| CMU Daily - on the inside 29 Nov 2002 |
|
In today's CMU Daily:
• Brit nominations deadline today,
• VH1 awards to include Jam Master Jay tribute,
• Harrison tribute tonight,
• Former Oasis man denied chance to sue his lawyers,
• Academy empire reaches Scotland,
• Maidens and Junkies on Roskilde line up,
• Grammys announce lifetime achivement awards,
• Review: Darius - Dive In,
• Kerrang get new editor,
• Blur reckon next album is the record of their lives,
• BT hope Freeview deal will get more internet custom,
• Review: Banda Black Rio – Rebirth,
• Playlouder at ICA,
• Idlewild on new line up,
• Eminem’s gran puts pen to paper
------------------------------------------------
“I think his greatest achivement was recognising that he was a macho asshole and trying to stop it”. Who on eight greatest Briton John Lennon?
Answer tomorrow
------------------------------------------------
WHAT'S THE BEST SINGLE AND ALBUM OF 2003
Vote now in the CMU chart of the year. Email your name, where you work / study and the name of your favourite single and album of 2003 to [email protected] – and look out for the chart of the year on 20 Dec.
------------------------------------------------
BRIT NOMINATIONS DEADLINE TODAY
Today’s the deadline for members of the Brit Academy to tick those boxes and make their nominations for next year’s awards – which means hundreds of practitioners across the music and media industries will be scrabbling through their in trays to look for their forms while the BPI fax machine goes into overdrive. Each major will be looking for their fair share of nominees on the night – though V2 can be most confident of having a good night, Tom Jones will get the life time achievement gong.
------------------------------------------------
VH1 AWARDS TO INCLUDE JAM MASTER JAY TRIBUTE
Kid Rock, Chuck D and Grandmaster Flash are all lined up to honor the late Jam Master Jay in a special tribute at the VH1 Big in 2002 Awards in LA next week. The awards will also see a Lifetime Achievement Award presentation for the whole of Run-DMC, an award prompted by the act’s decision to retire after Jay’s tragic death. Lined up to perform are Christina Aguilera, Bon Jovi, Norah Jones and John Mayer, with actors Michael Imperioli and Drea de Matteo (who play Christopher and Adrianna in ‘The Sopranos’) as hosts. Recorded on 4 Dec, and aired later in December, this is the awards event that includes the ‘Can't Get You Out Of My Head Award For The Year's Most Ubiquitous Song’, ‘The Do I Look Fat in This Fight? Award For Girls Who Kick Ass’ and ‘The Been Caught Scene Stealin' For The Year's Most Unexpected Stand-Out Movie Performance’.
------------------------------------------------
HARRISON TRIBUTE TONIGHT
Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, ELO founder Jeff Lynne, Jools Holland, and Tom Petty are among the stars lined up for the George Harrison Tribute Concert at the Albert Hall tonight. "The tribute will resound not only within the Albert Hall, but hopefully reach the spirit of a man so loved by his friends who will be performing and attending," his widow Olivia told reporters. The concert, which will feature tracks he wrote, tracks he liked and comedy from the Monty Python crew, will raise money for the charity Harrison funded, the Material World Charitable Foundation, which supports the arts, education, and people with special needs.
The day of the concert coincides with the news that Harrison left nearly £100 million in his will. It is thought the fortune will be divided between his wife, other family members and a number of charities.
-----------------------------------------------
FORMER OASIS MAN DENIED CHANCE TO SUE HIS LAWYERS
Former Oasis member Tony McCarroll has been denied the opportunity to sue his solicitors, who he clamed mishandled his affairs with the band, because he left it to long to take action. McCarroll said solicitors Statham Gill Davies should have ensured his personal contract Sony Music (then parent company of their label Creation) should have safeguarded him from instant dismissal from the band. But Justice Gray at the High Court in London said that McCarroll had failed to act quick enough – the law dictates legal proceedings should happen within six years of the event causing the grievance.
McCarroll was an original member of Oasis, but was dumped once the band hit it big time, just prior to the recording on the seminal ‘What’s The Story Morning Glory’. After previous legal action against the band and the label he was awarded £550,000 in unpaid royalties in 1999, effectively severing any ties he had with the Manchester-based band.
Justice Gray told the court: "My conclusion is that the claimant did suffer relevant and measurable damage at the date when the Sony agreement was executed,” but added the case could not proceed because of the delay in filing the case.
------------------------------------------------
ACADEMY EMPIRE REACHES SCOTLAND
The people behind the Brixton Academy will continue their growth around the UK next month when they open the Glasgow Academy in the New Bedford Cinema on Eglington Street. The 2500 venue, due to open next March, adds to the McKenzie Group’s existing network of mid-size venues which includes London Brixton Academy, Birmingham Academy and Bristol Academy, as well as the London Shepherds Bush Empire.
Announcing the opening of a Glasgow venue McKenzie’s MD John Northcote told reporters: "The latest Academy will deliver the same exciting and vibrant diary of rock, pop, jazz, indie and dance, plus we will be working closely with leading Scottish promoters DF Concerts who have an excellent local knowledge."
DF Concerts’ Geoff Ellis spoke enthusiastically about the new venue: "We are very excited about the Glasgow Academy and feel that it will be a very successful and welcome addition to the buoyant concert market in Glasgow. We look forward to the opportunity of bringing more concerts to Glasgow and feel that the venue's capacity is ideal and fills a significant gap in the market."
------------------------------------------------
MAIDENS AND JUNKIES ON ROSKILDE LINE UP
Junkie XL, pushed into the mainstream by that Elvis remix, has been confirmed as one of key acts to play the Roskilde Festival next year. Tickets for the legendary music festival go on sale on Monday have been named as a key act of Roskilde 2003. On the rock side Iron Maiden are also confirmed to play.
Junkie XL’s live show features remixer Tom Holkenborg, rapper Rude Boy (ex Urban Dance Squad) plus a guitarist and drummer providing a live feel to their big-beat electronica.
The Festival, which takes place at a site twenty minutes outside Copenhagen, will take plave 26-29 Jun.
-----------------------------------------------
GRAMMYS ANNOUNCE LIFETIME ACHIVEMENT AWARDS
Simon and Garfunkel, Etta James, Tito Puente, Johnny Mathis and Glenn Miller are all set to receive Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Recording Academy at the Grammys next February. The Recording Academy will also honor Alan Lomax and the New York Philharmonic with the Trustees Award, which recognizes back stage contribution to the music industry.
------------------------------------------------
REVIEW: Darius - Dive In (Mercury)
What is it that you don't like/respect about pop acts? Is it that they never write/produce their own material? Is it that they rarely play an instrument? Is it that they use more covers than Lords Cricket ground when it rains? Or is it the simply that most of them sound terrible? Well here is a pop album that fills all of the gaps left by the churned out dross: Darius. Not only did Darius play guitar for a number of the tracks, but he wrote/co-wrote all of the songs and co-produced some. All this would stand for nothing if the album wasn't just a great pop album. The tracks are amply catchy and accessible but never bland and soulless like most extruded-pop, and most importantly Darius just is a great singer - it's his corny self-belief that makes him so great; he's not afraid to explore his voice. I will lose my job for this but I just love this album. Bryan Adams hits ballad mode with a packet of Lockets. JG
Release date: 2 Dec
Press contact: Mercury [all]
------------------------------------------------
KERRANG GET NEW EDITOR
With Kerrang! editor Paul Rees off to takeover at fellow EMAP title Q, the rock weekly has a new editor – it’s youngest ever – in 26 year old Ashley Bird. Bird has worked for the magazine since graduating from Bournemouth University – he was on the staff as a reviews editor and more recently freelanced for the magazine.
On announcing the appointment Dave Henderson, MD of Rock at EMAP Performance, told reporters: "Ashley is the absolute real thing in the world of Kerrang!. If he couldn't be writing and editing it you know he'd be buying it and down at the front at all the Kerrang! gigs."
Bird himself added: "Kerrang! has been integral to my life since I was 14 - as an obsessive reader, a writer and a section editor. There isn't a magazine in the world I would rather be a part of than this one. I'm absolutely chuffed to bits and honoured to be in this position and can't wait to get stuck in. In many ways I feel like I just married my childhood sweetheart.”
Dave Everley, the features editor of Kerrang!, is promoted to deputy editor.
------------------------------------------------
BLUR RECKON NEXT ALBUM IS THE RECORD OF THEIR LIVES
In the latest of their regular studio updates Blur have confirmed they’re in the last week of recording what they are describing as the "record of our lives". Alex James writes on the band’s website that the studio has become something of a party as the album reaches completion: "Mince Pies. People are setting fire to 1/2 inch mastering tape and making loops of the damage. It’s playtime. Also there are rockets, Dave got them from Hamley’s. They go really high and come down on a parachute. It’s tempting to stay here forever trying to make a rocket that can achieve escape velocity, or inventing stuff in the barn."
Talking about the album he added: "It’s a year since we started recording, there have been gaps, so it hasn’t taken a whole year in the studio, but the passage of time has allowed everything to grow naturally. We’ve recorded so many tracks we haven’t had to be precious about any of them. Sonically, musically, rhythmically, lyrically and in terms of hip shakin’ grooves and hot licks, we have a made a record of our lives."
-----------------------------------------------
BT HOPE FREEVIEW DEAL WITH GET MORE INTERNET CUSTOM
BT is hoping to get a deal with the BBC backed Freeview digital TV platform to flog internet access to digital viewers. Set top boxes with internet capability are expected to hit the stores early next year, and BT hopes to forge a deal which will let it sell internet services to Freeview customers. The link up with a digital TV platform is part of BT’s attempts to woo people away from cable phone and internet services – consumers who choose to buy cable TV normally take the cable companies telecoms services too. They hope people may opt for Freeview over cable, and therefore be more open to take BT and an internet provider. And with the internet potential of Freeview better with broadband internet access they hope to sell more broadband lines too.
"BT sees that if people take Freeview then they may not subscribe to cable or maybe they will even leave cable," Andy Blanche, the head of media ventures at BT, told a New Media Markets conference this week.
-----------------------------------------------
REVIEW: Banda Black Rio – Rebirth (Mr Bongo)
In the late seventies and early eighties, Banda Black Rio placed Brazilian jazz-funk firmly on the international music map. And now the son of founder member Oberdan Magalhaes, William Magalhaes has reformed the group to continue the good work. And the ‘good work’ comes as this perfect summer album: an antidote to the ceaseless rain and wintery temperatures. With the classic Brazilian sound come remixes from Toni Economides (Da Lata and Nitin Sawney’s producer) and Faze Action. A highly accessible South American long player with tons of Latin soul. JG
Release date: 13 Jan
Press contact: Zzonked [all]
------------------------------------------------
PLAYLOUDER AT ICA
Music website www.playlouder.com next week stage a series of nights covering various genres at London’s ICA. The line up in full:
3 Dec: No Name Guitar Frenzy - The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, Ikara Colt & Guests
4 Dec: Hip Hop Night - Black Twang, Pitman, DJ Yoda and Dan Greenpeace
5 Dec: Rawk Night - Alec Empire, Techno Animal, Jarcrew
6 Dec: Trash Radio Night: Max Tundra, My Computer, Klang, Crack Village
7 Dec: Electronic Night: Capitol K, Alec Empire, Richard H Kirk
More info at www.playlouder.com
------------------------------------------------
IDLEWILD ON NEW LINE UP
Idlewild’s Roddy Woomble has been talking to NME about the band’s decision to recruit Irish bassist Gavin Fox to replace Bob Fairfoull. The 23-year-old has been friends of the band since he supported them with his old band Turn.
Woomble reckons Fox will, if anything, improve the band: "When the situation happened at the start of this tour we decided straight away that we were going to continue the tour and keep the record alive. Bob was for a long time distanced from the band. And now the band feels stronger and everyone's happier, Bob included. Gavin was the obvious choice because he's a friend and musically he's a great musician. He's the same kind of person. So we asked him. As of next year we're going to be a different band really. A different version of Idlewild."
Woomble also confirmed that Allan Stewart, who has played guitar live with Idlewild for the last two years and contributed to 'The Remote Part' album, will become a full time member making them a five piece.
------------------------------------------------
EMINEM’S GRAN PUTS PEN TO PAPER
Latest Slim Shady cash in - Eminem's grandmother Betty Kresin is writing a book about their family life. Kresin recokons that, despite having trouble finding a publisher, the book, which will Marshall's life before he hit the big time, will be good read.
"There's lots of things in that book that you really don't know," Betty told Radio 1. "We're having a little trouble with the publisher because I'm not a book writer. I think they're more interested in what happened to Marshall, but I have people out there that always ask "grandmother, what about you?"- they want the whole life story. I'm not trying to get rich off my grandson, it's more to get the true story out of my grandson."
------------------------------------------------
Answer to Thursday's pop quiz:
From where is Gangstarr's producer / DJ Premiere from?
Texas, so we’re told.