Twittergem: Niles Rodgers

Some people's commutes this morning are substantially better than yours:

Strolling past @nilerodgers busking on the Southbank just made my Monday! That's mad amounts of cool. pic.twitter.com/vAPK4zmhGv

— Carmen Rose (@CarmenRoseLittl) June 22, 2015

Twittergem: HMV

HMV downsizing in progress:

HMV, 150 Oxford Street: pic.twitter.com/2fgi6vpyJ2

— krs (@conroy_bumpus) January 17, 2014

Bob Geldof can now drive his sheep over bridges

Yesterday, Bob Geldof was given the freedom of the City of London:

Singer Bob Geldof received the Freedom of the City of London in recognition of his services to music and outstanding contribution to International social justice and peace.

I bet there was a phonecall or two:
- Yeah, Bob's thrilled, but he says can you include a mention of his services to music? ... No, music... The Boomtown Rats? The Vegetarians of Love? ... oh, you haven't? ... look, have you got Google there? Try searching for the Boomtown Rats...

Apparently, he doesn't really have the right to drive sheep over bridges; and it's probably a moot point if he'd be entitled to a silken rope should he ever find himself being hanged in the city.

Gordon in the morning: Jerk

This, apparently, is a thing:

LUDACRIS has a taste for London restaurant Jerk City since he’s been over in the UK working on The Fast And The Furious 6.

Rather than head for posh grub in the capital the rapper has been regularly visiting the Caribbean eaterie in Soho – and has been trying to persuade his movie castmates to go with him.

It definitely beats a Big Mac.

Apart from the warning about a sixth movie in the Fast And The Furious franchise, why does this warrant a mention? It's not even like Smart has a picture of Ludacris wiping his fingers on a napkin. And what does "regularly" mean? Does he go every day? Has he been twice?

Also: "eaterie"? Is the ghost of PG Wodehouse sub-editing The Sun at the moment? (Probably not, as Plum would have spelled it correctly - one eatery, many eateries.)

Venuewatch: The Birkbeck Taven

Leyton's Birkbeck Tavern is sitting under the threat of closure, which would result in another small live venue vanishing to make room for flats.

How much of a loss would it be? Here's the Morning Star's James Eagle enthusing over the Whats Cookin' nights, some of which take place at the pub:

"Over the last few years, in London and doubtless beyond, a few venues have been reviving the spirit of the old folk clubs - and rehabilitating the reputation of pub gigs after years of tribute acts and ageing blues bands - with nights that are intimate, welcoming, run for love not profit and, above all, uproarious fun.

What's Cookin' is one such, a labour of love run from a variety of frills-free pubs around the no-nonsense east London suburb of Leytonstone. The music it's dedicated to - country, blues, bluegrass and old-time rock'n'roll - isn't going to grace NME, but it will win the hearts of any doubter who drops in.

The "come in for free, pay what you like" ethos hasn't stopped acts like Billy Childish, Damien Jurado, Emily Barker, Pete Molinari, the Singing Adams or the Southern Tenant Folk Union from turning up to deliver shows that are still talked about."

(If we could just have a sidebar here, the fact that a venue can be pulling in acts like Billy Childish and Pete Molinari and yet be invisible to the NME might explain some of the problems that other venerable institution is having.)

There's a petition online to save the Birkbeck To be honest it should probably have skipped the bit about John Lennon, but is still deserving of your support.

Cocked Bloc: Festival dissolves in confusion

It sounded like a lovely idea: take over the Pleasure Gardens in Victoria Docks, London. Get a load of acts, from Snoop to Battles. Have some on boats, and some on dry land.

That'd be a great festival, right?

Today's message from Bloc suggests things didn't pan out:

By now everyone will have heard that Bloc 2012 was closed due to crowd safety concerns.

We are all absolutely devastated that this happened, but the safety of everyone on site was paramount.

Given the situation on the ground, we feel that it was the right decision to end the show early.

Bloc will not open on Saturday 7th July so please don’t come to the site.

Stand by for full information on refunds.

By most accounts, they're lucky that they're only facing a financial disaster, as last night went badly, badly wrong. Dummymag have done a great job of tracking how things fell apart.

Police closed down the festival at a quarter to one this morning, as too many people turned up:

The problems seemed to stem from a confusion over ticketing, reportedly handled by the extremely unfortunately named company Crowdsurge. One person we contacted, who wishes to remain nameless told us “there was a shambles getting in when it opened. No one seemed to have the right ticket, and security didn’t know the correct ones.”

Blogger Jamila Scott told us that by later on, this confusion had resulted in “two-hour” queues, so long that people burst over the fence. “People surged toward the front and jumped over the barriers by the toilets. There was then a stampede, with scores of people jumping over. Security went insane, screaming and shouting to try and stop it. Eventually though, they gave up and let anyone in.” She reported that no-one had checked her ticket.

There seems to be confusion over whether there had been over-selling of tickets, although once people stop having their tickets checked that becomes a moot point.

A massive crush of people, security losing control, and water. We're lucky we're writing about a festival error. I hope the Health & Safety Executive will be starting an investigation.

Rihanna nearly burns alive (except, of course, she doesn't)

London's burning, London's burning, fetch the engines, fetch the engines:

Rihanna has been evacuated from a London hotel fire.

The 'We Found Love' singer and 300 guests were rescued from the Corinthia Hotel in Whitehall Place in the early hours of the morning (27.06.12) after a blaze broke out in a lift shaft.

"Rescued", you say, ContactMusic?

As so often happens, this turns out to be 'minor incident in a place where celeb was staying; fire alarm goes off; people stand around in the street for a bit' rather than a rescue:

London Fire Brigade have confirmed that no one was injured, and Clare Durnford, the hotel's public relations manager insisted the incident was not serious, and evacuation was just a safety precaution.

She said: ''At approximately 6.30am, one of the service elevator motors at Corinthia Hotel London burnt out. There was a slight discharge of smoke and because of our robust fire management policy, the alarms were activated and a full evacuation of the building was carried out.

''As a matter of procedure, the fire brigade were called to carry out full safety checks throughout the building. All guests were safely accounted for and were allowed back into the hotel soon after 7am.''

Not only was there no rescue, then; there was no fire, either.

Dave Rowntree a bit upset after graffito removed

The NME reports on a shocking desecration of our nation's heritage:

Dave Rowntree hits out after historic Blur graffiti is removed from London path

I know what you're thinking - what, exactly, is "historic blur graffiti"?

Back in the early days of the decade, someone painted a line from For Tomorrow on Primrose Hill - the bit about "and the view's so nice". Which is rather a good joke, and one that has has a good run. But now it's been removed.

Dave isn't happy and - as a reminder that he's trying to become a politician - he's even prepared to throw the Olympics into his argument in a totally baffling way:

"It's a jobsworth attitude in an Olympic year where we're supposed to be celebrating British culture, and Blur did contribute to British culture. It's part of the Blur story."

I'm not sure that simply because it's related to Blur, who were British, is a particularly strong argument for a fairly obscure pun having a right to be on a pavement. Can you offer any other reason to keep the words?

"I can understand the decision, but I lived in the area for about 15 years and even I got used to it being there. It's a shame, it was in one of our videos, we felt deeply about the lyric and about the hill."

Which is nice, but - again - isn't really a compelling argument.

Some people tried to put back the writing, but chose a rainy day and their efforts were washed away - not by a jobsworth cleaner, but BY THE LORD GOD HIMSELF. Who must be an Oasis fan.

It seems a bit of a shame to have taken something that has been around for so long, and offered a wry little in-joke; but it doesn't seem to have occurred to Dave that perhaps the people who got out the scrubbing brushes might simply not be aware of the lyrics of a number 28 hit from nineteen years ago, and their relevance to that spot.

Gordon in the morning: JLS bring their own sunshine

Gordon was very excited by Sport Relief last night:

JLS hitched a ride on a high-speed water taxi to get between their Sport Relief appearance and London's O2 gig last night.

Since high speed water taxis are part of every day London infrastructure, this is a bit like breathlessly reporting your pizza was delivered by a man on a motorscooter.

Still, Gordon has photos of the event:

Except JLS were on-stage at 9.30 for Sport Relief, which makes it strange - if it was such a dash - that it was daylight when they were on the Thames.

Maybe these pictures were from a dry run - no pun intended, honest - but if the BBC showed a rehearsal shot and claimed it was the real thing, the papers would be throwing Safeguarding Trust guidelines at Mark Thompson before you could say Queengate.

Also, with Television Centre not being anywhere near the river, would a water taxi really have sped up the process of getting there?

Thom Yorke, at the moment

Thom Yorke is on the Rainbow Warrior, heading up the Thames. Keep an eye on @GreenpeaceUK to find out why.

Kelis racist incident suddenly moves a few hundred miles south

The incident that Kelis reported on Twitter where she was racially abused in a London airport? It now turns out she was in Spain:

"Just to clarify, because apparently there's been some confusion, I was in the UK (as always) this time for Bestival (which was great)," she wrote. "I took a flight from Gatwick (airport) back to Spain so for those fact checkers that is approximately a two and a half to three hour flight.

She added: "I landed in Spain and that's when the fat pink faced British guy who was on the plane with me called me a slave and (told me) to call him sir. It was at passport control. I didn't think to make that clear at the time because I was shaken and furious. Now you know."

You'll note the dig at "fact checkers", by which she means those tiresome types who, erm, pointed out that her story wasn't straight.

Now, it's fair enough that you might be angry and annoyed and tweet something opaque - but Kelis had already returned to the subject once when challenged on her sweeping statements about racism in the UK, and neglected to mention the important location of the alleged incident.

And it does make a massive difference to the story whether this happened in London or Spain - part of the complaint was the man behind the passport control counter merely repeated the first bloke's "Kunta Kinte" jibe as if he was amused by it. If you're building an argument about how racism is rife and undiscussed in the UK, using the actions of a Spanish civil servant as part of your evidence would seem to undermine your case somewhat.

[Thanks to Peter D in the comments]

Talking of that fire, though...

I've been poking round the Guardian's map of all verified incidents and the Sony Distribution Warehouse fire looks to be unique.

All the other incidents recorded seem to be on High Streets, and attacks on retail units. This seems to be the only time rioting looters took the time to go to a suburban business park and target a business.

Now, maybe the Sony logo made people think this was the place where PlayStations come from, and thus worth a detour.

But given that the focus of the lootathon was on retail units with low-level protection, the targeting of a massive, secure unit away from the High Street seems to be something other.

PIAS official statement

As news of the loss of the PIAS/Sony warehouse has been spreading, the PIAS website has been suffering too (well-wishers rather than arsonists this time).

Their statement:

"There was a fire last night at the SonyDADC warehouse which services the physical distribution for PIAS in the UK and Ireland. PIAS is working closely with SonyDADC who are implementing their emergency plans. PIAS's UK offices in London and all other areas of our business are unaffected. More information will be communicated shortly to all our labels and partners"

Joe McElderry: The Omarion of the London Riots

Joe McElderry was in Hackney last night, so we are blessed to have his first-hand report from the scene:

Joe McElderry found himself in the middle of the London riots yesterday, August 8, while filming a new music video.

The talented singer was working "right in the middle of Hackney" on a video shoot and experienced first hand the severity of the situation. Tweeting at about 8pm BST last night, McElderry let his followers know that he was fine, but had witnessed some shocking sights:

"That's a wrap!! Video is done!! We were filming in a location building! Right in the middle of hackney were the riots were!!!"

"It's all kicking off! Cars on fire and everything! So sad that these people are doing this to there own towns!! just left now got out safe!"

Goodness, a three exclamation mark riot.

This comes from PressParty who appear to be slightly distancing themselves from the claim that he was in "the middle" of riots, or even Hackney, by the second paragraph. I'm not entirely sure the claim that McElderly "saw some shocking sights" is actually supported by his second tweet, either.

It's unlikely if Joe really was in the middle, rather than sort-of-near, his first thought would have been "that's a wrap", no? Although Nero did fiddle while Rome burned, so maybe Joe would lip-sync while Hackney blazed?

[via @wadeywade]

Sony Distribtuion Centre destroyed

The Sony Distribution warehouse in Enfield looks to have been

A LFB spokesman said: "We were called just before midnight to a warehouse in Solar Way, Enfield.
"Eight fire engines are in attendance and around 40 firefighters have been fighting the fire.
"They are making steady progress and will remain on the scene into the morning.
"There was quite a lot of black smoke and the building has partially collapsed into itself."

A hit smaller labels could have done without - like too many other small businesses, they've taken a massive hit just because they were in the way.

Phophosonic Presents...

When did the Garage become the Relentless Garage, exactly? Apart from being a rotten name - the relentless garage sounds like a late-period horror story from the pulp-paperback era - Relentless is one of those pointless drinks that tastes like liquid granny sweets.

Anyway, the venue - The Garage - is playing host to a series of gigs from Phophosonic, and that's worth holding your nose for. They start May 6th with Parallel, Buffalo Ink and Dimbleny & Capper. All for six quid.

Worth considering. Find out more on the internet.

Warpaint weekend: Composure live

Night visions goggles on, to join Warpaint warming up at the Scala in London for their Reading/Leeds dates:


[Part of Warpaint weekend]

Venuewatch: Cross Kings and Stags Head

Sad news from Snipe: The Cross Kings in, erm, Kings Cross has shut itself down in protest at the behaviour of the brewery:

it’s now boarded up after a dispute with Enterprise Inns, the Cross Kings’ management complaining about being “bled dry” by the firm on its Facebook page.
Despite the Cross Kings’ busy diary of events, they say they were given just a week’s notice before the bailiffs’ arrival on 9 July.

Snipe's Darryl Chamberlain also says that things are looking grim for the Stags Head in Hoxton, another Enterprise-owned venue whose management are finding things sticky.

Venuewatch: Fabric rips

Who knew there were any superclubs left still going? Apparently Fabric is still churning away, although now in administration and up for sale.

There's something exciting about the prospect of going to a nightclub being run by PriceWaterhosueCoopers, isn't there?

Both PWC and the club's management are both quite chipper about the prospects for someone taking on the whole thing and keeping it going. At least until the property market picks up and they can turn the whole thing into luxury flats, anyway.

Gordon in the morning: N-Dubz on the move

Starting a rubbish piece about N-Dubz moving house, Gordon clears his throat:

N-DUBZ will forever be remembered as those scamps from Camden in north London.

Well... if by "forever" you mean "at least until the back end of next weekend", and by "those scamps from Camden" you mean "like Cabbage Patch dolls allowed to make pop videos", you're on the money, Gordon.