JIM CAPALDI DIES AGED 60 30/01/05
About 25 millon copies of songs either written or co-written by Jim Capaldi were sold during a career which spanned four decades. Born in 1944, the son of second generation Italian Immigrants, Capaldi was best known for his role in Traffic but he also had a long and succesful solo career working with artists such as George Harrison, Santana, Bob Marley and The Eagles.
Traffic launched in 1967 and went on to have substantial chart success, released 10 albums and, despite inter-band friction, had multiplatinum success. The band finally broke up in 1974 but reformed for a very successful tour in 1993/1994 headlining 75 shows and playing to more than half a million people and then finishing with a stint touring alongside the Grateful Dead and playing at the Woodstock Festival. Traffic were inducted into the USRock'n'Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, just months before Capaldi discovered he had terminal cancer.
He is survived by his wife Aninha and his two daughters.
ILMC Round The Clock News is also sorry to hear of the death of American vocalist Ray Peterson who again had a lengthy career and chart hits which included'Tell Laura I Love Her' and 'The Wonder of You'. Most recently he has toured with other veteran Rock & Roll acts acts as the Masters of Rock & Roll. He died of cancer on the 25th January aged 65 leaving a widow and seven children.
JACKSON JURORS TO SEE TV DOCUMENTARY 30/01/05
Jurors in the Michael Jackson child sex abuse case will be shown the British documentary which triggered the investigation. Judge Rodney Melville dismissed objections from Jackson's legal team, ruling that the explosive interview, presented by Martin Bashir, should be shown in court.
'Living With Michael Jackson' was broadcast by ITV1 in February 2003 and watched by more than 14 million British viewers. During the interview Jackson holds hands with the boy as he admits, and staunchly defends, letting boys sleep in his bedroom. The decision was made at the final pre-trial hearing before the star's long-anticipated case kicks off on Monday. Jackson, 46, has pleaded not guilty to 10 charges, including child molestation and an alleged plot of kidnap and false imprisonment.
Source.: www.aol.com
CREAM TO PLAY LIVE 30/01/05
Classic rock trio Cream are reuniting for a four-show run at London's Royal Albert Hall this spring.
The May 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th shows will constitute guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker's first on-stage appearances together since Cream's 1993 induction into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame. Tickets for the run will go on sale Monday January 31st. Cream's final shows were held at the Albert Hall in 1968
U2 PRE-SALE ENDS IN CHAOS 30/01/05
U2 fans who paid $40 (£22) to pre-register for ticket
purchases prior to the open sale to the general public for the new 'Vertigo' tour were left furious after the pre-sale internet ticket system failed. The huge demand and system glitches that marked Tuesday's (January 25) pre-sale for U2's 'Vertigo' tour left hundreds of fans with less than desirable seats or no seats at all, Disgruntled fans who paid for a chance to purchase choice tickets prior to the general public have made their feelings known in postings at U2's official Web site and elsewhere, including a slew of e-mails to Billboard.com.
Source: www.billboard.com
SECURITY TOP OF AGENDA AT EVS IN APRIL 29/01/05
Readers of ILMC News will be well aware that public safety is one of the most important issues of our time and public venues and events are prime targets for terrorist attacks and other breaches of security. Addressing this is now a major part of day-to-day life for venue managers and event organisers.
In response to this International Business Events is launching the inaugural Event & Venue Security Conference and Exhibition taking place at the QEII Centre London on April 18th - 19th 2005. Delegates at the conference will hear about best practice security procedures, threat levels and new initiatives from a panel of top level international speakers including Sir John Stevens, former Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Mark Harding, Managing Director, ShowSec International Ltd, Professor Chris Kemp, Centre for Crowd Management Studies at the Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, Philippe Laflandre, VP of Risk Management at the Stade de France, Ben Challis, General Counsel, The Glastonbury Festival and John Saunders, Chief Executive of the Security Industry Authority.
The conference will also feature numerous real-life case studies, including Arsenal FC, the Athens Olympics, Stade de France and Wimbledon as well as offering practical and applicable advice on dealing with security breaches, terrorist attacks and crowd control. An exhibition runs alongside the conference.
Music Industry professionals wishing to attend either the conference or the exhibition can visit the event website at www.evs-expo.com or can call +44 (0)208 822 6919 for further information
GLASTONBURY BRINGS IN ID CARDS TO FIGHT TOUTS 28/01/05
In order to combat touts Festival boss Michael Eavis has announced that Glastonbury will be issuing photo cards with electronic chips this year. The festival has sold out within a matter of hours of tickets going on sale last year and a black market for tickets has grown around online auction sites such as E-bay.
Glastonbury addressed fence-jumpers with the introduction of the 'superfence' in 2000 and now touting is its current major problem. Last year the Festival 'personalised' tickets by printing the purchasers' names on them. They had to bring a form of ID with them such as a household bill, but touts got around this by simply giving buyers their own bills along with their tickets.
Punters not wishing to take the new photo ID card will have to bring another official form of photo ID such as a passport:
Source: news.bbc.co.uk
UK OFFICE OF FAIR TRADING TO REVIEW TICKET PRICES 28/01/05
A shake-up in the way concert and theatre tickets are sold was announced yesterday after The Office of Fair Trading said the public are not getting clear information on prices. Even legitimate agents are sometimes charging as much as two-thirds on top of the face value of a ticket according to the OFT research. In future it would like advertisements for events to show the face value of tickets.
The OFT uncovered evidence of some ticket sellers breaking the law and employing "potentially unfair" terms and conditions, and mark-ups as high as 600% on some tickets sold over the internet. The watchdog also revealed just how much fees can add to the price of a concert or West End show ticket. A shopping exercise, looking at the cost of tickets for everything from West End hit Chicago to a gig by up-and-coming rock band Hope of the States, found that people were being asked to pay up to 67% extra to cover booking fees. Among the OFT findings were that some ticket agents were relying on "potentially unfair" terms and conditions buried in the small print, designed to allow them to deny refunds or to make changes to events.
The OFT also found that secondary agents - ranging from ticket booths to firms specialising in getting people into sold-out events - attracted the most complaints. People being misled about the face value of tickets or not receiving what they had paid for were among the main gripes. However the also found that current advertising rules discouraged promoters and agents from putting even the face value of tickets on adverts which was also clearly unsatisfactory and needed to be resolved.
SANCTUARY ISSUES PROFIT WARNING 27/01/05
Sanctuary Group 's auditors have forced the company to
write off £11M in loans to TV company Cloud 9. In
addition to this, its book division ran up losses of £2.1M last year,
seeing its share price drop 14% as a result. This has forced Sanctuary to
issue its first profit warning since listing as a public company. Pre-tax
profit projections for the year ending September could now be reduced by £2M to £16M.
The company's management stressed that profits generated from the core part of its business (recording, management, live and merchandising) "all performed to expectations". However, Sanctuary has already been hit by bad news in 2005 when Ian Huffam, CEO of the Sanctuary's booking agents Helter Skelter, left the company on 31st December to set up a new booking agency X-Ray with ex ITB agents Martin Horne and Scott Thomas. ITB is owned by Clear Channel Entertainments.
X-Ray now has a roster including Robbie WiIliams, Moby, Green Day, Primal Scream, Outkast and Linkin Park.
Source: Five Eight magazine /Audience
U2 WORLD TOUR TO KICK OFF IN SAN DIEGO 23/01/05
U2 will kick off their 2005 world tour March 28 at the San Diego Sports Arena, Billboard has exclusively revealed. Kings Of Leon will open the first leg of the tour, tickets for which will begin going on sale Jan. 29.
The tour, named 'Vertigo' after the first single from U2's new Interscope album, "How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," will be officially announced Monday (Jan. 24).
Source: www.billboard.com
BONNAROO SETS INITIAL 2005 LINEUP 21/01/05
The Dave Matthews Band, Modest Mouse, Joss Stone and Toots and the Maytals are among the first acts confirmed for Tennessee's fourth annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Set for June 10th to 12th, the event will return to a 700-acre farm in Manchester, about 60 miles south of Nashville, to present more than 60 artists on multiple stages.
Source: www.billboard.com
HMV REPORTS A HAPPY RETAIL CHRISTMAS 20/01/05
HMV , the music and books retailer, has reported better than expected Christmas sales figures after a late surge in customer demand. The group reported a 6.4% growth in sales on 2003 largely due to increased sales of DVDs and CDs. HMV also
reported a 23% increase in pre-tax profits to £13.3 million (E19.2 approx) for the half year to October 23 2004 on a 3/6% increase in turnover to £760
million.
IFPI REPORT SHOWS GROWTH IN LEGAL DOWNLOADS 20/01/05
Music on the internet and mobile phones is moving into the mainstream of consumer life, with legal download sites spreading internationally, more users buying songs in digital format and record companies achieving their first significant revenues from online sales. These are the conclusions of the IFPI Digital Music Report 2005, a comprehensive review of the music industry's digital strategies and of the fast-emerging market for online and mobile music distribution. The report is published today by IFPI on behalf of its more than 1,450 member record companies across the world. Music fans downloaded well over 200 million tracks in 2004 in the US and Europe - up from about 20 million in 2003. This helped bring record companies their first year of significant revenues from digital sales, running into several hundred million dollars.
Analyst Jupiter estimates that the digital music market was worth US$330 million in 2004, and is expecting it to double in value in 2005. The number of online sites where consumers can buy music legally has now hit more than 230, up from 50 a year ago, with record companies licensing the bulk of their active catalogue for download, totalling over one million songs - more than doubling the amount of available repertoire within one year. Services like iTunes and Napster have become household names internationally, and many other national sites are specialising in local repertoire.
Portable players, led by the hugely successful iPod, and mobile phones, are helping transform the consumer experience of enjoying music and creating new revenue opportunities. There are estimates that 50% of mobile content revenues will be from music.
Digital piracy remains a very significant problem, but the recording industry's campaign of legal actions against music uploaders is helping contain it. Consumer awareness of the illegality of unauthorised file-sharing remains very high (seven people out of 10) compared to before the enforcement actions began. The supply of music files on unlicensed P2P services has fallen over the last year. The total number of infringing music files on the internet in January 2005 is slightly down on one year ago at 870 million tracks, and this is despite a huge increase in the use of broadband internationally.
The report reviews the progress of more than 7,000 legal actions launched so far against alleged illegal uploaders in eight countries (Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, UK, US), and makes clear there will be many cases launched in more countries in 2005. Uploaders facing the threat of litigation are now regularly paying settlement fees averaging several thousand euros in Denmark, Germany and Austria. John Kennedy, IFPI Chairman and CEO said:
"The biggest challenge for the digital music business has always been to make music easier to buy than to steal. At the start of 2005, as the legitimate digital music business moves into the mainstream of consumer life, that ambition is turning into reality."
Source: www.ifpi.org
PRIMARY GAINS SOME EXTRA PROFILE 19/01/05
Primary Talent International is pleased to announce the latest addition to its line-up of booking agents with the arrival in mid-January of Serena Parsons and Andy Duggan - who previously made up Profile Artists Agency.
Profile has enjoyed considerable success during the last 8 years within the field of urban music, and the two agents will bring with them a roster of over 40 artists including Mercury nominated TY, American acts Arrested Development and Ugly Duckling, the hotly-tipped People Under The Stairs and Killa Kella. Joining Serena and Andy will be their trusty assistants Belinda Law and Janet McNeill.
Full Story: www.primary.uk.com/primary
GLOBAL CDS SALES DOWN BUT MUSIC DVDS UP 18/01/05
Worldwide sales of music sound recordings fell by 1% in 2004 but a strong drop in CD sales were masked by increasing sales of music DVDs. Informa estimate that total sales slipped from $30.3 billion (£16.2
billion) to $29.4 billion (£15.7 billion). CD and audio
formats fell by 2.9% but DVD sales were up by 26% and now represent almost
10% of recorded music sales.
UNIVERSAL SELLS BRITANNIA AND DIAL 18/01/05
Vivendi Universal , the world's largest record label, have sold their UK mail order business Britannia and it's French counterpart Dial to the California private investment group Platinum Equity.
GLASTONBURY GETS 2005 GO AHEAD 18/01/05
The Glastonbury Festival has been granted a public entertainment licence for 2005 but organiser Michael Eavis has announced that he will be taking a 'year off' in 2006 and the Festival will not take place.
Although the Festival is now seen as a summer institution in the UK, Eavis has always 'given the village a rest' with no festivals in either 2001 or 1996 to give local residents in the village of Pilton a summer without a festival.
Last year the 112,500 tickets for the Festival sold out in under 24 hours after massive demand crashed telephone exchanges and the official ticket website. The Festival will take place on the 24th, 25th and 26th June and will be covered live by BBC Television and radio. The local authority Licensing Board had met in December and had decided by a margin of 9-4 not to prosecute the Festival for alleged licence breaches in 2004. A feature film about the Festival directed by Julien Temple is due for release in 2006.
GLASTONBURY DVD LAUNCHED 17/01/05
The Glastonbury Festival has announced that EMI will release the Festival's first DVD on March 21st, titled ' Glastonbury Anthems' and featuring classic peformances from the Festival's archive from 1994 to 2004.
Performances incude tracks from Radiohead [photo] , Coldplay, Moby, Paul McCartney, The Manic Street Preachers, Faithless, The Prodigy and Robbie Williams and were voted for by over 30,000 fans on the Festival's official website at www.glastonburyfestivals.com.
The DVD also contains a clip from the 1971 Festival film 'Glastonbury Fayre', a aerial tour of the Festival from 1994, a visit to the Festival's legenday 'Greenfields' and an interview with Festival Organiser Michael Eavis.
BUSTED ... BUSTED 17/01/05
The UK's top boy band, pop-punk trio Busted have announced they have split up after three years and 4 number one singles. The Universal signed band have said that 19 year old lead singer Charlie Simpson is to pursue alternaive musical activities with his other band Fightstar.
Band members James Bourne and Matt Jay are said to be supportive of Simpson's decision but angry fans are dismayed and the band's website has been deluged with messages.
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE'S SPENCER DRYDEN DIES 17/01/05
Drummer Spencer Dryden, who was influential both creativly and on business matters for Jefferson Airplane, has died of cancer aged 66.
Airplane 's music encompassed a wide range of elements from rock, folk and free form experimentaton and Dryden's background as a jazz drummer was was major part of the group's musical cocktail. He wrote, albeit sporadically, but also contributed to the band's business management on a regular basis.
The son of a ballet dancer and a British Actor (who was Charlie Chaplin's half brother) Dryden was born in New York but moved to Los Angeles with is family when he was one. He started playing drums locally but moved to San Fransisco in 1966 at the invitation of Jefferson Airplane's manager. He appeared with the band at both the Altamont and Woodstock Festivals but left in 1969. He then had stints with Grateful Dead offshoot New Riders of the Purple Sage and Country Joe & The Fish. He and Jefferson Airplane were inducted into the 'Rock & Roll Hall of Fame' in 1996. He is survived by three sons, Jeffrey, Jesse and Jackson.
AUSTRALIA ANNOUNCES 'WAVE AID' 14/01/05
Australia 's music community have banded together to create 'Wave Aid' an open-air concert to benefit the victims of the recent tsunmai in Asia. It will take place on January 29th at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and features some of the finest Antipodean talent - Midnight Oil, Powderfinger, Silverchair, John Butler Trio, Finn Brothers, Pete Murray, Kasey Chambers, Nick Cave, Missy Higgins & The Waifs. Tickets are $58.00 plus b/f.
Website: www.waveaid.com.au
JERRY SPRINGER OPERA PRODUCES A STORM OF PROTEST 12/01/05
The BBC received over 50,000 complaints and UK media regulator passed on 7,000 more before Jerry Springer the Opera was even shown on BBC TV. The complaints appeared to be part of a concerted effort by christian groups under the leadership of Christian Voice and broadcasting standards media pressure group Mediawatch. Two BBC executives had their home telephone numbers published on Christian Voice's website although this was taken down after the group admitted that the move was naive. 2.4 million people watched the show on TV.
SPECTOR 'ADMITTED SHOOTING' 12/01/05
Phil Spector originally admitted accidentally shooting actor Lana Clarkson to the police although he has subsequently suggested that she committed suicide according according to Grand Jury transcripts. Spector, 64 is charged with the murder of Clarkson at his mansion in early 2003. He has pleaded not gulty an is on $1 million bail.
LEGAL DOWNLOADS OVERTAKE SINGLE SALES IN UK 12/01/05
The BPI reports that 5.7M legal downloads were sold in the UK last year. To put the rise of digital into context, in the final week of the year, some 312,000 downloads were sold, compared to 282,000 physical singles.
Physical single sales continued to slump, dropping a further 14.2% last year, making the incorporation of downloads into the full singles chart all the more pressing. Album sales rose 2.6% (totaling 163.4M units), revealing a rate of recovery in the UK higher than that recorded in the US last year (where sales were up 1.6% overall). DVD sales rose 46.7%. Live Aid was the year's best-selling DVD, U2's 'Vertigo' was the top download and 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' the biggest-selling single.
While units sales for albums and downloads were encouraging, the overall value of the market (due to price-cutting and album costs falling around 5%) is expected to be virtually unchanged from 2003's figures of £1.96B according to the Financial Times
BANDIER TO STEP DOWN AT EMI 12/01/05
Martin Bandier is planning a scheduled retirement from EMI Music Publishing. Mr Bandier has run EMI's music publishing business since 1991 and will step down as CEO of the business in April 2007 and as Chairman a year later.
He will be replaced in both jobs by Roger Faxon who is currently the Financial Director of the publishing business. Under Bandier, EMI have created the world's biggest music publishing company owning a catalogue of over 1 million songs and writers include Janet Jackson and Lenny Kravitz. Last year publishing contributed a profit of £101.9 million out of a Group profit of £249.3 million.
FRANZ FERDINAND LEAD BRIT NOMINATIONS 12/01/05
Scotland's Franz Ferdinand leads the field with five nominations for the 25th annual Brit Awards, which will celebrate their 25th anniversary this year. Muse was close behind with four nominations, while American acts Maroon 5 and Scissor Sisters garnered three each. The awards are organised by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).The BPI says
that at least £500,000 of the proceeeds fom the Brits 25 awards show will go to a two-year Save The Children programme to aid children affected by the Asian tsunami disaster.
UK TSUNAMI CONCERTS SELLS 30000 TICKETS IN 3 HOURS 12/01/05
Eric Clapton , Badly Drawn Boy, Embrace, The Manic Street Preachers and Jools Holland are confirmed to perform at a tsunami relief concert to be held January 22nd at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
All proceeds raised from the concert will benefit victims of the December 26th tsunami in Southern Asia. Organizers are hoping to raise more than £1 million ($1.87 million) from the event. Venue managers said that 30,000 tickets had been sold in the first 3 hours of going on sale.
Source: www.billboard.com
SHERYL, CHRISTINA. AVRIL, STING AND MANY OTHERS PLEDGE TSUNAMI SUPPORT 06/01/05
Sheryl Crow , Christina Aquilera and Tim McGraw will participate in a January 15th benefit TV special for victims of the tsunami in Southern Asia being organized by the NBC Universal Television Group and produced by Tall Pony. The hour-long music and celebrity-driven broadcast will air live at 20.00 on the East Coast and tape-delayed on the West Coast across NBC's broadcast and cable channels, Clear Channel has signed on as a promotional partner and will broadcast the event on radio stations across the country.
Elsewhere, Sting will play a February 10th concert at the Leeuwin Estate Winery in Perth Australia, with 100% of the net proceeds donated to the relief efforts. The show replaces a February 9th show booked in severely hit Sri Lanka, Queen's Brian May has pledged that proceeds from their January 12th 1,000th London performance of the musical production "We Will Rock You" will be donated to the UK's Disaster Emergency Committee appeal for tsunami and earthquake relief efforts. It has been rumored that May and the band's Roger Taylor may perform at the show.
Veteran U.K. progressive rock act Wishbone Ash have pledged to donate proceeds of one show from each of its four upcoming tours planned over the next six months to tsunami relief efforts. The group will kick off a European run January 14th in Istanbul.
In Ireland, singer/songwriter Damien Rice has scheduled a benefit show at the Temple Bar Music Centre in Dublin, with proceeds set to help victims through Oxfam.
In North America, venues from New York to Toronto to Seattle are planning benefit shows in the coming weeks with Willie Nelson, Patty Griffin, Spoon, Joe Ely and Alejandro Escovedo playing this Sunday at the Austin (Texas) Music Hall with beneficiaries including The Red Cross and UNICEF. In Vancouver Clear Channel Entertainment will produce the Concert for Tsunami Relief on January 29th at the GM Place. Hosted by Rick Mercer, the event will feature Avril Lavigne, Barenaked Ladies, Chantal Kreviazuk & Raine Maida, Delerium, Sarah McLachlan and others. In Seattle, the Presidents Of The United States Of America, MxPx and Smoosh will perform at the Showbox on Jan 12th with proceeds going to the Tsunami Relief effort of Northwest Medical Teams.
Source: Billboard.com
Donations:
US ALBUM SALES INCREASE 05/01/05
A total of 667M albums were sold in the US last year according to Nielsen SoundScan figures. This is a 1.6% increase from a year ago and the first time the US market has recorded growth in four years. Q1-Q3 was looking very good for the US market, with sales up as much as 8%, but a disappointing Christmas meant the overall increase was under 2%. There is, of course, the growth of digital downloads to factor in here, with an estimated 140M sold in the US last year.
Usher's 'Confessions' album was the year's biggest seller, shifting 8M copies. Source: FiveEight
FRENCH NIGHTCLUBS IN TROUBLE 05/01/05
UMIH , the French restaurant and nightclub union reports that a growing number of french nightclubs and discotheques are in financial trouble as local residents fight late licensing and tough new drink driving laws keep the punters away.
Well organised local residents groups have now restricted late night licensing to 4am in all but three of Frances ninety six mainland departments - a disaster in a country where clubbers leave home well after midnight and who want to dance and drink till dawn. The actions by local residents have driven clubs to non residential areas and surrounding countryside but the new drink driving laws put forward by President Chirac which have zero tolerance for drink drivers has kept customers away. Clubs report a 25% fall in income since 2002. Andre Daguin, UMIH president, says that nighclubs are being 'killed off'.
CONSUMER CHOICE NARROWS IN AUSTRALIA ACCORDING TO NEW STUDY 05/01/05
Between 2001 and 2004, it is reported that 43% less records were released in Australia. Sales of music DVDs, however, doubled during the same period. These are the findings of a PhD study by Alex Malik (who used to work as a lawyer at ARIA). He argues against the official industry line - that online and CD-R piracy are the root causes - suggesting instead that music choices outside the top 40 have been drastically reduced and this will only be exacerbated following the Sony/BMG merger. He adds that Australian consumers are buying more CDs from online retailers based outside of Australia in order to source the CDs they want.
He also suggests that consumers may turn to P2Ps, not to get music for free, but because labels are not releasing and retailers are not stocking the music they want (such as country, folk and contemporary Christian).