Hey, want to know how to destroy festival experiences a little bit more?

A PR message aimed at festival goers arrives digitally.

There is no doubt that experiencing the Stagecoach Country Music Festival is an extraordinary and memorable experience

The Turnpike Troubadours are on the bill, which - to be honest - gives me doubts. But do go on.

But, the driving and traffic can turn an amazing experience into an unforgettable hassle.

This is a California festival, so maybe they've got a point. Perhaps we should think about getting public transport? Are you a bus company?

Freeways getting out of LA and San Diego will always be congested on Friday afternoon and getting out of the festival area on Monday can back up the 10 Freeway for hours.

You're not going to suggest a bus, are you? Perhaps this will be about not being a twit and turning up just before the thing starts and leaving as soon as it's over?

The best option to ensure an overall amazing weekend is to...

Yes?

book a private jet to Stagecoach Festival.

Yeah, as if festival costs haven't already run out of control enough, you can burn through cash and the planet by chartering a plane to fly.

To a country music festival.

It's what Loretta would have wanted.

But hold on a minute... the festival doesn't take place at an airport, does it?

When you fly with Pacific Coast Jet, we land at Bermuda Dunes Airport, just minutes from Stagecoach Festival grounds.

Fifteen minutes. When there's no traffic.

We can also arrange ground transportation to conveniently deliver you right to your hotel or other accommodations.

Ground transportation. That kind of sounds like you'll be going on roads.

On Monday morning, we'll arrange pick up on your schedule and you'll fly right over the massive traffic jam on the freeway below.

The massive traffic jam which, somehow, you will have magically been able to get through in order to get to the airport.

Still, it's a useful warning: if you go to the Stagecoach Festival, you'll be rubbing shoulders with the sort of entitled dicks who try to buy their way out of traffic jams.

Everywhere PR is in chains

This is Chains, who are pretty good (it's Ben out of Ben and Jason, and Kate who once supported James Blunt but don't hold that against her):

However, they really need to sack their PR company, which has sent out a press release with, perhaps, the most ungainly line in it ever written:

Ben's ears met Kate's larynx across a crowded recording studio in October 2006.

Really? How many redraftings did that line survive?

In other PR news, was delighted this morning to find an email addressed to someone else with a lot of detail about what this PR would do for this other person, followed by another - five hours later - asking me to ignore the earlier email because they'd intended to send out a totally different one.

The PR company in question? Effective Immediately. Although taking five hours to notice you've sent the wrong email to the wrong person suggests they're neither particularly effective, nor especially immediate.

PRobit: Norman Winter

Norman Winter, former head of Press for MCA/Universal and the PR to Michael Jackson, has died.

Winter was doing the press for Jackson at the time of Thriller, which would be enough for a career in itself; but his client list just rolls on and on:

Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Janet Jackson, Queen, Rick James, Barry White, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Who, AC/DC, Steppenwolf, Meatloaf, Johnny Rivers, the Jefferson Airplane's Marty Balin, Christopher Cross, Bobby Ross Avila, Donny Osmond, Garth Brooks, Herb Alpert, Paul Anka, Phil Ramone, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Bootsy Collins, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Brian McKnight, Outkast, Usher, Jimmy Cliff, Steve Martin, Joan Collins, Arsenio Hall, Morris Day and gospel luminaries Jennifer Knapp and Deniece Williams.

And that's before you get to the rap artists.

Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Babyface and Bangin' On Wax (the Bloods & Crips collaboration), Domino, Bone Thugs - N - Harmony and Eddie Griffin.

And the Latin artists.

Emmanuel, Lucia Mendez, Chichi Peralta, Renegade, Luis Cardenas and the Golden Eagle Awards

I've lifted those client lists from Billboard; it's worth noting that Billboard merely cut and pasted a big chunk of them direct from Winter's own website.

That website also recalls the time Winter introduced Elton John to the US:

A real London bus. Whoever would have thought?

Norman Winter died from complications related to Lewy Body dementia on Thursday, 22nd August.

Gordon in the morning: Gordon in the courtroom

A worried Gordon brings news this morning that someone has apparently threatened to reveal secrets about Tamara Ecclestone. You know how much The Sun, and the Bizarre team in particular, hate the idea of someone's privacy being invaded.

Which reminds me: Gordon's name came up once or twice in the Leveson enquiry into the press yesterday. Unusually for Gordon, who likes a story that he can place himself in, the tale doesn't get a mention in today's column.

There's not even the chance of a mock-up image of how Gordon and Justice Leveson might look if they came together to thrash things out:

Yesterday, Chris Atkins appeared at the enquiry. He made the movie Starsuckers, which set out to prove that certain newspapers would print any old rubbish without a care for the truth of it. I know it's hard to believe Smart's name would come up in this context, but it did. From the Guardian's live blog:

One of the stories that Atkins and his collaborator Jen got into the papers was about a Girls Aloud singer.

"Sarah Harding was secretly a fan of quantum physics".

It ran as a lead story in Gordon Smart's Bizarre column in the Sun complete with a fake quote.

The Sun objects to this and have asked the Leveson inquiry to challenge it. It says it rang Sarah Harding's PR who gave them the quote.

Atkins says he finds this "a remarkable coincidence" as the Sun did not challenge this claim about the fake quote since the movies came out two years ago.

You've also got to love a response which quibbles over how made-up the quote was while not actually engaging with the wider question of how a totally bollock-stuffed story appeared in Smart's column in the first place.

Chris Atkins does point out that running rubbish doesn't actually stand in the way of being celebrated by your peers:

Gordon Smart was, after our film, voted the number one celebrity journalist of the year and second was Clemmie Moodie of the Mirror and both of them ran our stories.

There's your angle, Gordon: "Judge hears of Sun man's awards success". It's not all grim news for The Sun in the courtroom, is it?

By the way: the original of that photo is worth a look.

Gennaro Castaldo Watch: He's the anti-Tony Hayward

Marketing Week takes Tony Hayward and BP to task - not, of course, for letting acres of oil swoosh into the oceans and killing birds and fish and people, but for the far worse crime of not being that good at handling the PR.

Where, though, will Marketing Week turn for an example of how it should be done? Who is the king of the well-managed PR campaign?

Step forward Gennaro Castaldo, HMV's head of on-off record briefings:

The challenges facing PR are increasing for brands across all sectors, says Gennaro Castaldo, head of press and PR at HMV. “There are so many channels now, particularly online and via social media, beyond the control of companies or their marketers.”

Oh, yes. People actually having conversations about companies without the company controlling them. Horrific, isn't it?

Gennaro turns his sad emoticon upside-down, though:

PR executed well can result in positive branded conversations on news, blogs and social media sites, adds Castaldo. “Just as new channels present new challenges, the accompanying opportunities are also getting bigger.”

You'll have noticed that Gennaro has seized this opportunity by - despite not actually saying anything at all - getting his company mentioned in Marketing Week with the impression that they're good at new media.

Mind you, HMV is quite good at old media - witness a just-this-side-of-fawning full page on HMV's Simon Fox, filling an entire page of this week's MediaGuardian.

How did HMV get a sledge of prime coverage about a shopkeeper in a media supplement? Great PR people, pure and simple. Nothing to do with Fox being a non-executive director of The Guardian, that's for sure.

(To be fair to MediaGuardian, they do refer to his job with them in the piece. But it'll be interesting to see how many other entertainment stores - the ones without shared executives - get to enthuse over their digital strategies at length in their pages in the coming weeks.)

Beyond phonograms

Where would you find someone with a heart so black they'd take on the task of trying to rebuild the image of gush-vandals BP?

Round the back of the RIAA, it turns out:

For an encore, Ms. Rosen, in her capacity as a managing partner of the London PR firm Brunswick Group, has been hired by BP to put a pretty face on the oil spill in the Gulf. Rosen is in the familiar company of log-rollers: BP has also hired 27 lobbyists who formerly worked in Congress or the executive branch.

Given the work Rosen did promoting knowledge and awareness of filesharing and easy ways to obtain unlicensed music, this can only be good news for manufacturers of wind turbines and solar panels.

Oh, dear: Emii

If you really wanted to create a poorly-targeted, toe-curling PR message, throwing this sentence in is going to help:

Coming off a major splash at Sundance where guests such as Katie Holmes, Elijah Wood, Adam Brody and Mark Ruffalo were in awe of her performance, Emii will be releasing her debut single, “Magic” via iTunes on April 6th.

Emii? That's perhaps the worst name in the history of recorded music, apart from late 90s rap act Sonyi-BMGi.

In case you want to know what excited Katie Holmes, Emii is, we're told:

the latest rockin pop female on the scene

And what does she have to offer?

With her stunning looks, sexy and charming personality, Emii is dazzling everyone she meets!

Sexy and charming. That's quite the full package.

And the music?

“Magic” is a fun, sexy song that begs the timeless question: “Is he the right one for me?”

Begging the question is a phrase which trips up the best writers, but here it's not only tripped the writer up, but pushed them down the stairs and hit them with a tyre-iron. I think they mean "asks".

In short, Emii is Avril Lavigne's older sister, and aimed pretty squarely at the market which thinks that getting a tattoo somehow makes you an outlaw.

Axl Rose issues dull statement denying issuing earlier dull statement

I admit it. I snickered a little at the Axl Rose statement about nothing much happening at LAX airport.

Now, though, Axl is even more angry than he says he wasn't, issuing a statement which says he never issued any statement:

"Axl Rose denies releasing press statement regarding rumored LAX incident," read the new statement on the band's official MySpace blog. "I did not release any statement or authorize either any statement or anyone to release a statement regarding anything at any airport anywhere," Rose explained, apparently referring to a statement issued on Thursday by a Los Angeles-based publicity firm that blamed the LAX scuffle on an "unruly group of paparazzi." A spokesperson for that firm could not be reached for comment at press time, and though the original statement is still on the band's MySpace, the name of the firm has been removed from it.

"We had recently began working with newer individuals in management in relation to our current Asian tour in support of our Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy in addition to [manager] Irving Azoff's though as it happens we are once again touring Asia without management of any kind," the new blog entry says. "Imo this nonsense may be some type of manufactured or publicity stunt."

We're expecting a press conference around 3pm EDT on Wednesday when Axl Rose announces his sudden discovery that nobody actually gives a hoot about any of this. He's due to appear on Letterman shortly after Christmas plugging his new book 'Does All Of This Make Me Seem Ever More Faintly Ridiculous?'

Norma Desmond is 72.

Strange ways to sell your band

An odd PR email, promoting The Sun (the band of the same name, not the newspaper). It's full of the sorts of things you'd expect - they're releasing a free album, which we'll come to in just a moment - but the subject line is surprising:

Ex Warner Bros Band "The Sun" Release Free Album

I'm guessing that the idea is to try and make it clear that this is a band who have impressed enough people in the industry to get some investment and support, but instead it makes them sound like the most interesting thing about them is that they've been dropped.

Still, while we're here, there's two songs designed to suck you in: So Long Sundays and In Perfect Time. If those delight you, Rock Proper have got the whole lot for you to download and muck about with.

Beatles industry reports sighting of some fools still with money; plots separation operation

As if the disappointing sales of the CDs and the underwhelming performance of the computer game wasn't enough, the Beatles industry intends to carry on churning out overwrought, unnecessary stuff:

The Beatles Box Of Vision® is the deluxe companion to the newly re-mastered Beatles CDs, and will be available as the ultimate Beatles gift in the UK and Europe this Christmas from www.[a website].com and www.[a website].com, plus select retailers.

"Select retailers" - I suspect self-selecting, as most, surely, would have declined this package:

Officially licensed by The Beatles’ Apple Corps Ltd., the stunning collection, previously only available in North America, includes the following Beatles’ collectible content: The first book in the box is the LP Sized Album Artwork Book includes 200 pages of the Beatles’ LP artwork – the first time all the Beatles’ UK and US album artwork has been collected together in one LP sized book. The Album Artwork book includes front and back covers, gatefolds, inserts and the complete LP booklets from Magical Mystery Tour and many more.

The second book, ‘The Catalography’, is an extensive, all-new, full-colour guide jam-packed with photos, text and track-listings providing the first-ever side-by-side presentation of the U.K. albums and their U.S. counterparts.

The third book is entitled the ‘The Box of Vision Storage Book’ – a highly collectible, unique and stylish way for Beatles fans to organize and display all 32 discs of The Beatles’ core catalog. Beatles fans will have the opportunity to insert CDs and booklets from their existing Beatles collections or the recently released digitally re-mastered versions.

So, it's a book you put the CDs in (or, rather, "have the opportunity" to put the CDs in), and then stick the booklets and artwork in, alongside another book which collects all the artwork and booklets in it.

Ideal for fans, collectors and Christmas gift giving, all three Beatles books are housed in an elegant black, linen-covered box with silver embossed Beatles logos and faux Beatles LP spines.

I love the way "Christmas gift giving" implies that this box is the sort of thing you could give to someone who falls neither into 'fans' or 'collectors' nevertheless.

Microsoft does something with bands and wristbands

The XBox - which young people tell me is a bit like a Binatone TV game, only the gun costs extra - is about to.... um...

Xbox Unites Music Lovers With The Hottest Bands To Create a Nationwide Gig Tour With a Difference

Yes, that's what they're doing. They're bringing together music lovers with hot bands. Although if the band didn't already have fans, they wouldn't be that hot, would they?

Anyway, it's a "nationwide gig tour" - 'gig' is a word used by musicians to mean concert, you know - but it has a difference.

Xbox launches Xbox Reverb - a series of gigs that get the fans and the bands talking

At last! Those two factions have been at war for years. It's about time... oh, hang on: you said 'fans' and 'bands'? I misread that at first as 'Israelis' and 'Palestinians'. You might want to just make it a bit clearer that this is what you're talking about.

Thousands of music lovers around the UK will get the chance to help put on the gig of their dreams, as Xbox unveils a major new music initiative that gets the fans and the bands talking.

That's 'fans' and 'bands', right?

The gig of their dreams, huh? Now, nobody's going to be all silly and say "I'd really like to see The Beatles with John and Ringo bought back to life", are they? It's got to be plausible. I'm dreaming already - Ride, Sonic Youth and the Sugargliders. That'd be a set and a half. How do I make this happen?

Xbox Reverb, officially launched in London tonight with a gig featuring exclusive sets from Calvin Harris and Magistrates, will enable fans to collaborate with a selection of the UK’s hottest live acts to co-curate a series of gigs, tailor made by the Xbox Reverb community and the artists themselves.

Oh. So, it's the gig of my dreams, providing my dream involves Calvin Harris and Magistrates? Or other bands chosen by Microsoft?

Where do my dreams actually come in?

Upon signing up to the Reverb Facebook and Twitter groups, fans will be invited to provide their own personal input and suggestions into how the gigs should look and feel based on criteria set by the bands and by the Xbox Reverb team.

I don't want to sound like I'm Mussolini or someone, but if I'm getting the gig of my dreams, and I can't choose the bands, I'd at least hope that I get to shape things a bit more than merely working within "criteria set by the bands" and the people who bring you Excel Spreadsheets.

This feedback, which could include everything from deciding the set list to designing the flyer of the gig, choosing the support act and much more, will then be thrown open to the bands themselves and the most popular suggestions put forward.

Designing the flier, eh? That's certainly a way to save a few quid on the event by not having to pay a proper designer. How about also suggesting that fans get a unique chance to stand behind the bar decanting drinks and taking money from other fans, putting it in a till and cashing-up at the end of the night as well?

Let's be clear, though: The bands make the final choices. By which they mean the PR company working for Microsoft and the band's management.

The result will see a series of DIY gigs taking place around the UK from the end of September with a number of lucky winners being given the chance to attend the events themselves.

A series of DIY gigs, albeit one put on by one of the largest corporations in the world. And it's nice to see that some "lucky" winners will get the chance to, erm, go to a gig that supposedly has been designed by the community.

The first three gigs have already been announced and will see rockers Danananakroyd taking to the stage in Birmingham on September 29th, before Pulled Apart by Horses pull Leeds apart on October 5th with Esser to play an exclusive gig in December.

On the 29th? So there's less than a week for this crowd-sourcing to take place, is there? That's probably going to rule out too much in the way of surprises.

At the events, Xbox will also be giving out Reverb Passes...

Wow. That sounds nothing at all like the sort of thing you used to cut out from the back of a cereal packet.

...exclusive interactive wristbands to everyone who wants one...

One for everyone who wants one. The sort of exclusivity that money simply can't buy.

giving guests the chance to post live tweets, comments and status updates throughout the night automatically by simply swiping their Reverb Passes on Touchpoints planted around the venues.

God, imagine that. A special, exclusive wristband that everyone has which allows them to do something they couldn't otherwise do. Unless they had a mobile phone made some time in the last ten years on them.

Commenting on the campaign, Alex Weller, Brand Experience Manager, Xbox 360 said...

If ever a job needed the Mitchell And Webb Old Lady's Job Justification Panel running over it, "brand experience manager" would be right up there.

We’re really excited to be able hand over the reigns of these events to communities of music fans, giving them the chance to curate their own gigs with their favourite bands. The response to the Facebook and Twitter groups has been fantastic meaning we’re already seeing a community of people who, just like Xbox, are passionate about great music experiences and enjoying great social experiences together.

XBox - which, you'll recall, is a lump of plastic and some electronics - turns out to "enjoy great social experiences". Who knew? I think I once saw a Sega Saturn at a Glee Club, and my Uncle swears he dated a Atari for a couple of months back in the day, but I never knew that the XBox was so outgoing.

Gennaro Castaldo Watch: Floor manager

Radio Active used to show its contempt for angry listener's letters by passing them to their Head Of Carpets to deal with. But surely only a made-up radio station would even have someone in the role of head of carpets, right?

Maybe not, for what is this we find in a press release for Amtico Flooring, pushing their Spacia Access range?

Gennaro Castaldo, head of press and PR for HMV said “We have used Amtico International products in a number of our 260 stores around the country. We're pleased with the results and feel that the functionality and maintenance of the flooring meets the practical and aesthetic needs of our stores. We were particularly impressed with the speed of installation, which was finished in just four weeks, with the Spacia Access flooring taking only a week to complete. ”

The Beatles, video games, hard-wearing coverings for heavy-traffic public areas? Is there nothing Gennaro cannot bring his expert eye to shine upon?

Leaking: you're doing it wrong

An email plops into our inbox:

first Dead Man's Bones leaked track

Hey- here is the first leaked song from Dead Man's Bones called "My Body's a Zombie For You". The record comes Oct 6 on Anti.

*link*

Feel free to post/share

If you've got your PR team sending the track out by email, it's not actually a leak, is it?

Paul Oakenfold: Unstoppable PR

A press release slips into the inbox:

Paul Oakenfold Beats Michael Jackson to the #1 Spot on itunes This Week.

Bloody hell - that's quite good. I mean, Oakenfold at number one iTunes at all is amazing, never mind beating Jackson to it.

That's pretty impressive. I mean, it's almost unbelievable.

Amazingly enough, pre-digital sales of the album beat the late and legendary Michael Jackson to the #1 spot on iTunes’ dance chart.

Oh. That would be slightly different, then, wouldn't it?

Wearing it well

A PR email drifts gently through the ether offering a chance to:

... become part of rock history!

How, though? How?

Tell me, for I must know:

[The company] celebrates Debbie Harry's birthday and offers 10% off all her T-shirts throughout the first two weeks of July. The talented and beautiful Debbie Harry celebrates her birthday today and [the company] is the perfect way to become part of rock history!

So... I'm going to become part of rock history, am I? By wearing a tshirt?

I'm wearing denim jeans this morning, by which reckoning I'm actually French.

Glastonbury 2009: Unlikely press releases of our time

Never mind the Jackson tributes, this year's Glastonbury is about the inward investment. According to Into Somerset:

One of the big hits at this weekend’s Glastonbury Festival will not only be its headlining acts – but Somerset itself.

Inward investment organisation Into Somerset says that every year, many of the 180,000 festival-goers have such a great time at Glastonbury that they look to move to Somerset permanently.

Interim CEO Rupert Cox says, “The festival is the catalyst for many of Somerset’s creative businesses. Musicians, artists, actors, designers and many more creatives enjoy Glastonbury so much, that they move here to start their own businesses and capture that unique creative spirit every day of the year.

“I have no doubt that many of the crowd cheering The Boss will, in future, be bosses of their own creative businesses in Somerset.”

Yes. They're right. Indeed, I was so impressed the last time I went to Glastonbury with how well people selling dubious-looking cider in old chemical bottles did, I moved to Somerset and invested heavily in apples and plastic containers. Three bloody months I sat in a lay-by, and I didn't have a single sale. And that was in the run-up to Christmas.

Gordon in the morning: Simply unacceptable

Gordon has one of his odd outbreaks of outrage this morning, angered by a PR company trying to cash in on Danielle Lloyd being attacked in a nightclub:

In a Press release issued yesterday the firm tried to cash in on Danielle and her boyfriend, Spurs star JAMIE O’HARA, leaving the Wellington Hospital in North London.

Their note said: “Poor Danielle Lloyd. After being battered in a nightclub, Danielle can now rest up in the comfort of her Franklin Marshall hoodie.

“Franklin & Marshall is the ultimate in understated American college-inspired casual wear — the perfect recipe for Danielle’s recovery. Why not double up and get an identical tracksuit for your boyfriend a la Danielle and top Tottenham player Jamie O’Hara? Get well soon Danielle.”

Unbelievable.

I rang the firm yesterday and put it to them that this was in the worst possible taste.

Well, yes, it is pretty tacky. Although it would take a pretty nifty ethicist to explain why it is wrong to sell clothes off the back of someone being beaten up, while selling tabloid newspapers and advertising around webpages based on the same horrible event would be legitimate.

What's even odder is that Smart is so outraged, he not only runs the press release in full, but splashes large photos of the couple wearing the Franklin & Marshall gear over the front of the Bizarre website and across his pages in The Sun. Acres and acres of free advertising - that'll show 'em, Gordon.

Chris Brown: Turn your apology into a cash-cow

An eyecatching headline from the New York Daily News, eager to continue running the Rihanna-Brown story round the block some more:

Experts tell Chris Brown to sing 'sorry' song for Rihanna to save career

Experts? What experts?

Davia Temin, CEO of Temin and Co.

Ah, yes. There are people who are even more unsavoury than domestic abusers; those who would turn up and try and promote their PR company on the back of a woman being beaten up in a car park.

Given that Davia Temin thinks that offering unsolicited advice to an accused abuser is a neat-o way to promote her business, you might want to approach the rest of her advice with caution. Oh, and a pair of domestic-strength rubber gloves. And an Olympic-sized bargepole:

"Come up with a soulful song about what happened," said Davia Temin, CEO of Temin and Co. "I would use my fame to say, 'Look we are all human and make terrible mistakes.'"

We are all human, aren't we? We have all made mistakes. I'm just not sure that releasing a single about contrition - thereby turning your supposed guilt into a consumer item - isn't just adding to the long lists of terrible mistakes you've made?

Remember: this is a violent attack that left a woman badly beaten. And Davia Temin is suggesting you release a love song about it.

The idea, said Temin, "is to embrace the thing that hurt you the most and turn it into something positive."

Did Temin spend any time - any time at all - reading about domestic violence before she came up with this stuff?

If Brown "were a company," said Temin, "I would say, 'Start a foundation on nonviolent resolution to family squabbles.'"

If he was a dog, I would suggest he starts to help fish children out of wells. If Brown was a machine, retooling to make warning signs and protective clothing.

Seriously, Temin? You think that Brown setting up an organisation which plays to his all-too-public weaknesses would be the way to go? Sure, Betty Ford did well with her Clinic, but she did at least have the grace to dry herself out before offering herself up as some kind of expert at kicking addiction.

Brown, who is just 19, sings for a living, and he needs to understand that "coming back is possible," she said.

"You can come back from pretty much anything," said Temin. "Our country loves people who come back from the brink."

Yeah. Look at the way OJ was able to put that whole stabbing his wife and her lover thing to death behind him.

"The first thing he has to do is apologize again, sincerely," Temin said. "He needs to say, 'Look, I am so sorry any of this happened, that's not who I want to be. I take my role as a role model very seriously.'"

Chris Brown doesn't have a role as a role model. He's a man who appears to have beaten his girlfriend to a bloody pulp.

Is there anyone with a bit more understanding of the situation who might have some insight?

Marilyn Puder-York, a psychologist

Ah, a psychologist. Puder-York might have something a bit more worthwhile to say on the subject than a PR person.

"The fact that she [Rihanna] is standing by his side is significant," she said. "That she went back to him takes him off the hook a little."

Seriously? You're a psychologist, and your thought is that Rihanna going back is good for him, rather than bad for her?

Puder-York quickly added, "It does not excuse what happened."

"But for the public, it raises the question, 'Who am I to condemn him if the person he is accused of victimizing is not condemning him?'" she said.

You don't think the public might be more likely to think "why do so many women go back to the people who abuse them?"

Still, at least this is just a space-filling article in a newsletter. No real PR company would try and spin domestic violence into a career-saving publicity campaign, would they?

His handlers have denied a Chicago Sun-Times report that they have launched a career-saving campaign dubbed "Project Mea Culpa."

PRobit: Rob Partridge

The death has been announced of Rob Partridge, music PR.

Partridge started out writing for Music Week and the Melody Maker in the 1970s, before jumping the divide to work in PR. He started at Island in 1977, moving swiftly from head of press to a seat on the board, working to build the careers of - amongst others - Bob Marley, Kid Creole and U2. When he left to go solo in 1990, he took the press handling of the Marley estate with him to Partridge & Storey, and continued to represent the estate until 1997.

His original partner in Partridge & Storey - which became Coalition on moving offices. Neil Storey left the company in 1996 and in 1999, the organisation branched out into management.

Rob Partridge, who was 60, is survived by his wife. He had been ill with cancer for some time.

[UPDATED with corrections to Partridge & Storey section, 27-11-08]

Bittorrent not keen on all sharing

Valleywag's story that Bittorrent was laying of twelve staff proved to be slightly flawed - there was a last-minute decision to save some of the employees. The original generated a huffy official statement, but also a surprising request from Bittorrent's PR person Lily Lin, who tried to persuade Valleywag to offer up the name of the original anonymous tipster who told them about the job losses.

"Any chance?" begged Lin, alongside the sort of threat that even Slartybartfast would have thought a bit weak - "I've heard rumblings of legal implications".