Scene and Heard

MUSIC NEWS: If you’re not a fan of Olympic boxing, some of the best sporting fun of recent days has been the verbal sparring between Elton John and Madonna.

The British singer renewed the longstanding enmity in an interview with an Australian TV station, stating: “Her career is over. Her tour has been a disaster and it couldn’t happen to a bigger c**t.” John, reportedly unhappy about Madonna’s disparagement of his pal Lady Gaga, also said she looks like a “fairground stripper”. Madonna herself has been quite restrained in her response, with a ‘source’ close to the singer saying she doesn’t care about John’s remarks. “She has nothing to prove to anyone, especially Elton John.”

Meanwhile, at the other end of the bitchosphere, those nice people in The xx have unveiled a new song online. ‘Chained’ is taken from the new album, Coexist, due for release in September. We’ve heard one other track from the album and it’s a dinger. Tom Waits is also on the release trail, though the pulling back the curtain on his superb video for ‘Hell Broke Luce’ was greeted as something of an anti-climax by fans who had been teased by a number of emails hinting that a big announcement was to take place. With dubstep gaining traction in America, Korn singer Jonathan Davis has told Spinner magazine he believes the genre is the “new electronic heavy metal”. Finally, while we can’t imagine Mick Flannery high-kicking on a Broadway stage, an interview with the Blarney singer in Hot Press has revealed tentative plans are afoot to try to turn his debut album Evening Train into a musical.