Twitter Scandals
Well well...I had thought my recent excursions on here into the world of Twitter might be mere one-offs, and Twitter would barely get a mention henceforth. The beginning of this week, however, has produced a whole three newsworthy tales from the strange world of Manchester’s Twittering celebrities.
First up, we have Mani – ex-bassist with the Stone Roses, now of Primal Scream and collaborator with Peter Hook on the FAC 251 project, as well as playing bass with Mr Hook in a self-dubbed ‘super band’, called Freebass. Recently, it seems, Hooky (as he is affectionately known amongst Manchester’s whimsical community) called time on Freebass, just before the upcoming launch of their first album. Mani – a bassist with a Twitter account and a chip on his shoulder – wasn’t too happy, judging by the following messages Tweeted over the weekend, all of them directed at Peter ‘Hooky’ Hook and the Freebass project:
"used to adore the man, now he's a self centred sellout reduced to hawking his mates corpse around to get paid. And he can't play"
"I'm fine, dunno about the vulture who is ravenously devouring the last morsels of putrid flesh from Wilson/Curtis bones [...] I'm getting back with the "real"players tomorrow thank fuck. Can't be doing with talentless nostalgia fuckwit whores."
"and I haven't even started on the cunt’s amateur night, one trick pony shite 2 string bass playing yet either. Used to laugh [...] we were all laughing behind his back watching the stupid wank struggle to do the same old shit he's done for the last 30 years !!"
There were more but...well, we lost interest to be honest. The language, of course, is Mani’s, not our own, so you’ll have to excuse us that. Interestingly, barely had the week begun when a public apology had been issued from Mani and duly accepted by Hook – after it had appeared in all of the local and national press. What’s that smell? Can you smell it too? Hmm...smells like a PR stunt to me.
Next in line could slightly tenuously be referred to as a furore and is still, as I type, developing its legs. By the time I’ve finished typing it may either have been completely forgotten about or, equally, caused the biggest celebrity stir since...well, something big. The former, I suspect, but nevertheless Jason Manford deserves a mention for his openness and lack of apparent fear through his Twitter account. It’s a reasonably long and complicated story but I will try to condense it so as not to waste any more of your time than is reasonable:
Jason did a gig over the weekend for the Help the Heroes charity, in which he made a comment about the lack of support from the government for those going out to war and, crucially, returning injured. Watching the cut of the show today, which is due to be televised, his comment questioning the government has been removed in the editing process – something he Tweeted about:
“Just watched my bit at the @HelpforHeroes gig. Can't believe some shithouse edited out the bit about the Government. Free Speech my arse!” “I said it's disgusting that they sent soldiers out, they come back injured & have to rely on charity. 1 in 4 homeless people are ex-services.”
Quite right Jason. I especially like the use of the word ‘shithouse’.
We’ve saved the biggest fuss for last - a story that has spread from Canal Street to around the world in a matter of hours, largely, if not wholly, thanks to Twitter. John Amaechi is an ex-NBA basketball player who now lives in Manchester – he’s from here originally. He’s a public speaker now and famously the first NBA player to come out as gay, albeit some years after his retirement. That explains the speed with which the story spread, incidentally – his connection with the NBA - but it doesn’t take away from the incident in question. He was (apparently, we have to say for legal reasons) refused entry to a bar on Canal Street because he was, “big and black and could be trouble.” Here’s his original Tweet:
“I can't believe it. I got barred from entering a bar (Crunch Bar in Manchester) because I was "big and black and could be trouble." Wow.”
The story has since been on the BBC news and of course all over the internet and the apparent final word came from John himself, on his blog, where he has posted a three page statement from the bar. A statement, incidentally, that he quite clearly states he in no way endorses, agrees with or recognises as any moral conclusion to the matter. You can read all about that here but we’d rather end with a picture of the man himself; one he uses as the title to his blog – a page that, when you arrive on it, is dominated by this. I love the apparent vanity. I might adopt a similar format for this blog...or maybe not.
First up, we have Mani – ex-bassist with the Stone Roses, now of Primal Scream and collaborator with Peter Hook on the FAC 251 project, as well as playing bass with Mr Hook in a self-dubbed ‘super band’, called Freebass. Recently, it seems, Hooky (as he is affectionately known amongst Manchester’s whimsical community) called time on Freebass, just before the upcoming launch of their first album. Mani – a bassist with a Twitter account and a chip on his shoulder – wasn’t too happy, judging by the following messages Tweeted over the weekend, all of them directed at Peter ‘Hooky’ Hook and the Freebass project:
"used to adore the man, now he's a self centred sellout reduced to hawking his mates corpse around to get paid. And he can't play"
"I'm fine, dunno about the vulture who is ravenously devouring the last morsels of putrid flesh from Wilson/Curtis bones [...] I'm getting back with the "real"players tomorrow thank fuck. Can't be doing with talentless nostalgia fuckwit whores."
"and I haven't even started on the cunt’s amateur night, one trick pony shite 2 string bass playing yet either. Used to laugh [...] we were all laughing behind his back watching the stupid wank struggle to do the same old shit he's done for the last 30 years !!"
There were more but...well, we lost interest to be honest. The language, of course, is Mani’s, not our own, so you’ll have to excuse us that. Interestingly, barely had the week begun when a public apology had been issued from Mani and duly accepted by Hook – after it had appeared in all of the local and national press. What’s that smell? Can you smell it too? Hmm...smells like a PR stunt to me.
Next in line could slightly tenuously be referred to as a furore and is still, as I type, developing its legs. By the time I’ve finished typing it may either have been completely forgotten about or, equally, caused the biggest celebrity stir since...well, something big. The former, I suspect, but nevertheless Jason Manford deserves a mention for his openness and lack of apparent fear through his Twitter account. It’s a reasonably long and complicated story but I will try to condense it so as not to waste any more of your time than is reasonable:
Jason did a gig over the weekend for the Help the Heroes charity, in which he made a comment about the lack of support from the government for those going out to war and, crucially, returning injured. Watching the cut of the show today, which is due to be televised, his comment questioning the government has been removed in the editing process – something he Tweeted about:
“Just watched my bit at the @HelpforHeroes gig. Can't believe some shithouse edited out the bit about the Government. Free Speech my arse!” “I said it's disgusting that they sent soldiers out, they come back injured & have to rely on charity. 1 in 4 homeless people are ex-services.”
Quite right Jason. I especially like the use of the word ‘shithouse’.
We’ve saved the biggest fuss for last - a story that has spread from Canal Street to around the world in a matter of hours, largely, if not wholly, thanks to Twitter. John Amaechi is an ex-NBA basketball player who now lives in Manchester – he’s from here originally. He’s a public speaker now and famously the first NBA player to come out as gay, albeit some years after his retirement. That explains the speed with which the story spread, incidentally – his connection with the NBA - but it doesn’t take away from the incident in question. He was (apparently, we have to say for legal reasons) refused entry to a bar on Canal Street because he was, “big and black and could be trouble.” Here’s his original Tweet:
“I can't believe it. I got barred from entering a bar (Crunch Bar in Manchester) because I was "big and black and could be trouble." Wow.”
The story has since been on the BBC news and of course all over the internet and the apparent final word came from John himself, on his blog, where he has posted a three page statement from the bar. A statement, incidentally, that he quite clearly states he in no way endorses, agrees with or recognises as any moral conclusion to the matter. You can read all about that here but we’d rather end with a picture of the man himself; one he uses as the title to his blog – a page that, when you arrive on it, is dominated by this. I love the apparent vanity. I might adopt a similar format for this blog...or maybe not.
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