Complicated

THAT'S to all the shallow-minded policy makers in Malaysia!

German-Canadian singer Avril Lavigne's August 29 concert in Malaysia has been cancelled.

While promoters Galaxy Group are now given the opportunity to re-schedule the concert to another date, don't expect Miss Avril to reschedule her Asian Tour dates for a country that hardly contributes to her annual gross income.

Fan or otherwise, Avril's no show in Kuala Lumpur has received flak by the silent majority in the country.

PAS Youth has done well with their Anti-West campaign which surprisingly received the support from the Barisan Nasional led government.

The Culture and Heritage Ministry claimed the concert was scheduled too close to the 51st Independence celebrations while for PAS, they claim her personality is damaging to the 'holy' citizens of Malaysia. Note, the somehow polite speaking PAS representatives have admitted they have not fully listened and understood her songs but merely seen clips of her supposed bad behaviour on YouTube!

Guess Malaysian folks will never ever get to see the daylights of a possible reunion gig by Pink Floyd, or even catch legendary singer Bob Dylan in action.

In fact, if Janis Joplin or Jim Morisson were to still be alive and kicking, they would not even bother coming to this part of the world for none of their songs will be 'accepted' by the shallow minded minority.

Guess what? These policy makers have forgotten of the tight Kebaya's in the 1960s (traditional Malay costume for women) and the bell bottom frenzy during the Disco age of the 1970s.

Perhaps belly dancing at the Samrah KL Festival at Bukit Bintang is not an issue eh. After all, ain't it the Arabs who love watching women dancing around in an erotic manner half naked? Ah, but then again, aren't the Malays today ditching their beautiful culture to follow the footsteps of their so-called Muslim Arab brothers. Bah!

Below are some of the headlines around the world. Guess Malaysia will always be in the news for the wrong reasons.

Avril Lavigne too sexy for Malaysia (Vancouver Sun)

Malaysia's Islamists want Lavigne concert canceled (Associated Press)

Islamists want Avril Lavigne concert canceled (MSN India)

Avril's 'Too Sexy' For Malaysia? (MTV.com)

Rocking Hard

IF you're in Kuala Lumpur till the end of the month, make sure to rock in hard as the nation celebrates it's 51st anniversary.

Hard Rock KL, located smack in the middle of the capital's golden triangle, will be organising a couple of events on the eve of the celebrations - Aug 30.

The Independence Day celebration starts at 9pm followed by Redemption - Live at Hard Rock at 11pm.

For more information, check out their website.

Sympathy For the Devil

THE Stones ain't Rolling in the Philippines.

Shocking as this may sound, even the crafty and artistic Filipinos have a tough time naming songs belted out by the British band.

In fact, the Stones were never big in the singing craze country which adores the likes of Beatles and Bon Jovi.

Here's a take by Clarence Yu at Inquirer.net Blogs. Below are some of the paragraphs seen in the article;

While the rest of the world has celebrated its “Greatest Rock N’ Roll Band” throughout the years, the Philippines has yet to follow suit. How many Filipinos can name at least three songs of the Stones? The normal answer I get is “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” their 1965 worldwide hit. Outside my musical circle of friends, no one can give me any other two songs. And in my opinion, it is a crying shame.

What is it about the Stones that Manila didn’t like in the ‘60’s? My take is that they didn’t write pop songs that were “poppy” enough for our tastes. We just didn’t get their darkness, their rebelliousness, and most of all, the quality of their music, which is kind of weird because we Filipinos are normally discriminating when it comes to music. The Lennon/McCartney songwriting team was far more popular than the Jagger/Richards partnership, though much higher output can be credited to the latter.

What we got from MTV were either the New Wave crew (Tears for Fears, Duran Duran, etc.) or the resulting new bad boys of Heavy metal/Hard rock — Motley Crue, The Black Crowes, Guns N’ Roses, The White Stripes, to name a few. While excellent bands in their own right and more than a few serving as front acts during several Rolling Stones tours, not many saw the parallels in the bad boy images that these bands projected, with the originals (of course, the Rolling Stones), which, in my opinion, is just plain unfair, and again, another crying shame. Most of us never got the point, which was all but stepped upon with the onset of Seattle grunge in the 1990’s. All these “I hate myself and I want to die” themed songs were just overkill.

With more than 150 million albums sold worldwide, a 46-year career spanning five decades with more than 25 studio albums recorded, chart breaking tour grosses (they still hold the world record for the highest grossing tour in history from their 1995 “Voodoo Lounge” tour, bettering themselves subsequently with their 2002 “Licks” Tour and their 2005 “A Bigger Bang” Tour), the Rolling Stones has been vital, relevant, and surviving, serving as the prototypical bad boy band, and writing the blueprints for the modern rock song.

The Rolling Stones are:

Mick Jagger – lead singer and knight of the British Empire

Keith Richards – guitar and the human riff

Charlie Watts – jazz drummer in the World’s greatest rock and roll band

Ron Wood – the confederate lead guitarist

Former members:

Brian Jones (deceased, founding member) – guitar and the original Kurt Cobain

Mick Taylor – lead guitar, blues extraordinaire, currently still asking himself why he left

Bill Wyman – bass, and original stone face, now a restaurateur

Ian “Stu” Stewart (deceased, founding member) – boogie woogie pianist who hated minor chords

For A Brother

ROYSTAND Langdon for Velvet Revolver?

It could be true after all as the Brit rocker was said to have been trying out with the band under a hush hush situation.

The estranged husband of beautiful actress Liv Tyler sang a couple of numbers including Guns N' Roses' It's So Easy.

Velvet Revolver is currently without a leadman and a handful of names have been toyed to act as the band's frontman including Chris Cornell, Billy Idol and even Sebastian Bach.

The names do not come as a surprise as the band itself comprises of old guards including Slash, Jason Bonham and Jerry Cantrell.

For the record, Langdon was singer to a not so famous band in the 90s Spacehog.