Thea Gilmore, The Sage, Gateshead

Thea Gilmore has never sung songs penned by a Womble, sung about Rehab while in treatment or been pictured falling out of nightclubs. She is not as famous as Katie, Amy and Lily, although none of them can count Bruce Springsteen and Joan Baez among their fans. The gulf between Gilmore and some of her more showbiz twentysomething rivals is obvious the moment she walks on and dedicates the set to blues legend Bo Diddley, who died last week.

However, the packed room suggests ordinary civilians are finally catching on. And not before time: Gilmore is a dream fusion of Lucinda Williams' songwriting expertise and Chrissie Hynde's crystalline vocals. At just 28, the Cheshire-based singer's grasp of imagery can be breathtaking, not least when she sets a scene in Avalanche: "3pm. Blue as a road sign, with a gag and some cheap wine."

Her songs confront depression and visit doomed characters such as Rosie, whose personality, Gilmore explains, "is a great place to visit but you wouldn't wanna live there". A stream of dark beauty is broken up by entertaining covers (Dead Or Alive's You Spin Me Round, delivered in a sultry style) and the banter with her guitarist-husband, Nigel Stonier. Comparing his new double harmonica set-up to the pompous double-necked guitars made infamous by prog rock, he reveals how fiasco struck once in Nottingham when he blew the wrong one. "Nobody noticed," deadpans his wife.

Then it is back to intensity, with Black Letter having the messianic feel of early Waterboys and Dance in New York a sure-fire hit - if it was not seven minutes long. Such is the way of giant talent, but it will be a travesty if she follows Bo Diddley and only makes the front pages when she is gone.

· At the Phoenix, Exeter, tonight. Box office: 01392 667080. Then touring.


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C-Bo

   
Artist: C-Bo

   Genre(s): 
Rap: Hip-Hop
   Other
   Techno
   

---

Discography:


   
 Money to Burn

   Year: 2006   
Tracks: 15


   
 The Greatest Hits

   Year: 2005   
Tracks: 20


   
 West Side Ryders

   Year: 2003   
Tracks: 19


   
 The Gas Chamber

   Year: 2003   
Tracks: 13


   
 Tales From the Crypt

   Year: 2002   
Tracks: 12


   
 Enemy of the State

   Year: 2000   
Tracks: 18


   
 The Autopsy

   Year: 1999   
Tracks: 6


   
 One Life 2 Live

   Year: 1999   
Tracks: 12

---

Beginning with his 1993 debut, Gas Chamber, C-BO made it clear that he planned on surprising rap listeners with his controversial lyrics, which would finally land him in clink. Of course, the hardcore Californian's steady rise towards continued popularity increased year by class, with an album organism released about every year next his jaw-dropping debut. With album titles such as Postmortem examination and Tales From the Crypt, C-BO cursorily attained a cultus following, similar to the small legions of listeners swarming contrary rappers such as Esham, Brotha Lynch Hung, and Three Six Mafia. Yet as C-BO began to suppurate as an creative person, he affected away from exploitative themes, though he soundless graded among the West Coast's to the highest degree extreme hardcore rappers. By the time his 1998 album, Till My Casket Drops, the Cali rapper found himself debuting at number 41 on Billboard's Top 200 album chart, an awe-inspiring feat for such an subway rapper. In 2000 -- later oddly being captive in 1998 for his lyric depicted object -- he released Foe of the State on Warlock, continuing his climb to recognition.

Michael Jackson gets to keep Neverland

Washington (ANI): Michael Jackson has successfully saved his Neverland Ranch from a foreclosure sale after a loan on the estate was sold to an investment firm. The property in California was reportedly being sold off on May 14 if in case Jackson could not pay 24.5 million dollars he owed in property taxes. sHowever, Jacko breathed a sigh of relief when Colony Capital, a New York-based private equity group, stepped in to buy his loan. According to a statement from Jackson, the popstar is in discussions with Colony and its founder Tom Barrack Jr. "with regard to the ranch and other matters", reports Contactmusic. Meanwhile the company seems to be "very comfortable" holding the loan while it settles upon payment terms.

Rosie says she's waiting to remarry Kelli

NEW YORK —

Ellen DeGeneres is doing it. So is George Takei. But Rosie O'Donnell isn't jumping at the chance to walk down the aisle.

O'Donnell and her girlfriend, Kelli Carpenter, were married four years ago when the mayor of San Francisco allowed same-sex marriages. The California Supreme Court later declared such marriages invalid.

Now the state's highest court has ruled that denying same-sex marriages was discriminatory, and many gay and lesbian couples, including DeGeneres and girlfriend Portia de Rossi and Takei and his partner, Brad Altman, are planning to tie the knot.

O'Donnell told AP Radio that she and Carpenter are "going to wait until it's legal everywhere, because otherwise, I said to Kelli, we'll be going around touring the country on the marriage tour every state by state."

"Once it gets to be at the federal level, once every state recognizes the marriages of every other state, I think that'll be the time we would do it," the 46-year-old comedian said.

Asked if she thought that time was near, O'Donnell replied, "Yes."

"The same way it was illegal for black and white people to marry at one point and people couldn't conceive of that ever being different, I do think that two consenting, law-abiding adults who want to share their life together should be allowed to do that," she said.

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