The surviving members of The Doors have announced they will record and play next year with a new line up including ex-Cult singer Ian Astbury on vocals.

Astbury will stand in for the late Jim Morrison, whose death in 1971 led to the group's eventual disbandment.

The reformed Doors will also feature Stewart Copeland, who was the drummer in The Police.

The new music is different from the Doors, but decidedly Doors-like

Ray Manzarek

The surviving members of the Californian blues-rock band, Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger, unveiled the new line-up at a gig at a motorcycle convention in Los Angeles in September.

They will now play more concerts - and return to the studio to make the band's first studio album since American Prayer, a 1978 release of Morrison reading poetry of Doors music.

"Thirty years after our last gig was long enough to wait," guitarist Krieger said.

The band will start touring in May, playing small venues in the US. They also hope to play festival dates in Europe and the US.

Tinnitus

The band has not secured a record deal for any new material yet.

"The new music is different from the Doors, but decidedly Doors-like," keyboardist Manzarek said.

"We're going in various directions musically."

Ian Astbury, who will stand in for the late Jim Morrison

Original drummer John Densmore is not able to play the drums because he suffers from severe tinnitus.

Astbury, 40, became a huge star with rock band The Cult in the early 1990s. Since they split, he has played with another group, Holy Barbarians, and released solo material.

Copeland, 50, has become a respected composer and film scorer since the Police split in 1986.

Morrison, who became a huge star as the leader of The Doors, died in the bath in his Paris apartment of a suspected drug overdose.

The band's story was retold in a 1988 film by director Oliver Stone.

Thousands of fans still visit Morrison's grave in the French capital's Pere Lachaise cemetery. Police guard the tomb to protect it from tourists.