Mr & Mrs Weiland have another disagreement

No sooner do we hear about violence to hotel rooms than our reader pings again with news that Scott's suits were burned in an impromptu bonfire this weekend.

E! reports that police were called; Mary - who was also burning Scott's shoes - could be looking at an arson charge. She's out on bail right now. Weiland, we imagine, is shuffling round Burbank in his slippers.

Mr & Mrs Weiland have a disagreement

TMZ.com is reporting (although it comes to us via Bravewords and Launch Radio) that Scott Weiland and his wife are being pursued by a Burbank hotel. The hotel claims that the pair had a massive argument, which resulted in a pile of damage to the room. The reports reckon they threw the phones and the alarm clocks at each other, so we hope they didn't have to be up early in the morning.

After their kids had been led away, and Scott left the room, allegedly Mary carried on having the row with the room.

I beg your pardon, they've not promised you a Roses hard-on

It's being pitched as a Stone Roses reunion, but it falls a little way short of that. Even so, gentlemen and ladies of a certain age will be interested, if a little scared, to hear that Ian Brown and Mani are going to join Echo and The Bunnymen on stage at this week's Manchester cancer charity gig:

Andy Rourke has told Music Week that: "Both Mani and Hooky are going to be doing something with Echo and the Bunnymen, Mani's going to be doing something with Ian Brown, and the grand finale's going to be quite special."

Well... maybe the finale will be a promised Roses reunion. But we can't quite see it.

Rough Trade: stock enough to beat the web

After months of gloomy prognostication about the future of record shops, Rough Trade is bucking the trend: a massive new shop that understands that sometimes it's the shopping, and sometimes it's the records, but there's something special about shopping for records:

Stephen Godfroy, a director of Rough Trade music stores, said he could not confirm any specifics surrounding the opening of the new store, but said: "We are looking to make an official announcement in the next few weeks. Our aim is to deliver something we feel has been missing in this country for far too long - an environment that celebrates music as an exciting art form, not just another commercial commodity - but on a scale that is a departure from the traditional perception of an independent record shop.

"The music industry seems to have a lot of doom and gloom about it at the moment, despite people's passion for music being as strong as ever. We certainly hope to put some smiles back on faces with something that reflects the true public appetite for exciting new music."

It's the sort of bold move which, hopefully, will be responded to. It's certainly a more inventive response than HMV's idea of cutting floorspace to make room for coffee shops.

Winehouse: PAFO

PAFO, of course, is medical shorthand for "pissed and fell over" - and Amy Winehouse has fessed up that it was that which led to the cancellation of two London shows at the start of this month.

Apparently she injured her arm and sustained damage to her teeth. It was fixed in time for her to cancel LA gigs last week.

Gwen Stefani's Milwaukee date goes walkies

No word yet as to why, but Gwen Stefani's planned June Milwaukee gig is off.

This just in: Trent Reznor doesn't like George Bush

I know, I know - you'd have assumed the rubber-and-leather-clad pig-fucker chain-dangler would have been one of nature's Republicans. But it turns out not to be the case. In fact, his new album is about a dystopia inspired by the current Presidential figurehead:

"When it came to write the words I really wanted to focus on something that was at the forefront of my consciousness which is, as an American, I’m appalled by the behaviour of our government and the direction that it has taken and the direction that it’s taken everyone else in the world and its arrogance.”

“I decided to write an essay about where the world might be if we continue down the path that we’re on with a neo-con-esque government doing whatever it pleases, which seems to be the way it works over here (America).”

Aren't all Nine Inch Nails albums about that, though? That, and perversion?

Up in flames: Arcade Fire pull eurotour

The rest of Arcade Fire's European tour has been axed, after Win Butler's sinus infection finally got the better of him in Oslo:

Hello Friends,

I am backstage at the venue in Oslo and I just had to make the very sad decision to cancel the rest of the European tour. I have been suffering from a sinus and bronchial infection for the last 3 months, and last night in Stockholm I finally pushed my voice and body farther than they are able to go. Last night I kept yelling at the monitor guy because I didn't recognize the sound that was coming out of the monitor as my own voice, and it took me until the second song to realize that the sound was coming from me. Today I can barely speak, or make any sound, so finishing the shows is no longer possible.

I have had several doctors advise me to cancel shows weeks ago, and I have been trying to push through, but for my own health and safety I need to have sinus surgery so I can get better and start the recovery process. We are all very sad, because we were very much looking forward to playing these shows, and we could not imagine canceling a show unless it was physically impossible to do. We apologize to the fans that have been waiting to see us, and we promise to try and come back as soon as it is humanly possible...

We would like to thank everyone who has been coming to the shows, and the outpouring of love and support for our music that we have felt. Wish me luck with the doctors,

And see you soon
luv,
Win

The trouble is, as soon as we hear the name Arcade Fire we want to start skriking 'lies! lies!', but we're assured it's completely true. Which is jolly bad luck on the French. And the Germans, Danes, Dutch and Belgians.

Yayo no-no

G-Unit rapper Tony Ya-yo (who's really called Melvin) has got into trouble with police accused of assaulting someone else. Apparently, though, it's a fourteen year old boy. And it was slapping.

Unsurprisingly, he's denying it all:

"We adamantly deny the allegations set forth by the people today."

Probably because its shaming.

Ponys meet science

If we still did O-level maths, we'd be whiling away the time doodling the New Young Pony Club's logo on the back of our SMP textbooks. So we're excited enough to hear that they're going to play a gig at the Science Museum in Kensington on April 4th. But, sadly, you can only go if you're a T-Mobile customer, which seems a bit unfair. We're starting to regret having terminated our T-Mobile account a few years back - but, oh, it was joyous at the time.

Goldsmith on the job

Harvey Goldsmith is a busy man, what with fighting ticket touts and promoting stuff. Now, though, he seems to be trying to carve out a niche as a kind of John Harvey-Jones of the entertainment industry, picking up flagging careers and trying to make them fabulous again.

His first guinea pig is Samantha Mumba, who apparently was a little difficult:

The Irish singer may have got away with this behaviour when she was selling millions of records in Europe and America, but that was five years ago. "Samantha's main problem when I met her last September was her attitude... Her second album was a flop, she lost interest in music and moved to LA with her mother and family. "But my best friend now is Samantha Mumba. After a long battle, we get on like a house on fire and she's serious about her music. Her new career stands a real chance of success, but even better than that, she's never late for our meetings."

Interesting. The odd thing, though, is that while Mumba was unquestionably in the dumper, she'd been focusing on her own comeback built on the back of the stage schools she's been running in Ireland. We hope Goldsmith wasn't being used by Mumba to promote a return to active duty she was already working on - after all, how else could she grab an hour of time on Channel 4 in 2007 if she wasn't pretending to be interested in what Goldsmith had to say?

Later in the series, Saxon - yes, that Saxon appear on the series. They're pretty open about the process:

"We saw the Channel 4 program. It's not too bad. At the beginning they put us down a lot, making the festival we are playing a bit small, but the billing was great — SODOM, WITHIN TEMPTATION, SAXON, KREATOR, MEGADETH, BLIND GUARDIAN and many more. Maybe Harvey and the Channel 4 lot have never heard of these bands. The film ends up as a success.

"Although they filmed the band for six months, there is very little of this in the film. The central character is obviously Harvey Goldsmith, and they must be investing a lot of money into their new boy. We feel that Kim, the director, and Claudine, who filmed most of the show, were making a great effort to capture the character of the band but we think they got too close to us and got pulled out on the editing. But actually Harvey's motives are to make the band sucessful in Britain, so although the band are taken down before being brought back up by Harvey, this is the central theme of the program, which is acceptable. Although the facts are being presented in a simplistic and manipulated way, we feel from being involved with Harvey we have done tons more promotion in Britain and we would like to thank all the people who also helped who are not on the film."

In effect, then, Goldsmith might like to think he's acting as some sort of guru, but he's merely acting as a tool by smarter acts to get coverage.

[Thanks - and apologies - to David G who pointed me in the direction of this a couple of weeks back]

Take That and a massive party: Owen to wed

Congratulations to Mark Owen, who besides shuffling a portfolio as one of the nicest men in pop and building the Take That reunion into something akin to the glorious second revolution is now going to add husband to his duties: he's going to marry Emma Ferguson.

Yes, but are they friends, or friends?

Carmen Electra is reported as having "laughed off" the stories suggesting that she's in a relationship with Joan Jett. Although, actually, what has happened is a spokesperson has issued a brief shrug:

"They are just friends."

Oh, go on, Carmen, you're not going to get a better offer, you know.

An interesting decision by the sorting hat

Rupert Grint, who apparently plays a wizard of some sort in children's movies, has hooked up with Katie Lewis out of Bonnie and Clyde. Or, to put it in tabloid terms:

POTTER STAR DATING DOHERTY'S EX-JUNKIE GIRLFRIEND

Actually, we don't think that quite means what Contact Music means - it implies that Grint is dating Moss; ex-junkie ex-girlfriend would be nearer the mark, although admittedly less elegant.

Don't shoot Paul Weller, he's only the piano player.... oh, go on, then

Dog have called in a favour from a famous(ish) fan, and got Paul Weller to help out on their new album. playing piano. Is Weller a gifted pianist?

Apparently, that's not the point:

"We are fans of his and asked him to play piano on our album. We can't play piano very well and, although he's not the greatest piano player in the world, he's pretty good."

Just as an aside, is Dog the worst name for a band ever? Even leaving aside that it sounds like a name chosen at the end of six hours of drunken disagreement, how the hell do they expect people who like them to find them on Google? Even Scabby Dog would have been better. Might have been more apt, too.

All women in hats look the same

Britney Spears has gone out wearing a hat and a warm coat.

Victoria Newton isn't impressed, suggesting that she looks like "an old Prune", by which she means Prunella Scales (let's not even get into the sweeping, rude judgement on one of this nation's saving graces, shall we?). But then Newton starts to go slightly bonkers. Apparently, Britney Spears looks like Prunella Scales in "an old TV" - is Vixy getting muddled up between an actor in a Tesco advert and Evil Edna? Is she suggesting that Britney's new look makes her look like Prunella Scales being held hostage by an ageing cross dresser? Or did nobody read her stuff with a view to correcting it before it went online?

Britney was snapped in Los Angeles wearing a brown mac and pink hat that’d go down a treat at my gran’s gossip group.

Ah. The use of the phrase "my gran's gossip group" (what's a gossip group?) suggests that the subs have just decided to not bother trying to make Newton's work read like a writer has produced it.

Bagwash

How do you celebrate your first number one record after a couple of decades making records?

Laundry.

Or you do if you're The Proclaimers.

501s off to The Sun for managing to even overwrite this charming little story, though. Apparently "we did washing" is right up there with "I killed Bob Woolmer" or "I am a Russian spy":

CRAIG REID, 45, who performs with brother CHARLIE on Comic Relief single (I’m Gonna Be) 500 Miles, confessed they had run out of clean clothes after a hectic few weeks promoting the song.

Confessed! "My having-used-up-all-my-clean-pants shame." How did the paper get the confession out of them, do you think? Were Charlie and Craig CONFRONTED by long-lens photos of them sniffing dirty socks before shrugging and pulling them on? Were witnesses traced who could confirm that, yes, they were wearing the same polo shirts two days running ("you can tell by the egg stain just under the little man on the horse upon the left nipple...")?

When makeovers fail

The New York Times reports of Christina Aguilera's latest tour nods approvingly that Christina is a serious artist:

No More Teen-Pop Fluff: Aguilera Tries Being a Serious Singer

Of course, you might argue that the whole dressing-like-a-hooker and singing about dirty sex half a decade ago was a pretty strong signal that Aguilera was trying to shake off the teen market; doubtless she'll be delighted the NYT have finally noticed.

Elvis' legacy: a court battle over a nasal douche

I had a friend who once got so annoyed with the Wonder Stuff for taking Presley's name in vain by calling their album Never Loved Ehttp://www2.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1930103lvis that he wrote an acidic poem about it. Okay, it might not be much, but a few months later the Stuffies ran into the sand. Coincidence? Or could Elvis be watching, waiting to take revenge on those who mock his achievements*?

If he is, Robert G. Gallagher and Richard S. Long better look over their shoulders. The pair are heading to court over who has the rights to a collection of Elvis tat ("memorabilia") that both want to parade round the country.

The collection, Gallagher believes, is historically important:

"This is part of American history and musical heritage which shows a side of Elvis Presley so few have ever seen."

Blimey... so what is it? Music? Early recordings? Photographs?

Not quite. It includes:

30-year-old prescription bottles, a laryngeal scope, a glass nasal douche and a stuffed toy dog

Long claims that he'd paid for the collection - originally owned by Dr. George C. "Dr. Nick" Nichopoulos, the man who wrote the prescriptions that account for Elvis' healthy glow when he died. Gallagher counter-claims that Long never delivered the last tranche of money.

So, we come to a court battle where grown men will argue about who owns Elvis' nasal douche. A fine legacy.
* - No, of course he isn't. We're not stupid.

Movieobit: Carol Richards

The death of Carol Richards has been announced.

Richards was, effectively, one of the first American Idols, owing her fame to victory in a singing competition organised by Bob Hope. Taken under Hope's wing, Richards carved out a niche dubbing singing voices onto film parts for other actresses. She also appeared in her own right, often singing opposite Hope or Crosby. One of her appearances with Crosby, in the Lemon Drop Kid, gave her a theme tune. Silver Bells, a duet with Bing, remains a festive staple in the US. Her singing career came to an end after her fifth marriage to Edward Swiedler in 1966. Unlike her first four, which had ended in death or, more often, divorce, the marriage to Swiedler proved durable.

Richards was 84; she died of heart disease in Florida.

RIAA break the age barrier

Who said the RIAA are stuck in their ways? They're still looking for new ideas to bring their war on customers to ever-new corners of the American public: They're pressing on with an action against a girl for allegedly file-sharing at the age of seven.

Scooch abandon last of their dignity

They didn't have much dignity to dump, but in response to Charlotte Church's attack on them, Scooch has hit back:

Scooch have responded by doing a bit of lambasting of their own.

"It is natural that not everybody is going to like our song. For some reason good fun pop music offends some people. But there is a polite way to express your opinion, something that Charlotte wasn't able to do," band member Caroline Barnes said.

Meanwhile David Ducasse described Church's "outburst" as "cheap" and "attention-seeking" while Russ Spencer delivered the following damning verdict: "What a pity that 'the voice of an angel' has acquired the mouth of a sewer".

There were two other voices attacking Charlotte Church which appeared to come from off in the background somewhere.

Benn denies Reading/Leed slip

Although Digital Spy have renamed Melvyn Benn as Melvyn Bragg, they're reporting his denial that last week's Reading/Leeds ticket cock-up was down to them. Apparently, everyone misread their "this isn't a confirmation email" as "this is a confirmation email":

"There were no tickets for Reading and Leeds that were cancelled at all, there were a number of applications that were rejected but at no time was a completed and confirmed application ever cancelled.

"Everybody got a note that said thank for your application and this isn't a confirmation, confirmation will be sent within the next three or four hours and some people took that as being that they'd got the tickets.

"But they didn't get the tickets because either they'd inputted the wrong card number or the card didn't have enough money on it."

Curious - you'd have thought that since you can sit in a cafe in St Petersburg and pay with a card which instantly is accepted, the Reading/Leeds computer would have been able to check cards faster than "three or four hours".

Manson fights the fur

Shirley Manson has signed on to play the Sophie Ellis-Bextor role in the latest UK anti-PETA advertising campaign. You can see the advert here; we would post it but it's quite grizzly and we imagine most of you would rather choose if you'd like to keep your breakfast down or not.

Back row for good

Further bad news for British theatre - just as the Take That musical arrives, and Robbie threatens his own answer, now Gary Barlow is thinking of adding a third show to the mix, in the form of an official Take That musical. Although not that quickly:

"We can't stop it but we could do our own one day."

The People are suggesting this is as good as Gary flogging tickets, but it's clearly just a vague, threatening idea.

If the unofficial show is a success, why would Barlow want to risk a humiliating defeat at the hands of his unofficial own songs?

Village People cop cops it again

The troubled life of Victor Willis hasn't settled yet: he's been arrested following claims he attacked a woman with a knife:

The singer, who uses the nickname Macho Man, has been accused of attacking his girlfriend.

The woman told police that Willis, 55, had choked her and threatened her with a knife.

Willis had announced he'd quit drinking following his spot of trouble with the law last year.

Robbie Williams is not ashamed to make a drama out of his crises

Robbie Williams - who've we've always suspected may be a man who is fond of musical theatre - is thinking of turning his life story into a musical. It's being pitched by the Sunday Mirror as him "going head to head with the Take That musical", but it's not quite like that. After all, Take That have disowned the musical built round their songs, and that one is ready to go, while all Robbie has is a script.

It sounds, well, like tiresome musical point-scoring:

The verses tell of a teacher who mocked a boy called Bob who "landed the popstar's job" for dreaming of stardom.

Robbie picking at old scars through music always goes well - apart from, you know, when he has to drop a track off the album after legal threats from an old manager, and that sort of thing.

But where would Williams find someone willing to take on the role of Robbie?

Robbie's best friend and former flatmate Jonathan Wilkes, 33, is in line to take the starring role in the musical which has the working title, Hello Sir.

Is it really plausible that, in order to remain in showbiz, Jonathan Wilkes would want to get into Robbie's pants night after night? And his shirt, and other pieces of costume to play the part of Mr. Williams?

The conversation must be sparkling

If the News of the World's Rav is to be believed, there's a new celeb partnership in the firmament.

James Blunt and Lindsay Lohan.

If you'll excuse us, we're going to go and sob quietly for an hour or so.

This week just gone

Seven day's worth of No Rock & Roll Fun.

Top ten individual stories, including only stuff from 2007:

1. Kerry Katona's sex tape doesn't feature her, suddenly becomes worth searching for
2. RIP: Buck Jones
3. Britney Spears lesbian sex video rumours
4. Sarah Ferguson offers support for Jo O'Meara
5. Jo O'Meara: I need no support, for I am not a racist bully
6. Britney Spears settles with K-Fed - divorce, peace in our time?
7. Mariah Carey's Playboy cover - how desperate for attention?
8. Dallas Austin slags Joss Stone
9. SXSW line-up
10. Babyshambles announce stadium tour

Also this week: Lily Allen insisted she had nothing in common with any Americans; then she sobered up and tried to salvage her US career; Huey from the Fun Lovin' Criminals turned up on a programme about training dogs; the new rates for US internet radio royalties were defended by the organisation which collects them (and, of course, keeps a percentage); and we learned the sad news of the death of Ernie Woo.

You can read the entire week on one page;
or skim the week before in one post.

Five years ago, NME reported that EMI was allowing Jagger and McCartney to carry on solely because of their back catalogue; Paul quit S Club 7 to join a nu-metal band - up until Jo went into Big Brother, the worst career decision any of them had made; Liam Gallagher pledged he'd not set foot in the MetBar again after an argument with Mis-Teeq and Tony Wilson was upset London Underground wouldn't let him be called a twat.

These are unaffected by changes in Gordon Brown's budget:


Assuming you resisted the US and International versions of The Sounds' Dying To Say This To You, you can now get a UK special version


UK release for the album Shiny Toy Guns' Carah fitted in while making Paris Hilton's demos for her


Kubichek launch the campaign for less daylight saving time with Not Enough Night


The Rakes on their all-to-prove second outing


Personally, we were never totally convinced by the a-sides, so we're dubious as to the value of a Feeder b-side collection


Neil Young's 1971 Massey Hall gig - essential if you love Young, worth a listen if you're still looking to be convinced










A splendid bunch of Bananarama remasters - scoop the lot. Yes, even the late-period.


Is it really twenty years since we first dropped an excited needle on Napalm Death's Scum? Whoever thought we'd all be here for the 20th anniversary? With hearing, we mean.


Young people in uncomfortable shirts: The Ponys much-admired Turn Out The Lights


Karen Grant redux: Magazine's Correct Use of Soap


Cohen joined by Wainwrights Martha and Rufus, Jarvis Cocker, Nick Cave. And Bono - ut you got a fast forward button, don't you?

Allen tries to salvage American career

Lily Allen is rushing to try and fix the screw-up over telling Americans they're backward. Apparently, you know, she never meant that at all:

“Apparantly I said that all Americans are backwards in some interview. While some Americans probably ARE (every country has a backwards contingent ), that would be a sweeping generalisation and also not true.

“I think there are some very clever Americans . I don't actually remember saying these things , but they were said in Texas which is where the SXSW festival was, therefore I must have been very drunk and showing off. Soz.”

Oh, well, if you were drunk, that makes all the difference. Presumably that also explains the more teeth-grating parts of your album, too.

What Keith Allen's daughter forgets, though, is that she's trying to correct something without checking what she said first. Allen actually said Texans were backward, with Arkansas and Wyoming residents being even more backward than that. Then she said she had nothing in common with Americans at all. Perhaps she better claim she was on drucks, too.