The Cult eject fan for using phones

The suspicion that it must be like going back in time to see The Cult live in 2013 doesn't exactly vanish when you discover that Ian Astbury had someone ejected for texting during a set in Fort Lauderdale. Boca mag was there:

[A]s the band tore through some of its greatest hits during the second set, things got personal. Astbury went off on someone near the front of the stage who was texting one minute and, apparently, shouting at the singer the next. In between songs, Astbury took large swigs from his water bottle and spit it at the person in question. Not once, not twice, but three times.

“You’re ignorant—and you’re rude,” Astbury shouted into the mic. “I call it like I see it ... If you can’t handle it, go home. This is a Cult concert!”

Ironically, given that Astbury had also been moaning about people videoing the band on their phones, the moment where this screen-jabber was plucked from the crowd by security was, erm, filmed on a phone. It's probably the most entertaining thing that's happened at a Cult gig in recent years:

It is terribly rude to the people around you to hog the front row while not really being interested in what's going on upon the stage; equally, though, if you're an entertainer and your audience are choosing to play Candy Crush instead... it doesn't make it sound like you're very compelling.

Big Boi stays out of jail

To the disappointment of many, Florida prison inmates aren't going to get to use the "so why do they call you Big Boi" line, at least not now: He's cut a deal to keep himself out of jail.

Mr. Boi had been arrested in August after getting off a cruise ship with various bits of drugs about his person. Frankly, we're bemused why anyone who had a bunch of drugs would have any left by the time they reached the end of a cruise.

Avril Lavigne swears in the Tropicana

It's strange that the report of Avril Lavigne's apparent cussing of technicians cannot find space to say what she swore, but does make sure the naming rights holder of the venue gets a full mention:

The frustrated Sk8er Boi hitmaker finally unleashed on the technicians as 25,000 fans looked on in disbelief.

A Rays spokesman has since issued a statement which reads, "The [Tampa Bay] Rays demand profanity-free performances from all of our concert performers, and we are extremely disappointed... It is not consistent with the atmosphere that Tropicana Field is known for."

I suspect most of the 25,000 fans who were looking on in disbelief were more surprised that Avril Lavigne was still going rather than that she swore.

But what did she say? What did she say?

Luckily, the New York Daily News knows:

"[Sound system problems] fucking happen on a baseball field," she yelled into the mic at the family-friendly stadium.

She'd snapped when people started booing her. And, clearly, assumed they were booing because she hadn't started playing, rather than because she'd turned up to try and play.

Lavigne did try to apologise:

"We just had so much fun tonight and we want to take the tirade out and say thank you to the Tampa Bay Rays!" she said. "I'm truly sorry if anyone was offended by my language."

No apology for anyone who was horrified by the music.

Talking Heads cut a deal with Crist

Charlie Crist had used Talking Heads music without permission in a political advert.

Now we get a grovelling apology from a former Florida governor:



Do you suppose David Byrne signed off the line "for using his famous song and unique voice"? He wouldn't have actually suggested that wording, would he? It can't have been the record label, though, as the phrase "available at Target, FYE and online record stores" would have been jackhammered in, too.

I guess that's just about the most humiliating thing a politician has done since... well, Nick Clegg popping up on Daybreak this morning.

David Byrne sues Charlie Crist

At first, I thought the news alert said Byrne was suing Christ, but on closer inspection it was Crist - someone with a God complex, but not the family connections. Billboard reports:

The suit (Case Number 8:10-CV1187-T26 (MAP)) was filed early Monday afternoon in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa.

Byrne tells Billboard.com that he became aware of the Crist ad from a friend in New York, where the Talking Heads co-founder resides. "I was pretty upset by that," says Byrne, who had Warner Bros. Records contact the Crist campaign, which subsequently stopped using the ad. But, Byrne contends, "in my opinion the damage had already been done by it being out there. People that I knew had seen (the ad), so it had gotten around. The suit, he adds, "is not about politics...It's about copyright and about the fact that it does imply that I would have licensed it and endorsed him and whatever he stands for."

Crist is running as an independent for Senator; the Florida governor had used Road To Nowhere in an attack ad on a rival for the Republican nomination.

Byrne is asking for a million dollars. But it's not about the money, of course. It never is.

Buju Banton locked up in Miami

It must be frustrating for Buju Banton - all that time shaking hands with gays, trying to convince people that he's not really as homophobic as his gay-hating music makes him seem, and what happens when he finally turns up in America to play some gigs?

He's arrested on drugs charges and thrown in the slammer.

The Floridian authorities are linking him to five kilos of cocaine, with intent to supply. Let's hope Buju has a plausible explanation, or he might be finding more time to explore how he feels about close personal contact with other men.

Rock sick list: Tone Loc

It is quite hot in Florida, especially if you're playing out of doors. And Tone Loc is in his 40s now. So perhaps it's not entirely surprising he collapsed onstage after complaining about the heat.

Mind you, going to play in Florida and complaining about the heat is a bit like doing a gig in Amish country and moaning about having to wind up the amps.

And given that he's only got two songs that anyone would want to hear, it's not like he would have had to be out on stage for long, is it?

Bon Jovi gig turns into confused people standing around waiting for loud noise

Bon Jovi's Florida date this weekend was disrupted when a bomb hoax was phoned through to local police. Well, actually, it was a bomb threat that was phoned in - you wouldn't bother ringing the cops up to tell them you were pulling a hoax, would you?

The venue was evacuated, but police found nothing of any interest during a search; afterwards, the fans were allowed back in and still nothing of any interest happened.

Mindy returns

It's been a while since we heard from Mindy McCready, but she's managed to break her silence by getting herself arrested in Florida. She tried to not get arrested, so she's got a charge of resisting arrest sitting alongside the original battery-related misdemeanor charges. We've missed you, Mindy. Welcome back.

Selling second hand CDs? What are you, some kind of terrorist?

The record industry has been grumbling about the second hand CD market for years now - all those discs, being sold legitimately, and they're not seeing a red cent from them. Trouble is, people have always had the right to sell their own property, should they wish, so flogging your old records has always been legal.

That's starting to change, reports Scientific American. New laws in Florida and Wisconsin, and planned for other states, is making the current system of selling your discs (queue up, bloke goes through your offered records into three mysterious piles, picks up the smallest of the three and says he'll give you a heartbreakingly small sum of money) a little more complex:

In Florida, the new legislation requires all stores buying second-hand merchandise for resale to apply for a permit and file security in the form of a $10,000 bond with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. In addition, stores would be required to thumb-print customers selling used CDs, and acquire a copy of state-issued identity documents such as a driver's license. Furthermore, stores could issue only store credit -- not cash -- in exchange for traded CDs, and would be required to hold discs for 30 days before reselling them.

Yep, in Florida, you can't offload that double copy of B*Witched's Relax and Breathe without having your dabs taken. Clearly, this is a lot more effort than its worth - both for the store, forced to hold the records for a month before they can sell them (what is that, quarantine? To check they've not got cooties?) - and for the seller, who can no longer turn his unwanted discs into vodka, cigarettes or rent.

Second hand stores are already having trouble competing with plummeting CD prices and eBay; the inability to buy stock for cold hard cash could make it harder for them to attract stuff people might want to buy. The second hand CD industry is one of the shining, successful lights of recycling - so why would anyone seek to kill it?

(may contain traces of other bands)

Mark Steel famously worries if he's really seen the Four Tops or not, on account of how the Four Tops which he saw contained Four Tops, but none of the Tops which started out.

He won't need to have these philosophical worries if he moves to Florida; there, the Senate is about to pass into law a ruling that any band must contain at least one original member before it can bill itself under the name.

The law doesn't apply if people have paid to use the band's name as a trademark, though. Apparently, the audience isn't being ripped off if the ringers have paid someone else to do it.

Look out below, Average

The Average White Band nearly got squished after a roof collapsed on the stage of the Riviera Beach jazz festival in Florida just a few minutes after they finished their soundcheck.

It's not clear yet what actually caused the roof to cave in - the stage-riggers have experience of this sort of event, and although city officials are carrying out an investigation, there doesn't appear to have been any extreme weather incidents that might have led to the near-disaster. As it turned out, only one person was injured, and that was a mild cut to the elbow.

The Average White Band pulled out of the show, unhappy with the repairs made to the stage, and although the event went ahead, selective refunds are being offered to make ammends for the bands running three hours late as a result.

The Riviera Beach Jazz Festival is a little ill-charmed; last year, the event made losses of getting on for a quarter of a million dollars. The city is still embroiled in legal action to try and square that particular mess.