Laden...
| MONDAY 31 JULY 2017 | COMPLETEMUSICUPDATE.COM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TODAY'S TOP STORY: Lady Gaga is pushing back against attempts by producer Dr Luke to force her to provide a deposition in relation to his defamation lawsuit against Kesha. As much previously reported, Kesha Sebert and her one time collaborator Lukasz Gottwald have been involved in a long-running multi-layered legal battle that at one point involved litigation in three separate US states... [READ MORE] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Dr Luke wants to question Lady Gaga over Kesha case As much previously reported, Kesha Sebert and her one time collaborator Lukasz Gottwald have been involved in a long-running multi-layered legal battle that at one point involved litigation in three separate US states. She accuses him of rape, while he claims she made up those allegations in a bid to force his hand in a contract dispute. Among the various lawsuits, Gottwald has sued Sebert for defamation. It's in relation to that lawsuit that lawyers working for Gottwald want to question Lady Gaga. Because, they argue, Kesha has spoken to her fellow pop star about her allegations, in particular during a text message conversation in 2013. Lady Gaga has already provided a copy of that text message back and forth, but heavily redacted. Lawyers working for the producer say that they have been trying to arrange a deposition - where they could question Lady Gaga about Kesha's allegations under oath - for some time, but that she has so far resisted taking part voluntarily citing her busy schedule. To this end, they are now seeking a court order to force the star to comply. A spokesperson for Dr Luke told CMU on Saturday: "In connection with Dr Luke's defamation claims against Kesha, various third parties are being deposed by both sides, including celebrities. Dr Luke's counsel served a subpoena on Lady Gaga because she has relevant information regarding, among other things, false statements about Dr Luke made to her by Kesha. This motion has become necessary because Dr Luke's counsel has not been able to obtain, despite repeated request, a deposition date from Lady Gaga". But reps for Gaga have hit back, arguing that she has already shared everything she knows in relation to this case. A spokesperson told Variety: "As Lady Gaga's legal team will present to the court, she has provided all of the relevant information in her possession and is at most an ancillary witness in this process. Dr Luke's team is attempting to manipulate the truth and draw press attention to their case by exaggerating Lady Gaga's role and falsely accusing her of dodging reasonable requests". It's not the first time Gaga has been caught up in the Kesha v Dr Luke story. In 2014 she told Howard Stern in an interview that she had been raped when she was nineteen. She did not name the perpetrator, but Kesha's then lawyer Mark Geragos suggested that it was Dr Luke. Gaga denied that this was the case, and the producer then sued the lawyer for defamation. Gaga subsequently spoke out in support of Kesha as her legal battle with Gottwald got more media attention. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fyre Festival co-founder to defend himself in investor lawsuit As previously reported, lawyer Michael Levine was defending McFarland in the lawsuit filed against him by investor Oleg Itkin. But the attorney told the court last week that he planned to drop the case because McFarland couldn't afford to pay his legal bills. McFarland set up the disastrous Fyre Festival and an accompanying talent booking app with Ja Rule. Since the festival collapsed before it had even started in April, McFarland and his companies have been sued by an assortment of ticket-buyers, suppliers and financial backers. He also faces criminal charges for fraud. In a formal filing with the court on Friday, attorney Levine wrote: "Although Mr McFarland executed a retainer agreement in this case, he never funded the same as required, and he has advised me that there is no reasonable prospect of funding the same in the future. As such, Mr McFarland has consented to our motion for leave to withdraw". The lawyer added that McFarland now planned to defend himself in the case, in which Itkin is seeking to reclaim $700,000 he says he loaned the failed Fyre venture. The lawyer wrote: "At the present time, defendant McFarland does not have substitute counsel. Defendant McFarland intends to represent himself during the remainder of the pre-trial stage of this case, with hopes of securing counsel for the trial". It's not clear if McFarland currently has formal legal representation in any of the other lawsuits filed against him and his companies, though in the criminal proceedings he is being repped by a public defender. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FatCat launches new imprint to release dance 12"s Confirming the new imprint, FatCat co-founder Dave Cawley said: "When we started the label we didn't want to be pigeonholed into one style, sound or genre; it was this freedom to move freely that we sought. We had spent so many years surrounded by dance music that we needed to explore other threads - whilst still maintaining an electronic and experimental element to much of FatCat's output over the years". He goes on: "FCR is going to be our label releasing club records that we like. I listen to what we have coming up and although it's all over the shop - from the driving house of Cottam, to the two step vocal cuts of E&D - it's all FatCat". The first release on FCR will be 'I Can't Carry On' by the there mentioned Cottam, complete with a remix by Detroit's Todd Modes on the b-side. Meanwhile 12" releases are also planned from the likes of Mall Grab, DJJ, Ali Berger, Grain, E&D, Lee Grainge and Steve Bicknell. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Final day of a wash out Y Not festival cancelled With the social networks already busy with festival-goers bemoaning the conditions on the Y Not site, promoters announced that: "Unfortunately we've had to take the difficult decision to cancel Sunday due to the adverse weather conditions across the weekend, after consulting all the relevant authorities. The safety of our guests, performers and crew is our primary concern and the potential risk was too severe for Sunday to go ahead". The statement added: "We are very sorry for the disappointment and disruption caused to everyone who was looking forward to the final day of the festival. We understand that people will have questions about refunds. We will be giving all our guests further information about this over the coming days". Some festival-goers have hit out at the way the festival dealt with the bad weather, claiming that management didn't seem to have sufficient measures in place to deal with heavy rainfall, and that communication onsite was particularly poor. Wash out years obviously create a number of challenges for festival promoters, though heavy rainfall during the summer months is hardly unknown in the UK, and critics have said Y Not's management should have been better prepared to deal with the swampy conditions. Though the MD of Ground Control, which was overseeing the production of the event, has denied those allegations. John Drape told the BBC that they had 80 tonnes of woodchip on site to firm up the waterlogged ground, while adding: "We have meetings every six hours to discuss things like weather conditions and ground conditions. On Saturday night it became increasingly clear conditions were deteriorating and at midnight there was not one agency which felt it was safe to continue". Either way, giving the backlash online, it's not a great start to the next phase of Y Not's evolution, the festival having been acquired by Global's Broadwick Live venture last year. -------------------------------------------------- Festival-goers evacuated after stage catches fire at Tomorrowland Barcelona Belgian dance music festival Tomorrowland this year set up stages in a bunch of other cities around the world, live streaming what was happening on its main stage in Belgium onto large screens in those other cities, with special effects synchronised locally and the promise of a few DJs actually playing records in person. It was the Barcelona edition of Tomorrowland Unite where the drama occurred. Staging caught fire mid-show on Saturday evening, with local fire officials saying that the stage area was "completely destroyed" and now "runs the risk of collapse". But the audience was successfully evacuated as soon as the fire began, so that there were no serious injuries, with about 20 people being treated for minor injuries or anxiety, according to the Associated Press. A statement from Tomorrowland's organisers confirmed: "Tonight, July 29th 2017, the Unite Barcelona stage caught fire due to a technical malfunction. Thanks to the professional intervention of the authorities all 22,000 visitors were evacuated safely and without reports of injuries. Authorities will follow up and continue the investigation with the local Spanish organiser of Unite". The Tomorrowland Unite show in Taiwan was also cancelled because of a typhoon which prompted local officials to cancel all outdoor activities taking place on Saturday. However, the spin-off proceedings went ahead in places like Germany, Dubai, Israel and South Korea. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Private equity backers could buy SoundCloud some extra time While the long-term future of SoundCloud has been far from assured for sometime now - as it tries to pivot its business away from primarily selling services to content creators and into the crowded marketplace of subscription streaming - the doom and gloom really set in after the company made 40% of its staff redundant. Talk of only having funding in place to take the firm into quarter four this year added to the predictions that SoundCloud could soon fold, but for a fire-sale acquisition by another major player in digital music. However, SoundCloud has insisted throughout that it had a long-term future as an independent company. And if the two deals rumoured by Bloomberg do come through, then its near-term future is probably assured. Though, in the expensive business of streaming, long-term futures are rarely assured. It's thought the two private equity backers will buy into the SoundCloud company through separate deals, and will control more than half of the firm's shares between them. -------------------------------------------------- Apple discontinues iPod Nano and Shuffle Apple last week announced that it was discontinuing the two economy versions of its once iconic digital music player, the iPod Nano and the iPod Shuffle. Both have already been removed from the Apple website and they will be dropping off the shelves on the high street too. If you want to carry on iPodding you're going to have to do it via an iPod Touch. Which is just an iPhone without the useful bits. What a shame. The tech giant said: "Today, we are simplifying our iPod line-up with two models of iPod Touch now with double the capacity starting at just $199 and we are discontinuing the iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano". Presumably Apple will pension off the iPod Touch in a few years, just in time for the MP3 Revival, when all the cool kids start insisting that low bit rates, clunky devices and annoying DRM is the only way to properly experience music. Of course, technically it will be an AAC Revival. Unless the real hipsters push for an ATRAC Revival. Sony Connect anyone? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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PC Music make album out of May's Month Of Mayhem The record also includes PC Music founder AG Cook's cover of Aphex Twin's 'Windowlicker', which he unveiled at the recent Field Day festival that came just after the Month Of Mayhem. On that cover, Cook says: "My set at Field Day directly clashed with Aphex Twin's headline show, so I thought it would be nice to do a full-length, note-for-note cover of 'Windowlicker'". Preparing for that, he added, required "a very intense 48 hours inside a windowless room - somewhere between a Braindance rehearsal and a labour of love". Here is the full track list. Listen to the 'Windowlicker' cover here. Danny L Harle - Me4U (AG Cook Remix) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bieber didn't quit tour to spend more time with his God "The recent announcement by Justin Bieber about his tour does not involve Hillsong Church", said a spokesperson for said church to the Daily Mail, after some chit chat to the effect that the pop star had bailed on his scheduled shows in North America and Asia in order to spend more time with his churchy buddies. As previously reported, reps for the singer announced last week that: "Due to unforeseen circumstances, Justin Bieber will cancel the remainder of the Purpose World Tour concerts. Justin loves his fans and hates to disappoint them. He thanks his fans for the incredible experience of the Purpose World Tour over last eighteen months". It was presumably the slightly vague official reason for the tour's cancellation that led to rumour Bieber's membership of the Hillsong Church was somehow relevant. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Laden...
Laden...
