Print this page

Pick at the pops: 15 January 2007

Our weekly round-up of the weird and wonderful world of pop music...

Who’d be a pop star? Years of hard slog - or weeks of X-Factor auditions - and all you get is disrespect. Pity poor Preston of low-rent Madness copyists The Ordinary Boys, who last week stormed out while filming BBC2’s Never Mind The Buzzcocks after presenter Simon Amstell mocked his lovely wife Chantelle. Amstell, a step ahead of Celebrity Big Brother champ Chantelle, read out some of her autobiography, prompting Preston’s flounce and, later, these harsh words: “He’s a snotty little posh boy”. It’s a class war!

Yep, it’s tough. All those years of hoarding awards and trinkets, and what do you have to show for it? A colossal storage bill, if you’re Whitney Houston. Bobby Brown’s estranged missus has had to sell off prized possessions to pay it off. Lucky fans now own a ladder, a pair of gardening gloves, even a “Whitney’s throne” chair. No, stop.

And what if you’ve spent half a century touring the globe, releasing classic album after classic album. Do you get a reward? No, you get a slagging from Simon Cowell. The high-waisted Beelzebub of pop stuck the boot into Bob Dylan the other day, saying: “A singing poet? It just bores me to tears.” Come back when Leona’s bored everyone to tears, Cowell. Oh.

And after all that work, you release your greatest hits and it’s a huge smash. What happens? You get lumped in with your biggest rivals to record the blimming Comic Relief single, that’s what. Sugababes and Girls Aloud on the same record? Who brokered THAT deal?

Finally, hotly tipped “nu-rave” scene leaders The Klaxons are looking for 100 young ladies to star in their new video. There’s a form to fill in and everything. They want to know age, height, dress size and vital statistics. Who’d be a pop star? Then again…

Matthew Horton

• 08/01/2007: The Police to reform? >>
• 02/01/2007: James Brown RIP >>
• 18/12/2006: Girls Aloud v Lily Allen >>
• 4/12/2006: Potty Pete pays the penalty >>
• 27/11/2006: Nelly says no to Playboy >>
• 20/11/2006: Queen's greatest-selling hits >>
• 13/11/2006: Ms Dynamite's high speed crash >>
• 06/11/2006: Glastonbury to go "gay"? >>
• 30/10/2006: McFly hit top spot yet again >>
• 16/10/2006: Girls Aloud v All Saints in war of words >>
• 09/10/2006: Razorlight ready for world domination >>
• 02/10/2006: Madonna's record breaking millions >>
• 25/09/2006: When pop stars reunite >>
• 18/09/2006: Robbie's new footballing chum >>
• 11/09/2006: Monkeys' Mercury delight >>
• 04/09/2006: Foo Fighters save miners >>
• 28/08/2006: Britney gets banned in Asia >>
• 21/08/2006: Radiohead's grumpy greatest hits >>
• 14/08/2006: Natasha Bedingfield's Rocky return >>
• 07/08/2006: The heavyweight return of Meat Loaf >>