| CMU Daily - on the inside 19 Feb 2003 |
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In today's CMU Daily:
• Perry curates Meltdown 2003,
• Popstars tour doesn’t sell,
• Review: Debasser - Dark Smile,
• Jackson legal rumblings,
• Ozzfest line up highlights,
• Spector hearing could be delayed,
• Live Review: The First Vienna Vegetable Orchestra @ The RFH Purcell Room on 18 Feb,
• NME readers vote for best U2,
• Macca brings live show to UK,
• Streets mate claims Skinner stole his lyrics,
• Tupac’s post-humous record,
• Smiths man not cashing in on TaTu cover,
• Royksopp on their Coldplay remix,
• Review: Various – Peanut Butter Wolf: Badmenainggood,
• Clear Channel announce new rock fest,
• Datsuns on those knicker throwers
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Brits trivia: The best male and best female at the Brits in 1990 were the same as in 1989 and 1986 – who were the winners (that female has won that particular Brit award more than anyone else – how many times)?
Answer tomorrow
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PERRY CURATES MELTDOWN 2003
The sophisticated music festival – the Meltdown Festival, held on London's Southbank each June – have announced dub legend Lee 'Scratch' Perry will curate this year's event.
Meltdown has a different curator each year (past programmers have included Scott Walker, David Bowie and John Peel) which gives each year's line up its own feel.
Talking about his plans for this year's festival Perry told reporters: "I am looking far-word to this festivity. We will celebrate with the music-makers from all over the world. Melting down sweet songs and evil beats." Meltdown takes place from 10-29 Jun.
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POPSTARS TOUR DOESN’T SELL
Well, it would seem the bubble has well and truly burst. The Popstars tour, jointly headlined by Girls Aloud and One True Voice, has been cancelled because of poor ticket sales. Popstar judge and teen band supremo Louis Walsh told reporters: "The tour is cancelled but Girls Aloud are doing their own tour at the end of the year without One True Voice. Being associated with One True Voice was not doing them any favours. They were meant to be touring with One True Voice and the others from the programme, but it wasn't selling, nobody was buying the tickets."
The post-Pop Idol tour which included a string of Pop Idol finalists, and was headlined by Gareth and Will, was a huge success but industry insiders could see interest in Popstar style bands waning during the second series of the show, with ITV bosses putting a second series of Pop Idol on hold. One True Voice and Girls Aloud could yet prove to have careers even shorter than Hearsay.
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REVIEW: Debasser - Dark Smile (Novamute)
Debasser, in case you forget, is the rather cheeky young man who did that track about how fat lasses are always up for it. This latest EP lacks the immediacy of his previous oeuvre, unless you get a cheap thrill from hearing a Speak N Spell telling you that you’re welcome to call it dirty names. I say. Lead track ‘Dark Smile’ is apparently a shining beacon on the so-called UK Bass scene, which really means that it has lots of those noises like cars accelerating in arcade games over a kind of jungly back line. Not at all bad to be fair. LA
Release date: 17 Mar
Press contact: ePM [all]
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JACKSON LEGAL RUMBLINGS
Today’s round up of Michael Jackson news – and no mention of that TV show.
Firstly Jackson’s attorneys have asked a judge to throw out a lawsuit filed last April by Myung Ho Lee, a former business manager of Jacko, who claims he is owed $13 million. Jackson is alleging someone forged his name on the contract at the centre of the case where Michael committed to pay for business advice from Ho Lee.
Elsewhere in the world of Jacko court cases, the judge who oversaw the high profile lawsuit between Jackson and German concert promoter Marcel Avram last year is expected to put the case before a jury any time soon. Avram is suing for $30 million after, he claims, Jackson called off two gigs around the millennium.
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OZZFEST LINE UP HIGHLIGHTS
Ozzy Osbourne announced more details of this year's Ozzfest yesterday. Needless to say Ozzy will headline with his band (including Zakk Wylde, Robert Trujillo, and Michael Bordin). Also in the mega-line up are Korn, Marilyn Manson, Disturbed, Chevelle Cradle of Filth, Trust Company, Shadow's Fall, Killswitch Engage, Nothingface, Hotwire, Grade 8, Twisted Method, Unloco, and Memento. We're still awaiting confirmation of the exact line up for the UK edition of Ozzfest – meantime full info on the US tour at www.ozzfest.com
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SPECTOR HEARING COULD BE DELAYED
Sheriff's officers in California have said they will not be ready to present their findings on the Phil Spector shooting case in time for his next court appearance on 3 Mar, meaning the next hearing is likely to be postponed. No formal charges have yet been filed against Spector – that will be the job of a district attorney based on the findings of a police investigation.
Lieutenant Dan Rosenberg of the LA County Sheriff Department told reporters there was a delay because: "we want to complete a very unbiased and comprehensive investigation. It takes time to get all the evidence we analysed and back to us, and to interview people we feel we need to interview."
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LIVE REVIEW: The First Vienna Vegetable Orchestra @ the RFH Purcell Room on 18 Feb
When you were a kid, did you ever take a blade of grass between outstretched thumbs and make a rasping sound by blowing on it? Well there are two grown men doing that right now, only with leek skins. And now another two men are playing the British National Anthem on cucumber trumpets. Yes, The First Vienna Vegetable Orchestra (as if to suggest that there will ever be a second) are in town, and they are so fantastic it makes CMU's stomach rumble. Blending traditional African and classical European styles with wartime marching music and electronic ambient oddness, the Orchestra make music you can smell, and even the small kids in the audience are drawn in to their avant-garde, sometimes free jazz craziness. As the nine-strong group and their band leader Franz Hautzinger beat pumpkins with leeks, toot on carrot piccolos and even honk a cucumberidoo (no mushrooms, mercifully), they make beautifully rhythmic, wonderfully tactile and occasionally very musical sounds. And while the concept is hilarious, the result is sometimes disturbingly creepy. The real highlight is when everyone in the audience is handed a carrot whistle, and can join the conductor for the finale or simply enjoy a healthy snack. And as horn-blower Hautzinger himself says, "it tastes better than my trumpet". Better catch them before they start the Meat Orchestra side project. DR
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NME READERS VOTE FOR BEST U2
An online survey of NME fans has picked 1991's 'Achtung Baby' as the best U2 album ever, taking nearly 45% of the vote. 'The Joshua Tree' was second at 26.2% with no other albums getting more than 10% of the vote. The survey was done on the launch of the U2 edition of NME Originals – the special editions of NME dedicated to specific bands or genres. The magazine is now surveying readers with regards the best Nirvana album – more info at www.nme.com.
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MACCA BRINGS LIVE SHOW TO UK
Following the huge success of his US tour last year, Paul McCartney has confirmed he will be playing seven dates in the UK later this year featuring the biggest set of Beatles songs to have been ever performed in Britian.
"I had a lot of fun touring this show around America last year, but now I'm bringing it on home and that's special to me as I always look forward to playing to a home crowd," McCartney told reporters yesterday. "I think people are going to like this gig - when I was thinking of what songs to play I just imagined myself as one of the audience and thought 'What would I like to hear him play?' So that means we'll be playing some of my Beatles stuff - rather a lot of Beatlesstuff, actually - some Wings stuff and some more recent stuff; so basically the show pretty much spans my whole career. And I'm really getting off on playing it all with my new band."
Those dates:
5 / 6 Apr: Sheffield Hallam Arena
9 Apr: MEN Arena, Manchester
13/14 Apr: Birmingham NIA
18/19: London Earls Court
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STREETS MATE CLAIMS SKINNER STOLE HIS LYRICS
A former collaborator of Brits nominee Mike Skinner has told The Sun that his old friend stole some of his work for his critically acclaimed 'Original Pirate Material' album. Shaun Kelly claims Skinner has used lyrics he wrote on a number of tracks, including single release 'Has It Come To This'.
He told the paper: "I feel gutted and betrayed by someone I had trusted and considered a mate. Whenever I hear a Streets' track on the radio or see Mike on TV, I can't help thinking that it could have been my success story, too."
A spokesman for The Streets said, simply, that Shaun was "just a bit bitter".
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TUPAC’S POST-HUMOUS RECORD
Chart fact fans might be interested to know that Tupac Shakur, who went back into the charts with 'Thugz Mansion', this week, has now had more posthumous hits in the UK than any other artist, including Elvis. The latest single is his eleventh UK hit, only two of which came before he was murdered in 1996.
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SMITHS MAN NOT CASHING IN ON TATU COVER
Johnny Marr has denied reports in the NME that he will net £200,000 from a cover version of his Smiths classic 'How Soon Is Now' by chart topping duo TaTu. The track features on the duo's album '200km/H In The Wrong Lane' and is tipped to be their next UK single release.
"I don't quite know how that is worked out," he told Aussie website Undercover. "That is the first I have heard of it. I'm sure the taxman and the Smith's drummer probably already have plans for it."
In fact Marr didn't seem to know much about the cover or the pop duo at all. "I have no idea who they are. I heard something about it. I've got no interest in it whatsoever. Unless it is better than our version then it is business as usual but I don't know how they work that out. I'd be very surprised if I made that kind of money".
When Undercover told him more about TaTu he continued: "Oh they are the two young girls that pretend to be lesbians. They are pretend lesbians. I don't know anything about it.”
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ROYKSOPP ON THEIR COLDPLAY REMIX
Svein from Royksopp has been talking to Radio 1 about his remix of the Coldplay track 'Politik', which they have remixed at Chris Martin's request. The remix has only just arrived with the band so Svein wasn't sure on their opinion of it, or what they planned to do with it.
"I think it's basically for their laughs. I think it's the first time ever they had got remixes for the music. I've been told this might be a lie just to impress us! Doing a remix for someone like Coldplay, who have a really good vocalist and they also have quite appealing harmonies, to us it was all just fun."
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REVIEW: Various – Peanut Butter Wolf: Badmenainggood (Ultimate Dilema)
When you look at it, there are a relatively small number of hiphop compilations. And only a small proportion are any good. But the Badmeaninggood series have already invited some of the finest names in hiphop to choice some tunes – Roots Manuva and Skitz thus far. The beauty of these comps is that they are never purely hiphop, but all have the tracks have that rugged influential edge. And PBW’s is no exception, with as many tracks from the likes of Iron Butterfly, The Human League and Joe Jackson as the 45 King, Jungle Brothers and Grandmaster Flash. These personal histories of hiphop are brilliant insights into the personal tastes of some of hiphop’s most valuable players. And all mixed up like a block party tape. JG
Release date: 3 Mar
Press contact Ian Cheek [all]
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CLEAR CHANNEL ANNOUNCE NEW ROCK FEST
Clear Channel have announced details of a new music festival to be held at that eternal home of rock Donington Park. Co-promoted by Radio 1 and Kerrang, the two day event, on 31 May and 1 Jun, will be headlined by Iron Maiden and Limp Bizkit and will also feature Marilyn Manson and Deftones on the bill. More details at www.downloadfestival.co.uk.
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DATSUNS ON THOSE KNICKER THROWERS
The Datsuns have been talking to Radio 1 about the things fans have been throwing on stage at their live shows of late. Dolf, full name Rudolf, told the station: "At the last show, some girls threw up their underwear, and they had Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer drawn on the front - hand drawn on each pair. It was a very touching gift, in more ways than one. Actually somebody threw a bottle of water at me - which is not as nice as underwear. Basically I think they wanted to see what I looked like with a wet t-shirt, so I took it as a kind of sexual thing..."
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Answer to Tuesday's pop quiz:
Brits trivia: which Robbie track is the odd one out?
Rock DJ, She’s The One, Angels
‘Rock DJ’ and ‘She’s The One’ took the Brits for best single and best video, ‘Angels’ just best single