No Rock And Roll Fun

WHAT THE POP PAPERS SAY: COMMONWEALTH GOLD EDITION:
the coral gaze out of the cover of this week's Guardian TV guide - we'll expect Gigwise.com to complain that they didn't give space to ladytron and the Hungarian wandering minsterals who crash into Keith's Wine Bar every week too. We fully expect the coral to be on the cover of The Face by Christmas...

meanwhile, the guardian weekend interviews Bobby Gillespie - he's happier to talk politics than he was with the nme, but actually acts like the woman in the literacy ads and asks to use the toilet when he's challenged over a claim that "Your next-door neighbour could easily work in a concentration camp. That's all that was, allowing a lot of people to live out their basest, sickest fantasies. That's why people join the army, put on the uniform. It's to mutilate and get paid for it." As with the nme piece last week, there's a feeling that Bobby worries he's not smart enough for this level of debate, like he's about to be caught out. He needn't worry - a bit more courage of his convictions wouldn't be misplaced...

nmeconomics continue to bemuse - the edition with the Glastonbury poster and the edition with the Oasis poster cost £1-70; this week, there's an Eminem and Radiohead poster but they haven't stuck the price up - and it comes with Bring It On as well. Maybe Kings Reach Tower have finally listened to the voice of the people who like their free gifts free...

excitingly, despite being in Liverpool, we've been given the Scotland edition of Bring It On - which has features on The Prodigy (not playing anywhere nearer Scotland than Leeds); Primals (not playing Scotland); the Bring It On Night in Bristol; The Vines in Manchester and Sheffield. The must see gig is Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Reading/Leeds. At least Slipknot are playing Glasgow, spose. Sure, there's scottish listings at the back, but there's not really much point in this being regional at all...

for the nme proper, we got the Westward/Southern/Channel edition with a live shot of Thom Yorke on the front with a shot so unflattering it's unlikely he'll ever want to talk to the nme again...

news: grohl says the Foo Fighters will not split - apparently a week with Queens of the Stone Age was enough to convince him he was better off at home. Besides, if he wasn't in the Foo, when would he get the chance to dress up as a woman again?; Travis won't play without Neil Primrose - "without him, Travis is incomplete" says an official statement. Maybe, but being without talent hasn't stopped you in the past; that there interyweb has already got all the new Radiohead songs on it - Jonny Greenwood seems unbothered - "I hear they're a bit rough sounding - a good thing, possibly, as it smudges the songs which are a little out of focus"); Suede have written a song about Oxide and Neutrino, which is a bit like Jeanette Winterson doing a novel about Kathy Lette; The Vines have done America, leaving a trail of drool in their wake; here's an oddity: a "representative" of Oasis has contacted the NME to deny that a member of the band was found carrying drugs at an Italian airport - just a routine search, nothing found - but why would a band who cheerfully trill about snorting coke be concerned at such a tale in the first place?; the Appletons documentary is going to be so "warts and all" it will feature Liam Gallagher with a joint (as in meat, as in carving); Steven Gerrard is going to appear in a video with mates The Crescent; Underworld say they nearly gave it all up because they didn't think they had anything else to offer - like that's ever stopped a band before; and there's a nice full frontal shot of Rick from ash, a still from their new Slashed mini-movie...

Death in vegas do the ten track cd breakdown thingy - Ramones, Patti Smith; and - joy - Ciccone Youth (but it's addicted to love rather than into the groove(y))...

on bands - halo (hello, Kerrang TV, we've got another three minutes filled here) and My Computer - which the nme call "Manctronic" which is so perfect, we might even have not begrudged the extra 20p this week...

"You are lucky to have such a friendly prince" observes Shakira, with whom mark beaumont is granted a few moments, which he uses well, discovering that the Colombian one is, apparently, unable to say "fuck" when there's a tape running - a great loss to children's TV...

the anger management tour is under way, so the nme goes to watch. You want to believe Mark 'busy man' Beaumont when he says Eminem has become a genuine thorn in the side of the american body politic, but from the report, it sounds more like he's the rapping Al-Fayed...

more reviews-dressed-upas-features, with the Radiohead tour visited by johnny davis. It is worth the entry fee for Thom Yorke describing John Humphrys as "a man you can trust." A four-page radioheadrospective follows, which is as good a primer/appreciation of the band as you could hope for this side of Mojo Originals...

review section proper has the fall -totally wired ("not conclusive, but vivid", 8); primal scream - evil heat ("electro-punk anthems about Nazi-uniformed love vixens", 8); the pattern - real feelness ("reckons life is there to be grabbed", 8); def leppard - x ("best rock album since Andrew WK's I get wet", XI)...

sotw is coldplay - in my place ('yellow times ten') - rather than flaming lips - do you realize?? ("if you hear a more heart-swellingly human record this year...") or hell is for heroes - i can climb mountains ("cider")...

live: idlewild in Hanover ("just the tip of the creative iceberg"); ex-girl in the Spitz ("super space cool. On speed, obviously"); my vitriol at the astoria ("[for a while] a jarring mess of sound layers")...

and finally, from angst, a good point from anthony thompson who suggests that taking issue with Bobby over the phrase 'Bomb the pentagon' is to deal with issues in the same way new labour do. Unfortunately, he was responding to a letter writer who had mentioned BTP ("you decided it was just a stupid phrase one day? what day was that?") and had then gone on to make a more important point that Bobby says if people have a problem with him, they should talk to him to his face; then, when the nme asked him questions to his face, he refused to talk about the subject...

Bobby Gillespie Guardian interview in full
and the nme in digital form