No Rock And Roll Fun: 13 May 2012

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Embed and breakfast man: Garbage

Last night, Garbage popped up on Jimmy Fallon. Look, NBC are sharing it with us:

[Buy: Not Your Kind Of People]

Old Jokes' Home

Perhaps he should be a bit more careful with them, then?

While we're on the subject of Sing, Gary Barlow's Official Diamond Jubilee Song, let's just take a quick look at it:

Don't bother hitting the play button, it's dreadful, obviously, and always seems to have an advert for Internet Explorer stuck at the front of it.

What's incredible is that Barlow has managed to turn out a crappy Christmas single that doesn't even have the saving grace of being near Christmas to generate goodwill.

And the video. Oh, lord, the video. At one point, there are angry black people running out the forest waving spears - but don't worry, because Barlow calms them down with his winning smile and mellow tune.

Perhaps Barlow misunderstood the brief, and thought he was celebrating Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, where that sort of portrayal of angry natives being taught how to be civilised by the white man was still - just about - in vogue.

When he's not setting ethnography back a century, Barlow falls back onto cliche - if this is Australia, we'll need a shot of the Opera House; even the opening shot of a slightly stiff Charles muttering with Barlow is what you'd expect.

And then there's the Barlow. For a song that's supposedly about how great the Queen is, it looks oddly like a video about how great Gary Barlow is.

In fact, he's touring the world, looking interested in what the locals are up, listening politely, sometimes joining in, in a good-natured way. Maybe Gary doesn't see himself as the Prince William of Take That. It looks a lot like Barlow sees himself as, if not actually being the Queen, at least as playing her role in the video.

Gordon in the morning: This is like That

We're knee-deep in the fawnathon for the Jubilee, and Gary Barlow is leading the fawning:

GARY Barlow has branded Prince Harry the “Robbie Williams of the Royal Family”.

I'm pretty certain that's treasonable, isn't it?

Oh, hang on, he means it as a compliment:

“Harry is the star of the Royal Family, he is the Robbie of the Royal Family.”

You can hear the unsaid here, as Barlow thinks "and I'm the William, the one who does all the work and gets overhsadowed by the gurning clown time after time... but I SHALL BE THE KING.. So, in your face, Harry/William."

Other members of Take That are, obviously, Prince Edward, I'm afraid.

Mark Ronson insists Village Voice misquoted him

Earlier this week, Village Voice had an interview with Mark Ronson. Obviously, they were more interested in Amy Winehouse than Ronson, and got this out of him:

"She was in a bad state, God knows why. I think that the Adele thing had Amy freaked out. She liked her, but Adele's success was making Amy feel upset, competitive, restless. Anyway, we lost touch briefly. And before she and I could really start the process of beginning a new album, it was too late."

Only, Ronson says, they never got that out of him, and simply made it up:

"Some journalist quoted me as saying Amy was "freaked out" by Adele's success," he added in his Facebook post. "I read the interview for the first time just now, and there are so many wrong quotes in there. I can tell the dude was writing whatever he wanted because he uses words and language that i never EVER f--king use in my daily life."

"At one point, he was grilling me about Amy to the point that I said that Amy was itching to get back in the studio, and the recent success of others that she had blazed a trail for had put the fire in her belly," recalled Ronson. "But that is absolutely it and all these other words are a complete affront to me, her, Adele and anyone who reads this sh-te."

To be fair to Ronson, comparing his genuine quote to the Village Voice one, the VV extract seems a little too coherent to be genuine.

It might hurt Ronson more to know that E!, from whom we picked up the quotes, seemed to think it interesting mostly because Ronson is related to Sam Ronson.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Morrissey and the elephants

Some unquestionably positive Morrissey news now, by way of change: His intervention has helped win an inspection to check Manilla Zoo's elephant, Mali, is being kept in conditions befitting.

Morrissey's letter to the President of the Philippines demanding justice for Mali got this response:

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said Wednesday, "We share the concerns expressed by animal advocates who have brought up the condition of the resident pachyderm. Rest assured, the responsible agencies will be swiftly implementing the order to ensure the welfare of Mali."

See? Morrissey can be a force for good when he puts his mind to it.

The President, Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, has warned that if The Smiths ever reform, he'll be making bloody sure that Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce are treated properly.

Morrissey invites fans to support him at the High Court

A date has been set for the Morrissey versus NME & Conor McNicholas court case, where Steven will claim that the NME altered quotes from him to make him look a little bit racist.

His website invites people to drop by:

In light of the NME's refusal to apologize to Morrissey for fabricating parts of their 2007 interview with him in order to make Morrissey appear to be racist, the High Court hearing of Morrissey -vs- Conor McNicholas and IPC/NME now has a set date of July 16, 17, 18 and 19. Anyone wishing to offer support to Morrissey should make their presence known outside the High Court in London on these dates.

What? Does he think he's Michael Jackson or something? Are people meant to take doves to set free if the verdict goes his way?

It's one thing for people to turn up to show their support, but actively seeking people to stand around outside with placards pledging "MORRISSEY ISN'T RACIST YOU'RE JUST APPLYING A SUPERFICIAL READING TO BENAGLI IN PLATFORMS AND THE NATIONAL FRONT DISCO" is a bit tacky, isn't it?

Especially since it doesn't seem like Morrissey will have much time to acknowledge the crowds:

These newly finalized dates clash with Morrissey concerts throughout Europe, and although no concerts will be cancelled, Morrissey will be required to fly in and fly out of London to attend each hearing on each day.

It's the week before the Olympics, I can't forsee any possible difficulty in whisking in and out of airports on a tight schedule.

If True To You is right, the NME's case is going to be interesting, as apparently they've offered to say sorry:

The NME recently offered to apologize to Morrissey by offering space on nme.com, but not within the printed magazine. This offer was rejected as disproportionate to the damage done to Morrissey by the NME magazine itself.

I think the apology would probably have been seen by more people if it was on nme.com, given the way sales are going, but it's a strange gambit - you're prepared to defend your statements in the High Court, but happy to apologise for them online. We'll find out their plan come July.

Handsome Furs come to an end

Handsome Furs are no more:

With a heavy heart the time has come to let all of you know that Handsome Furs are no more.

The most important thing that needs to be said right now is how extremely grateful we are to all the fans all over the world that showered us with love and support over the years. Thank you for everything! It's been an incredible 6 years and we owe it all to you.

xoxo

HF

And this is why you should shed a small tear:

Ivor Novello Awards 2012 agree with all the other awards

There's something charming about the Ivors, which come towards the end of the awards season and sometimes seem like a summary of all the other awards that have been given out thus far. Here are this year's totally unsurprising winners:

Album Award: PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

PRS for Most Performed Work: Adele – Rolling In The Deep

Best Song Musically and Lyrically: Ed Sheeran – The A Team

Outstanding Contribution to British Music Award: Take That

Best Contemporary Song: Lana Del Rey – Video Games

Original Film Score: Alex Heffes -The First Grader

Original Television Score: Martin Phipps – The Shadow Line

Songwriter Of The Year: Adele

Ivors Jazz Award: Stan Tracey

Ivors Inspiration Award: Siouxsie Sioux

Music Special International Award: Jimmy Webb

Outstanding Song Collection Award: Gary Kemp

Lifetime Achievement: Mark Knopfler

The prize for Gary Kemp does give me an excuse to mention the Guardian's piece on how the Spands wrote True, and the surprising detail that... well, it was written by Gary Kemp mainly to try and get off with Clare Grogan:

I met her on Top of the Pops and, at one point, travelled up to Scotland to have tea with her and her mum and dad. Although my feelings were unrequited and the relationship was platonic, it was enough to trigger a song, True, which became the name of our 1983 album, too.

True is about how difficult it is to be honest when you're trying to write a love song to someone. Hence: "Why do I find it hard to write the next line?" The lyrics are full of coded messages to Clare.

This kind of puts True on a par with my second year math exercise book. Although I didn't have a saxaphone solo in that.

Singerobit: Warda Aldjazairia

Warda Aldjazairia - the Algerian Rose - has died.

Warda was born in France to Algerian and Lebanese parents, and it was amongst the French Algerian community that she first found success, singing on Arabic radio stations.

In 1958, the Algerian War Of Independence made things difficult for the family, so they left Paris for Beirut.

She first visited Algeria in 1962, where she met a husband, and took a break from music for nearly a decade.

A move to Cairo coincided with a more serious attempt to build a career in music - she had a breakthrough with My Times Are Sweeter Than Yours - and it was in Egypt that she achieved her greatest success. Nasser saw her as a valuable icon in helping generate and promote a distinctive Arabic identity against Colonialism - it's claimed that he personally insisted Warda be invited to sing Watani Al-Akbar (My Great Homeland).

Through a long career, which also included five film roles, Warda remained popular in France, too - here she is performing in Paris in 1993:

Warda Aldjazairia was 72. She died on Thursday after what is being reported as a cardiac arrest.

Gordon in the morning: Man and woman leave restaurant after finishing meal

A slightly bemusing story - although, obviously, one every word of which has been double- and triple-checked for accuracy - as Gordon reports Kim Kardashian and Kanye West left a restuarant where Jay-Z was having a party:

A source said: “Jay expected Kay and Kim to mingle.

"But as soon as Kim whispered in Kanye’s ear, they left.”

To be honest, I think if Kim Kardashian came up to me talking, I'd leave wherever I was, too. Although I'd be alarmed if she followed.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Discobit: Donna Summer

TMZ is reporting the death of Donna Summer. According to their site, she died from cancer earlier today at the age of 63.

UPDATE: Obviously, there's a lot of love being shown for I Feel Love right now, but let's not overlook this track, surely, at least, its equal?

Rajars: Evans widens his gap over Moyles

Latest radio audience figures are out this morning, with the headline that Chris Evans now has a lead of two million plus over Chris Moyles at breakfast time.

Evans' value to Radio 2 is shown by his follow-on presenters also enjoying record audiences - both Ken Bruce and Jeremy Vine are getting more listeners than ever before.

It's arguable that Radio 1 might not be chasing the biggest breakfast show, and, as part of the remit that might be desirable. But, unarguably, the Moyles programme isn't designed to not strive to be the biggest. It's ten years since Chris Moyles claimed he could kick anyone's arse at breakfast; that's clearly no longer true. Hopefully the BBC are coming up with a way for him to make a dignified exit.

Gordon in the morning: Clubbable

I wonder how Gordon Smart managed to convince himself that people are ringing on Brad Pitt's door, asking him to play golf is a true story.

A source said:[...] “Neighbours have buzzed on their intercom and asked if Brad wants to play golf at a nearby course. They have even offered to lend him clubs in case he hasn’t got any.”

What neighbourhood does this actually happen in? Outside of the 1950s?

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

What do the BBC cuts mean for music?

So we've got some final answers about where the BBC cuts will fall, as the BBC Trust sign off the deal to balance the books after Rupert Murdoch's man in cabinet, Jeremy Hunt, issued a terrible licence fee settlement.

There's been most focus on the dropping of children's programmes from BBC 1 and 2, but there's a few details that might cause alarm to music fans.

First, the good news - Newsbeat is saved; or, at least, Radio 1 will only be sharing its news with 1Xtra; 6Music and Radio 2 will double-up their news coverage. And there's to be more music on the Asian Network (albeit offset by a drop in total broadcast hours); while BBC Four will get to make more music and arts programming part of its shift closer towards arts.

On the other hand, BBC Two will be making less arts and music - a drop of about an hour a week; and BBC Three will also be doing less music.

Radio 1 and 1Xtra are going to simulcast for two hours every night - it's unclear what that might mean for guitarry-type late night programming, but it seems more likely that the programming will be closer to 1Xtra than, say, the Punk programming.

The Radio 1 in the national regions opt-out is going to vanish, too - this was the programme that was originally The Evening Session In The Nations. It always felt, to be honest, a bit of an anomaly, but the various programmes were well-loved and were something of a feeder lane for bands to get sessions onto the network. The BBC Trust, though, looks on the bright side:

Although the restructure would mean losing the equivalent of four hours of airtime each week, it is likely that each new music track will be broadcast to a much larger audience
than currently (across the whole UK), and we take some assurance from the Executive's
commitment that the new programme is likely to have a higher proportion of first-play
new music each week (that is, relying less on music repeated from previous weeks), and
will seek to include artists from across the UK.

Hmm. Not entirely sure that's going to be very reassuring if you're a new act in Northern Ireland hoping for a start on Radio 1.

There's going to be changes to 1Xtra's live output:

We are also agreeing to changes to the balance of Radio 1Xtra‟s live output, so that it covers fewer, but higher impact, events. In approving this change we note that 1Xtra‟s live events expenditure will remain the same as now and 1Xtra will continue to put a strong emphasis on live music, as required by its service licence.

Radio 2 is going to do fewer live music programmes - In Concert will vanish as a stand-alone strand (presumably taking Jo Wylie with it), but there's still a promise that the network will pump out 260 hours of live music every year. "Many of these" promise the Trust "will not feature Keane." (Alright, they make no such pledge. I suspect nobody would believe it.)

Local Radio has had many of the threatened cuts rolled back, but there is still talk of an all-England evening programme. Which isn't, obviously, a local service at all. It's unclear what this might mean for local music programmes - elsewhere, the Trust offer their support to Introducing, but without suggesting when the local stations might get a chance to put bands on the air.

(Just in passing, Three Counties is going to be stopped from doing proper local breakfast shows, meaning people in Milton Keynes are going to hear a lot more about Hertfordshire than they give a flying hoof about.)

Finally, the number of video streams offered by Press Red is going to be cut right back - to just one at a time. In other words: the luxurious coverage of Reading and Glastonbury has just gone for a burton, and when there's sports on at the same time as a festival, you'll be bloody lucky to get anything at all.

None of these cuts, remember, would be necessary if it wasn't for a punitive licence fee settlement. The damage done by Jeremy Hunt will remain long after he's gone from public life.

White Heat dump Shrag

Shrag had been due to launch their single at Madame JoJos on June 5th. Had been. Not any more:

We're depressed to have to tell anyone that's interested that our single launch show on Tuesday 5th June at Madam JoJo's, which we were playing along with Evans the Death and Ace Bushy Striptease, has been cancelled, because the 'promoter' (White Heat) decided it was best to pull our show - with less than three weeks to go - for a bigger band who were suddenly available and who will probably make them more money. We'll hopefully be scheduling a new show in a month or so, watch this space.

The bigger band, in case you're wondering, is Chromatics.

You can understand why a promoter might grab the chance to take a slightly larger act in these difficult days, but it still feels like quite bad form.

Mick Jagger loves Boris Johnson

Given the way Mick Jagger got cross when people found out he was planning to meet David Cameron a few weeks back, he probably won't be thrilled at his fawning over the mayoral punchline, revealed in the Telegraph:

Sir Mick, whose hits include (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, retains his affection for Boris Johnson, though. “I got an email message from Sir Mick Jagger congratulating me on winning the mayoral race,” says Johnson. “It is not impossible that I could pay him back and offer to dance with him on stage.”

Hang about, though - the Stones famously arrange their tours to avoid having to pay too much tax in the UK. Isn't that the sort of aggressive tax "avoidance" that the Tories are supposed to be decrying?

String Cheese Incident outplays Ticketmaster

String Cheese Incident have a long history of battling Ticketmaster, having taken legal action against the company back in 2003 when the corporation tried to stop the band selling tickets direct to their fans.

That case had lead to a truce, but one which expired in 2009; now, once again, Ticketmaster is trying to force a claim that it has sole rights to sell tickets to events at some venues.

So what did The String Cheese Incident do?

They came up with an elegant workaround. The New York Times reports:

One Friday afternoon recently, about 50 fans and friends of the band String Cheese Incident took $20,000 in cash to the Greek Theater in Los Angeles to take a small stand against the system — in this case, Ticketmaster.

With money advanced by the band, each person had enough to buy eight tickets at $49.95 apiece for the group’s show in July. Once all tickets were in hand, almost 400 of them, they were carried back to String Cheese headquarters in Colorado and put on sale again through the group’s Web site — for $49.95.

Yes, the band are scalping their own tickets, at a loss. They're taking a hit, but making a rather elegant point in the process.

Huey and cry

Huey Morgan's snide twitterage aimed at Lauren Laverne was well-documented yesterday. Obviously, the gentle riposte from Laverne pointing out that, in effect, far from not programming her 6Music show, it's actually more that Morgan isn't trusted or thought capable of putting together a daytime show was a highlight, but this is the bit where Morgan really stepped over the line:

Fuck that shit. Kenickie? Please.

Really, Morgan? You're going there? Appealing that the Fun Loving Criminals somehow outranks Kenickie in terms of quality?

You're suggesting that, on some sort of scale in your head, Scooby Snacks is better than Punka?

Pfffft.

Gordon in the morning: I've seen the future in the tracks of your tears

To be fair, Gordon's got a pretty nice story this morning.

Mani's wife recalls something her husband once said:

She tweeted: “City’s win is all down to Mani.

"He predicted years ago that the Stone Roses would play again after City won the league! Nostradamus or what?”

Okay, it's copying something off Twitter, which is hardly going to win a Pulitzer, but it was a lovely spot.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

I collect, I reject: Michael Jackson's hair

Here's something for the person who has everything, but sense: The chance to buy Michael Jackson's hair, salvaged from the Pepsi advert shoot and up for auction:

Unaware that he was on fire Michael continued to perform until Executive Producer of the Pepsi commercial, Ralph Cohen, rushed to aid him. As seen in the infamous video, Cohen threw his Armani jacket over Jackson's head to help extinguish the flames.

Michael was taken to hospital only after reassuring the 3,000 strong audience that he was ok.

On removing his jacket Cohen found Michael's hair attached to the inside lining. The lot comprises strands of the hair retrieved by Cohen.

3,000 people watching a man film an advert for a fizzy drink - but only one got some hair. Apparently, which he kept.

The starting bid being sought for this is £100. Which might sound ridiculous, until you hear that Justin Beiber's hair is going for £20,000. Double what a flag signed by Castro and Guevara would cost you.

[via @stokesie

Bookmarks: Hip Hop history

The Oxford University Press blog picks 12 crucial moments in hip-hop dj history:

1984: Grandmixer D.ST Scratches at the Grammys

This was the scratch heard around the world. Although GrandWizzard Theodore and others had been scratching for the past several years, that distinctive sound had not yet become a familiar part of the musical soundscape. That changed in 1983 with the recording of “Rockit,” a track that paired jazz great Herbie Hancock with, among others, a young DJ known as GrandMixer D.ST. The sound of D.ST’s scratching — and especially the sight of him scratching on the telecast of the Grammy Awards ceremony in 1984 — inspired many to become DJs, including Mix Master Mike, Qbert, and Rob Swift.

Helping Shingoose

A couple of months back, Curtis 'Shingoose' Jonnie, native Canadian music pioneer, had a massive stroke.

Fellow Canadian musicians, though, are rallying round to help:

And come they will. Eagle & Hawk, Ray St. Germain, Mark Nabess, Dustin Harder, Jesse Green of Bruthers of Different Muthers and Don Amero have all signed up to play the fundraiser on May 26 at Winnipeg’s Pyramid Cabaret.

“Shingoose is a musical elder in our music community and it’s always been my belief to acknowledge those folks who have helped blaze the trail,” says Vince Fontaine, co-founder of the multi-award winning group Eagle & Hawk.

There's more about the Shingoose fundraiser at the Manitoba Music site.

Sony Radio Awards: Cotton on

Really, Radio Academy? With all the hours of radio programming, most of which is dedicated to music, you've decided that the gold standard of music broadcasting is Fearne Cotton? That is the pitch to which all other music broadcasters should be aiming?

In other prizes, Danny Baker won a broadcaster prize, which feels right and proper - although he's so far ahead of his peers, you do wonder if they should do a second gold betting without him. And a good night for Liverpool, with City FM and Juice FM picking up station of the year in their respective categories.

Those winners in full, then:

Breakfast Show of the Year (10 million plus) - KISS Breakfast with Rickie, Melvin and Charlie

Breakfast Show of the Year (under 10 million) - Real Radio Breakfast with Gary and Lisa

Best Music Programme - Fearne Cotton (Radio 1)

Best Specialist Music Programme - Dave Rodigan (Radio 2)

Best Entertainment Programme - Betty & Beryl (Radio Humberside)

Best Speech Programme - Stephen Nolan (Radio 5 Live)

Best Sports Programme - Keys and Gray (TalkSport)

Best News & Current Affairs Programme - 5 Live Drive

Best Breaking News Coverage - PM (Radio 4)

Best Live Event Coverage - Royal Wedding (World Service)

Best Community Programming - Face To Face (National Prison Radio)

Best Internet Programme - Science Weekly: Sounds of the Space Shuttle - An Acoustic Tribute (The Guardian)

Music Radio Personality of the Year - Chris Evans (Radio 2)

Music Broadcaster of the Year - Jools Holland (Radio 2)

Speech Radio Personality of the Year - Danny Baker (Radio 5 Live)

Speech Broadcaster of the Year - Victoria Derbyshire (Radio 5 Live)

News Journalist of the Year - Mike Thompson (Radio 4)

Best Interview - Eddie Mair interviews Julie Nicholson (Radio 4)

Station Programmer of the Year - Andy Roberts (Kiss)

Best Use of Branded Content - Danny Wallace's Naked Breakfast (XFM)

Best Single Promo/Commercial - Geoff Lloyd's Hometime Show - The Complaints (Absolute)

Best Promotional/Advertising Campaign - Wimbledon (Radio 2, Radio 5 Live & BBC Local Radio)

Best Competition - Two strangers and a wedding (106 JACKfm Oxfordshire and glide FM 107.9 Oxfordshire)

Best Station Imaging - 1Xtra

Best Music Feature/Special/Documentary - Feeling Good - The Nina Simone Story Part 1 (Radio 2)

Best News Feature/Special/Documentary - Child of Ardoyne (Radio 3)

Best Feature/Special/Documentary - Walking With The Wounded (Smooth)

Best Comedy - Mark Steel's In Town (Radio 4)

Best Drama - On It (Radio 4)

Best Use of Multiplatform/Social Media - Now Playing @ 6Music

Station of the Year (Under 300,000) - KL.FM

Station of the Year (300,000 - 1 million) - 107.6 Juice FM

Station of the Year (1 Million plus) - Radio City 96.7

UK Station of the Year - 6Music

Special Award - Classic FM

Gold Award - Nicholas Parsons

The official list, complete with production team names, can be found on the Radio Academy website.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Let me ease your tight shoes, E!

E! has a question:

Why Is Rihanna Naked With Scale-Covered Breasts?

I think I can help you out, there, E! It's for attention, and to help flog records and merchandise.

DAB: I don't feel Amazing now

Amazing Radio is going through something of a golden era - turning a profit, about to expand to America, everything's looking good.

Except it's coming off DAB transmissions.

Why?

Founder Paul Campbell points the finger at Digital One, who run the DAB system:

So why, if everything’s going so well, is Amazing Radio coming off digital radio in the UK? Why for a time at least, will it be broadcasting online and on mobile Apps only?

It’s not our preference. We would have loved to stay on the UK airwaves – it’s been a real privilege to be ‘six clicks to the left of Radio 1’. But we’ve got into a barney with the people who own the transmitter network. It’s about money. ‘Nuff said. The net result is that Amazing Radio will continue on wi-fi, but no longer on the wireless. For the moment, at any rate.

Given that, aside from the BBC, there's bugger all on DAB, it's bemusing to see the Multiplex owners chasing decent programming off their service. Almost as if they'd rather it just went away.

Mail fumes that Glitter gets gold

As part of its 1970s season, BBC Two re-repeated one of the 1977 Top Of The Pops that have been delighting BBC Four viewers since the start of the year. They chose one with Gary Glitter in - understandable, as nearly the rest of the year's selections to date have been Manhattan Transfer or Lynsey DePaul doing Rock Bottom forever.

The Daily Mail doesn't understand:

Convicted sex offender Gary Glitter stand to get paid thousands of pounds in royalties after the BBC aired a repeat of him performing on Top of the Pops in 1977.
Viewers were left outraged by TV chiefs' decision to rerun the BBC2 programme featuring the disgraced pop star, 68, on Saturday night.
Many expressed their disgust on social networking sites that Glitter, who has been convicted of possessing child porn and abusing two young girls, would receive money from the airing of the TV programme.

Oddly, though, they struggle to find "many", relying on a handful of tweets:

Kristian Carter ‏tweeted: 'Gary Glitter on TOTP. First line "Cuddle me close. Hold me tight." Awkward turtle.'

Another viewer Cath Elliot wrote: 'Gary Glitter on #totp77 is making my skin crawl.'

Neither of those quotes actually seem to have anything to say about the issue of Glitter earning royalties. In fact, the entire Mail thesis is based on one tweet:

RedLiverbirdLou wrote on Twitter: 'Why are BBC2 giving Gary Glitter airtime? They should be ashamed! I don't pay my licence to watch Peado's!'

Peados. Presumably some sort of hairstyle on a vegetable?

Well done, though, RedLiverbirdLou - your single Tweet has generated an entire Daily Mail article. Presumably her equally impassioned call for a vet to be sent for to help the meerkat on Planet Earth Live is going to result in a full-page piece in tomorrow's paper: "Viewers call for medical intervention as BBC watches creature die".

Gordon in the morning: Ringers

Alex and Matt from the Arctic Monkeys gave an interview in the US where they talked about doing an Oasis song at a school assembly - Gordon has taken this as "dressing up as Oasis" and created one of his fabulous Photoshop mock-ups (actually, this is probably one of the better ones).

He allows this eye-catching claim, though, to pass without comment:

[Alex] explained: “With Oasis, it’s just that attitude — it’s resistant against everything else that’s going on in music.

Oasis? "Resistant against everything else that's going on in music"? I must have been hiding from Ocean Colour Scene on the day that happened.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Going Blank Again again

Good news: to mark the 20th anniversary of Going Blank Again, Mark Gardener is going to do some dates.

Less good news:

Now Gardener has booked shows in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles in June and will play three cities — Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne — in Australia this August, with additional shows expected in Japan and Germany, according to his website.

Depending on where you are, that's less good news, I suppose.

Samsung have a plan

Samsung thinks it knows how to hurt Apple: it's bought mSpot, a not-quite-Spotify clone, with the idea of - naturally - killing iTunes.

There's a couple of problems with this. First, mSpot doesn't really hold a suite of rights that would currently make it a viable option, so bringing it up to standard is going to cost.

Secondly, Samsung is really only interested in selling tech, so why is it getting caught up running a music-streaming service at all? Nokia's nightmare with ComesWithMusic shows that it's a difficult path to take, and doesn't really seem to have much impact on the core business one way or another.

iTunes was vital to the success of the iPod; I'm not so sure that Apple would have bothered overmuch with creating it for the iPhone.

Bassobit: Donald Dunn

Donald "Duck" Dunn, bass player with Booker T and The MGs, has died.

Dunn's official site has this useful two-minute primer:

As with many of his generation, his work with his band is matched by some peerless session work. In fact, you'll recognise his bass in an instant, even if you never knew it was him:

Donald Dunn died in Tokyo earlier today; he was 70.