Maximum Rock & Roll dig out old Black Flag review; set off firecrackers

Thirty years ago, MRR reviewed Black Flag's My War. Tim Yo wasn't impressed:

To me, it sounds like BLACK FLAG doing an imitation of IRON MAIDEN imitating BLACK FLAG on a bad day. The shorter songs are rarely exciting, and the three on the B-side are sheer torture. I know depression and pain are hallmarks of BLACK FLAG's delivery, but boredom too? (TY)

Of course, thirty years ago, there wasn't an internet for staunch-defenders-of-that-particular-Black-Flag-line-up to 'have their "say"' on. Their whiny responses were just shouted at paper, and who would know they fundamentally disagreed with those views from that?

The magazine has fixed that problem by putting the review online, thereby giving people the chance to argue against a three decade old review:

Greg Ayotte Side 2 always. You're a very close minded punk, it's about freedom of expression for a punk band, not playing at the speed of light. It has been such a huge influence, side 2 the main focus. Hell, it created grunge, which has influenced all rock music since. Everything after slip it in is pretty much crap but to compare my war to any iron maiden is just ignorance...

Chadd Heath Yeah, that's one shitty and completely wrong review and i hope that person was "fired" or whatever they do at MRR.

Is the review really more wrong than hoping the magazine sacked its own publisher and founder for writing it? Hard to calibrate that one.

Coming up next week: MMR unseals the long-stilled Rapeman debate, pretends to be surprised when it kicks off.

Pharrell Williams calls the next election

It's Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to Pharrell Williams:

Let me tell you why Hillary's going to win. Everywhere you go in this country, you have red and blue. You got the Democrats; you got the Republicans. You got the Bloods; you got the Crips. Everything is red and blue in this country. You know what else is red and blue? Blood. Blood is blue in your body until air hits it, and then it turns red. That means there's unity. There's gonna be unity. So when you think about a night where there's late-night talk-show hosts and it's mostly women, that's a different world. Right? A world where seventy-five percent of the prime ministers and the presidents were women: That's a different world. That's gonna happen, and it's gonna happen when Hillary wins. Because you know what? No matter how staunch of a supporter you are of no-abortion, whatever you are: You're a woman, and there's no way in the world you're going to vote for somebody that's going to try to tell you what to do with your body. When we are a country and we are a species that has had a martian Rover traveling up and down the crevices of this planet looking for water and ice, okay, and we've had a space station that's been orbiting our planet for sixteen years—but we still got legislation trying to tell women what to do with their bodies? Hillary's gonna win. Listen, I'm reaching out to her right now. She's gonna win.

Yes. That makes absolute sense - after all, what sort of woman would ever vote for a person who was going to reduce abortion access?

After all, if women were going to support the idea of harder, fewer, more difficult abortions, you'd see, I don't know, nuns or something picketing clinics, right? And that'd be a crazy thought.

In effect, Williams is suggesting that - when it comes to the ballot box - there's no way Michelle Bachmann would vote against Hillary Clinton.

It might be a very large hat, but he's still talking through it.

Managerobit: Jill Sinclair

A grim press release from SPZ:

With deep regret, the SPZ Group and the Horn family announce that Jill Sinclair passed away on Saturday 22 March 2014, aged 61.

Wife of Trevor Horn and mother of Ally, Aaron, William and Gabriella, Jill co-founded the SPZ Group in 1984. She quickly became one of the most successful managers, and headed up some of the most successful publishing, record label and studio businesses, in UK music history.

She died peacefully at home in London, from cancer.

On behalf of the whole family, Trevor Horn, comments: "Jill was an inspiration in every aspect of her life, as my wife and as the mother of our children. She had an adventurous, maverick spirit and built up music businesses - and made her way through life - successfully and independently, and always on her own terms. She will be sorely missed."

A funeral was held on Monday 24 March. The family ask that no flowers are sent, preferring donations to the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability (www.rhn.org.uk), Cancer Research (www.cancerresearchuk.org), or the JTJ Trust Fund (www.jillsinclairandfrjimteelingtrustfund.com).

No further statement or comment is available at this time.

Jill has been seriously injured in a shooting accident in 2006; she spent three years in a coma and according to Horn, in 2006 "the only expression she can show is of discomfort."

In 1999, Horn and Jill did a 'my partner and me' interview for The Independent, where they spoke about their relationships, professional and personal:

We got married but didn't go into business together for a year or two [says Trveor]. When my partner left me on my own, I said to Jill: "The good thing is that you can manage me now." Fifteen seconds after I appointed her, she told me I would have to give up trying to be an artist and concentrate on being a producer. She thought I could be the best producer in the world.
[...]
[Jill says] I never had any doubts that Trevor would be an enormous success, but it was only when I was named Businesswoman of the Year that I thought about my own career at all. I had just worked and never had a plot. When I did some training recently, the guy said: "What do you want to achieve?" That stumped me. World peace? I've no pretensions to be able to write or sing. I sing all the time, but heaven help us if my career depended on it.

I've learnt from Trevor. He's not one for confrontation; he's a dreamer. I'm more pragmatic, I've never been much of a one for subtlety, but these days I'm much more patient and able to see things from the other point of view. I think the strength of the partnership is that we both do such different jobs. We get things wrong but we both know that we are doing our utmost. We're both forgiving. And there isn't anyone I'd rather be with.

Not for the first time, Cerys Matthews is right

Stirring news in the battle for our BBC from the new Radio Times:

The BBC has a new champion in the form of a glamorous full-throated female lead singer of a majorly successful Welsh rock band from the 1990s.

I'm presuming this is Ann from Ectogram we're talking about here? Oh, hang on, no:

Cerys Matthews, solo artist and former lead singer of the band Catatonia today told RadioTimes.com that the British public needs to stand up for the BBC – or risk losing it.

“We all need to defend the BBC,” she said at today’s launch of a raft of new arts programmes.

“We should all see it as our BBC. We need to remind everybody that we all own it.”

Obviously, being employed by 6Music means she's not totally unbiased, but Cerys Matthews is right.

Martin, Paltrow go their separate ways

I'm guessing, like me, you didn't sleep well last night, as the words "Coldplay break-up album" kept churning through your mind like a horrified heartbeat every time you closed your eyes.

Obviously, the news of a couple separating, especially when they have a young family is always a sad thing, but...

Conscious Uncoupling

It is with hearts full of sadness that we have decided to separate. We have been working hard for well over a year, some of it together, some of it separated, to see what might have been possible between us, and we have come to the conclusion that while we love each other very much we will remain separate. We are, however, and always will be a family, and in many ways we are closer than we have ever been. We are parents first and foremost, to two incredibly wonderful children and we ask for their and our space and privacy to be respected at this difficult time. We have always conducted our relationship privately, and we hope that as we consciously uncouple and coparent, we will be able to continue in the same manner.

Love,
Gwyneth & Chris

How can they manage to make even their divorce into a vomit-inducing festival of tweeness?

Even James Arthur hates @jamesarthur23

Did you know James Arthur is still going? And still on Twitter.

Obviously, he's not totally allowed to do his own tweets, but the poor sod tasked with sending tweets on his behalf is having an uphill struggle, as Complete Music Update has snickered at:

Arthur’s ‘people’ tweeted: “Well it’s next Sunday peeps – and we think your mum would #LOVE a copy of #JamesArthurTheAlbum. Don’t you? JA HQ”, to which the man himself responded: “HQ please stop writing things like ‘we think you would #LOVE this and that’ or ‘everybody #GETDOWN and buy this…’ It’s embarrassing”, and “Stick to promoting Paul Potts please. Thanks. #LOVE”.

Arthur's solution was to suggest putting a superfan in charge of the Twitter account. But surely if there is such a thing as a James Arthur superfan, they'd be tweeting to themselves?

By the way, your mum phoned. She just wanted to stress that she really doesn't want a copy of James Arthur's album, and if you even think about getting one for her, you're out the will.

Worried people worry about Bieber; discretely point to price list

Oh, won't someone think of the children? After Justin Bieber, the singer based on the popular range of Justin Bieber dolls, stuck a photo of himself having a ciggie on the internet, a company has issued a press release:

Troubled Pop Star Justin Bieber Irresponsibly Glamorizes Smoking

It's an odd press release, though. It's come from a company which helps separate people from both their cigarettes and money, which might explain why a large chunk of it at the start sounds like it's coming from FOREST, the pro-lung cancer pressure group:

Canadian pop musician and singer-songwriter Justin Bieber seems to idolizes James Dean's living life in the fast lane persona. Bieber is seen sitting against a brick wall wearing a white t-shirt rolled up to reveal his tattoo sleeves, as an unlit cigarette dangles from his lips. On March 20th, Us Weekly reported, Justin uploaded the rebellious smoking picture to his Instagram page of 14.8 million followers with a caption saying, "Don't ask me if I smoke ciggys cuz I don't."

Sounds kinda sexy, right - obviously if you ignore that it's Justin Bieber.

It's almost as if the anti-smoking therapy group is trying to ensure everyone sees the images of Bieber, albeit with a sorrowful shake of the head further down the press release. It couldn't be that - while not wanting people to take up a life of furtively sucking on Capstan full strength in a windswept shelter round by the delivery hatch - they're aware that if Justin did encourage a few kids to try it, that could well provide business for them in the future.

Obviously, that would be a cynical reading of the press release. And whoever looked for cynicism in a press release?

GAWRobit: Dave Brockie

Dave Brockie, who as Oderus Urungus created and led GWAR, has died. His manager confirmed the news:

"It is with a saddened heart that I confirm my dear friend Dave Brockie, artist, musician, and lead singer of GWAR, passed away at approximately 6:50 p.m. EST Sunday, March 23, 2014. His body was found Sunday by his bandmate at his home in Richmond, Virginia. Richmond authorities have confirmed his death and next of kin has been notified. A full autopsy will be performed. He was 50 years old, born August 30, 1963.

"My main focus right now is to look after my bandmates and his family.

"More information regarding his death shall be released as the details are confirmed."

Here's GWAR appearing on The Joan Rivers show:


[Related: RIP: Cory Smoot]

People notice Chancellor adds VAT to downloads. A year too late.

There's a smattering of panic at the news that Osborne is adding VAT to downloads from places like iTunes and the other, less successful, stores.

People who are reacting now do realise that, while it's true Osborne has done this, he did it in the 2013 budget and this year merely repeated it, right?

Paloma Faith: Pop stars are dead

Pop stars? THERE ARE NO POP STARS, screams Paloma Faith:

Paloma Faith thinks David Bowie is the last great pop star.

The 'Can't Rely On You' singer reckons pop is dead because of social media and fans know too much about their idols.

She told the Daily Star newspaper: "There's no mystery or excitement about being a pop star any more.

"People know everything now, there's no stone unturned with social media."

It's not often that I feel the need to defend Madonna, but... surely Madonna? Maybe even GaGa? Or Perry? Can you really say they're not proper pop stars?

Meanwhile, a 1980s teenager writes: "yeah, we weren't motivated to know every last scrap of information about our heroes. We'd never buy magazines about them; and certainly when Look-In tried to provide information files on the stars, we'd insist our local newsagents redacting the data points in case we found out what sort of things our pop stars liked to eat or watch."

Faith hasn't quite finished:

She said: "It was brilliant that David Bowie won a BRIT Award and totally deserved, he's an incredible artist and the last of a generation."

She may have said something else, but everyone ran off to read the Kate Bush gig announcement at this point and her words were left hanging in the air.

Bruno Mars discovers his own knock-off CDs

Bruno Mars has been playing some dates in Thailand, and during some downtime, popped into a local market. He found some bootleg copies of his own records there:

He also posted a picture of himself smiling as he showed off four pirated CDs of his own music. "Got these Bootleg CDs #WhatayaGonnaDo? #Bangkok," he wrote.

It also appeared that the vendor was not aware that Bruno Mars was checking out his pirated products.

Apparently Mars went up to the stall holder, showed him the CDs and said "I think these are a bit dodgy"; to which the market guy replied "yeah, mate, I agree but you can see why the record company wanted a slicker Michael Buble, can't you?"

Twittergem: Metal

The downside of picking up a thrash metal band from the airport. pic.twitter.com/SlOQrEvV68

— Daniel Holland (@DannyDutch) March 23, 2014

Lorde gig location of first post-Phelps counter-protest

For reasons that are probably down to misreading the Bible quite extravagantly, the Westboro Baptist Church turned up to protest at Lorde's gig in Kansas City. (Perhaps they think that the Southern Hemisphere and the underworld are the same place, or maybe they believe that Lord Of The Rings was a documentary and anyone hailing from New Zealand is going to be some sort of malevolent goblin. Who knows?)

Anyway, this is the first time the Westboro Church have got their placards out since founding hate-frond Fred Phelps went to put his interpretation of the scriptures to the test, and as such there was a new form of counter-protest:

According to Kansas City’s KSHB Channel 41, the stridently anti-LGBT demonstrators were met with a counter-protest outside a concert by New Zealander pop sensation Lorde. The counter-protesters held up a banner that said, “Sorry for your loss,” a message of condolence to the church members, many of whom are relatives of the late Rev. Phelps.

Obviously, this puzzled the Baptists, who live under the belief that hearing of a person's death is an excuse to work out exactly how they were part of a sodomitocracy and arrange a loud presence at their funeral to share this knowledge.

Westboro members — who reportedly ousted Phelps from his own congregation earlier this year — pretended to not understand the message.

“I don’t even know what they’re saying,” said longtime WBC member Steve Drain.

Westboro Baptist Church member doesn't recognise a compassionate, gentle message. The world isn't entirely surprised.

Armenia enter homophobic, transphobic tosspot into Eurovision

Aram MP3, who is going to represent Armenia in this year's Eurovision, turns out to be a bit of an asshat. Especially when asked about Austria's Conchita Wurst. Unzipped has been following the depressing story:

On 20th March, during press conference with local reporters, similar remarks repeated again.

Reporters also asked about his opinion of Austrian representative Conchita Wurst. Aram MP3 confessed smiling: ‘it will be difficult’.

“I just realised that, after all, we will be on the same stage, because as part of the Eurovision all participants perform one song together. If you want to know my position, when I pass next to Kom aygi [Unzipped: cruising park in downtown Yerevan frequented by gay men and particularly trans sex workers], I speed up my car. In this case [re Conchita], I will try to somehow put up with.”

After the 'hold on what' reaction to this, Aram said he was only saying these things to "make journalists laugh". (Because, you know, homophobia is fine if you're only doing it for a punchline.)

Artmika at Unzipped, noting how Aram MP3 is bookie's favourite, sees the irony:

I will not be voting for Aram MP3, because I simply cannot vote for someone with such views. You decide yourself. But if he wins, I will be only happy to see "gay parade" Eurovision coming to Armenia, although it would be ironic that a person with such questionable views would make this happened.

Aram has also suggested that "we will help her to eventually decide whether she is a woman or man". Which sounds threatening on top of being transphobic.

This week just gone

Most read things from all of No Rock in the last seven days:

1. Merchandise brand Kiss object to rules of tourist attraction R&R Hall Of Fame
2. Alesha Dixon makes a smell
3. KT Tunstall blames her braces for sexuality confusion
4. Kylie quits the Voice (they reckon)
5. RIP: Gary Burger
6. Jesus kicked off Chris Evans show; former Archbishop upset
7. The last Mark and Lard show in full
8. Who was Poor Old Soul about?
9. Kylie makes a video like she's a twelve year old boy
10. Melissa Etheridge back at work after cancer. (Yes, this is from 2005)

These were the interesting new releases:


Dean Wareham - Dean Wareham

Download Love Letters



Jasmine Minks - Cut Me Deep



Johnny Foreigner - You Can Do Better

Download You Can Do Better



Metronomy - Love Letters

Download Love Letters



Joan As Police Woman - The Classic

Download The Classic



Mø - No Mythologies To Follow

Download No Myhtologies To Follow



Micha P Hinson - And The Nothing

Download Micha P Hinson



Solvent - New Ways: Music From The Documentary I Dream Of Wires

Download New Ways

Internet hears death throes in corner; remembers Twitter Music

Twitter Music - which attempted to change the way we... which wanted to... well, which happened - is coming to an end.

Naturally, the death was announced through Twitter:

Later this afternoon, we will be removing Twitter #music from the App Store. If you have the app, it will continue to work until April 18.

— Twitter Music (@TwitterMusic) March 21, 2014

But don't worry, because this isn't an end, right? No, there's plans. All kinds of plans. They obviously can't tell you too much about them because they don't really amount to much ("only have 140 characters to describe them"):

We continue to experiment with new ways to bring you great content based on the music activity we see every day on Twitter.

— Twitter Music (@TwitterMusic) March 21, 2014

This basically appears to be pulling together tweets that mention iTunes or Spotify. It's not quite the new world they were expecting, is it?

The Voice: A quick observation

Kylie quits The Voice is the new 'Brucie quits Strictly'.

Supplementary: Nobody seems keen on running 'Ricky Wilson quits Voice; delivers blow to the BBC' stories.

Orange Juice: Why Twitter is an amazing place to be

This alone would be worth excusing that bit yesterday where everyone was pushing a Vogue cover like it was worth looking at:

There was a time before all new albums automatically received four stars. Sounds' Dave McCullough lets rip in 1982: pic.twitter.com/EPe5gTKz1w

— bob stanley (@rocking_bob) March 19, 2014

But the response is jaw-dropping:

@rocking_bob Re' Dave Mc? Poor Old Soul' fact!!!@@!!!!!-Edwyn,

— Edwyn Collins (@EdwynCollins) March 21, 2014

You might want to compare and contrast this with the Stereophonics' Mr Writer; it'll allow you to measure the actual distance between an artist and a hack.

Amy Lee no longer encumbered by record deal

There's been a bit of a spat between Amy Lee and her label for the last few months - Lee mostly claiming she'd been shorted on Evanesence royalties. But now? She is free:

Today, for the first time in 13 years, I am a free and independent artist. I have wanted this for so long and I am so happy. CHEERS!

— Amy Lee (@AmyLeeEV) March 19, 2014

Today, for the first time in 13 years, I am a free and independent artist. I have wanted this for so long and I am so happy. CHEERS!

— Amy Lee (@AmyLeeEV) March 19, 2014

What's interesting is the attitude of Blabbermouth commenters under the line.

Some worry that she's not independent enough:

Joe Franklin · Top Commenter · Owner-Operator at Force Ten Productions
Fair enough, but unless she records and produces the music herself and sells CD's out of the trunk of her car, she'll never be truly free and independent.

What's that? She's going to drive around a car? Surely she should build a trolley from wood she grows herself and... oh, hang on, I'm trying to take the piss out of Joe's comment, but I think he's about to trump anything I can come up with. Because someone says this:

Conner O'Reilly · Top Commenter
Joe Franklin There's this thing called the internet nowadays where artists can sell their music directly to the fans, no car trunk required. Crazy concept, I know!

... and Joe responds thus:

Joe Franklin · Top Commenter · Owner-Operator at Force Ten Productions
Did she code the website herself?

FAIL!

"What's that? She did? Oh... but was she using a computer that she'd made herself from components? Yeah, but if she didn't power the electricity herself she's not independent, right," concluded Joe using a laptop he carved out of wood with his own teeth.

Still, the 'you're not really DIY' attacks were mild compared with some other opinions delightful Blabbermouthers chose to share. You might be able to spot a theme:

Fred Frenzel · Top Commenter · Works at Minnkota Enviroservices
You mean nobody wanted to sign a washed-up pregnant lady whose music isn't that good to begin with? I shan't believe it!

Charlie Meister · Top Commenter · University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
Maybe this is good news. It really only makes a difference if they put out an album more than once every 5 years. That said, I suppose there's an allowance here for child rearing. Can't wait to hear what's next.

Loco Ono · Austin, Texas
"I'm free to do anything". Porn.

Brian Nallick · Top Commenter
If she's married to a therapist she really doesn't even need a job. Those dudes make the $$$

Brian Oswald · Top Commenter
More like, "Nobody wants to work with me, but I'm too conceited to blame myself." Without a record company, you would be playing state fairs and bars. Go shit out your kid and shut up.

Child rearing. Doing porn. Being a wife. Below the line on Blabbermouth, there are no limits to what a woman can achieve, are there?

Kylie, we need to talk

Back when we were nine or ten, we thought it was bloody hilarious to say "sexercises" - we'd wiggle our fingers and chant "sexercises, sexercises, we are doing our sexercises".

We had no idea what it all meant, but it was bloody hilarious.

When you were ten.

Hang on, here's a press release from Warner Brothers:

In what can only be described as the hottest workout video ever, Kylie introduces her fans to the hot and steamy world of "Sexercize."

Oh. But it's not just twitching fingers, is it?

If one video isn't enough to satisfy your cravings for the world's raunchiest workout, let your fingers do the walking to...

Oh, Kylie.

Coming later this year: Kylie launches viral video for new single Milk, Milk, Lemonade, Round the corner chocolate's made.

John Mayer has a dodgy ticker

Terrible, terrible news from the world of people with more money than sense. It turns out when John Mayer was wasting his money buying expensive watches, he was really wasting his money as they weren't even the expensive watches they claimed to be.

Yes, they were two-faced watches. Forbes talks about it like it matters:

Yesterday, the news broke that pop star John Mayer, an avid watch collector, is suing a well-known watch dealer based in Los Angeles – a longtime “expert” in vintage and ultra-high-end timepieces – over seven very expensive timepieces sold to him, which Rolex confirmed as containing “non-authentic” components. Meaning the dials, which are the most important components of sought-after vintage timepieces. After months of trying to sort the situation out personally, Mayer now seeks to recover $656,000, the price of the seven watches allegedly containing non-original components.

You spent over half a million dollars on watches. That's probably the crux of the problem here, not whether one of the springs came from a Timex.

A surprised and baffled Mr Mayer said "hang on... look, there's the time on my phone. I don't really need a watch at all, do I?" before rushing off to finish the deal he's working on to buy Tower Bridge from a man in a trilby and car coat.

Jesus dropped from Chris Evans show

Eliza Doolittle turned up to do a tune or two for Chris Evans, and ended up changing some of the words. The Christian Post is outraged:

Doolittle had to change her lyrics from "Sometimes I wish I was Jesus, I'd get my Air Max on and run across the sea for you" to 'Sometimes I wish it was easy to get my Air Max on and run across the sea for you."

"It was weird because I'm not being blasphemous, I just meant 'I wish I could run across water and see you,' but maybe wishing for the power of God was blasphemous enough for them," Doolittle told the Daily Mail in a recent interview over the issue.

It's not clear why this has suddenly become a thing - the show was on at the end of November last year, but never one to object to an unlikely resurrection, an ex-Archbish has piled in:

Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has spoken out against the radio network's decision, saying he is "totally appalled" over the incident. "I'm not surprised the BBC is behind this because their attitude tends to be to dumb down the Christian message."

Is it worth pointing out that the same programme featured - as Chris Evans' show does every day - a couple of minutes of spiritual reflection in the Pause For Thought slot? Probably not.

Is it even worth asking Carey to explain why removing a lyric that hooks one of the miracles held sacred by Christians to a pair of expensive plimsoles in the context of a weak love song is "dumbing down" a Christian message, while including that lyric in the song, presumably, isn't?

And, naturally, it turns out it was Doolittle's label which pushed for the lyric change. Perhaps Carey was just taking the Mail's story on faith alone?

(Side note: Interesting that the Christian Post seems to be unaware that Carey is no longer head of the Church off England.)

Alesha Dixon creates a stink

Alesha Dixon has released a perfume (surely we've used up all possible smells of toilet water by now?). Fair enough, but not sure about the Manchester Evening News claim here:

Pop star Alesha Dixon launches new perfume at Trafford Centre

The Trafford Centre bit is fair enough, but... is she a pop star?

Her last album was three and a half years ago, and got to the giddy heights of, erm, 84. She hasn't troubled the Top 10 singles list since Breathe Slow back in 2009.

Fair enough, she was a pop star once, but not for the best part of half a decade. And I doubt if even the most generous perfume company would be launching a brand off the back of The Boy Does Nothing so late on.

But then 'Game show judge launches perfume' isn't quite such a compelling headline, is it?

Garageobit: Gary Burger

Gary Burger, lead singer of The Monks, has died.

An American band who formed in Germany (all the members were GIs), they threw in "wacky" elements like banjos to keep themselves entertained as they slogged round the German toilet club circuit.

There was a look, too: vaguely Monkish robes and roughly Monkish haircuts:

“We didn’t like it that much, the haircut,” Burger chuckled [in an interview with The Current]. “You had to shave the thing almost every day, or else you’d get a stubble like a guy gets after a day of not shaving. So we all had electric razors—it was a funny sight, you’d see us all in our room shaving our heads.”

Here's the group on German TV in 1965:


The band only recorded one album, but were held in great affection; they'd started to reach a 'rediscovered' period in their story. Burger appeared on the fifth collection of the Minnesota Beatles Project, which uses covers of Fab Four songs to raise funds for local schools.

Gary Burger was 72; he'd had pancreatic cancer.

Journeys to the past when the future was the destination

I suppose, to be fair, the C86 movement were never likely to be confused with the Futurists, but even Bobby Gillespie in his most Byrds-drenched, pre-Bourbon incarnation would have raised a surprised eyebrow at the idea that C86 would get a three CD expanded reissue in 2014.

The extra tracks include some interesting stuff, including a supposedly never-previously-released North of Cornwallis track, but it seems to have stretched the defintion of C86.

But wouldn't you rather all this effort was put into making a C2014?

Roll forward a few years, or perhaps just don't roll back as far, and we find ourselves at a week-long return of The Evening Session, a show which has been revived more often than Beau Geste. This time (probably every time) it's to celebrate Britpop.

Oh, Britpop. It's like Jeremy Bentham's corpse - now that all the life has gone, you're just left with a weird artefact that serves little purpose other than to be occasionally kidnapped and paraded up and down the street, missing the vital pulse that interested everyone in the first place.

Lamacq added: For me, this is the week 20 years ago that the musical tectonic plates shifted. On the Tuesday, Oasis played live on Radio 1 for the first time and on the Friday morning we heard the news of Kurt Cobain's death. It was as if one scene had announced it had arrived, as another began to lose its way."

Steve, you're better than that. I don't think a single person, on hearing the news of Kurt's suicide, thought "that's kind of epochal, what with Oasis having been on the wireless a few days back."

Jo is actually more honest:

Jo Whiley said: "I will always jump at the chance to work with Steve. He is my radio 'other half' and we did fight the Britpop wars together after all. It was a great time to be a DJ on UK radio but, as ever, when you're in the eye of the storm, you are blissfully unaware. It's only in hindsight that you appreciate what a privilege it was to live and work through such an exciting time for British music."

Who'd have thought it was the more excitable one of the pair who remembered that a lot of Britpop shibboleths are coloured by red, white and blue tinted hindsight?

Steve and Jo will be trotting the 'half a pint of cider before the show' anecdote for the 1,000th time as part of a big Britpop disinterment across the BBC.

Kiss unhappy at induction process

Next month, Kiss get inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame - they're told about the fire escape procedure, get to meet their line managers and get given a swipe card that lets them get into the stationery cupboard.

But they're not happy.

They're annoyed that only some Kiss people are being allowed in:

“We have continuing issues with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, starting with the fact that they chose to only induct the original lineup when that’s hardly the case with other bands,” [Paul Stanley] said from Los Angeles.

“In the Grateful Dead’s case, (they) also inducted a writer who never played an instrument,” said Stanley, referring to Robert Hunter’s inclusion when the band was inducted in 1994. “Or they’ve inducted rap artists, or they’ve inducted people who have been in the band for seven years as opposed to ... 25 years or 20 years — whatever their criteria of this week is.”

It does seem, on the face of it, to be unfair. But on the other hand, it's a pop museum and a band who are mostly known these days for squeezing every merchandise cent they can from their fanbase. I suspect the human rights agencies won't be taking many calls on this one.

Word back up

What's this? The Word podcast has sprung back into life, two years after the last emission.

Grim news from SXSW

Horrible news from SXSW in Austin overnight, as a car has ploughed into a crowd waiting outside the Mohawk club.

ABC News is reporting two dead; five critically injured.

It appears the driver was being pursued by police before he drove into queue. KVUE reports:

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said officers initially tried to pull over the driver at a gas station on the Interstate 35 service road. The driver fled the wrong way down Ninth Street, which is a one-way street, and turned onto Red River, hitting pedestrians at a "high rate of speed." Officers say the driver is in custody.

Lily Allen agrees with 'docile pop rubbish' attack

Someone on Twitter said the new Lily Allen work was "docile pop rubbish".

You might expect Allen to object; instead, she agreed:

Lily responded to the claims by agreeing that her label has forced her hand for most of her comeback so far: "What you've heard so far, yes. All I can do is do my best, the labels and the radio stations won't play the better stuff."

She then teased her new album by telling him: "Keep the faith."

Which is charmingly honest, but does raise the question of why she's doing work that's so poor the label will get behind it in the first place.

That's an odd question to be asking, although one that we probably should be asking more often.

Embed and breakfast man: Warpaint

Warpaint do Conan; do Love Is To Die: