Joe Kavanagh's Music News

Radiohead are renowned for their reluctance to embrace the celebrity culture that surrounds the music business, favoring a quiet life when not caught up in the cycle of touring and promoting albums. This shyness now appears to have made them two formidable enemies in the industry after the band turned down invitations to meet Kanye West and Miley Cyrus, at last month's Grammy Awards. The notoriously egotistical West was so infuriated with the perceived slight that he refused to stand up for the band's performance on the night. Cyrus now reveals that she had asked her manager to pull every string in the book at the ceremony to allow her to meet the band, but the Oxford act politely refused her request. Speaking on an Arizona radio show last week, the teenage star claimed: "If someone, like, said that, like, 'I would cry if I met them. I really want to meet them (Radiohead),' I would freaking, like, run and, like, give them the biggest hug in the world because that's cool, you know? But they were like, 'We don't really do that.'" Aside from her butchering of grammar and irritating use of the word "like", I honestly can't imagine that she meets every single fan that wishes to meet her, and she really shouldn't think that she can get everything she wants simply because she demands it. The starlet went on to say that: "Stinkin' Radiohead! I'm gonna ruin them." I'm sure they're quaking in their boots at such a threat from a petulant teenaged diva whose career will most likely be over by the time she's 20-years-old. A terse statement from the band's publicist read: "When Miley grows up, she'll learn not to have such a sense of entitlement." Writing on the band's website, singer Thom Yorke added: "Wish us all a safe journey if you still like us and you're not one of those people I have managed to offend by doing nothing."...

Las Vegas act, The Killers, were forced to cancel a show in Amsterdam last week after a police received a phone call from a person who claimed to represent a group that intended to bomb the area around the venue. Six people were subsequently arrested, and one of them is purportedly a relative of one of the terrorists behind the 2004 Madrid train bombings, which killed 119 people, with a further 1,800 wounded. Maybe they were going for irony by attempting to bomb a gig by a band called The Killers, mind you, I rather doubt that mindless idiots like that are bright enough to even comprehend the concept of irony...

Status Quo front man, Francis Rossi, has finally cut off his trademark ponytail, which was essentially a mercy killing, given the fact that it was about all that remained of his hair. Speaking of the decision behind his new look, the singer claimed: "A few weeks ago it dawned on me that I looked ridiculous. So I decided to forget about clinging to my youth and it was time to grow old gracefully. When it came off I was horrified to look at these six inches of wizened grey strands and realized I must have looked really stupid." Maybe he could share hair tips with Donald Trump the next time his band are touring in the States because that man must not have any mirrors in his house. Or anywhere in the vicinity of himself. Either that or he's some kind of vampire...

Amy Winehouse's wild ways continue to cause her difficulty with her temper now having apparently cost her the chance to appear at this year's Coachella Festival. US Immigration officials have allegedly refused to grant the troubled singer a visa as a result of her charges of common assault recently being filed against the singer, stemming from an incident where she reportedly punched a fan last year. And Miley Cyrus thinks Radiohead treat their fans badly?...

The country of Georgia has been ordered to change its entry to this year's Eurovision Song Contest, after the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) declared its current entry to be offensive, which is a little paradoxical given the fact that most of us find all of the music in the Eurovision to be utterly offensive. The song, We Don't Wanna Put In, is a not so subtle play on words designed to insult former Russian leader Vladimir Putin specifically, and Russia in general, made all the more potent by the fact that this year's contest will be held in Moscow, on May 16. A statement from the EBU read: "The European Broadcasting Union has officially informed Georgian public broadcaster GPB that the lyrics of their song for the 54th Eurovision Song Contest 'We Don't Wanna Put In' do not comply with the rules of the competition." Georgia has until today to change their entry but quite why they insist on insulting a nation that handed them a complete ass-whupping last year is beyond me. Talk about poking a bear with a stick...

Scottish folk band Runrig have been forced to cancel all of their upcoming tour, due to singer Malcolm Jones suffering a heart-attack after running to catch a train in Edinburgh last week. A spokesperson for the band claims that Jones is now in a stable condition and we wish him a speedy recovery...

Otis Ferry, son of Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry, is spitting nails over the decision by British police to drop charges of perverting the course of justice against him due to lack of evidence, after holding him in prison for four months. Ferry, who is the poster boy for the efforts to legalize fox hunting in the UK, claimed: "This whole thing could have been avoided. It is not only frustrating, but it is devastating. If you have ever been in prison you will know it is not very nice. I had to spend four months there for something I told the police was not true from day one." That's a little peculiar, considering that Ferry wrote a letter to Horse & Hound magazine while in prison, which stated: "Contrary to popular belief, prison life is not tough, and in this namby-pamby society we even get our own televisions, although I have quickly realized that watching it is quite a punishment in itself." Given the fact that Ferry is also facing charges of assault and robbery - on two female anti-hunt protesters no less - I would suggest that his stint in prison was an example of karma. Quite honestly, I'd lock him up for being a snot-nosed toff who spends a remarkably unhealthy amount of time and energy attempting to win the right to terrorize and brutalize a defenseless animal, but that's just me...

Lily Allen recently revealed that she intends to begin an employee-of-the-month scheme, whereby the employee that most distinguishes themselves while working for her will be allowed to sit in the seat next to her in first class, while the remainder of her retinue languish in coach. Given her propensity for talking about every little piece of her private life in minute and excruciating detail, I would have imagined such an award to be something of a poisoned chalice. I mean, the thought alone of being stuck beside Lily Allen on a flight to Australia might be enough to make you want to bring a parachute. Or a set of earplugs and a pair of those glasses with the built in eyes that make you look as if you're awake, at the very least. On the plus side, you wouldn't have to do any talking...

Garbage singer, Shirley Manson, claims that she is ready to retire permanently from the music business, perhaps encouraged by her foray into acting on TV show Terminator: The Sarah Connors Chronicles. Speaking to WonderCon, the Scot declared: "I'm 42. I have been in bands since I was 15. There gets to a point where you are stepping out in front of 100,000 people and your blood pressure doesn't change. I felt like I wanted to do something in my life that scared me. You get to a point in your life where everything is too comfortable. I was sickened by my record company's approach, which was, to me, essentially an uncreative process. I felt like there was nothing I was ever going to be able to do that was going to please them. I didn't want to play the corporate music gig where they want women to make nursery rhymes. I wasn't prepared to do that." Now why can't Phil Collins or Sting ever think like that? Not that I'm encouraging either of them to restart their "acting" careers, I hasten to add. Have you seen Dune or Buster? The pair of them make Burt Ward look like Marlon Brando.

Begorrah, have a great St Patrick's Day!