Joe Kavanagh's Music News

This week's stories kick off with a burgeoning feud, pitting singers Pink and Chrissie Hynde against Liam Neeson, over the condition of the horses charged with pulling carriages around Manhattan's upper west side. Pink and Hynde have recently chimed in with animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), admonishing the carriage firms and drivers, for their treatment of the animals and essentially calling for the practice to be banned. As a regular visitor to the area, Neeson takes a very different view, insisting that the animals are well maintained and that do-gooders should do a little more research before calling for the practice to be stamped out. Speaking to the media last week, the Irish actor claimed: "They've been there for a 100 years and they're an iconic part of New York. I know many of these guys and I just hate how the horse-drawn carriage industry is being attacked by animal activists. These are the fittest, well-fed, best-kept horses I have ever seen. I'm a horse rider and lover for many years. They have a good life. They work nine-hour days and they have a holiday. Seriously. If you've ever seen these stables... I'd move in tomorrow." PETA were quick to respond, releasing the following sarcastic statement: "Liam, maybe you're right, let me ponder this for a moment... It does seem like horses would prefer to endure the freezing cold and the panicky booms, noisy traffic, and exhaust fumes of the city over living in a lush pasture. And you're right, they probably much prefer the whips, shouting, heavy gear, traces, and lack of water in the troughs as well as the long shifts trudging for hours and pulling strangers in a half-mile circle all day without rest over living a natural life. Makes sense, right?" While I have difficulty seeing big Liam giving up his high-class digs for a bed of hay, I'm certainly as pro-animal as the next person - probably more so - so I can't help but wonder what would happen to the horses if PETA got their way. I'm pretty certain that the glue factory would be a good bet and if I'm a horse and I have a choice between lugging tourists around for exorbitant prices or being put in a tube of Elmers best, then I know which way I'd be leaning. Given all the suffering currently being endured by humans all over the world, surely there are issues out there that are more important than a few nags with back-ache. Humans have to put up with everything PETA mentioned there too, and quite a few of them are living in worse conditions than the horses...

Speaking of animal lovers, Morrissey has once again caused a bit of a stir with comments he made recently during an interview with Maxim magazine, under the auspices of what he would do with his last day on earth. When asked who he would like to "kick in the eye", the maudlin singer replied: "That meat-fed horror Jamie 'Orrible' Oliver. If he's a master chef, then I'm Miss Brazil 1970." He was even more caustic when asked to name one thing he would be glad that he would never have to do again after he's finished on earth, answering: "It will be worth being dead just to get away from Victoria Beckham." A lot of us feel like that sometimes. As a matter of fact, I could add a few names to that but I promised myself that I wouldn't mention Sting, James Blunt or Phil Collins in this week's column. So I won't...

It seems that it's not just the media and the world at large that are tiring of Lily Allen's increasingly tedious antics, whereby she seems to be treating the media like it's some kind of shrink. Speaking in an interview with Spin magazine last week, her father, Keith Allen claimed: "I don't mind say (sic) this, because I've told her already: she needs to know when to f**king shut up." All very well, but of course then he goes on to undermine himself somewhat by saying: "As a man, I could drink, snort (drugs), and f**k to my heart's content without any detriment to my career. A girl cannot do that. The tabloids are shameless in trying to create a race-to-rehab between any girl out there who has a drink. Lily's learning what daddy learned long ago: fame is a pain in the f**king arse." It appears that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and what's this detriment to his career? Keith Allen's career can best be described as long periods of tat punctuated by occasional heights of mediocrity, and comparing that to his daughter's career is kind of like comparing William Shakespeare to William Shatner (no contest really, Shatner takes it with his singing alone). I do agree with Lily having to keep at least some of her private thoughts inside her head, as opposed to in the international media. As an example, last week alone, Lily told journalists how she hates doing PR work for albums because she only made $72,5000 from the sales of her last album, as if ordinary people really can relate to her "pain", what with all the international jet setting, five-star hotels and interviews she claims to hate despite making a thousand or so public comments each week, even during her down time. She then told an interviewer of how she spent time in, what she termed a "nuthouse", in January of 2008 after suffering from a miscarriage, and I think it's also worth noting that she was the one who told the media that she was pregnant, virtually as soon as she read the results on the pregnancy testing kit. (My two sisters didn't tell me they were pregnant until three months into their respective pregnancies). She then told another interviewer about a lesbian experience she had with identical twins and rounded it off with the following statement: "I don't think I'm very talented at all and I'm sure that people are just about to figure that out." That statement might gain credence with the release of her second album, It's Not Me, It's You. This girl increasingly sounds like she should be spending less time on stage and more time on a psychiatrist's couch...

Just like every other year, rumors had begun swirling that the Stones Roses were on the brink of reforming, in order to play this summer's festival circuit but, once again, it now appears to have been little more than wishful thinking. A spokesperson for, John Squire, claimed that the guitarist is far too busy with his career in art, to contemplate a reunion and that he is currently setting up a series of exhibitions of his work for this summer. That is believable because it definitely isn't his career in music that is keeping him too busy. The Stone Roses broke up after Squire threw an "it's my ball and I'm going home" strop back in 1996, and they really should stay that way because legends only grow with absence and distance. Too many bands have tainted otherwise stellar careers in recent times, by coming back as the fat shadows of their former selves...

Speaking of which, fans of the Faces will apparently have to wait a little while longer to see the band live, despite the fact that Ron Wood and Rod Stewart recently claimed to have completed their first album in over 30 years. It will mark their first output since 1973's Ooh La La, most of which was essentially done without Stewart, who actually told NME at the time that he thought it was a "stinking rotten album". I'm sure that comment had nothing to do with the fact that bassist Ronnie Lane wrote most of it because Stewart was too busy with his solo career. Rumors recently claimed that the band were all set to embark on a tour in the near future with Red Hot Chilli Peppers' bassist, Flea, standing in on bass for the Lane, who passed away in 1997. All of this appeared to be news to Flea himself and guitarist Ronnie Wood, who told Rolling Stone magazine last week: "We just have to sort out when and where and drop all of the management egos and just do what we can... It's just a matter of getting everyone's availability." You'd think 30 years and one death would give them a little perspective but I suppose it's true what they say about still waters. Incidentally, for any of you trivia buffs out there, Ron Wood actually sang the vocals on the title track from Ooh La La, despite the fact that it sounds virtually identical to Stewart's raspy vocal style. That fact and $35 will get you a half-hour carriage ride around Central Park. Plus, if you're really feeling brave, tell them PETA sent you and I'm pretty sure that you'll get more of a whipping than the horse.