What to do with the new space opened up by the moving Chart Show

With The Chart Show disappearing down a hole round the back of old Mel's place ("moving to Friday teatimes"), Radio One suddenly has a two hour gap in its schedules on Sunday nights.

How would you fill such a space in the schedules?

I can't think of an idea.

Nor could Radio One, it turns out:

Radio 1 has announced a new Sunday show which will replace the current Official Chart slot when it moves to Fridays next month.

Hosted by CBBC presenter Cell Spellman, the new show will split into two parts, one devoted to new pop music with the other playing number one hits.
[...]
Spellman said: "The best station on national radio has been responsible for introducing me to so much incredible and varied music over the years, I just hope I can return the favour and help make those car journeys a little more memorable for the listeners with a mix of fun, top tunes and a little bit of cheeky chat!"

The reference to car journeys is a little odd - six on a Sunday is hardly prime Drivetime, is it?

The music industry stands behind Taylor Swift

Funniest sight of yesterday was a spokesperson from UK Music popping up on BBC News to praise the actions of Taylor Swift.

Almost as if they weren't representing the very music business companies who, when Apple demanded the three month free trial deal in the first place, just nodded and signed the paperwork.

Photographers versus Taylor Swift

After Taylor Swift won the battle with Apple to ensure that artists get to make money from their work, a photographer asked why her photographer contracts were okay, then:

“You say in your letter to Apple that ‘Three months is a long time to go unpaid,'” Sheldon writes. “But you seem happy to restrict us to being paid once, and never being able to earn from our work ever again, while granting you the rights to exploit our work for your benefit for all eternity…”

He goes on to say, “How are you any different to Apple? If you don’t like being exploited, that’s great… make a huge statement about it, and you’ll have my support. But how about making sure you’re not guilty of the very same tactic before you have a pop at someone else?”

Some people have been quick to defend Swift, saying it's unlikely that she's written the photographer contract. Which is true, but a person who is clearly in control of their career would at least have signed off on it.

The most egregious part of the Swift contract (itself not uncommon in the modern music industry) is that it gives Swift's management the right to smash people's cameras and equipment for non-compliance.

Now, the idea that a minor fracas over copyright could result in anyone deliberately destroying cameras might seem extreme, but it's not unusual. For example, if you purchase a ticket to a gig at, say, Southend's Cliffs Pavilion, the terms and conditions are written to allow staff to destroy your stuff:

The use of equipment to record or transmit audio and/or visual material inside the Venue is strictly forbidden. Unauthorised recordings, tapes, films or similar items may be confiscated and destroyed. Any recording made in breach of these conditions shall belong to the Venue and/or Promoter of the Event. Neither the Promoter nor the Venue will be liable for the loss, theft or damage to confiscated items.

As, increasingly, video and audio is being published to the web as it is consumed, either the Pavilion intends to march on Periscope servers with bats and torches; or else this is just basically a way to punish transgressors by smashing their stuff without any comeback.

Is Swift a hypocrite? Probably not - there's a wide difference between making musicians subsidise a major multinational's promotional campaigns and a photography landgrab, but it would be nice to see her take a lead in the question of photographer's rights in the same way she's taken on Apple.

Twittergem: Niles Rodgers

Some people's commutes this morning are substantially better than yours:

Strolling past @nilerodgers busking on the Southbank just made my Monday! That's mad amounts of cool. pic.twitter.com/vAPK4zmhGv

— Carmen Rose (@CarmenRoseLittl) June 22, 2015

D'Angelo wants music to get smarter

You might not have thought D'Angelo was ever going to change the world, but he might yet surprise us all. He's returned to music in the last few months, and is disappointed how detached it's become from modern society:

"I grew up on Public Enemy, and it was popular culture to be aware,” D’Angelo said."People were wearing Malcolm X T-shirts and Malcolm X hats. It was a very cool thing to know who Malcolm X was. It was all in the lyrics. It was trendy to be conscious and aware. Now the trend... it’s just [expletive]. But to tell you the truth, there are a lot of people who feel the same way that I feel and that are making great music, conscious music."

"But for some reason or another it seems like the gatekeepers are not allowing that stuff to filter through to the mainstream. Kendrick Lamar, he’s an example of someone who is young and actually trying to say something. Who else? You got Young Jeezy and Young Thug. You know what I’m saying? It’s stupid. It’s ridiculous," he continued.

The is D'Angelo. Whose biggest hit had lyrics that went like this:

You're my little baby, my darling baby
I swear you're the talk of the town
And everybody wants to know what's going down
Babe, I know they've seen us before
Maybe at the liquor store, or maybe at the health food stand
They don't know that I'm your man

The man who is known for a song about how people might not realise he was in a partnership even although they'd go to buy quinoa together is calling you out for being empty and stupid, modern music. He's suggesting that writing a song about holding hands in a Trader Joe's would be better for society than your current output. And you know what? He's kind-of right.

In which Taylor Swift has a point, and wins the day

You'll have read this elesewhere, by now, but Taylor Swift's gentle-but-firm open letter to Apple (alright, open Tumblog) does gently nail Apple and leave them hung out looking like greedy butt-danglers:

I’m sure you are aware that Apple Music will be offering a free 3 month trial to anyone who signs up for the service. I’m not sure you know that Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months. I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company.

The historically generous company which, for example, could have quite happily offered a discount on iMacs to educational institutions but chose instead to create a lower-spec model.

But could a flattering approach, even from Taylor Swift, work?

Actually, yes. It worked:

Now Apple says it will pay artists for music streamed during trial periods.
"We hear you @taylorswift13 and indie artists. Love, Apple," tweeted executive Eddy @Cue.

Of course, it's not so much the candy coating of Swift's letter that worked. It was the greed-shaming of putting right in the front of people the idea that it was musicians and songwriters who were actually paying for that three month free trial, not the cash-rich Apple.

Being shamed by a popstar. Thank god that can still happen - but it's still shabby it took Taylor Swift for Apple to understand they were pulling a shit move.

Charlotte Church: "Woman has accountant" shocker

Let's turn to Guido Fawkes. Guido persists in using his pseudonym as if we don't know he's Paul Staines, like a crap unmasked superhero still booking hotel rooms as "QTipMan" even although the receptionists always reply "okay, Mr. Staines, that's booked for you now." And he's managed to parlay his blog into a column in the News Of The World - the paper which still uses the pseudonym The Sun On Sunday. It's from this let's pretend world that he's tried to attack Charlotte Church following her appearance at the anti-austerity march yesterday.

Staines lives up to his chosen pseudonym, of course. Much as Fawkes was a dupe who got to do the dirty work of richer, more powerful types and ended up looking like a nasty piece of work, so too Staines trots out an attack line to try and deflect criticism of the government.

His problem with Church? Why, she calls for closing of tax loopholes, and yet... sorry, what was the pisspoor attack line again?

After joining the People’s Assembly against Austerity – whose aims include ‘increasing taxes on the super-rich’ and ‘closing tax loopholes’ – perhaps the Cardiff crooner turned campaigner should look at her own economy.

Church is the director of five companies that are all registered to the London address of Thomas Harris Accountants.

“Lowering and deferring tax is, of course, a key aim” boasts the firm’s website, by “taking advantage of allowances and reliefs of which many people are unaware.”

I don't think that there's a single major accountant which doesn't offer to minimise tax for its clients, and I don't think there's anyone who has a company that doesn't require some sort of accountancy service. So, really, this is on a par with going "well, David Attenborough calls for a reduction in fossil fuel use, but he has a car which uses petrol."

If Forkstaines has something solid - Church deliberately booking gigs in Bratislava for tax write-offs; a massive scheme to use foxes to channel cash through Nutwood; something like that - maybe there's a story there. But going 'oh, she wants tax loopholes closed and yet she has someone do her taxes for her who knows tax law' is weak, even from someone who clings to an outdated pseudonym.

High Court has just turned your iPhone into a crime scene

Remember when back in 2014 the government realised that having a law against people ripping their own CDs to put on digital players was absurd, and tidied up the law?

The High Court has reversed that change, and believes that if you own a CD and wish to listen to the music on your iPhone, you will meekly go online and pay for the thing all over again:

The ruling says that governments can't make exceptions to copyright law without compensating rightsholders for the "harms" from the changes; because the UK government didn't demonstrate that ripping CDs doesn't cause harm to rightsholders, and because it didn't impose a levy to compensate for "harms," the legalisation of ripping (which, incredibly, only took place in the last Parliament) is now invalid.

Yes, lawyers from the Music Industry have convinced judges that when Person A slips Now That's What I Call Music 56 into their drive, if they weren't doing that, they'd be somehow buying the tracks instead.

Obviously, it's a stupid decision, made by a legal system that has apparently never met a person, but it's also a ruling that will be completely ignored. It's not as if prior to 2014 people looked at their pile of CDs, looked at their iPod, and thought "well, if only the law recognised that I own the music and the only distinction is whether the digital playback is instantaneous or later, I could pop those on my device."

And it's probably for the best that the world will ignore this rule - the police force has been so hollowed out under Theresa May's rule that they can barely manage to turn up to a crime in progress, much less pop round on the rumour that someone has put their Clean Bandit single on their Galaxy G4, so it's going to make scofflaws of most of us.

But if the law was applied, the logical behaviour would be to say 'if I have to pay twice, well, screw that. The more flexible choice is to go with digital, so I shall stop buying CDs altogether, and instead go with cheaper digital versions. But hang on, as I'm not buying a physical album I only need to buy the two tracks I really want. Actually, come to that, why am I going to buy anything? I can just use my Spotify account if all I want to do is listen digitally."

Effectively, the big brains of the Music Industry have gone to court to argue that the added value of their premium product be outlawed. Maybe the judges aren't so out of touch - perhaps they've just come up with a smart way to fine an industry for its vexatious lawsuit.

This week just gone

The most popular search terms bringing people to No Rock this month:

1. "share some of your bookmarks with the world, and keep"
2. lil url generator
3. glyn jones arctic monkeys
4. erica lahn
5. salt and vinegar crisps
6. sam butcher
7. no rock and roll fun
8. simon bates
10. meg white net worth

Bubbling under: jaime harding, the value of university education, jason donovan tshirt iphone 4 case

These were this week's interesting releases:


Sarah Cracknell - Red Kite

Download Red Kite



The Selecter - Subculture

Download Subculture



Kathryn Williams - Hypoxia

Download Hypoxia



Keston Cobblers Club - Wildfire



Giorgio Moroder - Deja Vu

Download Deja Vu

Bookmarks: Cerys Matthews & Wham!

In a second slice of regional press/80s nostalgia for the morning, the South Wales Echo has been making Cerys Matthews relive the trauma of her first gig. Wham!, as it turns out:

“My sister was a bit older than me and I remember her saying, ‘You’ve got to come with me to the Top Rank in town or you’ll regret it for the rest of your life,” says the 46-year-old mum-of-three from Pembrokeshire, who's co-presenting the coverage of next weekend's Glastonbury festival for BBC6Music.

“It was in the early ’80s and I must have been about 12 or 13 at the time - it was during Wham’s first proper tour and they’d made a name for themselves by wearing tight white shorts and doing unconventional things with shuttlecocks.”

Bookmarks: Duran Duran

Superb work from the Newcastle Chronicle website, which has dug into its archives for the story of the time Andy Taylor opened a wine bar called Rio in Whitley Bay:

And the following year we reported on an even more bizarre problem.

“Panic broke out at the Tyneside wine bar owned by Duran Duran’s Andy Taylor when someone freed man-eating piranha fish from their tank,” we said.

“Bar staff at Rio rushed to rescue the fearsome fish, which eat human flesh, by scooping them into pint pots from between the feet of horrified customers.

“No one was bitten, but a few customers received an unwelcome soaking when 200 gallons of water in the tank gushed out.”

Glastonbury 2015: When legs snap

The line-up for Glastonbury now has a scary TBA in the Friday night headline slot, with the Foo Fighters pulling out as Dave Grohl's leg is so badly broken.

If it was me, I'd shift Mark Ronson across to the main stage undercard and let Florence headline. In fact, I'd probably have let Florence headline even if Grohl hadn't snapped his leg.

Donald Trump's campaign runs into trouble right at the start

It's not unusual for a presidential candidate to get into difficulties with their musical soundtracks - mostly for using songs without permission.

I think Donald Trump - very much the Zeppo of this year's Republican hopefuls - has broken some sort of record, having got slapped down virtually before he left the stage announcing his - admittedly amusing - candidacy.

"Heh" Trump must have thought, "I've only just said that I intend to clutter up the 2016 race with my limited understanding and honking outrage routine, and already my email box is pinging. I wonder if this email is from a wellwisher, or a rival throwing in the towel. Let's check."

Official Statement from Neil Young:

"Donald Trump was not authorized to use "Rockin' In The Free World" in his presidential candidacy announcement. Neil Young, a Canadian citizen, is a supporter of Bernie Sanders for President of the United States of America."

Trump sighs. He had really wanted to go with Barrett Strong's 'Money', but didn't feel America was ready to vote for a black Republican Presidential theme song.

Bono goes to Canada

Bono has taken time off from 'rationalising' his tax affairs to go and tell Canada how to spend their taxes.

But let's not focus too much on Bono's tax affairs, and wonder instead about his politics.

While in Canada, Bono praised how great the current government's commitment to overseas development is:

Bono remained above the fray, striking an upbeat note as he arrived on Parliament Hill repeating his mantra of "the world needs more Canada."

"Development assistance, or foreign aid as you call it here, is a really good way of showing who you are to the rest of the world," Bono said, surrounded by fans and well-wishers.

Stephen Harper's government is currently providing just 0.24% of GDP to its aid budget. This gets a visit from Bono and a lot of warm words in the press.

Oddly, though, when Paul Martin's aid budget was at 3% in 2005, Bono issued angry statements and called him out from the stage at a U2 gig.

That's strange, isn't it?

Smashmouth: Buns don't kill people; people do

Smashmouth's dwindling career has reached the point where they're now playing The Taste Of Fort Collins, a college town food-fest.

It didn't end well, either as, as if the good people of Colorado were channeling The Great Hall at a public school, the band were hit will a hail of bread rolls. The band didn't take it with good grace:



Think on, Steve Harwell. Give it a couple more years, you'll be hoping that the audience throw you some food during a set.

Embed and breakfast man: Slowdive

Apparently there's a "Pitchfork era", of which Slowdive's Souvlaki is part. (Actually, Souvlaki predated Pitchfork by a year, but that might be quibbling.) Whatever, they've produced an hour long documentary on the record. They being Pitchfork, not Slowdive:

I owe it all to Amy - what, exactly?

It's true, but probably both more true and less than it seems:

Amy Winehouse's pop star goddaughter Dionne Bromfield says she owes much of her success to the tragic songstress.

You might want to quibble with word success - admittedly, Bromfield has a BAFTA under her belt, for the CBBC series she co-presented, but beyond that... even with a guest spot on Strictly, her biggest hit to date stalled at 43; her last album sank without trace.

But you can't argue that the Winehouse connection has helped her enormously - indeed, that six years in to her career articles about her still start by referencing her late godparent, and that many of the pieces about her focus exclusively on that relationship, it could be the only thing keeping her afloat.

Which is a shame - who knows how Bromfield's musical career would have played out had it been allowed to breathe rather than carrying the weight of the departed Amy?

Rapid mark-down of claims

Helly Luv! She's taken Isis.

She's done what?

Oh, alright, she's taken YouTube.

Hidden delights: All Shook Up

While we're talking about beautiful things on the iPlayer, the entire run (four episodes) of All Shook Up is currently available (again, assuming you read this before mid-July) - Jesca Hoop, Wytches, Lonelady, Jane Weaver and much more. Go see; go enjoy.

Hidden delights: Slowdive

Originally tucked away behind BBC Red Button - and now on iPlayer, but only until 7th July 2015, Simon Scott out the Charlottes and Slowdive on Springwatch Upsprung, talking a little about shoegaze haircuts, and a lot more about the music of nature.

This week just gone

The most-read stories in the first half of the year (minus two weeks, but you know we're close enough):

1. Liveblog: Brits
2. Liveblog: Eurovision
3. Grooveshark calls it a day
4. Mental health in the music industry
5. Noel Gallagher is still loved by the NME
6. What is Conor McNicholas up to these days?
7. RIP: Jess Marquis
8. Blurred Lines a rip-off - official
9. The UK's Eurovision entry
10. From Westlife to lay-by

These were interesting releases this week:


Sauna Youth - Distractions

Download Distractions



Pins - Wild Nights

Download Wild Nights



Bis - I Love Bis

Download I Love Bis



FFS - FFS

Download FFS



Act - Love & Hate

Download Love & Hate



Tove Stryke - Kiddo

Download Kiddo

TL;DR/FI Friday

So, that reunion of TFI Friday last night was a reminder of why I never watched it first time round: it's a programme that looks like everyone involved is having tremendous fun, rather than a programme which is tremendous fun.

Also: the Gallagher/Who 'supergroup' felt more like the deputy head joining the school band for the last song of the evening.

Jusin Bieber's manager makes lemonade

Scooter Braun has a thankless task; trying to take bipedial oxygen squanderer Justin Bieber and make him into an artist who people may even kind-of like.

Braun thinks he's up to it, though, and he's busily talking him up:

In his words, 'It’s like Bob Dylan: He pissed people off, but whenever he switched, he reinvented himself in a way that made him who he is today.”

Well, yes. The only thing that separates Bieber from the prospect of a long career of reinvention like Dylan's is that Dylan's reinventions were from acoustic to electric; or from sceptic to Christian. Bieber's reinvention cycle so far seems to involve turning his baseball cap around a little.

Still, good luck Scooter.

How terrible life is for some

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now for Bianca Guthrie.

She has a tormented life.

And it is all Rhianna's fault:

A girl, named Bianca Guthrie, claims that she cannot get boyfriend because of her resemblance to the famous pop star Rihanna.
[...]
She added that boyfriend who have dated her, just because she look like the pop star.

Ms. Bianca says “I’m desperate to find a man who sees past my resemblance to Rihanna”.

But if all men are interested in is that you look like Rihanna, and as that doesn't change, isn't it more that your problem is that you keep finding men who do see past your resemblance?

Anyway, best of luck carrying this burden of looking a bit like one of the most attractive people on the planet. We ugly people can only count our blessings.

It turns out that Ed Sheeran is even duller than we thought

You might have thought that Ed Sheeran was a little dull.

You might now want to recalibrate how dull he is after he paid a surprise visit to Grand Forks, North Dakota.

In a town he'd never seen before, how did he spend his time?

Sheeran’s trip around Grand Forks began with a round of golf at the King’s Walk Golf Course with his team.

Yes. Playing golf.

This was an impromptu stop-off between gigs. And he played golf.

Bearing in mind nobody knew it was going to happen in advance, I'm a bit puzzled about how warmly the Golf Club is applauding itself for not making a big deal about it:

Nelson said the staff at Eagle’s Crest tried to keep Sheeran’s appearance under wraps to be respectful of his privacy.

I suppose golf does drag on and on, so during a match there would be time for the paparazzi to hoof out to North Dakota but it seems unlikely. And given the club's spokeperson is detailing the visit to the local paper, there's not much privacy being respected after the event, either.

I only hope that Sheeran was able to top off this day in equally dull style.

Following his round of golf, Sheeran was spotted at Texas Roadhouse ordering a steak.

Yep.

Dave Grohl is a trouper

First song. Falls off stage. Breaks leg. In a cast. PLAYS ON.

Dave fell off the stage during the very first song and broke his leg. He's performing right now anyways. Legend. pic.twitter.com/CsIqnePHxM

— The Metal Core (@TheMetalCore) June 12, 2015

Dave Grohl broke his leg 20 minutes ago during a gig in Sweden and came back on in a cast! LEG END! #guitarhero pic.twitter.com/OVpqJ11XpC

— Today FM (@todayfmofficial) June 12, 2015

Smile, Citizens: Download attendees to be scanned by cops

From the "the innocent have nothing to fear" files of our police state: Download Festival goers are all going to have their faces scanned by Leicestershire Police.

You weren't supposed to know that, though:

We have also learned that the Police Oracle's publication of the interview has caused significant upset for management at Leicestershire Police, who did not want any advance publicity of their "new" surveillance project.

The public would have been informed that it had been placed under surveillance after the event had ended, presumably as part of a "you didn't know, therefore it wasn't intrusive", justification for the scheme.

This isn't really justified by any disruption at Download - indeed, last year Leicestershire Police were rightly proud of how little crime was recorded at the festival.

So, at a mostly well-behaved festival, everyone is going to be treated as a suspect and even have their faces looked at to see if they're 'wanted'.

The official site explains what police will be doing on site. As you'd expect from a sneaky surveillance project, there's no mention that they'll be scanning people to see if they're wrong 'uns.

Morrissey talks about race again. No, it's not what you think.

Without even going near the High Court endorsed viewpoint that Morrissey Is Not A Racist Nor Ever Shall Be Called Such, it's clear Mozzer has a complicated worldview that probably can't be summed up comfortably in one word.

He's just called out Obama for acting like black lives don't matter:

Obama has mystified me because he doesn’t appear to support black people when they need it most… Ferguson being an obvious example. If Michael Brown had instead been one of Obama’s daughters, I don’t think Obama would be insisting that the nation support the so-called security forces! How can they be called security forces if they make the people feel insecure? Obama seems to be white inside. There is an obvious racial division in America and it’s exploding and Obama doesn’t ever support the innocent black people who are murdered by white police officers who are never held accountable. You would expect him to be more understanding of what it means to be black. But so far, he hasn’t been.​ There’s no point in continually saying that we must support the police when it is obvious to the entire world that the police in America are out of control.

How can this Morrissey then go to London and mutter about not hearing English accents in Knightsbridge and the gates to England "being flooded". It's almost as if (pop psychology alert) that having spent so much time in America, Morrissey finds it impossible to talk about Britain except through a character - part cartoon, part one-of-the-sleeves-of-a-Smiths-record - in the same way that, say, Lousie Mensch's attempts at providing commentary on American politics is powered by a belief that she should know about this sort of thing, but without enough context to clarify into something that isn't a bit embarrassing.

And in case you're thinking "well, this is Morrissey just saying something liberal to try and offset the view in some people's minds", that doesn't seem to be the case either; it feels thought-through. Compare this with what he has to say about racism in the music industry (American music industry, of course) where he's a bit sketchier:

I think rap has scared the American white establishment to death, mainly because it’s true. James Brown once sang “Say It Loud, I’m Black And I’m Proud”. No pop artist would ever be allowed to say that today … they’d be instantly dropped from the label. If Billie Holiday approached Capitol Records in 2015 they wouldn’t entertain her for a second. Also, yes, I feel that I bring my spirit to America, and I feel very much a part of it and I’ve played in most cities big or small. America has been so important to my musical life, and the audiences have always been incredible. I’ve always felt privileged even though I know I’ve been locked out of mainstream considerations. That’s life! Me and Billie Holiday, good company, at least.

It's a pity they didn't ask him to expand a bit on what he meant by "rap" - the quote here could have come from thirty years ago; does mainstream rap really still worry the establishment in the same way? It's hard to believe that tracks like Trap Queen are going to cause too many Bank of America execs to nervously run a finger round their collar. There's a sense of the "I'd imagine" about this part of the interview; like his descriptions of Britain and immigration in the fateful NME interview, it's as if he's generating a viewpoint based on half-impressions and fractured memories.

I think we're nowhere different from where we started - Morrissey has a complex intersection with questions of race and identity in the modern world.

And while you don't need Morrissey to point out that a lot of white American cops have a problem with a lot of Americans who aren't white, the fact that he is may say something about just how bad that situation has become.

Shirley Manson isn't impressed by streaming

You know who's not excited about streaming music? Shirley Manson, tha's who:

"Now you get music for free. If people understood the economics of streaming they would be a little more sympathetic to an artist's plight," she explained.

Manson added that part of the blame lies with the record companies, who don't suffer in the same way that their artists do.

"It's a crime spree. I don't think people understand that record companies still continue to make enormous amounts of money. They strike the deals with the streaming companies," she said.

Well, yes, they do. While muscling to the front making it difficult for individuals to work directly with streaming services to get a larger share of the (face it) small royalty on offer per single play.

"It's a f**king racket," Manson added, before expressing optimism that a fairer system will emerge. "It's early days though and I do think it will be changed."

Maybe.

Although Tidal is dying on its arse, because its solution was to charge listeners more, rather than divvy up the take more fairly.

Which means hopes of a better world means either the tech companies, or the record labels, decide that they should give a bit more of their chunk to the artists.

The history of the tech and music industries suggest that Manson might be waiting for a long time for the sunny uplands.

What the pop papers say: NME pulls a surprise

This week's cover band is Wolf Alice.

Last week's cover band was Florence.

That's two female-fronted acts in two weeks.

The last time that happened? November 2003, when Kylie followed The Distillers.

If you don't think Kylie counts, and are looking for the last time two rock acts with female leads followed each other on the NME cover, you'd have to go back to the end of September 1998, for Hole followed by PJ Harvey.

And if you're wondering 'when was the last time two British female-led acts came in subsequent weeks on NME covers', if you stretch a point, November 1986 had Cilla Black followed by Swing Out Sister - but Cilla was there as a TV personality, not a musician.

More accurately, this is the first time the NME has run two subsequent covers of British female-led acts since December 1984, when Siouxsie followed the Cocteau Twins.

The first time in thirty years.