Chatterbox: Sundae Mourning

Just as Auckland radio station 95bFM commiserates the loss of Otis and Slave to hip-hop start-up Base FM, another star has left the building.

After two years on the job, breakfast host Hugh Sundae has packed it in. The 26-year-old announced his resignation on-air two months ago but has kept a low profile since. Sundae said he was feeling "a bit weird" about leaving but would not be missing the 4.30am starts.

"At the same time I've got the satisfaction that I've done it. And the nature of a station like b means there should be a high turnover. It's a training ground."

Sundae ruled out international travel and said his future employment "might" be in TV but said nothing had been confirmed. His replacement is Camilla Martin, known on bFM as weather girl Camilla Nimbus and for hosting C4 show Intellectual Property. She takes up the post on Monday.

Sundae held a slap-up party at the Dog's Bollix last night, featuring performances from some of his favourite acts: the Fanatics, Pluto, punk veteransthe Spelling Mistakes and Scribe. Speaking of whom, the rapper is making sure New Zealand hip-hop is still standing the **** up overseas. His Not Many single is the sound behind a TV ad in Britain for that most dangerous of beverages . . . Ribena. The ad features comical LA cops freakin' out to his beats.

POPPING OVERSEAS: Three of our bigger pop acts are set to appear on the original British version of Top Of The Pops. Performing before an estimated three million viewers next weekend will be Bic Runga, Zed and Mr Idol himself Ben Lummis. Runga's performance was recorded last week in London while Lummis and Zed will be coming from the Auckland Top Of The Pops studio.

The link was made after TOTP executive producer Andi Peters visited last month and was impressed enough to showcase the three acts Up Over. And talking of Lummis his debut album knocked our cover star Usher's album out of the New Zealand number one spot this week and deservingly so because he's just a much nicer guy isn't he? But, musically, can anybody over the age of 30 tell them apart?

FOX VOX: With filming about to start for director Andrew Adamson on his adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, there's been another star added to the cast - sort of. Colourful British actor Rupert Everett will be the voice of the Fox, one of the CGI-animated characters in the story. Everett's dulcet tones can, of course, already be heard as the voice of Prince Charming in Adamson's Shrek 2.

LUCKY US: We might have seen Missy Elliott in town the other week and get to see Sonic Youth tonight, but folks in some parts of the northern hemisphere aren't so lucky. Elliott's European tour was cancelled days before it reached Britain, with the promoters blaming a shortage of tour buses. Meanwhile, the revived Lollapalooza music festival tour of North America, which was to have featured Sonic Youth, Morrissey and the Flaming Lips and was set to begin on July 14 has been cancelled because of poor ticket sales.

SICK LEAVE: It's been a bad week for famous folk coming down with something. Firstly celebrity twin Mary-Kate Olsen cancelled her promotional visit to New Zealand so she could seek treatment for her reported anorexia. But there have been other health scares. Jessica Simpson is cancelling performances stateside because of a kidney infection but having the worst time of it is poor old David Bowie. Halfway through a song at a Norwegian music festival, Bowie got a lollipop in the eye (apparently Norwegians call the sweets "love on a stick" so it might have been a gesture of affection). At first, Bowie demanded to know who chucked it, reminded the crowd he had only one good eye - "Lucky you hit the bad one" - and then joked he was going to punish everyone by making the concert extra long. A few nights later in Prague, Bowie was forced to cut short his set, telling the crowd he had nerve problems in his shoulder.