Download offloads Kid Rock

We're not sure it would have been very much of a disappointment - a bit like being told the understudy was playing the rear end of the pantomime cow - but Kid Rock pulled out of Download yesterday because he was "dehydrated".

Well, it was nearly fifteen degrees yesterday.

Suede weekend: The Drowners

Oh, lord, back in 1992 how many times did we rewind and replay those strange little hand movement when this was on the Chart Show?

As debut singles-cum-declarations of intent go, the Drowners really nailed it.



[Part of the Suede weekend]

Pete Wentz: Smells nice, but avoids pink

Pete Wentz, of course, would have you believe he's some sort of sensitive, alternative type. Why, he even wears eyeliner.

He'll be a laid-back parent, won't he?

No, of course:

"I'd like to know the sex of the baby. It would be a bummer if you bought a boy a bunch of pink stuff!"

Good lord, no. Can you imagine? That might lead the kid to grow up unlike everyone else. A bit different. And that would never do.

Josh Homme is getting upset

The peaceful nature of the Norwegian Wood festival was shattered when Josh Homme got a little annoyed at someone throwing something at the stage:

"Do me one favor, though. Don't throw any shit at me. You throw something at me, I'm not so sick that I can't go down there and beat the fucking shit out of you, you know what I'm saying?! I may have a fucking 102 temperature and been puking for three days, but I'll still butt-fuck you in front of all your friends."

We're at a loss to understand why Homme's suddenly decided that sex with a celebrity is a bad thing, but it's handy to know that if you fancy a spot of anal with Joshie, all you need to do is lob something at him while he's singing.

Seriously, though: someone's thrown something at you and think that threatening to rape them is a justifiable response? There's an interesting lack of proportion.

But Josh hadn't finished:

Hey, you, right there — hey, you, with the fucking hat on! Hey, pussy! Turn around, you fucking pussy with the black hair! Turn the fuck around, you chickenshit fucking f****t! Hey, you — you fucking pussy motherfucker! I will fuck you up! C'mon up here! C'mon up here, you fucking little f****t! You know what?! Get your fucking ass up here! You're so fucking stupid you'll come up here. Lift him up so that I can kick him in the fucking face. [Throws something at the alleged 'shit-thrower'] Invisible fucking cunt. Go back to your mom's house, you 12-year-old dickless fucking turd! And his friends, you wanna throw something too or are you all cool? You're all good? You know this dickless fucking turd has no friends anyway, man. I came here for the rest of you — not for this asshole."

We've left the asterisks from Blabbermouth's report in - we usually don't, but we just thought it funny that they judged their readers to be quite happy to see motherfuckers and cunts and references to anal rape in a report, but would be upset to read the word faggot.

Leona Lewis and Amy's public disgrace

Leona Lewis loves Amy Winehouse, she does, but, oooh, that woman is a a worry with her image and all:

“A performer’s privacy is taken away. The media are always there. You can’t make your mistakes in private,” Lewis said.

“I have the advantage of a great support structure. I get honest opinions from my family and friends.

“They aren’t always telling me what I want to hear, but the truth helps keep my head straight.”

It's not as if Amy didn't have people telling her truths, either - there are very few addicts who don't have someone they've chosen to ignore as they embrace their habit.

And is Lewis really saying - as she appears to - that the problem is less that Winehouse has got substance abuse problems, than the papers write about them? "If only she could have got on smoking crack in private..."?

It's easy to blame the press for everything, but this seems a little odd. And even if somehow a crack habit is only a problem when it's in the papers (does a crack pipe smoked in the woods matter if nobody films it on a cameraphone?) then isn't Winehouse a little to blame for not exactly having tried to protect her privacy, what with the parading down streets in Camden smoking drugs, posting videos to YouTube of her doing stuff to mice, her husband beating up people in pubs and so on. The papers might have been unflinching in their stare, but she did cry "look at me" rather a lot, didn't she?

Martin actually answers an interview question

Aha. So, being asked about morbidity is some sort of journalistic trap, but questions about religion are apparently fine:

Asked in an interview with BBC 6Music, where they had come from, Martin replied: “Probably because I think you talk about things you saw a lot when you were a kid so we grew up with school assemblies, being constantly told about that kinda stuff - so it’s bound to come out.”

Y'know, some people just don't believe there's any deep philosophy behind Coldplay records and that the lyrics are just stuff that fills up the bits under the music and gives Chris Martin something to do while the band are playing.

Suede weekend: Can't Get Enough

Towards the end of the Suede experience, the 2003 Glastonbury appearance. Can't Get Enough - although, really, most of them had had enough by now:



And - sorry - I'd pasted the wrong bit in originally, which gave this, She's In Fashion from the same year:



[Part of the Suede weekend]

Happy Birthday, Pop Cop

Yesterday was the first birthday of The Pop Cop, Scotlands number one music blog. Or so they tell me.

Not entirely sure why they feel the need to have a woman's ass on their logo, but the blog itself is good reading.

RIAA: so certain of their case, they have to play sleazy

The stench of desperation from the major labels is getting so overpowering, it's like the Augean stables on a really hot day.

Their latest dirty trick? Warner had been suing a New York family, and their case had been going badly - the family were being defended by Ray Beckerman; he'd argued that unless the RIAA could prove that files had been downloaded, there were no grounds for the case.

After a long wait for judgement, Beckerman was suddenly told the RIAA had folded - weeks after they'd yanked the case.

Victory, right? Not quite: It was gamesmanship - the RIAA refiled the case, without mentioning it had previously been in court (so they'd get a softer ["different"] judge); they even diguised the case still further by pretending they didn't know the name of the family they'd previously been suing by name.

It might not be illegal, but it's certainly unethical and shows a contempt for process which is worth remembering when the RIAA starts appealing to our better natures.

[Thanks to Gareth for the tip]

Embed and breakfast man: Suede

It's a pure slice of self-indulgence this weekend, as we rummage around in the glorious past of Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler for a slew of Suede gawping.

Reading Festival, 1997: The three headliners were the Manics, Metallica - and, if you subtracted the Metallica from the Manics, you'd have Suede, who were the first climax of the weekend.

Beat the crap out of Beautiful Ones, Brett:



More video action across the weekend:
Can't Get Enough & She's In Fashion live at Glastonbury 2003
The Drowners
Trash from Top Of The Pops
The Next Life from Later With Jools Holland

Followed by Bernard Butler Monday
The Tears on Tuesday
Brett Anderson Wednesday

Buy
Suede - the timeless debut album
The Singles - all of them, no matter how questionable
Introducing The Band - their first live video, originally cranked out on VHS back in the mid-1990s, sort of half-arsedly thrown out on DVD
Love And Poison - the official biography (= not quite detailing the worst excesses)

Gordon in the morning: Critique of Pure Reason

Russell Brand is, we're told, writing a book about philosophy.

Gordon brings us the news:

BIZARRE shagger of the year RUSSELL BRAND has always had a deep love of Kant.

Yes, Gordon is attempting to do a gag that only just works when you say it out loud but in print.

That’s the 18th century German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, of course.

What else did you think?!

Because - if you say out loud, and not when it's written down - it's a bit like cunt, do you see? And Russell Brand talks about having sex a lot.

Gordon's also had "his people" mock up this, which he seems to think is a photo of Russell got up as Rodin's The Thinker but looks more like he's been slapped on a ponderous Hulk to us.

R Kelly: An innocent man, at last

Not long ago:
The jury has acquitted R Kelly of all 14 charges related to the sex video.

Gee, Noel, do you think?

Noel Gallagher went to Liverpool for his 41st birthday, reports a thrilled Liverpool Echo. Gallagher, of course, was there to genuflect:

“The Beatles were better than we'll ever be,” says the mono-browed Mancunian. “I think they were a far more innovative band than we'll ever be. The Beatles are still my heroes.”

Goodness, Noel - having ripped them off every time you've ever thought about booking studio space, never mind on record, you think they might be a bit more original than you? Really? Must... try... and... resist... urge... to... snurkle...

Eminem: Time hangs heavy

Given that Eminem has got so bored he's making spoof phonecalls to his own radio station and telling LL Cool J how much he loves him - not the way Ladies Love Cool James, of course - it's probably a good thing he's unretiring himself and making a new album.

Even if it's been created out of boredom rather than any pressing thing that needs to be said.

Lily Allen takes on Perez Hilton

If Mario Lavandeira posted something untrue about you - let's say he suggested you were no longer flavour of the month at your record label - you might be riled, but would you:

(A) Choose to ignore it
(B) Issue a brief response along the lines of "Perez is clearly losing it; clearly he's trying to keep track of so many Wannabes and Neverweres these days he hasn't got time to actually double-check his stories about anyone."
(C) Fire up MySpace and post a long, convoluted, needy rant along the lines of this:

I don't know why this has annoyed me so much. If I'm honest, it's probably because part of it is true these days I am more known for being a train wreck than a musician, and it does hurt. I've been working really hard on my new record; I don't think it sucks by the way. I haven't released a record for two years, so it's totally understandable that people don't write about my music anymore, however it's not fair to say that I'm washed up and it's not fair to make up these feuds between people. Not everyone's lives are fuelled by egos and jealousy, mine is certainly not. There was a time when Amy came out, that I was a little jealous, she has an amazing voice and writes incredible songs, what singer wouldn't be a little jealous of that, but I'd never let those feelings become unhealthy. And this is not meant in any way but I'd never heard of Katy Perry before I came here a few days ago, I didn't even know she was on Capitol, who by the way are not my label. I am signed to Regal Records in the UK and Capitol distributes my records here in America. I don't feel like I've been shoved aside for anyone, I haven't got a record out yet, so why would anyone be focusing their energies on me when there's nothing to work on! I have never been a "golden girl" and I think I visited Capitols office in New York once, about a year a half ago. I very much doubt they had a picture of me in their lobby. The point I'm trying to make is these stories are just not true. If the word reportedly exists in a story it means that it's pretty much a lie, it means they can't prove what they're writing and their just covering their backs. Perez doesn't even do this he just writes things that aren't true with no shame about it, and it's sad. I read these posts on his website about anti – bullying campaigns and all these good causes, and while I used to enjoy reading his site it seems to me that recently he has become what he hates so much, a bully. He bullies young, successful females; people usually bully people they're jealous of so I'll let you come to your own conclusion on that one. Anyway, I've got nothing against Perez personally, I don't assume to know him, what I do know is this though, he has a HUGE crush on my old manager, who I fired with a few months ago. Maybe this is his way of getting his attention or in his good books, or maybe it's because I turned down the opportunity of going on his TV show when he asked me to, or maybe because I'm friends with Samantha Ronson , who is so lovely by the way and not what Perez makes her out to be, who knows?
Anyways, I hope you'll all like my new material, if not, looks like I'll have to find something else to do.

If you answered (C), you might be Lily Allen.

The funny thing is the suggestion that Allen used to like Hilton's blog, but has now come to the conclusion that it's bullying, jealous and spiteful. What changed?

Oh, yes. He writes about Allen now in a less-than-flattering way.

Blue anew

Sky's Showbiz website is suggesting that news of Blue reforming is like Marmite, in that some people will love it, and others will hate it. They don't actually suggest anyone who's going to like the news, though - perhaps members of 2wo Third3 might be a little cheered at the prospect that seemingly anyone can get the comeback call these days.

It's not known how Lee Ryan, Duncan James, was there one called Timmy or Tony?, and the other bloke or maybe two other blokes will find time in their busy solo careers to play dates together.

"Hey, it's not a hand carwash I'm working at here", said Anthony Costas, "any guy can take the money and press the button. Providing I make the time back up later, of course."

Duncan James - who, literally, ceased to exist in this dimension the moment Blue split - said he's looking forward to being corporeal again, if only for a couple of weeks. "I just hope I can remember the tricks... were we conjurers? We were, right?"

Simon Webbe - who spent time since the band split appearing as a comedy character in the 3AM Girls column before being moved downwards to a recurring role in the Andy Capp cartoon - is also keen to get out on the road again. "I've heard Bridlington is brilliant in the summer, and I'm sure a smaller town nearby in the middle of autumn will be just as good when we play there."

Lee Ryan was unavailable for comment, but we'll try and grab a word when he pops in to fill his bucket and ring out his chamois.

Chris Martin: The arts show is killing me

We were a little surprised that Radio 4 felt that Coldplay's new album was worth a show of its own - half an hour to fill on a band whose sales might be wide but whose presence is somewhat slight seemed a bit of a risk.

It didn't help that Chris Martin flounced off nine minutes in, leaving - oh, yes - the drummer in charge:

Martin appeared uncomfortable with the interview from the outset.

When asked about a speech he made at a music awards ceremony in 2005 where he said the band would be away "for a very long time", Martin said: "I always say stupid things and I think Radio 4 is the place that will most remind me of that."

It got worse:

Presenter Wilson questioned whether the new album - full title, Viva La Vida Or Death To All His Friends - was a morbid reflection of the band's lyrical obsession with death.

"I wouldn't agree with you there at all, no," said Martin.

"I'd say you're journalistically twisting me into saying something I don't really mean."

Oh, for god's sake, man, you're the singer in a mildly diverting pop group making songs for driving Honda Civics to, and you're being asked if your music is sometimes a little glum. It's not like you're the minister for defence and are being set up for a question about weapons of mass destruction. If you'd just answered 'yes' or 'no', it's not like John Wilson was about to then hit you with allegations that your morbidity had led to the death of those dolphins in Cornwall or anything. He was trying to find something interesting about your band, and you reacted like it was a trap.

Martin only stayed a few minutes after that, although he did return at the end to add this:

"Um....yes...yes, yes....exactly..."

Which, naturally, John Wilson twisted journalistically into making Martin claim responsibility for the death of John Lennon.

Given that Martin is clearly incapable of polite conversation, why on earth did he agree to do the show in the first place?

Perhaps he just got hacked off it wasn't Mark Lawson.

Gordon in the morning: You come on just like...

Given the way she's usually linked with drugs, perhaps Gordon's Kate Moss story headline is ill-considered:

Model Moss is like Special K

The story, it turns out, is about how great she is looking now that she isn't hanging about with Pete Doherty. Charmingly, Smart seems to believe that without Pete, she'd never have come into contact with drugs at all.

It hardly merits either his face above, or the exclusive tag on it, but it's hard not to see the photos of nature refusing to be bought and bringing the cash-burning McLoughlin-Rooney nuptials to an expensively washed-out end, without a small giggle.

Lesbians really just hoping for a go at Usher

You might not have realised lesbianism was a problem. That's why we should be thankful to geniuses like Usher, who not only has decided that it's down to a shortage, but also believes that he has answer. He would be the answer:

m I so much of a bad guy because I decided to get married? Am I so much of a bad guy [because once I got in the situation], I decided to stand for something, build a foundation, and think about my future? As a man, you would respect me for not turning my back on it. ... It can never be bad to have a foundation as a man — a black man — in a time when women are dying for men. Women have started to become lovers of each other as a result of not having enough men. Are you not studying the stories? Wake up! Black love is a good thing."

If only there were a few more Ushers around, there might be no need for women to be gay at all. Simple!

Of course, the only flaw in his plan is Usher is so wonderfully wonderful, he's going to not just attract women, but men as well. They won't be able to resist his charms. And with men lost to Usher love, women will be back to square one.

Shiny new band: The Lovely Eggs

Coming straight atcha from Lancaster, it's The Lovely Eggs. You might call them tweepop, but probably only if you think that that's a bad thing.

This is them doing I Like Birds But I Like Other Animals Too:



The band were on the Marc Riley show on Monday on 6 (it's not brain surgery, is it? Well, not any more, no) and you can listen to their full set again [up until Sunday night]; there's also a track appeared on their MySpace site.

Holly has had a previous pop life, as part of Angelica, who made the superb Whistle Down The Wind tribute Why Did You Let My Kitten Die?

Nadler quits Terrastock; Terrastock not happy

The gentle ping of a pissed-off press release arriving. (Actually, GMail doesn't ping, but we like to make the sound ourselves. With out mouth.)

Marissa Nadler isn't going to play Terrastock any more. And Terrastock is keen to point the finger of blame:

Kemado Records has pulled Marissa Nadler from this year's Terrastock 7 Festival.

Terrastock founder Phil McMullen has stated, "I am surprised and not a little disappointed that Marissa Nadler's record company felt it necessary to let her fans down, particularly at such short notice".

Not entirely sure it's possible to be let down a long time in advance - wouldn't that just be mild disappointment? Still, nice to see Terrastock taking it on the chin and everything.

Metallica: It was all our management's fault

Having looked like class-a chumps by forcing publications to take down reviews of an album playback session, now Metallica are trying to fix the damage by shifting blame to an out-of-touch manager's decision:

“While we occasionally enjoy reading the various comments, rumors, speculation, reviews, gossip and all the good that the internet brings, rarely do we feel the desire/need to respond to the “blogosphere” . . . hey, everyone is entitled to have their thoughts and opinions, right? However, once we re-surfaced on Tuesday after a few weeks on tour in Europe, we were informed that someone at Q Prime (our managers) had made the error of asking a few publications to take down reviews of the rough mixes from the new record that were posted on their sites. Our response was “WHY?!!! Why take down mostly positive reviews of the new material and prevent people from getting psyched about the next record. . . that makes no sense to us!”” So after a few rounds of managerial ear spank and sentencing everyone at Q Prime to 20 push-ups each, we figured why not take matters into our own hands and just post the links here on our site. Kerrang, Metal Hammer, The Quietus.

“You see, we have maintained an “in the press” section here on Metallica.com for many years now, posting links to reviews of shows, album and DVD releases, and various other tidbits we’ve come across while surfing around. Some good, some not so good, but we put ‘em all up . . . sort of the same way we treat our message boards on this site . . . welcoming all feedback.

“So in the spirit of keeping this section current, we’ve put as many of the reviews of the rough mixes of the new record up here as we could find. If we missed any, let us know . . . and in the meantime, we’re always adding, so peruse at your leisure.”

Aha. So they were unaware of any of this going on because they were, erm, in Germany. Damn, if only that country could get on the internet, they could remain in almost daily touch with their management team and find out what they were doing in their name, eh?

Going well for the Ting Tings

America seems to be taking the Ting Tings to its heart: they've just announced they're extending their tour. (NB: Dates below are in American format - i.e. wrong)

06/21/08 Philadelphia, PA Popped
07/22/08 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
07/25/08 Providence, RI Club Hell
07/26/08 Albany, NY Valentine's
07/27/08 Brooklyn, NY McCarren Park Pool w/MGMT & Black Moth Super Rainbow
07/30/08 Kansas City, MO City Market w/Gnarls Barkley & Black Lips
07/31/08 St. Louis, MO The Bluebird
08/02/08 Chicago, IL Lollapalooza
08/04/08 Minneapolis, MN Varsity
08/06/08 Los Angeles, CA El Rey Theatre

All their other dates are sold out. Bouncers, generally, won't take kindly to you trying to sneak in by guessing a name that might be on the list and then saying "no, that's not my name..." and then trying again.

When is a leak not a bad thing?

Curious: while in the UK, a bloke's just been arrested for selling promos on eBay, and in the US Universal has dragged someone to court for the same reason, Pat Monaco, executive Vice President of Sales at the Universal Monaco has been suggesting that the leak of Lil Wayne's album onto the net was a positive boon to sales:

"The accounts were bullish by 10 in the morning," reports Pat Monaco, exec VP of sales for the Universal Motown Republic Group. "The sales the first few hours were exceeding the rate that the Kanye album sold a year ago." (That one ended up selling 957,000 the first week; nothing has come close since.) "Wayne was one of these records that, because it was so highly anticipated, with the leaks and everything, it caused more people to go out at 8 in the morning to buy the CD."

Even more curious: both Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider blog and Undercover music news were carrying this quote earlier in the day, but it's disappeared from both.

[Thanks to Joe for the story tip]

US court: Promos belong to the owner, not the labels

Another little humiliation for the major labels: The case brought by Universal against an eBay seller of second-hand promos has been tossed out of court by the judge:

Dismissing the American case, US District Court Judge S James Otero said that Mr Augusto was protected by the "first sale" doctrine in copyright law.

This says that once a copyright owner gives away a copy of a CD, DVD or book, the recipient is entitled to sell it on.
[...]
Record companies have long maintained that they continue to own these items and can ask for them back at any time.

They can be recognised by markings such as "For promotional use only" or "Not for resale", visible on the record or CD artwork and sometimes on the disc label itself.

But the judge said that such labelling did not alter the legal position.

This also means that writing "this belongs to ME" on someone else's stuff doesn't mean it becomes yours.

Lesson one: Queuing

Auditioning for the X-Factor isn't that tricky, you'd have thought: stand around in a queue for ages - with a bit of waving at a camera; then have your dreams pissed over with a differing level of public humiliation.

Even so, apparently now you can do a course in going on the X Factor. You even get a diploma, although we suspect it might not count towards entry on a degree-level course.

The affectionate punch

Florence And The Machine's debut single, Kiss With A Fist came out on Monday and is already fetching ten quid second hand. It's also attracting some raised eyebrows, prompting a defence of the song on the band's blog:

leona lewis's bleeding love isn't actually about her bleeding.
this isnt really about punching someone in the face. thank you and goodnight.

Judge for yourself (not Leona Lewis):

Metallica didn't mean for you to listen

Here's a question: if you invite journalists to listen to a playback session, and don't actually ask them to sign a non-disclosure agreement (or even mention that it's meant to be a big secret), should you be surprised when the journalists publish a report on the evening?

Exactly. And yet Metallica were, flying into a squawking rage when they discovered reviews of the music they'd played to journalists were online, and issuing "requests" for take down (which we gather to be of a 'nice-place-shame-if-something-happened' nature) to the websites that were carrying the pieces.

The official explanation is that the songs were "unfinished" and so it would be unfair to review them - although if the songs were so far from ready, why would you play them to people whose jobs are writing about the songs they've been played?

More likely is that the reviews were somewhat lukewarm: Blinded By The Hype saw the Quietus piece before they dropped it to protect their writer:

The Quietus contributor "Bob Mulhouse" is circumspect about the album's prospects, saying, "This album could be good, or it could be mediocre – too much depends on the other four songs to make a call at this point."

Not, perhaps, the ringing endorsement Metallica were hoping for. Maybe the other reviews were more excited, but then - since Metallica have rushed about having all memory of them wiped from the web - we'll never know, will we?

[Thanks to Sebastian Robinson for the story tip]

Cliq... off... gone

Cliq, the much-trumpeted system which would allow digital radio listeners buy the tracks they were listening to, has been dumped by Unique. They're blaming a shortage of DAB-enabled mobile phones.

It might also be that the radio stations they were embedded into - Heart and Heat and Smooth - just weren't playing music compelling or surprising enough to persuade people to buy on the spot. It was on Magic, for example. If you hear a song you like on Magic, you don't have to enter into a transaction with a mobiel device; you just pick up a compilation CD at the petrol station.

And the system itself was a little more complex than the promised 'one click to buy' proposition:

Listeners can access the CLIQ service by texting CLIQ or the name of the radio station to 78901. Once they have installed the free application on their mobile phone they can then select their chosen station and song they wish to purchase. A confirmation message will direct them to cliqradio.co.uk where, once registered, they will be able to download their first track for FREE. To buy more songs, they will need to top up their personal CLIQ account – this can be done both online and on their mobile phone. Tracks will cost £1.25.

It's probably no more complex than it had to be, with its dream of distributing on mobiles via java applets, but assuming the sort of person who'd be interested in the service would have online music store access already, why would they go through the fiddly stuff just to buy a more expensive version of a song they could find on iTunes? Especially when you have to pay in advance for the track?

Having sunk a bunch of cash in developing the system - although nothing on updating the Cliq website since launch - UBC are making noises that they'll keep the technology, with a view to deploying it in a disappointing way in the future. Closure is a £1.1million hit; they're saving themselves £1.2m annual losses, according to figures in the FT.

SeeTickets hail failed Glastonbury ticket process as success

The permanent revolution of joy that is the Glastonbury PR machine has hailed yet another victory, with SeeTickets placing a spun story to Gigwise hailing a "70% increase" in ticket sales, week-on-week, for the festival:

Martin Fitzgerald, the general manager of Seetickets, the festivals official ticket agency, told Gigwise that the renewed “buzz and excitement” was inevitable.

“People realise that they don’t want to be watching it on TV, wishing they were there, they actually want to be there and experience the festival in all it’s glory,” Fitzgerald said.

“A lot of people were telling us that they were desperate to go but just couldn’t afford it at the moment. Being allowed to book by Credit Card has certainly helped some people.”

Interestingly, Fitzgerald doesn't reveal how many tickets he's actually talking about - it could be last week they sold ten, and this week they've sold seventeen; if they were selling tickets in their hundreds last week then the situation was worse than anyone had imagined.

Still, it's amusing to watch a company responsible for flogging tickets for a festival with a recent tradition of selling out in hours trumpeting that they've still got loads to sell a few days before the event. Victory, comrades, it's all victory.