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Contact 020 7575 3285 [email protected] / [email protected]

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SHOREDITCH OFFICE, 764 SQUARE FOOT (15-20 DESKS), £1000 PER MONTH
Self-contained office space available in the centre of Shoreditch, on the corner of Shoreditch High Street and Great Eastern Street, next to the CMU HQ. 5-8 minutes walk from Liverpool Street and Old Street tube stations. A top floor workspace with plenty of natural light in an exciting neighbourhood that is home to numerous music, media, PR and creative companies. 764 square feet, with room for 15-20 desks plus its own kitchen area and adjacent toilets. £1000 per month plus service charge and business rates (£275 per month and £600 per month respectively). Includes heating. Available now. For more information contact [email protected].

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Advertise your stuff here: £120 for five editions - [email protected]

SPEECH DEBELLE QUITS BIG DADA
Speech Debelle has announced that she is quitting her label, Ninja Tune subsidiary Big Dada, apparently because of the poor sales of her Mercury Prize-winning album 'Speech Therapy'. The rapper claims that the label failed to properly distribute the album, and failed to meet consumer demand after the Mercury win.

Despite winning the high profile music prize, the album peaked at number 65 in the UK charts, and is estimated to have sold just 10,000 copies in total, compared to the 300,000 copies shifted of the previous year's winner, Elbow's 'The Seldom Seen Kid'. The discrepancy, Debelle reckons, is partly because Big Dada didn't have enough physical copies of the album on the High Street at the crucial moment.

Comparing Debelle with Elbow doesn't really work, of course. 'The Seldom Seen Kid' was a widely acclaimed album, while Debelle's debut has had a mixed response despite the Mercury win. Elbow were also an established band making music that appeals to a large demographic. Their album also included a killer single that became the anthem of that summer. Basically, for Elbow, the Mercury was the icing on the cake, whereas for Debelle it was the sponge and jam as well. Still, the fact Elbow were signed to a major record company with large pockets and a big distribution network, and the fact Debelle was not, is not totally irrelevant.

Speaking to BBC 6music, Debelle said: "The Mercury Prize was on a Tuesday, and the Friday there were no more physical albums in the shops. So on the Mercury weekend, which would have been my biggest selling weekend, people couldn't get it".

She continued: "I wasn't disappointed that it didn't sell well, I was disappointed in the people I was working with. I wasn't on a big label and the machine wasn't there. So even though the album won the Mercury it was still only able to do what the label was capable of doing, which just means that I'm more prepared for next time".

She added that she is already speaking to a number of labels about releasing her second album, saying of her experience so far: "One thing I've learnt is that having bargaining power is important. It's important to walk into a record label and say 'This is what I have, and these are the kind of terms I want'".

Of course what Debelle has experienced is the main downside of working with a smaller indie label. They can't afford to press up thousands of extra copies of an album on the off chance it wins the Mercury Prize, especially when the album is a real outsider to win in the run up to the presentation of the award. Actually, in the current climate there's a chance not even the biggest major would have been able to take that risk, but it's true they could have staged an impromptu advertising campaign the week of the win directing people to sellers of the digital release, and paid HMV to put what physical product was available by the door.

But it's swings and roundabouts really, isn't it? For every indie-signed band with tales of the frustration of knowing your brilliant album isn't reaching record shops, or getting advertised or plugged to Radios 1 and 2, simply because your label doesn't have any cash, there are bands with horror stories of being signed to a major who spend two hundred thousand pounds on studio time, production and pressing fifty thousand CDs, only to fire your A&R contact and then almost forget they're releasing your record. That is to say, both majors and indies come with pros and cons.

The big pro of Big Dada for Speech Debelle prior to her Mercury win, presumably, was that none of the majors would probably have even considered signing her. Now she has a Mercury Prize in her hat, I suppose you can't blame her for trying to find a record label with bigger pockets.

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DOHERTY BLAMES STOPPED HEART FOR GIG CANCELLATION
There can't be many excuses for not turning up to gigs that Pete Doherty hasn't used, but I reckon dying is a new one. The Babyshambles frontman missed a number of shows with the band in Ireland earlier this year, which at the time was put down to "exhaustion". Now he has claimed that "some kind of poisoning" caused his heart to stop, meaning he was on a life support machine when he should have been on stage.

Speaking to the NME, Doherty said: "If I hadn't been on a life support machine I'd have been in Ireland, but my heart stopped. It was a really strange turn of events. Obviously, [the doctors'] immediate thought was that it was to do with drugs, but it wasn't - it was some kind of poisoning ... I don't remember [what happened]. At the time I thought I was a taxi driver offering to take everyone to Elephant And Castle. I was running into the walls, making steering wheel signs with my hands. And then I just stopped. My body just stopped".

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LEEDS COLLEGE RADIO TAKE TOP PRIZE AT STUDENT RADIO AWARDS
So it was the Student Radio Awards in London last night, the annual bash to celebrate the good stuff in the world of UK college radio, staged by the Student Radio Association. In a Sony Awards style, gold, silver and bronze awards were presented in each category. The big winner of the night was probably Leeds-based LSRfm who were named Best Student Radio Station and won the prize for Best Student Radio Chart Show. LSR types also picked up bronze and/or silver awards for Best Male Presenter, Best Scripted Programme and Best Journalistic Programming.

For fans of lists, here is the full list of winners...

Best Newcomer
Gold - Martyn Littlewood - Fly FM
Silver - Julie Ann Lough - RaW
Bronze - Matthew Hemmaty - Shock Radio

Best Marketing and Branding
Gold - Smoke Radio
Silver - URN
Bronze - 1449AM URB

The Student Radio Chart Show Award
Gold - LSRfm.com
Silver - Click Teesside
Bronze - Jam Radio

Best Journalistic Programming
Gold - York Report - URY
Silver - campus crunch - LSRfm.com
Bronze - Newslink Weekly - LSRfm.com

Best Technical Achievement
Gold - Project Sunshine - URF
Silver - Onair Loop System - Xtreme Radio
Bronze - SurgeCart and Surge Podcast Generator - Surge Radio

Best Interview
Gold - Hilary Benn on Binyam Mohamed - Joshua Chambers, URY
Silver - Interview with the most hated woman in America - Tom Goble, RaW
Bronze - Zodiac Cartel with Radio ClubFoot - Radio ClubFoot, URN

Best Live Event or Outside Broadcast
Gold - Smoke's Summer Send Off - Smoke Radio
Silver - Lounge On The Farm 2009 - CSR FM
Bronze - Varsity 2009 - URN

Best Scripted Programming
Gold - Slow Hands - RaW
Silver - Leeds Tealights - LSRfm.com
Bronze - The Super Hero's Girlfriend - BiRST

Best Entertainment Programme
Gold - The Big Chewsie - RaW
Silver - The Stephen and David Sunday Lunchtime Show - Xpression FM
Bronze - The Technical Difficulties - URY

Best Specialist Music Programming
Gold - Radio ClubFoot - URN
Silver - The Evening Show - URN
Bronze - Jamie's Show About Music - LCR

Best Female Presenter
Gold - Julie Ann Lough - RaW
Silver - Josie Standbrook - GU2
Bronze - Kate Lamble - Roundhouse Radio

Best Male Presenter
Gold - Fergus Dufton - URN
Silver - Sam Jarrett - Fly FM
Bronze - Max Dickins - LSRfm.com

Kevin Greening Award
The Big Chewsie - RaW

Best Student Radio Station
Gold - LSRfm.com
Silver - Fly FM
Bronze - URN

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IT'S LIKE SOME HORRIBLE DREAM I CAN'T WAKE UP FROM
First Susan Boyle beat every Amazon pre-order record going. Now, perhaps predictably, she's on track to have the highest ever first week sales for a debut album with 'I Dreamed A Dream'. The album shifted 130,000 during its first 24 hours in stores and is currently outselling the rest of the top five put together, according to The Official Charts Company.

The current record for highest first week sales for a debut album was set by that Leona Lewis two years ago, with a total of 375,872.

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THE YUMMY FUR TO REFORM
Cult Scottish band The Yummy Fur have announced that they will perform their first proper shows for eleven years on a short tour to promote the release of a best of compilation on What's Your Rupture? and the fifteenth anniversary of their former label Guided Missile, in January.

Formed in 1992 by vocalist and guitarist John McKeown (now frontman of The 1990s), The Yummy Fur featured a revolving line-up, which latterly included Franz Ferdinand's Paul Thompson and Alex Kapranos (then known as Alex Huntley). They split in 1999, with McKeown and Kapranos producing one final single, 'This Is Andrew Sinclair', which McKeown described as "the history of The Yummy Fur in four minutes".

The band - featuring McKeown on guitar and vocals, Thompson on drums and guitarist Brian McDougall - will play two UK shows in Glasgow and London on 7 and 9 Jan, before heading across the Atlantic to play their first ever US shows.

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SPIRITUALIZED WORKING ON NEW ALBUM
Spiritualized are working on a new album, the follow-up to 2008's 'Songs In A&E', frontman Jason Pierce has revealed. He also told The Quietus that working on the recent re-issue of the 'Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space' album has influenced the sound of the new material.

Pierce explained: "Not to go 'Oh, let's do that'. I'm not a big believer in backward steps, or thinking 'Well, that worked then, let's do it again'.But, I am making a record. And I'd be lying if... it's very weird to lay out something you did twelve years ago in all its complexity and then get inside it enough to be able to play it live, and not have that get into some of the newer stuff we're doing.It's early days. We've put down some great, great songs. I think what [listening to] 'Ladies And Gentlemen...' has done is raised the bar in a different way. Rather than just copying the sonics of that record and saying 'How did we used to do it?' or 'We used to do it like this', it's raised the bar, and I think that's good".

As for when the new album will be released, Pierce was unsure, saying: "When it's done. I can't answer questions like that. When it's done. But hopefully next year.It's looking good, but you know when you've finished. We shall see".

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DILLINGER MAN WORKING WITH CAVALERA
Dillinger Escape Plan frontman Greg Puciato has revealed that he will appear on the next Soulfly album. He has been collaborating with frontman Max Cavalera on a track for the band's forthcoming new long player 'Omen'.

Puciato has likened the track to the sound of Cavalera's former band Sepultura's seminal 'Chaos AD' album and said that working on it was "a great experience with a living legend".

Puciato's own band have just completed work on their fourth studio album, 'Option Paralysis', which is due for release in March next year.

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STROKES LOOKING AT STUDIOS
Does anyone even care if The Strokes record a new album or not any more? It's not like there's any chance of it being good, is there? Oh well, just in case you are interested, the band might be going into the studio in January.

Bassist Nikolai Fraiture said via Twitter yesterday: "While the guys are in LA, I went to scout some studios in NYC with Ryan [Gentles, Stokes manager] today for what looks like Jan recording! Mood = fucking excited!"

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COMANECHI ALBUM LAUNCH
Comanechi release their excellent debut album, 'Crime Of Love', on 7 Dec via Merok, and to celebrate the duo have lined up a special launch party on 11 Dec at El Paso on Old Street in east London.

Comanechi will, of course, headline the show, and also playing live will be Scottish punks Divorce and Japanese rockers Bo Ningen. Keeping the party going until the small hours will be DJ sets from The Big Pink, A Grave With No Name, Feeding Time, Skill Wizard, This Is Music and Merok.

Tickets are available for a fiver here: www.wegottickets.com/event/64422

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DELPHIC BEGIN ALBUM TOUR NEXT MONTH
Delphic will release their debut album, 'Acolyte', on 11 Jan. And the week before that the first single from it, 'Doubt', will hit stores. So it's about bloody time they got on with promoting it, eh?

Oh look, here are some tour dates:

4 Dec: Birmingham, Academy
5 Dec: Hatfield, The Forum
8 Dec: Manchester, Academy
11 Dec: London, Koko
12 Dec: Derby, The Royal
13 Dec: Glasgow, Optimo
18 Dec: Manchester, Central
19 Dec: Sheffield, The Plug
31 Dec: Manchester, Warehouse Project (DJ Set)
14 Jan: Norwich, Arts Centre
15 Jan: Oxford, Zodiac
16 Jan: Sheffield, Leadmill
17 Jan: Bristol, Thekla
19 Jan: Brighton, Audio
20 Jan: Wolverhampton, Little Civic
21 Jan: Liverpool, Kazimier
22 Jan: Glasgow, King Tuts
23 Jan: Leeds, Cockpit 2
26 Jan: London, The Tabernacle

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SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE TOUR
Six Organs Of Admittance, aka smart bloke Ben Chasny, will play his first UK shows for two years next month, following the release of tenth album, 'Luminous Night', earlier this year, and the soundtrack to Joseph Matteson's book, 'Empty The Sun', this month.

Performing with Chasny will be drummer Alex Neilson and (for the London show only) Magik Markers guitarist Elisa Ambrogio.

Tour dates:

30 Nov: Brighton, Freebutt
1 Dec: Penryn, Miss Peapods
2 Dec: Birmingham, Town Hall (Capsule's 10th Birthday)
3 Dec: Manchester, Islington Mill
4 Dec: London, Bush Hall
11 Dec: Ten Years Of ATP

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ALBUM REVIEW: Joe Goddard - Harvest Festival (Greco-Roman)
Hot Chip are a talented bunch and Joe Goddard is one of the busiest of the group as a regular performer on the DJ circuit and boss of the Greco-Roman record label, through which this, his debut solo album, is released.

A concept album of sorts, it progresses through twelve fruitily named tracks (by which I mean they're named after fruit) which take the listener through what you imagine a night out with the boys might be like, from the party attitude of 'Go Bananas' to the reflective 'Lemon & Lime (Home Time)'.

The album is more instrumental than your average Hot Chip long player and is an opportunity for Joe to stretch his repetitive beats, with the overall sound is more akin to the Chip's live performances than their albums - much more upbeat and high tempo with only a couple of more reflective pieces.

Closer 'Coconut Shy' sounds like a Brian Eno piece, while 'Sour Grapes' brings in church organs to add a different sound, but overall it's an electronic album and a worthy addition to the Hot Chip stable's output. IM

Physical release: 16 Nov
Press contact: Darling Dept [all]

Buy from iTunes
Buy from Amazon

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WARNER REVENUES UP, BUT LOSS OVERALL
Mixed news from Warner Music, who have just released their latest set of financial stats. The US-based major music company saw higher than expected revenues for their fourth quarter, thanks in part to the sales of Paramore and Muse albums, and their involvement in the latest Jay-Z long player through a partnership with his Roc Nation venture. As a result turnover grew 0.8% to $861 million.

However, the major still made a loss, thanks in part to the cost of a recent bout of downsizing, especially in the major's Rhino US division. The major lost $18 million for the quarter, compared to a $6 million profit in the same quarter a year earlier. That seems to have come as a surprise to City types, and the major's share price on the New York Stock Exchange fell as a result.

Looking on the bright side, Warner chief Edgar Bronfman Jr stressed the good news, including the continued growth of digital revenues to compensate for slumping CD sales. He also noted that the major has "rising cash balances", funds which some see as being set aside ready to mount an acquisition of rival EMI at some point in the next eighteen months.

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JAPANESE COLLECTING SOCIETY WIN LAWSUIT AGAINST VIDEO-SHARING WEBSITE
Japan's songwriter society JASRAC has won a lawsuit against a Japanese video-sharing website which, it claimed, was allowing users to post videos containing their members' content without having any licences from the music industry, and without operating a policy of taking down infringing videos when made aware of them.

According to Billboard, JASRAC, which began its litigation against Tokyo-based TV Break and its owners Just Online last year, said: "Among various video posting websites, many site operators are seeking legitimate business models by voluntarily removing infringing videos. These operators have been obtaining prior consent of right owners to legally distribute videos in order to prevent infringing activities from occurring. Just Online, however, has failed to take such measures, and is thus leaving illegal video files unattended and running the site in an irresponsible way. As a result, many illegal video files have been uploaded to the TV Break site".

A Japanese court ordered Just Online to remove any infringing content off its website, and awarded JASRAC 120 million yen in damages.

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CARL COX TO RE-LAUNCH LABEL
DJ Carl Cox has announced that he will re-launch his defunct record label, Intec Records, as Intec Digital in January, with its first release being Cox's new artist album.

The original Intec launched in 1999, making its name as a ground-breaking techno label, releasing records by the likes of Marco Bailey, Preach, Sebastien Leger, Valentino Kanzyani, Trevor Rockcliffe and Bryan Zentz, before closing its doors in 2006. The label's 50th and final release featured two Carl Cox productions - 'Spoon' and 'K'Pasa' - the former a tribute to the late Mark Spoon (of Jam And Spoon), who died in January of that year.

Speaking about its new incarnation, Cox told CMU: "It's a whole new fresh start. The original Intec stood for something, very much of the time, but we're bringing it back, we're updating it, but with the same team of people, the same passion for new music and the same philosophy. I hadn't signed anything on Intec for three years, but people were still sending me their records. I'm all about new music, so I've been playing these tracks in my sets, but I wasn't putting them out, which was a shame. Lots of stuff was lost amongst all the other music and it was frustrating that I couldn't get behind them. I'm so pleased to be backing this music again. By signing to Intec Digital you get me behind your music, and with my radio station and my recognition, it's a good place to be".

On the subject of his new album, he said: "I started on this album over two years ago, but I just didn't have the time to work on in until recently. As soon as we finished at [Ibiza club] Space this year, I threw myself into the studio to finish it. It's the most forward thinking album I've ever made. I've missed making music a lot and I'm looking forward to finally getting it out there".

For more information, take a look at www.intecdigital.com

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PRS REACH DEAL WITH HOTEL INDUSTRY OVER IN-ROOM MUSIC
PRS For Music has reached a settlement with the hotel industry over a dispute which asked the question: does playing music in hotel rooms constitute public performance? Of course if it does then hotel owners will have to pay PRS and their like a royalty for any music services provided in rooms via radio or TV sets or other such whatnots.

Anyway, in a deal between the British Hospitality Association and the songwriters' collecting society it's been decided music in hotel rooms does, indeed, count as public performance, and both sides have agreed on a licensing deal for hotel room-based music services past, present and future. So that's nice.

PRS's Commercial Director Debbie Mulloy is quoted by Music Week as follows: "The provision of TVs and radios in hotel bedrooms is a clear benefit to hotels and their guests, and it's good news that our members will now receive royalties for the use of their work".

The boss of the BHA added: "This has been a very long standing dispute, but I am pleased it has been settled at last".

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ASDA JOIN IP AWARENESS BODY
Asda have joined The Industry Trust For IP Awareness, the body that aims to educate the public about copyright issues. The move presumably means the supermarket giant recognises it too has much to lose from people buying knocked off music, movies or branded goods, rather than buying legitimate products from, say, your friendly local supermarket.

Liz Bales, Director General of the Industry Trust, told reporters: "We are delighted that Asda has decided to support the Industry Trust. This is another example of the audio-visual industry being committed to consumer education. Latest figures show that over 1,000 jobs across the retail, rental and production sector have been lost to film theft. The TV and film industry spans many sectors, it is only by forging partnerships across all these sectors that we'll be able to tackle this growing problem".

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SPOTIFY REPLAY TO GAGA STIM CHEQUE CLAIM
So, yesterday we spent quite a few lines of binary code pulling to pieces the story that Lady Gaga had only received $167 in royalties from Spotify, a story interpreted by some as proof artists are being screwed by new digital music services, and that fans might as well just take music for free from unlicensed file-sharing platforms given how little money artists get from the legit set ups. You can read our ramblings here: tinyurl.com/cmuongagasstimcheque

Well, Spotify have also responded to the report that Lady Gaga received a cheque from Swedish collecting society STIM for that modest amount. They told Music Ally: "Firstly, any payment to STIM would only represent a fraction of the payments rights holders receive and only for music played in one country (in this case Sweden) as we pay not only collecting societies, but also publishers and the record company to play their music. Secondly, the figure (unrepresentative as it is) is from a short period just after our launch last year, way before we'd established ourselves as a music service and built up a large user base. Specific payments are of course confidential, but this is certainly wide of the mark".

So there you go.

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LIVE NATION TO LAUNCH LIVE MUSIC DOWNLOADS ON ITUNES
Live Nation are the latest to offer live music downloads. The US bit of the live music conglom has teamed up with iTunes to offer downloads of concert footage recorded at 80 of Live Nation's venues. Artists to feature at launch include OK Go, Jesse McCartney, Saving Abel, A Fine Frenzy, Plain White T's and Ziggy Marley.

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TESCO MOBILE TO SELL IPHONE
According to BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones, Tesco Mobile will begin stocking the iPhone in the near future, possibly before Christmas. Since O2 lost exclusivity on the handset, Orange have already begun stocking it, with Vodafone expected to join them in January.

So far there is no news on Tesco's tariffs, but with four companies stocking the iPhone by next year, and possibly more to come, a price war seems imminent.

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BBC TRUST LIMITED BBC WORLDWIDE EXPANSION
The BBC Trust has limited the future expansion of the Beeb's commercial division BBC Worldwide by restricting the kinds of acquisitions the outfit will be able to do.

BBC Worldwide, which at its core sells right to BBC programmes and brands globally, and also publishes the Beeb's own books, magazines and DVDs, has been criticised by many in the commercial media sector for expanding too far outside its remit, and for using the financial security of its affiliation to the main part of the BBC to unfairly compete in the commercial media acquisitions market. Its purchase of the Lonely Planet guides was particularly criticised.

Anyway, the Trust has said that BBC Worldwide must not enter into any new deals of the nature of the Lonely Planet acquisition, though it isn't forcing the division to sell the books range. But big acquisitions will only be allowed in "exceptional circumstances".

Trust chief Sir Michael Lyons told reporters: "Worldwide is a successful business which brings both significant financial benefits for the licence fee payer and a tangible boost to the creative economy. But the trust and the executive both acknowledge that the boundaries for Worldwide activity need to be clearer".

The restrictions on future BBC acquisitions would not, however, stop the Beeb from buying Virgin Media out of its 50/50 joint venture with the cable firm, the UKTV network of mainly repeat channels. Virgin is known to be considering getting out of the TV channel business, and it's thought that a deal might be struck whereby the BBC would take full ownership of UKTV, and then work with Channel 4 on the commercial side of the popular network of digital channels.

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TOP OF THE POPS TO RETURN FOR TWO SPECIALS
Top Of The Pops will return to the BBC for two special editions over the festival period, with one on Christmas Day and the other on New Year's Eve. Hosted by Reggie Yates and the talent vacuum known as Fearne Cotton, both shows will feature performances from some of the year's biggest stars.

The shows will be recorded at BBC Television Centre in London on 8 Dec and 14 Dec.

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THIS WEEK'S SUB.TV PLAYLIST
Hey look, people, it's the music videos that are playing this week on the Sub.tv network of video screens in students' unions all around the god darn United Kingdom of Great Britain and whatnot. New additions marked with a *. More info on all things Sub.tv from [email protected].

A List
Bombay Bicycle Club - Always Like This
Chase & Status - End Credits (feat. Plan B)
Chuckie and LMFAO - Let The Bass Kick In Miami Girl
Ellie Goulding - Under The Sheets
Florence and The Machine - You've Got The Love
Groove Armada - I Won't Kneel
Jason Derulo - Whatcha Say
Jay-Z - Empire State Of Mind (feat. Alicia Keys)
Ke$ha - Tik Tok
La Roux - Quicksand
Mika - Rain
Muse - Undisclosed Desires
Rihanna - Russian Roulette / Wait Your Turn*
Taio Cruz - No Other One

B List
3OH!3 - Starstrukk (feat. Katy Perry)
Basshunter - I Promised Myself
Chipmunk - Look For Me
Chris Brown - Can Transform Ya (feat. Lil Wayne)
Frightened Rabbit - Swim Until You Can't See Land
Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
Leona Lewis - Happy*
Lily Allen - Who'd Have Known?
Newton Faulkner - Over and Out
Noah and The Whale - Love Of An Orchestra
Passion Pit - Little Secrets
Pixie Lott - Cry Me Out
Shakira - Did It Again
Taylor Swift - Fifteen

Tip List
Bandito - Rockin' At The Disco
The Cribs - We Share The Same Skies*
Fool's Gold - Surprise Hotel*
Frisco - Girls
Gallows - Misery
Manchester Orchestra - Shake It Out
Mumford and Sons - Winter Winds*
The Mission District - Just Don't Feel The Same
Tiesto - Escape Me

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GLAMBERT OUTRAGE
So Middle America is in uproar over a slightly raunchy performance delivered by non-American Idol Adam Lambert at this week's American Music Awards.

TV network ABC admitted that 1500 people had complained about the performance, in which Lambert simulated a bit of oral sex and then kissed another guy. I think it's those aspects of the performance that the viewers are complaining about, though personally I think they'd have a better case if they complained about that screeching Lambert does when he's trying to hit the high notes - that's truly offensive.

The always rationale US Parents' Television Council called on its members to complain to ABC, the show's producer Dick Clark Productions and any advertisers linked to the awards show, and for those members based in areas where the oral sex simulation was screened (West Coast networks edited that bit out) to complain to media regulator the FCC.

The Council's President called the Lambert routine "tasteless" and "vulgar", and said his members were "outraged" that it had been aired before the watershed. He said of his members: "They just can't believe the nature of the content, the explicit nature, and how much graphic content there was".

Lambert defended his performance, saying: "I had fun, my dancers had fun, the audience that was in the Nokia [Theatre] had fun. Anybody else who was watching it and enjoying it, thank you for being entertained". If people had been upset by the show, he added, that was just a "form of discrimination and it's too bad".

Staying with his theme that any outrage of his performance is basically just homophobia, he told Rolling Stone: "Female performers have been doing this for years - pushing the envelope about sexuality - and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out. My goal was not to piss people off, it was to promote freedom of expression and artistic freedom".

ABC said 1500 complaints was "moderate" - and to put it into perspective 3000 people complained to ITV recently when Simon Cowell didn't use his casting vote to kick Jedward of 'X-Factor', and US TV shows have much bigger audiences. So either Americans haven't quite grasped how easy it is to complain in the email age, or the outrage over Lambert's routine isn't as strong as some US media have suggested. 500,000 people complained when they got a glimpse of Janet Jackson's breast at the 2004 Superbowl half time show though, admittedly, the Superbowl is American's biggest family TV viewing event.

All of which possibly means the outrage being reported has been at least slightly manufactured by the media. Whether that means ABC and the AMA producers will avoid investigations and fines and whatnot remains to be seen, though presumably all the hoo haa will help American Idol runner up Lambert flog some records.

However, there has been one immediate change to the popster's schedule as a result of the AMA performance. ABC have uninvited him from their 'Good Morning America' show, presumably wary of screening another controversial performance while anger remains regarding the awards.

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LOUIS DROPPED WESTLIFE, TWICE
Westlife's Shane Filan has revealed that their manager Louis Walsh has dropped the band on two occasions, though in a 'that's it, I resign [drama queen manager storms out of the room]' sort of way I think.

Filan told Contactmusic: "He's fired us twice! He thought we were being arrogant little rock stars and said: 'Look I can't deal with you'. Two years later the same sort of thing happened again - he just got a vibe that we were a little bit too big for our boots. We were all genuinely devastated. I was crying".

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KENNEDY'S CUMBRIA DEDICATION
So, what song did Radio 2's Sarah Kennedy dedicate to the people of Cumbria earlier this week, as they try to put their homes, towns and lives back together after those nasty floods? Susan Boyle's version of, wait for it, 'Cry Me A River'. Brilliant.

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