No Rock And Roll Fun

IF HE'S A GENIUS...: We understand that Danny McNamara is floating of a sea of warm feelings towards Chris Martin - Martin wrote Gravity, the song that lifted Embrace out the dumper (a rare case of someone being lifted up by Gravity). But does McNamara really feel that Martin counts as a "genius"? Really? Or just a good mate who writes alright songs?

"I think [Chris Martin] is a genius, but it’s not easy for him," he said. "I speak to him every week, pretty much, and he sets impossibly high standards for himself and then somehow he manages to reach them.

"The thing of giving us ‘Gravity’ – it’s easy to give away any song, but he gave us a really fucking good one, just like an amazing gift. No matter how good a songwriter you are, a song like that only comes along maybe twice a year."

The trouble is, even if Martin was a genius - and we could fill a book with people who are more fitting of the title than he is - telling him he is would be a bad move anyway: if people gather round saying "You're a genius" you start to believe it, and before you know it, you've turned into Bono sipping wine with Warren Buffett. And nobody wants that.