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It wasn't just a broken finger that gave John McCrea the time to plot his own TV show. According to Cake's feisty frontman, he's been planning to bring Freedom of Speech to the small screen for the past eight years.| "I thought up the idea when I realized the tools of democracy weren't available to everyone anymore," says McCrea. "You can't even put up a poster legally on a telephone pole in most American cities without getting arrested. So decided I could give people a voice by creating this show." Based loosely on the campy Seventies classic Gong Show, the show's designed to give "regular" people time to deliver a two-minute speech and discuss their views in a dignified, yet entertaining format in front of three celebrity judges. The high-profile arbitrators will either award the best speakers with prizes or send them plummeting through a hidden trap door. The guitarist/control freak has offered up potential subjects like "Marilyn Manson: Pure Evil or Savvy Businessman in Monster Outfit?" or "The Most Outdated Part of the Constitution." Although McCrea's not confirming who the celebrity guests judges will be, he does offer some tantalizing combinations, such as Judge Judy, Henry Rollins and Deepak Chopra, or Beck, Noam Chomsky and Celine Dion. "This show is for fun, but there's also a sense of participation that we need to have," McCrea says. "Even if it's an illusion, I think it would help the democratic process." He has been shopping the idea around to various networks, and he says he's got a couple of solid bites. If you're interested in being a part of the fun, send audition tapes to him at: Freedom of Speech, 3104 "O" Street, Box 109, Sacramento, CA 95816 or visit www.speechsite.com for more info . . .
Four cities, dozens of Irish and vaguely Irish-inspired acts, and
gallons of Guinness: welcome to Fleadh 1999. The
stout-sponsored Irish music festival is back for its third year in
a row in America, with a line-up promising everything from Celtic
don Van Morrison to British pop-punk archetype
Elvis Costello. This year's Fleadh kicks off in
San Francisco on June 5, followed by stops in Chicago (June 12),
Boston (June 19) and New York (June 26). Morrison is only scheduled
for the Boston date, but Costello will perform in all four cities.
Other acts confirmed so far for one or more Fleadh stops include
Lucinda Williams, Hootie & the
Blowfish, the Cardigans, Shane
MacGowan, Ben Harper, John Lee
Hooker, Steve Earle & the Del McCoury
Band, Richard Thompson, John
Prine, Taj Mahal, Shawn
Mullins, Dave Alvin, Black
47 and more . . .
An e-mail sent out last week portended the Thin White Duke's
appearance at Monday night's New York Placebo
show, but few believed the man who brought us glam in its first
incarnation would actually materialize. Those that stuck around for
the encore, however, were treated to a rare performance by
David Bowie, who sang the title track of Placebo's
Without You I'm Nothing along with the group's diminutive
frontman, Brian Molko. The two then segued into a
cover of T. Rex's "20th Century Boy," which
Placebo and Bowie also performed at this year's Brit Awards. After
the show, the group settled down with Bowie backstage for a chat,
no doubt exchanging tips on what goes best with black (answer:
pounds of eyeshadow). Placebo are currently touring in support of
their album, while Bowie is reportedly doing time in a Los Angeles
studio for his new album ...
Despite initial plans to rock like comrades, the
KISS Psycho Circus tour won't be swinging through
Russia, after all. The mascara-ed metallurgists have been forced to
scrap their tour of Russia because of rampant anti-Western
sentiment over the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia, according to the
band's website, KISS Asylum. The Asylum confirmed that KISS were
contacted by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and informed that their
safety could not be guaranteed if they chose to enter the country
due to the crisis in the Balkans. The band was scheduled to perform
in Moscow on April 1 and 2, followed by a show in St. Petersburg on
April 4. It's unclear whether the band will reschedule. Meanwhile,
Garbage, who were prevented from playing a show in
the Balkan country of Estonia on February 4 after Russian
authorities held up their equipment at customs, have rescheduled
for May 28. "Garbage haven't had any warnings from the State
Department about their make-up date, and as far as we're concerned,
all systems are go," says the band's spokesperson. Maybe the
Russkies just don't want to be part of the KISS Army . . .
We warned you that former Pink Floyd bassist
Roger Waters would mount a full-fledged tour this
year, and his camp has finally confirmed it. According to manager
Mark Fenwick, Waters will hit the U.S. in a two-pronged attack
beginning this summer. The musician plans to kick off the East
Coast leg of his tour in July or August, and will return to the
States in the Spring of 2000 to perform on the West Coast. No dates
have been confirmed, but Fenwick says they are forthcoming. Waters
will be featuring material from his 1992 opus, Amused To
Death, but it's unlikely that he'll perform anything from his
forthcoming opera, Ca Ira, which will be released this
year in both English and French. The Pink Floyd website Steel
Breeze revealed that the musician plans to begin work on a new rock
album after he completes his 1999-2000 tour schedule . . .
Maybe 13 really is Damon Albarn's lucky
number. Not only is Blur's new album No. 1 on the
British album charts, but the frontman is about to become a father.
No, not with Elastica's Justine
Frischmann, his former girlfriend, but with artist Suzi
Winstanley, whom he has been reportedly seeing for the past year.
Albarn has attempted to keep the relationship quiet, and as
recently as last week refused to name his companion. But friends of
the couple spilled the news and revealed that Albarn and Winstanley
will be bringing their new release into the world this October. A
friend who confirmed the rumor told the BBC, "They're absolutely
delighted. The pair of them are completely smitten with each other"
. . .
Speaking of rock & roll domestic matters, Beastie Boy Adam Horowitz and his wife Ione Skye are getting a divorce. Though married for eight years, the couple hadn't lived together for the past two years. Skye, who is the daughter of Sixties icon Donovan Leitch, was the one to file for divorce in Los Angeles in March 29, citing irreconcilable differences. Insiders say that Skye was the one who created the breach and walked out on the B. Boy. After the shock wore off, Ad Rock consoled himself by pairing up with former Bikini Kill frontwoman Kathleen Hanna . . .
Where was all this interest in the Pretty Things
thirty years ago when they were young enough to bait the birds into
a little backstage hijinks? It's somewhat peculiar that the
original British Invasion group never captured the fancy of U.S.
audiences during its fertile years and, now, since reuniting last
year, have been deemed a cult band. That nebulous distinction will
get tested in late August or early September when the group
launches its first U.S. tour since they opened for Led
Zeppelin twenty-four years ago. According to band manager
Mark St. John, the band will begin its jaunt in the Pacific
Northwest and make its way across the States for three-and-a-half
weeks this summer. The tour will support the reunion album Rage
Before Beauty, and shows will include material from the
Pretties' late Sixties and early Seventies albums. St. John says a
VH-1 Behind the Music special on the group may coincide
with the tour, but the manager apparently has bigger plans for the
group. "There's something that I'm doing over here [in Great
Britain] that I think will arrive in the States and will prove to
be a really unusual and quite a cutting edge thing for a band that
has been around thirty-five years to be involved in," he says by
way of attempted explanation. "If it's bullshit, if I'm wrong, then
I'm just a fucking horse's ass, but if I'm right it'll find you."
Consider yourselves warned . . .
BLAIR R. FISCHER, HEIDI SHERMAN, RICHARD SKANSE, JAAN
UHELSZKI(March 31, 1999)