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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
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DESK SPACE AVAILABLE
Desk spaces available in attractive and creative Central London office. Perfectly positioned 5 mins from Liverpool Street and Old Street, the office is spacious, bright and has a friendly and sociable atmosphere. You'd be working alongside a film PR, online advertiser, events company, graphic designer, publishing company, filmmaker/media trainer so lots of useful contacts to be had.
Rent is £250 per month per desk and includes service charges. Please drop me a line if you're interested to find out more - [email protected] - Pictures are available.
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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.
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT VOTE TO BLOCK THREE-STRIKE
The European Parliament has voted in favour of a new pan-European rule which could, in theory, bring an end to ambitions to introduce a simplistic three-strike system in any EU country. This, of course, could impact most on France who are in the process of voting three-strike through.
MEPs this week passed new proposals for EU-wide regulations governing internet usage, which included the previously reported amendment which says that internet service providers cannot be forced to cut off a customer's net access on copyright infringement (or any other) grounds without a court ruling to that effect.
In many ways the point of the three-strike system, whereby persistent copyright infringers would lose their net access if they failed to heed two official warnings, is that such action can be taken without expensive and time consuming court action. Although, in theory, the threat of disconnection in addition to damages payments if successfully sued for infringement through the courts might be a bigger deterrent to those file-sharing unlicensed content than just nominal damages alone, what the music business want is a quicker, cleaner system, and one which preferably does not involve them being seen to sue their own customers.
The French system would put the power of disconnection into the hands of a government agency, who would consider copyright claims by content owners and instruct ISPs to cut off those believed to be illegally file-sharing despite receiving written warnings. Some, though, are concerned that such a system, without a formal judicial process, will be open to misuse, or at least subject to carelessness, which could lead to innocent parties losing their net access without a formal opportunity to defend themselves. Similar concerns in New Zealand, where three-strikes was made law without even a government agency in place to administer it, led to the new system being shelved completely for the time being.
The provision to stop internet disconnections without a court hearing was in the original draft of EU internet usage regulations, but were edited out by the European Council, which has representatives of national governments in it. But MEP Guy Bono proposed it be re-included, boasting, when his fellow MEPs approved his proposal, that he had put an end to any ambitions for the three-strike system to be introduced within the Union. The amended proposal was formally passed on Wednesday by 407 in favour to 57 against. The proposals will now work their way through the rest of the European legislative process, and could has yet hit other hurdles.
Even if they do successfully become European law, though, the French government has said it doesn't believe they would conflict with its plans to introduce the three-strike rule which, as previously reported, are currently being voted on by the French parliament. Quite how they believe that to be the case isn't clear - perhaps they plan to call the agency that administers the three-strike disconnections a court?
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GRAHAM COXON DISCUSSES BLUR'S BAD TIMES
He's about to play a string of reunion shows with Blur, he has a new solo album coming out and he recently performed live and on record with a sober Pete Doherty, but Graham Coxon has been reflecting on the bad times in his past, where drink and depression brought him close to suicide.
Speaking to The Mail On Sunday, Coxon revealed that at a party organised to celebrate Blur beating Oasis' 'Roll With It' to number one in the singles chart with 'Country House', he attempted to throw himself out of a window. He said: "It felt like a hollow, pointless victory to me. I felt I was being forced into enjoying the moment and I just wanted to be alone really. I couldn't handle being part of that crowd so I tried to jump out of a sixth-storey window. It was Damon [Albarn] who talked me out of it. Looking back, I should have enjoyed myself a lot more than I did during the Blur days. I quite liked the idea of being in a successful band but it was the workload I couldn't handle. As soon as it happened, all I dreamed about was achieving some peace and stability in my life".
So enjoy it he didn't, and his behaviour became more erratic. He continued: "When you find yourself asking a policeman, 'Am I dead or alive?' it means you've had too much to drink. There's a famous photo of me taken in 1995. I've just been run over by a black cab and I'm lying in the gutter with a cigarette hanging out of my mouth. I'm about to ask the copper that question. I naturally gravitated towards speeding vehicles in those days. Being run over is a strange sensation but it's a good way of sobering up in a hurry".
As for the Britpop scene that Blur found themselves unwilling figureheads of, he said: "I've got nothing positive to say about Britpop. The whole thing was a grotesque travesty. It was meant to make Britain look cool but made us all look like a joke. It was meant to be a celebration of music but it was more about petty rivalries. There was no real affinity between the bands. The scene was full of dirty little bastards trying to get off with my girlfriend all the time. Every time I went on tour it was like going off to Troy. I'd come back and have to kill off a few suitors who'd been going behind my back".
But all that's over now and Blur are back together. Coxon reveals that he and Damon settled their differences over tea and cake, as all things should be. "The biggest doubt surrounding a Blur reunion was whether me and Damon would get along", he said. "A lot of nastiness had gone on between us. After I left the band in 2002, I kept in touch with the others but Damon and I only communicated through lawyers. In October 2008, I turned up at one of his gigs. There was no guarantee we'd get on. But we went for a walk, had a cake and some tea and realised everything was OK between us. I started to apologise about things that had been on my mind. He said, 'There's no need to apologise, mate'. After half an hour of chat, we knew a reunion was a strong possibility. We all realise that what's most important in life is being nice to your mates".
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WINEHOUSE COMEBACK THREATENED BY BOOZE, CLAIM REPORTS
According to reports, friends of Amy Winehouse are worried that the singer will embarrass herself during a headline gig at the St Lucia Jazz Festival tonight, because she has recently been drinking too much and hasn't been rehearsing for the comeback set.
The Daily Star quote a source close to the star as saying: "Amy is still drinking far too much. She spends all her time boozing the days and nights away. Following her hospital visit she's done no rehearsing for her comeback gig despite knowing how important it is for fans and friends in St Lucia. Amy has gone back to her wild child ways. She's moody, erratic, drunk and volatile. Everyone around her is starting to think it will be a miracle if she makes it through her set this Friday."
A spokeman for Winehouse has said that there is nothing to worry about, however. "Amy is fine," he says. "Her band are on their way over to St Lucia as we speak. And as soon as they arrive she will start rehearsing again and renew her commitments".
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER JACKO LAWSUIT
I'm losing track of who's suing Michael Jackson at the moment. I hope he's not, or he could be in trouble. The latest lawsuit to add to the ever-growing list comes from the singer's former publicist, Raymone Bain, who claims that Jackson has "failed to honour his obligations" under the terms of their contract.
Bain represented Jackson through some of his toughest episodes in recent years, including his 2005 trial for child abuse, and claims to have been promised 10% of any future deals made by the star. And with his upcoming O2 Dome residency reportedly bringing him £265 million in revenues, you can see why she might be keen for him to honour that promise.
In court papers filed in Washington DC, Bain says: "Mr Jackson and I have had a long, productive and mutually beneficial business relationship. Unfortunately, Mr Jackson has elected not to honour the financial obligations of our contractual relationship, despite my numerous attempts to amicably resolve this matter. I am sincerely disappointed in Mr Jackson's failure to honour his obligations".
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CHRIS BROWN'S LAWYER WANTS LAPD FILES
Chris Brown's lawyers have filed legal papers asking the LAPD how those pictures of a battered and bruised Rihanna ended up on the internet.
As previously reported, Brown's lawyers have let it be known that they plan to bring up every procedural error made by the authorities in their investigation of allegations that the R&B star beat then girlfriend Rihanna unconscious as the case goes to court. You might say that that surely means he's guilty, guilty, guilty, because if he didn't beat his girlfriend to a pulp then he'd be saying so, rather than getting all tied up with tedious technicalities. But innocent before proven and all that, and Brown officially denies all charges.
Though insiders say they expect Brown to plead guilty, to at least some of the charges, before any actual trial, and that his legal people are laying into the LAPD's inadequacies in a bid to get a lesser and if possible non-custodial sentence as part of a plea bargain. Perhaps he could do community service, go round LA schools telling teenage boys that if they want to beat up their girlfriends, best first be rich enough to afford the kind of lawyers who can get you off with community service.
The motion filed this week asks the LAPD to provide all the information it can lay its hands on regarding how the photo and other confidential information about the case were leaked to gossip websites.
MIA APPEALS TO OPRAH TO HELP SRI LANKA
MIA has appealed to Oprah Winfrey via the medium of MySpace to help her draw attention to the bombing of civilian camps in her native Sri Lanka. The star was in fact born in the UK, but was taken back to Sri Lanka when tiny, where her father became a Tamil activist.
MIA wrote that she had met Winfrey at the event honouring those who, as previously reported, made Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People list this year, saying: "She squeeeezed my hand so hard, I was convinced she cared. Michelle Obama gave a speech and there was mad secret service in the air so I didn't get to throw a paper plane at her saying 'stop the bombing of the Tamils in Sri Lanka'".
She continues: "I wasn't sure about my influence but........if I do have any influence, I wish I could get the media to spotlight this... Oprah can you do something bout these camps pleeeeeeeeeease?"
LYNYRD SKYNYRD BASSIST DIES
Lynyrd Skynyrd bassist Ean Evans has died in Mississippi at the age of 48. He had been suffering from cancer.
Evans was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and began playing music from the age of five. He started the guitar when he was fifteen and went on to play in a number of cover bands before starting his own group 'Cupid's Arrow'. This band achieved moderate success in the Atlanta area, but after recording more than fifty songs, Evans became a full time studio musician. He joined Floridian rock outfit Outlaws for a time, but moved on to Lynyrd Skynyrd in 2001 following the death of previous bassist Leon Wilkeson. He was, of course, one of a great many members of the band's constantly changing line up.
An announcement on Lynyrd Skynyrd's website says: "It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of longtime Lynyrd Skynyrd bassist Ean Evans. Ean put up a valiant battle with an aggressive form of cancer and he will be sorely missed by family, friends and fans."
Evans is survived by his wife and two daughters.
WILL DYLAN AND MCCARTNEY COLLABORATE?
According to reports, Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney both find the idea of collaborating with each other not unappealing, so if anyone's interested in hearing the result of such a pairing, they should try and get these two into a studio together sometime.
Asked by Rolling Stone if he would like to work with McCartney, Dylan responded: "That would be exciting - to do something with Paul. But, you know, your paths have to cross for something like that to make sense." The Independent then contacted Paul McCartney's people for a response, and a spokesperson said: "I should think he would be very interested in hearing about it".
So, there you go.
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KANYE WEST TIPS MR HUDSON FOR BIG THINGS
Kanye West has said that Mr Hudson is going to be a great big star. The rap star, who has produced the singer/band's new album 'Straight No Chaser' told NME: "Mr Hudson has the potential to annihilate me, and I will do everything to help him do that. He's not going to make some of the mistakes that I've made, spazzing out and pissing people off. I think he's going to end up being a really cool Sinatra-type character."
Ben Hudson's response to this? "My first reaction was just to smile and say 'Yeah that's typical Kanye, exaggerating'. But maybe I'll prove him to be right".
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DOHERTY SAYS BABYSHAMBLES BETTER THAN OASIS
Only one band can be the best in the world. Liam Gallagher is always saying that it's Oasis, but now Pete Doherty claims he's wrong. Not only that, but he's going to prove it with a new Babyshambles album, just as soon as some "record company politics" has been ironed out.
Speaking to the NME, Doherty said: "With Oasis stepping up a gear and proving they've still got it [with recent album, 'Dig Out Your Soul'], they need to be shown there are people out there who can surpass them. Can we match them? The quality is good, but there really is no competition because my band is the greatest in the world and we're going to prove it".
Asked when we might see an album from the new best band in the world, Doherty was unsure, saying: "It's record company politics. Please, let it happen as soon as possible".
Of course, the real question is whether or not Doherty has within him the perfect combination of "town crier and poet" that this young tyke claims that Liam and Noel have: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Quba72Xli8o
MAXIMO PARK CELEBRATE NEW ALBUM RELEASE
Maximo Park are to celebrate the release of their much anticipated new album 'Quicken The Heart', out on Monday, with various events in their home town of Newcastle.
They'll start at 6pm on Monday, 11 May, with a Q&A and album signing session at the city's Northumberland Street branch of HMV, a free event that fans can gain access to by collecting a wristband from the store from 8.30am on the day. An album launch party at Star and Shadow Cinema will take place at 8pm, and will feature a rare public screening of the band's film 'Monument' followed by an intimate live set for just 120 fans. Wristbands for that event will be available from RPM Records tomorrow at a cost of £3.
The band also play Radio 1's Big Weekend this, er, weekend.
GILMOUR LINES UP FOR CRISIS AT AMADOU & MARIAM GIG
David Gilmour is to make an appearance at a gig by Afro-blues duo Amadou & Mariam in aid of homeless charity Crisis. The London show's venue is to remain a secret until the day before it goes ahead on 24 May, when ticket holders will be receive details via text.
In a statement the former Pink Floyd man said: "It was a wonderful surprise when [Amadou & Mariam] called recently, inviting me to collaborate with them on this special one-off occasion for Crisis. I'm looking forward to breaking down a few musical boundaries in the cause of helping the homeless".
It's one of a series of these previously reported 'hidden' gigs organised by Crisis. Hot Chip did theirs earlier this week, and other upcoming events feature the likes of Dodgy, Starsailor, Pendulum and The Bays.
GUILFEST, Stoke Park, Guilford, Surrey, 10 - 12 Jul: Soul legend Linda Lewis has been confirmed to play the main stage at this year's Guilfest. The Beat and Rock Choir have also been confirmed, joining previously announced headliners Motorhead, Brian Wilson and Happy Mondays. www.guilfest.co.uk
OXEGEN, Punchestown Racecourse, County Kildare, 10 - 12 July: Annie Mac, Yuksek, Dr Lektroluv, Popof and Don Rimini have all been confirmed for Oxegen's Dance Arena. Deadmau5, Japanese Popstars, Frankmusik and BURNS have all also been added to Friday's line up. www.oxegen.ie
STOKES BAY FESTIVAL, Gosport, Hampshire, 29 Jul - 2 Aug: The Zutons, The Saw Doctors and The Strange Death Of Liberal England have all been confirmed to play the five day festival, joining previously announced The SAS Band, The Hamsters, The Proclaimers, Oysterband, Blazin' Fiddles and Los Pacaminos. www.stokesbayfestival.co.uk
ALBUM REVIEW: Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care (Domino)
With their latest album 'Begone Dull Care', Ontario natives Junior Boys continue on their path of musical progression. Their 2004 debut 'Last Exit' was as inspired by contemporary hip hop production as it had been contemporary electronica. 2006's 'So This Is Goodbye' hinted at the changes that have reached full fruition now; a streamlining of their sound, and sleeker and smoother production. Not that one should be concerned by this apparent abandonment of a previously successful formula. Although Junior Boys might not quite be combining genres and taking as many risks as before, there's no doubt that their current phase suits them and that they pull off their simultaneously retro and forward looking electronic sound well. And there's still room for experimentation. Head Junior Boy Jeremy Greenspan had contributed to Caribou's 2007 album 'Andorra', a blissed out piece of psychedelic and folk-influenced electronica. 'Dull To Pause' continues in this vein, starting with mandolin, supported by subtle waves of synthesisers that never threaten to overtake. Elsewhere, lead single 'Hazel' uses the kind of funk-inspired sound that Chromeo have embraced as their own. But this is no ironic pastiche, with Greenspan's light-as-a-feather vocals crooning a lovelorn lament. What's noticeable in his vocal and lyrical approach now is its confidence, where it had once been hesitant. The Junior Boys of 'Last Exit' era would never have written anything as overt as 'Work', with Greenspan's unsubtle call for his partner to "work it, baby, work it". Other highlights include opening track 'Parallel Lines' and the more melancholic, sax-laden 'Sneak a Picture'. With only eight tracks but a 47 minute running time, it's hardly an album of economy, but even by Junior Boys' impossibly high standards, 'Begone Dull Care' is a very fine record indeed. KW
Release date: 11 May
Press contact: Domino IH [all]
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HARRIS TRACK FOR NEW COKE CAMPAIGN
Calvin Harris has provided the music for a slightly bizarre and some might say bit sinister new TV ad from Coke in which a mysterious organ player recreates (in a TV fantasy sense of the word) Harris's track by squirting the fizzy stuff at little cuddly creatures. The result is that any young person in the vicinity starts running towards the organ and starts guzzling the sugary liquid. I think the message is that if you can get fictional creatures to sing along to a Calvin Harris track then kids everywhere will voluntarily rot their teeth by soaking themselves in the caffeine drink. Or something like that.
Coke UK marketing chief Cathryn Sleight said of Harris's track, created specifically for the multi-million pound pan-European campaign: "The upbeat track on the new ad depicts a summery sound which we hope will build positive feeling around the brand over the summer months. Much like hearing 'Holidays Are Coming at Christmas', with this campaign we are looking to build anticipation and excitement throughout the summer". Lock up your kids people, Calvin's alluring beats are about to be unleashed.
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ORANGE RETURN AS GLASTO PARTNERS
Orange, those phone people, yesterday confirmed they would be Glastonbury's official comms partner for the eleventh year running. As part of their partnership they will again provide the mobile festival guide GlastoNav, which this year will be offering on the spot 'money can buy' competitions to see bands play from the side of the stage. There'll be more eco-friendly phone charging stuff going on, another celeb keeping a Glasto diary for the phone firm, and for those currently without Glasto tickets a competition to win tix by spotting a GPS tagged bull. Or something.
Confirming the continuation of their Glasto relationship, Orange Head Of Sponsorship Ian Smith told CMU: "Glastonbury is a highlight in Orange's music event calendar and this year's line up is one of the best ever. Orange is proud to be involved with the nation's favourite music festival and look forward to announcing some more exciting initiatives for Glastonbury 2009 in the coming weeks".
More at: www.orange.co.uk/glastonbury
WARNER LOSSES UP
Warner Music has just posted a bigger quarterly loss than most City types had expected. Losses for the quarter to the end of 31 Mar were $68 million, with revenues down to $668 million.
Declining record sales, of course, contributed to Warner's doom and gloom, though some of the major's attempts to diversify out of the traditional record industry also had a negative impact on the bottom line, the value of its investments in online music services Lala and Imeem both slumped, which didn't help.
Digital sales were up, by 6%, though that wasn't enough to compensate for the fall in physical sales. Warner blamed its poor performance on the general decline of the record industry, the generally woeful economy and on the fact that most of their big releases for 2009 are stacked up towards the end of the year.
SPOTIFY PROBABLY NOT CONSIDERING UNLIMITED DOWNLOADS
Revolution has reported that Spotify is planning an unlimited download package whereby paid subscribers to the streaming music service would also be able to download an unlimited number tracks to their PC each month. Jim from Spotify, though, has reportedly denied the story.
It did seem unlikely that Spotify could ever afford to give away unlimited DRM-free downloads. Aside from the cost of providing such a service (they'd still have to pay the labels a per-track fee), it would ultimately render their existing sell-through partnership with MP3-seller 7Digital and, for that matter, their own ad-funded and subscription-based model defunct. Once people had downloaded the whole Spotify catalogue in one month, they'd not need 7Digital or Spotify again for anything but the newest releases.
That said, some kind of Napster-style download function would make sense for Spotify - ie the facility to download DRMed tracks that play within the Spotify player while a user's subscription is valid. Such a facility need not cost much more (or anymore really) than the existing system in terms of royalty payments, and having tracks hosted within the player would enable users to use the service while off line, and Spotify wouldn't need to have an open connection with every user every time they listen to a track, which has to be a bandwidth killer.
Revolution also say Spotify are some way on in those talks with mobile companies to provide their streaming and playlisting services over the mobile internet. Jim hasn't denied that, so let's assume that's true. Enabling Spotify to work offline (through some kind of Napster-style system) and on the move (through mobile partnerships) would really cement it as the uber-digital music service; the only question then would be whether the firm will continue to be able to pay the labels and music publishers their royalty fees once the venture capital money's been spent.
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WARNER DISS MYSPACE MUSIC
So, how is MySpace Music doing? You know, the social network's big play in the streaming music space that launched in the US last year, a JV with the four major record companies that aimed to capitalise on the website's market leader status as the home of artist profiles and become the ad-funded preview-and-sell-through streaming music service of choice amongst those social networking kids.
Well, after those comments from the service's boss Courtney Holt, who came on board after its US launch, implying he's having a big rethink before rolling it out globally, here's what Warner Music boss Edgar Bronfman Jr reckons. Speaking in an investor call to discuss his company's aforementioned financial figures, Bronfman reportedly said: "MySpace Music has been slow to create monetisation tools and impact in a revenue-generating way despite the massive audience that they have been able to attract, and that needs to change, quite frankly. It needs to change for MySpace and it needs to change for the music industry and it certainly needs to change for Warner Music".
Much of the rest of MySpace is under new management, of course, as owner Rupert Murdoch tries to get some kind of positive return on his massive investment after buying the social networking monolith in 2005. Holt is a pretty new guy himself, but presumably the demands are high on him to make a MySpace music service that really works, technically and commercially, and pretty quickly - both from Murdoch and from the music division's major label partners.
RAJAR ROUND UP
Some good news for Global Radio. Not only has their Heart 106.2 station regained the title of most listened to station in London, but those local stations rebranded under the Heart banner after Global's acquisition of GCap are also doing quite well in the ratings. According to the latest RAJAR figures released yesterday, former GCap stations in Norfolk, Cambridge and Milton Keynes all saw their audiences increase in terms of reach and hours listened after they became Heart stations earlier this year. Of course the big marketing push done around the relaunch probably helped, though the increase in listening hours will be well received at Global HQ, as it implies new listeners liked what they heard.
Back in London, the bigger battle for most listened to commercial station used to be between GCap (Capital FM), Global (Heart) and Bauer (Magic). Now that two of those stations are under the same ownership - Global - the battle seems less fierce somehow. Still, while Global won't really mind whether its Heart or Capital that leads the way, they won't want Tragic topping the ratings polls, which, alas, it still does. Although Heart is, as just mentioned, the most listened to station in London in terms of audience share and hours listened, Magic still leads the way in terms of overall listeners, which is, in some ways, the most important issue for peak time advertisers. Elsewhere in London, while Bauer's Kiss 100 is a more niche service, it too is performing well, scoring its highest ever ratings in terms of listeners, reach and hours in the last quarter, so well done them.
Finally in this batch of RAJAR nonsense, back to the BBC where Chris Moyles, while increasingly the hate figure of choice for those that like to diss the Beeb since Jonathan Ross was forced to eat some humble pie, has increased his ratings again, with his audience up to a massive 7.7 million. It's thought his involvement in that Comic Relief Kilimanjaro trek might have helped (so, Comic Relief did good things for at least one person), though all the media backlash against Moyles probably helped too in a perverse kind of way.
As Moyles saw his breakfast audience rise, his main competitor for the king of breakfast crown, Terry Wogan over at sister station Radio 2, saw his audience drop, from 8.1 million to 7.78 million, putting the two shows closer than ever in terms of dominance of the breakfast airwaves.
THIS WEEK'S SUB.TV PLAYLIST
These, in case you wondered, are the videos being played on the Sub.tv network of screens in students' unions around the UK this week. New entries marked with a *. More info from [email protected].
A-List
Ciara feat. Justin Timberlake - Love Sex Magic
Deadmau5 & Kaskade - I Remember
Dizzee Rascal & Armand Van Helden - Bonkers
Eminem - We Made You
Girls Aloud - Untouchable
Green Day - Know Your Enemy*
Ironik ft Chipmunk & Elton John - Tiny Dancer
Kasabian - Fire*
The King Blues - I Got Love
Lily Allen - Not Fair
Little Boots - New In Town*
The Maccabees - Love You Better
Marmaduke Duke - Rubber Lover
Maxïmo Park - The Kids Are Sick Again
The Prodigy - Warrior's Dance
B-List
Bloc Party - Signs
Britney Spears - If You Seek Amy
Chairlift - Evident Utensil
Daniel Merriweather - Red
Empire Of The Sun - We Are The People
Friendly Fires - Jump In The Pool*
Golden Silvers - True Romance
In Case Of Fire - Enemies
Kanye West ft Kid Cudi - Welcome To Heartbreak
Kidbass ft Sincere - Goodgirls Love Rudeboys
Ladyhawke - Back Of The Van
Star Pilots - In The Heat Of The Night*
Steve Appleton - Dirty Funk
Toddla T & Herve feat. Serocee - Shake It
Tommy Sparks - She's Got Me Dancing
Tip List
The Black Box Revelation - Love, Love Is On My Mind
Black Lips - I'll Be With You
The Blackouts - Children Of The Night*
Elliot Minor - Discover
Enter Shikari - Juggernauts*
Mr Scruff ft Roots Manuva - Nice Up The Function
Paloma Faith - Stone Cold Sober*
Placebo - For What It's Worth
Telegraphs - We Dance In Slow Motion*
You Me At Six - Finders Keepers*
We Were Promised Jetpacks - Quiet Little Words*
Will and The People - Knocking
FIGHTSTAR PLEASED WITH £25K GAMBLE
Poor old Fightstar found themselves label-less when Gut Records went into administration last year, just as the former indie's Institute Records division was about to release the band's B-sides and rarities album 'Alternate Endings'. With fingers burned, they were wary of signing to a new label and instead ploughed £25,000 of their own money into recording new album 'Be Human'. A move which may just pay off given that the album entered the charts at 20, their highest chart position to date.
The band's Charlie Simpson told The Daily Star: "The only way that we could properly do it ourselves was if we actually paid for the album. All the money that we made last year from playing festivals went into the album and not into our pockets. It was a bit of a gamble but it's paid off now".
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REZNOR DISSES PRINCE AND WEEZER
Some Nine Inch Nails fans were upset at how polite Trent Reznor was when he answered their question in a video interview for Digg last month. I'd imagine those same fans were upset when they learned that he recently got engaged and might not actually be the tortured soul they always hoped. But Reznor can still fire off an insult when the need arises.
Speaking to fans again, this time via the Nine Inch Nails website, Reznor told off Prince and Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo for bragging about how many great songs they've written, after he was asked if he is sitting on a stockpile of unreleased material. Although, he was a little self-deprecating at the end. I don't know if that spoilt it or not. He said: "I'm not Prince or Rivers Cuomo, who brags about having hundreds of great songs. And to that I would say: Prince, if you have a hundred great songs or a thousand, how about picking a few and putting them on your record that you've put out? Because your last several have sucked. Same for you, Rivers. I say that constructively, you know. I may be happy and engaged, but I can still be a prick!"
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PAULA ABDUL DENIES REHAB CLAIMS
Paula Abdul has denied claims by the Ladies' Home Journal magazine that she confessed to a painkiller addiction that landed her in rehab. The 'American Idol' judge told a radio show in Detroit that she had not been treated for dependence on drugs at the La Costa Resort and Spa in California, though she did indeed check-in there.
"It's a spa", she said "I was there for almost three days having fun doing spa stuff. It's not a clinic. It's not a detox place, it's a luxurious spa. It's like taking a mini vacation, I just wanted to chill out and get messages, and maybe a manicure and pedicure".
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