Happy St. George's Day!

Well, yes, I'm very pround to be English, so I don't feel it's a bad thing to celebrate St. George's Day. If the Irish can celebrate St. Patrick's Day in every single corner of the known universe (especially in the US, where of course, every single person is Irish!), then why can't we celebrate our own patron saint? So get your flags out and celebrate! (Drinking warm beer is obviously optional, and we don't condone that sort of thing here!)

The Public Face of a Private Grief

If any of you have seen the papers today, then you'll have seen the pictures of Gloria Hunniford at her daughter, Caron Keating's funeral. Now, I understand that such things as this are news-worthy, but I don't believe that we should have to share in a very private time for her family in such an explicit way. The pictures of Gloria showed a poor mother who has lost her daughter, and was absolutely heart-broken, and yet the papers show it as if it's yet another picture of Jordan getting her over-exposed chest out again.

As someone who has gone through such a loss, and has watched his family deal with their grief, I think it's absolutely disgusting to have it splashed over the tabloids like that. I think something so private should stay that way, regardless of how famous you are.

Karma (Again!)

See, exactly my point. On Wednesday I went to see Duran Duran. Good Karma.

On Wednesday, Caron Keating died. Bad Karma.

On Wednesday, I found out that Disney were bringing out a film based on Chicken Licken. Not much harm in that, you might think, but me and a couple of hugely talented friends were just about to start work on our own Chicken Licken film. I'd written the script, and they were getting all geared up to start the artwork and pre-production. Bad Karma.

Do they balance out, do you think?

The Wild Boys are Back!

When I was younger, one thing that really pissed me off was the fact that I would probably never get to see the original Duran Duran line-up performing live. After Live Aid, both Roger Taylor and Andy Taylor got fed up and left, leaving Nick Rhodes, Simon Le Bon and John Taylor. They carried along for a while, being joined by Warren Cuccurullo, who left a couple of years ago, quickly followed by John Taylor. It all seemed as if it was all over...

And then they all announced they were getting back together! They recorded a load of new songs, and played a few gigs in the USA, to huge acclaim. And this week, they started their sell-out run of shows in the UK... and I got to see them at Wembley! Hurrah!

I could bore you all by writing a full-on gig review, but I won't. I'll just say that Goldfrapp were absolutely brilliant in support, even if most of the people there didn't give a fig. Damn, that girl can sing! (BTW, I heartily recommend their Black Cherry album.)

And the boys themselves were brilliant, playing most of their big hits, some of their smaller hits and some quite fab new material. They all played their little hearts out for nearly 2 hours! All the crowd danced and sang along for nearly the whole night (especially to Notorious and Is There Something I Should Know?), and a thoroughly good time was had by all! If you have the means, I heartily recommend a visit. They rock!

So, there you go. If you're very lucky, sometimes dreams can come true! (And I heard my favourite ever song (The Reflex) played live. Karma's a good thing sometimes!

Caron Keating

I'd just like to do a quick obituary for the wonderful Caron Keating, the former Blue Peter presenter who sadly died this week. Caron Keating, you may remember, was the Irish presenter (daughter of Gloria Hunniford) who wore some very interesting clothes (I even think she once wore a rubber dress on the programme...!) and, to be honest, I had a huge crush on her. I even wrote into the programme and told her she was the best presenter since Sarah Greene(!). I got a signed photo in return, so my embarrassment wasn't in vain!

Caron died from breast cancer, which she had been battling for seven years. She leaves behind a husband and two children. We here at the KinkyMachine will miss her.