The famous Mariah Carey quote is apocryphal.

"U2 is an original species... there are colours and feelings and emotional terrain that we occupy that is ours and ours alone."

Dave Rowntree:

"We've established ourselves as the biggest band in Britain and that's a fair few ladders up. But I don't want to get mathematical about it. I talk in the broadest possible terms about ladders. There are ladders above, and there are ladders below".

Just what were they cutting it with in 1995?

‘who cares about 9/11 when there are whales dying’ Said the day after the attacks.

Van the Grump uttering "Me whistling" during the live cut of Cypress Avenue on Too Late to Stop Now curls me up every time.

I do know what Damon meant when he made that quote about Kurt Cobain. As ever context is everything. If I recall Albarn was lamenting the fact that Cobain felt he had no-one to turn to or didn't have a group of friends that could have allowed him to submerge his personality in a group setting, like football. It was more an observation on Albarn's part that he was grateful that he's still able to do stuff like kick a ball around.

How about Noel's assertion that , even if he never writes another song, he can rest easy because he is already in the top three songwiters of all time? That's a shame for Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson etc. etc.

"When you think about it, Adolf Hitler was the first pop star."

Bet he's still regretting that one.

Course you are, Brett.

He was on a chat show once and he was talking about the lot of the out of work actor. He had a sympathetic audience, possibly an "audience with"-type thing. He talked about the day-to-day stress experienced by the actor that can't make ends meet. No arguments there.

But then he talked about the frequent auditions and the need to pick yourself up after every rejection. Then he said something along these lines : "coping with that kind of pressure is something that people who just work in shops, offices and factories simply don't understand." At this point, his voice quivered a little with emotion and the audience spontaneously applauded.

I love Michael Caine - and for him to say something so very stupid really got to me.

"You can't come from South Yorkshire and not be a socialist."

"Cruise missiles are all right so long as they're pointing at America."

Although I shall withdraw my j'accuse if the Record Mirror hacks who quoted him can assure me he said these with a rueful chuckle to indicate he was just exaggerating and not to be taken at face value. Because on the broadcast media, Glen seems a thoroughly agreeable cove.

"Er, dude, can you help me out? I'm locked in this toilet"

"In this season of goodwill, let's pray that Michael Stipe goes the same way as Freddie Mercury pretty soon" - Nicky Wire

""I wish they would catch Aids and die" (ie Damon Albarn and Alex James) - Noel Gallagher

It truly was a golden era

I often read things on the internet, and on this site even, where people wish some kind of violence or death on somebody.

Johnny Borrell of Razorlight "Bob Dylan's making the chips, I'm making the champagne"

that Elvis Costello's description of Ray Charles as a 'blind, ignorant, nigger' was utterly stupid, even if said in a drunken argument with Stephen Stills & Bonnie Bramlettin the Ohio Holiday Inn bar, March 1979.

to meet Mr Charles when his wife duetted with him but still could not bring himself to do so he was so guilty and ashamed of his moment of drunken madness. Despite Ray Charles saying at the time-

"Anyone could get drunk at least once. Drunken talk isn’t meant to be printed in the paper and people should judge Mr. Costello by his songs rather than his stupid bar talk.”

When asked why didn't do the Free Nelson Mandela concert at Wembley, he responded that he didn't support terrorism.
Cock.

And the winner is........ this breathtaking display of arseholery from Clod, oh sorry i mean God?!?

A drunk Clapton spoke out in support of Enoch Powell at a gig in Birmingham in 1976. 'I think Enoch's right ... we should send them all back. Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!'. His reported remarks were a factor in the creation of Rock Against Racism.

It's a fair point. I suppose we should feel good about how far most of us have travelled in a relatively short space of time.

I'm sure sentiments like this would offer great succour to the family and friends of singer Charles Haddon, aged 22, who killed himself yesterday by jumping from a telecom tower at the Pukkelpop festival

Meaning what exactly? Aren't you now just making the kind of "blanket assertions" with this comment that you used to criticise Albarn? Are you not making assumptions about Haddon and what prompted him to take his life by associating Albarn's comment with the circumstances of his death?

You're taking a comment made by a musician in an interview made 15 years ago about a suicide of another musician months before that interview and determining that such a comment can be associated within 24 hours of the suicide of another musician.

I fail to see what point you are trying to make by adding this edit and it just seems, to use your word, crass.

'With these new concerts and material, Bono wants to reassert U2's value to their fans. "Have we got what it takes to make this experience one that people will remember for the rest of their lives? Or is it going to be four over-rewarded musicians playing in a football stadium?" he asked. "We're alchemists. We turn shit into gold. We turn it into a communion."'

gives good copy but it is a double-edged sword for him as he can say something like that - and I can actually picture him saying it tongue-in-cheek - but if he says it in a room full of journalists with his sunglasses on it is easy for the irony to be lost. Plus, journalists might want an angle and will take what he says and manipulate its context so a statement like that is framed in a paragraph that perhaps draws a conclusion that he's acting like a strutting peacock rather than as a showman trying to amuse himself as much as anyone else while conducting yet another interview answering yet another version of a question he's been asked 5,714 times before.

Benefit of the doubt for me because I can't honestly believe he says "We turn shit into gold" with no hint or irony. He may be annoyingly evangelical but he is very self-aware of his public persona. I bet even he would like a day off from being Bono but he's committed himself to so many causes he has too much of a conscience to let anyone else down.

I've knocked him and his band in the past on here for various reasons but he has my respect even if he doesn't have my appreciation of all that he is and represents.

Will never forget Ginger making a prize twot of herself when The Spice Girls lined up to have their picture taken with Nelson Mandela for a worldwide press conference back in the late 90's.

Halliwell shamelessly used the occasion to compare Mandela's imprisonment and fight against apartheid with Girl Power(!), " 'coz, they're both like about freeing yourself and like being free, yeah? " or some other such moronic drivel nearly drowned out by the sound of Stephen Biko turning in his grave.

*

"We're bigger than Jesus now"

Which was almost certainly true at the time, but a bit daft in view of the inevitable shitstorm which later erupted.

Surely Badly Drawn Boy asking the crowd to participate in a huge 'Mexican wave' at a benefit gig for the victims of ..ermm..The Tsunami disaster....

http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/madonna-bids-most-stupid-crown

"The Jews are wicked. And we can prove this." "[They are responsible for] a majority of wickedness that goes on across the globe."

--Professor Griff of Public Enemy, in a 1989 interview with the Washington Times. He was dismissed from the band shortly thereafter, although hired back, quietly, sometime later.

Kylie Minogue, when asked her opinion of South Africa during apartheid replied "They should stop killing the rhinos" .

Sydney Morning Herald, May 2003

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/09/1052280432668.html