Joe Kavanagh's Music News

Bono appears to be on the mend, in the wake of his recent back trouble, after the U2 singer was snapped driving around last week, and enjoying some high-class cuisine at a restaurant near his sprawling hideaway in southern France. In case you have been living on Mars, the U2 singer recently underwent spinal surgery after incurring an injury while preparing for the band's upcoming summer performances. Still no word on when he will return to full live action but I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before he's up on his soapbox again, telling us all how to be better people... On a more serious note, U2's longtime collaborative producer Daniel Lanois, is currently in intensive care in a Los Angeles hospital, after crashing his motorcycle a week ago. The multi-talented Canadian musician reportedly suffered multiple injuries, forcing him to cancel all promotional activities over the coming months. We wish him a speedy recovery and hope for U2's sake that there is no truth to these things coming in threes...

Van Morrison and wife Michelle, opened proceedings in a Dublin court last week, where they are suing neighbors for impinging on their privacy. According to a sworn statement by Michelle Morrison, neighbors Desmond and Mary Kavanagh show no signs of replacing the trees that they cut down in order to construct their "Celtic Tiger-style house". The judge overseeing the case adjourned proceedings to allow the two parties to make an effort to come to some kind of agreement, warning them that it would prove costly for one of both of them if the matter continued to tie up the court's time. His warning fell on deaf ears however, as both sides failed in their efforts at rapprochement. It sounds like Michelle Morrison has taken on some of the more ornery traits of her husband, and she's a good one to look down her nose at the neighbors. Assuming she's not a masochist, she certainly didn't marry Van Morrison for his personality and unless she's got some kind of surly dwarf fetish she's not with him for his looks, which leaves only one other thing...

Speaking of strange matches, Georgia Jagger has reportedly taken up with Luke Pritchard of The Kooks, after the pair was spotted getting hot and heavy at a gig in London last week. The 18-year-old daughter of Mick Jagger is apparently quite smitten with her 25-year-old beau, who has earned something of a reputation as a ladies' man. A source close to the Rolling Stones singer told UK tabloid The Sun: "Mick doesn't want Georgia getting caught up in showbiz. He's bound to hit the roof when he finds out she is seeing a rock star." Yeah, like Mick Jagger has a leg to stand on while dishing out a stern lecture to his model daughter regarding the perils of dating older rock stars. It's not even a true case of poetic justice, because for that, young Georgia would have to date a pensioner who hasn't made a decent album in 40 years. It might be small consolation to Mick but if Luke Pritchard makes an album that sucks half as much as the last one his band put out, then he won't be a rock star for very much longer because The Kooks last record could stink out Jean Paul Gaultier's house...

From young love blossoming, to love on the rocks; after initial reports positing that Ronan Keating had managed to persuade his wife, Yvonne to give their marriage another try, word has since emerged that his traumatized spouse has had second thoughts about letting him back into her life. The Boyzone singer has been the talk of the tabloids, since he was caught out about enjoying a lusty tryst with backing dancer Francine Connell, who curiously looks like a slapper version of his wife. Speaking to the Daily Mail of her reticence to return to her marriage, a source close to Yvonne Keating quoted her as saying: "It'd be one thing if it was just sex, but this was emotional." I'll bet Yvonne is glad that she has such considerate friends who run off and sell their scraps of a story to the highest bidder within hours, or minutes, of her pouring her heart out to them. Desperate to get his marriage back on track, Ronan Keating was quoted as telling an acquaintance: "She meant nothing - it was just a fling and a mistake. It's cost me the thing most dear to me in the world." In his case, I wouldn't be one bit surprised if he is talking about his image...

In another story relating to an Irish act (albeit an act that is actually talented in this case), Snow Patrol were handed the Heritage Award in Belfast last week, which recognized the huge successes they have attained since embarking on a career that has seen them emerge from obscurity to global dominance, in a little over a decade. In order to mark the occasion, a plaque was unveiled outside the city's Duke of York pub, where the band performed their very first gig in 1998. Fans of the Chasing Cars act will be delighted to know that they will not be forced to wait to much longer for a follow-up to 2008 album A Hundred Million Suns, after drummer Johnny Quinn declared that they should be ready to release a new album early next year. Speaking to the Daily Record regarding their current preparations for a new release, Quinn announced: "I live by the sea in Ireland and I find that's the most inspiring time, sitting with a guitar on the beach, but we write on the tour bus, in dressing rooms, in the studio and in phone boxes, because no one is using them because everyone has mobile phones." So the next time you pass a phone box and see five guys with instruments jammed into it, you'll know just what's going on because that must be one really intense jamming session. If that is how they are rehearsing for the new album then I wouldn't be one bit surprised if they used a clown car as their tourbus when they take to the road for their next tour...

The makers of BBC's Doctor Who announced last week that they intend to see if Lady Gaga would be interested in appearing in an upcoming episode of the long-running cult British sci-fi show. While I can't vouch for her acting abilities, they'll definitely save a fortune in wardrobe because she could probably walk on set wearing what she sleeps in, and still look more outer space than anything their fertile minds could dream up...

Just when it looked like Pete Doherty had sorted himself out a bit, the troubled singer was at it again recently during a brief solo outing to the Ibiza Rocks Festival, which is held on the legendary hedonistic Spanish island of the same name. Reports in the newspapers claim that UK act Bombay Bicycle Club were the next act to stay at the hotel room inhabited by Doherty, only to discover that the former Libertines singer had written his own name on the wall, along with the hotel's logo, all surrounded by a love heart, which wouldn't be so bad for the fact that he had scrawled the strange mural in his own blood. I don't know about you but I could drink about 15 pints of Guinness and still not be able to draw all of that in my own tinkle, not to mind my own blood. I'm not saying that like I envy his saignant skills... And further down the surreal spiral we go...

Ozzy Osbourne has been offered a job as health consultant for esteemed newspaper The Sunday Times, a state of affairs that had me pondering if I was undergoing some kind of episode, or if it was in fact April 1 all over again. Apparently I have not lost my marbles (which is more that can be said for the folks at the Sunday Times) as Ozzy declared last week: "When The Sunday Times magazine asked me to be its new health-advice columnist... I thought they were taking the p***, to be honest with you. But then I thought about it for a while, and it makes perfect sense - I've seen literally thousands of doctors over my lifetime, and spent well over £1 million on them, to the point where I sometimes think I know more about being a doctor than doctors do." All of this in the same week that the former Black Sabbath singer revealed that he was taking 42 different types of prescription pills while filming The Osbournes - in addition to smoking enough marijuana to keep Little Wayne's entourage happy for a year. I don't know about you but I would be as likely to take medical advice from a crackhead as I would from the doddery dark prince of heavy metal and if Ozzy Osbourne's was the last face I saw just before I succumbed to an anesthetic I wouldn't hold out much hope of me ever waking again - even if it was only to have stitches taken out...

P-Puff-Diddy-Daddy Combs was over in the UK last week, extolling the virtues of UK hip hop, which has often played the part of ersatz cousin to its US counterpart. Speaking to the BBC, the rap impresario stated: "I think in the past maybe some of the UK hip-hop artists weren't as authentic to where they come from. It's all right to be from the UK and it's all right to talk about what you want to talk about and not try to sound or be like somebody from the US." Well, if anyone knows about being completely phony, then it's Sean Combs and I don't suppose that his newfound love of UK hip hop would have anything to do with the fact that he recently began working with a clutch of British rappers...

New York-based indie act, We Are Scientists have come under intense fire from some of their American fans, after the band decided to write a World Cup anthem for the English soccer team. The band's track Goal! England has already become a solid favorite on UK radio stations, but has drawn accusations that the band are acting unpatriotically, given that their own country is also in the World Cup. Defending their controversial decision, singer Christopher Cain claimed: "People ask why we didn't record a football anthem for America. When you want to give your girlfriend a great gift, you give her something you know she wants, not something you want. We've never been huge football guys, but we're pretty big England guys, and we know her well enough to know she loves her a football (soccer) anthem. So we made her one." That's all very well, but extending his metaphor, it still doesn't explain why they didn't buy their wife a gift first...

Rick Astley has revealed that he only now appreciates the sentiment of his monster 1987 hit, Never Gonna Give You Up. Good for him because they could lock me in a room for 40 years and waterboard me until I think I'm the king of Sheba, Harpo Marx and Grace Jones' left buttock cheek, and I guarantee you that I would still refuse to admit that that song was anything more than a blight on humanity...

Former Stereophonics drummer, Stuart Cable died tragically last week after reportedly choking on his own vomit. Known for an intelligence and wit that saw him succeed as a broadcaster upon being fired from the Welsh act, he only recently turned 40-years-old. Speaking of his sadness at the death of his former band mate, Stereophonics singer Kelly Jones announced: "I sent him a text last week to say happy birthday and he replied, 'I never thought I'd make it to 40.' I texted him back and I said, 'You will live to be 100 mate.'" Not to be rude but I wouldn't take a tip on a horse from him, would you? The chap's like some kind of textual banshee. R.I.P. C