Saturday, January 05, 2013

Cassingles: They're growing in popularity

Good news for manufacturers of pencils, although only the hexagonal sort. Britain is going to be needing something to start trying to spool unruly tape back into cassettes, as Cassingles had a massive upswing in sales in 2012. A 300% increase, in fact.

Although the Official Charts Company has a slight note of caution:

That’s right, the Official Charts Company track sales of recorded music in the UK seven days a week, 365 days a year, covering a whopping 99% of the singles market, EVEN CASSETTES! And now, according to this eye-popping treasure trove of data collected daily from music retailers the length and breadth of the country, we can confirm that the market for cassette singles, or ‘cassingles’ tripled in 2012, from 218 to a grand total of 604 copies.
480 of those cassingles were Feeder's Borders.

Perhaps even more surprisingly, the Chart people counted 270 albums on minidisc being sold in the UK.

No word on how the few remaining available Digital Compact Cassettes are selling, although "they're not" is most likely.


The Wanted think they're like The Beatles

No, they really do:

Tom Parker said: ''It's Beatlemania for both boy bands, really. The whole boy band thing has really come back. Us and one direction have gone over to America and are literally just tearing it apart. The whole boy band thing is really alive and it's good that it's two British acts doing it.''
The Wanted, it's important to remember, aren't really anything like as popular as One Direction. And One Direction aren't really anywhere close to The Beatles.

(That's not entirely One Direction's fault; it'd be hard for even a functioning band to be 'as big as The Beatles' any more.)

But, certainly, feel free to consider yourself 'more or less on a par with Duran Duran as far as American popularity goes'.


Gordon in the morning: Slim pickings

Ed Sheeran has been thinking about working with Eminem. He isn't going to. Not yet, anyway:

ED SHEERAN says he doesn’t want to collaborate with legendary US rapper EMINEM – because he’s not ready.
Because this is just a stumpy little piece, and because it's Gordon Smart, there's no context at all for why Sheeran might suddenly be talking about Eminem. To be fair to Ed, it looks more like he's talking about working with any of the Grammy Bunch, and Eminem was just the name he threw in as an example.

Now, let's stop being fair to Ed, shall we? Life's too short, and he says things like this:
The Suffolk lad said: “I’m going to wait until a point when I’m on a level where I can make that call, because I don’t want any leg ups now.
Wasn't all the help he got from Jamie Foxx a massive leg-up? Indeed, isn't nearly any successful music career based almost entirely on the number of leg-ups you get?
“I want to do my thing in my scene, my acoustic world, and then go over to the States.”
But you've already been to the States. Jamie Foxx? Remember?

You've got to love Sheeran's pretence that he's some sort of wandering acoustic minstrel rather than a sub-brand of Warner Music Group.
The A Team singer and Brit winner added: “I want to be able to get up to a stage where it’s not weird to ask someone like Eminem to hop on a tune.”
Asking someone to hop on a tune. He would ask Eminem to hop on a tune. Hop. On a tune.


Friday, January 04, 2013

BBC, NME hail Haim

Today, the BBC Sound Of 2013 poll names Haim the Sound of 2013, the annual list compiled by asking "tastemakers" which bandwagon it's best to jump upon.

The NME is patting itself on the back, too:


Yes, Haim are on the front of the NME. What a pity the magazine didn't have the confidence to just give them the cover on their own, but felt they needed to be boosted by the presence of the Palma Violets.

It'd also be more impressive if the NME had given Haim their cover before all the - ahem - tastemakers of the land had tipped them. Or, indeed, not waited until weeks after the Guardian had stuck the band on the front of the Guide.

If only NME could have claimed to have put them on the front back in 2012, eh?


Gordon in the morning: The Stereophonics are still going

It's like discovering money down the back of the sofa. Well, not money - more like a discarded condom. The Stereophonics are still a going concern to such an extent that they've hired a new drummer:

STEREOPHONICS frontman KELLY JONES says anyone can join the band – so long as they make a mean beans on toast.

The group recently had a shake-up with JAMIE MORRISON, ex drummer with NOISETTES, replacing JAVIER WEYLER.
To be fair to Kelly Jones, he didn't say that anyone can join the band if they can make beans on toast; merely that Jamie once made beans on toast with them.

That's not to say that introducing some sort of skills test for being in the Stereophonics is a bad idea - and, to be honest, being able to make beans is probably a better target than knowing how to play Pick A Part That's New. In fact, we'd encourage the band to concentrate more on low-level catering for the next few years.


Gaydar goes; Gaydio takes up slack

Gaydar Radio is something of a success, right? As owners QSoft trumpet on their website:

GaydarRadio is an independently owned radio station in the UK and broadcasts via the internet and DAB. The station is multi-award winning having received BT Digital Station of the Year 2006, Sony Digital Station of the Year 2007 and Arqiva Digital Station of the Year 2007 & 2008. GaydarRadio is the largest gay & lesbian station in the world, with over 687,000 unique listeners every month in the UK (Source: IPSOS/RAJAR Survey August 2012).
For all that, though, QSoft are closing it down. Partly because it's really a dating website company, but partly because... well, DAB is going nowhere.

The licences are going to be transferred to Gaydio, the similar service based in Manchester. Similar, but with an FM licence.


Bookmarks: Pete Doherty

100 Books I'll Never Write intends to outlive Pete Doherty. Why?

Pete Doherty is the Private Pike of the Indie Rock Dad’s Army, and allowing him to hold the memorial Keith Richards tommy-gun of pretend drugs is just encouraging his attention-seeking behaviour. I can’t abide the chap.

Besides, even Kaiser Karl would agree with me that it’s hard to take seriously a man whose sartorial style runs the entire gamut from ‘Poundstretcher Blues Brothers Tribute Band’ to ‘Stars In Their Eyes drummer off Chas’n’Dave’ via ‘original Grand-dad from Only Fools And Horses’.


Thursday, January 03, 2013

Jimi Hendrix working again... hang on...

6Music is excitedly reporting that it's going to play a record! On Monday!

Caps lock on:

We have the WORLD EXCLUSIVE FIRST PLAY of the new Jimi Hendrix single on Monday morning.
Hang on... isn't he, you know... not exactly in a fit state to get to a studio?
It's called 'Somewhere' and is taken from the new LP of unreleased recordings called 'People, Hell and Angels'.
Oh. I would suggest we file this under Free As A Bird, then, only I don't think any of us want to have to head out to the field where we filed that and start digging again, do we?

6Music is keen, though:
From what we've heard so far, it's going to be amazing!
I hope that when they say "from what we've heard so far" they're referring to the album, and not that they've committed to play a record next week on the strength of the introduction and first half verse. But I'm not so sure.


Gordon in the morning: Woman uses internet in coffee shop

Really, Gordon? Things are so bad you're reduced to running a story about Cameron Diaz using an iPad in a coffee shop like everyone else in the entire world?


Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Shrag split

Well, that's the year off to a grim start: on 6Music earlier this evening, Shrag announced they were splitting up.



That's a shame.


Countryobit: Patti Page

Patti Page has died in Tennessee.

Page sold more records in the 1950s US than any other female singer, and yet her biggest hit was almost strangled by the record company. Mercury thought Page would be perfect for a Christmas hit - Boogie Woogie Santa - and didn't pay much attention to the b-side. Indeed, they tried to persuade DJs to not flip the disc, so convinced were they that Boogie Woogie Santa would be a hit.

Luckily, people did investigate the other side - Tennessee Waltz would go on to be the first crossover country hit, and one of the highest selling records of all time.

She also helped invent overdubbing - in 1947, Mercury refused to pay for backing singers as they didn't think Page had a high enough profile; Jack Rael and Patti came up with the idea of using tape to allow her to back up her own main vocal. It sounded like this:



It worked so well, she was allowed by Mercury to use the effect full-on for the follow-up, With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming.

She was born Patti Page, of course. She wasn't even the first Patti Page; she'd taken on the role of the singer on KTUL's programme sponsored by the Page Milk Company. (The Pages in question were part of the Page family, whose Anglo-Swiss Milk Company was one of the constituent parts of the original Nestle conglomerate.)

Patti Page died on New Year's Day in California. She was 85.


HMV being fought over. No, really.

HMV must find itself to be the subject of a battle: Apollo Global Management has been trying to buy up the chain's debt in order to gain control of the company and its assets - I think this operation is called "Project Lets Hope They Still Have Some Cardboard Cutout Tom Cruises In The Back Of The Stores As They Might Be Worth Something On Ebay".

Other lenders are keen to hold on to the debt - Music Week says hopefully in the belief that HMV can be saved; you suspect it's more about belief they can sell it on for more.

Apollo Global Management isn't entirely unfamiliar with the retail world. In 2006 Apollo paid USD1.3billion for struggling linen and things store Linens N Things. The expensive vote of confidence bought the chain just an extra 25 months of struggling.


Azoff: 'e's off

Irving Azoff, who has been guiding the unholy marriage of Ticketmaster and LiveNation, stepped down on New Years Eve. Azoff suggests that he's just not cut out for life in a public company. He's planning to set up another management company to farm his increasingly long-in-the-tooth clients.


Vini Reilly needs a hand

Things have been a bit rough for Vini Reilly recently - he had a stroke back in 2010, and since then money has been tight. His nephew, Matt Reilly, is trying to organise donations to help get him through the tough time.


1993 all over again: 1 - The Breeders

1. The Breeders - Cannonball

Not only did NME think this was the best song of 1993, they considered it the 22nd best indie anthem ever. Oddly, Pitchfork considers it the 22nd best track of the 90s. From this we can extrapolate that it is also the 22nd best polka tune and number 22 of your 100 Best Hymns.

It also is comprised of two little ducks.

So robust a song, it survived being used in the trailer for Dude, Where's My Car.

You can go and look at the outfit Kim Deal wears in this video in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy: The Breeders - Last Splash]


1993 all over again: 2 - Credit To The Nation

2. Credit To The Nation - Call It What You Want

Apparently, Credit To The Nation are currently in the midst of a comeback. Back in 2011, there was talk of a new album - it would have been their first release since 1996's Daddy Always Wanted Me to Grow a Pair of Wings; instead, it seems to have become their first unreleased album since 1998's Keep Your Mouth Shut.

The single is a nice bit of agit-poppery, but you wonder if it would have got a second glance from Kings Reach Tower without, you know, the opening bit.


1993 all over again: 3 - Leftfield/Lydon

3. Leftfield/Lydon - Open Up

The stand out track from the album Now Thats What I Call Music 26, and part of the reason why Lydon can just about get away with playing the pantomime dame.

Leftfield's manager, Lisa Horan, reveals that the track was passed over by a major label:

John was on East West at the time, which meant they had to have first choice on the single. Luckily for us, they turned it down. I've still got a letter from the A&R man which says, "Thanks for coming to us with this project', but...". We were after a £25,000 advance and he didn't think it was worth it. So we ended up being able to put it out on Hard Hands."
The 'burn Hollywood burn' hook was unfortunately timed, as the record coincided with fires in Los Angeles. Paul King - by now well into his second career as MTV presenter - seemed convinced that the band had deliberately written the song to mock those who lost property in the inferno. Paul King always was an idiot.



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy Leftism]


1993 all over again: 4 - Suede

4. Suede - Animal Nitrate

This nearly didn't make it to number four. It nearly didn't make it to a singles release at all, as Brett Anderson wanted Sleeping Pills to be the single.

From 2012, it might look like NME had made a bold decision in choosing Suede - outsiders, a bit sexy, a bit druggy. Well away from the mainstream.

But not so much - not only did the song build itself round a riff nicked from Dixon Of Dock Green's theme tune (no, really) but it also got debuted at the Brit Awards. Yes, the Brit Awards.



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy: Suede]


1993 all over again: 5 - Rage Against The Machine

5. Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name...

At the time, being the fifth-best single of 1993 as judged by the NME team seemed to be the peak of the achievement. Who knew we were listening to 2009's Christmas Number One single?

I've told this tale before, but it stands retelling: The real effect of the single is best summed up by the boy wearing a "Fuck You, I Won't Do What You Tell Me" tshirt. In Asda. Running up and down the aisles to fetch items for his mum.

As a statement, the chant was about as likely to achieve success as "fly me to the moon" was.



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy: RATM]


1993 all over again: 6 - Bjork

6. Bjork - Human Behaviour

The only act to get two tracks into the top 20, this time we see Bjork being stalked by either an extreme furry, or else someone struggling with a prototype onesie. This would also win MTV's "Breakthough video" for the year.



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy: Buy: Debut]


1993 all over again: 7 - Tindersticks

7. Tindersticks - Marbles

Over at the Melody Maker, they were crowning Tindersticks as the album of the year. It came 13th in the NME list; they went for Bjork's Debut instead. That difference alone suggests that maybe IPC closed down the wrong title, doesn't it?

You've got to admit, this is a wonderful lyric:

You saw your life as a series of complicated dance steps
Impossible to learn, they had to come naturally
Together you squirmed and wriggled
And I could only jerk along behind



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy Tindersticks]


1993 all over again: 8 - Elastica

8. Elastica - Stutter

One of the great songs about sexual dysfunction, of course.

These days, Justine Frischmann is living in San Francisco and painting. Where this video was filmed, funnily enough:



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy: Elastica]


1993 all over again: 9 - Belly

9. Belly - Feed The Tree

Over on songmeanings.net, there's some prime reader-as-author work going on. Yangtze knows what they think:

I know Tanya's confirmed the death thing which makes it kind of official. However, I much prefer to interpret feed the tree as giving birth. Be there when I give birth, feeding the family tree. The tree of life. 'Being there' is everything.
That's fair enough, right? Knowing the song is intended to be taken in one way but happy to think of it in a way that works for you.

Not good enough for kenfoo00, apparently. He's convinced Tanya Donelly is hiding something:
In general, I find that song lyrics often do not fit what the authors claim they mean. Often, they attribute some amazing meaning behind pathetically weak lyrics. There is something dark about this song, she may not feel comfortable relating.
BECAUSE TANYA IS EVIL
No one deals with the "silver baby come to me (if it is the narrator, she would be talking to herself), I'll only hurt you in my dreams.". Death hurts, jack. If you've not seen it up close and personal, your time is coming. I like the singer's voice and the music, but there is something evil about that line. I thought it is about a child molester...."old man", "broken heart" (badly functioning conscience?), wants to hurt a child in his dreams? There is more to the real meaning than the performer is letting on.
I think something approaching 75% of debates about song lyrics online eventually contain the claim the song is about touching children.



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Download Feed The Tree]


Gordon in the morning: Mumbling about Mumford

Mumford And Sons are a pretty easy target. That doesn't stop Liam Gallagher, does it?

“Everyone looks like they’ve got f***ing nits and eat lentil soup with their sleeves rolled up.
Lentils? Didn't Liam get the 2008 memo which upgraded the standard hippy/food jibe from "lentils" to "organic tofu"?
“They all look like they live on the heath. Maybe that’s where they record.”
They wear waistcoats and ties - whatever you might think about the Mumfords, they don't look like they're sleeping rough on the heath.
Everyone’s f***ing DON McLEAN — far too many acoustic guitars, no style.
Too many acoustic guitars, eh? Let's come back to that one in a moment.
They look like they shop at Oxfam.
No they don't, do they? The whole point of the Mumfords is they look like they've had their clothes laid out for them by their butlers, surely?
“I wouldn’t put any posters up of any band if I was a 16-year-old lad. There’s none of that sitting down on f***ing stools for me, sweetheart.”
Will you not, eh?

What's this story from The Sun last year?
[T]he Beady Eye singer and his fans have got something else to look forward to – Liam will be making his first acoustic performance in January as part of London Fashion Week. Only 120 punters will hear eight live tracks.
Maybe there are too many acoustic guitars after all.

Having seen his beloved Liam slapping about at the Mumfords, Gordon stands behind trying to join in:
He didn’t even mention that they all went to posh schools.
No, Gordon, he didn't. Because he was trying to pretend they were some sort of tramps with guitars, and "who went to Posh School" would have been inconsistent with that.


Tuesday, January 01, 2013

1993 all over again: 10 - Huggy Bear

10. Huggy Bear - Her Jazz

Yay! Yes, yes, yes. Apparently the NME could think of nine songs better than this.

Over on YouTube, under the live version from The Word, there's some grumpy commentage:

jameyinegypt 8 months ago
What a load of crap, bad at the time , just as terrible now. Where are they now??!! who care's lol

flemwad 2 months ago
took the words out of my mouth mate..thank God sometimes shit doesn't float to the top, but tumbles along the bottom to obliteration...just garbage.... then now and forever

InAnswer 1 month ago
Couldn't agree more.
I remember seeing this on the word 20 years ago & thinking what a load of s**t & 20 years later it's still s**t & embarrassing to watch.
Proof that the NME would champion any crap as long as the bands in question were politically 'right on'
Besides the question of who would choose "flemwad" as a screenname, there is much else to wonder at here. Why would someone censor the word "shit" but not "crap"?



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy Her Jazz]


1993 all over again: 11 - Manic Street Preachers

11. Manic Street Preachers - From Despair To Where

Here's what Richey Edwards told the Melody Maker about this track:

In the Western world, living conditions really aren't that bad. Most people have somewhere to live and enough to eat - and yet most people are unhappy. I don't think many people ever come home at night thinking 'What a great day that was!' And that's why totalitarianism will always be tempting - because a fascist leader can say 'I'll make all your decisions for you. You don't need to have any responsibilities. I'll take care of your life.'



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy: Gold Against The Soul]


1993 all over again: 12 - Pet Shop Boys

12. Pet Shop Boys - Go West

I'm sure this was the result of a pub bet, in which Neil Tennant was bet he couldn't make a Village People song any more gay.



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy Pop Art]


1993 all over again: 13 - Spiritualized

13. Spiritualized - Electric Mainline EP

A whole ep? Surely that's not fair, pitching it against singles? Especially as there were no duff tracks on it; it's like letting someone with eight legs run in the 100 metres.

1993 wasn't an entirely successful year for Jason Pierce - the band had been booked onto a support slot with Depeche Mode; they lasted for six dates before audience hostility saw them sent back home.

Still, this did alright for them. The EP even made the Top 50:



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy: Pure Phase]


1993 all over again: 14. Blur

14. Blur - For Tomorrow

"We're trying not to feel sick again, and holding on for tomorrow." The coalescing myth that Blur somehow needed Oasis to provide a yang to their yin is rather comprehensively disproved by the stuff they were doing before Oasis even had a record in the shops.

This track inspired the famous bit of graffiti which is either a key cultural icon of London life, or else a persistent spot of vandalism.



[Part of 1993 all over again]

1993 all over again will resume later...


1993 all over again: 15 - New Order

15. New Order - Regret

Having survived the horror of working with Keith Allen three years earlier, New Order attempted to push their luck when filming this bit for Top Of The Pops by getting David Hasslhoff - or "David" as he's known - involved. There had been plans to get David to pretend to sing the vocal, but thankfully that never happened. Probably because it would have involved acting.



[Part of 1993 all over again]


1993 all over again: 16 - Radiohead

16. Radiohead - Creep

Back when Radiohead's fate seemed to be defined by a large pile of cassingles marked down to 10p each, in a dumpbin under the main racks, it was Creep that sustained them. This number 16 placing was all the more remarkable as the song had made it to number four in the 1992 list, on its first, mostly overlooked, release. (I think this might make it the only single to have been in the NME SOTY list two years running.)



[Part of 1993 all over again]


1993 all over again: 17 - Shara Nelson

17. Shara Nelson - Down That Road

Five Top 40 hits in her own right. How many can you name?

Not easy, is it? This was her first post-Massive Attack single, and sadly also the high-water mark of her solo career. To say she lost her way a bit is understatement on stilts - Pete Tong had to take out a restraining order things got so bad at one point - but it sounds like she's got things back together now; there's a new album due this year.


1993 all over again: 18 - Paul Weller

18. Paul Weller - Sunflower

Because Paul Weller was in The Jam, he has been forgiven an awful lot of decidedly average albums (most of which were destroyed through over-production, to be fair - live, many of the songs can stand up.)

If Paul McCartney had made this, the 1993 NME would have laughed it off the page - although the 2013 version of the magazine would have given it a cover.



[Part of 1993 all over again]


1993 all over again: 19 - Senser

19. Senser - Eject

"I see the system as it crumbles before me. I see the system as it dies" - luckily not before Senser took their "Stereo MCs with a New Statesman subscription" schtick to A&M.

They're still going.



[Part of 1993 All Over Again]


1993 all over again: NME's best singles two decades back

Although we have a bright new year waiting to be written upon, let's not forget that January is two-faced, looking back as well as forward. And no day is more push-me-pull-you than New Year's Day itself.

So, to show 2013 what sort of challenges it will need to rise to and to lob in a few lazy posts of embeds, let's hold hands and countdown the 20 best singles of 20 years ago, as decided upon by the NME.

20: Bjork - Venus As A Boy
Possibly the point where we should have said "enough with the kooky", as Bjork stares into middle distance and rolls eggs round her head. Cooking doesn't come any more twee than this.

"His wicked sense of humour suggests exciting sex" doesn't really hold true in the real world, does it? Not unless Jeremy Beadle was... but no, let us pursue that thought no further.



19. Senser - Eject
18. Paul Weller - Sunflower
17. Shara Nelson - Down That Road
16. Radiohead - Creep
15. New Order - Regret
14. Blur - For Tomorrow
13. Spiritualized - Electric Mainline EP
12. Pet Shop Boys - Go West
11. Manic Street Preachers - From Despair To Where?
10. Huggy Bear - Her Jazz
9. Belly - Feed The Tree
8. Elastica - Stutter
7. Tindersticks - Marbles
6. Bjork - Human Behaviour
5. Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name Of...
4. Suede - Animal Nitrate
3. Leftfield/Lydon - Open Up
2. Credit To The Nation - Call It What You Want
1. The Breeders - Cannonball


Billboard has found the missing views... mostly

So, those billions of views which the majors lost on YouTube? Billboard thinks it can account for them:

The company recently decided to remove view counts for videos that are no longer live on the channel, or so-called "dead videos." For Universal and Sony, that meant thousands of music videos that over the past three years slowly have migrated to the VEVO channel, which is jointly owned by the two companies. A senior label executive confirmed the migration.

In a strategic move, Universal, Sony and EMI in 2009 jointly put their music videos in the VEVO basket with the belief that by aggregating the videos, they could command better advertising rates as well as grow viewership.

That meant high-profile videos that once lived separately on the Universal and Sony YouTube channels have been relocated to Vevo. As a result, the views that those videos received during their time on the dedicated label channels were taken away in YouTube's latest "clean up" effort.

In other words, those views happened; they weren't "faked" or even double counted when they went on to Vevo. But because the videos are no longer on the channel, YouTube considers them "dead videos." They still live on in YouTube, just under a different channel.
Aha - so the major labels are in the clear. This is merely tidying away the views for videos which are no longer visible, right?

Mostly.

As Billboard admits earlier in its piece:
A YouTube spokesman confirmed that the company routinely adjusts their view counts in two ways. The first is by " de-spamming" the data, which takes out things like videos that automatically play without intervention from the viewer or pop-under videos that viewers may not actually see.

In the latest "de-spam," YouTube subtracted 1.5 million views from Sony and Universal's channels.
Notice how "de-spamming" is given quotes, as if it - hee hee - hardly counts as spamming at all. And lest anybody wish to spend more time thinking about what happened to cause these dubious spam views, Billboard plays that figure down further:
That may sound like a lot, but it's just a fraction of the 1.3 billion it subtracted throughout its entire video library.
See? Nothing to see here... move along, everyone.

Except 1.5million doesn't just sound like a lot, it is a lot. Yes, compared with the figure for all the videos on the site, it's small - and compared to the larger number of views which apparently were taken down for videos now on Vevo, it's small. But 1.5million is still rather a lot, and not the sort of thing reputable companies should be doing.

Indeed, were it another two companies with that many of dodgy views - companies not in partnership with YouTube, for example - it'd be surprising if Google allowed them to remain on the site.

But, of course, Billboard isn't going to bother about that question.


Happy New Year

Good morning, everybody. Just a quick happy new year to everyone who still reads this blog, wherever they find it and whatever device you might be on. Thanks for still being around, even if it's just because you can't quite work out how to delete us from your RSS feeds...


Monday, December 31, 2012

The 2012 inch remix: Vale 2012

Those we lost this year:

Warda Aldazairia, singer
Frank Barsalona, promoter
Eddie Blazonczyk, polka star
Dave Brubeck, jazz hero
Celso Chavez, guitarist, Possum Dixon
Dick Clark, creator and presenter of American Bandstand
Don Cornelius, creator and presenter of Soul Train
Hal David, songwriter
Carl Davis, creator, The Chicago Sound
Michael Davis, bassist, MC5
Josie DeCarlo, inspiration for Josie (and the Pussycats)
Bill Dees, songwriter
Rob Doherty, guitarist, Into Eternity
Bill Doss, tremor controller, Olivia Tremor Control
Donald Dunn, bassist, Booker T & The MGs
Jo Dunne, guitarist, We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It
Jimmy Ellis, singer, The Trammps
Robin Gibb, one of the Bee Gees
Ronald "RB" Greaves, singer
Andy Griffith, actor and country singer
Greg Ham, multi-isntrumentalist, Men At Work
Levon Helm, singer & drummer, The Band
Brian Hibbard, singer, The Flying Pickets
Paul Hickey, manager, Erasure
Whitney Houston, singer
Etta James, singer
Scott Johnson, drum tech
Mitch Lucker, singer, Suicide Solution
Davy Jones, Monkee
Peter Jones, drummer, Crowded House
John Levy, manager
Everett Lilly, mandolinist, The Lilly Brothers
Jon Lord, keyboardist, Deep Purple
Andrew Love, saxophonist, Memphis Horns
Joe Maher, Flowered Up
Thomas Marth, saxophonist
Jim Marshall, founder, Marshall's amplifiers
James McClaren, editor and music blogger
Ronnie Montrose, guitarist, Montrose
Frances Preston, CEO, BMI
Herb Reed, singer, The Platters
Christopher Reimer, guitarist, Women
Winston Riley, producer
Mike Scaccia, guitarist, Ministry & Rigor Mortis
Brian Selby, founder, Selectadisc
Tony Sly, singer, No Need For A Name
Joe South, songwriter
Donna Summer, disco hero
Stuart Swanlund, guitarist, Marshall Tucker Band
Bert Weedon, guitar hero
Bob Welch, guitarist, Fleetwood Mac
Kitty Wells, country singer
Andy Williams, singer
Adam Yauch, Beastie boy

[Part of 2012 inch remix]


The 2012 inch remix: Interesting releases



[Part of the 2012 inch remix]


The 2012 inch remix: December

A curious Christmas-time tale: the mystery of the vanishing record company views.

Bad idea - a Justin Bieber sitcom. Badder idea - The Bank Of England revealed some people wanted Robbie Williams' face on ten pound notes. That would result in more money being burned than the KLF ever managed.

Deezer went (partially) ad-free and HMV edged towards the end.

Duff McKagan doesn't care about money, but he isn't going to give your money back. Justin Bieber's boss was upset that the Grammys ignored him.

One of Talulah Gosh won the Turner Prize. Really.

[Part of the 2012 inch remix]


Sunday, December 30, 2012

Welsh music might vanish from the BBC

Well... not quite, but over 300 Welsh Language artists who have decided that PRS wasn't working well for them have set up their own rights agency, Eos. As the Cardiff City Hall clock chimes in the New Year, the PRS deal ends and broadcasters will have to make deals with the new group.

Trouble is, although S4C have just come to an agreement, the BBC has yet to sign anything. Which means, in the short-term at least, there could be a big hole in Welsh music on TV and radio.


Gary Barlow closes label so his money can spend more time with his family

Who even remembered that Gary Barlow had set up a record label?

He doesn't any more, as he's folded it.

He told The Sun it was just a time thing:

"It's been a very difficult decision but it came down to time. I've had a lot going on recently and I want to spend more time with my family."
It seems the four million quid he'd lost on the adventure had slipped his mind as easily as it had seeped out of Future's balance sheets.

It's hard to believe that a label featuring such delights as Aggro Santos and Emma's Imagination - winner of Sky's Must Be The Music, of course - could grind to a halt.

Let's just cast our mind back to how it was in the early days, when Gordon Smart predicted great things:


SIMON COWELL had better look out – a talented, younger and more popular music mogul is shaping up to steal his crown.

Industry insiders at the bash revealed GARY BARLOW has been given his own record label by his Universal bosses so he can snap up hot new acts.

He has already started work signing his first artist – a young male singer – and the lucky lad is now working with Gary and songwriting pal CATHY DENNIS.

The lucrative agreement is Gary’s reward from Universal’s head honcho LUCIAN GRAINGE for the amazing success of TAKE THAT’s comeback.

An industry source said last night: “It’s a masterstroke. With Gary’s incredible writing ability and contacts, the acts will be in the best possible hands.”
Oh, Lucian. How you must be wishing you'd just got him a really nice vase as a reward instead.