UNLIMITED MEDIA - MARKETING EXECUTIVE London, £14-16K UnLimited is looking to expand its student marketing team. As well as getting involved in marketing CMU and its sister publications to the college market, you will also work on marketing projects for our other clients in this space. Tasks will include liaising with student media and unions, managing our extensive college databases and mailing lists, recruiting and maintaining contact with campus reps and contributors, writing and coordinating press releases, organising events and competitions, and coming up with great marketing ideas. This is an entry-level role and would suit a recent graduate with an aspiration to work in youth marketing. Good and proven writing skills are especially important. Some knowledge of student media and entertainments an advantage. Need to be Office and email savvy, obviously, and enjoy working in a team, and all that jazz. Passion for music always an advantage. To apply, send a CV and covering note explaining why you'd be great for the job to [email protected]
Advertise your jobs in CMU Daily for just £100 a week (five editions) - more info at www.cmumusicnetwork.co.uk/advertising, or email adsunlimitedmedia.co.uk to book.

OBIE TRICE QUITS SHADY RECORDS
US rapper Obie Trice has left Eminem's Shady Records, and will seemingly release his third album, tentatively titled 'Bottoms Up', on his own indie label.

The official line is that the departure from Marshall Mather's Universal Music imprint is entirely amicable, though some bloggers have been speculating that the rapper had become frustrated with Interscope, the Universal division which operates Shady Records on a day to day basis. Said speculation seems to be based on some lyrics from a new Trice track called 'The Giant', in which he raps: "I murdered everything when I wore the Shady logo / O is a mogul / Low on the totem pole 'cause Interscope's loco / Now I'm gettin' mo' dough".

However, Trice's manager Terry Wilson told AllHipHop.com yesterday: "Obie and Shady were moving in different directions but he still has a great relationship with Shady Records. He has some big plans for his World Wide Hustle label".

Meanwhile, Eminem's manager Paul Rosenberg was also keen to stress there were no tensions between Trice and Eminem or the latter's imprint label. He told AllHipHop.com: "Shady Records has agreed to allow Obie Trice to pursue his craft in a different forum free from the constraints of the current major label model. Eminem will continue to support and work with Obie on many levels of his career. He remains a close friend and member of the Shady family".

So, there you have it. Stop speculating, OK?

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PAVAROTTI WIDOW SAYS FAMILY HAVE AGREED TO ESTATE DISTRIBUTION
A lawyer for the widow of Luciano Pavarotti, Nicoletta Mantovani, has told reporters that she and the rest of the late opera legend's family have reached a "friendly agreement" regarding how to divide up his estate. There was much speculation following the singer's death about alleged tensions between Mantovani and Pavarotti's daughters from a previous marriage, with some friends of the opera star reportedly alleging Mantovani had manipulated her husband during his final months to increase her share of his fortune. But lawyer Giorgio Bernini said all family members had now agreed to how his estate should be distributed, though he didn't elaborate on what they had agreed.

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TYLER ADMITS TO DRUGS REHAB
Well, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler was spinning us a yarn, it seems, when he told us last month that he had entered rehab simply to allow him time to recover from foot surgery. You'll remember, because we reported on it, that the singer, who got over his drug addictions twenty years ago, released a statement saying that he had entered the facility to be in a "safe environment" whilst his foot healed.

Now the singer has admitted that in fact he needed help because he was dependent on painkillers and sleeping pills, but it was apparently all due to the pain of the foot, so really, it was all about the foot. Tyler told the AP: "To have your feet done, to have your leg done, you have to be on narcotics. You have to be on sleep aids at night...I was off and running and I didn't like the me that was me. This was a month ago, so I just put the brakes on and checked into detox and just pulled the plug on all of it".

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WINEHOUSE VICTIM SPEAKS
If you want to watch footage of Amy Winehouse slapping a member of her Glastonbury audience, or hear from the guy she slapped, well, go check this BBC link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7481774.stm

The guy, one James Gostelow, has denied that he tried to grab Winehouse's hair before she lashed out at him. He told the Beeb: "I saw a hat being thrown from behind me and it hit Amy's beehive. She looked down, saw me looking up, and her elbow went for me. She caught my forehead, then someone may have shouted something from the back, which is when she went in again".

As previously reported, there have been mixed opinions about Winehouse's Glasto performance, which had some highlights but also some tedious ramblings and Blake Fielder-Civil references that garnered a few boos from the crowd. Gostelow has confirmed he doesn't plan to make any official complaint about Winehouse elbowing him in the face.

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EAVIS ON ASHCROFT'S KEANE COMMENTS
More Glasto, and Emily Eavis has denied that her father wasn't convinced The Verve were headliner material. She was responding to Verve frontman Ricahrd Ashcroft, who thanked Emily for booking his band, and implied Glasto supremo Michael Eavis hadn't been convinced by his daughter's Sunday night booking, suggesting he would have preferred someone like Keane to fill the finale slot.

But Emily told the BBC: "That's not true at all. We've liked The Verve for ages and we were really pleased to have them on. I'm not sure where the Keane thing came from because Keane were never an option this year". But she added that Ashcroft's comments were "not a big deal", and that the band had "really pulled it off" as headliners.

Asked about this year's festival, which ultimately sold out despite the much reported slow ticket sales this year, Eavis said things had gone "amazingly well" adding: "I think it was the best Glastonbury crowd we've ever had. They were so determined to make it great".

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CRIME UP AT GLASTONBURY THIS YEAR
Or perhaps that should be determined to nick each other's stuff. Yes, it would seem mud is a good way to combat crime, because this year's sunny Glastonbury saw reported crimes almost double over the previous year, with 489 incidents this year, compared to 263 in 2007, according to Avon and Somerset police. Though that does include drug related crimes, though a sizeable portion were things like thefts from tents, and there was one robbery. Arrests, it should be added, were actually slightly down on last year at 134.

Speaking during the festival, Sergeant Carolyn Crocker told the BBC: "Despite a challenging festival in terms of thefts from tents, 99.7 per cent of festival goers will return home having not been victims of crime. The event remains one of the safest festivals of its kind and we continue to work proactively with festival security to ensure people have a safe final night".

Even if people were thieving on site, the local council seem pleased by this year's festival. There was a time when there were normally tensions between Glasto organisers and some on Mendip District Council, tensions that always caused problems when the festival went to apply for its licence. But that's changed in recent years, leading to that previously reported granting of a four year licence for the festival.

In a press statement yesterday, the Council said they thought this year's Glasto had gone well, though added that there were probably further lessons that could be used to reduce even further the impact of the festival on its locality.

The council's licensing rep Tom Killen told CMU: "Firstly I'd like to thank everyone for their help and partnership work in making this year's Glastonbury Festival such a successful event. It shows that effective working with the festival organisers continues to make this a better event each year. There will clearly be some issues that we have to deal with, and which will form a debriefing process in the Autumn, which will involve various agencies. The Glastonbury Festival is a major event for Mendip and the country as a whole, so it is important that we have a thorough process which gives everyone to chance to discuss this year's event and help to improve it further for next year".

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NAS SIGNS TO FILA
Despite previously shunning brand partnerships, rapper Nas has teamed up with sportwear manufacturer Fila for a one year deal, which will see the company provide reciprocal financial support for his advertising and touring in support of his current album (you know, the one that doesn't have a title), due for release on 15 Jul via Def Jam.

Speaking to Billboard, Nas said: "My best friend Will and I loved Fila. It represented prestige and everything that was cool to us. When Will passed, we buried him in a black Fila sweat suit, so doing a deal with them has a lot of significance for me".

Fila president John Epstein added: "One of my executives spotted Nas shopping in our Manhattan store and struck up a conversation with him. Nas isn't interested in selling out. He's interested in being true, and that fits with our brand. I had some trepidation, and then I started talking to 16- to 20-year-old kids in focus groups. They looked at me like I was crazy for not understanding his message of positive change. Nas is relevant to his followers and I don't have to understand it as long as they do".

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PRIMAL SCREAM LINK PRE-ORDERS TO PRIORITY TICKETS
Primal Scream have announced plans to reward those who get in quick to order their new album 'Beautiful Future' by giving them priority access to upcoming tour dates. Anyone who pre-orders the new album via iTunes will get an email which will mean they can access tickets to the band's upcoming UK tour dates via Ticketmaster's website before they go on general release. They'll also get an extra bonus track for their efforts - 'Time Of The Assassins'. And if they sign up to the band's mailing list they'll get another free track, 'Urban Guerrilla'. Which is all lovely. 'Beautiful Future' is the band's first long player since signing with B-Unique, and is out on 21 Jul. You can pre-order via iTunes now.

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ALLEN COMPLETES SECOND ALBUM
Lily Allen has completed work on her as-yet-untitled second album, she has revealed to BBC Newsbeat. She said: "I'm pretty much sure it's finished and I've got a meeting on Tuesday with the label, I'm really happy".

She also said that she has been working on a cover version with Klaxons frontman Jamie Reynolds, explaining: "We had our session and enlightened each other. We did a cover of Joe Jackson's 'Steppin' Out'".

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NEW GYM CLASS HEROES ALBUM
Gym Class Heroes have announced that they'll release their third album in September. 'The Quilt' will be out in the US on 9 Sep, preceded by the release of a single, 'Cookie Jar', which will be available as a download from 8 Jul. It's been produced by The Dream, Cool & Dre and Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump and features guest appearances by the likes of Estelle, Busta Rhymes and Daryl Hall.

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EMMANUEL JAL RELEASE
Sudanese child soldier turned rapper Emmanuel Jal, is set to release his track 'Emma' following rave reviews of his performance of it at the recent Nelson Mandela birthday concert.

The single, available from iTunes from 22 Jul, is taken from Jal's recently released album 'Warchild', and is dedicated to British aid worker Emma McCune, who rescued the performer from his life as a child soldier but sadly died not long after in a car accident.

Watch his performance of 'Emma' at the Mandela concert here and get your press info from Noble PR.

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THE VERVE OFFER FREE DOWNLOAD
The Verve, who are set to release new album 'Forth' on 18 Aug, have released a free track via their website. 'Mover', which does not appear on the new LP, can be downloaded from www.vervedownload.com. Get it now, because it's only going to be there for a few days.

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MORTON VALENCE RAISE THIRTEEN GRAND IN FAN FUNDING
An unsigned band has raised thirteen grand directly off fans in a bid to launch their recording careers, and not even my using one of those grass roots band investment sites like SliceThePie or sellaband.

The achievement presumably shows that either South London based electro-rock outfit Morton Valence have some very rich fans, or that, now that unsigned artists can connect with large fanbases directly via the net, there are a whole lot of new opportunities for getting together the initial investment required to launch a band, money traditionally only available via a deal with a record label. It also helps that less money is needed as the costs of sound production and music distribution decline.

Reckoning themselves to be the first unknown band to have raised such funding totally on their own, a statement from Morton Valence says: "This is the first time a virtually unknown band has embarked on such a project at such high stakes, but their gamble is certainly paying off, to the tune of £13,000 and rising. MV have just set up their own label 'Bastard Recordings' through which they will be releasing their forthcoming album 'Bob And Veronica Ride Again' which they co-own with their fans".

For more info on the venture go check www.myspace.com/mortonvalence or email [email protected]

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ROCK BAND AND GUITAR HERO STUFF
Games makers Electronic Arts will reportedly release the sequel to their popular 'pretend to play a guitar' game Rock Band in September, initially for Xbox. Confirming the next generation of the game was in development, Alex Rigopulos of the studio that created it, Harmonix, told reporters recently: "As successful as the original 'Rock Band' continues to be, we've now had the benefit of the last eight months to listen to our fans' requests and to build upon that foundation. 'Rock Band 2' is a second-generation band game that will elevate the music game experience to the next level".

Meanwhile, Aerosmith were in New York at the weekend to officially launch their own edition of rival pretend-to-play game 'Guitar Hero'. The special edition features songs from throughout the band's career, as well as music from their inspirations and collaborators, including Joan Jett and Run DMC. The game officially went of sale late last week and was celebrated by the band at the party at New York's Hard Rock Café at the weekend.

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SINGLE REVIEW: Goldfrapp - Caravan Girl (EMI/Mute Records)
I had no idea what to expect from a Goldfrapp song titled 'Caravan Girl'; somehow I doubt Alison G has ever been near a caravan. But I was never envisaging what it is - a bright, summery, pop-friendly track. It must be the least Goldfrapp-y song I've heard them do, and in truth it's a bit disturbing. 'Caravan Girl' is dreadfully mellow and sedate, and frankly a bit bland. The track is so far from what you might expect from them and it's a shame that it doesn't grip you instantly; on first listen, it's easy to forget you've even heard it at all. While Alison Goldfrapp's beautifully silky voice rescues it to a certain degree, I'm hoping this isn't a direction they'll be moving into for too long. DH
Release Date: 30 Jun
Press Contact: EMI [all]

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LAST SHADOW PUPPETS TOUR DATES
The Last Shadow Puppets have announced five tour dates to straddle their Reading and Leeds festival performances this August. All shows will feature a sixteen-piece orchestra and tickets go on sale this Saturday (5 Jul).

Tour dates:

19 Aug: Portsmouth Guildhall
20 Aug: Oxford New Theatre
22 Aug: Leeds Festival
24 Aug: Reading Festival
22 Aug: Glasgow Academy
23 Aug: Sheffield City Hall
26 Aug: London Hammersmith Apollo

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BON JOVI TO PERFORM FREE SET
Bon Jovi are to do a free gig in New York's Central Park on Saturday 12 Jul, which is nice of them. It's to celebrate the Major League Baseball All-Star game taking place on 15 Jul and free tickets for the event will be distributed at the Yankee and Shea Stadia, and at other New York events.

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SONYBMG UK MOVE OFFICES
SonyBMG are finally leaving their concrete bunker in Putney to take up new offices on High Street Kensington - a move that has been a very long time in the pipeline. Some of the major's teams will start working from the new base later this week, though Kensington will officially become the home of SonyBMG UK on 28 Jul.

The major has been based in the former BMG UK HQ ever since the sale of Sony Music's swish offices in Soho shortly after the SonyBMG merger. A move to a slightly more central London base has been promised for a long time now, and top execs at the label will hope the move back into Zone 1 will be a morale boost, even if the open plan design of the new offices means bosses and their underlings now have to work side by side.

The move, of course, also means all four of the major record companies will have their London HQs on what is basically the same street. Which will be handy when they eventually all merge to create SonyBMGWarnerUniversalEMIMusic.

The new address is SonyBMG, 9 Derry Street, London, W8 5HY. The phone number will be 020 7937 0188.

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EMI SUE VIDEO SHARING SERVICE
With all the leaving dos that have been going on in the vicinity of EMI's Brook Green HQ in the last week you'd be forgiven for thinking that there's no one left at the major to be doing anything as taxing as issuing copyright litigation, but someone in EMI's legal department had time last week to launch a lawsuit against popular social networking website Hi5 and web-video-service provider VideoEgg. The lawsuit alleges that the two companies, by allowing users to upload videos by EMI artists without their permission, are guilty of copyright infringement.

VideoEgg, for their part, have responded with the usual defence for such litigation - that they do not support the use of their service for the unlicensed posting of other people's content, and that they take down such content quickly when given notice by a content owner, adding that they had received no such notice from EMI. Given that some legal types don't think that defence alone would stand up in court (it is still to be tested in the US courts, but could well be with the ongoing MTV/YouTube action), VideoEgg add that not only do they have a rapid unlicensed-content-removal-system, but that they also employ the Audible Magic filtering system which tries to stop users uploaded any content that has been logged as unlicensed by a content owner.

EMI have not responded to VideoEgg's response. It remains to be seen if, as is often the case in these legal disputes, a licensing deal is struck between the net firms and the major before it actually gets to court.

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EMI TO DISTRIBUTE WELK LABELS
And as if that litigation wasn't keeping the few remaining EMI execs busy (OK, they haven't fired everyone), the major yesterday announced a new deal which will see it provide sales and distribution services to US based independent music firm the Welk Music Group, which owns the Vanguard, Sugar Hill and Ranwood labels, and works with artists like Greg Laswell, Shawn Mullins, Mindy Smith, Kasey Chambers and the Gibson Brothers and which has catalogue from the likes of Buddy Guy, Hootie And The Blowfish, Linda Ronstadt, Joan Osbourne and Dolly Parton.

Confirming the deal, Welk boss Kevin Welk told reporters: "EMI offers us unique, seamless, global reach, and allows us to tap into their strong relationship network with physical and digital partners around the world. Their bold moves to transform its business will serve our labels and our artists well as we work to extend their reach to new audiences on a variety of new music platforms".

EMI Music President Of Commercial Development Ronn Were added: "We are honored to have Welk Music Group and its amazing roster of artists work with the EMI family. EMI Music's aim is to provide world class services to artists and to bring great music to fans. Kevin Welk and his team have built an illustrious catalogue and active artist roster, and we are thrilled to offer EMI's global capabilities to them. We look forward to working with the Welk Music family of labels and taking their artists to new levels of success".

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MORE EMI CEO SPECULATION
A last bit of EMI news, and there has been more speculation regarding who Terra Firma chief Guy Hands will appoint as a CEO for the major.

Hands has been fulfilling the top job himself since his private equity firm acquired EMI last year, but he is expected to hand over the day to day top exec duties to a new recruit once his restructure of the major is complete. Or, rather, according to the latest gossip, he will appoint a new CEO for recorded music division EMI Music, and that person, and existing EMI Music Publishing CEO Roger Faxon, will report to him.

The most recent name put forward as a possible for the EMI Music CEO role by the Financial Times is Elio Leoni Sceti, who currently heads up the European division for cleaning and pharmaceutical products firm Reckitt Benckiser.

Sceti would probably be great in the job. He'd presumably know a thing or two about keeping EMI's property smelling Spring fresh without having to spend thousands a month on, erm, "flowers". Plus, for those EMI associates missing that "flowers budget" that Hands reportedly cut on his arrival at the major, well, presumably Sceti has a good source for well priced drugs. I mean, his current employer make both Nurofen and Strepsils. Two of my favourite drugs.

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FORMER VIRGIN A&R JOINS EXPANDED MANAGEMENT FIRM
Actually, one bit more EMI news, though not really. The former MD and A&R chief at EMI's Virgin and Hut Records, David Boyd, has joined Connected Artists, a newly expanded artist management firm headed up by Paul McDonald, manager of James Morrison, and allied to Robert Horsfall and Mike Skeet's recently launched music law and finance firm Sound Advice.

In joining Connected, Boyd will bring both his management roster with him - which includes The SugaRush Beat Company and The Chakras - as well as his own indie label The Flock, which recently released the debut album by Angus & Julia Stone in Europe.

Confirming his move to Connected, Boyd told reporters: "I'm very excited to be joining these new creative and business management teams who share the same vision and ambitions as me. As the musical landscape changes, I feel I am best placed within this environment to represent the artists in the modern world".

McDonald added: "I'm delighted to welcome David and his fantastic roster to our expanding management operation. His enormous experience and artist friendly reputation will enhance the company and we hope our infrastructure will provide David with a great platform from which to grow".

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P&P TO WORK IN SYNC WITH LONDON CALLING
London based music publisher P&P Songs is the latest company to enter into a partnership with London Calling, the previously reported synch rights agency set up by Tracie London-Rowell last December (and nothing to do with the music industry convention of the same name).

The partnership will see London Calling look for opportunities to utilise P&P's catalogue, which includes music by the likes of Burt Bacharach, Albert Hammond and Steve Miller, in the film and TV industries.

P&P Joint MD Peter McCamley told reporters: "We jumped at the opportunity to work with Tracie. Operating in tandem with Indi Chawla, our Licensing Director, we believe this gives us an edge in the increasingly-competitive sychronization market".

Other companies who have formed alliances with London Calling in the sync domain include another publishing outfit - Fabric Publishing - and management companies like CMO and ie:music.

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UK EDITION OF WIRED PLANNED
Onto magazine publishers now, and Conde Nast has announced it will launch a UK version of technology magazine Wired in the first half of 2009. They have already hired David Rowan, editor of the Jewish Chronicle, to oversee the launch. The UK launch will be closely followed by the launch of an Italian edition of the US magazine, which focuses in the main on how technology is impacting on society and culture, including music.

Confirming he will leave his current job to oversee the launch of Wired UK, Rowan, who also writes a weekly technology column for The Times, told reporters: "I got offered something that was too exciting not to take up. When I got approached by the best magazine publisher in the world for the most exciting magazine - I thought 'wow'".

There was a short lived UK version of the magazine back in the mid-nineties, which preceded Conde Nast's purchase of the title in 1998.

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KANGAROO REFERRED TO COMPETITION COMMISSION
Kangaroo, the previously reported joint TV-on-demand platform being developed by BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV has been referred to the Competition Commission by the Office Of Fair Trading, and not just because of the dumb proposal to call the new service SeeSaw.

The OFT says they are concerned any collaboration of this scale between three such influential broadcasters could be anti-competitive. In a statement the Office said: "The concentration of these important and competing libraries of UK TV programming may give market power to the joint venture, enabling it to charge higher prices in syndicating content to wholesale customers, and potentially raise download-to-rent and download-to-own prices paid by VOD consumers, or limit the range of ways in which viewers can watch the parties' content on demand".

The Competition Commission will now investigate the Kangaroo proposals, something which could take up to 24 weeks, which will presumably hinder their plans to launch this Summer.

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TARRANT RETURNS TO RADIO
Oh, loads of radio news for you this morning. First up, GMG Radio has announced it has recruited Chris Tarrant to present a new weekly show - Tarrant's first regular radio show since leaving Capital Radio in 2004. The show will be syndicated across eight GMG stations, including Smooth, Real Radio and Century Radio outlets. The show, which will be sponsored by Nissan Micra, will go up against Jonathan Ross's popular Radio 2 show, a show that commercial radio has long wished to compete with and such a high profile syndication has been proposed before as one way to do so. The show will also be available nationally through GMG's Sky and Freeview channels.

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LRC SELLS SIX STATIONS
Following on from the news yesterday that the Local Radio Company is hoping to resurrect Jazz FM on digital, news today that the radio firm is selling off six of its under-performing local stations. Brunel FM (Swindon), Bath FM (Bath) and 3TR (Wiltshire) have been bought by Laser Broadcasting, while Midwest Radio has bought Ivel FM (Yeovil) and Vale FM (Dorset), and Pennine FM (Huddersfield) has been bought by its management. The sale of six of its stations follows LRC's disposal of Merseyside based Dune FM last month.

Local Radio Company boss Richard Wheatly says this: "Despite the difficult advertising environment in the radio industry our underlying business again continues to outperform the market across key operational measures. We have taken a number of major steps to improve operating performance, including the disposal of non-performing stations and continue to review all of our options in a consolidating market place to optimise our portfolio of stations".

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XFM RETURNS TO SOUTH WALES
Xfm is returning to South Wales. Sort of. Following the sale of the Welsh outpost of GCap's alternative radio service to Town & Country Broadcast and its almost immediate relaunch as Nation Radio, GCap has got permission from media regulator OfCom to put the London version of Xfm onto the digital radio network in Cardiff and Newport, meaning those missing the station in the region can listen to it, albeit without the Welsh programmes and providing their have a DAB radio.

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XFM PRODUCER GOES TO THE HITS
More Xfm - or, rather, former Xfm people going elsewhere. Xfm Manchester's Station Sound Producer, Steve Dunlop, has been head hunted by Bauer Radio to be Programmes Manager for its The Hits station.

The Hits Programme Director, Anthony Gay, told reporters: "Steve is a great addition to the team and I'm looking for his strong creative skills to help drive the consistent growth we've seen in The Hits' listening hours".

Dunlop himself added: "I'm joining the UK's leading national digital station and I'm excited about the potential. It's already very successful but there's an opportunity to further develop its audiences and interactivity".

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IAN CAMFIELD JOINS KERRANG!
Another former Xfm-er going to a Bauer station is Ian Camfield, who will present a new weekly rock show on Kerrang! Radio. Camfield left Xfm London last year after ten years with the station to host drive time on New York's K-Rock - but will return to the UK airwaves on a weekly basis with a new show on Kerrang! Radio, broadcast from New York.

Kerrang! Programme Director Gordon Davidson says this: "Ian is joining Kerrang! Radio as our 'Brit abroad', he really knows his rock music and the 'Kerrang! Show' will be a great kick-start for the weekend. Our programming delivers ratings by day with credible music and the personality-driven presenters we invest in such as Kate Lawler, Emma Scott, Stuart Cable and triple Sony Award winning Simon James and Hill. The new 'Kerrang! Show' is a great addition to the station's specialist shows and Kerrang!'s unrivalled reputation by night, where we continue to support new and alternative music".

Camfield added: "For a decade I had a weekly show where I could play the best in all things rock. That was always my favourite programme and I have missed it immensely this year. I am extremely excited to be returning to UK airwaves with this format and to be doing it with Kerrang! It's a perfect fit".

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ALICIA KEYS LOOKING FORWARD TO EARLY RETIREMENT
Alicia Keys says she might retire when she's thirty. I don't necessarily think she means sitting around the house in slippers and doing a bit of gardening, however. "I am working hard now so I have the choice to retire when I want", she says. "I would like to travel the world and stay in places instead of having to move on like I do now. I want to experience difference cultures".

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MADONNA AND GUY STAYING TOGETHER, SAYS MUM
Despite the fact that everyone is now reporting it as fact, Guy Ritchie's mum, Lady Amber Leighton, has dismissed rumours that her son and Madonna are planning to get divorced as "total tosh".

She told that Perez Hilton chap: "It is absolute rubbish, worse than that. Guy will be furious at me talking to you but I feel I can't just let these reports go unanswered as they make me so angry and they are hurtful intrusions into their private lives. They are no different to most other couples and we all know that being together can be hard sometimes and marriages are not always a bed of roses. But like other couples they work at keeping their relationship happy and fresh and they are a close and loving couple who have a family to bring up. There's no conversation about divorce because there is no divorce. Madonna is in New York at the moment [rehearsing for] a tour and he will join her there after the weekend. That is not a couple splitting up. I'll say it one more time, they are not getting divorced; the speculation is TT - that's total tosh".

However, The Sun are putting a different spin on it. They say that Ritchie's trip to New York was a last ditch effort to save the marriage. A source told the paper: "They want to make the marriage work, but they are at a stalemate. Divorce is something they have thought about".

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MADONNA'S BROTHER NOW PLANNING REALITY SHOW
More Madonna, and her brother Christopher Ciccone, who has already pissed off his sister with the announcement that he's to publish a memoir about the pop superstar, is clearly not afraid of provoking her further - according to reports, he's now trying to get a reality show about it. A source told New York gossip column Page Six: "He hasn't gotten a deal yet, but he's been pitching it around."

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GOSS SAYS BROS COULD REUNITE
Presumably inspired by the success of reunion tours by the likes of Take That and The Spice Girls (the former more successful than the latter, given that the boyband got back together proper), Matt Goss has said that Bros wouldn't mind giving it a go.

Speaking at the premiere of brother Luke's latest film, the singer said that the former bandmates had discussed the possibility, adding: "Being in a band is like being a politician, you've got to make sure everyone is happy. But Luke, Craig [Logan] and definitely myself - we're all up for it. If we can make the numbers work and the venues work, then we're all up for it."

He continued: "I had the best time. I think everyone that went to see Bros gigs had the best time and that's the one reason we all agreed it'd be a good laugh if we did it."

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RONSON TURNS DOWN THE HOFF
Mark Ronson has revealed that he recently turned down the opportunity to work with David Hasslehoff. Something I can't help feeling will come back to haunt him later - if The Hoff's voice can bring down the Berlin wall, think what it could do for the career of a struggling producer like Ronson. Anyway, the deal was apparently broached backstage at the Coachella festival. Ronson said: "He came up and was like, 'Hey, I really love your stuff,' and I was just taken aback. He stayed and watched our show and said that he's got some new TV show and wanted me to produce a song with him. But I'm a bit busy right now!"

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