Sunday 26 September 2010

Verve Drummer Joins The Charlatans

The Verve drummer Pete Salisbury has joined The Charlatans to replace Jon Brookes as he battles a brain tumour.


The British band cancelled a string of shows in the U.S. after the percussionist collapsed at a gig in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania last week (15Sep10). He was later diagnosed with brain cancer and will take a break from the group to focus on his health struggle.


The Charlatans vowed to continue performing and have now hired Salisbury to take over the drums on their upcoming U.K. tour.


The band will unveil the new line-up at a charity gig in London on Monday (27Sep10) and the tour kicks off in Hatfield, England on 5 October (10).

Sunday 5 September 2010

Ricky Gervais Inspired By Rockers Like Richard Ashcroft

Funnyman Ricky Gervais has praised rockers Richard Ashcroft and Liam Gallagher for giving him inspiration for one of his films.


During a Q&A at the Soho Hotel in London for the DVD release of Cemetery Junction, directors Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant admitted Liam, 37, and Richard, 38, were the inspirations behind the comedy-drama.


Gervais, 49, found that actors fell into two categories, half that play society types and half that play violent wife-beating roles.


But the Extras star worked with Stephen to make their characters different and more like rock stars.
He said: 'We didn't want it to be one those really gritty 'isn't England a bit depressing and crap and normal' films.


'We wanted it to be a bit more glorious and evoke those possibly false memories of every day being sunny and brilliant and fun, that's how I remember my childhood.'


Ricky added: 'We cast about a thousand people to try and find these Jimmy Deans and John Travoltas - half of them will be Mr Darcy one day, and the other half will be going, 'You f****** slags.'


'So we had to look to our rock stars like Richard Ashcroft and Liam Gallagher, that's where we rule the world.'


Stephen added: 'This country's always been very good at making rock stars, and rock stars are unashamedly cool but somehow British films are less like that, it's like we're a little bit more embarrassed to be like that.


'We need to be self-conscious and make things seem gloomier and grittier but that wasn't my experience of growing up, everything seemed very cool to me.'