Listmania 5: Ten Unlikely Tributes to Pop Stars

1. Distant Drums
There’s no reason not to celebrate the life of the velvet-larynxed died-too-young country star. But you’d expect any standing attraction to be in Texas or Nashville. But Voxna? Sweden?

2. My Baby (Does Good Sculptures)

Originally, in consort with Frank Zappa, the idea was to have ‘recovering groupie’ Cynthia Plaster Caster’s moulds of rock musician’s dangly bits put on permanent display. We think the Tate Modern should ring her pronto.

3. I Am a Rock, I Am an Island

Singer of the European club hit ‘Spankox’ who died in 2005, Tina Leiu was equally well known as ‘Island Girl’ in the online universe Entropia. In a case of You Can Send Me (Virtual) Flowers, a memorial island was created with an interactive shrine/statue, with gamers decorating the site with flowers (and in Entropia, all items are paid for in cash).

4. Can’t Get You Out Of My Bedroom

Contemporary Australian artist Kathy Temin exhibited her ‘My Kylie Collection’ exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2001 – a teenage fan’s bedroom turned Kylie shrine in pink hues. Think Tracey Emin if she’d gone to Erinsborough High and hadn’t knocked about with those Medway ruffians.

5. Everybody’s Got to go Sometime

Talking of Australians, and retaining our colour scheme, singer Pink recently had what could be seen as a dubious honour bestowed upon her by the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. In recognition of her record-breaking multi-date stand, they renamed one of their toilet cubicles (number six, actually) in her honour.

6. (Don’t) Take me back to Your House

In tribute to his favourite pop star, Francis Cullen tortured his Bolton neighbours by playing the same Ronan Keating song, ‘If Tomorrow Never Comes’, for 16 hours a day. He was eventually evicted.

7. Like a Rollin’ Scholar

Forget your honorary degree tosh, Willamette University actually runs a course called Changing Times: The Music and Lyrics of Bob Dylan. Course leader Ronald Loftus promises to “explore Dylan’s earliest music and lyrical influences and chart the many transformations in his writing and performing, while seeking to understand how he has endured as an artist capable of organizing the multifaceted experiences of modern life into richly textured lyrical and vocal expressions.”

8. He Can Only Hold Her

Sculptor Guy Portelli walked out of BBC’s Dragon’s Den with funding for his exhibition of ‘pop icons’. This nickel and copper-plated figurine of Our Amy is our fave.

9. Weathered Statues

Life-sized statues of country rock legends Alabama have been erected on the corner of Union Park in Fort Payne. American Pride? Cheap Seats available if Dancin’ on The Boulevard ain’t your thing. Why not Take A Little Trip etc.

10. Ten-Four Rubber Duck

Do we all remember the days of CB and C.W. McCall’s trucker fave ‘Convoy’? Well, a little while before that, Bill Fries (who took on the alias McCall) was an advertising man behind the ‘Old Home’ product line of the Metz Baking Company. The commercials featured Hinkel’s cafe in Pisgah, Iowa for location shoots. It eventually changed its name to reflect the sponsorship and also became the title of McCall’s first single, ‘Old Home Filler-Up An’ Keep On A-Truckin’ Cafe’. It’s since been shut down, and reopened, but apparently some McCall fans still make the pilgrimage to the bemusement of locals.