Paul Weller called the record companies 'scum' this week as he warned that the best musicians were being dropped by labels not willing to be long-sighted. "Unfortunately these days if you don't get a hit single, or your first album doesn't sell one point whatever million, you don't get a chance to make your second one. I wonder whether The Jam would have got on to All Mod Cons - we would have probably been dropped by then, as the first two records didn't sell that well."
He was speaking as part of Radio 2's Music Debate. On the same panel Beverley Knight took a shot at manufactured pop: "It's hard to sit at home and watch bands you know have been put together by a TV show. It's mediocrity dressed up as greatness."
The programme centred on a listener poll as to whether people though the single has a future. 69% of the 12,500 who voted thought singles would be unable to survive as alternative formats become increasingly popular.