Here’s the line-up for the Live at the Marquee season by the banks of the Lee, pop pickers. Three or four more acts to be added in the coming weeks.

Shayne Ward - June 19
Eric Clapton - June 20
Dolly Parton - June 21
Christy Moore - June 28
Tommy Tiernan - July 2 & 3
Paul Weller - July 6

It’s, er, quite something else, isn’t it? All the greats. Bet there will be a stampede of Cork feens to get their hands on tickets for Primavera, Benicassim and Exit after that announcement.

This week, the blog seems to have been all about music business so today, I’m addressing the imbalance with a slew of tunes and albums which are getting a lot of spins this weather.

I’m digging the new British Sea Power album “Do You Like Rock Music?” a lot. I saw them live a couple of years ago and thought they were awesome. Then, I went off and listened to “The Decline Of British Sea Power” album and thought it was very “meh”. The new one, though. is outstanding in a field full of Arcade Firestarters and the like. Here’s the video for “Waving Flags”

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Radio Soulwax and The Kooks play Dublin Castle on May 4 and 5 respectively as part of the Six Green Bottles Hanging On The Wall festival

Eric Clapton plays Malahide Castle, Dublin on June 21. It’s a safe bet that he will also be playing the Live at the Marquee season in Cork, details of which are due to be announced tomorrow morning

Cadence Weapon plays Crawdaddy, Dublin on February 22nd, co-headlining with Ebony Bones

We Are Scientists play Dublin’s Ambassador on April 7

And finally, from the Conflicts of Interest Department….Nine of the 10 acts nominated for the Choice Music Prize will play at the live event at Vicar Street on February 27th. The odd one out for now is Roisin Murphy. Tickets are on sale at a remarkably reasonable €27 (or €3 per act), which is the same price as last year. Just saying, like. No sponsorship either….

The men and women from the Academy have said “yo, Glen and Mar shall go to the ball”.

Yes, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova’s Oscar nomination for Best Song for “Falling Slowly” from Once is back on tracks. The song is eligible to be considered for an Oscar because, well, it obviously meets all the criteria necessary to be considered for an Oscar.

Per the dude from the Academy:

The Academy’s music branch executive committee has met and endorsed the validity of “Falling Slowly” as a nominated achievement. The committee relied on written assurances and detailed chronologies provided by songwriter of “Falling Slowly,” the writer-director of “Once” and Fox Searchlight.

Fab. Now, is someone going to organise one of those big homecoming ticker-tape parades for when the pair win the gong?

This post is prompted by the confirmation of the news that Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds are playing Dublin Castle on May 3. Tickets will go on sale on Friday at €49.50 a pop.

Nothing wrong with that, you might say. Nick needs the cash, there are a lot of Bad Seeds to pay and sure, he and his Mister Thirteen And Two Thirds Percent know Irish audiences are good for the ticket price.

This, though, is a Heineken Green Energy gig. It means Nick will be playing in front of a couple of beer lorries and banners, probably. It means the singer will be wearing a costume which makes him look like a big green bottle of beer, maybe. For sure, it means Heineken are paying quite a lot of cash to the promoter MCD to be involved in this festival and this gig.

So what’s in Heineken’s branding of this gig for the punter? Does the punter just have to be grateful with the chance to see the act? Why does the presence of a sponsor mean that the tickets are as expensive as they would be if the sponsor was not involved? Surely the tickets should be cheaper in that case? If Heineken are paying a lot of money to be involved, why isn’t some of that cash making its way to the punters who will come through the gates in the shape of cheaper tickets?

I’m not singling out Heineken here (I know they do a series of free gigs up and down the county which I’m sure they would claim offsets this), but it’s something which I’ve been wondering about for quite some time and which is becoming more and more relevant. As more corporates and brands move into the music market looking for exposure and association, what’s in this landgrab for the punter? For example, Nokia (by the way, whatever happened to the Nokia Trends Lab?) and Budweiser (through their Bud Rising gigs and fests) are two brands heavily involved in sponsoring music events in Ireland, yet the prices for the vast majority of their shows are as expensive as every unsponsored gig on sale at Ticketmaster.

Any brand managers care to take time out from their hectic schedules to answer these questions?

The album is dead (part 2,454). The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Fry ponders what’s next.

Paul McGuinness blames the technology hippies for the music industry’s woes. Mmm, is this the same Paul McGuinness who inked a deal for his charges U2 with well-known technology hippy Steve Jobs? Anyway, the full speech is here and it is well worth reading:

There is some excitement about advertising-funded deals. But the record companies must gain our trust to share fairly the revenues they will gain from advertising. Historically they have not been good at transparency. Let’s never forget the great CD scam of the 80s when the majors tried to halve the royalties of records released on CD claiming that they needed this extra margin to develop the new technology even as they were entering the great boom years that the CD delivered. It’s ironic that at a time when the majors are asking the artists to trust them to share advertising revenue they are also pushing the dreadful 360 model.

The “Falling Slowly” saga continues. The Academy apparently will give their decision on the fandango today.

From the Qtrax oooops department: they’re still talking to everyone. Question: is this the new Spiral Frog?

The FT hearts Cat Power

And finally: what do you call two chaps from the North sitting down yakking to each in Trinity College Dublin? You call it The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon talking to Lyric FM’s John Kelly about life, the universe and everything inbetween. It’s on tonight at 7pm in the college’s Walton Theatre, admission is free and all are welcome to come along to stroke their chins. More info here.

As we, er, guessed earlier on, there is now a second date by The National in Dublin. They’ll play the Olympia on May 14 and 15. We reckon they’re good for a third date.

Joe Duffy vs 30 Seconds To Mars: ding, ding. Hillarious couple of minutes on the Liveline when Joe had a punter on the phone FUMING about the band playing just 30 minutes at their Dublin show at the weekend. “30 Second To Mars for 30 minutes for 30 euros” was how Joe put it. Wonder would he do a special on Radiohead or PJ Harvey. They also couldn’t get anyone at promoters MCD to take their call. Mmmmm. Memo to the lads and lasses in MCD reading On The Record on Dinny’s dime: take the call. Go on, take the call.

Per Ivor and Gigwise, some of you will be buying tickets to see Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds at Dublin Castle on May 3

More live news: expect announcements this week on who will be playing summer shows at Malahide Castle in Dublin and Live at the Marquee in Cork.

There’s plenty of free music doing the rounds in Cannes at the moment, as those music industry professionals who can afford to pay for their badges and overpriced hotel rooms gather for the MIDEM conference.

Unlike SXSW or Eurosonic, MIDEM is one of the few music confabs which is more about the business than the music. Instead of gigs and bands, there are trade shows, exhbitions and polite men from Asia trying to buy and sell music catalogues.

This year, according to the Guardian, it’s all about free music with the likes of QTrax using the annual jolly in the south of France to launch themselves on the world.

Qtrax claims to offer more than 25m tracks, from all official releases by just about every major artist to so-called grey releases such as live bootlegs and alternate versions.

It claimed songs would be culled from the same peer-to-peer networks such as LimeWire and Gnutella that brought the industry to its knees, but filtered so viruses and spoof tracks are eradicated. Every time a song is downloaded by a user, they will be shown targeted advertising, and technology will ensure labels, publishers and artists are paid.

Advertisers include Burger King, Virgin Media, Ford, and H&M.

Interestingly, some of the record labels who would be providing the bulk of these 25 million tracks are claiming that they’ve not actually signed off on the deal yet.

The Guardian piece also compares and contrasts what’s on offer in the free music sphere from the likes of We7 (Peter Gabriel’s new bright idea), Imeem, MySpace, Facebook and Last.fm.

It’s fascinating to watch the complete capitulation of the record industry in this way. When they had an opportunity ten years ago to put their own stamp on the digital music sphere - when technology and telecoms came to them, caps in hand, looking for meetings - they completely messed it up. Instead of pouring the tea and handing around the biscuits, they sent in the lawyers.

Now, as it becomes obvious to all concerned that ignoring the problem by paying for some legal eagle’s brats to go through school was not the way to go, the record companies are trying their hand at the last chance saloon. Yeah, they really do resemble desperate gamblers at the roulette table.

Do the business affairs departments really believe that “targetted advertising” is going to provide the beans to replace traditional revenue streams? Or is it a case of any port in a storm, especially as traditional revenue streams are never ever going to come back into play?

I wonder is Guy Hands at MIDEM or does he realise that that game is up too.

(1) You go away for a few days and all hell breaks loose. Item one: John Waters vs the O’Blogosphere. John boy called people names and generally acted like Kevin Myers. The O’Blogosphere responded (I’d have sore thumbs if I linked to everything which was written). Much fuming all round. Boy, I’m glad I missed that one…

(2) Item two: “Falling Slowly” and the Oscars. While there’s some chit-chat about whether the song from Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová actually qualifies to be considered for the gong (and Una had a piece on it in the Sunday Tribune yesterday), Adam Maguire points out that the very first time the song was ever featured was in Once back in January 2006. Yes, the song turned up in several different places between then and now (the soundtrack to a Czech flick Beauty In Trouble, on “The Swell Season” album and on “The Cost” from The Frames - Glen knows how to get value from a tune), but it was first written for the flick. Jaysus, it had better win the bloody yoke after all that.

(3) If you’re offered a job working on the road with an aging prima dona, militant vegetarian and all-round over-rated egomaniac, here’s what to expect. Some day, if you’re good, l’ll tell you the tale about me and Morrissey’s trousers.

(4) On The Record: we know things. Last Monday, we told you The National were on the way to Dublin. By Friday, voila, tickets for the show on May 15 were on sale. Just like that. What’s the betting that there are more dates to be announced?

(5) On The Record: did we tell you that we know things? Yesterday’s Sunday Times had an interesting business story that MCD’s Denis Desmond has taken a share in Irish pop station Bubble Hits. Mmmm, we thought, that sounds familiar. Is this the same story we wrote about, oh, six months ago? Wonder what old On The Record story the Sunday Times will pick up next week….

(6) Want to read another article about The Wire? Of course you do. Here’s Charlie Brooker hanging out with the cast. Question: did anyone go to the David Simon masterclass in Dublin last week?

(7) Is the 2FM Hope for 2008 Meteor Award the gong of death for new bands? Previous winners of the gong of death have included such household names as Relish, Rubyhorse and Angel of Mons. Hoping to do a little bit better this year are Leanne Harte, Owen Brady, The Kinetiks, the rather excellent We Should Be Dead and Ham Sandwich. 2FM listeners (all of them - not just those in our house who listen to Rick O’Shea’s show) get to decide the winner.

(8) Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is the most chilling, bleak, unputdownable book I’ve read in years. You’ll have dreams and nightmares about the man and the boy for nights afterwards.

(9) A ton of new gigs have been announced in the last few days. These include Hammell On Trial (Bog Lane Theatre Ballymahon Co Longford February 24 and Cyprus Avenue Cork February 25), Animal Collective (Tripod, Dublin, May 19), Yeasayer (Whelan’s, Dublin, May 13), Efterklang (Button Factory, Dublin, March 29), Dinosour Jr (Academy, Dublin, May 12 and Spring and Airbrake, Belfast, May 13), Grant Lee Phillips (Whelan’s, Dublin April 28) and Frightened Rabbit (Speakeasy, Belfast February 20; Roisin Dubh, Galway, 21; Cyprus Avenue, Cork, 22 and Crawdaddy, Dublin, 23).

As played on Phantom 105.2, Saturday January 26, 10pm-midnight

Bob Dylan “Most Likely You Go Your Way (Mark Ronson remix)” (Columbia)
The Little Ones “Lovers Who Uncover (Crystal Castles remix)” (Astrelwerks)
Cut Copy “Lights and Music” (Modular)
Cadence Weapon “In Search of the Youth Crew” (Big Dada)
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip “Letter From God To Man” (MySpace)
The Cool Kids “Black Mags” (CAKE)
These New Puritans “Swords Of Truth” (Domino)
These Are Powers “Little Sisters of Beijing” (Hoss)
Le Loup “We Are Gods! We Are Wolves!” (Hardly Art)
Menomena “Running” (Barsuk)
NuYorican Soul “I Am The Black Gold of the Sun” (Talkin’ Loud)
Senor Coconut “Autobahn” (Emperor Norton)
Grace Jones “Walking in the Rain” (Island)
Tricky “Lovecats” (Anti)
Ratatat “Gettysburg” (XL)
Funkstorung “Red Shirt, White Shoes” (!K7)
Aaron Neville “Hercules” (A&M)
Nina Simone “Lilac Wine” (Verve)
Jill Scott “Slowly Surely” (Columbia)
Gillian Welch “Revelator” (Acony)
Cowboy Junkies “Sweet Jane” (Cooking Vinyl)
Hank Williams “I Heard That Lonesome Whistle” (Lost Highway)
Arthur & Yu “There Are Too Many Birds” (Hardly Art)
Anne Briggs “The Time Has Come” (CBS)
Martin Denny “Quiet Village” (Curb)
Vashti Bunyan “Feet of Clay” (Fat Cat)
Mark Hollis “The Gift” (Polydor)
David Shire “Theme from The Conversation” (Intrada)

If you want to hear the new Hot Chip album “Made In The Dark”, it’s streaming here.

A new Irish monthly music magazine is set to appear on the news-stands in March. The team behind State magazine believe their new title will appeal to those 20- to 40-year-old music fans who currently buy monthly UK music magazines.
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Kraftwerk remain pop’s most enduring riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. Many attempts have been made to decipher what actually goes on beyond the doors of their Kling-Klang studio and there have ever been a couple of band interviews in recent years. Yet the enigma remains in place.

Wolfgang Flur, though, is one who has cracked the code. Once a member of the band behind such classics as Trans Europe Express and Computer World, Flur even wrote a fascinating book on his Kraftwerk experiences, I Was A Robot.

These days, Flur concentrates on his Yamo music project, and it’s Yamo which will be bringing him to Dublin for the first Fabrik club night at the Tivoli on February 14th.

Others appearing at Fabrik include Soft Cell and The Grid’s Dave Ball, Irish electro pop act Neosupervital and veteran spinner Anni Hogan.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a band in possession of a good tune must be in want of some TV exposure.

For Irish bands, though, TV time during prime viewing hours on the national broadcaster is usually hard to find.

Enter WeTV, the Saturday and Sunday morning show on RTÉ2.

In recent weeks, it has featured Dark Room Notes, Hybrasil, Fight Like Apes, Twin Kranes, Neosupervital, Ham Sandwich and music snapper Loreana Rushe.

This Sunday, tune in to see Choice Music Prize nominees Super Extra Bonus Party and The Flaws.

The prize for the Irish venue with the most names goes to the club on Dublin’s Middle Abbey Street.

First known as HQ when it opened in 1999, it then became Spirit in 2001. Last October, it became Spirit 57 and now, it’s to be known as The Academy.

The latest name change coincides with the venue booking more and more live acts.

Those on their way to the Academy include José Gonzalez (April 6th), The Sawdoctors (March 22nd), Aiden (March 31st) and Flogging Molly (June 5th).

A round of applause, y’all, for White Williams.
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And thank heavens for that

Broken Social Scene (yeah, Broken Social Scene not Kevin Drew Presents Something Like Broken Social Scene But Not Quite And Anyway No-One Will Really Notice And We Will Still Get Paid Loads Of Loonies For It And I Can Sing Where The Streets Have No Name In A Kind Of Ironic Way) play Dublin’s Vicar Street on May 20th

Strange how so many breaking news sources (including our own and RTE) have overlooked one Irish nomination for this year’s Oscars. Something else for the man himself to fume about. No wonder he’s turning into Van Morrison….

But enough with the churlishness. Congrats to Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for getting a nomination for Best Song for “Falling Slowly” from Once.

UPDATE Both news stories above have now been updated to include the Once nomination.

Mike Skinner says goodbye to his indie label, The Beats. Do I see Guy Hands in the background taking notes?

The new Lonely Planet guide to Ireland is out and there are already some choice highlights which will keep radio phone-in shows, outraged newspaper columnists and, er, bloggers busy for a few hours.

Well, few will disagree with this summing up of the area in Dublin city-centre which really should have been turned into a bus terminal. Per the paper:

Businesses in Dublin’s Temple Bar will be unhappy to see the guide referring to “crappy tourist shops and dreadful restaurants serving bland, overpriced food . . . huge characterless bars . . . pools of vomit and urine that give the whole area the aroma of a sewer”.

That sound you can hear in the background is the sound of the residents of a large settlement in the south-east hauling themselves onto the high moral ground:

Residents of Waterford will be displeased to see their city being demoted to a town. It says the “seedy port-town feel is still evident in places” but adds that its recent facelift has made it a more attractive place to wander.

But, of course, there is an upside, as this passage from the guide, as quoted in the Irish Independent, shows:

Beneath all of the garrulous sociability and self-deprecating twaddle lurks a dark secret, which is that, at heart, the Irish are low on self-esteem. They’re therefore very suspicious of praise and tend not to believe anything nice that’s said about them. The Irish wallow in false modesty like a sport.

“Low on self-esteem”? Get me the number for Liveline now.

Maybe I need to syringe my ears but I could swear I heard someone saying something over the weekend about a certain someone playing a couple of Dublin dates in May. That’s good news, isn’t it, for what is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year?

Dublin hearts Band of Horses. Their gig on February 20th, the first date in their European tour, has been moved to Tripod. Lets hope the bouncers take some chill pills before opening the doors.

Mo’ gig news. Adele plays Crawdaddy on March 2. Her “19″ album is wonderful and she’s one hell of a bright spark. The mighty Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings hit town in April 10, playing at The Button Factory. In case you don’t know, she’s the ex-prison guard at New York’s Riker’s Island and they’re Mark Ronson’s favourite brass section. Check out their “100 Days, 100 Nights” album for more.

Meanwhile, everyone’s favourite bike-riding Chi-Town rappers The Cool Kids play Crawdaddy on February 12. No sign of any dates beyond the Pale for any of the above, but if anyone has booked them and wants to plug the dates, use the comments field below and stop moaning about lack of publicity.

Fabrik is a new club night incoming to Dublin’s Tivoli on February 14th. Night one will feature ex-Kaftwerker Wolfgang “I Was A Robot” Flur in his Yamo guise, Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid), Neosupervital and Anni Hogan.

This could be a very good idea for the summer.

Trent Reznor may have found the “Niggy Tardust” experience to be “disheartening”, but Saul Williams is a much happier camper:

I think it’s early in the game. I’m not disappointed at all. I think Trent’s disappointment probably stems from being in the music business for over 20 years and remembering a time that was very different, when sales reflected something different, when there was no such thing as downloads. Trent is from another school. Even acts that prospered in the ’90s, you look at people like the Fugees or Lauren Hill selling 18 million copies. That sort of thing is unheard of today. But Trent comes from that world. So I think his disappointed stems from being heavily invested in the past. For modern times, for modern numbers we’re looking great, especially for being just two months into a project.

Jamaican reggae dudes say no thanks to vinyl

On The Record readers are still talking MT USA. Wow, we’ve turned into a support group for Eighties music fans. Who knew?

Speaking of support groups, have we seen the last of those Nokia Trends Lab gigs? Guess they spent all the budgets on lovely girls in boiler suits.

And, finally, thanks to everyone who has contributed to our cover versions love-in. Methinks it may be time for a covers-only night on the radio show. Stay tuned.

As played on Phantom 105.2, Saturday January 18, 10pm-midnight

Beck “Timebomb” (Geffen)
St Germain “Rose Rouge” (Blue Note)
James Yuill “No Surprise“ (Chess Club)
Grand Pocket Orchestra “Odd Socks” (Promo)
MGMT “Time to Pretend” (Cantora)
Super Extra Bonus Party “Everything Flows” (Alphabet Set)
Cadence Weapon “Do I Miss My Friends?” (Big Dada)
Lupe Fiasco “Little Weapon” (Atlantic)
Del Tha Funkee Homosapien “Bubble Pop” (Definitive Jux)
Hypnotic Brass Band “War” (Pantone)
William Devaughn “Be Thankful For What You’ve Got” (Roxbury)
Moonbabies “Take Me To The Ballroom” (Startracks)
Heritage Orchestra “I” (Brownswood)
Glass Candy “Computer Love” (Italians Do It Better)
Martina Topley-Bird “Valentine” (Independiente)
Sia “Electric Bird” (Monkey Puzzle)
Feist “When I Was A Young Girl” (Arts & Crafts)
Dawn Landes “Bodyguard” (Fargo)
Laura Marling “Ghosts” (Virgin)
Jason Collett “Out Of Time” (Arts & Crafts)
Dexys Midnight Runners “Kevin Rowland’s 13th Time” (EMI)
Van Morrison “Streets Of Arklow” (Polydor)
Bob Lind “City Scenes” (RPM)
Alaska In Winter “The Homeless & The Hummingbirds” (Regular Beat)
High Places “Golden” (Ancient Almanac)
Our Brother The Native “Rejoice” (Fat Cat)

In today’s Ticket, as part of a feature on Cat Power’s new covers album “Jukebox”, I rattled off my favourite 20 cover versions of all time. Naturally, I left tons out. Well, that’s what happens when you have only 20 slots to fill. Let me know if I missed one of your favourites.

There is nothing on the European music calendar that can compare with Eurosonic, the two-day festival which takes place in the northern Dutch town of Groningen every January. Attracting festival bookers, agents, journalists and broadcasters searching for exciting new musical talent from all over Europe, Eurosonic has become the perfect way for any live music fan to start the year.
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Thanks to the long-standing involvement of 2FM producer Ian Wilson, there is always an Irish element to Eurosonic.

Wilson ensures that the much-maligned station pays for a couple of bands to travel to Holland each year and also broadcasts their performances from the festival.

This year, 2FM was represented by Cathy Davey and Republic of Loose, while two other Irish acts, Si Schroeder and Halves, also played at the festival.

There were healthy crowds to see all four acts; Cathy Davey and Republic of Loose were particularly impressive.

It begs the question why other organisations and bodies are not following 2FM’s lead in making the most of Eurosonic as a promotional opportunity.

For example, the festival could be an ideal way for new government agency Culture Ireland to market the country’s rock and pop sector to a very responsive European audience.

The doctor will see you now. Dr Strangely Strange were one of many psychedelic-folk combos who found a modicum of fame and fortune in the late 1960s, but who became better known after their demise.

Formed in Dublin in 1967, the band worked with legendary producer Joe Boyd and initially released two albums, Kip of the Serenes and Heavy Petting.

After their last Irish tour in 1973, the band went their separate ways.

Now, 25 years on, Dr Strangely Strange are set to return to an Irish stage, playing Dublin’s Sugar Club on March 1st.

In an era when bands struggle to get to album number two, it’s reassuring to know that some Irish acts continue to stick with the programme and pile on the releases.

Doughty power-pop combo Pugwash will release their fourth album on March 7th.

Eleven Modern Antiquities is the follow-up to 2005’s Jollity album and features contributions from Neil Hannon, XTC’s Andy Partridge, The Section Quartet and others.

Meanwhile, Anyone Who Asks from the band’s second album, Almanac, features on the soundtrack to the Colin Farrell and Ed Norton flick Pride and Glory.

Some records come out of nowhere and hit round you round the ears. I have a feeling the forthcoming album from Hercules & Love Affair is going to go do that to a lot of people.
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And no, we’re not talking about Lorcan. The final batch of data from the 2006 census have been published and has thrown up plenty of statistical trivia for those who like to mine this kind of thing.

Per Ruadhan Mac Cormaic:

There are 64 widowed teenagers in Ireland, the youngest of them just 15 years old.

A total of 1,318 people claim to have no nationality at all.

91 Polish Muslims, 30 Presbyterians, 23 Methodists and 329 Church of Ireland adherents who were in Ireland on census night, April 23rd, 2006.

There are only eight Muslim gardaí, two more than there were Muslims working in mining, quarrying and turf production.

273 Lithuanians live in houses built between 1910 and 1940, and there are 140 Orthodox electricians plying their trade in Ireland.

While much of what Guy Hands had to say when he met EMI staff yesterday had been signalled in advance, there were one or two interesting comments to note from his presentation.

He started off talking about the breakdown in the relationship between the record business and the music fan:

Over the last 7 years the recorded music industry, rather than embracing consumers has done a number of things which have alienated them

First, as an industry we pushed Napster out of business; Second we had the RIAA sue individuals, literally thousands of them, for uploading music illegally; Third, we resisted the release of DRM free music; Fourth we did not make music easily available for those who have to pay

At the end of all this we have a consumer who, as Radiohead say, regard not paying for music as a victimless crime. The result is that new music loses money with EMI not having produced a positive result from new releases for over seven years. The most important thing we can do as an organisation and as an industry is to stop fighting amongst ourselves and to get consumers to pay. No amount of litigation and bullying can win – only working with the consumer can

He then went on for a bit about how A&R would take on a new importance in his reign:

Only 1 in 20 people in the labels actually do A&R; the rest provide a range of services. This makes each label an expensive and inefficient business in its own right. EMI’s labels will be focused in future just on A&R, so they will be able to concentrate on the creative process and on developing partnerships with the artists.

And then, he addressed the size of the EMI roster

In the past, we have followed the industry model of signing up as many artists as possible, while taking huge bets on a few. We actually have over 14,000 artists on our roster. Once again, this is not sustainable. We cannot provide meaningful support for that number and everyone suffers as a result. Going forward, we will have a smaller number of artists on our roster, but we will aim to serve them much better.

It had to happen. MTV hooked up with Lorcan Malone, a dashing young blade from Dundalk, and filmed the preparations for his 16th birthday bash for their My Super Sweet 16 series. Watch what happened when a very American idea met the badlands of Co Louth. It’s like Diary of a Debutante, only, er, glossier.

(Via Anthony McG and Damien Mulley)

It’s not going to be a pleasant Tuesday for thousands of people employed by EMI Music worldwide as Guy Scissorhands reveals his plans for the company this morning at a cinema in west London. It’s also something of a D-Day for hundreds of acts signed to EMI and its many labels. Like what happened when Sony and BMG joined forces or, for those with longer memories, the fallout which occured after the consolidation which brought Universal Music came into being, there may be a lot of unemployed music executives and out-of-contract bands walking around by the end of today.

What music business observers and analysts will be looking at closely are the solutions to the problems which Hands and his men have already identified. Anyone can find problems - but it’s a far more difficult task coming up with real solutions other than more asset-stripping, downsizing and cutbacks designed to deliver shareholder value.

Indeed, the easy option for Hands would be to cut the company back to the bare bones, getting rid of all the acts and turning EMI into a catalogue pimp. That would be one way of dealing with the advances and development costs which he says have contributed hugely to losses at the company. Hands would be left with revenue streams from the existing catalogue and would face very few costs compared to the current situation.

If, however, Hands decides he wants to make a serious fist of owning a music company, he has many options to consider. Terminating the contracts of those acts who have yet to recoup on their advances would be one major step towards a streamlined, dedicated company, but this would be the equivalent of downsizing your R&D division and it would mean that the company would not have any new acts coming through. Placing all the company’s hopes in such acts as Coldplay, Robbie Williams and Kylie, three A-list acts still signed to the company, could well backfire on Hands. Acts don’t always co-operate with the best-laid plans of the suits.

Expect today’s announcement to dominate the music business wires for the rest of the week.

UPDATE Here’s the press release. Love the line about “the world’s most innovative, artist friendly and consumer-focused music company”.

It’s the TV event of the year, people and it’s only January 14th. Starting tonight at 11pm, Nightly News with Vincent Browne is where Big Vinnie goes into battle with the TV3 news team and no, this is not a new take on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Or Californication. Or even Xpose. This is, well, Nightly News with Vincent Browne.

Per TV3:

Nightly News with Vincent Browne is a programme that will go behind the headlines to take an in-depth look at the stories of the day and the people who are making the news. It will also contain an up to the minute news bulletin, sport, weather and a first look at the following day’s newspaper headlines. It will offer Irish viewers something they have never had before – a news bulletin, in-depth reports and live interviews with guests – all fronted by this country’s most iconic journalist.

Basically, it’s Browne’s usually excellent, often idiosyncratic and occasionally downright amazing RTE radio show transfered to the TV. It was mooted to be an autumn highlight, but transmission was delayed until now (wardrobe issues, we hear).

The questions this morning: will the big man survive the transfer to the box? Will it turn out to be the new Dunphy show? How will Vinnie cope standing/sitting shoulder-pad to shoulder-pad with the world-famous TV3 news team, the ones who just can’t sit still when they’re broadcasting? More to the point, how will they cope with him?

On the Record is offering the following odds:

8/15 The Mahon tribunal to feature heavily.

1/1 Vinnie to sigh dramatically at least twice during the first show

7/2 Vinnie to wear grey socks

10/1 Vinnie to discuss candidates for the Newcastle manager’s job with Trevor Welch

20/1 Vinnie and Ursala Halligan to have a heated debate about Enda Kenny’s tie

33/1 Senator Eoghan Harris to turn up and then storm off

100/1 The first show to feature any mention of the presenter’s favourite operas.

As played on Phantom 105.2, Saturday January 12, 10pm-midnight

Chrome Hoof “Pronoid” (Southern)
The Ting Tings “Fruit Machine” (Columbia)
The Clash “This Is Radio Clash” (CBS)
Turbulence “Notorious” (XL)
Octopus “The River” (Rev-Ola)
The Quik “Bert’s Apple Crumble” (Deram)
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich “Hold Tight” (Mercury)
Sonic Youth “Silver Rocket” (Blast First)
Black Mountain “Stormy High” (Jagjaguwar)
Yeasayer “Sunrise” (Now We Are Free)
Studio “Self Service” (Information)
Hercules & Love Affair “Hercules Theme” (DFA)
Thao with the Get Down Stay Down “Beat” (Kill Rock Stars)
Band Of Horses “The General Specific” (Sub Pop)
McAlmont & Butler “Yes” (Hut)
Los Campesinos “Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats” (Wichita)
El Perro Del Mar “Candy” (Control Group)
Silje Nes “Over All” (Fat Cat)
YOAV “Where Is My Mind?” (Island)
Cat Power “Song for Bobby” (Matador)
Bob Dylan/The Band “I Don’t Believe You” (Warner Bros)
Etta James “All the Way Down” (Charly)
Adele “Best for Last” (XL)
Jonny Greenwood “HW Hope of New Fields” (Nonesuch)
Earth “The Dry Lake” (Southern Lord)
The Antlers “Apple Orchard” (MP3)
Speck Mountain “Summer Above” (Peacefrog)
The Blow “True Affection” (K)

Over the last few years, Eurosonic has become the lab for the European Talent Exchange Program (ETEP). Bands who impress the ETEP folks in January end up getting very useful and potentially lucrative slots on major European summer festivals because, besides the gig, they’ll also get the support of press and radio. It’s why you will see bookers from the likes of Lowlands, Glastonbury, Exit, Oya and dozens of other summer bashes patrolling the streets and pushing their way to the top of the queue. In the last five years, over 200 acts who’ve played Eurosonic have got this value-added bonus as a result.

So who out of this year’s 250 acts should impress these bookers? For instance, I reckon Republic Of Loose should be a shoe-in for some shows as a result of their gig on Thursday night. Tonight, though, there was plenty of acts you could imagine firing up a booker’s imagination.

Swedish band Moonbabies play the most blissful indie-pop imaginable, what Stars might sound like if they hadn’t decided to go off and listen to The Corrs. The Heavy had the most charismatic (male) frontman in Groningen and their heavyweight funk kept a full room grinning.

The high-kicking Miss Platnum and her brass-touting big band were another act you could easily see holding their own on any stage with their funky take on Balkan sounds. Chrome Hoof were, well, mesmeric, the obvious, if previously unimagined, offshoot of Art Ensemble of Chicago and GWAR. And Robyn’s show was well worth the lengthy wait in a packed room, all glittery, super-tough pop hooks and hits from a dynamic, all-action singer.

Yet another full house greeted Irish-Polish combo Halves whose quiet-loud-quiet atmospherics were occasionally quite stunning. I also liked the icy electro pop which Olga Kouklaki was producing and Sunshine’s approximation of nu-rave with Czech accents was worth a look.

At a festival where you give most acts 3 song or 10 minutes before moving on, the act who really held the room from start to finish was Cathy Davey. The audience at the Muziekschool seemed rooted to the spot. Whatever fears Davey may have had about playing live have long vanished, probably thanks to a band who can knock anyone’s socks off and a bunch of songs which are a match for anything else heard in Groningen. A superb, confident, even swaggering set. Here’s one story which has a long, long way to run.

Every January, the Dutch town of Groningen is taken over by bands, people who hang out with bands, booking agents, promoters and assorted members of the media for a gathering called Eurosonic. It is the best new band showcase in Europe, the only festival I know which comes close to the binge-gigging madness which is South By Southwest.

There are a couple of hundred acts playing in around two dozen or so excellent club so the streets of this lovely town really are alive with the sound of music. The EBU are heavily involved in the fest and 2FM’s Ian Wilson has long ensured an Irish interest in proceedings. Last night, the Republic Of Loose and Si Schroeder played, with Halves and Cathy Davey playing tonight.

Acts which impressed me last night included I’m From Barcelona (if I was throwing a party, I’d have them playing), The Ting Tings (it seems that they only have six songs to their name at the moment, but that number includes “Great DJ” and the peerless “That’s Not My Name”), The Kissaway Trail (the Danish for Arcade Fire), Hanne Hukkelberg (lush, atmospheric, goosebump-enducing music from Norway), Jakobinarina (they’re from Iceland and regular readers know we’re fond of these rascals) and Stalingrad Cowgirls (three Finnish lasses rocking hard).

There’s also a ton of Swedish acts in town because the fest has a Swedish focus this year and I liked what I heard of These Dancing Days, Lykke Li and the rather madcap Kleerup.

Tonight’s bill of fare is just as tasty. The act I’m really, really looking forward to seeing are Chrome Hoof. Everything I’ve heard so far has been out-there and they have some very snazzy band photos to live up to.

I watched the first episode of Series 5 of The Wire, which is available for free as a podcast via iTunes, on my iPod the other day. The viewing experience felt very strange (I’d never watched a video on the iPod before), but the episode was off the hook. Quite an accurate depiction of a newsroom too, which is something TV and film directors always seem to get wrong. Indeed, it’s one of the most realistic I’ve seen since State of Play.

Seeing as it’s B-More week here on the blog, here are some more goodies for y’all.

Thanks to Ivor for pointing me towards And All The Pieces Matter: Five Years of Music from The Wire and Beyond Hamsterdam: Baltimore Tracks from The Wire, two compilations of music used on the show just released on Nonesuch.

Shout out to Clarkey for letting us know that David Simon, the man behind The Wire, is coming to Dublin later this month. He’s giving a Television Drama Masterclass on January 24th.

And finally, kudos to Damien Mulley for catching this. 4 seasons in 4 minutes. Enjoy.

Trent Reznor has decided to tell all about his recent engagement with a new music business model and it’s not pretty.
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He’s back. Six years have passed since the last album from Billy Bragg, but next month will see his new album, Mr Love & Justice, arrive in shops and download outlets.

Not that Bragg has been idle since releasing England, Half English in 2002. He forced MySpace to review their terms and conditions of use after noting some ambiguous legal clauses.

He established the Jail Guitar Doors initiative to buy instruments for prisoners in UK jails. Bragg marked his 50th birthday last December with a performance and public interview at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. And he’s seen a host of new-school acts like Jamie T, Hard-Fi and Kate Nash acknowledge his influence on their music.

Mr Love & Justice, which features a guest appearance from Robert Wyatt, will be released on Cooking Vinyl on February 29th.

There are a couple of big dates already on the Dublin clubbing calendar for 2008.

Chilean-German minimal kingpin Ricardo Villalobos will visit Dublin for a Remedy gig on May 4th.

The same night, MSTRKRFT, Gui Boratto (the Brazilian behind one of 2007’s spellbinding tune, Beautiful Life) and Navid Tahernia play Spy.

Other Spy visitors include Richard Dorfmeister (January 25th), Justin Robertson (February 15th) and DJ SebastiAn (February 29th)

One Irish album from 2007 which didn’t make the Choice Music Prize cut this week was Boxcutter’s Glyphic.

Released on the Planet Mu label, it’s the second album from Armagh electronic producer Barry Lynn under the Boxcutter moniker.

Boxcutter fans should check out his forthcoming live session for Lyric FM’s Nova show on January 27th, which will feature brand new tracks as well as reworkings of past glories. His third album, Balancing Lakes, is set for release in the coming months

The following acts and albums have been nominated for the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year 2007 (acts in alphabetical order)

Adrian Crowley “Long Distance Swimmer” (Tin Angel)
Cathy Davey “Tales Of Silversleeve” (EMI)
Delorentos “In Love With Detail” (Cottage)
Dry County “Unexpected Falls” (Lazybird)
The Flaws “Achieving Vagueness” (Arrivals)
David Geraghty “Kill Your Darlings” (Decal)
Kila “Gambler’s Ballet” (Kila Records)
Roisin Murphy “Overpowered” (EMI)
Stanley Super 800 “Louder & Clearer” (Sofa)
Super Extra Bonus Party “Super Extra Bonus Party” (Alphabet Set)

The live event will take place in Vicar Street, Dublin on Wednesday February 27th and will feature performances from as many of the acts who can play on the night (we’ll be announcing the full details in the next few weeks). Tickets, priced €27 euro including booking fees, go on sale on Monday next.

The winning act will receive a cheque for €10,000 (courtesy of the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO)) and a smashing piece of glassware (courtesy of industry body, Recorded Artists & Performers (RAAP)).

The shortlist is selected by a panel of 12 men and women, good and true, drawn from the ranks of those who write about and/or talk about music for a living. And the judges this year are as follows:

Brian Boyd (The Irish Times)
Michael Carr (Cork 96FM and Cork Independent)
Ronan Casey (Westmeath Examiner)
Alan Corr (RTE Guide)
Dan Hegarty (2FM)
Anne Marie Kelly (Today FM)
Sheena McGinley (Entertainment.ie)
Una Mullally (Sunday Tribune and the Una Rocks blog)
Paul McClean (BBC Northern Ireland)
Nadine O’Regan (Sunday Business Post, Phantom FM and blogger)
Leagues O’Toole (Foggy Notions)
Jon Richards (Galway Bay FM)

Maureen O’Dowd asks can Hillary cry her way back to the White House. Well, New Hampshire voters seem to think so.

The latest Irish Times writer to ‘fess up to being a fan of The Wire? Fintan O’Toole

If you want to know who will be topping charts (if we still have charts) three or four years from now, check out who is turning up for classes at the Brit School in south London. The Independent pays a visit.

Byron Hurt’s new Hip-hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes flick looks at “the sexism, violence and homophobia of much of its lyrics and videos and many of its stars” per The Guardian.

The end is nigh, says the FT

The end is nigh and it’s not pretty says Bob Lefsetz who compares album sales figures from 2000 with 2007.

The end is nigh, but don’t despair says Seth Godin because there are some important lessons to be learned as the music business falls apart

Syl Johnson says show me the money. The R&B dude is claiming the likes of Will Smith, NWA Tupac Shakur, Michael Jackson, KRS One, Young Chris and many more used portions of his “Different Strokes” single without permission. They should have asked The Beatles instead.

Why ticket touts heart Led Zep

And why UK mobile phone shops are not feeling the love for the iPhone.

Both Nialler and Shane have taken out their crystal balls to predict what albums they think will make the cut when the Choice Music Prize shortlist is announced on Wednesday. Lovely lists, the pair of them.

Anyway, all will be revealed tomorrow night (Wednesday) at 7.30pm on Today FM. We’ll also be revealing the names of the 12 judges on the website so you know the names of the people to applaud or boo. My lips are sealed until then.

It’s that time of the year when music pundits gets a crick in their neck from all the looking backwards and forwards. Here’s a round-up of the round-ups. As you would expect, some names come up again and again and again

At The Ticket, we’re gambling our lunch money on such acts as Adele, The Ting Tings, Santogold, JayMay and Foals.

At The Guardian, their panel of experts think 2008 will be “the year of odd band names” such as Black Kids, Dead Kids and The Whitest Boy Alive.

Reuters are also in on the act with 10 fresh faces they think will make a splash in ‘08 including Kate Voegele, Blitzen Trapper, Lady Antebellum and Esperanza Spalding.

Rolling Stone compiled their 10 to Watch list back in November which gave shouts out to Santogold, Cool Kids (we heart the Cool Kids so much), Black Kids and OneRepublic.

The Sun’s Something for the Weekend Class of 08 includes Vampire Weekend, The Ting Tings, The Courteneers, Ebony Bones and Glasvegas.

Q magazine’s list includes such predictable Q fodder as Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong, Nick Harrison and The Troubadours, while Mojo go a little left-of-centre bigging up Hercules & Love Affair (we’re smitten with Andrew Butler and friends after a couple of listens to their album due soon on DFA), Pete Molinari, Howlin’ Rain and Lightspeed Champion.

The daddy of them all is the BBC Sound of 2008 poll which rounds up the views of over 150 pop-pickers. Like all these polls, it has featured some duds over the years (we’re still waiting for Kubb, Marcos Hernandez and Air Traffic to set the world alight) so, as with all these lists, caution is advised. Their Number 1 tip is Adele and the Top 10 also featured Duffy, Santogold, Vampire Weekend and The Ting Tings.

And, lastly, welcome proof that not everyone thinks the same way. The Cleveland Free Times are predicting that 2008 will be the year of such acts as Afternoon Naps, To Be A High Powered Executive and Unsparing Sea.

It’s the story which never fails to pop up every four years: the attempt by some hamlet in Ireland to piggyback on the US presidential election. The yarn about Barack Obama’s connections with Moneygall in Co Offaly first surfaced last May. However, it is the story which will keep on giving, especially if the senator from Illinois continues to kick Hillary Clinton’s butt in the coming weeks to win the grand prize of a rough, tough, dirty battle with the GOP’s war dogs.

It means, though, we’re in for more cringeworthy TV like the RTE TV news story on Saturday evening about the celebrations in the Co Offaly town following Obama’s win in Iowa last week (thanks to Shane for pointing me towards the YouTube footage which is below). On this occasion, it was poor Ray Colgan who was sent to round up the happy drinkers and get them to gurn and wave flags for the cameras. He looked commendably unimpressed with his task, but he had better get used to it. Chances are he will be back in Moneygall again and again before next November.

But those good people in Moneygall are not the only Irish folks keeping a self-interested eye on the US elections. Have a read of last week’s opinion piece from publisher and editor Niall O’Dowd.

Besides his work on the Irish Voice newspaper and the Irish America magazine, O’Dowd’s a long-standing Clinton fan (he’s on the finance committee for her election campaign) so his piece was about why she should get the love and the votes from the Irish-American constituency.

There were many reasons put forward. O’Dowd counted the number of Irish onboard Clinton’s groovy bus. He pointed to how Clinton took time out from her canvassing schedule to engage in some jaw-jaw with the Chuckle Brothers when they visited Washington DC. He even recalled Clinton and hubbie Bill’s emotional reactions after their first to Northern Ireland in 1995.

As far as O’Dowd was concerned, this is a no-brainer.

If she becomes president, Ireland can expect the most committed American leader in history on their issues. If she wins, Ireland and Irish America will be big winners too.

But surely Irish-American voters have more pressing issues to think about than how their vote will play back in the old country? Isn’t the US presidental election supposed to be about, lets see, health care, foreign policy and taxes, to name three issues which spring to mind, rather than a green takeover of the White House?

It seems that many Irish Americans have already went “harumph” to such notions. O’Dowd points out that over 16 per cent of Iowa’s citizens claim Irish roots. They must all be from Moneygall, in that case.

I can’t wait to see what other candidates will declare their Irish roots in the coming week - or, more likely, see their Irish roots coming back to haunt them. And it can only be a matter of time before someone here tries to join the dots between a dude standing for election in Kenya or Pakistan and some Irish village in need of a visit from a RTE camera crew.

As played on Phantom 105.2, Saturday January 5, 10pm-midnight

The first show of ‘08 was about shoehorning as much new music and new acts into two hours as possible. Find of the night turned to be Hercules & Love Affair, Andrew Butler and friends (including Antony of The Johnsons) making gloriously spooky slo-mo funky house. Other newbies y’all need to check out include Our Brother The Native (Yankee whippersnappers making better Sigur Ros sounds than Sigur Ros themselves), Murder Mystery (indie pop as catchy as a chilblain), Santogold (Philly punk and Mark Ronson’s onetime dog-sitter gets funky and righteous) and the mighty Thao with the Get Down Stay Down. I also played a track from Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood’s majestic soundtrack for Paul Thomas Anderson’s forthcoming flick, There Will Be Blood. See, I can be magnanimous….

School Of Language “Rockist Pt 1” (Memphis Industries)
Murder Mystery “Love Astronaut” (Murder Mystery)
Hercules & Love Affair “Hercules Theme” (DFA)
Holy Hail “Cool Town Rock” (ACTH)
Hot Chip “Shake A Fist (Diplo remix)” (Virgin)
Boys Noize “Lava Lava” (Boys Noize)
Santogold “Creator” (Downtown)
Cadence Weapon “In Search of the Youth Crew” (Big Dada)
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip “Letter From God To Man” (MySpace)
These New Puritans “Swords Of Truth” (Domino)
Black Mountain “Queens Will Play” (Jagjaguwar)
The Kills “U R A Fever” (Domino)
The Blow “True Affection” (K)
The Ruby Suns “Blue Penguin” (Memphis Industries)
Cat Power “I Believe In You” (Matador)
Thao with the Get Down Stay Down “Geography” (Kill Rock Stars)
Hercules & Love Affair with Antony “Time Will” (DFA)
Leo Abrahams/Brian Eno “No Frames” (Mercury)
Our Brother The Native “We Are The Living” (Fat Cat)
Jonny Greenwood “Open Spaces” (Nonesuch)
Bloc Party “Where Is Home? (Burial remix)” (V2)
Speck Mountain “Fjord Song” (Peacefrog)
Adele “Chasing Pavements” (XL)
The Innocence Mission “My Sisters Return from Ireland” (Fargo)
Dawn Landes “Twilight” (Fargo)
Beach House “Gila” (Carpark)

On The Record’s wish for 2008? That we’ll start to see proper media coverage of music business stories.
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On The Record recently noted that January and February are no longer the dead months of the year when it comes to live music.

As if to further emphasise the fact, a whole host of new live shows were announced for the weeks ahead while you were eating turkey, ham and all the trimmings.

The new additions include Chrome Hoof (right), the world’s only 12-strong space jazz metal combo in sparkly monk’s clobbers (Whelan’s Dublin, February 12), Canuck rockers Islands (Whelan’s, Dublin, February 18 and The Speakeasy, Belfast, February 19) and Washington DC’s ear-popping electro-folkies Le Loup (Crawdaddy Dublin, February 21 with support from the excellent School Of Language).

There will also be visits from Berlin’s