Seflie Sticks Banned in British Music Venues

Call it justice, call it luck, or just call it about time, but it appears that venues in England are finally getting the memo that not everyone wants a huge device in their eye sight while at a concert, especially if they paid some serious cash to be there.

According to Billboard, London’s O2 Arena, O2 Academy Brixton, and SSE Wembley are just some of the music venues that are implementing a “no selfie stick” policy.

If you’re new or just oblivious to the new “trend,” someone decided to create an extended stick in which you can put your phone or camera at the end. this will allow the person to take a photo, or video, of a performance of without the issue of getting people’s heads in the shot.

“The O2 do not allow selfie sticks into the arena due to safety considerations and so as not to impact the view of other fans. We welcome selfies, but leave the stick at home please,” an O2 spokesperson told the music publication about the high in demand gift that was pretty much sold out everywhere during the 2014 holiday season.

“This is in keeping with our existing policy that prohibits the filming and photography during a performance with iPads and other tablet devices and includes such obstructions for the satisfaction of other customers.”

In other words, no one wants to see your hot pink or aquamarine colored stick while you try to take a picture of All Time Low from the pit.

“Selfies are a big part of the gig experience, the stick might mean you are refused entry to the venues” said a Wembley Arena spokesperson.

“Our advice is don’t bring them and stick with the tried-and-tested use of an arm.”

Ouch.

The implementation against the selfie stick in British music venues comes on the heels of British sports arenas banning the contraption on their premises. Teams such as Manchester United, Manchester City, and Arsenal have all banned it.

In other news, the fact that a stick to take pictures of you is making someone some serious cash at the moment, makes us want to hit our head against a wall. Repeatedly.

Tyson Stevens’ Cause of Death Reportedly Revealed

Scary Kids Scaring Kids fans were hit with horrible news early this week when it was confirmed that former frontman Tyson Stevens had passed away.

What began as a rumor on Twitter with people sharing their condolences on social media was quickly confirmed by Stevens’ new band, Coma Prevails.

Coma Prevail posted on Facebook that they would reveal what led to Stevens’ death, but out of respect for the family, they would do so at a later time.

Unlike the band and several media outlets, TMZ have already gotten the cause of death or at least what is believed to be the cause of death.

According to the gossip site, Stevens’ mother and girlfriend, who found him on Monday in his Tuscan home, told cops that his death was caused by a drug overdose, possible heroin though he had recently been clean.

Read the full statement from TMZ below:

“Scary Kids Scaring Kids singer Tyson Stevens died from a drug overdose, possibly heroin … that’s what his mom and girlfriend told cops. 

Stevens died Monday and the official cause of death is unknown. But law enforcement sources tell TMZ … there’s smoke. The girlfriend and mom say Stevens had struggled with heroin addiction for a long time, although he was recently clean.

Our sources say Stevens’ body had “old track marks” that had scabbed on his inner right ankle. We’re told there was no heroin in the house where he died, but cops did find weed and pipes.

The toxicology report should reveal precise cause of death. It’s due in a few weeks.”

Even though TMZ is usually right on when it comes to these kinds of things, all we could truly do, is wait for the toxicology report to be released which like the report says, can take up to a few weeks.

Urban Outfitters NOT the Ruler of Vinyl Sales

Sorry Urban Outfitters, it looks like your secret is out, you aren’t the king of vinyl sales after all.

Last week, Urban Outfitters took a victory lap around record stores when the chief administrator officer Calvin Hollinger claimed his company was the “world’s number one vinyl seller.”

Not happy or convinced about that claim, Billboard decided to do their own snooping into the claim and of course, they found out that Hollinger had exaggerated his claim that Urban Outfitters were the top seller of vinyl.

The music mag took it upon themselves to survey music labels, their distributors, and wholesalers which according to them makes up about 80% of the United States music market.

The result revealed that Amazon is actually the number one seller of vinyls, not Urban Outfitters like we were all led to believe. In the statement from last week, Hollinger had said that their sales even trumped Amazon; guess that was not true.

According to the survey, Amazon comes in with a total of 12.3% of the market vinyl sales market while Urban Outfitters actually comes in at number two with 8.1% of the vinyl market. Rounding out the list of the top five sellers of vinyls are Hastings Entertainment with 2.8%, Hot Topic with 2.4%, and Trans World Entertainment with 2.2%.

Label sales and distribution executives pointed out that Amazon has a further reach internationally than Urban Outfitters who only have about 50 outside of the U.S. as opposed to the 300 plus they have stateside.

Apparently, the people behind Urban Outfitters knew this backlash was going to happen because according to Billboard’s report, they haven’t been able to get in touch with any of the executives at the company and were told by the operators, they do not speak with the pres.

Ouch. Well, no one likes to be seen with egg on their face.

Morrissey in the Middle of a Not So “Peaceful” Lawsuit

UPDATE: It was only a matter of time before Morrissey would speak out about the accusations against him.

Like always, the singer has taken to his blog, True to You to deny all accusations.

In the lengthy post, he reveals he has had issues with David Tseng, the Morrissey-solo.com editor and the person the so-called hit was placed on, in the past, but nothing that would warrant him to get “hurt” or killed.

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We all know that Morrissey like things his way, but we didn’t know he was willing to use bodily harm to get it, at least according to a new lawsuit. And here we thought he was a lover, not a fighter.

In a new lawsuit, the frontman’s former security guard claims that he was fired because he refused to injure a fan.

According to TMZ, who we all know are good at getting the dirt, the bodyguard, Bradley Steyn was hired after an incident during a Morrissey show last May in San Jose where admires rushed the stage, knocking down the Smiths’ singer in the process.

Steyn claims that the Moz fired him shortly after that because he refused to “hurt” a fan that runs the fansite, Morrissey-solo.com, which was started back in 1997.

Steyn says that Morrissey asked him if the fan “could get hurt” because he felt that the website “invaded his personal life.”

But that’s not where this ongoing circus ends. Steyn says that Morrissey’s tour manager even went so far as to wonder aloud if said fan “could be gotten rid of” and if they could somehow find his address to do the deed.

Funnily enough, all this drama comes a few weeks after the Moz released his new album, World Peace is None of Your Business.

Guess there is no “world” peace among these people. At all.

Lana Del Rey Hits Back About Macabre Quote

Before Lana Del Rey’s album Ultraviolence (finally) hit stores to her adoring fans, the songstress did an interview with The Guardian in which she said admitted she found the early deaths of Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse glamorous and said the disturbing quote, “I wish I was dead already.” For some, it didn’t exactly come off as a surprise that she would say something as dark as that because her last album was titled Born to Die, even though the truth is, we are born to die.

A week or so since that interview had been published, the “West Coast” singer has backtracked saying that it was taken out of context by the interviewer. Taking to her Twitter she calls out the writer by saying, “I regret trusting the guardian.”

She then followed it up by writing, “I didn’t want to do an interview but the journalist was persistent.”

Then, she went after the writer, Alexis Petridis saying that “[He was] masked as a fan but was hiding a sinister ambitions and angles. Maybe he’s actually the boring one looking for something interesting to write about,” she continued on her worded rampage.

“His leading questions about death and persona were calculated.”

But it turns out, that Petridis was not the author of the piece; rather, it as The Guardian’s music editor, Tim Jonze. Jonze went on to publish a lengthy piece about her words and even went to say that Del Rey was “delightful company” and defended his own words.

If you’re not convinced, Jonze went on to release the two-minute clip of the so-called “death” chat, but the transcript can be read below. Sadly, the audio has been taken down. We can only assume who was behind that.

Tim Jonze: This is quite a dark question to ask, but is there a fancy of dying young yourself you could subscribe to?

Lana Del Rey: Yeah, you know, I wish I was dead already.

TJ: Don’t say that.

LDR: But I do.

TJ: You don’t!

LDR: I do! I don’t want to have to keep doing this. But I am.

Artists Protesting Florida? Not So Fast

After the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin ruling two weeks back, many artist have come out of the woodwork to protest the state of Florida over a reason that no one truly knows. Whether it’s the ruling (just for those that are not familiar, Zimmerman was found not guilty) or the actual “Stand Your Ground” law, artist were rumored to be protesting the state (you read right, the state, not just that particular city).

Word got around yesterday through the Huffington Post that artists such as Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, The Rolling Stones and many more would be staying clear from Florida due to the verdict outcome. The Monday after the verdict, Stevie Wonder had come out saying that he would not be entering the state of Florida for anything as a protest. Today, it turns out, many of the representatives are coming to the defense of their performers saying that their clients had never heard of or been contacted about the list.

American Urban Radio Network’s White House correspondent April Ryan first reported the list, claiming that she had gotten the information from credible  “sources close to the Stevie Wonder camp.” The Huffington Post had said that they were at the time trying to contact the artists’ representatives even though they had posted the list. At the time, the only representative that had gotten back to them was Rihanna’s who revealed that she was not involved. MotherJones got word that The Rolling Stones had not even heard about the campaign.

When doubt started to reach an all time high, Ryan released a statement on her website where she explains that she got a ext in the middle of the night from someone who were “in support of Stevie.” Her statement could be seen below:

I obtained from multiple sources early Monday a list of artists and entertainers who my sources told me had committed to a boycott of Florida following the George Zimmerman acquittal. Since publishing that list I have heard from several representatives of the artists named who say, on behalf of their clients, they are uncomfortable being identified on that list and are seeking additional information.

Additional representatives have come out to debunk that their clients, who were on the list, were even aware that their names had been put on the list of protesters, which begs the question, if Ryan didn’t put this list together then who did?

Supposedly protests not only those mentioned above, but also

• Mary Mary
• Eddie Levert
• Rod Stewart
• Madonna
• Usher
• Pattie Labelle
• Kanye West
• Mary J
• Trey Songz
• R. Kelly
• Alicia Keys
• Joe
• Will I AM
• Keyshia Cole
• Young Jeezy
• Erykah Badu
• Wale
• Frankie Beverly
• Parliament

Patrick Carney vs. The Beliebers

We all know that  Beliebers are a vicious group of fanatics who worship the ground that Justin Bieber walks on. First they attacked Selena Gomez when she started dating the pop star then there was the cutting incident when they start to slit their wrists when Bieber was photographed smoking weed and then there was the Grammy snub.

It looks like the tweenaged  Beliebers have met their match in The Black Keys’ drummer, Patrick Carney. For those that missed  the news earlier this week, Carney was asked by a TMZ reporter what he had thought about Bieber being snubbed by the Grammys and not get a single nomination for this album. Carney responded the same way many adult and non- Beliebers would, he said “He’s rich, right? Grammys are for like music, not for money… and he’s making a lot of money. He should be happy.”

Bieber retaliated by saying that Carney needed to get slapped around and it turns out that his loyal and vicious followers thought the same. There have been a lot of death threats and even some instances of asking the sticksman if he was gay, but how did he take it? Turns out that all you really need to derail those obsessive tweens is to have a sense of humor.

Here are some of Carney’s hilarious responses to the Bieber fans, but to check them all out, you can head on over to his Twitter page; it’s actually quite comical to see misspelled and grammatically incorrect threats.