No Rock And Roll Fun

NEVER MIND THE CHILDREN, WHAT ABOUT OUR BLOODY EARS?: You'd have hoped that people hoping to record a song for charity would manage a quiet dignity as they pitched for the gig, but Geri Halliwell isn't people, is she? She's so in need of a fillip for her career - presumably to give her something to drool on about in a third pointless autobiography - that she's taking her campaign to be the official Children In Need single more-or-less public. Girls Aloud are also in contention; they've recorded a cover of the Pretender's I'll Stand By You. Ballady and with a 'hey, let's stick together' theme - you can see boxes being ticked; you can even picture it running over pictures of kiddies born with no faces and teenagers trapped in pits of eternal fire. You can even see the 'To donate now...' ticker crawling onto the screen as the big crescendo starts. Halliwell, on the other hand, just seems to have rummaged in her tape cupboard and pulled out any old shit - offering her new single 'Ride It' (mmm, lame sexual innuendo to raise money to help abused children; that'll work) or, even more puzzlingly, 'Feel The Fear'. We don't often throw our wieght behind Girls Aloud, even less so behind covers of songs by classy bands, but on this occassion: C'mon, Tweedy!