WHY THERE ISN'T MORE OPEN ACCESS TELEVISION

It was a nice idea - to raise money for Hurricane Katrina victims (or, at least, keep them afloat until that Michael jackson benefit shows up), VH1 invited people to donate $35k and programme an hour of music on the US version of the channel. A great idea.

Until somebody ponied up the cash and asked to have 99 Red Balloons and 99 Luftballons back to back, for an hour.

We once spent a new year's eve in a pub where someone stacked the jukebox to play Altogether Now non-stop; we imagine the feeling would be similar.

music nena vh1 hurricane katrina