Blog

The Hole singer - the widow of the grunge group’s late frontman Kurt Cobain - has reportedly been offered the staggering sum by Evergreen Capital for her 75 per cent stake in the End of Music catalogue she inherited when the ‘Heart Shaped Box’ musician committed suicide in 1994.

A source told the New York Daily News newspaper: “Courtney thinks the catalogue comes with too many memories. It’s haunted.”

However, the ‘Celebrity Skin’ singer is holding out for a bigger offer, with rival bidders expected to come in to try and purchase the material.

It is believed that Oaktree Capital’s Bruce Karsh will make an offer, after paying a reputed $50 million for 25 per cent of the catalogue in 2007.

Courtney - who has a 17-year-old daughter Frances Bean with Kurt - recently admitted she is still angry at Kurt for “abandoning” his family by killing himself.

She said: “I’m so sick of my name and his name - I am not his spokesperson on Earth! I don’t know what he’d like now, he could be into society girls, he could be into fat girls, he could be homosexual. We don’t know, he died at 27.

“My guitarist Micko said once, ‘He was so cool,’ and I almost killed him. He wasn’t cool because he f***ing abandoned us. What he did to the family isn’t cool.”

Every member of the previous incarnation of the girl group - Kimberly Wyatt, Jessica Sutta, Ashley Roberts and Melody Thornton - has been replaced, except for lead singer Nicole Scherzinger.

The band now consists of Nicole, Kherington Payne, Rino Nakasone-Razalan, Vanessa Curry and Jamie Lee Ruiz.

The new line-up performed their first concert last Friday (21.05.10) at a private party in Los Angeles.

Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin unveiled a photo of the revamped band on her twitter page, along with a post which read: “Last Night was perfection! NicoleScherzy was so incredible, sang her heart out! & DOLLS, you KILLED IT! Congrats!!!! (sic)

Choreographer Robin previously revealed she was going to completely overhaul the Pussycat Dolls.

She said: “The brand is about female empowerment. Inside every woman is a Pussycat Doll waiting to get out. There are millions of women out there who want to know what it feels like. I want to bring in new faces.”

Some of the new members have tasted fame before.

Kherington starred in the remake of ‘Fame’ and appeared in an episode of ‘Glee’, Rino was part of the dance troupe the Harajuku Girls who toured with Gwen Stefani, while Jamie Lee was a contestant on Robin’s TV show ‘The Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious’, which was looking for members for a new pop band called Girlicious.

The Pussycat Dolls are now preparing to head into the studio to record an album.

The ‘Bonkers’ rapper has been asked by the British music event’s organiser Michael Eavis to fill in for the Irish band after frontman Bono had emergency back surgery last week.

The ‘Beautiful Day’ hitmakers are set to headline the Pyramid Stage on Friday June 25 but if Bono has not recovered in time, they will have to pull out.

Dizzee is currently set to play the set before U2 but may be promoted to close the evening.

However, Eavis has also phoned Coldplay - who are currently in the studio working on their fifth album - to see if they are available, according to The Sun newspaper.

Bono suffered his injury while preparing for his group’s world tour, and attended a specialist neurosurgery clinic in Munich, Germany, for immediate work on his spine.

He is expected to stay in Germany for a few days before returning to his home in Ireland.

A planned tour date in Salt Lake City on June 2 has been postponed.

A statement on the band’s website reads: “Once his condition has been assessed further, a statement will be made regarding the impact on forthcoming tour dates.”

Industry insiders expect the band will announce later this week that they will not be able to play Glastonbury.

The rapper - who shot to fame earlier this year with his debut single ‘Pass Out’ - admitted he had an “agreement” with his parents where he had promised to take them on vacation every year for helping him organise his cash.

He told the Daily Star newspaper: “Sometimes money can overtake your decisions if you think about it too much. Some people only get up for the money and I don’t want to do that. I didn’t have much when I was younger but I was brought up by my parents who work really hard for everything. They understand money on every level and I’m so fortunate I have parents I can confide in and help manage my money.

“I’ve got an agreement with my parents now where every year I have to take them on a holiday. They brought up four respectful, well-educated kids so it’s time for them to let their hair down.”

The 21-year-old music star also revealed he hopes to invest in a new girlfriend in the near future, and has a crush on Jade Ewen from the Sugababes.

He added: “I saw Jade Ewen at a party with red lips and it really did the job for me.”

The group are currently in the studio working on the follow-up LP to 2009’s ‘Ignore the Ignorant’ and guitarist Johnny Marr is impressed by how hard frontman Ryan Jarman is pushing himself to create a new direction for the band.

Johnny said: “The new stuff, particularly what Ryan is coming up with, is very different.

“Ryan’s been playing some keyboards and he’s got very inspired by it. It still sounds like that band and his lyrics are always very interesting, I’m excited by it.

“Ryan is very inspired which is fantastic to see and we’ve all got a strong work ethic. We all take the business of being in The Cribs very seriously.”

Johnny – who has previously played with bands including The Smiths, Modest Mouse and The Healers - picked up the Inspiration Award at last week’s Ivor Novello awards in recognition of his musicianship, and revealed he planned to celebrate the accolade with a new guitar.

He joked to BANG Showbiz: “I’m going to go and meet up with the guy who builds my guitars for about three hours this afternoon, that’s the sort of thing that I do – that’s how you get one of these awards!”

The ‘Bulletproof’ hitmakers – singer Elly Jackson and producer Ben Langmaid - are trying to find the time to write a new record and want it to be slightly different to their 2009 self-titled debut LP.

Elly said: “It’s difficult to tell what the record will sound like because we haven’t really started it, we haven’t seen each other very much because I’m away all the time.

“We’re planning a couple of months of experimenting first but I want it to have a more human feel.

“I want it to have elements of the first record so we don’t have to find a whole new group of fans, but it has to move on, I want a new theme and a new concept, new visuals, a whole new thing.”

The ‘In For The Kill’ singer also revealed she is planning to change her trademark quiff before releasing the new LP as she believes it is important to change her image to suit their music.

She told BANG Showbiz: “The hair will probably change but I haven’t decided in what way yet.

I think if the next album is going to have a different feel, it will need a different look, I don’t think it would be appropriate to keep with the 80s thing, though if the label told me to change my hair I’d tell them to f**k off.”

The ‘Prince Charming’ hitmaker - who suffers from bipolar disorder - has been hospitalised under the mental health act weeks after a series of troubled public appearances, including aiming a tirade of abuse at Christians during a charity performance.

A message sent to fans by the star - real name Stuart Goddard - read: “Ant fans - please send me postcards at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, Fulham Road. Please don’t come down here as it may upset the staff who have been really pleasant. I am having a well earned rest at Her Majesty’s Pleasure and am painting and continuing being an art student. I have a great view and am considering gigs later in the year.”

According to an Adam & The Ants fansite, the singer was sectioned after an unspecified incident on Tuesday evening (18.05.10).

The 55-year-old star stunned fans in Portsmouth, South East England, last week when he invited a four-year-old boy up on stage and began to teach him the words to The Who’s ‘My Generation’, before screaming obscenities at frustrated fans who tried to leave the show, singling out Christians, who he told to “f**k off”.

In 2002, Adam hit the headlines when he threatened drinkers in a London bar with an imitation pistol, but escaped jail on mental health grounds.

He was sectioned in September 2003 after a dispute with a neighbour, where he threatened to smash in his doors with a shovel and was eventually found naked in a cafe basement.

Adam - who has been hospitalised several times - recently declared his intention to resume performing for the sake of his 12-year-old daughter Lily, insisting he had overcome his problems.

He said: “Lily has never seen Adam perform and doesn’t know what The Ants were all about.

“I’ve had this life-long battle against manic depression, but I’ve had to overcome it for her sake. Times got bad. I lost my mind. But I’m back.”

The ‘Paparazzi’ singer was left furious after a fan managed to bypass her guards and get on stage during a concert in Japan and so decided to axe their services.

A source said: “She went mad. She couldn’t believe they could let these things happen so she fired them on the spot.

“She goes out of her way to make her shows perfect and she expects the same from her people.”

The flamboyant pop star also fired her wardrobe assistant for forgetting to lock her dressing room door.

The source added to The Sun newspaper: “Some thought she would calm down but she put them straight on a plane home.”

Gaga - real name Stefani Germanotta - has been working tirelessly on her ‘Monster Ball’ world tour and raised concerns about her health when she collapsed on stage in New Zealand in March and had to cancel a number of US shows earlier in the year due to exhaustion.

Speaking about her health, she said: “You know when people say, ‘Lady Gaga’s really tired, she needs to take a break,’ I just think about all those times I sang in bars when nobody was singing my lyrics. I’ll sleep when I’m dead, OK.”

The Scottish rockers are currently working on the follow-up to 2009’s ‘Tonight: Franz Ferdinand’ but frontman Alex Kapranos is concerned he will “spoil” the record for fans if he talks about the direction their material is taking.

He explained to BANG Showbiz: “There’s a couple of songs we’re working on but we’re still writing.

“It’s too early to say what it’s about and also, with our last record, I shot my mouth off a little bit too much and said too much about it before it came out, so I’m keeping my mouth closed this time and not spoiling the surprise, I think that spoils it, so it’s best to stay quiet.”

However, the ‘Take Me Out’ hitmaker revealed he has been speaking regularly with fellow Scot Edwyn Collins, hinting he may be collaborating with the ‘Girl Like You’ hitmaker.

He added: “I went round to Edwyn Collins’ place and he’s working on a record, it’s very cool. We haven’t decided if we’ll record with him or not yet, but wait and see.”

The Rolling Stones rocker accepts the music industry has changed with the rise of illegal downloading, and he feels lucky to have been making albums at a time when an artist could profit from his endeavours.

He said: “There was a small period from 1970 until 1997 where… everyone made money, but now that period is gone. I was in it.”

Mick – who still makes millions with his bandmates from their sell-out world tours – thinks the 60s and 70s were a better time to be making music than now because of the freedom artists enjoyed and the hedonistic lifestyles they were allowed to lead.

Jagger - who is the focus of new documentary ‘Stones in Exile’ which focuses on the making of the band’s seminal LP ‘Exile on Main St.’ – recently said: “The orgies, the drug taking? Yes I remember it well. It was lot of fun, quite a bumpy time but generally quite a creative period despite all the excesses. In those days that’s how it was done - we got away with it.”