Music News Blog

The years of drug abuse, alcoholism and bat-chewing - not to mention the 2003 quad-bike accident that almost cost him his life - have clearly taken their toll on Ozzy Osbourne: the figure on stage in his home town, the heartland of heavy metal, was a pale and rather pathetic shadow of the man who used to be the charismatic frontman of the world's most awesome heavy metal band, Black Sabbath.

Once upon a time, Osbourne used to channel the ferocity of his band's dark riffery like a maestro of malevolence; here, he had about as much charisma as Timmy Mallett, and walked the stage with the shuffling gait, familiar to viewers of The Osbournes, of someone who has lost a great many neurons.

"Are you ready to go crazy? Come on then, let's go crazy," he yelled at the crowd at the start of the Birmingham leg of his world tour. The crowd went a little bit wild for a while, but although Osbourne kept shouting at us, with increasing desperation, to "go f***ing crazy", there wasn't a lot to go crazy about.

Eve was arrested back in April after she was apprehended after her gold Maserati hit a road center divider which caused damage to her car.

In a court room last Thursday, the singer/actress pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of drunk driving where her alcohol blood level was recorded at an amount above 0.08 percent.

As her punishment she was ordered to wear a SCRAM alcohol monitoring ankle bracelet for 45 days.

She was also order to enroll and attend a three month first offender alcohol education program, attend at least ten Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Her probation will last for about 36 month where she will have a set of laws she must follow but does not have to report to a parole officer.

Not that she has enough as a punishment as a first time offender but of course she had to be fine as well at an amount of $1,400.

The performer, whose full name is Eve Jihan Jeffers, was not injured during the April accident, in which she drove her car into a center divider on Hollywood Boulevard at 2:40 a.m.

At the scene police officers administered a Breathalyzer test and then took her into custody and booked her on suspicion of driving under the influence.

A hearing has been set for later this month as a followup, at which time Eve's lawyer must prove that the rapper has enrolled in an alcohol-education program and is still wearing the monitor anklet.

If she fails to complete any of the tasks she was ordered she may face jail time.

Our Thoughts
Seemingly this may seem too much of a punishment for a celebrity, but the judge treated the case like another other normal DUI case and dealt with it accordingly.

VETERAN music group The Bats will present a lively show at the Vodacom Amphitheatre at The Boardwalk on Sunday.

The Bats' brand new two-hour "loudly South African" show promises to take audiences on a taxi ride from the Cape to the Townships, from the 1950s to the present and guarantees laughter and hair-raising moments. Originally formed in 1964, The Bats became South Africa's answer to The Beatles.

Some of the members of this legendary group are still well-known in South Africa's entertainment circles.

Popular South African comedian and actor Eddie Eckstein is the band's drummer and provides vocals, while guitarist, vocalist, keyboard and bass player Paul Ditchfield, recently acted in the remake of The Flight of the Phoenix. The other two band members are guitarist Pete Clifford and newcomer Derek Gordon. In the early 1970s, the band won a Sarie Award for their single, Who's that Girl.

In the 1980s, The Bats released a number of hit singles such as In a Shabby Little Hut and Vat hom Dawie.