Glasvegas frontman James Allen is safe and well and holed up in New York City following a five day "disappearance" that led to the cancellation of a live spot at the recent Mercury Music Awards Ceremony. In addition, doubts still remain as to whether Allen will join up with fellow band mates for their impending U.S tour supporting Kings Of Leon (they flew out today).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8246757.stm

Former Clash manager Bernie Rhodes has denied any knowledge or involvement in Allen's disappearance. But we music fans have long memories and we all know that for top notch marketing ploys, nothing beats a mystery like this for getting a pretty unknown band some column inches in the music pages.

On the eve of their 1983 tour, Rhodes asked Joe Strummer to "go missing" of which the frontman duly obliged. Instead of travelling to the States as was planned, Joe flew to Paris, grew a beard and left his manager in as much bewilderment as the waiting world. Julien Temple's excellent documentary film "The Future Is Unwritten" covers the events of the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_future_is_unwritten

Maybe I'm an old cynic, but this story sounds a little like deja vu.

"He went thaddaway !!"