| CMU Daily - on the inside 17 Mar 2003 |
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In today's CMU Daily:
• Jackson loses cancelled gigs court battle
• Damon gives video anti-war theme
• Positiva release Lynx track
• Review: Q-Burns Abstract Message Feat. Lisa Shaw - This Time
• Slim Shady no show for Oscars
• Major label valuations come in low
• Sky may retaliate to BBC decision with channel switch
• Copeland – no Police reunion likely
• New FM licences advertised
• BMG restructure RCA Victor labels
• They said one big no
• Mellor wins celeb academy
• Review: Hanin Elias - No Games No Fun
• Colourfest announce line up
• Timberlake shaken after bumpy flight
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CMU POP QUIZ
Win a free 12 month subscription to Xfm's new monthly music magazine X-Ray, keep the answers to our movie related pop questions each day this week and find out how to enter on Friday.
Q1: Soundtracks – Blur 'Coffee & TV', The Verve 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' and Fatboy Slim 'Praise You' appear on which movie's soundtrack?
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OUT TODAY: RECOMMENDED RELEASES
Singles: Death In Vegas – So You Say You Lost Your Baby (BMG); Venus Hum – Montana (BMG); Fin - Songs At Altitude (Depth Records); Debaser - Dark Smile (Novamute)
Albums: King Britt - Adventures In Lofi (Bbe); Spiritualized – Tbc (BMG); Danni Minogue – Neon Lights (London); Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Pig Lib (Domino); Evan Dando - Baby I'm Bored (Setanta); Throwing Muses – Throwing Music (4AD); Kristin Hersh - The Grotto (4AD); Mock Turtles - Can You Dig It / Best Of (Virgin)
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CHART REPORT
At one point last night Smash Hits TV played Gareth Gates and the Kumars three times in a row. This tells us that either the Smash Hits computer was on the blink, or there are some truly dedicated Gareth Gates fans out there willing to spend a lot of money getting his latest video on the telly. The latter may be true with Mr Gate's Comic Relief charity single – a worryingly infectious rendition of 'Spirit in the Sky' - going straight in at number one in last night's charts.
In fact the whole top four was made up of new entries, pushing Christina Aguilera back into fifth place. Those new entries going to J Lo and LL Cool J's 'All I Have', Neighbours girl Delta Goodman's 'Born To Try' and 50 Cent's 'In Da Club'.
Actually quite a good chart this week – with Junior Senior's excellent 'Move Your Feet' staying in the top ten, plus welcome new entries from Placebo ('The Bitter End'), The Thrills ('One Horse Town'), OK Go ('Get Over It') and The Cardigan's ('For What It’s Worth'). We might be about the bomb the world into oblivion, but at least there's some good music out there.
Albums wise Norah Jones and Coldplay give Parlophone a good week, taking the top two spots – sister label Virgin getting the highest new entry with Melanie C's 'Reason'. Elsewhere new entry rise that new Clash best of goes in at 18, the Junior Senior album 'D D Don't Don’t Stop The Beat’ goes in at 29 and, erm, that’s more or less it.
Except to say Michael Jackson's post-that doc record sales continue – his best of 'HIStory' shooting up to number 15 this week.
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JACKSON LOSES CANCELLED GIGS COURT BATTLE
Elsewhere bad news for Jacko. The courts have sided with German concert producer Marcel Avram, who claimed Jackson broke his contract when he pulled out of two concerts back in 2000, and have ordered Michael to pay £3.3 million to compensate for the losses Avram's company made because of the cancellations.
Jackson, who gave albeit limited evidence at the trial, claimed it was Avram who cancelled the concerts after two previous charity gigs had failed to break even. But Avram counteracted that the two cancelled gigs had been intended to cover any losses made by the charity events.
No word on whether Jackson will appeal, though Avram's people are likely to push for Jackson to accept responsibility for further debts which may increase the final compensation pay out.
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DAMON GIVES VIDEO ANTI-WAR THEME
Damon Albarn will use the video of Blur's up coming single to continue his anti-war campaigning. The video features fly-on-the-wall footage of a woman marine who serving on a US Navy warship in the Gulf which originally appeared in a film for the BBC's Correspondent programme.
The video's director John Hardwick told reporters: "The video offers an alternative perspective on the individuals who exist at the sharp end of government policy by portraying the armed forces as being staffed by people who have the same needs as all others. Like the song, the video is a tender piece of work about distance and loss."
The single, from forthcoming album 'Think Tank', is out on 14 Apr.
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POSITIVA RELEASE LYNX TRACK
Positiva will release the track from that Lynx Pulse TV advert (the one with the curling dance routines) next week. By Room 5, and featuring disco veteran Oliver Cheatham, the track is called 'Make Luv' and has been doing the rounds for some time after a limited pressing by Belgian label Noise Traxx. Thanks to the ad the mainstream release should do well. Meantime there's mixes of the track at Lynx’s corporate website – http://www.lynxpulse.co.uk
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REVIEW: Q-Burns Abstract Message feat. Lisa Shaw - This Time (Slip’N’Slide)
Slip 'N' Slide prove yet again that they are one of the front runners with this 12". Michael Donaldson is the man behind the Message and here he teams up with chanteuse Lisa Shaw yet again. The prolific producer shows off with the a-side Riviera Rotation mix, capturing the essence of Shaw's vocals with latin guitars in a very minimally funky 120. David Duriez honcho from Brique Rouge Records comes at it and steps up the tempo with of a more electro feel and spacey guitar riffs. Donaldson adds his own Funk Dub which is a bit out there, but is allegedly getting some play on club floors by Derrick Carter, Sneak, Tenaglia et al. Apparently people are predicting this will be a massive hit at the Miami Winter Music Conference – and there's a strong possibility they'll be right, though to be honest it lacks that anthemic feel by virtue of its laid back feel. PV
Release date: 28 Apr
Press contact: Kickin IH [all]
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SLIM SHADY NO SHOW FOR OSCARS
Universal label Interscope, parent label to Eminem's Shady Records, have told reporters Mr Mathers will not be attending the Oscard’s ceremony this weekend, despite being nominated in the best song category for '8 Mile' track 'Lose Yourself'. However insider's have stressed he isn't snubbing the Oscars specifically – word is he is staying out of the public eye prior to those big European gigs in a bid to get on with his next album, and fulfill his production duties on albums being released by his record label.
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MAJOR LABEL VALUATIONS COME IN LOW
With so much major label merger talk, city types have been putting price tags on each of the record companies, and it doesn't make for happy reading. Warner's, most likely to go up for sale, will probably be happy with the $3-4 billion valuation. However BMG may have been hoping their $2.5 billion Zomba buy out would have given them a higher overall valuation than $3 billion. Sony would probably have hoped that fifteen years after buying CBS Records for $2 billion they would get more than $3-4 billion for their music operations. Universal, who spent over $10 billion acquiring Polygram in the last major merger, will be very disappointed with albeit conservative estimates of $6 billion as an asking price. But EMI will probably be most disappointed – in 1997 EMI boss Sir Colin Southgate turned down a $10 billion buy out offer – city experts now reckon the company is worth not much more than $1 billion. So check if there's any spare cash down the back of the sofa – now's the time to buy!
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SKY MAY RETALIATE TO BBC DECISION WITH CHANNEL SWITCH
Insiders at Sky reckon the satellite broadcaster may respond the BBC's decision to withdraw £85 million of business over the next five years by removing the Corporations flagship channels from the top spots in their electronic programme guide. As reported last week the BBC has previously scrambled its satellite broadcasts to stop them being accessed outside the UK (this causes problems over things like sports rights). Sky have administered distributing 'keys' to UK viewers to unscramble the signal at the cost of £17 million a year. But with new technology meaning satellite owners Astra can control their satellite signal more accurately the BBC have decided to unscramble their signal and not renew their administration contract with Sky.
Guardian UnLimited editor Emily Bell, writing in today's Media Guardian, reckons the BBC, in ending the deal so suddenly, are trying to end accusations of being in bed with Murdoch (they have entered a number of joint ventures with Sky of late), to show a commitment to their public service obligations (by making services more easily available) and to make a virtual Freeview platform available via the Astra satellite.
This last point is crucial. The BBC backed terrestrial digital TV platform does not yet reach the whole country. If ITV, Channel Four and Five follow the BBC in making their channels available via satellite unscrambled it means viewers outwith Freeview's reach could access the main digital channels with a satellite dish without having to have a Sky subscription.
Sky could retaliate by taking the terrestrial channels out of their electronic guide, meaning viewers would have to tune in their own set top boxes to receive them. This is unlikely however as Sky's subscribers would lose out big time, plus both BBC and ITV are paying Sky considerable sums to make use of the interactive potential of Sky's programme guide system. However insiders reckon Sky might shift the terrestrial channels out of the first five channel positions they currently occupy, giving their own channels priority. In reality this would have little effect commercially, but it would be a token gesture move to show the BBC the Murdoch machine is not impressed.
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COPELAND – NO POLICE REUNION LIKELY
Police drummer Stewart Copeland has told Billboard that while the band really enjoyed their first gig in eighteen years at the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony last week there have been no discussions of a proper reunion. "I'm very keen on reuniting. But I absolutely understand why it's not going to happen and I'm down with that. It was really great to be the Police for 15 minutes. If you can think of some other award we can go get or some other good reason, give me a call, and I'll try it out!"
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NEW FM LICENCES ADVERTISED
The Radio Authority has opened bids for two more terrestrial FM licences – the first a new licence in Carmarthenshire in Wales, the other the Dumfries and Galloway licence currently held by South West Sound. Additionally the licence of the Glasgow-based Asian community station Awaz FM has been renewed until 31 Dec under their non-profit radio pilot scheme.
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BMG RESTRUCTURE RCA VICTOR LABELS
Following their restructure of global operations into four division, BMG are now setting about restructuring their actual labels. The first big change sees RCA Victor – the group's classical, jazz and world music division – split up. The Windham Hill, Bluebird Jazz, Victor and Private Music labels will become imprints of Arista (with former RCA Victor head David Weyner in charge, reporting to Arista boss LA Reid). The classical bits will be merged in with BMG's other classical music labels under the BMG Classics umbrella, headed up by BMG Publishing chief Nick Firth.
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THEY SAID ONE BIG NO
Coldplay's Chris Martin was the 'not that big a' surprise guest at the One Big No anti-war gig on Saturday – he dueted with Ian McCulloch on a version of 'Walk On The Wild Side' as well as performing 'In My Place' and 'Yellow'.
The show, organized by Emily Eavis and raising funds for CND and the Stop The War Coalition, included performances from Evan Dando, Faithless, Beth Orton, Paul Weller and Fran Healy, video messages from Yoko Ono, Elton John and Michael Moore, plus a screening of the Moore directed video for System Of A Down's 'Boom!' which was filmed on recent anti-war protests across the world.
In his video address Moore told the audience: "Let’s keep these demonstrations going, its the only hope we have. George Bush, I don’t know what to say. On behalf of the majority of Americans who ever elected this guy I apologise. We’ll do our best to remove him from office as soon as possible. Thank you again for being there in London from all of us Americans. If it wasn’t for you out there demonstrating I don’t know what we would have done but it’s given great hope for all of us."
Even Ronan Keating performed a couple of numbers, telling the NME: "I’m not a political person, but I do have strong views on this subject. We all feel the same way. So last week when I was in London I was asked and said I’d love to come along and play. It’s a very delicate matter and it’s our duty to stand up and say something. I think the people that have turned up to play, all really believe in this. And I’m here to support them as much as I’m here because I believe in it too."
On the anti-war bent, don't forget James Lavelle's night at Fabric also in aid of CND on 20 Mar – among other things there will be a rare live performance from Ian Brown and UNKLE. Tickets are on sale now.
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MELLOR WINS CELEB ACADEMY
For those that care, actor Will Mellor won the Celebrity Fame Academy competition, which reached its climax during the Comic Relief proceedings on Friday night. Ruby Wax, despite lacking any real vocal talent, came second. More than 4 million votes were cast over the course of the week, raising £600,000 for the cause.
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REVIEW: Hanin Elias - No Games No Fun (Fatal Recordings)
Sometimes I have this recurring nightmare in which scary 80s German pop-mentalist Lene Lovich runs around a warehouse singing into the handle of a carving knife. Just as she leans in close, blade aloft, and utters "I think we're alone now", I wake up in a sweat-drenched bed. Well there's a distinct impression that from now on, these dreams may involve Atari Teenage Riot’s Hanin Elias instead. Her second solo album is like a platter of insect-filled canapes; innocent and inviting at first glance, but with meanness at its very core. The poppy overtones of most of the 13 songs carry an implicit sense of darkness, with dirty synth sounds and distorted vocals driving the rumbling melodies perfectly, as Elias croons seductively like Betty Page flirting with Count Dracula. And yet somehow the jaunty pop side never quite disappears, resulting in a deeply nasty yet excruciatingly listenable album. Losing sleep has never been so rewarding. DR
Release date: 10 Mar
Press contact: Mingo PR [all]
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COLOURFEST ANNOUNCE LINE UP
Scottish dance festival, Colourfest, has announced its full line up with Carl Cox, Sasha & Digweed, Paul Van Dyk, Geordie Lads, Lexicon Avenue, Cassius and Pedro Winter among those performing over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend (25 May) at the 10,000 capacity Braehead International Arena in Glasgow. More info at http://www.uk-cl.com/coloursfest.html
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TIMBERLAKE SHAKEN AFTER BUMPY FLIGHT
Pop gossip of the day - Justin Timberlake was apparently left "shaken" after a flight to Japan became a bit hairy when a bird crashed into the plane's engine 30 minutes after take-off. The pilot of the Singapore Airlines flight decided to return to LA because many passengers, including Timberlake, were a bit shaken. Timberlake is already frightened of flying – and was one of the artists rumoured to be canceling UK appearances after the army took up
security duties at Heathrow.