Mojo - The Music Magazine

Noel Gallagher has offered a ticket refund to 70,000 Oasis fans following a series of power cuts during last night's homecoming gig at Heaton Park.

After a series of technical problems disrupted the show for forty minutes Liam announced: "Thank you very, very much, this is a free gig - let's have it," with Noel adding, "anybody who has kept their ticket will get a full refund."

However, at £45 a ticket a full refund for all tickets would cost Oasis over £3 million, a fact that may have dawned on the elder Gallagher as the evening progressed.

"We're not sure how it's gonna work with getting the money back," he said later in the show. "Be on a website or summat. We're not getting paid for this so buy a t-shirt on the way out. Credit crunch and that, keep my kids in sweets," said Noel. "Kind of regret offering you your money back now. Apply for it back if you wanna be a cunt. We do our best for you."

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In news that has rocked the MOJO office, the body responsible for the Grammys, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, has announced there will no longer be a Best Polka Album category at the awards.

The Academy claims the move is designed to keep the awards "pertinent within the current musical landscape," a decision 18-time winner of the gong Jimmy 'The King Of Polka' Sturr appears to have taken in his stride.

"Sure I feel a little bad, but I'm grateful, man," said the 58-year-old musician. "The Academy did a lot, not only recognizing me but recognizing polka music. There are millions of polka fans worldwide and hundreds of working polka bands in this country alone. They have taken your grandfather's music and merged it with Tex-Mex, rock, Tejano and other forms to create a distinctly American sound."

However, other giants of the genre feel it may have been Sturr's dominance over the last 24 years that has led to the dissolution of the category. "I think the fact that it was so dominated by one artist, that kind of killed the incentive for a lot of people to enter," said Carl Finch, whose Tex-Mex-Tejano-Conjunto-Polka fusion band Brave Combo upset Sturr to take the award in 1999 and 2004. "It's not that the polka world's not used to it," he added of polka's lack of mainstream recognition. "The polka world expects it. It's like, 'Yeah, the man did it to us again.'"

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And finally... 35 years ago today Sly Stone married Kathy Silva onstage during a concert at Madison Square Garden. Unfortunately, the couple separated four months later. Watch the bizarre ceremony - complete with giant palms - below.