Great Escape launches new professional development programme for early-career delegates
The Great Escape has today announced more details about this year's TGE Conference, including 25 more speakers for the three CMU+TGE conference strands, and a brand new professional development programme called TGE Elevate. This will offer an enhanced, subsidised and curated delegate experience for 30 music professionals, helping them to fully utilise the conference to elevate their careers.

The new TGE Elevate programme is funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and will be delivered in partnership with CMU Insights and CMU:DIY. The official blurb explains that these thirty "super delegates" will get "a personally created conference schedule, access to invite-only seminars and networking events, and Q&A sessions with a number of music industry VIPs".

Basically, music conferences like TGE are a great place for music people at all levels to make connections, get up to speed on the latest developments and participate in the debate around the big issues of the moment. But at events the size of TGE, when you're starting out it can be hard to navigate the programme, connect with the right people and ensure your voice is heard. TGE Elevate will help those in the first phase of their careers overcome these challenges and get a whole lot more from their time at the conference.

The 30 people who get to participate in the core programme will include artists, managers, promoters, label executives and educators. Participants will be nominated by trade groups like the Association Of Independent Music, the Association Of Independent Promoters, the Featured Artists Coalition, the Music Venue Trust and the Music Managers Forum and then selected by the TGE team.

Other early-career delegates will also benefit from TGE Elevate with a series of new Elevate Seminars - presented by CMU - that are open to all TGE Conference attendees, plus an Elevate Guide will be available online offering tips galore about how to get the most out of showcase festivals and music conferences.

Announcing the new scheme, Rory Bett, CEO of TGE promoter MAMA Festivals, said: "The Great Escape is all about future music talent, on and off stage. We want to enable those early on in their music careers to meet, question and learn from the very best in the industry. Thanks to National Lottery funding through Arts Council England, we can be even more proactive in making this happen via the TGE Elevate programme. By building closer relationships with, and hearing from, our Elevate delegates, we can also ensure that the TGE Conference remains at the forefront of the very latest developments and debates in the music business".

Meanwhile, Hedley Swain at Arts Council England added: "We're really excited by TGE Elevate and what it can do to support new and early career music professionals as they establish themselves in the industry. The opportunity to meet and quiz senior industry professionals as part of the curated delegate experience could be an invaluable part of their development. We're pleased to help make that happen thanks to National Lottery funding".

You will find more information about TGE Elevate online here and all the latest updates on the CMU+TGE conference strands, which this year are focused on music education, digital dollars and music marketing, here.

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Pete Paphides launches re-issues label, bringing Ian Broudie and Stephen Duffy albums to vinyl for the first time
Music journalist Pete Paphides has announced the launch of a new record label, Needle Mythology. The aim of the company is to put out re-issues of old records on vinyl, focusing on albums which have not previously been made available in that format.

The first two albums to be put out by the new company are Ian Broudie's sole solo album, 'Tales Told', and Stephen Duffy's 'I Love My Friends'. In the case of the latter, it will be restored to the version originally planned by Duffy - the version released by Cooking Vinyl in 1998 having had its tracklist re-ordered, two tracks removed and two new tracks added. Both albums will feature new artwork and have been remastered.

Speaking to Super Deluxe Edition, Paphides says: "I wanted to buy these records and they didn't exist in the form that I wanted to own these records. Literally, all I could do was dream about owning them, because they didn't exist in real life. I think any record collector has probably had that same fantasy. So, that was the long and short of it really. I couldn't sit around waiting for someone else to do it any longer".

The two albums will be released on 10 May, with CD versions also available.

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Viagogo "disappointed" about culture select committee's live music report
Viagogo has responded to the live music report published by the UK Parliament's Digital, Culture, Media & Sport select committee yesterday. Needless to say, it is disappointed with the MPs' conclusions on secondary ticketing.

Although the report covers various aspects of the live music business, its statements were bluntest when it came to secondary ticketing, and Viagogo in particular. It said that the often controversial ticket resale site "has yet to prove itself a trustworthy operator given its history of resisting compliance, court orders and parliamentary scrutiny, and flouting consumer law".

Urging the Competition & Markets Authority to proceed with its latest legal action against Viagogo as fast as it can, the committee said that, in the meantime, "we advise the public not to buy or sell tickets via Viagogo".

Responding, the ticketing site said in a statement yesterday: "We are disappointed that the DCMS have singled us out particularly, when hundreds of thousands of British citizens use our service to buy and sell tickets to their favourite live events every day and never experience any problems. We provide an invaluable service to UK consumers by giving them access to events in the UK and all over the world".

As for those tickets bought on the Viagogo site that then don't get the buyer into a show, it added, "the overwhelming majority of cases are due to the unfair and potentially illegal restrictions the event organisers pose simply because customers have chosen to purchase tickets from a competitor of theirs".

That is a reference, of course, to those promoters who cancel touted tickets, which they are allowed to do providing the terms of the original ticket sale says so.

Viagogo concluded: "We have been complying and will absolutely continue to work constructively with the CMA to make further amends where necessary, all the while putting all of the buyers and sellers who use the platform first".

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More than 500 arts reps decry cuts to Radio 3 specialist schedule
More than 500 representatives from across the arts have signed a letter hitting out at the BBC's decision to make cuts to the Radio 3 specialist programme schedule.

This follows the announcement of planned changes to the BBC Radio 3 schedule, as part of ongoing attempts to meet government pressure for the Beeb to reduce its overall costs. Although two shows - 'Jazz Now' and 'Geoffrey Smith's Jazz' - are to be dropped entirely, most criticism has been levelled at plans to cut experimental music show 'Late Junction' from three nights a week to a two hour slot on Friday nights.

Announcing the wider cost-cutting measures last week, Radio 3 controller Alan Davey said: "In making changes we have tried to enhance the distinctive nature of the network, and to make sure we continue to offer a rich mix of music and culture to existing and future audiences. It's what makes the network the great thing it is". And as is so often the case, all of that would seem to encompass exactly the things BBC bosses have now decided to cut.

The new letter, published in The Guardian yesterday, responds to the planned cuts and is signed by over 500 people, including musicians, artists, record label owners, venue owners, festival programmers and journalists.

"British jazz is experiencing a renaissance", they write. "Folk acts are attracting broader audiences. Electronic and experimental music is thriving, and boundaries between genres, media and scenes are being dissolved and swirled into ever more exciting permutations".

"It is staggering, therefore, that, in the month of its sold out festival in London, 'Late Junction' is being reduced from three shows a week to one" they add. "'Jazz Now' and 'Geoffrey Smith's Jazz' are being 'rested'. 'Music Planet', Radio 3's only dedicated programme exploring music from around the world, is having its running time cut by half. We welcome new show 'Unclassified', but it has only an hour in the schedules. This is not enough".

They then argue: "Our culture benefits so much from these programmes. Music lovers tune in to make new discoveries and build new creative communities. Music makers rely on these shows as lifelines to support and share their music with enthusiastic audiences, nationally and internationally".

"New works and unexpected collaborations have happened either directly or indirectly due to these shows", the letter goes on. "This flourishing cultural ecosystem will be damaged, and musicians' careers profoundly affected, as opportunities for their work to be experienced by the mainstream will be drastically reduced, at home and abroad".

They conclude by urging Radio 3 to "think again about the changes they are making, and how they will profoundly affect our broader culture".

As well as this, songwriter group BASCA has published an open letter to Davey, also urging him to reconsider the cuts to Radio 3's output.

"When questions arise as to whether Radio 3 is 'dumbing down', our first line of defence as composers is to site those programmes which uphold the BBC's mission statement 'to enrich people's lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain'", says BASCA's letter. "This would include 'Composer Of The Week', 'Hear And Now', the live evening concerts, 'Music Matters', 'Record Review', 'Private Passions' etc, but particularly 'Late Junction' and 'Jazz Now'".

"'Late Junction' and 'Jazz Now' are important", it continues. "They are varied and unpredictable and explore areas that no other programmes do. They provide exposure to some of the most under represented artists and cultures. 'Late Junction' cuts across genres and is gender blind. These last two elements alone are culturally vital at this time and make it a beacon of public service broadcasting".

"'Late Junction' and 'Jazz Now' self-evidently 'inform, educate and entertain'", it continues, returning to the broadcaster's core values. "We are therefore particularly concerned to learn of the BBC's decision to cut the weekly broadcasts of 'Late Junction' from three to one and that 'Jazz Now' is to be axed. BASCA represents music creators in their totality and no other BBC programmes support such a wide variety of living writers and performers with such consistency and erudition".

BASCA says it is supporting an online petition to save 'Late Junction', which has already gained almost 5000 signatures.

This is not the first time the BBC has attempted to cut programming that differentiates it from commercial broadcasters and in the past public campaigns have been successful in reversing BBC decisions like this.

Most successful, of course, were the campaigns to save BBC Radio 6 Music and the BBC Asian Network in 2010. While the BBC is placed in a difficult position when told by government to save £800 million, making those savings by dropping niche but popular programming that supports the development of new music and emerging music makers always appears counterproductive.

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Bob Shennan promoted to BBC MD
Bob Shennan has scored himself a new promotion at the BBC, becoming Managing Director of the whole shebang as of next month.

In an email to staff, Director General Tony Hall said: "I want the BBC to be the best led, best managed and most creative media company in the world. Bob Shennan's appointment will help deliver just that".

Hall went on to say that current radio and music boss Shennan will "have a wider remit, joining up our corporate leadership, supporting our creative ambition and co-ordinating what we're doing between our commercial and public service operations".

"He'll also work", Hall added, "with the output directors to develop and deliver a new broadcasting talent strategy - something that will lead to stronger relationships and opportunities for new and emerging talent to show what they can do".

Shennan has been Director Of Radio And Music since 2016, having been controller of Radio 2 and 6 Music prior to that.

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Two Door Cinema Club release new single, Talk
Two Door Cinema Club are back with new single 'Talk', the first track from their fourth album.

"I love the pop thing", says frontman Alex Trimble, of making the new record. "I love experimenting and going to different places, I love doing things that are a little bit wonky and I love the idea of doing something we haven't done before, why can't we do all of those things at once? That's what it was, doing whatever felt right".

As for what to expect, well, he says, "it sounds like Two Door Cinema Club - not a Two Door Cinema Club there'd ever been before, but that's what I love. We can always do something new but it always feels like something we've done".

Produced by Jacknife Lee, 'Talk' is the first release on Prolifica Inc, the joint venture label set up by [PIAS] and TDCC's management company Prolifica last year.

Watch the video for 'Talk' here.

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Will Young, Karen O & Danger Mouse, Grimes, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• Will Young has signed a new deal with Cooking Vinyl, and will release a new album his seventh, through the label later this year.

• Spike Jonze has shot a one take music video for Karen O and Danger Mouse's 'Woman'. The duo were also performing live on 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' at the time.

• Grimes has announced that her new album will be called 'Miss_Anthropocene'. It will be "a concept album about the anthropomorphic goddess of climate change: a psychedelic, space-dwelling demon/beauty queen who relishes the end of the world". Cool.

• Logic has announced that he will release a new album called 'Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind' "soon'.

• The Cranberries have released a new track from their upcoming final album, 'In The End'. This is 'Wake Me When It's Over'.

• Loyle Carner has announced that he will release his second album - 'titled 'Not Waving, But Drawing' - on 19 Apr. It features guest appearances from Jorja Smith, Rebel Kleff, Kiko Bun, Kwes, Jordan Rakei, Sampha, Tom Misch and more.

• Soap&Skin has released the video for 'Creep' from her latest album, 'From Gas To Solid/You Are My Friend'. She will play a one-off UK show at EartH in London on 15 Apr.

• Kero Kero Bonito have released the video for 'Swimming', from their 'Time N Place' album.

• Full Of Hell have announced that they will release new album, 'Weeping Choir', on 17 May. From it, this is 'Burning Myrrh'.

• Easy Life have released new mixtape 'Spaceships', featuring six tracks, including recent single 'Sunday'.

• Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily - updated every Friday.

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Bohemian Rhapsody editor discusses quick cut criticism
Film editor John Ottman has responded to criticism of his work on Freddie Mercury biopic 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. In particular, he tells the Washington Post, that one scene that went viral makes him "want to put a bag over my head".

Ottman and 'Bohemian Rhapsody' won the Oscar for Best Editing last month, a move many criticised (although many also praised). There were numerous complaints about quickfire editing found in the film, although one scene in particular drew a lot of attention. It's a scene featuring a conversation outside a pub between the band and manager John Reid and includes a dizzying number of fast-paced cuts around the various faces present.

"Whenever I see it, I want to put a bag over my head", Ottman says. "Because that's not my aesthetic".

That scene, he explains, was one of several shot for the film close to the end of its production, after Dexter Fletcher had been brought in to replace fired director Bryan Singer.

Ottman says that he was then told to speed up several scenes to get through the first act more quickly. However, when test audiences actually seemed to prefer spending more time in the early part of the band's career, he went back and slowed most of those scenes down again. Except for that one of the pub meeting, simply because he ran out of time.

Now, he insists, "if there's ever an extended version of the film where I can put a couple scenes back, I will recut that scene!"

A part of the movie he feels more proud of, he says, is the 'Live Aid' performance, which concludes the film. Originally 25 minutes long, this had to have twelve minutes removed from it for the final cut.

"No matter how good the film was up to that point, if 'Live Aid' didn't work, the entire film would collapse and be a downer", he says. "It had to feel emotionally exhausting, in a good way. It couldn't feel like it was being cut down. Because the moment you knew it was being cut down, it was no longer experiential".

And there's the problem I guess. Good editing goes unnoticed. Bad editing goes viral on Twitter.

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