The 2012 inch remix: Vale 2012

Those we lost this year:

Warda Aldazairia, singer
Frank Barsalona, promoter
Eddie Blazonczyk, polka star
Dave Brubeck, jazz hero
Celso Chavez, guitarist, Possum Dixon
Dick Clark, creator and presenter of American Bandstand
Don Cornelius, creator and presenter of Soul Train
Hal David, songwriter
Carl Davis, creator, The Chicago Sound
Michael Davis, bassist, MC5
Josie DeCarlo, inspiration for Josie (and the Pussycats)
Bill Dees, songwriter
Rob Doherty, guitarist, Into Eternity
Bill Doss, tremor controller, Olivia Tremor Control
Donald Dunn, bassist, Booker T & The MGs
Jo Dunne, guitarist, We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It
Jimmy Ellis, singer, The Trammps
Robin Gibb, one of the Bee Gees
Ronald "RB" Greaves, singer
Andy Griffith, actor and country singer
Greg Ham, multi-isntrumentalist, Men At Work
Levon Helm, singer & drummer, The Band
Brian Hibbard, singer, The Flying Pickets
Paul Hickey, manager, Erasure
Whitney Houston, singer
Etta James, singer
Scott Johnson, drum tech
Mitch Lucker, singer, Suicide Solution
Davy Jones, Monkee
Peter Jones, drummer, Crowded House
John Levy, manager
Everett Lilly, mandolinist, The Lilly Brothers
Jon Lord, keyboardist, Deep Purple
Andrew Love, saxophonist, Memphis Horns
Joe Maher, Flowered Up
Thomas Marth, saxophonist
Jim Marshall, founder, Marshall's amplifiers
James McClaren, editor and music blogger
Ronnie Montrose, guitarist, Montrose
Frances Preston, CEO, BMI
Herb Reed, singer, The Platters
Christopher Reimer, guitarist, Women
Winston Riley, producer
Mike Scaccia, guitarist, Ministry & Rigor Mortis
Brian Selby, founder, Selectadisc
Tony Sly, singer, No Need For A Name
Joe South, songwriter
Donna Summer, disco hero
Stuart Swanlund, guitarist, Marshall Tucker Band
Bert Weedon, guitar hero
Bob Welch, guitarist, Fleetwood Mac
Kitty Wells, country singer
Andy Williams, singer
Adam Yauch, Beastie boy

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The 2012 inch remix: Interesting releases

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The 2012 inch remix: December

A curious Christmas-time tale: the mystery of the vanishing record company views.

Bad idea - a Justin Bieber sitcom. Badder idea - The Bank Of England revealed some people wanted Robbie Williams' face on ten pound notes. That would result in more money being burned than the KLF ever managed.

Deezer went (partially) ad-free and HMV edged towards the end.

Duff McKagan doesn't care about money, but he isn't going to give your money back. Justin Bieber's boss was upset that the Grammys ignored him.

One of Talulah Gosh won the Turner Prize. Really.

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The 2012 inch remix: November

Epic let Death Grips go after the band gave away their record. Pitbull believes we'll have to wait for him to die before we can appreciate him. And probably longer than that.

Fox News watched a fundraiser, thought it was a political advert. Mick Jagger saw an audience, saw sitting ducks to fleece. If you can fleece a duck.

The Newspaper Licencing Agency believes you should pay to quote a review. Martin Gore believes Simon Cowell should be shot. Not violently, though.

The Jimmy Savile scandal might just have done for the Top Of The Pops reruns. Radio One finally let Vernon Kay move on. Tax dodging Gary Barlow got a prize.

Avalanche Records is to close, but Arthur magazine is back.

After the Nirvana musical comes the Tim Buckley one. With added Shakespeare.

Neil Young has an iTunes killer: Pono. The BPI will understand that, although it pretended to be confounded by Google Play and tried to close down one of the many routes to the Pirate Bay they'd missed.

No Doubt didn't have a stellar comeback. But even they'd be cheered up by Coldplay going on a three year hiatus. And Noel Gallagher following them.

A long-standing popular story on No Rock ceased to be accurate, as AC/DC joined iTunes.

The 2012 inch remix: October

The New Statesman asked why the NME has so many dead people on its cover.

Getty have come up with a way of turning Soundcloud into money, Blavatnik bought into Deezer and Simon Fuller is thinking of buying the EMI cold cuts.

If we're to believe Spotify, 1 in 3 people can think of a song that's better than sex.

Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie were touring together. Well, not so much together.

Primark has become a record shop. Channel 4 is lining up a chart show. Did we slip back to 1982?

Or possibly 1952: HMV told its female staff to wear skirts.

The ideas for a Nirvana jukebox musical got aired in court. Coachella offered to drop meat if the Smiths would reform. Liam Gallagher made it through 23 minutes of a George Michael gig.

LiveNation don't want to put gigs on in Hyde Park any more. James Blunt doesn't want to make music any more.

Well done, Madonna. Go to a city still traumatised by a mass shooting in a cinema, and pretend to shoot the audience.

We can all relax, though: Kate really does love William, because Cheryl Cole is prepared to vouch for her.

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The 2012 inch remix: September

Political Scrapbook suddenly remembered Gary Barlow and Dave "Dave" Cameron's school competition, but wasn't sure if they did. NME suddenly remembered their 60th birthday was six months earlier, and had a belated celebration.

Grant Shapps' photo op saving Ringo Starr's house was a wee bit undermined when it turned out he'd signed the papers to have it demolished. Up the road, Manchester City Council blew half a million on an Alicia Keys gig.

Lady GaGa's meat dress is heading to a museum. Not the stew it would be perfect for. Brian May would rather animals be kept alive, so he called for a cultural boycott of badger cull areas.

Madonna decided to help Obama by, erm, calling him a Muslim.

You know who's lazy? Rappers, says Chuck D. You know who's disgusting? Gay people, said Paris Hilton.

Guilfest announced it was calling it a day.

Marilyn Manson got a letter from the man whose name he stole. Professor Green got gently mocked on Twitter, and so unleashed a hate mob in return.

One Direction admit they owe a debt to the Clash.

After Universal promised to flog off much of the value, the US and the EU agreed to the EMI takeover. After years, Lyor Cohen quit Warners and MySpace announced plans for another relaunch.

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The 2012 inch remix: August

Marilyn Manson drew swears on his face to "stop" the paparazzi photographing him. Madonna fell out with Elton John for some reason and a shocked world discovered U2 are an influence on Muse.

Even Lil Wayne is bored of Lil Wayne. Shaggy doesn't appear in the charts these days because the charts don't deserve him, apparently.

Simon Fox left HMV while there was still an HMV to leave.

Gibson got a piddly little fine for their part in destroying Madagascar and Newt Gingrich decided not to fight Survivor after misappropriating Eye Of The Tiger.

The person responsible for commissioning The Voice couldn't remember the winner's name. But who can? Voice judge Will I Am became the first act to have his music debuted on Mars; as a result bookmakers shortened the odds on an angry invasion of Martians.

The Jazz Butcher are making a new record. Also returning was Jaz Coleman, who didn't even realise he was missing. Slowdive could return, theoretically.

Morrissey didn't care for the Olympics. Pink made a small joke about Chris Brown, and got death threats as a result.

In Liverpool, after the Mathew Street festival was cancelled, it sounds like it might never return.

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The 2012 inch remix: July

Part of my formative years, Rounder Records in Brighton announced it was closing.

In our only pie chart of the year, we illustrated the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah split. In their attempt to cope with the deluge of music news, Drowned In Sound decided to stop trying.

Destiny's Child are going to reform. Maybe. One day. But Codeine are definitely back.

Jaz Coleman vanished rather than take part in a gig with The Mission. Al Jourgensen made it to the stage, but not through his set.

Because their old label was being a dick about things, Def Leppard covered their own music. Elsewhere, Meat Load is still pursuing a bloke who used to be a Meat Loaf lookalike.

The Bloc festival dissolved in chaos, Springsteen's Hyde Park gig was cut not-exactly-short and floods did for the Stock Aitken And Waterman show. A Slipknot gig ended when Corey Taylor had a little nap during the set.

Global Radio decided to extend their radio brands into the dying world of music video television. Headphone manufacturer Beats bought MOG for some reason. Perhaps they thought they were buying Meg And Mog?

Kate Moss turns out to not really have written the Babyshambles song she wrote. Plan B did a photoshoot wearing a Skrewdriver tshirt, but it was okay because skinheads and hoodies are the same, you see?

I'm going to assume that the Stacey Solomon 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' style sitcom Gordon Smart announced is still in development. Likewise the idea for using Chris Moyles which Radio One supposedly had.

Chumbawamba won't be getting up again.

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The 2012 inch remix: June

Which organisation made the greatest contribution to music this year? Delta Airlines, who lost Ed Sheeran's guitars.

In a bid to try and stay afloat, HMV offloaded its venues business. Plans to tour the finalists from The Voice fell apart due to lack of interest.

Briefly, Elvis' crypt was on sale. Briefly, Ringo Starr's house was saved again.

Ween split, but forgot to let each other know. Hundred Reasons split with such force, Cable got back together briefly as a result.

In the war between Morrissey and the NME, Morrissey won. In a battle between Dio and Westboro Baptist "Church", Dio won. Elsewhere, the French Front National threatened to sue Madonna over suggestions that their fascism was somehow fascist.

The Stone Roses tried to snaffle photographers' copyright.

Tesco bought We7. Samsung announced an iTunes killer which looked a lot like a fridge. Because it was a fridge. Ping did die, though.

Billy Corgan pronounced music dead, killed by the internet. Shirley Manson saw signs of life.

Usher thinks he's in with a chance of an Oscar.

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The 2012 inch remix: May

Eurovision! Go Hump! Oh... Hump.

Beyonce was recognised for her, erm, journalism while Tulisa called winning FHM's sexiest woman "self-indulgent".

Courtney Love lost Kurt Cobain's face.

Ola Ray finally got properly paid for screaming in the Thriller video. She could spend some of the money buying Michael Jackson's hair.

The RIAA are sloppy with their takedown notices and BPI attempts to close down The Pirate Bay boosted visitor numbers by millions. EMI were more successful pushing mp3tunes into bankruptcy.

ViaGoGo put their taxes in the hands of the Swiss authorities.

The BBC suggested what it might have to cut to make ends meet; the Mail raged that some of the cash they did have was spent playing Gary Glitter tracks.

Mark Ronson told Village Voice Amy Winehouse was "freaked out" by Adele's success. Only he didn't, actually. An earlier claim of misquotation, NME versus Morrissey, appeared to be heading for the High Court.

The company who served papers on the Beastie Boys the day before Adam Yauch died at least had the good grace to look a bit ashamed.

Sainsburys started selling downloads, hoping that nectar points would be an iTunes killer. (Spoiler: They're not.) Don't worry, though, Samsung are going to have a go at killing iTunes, too.

The end of Handsome Furs was announced.

And The Stone Roses came back. Oh.

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The 2012 inch remix: April

Excitingly, the bloke who claimed George Michael's street was haunted by a ghost vampire turned up in the comments to swear his story was true. Despite ghosts, vampires and George Michael all being fictional characters.

When the original One Direction objected to the Cowell outfit lifting their name, overreacting fans sent death threats. Capital Radio, though, declared One Direction dead to them after the band accidentally thanked Radio One for an award the limp commercial network had given them.

The difficulty in living during a shift between funding models is it's hard to tell if digital royalties overtaking club and pub royalties is a good thing or not. HMV decided it might have been hasty when it dumped selling vinyl.

The NME decided not to give Pete Doherty too hard a time when they met him. Meanwhile, Krissi Murison announced she was off to the Sunday Times.

Axl Rose decided not to go to the GNR Rock And Roll Hall of Fame induction. But he wanted to make sure everyone noticed. John Lydon equally drew a lot of attention to a record he didn't want anyone to buy.

Bob Geldof wanted us to know about investment opportunities. Madonna's first week album sales weren't too bad. The second week sales stank, though.

Ominously, Blur started to drop hints that their short return might extend indefinitelty. Kasabian hopefully suggested they were a bit like Radiohead.

Plan B called for disadvantaged kids to be given a chance. And then gave a hand to one of Made In Chelsea to launch a music career. Peter Andre's second career as a restaurateur, though, ran into trouble.

Sonisphere axed itself.

Joni Mitchell quit music to work for people with a rare condition and ill-health put paid to Sinead O'Connor's touring plans.

Grooveshark tried to pretend it was dropping EMI music because three major labels was more cartel-like than four. George Martin described the EMI takeover as "the worst thing music has ever faced".

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The 2012 inch remix: March

Getting Englebert Humperdinck to represent the UK at Eurovision? What could possibly go wrong?

You'd have thought Liverpudlians, of all people, would know not to expect the Las to turn up.

Ugly headphone makers Beats bought unloved music website MOG. Warner Brothers came up with a plan to allow people to visit shops to have DVDs ripped for them while Sony belatedly knocked together a digital strategy. Unfortunately, that was too late to stop Michael Jackson's back catalogue being hacked from their servers.

The story of how Gordon Smart came to claim Sarah Harding loved physics was a thing of joy and beauty; the bullying of Tulisa into apologising for being violated was less so.

Royalty agency ASCAP gives a terrible deal to smaller artists.

Jet split while Easy reformed. Had you been missing them? Josh Homme started a fight to stop Kyuss reforming and, er, undermining the name.

Boston tried to ban the mosh pit and South Korea banned children from Lady GaGa.

The NME elected Kasabian kings of the world but David Cameron prefers Thin Lizzy.

ViaGoGo carefully explained why their tout-like busines wasn't actually touting and Alex James tried to explain why the failure of Alex James' Cheesfest wasn't really down to him.

Miley Cyrus killed off God, for once and for all. God fought back by having his tiresome cheerleaders at the Westboro Baptist Church take on Radiohead.

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The 2012 inch remix: February

"It were so much better under Thatcher" sighed Noel Gallagher, who then spent much of the month issuing explanations from his castle about how people didn't understand his simplistic brand of politics.

The Decemberists were heroes forever after calling the Susan G Komen foundation on their lurch to right-wing opposition to women's health. Less wonderfully, Fifty Cent tried to flog his energy drink off the backs of the starving.


Hotpants Romance came back from hiatus, and Tim Burgess put his balls where his mouth is.

VEVO blustered after someone was spotted illegally streaming ESPN at their party. Piracy's bad, didn't you hear? After Bono refused permission to use U2's music for a project, people just worked round him, but no such luck for Now Thats What I Call Steampunk when EMI claimed to own a phrase it stole from a poster in the first place.

Channel 4 investigated dodgy secondary ticket market ViaGoGo. ViaGoGo were not happy at this. Adele won at the Brits, but not well enough to be allowed to finish her speech. Brian May was unahppy, too, because he'd not been invited to play the Jubilee.

It turned out to everyone's surprise that the real story from the death of Whitney Houston was actually about Celine Dion. It wasn't, of course; it was about how much money Sony could squeeze from the corpse.

The already tired-looking Chris Moyles started to see the Today programme challenging his position as second most listened to breakfast show. And although you could hear the cries of "stink" from space, Madonna pretended to not know what people were saying about WE.

iLike quietly closed down, and some people thought they spotted MySpace's toes moving.

NME sales fell to just below 28,000 just in time for the 60th birthday.

Somebody sent us the form you have to fill out if you want to put a gig on in Bedfordshire. It's hefty.

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The 2012 inch remix: January

David Bowie turned 65.

Briefly, the So Solid Crew were gifted new members.

Paris Hilton relaunched her music career - this time, she's going to pretend to be a DJ.

Gordon Smart reported excitedlty about the big Amy Winehouse tribute gig - he did warn it might be pay-per-view, though, so big would it be. Odd that it hasn't happened yet, especially since Gordon spent so long explaining to Lord Leveson how he got his stories and made sure they were genuine.

Rupert Murdoch-backed streaming music service Beyond Oblivion closed without a single track ever having been streamed. At the same time, the BPI had some positive figures to report but appear to have forgotten how to talk about anything other than how BAD piracy is. HMV revealed it had a terrible Christmas, and set about closing stores with a suspiciously identical lament for each of them.

Warners issued a DCMA claim that a silent video used their soundtrack.

Alan McGee offered a formal apology for having fucked up Ride's career by introducing toxic influences. Elsewhere, Kid Rock apologised for smoking in a no smoking venue.

Kelly Clarkson endorsed Ron Paul. And then did some research into him, and decided she didn't after all. Mick Jagger chose to quit rather than appear to like Cameron.

Graham Norton devoted an entire show to Madonna, but it made for a long hour.

The name which had served BRMB perfectly well for years in Birmingham was dropped. The Big Chill decided it couldn't compete with the Olympics.


The Hard Rock Cafe killed cats. At least Beyonce and Jay-Z didn't go quite that far to avoid poor parents when having their first child.

This is the first in a daily series of monthly reviews of 2012.

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The 2012 inch remix: Other people's picks

We read everyone else's picks of the year so you don't have to. Or, more honestly, we read everyone else's picks of the year so we can churn out a post without having to think much about it.

This post will continue to be updated through the next month of so.
Last updated: 30-12-12

Lest we forget: 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008

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ABC News entertainment blog's album of the year:
Regina Spektor - What We Saw From The Cheap Seats

The Age's album of the year:
Frank Ocean - Channel Orange

Billboard's Top 200 albums number one of the year:
Adele - 21

Billboard's Hot 100 number one of the year:
Gotye Featuring Kimbra - Somebody That I Used To Know

Tim Burgess' favourite album, via Twitter:
Carter Tutti Void - Transverse

CBC's worst musical moment of the year:
Meat Loaf and Mitt Romney singing God Bless America together

Clash Magazine's top album:
Bobby Womack - The Bravest Man In The Universe

Digital Spy's best single of 2012:
Carly Rae Jespen - Call Me Maybe

Female First's best albums (in no particular order):
Little Mix - DNA
Christina Aguilera - Lotus
Aiden Grimshaw - Misty Eye
Adam Lambert - Tresspassing
Rihanna - Unapologetic

The Fly's top album:
Sharon Von Etten - Tramp

Grime's favourite live act, via The Observer:
Doldrums

Highest-earning musician of 2012, via Rolling Stone:
Dr Dre [$100 million]

Lesbians In My Soup's album of the year:
Aesop Rock - Skelethon

Vincent Neff of Django Django's best live act, via The Observer:
Krar Collective

NME's albums of the year:
5. Alt-J - An Awesome Wave
4. Crystal Castles - III
3. Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
2. Grimes - Vision
1. Tame Impala - Lonerism

Kevin Parker of Tame Impala's favourite music discovery, via The Observer:
The Field

Paste Magazine's best new band:
Matthew E White (he's not actually a band, is he?)

Li Robbins' best World Music Album, via CBC:
Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars - Radio Salone

Aerrow Shapiro's best track, via KSSU:
Jack White - Sixteen Salteens

Spotify's most shared artist:
Adele

Sweeping The Nation's album of the year:
Grizzly Bear - Shields

Time's top album:
Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel Is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More than Ropes Will Ever Do

Time's top song:
Usher - Climax

The 2012 inch remix: Uberpost

It's not much now, but this will be the anchor post from which all the review of 2012 posts will hang.

The most-read pieces from 2012 were:

1. Noel Gallagher pines for the Thatcher days
2. Gordon Smart promotes the Tulisa sex tape
3. MySpace surges back... sort of
4. Brits Liveblog
5. Olympics 2012 Closing Ceremony
6. Mick Jagger endorses Boris Johnson
7. Frank Skinner thinks the Brits isn't as good as it used to be
8. Whitney Houston considered
9. Spotify announce intention to kill iTunes
10. Kanye West reckons he could be an architect

Other people's picks - a list of highlights from best of lists

Review of the year:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Vale 2012 - some of those who didn't make it through the year

Interesting releases - a few of the more interesting records of the year, but not all of them as life was too short to debug the list

Glastonbury 2012: There is no Glastonbury 2012

Odd. Not that Michael Eavis told the Mail On Sunday there would be no Glastonbury in 2012, but the reason he gave:

Michael Eavis told the Mail on Sunday that both issues were a concern. On the subject of hygiene, he said, "We realised early on that it was going to be a big problem. We have our own stock of portable toilets but we always need more. We shop around with four companies to get the best price, but we are not bothering for 2012.

"There will be a huge demand for Portaloo toilets in London, so every­one will push up their prices and I can see it getting very expensive."

But the Eavises had already announced that there would be no Glastonbury in 2012, shifting the usual fallow year back one; at the time they said it was to avoid a busy summer.

But the cost of portaloos is suddenly the reason? Seriously? Why would an event a month later push up prices for Glastonbury? Isn't the whole point of a portaloo that you take them where you need them, when you need them?

And will there really be a huge demand for portable toilets anyway? I know we're a bit rubbish in this country, but we're surely able to build stadia that have actual plumbed toilets in them?

But let's assume there is going to be some sort of manic peak in the price of portaloos a month before the Olympics, given that Glastonbury hires tonnes of the things year-in, year-out, couldn't Eavis just do a deal for five years with a locked in price? Isn't regular demand a pretty strong bargaining chip?

You could respect the idea to give Worthy Farm a rest from the churn and chunder of thousand upon a thousand wellies; why start embellishing the decision with bizarre toilet claim?

Darkness at 3AM: McFly assault the Queen

The 3AM Girls nod excitedly as McFly get over-excited about their appearance at the credit card promotional event in London yesterday:

The band kicked off the London 2012 party outside Buckingham Palace yesterday and think their singing was rather too raucous for the Queen's eardrums.

They told us: "We were so loud we were sure she was going to reach out of her window and say 'Oi, keep it down'."

Well, yes, I'd imagine if she did find herself in a position where she had to listen to you, she would be annoyed. But the level of the sound? That probably matters less than the sound itself.

... or they could get Shed Seven to play Going For Gold

That noise? That's the sound of sixty million hearts sinking as the London Olympics organising committee gets into the swing of making the nation feel embarrassed on a global scale.

The contribution we're making to the closing ceremony is Beijing is awful enough: a 1970s rock act playing while David Beckham kicks soccer balls off the back of a routemaster bus. It's like the entire inspiration for the show came by popping into a tourist gift shop off Leicester Square and scribbling notes - I wouldn't be surprised if there's a surprise element where a poorly-made beefeater wanders on, and removes his hat to show he's stuffed full of slightly stale shortbread.

Then, straight after the closing ceremony, there's this kick-start event from outside Buckingham Palace (it seems there's been a law made where all slightly shabby national celebrations have to be sited so as to annoy the Duke Of Edinburgh to the greatest effect) with Heather Small and il Divo churning through a couple of songs. Straight after. You'll move from having seen the power of a ruthless dictatorship burning through a nation's entire health budget for the next three years in the name of entertainment to Il Divo doing one of their tunes.

Still, we've got four years to prepare for the opening ceremony, right? Gordon Brown has got a few ideas:

The PM believes a line-up of rock legends such as Elton John, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones will provide a glittering celebration of Britain's talent.

A Downing Street source said: "Gordon Brown is determined to put on the biggest and best rock show the world has ever witnessed."

Of course, Gordon Brown has about as much chance of influencing the 2012 games as he does of getting to dress up as Quatchi, the yeti-esque mascot of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Actually, probably slightly less chance, as he's going to have the time free for the Vancouver Games. But even so - the Stones, Macca and Elton? Is the idea really to suggest that we've not actually created any talent since the three day week? Or is Gordon merely trying to suggest talent whose combined ages in four years time will total to 2012?