Tuesday 26 November 2013, 12:06 | By Aly Barchi

Blur pull out of Big Day Out, blame bosses

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Blur have thrown a bit of a hissy fit over a planned appearance at Australia’s Big Day Out bash in January, cancelling it because they disapproved of the way the event’s organisers were “shifting goalposts” and making “challenging conditions”.

The band were set to co-headline the festival, which takes place over six Australian cities between 17 Jan and 2 Feb 2014, with Pearl Jam and Arcade Fire, but say via Facebook: “We’ve done our very best to work with the organisers and considered every option to make it happen, but they’ve let us down and let everyone else down too”.

Whether Blur’s comments regards the Aussie fest’s promoters are justified isn’t known, though they do follow other albeit unsubstantiated rumours that issues were occurring behind the scenes at the two decade old event. For their part, “disappointed” Big Day Out bosses claimed they only learnt of the cancellation via Blur’s FB message, adding that they’re now trying to find a replacement.

Original UB40 vocalists announce reunion

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Having just quit UB40, vocalist Astro has announced that he will reunite with two other founder (and now ex) members of the group, original frontman Ali Campbell and keyboard player Mickey Virtue, for a live show next week. Campbell and Virtue both left UB40 in 2008 citing issues with the outfit’s management.

Astro told CMU: “It’s going to be great working with Ali again after all this time. We started on a mission to promote reggae music and that mission is still ongoing. Onwards and upwards!”

Campbell added: “We originally formed UB40 to promote reggae. It was never about promoting individual band members – it’s about the music and the fans. Nothing else matters. Welcome home Astro!”

Discussing his split from UB40, Astro said: “I informed management and our agent several weeks ago that I would not perform until various outstanding issues were cleared up. I also advised them not to use my name or image in any tour publicity so as not to mislead fans. I now felt I needed to inform the fans myself, so they were fully aware and would not go to a concert in the hope of seeing me”.

Of his own departure and the subsequent years, which included various band members going bankrupt in 2011, Campbell said: “It was a very acrimonious split and it remains so. I consider the whole band as my brothers – including my two real brothers who are in the current line-up – and for six years we haven’t said a word to each other. It’s very sad to see what they’ve done to the legacy of UB40. It’s not the original line-up and they haven’t been very transparent about that at all”.

The trio will play IndiO2 in the O2 dome complex on 6 Dec.

Festival line-up update: Field Day, Download, NorthSide, Alt-Fest and more

Artist News Festival Line-Up Update Gigs & Festivals

Tuesday’s big festival news is that Pixies are playing the all-new extra day of 2014’s deceptively-titled Field Day event, which is really a weekend thing. Pixies will close FD proceedings on Sunday 8 Jun, and here’s an audio clip of them talking about just that.

Surprisingly (or not, now I think about it), dad-rock duo Status Quo haven’t played Download since 2008. That’s all about to change, though, because they’re hitting the festival again in 2014, according to the latest Download line-up announcement, which also names The Offspring, Trivium and Steel Panther amongst the latest acts confirmed to join the likes of Linkin Park, Avenged Sevenfold, Aerosmith, Fall Out Boy and Rob Zombie.

The Quo’s Francis Rossi says somewhat tediously: “When Status Quo once again take to the Donington stage, it will have been 32 years since we headlined the Monsters Of Rock Festival on 21 Aug 1982. That year saw the Falklands War, the launch of the Commodore 64, Aston Villa winning the European Cup and the raising of the Mary Rose. You might say a lot has changed since then but we are still rocking, and still playing the Quo hits. See you there”.

Also, it’s been confirmed Peter Hook and his band The Light will put their spin on Joy Division’s ‘Unknown Pleasures’ at the 2014 edition of Alt-Fest, playing it in full, so that’s nice. The rest of the set is to be decided by an online vote by the fans.

Touching on that, Pete says: “Having played some 200 gigs with The Light now, I’ve found that the fans all have their own particular favourite tracks which they want to hear live. It’s a great idea to throw some of the set list over to the people at Alt-Fest to see what they most want to hear us play. It will be interesting to see what they come back with”.

Yes, it will be, as will seeing these listed additions to Alt-Fest, Cropredy, Galtres, Giants Of Rock, Leicester Music Festival, Northside, Shrewsbury Folk Festival and Watchet Live:

ALT-FEST, Boughton House, Kettering, 15-17 Aug 2014: Peter Hook And The Light, Killing Joke, Arch Enemy, 13 Candles, Cold In Berlin, Christine Plays Violan, New Device. www.alt-fest.com

CROPREDY, Oxfordshire, 7-9 Aug 2014: Chas & Dave, Marillion, Al Stewart. www.fairportconvention.com/cropredy.php‎

DOWNLOAD, Donington Park, Derbyshire, 13-15 Jun 2014: The Offspring, Status Quo, Steel Panther, Trivium, In Flames, While She Sleeps, Letlive, The Black Dahlia Murder, Crossfaith, Miss May I, Blessthefall, Dying Fetus. www.downloadfestival.co.uk

FIELD DAY, Victoria Park, London, 7-8 Jun 2014: Pixies. www.fielddayfestivals.com

GALTRES PARKLANDS FESTIVAL, Duncombe Park, York, 22-24 Aug 2014: John Otway, Chris Helme. www.galtresfestival.org.uk

GIANTS OF ROCK, Butlins Minehead, Somerset, 7-10 Feb 2014: Blue Oyster Cult, Big Country, Sweet, Molly Hatchet, Martin Barre Band, John Coghlan, Elliott Randal, The Bev Bevan Band, The Jones Gang, Screaming Eagles. www.bigweekends.com/your-break/125857

LEICESTER MUSIC FESTIVAL, Welford Road Stadium, Leicester, 25-26 Jul 2014: Professor Green, Soul II Soul, Billy Ocean, Aswad, Stereo Nation, The Real Thing. www.leicestermusicfestival.co.uk

NORTHSIDE, Soren Frichs Road, Jutland, Denmark, 13-15 Jun 2014: The National, Lucy Love, Turboweekend. www.northside.dk

SHREWSBURY FOLK FESTIVAL, West Midlands Showground, Shrewsbury, 22-25 Aug 2014: Bellowhead, Seth Lakeman, Dhol Foundation, Lau, Steve Knightley, The Full English, Four Men & A Dog, Karine Polwart, Martin Simpson, Miranda Sykes & Rex Preston, Andy Cutting, Huw Williams & Maartin Allcock, Moulettes, Steve Tilston, Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin, Bella Hardy, Megson, Duncan McFarlane, The Wilsons, The Young’Uns, Molotov Jukebox, Sunjay Brayne, Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar, Steve Turner, The Harvesters, Carole Palmer & Maria Barham, Sue Brown & Lorraine Irwing, Cupola, Take Two, Cara Luft, J P Hoe, and Matt Gordon, Leonard Podolak. www.shrewsburyfolkfestival.co.uk

WATCHET LIVE, Parsonage Farm, Watchet, Somerset, 22-24 Aug 2014: RSVP, Hobo Jones & The Junkyard Dogs, The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican, Leatherat, Ned The Kids Dylan, Company B. www.watchetfestival.co.uk

Serbia pulls out of 2014 Eurovision Song Contest

Awards Business News

Serbia has pulled out of next year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Denmark, citing the “high costs necessary to participate”, according to the BBC. Croatia, Bulgaria and Cyprus have also decided to stay out of the competition for financial reasons.

The four countries will sit out next year’s Contest along with Slovakia, Czech Republic and Andorra, who dropped out last year because of the costs of participating. Turkey will also stay away for a second year, though due to a dispute over the rules. It will instead concentrate on its rival event, Turkvision. However, two other 2013 no-shows, Portugal and Bosnia-Herzegovina, will both return in 2014.

The deadline to enter the 2014 competition passed on 22 Nov, but countries may pull out at any point before 15 Dec without incurring any penalties.

Conrad Murray “held Michael Jackson’s penis every night”, again denies causing singer’s death

And Finally Artist News Jacksons v AEG Timeline

Conrad Murray has again denied that he did anything that could have caused the death of Michael Jackson, this time in a new interview with The Mail.

As previously reported, Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011. The court ruled that his negligence in providing the surgical anaesthetic propofol as an insomnia cure brought about Jackson’s death in 2009. Murray was released from prison last month, two years into his four year sentence.

“I never gave Michael anything that would kill him”, Murray insists in the interview. “I loved him. I still do. I always will … By the end, Michael Jackson was a broken man. I tried to protect him but instead I was brought down with him”.

Murray maintains that he was attempting to wean Jackson off propofol in the weeks before his death, but that the singer had a private supply, and it was an overdose of that stash that killed him.

The doctor said that Jackson was already using the drug before he met him, adding: “He told me there were doctors in Germany that gave it to him. I didn’t agree with this at all, but Michael wasn’t the kind of man you can say no to. He would always find a way. So I acquired propofol and gave it to him over a two-and-a-half month period as I weaned him off it, which I finally achieved three days before he died”.

Of course, if you’re a doctor there probably shouldn’t be anyone you can’t say no to. And despite having weaned the singer off the drug, on the night he died Murray claims that Jackson begged him for a shot of the medication, so he administered a small dose that he knew would wear off quickly. Then, the doctor explains: “I believe he woke up, got hold of his own stash of propofol and injected himself. He did it too quickly and went into cardiac arrest”. This was the theory put forward by Murray’s team at his trial, though the jury didn’t buy the explanation.

The lengthy interview also sees Murray explain how close he was to Jackson. One of the more unusual, some might say unnecessary, comments he makes in order to show this is this one: “[Jackson] wore dark trousers all the time because after he went to the toilet he would drip for hours. You want to know how close Michael and I were? I held his penis every night. I had to put a condom catheter on him because Michael dripped urine. He had a loss of sensation and was incontinent. Michael didn’t know how to put a condom on, so I had to do it for him. His room smelled terrible”.

Read the full interview if you like over on the Daily Mail website here.

Approved: Walter TV

CMU Approved

Walter TV

Walter TV is Mac Demarco’s ‘other’ band in which he isn’t even the lead singer. In short, it features the same players as in DeMarco’s live band, only at different stations, with usual bassist Pierce McGarry moonlighting as vocalist. So basically, this Approved is a slim excuse for me to mention how great Mac DeMarco is for the hundredth time. Sorry everyone.

Anyway, Walter TV have just put out a video for their track ‘Paranormal Witness’, which appears on their TBC next cassette ‘BLESSED’. It seems that neither the track nor the video are new, rather the band is giving a new push to some old content; certainly they all look a lot younger in this video than now.

A sped-up, wibbly and sweetly naive pop song dedicated to a “tense, cinematic, high-octane drama-documentary series” off the Syfy channel (of the same name), it’s a far cry from what Pierce, Mac et al are playing at these days, as is evidenced by their extremely skin-tight set at this year’s Pitchfork Festival Paris. And yes, it is silly and childish, but it’s as DeMarco says in the clip of that performance “were a bunch of immature assholes and I’m sorry, but it’s just the way we are”.

Dig into ‘Paranormal Witness’, and the Pitchfork clip, which really is worth a look, here:

Turntable.fm to go offline, company to focus on pay-to-view sessions

Business News Digital Top Stories

Turntable.fm is turning off its core service in a week’s time, it was announced on Friday. It brings to an end a two and half year adventure, and a service that enjoyed rapid worldwide attention while in beta in 2011, but which saw user numbers slide as geographical and then functional limitations were put in place to bring the service inline with copyright law.

The firm’s founders were pretty candid all along about the tricky financial challenges they faced once they started signing deals with the record companies and the music publishing sector’s collecting societies in the US to legitimise their service, which allowed users to become virtual DJs by playing MP3s to friends over the net.

Confirming in a blog post that Turntable.fm was about to be switched off, the service’s operators wrote on Friday: “It was a tough decision to make because we love this community so much, but the cost of running a music service has been too expensive and we can’t outpace it with our efforts to monetise it and cut costs”. Users have a week to continue using the platform, and to export their personal playlists to Spotify or an XML file.

Presumably having realised early on that they had made that common mistake of launching an expensive-to-run music service on a free-to-use basis (leaving you with the options of persuading users that they should start paying you for something they are used to having for free, or becoming an ad sales company, or using your core music set-up as a loss-leader for something else), the Turntable.fm team have been dabbling with other business ideas too.

The one they now plan to focus on is an online gig experience, where bands play a session in the Turntable studio and fans, who pay to watch live over the net, can interact with the artist and each other, so a live music second-screening experience presented through one screen. Whether that’s a service fans will pay for remains to be seen, though the set up costs are relatively low, even though signed artists will have to cut their label into the action. And Team Turntable say pilot pay-to-view sessions have gone well.

7digital plotting UBC takeover that will make it publicly listed

Business News Digital Media Top Stories

Digital music provider 7digital is close to merging with radio industry content maker and service provider UBC Media Group, in a reverse takeover that will basically give the MP3 seller a listing on the London Stock Exchange, according to the Daily Telegraph.

7digital confirmed this morning that it had just taken investment from UBC, and that further talks are now ongoing regards a possible reverse takeover. If it goes ahead, that would basically see 7digital acquire UBC, but then – and this is where the reversing occurs – the combined company would take UBC’s place on London’s Alternative Investment Market, meaning it would be publicly listed.

Although originally created as an independent programme maker for the UK radio sector, for a time the Unique Broadcasting Company operated its own stations, and was involved in an ultimately abandoned project that planned to sell MP3s to radio listeners utilising the DAB digital radio network.

More recently the firm has focused again on making content for and providing services to other radio companies, while pursuing ambitions in the interactive space, not least by taking a healthy slice of online and mobile audio-sharing service Audioboo. That latter deal saw UBC buy Imagination Technologies out of the tech start-up, but in an arrangement that gave Imagination equity in UBC itself. Imagination is also an investor in 7digital, and has seemingly been a driver in negotiating the 7digital/UBC alliance.

7digital, of course, operates its own download store, but is perhaps better known for powering the digital offerings of a range of other firms, mainly tech and mobile giants, though it is also the platform behind the recently launched all-new HMV download store.

Prior to its administration at the start of the year, the old HMV Group was a sizable shareholder in 7digital. It’s not entirely clear who now owns what stakes in the firm, though if and when it becomes publicly listed all that will be revealed. It will also be an opportunity for 7digital’s early investors to cash-in, assuming enough hype can be built around the combined 7digital/UBC.

Although specifics of the arrangement are not yet known, it is thought that UBC co-founder Simon Cole would be Executive Chairman of any combined company, while 7digital co-founder and boss man Ben Drury would be the new firm’s CEO. Meanwhile both men have issued statements about UBC taking a stake in 7digital.

Drury: “Our platform and partnership roster has been growing steadily over time and we see continued interest in music globally, across online radio, subscription streaming, and downloads. We will continue to develop and scale the platform, and to innovate with new products and features. Radio, in particular, is an area where we see a lot of future opportunities, and we are thrilled that our new strategic investor and partner, UBC, shares this vision”.

Cole: “I’m very happy that we are able to help 7digital’s impressive expansion and that we have agreed to try and make our two companies one. The union of content and technology skills created by the potential merger of UBC and 7digital, would create a company with genuine global scale. The combined strengths give access to both the customers and content needed to drive business in the digital age”.

The movie industry secures a load more web-blocks

Business News Digital Legal

TUBE+

While it feels like record industry trade body the BPI has been leading of late when it comes to securing web-block injunctions against file-sharing websites, let’s not forget that it was the movie industry which first secured the legal precedent that says that the English courts can force internet service providers to block access to websites that primarily exist to enable copyright infringement. And the film studios have been doing the web-block tango once again.

Various sites are now in the process of being blocked it would seem, including torrent search engines and communities which provide access to downloads of unlicensed content, and sites which link through to movies and TV shows being streamed by unlicensed YouTube competitors (services designed to help users find unauthorised content during that short period between user upload and the inevitable issuing of a takedown notice).

According to Techie News, the latest injunction secured by the movie industry targets YIFY-Torrents, PrimeWire, Vodly, WatchFreeMovies and Project Free TV, and this follows another court order less than a month ago which ordered a blockade against SolarMovie and TubePlus. Of course, as with all web-blockades against sites hosted outside the UK, proxies will almost certainly appear online, and in Google searches, to enable users to circumvent the blocks, though rights owners will hope the extra hurdles will deter some users.

Before granting the Motion Picture Association’s first web-block injunction this month, the judge hearing the case did ramble at length about whether simply providing a link to infringing content can in itself constitute copyright infringement. This is a topic that has been discussed many times before during the fifteen year legal battle against file-sharing, though the law is still a little ambiguous on the matter, despite all the injunctions that have now been issued.

Of course lots of sites inadvertently (or sometimes deliberately) link to unlicensed content on an occasional basis, and Google provides such links constantly but in amongst all the legit links. Clearly the law needs to be able to draw a line between those sites and the Project Free TVs and Tube Pluses of this world. But when presented with that challenge in 2010 the UK parliament chose to steer clear of the task, leaving it to the UK courts to subsequently decide.

Though, according to the Outlaw site, the Swedish courts have turned to the European judiciary for clarity on what exactly European law says on this issue, which may or may not have an impact on English rulings down the line.

Aaron Carter files for bankruptcy, is $2 million in debt

Artist News Legal

Grown pop manchild Aaron Carter has filed for bankruptcy. The ‘Crazy Little Party Girl’ hitmaker visited a court in Florida recently in a bid to discharge himself from mainly historic, ten-year old debts, back from “when he was a minor and not in control of his own finances”, his publicist Steve Honig told The Hollywood Reporter.

As previously reported, Carter ran into hard financial times back in 2009, when it emerged that he owed the US tax office over $1 million. More recently, calculates CNN, he’s managed to double his debts, whilst having only $917 in his bank account. Oh dear.

In spite of all that, and those “emotional and spiritual” – and substance abuse – issues he went through in 2011, Honig says Carter – who’s on tour right now – has been “completely clean for quite some time” and is “working his ass off”. Good to know.

Rough Trade NYC opens today

Business News Retail

The long awaited New York branch of the Rough Trade record shop will finally open its doors to the public today, selling vinyl, vending coffee, displaying art and bringing live music to the great and good of The Big Apple. So that’s something to look forward to.

As previously reported, the company, which has two branches in London, announced its plans to open a third shop in New York in April 2012. After various delays, it was finally announced in September that it would be ready for a November launch.

And now that day is finally upon us. As well as facilitating the purchase of physical music releases, the shop will also, like the East London branch, sell coffee and put on live music, plus it has an area set aside for art installations.

Rough Trade’s Stephen Godfroy told the New York Times: “We feel we’ve got a model that works. This is a place where you will actually want to spend time. If you create an atmosphere that is conducive to spending time, then people will buy a record, whether it’s on their first visit, or maybe second or third. There is a way to retail music in a way that’s popular, viable, profitable and exciting. It’s not rocket science, it really isn’t. You’re selling something that people love. You just have to do it in a way that’s faithful to the art and to the public”.

Universal renews publishing alliance with Eminem

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers

Universal’s music publishing company has extended its worldwide exclusive deal with Eminem because, well, why not? The mega-major represents all of Slim Shady’s publishing catalogue, including the rights in latest album ‘The Marshall Mathers LP2’.

Confirming his company had renewed its partnership with the rapper (sorry, “rockstar”), Universal Music Publishing Group’s President North America, Evan Lamberg, told CMU: “It’s an honour for Universal Music Publishing Group to continue representing one of the greatest rockstars of our generation”.

Continuing, he said: “Eminem continues to break all genre boundaries and has become a voice for his generation. Also, kudos to manager Paul Rosenberg and attorney Theo Sedlmayr who continue to guide one of the most special and successful careers ever”.

Goldenvoice announces EDM alliance

Business News Live Business

Because no one is anyone in live music these days without at least some interests in all things eeeeeedeeeeeeeeee-em (or EMC, if you prefer), AEG subsidiary and Coachella maker Goldenvoice has announced one of those “strategic partnerships” with a San Diego-based dance music operator called LED. I’ll bring the drugs, you bring the bleeps, let’s get this party started.

A relatively new entrant into the burgeoning EDM scene Stateside, LED operates two clubs and has promoted hundreds of club nights and several festivals. Confirming the alliance with Goldenvoice, co-founder Johnny Shockey told Billboard: “It doesn’t change much as our operations go; it’s more about expanding, and having access to the resources of AEG and Goldenvoice. Financial resources, but also different towns and cities; San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as San Diego”.

For AEG, the alliance gives the firm an interest in a West Coast-based EDM competitor to Insomniac Events, arguably the dance music market leader in the region, and which became an offshoot of Live Nation earlier this year. From Goldenvoice’s side, President Paul Tollett said: “With the respective growth of Goldenvoice and LED the past few months, teaming up will allow us both increasing our presence throughout California, and in new projects to come”.

Deadmau5 launches subscription site

Business News Digital

Oh, so combatant producer Deadmau5 is going to start charging fans to listen to all those rough-cut tunes he’s always making. How nice of him.

Commenting on the incoming new online subscription service via Facebook last week, the producer mused: “Imagine… we’ll finally have a camp we can all enjoy with no spam. No phony accounts. No bullshit. No annoying kids. No nothing. Just unadulterated music and live streams and access to pretty much everything I have on the go”.

The future of music rights under the spotlight on next CMU Insights course

Business News Education & Events

The latest round of CMU Insights training courses continue this week with an overview of the music rights sector called, simply, ‘Making Money From Music Rights’.

This half-day session looks at trends and developments in the digital music sector, the future of the CD and vinyl markets, and considers the increased important of sync and public performance licensing. The spotlight is then thrown on the industry’s attempts to protect its copyrights, looking at both sector-wide initiatives and the growth of industrial-level takedown notice issuing.

Says CMU Business Editor Chris Cooke, who leads the course: “The music rights sector is too often written off – ‘the future is live’ we are told – but the intellectual property side of the business is not going anywhere, despite the slide in record sales and boom in piracy that has dominated the headlines in the last decade. This course looks at how we are making money out of music rights today, and makes some predictions about how artists and their business partners will be monetising their IP in the future”.

A few tickets are still available for the course at this URL. Bookings are also being taken for next week’s session, ‘Promoting Music’, which looks at the media and social media platforms available to the music business, and provides an overview of the classic music PR campaign, and how things are changing.

Astro departs UB40

Artist News

Time for some more turmoil in the UB40 camp following the departures of 2008 and bankruptcies of 2011.

Despite the somewhat acrimonious exiting of frontman Ali Campbell and keyboard player Mickey Virtue in 2008 (Campbell blamed management issues, though his bandmates said their former lead vocalist wanted to put his solo career first), UB40 have continued to record and tour ever since, with Campbell’s brother Duncan taking the former frontman’s place.

The band’s most recent album, ‘Getting Over The Storm’, came out back in September, featuring a number of country music covers as well as some original tracks. A tour to support said album next Spring has just been announced, but on Friday another of the outfit’s founding members and vocalists, Astro, announced he was stepping down, again citing management issues, and also expressing artistic concerns over the most recent long player.

Astro’s longish statement runs thus…

“After a well‐documented turbulent few years I feel that it is time to draw a line in the sand and move on. Since Ali and Micky departed, the band has been like a rudderless ship with no clear direction, no action plan, we’ve merely muddled our way through on a wing and a prayer. There has been a serious lack of communication between the band and management.

I want to play what our fans, who have been very vocal, want to hear, which is vibrant, fresh reggae music with passion. My heart just isn’t in the new album ‘Getting Over The Storm,’ where my contribution has been reduced to a backing vocalist which, as our fans know, is not my role in the group. I’m a frontman, a lead vocalist.

While it maybe true that there is a long relationship with reggae musicians and country music, that doesn’t mean that that’s what I want to play, far from it and it’s definitely not something I wish to be part of, subjecting our fans to what I consider to be substandard.

I have been loyal to my brothers to the detriment of my own family. Now it is time for me to do the right thing by them and myself and bow out while I still have a chance to salvage something of my career.

I may have lost all that I’ve worked for, for the past 30+ years but I cannot bear to see what we are offering to our loyal fans who have stood by us through thick and thin. I believe they deserve better than this and I am sorry but I cannot and will not lose my integrity as a respected reggae musician. Therefore I have no alternative but to part company with the band.

I know it may seem sudden to all who know me but my mind is made up and will not change. I think it’s clear that I’ve had enough of being depressed, as I’m sure other members are, but the difference is I’m not prepared to continue to be miserable at home and work. So it’s with a heavy heart I say goodbye. It was (mostly) fun while it lasted”.

For their part, the rest of UB40 insisted that it was Astro who was letting down the band’s fans, by dropping out just after a tour had been announced. They said in a much shorter statement, avoiding any temptation to comment on their former member’s critique of the new record: “UB40 are shocked and saddened by not only Astro’s decision to quit the band, but also his refusal to honour his touring commitments”.

They continued: “We have several tours booked in the coming months, including our biggest UK tour for three years, and he has not only let us down but also our fans. While we are naturally disappointed that Astro will not be with us at these shows, UB40 will continue and are looking forward to a positive 2014”.

Pharrell Williams releases 24 hour music video

Artist News Releases

Last week Pharrell Williams released a video for his song ‘Happy’ which, unlike his summer hit with Robin Thicke, doesn’t appear to condone rape. Which is just as well given it originally featured in kids’ film ‘Despicable Me 2’. And rather than going for controversy with this video, the producer has done something else to stand out. It lasts for 24 hours.

I know, in these times of short attention spans, it takes all of our effort and will power to sit through a three minute pop video, even when it’s unnecessarily filled with nudity. But I don’t think Pharrell is expecting anyone to watch his vid from beginning to end. And the fact that you can dip into it at any time during the day and see something different is quite cool.

The song plays on a loop, with a different dancer lip-syncing to the song in a different LA location every time it comes around. Amongst those to appear in the video are Steve Carrell, Janelle Monáe, Tyler The Creator, Kelly Osbourne, Pharrell himself, and many others.

Check who’s dancing right now here.

Lana Del Rey details and trails Tropico, donates to Daniel Johnston film

Artist News Releases

This is it, Lana-fans: Ms Del Rey has at last given us the cold facts on her long-feted new short film ‘Tropico’.

It transpires that the mini-movie accompanies a new EP which will feature the tracks ‘Body Electric’, ‘Gods And Monsters’ and ‘Bel Air’. And if those titles look familiar it’s because Lana released them via the ‘Paradise Edition’ of her first and perhaps last LP, ‘Born To Die’.

‘Tropico’ will have a digital release on 5 Dec. This is its trailer:

In adjacent Del Rey news, the singer has given $10,000 (via Kickstarter) to help get Daniel Johnston’s previously reported short film ‘Hi, How Are You’ released. Lana apparently received a “signed Smurf ukulele” and an executive producer credit on the movie project for her troubles.

Release round-up: Busta Rhymes & Q-Tip, Evian Christ and Gardens & Villa

Artist News Release Round-Up Releases

Rounding up the latest release news…

A pair of greats from the hip hop genre, Busta Rhymes and Q-Tip, have conspired to make a collaborative mixtape titled ‘The Abstract And The Dragon’. It’ll be released on 12 Dec, and, being a mixtape, won’t cost a thing. In the stead of a real preview of it, why not just look numbly at its artwork, which is not only abtly ‘abstract’ but also a bit rubbish.

And bing (I’m hitting a triangle)! Tri-Angle-signed hip hop-ish noisist Evian Christ (pictured) has confirmed a new EP with the title ‘Waterfall’. Comprising four tracks mixed by Pusha T/Wu Tang affiliate Noah Rubin, and mastered by Heba Kedry (of The Mars Volta-collaborating fame), it’ll come out in early 2014. Playing one of its tracks ‘Salt Carousel’, should hold you over til that time:

Finally, the planet’s most mildly-named band, Gardens & Villa, are set to release their sophomore LP ‘Dunes’. Produced by DFA Records co-founder Tim Goldsworthy and including a spectrum of ‘sounds’, from “cold wave” to “fluttering flute”, it’ll trickle into shops on 3 Feb 2014 via Secretly Canadian. And on the subject of “fluttering flute”, listen to first ‘Dunes’ single ‘Bullet Train’ now on SoundCloud:

Nelson postpones tour after bus crash

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Willie Nelson has been forced to suspend his current US tour after three of his band were injured in an accident involving his tour bus. Nelson himself was not on the bus that hit a bridge in East Texas. It is thought that the weather was likely the cause of the crash, with Nelson’s website blaming “icy conditions”.

Confirming that the rest of Nelson’s November shows were being postponed, but that it was hoped the tour could resume next month, a statement posted over the weekend reads: “No one suffered serious injuries. Paul English injured his ankle, Billy English suffered a bruised hip and crew member Tom Hawkins has a cracked rib. The other family members on the bus are sore but everyone is expected to recover fully”.

Chvrches confirm charity show

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Turns out that, in addition to taking a healthy stance on sexism, Scottish pop trio Chvrches are also kind and giving.

The band will play a charity show staged by TYCI, the feminist collective led by lead singer Lauren Mayberry, at Glasgow’s SWG3 on 21 Dec. Profits will go to the Ataxia Telangiectasia Society, which is dedicated to helping and advising families affected by AT, a rare neurodegenerative disease.

Explaining what TYCI is and does to NME, Mayberry says: “I set it up because I felt like, as a woman in a band, there wasn’t a support network for me. Not like I needed support specifically, but I wanted to create an environment where that’s celebrated.

Get tickets to the SWG3 show here.

James Arthur cancels appearances due to “acute exhaustion”

And Finally Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Noted homophobe and ‘X-Factor’ winner James Arthur has cancelled all appearances this week, due to “acute exhaustion”.

In a statement published on Facebook, JAHQ said: “Unfortunately James Arthur has been diagnosed with acute exhaustion and instructed to rest for several days by his doctor. Regretfully, he has been forced to cancel all engagements during this period. James would like to apologise to his fans for any disappointment caused to them by these cancellations and he hopes to get back to full health as soon as possible”.

As previously reported, Arthur was kept busy last week after some people mistakenly (according to him) thought that the line “You probably want to put your stinky dick in me, you fucking queer” in a rap he recorded was somehow homophobic. After failing to convince people that they were wrong about the lyrics, he quit Twitter, only to return for a public argument with fellow ‘X’ contestant Lucy Spraggan.

Though aside from that, the thing that’s probably really tired him out is hitting the retweet button on Twitter every few seconds so that we all know that some people are still tweeting about how great he is.

Approved: Spacestation at Ministry Of Sound

Club Tip CMU Approved

The original London superclub fights on and hosts another quality tech night headlined by MANDY’s Philipp Jung in the formidable world class Box room. Jung will be joined by Jaymo & Andy George, Johnathan Joseph and Shane Kehoe.

In 103 – the atrium room – the Spacestation crew have Ninetoes, The Golden Boy, South Royston and SE7EN with Jordan Wade, while the Loft will be hosted by Down The Road, with sets from J Lukey, Trimer, Just Geo, T.Bunts and Max Brokman.

Finally, in the well formed Baby Box, its decks see Seminor_lab head honcho Julian Amour headline, with Kerols, Hot Casandra, DJ Gio Q with Ben R Saunders, The Eastern Resident and Errol Young, plus a live PA by MAdam me.

Should be a cracker.

Saturday 23 Nov, Ministry Of Sound, 103 Gaunt St, London, SE1, 11pm-7am, £18, more info here.

Spotify valued at $4 billion as more investment secured, Deezer confirms US plans

Business News Digital Top Stories

Following reports earlier in the month that Spotify was busy raising more cash to keep the streaming firm’s ever growing team supplied with candy bars for at least another year or so, the Wall Street Journal confirmed yesterday that the digital company had secured another $250 million in investment. As expected, US-based Technology Crossover Ventures have led on the latest funding round.

According to the Journal, the latest stint of investment values the Spotify company somewhere “north” of $4 billion. And while the valuations attached to loss-making tech start-ups are a nonsense on one level, interest in what Spotify is valued at will only increase in 2014.

Partly because of the PR battle the firm is quietly fighting with those in the artist community who feel the streaming service is screwing over the musical talent. Multi-billion valuations – and what share of those billions the company’s founders and major label shareholders could earn – will only fuel that fire.

And while in practical terms it doesn’t really matter if some high profile artists go around bad-mouthing the business (after all it’s not really affecting Spotify’s content supply), it is an irritation as the outfit looks to start wooing Wall Street, or the big web industry players, for the inevitable IPO or massive sell-off that will presumably occur in the next few years.

And, of course, because that big deal will surely appear on the agenda in the near future, that’s the other reason Spotify’s current valuation is news. Expect increasing comparisons between Spotify and its publicly listed rival Pandora, which currently has a market cap, according to the WSJ, of $5.7 billion.

Pandora is bigger than Spotify in terms of customers (over 70 million active users, versus Spotify’s 24 million), though its younger rival is operating in many more countries, and actually brought in more revenue last year. Though both companies have seen losses widen in 2013.

And, while Spotify and Pandora are both market leaders in their respective strands of the audio streaming space (fully on-demand versus personalised radio), arguably neither have yet fully proven they have a long-term sustainable business model. After all, running costs are way higher for the streamers than the social media firms whose IPOs they presumably want to ape.

But hey, well done Spotify on raising more dosh, and good luck with the spring 2014 launch in Japan that everyone thinks the new financing will help to fund. And because we should remind you all that “other on-demand streaming services are available”, let’s note that one of the founders of Deezer has just told news agency AFP that his company will finally arrive in the US market next year.

Deezer, of course, is always keen to remind us all that it is just as big and important as Spotify, though not as “evil” obviously (Deezer might kick artists in the shins, but would never stamp on their heads). Following recent speculation that the Deezer geezers, who have so far avoided the particularly competitive US market, would soon be arriving Stateside, CTO Daniel Marhely told AFP: “The launch date is not final yet. But 2014 will be an American year for us”.

It seems likely Deezer will seek to launch in America with a significant partner in place. Logic says that that would be one of the big mobile firms in the US, both Deezer and Spotify having been busy of late signing up tel co partners elsewhere in the world, the phone firms bundling streaming music into their 3G and 4G packages, providing the streamers with free marketing, easier-to-access revenue, and big ‘user’ figure boosts.

Though that said, some are speculating that Deezer might launch in the US with a different kind of partner – maybe a Microsoft – and that it’s not out of the question that that partner could take a healthy slice of the company as part of the deal, or maybe even buy the French-based start-up outright. So that’s fun.

Of course, while Thom Yorke et al like to think of the streaming music start-ups as being sinister corporations designed to line the pockets of their founders and investors at the expense of the artist community, as these high cost, low (or no) profit company’s move towards ‘the big sale’, perhaps it’ll be the idiots of Wall Street they’ll screw over, as the City boys pay way over the odds for an invite to the latest dot com party.

So, actually Thom, the streaming music millionaires are really an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Look out for Jay Z appropriating their identities for an overpriced fashion line any day now.

Nonesuch signs Olivia Chaney

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers

London-based folk artist Olivia Chaney has signed to Warner’s Nonesuch Records, who’ll release her still-untitled debut LP, worldwide, in 2014.

Chaney, who put out her eponymous first EP herself in February, discusses the signing thus: “I grew up listening to Nonesuch’s eclectic output, from Steve Reich, Kronos Quartet and Laurie Anderson to traditional American music, Emmylou Harris and Oumou Sangaré; and not least my two heroines, the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Joni Mitchell. Nonesuch encompasses everything I’ve searched and stood for since I was a child. To be welcomed into such a great musical ethos is a dream come true”.

Senior Nonesuch VP David Bither in turn gushes: “We are very happy to begin working with Olivia. She possesses a remarkable wealth of talents, as a singer, a musician, a songwriter – those moments of hearing such an artist for the first time are specially momentous and we look forward to presenting her debut album next year”.

Here is Chaney singing a song off her EP, titled ‘Swimming In The Longest River’, live:

Safehouse expands to better focus on South America

Business News Management & Funding

UK-based dance music orientated management and booking agency Safehouse has announced the launch of a new division focused on the South American market.

The firm will work with those DJs and producers it already represents worldwide on touring activity in the region, and will also handle bookings for Darren Emerson and Carl Craig exclusively in South America.

Says Safehouse director Ian Hindmarsh: “South America is consistently one of the best and most important regions for events of our kind and so it makes perfect sense for us to have an influential presence in the territory”.

Safehouse has also announced the addition of Nic Fanciulli to its worldwide roster, and that it will be taking over the programming and management of the We Love Sundays franchise in Ibiza next summer.

Nokia Music rebrands

Business News Digital

Nokia Music, the most recent music service from the one time king of mobile, has rebranded as Nokia MixRadio.

The revamp puts more of the focus on the personalised radio element of the service, and may well be part of a shift to make the set up more like Pandora and less like Spotify, the former model being cheaper to run in terms of licensing fees paid to the music companies. Though the fully on-demand element is still there.

Limited to date to Nokia devices, Nokia Music has been pushed most heavily in those markets where the bigger players in North America and Europe have less of a presence. Free to use, a premium option allows more song skips and offline listening, plus an MP3 store is integrated with the streaming experience.

AOL to wind down Winamp

Business News Digital

A new version of the classic digital media player Winamp was released this week, but it will be the last version ever. Or so it seems.

Owner AOL posted a message on the Winamp site on Wednesday saying that: “Winamp.com and associated web services will no longer be available past December 20, 2013. Additionally, Winamp Media players will no longer be available for download”.

Although it has been something of a niche technology for some time now, as mainstream users chose to play digital audio through the iTunes player, streaming platforms, or the proprietary digital media players built into their portable devices, it’s the end of an era because Winamp, launched in 1997 by developer Justin Frankel, was one of the first bits of software for playing MP3s to gain widespread popularity online.

Though, that said, rumour has it that Microsoft may acquire the IP in Winamp; whether that means it could continue to release products under that name remains to be seen.

Pitchfork previews new print Review

Business News Media

Having recently launched its iOS app Pitchfork Weekly, music website Pitchfork has revealed it will, on 4 Dec, swim against the media tide and go into print, via a ‘serious’ and ‘substantial’ new quarterly magazine titled The Pitchfork Review. Hmm.

Due to launch on 14 Dec, it’s described in this introductory piece on Fast Company as a “journal … focused on longform music writing and design-focused content”. Pitchfork will partner exclusively with Converse for the mag’s first four issues, the first of which will include articles on Glenn Danzig, Van Morrison, Otis Redding and Savages, plus a history of the jukebox, and a nostalgic appraisal on the “glory days” (ha) of the UK weekly music press by critic Simon Reynolds.

Talking it up, Pitchfork founder and CEO Ryan Schreiber intones: “Magazines have lost their foothold on breaking news, so the original content in the Review is new but less time sensitive. It looks at current music but also catalogue artists”.

Relating the Review to the print edition of US music mag Spin, which ceased to be last December (and thereby slightly twisting the knife… or the fork), Schreiber adds: “They kind of had the right idea, but it was still about everything being new and first. You were seeing a lot of the same things that had already been out there, the same artists that you’re seeing every day”.

By contrast, he says: “We’re not trying to be what music publications have traditionally been. We’re trying to break free from this constant racing to be first, which we do online”.

Issue one of The Pitchfork Review, which will be printed on high-quality paper and be quite book-esque, will be in stock online on 14 Dec. Issues are priced individually at $19.96, in a nod to Pitchfork’s birth year. Nice.

Cowell will return to X-Factor UK at some point

Business News Media

Simon Cowell has indicated that he does plan to return to the UK version of ‘X-Factor’, following the news ITV has signed up to another three seasons of the ailing but still pretty darn popular talent show.

Asked if he will ever return to judge on the British version of the programme by Metro, the Syco chief said: “I will at some point. I still miss that, I mean that show is my baby and that last year we did, which was the One Direction year, was the most fun I’ve had – it was fantastic. When I look back at the clips now and remind myself about it, it was a really cool year that”.

With most of the current ‘X-UK’ judges due to depart at the end of this series, Cowell indicated that he would quite like to return to a judging role alongside Rita Ora and former ‘X’ colleague Cheryl Cole.

On his famous falling out with the one time Girl Aloud after her axing from ‘X-USA’, Cowell added: “Cheryl and I patched up our differences a long time ago. I saw her recently, we speak a lot on the phone and text each other, and I think both of us would like the idea of working together again. She was a great judge. I mean, apart from being cute she’s a great judge and she knows what she’s talking about and, oh my god, she wears her heart on her sleeve!”

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