RIAA misses point. Again.

So, let's just get the gist of this report that the RIAA wants Europe to change its laws on copyright in music recordings into line with the US laws (here, recordings become public domain after 50 years; in the States, after 95).

First, it's an bunch of American companies who pay no tax in Europe trying to dictate policy to us.

Second, their reasoning is that the copyright period should be extended "because more profitable materials" are coming into the copyright-free domain - ah, so why not simply extend copyright to everything that someone could make a profit on?

Third, the CDs can't legally be sold in the US anyway so, rather than fuck about with our legal rights, why doesn't Rosen and co pay a bit more attention to simply ensuring the ridiculous and punitive American law is applied at home?

Or how about we cut a deal - maybe we should consider eroding our own freedom to make fair use of musical recordings from the 1950 in line with the US rules, if the multinational labels drop prices of CDs here in Europe in line with the much, much cheaper prices in the States?

In the end, she got it not in the bedroom, or the hall, but on Highway 377

Meri Wilson, perpetual Trivial Pursuit Question ("Telephone Man, 1976 - can we have cheese now?") died just before New Year in a car crash.

In other car-crash related news, Girls Aloud tour manager John McMahon died in a Christmas Day smash in Stafford.

Whistling in the dark: In at number three

Hats off to Dr Fox for being brave and doing a good fist of univeiling "a new chart show" as the Sunday chart rundown enters an era more exciting than any battle for the Christmas Number One.

The old ILR chart - previously known as The Network Chart, the Nescafe Chart and the Pepsi Chart - has had the relaunch forced on it by Pepsi's decision to end its sponsorship, resulting in an exciting new name - "Hit 40 UK" (sort of suggests they've not even been able to pull an Autoshield type sponsor out of the woodwork, but Fox is buoyant. "We've already got 900,000 more listeners than Radio 1, and maybe we can lift that figure up to the magic million."

Well, yes, maybe. Only you're not going to be helped by the decision of EMAP to drop the chart from its stations (City, Picadilly, Aire, etc, etc), are you? True, the Network chart has pulled in a couple of extra stations - Fosseway Radio! Dune FM! - and the slightly popular Galaxy Radio "network" (one north east station and a manchester operation) may help a bit, but since EMAP has created a market-confusing third chart, The Smash Hits Chart, to go out in the same slot, it's probably unlikely that many people will bother to retune.

The Smash Hits chart is being pushed by its production team as The first ever interactive countdown, which is bollocks anyway - all charts are interactive, supposedly, as you buy a record, the sale counts - but is also bollocks specifically, because what about Radio One's Most Wanted from a few years back?.

Presenting, of course, is Mr. Radio One Puffa Jacket himself, Mark Goodier. Someone cleverer than I pointed out that this means the man who sits in for Uncle Ken Bruce on Radio 2 will now be presenting the chart rundown on the 'ow my gums' Kiss 100 in London; it also suggests why Radio One were keen for Goodier to leave their chart rundown a lot earlier than had been originally planned.

His exit from the only chart that counts on licence fee funding has left the door open for Radio One to bring in a totally fresh talent, former Travel Monkey Wes Butters, who'll be joining the formidable One FM in a hail of lame margarine-themed puns later this month.

But they don't like to talk about it. Very much.

Oh, yes, we could be cynical about the reports that Coldplay are going to tithe and donate ten percent of their earnings to charity, but we're actually quite impressed.

And it does now mean there is a difference between the ranks of Travis, Starsailor and the 'Play, in that at least when you buy one of Coldplay's dirges some of the cash will find its way to good causes. Some of it will still go on Gwyneth Paltrow's drycleaning - incredibly persistent, the Martin spunk, apparently - and a huge amount will still go to their record label - but some of it will do some good.

Of course, even better would be leaving A Rush Of Blood To The Head in your local V-Shop and give half the selling price direct to a charity of your choice.

Talking of bands actually doing something, the equally sometimes risible Tom Morello has earned another slice of our grudging respect for bringing the stupid new rules in LA which would force soup runs for the homeless to work to the same standards as restaurants - we'd imagine the No Smoking rules to be of the highest priority - although the pretense that "ooh, at any moment we could be arrested for doing this" did detract somewhat.

Saloon bar heroes

While we were off discovering the difference between proper Egg Nog and the evil stomach bile that comes with pictures of soldiers on the side, John Peel unveiled the Festive Fifty for the year. Thanks (that's as in "We've borrowed this in a deft cut and paste") to the Peel YahooGroup, here's this year's chart in full:

1 Saloon Girls are the New Boys
2 Cinerama Quick Before It Melts
3 Miss Black America Talk Hard
4 Nina Nastasia Ugly Face
5 Antihero Rolling Stones T-shirt
6 M.A.S.S. Hey Gravity
7 Laura Cantrell Too Late for Tonight
8 Pinhole So Over You
9 Marc Smith vs Safe 'n' Sound Identify the Beat
10 Ballboy All the Records on the Radio are Shite
11 Miss Black America Miss Black America
12 Yeah Yeah Yeahs Bangs
13 Cinerama Careless
14 Half Man Half Biscuit The Light at the End of the Tunnel
(is the Light of an Oncoming Train)
15 The White Stripes Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
16 Low In The Drugs
17 Asa-Chang & Junray Hana
18 Low Canada
19 Coin Op Democracies
20 Belle & Sebastian You Don't Send Me
21 The Datsuns In Love
22 The Fall Susan vs Youth Club
23 Jeffrey Lewis Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song
24 Ballboy Where Do the Nights of Sleep Go To
When They Do Not Come To Me?
25 Cornershop Staging the Plaguing of the Raised Platform
26 Saloon Have You Seen The Light?
27 The White Stripes Fell In Love With A Girl
28 The Cranebuilders Your Song
29 The Delgados Mr Bluesky
30 Bearsuit Drinkink
31 Ladytron Seventeen
32 Boom Bip and Dose One Mannequin Hand Trapdoor Reminder
33 The Von Bondies It Came From Japan
34 Wire 99.9
35 mclusky Alan is a Cowboy Killer
36 Low That's How You Sing Amazing Grace
37 Antihero You Got Nothing
38 Half Man Half Biscuit Breaking News
39 Cinerama Catgirl Tights
40 mclusky To Hell With Good Intentions
41 Burning Love Jumpsuit Cheerleader
42 Interpol Obstacle 1
43 Melys So Good
44 The Delgados Coming in from the Cold
45 Miss Black America Infinite Chinese Box
46 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster Celebrate Your Mother
47 The D4 Get Loose
48 Müm Green Grass of Tunnel
49 The Aphrodisiacs This is a Campaign
50 The Dawn Parade The Hole in my Heart

As ever, the winner is slightly controversial, although this year its more of a tactical voting scam rather than the full-on Jeb Bush riggage that has happened in the past (Fat Tulips, are you still in the corner looking ashamed?). It seems that, afraid of the split vote that has consistently prevented The Fall and various David Gedge projects from taking their positions at the top of the tree in previous years, Saloon asked their fans that, if they wanted to cast a vote for them, to vote for Girls Are The New Boys. It seems to have worked for them, but we're not entirely sure it's ethical. Luckily, we hear Kissinger's free again to investigate.

"I'm hoping for a six pack. Or at least a double pack"

Gareth Gates has made a resolution to 'get big' to attract more gay fans in a desperate bid to shore up his falling audience ("attract more older fans", although the bit about shoring up the audience stands).

Well, that accounts for why they're desperate to punch someone

We have to say, based on the ten-most heard tracks on US radio last year, we're starting to understand just why the nation seems to be a pent-up ball of fury. If we'd have been most likely to get this lot of cack blaring at us when we got in a taxi or walked into a coffee shop, we reckon we'd be desperate to work out our frustrations by dropping missiles on people or something, too. Although maybe the HQ of Clear Channel rather than one of Saddam's palaces might be a better bet. That chart in full:

1. Nickelback - How You Remind Me
2. Puddle of Mudd - Blurry
3. Linkin Park - In the End
4. Jimmy Eat World - The Middle
5. The Calling - Wherever You Will Go
6. Vanessa Carlton - A Thousand Miles
7. Avril Lavigne - Complicated
8. Ashanti - Foolish
9. Nelly - Dilemma
10. Nelly - Hot in Herre

Talking of Nelly, if his little brother gets weekend home leave, does Nells take the plaster off?

Diana slosh

While not wanting to make light of drunk drivers, the whole Diana Ross tale still manages to sound like a great piece of comic theatre - mainly because of the sobriety tests imposed by the US police.

(What's with the whole writing down the alphabet thing anyway? Is the assumption that being pissed and dyslexic are the same thing?)

Driving the wrong way down the street with a more-than-double the level of blood alcohol and then claiming you were trying to rent a video and "got lost" is an early entry for the understatement of the year, we think.

A long march into a pure morning

Let's just leave aside a moment whether Suede playing China and giving support to a regime that routinely censors its press and imprisons its critics (when it doesn't drive tanks over them) is a desirable thing from a band we thought were a little bit better than that, and let's ask: is it a good thing for Suede?

Not many Western acts get to play in what we're sure their label is thinking of as "potentially the world's biggest market", but the ones who have haven't really thrived after.

Wham were the first, and they split almost as soon as they'd picked up the pictures of George and Andy at the Great Wall.

Jean Michel Jarre may not have harmed his career by visiting the place, but when did you last hear someone say "I wonder when Jean Michel will have some new material available"?

And lets not forget the most recent Western band to tramp down Beijing's streets - Space. Remember them?

On this basis, we give Suede 'til July before they split.

This, on the other hand, is hard

The Vines beat each other up so badly their managers send them home to bed and rip up their passports.

Not So Solid

We may have mistaken the So Solids for a bunch a toughs, it turns out, since put one of them in court and they cry like babies.

Christ almighty

Watching BBC1's The Number One party, it appears that apart from Cliff, the Beatles and Elvis, nobody has hit the top of the UK charts more often than Westlife. Sure, bland, inoffensive mush has its place, but really... And the lord only knows what "selling" all those records has done to the suspension of their managers' cars.

Happy new year

And, we're back. Hope everyone had a great holiday period and that everyone lifted a glass to the memory of Joe.

2002: THE YEAR IN ONE POST

Choose a week to revisit:
13 January 2002
20 January 2002
27 January 2002
03 February 2002
10 February 2002
17 February 2002
24 February 2002
03 March 2002
10 March 2002
17 March 2002
24 March 2002
31 March 2002
07 April 2002
14 April 2002
21 April 2002
05 May 2002
12 May 2002
19 May 2002
26 May 2002
02 June 2002
09 June 2002
16 June 2002
23 June 2002
30 June 2002
07 July 2002
14 July 2002
21 July 2002
28 July 2002
04 August 2002
11 August 2002
18 August 2002
25 August 2002
01 September 2002
08 September 2002
22 September 2002
29 September 2002
06 October 2002
13 October 2002
20 October 2002
27 October 2002
03 November 2002
10 November 2002
17 November 2002
24 November 2002
01 December 2002
08 December 2002
15 December 2002
22 December 2002
29 December 2002

"I don't want to look back, I want to keep going forward. I still have something to say to people"

1952 - 2002

[Image - updated 04/12/07; by Joe Kerrigan under Creative Commons licence]

Fifty per cent off skeleton news service

Girls Aloud win chart battle - now you can buy number ones, apparently... Pulp at an end? - are you sure? (that only works if you do it in a Jarvis style, by the way)... Teenage millionaire wants to launch TV album charts show - thereby proving him to not be the financial whizzkid everyone seems to think he is... BBC Music album of year poll currently being led by Status Quo - only you can stop the madness... Jimmy Young and The Evening Session leave airwaves for good - neither going quietly in their own ways

Scary goth skeleton news service

Shakira gives third world kids running shoes - "Hey, we spend sixteen hours a day making these bloody things just for you to give them straight back to us?"... Noel Gallagher bans Christmas from his house as he finds it depressing - oddly, the exact same reason that Oasis are banned from our house... Port Vale send begging letter to Robbie Williams - "Please support Stoke instead", we imagine... FridayThing launches campaign for 'Real Christmas Number One' - is promoting The Cheeky Girls over Girls Aloud really striking a blow for proper music?... Results of World Service 'best song ever' announced - defintively proving which special interest group is best at fixing online votes... Billboard writers select Coldplay as best album of 2002 - encouraged to get out more, try speaking to girls in 2003

We interrupt this period of inaction to scoff

The BPI claim one site hosted eight million downloads of the entire Linkin Park album. I really hope they're just lying and not so painfully stupid as to actually believe that.

Kylie-thin skeleton news service

Fatboy Slim plans vote on whether to hold Brighton Beach party in 2003 - calling Jeb Bush to organise a 'Yes' vote... Radiohead celebrate Christmas with a webcast - tidings of comfort, joy not expected... Moby changes hotel to avoid meeting Eminem "in interests of personal safety" - complete collapse into self-parody now complete... Yoko Ono says she won't sue McCartney over changes to songwriting credits - "If he wants to mess about with the winning John Lennon And His Beatles formula, that's his choice" simpers the proto-Courtney... Minelli and Garland tat collecting husband to sue VH1 over axed reality show, citing First Amendment right of all Americans to be held up to public Ridicule...

Skeleton news service

Lee Roth sues Van Halen - again?... Ryan Adams to open for Rolling Stones, complete transition from prince of cool to embarrassing 'New Weller' in 2003... David wins Fame Academy and promises to return to sing at next year's final if the manager at KFC will give him the night off... BBC invite listener's comments on Mariah's new album and record company and PR rally round...

That when you bow, you leave the crowd

It's been incredibly quiet in the music world today - a couple of new stories on nme.com, nothing since ten at ananova, so we feel slightly less guilty about slipping out the door for Christmas - possibly the odd update in the next few weeks, but we'll not be back with a full service until the 30th. So, we'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone who reads this a very, merry Christmas (or whatever it is you're doing) and hope you'll join us again when we return.

Meanwhile, as part of the bothsidesnow Christmas special, there's a pull out guide to music on TV over the holidays and - yes - another list of best tracks of 2002.

What can't we face if we're together?

Nickeback goat-man Chad Kroeger has been whining because his friends couldn't get into a backstage event at the Billboard awards.

"They wouldn't let our people in because they didn't have laminates."

Right, and your point being, Chad? Look, if your people fucked up and didn't get your guestlist in in time, that's your problem, not theirs. Or maybe there's some sort of exception to the rule because you're so ugly you think security would just know someone turning up at the door saying she's your wife would have to be, as nobody else would claim that even to sneak into a party? You might not have heard, Chad, but the whole of the US is a little jumpy right now, what with the smallpox and the rap wars and the shooting of one of Run DMC and the Iraq crisis.

Maybe you should think about the security implications before you open your mouth and sound like a bullock head. Oh, and - really - don't worry about the same thing happening at next year's awards. Can you say "Stiltskin"?

The same old tricks, why should we care?

Macy Gray, Lil' Kim and Queen Latifah attempt to ride the coattails of Moulin Rouge ("team up for Chicago track").

I'll never tell

Official Glastonbury Site, yesterday: "the festival makes no assumption that it will get a license"

nme.com, today: After the meeting Michael Eavis said he was "not too bothered" by the failure to secure a licence and that he would be appealing to magistrates.

"We lost by one vote and the unfortunate thing was that the members weren't all there and it was a poorly attended meeting," he said.

"We will go to the magistrates court and appeal. The council, police and fire service have been very supportive."

"We are not too bothered and I think it's all going to be fine."

Missy turns Solanas

Missy Elliot may have a reputation as a bit of a ball-buster. Not without reason, it seems, as she's teaming up with PETA to get animals neutered.

Now we don't encourage this sort of thing

And much as we hate Moby and his smug little attitude, we don't condone the rather odd attack on him in Boston. It's a terrible thing to happen to anyone. Especially since it results in journal entries like this. Stop being so understanding...

An open goal

Nsync unveil uncannily lifelike waxworks. The rest writes itself.

Is this how they're filling time since they got dropped?

Toploader 17

Google-eh?

Whoever was looking for "pictures of Holly Valance and Britney Spears having lesbian sex" - what other sort of sex could they have been having? And... did you really expect to find it?

Queerzine

Always nice to come across a magazine for non-straights that isn't stuffed with cock, and solanasonline is certainly one of those. We mention it here because it's got a LeTigre feature in it.