Gordon in the morning: Last night's television

Obviously, most of this morning's newspapers are just detailed explanations of what was on the television yesterday, so it's perhaps in keeping that Gordon Smart is reduced to more-or-less transcribing chunks of yesterday's Graham Norton show.

I wonder how Gordon's boss Rupert Murdoch would feel about that?

He told a National Press Club event at George Washington University that the newspaper industry had to stand up for itself and charge for content while using copyright law to defend its journalism from being used without permission.

"We are going to stop people like Google or Microsoft or whoever from taking stories for nothing … there is a law of copyright and they recognise it," Murdoch told a packed audience of students, journalists and other media professionals.

He said search engines had tapped into a "river of gold" by aggregating content but that the days of free news had to come to an end. "They take [news content] for nothing. They have got this very clever business model," he said.

God, yes, Rupert. How awful that people use other people's content without paying. When will you tell Gordon to stop doing that, exactly?

Pop stars plot presents

It's funny, MTV News is being online and thus hasn't a concept of a fixed space that needs filling, it still runs stuff that could only be classed as filler. Like asking some random people what they'd give to the happy couple. (Kate and William in this case.)

Adam Lambert suggested eyeliner for William:

"He could do that, he could rock that look. I think."

Have you even ever seen a photo of William, Adam? Really?

Ne-yo is a bit more practical:

"Three years' supply of sunglasses. Yeah, put them on. A bunch of baseball caps, throw those on, and try to move around like regular people," the singer said. "I can't imagine what it would be like having to live under that big of a magnifying glass your whole life ... and fake mustaches, that's what I'd give them."

Ne-Yo's idea of the gift of faux-facial hair isn't entirely unprecedented. Royal experts confirm that on his wedding day, Prince Edward was gifted with the most astonishing beard.

Elton John successfully contrasts two events

I'm not sure if NME.com have cut off half his quote, or if their story about Elton John is as complete as it could be:

Elton John has had his say on the Royal Wedding after attending Prince William and Kate Middleton's nuptials in London this morning (April 29).

The Rocket Man attended the ceremony at Westminster Abbey with his partner David Furnish as the happy couple tied the knot in front of 1,900 guests.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5Live on his way out of the venue, John said: "It's not the Oscars."

Really? Saying - somewhat bemusingly - that a wedding is not like a prize giving was "having his say", was it?

Was he angry at it not being like the Oscars? Because there were no goody bags and only one person got a kiss out of it?

Or was he delighted it wasn't like the Oscars - no awkward chit-chat with Joan Rivers on the way in?

Perhaps he was trying to send a coded warning - "Victoria Beckham, if you hear this, please, for god's sake remember: IT'S NOT THE OSCARS"?

Really, he didn't "have his say". A more accurate lead-in would have been "Elton John has said a thing".

Roger Daltrey: Changing his mind

It's a bit unfair to rib Roger Daltrey for failing to die before getting old, despite what he sang in that song.

We can all change our minds, right?

On the other hand, going from calling American Idol a tripe-stuffed joke to auditioning for a role on the panel in less than twelve months? That feels a wee bit less easy to explain away.

The O Awards: Like the MTV awards. Almost exactly.

There's no debating what the big event of the week is. That's right, the inaugural O Music Awards.

Yes, yes you do - The O Awards.

MTV did them.

O as in open, ongoing, online. And oh, god, why?

There was one tiny surprise in there - Darryl Hall winning an award, any sort of award, from MTV has to be unexpected - but otherwise, it was just MTV giving slightly different shaped prizes to the same people MTV always give prizes to.

The winners and cringe-making categories in full:

Fan Army FTW: Tokio Hotel
Best performance series: Live from Darryl's House
Best fan forum: Michael Jackson
Most viral dance: Willow Smith - Whip My Hair
Must follow artist on Twitter: Lady GaGa
NSFW music video: 30 Seconds To Mars - Hurricane
Best fan cover: Alex Goot - Hold It Against Me
Funniest music short: Lonely Island - I Just Had Sex
Innovative artist: Lady GaGa
Favourite animated gif: Nicky Minaj
Favourite fuck yeah Tumblr: Adam Lambert
Most innovative music video: Andy Grammar
Best independent music blog: Aquarium Drunkard
Best music discovery service: Pandora
Best animal performance: Parrot dancing to Whip My Hair
Best Tweet: Kanye responsible for a music bottle
Best music hack: Invisible instruments

Yes, there was a prize for the best animated gif. I'm sure they just forgot to publish the winner for 'Coolest Geocities page'.

Seriously, though: if the idea was to try and suggest that MTV is best-placed guide to find your way through the billions of music-related websites and services, does spending time and money going "wow - have you thought of Googling Lady GaGa" really do that?

Gordon in the morning: Meeting Rihanna

Gordon's reduced to running man doesn't look at women's breasts as a story this morning:

And hats off to the Thin White Duke - who rarely ventures out these days - for managing to avoid eye contact with the songbird's [Rihanna] semi-exposed assets as she leaned in for the meet and greet.

Can you make eye contact with a breast, what with them not having eyes?

It's not just Playstation

Overlooked a little in the excitement about Sony's loss of up to 77 million people's personal data and maybe their credit card details too is that it isn't just the PlayStation Network which has been hit.

It's also users of Sony's iTunes-wannabe, Qriocity, who have had their names pinched. For some reason, this hasn't proved as interesting to the non-tech press as the Playstation brand.

It must be disappointing for Sony that it has so failed to get Qriocity to take off that all its users being breached doesn't create much of a murmur; but on the plus side, when it comes to do the relaunches of the system a lot of consumers won't automatically think "oh, the leaky music and movies service".

Songs About Cooking

You might have seen this before, but until @pgofton posted it yesterday I hadn't:

Steve Albini's cooking blog.

I used Jacques Pepin's method of making julienne of carrots: using a vegetable peeler, cut long strips of carrot, then stack them, roll them lengthwise and slice into thin ribbons. This gives a much longer, nicer looking julienne than using a grater. I also sliced the cabbage core thinly for more substantial texture.

Come on, James Martin - surely you should be sending an invite to Albini to join the Saturday Kitchen?

Downloadable: Beth Jeans Houghton

The long-overdue and makes-us-slaver-like-dogs debut Beth Jeans Houghton album is almost ready. Not with us until Autumn, but at least it is coming our way.

Meanwhile, oh, yes, there's this:
Beth Jeans Houghton - Dodecahedron by Mute UK
What a lovely way to start the day.

Gordon in the morning: Punk springs a surprise

There's a decent bit of writing under the Bizarre banner this morning, with David Hepworth turning up to offer a Punks Got Old piece following the death of Poly Styrene:

A devotee of the Hare Krishna movement, she was still giving interviews to promote her new album, Generation Indigo, from her hospice bed.

It seems barely possible that such vibrant young spirits should succumb to an illness like that.

It seems doubly odd that we should remember Marianne Elliott by the comic book name she gave herself in those mad times.

That's the great melancholy truth of pop fame. It begins as a lark. It ends up as a life sentence.

Alan McGee also write about Poly:

Poly wasn't a conventional kind of sexy woman but she was still very sexy.

He does mention her other achievements, but he does choose to end his eulogy for one of his heroes by mentioning how sexy she was.

Elsewhere, it's business as usual as a photo of David Beckham with a cheerleader in the foreground inspires Gordon to write a piece which appears to not be bothered that it's unlikely that Beckham was actually looking at the woman who appears to be in front of him.

UPDATE: Thanks to the person in the comments who pointed out that McGee's piece went on beyond the 'sexy' comments, so in fairness to Alan: apologies for assuming you ended your bit with those words.

The actual ending is:

She helped to get rid of the w*****s.

And this bit:

Poly paved the way for people including Madonna and Lady GaGa.

You wonder if they would have even existed without Poly and Ari Up from The Slits, who died last year.

Hmm. Would there have been a Madonna without Poly and Ari? Yes, probably. Would there have been a Lady GaGa? Er, yes.

Downloadable: Agnes Obel

Agnes Obel did a session a couple of weeks back on Marc Riley's 6Music show; if you missed that, here's something a bit like a second chance. It's the Lulu Rouge remix of Riverside:

Gordon in the morning: Sorry excuses

No, no, it's not rats. That sound you can hear is Gordon scrabbling an apology out:

LAST week I reported that Gareth Bale celebrated his PFA Player's Player of The Year Award by dancing on tables with glamour girls at nightclub Merah in London.

At the time I said it was a bit out of character for the teetotal Welsh winger, and in fact we now accept that we got it wrong.

The Spurs hero was in fact back home with his parents, his grandfather, sister, girlfriend and the trophy at his Essex home.

He did not visit the club and was professional enough to head straight home after the awards. Sorry Gareth.

I think what's especially magic about this is the way Gordon tries to somehow justify the original story by saying 'yeah, at the time I said it sounded unlikely'. Perhaps rather than writing 'this sounds unlikely', you could, you know, check or something? Before writing a bunch of old crap in your paper? It might save you having to grovel.

Downloadable: Madonna

Not actually Madonna, of course. The lemon-scented people at Paper Bag Records have put together free download album of Madonna covers.

All they want in return is an email address - which, let's face it, is probably being handed round thanks to Sony right now anyway. The Rural Alberta Advantage's Live To Tell is worth handing over your details on its own.

Vevo - here we go

Apparently Vevo had never actually launched properly in the UK. It has now.

And, quite clearly, isn't going to be wasting money throwing it down the MySpace hole:

"When News Corp ring you take the call," [Chief executive Rio Caraeff] said, adding that there are no talks or plans involving MySpace on the table. "We are focussed on executing our current business model and not getting distracted."

Actually, News Corp called round ours last night, trying to offload MySpace (they were also selling dusters and buckets). I hid behind the sofa.

Punkobit: Poly Styrene

I'd hoped this morning that it might have been crossed wires or an internet wrong.

But no: Poly Styrene, Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, died yesterday.

There's a lot of love for her on the internet right now.

Adam Sweeting in The Guardian:

Poly Styrene's album Generation Indigo, a witty, fresh and surprisingly commercial batch of songs, earned rave reviews when it was released last month. "I just channel my songs like a medium," she said of the new material. "If my friends like them, then I'm quite happy that they're good songs." She had planned to take the new songs on tour.

To the last, she remained committed to her original punk aesthetic. "Punk attitude lives on," she said, "because of the spirit of its fearlessness to try to change things for the better."

Kathleen Hanna:

Poly lit the way for me as a female singer who wanted to sing about ideas. She taught me, by example, that fame was less the goal than something to back away from when it started to invade your core. Her lyrics influenced EVERYONE I KNOW WHO MAKES MUSIC.

Billy Bragg, talking to BBC News:

"Punk without Poly Styrene and the X-Ray Spex wouldn't have been the same."

Glen Matlock, talking to 6Music:

"She wouldn't kow-tow to even what the punk fashions should be, I think that's what that song is about.

"I did see her not that long ago so it's sad. Again, somebody from the punk rock scene has died far too young and it's a loss."

Boy George on Twitter:

"I was a fan of Poly before I got to know her, she was a Krishna follower too, oh bless you Polly you will be missed! Legend!"

James McMahon, on the NME Newsblog:

But to simply describe Marianne Joan Elliott-Said as a punk is to imprison her memory within perimeters – it doesn’t allow the full story to be told. Poly Styrene’s music was thrillingly, achingly human, containing sentiments and emotions vital within any era, not just in Xeroxed, safety pin pierced snapshots of yore.

David Quantick on Twitter:

I am enormously sad about the death of Poly Styrene, who was one of the smartiest, funniest, and prescient songwriters ever.

Amanda Palmer on Twitter:

OH BONDAGE UP YOURS!!! R.I.P. Poly Styrene. important voice in punk rock lady awesomeness.

Aggressively, produly self-made; smart, funny and punk in ways that people don't always realise punk should be. She's a terrible loss to the world, but has at least left some remarkable work behind her:

RIP Poly Styrene

There's been no official confirmation - so there's still hope it might just be an internet rumour - but it sounds like Poly Styrene has lost her fight against cancer.

Bugger.

Rock music kills child, claims Daily Mail

The death of Isobel Jones-Reilly is a terrible thing, a terribly sad story.

But no story is so heartbreaking that it's not going to get the Mail moralising and blaming everything in the modern world:

Ecstasy death girl, 15, 'idolised drug-taking musicians and was hooked on the internet'

Right from the first three crappy depersonalising words of the headline on Arthur Martin and Tamara Cohen's shabby piece sets the tone for a careless, thoughtless long honk as the Mail drags the body of a dead teenager up and down the streets.

Let's start with that claim she was "hooked on the internet". You might think that if Isobel really was hooked on the internet, she'd be getting lambasted in a different part of the Mail for sitting in her bedroom looking at a screen. Her very real death was in the very real world, surely?

But how does the Mail know about this being addicted to the web, except for when she had switched the computer off and gone out with friends?

But one of her teachers blamed her downward spiral on an addiction to the internet.

Really?

Jaye Williamson, who was Isobel’s English teacher at Chiswick Community College, in West London, said: ‘She was into the kind of things that teenagers get into, but she got hooked on the worldwide web. She was part of the Myspace generation. She got caught and we are devastated.’

"Part of the MySpace generation" pretty much tells you to what extent Williamson is an expert witness on these matters. To be fair to Williamson, her quote sounds like something somebody who is still upset and confused by the death of a young person they knew might mumble out if being badgered for a quote from a shitty journalist.

Certainly, the Mail offers no other evidence for this "addiction" to the internet, and doesn't seem to consider for a moment that 'doing stuff on the internet' is what people do now. It reports memorial events organised online and scrapes Facebook photos and YouTube videos from tribute sites without seeming to realise that this is the sort of "being sucked in" to the internet that is meant to be the bogeyman in the story.

So what of Martin and Cohen's second bold claim, that Isobel "idolised drug-taking musicians"?

Did she edit a fanzine called something like 'Works and Plectrums'? No.
Had she shot a YouTube video in which she cheered while waving round pictures of Pete Doherty? No.
Have Martin and Cohen got details of a tattoo she had reading "Bands who take drugs are cool"? No.

Their claim seems to be based on one single quote:

‘Like many teenagers she idolised musicians who took drugs and it was hard to tell them the pitfalls of copying such behaviour.

‘These bands seem to have it all and the kids just want to copy them. It’s just desperately sad that it’s ended in the death of such a beautiful and lovely girl.'

And who gave this line to the Mail?

Diane Bardon, 50, whose son David was at school with Isobel

So the parent of another child at her school farts out a suggestion that maybe she was "idolising" drug-taking musicians "like many teenagers" - a vague and empty claim that, you'll note, can't even stand itself up by suggesting a name or two of whose these musicians might actually be - and suddenly it's up in the headlines.

There's a dead child, a mourning family, and all the Mail is interested in doing is kicking the corpse to see if it can somehow blame the internet and rock music. What a triumph for journalism.

Gordon in the morning: No Allen at the Abbey

I'm not a big fan of Lily Allen, and I think it's clumsily-worded, but surely her tweet about not being invited to the subsidised wedding this Friday was intended as a joke?:

She moaned on Twitter: "You can quote me as 'outraged', why does bloody Joss Stone get an invite and not moi? I sang at the Diana concert too!"

Gordon's taken it at face value, though.

Her fiancé SAM COOPER must be pleased - it will stop Lily getting envious about Kate's big day.

What does that mean, Gordon? That if Allen was in the Abbey, she'd suddenly demand that Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg came to her wedding?

And if that was the case, wouldn't she get the same idea what with the bloody Royal Wedding being on all the televisions and radios for miles around?

Fleet Foxes: MySpace is "useless"

Robin Pecknold has rolled frustration with a specific feature of MySpace into a pretty fair denunciation of where the decaying site went wrong.

At first, he was just annoyed about how anyone could add dates for Fleet Foxes and they'd show up on the band's profile:

"The myspace show thing is seriously fucked. People add us to shows and we can't delete it but shows up on our page. Your site does harm."

Then, a cry to be set free:

Can someone on the inside PLEASE mercy-kill our myspace page. We aren't opening for Take That. Jesus.

But, hey, it would be nice to be asked, right, Robin?

Robin tweeted all that. Spinner were happy to give him a bit more space to expand on his argument:

"It's just so frustrating that they won't delete our page. It's been months and it's just sad because I used to use MySpace to check out bands all the time and now it's completely useless.

"It's sad that they ended up totally shitting the bed. But nothing can be done at this point.

"It just stayed the same and as older people got more used to using the Internet, MySpace had nothing to offer them. Everyone's mom has a Facebook page but my mom never had a MySpace page. It's like they didn't account for the changing demographics of the Internet."

A social network dying because your parents didn't discover it. We're living in an internet ages of wonders, aren't we?

Home On The Range: some discouraging words heard

There's a small cabin in Smith County, Kansas. In 1872, Brewster Higley sat in and wrote the song which would become Home On The Range.



That song, in turn, went on to become the state song of Kansas.

And the cabin?

Well, that went on to become a bit of a wreck. There's a campaign being mounted now, though, to save it. Orin Friesen is trying to raise $100,000 to restore the cabin to its original state.

Obviously, it was a little wood shack, so it's a bit ironic that in order to return it to being a cheap, knocked-up wooden building is going to cost thousands and thousands, but that's the price of authenticity.

"It matters that we preserve this cabin," Friesen said. "It needs to be saved for future generations. There are a lot of songs that belong to different states — Texas has a bunch, and Tennessee does too. But none are more famous than our state song. I can't figure out another state song that is so tied to a particular place."

Hmm. The good people of Tennessee might point out gently that Rocky Top is tied to Rocky Top, but you know what he means. Good luck, Mr. Friesen.

You, Me And Everyone We Know not getting on anymore

Who gets to keep the friends when Everyone We Know goes their separate ways? You, Me And... have called it a day:

Hello friends,

So it’s been a while and some things have happened lately that have left some of you guys speculating as to what’s going on with us. Well, let me just cut right to the chase: We (Rico, Augie, Mike, John, and Kyle) have made the tough decision to leave You, Me, And Everyone We Know. The reason for this, without getting into specifics, is that it recently came to light that Ben had made some decisions that directly affected us as people and to the band as an entity throughout it’s existence, and we just felt these issues coming to light were irreparable for us, making it a situation where we couldn’t imagine getting back in the van or writing a song with him. This decision, and I assure you it was not an easy one to make, unfortunately had to be made in haste, as is the nature of our business and more specifically our situation at the time. As most of you know, we had immediate touring plans with other amazing bands and we just couldn’t wait any longer on making this eventual decision. This was done out of respect for these bands, promoters, and to you our fans.

The most saddening part in all of this is thinking about the fans and also the people (fans still included) who worked so hard to get us where we were and put so much faith in us. We had a great team and great fans and it pains us to think that this might reflect poorly on any us as individuals or professionals, but it was just something that we had to do for ourselves. Now, whether this means it’s the end of the band or if Ben will continue on as You, Me, And Everyone We Know is still yet to be seen. If he does continue on, please don’t stop listening. In fact, don’t stop listening at all. We have a decently-sized catalogue of music that is very important to us, especially the latest DOGHOUSE RECORDS release “SOME THINGS DON’T WASH OUT” and one more on the way in our upcoming 7″ / EP on TOPSHELF RECORDS, appropriately named “THINGS ARE REALLY WIERD RIGHT NOW”. None of this means that we don’t still love the songs we wrote for this band, that we didn’t lovingly craft each and every one at the time, or that the essence of the songs is somehow tainted: it’s not. That being said, here’s the obligatory “you haven’t heard the last of us” bit. We all love music and fully plan and staying in it. So we’ll be around, writing, putting out music, touring, etc., we’ll still be here.

It’s been a hell of a ride, and as sad as it is to say goodbye for now (and as much as I hate to put another cliche in here), here’s to new beginnings. Your support has meant more to us than you’ll ever know!

See ya real soon!
-Rico, Augie, Mike, John, and Kyle

Ben's "bad decisions" have forced him into making a statement, too:

I’m very sorry to everyone i’ve let down with my actions that led to this news. I respect the guys decision to move on, I can’t blame them really, and I do wish them the best with all of their future endeavors. As far the band as an entity is concerned, well im not too sure. Im hoping that with some time and effort, these wounds may heal and we may one day play some shows with (at the very least) some of this lineup. I don’t know how I feel about continuing on at this point under this name otherwise (it’s pretty banged up at this point). I suppose only time will tell. For now, im going to focus on staying sober and getting some help fixing the parts of me that make such bad decisions. Thank you all for your time and patience. I hope to see you all again someday soon.

Thank you for everything!

I suspect that the stuff we'll never hear about will be more interesting than the end of the band. To everyone's credit that what could have been a really nasty ending seems to have been handled in a friendly way.

Peaches Geldof isn't going to present The Tube

There's no reason to suppose that The Tube is being revived, and not a reason on God's holy Earth to assume that if it were, the producers would be sending for Peaches Geldof.

So, when Peaches Geldof tweets:

Just to clarify - I'm not presenting on the new series of The Tube, if there's going to even be one. It's an internet rumour and isn't true

she might just as well be tweeting that she's not being considered for high-speed elevation to the Papacy.

In fact, given how the sound of Peaches trotting up at the door is about as welcome to a media endeavour as the arrival of a busload of hungry slugs at a lettuce farm, we can safely say any programme from University Challenge, through to an unlikely second series for Don't Scare The Hare, will be moving forwards without the involvement of the young Geldof.

Even Sandi Thom has problems at her own gigs

Sandi Thom had trouble during her weekend date at The Green Hotel in Kinross, when it was all hot and all. That's date as in gig; not that she'd gone out with the son of the woman on the deli counter at the Co-Op:

In a series of posts on Twitter.com, she writes, "Last night's show in Kinross was possibly the hottest gig I've ever played. To say I was burning is an understatement... And to then discover that the air vents were covered up with cling film was outrageous. I literally could not breathe... For a girl who sings her a** off & plays harmonica constantly I need my air on stage!! I am calling health and safety. It's just not right!"

It might have cooler - no pun intended - had she actually called health & safety from the stage; a musician getting their own gig closed down would have probably been more noteworthy than a series of post-event Tweets that sound a little bit overwrought. (Literally not breathing, Sandi? Burning "an understatement"?)

If it was that bad, why didn't she say something while she was on stage?

It's out today: We Make Our Own Mythologies

For three pounds, or more if you'd rather, via Bandcamp, you can snaffle a copy of We Make Our Own Mythologies, a Sweeping The Nation compilation album in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

What do you get for your money? Johnny Foreigner, Moscow Youth Cult, Codex Leicester, Japanese Sleepers and sixteen others. It's like a You Can't Be Loved Forever for 2011, without the risk of the tape snapping.

Gordon in the morning: Baked goods

Gordon's big splash story - about Jordan, who used to be in ITV2's Peter Andre Show, being in a car crash - has got a problem this morning; if you click on the link, it takes you right back to the page you were on. Don't know if this is because the story had to be pulled in a hurry, or simply because the people who know HTML at Wapping couldn't bring themselves to code the link properly.

In actually working news, Marilyn Manson loves Greggs:

Speaking at Cleo, he said: "What's that place in good old England? The bakers? Greggs, that's right Greggs. They do the best pasties there."
[...]
The freaky frontman added: "I always go there when I'm in London, the cheese and onion is great. Good old-fashioned fare."

Yes, Gordon did just call Marilyn Manson "the freaky frontman".

So, Manson believes Greggs does the best pasties, does he? He always was an idiot. Everyone knows Sayers pasties are miles, miles better.

Bluegrassobit: Hazel Dickens

Hazel Dickens, the Hazel in Hazel And Alice, has died.

Born in West Virginia in 1935, the then-novel radio had exposed the young Hazel to a wide range of country music styles and her family had always encouraged her to sing. As the coal industry became increasingly reliant on machines, her family and their lifestyle started to slide into obsolescence, persuading Hazel to leave town. She headed for Baltimore, working as a housekeeper and brefriending Alyse Taubman. Taubman's open-house music sessions introduced Dickens to the local music scence and grew her confidence as a public performer. Alyse's brother Arnold then introduced Hazel to Mike Seeger, and everything would slide into place.

Her partnership with Alice Gerrard - Mike's wife - lasted for four albums across the 60s and 70s, a notable achievement at a time when "leading bluesgrass bands" was one of those professions considered to be man's work. It was even more impressive, given that Alice hadn't had any particular attachment to the style prior to her forming the band with Hazel; while Dickens was steeped in country, Gerrard had grown up in a classical household.

After the duo split, in 1976, Dickens went on to record solo albums for Rounder Records.



Hazel Dickens died on Friday. She was 75, and had been battling leukemia.

Why did Lil'Wayne quit Twitter?

Because stringing 140 characters together in an interesting fashion is impossible for him without a producer telling him what to do, perhaps?

No, apparently not. He tells (sweet Jesus Christ) - Paris Hilton:

"I just shut my Twitter account down because I got hacked. Once I got hacked I had Twitter fix it. They changed it. And then it got hacked again so I just shut it down. As of right now, I'm on Twitter strike."

No, to be honest, I hadn't noticed he'd gone. If he's really on Twitter strike, shouldn't there be an animated gif of Wayne stood by a brazier pop up when you're trying to log in to the homepage?

Of course, when Wayne says he was "hacked" he means someone logged in pretending to be him, so he's probably really just on 'one of my flunkies guessing my password is WAYNEISTHEBEST strike'.

Businessobit: Norio Ohga

Former head of Sony, Norio Ohga, has died.

Ohga's time at the head of Sony saw him take two decisions which, for good or ill, would shape the music industry for twenty years.

He threw the company's weight behind the development of the Compact Disc - which was important - but he also led Sony from being focused on being an electronics company into one that would be an entertainment company. Sony had been running a joint venture with CBS for twenty years, but in 1987 Ohga's company would buy CBS' music business outright. Ohga was still at the top when the renamed CBS arm, Sony Music Entertainment, merged with Bertelsmann's group to create the massive-major Sony BMG.

Ohga is the man who, in what might be a bit of an urban myth, persuaded the Sony-Philips team that CDs should be twelve centimetres across, in order to accommodate the full 75 minutes of Beethoven's Ninth.

Norio Ohga, who was 81, died from massive organ failure.

This week just gone

GaGaMetrics: Top ten Lady GaGa stories of all time, according to page views:

1. Lady GaGa announces SlotMusic release for album
2. GaGa smacks dancer in mouth, spills teeth
3. The official Lady GaGa halloween make-up
4. She's an Illuminati puppet, you know
5. GaGa tries to steal copyright from photographers
6. Lady Starlight: That's my shtick, that is
7. GaGa contact lenses 'bad for your eyes'
8. Mirror notices GaGa behaving 'oddly'
9. MTV News predicts GaGa suicide on-stage at Grammys
10. GaGa takes role at Polaroid, probably not in line with actual job title

These were this week's interesting releases:


Tune-Yards - Whokill

Download Whokill



Explosions In The Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

Download Take Care...



Bella Hardy - Songs Lost & Stolen

Download Songs Lost And Stolen



Guillemots - Walk The River

Download Walk The River



The Head And The Heart - The Head And The Heart

Download The Head And The Heart



Felt - Bubblegum Perfume

Download Bubblegum Perfume



Icicle Works - If You Want To Defeat Your Enemy, Sing His Song

Download If You Want To...