completemusicupdate.com - 3 510 Showbiz News and Updates

Gap is suing its former business partner Kanye West over alterations that were made to an LA building it rented in 2021 and 2022, that building having been used – it seems – as a place to sell the Yeezy products that were created by the rapper in collaboration with the retailer.According to a lawsuit filed last month, it was West’s team that instigated the alterations, putting Gap in breach of its agreement with the building’s owner.According to the New York Post, the alterations included “erecting an exterior ramp in the east side parking lot; installing a tunnel in the lot; removing ceiling lights; building a wall; and nixing three bathrooms”.The building’s owner sued Gap over the alterations last year, seeking to hold the retailer responsible for the costs of restoring the property back to how it was prior to West’s meddling.

A guitar smashed by Kurt Cobain has sold at auction for almost $600,000 – around ten times the original estimated price.The black Fender Stratocaster was used by Cobain during touring for Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ album and shows signs of having been broken and repaired a number of times. Eventually it was gifted to Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan in late 1992, with inscriptions from each band member written to him on the body of the guitar.While the electronics in the guitar still work – making it technically playable – part of the neck and half of the headstock is missing, leaving it less than fully functional.Originally it was estimated that the guitar would sell at auction in New York for $60,000 – $80,000.

DEALSTake That have signed themselves to Universal Music’s EMI Records in order to release some new music. You know, on the off chance somebody somewhere wants some.

Elena Garcia releases ‘Losing My Mind’, her debut single as Tonguetied, today. A raw and emotional track, Garcia’s electronic production builds in intensity along with the lyrics, which document a low point in her mental health.“2021 was a tough year for me, a year of survival, a year of confusion, my brain felt like it was my own worst enemy”, she says.

Organisers of the Silver Clef Awards – which raise money each year for music therapy charity Nordoff And Robbins – have announced some of the artists who will be honoured at this year’s event, which takes place in London on 30 Jun.Stormzy will be presented with the actual Silver Clef Award, while Wet Leg will receive the New Music Award, Ayanna Witter-Johnson the Classical Award and Biffy Clyro the Best Live Act prize. An Outstanding Achievement Award will go to Neneh Cherry and an Icon Award to Mark King of Level 42.Says Stormzy said: “Throughout my career people have tried to box me in as an artist.

A New York court last week paused a lawsuit filed as part of a dispute over the Jimi Hendrix Experience catalogue pending the outcome of litigation related to the same dispute in the London courts. It follows an appeal court ruling in the UK last month which said that the London lawsuit should be allowed to proceed despite the connected legal action in the US.The Jimi Hendrix estate and its label partner Sony Music is on one side in this dispute, with companies representing the estates of the two other members of the Jimi Hendrix Experience – Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell – on the other side.The Redding and Mitchell companies claim that they control rights in relation to the Jimi Hendrix Experience recordings catalogue which are being infringed by the Hendrix estate and Sony.But the latter parties counter that, after Hendrix’s death in 1970, both Redding and Mitchell signed agreements in which they gave up any claims to rights and royalties stemming from the Jimi Hendrix Experience in return for “significant monetary consideration”.After lawyers for the Redding and Mitchell companies contacted Sony Music in the UK last year to make their formal claims in relation to the Jimi Hendrix Experience recordings, the Hendrix estate and Sony in the US filed legal proceedings in the New York courts.

Foo Fighters have revealed Josh Freese as their new drummer. He steps in to replace Taylor Hawkins, who died last year.The new member of the band’s line-up was revealed in a livestream yesterday.

A security guard who was filmed singing along to all the songs at Taylor Swift’s recent shows in Nashville has admitted that he applied for a job stewarding at the concerts after missing out on tickets.After the videos of Davis Perrigo clearly enjoying Swift’s performance while performing his stewarding role went viral, News Channel 5 Nashville spoke to the TikTok famous security guard, who is actually an accountant by day.When he wasn’t able to secure tickets for the Nashville dates on Swift’s ongoing US tour, he decided to apply for a job working at the shows. That meant he couldn’t capture any moments of the concerts on his own phone, but it turns out he didn’t need to, as Swift’s fans started filming him.Having been made aware that those clips were going viral, Perrigo says: “I showed someone at work, like, ‘Hey, this video got 10,000 views’, and then by that night, it was over one million.

Adidas announced on Friday that it plans to sell off the Yeezy products it has been sitting on ever since its partnership with Kanye West collapsed last year, with “a significant amount” of the money generated going to organisations that combat discrimination and hate.The sportswear company announced in October that it was terminating its long-running and very profitable alliance with West after his increasingly controversial racist and antisemitic statements made the partnership untenable. The sudden axing of the deal around West’s Yeezy brand left Adidas sitting on a lot of unsold stock and the company has been figuring out what to do with it ever since.Friday’s announcement said that some of that stock will now be put on sale via the Adidas website and app before the end of this month.

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last week, including news that more than 20,000 people have made representations to Lambeth Council in support of the Brixton Academy as the local authority considers a request by London’s Metropolitan Police to revoke the licence of current operators Academy Music Group, plus the latest round in the ongoing battle between the Village People and Donald Trump.SECTION TIMES01: Brixton Academy (00:06:38)02: Village People (00:15:39)(Timings may be slightly different due to adverts)SUBSCRIBE TO SETLISTListen to Setlist and sign up to receive new episodes for free automatically each week through any of these services…Acast | Amazon Music | Apple Podcasts | audioBoom | CastBox | Deezer | Google Podcasts | iHeart | Mixcloud | RSS | Spotify | Stitcher | TuneInSTORIES DISCUSSED THIS WEEK• More than 20,000 representations submitted in support of Brixton Academy ahead of licence review• Village People hit out at lookalike performance at Donald Trump eventMORE FROM CMU• Upcoming CMU webinars• Buy MMF and CMU Insights’ Dissecting The Digital Dollar book on Amazon• Sign up to receive the CMU Daily news bulletin• Listen to the full Setlist theme tune

who said on Twitter: “It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Andy Rourke after a lengthy illness with pancreatic cancer. Andy will be remembered as a kind and beautiful soul by those who knew him and as a supremely gifted musician by music fans.

is already streaming.The new record was announced ahead of a series of warm-up shows that the band are playing around the UK this month, kicking off at the Colchester Arts Centre later today.Those shows, which also include gigs at Eastbourne Winter Gardens, The Halls Wolverhampton and City Hall Newcastle, precede a summer of festival appearances plus the two dates at Wembley Stadium on 8 and 9 Jul.And now some quotes from the band…Damon Albarn: “This is an aftershock record, reflection and comment on where we find ourselves now”.Graham Coxon: “The older and madder we get, it becomes more essential that what we play is loaded with the right emotion and intention. Sometimes just a riff doesn’t do the job”.Alex James: “For any long term relationship to last with any meaning you have to be able to surprise each other somehow and somehow we all continue to do that”.Dave Rowntree: “It always feels very natural to make music together.

RELEASESKylie Minogue has released new single ‘Padam, Padam’. Her new album ‘Tension’ is out on 22 Sep.Jorja Smith will release her second album ‘Falling Or Flying’ on 29 Sep. She is set to play four launch shows around the UK close to the release date, including one at Outernet in London on 4 Oct.

The UK’s Ivors Academy yesterday presented its Ivor Novello Awards, celebrating the best in songs and songwriting from the last year. Wet Leg’s Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers were declared Songwriters Of The Year, while Raye, 070 Shake and Mike Sabath took the prize for Best Contemporary Song for ‘Escapism’.There were also the customary awards for career-long achievements, with the members of James being presented an Icon Award; Kamille being celebrated for her Outstanding Song Collection; Debbie Harry and Chris Stein getting a Special International Award; and Sting being granted an Academy Fellowship.“On behalf of The Ivors Academy of songwriters and composers I wholeheartedly congratulate all of our winners”, says Academy Chair Tom Gray.

Slowthai has been dropped from the line-ups of a number of UK festivals and has had some headline shows cancelled after he appeared in court on rape charges earlier this week. A Glastonbury set is among the performances to have now been pulled.

Sony Pictures Animation has announced that Metro Boomin will act as Executive Producer on the soundtrack album of new movie ‘Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse’. It’ll be one of those ‘music from and inspired by’ deals, with the producer overseeing the whole shebang.Actually, while I may have made it sound like this is something he’s going to do, presumably the work is already done, because that soundtrack album is out on 2 Jun. Which is quite soon.

Róisín Murphy has announced that she will release her latest album ‘Hit Parade’ in September. She has also released new single ‘The Universe’ and is set to headline London’s Alexandra Palace in February.“This record is a collaboration with DJ Koze”, she explains. “We worked remotely, in different countries, sending tracks [and] ideas back and forth for several years.

‘Cockroach’ serves not only as the debut single from South Korean punk band Sailor Honeymoon, but is also the first release through their Seoul and London-based label Good Good 굿굿 Records, of which the band’s Abi Raymaker is a co-founder.A photographer by day, Raymaker is joined in the band by techno DJ Zaeeun Shin and singer-songwriter Meaningful Stone – though you shouldn’t let any of those tags lead you to form any pre-judgement on what they might sound like. The band themselves switched up which instruments they’d all play once they started rehearsing, in order to bring an extra rawness to their sound.“For us, Sailor Honeymoon is our chance to express ourselves without being edited or corrected in any way”, says Raymaker.

APPOINTMENTSBMG has announced that CFO Thomas Coesfeld will move into the CEO role at the company from 1 Jul, six months earlier that originally planned. Current CEO Hartwig Masuch announced in January that he is stepping down, though the original plan was for Coesfeld to take over at the start of 2024. Mathis Wolter will become the firm’s new CFO, moving over from sister company RTL Group.

APPOINTMENTSUniversal Music’s label services division Virgin Music has announced three promotions in the US. Leslie Cooper is now SVP Artist Development & Special Projects, Marisa Di Frisco becomes VP National Promotion, and Lauren Holman moves up to VP Streaming Marketing.Warner Chappell has promoted Amber Davis to the role of Senior Vice President. “I’m honoured to be stepping into this wider role at Warner Chappell Music”, she says.

Reservoir has signed rapper Armani White to a new publishing deal covering his full catalogue, including his biggest hit, ‘Billie Eilish’.“Music has helped me through so much, and this is an exciting moment to bring that to a new level”, says White. “I know the Reservoir team can help me get there.

Ed Sheeran has successfully defeated a lawsuit that accused him of ripping off Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’ when he wrote his 2014 song ‘Thinking Out Loud’. And if you think we’re reporting on this two weeks too late you’re forgetting that there were multiple lawsuits making that claim.The first lawsuit to allege that ‘Thinking Out Loud’ infringed the copyright in ‘Let’s Get It On’ was the one filed by the estate of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the Gaye classic.

Donald Trump has annoyed the Village People again, this time by hosting a party at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida which featured a group of men dressed up like the legendary disco group and performing their hits.The former President has regularly made use of Village People songs ‘YMCA’ and ‘Macho Man’ at his political events, of course. The group – and especially founder member and lead singer Victor Willis – have been very clear throughout that they really wish he wouldn’t.When it comes to copyright matters, political rallies and other events staged by Trump usually rely on blanket licences issued by the music industry’s collecting societies.And while there is a specific licence for overtly political events that provides some opt-outs for songwriters, it’s difficult for artists to stop the likes of Trump from using their music outright by simply enforcing copyright law.It’s a little more clear cut if music is used by politicians without permission in campaign videos, and Village People label Scorpio Music did threaten legal action after Trump shared a video made by a third party that featured the group’s music.

Grove provided one of the standout performances that I caught at last week’s Great Escape. And just ahead of the festival, they released their first single of 2023, the furiously anti-monarchy ‘Big Boots’.

DEALSMinistry Of Sound has signed LF System. “We’re absolutely buzzing to be working with such an iconic label for the dance music scene and it feels like the perfect home to be releasing our new music on”, say the duo. “And finally, we are able to share our new single with the world and hope that you love it as much as we do!” What’s that? A new single? Yes, the first release under the deal is ‘Dancing Shoes (Take Me Higher)’.BMG has acquired the artist royalties associated with nine Pointer Sisters albums released between 1978 and 1988, as well as 100% of their US royalties, including from their 1982 song ‘I’m So Excited’.

DEALSPendulum have signed a new worldwide record deal with Mushroom Group and Universal Music’s label services division Virgin Music – the first joint venture signing between the two businesses. “We are pleased to be joining forces with Mushroom [and] Virgin and reuniting with [Mushroom boss] Korda Marshall, a visionary who played a pivotal role in our journey back in 2006”, says Pendulum’s Rob Swire.BDi Music has signed multi-instrumentalist, music director, composer, producer and songwriter Ben Lythe to an exclusive worldwide publishing deal.

The Eurovision Song Contest took place in Liverpool on Saturday with Sweden’s Loreen topping the leader board with her song ‘Tattoo’ and in doing so winning the event for a second time, something only one other performer has ever done. The UK’s Mae Miller, meanwhile, came second from last, just above Germany.Speaking at a press conference following the show, Loreen said: “Everything feels surreal. I am seriously overwhelmed.

Music charity the PRS Foundation last week unveiled a new report at the Great Escape Conference in Brighton all about its Momentum Music Fund, which was formally launched at the showcase festival ten years ago.Originally with primary funding from Arts Council England, and now supported by collecting society PPL – as well as Creative Wales, Arts Council Of Northern Ireland, Invest Northern Ireland and Spotify – the Momentum scheme “provides career-boosting grants of between £5000-£15,000 to acts at a pivotal time in their creative and business development”.Over its first decade in existence, the fund has awarded £5.2 million to 526 artists across the UK, helping support the production of 275 albums – including Mercury Prize shortlisted records – and over 300 tours and 1600 shows.The stats published last week also demonstrate how the fund seeks to help facilitate more diversity in the music industry.The Foundation said that 49.5% of Momentum grants have been awarded to artists of black, Asian or other ethnically diverse heritage; 51% of grants have gone to artists based outside London; and 47.9% of grantees identify as women, gender expansive artists or are in mixed gender groups.Commenting on the new report, PRS Foundation CEO Joe Frankland said: “The PPL Momentum Music Fund reaching ten years is a fantastic milestone and it’s clear to see the impact it continues to have on the UK music industry.

S Club 7 have confirmed that they will go ahead with their planned reunion tour despite the recent death of member Paul Cattermole. They will perform as a five piece, with sixth member Hannah Spearritt opting to not take part.The reunion shows that would have involved all seven members of the pop group were announced back in February, just two months before Cattermole’s death.When confirming on Instagram yesterday that the tour will still go ahead, Tina Barrett, Jon Lee, Bradley McIntosh, Jo O’Meara and Rachel Stevens all paid tribute to their late bandmate.According to NME, McIntosh said that the group’s members were still in “disbelief” about Cattermole’s death, adding: “No one could ever replace our Paul, but he lives on inside each and every one of us”.Meanwhile, Stevens said: “He’s always going to be with us.

The Great Escape festival continues today with hundreds of acts performing in venues all over the city.We’ve picked out a handful of the artists we’re most excited to see and are sharing them with you here in the CMU Daily, along with a track to check out from each of them.Listen to all of our selections in this Spotify playlist, and read on to find out more about our next five picks…Marina Herlop – MiuUsing cut-up techniques – building melodies and rhythm out of snatches of sound – Herlop’s new material can at first seem chaotic. Listening feels like being dropped and caught repeatedly, but eventually this sensation becomes something more akin to floating.

LABELS & PUBLISHERSUniversal Music shareholders have agreed a new pay package for boss man Lucian Grainge, which will see his basic wage reduced by more than two thirds to $5 million. He will, however, be eligible for an annual performance bonus of $10 million, and is set to receive new stock options. So, you know, he’s not going to starve.

Ed Sheeran has said that he felt that he “had to take a stand” against claims that he ripped off Marvin Gaye song ‘Let’s Get It On’ when he wrote his 2014 song ‘Thinking Out Loud’, even though doing so meant that he was forced to miss his grandmother’s funeral.“I’m really glad it’s over, man”, he told Howard Stern on his Sirius XM show. Acknowledging the length of time it took for the case to get to trial, he went on: “It was eight years of that.

With the Great Escape Conference now into its second day, today the festival side of the event kicks off with hundreds of acts performing in venues all over the city.We’ve picked out a handful of the artists we’re most excited to see and are sharing them with you here in the CMU Daily, along with a track to check out from each of them.Listen to all of our selections in this Spotify playlist, and read on to find out more about our next five picks…Luci – Ash & DustAfter spending time developing her style under the radar, Luci arrived with her debut single ‘Ash & Dust’ last summer, a quick blast of punchy aggression with influences that span Lil Wayne to Bring Me The Horizon.Patterns Downstairs, Thu 11 May, 21.00-21.30Charles Street Tap, Fri 12 May, 23.00-23.30O – OgoSaxophonist Joseph Henwood and drummer Tash Keary have built themselves a fierce reputation through their live shows – helped by Black Midi, who invited them on tour after only two gigs. Their one single ‘Ogo’ gives you all the information you need about why you should go and see them.TGE Beach Stage, Thu 11 May, 21.15-21.45Lvra – VenomWinner of the inaugural Sound Of Young Scotland Award at the 2021 Scottish Album Of The Year ceremony, alt-pop artist Lvra’s sound draws on pop, R&B, trap, hip hop and experimental electronic music.

DEALSNia Archives has signed a worldwide publishing deal with Warner Chappell. “Last year was a mad one for me and I am gassed to kick off 2023 by signing with Warner Chappell”, she says.

LEGALA judge has dismissed the majority of Marilyn Manson’s defamation claims against actor Evan Rachel Wood under California’s so-called anti-SLAPP free speech laws. Wood’s attorney, Michael Kump said that Manson had “failed to show that his claims against her have even minimal merit”.

Warner Music CEO Robert Kyncl has echoed comments by his Universal counterpart Lucian Grainge on the need to restructure the way streaming royalties are paid out. Speaking on the major label’s Q2 earning’s call yesterday, he said that “it can’t be that [an] Ed Sheeran stream is worth exactly the same thing than a stream of rain falling on the roof”.The former YouTube exec’s comments came as he announced disappointing results for the record label, with revenues showing almost no growth year-on-year.