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Help for indies in download sales
A campaign has been launched to help independent labels get their music online and benefit from the growing trend for downloading music.
The British Phonographic Industry has identified a lack of independent music available for download. "We want to ensure that independent repertoire is as successful in the download world as it is in the physical world," said BPI chief Peter Jamieson. Downloaded singles have now overtaken physical singles in the UK. Mr Jamieson said his organisation was lobbying music service providers, which include iTunes and Napster, to urge them to promote independent releases. Download sales are due to be incorporated into the UK singles chart later this year. "With downloads shortly to be eligible for the singles chart, this is a key commercial issue on which the BPI committed to assisting its members," added Mr Jamieson. As part of the campaign the BPI is running a series of seminars entitled Getting Your Music Online, focusing on how independent labels can embrace digital music. The US has already begun incorporating download sales in the Billboard's Hot 100 chart.
Musical treatment for Capra film
The classic film It's A Wonderful Life is to be turned into a musical by the producer of the controversial hit show Jerry Springer - The Opera.
Frank Capra's 1946 movie starring James Stewart, is being turned into a £7m musical by producer Jon Thoday. He is working with Steve Brown, who wrote the award-winning musical Spend Spend Spend. A spokeswoman said the plans were in the "very early stages", with no cast, opening date or theatre announced.
A series of workshops have been held in London, and on Wednesday a cast of singers unveiled the musical to a select group of potential investors. Mr Thoday said the idea of turning the film into a musical had been an ambition of his for almost 20 years. It's a Wonderful Life was based on a short story, The Greatest Gift, by Philip van Doren Stern. Mr Thoday managed to buy the rights to the story from Van Doren Stern's family in 1999, following Mr Brown's success with Spend Spend Spend. He later secured the film rights from Paramount, enabling them to use the title It's A Wonderful Life.
Famed music director Viotti dies
Conductor Marcello Viotti, director of Venice's famous La Fenice Theatre, has died in Germany at 50.
Viotti, director of La Fenice since 2002, conducted at renowned opera houses worldwide including Milan's La Scala and the Vienna State Opera. His time at La Fenice coincided with its reopening in 2003 after it was destroyed by fire in 1996. He fell into a coma after suffering a stroke during rehearsals for Jules Massenet's Manon last week.
He conducted some of the best orchestras in the world including the Berlin Philharmonic and the English Chamber Orchestra. Viotti was born in Switzerland and studied the piano, cello and singing at the Lausanne Conservatory. His career breakthrough came in 1982 when he won first prize at the Gino Marinuzzi conducting competition in Italy. Viotti established himself as chief conductor of the Turin Opera and went on to become chief conductor of Munich's Radio Orchestra. At La Fenice Viotti was widely acclaimed for his production of the French composer Massenet's Thais and some of his other productions included Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata and Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos.
The last opera he directed at La Fenice was Massenet's Le Roi de Lahore. Viotti's debut at the New York's Metropolitan Opera came in 2000 with Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly, followed by La Boheme, La Traviata and Fromental Halevy's La Juive. Giampaolo Vianello, superintendent of the Fenice Theatre Foundation, said: "I am filled with extreme sadness because, other than a great artist, he is missed as a friend - a main character in the latest joyous times, during the rebirth of our theatre." Viotti's last public performance was on 5 February when he conducted Vincenzo Bellini's Norma at the Vienna State Opera.
The Producers scoops stage awards
The Producers has beaten Mary Poppins in the battle of the blockbuster West End musicals at the Olivier Awards.
The Producers won three prizes at the UK's most prestigious annual theatre awards, while Mary Poppins won two. Mel Brooks' hit show triumphed in the battle for best new musical, where it was up against Mary Poppins and Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White. Alan Bennett's The History Boys was the big winner in the straight theatre categories, picking up three trophies. But all eyes were on the musical prizes after The Producers, Mary Poppins and The Woman in White all had high-profile openings in the last six months.
The Producers' Nathan Lane, a last-minute replacement for Richard Dreyfuss, beat his former co-star Lee Evans to win best musical actor. Lane has already left the production. A smash hit on Broadway before moving to London, the show also won best musical performance in a supporting role for Conleth Hill, who plays director Roger DeBris. Mary Poppins' awards came for best choreography and best musical actress for its star Laura Michelle Kelly. It led the nominations going into Sunday's ceremony at London's Hilton hotel, up for nine awards. Both shows are stage adaptations of 1960s films. The History Boys, set in a grammar school in the early 1980s and partly based on Bennett's experiences as a teacher, was named best new play.
It also won best actor for Richard Griffiths, who beat his Harry Potter film co-star Michael Gambon, nominated for Endgame, as well as Jonathan Pryce and Ben Whishaw. The play also won National Theatre artistic director Nicholas Hytner best director and Bennett got a special award for outstanding contribution to British theatre. Dame Judi Dench, who starred in All's Well That Ends Well at the Gielgud, lost out in the best supporting role category to Amanda Harris, who played Emilia in Othello for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The Olivier Awards have been handed out by the Society of London since 1976.
- Best lighting design - His Dark Materials designed by Paule Constable at the Olivier
- Best sound design - The Woman in White designed by Mick Potter at the Palace
- Best new opera - Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Royal Opera House
- Outstanding achievement in opera - Thomas Ades and the Royal Opera House for the world premiere of The Tempest
- Best costume design - All's Well That Ends Well designed by Deirdre Clancy at the Gielgud
- Best Revival - Hamlet by William Shakespeare at The Old Vic
- Best set design - His Dark Materials designed by Giles Cadle at the Olivier
- Outstanding musical production - Grand Hotel at the Donmar Warehouse
- Best supporting role in a musical - Conleth Hill for The Producers at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
- Best theatre choreographer - Matthew Bourne and Stephen Mear for Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward
- Best actor - Richard Griffiths for The History Boys at the Lyttelton
- Outstanding achievement or performance in an affiliate theatre - Andrew Scott for A Girl in A Car With A Man at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court
- Best new dance production - Rambert Dance Company's Swamp at Sadler's Wells
- Outstanding achievement in dance - San Francisco Ballet for their season at Sadler's Wells
- Best performance in a supporting role - Amanda Harris for Othello at Trafalgar Studios
- Best actress - Clare Higgins for Hecuba at the Donmar Warehouse
- Best musical actor - Nathan Lane for The Producers at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
- Best musical actress - Laura Michelle Kelly for Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward
- Best director - Nicholas Hytner for The History Boys at the Lyttelton
- Best new play - The History Boys by Alan Bennett at the Lyttelton
- Best new musical - The Producers at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
- Special award - Alan Bennett for his outstanding contribution to British theatre
Rock group Korn's guitarist quits
The guitarist with US rock band Korn has quit the music business, saying he made the decision after experiencing a religious awakening.
Brian 'Head' Welch told a radio station in California that his bandmates respected his decision to leave. A replacement guitarist has yet to be named by Korn, who are currently at work on their eighth studio album. Welch added that he would appear at a church in Bakersfield to explain how he "got to this place in life". The remaining members of Korn, who are known for their hardcore brand of rock, said they hoped Welch "finds the happiness he is looking for".
The 34-year-old made reference to the band's aggressive brand of music and its young fans in his parting statement. "Anger is a good thing, and if kids want to listen to Korn, good, but there's happiness after the anger," he told his local radio station in Bakersfield. "I'm going to show it through my actions, how much I love my fans," added Welch. Korn have enjoyed a moderate degree of chart success in the UK, with 10 singles breaking into the Top 40. Their best performance to date in the UK has been 2002's Here To Stay, which reached number 12, while their album Untouchables, released in the same year, made it to number four.
Potter director signs Warner deal
Harry Potter director Alfonso Cuaron has signed a three-year deal with Hollywood studio Warner Brothers, according to Variety trade magazine.
The Mexican film-maker, who directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, will produce mainstream movies and smaller Spanish-language films. "We had a wonderful experience with Alfonso on Harry Potter," Warner producer Jeff Robinov told Variety. Cuaron's other films include Mexican movie Y Tu Mama Tambien.
The 2001 rites-of-passage drama about two teenage boys who embark on a relationship with an older woman, brought Cuaron international attention - and box office glory.
It also won him and his brother Carlos, with whom he co-wrote the screenplay, an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay. Warner will distribute Cuaron's films in several languages outside the US. "This deal will give us the opportunity to collaborate with Alfonso on movies that make the most of his artistry and vision, and continue to offer him the mainstream worldwide audiences that our studio provides so successfully," said Mr Robinov.
His first film for Warner Brothers was 1995's family fantasy movie A Little Princess. Based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess tells the story of a young girl who is sent to live in a New York boarding school when her widowed father enlists for war. After the erotic nature of Y Tu Mama Tambien, Cuaron was a surprise choice to direct the third Harry Potter film but his dark interpretation was received well by the public and critics alike.
Music man to the Oscars
Bill Conti's job of musical director of the Oscars show is not for the faint-hearted since conducting the orchestra is the ultimate plate-spinning assignment.
This year marks Conti's 17th turn at the helm of the Academy Awards orchestra. "The excitement is a live performance as a musician," he says. "All of your colleagues, everyone in the film industry is in the theatre. All the important people. "I guess it's just a television show but we always think it's a bit more.' The orchestra strikes up more than 110 times during the average Oscars show. As well as playing the presenters and winners on and off stage, it also performs during the commercial breaks to entertain the live audience in the house.
"It's a very busy evening, it takes a certain amount of preparation of music, orchestrating, sketching rehearsing, before the show. But you don't know what the unexpected will be and as the musical director, it's exciting," explains Conti. And much of the preparation goes into mastering scores that will never be performed. "We don't know who the winners will be. So when they say, 'the winner is', we have five different pieces of music in front of us, they say the name, we play the appropriate one immediately," adds Conti.
The orchestra is often called upon to play when the winners ramble on too long during their acceptance speeches, despite being told to be brief by the show's producers.
The decision to drown out or 'kill' the offending star with music is relayed from the director's box to the orchestra via Conti's earpiece. "I don't feel good about it at all. It's not my call though," he says. "When the director says 'music' the orchestra plays and he takes a long shot of the hall. We don't usually see the person speaking while his microphone is cut off. "The person that's been cut off, who's 10 feet from me, is glaring at me like it's death time." On occasions, some stars have taken it upon themselves to send a warning shot across the bows of the musical director before they start to speak. "Julia Roberts, when she came on, she asked me to not get ready to play because she had so much to do," he says. Conti received an Oscar in 1983 for the original score of The Right Stuff. He also received two nominations in the original song category in 1976 for Gonna Fly Now from Rocky and in 1981 for the title song from For Your Eyes Only.
"It's a moment in the sun," he says. "When people get up there, some people, this is hard to believe, people that spend their lives in front of the camera or audiences entertaining, might get a little flustered. "But there's this moment in time when the biggest award that they could possibly get in their life has been handed to them and they're either not in control or they want to thank everyone that they ever met."
The image of the Oscars telecast is one of slick presentation and smooth transitions between performances and the award categories. Behind the scenes, the key players, such as Conti, have a bewildering array of technical props to deal with. "There's a big script and video monitors you have to watch and there are also audio controls. I can control hearing in my ears, the left ear or the right ear - different things at different times.
"I have to communicate with the director. I have a little microphone that's attached to my headset. To open up that microphone, I have a footswitch," he explains. Conti's most nerve-wracking moment came during his first Oscars show as musical director, in 1977, when a member of the orchestra alerted him that they could smell smoke. Conti immediately told the show's director: "I start cursing and screaming, I tell him we're not going to die for this show - you must do something or I'm going to climb out of this pit with 60 musicians and we're going to be home in 10 minutes. "'Oh no Bill don't do anything," came the response. "Imagine these elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen of the orchestra, 60 or so of them in the pit and while we're playing, firemen with their helmets and their hatchets crawling among us trying to find the reason for the smoke." The smell turned out to be new paint smouldering on the music stands. "No one died, it's not a big story, but it was scary at the time," laughs Conti. When the ceremony is over, the music director attends the annual Governor's Ball with his family. "I have a drink and relive the show," he says. "I'm not for too much carousing. I go home and unwind. It takes me about a day."
Prodigy join V Festival line-up
Essex act Prodigy are to headline the second stage at this year's V Festival, joining main stage headliners Scissor Sisters and Franz Ferdinand.
The event, which is in its 10th year, will be held at two venues - Hylands Park in Essex and Weston Park in Staffordshire on 20 and 21 August. Meanwhile, rock veterans New Order have joined the T in the Park line-up alongside Athlete and Green Day. The Manchester band will play on 9 July at Scotland's biggest festival. It will be their debut performance at the music event which is held over the weekend of 9 and 10 July in Balado near Kinross. Other bands at the sold-out festival include Queens of the Stone Age, The Killers, Keane, The Streets and Foo Fighters.
A month later at the V Festival, Prodigy will play at Weston Park on Saturday 20 August and Hylands Park on Sunday 21 August and the Chemical Brothers vice versa. It will be the Chemical Brothers' only UK festival performance of the year. V festival director Bob Angus said: "With the Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers now confirmed to headline the second stage, we are headed for a really stellar line-up. "We pride ourselves on putting on an unbeatable live music experience and V Festival 2005 will not disappoint." Tickets for the V festival go on sale on Friday 11 March.
DJ double act revamp chart show
DJ duo JK and Joel are taking over BBC Radio 1's flagship chart show on Sunday, adding showbiz news, celebrity interviews and between-song banter.
They hope to boost ratings for the long-running show, which has been overtaken in popularity by independent radio's Hit 40 UK rundown. "Radio 1's chart show is an institution and remains the station's single most popular show," says JK, also known as Jason King. "For years people have been tuning in at four o'clock with their tape recorders ready to record their favourite tunes. Not that I ever did that. "But things have moved on a lot now so it was time for a change."