No Rock And Roll Fun

STEADY ON ROBBIE, HELP IS ON ITS WAY: Obviosuly having decided that running up expenses at SXSW and the New Music schmooze wagons is the way to go, the BPI are cooking up plans to make American trips a year-round delight by opening an office to promote British Music in the US. Clearly, the belief is that Americans simply haven't heard of S Club Juniors, rather than that they have heard, and they're just being polite and looking the other way until we get it out of our system. It's hard to see exactly what this 'office' will do - presumably any company that is part of the BPI monolith would already have people dedicated to ensuring deals can be tied up overseas; any company that isn't won't be able to benefit anyway. It's actually akin to the Merseyside's MMDA collection of demo tapes, which currently are gathering dust in their headquarters - just as the MMDA seems to believe there's a massive appetite for Liverpool music in London but people don't know where to look for it, the BPI must imagine that Americans just need a bit of extra help to sign up artists from this country. Here's a tip, BPI, if you really want to do something to help promote British music in America: stop them getting copies of our Top 40. Would you open a chequebook for a country that has drivel like Gareth and Will dominating the sales lists?