ASH FAN FOUND: The body has been found of missing backpacker Sean Kennedy. Kennedy had gone missing after being ejected from an Ash concert in Sydney, prompting the band to make a personal appeal for any information. Initial reports suggest there were no suspicious circumstances.

COUNTRY SICK LIST: More news of musicians with drips in their arms, I'm afraid, as we hear that William Lee Golden, greybearded Oak Ridge Boys, has had a heart attack. The band are currently honouring their tour commitments with his son Chris taking his place, which has got to feel kind of strange however you look at it. William is expected to make a complete recovery.

CROSSING THE WHITE LINE?: Some murmurings from E! Online that Rick James had been spotted in partyville before his death, with a claim that he'd been seen doing a line of coke about ten days before his death. The LA Coroner's office are waiting for toxicology reports before they'll know anything further.

ROCK SICK LIST: Get well soon, David Davies of the Kinks, recovering from a stroke. We're sure the fact that he had the stroke after appearing on Danny Baker's Radio London show is a coincidence.

SEVENTY-FIVE ADULT MAILING LISTS HAVE JUST EXPLODED: Because she's been shoved large sums of cash by the boy Murdoch to promote the new season of football by covering Andrea True Connection's More More More, Rachel Stevens has decided she needs a more raunchy look. This is on a par with the sea announcing it needs a bit of extra salt.



"I'm thinking of going porno girl myself. My stylist was suggesting kind of retro, kind of 70s, not naked but porno-esque. I think that would be quite kitsch and cool."



If Avril Lavigne makes a pole-dancing video, we might start to worry that hypno-celeb isn't just crazed fantasy.

I'M A FIRE RE-STARTER: They've got a new album just about ready to "drop", as they probably don't say anymore, and now the Prodigy have announced their return to live entertainment. Interestingly, Keith Flint - who hasn't had any input into Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned - is meant to be rejoining the band for the live experience, which presumably means he's going to have to pretend to be Juliette Lewis. Anyway, dates:

Birmingham Academy - December 2
London Brixton Academy - 3 and 4
Manchester Apollo - 6
Glasgow Academy - 8
Belfast Ulster Hall - 10
Dublin Olympia Theatre - 11

ROCK SICK LIST: Taking it not quite to the limit is ex-Eagles bassist Randy Meisner, hospitalised on Friday with chest pains. Meisner left the Eagles in 1977 and is currently working with the less-iconic World Class Rockers.

SPREADING IT THINLY: We're kind of impressed that Epic has found enough tracks to put together a Macy Gray Best Of. We tried to come up with a track list and got this far:

1. I Try
2. Was there a remix of I Try of some sort?
3. Maybe there was something on the I Try bside?

But they seem happy they can find enough stuff. Gray's no longer on the label, which might explain why there's this somewhat early career retrospective wrap-up.

THE MARQUEE RETURNS. AGAIN: We've always had our doubts about "moving" clubs - the Liverpool Lomax never really felt quite the same after its first decamping and killed itself stone dead after its second move; it might have been only bricks and mortar, but somehow you lose the sense of history and connection. It's worse when the club is being run by someone else entirely in its new home. No connection at all. Which is why we wish The Marquee well - now being resurrected for, what, the third time? - but fear its well-meaning backers would have been better advised to try and create something new and of the now, rather than reaching for an off-the-shelf rebirthing. The team behind the music programme at the new new Marquee are the same promoters who've put the Water Rats on the map, but that just makes it all the more the more puzzling that this project has chosen a forty year old venue name to slap on its operations. They're moving in above the MTV studios in Leicester Square (which in itself suggests they're going to need an awful lot of business just to pay the rent), and they're promising some great new bands to play. It's just a pity they're doing it under some other generation's banner.

(UN)ORIGINAL ARTISTS: Nice piece from ACME about cover versions that are usually assumed to be the original versions, and we suppose that it was judged that too many people made hay with the "Blondie didn't write The Tide Is High" factoid at the time of the Atomic Kitten version to make it worth mentioning. But we would throw Transvision Vamp not being the original purveyors of Tell That Girl To Shut Up for the category. (That would be your Holly and the Italians, of course.)

BUT REMEMBER, KIDS: ONLY DOWNLOAD LEGAL STUFF: The Saltwater Pizza Blog has rumbled a simple way of using Google to track down mp3s on the internet, left ready for picking, like so many blackberries on a bush. It's worth a shot, but, do remember, kids: only download legal stuff. The music industry won't be able to fund a new Naomi Campbell album otherwise.

DOING A SHATNER: Why is it that, since she recorded the tracks anonymously, that Brittany Murphy hasn't followed through and released the record anonymously? I can understand she wanted to keep her first recording sessions secret, so she could tell if people liked the music or just fancied her bossoms. But surely, the point to then pull off the mask and go "Ha! It was me all the time!" is after people have had a chance to hear the music... not before?



Anyway, the debut album will be out next year, in the now over-crowded 'Actor-turned-singer' section of your local Wal-Mart.

SPLASH!: Oh, how we hope someone had a video camera to capture the moment when Puff Daddy and Naomi Campbell got knocked off their yacht into the sea. It's probably quite lucky Daddy Diddy had all that clunky jewellery stolen the other day, otherwise the weight of it would have dragged him down amongst the octopussies and all.

We wonder what Naomi's doing sitting on Sean Comb's boat. Could it be she's about to relaunch her singing career? It's ten years since the shambles of Babywoman. Oddly, this collection has somehow been allowed to go out of print, despite the inclusion of the cover version of Ride A White Swan, a reading so poor you can taste the salt of the low-water mark for celebrity recordings. [You can obtain this on mp3 from Till Dawn's rather wonderful Marc Bolan tribute site. Let's hope that she's decided its time to make a comeback album. We could all do with something to brighten these dark days.

FRANZ FERDINAND ANNOUNCE MATINEE: Aptly enough, the Franziepans are going to do a mid-afternoon show at Glasgow Barrowlands on October 16th in an "all-ages show" type affair. We're presuming this will mean no alcohol will be on sale at the venue during the gig, but it's a pretty cool thing for a band that doesn't have to to do. Unless, you know, they're just going to round up all the kids and take them off to work in their underground mines. That would be horrible.

IF YOU WEREN'T BONO, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE BEEN: Oh, good Lord. We try to be fair to Bono, we really do - we bit our tongue when that 'thank you' to Gordon and Tony advert appeared in the press last week, even although we wanted to point out that it seemed to be more aimed at saying "I'm Bono, these are my friends and we're making a difference" rather than actually thanking the PM and the PM in waiting for their work in helping ease the burden of debt just a smidgen for poor countries. But then he doesn't make it easy. Now, Bono has announced that if he hadn't been a Major Pop Icon, he'd have become a speechwriter for "causes he believes in." Oh, yeah? Since people tend to allow you to get away with half-baked leaps of faith and overly-simplistic summations on the grounds that you're a pop star who wears stupid sunglasses, what makes you think that you'd have been able to make a living from writing speeches without the rock career as a rather large entry point? Isn't it an example of the poor quality of Bono's intellect that, challenged as to what he'd do if he hadn't made millions from being Bono, he doesn't think "well, there'd be no mansion, and I probably wouldn't have broadband, and I'd have to be working sweeping up a baker's to be able to eat...", but instead decides that it'd be "great, not having to tour would leave me time to sit in my mansion writing speeches while eating pickled larks tongues on toast."

Meanwhile, he's not sure about some of the earlier U2 stuff in terms of quality:

When I look at our first 10 years, I just hear unfinished work, lyrics we never finished because we ran out of studio time. I hear Bad and see what's not there. I just see a list of failures."
But, Bono says the band manage to capture a "spirit" rather than aim for craftsmanship in their songwriting.
"Feelings are stronger than ideas or words in a song. You can have 1,000 ideas, but unless you capture an emotion, it's an essay."

And, if you do something like ordering pizzas for Yugoslavia in the middle of a rock concert, that's not a political statement, it's a stunt.

What puzzles us is why he thinks that the first ten years of U2 are failures - does this imply that he thinks the tocking-ticking of more recent U2 stuff is perfect? Is the Annie-Lennox-does-the-crossword style of Stuck In A Minute or the so-sweepingly-banal-it-was-used-by-ITV-as-a-football-theme-tune of Beautiful Day are the sorts of songs he wasn't skilled enough to write in the 80s? Rather than the sort of songs the young Bono would have been ashamed to have written? We've always cut Bono some slack on the basis that he might have another Wide Awake In America or a Sunday Bloody Sunday in him - now, it turns out, he think's he's better than them.

AAAAH-HAAA-HAA-HAA-HAAA-HA!: I think this may have been what we had both hoped for, after the news of their reunion tour, and feared, after that iTunes-only download single: The Pixies are planning to release a new album next year. Memo to Mr. Francis: Let Kim do a lot of the work, eh?

... AND A VAN TO TAKE IT ALL AWAY IN: We guess the motivation behind the Sugababes' huge demands for stuff in return for playing a free set (four songs is not, by any stretch, a gig) is to try and grab what they can before the thing comes apart once and for all, but even so, their rider demands for the GWR Free Music Contest in Bristol are quite impressive: twenty three course meals, enough alcohol to slow Richard Madeley down on his way to the exit doors, and an air-conditioned dressing room. GWR's response suggests that, they, too, don't imagine the Sugababes are going to be a force to be worried about for much longer:

"Because it's a free event on a tight budget in a field, we won't be able to fulfil requests such as the three-course meal. We might be able to let them have their own dressing room for half an hour but I doubt it will be air-conditioned. We're also a bit concerned about the vodka, Jack Daniels, Guinness and selection of wine."

THE MIND OF A TOY: You know, people think there's something odd about the Jackson family. Which is very, very unfair. We bet the sneerers will be lining up to snort at the news that LaToya Jackson has changed her name to Toy. But we wouldn't. Oh no, no, no. She's done it so see what would happen if she shed the Jackson name and the baggage that goes with it. Of course, going round doing media telling people "I'm LaToya Jackson but I'm going to be known as Toy so people don't think 'that's Michael Jackson's sister" might not be quite the clean break she thinks it is.

ONE THING TO WORK WITH THE MATRIX. BUT...: Those who thought that Liz Phair had gone kind of soft in recent years will not be revising their opinions with the news that she's taken a shiny shilling or two from Maybeline to headline a tour called - and ready with the basins - Chicks with Attitude. Cosmetics and cliches.

DON'T TRUST PEOPLE IF YOU'D NEED A STEPLADDER TO SEE INTO THEIR EYES: Jewel is afraid of anyone who's taller than she is. She's five foot six, so that's pretty much everyone. Except No Rock, which is five five when it's wearing something with a heel. So, oddly, Jewel wouldn't actually be scared of us, although she probably should be...

JAMES CAUSE OF DEATH STILL A MYSTERY: Despite an autopsy, the actual cause of Rick James' death still appears to be unknown, although his family are putting it down to heart failure. Rumours that on the evening of his demise he'd said "Okay, okay, play me that MC Hammer track, then..." cannot be confirmed.

NOB DATES KNOB: Despite their apparent wishes to "keep it quiet", somehow the news that Lady Victoria Hervey and Jay Kay are "lunching" together has, you know, leaked out, the way stuff does when you've got a PR.




Hervey and Jay Kay might be a good match, actually. It's not clear what the point of either of them is, is it?

KEANE DISCOVER TELEVISION ISN'T REAL: It took a trip to Rmasay Street to reveal to Keane that TV is all madeup:

"The strange thing was that our illusions were slightly shattered in a way" singer Tom Chaplain told Undercover News, "because you go to have a look at this complex and you see the front of the pub and front of the coffee shop and then realise it is just a front with nothing behind it."

MISSING PERSONS: Following the disappearance of a fan (orginally from Northampton, studying in Liverpool) at one of their Australian gigs, Ash have issued the following statement:

We are all deeply shocked by the news that Sean Kennedy disappeared from our show at The Metro in Sydney last Thursday.

We'd like to encourage any of our fans that attended the show who saw or heard anything, regarding Sean's disappearance, to contact the police immediately.

Our thoughts are with Sean's family and friends.

Tim, Mark, Charlotte and Rick

WOMAD FOR YOUR EARS: A small ripple of applause for Radio 3's WOMAD site, which is simple to navigate and will have audio stuff from the likes of Living Fire, DJ Dolores and Sharon Shannon online for a year. Maybe they should give the R3 website team the job of doing the Glasto site next year.

ROCK SICK LIST: Slightly pushed aside by the coverage of Rick James' death was the news of Ronald Isley (of the Isley Brothers) who had a stroke about a week ago. He was taken ill while walking round London, but has recovered and is back home in Missouri. He's expected to return to live performances fairly swiftly.

THE MIGHTY HAND OF COMMERCE: We're happy that Billboard considered the death of Rick James worthy of a newsflash email. We're a little less impressed that they thought it would be appropriate to add a sponsorship credit on the email:

Funk Legend Rick James Found Dead

Funk legend Rick James was found dead today at 9:45 a.m. PT this morning
at his Los Angeles home by a caretaker, according to a police
spokesperson. He was 56. The cause of death was believed to be natural.
The artist had a history of drug problems that led to poor health in
recent years, including a 1998 stroke.

Go to Billboard.com for the complete story:

http://www.billboard.com.

_______________________________________________________________________

------------------------------- SPONSOR ------------------------------
Baja Blast is a drink only available at Taco Bell. Baja Blast is
Mountain Dew blasted with Tropical Lime. Baja Blast is NOT a giant
wave or a seismic force from the ocean created by aliens to produce
the most killer surf ever. Or is it?
http://www.dewbajablast.com


Classy, Billboard. We know it must have cost a couple of cents to send out the mass email, but couldn't you have held back the advertising at least until people had visited your site?

THE PEOPLE WHO REPRESENT YOU ARE BEST AT REPRESENTING THEMSELVES: It's perhaps telling that the organisations who call in cash from royalties on behalf of writers and artists and then pass them on are known as "collection agencies" rather than "distribution agencies", since they tend to put more effort into getting hold of the monies than passing it on. The American collection agencies have got a bit of a rocket recently from songwriter Don Rollins, who's sent this open letter out about how he feels he's being shafted:

I am a writer on "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" which spent eight weeks at #1 last year. To make a long story short, here is the history of the royalty payments on that song:
January 2004-ASCAP $6K/BMI $20K(ASCAP matched)
April 2004-ASCAP $119K/BMI $135K(ASCAP matched)
July 2004 ASCAP total $99K/BMI $60K(drum roll please)
BMI REFUSED TO MATCH!!!!!!! I have received some vague and nonspecific mouthings about making the difference up next quarter, but I will believe that when I can spend it. In the meantime my cowriter has$39K that I don't have, and may never have, for the same song, same writer's share, no publishing, etc.
Its extremely difficult to get to the point in this business where a writer can have a hit, still less one like this, and it is hard to discribe the feeling when you are SCREWED out of just compensation for your work. The best weapon of the PRO's is secrecy, so I feel it is my duty to let as many people in our business as possible know about this. Do I think ASCAP is any better? No I don't. There is a long and ugly history of underpayments on their part as well.
We as writers and publishers need two things to happen. First, we need a scale of pay for performances that is understandable and accountable, so that we can look at spins reported on the charts and know how much our pay will be. Second, we need the right to be members of any or all PRO's at the same time, JUST LIKE OUR PUBLISHERS.
We should be able to designate which group will administer our performances on a song by song basis, and if the PRO's want us to be exclusive, they can pay us a signing bonus.
Please let as many people as possible know about this, those of you with contacts in Congress please let them know as well. Advice is appreciated(anything except "shut up Bo and take the Cadillac and be grateful").
Silence will only let them do this to all of us.
Thank you,
Don Rollins

Great at collection, poor at distribution. Who do the Performing Rights Organstions actually represent?

HOW NON-STORIES WORK: At first glance, Britney Spears 'halts wedding plans because of bugs' seems to be a great story. Except, she's not really had to halt her plans at all, because, erm, she's got fumigators in to clean the house she's just bought. And then there's this quote:

A neighbour revealed: "It's not unusual for people who buy* a home here to have it fumigated before they move in."

So... erm, what exactly is the story here?

CHRISTINA TURNS DOWN CHANCE TO FOLLOW IN SHARON TATE'S FOOTSTEPS: Betty Thomas is clearly someone who's seen the receipts for the remake of Stepford Wives but hasn't seen the movie, as she's now pushing ahead with plans to direct a new version of Valley of the Dolls. She had approached Christina Aguilera to star in it, but for some reason, even Christina decided that taking a major role as a fuck-up on legs wild in the arms of showbiz might reflect badly on her and lead to terse press jokes at her expense. Luckily, Janet Jackson seems to think it would a positive career move. The film, which is expected to be shit, is unlikely to open before 2006.