Stuck On Repeat 2009: December

"Difficult economy, sorry, lots of opportunities, Mr. Manson." Marilyn Manson was dumped by his label. Kasabian were delighted nobody tries to pap them, but work from the assumption that people might want to. Tony Hadley reckons there hasn't been a musical subculture since, ooh, his. The Village People threatened to sue Jamie Oliver for dressing up like "them" (i.e. like a policeman and that.)

Philp Green and Simon Cowell's plans to take X Factor to Las Vegas and online were only lacking an undersea island and a white, fluffy cat. Someone decided to run a campaign against the X Factor getting to number one by suggesting we all buy R Kelly instead.

Things look pretty grim for EMI right now. But shed no tears, for they, like the other major labels turned out to have happily been ignoring copyright law in Canada for years. The long-promised launch of MySpace Music in the UK finally happened, somewhat quietly, while the useful bits of new subsidiary Imeem were switched off. The Sunday Times suggested Amazon might open real shops. They might think again, as there's a risk Chris Brown might turn up to count his records. In the UK, at least, the Ticketmaster/LiveNation tie-up looked likely to get no regulatory difficulty

Jeremy Paxman asked Sting to justify his eco-campaign and his many houses simultaneously. Sting failed. Bono attempted to justify being megarich while pretending to care about poverty. Bono failed. Alanis Morissette explained she was high when she wrote her songs, which explains a lot. Pink got the huff with the Queen for not answering her mail.

Sadly, reluctantly, Jean MacColl ended her campaign to find out who really was driving the boat that killed her daughter Kirsty.


[Part of the month-by-month review from Stuck On Repeat 2009]