Joe Kavanagh's Music News

Undoubtedly, the biggest, and some might even say the only, story in music last week was the untimely demise of Michael Jackson, who passed away at only 50-years-old. Given that his life and death have been dissected, analyzed and opined upon from the four corners of the earth, I won't dwell on the matter too deeply in this column, but sufficed to say that the world of music certainly lost one of its most colorful talents, a man whose global stardom came at a price for both himself and those around him. Preternaturally gifted, deeply troubled and irretrievably damaged, his was a life lived in the blazing spotlight of fame, a double-edged sword upon which he eventually fell. My enduring memory of the man is of walking along Third Avenue in Manhattan one sunny day a decade or so ago and seeing him pass by in a limousine with a crazed mob of people chasing it through the traffic, risking life and limb as they sprinted through busy intersections, screaming and generally behaving like they had lost their minds. Nor was it just a group of kids either, with at least half of the crowd aged 30 or above and many donning snappy business suits. Aside from thinking "What a bunch of buffoons," I also remember wondering what, if any, kind of an existence is that for a human being and how anyone could expect him to be normal given his immersion in that world since his earliest childhood? R.I.P...

Last weekend saw what organizers are referring to as the most successful Glastonbury music festival yet, with revelers treated to some of the biggest names in music under beautiful sunny skies. Neil Young, Blur and Bruce Springsteen were just some of the hundreds of acts to appear at the venerable music extravaganza, and the latter performed for two hours 40 minutes, running over the legal curfew by nine minutes, drawing a fine of almost $5,000 for festival organizer, Michael Eavis. Delighted with proceedings in general and The Boss's performance in particular, a thrilled Eavis claimed: "I gave him 10 minutes and he took nine. I'll pay the fine - £3,000. Paul McCartney (2004 headliner) paid me back. I'm going to pay the Bruce Springsteen one myself. It's not a lot because it was fantastic. The last nine minutes were spectacular. There are limits because a lot of people live nearby and it is right that things draw to a close at a reasonable hour. Each year we get only a handful of complaints about noise." What kind of a sad sack complains about noise at Glastonbury? What do they expect given that 177,000 people descend on the place for a three-day party? And party they did, with 131 arrests, mostly for drug offences, and curiously one man was detained for public nudity. Three festival goers were also removed from the site with suspected cases of swine flu...

Amy Winehouse's career as a musician might have taken a back seat to her career as a barfly but she has not remained altogether idle, as she attempts to straighten out her act on the Caribbean island of St Lucia. The troubled singer has just launched her own line of wrapping paper and greeting cards, which will be festooned with lyrics from her Back To Black album, though quite what her involvement was in designing the products is still unclear. The project has been carried out in conjunction with her record label, EMI, which is hardly surprising given the amount of money that they've spent on her in recent times. I'm sure they're just trying to make some kind of return on their investment at this stage, and it doesn't look as if she's is in any fit state to record an album any time soon...

While we're on the subject of Amy Winehouse, sources close to Kelly Osbourne claim that she recently pulled the plug on a vacation to St Lucia because she feared running into her onetime friend. Osbourne and Winehouse fell out rather spectacularly after Winehouse went to stay with the reality TV star. A source close to Osbourne told the Daily Star: "Amy rearranged all the furniture and pictures into crazy places, turning chairs over and organizing personal objects in her own version of feng shui while Kelly was out. She'd even removed some items she ranted were evil. It was the last straw for Kelly, who finally saw how out of control Amy was. She had tried to help her get over her drug problem but finally had enough." ...

Staying with the Osbournes for a moment, Jack Osbourne was allegedly attacked in London last week, while traveling home from a friend's wedding. According to reports, two men accosted Osbourne and began abusing him before punches were thrown. The story is a little fishy given the fact that Jack Osbourne is the only major witness to the confrontation, writing on Twitter: "Came home and got jumped in the street. Knuckles hurt today. I think it means I hit them harder than they hit me." Of course it does, his knuckles were probably just hurting from dragging them along the ground...

Poor old Rachel Stevens, talk about a bad month. Last Friday, the pop singer was enjoying a meal with her family at a London restaurant when a gunman wearing a motorcycle helmet chased another man into the eatery before shooting him five times in front of horrified staff and customers. Although the pinup and her family were unhurt, they were extremely shaken up, as one might expect. Stevens was also in the news early this month when she was robbed by three thugs who followed her into her home, relieving her of her engagement ring, necklace and a Rolex watch. If I were her, I would at least consider a move to the country at this point and let's hope for her sake that there is no truth to the adage that these things come in threes...

Liam Gallagher has categorically denied that he is set to star in an upcoming movie based on Kevin Sampson's novel, Powder, which chronicles the rise of a rock band and their subsequent descent into drug addiction. A spokesman for the Oasis singer claims that there is no truth to the rumor despite the fact that musician, Guru Josh, who has signed on to star in the movie, has been blogging about how honored he is to be starring alongside Gallagher. Somebody's telling porkies...

Talking of Oasis, Enemy singer Tom Clarke, moved swiftly to quash the feud between the two bands, when the Enemy began opening for Oasis on their current UK tour. Clarke, who had to pull out of several dates due to a bout of food poisoning, was recently quoted as saying that Wonderwall act are "past it", which led Liam Gallagher to refer to him as a "little f***er" in response. The two camps made their peace at the first available opportunity backstage, with Clarke telling a reporter last week: "Liam came up to me, straight up to me. As soon as I got there and got over my little illness, he made sure I knew the score. He's a proper gent and Noel is the most normal bloke in the world, who happens to have written some of the best songs ever." Easy on Tom, talk about over-egging the pudding. I'm guessing that he left a little damp spot on the floor after Liam was finished his effing and blinding.