Imelda May is the siren of sleaze, bringing finger snapping rhythm and booze back from the brink of boring, linear pedestrian choogle. Yessir, with hips that mesmerise and a face you could stalk, Imelda has a new single out and a tour to announce. Start penning depraved fanboy and fangirl letters post-haste!

May first hit the radar after appearing on Jools Holland (and wisely ignoring his advances to sit in on piano) with the ace ‘Johnny Got A Boom Boom’, alerting those with ears that she had a fine, fine LP out called ‘Love Tattoo’.

After her last single, ‘Psycho’,vamped up garage punk, she’s now back with a new brassy-broad number, ‘?Mayhem’, which is released on 13th September on Decca Records. And we have the video for you to ogle.

You may not be wholly aware of Imelda May, but she’s been cutting her brand of snarling surf, late night jazz and rockabilly with some if rock’s most regal. She’s upstaged Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Van Morrison, Scissor Sisters and, most recently, the first lady of rockabilly, Wanda Jackson.

She’s on tour too, so iron your best pants and get ready to throw them stagefirst.

October 2010

2/10/10 Brighton – Corn Exchange
7/10/10 Oxford Town Hall
8/10/10 London Forum
9 /10/10 Manchester Academy
10/10/10 Wolverhampton -Wulfrun Hall

February 2010
9/02/11 Norwich Waterfront
11/02/11 Newcastle Academy 2
12/02/11 Leeds Academy
13/02/11 Edinburgh Liquid Rooms
15/02/11 Glasgow ABC 1
17/02/11 Bristol Colston Hall
18/02/11 Southampton Guildhall
19/02/11 Nottingham Rock City

For more info, visit: http://www.myspace.com/imeldamay1

Follow hecklerspray on Twitter

It would appear that Shelley Malil doesn’t take break-ups too well, if allegations levelled against him turn out to be true.

The actor, who played the well-known part of ‘that Indian guy’ on ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’ was arrested for attempted murder after he allegedly stabbed his ex-girlfriend more than 20 times. He has also been charged with mayhem and burglary, which at least brings something of a smile to an otherwise horrific situation, if only for their funny names.

Out of interest, what is ‘mayhem’ as a charge? Would a megalomaniacal evil genius, bent on the destruction of humanity as we know it be simply charged with ‘mayhem’ when they unleashed their robotic hordes on the populace? Or would they be slapped with the seemingly far more rational charge of ‘genocide’?

But we digress, and must veer back to seriousness.

Kendra Beebe was the victim of Malil’s alleged attack and suffered severe injuries, leaving her in a critical condition. There have been no further updates on her status, which could be read as either a good or a bad thing. According to a report released by the Sherrif’s Department:

“Malil and the victim had apparently been in a dating relationship which recently ended.”

Shelley Malil was picked up by police as he left a train, apparently on his way to meet his lawyer and turn himself in. So at least he saw some sense – that is, he saw sense after apparently stabbing another human being a ridiculous number of times (of course, stabbing another human being even once is a ridiculous number of times, but you get the point).

The reasons for the charges of mayhem and burglary were not made apparent, though the latter is self explanatory and we’ve already gone into some wild speculation on what the former could entail. They also fall somewhat by the wayside when put into context with the other, major charge.

Needless to say, Malil has most likely hurt his chances of a role in any upcoming Judd Apatow movies. Attempted murder just doesn’t sit well with the movie-going public.

Shelley Malil is set to appear in court today for his arraignment, and if found guilty on the charges could face a maximum of life imprisonment. We hate to re-iterate too much but, well – that’s a bit of a daft career move, isn’t it? Even if it’s all a big misunderstanding and he is proven innocent, it’s not going to have helped him pick up new roles. Or girlfriends, come to think of it.

Malil has featured in a number of screen roles including ones on NYPD Blue and Scrubs, as well as on a Budweiser advert which aimed to imitate the not-at-all-annoying ‘wazaaaaaaap’ crap they had done the year before. Fortunately, it didn’t.

We’ll keep an ear to the ground for more news on Malil’s case, like the faithful hounds we are.

Also, hecklerspray would like to send our best wishes to Kendra Beebe, on a more serious note.