Hypocritical blather from the Phantom of the Men's Stall. George Michael doesn't think a new generation of pop stars has the gravitas to record a Band-aid-style charity song:

Michael said today's chart stars were too manufactured and trivial for any song to carry weight.

There were fewer credible artists around compared with when he took part in the original Band Aid with Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Bob Geldof, Sting and U2 in 1984, he has told the BBC's Hardtalk programme.

Boy band Blue are reportedly trying to enlist stars including Kylie Minogue and Justin Timberlake to record a charity version of their anti-war song Stand Up As People.

"I'm begging, I'm hoping that there will not be Band Aid 2 because the reality is that very, very few people in the industry now that you're hearing on the radio make their money from their own hearts and minds," Michael said.

"They make their money from singing the words of others, and so therefore the weight of something called Band Aid 2 would be incredibly slight," he told Hardtalk. [BBC]

As far as the popsters mentioned go, he's right, they're total lightweights. But didn't George Michael come out of a total lightweight pop group called Wham!, one half of which consisted of a person who never sang or played a note, who was there because he was "friends" with George, young and good looking? Wasn't George given the chance to develop as an artist after he left this lightweight pop setting? What if he had been told, "Don't even bother, you wanker - you don't have the weight to become a serious artist, and keep that fucking 'feed the world' tripe to yourself, you Nancy."

All I am saying is give others the same chance you got, George.