Thursday 27 August 2009, 12:07 | By

Glastonbury not banning flags

Business News Gigs & Festivals Live Business

So, there’s been much debate over this whole flag-banning at festivals thing in the last 24 hours, with many agreeing with it and many saying that banning things like flags is not in the spirit of festivals. But then, you could argue that having an arena which is closed to the public between 11pm and 11am isn’t really in the spirit of festivals either, and Reading and Leeds still do that. Being able to actually see bands play is quite a festival-y thing too.

But anyway, it’s good news for lovers of flags today, as it looks like they’re there to stay at Glastonbury. Emily Eavis said via Twitter that the festival would not ban flags next year, and a spokesperson confirmed this to the NME. As previously reported, Festivals Republic boss Melvin Benn, who has banned flags at Reading and Leeds, is Operations Director at Glasto and admitted he was trying to persuade the Eavis clan to do the same there.

It is fairly difficult to see how they would stop people waving flags around at Glastonbury, not having a Reading and Leeds-style sealed arena. Unless they set fire to them using flame throwers on the front of the main stage, which, if you ask me, would only add to the festival experience. Emily, if you’re reading this, that’s something I’d seriously consider.

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Thursday 27 August 2009, 12:06 | By

Beachdown cancelled

Business News Gigs & Festivals Live Business

Beachdown Festival, which was due to take place this weekend, has been cancelled due to slow ticket sales and a lack of financial support, according to a statement posted on the event’s website.

Organisers said: “It is with immense personal regret that the directors of Beachdown Festival have been advised that they must announce that due to slower than forecast ticket sales and lack of support at a critical time from our bank and certain suppliers that despite being so so close to being able to deliver Beachdown Festival we are unable to do so. Very simply we were unable to meet the demands that the current economic climate put against us and at the eleventh hour despite having most of the infrastructure in place we have been forced to cancel the event”.

As ever, there are options for people who had already bought tickets for the festival. Offset Festival’s organisers have stepped in and offered a ticket exchange to get into their event on 5-6 Sep for an extra £35. More details on that here: www.offsetfestival.co.uk/beachdown/.

Brighton’s Concorde 2 venue is also planning to move the line-up of the stage it was due to host at Beachdown over to the venue itself. Further details on that are due to be announce shortly, here: www.concorde2.co.uk/news/Beachdown+cancelled+-+C2+to+host+local+bands%21

And finally, if you’re more keen on just have a good old sing-song, karaoke company Lucky Voice are offering a free hour in their Brighton venue to Beachdown ticket-holders until 1am on Sunday. For more details on how to book that, go here: blog.luckyvoice.com/2009/08/lucky-voice-brighton-offers-free-singing-to-beachdown-ticketholders/

Refunds should be sought from the point of sale, further information will be made available via www.beachdownfestival.com

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Thursday 27 August 2009, 12:05 | By

World’s Fair is no more

Business News Labels & Publishers Marketing & PR

US-based label services company World’s Fair, which provided independent labels and artists with press, promotions, sales, design and finance services, has folded. The company’s CEO Kevin Wortis has confirmed the company is no more to Billboard.

The company’s demise is seemingly quite sudden, which the World’s Fair press team sending out a press release on behalf of rapper Lyrics Born as recently as Tuesday. The firm had 12 full time staff and worked with labels like Daptone, Nat Geo Music, and Quannum, and artists including Dizzee Rascal and British Sea Power.

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Thursday 27 August 2009, 12:04 | By

New commercial director at Digital Stores

Business News Digital Industry People Retail

Digital Stores, who run recordstore.co.uk and power a load of other download and merchandise stores, have announced that Simon Coates has been promoted to the new position of Commercial Director. Coates, who joined Digital Stores from HMV in 2005, was previously Product Director for the etail firm.

Coates told CMU: “This is a great opportunity for me. The new commercial director role means I can really spread my wings at Digital Stores and fully explore all new revenue streams and e-commerce development areas. I’ve been working in online retail for over ten years now and it amazes me that there’s still so much we can do. What we have now is just the start and I’m going to make sure we’re right at the front of all innovation and development”.

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Thursday 27 August 2009, 12:03 | By

Record Collector to partner on Secret re-issues

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers Media

Record Collector magazine has teamed up with independent label Secret Records to reissue “classic lost albums” originally released in the sixties by a label called Morgan Blue Town.

Described in Music Week by Secret Records’ Mike Mastrangelo as “a classic old British psychedelic label whose records command vast sums of money”, Morgan Blue Town was set up by Monty Babson and Barry Morgan and released a number of singles and albums which, despite having little commercial success at the time, have since developed a cult following.

Among the acts released by the label were The Academy, The Smoke, Red Dirt and Cliff Wade, though the first re-issue will be a limited edition release of ‘Pussy Plays’ by Pussy, released on 180 gram vinyl and available exclusively to Record Collector readers.

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Thursday 27 August 2009, 12:02 | By

Sony’s websites tenth music destination

Business News Labels & Publishers

Sony Music’s network of websites has been rated as the tenth most popular music destination online.

I’m not 100% sure which of Sony’s websites this statement includes, they all seem pretty rubbish to me, and I never go to the UK ones because I have a rule of not visiting websites where music plays without user permission. And these stats are for June, so it’s possible the major’s web traffic received what I believe is known in the trade as a ‘Jacko boost’, the late king of pop being famously signed to Sony’s Epic label. But still, well done Sony for drawing 20 million unique users to their online operation in June, and scoring a total of 33 million visits (according to the comScore Media Metrix).

The majors, of course, have long had ambitions to have direct relationships with music fans through their own web portals rather than via other music sites, or management-controlled artist sites, which is why it’s a shame most of their websites are rubbish.

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Thursday 27 August 2009, 12:01 | By

Jackson reality show announced

Media

What better way to mourn the loss of a loved one than by appearing in a reality TV, that’s what I always say. The remaining members of the Jackson Five – Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon Jackson – are to do just that, with a documentary filmed for US network A&E prior to their brother’s death now being expanded to a series.

The original documentary, which has not yet aired in full, followed the group as they prepared to reunite for a new tour. Footage from it was aired on CBS show ‘Entertainment Tonight’ on Tuesday. However, a spokesperson for A&E has said that these clips had been leaked and shown without their consent.

Full details of what the series will cover are not clear, though when the original film was announced in May, it promised “unprecedented access” to the Jackson family. It has not yet been announced when the show will air, either.

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Thursday 27 August 2009, 12:00 | By

KRS-One founds religion

And Finally

Legendary rapper KRS-One has founded his own religion based on hip hop. He’s even gone so far as to write a 600 page holy text for it, called ‘The Gospel Of Hip Hop: The First Instrument’. Which, if nothing else, is dedicated.

KRS-One told AllHipHop: “It explores the spirituality of hip hop, the divinity of hip hop. I’m suggesting that in 100 years, this book will be a new religion on the earth. Now you talk about controversy, there’s some Christian ministries if you go online, look up some ministers, they dissing right now. ‘Who the hell does he think he is?’ Well, I think I have the authority to approach God directly, I don’t have to go through any religion [or] train of thought. I can approach God directly myself and so I wrote a book called ‘The Gospel Of Hip Hop’ to free from all this nonsense garbage right now. Respect [to] the Christianity, the Islam, the Judaism but their time is up”.And verily, I do say unto you, whoop whoop – that is the sound of the police.

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Thursday 27 August 2009, 11:00 | By

Q&A: Ocean Reid

Artist Interviews

Ocean Reid began writing music at an early age, moving around the UK, and collaborating with the likes of David Arnold, before settling in Brighton to complete his debut album, ‘Sonnets From The Recovery Position’. His debut single, ‘Talking Dead’, was released via Surreal Records earlier this month. Reid is currently on an epic tour of the UK and will also be heading out to Europe later this year. We caught up with him to ask our Same Six Questions.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
I started taking things to pieces as a kid to see what noises I could make. This got me loads of grief with my parents and school, so I had to knock that one on the head. We had a steal drum at home that I really liked hitting, but didn’t win much parental support, that one always got me the harsh stare, the point and then the slap round the head. My dad had a piano and a banjo, but I had pretty strict on pain of death instructions to never touch these things under any circumstances, ever. Eventually I got my hands on a really mashed up acoustic guitar with three rusty strings on it, and it rocked my world. So I started making little tunes up on that. I made loads of songs that I never played to anyone, mostly cause they were crap. But then something seemed to click and really make sense, almost like I’d learned a new language, I’ve been hearing songs ever since and I’ve never looked back.

Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Life seems to dish up some pretty tasty treats, but also some really twisted dark cruel stuff. Kinda like some really messed up, mashed up sick joke. So I always seem to be watching myself and people close to me crashing into walls as the wheels fall off. I just always seem to be around as the last finger slips off the rail and people lose their grip on everything.

So my forthcoming album, ‘Sonnets From The Recovery Position’, came together as a record of some of the best instances and darkest moments to blow my life to pieces. I seemed to lose a lot of good people in a very short space of time through some pretty grim deaths and circumstances. Stuff that just destroys your head and leaves you with nothing but massive questions that just don’t have any answers and never will. This left me with some pretty big gaps to fill, I wrote so many songs whilst trying to make sense of things, it sounds pretty stupid but it did help to begin finding a small perspective to a large mess.

Too many hospitals and funerals for myself, friends and family, but I guess I’ve said it all on the album, I don’t do names though, that stuff is private and always will be. I think most people’s lives are in constant need of a wheelbarrow and a sweeping brush. Maybe even a skip. Who knows? But we all need somewhere to put the mess, I just put mine into an album. I just call it as I see it. I guess my album is inspired by a skip full of glass.

Q3 How do you go about creating a track?
I hear songs all the time. Some days it’s like a gift and some days it’s a real pain in the arse. Mostly I get the whole lot in one go and sometimes I get parts of songs that I think are different songs, but then they turn out to be separate layers of the same song. I get that lots with string harmonies and vocal lines. I usually record stuff all the time when I’m walking around. I pretend I’m talking on the phone so I don’t look like a dick, but I have pretty poor telephone acting skills, so I probably don’t pull it off. From there I need to find some quiet time, usually in the middle of the night when everything makes sense and nobody is trying to talk to you. This is when I rebuild the songs out of my recordings and memory bullets to put all the parts in to a cohesive format. Sometimes I fine tune but mostly they are done from the seed. It is like taking songs home like really crappy flat pack furniture but actually reading the instructions so you glue the right parts together. You just need to leave yourself the right instructions so you can rebuild the song later in time.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
We always had music on at home as a kid, lots of Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Band, The Stones, Dylan, Baez and stuff like that. My dad would always play a bit of Beatles and random stuff on the piano when he got in from work. It took a long time to get my hands on a CD player, but when I did, I seemed to buy stuff from years ago, like Pixies and Nirvana. Now I seem to be listening to MP3s of Josh Rouse, Josh Ritter and Regina Spektor. It’s hard to catch up with music as you have to sort out the songs that are in your head before you can listen to songs from outside. It is a constant battle, because I love music, but I can’t listen to music when I’m making music. It’s like following the Fibonacci sequence whilst people shout random numbers at you, why the hell would you do that? That’s just sick.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
That song you probably thought was a love song, wasn’t… trust me.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
I’m loving it that my tunes are getting interest, and I’m getting tour dates in other countries. I was well up for taking the single and the album out on the road, but now it is going overseas, which is way up there on my list but I didn’t think it would happen so soon. So I’m made up and I’m really glad so many people seem to get the album. My single, ‘Talking Dead’, is already set to tour UK, Europe and parts of the US. Mind blowing stuff to turn pages from my diary into geographically dispersed events. If the album has the interest that the single has I hope it could go out on the road to loads more countries. I have so much material written that I would feel cheated to record any less than ten albums and tour them around the world. As long as my diary doesn’t come to an abrupt end, that is exactly my plan.

MORE>> www.oceanreid.com

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 12:54 | By

Chris Brown sentenced

Legal Top Stories

Chris Brown has received his sentence for assaulting ex-girlfriend Rihanna, receiving five years’ probation, 180 days of community service and a year of domestic violence counselling. He was also ordered not to come with 100 yards of Rihanna (except at music industry events), an increase from a previous order of 50 yards, despite calls by the beaten singer and her lawyers to relax this rule.

Brown was due to be sentenced earlier this month, but this was delayed while Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patricia Snegg awaited confirmation that his community service would involve physical work, which may include road sweeping or collecting litter. Rumours that the judge intended to increase the community service element of the charge to 1400 hours proved incorrect.

Informing Brown of his amended restraining order, the judge also made it clear to him that any violation of this, or any other part of his sentence, may mean time spent in prison. She said: “Any violation of this protective order is a violation of your probation. [The sentence] does come with a potential of state prison if you should violate in any way”.

As previously reported, Brown beat Rihanna unconscious and left her on a pavement in LA during an argument as the couple drove home from a pre-Grammy party in February this year.

Court documents relating to Brown’s probation state that there had been two previous unreported violent episodes in the couple’s relationship. The first in December last year, where Brown pushed Rihanna into a wall after she slapped him, the second, closer to the attack in February, where he reportedly smashed the front and passenger side windows of a Range Rover while they were visiting Barbados, where Rihanna is originally from.

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 12:52 | By

C-Murder sentenced a bit more

Legal Top Stories

Rapper C-Murder, real name Corey Miller, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for the attempted murder of a nightclub owner and bouncer. This follows the life sentence handed down earlier this month after he was found guilty, for a second time, of the murder of a teenager fan.

This latest sentence relates to a previously reported incident at the Baton Rouge club in Louisiana. Miller refused to be searched as he tried to get into the club in August 2001. In the ensuing argument, he fired shots into the club at the club’s own and the bouncer who had stopped him.

The ten year sentence, which was reduced as part of a plea deal based on time already spent in jail and under house arrest, will be served concurrently with the previously reported mandatory life sentence Miller received after being found guilty for the second time of the murder of teenage fan Steve Thomas at another Louisiana club in 2002. His original conviction for the murder was overturned when Judge Martha Sassone agreed that prosecutors had improperly withheld background information on three eyewitnesses, but a second jury found the former hip hopper guilty also.

Miller is planning to appeal against the murder charge but, as a result of the aforementioned plea deal, not the Baton Rouge incident.

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 12:50 | By

Larry Knetchtel dies

Obituaries

Grammy-winning keyboard player Larry Knechtel died in hospital last Thursday aged 69 after suffering a heart attack, a spokesman for Valley Hills Funeral Home in Yakima, Washington confirmed on Monday.

Born in California in 1940, Knetchtel had a long career in the music industry, recording and playing live with artists including Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys, The Doors, Ray Charles, Neil Diamond and Randy Newman, and working closely with Phil Spector as the producer developed his ‘wall of sound’ style. In 1970 he won a Grammy for his arrangement on Simon & Garfunkel’s song ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’. He also performed on The Dixie Chicks’ Grammy-winning album ‘Take The Long Way’.

A private memorial is planned, though details of this have not yet been announced.

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 12:46 | By

Magic Dirt bassist dies

Obituaries

Magic Dirt bassist Dean Turner died on Friday aged 37. He had been suffering from a rare form of deep tissue cancer. The band, including Turner, had been due to perform in Victoria in Australia on the day of his death.

As well as performing with Magic Dirt, Turner produced recordings by a number of other Australian bands, including theredsunband, Sons Of The Sun and Violent Soho.

He is survived by a wife and two daughters.

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 12:45 | By

Oasis not splitting

Artist News

Just because Liam Gallagher revealed that he and Noel don’t speak anymore shortly before Oasis cancelled a show due to illness, The Sun’s Gordon Smart has been telling everyone that the band are splitting up. But need we remind you that Noel and Liam have never really been very friendly with each other? It’s kind of their thing. The day they start getting along, that’s the end of Oasis.

Anyway, Liam said via Twitter: “Reports in Smartarse’s column about Oasis’ last British gig ever. The kid’s talking out his arse”.

A statement on the band’s official website added yesterday:”V Festival was always scheduled as the last UK gig for this ‘Dig Out Your Soul’ world tour. Oasis will complete the rest of the world tour in Europe and then take some well-earned time off before they begin to think about the next album and tour”.

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 12:43 | By

Ladyhawke discusses new material

Artist News

Ladyhawke, aka Pip Brown, has been talking about the shape her second album might take.

She told Xfm: “I’m going to experiment a lot. I’m really gonna focus on rhythm, doing all the drums myself and trying to get a good sound. I’ll be experimenting with different styles of rhythm and seeing how that turns out”.

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 12:42 | By

Zach Hill joins Wavves

Artist News

Continuing his efforts to play on every underground indie release ever, Hella drummer Zach Hill has begun playing with Wavves, aka Nathan Williams (pictured). The duo head out on a US tour next month and have already begun recording new material together.

The pair recently performed one new track, ‘Hula Hoop’, for TerrorEyes.tv, which you can watch here.

Of the song, Williams says: “This is a rough live mix from how the song will be when it’s finished but once it’s done the track WILL be on the next record. Lyrically/sonically the song will be pretty different but jam on it”.

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 12:41 | By

REM to release rehearsals

Releases

REM have announced details of a new live album featuring “working rehearsals”, one of which went on to make up their 2008 album ‘Accelerate’. The 39 tracks were recorded during a five night residency at Dublin’s Olympia club in July 2007.

Guitarist Peter Buck said of the shows, which were performed in front of friends, family and fan club members: “[They were an] experiment in terror, trying to do something we hadn’t done before. Every second we were playing something we didn’t know all that well. Which was kind of good – there were all kinds of terror elements going on during that show”.

The two-disc album, ‘Live At The Olympia’, is set for release on 26 Oct.

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 12:40 | By

Fever Ray single and album re-release

Releases

Fever Ray, aka The Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson, will release her fourth solo single, ‘Seven’, on 5 Oct via Cooperative Music. Released on 12″ and download, it will feature remixes from Crookers, CSS, Marcel Dettman, Martyn, Nic Chacona, Real Daniel and Seth Troxler.

As well as this, a new two disc edition of her debut solo album will be released on 12 Oct. The first disc features the album, plus two new tracks – cover versions of Vashti Bunyan’s ‘Been Here Before’, and ‘Stranger Than Kindness’ by Nick Cave and Anita Lane – while disc two is a DVD featuring all the videos made for the project so far.

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 12:39 | By

Ash reveal alphabetical tour dates

Gigs & Festivals

Ash have announced dates for their ‘A To Z Tour’, which will promote their A-Z Singles Series – 26 singles released in alphabetical order bi-weekly for twelve months. Similarly, the tour will take the band around 26 towns in alphabetical order during October and November. Sort of, anyway, they’ve cheated on X. All residents of town with names beginning with X will be very annoyed.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow.

Tour dates:

19 Oct: Aldershot, West End Centre
20 Oct: Bradford, The Gasworks
21 Oct: Carlisle, Brickyard
23 Oct: Dundee, Fat Sam’s
24 Oct: East Grange, The Loft
25 Oct: Falkirk, Behind The Wall
27 Oct: Gloucester, Guildhall
28 Oct: Hastings, Crypt
30 Oct: Ipswich, Corn Exchange
31 Oct: Jersey, Havana
2 Nov: Kingston, Peel
3 Nov: Loughborough, University
4 Nov: Milton Keynes, Pitz Club
6 Nov: Newport, TJs
7 Nov: Oldham, Castle
8 Nov: Plymouth, Hippo
10 Nov: Queens Park, Corrib Rest
11 Nov: Rotherham, The Vault
12 Nov: Swansea, Sin City
14 Nov: Tunbridge Wells, Forum
16 Nov: Upper Norwood, Gipsy Hill Tavern
17 Nov: Ventnor, Winter Gardens
19 Nov: Worcester, Dive Bar
21 Nov: eXmouth, Pavilion
22 Nov: Yeovil, Orange Box
23 Nov: Zennor, Village Hall

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 12:38 | By

Maps prepare for Adventures In The Bloody Beetroot Field

Gigs & Festivals

Maps will headline Adventures In The Bloody Beetroot Field at Cargo in London on Friday night. Also on the bill are Poni Hoax, Hook & The Twin and Samuel & The Dragon, and DJ sets come courtesy of Run Hide Survive and Ben Rymer. Entry is absolutely free.

Maps will be previewing material from their forthcoming second album, ‘Turning The Mind’, due out via Mute on 28 Sep. You can also catch him at Offset and Bestival.

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 12:36 | By

Benn discusses festival flag ban

Business News Gigs & Festivals Live Business

As previously reported, idiots will be disappointed at this year’s Reading and Leeds festivals because they won’t be allowed to wave their stupid flags. Festival boss Melvin Benn has been discussing the decision to ban flags from this year’s festival, and said that he is trying to convince Michael Eavis to do the same at Glastonbury, where Benn is Operations Director.

Benn said that the wall of flags blocking the view of the Pyramid stage at this year’s Glastonbury was “a nightmare”. He told the BBC: “You couldn’t see the acts. The flags were everywhere. There have always been flags but not to the level that there has been [recently]. And the flags have become very long and tall. The people behind them – not immediately behind them, but 20 or 30 rows behind them – can’t see. I’m doing everything I can to ban flags this year. For some reason those that buy a flag want to be closest to the stage”.

So, anyone trying to carrying a flag into the main arena will have it confiscated at the gate. However, Tony Withers, who runs a flag stall at various festivals, said: “To many people, it makes the event. People use them as a tent marker and then, as the show goes on, they lift them off the ground and take them to the stage. They want to get on TV – that’s the big thing now”.

If you need to carry a flag around to enjoy yourself, you shouldn’t be allowed outside. And what’s so great about holding something so big that it’s unavoidable for TV cameras? I don’t think confiscating the flags is enough. Anyone found trying to get a flag into the Reading and Leeds arenas should have the flag tied over their eyes until it’s time to go home.

The other thing frowned upon at Reading and Leeds this year is crowd surfing, which is less good. Rather than the usual system of security sending crowd surfers back into the audience when they get to the front, this year they will be escorted out of the arena and forced to queue up to get back in.

Benn said: “Reading Borough Council Health & Safety team consider it quite dangerous and we will endeavour to try and limit the amount of times people will do it. They won’t be ejected from the festival but they’ll be ejected from the arena. What that will result in is probably around a 20-minute delay before they get back into the arena. It will certainly delay their ability to get back in to watch the band”.

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 12:34 | By

Facebook to partner with Spotify?

Business News Digital

So, when MySpace bought iLike last week, there was much speculation over what this would mean for Facebook – iLike being their most popular third party music app. They couldn’t, we all said, just ditch it, even though it’s now owned by their main rival. However, a new rumour has come to light which suggests they could.

TechCrunch reports that Facebook and Spotify have been discussing a new partnership for over a year, but that “the talks have intensified dramatically in the last week”.

Further fuel for this particular fire came when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg updated his status on the site to say “Spotify is so good” yesterday, while Spotify chief Daniel Ek said via Twitter last night: “Long day soon finished. We’re making progress people! And I can’t wait to share more exciting stuff”. And there’s also the fact that Facebook investor Li Ka-Shing has just sunk a load of cash into Spotify.

What sort of shape a partnership between the two companies would take is not clear. One of Spotify’s USPs is its stand-alone, simple software, and they have so far avoided in-page streaming on websites. However, Ek said earlier this year that he would like Spotify to take over all of Last.fm’s streaming music provision, which would suggest they’re not entirely adverse to the idea, given that site’s current mixture of the two provision options.

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 12:33 | By

Free-to-air IPTV box coming soon, possibly

Media

A senior BBC exec has told Digital Spy that he reckons so called Canvas boxes could be available as early as next year. As previously reported, Canvas is an initiative involving most of the UK’s terrestrial TV broadcasters and BT aiming to bring IPTV – so television delivered over the internet – into the living room via a set-top box, in much the same way as the on-demand component of the existing BT Vision service.

Rather than being an IPTV service in itself, the aim with Canvas is to agree protocols for how telly-over-the-net should be delivered. The idea is that anyone using those protocols could then make IPTV services available to the owners of Canvas-enabled set-top boxes, rather than the provider of the box controlling what content is available via the unit, as is the case with existing set-top box based on-demand telly services.

Any project that involves the BBC, ITV and Five working together leads to competition concerns – as previously reported, attempts by BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 to launch a combined on-demand platform, working title Project Kangaroo, were blocked by the Competition Commission, despite it being quite a consumer-friendly proposition.

There are opponents to Canvas (Sky in particular), and the BBC Trust, who must approve the Corporation’s involvement in the venture, stepped up their investigations of the plans earlier this year so to consider the competition implications. They have set a deadline of 1 Sep for anyone wishing to make a submission to their investigation.

But the Beeb’s Programme Director IPTV, Richard Halton, remains optimistic that the Trust will ultimately approve the Canvas project, allowing compliant set top boxes to be on the market as soon as next year.

He told Digital Spy: “Freeview has always been about presenting people with choice as a free option and I think next year we will see a lot of activity in the pay TV sector, so free-to-air platforms offering competitive choice to consumers is really important. That is why for us 2010 is really important”.

He continued: “If Canvas is successful, then it represents a massive opportunity for content providers, particularly new players who will never get anywhere near the television because of the costs of doing something on a linear channel. We hope that the message for content provider and service providers is that this is very exciting and a real opportunity. The feedback we have had from indies, studios and content retailers of all description has been really positive. Normally it’s a question of ‘when can we get going?’ or ‘what do we do next to get on the platform?’ Which is great”.

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 12:32 | By

Sky signs deal with AEG

Media

Sky has signed a five year deal with live music conglom AEG, with plans to talk a string of ailing drug-dependent popstars into gruelling touring commitments, on the off chance they’ll OD, leaving hours of valuable behind-the-scenes documentary footage in the can. Coming soon to Sky One, ‘Pop Stars: Before They Were Dead’.

No, not really. The sponsorship deal will see Sky become a partner on AEG’s O2 Dome complex, giving the satellite broadcaster some TV rights to events staged at the arena, plus the facility to offer its customers VIP access to O2 concerts. Through the deal Sky will be the exclusive TV and internet sponsor of the venue.

And in case you think I’m just making all this up, because it’s a rainy Wednesday morning in Edinburgh, look, here’s Sky Customer Group MD Brian Sullivan telling you in his own words: “The O2 has created a unique position as a leader in live events and there are clear synergies with Sky in terms of our entertainment credentials. Thanks to the venue’s scale of reach, we are working with AEG to create a number of branding, demonstration and customer engagement opportunities that no other single entertainment venue can offer. We will use this relationship to both engage new audiences and reward our valued customers”.

Paul Samuels, Executive Director of Sponsorship at AEG Europe, added: “I am thrilled that Sky has come on board as a founding partner of the O2. We will work side by side with Sky to ensure they achieve all their objectives from the partnership. As with all our partners we strive to create innovative ideas and branding opportunities that go above and beyond ‘traditional’ sponsorship”.

Any TV execs interested in licensing the ‘Pop Stars: Before They Were Dead’ franchise, usual contact details apply.

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 12:31 | By

Orion restructure leads to redundancies

Media

Orion Media, the all new local radio company set up by former Chrysalis Radio chief Phil Riley, has laid off five people as part of a restructure.

As previously reported, Orion launched by buying eight Midlands based stations off Global Radio – Global being forced to sell some of its stations in the region in order to win regulator approval of its acquisition of GCap.

Riley took over the running of the network of stations at the start of the month, and while his restructure has actually increased the overall headcount, five jobs are to go, including that of Regional Operations Director Adam Bridge.

Riley told Media Week: “Orion Media has reorganised its senior roles. Some people have left, some have other jobs within the company and some other jobs have been created”.

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 12:30 | By

Everybody hates Preston

And Finally

Preston, aka him out of The Ordinary Boys, or ‘formerly one half of Preston & Chantelle’, has revealed that his biggest barrier to success is the general public. So nothing major then.

He told London Lite: “My main aim is that people will put the ridiculous decisions I made down to youthful naivety. Like going on ‘Big Brother’ and getting married in OK magazine. I just re-read the interviews I did then. I just think, ‘What a dick’. My big hurdle is Joe Public. I know I’m not really liked”.

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Wednesday 26 August 2009, 11:00 | By

Q&A: Noah And The Whale

Artist Interviews

Noah And The Whale

Formed in 2006, Noah And The Whale released their debut album, ‘Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down’, featuring the infuriatingly catchy single ‘5 Years Time’, in 2008. They return this week with, ‘Blue Skies’, the first single from their new album ‘The First Days Of Spring’. The album comes accompanied by a film directed by frontman Charlie Fink. The album is released on Monday, and you can watch a trailer for the film here. We spoke to Charlie to ask our Same Six Questions.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
I’ve been making music and writing songs for as long as I can remember.

Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Many things.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
I don’t really have a process, it’s quite erratic. Although for this album I had the whole thing mapped out on a big document. Starting with a bare structure for how the story was going to go and then adding narrative ideas for the songs and then finally came the lyrics, the melody and the song itself.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Recently I’ve been listening almost exclusively to Neil Young, particularly the Crazy Horse records. I only recently realised what an amazing guitarist he is. I’d like to do a big rock record like ‘Ragged Glory’ at some point. When making the record though I was listening to a lot of people who like to experiment with sounds, like John Cage, Fred Frith and Jim O’Rourke. I was also listening to a lot of soundtrack stuff, like Richard Thompson’s ‘Grizzly Man’ soundtrack and Johnny Greenwood’s ‘There Will Be Blood’. For the film itself, I love Paul Thomas Anderson, David Lynch, Werner Herzog and the film ‘Into The Wild’.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
I don’t know, but for someone who was about to watch our film for the first time, I’d ask that they let themselves be absorbed by it, and allow yourself to be drawn to whatever grabs your attention.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
The process of writing and creating this project took about a year, and during that time I’ve had to put a whole load of other ideas in a pile, and now that I’m finished I’m sorting through it and deciding what to do next. It includes more things I want to do with film, music and slightly more abstract things. For me almost all my ambitions are in the creative side of what I do and once the project is finished I am either satisfied or I am not. It is a true honour to make something that can really mean something to someone else, but I feel that by doing something totally for yourself you have more chance of it making a difference.

MORE>> www.noahandthewhale.com

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Tuesday 25 August 2009, 15:22 | By

Government to fast track anti-piracy proposals

Business News Legal Top Stories

Who would have thought that after all these years of DRM and litigation and stressing and shouting and ISP baiting, what the music industry needed to combat online piracy was a Mandelson. And I’ve had one in a cupboard here at CMU HQ all that time, but never thought to use it. I’m now feeling rather silly.

Yes, the government, who once talked tough about P2P file-sharing, and then went a bit fluffy on the subject in its bit ‘Digital Britain’ report earlier this year, is now upping the anti again in a bid to cut the amount of unlicensed content shared by British web-users, and as a result “technical measures” could be used against persistent copyright infringers sooner rather than later.

As much previously reported, back at the start of 2008 ministers implied they would force internet service providers to start taking proactive steps against those who persistently share unlicensed music and film content on the net, starting with the mailing out of warning letters and, perhaps, ultimately resulting in the sort of account suspensions being introduced in France.

Such was the threat from government that the six biggest UK-based ISPs agreed to enter into a voluntary memorandum of understanding with the record companies, and started sending out warning letters to the customers the record industry believed were the biggest illegal file-sharers.

But then – possibly as a result of some serious lobbying from the net firms – Stevie Carter’s ‘Digital Britain’ report, where those implied measures to force ISPs to act on P2P piracy were expected to be formally stated, said very little about combating file-sharing, except that it was something that should probably happen. There was talk of forcing ISPs to take vague “technical measures” against persistent file-sharers, but not now, rather, in the future, presumably when it would be a Tory communications minister who would become associated with the potential internet disconnections such a policy might result in.

But now the very same government has published a new mini-report that amends ‘Digital Britain’ and says that if “technical measures” are going to be employed against “hardcore copyright pirates” then it should be done now, not later. DigiMin Stephen Timms has announced the change of heart, though it’s widely believed it is Business Secretary Peter Mandelson who has brought the anti-filesharing initiative forward, him having recently become very interested in the issue, possibly or possibly not as a result of having lunch with former record industry chief and current film studio owner David Geffen.

Announcing the change of plan, the aforementioned Timms said this: “We’ve been listening carefully to responses to the consultation this far, and it’s become clear there are widespread concerns that the plans as they stand could delay action, impacting unfairly upon rights holders”. Quite how the proposed measures to combat piracy would really work – and whether they would ever result in the actual suspension or disconnection of the internet accounts of persistent infringers – isn’t very clear, but today’s announcement means we should find out more about those measures a lot sooner than originally planned.

Needless to say, representatives of the record industry, who were disappointed by DigiBrit’s lacklustre commitments on the P2P issue, have welcomed the latest development. Cross music industry trade body UK Music said: “UK Music is pleased that government is proposing accelerated and proportionate action to meet their stated ambition of reducing illegal file-sharing by 70-80% within two to three years. Throughout this debate, UK Music has voiced concerns that the original time frame of proposed legislation, and particularly the trigger mechanisms that would grant Ofcom reserve powers to implement technical measures, would have failed to meet these ambitions. More than that, these trigger mechanisms would have required our members to take [civil] legal action against individuals – a move the UK music industry has consistently resisted. We look forward to open discussions with Government and other stakeholders in the weeks ahead”.

Speaking for the record companies, the boss of the BPI, Geoff Taylor told CMU: “Digital piracy is a serious problem and a real threat to the UK’s creative industries. We welcome the government’s recognition that this problem needs to be addressed urgently, so today is a step forward that should help the legal digital market to grow for consumers. The solution to the piracy problem must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. We look forward to working with government and ISPs on the details of these proposals to ensure these objectives are met”.

Equally needless to say, the Internet Service Providers’ Association, who like the idea of ISPs having no role in combating online piracy, responded negatively to Timm’s announcement. They told reporters: “ISPA and consumer groups consider disconnection of users to be a disproportionate response, a view that was recently supported by the European Parliament”.

So there you go, round one went to the record companies, round two to the ISPs, and now, it seems, round three may be won by the music industry again, thanks to that clever play of a Mandelson.

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Tuesday 25 August 2009, 15:20 | By

Jacko death investigation documents released

Jacksons v AEG Timeline Top Stories

While the official coroner’s report remains sealed, documents relating to the previously reported search of Michael Jackson’s personal doctor Conrad Murray’s office have been released, revealing and clarifying some details about the singer’s death. In addition to this, an unnamed police source has come forward to tell the Associated Press that the coroner’s report has ruled that the singer’s death was a homicide, rather than accidental.

In the affidavit (the contents of which have been called into dispute by Murray’s lawyer) which originally requested a search warrant to be granted as part of a manslaughter investigation, police detective Orlando Martinez said that Los Angeles Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner, Dr Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran “had reviewed the preliminary toxicology results and his preliminary assessment of Jackson’s cause of death was due to lethal levels of propofol”.

Regarding Jacko’s propofol dependency and its role in the singer’s demise, Murray apparently claims that he had been attempting to wean Jackson off the powerful anaesthetic, which the singer referred to as his “milk”, prior to his death. The doc says he feared Jackson had become addicted to the drug after a six week course of 50 milligrams per night. He had lowered the dose to 25 milligrams and added sedatives lorazepam and midazolam into the mix on 23 Jun. The next night he cut the propofol altogether, just giving Jackson the two sedatives.

According to the affidavit, on 25 Jun, Murray seemingly provided the singer with 10 milligrams of Valium at around 1.30am, followed by two milligrams of lorazepam around half an hour later, two milligrams of midazolam at around 3am and repeats of both at 5am and 7.30am.

After “repeated demands” from Jackson, who was still failing to sleep properly, Murray administered a 25 milligram dose of propofol via an intravenous drip at 10.40am. Jackson finally fell asleep after this and Murray stayed by his side for around 10 minutes before leaving “to go to the restroom and relieve himself” and make phonecalls. When he returned, Jackson was no longer breathing. Murray attempted CPR, but failed to revive him.

In a statement, Murray’s lawyer Edward Chernoff said: “Much of what was in the search warrant affidavit is factual. However, unfortunately, much is police theory. Most egregiously, the timeline reported by law enforcement was not obtained through interviews with Dr Murray, as was implied by the affidavit. Dr Murray simply never told investigators that he found Michael Jackson at 11.00am not breathing. He also never said that he waited a mere ten minutes before leaving to make several phone calls. In fact, Dr Murray never said that he left Michael Jackson’s room to make phone calls at all”.

On the subject of the anonymous claims that Jackson’s death had been ruled a homicide, he said: “We will not comment on the ‘anonymous’ law enforcement source that claims that Michael Jackson’s death will be ruled a homicide. Most of the reports by ‘anonymous’ sources have been proven wrong. We will be happy to address the Coroner’s report when it is officially released”.

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Tuesday 25 August 2009, 15:19 | By

Pirate Bay sale hits more problems

Business News Digital Top Stories

When I originally wrote this story at lunchtime, The Pirate Bay was offline, because of a court order issued last week against the internet service provider that connects the rogue BitTorrent tracker to the net. But it seems to be back now.

As much previously reported, content owners are increasingly angry that, despite their big win against the Bay in the combined civil/criminal case against the service and its founders earlier this year, they are yet to receive any money in damages, the service’s founders and backer are yet to serve any of the jail time they were handed, and, most importantly, the copyright infringing service is still online.

The most recent legal action by the content owners led to an order being issued by the Stockholm district court against Black Internet ordering them to disconnect TPB from the net. Had they not complied they would have been fined 500,000 kroner. Once Black Internet cut the line, TPB chiefs posted a message vowing to have the service back online within hours, presumably via another net provider. They seemingly succeeded.

Elsewhere in Bay news, there is yet more uncertainty around the sale of the Pirate Bay to Global Gaming Factory, with trading in GGF shares on the Swedish stock market suspended and reports that the company’s chairman Magnus Bergman has resigned. That uncertainty isn’t really to do with the aforementioned court order (thought the service being offline won’t have helped), but more related to reports GGF has failed to raise the cash to go through with the £4.7 million TPB takeover, with some board members and financial backers reportedly nervous of acquiring a website with such a tarnished legacy.

However, the company’s CEO Hans Pandeya maintains that everything is fine and everyone should stop worrying, telling the BBC: “The Aktietorget – the Swedish stock market – said they wanted more information on investors, which we said we would release after the acquisition. There are risks and possible lawsuits, and this makes people nervous. None [of the investors] wants to give out their details, otherwise the media will attack them. You are not supposed to buy an illegal site. This is out-of-the-box thinking. Because it is unconventional it is viewed with uncertainty by Swedish culture, even if I don’t view it that way. Because of that, [the bankers investigating the sale] want details and 100% assurances, but in business that is not always something you can get”.

He added that, although he knew nothing about Bergman’s apparently departure, he was expected to step down from the company soon anyway: “We are going to have a shareholder meeting to get a new board and we were doing that because Magnus was going to leave. I have not had any information that he had already left and I met him on Friday and he didn’t say anything”.

Finally in Bay news, it’s looking increasingly less likely that the website’s founders will be forced to pay the aforementioned 30 million kronor in damages awarded to the media companies who sued them earlier this year, as the bailiff assigned to get the money has found that the four men have “no attachable assets” in Sweden. It’s unclear what this means for GGF’s acquisition. If their purchase of The Pirate Bay does go through, the bailiffs may set their sights on the new owners.

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