The spaceman sues Dido

Dido stuck a NASA picture on the cover of her 2008 record, Safe Trip Home. It features a tiny little astronaut floating in space.

Trouble is, the astronaut, Bruce McCandless (no, I hadn't, either) is suing claiming that the use violates his privacy rights.

Sure, you go floating in space you don't expect to be papped, but... seriously?

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As Techdirt observes:

[I]t's difficult to see how much of a claim he has. It's not as if he's identifiable in the image, or that anyone will see it and think: "Hey, I'll buy this album because I know astronaut Bruce McCandless endorsed it." That's ridiculous. Most people will have no idea who the astronaut is, nor will they even care.

To be frank, the hardest thing for McCandless to do is to prove that anyone knows who he is before he can start to claim people are trading on his image. Surely this is just a shot of an unnamed guy at work?

Also: why has it taken him two years to file this claim? Has he been on Mars or something?

U2 waving into space

More coverage of the start of the U2 tour, with the Guardian reading the Spanish press, who seem bedazzled by Bono's wiles:

Spanish reviewers were overwhelmed by the "rock power" display and struggled desperately to interpret the message in a show that featured astronauts, a video of Desmond Tutu, football, and, significantly, a Michael Jackson tribute, with Bono dedicating Angel of Harlem to the King of Pop, before playing Man In the Mirror and Don't Stop Till You Get Enough.

"This is rock designed to move both mountains and consciousnesses," concluded El Periódico newspaper.

The conversation between Bono and the space station commander was perhaps the most bizarre element of the evening. "Commander, can you see Barcelona?" Bono asked the man floating near the microphone. "Right now, the most beautiful sight in our cosmos is the blue planet earth," came the answer.

"We must look very insignificant from up there," noted the critic for El País newspaper.

It's unclear if he means from space, or from whatever ego-cloud Bono is sitting on.

Trouble is, with all this guff - designed to showcase how powerful Bono is and what his connections can do - they seem to overlooked one key aspect of a gig: being any good at music:

Most disappointing for El Pais readers was Bono fluffing two classics, One and With or Without You.

"The truth is that it was disappointing, especially compared to previous tours, full of mistakes and bad songs (from the last album)," said Alex, a reader-reviewer for El País. "To say that Bono wrecked two major songs like One and With or Without You tells you more than enough."

But who cares, eh? Look! Look! It's a spaceman on a telephone!

[Thanks to James M for the story]

Bunnymen in space

Well, that's going to piss off Julian Cope - Ian McCulloch is getting to space before him:

Echo & The Bunnymen are set to launch a copy of their 1984 album Ocean Rain into space.

NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra is set to take a copy of the classic album, his favorite record, with him when he blasts off to the International Space Station on June 13.

Somewhat surprisingly, Yahoo Music News implies that NASA are somehow just part of Warners marketing machine:

The mission ties in with a boxed-set reissue of the album, set for release on May 30. The set will include a live version of the album recorded in the Liverpool Arena last November, plus a DVD documentary and booklet.

This is good news for NASA, who had to cancel the last Shuttle mission when the Bob Dylan album leaked online.