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Kylie's "irresponsible" Kidnap |
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A group of documentary makers were last night branded "irresponsible"
for staging a fake kidnap of pop princess Kylie Minogue.
Distressed neighbours called the emergency services after they saw a
Kylie look-a-like bundled into a car outside the singer's South West
London apartment.
According to The Mirror, police raced to the scene and began
door-to-door questioning whilst calling Kylie's management to check the
whereabouts of the Aussie star.
A hunt for the singer was called off after programme makers contacted
detectives to admit the abduction was a hoax.
Scotland Yard said they would be issuing a strongly worded advice to
documentary makers in the future.
A spokesman for Kylie said: "This is an incredibly irresponsible thing
to do and I can't believe anyone would be that stupid."
Police speculated that the film crew had been making a programme for
Channel 4, though the channel have denied having anything to do with the
prank.
"It doesn't sound like anything that any of our companies are involved
in at the moment," said a spokesman.
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Craig says no to Mariah |
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Craig David has explained his reasons for pulling out of a US tour with
Mariah Carey, revealing that he turned down the offer in order to keep
his loyal UK fans happy.
Craig said travelling the States with Carey would have been "a massive
step up" for him but said the proposed dates had clashed with his busy
touring schedule.
"The Mariah thing clashed with what I was planning for my tour," he
said. "It would have been very cool to go on a tour with her and an
experience.
"I grew up listening to her stuff thinking 'wow this girl is amazing'
so to be on the same tour would have been a massive step up for someone
like me, coming from a council estate in Southampton.
He added: "It was one of those things - a UK tour being cancelled or
the Mariah dates in America. For me it was more important to do the UK
shows."
Mariah's tour - which kicks off in Las Vegas on July 26 - had
originally been promoted as an arena tour but was downscaled to 'intimate'
theatre venues amidst rumours of poor ticket sales.
R & B star Ashanti recently pulled her scheduled support slot on the
jaunt, claiming that the new tour route clashed with her own promotional
schedule.
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Owen is back for good |
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Former Take That star Mark Owen made official his return as a solo
artist with a successful London showcase.
Owen, who was last in the public eye when he won the Celebrity Big
Brother television show held last year in support of various charities,
played five songs including his first single, 'Four Minute Warning'.
Received well by a crowd of around 100 industry figures, Owen joked
that he was "only allowed to play four songs" but was cheered on to encore
with 'Close To The Edge' from his forthcoming album 'In Your Own Time'.
The Take That singer was signed as a solo artist by Island Records
after revealing to the Big Brother house that he had written over 400 songs
in the intervening years since the demise of the 90s boy band
phenomenon.
Introduced as a singer/songwriter he surprised sceptics by playing a
set which included a gentle and affecting folk song, 'Baby I'm No Good',
that earned the evening's most enthusiastic response.
The single, 'Four Minute Warning', is released on August 4.
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50 Cent Getting Richer |
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50 Cent's empire continues to expand courtesy of deals for namesake
shoe and clothing lines with Reebok and Ecko, but the Queens rapper is not
forgetting that music is the foundation of the phenomenon. On November
4th, his Interscope imprint G-Unit Records will release the self-titled
debut album by his G-Unit crew, featuring Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks, Young
Buck and 50 himself. And 50's already recording the follow-up to his
smash debut Get Rich or Die Tryin' for release early next year.
"February or early March," he clarifies. And what about producers? "Dre
and Em -- absolutely," 50 says of the pair behind six tracks on Get
Rich, this year's top-selling record by a wide margin.
Eminem and Dr. Dre will also leave their stamp on the G-Unit album,
both in terms of production and their savvy business sense. "The standards
that they set have enhanced me as an artist," 50 says. "We came up with
different concepts for the record -- we had so many ideas. It's still
street, but to be one way is not entertaining."
Coming before the albums are the Reeboks and the clothing line. "In
hip-hop you see more jerseys and athletic wear," he says. "I like dressing
other ways too, so you'll see some different stuff. Something a little
more classy."
"I'm from the bottom," 50 explains. "To see me be blessed with the
situation that I'm in makes people feel like anything can happen for them."
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Coldplay Rush for Mercury |
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Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head and Radiohead's Hail to the
Thief are the highest profile finalists for the 2003 Panasonic Mercury
Music Prize, which celebrates the U.K.'s top album from the past year.
Radiohead have been short-listed twice previously, Coldplay once.
The list of twelve albums includes eight debuts and represents a broad
spectrum of music, as the Mercury Prize takes into account all genres.
In addition to Radiohead and Coldplay, rock is represented by the
Darkness' Permission to Land and the Thrills' So Much for the City. Soweto
Kinch's Conversations With the Unseen represents for jazz, while folk
and soul are covered by Eliza Carthy's Anglicana and Terri Walker's
Untitled, respectively.
Short-lister Dizzee Rascal mines similar hip-hop/garage territory on
Boy in da Corner as last year's winner, Ms. Dynamite's A Little Deeper,
but there seems to be no pattern among the Mercury Prize winners as far
as genre or familiarity. Veteran rocker PJ Harvey won in 2001 for her
Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea, while then-newcomer Badly
Drawn Boy won the year before for The Hour of Bewilderbeast.
The short list was determined by an independent panel of judges. The
panel will reconvene on September 9th, the night of the Mercury Prize
award show, to determine the winner.
Mercury Prize short list:
Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head
Radiohead, Hail to the Thief
Dizzee Rascal, Boy in da Corner
The Thrills, So Much for the City
Soweto Kinch, Conversations With the Unseen
Floetry, Floetic
The Darkness, Permission to Land
Martina Topley-Bird, Quixotic
Eliza Carthy, Anglicana
Athlete, Vehicles and Animals
Terri Walker, Untitled
Lemon Jelly, Lost Horizons
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Music Business in Misery |
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When the record industry announced in June that it would begin filing
individual lawsuits against hundreds of illegal file-swappers, it was
not just a bad PR move, it was a signal that the music business is more
desperate than ever. Halfway through 2003, sales continue to slump, down
eight percent from the first six months of last year. Three of the ten
best-selling albums so far this year were actually released in 2002,
and only three artists -- 50 Cent, Norah Jones and Linkin Park -- managed
to sell more than 2 million copies between January and June. 50 Cent,
who has sold 5.2 million albums, had the best first-half numbers of any
artist since 'N Sync in 2000, but there have been few other
blockbusters.
During the same six months, at least 1,300 label staffers lost their
jobs, and around 600 record stores closed. Many retailers say the labels
are too focused on combating downloading and not focused enough on
lowering CD prices. "We've got a bad economy, and we're still trying to
sell records for $18.98," says Don Van Cleave, president of the Coalition
of Independent Music Stores. "People's perception of the value of music
is all messed up right now."
Retail has felt the brunt of the slump. At the start of 2003,
Wherehouse Entertainment filed for bankruptcy and said it would close 190
stores. Best Buy-owned Musicland shut down 107 stores. Trans World
Entertainment Corp., owner of FYE and other chains, planned to shutter
twenty-five stores. And Tower Records, reportedly in danger of bankruptcy after
losing more than $13 million this spring, is for sale. Van Cleave notes
that as CD sales decline, retailers have been forced to devote more
space to DVDs, video games, books and, increasingly, toys and "lifestyle
items" such as SpongeBob SquarePants dolls and Manic Panic hair dye.
"That stuff is so much more profitable than music," he says. "Selling toys
allows us to price music lower."
Retailers are also asking the labels to commit to releasing more CD
singles. The American Idol CD singles by Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken,
available in most stores for less than five dollars, have sold more than
1 million units combined in five weeks.
The recent success of Apple's iTunes Music Store may be the best news
the industry has had lately. Since iTunes was launched in late April, it
has sold more than 5 million songs for ninety-nine cents a piece - even
more impressive considering that Mac users constitute less than four
percent of computer owners. "iTunes has shown that there is a real
business potential for selling downloads," says a source at Warner Bros. "It
has been encouraging from a symbolic standpoint even more than a
financial standpoint." Amazon.com and other online retailers now plan to
launch their own download programs.
In the interim, the labels have had to cut costs and consolidate staff
to almost skeletal levels. Earlier in the year, BMG fired 300
employees, and Sony let go 1,000. When RCA and J Records were combined -- under
the leadership of Clive Davis -- about fifty people were given pink
slips, and RCA's roster was whittled down to a lean forty acts. And in
June, legendary label MCA Records, home to Blink-182, Shaggy and Mary J.
Blige, was dissolved and folded into Geffen Records.
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