Joe Kavanagh's Music News

The difference of opinion between Bob Geldof and the BBC, which we reported on last week, has now spilled over into outright hostilities, with both sides edging closer to a legal battle. A controversial program recently aired by the esteemed broadcaster, contended that up to 95% of the $100 million raised by the Geldof-inspired Live Aid movement of the mid-80s, was siphoned off to arm militants in Ethiopia, instead of going towards feeding the millions of people suffering as a result of that country's famine. As evidence of the veracity of his story, reporter Martin Plaut interviewed several highly-placed former militants from the troubled east African nation, who implicated current Ethiopian president Meles Zinawi, as the major player in hijacking Live Aid's charitable endeavors. Plaut also maintained that Geldof had refused to talk to him while he was researching the story. That silence ended in furious fashion last week, when the feisty Irishman wrote an impassioned column for the Guardian newspaper, in which he attacked the BBC for publishing such a "sorry tale" and accused the broadcaster of indulging in shoddy journalism. Pouring scorn on the findings, an outraged Geldof wrote: "Where were all the dead people then? If no one was getting food, why was nobody dying? That would have been one of the first questions I'd have asked..." He also served notice of his intent to explore the possibility of suing the BBC, writing: "We will also take a view on what, if any, legal action we may take against... the World Service in general. Martin Plaut, Andrew Whitehead (Current Affairs Editor) and Peter Horrocks (Director of the BBC World Service) should be fired. There should be an immediate investigation into what went wrong, steps should be taken to rectify the identified faults and the World Service must work very, very hard to re-establish its trust and hard-won reputation as the world broadcaster of excellence." Both sides are adamant that they are in the right, so expect this story to have some legs...

Bob wasn't the only Geldof in the news last week, with word that his already once-married 20-year-old daughter Peaches, is now apparently dating actor/movie director Eli Roth. I'm relatively certain that news like that couldn't have helped Bob's mood. "That's great honey, I'm glad you've found someone. So what age is he?" "Well he's 37-years-old." "Okay, okay, well never mind, age isn't all that important I suppose. So what does he do?" "He invented something called 'torture porn'." "Is that a fact? That's swell." "Why is your eye twitching dad? Are you okay" "Sure I am sweetheart. Now I've just got to go to the gun store and pick up a .357 Magnum for something." "Oh, I almost forgot dad. Some guy called Martin from the BBC called and wanted to talk to you." "On second thoughts, better make that a .44 Magnum."...

While we are on the subject of Irish musicians with a penchant for flapping their jaws, I read an interview with Sinead O'Connor in the New York Post last week where she told Cindy Adams that she threw her 21-year-old son Jake's copy of an Eminem album off a balcony because he had begun to emulate the rapper's swearing. Is this the same Sinead O'Connor, who was - until recently at least - incapable of conducting an interview without turning the air blue? The same Sinead O'Connor whose language was worse than a drunken fishwife? And indeed, the same Sinead O'Connor who, upon being challenged about her vulgar language by Prince, by her own admission retorted: "Go f*** yourself!" It's nice to see that she hasn't lost her ability to assume more positions than an octopus in a game of Twister...

Bad news continues to surround upcoming Broadway musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, as word emerged that star of the show, Evan Rachel Wood, had endured as much as she could take of the troubled production and made the decision to quit last week. Her desertion is just the latest in a long line of setbacks, which has included a series of financial woes, in addition to other problems that have repeatedly seen the much-hyped production's starting date pushed further and further back. Bono and the Edge must be wondering why they ever got involved in what is turning into something of a debacle, though it is surely telling that they would not invest their own cash when the ship appeared to be sinking a few months back. At this point, it looks increasingly likely that the actual Spider-Man, Spiderpig, the X-Men, the cast of Gilligan's Island and Gunga Din couldn't save this particular venture...

First it was Tiger Woods, then former England captain John Terry, and now it's Take That's Mark Owen, who has become the most recent member of caught by the short and curlies crew, with the singer announcing that he had indulged in some 10 affairs since getting married last year. Like the other two aforementioned men, Owen was apparently on the verge of being 'outed' in the media, and decided to preempt the inevitable outcry by offering his own spin first. Speaking to UK tabloid the Sun, the goody-two-shoes pop star confessed: "I want to do the right thing now for the kids and Emma. She is absolutely without a doubt the only person I want to be with for the rest of my life. I'm so deeply sorry for the pain my actions have caused... I have been an idiot, a d***head, a k***head. All of the above and more." That apology certainly offers proof of why Owen is not credited amongst the band's lyric writers or they might have had hits like Forgive Me, You Slapper or You Make Me So Excited I Need To Use The Loo. Owen went on to blame his transgressions on his drinking, but given that one affair endured for over five years, that sounds like a bit of a cop-out, unless he's like the perfect mix between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. I honestly couldn't give a fiddler's about what Owen, Tiger or any of these dudes get up to, but they deserve what they get when they market themselves as paragons of virtue. To be honest, they don't really so much sound like they're sorry for what they did, so much as they're sorry that they got caught, and as for Tiger's apology; Burt Ward sounded more sincere in the old Batman series...

R Kelly's European tour has been put on hold because the controversial singer is currently suffering from a "throat problem". We're all really broken up about that. On the plus side, at least he won't have to waste time on putting out a press release to announce when the tour finally does get going because the surefire way of knowing that R Kelly is in town is when all your local stores run out of candy and condoms...

Lily Allen reportedly walked off stage in tears during a gig in London's O2 Arena last Sunday night (March 7), when two men began brawling in the crowd. The 24-year-old singer refused to return until both men had been ejected from the gig. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but it's a good job that all singers aren't so sensitive or bands like the Sex Pistols, The Who and Nirvana wouldn't have had careers at all. It was also reported last week that the Smile singer has signed up for a new reality TV show, following her efforts to open a high-end fashion shop in London. This after Allen spent the past few months telling everyone that she fully intends to walk away from the spotlight after her current tour ends. I guess she meant that in a Brett Favre kind of way... If Lily thinks that a couple of lads duking it out is bad, then she might want to avoid ever playing in Columbia. During a Metallica gig in the capital Bogota last week, 160 people were arrested for rioting, as troops and tanks were called in to quell violence. Tanks for feck's sake! ...

Robbie Williams has courted controversy once again, after engaging in a frank discussion about his drug habits with the BBC. The Angels hit-maker told an interviewer that he was so caught up in prescription drugs before entering rehab in 2007, that he believes he was close to popping his clogs, saying: "I was not in a good place. I was dying. I got to a point where I really, genuinely didn't care. I just got fat and depressed before. Then this one was like, you might die, now. Cool!" Williams then raised the ire of anti-drugs campaigners by declaring: "Did you see me last year? Have a look at last year. Year of the munchie, 2009. Weed, it's such a lovely drug. It is such a lovely drug. But it doesn't mix well with me - at all. It doesn't take much to trigger - I mean, I'll get psychosis from a cup of tea! Seriously. The caffeine in that is enough!" Not that I'm condoning what he said, well okay, maybe I am just a little a bit, but why aren't people so outraged when an artist admits that they like a drink? I also quite enjoy the way Robbie blames his weight problems on the drugs, irrespective of which ones he's on, instead of blaming them on food consumption. Still, I suppose it's better than saying it's a 'glandular problem' or those that say 'I just have to look at food and I put on weight', while they're washing down a cheeseburger and fries with a super size Coke...

Snow Patrol front man Gary Lightbody claims that he had been suffering from a dislocated jaw for the past eight years, without even knowing it, until US doctors recently diagnosed and fixed the problem. Writing on his blog, the Chasing Cars singer says that the injury occurred on a particularly drunken night out in Glasgow in 2002, when he fell down the stairs of a nightclub and ended up in hospital, where he became exceptionally abusive to staff. The singer admitted: "Because of my previous night's behavior to the nursing staff, the only thing they wanted was rid of me so there were no head X-rays taken. I am not annoyed with the nurses at all. I am only ashamed of myself, not annoyed with them. A few years after that incident, my jaw started to get sore and has been a source of pain for years. I have seen all kinds of people about it. My mistrust of western medicine meant, though, that never once did I get it X-rayed." I'll bet that the staff are delighted that he's accusing them of malpractice after all these years. Mind you, with Glaswegians' well-earned reputation for being double-hard, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the nurses gave him a broken jaw for his guff. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. In my defense I think I earned the right to say that, given that I was struck in the head with a pint glass during my one and only visit to the city... Still loved the place though...

From the tough streets of Glasgae to the hoi polloi strata of London's West End, critics have savaged the preview showings of Andrew Lloyd Weber's sequel to the Phantom of the Opera: Love Never Dies. Perhaps the most scathing, and lyrical, of the barbs came from New York Times critic Ben Bratley, who professed that "this poor sap of a show feels as eager to be walloped as a clown in a carnival dunking booth." Unfazed by the cascade of critical attacks, a defiant Lloyd Weber was quick to rebut their gibes, declaring: "I've been in this business for over 40 years - 43 to be precise - I've never had a show which has been successful that hasn't had quite negative reviews." Is that right? In that case, it's about time he did us all a favor and tried writing something that isn't quite so shite.