DID ANYONE THINK THIS THROUGH?: We were a little surprised to see coverage of Bush's public appearance in front of the faithful of Florida on the Ten O'Clock News last night: there he was, the President Who Will Keep Your Family Safe bounding around the stadium to the sounds of Gary Glitter.

Now, we know that Glitter's fall from grace and exposure as a habitual user of child porn hasn't affected the popularity of Rock & Roll at American sports events, but you'd think the Republicans would have had a better handle on their organisation than to allow Bush to appear with the apparent ringing endorsement of a paedophile playing proudly behind him.

AND NOT A LORD MCDONALD IN SIGHT: Silent Words Speak Loudest has got their third round of Right To Reply online now, looking at what the future might hold for recorded music. We're in there, but there's also people who know what they're talking about.

CRAZY IN LOVE: There was a sketch on the Fry and Laurie Bit Of series a few years back where Hugh played a woman on a Right To Reply style programme who was complaining that a show would have been horrible for her children to have seen, and it was only through the luck that they hadn't yet been born which saved them. Meanwhile, Beyonce has decided that her children will be protected from the ugly glare of publicity, protection she is currently offering through not having conceived them yet.

OH, GOOD FUCKING BLOODY MERRY HELL: We used to enjoy Bridget Jones' Diary back during the days of Andy Marr's Independent. It was a nice, light fluffy piece of nonesense which added a small extra piece of pleasure to pop papers day. Had we known, however, that it was eventually going to lead to Sting and Annie Lennox recording a song together, we would have taken Helen Fielding to one side and begged her to stop.

NUMBER CRUNCHING, SUCKING, AND NIBBLING: The Register has got some analysis of the latest trends in music downloads and the Microsoft v Apple war acoming. Some of the tastier figures are:

Apple has now sold two million iPods, and 150 million iTunes downloads. This works out as an average of every iPod owner buying 75 songs, then, which - if we take at face value the claims that Apple clears only a couple of cents profit on each download - still makes a healthy return in anyone's books.

The number of MP3s on people's computers is falling, as people are deleting faster than they download. There was a drop of 742 million mp3 files in the US between summer 2003 and 2004. Which means that all that RIAA panic about losing sales? Proven again to be bollocks, as if they had sold those tracks on CD, they would have been returned to the store. Illegal downloading, in short, isn't stealing sales, it's just putting the Customer Services desks of Virgin Megastores out of business.

MP3's share is starting to slip - 72 per cent of all PC stored music against 82 per cent a year ago.

I'M NOT TALKING TO THEM, EITHER: Interesting spin on a story that Pete Doherty has "ruled out" rejoining The Libertines because they're not responding to his attempts to make contact. We'd suggest that's a little more like they've ruled out your return a little more strongly, Pete.

THEY COULD CALL IT, I DUNNO, THE STATE THAT I AM IN, OR SOMETHING: Plans are afoot, as so often they are, and this time the idea is to turn Belle and Sebastian and Stephen Duffy songs into comic books, although it's not being indicated yet which songs will get the treament. Presumably not the clunker that Duffy has just written for Robbie, the briefly number one hit Radio. Actually, while we're just kicking Williams, why has he remade Ash's remake of the Smells Like Teen Spirit video? Is he really so dried up for ideas?

SHAME AND PRIDE ON THE FAMILY NAME: Oh, good god, Rufus Wainwright, is it basd enough you have to record a duet with Dido at all, much less use your mother's I Eat Dinner as the song? Your father would be turning in his grave, were he dead.

Thank god we can rely on your a href="http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/10490.html">sister Martha Wainwright, freshly signed to Drowned In Sound Records and about to release a UK debut.



Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole will be followed by an album in the new year. So she's released a song called Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole, while her brother's just worked with one.

DANTE QUITS THE INFERNO: Hot Hot Heat are now a guitarist down; DeCaro had made a decision to leave but appears to have worked out a period of notice allowing the band to complete the prep work for the next album.

BLEEDING STAUNCHED: Trent Reznor has scrapped plans to call the new Nine Inch Nails album Bleedthrough - apparently while he was working on the record the title became less and less appropriate. Expect it - under whatever name - March 2005. The new title is currently a secret, but we're guessing it will be something like Blood Fist, or Heavy Slap, or Chained By The Testicles.

STONEY BROKE: She may have already earned nearly five million quid, but her parents aren't letting her touch any of it until she's twenty five - so Joss Stone claims she has less ready cash than her friend Emily. Emily works in a Burger King (which means there may be a slim shady lurking inside her, itself a disturbing thought). Her parents have been persuaded to think about reducing the age where Joss gets her hands on the cash, but they seem reluctant for her to have it just yet. We'd imagine the words "Charlotte" and "Church" are etched in their minds.

PROBABLY MORE SIGNIFICANT THAN THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF ELVIS: Yeah, Elvis recording for the first time was quite important in the development of rock, but without the transistor radio - which turned fifty yesterday - there would have been no rock and roll. At all. And, in fact, by stimulating the development of other consumer uses for the transistor, which lead to the microchip, there wouldn't be any downloading or iPods or anything much today, either.

Sigh. We loved our little Boots TR75. Made us the slightly odd man we are today.

BUY MARTHA REEVES: Martha Reeves is pissed off with Ebay following an item offered through the site which featured her social security number and signature. The information was on the contract she signed to take part in Saturday Night Live; it's the sort of thing sold all the time by autograph shops but at least, we guess, in the past you couldn't just copy the numbers without buying the item.

THE SEX LIFE OF THE POTATO WOMAN: Is it just us, or does Christina sound increasingly like those people who appear on Channel 4 and 5 documnetaries convinced their rather tame sex lives are fantastically outrageous?:

Pop star Christina Aguilera has revealed her kinky sex secrets and fantasies, and also admitted that she loves 'bondage sex'.

"If a lover wants to experiment with handcuffs, then that's fair enough for me," News of the World quoted Christina as saying.

"What's the point of holding back that side of your personality if it's horny and turns you both on," she added.

The belief that "experimenting with handcuffs" is on a par with bondage sex is like confusing Anne Summers with a sex shop, of course. Ooh, Christina, you're so daring. If only there was some vague sapphic-lite about you, too... Hang on:

"I must admit the idea of two women getting it on does do it for me as well. Women are beautiful creatures and the sight of them kissing or caressing each other is horny."

Everything's horny, huh?

If you need any further proof that Christina is actually a lot of talk and mostly tame, there's this:

"I've spotted guys in the crowd and thought, 'Wow, I like the look of you!' You do fantasise about inviting them backstage after the show," she said.

Surely someone who was really dirrrrrty wouldn't just stand there thinking "Ooh, imagine if I took him for a vimto after the show"? Wouldn't it make more sense to be sending the roadies out into the crowd?

NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE: PJ Harvey was due to play a gig in Kansas last night, but the band got stuck in Toronto and couldn't make it. It's going to be refunds rather than rescheduling.

AND THEN KYLIE SAID TO JASON: Let's hope he can get time off from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, as it's claimed Kylie has invited Jason Donovan to appear on the greatest hits tour. Singing Especially For You, we presume, rather than just as a dancer or something.

Stefan Denis is currently requesting all other callers leave his phoneline free in case he gets offered the support slot.

LUNA LANDINGS: Dean Wareham has told Pitchfork the reasons for the announcement that Luna will cease to exist early next year:

"It's an interesting question. People are always like 'why?,' Wareham laughed. "I'm still doing interviews with people who are asking me why did Galaxie 500 break up. You know, that's just what bands do, and I think that is sort of the basic reason. You start a band, it's not going to last forever, and at a certain point you've got to stop... unless you're Metallica, or R.E.M., or the Rolling Stones, where they're not just bands, they're like multi-million dollar corporations, and if they were to quit then all sorts of people would stop making their huge paychecks. We've been around a long time, and I think it's different in your twenties than when you hit forty. In your twenties you don't have a care in the world, and you're out there sleeping on someone's floor, but you're like, 'Hey, isn't this great!' And after awhile..."

We wonder if they'd stick together for the support slot on the Kylie tour?

CHARLIES ANGELS THEME CHANGES JAPAN FOREVER: It's hard for Beyonce Knowles to overstate her influence on the world, but she has actually managed it: apparently Independent Women Part One apparently changed Japanese women's self-image overnight:

"This Japanese girl came to us and said, after Independent Women, that a lot of Japanese young ladies started being more proud to have their own jobs.

"Because before, they didn't, you know.

"That's culture we changed. In our own little way. A little bit."

What we like about this is you can actually spot the point where Beyonce realised she'd completely overstated her case and started to try and rein it back in.

SAY NO TO DRUGS, KIDS: Joe Walsh, former member of the Eagles and a man who did so much cocaine that his decision to quit sent shares in the companies which make credit cards and mirrors tumbling, has funded his own tour of New Zealand to encourage people to say NO to drugs. It's all good and great of him, and well intentioned, but we do wonder about his claim that "If I have come all this way and anything I say saves one life, then my trip has been worth it." Really? But the cost of mounting the tour, and the time and effort of flying over to New Zealand, would it really be made worthwhile by saving just one life? Couldn't the costs of the tour equally fund more direct intervention for, say, a dozen people, and if the aim of the trip is to save lives, wouldn't that be a more worthwhile use of funds? Or should you just set your sights on what you want to do a little higher?

FIRST, JOHN HOWARD WINS ANOTHER TERM, THEN THIS: e've always felt Australia to be something of a magical place for music, from the Go Betweens via the Sugargliders and Lucksmiths even unto Kylie. Then we see the results of the ARIAS, the Australian music awards, and we shudder - have things got so dark for the lucky country they really believe Jet to be not merely something of which to be proud, but worthy of sweeping a board?

Album Of The Year – Jet ‘Get Born’
Single Of The Year – Jet ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’
Best Group – Jet ‘Get Born’
Breakthrough Artist Album – Jet ‘Get Born’
Breakthrough Artist Single – Jet ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’
Best Male Artist – John Butler
Best Female Artist – Kasey Chambers
Best Pop Release – Missy Higgins ‘Scar’
Best Rock Album – Jet ‘Get Born’
Best Dance Release – Infusion ‘Girls Can Be Cruel’
Best Urban Release – Koolism ‘Part 3 – Random Thoughts’

MARC UPDATE: The latest news on Marc Almond's condition following the motorcycle accident: he's stable; his family are requesting privacy, according to a hospital statement.

WE'LL STILL KNOW IT'S YOU, LOVE: Almost as if she knows how bored we all are of her now, Geri Halliwell is attmepting to fool people into buying her next single by dropping her surname. Even more amusingly, she's no longer going to use a dot on the i in Geri, but she's going to use a star instead. Which would look a little sad if a nine year old girl did it, never mind a 45 year old woman.

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE: Jesus, if Ananova are running "Delia Smith baked the cake on the cover of Let It Bleed" as a news story, what will be tomorrow's headlines? "McCartney barefoot on Abbey Road cover: Believed dead"?

ANOTHER MILLION IN THE BANK: Elton John has had one of his periodic auctions, selling off USD900,000 worth of photos. We don't think this one was included in the sale:

ROCK SICK LIST: Bad news to kick off the week, I'm afarid: Following a motorcycle accident in the City of London yesterday, Marc Almond is critically ill in hospital. The bike he was riding pillion on was hit by a car at the junction of Cannon Street and New Change. Fingers crossed and good wishes.

DEWAR'S DREAM DERIDED BY MANSON: Shirley Manson ain't happy with Hollyrood House: she thinks it's ugly and too expensive:

Rumour has it that it is absolutely beautiful on the inside.

'Let's hope so, because it looks like a dog's dinner on the outside. 'It really breaks my heart whenever I look at it.

'Edinburgh is one of the most architecturally stunning cities you can ever hope to see.

'The city is a treasure, so why have we sunk so much money into erecting a building that fails to acknowledge the history and the beauty, the mood and the grace of its surroundings?'
It was supposed to have cost £40million. It is totally beyond my comprehension how the estimates could have possibly been so far off the mark.

'That all said, at least this monstrous squandering of public funds has now been put behind us and there is nothing else for it but for the elected politicians inside our Parliament to begin to truly justify the expense.

'My country deserves nothing less.'

Oddly, the Sunday Mail thinks this is Shirl "changing her tune" since she played at the festivities to mark the winning of the devolved Parliament - lthough complaining about architecture is surely not the same thing as dismissing the concept of what goes on inside, is it?

Vixen2 Garbage YahooGroup

IS IT JUST US...: Or is there something wrong about Goths giving interviews to complain that their public image is being tarnished by assocations with death and vampires and blood. It's like punks hiring advertising space to complain at being linked with bondage trousers and spitting.

CAN'T SOMETHING BE DONE TO STOP THIS SORT OF THING?: Even although surely even Heat has lost interest in her by now, Nadia from Big Brother has recorded a single.



Apparently she wants to "make an impact on the charts." So far, thank god, she's not had anyone foolish enough to offer her a deal, so we may yet be spared the blight. Just in case, though, here is a warning from history:

ROBBIE AND THE PROBATION OFFICER: We normally wouldn't give much consideration to a claim in the News of the World that Robbie Williams is dating a probation officer called Lisa Brash, but we were tickled by "a source's" observation:

"Lisa's job is far from glamorous. She deals with drug dealers, robbers and proper criminals."

So, she won't be out of place when she's hanging out with Robbie's music industry friends, then.

IF YOU BOOK HIM, HE WILL COME...: Okay, he might come... unless it's Pete Doherty, of course. He failed to turn up yesterday to take part in a European Social Forum discussion in London yesterday.