Saturday, October 31, 2015

Justin Bieber mops, then mopes

Terrible scenes from Oslo, where a Justin Bieber gig ends early after, um, fans wouldn't let him mop up some water:

Justin Bieber left fans in Oslo disappointed when he stormed off stage after performing just one song, due to a spilled water incident.

After the water was spilt, the singer bent down in an attempt at cleaning it up.

He asked fans to leave him alone, but video shows girls in the front rows filming him and grabbing at his clothes as he tried to mop the water up.
The failure to allow him to demonstrate his mopping skills frustrated wee Justin, who flounced offstage and didn't come back.

Later, he issued a statement via Instagram (Instagram!) where he looked like he might take responsibility for his actions but... well, obviously it was the fault of the people at the front:
Sadly it's Been a rough week for me, long days no sleep, while having to be "on" as they would say for cameras fans etc. In no way did I mean to come across mean, but chose to end the show as the people in the front row would not listen. Hopefully people will understand where I am coming from. I don't always handle things the right way but I'm human and I'm working on getting better at responding not reacting. Unfortunately people were affected by this as am I. For the people in the back I am so sorry and for anyone I may have disappointed im sorry. Sorry for wasting the tv people's time I'll be sure to make it up to you next time on tour.. With love Justin.
Man, all he wanted to do was mop the floor, but people wouldn't let him mop the floor. This might be the first time in history a child has thrown a tantrum because they weren't allowed to clean up their own mess.


Ed Sheeran 2.0

To be honest, if he can work out how not to fall over, George Stephanopoulos (who used to be Big Bird's imaginary friend in Sesame Street) could make a living as an Ed Sheeran tribute act. Or the other way round.


Protecting the cash cows

Lest we forget that most large-scale music enterprises are fundamentally no different from other large businesses, The Guardian explores the world of gig insurance:

The amounts of money at risk can be phenomenal. “For a stadium show, it could be anything up to two million quid,” says Enthoven. But it is not just the income from ticket sales at risk. “For an act like One Direction, they possibly make more money from merchandise than they do for the tickets,” suggests Twomey. So that has to be factored into their policies, which are often taken out at the earliest stages in planning a tour and will only run for as long as the tour lasts. “They are not annual policies, like car insurance, where you rack up year after year of no claims,” says Howell. “It is very specific to the life and health of the individual or the band members that you are insuring.”

A policy is generally worked out as a percentage of what the act will make at the end – typically 1.5%-2%, a figure that has not really changed in decades. “If more acts cancelled shows time after time, the premium rates would go up,” says Phil Middleton, general manager at ATC Management whose artists include Radiohead, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Catfish and the Bottlemen.
This suggests, then, that the number of gigs which get pulled is roughly the same as it ever was, even if the value of those cancellations has skyrocketed.

It does make you wonder, though, how the music industry hasn't managed to improve its cancellation rate over the years - it's almost as if they know what breaks musicians, but are prepared to take the risk.

And, of course, if there's ability to insure against your musician breaking, you're going to take a few more risks with them.

You might wonder whose interest the insurance is in.

[Thanks to @zaichishka]


Sunday, October 25, 2015

The iPod turns 14


I love the idea that just possibly Steve Jobs read the post and went "hey, a glorified consumer gimmicks firm... that could just work..."

But that's not all. There's also this tweet in reply to that tweet:

We already had the ability to listen to music all day before the iPod, didn't we? Unless there was some limit to how long you were allowed to have a radio switched on for, or the unspooling of a tape wasn't just a mechanical fault but a government-mandated event designed to cause a gap in music consumption.

I presume that Dick's real beef is that people listen to music with earphones - similar to one of Joe Elliott's moans. But, again, that's not exactly an invention of Apple (although you wouldn't put it past them to try and snaffle a patent on it).


This week just gone

What were you looking for? Some search terms found in our logs:

Amy Winehouse bondage
"carla bruni is being mocked mercilessly across france after having recorded arguably the most dreadful david bowie cover of all time."
whatever happened to fred durst
anmeldung charts bookmark-button fish raised
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ready brek logo
industrial disease solicitors tuebrook
i hate mumford and sons
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So remember: that's No Rock and Roll Fun for all your Ready Brek logo needs.





Last week's interesting releases:


Luke Haines - British Nuclear Bunkers


Download British Nuclear Bunkers



Alela Diane & Ryan Francesconi - Cold Moon


Download Cold Moon



!!! - As If


Download As If



Deerhunter - Fading Frontier


Download Fading Frontier



John Cooper Clarke - Anthologia


Download Anthologia



Demi Lovato - Confident


Download Confident