which is both good and bad.
For huge Green Day fans, this game allows you to track their transformation from punk rock to pop rock. The presentation at later stages is gorgeous, with intricate camera work that follows the pace of the song you’re playing.
Features span the breadth of what the music rhythm genre has to offer, from unlockable movies and photos of the band to the custom setlists. Songs can also be exported to other Rock Band games on the PS3 or Xbox 360, which is a huge benefit for single band games such as this.
Why would you want to export, you might ask? Well, while the selection of songs certainly covers the span of Green Day’s growth, you’re not likely to play through this game more than once after you’ve unlocked everything. And why would you? When you invite some friends over to fire up your Gibson replicas, it might be hard to ask your band mates to sit through one band’s catalogue when you could very easily pick from the thousands of songs and hundreds of artists available on the compilation games through download.
That’s not meant to discount what Harmonix has done here: developed a perfectly acceptable single band rhythm game. It’s a dream come true for any experienced plastic thrashers who are die hard about Green Day’s entire catalogue, and for the rest of us, there’s that handy export function.

Green Day: Green Day game hits right notes for hardcore fans

You have to hand it to the game developers at Harmonix -- they sure know how to keep a franchise moving.
The Rock Band latest iteration of is directly marketed to Green Day fans, and it tracks the journey of musicians Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dint and Tré Cool through the performances and songs that have made the band into a super pair.
As they did with Beatles: Rock Band, developers have identified the wants of Green Day fans and provided what is essentially a documentary on the band with a video game to please fans, of which there are many.
50 million albums the band has sold worldwide and played in some of the world's largest concert venues. There is even a smash hit Broadway musical based on the band's hits.
The game features 47 Green Day tracks -- if you don't like songs such as American Idiot and Welcome to Paradise, you're out of luck.
Behind the scenes photos, video and memorabilia provided by the band are waiting to be "unlocked" by players. The particular content shows band members pulling off different stunts over the years that will definitely amuse hardcore Green Day followers.
At its core, this is the Rock Band that millions already know. Game wise, there is little to differentiate it from previous franchise titles. Up to four players (despite the fact the band only has three members) can play the game, picking from their choice of guitar, bass, drums or vocals on the Rock Band microphone. Online play, allowing people to hook up with bandmates over the Internet, is possible.
If you already own Rock Band 2 and aren't actually into Green Day, then this may not be the game for you. If you are only interested in one or two Green Day tracks, then perhaps it's better to see if those can be downloaded on to versions of Rock Band that you already own.

Green Day fans, this Rock Band is for you

If you own most of Green Day’s albums and perhaps have a poster or two of the band on your wall, Green Day: Rock Band is for you.
Otherwise, you should pass on this band-specific entry into the growing list of music games.
Green Day: Rock Band holds fast to the basic framework that has cemented Electronic Arts’ franchise as a slick, easy to pick up, enjoyable music experience.
For those who have never played a Rock Band game, players simulate a jam experience by playing plastic drums, guitars and microphones, hitting the right notes on beat to rack up a high score.
Developed by Harmonix and published by MTV Games, the game guides players through Green Day’s successful career as punk-rockers, picking up with their mainstream debut album, Dookie, released in 1994. The band’s Dookie days are captured in the game with a concert staged in a grimy warehouse venue.
Virtual doppelgangers — complete with tattoos and dyed hair — of singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool age as the career mode continues from the warehouse to the band’s concert at the 65,000-capacity National Bowl in Milton Keynes, England — which focuses on tracks from the American Idiot, Nimrod, Warning and Insomniac albums — to the final venue in the Fox Theater in Oakland, where the band plays songs from its newest album, 21st Century Breakdown.
The game includes 47 tracks from six of Green Day’s eight albums, including the entire Dookie and American Idiot recordings. Through the game, players unlock images and movies, including interview footage, outtakes and performances.
It’s a tour de force for diehard Green Day fans. However, music games such as Rock Band gain much of their momentum from a karaoke-like friendliness, with the most fun had playing in groups and at parties. Green Day’s appeal is just too narrow for a dedicated game.
When playing Green Day: Rock Band for a few hours with friends, it quickly becomes apparent that there are only a few Green Day songs everyone is comfortable with. The rest are relegated to solo play during the career mode.
Band-specific games are not easy to sell to a wide audience. They need more than just a concert experience and a few albums’ worth of songs — they need purpose. For example, The Beatles: Rock Band tapped into the boys from Liverpool’s rock-gods status to pull off a successful game in 2009. It truly felt like a tour through a rock ‘n’ roll museum, and the game served to introduce the band to a new audience.
That kind of reverence simply can’t be re-created in Green Day: Rock Band.
While the game itself is technically well-done, the band simply isn’t diverse enough instrumentally or vocally to generate much enthusiasm.