Joe Kavanagh's Music News

The last of the legendary Clancy Brothers' voices was silenced last week, with the death of Liam Clancy aged 74-years-old. As a member of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, he reinvigorated the twin worlds of Irish traditional music and folk music, with a compellingly unique assimilation of both musical cultures, influencing an entire generation of songwriters, including Bob Dylan. Singer, poet and sometime actor, his presence on the Irish music scene will be sorely missed while his place as one of Ireland's most celebrated sons is assured in perpetuity. R.I.P...

Rolling Stones guitarist, Ron Wood was arrested last Wednesday (December 2) on suspicion of assaulting his 20-year-old girlfriend, Ekaterina Ivanova. The unlikely couple were apparently enjoying a meal, washed down with copious amounts of vodka and whiskey, during a day out in Surry, England, when they allegedly became embroiled in a quarrel. According to witnesses, the argument evolved into a physical altercation, with the Rolling Stones guitarist reportedly choking her and dragging her along the ground by her hair. Couple, Celine Dixon and Phillip Legge, happened upon the confrontation, and Wood reportedly fled the scene when challenged by Legge. Police later arrested the guitarist on suspicion of assault before bailing him to appear in court to face changes at a later date. Talking to UK tabloid The Sun, Dixon stated: "We heard a woman screaming, then saw a man pinning her to the ground. He was shouting at her then we heard choking sounds so my boyfriend rushed out to help. When he got outside he realised it was Ronnie and Ekaterina." Legge added: "Ronnie was yelling, 'You are a f***ing b*****d,' and then 'you are a f***ing w***er' and it was really loud." A police spokesperson backed up the story, telling the media: "Ekaterina was very distressed and had cuts on her knees from where it seemed she had been dragged along the street. But she was insistent she didn't want police involved. Despite her refusal, witnesses allege this was a potentially assault and he may face charges. We're looking at allegations that at one point he had her by the scruff of her neck and her collar was so tight she seemed to be choking." I think it's fair to say that even the monkeys in the trees know that Ron Wood should pack this in before it gets even uglier. I would say that Ekaterina should walk away but if the past week has shown us anything, it is that tigers that like their tail don't change their stripes and some women will choose money over dignity every time...

No stranger to controversy himself, Pete Doherty managed to find a radically new way of insulting an entire race or two a week ago, during an appearance at a Munich music festival. The oft-troubled singer appalled festival-goers by performing the first verse of German national anthem, Deutschland Uber Alles; which has been banned in Germany since a certain psychopath with a funny moustache and his cronies used it as the soundtrack to their tour of death and destruction seventy years ago. Doherty was immediately led from the stage under a barrage of abuse and bottles thrown by the furious crowd, while the live television feed of the performance was also cut. A spokesperson for the singer later maintained that he intended it as a conciliatory gesture, saying: "(Doherty) wanted to celebrate his appearance in Munich by assimilating and integrating with the crowd, something he tries do wherever he goes. He was unaware of the controversy surrounding the German national anthem and he deeply apologizes if he has caused any offence. Peter himself is from Jewish descent and has fought against racism and fascism with numerous organizations including Love Music Hate Racism. This is a subject he feels very strongly about." The apology would probably mean a little more if Doherty had actually offered it himself but short of dressing up as a minstrel, then taking to the stage for a rendition of Mammy before a speech by Louis Farrakhan, I'm not quite sure how you could possibly insult an audience with such spectacular effect...

While we're on the subject of people inserting their size tens in their cake holes (as Jeff St Ledger might term it), Morrissey made an absolute humdinger of a claim last week, intonating to an interviewer that suicide was somehow an honorable calling. The former Smiths singer was appearing on BBC radio show, Desert Island Discs, when host Kirsty Young asked him: "Have you thought about being in control of your death? Have you thought about shuffling off this mortal coil at a time of your own choosing?" Answering her rather curious question, he answered: "Yes, I have. I think self-destruction is honorable. I always thought it was. It's an act of great control and I understand people who do it." Not content with only having one foot in his mouth, the man known to his mother as Stephen Morrissey offered the following statement when asked to name one luxury item that he would bring with him to the island: "I would either take a bed, because I like to go to bed, or I would take a bag of sleeping pills because I might want to make a quick exit." I find it something of a double standard that Morrissey's words caused little or no controversy among the same people who were baying for Kate Moss's blood a week ago for saying that "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels". After all, Kate Moss is an airhead who can't work out why her brother has two sisters and she only has one, but Morrissey is a man acutely aware of the weight which words can carry, not to mention the melancholic tendencies that run through a segment of his fan base. Judas Priest were within a whisker of losing a civil action in 1990, which alleged that a man killed himself after listening to the lyric "do it" in their song, Better By You, Better Than Me, which they didn't even write. I also read that Morrissey and Paul McCartney's daughter Stella, are about to release a range of leather-free footwear which they both designed and I would suggest that a good way to test the first pair might be to give Morrissey a good boot up the behind for tendering such reckless views...

Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall and sax player, Christopher De Margary, landed in an Irish court last week, due to a bitter dispute regarding the hunting rights on an estate in county Donegal. Hucknall and his sidekick claim that they bought the hunting and fishing rights to Glenmore Estate, near Ballybofey, in 2005, for $1.96 million, but local man, John Wilde maintains that the previous owner of the estate signed over the rights to his father 26 year ago. Hucknall and de Margary do not own the land but have been running a successful business, renting out the land to hunting parties who apparently get a kick out of paying money to kill the animals that live on the estate. Upon hearing that both sides have hunting parties scheduled to come over this week, the judge adjourned the case for 15 minutes to allow the two factions to "sort it out" but no agreement could be reached, so the dispute will likely drag on for many years to come. Why not play a game of "high-stakes" hunting to sort it out? I know that Hucknall's ginger hair might make him stand out a bit but that disadvantage is mitigated by the fact that his face could easily pass for an ugly bull's ass...

Critically acclaimed director, Duncan Jones, claims that growing up in the shadow of his father, David Bowie, led to difficulties in developing social skills. Speaking in a recent interview, the Moon director claimed: "I was a sensitive child and I probably needed a few more hugs. I did always feel in his (Bowie's) shadow when I was growing up. I was massively geeky. We traveled a lot and I was painfully shy. And, of course, I had the burden of a lot of people's preconceptions about who I was. I was a grumpy, surly, upset, confused person. Even today my personal skills are pretty awful. I can talk to people when I know what it is we need to talk about but I can't do small talk. Parties, I'm awful at. My girlfriend cringes. I'll just stand there like a deer in the headlights." I'm sure that it couldn't have helped that the poor chap was actually named Zowie Bowie at birth, because that's like a real life Boy Named Sue affair right there...

Bono told an interviewer last week that one of the main reasons that he is involved in fighting for so many charitable causes is down to the fact that he feels overpaid in his current line of work. Talking to Okay.co.uk at the launch of Lace Up, Save Lives, an initiative involving soccer players raising funds for HIVcharities, he stated: "These guys (footballers) are very wealthy. I am very well paid, overpaid and even over-rewarded for what I do. But a lot of these soccer guys are giving something back and they don't need to do that." And here was me thinking it was because he thinks he's God. In the interests of playing devil's advocate, if Bono really feels that way then why did he and U2 take money away from the faltering Irish economy by moving their entire operation to the Netherlands for tax reasons a few years back? I'm sure a few causes in Ireland have suffered as a result but that doesn't seem to bother Bono and the reputed $640 million he has in the bank. As for footballers, don't even get me started on them. Why any man gets paid over $200,000 a week for kicking a piece of cow around a field for an hour and a half is simply beyond me...

Paul McCartney traveled to Brussels last week, in order to speak to members of the European Parliament about promoting a 'meat-free' day with consumers around the globe. The legendary former Beatle maintains that considerable reductions in greenhouse gasses can be achieved simply by people refusing to eat meat one day in every seven. Speaking of his idea, Macca claimed: "A lower-meat diet could see greenhouse gases reduced by as much as 80 per cent. Western countries currently eat meat at least seven times a week, but using a series of projected world diets, latest reports recommend reducing that to twice or three times a week." Loudest amongst the voices arguing against such a move were those of the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) who point out that the farming community cannot afford any further financial blows given the pressures of the recession and competition from cheap meat from Brazil. Maybe it's just me but I could have sworn that farmers can grow vegetables too? I'm for anything within reason that helps to arrest the ongoing degradation of our environment but if Paul McCartney seriously believes that not eating meat one day a week will reduce greenhouse gases by 80% then he must be using the same calculator that Wesley Snipes uses when he's doing his taxes...