CORNWALL'S EDEN PROJECT TO HOST SHOWS 28/05/04
The extraordinary domes at the UK's Millenium Eden Project are to be the backdrop to a series of concerts in August. The domes, which house a tropical rain forest and a tempertate zone will present Brian Wilson on the 6th August, Air on the 13th August and WOMAD on the 27th August.
Built in disused clay pits and now a major tourist attraction The Eden Project was a rival to the now hugely discredited London MIllennium Dome championed by Tony Blair and MIchael Heseltine - now seen as an abject example of political vanity and a complete misunderstanding of public taste, the real world and life in general - and a fiasco organised by a committee of the great and the good which is never a very sensible idea.
MOBILE PHONE RINGTONES OUTSELL SINGLES IN THE UK 28/05/04
Mobile phone ringtones are now comfortably outselling singles in the UK with artists such as Beyonce, The Darkness, Blue, Morrissey, D12, Franz Ferdinand, Kean, Will Young and The Streets all featured in a new chart produced by KPMG.
Ringtones, which retail at an average of £3.50 each are now worth an estimated £70 million (E102 million) for 2004 against singles which are worth only £63 million (E88). True tone technology has brought a dramatic rise in tone quality and tones can now resemble true copies of records; the market has been rewarded with the new chart supported by the BPI.
LOVE PLEADS GUILTY TO DRUGS CHARGES AND BOOKS NEW TOUR 27/05/04
Courtney Love pleaded guilty to being under the influence of cocaine and agreed to enter drug treatment. Under the deal reached in Los Angeles Superior Court, the 39-year-old artist will be spared jail time and have the conviction removed from her record if she completes the treatment program, prosecutors said. However Love faces the distinct possibility of prison if she fails to complete the programme to the satisfaction of supervising officers.
Love also announced a new tour kicking off on June 18th at Toad's Place in in New Haven, Conn and closing July 23rd with a show at the Palladium in Los Angeles. The opening night will take place in the smallest venue on the tour, with a capacity of just 750. The majority of venues on the tour hold 1,200 to 1,500. The tour includes a June 20th performance at the Artvoice Street Festival, which is expected to draw 30,000, and a June 28th stop at New York's outdoor Central Park Summerstage, which can hold 5,000.
Source:www.billboard.com
MISSY ELLIOTT PULLS OUT OF INDONESIAN DATE 27/05/04
Missy Elliott has cancelled a planned concert in Jakarta after the U.S. Embassy warned Americans about potential terrorist attacks in Indonesia. Elliott was scheduled to perform tomorrow (May 27th) as part of an international tour.
Terrorism is the latest threat to the live touring industry in the region which has already been hit hard by the SARS and avian flu edpidemics.
MADONNA KICKS OF RE-INVENTION TOUR BUT CANCELS ISRAEL SHOWS 25/05/04
Madonna kicked off her worldwide Re-Invention tour last night (May 24) in Los Angeles with an extravagant and politically charged show that featured the diva singing in Army fatigues against a video backdrop of a war-torn nation. But the diva cancelled three Israeli tour stops because of violence in the region, including the killing of the leader of the militant group Hamas.
The artist said that her manager, Caresse Henry, wouldn't let her travel to the country because of the "attack on the leader of Hamas" although the London Evening News speculated that the singer backed out of the September shows after an unidentified Palestinian terror group threatened her and her children.
EIGHTIES CDS START TO FAIL 25/05/04
CDs, launched as an virtually indestructible format with a perpetual life, are beginning to rot. New research shows that CDs are far more fragile than thought.
Top selling eighties albums such as 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson, 'True Blue' by Madonna and 'Brothers In Arms' by Dire Straits were made with a lacquer in the label which reacts with chemicals in the disc booklet causing oxidisation. CD rot, or 'CD bronzing' won't happen to CDs made in the nineties or new millennium as new processes are used .
EMI SALES SLIDE BUT CORNER TURNED IN FIGHT AGAINST PIRACY 25/05/04
EMI rang in an upbeat statement yesterday (24 May) with Chairman Eric Nicoli viewing the forthcoming year with confidence. New income sources such as mobile ringtones are pumping up the UK Group's profits and top selling artists such as Norah Jones, Coldplay and Robbie Williams all had good years in 2003.
Jones sold some 7.5 million copies of second album, 'Feels Like Home' and Coldplay booked 3.5 million copies of Rush. However Group sales still fell 2% (against an industry average of 6%). Headline profits fell 8.7% to £163 million (E2.24 million) on sales of 2.12 billion (E2.96 billion). However exceptional artists (mainly arising from a label cull and staff redundancies) meant the Group posted a £52.8 million loss. The Group reported that legal digital downloads and mobile ringtones had become meaningful income streams and with downloads adding £15 milion to turnover.
SCOTTISH OPERA SEEKS RESCUE PACKAGE 25/05/04
Scottish Opera is seeking a £5 million bail out from
the Scottish Parliament but an alleged leak of the plan by first minister Jack Connell has lead to controversy surrounding the scheme. The Opera will be asked to overhaul working practices and give up management of its Theatre Royal in Glasgow. Critics of the first minister allege a lack of support and a lack of coherent strategy for the arts in Scotland.
ARM IMPLANT GIVES ACCESS ALL AREAS 24/05/04
A new electonic chip the size of a grain of rice is being tested in Spain at the Baja Beach Club. The chip, injected into the upper arm, gives clubbers access to the Bar's VIP lounge and to reserve tables and pay for drinks. The scheme is the brainchild of Conrad Chase who owns the 3000 capacity club in Barcelona. The chip is a radio frequency identification device and contains a C100 credit for the host. The operation to insert the glass chip is done early evening at the club by a registered nurse.
HIVES TO TOUR USA 24/05/04
Swedish rock combo The Hives will launch a North American tour on July 20 in Washington, D.C., the same day its as-yet-untitled new album is released by Interscope. Fellow countrywomen Sahara Hotnights and Memphis-based the Reigning Sound will support on the trek, which wraps on August 4th in San Diego.
Source:www.billboard.com
P DIDDY TO HOST MTV POLITICS SHOW 24/05/04
Fresh from his Broadway debut, Sean "P. Diddy" Combs is heading back to MTV. Only this time, the hip-hop impresario plans to get political. In a new show tentatively called "Project
Change"Combs hopes to grill President Bush and likely Democratic nominee John Kerry.
Combs plans to scout the streets of Harlem, Brooklyn and Detroit for "real people" to ask the questions. Combs, 34, said he hopes to encourage a record number of young people and minorities to vote. Combs is currently starring in the Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun." Although he received mixed reviews, initial ticket sales broke the Royale Theatre record. He also recently announced a collaboration with Estee Lauder on a new line of fragrances under the rapper's Sean John name.
HMV CHIEF TO STEP DOWN 24/05/04
Music retailer HMV has announced that its chief operating officer Brian McLaughlin is to retire at the end of the year although he will remain on the board as a non-executive director. No replacement has been made but an announcement will be made in due course, said a company spokesman.
McLaughlin became Group Chief Operating Officer in January 2001, assuming operational responsibility for Waterstone's and the HMV businesses in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. The HMV Group operates 550 stores in eight countries, under the HMV and Waterstone's brands, which both operate throughout the UK and Ireland.
EMINEN TO HOST DETROIT HIP HOP SUMMIT 21/05/04
The Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) have announced that Eminen will be hosting Detroit's Hip-Hip Summit 2004. Co-chairs of the HSAN including Damon Dash, P. Diddy. The event takes place May 22nd from 12 noon until 4 p.m., at the Fox Theater, located at 2211 Woodward Avenue in Detroit.
The weekend has been declared as "Hip-Hop Weekend" in Detroit by FM98 WJLB. This year artists headlining with Eminem will be 50 Cent, G-Unit, D-12, Obie Trice, The Ying Yang Twins, Doug E. Fresh and Layzie Bone. Major companies lending their support are Anheuser-Busch Inc, Playstation 2 and Pirelli, who are all sponsoring the event.
NAPSTER LAUNCHES IN THE UK 21/05/04
Napster the newly revised legal download service has launched
in the UK with access to the catalogues of all five majors and a host of
independent labels. The service already has 500,000 tracks available. Pricing
starts a £1.09 (E1.55) for each track or £9.95 (E14) for an album.
Alternatively consumers can subscribe for a monthly fee of £9.95 for unlimited downloads although they would be restricted from burning CDs. The service is incompatible with Apple's i-pod. It will be intersting to see if this model works - it is more expensive that Apple's US system which is priced at 99c per track - the pricing looks over expensive and may well end up being self defeating driving consumers to illegally download.
The major labels have been slow to come to terms with the internet and will face criticism from consumers that the downloads are overpriced as the 'hard' element of costs including manufacturing discs, distribution costs and the saving in retail costs means that the price, particulaly of albums, should be substantially lower.
MICHAEL
NYMAN SIGNS WITH BOOSEY & HAWKES 19/05/04
Michael Nyman , composer of the music for The Draughtsman's Contract and The Piano, has signed a long-term exclusive publishing agreement with Boosey & Hawkes
Music Publishers. The new contract covers all future works for live performance, film and TV.
Nyman is one of the most versatile, popular and successful composers of his generation. As well as acclaimed film collaborations with Peter Greenaway, Jane Campion, Volker Schlöndorf and Neil Jordan he has worked with Brian Eno on 'Decay Music', with Damon Albarn on Antonia Bird's 'Ravenous', and collaborated with Indian master musicians U.Shrinivas and Rajan and Sajan Misra. His commissions have ranged from an orchestral work to celebrate the opening of a TGV high-speed rail link, through music for a Yamamoto fashion show, to the computer game Enemy Zero.
Michael Nyman 's forthcoming film scores include 'The Libertine' with Johnny Depp and an adaptation of Zola's Therese Raquin. Michael Nyman spoke of the new contract: "I feel I have arrived at my natural home, having a close affinity with the music of many Boosey & Hawkes composers ranging from Stravinsky to Steve Reich and Louis Andriessen. I look forward to a lively and fruitful collaboration."
KAZAA RELY ON 105 YEAR OLD DEFENCE 19/05/04
A court case from 1899 may hold the key to Sharman Networks' latest court battle with the music industry over its KazaA file sharing software. The precedent was set over one hundred years ago, according to statements made by its lawyers as the company prepares to face alleged music copyright infringement claims.
Sharman lawyer JR Ellicot referred to the 1899 case of Boosey v Whight in addressing the courts concerns over the defence's lack of cross-claim, he stated "It will be our submission in this case that we are exactly in that position now in relation to sound recordings." The 1899 case involved copyright charges arising over the production of pianola rolls, in which the court found that the reproduction of the perforated pianola rolls did not infringe the English copyright act protecting sheets of music. Lawyers in the 1899 case forged their defence on the argument that "to play an instrument from a sheet of music which appears to the eye is one thing; to play an instrument with a perforated sheet which itself forms part of the mechanism which produces the music is quite another thing."
Sharman lawyers indicated that they are planning to present a similar defence against the accusation made by Universal Music Australia and its affiliates. "However you describe it on a computer hard drive, it is not a copy of a sound recording, and it also has the implication that even if you take from a CD and put it on a computer what is on the computer it not a copy,"Ellicot said in court last Friday. Ellicot maintained that an "infringing copy has to be a sound recording", and said his clients are further removed from liability by the fact that they are not responsible for uploading the songs.
"My client's not the uploader." He added that the uploader of the music files that was shared on the Kazaa network must "be in Australia for it to be an infringement". The claimants (Universal) are under court instructions to issue the Sharman parties with the specific particulars of their allegations of infringement of the Copyright Act; the presiding judge Justice Wilcox said he hopes for a hearing date sometime in this year.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION SEEKS TO BLOCK BMG-SONY MERGER 18/05/04
The European Commission is set to issue wide-ranging objections to the proposed merger between Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group this week, but the Brussels body is also likely to rethink its arguments against the deal.
Officials in the department of Mario Monti, competition commissioner, plan to issue formal allegations that the proposed music merger would damage competition. The objections are likley on more than just the reduction on the number of global music majors from five to four; Brussels is also expected to object to possible "vertical integration" with Sony's new online music download service, Sony Connect, as well as the role of the two companies' publishing interests - even though publishing is excluded from the deal.
The Commission has to make a final decision by July 22. However, it will only complete its internal scrutiny of arguments against the merger once it has sent out its statement of objections and perhaps not until the companies have replied two weeks later. This could make it easier for the companies to overcome Brussels' complaints.
EMINEM CAN SUE APPLE 18/05/04
A federal judge has allowed Eminem's copyright infringement claims over use of one of his songs in a commercial for Apple Computer Inc to go forward. Apple featured a 10-year-old singing Eminem's "Lose
Yourself" in an ad on MTV for the computer company's i-Pod music player and iTunes music service.
U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled that Eminem's publishing company's suit can proceed against several companies, including MTV parent company Viacom and advertising agency TBWA/Chiat/Day. Taylor threw out two state law-based claims of unfair competition and unjust enrichment. The television ad appeared many times during three months beginning in July 2003 and on Apple's website, despite the fact that the computer company had unsuccessfully sought Eminem and his publisher's permission for the campaign.
NAPSTER SIGNS WITH INDIE LABELS 14/05/04
Now legal music download service Napster, a subsidiary of Roxio, has signed a worldwide distribution deal with UK independent labels body AIM, the Association of Independent Music. Initially, 50,000 tracks from 50 of AIM's 800 member companies will be made available for digital downloading and streaming through the new Napster service when it launches in the UK this summer.
Napster members in the US will also gain access to this content, as soon as repertoire is uploaded. The licensing deal will also be made available to continental European labels under the IMPALA (Independent Music Companies Association) umbrella of indepdendent labels.
LOVE DENIES HITTING FAN - LEE FROM BLUE FOUND NOT GUILTY 14/05/04
Stars on both sides of the Atlantic were in trouble yesterday:
The singer has been ordered to pay £300 compensation to freelance photographer David Abiaw and £200 compensation to photo agency Big Pictures for the damage to its equipment, which was being used by photographer Conor Nolan.
SAFETY PROJECT SEEKS INPUT FROM EUROPE'S LIVE MUSIC INDUSTRY 13/05/04
Work on a Europe-wide risk management tool for workers at festivals and concerts entered a new phase last month when a six-nation team met at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona to discuss ways in which good safety practice could be communicated to workers throughout the continent. The tool will set out the types of risks faced by anyone who works at a live music event, ranging from specific risks such as working at height to general issues such as emergency procedure.
The risk management tool will be web-based and free to access. The team - made up of the ILMC Safety Focus Group and Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College (BCUC) and sponsored by The European Agency for Health and Safety at WorkOHSA is keen to ensure that European live music professionals and the voluntary sector are able to contribute to the tool.
The safety project is an ambitious initiative which hopes to co-ordinate best working practice at live music events throughout Europe. It aims to offer guidance about risks faced by workers, whether they're production professionals, stewards working with the public or welfare volunteers.
Chrissy Uerlings of Peter Rieger Konzertagentur appealed to the European live music industry to come forward with ideas, case studies and accident reports which could be useful in building the tool. "From the start of this project we have been in contact with industry leaders about the risks faced by the live music workforce," he said. "We also encourage all event workers to tell us what risks they feel they face at work."
This request continues an extensive process of consultation which was started in January this year. The tool will be piloted at specifically-chosen events throughout the summer of 2004 before the final version is delivered in the autumn. "Anyone wishing to express their opinions on the project or who would like their event to be considered for the pilot scheme should contact us," said Uerlings.
Please contact the SFG's Mike Gartside at mike.gartside@wanadoo.fr e-mails should have the subject line: OSHA project feedback
BOWIE CANCELS AFTER STAGEHAND DEATH 12/05/04
David Bowie 's concert tour will not return to Miami after his performance was cancelled when a spotlight technician fell to his death. About 4,600 fans went home without seeing or hearing Bowie after the stage hand fell about 50 feet from a ladder and landed on the side of the stage Thursday at the James L. Knight Center in Miami.
The Stereophonics , the opening act for Bowie's show, had finished their set a few minutes before the incident. The worker, identified Friday as Walter Thomas, 44, of Pembroke Pines, was apparently trying to adjust lighting in preparation for Bowie's performance, fire-rescue officials said.
Miami police said that the investigation was continuing but detectives believed it was an accident. Clear Channel Entertainment, Bowie's tour promoter, released a statement saying scheduling difficulties will prevent the British pop star from returning to Miami. Fans who bought tickets will get their money back. Bowie was said to be "deeply saddened" by the accident.
DION, NELSON AND BRITNEY ALL CANCEL 12/05/04
Celine Dion has canceled three performances of her nightly show at Las Vegas' Caesars Palace this week after a doctor told the singer she needed to rest, Billboard.com reports that the star has been hampered by a sprained neck for the past week, which she aggravated while doing her show, according to the show's spokesperson. Dion, 36, will resume performances on Saturday 15th May. The singer is in the second year of a three-year engagement at the Las Vegas Strip hotel/casino.
Willie Nelson has cancelled concerts for the next two months to have surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome. The 71-year-old star was apparently in so much pain he couldn't finish a show Saturday in Las Vegas. Nelson had 10 concerts scheduled for the remainder of May and June, including a June 12 appearance at the three-day Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tenn. And it seems that Britney Spears has cancelled the South East Asia leg of her world your suffering from exhaustion. The cancelled leg of the tour, which has had rave reviews, will be another blow to the alreday struggling Asian live market.
CHRYSALIS RADIO PROFITS ON THE UP 12/05/04
Chrysalis , the radio and media group, gave a warning that
consolidation in the commercial radio industry in the UK might take 'years'.
However the Group reported a 23% rise in radio revenues to £33 million whilst underlying profits increased by 45% to £6.5
million. Chrysalis owns the succesful Heart FM brand and LBC.
An album by OutKast helped the Group's music division to complete a good but stable year. Revenues fell by 8% to £36 million although Outkast sold nearly six million units.
BMG - SONY MERGER EC REVIEW DATE SET 12/05/04
The European Commision has set a deadline of July 22 to finalise its decision into the proposed merger between Sony Music and BMG.
MAMA MIA - ITS MONEY MONEY MONEY! 12/05/04
The Evening Standard reports that Judy Cramer, the London based impressario behind th smash hit ABBA musical 'Mama Mia!' earned
nearly four million pounds (£4 million) from the show which toured and
played in eleven territories worldwide.
The show banks some £4.5 million weekly around the world. At least ten more productions are planned. Meanwhile Sir Cameron Mackintosh saw year end figures fade as revenues for his production company which produces shows including 'Phantom of The Opera' and 'Les Miserables' amongst others as revenues fell 10% to £20 million and pre-tax profits fell 30% to £6.4 million. The Company blamed the post 9/11 drop in tourism, poor international sales and refurbishment costs in the group's London theatres.
GUBBAY'S SAVOY OPERA EXPERIMENT FAILS TO IGNITE 09/05/04
Raymond Gubbay 's ambitious plans for a third stand alone opera house in London's West End without a penny of public subsidy has failed and the Savoy Opera is to close in June after the end of the current shows, 'The Barber of Seville' and the 'Marriage of Figaro'. Gubbay and partner Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen told the Guardian newspaper that the house was running at just 40% ticket sales saying "we
just haven't sold enough seats and its impossible fr us in the circumstances
to continue. But the experiment is not by any way over". In contrast to Gubbay's plans, the Royal Opera House receives
more than £20 million (E30 million approx) in public funding each year
from the Arts Council.
EARLS COURT & OLYMPIA
SOLD 09/05/04
The Earls Court and Olympia venues, used for rock concerts such as the BRITS,
sporting events and exhibitions, have been sold for £245 million. Private
equity group Candover which backed a private buyout from P&O in 1999 have sold their interests to a consortium of St James Capital and Nomura.
It has been estimated that the events at the venues produce a combined annual
spending of £1.27 billion (E1.86 billion) in the UK.
PAUL KING JAILED FOR FRAUD 09/05/04
Paul King , former manager of Tears for Fears, has been jailed for three and a half years in the UK after Judge Michael Kent QC branded him 'breathtakingly dishonest'. King helped set up a company called Soba International to market South African volcanic ash which has alleged 'sobering' qualities.
But instead of raising £600,000 for the venture, King siphoned
off nearly £500,000 by establishing a mirror company. King was also banned form being a company director for ten years. Investigators are now trying to recover some of the money but King has declared himself bankrupt.
WARNERS CUT PRICE OF CATALOGUE CDS 09/05/04
Warner Music Group , the company behind Madonna, Missy Elliott and Rod Stewart, is reducing the suggested retail price on more than 1,700 albums beginning next week in a bid to spur CD sales.The initiative, which was outlined in a letter sent by the recording company to retailers this week, lowers the suggested retail price on 1,776 titles that have been in stores for at least 18 months.
Universal Music Group cut the price of albums by nearly 30% in January bringing down US prices from $18 to $12. Warner's suggested price on more than 1,200 of the so-called back-catalog titles will change from between $18.98 and $13.98 to $9.98. The roughly 500 other titles will have a suggested price between $13.98 and $11.98. Warner told retailers it would include recordings from Chris Isaak, The Doobie Brothers, Prince and James Taylor, among other albums from established acts slated for lower pricing.
MODEL NAOMI WINS COURT BATTLE 09/05/04
Model Naomi Campbell has won a landmark case in the House of Lords when (by a majority of three to two) they confirmed an earlier decision by Mr Justice Moreland and overturned the Court of Appeal's decision holding that the model did have a right to privacy which shouldn have prevented the Daily Mirror revealing that she had been attending Narcotics Anonymous.
The Court also held that the Data Protection Act should have protected the model and the newspaper's right to report on medical matters was restricted by a right to privacy. It is possible that the Mirror will appeal to the European Court of Justice to establish a right to report under the freedom of expression right enshrined in article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights. Mirror editor Piers Morgan poured scorn on Campbell's behaviour and in particular her repeated lies about her addiction.
ACCOUNTANT
SWINDLED £1 MILLION FROM CLIENTS 09/05/04
Accountant Frank Dixon has been jailed for one year for swindling £1
million (E1.5 million) from clients including Suede, Primal Scream and Echobelly. At the trial it was revealed that Dixon had been defrauding clients for up to eight years using monies to clear his own debts. It was also revealewd that Dixon had never finished his accountancy qualifications . Dixon pleaded guilty to 25 counts of false accounting between 1997 and 2000.
SIMON & GARFUNKEL
SET UP FREE ROME SHOW 07/05/04
Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel will take to the stage just outside Rome's Colosseum this summer for a free concert which is to be the only Italian date on the European leg of their 'Old Friends' tour. The July 31 concert on the Via dei Fori Imperiali is the pair's first together in Italy. Via dei Fori Imperiali is a large boulevard that leads to the Colosseum and is lined with ancient Roman relics. Last year a concert by Paul McCartney there drew hundreds of thousands of fans.
NEW CONCERT DOWNLOAD PEN 07/05/04
After the MP3 comes the keychain pen which allows fans to get copies of live concerts as audio files minutes after the last note of a concert. Fans can load a live recording onto a cigarette lighter sized hard drive hanging off a keychain. The digital files can then be loaded onto a computer as a audio file.
On May 21, the first of the interfaces, digital kiosks really, will be installed at Maxwell's, a small indie-rock club in Hoboken, N.J. at $10 a pop for the recording, and $20 for the reusable, keychain pen drive "This is a tool that allows fans to take home and share some of the best independent music from small live venues around the country," said Daniel Stein, CEO of Dimensional Associates, a private equity firm which owns eMusic Live, which created the machines. Clear Channel already provides for the burning CDs of live performances right after a show ends.
MAJORS PAY UP 'LOST ROYALTIES' 06/05/04
The five majors (BMG, Warners, Universal, EMI and Sony) have agreed to distribute $50 million unpaid artists royalties after striking a deal with New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer. Companies will attempt to track down unknown artists who haven't been paid although it is alleged that some payents are due to high profile artists like David Bowie and Liza Minelli.
BMG AND SONY LOOK FOR JULY APPROVAL FOR MERGER 06/05/04
Sony and BMG are looking to seal the EC approval for their merger. The EC Competition regulators are awaiting additional information from both companies and the EC has consulted widely within the music industry to see what objections might exist to the merger. The EC had previously rejected both a potential BMG and Warners merger (2000) and a EMI and BMG merger (2001).
OPERA COMES TO GLASTONBURY 06/05/04
The Glastonbury Festival has announced that the English National Opera is to present Wagner's 'Ride of The Valkyries' at the 2004 festival on the main Pyramid Stage to a potential audience of 100,000 patrons.
There will be a full orchestra of 91 musicians and 12 soloists on the Festival's legendary stage on June 27th. The Operatic performance joins a line up including Paul McCartney, Basement Jaxx and Muse and will be covered by BBC television in the UK.
CLUBBERS RISK LONG TERM HEARING DAMAGE 06/05/04
A report published by the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) highlights the risk to clubbers from high decibel levels at UK clubs and found that the noise on soume dance floors was equal to that to being beside an aircraft taking off. The report found evidence that high decibel levels in 'chill out rooms' added to the risk of long term damage. the RNID recommended new limits to clubs noise and warnings to clubbers.
Source: The Guardian 5 May 2004
GLASTONBURY GLADE STAGE TURNS INTO A FESTIVAL 05/05/04
Glastonbury 's Glade Stage is branching out by itself and creating its own festival - set to debut this summer.The Glade Festival will take place between July 16-18 on a country estate near Reading, and will feature performances from Timo Mass, Freq Nasty, Dreadzone Sound System, 808 State, Squarepusher, Youth and AFX amongst others.
The festival will
be located in forty acres of English woodland, 55 miles along the M4 from
London and 5,500 people are expected to flock to see the artists. Also planned
to for the event are stilt-walking S&M fire twirlers, Buddhist monks,
juggling punks, massages and energetic healing. The Glade joins the Festival's 'Lost Vagueness' which staged a small event at the London Coronet last year after initial plans for its own festival fell through.
The Lost Vagueness organiser's have plans for anoher festival in 2004.
SONY LAUNCHES RIVAL TO I-TUNES 05/05/04
A serious challenger to Apple Computer's market-dominating iTunes Music Store has arrived as Sony launched their new Sony Connect service with Grammy-winning artist Sheryl Crow performing live on a flight from Chicago to Los Angeles.
The new service will pit Apple's sizzling i-Pod against Sony's MiniDisc (and hard drive version), the 13-year-old device much loved in the msic industry but that's never really caught on in the United States.
Sony , who revolutionized music-on-the-go with its Sony Walkman 25 years ago remains the leader in digital music players, representing one of every four portable players sold in the but Apple sees more of consumers' money with 54 percent of the digital music player market in terms of value. As with many other services, Connect's prices start at 99 cents a single or $9.95 an album.
T IN THE PARK SELLS OUT IN RECORD TIME 05/05/04
T IN THE PARK has joined the UK's summer festival sell out alongside the Reading and Glastonbury festivals, selling out in record time. By April 27th fans had snapped up the last of the tickets to the Scottish festival, which takes place on July 10-11 at Balado by Kinross. This is the fastest ever sell out of T In The Park in the festival's 11-year history, despite an increase in capacity this year of and extra 5,000 per day.
The event is promoted by DF Concerts fronted by CEO Geoff Ellis, This year's line up includes David Bowie, The Strokes, The Darkness, Pixies, Pink, Faithless, Snow Patrol, Muse, The Libertines, The Kings of Leon and Scissor Sisters.
AGUILERA CANCELS US TOUR 03/05/04
Christina Aguilera has canceled her planned North American tour due to strained vocal chords. With rapper Chingy in tow, the artist was due to kick off the 28-city run May 13 in Seattle. According to a statement, doctors advised Aguilera to immediately rest and allow her voice time to fully recover. "I
am extremely disappointed to have to cancel this tour," she says. "I
was looking forward to being on the road again and spending time with my
fans."
Source:www.billboard.com
JACKSON FACES NEW CHARGES 03/05/04
A subdued Michael Jackson appeared before Judge Rodney Melville at court V in Santa Maria on April 30th to hear the latest array of charges against him. New charges included alleged child abduction and false imprisonment adding to those of child abuse and child intoxication already filed. New charges brought up by the Grand Jury also included conspiracy and extortion. Jackson was represented by new lawyer Thomas Merereau after Jackson fired his previous legal team last week claiming they were to busy with other cases. The ten count indictment includes four charges of lewd acts involving a minor and four counts of administering an intoxicating agent to a minor.