Twittergem: Unimpressed by Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire do Bruce Spingsteen:

Watch Arcade Fire's Win Butler cover Bruce Springsteen's 'Born In The USA' at US election concert https://t.co/5nfSYUevLi pic.twitter.com/Fz9xdpiMVp

— NME (@NME) November 7, 2016

Not everyone is impressed:

@NME snore...

— graham coxon (@grahamcoxon) November 7, 2016

Singersongwriterobit: Robbin Thompson

Robbin Thompson, singer with Steel Mill (which also featured a young Bruce Springsteen), has died.

He'd been leading his own band, Mercy Flight, when Bruce approached him:

"One day, out of the blue, Bruce said, 'I'm thinking about adding another singer that can play a little guitar. Do you want to try out?'" Thompson told the Port Folio Weekly in 2008. "I went up to Jersey, spent a weekend, and the next thing I know I'm up there playing. I really never could figure out why they needed me in the band! That was the summer of 1970, and I was in it for close to a year."

He also composed the official popular state song of Virginia. This one:

Robbin Thompson was 66; he'd been struggling to continue his career while receiving treatment for cancer.

Robin Thicke attempts to rig Amazon's 'other fans of this artist might like' recommendations

Robin Thicke has decided who he should best be compared to.

Surprisingly, it's not Paul Raymond and Peter Stringfellow:

''A lot of good white soul singers, like Hall & Oates and Michael McDonald, did soul music for a while then had their pop breakthrough. That's what's happening to me.
''But I think John Lennon is blue-eyed soul. Bob Dylan is blue-eyed soul, Bruce Springsteen is blue-eyed soul.''

This was in a piece in Vanity Fair. More like a sodding carnival of vanity.

For Salon, Springsteen is the new Rolling Stones

Back when The Rolling Stones played Glastonbury, there were slew upon slew of po-faced commentary complaining that people were saying they were old, blissfully ignoring that "The Rolling Stones are old" jokes and observations are almost as old as The Stones themselves.

In fact, @stuartpenney1 dug this out from a 1973 NME:

Now, Salon's EJ Dickson is making the same basic mistake with Bruce Springsteen.

She's filed a bit about how often people tell her that they don't share her love of the Boss. They enumerate reasons:

He's old.
He sucks.
He sucks because he’s old.
He’s old because he sucks.
He sings about being a member of the working class even though he’s made millions and millions of dollars over the past 30 years
“Born in the USA” sucks.

EJ then launches into a spirited defence of his effect, which is mostly fair.

That's not the problem. The problem is the finger-pointing at who dislikes Bruce:

In my 24 years as a die-hard Bruce fan, I have had this conversation approximately eight or nine hundred thousand times. While the people on the other end tend to skew toward a specific demographic — white, male, in a creative profession, dating someone with bangs and an Egon Schiele tattoo — they come from a wide range of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, from Bushwick installation artists to a bouncer I met in Ireland, who used his loathing for “Born in the USA” as a launchpad for a diatribe against Michelle Obama and the Gregorian calendar. Yet despite their many differences, these people have two things in common: They’re all around my age (i.e., in their early to mid-20s), and they all loathe Bruce Springsteen. The iron fist of Bruce hatred has come down on millennials, and it has struck even the best and brightest of us.

Now, first of all, using the word "millennials" is, like dressing food with rosemary, seldom an acceptable thing to do in mixed company.

And I don't doubt that EJ does meet young people who struggle to take on board the whole rich/blue collar thing, or share a fundamental misunderstanding of Born In The USA.

But these aren't cavils that have been created by people born in the dying years of the 20th Century.

Thinking Born In The USA is some sort of proud American anthem dates back so far it's believed that someone walking their dog past Bruce's house when he was first writing the song heard a few lines coming through an open window and stood, saluting, like they were at a baseball match. Probably.

And the "he's rich, not working class" trope dates back long before twentysomethings were born - and here, once again, we can call the NME as evidence:

John Peel - not a man to be fazed by a bit of grey in the hair - despised Springsteen, and would often argue with Andy Kershaw about him.

Intense and unfair dislike of the man from New Jersey isn't a new thing the kids have come up with; instead - as hipsters so often do - they've just dusted down something from their parents and are claiming it as theirs.

Kasey Anderson changes his plea to guilty

The long, strange story of Kasey Anderson, the West Memphis Three benefit that wasn't and the astute music experts who dumped money into a fraud is drawing to a close, as Anderson changed his plea on wire fraud to guilty.

If you've a moment or two, read Ryan White's piece on Anderson on Oregon Live, where he attempts to unpick a tale featuring impersonation of Springsteen's manager; an unlikely Bruce-GaGa duet; a "non-kickstarter Kickstarter" and "usual rock-star confusion".

Now that's how you do a tribute...

Bruce Springsteen plays the whole of Born To Run as a tribute to James Gandolfini. The album, not the song.

I'm not sure it quite balances out an entire day of people on Twitter making weak 'his name sounds like Gandalf out the fairy tale' jokes, but it's a hell of a tribute.

Fox News see fundraiser; hear 'vote Obama'

If there's one thing we know about the Fox News Channel, they hate nothing more than something pretending to be impartial while actually being a political statement. They really, really hate that.

So it's perhaps no surprise to find Fox angrier than a child without a balloon over the NBC Sandy benefit. You or I might have seen it as a well-meaning attempt by some older pop acts to try and raise a few quid to help some people who are in quite a bad way.

But, no: It was little more than an Obama campaign advert:

"Good intention, raise some money for victims, but the timing is more than suspect," guest host Eric Bolling said. "Is this more political? Is this more, let's get this thing on TV before the election to help President Obama look more presidential? Or is it more to help out victims?"

"It does look like they're trying to squeeze it in," Steve Doocy agreed. He then noted that Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen are avowed Obama supporters (they are also New Jersey musical icons, of course).

"Where are the conservative performers?" Doocy asked. "How's NBC going to control what people say?"

"Is it a hurricane benefit or a concert for Obama?" he later said darkly. "I don't know," Bolling said.

They even dragged up Kanye West's "George Bush doesn't care about black people" remarks during the New Orleans hurricane benefit to somehow explain why they believed an event that hadn't yet taken place was going to be a Democratic pep rally.

There's something almost sad that Fox is now so broken as a rational beast that their first thought when they hear people are raising money to help others is that this stands against everything they believe in.

The other sadness is that Sting, Springsteen and Billy Joel is about as (small c) conservative a line-up as you can possibly get; that trying to suggest Billy Joel is like some cross between Che Guevara and, uh, a bloke playing pianos is so ridiculous you can't help but laugh.

"People will see a man who used to be married to a supermodel, who has a personal stash of 160million dollars, singing a song in front of a picture of a washed-out New Jersey theme park and will be tricked into voting for healthcare."

Really, Fox? If you believe that, you're more in need of an appropriate adult than Britney Spears ever was.

If you don't, you're kinda of a disgrace for pushing that sort of shit on the television to the small-but-significant audience who see the word "news" on your screen and confuse that with "truth".

This is what the news always looks like to Mitt Romney

LiveNation explains that Springsteen axe was for public safety

LiveNation has offered an explanation for why the Springsteen gig was cut short:

"It was unfortunate that the three hour plus performance by Bruce Springsteen was stopped right at the very end but the curfew is laid down by the authorities in the interest of the public's health and safety. Road closures around Hyde Park are put in place at specific times to make sure everyone can exit the area in safety."

You've got to love the "three hour plus" bit there - you can almost hear the sighing of "how much more did you want?" - but the suggestion that letting them get to the end of Twist And Shout would have meant the road safety measures would have been torn down seems a little unlikely.

Presumably the real reason would have been fines from Westminster City Council?

London shows why it's the perfect place to hold the Olympics

Obviously, there has to be some sort of compromise with gigs and noise levels. But pulling the plug on a McCartney/Springsteen hook-up in Hyde Park when it appeared to only have a minute or two left to run seems a bit extreme.

Still, the 'London pulls power on gig' cock-up story will help take some of the attention off the 'London security shambles' story for a while.

Yes, rules are rules, even for people who've sold a lot of records, but surely, if you don't feel you can let an event run past its scheduled end, you don't invite Bruce Springsteen? The man's live music overruns so badly he can't parp his car horn without it turning into a forty-minute jam.

The world could have been waking up to positive stories about the astonishing collaboration in Hyde Park last night; instead it's more knocking copy. Well done, everybody. Well done.

Saxobit: Clarence Clemons

Clarence Clemons, the E-Street saxophonist, has died.

Clemons is, perhaps, most widely known for having been asked if he'd been rehearsing real hard in order to secure a new saxophone from Santa; a stepping into the titular spotlight moment from his forty years playing sax for Springsteen. It's clear, though, that Springsteen's sound would have very different without Clemons - it's arguable that Clarence's saxophone was the breezy counterpoint which kept the darker side of Bruce in check. At least for long enough to satisfy radio programmers and the sort of people who buy Top 40 singles.

Springsteen was the amongst the first to post condolences:

It is with overwhelming sadness that we inform our friends and fans that at 7:00 tonight, Saturday, June 18, our beloved friend and bandmate, Clarence Clemons passed away. The cause was complications from his stroke of last Sunday, June 12th.

Bruce Springsteen said of Clarence: Clarence lived a wonderful life. He carried within him a love of people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage. His loss is immeasurable and we are honored and thankful to have known him and had the opportunity to stand beside him for nearly forty years. He was my great friend, my partner, and with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and in our band.

Given how often it appeared on tv at the time - I suspect mainly on programmes where Jonathan King was involved - I was surprised on checking to discover that Clemons' duet with Jackson Browne, You're A Friend Of Mine, never made it into the UK charts.

Clarence Clemons & Jackson Browne - You by jpdc11
Clemons worked more recently with Lady GaGa; he also had a small but lucrative side career as an actor. While his musical work started out at the gritty end and ended up in GaGa pop, his acting went in the opposite direction - he kicked off with a role in sugary Diff'rent Strokes, and worked his way towards a bit in The Wire.

Clemons was hospitalised last week after a stroke; he died yesterday in Florida. He was 69.

Adam Ant hits the comeback trail. Comeback trail hits back, harder.

There is little to add to this email from Scary Boots than the sound of scrabbling around on the floor attempting to find my dropped jaw:

Last night I was at Stay Beautiful, a glittery rock and roll club night thing at the purple turtle where they usually have bands like 'An experiment on a bird in the air pump'. Last night they had a godawful tranny-riot girl act. But that is not the point. The point is Adam Ant was supporting. And it was awful.

To start with, it was OK. He's faintly ludicrous in the same way as all older guys who refuse to accept that people are not as interested in their chests as once they were. (Moobs. At least an A-cup, if I'm any judge). It hit a low when he started rubbing strongbow all over himself. The poor girl's Dita, perhaps. But it ended.

And then, after 'Lady Noise' - fantastic outfits, shame about the music and the lyrics - he came back on again. And announced he was going to perform a song he'd been working on for a while. 'It was originally by Bruce Springsteen', he said, 'But I've changed it and made it my own.'

The change? He sang 'Born in the Uuuuuu K' instead of the USA. That was it. And interjected occasionally with 'This is for Sophie Lancaster. Beaten to death for being a punk rocker.' 'Every time I click my fingers a punk rocker dies.' 'Next time it could be you!' Click. Click. "Born in the Uuuuuu K!" Insightful social commentary (although where does he find punk rockers these days?).

It's bad enough being beaten to death by thugs without having hideous songs caterwauled in dedication to you.

I'm not sure my description fully encapsulates how fucking awful it was. With any luck, someone was filming.

Anyway. Thought you might care. All my friends who were there were overwhelmed by seeing 'the real adam ant!!!'. And did not know the original Springsteen.

It's awful and heartbreaking in equal measures - the murder of Sophie Lancaster was a terrible thing, but you'd think Adam could at least get the subculture she belonged to right. Or might have thought a little better of clumsily adapting a song about Vietnam veterans as a misguided tribute.

There is some video footage available - not the Springsteen, unfortunately, but... well, here's a idea of what we missed:

Bruce takes name off bar tab

Here's a funny story - that's not funny-ha-ha, it's more funny-is-that-a-dead-raccoon-because-something-sure-is-stinking.

Yesterday, ASCAP, Bruce Springsteen and Clinton Ballard, Jr. filed a lawsuit against a bar in New York after a band played three Bruce songs without a licence.

Today, it turns out, Springsteen's name was put on the lawsuit with neither his approval nor knowledge:

"In regards to the ASCAP lawsuit against Connolly's Pub and Restaurant, ASCAP was solely responsible for naming Bruce Springsteen as a plaintiff in the lawsuit," Springsteen's representatives said in a statement on Thursday. "Bruce Springsteen had no knowledge of this lawsuit, was not asked if he would participate as a named plaintiff and would not have agreed to do so if he had been asked. Upon learning of this lawsuit this morning, Bruce Springsteen's representatives demanded the immediate removal of his name from the lawsuit."

I'm no moral relativist - oh, alright, I am - but isn't 'playing a couple of songs without the paperwork' less of an evil than 'stealing someone's name to bolster a lawsuit against someone who played a couple of songs without paperwork'?

Isn't this stealing Springsteen's identity? Isn't that worse than borrowing a couple of songs which didn't cost him anything?

Bruce Springsteen forgets where he is

If your act involves shouting "hello [place where you happen to be]", you'd have thought that by now - with so many people slipping up and looking a bit silly - any star would double check his location and make sure he had it written at the top of the set list.

Not the Boss, apparently. How many times during his gig in Michigan did he shout out to the good people of Ohio?

Too many. Eventually, Steve Van Zandt whispered into Bruce's ear to put him right. That must have been awkward, being on stage, wondering if you should correct the boss (The Boss), or if that would be embarrassing, or if it'd be worse if he got off stage and found out what he'd done and asked why you didn't stop him, or...

Make it easy, Bruce: stick to playing New Jersey.

Glastonbury 2009: Bruce costs Eavis

6Music news has just reported that the over-run of the Springsteen set has landed Glastonbury with a £3000 fine, which Michael Eavis is going to pay out of his own farmer's pocket.

Glastonbury 2009: View from the sofa - Bruce Springsteen

So, as is so often the case, you shouldn't believe anything you read on the internet: BBC 2 has got Bruce.

It's not clear, though, if the steam rising from the man who likes to be called The Boss a little too much is a snazzy, showman's special effect, or if it is just the sweat of hard work leaving his shoulders. Or perhaps his pants are on fire.

We must await the results in the morning.

But, oh, I don't think I've ever heard such an anaemic Born To Run.

Glastonbury 2009: View from the sofa - Saturday night

The simplicity of Esser vocals don't really stand up to not being able to hear the music properly, like being perpetually in the position of a busy room falling quiet just as you say "... and so I had to hit him with the shovel", but, oh, you could eat Esser with a spoon. Of course, it was all shoved away in a corner of Press Red, but it makes it all feel a bit more special.

Florence And The Machine used to be hidden away, too, but look at this, this year - a 6Music pick, no less. Pity the set sounded a bit ropey and overwhelmed, and only really came alive with a Candi Staton cover at the end.

It's turned out to be impossible to avoid both Reggie Yates and Kasabian, so I finally wound up having to watch Reggie get Cerys Matthews in to keep him company in the hovering sky-studio. Matthews put her shoes on the table, which can cause bad luck, but I guess she figured that being interviewed by Reggie is probably one of those situations from which there is no down. Matthews, somewhat oddly, appeared to be wearing exactly the same blazer-and-no-trousers outfit that Edith Bowman was wearing on Friday evening. One presenter at a time is frugal, BBC, but making them share clothes is just going too far. Will Mark Radcliffe be waiting for Zane Lowe to finish with the trousers before he can go on to BBC2?

If, by the way, Mark Radcliffe seemed genuinely bemused by the idea of going on to do a programme without any Neil Young in, tonight he's going to be totally Jack Wooleyed, as it appears the BBC won't be able to show any of Bruce Springsteen's headline set at all.

Bruce Springsteen: Man of the people

Springsteen, of course, has made his career out of his blue collar, man-of-the-people image. It's been picked at in the past - older readers will recall the NME's story about how he treated his staff and his canoe - but who would have thought Bruce would withhold the good tickets from the ordinary folk of New Jersey?

But an examination of ticket sale data from the May 21 concert shows Springsteen himself may be part of the problem. The best seats in the house that night were the 1,126 seats in the four sections closest to the stage, but only 108 of those tickets were ever for sale to the public, according to new ticket data obtained through the Open Public Records Act.

It's not only shitty to keep all the good seats for your chums, but it's actually against New Jersey law to keep back more than 5%.

This gig was the one where Ticketmaster had problems with their computers when the tickets went on sale.

Springsteen's manager Jon Landau has responded that this new story about Springsteen keeping tickets back is little more than Ticketmaster trying to shift back blame for that failure, somehow:

Yes, we do hold significant numbers of tickets when we play New Jersey, New York and Los Angeles, as does every arena headliner. These holds are used by Bruce, his band members, and longtime members of his extended organization, their families and close relations; by the record label for their staff, for reviewers, and for radio stations; by charities who are provided with tickets for fund raising purposes, such as special auctions; for service people who help us on a year-round basis; and for other similar purposes. Unlike some Ticketmaster managed artists, no tickets are held for high dollar resale on TicketsNow, or through any other means.

Where are the Bruce holds? The 2,000 to 3,500 tickets closest to the stage are on the floor and more than 95% of them go to the public, making the basic premise of the Star Ledger headline inaccurate. Secondly, with regard to seats held in the best sections on either side, we always blend guest seats with fan seats so that there are never any sections consisting entirely of guest seats.

In addition, it is well known that we sometimes release a significant number of excellent tickets on the day of the show at the box office, which can only be bought with direct entrance to the venue. It's known as the "drop." Many think that is done on purpose to help combat the scalpers who prey on fans at the last minute. That is a good thought.

I'm sure Landau hasn't deliberately written the piece to sound as opaque as possible, but it doesn't really explain exactly what number of ticket holds there are: is it 5% of the 2,000 to 3,500? Or are all of those holds, but 95% find their way through promotions of some sort to the "public"?

And isn't the question of if guests sit in a single block, or with some paying punters between them, something of a red herring when the question is over numbers?

Most irritatingly, what's that last two sentences about? If you're doing it to beat the scalpers, then say so. If you're not, don't try an "aaah!" to make people think that you are.

Perhaps it's not Landau's fault that his riposte is written in such a way as to obscure the facts. But the allegations against him in the New Jersey Star-Ledger are simple to follow; you would have thought that it would equally simple to disprove them.

The Boss on the farm

So, that's who's this year's super-secret-surprise for Glastonbury: It's Jay-Z again.

Alright, it's not.

In one of those about-faces we've come to expect from Worthy Farm, last year's plan of bringing in younger, edgier acts to attract back the teenagers has been abandoned as this year Bruce Springsteen is headlining Saturday.

The Eavises, though, are excited:

"He's one of the all-time rock legends and I'm confident that this will be one of our best shows ever," festival founder Michael Eavis said.

... and even if it isn't, we'll still issue releases saying that it was.

Co-organiser Emily Eavis said: "I'm knocked out that we've managed to get Bruce to play. It's the icing on the cake of this year's bill, which I'm sure will take everyone's breath away when we announce the full details."

"...it might put the cat amongst the pigeons, but we thought you only live once, and as this is the first day of the rest of our lives, we ran the idea up the flagpole..."

The world is now waiting to see if Noel Gallagher will approve or disapprove.

Bruce red-faced with Ticketmaster

So, not only did Ticketmaster's magnificent system fail (in everyone bar Ticketmaster's eyes) by not allowing people to buy tickets for Springsteen's US tour.

It seems the clunky organisation not only managed to send people 'page unavailable' messages. Oh, no. it found a way to add money-grubbing insult to poor-service injury:

Countless fans reported technical malfunctions during the onsale, while others complained that Ticketmaster forwarded them to the company’s secondary ticket site, TicketsNow, even though seats were still available through Ticketmaster.

This is what happens when a company is allowed to tout its own products as well, I guess.

The New Jersey Attorney General is going to have an investigation into the mess (which might seem to be a little extreme) and Ticketmaster have apologised to Springsteen, in the face of an official anger-spike from Bruce's people:

“Last Monday, we were informed that Ticketmaster was redirecting your log-in requests for tickets at face value, to their secondary site TicketsNow, which specializes in up-selling tickets at above face value. They did this even when other seats remained available at face value. We condemn this practice,” Springsteen and his tour team said in a letter posted on Bruce’s official site. “We have asked this redirection from Ticketmaster to TicketsNow cease and desist immediately and Ticketmaster has agreed to do so in the future and has removed its unwanted material from their and our site.”

Let's just look at the apology in full:

An Open Letter of Apology to Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau and the entire Springsteen Tour Team:

While we were genuinely trying to do the right thing for fans in providing more choices when the tickets they requested from the primary on-sale were not available, we clearly missed the mark. Fans are confused and angry, which is the opposite of what we hoped to accomplish. We sincerely apologize to Bruce, his organization and, above all, his fans.

We recognize that we need to change our course. We have committed to Bruce and state publicly here that we have taken down all links for Bruce’s shows directing fans from Ticketmaster to TicketsNow. This redirection only occurred as a choice when we could not satisfy fans’ specific search request for primary ticket inventory, but to make sure there is no misunderstanding in the future, we also publicly state that we will never again link to TicketsNow in a manner that can possibly create any confusion during a high-demand on-sale. Specifically, we will not present an option to go to TicketsNow from Ticketmaster without the consent of the artist and the venue, both of whom work together to bring the joy of live entertainment to millions of fans.

If any fans inadvertently purchased tickets in the resale marketplace believing in error they were purchasing from the initial on-sale, we will refund the difference between the actual purchase price and the face price of the ticket. (Please don’t abuse this good faith gesture - we did not give brokers any preferential access to tickets.)

We are committed to helping deliver the most transparent and best live entertainment experience to fans. We will do better going forward.

Sincerely,

Irving Azoff, CEO, Ticketmaster Entertainment

Heartfelt. Touching. Craven. One question, though, Mr. Azoff. You've apologised to Springsteen, and his tour team. How about - it's just a thought - saying sorry to the people who pay your wages? You remember the customers? How about saying sorry to them.

It probably says it all that - while belatedly trying to make ammends - even then, Azoff concludes that you can't really trust the public. "Please don't abuse this good faith gesture" indeed. From a company which has trashed the faith placed in it by Springsteen and his fans, they might want to be a little less swift to talk about their good faith.