Wednesday 24 August 2011, 12:31 | By CMU Editorial

Björk and Laurence Bell to receive AIM Awards

Awards Business News

AIM has announced two winners for the inaugural Independent Music Awards, which are due to take place later this year. Björk will take home the Outstanding Contribution trophy, while Domino Records founder Laurence Bell will receive the Pioneer Award.

Björk has, of course, built up a hugely successful career, and has remained signed to independent label One Little Indian throughout. She joined the company as a member of The Sugarcubes in 1987. Meanwhile, Bell launched the Domino label by taking advantage of a £40 a week enterprise allowance scheme in 1993, and has gone on to launch the careers of bands such as Franz Ferdinand and the Arctic Monkeys.

They will collect their awards at a ceremony hosted by Steve Lamacq and Huw Stephens at Floridita in Soho on 10 Nov. As well as that, several independent artists will perform live, and another twelve awards will be handed out to independent musicians, labels, entrepreneurs, and festivals.

More information here.

Madness to record tenth album

Artist News

Madness frontman has announced that the band will release their tenth studio album next year.

Suggs told Digital Spy: “It’ll definitely come out next year – hopefully we’ll finish it this year. We were hoping to get it done but then we decided to postpone the whole thing because we weren’t completely satisfied with what we’ve done so far. We’re working on it and I think it’s that thing… when you’re young you have all the time in the world. We don’t spend 24 hours a day working on music like we used to when we were younger, so you have to do it in batches – sporadic, intense”.

The album will be the follow-up to 2009’s acclaimed ‘The Liberty Of Norton Folgate’.

New Florence And The Machine

Releases

Florence And The Machine have premiered the first track from their second album. Entitled ‘What The Water Gave Me’, a video featuring studio footage and outdoor arm waving appeared on VEVO yesterday afternoon.

The track is a little more restrained than those on her debut album, though some of that shoutyness does creep in.

Watch the video below, if you like. The track is also now available from iTunes.

Tom Waits announces album

Releases

Remember our report on Tom Waits’ cryptic announcement about “setting the record straight” following rumours he was about to release a new record? Well. Rather than actually setting the record straight (as we’d hoped he might do, in this mixed-up world), Tom is releasing one. A record, that is. Christened ‘Bad As Me’, the gruff singer’s latest album is set for release on 25 Oct.

Check out a whimsical short based on Tom’s ‘Private Listening Party’, below.

Tracklist:

Chicago
Raised Right Men
Talking At The Same Time
Get Lost
Face To The Highway
Pay Me
Back In The Crowd
Bad As Me
Kiss Me
Satisfied
Last Leaf
Hell Broke Luce
New Year’s Eve
She Stole The Blush
Tell Me
After You Die

Summer Camp announce debut album

Releases

In partnership with Moshi Moshi and PledgeMusic, swoonsome indie-pop pairing Summer Camp are to self-release their debut album ‘Welcome To Condale’ on 31 Oct via the band’s own Apricot Recording Company.

London-based duo Elizabeth Sankey and Jeremy Warmsley are also offering lots of personalised perks and exclusives (not least homemade brownies, signed merchandise, production sessions, and chances to book the band for your house parties) in exchange for further pledges. More details here.

Tracklist:

Better Off Without You
Brian Krakow
I Want You
Losing My Mind
Summer Camp
Nobody Knows You
Down
Welcome To Condale
Done Forever
Last American Virgin
Ghost Train
1988

Mods and rockers unite to celebrate Quadrophenia reissue

Artist News

Here’s something to keep all you disenfranchised Mods and Rockers from looming Bank Holiday boredom over the coming weekend.

50 members of The Bar Italia Scooter Club are set to recreate scenes from 1979 film ‘Quadrophenia’ with a commemorative run from London to Brighton, thus heralding the reissue of The Who’s album of the same name. ‘Quadrophenia – The Director’s Cut’ is due out via Universal Music Catalogue on 14 Nov.

Setting off from the Club’s central HQ this coming Saturday, the fleet of scooters will brave the A23 to Brighton, where the ride will culminate with a screening of the ‘Quadrophenia’ movie at the Brighton Racecourse on Sunday 28.

Tickets to the screening, priced at £10 each, can be purchased here. Perhaps Sting will turn up in a PVC trench-coat, you never know.

Michael Jackson fans call for cancellation of tribute concert

Gigs & Festivals

A coalition of 35 online Michael Jackson fan communities have called for the planned ‘Michael Forever’ tribute concert in October to be scrapped. The group published an open letter to the company organising the tribute show, Global Live Events, on Saturday.

As previously reported, the show is due to take place in Wales on 8 Oct, featuring artists such as Craig David. Earlier this month, there was outrage from fans when it was announced that Kiss had been booked to play. Concerns were raised over an interview Gene Simmons gave last year, in which he said he was certain that Jackson was guilty of child abuse. The band were subsequently dropped from the show. This week it was announced that Beyonce would perform via satellite link-up.

Although the show is endorsed by Jackson’s mother and some of his siblings, other members of the Jackson clan have said that holding the concert at a point when Jackson’s accused killer, Dr Conrad Murray, will likely still be on trial, is misjudged. Something the fans seem to agree with.

In the letter, they say: “From the timing of this tribute, to the ticketing prices, to the obscurity over what charities will be receiving the donation, to the no-guarantee policy of performers, the addition of Gene Simmons and dishonouring, thus tarnishing Michael Jackson’s legacy, was simply the last straw. Please understand that this concert is doomed to fail now. Do the right thing for Michael Jackson and cancel this tribute. There has been one catastrophic mistake after another. We don’t feel like it’s the tribute he deserves”.

You can read the full letter here.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds add extra tour dates

Gigs & Festivals

Never mind those libel allegations, Noel Gallagher has a serious solo music career to pursue. He and his High Flying Birds have tacked a trio of additional dates onto their debut UK tour, the initial shows in Dublin, London and Edinburgh having sold out. Noel and band’s previously reported album, ‘Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’, is slated for release on 17 Oct.

And now, those extra tour dates:

26 Oct: Manchester, Apollo
30 Oct: London, The Forum
31 Oct: London, Roundhouse

BBC Music Video Festival to kick off next month

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Organisers of the BBC Music Video Festival have announced that this year’s event will be pumped out via screens in twenty cities around the UK from 19 Sep to 1 Oct, though with its hub at The Forum in Norwich, which apparently houses Europe’s largest permanent digital screen. This celebration of the music video will not only see all sorts of pop promos being screened, but also talks involving the likes of video director Jamie Thraves, Ashley Dean of Broken Pixel and SBTV founder Jamal Edwards.

For more information check out this website.

Festival line-up update – 24 Aug 2011

Artist News Festival Line-Up Update Gigs & Festivals

I LOVE TECHNO, Flanders Expo, Ghent, Belgium, 12 Nov: This year’s edition of Europe’s premiere indoor dance fest is so far set to host the likes of Nero, Digitalism, Fake Blood, Skream vs Benga, Brodinski, Flux Pavilion and Crookers, with more names set to be announced very soon. www.ilovetechno.be

AEG launches tickets website

Business News Live Business

AEG Live

AEG Live’s moves into ticketing will gain ground this weekend when it launches its own ticket sales website for two of its US venues.

Called AXS (“access” see), the new service is a product of AEG’s previously reported tie up with ticketing technology company Outbox Enterprises, which is led by a former Ticketmaster boss, Fredric D Rosen. AEG Live first started looking for an alternative to Ticketmaster for selling its tickets after the ticketing giant merged with its main competitor, Live Nation. The strategy of Outbox is to enable promoters to take more control of their own ticketing, rather than outsourcing it to agencies.

According to reports, AXS will immediately address some of the complaints consumers often make about Ticketmaster, for example showing ticket prices in the main part of the site that include any additional fees, and not charging any extra fee for people who print out their own tickets, rather than having them mailed to their home (that home-printed tickets also carried an additional booking fee has always been a grievance of Ticketmaster customers).

Although AXS.com will only sell tickets for two of AEG Live’s venues at launch, it is clearly a pilot for a much more substantial roll out across the AEG group, which will presumably include, eventually, a launch in the UK, where the live music firm’s venue bases include The O2 complex.

Noel Gallagher brands Liam’s lawsuit “very silly”

And Finally Legal

Noel Gallagher has said that he thinks his brother Liam’s recently launched libel lawsuit is “very silly”. As previously reported, Liam is suing Noel over comments he made at a press conference earlier this year, particularly a claim that the band’s 2009 headline set at the Chelmsford leg of V Festival was due to Liam having a hangover.

In a webchat with fans earlier this week, Noel said: “For the record, it is a fact that Liam was diagnosed with laryngitis and it is fact he had a doctor’s note to prove it. But I’d just like to say that if he gets offended by opinions on such things then I apologise. It’s all getting very silly and a bit out of hand and it’s not very cool”.

Check out Noel, looking supremely unperturbed by his and Liam’s latest fraternal fallout, here:

Q&A: Big Deal

Artist Interviews

East London-based duo Big Deal formed after Alice Costelloe, formerly of frenetic tween-pop outfit Pull In Emergency, was introduced to American-born guitar teacher Kacey Underwood by her mother. Burying speculation regarding their personal (and purely professional) relationship in a haze of retrofit guitar rumbles and overheard lovers’ tête-à-têtes, they began releasing a string of singles on Moshi Moshi towards the end of last year.

With their debut album ‘Lights Out’, along with new single ‘Chiar’, due to be released via Mute on 5 Sep, Big Deal’s next non-festival live date will be a free show at Falmouth venue Toast on 31 Aug, with more tour dates throughout September.

In preparation for more pressing engagements at this weekend’s Reading and Leeds festivals, we suggested Alice and Kacey limber up with a strenuous round of our Same Six Questions.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
Kacey: We started making music because we had to really. My band was falling apart and I was tired of holding it together. I had known Alice for a year or so and we just found ourselves in that old idiom, one door closes kind of thing.

Alice: We just sang together and something clicked. That sounds really cheesy but that’s me.

Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Kacey: It’s mostly our lives this past year mixed with our dreams for the future…

Alice: …along with a summer filled with lots of playing together, eating ice creams.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
Kacey: We write together in our bedrooms then try and record straight away so we can hold onto what it is that works about it.

Alice: I used to have a bit of trouble working Garage Band, so my process involved a minute silence at the beginning of each track. I pretended to Kacey it was a stylistic thing.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Kacey: Any art that is made honestly, that could just as easily make you cringe. That’s the stuff that hits me the hardest…

Alice: …especially bands that can make both heavy big songs, but also can have just one guitar and voice and the song still shines through.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Kacey: Stop waiting for the drums to kick in…

Alice: …it’s never going to happen.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
Kacey: I think we are ambitious in the sense that we want to make the best music we possibly can, and make it for as long as possible. Hopefully enough people will like the record to justify us making another.

Alice: And to continue to enjoy what we do. That’s important.

MORE>> soundcloud.com/big-deal

Approved: SBTRKT – Wildfire (Drumma Boy remix)

CMU Approved

Anonymous London producer SBTRKT released his acclaimed eponymous debut album earlier this year. Now Memphis-based production maestro Drumma Boy has succeeded Drake as the latest hip hop luminary to remix ‘Wildfire’, an alt-dance scorcher taken from said album.

Yukimi Nagano of Little Dragon’s husky vocal stays put under Drumma’s deft jurisdiction, while Ishmael Butler of avant-rap act Shabazz Palaces is shipped in to chip away at some additional lines. Retro-smooth synths lacquer over the separate elements, making this a bold and effective mix hybrid, worthy of several spins at least.

Stream the mix here:

SBTRKT – Wildfire (Drumma Boy remix feat. Shabazz Palaces) by download405

Jerry Leiber dies

Obituaries Top Stories

Lyricist Jerry Leiber, who worked in partnership with pianist Mike Stoller to write songs including ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and ‘Stand By Me’, died from heart failure yesterday, aged 78.

Both born in 1933, Leiber and Stoller met in 1950, writing their first song together the same year, after discovering they had a shared love of rhythm and blues. Their first big success came three years later when their song ‘Hound Dog’, became a hit for Big Mama Thornton. However, the song’s immortality was assured in 1956 when it was re-recorded by Elvis Presley. They went on to pen several more songs specifically for Elvis, including ‘Jailhouse Rock’.

Also in 1954, the pair launched their own record label, Spark Records, which was then bought by Atlantic Records the following year, thanks to the success of one of their artists, The Robins. Leiber and Stoller then worked with a number of Atlantic artists, both as songwriters and producers, as well as those from other labels. In the Atlantic stable, they were particularly known for their work with the Drifters and The Coasters, the latter act featuring two members of The Robins.

Other songs written by Leiber and Stoller include The Coasters’ ‘Yakkety Yak’, Ben E King’s ‘Stand By Me’, The Clovers’ ‘Love Potion Number Nine’, and Édith Piaf’s ‘L’Homme à la Moto’ (a French translation of their song ‘Black Denim Trousers And Motorcycle Boots’, originally recorded by The Cheers).

Stoller’s son, Peter, said in a statement yesterday: “Jerry’s balance of natural talent and hard-won craftsmanship, of lightning wit and serious purpose, of compact form and complex content, made him not just the quintessential rock n roll lyricist, but the quintessential lyricist, period. In the history of popular songwriting, he has few equals; no superiors”.

Leiber is survived by three sons and two granddaughters.

Nick Ashford dies

Obituaries Top Stories

Motown songwriter Nick Ashford died yesterday, aged 70. He had been suffering from throat cancer.

Born in 1942 in South Carolina, Ashford began writing songs with his wife Valerie Simpson in the mid-60s, their early work including songs such as ‘California Soul’ for The Fifth Dimension. Their work with Ray Charles then brought them to the attention of Motown boss Ben Gordy, who brought them into the company in 1966. Their first song for Motown was Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s ‘You’re All I Need To Get By’, and they went on to write such classics as ‘I’m Every Woman’, ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’, ‘Ain’t Nothin Like The Real Thing’ and ‘Solid As A Rock’.

Although many of their songs were recorded by other artists, including Diana Ross and Chaka Khan, Ashford and Simpson also had success as performers themselves – ‘Solid As A Rock’ being one track they released themselves, as was ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’, though it was made more famous by Ross. Simpson also released three solo albums featuring their compositions.

More recently, they had continued to perform occasionally, and in 1996 opened a restaurant, The Sugar Bar, in New York, where they regularly put on showcases for emerging (and some more established) artists.

Ashford is survived by Simpson and their two daughters.

Amy Winehouse Foundation owner “not ashamed”

Hey, guess what, Lil Wayne’s being sued again

Artist News Legal

Having been sued in relation to pretty much every track on his album ‘Tha Carter III’ (well, several of them, anyway), people have now turned their attention to his forthcoming new LP, ‘Tha Carter IV’. Well, one has.

Rapper Rich Rick claims that the beat on the third single from ‘Tha Carter IV’, ‘How To Love’, features a beat he purchased from producers Drummer Boyz at some point between 2006 and 2009. In legal papers filed last week at the LA County Superior Court, he claims that the producers then pitched the same percussion track to Wayne in November last year, accepting a 35% cut of royalties from any track in which it featured.

Rich Rick is now suing Wayne and the Drummer Boyz for breach of contract and fraud, seeking all of those royalties due to Drummer Boyz, plus 10%.

In other Lil Wayne news, the rapper was rushed to hospital on Sunday after he fell of a skateboard. A cut above his eye required nine stitches. He later tweeted: “Busted my fuggin head at the skate park! Nine stitches! Gnarly gash over my left eye!”

Bono denies heart scare

Artist News

A spokesperson for Bono has denied rumours that he was recently hospitalised in Monaco after complaining of chest pains.

The rep admitted to Reuters that Bono had visited a hospital in Monaco last Wednesday, but it was for a routine check-up (possibly related to the back surgery he had earlier this year). They said: “Despite press stories to the contrary, Bono has not suffered a recent health scare. Reports of his being rushed to hospital for emergency treatment are untrue. Bono is in good health and enjoying a family holiday in the south of France”.

Kaiser Chiefs predicted the riots

Artist News

The Kaiser Chiefs have said that they predicted the recent riots in various cities in their song, ‘I Predict A Riot’. I’m not sure the content of that song completely correlates with what happened earlier this month, but let’s stick with it.

Guitarist Andrew White told NME.com: “It’s funny, if you listen to our lyrics and give it a fucking chance, we did predict this. We sing about culture and the state of city centres and the state of society for five years”. Frontman Ricky Wilson added: “I was reading an article about a moaning old rock star who was saying that no one writes about culture anymore and I was thinking ‘who are you listening to?'”

It’s not just “moaning old rock stars”; NME editor Krissi Murison wrote a piece that appeared in The Guardian last week, in which she claimed that there are no bands (none whatsoever) making political music any more. You can read Murison’s article here – and oft political musician Chris T-T’s very good response for the Morning Star here.

Glasvegas not splitting, despite being dropped

Artist News

Glasvegas have said that they plan to stay together, despite being dropped by Sony/Columbia earlier this year. Guitarist Rab Allen told NME.com that the band have “no need” for a record contract right now, anyway. Although they don’t plan to go down the DIY route.

Allen said: “We’re definitely not breaking up. We’re thinking about what we want to do, which is probably why people think we’re breaking up. People have come in about signing us, but there’s no need for us to have a label right now. James [Allan] is writing the third album and when it’s ready we’ll probably sign. The people who want to sign us will still be there in four months time”.

He added: “I think we need the support of a label, we were lucky because our label gave us support so we now don’t need a label, but we’re quite lazy and we don’t like doing things ourselves, so we’ll probably still use one. The label were great for some things and they were awful for some things”.

Lou Reed and Metallica release (some) album details

Releases

Lou Reed and Metallica have launched a new website for their collaborative album. On it, they announce that the album will be available from 31 Oct, that it will be called ‘Lulu’, and three of its song titles.

As previously reported, the collaboration features recordings of songs Reed wrote for a Berlin stage adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s turn-of-the-20th-century ‘Lulu’ plays, ‘Earth Spirit’ and ‘Pandora’s Box’. The stage show, also called ‘Lulu’, and directed by Robert Wilson, opened earlier this year.

Take a look at the website here.

Breton release video for new single

Releases

Art-pop peddlers Breton have unveiled a space-age video to accompany their new track ‘The Commission’, which is taken from the FatCat-signings’ forthcoming debut album ‘Other People’s Problems’. Watch it below. Also known as remix outfit BretonLABS, the band released much-lauded EP ‘Counter Balance’ last year via Untold imprint Hemlock Recordings, who were also responsible for James Blake recent twelve-inch, ‘Order/Pan’.

‘Other People’s Problems’ is scheduled for release next Feb.

Olly Murs tours

Gigs & Festivals

If you haven’t seen/heard quite enough of be-quiffed ‘X-Factor’ survivor Olly Murs and his new single ‘Heart Skips A Beat’ yet, here are some newly-announced Murs arena dates to marvel at:

1 Feb: Cardiff, Motorpoint Arena
4 Feb: London, O2 Arena
7 Feb: Brighton, Centre
10 Feb: Birmingham, LG Arena
11 Feb: London, Wembley Arena
12 Feb: Sheffield, Motorpoint Arena
13 Feb: Nottingham, Capital FM Arena
15 Feb: Bournemouth, BIC
18 Feb: Manchester, MEN Arena
19 Feb: Liverpool, Echo Arena
21 Feb: Aberdeen, ECC
24 Feb: Newcastle, Metro Radio Arena
25 Feb: Glasgow, SECC
28 Feb: Belfast, Odyssey
29 Feb: Dublin, O2 Arena

Scroobius Pip tour announced

Gigs & Festivals

Bearded MC Scroobius Pip has unveiled an intensive schedule of tour dates in support of his previously reported new LP ‘Distraction Pieces’.

Take a glance at the video for album-opener ‘Introdiction’, which features Blink-182’s Travis Barker on drums and ‘The Fifth Element’ actress Milla Jovovich on backing vocals, below.

Here are said tour dates:

25 Oct: Hull, Fruit
26 Oct: Aberdeen, The Tunnels
27 Oct: Liverpool, The Masque
28 Oct: Newcastle, O2 Academy
30 Oct: York, Fibbers
31 Oct: Stoke, The Sugarmill
1 Nov: Leeds, Cockpit
2 Nov: Sheffield, The Plug
3 Nov: Birmingham, O2 Bar Academy
4 Nov: Bristol, Croft
6 Nov: Norwich, The Waterfront
7 Nov: Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
8 Nov: London, Dingwalls
10 Nov: Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms
11 Nov: Brighton, Coalition
12 Nov: Milton Keynes, The Craufurd Arms

MJ Hibbett brings Moon Horse to London

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

After a triumphant two week run at the Edinburgh Festival, MJ Hibbett is bringing his new show, ‘Moon Horse Vs The Mars Men Of Jupiter’, to the Camden Fringe this weekend.

The two man rock opera was recent called “amazing”, “incredible” and “like two drunk dads picking up a guitar at a party” on Scott Mills’ Radio 1 show. All of which it is. It’s also very funny, and filled with songs that will jam themselves right into your brain.

The shows will take place on 26 and 27 Aug at the Camden Head, and tickets will cost you £5. You can find out more and watch some videos here.

PledgeMusic scores first chart hit

Business News Digital

Fan-funding facilitators PledgeMusic are celebrating the improbable commercial success of Charlie Simpson’s debut solo album ‘Young Pilgrim’, which, despite having most of its stock destroyed in the recent riot-fuelled fires at Sony’s DADC warehouse, entered the UK Album Chart at number six over the weekend.

‘Young Pilgrim’ received the majority of its funding via PledgeMusic, who orchestrated an interactive campaign whereby over 500 fans contributed costs in exchange for limited edition EPs and various other exclusives.

Craig Jennings, well-chuffed CEO of Charlie’s management company Raw Power Entertainment, said this: “We are delighted to achieve a top ten album with ‘Young Pilgrim’, and it would not have been possible without PledgeMusic putting together such a great direct-to-fan plan to launch the project. This is an example of the PledgeMusic model working perfectly”.

Mary Anne Hobbs secures nightly Xfm slot

Media

As of 5 Sep, Mary Anne Hobbs is set to revive Xfm’s classic ‘Music:Response’ show, presenting a cross-genre array of guests, sessions and mixes from Monday to Thursday 8-11pm.

The former Radio 1 DJ, whose existing Saturday evening slot launched on Xfm earlier this year, had this to say of her new assignment: “This is such an exciting new challenge for me, an unprecedented opportunity to paint much broader brush strokes on primetime radio, and build on a lifetime’s passion and hunger for new music”.

Xfm Programme Director Andy Ashton seemed just as enthusiastic: “I cannot think of a better person than Mary Anne to spearhead a renewed focus on cutting edge new music in the evenings across the Xfm network. We’re incredibly excited about the changes we’ve made across the schedule as we continue to deliver ‘must listen’ shows to our rapidly growing audience”.

This seems like the perfect opportunity to listen to the Powers Of Ten playlist that Mary Anne put together for us earlier this year.

Other proposed reshufflings to the Xfm schedule include a new mid-morning show with Ian Camfield from 10am-2pm and a new drive-time show hosted by Eoghan McDermott from 5-8pm.

Hard Fi man upsets Staines

And Finally

A local councillor for Staines has denied claims made by the town’s most famous son, Hard Fi frontman Richard Archer, that it is becoming “like a ghost town”.

Archer told The Times: “Staines is in a dark place at the moment, like a ghost town. A lot of the bars are closing, Habitat went into administration, Jane Norman, Thorntons. It’s all starting to fall to bits”.

Councillor Colin Davies responded by saying: “Far from Staines being a ‘ghost town’, retail vacancy rates in Staines are running at 8% which is less than half the national average. This has not increased to any great extent during the poor economic climate, in contrast to many other towns”.

So, that’s him told. For those of you who have never set foot in the town that is Staines, I can inform you that the streets are paved with rainbows and no one has frowned there since 1976.

Eddy Says: How Ibiza Rocks started part three – Rock arrives on the island of house

Eddy Says

I’d not long arrived back on terra firma after losing my mind at the Manumission closing party, when the previously mentioned Andy Mckay – the man in charge of the back room at the king of all Ibiza clubs – called a meeting to plan what was happening in Manumission’s ‘Music Box’ the following season.

My manager, my promoter and I met up with Andy, and he told us how he loved what I’d done in the back room at that year’s closing party, and what we were doing with Remix Night back in London, getting indie-dance crossover acts to play live and DJ. He wanted to do more and needed a name for it. Straight away I suggested Ibiza Rocks. “Dance Rocks” was the strapline of my Xfm show and the name of my compilation album, and it just seemed like the perfect name for this.

“You can own the island”, I said.

“Hmmm”, came Andy’s reply. “I’m not sure, I have a brand to protect. I think perhaps it should be called ‘Manumission Rocks'”.

“No no no”, I insisted. “Like it or not, Manumission, as a brand, is on the wane with the genre it’s attached to. Here you have a chance to create a new brand to take forwards, that could grow wings and fly on its own!”

“Still not sure”, he said. “Let me have a think about it”.

My manager and promoter both agreed ‘Ibiza Rocks’ as a name was a great idea and said so at that initial meeting. And the next time we met, Andy too said it had grown on him, and he even presented us with some logos he’d had knocked up. Guitars in the shape of the island, that kind of thing. The brilliant plectrum logo still used today came a bit later.

It was agreed that I would ‘host’ the first year, working in tandem with Andy’s office in booking bands and DJs. I’d try to get mates rates to help get things going, and together we’d make this the best year ever in the back room of the greatest club in the world, a club within a club, a brand within a brand.

So, I got on the phone to my mates. There were a few key people I wanted to get involved. Adam Freeland was first on the list, because he’d had a terrible time when he’d played Manumission once before, years previously. Two tunes into his set, the Spanish owner of Privilege, the club where Manumission took place (and not Mike or Claire from Manumission, I must stress) came barrelling up to the booth and exclaimed: “THIS IS NOT HOUSE MUSIC!” To emphasise his point, he jabbed his finger towards the twelve-inch on the turntable as if it was a freshly laid dog turd.

He took the needle off the record and, in front of the stunned crowd and even more stunned superstar DJ, ushered Adam away from the booth, to be replaced by a Spanish resident quick-smart. Adam had never returned to Ibiza. I’m not surprised. He was made to feel as welcome as a pork pie at a bar mitzvah.

Similarly, I wanted Barry Ashworth on board. He had played Ibiza regularly, way back at the start of the island’s notoriety, when things were more ‘Balearic’ and DJs were playing more random good music, with less emphasis on strict 4/4 house.

And, of course, I wanted to involve Zane Lowe as well. I can recall Andy’s eyes lighting up when I mentioned he was my friend and I could hook them up.

So I booked all three of them, along with other friends, like The Freestylers with MC Sirreal, and The Breakfastaz, all Remix Show stalwarts at the time. Meanwhile the Manumission office booked Babyshambles to play the launch party, and some other Remix-friendly acts like Hard Fi and Tom Vek. Summer approached and we were ready to go. All good.

Except, on opening night poor Andy had the look of a man asked to lick his own elbows.

“Eddy”, he gasped. “It’s Pete Doherty… he’s asked for crack and smack ON HIS RIDER! I don’t know what to do, he’s refuses to play unless we come up with… with this stuff”. He scratched his head. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin looking!”

Whether or not he personally succeeded in that hunt I never found out, but someone certainly managed to get hold of the two drugs not generally associated with Ibiza’s party vibe. Later that evening, there was Pete Doherty sucking on a miniature brandy bottle filled with wire wool, the foul, burnt plasticky clouds of crack smoke all around him and his vile cronies. Pete must have learned, presumably the hard way, that it was better not to be in possession of Class A controlled substances and to instead have them stashed with his entourage. Consequently he was being spoon fed lumps of crack by one of his mates.

It was a loathsome scene and it depressed me so much I had to leave. I was the first person, ever, to interview Pete Doherty. The distance between that bright eyed, bushy tailed, sparklingly intelligent teenager and this hollow, washed out shadow of his former self was just too much for me to bear. I ended up a single dad with custody of my son because his mum got into that stuff, the smell of crack just depresses me and makes me feel sick.

The gig was awful. Doherty couldn’t remember his own lyrics, and kept tripping up on his own microphone cable. There was, however, still a palpable feeling of excitement, of the birth of something new and exciting, as well as a turning point in the cultural history of this island – an ‘I was there moment’, as I like to call them.

Conversely, it felt like Pete Doherty was at rock bottom of a downward spiral, and this could be the last gig he played before he was found slumped on a hotel floor, his heart finally having an ‘I’ve had enough of this’ moment. A thousand paparazzi and gutter journalists were presumably delighted that this was not to be, giving them something to snap and write a stream of bollocks about ever since.

But, all that said, that something infamous did kick off a first Ibiza Rocks season full of much happier memories.

For starters, the time when somebody fooled Adam Freeland into eating a space cake. The poor boy lost the plot halfway through his set and I had to finish it for him. He actually got lost in the DJ booth, a space the size of a sofa! At this stage of my life I’d given everything up, even coffee, and my drug of choice to get me through to 9am was a single vodka and Coca-Cola. The enormous hit of caffeine right there would power me through, wide eyed, until breakfast time and even the aftershow on the terrace at Space.

When Barry Ashworth returned, predictably, he ended up staying awake for three days. I kept bumping into him after I’d slept another night, and he’d still be going hard at it with James Lavelle or another of the other ‘big boys’. Baz was in his element and clearly overjoyed to be back in Ibiza. Mid-way through our one-on-one set in the Music Box, I was hunched over my bag, flicking through my vinyl (nice historical yardstick there, I was still using vinyl, but haven’t done for years now) looking for the next tune, when I felt a god awful whack on my back. It gave me a massive shock, knocking the wind out of me. It was Barry. His body had finally given up, mid tune, and he had simply passed out. I finished alone, with a few savvy people in the crowd signalling: “Where’s Barry?”

There was something about that place that turned even the most normally clean living, sensible DJs into monsters with rolling eyes, puking backstage before, during or after their sets. I have some very funny images scorched into my memory from that season. You’d be surprised who fell from grace after being there for a few hours! I should possibly be in the Guinness Book Of Records as the first ever resident of Manumission who got through an entire season without taking any Class A drugs. Even if I wanted to, I was being drug tested in a hideous court room custody battle at that time, and the reason I have custody of Tone is the simple fact that both my annual drugs tests during that period were clean and normal.

All in all, that first season had been a great success, and Ibiza Rocks had arrived. Sadly, and this has happened before, and will happen again, my generosity proved to be my downfall. I noticed the way Andy’s eyes went ‘kerching’ when I first introduced him to Zane. If nothing else, Andy knows which side his bread is buttered, and when it launched for year two, the website had changed from “Ibiza Rocks hosted by Eddy Temple-Morris” to “hosted by Zane Lowe”. I enquired why and it was awkwardly changed to “Zane Lowe and Eddy Temple-Morris”, but I was only booked for two or three shows that year. One of the insiders told me it was Zane’s management (not my biggest fans, shall we say) and Radio 1 who said they wanted Zane in and me out. Of course, Andy knew who was more valuable to him.

No call came at all the next year, so I ended up doing my own night, Dance Rocks, at Es Paradis. My manager showed me a vile email she got from Andy, along the lines of “You can’t use the name ‘Dance Rocks’ – I own the word ‘rocks’ on Ibiza”. My manager reminded him that it was me who’d given him the name in the first place, something I’d done with nothing but love and no strings attached. This possibly made him nervous, as the night was now heavily sponsored and he was in bed with Radio 1; certainly a story went round that he, or someone at NME, had come up with the name. This was odd, as there were two witnesses to my giving it to him, and like I said, I had no agenda. I was at the time totally in love with Manumission and the island of Ibiza, a love affair that has never stopped.

It’s such a massive shame my personal involvement ended so sourly, but I’m glad Ibiza Rocks worked, and that it went from strength to strength, and even more so that Doorly ended up as a resident: he’s one of my favourite DJs and a lovely man. After telling Andy he would “own the island” and encouraging him to start his own brand, I remember showing him pirated Ibiza Rocks t-shirts from San Antonio market. People were already adorning themselves, voluntarily, with his new brand.

So, there you have it, my friends: the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the birth of Ibiza Rocks, my part in it, and the silly reason why I’m never asked to play there any more. It all seems unbelievable looking back, and I know there will be people saying “if you’re nice, you’ll always get fucked over”, but I disagree. I think it’s entirely possible to get through this business with your head held high and with your sleep patterns largely uninterrupted. It’d just be nice if, occasionally, people were less suspicious and just see a person and what they do for what it is.

In the words of my favourite lyricist, Scroobius Pip: “Some people are just nice”.

X eddy

Wednesday 24 August 2011, 12:31 | By CMU Editorial

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