Don't make James Blunt angry. You'd like him even less when he's angry.

James Blunt is hopping mad. He'd been due to play a gig on Lykavittos Hill, in Athens. A few short hours before the first, the authorities stepped in to ban the events on public safety grounds.

Trouble is, both Nick Cave and Mark Knopfler had been allowed to play. And a letter saying that it was okay had disappeared.

James is very angry indeed:

“In the best case it’s carelessness and in the worst case corruption,” an angry Blunt told Ta Nea, the Athens daily paper, sensing a conspiracy.

A conspiracy of whom? Music lovers?

There's a vague hint that because Blunt was in the army, there might be some Balkan-related sleight of hand going on, but really, we suspect it comes down to an old-fashioned filing error. Surely, if any corruption was involved, it would be more likely trying to persuade someone to take an interest in putting Blunt on the top of a hill than from stopping him marching up there?

Greek gigs end in violence

Two Athens concerts came to a nasty end at the weekend. Crowds leaving a gig in the Gaki area attacked a plainclothes policeman outside a tube station, while the Ejekt festival collapsed into riot after a gang gatecrashed the venue. Carrying weapons and teargas, the gatecrashers broke in during the Beastie Boy's set, and in the ensuing violence Rick Smith of Underworld was injured. After hospital treatment, Smith returned to the UK.