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FRIDAY 20TH AUGUST

August is typically a quiet month in music, with very little going on at all. Yet this week seems to have been a busy week for music news.

Okay, maybe 'news' isn't the right term for all of it. Or even much of it. 76% seems to have involved Justin Bieber in some way (as you will see), while one of the week's major stories was whether or not Guns N Roses are still playing their upcoming UK tour dates - most importantly, Reading and Leeds at the end of the month.

That particular story all started with a tweet, as things generally do these days. A message appeared on Axl Rose's page on the social networking site informing fans that all future dates were off. Such is Axl's reputation for being a bit flaky, half the world had reported it as fact before anyone thought to check it out. On closer inspection, it was the singer's first tweet for three months, and was posted via Twitter's mobile website, rather than the Twitter For iPhone app, which Axl generally uses.

A spokesperson for Reading and Leeds quickly announced that everything was fine and that Axl's account had been hacked. Oh, those pesky hackers, I reckon we'll see more of them in this week's Weekly, too. So, end of story, time to get on with our lives.

Except the story has continued to bob up again and again all week. By Thursday, it was Reading and Leeds boss Melvin Benn who was giving the statements. He'd spoken to Guns N Roses' booking agent, who had spoken to Axl, who had said everything was still on. But that tweet remains online, and neither Guns N Roses nor any of their 'people' have made any direct statement, which is why the story just won't go away.

The band played their last gig last Friday, headlining the Rock N Rev festival in South Dakota, the band's only US date this year, following tours of South America and Europe. Next up is the band's UK tour and more mainland European dates, which are set to begin on 27 Aug at the Reading festival, before taking in arenas across Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe through to a show in Barcelona on 23 Oct.

The fact that the band have completed all but two dates of their 2009/2010 tour schedule (and those were both due to problems with the stage in South America) does suggest that Benn is right and everything is fine. But there's still that reputation Axl's got himself in recent years.

Back in 2002, when the new Guns N Roses first went out on tour, Axl's failure to turn up to a number of early shows resulted in rioting, leading to the rest of the tour being cancelled. Then, in 2006, Axl cancelled the final dates of a US tour to work on completing the 'Chinese Democracy' album, at the same time as firing the band's manager, Merck Mercuriadis. By this point, the band had nonetheless played numerous shows successfully, but that's not the kind of thing people get remembered for. Especially when they're Axl Rose.

So, wow, look at that. All this because of one tweet, eighteen words long, which probably was put there by a hacker. But Axl really does know how to start up a fuss, even if he does it unintentionally. Any other band would have deleted the tweet and issued a statement clearing the whole thing up. Other bands wouldn't assume that some festival in the UK could put everyone straight. But I guess that's why other bands aren't as entertaining as Guns N Roses.

Speaking of things that are entertaining, we're actually all here today for the CMU Weekly. If you're new here, it's a weekly look at all the stuff that's happened in music over the last week. Well, some of it, anyway. Also this week, we've also got a playlist from hospital radio DJ Ivan Brackenbury (aka comedian Tom Binns), who is currently performing up at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Andy Malt
Editor, CMU

		WYCLEF JEAN IN HIDING AFTER DEATH THREATS Wyclef Jean has gone into hiding in Haiti after receiving death threats following the announcement of his intent to run in the election for the country's new president. He is currently waiting for electoral officials to confirm his eligibility to stand - an announcement that was due on Tuesday but has now been delayed until today. However, yesterday an official told Reuters that Jean was "not on the list as I speak". The musician's lawyers are thought to still be arguing his case.

		ALL GUNS N ROSES GIGS ARE OFF (OR NOT) So late Sunday night our time Axl Rose took to Twitter and tweeted "All upcoming Guns N Roses dates are officially cancelled. Please contact your place of purchase for any refunds". Or at least someone posted that on Rose's verified Twitter feed. A representative for the Reading and Leeds festivals (where GnR have a headline slot) told reporters that the account was hacked and the message was a hoax. Still, nearly a week on, there's no official word direct from the band and the message remains online.

		KEN ANNOUNCES NEW LIVE MUSIC PROPOSALS FOR LONDON Ken Livingston last week launched a new policy document, outlining how he'd support London's live music venues if he was to be re-elected as mayor in 2012. Amongst a number of plans to promote and protect live music in the capital are plans to launch of a new London-wide SxSW-style music festival and some interesting proposals regarding swinging planning and development laws a bit more in favour of venues. So all good. Though, he did green light the demolition of three iconic London venues last time he was in office.

		GERMAN POP STAR ADMITS EXPOSING SEXUAL PARTNERS TO HIV A member of No Angels, a German girl group originally created by the country's version of the 'Popstars' TV show, has confessed to knowingly having unprotected sex with three men without informing them that she is HIV positive, one of whom subsequently contracted the virus. Nadja Benaissa said she was "sorry from the bottom of my heart". If found guilty of grievous and attempted bodily harm, she faces between six and ten years in prison.

		BADU FINED FOR STRIP Erykah Badu has been given six months probation and a $500 fine after being arrested for disorderly conduct for stripping in public while shooting the video for her single, 'Window Seat', in March this year. The video finishes with the naked singer pretending to be shot dead at the spot where JFK was killed in 1963. A Dallas city official yesterday said in a statement that Badu had paid her fine last week and would remain on probation until 11 Feb next year.

		BIEBER MOVIE GETS NEW DIRECTOR It's alright everyone, the 3D Justin Bieber biopic is back on track, 'Step Up 3D' director John Chu has, er, stepped up to become the film's new director, after 'An Inconvenient Truth' director Davis Guggenheim's recent departure from the project. Guggenheim quit shortly after the film was originally announced because he suddenly realised he had to promote his new documentary, 'Waiting For Superman' (and not because he was embarrassed, okay?). The film is due to be released in February and will star Bieber as himself.

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Ivan Brackenbury
Hapless hospital radio DJ Ivan Brackenbury has become something of a regular fixture at the Edinburgh Fringe in recent years, and received an Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination in 2007. The live show sees Brackenbury bumble through a radio broadcast with inappropriate records and fluffed cues and was adapted into a programme for Radio 2 last year.

Ivan is the creation of comedian and presenter Tom Binns, who has appeared on shows like 'Knowing Me Knowing Yule with Alan Partridge', 'Friday Night Armistice', 'Fist Of Fun', 'The IT Crowd' and BBC One spy drama 'Spooks' and wrote sketches for 'Trigger Happy TV'.

As a radio presenter himself, he managed to score a record-breaking fine for Xfm when he discussed bestiality on his breakfast show, and was sacked from Birmingham station BRMB after he cut off the Queen's Christmas Day speech, which had been played into his show by mistake, saying "Two words - bore ring". These are just two more reasons why we love Binns.

You can catch Ivan and fellow Binns creation, psychic Ian D Montfort, at the Pleasance Courtyard in Edinburgh daily until 30 Aug. The latter has written an exclusive column for our sister media ThreeWeeks, which you can access here.

For this week's Powers Of Ten playlist, Ivan Brackenbury pulled out all his hospital radio DJing skills to select some fine pop records, each one dedicated to one of the patients or staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

IVAN BRACKENBURY'S TEN
01	Simply Red	Holding Back The Years
	That's a request for Dave on Ward 3 who's got massive ears and is having them pinned back.
02	Elkie Brooks	Pearl's A Singer
	Playing this for a musical lady on Ward 6 who's got very bad piles.
03	Take That	Patience
	For Doctor Crew, whose department specialises in dwarves.
04	Phil Collins	Two Hearts
	This song's for Siamese twins that are joined at the head.
05	Labi Siffre	Something Inside So Strong
	A chap coming to A&E with a He-Man action figure stuck up his bum.
06	Primal Scream	Rocks
	This is for Robert who is now Roberta, after having a painful gender re-alignment operation.
07	Queen	We Will Rock You
	This track is for Aisha, who is a single mum from Saudi Arabia.
08	La-Mour	Torn Between Two Lovers
	For Sandra, who was last seen going into a hotel with two footballers. She was admitted to A&E a few hours later with what was described as painful spit roasting injuries. Fancy cooking at that time of night in a hotel room.
09	Level 42	Running In The Family
	This is for John - he's very short sighted. It's genetic, it's passed down to him on his father's side, and it also effects his sister Emily and his brother Joe.
10	George Backer Selection	Little Green Bag
	To John and his new colostomy.

Co-founder of Arcade Fire's US label, Merge, Laura Ballance on Amazon's decision to heavily discount the band's new album: "Devaluing music is something that concerns me greatly. But it's hard to draw a hard line on it. At this point, people can download music for free if they really want to. If you're trying to get people to buy music, people who wouldn't otherwise, maybe that's the way to do it"

Former Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde says it's time for the rogue file-sharing service to make way for something new: "The Pirate Bay should die, really. Nobody works on The Pirate Bay, it's just there and it works all the time. And it's still growing. If you see the site, nothing has happened in five years and still more and more users are using it, which is bad. We need some form of new technology"

Raekwon confirms that he and Kanye West are working with Justin Bieber: "[Kanye] called me and we gonna make it pop. At the end of the day we're all doing our thing in the game and for them to even just have a conversation and just put my name in it it feels good. It feels good to respect what I do and I respect what they do. And we gonna make a hit. We gonna make a good record"

Good news for people who love the The Drums' first album (and bad news for those who don't), Conor Hanwick says: "We don't want to do a whole lot of change. What's exciting us is songs, not stylistic stuff. Stylistically and sonically and production-wise, the album will sound pretty similar to this [first] one, just with new songs. If something new comes along and we think it feels good we'll go with it"

Vocal coach Yvie Burnett says Michael Jackson was not her favourite celeb: "He had a tunnel built which took him from the stage into the dressing room. He crawled into this big white tunnel so he didn't have to speak to any of us. He was probably the rudest [celebrity] because we all went up to meet him and he wouldn't speak to anyone, not even the crew who were beside him"

Jedward (I've amalgamated this quote) have plans for their appearance on the next series of 'I'm A Celebrity...': "I am sick of the way there are so many trees and no one ever climbs them. We need to climb those trees, we need to discover what is up there, we need to live with the monkeys. Everyone goes in there and just talks all day - people should be going around the jungle"

		Justin Bieber remixed by Shamantis. The premise is simple. Shamantis, aka musician and producer Nick Pittsinger, stretched out Justin Bieber's single 'U Smile' by 800%, retaining the same pitch, turning it into a 35 minute ambient work with ethereal, Liz Fraser-esque vocals and snare hits that sound like waves crashing. It's genuinely lovely - soundcloud.com/shamantis/j-biebz-u-smile-800-slower

		Belle And Sebastian. Indie heroes Belle And Sebastican have announced that they will release their new album, 'Belle And Sebastian Write About Love', on 11 Oct through Rough Trade. The band will be touring the UK in December, either side of their Bowlie 2 festival at Butlins in Minehead on 11 Dec and you can hear a track from the album, 'I Want The World To Stop', online now - roughtraderecords.com/belleandsebastian/writeaboutlove/

		Steve Mason. Former Beta Band frontman Steve Mason released the latest single from his 'Boys Outisde' album, 'Am I Just A Man', on Monday, coinciding with an expansion of his ongoing UK tour on into October. You can listen to remixes of the single by Swedish duo Studio and Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip on SoundCloud now - soundcloud.com/dominorecordco/sets/steve-mason-am-i-just-a-man-remixes

		Jakwob. Currently the guy you go to when you want a credible remix of your new single, now, finally, Jakwob is set to release some of his own material, with his debut single, 'Here With Me' set to come out via his own Boom Ting label on 13 Sep. The track sees him mixing dubstep with more expansive electronic sounds, turning in something you might not expect of a dubstep track - jakwob.com

		Cappo. Nottingham rapper Cappo has a free compilation of freestyles from various radio appearances over the last couple of years, plus one from a Tim Westwood's Radio 1 show in 1999, back when everyone's voices were much higher. His skill is apparent throughout, as he rhymes with absolute confidence, mixing very British references with nods to literature, history and mythology - cappohq.com/album/full-scale-chronicles

		Årabrot. Norwegian trio Årabrot release their new album, 'Revenge', on 13 Sep. Brimming with the spirit of Melvins, it's thrillingly loud, Vidar Evensen's drums shuddering underneath Stian Skagen's effects noise and Kjetil Nernes' screaming guitar and lung-tearing vocals - literally; the band recently completed a nine date tour, despite Nernes having blown one of his lungs during the first show - myspace.com/arabrot

		Q1 How did you start out making music? LUCY'S DIARY: "The songwriting emerged from Lucy's diary, which she started writing after her mum died - Lucy was only thirteen at the time and it was quite a shock especially as her dad wasn't living with her and her sister then. Kings Cross was suddenly a scary place and the diary became somewhere to escape while living in lots of different places. Some of the events became songs. I met Lucy when she played a few of these songs at an open mic at the The Rhythm Factory. She asked me if I was up for playing guitar for her and forming a band and it went from there" Read more of Lucy's Diary's answers

		Q2 What inspired your latest album? I AM ARROWS: "I think that everything in my funny little corner of the planet inspired this album. It's a very heart-on-sleeve record. So, I guess just life, family, friends, enemies, The Shoos, Razorlight - I think the past five years being in a pretty successful band opened my eyes to the world somewhat! It's all in there... everything, all in my inarticulate confussled lyrical code" Read more of I Am Arrows' answers

		Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track? GOLD BLOOD: "Hit the record button / play like a child / resist 'paralysis from analysis' / sift and sort / frame / move onto next song" Read more of Gold Blood's answers

		Q4 Which artists influence your work? TEN KENS: "We're still very much influenced by the early to mid 90s era: Sonic Youth, The Pixies, Bauhaus etc. But you can certainly add our modern contemporaries such as Liars, Black Angels, A Place To Bury Strangers etc into the mix, as well" Read more of Ten Kens' answers

		Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time? PAPA ROACH: "Welcome to the mother fucking party. And, I'd say come see us live, that's where you see the energy of the band" Read more of Papa Roach's answers

		Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future? JIM JONES REVUE: "The JJR is like a runaway train and we're all just about holding on. Part of the fun is not knowing where it's gonna end up!" Read more of Jim Jones Revue's answers

#32: Justin Bieber v Kevin Kristopik
Bloody hell, this is turning out to be a bit of a Justin Bieber special; this is the fourth section in which he's appeared in this week's Weekly. Damn him and his ability to infiltrate all facets of music news.

This last mention of the Lego-haired pop star teaches us a very valuable lesson: if you're going to hack into someone's Facebook account, make sure the person whose account is being hacked is not real life friends with one of the internet's most popular celebrities.

Last weekend, The Bieber posted a phone number to his 4.5 million followers on the social networking site, inviting them to call or text him. Which they duly did, en masse. Except at the other end of the line wasn't the squeaky popstar, it was Detroit teenager Kevin Kristopik.

In an interview with MSNBC, Kristopik said that he was a Bieber fan and had thought it would be fun to send the singer a text message. So, he explained, he tracked down the name of one of Justin's close friends, Ryan Butler, managed to guess his Facebook password, and got hold of the phone number he wanted.

He then send Bieber a handful of text messages, which seemingly didn't go down very well, resulting in Bieber tweeting Kristopik's number.

While most messages he received were along the lines of "Oh my God, Justin, is that really you?", many fans suspected an extra layer of conspiracy, particularly those who contacted Kristopik via Twitter. he explained: "I had a Twitter account but ended up deleting it because I was getting threats from all of his fans. They all came to the conclusion that I hacked into Justin Bieber's Twitter and put in my own number".

Kristopik conceded that he had done wrong, but wasn't keen to let his new nemesis off the hook. He said: "I shouldn't have done it and I think I maybe deserved a punishment, but I also think that Justin too it overboard. I think he abused his powers as a celebrity. Once you post something on the Internet, it's not coming off. It's there forever".

If you're wondering what happens when 4.5 million crazed fans suddenly think they've got a direct line to their hero, Kristopik handily posted a video to YouTube: youtu.be/b5iE29zyYTU

And, in the interest of balance, here's a video of Justin Bieber getting hit in the face: youtu.be/0e50vqY7Szo

Andy Malt Editor	Chris Cooke Business Editor & Co-Publisher	Caro Moses Co-Publisher

Georgina Stone Editorial Assistant	Paul Vig Club Tipper	Axl Rose Scheduling Assistant

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