What would you do in your spare time of you were the lead singer of a best selling British band who are regarded as pioneers of modern guitar music? If you’re Thom Yorke, you’d work on a building site for the summer, just to help your mate out.

For two weeks last summer, Thom Yorke worked as a builder, smashing bricks, and being a general dogsbody.

He told Rolling Stone magazine:

“It’s not that fucking difficult [being in a band]. I went and worked on my friend’s building site for two weeks over the summer, smashing bricks and stuff. That was difficult. But it was nice smashing stuff up.”

Why? Why would you do that when you’re worth about 6 gazillion dollars, and never actually HAVE to do a proper day’s work in your life. Having said that, all kudos to Yorke, as there’s not many music artists who would get their hands dirty these days.

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Now obviously you all know Brit Music Scene is the best blog on the b5 media network, yeah, tell that to ProBlogger Darren Rowse! But there are other blogs here too, and some of them kick serious butt.

Mike Laba, the editor of the music channel decided it was time we all got to know each other a bit better, and so is slowly but surely working his way round all 5,000 or so (at a rough guess) of us conducting interviews.

Here is the first, which focusses on Lauren Katulka, who writes our Australian sister blog Oz Music Scene, and does a fantastic job of telling the rest of the world that Aussie music doesn’t just begin and end with Kylie Minogue.

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Amy Winehouse has finally entered rehab, voluntarily checking herself in to hopefully get rid of the need to use copious amounts of drugs and drink she seems to need to cope with life.

Her out of control drug abuse finally reached a climax after The Sun obtained a video of her smoking from a crack pipe and plastered it all over the Internet for all to see.

Her record company released the following statement:

“She has come to understand that she requires specialist treatment to continue her ongoing recovery from drug addiction and prepare for her planned appearance at the Grammy awards/ Amy entered the facility by mutual agreement and continues to receive the full support of all concerned.”

“Amy is the most talented and important musical artist of her generation and has made huge strides on her road to recovery. The label has always had the best interests of Amy at heart and has been guided by her family and doctors in the last few months as to the best direction to take.”

It does seem to have taken some quite drastic measures to finally persuade her to go through with it however.

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The Charlatans have announced that their new album You Cross My Path will be available as a free download from the Xfm.co.uk website for two months prior to getting a full physical release.

This will the long running British band’s tenth studio album, but first to go the way of digital downloads as it’s preferred choice of consumer delivery.

The album will be completely free to download from the Xfm website from March 3rd. On May 19th, a full two and half months later, the album will get a physical release on both CD and Vinyl formats in 33 countries. To encourage fans to buy the retail version, this will include a strictly limited deluxe edition vinyl 45’s box set of the LP.

The first single Oh Vanity! will also be available as a standalone free download, from February 25th.

The full track listing for the album is going to be:

‘Oh! Vanity’
‘Bad Days’
‘Mis-takes’
‘The Misbegotten’
‘A Day For Letting Go’
‘You Cross My Path’
‘Missing Beats (Of A Generation)’
‘My Name Is Despair’
‘Bird / Reprise’
‘This Is The End’

I know what you’re thinking? The same thing as everyone else in the blogosphere seems to, that The Charlatans are merely copying Radiohead, and hoping to receive as much publicity for the download offer as they did last year.

But, it seems that with a further bit of digging, you can clearly see that The Charlatans thought of it first, and Radiohead may have actually copied them in the first place.

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It seems that Amy Winehouse is definitely past being damaged goods, and has entered the realms of “DON’T TOUCH THAT WOMAN WITH A BARGEPOLE!”

Mark Ronson, the producer of Back To Black, as well as the man behind Version, which included an Amy Winehouse cover of Valerie by The Zutons, is now at risk of losing his girlfriend because her family don’t like his ties with such a train wreck as Winehouse.

His links to the Rehab singer, has upset the parents of his girlfriend Cosi Theodoli-Braschi, and that may just be enough to finish the relationship off entirely.

A friend of the young music producer told the Daily Mail:

“Cosi’s parents are going mad over all the scandalous coverage Amy Winehouse is getting lately. They know Mark is friends with her and are worried about what kind of world he is dragging their daughter into.”

“They think it’s crazy and have asked her to dump Mark immediately. They’re a well off, respectable family and they don’t want to be associated with any dodgy, seedy goings on.”

“Mark doesn’t like having to hide his love for Cosi from the world. As far as he’s concerned he works with Amy and has no involvement with her drink and drug troubles, so it should have no bearing on his relationship.”

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There were rumours of a famous fourth member being added to The Cribs band line up earlier this month, and now that new band mate for the Jarman brothers has been revealed as Johnny Marr.

Two weeks ago, guitarist brother Ryan Jarman told The Independent:

“We have decided to change the format of the band. We feel like we have become quite comfortable now and that isn’t always a good thing.”

“I think it’s good to mess things up and change. So we have decided that we are going to bring someone new into the band. I think people will be really surprised when they hear who it is because the person is quite well known.”

That lead to intense speculation over the identity of the fourth member, with most people assuming the band could be taking a real change of direction by adding Kate Nash to the band. Maybe that was just the result of some romantic thinking because Kate is currently seeing Ryan.

Now the band have finally revealed the true identity, and explained how the collaboration with the former Smiths guitarist came about.

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The Spice Girls have just finished their record breaking shows at the London 02 Arena, and reports are suggesting the girls will have walked away with £10 million ($20 million) each from the 17 date run.

An unnamed source who works for the 02 has made the claim about how much the girls have earnt.

If true, the £50 million collective earnings will be the most of any artist who has ever performed at the former Millennium Dome.

They told The Press Association:

“Barbra Streisand had high ticket prices but only did three nights while Prince did 21 nights but sold tickets for next to nothing. Not many groups can sell out 17 gigs at £75 a ticket, it’s quite an achievement.”

This latest claim about how much the girls are making from the reunion tour is completely at odds with claims that Geri Halliwell made at the beginning of the year. She made it clear that the tour was not a money making exercise, and the girls would be lucky to walk away having broken even.

Yeah, whatever Geri.

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Yesterday saw shocking video footage of Amy Winehouse smoking cocaine from a crack pipe plastered all over the Internet, including here on Brit Music Scene.

Today, it seems that after fans pleaded with the singer to finally get some help to overcome her addictions, she’s taken the first steps toward recovery by visiting a drugs clinic in London.

All of yesterday, Winehouse’s website was deluged by messages from her many fans, both calling for her to get help, and offering her the support she clearly needs at the moment.

According to Digital Spy:

“One fan said: “Amy, please get some help before it’s too late. You are an amazing talent that is going to burn out way too fast. That video of you at home which is now doing the rounds will hopefully be instrumental in getting you where you need to be.”

“Other fans were less complimentary, saying: “You ain’t a legend yet, baby, and – newsflash – you and Blake [Fielder-Civil, her husband] ain’t Sid and Nancy. Time to get a reality check and lose the idiots around you who are supplying you with one hand and making money off you with the other. Quit being a loser and get real. Make music and stop snorting away a talent, we’re getting sick of paying for it.”

So, some people took the liberal, easy going approach, whilst others obviously think it’s time Winehouse just got a short sharp dose of reality.

Whatever the method, it seems to have done some good, with Winehouse reportedly going to a London drugs clinic yesterday evening. She spent two hours there with her long suffering father Mitch.

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I’d watch this video as quick as you can if I were you, as it’s almost guaranteed to be removed from YouTube by The Sun for copyright violation pretty damn sharpish.

It shows Amy Winehouse quite blatantly smoking cocaine from a crack pipe in her East London flat on Friday, whilst a so called friend films her on what looks like her mobile.

Wow, another day, another disaster in the life of Amy Winehouse. This video was bought by The Sun, a British tabloid newspaper, which unsurprisingly has it plastered all over its website.

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In a move which may annoy loyal fans and make anyone else shrug their shoulders, and then get on with their lives, British indie rockers The Kaiser Chiefs have informally announced their decision to stop making albums in favour of new formats.

The Leeds band, who have been one of the most instrumental groups in getting indie back on the map, say they have become bored with traditional cycle within the music industry of releasing an album every two years, and so have decided to break with that.

Drummer Nick Hodgson told the NME recently:

“We mentioned mini-albums and double EPs, but we’ve got no fixed plans yet. We want to break the routine of having to make an album every two years. It’s totally boring.”

“In the charts there are tons of indie bands playing chords and singing songs about the weekend. We’re going to be doing the opposite and being the best.”

I can see their point, and in this day and age of digital downloads, and multiple format choices, bands certainly have more option when it comes to deciding how to release their material on to the public.

But, and it’s a big but, an album is what the fans want, and every year or two is just about right. People, particularly fans, don’t want to buy EPs all the time, or have to scour the web for their favourite group’s new songs. That’s okay from time to time, and can add massively to a band’s fan base, but people will soon get sick if it happens all the time.

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