| CMU Daily - on the inside 19 Jul 2002 |
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Last movie question we promise – five films Sting’s been in? Answer Monday.
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NSYNC IN SPACE
The Russian Space Agency has officially asked the International Space Station Multilateral Coordination Board for permission to launch NSYNC singer Lance Bass into space as soon as this Autumn. A NASA spokesperson confirmed the news yesterday, saying, "It's official, he's their candidate. We did indeed receive a letter nominating Lance Bass for the October flight." Bass has already started his preliminary cosmonaut training at Star City, while his backers are still working out the financial details of the business plan to fund his $20 million flight, saying simply that the process is “moving along”. Though contracts have yet to be signed, negotiations for corporate sponsors and a network deal appear to be nearing completion. "As final negotiations continue," MirCorp spokesperson Jeffrey Lenorovitz said, "everything is being left open for Lance to fly. If and when the contract is signed, Lance will still have a chance. The mental approach from the Russians is positive, the whole atmosphere is positive, and people are pulling together. So if the conditions are met, he should have the opportunity to do it. It looks good." The news initially started a campaign to get more boyband stars into space, until it was made clear Bass intends to return to Earth at the end of the mission.
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NEW ROUTE FOR CARNIVAL
Notting Hill Carnival organisers announced a new route at their launch party on Tuesday. The parade will now move clockwise in a horseshoe instead of the usual anti-clockwise circle, a change that it is hoped will help to ease congestion and the usual crush. Organisers also confirmed they are naming Sunday ‘Children’s Day’ and the Monday ‘Adult’s Day’. The Trust who run the carnival admitted they are still looking for sponsorship and appealed for companies to come forward.
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BAHA ARE BACK
Believe it or not it’s two years since ‘Who Let the Dogs Out’ first filled every club in the land, and now the Baha Men are back, fighting off their one-hit wonder status, with songs on the soundtracks of four of this week's eleven top grossing movies in the US: Men in Black II, Scooby Doo, Crocodile Hunter and Like Mike. "It's just another way of getting exposure for our music," drummer/vocalist Colyn ‘Mo’ Grant told reporters. "Not everyone that goes to the movies listens to the radio and vice versa, so I think it's a great vehicle for getting people to take note of you." Given that the Baha Men have been together since 1979, Grant takes issue with the one-hit-wonder tag. "The record came out in 2000, and here it is only 2002 and one CD later," he says. "All the other groups on the one-hit-wonder list are from the Sixties or Seventies through the Nineties. We had seven prior records, several of which went platinum elsewhere in the world. Who Let the Dogs Out just put us on the map in the US."
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TROUBLE AT THE SCOTSMAN
Following the announcement by Edinburgh broadsheet the Scotsman that it would be merging some of its daily and Sunday departments, 130 of the paper’s journalists have passed a vote of no confidence in the paper’s publisher Andrew Neil. At a workforce meeting called by the National Union of Journalists, Scotsman staff accused Neil of mismanagement and called on him to resign. "This is one in a long line of decisions that have damaged the titles in Scotland," said Paul Holleran, the NUJ's Scottish organiser. "Given that the Scotsman is held up as one of the most important publications in the Scottish political and business community, there are serious concerns about the quality of the content." Neil appeared on Newsnight in Scotland last night to defend his decisions at the paper but it remains to be seen in his journalists take their campaign any further.
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WORLD SERVICE FIGURES DOWN
The BBC World Service’s overall listening figures are down. While it was listened to by an average of 150 million people last year – that was 3 million down on the previous 12 months and 5 million below its audience target. The biggest shortfall was in Asia and the Pacific region, where audience figures fell 11.5 million, mostly a result of a slump in radio listening in India. On the up side over the same period traffic on its website almost doubled to 75 million page impressions a month. Commenting on the figures Mark Byford, director of the World Service, said: "The battle for radio audiences is increasingly ferocious across the world as markets deregulate and listener choice explodes. Rapid technological advances, lifestyle changes and growing competition mean it is imperative for the World Service to have an even stronger understanding of audience needs and market developments."
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VIRTUAL GIGS COULD SAVE THE REAL THING
US bands might be gigging by satellite after the successful live screening of a Korn concert in 37 cinemas around the US. The satellite relay of the Korn concert was the result of a collaboration between Sony's Epic record label and the US cinemas group Regal Entertainment. The cinema chain is said to be interested in piloting the idea as a new income stream, especially for quieter mid-week nights, while record labels see it as a way of getting their bands to an audience unwilling or unable to travel to concert venues in bigger cities.
onstance Schwartz of Korn management The Firm told the BBC the whole effort cost about a million dollars (£650,000), but that she believed it was money well spent. "About 80% of the 37 theatres were sold out and the remainder were about 60% to 75% full. The theatre managers were very happy and the fans walked away happy." Now managers, movie houses and record labels are all looking at the pricing of future simulcast concerts, trying to balance affordability with viability. Some industry insiders think the relay idea could rekindle interest in the live music sector generally, good news after recent stats showed it as an industry in decline. Gary Bongiovanni, editor of US trade magazine Pollstar, thinks if kids see gigs at their cinema it will encourage them to attend more real-life gigs: "If someone sees a live performance on a movie screen, that's only going to lead to them to want to see the concert live."
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Answer to Thursday's CMU pop quiz:
What about Meatloaf? Six films he’s been in?
Well, you were looking for ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ (1975), ‘The Roadie’ (1980), ‘Wayne’s World’ (1992), ‘Spice World’ (1997), ‘Crazy In Alabama’ (1999), and ‘Fight Club’ (1999)