| CMU Daily - on the inside 9 Jul 2002 |
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Who was the first Western musician to be invited to post-Mao china to perform? (and for a bonus point, in what year?)
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DIGITAL RADIO NEEDS GOVERNMENT PUSH
Simon Cole, chief executive of radio content company UBC Media, is calling on the government to launch a large-scale advertising campaign to promote digital radio, claiming it would be "outrageous" if politicians threw their weight behind digital terrestrial TV but left radio on the sidelines. "The government has announced it will help the up-take and marketing of digital television. If it will do something for digital TV, I would like to see a government funded advertising campaign for digital radio,” he told reporters. “I think it is absolutely incumbent on this government to do something. I am not a fan of a government that expects industry alone to achieve one of its political objectives." However, a spokeswoman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport replied: "There are no plans here for a campaign and there is no campaign for digital terrestrial television either." UBC, formerly the Unique Broadcasting Group, is one of the main players in digital radio. It’s a format that promises a lot but which is taking off very slowly – with most digital only stations relying on Sky Digital and internet audiences to exist. But Cole is confident the medium will gain a higher profile when special digital radio sets that cost £99 appear in shops later this year.
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GIG MATES IN PUPPET WRANGLE
American bands Weezer and Saves the Day are in a mini-wrangle over the similarity of their forthcoming videos. Weezer will promote their forthcoming release ‘Keep Fishin' with a video starring Jim Henson's Muppets. Saves The Day, meanwhile, have a video made for their second single ‘Freakish’ featuring – yep, you got it - a cast of Muppetesque puppets. The video coincidence comes shortly after a Weezer tour where Saves the Day were support - members of the latter claim they told Weezer about their video at the time. "We were just kind of surprised and thought, 'How'd that happen?'" Saves The Day bassist Eben D'Amico told reporters. "Our immediate reaction was, 'Oh no, that kind of sucks.' I hope people don't ignore our video now, because we were really excited about it. But I think they're probably both good and unique videos that have their own things going for them, Muppets or no Muppets." But Weezer say the similarities are definitely coincidental. "Of every video we've ever made, this is the one we've had the least to do with," frontman Rivers Cuomo says. "We wanted to hand the responsibility for videos over to someone else and see if they could do something cool. I didn't have anything to do with devising the video … I just showed up and pretended I was singing." Meanwhile the President of the Jim Henson Company says Marcos Siega, the director of the ‘Keep Fishin' video approached the studio about the concept of using the Muppets long before the Saves the Day clip was shot.”
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SUEDE PREVIEW NEW MATERIAL
Suede previewed their new single ‘Positivity’ as part of their set at London Mardi Gras over the weekend. In their first outdoor show since V99 Brett Anderson performed 'Beautiful Loser', 'Metal Mickey', 'Can't Get Enough' and 'Beautiful Ones'. The new tracks come from the forthcoming album 'A New Morning', their first release since their label Nude closed down. The band has been snapped up by Sony label Epic – Nude of course received funding in its early days from the Sony group.
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TRIBUTE SHOW FOR BILLBOARD EDITOR
James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, John Mellencamp, and Don Henley are amongst the acts set to play a tribute concert in memory of Timothy White, the Billboard Editor in Chief who died suddenly and a number of charities supported by Timothy, including autism-related organizations and the United Negro College Fund. On announcing her involvement Sheryl Crow told reporters: "I know that Timothy stood for so many things, and it would mean so much to him to know that people loved him so much and wanted to be there for his 'folk.' I think he would get a kick out of a show and in a way, I think he'll be there."
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ENTWISTLE INQUEST ADJOURNED
Deputy coroner Dr. Sophie Burrows adjourned an inquest into the death of The Who bassist John Entwistle yesterday. At the hearing at Cheltenham Coroner's Court is was confirmed the 57-year-old had died in his bed at the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas on June 27, but no cause of death could be confirmed until test results from the US authorities were revealed. The case was adjourned until the results were available.
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PHIL COLLINS WRAPS NEW ALBUM
Now you can sleep at night again because Phil Collins has completed his first solo album in six years. ‘Testify’ is his first release since the 1999 soundtrack to Disney’s Tarzan. "The songs for this album were written over the last two years," Collins told reporters. "Working with new toys and new tools, they pretty much wrote themselves, and only occasionally needed nudging along. There are some songs here that are amongst the best I have ever written." Judge for yourselves when the album is released in the Autumn.
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D-12 APPEAR ON SLIM SHADY SOUNDTRACK
Eminem has confirmed the line up of the soundtrack album to his forthcoming movie ‘8 Mile’. The soundtrack is made up of tracks performed by D-12 collectively and individually, some members making their recorded solo debuts. The full track listing for the soundtrack includes: Eminem - Cleaning Out My Closet; Obie Trice - Detriot Heavenly; Reckless Youth - Remember That...; D-12 – Trouble; Eminem - Drug Culture; Proof, Kon Artist & Obie Trice - Street Types ; Dana Marie - Hate & Pain; D-12 - Devils Night; Xzibit - Gone Tomorrow; Eminem, Dr. Dre & Nate Dogg - Gangsta Rap; Royce Da 5'9 & Mike Bones – Gutter; Swifty - Once Upon A Time...; Bizarre - Love Me Tonight; D-12 Feat. Offence - After Effects; Eminem - 8 Mile. The album and movie get an Autumn release in the US – UK releases are to be confirmed.
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GERI AND CHRIS ON OPPOSING POPSTAR TEAMS
Geri Halliwell has been confirmed as one of the judges on the forthcoming second series of Popstars. The new series will see two sets of judges each recruiting a band of wannabe popstars – with the public deciding which of the two should be the winners. Geri will be on one judging panel with ex Chris Evans on the other. The two dated for a short time, of course, and the tabloids reckon Geri is still bitter about the speed with which Evans dumped her at the end of the PR driven relationship. The show launches in September with the overall winning band chosen by a public vote just in time for the winners to release a Christmas number one (though Liberty X might tell you coming second ain’t so bad either).
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PET SHOP BOYS ADD EXTRA DOWNLOADS
The Pet Shop Boys have made two new songs available via their website – they are both b-sides from their forthcoming single ‘I Get Along’, released next Monday. The two tracks "Searching For The Face Of Jesus" and "Between Two Islands" can be downloaded from www.petshopboys.co.uk. ‘I Get Along’ is the second single release from the critically acclaimed but poorly selling ‘Release’. The record was distinctive for its use of instruments over electronica – a style the duo plan to use for their next album, despite the poor sales of ‘Release’
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GALLAGHER CALLS MICHAEL A FAKE
Friend of the stars Noel Gallagher has called George Michael "a liar and a fake". Talking about Michael’s controversial single ‘Shoot the Dog’, which is promoted with a cartoon video showing Tony Blair as George W Bush’s lap dog, Gallagher said Michael's attempt at social commentary was "laughable". "Now he’s trying to make social comment … this is the guy who hid who he actually was [ie his sexuality] from the public for 20 years, now, all of a sudden, he's got something to say about the way of the world. I find it laughable. And that's even before you get to the song, which is diabolical." The single, which won’t receive a US release, goes on sale in the UK on 5 Aug.
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Answer to Monday's CMU pop quiz:
Which of the following is the odd one out? PeeWee Ellis, Fred Wesley, Donald Byrd, Maceo Parker, Bernard ‘Pretty’ Purdie, Bootsy Collins, James Brown, Bobby Bird.
All of the above artists have at one time or another been members of James Brown’s band, apart from trumpeter Donald Byrd who famously worked with Miles Davis and other jazz greats. So there.