Joe Kavanagh's Music News

Irish music has allegedly lost one of its true icons, if reports in last week's UK media are to be believed, but before any of you get your hopes up and think that Chris de Burgh has decided to retire, I should tell you that this particular icon is not so much a person, as a part of a person. According to the UK's Daily Mail newspaper, Shane MacGowan has finally had his teeth - or lack thereof - fixed up, but not for any reason of vanity, but rather because doctors genuinely feared that his "face was falling apart." The article claims that the Pogues front man has spent the past week or two out in Malaga, Spain, where he has undergone extensive work on his mouth, as evidenced by photos published in last week's newspapers. Smashed up, missing and rotten from brawling, lack of care and a seemingly indestructible lifestyle of partying that makes virtually every other rock star of the past 30 years look like a bunch of choirboys, the beloved singer has always resisted efforts to fix up his trademark choppers, and even allegedly sued one US publication that airbrushed in a full set of teeth when they published a photo of him some years back. As to whether this also marks the beginning of Shane listening to doctors who have warned him for years that his lifestyle will have him in the grave sooner rather than later, one can only wait and see...

Roger Waters was back in the news last week, after taking time out to visit a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, where he lashed out at the 420 mile long wall, which Israel has built to essentially fence in the local populace. The former Pink Floyd front man, who was primarily responsible for penning the band's seminal 1979 album, The Wall, claimed that he would happily perform the album at a live show in the area when the Israeli wall is removed, just like he did in 1990, in the wake of the Berlin Wall being torn down. Speaking to the BBC, after his visit to the Aida refugee camp, he declared: "This is a bad thing. This is wrong. This is not helping anybody, this thing. If they take this thing down, I would be delighted to come and do a concert here. In fact, I would insist on it. It's actually very, pretty depressing, coming back here three years later and seeing that the political situation has changed very little - there are more settlements, there has been more grabbing of land." Waters last performed in Israel in 2006, when he moved his concert from Tel Aviv to the Arab-Jewish co-existence village of Neve Shalom, after protests from Palestinian human rights groups. Spokesperson for the Israeli government, Mark Regev, made reference to one of Pink Floyd's tunes, saying: "we don't need no education" from Roger Waters. Someone should actually point out the obvious irony that was deliberately inferred in the line to Mr. Regev, before he next attempts a cool, snappy comeback. The double negative in "we don't need no education" actually means that the kids do need an education...

One of the more curious stories that emerged in the world of music last week was a particularly distressing tale, as related by a former roadie for Jimi Hendrix. James "Tappy" Wright, makes the sensational claim that far from dying of an accidental drug overdose at 27-years-old, Hendrix was murdered by his manager, who allegedly discovered that the legendary guitarist was going to fire him. Michael Jeffreys feared that he was going to lose everything he had worked for upon being dumped by Hendrix, and reportedly took out a $1.8 million life insurance policy on him, when he saw the writing on the wall. Wright also claims that Jeffreys confessed to him a year later, telling him: "I had to do it, Tappy. You understand, don't you? I was in London the night of Jimi's death and together with some old friends... we went round to (Hendrix's girlfriend) Monika's hotel room, got a handful of pills and stuffed them into his mouth... then poured a few bottles of red wine deep into his windpipe. I had to do it. Jimi was worth much more to me dead than alive. That son of a b**ch was going to leave me. If I lost him, I'd lose everything." Hendrix was found in an unconscious state in the London apartment of girlfriend Monika Dannemann, on September 18, 1970, and died later that evening in hospital, allegedly as a result of choking on his own vomit. Rumors and speculation have surrounded his death ever since, which seems to occur in cases of death by misadventure. If you believe some people, Jim Morrison faked his own death to escape the media, Courtney Love hired a hitman to kill Kurt Cobain and Elvis is slinging burgers in a diner in Fanny, West Virginia (and yes there is such a place, just in case you think my use of the word 'Fanny' was gratuitous - okay so it was that time). Naturally good old Tappy has nobody to corroborate his story seeing as Jeffreys was killed in a plane crash only two years after Hendrix died and, oh yeah, he will soon release a book detailing his time as a roadie, so naturally he's going to want to spice it up a bit. After all, it gets kind of boring if you read 300 pages about putting up and down stages and the fun they had when they exchanged Jimi's SM58 mic for an SM57, and he was too banjoed to notice...

Ozzy Osbourne has opened legal proceedings against former Black Sabbath band mate Tony Iommi over the latter's exclusive rights to the famed group's name. In his defense, Iommi claims that he took out the exclusive copyright to the name in 2000, and says that Ozzy forfeited his right to use the name during the 1980s. If I were Iommi, I would just say that Ozzy told me that I could have full rights to the name in a conversation way back in 1985, because you know Ozzy can't remember back that far and no judge in the world will believe him if he tries to say otherwise. Heck, you could probably tell him that he told you last week and he wouldn't be able to remember. I'll bet if Iommi holds on and stays schtum for a week or two then Ozzy will forget that he has even taken any legal action at all. The latter does appear to feel bad about suing his former guitarist, as he released a statement last week saying: "Tony, I am so sorry it's had to get to this point by me having to take this action against you. We've all worked too hard and long in our careers to allow you to sell merchandise that features all our faces, old Black Sabbath album covers and band logos, and then you tell us that you own the copyright." That kind of makes me think that Sharon Osbourne - or the cunning, functioning side of Ozzy's brain as she is otherwise known - is behind all of this and if that's the case then Iommi should just pay out now because I would rather have the mob after me than that crazy lady. She sends poo in the mail to journalists that give her husband unfavorable reviews for goodness sakes...

In a recent interview with USA Today, Paul McCartney claims that he is tired of being known as one of the Beatles, telling an interviewer: "You get fed up being him. You're always that guy. If I was Bruce Springsteen, I might get fed up being Bruce Springsteen. I might want to be the kid I was growing up, when I didn't have that image to live up to." Hey it could be worse, he could still be known as the husband of Heather Mills. Now that got old fast...

A painting by Scottish artist, Peter Howson, depicting a naked and freakishly muscled Madonna lying on a bed, while her similarly naked ex-husband, Guy Ritchie stands nearby, failed to sell at an auction last week. The painting was valued at over $33,000 but did not even meet it's reserve of $22,000, showing that at least there are still people out there with good taste. A spokesman for the auction house claimed: "The auction was very successful, however, surprisingly Peter Howson's controversial piece 'Madonna & Guy' did not sell on the day. The painting is still for sale and we would be delighted to hear from anyone who is interested in this much talked about piece of Scottish art history." I've seen pavement pizzas on Sauchiehall Street that have more to do with Scottish art history than this tosh. Just who do they think they're going to sell it to, clinics specializing in curing sex addicts?