| CMU Daily - on the inside 2 Jul 2003 |
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In today's CMU Daily:
• Universal Music Group not for sale
• Mean Fiddler announced pretax loss
• New security for Leeds Festival
• Industry to take on Middle Eastern file sharing site
• Puffy in court
• Review: Fake Idea – [album sampler]
• Eminem ex-wife drug charge
• New station for Glasgow
• Madonna gets her right of way
• DMX wants a motherf***ing apology
• Townsend ego on the mend and new Who stuff on its way
• RAJAR under fire
• Legendary nightclub saved
• Electric Six survive
• Iggy Pop new LP
• Review: Various Artists - Re-Mixed Emotions
• Great White tour replanned
• Radiohead site too big for its boots
• Pride line up announced
• Deftones one off
• Ocean Colour instore
• Chart update update
• Robbie wants a wife
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UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP NOT FOR SALE
Word is Vivendi Universal has confirmed the Universal Music Group is not up for sale. This confirms comments by Vivendi boss Jean Rene Fourtou earlier this year when he said the group's record labels – which include Mercury, Island and Polydor in the UK – would not be sold. Those comments were called into doubt when Vivendi indicated it was looking to move out of the US completely, and a number of the groups bidding to buy the group's other entertainment businesses included the record labels in their bids. But at a meeting of the Vivendi board yesterday it was confirmed the music companies would not be sold off and bidders were asked to revamp their proposals accordingly.
At the same meeting a bid headed by Marvin Davis was knocked off the list of prospective bidders, though it's not known if Davis dropped out after hearing about the record companies, or whether Vivendi turned down his offer. That leaves bids from Liberty Media, GE's NBC, MGM, Viacom and an investor group led by Edgar Bronfman Jr to be considered.
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MEAN FIDDLER ANNOUNCED PRETAX LOSS
Mean Fiddler has said it will concentrate on its live music businesses after it blamed its other divisions for causing a pre-tax loss of £8.3m in 2002 (up from a £1.6m loss in the previous year). Bosses said the group's restaurant and bar division and its Mean Country radio station accounted for much of the losses and that those companies were being sold off so the Mean Fiddler team could concentrate on festivals, live venues and tour promotion.
Chairman Vince Power said: "The three remaining divisions should enable the company to achieve profitable growth in the foreseeable future."
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NEW SECURITY FOR LEEDS FESTIVAL
Elsewhere in Mean Fiddler news, the promoter has unveiled new security measures aimed at prevent violence from marring this year's Leeds Festival. A rampage at the end of last year's event at Temple Newsam saw toilet blocks being set on fire and led to £250,000 worth of damage. This year the festival has been moved to nearby Bramham Park and Mean Fiddler's MD Melvin Benn has reassured local residents that new security measures costing £250,000 will mean this year's event has a more peaceful finale.
The new security measures include non-combustible toilets, improved lighting, the banning of campfires and the deployment of 400 security staff on duty on the Sunday night - double the number last year. Organisers added that traffic congestion will also be kept to a minimum in the nearby villages of Bramham and Thorner with cars being able to access the estate from the three newly-created access points from the A64.
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INDUSTRY TO TAKE ON MIDDLE EASTERN FILE SHARING SITE
Industry insiders reckon the next target for the anti-download contingent will probably be the Palestinian West Bank based file-sharing company Earthstation 5. There service offers users anonymity, so uptake of their service has exploded since the Recording Industry Association of America announced it would try to prosecute individuals who illegally exchange music via peer-to-peer networks. Earthstation 5, offers 'stealth technology components' that prevent users from being identified.
Talking about his service the company's President Ras Kabir told reporters: "Our motto is share, share, share to your heart's content because no one can stop you."
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PUFFY IN COURT
More court trouble for P Diddy. One Kirk Burrowes is suing Sean 'P Diddy' Combs for wrongly firing him as president of Bad Boy Entertainment, for allegedly forcing him to sign over his 25% stake in the company, for threatened him with a baseball bat back in 1996 and for cheating him out of £15 million.
Burrowes' lawyer John Bostany said: "Kirk just wants Sean to realise the value he had in making Sean what he is today and to do the right thing."
Puffy has responded by saying: "The allegations are pure fantasy. Kirk Burrowes hasn't been employed for seven years, and now he makes up a fictional story for financial gain."
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REVIEW: Fake Idea – [Album Sampler] (Mercury)
Fake Ideal are a typical major label indie band. To please everyone, each of these tracks touches on a musical genre without fully immersing itself in it. 'Come For My Sympathy' is slightly emo whilst 'Isolation Shot' and 'Carve For My Sympathy' are fast paced guitar based pop songs. It sounds clean, which is ok for a few listens, but after that it becomes tired. There's talent here, you just have to strip away at all of the money to find it. FC
Released: Autumn
Press contact: Mercury IH [all]
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EMINEM EX-WIFE DRUG CHARGE
Eminem's ex-wife, Kim Mathers, has been charged with felony cocaine possession and two driving violations after being pulled over by police last month. The charges come more or less exactly two years after Mathers was arrested on felony cocaine possession in July 2001; those charges were later dropped.
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NEW STATION FOR GLASGOW
The Radio Authority has received a massive thirteen applications to run the new independent local radio station for Glasgow which will have an estimated audience reach of 1.6 million. The applications include: The Arrow (rock), Base FM (urban), Clyde Asia Radio, Glasgow Gold, 105.2 Glasgow's Magic FM (women 35+), Go FM (non descript), 105.2 MY-FM (adults 35+), SAGA 105.2 FM (adults 50+), Smooth FM (adults 45-64), FM 105.2 The Storm (rock), Sunrise Radio Scotland (Asian, 15-54s), 3C ('Continuous Cool Country' (?)), Virgin 105.2 (rock).
The RA will announce the winner of the licence nearer the end of the year. A decision regarding a new station in the West Midlands is also due later in the year.
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MADONNA GETS HER RIGHT OF WAY
Madonna has won her fight to keep a public footpath from being opened near her country mansion near Salisbury in Wiltshire.
It was proposed that land adjoining her £9m house would be classified as open countryside on new maps drawn up under the Right to Roam legislation. The move would have opened up a footpath 100 yards from her Grade II listed 18th Century mansion near Tollard Royal. But not now.
The Ritchie's wrote to Tony Blair expressing concern over the legislation, worried that more access would mean more curious sightseers and paparazzi on the doorstep of their eight-bedroomed Ashcombe House.
A Countryside Agency spokesman said: "Like hundreds of other people, she filled out a comment sheet about the access in her area, and those comments have now been taken on board. There was no 'right royal battle', and she was not treated any differently to anybody else. This is why we have the consultation".
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DMX WANTS A MOTHERF***ING APOLOGY
Following his arrest on the Caribbean island of St Kitts & Nevis for swearing at a gig (swearing is illegal there) DMX has said that he wants the promoters of the St. Kitts Music Festival to formally apologise for putting him through the ordeal and that if they don't, he may consider taking legal action.
DMX claims he warned the promoters his act contained swearing and that he was told he wouldn't be arrested if the swear words were in the act and not ad-libbed. Promoters deny this, though a back stage video has surfaced which apparently shows a conversation that goes long the lines of:
DMX: "I don't curse for nothing. But in the song, there are curses. So you're not going to arrest me, right?"
Officious man #1: [nods] "In all the songs?"
DMX: "Yes. I got this one song called 'What These Bitches Want', and before the song comes on, I say to the guys, "Fellas, what do these bitches want from a nigga?" and then the song comes on. That's the only time I curse without singing."
DMX Associate: "So he'll say 'bitch' and 'nigga' That's it."
Officious man: [giving a thumbs up] "Good."
DMX: "Just don't lock me up, OK?
Officious man #2: "OK." [The two men shake hands].
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TOWNSEND EGO ON THE MEND AND NEW WHO STUFF ON ITS WAY
Pete Townshend has been talking to Billboard about those child porn allegations and has said that even though he is on the UK sex offenders register as a result of the incident, his life is returning to normal at last.
Townshend says: "I know I'm innocent, and apart from the first day when I heard the news when I was quite shaky and made quite a shaky statement I think, I've been absolutely certain that it was not about me. I have been rapped on the knuckles and I don't want to appear like I don't take this thing seriously. There is a measure of the kind of rock'n'roll arrogance that I still carry in my dotage that made me think I'd have no trouble with it. I really thought of myself as a professional researcher who worked to help victims, not a guitar-smashing rock star. But the old rock star arrogance carried me into very dangerous water. I should say no more really because I think what's actually happened here is that I have been silenced: on this issue, the issue that I was so passionate about, which was the subversion of the Internet, here I am: I can't really say a thing."
The word is that one last new studio Who album will see the light of day after Daltrey's push to complete the project that was shelved after John Entwistle's sudden death last year.
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RAJAR UNDER FIRE
TalkSport boss Kelvin MacKenzie is threatening to sue RAJAR – the people who measure radio listening figures in the UK – claiming its decision to reject the electronic audience measurement system he is backing will cost his radio business "a fortune". As previously reported MacKenzie has little confidence in RAJAR's 'listener diary' system and has been developing his own technology based audience measurement systems while encouraging RAJAR to do the same. RAJAR had been piloting a new measurement method but have decided not to proceed – something MacKenzie describes as " a disgraceful decision, made by vested interests behind closed doors."
He said: "I am considering a lawsuit against RAJAR. After 15 months, the industry that prides itself in technology simply says no to electronic measurement. My radio station has an audience of 8 million, if measured by electronic measurement, and 2.2 million, if measured by memory, pencil and diary. These charlatans are costing my business a fortune. I now have no alternative but to consider looking to the courts to get justice for my company - justice that my competitors have denied me."
Mr MacKenzie hired the market research company Gfk Media to test the results of a Radiocontrol wristwatch measurement system against RAJAR figures, which are compiled using diary entries from a panel of listeners. He pointed out that GfK Media had published the results of two three month local surveys as well as a national survey, and challenged Rajar to disclose the results of its own trials. He believes the Rajar diary system underrepresents the audience for more low profile stations such as TalkSport, with the result that his business is losing out on potential advertising revenue.
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LEGENDARY NIGHTCLUB SAVED
Domenic Santana, owner of a legendary nightclub in New Jersey, the Stone Pony, has finally agreed to sell to developers, who say they'll keep the building where it is and fix it up.
Since it was renamed the Stone Pony in 1974, the building has played host to both stars and unknowns, including Springsteen, Bo Diddley, the Kinks, Cheap Trick and the Pretenders.
Developers are planning a $1.2bn makeover of the city's decrepit waterfront, and although they originally wanted to raze the building, they have now said that they plan to renovate the building, and add a new dance floor.
Santana, who previously said he would never sell, wouldn't say how much he sold the building for, but said: "I can't say, but I'm smiling."
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ELECTRIC SIX SURVIVE
Electric Six Frontman Dick Valentine has admitted that the band came close to splitting up when three members left in early June: as previously reported guitarists Rock'N'Roll Indian, Surge Joebot, and bassist Disco were suddenly replaced by Johnny Na$hinal, The Colonel and Frank Lloyd Bonaventure.
With the singer and drummer, M, as the only remaining founding members, Valentine told NME: "It's just one of those things were you think it might happen, and you hope it doesn't. We had five or six completely different personalities in the band, so you thought either that was one of the strengths or one of the weaknesses. If you have five people in the band who are so vastly different and they get along, then that really adds to what you have on stage. But the sad fact is, we're all just completely different people with different agendas, and sooner or later it gave way. Those us who remained in the band thought, 'Should we pack it in or should we keep going?' And we were all just said, 'There's no reason why we shouldn't keep going.'"
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IGGY POP NEW LP
We can expect Iggy Pop's next album, 'Skull Ring on 30 Sep.
Released on Virgin, the album will feature four songs recorded with original Stooges Ron (guitar and bass) and Scott Asheton (drums), as well as new tracks with Sum 41, Green Day, Peaches and Pop's band the Trolls.
The first single 'Little Know It All' features Sum 41; co-written with the band's Deryck Whibley and producer Greig Nori.
But the most highly anticipated tracks are doubtless the four Pop-Asheton-Asheton songs recorded by the three in January at Miami's Hit Factory Criteria Studios - the first new music by the trio in 30 years.
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REVIEW: Various Artists - Re-Mixed Emotions (Nu Directions)
Following on from last years Emotions LP, this Midlands drum & bass label have brought some big guns in for the remix project follow up. The 8 tracker mixed by Mystic allows a good play of a tune – unlike many compos which flit from track to track in 90 seconds. Kicks off well in an 'intelligent' fashion – with Blame's rework Magenta Sky' of Mystic's 'to the rather dry pulsing remix of ASC on 'Sensory Overload' by Pariah in a GLR vein. J Majik steps forth to get his swirling pacey funk going in Tricksta & Pez's 'Asbestos' in probably the stand out track, along with 'Atmospheric Injection' by Tricksta and Pez remixed by the Bournemouth massive Aquasky who never fail to deliver their funky breaks. Let down at the end by the rather dull Orion track, the mix does well, not brilliantly, but more than competent. Clearly a warning shot across the bows that this label means business. Major players watch out. PV
Release date: 23 Jun
Press Contact: Nudirections IH (0121 665 6527) [all]
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GREAT WHITE TOUR REPLANNED
Great White has had to rethink its planned 55-city tour to raise funds for the families of victims killed at their February gig when a fire at the Rhode Island venue killed 100 people, including Great White guitarist Ty Longley. The band were due to tour to play 55 dates with fellow rockers LA Guns and XYZ. But word is too many venues were demanding extra insurance monies be paid before booking the band, meaning the planned tour had to be scaled down. The band will now stage a 12 date tour 22 Jul in Colorado. Rhode Island authorities are yet to assign blame for the club fire caused after pyrotechnics set sound proofing foam alight.
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RADIOHEAD SITE TOO BIG FOR ITS BOOTS
The most successful Radiohead website in the world may have to close if its founder cannot find funding. www.ateaseweb.com was established in 1997 by Adriaan Pels in Holland. It is rumoured that the site's information is so accurate that the band often check it to see what they're up to.
The leak of 'Hail To The Thief' brought fans to the site in their thousands, but now Pels who runs the site from his Dutch home, can't afford to keep it going on his own.
Pels said: "The site has been very busy for years now, but since March the number of visitors went through the roof and never dropped. I can't afford it any more."
Anyone with lots of cash can contact Pels at [email protected]
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PRIDE LINE UP ANNOUNCED
Pride In The Park in Hyde Park on 26 Jul will feature performances from Appleton, Blue, Cheeky Girls, Liberty X, Mis-teeq, Matt Goss, Junior Senior, Jennifer Ellison, Skin, Heather Small, Soft Cell, Judge Jules and Boy George.
Europe's biggest Gay and Lesbian festival begins with the traditional Pride Parade around London, and will include a Cabaret Tent, Sports Arena, Community Village and Market Place.
More at http://www.prideinthepark.com.
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DEFTONES ONE OFF
Deftones have confirmed a one-off show headline show at Wembley Arena on 19 Sep complete with support from A Perfect Circle.
Deftones will release 'Bloody Cape' as the second single to be taken from their recent eponymously titled Top 10 album on 4 Aug on Maverick. Limited to just 10,000 copies, 'Bloody Cape' will be available in a special non-chart eligible package, containing a new track, a piano-piece performed by frontman Chino Moreno and the accompanying video for 'Bloody Cape.' The titles of the new tracks are still to be confirmed. The package will also include two badges, a sew-on patch and a sticker.
With 60,000 copies sold so far, 'Deftones' is the band's fastest-selling album in the UK to date. The first single to be released from the album, 'Minerva', entered the charts at number 15. Deftones are currently on the Summer Sanitarium tour of the US on a bill that also includes Linkin Park, Metallica and Limp Bizkit.
Press information from Emma Jenkins at WEA London.
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OCEAN COLOUR INSTORE
On 7 Jul, Ocean Colour Scene will release their new album, 'North Atlantic Drift' on Sanctuary Records and will be signing copies for fans at 6pm at the Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street.
The band released their first single off the album, 'I Just Need Myself' on 30 Jun.
Press information from Kari at Excess Press
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CHART UPDATE UPDATE
Subsequent to the chart update on Monday when we asked why and how the NERD ('In Search Of' 28) and The Streets ('Original Pirate Material' at 34) albums had got back into the charts so long after release; word has it an HMV sale may be responsible. Apparently the NERD album is currently selling for £4.99 and the Streets album for £5.99.
With that in mind, we suggest you all rock down there and get 20 copies of the NERD album and educate your family through birthday and Christmas presents for the next seven years. Dope album – and expect the Neptunes compilation album very soon.
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ROBBIE WANTS A WIFE
Robbie Williams says he has given up casual sex - and is ready to start a family.
Robbie: "I could have a lot of sex here. But there's no wife, and that's what I want. And with an awful lot of girls they think they'll be moving in within a couple of weeks. That's subsided over the past couple of years because along with soulless sex comes self-hatred".
"The first one is going to be called Sunny, whether it's a boy or a girl."