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Pick at the pops: 5 November 2007

Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears

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

It’s not a bed of roses being a rock’n’roll star: there’s the sex, of course, which can be tough with all those groupies and supermodel hangers-on; then the drugs, from your hardcore Class A’s to Charlotte Church’s Cheeky Vimtos; and finally, rock’n’roll itself, a harsh mistress who’ll still have you in embarrassingly tight clothes way past your sell-by date.

The current crop of stars are handling it badly - take young hopefuls Babyshambles (please) and their squeaky-clean frontman Pete Doherty. Drummer Adam Ficek has been whinging about Doherty’s former squeeze, supermodel Kate Moss: “When Kate was with Pete that was all everybody cared about and our music suffered. There’s no way we would be invited to play at MTV with the likes of Snoop Dogg if we were how we were when Kate was around.” Why do you think they’ve invited you now, Adam? For your brilliant music or your tabloid darling singer? Think carefully…

The travails of Britney Spears are well-documented, but it takes a fellow traveller to offer the voice of reason. Here’s Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong speaking last week: “How could the people at MTV [at the VMAs], the people around her, not know this girl was f***ed up? People came in expecting a train wreck and they got more than they bargained for.” We know, Billie Joe – it was great, wasn’t it?

Amy Winehouse added another item to her rapsheet at Thursday’s MTV Europe awards, swaying around and then mumbling her way through a half-remembered version of ‘Back To Black’. She later put this down to “exhaustion”, prompting many to brag about how totally exhausted they got on Stella Artois at the ceremony. Well, at least she turned up.

The most-hyped gig in recent memory has been postponed after Led Zeppelin (for it is they) guitarist Jimmy Page fractured a finger. They’ve shoved the date back a couple of weeks while he recovers. Well, we want to see the offending finger, Jimmy – or we’re going to start suggesting you’ve actually forgotten your songs, you old fossil, and need more time to brush up.

Matthew Horton

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