After several successful years of native British bands like Coldplay and Franz Ferdinand dominating the charts and raking in awards, the United Kingdom continues to storm the world by ushering in a new wave of mthe hottest rock acts.

Recent research only confirms the success of the homegrown British rockers. Figures from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) show that these bands (like Kaiser Chiefs, Coldplay and The Killers) have the best-selling albums in Albion territory. Guitar-based music has a 36% share of UK album sales, while pop has just a quarter.

This special edition of Breaking New Grounds is intended to introduce you to three rising British groups (however, the chances are low that the names below are new for you). Here they are, the proud and hopeful of the modern United Kingdom's rock scene: The Arctic Monkeys, already popular all around the world; the highly talented indie act Editors; and Dirty Pretty Things, the recent project by Carl Barat, a former member of scandalous band The Libertines.Arctic Monkeys

This band appeared from nowhere, even faster than Coldplay could only dream of, to become the fastest-selling debut band in UK history and immediately earning thousands of fans. But that band has its share of haters who refuse to accept that a young bad deserves success at such a lightening speed. But, really, who the fuck are Arctic Monkeys?

Alex Turner (vocals/guitar) and Jamie Cook (guitar) teamed up with bassist Andy Nicholson and drummer Matt Helders to form this band in Sheffield, England, in 2003. Generally influenced by the likes of The Jam, The Clash, and The Smiths, the guys took all the necessary steps to gain notoriety in a rapid fashion. They rehearsed and played hard, soon afterward landed their first gig, started to share their music on the internet and eventually attracted the attention of press and record companies. Despite opportunities to have much more profitable deals, the band signed to Domino last summer. Their two singles "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" and "When The Sun Goes Down" quickly soared to the top position of the UK singles chart. The Arctic Monkeys’ debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not sold 118,501 copies in the U.K. within a day of its release, setting a record for selling more CDs than the rest of the Top 20 album chart combined. Their latest release was Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys, an EP with four previously unreleased songs. The band is also reportedly on its way to recording its second full-length CD.

But why are these rockers gaining popularity so forcefully these days – especially in the US? Maybe the reason lies in their vibrant, punk-inspired sound, which is well suited for Britpop and alternative rock fans alike. The guys make catchy tunes without seeming like they are trying too hard, and they are crowd-pleasers despite themselves. Well, love 'em or hate 'em -- Arctic Monkeys is a talented musicial act truly worth of a huge respect.

The Editors

As four members of Editors are not from the rock center of the UK, they have decided to consider themselves as a "non-rock n' roll" band. The truth behind this statement can be confirmed only after listening to them for yourself -- here we will only give you an introduction to this relatively young Brit act.

Originally called (The) Pride, the group updated its line-up and changed the name to Snowfield in 2003. The band is comprised of singer/guitarist Tom Smith, lead guitarist Chris Urbanowicz, bassist Russell Leetch, and drummer Ed Lay. Like the Arctic Monkeys, after series of a well-received club dates and a single demo tape, the group -- already dubbing itself Editors -- turned down major British labels' interest and instead signed with independent Kitchenware in late 2004. Having confidently declared a unique sound with a debut single "Bullets", Editors have been quickly gaining popularity with each new single. Their debut album The Back Room was released July 25, 2005, in the UK and March 21, 2006, in the US.

The band’s invasion of the States is impending, but the foundation has already been laid (with standout performances at American festivals and TV shows). Even if Editors' guys don't like the term "rock n' roll", their sound is frequently compared to the sound of bands such as Joy Division, The Smiths, Kitchens of Distinction, The Chameleons, and Interpol. But you’d better let others mull over if the group is neo-post-punk, indie rock or whatever they want -- check the band out for yourself!

Dirty Pretty Things

If you visited any of the UK music news sites even once this year, you surely read at least one headline narrating a new chapter in the saga of ex-Libertine Pete Doherty. Usually these chapters are very similar and reveal that the infamous star is either arrested for drugs or is released from jail. In fact, Pete's obsession with drugs forced him to part ways with Libertines' bandmate Carl Barat and the rest of the group in 2004. As a result, Doherty formed Babyshambles, while Barat went his own way with Dirty Pretty Things.

You might have heard that the band is relatively new, but its members are actually not newcomers to the scene. Dirty Pretty Things, which first appeared in September 2005, and already had several conflicts with bands having the same name, can in itself be considered as something fresh. Signed to Vertigo Records, the group made "You Fucking Love It" their first official single. The debut album, entitled Waterloo To Anywhere, hit stores May 8 -- and the first single from it already had spent several weeks at the top of UK charts. The band has also toured extensively in Britain during the first half of 2006. Their set list is comprised primarily of songs off the album, but also includes a few Libertines-era songs.

Dirty Pretty Things have repeatedly performed in the US, though a huge American invasion by this band seems more questionable than for our two previously reviewed ones. However, time will show DPT's abilities and if their new music is catchy enough for the fastidious American audience.

Source: ultimate-guitar.com

Rock star Phil Collins's property company has announced it will not shut down Liverpool's under-threat Parr Street studios, less than a week after a deal to save it collapsed.

But other businesses sharing the city centre site, including the celebrated 3345 private members club, a hotel and local design firms, still face the axe.

The pension fund that officially owns the Parr Street building, which belongs to the ex-Genesis frontman and two other former band members, yesterday announced it was withdrawing it from sale.A statement posted on the official Genesis website said a new management team was being brought in to run the centre and review all of the businesses based there.

It comes less than a week after the company announced the site was being put on the open market, prompting fears the studios would shut down in the next few days.

A business consortium led by singer Thomas Lang, who is behind the 3345 bar tried to buy it, but the deal collapsed. The recording studios are the largest outside London and have attracted names such as Pulp, New Order and Coldplay.

The statement issued by the pension fund yesterday read: "The Trustees have decided to withdraw the building from the market and contrary to the rumours and half truths, Parr Street Studios will not be closing but will continue to be run by the present owners under a new management company.

"Although the staff have been advised that their present employment will cease at the end of June it is anticipated that most of them will be employed by the new management company.

"With regard to the rest of the building, a review is to take place as to the best commercial use of the upper floors and it is anticipated that some changes will be made."

The statement went on to question the trio's motives and personally attacked Mr Lang.

The pension fund claims that the business consortium offered £1.2m for the building, which it felt was too low because there would be a potential increase in value if planning permission was given and it was later upped to £1. 35m.

It added they pulled out of a deal because they were unhappy with the contract and the price they were being offered as well as questioning the motivates of the consortium.

It wanted to add a clause saying they must share the profits if the building got planning permission but was then sold.

Last night Mr Lang said: "I have got no confidence in the integrity of this announcement. The management has not contacted any of the tenants and it certainly looks like they want me out.

"We are seeking legal advice on this. This is not the end." Agents for the owners applied for planning permission to turn it into 47 apartments along with shop, office and leisure space but the application has still not been resolved.

Louise Ellman, MP for Liverpool Riverside,: "I'm extremely surprised at the comments made because I have always found the consortium to be upfront and honourable.

"We must retain as much of this centre as possible. It is a very important part of Liverpool."

Source: http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk

Forget Rooney and his metatarsals: England’s fragile World Cup morale is reeling from the decision to choose Embrace, those sub-Coldplay plodders, to write the team’s official song.

“World at Your Feet”, which comes out next week, is a dirge-like anthem whose air of defeatism suggests England’s fate is to be knocked out on penalties in the quarter-finals. “Yes, it can be done,” the chorus implores earnestly, though like a subconscious current of thought the melancholy music tells a different story. No, it can’t be done. Failure awaits.

“World at Your Feet” has a bromide effect. It steels the nation for inevitable disappointment and therefore inadvertently performs a useful function, preventing English blokehood from succumbing totally to football hysteria.A lame World Cup song is a reality check. A good one, such as New Order’s “World in Motion” or the Lightning Seeds’ “Three Lions”, only makes fans feel even more resentful when England crash out, with the predictable consequences of hooliganism and rioting. So let’s celebrate Embrace’s wet blanket of an anthem: it is a bulwark against delusional optimism.

It isn’t the only team song to be unintentionally revealing. Italy’s is provided by a group called Pooh, whose terrible soft-rock number “Cuore Azzurro” (“Blue Heart)” can’t disguise the stench emanating from a match-fixing scandal currently engulfing the country’s top clubs. Pooh indeed.

The Australian football team, the Socceroos, go to battle accompanied by a raucous funk-rock track “Green and Gold”, chosen by the public in a television competition, that avoids making any mention of soccer – which the failure-hating Aussies are useless at – in favour of patriotic sentiments such as “I’ll never forget my history/I’ll make my own destiny”.

As if illustrating the fact that their best players have to make a living abroad, Trinidad and Tobago outsourced their song to a pair of musicians in Leeds, who gave an intriguing insight into the creative process when they told their local newspaper that their song, a cheery soca singalong, “took us about 2½ minutes to write, then five weeks in Trinidad to record”.

The two most striking songs could not be more different in temperament. Iran’s anthem is an austere, dark composition called “Intention and Faith Are Your Pride and Fame” (try chanting that on the terraces) whose impressively doomy orchestration and melodramatically pained vocals are oddly reminiscent of Scott Walker.

Mexico’s offering in contrast is so deliriously camp it almost seems designed as a celebration of football’s latent homoeroticism. Performed by a girl group called RBD, “México, México” is a Day-Glo fusion of perky mariachi trumpets and stupefyingly catchy Euro-disco. The World Cup hasn’t seen its like since Germany’s collaboration with the Village People in 1994.

The tournament itself has chosen a deluge of desperately bland pop songs as its soundtrack. The official anthem is “A Time of Our Lives”, sung by Il Divo, the pan-global pop-opera smoothies, and Toni Braxton, the American R&B soulstress, whose joint emoting over syrupy easy-listening harmonies comes across as an appalling parody of “Nessun Dorma”. It is the musical equivalent of a handkerchief soaking up Gazza’s tears.

An official album, Voices from the Fifa World Cup, adds more slush to the pile. A compilation of non- football-related songs by performers such as R. Kelly and Dido, its purpose appears to be to culvert the passions and rivalries that the sport inspires and instead promote a mood of lachrymosity and gooey sentimentality among its fans.

Cloying songs like these enable football to portray itself as a slick, emotional form of entertainment. The sinister side of the game – malevolent tackles, cheating players, violent fans – is occluded; so too are its vigour, speed and playfulness. Football’s relationship with pop is built on denial. That’s why the music it inspires or latches on to is typically so lacklustre.

Source: http://news.ft.com

Bertelsmann, the German media group, is trying to renegotiate its shareholder agreement with Sony, its music joint-venture partner, in a move that will make it easier to sell its way out of recorded music.

The two sides are understood to have had discussions about shortening the length of the five-year agreement governing the SonyBMG joint venture, which runs until 2009 and prevents either side from selling or transferring its half-interest.

Although Bertelsmann said last week that it was keeping its 50 per cent stake in the recorded music business, the negotiations demonstrate that its long-term commitment to the company behind Bruce Springsteen and Kelly Clarkson remains uncertain. Bertelsmann has announced plans to offload its wholly owned music publishing arm, which owns the copyright of songs written by Coldplay and Robbie Williams. It hopes that the auction will raise about €1.5 billion (£1 billion).

Selling music publishing is intended to help the private German group, whose overall interests range from book publishing to television broadcasting, to offset the €4.5 billion cash cost of buying out Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, its minority investor.

Renegotiating the SonyBMG shareholder agreement will make it easier for Bertelsmann to sell out, probably by selling either to Sony or to an ally of the Japanese group, which remains reluctant to increase its exposure to music when it is fighting to sort out its electronics operations.

The existing agreeement is understood to give either party pre-emption rights over the other party’s half-share and a say in any third-party investor that could be brought into the business, ranked No 2 in the world behind Universal Music.

SonyBMG is run by Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, the former Bertelsmann executive who took charge after a shareholder dispute in which Andrew Lack, the former Sony man, was forced out in favour of the German. Sony insiders say that Herr Schmidt-Holtz has immediately established close communication with the Japanese group’s New York operation, which has been interpreted as an attempt to safeguard his job in the long term.

During Mr Lack’s short tenure, costs were slashed, but the combined group lost market share and suffered technological problems as a botched implementation of copyright protection software forced it to compensate consumers in the United States. His approach, designed to boost profitability, unsettled Bertelsmann, which lobbied successfully for his removal.

Despite the problems of integration, SonyBMG remains the envy of its rivals. EMI, which is about half its size in terms of recorded music, is trying to buy its slightly smaller rival Warner Music in an attempt to catch up. An initial bid from EMI was rejected in early May, and it is expected that the British group will return with an improved offer.

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

The Isle of Wight waited over 30 years for a chance to revive its legendary 60s festival - and now two have come along at once

When the biggest story to come out of the Isle of Wight all year is about a missing penguin (remember Toga?), I can forgive you for thinking flap all happens on the so-called "Garden Isle", my home for the first 17 years of my life.

Dubbed a haven for OAPs by The Beatles in When I'm 64 ("Every summer we could rent a cottage on the Isle of Wight"), its reputation for deckchair-bound fogies sinking their dentures into 99s and fluorescent sticks of rock gives the island a profile more grave than rave.But it's rock of a different kind that once drew visitors here and which, four decades on, is rekindling a revolution set to blast the oldies from their Zimmers. The original IOW Festival grew exponentially from 1968 to 1970, the final year culminating in 600,000 loved-up hippies congregating to witness the Doors, the Who, Joni Mitchell and Jimi Hendrix's famous last performance before his untimely death just 18 days later. The 1970 festival also marked the death of the conflict-ridden extravaganza: with rampaging dopeheads creating havoc for police, the "Isle of Wight" Act was passed in parliament, outlawing all gatherings of 10,000 people or more and the final, far-out festie became the stuff of legend.

Fast forward 32 years to 2002. The act has been lifted and the sleeping spell broken by John Giddens, promoter of the new generation of Nokia IOW Festivals. Growing quietly in big-name line-ups and numbers (10,000 in 2002; 50,000 expected this year), Giddens attributes its pull to the island's cultural history: "It's not like we're trying to start something new in Cleethorpes; we're plugged into a heritage of literature and culture the likes of Coldplay [this year's headliners] and REM [2005] are fascinated by."

The fact that Keats and Tennyson resided here is something the crowd at Bestival, set up three years ago by island-born Radio 1 DJ, Rob Da Bank, are less likely to be swayed by. It's attracted this year's headliners the Pet Shop Boys and Scissor Sisters, a dance-orientated clientele, as well as plenty of column inches in the local press about drug arrests - as has Giddens' event.

As well as the festies, celebrity endorsements from the likes of Kate Moss (papped sweet-shopping in the island's capital, Newport) are helping it attract the Heat generation (if Kate can flog lipsticks and mobiles, she can sell holidays, too).

While retaining its traditionally quaint holidaying roots, the island now boasts gastropubs, hip hotels and creative camping alongside crazy golf, B&Bs, fish'n'chips; old and new coexist to offer the best of both worlds.

Well-heeled yachties still splash about in Cowes and Yarmouth, but the southern side of the island is the place to witness the new, youthful Wight. Ventnor, a steep, zig-zagging Victorian coastal town is home to The Hambrough, a new deluxe hotel offering sea views, underfloor heating and a chef who previously sharpened knives with Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White.

Ventnor is the island's creative epicentre, brimming with musicians, artists and, well, dopeheads (many left over from 1970). Proud of their roots, Mercury-prize-nominated band The Bees refuse to leave the town, and for good reason. The place is undergoing a resurgent music scene: a new night, The Blueroom at the Central Tap, is a showcase for upcoming hip-hop and house DJs and bands.

Ventnor also boasts a warm micro-climate, best enjoyed in the clifftop Botanical Gardens and secret Steephill Cove beach, directly below. Accessible only by foot, it's perfect for dodging the bucket-and-spade brigade that swamp Blue-Flagged Sandown, the town where London fashion collective PPQ (worn by Alison Goldfrapp, playing Friday at the Nokia Festival) own a holiday home. Ex-islanders, they regularly decamp from Hoxton to be with mates Babyshambles (that Kate Moss effect again).

In nearby postcard-perfect Bonchurch, the Pond Café is decidedly new Wight, with crisp-fried confit pork belly and ballantine of poached foie gras on the menu, leave all notions of bangers in baskets at the door.

Slightly inland from here, at Chale, is the country's coolest caravan site, with four silver 1960s trailers that have been restored to their kitsch glory by Vintage Vacations. The 24ft-long Airstream sleeps four, complete with sofa, bathroom and kitchenette. Original interiors were sourced by Suzes Room (10a Pier St, Ventnor), a new vintage homeware/clothing store. In fact, the island is an unbeatable treasure trove of thrift shops; morbid it may be, but a high turnover of pensioners equals an endless supply of retro wear. Shanklin and Ryde are best; rummaging in Cameo of Cowes (16 Bath Road) throws up oddities and designer gems (think false limbs and Louis Vuitton wallets).

But before I give the new-look island a big head, bear in mind the next major gig here is from Westlife. Hmmm. Perhaps Toga the penguin (favourite Westlife track? Flying Without Wings) wasn't snatched after all? He was just making a well-anticipated escape bid.

· The Nokia IOW Festival, June 9-11, £85 non camping, £105 camping (isleofwightfestival.com, ticketzone.co.uk). Bestival, September 8-10, £105 (bestival.net, ticketline.co.uk). Wightlink ferries (wightlink.co.uk) for cars and foot passengers. The Hambrough (01983 856 333, thehambrough.com) from £160 per room, per night. Vintage Vacations, (vintagevacations.co.uk) American trailers from £140 per weekend, sleep 4.

Source: http://travel.guardian.co.uk

Scottish singer KT Tunstall has done it, as have clean-living rockers Coldplay.

Even Conservative eco-warrior David Cameron is in on the act. Carbon neutralising is the must-do activity for those in the public eye who want to emphasise their environmental credentials.

Tunstall had trees planted to offset the pollution created by the production of her debut album, Eye to the Telescope, as did Coldplay, while Cameron carbon-neutralised a trip on a private jet by contributing to renewable energy projects. After lurking on the fringes of mainstream politics for decades, it's suddenly a hot topic.

Read the full article here

Solio, an award-winning, portable hybrid solar charger for mobile electronics devices, is now available in Telstra Shops for $139.

Solio captures energy from sunlight and stores it within an integrated battery to power mobile phones, PDAs, iPod/mp3 players, digital cameras and portable game consoles. It can also be charged from a mains power supply.

BES customers include some of the world's best known companies such as Apple and Quiksilver who offer co-branded Solio devices. Coldplay, one of today's most popular bands also released a special edition Solio for the launch of their latest, carbon-neutral album X&Y.The device appeals to the increasing numbers of environmentally-conscious and technology-savvy Australians who want to harness the sun for an endless power supply for their increasingly power hungry mobile devices.

Solio's internal battery takes between eight and 10 hours of direct sunlight to charge. The included wall adapter takes approximately 5.5 hours. A fully charged Solio will completely charge an average mobile phone or similar powered device at least once. A wide range of brand-specific connectors are available.

"Australia has the perfect climate to take advantage of solar technology and Solio will now be available in over 200 locations around the country," says Better Energy Systems' Christopher Hornor. "The support from Telstra will make the use of solar energy more accessible and will hopefully allow more people to see the many benefits of plugging into the Aussie sun."

Source: smarthouse.com.au

Sanctuary Group has dismissed its chief executive, Andy Taylor, in an attempt to draw a line under a year that saw the music group undergo a radical financial restructuring after a share price crash.

Sanctuary, whose clients include acts such as Beyonce, Coldplay and The Strokes, decided to remove Mr Taylor, who co-founded the company in 1976, following the appointment in April of Bob Ayling, former chief executive of British Airways, as chairman.

Mr Ayling was brought in by shareholders after a rescue fundraising in March, which involved the company raising pound stg. 110 million ($270 million) through a deeply discounted share placement and the cancellation of some of its debt.Mr Taylor, who was executive chairman of Sanctuary, gave up the chairmanship when Mr Ayling arrived, but remained as chief executive. Under Mr Ayling, the Sanctuary board had been conducting a review of the company's financial statements for the past few years. It said the review had been prompted by questions from the Financial Reporting Review Panel, the regulator that investigates accounting irregularities.

It queried the group's accounts for the year to September 2005. In those figures, the company included a substantial restatement of the prior year's figures. At the time, Sanctuary said it would restate results to address concerns about past accounting policies covering commission income in the artist management business and revenue and expense recognition in the recorded product division.

However, in mid-February, Baker Tilly, Sanctuary's auditors, announced the accounts for the year to September 2005 had understated the company's full-year pre-tax losses by almost pound stg. 16 million. The Sanctuary board decided that, as a result of its review, the accounting policies adopted by the company in the 2005 financial statements were appropriate and no adjustments were required to be made to the balance sheet.

It said that the profit and loss account for the year to 2005 might be adjusted as a result of exceptional items. Mr Taylor started his music management company with Rod Smallwood, a friend whom he met while attending university. He managed acts including Iron Maiden and built Sanctuary into a leading independent music company. He was the architect of the "360 degrees" music group, with operations ranging from recording to artist management, music publishing and rights management.

However, over-expansion and an aggressive push into the US led to mounting debts at the company. Sanctuary said Frank Presland, chief executive of Twenty-First Artists Management, which was bought by Sanctuary last year, would take over as chief executive. Twenty-First Artists manages acts including Elton John and James Blunt. Sanctuary shares rose 1p to close the London trading session at 47p.

Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au

How do you follow up an album that launched you into the pop aristocracy at the first time of asking? In Keane's case, you combine the commercial sheen of your debut with an admirable urge to push your things forward.

At the very least, we're discovering Keane aren't content to just churn out a "Hopes and Fears" mark II. Lyrically there's been progression: although the emotional frailty of their debut is still here, there's a definite sense of an album informed by the world around it, with a paranoid, apocalyptic cloud hanging heavy.

The wonderful "A Bad Dream" combines the dreamy electronica of Air's "La Femme D'argent" with the anthemic quality of classic Coldplay, and "Broken Toy" is a disjointed ghostly effort that surprises as much as it pleases.

Read the full review here

Sad news from Liverpool of the demise of an iconic recording studio.

Falling into the hands of property developers in the 2008 European City of Culture are the studios on the 'pool's Parr Street, described by the Independent as "an unprepossesing 19th century converted warehouse...(which) has long been the unlikely source of some of Britain's most memorable musical creations".

And Simply Red have recorded there, too. Seriously, though, the likes of Doves, Badly Drawn Boy, New Order and Coldplay are among the major artists to have used the studios, which the Indy describes as the largest away from London.Music artists are gutted at the proposed closure, which would turn the building into apartments and shops.

Among those speaking out are Echo and the Bunnymen singer Ian McCulloch, who called it "a sad day for Liverpool", while from the other end of the M62 ex-Factory Records boss and all-round Manc guru Tony Wilson said the Parr Street closure would stifle opportunties for upcoming bands in the region.

The paper says a company partly owned by Phil Collins is to flog the building. We're saying nothing. You don't have to really, do you?

Source: megastar.co.uk

The news that the bass player Andy Nicholson has dropped out of Arctic Monkeys, on the eve of a tour of North America, adds another dramatic twist in the tale of Britain's newest supergroup. A statement posted on the band's website on Monday revealed that Nicholson, 19, was suffering from "fatigue following an intensive period of touring".

"The band have been on a European tour, which concluded last week," says Ian McAndrew of Wildlife, the management company to which Arctic Monkeys are signed.

"Toward the end of that tour, Andy mentioned that he was feeling a bit drained, a bit run-down, which is not terribly uncommon, frankly. We have another North American tour starting in Vancouver on Friday and there was a discussion, and it seemed the best thing for us to do was to say: 'Take a break. Have a few weeks off and give yourself time to recover'. And while everyone's now looking at it as a major, significant event, the reality is that it's no more than that."For the immediate run of dates, which start in Vancouver on May 27 and end in Toronto on June 17, Nicholson will be replaced by Nick O'Malley, a friend from Arctic Monkeys' home-town of Sheffield, who plays in a group called The Dodgems. O'Malley, who has never performed live with Arctic Monkeys before, spent last weekend learning the group's songs by playing along to their records. Nicholson has lent O'Malley his equipment and been on hand at rehearsals this week to give him advice on playing the bass parts. According to McAndrew, it is an amicable, strictly short-term, substitution which will enable the group to honour its commitments, while giving Nicholson a little breathing space.

"After the North American shows, there will be a period of festival activity," he says, "which is not as intensive as touring in the States or Europe where you are on a bus going from one town to the next, the whole time. Some people have got different tolerances than others. I think Andy would have been quite capable of continuing, but I think we all felt in the circumstances, after conversations, that this was the prudent thing to do."

Nicholson is not the first musician to have bailed out from a band under such circumstances, and he won't be the last. One recalls the celebrated occasion when Liam Gallagher announced that he was too busy buying a house to be able to join Oasis for an American tour. And all sorts of stars - from Geri Halliwell to Richey Edwards - have made their exits from groups on the eve of American tours.

But Nicholson's is surely one of the earliest such departures, from a group which seems to be playing out its entire career in fast-forward. For him, the stresses of stardom have doubtless been intensified by the speed with which they have been applied. The bass player was still on the dole when Arctic Monkeys' first single, "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor", came out, last autumn. The record went straight to No 1, and the group became public property overnight.

"We're just four blokes playing some music together," Nicholson said at the time. "But every night there seems to be more and more people out there. It's kind of like there's this storm around us and we're at the eye of it."

Shift the theatre of operations to America and the storm becomes a raging hurricane. In Britain, Arctic Monkeys have enjoyed the luxury of dictating their own terms to the media. An appearance on Top Of The Pops was ruled out on the grounds that it would be too cheesy. Ditto CD:UK ("We said 'no' - just because it's daft"). But in America there is no escape from the cheesy interview situation and the mandatory glad-handing of everyone from local DJs to record-shop managers.

"I don't think Arctic Monkeys work harder than any other band, regardless of their success," McAndrew says. "In fact, I have to say they probably work less hard than many bands because, as is well documented, they don't do an awful lot of promotion. They do the live shows; three shows in a row, then a day off. Some bands do a show every night. It's the travelling that takes its toll. That is the most tiring activity and that tends to be where the problems start. Obviously in our position... the welfare of people [is] very important to us. We don't want to get into a position where they start an American tour and the problem exacerbates itself to the point that we have to cancel dates or fly people home and things."

The journalist Craig McLean, who spent several months on the road with Arctic Monkeys, recalls a day in Paris when the band were presented with a schedule of interviews lasting eight hours.

"The record company had set up a whole day of press, and they'd agreed to do it. And literally on the day they said, 'No. We ain't doing that.' And they just legged it. And they walked to the Eiffel Tower and had a really good chat about the band and what they wanted to do and stuff. And obviously they hacked off an awful lot of people. That was a pan-European press thing and they just blew it out."

If some sections of the media have been given short shrift by the group, then the group have made no secret of their annoyance at the newspaper coverage of their success. In particular they have taken exception to the way in which they have been portrayed as the lucky beneficiaries of an internet revolution, such that their success was all down to file-sharing and a well-promoted MySpace profile. Of the four of them, it is Nicholson who was most bewildered by this interpretation of events.

"Someone were saying to me the other day, 'Oh, I saw your MySpace profile'. I ain't got a MySpace profile," Nicholson insisted, as recently as last November. "I've never been on it."

Whatever speculation has been prompted by Nicholson's apparently temporary departure, there is unanimous agreement among those around the group that this is not a "Pete Doherty moment". The band's period in the spotlight has yielded absolutely no talk of reckless hedonism or rock'n'roll excesses.

"That simply can't be the explanation," McLean says. "There's not a hint of drugginess about them, at all. In terms of fatigue, they've all got an equal right to be shattered. The reason he's given up is more likely to be the bog-standard thing that he just can't be arsed; it's just all too much fuss. Flying, and staying in nice hotels and being taken for nice meals and whatever, I can't imagine it holds much allure for him. He might think, 'oh, I can't be bothered'."

This explanation is certainly consistent with other reports of Nicholson's behaviour on the road. When the rest of the band trooped off to a star-studded party in honour of Coldplay at the celebrated Manhattan restaurant The Spotted Pig last month, the bass player cried off, pleading "fatigue". "I find that sort of thing right awkward, so I stopped in bed," he explained.

Nicholson is described as the archetypal bluff northerner, very deadpan, with a dry sense of humour. His sole concession to his status as an international rock star is his habit of popping up the collars of his polo shirts before going on stage. He and drummer Matt Helders are a wisecracking double act who constantly take the mickey out of each other, and those around them, in the way that old schoolmates do. And as a unit of close-knit friends, whose connections with each other date back to primary school , there is a strong group identity and a longstanding social bond among the four of them.

But none of them is particularly well equipped, at this stage, to deal with life in the celebrity goldfish bowl. The singer and guitarist Alex Turner doesn't like being fawned over and intensely dislikes being asked endless questions about the lyrics of his songs. But he is somewhat gregarious. Nicholson is neither gregarious nor likely to be asked about the intricacies of his funky bass-guitar lines.

A chunky kind of guy, Nicholson has been prone to the occasional mishap. When the band played the London Astoria in October, selling out the venue before they had released their first single, Nicholson bashed himself with the headstock of his bass, triggering a nose-bleed which caused a brief delay in the set. And when the group took part in a friendly football match against a team from the Italian media (in lieu of undertaking yet more unwanted interviews), a midfield clash between Nicholson and a journalist resulted in a broken ankle for the journalist. But now it is Nicholson who needs a spell on the recovery bench.

"People think that it's a glamorous life on the road, but it's really not," says the band's PR, Anton Brookes. "He's a pop star, but he's also a human being. He's probably just completely knackered."

Source: belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Following a slow, steady climb to the top after releasing their 2005 debut in England, the Editors are trying to repeat that success in the United States.

Maybe it‘s because of their spirited live shows.

Maybe it‘s the result of an overly energetic front man who borders on the seemingly spastic while somehow retaining total control, drawing comparisons to Coldplay‘s Chris Martin. Or maybe the music simply connects with a lot of people.The band has drawn comparisons to early U2, Echo & the Bunnymen and Joy Division as well as Interpol. Smith‘s voice has a surprisingly uncanny resemblance to that of Ian Curtis, the Joy Division singer who hung himself 25 years ago: deep, brooding and sexy.

He thinks the Curtis comparison only comes from the deep voice. But then there‘s the question of lyrics.

On songs such as "All Sparks" and "Blood," Smith sings about past ills and paints his pain with imagery and metaphor, but he declines to offer any backstories.

Source: heraldnewsdaily.com

Private jets, African hideaways, prenuptial parties, red carpet rages – life is so different for rich celebrities. And so, apparently, is death.

When most of us shuffle off this mortal coil our earning power ends. But if you are a rich entertainer the pay cheques can keep coming.

Elvis Presley died in 1977 but he is still earning $52 million a year. According to US magazine Forbes, Marilyn Monroe is making more money in the afterlife than she ever did on the big screen. Charles M. Schultz, the creator of cartoon strip Peanuts, is making much more than that in death, earning $45 million a year. But however lucrative death might be for some entertainers, life, for many, is certainly a lot more profitable.Take Sir Paul McCartney. He's staring down the barrel of an expensive divorce settlement but he can afford it. The former Beatle is the United Kingdom's richest entertainer, worth more than $2 billion last year – and that's just a cautious estimate.

According to UK newspaper The Sunday Times, he has earned his wealth through royalties from The Beatles' back catalogue, inheritance from first wife Linda and earnings from his MPL Communications, which is one of the world's biggest privately owned music companies.

When he turns 64 McCartney might not have someone to hold his hand but he certainly won't be sweating on his superannuation.

If you haven't noticed, the rich are getting richer and while business chief executives watch their pay packets bulge beyond belief, entertainers are also experiencing a delirious gold rush fuelled by our enormous appetite to be amused. New technology may have threatened to kill the video star but downloading tunes and videoclips has given record companies and their artists another window to earn revenue. Also, we have thousands of songs at our fingertips stored away in our iPods but nothing beats a live concert and we remain avid showgoers giving bands such as U2 hefty boosts in income.

Rock's wrinkly generation – The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Sting and Eric Clapton – are no longer big on the pop charts but who cares. They easily make it to the other top 10, the UK's richest entertainers.

The Rolling Stones and McCartney are also among the wealthiest entertainment earners in the US, where they compete with film moguls for the top dollar. In his interview last year with Enough Rope's Andrew Denton, fimmaker Steven Spielberg spoke of downsizing his life.

Perhaps he is living extremely well in small spaces because Spielberg is America's richest man in the entertainment business worth a massive $3 billion last year. Mel Gibson isn't that far behind earning $1.1 billion in 2005 according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. His movie The Passion of the Christ did underwhelming business at the box office but offering bulk discounts on DVDs to churches meant he got doubly rich off video and DVD sales.

Wealth is important in Hollywood but it doesn't always buy total power. According to magazine Forbes, Oprah Winfrey is the most powerful celebrity in Hollywood yet she only earns a paltry $294 million. However, no one dares cross this doyenne of daytime television whose global empire spans books, magazines and movies. For a TV host the written word is proving a profitable sideline with Winfrey last week signing a book $16 million book deal to write about her weight battles.

But it is not only smooth talk show hosts and wrinkled rockers who are rolling in dough. The money tree is also dropping leaves in the lap of our young entertainers. Electric violinist Vanessa-Mae Nicholson, 27, is the richest young entertainer in the UK, worth $80 million last year. This plucky Singaporean is busy buying houses in the posh London suburb of Kensington and building a ski lodge in the French Alps.

Destined to be a mainstay of the rich list like the Rolling Stones and U2 are British band Coldplay, who between them earned $61 million last year. When they come to Brisbane later this year they will have no trouble paying their hotel bill.

Singing and strumming a guitar has proved far more profitable than soldiering for Englishman James Blunt who earned $12 million last year. He's a new entry on the UK rich list as is crooner Jamie Cullum.

The key to riches for any entertainer is going global or, more precisely, cracking the US market. U2 reigns supreme because the band is big in the US and the UK. According to Billboard's inaugural Money Makers chart, the band was the biggest rock 'n' roll money-spinner in the US last year, beating the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Elton John.

They are Ireland's richest entertainers worth $1.6 billion in the UK between them last year. They made the most money of any rock act in the world with their Vertigo tour and the album How To Dismantle an Atom Bomb. But family still comes before money with the band postponing its Australian tour this year due to the illness of a U2 family member.

Curiously, U2 lead singer Bono – easily the world's highest profile charity worker – is not among the top 30 names on The Sunday Times giving list. According to the list, Sir Elton John is the biggest giver, donating almost $60 million to charity.

That's more than the earnings of Australia's richest entertainers, The Wiggles. Those bouncy blokes in their coloured sweatshirts earned more than $50 million last year to top the Business Review Weekly's list of our top 50 entertainers.

Their earnings have skyrocketed in the past three years – in 2002 they earned $14 million. Their income is from earnings from shows, merchandise sales and a joint venture with Macquarie Leisure Trust which owns Dreamworld amusement park.

The spread of Wigglemania to the US, the UK and Japan has been the secret to the group's success and all of our richest entertainers can credit their improving pay cheques to their international appeal.

Country singer Keitih Urban hit it big in the US in 2005 with his earnings rising from a meagre $4.7 million in 2004 to $20 million last year.

His stocks are destined to rise, not only because of his union with Nicole Kidman (No.3 on the Australian rich list) but because the Americans like his music.

He was voted Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year in 2005, taking over from previous year winner Kenny Chesney.

Now that Urban has Chesney's award he could soon match the singer's pay packet which last year added up to $115 million.

Moving on up will be Hugh Jackman, who this year replaced Russell Crowe as Australia's highest paid star. Next year he might just edge out Nicole Kidman and rock kings AC/DC after signing a new deal to promote Foxtel, starring in arena spectacular The Boy From Oz and taking the lead in a clutch of new movies.

For Jackman and the other rich entertainers, it might be a long way to the top, but once you're there the only way is up. Even in death.

Source: couriermail.news.com.au

Ethical shopping no longer means ditching the fox fur coat in favour of the hemp jacket.

The concept now is as much about protecting the rights of people as animals. It means drinking coffee with a conscience and tea with sympathy — all while being assured that the labourers who strained their backs to pick the tea leaves are getting their fair share of the profits.

"It's the old adage of teaching someone to fish rather than giving them a fish, that's what Fairtrade is about. It's fair trade not aid," said Sarah Scarborough.

Read the full article here

An unprepossessing 19th-century converted warehouse on Liverpool's Parr Street has long been the unlikely source of some of Britain's most memorable musical creations.

Coldplay, Simply Red, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Badly Drawn Boy, Dove, Bjork and New Order are a few of the superstars who have used the building's recording studios, which are the largest outside London. Three Grammy winners have been fashioned there by Coldplay's producer alone, and many a career launched.

Now, just as Liverpool prepares to become the 2008 European City of Culture, the city has learnt the studios are to close. A company part-owned by the veteran rock singer Phil Collins is to sell the building, for possible conversion into 47 apartments with shops, office and leisure facilities. The building is not paying its way and part of it is derelict, says the company, Hit and Run.Liverpudlians, still mourning the closure 18 months ago of The Picket, another of their iconic venues, are distraught, none more so than Ian McCulloch, lead singer of Echo and the Bunnymen. He called it a "sad day for Liverpool" and said he was dismayed that "one of the city's most successful cultural assets is being closed to line the pockets of corporate property developers".

The Coldplay producer Ken Nelson, with whom the band recorded the album X&Y at Parr Street, said many artists were dismayed by the closure of the venue, a stopping-off point for many on the musical tour of the city which centres on the Cavern Club in Mathew Street. "I love to record in Liverpool in a studio which compares very well with any studio in the world," said Nelson.

Other musicians who have used the three-studio complex in the past 12 years include Diana Ross, the Beautiful South, Teenage Fanclub, Barry Manilow, Howard Jones and OMD.

Parr Street has been credited with helping to resurrect north-west England's recording scene after the closure of the Strawberry studios in Manchester. The former Factory record label boss Anthony Wilson said its closure was a disaster for many prospective bands. "Parr Street was a lifeline," he said. "Studios are a difficult business but it is sad it has come to this."

The building also houses several design and graphics companies and the popular 3345 Parr Street restaurant. Efforts have been made to buy out the owners. A consortium including the musician Thomas Lang, who runs 3345, and other local businessmen have been in negotiations with Hit and Run since January.

Their bid failed on Wednesday, just as they believed they were about to exchange contracts, and campaigners have now been told the doors to the studios will be closed from next Thursday.

A Liverpool councillor, Steve Munby, who has also campaigned to save the studios, said there were now thoughts of visiting Phil Collins' home, in Geneva, to protest. "It feels as though we have been strung along on this," he said. "This is a real gem for the city and to lose it would be a travesty." Hit and Run is co-owned by Collins and his former Genesis band members Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks. Parr Street is part of a £750m city-centre regeneration project by the Duke of Westminster. Planning permission for the apartments is expected to put up the asking price to £1.5m. The planning issue remains unresolved.

A spokesman for Hit and Run said: "We are looking for offers in the region of £1.6m and if the consortium wish to come back with a new offer, they are welcome to."

More on this here

Guy Berryman and Jonny Buckland turned up at the do for an afternoon drinking session without bandmate Chris Martin.

Guy explained: “Chris is feeling quite run down. It’s not easy coming back so tired after a tour and having a newborn baby to deal with.”

There must be something in the water on Coldplay’s tour bus — Will Champion became a dad recently and Guy’s wife is pregnant too. I hope Jonny’s taking adequate precautions.

Source: here

Bertelsmann AG plans to retain ownership of Sony BMG after determining it can afford to pay 4.5 billion euros ($5.8 billion) to buy back a stake in the German media conglomerate without selling its half of the world's second biggest music company.

"We have no intention to sell our 50 percent stake, and we're working on our partnership with Sony," Bertelsmann Chief Financial Officer Thomas Rabe said in an interview on Thursday with Reuters.

He added that Bertelsmann remained on the hunt for additional acquisitions. Sony BMG, home to artists including Kelly Clarkson and Bruce Springsteen, is a 50-50 joint venture with Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp.. The partnership has been shaky over the past year, with a power struggle instigated by Bertelsmann leading to a recent leadership shake-up.

Bertelsmann, based in Guetersloh, Germany, had been contemplating a sale of Sony BMG in recent months as it formulated a strategy on how to afford to buy back a minority stake in Bertelsmann from shareholder Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL).

Its BMG Music Publishing unit is being put up for sale, however, to help finance the acquisition of GBL's 25 percent Bertelsmann stake. GBL, the investment vehicle of Belgium's richest man Albert Frere, had planned to float the stake, a policy opposed by Bertelsmann's controlling family, the Mohns.

"We've had a number of unsolicited offers in the last 12 months," Rabe said, confirming an earlier report by Reuters that Bertelsmann was on the verge of starting an auction of BMG. "There is significant interest in this asset."

Analysts and industry executives have told Reuters that BMG, which owns the rights to songs by Coldplay, Nelly and others, could fetch between $1.4 billion and $1.7 billion, based on their estimates of the company's cashflow and the multiples paid for previous music publishing assets.

Bertelsmann AG plans to retain ownership of Sony BMG after determining it can afford to pay 4.5 billion euros ($5.8 billion) to buy back a stake in the German media conglomerate without selling its half of the world's second biggest music company.

"We have no intention to sell our 50 percent stake, and we're working on our partnership with Sony," Bertelsmann Chief Financial Officer Thomas Rabe said in an interview on Thursday with Reuters.

He added that Bertelsmann remained on the hunt for additional acquisitions.

Sony BMG, home to artists including Kelly Clarkson and Bruce Springsteen, is a 50-50 joint venture with Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp.. The partnership has been shaky over the past year, with a power struggle instigated by Bertelsmann leading to a recent leadership shake-up.

Bertelsmann, based in Guetersloh, Germany, had been contemplating a sale of Sony BMG in recent months as it formulated a strategy on how to afford to buy back a minority stake in Bertelsmann from shareholder Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL).

Its BMG Music Publishing unit is being put up for sale, however, to help finance the acquisition of GBL's 25 percent Bertelsmann stake. GBL, the investment vehicle of Belgium's richest man Albert Frere, had planned to float the stake, a policy opposed by Bertelsmann's controlling family, the Mohns.

"We've had a number of unsolicited offers in the last 12 months," Rabe said, confirming an earlier report by Reuters that Bertelsmann was on the verge of starting an auction of BMG. "There is significant interest in this asset."

Analysts and industry executives have told Reuters that BMG, which owns the rights to songs by Coldplay, Nelly and others, could fetch between $1.4 billion and $1.7 billion, based on their estimates of the company's cashflow and the multiples paid for previous music publishing assets.

Source: http://today.reuters.com

If there is an unspoken rule in rock music, it is that controversy and self-promotion go hand in hand. Take Britain-based foursome Razorlight, for instance. Recently, frontman Johnny Borrell made headlines thanks to his supreme self-confidence bordering on arrogance, not to mention a penchant for ripping into his contemporaries.

Borrell is no stranger to controversy, having drawn fire two years ago for comparing himself to a music legend when he said: "If (Bob) Dylan's making the chips then I'm drinking the champagne."

Now, Borrell's in the spotlight again — this time for laying into two of England's bright young rock 'n' roll hopes: The Kooks and The Arctic Monkeys. Speaking as his group was putting the finishing touches on their new record, the follow-up to 2004's breakthrough album Up All Night, Borrell told Untied Kingdom music magazine NME that the Arctic Monkeys were inferior not only to his band but to countless current others as well.

"I wouldn't say they're better than the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, either," said Borrell confidently. "Or The Strokes, or even The Libertines during those five minutes when they were brilliant."

The Arctic Monkeys caused a sensation earlier this year when they shot to the top of the charts on the back of a rabid following cultivated via the Internet.

In January, their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, became the fastest-selling debut in UK chart history when it sold 360,000 copies in its first week of release.

Borrell also apparently has no love for UK rockers The Kooks, whom he described as "horrible".

"For a start, (Kooks singer) Luke Pritchard models himself after me," said Borrell in a recent UK radio interview.

"I heard their single the other day and it sounds like Avril Lavigne," he added, referring to the punk-pop lightweight behind Sk8er Boi and a handful of hits.

"Their album Inside In / Inside Out is the most horrible thing I've ever heard. It sounds like the band are literally rolling over, sticking their arse in the air and begging radio to f**k them."

The Arctic Monkeys have yet to respond to Borrell's attack but The Kooks' singer Pritchard wasn't shy about returning the favour.

Last week, he dedicated the band's latest single to Borrell during a gig at the London Astoria. "This one's for Johnny Borrell," he reportedly sneered.

The song, appropriately enough, was called Naïve.

These sorts of name-calling contests make for decent drama and, of course, it's no secret that controversy sells records.

While not as volatile as the clashes within hip-hop circles (where some rappers have no qualms about using guns to settle their musical differences), a handful of rock rivalries could put many of the sporting world's feuds to shame.

Some — the Beatles versus the Rolling Stones, for instance — have even become the stuff of legend.

Now legendary, the two bands came out of England at about the same time in the early '60s and led the so-called British rock 'n' roll invasion of America.

Formed by childhood friends Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in 1960, the Stones soon made it clear they were everything the Beatles weren't: The darker and more boldly sexual side of rock 'n' roll as opposed to the poppy and parent-friendly Fab Four.

The rivalry between the two bands culminated with the release of the Stones' 1967 folly Their Satanic Majesties Request, a pretentious attempt at outdoing The Beatles' Sgt Peppers Lonely Heart Band Club, which came out the same year.

While Satanic Majesties sold well initially, its commercial performance fell off quickly. Eventually, Jagger and Richards wisely ditched their hippie pursuits and, by the following year, had returned to the hard-driving blues that had made their name.

While battles for chart dominance are the most common reason for rivalries, feuds are also the result of bruised egos.

Dave Mustaine began his musical career as the guitarist for Los Angeles heavy metal outfit Metallica in 1982.

After playing on Metallica's 1983 debut Kill 'Em All, however, he was promptly fired following a spell of alcohol and drug abuse, and replaced by Kirk Hammett the next year.

Mustaine later found fame with his own band, Megadeth, but — still bitter over the sacking — he continued to thrash Metallica in interviews and claimed credit for riffs that appeared on Metallica's 1986 classic Master of Puppets.

It's debatable whether jealousy was at the root of Mustaine's long-time grudge with his former bandmates. The issue was more clear-cut when it came to another high-profile rock rivalry.

Nirvana's Kurt Cobain may lay claim to being the greatest songwriter of Generation X but even he wasn't immune to ripping into bands like fellow grunge rockers Pearl Jam.

Although it could be argued that Pearl Jam laid the groundwork for Nirvana's success — after all, Pearl Jam members Jeff Amend and Stone Gossard helped originate the so-called "Seattle sound", the forerunner to grunge, as members of Green River — that didn't stop Cobain from labelling them "commercial sell-outs."

Some have theorised that Cobain was just jealous because Pearl Jam's debut album Ten outsold Nirvana's sophomore breakthrough Nevermind at the time of the latter's release.

In the end, Cobain apparently saw the error of his ways, mending ties with Pearl Jam, retracting his jibes and even reportedly becoming friends with Vedder.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, some rock star rivalries do little more than invite laughter: The case of Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, for instance.

After years of languishing on the sidelines, the British quartet made a triumphant return to the rock premiere leagues last year on the strength of their latest release, Don't Believe The Truth.

However, a full-blown Oasis revival also meant more of Gallagher, the infamous rock 'n' roll rebel known as much for his erratic behaviour and abrasive attitude as for his distinctive singing style.

Gallagher, who has a long-running love-hate relationship with his brother, guitarist Noel, was at the forefront of a 1995 feud with rivals Blur — a war of words that practically defined Britpop's contrasting sensibilities.

On one side was Blur, pegged as a band for middle-class art students. On the other were working-class heroes Oasis.

While Blur eventually won the battle when their single Country House peaked at No 1, Oasis clearly won the war — their 1995 album (What's The Story) Morning Glory became the year's top-selling album.

Even a decade later, Gallagher had apparently lost none of his edge, challenging Coldplay frontman Chris Martin to a fistfight at last year's Q Awards in London after Martin had attempted to put an end to a long-running war of words.

"Liam is charming," the Coldplay singer said at the time. "He said some rude things, but you know, we don't have an argument with anyone. We'd like to show our undying love and respect for Oasis."

Gallagher's response was typical: "Knobhead! Come on, have a pop. You're a plant pot."

Although Gallagher slammed his own band earlier this month, admitting their diminished status and conceding that Coldplay among other groups such as U2 and the Rolling Stones are "bigger", it remains to be seen whether this is just the calm before the next Liam storm.

Having reportedly failed to keep up with the members of the Arctic Monkeys during a post-show drinking session last week — media reports suggested Gallagher had to be carried home — it wouldn't be too surprising if he and Razorlight are soon firing at the same target.

Source: channelnewsasia.com

With 10 concerts booked for this summer, The Amphitheater at Clark County will at least match last year in terms of the number of events. More shows could be added as the season plays out, though, and chief executive officer Dan Braun says he's optimistic the 18,000-seat venue finally is on an upswing.

"Based on 365 days ago, I feel better about the future," Braun says. "I like the acts (coming this year). It's a good selection, with some pretty big marquee names."

Nine Inch Nails, an industrial rock band revolving around the musical whims of founder and frontman Trent Reznor, is the first offering of the season, at 7 p.m. Saturday. There will be two concert series this summer, one planned, one inadvertent. The first is a three-day stretch of classic rockers: Steely Dan (July 27), Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (July 28) and Tom Petty (July 29). The second is an officially packaged country festival, featuring Clay Walker (Sept. 15), Kenny Rogers (Sept. 16) and Carrie Underwood (Sept. 17).

"There's just a great country market here," Braun says. "The concept is to have longer days (of music), more things to do, make it a little more interesting than just going to three separate concerts."

Various issues -- from overspending of the construction budget to kinks in the traffic plan to not being able to attract the top acts on tour -- have created a worrisome pattern for the amphitheater, which is privately operated by a New York-based company, Q Prime.

When the venue was being pitched to the county -- which leases the land adjacent to the Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds to Q Prime as a way to raise money for other projects -- the amphitheater was projected to average 40 concerts a season and 400,000 fans.

Last year, the total of 10 concerts was down from 16 the year before. But that wasn't the only alarming number for the operators. Overall attendance dropped from 111,300 to 58,200, and in turn the capacity of seats filled slid, from 39 percent to 32 percent. Attendance per concert started at 8,000 patrons per show in the venue's debut season and then dropped to 7,000 in 2004 and 5,820 in 2005.

Half of the shows last year attracted fewer than 5,000 people, including three concerts that represented record lows for the venue: Tori Amos, 2,100, FishFest with Third Day, 2,400, and Gigantour with Megadeth, 2,100.

The best-attended concert of the season was Coldplay, attracting 10,100 patrons. In 2004, the top show was Aerosmith (13,100). In 2003, the venue had its only sellout, Jimmy Buffett. But three shows so far in the 2006 lineup have a reasonable shot, considering their track records, at going over 10,000: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tom Petty and Def Leppard/Journey.

One of the biggest disappointments in the booking this year, Braun says, was that Pearl Jam has decided to perform twice at The Gorge Amphitheatre, near the central Washington community of George, and not make a stop in Ridgefield. Pearl Jam, the biggest rock band based in the Northwest, has yet to play the local venue.

Braun says the Amphitheater at Clark County would love to have the group perform here, but that there "wasn't even so much as a negotiation. That's what (the band) wanted to do."

Meanwhile, some of the largest tours of the summer aren't playing outdoors, Braun says, such as Madonna as well as husband-wife team Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. So when he looks at the lineup he's amassed, he says he feels relatively satisfied with the outlook.

"We had five massive shows last summer, and five that people were not interested in," Braun says. "I like this (year's) 10 better than I liked last year's 10. It feels like there is more depth and more chances for successful shows. ... We'll see what happens."

Source: http://www.columbian.com

Gordon Brown has revealed his private tastes and admitted he's an Arctic Monkeys fan.

The Chancellor revealed the contents of his iPod, saying: "Beethoven, Bach, the Beatles, U2, Coldplay and James Blunt. And Arctic Monkeys really wake you up in the morning."

The political heavyweight also had a few surprises about what he watches on TV. He said: "Any type of sport: football, rugby, hockey - I even watch ladies' curling. And reality TV - Pop Idol, X Factor, Fame Academy. There's so much talent out there. It's great to see people getting the chance to show their potential." Asked who he would like to play him in a movie, he said his wife Sarah would push for George Clooney. Brown - expected to be the next prime minister - said: "I want Britain to be the great global success story because of the chances we give people to make the most of themselves. Everyone will benefit as a result. We become a more successful economy and a more caring community."

In the interview with New Woman magazine, Brown revealed a knowledge of female sex aids, including the Rampant Rabbit vibrator. Asked what sprang to mind when the word "rabbit" was mentioned, he chuckled and replied: "Sex And The City."

NEW YORK -- The musician whose favorite color is that of an eggplant has been voted the world's "Sexiest Vegetarian" by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Prince is tied for the honor with Kristen Bell, who said she'd rather have brussels sprouts than meat any day. The runners-up in the annual PETA poll include Natalie Portman, Nicollette Sheridan and Joaquin Phoenix.

Last year, Coldplay singer Chris Martin and "American Idol" season four winner Carrie Underwood shared the top honor.

More on this here [thanks coldpatrix]

Music giant EMI has said profits are up almost 13 per cent to £159.3 after revenues from its digital content more than doubled during the year.

EMI, whose artists include Robbie Williams, Coldplay and Gorillaz, said its music division outperformed the rest of the industry. Digital sales hit £112.1 million from £46.9 million a year ago, helped by US downloads of Coldplay's latest album X&Y.

These offset a 5.3 per cent decline in physical sales for the industry as a whole. In the UK and Ireland, physical sales fell 4.9 per cent while digital sales increased by 170 per cent to give a total industry decline of 3 per cent.EMI said the digital environment for its music is now "extremely dynamic" with new entrants, services and devices, while it said it continued to make progress in combating both physical and digital piracy.

Meanwhile, EMI said new and developing artists such as Radja, Corinne Bailey Rae and Raphael had contributed strongly to its performance.

The full-year results came as investors awaited the next move from the company in its long-running attempt to secure a takeover of Warner Music Group, which is home to music from Madonna and James Blunt.

While Warner rejected an approach from EMI earlier this month, the UK company has said it still believed a tie-up would be attractive to both sets of shareholders.

More on this here [thanks coldpatrix]

Bertelsmann, the media group behind the Da Vinci Code and Pop Idol, could learn this week whether it must undergo a flotation as part of an agreement with a minority shareholder.

A spokesperson for Bertelsmann declined to comment yesterday on reports that the group is preparing to sell its music-publishing arm, which owns the rights to songs by acts such as Coldplay and Christina Aguilera, and could fetch up to $1.7bn (£910m).

GBL's stake has been valued between €3.5bn (£2.4bn) and €5bn. Bertelsmann could raise the funds through the debt market, but the group is wary of constraining growth by building up an onerous debt.The family-controlled business is preparing for an initial public offering under the terms of a deal with Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, the Belgian holding company, which owns 25% of the group. From May 23, GBL can demand a listing of its stake and has already told Bertelsmann that it is likely to request an IPO.

Bertelsmann has stated that it will be ready for a flotation but its controlling shareholder, the Mohn family, is known to be uncomfortable with a listing. The group has appointed Boston Consulting to conduct a strategic review of its businesses amid speculation that it will use the proceeds from disposals to buy out GBL. Bertelsmann has the right to make a buyout offer if GBL demands an IPO.

Bertelsmann comprises six units: RTL Group, the pan-European broadcaster and owner of Five; Random House, publisher of the Da Vinci Code; Gruner + Jahr, Europe's largest magazine publisher; a music-publishing business and a 50% stake in Sony BMG, the world's second-largest record group; Direct Group, a book and music club business; and Arvato, a services company.

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

EMI will report strong annual results this week and tell investors it is prepared to walk away from the bid for Warner if its American rival holds out for much higher than the initial offer.

The British music group, home to top acts such as Joss Stone, Coldplay and Gorillaz, will reveal that profits in the year to March rose by 12 per cent to about £158m. Revenues were up by about four per cent to £2.07bn.

EMI is also likely to report that digital revenues - music sales via the internet - have more than doubled to over £110 million. The company will also announce a further £30 million of savings.EMI made a cash-and-shares offer for Warner three weeks ago, valuing it at $28.50 (£15.16) a share, but it was rejected. However, while EMI is expected to make an improved offer, chairman Eric Nicoli is likely to indicate that he is in no hurry and is prepared to turn his back on the deal if Warner holds out for too high a price.

Any improvement in EMI's offer would involve a greater cash element, but is likely to be worth only marginally more overall. EMI insiders point to analysts who say that Warner's intrinsic worth is $21 to $22 a share, excluding a bid premium.

An industry source said: 'This opportunity will be shut down soon, within weeks not months, if common sense does not prevail. An offer of $28.50 a share is a stupendous price for Warner's investors. The share price is well under EMI's first offer price.'

Warner's artists include Madonna and James Blunt. Warner's share price closed on Friday at just above $28, valuing it at $4.2bn (£2.7bn).

Source: thisismoney.co.uk

In the 60s, Bob Dylan was the voice of youthful protest, his songs soundtracking everything from the civil rights movement to a generation's outrage over Vietnam.

But even the voice of youth has to grow old some time and, this week, the man born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941 officially becomes a pensioner.

Not that he has any intention of settling down. Dylan has been on a "never-ending" tour since 1988, and plays his latest batch of live shows in the UK next month.One fan who's already bought his ticket is John Nye, from Cambridge, who has seen Dylan more times than he can remember over the past 40 years. "My first concert was the Albert Hall in '66, when I was 15," says John, now 55. "That was my musical awakening. I went home with my ears ringing, absolutely mesmerised."

That passion for Dylan never waned and, in 1984, John got together with friends John Stokes and Chris Cooper to form the Cambridge Bob Dylan Society. Still going strong after 22 years, it is now the longest-running Dylan society in the country and regularly attracts between 50 and 80 members. "We're a meeting place for Dylan fans," says John, who still runs the society with John and Chris, plus more recent recruit Keith Agar. "We fill a niche; Dylan's always been very secretive about himself and fans always wanted to get a little closer to him. They want to hear more about him and understand what he's up to and keep in touch with developments."

The society meets every two months at The Boathouse pub in Chesterton Road, Cambridge. Members swap Dylan anecdotes and opinions, watch rare video footage and, occasionally, welcome live Dylan tribute artists or authors who have written biographies of the great man. "It's very informal - it's more like a friends' society, really," explains John. "Around 20 or 30 of the people have been coming along since the beginning, while others come and go. "People come along to be entertained. Dylan described himself as a song and dance man years ago. He's there for entertainment, and so are we."

Sadly, the society has never had any contact with Dylan himself. "I don't think he even knows we exist," laughs John. "Dylan lives a very private life. He's not a great communicator." Not in conversation, maybe. But through his music, Bob Dylan is one of the great communicators of the age. "Dylan's big achievements are threefold - as a songwriter, vocalist and musician," says John. "As a vocalist, he tried to break the notion that a singer had to have a conventional good voice. He sings with a very natural voice, and that opened doors for other people to do the same.

"As a musician, he sparked several genres of music, including electrified folk rock and country rock. And as a songwriter he pioneered different schools of songwriting, from confessional singer-songwriting to the hallucinatory stream of consciousness type of songs. If it wasn't for him, you wouldn't have had Strawberry Fields Forever or a Whiter Shade of Pale or anything like that. He was a huge influence on The Beatles and his influence is still seen today (Saturday, 20 May), with bands like Coldplay and Oasis. He's still as relevant as ever."

As for turning 65, John doesn't think his hero will use the landmark birthday as an opportunity to look back. "Dylan always looks to the future," he says. "He's still writing, still touring - and he's started presenting his own radio show. The famous documentary film about Dylan was called Don't Look Back, and he never does."

Source: cambridge-news.co.uk