GLASTONBURYOFTHEMIND

Claudia Lennear, the Ikette who was reputedly the inspiration behind Brown Sugar - that outrageous song combining slavery and cunnilingus - has been rescued from the Warner vaults and had her version of Allen Toussaint’s Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky (from Now On) and put on the astonishing Warners What It Is Funk Soul And Rare Grooves 1967 - 1977 4CD collection.. Claudia has a part in Michael Cimino’s Clint Eastwood starring Thunderbolt And Lightfoot and the track recorded by producer Ian Samwell (now is this the ex Yardbird that produced Cat Stevens or The British rocker what wrote Cliff Richard’s Move It ?) was on her 1973 album Phew! What a scorcher. (to be said in an Alan Partridge voice)

Spoke with Matt Bellamy of Muse on the phone, from his Italian Lake Como Retreat yesterday - always a pleasure to talk to Matt. Not least because you can be sure you are speaking to someone at least as paranoid as you are. But I have seen enough this week to know that there’s a big fightback taking place amongst the free thinking and open minded denizens of the music loving populace. Big enough to allay the concern Matt expressed about the boy band plague. ITEM ONE Seth Lakeman at The Scala Tuesday 17th October Seth’s the real real deal, his family musical roots exemplified by presence of the dapper bruv, rhythm guitarist and musical director, Sean in his band. The percussive force of Seth’s crew is something to behold. I mean if you’re thinking folk is all smooth and yodelling and whatever think again. Seth’s footstomping fiddle style is the kick in the engine room, parlayed and excitated by the brilliant Cormac (a grinning Irish wizard on a head scratching but musically abundant selection of percussion instruments from around the world) and the redoubtable Ben Nicholls on stand up bass. Ben is such a giant of a musician - figuratively and actually - just built in to the bass like a Mingus man and christ when these guys all four of them let loose and really go for it I swear on my vinyl copy of Modern Times that they be sounding like a supersonic yawling and intensified Led Zeppelin. Among many other things. It always feels good to shake a real musicians paw ..I grabbed Allen Toussaint’s palm in a hotel lobby in New Orleans earlier this year and , I swear, I could feel gold and the colours of a rainbow surge up my arm (shaking the hand of Glen Campbell’s drummer when he played the Palladium some years ago ,on the other hand, was like a dead goldfish). So it was great to shake Ben’s big meaty paw, I got a feeling of reassurance and substance - the sort you get through the music. ITEM TWO Jamie T at The Barfly Wednesday 18th October First things first. Attending this dump makes me long for the soon come days of smoke free London gigs. But it does have the astonishing instrument shop Rays alongside (with this on their doorstep how come the Britpop masseive aint been tempted to incorporate some interesting bells, flutes and whistles, or even stringed Vietnammese instruments into their mix? Anyways JT - a skinny streak of nothing with 3 singles and a a harder edged male Lily Allen tag behind him - made it bearable. He usually plays solo but his band must be the most Clash alike mothers on the block. And he has the spit style rap mixed with that gnarled and barking Strummer heart song down to a (Jamie) T!! Very excitating and, as with the Seth gig, all the evidence of a happening scene in attendance. Then just as The Clash comparisons were a racing through my head the fella went an dropped a quote from Complete Control into the mix! God bless his grinning, spotty face. Billy Bragg is the link factor tween these two (JT does a New England cover, Seth is duetting with the Barking Bard soonish) but Bragg was inspired by the Clash and in the week that Chris Salewicz’s Redemption Song was launched I sure got the feeling that with these two show something OF Strummer’s spirit was alive and out there. That is to say - the bastards didn’t win. And its not over yet.

What does it profit a man’s soul to engage in a charity record ? Not much if The U2/Green Day Saints Are Coming hook up and Strummerville (various Indie types including LIbs Reunited Mystery Jets Guillemots etc) version of Janie Jones is anything to go by. But if its a good cause people tend to hold their nose and put in the ear plugs and smile sweetly. Remember the dreadful DO They Know Its Christmas remake? People saying it wasn’t a patch on the original. Yeah, like the original was on anyone’s top tunes list. Far more soul enriching to do like Bruce Springsteen . Keep the best track on your (repackaged album) until the day before you play the first New Orleans jazz festival after Katrina. DRop the recording - a rewritten version of How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live - free on the internet the day before the show. And, Christ, what a show. Tears all around and that song as reconfigured by Bruce - its the sound of a fightback, of spitting in the face of the shameful elite who use New Orleans as a playground, but leave its people to die and fester when they need help. I doubt I’ll see a more impassioned and moving show than Springsteen’s at Jazz Fest for a looooong time. It had depth and meaning, it strengthened the soul. That is something better than charity So a question - the greatest charity record of all time? Any suggestions?

BBC1 Thursday October 19th 2006 8.55 am Is it the height of the surreal to wake up to this ? Spike Milligan’s widow is on breakfast TV promoting a new book based on Spike’s secret Box 18. Cue for an archive clip. Spike is at the News desk in a Friends of the Earth T shirt. Two figures behind him, either side, one in a Lions Head mask they are singing Land Of Hope And Glory. Is this what Spike and pal Prince Charles had cooked up together in the event of a takeover by the truly absurd? Where tree huggers of the UK unite and take over ? In front of Spike is an apple and there is a hole in his desk alongside. “Many people in the world today are facing hunger,” he says. A hand comes through the hole and goes for the apple, as he does so. Quick, as a Democracy bringing Ordinance dropping Ally bombing raid, Spike picks up a mallet and smashes the hand. Comedy as a prophetic symbol of the blithely hypocrital! 9.16 Same channel Property Programme with very annoying bald Cockney geezer focusses on students looking for “a pad” in the big smoke , the instrumental opening from London Calling as background music. The song had a prophetic undercurrent but Strummer/Jones could never have forseen this. A small mercy the programme makers - and this viewer - switch off before the vocal line kicks in.

With the gloves off in the divorce of the season - the media cant beleeeeive its luck - it seems that Sir Paul always had regard for tough independently minded women, capable of playing dirty when required. Before Heather Mills divorce bombshell arrived on his doorstep its fair to assume that few things vexed Paul McCartney more than the state of the business end of his publishing empire - ie ownership of The Beatles classic canon residing in the hands of others. It wasn’t really until the 60s dust cloud had cleared that Paul and the by now estranged John Lennon realised exactly what sort of mess the publishing contracts they had signed had left them in. Though apart both Lennon and McCartney were still yoked to their Northern Song contract. Both now took to composing with their respective partners, Yoko and Linda. This not only gave them the benefit of new creative input but also insured that half the royalties to new songs did not go to Northern Songs. But publishers , like insurer loss adjusters, dont accept things on face value, particularly when large sums are at stake. When the first Paul and Linda joint composition Another Day (as in composed under the influence of “a joint”, perhaps?) went to number one in 1971, Lew Grade, the ATV Chairman who owned Northern Songs, filed suit alleging that the Lovely Linda was not, in fact, a genuine songwriting collaborator. We are into surreal territory here and it is to do with the inanity of songwriting law and copy right. So there’s money involved if Linda can are can’t be said to have written the song. But surely the fact is that putting up with this piece of chap. Being his sainted other , housemate, long suffering, or not, etc Surely Linda was an ENABLER. As vital to Paul’s upkeep as eggs spam and the rest of a mam. Anyway…. Jack Gill The ATV Financial director once boasted that buying Northern Songs, from Dick James, took only 5 minutes. As ATV prepared to take the matter to court Gill attempted to explain to Linda that the company had no knowledge of her as a writer . The lovely Linda’s response was to spit in his face, according to the story printed on Page 98 of Northern Songs : The True Story Of The Beatles Song Publishing Empire By Brian Southall and Rupert Perry (Omnibus Press 2006 £19.95). “if you knew Jack Gill you would be shocked - because there was no finer gentleman than Jack, ” says former ATV man Sam Trust. Sam Trust ! What a name for someone in the cut throat world of song publishing.

According to today’s Sun The governing body of the British Record Industry BPI is seeking to get a legal judgement against the Russian website allofmp3.com The good news is that they aren’t seeking to prosecute British users to the site. Maybe they’ve learned their lesson - kids today have no respect or love for an industry that remarkets itself to death. That overprices its product and regards all consumers - and critics - as potential criminals. Surely everyone knows that the technology has eaten its own tail. That ease of replication and duplication - alongside the obvious cheapening of the the medium (cd jewel case - disposable; 12 inch vinyl ALBUM - something to have, cherish etc) - means the days of record companies, the very idea of companies based on recording is kinda fucked. Becausse. Modern recording equipment in the digital medium is (relatively) cheaply available to all. Access (if not forcing down the throat with the sound of the stick that stirs the sick bucket) can be gained via the interweb. The ludicrous expense that goes on making an album by, say, The Killers or Red Hot Chili Peppers (onsite catering, cars, itall adds up) will increasingly cause heads to be scratched and people to wonder - whydafuckamibeingaskedtopayforthesushichefandtheexecutivemassagewhenicandownloaditfornearlyfreefromtheruskies? And you can get the same quality on home based digital equipment. In this new world of increasing eco concern there is no excuse for the hideous waste of a record industry that ferries journalists over town to hear albums they want to insure aren’t out and about - being downloaded, discussed, enjoyed, or, more likely, dismissed - before they hit the streets. When of course they will be downloaded, discussed and enjoyed or dismissed. I mean who will replace the carbon footprints of the record industry, even as they find ever more crafty tax havens while telling us to, ahem, Make Poverty History? But what will happen to the music we love, you say. How will we get paid, you say. What’s going to happen to us all. Well I dont know but… Last night I saw Seth Lakemen reeking wonderful violence on a fiddle that was owned by his grandmother. The crowd in Scala - packed in, ebullient and warmly responsive - underlined that Seth’s new folk groove AND his terrific band (one of the best in the lad - wot a rithrum section!!) are a happening thing. Like The Feeling’s chart topping 12 Stops And Home ( made for no reason other than for the band to please themselves) Seth’s album was made in his home. Now he’s on a mainstream label getting his music supported and out and about. But the music wasn’t made by and it certainly wasn’t handed down from record companies. Seth’s granny - or his musical journo dad Geoffrey - didnt stop making music or start making music because of a record company. They did it because it was in the blood. New technology has been the trojan horse of the industry, providing portals to many minstrels. At Abbey Road David Munyon has made one of the albums of the year Song For Danko, without record company fuinding. Via Myspace Dean Johnson is putting out Black Arts one of the many great albums he’s been involved with (some of which he distributed FOR FREE) With any justice Stewart Francke’s weblink to Safely Home will prove to be the Christmas sleeper hit of the year Earlier this year on the streets of post Katrina New Orleans Red Dog Randy Cohen was belting out the realest rowdiest deep electric blues Elephant Shelf, Emily Barker and, perhaps best of all, The Surfing Brides are tearing up stages, websites all over London. Albums like Razorlight, Sam’s Town, Ta-Dah, Eyes Open are grossly overpriced. The allofmp3 prices are just levelling the playing field, the musical stories of this or any other year aren’t necessarily the ones that have advertising campaigns and blanket press coverage. We must always find a way to reward the minstrels. Maybe the record industry’s way - massive tax bills, on the scrapheap when the juice runs out, hyped up to the point of endless rehab and drug crises, visits to the funny farm, egotistical extravagances, ingrained and encouraged, long standing personality problems - has run its course. But music survived for thousands of years with a record industry, its demise might do a few pampered people out of a job. But the music wont die. But then, a quick perusal of this week’s marketing priorities (The Ordinary Boys?) shows that music is the least of the music industry’s worries.

Tuesday 10th October 2006 12.50pm - 2pm Camden Town Inverness Street Market Before buying bananas and grapes at the fruit stall Amy’s press officer Shane tells me about this morning’s Independent feature on Paisley. He’s meeting priests, a prelude to the inevitable accord with Sinn Fein. In deference to the Rev Doc’s past the Indie had drawn up some of his past hits at the “painted harlot of Rome”. I say it seems surreal - all these years after marching his men up to the top of the hill and back down again,, of thumping the table on another local TV report, of castigating the very whiff of the “devil’s buttermilk”, of saying no, of just being there - gigantic,monolithic, blocking the sun, unmoveable - that Paisley - and Adams - and all the others are still there on the brink of power. How many Prime Ministers has Paisley outlasted and outlived? How scary is he and his bearded opposite? Like something from a horror tale, unstoppable, eternally yours. In Ulster everything changes; everything remains the same. In the Good Mixer, legendary nicotine smoke saturated birthplace of Britpop - allegedly - we wait …and wait…for Amy to arrive. When she turns up Amy tells me several things that won’t, because of space more than anything, end up in the finished article, - Daily Mirror, The Ticket, 20th October London and selected regions. The last tattoo Amy got was an anchor accompanied with the words “hello sailor” on her stomach. She has 12 tattoos in total, she doesn’t beleive in regret. The incident that inspired You Know I’m No Good, the second track on her new album Back To Black, went something like this. She was upstairs one morning in bed with her ex. She couldn’t come and she was thinking ” this hurts and its boring”. Then her downstairs buzzer went, it was an old flame. She ran downstairs and ended up crying in his arms. Amy and her current boyfriend were recently asked to leave a cinema because they were canoodling a little too enthusiastically. She thinks that Lily Allen will do well in the states but that she herself has a lot more to prove in the UK before conquering the land of the rich and the free. Her single Rehab came about when she was walking the New York streets with producer Mark (son of late Spider From Mars guitarist Mick Ronson) and started singing the riff. He said ‘who’s that by?’ she said it was something she’d just made up. They hot footed it back to the studio and one of the year’s greatest singles was born. She doesn’t like to sing for more than one or two takes - though Ronson sometimes bribes her with the offer of a drink, or a ciggy if she does one more take. She had a joint the other night - a much rarer occasion now than previously. But when she smoked it her personality is such that she began punding, ie obsessively tidying up the house of the friend where she was. The mobile phone sat out on the table in front of her throughout the interview looked like it had been chewed at the edges and been through several world wars. She woke up and cried one morning recently because she lost her little dog. Her mum is a Pharmacist. Maybe the Fall could do a cross gender remake of their remake - Mrs Pharmacist. She wants to do a future photo session in the revamped Ronnie Scotts. “With the band sitting at the tables, looking bored, will you remind me Shane?” she called over to the press officer. Amy’s a delightfully off message popstar, directly after the interview she goes to Charlotte Church Show were her alcohol fuelled performance causes some concern in The Mirror’s 3AM. Despite her protestations on her single is Amy - young, talented, volatile - destined for a spell in Rehab ? Setting herself up ? Hopefully she has the strength of character and the support of pals (there was one “tasty” looking geezer looking on as I spoke to her with a certain, uhhm, protective concern) to pull through. She’s such a sweet gal, who’d ever want to see her live her life as a car crash? Wednesday 11th October 8.30 - 12.30 Koko, Camden Town London. Thirty odd hours later, a short walk, from Mornington Crescent and just past Camden tube,several years, one Britpop career (retired), 2 lovely children, a spell in rehab a spell in Nashville, a phonecall of encouragement from Bob Dylan, generic musical preferences and her Welsh birthright are just some of the things that separate Cerys Matthews from Amy Winehouse. But they have far more in common. Going to Koko is always a trip back in time to me. It was The Music Machine when I first used to go there in the summer of 78 (or was it 79?). We were over from Norn Ireland squatting in South London, Edgeley Road, Clapham with Rudi (Belfast Good Vibrations signed Punk legends who later had a spell with Paul Weller’s Jamming label). This was the place - free to go to on Monday night. There was a disco, a PUNK disco (which even then was getting a little boring, a little regimented, a little where’s my Bee Gees, Taste Of Homey and Yooooou Make Me Feel Miiighty Real ?). It was the dreg ends of a scene. Topper Headon was around often - a testimony to the hard drug scene that was thereabouts. I remember being shocked to hear that a member of The Clash was into heroin! The venue had been through a name change or two since then (I saw Prince play here for hours and hours after his Parade show at Wembley - when it was called The Camden Palace) but the elaborate interiors, the sodden concrete steps behind the stage leading to dressing room, remain the same. Indeed the somewhat disconcerting aspect of being there was noting how the framed pillars, the melange of Grecian and retro grandeur with the nyphs, cherubs and such like, corresponded to the definition of Totalitarian Architecture as outlined by Jonathan Meades in his Stalin documentary. But Uncle Joe never went in for such a big dazzling Mirror Ball and never had Cerys - a winning combination of her deep in the blood folk ballad roots, crosspatterned with her Catatonia nurtured theatriclaity and new found Nashville Juice - as a house musician. With her life in a mid Atlantic flux Cerys Matthews act and music is similarly hard to pin down. That is of course its charm and, for a record business looking to box things off, to sell to a particular demographic, she must be a puzzle. The audience at Koko was certainly appreciative but in a very studious, stand offishway. A reasonable crowd lined the balconies, stood on the floor but a reverence pervaded. I felt if I hadda whooped and hollered I’d be castigated as too out of control by those gathered round about me. For foxs sake ! Its Cerys Britpop Lioness Survivor Jiver - with all her lung power and love power intact We should be swinging it out in her honour, shouting it high and loud and proud. Yet something about the place - the big hollow high space tween stage and the roof - dwarfed her, allowed thesound to float up to the rafters, losing impact when it came back downto us on the floor. If she was to move into a territory somewhat akin to Nick Cave, Polly Harvey, Tom Waits Cerys could do this show in a small theatre, go for musical tightness rather than looseness, and it might make more “sense”. BUT the good thing about Cerys show and why its possible to connect with it is that its an honest representation of her, who she is - and where she’s been. You can see that backstage as she relaxes with a glass of wine and her two kids. Johnny Jones is still - but obviously not for long - a baby and already a little of the performing gene is evident in his nature. In her lime Green patchwork quilt dress daughter Glenys Pearl has already begun writing songs, at least planning them out in her head. And Cerys and her hubbie Seth? They returned to live in the UK a few months ago. Directly after the show Cerys was going on the ferry to Dublin (where, I’d wager, a more vibrant reception greeted her). When the tour is finished she and Seth take a holiday - without the kids. Then she thinks they’ll move back to Nashville. First time I saw Cerys she was up a very tall lampost, round the corner of my house, being filmed for a video on a winter day that would would have frozen the knackers off a brass monkey. Next time I saw her was at a meet n greet backstage at The Palladium for Glen Campbell. She was with the then leader of Joe Strummer’s Mescaleroes Anthony Genn, as is now revealed in Salewicz’s Redemption Song, Genn was at the time a big junkie. I hadnt seen Genn since the Mesclaeroes days until quite recently. Once when I was being shunted around Polydor Records, to avoid the Snow Patrol press officer mentioned in a previous post, while listening to a playback of The Scissor Sisters second album. He was in there with Rough Trade management team Geoff Travis and Jeanette lee hammering out a deal. Then I saw him when I was interviewing Badly Drawn Boy in The Groucho Club, an ole Strummer haunt. And now there’s Cerys happy and free doing her own thing, still managed, like Genn, by Rough Trade. Amy Winehouse wants to have children after two more albums. In a way Cerys could be a good role model for her,wonder if the time and the short distance between them had been separated and they had met would cerys be able to say anything to assist or enlighten amy. When young ladies are out and up and attem like Amy is - and Cerys no doubt once was - its easy to shrug and say - still hasn’t found what she’s looking for? Well maybe its the looking that that those girls are looking for. They ain’t hurting nobody, leading no people into the blackness, not blocking out the sun. Minstrel angels just a-singing their song, doing the do, dodging and dancing in the mad glare of the media light. That they are still standing, still defining their world in song, is a wonder, really, to behold.

Source - concert attendance analysis on Bob Lefsetz excellent email list (google it, Bob’s singular style matches his singular name) A month ago KT Tunstall sold out her show at the Meridian - Houston, TX. Around the same date the Black Eyed Peas/Rihanna tour could only half fill Charter One Pavilion - Chicago. A week later ARC Pavilion - Davis, CA The Strokes, Muse, The Like could only muster a slightly over half full house. The kt show was in a 985 capacity venue, Black Eyed Peas Charter One venue holds over 8,445 and Strokes Arc Pavilion Joint 6,284. But here’s the rub - tickets for the Strokes gig $35. Tickets for The Peas were $45, for kt $15. Who is the longterm -rather than the lets make a quick buck before the bottom falls out of our market - winner here? Parting with over double the money kt’s ticket buyers forked out the Peas and Strokes fans get to sample their music in a half empty atmosphereless surrounding. The lights, the sweat, the flash and the staging seem a little excessive in such surrounds. You might try to drown out your collective embarassment through alcohol, nembutal or sheer gall but the diminishing returns of the Where Is The Love phenomenom and the hot to trot new punks on the block spell would be felt a little too keenly. The kt audience on the other hand got to experience a closeness, a heat, a real musician in the throes of what she does - and has been doing, long before 700,000 sales in the USA was even a distant dream. The Scottish lassie - providing good value and intimacy insures more love and possibilities next time she hits Chicago. But how many will turn up to salute The Peas and The Strokes next time round? Or will that audience simply move on to the next similarly under the media spotlight new bloods? I don’t know if kt’s attitude to booking and pricing her live shows is in anyway connected to The Glasgow School Of Moral Philosophy, a 19th century creed surely deserving of reappraisal in our modern era. But I do know this - short term boom and bust economics are no guarantee of musical success.

London 2.45am Tuesday 17th October Just been from west to east, home from the book launch for Redemption Song at the Inn on The Green in Ladbroke Grove. I get this email Hi, > Just wanted to say how nice it was to see you and J tonight, I > got off relatively early (Trains and such stuff) but I did manage to > speak to Bernie Rhodes, he even autographed my book, in a typically > surly but entertaining way  - ‘1977 -2007 DO SOMETHING INTERESTING! > DO SOMETHING GOOD BR’.> Anyway, The Clash thing got me all emotional, > Best > B I form a reply I ended up in The Globe with Bernie, tell him you like the Beatles and he gets quite incandescent! The Globe, by the way, is the greatest unused art gallery in Britain - a really special and unique slice of living Black Culture. These people who saw off fascists. From real good stock. The illustrations on the wall, the photo display of the owner’s time as an actor? Culled from 50s Movie mags? Interspersed with Ethiopic jah Rastafari thick gloss paint. With colours of green red gold to light the soul? Extraordinary, I’d say. The images have more than enough to intrigue please, tease and illuminate many interests and sensibilities. I told the owner he could and should open the club during the day as an art gallery. Lord, if they can charge £18 to look around the Art Freize thing in Regents Park, then a fiver a shot for the Globe Guided Tour must be worth a punt!!! Bernie signed my copy of the book in exactly the same way as yourn! I asked him if he came up with the song title London’s Burning. But he wouldnt answer.

As a pal of David Bowie Ricky Gervais has undoubtedly been introduced to the idea that copyright is a finite concept. Still, there is time to make hay while the sun shines. Click the small print on Ricky’s official website and these points pop up > Intellectual Property > > 8. The names, images and logos identifying Plumplard and Ricky Gervais > or third parties and their products and services are subject to > copyright, design rights and trade marks of Plumplard and Ricky > Gervais and/or third parties. Nothing contained in these terms shall > be construed as conferring by implication, estoppel or otherwise any > licence or right to use any trademark, patent, design right or > copyright of Ricky Gervais or any other third party. > > Contributions to rickygervais.com > > 9. Where you are invited to submit any contribution to > rickygervais.com (including any text, photographs, graphics, video or > audio) you agree, by submitting your contribution, to grant the Ricky > Gervais a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sub-licenseable > right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, > translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, play, > make available to the public, and exercise all copyright and publicity > rights with respect to your contribution worldwide and/or to > incorporate your contribution in other works in any media now known or > later developed for the full term of any rights that may exist in your > contribution, and in accordance with privacy restrictions set out in > the rickygervais.com Privacy Policy. If you do not want to grant the > rights set out above, please do not submit your contribution to > rickygervais.com. > > 10. Further to paragraph 9, by submitting your contribution to > rickygervais.com, you: > * 10.1 warrant that your contribution; > * 10.1.1 is your own original work and that you have the right to make > it available to the Ricky Gervais for all the purposes specified > above; > * 10.1.2 is not defamatory; and > * 10.1.3 does not infringe any law; and > * 10.2 indemnify the Ricky Gervais against all legal fees, damages and > other expenses that may be incurred by Ricky Gervais as a result of > your breach of the above warranty; and > * 10.3 waive any moral rights in your contribution for the purposes of > its submission to and publication on rickygervais.com and the purposes > specified above. Ricky is a ray of sunshine in a sad world, one the funniest guys in the Britcom room, long as Larry David isn’t visiting. I’m sure the generously proportioned fella no more needs, the jokes and pitches of his fans than he needs the name of a top quality cheese supplier. I’m also sure that in the new world of web paranoia, chiselling horse fixers, media bandits and the like the on his website terms are , or are becoming, commonplace on interactive websites. A test of how much you love your idols perhaps - give them your all, go to court for them - and pay all the costs. Doesn’t make it any more tasteful though. Because the terms above seem to suggest that Ricky not only owns any contributions to the site, but is also able to set the legal vultures on the contributor’s ass if said contributions cause legal proceedings to ensue when he USES them. Talk about having it both ways! Is he having a laugh ?