DO YOU KNOW YOUR OWN CARBON FOOTPRINT? 17/09/07
Anyone in the live sector cannot have failed to notice the glorious UK spring (the hottest on record) and then a very very wet summer causing untold costs and chaos in the UK festival calandar alongside forest fires in Greece, hurricanes in the Americas and drought in Australia.  Julies Bicycle, the UK's cross music industry climate change group are asking all companies and organisations in the UK music industry to take part in a survey being run by Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute to see just what the industry's CO2 emissions really are. The survey can be found online at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=xvIvW3nX20ibFJt329oJ8w_3d_3d and takes about 10-20 minutes for most companies.

Julie's Bicycle are also now offering carbon audits for the UK music industry - starting at as little as £250 - and one of their environmental auditors will arrange a meeting and a site visit and provide a written report and follow up meeting. The directors of the not for profit company writing an open letter in Music Week point out that the cost is really an investment as almost all companies will quickly save the  cost in energy savings. The group is chaired by Big Lifes Management's  Jazz Summers and board members include Stuart Galbraith and Ben Challis from the live sector, record label representatives include  David Joseph from Universal  Music Group and  Emma Pike from SonyBMG and Jeremy Lascelles from Chrysalis Music brings in music publishing. Anyone interested can take a look at www.juliesbicycle.com or contact the Director , Al Tickell at juliesbicycle@yahoo.co.uk.

LIVE SECTOR INVESTMENT FIRM ANNOUNCES NEW FUNDS 14/09/07
Investment firm the Edge Group has announced that its second round of funding added £13.45 million to their coffers.The Edge Group's Edge Performance Venture Capital Trust raised £6.25 million from its first investment offer, and has now invested those funds in various live music ventures, working in partnership with the likes of SJM and AEG. Edge Group founder David Glick says he will announce a series of further
investments in the coming twelve months which will make the investment outfit an important player in the wider live industry.

Source: CMU Daily

BRITNEY IN A MESS, KANYE IN A HUFF AND KID & TOMMY IN A FIGHT - BUSINESS AS USUAL AT THE MTV AWARDS 14/09/07
Britney Spears was mauled by the press for a lacklustre performance when she opened the MTV VMAs. The singer was dressed in a bikini and looked unfit and vaguely disinterested and seemed to have lost the art of lip synching. If that wasn't bad enough for the organisers, Kanye West then went into the huff of all huffs after he failed to get a single gong, despite being nominated in five categories - saying he will never come back. The night only got worse (or maybe improvied) when Tommy Lee and Kid Rock (both ex-partners of Baywatch star Pamela Anderson) decided to have a bit of a fracas - with Lee being ejected - although it appears Kid Rock may be charged with assualt. Ah well, at least the rock n roll spirit lives on.

RECORD NUMBERS FOR THE LONDON PROMS 14/09/07
The 2007 Proms season in London has attracted more people than ever. Organisers have reported a 5% increase in ticket sales on last year, with 272,000 people booking, compared to 265,000 last year.

THE REVOLVING DOOR .... 05/09/07
Music Week and Hollywood Reporter both report that Stuart Galbraith has exited Live Nation UK where he was MD. No replacement has been announced.  Bruce Eskowitz, Live Nation CEO of North American Music, is to step down from his position with immediate effect. Eskowitz moves to become President and CEO of Premier Exhibitions in Atlanta. Jason Garner, formerly Live Nation's President of North American Music, now takes over Eskowitz's role: Elsewhere Martin Talbot becomes MD of the UK Chart Company: Universal Music {ublishing have announced a number of European appointments in the wake of their merger with BMG Music Publishing.The newly appointed executivess will all report to Paul Connolly, who is President of the merged company's European operations: Among Connolly's team will be Simon Baker, who has been confirmed as VP Finance And Operations for the whole of Europe, a role which will also nvolve responsibility for the continued integration of the Universal and BMG publishing companies. In terms of country heads, former UMP chiefs in France, Germany, Italy and the Nordic region - Jean-Philippe Allard, Markus Wenzel, Claudio Buja and Martin Ingestrom respectively - will head up the merged company in their respective regions. In Spain and Portugal BMG Music Publishing chief Carmen Lopez will take over running the merged UMP operations there, while BMG's Benelux chief Frank Bruens and BMG's Czech Republic boss Dominika Nováková will likewise take over the UMP MD roles in their respective regions. Elsewhere, Antal Boronkay, formerly MD of sheet music outfit Editio Musica Budapest, will become MD for UMP Hungary, while Rainer Bischof, whopreviously headed up UMP Austria, will also take responsibility for Switzerland and Koch Music Publishing. In London EMI Music Publishing is moving to EMI's Wrights Lane address from its Charing Cross address;   Sony/ATV Music Publishing has appointed Claribel Cuevas to the position of Senior Director of Creative in Latin America. Cuevas previously held the role of Senior Creative Director of Latin music for Famous Music Publishing: Andrew Stess is to become the new CEO of MusicIP, replacing Matthew Dunn. Stess was formerly VP of Consumer Electronics at All Media Guide: Miles Flint, President of  Sony Ericsson (the world's fourth largest manufacturer of mobile phones), has stepped down to take a 'career break' . Hideki Komiyama, head of Sony Electronics USA, will now step into his role. Phew!

UNIVERSAL PULL VIDEOS FROM ITUNES 03/09/07
NBC Universal  have announced that they are cancelling their contract with iTunes, thereby removing an estimated 40% of all the video downloads from the service, including popular shows such as Heroes. Apple stated that a proposed new agreement by NBC Universal would have seen the cost of programmes more than double their previous wholesale price, and that such a move was untenable. The move follows hot on the heels of Universal Music Group's decision not to renew a long-standing contract with the retailer. Universal Music has now changed to a monthly contract.Elsewhere in the digital world, Sony have announced they are closing their Sony Connect music service.

GET WELL SOON MICK QUINN 03/09/07
Supergrass have announced that they will not be able to play their planned 23 Sep gig at the Oxford Carling Academy because bass player and vocalist Mick Quinn is recovering from a serious back injury during an accident while holidaying in the South Of France, apparently when sleepwalking. Quinn suffering from two broken vertebrae and a smashed heal - he is hopefully on the mend - get well soon Mick! 

VIRGIN AND EMI CHIEFS BOTH ON THE MOVE AND AYESHA GOES TO BACK TO POLITICS 02/09/07
Eric Nicoli , the hands on Chief Executive of EMI has announced he will be stepping down following the UK music group's acquisitoin by Terra Firma. He will retain a consultancy with EMI in the transition period. The planned £105 million floatation of Virgin Radio was up in the air on friday after bossman Paul Jackson announced he was leaving to join rivals Gcap. Ayesha Hazarika is leaving EMI as Vice President of Public Affairs and will be joining the office of Harriet Harmen MP as a special adviser . Harriet Harmen is Deputy Leader and Chair of the Labour Party in the UK, Leader of the House of the Commons and Secretary of State for Women and Equality.

CCGB FOUNDER HILLY KRISTAL DIES 01/09/07
Hilly Kristal , the founder of legendary New York punk club CBGB, died on August 28th from due to complications from lung cancer. He was 75. Kristal founded the club in 1973 to showcase bluegrass and country acts, but it quickly became known as a breeding ground for experimental and punk music. In 2006, the club was forced to close in the face of rising rents and gentrification in the neighborhood. Kristal is survived by a daughter, a son and two grandchildren. A private memorial will be held first, with a public tribute to follow at a date to be announced.

YOU TUBE SIGN UP WITH MCPS-PRS ALLIANCE 01/09/07
Steve Porter , CEO of the MCPS-PRS Alliance has announced that YouTube has finalised a major "ground breaking"  licensing agreement with UK royalty collection society, its first outside the US. The agreement will see 10M pieces of music blanket licensed for an undisclosed flat fee. Porter said "We are delighted to have concluded this deal with YouTube and to be the first collecting society outside the US to do so. Whether it is music videos, user uploads or other audio visual content, our agreement will allow our 50,000 songwriter, composer and music publisher members to be paid when their creative talents are being enjoyed on YouTube’s service across the UK".

NOKIA TO TAKE ON ITUNES 01/09/07
Giant phone manufacturer Nokia have signalled that they will take on the might of iTunes by launching a new download store using Windows Media Audio and a new phone, the N81 which will be a 'jukebox in the pocket'. Orange, also in the download market, have already fired a warning shot to Nokia but the phone manufacturer clearly could be a real challenge to Apple's iTunes and iPods - and Orange. Orange wants to evaluate the new venture against its own download service and will move to withhold the new device from its 16M UK customers if these conditions are not met. More than 100,000 tracks are downloaded via Orange's music store in the UK each month.

GOLDEN SHOWER ENDS IN WRIT 01/09/07
Five Eight reports that a woman in the US is suing rapper Lil' Wayne over allegations she was trampled by a frenzied crowd during a concert. 17-year-old Tyrique Layne states she lost consciousness and suffered a serious closed head injury when money was thrown into the crowd resulting in a stampede. Layne is seeking $1M in damages

PRISON DATE FOR DIRTY PRETTY THINGS 01/09/07
Dirty Pretty Things and The Enemy have played a gig inside London's Pentonville Prison in front of 200 inmates. The event was to publicise the the charity Wasted Youth which is raising awareness of suicide in young men - particularly in prison. The event was organised by Dan Fulvio, the deputy editor of Heat magazine who lost a brother to suicide.

BO RECOVERS, AMY IN-LAWS COMMENT BUT FAREWELL ART DAVIES 01/09/07
Legendary bluesman Bo Diddley is said to be stable after suffering a heart attack in a Florida Hospital during a medical check up. In the UK Amy Winehouse's father in law has said that fans should stop buying Amy's music to make the point that her and husband Blake Fielder Civil's behaviour is unacceptable. Amy's own father Mitch dismissed the idea. However Giles Fielder Civil also questioned why Amy was still being nominated for awards. Finally and sadly Art Davies, the  brilliant jazz bassist whose music bridged the jazz and classical worlds, has died aged 72.

NEW SPRINGSTEEN WORLD TOUR ANNOUNCED 01/09/07
As expected, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will tour North America and Europe before the end of the year in support of their new album, " Magic." The trek begins on October 2nd with the North American shows wrapping on November 18th in Boston. The European leg begins a week later in Madrid.

FIRST GREENER FESTIVAL AWARDS ANNOUNCED 01/09/07

The team behind AgreenerFestival.com have announced some of the very first recipients of the Greener Festival Award. Festivals who completed the application, signed up to Greener  Festival's A-Z of twenty six green pledges and passed muster with the  AGF team's on-site visit so far include in no particular order   

Leicester's Summer Sundae Weekender, The Sunrise Celebration, Latitude Festival, Big Green Gathering,  The Glastonbury Festival, Edinburgh Film Festival The Glade and Big Session Festival

Download Festival has won the ‘ Most Improved’ Award, recognising the efforts of the Festival to move from a  particularly ‘un-green’ event in 2006 towards a far more  sustainable site in 2007 with a pro-active management team and initiatives including on-site  recycling, reduced paper use, bikes for staff and an much improved  transport policy including lift sharing. On the international side the team have decided  to recognize the exceptional work of the Bonnaroo Festival in the USA  and Peats Ridge Festival in Australia by giving them both  International Awards. Bonnaroo has site-wide recycling (250 tons in 2007), a solar powered stage, encourages the widespread use of bio-diesel and  insists on biodegradable catering products. Peats Ridge has managed to reduce on-site waste to almost nothing with recycling, composting toilets, all festival power from sustainable sources, all printing on sugar cane by-product paper with friendly inks and reclaimed materials used for site decoration.  A  Greener Festival's co-founder Claire O'Neill said "abandoned tents were a major problem in 2007. This year's rain and mud at many festivals coupled with tents selling for under £10 meant that many festival   goers left behind their accommodation - with even the most organised festivals struggling to deal with thousands and thousands of tents. A number of festivals trialed bio-diesel this year but there are continuing concerns about unsustainable palm oil plantations.  Other issues are pollution and the carbon footprint from private cars at  festivals - we are keen to push public transport and car sharing, and hope  to see more local produce/suppliers being used by events in 2008, not only  to reduce mileage but to help benefit local  economies".  A Green Festival  www.agreenerfestival.com

I STIMULI - D'OPERA EXPOSE MAY RING THE CHANGES 01/09/07
Endrik Wottrich , the well known Wagnarian tenor, has said that many opera singers are turing to drugs and other stimulants in order to keep at the top of their profession comparing their activities to cyclists in the Tourde France. He revealed in an interview with with a german newspaper that many stars used beta blockers to control nerves or used cortisone to improve vocal range and strength. He added that alcohol abuse was ' standard practice' and that many cancellations were due to the depression and stress suffered by many top performers.  In unrelated news, it seems that Luciano Pavarotti will now remain in hospital for the forseeable future fo further tests related to his pancreatic cancer. He was orignially hospitalised after running a high fever.

ENTER SHAKARI TOP KERRANG! AWARDS 01/09/07
Enter Shakari celebrated winning both the  Best Live Act and the  Spirit of Independence awards at the 2007 Kerrang Awards. Other winners were My Chemical Romance who grabbed Best International Band and Gallows who won best Newcomer. Welsh rockets Lost Prophets won Best British Band. Judas Priest entered the Hall of Fame and Nine Inch Nails won an icon award.

INGENIOUS CONTINUES TO PICK UP CLASS ACTS 01/09/07
London's boutique investment bank Ingennious Media, headed by Patrick McKenna, continues to invest in established bands, heritage acts and comeback albums and has now added veteran reggae band  UB40 and all round great guy  Peter Gabriel to its books alongside The Prodigy and Travis - both of whom are still successfully touring . The firm, which specializes in media and entertainment deals, pays for the acts' music production, marketing and CD distribution. Ingenious has raised $79 million in two funds. So far, Ingenious has financed 15 albums and agreed to pay for seven more, spending roughly between $400,000 and $2 million each, according to regulatory filings. Two albums have so far been released, from The Heights and Travis. Ingenious joins Starbucks in investing in established talent. In the highest profile move to date Sir Paul McCartney announced in March he would join their Hear label from EMI and has already sold 500,000 units by early August. More recently Joni Mitchell and the late Ella Fitgerald had albums announced .  Live Nation are also joining the fray with speculation that Madonna's current album with Warners alongside a greatest hits will be her last for the major and that after this she will considering a combined recording / touring / merchandising deal with Live Nation.

LIVE NATION AND TICKEMASTER TO PART WAYS? 01/09/07
Talking of Live Nation (mind you that depends if you scroll up or down), Billboard has reported that it is looking increasingly unlikely the live music conglomorate will renew its ticketing relationship with Ticketmaster and there has been speculation that Live Nation may take ticketing in house for about a year now, after the promoter's CEO Michael Rapino started to indicate that he wanted more control over the sale of tickets to his firm's venues and events. Ticketmaster's current relationship with Live Nation ends in 2008 and is thought to accounbt for 10% of Tickemasters overall revenues.

ROLLING STONES AVOID SMOKING FINE 01/09/07
The Rolling Stones have avoided a smoking fine despite press photos of Keith and Ronnie lighting up at their gig at London's O2 Arena in violation of the new English anti-smoking rules. Greenwich Council
has reportedly said it will not prosecute the pair

WINEHOUSE CANCELS US TOUR 01/09/07
Amy Winehouse who has just had four MOBO nominations announced, has gone into rehab and has been photographed with bleeding feet, bandaged arms and a battered husband, has cancelled her upcoming US tour. Her publicist said that Amy's European and UK tour dates in October and November remain in place. Plans are being made to reschedule her US tour for early 2008. Until then, Amy has been ordered to rest and is "working with medical professionals to address her health".

REM TO RELEASE LIVE ALBUM 01/09/07
REM have announced they will be releasing their first ever live album simply tiltled  'REM Live'. The album was recorded entirely at a show at The Point in Dublin on 27 Feb, 2005 and includes tracks form their most recent album 'Around The Sun' as well as classics like the Squealer's Karaoke fave Losing My Religion and that song that is impossible to do well at karaoke  'Everybody Hurts'.

MARQUEE TO RISE AGAIN 01/09/07
London's legendary Marquee Club is due to re-open on the 3rd September back in Central London at 14 Upper St Martins Lane in Soho. The club, in its sixth location, will have a 100 space and a 200 capacity space for live performances and the club plans to begining booking live acts immediately. The club's 50th anniversary is in 2008.

RAVE ARREST GOES WRONG WITH REVENGE RAID ON ROZZERS 01/09/07
News reaches the ILMC Squealer that the UK police had a nasty surprise after they arrested three people who were allegedly trying to organise an illegal rave on the Harfrey business park in East Anglia. The police ('rozzers' is a slang word for the boys in blue) arrested the three and confiscated vehicles and equipment but then found that their police station in Great Yarmouth was under siege from over 100 (presumably annoyed) ravers who threw bottles, cans and stones at the police in the early hours of Sunday morning. It took police in full riot gear to quell the gathering outside the station and another 200 officers were needed to break up the illegal gathering. The police have substantial powers to stop raves granted under the UK's Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 but the Act has been rarely used as it was somewhat clumsily brought in as rave culture died out in the late nineties.   

UK POLICE ZERO TOLERANCE ON DRUGS AT V 01/09/07
Essex Police in the UK have said they will have a zero tolerance towards drugs at the 2007 V Festival at Chelmsford and will enforce this in all backstage areas. The lineup this year includes Kasabian, Babyshambles, Lily Allen, Iggy Pop and Happy Mondays who replace Amy Winehouse who has cancelled the rest of her summer shows and has, indeed, gone to rehab.

GWEN WILL COVER UP FOR MALAYSIA 01/09/07
Gwen Stefani has agreed to adopt a 'cover up' dress code for her show in Malaysia. The No Doubt singer will wear traditional clothes to avoid offending muslims in the country.

FAREWELL TO JAZZ DRUMMER MAX ROACH 01/09/07
One of the Jazz world's most innovative drummers, Max Roach, has died aged 83. Roach is credited as being one the first musicians to develop drumm solos as well as developing percussion ensembles. A succesful recording and touring artist, Roach also wrote music for musicals and worked with soke of the all time greats including Dizzy Gilespie, Miles Davies and Charlie Parker. 

JAY-Z TOPS HIP-HOP EARNERS 01/09/07
A new report by Forbes puts Jay-Z as the highest earning artist in hip-hop in 2006. Last year he raked in an astonishing $34M. Second in the list was 50 Cent ($32M), closely followed by P. Diddy ($28M). Most succesful hip hop acts have embraced a variety of revenue opportunities often with their own record sales becoming almost incidental to their total earnings as endorsements, sponsorship, clothing lines, production duties and even label imprints which all swell their coffers dramatically.

RUSSIAN COURT FIND ALLOFMP3 DIRECTOR NOT GULITY 01/09/07
Judge Ekaterina Sharapova has acquitted Denis Kravsov, a director of Mediaservices, the company that owned AllofMP3.com  and ruled that the site operated within the bounds of Russian law as it made payments to Russian collection societies - on behalf of the legitimate copyright owners even though the main Russian Collection society ROMS has been derecognised by many Western collecting societies. Tellingly the site was selling music by The Beatles who famously have yet to license their content for download to anybody. There are two more cases against Mediaservices pending, but anti-piracy bodies including the IFPI  have argued this ruling has set a "very bad precedent". The issue of IP protection remains a sticking point for Russia 's entry to the World Trade Organisation.