US COURT ORDERS LIMEWIRE P2P SERVICE TO SHUT DOWN
Is this the end of LimeWire as we know it? Yesterday, a US judge awarded the record industry the injunction they've been waiting ten years to get, ordering the owners of the Lime Group to shut down their P2P file-sharing network or, at least, to stop the distribution and support of their file-sharing software, and step up filtering activity so that the millions of users who already have LimeWire installed on their machines will find it harder to use it to share unlicensed content.

As previously reported, in May the US courts ruled once and for all that the LimeWire company and its founder Mark Gorton were liable for the copyright infringement their P2P technology enabled, despite them having delivered the usual defense about how they never actually hosted infringing content and that their technology had legitimate as well as illegitimate uses. As the major record and music publishing companies started to put together their damages claims against the Lime Group, the Recording Industry Association Of America also called on the courts to force the LimeWire P2P service offline, arguing that as the service had been basically declared illegal it shouldn't be allowed to continue to operate.

When a judge did exactly that yesterday the Lime Group, which would once have probably died fighting to keep its P2P service online, basically agreed to abide by the court ruling, vowing to "use our best efforts to cease support and distribution of the file-sharing software, along with increased filtering". Of course, because of the nature of P2P networks, LimeWire can't just close the file-sharing community it created overnight, but for the last big conventional file-sharing service to be going offline is a symbolic win for the record industry.

LimeWire, of course, has been much less hostile to the record industry in recent years as it tries to persuade the majors to license their music to the subscription-based service it has been developing and which it still hopes to up-sell to its vast database of file-sharers. According to Billboard, which has seen a demo, that service is rather good and could be a useful new revenue stream for the record industry. Though whether the major record companies, who, according to some reports, will now push for multi-billion dollar damages from LimeWire, will ever play ball with the new legit LimeWire, remains to be seen.

Certainly the RIAA didn't sound too consolatory yesterday when it told the press: "For the better part of the last decade, LimeWire and Gorton have violated the law. The court has now signed an injunction that will start to unwind the massive piracy machine that LimeWire and Gorton used to enrich themselves immensely".

back to top

--------------------------------------------------

TERRA FIRMA V CITIGROUP: I HAVE NO INDEPENDENT RECOLLECTION
Officially Citigroup is resolute that its top man David 'The Worm' Wormsley did not, under any circumstances, make three phone calls to Terra Firma chief Guy Hands in the two days before his audacious bid to buy EMI in 2007 telling the equity man, incorrectly, that a rival bidder was about to make an offer, so he should bid quick and bid high.

Though on the witness stand yesterday The Worm admitted that his memory of that weekend was a bit hazy, but he certainly had no recollection of speaking to Hands about rival bidders or such like. He told the court: "I have spent a large part of the last ten months trying to remember that call, but I cannot. I have no independent recollection".

It seems both he and Hands can't remember much about those crucial two days, the latter admitting in court last week that other than the phone calls with The Worm and a plate of lovely chocolate biscuits, he couldn't remember much either. Then again, if I was about to screw over and screw up one of the world's greatest record companies, I'd probably block out those events. This is presumably how City types like Hands and Wormsley manage to sleep at night.

Yesterday was the first full day of questioning of Wormsley, the British banker who led Citigroup's involvement in the disastrous 2007 EMI deal. As much previously reported, Terra Firma and Gary 'The Guy' Hands are suing the US bank claiming it misled the equity group into bidding too soon and too high for EMI.

They hold the bank responsible for the big buckets of cash that Team Terra Firma has since pissed up a wall in trying to make EMI work while servicing the music firm's three billion pound debt to Citi, which provided the bulk of the funding for the acquisition and which has since refused to restructure that debt.

The main aim of Terra Firma's lawyers yesterday seemed to be to embarrass The Worm in any way possible, mainly by pulling out a string of emails he had written at the time of the EMI deal. It wasn't entirely clear if this was about convincing the jury of Citigroup's guilt, or just an effort to embarrass the bank while the world is watching, possibly recognising that Hands' performance in court last week wasn't great and that many commentators reckon this trial will ultimately go in the bank's favour.

That said, there was some logic to the Terra Firma legal team's approach.

Basically, they showed how pissed off Wormsley had been when EMI, a long term client of Citigroup, brought in a rival City firm called Greenhill to help advise on the plans to sell the company. With Greenhill installed, in order to get an invite to the EMI big sale party that he believed should be his to host, The Worm needed to be the man who found the buyer.

Enter Terra Firma. Following this logic, the accusation is basically that The Worm sold his old friend Gary and his team of Terra Firma dudes down the river to ensure that he and his bank got a cut of the EMI sale action. Once again Terra Firma's lawyers showed that, while assuring Hands he was operating 100% in his favour, The Worm was sidling up to the EMI top guard and telling them he could "deliver serious added value to any discussion".

It is thought that today Terra Firma's lawyers will try to show what The Worm himself had to gain in ensuring he engineered the EMI takeover, mainly by persuading the judge to let them reveal to the jury the banker's 2007 pay packet, including bonuses. Yesterday the banker said that his bonus that year did not include a payment directly linked to the EMI deal, though he conceded that he could not be certain the transaction "did not form any of the basis for my compensation".

Citigroup continues to assert that its man Wormsley did not mislead Guy Hands, that the phone calls crucial to Terra Firma's case never took place, and that The Worm's words did not cause the equity group to bid too soon and too high. Pursuing that line, Wormsley yesterday told the court that his role in the deal was primarily in putting together that infamous three billion pound loan rather than providing in-depth advice to Gary on how and when he should bid, though he did admit telling the equity man not to "play games" on price when making his offer for EMI.

The case continues.

back to top

--------------------------------------------------

BBC ADMITS MARK THOMAS THREE-STRIKES REPORT INACCURATE
Those crazy motherfuckers at the BBC have admitted that parts of a feature made by that Mark Thomas dude about the copyright section of the controversial Digital Economy Act that aired on 'The Culture Show' earlier this year were "inaccurate". However, they deny the item was "biased and prejudicial". Or, rather, it was biased and prejudicial, but they say that viewers should have realised this was the case and treated the feature in that context.

Thomas' feature aired in February as the then Digital Economy Bill was working its way through parliament, and dealt mainly with the three-strikes elements of the new legislation.

According to trade body UK Music, which submitted the official complaint about the feature, the ten minute item gave less than two minutes to those who supported the new laws, and over eight to those who opposed them. After BBC management gave UK Music's initial complaint short shrift, its boss man Feargal Sharkey took his moans to the BBC Trust.

In his feature, Thomas claimed that if the DEB became law - which it subsequently did, of course - that film and music companies could order people's internet be cut off on the "bare minimum of evidence". The process for net suspensions is actually still being worked out, though the Digital Economy Act does put some obligations in place on content owners to ensure they can't cut off people on whim.

The Beeb's Editorial Standards Committee admitted yesterday: "The section of the report on the likely effects of the new bill had given the audience an inaccurate description of how the process of disconnection would work. In attempting to paraphrase the legal complexities of the bill the report had not been sufficiently precise and had been inaccurate".

The Committee also admitted that Thomas' use of the word "criminalise" - ie that the Digital Economy Act would "criminalise" file-sharers - was inappropriate, though it stressed that the use of that word in this context had been discussed elsewhere in the programme.

With regards to bias, while it was clear Thomas had an agenda in the piece, the BBC argued that it was so blatantly obvious that viewers were unlikely to take the feature as a piece of independent BBC reporting, and therefore strict bias rules had not been broken. Though the organisatoin admitted that the programme's producers could have better signposted that Thomas' opinion piece was an opinion piece and was just his opinion etc etc.

The BBC's standards people concluded that while Thomas' piece might not have been 100% fair to the music industry, it didn't really matter because only seventeen people watch 'The Culture Show'. No, not really. But I bet they thought it.

back to top

MICHAEL JACKSON TOPS DEAD RICH LIST
Forbes has released its annual ranking of the earnings brought in by dead celebrities, which is always fun. And it's no big surprise that sitting atop this list this year is Michael Jackson. The singer, whose legacy has brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues since his death in June 2009, came in at number three last year, despite having been dead for less than four months at the time.

The American magazine puts Jacko's earnings from licensing and sales at $275 million, noting that he brought in more than "Lady Gaga, Madonna and Jay-Z combined" over the last twelve months, thanks to the numerous deals done in the wake of his death by his estate. Elvis Presley, who last year dropped to number four on the list, is this year back up to number two, though he still only managed to pull in a meagre $60 million.

Jackson is likely to continue to pull in the cash, in the short term at least, thanks in part to a planned programme of record and DVD releases through Sony Music over the next seven years, due to begin with a new album next month. However, there is still disagreement over whether of not the king of pop can keep this up in the long term in the same way as Presley.

Music biz commentator Bob Lefsetz wrote earlier this year: "It's not like Elvis. There's not much music. There's one and a half albums there, somewhere between 'Off The Wall' and 'Bad,' [but] I think it ultimately fades out".

back to top

--------------------------------------------------

LADY GAGA PASSES A BILLION VIEWS ON YOUTUBE
So, she's done it people. Lady Gaga has now had over a billion views on YouTube, the first artist to pass such a landmark.

Though those stats do include views on the YouTube-powered US-based music video service Vevo, half owned by Gaga's record company Universal, but don't let that spoil the "Gaga passed a billion views on YouTube" party, will you? The Gaga thanked her "little monsters" on Twitter after she passed the one billion point earlier this week.

Justin Bieber is lagging embarrassingly behind in this race with only 965 million views on the video sharing website. Oh Justin, people clearly just don't like you and your tedious warbling. Although behind Gaga overall, the Biebster is currently getting well over 3 million video views a day on YouTube so should pass the billion mark himself in about a month and could pass the Gaga in total numbers of views by the end of the year.

back to top

ESBEN AND THE WITCH ANNOUNCE DEBUT ALBUM
Esben And The Witch have announced details about their debut album, 'Violet Cries', which will come out through Matador on 31 Jan.

For a taste of what's to come on the album, Matador have made a track from it, 'Warpath', available to download for free here: promo.matadorrecords.com/esbenandthewitch/warpath.mp3

You can also catch the band playing various dates in the UK next month.

back to top

--------------------------------------------------

PARIS SUIT YOURSELF DEBUT ALBUM GETS RELEASE DATE
Paris Suit Yourself's previously reported debut album, 'My Main Shitstain', will be release through Big Dada on 31 Jan, it has been announced. Ahead of that, they will release a new single, 'Lost My Girl', on 22 Nov, the follow-up to their excellent debut, 'Craig Machinsky'.

You can catch the band supporting The Fall in the UK next month. And, look, here's the tracklist for the album:

Intro
Craig Machinsky
Rolling On
Sometimes
John's Angels
Brainwashed
Surprise
Lost My Girl
Decadanse
Sophie Scholl
Yesterday Will Make You Cry
Father
Solliloque

back to top

BEACH BOYS DENY LIP SYNC ALLEGATIONS
Those most Beach of Boys have hit out at reports that they lip synced at a recent concert in Australia staged alongside the Gold Coast 600 motor racing event.

As previously reported, Sky News claimed fans quickly drifted away from the gig because frontman and founding member Mike Love was miming to his songs, and rather badly that. They quoted one gig-goer as saying: "The Beach Boys were a fraud, they were miming everything. You could tell they weren't even singing, he [Love] was barely even moving". However, Sky News has subsequently removed the report from its website.

Tom Bonhomme, keyboard player and tour manager with the current incarnation of The Beach Boys has insisted nothing was mimed at the gig, or any gig for that matter. He told WENN: "We do not lip sync. I want to make it 100% clear that The Beach Boys do not and never have lip-synced their concerts. They have been touring since 1961 and generally have performed in more than a hundred cities a year since the beginning. I guess we should take it as a compliment that it sounded so good".

Promoters of the gig say that there might have been a slight delay between on-stage action and what was projected on screens at the event, which is why it might have appeared to some of the 20,000 crowd that Mike Love's lips were out of sync with the soundtrack.

Love himself has also issued a statement denying the show had been badly received. He told reporters: "Throughout the duration of my stay in Australia I heard nothing but positive feedback on our show. We pride ourselves on providing a great live show to our millions of fans around the world and spent time that day soundchecking our vocals to ensure a great live mix. In our almost 50 years of performing The Beach Boys have never lip-synced and we are not about to start".

back to top

--------------------------------------------------

FOO FIGHTERS ANNOUNCE 2011 UK SHOWS
Those Foo Fighters will be back in the UK for two shows next summer. The band will play two nights at the Milton Keynes Bowl in July. Support will variously come from Biffy Clyro, Jimmy Eat World, Death Cab For Cutie, Tame Impala and The Hot Rats, while Bob Mould will DJ at both shows.

Speaking to Zane Lowe on Radio 1, Dave Grohl said that fans could expect the band's new album, which they are currently recording, to be released before they play, too: "It's weird to put the biggest show we've pretty much ever played on sale when we're halfway done. But I promise you the record will be done. We're seven songs in with five or six more we're gonna do. The last month and a half we've been recording in my garage, totally old school analogue".

He added: "Each song is full on, the whole record is full on. In the fourteen songs there's not one acoustic guitar, there's not even one in the house".

The album will also feature two people from Grohl's past. Butch Vig, who produced Grohl's former band Nirvana's 'Nevermind' album, is producing, and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic also guests on one track. The sense of occasion, Grohl said, has inspired the band to make a documentary about the recording process.

Grohl said: "This whole project has been really cool. I haven't made a record with Butch for 20 years. We're making a movie about this whole experience too. We have a director. Basically 2011 you're not gonna be able to get us out of your hair, that's what we're planning. I'm excited".

Tickets for the shows go on sale on 5 Nov. Here are the support acts and dates:

2 Jul: Biffy Clyro, Death Cab For Cutie and Tame Impala, plus Bob Mould DJ set
3 Jul: Biffy Clyro, Jimmy Eat World and The Hot Rat, plus Bob Mould DJ set

--------------------------------------------------

IRON & WINE TO TOUR IN MARCH
Iron & Wine, aka Sam Beam, has announced that he and his live band will be over this way in March to perform some gigs in support of the previously reported new album, 'Kiss Each Other Clean', which will be released by 4AD in January.

Tickets for the gigs go on sale on Thursday, except those for the Manchester date which go on sale on Friday, just to be difficult.

Tour dates:

8 Mar: London, Roundhouse
9 Mar: Brighton, Corn Exchange
10 Mar: Birmingham, Town Hall
11 Mar: Edinburgh, Picturehouse
12 Mar: Liverpool, Philharmonic Hall
14 Mar: Dublin, Olympia
15 Mar: Manchester, Academy 2
16 Mar: Gateshead, Sage
17 Mar: Leeds, Metropolitan University

back to top

--------------------------------------------------

MEN BEGIN UK TOUR THIS WEEK
Brooklyn trio MEN, fronted by Le Tigre's JD Samson, will kick off a UK tour tomorrow in Edinburgh. The band are due to release a new single, 'Off Our Backs' on 1 Nov, ahead of their debut album, which is due out via Sony/Columbia in January.

Tour dates:

28 Oct: Edinburgh, Sneaky Pete's
29 Oct: Glasgow, Captain's Rest
30 Oct: Nottingham, Stealth
2 Nov: Cardiff, Buffalo Bar
3 Nov: Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
4 Nov: Brighton, Prince Albert
5 Nov: London, Electrowerks
6 Nov: Manchester, Kraak Gallery
11 Nov: Bristol, Thekla
13 Nov: London, The Garage

back to top

SINGLE REVIEW: Klaxons - Twin Flames (Universal/Polydor)
And in a flash of neon and bad taste, it was gone. A happy ending to the plastic jewellery sporting, east London plaguing, glowstick touting new rave scene. And, thankfully, Klaxons have also moved on.

Their latest single 'Twin Flames' shows a far more melodic, airwave-friendly direction to their whiz-bang-pow past, perhaps more representational of the 'morning after' than the 'night before' of much of their previous oeuvre.

Marching in with skew-whiff, space-age guitars, muted drumbeats and synths, it's undoubtedly catchy, and follows the psychedelic, shimmering leanings of the rest of their sophomore album. However, 'Twin Flames' is a decidedly cyclical offering with no real climax - despite the insistent percussive rhythms and looping chorus.

Hinting at being almost a love song, the lyrics are (hopefully) a wry exercise in self-parody: "Twin flames in our hearts / As we move towards our very start / Twin flames in our minds / When we move emotions multiply".

The new Barry White they are not (phew); but this catchy slab of melodic and decidedly indie-pysch weirdness marks a more mature, if slightly less exciting direction for the band. EG

Physical release: 25 Oct
Press contact: Work It Media

Buy from iTunes
Buy from Amazon

back to top

YOUROPE ANNOUCES NEW FESTIVAL SAFETY TRAINING INITIATIVE
Pan-European festivals organisation YOUROPE has teamed up with Buckinghamshire New University to launch a new training course and professional certificate in Event Safety & Security Management. The new course is aimed at everyone working in the operational management of music festivals, and covers, amongst other things, legalities, risk evaluation, emergency planning, financial controls and other logistics stuff.

The course will be run at Bucks New University, but will also be made available to other organisations who want to train their own staff internally - ie other people can be trained to deliver the course too, with Bucks and YOUROPE making teaching materials available to festival companies who want to train up their own teams in this way. Forty YOUROPE members have already been trained to deliver the course.

The aim, YOUROPE say, is to provide a cost effective way to share this important information that can help ensure crowd safety at major music events across Europe.

For more info on this initiative contact: pbrown01@bucks.ac.uk

back to top

SPOTIFY BOSSES NOT IN TALKS TO SELL TO APPLE, OK?
Spotify has denied rumours that it is in takeover talks with Apple after TechCrunch claimed the Swedish streaming music service had been involved in "on-again, off-again discussions" with the IT giant. The IT website added that last year Spotify nearly sold out to Google.

But when asked about the rumours by the Music Ally guys last night, Team Spot said this: "We have absolutely no intention of selling Spotify. We're working hard to build the best music service we can and are in this for the long haul".

That probably means they'll be sold to Apple by lunchtime. Only joking.

back to top

--------------------------------------------------

LAST.FM TURNS OFF SUBSCRIBER-ONLY STATIONS
Last.fm has announced that it is discontinuing some of the 'radio station' services it offers paid-up subscribers, namely those which play a user's own 'loved' tracks and personally tagged playlists.

Announcing that these services would go offline from 17 Nov, the website said: "Licensing music is a complex and labour intensive process. By discontinuing a few stations, we're able to focus our energy on improving our most popular features, developing new and innovative stations, and offering the best music discovery service to our global audience".

It added: "We'll be announcing new features and even better ways for you to enjoy listening to Last.fm very soon, including a brand new station that we know you'll love".

In April this year the website dropped the on-demand streaming part of its service, instead linking users to other streaming services that 'scrobble', such as Spotify and the Hype Machine.

back to top

--------------------------------------------------

CHERYL COLE TO 'AMPLIFY' ADVERTISING WITH FACEBOOK PLACES
In a campaign similar to one launched by James Blunt last month, Cheryl Cole has announced (or rather her label, Universal/Polydor has) that she will use Facebook Places to promote her new album, 'Messy Little Raindrops', which is out on 1 Nov.

Outdoor poster advertising for the album will invite fans to 'check-in to win'. At this point, if they pull up Facebook's app on their smartphone and register their location on Facebook Places, they will be added to a prize draw to win various prizes, including two tickets, travel and accommodation to see a live 'X-Factor' show. It will also announce the album's release to the person's Facebook friends.

Polydor Digital Marketing Manager Aaron Bogucki told CMU: "Location-based apps like Facebook Places are allowing marketers to amplify offline advertising directly into users Facebook walls. Whereas outdoor advertising was a one-dimensional experience, with this campaign we're allowing fans to actively engage with the ad and help spread the message across their network. Furthermore any consumer who enters the sweepstakes becomes a fan of Cheryl's Facebook page, opening up another channel for engagement".

Paul Smernicki, Director of Digital, Polydor added: "Cheryl has a massive profile as a celebrity so we wanted to create an engaging mechanic that gave Cheryl the artist cut through. We also feel that this part of the overall Cheryl campaign gives fans all across the country a physical location to engage with and be part of the excitement around the release of her new record, whether they live in London or Stockport - no one is excluded".

They have phones in Stockport now?

back to top

STUDENTS - VOTE IN THE RECORD OF THE DAY AWARDS
Calling all students, calling all students. Yes you, pay attention now. You have just five days to put yourselves forward for the student categories in the Record Of The Day Music Journalism & PR Awards. So if you are student who writes about music or takes photos of music people and you fancy winning an award next to the great and the good of the professional music media, then get yourselves over to CMU's sister website CreativeStudent.net, where you'll find all the info you need.

And once you've done that, do this. Once again Record Of The Day is also inviting student music people to vote for their favourite music journalist and music media. These student voted categories will also be presented at the ROTD awards next month. To vote in the student categories you just need to go to www.recordoftheday.com/awards and click on the student vote button. Do it NOW. Aside from having an influence over two categories at the music media's premiere awards event, you could win a pair of tickets to the awards bash plus a year's subscription to Record Of The Day which in itself is worth £150. Woo.

Meanwhile, the rest of you, ie you non-students types. You should also be voting in the non-student categories for this year's ROTD Awards. Voting is already open in the journalism categories, and the PR categories will be open for voting soon. More info at www.recordoftheday.com/awards

This year's awards will take place on 25 Nov. Terri Hall will get the Outstanding Contribution To Music PR prize while the rather great Mick Rock will be presented with the Outstanding Contribution To Music Photography prize.

back to top

JEDWARD MAKE COMPLAINT ABOUT HEATHROW STAFF
Jedward have reportedly made a formal complaint against security guards at Heathrow who, they say, have been "bullying" the pop twosome every time they pass through the airport.

A source has told The Sun: "They always pull the twins in for extra screening just to pick on them and try to look big in front of their mates. Then last week, the same guy who usually taunts them pulled Edward in and was joined by three mates. There were four big oafs standing laughing at a nineteen year old kid".

And, it would seem, the complaint is justified, or at least an apology from airport operator BAA is circulating, which would presumably suggest at least some Jedward mocking has been going on. The statement reads: "Nothing excuses the behaviour. We have spoken to the staff members concerned".

You'd have thought Jedward would be immune to being mocked by now. Though, to be fair, you possibly don't expect it in a room where people are meant to be concentrating their energies on looking for bombers and suchlike.

back to top

--------------------------------------------------

ANDRE ON CHURCH'S QVC STINT
So, Charlotte Church has a new album out this week called 'Back To Scratch', the long player at the heart of her previously reported Power Amp-created business venture that is backed by £2 million of City funding.

Obviously keen to keep the money men happy, Church has been doing some heavy promotional work over the last fortnight, which even included a stint last week on shopping channel QVC. It's not a standard stop off on the music publicity trail, but as The Guardian pointed out, with seven million viewers a month, perhaps it should be.

We've resisted mentioning Church's QVC stint so far because, obviously, what we really wanted to know about the whole thing is this: what does Peter Andre think? But, God be praised, he's now told us via his column in New magazine.

"I thought this was a really strange thing to do at first", Andre admitted, possibly shocked Church had actually found a TV channel where he'd never appeared flogging tat himself. "But it turns out it's her nanna's favourite channel and she did it to make her happy. I think that's so funny and I admire Charlotte for being a little bit different".

So, now you know, and that's all resolved.

back to top