So Beth Ditto and the NME have made amends. Having pointedly barred the singer of The Gossip from their cover when she topped their Cool List a few months' back for fear of dismaying their readers, they've let her appear on the newsstands in the nud. Albeit with her left arm coyly cupping her right nipple from view, but still with a defiant wisp of armpit hair peeping out. What a surprising volte-face! Or is it? The NME was made to look very silly over its initial snub. Nearly all the women on said Cool List voiced their discontent. On a wave of defiance, soundtracked by the excellent Soulwax remix of the Gossip's Standing in the Way of Control, the rotund, lesbian singer has since become a household name, a proper alternative icon. Perhaps the cover will offend some people. But it doesn't restore the mag's credibility: in using her as a coverstar, they lag behind such trend-setting music publications as Observer Food Monthly. In fact, one might conjecture that the lipstick traces on Ms Ditto's right buttock are the imprint of the magazine's editor, the mouthy Conor McNicholas, who has been made, quite literally, to kiss her arse.