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Pick at the pops: 04 June 2007

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

Just one big thing dominated the pop news last week: Beth Ditto’s bum. Sorry, “ass”. The luscious Gossip singer graced the cover of NME with more flesh than anyone bargained for, in a naked shoot that swamped the news stands.

Unknown-in-the-UK Chicago DJ Electra of radio station Q101 certainly bit off more than she could chew when she had the temerity to grant The White Stripes some free publicity – by playing their forthcoming album Icky Thump in full. Jack White just couldn’t see the benefit: phoning the DJ in a rage, he accused her of ruining the music business, asked her to “take responsibility for leaking the record” and wondered if she was sorry for what she’d done. Bet she’s sorry now.

Another masterclass in public relations comes from The Police – fast becoming regular guests in this column – with drummer Stewart Copeland doing his level best to encourage future ticket sales by calling one of last week’s comeback shows “unbelievably lame”. Mind you, he perked up enough to refer to Sting as a “petulant pansy”. This could be even more short-lived than the hilarious East 17 reunion, featured on Channel 4 recently – although spades more cash are involved in The Police project, so maybe not.

George Michael has also been disappointing the fans – Czech fans, to be precise. His Saturday gig in Prague was cancelled after a truck carrying crucial equipment crashed. However, a source very close to us reckons George was singing in popular West End nightspot Tiger Tiger on the same night, so perhaps there’s more to this than meets the eye. Or just more cocktails involved.

We could fill an entire page with all the good works performed by Razorlight’s Johnny Borrell in the past seven days, so we’ll just say a quick “well done” for his solar-powered song for the Big Ask climate change campaign (also supported by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, surprise sur-bloody-prise) and concentrate on the evil: Radio 2’s tribute show to mark the 40th anniversary of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Versions of songs from the album were aired on Saturday night, played by the Razorlight boys, The Magic Numbers, Kaiser Chiefs, Bryan Adams, The Fray, Travis and Stereophonics. It’s like a roll call of the seven circles of Hell.

Matthew Horton

Picture: PA Photos

• 29/05/2007: Stevie and Jacko disappoint Macca >>
• 21/05/2007: Lily vs Cheryl in catfight nirvana >>
• 14/05/2007: Eurovision carve-up shame >>
• 08/05/2007: How is Kurt Cobain still writing diaries? >>
• 30/04/2007: Bez and Mani? It's 1990 all over again >>
• 23/04/2007: MC Hammer inspires Arctic Monkeys >>
• 16/04/2007: Your planet is safe in Madonna's hands >>
• 10/04/2007: Kaiser Ricky fights for pop double standards >>
• 02/04/2007: Weller vs Sting in battle of the spittle >>
• 26/03/2007: Jagger and Trousersnake snubbed >>
• 19/03/2007: Ray Quinn and the death of pop >>
• 12/03/2007: The Jackson Five eye some filthy lucre >>
• 05/03/2007: George is on his way to Wembley >>
• 26/02/2007: Mel C holds up Spice reunion >>
• 19/02/2007: Joss Stone's big love >>
• 12/02/2007: Lily conquers America >>
• 05/02/2007: Oasis to meet Ringo at last >>
• 29/01/2007: Amy Winehouse wows the Savoy >>
• 22/01/2007: Chris Martin: the B-Boy >>
• 15/01/2007: Whitney auctions her belongings >>
• 08/01/2007: The Police to reform? >>
• 02/01/2007: James Brown RIP >>
• 2006 archive >>