LIBEL JUDGE TO DECIDE WHETHER MORRISSEY CASE CAN PROCEED
A High Court judge is today expected to decide whether Morrissey's libel action against the NME can go to full trial. I hope it does, because the singer himself may well have to testify, as would former NME editor Conor McNicholas and, very possibly, Morrissey's former manager Merck Mercuriadis and current NME chief Krissi Murison-Hodge, making for quite a fun day in court.

This all relates to an interview Morrissey gave to the NME way back in 2007, in which the singer was quoted complaining about an "immigration explosion" leading to a loss of British identity. The singer claimed his words were misrepresented in the interview, conducted by Tim Jonze, and alleges that the magazine's then editor, McNicholas, deliberately altered the piece to make it more explosive and, therefore, to bring his flagging magazine more publicity. The interview was widely covered and, Morrissey claims, resulted in reputational damage - to the effect that the singer was deemed a racist - which, he adds, he still suffers from to this day.

In a hearing yesterday to decide whether Morrissey's case can progress to full trial, NME's publisher IPC Media presented various arguments as to why the libel action should be dismissed. Not least the fact that, despite announcing he would take legal action shortly after the interview was first published, it actually took the singer three years to do so. During that time, IPC argues, Morrissey continued to record and perform and enjoy much success, proving, the company says, the singer was not harmed by the interview.

According to The Guardian, IPC's rep Catrin Evans told the court: "The fact that [Morrissey] has spent the three years since March 2008 recording albums, touring, promoting his new work and presumably doing well enough commercially to be able now to contemplate funding this libel claim, shows that his reputation has been unaffected. His fans apparently still love him". IPC also argues that, having left it so long to act, Morrissey has prevented the defendants from getting a fair trial, because it would rely on journalists and editors recalling conversations and decisions had and made five years ago.

Hundreds of emails and the original transcript of the interview would likely be presented as evidence should the case go to full trial, while the defence is likely to point to Morrissey's tendency to court controversy in interviews, and the fact that since the 2007 article the singer caused more outrage when, in a Guardian piece, he called the Chinese a "sub-species" because of the country's record on animal rights.

Morrissey did not attend yesterday's hearing, but a statement from him was read out in court. McNicholas, who is being sued personally alongside IPC, was in attendance. Judge Michael Tugendhat, the UK's most senior judge handling media disputes, should decide whether to allow the case to proceed later today.

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PIRATE BAY FOUNDER LOSES APPEAL, RULING MADE FINAL
The Stockholm District Court has found against one of the Pirate Bay Four, and denied him the opportunity to appeal to Sweden's Supreme Court.

As previously reported, although Gottfrid Svartholm, like his fellow defendants, appealed a first instance ruling that said he was guilty of contributory copyright infringement for his role in setting up file-sharing website The Pirate Bay, his appeal wasn't heard with that of his former colleagues because he was ill at the time of the hearing, seemingly hospitalised in Cambodia.

Fellow Pirate Bay founders Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij, and key funder Carl Lundström, all failed in their first appeal last November, although the prison sentences they had been given first time round were reduced. They are now appealing to the country's Supreme Court. Some commentators reckon they will lose that appeal too, but might manage to have their prison sentences - which won't be served until all appeal options have been exhausted - reduced to zero.

However, Svartholm now faces a year in prison if he ever returns to Sweden, having failed to show up for his appeal hearing. The fourth defendant went AWOL after his fellow defendants lost their appeal, and, after making numerous efforts to make contact with him, the courts decided to go ahead with his appeal hearing without him in attendance. That hearing was held last month and at it legal reps for the entertainment industry proposed Svartholm's sentence be made final as a result of his non-attendance. And this week judges published a ruling in which they did just that.

Responding to the ruling, Sunde told TorrentFreak: "I think it's kind of strange putting a guy into jail because he's too sick to appear in court. Also, nobody is in contact with him, for all we know he might be dead since no one can reach him. This is actually a really bizarre step from the Swedish court - he's found guilty because he can't defend himself. Way to go, democracy. It will be interesting to see how they will actually try to find him and put him into jail. If he's not alive - will they put his gravestone into a jail cell for a year?"

Sunde added that he was still optimistic he and the other two defendants would win once their appeal reached the Supreme Court, arguing that "the law is on our side".

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UB40 MEMBERS DECLARED BANKRUPT
Four of the five remaining original members of UB40 still in the band have been forced into bankruptcy following a legal battle over tax payments. A court order, due to last for a year, also means that HM Revenue & Customs can claim monies due to them by seizing the men's property and any royalties they earn from the band's music. The band members will also have to pay court fees which, the Telegraph says, also run into tens of thousands of pounds.

As previously reported, the band appeared at Birmingham High Court in February after an investigation into the affairs of their record label DEP International. In July a judge gave the go ahead for creditors to take royalty payments to cover outstanding debts, and last week declared Brian Travers, Jimmy Brown, Terence Oswald and Norman Hassan bankrupt. Robin Campbell, brother of former frontman Ali Campbell, was also listed on the court case but was not declared bankrupt.

As also previously reported, Ali Campbell left the group in 2008, citing fears over the group's finances for his decision. Keyboard player Mickey Virtue also quit shortly afterwards, but the rest of the band continued on, a third Campbell brother, Duncan, taking over as frontman.

Asked about his former bandmates' current woes, Ali told The Telegraph: "This is the very reason why I left the band. This was my biggest fear when I was with them, that bankruptcy was going to happen and no one can say I didn't warn them. In the 1980s we were living in five-star hotels and we got through a lot of money. Why weren't the other guys listening to me when I started to flag these money problems up? They decided to back the management and not me, I'm still very bitter about it. I was very proud of what I achieved with UB40. It was a band I started, I was with them for 28 years and we made 24 albums. But we were divided and ruled, and this is what happened in the end. UB40 have been asset-stripped by the people around them".

Away from the courts, the band are apparently currently working on a new album.

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THE SATURDAYS' FRANKIE SANDFORD CHECKS INTO REHAB
Frankie Sandford of The Saturdays has admitted herself into a "private clinic", which seemingly means she is in rehab, though most likely due to stress and/or exhaustion.

The singer tweeted last week that she'd "not been very well", while a spokesperson confirmed to Digital Spy that Sandford was receiving treatment at a private clinic. However, they insisted that it was nothing to do with drink, drugs or cosmetic surgery. So stop saying that.

And the group are not splitting up either. So stop saying that too. Also speaking to Digital Spy, this time about the various rumours Sandford's absence from various group engagements meant she was quitting, fellow Saturday Una Healy said: "In any other job if somebody had a few days when they were sick, nobody would say they've left. What are you supposed to do? You can't come to work if you're ill".

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JEDWARD SLATED FOR SECOND EUROVISION OUTING, POSSIBLY
Jedward are reportedly in the running to represent Ireland again at next year's Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan. The be-quiffed brothers were placed eighth in last year's competition, with their Eurovision single 'Lipstick' subsequently selling well across Europe.

A source at Irish broadcaster RTÉ told the tabs: "Jedward proved to be one of the most talked-about and popular acts [in Eurovision]. They were such a massive hit with the media and fans that even the Eurovision organisers requested them back. [And] provided the song is right, then yes, Jedward will [likely] accept the offer".

Well, I suppose if Dana International was allowed to run twice, the same rights should extend to Jedward, or indeed any eligible act. Except Blue. Or Jemini. Or Javine.

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ASH'S TIM WHEELER LIKES ALBUMS AGAIN
Four years after Ash announced that 'Twilight Of The Innocents' would be their last ever album, frontman Tim Wheeler has been reconsidering his feelings towards the full-length format.

The band, whose greatest hits compilation is out this week, have otherwise only released their singles-only series, 'A-Z', since 2007. In these foggier financial climes, however, Tim has told 6music that albums represent "the best and most economic medium", while also admitting the singles campaign had proved "quite challenging".

So, given that Charlotte Hatherley has reunited with the band for their 'Free All Angels' anniversary tour this week, does this mean there's a new Ash LP in the offing? Tim doesn't rule one out. "I'd totally consider it", he says. "I've no idea really if it will happen but I think it would be interesting. I think we'll just see how we get on and see what it's like".

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TOM WAITS REALLY STREAMS ALBUM
There'll be no more staging of ironic 'private listening parties' by Tom Waits, oh no. He's inviting fans to stream his new album 'Bad As Me' for real this time, up till its release via Anti- on 24 Oct. If you haven't signed up to Tom's mailing list, do so now at badasme.com to receive a unique listening code.

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RON HOWARD MAY DIRECT STEVEN TYLER BIOPIC
Aerosmith frontman and 'American Idol' judge Steven Tyler has revealed that director Ron Howard has bought the rights to turn his memoir 'Does The Noise In My Head Bother You?' into a film.

Asked when a biopic might be made about his life, Tyler told Women's Wear Daily "either as soon as the plane goes down, or in my lifetime", but he then revealed: "I'm thinking since Ron Howard bought my book, his production company is thinking about doing something".

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OTHER RETAILERS TO SELL HMV VOUCHERS
Ah record tokens, you remember them? They existed right, I didn't just dream that up? I mean, they're not mentioned in Wikipedia, which has me doubting myself. Oh, it's alright, I just found an article about them on the internet, apparently the whole thing started to fall apart when WHSmith withdrew from the scheme, and completely collapsed when HMV followed suit.

Which is sort of interesting because WHSmith is about to start selling HMV vouchers. As are Clintons, Birthdays, Debenhams and Esso garages, as HMV tries to revive its fortunes as the last big player in high street entertainment retail by persuading unimaginative aunts, uncles and grandparents the country over to give their teenage relatives the modern equivalent of the record token for birthdays etc.

As part of the new initiative even the big supermarkets like Tesco and Morrisons - whose move into selling mainstream CDs in the late 1990s arguably contributed to the decline of specialist record shops - will eventually start stocking the HMV vouchers, which are also being redesigned ahead of the roll out to other stores.

Says HMV's Corporate Sales Manager Sam Playford: "HMV gift vouchers give access to an unparalleled selection of music, film and games and loads of other cool stuff as well as the growing range of personal technology products, such as iPads and Beats headphones, that HMV now stocks. It's wonderful news that our electronic gift cards, which have already proved a big hit with our own customers, will shortly become much more widely available on the high street and online thanks to other retailers deciding to stock them".

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DREAMCOATS & PETTICOATS CREATOR LEAVES UNIVERSAL
The man behind the 'Dreamcoats & Petticoats' compilation franchise that span off into a West End stage show is leaving Universal Music, where he worked on a string of successful catalogue and compilation releases over thirty years. Brian Berg plans to work on new music and theatre projects outside the Universal empire, but will still consult on the 'D&P' album series, and will remain an executive producer of the brand's stage show, which is touring as well as playing in the West End.

Paying tribute to the departing Berg, Universal Music UK chief David Joseph told Music Week: "Brian has been a true pioneer of the record business, creating a new way of selling music and generating successful ideas and projects ever since. We are hugely indebted to him for what he has done not only for our company but for the whole UK music business. We wish him all the very best".

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BELIEVE AND ABSOLUTE ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP
Digital distributor Believe Digital has announced a new partnership with label services company Absolute Marketing & Distribution. The deal will see Believe provide digital distribution services to artists working with Absolute.

Confirming the partnership, Absolute MD Henry Semmence told CMU: "It's great to be teaming up with another company who have the same drive for innovation. We at Absolute have always been at the forefront of online and traditional marketing but with Believe in partnership we can deliver even more of an offering to our clients both in the UK and internationally".

Believe chief Stephen King added: "This new strategic partnership will give us the opportunity to work with Absolute Marketing & Distribution's great roster of talent on an international basis. They share our ambition and drive to improve the international reach of independent music wherever possible and our two companies are well positioned to help make this a reality".

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DIGITAL MUSIC SERVICE CULL ON THE HORIZON, SAYS DEEZER BOSS
According to Deezer UK's Managing Director Mark Foster there is only "room for three or four" digital music services on the internet, and we'll see a lot close in the next twelve months.

Asked which digital services currently out there would most likely survive, Foster told Music Week: "We'll be one of [the ones that survives], no question. Whether we'll be bigger than Spotify, I don't know. There'll inevitably be a shake-out - as with any market where you get a lot of people coming in with great ideas - over the next twelve months, you'll get four or five big players coming out of the pack. Some will fall away. That's market dynamics".

Since arriving in the UK in September, Deezer claims to have signed up 1.4 million premium subscribers. Most of those have come through an exclusive deal with Orange to bundle the service in with pay monthly mobile phone contracts though, which means it's not clear how many active users the service actually has.

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YOUTUBE TO ENABLE ARTIST UPSELL VIA NEW MERCH STORE
See, this is much more interesting than plans to glue a lacklustre MP3 store onto the side of their digital locker. Google has announced plans to enable artists to upsell merchandise, MP3s and gig tickets from their YouTube channels. Called the YouTube Merch Store and launching in a few weeks, the facility will be open to all artists, with iTunes and Amazon providing downloads, Songkick links to tickets and Topspin plugged in for t-shirts and other merchandise.

The aim, presumably, is to make YouTube channels a crucial part of an artist's online presence, akin to what a MySpace profile was for a couple of years last decade. And, given the level of YouTube's traffic, if they integrate the sell-through options in a good way ("frictionless" to use a Zuck word), they might just achieve that.

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GLOBAL RADIO LOSSES GROW
The UK's biggest radio company, Global Radio, owners of the Heart and Capital networks as well as LBC, Xfm and Classic FM, posted pre-tax losses of £32.7 million for the last financial year, according to a filing with Companies House. But top man Ashley Tabor still got his £1.4 million bonus to take his pay package to £3.3 million, so that's alright then.

The company's losses were up slightly on the previous year, though actually in some ways the group performed well in 2010/11 - advertising revenues slipped only slightly despite one of its biggest advertisers, the government, slashing their spending on public health ads by 85%, and interest payments to shareholders and the reduction of bank loans contributed to the firm's overall spending.

Although primarily a media company, Global, of course, is also a periphery player in the music business, owning, as it does, talent management and music publishing companies.

Since these spin-off ventures have grown in recent years there has been speculation as to whether Global's radio stations are giving preferential treatment to artists represented by other parts of the group, a question pondered by Helienne Lindvall on The Guardian website last week with regards the biggest act managed by the radio firm, The Wanted. Perhaps radio companies should be more transparent regards their playlist policies, she argues, to avoid allegations of bias towards their own acts.

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ABSOLUTE LAUNCHES TWO NEW DECADE STATIONS
Absolute Radio is launching two more decade-specific digital services, Absolute 60s and Absolute 70s. Like the company's 80s, 90s and 00s sister stations, these will broadcast only music from their selected decade, except during breakfast when they'll take the Christian O'Connell breakfast show, with all its pesky modern music (I mean, for God's sake, they just played Ed Sheeran), from the main Absolute station.

Much of the output of the new stations will be back to back music, though Pete Mitchell will host a morning show for the 60s channel and Richard Skinner will present a programme on Absolute 70s. Both will also be part of the previously reported experiment Absolute has been conducting with its Saturday morning Frank Skinner show, which airs on all the Absolute stations, but with music varying from channel to channel.

Confirming the new stations, Absolute big cheese man Clive Dickens told The Guardian: "The beauty of [these stations] lies in their simplicity. Absolute Radio 80s is now the eleventh biggest radio station in the UK and it is not even two years old. Around 50% of the Absolute Radio audience is now enjoying one of our digital services. [And] like our other digital stations, the spirit of these services will be the music of the 60s and the 70s through the lens of Absolute Radio. They won't replicate Gold or Magic or Smooth Radio. You won't find Herman's Hermits or The Searchers on Absolute Radio 60s".

With that in mind, Dickens added that there would never be an Absolute 50s station, adding: "Real music began in 1963 with the Beatles and the Stones. Prior to that it was great music, but it wasn't Absolute music".

The new stations will be available via DAB in some parts of the country, and online via the Radioplayer.

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KERRANG! RADIO INTRODUCES GAMING NEWS
I might be wrong, but I reckon Bauer Media's Kerrang! Radio is very possibly the first radio station to air a one minute news bulletin specifically dedicated to video games throughout the day. The rock station has teamed up with games news website IGN to provide the new service, which will air seven times daily during the week and four times on Saturday and Sunday to accompany the station's other news and entertainment news output.

Alex Baker, Commercial Programmer and a presenter with the Kerrang! radio station, which airs on FM in the Midlands, DAB in the North and Scotland, and nationally via TV, told CMU: "We know that our audience spend a lot of money on gaming. We were keen to find the coolest and most credible way to bring the latest news/information about the world of gaming to our listeners and who better to help us achieve that goal than the world's biggest and most credible gaming and entertainment website, our new partners at IGN. In addition, with the recently relaxed Ofcom broadcasting code in mind, the commercial possibilities [here] are endless".

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METALLICA TURNED DOWN KILL BILL SOUNDTRACK, ULRICH REVEALS
Lars Ulrich turned down the chance for Metallica to soundtrack Quentin Tarantino's 'Kill Bill' movies, the drummer has revealed in a new column for Newsweek, a decision he calls "probably the single biggest mistake I've made in the creative department".

He explains: "One of the most surreal 30 minutes of my life was having QT six inches from my face, eyes dancing, intensely animated, explaining in intricate detail how he had written and choreographed the two main fight scenes in the film to the Metallica songs 'Enter Sandman' and 'Sad But True'. Fists would impact faces on accents. Kicks would land on cymbal hits. Bodies would twirl along with the rhythm of the music. Tarantino's next-level movie magic married to Metallica music, all turned up to eleven".

However, he goes on to say that once he'd received "all 180 pages" of the script he "wasn't capable of appreciating its brilliance".

"Page by page, I realised that most of this was written in a language that was outside of my realm of understanding", he says. "I had never encountered a narrative like this, set in, to me, a very foreign culture of martial arts and Asian myths. I just couldn't wrap my thick Danish head around it ... Then I started overthinking it. 'Do it, do it', my gut screamed, but my head was confused. Cautious. I experienced a rare inability to pull the trigger".

Finally, he says: "Over the next few weeks the whole thing fizzled out as I continued not trusting my instincts. In the end, I never got back to him. Probably the single biggest mistake I've made in the creative department".

Read Ulrich's article in full here: www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/10/16/lars-ulrich-on-saying-no-to-quentin-tarantino.html

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ALICE COOPER GIVES BIBLE LESSONS IN HIS SPARE TIME
What do shock rockers do on their days off? Well, I imagine Marilyn Manson sits around thinking of new ways to be shocking. And so, it seems, does Alice Cooper. Though while Marilyn Manson's recent Shia LaBeouf-directed music video fell a bit flat in the shock stakes, Cooper has outdone him by revealing that he teaches bible classes in his local church.

Actually, it's the man who 'plays' Alice Cooper, Vincent Furnier, who teaches the classes, but that doesn't mean people find it easy to make the distinction. He told The Sun: "You should see the look on people's faces. 'Alice Cooper teaching Bible class? But he's the spawn of the Devil!' Surely people get it by now - Alice is just a character. Alice hates going to church, but I go every Sunday".

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