The spectrum of Rock and Roll bad behaviour is a wide one. At one end, you have Motley Crue (books/CDs) and Led Zeppelin (books/CDs) apparently putting fish up girls’ bums. In the middle somewhere are The Sex Pistols (CDs) saying "rotter" on television.

And at the far end, past Cliff Richard (CDs) and Daniel Bedingfield (CDs) are Linkin Park (CDs).

Not content with making music that sounds more manafactured and processed than an oil tanker of turkey twizzlers, or selling pretend angst to children, Linkin Park are making the least Rock and Roll protest ever: they won’t get enough money when Warner Music gets floated on the stock market. And boy, are they angry!

All fired up, the members of Linkin Park released an incendiary statement claiming they were "increasingly concerned" that Warner Music’s "diminished resources will leave it unable to compete in today’s global music marketplace". Woah, steady boys!

The bulk of this big strop boils down to share price. When the floatation of Warner Music occurs, apparently only $7m of the $750m gained will go to corporate purposes. Linkin Park – Warner’s biggest act, they say (‘they’ being Linkin Park) – will get nothing. It looks like the trout farm might have to wait, boys.

The record company is making a fat profit here, and no doubt they’ll blame it on file sharing. But for the band to make such a public complaint about money immediately destroys any aura of fun they might have had.

Instead of being a band selling records to kids, they’ve suddenly become a brand outsourcing product to key demographics. Sure, that’s how the suits talk. But if we wanted to see suits on CD:UK, we’d go and make Huey Lewis (CDs) famous again.

Expect the new Linkin Park album to be a furious reaction to this share price decision, including tracks such as (I Got The) Diminished IPO Blues, Hey US Federal Reserve! (Raising Interest Rates By A Quarter Point Will Not Control Rising Inflation), and We Hate The Poor.

[story by Stuart Heritage]