| CMU Daily - on the inside 16 Aug 2002 |
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Who said “Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read”? Answer on Monday.
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“It’s the first anniversary of the sad death of CMU co-founder Alastair Walker today. He died one year ago after suffering a heart attack caused by diabetes. Our thoughts are with his family and friends today. We’ll be playing the stereo in the office a little bit louder today in his honour – we hope you can too (now, where did I put that G ‘n’ R album?).”
CC
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ARTIST COALITION CAMPAIGN SET BACK
The Recording Artists Coalition, led by Eagles frontman Don Henley, Sheryl Crow and the Dixie Chicks, who are lobbying for a change in the US law that lets record labels tie artists to contracts of seven years or more, had a set back yesterday when the Democratic Senator championing their cause withdrew a bill from the California state assembly. Senator Kevin Murray said the bill was being withdrawn to be pursued again next year - along with other music industry issues, including accounting practices and other artists' rights. The artists, who count Courtney Love, Beck and Fleetwood Mac star Stevie Nicks among others as supporters, are campaigning against the long contracts record labels are able to demand of their artists (longer than contracts used in the film or TV industries) and a 1987 exemption in US labour legislation that allows record companies to sue musicians and singers for albums not produced over the course of their seven-year contracts. Murray’s bill had already moved from the California state senate to the assembly, where the Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media encouraged both sides to negotiate a settlement. As a result talks had taken place between the RAC and the RIAA but, although the RIAA claimed to have made key concessions, negotiations stalled after artists refused to move from original demands. Don Henley subsequently claimed that the RIAA had sabotaged negotiations with what he called a "misleading and contradictory press release". However, despite the bill withdrawal, Murray and RAC are believed to be still working together. In fact some are suggesting Murray and the RAC mutually decided to withdraw the bill because they felt that the committee on arts and entertainment, chaired by Democratic Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn, was too pro-recording industry. Ms Cohn has denied these rumoured allegations, telling the BBC: "After over a year of good faith negotiations between the recording labels and the artists, it is unfortunate that Murray pulled the bill instead of letting members of the Assembly hear the issue."
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NME FAILS TO REGAIN POSITION
Latest ABC figures show that IPC’s NME has failed to regain its position as the biggest selling music weekly despite its revamp and 50th anniversary celebrations. In fact EMAP’s Kerrang!, which overtook NME as the bestselling music weekly last year, increased its lead in the first half of this year with a 9.3% rise in sales to 83,988. Although NME’s readership did rise in the first six months of the year (by 2.3% to 72,057) it still has some way to go to match its rival. Many feel, that despite the changes in format, the title was too late in shifting its music policy towards the ever-popular nu-metal which Kerrang! enthusiastically endorsed from the outset. Metal magazine Metal Hammer also enjoyed strong a circulation rise this year showing the importance of the nu-metal genre the non-dance non-pop music media scene.
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BECK’S BACKED BY THE LIPS
The Flaming Lips will be playing as Beck’s backing band when he tours the US this Autumn to coincide with his new album ‘Sea Change’. Now in their twentieth year, and with ten albums to their name, the Flaming Lips will also use the tour to promote their latest release ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots’, a record which saw a change in direction for the Lips described by their website as "planting a big signpost towards a less weighty mood, but no exercise in frivolity nor a return to the sometimes whimsical undercurrents of their mid-90s records". Becks new album, meanwhile, is said to be more akin to the seminal ‘Mutations’ than the more recent ‘Midnite Vultures’ – it’s released by Polydor / Interscope on 23 Sep. Talking to MTV about working with the Flaming Lips Beck said: "We re-created the albums perfectly for years, so I'm not really interested in doing that. Some of the songs are due for reinventing, and the Flaming Lips will probably bring ideas to it. We'll do whatever works".
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IRISH EUROVISION ‘POPSTARS’ STYLE SEARCH
Irish TV station RTE is planning a Popstars-style show to find the act that will represent the country at next year's Eurovision Song Contest in Latvia. The show, called ‘You're A Star’, will launch on 27 Oct and will run for 20 weeks. Bands and artists will be invited to compete in auditions in cities around Ireland, including Belfast, Dublin, Derry, Cork and Galway. 100 acts will be initially chosen which will be narrowed down to 10 finalists, one of whom will be eliminated weekly by public vote. Viewers will also vote on which song should be performed - RTE will commission established Irish songwriters to compose a selection of songs which will be performed by the winning act. Spanish TV staged a similar show last year from which came their 2002 Eurovision entry Rosa, who came seventh in the contest. The new show will be made by Shinawil Productions, producers of the Irish version of Popstars which was broadcast by RTE earlier this year. Whether the contest will restore Ireland’s Eurovision success record (they won in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1996, but not since) remains to be seen.
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NEW NIRVANA TRACK SURFACES
A previously unheard Nirvana track has appeared online. Fans believe the track comes from a studio session tape. According to NME.com the unnamed five-minute song features a spoken word middle eight, in which Kurt Cobain is heard to moan "If we did not have chemicals / you would not be writing my death certificate". The song ends with Cobain singing "My milk is your shit", over and over again, a line that subsequently appeared on the 'In Utero' album track 'Milk It'. Some insiders claim it is most likely the track comes from a 1993 session in Rio de Janeiro when the band recorded demos of tracks for their Steve Albini produced third album, recorded later that year.
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THE APPLETONS TALK ABOUT NEW ALBUM
The Appleton sisters have been talking about their first album and single since signing to Polydor as, simply, ‘Appleton’. "The first single is 'Fantasy' because that's where we started, that's what kicked it all off," Nic told reporters in Australia. "We were nervous when we recorded it - it was the first song we’d ever done on our own - and we’re nervous about putting it out. But good nervous. It's a great feeling because this is what we've always wanted to do. We've worked our asses off and we know we've done the very best that we could." The album, working title ‘Aloud’, will be released early next year.
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SO SOLID DOC
Channel 4 will screen a documentary on 14 Oct following the increasingly infamous So Solid Crew. Documentary maker David Upshal spent four months with the collective watching them record their latest material, talking about how they made it in the music business, and getting their side to the various stories about the crew that have circulated in the press over the last year.
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THE OSBOURNES TAKE IN TEENAGER
The Osbournes have welcomed a teenager, whose mother died of the same type of cancer afflicting Sharon, into their homes. Eighteen year old Robert Marcato, a friend of the Osbournes' daughters, will continue his education while living in the Osbournes house, and as such will feature on the next season of the MTV reality show. Sharon Osbourne told the New York Post: "Robert wants to go to drama school, and we're sending him to the best drama school we can find. Right now, he wants to stay home in LA because he's a bit insecure because he doesn't have any family. We want to get him secure here, then we're going to take our time to pick the best college for him. We're moving him in as part of the family." Filming of the next series of The Osbournes starts next month, and will include Sharon’s own chemotherapy sessions. Talking about her cancer treatment Sharon said: "I'm doing OK, I'm fine. "I'm so happy - three chemo treatments down and 22 to go."
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VISCIOUS GOES TO MUSHROOM
Australian dance label Viscious, which counts Madison Avenue amongst its roster, has parted company with Virgin Records’ Australian division and become part of the Festival Mushroom Group, the Aussy sister company to London’s Mushroom Records. A spokesperson for Festival Mushroom told reporters: "With Vicious we've found a like-minded music partner with a formidable local and international reputation. We're all very excited to be working with the best in the country – the Viscious team bring serious depth and class to our already fantastic A&R team".
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SCOTTISH LENNON TRIBUTE
A remote Scottish village has unveiled a memorial to John Lennon. Lennon spent his annual vacations in the tiny village of Durness in the Scottish Highlands between the ages of 7 and 15, and he returned to the village in 1969 with Yoko Ono, his son, Julian, and her daughter, Kyoko, to show them around. Locals, keen to mark his association with the area, have set three standing stones inscribed with lyrics from the Beatles' track ‘In My Life’ including the words "there are places I remember". "John would have been thrilled with this memorial," Lennon's cousin, Stan Parkes, told reporters. "He just loved Durness and the openness, the wild mountains, the lochs and all the rest of it."
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Answer to Thursday’s pop quiz:
The Beatles have spent 174 weeks at number one – three times as many weeks as their nearest rival – who might that be?
Abba, of course.