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Government Plans Ticket Tout Strategy [from UK
Music Week]
Tessa Jowell, the UK Government's Culture Secretary,
urged ticket agencies yesterday to sign up to a new
set of principles in an attempt to squeeze ticket
touts out of business. Speaking at a ticket touting
summit, Ms. Jowell asked promoter and ticketing companies,
including Clear Channel and DF Concerts, to follow
a four-point plan of guidelines she hopes will help
to stamp out touts.
Ms. Jowell wants ticket agencies to limit the number
of tickets that can be sold in a single transaction;
to create a blacklist of known touts and refuse them
sales; to establish a more effective returns policy;
and ban the sale tickets that a company doesn't actually
have or to an event that hasn't been formally scheduled.
Ms. Jowell said, "This is the first phase in the battle
to stamp out ticket touting. If we can stop bulk loads
of tickets getting into the hands of touts, genuine
fans will stand a better chance of getting tickets
to see their favourite band".
A Stage Star Transfers to Screen: David at the
Regal.
Thanks to a set-up in the USA whereby various concerts
can be shown on cinema screens for a limited period,
David Gilmour's live appearance at London's Mermaid
Theatre has been scheduled to run in around 100 cinemas
of the Regal chain on Tuesday 16th May.
The concert from March 7th, 2006 at London's Mermaid
Theatre was filmed in high-definition for the BBC's
Web site, and was carried there for some time. Now
the footage has been re-edited and enhanced by director
David Mallet, and the programme extended with the
inclusion of High Hopes, which wasn't originally
broadcast via the Web.
The concert showing will consist of: Castellorizon;
On An Island; The Blue; Take A Breath;
Smile; Shine On You Crazy Diamond; Wearing
The Inside Out; High Hopes; and Comfortably
Numb.
The evening's programme has been extended by the inclusion
of the full promo clip for On An Island, and
the EPK for the On An Island album. To see
details, listed by state, of the cities where the
screenings will be held, please click here.
Tickets should be on sale now; a splendid time is
guaranteed for all!
STOP PRESS: Apparently some theatres have not
yet enabled online ticketing, so please bear that
in mind and be prepared to call the theatre direct
if the link doesn't yield results.
Gilmourauders Fix Glitches Tickety-Split!
Regular readers will know that the persons lucky enough
to get advance tickets to London's Royal Albert Hall
shows via this site and Trinity Street Ltd. were concerned
about receiving them in time. Well, they have now
gone out but, through an administrative SNAFU, some
people have received 'split seats' – in other
words seats that are not together.
The good news is that Trinity Street will shortly
be contacting them to correct the arrangements and
arrange substitute seats. The wrong tickets will need
to returned to Trinity Street by MAY 12th for
resale.
So stand by your beds the following: Zach Arnold;
Joe Ashworth; Charles Beddow; Derek Brown; Volker
Ehlers; Paul Garrett; Ryan Gately; Jeffrey Gatt; Marc
Gottwerth; Michael Hagland; Frances Hansen; Stuart
Harris; Pat Kenne; Holger Kunc; Morten Larsen; Brian
Moore; Luc Peiffer; Matthew Shaw; Peter Shires; Stephanie
Sickfeld; Stephen Spiteri; Craig Stanley; John Summerhill;
and Carlos Wiesemann. Trinity Street will be in touch
soon, but (please ONLY the above) contact the Features
Editor using the secret Trinity Street password if
your case isn't dealt with promptly. Many apologies
for the inconvenience.
P.S. We have been asked to make it clear that reseating
can NOT be done on the day of the show because it
would not then be possible to re-sell the single seats.
If You Liked Leno, You'll Love the AOL Sessions.
US Performances: as reported extensively elsewhere,
David and his band performed On An Island (with
Crosby & Nash) and Wish You Were Here for The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Los Angeles on Thursday
20th April.
The David Gilmour AOL Session can be seen here.
Shot in a studio in New York on April 7th, the session
features the band in a stripped-down setting, and
none the worse for that.
As well as short interviews and behind-the-scenes
footage, the set includes On An Island, Comfortably
Numb, High Hopes, Smile, Take
A Breath, and This Heaven. Do search the
site for the extras, including comments by Richard
Wright, and a Q&A featuring an interesting titbit
(or 'tidbit' as they say in America) about David's
guitar strap.
C&N Crown a Star-Studded Jools Lineup
Come on you Reds! (The Features Editor made me write
that – don't know why...)
Meanwhile, the Webmasters had a well-earned jaunt
to LA, where they saw not only the Kodak AND Gibson
shows, but also The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
performance – the lucky so-and-sos.
They're back at their desks now, so we can rack up
the news, starting with details of a UK TV show for
a change.
It's Later...with Jools Holland as revealed
by the Features Ed, and it will feature David plus
the whole band AND David Crosby & Graham Nash, who
will perform On An Island with David, and their
own material in their own spot. We don't know yet
what David's other song will be, but also featured
in the show, which promises to be a beezer bonanza,
are The Streets. Transmission date is Friday 26th
May on BBC2 at some ungodly hour.
Don't forget the AOL Session on April 21st.
Following on from the XM Satellite Radio session,
and this time with the full touring band, the David
Gilmour AOL Session was also taped in New
York.
Broadcast on Friday 21st April, the set list includes
On An Island/This Heaven/Take A Breath/Smile/High
Hopes, and Comfortably Numb. It can't be
the full in-concert experience, but it can get close
if you plug your computer into a full 5.1 Surround
Sound system, wait till the neighbours are out, and
crank up the volume. (Make sure you also invite a
few friends who haven't heard On An Island
so they talk all the way through those tracks, then
hand them all 6-packs and disposable cameras for High
Hopes and Comfortably Numb so they can
whoop, holler and burp in your ear in the quiet parts,
then flash lights in your face. Hey...it's not ballet,
man!)
You'll Wish You Were There: Royal Albert Hall concerts
filmed for DVD.
At last the news that many have wished for –
David has confirmed plans to film two of the UK tour
dates at London's Royal Albert Hall for release on
DVD. The nights of May 29 and 30 will be the ones
to watch, when the show that has been stunning audiences
on two continents finally comes to London.
Director will be David Mallet, who directed David
Gilmour In Concert from London's Royal Festival
Hall, and has been long associated with David. David
Mallet's long and varied track record includes shows
and performances by Queen, Pink Floyd's P.U.L.S.E,
The Three Tenors, Cirque du Soleil,
U2 Popmart, AC/DC Live at Donington,
and many more.
As ardent fans will know, some special guests (including
Sam Brown, David Crosby and Graham Nash) have dropped
in to perform songs with David in the course of the
tour, and it is possible that some guests may be added
to the bill at the Royal Albert Hall. However, nothing
has been confirmed yet, but as soon as it is, it will
be announced here.
David and Richard Take a Trip Down Memory Layne
The David Gilmour tour continues to surprise audiences
with changes to the setlist. In addition to starting
the show with Breathe followed by Time
and Breathe (reprise), David and his band gave
Oakland, California, a welcome return to yesteryear
with a performance of Arnold Layne featuring
Richard Wright on vocals. The song, written by Syd
Barrett, was Pink Floyd's first UK hit, charting in
March 1967 and peaking at Number 20. Pink Floyd themselves
haven't played the song live since around 1969, so
it couldn't have been more unexpected for the crowds
at Oakland's Paramount Theatre last night.
XM Sessions – A Few More Details
While in New York, David undertook a session for XM
Satellite Radio in a low-key presentation similar
to his appearance on the UK's Jonathan Ross radio
show.
In front of a small audience, David and Phil Manzanera
answered questions and played songs on acoustic guitars.
It was more of a discussion than a performance, since
in an hour they played only Smile and Where
We Start, but there was a wide-ranging dialogue,
including a mention of the carbon-neutral status of
On An Island, apparently the first time this
has been done for an album in the US. The idea is
that by contributing a sum for each CD manufactured,
the artist goes some way towards erasing the carbon
footprint of the cost of pressing and distributing
each CD.
We don't yet have a broadcast date from XM for the
special, but will advise when we do.
Leno? No Problemo!
If you check in to The
Blog right now, you'll agree that we have
brokered a real deal with the Leno people to get some
of our most ardent bloggers into the recording of
David's appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay
Leno on Thursday 20th April. We stress that it's
the outside stage, so you just get to see David do
his thing, but it's in beautiful downtown Burbank
on Thursday afternoon, so if you're going to the Gibson
Amphitheatre show, you can use Leno as an aperitif.
For those of you not on the West Coast, please tune
in to the show anyway and boost the ratings for David's
appearance.
Platinum Beats Gold!
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Not content
with gaining Gold at the Curling, Canada leads
the world in On An Island certifications.
Only five weeks into the album's release and
they're already Platinum for sales of over 100,000
units in Canada, topping the Gold status of
the album in the UK, Germany, Italy, Poland,
New Zealand, The Czech Republic, and (unofficially)
Norway.
The top brass of Sony BMG Canada handed over
the precious metal plaque before tonight's Massey
Hall show, which should guarantee an Olympian
performance from the touring team. |
Top tips from the Web re: Platinum
– Platinum is rare, 'the coveted treasure
of discerning individuals', says Google. There is
very little platinum on this earth and it is found
in very few places around the world. This exquisite
metal is 30 times rarer than gold. In fact, it is
estimated that if all the platinum in the world were
poured into one Olympic swimming pool it would be
scarcely deep enough to cover your ankles, whereas
gold would fill more than three pools.
DG on Web and Screen!
In the continuing cause of bringing the excellence
of On An Island to the nation's callow, baseball-cap
wearing, baggy trouser-toting youth, David Gilmour
and his band have recorded an AOL Session in
New York while in town. A stripped-down version of
the live show, the sessions are designed for the Internet,
so concentrate on the music, eschewing flashy gimmicks.
Having said that, the genius of Marc Brickman was
involved, so expect it to be a lesson in tasteful
class, nonetheless.
The session taped on Friday 7th, and should go live
on April 21st. Catch it, and other sessions,
here.
And we're pleased to announce that John Logie Baird*'s
good old steam-driven lo-tech tube vision will ALSO
feature David and our plucky lads – they have
a booking for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
on April 20th! Please ask any of your friends who
haven't yet bought On An Island to tune in
(and set the video/digital recorder yourself, of course).
* German student Paul Nipkow proposed
and patented the first electromechanical television
system in 1885, and his spinning disc design is credited
with being the first television image rasterizer.
Constantin Perskyi coined the word television in a
paper read to the International Electricity Congress
at the International World Fair in Paris on August
25, 1900, but Logie Baird achieved the first transmission
of live, moving, half-tone images on October 2, 1925.
New 'Stuff' on Site
Sharp-eyed readers of this site will have noticed
a new area (look up there to the right) which has
been a while in the planning, but hopefully will be
long-running. The idea of the Stuff
& Nonsense area is to be able to mention opportunities
for various things to buy, ponder, or ignore, if that's
your response.
If you live in North America, that's the place to
find the merchandise, which is available at the shows.
There will also be merchandise available by mail order
for the UK & Europe, which will include a slightly
different range, and the link should be live on site
in the next few days. We are planning to add various
shots from the tour as we go. Some photos of the European
dates are there now, while we have been promised some
of the amazing New York Radio City Music Hall shows,
featuring Marc Brickman's magical lasers.
It should also give us the opportunity to expand on
some of the many themes highlighted by the daily discussion
on The
Blog – hopefully some utterly irrelevant
rambles too.
Look out for the fractured world of the Stuff & Nonsense
Editor coming soon...
News from Germany – Pure Gold
Great news from Germany – On An Island
has gone Gold there, joining the UK, Italy, the Czech
Republic, New Zealand, and Poland! The album is holding
up in the charts (No. 15 – see full charts below),
and to coincide, EMI Germany has announced a TV showing
of David Gilmour In Concert on WDR2
on Monday 17th April.
Meanwhile, Sony BMG in Canada is doing so well with
the album, it's on the brink of Platinum. Look
for disc presentations in the papers soon.
This Week's Charts
A continued strong showing for On An Island
in the European Album Charts, with the album cracking
the Top 5 in Finland and the Top 15 in France. On
An Island has a delayed release on May 10 in Brazil,
and has only just become available in Japan.
Argentina – No. 3
Australia – No. 23
Austria – No. 12
Belgium – No. 5
(Brazil – released May 10)
Canada – No. 4
Czech Republic – No. 4
Denmark – No. 7
Finland – No. 4
France – No. 14
Germany – No. 15
Greece – No. 18
Holland – No. 5
Hong Kong – No. 7
Italy – No. 3
Japan – No. 32
Mexico – No. 29
New Zealand – No. 7
Norway – No. 6
Poland – No. 3
Portugal – No. 17
Sweden – No. 16
Switzerland – No. 16
UK – No. 14
Crosby, Gils & Nash get the 'Freedom' of NY
The US leg of the On An Island tour opened
in a spectacular fashion, with special guests David
Crosby and Graham Nash bringing the house down at
Radio City Music Hall. As you can imagine the show
was very special (see The
Blog today for the full setlist), but the
addition of Crosby & Nash took the musicianship to
new heights. Rapturously received by the rabid NY
audience, David and Graham added their mellifluous
trademark harmonies to not only the On An Island
title track, but also The Blue, and even Shine
On You Crazy Diamond.
As if that weren't enough, they stunned the already
delirious hordes by returning to the stage one final
time in the encores, in between Wish You Were Here
and Comfortably Numb. They performed Find
The Cost Of Freedom, acappella with David Gilmour,
on the first live occasion ever as the three of them.
Find The Cost Of Freedom is a Stephen Stills
composition, best-known for its inclusion on Crosby
Stills Nash & Young's 2-LP live set Four-Way Street.
Let's hope it won't be the last live airing from the
new three kings of harmony.
The other new addition to a show packed full of highlights
was the introduction of lasers, added by lighting
maestro Marc Brickman, and used in a sparing but completely
entrancing way, sparking the inevitable forest of
mobile phone cameras. Expect to see a blurry rendition
of this inspiring visual extravaganza on a PC monitor
close to you soon...
New York News – A Brace of Singles
In the US, the single of On An Island continues
to do well at the Classic rock radio format, with
some stations still just adding it. Our colleagues
at Sony BMG US are just entering Phase 2 of the On
An Island campaign, however, and to coincide with
David's North American dates, they are planning to
unleash not one, but two separate singles to radio.
Edits have been done for both Take A Breath
and This Heaven and they will be worked to
different radio formats in the US – Take A
Breath to Classic Rock, and This Heaven
to AAA (whatever that is).
In Europe, as stated below, the single will be Smile,
while we await decisions re: the rest of the world.
JFK saw Gilmourmania at the weekend when David and
his family were besieged at the airport by a horde
of fans demanding autographs (how did they find out?).
It has to be said that they were a little demanding,
so please, if you see David out and around in the
US, please: be respectful of his family; and, be polite
and considerate. You know it makes sense...
Another Smile
If you guessed the story below was an April Fool spoof,
you were right; but there's nothing false about the
news on David's next single. It will be Smile
in the UK & Europe, available as a 3-track commercial
single and downloads. Lead track will be an edit of
the album version, and bonus tracks will include the
commercial release of Island Jam, so there
will be no more need to plead with friends to check
out the shelves of the US Best Buy chain.
The animator who worked on the TV ad for On An
Island (see it on the On
An Island page), has developed the animated
Wireman, to incorporate him into the clip for
Island Jam. You will be able to see a new version
of the clip around the single release, which is in
May to coincide with David's UK tour.
Super Group in Secret Talks!
Exclusive to this site. Talks are believed
to be at an advanced stage about the proposed combining
of major talents on a new artistic project. Names
understood to be connected with the new combo are:
Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell – bass; Rat Scabies
– drums; Jim Corr – keyboards; John Otway
– guitar; and David Gilmour (sax).
Entitled 'The Great Simulacrum', the new group intends
to do no rehearsing, writing, recording, or personal
appearances, but have already signed to Regal Zonophone
for a rumoured one million Lire.
A spokesman said, "We're taking the idea of conceptual
bands like Gorillaz a step further. This will be a
virtual group in which the lack of a physical entity
means every fan can project their own thoughts on
to the performances. That way no-one's disappointed".
A double-DVD of air filmed in high-definition will
be rush-released in time for Christmas 2007, or 2008.
A bonus disc of extras will include footage of grief
and joy.
Not everybody was excited about the new one-off lineup
though. A fan known only as 'Claude' from Montreal
said, "It's a rip-off! Everybody knows Jim Corr's
better on guitar...and where are the backing singers?" |
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