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Don’t you just hate it when things go sour between former bandmates? Well, that’s what’s happening between ex-Busted boys James Bourne and Matt Willis and their pre-Busted friends Ki McPhail and Owen Doyle.

The case hinges on the claim that the band’s manager Richard Rashman ousted McPhail and Doyle from the band and forced them to give up their rights to the songs they co-wrote with Bourne and Willis.

The whole story is pretty tedious really, and I can’t imagine how these guys were naive enough to give up the rights to a string of hit singles without taking advice in the industry. There’s also the allegation that McPhail’s parents would somehow lose their house, which isn’t properly explained. Would the cost of a legal battle have bankrupted them, or was there a chance of them being counter-sued for some reason.

The only reason I’m reporting this one? One joke. Punning on Busted’s best known song - “That’s What I Go To Court For”…

Looker are a mostly female pop-punk group from New York City. They tell us that they’re heading for the UK in April of this year.

I sort of hesitate to use the word ’spunky’, but their poppy vocals and raw guitar parts inspire that kind of description. There’s something familiar about the Looker sound, like I’ve heard the style before, but can’t point out a specific band they sound like.

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Apparently the public still cares about Madonna releasing a new album. Strange. After the lycra gusset-stretching of the last album and its videos, you’d think the world would want to wait a couple of years longer.

But there you go.

So, [sound of fanfare] the new Madonna album will be called Hard Candy. In fairness, the gap-toothed one has collaborated with some big names one this one, including Pharrell Williams, Kanye West, Timbaland and Justin Timberlake. All of whom are awesome hitmakers.

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Sour-faced pop troll Kerry Katona has laid the boot into her ailing former bandmembers in Atomic Kitten. She’s been quoted as saying that “I made that frigging band, but they never bothered to invite me back.”

No offense to the deluded, unstable airhead, but I don’t remember her being the eye candy in the Kitten. All I remember is a particularly crappy spoken-word bit in Whole Again which they promptly edited out when she got knocked up with McFadden’s sprog and decided she could make better money out of selling her life to magazines. But whoopsie! The delicious but slightly less famous Delta Goodrem put paid to that dream…

Naturally, I have a problem with Katona’s stupid, self-publicising statement.

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Wanna see an endless list of acts on the line-up for this year’s Sasquatch! festival? We thought you might.

The festival is being held this year at the Gorge Ampitheatre in Quincy, Washington between 24th and 26th May. Interesting to see comedy-folk act Flight Of The Conchords on the bill - they’re coming out with an album soon, aren’t they?

Big names on the bill are R.E.M., The Cure, The Flaming Lips and Death Cab For Cutie.

So, without further ado, here’s the full list of acts at this year’s Sasquatch festival, arranged from best known to most obscure!

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The next time you’re pouring a drink on the ground for your dead homies, you might be pouring Dr. Dre’s finest cognac. Of course, that depends on what hood you live in, and whether the inevitable copycat drinks from Jay-Z’s “Hovie-Hooch^TM” to P. Diddy’s “Biggie’s Special Brew (RIP)”.

I read today on the Rumors In Music blog that hip-hop superstar has become an equity owner in Drinks American Holdings Inc.

Forget that expensive Cristal at your next yacht party, why not plump for some of Dre’s sparkling vodka? Sounds suspiciously like an alcopop to me, but hey - all that hip-hop branded drink will keep the kids off drugs and in school, won’t it?

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Well, after all that hanging around waiting on Blur to reunite, it’s about time Dave got a proper job. But why exactly does he want to become a politician?

Basically, Mr Rowntree (see, we can be respectful sometimes) is planning to stand for Labour in the Cities of London and Westminster. Now, he’s done this before but been unsuccessful - he came third last year in a London council by-election.

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So, there I am, slavishly listening to the latest singles, forming opinions and writing them down for the world to see. Lowly, stupid blogger that I am.

The ‘big media’ way, the way they do reviews at at Maxim (and probably countless others who haven’t been caught), is to make up the review based on what you think the album might sound like.

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Sometimes good things come out of running a telly blog. A couple of Fridays ago, I got the opportunity to go to Bristol and meet a bunch of participants in the BBC’s Upstaged competition.

One of those folks was Elle Williams, the lead singer with Bristol-based indie band HiFlyer. Now, I’m normally discovering new music via my computer, so it was refreshing to meet up with Elle and have a bit of a chat. It wasn’t until I got home that night that I checked out HiFlyer’s music and was totally blown away. So much that I’m recommending them to you, dear reader…

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The Ting Tings are yet another of those acts that the music industry would like us to buy into this year. Unfortunately, I’m becoming increasingly suspicious of that bloody Sound Of 2008 list.

In the weeks since the BBC list was released, most of these acts have flooded the market. It’s all been very sudden and very aggressive, and I’m not sure if most of the acts are worth our attention.

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