Throb?

According to a scattering of tweets, Robert Young - original member of Primal Scream; 'Throb' to the band and its fans - has died, although there isn't anything approaching official confirmation. Let's hope its a bad Twitter rumour.

HMV throws in the towel

BBC News is reporting that HMV has appointed administrators and suspended trading in its shares.

It looks pretty grim indeed now.

Discobit: Donna Summer

TMZ is reporting the death of Donna Summer. According to their site, she died from cancer earlier today at the age of 63.

UPDATE: Obviously, there's a lot of love being shown for I Feel Love right now, but let's not overlook this track, surely, at least, its equal?

RIP: Bert Weedon

The Press Assocation is reporting the death of Bert Weedon.

Breaking News: Pukkelpop stage collapse

Just hearing via Channel 4 News Twitter stream that at least one person is feared dead following the collapse of a stage at Pukkelpop. The Smith Westerns were playing when a storm apparently blew through the site.

Glastonbury 2011: Dead man named

SkyNews has just tweeted this:

Man who died in portable toilet at Glastonbury festival named as Christoper Shale, chairman of West Oxfordshire Conservative Association

That's David Cameron's association, of course.

Glastonbury 2011: Death comes to the toilets

Breaking this morning: A man in his 50s has been found dead in a portable toilet on site at Glastonbury.

Breaking news: HMV refinances

BBC News is just reporting that HMV has agreed a refinancing deal with its bankers, which will allow the chain to limp a while longer.

The package is made up of separate £70m and £90m loans, and a £60m credit facility, which can be called upon if needed.

That's good, right?

But the company faces an "exit fee" due on the £90m loan when it is repaid, which would rise to 14% by January 2013 if the loan has not been repaid by then.

Oh. So it's pretty expensive money, then - potentially company-destroying money if HMV doesn't have a solid plan to turn itself around.

RIP Poly Styrene

There's been no official confirmation - so there's still hope it might just be an internet rumour - but it sounds like Poly Styrene has lost her fight against cancer.

Bugger.

Breaking News: BT & TalkTalk call for DEA judical review rejected

BT and TalkTalk have had their call for a judicial review of the Digital Economy Act rejected by the High Court.

The ISPs have indicated they will appeal.

Obituary: Smiley Culture dies in police raid

Sky News are reporting the death of Smiley Culture. The report says police are calling his death - during a drugs raid - as being down to "self-inflicted injuries".

UPDATE: It's a bit grim now to think that Smiley Culture owed his success to a song which saw him being let off a potential possession charge thanks to his toasting prowess:



Sure, it was a borderline novelty hit, but in 1984 there weren't many British MCs, and none were having chart hits. At the time, it seemed unlikely that a British policeman would have been intimate with Culture's track Cockney Translator - even though "in the reggae charts number one was it's number"; subsequent discovery of just the sort of background snooping the police were doing at the time makes it more plausible.

He never quite achieved the same level of success again, despite cutting a deal with Polydor. Follow-up hit Schooltime Chronicle was a Grange Hill to Police Officer's Bill; the album Tongue In Cheek has vanished from print.

Born David Emmanuel, Smiley took his first reggae steps as a member of the Saxon Studio Sound System djs. Saxon was like the RADA of fast-talk reggae - alongside Culture, the studios gave first steps to Tippa Irie, Papa Levi, Daddy Sandy and Daddy Colonel. Maxi Priest also graduated from the collective.

After his mid-80s peak, Smiley took a small role in cappuccino-car-crash flick Absolute Beginners. He then faded from public life before a sad return in the July of 2010 when he was arrested and charged with possession of cocaine.

Somewhat bizarrely, The Guardian then met up with him in September for an article on post-pop careers. Emmanuel revealed he was running diamond mines:

I first became aware of the possibilities for mining after visiting Grenada, where my mother comes from. Cockney Translation had endeared me to a lot of serious businessmen in the East End of London, and because of the records, I'd met a lot of influential people who helped me get investment. At school I thought diamonds came from vaults: now I've got gold and diamond mine concessions in Ghana, Uganda, Liberia, Kenya and the Congo, and I'm promoting a record for the Azerbaijan government. Recently, I bought an expensive car in cash, which resulted in a visit by the police. It was like Police Officer all over again.

That all sounds a little odd now - promoting records for the Azerbaijan government? If ever a newspaper piece had you yelling 'what? what do you mean?', it was this.

The details of his death today are sketchy - the "Independent" Police Complaints Commission are investigating. The Metropolitan Police have issued a statement:

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: "As part of an ongoing operation officers from the Metropolitan Police Service's Serious and Organised Crime Command today attended a residential address in east Surrey to make an arrest.

"While they were at the address, an incident occurred during which a 48-year-old man died. Officers from Surrey Police attended the incident and it has been formally referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission."

Breaking News: NME sale down 16.4%

MediaGuardian is just flashing the latest magazine circulation figures; amongst the headlines is a further chunky drop in the NME figures of 16.4%. Not clear yet if this year-on-year or quarter-on-quarter.

UPDATE: That's year-on-year.

Press Gazette says Q is down to 69,535 and now being outsold by Ben10.

Rockobit: Gary Moore

BBC News is reporting the death of Gary Moore, formerly of Thin Lizzy.

Born in Belfast in 1952, Moore was inspired by a mix of Elvis, The Beatles and John Mayall as he was starting to develop his guitar style. Peter Green took Moore under his tutelage, and gave him the space and confidence to develop his style.

Moore's first proper band was Skid Row, with whom he made three albums for CBS. More importantly for him, joining the group brought him to Dublin and gave him his first taste of working with Phil Lynott.

He'd reunite with Phil shortly after his spell in Skid Row ended, taking over from Eric Bell in Thin Lizzy. Although arguably the band that he's most famous for beyond his fanbase, Moore never achieved tenure in the Lizzy. Instead, he did three short stints.

Really, Moore was a solo artist - he'd tried a short run at doing it himself before joining Thin Lizzy the first time; arguably, his first solo hit, 1979's Parisienne Walkways, featured Phil Lynott doing vocals so wasn't entirely that distant from being in Thin Lizzy. He got back together with Phil in 1985, too, for this:



But really, the key sound of solo Moore was Blues with a dash of celtic rock. A series of albums and tours over thirty years explored blues sounds from pretty much every angle; he also presented programmes retelling the blues for Planet Rock.

There were other collaborations, too - with Skunk Anansie's Cass Lewis and Primal Scream's Darrin Mooney there was Scars, an early 2000s power-pop experiment; the slightly more high end partnership with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce, BBM, released one album in 1994.

Gary Moore was 58. His death early on Sunday morning was announced by his manager, Adam Parsons.

HMV: risky business

Grim news about HMV this evening, as Robert Peston reveals insurers are starting to refuse to cover sales from suppliers to the chain:

Here is an extract from an e-mail sent by the "head of credit and collections" at the UK arm of a major UK manufacturer and distributor of CDs and DVDs:

"I need to advise you that our credit insurers have significantly reduced our insured credit limit on all HMV entities. Based on the current HMV balances, the limit is not sufficient to support any sales on an insured basis moving forward.

"I have this morning met with the Chief Executive and Risk Director at the insurance company to understand the reasons for such a quick and drastic reduction. Due to HMV's listing on the stock exchange, they are unable to divulge the reasons for their decision. They met with Simon Fox last week and whilst they have said that HMV has provided everything asked for, they are clearly worried following the public announcement that bank covenants may not be met. A further review will take place in 4 weeks time."

Simon Fox told Peston he was "unaware" of this situation; it means that entertainment companies which supply HMV are doing so at their own risk.

Robert Peston reckons the entertainment companies will prop up HMV for the time being, but given that record companies aren't entirely well-placed for funds, it's not clear how long they can keep that going.

Breaking News: Stuart Cable found dead

BBC and Spinner are reporting that Stuart Cable, former Stereophonics drummer turned (briefly) TV presenter, has been found dead at his home.

Venuewatch: Korova on fire

The Korova building on Hope Street, Liverpool was on fire earlier this morning, reports hopestreet.co.uk.

The fire was bad enough to need neighbouring buildings evacuated, but has apparently been brought into control.

The Korova is a multi-purpose arts place, and has featured gigs from The XX, Enter Shikari, Florence And The Machine and, ooh, oodles of others. Let's hope they're not too badly damaged inside.

Managerobit: Malcolm McLaren

BBC News is reporting the death of Malcolm McLaren in New York, apparently from cancer.

UPDATE: Alan Yentob has just been on the News Channel, saying (I paraphrase) that he'd known McClaren had been unwell, but was surprised how quickly the end came.

If McClaren was anything, he was adept at selling Malcolm McClaren - positioning himself as the inventor of punk rather than the more honest claim of being the person who worked out how to make money from it. In later years, he would attempt to create new genres, swearing that skipping-rock or opera-pop was just about to come. Normally, the only person making records in that genre would be McClaren; normally, he would plough the furrow alone, until abandoning it and moving on to the next thing. After all, he'd always have having invented punk to fall back on.

There are other blots on his record - Ghosts Of Oxford Street, the toe-curling Channel 4 Christmas confection from a few years back; the toe-curling musical map of London for Radio 2; The Baron, that odd ITV confection where he competed with Mike Reid for a Scottish baronetcy. And turning up for I'm A Celebrity but then refusing to go on because it was fake. (Reality TV? Fake? Whoever knew?)

He wrote the theme music for Carry On Columbus, the ill-judged attempt to revive the franchise in the 1980s. And remixed a British Airways advert. Hired by Adam Ant to turn the Ants' fortunes round, McClaren pocketed the cash, and persuaded The Ants to become Bow Wow Wow.

If Malcolm McClaren was anything, he was the ultimate art school student, stretching out his final show for fifty years.

And some of the stuff he had a hand in really did outshine the stunts:

Jay Reatard investigation

BBC 6Music are reporting that, according to Memphis media, police are investigating Jay Reatard's death as a possible homicide.

Breaking News: Derek B has died

NME.com is reporting that Derek B has died at the age of 44. The website says he had a heart attack; the news appears to have been confirmed by Music Is Life's Simon Harris.

It's not there

Lily Allen's 'we'll only throw them off the internet a bit' blog has currently lost all its content. Hope it's not a DCMA takedown notice...