Joe Kavanagh's Music News

U.S. band, Queens Of The Stone Age, caused quite the stir in Europe last week, as the result of a confrontation during a performance in Norway. Having just warned the crowd about throwing things on stage, singer, Josh Homme, was struck in the face by what appeared to be a bottle, causing him to completely erupt in rage. After discovering which member of the crowd that had thrown the object, Homme had some choice words for the perpetrator, using the kind of language that one might hear from a drunken sailor that had just belted himself on the thumb with a hammer. One phrase in particular has caused quite a furor, as Homme ranted that he would "butt f**k" the man that had thrown the bottle, drawing accusations of homophobia. The singer defended himself in a post on the band's website that read, in part: "My gay family and friends, as well as myself, KNOW I am not a homophobe. For years now I've known gay is not a choice; one's skin color doesn't determine one's intelligence level; and red hair doesn't mean you're someone's stepchild." In all fairness, I'd be interested to see how well the politically-correct people would react if they were struck in the face by a bottle traveling at high speed. It happened to me once on a stage in Glasgow and I can assure you that I wasn't using phrases like "oh gosh", "heck" or even "feck"...

It's been a very sickly week for UK indie music with no less than three stars being hospitalized over the course of the past seven days. First up, predictably, was Amy Winehouse, who was rushed to hospital after collapsing at her home in London, where doctors reportedly warned the troubled star that she will almost certainly be dead in the near future if she does not change her ways. Doctors initially feared that the singer was suffering from tuberculosis but tests proved negative and she has since been diagnosed with the early stages of emphysema, although doctors claim she will make a full recovery if she can stay clean. She remained in hospital at the time of going to press...

Dirty Pretty Things singer, Carl Barat, was next onto the gurney when he was taken to hospital in some pain, only for doctors to discover that he was suffering from acute pancreatitis. His band has been forced to cancel a host of their upcoming gigs until they discover how long it takes their frontman to recover from his illness...

Most serious of all however, is the case of Long Blondes guitarist, Dorian Cox, who was rushed to hospital last week in what was termed a "serious condition". At the time of going to press, the band had failed to elaborate on Cox's ailment but they did cancel all of their shows until the end of July at least, which included an appearance at Glastonbury. You know it's serious when a band cancels their appearance at Glastonbury and we wish them all a speedy recovery...

Phil Collins called upon Paul Weller to end their longtime feud during a backstage interview at last week's Mojo Magazine annual awards show. The former Genesis drummer asserted: "I think he thinks I'm a Conservative and he doesn't like that, but if we sat down, one mod to another, I think we'd find we have been influence by the same people." Collins famously remarked in the late 80s that he would leave Britain if the Labour Party ever took power and then moved to Switzerland to make good on his promise so he is a Conservative, although I don't necessarily think that is the sole reason that the socialist leaning Weller hates him because, let's face it, there are any number of reasons to dislike a man who told his wife that he was divorcing her by fax and once sued his own backing band because he felt he had overpaid them (even though he's worth an estimated $600 million). Heck I bet Weller hates him just for something to do, but Noel Gallagher wins the award for best Phil Collins putdowns, with the pick of the bunch being the time the Oasis guitarist was told of some disparaging remarks Collins had made about him in the media. Gallagher replied: "Phil Collins knows he can't say anything about me because I'm the f**king b****cks and that's the thing that does his head in, and the fact that he's bald."...

The Mojo Awards also had Welsh singing sensation, Duffy, in tears, although they weren't tears of joy, given the fact that her song, Mercy, received the award for Song of the Year. Sex Pistols frontman, John Lydon, was being interviewed at the awards show when Duffy approached him from behind and threw her arms around him. The notoriously ornery Lydon immediately spun around and barked: "You never, ever do that to me." Duffy then took off running, in floods of tears, at which point the reporter told Lydon who she was. Appearing genuinely regretful of his actions, Lydon replied: "Oh, she won an award? I quite like her." How could anyone be mean to Duffy? Even if you don't like her music, she's so nice that it would be like beating up on a kitten...

I read last week where Sharon Osbourne blasted Americans for their obsession with reality TV shows, claiming: "They are all train wrecks. All it is now is a lot of lower-rung celebrities that they've turned into bad actors. None of it is real." Is this lady for real? Well, given the amount of plastic surgery she's had, I assume not. It was American's obsession with reality shows that turned her from a two-bit tart with a mouth like a broken sewer into a very wealthy two-bit tart with a mouth like a broken sewer. Hell, reality TV even got Jack Osbourne laid and that was definitely no small achievement...

I also read where Rod Stewart is having trouble becoming a father again for the eighth time. The aging lothario claims: "Trust me, I am trying my very hardest to have another child. But I am not quite Superman like I used to be. I am in my 60s now." Did it ever strike him that maybe mother nature was trying to tell him something? By the time his kid is getting into sports, Rod would be able to perhaps manage a game of Zimmer frame ball or maybe a nice game of canasta between the early-bird special times and 4pm bedtime...

Pop trio, The Jonas Brothers, are set to take London by storm on June 28, when the band makes their first promotional trip to the UK. The band will be in town to promote their third album, I don't even care what it's called to be honest, which will be their first European release. The band are set to travel around the city in an open-top bus, which strikes me as a little adventurous, given the fact that David Blaine was pelted with all manner of things while he hung in a glass case in London a while back...

The world of music does tend to be populated by egotistical idiots with more money than sense but there are some good people out there too. Much was made in the media last week about how singer, Leona Lewis, can now command up to $2 million per performance, an astounding fee given the fact that she was working as a receptionist only two short years ago. Few reports mentioned the fact that Lewis donates a significant percentage of every penny she makes to a range of deserving charitable causes without ever making any fuss about it. Hats off to her and those like her because they are the rare ones that never forget where they came from. That, my friends, is keeping it real.