| CMU Daily - on the inside 19 Aug 2002 |
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Who said: “When I first went to the Betty Ford Centre I was very surprised they didn’t have a bar there”? Answer on Monday.
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ASH IN BUS SMASH
Perhaps UK artists performing in the States just stop traveling. Less than a fortnight after Oasis’ car crash, Ash have been involved in a bus crash as they traveled to Detroit for the next date in Moby’s Area:2 festival. Although injured, initial reports say the band are essentially OK. Bass player Mark Hamilton told fan site www.ash-unofficial.com: "We've been through a nightmare 24 hours travelling to make to Detroit. Rick has broken ribs, Chaz (Charlotte) isn't as bad as was thought, but I'm claiming a double whipper. Show must go on." A spokesperson for the band told NME.com that, although he couldn’t guarantee anything, he was confident Ash would be well enough to perform their set at the Carling Weekend festivals in Reading and Leeds this weekend.
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MAJOR LABELS SUE OVER DOWNLOAD SITE
A group of major labels in the US, including Universal, BMG, Sony and Warners, have filed a lawsuit at the Manhattan federal court against internet service providers AT&T, Cable & Wireless, Sprint and WorldCom to force them to close down access to website www.listen4ever.com, which the labels claim allows users to download illegal copies of copyrighted music from a central location. The suit claims Bruce Springsteen, Christina Aguilera, Eric Clapton, Whitney Houston and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are among the artists whose work has been unlawfully distributed through the site, some prior to retail release. The site's domain name was registered in January by an individual in the Chinese town Tianjin, just east of Beijing, but information about who runs the site is not available. Unable to take action against the rogue website itself, the labels can only go after the ISPs who allow users to access the service. Court papers say Listen4ever.com is "even more egregious" than Napster, and that it has “clearly located itself in China to avoid the ambit of US copyright law.” An AT&T spokeswoman told the New York Times the company had never before been asked to block access to a foreign site before, but that they had done so by Saturday night. Presumably the suit will encourage thousands more music fans to find ways around the blockage to use a service they’d previously not heard of!
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V2002 HAILED A SUCCESS BY ORGANISERS
V Festival organisers are hailing this year’s two-site festival a success after a warm weekend featuring fine performances from the Manic Street Preachers, Chemical Brothers and Stereophonics. In the region of 180,000 people attended the two-day event at Weston Park, Staffordshire and Hylands Park, Chelmsford.
Police confirmed only a small number of arrests had been made during the weekend. That said, they did caution 325 people for cannabis possession at the Staffordshire site, and confiscated some 2.4kg of the drug and a further 263 ecstasy tables and 7.8g of cocaine (one hell of a party at the police station then!). But Festival spokesman Andy Redhead told the BBC: "The police presence in stopping and searching for drugs increased by 50% this year. We have worked closely with police over the last 10 months and we are very pleased with the way things have gone."
On the music side, Stereophonics performed a new song - 'Madame Helga' - during their headline set, Starsailor covered the Elvis Presley track 'Can't Help Falling In Love' and played their Phil Spector produced 'Silence Is Easy' and Primal Scream, although playing mainly songs from new album 'Evil Heat', closed their set with the classic 'Movin' On Up'.
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SESSION REQUEST SLIPKNOT QUESTIONS
Radio 1's Session in Scotland will be interviewing Slipknot at the Gig on the Green, the Glasgow bit of the Carling Weekend, and they are inviting fans to submit their questions. The show’s producers say their willing to ask anything – so get crafting those questions. Simply go to www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/alt/scotland/specials/slipknot/index.shtml and submit your questions. The interview will be posted online once the Scottish Session team have recovered from the experience.
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J-LO MOVIE PLANS
Poptress Jennifer Lopez has teamed up with Spiderman producer Laura Ziskin in an attempt to make the novel ‘Dirty Girls Club’ into a movie. The book, by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, a former features writer for the Boston Globe and Latin pop music critic for the Los Angeles Times, is about six Latinas from different backgrounds who become friends in college, reunite 10 years later and proceed to get together every six months after that. Lopez has a number of film projects on the go through her production company Nuyorican including a movie version of comic book ‘Shrink’ and a picture about a New York salsa singer with the working title ‘The Hector Lavoe Project.’ It’s unclear whether J-Lo plans to appear in any of these films – though she is currently filming ‘Jersey Girl’ with ‘Clerks’ writer/director Kevin Smith where she co-stars with Ben Affleck, and can be seen later this year in the new film ‘The Chambermaid’.
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TRIBUTES FOR DROWNING POOL SINGER
A public funeral service was held for Drowning Pool singer Dave Williams yesterday, following the mysterious death of the artist last week. Prior to the funeral the other members of the bands made a statement to reporters. They said: "We lost a bandmate and a best friend this week. Dave Williams was one of a kind, and a friend to everyone he met. He was a good man, and a giving person. Not a day went by when he wasn't giving somebody a little present, and touching everyone around him with his passion. He was full of energy until the day he passed, and undeniably full of life. To the end, we were having a great time. We will miss him." The band were mid-way through the Ozzfest UK tour. Following Williams’s death the Osbourne family made a joint statement: "Dave Williams was a beautiful man both inside and out. He is gone, but will not be forgotten. We send our love to his family and band members."
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FRENCH VODKA SPONSOR RAP TOUR
The French drinks brand has teamed up with James McMillan's Make Millions Management and Clear Channel Entertainment to stage the Grey Goose Vodka Music Tour at 20 cities around the US, kicking off in New York on 19 Sep. Lined up to appear are: 8 Ball & MJG, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Lady May, indie act Now City, and Lil Jon and the Eastside Boyz.
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POD WORK WITH SANTANA
POD were in New York last week providing some music for the forthcoming Santana album, ‘Shamen’. POD, who site Carlos as a major influence, have written a song provisionally called ‘America’ for the new Santana record, which is released in the US in October, the first album release since the phenomenally successful ‘Supernatural’ which was not only Carlos’ biggest selling album ever, but went on to sell more that all other Santana records added together!
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POT NOODLE SLAG ADS BANNED
One of the CMU team’s favourite TV ads of late – the Pot Noodle ‘slag of all snacks’ campaign – has been banned after TV watchdogs got 300 complaints. The campaign shows men used to more wholesome snacks at home sneaking off to enjoy an illicit Pot Noodle. The Independent Television Commission has ruled the word "slag" was so offensive to women it could not be used on TV, even after the watershed. Other ads in the campaign that do not use the word ‘slag’ can only be shown after 9pm.
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Answer to Friday’s pop quiz:
Who said “Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read”?
Frank Zappa