HOT: Hologram Denial
The day before Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis, word spread that Justin Timberlake’s elongated Pepsi commercial/half-time show would feature a hologram of Twin Cities legend Prince. In a precursor to the uproar over a Martin Luther King Jr. speech being used in a truck commercial (a speech in which King railed against manipulative advertising and buying new cars to “keep up with the Joneses”), many outraged fans pointed to an interview in which Prince called the duet-with-a-dead-celebrity trend “demonic.” Sheila E. reportedly talked Timberlake out of using the hologram, though he still “dueted” with Prince while his image was projected on a large sheet. Though it wouldn’t have connected with the mainstream audience, how much more respectful would it have been to have Foo Fighters as special guests and pay tribute to another hugely influential Minneapolis music legend (and Dave Grohl hero) who passed away much more recently, Hüsker Dü’s Grant Hart?
WARM: Utensil Banned from Fest
Last summer music fests in the U.K. had to add pineapples to the list of prohibited items thanks to the band Glass Animals, whose fans routinely bring the fruit/dangerous projectile to shows due to their appearance in a song lyric. This year’s top ridiculous banned item at a festival looks to be potato peelers, the result of the ongoing feud between brothers/former Oasis bandmates Noel and Liam Gallagher. Playing off his fondness for referring to his brother as a potato and mocking Noel’s infamous “scissor player” (who accompanied him during a TV performance), Liam last year asked someone to bring a potato peeler to his gig and join him onstage. Someone, brilliantly, did just that, so after it was announced that Liam would be a headliner at the Parklife festival this year, the U.K. event’s founder said the utensil would “most definitely” not be allowed.
COLD: More Prohibited Items News
Speaking of prohibited items and Foo Fighters! The Rock band’s funny backstage riders have previously made music-news rounds, and now a list of banned items reportedly posted at a Foos gig in New Zealand is following suit. Besides umbrellas and fireworks, other things not allowed at the concert included scythes, “derogatory press clippings of Shania Twain,” leg warmers, Ted Nugent-free issues of Creem magazine and “any mention of Friendster or Webster (starring Emmanuel Lewis).” The band’s involvement in the list hasn’t been confirmed, but the sense of humor is incredibly on-brand.
This article appears in Jan 31 – Feb 7, 2018.