L’année de toutes les ambitions

L’année de toutes les ambitions
Kathleen Lavoie / Le Soleil

(...)

Pour notre rédaction, la dernière année a débuté avec un projet majeur, celui de rendre hommage, à la veille des premières du Projet Andersen et de 1984, à l’artiste de Québec le plus célébré sur la scène internationale, Robert Lepage. Si le metteur en scène, dramaturge et acteur n’est pas musicien, toute sa création théâtrale, elle, est influencée par la musique, notamment celle de l’ami proche qu’est Peter Gabriel. Ce dernier, heureux de saluer son complice dans le crime, nous offrait alors une entrevue exclusive où il révélait les liens qui les unissent et sa passion pour la capitale, qu’il visite bien plus souvent qu’on ne le pense... Une discussion mémorable que cette journaliste n’est pas près d’oublier ! (...)

On the air

Tony Levin in the St Petersburg Times :

“I laugh to think that at the end of Peter Gabriel’s song ‘On the Air,’ I played a strong bass line, borrowed from a Shostakovich symphony. I don’t think many people in live audiences through the years noticed that, but probably the listeners in Russia would be aware of it. Hey, maybe we will do that song!”

Imagine there's no labels

1/29/2004 10:52:04 AM by Eric Bangeman

Veteran rockers Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno are launching MUDDA (Magnificent Union of Digitally Downloading Artists), an enterprise that will assist musicians in selling music directly to consumers, bypassing the record companies. With the Internet transforming how people buy and listen to songs, musicians need to act now to claim digital music's future both Gabriel and Eno argued at a at the annual Midem music conference.

"Unless artists quickly grasp the possibilities that are available to them, then the rules will get written, and they'll get written without much input from artists," said Eno. "There are some artists who already tried to do everything on their own," said Gabriel, adding that those musicians often found out they didn't like marketing or accounting. " We believe there will be all sorts of models for this."

Having been in and around the music business myself for over 35 years, there is the very distinct possibility that MUDDA or a similar endeavor could change the basic fabric of the music business. Artists have for decades complained that they lose all of their rights to content, style, copyrights and revenues by signing contracts with recording companies. Most musicians sign recording contract because they have little ability or skill in distributing or marketing their works. The Internet allows musicians a shot at levelling the playing field by being able to reach a wide audience and to sell their music without a third or fourth party taking a piece of the pie.

Gabriel is co-founder of a European company, On Demand Distribution, which runs legal downloads sites in 11 European countries. Their company would provide the technology for MUDDA, though Gabriel and Eno are looking for online partners. Europe's sites haven't caught up to the success of the U.S. portals. Apple's iTunes is planning a European launch this year, which is expected to build interest in legal downloading in a market where many people don't realize there's even such a service.

Personally, all of this makes me want to get back in the studio; I learned to hate A&R (Artist and Repertoire) guys while trying to make records years ago. Write-up by Bob "waterdoctor" Norcross

Geldof's year

2005 was supposed to be the year of Africa. Tony Blair committed Britain to ambitious targets on aid and debt relief. Museums staged major exhibitions dedicated to the continent's art. And one of the biggest popular movements ever - spurred on by a very big pop concert - called on eight world leaders in a Scottish hotel to make poverty history. But what, in the end, did it all achieve? Bob Geldof looks back on a year of 'world-saving bollocks' and argues that whatever his critics say, we really did change things (...)

Bob Geldof :

When I invited my righteously indignant critics to create an event to their liking, in say Regent's Park, and offered to incorporate it into Live8, answer came there none. Indeed, when Peter Gabriel suggested we adopt his Eden Project World Music gig in Cornwall I readily agreed.

Unfortunately, my point is borne out by the fact that 3 million were live spectators to Live8; there were 2,000 in Cornwall. More than 3 billion watched Live8; few saw or watched bits of Cornwall. The Live Aid and Live8 DVDs are the biggest and fastest-selling DVDs ever, now totalling millions of sales; Cornwall has sold a few thousand. That is not to be smug, triumphant or condescending; it is simply to make the point behind my cold, pragmatic thinking around what Live8 was for. If those critics promote an African concert in the future, I wish them well - and can I have some free tickets? But Live8 wasn't and could never be about that. (...)

Rock landmark at risk of becoming boomtown flats

By Steve Bird / The Times

ONE of Liverpool’s cultural landmarks is under threat from the city’s selection as European City of Culture. Parr Street Studio, a converted 19th-century warehouse that helped to create the Britpop movement and where Coldplay, Pulp, the Stereophonics and the Charlatans recorded, may be converted into flats.

The threat comes from an earlier generation of rock stars, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks of Genesis, who have applied for a conversion to 41 luxury flats worth millions to profit from the property boom generated by Liverpool’s status as the 2008 City of Culture.

For the past 12 years the three-studio complex, the largest in the city and the biggest outside London, has been used by Diana Ross, Feeder, the Beautiful South, Teenage Fanclub and Embrace. Other artists and groups to have recorded there include Barry Manilow, Sleeper, Björk, Simply Red and Take That.

Ken Nelson, a music producer who has won three Grammy awards during his time at Parr Street after working on Coldplay’s hit albums Parachutes and A Rush of Blood to the Head, said: “To lose the studios would be a great shame.” He added that if the studios closed, musicians would have no reason to come to Liverpool to record. The city’s rock heritage has helped to increase visitor numbers, and many music tours, which centre on the Cavern Club, where the Beatles played, include Parr Street.

Thomas Laing, a singer and producer who made the video that helped Liverpool to become City of Culture, said that he wanted to meet Collins to try to persuade him to abandon the plans to scrap the studio. “We don’t have the power to stop them selling the building to a developer,” he said. “There is a huge gulf between us and him and his group, he may not even know what is being proposed for the studio.”

Warren Bradley, Liverpool City Council’s executive member for culture, said: “The loss of Parr Street would be desperately sad. In my opinion the city centre does not need any more developments of flats. I want these creative people to continue to come to Liverpool and if the worst comes to the worst we must do our best to help to relocate people.”

The value of Parr Street has risen with two redevelopments in the area, a £750 million project by the Duke of Westminster and another called Ropewalks. Speculators have been buying old warehouses near the docks. The planning application has been postponed until councillors have visited the site, which could be worth £1.5 million. A spokesman for Collins’s property company, Hit and Run, said it was in disrepair and much of it was not used.

FOR THE RECORD - THE BEST OF BRITISH

Beatles fans still make the pilgrimage to the Abbey Road studios in St John’s Wood, North London, to walk over the zebra crossing on the Abbey Road album cover. The studios still exist

Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, in Box, near Bath, has been used by stars that include Kylie Minogue

Britannia Row, London, was first used by Pink Floyd. The group bought it in 1975 and it has been used by Westlife and Kate Bush

The Rolling Stones used the Olympic Studios in Barnes, southwest London, to record six albums. They have also been used by Duran Duran, Roxy Music, the Cranberries and Oasis

Eden studios, in Chiswick, West London, opened in 1967 and are used by Girls Aloud, George Michael, The Smiths and the Kaiser Chiefs

Le Patrimoine des tenors

Les Chants des tenors de la tradition sarde ont été reconnus "Patrimoine de l'humanité" à l'Unesco.

Originairement exécutés par des bergers et des paysans, les chants de tenors ont connu dans les années passées un instant de notoriété internationale avec le disque "Amore et 'mama" sorti par le Real World de Peter Gabriel.

Entre autres amateurs du genre, les jazzistes Lester Bowie et Ornette Coleman, outre Frank Zappa, qui définissait les chants tenors come "musique bovine".

publié : 25 décembre 2005

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Il Patrimonio dei tenores

I Canti a tenores della tradizione sarda sono stati riconosciuti dall'Unesco "Patrimonio dell'umanità". Originariamente eseguiti da pastori e contadini, i canti a tenores hanno conosciuto negli anni scorsi un momento di notorietà internazionale con il disco "S'Amore e 'mama" uscito per la Real World di Peter Gabriel. tra gli altri estimatori del genere, i jazzisti Lester BOwie e Ornette Coleman, oltre a Frank Zappa, che definì i canti a tenores "musica bovina".

pubblicato il: 25 dicembre 2005