Joe Kavanagh's Music News

Thankfully, Paul McCartney's gig in Tel Aviv last Thursday passed without incident, despite multiple threats from Islamist extremists, who had vowed to disrupt the event with a wave of suicide bombings. Macca played a selection of Beatles songs and solo hits to a thrilled crowd of over 40,000, who attended the event, which was organized as part of Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations and represented the first performance in the country by a member of the Beatles, due to a ban on the group that was only lifted earlier this year. McCartney claimed that his visit was intended as a "message of peace" to all people who live in the region... Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody revealed in an interview last week, just how important the band has been in his life, after enduring a difficult spell a few years back. In an interview quoted by Digitalspy, the singer claimed: "I was at the stage where I was destroying everything in my path," he said. "I was like a whirlwind - a calamity magnet. I was behaving appallingly and drinking far too much. There was a six-month period where I was completely out of control. I wouldn't listen to anyone. I was drinking so much that if I'd have carried on at that rate, I would have ended up dead. Our drummer, Jonny Quinn, saved my life. I wasn't listening to anyone but he had a word in my shell and I eventually realized the pain I was causing to everyone around me."...

Snow Patrol's fifth album, A Hundred Million Suns, will be released in late October and will feature a track titled, Disaster Button, which was inspired by that period in Lightbody's life...

What's the next move for a band that has just won one the hugely prestigious Mercury Music Prize? Having found themselves in just such a position, Manchester act, Elbow, can in no way be accused of choosing an obvious path. Discussing the band's immediate plans in the wake of their superb win, singer, Guy Garvey, claimed: "We initially thought it would be great to make music for children because the lads in the band have got kids and they were saying how little decent music there is for them. The more we thought about it, the more we liked the idea. We've often been up for having songs on children's animated films but we thought it would be great to be at the starting point for that process. I want to do something that really fires kids' imaginations. Writing for children means you can go absolutely nuts and the kids will follow you and love it. It's going to be something to do with flying in dreams. It's the most honest thing we could do right now." I'm all for it if it means that there may come a time when I could sit with my nephew and listen to Elbow, instead of some purple dinosaur whose intensely irritating songs stay in my head for weeks, and begin to sound like Sam Carr's dog: Harvey...

Razorlight's Johnny Borrell is apparently so taken with his lyrics to the band's new single, Wire To Wire, that he intends to get some of them tattooed onto his skin. The occasionally conceited singer will get the lyrics "She lives on disillusioned row", added to an undisclosed part of his body but to be honest, I was expecting something a little more profound. What the heck was I thinking? After all, this is the same Johnny Borrell who penned the following lyric, in Razorlight's track, Somewhere Else "And I met a girl/She asked me my name/I told her what it was." Good enough for third place on the recently composed list for the worst lyrics of all time...

Amy Winehouse gave a rare interview last week, where she talked about how she has become completely lost in recent months. After performing at a charity event with her 12-year-old goddaughter, a somewhat forlorn Winehouse spoke to the Daily Mirror, stating: "When I look at Dionne she reminds me of myself. I used to be this little girl who liked Celine Dion and singing, this beautiful sweet girl with innocent dreams. Look where I am now. Look what happened to my dreams. This isn't a life - I'm a mess, look at me. But this girl has everything ahead of her. She's so beautiful and she reminds me so much of myself. This beautiful happy girl, she is so much like I used to be. I don't want to leave her alone. I can't believe what has happened to me. I am so sad." While I do sympathize with her, she appears to talk about her life as if it's happening to someone else, or that somebody else is in command, which to me is a total crock of hooha. Fears for her mental health were not alleviated when word also emerged last Friday that Winehouse had allegedly assaulted an official photographer and dancer, after she performed at the previous night's End Of Summer Ball, in London. According to witnesses, the unbalanced singer struck Sherene Flash in the eye, before running off screaming: "Life can't go on. I can't do this any more". Police are investigating both incidents but Amy Winehouse appears to be in pretty serious trouble emotionally, and a little scary looking. In fact, if they are every looking for someone to reprise Margaret Hamilton's role as the Wicked Witch of The West, in a remake the Wizard of Oz, then Amy Winehouse is the lady for the job. They might have to fix her up a bit first though...

Killers singer, Brandon Flowers, considers himself a U2 fan but he also revealed that he believes that Bono and company have had their day at the top and should move over and let some younger blood through. Talking to the media last week, Flowers claimed: "They're getting old. You know there's going to be a couple of songs on (their) new record you're just going to love. But there's gotta be... I dunno. It feels like it's time." While I certainly do not consider myself a fan of U2, like any great champion, they will not simply hand their title to another contender. Flowers and company will have to pry that thing out of Bono's cold, dead hand...

A group of acts has begun signing an open letter condemning the fascist music festival that took place last week in the small English town of Redhill, drawing crowds of knuckle-draggers from all over Europe. Crafty organizers hid their true intentions from shocked townsfolk, who had granted permission for a music festival, and were appalled when the event turned out to be a tribute to the late, Ian Donaldson, who gained notoriety as singer for white power band, Skrewdriver, before dying in a car crash in 1993. Residents called on police when they noticed organizers putting up Nazi flags, swastikas and a host of other hateful imagery, but officers were unable to do anything for fear of making an already volatile situation far more violent. Appalled by the display of bigotry, a host of bands from across the UK are adding their names to an open letter condemning the event, which reads in part: "Rallies like the one that took place at the weekend stand for the ugly politics of racial violence and ultimately the politics of Hitler's holocaust and a desire for an all-white Britain. Events like this have no place in Britain."...

Finally, George Michael has apologized for his recent behavior, after he was arrested last week in a public toilet in London, when police allegedly found him to be in possession of crack cocaine and cannabis. In a statement released by the singer, he claims: "I want to apologize to my fans for screwing up again, and to promise them I'll sort myself out. And to say sorry to everybody else, just for boring them." I don't think there is any danger of George Michael becoming a bore to anyone and it is such a pleasure to hear from a star that actually just puts their hand up and says: "I was an idiot and I did it". Usually, they will wheel out a lawyer or publicist, who will read some convoluted statement saying that they were emotional, or that they were mixing several types of medication, or that they did it because their mother had alopecia and a wooden leg. At least George just stands up and says: "I made an idiotic mistake and I'm sorry". There's another George that could learn something from that, if only his IQ was higher than that of a pair of Converse.