Well, thank God for ITV and its passion for good time keeping at non-sport related events, ensuring there was at least a tiny little bit of scandal to spice up the 2012 BRIT Awards. The UK record industry’s annual back slapping fest has become a rather slick affair in recent years, especially since its move east to The O2, which makes for a good live show if you’re there, but pretty lacklustre television. Perhaps I’m showing my age, but for me, unless a bum is wiggled, a political leader drenched, or a pissed up DJ offends a rock icon, well, British music hasn’t been truly celebrated. And dragging Blur on stage for the finale surely only reminded older viewers of those heady days of BRIT Awards chaos in the 1990s.

But, just as it looked like the newspapers were going to have to lead with “everyone we thought would win won”, or possibly “George Michael sufficiently not dead to present an award”, ITV handed The Sun and The Mirror their front pages as it insisted host James Corden cut off the undeniable star of the evening, double award winner and Britain’s biggest selling singer of the moment, Adele, as she tried to deliver her second acceptance speech. It seems that if ITV viewers don’t get their scheduled news fix at 10pm they are liable to riot (word has it that’s what happened last August), and while Damon Albarn’s inane rambling earlier in the evening had probably pushed everything behind schedule in the first place, that was no reason to cut the Blur end-of-show set, “so get that bloody Adkins woman off the stage would you, Corden?”

Adkins, presumably inspired by MIA, gave the cameras the finger (a “fuck off” to the show’s producers, she later clarified), providing the perfect photo for what was now everyone’s lead BRITS story. So much so, the PR machine was in action by midnight, with ITV telling reporters “the BRITs is a live event. Unfortunately the programme was over running and we had to move on. We would like to apologise to Adele for the interruption”.

A BRITs spokesman added: “We regret this happened and we send our deepest apologies to Adele that her big moment was cut short this evening due to the live show over-running. We don’t want this to undermine her incredible achievement in winning our night’s biggest award. It tops off what’s been an incredible year for her”.

So there you go, “ITV and BRIT bosses conspire with Mastercard to embarrass Britain’s favourite singing sensation”. Thank God for that, prior to Cut-Short-Speech-Gate I had literally nothing to say about this year’s BRITs. And look, now I’ve managed 448 words without even saying, here’s a full list of this year’s winners…

British Male Solo Artist: Ed Sheeran
British Female Solo Artist: Adele
British Breakthrough Act: Ed Sheeran
British Group: Coldplay
Critics’ Choice: Emeli Sandé
British Producer: Ethan Johns

British Single: One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful
British Album: Adele – 21

International Male Solo Artist: Bruno Mars
International Female: Rihanna
International Group: Foo Fighters
International Breakthrough Act: Lana Del Rey

Outstanding Contribution To Music: Blur

Watch the video below to see Adele explain why she raised her middle finger after her acceptance speech was cut off:

MegaUpload founder Kim ‘Dotcom’ Schmitz has finally been granted bail in New Zealand after a third attempt to get out of jail. As previously reported, Schmitz, one of four men arrested in New Zealand last month at the request of US authorities in relation to their involvement in the Mega empire, had previously been refused bail twice because of concerns he would flee the country for home nation Germany, where it would be much harder for America to extradite him.

But yesterday a New Zealand judge accepted the arguments put forward by Schmitz’s lawyer that, with all his client’s bank accounts frozen, the accused wouldn’t have the means to leave the country. Prosecutors had previously expressed concerns Schmitz still had access to other secret sources of cash, but Judge Nevin Dawson yesterday said there was no evidence that was the case.

He also noted that, while it might hard for the US to extradite Schmitz should he manage to get to Germany, he could still be prosecuted through the German courts, meaning a return to his home country wouldn’t necessarily ensure he was out of the reach of the law.

Dawson ruled: “Since [the original bail hearing], all known assets have been seized and are unavailable for Mr Dotcom’s use or disposal. [Meanwhile] no new assets or accounts of any significance have been revealed since his arrest. Mr Dotcom’s submission that he has not concealed any assets or bank accounts has largely been borne out”.

The terms of Schmitz’s bail have not been revealed, though other bailed former Mega execs have been banned from using the internet. Speaking outside the court, the Mega chief told reporters: “I am relieved to go home to see my family, my three little kids and my pregnant wife. And I hope you understand that that is all I want to say right now”.

As previously reported, the three other Mega executives arrested at the same time as Schmitz have already been bailed. All four, and three other men, one arrested in Europe and two still at large, are accused of copyright infringement, racketeering and money laundering in relation to the now defunct MegaUpload service, and other related websites.

A judge has agreed to remove AEG Live from Joe Jackson’s wrongful-death lawsuit, meaning the late king of pop’s father is now just suing Dr Conrad Murray and a Las Vegas pharmacy he bought prescription drugs from.

Jackson Senior’s original lawsuit specifically targeted Murray, the doctor convicted last year of involuntary manslaughter in relation to Michael Jackson’s 2009 death. But then the singer’s mother chose to sue AEG, promoters of the ill fated ‘This Is It’ show, who were paying Murray’s fees. Katherine Jackson argued that, as Murray’s effective employer, the live firm must accept some liability for her son’s death at the hands of the medic.

Joe Jackson then added AEG as a defendant on his lawsuit too, possibly recognising that even if he won against Murray, the doctor has no money. But AEG’s lawyers argued that if Joe Jackson wanted to sue the company, he should join his wife’s lawsuit, rather than pursuing his own litigation. They also argued that Mr Jackson was not a legitimate heir to his son’s fortune because he was estranged from the singer and excluded from his son’s will.

And, according to the City News Service, the judge overseeing Jackson Senior’s litigation yesterday agreed, dismissing AEG as defendants. The judge particularly agreed with the argument that it was inappropriate for two separate heirs to pursue separate litigation over the same issue. Joe Jackson’s people are yet to respond to the ruling.

In related news, the prosecution in the criminal case against Murray have, unsurprisingly, formally objected to the doctor’s application for bail. As previously reported, Murray last month requested that he serve his jail term out of prison, possibly under house arrest, so that he can better prepare for his appeal.

However, prosecutors yesterday said the prison sentence should be enforced, claiming Murray remained a hazard to society, that he could flee California if let out of jail, and adding that the doctor was still remorseless about his part in Michael Jackson’s death. Prosecutors David Walgren and Deborah Brazil have told the courts: “Based on his failure to accept responsibility for the decisions he made, his complete lack of remorse and lack of insight into the danger of his criminally negligent conduct, he remains a danger to the community”.

The LA courts are due to consider Murray’s bail application on Friday.

Lawyers working for Sugarland have possibly put the country duo in a tricky PR position after filing legal papers that seem to argue that fans injured when that stage collapsed at last year’s Indiana State Fair were in part to blame for their own injuries, for failing “to exercise due care for their own safety”.

As previously reported, seven fans died and 40 more were injured when staging collapsed in freak high-speed winds shortly before Sugarland were due to take to the stage at the State Fair last August. Various legal claims have been made since the incident, with the band themselves being hit with litigation because their contract with the State Fair gave them the right to cancel the show in extreme weather conditions.

Lawyers for some victims have claimed their failure to exercise that clause makes them liable for the deaths and injuries caused by the stage collapse. There have also been allegations that the band knocked back proposals to postpone their performance to let the storm pass, something which might have led to the area near the stage being cleared before the high speed winds hit, though exactly what was discussed back stage before the tragedy isn’t especially clear.

Indeed there were reports it was the band’s tour manager who requested a delay in starting the Sugarland set, a decision which arguably reduced the impact of the staging collapse because fewer fans had moved close to the stage.

Some commentators have expressed surprise that Sugarland’s lawyers would even suggest fans should accept some liability for their own injuries, when it would seem more logical to try to land all the blame with State Fair organisers and the company which put up the staging.

The former have already paid out $5 million in damages to those affected by the incident, which is the most the State is allowed to pay out under Indiana State law, though word has it there are moves to make a one time exception in order to hand over more cash to those still paying medical bills in relation to their injuries. Nevertheless, lawyers for the victims are still looking for other routes to higher compensation.

As criticism emerged online and in the media to Sugarland’s latest legal filing yesterday, the band issued a vague and non-committal statement saying: “Sadly when a tragedy occurs, people want to point fingers and try to sensationalise the disaster. The single most important thing to Sugarland are their fans. Their support and love over the past nine years has been unmatched. For anyone to think otherwise is completely devastating to them.

The US Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from legendary producer Phil Spector’s over his 2009 conviction for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson.

As previously reported, Spector maintains he is innocent of the death of Lana Clarkson, who died at his Beverley Hills home from a gun shot wound in 2003, but his previous appeals have been denied, most recently by California Court Of Appeal in August last year. Spector’s lawyer Dennis Riordan then took the case to America’s Supreme Court last December, arguing that Judge Larry Paul Fidler’s conduct during the producer’s second trial (the first was declared a mistrial) meant the producer didn’t get a fair hearing.

However, the Supreme Court does not seem convinced by Spector’s arguments, and has refused to hear his appeal. This seemingly ends all routes of appeal for Spector, who is currently serving a nineteen year sentence for Clarkson’s murder.

Danish anti-piracy group RettighedsAlliancen has seemingly secured an injunction through the country’s courts ordering local internet service provider Three to block access to its customers to Grooveshark, the often controversial streaming music service which claims its legit, but which is currently facing legal action from all four majors.

As previously reported, the Danish rights body accused Grooveshark, which lets users upload music to its catalogue, of infringing copyright last November, and this week a court seems to have agreed with those claims. Three could as yet appeal, but if it doesn’t successfully other Danish ISPs are likely to be served with a similar injunction.

While web blocking injunctions against unlicensed content services are becoming common in some jurisdictions, and are in theory possible in the UK since last year’s Newzbin ruling, injunctions against a service like Grooveshark are possibly even more controversial in that some rights owners have licensed the platform, and its operators claim to be on the right side of copyright law because they operate a takedown system to remove unlicensed tracks if and when made aware of them.

That said, such a takedown system only really assures protection from infringement liability under US copyright law, and even there rights owners – who feel Grooveshark only pays lip service to its takedown obligations – are trying to show that a lot of the unlicensed content available on the streaming service is uploaded by staff not users, so the takedown system does not protect them from infringement claims.

Grooveshark is yet to respond to the reports of a web block being ordered against it in Denmark.

Concert promoter Andrew Miller, who was also a founder of the Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy fundraising committee, died peacefully in his sleep last Thursday, it has been confirmed.

Miller began his career in the music business in the 1970s as an agent, before setting up his own live music company, Andrew Miller Promotions, in 1975, through which he promoted concerts for the likes of Supertramp, Gallagher & Lyle, Joan Armatrading, Meatloaf, Nana Mouskouri and Barry Manilow.

His involvement with the British Nordoff Robbins charity began at around the same time, and he went on to co-found and then chair for 24 years a fund-raising committee which raised millions for the ground breaking music therapy organisation, and ensured its work was known, admired and supported by the entire UK music industry.

Perhaps Miller’s best known fund-raising initiative was the Knebworth 90 concert in 1990, that featured performances from previous winners of the Silver Clef Awards his fund-raising committee had created.

Paul McCartney, Status Quo, Genesis, Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Tears For Fears, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, and Cliff Richard and The Shadows all helped ensure it was a landmark event, which raised over £6 million, shared between Nordoff Robbins and The BRITS Trust, who were able to realise their plans to launch the BRIT School For Performing Arts because of the cash boost. Content recorded at the event continues to generate revenue for both charities.

Andrew is survived by his wife Anna and his two daughters Faye and Emily.

It’s been threatened for a long time, but East 17 are finally ready to make a full comeback. Having announced in May last year that they would perform without wildcard bandmate Brian Harvey, Tony Mortimer, John Hendy and Terry Coldwell announced and then almost immediately cancelled a reunion tour.

“Recording commitments” were the unlikely reason given at the time, though it seems this excuse was actually true. They’re back, and they’re bringing with them a “new transatlantic rock sound”.

Says Mortimer: “I think everyone is subconsciously inspired by American music and rock n roll, and this time around we wanted to do something more live with less tricks”.

Yes, obviously. A full album, entitled ‘Dark Light’, is due for release on 2 Apr via FOD. You can watch the video for first single ‘I Can’t Get You Off My Mind (Crazy)’ below. It’s comforting to find that for all this change, John Hendy and Terry Coldwell’s contributions remain utterly pointless still.

Now Motorhead are distancing themselves from a box set of their music. After Elvis Costello last year told his fans not to buy a £200+ box set of his music put out by Universal, Lemmy has hit out at a $600+ box set of his band’s early work that has been put out by a company called PID, which owns the rights in those recordings. The box set has fifteen discs and other assorted goodies like photos and badges, though the price point does seem rather high.

Says Lemmy on Motorhead’s website: “Unfortunately greed once again rears its yapping head. I would advise against [buying this box set] even for the most rabid completists!” The official post also notes: “Motörhead have no control over what’s done with these early songs, and don’t want fans to think that the band is involved in putting out such a costly box set”.

The statement adds that Motorhead have a new album and DVD out, which Lemmy and co would much rather fans buy than the overpriced oldies set. That option would presumably leave fans who have set aside $600 for the box set with quite a bit of spare cash. Though last week I saw some Motorhead skis for sale, maybe they could get themselves some of those too.

Having spent time recording out in the back of Texan beyond, art-pop quintet Mystery Jets are at last in readiness to release new album ‘Radlands’, the sequel to the their 2010 suite ‘Serotonin’. It’s due out via Rough Trade in April, with all vinyl versions of the LP including an illustrated comic by British artist Glenn Fabry.

Says singer Blaine Harrison: “We’ve always wanted to make a record in America and after touring ‘Serotonin’ the time felt perfect to go and do it. Our first three albums were entirely conceived and recorded in London so going out to Austin felt like the furthest place from everything we knew”.

The band will bolster the release with an extensive seventeen date tour, the first instalment of which is at the Leeds Brudenell on 28 Mar.

Tracklisting:
Radlands
Had Me At Hello
Someone Purer
Lonestar
Greatest Hits
Saviour
The Nothing
Roses
Sister Everett
Lost In Austin
Luminescence

And for those Mystery Jets purists fearing that ‘Radlands’, given its title, might manifest itself as a flirtation with Weezer-esque quasi frat rock, here’s a reassuring album trailer:

‘DANCE’ instructors Simian Mobile Disco are primed to proffer a brand new album in ‘Unpatterns’, which marks the London production duo’s first studio full-length since 2009′s ‘Temporary Pleasure’. Wichita Recordings will oversee the LP upon its release on 9 Apr.

Tracklisting:

I Waited For You
Cerulean
Seraphim
A Species Out Of Control
Interference
Put Your Hands Together
Your Love Ain’t Fair
Pareidolia

Santigold, aka genre-flexing Brooklynite Santi White, is to give voice to the disenchanted on just-announced new EP, ‘Disparate Youth’, which is released on 8 Apr as a precursor to her second album ‘Master Of My Make Believe’.

Incorporating much more of her signature sound than out-there lead ‘Make Believe’ single ‘Big Mouth’, the EP’s title track will come complete with remixes by 2 Bears, Switch and CMU approved Amateur Best. The album, meanwhile, is out 23 Apr.

Stream ‘Disparate Youth’ here:

American psyche quartet Bad Weather California have made their new album, ‘Sunkissed’, available to stream in full a week ahead of release. Which is nice of them, because it’s a very good album.

Signed to Akron/Family’s Family Tree label, frontman Seth Olinsky said of the album: “The whole album emerged as an unintentional song-cycle revolving around the theme of the sun, but not the Sun Ra pyramid mystical paradigm – rather the sun that shines on you as you’re on your way to the beach, or sneaking out of class to smoke with your friends. This is no childish record about running around in the woods and being kids forever, though, this is actually a pretty real record, one that speaks to you as if you were there, or it noticed your light on at 9pm on a Friday night and calls to invite you to walk around the streets together all night looking for something to do”.

Or, more succinctly, it’s like “a soundtrack to a made up movie about the summer you spent skateboarding, discovering drugs, going to the beach, falling in love”.

Listen to the album via Spinner here.

So, they may have failed to show in Shoreditch on that one anti-climactic occasion, but word has arrived by special decree that both Kanye West and Jay-Z are to tour a royal flush of various European venues in respect of their joint album, ‘Watch The Throne’. So… yeah, they’re doing a European tour.

Tickets for the three Britain-based dates, which are priced in excess of a somewhat stately £39.50, will go on sale at 9am on Friday.

Tour dates:
20 May: London, O2 Arena
11 Jun: Manchester Arena
13 Jun: Birmingham, LG Arena

BEACH BREAK LIVE, Pembrey Country Park, South Wales, 14-18 Jun: Pitched primarily at a sand-logged student crowd, this four day seaside sojourn will host acts including Dizzee Rascal, Nero, Friendly Fires, Chase & Status, Ghostpoet, Wretch 32, Labrinth and Maverick Sabre, with many more performers yet to be confirmed. www.beachbreaklive.com

BENICASSIM, FIB Heineken, Valencia, Spain, 12-15 Jul: Alt-rock reformers At The Drive-In are newly booked as Benicassim’s third of four headliners in total, now sharing credits with bill supremos The Stone Roses and Florence And The Machine. The Maccabees, Little Dragon and Bat For Lashes sign up beside New Order, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, David Guetta, Bombay Bicycle Club, Crystal Castles, The Horrors and Spector on the roster as it exists so far. www.fiberfib.com

END OF THE ROAD, Larmer Tree Gardens, Tollard Royal, Salisbury, 31 Aug – 2 Sep: Taking place at the tail-end of the summer festival season, EOTR proves itself last but by no means least by drafting in the splendid likes of Anna Calvi, Perfume Genius, Villagers, Cold Specks, Toy and Trailer Trash Tracys. If prior line-up missives are to be believed, festival guests can also expect sets from Grizzly Bear, Tindersticks, Midlake, Beach House, The Antlers and First Aid Kit. www.endoftheroadfestival.com

FORBIDDEN FRUIT, Irish Museum Of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland, 2-4 Jun: New Order, Leftfield, Death Cab For Cutie and Wilco are notable amidst an auspicious first announcement by organisers of Ireland’s Forbidden Fruit. Additional promise lies with further acts including The Rapture, Grimes, Austra, Atlas Sound, Modeselektor and Julia Holter. www.forbiddenfruit.ie

T IN THE PARK, Balado, Kinross-shire, Scotland, 6-8 Jul: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Florence And The Machine, Two Door Cinema Club, The Maccabees, The Vaccines and The Horrors make for a strong complement to T’s line-up at large, joining sole prior bookings The Stone Roses on a blossoming 2012 bill. www.tinthepark.com

YARD LIFE, Hackney Downs Studios, Hackney, London, 28 Apr: Yard Life is London’s first free-to-enter invite-only festival, aiming to raise funds for Multiple Sclerosis Research by encouraging its guests to make voluntary donations via JustGiving. Featuring plenty of performers, who include Pete Doherty and a fleet of such tipped indie types as Babeshadow, Hatcham Social, Filthy Dukes and Gaoler’s Daughter, the programme also includes a vintage fair, a beauty parlour, several art exhibitions and, for later in the evening, a DJ area. www.yardlifefestival.co.uk

OK Go might be YouTube poster boys with their hugely popular videos, but millions of views on the video platform does not a business make, or so says their manager Jamie Kitman, who was speaking at the recent SF MusicTech conference, according to Digital Music News.

The royalties received from YouTube are nominal, despite the popularity of the videos, Kitman said, and all that video viewing does not result in mega record sales either (which is partly because the songs aren’t all that great, but there you go). OK Go!’s main income stream is sponsorship, Kitman confirmed, with big brands keen to work with a band whose pop promos generate such large traffic and media chatter. But that option, the manager conceded, is only open to artists with an existing fanbase and reputation.

DMN quotes Kitman thus: “I can speak for an artist who gets a lot of traffic, which is OK Go. And I would say that ‘trickle’ is the operative word, in terms of the revenue we receive from places like YouTube and VEVO. The YouTube revenue is so small based on how many streams we’ve done that I would say that it’s not a business model, it’s like finding change on the street”.

If you haven’t had a conversation on the internet at some point in your life about a fictional breakfast cereal then I’m not sure you should be allowed to own a modem. I mean, seriously, what have you been doing with your life?

“Oh but it’s such a pointless thing to do”, I hear you say, like a big idiot. Yeah? Well if it’s so pointless, how do you explain this?

That there is a cereal box mocked up by Kelloggs after Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess told his 21,000 Twitter followers that he’d like a rocky road flavoured cereal called Totes Amazeballs. And because people in the Kelloggs product design department apparently have a lot of time on their hands, they knocked a box together.

Whose conversations are pointless now, huh? Although it does occur to me that when we tweeted that we’d like our office to have a glass floor with sharks swimming under it, not one person offered to come around and install it. Not even Kelloggs.

Pan-European indie label trade body IMPALA yesterday confirmed once again that it will urge the European Commission to block Universal’s proposed acquisition of the EMI record labels, as the major formally submitted its proposals to the EC for consideration.

IMPALA first voiced its concerns about Universal’s plans, as well as Sony/ATV’s bid to buy the EMI publishing business, before even current EMI owner Citigroup announced its intent to sell to those bidders last November.

The indie trade body says the two deals, which will enable the two biggest music companies dwarf the biggest of the independents and even their last remaining major label rival Warner Music, will create a powerful duopoly, in which Universal and Sony – already business partners via the VEVO venture – will hold all the cards in both recorded music and music publishing.

Noting that Universal had now formally submitted its bid proposals to the European competition regulators, IMPALA’s Executive Chair Helen Smith said yesterday: “The clock has finally started ticking in Europe. Ultimately we expect this to lead to an outright rejection of both the Universal/EMI and Sony/EMI mergers. Keeping the online market as open as possible is essential for competition and for responding to piracy, as well as other market problems. Turning music into a two-horse race would hamper the natural development of the market and increase prices. No level of divestments or behavioural undertakings would prevent that from happening”.

As previously reported, Universal will argue that the music industry has moved on since the last time European competition regulators considered a major merger, and that therefore its latest acquisition should be approved, despite officials previously expressing concerns about even the firm’s current size the last time it expanded through a big takeover, ie the purchase of the BMG music publishing catalogues in 2007. The company will also likely argue that in the all important digital domain prices are determined by the big download platforms, mainly iTunes, and possibly that while piracy remains rampant price rises will always be limited to an extent by the availability of free illegal content.

But the independents are likely to dispute all those arguments. They will counter that the music rights sector has not changed as dramatically as Universal suggests, and that in the digital domain Apple’s market dominance will only decline as newer rivals and alternative digital platforms mature, making the download space more competitive, and increasing the power of mega-rights owners in any negotiations.

They might also point out that, while Apple may have set the original price point in the download space, the majors, led by Universal, were still able to pressure iTunes into introducing the variable pricing model they had always advocated, despite Apple’s initial insistence on a one-price-for-all model.

It will be interesting to see how the Commission responds. It yesterday confirmed that it had now received Universal’s proposals, and had set an interim deadline for phase one of its investigation of 23 Mar Interested parties, including IMPALA and Warner Music, who have also announced their intent to lobby against the EMI deals, will now be asked to fill out a questionnaire about Universal’s bid. Phase one could be extended to up to 35 days to allow that information to be gathered and considered.

In theory the Commission could rule on Universal’s bid, one way or another, at the end of the first phase of its investigation, though nobody, on either side of the argument, expects that to happen. Certainly if the Commission is in any mood to clear the merger, then it will need to consider a plethora of related issues, and that is unlikely to be achieved in 35 days.

Regulators will also likely remember how their initial approval of the SonyBMG merger in 2004 was overturned by the European courts because they hadn’t gone into enough detail in their initial investigation. Officials, therefore, will presumably be extra careful to ensure their ruling on this consolidation can’t be undone at a later stage on procedural grounds.

Assuming, therefore, that this investigation does go into phase two, that will add anything between two and four months to the proceedings, and there could be another month or two in between the two phases to allow interested parties to prepare more evidence. So, unless officials are in a mood to shock everyone, it seems likely no decision will actually be made this side of summer.

Sony/ATV is expected to submit its bid proposals to regulators any day now, and that investigation will then have the same initial timelines. As also previously reported, some reckon the investigation into that deal may be quicker, though it is likely the impact of a duopoly in music publishing on the collecting society system will be considered, and any consideration of the future of the collecting society system is rarely done quickly.

In related news, the New York Post yesterday claimed that Universal had provided guarantees to Citigroup regarding its EMI bid, so that if the merger fails at the regulatory hurdle in either the US or Europe the bankers won’t lose out. The arrangement means that if the deal falls through and Citigroup is forced to find a new bidder, and if the subsequent sale generates less than the $1.9 billion Universal offered for the EMI labels, then Universal will cover the difference.

Which would allow Warner Music owner Len Blavatnik to buy the EMI labels at the price he thought was fair (somewhat less than $1.9 billion), while also allowing Citigroup to recoup the bulk of the losses it made by backing Terra Firma’s EMI acquisition in 2007, all at Universal’s expense. Of course if Universal bosses have made such guarantees, that reaffirms just how confident they are that their merger plans will ultimately be approved. Time will tell, of course.

As the British record industry prepares for its big party at The O2 tonight, label chiefs were already celebrating yesterday after scoring a win in the first stage of their legal efforts to force ISPs in the UK to block access to The Pirate Bay.

As previously reported, record label trade body the BPI took aim at The Pirate Bay last year after the landmark ruling in the Newzbin case, in which a British judge, for the first time, ordered an internet service provider to block access to its customers to a file-sharing website, after the operators of that site tried to circumvent an earlier court ruling against them by moving their service outside the jurisdiction of the UK courts.

Following the precedent set in the Newzbin case, the BPI asked various British ISPs to voluntarily block access to The Pirate Bay. When the net firms refused the trade body went legal, and stage one of that litigation asked the question “is The Pirate Bay liable for the infringement it enables, even if the Pirate Bay servers themselves do not host any unlicensed music files?”

And the answer, in the words of High Court judge Ricky Arnold, is: “Yes, it fucking is, man, it fucking is”. Well, I am paraphrasing ever so slightly, but that’s basically what he meant.

If you’d prefer Arnold’s exact words, they went something like this: “In my judgment, the operators of [The Pirate Bay] do authorise its users’ infringing acts of copying and communication to the public. They go far beyond merely enabling or assisting. Despite their ability to do so, and despite the judicial findings that have been made against them, the operators of [The Pirate Bay] take no steps to prevent infringement. On the contrary … they actively encourage it and treat any attempts to prevent it (judicial or otherwise) with contempt. I [therefore] conclude that both users and the operators of [The Pirate Bay] infringe the copyrights of the claimants (and those they represent) in the UK”.

Welcoming that ruling, BPI boss Geoff Taylor told reporters: “The High Court today ruled that The Pirate Bay is illegal. The site defrauds musicians and causes huge damage to the music industry and wider creative industries. We will now proceed with our application to have the site blocked to protect the UK’s creative industries from further harm”.

Of course it’s no real surprise that The Pirate Bay has been labelled a copyright infringer by the UK courts, it having lost similar legal cases all across Europe (though it’s true the English law concept of ‘authorising infringement’ is less well tested when it comes to certain file-sharing services), and therefore phase two of this litigation will be more interesting, ie whether the Newzbin principle will be extended forcing ISPs to finally block access to the rogue file-sharing site. A ruling on that matter is now expected in June.

The Pirate Bay, of course, carries on regardless. More committed users of the file-sharing site will almost certainly be able to circumvent any blockades put in place by the ISPs, while the Bay’s previously reported move to listing magnet rather than BitTorrent files reduces the size of the site’s database significantly, enabling users to download and host their own copies of The Pirate Bay website.

And if all those alternatives fail, the filesharing community is already talking up ‘Tribler’, an alternative BitTorrent client that circumvents existing blocks and takedowns by bypassing the need to use a website entirely. So, file-sharing can continue – though, the big rights owners might argue, the pursuit of accessing and sharing illegal free content gets ever more geeky, and that should achieve their objectives of reducing piracy amongst mainstream consumers.

Depeche Mode are preparing to record a new album, which they are “hoping to be finished by the end of the year”, the band’s Martin Gore has revealed.

Gore was actually speaking to The Quietus about ‘SSSS’, the debut album from his new collaboration with Vince Clarke, VCMG. He said of the techno project: “It was a nice break for me to be able to go and do something completely different that doesn’t involve poring over lyrics and having to think about vocal melodies. I think I went back to actually writing for [Depeche Mode] with much more vigour afterwards, because I had taken such a break. It gave me a real creative impetus”.

He continued: “I went straight from finishing the VCMG record into writing for the band. I think even though I used a lot of the same kind of instrumentation, I immediately went into a completely different headspace. The stuff I’ve been doing for the band is completely different to VCMG. Apart from the fact that I came back to the actual songwriting with more energy, you have to remember as well that I’m also a guitar player. Working on the VCMG record, obviously I didn’t look at a guitar for that whole period because it just wasn’t right – so the moment I started getting back to writing songs for the band then I’m picking up the guitar, I’m going on the piano, working on chords, just working completely differently”.

‘SSSS’ is due for release on 12 Mar, and Depeche Mode are due to head into the studio to work on that new album later the same month.