Fran Healy is pissed at Beyonce

Travis shared a backstage area with Beyonce at a festival. Or they tried to:

Healy tells the Daily Record, "Beyonce locked down the entire backstage area for an hour. Everyone was affected. You'd ask, 'Can I just go there?' and they'd say, 'No. You can't cross this little street'.

"Everyone was just following orders from the gang. I guess that's how Americans do it but it's not how we do it in the U.K. She was headlining the main stage and was half an hour late. The whole area was cut off as if there had been a nuclear disaster."

It's true. Fran never behaved like that when he was famous.

Kasey Anderson changes his plea to guilty

The long, strange story of Kasey Anderson, the West Memphis Three benefit that wasn't and the astute music experts who dumped money into a fraud is drawing to a close, as Anderson changed his plea on wire fraud to guilty.

If you've a moment or two, read Ryan White's piece on Anderson on Oregon Live, where he attempts to unpick a tale featuring impersonation of Springsteen's manager; an unlikely Bruce-GaGa duet; a "non-kickstarter Kickstarter" and "usual rock-star confusion".

Gordon in the morning: Robbie Williams shock

This morning, those paying for The Sun's website will be nodding at each other, and agreeing they were acute to make such an investment. For they can read this story:

Robbie Williams in unironed shirt

...while those on the outside can only wondered about the details.

Every penny spent on The Sun+ is a penny wisely spent, clearly.

Twittergem: Sid Griffin

The once mighty Rolling Stones use One Direction for an endorsement. Shoot...me...now... pic.twitter.com/dq8Q5ebRdI

— Sid Griffin (@SidCPsGriffin) August 22, 2013

Brandy runs dry

The sad story of Brandy coming onstage in a 90,000 seater South African venue to find just 40 people waiting is, well, quite sad. After all, this is the woman who was responsible for the 52nd best selling R&B album in the US last year. She's still quite a big deal.

Her most recent album, Two Eleven, even got a South African release. Albeit without much of a splash, but it least it came out.

There are attempts to put on a brave face:

Singer Kabomo tweeted: "Brandy performed to an empty stadium. With the stadium lights on. She sulked after two songs and walked off.

NME.com reported he later said: "People didn't know there was a concert after the games. No one knew Brandy was around. Maybe a 40 people audience."

Or, possibly, people knew there was a Brandy gig coming, and rapidly made alternative arrangements.

Bookmarks: Sly And The Family Stone

Cynthia Robinson, founding member of the Family Stone, talks to NPR about the process of putting the band together:

Stone himself acknowledged in a 2009 interview with KCRW that he had in mind a mix of race and gender. That mission wasn't always easy: Jerry Martini says he remembers a point when Stone was pressured by the Black Panthers to kick the white members out of the band.

"I was in the airport when they approached and they told me to get ... out of the way," Martini says. "Sly always, always stood up for me, and in many instances, he saved my butt. When I got hit a couple times ... he just stood there ready to fight."

Lief Garrett wanders into empty barn, pledging to shutter door

Leif Garrett is worried about Justin Bieber:

Garrett is telling Bieber not to follow in his footsteps.

"Do not believe your own publicity," Garrett told Bieber, via Fox News. "Sussing out who your real friends are is full-time work. Every scum bag, every drug dealer, every chicken hawk wants a piece of you."

Interestingly, the Windsor Star doesn't even raise a weary head at Garrett's suggestion that Bieber might be at risk from predatory gay men - either to challenge the stereotype, or to ask if Lief had something he'd like to share.

Given Bieber is already - brace yourself - five years into his career, this advice might be coming a little late. Especially since Garrett advising Bieber has overtones of a Dutch Prime Minister warning Hitler to not let power go to his head:

Garrett admitted the craziest thing he ever did was "fly Nicolette Sheridan to New Zealand and brought a diamond. We were toasting her being there with champagne. I dropped the diamond into her glass and she almost swallowed the diamond."

See, here's the problem Leif: you're looking Bieber in the eye (let's pretend you are), telling him 'I went crazy - I bought a plane ticket AND some jewellery.'

Bieber's already pissing on people, Leif. He's threatening to "beat the fuck" out of people. He's taking monkeys to airports and abandoning them there. He's trying to subsume Anne Frank into his fanbase.

While I don't doubt your genuine concern, I can't help thinking you're about three or four years too late with the 'try and keep a handle on it' advice.

Gordon in the morning: Cover story

What do you get for your money if you pay to read Gordon's column on the Sun website today?

He'll tell you about Victoria Beckham's photo on the cover of Australian Vogue.

But you can see that for free on the Australian Vogue website.

The choice is yours.

Gordon in the morning: Evening special

He's not all bad. This is a lovely gesture:

Chantelle and Julie from Great Yarmouth. I had a spare ticket. One happy Directioner! Mum off to pub #ThisIsUs pic.twitter.com/uHi6Ust9XV

— Gordon Smart (@gordonsmart) August 20, 2013

Unclear if anyone had to sign up for The Sun+ first.

Listen with No Rock: Tears For Fears

Tears For Fears covering Arcade Fire, anybody? Here you go:

The Fears (or "The Fears" as nobody calls them) explained why they've done this:

"Having appreciated artists like Kanye West, Katy Perry, Kimbra, Nas, Gary Jules/Michael Andrews, Adam Lambert & Dizzee Rascal covering & sampling our songs over the past years, we agreed that some reciprocal cross-generational love was in order. We decided to give Arcade Fire a twist of TFF. Enjoy."

You've got to tip your hat to Curt and Roland - only they could over-intellectualise 'doing a cover version'.

Gordon in the morning: Money well spent

As you know, Gordon's excellent coverage has been taken, along with the rest of The Sun's business, behind a mighty paywall.

So, what does your money get you this morning?

Gordon's big story is that he went on televison and then he played football with his friend James and then James did score a goal and so Gordon lost but he had fun anyway and it was on the television.

Could there be any more compelling argument to dig into your pockets than knowing you can see someone burbling on about their part in a light spot of TV filler that anyone who might have given a half-hearted honk about would have seen on Saturday anyway?

How does Liam Gallagher do a divorce?

Like everything, he makes it sound like a disappointing attempt to copy something The Beatles have already done: He's hired the lawyer who did Paul McCartney's divorce.

Mel C furious on Matt Cardle's behalf

They've knocked together some sort of new promo film for the next series of X Factor - I suppose based on that one they've already been showing; the one that would have been called a megamix in the past. The one that actually manages to make you go 'maybe Swagger Jagger wasn't that bad at all'.

Trouble is, they've forgotten to put Matt Cardle in it.

Mel C is fuming about that:

“I think it's really f***ing rude the way they have left him out.

“He was such a great ­winner and he’s gone on to do brilliant things. Matt’s possibly one of the best winners on the show.”

If you're wondering where Mel has got the impression that Matt has been doing brilliant things, it helps to know that he's done a duet with her.

It's certainly true that Matt is right up there in the top ten winners of the series, which has had ten winners.

When asked why they left Cardle out of the film, a spokesperson for the X Factor looked blank, scratched his head and said "what's that? Is that Steve Brookstein?"

This week just gone

The most popular pieces on Facebook so far this year:

1. Neil McCormick writes for the Telegraph (a bit that reads like something from The Observer)
2. Johnny Borrell's low sales gently mocked by own label
3. Simon Worrall's benefit album released
4. American right outraged at current affairs cover on current affairs magazine
5. Who was the man with the iPad at Niles Rodger's Glastonbury set?
6. NME's 1993 best singles revisited
7. Vince Cable pours money into doomed DRM projects
8. Rolling Stones at Glastonbury: The aftermath
9. Bouncers at venue set pop quiz to gain entry
10. Michelle Shocked claims she was 'misunderstood' when being hateful about gay people

These were this week's interesting releases:


Glen Campbell - See You There

Download See You There



Washed Out - Paracosm

Download Paracosm



Vuvuvvultures - Push / Pull

Download Push/Pull



Capercaillie - At The Heart Of It All

Download At The Heart Of It All

Ke$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ha

The Associated Press has seen how much the artists playing the Illinois State Fair are getting.

Ke$ha? $200,000. Toby Keith gets $300,000.

Because we can (and because I fancied playing about with Datawrapper) here's a little visualisation of the payments:

Singer accepts money to sing for airline; unhappy at airline promoting this

Megan Washington landed herself a sweet gig just over a year ago - she did a corporate to mark Qantas' 90th birthday, trilling I Still Call Australia Home.

Everyone's happy, right?

Not quite. Qantas have been using video of the song ever since, and Megan's angry about that. So angry, she's launching a lawsuit:

Ms Washington alleges the use was unauthorised, and claims by promoting the song as they did, Qantas misled the public into believing the airline had her approval and support.

You can see her point. There might be some people who are untouched by cynicism enough to think if someone gets up and sings a song for a corporation's birthday, that they might in some way like that corporation. Rather than just being paid to shill.

The whole thing is particularly complicated because, since her turn at Qantas' birthday, Washington has taken on a role promoting Virgin Australia. It's unclear if she approves and supports them any more than she did Qantas. Perhaps we'll all find out in court.

Liking Slayer a bit like hate

There was panic and horror in Commack when hate-filled graffiti appeared near a Little League pitch.

Everyone relaxed a bit when they realised that the graffiti just said Slayer.

I think the pentangle probably threw them a bit.

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.

Gordon in the morning: Glastonbury on the beach

Over in the private area behind the Sun's magnificent paywall, Gordon hears that Mick Jagger is planning his own festival.

Because nothing has a happier historical precedent than a festival that the Rolling Stones have been involved in the organisation of, right?

Gordon quotes a "source"; maybe someone who has been paid in vouchers to access the Sun website now it's not really on the internet any more:

"Mick has put out some feelers in Brazil to put on a big show. The plans are ambitious but if he pulls it off it will be huge. The whole vibe of the event is very much 'flower power' and the same hippy values that Glastonbury prides itself on. The publicity drive will begin in the next six months or so but there's no doubt there will be big names on the bill"

Yes, of course it's in Brazil, where the sun is warm on old bones and the tax arrangements agreeably outside HMRC's grasp.

I suppose it's not inconsistent that someone who thinks they spy "hippy values" in between the phone-charging points and ATMs of Worthy Farm could believe that a Rock Business Festival which flies people halfway round the world to have a party against a backdrop of protests against grand entertainments taking precedence over local problems is in someway a "flower power" event.

That vague "six months" to the publicity drive feels like the sort of time period which is just long enough to let most people forget it was ever mentioned, should it not happen. We shall see.

Pete Townshend pats One Direction fans on the head

To save time with their new single, One Direction simply got some grown-ups to take an old Who song and pretended it was theirs.

When the world pointed out that Best Song Ever is pretty much just Baba O'Riley, One Direction fans reacted with the usual misplaced groupthink, and decided to launch a pre-emptive attack on The Who.

After every blue police phone box had been reduced to a smouldering wreckage, they suddenly realised The Who was a band, and so off they danced to Twitter to circle their wagons and wave their tiny little fists:

We crashed twitcam broke the record leaked a song are you really gonna mess with us?? #DontTouchBestSongEver http://t.co/mGDF0q2jG2

— PerezHiltonLife (@PerezHiltonLife) August 16, 2013

Not entirely clear how being able to "crash twitcam" is going to change the basics of copyright law but good luck with that. I'd love to see it in court:
"So, we have heard from the lawyers for The Who publishers, and their musical experts and precedent. What argument do you have for One Direction?"
"Well, your honour, I have only one very weak argument, but I shall call upon a couple of thousand teenagers to make the same weak argument over and over again in case that changes the facts."

Heartwarmingly, it even turned into a crossover between two sets of fandamentalists:

Into this teen-tinged tag-team Twitter takedown storm stepped Pete Townshend. His statement is masterful:

"No! I like the single. I like One Direction. The chords I used and the chords they used are the same three chords we've all been using in basic pop music since Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and Chuck Berry made it clear that fancy chords don't mean great music – not always. I'm still writing songs that sound like Baba O'Riley – or I'm trying to!. It's a part of my life and a part of pop's lineage. One Direction are in my business, with a million fans, and I'm happy to think they may have been influenced a little bit by The Who. I'm just relieved they're all not wearing boiler suits and Doc Martens, or Union Jack jackets. The funniest thing is that in Canada this year I met with Randy Bachman once the leader of GUESS WHO who told me that he not only copied Baba O Riley for their hit You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, but he even called his band after us. Why would I not be happy about this kind of tribute?"

Of course, bringing the Guess Who into the story will mean One Direction fans will be attacking Toys R Us to destroy that face guessing game, but there's always collateral damage.

You'll note that not only does Pete calm the fears that The Who are calling for the song to be banned, but he also does nothing that would prevent his publishers suing One Direction's publishers for a lovely large payday.

And that's the difference between experience and enthusiasm.

NME circulation continues in the same direction

There's not much to celebrate in the just-published ABC figures for the NME. But then there seldom is.

The headline? Average sales are down now to 20,011 - and around a quarter (5,002) of those are at below full cover price.

That's 13% down compared with the six months to the end of 2012; 16% down on the sale compared with the same period last year.

Is there much comfort for the title in the stats for its digital edition?

Not really, not yet: in the UK, they sold just 356 copies onto people's tablets. The much wider potential market of the rest of the world? 465 copies. Although there's potential there, the NME isn't making any digital headway yet.

There was, however, one glimmer of hope, as one issue managed to out-perform the sluggish sales of the title - the David Bowie cover story. It suggests that when the magazine is able to bring its a-game, it can still create a buzz. Perhaps - given that Liam Gallagher frontpages offer no sales advantage over, say, Haim or Karen O - its time for the magazine to stop clinging to the Gallaghers and start reporting the news?

Countryobit: Tompall Glaser

Tompall Glaser, outlaw movement country singer, has died.

Glaser was joint-owner of the Nashville studios which came to be known as Hillbilly Central - Glaser Brothers Sound Studios. It was here that the first million-selling country album, Wanted! The Outlaws was recorded. This brought Tompall together with Waylon Jennings and others to create a hotchpotch mix of tracks that hadn't found homes elsewhere; on paper it sounds unappealing but it found an enthusiastic audience.

Glaser's back-up vocals can be heard on Johnny Cash's Ring Of Fire; and he and his brothers had numerous country hits in their own right. But it was as businesspeople that the brothers really shone - quickly establishing a publishing company and those studios; racking up production credits.

Tompall went solo in 1973, but after falling out with Waylon Jennings over money the Glaser Brothers reunited towards the end of the decade. It was a short-lived comeback, though; by 1982 Glaser was solo again. He released a final album in 1986, and shortly afterwards Hillbilly Central was sold off, closing the chapter on the outlaw movement.

Tompall Glaser died Tuesday 13th August 2013; he was 79 and had been ill for some time.

Gordon in the morning: Everything has a price

As you'll be aware, in order to read Gordon Smart's high-quality journalism online these days you have to pay.

What does your money get you?

Today, it's a story about how Fleetwood Mac's Don't Stop is going to be used in a John Lewis advert.

Who wouldn't think it great value to dip into their pocket to discover exciting news about a television commercial, eh?

The Flatmates are back

Yes. Those Flatmates. Louder Than War has all the details, but here's what you need to know:

Bristol Exchange Fri Aug 23rd – Tickets

London The Miller Aug 24th – Tickets.

Brighton At The Edge Of The Sea Fest Aug 25th – Tickets.

Nottingham Pop All-Dayer on Sept 14th – Tickets.

These dates will be followed by a short tour in October which will take the band to Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Sheffield.

Here's the only possible response:

Mel C demands Louis Walsh's credentials

Mel C is delighted that Louis Walsh is leaving the X Factor, because she doesn't see the point of him:

"Louis Walsh and myself have had a bit of a spat running over the years," she said.

"He has been very rude about me. We had an argument on CD:UK.

"He's a very lucky man to be where he is in my opinion. What does he actually do?"

Louis Walsh has been coasting, doing ten consecutive series of X Factor. Mel C, on the other hand, only did one stretch as a judge on that Jesus thing.

Pete Doherty is Alf Roberts

The best running sketch on the last radio series of Mitchell and Webb was the one where old ladies questioned people about their jobs, usually suggesting they'd be better off opening a little shop instead.

It seems Pete Doherty has half-taken this to heart, although his shop is naturally self-obsessed:

British rocker Pete Doherty has set up a shop in London to sell off his personal items and memorabilia from his bands Babyshambles and The Libertines.

In effect: imagine a pile of bags left outside a house when someone moves out. Now imagine if those bags were opened, and price labels stuck on the contents. There you are.

Cher seems to be only person in the world convinced GaGa "leak" wasn't a stunt

It's not just the disappointing GaGa comeback single that has been "leaked" online. The duet between GaGa and Cher has also fallen onto the internet, and Cher is mad as a wasp nest duct-taped to a leopard. ContactMusic has attempted a translation:

"Just heard (The Greatest Thing)! F**k ! It's not even the right f**king version!!! Why do ppl (people) think this kinda leaking s**t is ok ! I'm so f**king disappointed... I've sat on (that) song 4 (for) over a yr (year). Now some a**hole leaks (the) wrong version! Gaga's single is great, & that's all that matters."

It's unclear why, if all that matters is that GaGa's single is great, what Cher is all up in a lather about.

Embed and breakfast man: Mustang Steel Band

Here's something: the kids of the Mustang Steel Band having a go at covering The Primitives' Crash:

Drummerobit: Jon Brookes

Horrible news yesterday, with the death of Charlatans drummer Jon Brookes.

As a key member of a major Madchester band and a West Brom fan, Brookes was Baggie twice over.

There's a lovely 1999 interview with Brookes and James Hannah, in which Jon looks back over the Charlatan's career up until Us & Us Only. There's some consideration of the previous tragedy that hit the band - the death of Rob Collins during the making of Tellin' Stories ("I can hear cer­tain con­flicts on there between us all. I think the ascent made us dizzy again. I still haven’t quite digested the songs."), but mostly it tracks a band who rose, fell and rose again, making it up as they went along and doing a pretty good job of it.

Beyond being a musician, Jon was a father and a husband. He was only 44.

The Charlatans kept me going through some grim times. His drumbeat kept my heart going. Thanks, Jon.

Andy Partridge re-evaluates Andy Partridge

This is quite sweet, actually: they've been remixing Drums And Wires, XTC's 1979 album, and Andy Partridge is well taken with it:

Heard 5.1 mix of DRUMS AND WIRES at Steven Wilson's yesterday. So good,it's upped my opinion of the album.COMPLICATED GAME=breathtaking.

On the downside, further 5.1 remixes of XTC albums depends on EMI being able to find the original tapes, something Partridge doesn't hold out much hope for.