Thursday 29 July 2010, 12:48 | By CMU Editorial

Ex-Catatonia drummer replaces Stuart Cable

Artist News

Former Catatonia drummer Aled Richards has been announced as the replacement for Stuart Cable in the late musician’s band, Killing For Company. As previously reported, the former Stereophonics drummer was found dead at his home in the Welsh village of Llwydcoed in the early hours of 7 Jun. He formed Killing For Company in 2006 and the band had been due to play the Download festival the weekend after his death.

A close friend of Cable, Richards will perform with the band as they promote ‘Former Mining Town’, a charity single released as a memorial to Cable and to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust and children’s hospice Tŷ Hafan.

The band’s frontman Greg Jones told WalesOnline: “Aled was someone who Stu knew very closely. He’s someone who he respected as a musician and they’d been good friends since the Stereophonics’ early days when everyone was going mad about Cool Cymru”.

He continued: “It may sound corny, but that’s how it feels to us because writing and playing these songs with Stuart is all we’ve really known for the last five years. Replacing Stu was the last thing on our minds and, because we’d been ploughing all our time and energy into promoting the charity single in his memory, it hadn’t dawned on us that we’d need someone to drum for us if we got the call to go on TV and radio to promote it”.

Finally, he added: “The bottom line is that Aled is someone who Stuart liked and respected as a friend and as a musician, who we can all talk about Stu in front of without him ever feeling uncomfortable. Besides, he’s got some brilliant stories about life on the road with Stuart that put ours to shame. I just hope everyone realises this is a decision we’ve not made lightly. Stu wouldn’t have wanted us to give up and I know we can do him and his fantastic talent proud”.

‘Former Mining Town’ is available now.

Kanye performs new songs for Facebook staff

Artist News

Kanye West has been plugging away in the studio recording his new album, tentatively titled ‘Good Ass Job’ and this week he performed a capella versions of two new songs for employees of Facebook. Because, er, well that’s what you do, isn’t it?

After singing for them from on top of a table, West told the assembled audience at Facebook HQ in California: “Your energy was a gift so electric, so genuine, that it really helped me give my best”.

You can watch a snippet of the performance here: youtu.be/pQYi6RybLSI

Barenaked Ladies on life after Page

Artist News

Barenaked Ladies have been discussing the writing and recording of their latest album, ‘All In Good Time’, their first since the band split from vocalist Steven Page after he was arrested on drugs charges. They are now performing and recording as a four piece, splitting vocal duties between the four of them.

Keyboard player Kevin Hearn told Soundspike: “We decided we wanted to make a record, as opposed to going out on the road [without Page] and just playing old songs. We wanted to create something new. We got in there and put our shoulder to the wheel. We worked with our old friend Michael Phillip [Wojewoda], who knows us well. It was fun in that way, in the sense that he was still there working with us. It wasn’t all new”.

However, the band found that working as a four-piece was something that felt new. Hearn continued: “It was an exciting challenge and sort of became more of an adventure than a challenge. When you work closely creatively with a certain group of people over time and over projects, you develop a certain dynamic and a certain method and pattern and unspoken rules. We were able to dispose of all that and start fresh and recreate things a little bit, and I think we all really enjoyed that. I think the energy is evident on most of the record”.

As for performing live, Hearn said that the band have refreshed much of their older material: “We’ve had to reinvent some of the songs – most of the songs, really. We’re sharing the vocal duties a lot more. We’re all singing more and all playing more. It’s hard work, but we enjoy what we do. Judging by the responses we’re getting form the audiences, they’re enjoying the shows. We’re all pretty happy right now. We’re all really lucky to be doing what we’re doing”.

‘All In Good Time’ was released in April.

Sex couldn’t save the dinosaurs, says Emmy The Great

Artist News

Emmy The Great has revealed that a song on her new album tackles the tricky topic of dinosaur sex. Speaking to the NME, she explained that she’d tried to make the new album less personal than 2009 debut album, ‘First Love’, though with limited success.

She said: “After I wrote the last album, I felt terrible about having to sing songs about someone I knew so blatantly. So, I tried to write this record based entirely on imaginary situations. Unfortunately, it didn’t end up being imaginary in the end because most of the songs are about me. The first half of the album is about impending doom and the second half is about dealing with the aftermath”.

But how does dinosaur sex fit into all this? Emmy explains: “Someone just said [‘dinosaur sex’] out loud once and it made me laugh. The point of that song is, ‘What did it do?’ It did absolutely fuck all for them, did it?”

The new album is currently scheduled for release in February.

Everything Everything to release debut album next month

Releases

Everything Everything have announced that they will release their debut album, ‘Man Alive’, on 30 Aug via Geffen.

The album is quite a mish mash of influences it seems. Explains bassist Jeremy: “We’ve never been comfortable with the indie tag. If it’s Girls Aloud or Slint, it doesn’t matter – if we like it we’ll listen to it and work out what makes it good. There are hundreds of years of amazing music to draw on. Why place restrictions on yourself? We belong to a generation that was too young to buy into Britpop fully, so we’ve had no single significant pop cultural movement to throw our lot in with”.

He added: “My childhood began with the fall of the Berlin Wall. It ended when I was sixteen when 9/11 happened. I grew up a tiny little village in rural Northumberland so I was very isolated during that period. I didn’t have a television until I was seventeen, so I listened to the radio a lot. I was making music all the time in my bedroom – my one rule was not to sound like anyone else”.

The band re-release the single, ‘My Kz, Ur Bf’, on 23 Aug. The video for which can be viewed here: youtu.be/RUq7tbuH00E

The tracklist for the album is this:

MY KZ, YR BF
QWERTY Finger
Schoolin
Leave The Engine Room
Final Form
Photoshop Handsome
Two For Nero
Suffragette Suffragette
Come Alive Diana
NASA Is on your Side
Tin (The Manhole)
Weights

Our Broken Garden announce new album

Releases

The sometime Efterklang keyboardist Anna Bronsted has announced that she will release the second album by her solo project Our Broken Garden later this year. ‘Golden Sea’ will be released through Bella Union on 18 Oct.

A track from the album, ‘Garden Grows’, is available to listen to on SoundCloud now: soundcloud.com/bella-union/our-broken-garden-garden-grows

Janelle Monáe announces London show

Gigs & Festivals

Janelle Monáe, whose debut album ‘The ArchAndroid’ was released earlier this month, has announced that she will play a headline show at Koko in London on 8 Sep.

Explaining her album and her outlook, Monáe says: “Musically, ‘The ArchAndroid’ is an epic James Bond film in outer space. I want to be looked at as a leader and businesswoman. I really feel that music and artists have a huge influence in the way we think. My goal is to help bring as many people as I possibly can together with my music”.

Tickets are available now.

Battles to headline ATP Halloween show

Gigs & Festivals

Battles will headline ATP’s annual Halloween celebration, Release The Bats, which will take place at The Forum in London on 30 Oct. Also on the line-up are Beak>, The Field, Tweak Bird, plus Walls who will play a DJ set.

Tickets are on sale at this very second.

Villagers announce tour dates

Gigs & Festivals

The Mercury nominated Villagers will be touring the UK and Ireland over the next few months. How nice.

Tour dates:

4 Aug: London, Old Vic Tunnels
5 Aug: London, Old Vic Tunnels
6 Aug: Edinburgh, Sneaky Pete’s
7 Aug: Big Chill Festival
27 Aug: Leeds Festival
28 Aug: Reading Festival
4 Sep: Electric Picnic Festival
9 Sep: Open House Festival
12 Sep: Bestival
4 Oct: Brighton, Ballroom
5 Oct: London, Scala
6 Oct: Oxford, Academy 2
8 Oct: Lancaster, Library
9 Oct: Sheffield, The Plug

Festival line-up update – 29 Jul 2010

Artist News Festival Line-Up Update Gigs & Festivals

HAMSWELL FESTIVAL, Bath, 13-15 Aug: King Charles, Shades Of Rhythm, Subverts and Avatars are amongst the acts announced to play at this summer’s Hamswell Festival. www.hamswellfestival.com

SWN FESTIVAL, Various venues, Cardiff, 21-23 Oct: Paul Heaton, Swans, Teeth and Perfume Genius are amongst the first set of acts announced to play, with Al Lewis, Evening Chorus, Fiction, Joe Worricker, Spectrals and The Ex also confirmed to play. www.swnfest.co.uk

Culture Committee to review arts funding

Business News Management & Funding

Parliament’s Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee has announced it is launching a new inquiry into the UK’s government’s funding of arts and heritage initiatives, and is inviting submissions from key players in all the creative industries, including the music business.

The review comes as the arts takes a particularly big hit as a result of the government’s current barrage of budget cuts, which have already resulted in the entire Film Council being axed. The music industry is, of course, the least subsidised of all the creative industries so will suffer less that most, though various music-focused education and business development programmes could lose out as a result of the cutbacks.

The select committee review will look at what level of public subsidy for the arts and heritage is necessary and sustainable, whether the current systems for distributing subsidies are appropriate, what impact the recent revamping of the Lottery grants system will have on the arts, whether subsidised arts groups should collaborate more to avoid duplication of work, and whether businesses and philanthropists can play a long-term role in funding arts at a national and local level.

Sounds like fun. I might look into turning the whole thing into a ground breaking piece of avante garde dance theatre. Wonder if I can get any funding for that?

World’s oldest record shop relocates

Business News Retail

A Cardiff record store sometimes referred to as the “oldest record shop in the world” reopens in new premises today after leaving the property where it had been housed for six decades in June because of rising rents.

Spillers Records first opened in the Welsh capital’s Queen’s Arcade in 1894 selling music on wax cylinders and shellac discs. It relocated to a unit on The Hayes in the 1940s and stayed there until last month. Owner Nick Todd said the street where his shop was based had become “corporate alley” and rents were just too high to keep the operation going. He hopes the move to premises in the city’s Morgan Arcade will ensure the shop can stay in business, despite the huge pressures on all indie record stores these days.

Todd did consider selling the shop back in 2006 as the music retail market became ever more challenging, but decided to stay on after a campaign by artists like the Manic Street Preachers who feared new owners might radically alter the old school record shop feel of the business that has proven so popular with musicians and music fans alike for over a century.

Bieber Segway getaway fails

And Finally

I think we’re getting a bit of a reputation for having a Justin Bieber obsession. I will tell you now, the number of Bieber stories we reject far outweighs the albeit considerable number we seem to publish. Can we help it if he’s an endless source of comedy? No we can’t.

Just look at this video. Earlier this week the screechy popster attempted to escape from a pack of screaming fans on a Segway. A fucking Segway! Turns out they don’t go as fast as he might have liked.

youtu.be/SAAg6ePGZUE

Approved: Zach Hill – Memo To The Man

CMU Approved

Zach Hill, drummer with noise rock types Hella, has announced that his second solo album, ‘Face Tat’, will be released through Sargeant House on 19 Oct. As with his debut, it will feature collaborations with all manner of other artists, this time including Devendra Bandhart plus members of No Age, Deerhoof and Prefuse 73.

The opening track, ‘Memo To The Man’, is available now as a free download, and sees Hill’s idiosyncratic drumming style complemented by Deerhoof’s also very talented stick waver, Greg Saunier. Add to that abstract guitar squeals from Tera Melos guitarist Nick Reinhart and !!!-esque vocals from Hill himself and you’ve got what fans of obscure indie are already calling “a great pop song”, even though it would make the average Girls Aloud fan clutch their head and vomit (this adds to the charm, I think).

www.refused.tv/zh/MemototheMan.mp3

Q&A: River Nelson

Artist Interviews

Brooklyn-based MC River Nelson started out in the early 90s after joining up with the Boogiemonsters collaborative. He has toured with numerous other hip hop artists over the years, including Common, Talib Kweli and De La Soul, but has only just put out his own debut album.

Nelson worked with producer Lewis Parker on ‘The Rise and Fall of River Nelson’, and guest appearances come from Dynas, Jacky Danz, Lil Panama and Vex Davortex. With the album released this week via Parker’s World Of Dusty Vinyl label, we spoke to River to find out more.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
I started by simply writing down little thoughts and ideas in a notebook. From there those thoughts turned into rhymes, the rhymes into verses, and eventually the verses turned into full songs. The actual recording of those songs happened because I became eager for people to hear what I was writing. I also found that, as a fan of some legendary artists, I wanted to see if I could make something as good as what they did. For me, it’s always been hard to hear good music and not want to start creating your own.

Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Two things. First, just being immersed in the New York City hip hop scene and being inspired by all of the amazing talent that surrounded me. But also a desire to document all of the things I was feeling and thinking at the time. I think it’s important to do that, so you can go back and listen to what you were experiencing then.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
There are several different ways a song may be created. It may be an idea that comes from nowhere and really stays in my mind, to the point where I have to explore it, and start writing on it. But then there are times when I purposely look for subject matter, or sounds that I haven’t covered yet. I always try to stay open to receive anything around me that may provide an idea for a song. In my opinion, everything has the potential to be the basis of a song. A conversation, something you’ve experienced, something someone else experienced, something you’ve witnessed. Any and everything can provide inspiration.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
There are so many, but to name some who are at the forefront of my mind, A Tribe Called Quest, Bob Marley, Sade, Nas, Outkast, Jay-Z, The Doors. I also draw from groups like Radiohead, who are always able to remove the rules out of making music, and I love rapper Jay Electronica, as well as the MC Blu from California. They are a small number of artists on an infinite list, but I’ve been playing these artists a lot lately.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
I would say to prepare yourself for a hip hop album that will make you feel good and spark your imagination. You’ll experience themes of hope, struggle, beauty and love, and hear some solid hip hop tracks, by one of the most respected producers from the UK, Lewis Parker. I would also say to the listener that they can experience the album in two ways. If you’re the type of listener that really likes to delve deep into an album and listen to every lyric, melody and snare, this album is for you. But if you’re the listener who prefers to allow music to play in the background and be slowly absorbed, this album is for you as well. The project is layered, so it has depth if you prefer that, but it also is rich in choruses and melodies if you choose to listen to it lightly.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
My main ambitions are to have people around the globe experience ‘The Rise And Fall Of River Nelson’, and to have the album break down any negative connotations about hip hop music. I also want this album to inspire hope. I want it to remind people to follow their passions, and recognise that the pursuit of your dreams shouldn’t have an expiration date on it. You should never give up. That’s my chief ambition for this project; I want to get the album to anyone who likes music, no matter what particular genre they usually listen to, because this is a hip hop album that covers relatable themes that all people experience regardless of our external differences.

MORE>> www.myspace.com/rivernelson

Eddy Says: Drukqs

Eddy Says

Drugs and music are closely linked, but if you don’t want to dabble in one, do you need to abandon the other? No, says Eddy…

Early this summer I shared a bill with a couple of very nice young DJs. At the start of the night, one of them said something very flattering about getting into DJing because of The Remix on Xfm.

I never cease to get a massive kick out of that, I feel so inspired by others that when anyone says they are inspired by me, I’m quite mind blown by it. At the end of the night, I gave him a lift home and he confessed to me something that was worrying him, that he wanted my advice on. He said he was thinking about giving up DJing “because of the drugs involved”. He felt under so much pressure to take drugs that he was actually considering giving up what he loved in order to “save his sanity”.

I was incredulous, and reassured him that, firstly, it was entirely possible to have a wonderful career as a DJ without touching any chemicals, and that he was clearly giving up the wrong thing.

I guess if you love drugs more than you love music or DJing, then your career path is an obvious and potentially catastrophic one. But here’s the thing: the last line of cocaine that went up my nose was years ago, in Ibiza at Manumission, the year before I started hosting Ibiza Rocks there. Like this nice chap, I felt under peer pressure to do drugs there, because – I thought – it was part of the experience.

The ensuing panic attack certainly wasn’t part of any experience I’d ever wished for. Glistening with sweat, ashen faced and lost like an unaccompanied child in an airport, I had one of the worst nights of my life.

I ended up, to all intents and purposes, as a Manumission resident the following year, and managed an entire season there – as well as an entire DJ career afterwards – in a personal cocaine-free zone. To my young DJ pal, I say that it didn’t affect my enjoyment at all. In fact, I rather enjoyed NOT talking bollocks for hours and chewing my own lips off from the inside out.

I still hung out with some legendary imbibers. I stood next to Pete Doherty while he repeatedly filled his lungs with foul-smelling crack before forgetting the words to his own songs at the first Ibiza Rocks show, I took over the decks after friends had lost consciousness in the boothe, I partied ’til dawn, ’til lunchtime the next day, and OK, I was knackered, but I slept like a baby and didn’t feel like slitting my own throat with a rusty butter knife the next day.

What really helps in these situations is the fact I gave up caffeine in the 1990s. As a result, all I need is one Jack Daniels and Coke and I am flying until dawn

I’m not going to get all preachy and say “I gave up drugs, you should too”; drugs clearly work for some people, and it’s entirely possible to have a happy and healthy life while smoking, drinking and doing recreationals in moderation. The key to it is the ‘moderation’ part.

I’m thinking about all this right now because next weekend is Standon Calling, a lovely little festy which raises money for a charity that helps families affected by drugs.

It’s a cause close to my heart, as my son’s mum hit the downward spiral years ago and basically abandoned the poor little mite, leaving him alone with me for several years. In the last awful year she got to see her son in a church hall for one hour on a Saturday morning each week, along with other (mostly fathers) alcoholics and drug addicts guiltily catching up with their kids.

This was all presided over by volunteers and funded by charity. If they didn’t do that, these parents would never see their kids, and more importantly the kids would feel more abandoned than they already do. It was this sense of abandonment and hopelessness that hit my Tone the hardest in those years and he still has issues about it. I do Standon every year, for ‘mates rates’ and encourage my colleagues to do the same, in support of this worthy and underfunded cause.

But back to my young colleague who was actually entertaining the idea of giving up DJing because of drug pressure: don’t give up music, you clearly love it. It’s also obvious you loathe the habitual use of class As, so try this…

Never do it when you’re DJing, it’s such a poor look. I remember watching Fatboy Slim years ago, in the days when he was caning it, he could barely mix a gin and tonic and looked like a mess behind the decks, it’s deeply unprofessional and awful to watch.

Use drugs medicinally, not habitually. If it’s 4am, you’re in a different country than the one you woke up in, you’ve had a one hour disco nap and you’re going to fall asleep mid set, then that is the time to possibly say yes to a little picker-upper. I go for the fizzy pop option, but that works for me. I’m just trying to let you know there is a middle ground, that life doesn’t have to be black and white – there are some nice shades of grey which could work for you.

I used to smoke all the time, now I’m more of a social weekend puffer. I never take cocaine, ever, I hate the anxiety it gives me and I’ve seen too many friends and family lose their character, home, friends, partners or sanity because of it. I look forward to the one or two weekends per year, when my little boy is far away and in someone else’s care, that I relax my rules and go ‘nine sheets to the wind’. This works for me, and I hope you find your happy medium, your equilibrium… if you’re even half as happy as me, then you’ll have a wonderful life.

Lastly to everyone that couldn’t get a ticket to Secret Garden Party, or anyone looking to have a great weekend out, get one for Standon Calling, it’s a lovely little festival and your ticket money will do a whole world of good. I can personally guarantee that.

Click here to see this edition of the Eddy Says e-bulletin in full

Live Review: Soil & “Pimp” Sessions at The Jazz Cafe

Live Reviews

Camden Town venue The Jazz Café was heaving as the Tokyo-based jazz sextet Soil & “Pimp” Sessions took to the stage after the ubiquitous Brownswood Records boss / Radio 1 tastemaker Gilles Peterson popped up again to introduce them as “one of the most exciting bands in the world today”.

Frontman Shacho took centre stage, though his brass playing colleagues shone most in the opening numbers. On sax, Motoharu rang out, powerful, inventive and chock full of energy, on ‘Hollow’, while on ‘Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag’, a cover from the outfit’s latest album ‘6’, trumpet from Tabu Zombie sucked the audience right in. This version was spot on, with the crowd were really rocking to this ska-influenced cut.

But Shacho was on good form also, not least during ‘Quartz And Chronometer’, my personal favourite from ‘6’, which was performed with much vigour and aided by the suited frontman getting the audience to repeatedly punch the air together with him.

Again, as at their last gig at The Garage, at one point the three more mobile members of the band left the stage, leaving just double bass, drums and piano, for a downtempo segment during which we got a bit of ‘Sahara Mint’ and the brilliant ‘Fantastic Planet’, from previous album ‘Planet Pimp’, where Josei made his mark on keys with a furious frenzy of a solo.

The return of the full band to the stage was marked with some furious sax blowing from Motoharu before the main set closer ‘Satsurika New Wave’, where the band gave it their all – Shacho using his white loudhailer to get the crowd to shout “soil” and “pimp” in unison, a bit of audience participation duly lapped up with all Café-goers joining in chanting.

And then the obligatory walk off up the stairs, plenty of appreciation from the crowd, and the encore – an extended rendition of ‘Summer Goddess’, resulting in both of the blowers looking exhausted by the end.

Soil & “Pimp” Sessions truly know how to deliver the goods. Gilles, on this occasion I must agree, definitely one of the most exciting bands in the world today. Highly recommended. PV

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Judge explains why Terra Firma’s Citigroup litigation can take place in the US

Business News Labels & Publishers Legal Top Stories

The US judge who dismissed efforts by Citigroup to move a lawsuit launched against them by Terra Firma, over their EMI acquisition, from New York to London has issued a statement explaining his decision.

As previously reported, Team Terra Firma are suing Citigroup with regards to the advice the crazy bankers gave the equity group while they orchestrated their bid to buy EMI in 2007. They allege the US bank had a conflict of interest because, through different divisions of the firm, they were working for both Terra Firma and EMI.

The key allegation is that Citigroup gave Terra Firma misleading advice at the crucial moment, which made the equity group rush its purchase of the record company. Had that not happened, Terra Firma say, they may not have bought EMI, or at least not at the price they paid for it.

Terra Firma and their top man, Gary ‘The Guy’ Hands, had previously enjoyed a long and good relationship with Citigroup, but that relationship has turned sour in recent years, mainly – it would seem – because of the EMI venture, which, I think it’s fair to say, hasn’t worked out quite as groovily as they hoped.

Hands is known to be annoyed that Citigroup have refused to restructure EMI’s multi-billion pound loan arrangement, a by-product of his purchase of the music company. The equity chief hoped the bank would follow Terra Firma’s lead and take a hit to help buy EMI bosses more time. Terra Firma sued Citigroup not long after it became clear the bankers would not play ball in this regard.

Terra Firma sued in the US, but Citigroup argued that any legal battle should take place in London. They justified that argument by saying the EMI acquisition was a UK deal, so any disagreement relating to it should be heard in the UK court. And they added that a pre-deal agreement between the two companies said as much. Though some commentators on the sideline reckon Citigroup were really trying to piss Hands off by asking for the case to be moved to Britain, because he no longer lives in the UK for tax reasons, making it hard for him to come back to London for long periods of time.

Anyway, as previously reported, Citigroup’s efforts to have the case moved to the UK were scuppered in March when US District Judge Jed Rakoff said Terra Firma’s lawsuit could, indeed, be heard in a New York court. The judge’s reasoning for that decision has only just been published this week.

In his reasoning, Rakoff dismissed the relevance of pre-deal agreements between Terra Firma and Citigroup that said the latter could only sue the former in relation to the deal – should they ever want to – through the London courts. That arrangement, Rakoff said, was not mutual, and only put obligations on Citigroup, not the equity firm.

He added that while the EMI deal may have been done in London, because Citigroup was an American bank Terra Firma’s allegations against it were of interest to the American people, and their courts. He wrote: “There is a legitimate US interest in learning whether Citi, a major American bank, may be liable for fraudulent inducement, and thus subject to substantial damages”.

A spokesman for Citigroup, Danielle Romero-Apsilos, told Bloomberg yesterday: “We continue to believe that the plaintiff’s lawsuit is entirely without merit and we intend to seek its dismissal”.

The case is now scheduled to reach court on 18 Oct. Should be interesting.

Diana Ross’s niece claims to be Jacko’s daughter

Sunde banned from operating Pirate Bay

Legal

Peter Sunde has been banned from ‘operating’ The Pirate Bay by a Swedish court, a strange move as he stood down from his position as the site’s spokesman last year in order to focus on other projects, in particular micropayment system Flattr.

As one of the ‘Pirate Bay Four’, Sunde, along with site founders Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Fredrik Neij and chief funder Carl Lundstrom, was last year sentenced to a year in prison and a fine of £2.4 million after being found guilty of various copyright crimes in relation to his involvement with the rogue BitTorrent site. Though none of the men have served any jail time or paid any of the damages as yet. An appeal hearing is due to take place in September.

The new separate ruling ordering Sunde not to work on The Pirate Bay follows a similar court decision relating to Svartholm and Neij made in May, which banned them from working on the file-sharing service also. All three men face fines of just under £45,000 if they fail to comply.

Speaking to TorrentFreak, Sunde said that he was surprised by the ruling, adding: “The interesting thing with the ruling is that the Swedish Court feels that they can judge me even though I do not live in Sweden and neither is the [Pirate Bay] system [operating there]”.

Sunde’s claim that The Pirate Bay is no longer hosted in Sweden goes against those made by the Swedish Pirate Party earlier this year, which said it was hosting the site on its own servers in an old Cold War bunker underneath Stockholm. Though the site has been forced to move several times in recent months, so it’s possible that the site has been transferred to another country again, or that Sunde is as confused about where it is now as everyone else.

Although this new ruling will seemingly have little effect on Sunde, he nonetheless told TorrentFreak that he has already appealed the decision. However, any court case relating to that will most likely take place after the Pirate Bay Four’s aforementioned appeal hearing to the criminal charges, the outcome of which could affect this new ban in various ways.

Convicted music pirate ordered to pay up

Legal

A judge at east London’s fashionable Snaresbrook Crown Court has ordered a convicted music pirate to pay record label trade body the BPI £170,000.

Farrah Nissa was jailed for copyright crimes in 2008 for his role in running a counterfeit CD operation which sold an estimated 1.2 million bootleg discs, mainly containing funky urban beats. The conviction was achieved through the collaborative efforts of global trade body IFPI and the aforementioned BPI, and once achieved they started working with the Regional Assets Recovery Team to get their hands on the money Nissa made through his illegal operation, employing a thing called the Proceeds Of Crime Act 2002.

The challenge was working out and proving just how much Nissa had made from his piracy venture. RART and BPI presented the results of their work to the East London court this week and, based on their findings, the marvellously named Judge Inigo Geoffrey Bing ordered Nissa to hand over £170,000 (well, actually, much of the cash will come out of the assets of Nissa seized by the authorities after the original conviction).

In a statement, BPI anti-piracy chief David Wood told reporters: “This was a complex and lengthy enquiry into an organised criminal gang who had tried to hide behind a shield of respectability”.

Meanwhile IFPI piracy man Jeremy Banks said: “Today’s ruling shows that when it comes to music piracy crime really does not pay. We have always pursued a strategy of disrupting the manufacture and supply of counterfeit CDs, now in the UK we are able to take the profit out of the process as well”.

Nissa’s partner in crime had already been ordered to pay £70,000 following similar proceedings last year. The money will be shared out between the BPI’s members.

DMX back in prison

Legal

DMX, real name Earl Simmons, has been out of prison for just over two weeks, in which time his wife has left him (and launched an entire reality show based around that fact) and a 2002 driving conviction has caught up with him, the latter of which has landed him back in jail.

As previously reported, the rapper was released from prison at the beginning of the month after serving four months for parole violation after failing a drugs test. According to LA city officials and DMX’s lawyer, he then handed himself in to authorities on Monday afternoon to face sentencing over another parole violation, this time in relation to a reckless driving conviction from 2002. The judge ruled that DMX was unsuitable for either electronic monitoring, work release or home detention and sentenced him to 90 days in jail.

The rapper’s lawyer Aja M Southern told AllHipHop.com: “Mr Simmons is here today to fully cooperate with respect to any matters of the court’s concern. This is one of many steps towards rebuilding his image and rapport with the community and his loyal fans”.

Wyclef Jean considers Haitian presidency

Artist News

Wyclef Jean is apparently considering running to be president of Haiti, as the country continues to rebuild after it was devastated by an earthquake earlier this year.

The Haiti-born R&B star was appointed “ambassador-at-large” for the country by outgoing president Rene Preval in 2007, and has led various charitable initiatives to help disadvantaged youth in the country. Though, in the wake of the earthquake, which hit the country in January, Jean was accused of irregularities in the accounting of his own Haiti-supporting charity, the Yele Haiti Foundation, and later admitted that it had been “poorly run”.

Despite various reports Jean is considering moving properly into politics, his people remain tight lipped on the issue, saying in a statement yesterday: “Wyclef’s commitment to his homeland and its youth is boundless, and he will remain its greatest supporter regardless of whether he is part of the government moving forward. At this time, Wyclef Jean has not announced his intent to run for Haitian president. If and when a decision is made, media will be alerted immediately”.

Q Awards announced

Awards

Q magazine have announced that this year’s Q Awards will take place on 25 Oct and will be hosted by Al Murray once again, just in case you missed any of his eleven gags last year.

There will be three new gongs dished out this time around, including the public voted Best Female Artist and Best Male Artist, and a judging panel-selected Next Big Thing award. A pool of vodka and a small tower of credit cards will also be on show, while there’ll be some fund raising going on for an interesting charity called YouYou which provides career support for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Q Editor-In-Chief Paul Rees says this: “Q firmly believes that music now is as exciting and vital as it’s ever been and that it continues to be consistently refreshed by new talent. The extra awards this year recognise Q’s ongoing commitment to the best things in music right now and in the future. In addition, Q has also always been about celebrating music’s great success stories. And, as ever, our collection of merit awards will recognise the heroic achievements and ongoing influence of music’s true icons”.

Voting for the reader voted categories is already underway. You can vote here:
awards.qthemusic.com/

Love denies any firm plans for full Beach Boys reunion

Artist News

I have a feeling there’ll be a lot of to-ing and fro-ing on this story. Beach Boy Mike Love has denied there are any firm plans for a full Beach Boys reunion – including three founder members Love, Al Jardine and Brian Wilson – to mark the band’s 50th anniversary next year.

As previously reported, US entertainment journalist Robin Leech claimed last month that Love had told him such a show was in the pipeline, but then Love himself issued a statement denying there were any plans for Brian Wilson to join him on a Beach Boys tour. Then last week Jardine himself said that at least one big anniversary show, involving him and Wilson, was in the pipeline, and that he was pushing for a full tour.

But while Love, who has continued to tour as The Beach Boys throughout his life, has not ruled out working with Jardine and Wilson again, he insists nothing has been planned as yet. He told Reuters: “There have been a lot of ideas floated, but nothing decided. So far it’s just conversation. There are no big plans yet – although there’s a lot of interest from a lot of people to see what would happen if we got together and did some new music and maybe did some shows. But so far nothing’s firm”.

The Cars to reunite?

Artist News

Rumours that all the surviving members of The Cars are planning to reform have been doing the rounds after a picture of them playing together in a studio was posted to their Facebook page two weeks ago.

The photograph shows guitarist and vocalist Ric Ocasek, lead guitarist Elliot Easton, keyboard player Greg Hawkes and drummer David Robinson (who retired from music after the band’s split in 1988 and opened a restaurant) with bassist Greg Hawkes standing in for Benjamin Orr, who died from pancreatic cancer in 2000.

Asked if rumours of a reunion were true last week, Hawkes told the Boston Globe: “I hate to be vague, but I really can’t say. It’s a crazy world”.

Unreleased Lauryn Hill song appears online

Releases

A previously unreleased song by Lauryn Hill, thought to be an outtake from her 1998 solo album ‘The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill’ and called ‘Repercussions’, has appeared on YouTube.

As previously reported, Hill said last month that she felt ready to launch a comeback, after a decade largely spent out of the spotlight as she brought up her five children and grappled with personal issues.

Listen to the new track here: youtu.be/aMYd1Ums4HE

Pendulum announce December UK arena tour

Gigs & Festivals

Pendulum have announced a tour of UK arenas to take place this December, their biggest tour to date. Support will come from Hadouken! Tickets go on sale on Friday.

Tour dates:

1 Dec: Glasgow, Braehead Arena
2 Dec: Birmingham, NIA
3 Dec: London, Wembley Arena
4 Dec: Nottingham, Trent FM Arena
7 Dec: Bournemouth, BIC
8 Dec: Manchester, Central
9 Dec: Newcastle, Metro Radio Arena

Professor Green headlines new Academy venue

Gigs & Festivals

Professor Green will become the first artist to headline the brand new and previously reported O2 Academy Leicester, formerly the University of Leicester’s students’ union (and housed within the grounds of the University), on 23 Sep.

Announcing the news, Prof Green said: “It is a real honour to be asked to perform at the opening of O2 Academy Leicester. No doubt it will have the great energy and vibe that all O2 Academy venues have and I look forward to being the first headline act to grace the stage”.

In addition to the main 1450 capacity venue, the university’s Percy Gee building is currently undergoing a £15 million redevelopment and will also house two more gig venues – the 500 capacity Academy 2 and 250 capacity Academy 3. All three venues will operate independently of each other.

Tickets for the opening night go on sale on Friday.

Dimmu Borgir announce one-off London show

Gigs & Festivals

Norwegian black metallers Dimmu Borgir have announced that they will play a one-off show at The Forum in London on 21 Sep. Tickets are on sale now.

The band’s new album, ‘Abrahadabra’, is due for release via Nuclear Blast on 27 Sep.

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