DO THE JACKO

It seems that everything Michael Jackson touches still turns to gold. The rights to the comedy song Do The Bartman, which the star wrote for an episode of The Simpsons, recently sold for $38,000. Simpsons boss Matt Groening said back in 1998, “It has always been amazing to me that no-one ever found out that Michael Jackson wrote that song.” In other news, Jackson’s sound engineer Michael Durham Prince claims he has 20 unfi nished tracks by the late pop star on his computer, but can’t let anyone hear them due to an agreement with Sony.

Tidal goes purple

Prince has released his latest album HITNRUN exclusively via Jay Z’s Tidal streaming service. “After one meeting, it was obvious that Jay Z and the team at TIDAL recognise and applaud the effort that real musicians put in2 their craft 2 achieve the very best they can at this pivotal time in the music industry,” said Prince in a statement. “Secondly, TIDAL have honoured Us with a nonrestrictive arrangement that once again allows Us to continue making art in the fashion we’ve grown accustomed 2 and We’re Extremely grateful 4 their generous support.” His all-girl backing band 3RDEYEGIRL seemed pretty excited by the new music: “Super hardcore Prince fans that know every song he’s ever recorded – we refer to them as The Purple Collective or The Purple Army – and this album is absolutely for them, because it’s super funky.”

Absolutely Kylie’s Flying Circus

Kylie Minogue has added her musical talents to Terry Gilliam’s fi rst directorial project in two decades, contributing a brand new track entitled Absolutely Anything to the Monty Python man’s sci-fi comedy of the same name. The movie stars Simon Pegg and Kate Beckinsale alongside Sanjeev Bhaskar, Eddie Izzard and Joanna Lumley, and concerns a group of aliens who confer the power to do absolutely anything upon a human being. It also features the vocal talents of Robin Williams in his last-ever role, plus the entire Python team – Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, and Eric Idle. The project is a dream come true for fan-girl Kylie. “Growing up in Australia, Monty Python thrilled, baffl ed and entertained my entire family,” she says. “I’m such a fan, so to record the theme song was a great honour.” The feeling is mutual: “I was thrilled Kylie recorded the fi lm’s end title song,” adds Gilliam. “She’s not as small as everyone says she is.” Oh, yes she is…