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Pick at the pops

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

A week which climaxes with hot new trailblazers Pearl Jam headlining the Reading Festival wouldn’t appear to be all that exciting, but we’re here to tell you it’s been rich with controversy.

Lithe young American beauties have been offending the Eastern hemisphere. Britney has too. Her Demi Moor-esque naked pregnancy shoot will no longer grace hoardings across Tokyo after the authorities stepped in. “Doesn’t she look washed out as a brunette?”, they’re reported to have said. Meanwhile, in India, Paris Hilton has been banned. Actually, it’s just her video, but perhaps they’ll see sense in the end.

Having chewed over the news a couple of weeks back that she was recording the theme to Rocky Balboa, we’re now hearing that Natasha Bedingfield will be taking an acting role in the film itself. Maybe she could get a part for her brother Daniel too. As a sparring partner for Rocky, perhaps.

An odd week for the Kaiser Chiefs, who complained about the BNP apparently using I Predict A Riot as a backdrop for a promotional video. A party spokesman has denied its use and stated that it “isn’t the type of music [they] would ever want to be associated with”. Bitter tears from the Chiefs’ camp are as yet unreported.

Finally, the old boys are hogging the headlines. Dame Elton John has announced to anyone who wants to know (and to many still running away in terror) that he has a hankering to make a hip-hop album. Yep. He’d like to work with Kanye West, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Timbaland and Pharrell. Well, wouldn’t we all? Meanwhile, pencil-moustached old grump Bob Dylan has whined that no decent-sounding record has been released in the last 20 years. I know, Bob. We all miss Wham! too.

Matthew Horton 

• Last week: Radiohead's grumpy greatest hits >>
• 14/08/2006: Natasha Bedingfield's Rocky return >>
• 07/08/2006: The heavyweight return of Meat Loaf >>