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Just-ish announced: the full mini-tour planned by the Futureheads for the end of this year:
Preston 53 Degrees - November 25;
Glasgow ABC - 26;
Sheffield Leadmill - 27;
Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall - 29; Warwick University - 30;
Falmouth Princess Pavillion - December 1;
Portsmouth Pyramids - 3;
Cambridge Junction - 4;
London Astoria - 5;
Newcastle Academy - 20
That's a nice little cheque Kate Bush can expect just in time for Christmas, then.
The Scissor Sisters have a compelling explanation for why they're more popular in the UK than in their home country.
No, it's not because the the US have less need for a B52s replacement.
It's a conspiracy, I tells you, a conspiracy:
"American music fans are just as musically open-minded as their British counterparts. But the powers that be in the US may not be as open-minded. Which, to a degree, will hold us back in the US.
"Tons of Americans would love our music, but they don't know we exist. People have lots of preconceived notions about us," Shears told Billboard. He added, "But they get over them by hearing us or seeing us live."
Like most conspiracy theories, this doesn't quite add up. How, exactly, would people be getting preconceived ideas of the band if the mysterious Powers That Be are blocking access to them? Unless media which doesn't have the ability to play music is covering them while those that can aren't.
And is Shears so sure that the preconceived notions are wrong? I'm not so sure people will be looking at photos of Jake in his dungarees and Ana in her glam-outs, and thinking to themselves "they're going to be something other than slightly obvious gay-pop by numbers writ large."
It was odd enough seeing Sharon Osbourne scooping up armfulls of reduced DVDs in the Asda ads "to keep the kids quiet" when her children were all grown up and launching media careers (if Living TV2 counts as the media). But set against the context of Jack Osbourne's miserable autobiography account of his suicide attempt it just seems even more ill-judged. You don't need a £2-99 copy of Caddyshack II, Sharon, your kids are finding their own ways to keep themselves quiet.
Even more of a grim glimpse into the family life of the Osbournes is that, after his suicide attempt failed, the only person Osbourne Junior could think of to call was his therapist.
Not that the therapist was much use:
There was no small talk. I was weeping down the phone at him: "I think I tried to kill myself last night."
"OK, Jack. Promise me you'll stay home tonight. Don't leave your hotel room. Lock your door, turn your phone off. As long as you don't go out I think you'll be OK. Is there someone who can come and stay with you?"
Right... so your patient tried to kill himself last night because of crippling loneliness, and you're suggesting he sit alone in his hotel room with the door locked and the phone off the hook? Why not suggest he sit in the garage revving his engine along with it?
We wonder if anyone's suggsted to Shazza she gets Jack on for a "my struggle" interview? She could ask why he didn't phone home.
Banged-up and denied access, Michael Lohan is reduced to trying to contact his daughter the only way he knows how: by splashing the family's dirty laundry over the paper and sending an open letter to Lindsay:
“It pains me to have to write to you like this, but it’s evident that my letters never reach you. My messages never get to you and ‘people’ continue to build walls between us.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how very sorry I am for causing you (and our family) the heartache and embarrassment I have.
“I hold you absolutely blameless for all that’s been said and portrayed, as I know it has been under the advice of others, to sway both the courts and public opinion.
“I also know the pain that comes with love, especially when two hearts and lives are divided. Sometimes we run — we seek to hide or just escape from the pain.
In the meantime, people are either whispering in our ear, giving self-serving advice, or out to protect their own interests.
“Unfortunately sweetheart, while you are so talented and blessed you have become their interest! As I told you all along, this would happen.”
We're not sure who's whispering in Michael's ear, but bearing in mind he's locked in a jail, it might be best to not speculate. Especially when he says he knows the pain that comes with love.
Nylon, who are huge back in home in Iceland, are forced to slog it round the UK supporting McFly. And while clearly they could rip McFly's heads off and have their blood made into cheese at the drop of a hat, they're happy to play along with the boys' new (ever-so-slightly) edgy image by pretending they were afraid of McFly's naked japes. Emilia says there's not be so much as a hint of an uncovered cock yet, though:
"We saw the pictures and we were a bit scared that we might meet them on stage naked.
"They've been really nice though. Danny, for example, knocked on our door just to say 'hi'. We have experienced very nice boys but I don't know, maybe we'll see some other side to them. At the moment they're just really nice to us."
What's really amusing is seeing a band who are at the peak of their powers having to be polite about McFly because, over here, Nylon are just the support:
"We might go out partying with them and there's still a few dates of the tour left. We'd like them to take us clubbing round London."
Actually, we can imagine fewer things worse than going clubbing round London with McFly - a nightout which would probably end around 8.30 with them taking their clothes off and, crazed on a half-bottle of Woodpecker Cider ("Hereford lightning"), crashing into the ball pit in a Hungry Horse play area.
Having connected in some way with David Beckham on an earlier trip to Europe, P Diddy is keen to pull off the trick of showing he's relevant to the young people of Englandshire by hanging out with another soccergame player.
Rather than ringing Peter Crouch, though, he's had his people invite Wayne Rooney and the woman out the Asda trouser adverts as his guests for the MTV Europe awards.
Diddy is even rumoured to be planning an appearance at the Manchester United game in Copenhagen at the same time - where he'll feel at home, watching a bunch of overpaid prima-donnas sleepwalking through something that used to be a vital force that's turned into little more than a sponsorship opportunity.
In the run up to his return to live performance, George Michael insisted it would all be about the music:
“As much as I don’t want to disappoint those people who want to see more of my bottom, I’m going to be less of a showman and more of a singer.
“Madonna has made it difficult for the rest of us but even if I gave myself another five years I’d never be able to fit into that bloody leotard!”
The emphasis on music over showy gestures was underlined by a giant inflatable George Bush being given a blow job by a dog.
You heard - Noel Edmonds is working on an album - based on his book Scribbling on Your Hands Can Pay The Gas Bill ("Positively Happy").
No, we don't know how, either.
There's going to be a single as well:
“Noel’s very excited about the album and hopes the messages will help thousands.
“He’s keen to release one track as a leftfield single and see how it does.”
Apparently it's going to be soothing music and positive messages. Still, got to be better than James Blunt.
For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? A pertinent question for both Saint Mark and Pete from Big Brother. Having won the competition, signed a deal with Guy Chambers, and dumped his old band, he's now going to have to suffer more of Chambers' plans to turn him into a cheeky chappy novelty act.
It includes a collaboration with Rolf Harris:
Having cleared the way for star collaborations with such musical luminaries as Rolf, Chambers has already penned a “techno thrash” number which will be Bennett’s debut single before the year is out.
Chambers reveals to BBC Six Music, “It's very fast. There's a lot of synths on it but also punky guitars. It's fun though, because he's all about that. He's a very up guy."
We've not heard it, of course, but we suspect Chambers means "fun" as in "fun pub" or "family fun day" or even "fun for all the family" rather than actually fun. We're also interested thta Chambers clearly feels there's something not-fun about "synths and punky guitars", so quickly does he have to reassure us that "it's fun" nevertheless.
Incidently, we did love Nikki's interview in the People today where she talked about Pete having dumped her, in which she tried to suggest there was a moral equivalence between her career as a five-hundred pound a night prostitute, sleeping with the likes of Pete Doherty (or "escorting" him, rather - there was, of course, no sex) and having the secret splurge out all over the Sunday papers, and Pete B being bisexual (something clear to anyone who saw more than four minutes of him in the Big Brother house) and being quite happy and open about it.
It's the sensation what is sweeping the world - podcasts, podcasts, podcasts. Just throwing their quirky-cloured hat into the "actually, it's just a download, isn't it?" ring are Wilco, whose podcast doesn't even want you to buy anything. Much.
You can only take three items through security, and none of them can be made of plastic or paper or metal; you have to turn up seven days before you want to fly; and you have to endure having your crevices poked by a half-trained security guard looking for neutron bombs. Could the horror of Heathrow get any worse?
Yes, it can when Damon Albarn's passing through:
[He] was on his way to West Africa when he jumped on a luggage trolley and burst into song. Our spy in the check-in queue said: "He tried to get everyone to join in."
Don't they have men carrying guns there?
Considering he's so depressed and everything, it's heartwarming that Robbie Williams is still functioning well enough to arrange to buy Ron Woods' signed guitar at a charity auction. For £16,000.
Perhaps he thought it would cheer him up.
Nice, of course, when celebrities turn up - or send emmisaries - to charity auctions and push the prices up so far that people who don't have two LA mansions don't stand a chance of ever winning the bids.
You could run a golf-buggy from here to Teignmouth powered on the rumours that Pete and Kate are about to tie the knot, so we'll approach the Sunday Mirror's story - that Doherty is off drugs and about to marry Moss - with caution until we see the ring and eat some of the cake.
The Mirror reckons Pete will be out of the Priory in forty-eight hours (although how that squares with his bail terms isn't clear) and married to Kate before you know it. Perhaps in Caribbean.
Well, the Happy Mondays seemed to enjoy Jamaica that time they went, after all.
Sandi Thom has come up with a cracking plan to make herself a success in the US.
Besides, obviously, getting her totally-deniable PR team to come up with something.
She's going to say please, thank you, thank you very glad:
British music in general is doing better there now. It is leading the way again and being influential. We're setting trends.
"The problem a lot of English bands had in the US is the wrong attitude and manner. Over there it's very much about manners and niceness and their music and image just didn't fit.
"Someone like James Blunt will work, a nice English boy. You can see that with someone like KT - you know people will like it.
"It's your manner as much as your music - you need to be wholesome."
That's why rap and hip-hop does so badly in the US - just not wholesome enough. And could you imagine, say, trying to launch Jackass or Girls Gone Wild in the States? You wouldn't stand a chance.
Robbie Williams? He's not depressed, he's just tired, claims comedy gossip column character Rav Singh:
"I'm okay. I'm exhausted and haven't been home for ten months because of my tour and promoting my album.
"It's all got too much for me and I have been told to rest for two weeks. My South American tour is coming up and I want to be ready for that."
Not been home for ten months, eh? But hang on... weren't you at the opening of Soho house back in end March? In LA? Where you live?
Since the News of the World usually runs two or three "Kerry Katona is fond of coke" stories each edition, we're not entirely sure why they think today's Kerry Katona is fond of coke" story is quite as shocking as they seem to think.
Although having moved on from worrying about her, her family, and friends, the main focus of concern is now the furnishings and interiors:
A friend confessed: "We're all horrified by what happened to her. Kerry even scared herself this time. She went on a huge binge and got through about 20 one-gram bags of cocaine, and that's a lot even by her standards.
"Her mum Sue had to pin her to the floor to stop her head smashing on the marble fireplace."
God, yes... have you ever tried to get blood out of marble? It's a bloody nightmare, no pun intended.
Of course, this can't be true anyway, as Max Clifford has insisted:
"She does not take drugs and never has. It's totally untrue, total lies."
And Max would never fib.
That's another week up for No Rock and Roll Fun, then.
The ten most-opened individual stories were:
1. Heather Mills: Tits out for the animals
2. Is KT Tunstall straight?
3. Heather Mills: Breasts out for education purposes only
4. McFly: Cocks out for the publicity
5. NFL suggests teams drop financial support for child molester
6. Fergie releases album, suddenly remembers she's kinda gay
7. Sugacubes reform
8. Jake Shears fancies Wayne Rooney - "might be blind" suggest experts
9. Purplemelon try to get some PR from asking manager's ex-boss to show her bits; idea works; backfires
10. Russell Brand claims deflowering of Henry the Hoover; Vacuum denies it all
The big event this week was the Mobo awards, although how "big" something can be when Beyonce elects to stay at home is debatable.
You can read the whole week in one page
or browse the previous week in one post
And we never actually meant we'd really bomb you back into the stone age if you didn't buy some of these:
I always thought of you as my brick wall...
Find Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly. Buy Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly
The collected BBC sessions of the Las
...and Billy Fury...
...and The Housemartins, including their Janice Long acapella Christmas gospel collection
Mansun's Best-of. And quite a bit more
Hand-picked Big Chill tunes from Mr Scruff
25 Years of Sugarhill, from Psychograss to Dolly Parton
Includes the Columbo which hangs on the video recorder timer
You've heard the music, you've watched the public breakdowns... now buy the Adam Ant book
One of the few rock autobiographies to open on the author running naked down the street fleeing Nazis
It's not quite accurate to suggest that Keith Richards has given up drugs.
It's more the drugs have given up Keith:
"I really think the quality's gone down. All they do is try and take the high out of everything.
"I don't like the way they're working on the brain area instead of just through the blood system.
"That's why I don't take any of them any more. And you're talking to a person who knows his drugs."
A spokesperson for the British Drug Manufacturing agency strenuously denied Richard's claim, although he admitted that there had been "problems with supplying enough top-notch shit to the regions" when Pete Doherty had been buying up everything he could lay his hands on.
There are few people who are lucky enough to build a career on one word; much less a career which ran for four decades. Danny Flores, who has died at the age of 77, managed the feat.
In 1957, Flores came up with a saxaphone riff which he kicked around with songwriting partner Dave Burgess. Licked into shape, Flores hit upon the idea of a single, shouted lyric to punctuate the tune - "Tequila" - and changed his life. The tune took a while to hit, not being recorded until 1958, and only then as a b-side for a Champs song, but something in the song (or perhaps Burgess' delivery of the order) hooked, and by the end of the decade the tune had become a hit in its own right, and Flores had a grammy to show for his inspiration. He would happily spend much of the next forty years yelling the word, perhaps making him the only person to ever have got richer from a repeated bar order.
There's nothing noble in a white lie, for if you believe the person you're fibbing to is so fragile as to need protection from the truth, imagine the hurt when they find out you've lied.
I expect Justin Timberlake is crying his little burger-hued face off this evening, as he discovers that Chris Martin lied to get out of working with him.
Martin told Timberlake he couldn't sing with him, as he only sings on his own records. But that just isn't true, of course, because he's brought his trademark dirging to an unreleased collaboration with Nelly Furtado and another with Jay-Z.
Next time he meets Timbo he's going to make it worse by attempting to construct another lie to get out of it: "Nah... what I meant was I only record songs for my records, unless they're not going to be released or something... no, I mean, if they're songs I've written. Or helped a bit with. No... no, I thought you were joking. I mean, I was joking. Yes... joking..."
Transcript of briefing held at A Brigade headquarters, 2030h this evening
Men. Thank you for coming here tonight.
We have, it's worth saying, a chance to change the world this evening. Change the world for the better. But for one of us, that chance is going to come at a tremendous personal cost.
Lily Allen has said that she's quite prepared to give up making records if she was to settle down and become a housewife:
"I want to get married and have kids and do their homework and drive them to school," Lily explained. "That's the main thing in my life. And I don't think you can do this at the same time as having children.
"I wouldn't want to anyway. I'd be upset if this ended tomorrow but I really don't think this is my place in life. I'm really happy to be here now but I've never understood those people who want to make albums when they're 65."
Now, clearly men, the thing we need to do is parachute in a man to be her husband before she can make a second album. Before she can re-release any more singles. Before - and if we move fast, I believe it to be possible - before she gives any more interviews talking about how she used SpaceTube to become famous and it's nothing to do with her connections.
I'm looking for a volunteer, men. A husband for Lily, to spare the rest of us. Any questions?
Yes, Ginger, I'm afraid it would have to be consumated.
Yes, in the normal way.
What? Well, that would be up to you - certainly more than once, but the paramedics have advised us that more than a couple of times a week might result in irreversable trauma. I do realise I'm asking a lot.
Any more questions?
Well spotted Blenkinsopp. Yes, the suggestion of her helping children with homework does make it seem like these are more the ravings of fantasist than a serious pledge, and it is possible that she might come out of retirement as soon as the first nappy needs changing. I did say it was only a chance, there's nothing certain in a mission like this.
Now then, do I have any volunteers?
Sit down, Allen - even if that wasn't creepy it would be illegal.
Anyway else?
Oh come on, there must be someone...
Actually, yes, I did ask B Brigade first. Entire bunch of them shot off their toes with their own pistols... no, put them away, men... stop that...
Orderly, fetch two hundred bandages. I'm off to try the D Brigade. Might have more chance with men who keep the regimental goat in their quarters.
When somebody is basically following your career plan note for note (and, to be honest, there aren't many notes in it), you'd expect to feel flattered. So it's with little surprise we hear that Noel Gallagher really, really likes Kasabian:
"They're up there with Prodigy and The Primals," he explained.
High praise indeed, suggesting that their days of invention are behind them and they're now doomed to spend the rest of history becoming more and more like a bad tribute band to themselves; although at least the Primals and Prodge started out as something more than tribute acts in the first place.
Interesting that Gallagher doesn't attempt to fit Jet into the line-up - weren't they his hot-tipped young things a couple of years back (and, oddly, they sounded like the Gallagher brothers, too.)
What this tells us is less about Kasabian, more about how limited Gallagher's musical tastes are; and his desire to become some sort of post-McCartney John The Baptist to any club-footed indie band that trumpets past his window.
Peter Ling, one of the co-creators of Crossroads, has died at the age of 80. Ling had a couple of connections to the music industry, not least his role in the development of Marlene, the Singing Hairdresser. Played by Sue Nicholls - now better known as Audrey Roberts in Corrie - Marlene's single, Where Will You Be was released for real in 1968 and made the Top 20. This was one of the first times a soap-opera single broke the fourth wall and got a real-world existence, a move which would pave the way for Letitia Dean and Paul Medford and Malandara Burrows' presence in the charts.
Ling had a more direct influence on the chart before Crossroads; he'd been a jobbing songwriter at the end of the 50s. He'd done so without much in the way of success, but one of his efforts did score a hit for Matt Munro in 1961.
He also created Radio 2's 1970s soap Waggoners' Walk, which punctuated the Jimmy Young show to the delight of millions. Surely when BBC7 runs out of Westways, it's time for a revival?
London fashion week was graced with the glorious presence of Beyonce, who threw such a stink about the size of her dressing room (tiny, apparently) that the organisers rushed to build a whole slew of extra rooms to keep her happy. Rather than telling her to go change in the bogs if she had a problem with it, what with the laws of physics constraing the space available.
The MOBO organisers must be sucking a thoughtful tooth seeing the Beyonce was happy to traipse to London to attend a garment-manufacturer's beanfeast but couldn't be arsed to come a couple of days early in order to pick up their prize.
Which turns what looked like a cold-shoulder into a deliberate snub.
It's probably not much of a surprise, but the real reason for Robbie Williams' sudden Asian-tour axing appears to be nothing to do with an expectation of his likely being a bit tired, more to do with his being treated for alleged depression at The Priory.
After telling 6Music that Embrace would do one more album and leave us be, Dannny McNamara's sudden change of heart and "clarification" to Chris Moyles might rank as one of the most inept attempts to dig oneself out a hole in recorded history. It turns out when he said "that's all folks", he forget to add "for now, anyway":
"We're going to make the next album as if it's our last but we always do that anyway."
He added: "That's kind of how we go into it because you've got to be wholehearted about these things you know?"
Ah... so it's like a little inspirational poster, is it? Perhaps a photo of a bird soaring into the sunset, the words "treat each album as if it's your last" written in a flowing font across the top. It's a shame McNamara isn't canning Embrace; what a loss he is to the motivational speaking industry.
Funnily enough, I once worked for a bloke who thought the best way to inspire us was to tell us each month might be our last, funding could be pulled, we could end up out of work soon, unless our standards were the highest we could hope to attain. Naturally, the general result was morale depressed to an almost flatline, and some of the shabbiest work ever seen outside of a knicker factory after payday. So it is possible that McNamara really does tell the band "this could be the last Embrace record ever" each time, judging by what they're flinging out.
Perhaps aware that his downgrading of "last album" to "...for a bit" seems a little at odds with what he'd said the day before, Danny continued to flip in the wind for a bit:
"The tour that we're on at the moment might be the last we do for a while because there's some other stuff that I want to do, but you know our next album's got to be amazing and it needs a lot from me to do that."
McNamara claims that he'd gone to sleep after talking to 6Music, and had switched off his mobile while 20 missed calls tried to find out what he was talking about. Since there's not 20 people in Embrace, we wonder who the hell all these people that bothered about the future of the band are?
There's a sting in the tail of the Five reunion: only four of them are going to be doing it.
Apparently, Sean Conlon has a lucrative solo deal which means he won't be rejoining his band mates as they hope people remember them. We think that effectively means he can't persuade Mr. Grimsdale to give him the time off for the tour, and he's been warned that if he calls in sick, he can kiss goodbye to being given a go on the co-op bacon slicer ever again.
So, it's just going to be Abs, Cornelius Goosefat, Micko Micko and Tamperage, or whatever the other four of them were called. There's a source, a deepthroat if you will, who has the inside scoop on why they're reuniting:
“Ritchie, Abs, Scott and J have kept in touch since the band decided to call it a day in 2001.
“After watching Take That and East 17 being rejuvenated, they began to consider a comeback.
“A few of the lads were still in touch with record label contacts who said now was the right time to do it.
“A lot of work has gone on behind the scenes and they are ready for a fully fledged comeback.”
We wonder in what way watching the reunion of East 17 - largely unnoticed and ending in two of them having a bout of fisticuffs and calling it all off - might have led anyone to decide now is the right time for a second-string boyband to be getting back together?
Even Victoria Newton is so sure it's going to flop, she flings her "exclusive" back in their stupid faces:
But this latest move is clearly a cynical bid to cash in on the man-band comeback craze.
It stinks of an idea cooked up by bored record execs with pound signs in their eyes dreaming of a telly deal for yet another tedious fly-on-the-wall comeback show.
I can’t imagine the ratings will be set alight by the story of four lads who still haven’t come to terms with their names slipping off the guestlist, desperately clinging on to fame.
But I suppose it will give them some much-needed pocket money.
I give them about four months before they are all back on the dole.
Let's hope they were just pretending when they said they'd put loads of work into it.
Shame to see it wasted.
Embrace are going to split up.
Not so fast with digging out the bottle of sparkling Pomagne, though: they're going to make one last album, says Danny McNamara:
"I think our next album will be our last ever album. If we get as far as making it and finishing it, I want it to be a masterpiece and I want to take as long as it takes."
He added: "We've worked solidly since I was 17 - that's half my life - and I've done nothing except look at the bigger picture. I haven't stopped to smell the flowers along the way at all. I spend all my time cooking and not eating and I just want to spend a bit of time doing that."
To be honest, Danny, you have the look of a man who's spent a lot of his time eating and not exercising.
He hints he's got plans to do something that doesn't involve making records. Which goes to prove online petitions do sometimes work.
Look, people.
She told you in May.
She told you in August.
And now, she's telling you again - Jesus wouldn't be upset at her riding onto stage on a giant Swarovski cross. He would chuckle, people.
"It is no different than a person wearing a cross. My performance is neither anti-Christian, sacrilegious or blasphemous," she said in a statement.
It's no different, you see, wearing a small crucifix as a symbol of your faith to being strapped onto one and being lowered slowly onto a stage as part of a pop concert.
In a similar statement, Regan MacNeil has insisted that masturbating with a crucifix is a sign of Christian fidelity, and there's no difference between that and "simply wearing one on the outside, when you think about it."
"It is my plea to the audience to encourage mankind to help one another," the 48-year-old added.
The best way to do that, of course, is by being gaffer-taped to an enormous "T" shape. Certainly, just seeing Madonna do that has made us feel better about helping our neighbours. Even the drunkard who sits bellowing Nizlopi songs all night.
"I believe in my heart that if Jesus were alive today he would be doing the same thing," she continued.
Well, maybe if he found himself on some awful cable TV chat-show: you can picture Eammon Holmes or somebody telling Jesus "we've got a bit of a surprise for you..." before unveiling a giant cross. "Now, Jesus, it'll have been a while since you saw one of these... would you get on it for us, and perhaps have a little pray for world tolerance?"
There's room to ponder if Jesus was alive whether he'd want much to do with crucifixes at all, and especially if he'd be making his plea for man to do right to his brothers at 150 bucks-a-head events, and doing it from a cross peppered with thousands of pounds worth of crystal.
What's tiresome about this is that Madonna knew that the cross was going to be a red rag; and she went ahead and did it anyway. Which is fine - as David Stafford said, a belief which can't cope with having the piss taken out of it is a tendency, not a faith. But when the hoped-for publicity arrives, to then start pleading that you meant no offence - and, worse, to try and claim there was some sort of humanitarian subtext to the showing-off - suggests that whatever convictions Madonna may have left inside her heart, she does not have any courage to go with them.
The worldwide boycott of dancehate - resurrected after a breaking of a promise by some of the artists to drop the homophobic parts of their acts - has seen another venue axe a Buju Banton gig. Last month, a Brighton Buju date was pulled; this time it's a planned gig at the Highland in LA which has gone.
However, Buju was able to play Copenhagen. He promised he would not fuel homophobic sentiments. An easy thing to promise, since it's not clear how one would go around fuelling a homophobic sentiment even if one wanted to. It's not as clear cut as promising not to sing the songs about killing gay people, for example.
