According to concert promoter Live In Italy, the reunited original lineup of MR. BIG will play Italy on September 22 at the Alcatraz in Milan as part of a yet-to-be-announced European tour. Tickets went on sale today (Friday, June 5) through online retailer TicketOne (www.ticketone.it). Price is 32 euros plus a booking fee.

The Alcatraz club in Milan has a capacity of about two thousand people.

MR. BIG released a new "best-of" album titled "Next Time Around" on April 29 through WHD Entertaiment. The collection includes songs that were voted on by fans and contains two previously unreleased songs, "Next Time Around" (2009 remastered version) and "Hold Your Head Up" (2009 remastered version). It was made available as a limited deluxe edition with a bonus DVD.

In a recent interview with BigMusicGeek.com, bassist Billy Sheehan stated about the band's decision to reunite, "One of the beginnings of that was when (guitarist) Paul (Gilbert) played on (my solo record) 'Holy Cow' on the song 'Dynamic Exhilarator'. It was the first time we had worked in a studio together since we had been in MR. BIG together. We jammed a zillion times and we hang out together a lot because we're both here in L.A., but we never actually thought about working together. When he came in to do the solo on 'Dynamic Exhilarator', we had a blast. It was awesome. He did a great, great solo. The first one is amazing and the second one somehow tops it (laughs). So after that, we had a little more organized jam here in L.A. when he played with his band. Richie Kotzen was there and Pat Torpey was there and we played a couple of MR. BIG songs. The crowd went out of their minds and we were like, 'The only thing that could top this is if (vocalist) Eric (Martin) was here.' So a couple of e-mails started floating back and forth and the next thing you know, we said, 'Well, let's get together and have dinner just to hang,' and right at that point, we just said, 'Yeah, let's just do it.. The good thing about it is that nobody dangled cash in front of us. It didn't come from outside of us. It wasn't where someone had an idea and said, 'Yeah, let's put your band back together. Let's put you on a bus somewhere for six months before you break up again.' So it actually came from us, from our desire to really want to play together again and how much we loved the band. It was self-generated and organic in that respect, so now it's going to happen again."

(Thanks: Deep Purple Italia)