Joe Kavanagh's Music News

A concert by The Swell Season, in Saratoga, California, was brought to a shocking halt last Thursday (Aug 19), when an audience member climbed onto a roof above the stage and dived over 20 feet to his death. In a report issued by the San Jose-Mercury News, the Oscar-winning folk rock duo, comprised of Ireland's Glen Hansard and Czech singer and pianist Markéta Irglová, had just finished a song when a man allegedly took a running jump from a rooftop above the stage, tumbling head over heels several times before landing heavily on the stage. A shocked Hansard put down his guitar and went to the jumper's side, where he was soon joined by medical staff who were unable to save the man's life. The event left band members and concertgoers clearly distressed, and the band subsequently issued a statement on their MySpace site, saying: "Our hearts go out to the victim who decided to take his own life at last night's gig ... and to his friends and family." In another distressing music related suicide, the front man for up-and-coming UK electronic act, Ou Est Le Swimming Pool? leaped to his death from a mast located backstage at a Belgium music festval on Friday (Aug 20). Belgian officials are calling 22-year-old Charles Haddon's death a suicide, with reports claiming that the singer was distraught after injuring a female audience member when he stage dived during the band's set...

Ireland's largest and most prestigious celebration of traditional music looks set to make an historical move in two year's time, when the Fleadh Cheoil (Feast of Music) moves north of the border for the first time in its venerable 60 year history, to coincide with Derry's designation as UK City of Culture in 2013. Since its inception as a modest national celebration of traditional Irish music in Mullingar, in 1951, the Fleadh has grown into a festival of gargantuan proportions, drawing crowds of up to 250,000 people from all over the world, and capable of injecting some $40 million into whichever local economy is chosen to host the annual event. Speaking of the decision to consider a move north of the border for the first time, committee member Senator Labhras O'Murchu declared: "Derry is a very historic city. There's a lot of heritage and the traditions of music and dance are very strong there. I also think that there would be a huge influx of visitors from Britain and North America, especially with the very high-profile year. The Fleadh Cheoil is huge - there could be up to a quarter of a million people visiting in any year. There's the publicity element, with people from all over the world coming to see it and report on it. And when people come and they have a good time there's a possibility that they will come back again for a holiday." I'm guessing that Labhras O'Murchu is even more committed to retaining his Irish moniker these days, given that its English translation is Larry Murphy, because try booking a hotel in Ireland under that name, not to mind a festival...

Louis Walsh has launched a blistering attack on Ireland's national broadcaster, RTE, professing it to be an outdated, unimaginative dinosaur, which should be scrapped. Speaking at the launch of the autumn schedule for Ireland's other broadcaster TV3, Walsh declared: "RTE need new faces and new attitude. They launched their new schedule and it was the same old faces who I'm fed up of looking at. RTE is the civil service. It's a big building with all these people doing nothing. RTE should be sold off and the people running it sacked. How are TV3 so successful when they have a smaller budget and only one little studio?" I'll tell you how: by coming up with cheap knock-offs of show ideas from other channels, broadcasting TV shows from other countries and creating tawdry television designed to appeal to lowest common denominator. Besides, Louis Walsh wasn't complaining about RTE when he was collecting a paycheck from them when he was acting as a judge on the positively awful You're A Star. He's also got quite the set of cojones blasting RTE's lack of ideas when he is ripping off their show Anonymous for his next foray into British television, which he intends to call - you guessed it - Anonymous...

Canadian act Arcade Fire has come in for intense criticism from Irish fans, as a result of their decision to charge $93 per ticket for their upcoming Dublin shows, which includes the extortionate fees tacked on by Ticketmaster. The furor erupted when Irish Times writer Jim Carroll announced the December dates, along with their rumored price, only to see his message board lit up by irate Arcade Fire fans who were appalled at what they perceived as a shakedown, given the huge support the band has enjoyed in Ireland since appearing on the international scene. The goup's manager, Scot Rodger, has since made the decision to respond to the criticism, pointing out that a combination of factors make Ireland one of the most expensive countries in Europe in which to perform a gig, and even taking the unprecedented step of issuing his email address, so that fans could air their grievances personally. While I still think the prices are a little on the heavy side, in the interests of playing devil's advocate, it would be prudent to point out that Arcade Fire donated $1 million of their own money to relief efforts in the wake of Haiti's devastating earthquake, in addition to raising a further million from supporters. Such endeavors are surely not the acts of a greedy band...

Speaking of uproars, Beatles fans are outraged that Liverpool council apparently intends to tear down the home that Ringo Starr was born in 70 years ago, in order to develop the land around it. The purported move has sparked a frenzied round of complaints, led by Beatles tour guide, Phillip Coppell who was quoted in the Daily Mail as saying: "Whoever has approved this are complete idiots. The National Trust run Paul McCartney and John Lennon's homes as tourist attractions and people come from all over the world to see them. Now they are planning to demolish the very building that Ringo was born in. It's sheer lunacy... If it's knocked down - even if it is moved - fans all over the world are going to be up in arms. They will just not understand how Liverpool can carry out this kind of cultural vandalism." Personally, given the increasing amount of hoo-hah that Ringo has been spouting in recent times and his denigration of his own fans, when the time comes, I'd be quite happy to knock it down with a sledgehammer made out of Ringo...

From one legend to another, Clint Eastwood gave an extremely rare interview last week to UK jazz musician Jamie Cullum, on the latter's BBC Radio 2 show. The pair struck up an unlikely friendship when Eastwood chose Cullum to create the score for his 2008 movie Grand Torrino, and the renowned actor returned the favor by giving an insightful interview to his delighted host, as they discussed their deep, abiding love for jazz music. Recounting his first impression upon meeting with Cullum, the Dirty Harry actor announced: "You jumped off the piano... I thought, 'Hey, this guy's going somewhere!' I did feel that you were bringing an entertainment value to jazz, or swing or blues or whatever you were playing... that had long been missing. I became a fan on that evening. It's a rare opportunity for me to be on the Jamie Cullum show, it's always fun to talk about music." Given Jamie Cullum's diminutive stature, I'm guessing that was either some kind of pygmy piano because he wouldn't survive a jump off a regular piano without a parachute on his back...

Speaking of small people, but this time in a figurative sense, Phil Collins was talking to the media last week regarding his dismay at having to perform with Led Zeppelin during the Philadelphia concert of Live Aid in 1985. Critics and fans alike were disappointed with the legendary rockers dodgy performance, which Zeppelin members Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones attributed to the fact that Phil Collins - and Chic drummer Tony Thompson - did not learn their parts correctly. Collins sees it very differently however, telling Spin magazine: "They weren't very good and I was made to feel a little uncomfortable by the dribbling Jimmy Page. If I could have walked off, I would have - but then we'd be talking about why Phil Collins walked off from Led Zeppelin. So I just stayed there and bit my tongue." He should have kept biting his tongue because only Phil Collins could claim that he knows a band's music better than they know it themselves. Phil Collins is the type of person that will tell you that he is not bald, just simply taller than his hair. The Genesis singer famously played at both the Philadelphia and London legs of the Live Aid gigs, probably because nobody could stick him at either event for the entire day...

One of the more peculiar stories to emerge in the music news last week was the announcement that the Sex Pistols will be the first punk band to release their own scent, which will be produced by French fragrance maker, Etat Libre D'Orange. According to a spokesperson for the company: "To wear this scent, you must resist tradition, fight conformity, and disregard aromatic conventions. In the spirit of punk, you must be willing to express yourself with abandon. You take risks and you wouldn't be adverse to creating a little mayhem." I'd imagine that you'll also have to shell out a hundred bucks or so for it, and I can't help thinking that if the Johnny Rotten of the original Sex Pistols could see the Johnny Rotten of today, he'd give himself a bloody good boot in the arse. If this product, which comes in packaging similar to the artwork from band's God Save The Queen single, honestly did seek to capture something of the scent of 1970's punk music, I posit that it would smell something like a mix of spittle, urine, sweat and leather. Try marketing that...

I read where Madonna's toyboy boyfriend Jesus Luiz chose the exclusive London club where she held her 52nd birthday, laid on almost $80,000 of free booze and presented her with a handbag worth $10,000. I'm guessing that he passed that bill on to his sugar momma because there is about as much of a chance of Jesus of Nazareth settling that bill as Jesus Luiz...

Ron Wood claims that he has found solace in his art and music after all the turbulence of the past year, which saw his marriage disintegrate in the wake of an affair with a 19-year-old cocktail waitress. The Rolling Stones guitarist told the Daily Express that he has found inspiration in his latest love, Brazillian model Ana Araujo, announcing: "I'm doing a lot of portraits of Ana. She is very inspiring to paint. I'm getting really prolific, turning out two paintings a week. I'm doing winged horses and landscapes too. Music helps me paint and painting helps me with music. I've done a lot of both this year. I've never been away from them." While not doing that, he spends his time making fine dartboards out of paintings of his last girlfriend, Ekaterina Ivanova. I'm kidding naturally, but on another point, does anyone else think that Ron Wood would make an amazing name for a male porn star? He wouldn't even have to go through that technique where you fix your first pet's name to your mother's maiden name, in order to find your perfect porn moniker. Incidentally, I was on a hillbilly name generator the other day (what can I say, it was a slow day) and discovered that my current name translates into hillbilly as "Bid Daddy Tractor". Heck that could even work for porn too because a name like that has got to be useful for pulling women. I'll get my coat...