Rock'n'Roll Board of Compliance Disciplines Elton John

Woah, he is really pushing it. It would be fun to be fly on a wall when someone told him he "can't" go sing in Israel. I wonder if anything got broken in the ensuing diva-esque rant.

Shocking!

Next, we'll hear he will be playing in Arizona!

Elton John the rebel, who'd thunk it?

Actually, it doesn't surprise me at all. I've always thought he was a sensible person, underneath the glitter and the frou-frou.

You have seen Tantrums & Tiaras I trust?

The fact that he sang at Rush's wedding and his reasons for agreeing to do so impressed me. He is a sensible man.
And I've always really liked his music.

Above all else he is an entertainer! From all accounts I have heard he is a great one ! Few artists can put on a performance/concert as he does !

Rock and Roll Board of Compliance - that's funny. And it explains a few things - the standard-issue uniform of the aging male rock star (spandex, mascara, hair) and the generational re-issue of the pattismithmadonnaladygaga clone (in the union contract).

Does the RRBC Board and the Hollywood Board of Compliance have a formal partnership - or do they just steal each other's meeting minutes and hire the same flack to write their mission statements?

The RRBC imposes strict requirements on male rock group publicity photos. The band members absolutely must assume poses and facial expressions that make them look like total spastics. For proof, look at the back of any album CD.

..and the women to assume the look of perpetual sexual climax. No wonder they get such a heavy allowance for plastic surgery.

...um, IAC, I was just looking at the RRBC manual (the revision that came out in 2007 by Wiley) and it says that band members should assume the look of "...profound boredom, angst, and alienation..." but it doesn't mention anything about spastic. I think you are just making this stuff up.

(Interesting clause about one band member wearing dark-framed glasses in every third shot, usually bass but never the drummer. )

My edition is much older. The page listed in the index under 'spastic' contained the prime example: Freddie and the Dreamers.

Section XIV Clause 5 Paragraph 3 dictates that any rocker who reaches my age is confined to recording studio albums and banned from any public appearance so that the image remains from 40 years ago and nobody sees the bald head and pot belly.

I was sorry that the Compliance Board fell two votes shy of enacting the rule that any balding male over 50 be prohibited from wearing a ponytail.

That was just Board politics – trying to place nice after they settled that case with the estate of Kurt Cobain, on the grounds that the requirement for an overdose, death resulting by at least one band member, was unconstitutional.

Metal and heavy rock have no age limit. They tour these days and do better than some of the younger acts. No one is going to complain how they look because they look just like their audience.

Look eighty when you’re forty and eight-ies when you’re eighty. Something like that.

But when the AARP starts offering bus tours to Crue Fest, the bloom is off the rose.

Well I wouldn't like that on many grounds. Its amusing how in Europe, especially in the UK do special packages ,really nice, to major rock/metal festivals. Its for those whose camping days are over.