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Rachel Stevens cancels tour of Turkmenistan

Imagine what would happen if Kelly Jones was Prime Minister.

Now consider this update in our half-arsed and long-forgotten Keep Music Mimed campaign: Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov has only gone and banned miming! (Link via NYLPM)

Fine, so he banned opera a couple of years ago. That’s all very well because opera has ‘had its day’ and these days it’s mostly just cover versions anyway. But this is just not on!

According to Laughing Boy Niyazov, lip-synching has “a negative effect on the development of singing and musical art. Don’t kill talents by using lip synching… Create our new culture.”

Well, Saparmurat, we can tell you right now what this so-called ‘new culture’ will be like. It will be shit. And when it all goes tits up and all you have is a musical landscape populated with bands who look and sound like Morning Runner, don’t come running to us.