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So, I'm a little sleepy as I write this. I was just about to go to bed last night when I got a text message telling me that Michael Jackson had had a heart attack. The next few hours were spent watching events unfold, culminating, of course, in the confirmation that the 'King Of Pop' had died.

Now, whatever you think of Michael Jackson the man, it's impossible to deny the innovation and influence he brought to pop music, particularly in the 80s. If you don't think 'Billie Jean' is a great song, I don't believe you. And while things may have trailed off for him musically and personally in recent years, the fact that he could still sell out fifty nights in a 23,000 capacity arena is pretty phenomenal. I'm not sure there's anyone else alive today who could match that.

But hey, I'm not going to rush into writing an overly sentimental tribute. He sang, danced, made some cool videos and he was pretty good at it. Enough of that stuff has been recorded to keep us going for the rest of time. So, let's end this on a happier note. My mum was on a train last night. This morning she told me: "It was the most communal train journey I have ever taken, everybody talked to each other, sang bits of MJ, and swapped info they were getting by phoning people and trying to get online. We shall definitely remember where we were when we heard the news".

Other things have also happened this week. If you keep reading, you can find out about some of them. As ever, we've got news, reviews, quotes, tips and interviews. We also have a competition to win tickets to this year's Field Day festival in London's Victoria Park. The line-up so far looks awesome, with loads of CMU favourites playing live. We can't wait!

And so, on with the show...

Team CMU

		MICHAEL JACKSON DIES So, as everyone in the world must know by now, last night king of pop Michael Jackson died, aged 50, after suffering a cardiac arrest at his LA home. Three separate attempts to resuscitate the star by his private physician, paramedics and hospital staff all failed. He was pronounced dead at 2.26pm LA time. There had been speculation about Jackson's health for years, partly, of course, because of his frail appearance. Rumours of serious health scares became more common in recent months, though most were resolutely denied by Jackson's people. And once he had signed up to do a fifty night residency at The O2 in London, promoters AEG Live assured reporters that their insurers had done a rigorous heath assessment which the singer apparently passed with flying colours. The exact cause of Jackson's death is not known, though an autopsy will be carried out later today with a view to finding out what happened. That said, there is already speculation that Jackson's death may have been in part the result of overuse of prescription drugs which he was taking as a result of various previous injuries and ailments, including a broken leg and broken back. Some reckon he was taking his medication with increasing frequency in a bid to make himself fit and able to perform at his O2 residency.

		CHRIS BROWN AGREES TO PLEA DEAL - PLEADS GUILTY TO ASSAULT I think there's an important lesson for young guys all over America in this. If you're going to beat your girlfriend unconscious, make sure you're rich enough to hire the sort of lawyers capable of negotiating you a cushy plea bargain first. Partly because it will mean you avoid any of that tedious jail time, and partly because I'm pretty sure that's what Jesus would want. Yes, America's top pop thugster Chris Brown yesterday reached a plea deal with prosecutors with minutes to spare before the first formal court hearing regarding those allegations that the R&B star beat up his then girlfriend Rihanna in the street after a post-party row half way through this year's Grammy weekend. Brown pleaded guilty to one count of assault, for which he will be sentenced to five years probation and six months community service. He'll also have to attend a domestic violence class. As part of the settlement Brown was also told to stay 50 yards away from his former girlfriend at all times, except at pop star events where such a rule may be impractical, so a ten yard exclusion zone will apply. Meaning that while the pop star may be able to throw a bottle in his ex-girlfriend's direction, he won't be able to throw any punches.

		EAVIS TO RETIRE FROM GLASTO IN 2011 This years Glastonbury festival is now in full swing, and its founder Michael Eavis has revealed that he will retire from running it in 2011. This is five years sooner than previously thought, but given that he'll be 75 then, I think it's fair enough. He'll also have been running the festival for 41 years, which is pretty good going. Taking the reigns will be his daughter Emily, who, of course, already organises the festival with her dad. He also revealed that he has already physically distanced himself from the festival, having moved out of the main house and Worthy Farm, where Emily now lives with her fiancé, Nick Dewey. Though he admitted he's not that far away and, even after retirement, probably won't quite be able to let it go. He said: "I'm living on top of the hill now, away from the farm. So [Emily's] taking over the house, which is nice. A new generation of Eavises can live here. [But] I still feel I have an important role to play. Even if I go I'll worry about the drains, the rubbish, the recycling. There will be a gradual process of her and Nick taking it over".

		PEREZ ATTACKED BY WILL.I.AM. MAYBE Okay, this story is fairly involved, but we're short on space, so here are the basics: Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton got punched by someone at the Cobra nightclub in Toronto after the MuchMusic Video Awards on Sunday. Hilton says it was Black Eyed Pea Will.i.am. Will.i.am says it wasn't. After the attack Hilton attempted to call the police using Twitter. Both men issued lengthy video statements/rants on the subject on Monday. Whether or not Will.i.am threw any punches or not is still to be ascertained. However, the Black Eyed Peas' tour manager, Liborio Molina, who Hilton also says hit him a few times, has been charged with assault. He will now have to appear at Toronto's Old City Hall on 5 Aug to face the charges, and has been slapped with a lawsuit from Hilton, who is demanding $25,000 in damages. In the wake of the news of the attack, Hilton got a stern talking to from The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), after it became apparent that what had started as an argument about Hilton's opinion of the new BEP single turned violent when he called Will.i.am a "faggot". The openly gay blogger initially demanded an apology from GLAAD for not taking his side, but did later say sorry for using the anti-gay slur.

		STEVEN WELLS DIES Former NME journalist Steven Wells died on Tuesday. He had been suffering from lymphatic cancer and had been chronicling his treatment for the disease for the magazine Philadelphia Weekly. His biting, funny and often controversial style won him many fans and he will be remembered as one of the great British music journalists. More recently he had settled with his wife in Philadelphia, where he had continued to write sport and music columns for The Guardian, FourFourTwo, 90 Minutes, and The Quietus. He became well known in Philadelphia for his weekly music column in aforementioned Philadelphia Weekly and also for the series of articles on his battle with cancer. It was alongside the latest, and final, of these that his death was announced. In one of these articles, in which he discussed being diagnosed with cancer he wrote: "I put the phone down and let out a huge, self-pitying 'Why me?' The answer, of course, is the same as the answer to Travis' shit-awful 1999 international breakthrough hit, 'Why Does It Always Rain On Me?' Because you're a fucking dick. Now shut the fuck up and grow a pair".

		THIS WEEK'S REVIEWS Yet more great new music keeps spilling out into the world. This week the CMU reviews team have been checking out Animal Collective, The Big Pink, Flipper, Here We Go Magic, Let's Wresle, Planetary Assault Systems, Rumble Strips, William Fitzsimmons, and Withered Hand. Find out if any of them are any good or not by clicking here.

Want more? Want daily in-depth music news? Want all this for free? Well, ha, you're in luck. Click here to subscribe to the CMU Daily. back to top

WIN TICKETS TO FIELD DAY
Now in its third year, Field Day is a bold attempt to hold a village fete in an east London park. And its organisers do a pretty good job, although I don't remember artists like Mogwai, Santigold, Little Boots, The Horrors, Skream, The Temper Trap, and The Big Pink ever playing any of the fetes in the village where I grew up.

When you're not watching the awesome line-up of live music on offer, there are plenty of other activities to choose from. For example, you can be trying your luck on the tombola, the onion peeling contest, the egg and spoon race, the coconut shy and the lucky dip, all while eating fresh, locally-sourced food.

And, if it's anything like the fetes of my youth, everyone's dads will get drunk and play an impromptu game of cricket.

We have a pair of tickets to give away to this year's Field Day. All you have to do to get your hands on them is to email competitions@unlimitedmedia.co.uk by 3 Jul.

Field Day 2009 will take place on 1 Aug. To see the full line-up And to buy tickets, go to www.fielddayfestivals.com

Look what they won...
Well done to Patrick Quilty and Beth Mburu-Bowie for winning last week's Young London Into Music competition in CMU Weekly!

Perez Hilton reports being attacked (allegedly) by Will.i.am to the police, via Twitter: "I was assaulted by Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and his security guards. I am bleeding. Please, I need to file a police report. No joke. [And later...] Still waiting for the police. The bleeding has stopped. I need to document this. Please, can the police come to the SoHo Met Hotel"

Simon Cowell responds to former X Factor winner Steve Brookstein's claims of unfair treatment: "He is just a bitter man who the public never warmed to. Steve proved to me that just because you have a winner, it does not always mean that you have a star. Anyone who is signed to my label is given a fair shot, but it's not a guarantee of enduring riches. It never is in any branch of show business"

Patrick Wolf speaks out against Proposition 8, the Californian legislation that ruled that same sex marriages were not lawful: "Who here wants to get married someday? Who here wants to get married to someone of the same sex? Now what about everyone out there in heterosexual relationships, how would you feel if you got married and then six months later you were told your marriage was illegal?"

Noel Gallagher has hits out at Oasis fans who took him up on a offer of a refund on tickets for the band's technically-challenged gig at Manchester's Heaton Park: "It seems that around 20,000 of you have asked for a refund from that night at Heaton Park!! 20,000!! So you were genuinely disappointed? I don't recall seeing a 20,000 gap in the crowd. Cheeky cunts! Tsk... some people"

Beth Ditto comments on being able to get her views out to a mainstream audience: "We come from the post-riot grrrl scene, and when you're suddenly in the UK Top 40, it's a really rad platform. I just hope what we do inspires some totally nerdy boy with glasses in some remote village, or some fat girl who's been told she's ugly, to form a band"

Moby criticises the current British music scene: "UK music has become very provincial and pub-orientated. The bands look like they're hanging out at the pub and the subject matter is very provincial and pub-orientated - laddish. It's not sexy or exciting and it's not very personal either. It's pleasant music, but pleasant music doesn't make me want to run out and change the world with my records"

		New Simian Mobile Disco single. Simian Mobile Disco's new single, 'Audacity Of Huge', which features Chris Keating from CMU favourites Yeasayer and is taken from the band's new album 'Temporary Pleasure', is set for release on 3 Aug via Wichita Recordings. That's quite a way off, but you don't need to wait because the video for the track is up on YouTube right now - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylu0ybj7DIg

		Discovery. When Dirty Projectors flitted with noughties r'n'b production on 'Stillness Is The Move' earlier this year, New York's Discovery must have been listening and seeing inroads being made for acceptance in the holier than thou world of indie criticism. Their own songs are based on the genre's jumpy beats, though showered in Nintendo bleeps, undercurrents of chugging synth and swirling electronic sounds - www.myspace.com/discoverdiscovery

		Free Ladytron download. Ladytron are to play their only live club performance of the year at EddyTM's CMU recommended Remix All-Nighter at Matter on 17 Jul (tickets for which you can get on Ticketweb right now) and there's a free download of a Vector Lovers remix of the band's single 'Tomorrow' up for grabs in celebration of that fact - www.yousendit.com/transfer.php? action=batch_download&batch_id=cmcyb3BHSysrV3dLSkE9PQ

		Barefoot Confessor. If you like your pop quirky, complex and unbelievably catchy, Barefoot Confessor are the indie-guitar partisans you've been searching for. With crafty lyrics and fine melodies, the four piece are already capturing the attention of the London music scene. Frontman Michael Shearer offers a refreshingly opinionated lyrical slant alongside elegant vocal stylings and jaunty guitar rhythms - www.myspace.com/barefootconfessor

		Me My Head give away half of new album. Indie rock types Me My Head are giving away their debut album for free. Or rather they're giving away half of their debut album for free. You can get the first six tracks from 'Salvation In No Mans Land' for nothing. If you like what you hear, you can then buy the full album in physical form for whatever price you like. I recommend you go and do it right about... now - www.musicglue.com/memyhead

		Nathan 'Flutebox' Lee. A quite extraordinary talent, Nathan 'Flutebox' Lee, beatboxes and plays the flute at the same time. That's right, at the same time. Lee's music takes influences from hip hop and jungle, and some raga-inspired rhythms, and blends them together in a truly haunting array of jazz, funk and Indian melodies, creating tracks which bristle with originality and creativity - www.myspace.com/nathanfluteboxlee

		Q1 How did you start out making music? PALOMA FAITH: "I began by writing lyrics mainly as poems. Then one day I was in a bar cleaning up glasses and singing along to a CD and this guy heard me and asked if I would want to do some writing with him and I said yes. I have always been very excited by music but I never really knew or thought I would be writing it! I read a lot and this has a massive impact on my songwriting. Mainly fiction and fairy tales" Read more of Paloma Faith's answers

		Q2 What inspired your latest single? KILLA KELA: "I wanted to make a track that tied in what I did musically. Plus theme wise, put across a habitual point of view to it. Sounds a bit tossy, but I'm sure you'll get the idea once you've heard it. James Rushent from Does It Offend You, Yeah? was my soundman for about four years, so it was only natural to collaborate with him on this. The first single needed to kick arse, so we made it as hard as a roundhouse to the face, hehe" Read more of Killa Kela's answers

		Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track? NIGEL OF BERMONDSEY: "Quite often I will write the song on a guitar at home. I often start with a chord progression and melody, but quickly I focus on the lyric, which for me is key. If the lyric doesn't communicate, what's the point? Sometimes I 'commission' myself to write about a subject which interests me. In these cases I research a story for a few weeks and, if I connect with the story, it just kind of falls out" Read more of Nigel Of Bermondsey's answers

		Q4 Which artists influence your work? TIM AND SAM'S TIM AND THE SAM BAND WITH TIM AND SAM: "I always try and listen to as much music as I can. At the moment I'm listening to a lot of old folk and blues music like Bert Jansch, as well as more modern records by the likes of James Yorkston and M Ward. The long standing influences include Radiohead, Board Of Canada, Four Tet, Sufjan Stevens and Adem" Read more of Tim And Sam's answers

		Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time? TOTALLY ENORMOUS EXSTINCT DINOSAURS: "Tissue?" Read more of Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs' answers

		Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future? BIBIO: "I'm just writing music constantly, no real direction, I just go with the flow and let my influences come naturally. If I make it too contrived, it'll suffer. The best music is the music without rules or preconceptions. If I have an idea beforehand, it'll be an aesthetic idea that cannot be translated into words, I can only communicate it by making the music. That's why I make music, it's partly trying to realise ambiguous ideas or just 'playing' with sound, intuitively learning how sound and technology behaves and organising it into something I think is beautiful, but simultaneously allowing chance to be a big part of it. As far as ambitions for 'Ambivalence Avenue', that's between me and Warp at the moment" Read more of Bibio's answers

This week, Calvin Harris.

Stuck with all these t-shirts.

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