Sonisphere Knebworth has announced three headliners and the first batch of bands for its 2012 event, taking place July 6th - 8th at Knebworth House, UK, with tickets available from Sonisphere.co.uk from 9 AM, Thursday, February 23rd.

Shooting rockets. Blood spitting. Face Paint. Shiny Boots and utterly jaw dropping triumphant live shows: Sonisphere is proud to announce KISS as Friday's headliner. With a reputation for being perhaps the most flamboyant and entertaining band on the planet, the American Kings will bring their stage extravaganza to Sonisphere as their only European performance of 2012. While many bands have been chasing the eye liner shock horror dollar and have come and gone without changing the face of music as we know it, KISS have gone from strength to strength garnering praise, success and too many accolades to mention throughout the years, selling over 100 million albums worldwide and counting as the band is poised to unleash new album 'Monster' in June 2012.

Says the band: “You wanted the best, you got the best, the hottest band in the world, KISS."

Sonisphere festival is KISS’ invitation to have the best time of your life with long lost friends such as the anthemic 'Rock N Roll All Night', the jubilant singalong 'I Was Made For Lovin' You' and the rallying cry of 'God Gave Rock N Roll To You II'. We would ask you to lock up your daughters, girlfriends and wives, but with GENE SIMMONS in town, it's pretty clear there's no stopping them. And if you can't fight them, join them at their only European show of 2012.

With a quarter of a century having since passed, rock legends QUEEN are to return to play a second concert at the venue that provided them with the setting for one of their biggest and most historic concerts.

Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor have confirmed the band will headline the second day of Sonisphere appearing on the Apollo stage on Saturday July 7th. Knebworth was the setting for Queen's final concert with FREDDIE MERCURY, in August 1986.

May and Taylor also confirmed that for this very special event they will be joined by US singer-songwriter ADAM LAMBERT.

The potent chemistry between Queen and Lambert broke the surface when at the invitation of Brian May and Roger Taylor, Lambert joined them for the closing showcase at the recent MTV Europe Awards where Queen were present to collect their Global Icon award.

Says Brian May: “Judging by my incoming mail, this decision will make a lot of people very happy. It's a worthy challenge for us, and I'm sure Adam would meet with Freddie's approval! And what better place to revisit, and walk those emotional paths than Knebworth? It will be a rush.”

For the final, Sunday night, Sonisphere Knebworth is proud to announce the legendary FAITH NO MORE as the headline act on the Apollo stage.

Onstage irreverent, uncompromising, unpredictable and dazzling at every turn, FNM have been setting new standards in exciting rock performance for more than two decades now. With classics such as ‘Falling To Pieces’, ‘Epic’, ‘Midlife Crisis’ and ‘Be Aggressive’, Mike Bordin, Roddy Bottum, Bill Gould, Jon Hudson and Mike Patton are poised to set Knebworth on fire when they close the last night at Sonisphere with their only UK appearance of 2012.

Says bass player Billy Gould: "It was over 2 years ago when we decided to reform and play those amazing UK shows. The good news is, we've had a couple of years to improve our skills; moving our song to error ratio down 3.5 full percentage points. Watch out UK, we're going to do it right this time!!"

Other acts confirmed currently include: WITHIN TEMPTATION, WOLFMOTHER, EVANESCENCE, THE DARKNESS, FLOGGING MOLLY, GOJIRA, LACUNA COIL, INCUBUS, MARILYN MANSON, CYPRESS HILL, ANDREW W.K., REFUSED, MASTODON, THE BLACKOUT, FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM, GHOST, SWITCHFOOT, I KILLED THE PROM QUEEN, KATATONIA, TIM MINCHIN.

Tickets are on sale from 9 AM, Thursday, February 23rd from Sonisphere.co.uk or 0844 871 8803 priced at £145 for weekend tickets, £170 for three days with camping, £180 for four days with camping, a very limited number of day tickets available for £75. A deposit scheme will be launched at the same time for those who want to spread the cost of their ticket. A deposit of £50 will secure a weekend ticket, with the balance due anytime before 30th April 2011.

Rock Royalty and Day VIP packages are also available at Sonisphere.co.uk.