| CMU Daily - on the inside 3 Apr 2003 |
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In today's CMU Daily:
• Starr dies
• So Solid man fronts anti-gun campaign
• Wu Tang ODB out of prison but in mental ward
• Chez Osbourne – Sharon on the mend
• T in the Park announce dance line up
• Review: The Burn - Sally 0'Mattress
• Matrix sequel soundtrack lowdown
• Radiohead internet tracks not final releases
• Linkin Park top IS charts
• White Stripes face suit over Kane track
• Faithless man booked for DJ set
• American Idol choose patriotic tracks after viewer response
• Jay Z records anti-war track
• Tatu and Rammstein?
• Big brother Kate to host RI:SE
• Kylie on new album
• Review: Hot Hot Heat – Make Up The Breakdown
• Buyer lining up for Warner’s manufacturing company
• Talk Sport’s ad choice proves expensive
• Timberlake sexier than Beckham, it's official
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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 chart trivia questions each day this week and find out how to enter on Friday.
Q3: Why was the chances of getting into the chart essentially doubled on 14th November 1952?
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STARR DIES
Just to summarise – War, What's It Good For? – nothing. Sad news yesterday that US-born UK-based soul star Edwin Starr has died after suffering a heart attack. Starr, whose first released a record with his band The Future Tones in 1957, remained popular among the soul community. Among the many tributes being made, long time friend Suzi Quatro told reporters: "He was the best. There was nobody better on stage and he was the nicest man you could ever wish to meet."
Quatro's husand Rainer Haas had promoted two gigs for Starr in Stuttgart this weekend. He added: "He was just superb. He played to 16,000 people over the two nights and he put on a great show. The shows were actually recorded for television so we will have an enduring memory of how brilliant he was live." The timing of Starr's death is perhaps apt given his most famous track was the outspoken single 'War' released in 1970 and still really rather relevant today.
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SO SOLID MAN FRONTS ANTI-GUN CAMPAIGN
So Solid Crew's Asher D, who spent time in jail last year after being charged for carrying a loaded firearm, is to front a Home Office backed anti-gun crime campaign launched yesterday. Launching the initiative the Crew member told reporters: "If you carry a gun you could end up having a gun to your head and being killed. To some, weapons have a feeling of power. But guns lead to death. If we get one gun off the street then that's a good thing."
So Solid Crew have, of course, been dogged by run-ins with the law, especially on gun possession based charges, with two members - Shane 'Kaish' Neil and Jason 'G Man' Phillips – currently in jail awaiting a trial on fire arm charges. Meanwhile the media have been keen to link the Crew to the popularity of guns among the young black community, especially since that shooting at a So Solid Crew party at the Astoria a couple of years ago. Continuing Asher D said: "I've been through my thing, some of the guys have been through theirs. But we want people to know that's not what we are doing now. The main thing I've learned is to behave myself."
So Solid Crew will join with Mica Paris, David Lynden Hall and the Heartless Crew for one of the main events of the campaign. They will each perform a 'Disarm' gig at a different London venue on 24 Apr (SSC at Ocean, Mica Paris at Shepherds Bush Empire, Lyden Hall at the Astoria and the Heartless Crew at the Mean Fiddler). Mica Paris, whose brother was shot dead two years ago, said of the campaign: "We, as a nation, need to include young black males into society so they would not feel a need to turn to gun crime."
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WU TANG ODB OUT OF PRISON BUT IN MENTAL WARD
Reports suggest Wu Tang Clan's Ol' Dirty Bastard, who has been incarcerated since being busted for the possession of crack cocaine in 1999, has been released from an upstate New York prison, but is being held for the short term in a New York mental hospital because authorities believe he could pose a public safety risk if put on the street. Word is they hope to release him proper in July. Wu Tang's GZA has told hip hop website AllHipHop.com: "It's good to have Ol' Dirty closer to us now. He is almost there, he is almost out for good."
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CHEZ OSBOURNE – SHARON ON THE MEND
An interview with Ozzy Osbourne in Kerrang! suggests that wife Sharon has beaten her colon cancer, for the time being at least. Ozzy says: "She's got no cancer in her body now, they tell me, but there's always a chance of it coming back. She's doing great, but I must confess that I'm still worried about her." Elsewhere in the world of family Osbourne rumour has it Jack Osbourne is in talks with Channel 4 to host his own chat show, while apparently there is currently talk of doing a feature-film version of The Osbournes.
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T IN THE PARK ANNOUNCE DANCE LINE UP
Laurent Garnier, DJ Sneak and Slam are among the acts lined up for the T in the Park dance tent. Other highlights on the dance line up announced yesterday were live performances from Gus Gus, FC Kahuna Gigolo Records' Vitalic and appearances from US production duo H-Foundation and techno favourites Dave Clarke and Richie Hawtin.
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REVIEW: The Burn - Sally 0'Mattress (Virgin/Hut)
I think this is what they used to call 'Dadrock'. For a young band, The Burn don’t half sound old; you can smell the (Stone) Roses, Weller, Ocean Colour Scene, Stereophonics, 60s blues and psychedelia, but mainly the general whiff of 'classic' songwriting that sweats from any band for whom the tenet authenticity is a belief that must be adhered to religiously. Single 'Drunken Fool', when it's not sounding like a boring pub band, has a slight bit of charm and an inoffensive chorus, whilst opener 'Calling All' is a suitably-titled swaggering, call to arms that suggests promise but, overall, SOM, whilst musically accomplished (stop salivating, 'real' music fetishists) and far from awful, is just too worthy, too earnest and too uninspiring. The Blackburn band, then, despite their wheezing and best efforts, have crafted a largely passionless affair, and one ironically as ultimately precision-tooled and ‘manufactured’ as any of the production-line pop that this quintet will fail to purge from the charts. Adequate fodder though if, like The Burn, you also deem the future of music to be TheSeahorses. MS
Release date: 31 Mar
Press contact: Virgin IH [all]
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MATRIX SEQUEL SOUNDTRACK LOWDOWN
Rob Dougan, Fluke and Paul Oakenfold have all been confirmed as having tracks on the soundtrack to forthcoming movie 'The Matrix Reloaded'. From Dougan, whose track 'Clubbed to Death' featured in the soundtrack to the first Matrix movie, comes what was the title track to his debut album 'Furious Angels'. Fluke have contributed their 'Zion' track, while Oakenfold's 'Dread Rock' will appear, as will his controversial remix of the Dave Matthews Band's 'When the World Ends'. 'The Matrix Reloaded' soundtrack has a US release of 6 May (the movie is out there on 15 May). UK release dates for both to be confirmed.
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RADIOHEAD INTERNET TRACKS NOT FINAL RELEASES
A spokesman for Radiohead has said most of the tracks from forthcoming album 'Hail To The Thief' that are doing the rounds on the internet are in fact "rough mixes" that have come from an early studio version of the album. As previously reported, despite their label tightly controlling access to the new album every track is now online in one form or another – but latest word is that the version online differ from the final produced tracks on the album – the album's producer told reporters: "It's the rough mixes, some tracks not even finished. Not really what I'd want the world to hear, frankly."
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LINKIN PARK TOP US CHARTS
Linkin Park have followed up their chart success in the UK by topping the US Billboard album chart. Latest stats suggest 'Meteora' has sold 810,000 copies in its first week – the only album to have performed better this year being the 50 Cents album (which sold 872,000 and 822,000 copies in its first two weeks of release respectively). Midweek indications of the UK chart front is that the White Stripe's 'Elephant' will knock Linkin Park off the top of the album chart this week. Word is they are quite far ahead of da Park, having shifted 20,000 copies on day one and heading towards sales of over 100,000 by the end of the week.
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WHITE STRIPES FACE SUIT OVER KANE TRACK
Talking of the White Stripes, according to Rolling Stone the duo are facing a copyright infringement suit over 'The Union Forever' – a track on last album 'White Blood Cells' which borrowed liberally from the classic movie 'Citizen Kane'. The song takes its name and much of its lyrics from the 1941 Orson Welles' movie, and Warner Brothers, who own the distribution rights to the film, are said to be considering taking action.
Copyright attorney Sam Ibrahim told the magazine: "I believe that Warner Bros. has a reasonable case against The White Stripes. In the event that a court found infringement, Warner Bros could get an injunction to stop future sales. The band could be found liable for millions of dollars in damages, and to keep selling the album they would have to pay a royalty. It could be in excess of three or four million dollars."
Jack White hasn't made any secret of the inspiration behind the song, telling Rolling Stone at the time of the album's release: "There's a song in the film 'It Can't Be Love, Because There Is No True Love' at a party they have in the Everglades. I was trying to play it on guitar, and I went through the film and started writing down things that might rhyme and make sense together."
But not all legal people are convinced it's a completely clear cut case. Another Copyright attorney, Laurence Pulgram, saying White's patchwork writing method could actually be the band's primary defence. "The White Stripes would argue that its use is transformative, in that it does not merely copy the film in a film, but takes bits and pieces of the film and transforms them into a song; and that this will not reduce sales or otherwise affect the 'market' for the film." Not quite sure why Warner Brothers have waited till now to consider action – though, providing it doesn't actually lead to an expensive court battle, talk of legal action is probably good for the band – getting them more media attention during the week of release of new album ‘Elephant’.
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FAITHLESS MAN BOOKED FOR DJ SET
Faithless frontman Maxi Jazz makes his Djing debut at the 333 night Off Centre this Saturday playing a breaks and beats set alongside sets from Movement's DJ Addiction, Soul Jazz Records and Off Centre main man, Ross Clarke. More info at http://www.off-centre.com
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AMERICAN IDOL CHOOSE PATRIOTIC TRACKS AFTER VIEWER RESPONSE
A charity single being recorded by finalists of American Idol has been changed to reflect the mood in the USA as they bomb Baghdad into oblivion. The original plan was for the Idol contestants to record a version of Burt Bacharach's 'What the World Needs Now Is Love'. But when the Idol wannabes performed the Lee Greenwood songs 'I'm Proud To Be an American' and 'God Bless the USA' on the TV show there was such an "overwhelming response from viewers" that the show's bosses decided to release them instead. Richard Sanders of BMG label RCA, who will release the single, told reporters: "They got such an overwhelming, positive response from viewers for doing those songs that we decided to release them as the American Idol charity single."
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JAY Z RECORDS ANTI-WAR TRACK
Elsewhere in wartime musical shenanigans, Jay-Z has released an anti-wartrack. Taking Panjabi MC's 'Knight Rider' sampling song that was a big hit over here earlier in the year as a backing track Jay-Z, a member of the Musicians United to Win Without War Coalition, raps: "We rebellious, we back home/ Screamin' 'Leave Iraq alone / For all my soldiers in the field / I will wish you safe return But only love kills war/ When will they learn?"
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TATU AND RAMMSTEIN?
Bizarre collaboration of the month. TaTu have said on their website that they will be collaborating with German industrial / metal heads Rammstein in what they are describing as a "most unpredicted project." Who know's what the partnership will produce?
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BIG BROTHER KATE TO HOST RI:SE
Big Brother winner Kate Lawler has been hired to replace Edith Bowman on Channel 4's struggling (and during the war much reduced) breakfast show RI:SE. According to the Sun she has been handed a "one-year, six-figure deal" to co host the show with Iain Lee after Bowman, the only remaining presenter on the show, decided to quit the show as it hit another audience figure low in February.
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KYLIE ON NEW ALBUM
Kylie has written about her next album, which she has started recording with production team Biffco in their Dublin studio. "There's a long way to go yet," she says, "but I'm eager to write and record and explore potential new sounds and style". She is expected to work with a number of producers in studios around the world on the album.
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REVIEW: Hot Hot Heat – Make Up The Breakdown (Sub Pop)
It's an amazing feeling when an album comes along out without any expectation, but ends up shoving everything else of your hi-fi for weeks, letting you skip about place to place while you pick a new favourite track at least three times a day. The debut album from Hot Hot Heat is on of those albums. Obviously everyone knows the most catchy song in the world 'Bandages', but why didn’t anyone tell me the album was this good? Taking influences such as The Cure and Talking Heads, as well as bringing East Coast sunshine, dancing and punk, the Hot Hot Heat album comes in at a pop-perfectly 35 minutes. This album is set to soundtrack the summer and for many, many months beyond. DH
Release date: 31/3
Press contact: Hall or Nothing [all]
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BUYER LINING UP FOR WARNER'S MANUFACTURING COMPANY
Gossip circulating that an "industry veteran", backed by a group of venture capitalists, is negotiating with struggling AOL Time Warner about buying the group's US based CD & DVD manufacturing, printing and distribution operations. The manufacturing company has become quite bankable of late, mainly because of the profits to be made pressing DVDs for Warner Bros Studios. Some reckon the group will want nearing $1 billion for the company, though they are likely to offer a long-term contract to manufacture Warner CDs and DVDs as part of any deal.
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TALK SPORT'S AD CHOICE PROVES EXPENSIVE
Radio company The Wireless Group will have to shell out £25,000 damages to motor racing driver Eddie Irvine after a court found them guilty of using his image in a Talk Sport advertising campaign without his permission. The action began in 1999, and a court had already found in Irvine's favour. However he appealed against the £2000 damages he was awarded. Yesterday the appeal court awarded him £25K and ordered the radio station to pay his costs, agreeing with Irvine's people that the ad, in which the sports star appeared alongside a Talk Sport logo, implied he was being paid to endorse the station.
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TIMBERLAKE SEXIER THAN BECKHAM, IT'S OFFICIAL
While we're at war it's refreshing to see surveys on the big issues thatmatter. Marie Clare magazine have surveyed a 1000 women to find out who is more sexy - Justin Timberlake or David Beckham. And its good news for Mr Timberlake - more than half the women polled thought he had the edge on Beckham, with only one-fifth thinking the Manchester United star was sexier (29% thought they were on a par). The survey was conducted because Timberlake, the magazine's cover star on their May edition, is only the second man to ever grace the cover of the mag – Beckham was the first last year. Announcing the survey Marie Claire editor Marie O'Riordan told reporters: "When it came to choosing our man of the year, there was only one candidate, Justin Timberlake. The whole world has gone Justin-crazy. For us he's got the three S-s. Southern charm, a sexy six-pack and best of all he's single. What's not to like?" So now that's settled, back to the war…