Creem turns sour

There's a book been published for the Christmas market pulling together the best bits of Creem, the closest thing Rolling Stone had to competition. it's been put together by Robert Matheu, who bought the trademark with a crazy dream of reviving the magazine he once took photos for.

JJ Kramer, son of Creem founder Barry, is less than thrilled at this - he's seeking to regain title to the title in the courts.

It was something of a surprise, then, when Kramer turned up at Matheu's New York book signing:

According to one witness, a longtime friend of Mr. Kramer’s named Elizabeth Houlihan, Mr. Matheu shouted “What the fuck are you doing here?” at Mr. Kramer when he saw him. When Mr. Kramer walked over, according to Ms. Houlihan, Mr. Matheu grabbed him by the shirt and pushed him.

“J.J. pushed him back in self-defense,” Ms. Houlihan said. “And then Robert pushed J.J. again, grabbed his face and drew all over it with permanent marker.”

Security was subsequently called and Mr. Kramer was escorted out of the building, Ms. Houlihan said.

Matheu tells a different story, claiming he was the innocent victim:

“I think my behavior was flawless,” Mr. Matheu told The Observer. “Had he come into the party and maybe had a different demeanor about him, we were all prepared to simply say, ‘Listen, we have a lawsuit pending, we have nothing to say to you, but feel free to visit with some of your dad’s friends here, as there are probably some people here who would like to meet you.’”

The actual question of who hit whom is probably as impossible to unpick - and as hard to care about - as the question of if Matheu agreed to give Kramer 30% of the magazine in the first place. It's an astonishing amount of fuss over a magazine that hasn't published in nearly twenty years.

Caught in a Tricky corner

We've not heard a peep from Tricky for an age and a half, and we didn't really expect him to resurface wedged between the server files on TMZ, trying to explain what happened when he got caught up in some sort of fight:

"We got attacked, and I don't know why we got attacked ... I think he was a big bully ... but if he want a go straightener, come on man!"

Uh... right.

It's a pity nobody at TMZ thought to ask him where he'd been the last ten years.

More trouble for Towers

Two of the quieter Towers of London, Dirk Tourette and Tommy Brunette, have been arrested after some sort of pointless fighting in London. They are, of course, only relatively more quiet.

Mind out, it's the Buzzcocks

I learned a very long time ago - watching Southern Television's Houseparty, in fact - that you should be leery of meeting your heroes as they seldom live up to your expectations.

Of course, the cookery expert who imparted this advice didn't suggest that you'd wind up having a fight with them, but that happens, too. Paddingtons drummer Grant Dobbs met Pete Shelley at the Skye Music Festival and was shattered when Shelley revealed the main motivation these days for the Buzzcocks is the Greenbacks:

"I can't believe it. Pete Shelley and I had a set-to in the hotel. I wanted to talk about music being his biggest passion, but all he could talk about was making more zeros on his bank account.

"It wasn't what I expected from a legendary punk rocker who is meant to be anti-establishment. I was upset and started to argue with him about it, challenging him in the bar, and asking at what point he sold out.

"I couldn't believe it and things got a bit heated. We ended up having to be separated by other people in our bands.

"Actually Steve Diggle, The Buzzcocks guitarist, came over and told me not to bother with him."

Presumably Diggle said to leave it, he wasn't worth it. Unless they could arrange a pay-per-view revenue stream for the fight.

Lily on the wagon

Apparently, Lily Allen's is thinking of quitting drinking:

“I managed to get into a fight with the band JET. I have no recollection of the whole event... precisely why I shouldn’t drink!

Well, yes. If we'd beaten Jet around the head, we'd want to remember every single detail to cheer ourselves up in the year to come.