TESCO HAS BOLD PLANS FOR BLINKBOX, INCLUDING IN MUSIC
As expected, Tesco plans to launch a music service under its Blinkbox brand and, according to the Telegraph, the supermarket chain has poached Mark Bennett, the former EMI and Warner exec most recently with Sainsburys, to oversee it.

Tesco acquired on-demand film and TV service Blinkbox in 2011, and launched a big marketing push for the platform last year. It's always seemed likely that those operating in the video-on-demand space would look to add music services in due course, very possibly by acquiring streaming companies currently specialising in audio, and when Tesco bought streaming music service We7 last June it seemed likely Blinkbox would be one of the first to make a play in that space.

Tesco will launch Blinkboxmusic at the same time as Blinkboxbooks, which will be led by Facebook's Head Of Retail for EMEA Gavin Sathianathan. It seems likely Tesco will then shift more and more of its online entertainment services under the Blinkbox brand, which it sees as having more credibility in the increasingly competitive online content market. Though, while Tesco branding will be very subtle on the Blinkbox platform, the retailer will push the various Blinkbox services relentlessly through its other Tesco channels.

Although Blinkboxmusic could provide a high profile competitor for those start-ups in the emerging streaming music market, Tesco really sees Amazon as the enemy in this battle, in both the digital content and especially the mail-order space, where the retail giant recognises it is losing custom to the web-only giant, and beyond its traditional entertainment product domain.

Confirming big plans for the Blinkbox business, its founder and CEO Michael Comish, told the Telegraph: "Tesco is already the third largest retailer in the world, and we will have launched three new digital entertainment businesses by the end of the year, headed by some of Britain's brightest digital minds. This is the beginning of a big journey. I don't think you compete head on against Amazon. I think you compete around Amazon and leverage the strengths you have... Amazon doesn't have 2000 stores. Amazon doesn't deliver to within the hour. There's a lot which Tesco has which customers value".

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AEG EMAILS UNSEALED AS JACKSON COURT BATTLE LOOMS
The Jackson family reckon they have a "smoking gun" email that proves AEG Live should be held liable for the death of Michael Jackson in 2009. Some of the email correspondence that will be presented as part of the Jacksons' litigation against the live music giant has been unsealed by the judge overseeing the legal battle.

As previously reported, the Jackson family, led by Michael's mother Katherine, reckon AEG should be held liable for the late king of pop's death because it employed Conrad Murray, the doctor who was found guilty of causing the singer's demise through negligent treatment. But AEG has long countered that Jackson himself chose Murray to be his personal medic, and managed the doctor day to day.

The Jackson family hope to use various emails sent by AEG executives to dispute this argument, and to prove that the live firm was negligent in hiring Murray. And maybe also to show that pressure was put on the doctor by AEG management to ensure the singer was fit for his gruelling rehearsal schedule for the planned London 'This Is It' residency, pressure that might have resulted in the medic employing the sort of dangerous treatments that led to Jackson's death.

One key email expected to be presented when the case gets to court sees AEG Live exec Paul Gongaware, writing eleven days before Jackson's death, say: "We want to remind [Murray] that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary. We want to remind him what is expected of him".

Meanwhile an email from AEG Live's Randy Phillips to 'This Is It' director Kenny Ortega, who had expressed concerns about Jackson's health, reads: "This doctor [Murray] is extremely successful (we check everyone out) and does not need this gig so he is totally unbiased and ethical".

As previously reported, a US judge last week said the Jacksons' lawsuit could proceed to court, albeit in a slightly trimmed down form, after AEG legal reps failed to have the action dismissed. While AEG lawyers last week focused on those aspects of the lawsuit rejected by the judge, reps for the Jackson family said over the weekend that last week's ruling was a vindication of their clients' case.

According to CNN, lawyer Kevin Boyle said: "Now that the court has ruled that there is evidence that it was foreseeable that AEG's actions resulted in Michael Jackson's death, the Jackson family feels vindicated from the public smear campaign that AEG has waged against them. The truth about what happened to Michael, which AEG has tried to keep hidden from the public since the day Michael died, is finally emerging. We look forward to the trial where the rest of the story will come to light".

As also previously reported, some of the emails from AEG execs likely to appear in the upcoming court battle were previously leaked to the LA Times. AEG accused the Jacksons of being behind the leak, though a judge ruled there was no evidence that was the case. The Jacksons v AEG battle is now due to reach court next month.

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JAMES MURPHY SUES DFA CO-FOUNDER TIM GOLDSWORTHY
Former LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy is suing producer and one of his fellow DFA Records co-founders Tim Goldsworthy over alleged "improper use of company funds".

DNAinfo reports that Murphy filed a lawsuit in New York on Friday, seeking payment of $93,899. The lawsuit claims that this sum was obtained by Goldsworthy through breach of contract, failing to pay back loans, improper use of a company credit card and making unauthorised withdrawals from its bank accounts. It also states that "attempts to amicably resolve this matter were rebuffed".

Signs that all was not well within the DFA camp first arose in 2010, when the company's third co-founder Jonathon Galkin told Resident Adviser that one-time Mo Wax man Goldsworthy was no longer involved with the company, saying: "Tim Goldsworthy moved away to somewhere in the United Kingdom, without informing anyone here at DFA. We have had no word from him since he left the United States. So, we moved on with our lives and our business. Simple as that. He most definitely took a piece of us when he left, but we wish him the best with whatever he gets up to next".

Whether that "piece" was just under $94,000 isn't clear, just as Goldsworthy's actual status at DFA wasn't at the time. He subsequently refuted Galkin's claim, saying that he was still a co-owner of the company and had simply moved back to the UK because it was where most of his production work took place and he felt it was a better place to bring up his children.

Goldsworthy's legal status as a company executive is actually confirmed by Murphy's lawsuit, though his actual involvement in running DFA in more recent times would seem to have diminished at the very least. Neither Goldsworthy nor Murphy have as yet provided any comment on the lawsuit.

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VERDICT IN LAMB OF GOD MANSLAUGHTER CASE LIKELY TODAY
A verdict in Lamb Of God frontman Randy Blythe's manslaughter case is likely to be reached today, the judge overseeing the trial, Tomas Kubovec, said yesterday.

As previously reported, Blythe is accused of pushing a teenager, now named as Daniel Nosek, off the stage at a Lamb Of God show in Prague in 2010, causing Nosek to sustain head injuries in the fall that subsequently led to his death. The trial began in the Czech capital last month but was postponed after a key witness fell ill.

Proceedings began again yesterday, with four witnesses giving testimony - two mental health professionals, as well as two people who attended the concert where Nosek was injured.

According to WTVR, court-appointed criminal psychologist Tereza Soukupova said that under testing Blythe had shown difficulties controlling his emotions and did not take enough responsibility for his actions, citing fines for speeding and urinating in public when he was younger as examples.

But criminal psychiatrist Alena Gayova, appointed by the defence, disagreed with this, saying that Blythe was not "overly aggressive", even while in prison last year when a heightened emotional state might have been understandable.

Meanwhile, eyewitness Anna Rozsivalova, who had been ill when previously called to testify, told the court how she had been standing near the front of the stage at the show where Nosek fell. She recalled seeing Nosek attempt to climb the barrier to get onto the stage, and then seeing Blythe lift him by the shoulders and push him away with two hands. Nosek, she said, then fell backwards onto the floor as people moved out of the way to avoid being hit by him.

The second eyewitness, Jan Cernansky, was a security guard working on the door at the venue the night of the incident. He had not seen the fall, but said that he had seen Nosek walking out of the venue with two people, one of whom told him that their friend had fallen from the stage and needed some fresh air. An ambulance arrived five to ten minutes later, he said.

A final defence witness, a biomechanics expert, is due to appear in court today to describe how Nosek may have fallen. Once this testimony has been given, Judge Kubovec reckons, it is "likely" that a verdict will be reached by the three judge panel overseeing the case within the day.

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LABELS REACH SETTLEMENT WITH CHINESE SEARCH ENGINE
The music majors have reached a settlement with Chinese web firm Sohu and its search engine Sogou, the result of which is that the net company will launch a licensed music service.

The record industry has had a long battle with Sohu, in a case that echoed its higher profile legal squabble with leading Chinese search engine Baidu. Both web firms were accused of facilitating piracy by providing easy-to-use MP3 search services, which primarily linked to unlicensed sources of content. A settlement was also reached with Baidu, back in 2011.

Under the Sohu deal, the Universal, Warner and Sony music companies and China-based entertainment group Gold Typhoon, will drop their 54 million yuan (US$8.6 million) piracy lawsuit, and instead licence a new download and streaming platform. Songou will seemingly offer that service to its users for free, presumably funding the venture through ad sales.

Sohu has also committed to make a payment to the anti-piracy office of the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry in the region.

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TONY IOMMI WRITES ARMENIAN EUROVISION ENTRY
This year's Armenian entry into the Eurovision Song Contest has been co-written by Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi. Entitled 'Lonely Planet', the song will be performed Gor Sujyan and his band, Dorians. The song was chosen as the country's entry in a national vote on Saturday and will now go ahead to the semi-finals in Malmö, Sweden in May.

Writing on his official website, Iommi said: "Well here's something different, one of my demo ideas has been chosen as the Armenian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest! It went on a shortlist and Saturday night was voted as the winner. I did the music and the performing band Dorians wrote the lyrics. It's called 'Lonely Planet'. They're a good band, the singer has a really good voice and the lyrics they've written are in English".

Watch the band's performance of the song from Saturday here.

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MIA MAKES MATANGI MIX
Bird-flipping 'BirdFlu' MC MIA made a mix for a Kenzo fashion show in Paris last Sunday.

It bears the title 'Matangi', which may mean it features previews of tracks off the LP of the same name that MIA is apparently releasing later this year. The mixtape certainly has 'original rapping' on it, so... maybe.

Anyway, stream the 'Matangi' mix infinitely via www.matangimixtape.com

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RUSTIE IN 'NEW TRACK' SHOCKER
Glaswegian DJ Rustie shared a 'surprise' single titled 'Triadzz/Slasherr' yesterday, his first release since last year's 'Glass Swords' LP.

'Slasherr' is available to buy as an MP3 (and/or pre-order on vinyl) right now. Though lovers of extraneous consonants will have to wait a little while to hear second track 'Triadzz', whether digitally or on the b-side of the physical record, though it's on the way "soon" we are told.

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CHLÖE HOWL GIVES AWAY FREE MP3
Hyped-via-CMU pop type Chlöe Howl turned eighteen the other day, and marked it by releasing a promo for past single 'Rumour' and giving away a new track titled 'I Wish I Could Tell You'.

She has it backwards, if you ask me. Anyway, take advantage of Howl's kind gifts by downloading 'I Wish...' via this link and looking at 'Rumour' now.

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ATOMS FOR PEACE TO PLAY LONDON ROUNDHOUSE, THRICE
Thom Yorke et al of Atoms For Peace are playing a triple live stint at London's Roundhouse, playing each night between 24-26 Jul. They've arranged various other European dates too, not least appearances at Slovakia's Pohoda, Italy's Rock In Roma, Milan's City Sound and Berlin's Melt.

Tickets to the Roundhouse shows will go on sale this Friday (8 Mar) via this AFP URL.

And finally, a relevant 'Ingenue' video off the band's first LP, 'Amok', as features Thom Yorke's flailing limbs.

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KURT VILE PLAYING FREE BARFLY SHOW, SOLO
In accordance with the above headline, CMU Approvee Kurt Vile is playing a solo show (aka sans his live band, The Violators) at London's Barfly on 7 Mar, mainly as a means of making people aware that his new LP, 'Wakin On A Pretty Daze', is released on 8 Apr.

Tickets cost nothing thanks to its nice co-hosts The Fly and Field Day. Fans have until midnight tonight to apply to go, and can do so via this page.

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DEVENDRA BANHART ADDS LIVE DATES
Folk-playing man Devendra Banhart is to divide his time between Brighton, Manchester and London in June/July, playing a triple set of live shows in advertisement of his new LP, 'Mala'.

Try the dates (and a play of Banhart's new track, 'Never Seen Such Good Things', for afters) for size:

28 Jun: Brighton, The Old Market
17 Jul: Manchester, The Ritz
18 Jul: London, Barbican

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TOM ODELL TO TOUR IN OCTOBER
Platinum-coiffed pop cherub Tom Odell has an LP titled 'Long Way Down' to release on 15 Apr, and he'd be a fool not to retro-promote it by playing lots of shows in October. Fortunately he isn't a fool, and will be following that very initiative via a fifteen date live trail. You can see details of it in a little while, but only after a glance at Tom's enveloping new hit 'Hold Me':

11 Oct: Southampton, Guildhall
12 Oct: Cardiff, Uni Great Hall
13 Oct: Cambridge, Corn Exchange
15 Oct: Leeds, Academy
16 Oct: Glasgow, Academy
17 Oct: Edinburgh, Picture House
19 Oct: Manchester, Academy
20 Oct: Newcastle, Academy
22 Oct: London, Shepherd's Bush Empire
24 Oct: Norwich, UEA
26 Oct: Birmingham, Institute
27 Oct: Nottingham, Rock City
29 Oct: Bristol, Academy
30 Oct: Sheffield, Academy
31 Oct: Liverpool, Academy

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FESTIVAL LINE-UP UPDATE: THE GREAT ESCAPE, BERLIN FESTIVAL, REDFEST AND MORE
Okay, so what FLUUs has CMU (for you) today? To start things off, a new conscription of 100 acts has gone towards making The Great Escape even... well, greater. First up Billy Bragg joins Bastille on the line-up of Dome Shows, the big gigs that take place during TGE at the Brighton Dome. Elsewhere Great Escape wristband holders will be able to enjoy The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, Iggy Azalea, Parquet Courts, Susanne Sundfør, Tall Ships and Brooke Candy who all align with the first-added likes of UMO, AlunaGeorge and Tom Odell.

Says an enthusiastic Billy Bragg, who'll be playing his Dome Show on Friday 17 May: "With my new band and new sounding record, I feel as excited now as I did when my first album, 'Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy' came out all those years ago, so it's brilliant to be invited to play at The Great Escape alongside such a great roster of new acts. I'm really looking forward to coming back to the Brighton Dome too - I've always had such a brilliant time there".

Talking of brilliance, the Berlin-based Berlin Festival has shared a new phase of its artist additions, and it's a cracker. My Bloody Valentine, Klaxons, Savages and John Talabot will all play live beside MIA, Turbostaat and an Ed Banger-presented DJ-athon featuring Justice, Busy P, Sebastian and Breakbot, all of which is happening in advance of headlining sets by Blur and Pet Shop Boys. So that's sehr schön, nicht war?

What else? Well, an initial missive via this year's Hard Rock Calling has invited Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band back to have another go, their festival-ending encore having been halted at the same event last year when it ran overtime, mainly as a result of those draconian Hyde Park rules. With the festival now relocated to the Olympic Park, this time it will all be fine. Bruce and co's co-headliners Kasabian, plus Paul Weller, Miles Kane, The Cribs and Klaxons, represent other HRC attractions confirmed so far.

Elsewhere, RedFest is also on it with the artist additions game, and has just taken on first-rate alt-pop types like Lucy Rose, Bastille and Dry The River. Alt-poptacular. Meanwhile Mosely's genre-diverse Mostly Jazz, Funk & Soul Festival will this year 'play host' to Candi Staton, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, and pre-existing artistes Chic feat Nile Rodgers, Bonobo and Soul II Soul, and others besides.

Talking of others, it's time to look at other additions to other festivals, not least Barn On The Farm and Boomtown Fair:

BARN ON THE FARM, Over Farm Market, Over, Gloucestershire, 5-7 Jul: Hudson Taylor, Bear's Den, Lauren Aquilina, Mike Dignam, Orla Gartland, Frank Hamilton, Young Kato, Indiana, Jasper In The Company of Others, Mt Wolf, JP Cooper, Harbour, Jackie D Williams, Keston Cobblers Club. www.barnonthefarm.co.uk

BERLIN FESTIVAL, Tempelhof Airport, Berlin, Germany, 6-7 Sep: My Bloody Valentine, Klaxons, Savages, Ellen Allien, John Talabot, Fritz Kalkbrenner. www.berlinfestival.de

BOOMTOWN FAIR, Matterley Bowl, Winchester, Hampshire, 8-11 Aug: Bad Manners, Ska N Ska, Hoffmaestro, The Selecter, The Neville Staple Band, Babyhead, Ska Cubano, Smerins Anti-Social Club, The Dualers, Skamanians, Crash Nomada, The Magnus Puto Band, Bison, First Degree Burns, Guns Of Navarone, The JB Conspiracy, Counting Coins, Outl4w, Hallouminati, The Jargonauts, New Groove Formation, Tyrannosaurus Alan, Zora & The Tatsmiths, Oscillator, Melosa, Rasta4Eyes, Royal Gala, Upbeat Allstars, ChainSka Brassika, Popes Of Chillitown, The Rude'em Outs, Bad Transmission, Shoot The Moon, Chewing On Tinfoil. www.boomtownfair.co.uk

THE GREAT ESCAPE, various venues, Brighton, 16-18 May: A Tribe Called Red, Aa Wallace, Andy Shauf, Arcane Roots, Atlas Genius, Babe, The Balconies, Beach Fossils, Big Wave Riders, Billy Bragg, Blue Hawaii, Brooke Candy, Cairo Pythian, Cairo Knife Fight, Catfish And The Bottlemen, [Champagne], Concrete Knives, Daniel Drumz, Deep Sea Arcade, Diane, Diiv, The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, Elisapie, Eye Emma Jedi, Farao, Fimber Bravo, Findlay, Girls In Hawaii, Golden Fable, Hacktivist , Highasakite, Houndmouth, The Hounds Below, Husky Rescue, Iggy Azalea, Indiana, Is Tropical, Jackie Onassis, Jagwar Ma, Jenny Hval, Joe Banfi, Kamp!, Kimberly Anne, Kins, Kodaline, Little Green Cars, London Grammar, Lord Huron, Lostalone, Lowell, Marika Hackman, Mausi, Mazes, Mel Parsons, The Midnight Beast, Mikal Cronin, Mo Kenney, Monophona, Mutiny On The Bounty, Murder By Death, Murmansk, No Ceremony /// , An On, Only Real, Owlle, Parlour, Parquet Courts, Phantom, Pinkunoizu, Plaster, Rah Rah, Rebekka Karijord, Rubik, Ruen Brothers, Saint Michel, Sarah Macdougall, Say Yes Dog, Sharks, Stevie Neale, Story Books, Susanne Sundfør, Syron, Tall Ships, Temples, Dancing Years, The Elwins, The Griswolds, The Other Tribe, The Strypes, Three Trapped Tigers, Thumpers, Toddla T Sound, Tripwires, Troumaca, Unno, Warm Myth, White Fence, Woods, Yan Wagner, Your Favourite Enemies. www.escapegreat.com

MOSTLY JAZZ, FUNK & SOUL FESTIVAL, Mosely Park, Birmingham, 5-7 Jul: Candi Staton, The Fantasy Funk Band, Smoove & Turrell, The Haggis Horns, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Hiatus Kaiyote, Yes King, Jess Roberts, Greg Bird & Flamingo Flame, BJ Smith, The Soul Circle Gang, Lokkhi Terra, Snarky Puppy, Gogo Penguin, The Initiative, Mammal Hands. mostlyjazz.co.uk

REDFEST, Robins Cook Farm, Redhill, Surrey, 26-27 Jul: Dry The River, Bastille, Lucy Rose, Brother & Bones, Engine-Earz Experiment, Sharks, The Loveable Rogues, Arcane Roots, Max Raptor, Park Bench Society, Subsource, The Valiant. redfest.co.uk

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HOP FARM FESTIVAL TO RETURN, AS KENT PAPER REVEALS COLLAPSED OPERATING COMPANY'S DEBTS
Vince Power's Hop Farm Festival will return this summer, despite the event taking the live music veteran's Music Festivals plc to the wall last year.

Local paper Kent On Sunday has dug through the papers surrounding the collapse of Music Festivals plc, which went under last September just over a year after it was set up, taking subsidiary Kent Festival Ltd, which operated the Hop Farm event, with it.

The Hop Farm company reportedly owed £4.8 million when it collapsed, including to unpaid talent (Peter Gabriel was owed £100,000 and Suede £46,000, the paper says), local service providers, and to Kent Police, who have confirmed they were owed £22,648 in relation to services provided for the Hop Farm event.

Clearly annoyed by that unpaid bill and unrecoverable debt, Kent Police & Crime Commissioner Ann Barnes hit out when the Kent On Sunday called, telling the paper: "Kent Police is [already] having to cope with a massive reduction in the government grant it receives as government cuts bite".

She added: "This has led to the loss of nearly one in five of the workforce. The Chief Constable and all his staff are working hard to still deliver a great service in the face of these cuts. Any private organisation that holds an event on an agreed financial basis with the force and then 'fails to pay' is letting down not just the force, but all the people of Kent".

Shortly after the collapse of Music Festivals plc, it was announced that Power had reacquired the rights to Spanish festival Benicassim, probably the most high profile and certainly more successful of his former company's events. However, according to Kent On Sunday, Power also has the rights to relaunch the Hop Farm festival, and plans to do so.

Power recently told the paper: "As you know, we had a difficult year last year. Kent Festival Ltd was a different entity to Music Festivals plc and so had to be dealt with separately, which has taken some time. It was always my intention to do the Hop Farm, I have the rights to do the Hop Farm and the Hop Farm will take place from 5-7 Jul 2013".

At the moment the Hop Farm website is still credited to Music Festivals plc and mainly talks about last summer's event, though a spokesman has told Kent On Sunday that an announcement about this summer's festival will be made soon. Though, the paper adds, the PR rep "refused to be drawn on the scale of the festival and what investors were in place to prevent any repeat of the problems of 2013".

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IS THE PIRATE BAY MOVING TO NORTH KOREA?
Reports circulated yesterday that The Pirate Bay had shifted its operations to servers in North Korea, which would make for yet another bizarre chapter in the long story of the ever-resilient file-sharing platform.

Based on a recent post made by the Bay's anonymous operators, the suggestion was that - after the Swedish Pirate Party was forced to stop offering web services to the controversial file-sharing site because of legal threats from the country's copyright industries - the site had taken up an offer from the controversial North Korean regime to host the service at the heart of the George Bush's axis of evil.

But analysis by The Next Web suggests that is not actually so, and revelations about an official offer to host the Bay in North Korea - which may or may not have been genuine - were probably more attempts by the site's operators, who believe copyright enforcers breach freedom of speech, to show up Western governments, who, Bay-supporters might argue, are contradictory in being both pro-free speech and pro-strong-copyright.

As previously reported, Pirate Party organisations in Norway and Spain are thought to have stepped in to provide the web services their counterpart in Sweden now feels unable to offer for legal reasons. Quite who offers what web and hosting services to the Bay, and where, actually remains a little ambiguous, for obvious reasons.

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SONGDROP ANNOUNCES INVESTMENT
Playlisting platform Songdrop has announced its first round of investment, having secured £100,000 from SOIC Capital. In their own words: "Songdrop enables people to keep track of the songs and music videos they discover as they are being discovered".

The main service is currently free to use, though paid-for mobile apps and in-app purchasing are in development which will provide revenue.

Confirming the investment, co-founder and CEO Brittney Bean told CMU: "We're super excited that we've closed our first round of investment as it enables us to really ramp up product development and get our first mobile application into the wild. We're focused on creating a superior experience for listening to streaming music no matter the device".

She continued: "Streaming music is fragmented and often in walled gardens; there's an insane amount of choice but it's all scattered across different websites and services. We're working on the interoperability and portability of streaming music, as we believe the API for music already exists: it's the whole internet. Songdrop is a way to make sense of the chaos, a way to unify the streaming experience".

Meanwhile Lukas Hirsch, a partner at SOIC Capital, added: "Songdrop is an exciting startup, led by a talented team of founders, whose innovative ideas show great potential. We particularly like the portability of music playing, the community building potential, and the personalisation of the streaming experience that Songdrop offers".

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BAUER TO LAUNCH NEW ENTERTAINMENT HUB
Bauer Media is planning a new entertainment and lifestyle hub that will aggregate content from across the firm's magazine, radio and TV portfolio, including brands like Kiss, Planet Rock and Heat. The aim, seemingly, is to better compete in the celebrity and entertainment news space online by tapping into the company's various resources and connections.

The new venture will be headed up by Jo Parkerson, who joins Bauer from its main rival in the radio space, Global, where she was Head Of Artist Liaison and Showbusiness Editor. In her new job she will report into execs in both Bauer's radio and magazine divisions, London MD Steve Parkinson in the former, and Heat/Closer Publishing Director Nicky Holt in the latter.

Confirming the new hub, Bauer Media UK CEO Paul Keenan told reporters: "Bauer Media's strategy focuses on delighting our 20 million consumers week in, week out. This new hub puts our engaging content at the heart of our offering, and ensures that consumers of our world-famous brands will have 24/7 access to the best news and exclusives from around the world, across multiple platforms".

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BOOS FOR BIEBER AS HE TAKES TO STAGE TWO HOURS LATE
Am I the only one starting to get worried about poor old Justin Bieber?

The pop teen garnered some boos from his audience at The O2 in London last night, and was on the receiving end of plenty of rage from the parents in the room (or patiently waiting outside) after he took to the stage two hours late.

And while Axl Rose can (just about) get away with the customary late arrivals, such slackness on the Bieber's part causes many more problems because half his audience is relying on public transport to get them home, and the other half have mums and dads diligently waiting in the car park outside whichever shed he's elected to sing in.

No explanations or apologies have been so far forthcoming from prolific tweeter Bieber regarding his late start, though The O2 has apologised twice via its feed on the micro-blogging platform.

Meanwhile one mother who was at the show with her daughter told Radio 5Live last night: "The support acts came on but they ran over until about ten to nine, and then we sat there until 20 past ten for Justin to come on. A few of the parents went up to the information desk to complain and they were saying there's nothing they could do and that 'It's just Justin Bieber's production team'. We said that was all well and good, but most of us have to get trains... it was just a shambles. I said we've really got to leave at ten to eleven to get the last train".

Burn-up Bieber has three more shows to play at London's telephonic Dome this week, it remains to be seen if he manages to meet the advertised 8.30pm start time for his set at any of those.

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