| CMU Daily - on the inside 7 Aug 2002 |
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One from the teeny-pop archives - what did Take That’s last number one and Boyzone’s first have in common? Answer tomorrow.
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OASIS CRASH UPDATE
There is still no final word on how many dates of Oasis’ US tour will be affected by the car crash that Noel Gallagher and two other band members were involved in yesterday. The band’s management confirmed that the crash had take place and that tonight’s sell out Indianapolis date had been postponed. They said: "Three members of Oasis were involved in a car accident Tuesday afternoon in downtown Indianapolis. A taxi they were travelling in was involved in a head on collision with another vehicle. Keyboard player Jay has his hand strapped and has to return to hospital today for further treatment. Neither Noel nor Jay is well enough to undertake the show at the Murat Theater in Indianapolis on Wednesday evening, and have been ordered by hospital doctors to fully rest for the next 48 hours to let their prescribed medication take full effect." The band’s US agents and the tour’s promoters are expected to reschedule the postponed date this week. An announcement on whether Friday’s Philadelphia date will go ahead is expected soon.
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THE CHARTS ARE IN
More mad music stats in the news again. First of all the readers of Total Guitar magazine have voted Jimi Hendrix as the greatest guitarist of all time, just ahead of Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton. The magazine’s editor Scott Rowley told the BBC the poll showed his readers were impressed by true talent rather than image. "What's nice about this chart is that it's not some music critic's opinion of the best guitarists. These guys might not be cool by any music critic's viewpoint, but they genuinely are the fastest, loudest, most exciting players in rock and roll." Although the Top 5 was made up of the older names in rock, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood came in at 35 and Noel Gallagher was at 50. However female guitarists were notable absent - Tracy Chapman was the only female to be included by the magazine in a list of 440 nominees. Rowley said women were not as "geeky or competitive" about music as men. "Instead of showing off, they're trying to write a good song. Which is probably smarter," he added.
The Top 20 looks like this:
1. Jimi Hendrix; 2. Jimmy Page; 3. Eric Clapton; 4. Slash; 5. Brian May; 6. Joe Satriani (soloist); 7. Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen); 8. Dave Gilmour (Pink Floyd); 9. Kirk Hammett (Metallica); 10. Steve Vai (soloist); 11. Carlos Santana (Santana); 12. James Hetfield (Metallica); 13. Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine); 14. Kurt Cobain (Nirvana); 15. Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits); 16. Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne); 17. Gary Moore (Thin Lizzy and others); 18. Jeff Beck (Yardbirds, Jeff Beck Group); 19. Stevie Ray Vaughan (Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble); 20. Angus Young (AC/DC)
Meanwhile yesterday the CoOp Group’s Funeral Service announced that songs by Bette Midler, Celine Dion and Robbie Williams were the most popular for play at funerals in the UK. The company confirmed that 68% of its branches have reported an increase in the number of requests for pop songs, with the most requested 10 songs being:
1. Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler; 2. My Heart Will Go On - Celine Dion; 3. I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston; 4. The Best - Tina Turner; 5. Angels - Robbie Williams; 6. You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry And The Pacemakers; 7. Candle In The Wind - Elton John; 8. Unchained Melody - Righteous Brothers; 9. Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon And Garfunkel; 10. Time To Say Goodbye - Sarah Brightman
Despite the irony of the title of the Celine Dion track, the Titanic theme is second only to Bette Midler's ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’, also from a soundtrack – for the film ‘Beaches’. The Door’s ‘Light My Fire’, Meatloaf’s ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ and Europe’s ‘The Final Countdown’ we’re all strangely lacking from the Top 10, though the CoOp confirmed the Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’, Queen's ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ and the Village People's YMCA had all been requested at some point.
"We are receiving more and more requests for popular music as people attempt to personalise funerals and choose songs that are relevant to them," Lorinda Sheasby of the Co-op told reporters. "Perhaps mourners want to recreate the emotion of their favourite films and ensure their loved ones receive a funeral worthy of a star."
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PIRACY FIGURES CONTINUE TO INCREASE
The BPI, in its annual handbook, has put the cost of illegal CDs to the industry at more than £27m. And it reckons official figures represent only "a small proportion" of the actual revenue lost to the industry. As previously reported, the rising availability in CD duplication kit means ‘old fashioned’ piracy (ie the sale of counterfeit CDs) is a much bigger immediate threat to the music industry than Napster-style downloading, outside the US especially. About 4.3 million counterfeit CDs are thought to have been created in 2001. The report says: "retailers, distributors, artists, composers, publishers and record companies all lose out when customers are sold a pirate copy rather than a legitimate recording." The rise in piracy is blamed for a worldwide decline in record sales, although UK sales actually rose by 5%, pretty much the percentage sales fell by elsewhere.
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MINISTRY LAUNCHES SECOND US COMPILATION
Ministry Of Sound will release the second volume in its ‘Club Nation America’ in the US in September, with Daniel Bedingfield, Mary J. Blige, Res, and DJ Sammy & Yanou amongst the artists featured. Although the compilation includes acts from around the world it has helped further promote British dance acts to the American market. The first ‘Club Nation America’ was released last spring and has sold approximately 60,000 units to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
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MURDOCH PREPARES TO ACQUIRE VIVENDI’S ITALIAN TV BUSINESS
Rupert Murdoch has appointed a new chief executive to his Milan-based satellite broadcasting operation, Stream, as the company completes its acquisition of its main competitor, Telepiu, owned by troubled French entertainment giant Vivendi Universal. The deal has been dragging on for months but the appointment of Tom Mockridge, a newspaper executive in Mr Murdoch's News Corporation empire and a pay TV expert, suggests an agreement is near. The deal has been on the table for some time but Vivendi’s recent financial crisis has made them desperate to sell, meaning Murdoch will try to reduce the acquisition price. Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal Europe has reported that Vivendi Universal will dispose of its computer games subsidiary as part of moves to rescue the company who entered financial meltdown after reports of false accounting earlier this year. Still no word on the future of Universal’s music operations – Polydor, Mercury and Island in the UK.
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JURASSIC 5 SURPRISED HOW WELL FURTADO COLLABORATION WORKED
LA-based hip-hoppers Jurassic 5 release their new album, ‘Power in Numbers’ in the US in October. The album includes ‘Thin Line’, a collaboration with songstress Nelly Furtado. "We heard it through the grapevine that she was feeling us," J5's Zaakir told reporters. "I didn't think actually she would be the one for the track,” the band’s Cut Chemist added. “And then when we demo-ed her, I was just like, 'She was perfect for it.' So, I kind of ate my words on it." Other guests on the album – either as producers or performers – include Big Daddy Kane, Percy P, and the Beatnuts' JuJu.
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CAREY’S DEF JAM DEBUT SCHEDULED FOR DECEMBER
Mariah Carey's first album on her new label Def Jam has been scheduled for a December release in the US. The as-yet-untitled album was put together in a number of intense recording sessions in Capri, Italy, and Nassau, Bahamas. Carey and her new label hope the album will overcome her last album ‘Glitter’ which performed badly, and move attention away from her high profile fall out with the EMI group. We’ll see if she’s likely to succeed when the first single is released this September.
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SMG MAY BE FORCED TO SPLIT
The City is expecting a break up of the Scottish Media Group, owners of Scottish newspaper The Herald, Scottish ITV franchises and, more recently, Virgin Radio and Pearl & Dean cinema advertising. The company’s Chief Executive Andrew Flanagan has overseen a string of media acquisitions in the past few years which, coupled with the advertising slump, have left the company with almost £400m in debts - and word is the banks want their loans paid back by June next year. The Guardian reckons deal-hungry investment bankers are sensing an opportunity to generate millions in fees through breaking up the group, and that flights from the City to SMG's Glasgow offices are suddenly in demand. "SMG's debt is like a time-bomb, and the longer they leave it ticking the more likely it is to blow the group apart," one senior executive at a rival broadcaster told the Guardian. If they are proven right it will bring to an end Flanagan’s ambitions to turn SMG into a major media player on a global level.
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MUSIC CAREERS ROADSHOW TO TOUR UK
UK music industry organisations – including AIM, BPI, MMR, MU, PRS, PPL and the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters - are joining together to launch Sound Advice, a Music Industry Education Roadshow, aiming to highlight career paths within the business. The roadshow will tour the UK from October 21st to 25th, and will provide music students around the country with advice from leading industry figures about key issues affecting the industry and the various sectors upon which their future careers might depend. Colleges the roadshow will visit include: London’s BRIT School, University of Paisley in Glasgow, Liverpool’s Institute of Performing Arts, and Manchester City College. The roadshow will finish at Radio 1's One Live in Nottingham event. To highlight the importance of live music to the industry each day will conclude with an evening gig which will be open to the general public, at a local venue, that will showcase three unsigned local bands.
Allan Dumbreck, Senior Lecturer in the School of Media at the University of Paisley and chair of the Roadshow steering group told CMU: “The value of having unilateral support from across the industry for this initiative is immense. Students throughout the UK will benefit from the opportunity to hear and meet an unparalleled level of industry speaker. We expect to reach up to 2,500 students across the five-day tour, plus a much larger number of people who will have the opportunity to support local emerging talent at the evening gigs. This is a fantastic opportunity for students to learn more about the key issues that affect the entire music industry and the various directions in which their future careers might take them.”
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Answer to Tuesdays pop quiz:
Who started Mo Wax Records and where did they come from?
James Lavelle – of course – the label came out of his Oxford club night Mo Wax Please.