| CMU Daily - on the inside 5 Aug 2002 |
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What did the Fugees do in 1996 that no other act had done since 1965? Answer tomorrow
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IRISH INDEPENDENTS RELEASE CHARITY COMPILATION
A new charity album sees the best rock and dance acts from Irish independent labels collaborate on tracks. All the profits from ‘Collaborations: The Best of the Irish Independent Music Scene’, released by Crimson Entertainment, will go to the Chernobyl Children's Project, an Irish-based charity which has links to Bono's wife, Ali Hewson.
Among the artists involved is Pogues frontman Shawn MacGowan, who has re-recorded that band's classic ‘A Rainy Night In Soho’ set to a dance backdrop from the project's coordinator, Liam Clarke of Dublin's Sound Training Centre and his musical partner, Tom Watson. Indie rock outfit Sack is given a complete dance makeover by Dublin-based electro experimentalists Decal, while Northern Irish acoustic-based singer/songwriter Juliet Turner is remixed by Dublin dance mainstay Razor. And of particular interest is the collaboration between Cara Dillon - a singer of traditional Irish ballads – and a bunch of beat-oriented studio boffins (Daniel Figgis, Dave Donahue, and Mark Clarke), transforming the traditional ‘Spencer the Rover’ into a club-friendly dance anthem.
Talking about the project to Billboard, Liam Clarke said: "I had observed that a lot of Irish artists had been either dropped from their major label deals or else were finding it difficult to get signed. So there seemed to be a kind of development of the independent attitude where they were starting to do it themselves. First of all, they would collaborate with other artists and would financially pitch in to release stuff. So I decided to put together an album to celebrate this vibrant independent scene. On top of that, I wanted to help out the Chernobyl Children's Project. The artists agreed that all money raised would go to the charity. It meant that the artists had an impetus to try and do the best that they could with their tracks, so egos were left to one side."
Collaborations’ is currently only available in Ireland, but Clarke hopes to negotiate a UK and if possible Europe-wide release soon.
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MTV JUST TOO DAMN RAUNCHY
A TV watchdog group in the US denounced MTV for excessive raunchiness last week in a new report called ‘The Ten Best and Worst Shows on Cable Television of the 2001/2002 Season’.
Publishers the Parents Television Council included five MTV shows in its Top 10 Worst - ‘The Osbournes’, ‘Undressed’, ‘Celebrity Deathmatch’, ‘The Andy Dick Show’ and ‘The Real World’. The magnificently named L Brent Bozell III, founder and president of the PTC, says that MTV's plethora of salacious programming targeted at teen viewers can no longer be ignored.
"One of the things we're looking at is making a much bigger deal about MTV," he told reporters. "Parents don't watch MTV, and I suspect they don't know what's on it." MTV declined comment on the PTC report until it could be reviewed, though media commentators in the US didn’t feel that the PTC’s report would have any effect on advertising or ratings – except, perhaps, to create more interest for the network amongst teenage viewers.
John Solberg, a spokesperson for US network FX whose show ‘The Shield’ was also in the top 10, simply said: ”'The Shield' is one of the most critically acclaimed series in all of television," he said. "It received three Emmy nominations. The record speaks for itself." The family Osbourne would probably agree.
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OASIS CONTINUE WITH SAME SET RULE
The Gallaghers have confirmed they will continue their policy of sticking to the same set list each night of their US tour. Noel told a reporter from US music website AllStar: "I think set lists are documents of where you're at and I don't think it's fair to the people of Mexico City to play a different song than you played in Seattle, because they all get onto the internet and bitch about it to each other. I think when you go on the road, that's the fucking set list. That's what we are gonna do every night. By the third or fourth gig, you're rockin.' And we don't like to sound check, so we don't get that much time to fuck about with them. We like doing the same thing every night. You get a sense of what's working and what's not."
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SEX PISTOLS PLAY US PUNK FEST
The small Californian city of Devore will play host to a punk-rock mini-festival which will see the Sex Pistols take their reunion show to the states and play alongside X, Bad Religion, the Vandals, Unwritten Law, New Found Glory and others. The ‘KROQ Inland Invasion’ concert is also rumoured to include the Damned, the Adolescents, the Distillers, TSOL and GBH amongst its line up. It will be the Sex Pistol’s first US date since their last reunion tour in 1996.
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BOWIE BEST OF RELEASES
Hot on the success of ‘Heathen’ and his show-stealing performances at Moby’s Area21 dates in the US, David Bowie is set to release a best of compilation this October – available as a 20 track single CD, or 40 track double CD. Both will span his career from 1969's ‘Space Oddity’ to the present in roughly chronological order. A total of sixteen versions of the anthology will be released worldwide, with the flag of the nation a particular disc is tailored to on the spine of each CD. The CD will be followed by a best of DVD in November featuring videos and some previously unreleased footage.
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Answer to Friday’s pop quiz:
In 1986 the classic Bangles track ‘Manic Monday’ was kept of the US number one by the even more classic Prince track ‘Kiss’. Why was that a tad ironic?
Because he wrote both tracks – though he wrote ‘Manic Monday’ under the pseudonym Christopher.