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![]() INTRODUCING LEYLINE PUBLICITY Leyline Promotions - better known as one of the capital’s leading independent promoters (The Remix, Kill All Hippies, Insomniacs Ball, Twisted Licks, Breaking Ground) - have created a new publicity department headed up by Nick Bateson and Adrian Leigh. The pair have worked on major campaigns including a-ha, Glade Festival, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Standon Calling Festival and Hervé amongst others. In addition to their wealth of experience in the live arena, Leyline Publicity now specialise in bespoke PR services including online and offline music and lifestyle press, radio plugging, brand development, digital marketing and blogging. For further information please contact: [email protected] or [email protected] t: 020 7575 3285 -- DESK SPACE Leyline Promotions has two desk suites available in a well-appointed courtyard studio in Westbourne Studios, W10. Ideal for a small creative agency in a very friendly and professional environment. Rent includes: storage, broadband connections, business rates, insurance, 24 hr access, restaurant and bar, conference facilities, natural sunlight. 4 mins walk from Westbourne Park tube station. Call Adrian for more info on 07971 555 020 / [email protected] ADVERTISE WITH CMU - classifieds £120 per week, job ads £100 per week, banner ads £150 per week, leader box £200 per week - call 020 7099 9050 or email [email protected] for information or to book. back to top |
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GUILTY: SPECTOR TRIAL UPDATE While its not known whether he intended to kill Clarkson when he pulled the trigger that night or not, his recklessness was sufficient to convict Spector of second degree murder. This is all a slightly over dramatic way of telling you that yesterday the second jury to consider the murder allegations against Phil Spector reached a verdict, and convicted the legendary producer of murder. He was remanded in custody, and now awaits sentencing on 29 May, when he will be given between fifteen years and life in prison which, given Spector is now 68, could amount to the same thing anyway. As much previously reported, Spector maintains that Clarkson shot herself after accompanying him back to his LA home after the pair met at the West Hollywood branch of the House of Blues, where the former actress worked. Two sets of defence lawyers argued that forensic evidence proved Spector's claims, while they presented various documents and witnesses that suggested Clarkson was very depressed and maybe suicidal before going home with Spector that night in 2003, and was therefore capable of ending it all in a moment of depression-fuelled madness. As for the chauffeur's testimony that his boss had said "I think I killed someone" minutes after Clarkson had died, the defence argued the Brazlian driver, a non-native English speaker, just misheard as the producer spoke over the noisy fountain in the driveway. But the prosecution's case - based in the main on a string of former Spector girlfriends who each had stories of times when the producer had pulled guns on them in a threatening manner - seemed to be more convincing as far as the jurors were concerned. Nevertheless, in Spector's first trial two jurors dissented and insisted they couldn't say, beyond reasonable doubt, that the producer was holding the gun that killed Clarkson, resulting in a mistrial overall. The second jury, however, and despite being offered the lesser crime of involuntary manslaughter, returned a verdict of second degree murder after thirty hours of deliberations. A frail looking Spector, dressed in a black suit and bright red tie, reportedly made no obvious response as the guilty verdict was delivered, though his wife since 2006, Rachelle, sobbed beside him. The producer's lawyer, Doron Weinberg, said the jury had behaved with "complete integrity and complete honesty", but then promptly picked holes in their judgement. He said the prosecution had "flooded" the trial with "improper and prejudicial evidence" which had prevented jurors from reaching a "fair conclusion". He added that he was "very very certain" that under what he called "the proper legal standard" his client had not been proven guilty. That meant, Weinberg predicted, the verdict would likely be set aside on appeal. Spector's intentions regarding appeal are not yet known, though he is expected to do so. However, one of the jurors, in one of those strangely American post-verdict jury press conferences, argued the jury had got the "complete picture" of what happened that night a Spector's home from the evidence presented, and that she and her fellow jurors had "gone through all the information and that's what the conclusion was". Weinberg requested that his client remain free until sentencing on 29 May, but Judge Larry Fidler refused, putting the producer straight into custody. The severity of Spector's sentence, and the time scale for his appeal, remain to be seen. -------------------------------------------------- A SURPRISE NO TO THREE-STRIKE PROPOSALS IN FRENCH PARLIAMENT This time the pre-Easter low turnout did the opposite - leading to the blocking of new laws that the music business want to see passed, the much previously reported 'Creation & Internet' law that contains the infamous three-strike system that will see persistent illegal file-sharers in France lose their internet connections. While the French parliament's upper house, the Senate, had already passed the new laws, and the Assembly had previously approved its most controversial provision - the aforementioned three-strikes - when the Assembly was asked to vote on the new act as a whole on Thursday those MPs who had bothered to show up voted 21 to 15 against. As previously reported, there is still much vocal opposition to the new laws, and especially the three-strike system, and some reckon that those political types who oppose the proposals made an extra effort to attend on Thursday, aware that the government's supporters would be few and far between ahead of the holiday, giving them a chance to hinder the new stricter copyright rules. It is more of a hindrance than anything else, because the French government have already said they will reintroduce their proposals to parliament almost straight away, and that they remain committed to making the three-strike system law. Nevertheless, music business groups in France have been critical of the government for letting their supporters in parliament drift away ahead of such a crucial vote on an issue where opposition within the Assembly was widely known. It is not clear what the new timetable for pushing this legislation through will now be, though I think it will have to go back to the Senate as well as the Assembly, so it will mean a delay of at least months in making the new anti-piracy measures law. Given that the music industry hopes to use the momentum of France's new copyright laws, and the three-strike system, to persuade governments elsewhere to introduce similar measures, the delay is extra frustrating. Recalling the sneaky pre-holiday vote on P2P in 2005, French songwriters society Sacem said on Friday: "Unfortunately, lessons from the past have been useless, which is a great frustration for creators who are each day more penalised and despoiled". They and other industry bodies called on the government to get the 'Creation & Internet' proposals back on the parliamentary agenda asap. -------------------------------------------------- BROWN DENIES DATING EX There were reports last week that the disgraced R&B star had been seen leaving a tattoo parlour with Erica Jackson, who he dated prior to Rihanna. But a spokesman for Brown told the New York Daily News this weekend: "He did go to a tattoo parlour with someone from the [recording] studio named Dean. There was a woman there who was a friend of Dean... Chris does not know the woman nor does he know the name of the woman". As previously reported, there have been conflicting reports regarding whether or not Rihanna and Brown have resumed their relationship since the couple's somewhat violent altercation back in February. We still don't really know what's going on. We do know, however, that Rihanna hasn't been crying her heart out to fellow US pop star Katy Perry. She's told MTV that while she does count Rihanna as a friend, she hasn't, despite what some reports have said, been busy trying to proactively cheer up her fellow pop star since the beating by Brown. Perry: "We've hung out a couple times... Of course I consider her a friend, but it's not like 'I'm there', making a big deal of it, because I feel weird about that type of stuff. You know, we're just buddies. We've had dinner, and that's about it. We're both kind of on this crazy rollercoaster, and... it's nice to have good girlfriends. I pride myself on having cool chicks in my life, and she's a cool chick". Brown is due back in court to face the charges relating to his fight with Rihanna on 29 Apr. KANYE PAP ATTACK HEARING POSTPONED DELFONIC RANDY CAIN DIES Cain founded The Delfonics with William and Wilbert Hart whilst all three were attending Overbrook High School in Philadelphia during the sixties, but other members were soon recruited and the line-up has changed significantly over time. The band's first LP met with immediate success, spawning smash hit single 'La La (Means I Love You)', and in 1970 they won a grammy for their track 'Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time'. Cain left the group in 1971, and was instrumental in the formation of another R&B group, Blue Magic. Meanwhile, The Delfonics were splintering into different groups, many performing as The Delfonics, and Cain returned to one of those in 1980. Former bandmate Wilbert Hart told The Philadelphia Daily News that he last saw Cain four or five months ago, adding: "I'm gonna miss him. We grew up together since 1968". GEORGE HARRISON GETS WALK OF FAME STAR DISPUTED PROCOL HARUM SONG TOPS MOST-PLAYED TRACK POLL As previously reported, Fisher claims he wrote the most famous bit of the song, the distinctive organ melody, but had never been credited for it because of an informal in-studio agreement with the band's lead singer and main composer Gary Brooker. But Brooker denied Fisher had any songwriting role in relation to 'A Whiter Shade'. Fisher wanted a credit and half the song's royalties. A court considering the dispute initially sided with Fisher and awarded him of 40% of royalties since 2005, but appeal judges subsequently ruled that, while Fisher probably did write the organ music, he'd left it too late to make his claim to royalties from the 1967 hit. Fisher is currently appealing that ruling through the House Of Lords. So, why persist with the fight? Well, given that Radio 2 has just announced that 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' is the most publicly played song in the UK from the last 75 years, those are presumably royalties well worth having a cut of. The chart of songs most played in public was complied by PPL and presented on a Radio 2 show presented by Rob Brydon. In addition to the Procul Harum track, the other top ten most played songs were as follows... 1. Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade Of Pale Commenting on his song topping the most played chart, Brooker told the BBC: "This is a great and unsought honour. It isn't something I could have remotely imagined when I wrote the song and then made that legendary recording with Procol Harum all those years ago. Every musician and singer hopes to reach out and communicate to the audience so it means a great deal that the record has such an indefinable popularity and lasting appeal". No one seems to have asked Fisher for a quote. Perhaps he was too busy fuming about all those lost royalties to say anything. 22 YEAR OLD BOW WOW RETIRES AGAIN Speaking about his recently released sixth solo studio album 'New Jack City II', he has told a US website: "This is my last album because for me, there's no more that needs to be done on the music side, I've done everything. And the scary thing is I'm 22 years old and I'm young. I'm still a baby, so it's kinda like on the music side, I've been doing it since five. That's 17 years of non-stop music, music, music. There's nothing more to accomplish that I haven't seen yet... I feel like now it's time to endure a new challenge... Close the chapter on the Bow Wow legacy". AllHipHop.com point out this isn't the first time that Bow Wow has announced he will retire, while also wondering whether the latest decision to quit music has anything to do with the somewhat lacklustre performance of 'New Jack City II', which they say has sold just 30,900 units in the US so far. To back up the theory that poor record sales have led to a change in plan for Bow Wow, they quote a previous interview with People Magazine last year where the rapper declared "After the eighth album, I'm done". The new long player is his sixth, or seventh if you count his 2007 collaboration with Omarion. Bow Wow has previously let it be known he aspires to follow Will Smith's lead and go from a youthful hip hop career into some serious acting work, so his latest retirement announcement may mean he will be looking for more film and TV projects. He's already got some credentials in that domain, of course, and will appear in a Hurricane Katrina themed basketball movie later this year, which sounds terrible, but he might have some good movie projects lined up too. -------------------------------------------------- NO ROBBIE REUNION SAYS BARLOW So, there you go. In slightly related news, Mark Owen is reportedly hoping to release another solo album, possibly hoping to cash in on the profile boost he's been getting from the seemingly unstoppable Take That revival, not that the profile boost he previously got from winning 'Celeb Big Brother' did much to shift Owen's actually not that bad solo work. On Owen's latest solo album plans, a source has told the Sun: "Mark has loved the Take That reunion, every second of it. But he still has a huge desire to be on stage with his own band regardless of all the money, huge crowds and success he has been used to with Take That". DOMINO SIGN THE FALL ![]() SPEARS APOLOGISES FOR ONE HOUR GAP AT VANCOUVER SHOW Some reports suggested this was because a high number of her audience were smoking during the show, smoking both normal cigarettes and dope. There was also a report that an announcement was made in the venue 20 minutes after Britney left the stage urging audience members to stop smoking "marijuana and cigarettes" because they were making the venue "unsafe" for Spears to perform in. And at the end of the show, Spears reportedly signed off her show: "Thanks Vancouver. You were wonderful. Drive safe. Don't smoke weed!" But a spokesman for the singer, apologising for the interruption at the Vancouver show, said that the problem was with the ventilation system above the stage. It's not clear though if it was audience or special effects created smoke that the ventilation system was failing to clear. Spears spokesman said this: "We want to apologise to all the fans who attended our Vancouver show tonight for the brief pause in Britney's set. Crew members above the stage became ill due to a ventilation issue". SINGLE REVIEW: Patrick Wolf - Vulture (Bandstocks) Buy from iTunes TLC CHILLI TO PROMOTE COKE WATER The campaign is seemingly designed to persuade African-American mothers to buy over-priced tap water in resource-draining plastic bottles in order to, in the words of the firm's ironically named VP African-American Marketing, Yolanda White, " increase [the brand's] household penetration and frequency". White says that the former TLCer, as a 38 year old single mother, "embodies the struggles and the balance we see in our target audience. She gives reassurance to moms that you can still be a great mom, take care of yourself and look beautiful". ANALYST MORE UPBEAT ABOUT RECORD INDUSTRY, WARNER SHARE PRICE RISES Interestingly she also had positive things to say about the introduction of variable pricing at market leader download store iTunes. As previously reported, whereas Apple have always previously insisted that all tracks sold on their download platform retail at 99 cents each, the majors have now persuaded them to have a variable pricing system where tracks can vary in price from 69 cents to $1.29. That gives the record companies the option to [a] influence sales in any one week (by discounting) to boost chart position and [b] the chance to subtly raise the costs of the average download over a period of time, rather than putting everything up over night. A similar system is expected to be introduced at most other download stores. The response to the new pricing model in the blogosphere has been mainly negative, but Chung says the development was a "longer-term positive" for the record labels, adding that it could "drive higher volume and higher average revenue per track". -------------------------------------------------- IPO LAUNCH COPYRIGHT TRIBUNAL CONSULTATION The Tribunal exists to rule on various copyright disputes, in particular on royalty disputes in relation to licences music owners are forced to make available under law. Various new measures have been introduced in recent years to make the Tribunal better equipped to deal with modern copyright issues, and now the IPO is asking the likes of PRS, PPL and UK Music whether they feel those measures have worked. The trade bodies need to submit their views by July. In sort of related news, record label trade body the BPI last week said it strongly opposed proposals that the new Digital Rights Agency proposed in the recent 'Digital Britain' report have a role in setting royalty rates, in theory taking some responsibility away from the Tribunal. In its submission to another government consultation, they said they "strongly opposed" such an Agency having price setting powers. As previously reported, the BPI isn't that keen on the idea of a Digital Rights Agency at all, fearing the establishment of such a body would be used to delay introducing new rules to combat online piracy. -------------------------------------------------- BRITISH MUSIC GROWS IN NORTH AMERICA Those stats come from record label trade body the BPI, whose Chairman Tony Wadsworth, told CMU: "Britain's creative industries consistently excel on the world stage - with British music chief amongst them. After the US, we are the biggest exporter of repertoire, and in the US itself the UK is the second largest source of repertoire after US home grown artists. The increase in our North American market share reflects the UK's enduring ability to create world-class artists". He continues: "One of the great things about the music business, is that the success of these artists will help other new acts break through. Revenues generated from sales abroad are crucially important for new acts, with UK labels reinvesting an estimated 20% of their revenues back into A&R". MYSPACE MUSIC ADD ONS The ability to make personal playlists, enabling users to compile lists of and the playback tracks available from MySpace's thousands of artist profiles, was one of the major innovations of the stepped up MySpace Music platform, which launched in the US last year. In related news, MySpace UK has announced that bands will be able to upload ten songs to the player on their artist profiles. Previously the maximum number of tracks for a standard artist player was six. UKRD'S TLRC PURCHASE BLOCKED Hallwood Financial Limited, which owns 28% of TLRC, is now offering 2.5p per share to take complete ownership of the radio firm. UKRD, which currently owns 13.5% of its rival, offered 2p per share. Hallwood says that if it is successful in buying UKRD and possibly others out of TLRC it will continue to allow the company's shares to be traded on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market. It's possible Hallwood see a bigger acquisition by a bigger company happening at some point in the future, so are moving to stop a UKRD takeover now, and to possibly increase their stakeholding ahead of any bigger higher value purchase. UTV Radio was previously touted as a possible bidder for TLRC, who own 20 local radio stations around the UK. -------------------------------------------------- TLRC COMPLETE JAZZ FM SALE Confirming his acquisition was complete, Wheatly told reporters: "We are thrilled to have reached an agreement with TLRC and GMG and to have attracted new significant investment into the business. The successful fundraising reflects the faith that our backers have in the abilities of the management team and our business plan and we look forward to building Jazz FM into a world class music business". -------------------------------------------------- COWELL WILL TAKE CUT IN ITV FEES Commenting on his relationship with ITV, the music/telly mogul told The Mirror: "It isn't about how much I can squeeze out of them. All I worry about is: 'Can we make a better show than last year?' I have a brilliant relationship with ITV and they have been very kind to me. I will never forget the fact that without ITV we would not have launched our shows initially. So as far as I am concerned, I still owe them a debt". CHART UPDATE MOBY ON MEDITATION He continued: "One of the things that impressed me so much about TM when I finally learned it was its simplicity. It's a simple practice that calms the mind... and the thing that won me over about TM, apart from having my hero David Lynch as its vocal practitioner, was its effectiveness. Nothing else helped me quiet my mind and go to a calm, centred place. The thing that makes it effective is you don't have to do all that much, and, as a profoundly lazy person, I appreciate that". -------------------------------------------------- CHERYL SHOULD STAY GEORDIE, SAYS PROF Joan Beal is quoted as saying: "If she is seen to be changing her accent for commercial reasons, this could damage her image here... In the UK, the Geordie accent is viewed very positively and studies of reactions to accents consistently show that it is considered friendly, honest and generally attractive. There are lots of voice coaches who claim to be able to soften regional accents, and I'm sure Cheryl would have access to reputable ones who've worked successfully with actors. But does she want to be seen as putting on an act?" -------------------------------------------------- WEST TAKES SOUTH PARK PORTRAYAL IN GOOD HUMOUR West is, of course, fairly notorious for his bigheadedry. He vowed never to return to the MTV Awards in 2007 because he didn't get any gongs, and has recently said that he regrets not being able to see himself perform live. That said, he has also recently apologised for some of his past ego-driven drama-queen moments. With that in mind, he took to his blog the day after his original 'South Park' remarks to stress his attempts to control his ego had not been inspired by the cartoon, even though I'm not sure anyone thought they had, but whatever. He wrote: "The 'South Park' episode did not make me have this ego epiphany! I actually only watched a piece of the episode, which was funny. I've been working on myself for a while now, which is hard to do in the public eye. I just used [this blog] as a platform to express where my head is at". |
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