Still Hyman plays Hull

Seventy-two-year-old retired Stone Bill Wyman and his all-star band are playing Hull. OK, it's not Wembley Stadium but he's keeping good company and working. Albert Lee and Georgie Fame are on board for a 32-gig tour and old Bill is not ruling out a one-off show with his old band, should they play Glastonbury.

Of course the old pants man is doing much better than Mick Taylor.

Zep for Glastonbury? You probably care a lot more than me

Led Zeppelin (the real deal - as far as they can be with their drummer extinct) are rumoured to be reforming for Glastonbury 2010. Read the vague rumour here. People always ask what I think of Led Zep, and even if they don't I tell them that I like the idea of the band a lot more than their music.

God knows I've heard enough of the band. I used to flat with a huge Led Zep fan who played them incessantly. Which means A Lot.

I loved the Yardbirds in their various configurations and acknowledge the debt heavy metal, as a genre, owes Page and Co. Just think, no Iron Maiden without these guys. Sheesh.

But I can't stand listening to Robert Fucking Plant and his air raid siren voice. This is coming from a fan of excess - not INXS, stupid - in many of its shapes and forms. Plant's voice is like nails on a chalkboard and overblown to the point of me wanting to say: 'Shut the fuck up, you drama queen'. He's a ham and Led Zep would have been great without him. I wish a groupie had stuck a mudshark down his throat.

Don't get me started on Freddie Mercury or Jimmy Barnes.

I could have my arm twisted, I suppose

This should not pass without mention

Last Tram Home goes live

TJ Honeysuckle's I-94 Bar-affliated blog Last Tram Home is presenting shows in Melbourne. TJ is DJ'ing:

Sightlines? No problem!

Downtown Calling

It's a new film on the New York art and music scene of the '70s, narrated by Debbie Harry. Here's the synopsis:

In the late 1970s, the “greatest city in the world” was teetering on the edge of total chaos. A failed economy, crime and en mass housing corruption gave way to a city in crisis. Yet out of the economic and social strife that held the “Big Apple” hostage, a family of homegrown cultures that would forever change the world began to emerge. Downtown Calling not only documents, in detail, the evolution of New York City’s fertile music and art subculture during this period, but how its collective output continues to play a prominent, driving role in the international fashion, art and music industries today.

There's a preview here which isn't an embeddable clip. Mark the film makers down for that error in the Age of Web 2.0.

I'm not sniffing much underground music content here except for James Chance. It's probably very hip hop focused. I wonder why someone doesn't go the whole hog and document the No Wave movement. Surely there's enough in the way of amateur footage and survivors?

Iggy signs up to The Lamest Marketing Idea. Ever

Holy shit! This is the story:

The "edgy" marketing promotion for a New Zealand broadband provider seeks Kiwi "musicians" via Idol-style auditions at a bar. Their prize will be to go into a studio to re-record "The Passenger" (after a fashion) with Iggy Pop - who'll phone his vocal in via broadband.

First insurance, now broadband. He's entitled to earn a crust but is there no end to what the man will shuck? Remotely, of course, in this instance.

The promoters are putting up a bar tab of - wait for it - 500 bucks to fuel the audition process. That should go a long way - if the contest is held in a phone box.

And the brand positioning of a tightwad broadband ISP aligning with the World's Forgotten Boy is what exactly...? At least Ig won't be duetting with Jet this time out.

Bad '80s metal band goes viral

You know the headline's going to make you click this.

New photo of secret 1970 UK Stooges gig

While our 2007 posting of previously unseen 1971 Stooges photos caused a stir, we've unearthed another gem - courtesy of UK label Easy Action and Stooges Fan Club president Natalie Schlossman. Natalie found this stunning evidence of the Stooges playing a secret 1970 show at Wakefield Workingman's Club in the UK - two years PRIOR to their infamous London gig immortalised by photographer Mick Rock on the cover of "Raw Power." We now await Easy Action's CD from a tape of that Wakefield gig.

All The Old Dudes

Never been a massive fan but I can appreciate a lot of their music, so it would be bereft to mention the recent run of Mott The Hoople reunion shows in the UK, especially as I know a few Aussies who made the trek. There's a nice review here.

Why John Mayer is a bore, figuratively speaking

If soft cock rocker and alleged bluesman John Mayer uses the threat of sodomy as a media management tool, perhaps it's a clue to why he went out with someone called Jennifer Anuston.

Do you think the interview is real? Is he?