DJobit: Guru Josh

Paul Walden, who dropped an E and reinvented himself as Guru Josh, has died.

His big chart hit was Infinity; and although he never really did as well in the charts again, the base that the track gave him allowed him to start a third life (after pub rock and dj star) as an perpetual start-up. His Guardian obituary explains:

He [said, of the Infinity re-release] “But what do I want to do for the rest of my life, keep churning out rubbish? Music has been good to me, but now I get more excitement out of setting up new businesses.

“I’m more like a mad inventor than a musician. About a year ago, I patented a new invention that’s being manufactured in China at the moment. It’s a big secret but you’ll know about it soon. People say it’s the next cat’s eyes.”

It's unclear if his next cat's eyes ever took off. There doesn't appear to be a related patent application in his name.

Guru Josh died December 28th in Ibiza; he was 51. The cause of his death has not been made public.

Liam Gallagher to pretend to be a pop star

I suspect it was always going to happen that Kevin Sampson's Powder would be turned into a movie. I'm not sure anyone would have put money on it featuring Guru Josh and Liam Gallagher.

But apparently that's the plan:

The DJ's website said: "Producer-author Kevin Sampson has asked Guru Josh to play in the movie of his bestselling novel Powder. Guru Josh will act as himself alongside co-star Liam Gallagher."

The entry continued: "Is the world ready for Liam Gallagher and Guru Josh together on the silver screen?"

This seems to have been picked up from the Sun and spread around the world, although there isn't actually any such post anywhere obvious on Guru Josh's site. There is this:

June 17th 2009: Guru Josh has signed to appear in what will be next years most talked about movie,at present details are hush hush as the final details are put to bed.Dont forget to check the NEWS for more details real soon!

However, if you check the current Google Cache version of the Josh's page, the story is there. Never mind if the world is ready for the pair of them on the screen - was the internet ready for the announcement, Josh?

The exciting thing about this project is Sampson's book was based on his time managing The Farm, offering the prospect that Liam Gallagher's big screen debut might be playing, effectively, Peter Hooton.