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Wednesday 27 September 2017, 10:45 | By Andy Malt
Teleman announce new EP
Artist News Releases
Teleman have announced that they will release a new EP, titled ‘Fünf’, on 17 Nov. Each track on the release sees the band working with a different producer, with Timothy J Fairplay, Ghost Culture, Bullion, Boxed In and Moscoman variously taking charge of the recordings.
“It was kind of tricky cos just as we were settling into the process it was time to up and off to another studio to meet the next guy”, say the band of the process of making the record. “But mostly it was a great experience, we all enjoyed it a lot”.
They go on: “The producers we worked with came mostly from dance backgrounds and some had never recorded a band before, so we were all pushed out of our comfort zones a bit, which was great. All said and done, it still sounds like Teleman, but each song has a different flavour, which is what we were hoping for”.
The first track from the EP, ‘Bone China Face’, which was produced by Ghost Culture, is out now. Listen here:
READ MORE ABOUT: Boxed In | Bullion | Ghost Culture | Moscoman | Teleman | Timothy J Fairplay
Wednesday 27 September 2017, 10:43 | By Andy Malt
One Liners: Twitter, Harry Styles, TLC, more
Artist News Awards Business News Digital Gigs & Festivals One Liners Releases
Other notable announcements and developments today…
• Twitter is expanding the number of characters in a tweet from 140 to 280 so that users can more “easily express themselves” on the platform. Even though that sentence just proved 140 characters is ample. This sentence definitely isn’t required. But still – 280 characters – woooo!
• Harry Styles has recorded the first ever UK edition of Spotify’s ‘Spotify Singles’ series. He recorded a new version of his latest single ‘Two Ghosts’ and a cover of Little Big Town’s ‘Girl Crush’ for the streaming service.
• TLC have announced that they are postponing their upcoming European tour dates due to a neck injury sustained by Tionne ‘T-Boz’ Watkins. “Chilli and I are very disappointed that we have been left with no choice but to postpone our debut European tour”, she says. An announcement on rescheduled dates is expected shortly.
• Tall Ships have announced that they are splitting up after almost a decade together. They will play farewell shows in Bristol, Leeds and London in December.
• Wu-Tang Clan’s U-God has announced that he will publish his autobiography, ‘Raw: My Journey Into The Wu-Tang Clan’, in March. “It’s time to write down not only my legacy, but the story of nine dirt-bomb street thugs who took our everyday life and turned that into something bigger than what we could possibly imagine”, he says. I hope he’s already written at least some of it down, because March is quite soon.
• Haim have released a short film of them performing some songs in the studio, directed by that Paul Thomas Anderson. He’s also going to direct the video for their new single, ‘Little Of Your Love’.
• Wolf Alice have released the video for new single ‘Heavenward’. Their new album is out on Friday:
• Andrew Bird has announced that he will release a new album, ‘Echolocations: River’, on 6 Oct. The second in a series of site-specific releases, this one was recorded while standing under a bridge in the Los Angeles River – as you can see here;
• Barenaked Ladies will release a new album, ‘Fake Nudes’, on 17 Nov. “I’m incredibly proud of this collection of songs”, says the band’s Ed Robertson. They’ll also be touring the UK in April.
• Sarah P has released the video for new single ‘Love Story’. “When writing ‘Love Story’, I decided I wanted it to be a love letter but not necessarily to a romantic partner”, she says of the song. “Love is way more than romance, anyway”.
• The Liverpool Sound City festival will return to the city’s centre in 2018 after a few years setting up home on a docklands site. The event says it will take over a “pioneering location offering a much more intimate experience” when it returns from 5-6 May next year.
• The Go! Team have announced that they will play their first live shows since 2015 next February. Here’s a short video to mark the occasion:
• Patrick ‘Pazza’ Wolf will play his only live shows of 2017 on 12 Dec at The Sugar Club in Dublin and Bush Hall in London on 18 Dec. The musician is currently working on a new album.
• This year’s MOBO Awards will take place at the First Direct Arena in Leeds on 29 Nov. “We are truly excited to return to Leeds – we had an amazing experience here two years ago”, says founder Kanya King.
• Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily – updated every Friday.
READ MORE ABOUT: Andrew Bird | Barenaked Ladies | Haim | Harry Styles | Liverpool Sound City | MOBO Awards | Patrick Wolf | Sarah P | Spotify | Tall Ships | The Go! Team | TLC | Twitter | U-God | Wolf Alice | Wu-Tang Clan
Wednesday 27 September 2017, 10:37 | By Andy Malt
David Bowie used to hide under a table to avoid answering the door to Roger Moore
And Finally Artist News
OK, people. Get ready for some imagery in your brain that will delight the shit out of you. News has broken that David Bowie used to hide under a table when his neighbour Roger Moore came around for a chat.
Yes, you’re right, that does need more context, doesn’t it? You have questions, and those questions need answers. But I know what you’re also thinking. You’re thinking that stories with a premise this good rarely live up to their initial promise. Well, hold onto your hats, because that is not going to be an issue here.
The story arrives as an anecdote in new biography ‘David Bowie: A Life’, by Dylan Jones, and was apparently recounted to the author by writer Hanif Kureishi.
Interviewed by Telegraph rock critic Neil McCormick at the launch event for the book, Jones explained: “When David Bowie moved to Switzerland at the end of the 70s to escape tax and drug dealers, he didn’t know anybody there. He was in this huge house on the outskirts of Geneva – he knew nobody”.
“One day, about half past five in the afternoon, there’s a knock on the door, and there he was: ‘Hello, David'”, he continued. “Roger Moore comes in, and they had a cup of tea. He stays for drinks, and then dinner, and tells lots of stories about the James Bond films. They had a fantastic time – a brilliant night”.
This is already a great story, huh? But what about all this table business?
“The next day, at 5.30… Knock, knock, it’s Roger Moore. He invites himself in again, and sits down: ‘Yeah, I’ll have a gin and tonic, David’. He tells the same stories – but they’re slightly less entertaining the second time around. After two weeks [of Moore turning up] at 5.25pm – literally every day – David Bowie could be found underneath the kitchen table pretending not to be in”.
This may now be my favourite possibly untrue Bowie story, after the one about him keeping himself grounded by remembering that he was “just a cunt in a clown suit”.
READ MORE ABOUT: David Bowie | Roger Moore
Wednesday 27 September 2017, 10:04 | By Andy Malt
Approved: Lucianblomkamp
CMU Approved
Lucianblomkamp is set to release the first in a series of three EPs, titled ‘Sick Of What I Don’t Understand’, on 13 Oct – the follow-up to last year’s ‘Bad Faith’ album. A visceral collection of genre-spanning electronic tracks, it’s an exciting new turn for the producer.
Following on from first single, ‘Nothing’, featuring singer Rromarin, newly released track ‘Still No’ features South London rapper Trim. “To me, Trim is the type of artist I strive to be”, says Blomkamp. “Not because of his influence over any particular style, but exactly because of that. He has a gift for disobeying the norms and never following up on expectations”.
He continues: “He’s a complete wildcard and that’s what makes him. No matter the instrumental, no matter the genre, no matter what era during his long-lasting career, if Trim’s on the track, it’s a Trim track. So as you can tell I feel it’s an honour to have him be a part of my new release, and I hope to do his name justice”.
No worries there, he does them both proud on what is a stand out track among an EP of stand out tracks. Listen to ‘Still No’ here:
Stay up to date with all of the artists featured in the CMU Approved column by subscribing to our Spotify playlist.
READ MORE ABOUT: Lucianblomkamp | Trim
Tuesday 26 September 2017, 11:45 | By Andy Malt
Dweezil Zappa steps up legal battle with siblings over use of his own name
Artist News Business News Legal Top Stories
Frank Zappa’s son Dweezil is planning to ask the US Trademark Office to arbitrate in a dispute with the Frank Zappa Trust over the use of his own name when performing music.
“For the past 36 years I have used my own name in the field of live music and entertainment and now two of my siblings claim to own my name and seek to prevent me from using it freely”, he says in a lengthy statement published yesterday. “On principle alone, I must defend myself”.
This is the latest of several battles over Dweezil’s use of the Zappa name, which stretch back to when he began performing his father’s music under the name Zappa Plays Zappa in 2006. Shortly after he began touring that show, his mother Gail trademarked the Zappa Plays Zappa, forcing him to licence it from the Trust.
After his mother’s death in 2015, Dweezil’s siblings Diva and Ahmet took control of the Trust, and seemingly ordered their brother to cease using the Zappa Plays Zappa name until he had negotiated a complicated new set of rights in relation to his live shows.
Refusing, he just changed the name of the project to Dweezil Zappa Plays Frank Zappa, which the Trust again said infringed its trademarks. Thus, Zappa ultimately ended up on a run of shows titled ‘Dweezil Zappa Plays Whatever the F@%k He Wants – The Cease And Desist Tour’.
This has resulted in an ongoing legal battle, which Dweezil has partly funded through a campaign on Pledge Music. This, he says, has led to a new claim from the Trust that Dweezil’s use of the Zappa name may cause confusion among consumers and therefore he should not be able allowed to use it at all.
For its part, the Trust has denied that it is trying to block him from using his own name, although the wording of those statements possibly implies that the Trust simply has no problem with him going about his day-to-day life being called Dweezil Zappa.
If you haven’t been keeping up with this case – and, to be honest, it’s so much more complicated than this summary suggests, so I can’t blame you – all this ongoing acrimony within the Zappa clan might come as a surprise. Because just last week the Frank Zappa Trust announced plans for Frank Zappa to tour as a hologram next year.
The press release for that announcement specifically suggested that Dweezil might get involved. “How radical would it be … to see Dweezil side by side with our father playing duelling guitar solos”, said Ahmet in a statement. “That would be my greatest wish and I look forward to bringing this special celebration of Frank’s legacy to a town near you”.
However, says Dweezil in this week’s statement, not only is he not involved with this hologram tour project, the first he heard of it was from social media after the announcement was published.
Off the back of all the coverage the Zappa hologram project got last week, Dweezil has now boosted his campaign to raise legal funds via Pledge Music with new t-shirts emblazoned ‘No fake Frank’ and a bundle featuring a new live album and additional merch named the ‘I’m Allergic To Holograms Bundle’.
A portion of the funds raised will be donated to earthquake and hurricane relief charities. Once that is done, he plans to use the remaining money to force a decision from the US Trademark Office on the matter of whether or not he is allowed to use the name Dweezil Zappa in relation to entertainment services.
“These ridiculous and inconsistent positions that the ZFT continually take puts me in a position of asking the United States Patent & Trademark Office to resolve this issue once and for all”, he writes.
Dweezil estimates that the trademark action could cost him around $30,000. Although, ironically, he says in his statement, as a beneficiary of the Trust, he is also funding the case against him.
The Frank Zappa Trust has not commented.
READ MORE ABOUT: Dweezil Zappa | Frank Zappa
Tuesday 26 September 2017, 11:39 | By Chris Cooke
$40 million defamation suit over TLC biopic to proceed
Artist News Business News Legal Management & Funding Media
A defamation dispute between MTV owner Viacom and the former manager of TLC could as yet go before a jury after a judge denied the broadcaster’s latest attempt to have to case thrown out of court.
Perri ‘Pebbles’ Reid sued Viacom over a TLC biopic that aired on its VH1 channel back in 2013 called ‘CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story’. Reid claims that the VH1 film – which had input from both surviving TLC members, Tionne ‘T-Boz’ Watkins and Rozonda ‘Chilli’ Thomas – portrayed her in an unfairly negative way and misrepresented various elements of the group’s early career, defaming her in the process.
Her rather ambitious defamation lawsuit is seeking $40 million in damages. And why not? Though Viacom has always insisted it need not write a $40 million cheque to Reid, arguing that ‘CrazySexyCool’ was “a docudrama about the experiences of the members of TLC told from their perspective” that is definitely protected by First Amendment free speech rights.
Viacom’s lawyers will gladly present that argument to any future jury, though it would much rather have the whole case thrown out on a bunch of legal technicalities. But this time last year a judge dismissed the broadcaster’s bid for summary judgement in its favour, resulting in a ‘motion for reconsideration’ being filed by Team Viacom.
Last week the judge overseeing the case pretty much denied that motion too. Much of the legal argument to date has centred on whether there was ‘actual malice’ in Viacom’s allegedly defamatory portrayal of Reid, and whether having biased sources who may or may not be pursuing some kind of grudge constitutes malice.
The judge did concede in his latest ruling – published by The Hollywood Reporter – that he had previously erred by considering the grounds for ‘actual malice’ across the biopic in general (plaintiffs argued that the movie as a whole had “a defamatory gist”), rather than on a case-by-case basis for each of the scenes Reid has taken issue with.
As a result a number of those scenes have been removed from Reid’s litigation – which is the second time the number of specified grievances in the defamation suit has been cut down.
However, on the whole the judge said that last year’s ruling denying Viacom summary judgement in its favour was solid and should stand. Which doesn’t mean there aren’t other legal tactics the media firm could still employ to try and kill this case, though for the time being the matter is still on its route to jury trial.
READ MORE ABOUT: Perri 'Pebbles' Reid | TLC | Viacom
Tuesday 26 September 2017, 11:36 | By Chris Cooke
Canadian tel co proposes web-block agency
Business News Digital Legal
A Canadian internet service provider has proposed that the country’s government set up an independent authority that has the power to order copyright infringing websites be blocked.
Web-blocking, of course, has become a preferred anti-piracy tactic of the entertainment industry in countries where it is an option. Usually web-blocks require an injunction from a court of law, though under a proposal put forward by Bell Canada an independent government agency would have the power to instruct ISPs to block piracy sites.
In most countries, net firms are initially resistant to web-blocking when it is first proposed, though once it’s underway they generally accept the practice and adhere to any web-block injunctions that come their way. But it’s interesting this proposal, which would make web-blocking even easier, is coming from a telecommunications company.
Though Bell Canada also has a TV business, and generally ISPs that are also in the content game themselves have been more friendly to the music and movie industries in their various attempts to combat online piracy.
According to Torrentfreak, Rob Malcolmson, Bell’s SVP Regulatory Affairs, proposed the web-block agency during a committee hearing on the previously reported review of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
He said: “We recommend that the government commits to stronger intellectual property enforcement by having an administrative agency dedicated to such enforcement and by prioritising enforcement against digital pirates … We would like to see measures put in place whereby all internet service providers are required to block consumer access to pirated websites”.
He went on: “In our view, it would be an independent agency that would be charged with that task. You certainly would not want the ISPs acting as censors as to what content is pirate content. But, surely, an independent third party agency could be formed, could create a blacklist of pirate sites, and then the ISPs would be required to block [them]”.
Malcolmson added that such an agency would go some way to placating American copyright owners who have in the past criticised Canadian law for not doing enough to crack down on online piracy.
Though, of course, web-blocking doesn’t currently exist in the US, and proposals to introduce it all the way back in 2011/2 proved very controversial. That said, in more recent years the American movie industry in particular has been trying to get web-blocking back on the agenda there too.
READ MORE ABOUT: Bell Canada | web-blocking
Tuesday 26 September 2017, 11:31 | By Chris Cooke
Investors invited to share in Eminem royalties
Business News Labels & Publishers
US-based online royalty marketplace Royalty Exchange has launched a new sister business called Royalty Flow which will “acquire and hold royalties from music catalogues of the world’s biggest music artists”. And it’s seeking investors to back the business, who will ultimately share in the profits made from the royalties it’s hoped will flow into the new venture.
To get things going, Royalty Flow has already announced a deal with the Bass Brothers, who have a stake in much of Eminem’s sound recordings. Jeff and Mark Bass, sometimes known via their FBT Productions brand, are partly know as the producers who first signed Eminem, and partly as the duo behind a landmark legal battle with Universal Music over how legacy record contracts should be interpreted in the digital age. The brothers won that legal battle, though it didn’t set quite the game-changing precedent across all artist record contracts that some hoped.
The producers are making up to 25% of the royalties they earn from Eminem recordings released between 1999 and 2013 available to the new Royalty Flow business. The start-up will also seek similar deals with other major artists, providing said acts with upfront cash in return for some or all of their future royalty income. Royalty Flow is seeking finance itself to fund these deals via a so called ‘Regulation A+’ public offering of its shares.
Announcing the new business, Royalty Exchange CEO Matthew Smith told reporters: “Royalty Flow gives investors the opportunity to participate in assets that are uncorrelated with public markets, and directly benefit in the music industry’s growth. It also gives thousands of artists, producers, labels, songwriters, publishers, and other rightsholders who contribute to the success of the superstars they work with access to on-demand financing options with the kind of flexibility seldom found in the music industry”.
Meanwhile the Eminem collaborators’ manager Joel Martin added: “We’ve supported increased transparency for artists our entire career, and Royalty Exchange is no different. They give investors simple, direct access to royalty opportunities that previously were available only to industry insiders. This changes everything”.
Royalty Exchange is one of the companies seeking to capitalise on new interest in investment circles in the music rights business on the back of the record industry going back into growth thanks to the streaming boom. Of course, the streaming business itself is still pretty fragile, but some share at least some of the optimism of analysts at Goldman Sachs with regards the near future of the music rights sector.
And with enterprises like Royalty Exchange and Royalty Flow, there are increased opportunities for investors to buy into the royalty streams of successful songs and recordings as well as actually acquiring music copyrights.
READ MORE ABOUT: Eminem | FBT Productions | Royalty Exchange | Royalty Flow
Tuesday 26 September 2017, 11:29 | By Andy Malt
WildKat PR promotes Olivia Brown
Business News Industry People Marketing & PR
Classical music PR agency WildKat PR has promoted current Head Of Creative Strategy & Marketing, Olivia Brown, to the role of Director of its London office. Having originally worked for the company during a placement year while at university, before later joining as a permanent member of staff, Brown will now oversee all over the company’s UK and Ireland business.
Company founder Kathleen Alder says: “Olivia has always been a dedicated and hardworking member of the WildKat PR team and has displayed a great deal of passion to the field of music and performing arts. She has a proven track record of team leadership and a determination to provide the best possible service for our extensive client roster, and I am excited to see where she will lead the London office in the future”.
Adler added: “Olivia’s youth, talent and enthusiasm befits the overall company ethos and she will join myself and our Berlin Director Carolin Denz in running the company overall”.
Brown herself adds: “It’s been an incredibly exciting and rewarding adventure to experience WildKat transform in the past five years, from when I started as an intern to the newly created position that I began last year. I am incredibly grateful to Kat for providing me with the structure and support to confidently lead the company from within, which is often very rare in our industry”.
In addition to its existing London and Berlin offices, the company plans to open branches in the US and France in 2018.
READ MORE ABOUT: Olivia Brown | WildKat PR
Tuesday 26 September 2017, 11:26 | By Andy Malt
Wild Beasts “coming to an end”
Artist News Gigs & Festivals Releases
Wild Beasts have announced that they are to split. The band issued a statement yesterday, in which they said that they have decided that “it is now time to leave this orbit”.
In a statement the band said: “Wild Beasts are coming to an end. Our hearts and minds have been devoted to the band since we were teenagers. We’ve created something quite of our own and built a body of work we stand by as heartfelt and true”.
They continued: “The four of us have decided, for our own reasons and in our own ways, that it is now time to leave this orbit. We’re caretakers to something precious and don’t want to have it diminish as we move forward in our lives”.
Before they make the split final, the band have announced that they will head out on a farewell tour in February next year. They will also release an EP of outtakes from last album, ‘Boy King’, titled ‘Punk, Drunk And Trembling’, on 20 Oct. From that, this is the title track:
READ MORE ABOUT: Wild Beasts
Tuesday 26 September 2017, 11:23 | By Andy Malt
Runrig announce 2018 farewell show
Artist News Gigs & Festivals
Runrig have announced that they are splitting up after 45 years together. The Celtic rock band will close their career with a farewell show in Stirling next August.
“This has been an enormous and difficult decision for us”, says founder member Calum Macdonald. “But through the machinations of longevity and circumstance, we feel that the timing is now right for a positive and celebratory conclusion”.
Of the farewell show, drummer Iain Bayne adds: “We want to make this a true celebration of the band’s career, and the special bond we have with so many people from around the world, although it will be with heavy hearts when we strike the last note”.
Billed as ‘The Last Dance’, the band’s 25,000 capacity final show will take place at Stirling City Park on 18 Aug 2018. Tickets will go on sale this Friday at 10am.
READ MORE ABOUT: Runrig
Tuesday 26 September 2017, 11:20 | By Andy Malt
Noel Gallagher announces new album and tour dates
Artist News Gigs & Festivals Releases
Who built the moon? The question we’ve all been asking may or may not be answered on Noel Gallagher’s new solo album, ‘Who Built The Moon?’
The third Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds LP will be out on 24 Nov. That’s less than two months after his brother Liam’s debut solo effort, which adds a new level of competition to this year’s musical end-of-year lists.
The new record is released by the Gallagher’s own Sour Mash label, with support from Universal Music in many markets. It was produced by David Holmes, who seemingly badgered his collaborator into working differently this time around.
Of the creative process behind almost-title-track ‘The Man Who Built The Moon’, Gallagher explains: “We took a keyboard riff we liked from an unused track and added chords. A year later we came to deal with it as a song and when we got to the chorus, David kept asking me to write a new one… again and again and again. I was ready to strangle him. The one that you hear is the eighth attempt and, you know what? The annoying thing is he was right”.
Holmes meanwhile enthuses: “People are going to be surprised. I think people love Noel and they’re desperate for him to make a really big, bold, up-tempo beast of a record – a lot of Noel’s music is quite mid-tempo. This one is fun”.
How much fun? Well here’s a trailer to give you an idea:
As well as the album release, Gallagher has announced tour dates for 2018, which will run as follows:
22 Apr: Brighton Centre
24 Apr: Glasgow, SSE Hydro
25 Apr: Aberdeen, BHGE Arena
27 Apr: London, Wembley Arena
20 Apr: Nottingham, Motorpoint Arena
1 May: Birmingham Arena
3 May: Newcastle, Metro Radio Arena
4 May: Manchester Arena
6 May: Cardiff, Motorpoint Arena
7 May: Leeds, First Direct Arena
9 May: Belfast, SSE Arena
10 May: Dublin, 3Arena
READ MORE ABOUT: David Holmes | Noel Gallagher
Tuesday 26 September 2017, 11:15 | By Andy Malt
One Liners: IMPALA, Michael Cera, Bon Iver, more
Artist News Business News Gigs & Festivals Industry People Labels & Publishers Live Business One Liners Releases
Other notable announcements and developments today…
• Pan-European indie label trade group IMPALA has elected a new board at its AGM, which took place at the Reeperbahn festival in Hamburg last week. Kees van Weije of Dutch association STOMP was elected president.
• Jo Charrington has been promoted to Co-President of Universal’s Capitol Records UK, reports Music Week. “I am fortunate to love my job”, says Charrington.
• Live Nation has hired Lesley Olenik as the new Vice President Of Touring for its US concerts division. She joins from AEG’s Goldenvoice.
• Michael Cera of being Michael Cera fame has released a new song, featuring the input of Sharon Van Etten. It is called ‘Best I Can’, was recorded for new documentary ‘Dina’, and is here:
• Shopping are back with a new single, ‘The Hype’. They’ve also announced that they’ll be touring the UK in November.
• Bon Iver will take up residency for four nights at the Hammersmith Apollo next February.
• The Prodigy will be touring the UK in December, closing things off with a three night run at the Brixton Academy. Tickets will be available on Friday.
• Belle & Sebastian will be touring the British Isles in March next year, including two nights at The Troxy in London. They’ve also released the video for new single ‘We Were Beautiful’.
• Dua Lipa will be touring the UK and Ireland in April next year, finishing up at Alexandra Palace on 20 Apr.
• Jake Bugg has announced that he’ll be touring the UK and Ireland in February and March next year, if you can stomach that sort of thing.
• Friendly Fires have announced that they will make their long overdue return at Brixton Academy on 5 Apr next year. Tickets on sale on Friday.
• Bonobo will play a headline show at Alexandra Palace on 1 Jun next year. Tickets go on sale on Friday.
• Jorja Smith has announced UK tour dates for next February, finishing up at the Shepherds Bush Empire on 14 Feb. Tickets go on sale on Friday.
• Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily – updated every Friday.
READ MORE ABOUT: 50 Shades Of Grey | Belle & Sebastian | Bon Iver | Bonobo | Capitol | Dua Lipa | Friendly Fires | Jake Bugg | Jo Charrington | Jorja Smith | Kees Van Weije | Lesley Olenik | Live Nation | Michael Cera | Sharon Van Etten | Shopping | STOMP | The Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA) | The Prodigy | Universal
Tuesday 26 September 2017, 11:08 | By Andy Malt
The Darkness lay into Southern Trains on new single
And Finally Artist News Releases
There are those who will tell you that the protest song is dead, with modern artists afraid to step forward and air their true feelings. But those people clearly haven’t heard the new Darkness song tearing Southern Trains a new one.
Taken from upcoming new album ‘Pinewood Smile’, due out on 6 Oct, the track ‘Southern Trains’ takes everyone’s* least favourite railway company to task. The band accuse the company of causing “major delays, cancellations, tedious conversations” with “heaving carriages of indignation”.
“This song has genuine realness in it, innit”, says the band’s Justin Hawkins. “Dan [Hawkins] and I had to endure the Southern Trains ‘services’ during the making of this album. The only difference between a normal day on Southern Trains and a day when they’re all on strike, is that on strike day the arse clownery is deliberate. They are utterly incapable of running a reliable service. Fact. The rest of the world is laughing at us. I hope this song goes some way towards facilitating change”.
Imagine if, after everything, this song was actually the thing that tipped the balance and turned Southern Trains into an actual, functioning train company. Imagine if this was all that was required, all along.
Watch the video for the song, created using those Snapchat filters all the kids are talking about, here:
*Actually everyone in the whole world living or dead
READ MORE ABOUT: The Darkness
Tuesday 26 September 2017, 10:08 | By Andy Malt
Approved: Lokane
CMU Approved
Producer Lokane returns on 6 Oct with new EP ‘Wings’. His first release since last year’s ‘Visions’ EP, it reveals further blocks of the sound he has been developing since 2015. Plus some of the tracks have vocals this time thanks to the input of rappers Mikey Dollaz and Dai Burger.
Title track ‘Wings’ is a piece of music dictated by rapid mood swings, twisting and attacking various electronic genre conventions. Meanwhile, on the newly released ‘Blocked’, Burger locks into the producer’s sharply pulsing beats, leaving you hanging by your fingernails.
Listen to ‘Blocked’ here:
Stay up to date with all of the artists featured in the CMU Approved column by subscribing to our Spotify playlist.
READ MORE ABOUT: Dai Burger | Lokane
Monday 25 September 2017, 11:16 | By Chris Cooke
The Pirate Bay will be web-blocked in the Netherlands once again
Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal Top Stories
The Pirate Bay will be blocked by major internet service providers in the Netherlands once again, in the latest development in what is probably the longest running round of legal wrangling over the anti-piracy tactic of web-blocking. ISPs Ziggo and XS4ALL have been told to block the always controversial file-sharing site on a temporary basis pending a final judgement on the case in the country’s Supreme Court.
As previously reported, whereas in most countries ISPs have reluctantly accepted court orders forcing them to block access to copyright infringing websites, net firms Ziggo and XS4ALL decided to fight an injunction to that effect that had been secured by Dutch anti-piracy agency BREIN.
In 2014, a court in the Netherlands sided with the internet firms, ruling that the Pirate Bay web-block that had been put in place by a lower court was “ineffectual” and might “constitute an infringement of [people’s] freedom to act at their discretion”. BREIN then took the matter to the Dutch Supreme Court, which in turn asked the European Courts Of Justice whether European law had any issues with web-blocking, and the possible “infringement of people’s freedom to act at their discretion” it might cause.
Earlier this year European judges basically gave the all-clear for national courts in the European Union to instigate web-blocks on copyright grounds. They also said that they reckoned The Pirate Bay – as well as being liable for ‘contributory infringement’ by facilitating the infringement of others – was also liable for ‘direct infringement’, because linking to torrent files constituted ‘communicating’ copyright protected works to the public.
The judgement was good news for the European music and movie industries, which had already successfully secured web-block injunctions in various countries within the EU, not least the UK where copyright owners have been particularly prolific in requesting blockades against copyright infringing websites. It also arguably increased the liabilities of The Pirate Bay and similar websites under European law.
Back in the Netherlands, the Supreme Court still needs to decide whether forcing Ziggo and XS4ALL to block The Pirate Bay is a proportionate sanction in this case. That decision is still pending. However, in the meantime, on Friday an appeals court decided that the 2014 decision that lifted the earlier web-blocks was now largely obsolete, and therefore said web-blocks should be reinstated with immediate effect, until the Supreme Court has made its final judgement on the matter.
According to BREIN, the latest court ruling states that the 2014 judgement did not give “sufficient weight” to the interests of the copyright owners represented by the anti-piracy group. It had also been wrong to assess the impact of the earlier web-block by looking at overall torrent figures rather than the number of people specifically accessing The Pirate Bay. The new court order then rules that web-blocks can be instigated in the Netherlands.
Says BREIN’s Tim Kuik: “It is good that websites that are obviously harmful and illegal – like The Pirate Bay – can be blocked again in the Netherlands. A very bad time for our culture, when people were free to access these sites, is now happily behind us”.
For now at least. We await the Supreme Court’s final ruling with interest.
READ MORE ABOUT: BREIN | The Pirate Bay | XS4ALL | Ziggo
Monday 25 September 2017, 11:14 | By Chris Cooke
Youth launches new “global beats label”
Business News Industry People Labels & Publishers
Record producer and Killing Joke bassist Youth has formally announced the launch of a new label to be called Suriya Recordings. Described as “a unique global beats label”, the new venture is a partnership with the PRSSV Institute Of Performing Arts And Heritage, a London-based organisation that celebrates and teaches the performing arts of India.
Explains Youth: “My vision was to create a new platform for musicians from around the world, combining ancient musical artforms with my sonic treatments. With the support and partnership of PRSSV, an organisation with incredible artistic influence, we are able to access some of the finest artists and musicians from India for our first set of releases”.
The label’s first two releases are Duende India Collective’s ‘Escapology’, described as “an ambient odyssey of Indian instrumentation, spoken word and vocals cut with lush Flamenco”, and Indotranceltic’s ‘Stone Horse’, billed as “a collection of chilled soundscapes of ancient Celtic and Indian sounds”.
Youth hopes to dip into musical forms from across the world on future releases, adding of the new venture: “The aim is to collaborate further with artists and instrumentation from around the world. In these dark times of change and conflict, we create music that brings new hope and possibilities. Suriya Recordings will operate like a worker collective and is all about pushing the boundaries of an already rich musical and cultural seam”.
The first two releases officially launch at an event at Rich Mix in London on 27 Oct, which will include performances from both Duende India Collective and Indotranceltic.
Before that, Youth will host the second edition of the International Cosmic Arts Lab festival at his Space Mountain studio complex in Spain. That runs from 6-8 Oct – info here.
READ MORE ABOUT: Suriya Recordings | Youth
Monday 25 September 2017, 11:07 | By Chris Cooke
Viagogo seller says fraudsters grabbed his touting profits
Business News Digital Live Business
We’re used to hearing about disgruntled buyers having problems with the always controversial secondary ticketing website Viagogo, but just to be different, here’s a disgruntled seller.
The Mail’s This Is Money website last week reported on a man who was left nearly two grand out of pocket after monies made by reselling tickets on the Viagogo site ended up in someone else’s bank account.
The seller claims fraudsters hacked into his profile on the resale platform and changed his bank account details. After realising the problem, the seller found himself shouting at the same Viagogo wall of silence as those who accidentally buy over-priced touted tickets on the site and try to get themselves a refund.
Presumably in a bid to garner some sympathy for the ticket tout – given we’ve been conditioned to hate the sellers in secondary ticketing land – This Is Money stresses that the man in question buys gig tickets for his family and then occasionally sells one or two on if some family members can’t attend.
Which makes this man exactly the sort of seller companies like Viagogo love, because they play into the official line of: “We’re just here for people who can’t attend the occasional gig they bought tickets for, we’re not a market-place for industrial level touts who employ unethical tactics to access large numbers of tickets to in demand events”.
You’d therefore think Viagogo would have been more helpful once this seller’s money went missing. Though perhaps the company was too busy schmoozing the industrial level touts who employ unethical tactics to access large numbers of tickets to in demand events. Because for Viagogo, those guys are much bigger business.
Anyway, it seems this seller realised his cash had gone missing because a more-significant-than-usual payment of £506 – for tickets he touted to Adele’s recent no-touting-allowed UK tour – failed to arrive. It was at this point that he noticed the bank account details on his Viagogo profile had been altered.
“He immediately changed the bank details on the account and started sending messages via the website asking for a refund. All of these were ignored”, the This Is Money article reports. “Eventually, a staff member from Viagogo noted his problem, and he asked for the bank account details [of where] the money had been sent to. It relented and he received it, along with the sort code and name of the fraudster”.
“But”, it adds, “because the money had not been taken directly from his account, the bank in question – Halifax Edgware branch – was unable to help him. He reported the criminal activity to Action Fraud and the police who in turn put him onto Trading Standards”.
Surely, given that he’d lost his two grand because his Viagogo account had been hacked, the secondary ticketing site was taking an interest in this fraud? No. “If someone from Viagogo calls you it is impossible to call or email them back”, reports the seller, confirming that communicating with the touting company has remained challenging.
Taking up the case on behalf the seller, This Is Money has asked Viagogo how someone managed to hack his account and change his bank details, why the resale site’s customer service is so rubbish, and whether the firm has an in-house team dealing with fraud on its platform. Needless to say, the company’s response so far has been silence.
So that’s all fun isn’t it? Maybe the touts need to set up their own version of the Victims Of Viagogo Facebook group, which has been helping buyers who are navigating the shady ticketing site’s special brand of non-customer service.
READ MORE ABOUT: Secondary Ticketing | Viagogo
Monday 25 September 2017, 11:05 | By Chris Cooke
Music 4.5 and CMU Trends put the spotlight back on data challenges
Business News Digital Education & Events
Spotify’s ongoing legal wranglings over unpaid mechanical royalties in the US – and the songwriter community’s increasingly vocal campaign to get credits on the streaming platforms – are two stories that ultimately originate in the same issue. The lack of a decent publicly accessible music rights database that tells streaming services what songs are contained in what recordings, and who wrote and published those songs.
This issue has been debated within the music community for years, of course, and various initiatives are underway attempting to solve the problem. This week Music 4.5 puts the spotlight back on data at its latest London event, and the music rights data challenge will be on the agenda, alongside other big data and machine learning topics, including the emerging role of chatbots.
Ahead of that, CMU Trends has published the customary ‘story so far’ report pre-empting the Music 4.5 proceedings, focusing on the music rights data dilemma, which includes input from four of the speakers who will appear at this Thursday’s event: Metabrainz’s Robert Kaye, Auddly’s Helienne Lindvall, JAAK’s Vaughn McKenzie and Blokur’s Phil Barry.
Kaye founded MusicBrainz – the publicly accessible “open music encyclopaedia” that already aggregates, through crowd-sourcing, the music metadata that is public domain – and he reckons that addressing the music rights data issue is more about industry politics than technological challenges.
“If every label and publisher could set up an API that gives the public access to their repertoire data, copyright status, and so on, this would go a long way towards building a system where no one has to give up their cherished control over their own data”, he says.
He goes on: “People and companies wishing to license content could easily discover who owns the copyright to a particular song or recording; this API could also provide licensing terms for said content in an effort to streamline the whole process. Conflicting copyright claims and policing the actors in this system would need to be carefully addressed. But I can see a non-profit ombudsman providing API standards, reference implementations and conflict resolution services”.
Kaye adds that “this system could be implemented quite cheaply – as long as you engaged the right people – without entities giving up control over their data”. Though, Kaye adds, while the potential solution could be relatively simple and cost efficient, that doesn’t make him optimistic that any solution is incoming. “Any sort of broad co-operation like this is still wishful thinking in the music industry”.
The full CMU Trends article looks at how different stakeholders can be persuaded to participate in meeting this challenge, the role artists and songwriters have to play, and why everyone was talking about the blockchain last year. Premium subscribers can access the article online or as a PDF download here. To go premium for £5 a month click here.
The Music 4.5 event ‘Global Data, Blockchain And Chatbots…A New Economic Model Of Participation?’ takes place at the London HQ of Lewis Silkin this Thursday, 28 Sep, at 2pm. Full info and tickets here.
READ MORE ABOUT: Music 4.5
Monday 25 September 2017, 11:03 | By Chris Cooke
Presenters revealed for new BBC primetime music show
Business News Media
The BBC has announced more details about its new primetime music show, which has the title ‘Sounds Like Friday Night’. Though for the youth demographic it will need to reach, it should probably be called ‘Sounds Like Whenever You Choose To Watch It On The iPlayer Or Via An Unofficial Upload On YouTube’. I concede that’s not so catchy a title.
The new programme will be recorded in the studios that remain at the BBC’s former Television Centre home in London’s White City, which have just reopened after a major overhaul of the site. The show – which will initially run for six weeks – will be hosted by Radio 1’s Greg James, who will interview the artists that feature, and Radio 1 Xtra’s Dotty, who will be on chatting-to-the-audience and reading-out-tweets duty.
But that’s not it in terms of presenters because, in addition to Dotty and Greg, there’s the weekly superstar co-host who will be, and I quote, “sprinkling their own stardust over proceedings and making every episode a complete one-off”. I hope none of that stardust gets into all the new studio kit that’s just been installed at Television Centre.
As previously reported, because this is 2017, ‘Sounds Like Friday Night’ will also feature “topical entertainment and fun sketches” alongside singers singing their songs, and the celebrity guest host will also take part in all that shit. It’ll be hilarious, I’m sure.
Says James: “We have been missing a primetime music show from our TV screens for far too long, so it’s fair to say being part of ‘Sounds Like Friday Night’ is something I’m really, really excited about. One thing that’s fantastic about the show is being able to provide new and emerging acts a home alongside the megastars, introducing them to a new audience. Also having the opportunity to interview and have a laugh with some of the biggest stars in the world, on the actual telly, is completely brilliant. I can’t wait to get going!”
Dotty, meanwhile, is “THRILLED to be part of ‘Sounds Like Friday Night’, it’s going to be an amazing show. Each week I’ll be meeting fellow music fans from around the UK, getting the lowdown from the viewers on social media and bringing the best music to you at home”.
Don’t be thinking that it’s only Dotty who is “THRILLED” about this new programme though, which – as previously reported – is being developed by independent telly show maker Fulwell. Says BBC Music boss Bob Shennan: “BBC Music is THRILLED to be launching ‘Sounds Like Friday Night’ on BBC One this autumn, putting music centre stage for our audience and featuring the biggest UK and international stars”.
I have to say, the more I hear about this exciting, energising, innovative, inventive, gripping, ground-breaking, cutting-edge, thrilling new show, the more fucking awful it sounds. But hey, I’m not the target demographic am I? It’s not for me. What the fuck do I know? I should shut up and let the kids have their fun times.
And at least the BBC is actually making television that celebrates new music here, like it’s fucking meant to. Rather than playing at being a festival promoter, an awards producer and a trade fair operator. It’s nice to see the licence-fee funded broadcaster actually doing some broadcasting for once, rather than pursuing needless vanity projects that see the BBC competing – head on – with the music community it’s meant to be supporting.
So all hail ‘Sounds Like Friday Night’. Even if Friday night sounds a bit shit.
READ MORE ABOUT: BBC | Sounds Like Friday Night
Monday 25 September 2017, 10:58 | By Andy Malt
Charles Bradley dies
Artist News
Charles Bradley died on Saturday after the cancer for which he was treated in 2016 returned. He was 68.
Bradley was diagnosed with stomach cancer last year, but later given the all clear following treatment. However, the disease was recently found to have spread to his liver. He released his third album, ‘Changes’, in April 2016, prior to his diagnosis, and had been touring in support of the record.
In a statement, co-founder of Bradley’s record label, Daptone Records, Gabriel Roth said: “The world lost a ton of heart today. Charles was somehow one of the meekest and strongest people I’ve ever known. His pain was a cry for universal love and humanity. His soulful moans and screams will echo forever on records and in the ears and hearts of those who were fortunate enough to share time with him”.
He continued: “I find some solace knowing that he will continue to inspire love and music in this world for generations to come. I told him as much a few days ago. He smiled and told me, ‘I tried’. It was probably the simplest and most inspiring thing he ever told me. I think he wanted to hug each person on this planet individually. I mean that literally, and anyone that ever saw him knows that he honestly tried”.
Bradley’s family have asked that those wishing to mark his death donate to the All-Stars Project and Music Unites charities.
READ MORE ABOUT: Charles Bradley
Monday 25 September 2017, 10:56 | By Andy Malt
Stevie Wonder ‘takes a knee’ for America
Artist News Gigs & Festivals
Stevie Wonder has expressed solidarity for the various NFL players who have been criticised by Donald Trump for kneeling during the US national anthem at American football games. The musician got down on both knees at the Global Citizen Festival in New York’s Central Park on Saturday in protest against the US president.
After San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat and subsequently kneeled as the national anthem was played at his games – in protest at police violence against African-Americans – the symbolic act of defiance has gained momentum among NFL players and beyond. Particularly since Trump criticised this form of protest – which violates a thing called the United States Flag Code – last week.
Speaking at a rally in Alabama, Trump said: “Wouldn’t you love to see these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say: ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out. He’s fired. He’s fired!’ You know, some owner is going to do that. He’s going to say, ‘That guy that disrespects our flag, he’s fired’. And that owner, they don’t know it, [but] they’ll be the most popular person in this country”.
With divergent opinions being expressed on Trump’s comments Stateside, in a game at Wembley Stadium in London yesterday, members from both the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Baltimore Ravens knelt down before kick-off.
Prior to that, back in the US, at the Global Citizen Festival, Wonder said before his performance: “Whenever you need to interrupt hate… stand down bigotry, condemn sexism and find love for all of our global brothers and sisters every day”.
“Tonight, I’m taking a knee for America”, he went on. “But not just one knee, I’m taking both knees, both knees in prayer for our planet, our future, our leaders of the world and our globe”.
Watch Stevie Wonder’s protest here:
READ MORE ABOUT: Stevie Wonder
Monday 25 September 2017, 10:50 | By Andy Malt
Vessels release new single featuring John Grant
Artist News Gigs & Festivals Releases
Having roped in The Flaming Lips to help out on recent single ‘Deflect The Light’, Vessels are back with another guest in tow. This time, John Grant joins them on ‘Erase The Tapes’.
“We were aiming to create a living, breathing human version of dance music”, say the band of the track. “And there isn’t really anything more honest and organic than the human voice. John Grant really inspired us to create something totally new”.
Listen to ‘Erase The Tapes’ here:
The song is taken from new album ‘The Great Distraction’, which is released this week. The title of the record is also something Grant had a hand in. “The title came from a misheard lyric that John Grant had written”, explains the band’s Martin Teff. “To us, it resonates in a few different ways. Personally, I like art that has a slower impact like that”.
With the new album out, the band will be heading out on tour later this week too. Here are the dates:
30 Sep: Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
3 Oct: Brighton, Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar
4 Oct: London, Village Underground
5 Oct: Manchester, Soup Kitchen
6 Oct: Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach
7 Oct: Glasgow, Art School
READ MORE ABOUT: John Grant | Vessels
Monday 25 September 2017, 10:48 | By Andy Malt
One Liners: Keychange, Fergie, Jhené Aiko, more
Artist News Business News Education & Events Gigs & Festivals One Liners Releases
Other notable announcements and developments today…
• The 60 participants in the PRS Foundation’s Keychange scheme, which aims to improve opportunities for women in the music industry, have been announced. Among them are Violet Skies, Suzi Wu and DJ Flugvél Og Geimskip. Find out more here.
• Fergie has released videos for two new songs, ‘Save It Till Morning’ and ‘Just Like You’.
• If you were wondering when the new Jhené Aiko album would be coming out – no release date having been officially announced – well, she just released it on Friday. It’s called ‘Trip’. It follows a short film, ‘Trip (The Movie)’, which was posted on YouTube last week.
• Barns Courtney has released new track ‘Champion’, taken from his debut album ‘The Atrractions Of Youth’, which is out this week.
• Yelle have released new single ‘Romeo’.
• AlaskaAlaska are back with new single ‘Patience’. Their debut EP is out this week with a launch show at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club on Thursday.
• Sam Amidon is set to play a handful of shows in the UK and Ireland in November and December this year, in support of new album ‘The Following Mountain’. He’ll start off at Whelan’s in Dublin on 7 Nov. He’s also released a new video for ‘Warren’.
• Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily – updated every Friday.
READ MORE ABOUT: AlaskaAlaska | Barns Courtney | Fergie | Jhene Aiko | Keychange | PRS Foundation | Sam Amidon | Yelle
Monday 25 September 2017, 10:43 | By Andy Malt
‘Tory Glastonbury’ fails to quite match the success of its namesake
And Finally Business News Gigs & Festivals Live Business
When Norfolk MP George Freeman said last month that he was organising a ‘Tory Glastonbury’ as a counter to the left-wing actual Glastonbury, I’m not sure anyone thought he meant it. But he did. That event actually happened last week. And poor George Freeman was forced to admit that it had not quite matched the scenes we saw in June when tens of thousands of people crowded around the Pyramid Stage to see Jeremy Corbyn speak.
“Why is it just the left who have all the fun in politics”, asked Freeman in a now deleted tweet in July, still angry that Corbyn had done so well at Glastonbury the previous month. “We need a cultural revival of grassroots Conservatism”.
He had, he then told the Financial Times, already raised £25,000 to put on a “cross between Hay-on-Wye and the Latitude festival” the weekend before the Conservative Party conference. Of course, Hay-On-Wye and Latitude, not to mention Glastonbury, all rely on budgets of more than 25 grand and much more than two months of planning. But Freeman was undeterred.
To his credit (this will be the last time those words are said in relation to all this), the event did go ahead. The problem was, two months and £25,000 really isn’t enough time or money to put on an event that might even get close to rivalling tens of thousands of people chanting the Labour Party leader’s name in unison.
The two main issues for Freeman’s event, really, were that not many people turned up and he hadn’t booked many musicians. People and bands are generally considered two key features of a music festival. Proving that point, as things got underway on Thursday, numerous people posted photos comparing the crowds for Corbyn at Glastonbury and the crowds for whatever it was this Tory Glastonbury thing was called. Even the event itself wasn’t able to find much in the way of inspiring imagery.
Speaking to Sky News from the event, according to Political Scrapbook, Freeman admitted that it was “a bit blokey and a bit nerdy”, but he insisted that, nonetheless, it did “demonstrate what political festivalism could and should look like”.
“We have had some music, but we haven’t had a chance to get most of that organised”, he added, weakly.
But this is just the beginning, he said. Next year will definitely be better, echoing initial statements from organisers of the disastrous Fyre Festival earlier this year. Though, to be fair, Freeman didn’t leave anyone stranded on an island.
“Next year’s festival will be at scale”, he said. “We’re planning to have it ticketed and have it as a celebration of entrepreneurship, innovation, of the great businesses around the UK, the small business and entrepreneurs who are creating new opportunities, creating new prosperity”.
Yes, that definitely sounds like something to rival Glastonbury. Lucky Glasto itself is having a year off in 2018 or the Eavises might have really had to start worrying.
READ MORE ABOUT: Big Tent Ideas Festival | George Freeman
Monday 25 September 2017, 09:44 | By Andy Malt
Approved: Snapped Ankles
CMU Approved
Snapped Ankles release their debut album, ‘Come Play The Trees’, this week. They are a band who are hard to pigeon-hole. Motorik beats, post-punk sounds, pop sensibilities, self-built instruments, incomprehensible costumes and convoluted mythology all go together to create what they have posited as “agrocultural punktronica”.
What matters is that the sound they make is exciting and intriguing. Whatever they do, I want more of it and I want to know more about it. Previous singles ‘Jonny Guitar Calling Gosta Berlin’ and ‘I Want My Minutes Back’ raise more questions than they answer. And the video for their debut single, ‘True Ecology (Shit Everywhere)’, was a behind the scenes look at the making of music video that apparently doesn’t exist.
Ahead of the release of the album, they’re back with another single, ‘Hanging With The Moon’. It’s three minutes of driving rhythms topped by yelping about bicycles with no lights and promotional events, and it is brilliant.
You can catch the band live around the UK in October. They’re also playing the By The Sea festival in Margate this weekend. First, here’s the video for ‘Hanging With The Moon’:
Stay up to date with all of the artists featured in the CMU Approved column by subscribing to our Spotify playlist.
READ MORE ABOUT: Snapped Ankles
Friday 22 September 2017, 13:43 | By Andy Malt
Hope & Glory festival assets fall far short of £900,000 debts to creditors
Business News Legal Live Business Top Stories
The company behind the shambolic Hope & Glory festival has, somewhat unsurprisingly, very little in the way of funds to pay off the nearly £900,000 it owes creditors, according to documents newly filed at Companies House.
A ‘statement of affairs’ document, actually prepared at the end of August, shows that the company has assets of just £63,600. Of that, £6600 is money owed to the company. There is also the possibility of a VAT refund up to £63,987, although it is uncertain if this will be granted. Even if it is, the company – which began liquidation proceedings earlier this month – will be a long way short of the £900,000 still owed to 32 creditors.
Among those creditors, the largest debt owed by Hope & Glory Festivals Ltd relates to a £270,000 loan from company director Ian Kerr. Ticketing firms Eventbrite and Skiddle – which paid for refunds on the event out of their own pockets – are also owed over £138,000 and £73,000 respectively. And Liverpool City Council is owed in excess £70,000 for various costs, including the clean up operation after the festival was cancelled.
As previously reported, although plenty of bands did play on the first day of the city centre Hope & Glory festival, gates opened late, stages ran behind all day, sets were cut short and Charlotte Church’s set was cut entirely, while festival-goers reported massive queues at the gates, bars and toilets. It was also tricky moving around the festival’s site, while many expressed concern about the dangerous levels of overcrowding.
Day two was cancelled via a social media post that simply read “no festival today”. The festival’s official Twitter account then began sparring with angry ticket-holders, while on Facebook a statement told punters to direct their anger at a single production manager who had allegedly failed to complete the event’s site on time.
A lengthy and rambling statement from promoter Lee O’Hanlon published the next day did apologise for the shambles, but spent much more time laying into the aforementioned production manager and Liverpool City Council. It also dedicated plenty of page space to complaints that council officials had sent food intended for day two’s riders to a local charity without the permission of the festival’s management.
Eventually, social media accounts related to the festival went offline and the previously all too public face of the event, O’Hanlon, fell quiet. Companies House records show that he was actually only appointed a director of Hope & Glory Festivals Ltd on 9 Aug, after the event fell apart, and then resigned on 17 Aug. His own company, Tiny Cow, is listed as a creditor, owed £71,400.
O’Hanlon’s wife Samantha, who had been a director since the H&G company was formed in 2016, resigned on 10 Aug, which leaves Kerr the only director remaining. Records also show that Kerr owns between 25 and 50% of the company. Two other companies of which Kerr is a director – Melodi Ltd and Hunky Dory Media – are also listed as creditors, owed £65,000 and £60,000 respectively.
Skiddle director Ben Sebborn previously told the BBC that he felt it was “very unlikely that Skiddle will receive reimbursement from the festival organisers” for the money it is owed. Liverpool City Council, meanwhile, is currently completing an investigation into what went wrong and how it can avoid a similar situation in future.
READ MORE ABOUT: Hope & Glory Festival
Friday 22 September 2017, 13:41 | By Chris Cooke
Kanye West calls for insurers’ countersuit in St Pablo tour dispute to be dismissed
Artist News Business News Gigs & Festivals Legal Live Business
The dispute between Kanye West and the insurers of his abandoned 2016 ‘St Pablo’ tour continues, with legal reps for the rapper having now responded to a countersuit filed by insurers based at Lloyd’s Of London.
As previously reported, West prematurely ended his US tour last November after particularly erratic behaviour at a couple of his shows. He was subsequently admitted to the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital Center, with one news agency stating at the time that “the decision to hospitalise West was for his own health and safety”.
West sued his insurers last month. He claimed that he ended his 2016 tour early on the advice of doctors, and therefore the insurance policy taken out on the shows should pay up and cover the losses incurred by West and his company Very Good Touring. The rapper’s lawyers accused the insurers of employing delaying tactics and putting unnecessary hurdles in the way, all in a bid to avoid having to honour the insurance policies taken out for the ‘St Pablo’ tour.
Then the insurers countersued, accusing West of not fully co-operating with their investigation into the circumstances around the ‘St Pablo’ cancellation. Legal reps for the insurers also alleged that there were “substantial irregularities in Mr West’s medical history”.
West’s lawyers filed new paperwork with the court this week calling for the countersuit to be dismissed. The new submission states that: “The counterclaim is another manifestation of defendants’ efforts to complicate Very Good’s effort to collect on the subject policies, and to proliferate needless pleadings. The counterclaim serves no useful purpose, as it is simply a reworking of the matters raised in the [original] complaint and the defendants’ answer to it”. Therefore, “the counterclaim should be withdraw or stricken”.
We now await the insurers’ response to West’s response to their response to West’s litigation. Fun times.
READ MORE ABOUT: Kanye West | Lloyds of London
Friday 22 September 2017, 13:39 | By Chris Cooke
Concord Music buys the Savoy Label Group
Business News Deals Labels & Publishers
US-based Concord Music – “one of the largest integrated music publishing and record companies in the world” apparently, and who doesn’t like some integration – has acquired the Savoy Label Group and its catalogues of jazz, rock and classical music.
Across the 3000 odd master recordings that Concord has bought in the deal are tracks featuring the likes of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Erroll Garner on the jazz side, as well as music from the likes of Meat Loaf, Boz Scaggs, Paul Rodgers, Little Feat, Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven, Dr John, Mick Fleetwood, Bruce Hornsby, Roberta Flack and Joe Cocker.
Confirming the deal, Concord Music’s Chief Operating Officer Glen Barros said: “Savoy is a great combination of both legendary masters and incredible recent recordings by a number of wonderful contemporary artists. We are so very proud that it is now a part of Concord Music. And as Steve Vining has done a great job of building Savoy over the recent past, we very much look forward to all that he will bring to our company in the future”.
Steve Vining, by the way, is the former owner of the Savoy Label Group. He will now consult for Concord. Under that alliance, he “may deliver new recording projects to Concord’s various labels”.
And look, here he is with some words: “Concord’s enormous success in many of the same musical genres SLG has pursued convinces me they will be outstanding stewards of both the rich catalogue as well as the new recordings to come from our very talented artists”.
READ MORE ABOUT: Concord Music | Savoy Label Group
Friday 22 September 2017, 13:32 | By Chris Cooke
Metropolitan Police to review controversial form 696
Business News Legal Live Business
London’s Metropolitan Police has confirmed it will review its often controversial 696 form, which critics claim discriminates against certain genres of music and certain ethnicities of music fan.
As previously reported, form 696 asks for the names, stage names, addresses and phone numbers of all promoters and artists at events where pre-recorded backing tracks are used.
An earlier version of the document also asked about the specific genre of music being performed and likely ethnic make-up of the audience, though those questions were dropped in 2009 after a number of artists and music industry groups campaigned against what was seen as racial profiling.
Nevertheless, concerns have persisted about the form, and other similar documents now used by sixteen other British police forces, some of which – according to a BBC report earlier this year – still ask one or both of the more controversial questions dropped in London.
Culture (now Digital) Minister Matt Hancock wrote to London mayor Sadiq Khan about the continued use of the form earlier this year, stating: “I am concerned that the form is not only potentially stifling young artists and reducing the diversity of London’s world-renowned musical offering, but is also having a negative impact on the city’s night-time economy by pushing organisers and promoters of urban music events outside London”.
Khan seemingly subsequently spoke to a number of promoters, venues, artists and DJs himself, and has now asked the capital’s police chiefs to review the form, stating that policing efforts to ensure public safety at live events “shouldn’t compromise the capital’s vibrant grassroots music industry or unfairly target one community or music genre”.
London police have generally played down the impact of the form, while insisting that the bureaucracy is never used to racially profile potential audiences at any one gig or club night. But a number of artists and promoters dispute both those claims.
Alan Miller, Chair of the Night Time Industries Association, has welcomed the review, telling The Guardian: “This form has been a big problem for venue and promoters and it’s stifling certain types of nightlife. Obviously we want events to be policed and to be safe, but it is being used by police to target nights by black artists because they see those nights as being more aggressive and harder to control and more associated with gang crime”.
Miller added: “And if there is an incident at an event where it’s a bunch of white lads, it’s treated as an isolated incident, but if it’s mainly black kids involved then it becomes associated with an entire event or genre of music, so that’s how it’s decided that grime or garage nights as a whole are too dangerous to put on. The 696 form means that keeps happening”.
READ MORE ABOUT: Metropolitan Police
