| CMU Daily - on the inside 14 Oct 2002 |
|
In today's CMU Daily:
• Chart Update,
• Record sales officially down,
• Xpress 2 talk a little about the new album,
• Review: Lemon Jelly - Lost Horizons,
• Former Limp Bizkit guitarist searches for new singer,
• Review: Various - 1 Love,
• Female artists rock to raise awareness of breast cancer,
• Alex James on Coxon and the new album,
• Jacko’s ranch open to the Air Force,
• Stones admit their early hits were “crap”,
• Napster administrators look for loan,
• Tabloid bits
------------------------------------------------
Children of the famous – who are the rock star fathers of the following interestingly named children? Memphis Eve, Dandelion, Django and Zowie
Answer tomorrow
------------------------------------------------
RECOMMENDED RELEASES: OUT TODAY
Singles: Badly Drawn Boy - You Were Right (Beggars/Twisted Nerve), Graham Coxon - Escape Song/Mountain Of Regret (Transcopic), Joseph Malik – Remixed (Compost), Manic Street Preachers - There By The Grace Of God (Sony/Epic), Nelly – Dilema, (Universal/Island), Simian - Never Be Alone (Virgin/Source), Sondre Lerche - Sleep On Needles (Virgin/Source), The Delgados - Coming In From The Cold (Beggars/Mantra), The Doves - Caught By The River (EMI/Heavenly), The Underwolves - Under Your Sky (Remixes) (JCR), Turin Brakes - Long Distance (Virgin/Source), Aquanote - Nowhere (Virgin/Naked), Umek – Ep (Novamute)
Albums: Econoline - Music Is Stupid (Seriously Groovy/Infur), Funky Monkey - Join Us In Tomorrow (Funky Inc), JJ72 - I To Sky (Sony/Lakota), Lupine Howl - The Bar At The End Of The World (Beggars / Vinyl Hiss), Various - One Love (B Unique)
------------------------------------------------
CHART UPDATE
Well, credit where its due, after a week in Spain where it was being played everywhere, my flatmate predicted the Ketchup Song was going to a storming hit over here, and he was right, Las Ketchup pushed the pop idols out of the number one spot in the singles charts yesterday and prevented the S Club Juniors from having their first number one (they went in at number two).
Elsewhere Foo Fighters went in at five with ‘All My Life’, Richard Ashcroft at eleven with ‘Check The Meaning’ and the excellent The Coral (number one in this week’s student radio chart) scored a new entry at thirteen with ‘Dreaming Of You’. Backstreet Boy Nick Carter’s first solo outing only made it to seventeen, three positions ahead of Australia’s finest The Vines, whose ‘Outtathaway’ went in at 20. The excellent Lemon Jelly only make it in at 36 (there’s no justice). Mr Otway’s ‘Bunsen Burner’ gets a second week in the chart, albeit falling to 23.
Albums wise, Will Young may no longer top the singles chart, be he has knocked Elvis off the top of the albums chart with his debut LP ‘From Now On’, which features some self-penned numbers alongside the released cover versions ‘Anything Is Possible’, ‘Evergreen’ and ‘ Light My Fire’. The Rolling Stones 'best of' remained at number two, Elvis falling to number three.
V2’s The Datsuns went in the albums chart at number 17, Queens of the Stone Age entered at 40, while Radio 2 favourite Eva Cassidy went in at 26 with ‘Songbird’.
------------------------------------------------
RECORD SALES OFFICIALLY DOWN
The value of record sales in the first half of 2002 is down 9.2% on last year according to the latest figures from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry – needless to say piracy (downloads and CD copying) has been blamed. This year has also seen UK sales, which has previously resisted the global downturn, fall by 6.2%. Worst hit was Japan, down 14.2%, sales in the US went down 6.8%, sales across Western Europe as a whole were down 7.5%.
The IFPI has called music piracy "the greatest threat facing the music industry today". IFPI chairman Jay Berman, calling the figures “disappointing, but not unexpected”, told reporters: "The industry is in transition, with widespread CD-R copying and internet downloading continuing to affect sales. It is encouraging that our member companies appear to have an exceptionally strong release schedule in the second half of the year."
As previously reported the release schedule leading up to Christmas is particularly strong. The Elvis and Rolling Stones compilations are selling well, ‘best ofs’ from U2 and Westlife are expected to shift many units, as are new albums from Robbie Williams and Craig David. Many hope this line up and the Christmas rush will help the UK market, at least, regain ground before the end of the year.
------------------------------------------------
XPRESS 2 TALK, A LITTLE, ABOUT THE NEW ALBUM
Diesel from Xpress 2 has been talking to Radio 1 about their forthcoming album, admitting it will be next year before it will be ready for release: "We've got a nice posh studio,” he said. “We're quite amazed, we went to see it last week and we were really blown away. It's a new environment. We're aiming to get the album out in September next year, and we've got tons of ideas to crack on with. There are a couple of tracks that didn't make the last album, which we wanted to be in there but we were pushed for time. There's some really good collaborations but I can't really say anything!"
------------------------------------------------
REVIEW: Lemon Jelly - Lost Horizons (Beggars/XL)
OK, I admit it, I rarely take to an album on first listen, which makes me prone to keep the tried and tested LPs in the CD player. Only when I’ve got to know enough singles off an album does it appear on my regular play pile. That, and the fact tomorrow’s Daily always needs writing, is why I don’t review albums all that often. But after hearing a few minutes of Lemon Jelly’s XFM Session last week I was immediately intrigued, so much so that when their album ‘Lost Horizons’ arrived it went straight on repeat play. While it does have that Moby, cinematic feel about it, all the eight tracks here are sufficiently smooth yet quirky to put them above such simplistic comparisons. I’ve no idea what the tracks are called ‘cos there’s no listings on the smart packaging and I lost the press release (as I say, I don’t review much) but personal favourites: tracks three and five. Lemon Jelly’s ‘Lost Horizons’ – this is going to be the soundtrack to my first movie (something else I would get round to, except tomorrow’s Daily isn’t going to write itself…) CC
Release date: 21 Oct
Press contact: Beggars IH
------------------------------------------------
FORMER LIMP BIZKIT GUITARIST SEARCHES FOR NEW SINGER
When Wes Borland quit Limp Bizkit, Fred Durst welcomed audition tapes from other guitarists. Now Borland has done the same to find a vocalist for his new band Eat The Day. "We had originally planned on handling the vocal duties ourselves, but after much toil have decided that the quality of our voices does not match the quality of our music," Borland has written on his website. To that end he is welcoming demos – by mail or email – as we speak.
Talking about his new band's style, he warned he wasn’t interested in hearing from rappers. "We are looking more for a beautiful voice and not a Nu-Metallish type of vibe. Someone who is extremely dynamic. Someone who can sing as sweetly as Jeff Buckley and also scream bloody murder, but we are ready to be open minded to almost anything except for rap!"
Durst famously tried to lure Borland back in May by publishing his former guitarist's email address and asking fans to encourage him to rejoin the band. "I have to say that I immediately wanted to shut the account down, but ended up leaving it up for a while to see what kind of response I got," Borland said. "Although I did not read the hundreds of E-mails themselves, I took time to browse over the subject titles. 75% or more of all the E-mails pleaded for me not to return. I was amazed. Thank you all for the support.”
------------------------------------------------
REVIEW: Various - 1 Love (b-unique)
“I wonder if it’s Huey Lewis or Jennifer Rush’s ‘Power Of Love’,” I thought to myself. It was, of course, the Frankie Goes To Hollywood ‘Power Of Love’, which was a bit of a disappointment because there just isn’t enough Huey Lewis on the radio anymore. But I’m pleased to report that Feeder’s decision to opt to cover the Frankie classic rather than the Back To The Future anthem was the only disappointment to be found on this NME branded charity album in aid of the truly worthy War Child appeal. Charity projects tend to bring out the cynic in me, I can’t help thinking the charadee ticket is too often used to cover up bad quality entertainment (did I mention its Children in Need next month?), but not so here. Sixteen current artists cover a classic track and while they all do themselves proud Stereophonics’ ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, Prodigy’s ‘Ghost Town’ and Oasis’ ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ were my favourites (though Darius’ ‘Pretty Flamingo’ wasn’t that bad either!). Don’t blag this album, go out and buy it. Damn good cause sitting in front of equally damn good album. I hope it knocks Will Young off number one. CC
Release date: 14 Oct
Press contact: Hall or Nothing [CP, RP, NP] bunique IH [CR, RR, NR]
------------------------------------------------
FEMALE ARTISTS ROCK TO RAISE AWARENESS OF BREAST CANCER
Leading female artists came together at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles this weekend to raise awareness for the battle against breast cancer. Chrissie Hynde (with and without the Pretenders), Michelle Branch, Gloria Estefan, Lee Ann Womack, Jennifer Love Hewitt (who also hosted), and Chaka Khan performed for an invited audience including breast cancer survivors, cable affiliates, radio contest winners and celebrities.
Among the highlights of the night were Khan’s soulful take on the Paul McCartney classic ‘Maybe I'm Amazed’, Hynde’s cover of the Louis Armstrong's track ‘What a Wonderful World’ and Hynde and Womack’s duet version of Patsy Cline's ‘Crazy’.
"They're finding more and more cases of breast cancer in younger women," Jennifer Love Hewitt told reporters. "I thought it would be good for me to come out on behalf of a demographic that doesn't expect this kind of thing to happen to them."
------------------------------------------------
ALEX JAMES ON COXON AND THE NEW ALBUM
Blur bassist Alex James has told fans he plans to call estranged guitarist and former bandmember Graham Coxon. Coxon has stayed in London to promote his solo album while his three former bandmates travel with Fatboy Slim to Morocco to finish their next album. On Blur’s official website James admits he is wondering where Coxon is, and says that he’ll call him.
Talking about the new album he continues: "Norman has a musical compass and he leads us places we haven’t been before. It’s good to get a fresh perspective on a few tracks and hear some new jokes. Norman isn’t scared of anything, oh except the thing with 10 legs that eats marbles that lives behind the studio, but he has a fearless perspective that people who know they are good all enjoy. We had a good time with a couple of songs that we hadn’t seen for ages, and a whole new one arrived. It sounds a bit like a cross between Blur and Fatboy Slim. "
------------------------------------------------
JACKO’S RANCH OPEN TO THE AIR FORCE
Michael Jackson opened up his home Neverland to 200 members of the US Air Force this weekend. Jacko said the gesture was "an appreciation to Air Force members in his community who have served overseas in support of Operation Enduring Freedom".
------------------------------------------------
STONES ADMIT THEIR EARLY HITS WERE “CRAP”
The Rolling Stones, speaking to BBC Radio Five Live, have described some of their early songs as being "crap". Calling the Stones the “original manufactured pop band” Mick Jagger recalled how the band’s first five UK hits were cover versions, and that he only struck up his hit songwriting partnership with guitarist Keith Richards after their manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, locked them in a room. "We couldn't write rock songs, we just wrote these crap ballads," he said. The first tune they wrote was "a horrible song", he admitted.
The duo wrote a “crap ballad, ‘As Tears Go By’ - I can say now, it's a wonderful tune, but we didn't think it was that great at the time." The song delivered at top ten hit for Marianne Faithfull in 1964. "Eventually we got to grips with writing rock tunes, but it took a little time," he concluded. The first single they wrote, ‘The Last Time’, went to number one and, of course, was followed up over time by classics like ‘Satisfaction’, ‘Get Off My Cloud’ and ‘Paint It Black’.
------------------------------------------------
NAPSTER ADMINISTRATORS LOOK FOR LOAN
Napster may well take a loan from its preferred buyer to help it stay afloat while negotiations continue. The firm's administrators hope to get a deal on a loan sorted by next week, and are also considering selling off some of its assets in a bid to generate rapid cash. Word is a number of bids have been made for the brand and URL since US courts prevented a complete takeover by BMG. The asking prices is believed to be somewhere around $6million.
------------------------------------------------
TABLOID BITS
Popstars contestant Nicola Ward has reportedly quit the show despite making the top 10 of girl band hopefuls. In a sudden burst of righteousness she told the Sunday Mirror: "They are trying to make us sign our life away. The contract is outrageous. If we win we have to sign up to an agreement which means they own us. They can use our faces on mugs or duvets, and God knows what. And we'll only get £1,500 a week for touring while they're raking it in. They'll be making profits from ticket sales, T-shirts and TV interviews and paying us a pittance. It's not worth it. I'm going to concentrate now on getting a solo career and find a company that won't try to control my entire life. At the end of the day when you look at what's happened to Hear'Say - the last band produced by this programme - I don't think I'm giving up too much."
Word is Muse are threatening to sue Celine Dion for using their name for her Las Vegas show. They claim they own the American performing rights to the name, which means no other artist can use it – as a band or show name. The Sun reports Dion has offered the band £32,000 to use the name but they have refused. "They've told us they are pressing ahead with the Muse name whether we like it or not, they think if we try and sue them they will crush us with their might" lead singer Matt Bellamy told the paper.
Pop idol Gareth Gates may have been knocked off the number one spot, but he has won the title of best male artist at the Disney Channel Kids Award at a ceremony in Docklands this weekend. Atomic Kitten were named best female artists, Liberty X best dance act and S Club Juniors best newcomers. Pop Idol hosts Ant and Dec won the award for best TV stars.
Gareth Gates is also hot contender for most bizarre fling of the year after Jordan told the News of the World she had been sleeping with the young star for the four months immediately following the Pop Idol final, apparently taking his virginity along the way!
------------------------------------------------
Answer to Friday’s pop quiz:
Paula Abdul, Sting, Bryan Ferry, Supergrass' Gaz Coombes, Ian Drury and Annie Lennox - which were waiters before they were famous, which were teachers?
Paula, Annie and Gaz were waiters before they were famous, Ian, Bryan and Sting were teachers.