Joe Kavanagh's Music News

Bono and Bob Geldof recently made their case for assisting Africa in a rather novel way, when the two Irish rockers became guest editors of Japan's second biggest newspaper: Asahi Shimbun. The two men produced a special pull-out supplement designed to raise awareness of Africa's problems, with Bono positing that he now knows where the solution may lie. The U2 singer says that Africa's troubles could most effectively be tackled by forming the "United States of Africa", saying "that would be the dream", although he does confess that pulling together the disparate threads of African culture into one entity could prove a little difficult. The frontman claims:"Irish people used to always have a little giggle when they would see Americans saluting their flags in schools, and then the whole standing there, singing the flag thing. But as you get to know a little bit more about things, you start to think, ah, there's so any different tribal groups in the United States, that to create a national identity of that size, they had to really work at this kind of patriotism." Frankly, it always kind of scares me when I hear white people talking about their "dreams" for Africa because - as I understand it - white folk's dreams are the biggest contributors to the sorry state of Africa today. Surely an African problem needs an African solution. In other U2 news, the band announced last week that they will re-issue their first three albums (Boy, War, October) later in the summer along with a selection of add-ons such as live tracks and other nonsense that suckers will no doubt buy in their droves. Honestly, I'm surprised that U2 fans haven't grown udders by now, considering how much they've been milked. You don't hear Bono saying that he'll devote all the profits from the sales of old rope, I mean, albums to African causes. When it comes to rhetoric for Africa though, he's untouchable...

This year's Glastonbury Festival continues to be hobbled by controversy and accusations that it has strayed too-far from it s roots in an effort to keep up with the times. Pink Floyd guitarist, David Gilmour, is at the centre of the latest storm, with rumors emerging last week that he had been refused a spot on the bill because organizers considered him too-old for their demographic. Head honcho and landowner, Michael Eavis, was quick to refute the claim saying: "I got a call three or four weeks ago from Gilmour's people. But by that time all the bands were already in place. It's a great line-up and I couldn't bump one of them, even for him." I must confess that I do find it a little hard to believe that they couldn't shave five minutes here and there to create enough time for a living legend. Apparently I'm not the only one, as former Pink Floyd manager, Peter Jenner, scoffed at Eavis claim during an interview with the BBC, asserting: "I think David's wonderful and should have been on and I don't understand it, but then, frankly I have to say I'm surprised that Billy Bragg hasn't been on the main stage of Glastonbury for a long time because I know the same thing, I know that the audience loves him there. I wonder whether what's happening now is a sign that they're losing some of their identity by playing the flavor of the month game. I think that's a mistake, they've lost a lot of their distinctiveness."...

Speaking of new-looks, Madonna's current efforts to pass herself off as a nubile young teenager have failed to impress many in the media, especially hot new Australian talent, Sam Sparro, who ridiculed the Material Girl in an interview with Attitude Magazine. The man behind hit single, Black + Gold, told an interviewer: "Madonna is wretched at the moment - absolutely vulgar. Put it away. You're not young and sexy any more. (She was) thoughtful and mature for a while and now she's chucked it away in a desperate attempt at being hot again. It's a bit vile." Incidentally, US comedienne, Roseanne Barr also had a severe pop at Madge last week in a post on her MySpace site that read: "Please lay off the botox. Your are scaring the children. Act your age. You are doing good things. But your face negates your message of spirituality". Putting aside the fact that Roseanne Barr has had more work done on her than your average '67 Mustang, I still have to agree because Madonna looks a little scary right now and while there is no shame in growing old, there is definitely plenty of it in prancing around like a muscle-bound, drunken aunt that embarrasses you at family weddings. Not cool...

The public has put up with Amy Winehouse's act for quite some time now. They have stuck by her as she hit the pipe, missed shows and behaved like a spoiled brat but even ardent fans are finding it difficult to condone her latest act, albeit one from May of last year. UK tabloid, News of the World, released video footage of Winehouse and her currently incarcerated husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, allegedly taken at a party two weeks before their wedding last summer. On the footage, Fielder-Civil urges his soon-to-be wife to sing, at which point she begins singing a tune to the air of children's song, Heads and Shoulders, Knees and Toes. Instead of the innocuous children's rhyme however, Winehouse replaces the lyrics with the vile words: "Blacks, Pakis, Gooks and Nips, Gooks and Nips!" in addition to "And deaf and dumb and blind and gay!" Laughter abounds all around throughout the performance. In all fairness, I don't give a rodent's behind how messed up you are on crack, racism like that is not funny on even the most scant level. In other news, Amy's father claims that his daughter confessed to having an extramarital affair since her husband entered Pentonville Prison late last year (Fielder-Civil's mother claims that Amy admitted to two affairs during a prison visit with her husband). Mitch Winehouse told the media: "Amy told Blake she had a little fling with Alex (her manager's assistant) but never slept with him - whatever that meant. She was in a bad state that day. I really lost it and shouted at her that she had to sort herself out." So let me get this straight, Amy Winehouse has been self-harming, smoking crack, drinking continuously and allegedly using needles but her father decided that the time to blow-up and get serious about parenting was when she had a fling that might just get her away from the guy that appears to have had a huge hand in putting her on this road to self-destruction? I can just picture it: "Now you listen here missy, no daughter of mine will walk away from a dysfunctional marriage to a violent, imprisoned, heroin addict husband who leeches off them." Priceless.