Australian pop tartlet Kylie Minogue has been awarded the OBE (Order of the British Empire) in the New Years Honours List for 2007/08.

Kylie is the biggest music star to be honoured this time around, with only Jazzie B from 90s pop group Soul II Soul, and Jethro Tull singer Ian Anderson joining her in having their achievements awarded.

Although Kylie is Australian, she first found fame as a singer in the UK, under the Stock, Aitken and Waterman label. This was straight after appearing in Aussie soap Neighbours, which is probably more popular, even to this day in the UK than its native country.

It’s almost 20 years since those days, when she appeared on the scene, releasing the brilliant burst of pop cheese that was I Should Be So Lucky. She’s since made the UK her adopted home, and spends a good portion of her time here.

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Up to now, the fans and critics have completely been on Radiohead’s side with the whole download experiment, which they undertook in the second half of 2007 for In Rainbows.

But I wonder if the rumour that the reason the band went down that route was because of their record company refusing to pay the amount of money they’d asked for to re-sign will change people’s minds at all?

According to The Times newspaper, the band left their record company EMI because they refused to even contemplate a deal worth almost £10 million.

Radiohead were supposedly offered £3 million to re-sign for EMI subsidiary Parlophone, which they turned down because they found it un unacceptably small amount of money.

A spokesperson for the label told the newspaper:

“Radiohead were demanding an extraordinary amount of money and we did not believe that our other artists should have to subsidise their gains.”

The agreement is alleged to have meant Radiohead would have claimed copyright back on part of their back catalogue, and asked for a global marketing budget of £3m.

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Amy Winehouse’s hopes of enjoying a nice new year, and maybe putting the troubles of 2007 behind her, look like failing miserably.

Not only is she now classed as a suspect in her husband Blake Fielder-Civil’s trial fixing case, she has also been summoned to Norway to appear in court over the charges of drug use she was fined for in October.

Winehouse was originally arrested back on October 18th in the Norwegian town of Bergen. Her, hubby Fielder-Civil, and a friend, were arrested and held on charges of drug possession after the police found marijuana in their hotel room.

The trio were held for 12 hours before being fined 500 Euros and being set free. That was thought to be the end of the case, but Norwegian police lawyer Rudolf Christoffersen has now said she must appear in court in the country on February 29th.

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Leon Jackson has made it to the top of the charts, and thus continued the trend for X Factor winners grabbing the Christmas number one.

Leona Lewis is still sitting at number one in the album charts, making it a clean sweep for the ITV music reality television show.

Leon won The X Factor last Saturday, overcoming the odds, and the will of a huge swathe of the British public. Now, just 8 days later, his debut single is number one in the official UK single charts.

Having a Christmas number one is quite an honour in the UK, or at least it used to be before The X Factor came along, and in a moment of brilliance, decided to announce the winner the week before Christmas every year, thus ensuring the millions of people who have watched the contestant on the TV every week for months, rush out and buy their single at the earliest opportunity.

It means that normal singers and bands, who may have dreamed of one day having a Christmas number one, now haven’t got a hope in hell. Which is a shame. The only good outcome of it is that Cliff Richard now can’t get to number one at Christmas again… cheers all around.

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The Led Zeppelin reunion concert was such a massive success that there have obviously been massive calls from the public, especially fans who couldn’t get tickets for the one off gig, for a full UK, or world tour.

I am with them, wishing the existing members would just bite the bullet and give everyone what they want.

But not everyone shares this view, and unfortunately that number includes Jason Bonham, John’s son, and the man who drummed at the Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert.

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Lily Allen, that softly spoken, easy living, play it safe, uncontroversial pop star… oh hang on, I’m getting her confused with Dido. Let’s try again…

Lily Allen, that hard rocking, mockney, hard drinking, chain smoking pop star, is expecting a baby with Chemical Brother (I’m so glad it’s singular) Ed Simons.

She announced the happy news on Tuesday, which gave the press ample opportunity to dredge up month old pictures of her enjoying a crafty cigarette, and claiming she’s an irresponsible mother to be.

No morons, actually she has quit smoking, as every right thinking pregnant woman would do, and those photos were taken before she, or anyone else, knew she was with child.

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Amy Winehouse, she’s a sweetheart isn’t she? And what a fantastic year she has had, especially in regards to her personal life. And it’s just got worse, as she has been arrested as a suspect in hubby Blake Fielder-Civil’s trial fixing case.

It was expected, with newspapers over the weekend, reporting that it would be happening, but it’s still a bit of a shocker to imagine Winehouse would have anything to do with such a criminal act as this.

Amy was arrested by appointment on Tuesday, in connection with the case which Blake is currently remanded in custody for: that of trying to forceably persuade a man due to give evidence against him in a GBH trial, to change his mind and not testify.

The poilce wouldn’t confirm Amy Winehouse was the person arrested, instead electing to report that a 24 year old woman had been arrested in connection with the case, but it’s pretty obvious it’s her.

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It looks like Michael Jackson could be about to make a live comeback, by embarking on a three month tour.

Fair enough, it’s his right, and if the man needs to make a few bucks to shore up his crumbling empire, then that’s fine.

But it looks as though he could be keen to make the 02 Arena in London his location for a series of concerts, taking up a residency at the former millennium dome.

My first question is why here, can’t he choose somewhere in America to bring his weird pop crap back? I’d rather he just stayed away from this country for good to be honest.

Also, is this such a good idea anyway, as he’s pretty much lost the plot now anyway. His appearance at the World Music Awards was atrocious, and he failed to sing anywhere near how we all like to remember him doing so.

The 02 Arena has been the choice for a lot of big acts over the last year, notably Prince, who sold out his whole run, and delighted everyone who was fortunate to get tickets for one of the gigs.

Then there are the Spice Girls, who are currently performing there as a part of their comeback tour.

And Led Zeppelin have just played the venue, making their long awaited comeback. They were more than welcome, and wowed their legions of fans, but Wacko Jacko isn’t really welcome.

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Rumours have been persisting for months about Robbie Williams returning to the Take That fold, and making the foursome, a five some again. Just last week, Robbie’s mum went on record to state her belief that he would join the group again, and that it was his wish to do so.

Unfortunately, it looks like this was news to Take That themselves, who have now seemingly ruled out the possibility of his return.

The group gave an interview to The Big Issue, and both Gary Barlow and Mark Owen seemed to mock the idea of Robbie ever joining them again for a tour or new releases.

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Coldplay have placed a cover of The Pretenders Christmas song 2000 Miles on their official website.

It was actually recorded in 2003, and you can hear the amateur, untrained nature of Chris Martin’s voice coming through very well.

The reason the band give for posting this cover?

Because they can’t ever manage to write their own Christmas song, without it sounding naff, even though they’ve attempted it a few times.

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