Joe Kavanagh's Music News

Dido's latest album, Long Way Home, has sparked controversy in the north of Ireland, after a Unionist politician decided to take umbrage with some of the lyrics contained on one particular track. Democratic Unionist MP, and Culture Minister, Gregory Campbell has taken issue with the track, Let's Do The Things We Normally Do, which uses a couple of lines from the song, The Men Behind The Wire, where she sings: "Armored cars and tanks and guns, came to take away our sons. But every man must stand behind, the men behind the wire."The song was recorded in the 1970s by folk group, Barleycorn, as a protest song against the practice of internment and went on to become closely associated with the republican movement. According to Campbell: "Whatever the song represented when it was recorded 40 years ago has changed, since then it has been recorded by militant republicans about people who were guilty of very serious crimes, terrorists and gangsters. Why on earth would a singer who, previous to this hasn't shown any affinity with that sort of grouping, make a recording like this?" Nationalist party, Sinn Féin, were predictably, less offended with party member, Barry McElduff, claiming: "Once again we see needless rants from a man who is elected as a minister for culture in this assembly, but would much rather criticize a great music talent like the musician Dido." Campbell responded to the accusation, asserting that his opinion had been sought by a local journalist, saying: "I just said it was odd, it doesn't appear to be an Irish Republican song but the verse she has chosen is. If she is an IRA supporter then she should come out and say it, if she is not she should say that and offer some clarity either way." McElduff claimed that the Culture Minister should surely be defending the rights of artists to say what they want and pointed out that Mr. Campbell had also taken issue with a recent episode of The Simpsons, where Catholics and Protestants are seen fighting on a float. Mr. Campbell would probably do better to stick to solving problems in the real world instead of being so passionate about make-believe issues in the arts. Just seems a little silly and he seems to have forgotten that Loyalists also recorded a version of the song...

Bono was awarded the Nobel Man of Peace Prize in Paris last week, for his work on behalf of the people of Africa, in front of an audience that contained five actual Nobel Prize-winners. The U2 front man told his venerated audience: "This is a very big award for me, because let's be honest this is as close as I am going to get - as close as a rock star is ever going to get to the Nobel Peace Prize. I am an over-awarded, over-rewarded rock star. You are the people who do the real work. So I am very, very pleased to be in such esteemed company." I wonder did any of the audience members have a Beavis and Butthead moment, when the French MC announced that "Boneau is ze wineeer of zis year's Man of Pis Award". Maybe it's just me...

Chris Martin has defended himself against recent accusations of plagiarism, after guitarist Joe Satriani launched a lawsuit against Coldplay, claiming that their song, Viva La Vida, ripped off his 2004 track, If I Could Fly. Martin is adamant that the melody came to him in a dream and that the similarities are purely coincidental, telling an interviewer: "When these things happen it's a coincidence and we're as surprised by it as anybody else. Oh, I know exactly where the song came from. It came in the middle of the night, on a piano. I just get embarrassed about having to talk about these things. I do feel a bit upset about it because I wrote the song. But, you know, these things happen. Whatever will be will be." Perhaps he had his radio tuned in to Mulletrock FM while he was sleeping? Satriani is even more upset, claiming: "I did everything I could to avoid a court case with this situation. But Coldplay didn't want to talk about it. They just wanted this whole thing to go away. Maybe they figured this little guitar player guy will leave them alone after a while, I don't know. But we're talking about a piece of art that I created, and that's something I feel is important." This "little guitar player guy"? Give me a break, this is a man who has played with the likes of Mick Jagger, Deep Purple and members of Van Halen, so this is not little Timmy the bedroom banjo player here. Anyway, the publicity he has gotten out of this whole much ado about nothing is bound to be worth a lot more than anything that Coldplay made from one song. Additionally, it's really got to sting Coldplay that they're being accused of ripping off a man whose name hasn't really been known outside guitar stores and trailer parks. If you're going to be accused by somebody of ripping them off then you'd hope it would be somebody cool...

The skin and fake-nails will likely be flying the next time Lily Allen bumps into Kate Perry, as the result of comments that Perry made about Allen a short time back. The I Kissed A Girl singer, recently referred to herself as "a fatter version of Amy Winehouse and a skinnier version of Lily Allen" but now says she regrets the remark. Last week, she claimed: "Yeah, I made a joke about (that) earlier this year. I was just kind of joking and trying to be funny. I didn't mean anything by it. Comedians are not necessarily to be taken super seriously." Leaving aside the fact that last time I looked Kate Perry was in fact a singer and not a comedian, there is no such thing as making a joke about another woman's weight. Even us dumb men know that, as any man who ever joked that their significant-other's bum does in fact look big will eagerly attest to (500 apologies, dozens of roses, boxes of chocolates and hours of groveling later). That's like saying GG Allin didn't really mean to offend people. Anyway, Lily fired back during an interview with Capital FM last week, when she told an interviewer: "I happen to know for a fact that she was an American version of me. She was signed by my label in America as, 'We need to find something controversial and kooky like Lily Allen.' And then they found her... I think the lyrics and stuff are a bit crass." This could get interesting the next time Lily and Katy meet at an awards show and the former is all liquored up. Lily throws a mean left hook, mind you, Katy does carry a knife, if we are to believe those moronic PR shots she released a while back...

Finally, Irish TV channel, TV3 has purchased Irish satellite channel, Channel 6 (I know, we're really original back in the old country when it comes to naming channels, right?) and virtually their first act was to announce that they were canceling music show Night Shift. Presented by Michelle O'Doherty, the show has been one of the main (and few) supporters of original Irish bands in recent times, providing them with a vital outlet to the public and is actually one of the most popular shows on the channel. The staff at Nightshift are "completely bewildered and absolutely gutted", as are most acts in the Irish rock community. Yet another example of how the original Irish music scene exists in spite of the powers that be in Irish broadcasting and a cruel end to a show that has done more for Irish rock music than virtually any other over the years. Shame, shame TV3 - a station that has admittedly shown as much originality over the years as a cheap Xerox machine.