If you’d paid for tickets to a special ‘Mother’s Day Weekend’ R Kelly show in a Texas strip club, what would be the least you’d expect?

This is a question people who attended such a show on Saturday (Sunday was Mother’s Day in the US, you see) had to consider before paying for tickets. Do you take a punt and pay the general admission price of $30, or do you assume that it’s going to be so good that it’ll be worth forking out for one of the VIP packages costing between $60 and $550? Information about what each package offered seems to have been a bit vague. And I think it’s also fair to say that, regardless of what they paid, most people left disappointed.

Billed as “an intimate night with R Kelly”, fans who attended had to wait until nearly 1am for the singer to take to the stage. At this point, he sang over a CD playing his hit ‘Ignition (Remix)’, and left the stage again, only to return briefly to inform the crowd that if some attractive women didn’t come and join him in the VIP area forthwith, he was “going to be up out this bitch”, according to The Austinist.

As this point, the DJ for the night, who was clearly expecting more from the star too, began rallying the angry crowd, before the promoter came on stage to inform them that this was a “celebrity-hosted” party and that they were silly to expect R Kelly to perform a full show in a small club for $30 a pop. Which is true, though the promoter might still have made that clear at some point before the night began.

Still, it seems that word got back to Kelly that some people weren’t happy. So, half an hour later he returned to the stage. Not to sing, but, according to Austin Music Source, to admonish them for being so ungrateful, telling the crowd that he “wasn’t contractually obligated to sing” and that he had only done so previously as “a favour”.

Eventbrite, whose ticketing system the promoter used for the night, has said that it will offer refunds to anyone who felt short-changed.

You can enjoy the unique atmosphere of the night for yourself via this video:

When a ‘hologram’ version of Tupac Shakur stepped out onto the Coachella festival stage last month, it was generally assumed that Freddie Mercury wouldn’t be too far behind, thanks to the surviving members of Queen’s stunning lack of respect for their own legacy.

Although Roger Taylor recently said that he’d not want to perform with a 3D animation of his band’s late frontman himself, he added: “Were somebody [else] to use a hologram of Freddie I would have no objection”. And that somebody else turned out to be, er, Brian May, who revealed last night, ahead of a special tenth anniversary performance of the band’s West End show ‘We Will Rock You’, that Freddie would be making his debut appearance in the musical.

Speaking to the BBC, May said ahead of the special anniversary show: “People will come out saying, ‘did we actually see Freddie?’”

Noting that comparisons with Tupac’s recent onstage return were likely, May added that this had been planned for sometime, and used different technology to that used to resurrect the rapper. He continued: “It’s a little unfortunate they did that thing with Tupac, as we’ve been trying to make Freddie appear on the stage for quite a while. [That particular technique] is something we’ve looked at ourselves, but I think probably for a show that runs eight shows a week it’s not really quite practical”.

People indeed did come out saying “did we actually see Freddie”, though not due to amazement at the spectacle. It seems there’s some dispute over whether the special effect happened or not. However, May and Taylor did definitely perform with the cast in front of an audience which included Kylie Minogue, Robert De Niro, Bill Oddie and Mercury’s family.

The Enemy have given a sly boost to the promotional campaign for their forthcoming LP, ‘Streets In The Sky’, by publicly declaring that Simon Cowell is a “parasite”.

Speaking to NME, Tom Clarke of the band said that the Cowell-created ‘X-Factor’ was an “exploitation of people with miserable lives”, adding of the Syco mogul: “He wants a new Rolls Royce. [That's] understandable, the new one looks amazing. [But] he’s a parasite off people who’ve had bad lives”.

Turning that critical gaze inward, Clarke went on to comment on the two LPs his band has released to date, saying: “We were disappointed with both albums because both of them had something missing. The first album we’d nailed the songs, and the second album we’d nailed the sound but the songs weren’t right”.

He continued: “It feels like we’ve now got a solid platform to build on to release more albums. Now that we know it’s possible and we know how to do it and who to do it with, it feels okay”.

Well, third time’s the charm, as they do say. ‘Streets In The Sky’ is out on 21 May.

Chris Brown does love freestyling (that, and other pastimes), his latest spontaneous verses being ones set against a version of Kanye West’s new DJ Khaled duet, ‘Theraflu’, aka ‘Way Too Cold’, aka ‘Cold’.

Aside from a lot of swearing and substandard mixed metaphors, Brown’s rap also included certain pointed rhymes about an “old bitch” (ie ex girlfriend), which – for some reason – were construed by his ex girlfriend, popstar Rihanna Fenty, as remarks relating to her.

Reacting to a part of the track that ran: “Don’t fuck with my old bitch it’s like a bad fur/Every industry nigga done had her/Shook thetree like a pumpkin just to smash her/Bitch is breaking codes, but I’m the password”, Rihanna blocked Brown on Twitter, later tweeting: “Aw, poor dat #neaux1currr”. And that, for the uninitiated, means “no one cares”.

It had been thought that the pair – who broke up after Brown beat Fenty unconscious after a 2009 Grammys party – had gone some way to resolving past ills (professional, if not personal), when Brown featured on a remix of Rihanna’s ‘Talk That Talk’ track ‘Birthday Cake’.

And if (that’s ‘if’) she forgave him that, what’s the odd ‘pumpkin’ pun between former friends?

One Direction are doing pretty well on both sides of the Atlantic at the moment, I think it’s fair to say, but of all the boys it’s Harry Styles who still gets the most attention. Why? Well, just look at his floppy hair. People love that shit. But while he’s not planning to ditch the rest of those no-hopers just yet, he is seemingly in demand from various brands to promote their products all on his own (well, possibly).

A source told The Daily Star: “Harry has stacks of fans in America, it’s safe to say they absolutely love him. He’s been offered a big solo project, so he flew out to Los Angeles without the rest of the boy band. He’s been in America filming something. It may have been an advert or a film – I can’t say exactly what – but it’s worth a lot of money”.

They continued: “He’s a poster boy in the States. He has the perfect look – cute, British, well-spoken, and girls love his curly hair. He’s a corporate company’s dream and a vast number of American firms want a piece of him. All sorts of companies are vying to have him promoting their products. His family have been joking he’ll be in the Rich List before long”.

So, there you go. Of course, previous rumours the boy band’s American management planned to position Harry as the frontman of the group turned out to be nonsense. But if someone who may or may not know Harry and his family anonymously says a solo career is already emerging, then it must be true. I mean, just look at his hair.

Azealia Banks says that plans to collaborate with Lil Kim on her debut album ‘Broke’ have been scuppered because the Kimster didn’t take kindly to being given a set of rhymes to deliver written by the younger rapper. Kim’s people insisted their client would only contribute her own penned lines, though Banks in turn claims that she knows Lil Kim never writes her own raps.

Speaking via Twitter, Banks wrote last weekend: “Okay, so true tea is that Lil Kim got mad that I wrote a verse for her on a record I wanted her on. Everyone knows Lil Kim doesn’t write her own raps and I saw this as a faster more efficient way of getting the track done. [But] she then had her assistant write me some long ass offensive email about how Lil Kim writes her own raps and doesn’t need anyone’s help. So my question was and is still… IS SHE DOING THE TRACK? Who cares about what you use to do… WILL YOU DO THE TRACK?!”

I suspect that by tweeting in this way, the answer tothat question is now more likely to be “no”. In fact, I’m almost certain it is, because Kim’s publicist told All Hip Hop: “My client and Azealia have NEVER spoke to one another or met AT ALL. Kim was actually very flattered [by] Azealia’s public admiration for her, which is why it’s so hard to understand how someone who claims to be a true Lil Kim fan could flip the script so easily on someone who was supposedly their idol”.

But Banks insists she has no beef with Kim, who she’d still like to work with. A subsequent tweet read: “All this extra shit is stupid. Keep closing your own doors ma. Lil Kim, there is no beef. At all”.

Twitter can be first with the breaking news these days, of course, though we all know it has a habit of prematurely killing off most famous people at least once a month. And it seems crime updates that circulate on the micro-blogging platform can be as unreliable.

Rumours emerged online yesterday that one time hip hop mogul Suge Knight had been arrested in relation to the still ongoing investigation into the murder of Tupac Shakur.

The homicides of both Tupac and rival rapper The Notorious BIG, that took place in 1996 and 1997 respectively, remain unsolved of course, and in the various theories that have circulated over the years Knight has previously been accused – in books and articles, rather than in court – of having an involvement in either or both killings. Investigations are ongoing, though interest in Tupac’s murder, in particular, has perhaps been spiked by his recent holographic return to stage at Coachella.

Either way, rumours that Knight was in a Los Angeles jail facing charges over Shakur’s slaying are not true. A spokesman for the LAPD old Eonline.com: “I don’t have any information that Suge Knight has been arrested. We picked him up on some traffic warrants back in February and that is the last arrest [our records] show for him”.

The Wanted’s feud with fellow Brits abroad One Direction has failed to gain traction. Partly because both sides insist there never was any feud, and partly because One Direction are too busy getting golden showers and STDs off koalas. But it’s alright, there are still plenty of other popstars out there for The Wanted to fight with, and over the last week or so they’ve begun systematically running through them all one at a time. Number one in their sights was Christina Aguilera.

Aguilera is a judge on the US version of ‘The Voice’, on which The Wanted recently guested. Apparently she was pretty sullen throughout their performance of ‘Chasing The Sun’, and her reaction didn’t go down well. Especially given that Jennifer Lopez gave at least one of the boy band a sneaky kiss when they performed on ‘American Idol’.

Said the group’s Tom Parker, speaking to New York radio station Now FM: “[Christina] is a total bitch. She might not be a bitch in real life, but to us, she was a total bitch. She just sat there and didn’t speak to us. She wouldn’t even look at us”.

Meanwhile, referencing their meeting with Lopez at the ‘Idol’ recording, Max George added: “J.Lo’s hot, Christina’s nothing special!”

Possibly feeling guilty, possibly having had a talking to from their PR people, the group backtracked a little a few days later. Speaking to TMZ, Parker admitted: “We shouldn’t have said it, to be honest with you. We just think manners cost nothing, you know what I mean? The rest of the judges were really nice and she didn’t look at us or even talk to us but we apologise for the comment but we get a bit frustrated. It’s just common courtesy”.

Yeah, manners cost nothing, Christina. You really forced the otherwise well mannered Wanted to call you a “total bitch” in public. Forced them. But anyway, that doesn’t matter because, now on an etiquette crusade, the group had another star in their sights: Britney Spears, who they scored a support slot with last year.

Although Siva Kaneswaran admitted that telling this story would mean breaching a “confidentiality thing”, he explained to Fresh 102.7: “I was in the hallway with my tour manager. Basically we were looking with a laptop, trying to get wi-fi, facing the middle of the hallway. [Britney's] bouncers came down with her and told us to face the wall”.

Parker, eager not to lose his status as chief popstress offender despite having apparently not actually been there (unless he also works as The Wanted’s tour manager), butted in: “As Miss Spears is walking through. We’re like, come on!”

Kaneswaran finished the story forlornly: “We turned around and I faced a wall for about ten seconds until she got really far away”.

Perhaps recalling the stern talking to they may or may not have had from their people the last time they dissed one of the world’s biggest popstars, or possibly because they just realised they were starting to look rather ungrateful for being invited onto not only a high rating TV show but also the stage of a large scale concert, Jay McGuiness added: “When we actually met her person to person she was so down to earth”. But it was too late, the damage was done.

As news of The Wanted’s war on Britney spread around the web, E! Online got on the phone to her people for a statement, who said: “What’s even more interesting than the false allegations they made is the fact that they have claimed to be picked on by two female popstars in just a few days. Look out Lady Gaga – there are still three days left this week”.

So far The Wanted have said nothing about Lady Gaga, as far as we know. She’ll be pleased to learn that Plácido Domingo has got her back should things kick off though. He told The Daily Mail this week: “I think Lady Gaga has a very good voice. Absolutely. She has a wonderful voice. I know she’s very wild in her performance, and clever, and she does all these things to please the youth. But when you listen to her, the voice is good”.

Actually, that sounded like a slightly backhanded compliment there. So Domingo doesn’t like Lady Gaga’s performance or ‘the youth’? That’s the sort of talk that really winds up The Wanted, Plácido. I’d watch out if I were you.

A spokesperson for Britney Spears has responded to The Wanted’s recent claims that they were forced to face the wall when she walked past them backstage when they supported her at a show last year.

As previously reported, having branded Christina Aguilera a “total bitch” a few days earlier, the group made the allegations about Britney in a radio interview with New York station Fresh 102.7.

Despite the fact that talking about it apparently breached a “confidentiality thing”, the group’s Siva Kaneswaran, said: “I was in the hallway with my tour manager. Basically we were looking with a laptop, trying to get wi-fi, facing the middle of the hallway. [Britney's] bouncers came down with her and told us to face the wall. We turned around and I faced a wall for about ten seconds until she got really far away”.

Speaking to E! Online, a spokesperson for Spears said: “What’s even more interesting than the false allegations they made is the fact that they have claimed to be picked on by two female pop stars in just a few days. Look out Lady Gaga – there are still three days left this week”.

Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has announced the launch of a new company providing aviation training and maintenance based in Wales. Called Cardiff Aviation, the company will provide up to 1000 new jobs and includes Boeing amongst its clients.

Dickinson has worked as a commercial airline pilot for a number of years and was Marketing Director small airline Astraeus until last year when it went into administration. The singer said in November that he planned to try to save that company, but seemingly that has not been the case.

Announcing the new enterprise, Dickinson said in a statement: “We’re coming into this enterprise with the knowledge we’ll be bringing business to South Wales. A cautious projection is that we’d expect to create up to a thousand jobs within eighteen months based on the level of interest and commitment from aircraft manufacturers and operators. South Wales has long had an association with the aircraft industry and I am delighted I am able to play a small part in the continuation of that tradition”.

UPDATE: Note the following Tweet from the team at Cardiff Aviation – “I keep seeing mentions one of our clients is Boeing. Nooooo. Not yet. Some of our clients’ aircraft will be Boeing”. So, consider that clarified.

The Wanted have backtracked a little after calling Cristina Aguilera a “total bitch” for apparently not enjoying a performance of one of their songs.

As previously reported, Aguilera was seemingly unimpressed with the Brit boyband when they performed on the US version of ‘The Voice’, on which she is a judge, Tom Parker from the band told Now FM: “[Christina] is a total bitch. She might not be a bitch in real life, but to us, she was a total bitch. She just sat there and didn’t speak to us. She wouldn’t even look at us”.

But speaking to TMZ, Parker later admitted: “We shouldn’t have said it, to be honest with you. We just think manners cost nothing, you know what I mean? The rest of the judges were really nice and she didn’t look at us or even talk to us but we apologise for the comment but we get a bit frustrated. It’s just common courtesy”.

Having learned their lesson to think before they bitch, the group then went on to another interview engagement and promptly called Britney Spears out for what they deemed to be poor manners.

Although Siva Kaneswaran admitted that telling this story would mean breaching a “confidentiality thing”, he explained to Fresh 102.7. “I was in the hallway with my tour manager. Basically we were looking with a laptop, trying to get wi-fi, facing the middle of the hallway. [Britney's] bouncers came down with her and told us to face the wall”.

Parker, eager not to lose his status as chief popstress offender butted in: “As Miss Spears is walking through. We’re like, come on!”

Kaneswaran finished the story forlornly: “We turned around and I faced a wall for about ten seconds until she got really far away”.

And I think we can all learn something from that.

Blur guitarist Graham Coxon was one of 30 people who had to be evacuated from the Best Western Falmouth Beach Hotel in Falmouth yesterday when it caught fire. Coxon was in the town ahead of a solo performance at the Princess Pavilion venue last night.

Coxon tweeted around lunchtime: “We have rooms at The Beach Hotel and had to leave when the smell of smoke [became] a little much”. Shortly afterwards he posted a picture of the hotel very much ablaze).

The fire was attended by 100 firefighters but according to reports the building was completely gutted. No one was injured.

Tom Jones almost played James Bond, he has claimed, but was pipped to the job by some upstart called Sean Connery. Jones was just too famous, you see. Too bloody famous.

Speaking to The Radio Times, Jones said: “The only thing I regret is that I’d like to have had a pop at acting when I was younger. My name was up for James Bond at one time, but [producer] Cubby Broccoli apparently said I was too well known for people to believe it … [Also] I have a tendency to overact. It’s a Welsh thing”.

Now let’s all watch Alan Partridge explaining what a Welsh James Bond might sound like:

Despite the best efforts of us journos back in the UK, the Wanted/One Direction feud that had so much potential has never really taken off (and despite Wanted associate Capital FM banning 1D from its airwaves), but not to worry, the Wanted boys have started a new feud. With Christina Aguilera.

Aguilera is a judge on the US version of ‘The Voice’, on which The Wanted recently guested. Apparently she was pretty sullen throughout their performance of ‘Chasing The Sun’, and her reaction didn’t go down well. Especially given that Jennifer Lopez gave at least one of the boy band a sneaky kiss when they performed on ‘American Idol’.

Says Tom Wanted, speaking to New York radio station Now FM: “She [Christina] is a total bitch. She might not be a bitch in real life, but to us, she was a total bitch. She just sat there and didn’t speak to us. She wouldn’t even look at us”. Meanwhile, referencing their meeting with Lopez at the ‘Idol’ recording, George Wanted added: “J.Lo’s hot, Christina’s nothing special!”

You know, I have a new found respect for Christina Aguilera this morning. Though her records are probably being banned from the Capital airwaves as we speak, and J.Lo Monday could be a regular feature by next week.

Despite calling his children Peaches, Fifi Trixibelle and Pixie, Bob Geldof is not impressed with the former’s decision to give her new son an unusual name. Peaches Geldof has called her son by fiancé Tom Cohen, born earlier this month, Astala.

Geldof Senior seemingly told The Sun when asked about his daughter’s choice of name for his grandson: “Yuck! I’ve actually been begging them to change it. What’s he going to be called in school? Ass? Stella? It’s a girl’s name, let’s face it”.

But, despite the naming, Geldof is, obviously, delighted to have a grandchild, and even more so to have a boy in his family, having lived with four daughters for so long (his three own children by Paula Yates, and her other daughter Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, who he adopted). He continued: “I’ve swam in oestrogen my entire life, and now finally a little chap comes along. It’s great”.

Canada’s own Grimes, aka Claire ‘Third Eye’ Boucher, has designed a jewellery line in collaboration with Montreal-based artist Morgan Black. Her first creation? Why, what else but ‘Grimes Pussy Rings’. Obviously.

The collection isn’t available to buy online yet because, says Boucher, Black “refuses to have a website so I don’t have any link”. Boucher herself doesn’t do any such thing though, so you can still view an image of said rings, which have nothing to do with cats of any kind, here.

Not that I’m a fashion authority or anything, but I think they look like ‘adult’ wine gums.

You may remember that Aerosmith appeared in an edition of US documentary series ’60 Minutes’ back in March. It made the headlines not only because the band were very candid in their interviews, but because frontman Steven Tyler said after it went out that the band felt like they’d said too much.

A section of the programme focussed on tensions between Tyler and the rest of the band, in particular guitarist Joe Perry, which, while never a secret, were laid out in front of viewers very clearly. Asked if these tensions had ever led to a full on fight, Perry said: “That would damage the relationship too much; besides he needs his jaw to sing”.

When the filmmakers showed Tyler this, along with other footage of his bandmates badmouthing him, in a separate interview, he responded: “I always sleep with one eye open with him”, adding: “I think my busting everyone’s chops is what got this band to where it is. I get the hits. Yeah, I’m that good”.

After the programme was aired, Tyler told Access Hollywood that he and his bandmates regretted being so open about their relationships in the interviews, saying: “We all realise we might have said a little too much. Being Italian, you know, there’s some things you don’t say. There was stuff we were going through”.

True, but this band are always going through something. Two years ago they got through a particularly rough patch by sitting down together with their respective managers and lawyers to argue it out. Although the really big issues were seemingly resolved after that meeting, tensions still emerge from time to time.

But how did ’60 Minutes’ manage to get the band to speak so candidly about their problems with each other? Was it that everyone was in a bad mood that day and needed to vent? Was if the strain of years of battling to make things work showing through? Was it hard-hitting journalism? No, none of these things. According to bassist Tom Hamilton it boiled down to clever editing and devious clothing choices.

He accused the producers of ’60 Minutes’ of editing together the worst of everything the band had said about Tyler in order to provoke a strong reaction from the frontman when shown the footage. “It was tough to watch”, Hamilton told US radio station 97.5 K-Rock this week. “They took comments we made during very deep conversations and sort of barraged Steven with them. I thought it was a little brutal”.

Despite this, he admitted that everything they’d said was true: “It was the truth. It was everybody speaking what they were feeling. We talked about a lot of things involving anger – yet a lot of other things involving brotherhood. So Steven got pissed off and said a couple of things that were demeaning to the rest of us. I cringed a little bit, yet the second it was over I texted him and said, ‘You did a great job’”.

But the question remains, even if the editing magnified what they’d said, if it was all true, how did ’60 Minutes’ manage to get them to say things they new would be likely to upset Tyler in the first place? How did the show push them to risk destroying the already tense relationship between five men who have otherwise managed to stick together (for the most part) for more than 40 years? How could Aerosmith have been brought to the very brink of imploding like this?

“Lara Logan, the correspondent, had a very low-cut top on”, explained Hamilton.

Oh, right. He adds that it was clear what Logan was up to right from the start, but he was powerless to resist her journalistic, er, clothes. He recalled: “I’m like, ‘Okay, this is sort of, get the band nervous with your cleavage and make them say stuff’. And if you watch the interview you won’t see that. That’s how they do it: they show their boobs and get you to talk about stuff. It works every time”.

Now, this is award-winning war correspondent Lara Logan we are talking about, who has reported from warzones and other areas of conflict around the world for the last fifteen years. In February 2011, while covering the Egyptian Revolution, she was attacked, stripped naked and assaulted by a mob in Tahir Square. In May last year she was interviewed on ’60 Minutes’ herself, speaking about the prevalence of sexual violence against female reporters in Egypt during the revolution.

This explains why, six months later, she was back in US and being embedded with Aerosmith, rather than the US Army as she was more used to, as they toured South America. Having taken a break from war and violence, I’d say getting a bunch of aging rock stars to say some stupid things just by asking them questions wasn’t beyond her capabilities. Though being able to do so without having them try to stare down her (actually fairly conservative) top throughout would presumably have been preferable for the reporter, even if their efforts to catch a glimpse did deliver the more controversial admissions.

Oh Tupac, what have you started? Now TLC are reportedly considering using that not-really-a-hologram technology to bring their late bandmate Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes back to the stage as part of a reunion tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the R&B trio’s debut album. Beethoven will be playing the Royal Albert Hall next.

To be fair, the hologram element of the reunion is just rumour (via TMZ), but some sort of live activity to mark the 20th anniversary of ‘Ooooooohhh… On The TLC Tip’ (and, sadly, the tenth anniversary of Lopez’s death in a car accident) has been confirmed.

The group’s T-Boz told Essence.com: “We’re going on tour; we are in negotiations now with LA Reid, so we’ll see what happens. A lot of cool things are coming up”.

Reid, now head of Sony’s Epic division, signed TLC to his La Face label at the start of the 1990s. By moving to Sony last year the La Face catalogue is now back under his control.

While live activity, and even some possible new recordings, are currently just being discussed, work on a biopic about TLC’s rise to fame is apparently already underway. No word on whether any holograms will feature.

Justin Bieber has revealed that one of the songs on his new album, ‘Believe’, was written about Mariah Yeater, the woman who last year claimed to have become pregnant by the singer after a brief backstage liaison.

Speaking at a press conference, BBC Newsbeat reports that Bieber told reporters: “[I was inspired by things like] that girl – Mariah Yeater – who said she was going to have my baby. I wrote about that situation. We’ve recorded like 40 songs. Every song has a piece of me, it’s hard to pick. I wrote almost all of them or co-wrote them”.

Unlike Yeater, who, it turned out, didn’t have a piece of him at all. As previously reported, Bieber tweeted about Yeater last week too. Let it lie, Justin.

Do you fancy a free pass to do as you please in Adelaide? Well this is your lucky day, because Cher’s key to the city is currently up for sale on eBay.

The key and accompanying plaque were presented to Cher in 1990 after she performed at the Formula One Grand Prix in the city. Now, 22 years later, it’s clearly been decided that Cher doesn’t need to go back there.

Adelaide’s former mayor, Steve Condous, who presented Cher with the key, was not impressed, telling local newspaper The Advertiser: “I think that’s pretty poor. I’m disappointed. I would have thought that getting the key to a city like Adelaide would have had some value to her, but obviously it doesn’t because she wouldn’t have got rid of it. I’ve been given a couple of keys to cities and I felt pretty privileged to be given those. If she didn’t want to keep it she should have returned it back to the city”.

The city’s current mayor, Stephen Yarwood added: “[I am] exceptionally disappointed. I just think that it is more a reflection on her than the city of Adelaide. It must be very embarrassing for her if she is selling it because she needs the money”.

Cher, however, insists that she doesn’t know how the key came to be up for auction on eBay. Presumably she’d been turning her house upside down looking for it until the matter was brought to her attention. She tweeted: “I’m upset too and trying to get to [the] bottom [of this]! I think my office fucked up”.

For all of that, the auction is still live, so if you have a spare £60,000 you could have Cher’s freedom of Adelaide for your very own.