Tuesday 31 March 2009, 12:15 | By CMU Editorial

Jacko rumour round-up

And Finally Jacksons v AEG Timeline

We’re still over three months away from the start of Michael Jackson’s O2 residency and already the rumour mill is in full effect. And you can be sure this is only the start. So, let’s look at what’s doing the rounds at the moment.

1: Michael Jackson is attending the funeral of Jade Goody
Michael Jackson is not planning to attend the funeral of Jade Goody. And he’s not turning up on the back on an elephant, either (I made up that bit myself). According to various reports, Jackson was said to have contacted the reality TV star after she was diagnosed as terminally ill to offer words of comfort, and planned to pay his respects at her funeral in London this week. But he won’t. Though he has sent a message to her family. Goody’s publicist Max Clifford said yesterday: “Michael was never, ever coming, it was never on the agenda. He also feels the focus of the funeral should be about her and her family. But he has sent a lovely message of condolence to her family, that she was a brave girl and that her message will save a lot of lives, and he will be sending flowers”.

2: Leona Lewis is supporting Jacko at The Dome
According to reports, X Factor winner Leona Lewis will support Michael Jackson for all 50 of his shows at the O2 Dome and will join him on stage for a rendition of his 1995 hit, ‘Scream’ (originally performed with his sister Janet, of course). Given that we were only recently being told that Leona Lewis won’t go on tour because she’s too scared to stand up on stage, this seems unlikely.

3: He will perform a duet with his son
Reports claim that Jackson will invite his 12 year old son, Prince Michael I, on stage to perform a duet with him on the opening night of his O2 residency. Could be true, I guess.

4: Michael Jackson is currently being played by an actor
This is true.

Stay tuned for another Jacko Rumour Round-up soon.

Album Review: Whitest Boy Alive – Rules (Bubbles)

Album Reviews

In 2001, Norwegian Erland Øye helped define the then flavour of the month ‘new acoustic movement’ genre as one half of Kings Of Convenience. A growing interest in electronic music inspired his next project, Whitest Boy Alive, who began as an electronic outfit, but by the release of 2006’s ‘Dreams’, their sound had been scaled down, excluding any programmed elements. ‘Rules’ maintains their minimalist indie-pop sound but increases the electronic influence, as well incorporates aspects of other genres, especially on the opening track ‘Keep A Secret’, which recalls seminal German krautrock band ‘Can’ during their mid-1970s peak. ‘Courage’ and ‘Dead End’ demonstrate the influence of more contemporary sounds; guitar driven but with added electronic touches and flourishes. ‘Island’, the closing track, that had previously been previewed on the band’s MySpace page, remains one of the standouts, showing the band at their most ambitious sonically, embracing all the different directions the album had gone in one fell swoop. Erland Øye’s voice is slight and ethereal, like Alexis Taylor from Hot Chip, which would also be a pretty accurate reference point for anyone coming to Whitest Boy Alive blind. Øye still tours with Kings Of Convenience and there’s every chance of future recordings, which reveals him to be something of a diverse musical talent (he’s also a respected and in-demand DJ); able to turn his hand to whichever genre takes his fancy. KW

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Album Review: Various Artists – Freerange Records Colour Series: White 06 (Freerange)

Album Reviews

The Freerange imprint is still growing well, and label boss Jimpster, aka Jamie Odell, has put together his sixth annual, featuring 12 unmixed cuts that show off the distinctive sound the label now purveys – house with smidges of tech and soul. Shur-I-Kan opens with ‘Letting You Down’ with its bluesy sample and Tony Lionni gets a bit more spacious with ‘This Feeling’ Then up is one of my tunes of the year so far: Lovebirds ‘The Rat’ – it has an overly long intro but then simply quality hard hitting dancefloor with a pinch of electro soul. Top marks. Simon Richmond as Palm Skin Productions ‘Magnetic North (Solomun Remix)’ is a little off kilter, but in a pleasant way, and Roberto Rodriguez’s ‘Besomebody’ bats along nicely. Vincenzo’s ‘Shonen Jump’ again takes a while to get up and running and into its pulsing electronic heart, the Version Remix Lars Behrenroth ‘Ice On The Sun’ again starts dull, but then the killer synths kick in and all is forgiven. No major nadirs: Pezzner’s ‘Almost Here Part 2’ is a bit drab and overly mech, and Brazilian trio – 3Jas with ‘Manomito’ go perhaps a little too deep and its comes off a bit dull for me, but it’s rounded of with Rocco’s ‘Supernova’ which has an epic chilled feel with its pseudochants synthed into the backdrop. If house with an electronic edge is your bag, this compo comes recommended as a round up from a front running label, with some fresh talent on the roster. PV

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Album Review: Official Secrets Act – Understanding Electricity (One Little Indian)

Album Reviews

Initially I had my reservations about this band. After hearing each of their singles in turn I still failed to understand them. They appeared to me to reside among the slew of unexciting synth/guitar indie bands that dwell on the tip of Zane Lowe’s Radio One radar, occasionally getting played but resulting in nothing substantial. However, after listening to ‘Understanding Electricity’ I think I finally understand. It is in Tom Burke’s gentle, humble, intelligent vocals, it is in the subtle play between the lead instruments and it is in the excellently composed harmonies that resound through the album’s entirety. Although I still have little time for the album’s singles I have found alternative routes to enjoyment: ‘A Head For Herod’ is both the album’s emotional centrepiece and its strongest proponent. It is deft and stunning, bringing in singer Holly Jazz (who appears five times on the album) to the fore which acts as a perfect complement to Burke. Other standout tracks include ‘Little Birds’; which plays loose (yet it really works) with the lead riff of Billy Ocean’s disco classic ‘Love Really Hurts Without You’, ‘Mainstream’, the opener, sounds like a modern day Pulp, and ‘Under The Flightpath’ straddles funk rhythm and tender psychedelia to create something quite lovely indeed. Surprising and charming, if a little hit or miss, ‘Understanding Electricity’ certainly made me rethink my position about the intriguing Official Secrets Act. SJS

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Album Review: Frightened Rabbit – Quietly Now! Midnight Organ Fight Live (FatCat Records)

Album Reviews

Ah, the live album. There are many reasons why a band may succumb to this blatant creative cop out. Most commonly, it’s an easy way to make a quick buck or an undemanding way to satisfy a contract and pacify a hounding label. Whatever led Frightened Rabbit to record ‘Quietly Now!’ last summer, I for one am glad for it. Following on from their debut, ‘Sing the Greys’ and their second album which was released a mere year later, ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’, the brothers Hutchinson and co. have cast off all the trappings of the studio in favour of the completely pared down live and acoustic sound. The set essentially consists of a bit of banter with the audience and a live rendition of ‘Midnight Organ’. While it may not be an essential purchase, it is something none the less, to feed the legions of fans that have fallen for their Weegie charms as they toured the length and breadth of Britain throughout 2008. The reason that their live shows acted as candy to the kids is because of the raw emotional energy that the Scots radiate on stage and luckily for those who missed them last time round, the essence of these shows is captured here, where the Rabbits play a storming set to a rapturous hometown crowd in the legendary setting of the Captains Rest in Glasgow. Should this album ignite a desire to see the boys in action, you’ll have to wait a wee while because they are off wowing America through the glorious medium of a string of sold out shows. ‘Quietly Now!’ is a dual purpose album, acting as a wonderful indulgence for Rabbit fans, who wait with bated breath for new material, and a great introduction for newcomers to both the live show and the second LP. MB

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Single Review: Mr Scruff & Roots Manuva – Nice Up The Function (Ninja Tune)

Single Reviews

Your one stop shop for jazz lounge funk and a nice warm cuppa is back with his fifth single from the brilliant Ninja Tune. This time ol’ Scruffy has brought along rap megalith Roots Manuva to lay down his powerful vocals on ‘Nice Up The Function’.

This sounds hugely promising, but it seems Scruff is clutching at precarious straws. Evidently a fan of risk, backing up Manuva is a weak squelch of a bassline and nothing else – this leaves him the gargantuan task of wedging in a chorus, which inevitably turns out to be the most forgettable four bars since that pub crawl we don’t talk about. A slew of remixes attempt to apologise, but you still feel cheated. If you want to hear Scruff in his prime, listen to his previous four singles. With this weak fifth, he lets himself down and exposes Roots Manuva dangerously close to self-destruction. GB

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Copyright extension plans stumble

Business News Legal Top Stories

So, the British music industry’s attempts to extend the recording copyright from the current 50 years, possibly to as much as 95 years, were dealt what Music Week have called a “savage blow” on Friday, which is quite a strong adjective, but there you go. I think they were trying to communicate the UK record industry’s anger that the British contingent in Europe, who had promised to push the copyright extension proposals through, were the very people who caused things to stumble last week.

The devil, as always, is in the detail. While, as previously reported, the British government has now said it supports extending the copyright term enjoyed by sound recordings, albeit to 70 rather than the industry-preferred 95 years, it says its motivation to do so is the financial welfare of ageing musicians and not the companies who have a vested interest in recording copyrights, ie record companies.

EU Minister Charlie McCreevy, who put the original extension proposals forward at a European level, included provisions to ensure that musicians in particular benefited from the extension, mainly by increasing the royalties that are automatically paid to artists and session musicians oblivious of contractual arrangements once the initial fifty year term is up (currently in the UK, the only royalties musicians have an automatic right to is a share of broadcast royalties collected by PPL). McCreevy proposes a ‘session fund’ into which a cut of fifty-year plus royalty revenues are paid, which are then distributed to musicians involved in those recordings.

This is all very admirable, but it does mean that the political debate around the extension proposals are more complicated than just agreeing a term length that’s somewhere between 50 and 95 years. And as the UK’s IP Minister David Lammy has made it clear that it is the musicians who he cares about, getting that fund system right is, in his mind, crucial to letting the extension be voted through at all.

Friday’s debate among the so called EU Committee Of Permanent Representatives, or COREPER to its French friends, who need to agree on the proposals before they can go to the decision-making Council Of Ministers, centred on the Session Fund.

According to Music Week, one big issue in that regard is whether the session fund will only apply to existing recordings, or all future recordings too – ie will musicians always get a preferential cut of royalties after fifty years on both existing and all future recordings, or does that extra benefit only apply to those recordings which already exist when the new law passes. Under the latter system any new recordings would enjoy a 70-95 year term without any provision to force record companies to pay a share of royalties into any fund when the initial fifty years are up in 2060.

The UK want the session fund to be permanent but most other European countries, for reasons I’m not entirely sure about, want the fund to be “transitional” and therefore to only apply to existing recordings. Disagreements on that particular issue meant no agreement was reached in COREPER, which means the proposals cannot now proceed, as originally planned, to the Council Of Ministers. In theory it’s just a delay – the proposals haven’t been dropped – but there is a deadline here, because if this matter isn’t resolved before the next round of European elections in June the whole matter will be pushed back months, maybe years (and there is another longer term deadline – the early Beatles and Stones catalogues will start to come out of copyright in 2013/2014). To reach that June deadline, every day counts.

Responding to the news that, by dissenting on the fund issue the UK government had stopped the proposals going forward, a joint statement from the Musicians Union, royalty collecting society PPL, and record label trade bodies BPI and AIM, said: “The British music sector is very disappointed by the absence of agreement on an extension for performers and sound recording rights at the COREPER meeting today, and particularly that our own government, despite its recent positive statements, did not vote in favour of the proposal at this meeting”.

They continued: “The UK music sector has lived up to its commitments by reaching an agreement, as demanded by ministers, that will deliver real benefits to musicians in an extended term. In continuing to hold out for further changes, the government has not heeded the repeated pleas of the very musicians it claims to support, who strongly encouraged it to vote for the proposal today. We call on the government to work with us urgently to match its supportive rhetoric with concrete action, by moving heaven and earth to reach an agreement under this EU Presidency that will deliver an improved term of copyright for performers and music companies”.

Responding, the UK’s Innovation Minister John Denham stressed Friday’s vote hadn’t “killed off the proposals to extend copyright term”, and added that the issue just needed more Europe-wide consideration and debate. He told reporters: “Member States need more time to consider the details of the proposal and reach an agreement. The vote against the proposal today will not end the process. I’ve always been clear that the UK would support an extension to copyright term to deliver real, lasting benefits to performers. We are nearly there. I am personally disappointed that we could not get agreement to go straight to a deal with the [European] Parliament but I remain confident that we can get there. The UK will do all it can”.

It should be noted that the UK’s vote on the permanence, or not, of the session fund was not the only hindrance to the copyright extension proposals last week. While British ministers caused things to stumble in its debate about the fund, several other EU nations – enough to be considered a “blocking minority” – confirmed they would vote against the proposal altogether. These included: Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Belgium, Malta, Netherlands, Finland, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania.

Again that doesn’t necessarily stop the proposals from proceeding completely, though it is likely to result in another delay and as I said – tick tock tick tock – it’s looking less and less likely the term extension proposals will be passed this session.

7Digital and Spotify announce partnership

Business News Deals Digital Top Stories

You know that phrase ‘iPod killer’ used every time someone launches a new digital music device or download service? Well, it’s normally applied to devices/services/partnerships that have no hope of really providing any serious competition to the Apple-owned digital music player and download store, but this one, well, who knows? It won’t damage iPod sales, because it’s an iPod-compatible service, but it could steal some traffic away from market-leading download store iTunes.

7Digital have announced a deal with Spotify which will allow users of the insanely popular streaming music service in the UK, France, Spain and Germany to opt to buy 320kps MP3 versions of their favourite tracks via the London-based download store at the click of a button. As 7Digital sell MP3s from all majors and most indies, that will mean most tracks on Spotify will be available via the sell-through function, and the plan is to offer some in the super high quality FLAC format too.

It’s not clear just how the integration of 7Digital into Spotify will work, but the process will reportedly start with a simple right lick on tracks users want to buy. Some sort of ‘buy-a-playlist’ function will also be added in due course.

The tie up is good for 7Digital because it enables them to offer a much more engaging preview-then-buy service that iTunes offers with its 30 second clips. The service will presumably be used by those who want to play tracks offline, or on the move, or those who have the sneaky feeling Spotify – like many other streaming services – will eventually bite the dust once venture capital is spent and the labels/publishers push for bigger royalty fees, so it’s still wise to keep a back up of your favourite tunes actually on your PC.

Spotify has previously said it will announce three retail partnerships in the coming weeks – it’s not clear if the other partnerships are with 7Digital’s rivals, or with ticket and/or merchandise sellers.

Confirming the deal, Spotify boss Daniel Ek said this: “Spotify is a great way to listen to and discover music and, through integration with 7digital.com, our users can now take their digital music with them wherever they go. We’re committed to developing the world’s largest streaming music catalogue and 7digital.com’s huge catalogue of high quality MP3 downloads makes them an ideal partner for us”.

7Digital top man Ben Drury added: “The collaboration with Spotify is exactly what we were aiming to achieve when we opened our API to outside developers. This is the first stage of a partnership that will create a more integrated download experience for 7digital and Spotify customers. We’re already looking to build on the existing integration and, ultimately, allow users to listen and buy MP3s securely with one or two clicks”.

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Elvis poem sells for $20k

Legal

A short poem written by Elvis Presley has sold at auction for $20,000. When I first heard that it was about a dead bird, I thought that it might be some kind of sweetly sad reflection on the poor robin’s demise. But it’s a bit nastier than that. The verse, written on his own stationery, reads:

As I awoke this morning when all sweet things are born
A robin perched on my window sill to greet the coming dawn.
He sang his sweet song so sweetly and paused for a moment’s lull
I gently raised the window and crushed his fucking skull.

Nice. It was sold as part of an online sale of Elvis memorabilia alongside other items such as a jumpsuit he wore at a concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden, which sold for $212,588.40, and the typed lyrics for his song ‘Young and Beautiful’, which raised $1,155.60.

TI sentenced to a year in the klink

Legal

US hip hopper TI has been sentenced to a year and a day in jail after pleading guilty to those previously reported 2007 charges of possessing illegal weapons. The rapper, real name Clifford Harris, has a month or two to report to prison. I am still confused about why he (and many other music celebrities in the US) doesn’t have to go straight to jail.

Spears Senior orders fan site shutdown

Legal

Taking a leaf out of Prince’s book, Jamie ‘father of Britney’ Spears has ordered the closure of one of his daughter’s fan sites on the grounds of copyright infringement.

Spears Senior who, of course, is currently managing his daughter’s affairs as part of the ‘conservatorship’ that was put in place after her loopy period early last year, has told the owner of BreatheHeavy.com that “you are an uber fan who’s gone a little too far”. Spears apparently objects to the posting of unauthorised photos, lyrics and videos on the fan site.

In a message posted on the website, its owner, Jordan Miller, writes: “I have been battling the conservatorship Britney is currently placed under for months now. When I did not conform to the requests and demands Britney’s management and father, Jamie Spears, recently put upon BreatheHeavy to stay quiet, they in turn became angry and malicious, launching, what I feel is an unjust attack, against me and my website. This conservatorship Britney is placed under, which controls every aspect of her life, is now clenching the future of her biggest fansite”.

Miller is asking users of his site to donate money to help him hire lawyers to fight Spears’ infringement claims. As previously reported, Prince last year issues similar orders against some of his fan sites, ordering pictures and lyrics and the like be removed. Such action does seem somewhat counter-productive, even if infringement claims are legitimate, given that fans sites invariably provide tonnes of free publicity for an artist and their commercial exploits. There is also a fear artists might use infringement claims against fan sites which sometimes carry negative coverage about them.

Jackson auction will go ahead, despite Jacko’s objections

Legal

That Michael Jackson memorabilia auction that seemingly had the singer’s approval, but then didn’t all of a sudden, will still go ahead, the auction house running it has said, despite Jacko launching legal proceedings to try and stop it.

As previously reported, Jackson is trying to stop Julien’s Auction House in LA from staging the auction, claiming that the auctioneers had not fulfilled their commitment to let him approve what goods would be sold before announcing the sale. But the company’s owner, Darren Julien, claims Jacko had been in the loop throughout the planning stages of the auction, and had even signed off a press release, and that he is therefore “really puzzled and disappointed” about the singer’s subsequent legal action.

Confirming the auction would go ahead on 21 Apr, Julien told reporters: “We’re really puzzled and disappointed that he’s trying to stop this sale because the last eight months he’s known about the auction. In December he and his manager approved a release that went out, announcing that we’re conducting an auction of Neverland and Michael Jackson”.

On the planned sale, he continued: “We’re going to keep our commitment to him and really make sure that it’s really something his fans and the world can be proud of. I mean Michael Jackson is an amazing pop icon – the history, and what he means to pop culture, and Neverland, is part of pop culture history. So we want this to be something that’s fun, that’s exciting, so we hope we get past all these issues with him and he’ll enjoy the process like he did originally when he was putting the sale together for us”.

Many of the goods for sale seemingly come from Jackon’s own collection – they include the wrought iron gates from his Neverland Ranch and a white glove he wore in his 1983 Billie Jean video – so I’m not quite sure how that works given the singer’s subsequent withdrawal from the sale, though presumably the auction house has some legal right to sell them.

Designer sues Love over all round bitchiness

Legal

A fashion designer is reportedly suing Courtney Love over remarks published on the former Hole singer’s infamous blog. Dawn Simorangkir claims Love has embarked on “an obsessive and delusional crusade to terrorize and destroy” her career by making outlandish allegations on her website, including suggesting the designer was a cocaine user and dealer, a prostitute, a “horrible lying bitch” and “an asswipe nasty lying hosebag thief”. Which is nice. According to TMZ.com, the designer is reportedly suing for emotional distress and invasion of privacy.

T Pain suffers tee pain

Artist News

Singer/producer/rapper/song-writer T-Pain was involved in a freak golf cart incident on Friday, in which he apparently lost four teeth and suffered from a number of cuts and abrasions to the face. Well, it’s a shame, but you know, if you will play golf, these things will happen. Anyway, he was as a result forced to cancel two high profile gigs over the weekend, with Lil Wayne and Lil Kim. Kim has said that he was also unable to take part in the scheduled filming of her new video, stating: “He’s gonna be in the video, but we have to wait until he heals and gets better. So, to my boy T-Peezy, ‘Get better baby. We can’t wait to see you'”.

Nickelback triumph at Junos

Awards

Rockers Nickelback dominated Canada’s Juno awards at the weekend, opening the show with a performance of their single ‘Something In Your Mouth’, and collecting three awards at the ceremony, for Group Of The Year, Album Of The Year for ‘Dark Horse’ and the Juno Fan Choice Award.

Accepting the first award frontman Chad Kroeger said this: “Wow, wow, we have been doing this for awhile now – since ’96 – and to win this – Group Of The Year – is just absolutely amazing. Thanks to the fans and everybody here in Vancouver, thank you so much”.

Other winners on the night included Montreal rocker Sam Roberts, who took Artist Of The Year, Toronto rapper Kardinal Offishall who won in the Rap Recording category, and Alexisonfire man Dallas Green, who got Songwriter Of The Year. Coldplay took International Album of The Year for ‘Viva La Vida’, Alanis Morrissette received Best Pop Album for ‘Flavors Of Entanglement’, and Barenaked Ladies were awarded the gong for Best Children’s Album.

And talking of Barenaked Ladies, the show’s host Russell Peters had a pop at former band member Steven Page, who was, as previously reported, charged with possessing cocaine last summer. “Speaking of snow, Steven Page left the Barenaked Ladies”, he told the audience, “apparently to sniff out some other work”.

Williams definitely to reunite with Take That, says Mirror

Artist News

The Mirror claims that Robbie Williams is definitely going to make some live appearances with Take That, and that their reunion will begin with a London residency. The singer previously revealed, apparently, that he felt ready for a return to the group and expected to “have a laugh” if it went ahead.

Anyway, the tabloid claims that the group’s management are looking for an appropriate London venue, possibly The O2 or Wembley, for either June or November 2010. They quote a ‘source’ as saying: “It’s definitely on – don’t believe the denials. It will be the most sensational comeback ever. But everything is under wraps as it’s over a year away and the orders from the top are to keep it quiet”.

Wall Of Sound to collaborate with EMI on Mpho

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers

London-based independent Wall Of Sound has announced a global licensing deal with EMI’s Parlophone division in relation to the indie’s latest development aritist, broken beat singer and Bugz In The Attic collaborator Mpho. The five album deal will see EMI work with the indie to launch Mpho’s solo career.

Explaining their reason for partnering with the major, the first time Wall Of Sound has done so to this extent, WoS top man Mark Jones told CMU: “This is the first time in Wall of Sound’s fifteen year history that we’ve teamed up with a UK major label worldwide on an artist. Mpho’s album has enormous global crossover pop potential. The honest commitment and passion of the Parlophone UK label team gave me no doubts whatsover that this set up can give Mpho and her music the best available platform. Added to that the interest and involvement of [Parlophone chief] Miles Leonard, [EMI A&R President] Nick Gatfield and Steve Melrose [at EMI’s Capitol division in the US] were another big influence on my belief that this can really work. I’ve known and respected all of the individuals concerned for some considerable time but we’ve never actually worked together before. Most importantly I’m so pleased for Mpho. It couldn’t happen to a more talented artist”.

Leonard himself added: “Mpho makes great pop music, Wall of Sound make great records, it’s what we like to work with”.

Lemonheads to release covers album

Releases

The Lemonheads are to release an album of cover versions in the US on 23 Jun. The collection, entitled ‘Varshons’, will feature the band’s take on tracks originally performed by the likes of Leonard Cohen, Townes Van Zandt, Gram Parsons and Christina Aguilera. There are a couple of guest appearances on the LP, which has been produced by Butthole Surfers frontman Gibby Haynes, from Kate Moss and actress Liv Tyler. Not sure about a UK release date but here’s the tracklisting, with the original artist in brackets:

I Just Can’t Take It Anymore (Gram Parsons)
Fragile (Wire)
Layin’ Up With Linda (G.G. Allin)
Waiting Around To Die (Townes Van Zandt)
Green Fuz (Randy Alvey & Green Fuz)
Yesterlove (Sam Gopal)
Dirty Robot feat. Kate Moss (Arling & Cameron)
New Mexico (FuckEmos)
Dandelion Seeds (July)
Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye feat. Liv Tyler (Leonard Cohen)
Beautiful (Christina Aguilera)

Doherty to write TV drama

Artist News

According to reports, Pete Doherty is to write a TV drama series for the BBC.

It sounds a bit improbable, I know, but here’s what a ‘source’ says on the matter: “Pete was meeting creative chiefs. They’ve commissioned him to write a ‘Skins’-style show on the dark side of the music industry. They want a pilot episode written in the next six weeks which will become a series, if he can come up with the goods. Beeb bosses think Pete has a creative streak that will produce some gritty TV. He’s seen it all as a hellraising rock star, so they want his experiences written in”.

Whether he would be able to buckle down and get it done in time would be the question, I think. But good luck to him.

Fatboy pulls out of Snowbombing Festival

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Fatboy Slim has pulled out of this week’s Snowbombing Festival, which kicked off in Mayrhofen, Austria yesterday, because of his continued fight against alcohol addiction. According to the Sun, Norman Cook’s treatment, which began when he entered rehab earlier this month, will take longer than expected. They quote Cook as follows: “I’m choked to be missing out on it but I hope Snowbombing will have me back for another crack at it next year. Sorry to let you down, folks”. On their website this morning Snowbombing have announced that 2 Many DJs will now headline the event, “replacing Fatboy Slim due to health reasons”.

Budd returns to band management

Business News Industry People Management & Funding

Stephen Budd, who co-founded artist management agency SuperVision, but who more recently has concentrated on managing the careers of music producers through his own Stephen Budd Management company, has announced he will be dabbling once again in band management by taking on responsibility for both Gang Of Four and The Magic Numbers, which sounds pretty damn exciting if you ask me. He will co-manage Gang Of Four with SuperVision’s Nigel Templeman and Dave Cronen, and The Magic Numbers with Dan Moore.

Budd, who previously managed Heaven 19, Tanita Tikaram and Big Sound Authority, in addition to his wide-ranging producer management experience, told CMU: “Alongside managing the producers, I’m delighted to be returning to my primary discipline of working hands-on with artists. I’ve been close to both bands personally for a long time and they are simply some of the best musicians I’m privileged to know. Both acts are making stunning new albums, so when I was approached by each within a couple of weeks, of course I was honoured and it was a no-brainer for me to say yes. Over the last few years as a part of Channelfly, and now MAMA, we’ve grown [our management] businesses considerably and now have amazing resources that we can bring to bear to work with these artists. We’ll start running hard at it now”.

Mixtape.me getting good response, enjoy now before the cease and desists arrive

Business News Digital

Much chatter in the blogosphere last week about MixTape.me, a new easy to use digital music player which taps into numerous sources of online music – including blogs, label and artist pages, and what not – and lets you play and playlist those tracks through an iTunes-style interface. Of course many of tracks it sources are probably unlicensed – it certainly utilises the Seeqpod search system which Warner and EMI are currently suing – and there are many similarities between it and the original version of Muxtape, which was closed down by the Recording Industry Association Of America last year. But for the time being, we hear that, infringement aside, it’s a good service and, of course, by accessing illegal as well as legal sources of music it has a hugely expansive and diverse catalogue at its disposal.

Pirate Bay to help file sharers hide

Business News Digital

Another bit of new technology getting much coverage in blog land last week was IPREDator, a new system being offered by the good old Pirate Bay that gives file-sharers more anonymity by using so called virtual private network, or VPN, software.

The technology is designed to make it harder for content owners to identify who is sharing unlicensed music online, and so to make it harder for them to launch legal proceedings against those individuals or – should such a system become real law in any territory – order disconnection under the controversial three-strike system.

It’s named after the IPRED, or the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive, a bit of European legislation designed to make infringement lawsuits quicker and easier for content owners to pursue in all EU jurisdictions, and especially those who have been less generous to content owners in online piracy cases, like Italy and Spain.

The Pirate Bay chiefs still waiting for a Swedish judge to rule on whether they are guilty of authorising/contributory infringement charges are presumably launching IPRED simply as a technical innovation and not to help file-sharers to evade copyright litigation, given that, according to their statements in court, they are completely unaware that any of their other services might be used by people trying to distribute or access pirated content.

German retailer buys control of 24-7 downloads

Business News Deals Digital Retail

German consumer electronics giant Media-Saturn last week bought a controlling interest in 24-7 Entertainment, a back-end provider of digital music services which powers the online and mobile download and ringtone services of numerous European retailers and tel cos, including Media-Saturn’s two main retail brands Media Markt and Saturn.

Despite the deal, 24-7 will continue to be run by its founders, Frank Taubert and Carl Nielsen, as an independent unit within the retail firm.

Confirming the deal, Taubert told reporters: “We are very pleased that such a major player as Media-Saturn understands the growth potential of the 24-7 Entertainment digital distribution platform. Being part of a major consumer electronics entity will afford us many opportunities for expansion including the convergence of digital entertainment services to the home and portable environment, which we believe will be greatly beneficial to all of our loyal customers”.

Awards presented at Radio Academy forum

Awards Business News Media

The Radio Academy last week staged its first Radio & Music Forum, designed to bring together the great and good of both the radio and music sectors so to assess whose industry was in the biggest mess. Do you know, I think I’d say radio.

No, that wasn’t the real reason for meeting, it was a chance for radio and music types to explore how they can better work together, to meet their respective challenges in this here digital age. It was also an opportunity to dish out some awards – some existing gongs, and some new ones – to those music business types who support or work with radio, and vice versa.

The Scott Piering Award, an established prize that acknowledges collaboration between the music and radio industries, went to BPI chief and former EMI UK boss Tony Wadsworth (pictured, photo from the Radio Academy), while two plugging awards, presented in association with Record Of The Day, went to Neil Adams of, well, Neil Adams PR, and Charlie Lycett of Lucid PR.

There were also awards for music business types. There were two new gongs for live music broadcasting, which went to the BBC Electric Proms and the Xfm Session. And then there was the PPL sponsored Lifetime Achievement Award which went to the legend that is Trevor Horn.

Parfitt on the future of TOTP, and an aging Radio 1

Business News Media

Talking of the Radio Academy Forum, among the speakers there was the BBC’s Chief Of Pop Andy Parfitt (that’s his new job title I think) and he was asked, as he must be at every music industry event he attends these days, about whether ‘Top Of The Pops’ will return to our TV screens at any point in the near future. His answer: Well, no. Probably not.

He said that while recent special editions of the show – Christmas, New Year, Comic Relief – had been well received, there were no plans for the legendary pop show to return to a weekly time slot on the BBC TV network because, you see, the kids just don’t want it. Which you can’t blame them for really, given the Beeb’s insistence that ‘Top Of The Pops’ always be fronted by talent vacuum that is Fearne Cotton.

According to Music Week, Parfitt told the Forum: “[Top Of The Pops] has got a mythical status … but I don’t think we should get hung up on that one programme. We are a long way from [BBC1 controller] Jay Hunt recommissioning ‘Top Of The Pops’ in its old-school form on BBC1. Younger music consumers expect more interactivity – the days are gone when we can make a programme and just put it out there”.

Parfitt also took the opportunity to defend accusations that Radio 1 – which is still in his domain at the Beeb – is increasingly failing to reach its target demographic of 15-24 year olds, not least because of its increasingly aging presenter roster, which includes 34 year old Scott Mills, 35 year old Chris Moyles, 43 year olds Jo Whiley and Steve Lamaq, 48 year old Pete Tong and 51 year old Tim Westwood.

Parfitt insisted that Radio 1 remains a “hot young station” and argued that while it is true more 35 plus year olds are tuning in than in the past, that says more about 35 plus year olds than the nation’s favourite’s output. He said older listeners still tuned in because “they want to remain younger longer. You can’t make them go away”.

It is a tricky challenge for Parfitt, because Radio 1 arguably needs a Matthew Bannister style total revamp of its presenter line up (like former R1 controller Bannister controversially instigated in the early nineties) to avoid increasing allegations that the very well licence-fee funded station is crossing too much into the territory of commercial pop stations, and not fulfilling its remit of specifically providing youth with great new music. But to be fair, Radio 1’s ageing presenters are among the station’s best and/or most popular.

UKRD make bid for TLRC

Business News Media

Local radio firm UKRD has made an offer to buy The Local Radio Company. The offer follows UKRD’s previously reported acquisition of a 13.5% stake in its struggling rival. The merger would combine UKRD’s six local radio stations with TLRC’s network of 21. TLRC need to raise new funds to tackle a recent financial year loss of £6.9 million, and rumour has it UKRD will use its shareholding to block any other attempts to raise said funds in order to force through its takeover. UKRD chairman Trevor Smallwood told reporters: “We believe the offer represents an attractive premium over recent trading levels and is in the best interests of [LRC shareholders] as a whole”.

Tuesday 31 March 2009, 12:15 | By CMU Editorial

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