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Pick at the pops: 30 April 2007

Mani and Bez

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

The big pop news of the week concerned some loudmouth scamps from Yorkshire, of course - but aside from Mel B and her lesbian dabblings, plenty of column inches were also devoted to Sheffield’s own Arctic Monkeys. Readers may be aware that they released an album which sold a billion copies in 30 seconds, and which experts predicted would swamp the singles chart now that some sort of dark witchcraft lets any breed of download in. They weren’t far wrong. The Monkeys utterly DOMINATE this week’s chart with songs at, erm, numbers 7, 60 and 74. Call the cops!

Speaking of which, there were grave tidings for American Happy Mondays fans looking forward to faithful reruns of the old faves at the Coachella Festival: loose-braincelled vibesmaster Bez was not allowed into the country by US customs for you-name-it reasons. No maracas? The songs will be ruined. Actually, the saucer-eyed fruitloop is a pretty essential part of the experience, but, frankly, the game was up a decade and a half ago, so who cares?

The Mondays’ old muckers The Stone Roses have been gone for about as long and are pretty much the only hit-making band of the last 30 years not to have reformed in 2007. This isn’t scientific fact, no. Former bassist Mani – now with Primal Scream, who’d love to reform but keep forgetting to split up first – claims he could make a Roses reunion happen, but says “Why bother?” Well, it depends, Mani: are you creatively bankrupt and short of cash? If not, you’ve got a fair point.

Iggy Pop has got his Stooges back together this year, possibly for both of the reasons above (and neither issue is going to be sorted out in a hurry by their new album). Anyway, the Igster’s decided to ditch the one thing he had left – his credibility. The orange-chested godfather of punk has endorsed a garden created by The Children’s Society for next month’s Chelsea Flower Show. It’s called Lust For Life and probably represents the death of rock ‘n’ roll.

Finally, is it a coincidence that – with Madonna’s clothing line recently installed at bargain fashion emporium H&M – rival chain New Look’s Oxford Street store burned down mere days before the launch of Lily Allen’s new collection? Yes, yes it is.

Matthew Horton

Picture: PA Photos

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