It is expected to be the largest concert event to hit Merriweather Post Pavilion in decades -- maybe ever -- and organizers of next weekend's HFStival are working to ensure that the fans not only enjoy their stay but are good guests of the planned community.

The outdoor concert pavilion is expanding its capacity, as well as its grounds, for a festival boasting a lineup of 60 acts, including Kanye West, Cyprus Hill, Counting Crows, the Strokes, and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, over two days during Memorial Day weekend.

"It's a huge deal. It's one of the biggest concerts on the East Coast," said Ian Kennedy, president of the advocacy group Save Merriweather. "It's nationally known; huge artists come here. You can't get more high-profile than the HFStival in this area."In its 17th year, the HFStival, sponsored by radio station WHFS (105.7 FM), will be the first event for which Merriweather has expanded its capacity -- from 20,000 patrons to 27,500 each day, Parker said.

Merriweather manager Jean Parker believes the event will be the largest ever held at the 38-year-old pavilion, based on records the staff has reviewed dating back to at least the 1970s.

"It certainly is a huge economic impact for the county and certainly Columbia," she said. "And it's a major event for Merriweather as an entertainment venue."

To accommodate the extra people, the venue is adding about 8 acres to its 10-acre site by expanding into Symphony Woods and the pavilion's west parking lot, where stages will be set up. The entire perimeter will be fenced in, Parker said.

Inside the fence will be as many as 250 places to buy beer and wine -- the number of areas will be based on attendance, Parker said. The area will be fully patrolled, she said.

"The police work all of our events," Parker said. "Add to that, we have crowd-control staff, operations staff, ushers and ticket takers. ... There will be plenty of staff without [concertgoers] feeling overwhelmed."

Sherry Llewellyn, a Howard County police spokeswoman, also said police will maintain a strong presence in the venue, as well as control traffic.

"There will be significant staffing to make sure that order is maintained and to provide general security," she said. "Our goal really is to help ensure a safe event for everyone."

Still, some Columbia residents can't help but wonder whether the event will resemble the Grateful Dead concerts of the mid-1980s, about which Columbia Association board member Barbara Russell said concertgoers were "a pain in the neck to the community."

"Their fans were not all that considerate of their surroundings, and they did things like bathe in Lake Kittamaqundi ... and they slept in, you know, cars and tents," said Russell, who represents Oakland Mills.

"I'm a little concerned," Russell added, and the memory of the Grateful Dead "is why some people are concerned, too."

Resident John L. Preston expects the authorities to control the crowd and illegal behavior to the best of their ability, though he is still concerned about illegal drug use and said, "I don't want that in Columbia."

Preston also believes that an event like the HFStival doesn't belong at a venue such as Merriweather. He points to the festival site last year: Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium, where the event drew about 53,000 people with bands such as Coldplay, Good Charlotte and the Foo Fighters.

"I just think it's an imposition on Columbia to have that kind of show here, in the backyards of so many people," he said.

Columbia Association board member Philip Kirsch of Wilde Lake, however, feels that the people at the HFStival will be a "slightly different crowd" than Grateful Dead fans, and he is confident about the preparations.

"The people running Merriweather seem to be very well-organized; they seem to know exactly what they're doing," Kirsch said. "If you put 20,000 people here, I wouldn't be surprised to see one or two incidents, but I assume there's always something like that every time."

Parker said she expects the concert to draw from the Mid-Atlantic region and include fans who likely have been to the venue before, and "they respected the facility in the past, and I don't see why it would be any different."

Parker also predicts the area might not be as congested as some fear, with no more cars than other major events in Town Center. The number of cars for an event such as the HFStival, which draws a young crowd, typically is lower than for events such as a jazz festival, which tends to attract older adults who arrive two to a car.

Parker expects concertgoers at the HFStival to travel more than two to a car or possibly have their parents drop them off, leading to fewer cars in the area. She expects that each day there will be fewer than 7,000 cars, which can be parked at the venue's lot or at the surrounding parking lots in the downtown area.

The HFStival is a boon for the pavilion, the future of which was in doubt nearly three years ago when the Rouse Co. planned to enclose it and turn it into a year-round theater.

The company, later bought by General Growth Properties, has abandoned those plans. The pavilion has since been host to sold-out shows and now, the HFStival.

"It definitely signals that Merriweather is stronger than it's ever been," said Kennedy, of Save Merriweather, adding that the event could serve as a model for how Merriweather could adjust its capacity for future events.

Parker said Merriweather would like to hold other events that could expand out of the pavilion and into Symphony Woods, which the Columbia Association owns and manages.

"It's a very unique location, and having the Symphony Woods property adjacent to ours makes it very amenable to be able to do events like this," she said.

Lee Richardson, chair of the Town Center Village Board, has confidence in the Merriweather staff and police to manage the festival and hopes the event will give a boost to the amphitheater.

"If it improves the economic or financial health of Merriweather Post, that's good news, really good news," Richardson said.

Even Preston -- who is not looking forward to hearing the concert from his Hickory Ridge home -- hopes that the event will be a success for Merriweather, without major incidents.

"I wish them all the luck in the world," Preston said. "I hope for a success, but I tend to be pessimistic."

Source: baltimoresun.com

At the beginning of this month EMI launched another attempt at marrying its business with US music rival Warner Music Group in a bid to compete on an equal footing with the likes of Sony-BMG and Universal.

But EMI’s $28.50 a share offer, funded through a mixture of cash and paper, was rebuffed by its US target. This follows three previous unsuccessful attempts to bring the two companies together, which have foundered on regulatory obstacles.

Many observers expect EMI to return with a higher offer, possibly around the $30 mark, which would value Warner at $5bn and EMI’s final results on Tuesday will be closely watched for any hint of more corporate action. Under Eric Nicoli, EMI has dragged itself back from the dark days of 2003 when its share price dipped as low as 80p. It recently posted a four-year high of 294p before a little profit-taking took it back to around the 275p level, which values the company at £2.2bn.

In a global music industry where the larger players have become ever more dominant, the potential clout of a merged EMI and Warner would be considerable, not to mention the synergies bringing the two together could generate. EMI itself reckons it could deliver £300-£400m in savings. But so far this argument has failed to convince Warner boss Edgar Bronfman Jr and his private equity backers.

Bronfman himself appears cool towards the idea, recently telling investors: “Consolidation for consolidation’s sake doesn’t make a lot of sense. Ours is not a business that requires scale economics.” Warner’s sales in the opening quarter of the year rose by 4% and download sales doubled.

Deutsche Bank analyst Douglas Mitchelson even questioned whether it should actually be Warner doing the acquiring of EMI rather than vice versa. But EMI itself is performing solidly, aided by hit albums from the likes of Coldplay and Gorillaz in the past year and consensus estimates point to a full-year profit of £158m this year, up from £107m in 2005.

Despite this, the analyst community has remained somewhat underwhelmed by EMI’s prospects with Bridgewell Securities, with an overweight rating, one of the few to be positive.

Lehman Brothers recently reiterated its underweight recommendation saying: “The stock remains fairly full on a stand-alone basis while the Warner rebuff implies a higher price or no near-term deal. We are still not sure the two groups will be able to agree a deal.”

Analyst Richard Jones of Lehman does not think an EMI/Warner combination would fall foul of regulatory problems again because its combined 25% share of the market would only match that of Universal and Sony-BMG although the EU could force it to sell off some publishing assets. But Jones believes neither board would be keen to step down in favour of the other and this may scupper any deal.

Source: thebusinessonline.com

LONDON (Reuters) - Bertelsmann AG is in the final stages of preparing to auction its music publishing arm, people familiar with the plans said, with a process to start as soon as early June in a sale that could fetch as much as 900 million pounds.

The proceeds from the sale of BMG Music Publishing, which owns the rights to songs by Nelly, Christina Aguilera and Coldplay, could be used by Bertelsmann to avert an unwanted IPO of the German media conglomerate by a minority shareholder.

Bertelsmann also continues to explore the possibility of selling its half of the Sony BMG recorded music business, but it is proving a far more complex and time-consuming process, said the sources, who requested anonymity to avoid harming their relationships with the company. Two people said financial information about BMG Music Publishing will be sent to prospective buyers in the next few weeks, while a third person cautioned it could take longer."Portfolio management is a normal business," a Bertelsmann spokesman said on Friday, declining to comment further.

Music publishers earn money from CD and download sales, in what is known as mechanical revenue, but because they are also paid when songs are performed live or used in films and TV programmes, publishers have been shielded from some of the piracy problems that have plagued the music industry.

"The publishing market has seen more robust growth with only 40-60 percent of revenues linked to recorded music," Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a note last December. "The weakness in mechanical revenues has been offset by growth in performance and synchronization."

The primary figure on which suitors will be basing their offers is net publishers share (NPS), a key cashflow indicator for the sector. Analysts and industry executives estimate that BMG Music Publishing has a net publishers share roughly around $100 million.

With a buyer expected to pay a multiple of between 14 and 17 on the NPS, that would put the purchase price in the range of $1.4 billion and $1.7 billion.

Other music publishers, albeit much smaller ones, including Acuff-Rose, Windswept and Dreamworks, all have sold in the same multiple range in recent years.

Bertelsmann reported that music publishing generated 372.4 million euros (253.3 million pounds) of revenue last year, but it did not disclose the unit's NPS or operating margin.

The company said in its 2005 annual report that its music publishing arm, established in 1987, "had its most successful year to date, again generating a double-digit return on sales."

COPYRIGHT PRICE DRAG?

One significant issue that could drag down the sale price for BMG, however, is the return of U.S. copyrights to songwriters or their heirs.

In 2013, copyrights granted to a publisher before 1957 and in 1978 can be terminated by a songwriter, and each year following, additional copyright grants can be terminated. Although publishers can retain certain rights to licenses, the impact of them reverting will affect future earnings.

"People are refining their models," said one executive, who requested anonymity. "This idea that BMG is going to get 15 times NPS, when they may not control the rights for that long, is off. This issue could affect the price in a way not a lot of people have been paying attention to."

Citigroup and JPMorgan are advising Bertelsmann.

Vivendi-owned Universal Music, the world's biggest seller of recorded music, is considered an early frontrunner. It has said it wants to build its music publishing business by acquisition, and could find enormous cost savings from combining BMG's massive operation with its own.

"If you're an existing large publisher with support and sales in all the territories, you could probably take out 80 percent of the infrastructure," said Adrian Young, head of media banking for Barclays.

Sony Music is also considered by industry executives as a likely suitor with a private equity partner, as is Famous Music, a unit of Viacom's Paramount Pictures that controls the rights to 125,000 compositions including the score to "The Godfather" and songs from pop stars Shakira and Eminem.

Private equity firms, which have been attracted to the steady cash-generating aspects of the industry in recent years, have registered interest for BMG Music Publishing. They could also team up with smaller music publishers to bid.

"There's a substantial benefit for a trade buyer," Young said. "Private equity would struggle to make real capital from the current valuations because they won't have cost savings to take out."

BMG has about a 12.5 percent market share in music publishing compared with 19.7 percent at EMI , 15.5 percent at Warner Music Group , 12.5 percent at Universal Music and 7.4 percent at Sony Music, according to Goldman Sachs.

Source: Various

Adriana Cisneros decided to raise money to fund her upcoming summer internship the fun way. She’s putting on a rock show.

“I’m not really a promoter, this is my first time doing this, but I’m considering doing more,” Cisneros, 19, said. “There are other promoters in town trying to make a big music scene here and I think it’s about time. We need a big music scene in Brownsville.”

Cisneros’ benefit show, dubbed “Tunnelvision,” happens tonight at The Tunnel café in Brownsville. Cisneros hopes to travel to New York City this summer to work with the New York City Relief ministries. Tonight’s show will feature Los Fresnos’ Death to a Star, and Encer, Obscurity and Cyst from Brownsville.

“I would say my music is, like, affectionate plagiarism of Radiohead, kind of like what Coldplay does,” said solo performer Robert Cohen a.k.a. Cyst.Cohen uses tape players and DVD players on stage to air looped tracks and “noise” while he bangs out ethereal melodies on electric and acoustic guitar. “Sometimes my little sister plays clarinet,” he said.

Cohen and Cisneros have been friends for years, he said, and he was the first to volunteer to play “Tunnelvision.” “She’s my friend, so I got behind it to get her to be a part of this internship. We really want people to come to help her,” he said.

Cisneros, a Brownsville native and a student at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, said her internship would involve feeding and counseling New York City’s homeless. New York City Relief is a faith-based community outreach program that offers counseling and resources such as drug rehabilitation services, housing and job training to those in need. “I want to learn how to deal with homeless people and how to serve them,” Cisneros said.

Cisneros worked with a similar program last year in Hearst. While in Hearst, she counseled and clothed the city’s homeless. She said the experience help cement her future in faith-based community service. “I feel it’s my calling. I’m a Christian and I feel God is calling me to do that, to help,” she said.

Source: brownsvilleherald.com

Faced with a photo of a fly-encrusted child, the natural reaction should be to reach out and help.

Instead, I start hearing Bono and Coldplay in my head. It's the most mind-mangling act of branding in history. I agree with what they are saying - I just wish THEY weren't saying it. How can I open my wallet while my fists are curled with rage?

Take Bono's special edition of the Independent. It's incredibly annoying. You're trapped in a windowless room with the usual tedious sods who apparently represent British culture, except suddenly they're wearing halos and pulling earnest expressions at you.The front cover is by Damien Hirst. He's lobbed some clipart together in the shape of a cross. Across this runs a stark headline: "NO NEWS TODAY". You jerk with astonishment. No news? How can this be? Help us Bono! We don't understand! Then you spot the footnote: "Just 6,500 Africans died today as a result of a preventable, treatable disease." You nod sadly. But before you can truly contemplate this harrowing injustice, you note that Damien Hirst's name appears on the cover not once, but twice - and suddenly the footnote takes on an even more tragic dimension. Because all those people died, yet Hirst still walks the Earth. You turn the page, weeping.

Inside lurk about 2,000 adverts for the new Motorola RED phone. If you buy one, an Aids charity receives an initial payment of £10, followed by 5% of all further call revenues. This is clearly a good idea. But somehow, it's also annoying. For starters, the phone costs £149, of which £139 goes toward helping Motorola. Second, it's bright red and seems doomed to appeal to arseholes who want to add conspicuous compassion to their list of needless fashion accessories. I'm not just jabbering mindlessly on the phone in your train carriage - I'm saving fuckin' lives, OK?

Page 11: a piece of artwork by renegade graffiti artist Banksy, who has defaced a wall in Chalk Farm with a picture of a hotel maid. It's called Sweeping It Under the Carpet and "can be seen as a metaphor for the west's reluctance to tackle issues such as Aids in Africa" - or another example of Banksy's tireless self-promotion; take your pick. Banksy says the maid in question "cleaned my room in a Los Angeles motel ... she was quite a feisty lady". Presumably his next portrait will depict some poor minimum-wage sod, cleaning graffiti off a wall in Chalk Farm. Provided they're "feisty" enough to appeal to him.

On it goes, with one Bonoriffic chum after another: noted philanthropist Condoleezza Rice picks her top 10 tunes (including one by U2); Stella McCartney interviews Giorgio Armani, who has designed a pair of sunglasses for the RED charity range. These cost around £72 and will make you look like Bono: buy a 10 quid pair from Boots, bung the remaining £62 to an Aids charity and not only will you enjoy a warm philanthropic glow, no one's going to shout "wanker!" at you when you walk down the high street.

In summary: it's a worthy cause, rendered annoying - and that's annoying in itself. Bono genuinely cares, cares enough to risk ridicule, which is more than most people would do, myself included. It's just that, well it's bloody Bono, isn't it?

Source: guardian.co.uk

After months of online speculation, the promoters of the Austin City Limits Music Festival have announced the three-day event's lineup.

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, Massive Attack and John Mayer are among the headliners Sept. 15-17 at Austin's Zilker Park. Also confirmed to appear are Ben Harper, Los Lonely Boys, Ween, the Flaming Lips and the String Cheese Incident.

Now in its fifth year, the festival is co-produced by KLRU-TV, the Austin public television station that produces the Austin City Limits program for PBS. Willie Nelson taped the program's pilot episode in 1974, but this year's lineup marks his first Austin City Limits Music Festival appearance."We've tried to get him for years, but it's always a commitment to Farm Aid or the Fourth of July that's been in the way," said Charles Attal, the festival's booking agent. "And, obviously, he's the perfect fit in that the whole lineup is built around honoring the eclectic flair of Austin and honoring the television show's tradition."

Last year's festival featured three days of sold-out crowds and a headlining performance from Coldplay, but also plenty of festgoers complaining about thick clouds of dust. Organizers attributed the dust to unusually dry conditions at Zilker Park. And last week, Capital Sports and Entertainment, the Austin co-producers of the festival, and the city of Austin announced plans to split the financing on a new sprinkler and irrigation system for Zilker. The three-phase, three-year project will install a new main irrigation system and eventually pump water from Austin's Town Lake for sprinklers and water fountains in the Zilker Park sports fields.

According to a representative for CSE, a limited number of three-day passes, priced at $115, are still available at www.aclfestival.com. Later in the summer, producers plan to offer single-day tickets.

Source:

Apple Computer Inc.'s dominant iTunes music download service is about to get tough new competition from a powerful pair or rivals -- software titan Microsoft Corp. and music video broadcaster MTV Networks.

The new service, called Urge, will charge buyers the same price as iTunes' popular 99-cent song downloads. But Urge also will let users download to their personal computer and listen to any recording in its 2-million-song catalog for $9.95 a month.

Users who pay $14.95 a month will be able to copy their songs onto portable music players and listen to them wherever they want, thanks to anti-copying software from Microsoft that prevents music piracy.While many competitors such as Napster, Yahoo, RealNetworks's Rhapsody, and even Microsoft's own MSN service have entered the online music business in recent years, all have failed to shake Apple's grip on the market.

Yet analysts say the partnership of the world's largest software company and the marketing muscle of MTV poses the most serious challenge yet to Apple's dominance.

"They are probably the strongest contender to come into the market for some time," said Phil Leigh, a senior analyst for Inside Digital Media, an Internet-based trade publication in Tampa, Fla.

Since Apple opened its iTunes Music Store three years ago, the company has sold more than a billion songs online, or about 80 percent of the worldwide market for Internet music downloads.

Largely because of the success of iTunes, worldwide sales of digital music downloaded over the Internet or through cellphones reached $1.1 billion last year. That's triple the level of 2004, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

But Urge begins life with a severe handicap: Its music downloads won't be playable on the Apple iPod which has more than 70 percent of the market for portable music players, according to the market research firm NPD Group.

Instead, they must be played on competing players such as the Zen line from Creative Technology Ltd.

Jason Hirschhorn, MTV Networks' chief digital officer, a business unit of the entertainment conglomerate Viacom International Inc., admitted that Urge poses no immediate threat to Apple's lead in Internet music.

Indeed, Hirschhorn said that Urge was created to cement a strong Internet identity for MTV, not to compete against Apple or other Internet music services like Napster and Rhapsody. "It's not about beating Apple," he said.

"It's not about beating Rhapsody." In fact, MTV has paired with Apple to sell some of its TV shows as downloads on the iTunes site, and Hirschhorn said he'd like to expand the MTV-Apple relationship.

While many competitors such as Napster, Yahoo, RealNetworks's Rhapsody, and even Microsoft's own MSN service have entered the online music business in recent years, all have failed to shake Apple's grip on the market.

Yet analysts say the partnership of the world's largest software company and the marketing muscle of MTV poses the most serious challenge yet to Apple's dominance.

"They are probably the strongest contender to come into the market for some time," said Phil Leigh, a senior analyst for Inside Digital Media, an Internet-based trade publication in Tampa, Fla.

Since Apple opened its iTunes Music Store three years ago, the company has sold more than a billion songs online, or about 80 percent of the worldwide market for Internet music downloads.

Largely because of the success of iTunes, worldwide sales of digital music downloaded over the Internet or through cellphones reached $1.1 billion last year. That's triple the level of 2004, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

But Urge begins life with a severe handicap: Its music downloads won't be playable on the Apple iPod which has more than 70 percent of the market for portable music players, according to the market research firm NPD Group.

Instead, they must be played on competing players such as the Zen line from Creative Technology Ltd.

Jason Hirschhorn, MTV Networks' chief digital officer, a business unit of the entertainment conglomerate Viacom International Inc., admitted that Urge poses no immediate threat to Apple's lead in Internet music.

Indeed, Hirschhorn said that Urge was created to cement a strong Internet identity for MTV, not to compete against Apple or other Internet music services like Napster and Rhapsody. "It's not about beating Apple," he said.

"It's not about beating Rhapsody." In fact, MTV has paired with Apple to sell some of its TV shows as downloads on the iTunes site, and Hirschhorn said he'd like to expand the MTV-Apple relationship.

Songs played on the streams can be easily added to the subscriber's list of favorite tunes. In addition, users can have Urge generate automatic playlists of music they might enjoy. "If you like Coldplay," said Hirschhorn, "it's going to give you Coldplay and 20 other artists like Coldplay." iTunes offers similar features, but a user must buy the selected songs to hear more than a 30-second preview of the music.

Along with music, Urge subscribers will be able to see video streams of MTV Network programs, including shows from MTV, VH1 and CMT, a country music video channel. Sales of TV shows and free downloads of podcasts are not yet available, but Urge plans to add these features later this year.

Most specialists credit Apple's iPod music players for iTunes dominance.

Since its introduction less than five years ago, Apple has sold over 50 million iPods, far more than any competing product. In addition, Apple designed its music downloads and iPod players to use anti-piracy software that is incompatible with other companies' music players.

As a result, iPod users cannot easily move music downloaded from Urge, Yahoo, or other Internet music services onto their iPods. Apple refuses to license its anti-piracy software for use by its rivals, so iPod users would find it difficult and inconvenient to purchase music through Urge.

Meanwhile, an Urge user who wants to listen to his music on the bus can choose from dozens of compatible music players, but can't use an iPod.

Source: cio-today.com

The Wailers' bass player, Aston Barrett, has lost his high court bid for a £60m slice of Bob Marley's royalties. Barrett, nicknamed Family Man, is now superbly placed to write a song called 52 Kids and Not Enough Cash. But the case makes you wonder: how do bands split their royalties?

With difficulty. Songwriting royalties, not to be confused with recording royalties, come in four varieties - mechanical (eg CD sales); performing (radio airplay); synchronisation (film soundtracks); and print (sheet music). Tot them all up, deduct the publisher's cut (often 50%), and you have a tidy sum - up to $5m for a hit. "We always call the songwriting royalty the pension," says Ann Harrison, a legal consultant and author of Music: The Business (Virgin, 2005). "If you write a song that's recorded umpteen times, the income will last your lifetime plus copyright, which is 70 years."

But if the songs take shape in the studio, over late nights and conceivably the odd spliff, how do you decide who has written what?

Among the members of Coldplay royalties are evenly split. Chris Martin writes the songs and shoulders the fame, but shares all royalties with his three mates from uni, who get the best of both worlds - virtual anonymity accompanied by large cheques. This approach differs slightly from that of U2 who have an even split on the tunes only ("music by U2, words by Bono"). Everybody wins. Bono gets more money to trot the globe on behalf of good causes; Larry Mullen, the magnificently taciturn drummer, gets none of the blame for any views expressed.

Read more here

It worked for Apple, it worked for Moses. Now will it work for you?

Rachel Waddilove is not a household name but she almost certainly will be by the end of this week. Fresh from a month of providing round-the-clock care for a very famous infant, Moses, the son of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, the maternity nurse is now launching what may well be seen as the most sensible book ever written on how to bring up a baby.

Anyone brave enough to enter the fraught arena of childcare advice needs a tin helmet, a good changing mat and a skin made of rhino hide. The battle between baby gurus Gina Ford (time management is the key) and Penelope Leach (liberal love) over whether the young should be fed on demand has been fierce and unrelenting. But Waddilove, whose client list includes MPs, film stars and some very ordinary Devon families, promotes an approach which neatly falls between the two camps.

Paltrow and Martin, her most famous 'family', have allowed their names to be used to help her publicise the book. Known for their vegan and alternative lifestyle, the couple enthusiastically embraced the structured schedule that Waddilove put in place for both their children, Apple and Moses. She stayed with them for the first month after each birth and then spent time in America when Paltrow was filming to help her look after Apple.

Waddilove's espousal of a 'healthy discipline' has earned the opprobrium of many women in the US. One mother's blog states: 'Her advice is terrible ... I'm sad for all the little ones who will cry and cry from hunger or the need for comforting as their parents lie awake in the next room thinking: "But Nanny Rachel says feeding on demand makes mums a slave to their babies."' Another says: 'I am so furious I am seeing red. I can't believe that hippy-dippy, yoga/vegan Gwyneth would let someone with such a back-assward approach to baby-rearing into her house.'

Waddilove is not too worried. She points out that her schedule is not defined by rigid timetables for eating and sleeping. 'If people want to feed on demand or if they want a very strict timetable, that is fine, but I'm a great believer in doing what works. I do know after 30 years of experience that babies make better eaters, sleepers and much easier toddlers if they have some kind of structure.'

As Paltrow writes in a glowing endorsement of the book: 'Using Rachel's technique, Apple was sleeping through the night in a six- to seven-hour stretch by six weeks. She was a very happy and settled baby from the beginning. I believe this is because Rachel put us in a routine so that Apple always felt that there was a loving structure around her. She knew what was coming and could look forward to it with certainty.' The same technique was applied to Moses, born a month ago.

The 58-year-old maternity nurse is a strong believer in breast-feeding, although she says that babies should also be given a bottle from the beginning so that someone else can do the feed during the night and take some of the pressure from the mother. Having been unable to breast-feed two of her own three children, however, she believes women shouldn't be criticised if it doesn't work for them.

Although she won't discuss fees, Waddilove's are somewhere between £100 and £170 a day.

Wealthier families have employed private maternity nurses for many years to help the mother through the exhausting first weeks, but very few have had publicity. Waddilove has worked for aristocracy such as Lord and Lady Ivar Mountbatten, who have three daughters. But she spends as much time as possible at her home on the edge of Dartmoor with her husband John, a retired farmer.

The Baby Book is a guide to caring for a baby from day one to a year old, and contains much practical advice on how to cope. Allowing a baby to cry, in her view, is not going to lead to long-term psychological damage. She believes babies should be allowed to 'shout it out', as she puts it, and left to cry for between 10 and 20 minutes, so that they learn how to get themselves off to sleep. 'Many parents think that you need to rock them off to sleep in your arms, and then lie them down, but actually I lay the baby down in the cot, having swaddled them first, so they feel very safe and secure. If he can't settle, go in but don't turn on the light, stroke his tummy and talk to him gently, but then leave. If he still carries on for another 15 minutes, repeat the process.'

Waddilove believes that as women have babies later in life, often after a full career, they find it harder to adapt to their new domesticity. 'Many of them are isolated and don't live near their own mother. Having a baby is not like running an office, is it, dear? Babies are a blessing and they are so very precious but family life shouldn't be turned upside down just to accommodate them. If you make them the kingpin, you'll be storing up trouble for yourself.'

Guardian Reviews

Sitting in a pew on Sunday morning seems almost embarrassingly old-fashioned in an era when you can watch a video recreation of the Last Supper on your Palm or get God's word text-messaged to your cellphone.

Bored with your pastor's ramblings? Select a peppier sermon from among hundreds of "godcasts" online. Just pick a topic: Christian dating? Old Testament prophets? Then download it to your MP3 player.

"We dare not change the Gospel. But the method of delivery? We better change it for each new generation," said Pastor Mark Beeson, who preaches in front of a floor-to-ceiling video screen. His latest sermon series, which starts next week, is called "Finding God in Your iPod;" he promises to analyze spiritual yearnings in songs from Coldplay, Kenny Chesney and other artists.

Read the full article here

Orson are officially the best new band of 2006.

Their recipe for success simple – positivity, funk and fun. They describe their sound as "two-guitar power-pop"or equally "rock 'n' roll that girls can dance to".

Again, simple. Their first single – 'No Tomorrow' - was the most downloaded Single Of The Week in the entire history of iTunes beating heavyweights like Coldplay, U2 and Madonna. People are so desperate to hear more that preview copies of their debut album 'Bright Idea' – out on the 29th May – are already changing hands on the internet for around £50.If that wasn't enough proof of how big this five piece band from Hollywood, California are going to be, I don't know what would be.

In December 2005, Orson's five members - Jason Pebworth, George Astasio, Kevin Roentgen, Johnny Lonely and Chris Cano - all had day jobs. Bassist Jonny admits their rapid rise from 'nowhere' is down the amazing number of fan sites that have popped up since they first played the UK in October 05.

He told me: "There are a couple of them. Quite a few actually. We love MySpace and sites like that. That's how us being over here began.

"A couple of tracks off our album and distributed ourselves got posted on there and someone heard it on there and asked if they could put it on their site and so on.

He added: "It was that chain that started getting the calls coming in from over here. So record companies got us over – that was October – and in December we packed in our day jobs and moved to England."

Orson's sound has been described as being the missing link between the Rolling Stones and the Scissor Sisters, an inspiring mixture of Pop, Rock, R&B and Soul.

All are bursting with hot, sweet love. Lead singer Jason admits most of them are about his own love life. He confessed: "I torture myself over lyrics. Ultimately, the best stuff, the funniest lines, come out of the most heartbreaking times. To me, Elvis Costello is one of the great lyricists. He can make something really funny out of something truly tragic. I like that approach. It's like the great comedians."

The crowd at an Orson concert is like a perfect world. Everyone - from emo kids to cool dads – is smiling and being swept away by the sheer energy of the band. They sweat for their art and clearly love every note that comes of the stage, and they want the audience to love it to. It's not just a job to them. They regularly include the Hall & Oates classic, 'I Can't Go For That', in their set list – much to the delight of their more musically astute fans.

Bassist Jonny gets quite offended by the people who refuse to 'get involved' with the band. He said "We don't give any time to music snobs. Those people who go to a gig and stand at the back with their arms folded. We get asses moving. That's the kind of crowd we attract. People who want to have fun. And those are the only type of cats that we want to give time to."

Clearly he's not impressed. Jonny explained: "We're just playing music that we love. It's music that's keeping us happy. And it just happens to be that people from teenagers to more mature fans - 30 plus – also like it. That's cool with us – we'll play to anybody. Whoever gets what we do. We're not uptight about that."

When Orson were asked to come to the UK at the end of 2005, it was their last ditch attempt to make it. It was make or break. At home in California, years of playing to local crowds didn't appear to be getting them anywhere.

Guitarist George Astasio is very philosophical about their struggle for recognition. He said: "We're not bitter about being ignored for so long. The corporate business is structured in such a way that they can't help it. We can't be resentful about that. It's not their fault. But to pass up good music for that they think is right – always trying to second guess themselves and waiting for someone else to pull the first move – and the people that have those jobs their lives are based on fear. If they make the wrong call, they'll lose their jobs."

Drummer Chris Cano breaks his silence: "That's why they're not willing to take risks. It's understandable. You can't hate them for that. And for some reason a positive five-piece rock band just wasn't what they wanted – it seemed risky to them. There were people in the industry at low levels who were great fans of ours, but they couldn't do anything. Maybe it's because we weren't a bunch of teenage girls singing songs written by somebody else… their bosses just get it. But what can you do, right?"

Jonny has much simpler explanation. He revealed: "What really happened was we were fed up with the way the industry is set up, especially in Los Angeles – the whole mechanism of playing in front of the A&R people, playing all the right clubs, playing by their rules. One day we just decided to say, 'Screw them and screw all that'. That's when we decided to record our own album and release it ourselves."

So three months after arriving on UK soil the five-piece band has built up a huge and loyal fan base, supported Duran Duran on tour, have a top five single and a record-breaking download.

The album is a sterilised version of what Orson do on stage – which is where they belong – as Jonny admits. He explained: "We've played more often on stage than we have in a studio – we're not studio musicians. So when we recorded this album we didn't want to take any chances so we played it straight, we didn't want to make any mistakes, so we did 'play it straight'.

"But then again we wanted to make sure that it was as close as we could get to what we do on stage so that people who haven't seen us get a taste."

But what about the US market? It's rare for an American band to want to take on the fickle – and blinkered – UK market, especially when their material is tailor made for Abercrombie & Fitch-wearing teenagers.

"We're actually going to release the album in the US after we release it here in the UK. We're pushing it out in May over here, but waiting until the end of the year to get it in stores in the US. Britain is very important to us. People here get us. They really do. This is the home of rock for God's sake!

"America can wait."

ORSON UK TOUR DATES

May 22nd - Liverpool Academy

May 23rd - Leeds Met Uni

May 25th - London KOKO

May 28th - Birmingham Sound Station Festival

May 30th - Manchester University

June 1st - Glasgow QMU

June 2nd - Sheffield Leadmill

June 3rd - Nottingham Marcus Garvey Centre

June 5th - Norwich Waterfront

June 6th - Cambridge Junction

June 7th - Brighton Concorde

Source: 24dash.com

Keane are back with their hotly anticipated follow up to 2004's huge selling Hopes and Fears, and Gareth Iacobucci gives the album its first major run-through for Sound Generator.

"Under The Iron Sea" is not as immediate as its predecessor and has a noticeably darker tone throughout, he writes. However, there are still enough great tunes to suggest that it will be one of the biggest albums of the year.

So what's it all about?1. Atlantic

An eerie lingering piano hook and trippy drums recall Elbow at their most proggish. This track immediately sets the tone for a darker and more experimental album than Hopes And Fears.

2. Is It Any Wonder?

Keane skirt as close to The Edge as is humanly possible with effects pedals cleverly disguising their lack of actual guitar. This lead single is pure U2 circa-Achtung Baby, a fist-punching anthem with lyrics that draw heavily on current political events.

3. Nothing In My Way.

The most musically similar to their debut album, this radio friendly track is a very close cousin to Somewhere Only We Know. A potential single

4. Leaving so soon?

Tom Chaplain comes over all Midge Ure on this 80's tinged track. Unashamedly poppy.

5. A Bad Dream

The centrepiece of the album starts off like Massive Attack's Teardrop before introducing a lilting hook reminiscent of Air's La Femme De Argent. Serene vocals from Chaplain that build and build like a darker take on Bedshaped.

6. Hamburg Song

Possibly the weakest track on the album, with Chaplain's vocals unable to disguise this non-descript slow-paced song.

7. Put It Behind You

Breezy stadium-sized anthem that recalls Coldplay at their most animated.

8. The Iron Sea

Instrumental that could soundtrack the end of a movie. The swirling atmospherics are a definite nod to Echo and The Bunnymen.

9. Crystal Ball

Anthemic, polished and radio-friendly, this track eventually jumps out at you after a few listens. A likely single.

10. Try Again

This simple ballad is the most boldly romantic song they've ever recorded, and packs the killer emotional punch that will have grown men weeping from Dover to Doncaster.

11. Broken Toy

A stunted ghostly air hovers over this dreamy track, which again sees Keane branching out beyond generic piano balladry.

12. The Frog Prince

An unusually uplifting end to what is overall a darker album. Doesn't have the same impact as a closer that Bedshaped did on Hopes And Fears.

'Under The Iron Sea' is released through Island on 12 June.

Source: soundgenerator.com

The world's third-largest music company EMI could raise its offer for smaller rival Warner Music to $30 per share after the U.S. firm rejected its $28.50 offer earlier this month, the Observer newspaper said.

But Warner could still hold out for a higher bid of about $33 per share, the newspaper said. EMI, home to artists such as Coldplay and Robbie Williams, offered $4.2 billion at the start of May and said it believed the acquisition would be a good deal for both comapnies' shareholders. Warner rejected the bid and sources close to the situation told Reuters then the offer did not value the company appropriately.

EMI was not immediately available.

Radiohead arrive in the chandeliered splendour of Blackpool's old ballroom in an odd sort of limbo. The grand millennial melancholy of OK, Computer was greeted like a latter-day Sergeant Pepper in 1997.

The contrary about turn of its successor Kid A's icy electronic soundscapes aided the impression that they were rock's new leaders. But ever since 2003's Hail to the Thief fumblingly tried to merge Radiohead's anthemic and experimental extremes, their sure step has faltered a little.

While the more popular OK Computer has had its style aped and debased by the likes of Coldplay, the new horizons they have then tried to chart appear to have struck a dead end.Singer Thom Yorke's political pronouncements against globalisation, the Iraq war and Tony Blair (he recently refused to meet the latter, as the thought made him "physically sick") have meanwhile made him a cultural figurehead beyond his music; but it's a status this basically shy man seems uncomfortable pursuing.

So while Radiohead in 2006 remain Britain's most revered group, their future seems starkly uncertain. They no longer even have a record label. The UK tour of relatively small halls which starts tonight is, then, both the first chance to hear new songs from their crucial, upcoming eighth album, and to judge whether they remain vital pioneers.

They walk on without ceremony. Aggression and urgency seems ratcheted up at once. For "2+2=5", Yorke's trademark agonised falsetto blasts to the back of the hall. The first new song, "Bangers and Mash", concerns the bands bolshy mood. Tumbled down garage rock that seems ready to surlily expire in an adolescent spasm of feedback inside a minute, grand, ambitious structures can still be glimpsed at its base.

But when old favourite "Lucky", Radiohead instead emerge as a band at last willing to embrace their contradictions. Begun semi-acoustically it is a song of pulsing anxiousness. Describing a man whose luck is bound to be snatched away. But when the lights flash up as it surges into its chorus, and Yorke's great voice keeps a balance between sneering and yearning, a defiant, stadium-sized hope emerges anyway. The next step down this road would be the docile palliatives of Radiohead's unwanted offspring, Coldplay. But Yorke is too genuinely troubled to let that happen.

The new "bodysnatchers" then tears up the place again. The insolent yet fragile defiance of authority which has characterised their recent records emerges again, as Yorke spits: "I don't understand a word you say," as if to some nameless Blairite. The strutting confidence of the music, with Jonny Greenwood's guitar playing a sort of sophisticated punk, drives the mood home. Then when angst-meister Yorke starts a silly little dance to a calypso number it's hard to know what to think. Yorke then makes a solo, folk-style start to several OK Computer songs. The crowd claps along, but he quietens until they stop. Stadium impulses, encouraged a moment ago, are now carefully defused. Still, ghost-sythed choirs and another anthemic ascent eventually give the crowd what they want.

"The next song has been kicking around a long while," Yorke says of another, unidentified new one. "As," he concedes, "have we." Lilting, mellow and understated, it sounds, encouragingly, not like Radiohead at all. When the familiar, ferocious hit "Paranoid Android" follows, it's quite a disappointment.

The first, swift encore reinforces this feeling, when Yorke sings "There There" in a style of sustained but by now over-familiar passion; Radiohead by rote.

Then, in a gig which appears to deliberately seesaw between old favourites and fresh adventure, Kid A's "the National Anthem" earns its place in 2006.

Radiohead have made peace with their past tonight. But perhaps they should just let it go. Its the odd, diverse song they are writing now which sound like a band with a future.

Source: http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk

Michael Stipe couldn’t take it anymore. He had to do something for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the catastrophic issues they have been facing. “I felt like I had to do something as a Southerner;” he says. “I had to do something as a public figure. The one thing I can do is sing, and it’s maybe the best way to get people to pay attention.”

The R.E.M. leader rallied some friends and went into a studio to cut a cover of Joseph Arthur’s “In The Sun,” with proceeds from the iTunes-exclusive track going to Mercy Corps, an organization fighting the good fight in a colossally overwhelming situation.

When it came time to record, it wasn’t hard for Stipe to recruit artists to participate. “I tried to involve people who would not only add to the project, but also maybe lift it into different areas,” he says. “I can’t expect that everyone would be interested in me, but a lot of people would be interested in Chris Martin; a lot of people would be interested in Justin Timberlake.”

Read the full article here

Boutique hotel operator Morgans Hotel Group Co. on Thursday said it was buying the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas along with 23 acres of adjacent land and some related assets for $770 million.

The company said it would buy the property, which includes a 647-room hotel and 30,000 square-foot casino on 16.7 acres of land, from Hard Rock Hotel's chairman and founder Peter Morton. Morgans Hotel, which owns and operates boutique hotels under brands such as Delano and Mondrian, said it would likely lease the casino to a third-party licensed operator.

The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Alicia Keyes, David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails have all performed at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.Morgans also said it may bring in joint venture partners to further develop the property and may sell excess land. The buyout also includes the right to use the Hard Rock Hotel and Hard Rock Casino brands for other hotels and casinos in certain locations, the company said.

Chief Executive Edward Scheetz said in an interview the company was talking with some potential partners to lease the casino but declined to name them. "It is a trophy property with significant excess development rights in the land as well as some valuable brand," Scheetz said. "There is an intermediate term opportunity to expand the existing Hard Rock facility" with more rooms and gaming space.

Morton co-founded the Hard Rock brand in 1971, sold his chain of Hard Rock Cafes to the Rank Group for $410 million in 1996, his company said in a separate statement.

Source: http://today.reuters.com

The BBC is being forced to appeal to staff to fill up audience space in studios because of irregularities that have arisen from potential breaches of UK licensing laws.

Director general Mark Thompson has emailed staff asking them to make up the audiences for shows including Top of the Pops, while the Corporation continues discussions with local councils over the licensing issue.

In recent months the BBC has been caught out in breach of rules hosting gigs for bands such as Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Coldplay.The 2003 Licensing Act states that if entertainment is provided for profit or is put on in a public venue it must have a licence.

The BBC said that most programme production at its Shepherd’s Bush complex would continue unaffected but changes would be necessary for some shows involving studio audiences.

Members of the public due to attend shows at Television Centre in May are advised to call the Corporation’s audience helpline on 08700 100 222.

Alt-rock band Snow Patrol doesn’t need to put much more in terms of musical offer much more to fans except more albums in the future. The Irish rockers institute a melody of rock entranced with valor and tenderness that echoes that of Coldplay or even U2s previously produced works.

The bands latest LP Eyes Open demonstrates a luminosity of validity that presents Snow Patrol as one of the best acts in the biz. Eyes Open demonstrates the bands collective talents and versatility as artists on a note of perfection. We pay attention to the albums detailed tracks with full attention and become aware of the bands perceptive idiom of honesty; however, however, because of the bands profound scope we at times can become astray in their musical genius.“Eyes Open,” the albums title track, beats through a rhythmic steadiness of hard rock and lyrical percussion that hits the note of rock perfection. The track hits the mark on great rock and that surely to be expected. Another notable track worth mentioning was “Chasing Cars. “ A simple track with a mellow tone, “Chasing Cars” could perhaps be equivalent to that of their single “Run” because of its simplistic candor.

In contrast to their preceding platinum selling album Final Straw, Eyes Open is a very strong follow-up that never lets up on its audacity. It’s an album that allows musical endowment to be displayed with eagerness and expectancy. It’s palpable that various musical influences contributed to the albums copious developed scope and it makes the album so much more gratifyingly addictive.

With Eyes Open Snow Patrol hit the mark on knowing what sort of band they have become and will always be. Their style transcends itself into so many genres; however whatever way you identify them to be, they’ll always be a rock band with continual sensitivity.

Source: http://uweekly.com

Last week, a Slate reader told the Explainer that, despite using multiple telephones and computers, he was unable to buy tickets to an upcoming Radiohead concert.

10 minutes after tickets went on sale, the Ticketmaster Web site told him the show had sold out. According to news reports last month, tickets to two Madonna shows at Madison Square Garden sold out in 10 minutes. A promoter also recently claimed that two Bruce Springsteen shows in the United Kingdom sold out in 10 minutes.

Can a show really sell out in a few minutes? Yes, thanks to the Internet.Ticketmaster, the ticket agent for pretty much every big concert in America, sells tickets on its Web site, over the phone (via 19 international call centers), at 6,500 domestic retail outlets, and through arena box offices. According to Ticketmaster, Internet orders now make up 60 percent of sales. Tickets used to be allotted to retail sellers in paper form, ensuring that regional outlets had at least some tickets available. But phone, Internet, and in-person ticket buyers now purchase seats from a single pool. When a fan in Detroit buys a ticket on the Web, that's one less ticket available to the guy at the retail store in New Jersey. If you're first in line at the box office, there's no guarantee you'll get a seat.

Popular shows sell out quickly because many seats are already spoken for. Pre-sales for fan clubs and venue season-ticket holders take up a chunk. Event sponsors get tickets for their clients, radio stations get tickets for giveaways, and the band and the promoters will hold seats for family and VIPs. Event organizers may cut the number of available seats due to space requirements for equipment and stage placement. According to USA Today, just 10,000 of the 20,000 seats at Madison Square Garden were made available to the general public for Coldplay's two concerts in September 2004.

Individual ticket buyers must also compete with professional ticket brokers who have the know-how and manpower to snap up tickets quickly. Event organizers set limits on how many tickets a buyer can purchase at once, but brokers and scalpers hire people to call and surf for tickets continually. Auto-dialing telephones and automated computer programs can also flood Ticketmaster with requests, increasing a broker's chance of getting through to busy phone lines and Web pages.

Source: slate.com

It's a rare day of special promise: a brand spanking new Paul Simon album, Surprise. All cool people obviously must hear this. Partly, this is a collaboration with Brian Eno. What sweet wonders await us?

The Red Hot Chili Peppers release their two CD set Stadium Arcadium. The single "Dani California" doesn't sound like much to me — it's barely better than the crappy Pearl Jam. It is, however, a hit single already. Curious though for a band with a new double album that they only played one new song for their big Saturday Night Live showcase last week. For a second number, they went all the way back to "Give It Away." What, there wasn't another new song worth playing?Nick Lachey, the ex-Mr. Jessica Simpson has a new album. I didn't know that he was even a singer. Is there no end to his talent? Anyway, What's Left of Me is apparently about the breakup of his marriage. Thus, the AMG reviewer describes it as something of a boy band Blood on the Tracks. Kind of a Back Street Boys thing — with a little bit of Coldplay in the mix. Ouch.

Saving the cheesiest for last, Neil Young has a new album about Living With War. He brags on whipping up a whole album from scratch in a couple of days, but frankly it SOUNDS like it was thrown together in a couple of days. It's not like he spent any time thinking up these formulaic guitar blues. On the other hand, sometimes he manages to squeeze maximum effect out of plain generic elements.

Specifically, the centerpiece track "Let's Impeach the President" at least halfway works. There is, let us say, minimal melodic development, but it is kinda catchy in a dumb way. It has a certain brash boyish charm. By accident of my mix programming, I put this on a car CD followed immediately by some classic Judas Priest. Given the theme of the Neil Young sillyfest, the self-defense of the one "Breaking the Law" plays like a musically complimentary and intellectually appropriate answer from the president. Image W screaming, "You don't know what it's liiiiiiiiiiiiiike!"

Here's the complete list of this week's major new album releases, courtesy AMG:

Paul Simon Surprise Warner Bros.

Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Singer/Songwriter, Pop/Rock

Gnarls Barkley St. Elsewhere Downtown

Neo-Soul, Alternative Rap, Underground Rap, Alternative Pop/Rock, Hip-Hop

Nick Lachey What's Left of Me Jive/Zomba

Adult Contemporary, Dance-Pop

Matmos The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast Matador

Electronica, Experimental Techno

Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium Warner Bros.

Funk Metal, Alternative Pop/Rock

Art Brut Bang Bang Rock & Roll

Banana/Fierce Panda

Indie Rock

Susana Baca Travesías Luaka Bop

Latin Folk, Afro Peruvian

The Black Heart Procession The Spell Touch & Go

Indie Rock

Jirí Barta Moscheles, Hummel: Cello Sonatas Hyperion

Classical and Romantic Chamber Music

C.J. Chenier The Desperate Kingdom of Love World Village

Zydeco, Creole

Popa Chubby Stealing the Devil's Guitar Blind Pig

Contemporary Blues, Modern Electric Blues

Harry Connick, Jr. Harry on Broadway, Act 1 Sony

Traditional Pop, American Popular Song

Alan Curtis Vivaldi: Motezuma Deutsche Grammophon

Baroque Opera

Daedelus Daedelus Denies the Day's Demise Mush

Electronica, Indie Electronic, Ambient Techno, Experimental Techno

Kimya Dawson Remember That I Love You K

Anti-Folk, Indie Rock, Singer/Songwriter, Contemporary Folk, Lo-Fi

Diamond Rio Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 Arista

Contemporary Country

The Eighteenth Day of May The Eighteenth Day of May Hannibal

Indie Pop

The Everyothers Pink Sticky Lies Kill Rock Stars

Garage Rock Revival, Indie Rock

Extra Golden OK-Oyot System Thrill Jockey

Afro-Pop, Worldbeat, Indie Rock

Fairport Convention The Fairport Companion Castle

British Folk-Rock, Progressive Folk, British Folk, Folk-Rock, Singer/Songwriter

Grandaddy Just Like the Fambly Cat V2

Indie Rock, Neo-Psychedelia

Lynn Harrell Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 2; Prokofiev: Symphony-Concerto Avie

Modern Orchestral Music

Jolie Holland Springtime Can Kill You Anti-

Neo-Traditional Folk, Folk-Jazz, Singer/Songwriter, Lo-Fi, Contemporary Singer/Songwriter

Chris Isaak Best of Chris Isaak [CD/DVD] Wicked Game/Reprise

Pop/Rock, Roots Rock, College Rock, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock

The Isley Brothers Baby Makin' Music Def Soul Classics/Def Jam

Contemporary R&B, Urban

Jagged Edge Jagged Edge Sony Urban Music/Columbia

Urban, Contemporary R&B

Korn Live and Rare Sony

Alternative Metal, Heavy Metal, Post-Grunge, Rap-Metal

Teena Marie Sapphire Cash Money

Contemporary R&B, Urban

McFly Just My Luck Universal

Pop/Rock, Punk-Pop

NOMO New Tones Ubiquity

Deep Funk Revival, Afro-Beat, Soul-Jazz, Jazz-Funk

Old Haunts Fuel on Fire Kill Rocks Stars

Indie Rock, Garage Rock Revival

Omar & The Howlers Bamboozled: Live in Germany Ruf

Modern Electric Texas Blues, Electric Texas Blues, Blues-Rock

Jordi Savall Boccherini: Fandango, Sinfonie & La Musica Notturna di Madrid [Hybrid SACD] Alia Vox

Classical Chamber Music

Dawn Upshaw Osvaldo Golijov: Ainadamar Deutsche Grammophon

Contemporary Opera

Original Soundtrack The Da Vinci Code [Original Movie Soundtrack] Decca

Original Score, Soundtracks

Stephen Pearcy Stripped Sidewinder Music

Hard Rock

Pony Up! Make Love to the Judges with Your Eyes Dim Mak

Indie Pop, Indie Rock

Snow Patrol Eyes Open A&M

Alternative Pop/Rock, Indie Rock

The Stills

Without Feathers

Vice

Indie Rock, Post-Rock/Experimental

Suga Free Just Add Water [CD/DVD] Laneway/Bungalo

West Coast Rap, G-Funk, Gangsta Rap

Marlo Thomas Free to Be You and Me Arista/Legacy

Sing-Along, Educational, Children's Stories

Trivium Ascendancy [CD/DVD] Roadrunner

Alternative Metal

Various Artists The Sound the Hare Heard Kill Rock Stars

Singer/Songwriter, Indie Rock

Willie & the Poor Boys Poor Boy Boogie Castle

Retro-Rock, Roots Rock

Neil Young Living with War Reprise

Album Rock, Folk-Rock, Hard Rock, Singer/Songwriter

Source: blogcritics.org

Who’s the hottest potato in this year’s crop of vivacious vegetarians in PETA’s popular annual contest?

The results are in, and after tallying more than 250,000 votes, super-fit 19-year-old Salina native Ricky House has been crowned the male "Sexiest Vegetarian Alive."

Ricky, a student at the University of Kansas, faced stiff competition from other entrants across Canada and the U.S. Everybody knows that vegetarians’ healthy diets help keep them youthful and slim, and after joining the ranks of the reigning celebrity winners, American Idol’s Carrie Underwood and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, Ricky is proving that you don’t have to be famous to take advantage of this beauty secret.Ricky often travels to Latin America, where he does volunteer medical work in poor communities. He’s a big fan of Burger King’s BK Veggie and Subway’s Veggie Delight, and he also enjoys soccer and playing music. Ricky cites great vegetarian peacemakers Mahatma Gandhi and His Holiness the Dalai Lama as inspirations for his switch to a more humane, healthy diet. Along with his new title, Ricky will receive a $50 gift certificate from nonleather shoe retailer MooShoes, cologne from Jason Natural Cosmetics, a box of vegan chocolate truffles from ChocolateDecadence.com, a box of Boca "chicken" patties, coupons for Johnny Rockets veggie burgers, and more. He will also be featured in PETA’s widely circulated magazine Animal Times.

So what turns on North America’s sexiest vegetarian? "To me, there’s nothing sexier than a woman with lots of passion and compassion," says Ricky. "Going vegetarian means that you care about yourself and you care about the world around you, and to me, that’s a real turn-on."

"Ricky is a winner in more ways than one," says PETA Vegan Campaign Manager Reannon Peterson. "He’s made the smart move to a vegetarian diet and helped animals and his health—being sexy is just one more reward!"

For more information, please visit GoVeg.com.

Influential Go-Betweens singer Grant McLennan has died from a heart attack at the age of 48.

The Aussie singer-songwriter who was a major influence on bands such as REM, U2, Coldplay and Franz Ferdinand died just before a party he was holding in honour of girlfriend Emma in Brisbane.

A few weeks ago Grant and the band played at a birthday party for Hollywood star Cate Blanchett’s husband Andrew Upton as they were the couple’s favourite rock group.Bernard MacMahon of his label Lo-Max Records, told is: "How he died was almost poetically tragic. The setting and scene was almost what he’d write about in a song. He fell in love with Emma about six months ago and was going to declare his undying love to her at the party. He went to have a rest before it and was found on a bed looking very peaceful."

His death is a huge loss to Australian music and tributes will be paid to him at the Australian Parliament on Tuesday. His funeral takes place at Brisbane’s Queensland Cathedral on Friday. Bernard added: "It’s a tragic loss. Grant and Robert Forster who he formed the band with in 1977 were regarded as the Lennon and McCartney of Australia."

Source: thesun.co.uk

Apple Computer Inc. is entitled to use the apple logo on its iTunes Music Store, a judge ruled Monday, rejecting a suit filed by Apple Corps Ltd., the guardian of The Beatles' commercial interests.

Apple Corps, which claimed that the computer company had broken a 1991 agreement in which each side agreed not to enter into the other's field of business, said it would appeal.

Judge Edward Mann of Britain's High Court ruled that Apple Computer used the fruit logo in association with the store, not the music, and thus did not breach the agreement. "I conclude that the use of the apple logo ... does not suggest a relevant connection with the creative work," Mann said in his written judgment. "I think that the use of the apple logo is a fair and reasonable use of the mark in connection with the service, which does not go further and unfairly or unreasonably suggest an additional association with the creative works themselves."

Though Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs said he was "glad to put this disagreement behind us," the case appears far from over. Neil Aspinall, the manager of Apple Corps, said his company would immediately appeal.

"We felt that during the course of the trial we clearly demonstrated just how extensively Apple Computer has broken the agreement," Aspinall said in a statement.

Apple Computer has sold more than 1 billion songs through the iTunes Music Store, which is available throughout Europe as well as in the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan. Though there are more than 3 million tracks available for purchase in the U.S. - and 2 million in Britain - there are no Beatles' songs listed. The band's catalog is not available on iTunes.

In his brief statement, Jobs said he hoped the ruling would help rectify that situation: "We have always loved the Beatles, and hopefully we can now work together to get them on the iTunes Music Store."

Lawyers for Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Computer had argued that the company was conducting its business legally and consumers are smart enough to tell the difference between the logos. Apple Corps uses a shiny green apple as its logo, while Apple Computer has a cartoon-like apple with a neat bite taken out.

Lawyers for each side tussled during the hearing over advertisements for iTunes featuring musical acts U2, Eminem and Coldplay, using the logo. The judge confessed early on that he owned an iPod.

The 1991 agreement ended previous lengthy litigation over the logo. Apple Computer told the court that it paid the Fab Four's company $26.5 million as part of the 1991 out-of-court settlement, and in return had received "a considerably expanded field of use." The terms of the deal were kept confidential at the time.

Mann refused Apple Computer's application for an immediate interim payment of 1.5 million pounds ($2.8 million) from Apple Corps toward its legal costs, pending further hearings. Apple Corps faces a similar bill for its own legal expenses.

While the case may have seemed glamorous because of the litigants, it really came down to the interpretation of a contract - the 1991 agreement - said Jonathan Riley, an intellectual property lawyer with London firm Lawrence Graham.

"It was watched with interest, but also some distance, because I don't think it's hugely significant for either the computer industry or the music industry," he said.

Apple Corps was started by the Beatles in 1968 and is still owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, the widow of John Lennon and the estate of George Harrison. Apple Computer was formed in 1976, when college dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak filed partnership papers on April Fools' Day.

Source: Various

On the surface, Edgar Bronfman and Eric Nicoli would seem to have little in common.

Bronfman is the starry heir to the Seagram whisky fortune, a former songwriter and Hollywood executive. Nicoli is a former food industry boss who launched the Yorkie and Lion chocolate bars. He tucks his T-shirts into his trousers. But for six years the businesses they run have been locked in a sometimes flat-footed waltz.

Last Monday, Nicoli, chairman of EMI, made a call to the New York offices of Bronfman’s Warner Music group. Two weeks previously The Sunday Times had revealed the two sides were considering a fourth attempt to join the two smallest remaining music companies.A combined entity would add EMI’s Coldplay and the Beatles to Warner’s James Blunt and Madonna. Depending on whose charts you read, EMI/Warner would be the second or third-largest music group in the world.

The meeting at Bronfman’s Rockerfeller Center offices was short and cordial. But next day Warner Music’s board swiftly rejected the cash-and-shares approach worth $28.50 per share.

This weekend EMI was said to be working on a revised proposal. Insiders at Warner were certainly expecting one, even as Bronfman was pouring cold water on the idea. “Consolidation for consolidation’s sake doesn’t make a lot of sense. Ours is not a business that requires scale economics,” he said at a press conference.

But despite his seeming reluctance, a tie-up between the world’s third and fourth music groups is seen by many analysts as inevitable.

“There is compelling logic for them to do a deal,” said Richard Hitchcock, media analyst at Numis. “But now it looks like we are in a stand-off.” Again. Warner and EMI have circled each other for years, with agreements foundering in 2000, 2001 and 2003.

Since then the music market has changed dramatically; sales have slumped and the industry has looked for scapegoats. First was Napster, the online music swap shop that allowed consumers to trade music for free. After Napster’s free centralised service was shut down, file-sharing was blamed.

Now the worst seems to be behind them. Legal sales of digital music are growing. Outside America, EMI is a strong player and its music-publishing arm is the most respected in the industry.

Warner is stronger than EMI in the all-important US recorded-music market. But both groups lag well behind the leaders. According to ratings agency Nielsen Sound Scan, for the week ending April 30 Warner had 18.5% of the US albums market, and EMI had 10.27%. The recently merged Sony/BMG accounted for 26.11% while industry leader Universal had 31.74%.

The two companies may be way behind in terms of market share but their stock prices have been on the rise, buoyed by renewed confidence in the industry and hopes of a merger.

Warner Music was bought out from media giant Time Warner in 2004. Bronfman and a consortium including Bain Capital, Providence Equity Partners and Thomas H Lee Partners paid Time Warner $2.6 billion (£1.4 billion). Floated last May, the company is now worth $3.38 billion, some compensation for Bronfman who was badly burnt by his last media venture.

In the 1990s Bronfman used Seagram’s money to merge the music holdings of MCA and PolyGram Music, creating the world’s biggest record company, Universal. He later sold out to the French conglomerate Vivendi in a deal that proved disastrous both for Bronfman’s reputation and the family fortune.

Source: http://business.timesonline.co.uk

A High Court judge is due to rule Monday in the legal fight between Apple Computer and the Beatles' Apple Corps record label over the use of the apple logo.

Apple Corps Ltd. is suing Apple Computer Inc., claiming that the U.S.-based computer company has broken a 1991 agreement in which each agreed not to enter into the other's field of business.

The British company, started by the Beatles in 1968, argues that Apple Computer has infringed its territory by entering the music business and is seeking to force Apple Computer to drop its apple logo from the iTunes Music Store and pay unspecified damages.Apple Computer claims that the 1991 agreement allows it to use the logo because it does not own the rights to the music, but simply the digital technology to distribute it.

Lawyers for the U.S.-based company told Judge Edward Mann during the High Court hearing last month that it was conducting its business legally and that music lovers are smart enough to tell the difference between the use of the apple logos.

Apple Corps uses a shiny green apple as its logo, while Apple Computer has a cartoon-like apple with a neat bite taken out.

Lawyers for each side tussled during the hearing over advertisements featuring musical acts U2, Eminem and Coldplay for iTunes using the logo and Mann confessed early on that he owned an iPod.

The 1991 agreement ended previous lengthy litigation over the logo. Apple Computer told the court that the computer company paid the Fab Four's firm US$26.5 million as part of the 1991 out-of-court settlement, and in return had received "a considerably expanded field of use." The terms of the deal were kept confidential at the time.

Apple Corps was started by the Beatles in 1968 and is still owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, the widow of John Lennon and the estate of George Harrison.

Cupertino, California-based Apple Computer was formed in 1976, when college dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak filed partnership papers on April Fools' Day.

Their ubiquitous iPods first came out in October 2001 and the iTunes music store first opened for business in the United States in April 2003; it is now available across Europe, in Australia, Japan, and Canada.

Source: Various