Rudd charged with attempting to get men killed

Sometimes, Google answers its own questions:

Rock or bust? It's a bust.

ABC News has as much detail as we're allowed to know:

The drummer of Australian rock band AC/DC, Phil Rudd, has been been bailed after being charged with trying to procure the murder of two people in New Zealand.

The 60-year-old was also charged with threatening to kill and possession of methamphetamine and cannabis.

Rudd was arrested at his Tauranga home this morning and appeared in Tauranga District Court this afternoon.

In court, a judge ordered that the names of his alleged victims and that of the alleged hitman be suppressed.

There's a potential ten year sentence, should Rudd be convicted.

AC/DC give in; join the modern world

If you read the round-ups of what's popular on the site, you'll know a perennial favourite item is AC/DC's firm holdout against iTunes:

“We don’t make singles, we make albums,” [Angus Young] told the Telegraph. “We believe the songs on any of our albums belong together. If we were on iTunes, we know a certain percentage of people would only download two or three songs from the album. We don’t think that represents us musically.”

Apparently, they've had a bit of a rethink. Look at the front page of their website:

That's not just a sly, quiet recanting. That's a proud, pounding reverse. Not simply eating their words, but ordering a big plate of seconds and eating those words too.

To an outsider, it might look like they've achieved nothing by not being on iTunes for the last half-decade other than missing out on a half-decade of sales (albeit of individual songs rather than albums.)

But why now? What has made them change their mind? Apple hasn't shifted. I guess that there's only a couple of weeks until the current release of iTunes is replaced by the new one and...

ohmygod - that's it, isn't it?

AC/DC were just waiting for iTunes to go up to 11.

Raising a glass to AC/DC

You'll recall AC/DC's argument about not going on iTunes because it focuses on singles and doesn't represent them musically.

A clear stance, one which might be wrong, but at least admirable.

Oddly, though, the band seems quite happy that bottles of wine named after their singles does "represent them musically".

So, AC/DC fans - you can't just buy the singles you want. Unlesss you buy them in the form of wine.

Megadeath visit the graveyard

This is so awful, it's compelling. Megadeath's David Ellefson "pays tribute" to Bon Scott by wandering round his grave like it's MTV Cribs, before losing interest and yakking on about Crocodile Dundee's hat instead.



Some by-the-numbers Australian cliches? That's what Bon would have wanted, right?

AC/DC might stay off iTunes, but not off the drugs

I suspect that the Daily Mail's analysis of the effects of Phil Rudd'd conviction for cannabis possession might be slightly off.

The Mail says:

AC/DC drummer convicted on minor cannabis charge that could put a world tour in jeopardy

I suspect it's more Rudd's participation in the tour which is in jeopardy rather than the tour itself. Would a multi-squillion pound tour really be axed because the drummer hid some blow on his yacht?

Gordon in the morning: Cable news

Steel yourself before embarking on Gordon's queasy 'it's what he would have wanted' piece on the death of Stuart Cable this morning:

TRAGIC STUART CABLE died after a huge drinking binge - in an eerie copy of his AC/DC idol's fate.
The former STEREOPHONICS drummer had been on a bender lasting THREE WEEKS to mark his 40th birthday, pals revealed yesterday.

And he apparently choked to death on his vomit - exactly as his hellraising hero BON SCOTT did 30 years ago.

Who wouldn't want to die in exactly the same way as their hero, right?

To make it even more ghoulish, the AC/DC tribute band who played at Cable's birthday are dragged in to plump the idea that this was some sort of Twilight Zone tribute death:

Last night shocked Bons Balls drummer KEV SMITH said: "It was a brilliant gig. Stuart was fantastic fun. He got up and drummed with us, which was amazing.

"He idolised Bon Scott, who was his absolute hero. Stuart said he was Scott's reincarnation - that they could have been twins.

"For him to have choked to death, just as Scott did - well, it sends a shiver down my spine. It's spooky."

Isn't a young man dying in a horrible way enough? Do we really need to try and find a wacky, Fortean Times 'angle'?

If Gordon really wanted to write something about Cable's death, perhaps he could try coming up with something which squares his own encouragement of people to over-indulge - the infamous Caner Of The Year prize and the fawning over those who photographed falling over - with the actual consequences of where that can lead. But that might be a bit too based in reality.

Gennaro Castaldo Watch: Face/Off

In the history of post-Blur/Oasis limp chart battles, this one is the lettuce left out a month in the hot sun: Weller versus, erm, AC-DC. It's such a non-event, it falls to the Skegness Standard to document what is essentially 'two totally different acts release albums on the same day, which, frankly, happens every Monday, and one of them will, normally, outsell the other'.

Nobody is going to bother to offer an opinion on such a story, are they?

Nobody, that is, save for Gennaro Castaldo - he can't hear the word 'chartbattle' without saying 'yes, that is a proper word, and I have some insight to add'. Although even he struggles:

Gennaro Castaldo of retailer HMV said: "With so many new acts about these days, there aren't as many classic chart face-offs as we've seen in the past. And it's certainly rare to see such iconic 'heritage' artists battling it out for the No 1 album spot in what might be dubbed a bit of a mods versus rockers contest.

"Ultimately, however, the thing that's most important is that, while both acts have very dedicated followings, their music is now being picked up and enjoyed by a whole new generation of fans."

"... there are no losers, everyone will have prizes, and it's the taking part that matters. Play up, play up and play the game!" he concluded, before asking the headmaster to grant a half day's holiday.

Seriously, Gennaro: Mods versus rockers? Despite Weller now being more rocky than poorly-loaded sheep wagon cornering on a slippery hillside, and AC-DC being a metal act? It's more like 'mid-life crisis versus unpaid tax demand', isn't it?

AC-DC power up the Iron Man franchise

Putting AC-DC on a big, ballsy action movie soundtrack? Yes, that makes some sort of sense. In fact, it makes so much sense that it barely requires any further explanation.

But that won't keep marketing people in work, so they've decided to offer an explanation anyway. Blockbuster Buzz captures the whiff of the flip-chart:

Through this relationship, the band is delivering fans supercharged Iron Man branded music through all our combined consumer touch points, from the movie to retail outlets and even virally with the debut of the new video

They're on a Highway To Hell. Albeit a highway with a full service area, complete with a Costa Coffee and KFC, every ten miles.

AC/DC: Rolling in it

Which Australian entertainers make the most money? Well, yes, the headline on this post might give it away a little: AC/DC have taken back the top spot from, erm, The Wiggles.

The Age reckon that the ninefold increase in AC/DC fortunes might be down to it being grim for the rest of us:

Some of AC/DC’s hits over the years have coincided with the depths of the economic cycle, such as their successes during the recessions of the 1970s and 1980s. The band released its Black Ice album in October last year just as governments around the world rushed out emergency spending to avert a financial meltdown. The band’s contribution was to embark on a 17-month world tour.

I'm not entirely sure that the band were interested in bailing out anyone but themselves, but it's an interesting idea. Why waste all that money on complex computer models to predict the economy, when all you need to do to spot a downturn is ask Angus Young's tailor if he's letting out the waist on the schoolboy shorts again.

Gordon in the morning: National pride

The BPI's press release trumpeting that the UK has a small but growing market share in US recorded music sees Gordon coming over all proud:

Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the airwaves...

Yes. Really.

AMERICA is in the grip of a second British invasion.

Third, if you count the time we stole large swathes of the land, killed all the buffalo and then killed most of the people who lived there.

New data from the British Phonographic Industry shows British acts’ sales have surged in the past year, making us punch far above our modest size in the huge market.

Really? Surged, you say?

UK acts now account for a whopping one in ten records sold in North America.

Oh, yes - that's more than French acts, German acts, Dutch, Eritrean and Gabonese acts put together.

But since the UK population is one-fifth the size of that of the UK, surely selling one-tenth the number of records is actually punching below our weight? Especially when you consider that we have the advantage of a shared language, and the major companies selling recorded music are the same both sides of the Atlantic.

Still, tell us about the surge:

And 2008 saw our share of the multi-billion-dollar American scene leap 1.5 per cent.

So, for every £100 worth of records we sold in 2007, we're now selling £101.50 worth?

That's not really a surge, is it? That's an upwards trickle.

And it does also mean you have to pretend that all of AC-DC is a UK act to make the figures work.

And it's not really even £101.50 records to every £100, as none of this takes account of the fall in the value of the US market.

Still, "British artists sales fall less quickly than US artists" isn't the sort of headline you'd whip out the Union Jack bunting for, is it?

Gordon, meanwhile, is cross because the numbers don't exist to prove that Leona Lewis and Coldplay are better than The Beatles and The Stones:

No reliable sales data was produced at the time, but my insider at the BPI tells me they suspect today’s artists have had a bigger impact.

His "insider" at the BPI, that would be. Yes, the BPI - the body which is paid by the major labels to make them look good - is apparently leaking details which make the major labels look good (if you don't think about it). Gordon, it's fine to actually gather news from people who want to be quoted.

So, secret strictly off-the-record briefing insider, tell us more:

The source said: “It’s frustrating because the US recording industry has not kept the correct data from the time to prove it conclusively.

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“But we’re certain British pop music is having more of an impact in America now than it has ever done.

“It’s a huge feat to get to ten per cent because the US record-buying public are notoriously insular in their tastes and often resistant to imports.”

Actually, given that the British music industry are allowing quotes to appear in the UK press effectively telling Americans that they stick to their own, maybe there was good reason for not revealing names. Really, BPI, you think that's the way to talk about your biggest overseas market?

It's not even true, is it? Not especially, and certainly not amongst Americans who buy lots of music.

Still, there is tiny evidence of a Bizarre Invasion into the US - some old tat about Mel Gibson's marriage is, I think, Pete Samson's first major appearance on Bizarre since he quit being Gordon's deputy in favour of the plush Sun US editor's job.

Gordon in the morning: Classy

More this morning from Gordon as he desperately tries to kindle something out of Amy Winehouse being on holiday in the same place as Josh Bowman:

AMY WINEHOUSE serenaded the new man in her life in an impromptu performance in a Caribbean hotel bar yesterday.

She seranaded him, did she?

Clean-cut JOSH BOWMAN and Amy’s pal BLAKE WOOD were among 25 guests there as she belted out hits on the piano.

Ah, so she sang a song to two dozen people, one of whom was him. Or perhaps she was seranading all 25 of them? Perhaps she's going to go out with all of them, eh, Gordon?

The article does mark some sort of new low for the column:

As you can see, Amy is looking better than she has in ages.

So come on lads – the healthier Amy Winehouse. Would you? Email me yes or no and I’ll print your verdict tomorrow.

It's hard to believe that Murdoch hasn't adopted 'would you fuck this woman' as a feature across his mighty news organisation - it'd sit well in the Wall Street Journal and in the longueurs overnight on Fox News. Perhaps tomorrow Gordon might like to ask the same question about his editor Rebekah Wade. Or maybe his own wife.

Still, it's not that Gordon is any stranger to controversy: his attempt to claim AC/DC are British rather than Australian has upset just enough people to make him feel all excited:

CLAIMING AC/DC for the UK yesterday hasn’t gone down too well Down Under.
[...]
My message board on MySun has been bombarded by overseas readers venting their spleens.

Bombarded, you say? There's, erm, eleven comments on the story. Oh, and half of those are about Coldplay and not about AC/DC at all. And actually only two comments of the eleven take issue with Smart's claim that two Scottish-born and a Geordie makes the band more UK than Oz. Is the Sun's infrastructure really so poor that two posts counts as "bombardment"?

AC-DC excel themselves

The tie-up with Wal-Mart might be lucrative, but it's hardly impressive. However, you can't help but be impressed with the band's boundary-breaking Exel-based music video:

Survey reports pirates in retreat

Well, it's all over for the illegal music stealing guys, then: Entertainment Media Research's Digital Music Survey has just reported and it's good news for the music industry:

"Despite the ubiquity of free music, there's a real willingness by consumers to pay for music products if the package is right," said Alexander Ross, music partner at the media law firm Wiggin, which co-authored the study. The optimistic verdict contrasts with last year's survey, which warned that illegal downloading was at an all-time high and set to rise further.

The survey - a poll of 1,500 British consumers - found that online piracy fell by 10% this year, attributing this partly to more aggressive noises from internet service providers, which agreed this year to send warning letters to customers suspected of illegal file sharing.

Ah - so the good news is based on a survey which has found a fall in 'online piracy' (what do you mean by that, exactly?), the same survey which in 2007 confidently predicted that this year we'd be seeing a record high this time round. I'm having trouble deciding exactly how much credence you give to a research company whose headline point is that it's found out it was wrong last year.

The EMR doesn't seem to have thought through that perhaps the "more aggressive noises" from ISPs might not have reduced the level of beyond-copyright activity, but might make consumers 10% less willing than they were last year to tell a complete stranger what they've been up to. Nor does there seem to be any consideration of how the 'three strikes and we'll tut-tut' rule would have had such a deep effect across 2008 as a whole when it's barely got going.

Still, nice to hear someone telling the music industry that - if the paid-for offering is right, people will pay for things. If only, you know, the entire blogging world had thought of directing that thought to the RIAA-BPI for the last ten years, huh?

Actually, what sort of news is it to report that your survey has discovered that if you offer people something they want, at a price they're prepared to pay, they will make a purchase? If this is news, shouldn't the BBC News Channel clear the airwaves to carry GCSE Economics lessons round the clock?

Even more dodgy is the report's decision that music videos are the future:

The report also pointed to the popularity of music videos on YouTube as a further reason for optimism. YouTube plans to develop e-commerce opportunities that would allow people to buy music directly after viewing videos.

"The music video is now more influential than ever and has become the industry's trump card for engaging consumers and creating that long-term emotional connection required for monetisation," said Russell Hart, chief executive of Entertainment Media Research. "It is now the vital component in music marketing."

Don't you love it when someone creates some content that will allow them to monetise your long-term emotional connection, people? Thank god someone is working on how to make cash from those feelings of love, sexual arousal and that sweet, miserable joy when an artists captures your pain.

But is the video really the answer? Is Hart telling us that we can't actually form an emotional attachment to a piece of music unless there's a man in a bear costume riding a bike through a snowstorm or something else for us to gawk at while it's playing? Who did they carry their survey out on - shellshocked six year olds?

And Hart seems to have missed that the link to buy music on YouTube is less because the video is where the money is, and more down to the miserable experience Google are having trying to make some advertising dollars out of all this video content. A really compelling video will make people want to watch more videos, not head off to do some shopping.

Still, great to hear EMR confirm that the era of mass musical piracy is at an end. Good research work, people. Everyone take a... what? What's that, NME.com?

AC/DC album downloaded 400,000 times despite no digital release

'Black Ice' proving popular online

Oh...

AC/DC remain off iTunes

AC/DC have reiterated that they're not going nowhere near that iTunes thing, because it lets customers buy tracks they want without taking any padding:

“We don’t make singles, we make albums,” [Angus Young] told the Telegraph. “We believe the songs on any of our albums belong together. If we were on iTunes, we know a certain percentage of people would only download two or three songs from the album. We don’t think that represents us musically.”

Young added that despite pressure from industry figures to make AC/DC’s songs available on iTunes, he didn’t believe that being part of the site was crucial to success.

“Since iTunes came into existence, we’ve actually increased our back catalogue sales without being on the site,” he said. “We were sternly warned by our management team and our record label that the complete opposite would be the case.”

Angus misses the point that it's not that you can't sell more records than previously without being on iTunes, but that you won't sell as many tracks as you would otherwise have done without being there. Not being in Tesco doesn't mean that your bread won't sell, but you're going to be missing out on potential customers.

It might make some sense if there was point to be made, but what are AC/DC saying? Why is it more noble to force your fans to buy tracks they don't want on the grounds that you're making albums to fit the arbitrary length of a twelve inch disc rotating at the speed of one hundred turns every three minutes?

AC/DC kicks out the punks

A press release - which, if it had hands, we just know would be making cutsey little devil horns - arrives, trumpeting US satellite radio's embrace of AC/DC:

AC/DC Radio will air AC/DC music 24/7, including classic rock recordings such as “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You),” “You Shook Me All Night Long,” and “Back in Black” as well as new songs from their Brendan O’Brien produced album, Black Ice (Columbia). The channel will also feature AC/DC band members Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams, Brian Johnson and Phil Rudd describing their singular rock & roll career spanning more than 30 years and sharing their personal insights into their music.

All good, harmless fun?

Well, perhaps - except the bandwidth has only been freed up for this service by XM and Sirius axing their punk stations. So AC/DC - who, let us not forget, are now endorsed by department store fashion departments - are helping to make satellite a more conservative place than ever before.

Sirius is suggesting that punk fans tune to the Extreme Sports network instead, where they might hear the occasional tune that would be considered punk by the sort of people who consider snowboarding extreme.

"I was a problem child who became a night prowler on the highway to hell..."

Yes, we fear it's now unstoppable: AC/DC: The Musical.

It sounds like the sort of idea which will manage to turn off both hardcore fans and lovers of musical theatre; only the credit crunch can save us now.

Isn't this mentioned in Revelations?

Not that Shakira's live show is sluggish and has "dirty" vocals, but that a lady emerges from under a giant snake and covers AC-DC?