NME: How are those repeated Noel Gallagher covers and list issues working out for you?

More grim news in the latest ABC magazine circulation figures for NME, I'm afraid, as circulation continues to trickle away. They're down to 27,650 copies per issue for the second half of 2011. That's down from 29,020 in the first half of the year and a plunge from 32,166 for the same period in 2010.

On the bright side, the rate of decline is slowing.

Gordon in the morning: Oh, Jesus

Gordon's page leads off today with some unspeakable grot by Emily Nash:

WHITNEY Houston eerily told pals she felt her "time was coming" and spoke of "seeing Jesus" in the hours before her death, it emerged last night.

Although this is the part of a long churn through the casket that leads the story and provides the headline, it's incredibly vague:

Last Friday — the day before she was found slumped in the bath of her Los Angeles hotel suite — she told one friend: "I'm gonna go see Jesus. I want to see Jesus."

And on Saturday, with her death hours away, she reportedly said: "You know, he's so cool. I really want to see that Jesus."

There's no indication of who these "friends" are.

Ah, but hang on a moment - we can turn to Sun editor Dominic Mohan to help here, can't we? In the face of suggestions that his paper constantly invades the privacy of others and makes up "pals" to cover their tracks, Mohan had a simpler explanation at the Leveson enquiry:

He asks about the phrase "pals say". Mohan says that phrase is an attempt to disguise the source of a story which will sometimes have come from the subject.

That must be it. Of course, I'm not implying that Emily Nash and Gordon Smart are running stories given to them by the Late Whitney Houston from beyond the grave - that would be ridiculous. No, clearly, it's the other figure in this story who must have leaked to the paper. This "Jesus" guy. It's the only explanation, right?

Unless it's a load of made-up bollocks that is just being flung into the paper to fill the dwindling days.

Adele steals record from Whitney

As if it wasn't bad enough that Adele turned up at the Grammys to scoop up buckets of prizes on a night when everyone was supposed to be being serious-faced about Whitney Houston, she's also managed to equal Whitney's record of most weeks at number one in the US album chart. It's like she doesn't care.

Celine Dion makes Houston's death about her

Celine Dion, worried that perhaps Whitney Houston had been hogging the limelight with her death, has attempted to remind people of her existence with a heartfelt wailing:

"It's just very unfortunate that drugs and -- I don't know -- bad people, or bad influences took over," she said during the phone interview. "It took over her dreams, it took over love and motherhood."

"Taking pills to go perform and taking pills to wake up and taking pills to go to bed. It's so unfortunate," she said. "There's something that happens that I don't understand, and that's why I'm so scared. I'm scared of show business. I'm scared of drugs. I'm scared of hanging out. That's why I don't do parties and I don't hang out. That's why I'm not part of show business. Because we have to be afraid."

"I've always said you have to have fun and do music and you can never be part of show business because you don't know what it's going to get yourself into," Dion added. "You have to do your work and get out of there."

Celine Dion was talking about how she's so scared of being forced-fed drugs and made to dance like a dervish that she keeps well away from show business during, erm, an appearance on light-news show Good Morning America.

Because there's no better way to remain aloof from showbiz than turning up on a showbiz programme to talk about dead celebrity.

Is MySpace on the way back? Up to a point

There's a lot of excitement about the supposed one million new users since December MySpace is trumpeting.

So, is it on the way back?

Hmm. Kind-of.

First, these "million new users" are actually new account registrations, mainly driven through people signing up through Facebook. It's plausible some (most? all?) are actually people with existing, lapsed accounts for whom creating a fresh MySpace log-in is preferable to trying to remember old passwords.

Second, they're signing up to use the music player via Facebook. That doesn't mean they're not engaging with MySpace, but the product they're using is something different from the old MySpace. Not a problem for the new owners, but 'new service signs up users' isn't quite the same as the 'MySpace comes back' angle we're being fed.

Third: 'registered new users' is an interesting choice of metric. Not even the number of users, or active users: people could still be flowing away, or launching a new account, using it once and moving on.

Finally, a lot of users could be a problem rather than a blessing. If people engage with that free-to-user, expensive-to-company music through a box on a page around which Facebook are selling highly targeted adverts, there's going to be a problem making ends meet.

Still, that's all for the future: for now, something with the same name as a defunct social network finally has a positive figure to announce. Let's hit the Like button. Did MySpace have a Like button?

Gordon in the morning: Modern Olympians

Presumably as a tribute to the first time London hosted the Olympics, it looks like the organisers are block booking acts who were around in 1908. Seriously, it's all about Ronnie Wood, Gordon reveals:

RONNIE Wood could be at the Olympic site more often than Sir Chris Hoy this summer.

The Rolling Stones guitarist has been asked to perform at both the opening and closing ceremonies – in different bands.

Ronnie said: "We've got more meetings, everyone wants to do it.

"I've been asked to do the opening ceremony with the Stones and close the games with The Faces.

Really? The Stones and The Faces? Are they also planning to measure the running events in yards?

By the way: the front page of The Sun today has a full-sheet picture of the "bath that Whitney Houston died in". For a paper that is trying to argue that it shouldn't just be closed down and forgotten, it's doing an excellent job of offering ammunition to the other side.

Whitney's dead? Party on

During the BBC News coverage of Whitney's death, I turned to Shawndra and said "the way this report is written, it makes it sounds like Clive Davis continued with his party after Whitney's body had been discovered".

Turns out that wasn't sloppy reporting. He actually did carry on munching canapes and slurping champagne four floors before where Houston had been found. Chaka Khan finds that a little ghoulish, too:

Appearing on Cnn show Piers Morgan Tonight on Monday (13Feb12), she said, "I thought that was complete insanity. Knowing Whitney, I don't believe she would have said, 'The show must go on'. She was the kind of woman that would have said, 'Stop everything... I'm not gonna be there.'

"I don't know what could motivate a person to have a party in a building where the person whose life he had influenced so enormously (had died)... I don't understand how that party went on.

"It would have been alright if it really was a true tribute... Call everybody together, let's say a prayer and eat dinner and go home."

Presumably Davis was worried that he wouldn't get his room rental fee back if he cancelled so late.

Elsewhere on CNN, Nancy Grace was desperate to talk-up the death into a murder:

The HLN host was speaking to CNN's Brooke Baldwin [...]
Grace appeared before the police's press conference. But she seemed to sense that some kind of foul play was afoot. Speaking about the prescription drugs found in Houston's hotel room, she wondered "who if anyone put it in her system or gave it to her?" Then, she went further.

"I'd like to know who was around her, who, if anyone gave her drugs...and who let her slip, or pushed her, underneath that water?" she said. "Apparently, no signs of force or trauma to the body. Who let Whitney Houston go under her water?"

"Might it have been one person, might it have been multiple people, all excellent questions," Baldwin said. "Again, we don't know the cause of her death."

Yes, it's an "excellent question" and in no way morbid-corpse-wanking to decide on absolutely no evidence that there must have been a circle of people surrounding the bath, murdering Houston by the well-known criminal method of "letting someone go under the water without touching them".

Apparently there are no signs that Nancy Grace uses force to get on air on a once-proud station that used to cover actually news rather than making shit up. Who lets Nancy Grace go out on the air? Might be one person, might be multiple people. All excellent questions.

Gordon in the morning: Giggling at the bereaved

How awful it must be for the friends and relatives of Whitney Houston, suffering from not just the weight of their loss, but also worrying about her daughter, Bobbi. Bobbi's father, Bobby Brown, has flown to be with his daughter as she remains in hospital, apparently under suicide watch.

So why does Gordon think it's time for 'witty' puns?

Presumably they'd had a "Brown bread" headline ready to roll if the worst happened.

Sony Music: Shaking the corpse for coins

The charming people at Sony Records reacted to the news of the death of Whitney Houston in the only way they knew how. By jacking up the price of her records. The Guardian reports:

The music giant is understood to have lifted the wholesale price of Houston's greatest hits album, The Ultimate Collection, at about 4am California time on Sunday. This meant that the iTunes retail price of the album automatically increased from £4.99 to £7.99.

Cynical? No no, says a Sony Insider, talking from Houston's bedroom where they were trying on the dead woman's shoes:

One insider close to the situation said the price hike was not a "cynical" move – but that the wholesale price of Houston's The Ultimate Collection was wrong. The change in wholesale price boosted the album's retail price on iTunes.

What a terrible thing; a "mistake" in the price. How fortunate that the "mistake" was "fixed" while the death certificate was being typed up.

Sony didn't comment; apparently they were too busy stripping the lead from the roof of Houston's home, cackling "it's not like she needs it where she's going."

Gordon in the morning: Loss

To everyone's surprise, there's still a Sun this morning, and so Gordon Smart is still in work. Obviously, while Rupert Murdoch strides around Wapping sticking price labels on everything - pausing to mutter 'I'm committed to this newspaper, really I am. Can you sell media businesses on eBay? Just asking' - Gordon is in a grim moood. How lucky there's a celebrity corpse for Pete Samson to kick about a bit:

Whitney Houston died in bath after 48hr binge
Star was on 'Jacko drugs'
Two nights of boozy partying
Head was underwater

Jacko Drugs? Seriously?

Samson throws the words "tragic" in four times. While listing the drugs that may or may not have been in her room or her system.

Still, in a piece by Richard White, there's a chance to focus on what made her famous, rather than the grisly end, eh?

£100million diva Whitney Houston blew fortune on crack
Star got addicted to drug and died broke

White does get an eyewitness. Not to the death, obviously, but to Whitney looking like she must on drugs or something:

Simon J Bailey, 30, opened for Whitney on the Manchester dates of her Nothing But Love tour. Last night he told The Sun: "You could see in her eyes that she had been through some tough times.

"I think you can always see that a person has been through turmoil.

Right. So, there was much evidence of debauchery, yes?

"All I ever saw her drink was water, I never saw any drink or drugs."

Who is this Simon Bailey? His place in the firmament is more-or-less signified by the quality of the picture The Sun have of him:

Then up pops Gordon to share his view.

First, he makes it clear that Whitney can't be blamed at all for her own drug problems:

Like Jacko with Dr Conrad Murray and Amy with Blake Fielder-Civil, her drug problems were largely down to someone else.

Didn't Jackson retain Murray to keep the supply of drugs flowing? It's odd, isn't it, how The Sun is happy to take the responsibility for their own actions off the shoulders of a select few; they tend to be less forgiving for the addicted poor. If you do heroin on a council estate, or crack in a tower block, it won't be because someone introduced you to drugs, it'll be your own choice. If you do them in a mansion, it'll be someone nasty from outside.

Having absolved Whitney from blame, he then offers a eulogy:

Like Jacko and Amy, Whitney should be remembered for that amazing voice. It made her a global star loved by millions.

It also enabled a massive drugs problem. But Gordon doesn't want that to be how we remember Whitney.

What was the headline on the page which Gordon insists we should just remember the music again?

£100million diva Whitney Houston blew fortune on crack
Star got addicted to drug and died broke

Perhaps that was one of her late 90s hits?

Grammys 2012: Didn't Adele almost have it all

So, it would have been Adele's night - and some sort of irony that a singer whose launchpad was funded, in part, from the Brit Award receipts turns up at the bigger award ceremony and carries off the prizes.

It would have been Adele's night, but for the death of Whitney Houston. One room. So many executives who have pushed their talent a little too hard, or turned a blind eye and sent them out working when they weren't fit. So many musicians who know that the difference between "tragic Whitney" and them was luck rather than judgement. Grief, guilt and there-but-for-the-grace-of-god.

It made for an odd night. Whoever might have been able to rise to the occasion, it was unlikely to be the man who played the chef in Deep Blue Sea. Clunking on to stage to host the event, LL Cool J announced that - for him - the only way to start was a prayer. Like it was Bideford Council.

Really, Ladies Love? The only thing you could think of was a prayer? In a gaudy gong-giving backslapfest, you thought the apt thing to do would be to pretend for a moment that you were in a place of worship?

Still, with an ever-present reminder of what happens when music careers go really wrong, there was a chance to correct the idea that the record companies care about nothing but how many units they can shift, right?

Right?

No. Chris Brown came on and was treated like a returning hero. MTV unwittingly captures the reason why this is a problem:

In the end, there were no innuendos or screen cuts to Breezy's ex-flame Rihanna. Brown simply finished his number, stood triumphantly and saluted the crowd before taking a bow.

Yes, MTV wrote up his appearance as if it was some sort of soap plot. "Tee-hee, they didn't do a reaction shot to show the look on the face that Brown had beaten to a pulp, ho-ho." Why should MTV care? After all, if the Grammys think that it's okay to give Brown a "triumphant" platform, who won't see his domestic violence as anything other than some sort of massive jape?

Here's the list of winners on a night when everyone lost a little:

Album of the year: Adele's 21

Record of the year: Adele's Rolling the Deep

Best pop solo performance: Adele's Someone Like You

Song of the year: Adele's Rolling in the Deep

Short-form music video: Adele’s Rolling in the Deep

Best rock performance: Foo Fighters' Walk

Long-form music video: Foo Fighters’ Back and Forth

Hard rock/metal performance: Foo Fighters’ White Limo

Rock song: Foo Fighters’ Walk

Rock Album: Foo Fighters’ Wasting Light

Best rap performance: Otis, by Kanye West and Jay-Z

Rap performance: Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Otis

Best new artist: Bon Iver

Alternative music album: Bon Iver’s Bon Iver

Country duo/group performance: The Civil Wars’ Barton Hollow

Folk album: The Civil Wars’ Barton Hollow

Country solo performance: Taylor Swift’s Mean

Country song: Taylor Swift’s Mean

Dance recording: Skrillex’s Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites

Dance/electronica album: Skrillex’s Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites

R&B album: Chris Brown's F.A.M.E.

Country album: Lady Antebellum's Own the Night

Recording package: Caroline Robert’s Scenes from The Suburbs, for Arcade Fire

Pop duo/group performance: Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse’s Body and Soul

Pop instrumental album: Booker T. Jones’ The Road from Memphis

Traditional pop vocal album: Tony Bennett and various artists’ Duets II

R&B performance: Corinne Bailey Rae’s Is This Love

Traditional R&B performance: Cee Lo Green and Melanie Fiona’s Fool for You

R&B song: Cee Lo Green and Co.’s Fool for You

Rap/sung collaboration: Kanye West, Rihanna, Kid Cudi and Fergie’s All of the Lights

Rap song: All of the Lights

Rap album: Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

New age album: Pet Metheny’s What’s It All About

Improvised jazz solo: Chick Corea’s 500 Miles High

Jazz vocal album: Terri Lyne Carrington and various artists’ The Mosaic Project

Jazz instrumental: Corea, Clarke and White’s Forever

Large jazz ensemble: Christian McBride Big Band’s The Good Feeling

Gospel/contemporary Christian music performance: Le’Andria Johnson’s Jesus

Gospel song: Kirk Franklin’s Hello Fear

Contemporary Christian music song: Laura Story’s Blessings

Gospel album: Kirk Franklin’s Hello Fear

Contemporary Christian music album: Chris Tomlin’s And If Our God Is For Us…

Latin pop, rock or urban album: Mana’s Drama Y Luz

Regional Mexican or Tejano album: Pepe Aguilar’s Bicentenario

Bands or Norteno album: Los Tigres Del Norte’s Los Tigres Del Norte and Friends

Tropical Latin album: Cachao’s The Last Mambo

Americana album: Levon Helm’s Ramble at the Ryman

Bluegrass album: Alison Krauss and Union Station’s Paper Airplane

Blues album: Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Revelator

Regional roots music album: Rebirth Brass Band’s Rebirth of New Orleans

Reggae album: Stephen Marley’s Revelatino Pt. 1: The Root of Life

World music album: Tinariwen’s Tassili

Children’s album: All About Bullies… Big & Small

Spoken world album (includes poetry, audio books and story telling): Betty White’s If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t)

Comedy album: Louis C.K.’s Hilarious

Musical theatre album: The Book of Mormom

Compilation soundtrack for visual media: Boardwalk Empire: Vol. 1

Score soundtrack for visual media: Alexandre Desplat’s The King’s Speech

Song written for visual media: I See the Light (from Tangled)

Instrumental composition: Bela Fleck and Howard Levy’s Life in Eleven

Instrumental arrangement: Gordon Goodwin’s Rhapsody in Blue for Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band

Instrumental arrangement accompanying vocalist: Jorge Calandrelli’s Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me), for Tony Bennett and Queen Latifah

Boxed or special limited edition package: Dave Bett and Michelle Holme’s The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story

Album notes: Hear Me Howling: Blues, Ballads & Beyond as recorded by the San Francisco Bay by Chris Strachwitz in the 1960s

Historical album: Band on the Run (Paul McCartney Archive Collection – Deluxe Edition)

Engineered album, non-classical: Alison Krauss and Union Station’s Paper Airplane

Producer of the year, non-classical: Paul Epworth

Remixed recording, non-classical: Cinema (Skrillex Remix)

Surround sound album: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (Super Deluxe Edition)

Engineered album, classical: Aldridge: Elmer Gantry

Producer of the year, classical: Judith Sherman

Orchestral performance: Brahms, Symphony No. 4 by Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel

Opera recording: Adams: Doctor Atomic

Choral performance: Light & Gold - Eric Whitacre, conductor (Christopher Glynn & Hila Plitmann; The King's Singers, Laudibus, Pavão Quartet & The Eric Whitacre Singers)

Small-ensemble performance: Mackey: Lonely Motel – Music from Slide

Classical instrumental solo: Schwantner: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra by Christopher Lamb, Giancarlo Guerrero conducts Nashville Symphony

Classical vocal solo: Joyce DiDonato with Kazushi Ono and Orchestre de l’Opera National de Lyon with Choeur de l’Opera National de Lyon for Diva Divo

Contemporary classical composition: Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein’s Elmer Gantry

UPDATE: Thanks to @tismey for pointing out that LL Cool J was the chef; Ice T was the Kangaroo in Tank Girl. I regret the error.

Love Parade: The mayor was still there

Adolf Sauerland, mayor of Duisburg at the time of the Love Parade disaster in 2010, has been recalled in a special vote.

Sauerland has repeatedly refused to take any form of responsibility for the poor planning at the event, at which 21 people were crushed to death. An attempt to unseat him from within the city council failed; instead, it took a poll of the full electorate of the city to get rid of him.

Bookmarks: Whitney Houston

Okay, there's a second piece about Whitney's death that you should probably try to make time to read - Susie Bright's Whitney Houston's death is probably not what you think it is:

I didn’t know Whitney. I don't have the coroner's report in hand; this is all speculation. But I do know artists, from the successful and influential to the poor and unheralded. Artists read all this crap about “The diva did drugs! Bad girl! Boo hoo!” and just wanna throw up.

Women in pop culture are particularly framed with this “poor little prima donna who destroyed her talent” garbage. When great male musicians die, it’s unusual to have their substance issues splayed forth in the obit headline.

Is that what happened when George Harrison died? The Beatles, every one of them, could've given Whitney Houston a clinic in drug abuse. When Keith Richards dies, are they going to lead with “heroin destroyed his career”?

Why was Billie Holliday’s love affair with heroin so tragic, but Miles Davis and John Coltrane … not so much? Why is Sinead O'Conner a nutcase but Van Halen is just a darling bunch of naughty rockers? Why is Madonna's mental state on the front page every day, but not Justin Beiber's? Fuck that noise.

Thinking about Whitney Houston

In the way the smell of a dead antelope brings carrion birds out from the forest onto the plains, the news of Whitney Houston's death has attracted Paul Gambaccini and Pete Waterman into the BBC News studio.

At least their arrival took some of the stress off the early responders.

Gambo and Waterman can construct a eulogy from absolutely nothing.

If the drummer from Howler fell under a tank during an ill-starred visit to the Bovington Museum, Gambo and Waterman would be able to fill five minutes with figures and significance. It's what they do. The rest of us might struggle.

The surprise, though, was how BBC News was struggling before they managed to squeeze into a room with a camera and an uplink.

When Jackson died, it was pretty easy for the generalists to have something to say - Thriller, Rockin' Robin, comeback tours. You could skirt around the kiddie-fiddling and addictions.

Houston has sold tonnes of records - the biggest-selling female artist, announces Gambo, looking up from his slide-rule. So why was it hard for the news team to bring a balance to the bit where they weren't mopping up the Brown marriage, and the brown?

Gambaccini, mic-ed up and settled in, trotted out an explanation of Houston's style. Melisma. Or what - I think it was the NME - once described as "utterly undisciplined vocal gymnastics".

The "undisciplined" was unfair - Houston's style was something she was clearly more in control of than much else in her life. But the gymnastics was spot-on. And it was the gymnastics which is prancing about on the floor waving ribbons rather than the sort that uses bars and springboards and horses.

Effectively, a lot of showing off disconnected from the need to relate to anything else. Houston's songs might as well have all been a capella, as she was out the front, doing her thing in the foreground, rather than working with the music.

A capella? No, she could have just had the introduction, to announce to the audience what song was going to be bent to demonstrate her skills.

Impressive enough skills, but utterly, utterly soulless, too. I think this is what makes her feel distant; a Whitney Houston song is a bit like reading computer code in a language you're not familiar with - you can see that it is crafted, but, as code, it does nothing to you. Nothing for you.

Drop the code it into a machine, and it can work.

Plop a bit of Houston onto a soundtrack of a movie, and - oh, it's about love. That sort of makes sense.

Stick her bellowing I'm Every Woman onto the start of an Oprah show, and it does a kind of empowering thing. That makes sense.

Pump I Wanna Dance With Somebody into a hen party, and carnage ensues. That make a kind of sense.

But just take the music out, and listen to those notes being shuffled around, and what have got? It's like that opening sequence to Emma Thompson's sketch show; the feeling that you've been given a role of watching a very clever person being very clever. All you are meant to do is applaud.

Compare Dolly Parton's I Will Always Love You with Houston's cover. Houston's is more vocally accomplished, anyone can see that.

But Parton's version is a woman telling a lover that her love will always be there, even as she's leaving. She lives the song. She sings the words. She tells the story.

Houston sings the same words, but she's having so much fun playing with them, there's no story. No lover is conjured, there's no hand being held fats and allowed to drop. Sure, you can bung in clips of The Bodyguard into the video which will do the job, and when people buy the record and take it home, they can picture that, right?

But Houston's performance should be doing that. Instead, she's off showing off her vocal range. If there was someone being dumped when she was singing the song, it's the equivalent of being dumped by somebody who doesn't make eye contact and who insists on doing it in Latin.

Her version of I Will Always Love You is actually all "I", no "You".

And as Waterman and Ganmbo both revealed, part of Houston's legacy is to have raised a generation of female singers who think that the melisma is a short-cut to emotion. That to try and convince a song is full of real feelings, all you need to do is skeeter up and down the scale like a monkey on a piano.

Houston could pull of the trick, but never nailed the problem. In her wake came a bunch of singers who couldn't even do the trick well. Look at Aguilera's eyes roaming the room during the Lady Marmalade video - "is this is, mom? Have I got it?"

Waterman reveals that during Pop Idol they had to ban people from trying to do Houston songs. Ostensibly, there were too many doing them, but you can just imagine a room of people without Houston's technical skill trying to pull it off. Like a bunch of First Aiders at a train crash deciding they'd try to do the amputations.

I think even Whitney Houston fans know this is true, too. Many of the Twitter tributes this morning (ignoring those from people who have suddenly turned out to be her biggest fans) have been about when the songs were playing, and not the performances themselves.

And maybe this is why the early commentators on the News had struggled so much. Houston gave great soundtrack, and had technical skills you couldn't argue with. But not much warmth, not much feeling. You could admire the plumbing, but plumbing isn't much to love.

Bookmarks: Chris Brown

Tonight's Grammys are, as you'd expect, currently being refitted as a mawkfest. They have a more pressing problem, though, one they've bought on themselves. Chris Brown - best known for spending Grammy evening punching women in the face - has, somehow ended up on the bill. Sasha Pasulka asks why we're letting this happen:

Accepting that Chris Brown gets to perform at the Grammys because some people bought his album is no different from accepting that women without health insurance don’t get to be screened for breast cancer because some VP at Komen is anti-abortion. It may happen, but that doesn’t mean we should tacitly accept it. What if Chris Brown had hit your sister that night? Or your daughter? (What if Chris Brown had hit Taylor Swift that night?)

We’re accepting the message that women just aren’t that important, that their health and their safety and their self-respect is only important until it stops being convenient for everyone. We should be angry about this, and we should be angry publicly about this.

Bookmarks: Whitney Houston

There is an awful lot of Whitney Houston related postings going up on the internet at the moment, as you'd expect. The one that I'd recommend you read is from Eve Barlow on how within moments, Houston's death became another chance for people to talk about themselves:

On the other end of the enormoknob scale came the one and only Dan Wootton, who tweeted “Whitney Houston death is CONFIRMED. This is NOT a Twitter hoax. Only 49-years-old” and immediately updated his Twitter profile picture to an image of Me And My Mate Whitney. Well, indeed. Except if she was your friend, Mr Wootton, perhaps you would have been up to speed with her birthdays and not got her age wrong. Whoops. “My job as a showbiz reporter involves reporting and providing tributes at these very sad times. I hope people can understand that,” Dan tweeted after his live feed on Sky. Loud and clear, Dan. Let’s just report accurately, yeah?

This week just gone

The most-read February stories so far:

1. Noel Gallagher marches to the right
2. Bono tries to sink short film; film-makers fight back
3. Chris Moyles being threatened by Today
4. EMI claim ownership of slogan it stole from an old advert
5. Junos shortlist announced
6. Adam Lambert latest man to try on, fail to fill, Freddie Mercury's shoes
7. 50 Cent tries to feed starving by selling energy drinks
8. Noel Gallagher struggles to explain Thatcher comments
9. Liz Phair on Lana Del Ray
10. The Decemberists takes on The Susan G Komen foundation

These were the interesting releases from this week:


Beth Jeans Houghton - Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose

Download Yours Truly



The Twilight Sad- No-one Can Ever Know

Download No-one Can Ever Know



Sharon Van Etten - Tramp

Download Tramp



Prinzhorn Dance School - Clay Class

Download Clay Class



Air - Le Voyage Dans La Lune

Download Le Voyage



Wire - The Black Session

Download The Black Session



Goldfrapp - The Singles

Download Be Strong

Vocalobit: Whitney Houston

As you'll probably have heard elsewhere, Whitney Houston has died at the age of 48. So ends one of the slowest second-act tragedies in an American life.

Very rich man says 'something must be done'

If I'm reading this story from CNN correctly, it looks like 50 Cent is using the starving of Kenya and Somalia to boost his businesses:

Jackson has pledged to provide one billion meals for the hungry, and is donating a meal from every sale of a new energy drink, Street King, according to the World Food Programme.

Using people in need of food to flog cans of pointless "energy drink"? Perhaps it's an art statement.

Gordon in the morning: It's just like the 1960s, except the 2010s jarring note

Gordon's story about Paul McCartney's invovlement in the next series of Mad Men is a little confused.

First, he's writing music:

Paul McCartney writes for hit telly series

But then, he's not actually writing, just licensing tracks:

The show's producers felt his new album mainly of American classics, Kisses On The Bottom, would be perfect for the show and moved swiftly to sign a deal.

But even that makes no sense - why would a series that pays attention to period detail the way Sun photographers pay attention to the cast of The Only Way Is Essex want Macca's new stuff? If you're trying to give a feel of the 1960s, how does McCartney's frankly-not-very-good collection of karaoke-filtered mostly 1930s stuff fit in?

Record labels pirate football game

Oh, dear, major labels - don't you realise that copyright theft is a SERIOUS CRIME? Do we need to send Britney Spears over to remind you that illegally streaming a football game at a VEVO party is no different from stealing a CD from a store? Tut. Tut. Tut.

TechCrunch's Jason Kincaid saw ESPN streaming from an unlicensed feed:

My hunch is that the team hooked up a computer to the TVs throughout the venue so that they could accomplish this synchronized star-caressing — then, rather than rework their entire setup just to play the football game for a few hours, they opted for the easier route and looked for a stream on the web.

Which perfectly underscores everything wrong with the media industry’s approach to piracy. They’ve long made out pirates to be lawless thieves who think they’re entitled to receive everything for free.

But the reality is far less black-and-white. Sure, there are some people who will duck the bill when they can — but many of them were never going to buy the content they downloaded in the first place. And a huge swath of ‘pirates’ are driven to their ways because it’s easier to stream or download something via an illegal site, not because they’re averse to paying for content. Stick a bunch of DRM and ads in front of the media they’ve already paid for, and they may opt to go with the path of least resistance next time.

VEVO stutter that, you know, it's probably not them:

As for who actually decided to play the stream, or why, VEVO says the public had access to the computer being used so they can’t say for sure who exactly was responsible. Which is dubious (and almost certainly spin) — there was clearly someone actively controlling the computer, because they refreshed it when the connection stalled, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a random attendee who was taking the helm. Must have been one of those nasty pirates.

Now, remind me: what is the attitude of the music industry when someone says that somebody else must have been using the computer at the time of an illegal download? Like in the case of Patricia Santangelo, when the RIAA insisted that because she owned the house the computer alleged to have shared unlicensed files was in, she was liable.

I'm sure VEVO executives will be handing themselves in at the local cop shop. After all, piracy is a serious crime. They will want to be punished to the full extent of the laws their colleagues have had created.

Gordon in the morning: Crazy demands

Gordon has got hold of MIA's backstage rider. You'd better strap yourself in:

CRACKPOT singer M.I.A has one of the weirdest gig riders I've seen.

That's setting the bar high. Cher wanted a room for her wigs; Iggy Pop insisted on a copy of USA Today with a story about morbidly obese people in it. And, hey, Gordon, you must have heard of some pretty extreme demands before, too, yeah?

One of the backstage demands for her 2011 tour tops Mariah Carey's request for bendy straws and Duran Duran's lavish demands for rare French cheese

Straws and cheese? Jesus, you don't get out much, do you?

Still, what could MIA have called for that would put into the shade Prince's insistence that everything be covered in clear plastic wrap?

According to a copy of the rider, as well as mixed nuts and cheese the singer demanded: "Three female extras for each show, each between 20 and 25 years old."

The girls all needed to have "stage presence and groove to the music on stage for the full duration of the show wearing full covered burkas".

Erm... dancers? For the actual show? Isn't that a bit like saying 'Wayne Rooney is a nutter; he makes them give him shoes with studs on before he'll even consider going on the pitch'?

So is there anything on the rider at all that is a crazy demand?

The star also asks for a bottle of powerful booze absinthe to be provided at every location.

A bottle of booze. Admittedly, a rather sophomoric choice of booze, but it's hardly on a par with Madonna calling for brand new toilet seats, is it?

NoLikes

iLike - once the thundering coming big beast of online music - closed down on Tuesday. No, hardly anyone else noticed, either.

Why did it die?

Hypebot has this:

"It’s sad to see a social music site that once boasted 60 million users (more than Spotify, or Pinterest), reduced to nothing," Partovi told Geek Wire. Rupert Murdoch squandered a lot of tech assets under his management, the fall of iLike is just scratching the surface. Given how much money Rupert makes off spreading the evil cancer of Fox 'News,' I think he deserves the bad rap he gets for this mismanagement."

"But much of iLike’s demise is also due to radical changes in the Facebook platform. If you look at the top Facebook apps of 2007 – iLike, Flixster, Slide, RockYou, SGN, Zynga, only one of them evolved enough to survive these changes, the rest died like guinea pigs."

Given the bad time Murdoch is having right now, the buggering up on iLike constitutes merely the seventeenth most humble day of his life.

What do you do when Bono says no?

What do you do when Bono and U2 grimly refuse you the rights to use a song, forcing you to pull out of a film festival?

This:



Moral: There is always a way round the self-importance of Bono.

[Thanks to Michael M for the tip]

Gordon in the morning: Lemon

It turns out this morning that Gordon doesn't even recognise a photo of himself:

Gordon, you've confused yourself with Keith Lemon - it's easy to tell the difference: Keith Lemon is a made-up character, with a childish obsession with women's bodies and a pathetic tendency to fawn around celebrities, whereas Gordon Smart uses his real name.

Now that's what I call throwing your weight about

The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing had been enjoying some success with their Now That's What I Call Steampunk album.

Enough success, indeed, to bring down the ire of EMI upon their behatted heads. As Steampunk Chronicle, erm, chronicles it:

It seems that EMI records have taken offense with Now That's What I Call Steampunk, Vol.1, the 2010 release by British steamrockers The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing. EMI has copyright on the name "Now That's What I Call Music" and has also released other compilations under the "Now That's What I Call" moniker.

The album was yanked off iTunes, and the band have reluctantly renamed the record The Steampunk Album That Cannot Be Named For Legal Reasons.

But hold on a moment - how can EMI claim to own "Now That's What I Call..." in its entirety?

As Wikipedia (correctly, in this case) points out:

The series took its name from a 1920s advertising poster hanging in an office for Danish meat products which showed a pig listening to a whistling cockerel.

So EMI claim to own copyright on a phrase they pinched from an out-of-copyright work by someone else entirely.

I suspect they would insist their claim is based on trademarks rather than copyright, but it's still a bit rich to rip off soembody's advertising slogan and then say that nobody else can do the same.

[Thanks to Scary Boots for the tip]

Gordon in the morning: Commercial break

A man who makes crisp adverts has made a crisp advert, reports Gordon Smart.

Juno shortlist: A world where Avril Lavigne can still get on a shortlist

The shortlist for the Juno awards has been revealed. The fan's choice category looks more like a 'can you think of a Canadian act' round in Pointless. I'm surprised Rush aren't on there:

JUNO FAN CHOICE AWARD

Arcade Fire

Avril Lavigne

City and Colour

Deadmau5

Drake

Ginette Reno

Hedley

Justin Bieber

Michael Bublé

Nickelback


SINGLE OF THE YEAR

City and Colour
Fragile Bird

Hedley Universal
Invincible

Johnny Reid
Let's Go Higher

Nickelback
When We Stand Together

The Sheepdogs
I Don't Know


INTERNATIONAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Coldplay
Mylo Xyloto

Lady Gaga
Born This Way

LMFAO
Sorry For Party Rocking

Rihanna
Loud


ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Avril Lavigne
Goodbye Lullabye

Drake
Take Care

Justin Bieber
Under the Mistletoe

Michael Bublé
Christmas

Nickelback
Here And Now


ARTIST OF THE YEAR
City and Colour
Deadmau5
Drake
Feist
Michael Bublé


GROUP OF THE YEAR
Arkells
Down With Webster
Hedley
Nickelback
Sam Roberts Band


NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Alyssa Reid
Dan Mangan
Diamond Rings
JRDN
Lindi Ortega


NEW GROUP OF THE YEAR

Braids
Hey Rosetta!
Mother Mother
The Rural Alberta Advantage
The Sheepdogs


SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR

Dallas Green
Dan Mangan
Feist
Jim Cuddy
Ron Sexsmith


COUNTRY ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Doc Walker
16 & 1

High Valley
High Valley

Jason McCoy
Everything

Jimmy Rankin
Forget About the World

Terri Clark
Roots and Wings


ADULT ALTERNATIVE ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Cuff The Duke
Morning Comes

Feist
Metals

Jenn Grant
Honeymoon Punch

Jim Cuddy
Skyscraper Soul

Ron Sexsmith
Long Player Late Bloomer


ALTERNATIVE ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Braids, Native Speaker

Dan Mangan, Oh Fortune

Destroyer, Kaputt

F***ed Up, David Comes To Life

Timber Timbre, Creep On Creepin On


POP ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Avril Lavigne, Goodbye Lullaby

Down With Webster, Time To Win Vol. II

Hedley, Storms

Lights, Siberia

Marianas Trench, Ever After


ROCK ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Arkells, Michigan Left

Matthew Good, Lights of Endangered Species

Sam Roberts Band, Collider

Sloan, The Double Cross

The Sheepdogs, Learn & Burn


VOCAL JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Diana Panton, To Brazil With Love

Fern Lindzon, Two Kites

Sonia Johnson, Le carré de nos amours

Sophie Milman, In The Moonlight

The Nylons, Skin Tight


CONTEMPORARY JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Chris Tarry, Rest of the Story

Colin Stetson, New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges

François Bourassa Quartet, Idiosyncrasie

Hilario Duran & Jane Bunnett, Cuban Rhapsody

Phil Dwyer Orchestra feat. Mark Fewer, Changing Seasons


TRADITIONAL JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Dave Young Quintet, Aspects of Oscar

David Braid, Verge

Kirk MacDonald Orchestra, Deep Shadows

Mike Murley Septet, Still Rollin

Oliver Jones, Live In Baden


INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Andrew Collins, Cats & Dogs

Colin Stetson, New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges

L'Orkestre des Pas Perdus, L¹Âge du cuivre

Stretch Orchestra, Stretch Orchestra


FRANCOPHONE ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Catherine Major, Le désert des solitudes

Coeur de Pirate, Blonde

Fred Pellerin, C¹est un monde

Jérôme Minière, Le vrai le faux

Malajube, La caverne



CHILDREN'S ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Bobs & Lolo, Connecting the Dots

Charlie Hope, Songs, Stories and Friends: Let's Go Play!

Eddie Douglas, Sleepy Sky Lullaby

Music with BRIAN, Everyone

Vocal Paint, My Butterfly/A Capella Lullabies


CLASSICAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR: SOLO OR CHAMBER ENSEMBLE

Canadian Brass, Brahms On Brass

Louis Lortie, Louis Lortie Plays Liszt

Marc-André Hamelin, Liszt Piano Sonata

New Orford String Quartet, Schubert & Beethoven

Susan Hoeppner, American Flute Masterpieces


CLASSICAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR: LARGE ENSEMBLE OR SOLOIST(S) WITH LARGE

ENSEMBLE ACCOMPANIMENT

Alexandre Da Costa/Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Daugherty : Fire and Blood

James Ehnes Chandos, Bartók Voilin Concertos

Jean-Guihen Queyras, Vivaldi Cello Concertos

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Orchestre Métropolitain, Bruckner 4

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Orchestre Métropolitain, Florent Schmidt- La tragédie de salomé


CLASSICAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR: VOCAL OR CHORAL PERFORMANCE

Jane Archibald;

Orchestre Symphonique Bienne; Thomas Rösner ATMA*Naxos

Haydn Arias

Karina Gauvin - Marie-Nicole Lemieux Naive*Naxos

Handel: Streams of Pleasure



Le Nouvel Opéra ATMA*Naxos

Caldara : La Conversione di Clodoveo

Marie-Josée Lord; Orchestre Métropolitain; Giuseppe Pietraroia ATMA*Naxos

Marie-Josée Lord

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra & Daniel Taylor Analekta*Sélect

J.S. Bach: Cantatas 70 & 154; Concerto 1060; Orchestral Suite No. 2



CLASSICAL COMPOSITION OF THE YEAR

Ann Southam, Glass Houses #5

Derek Charke, Sepia Fragments

Heather Schmidt, Piano Concerto No. 2

Jacques Hétu, String Quartet No. 2

Jeffrey Ryan, Fugitive Colours



RAP RECORDING OF THE YEAR

Classified, Handshakes and Middle Fingers

D-Sisive, Jonestown 2: Jimmy Go Bye Bye

Drake, Take Care

Kardinal Offishall, Anywhere (Ol¹ Time Killin¹ Part.2)

Swollen Members, Daggermouth



DANCE RECORDING OF THE YEAR

Anjulie, Brand New Chick

Deadmau5, Aural Psynapse

Duck Sauce, Barbara Streisand

Martin Solveig & Dragonette, Hello

Mia Martina, Devotion


R&B/SOUL RECORDING OF THE YEAR

JRDN, IAMJRDN

Jully Black, Set it Off ft. Kardinal Offishall

Karl Wolf Lone Wolf, Ghetto Love ft. Kardinal Offishall

Melanie Fiona, Gone And Never Coming Back

Robin Thicke, Pretty Lil Heart ft. Lil Wayne


ABORIGINAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Bruthers of Different Muthers, Speakers of Tomorrow

Donny Parenteau, To Whom It May Concern

Flying Down Thunder and Rise Ashen Balanced, One Nation

Murray Porter, Songs Lived & Life Played

Randy Wood, The Gift of Life


ROOTS & TRADITIONAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR: SOLO

Bruce Cockburn, Small Source of Comfort

Craig Cardiff, Floods & Fires

Dave Gunning, A Tribute To John Allan Cameron

David Francey, Late Edition

Lindi Ortega, Little Red Boots


ROOTS & TRADITIONAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR: GROUP

Good Lovelies, Let The Rain Fall

The Deep Dark Woods, The Place I Left Behind

The Once Borealis, Row Upon Row Of The People We Know

The Wailin' Jennys, Bright Morning Stars

Twilight Hotel, When The Wolves Go Blind


BLUES ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Bill Johnson, Still Blue

David Gogo, Soul Bender

Harrison Kennedy, Shame The Devil

MonkeyJunk, To Behold

Suzie Vinnick, Me + Mabel


CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN/GOSPEL ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Downhere Centricity, On The Altar of Love

Hawk Nelson, Crazy Love

Jon Bauer, Forevermore

Kellie Loder, Imperfections & Directions

Sky Terminal, Don't Close Your Eyes

WORLD MUSIC ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Aboulaye Kone et Bolo Kan, Afo Gné

Aline Morales, Flores, Tambores e Amores

Azam Ali, From Night To The Edge Of Day

Kiran Ahluwalia, Aam Zameen : common ground

Socalled, Sleepover

JACK RICHARDSON PRODUCER OF THE YEAR

Bob Rock

Brian Howes

David Foster

Noah Shebib

RECORDING ENGINEER OF THE YEAR

Chris Shreenan-Dyck

David Travers-Smith

George Seara

Jeff Wolpert

Michael Phillip Wojewoda


VIDEO OF THE YEAR

John JP Poliquin - The Stand - MOTHER MOTHER

Jon Busby - Rows of Houses - DAN MANGAN

Jose Lourenco - Stamp - THE RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE

Michael Maxxis - Good Day At The Races -HOLLERADO

Mike Roberts - Rumbleseat - THE SADIES

ELECTRONIC ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Arthur Oskan, A Little More Than Everything

Austra, Feel It Break

Azari & III, Azari & III

Junior Boys, It¹s All True

Tim Hecker, Ravendeath, 1972

METAL/HARD MUSIC ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Anvil, Juggernaut of Justice

Cauldron Earache, Burning Fortune

Devin Townsend Project, Deconstruction

F**k The Facts, Die Miserable

MIA will personally pay to keep story alive

Just as the world was starting to go 'actually, it was just a quick flip of the bird', there's been an attempt to try and keep the story going by the revelation that MIA might be personally liable:

According to TMZ however, MIA signed a contract with the NFL pledging to compensate the league for any fine imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

It is claimed that in ensuring MIA signed the agreement, the NFL hopes to dissuade future performers from similar acts in the future.

The NFL apparently signed a similar deal with NBC. The idea being that NBC pay the fine, claim it back from NFL, who then try to get the money back from MIA.

This does all rather presuppose that (a) any of these agreements actually took place and can be upheld and (b) there is any fine anyway.

Still, at least one good thing has come out of it all: Madonna apparently has the hump:

"Madonna wasn't impressed. She prides herself on professionalism. MIA did nothing similar in rehearsals," a source told the publication.

"Nobody knew she was going to pull this stunt. Madonna wanted to put on a world-beating performance. But everyone ended up talking about this girl's middle finger."

I think the medical term for this 'upstageditis'.

Gordon in the morning: Who really won the Superbowl?

Not Madonna, who managed to be upstaged by MIA's finger.

Not MIA, who clearly thought she was subverting something; a bit like a seaside donkey pooping on the prom forgetting he's still carrying a tourist from the ghost train to the gift shop.

No, Gordon reveals the real winner of Superbowl Sunday:

Rock hero Justin Hawkins from The Darkness was given a 90-second slot during half time in a Samsung advert for the new Galaxy phone.

He appeared on screen in a pink and white jumpsuit. As his guitar dropped from the sky he sang I Believe In A Thing Called Love. Downloads of the song have gone through the roof since.

The Darkness. Number one in the "American rock charts*". In 2012.

I don't think anyone would have bet on that happening this time last year.

* - I suspect this claim is intentionally vague.