TERRA FIRMA V CITIGROUP: WILL IT GO TO TRIAL? WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR EMI?
So, we hear that talks were ongoing as recently as last night in a last-ditch attempt to stop the long awaited (around here) Terra Firma v Citigroup case over EMI from going to court later today.

Even though we know both sides are desperate to not undergo the embarrassment (not to mention the cost) of the trial, every source being quoted by every journalist seems certain an out of court settlement is unlikely. But perhaps that's just wishful thinking on the part of the journalists, who are looking forward to having the dirty linen of one of the darlings of private equity and one of those big fat bankers aired in public.

As much previously reported, Terra Firma and their chief Gary 'The Guy' Hands claim Citigroup and their man David 'The Worm' Wormsley provided duff advice ahead of their audacious acquisition of EMI in 2007. Had that advice not been duff, the equity firm argues, it would not have bid as high for the flagging music firm, or might not have bid at all. Terra Firma wants mega-damages from the bank to cover all the money they've lost since buying the Electrical & Music Industries. Citigroup denies the bad advice allegations.

Gary decided to fall out with The Worm after he and his banking buddies knocked back the equity man's proposals for restructuring the multi-billion loan from Citigroup that EMI was saddled with as part of the Terra Firma takeover. The size of that highly public loan has hindered EMI at every move, while agreements linked to it require Terra Firma to keep sinking millions more into the music enterprise to ensure it is operating within agreed parameters.

Although the bank originally knocked back Terra Firma's debt restructuring plans, it's known that pre-trial talks have centered on various such proposals, including Citigroup relaxing loan covenants, it writing off a chunk of the debt and/or it exchanging debt for equity.

Citi is publicly bullish about its chances of winning this battle should it go to court, but experts say the bank is taking the bigger risk by allowing it to go to trial. While both sides' reputations could be tarnished by what is revealed in court, if Citi were to lose, a precedent could be set that might lead to all sorts of other equity groups, advised into dud deals ahead of the credit crunch, coming forward. Terra Firma is therefore possibly assuming that if it holds on, even to the very last minute, the bank will ultimately capitulate and agree to a favorable restructuring of EMI's debts.

And what does this mean for poor old EMI? Well, more insecurity in the short term, even though the music firm is really divorced from the actual Terra Firma v Citigroup court battle. Should Terra Firma win - in the trial or by scoring a favorable debt deal out of court - then perhaps the major will get the three years of financial security it needs to properly turn things round. If Terra Firma loses, surely it would be all but impossible for Gary to persuade his investors to pump even more cash into EMI next summer, as will be required, even if he wanted to. In that scenario, a split up and fire sale might be most likely.

Which isn't fun. Though, look, here's some good news. EMI Group has reached an agreement with the trustees of the company's pension fund. As previously reported, there was quite a hole in that fund and the UK Pensions Regulator had got involved. But a deal, approved by said regulator, has now been reached. The major will provide an additional £197 million to the fund between now and 2016, with an immediate payment of £16 million.

Says EMI boss man Roger Faxon: "I am very pleased that we have been able to work with the Trustee Board to resolve all outstanding matters and reach this amicable agreement, which is aimed at reassuring members of the Fund of the security of their pensions".

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NO BUBLE FOR TESCO AS WARNER FALLS OUT WITH SUPERMARKET GIANT
Warner are reportedly refusing to supply any new releases to Tesco in a dispute over trading terms. The dispute is already affecting the repackaged version of Michael Buble's album 'Crazy Love', and could result in new long players from James Blunt, Cee-Lo Green and Katherine Jenkins not being stocked by the superdupermarket. Perhaps they could use the spare shelf space to stock more coffee. Why is the Shoreditch branch of Tesco always running out of coffee?

Warner UK boss Christian Tattersfield has confirmed the dispute to Music Week saying "They came to us wanting to renegotiate the terms and conditions and these were not economically viable for Warner Music". Though Tesco's entertainments man Rob Salter said he wasn't aware talks had actually broken down until he was called by Music Week for a quote and that, as far as he was concerned, the major label and retailer were not "that far apart" in negotiations.

It's not the first time Warner and Tesco have fallen out, with the major previously refusing to supply its albums to the retailer after a dispute over new trading terms four years ago. Though with so few physical shops now selling CDs, Tesco arguably has a stronger negotiating position, and Warner won't want to see its releases off the supermarket's shelves for too long.

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THE PIRATE BAY APPEAL WRAPS UP, VARIOUS WEBSITES GO DOWN
The Pirate Bay appeal reached its conclusion in Sweden on Friday with a lawyer for one of the rogue file-sharing site's founders claiming this case was not about content owners protecting their intellectual property rights, but old school monoliths prosecuting the internet. Or words to that effect.

According to the Agence France-Presse, attorney Peter Althin, defending former Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde, told the court while summing up: "Whenever new technology emerges, large corporations always say the new technology is life-threatening. And it is the technology the prosecutor is after in this case".

Meanwhile Jonas Nilsson, speaking for another Bay co-founder, Fredrik Neij, said a guilty verdict for his client would open up any other web services with a search component to copyright infringement claims, telling the court: "A guilty verdict for Fredrik would imply a threat to other search services on the internet, like Facebook and Twitter".

Of course, neither Facebook or Twitter chose to put 'Pirate' in their name, nor did they deliberately go around pissing off content owners for fun times, but who knows, it might work as a legal argument, even if it does sound a little bit like a lawyer clutching at straws.

Sunde, Neij and their financer Carl Lundstroem are all trying to overturn their convictions from last year when they were handed one year jail sentences for enabling widespread copyright infringement via the Bay. With both sides presenting pretty much the same arguments at appeal as during the original case, it now remains to be seen what way this set of judges rule. They aren't expected to announce their decision until 26 Nov.

As previously reported, the third co-founder, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, did not attend the appeal hearing due to ill health. It's been decided he will now have his appeal heard separately later in the year.

Even if the appeals court rules against the Bay Four, they are unlikely to go straight to jail, as the sentences are likely to be held off pending any further appeals, and all four have vowed to take this case to Sweden's Supreme Court if necessary.

In related news, online groups who support file-sharing continue to attack the websites of those pursuing an anti-piracy agenda. As expected, two websites associated with Kiss man Gene Simmons went down last week after they were targeted with a so called Distributed Denial Of Service attack after his rambling to the effect that the US record industry should have sued every single "fresh-faced, freckle-faced college kid" who file-shared.

A similar attack was made on the UK Intellectual Property Office's website this weekend, while an alterative method was used to embarrass the Motion Picture Association Of America and a Portuguese rights organisation which has recently taken action against The Pirate Bay. Websites run by both (the copyprotected.com website in the case of the MPAA) were replaced by a page promoting the Operation Payback campaign, which advocates a radical reform of copyright rules, and then an auto-link to The Pirate Bay.

Confirming that its site had been attacked, the UK IP Office said yesterday: "The Intellectual Property Office chose to disconnect its website from the internet following a coordinated Distributed Denial of Service attack. The attack was orchestrated by 'Operation: Payback' which is an ongoing campaign against major anti-piracy groups. The organisers say that they have targeted us as we are 'perpetuating the system which is allowing the exploitative usage of copyrights and intellectual property'. Our website is currently unreachable as we worked with our internet service provider in order to move our web services out of harm's way. DDoS attacks on websites of this kind obstruct access by ordinary citizens to government services".

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TI SENT DOWN
TI will have to use his 'talking-suicidal-jumpers-down' skills in prison for the next year after he was thrown back in jail on Friday. He was jailed for eleven months after breaking the rules of his probation relating to a previous weapons conviction. He was back in court after being arrested on suspicion of drug possession last month.

According to the Associated Press, the rapper begged the judge not to send him to jail, insisting what he needed was drug counselling and that he was committed to kicking his drug addiction. But Judge Charles Pannell Jr said he felt the hip hopper had had enough second chances and should be sent back to prison.

The judge seemed particularly pissed off that TI had fucked up despite being given what he considered a generous sentence, in which he got out of jail in return for doing 1000 hours of community service, mainly talking to kids about the dangers of drugs. That had been part of an experiment to test alterative sentencing methods, Pannell said, and TI had spoiled the case for using such methods with other offenders. Or, to use the judges words: "You certainly dumped a lot of smut on the whole experiment".

In related news, the mother of the suicidal man TI helped coax down from the 22nd floor of a building in Atlanta last week has praised the rapper for his intervention, and criticised those who have suggested the whole thing was a PR stunt to help the hip hopper's case in court.

Speaking to Atlanta radio station V103, the woman said: "I wish it was a publicity stunt, and my son wasn't hurting as bad as he is to get up there and do something like that. Thank God for TI ... It's crazy for people to think that someone would do that as a publicity stunt. It just bothers my mind".

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RHCP MAY SUE VICKERS AFTER SHE ADMITS MELODY STEAL
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are reportedly considering suing former 'X-Factor' semi-finalist Diana Vickers over her new single 'My Wicked Heart', which reps for the US band say borrows from their 1992 song 'Under The Bridge'.

And if the Chili Peppers need evidence to prove that is so, they only need to point to an interview Vickers herself recently gave to Digital Spy.

Possibly not realising that subconscious infringement is recognised by copyright law, Vickers told the website, when asked about the similarity between her song and the RHCP track: "Yeah, that happened without even knowing. We wrote the song in an hour. We had the song and it didn't have the 'My Wicked Heart' bit in it and then we put the vocal in and we were like, 'Why does it sound so familiar?' Then we realised it was because we were listening to 'Under The Bridge' the day before".

Making matters worse, she added: "We were saying, 'Should we change it? Should we not? What should we do? Sod it, no, we're just gonna keep it, it works'". Oh dear.

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BIEBER ACCUSED OF MAKING CHILD CRY
Justin Bieber has reportedly been accused of hitting a twelve year old boy, and the incident is now subject to a police investigation. So that's fun.

The incident took place at a laser quest centre in Vancouver where Bieber was reportedly playing laser games with two of his security guards. While running around with his pretend laser gun it seems the popster somehow injured the twelve year old in question, making the kid cry.

Some reports suggest that Bieber accidentally knocked down the pre-teen while trying to escape from some approaching fans, while others say the singer deliberately pushed the other boy, possibly after the twelve year old accused the singer of being a "faggot".

Police haven't formally confirmed anything because both Bieber and the injured child are under eighteen and they are not allowed to name names. But it seems that, however it happened, the younger boy was only mildly injured, and that Bieber stuck around to explain what had happened afterwards.

Nevertheless, the twelve year old's dad decided to call the police, possibly eyeing the potential for a lucrative damages claim if he formally complained about the incident. Though some websites cite police insiders as saying it is generally believed the injuries were accidental and Bieber won't be charged with anything.

Which is no fun for the twelve year old and his father. Still, they might get some solace watching this video: youtu.be/0e50vqY7Szo

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HENDRIX ESTATE FIRE BACK ON GEORGIA BLUES LAWSUIT
The Jimi Hendrix Estate has hit back at a previously reported lawsuit, instigated by saxophone player Lonnie Youngblood, by filing a countersuit.

As previously reported, Youngblood claims that he owns the copyright in a recording he collaborated on with Jimi called 'Georgia Blues', which the Hendrix estate then licensed to the producers of a soundtrack that accompanied a 2003 Martin Scorsese-directed documentary on the legendary guitarist. Youngblood claims he is due a share of the royalties generated by the album and damages, because the Hendrix estate and soundtrack producers both failed to get his permission to use the recording prior to release.

But in their countersuit, the Hendrix Estate argue that they own the master recording of the track, even though Youngblood did subsequently register the copyright in it and digitally release the song in 2002. They say that Hendrix paid for the studio costs associated with the recording, and produced the track, and therefore owned the recording outright. They want a judge to dismiss Youngblood's lawsuit, remove his name as owner of the track on the copyright register and to force the musician to account for any royalties made on his 2002 release of the song.

Youngblood is yet to respond.

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GUNS N ROSES COULD FACE SEVENTY GRAND FINE OVER CURFEW BREAK
Promoters of last week's Guns N Roses gigs at the O2 Arena could face fines of over £70,000 after the band ran well over the venue's 11pm curfew.

According to reports, over two nights the has-been rockers overran a total of three hours past the venue's curfew, and The O2's management confirmed to reporters that a fine would now likely be charged by the local council. The Sun reckons that when Lady Gaga went 25 minutes passed the same curfew earlier this year her promoters were charged £10,000, or £400 a minute. By that logic the tab reckons Guns N Roses' people could face a £72,000 fine.

Though one would assume GnR's promoters budgets for such things, the band being unable to ever get on stage on time.

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MALAYSIAN PROTESTORS CAMPAIGN OUTSIDE LAMBERT GIG
Adam Lambert went ahead with a gig in Kuala Lumpur last week despite protests outside the venue hosting the concert by members of the Pan Malaysian Islamic Party who feared the nearly American Idol would turn his audience gay. Homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia.

The singer had already vowed to tame down his stage show to satisfy so called decency rules in the country, but about 100 campaigners still spent the day protesting and praying outside the venue, while holding up banners that read "it's not our culture!" The protest was peaceful though, even when protestors were banned from entering the venue.

It's quite common for Western pop acts to have to tame down any raunchy routines or costumes when they perform in Malaysia, though it's more commonly female artists who are affected by the country's rules.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Surf City - Kudos (Fire Records)
Ask anyone to name New Zealand's contribution to music and, if you're lucky, they might cite Crowded House and one-hit wonders OMC. To those with more knowledge of independent music history, though, the Flying Nun label, formed in 1981, would surely get a name check, it being regarded by many as one of the more pivotal labels of the eighties. Emerging from the dying days of the punk era, the Flying Nun bands kept the ethos of the independent spirit and merged it with Velvet Underground-style minimalism and lo-fi experimentalism.

Keeping the character of the label alive in the twenty-first century are fellow Kiwis Surf City, a young quartet from Auckland. Although they pay tribute to their country's independent musical past, they equally keep on eye on the trends of British independent music of the same era. 'Kudos' displays several reference points to bands such as Spaceman 3 and The Jesus And Mary Chain, from whom they derive their name (from the b-side 'Kill Surf City', itself a reworking of 'Surf City' by Brian Wilson). Accordingly, the main ingredient to Surf City's sound is feedback and plenty of it, and like the bands they admire, it's the combination of writing conventional 'pop' songs and drenching them in feedback, whilst burying the vocals deep into the mix, that works so well.

The Surf City template is short, sharp bursts of songs around the three minute mark, though that's not to say they don't depart from their tried, tested and successful method on the near-eight minute 'Icy Lakes' and 'Yakuza Park', which utilises frequent use of synthesisers to complement the buzz of guitars and shows the clear influence of contemporary critical darlings Animal Collective. Closing track 'Zombies', the title of which may be a nod to the influential 1960s band of the same name, demonstrates the band's interest in psychedelia and reconnects their 1980s influences with those bands that in turn influenced them.

'Kudos' is a record that has much to recommend about it. It never feels overly derivative or reverential, using influences merely as a springboard for developing the band's own interests, whilst remaining punchy, compelling and full of energy. KW

Physical release: 1 Nov
Press contact: Hermana

Buy from iTunes
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ERA HIT OUT AT ONE POUND ALBUMS PROPOSAL
The Entertainment Retailers Association have hit out at former Warner boss Rob Dickins' suggestion last week that a solution for the record industry's digital woes would be to slash the price of a download album to a pound. As previously reported, Dickins proposed the radical rethink of pricing in the digital music market during a conversation with REM manager Bertis Downs at In The City last week.

In what some outside the record industry have called an enlightened proposal, Dickins said that the music business would never stop file-sharing through litigation or three-strikes style initiatives, and should instead look for business models that can compete with the illegal free music services. And that, he suggested, might require a radical revamp in pricing, based on the principle that if digital albums fell to a pound the industry would sell a lot more, boosting overall revenues.

But ERA, which represents both high street and digital music sellers, were not impressed by the proposal. They also criticised Dickins for making such suggestions now he's outside the record industry, pointing out he ran Warner UK and, for a time, record label trade body the BPI during an era when the major record companies arguably kept CD prices artificially high.

Music Week quote ERA chairman Paul Quirk thus: "Rob Dickins is part of the generation of executives who benefited personally from the age of £14 CDs and gave the music business a bad name and so it is ironic to hear him espouse the cause of the £1 album. Basic arithmetic indicates that this is a non-starter".

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LIBERTY MEDIA BOSS BECOMES LIVE NATION CHAIR
John Malone, the boss of American conglom Liberty Media Corp, will take on the job of Chairman of Live Nation Entertainment on a temporary basis while a permanent replacement is found. Malone will take over from Barry Diller who announced his intent to stand down from the Chairman's post last month.

Although Diller said he'd always intended to give up the role once the merger of Live Nation with his company Ticketmaster was completed, there were rumours his departure had been caused by rising tensions between him and the merged Live Master's top two execs, Irving Azoff and Michael Rapino. Others said Diller was annoyed the merger had really resulted in a Live Nation takeover of his ticketing company.

But there were another set of rumours that said Diller's decision to go was really because of tensions between him and Malone who, having bought 14% of Live Nation, had won a place on the company's board. Relationships between the two businessmen have been fractious ever since Diller's decision to break up part of his InterActiveCorp business in 2008, a move which made Ticketmaster a stand alone company, and which affected Malone because he was an IAC shareholder.

Although Live Nation have been keen to downplay any talk of board room tensions being behind Diller's departure from the top job, the fact he originally said he'd stay in the chair until a full time replacement could be found, but now Malone has stepped in, will only heighten the rumours. And things could stay a bit tense, given Diller will stay on the Live Nation board even once he ceases to be Chair.

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CHRYSALIS REPORTS ROYALTY REVENUES INCREASE
Independent music publisher Chrysalis reported on Friday that things are going very nicely this autumn thank you very much, and that it expects it's net publisher's share income - ie the royalties it earns after the songwriter and composers have been paid their cut - to be up again this year.

It noted that albums from the likes of Cee-Lo Green, Fleet Foxes, While Lies and Pendulum - all on its books as composers - were doing very well, and that its songwriters had also contributed to successful new albums from Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams and Tom Jones. Sorted.

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PPL ANNOUNCE LATIVAN DEAL
Recording royalties collecting society PPL last week announced a deal with its counterparts in Latvia, LAIPA, ensuring PPL's UK members are paid for any public performance of their recordings in the Eastern European country. It's the UK society's second reciprocal agreement with a royalty organisation in the Baltics, and means PPL now has 51 agreements with foreign societies in 28 countries.

Confirming the deal, PPL's international man told CMU: "The contract with LAIPA is our second in The Baltics and is demonstrative of PPL's ongoing commitment to be a world leader in international rights management. We will continue to support licensing efforts throughout the world".

LAIPA MD Ieva Platpere added: "We are very pleased to sign the bilateral agreement with PPL. This agreement is crucial in order to fulfil one of our most important functions as a licensing company from which we will both benefit".

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MUSIC PUBLICITY APPOINTMENTS
Two appointments from the world of music PR for you now, and first up Name PR has announced the appointment of Kayleigh Watson to the role of Senior Press Officer. She joins the company from Kazoo, where she worked on a range of gaming accounts as well as the BT Digital Music Awards.

Says Name PR founder Sam Shemtob: "Kayleigh rose head and shoulders above hundreds of applicants in our 'Krypton Factor' style selection process. Personable and professional, with a contacts book to die for, she brings a can-do attitude to our operations, and I will be giving her all the support she needs in fulfilling the challenge of consolidating our reputation and growing our repertoire of services".

Elsewhere, Freeman PR has recruited John Rogers, previously at Charm Factory, to bring online publicity and digital marketing expertise to the party. He worked with Warp, One Little Indian, EMI, Sony and Universal while at Charm Factory.

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BBC THREE BOSS TO HEAD UP BBC ONE
BBC Three controller Danny Cohen has been promoted to the same job at BBC One, which became vacant last month when incumbent Jay Hunt announced she'd be moving to the role of Chief Creative Officer at Channel 4.

Cohen told reporters: "It is a huge privilege to take charge of Britain's most-watched channel, and I feel honoured to have this opportunity. Jay Hunt's success in the job means that the channel is currently in very good shape indeed and I hope to build on these very strong foundations".

Speculation has now begun as to who might replace Cohen at youth channel Three. According to The Guardian Matthew Littleford, who is currently controller of UKTV, the cable network half owned by the BBC's commercial division, which includes Dave and GOLD among its portfolio of channels.

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INDY CONSIDERING CHEAPER SPIN OFF TITLE FOR TWENTY SOMETHINGS
The Independent is expected to launch a new newspaper - or possibly an alternative edition of The Indy - aimed at the kids. Well I say "kids", twenty somethings. But I'm now at an age where I feel comfortable patronising people in their twenties.

According to The Guardian, the new title could be announced this week, and would probably carry some Indy articles and some original content. It is thought the paper wouldn't have its own Editor, but might be overseen by some of the younger journalists Independent boss Simon Kelner has moved into relatively senior roles of late.

The move might be an effort to appeal to younger news junkies, many of whom have shunned printed newspapers for online and broadcast news services. It's thought the paper will retail at the much cheaper 20 pence. Whether the aim is to actually turn said younger readers into loyal print readers, or, instead, drive them towards the Independent's website isn't clear.

Some have speculated that by introducing a cheaper edition of the Indy this project is really a stepping stone towards making the whole paper a free title, certainly in urban areas, providing a quality paper alternative to Metro. The Independent bosses have always denied going free is on their agenda though, despite the fact their sister title, the London Evening Standard, has enjoyed some success by going that route.

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CLIFF STANDS BY HIS SWING SHOWS
Cliff Richard's manager has come to his client's defence after some fans complained about the singer's recent gigs at the Royal Albert Hall, where he showcased music from his next album, a swing album called 'Bold As Brass'.

A number of Cliff's loyal fans are not impressed with his move into jazz and swing, and posted on the singer's own website to say so. One fan reported of the London gig: "I feel flat and disappointed. It is the first time since 1958 that I have not come away from a concert buzzing. In the second half, I actually wanted to go to sleep. We feel our money was wasted".

But Richard's manager told reporters this weekend that the gigs in question had been clearly labeled as swing shows, and that Cliff and many of his fans were pleased with the new direction.

Cliff rep: "Cliff hasn't been in the business for 50 years without making changes. He's had great reviews for his recent concerts which were billed as a big band sound. Robbie Williams and Rod Stewart have done jazz albums and Cliff wanted to do one too; he knows that not everyone is going to like every genre of music but this time he wanted to try something new".

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DID OLYMPIC TOILET DEMANDS MAKE GLASTO SELECT 2012 AS OFF YEAR?
It was widely reported this weekend that Glastonbury bosses have decided to skip 2012 because of fears that the Olympics will push up the price of portaloos.

Glasto, of course, takes a year off every five years or so. Some expected 2011 to be a fallow year, but then Michael Eavis and co announced 2012 would be the next year off instead, leading to much speculation the London Olympics were behind the decision.

Expanding on that theme, the tabs reported this weekend that there were two Olympics related reasons for 2012 being a fallow year for the festival. First, Glastonbury chiefs fear there will be a shortage of local police to help with their event because the whole of the Somerset & Avon constabulary will seemingly be in London on Glasto weekend, despite it being a whole month before the Olympics starts.

And second, the games will need so many portaloos, the price of portable toilets will sky rocket upping the logistical costs of staging the Glastonbury Festival. I wouldn't have worried about that myself. The way the current government's going with the cuts, by 2012 all the Olympic visitors will probably be told to just piss in the Thames. And let's face it, if the Olympics really are planning on using the same toilets at Glastonbury, that would be far less unpleasant.

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