Mojo - The Music Magazine

'Queen of the Blues' Koko Taylor has died in hospital aged 80 from complications following surgery.

Following an announcement on Taylor's website, Ronnie Baker Brooks paid tribute to the singer: "The passion that she brought and the fire and the growl in her voice when she sang was the truth. The music will live on, but it's much better because of Koko. It's a huge loss."

Most famous for her song Wang Dang Doodle, Taylor recorded nine albums, won a Grammy, 29 Blues Music Awards and was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts medal for her contribution to American music.

Here's a clip of Koko performing Wang Dang Doodle with Little Walter back in 1967...

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A new exhibition featuring unseen possessions and images of John Lennon's family life will open in Liverpool later this month.

Set up by Cynthia and Julian Lennon, White Feather: The Spirit of Lennon will run at the Mersey Ferries Terminal Building from June 17 to December 31.

"John Lennon is an idol to millions of people who grew up loving his music and ideals," said Julian Lennon of the exhibit, "but to me he is the father I loved and lost. I hope this exhibition lets people see another aspect of his life and our time together as a family. This collection represents something of great importance to us as it is part of our history."

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Previously unreleased recordings by Tim Buckley are set for release on August 25 via Tompkins Square records.

Tim Buckley - Live at the Folklore Centre, NYC: March 6th, 1967, was recorded by folk impresario Izzy Young at the Folklore Centre on New York's Sixth Avenue and is the earliest commercially available live recording of the singer-songwriter. Six of the 16 songs on the release are original Buckley compositions that have never appeared on any studio or live albums before now.

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And finally... MOJO was saddened to find that recent Twitter posts made under the name 'Harvey P Spector' are in fact the work of an impostor and not the online prison thoughts of the jailed wall of sound producer.

"I am NOT Phil Spector," the mystery tweeter wrote yesterday, "I made this account as a joke."

Several national media outlets - not MOJO, folks! - erroneously reported the bizarre posts as the work of the troubled producer.

Among activities 'Spector' was supposed to be engaged in included watching "a spider try to fuck an ant", writing "an angry letter to the governor demanding they return my wig" and befriending a cockroach called Wilson with whom he played "air poker".

"Befriending a cockroach? c'mon folks... even Phil's not that crazy," wrote the author before adding, "Twitter, you need to start doing something to combat fake accounts. If I was a malicious person I could have caused damage."

Here's a selection of some of our favourite 'Harvey P Spector' posts from the last two weeks:

"Just watched a spider try to fuck an ant."

"As if it wasn't bad enough I got locked up for 19 years, the bastards even confiscated my wig."

"Have befriended a cockroach. I'm naming him Wilson."

"To all intents and purposes I would say I'm probably relatively insane, to an extent."

"Finished reading The Book Of The Damned. About to write an angry letter to the governer demanding that they return my wig."

"John Lennon was a beautiful man who wrote music about an ugly world. Andrew Lloyd Webber is an ugly man who writes about a beautiful world."

"Spiders represent the devil."

"I think Wilson just took a shit in my yarmulke."

"Not sure if Wilson did shit in my yarmulke or not. It didn't taste like shit, but it definitely wasn't there before I let Wilson play in it."