Let's make more Muses

Harvey Goldsmith has got a plea - apparently we need more Muses. As in the band, he doesn't want Pierus to be getting all busy again:

"The only kind of stadium star or arena-plus star act that has come through recently is Muse. That’s it. Both here in Britain and in America. We need more of them.

"We need to have, as I have said time and time again, new promoters with new ideas, building new acts up so they become the new superstars. Without that, within five years’ time, there will not be a business."

Harvey Goldsmith, manager of Jeff Beck, promoter since England last won the world cup, suggesting the problem is old promoters with stale ideas. Whoever would have thought?

And his big idea is to clone an already successful band. "Let's make more of these, as they're already popular" isn't the most obvious way of encouraging "new ideas" in the music industry, is it?

Still, Goldsmith's warning should make all our blood run cold. If there aren't a dozen or so Matt Bellamies wandering about by 2015, there won't be any oversized gigs in inappropriate venues where you can only 'watch' by staring over people's heads at a giant TV screen that is out of sync with when the music reaches you. No more £45-plus gig tickets, plus parking, plus two quid bottles of water because you can't bring your own in. No more tailbacks on motorways as thousands try to cram up a road to a temporary stage in a country house back garden. Do you want to live in such a world, people? Because that's what will happen. Harvey Goldsmith says so.

Hall Of Fame invites Metallica, Run DMC

The no, no, not at all pointless decision of who to induct to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame for this year has been made.

Run DMC are in. Metallica are in. Jeff Beck is already in, as a Yardbyrd, but he's going in again. Commemorative Plates are going in. Little Anthony and the Imperials, Wanda Jackson, Bill Black, D.J. Fontana and Dewey Lyndon "Spooner" Oldham are all in.

Actually one of these might be something Stephen Fry put in to Room 101. My notes are confused. That little glut of brilliant musicians who haven't made it yet are interesting - almost as if the organisers are trying to suddenly perform some sort of museum curatorship role.

The ceremony will be back in Cleveland this year - although not, obviously, at the purpose-built building built for the purpose - and comes with a dreadful threat:

With such a wide-ranging group of musicians, fans can look forward to a spectacular jam at the end of the evening.

Leave early! Leave town! Metallica and the Reverend Run together jamming.