Dublin-based concert promoter MCD and the management of the city's O2 venue have issued a joint statement following the previously reported Guns N Roses show on Wednesday night, which saw the band storm off stage just five songs into their set after fans, angry that the band had not come on stage until 10.30pm, threw bottles at Axl Rose.

The statement goes into detail about the evening's events, but makes no mention of refunds for those who left the venue during the 30 minute period before the band were coaxed back on stage. Although announcements during that period told the audience talks were underway to get Axl to return to the stage, after 20 minutes - possibly for safety reasons - the house lights were turned on. Some gig goers - the "majority" according to entertainment.ie - took this to mean the show was over and left. The band came back on stage ten minutes later.

Yesterday's statement confirmed: "During the second song Axl requested members of the crowd who were throwing plastic glasses containing unknown substances to immediately stop or he would have no option but to leave the stage. He confirmed band's wish to perform stating 'we want to stay... [but] one more bottle and we go home'. Despite his continued appeals, having tried to continue performing for 22 minutes, people continued throwing unknown substances leaving the artist with no choice but to leave the stage".

After the band stomped off, and following a previous announcement that organisers were attempting to convince Axl and co to recommence their performance "MCD Promoter Denis Desmond again appealed to the audience to refrain from throwing items and stated that the band would be back on stage shortly. Following backstage discussions Guns N Roses went back on stage at 23.20 hrs and performed their full set until 00.53 hrs".

The statement added that "while the artist has a long history for being late on stage, NO artist should be subjected to missiles and unknown substances being thrown at them" and concluded: "MCD and The O2 wish to apologise for any inconvenience caused due to late running of the show".

You can watch a video of these very events unfolding here: http://youtu.be/nxLUUQdqA0I

In related news, Reading and Leeds Festival boss Melvin Benn has said he anticipates a fine may be charged for Guns N Roses playing past the Council-set curfew at the Leeds Festival last Sunday night. Whereas at the Reading Festival on Friday the power was cut to the main stage to ensure Axl and co were finished before curfew, despite their late arrival on stage meaning that their set was cut short as a result, at Leeds they were allowed to finish their show.

But Benn has told Billboard that the decision to let Guns N Roses play on could result in a fine of up to £20,000 being charged by the local authority. He added that any such fine will be deducted from the band's fee because they were aware of the curfew before the show. As previously reported, Rose, or one of his reps, made a blog posting this week saying Guns N Roses' late starts at both the Reading and Leeds festivals were down to the over-running of the previous bands and not any tardiness on their part. That possibly means they'll dispute any pay cut resulting from a curfew fine, though that remains to be seen.

Between their Reading and Leeds shows and the Dublin shambles Guns N Roses played in Belfast on Tuesday night. We're pleased to report that gig went ahead without incident, other than the band taking to the stage the customary 43 minutes late.

Although the underlying theme of Steve Jobs' latest moment in the spotlight was "look how great we're doing everybody, and I'm not dead, that's a bonus", probably the most significant announcement actually made at last night's Apple press call in San Francisco, for music people at least, was the addition of social networking functionality to the latest incarnation of iTunes.

Along with a rather rubbish new logo (not that the old logo was any better), iTunes 10 will come with a networking element called Ping which will enable artists and users to have profile pages through which they can post updates, reviews and music tips. Other users can then choose to follow artists and friends and use their postings to discover new artists, songs and music.

Described by Jobs as "sort of like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes", the new functionality makes Apple's music software and download store a more direct competitor to services like start-up mflow and, possibly, MySpace Music, which has also tried to combine elements of recommendation, preview and purchase.

Both mflow and MySpace have an advantage over Apple in this regard though, in that they enable users to preview to any song tipped by a friend in full (once only on mflow, as many times as you like on MySpace) whereas Apple only offer their customary and pretty useless thirty second clips.

There would be big licensing implications if Apple were to go the full track preview route of course, though if the much talked about iTunes streaming service ever came to fruition, it could be used to offer more user-friendly previews.

Other innovations in the latest incarnation of iTunes include quasi-TV on demand, better syncing and wireless functionality. The latest version of Apple's music programme is accompanied by a wide-ranging revamp of the iPod range, all of which will be redesigned in one way or another.

So, more fun at the latest date on the Guns N Roses tour; in fact, these shenanigans make dissing Melvin Benn through a megaphone after your power's been cut off seem positively boring.

After their appearances at the Reading and Leeds festivals at the weekend, Axl Rose and friends headed to Ireland to play at set at Dublin's O2 venue last night. Apparently due to go on at 9.15pm, the band finally appeared on stage at 10.25pm. The crowd, who for some reason didn't just show up an hour late themselves (I know I would if, by some weird sequence of events, I found myself with tickets for a Guns N Roses gig), were rather rowdy by this point and some decided to start throwing stuff at Axl.

Needless to say, Rose wasn't especially pleased by this. After two songs he told his audience "one more bottle and we're going home, we're here to have fun and we hope you are too, but one more and we are gone". When, three songs later, another bottle was thrown on stage Rose made good on his promise and stormed off stage.

According to entertainment.ie, ten minutes later a member of venue staff bravely took to the stage to tell the audience that there were some, erm, "technical difficulties", but that they were trying to get Axl to return to the stage. Ten minutes after that the house lights came on. The majority of the audience (again according to entertainment.ie) took this to mean the show was over and went home.

But some increasingly rowdy fans remained. Which was just as well, really, given at 11.25pm Axl and his band finally returned and carried on playing. Those gig goers left, Axl proclaimed, were the "real fans". So, well done them. 

No word yet from venue, promoters or the band as to whether any of the audience members who left when the house lights went up will get a refund. As for whose fault the whole shambles was, well, Axl's yet to remark - what's the betting he blames Melvin Benn?

That Axl Rose fella has claimed that his band's late arrival on the main stage at the Reading Festival on Friday night and Leeds Festival on Sunday was due to the late running of the event rather than any tardiness on his part.

Guns N Roses began their headline set at Reading over an hour late on Friday night, forcing organisers to come good on their threat to cut the gig short - though an extra half hour was negotiated, allowing the band to play past the festival's supposedly strict 11.30pm curfew. Rose was not a happy chappy when Reading bosses cut the power to the main stage at midnight, lashing out at organisers as he tried to carry on with a megaphone.

Amid in-the-end untrue rumours that the band would pull out of their headline slot at the Leeds Festival as a result of the Reading debacle, Axl took to Twitter to call on festival bosses to apologise to his fans, while GnR's tour guitarist DJ Ashba accused overall Reading/Leeds boss Melvin Benn of having a "personal vendetta" against the band relating to their last (also late) appearance at the Leeds Festival in 2002.

But, possibly aware that neither he nor his band had come out especially well from their run in with Benn and his team, Axl (or someone using his Twitter account) took to the net last night to issue an uncharacteristically literate (well, almost) and un-ranty statement. Said statement claims Guns N Roses stuck to the stage change-over times set out in their contract, and that the problem was that festival organisers did not give them access to the stage on time.

Axl's statement reads: "Our start times at the Reading and Leeds festivals factually had nothing to do with us, as the previous bands (who were great, by the way) came off stage when they did and we went on within our contracted and documented changeover time period. Whatever other nonsense anyone's choosing to write would appear intentionally false".

He continues: "Having the fans or our show penalised for how the event was run, or simply the natural flow of events those evenings and for such minimal amount of overtime, along with distortions and falsehoods by media, the promoter and/or event organisers regarding the events seems a bit draconian and more than unfair to the fans. A simple question: If you are aware of our changeover time, the average length of our show and the general nature of how these types of festivals run, all of which are no big secrets... why book us?"

"Is it simply because the line-up on our nights at both festivals sold well? So it's a cash grab with no respect for the fans or the band and somehow an unwanted inconvenience for the cities and law enforcement? If we're not wanted and [are] just being used to line someone else's pockets or for fictitious tabloid fodder at the fans and our expense we're fine with going elsewhere. God forbid we would force ourselves on anyone. It's not that kinda party".

He goes on to imply that he wasn't especially keen about playing Reading or Leeds in the first place, saying: "I didn't organise, arrange, authorise, have knowledge of or was even consulted about our being booked for these shows til after the fact, nor did I choose to work with anyone I'm aware of other than our manager, who was involved in arranging these dates. Yet it would appear we're amazingly often legally obligated to honour such arrangements whether against our will or better judgment. That's simply and unfortunately how this business often works with the artist and [in my opinion] seems is legally supported to benefit managers, agents, promoters and ticket vendors".

He concluded: "With how the fans and we were treated in the past I had what I feel were legitimate and now proven justified apprehensions. Yet we gave 100% and, from where we stood, it seemed as if the both the fans (who rocked!) and our camp were having fun and making the most of things. Why (and what would appear intentionally) risk having it go bad for everyone? [In my opinion,] that's where true recklessness and negligence at both the fans and our expense would seem to be".

So there you have it. Benn's company Festival Republic have not, as yet, commented on Rose's implications that their festival's general late running caused Guns N Roses' delayed arrival. Benn did previously say, however, that despite everything he thought Guns N Roses were the right headline act for his festival and that he'd happily book them again, though he conceded Axl probably wouldn't accept such a booking (though given the above statement, Rose doesn't seem to always get a veto).

The lawyer representing Joe Jackson has hit out at plans to stage an auction of Michael Jackson merchandise in China next month. The sale, which will see a black, bejewelled glove worn by the late King of Pop back in 1995, among other things, go under the hammer, is being organised by US-based auction firm Julien's Auctions. Before his death Jacko successfully stopped Julien's from holding a similar sale in the US.

Talking about the new auction, legal man Brian Oxman told the Daily Star: "This is an outrage. Back in May of 2009 there was to be an auction. Michael demanded it was stopped. He never wanted this material to be auctioned. As soon as Michael Jackson was dead, Julien's Auctions was negotiating again with estate representatives. That was the very auction that Michael Jackson paid a lot of money to stop. He would be furious. He would be turning in his grave. This was to be his legacy to his children, and the legacy of his children is being sold off".

Commenting on the sale, Julien's Auctions boss Darren Julien told reporters: "It's the best collection of Michael Jackson items that we've ever assembled and it all came to us from his family and from the friends he gave them to".

The Pensions Regulator has been asked to step in and rule on a disagreement between EMI and the trustees of the music major's pension fund.

As previously reported, there is a hole in that fund of anywhere between £115 million and £271 million, and pressure has been mounting on EMI bosses and the firm's owners Terra Firma to find some cash to plug the hole. Cash, of course, is not something EMI has in abundance.

The dispute is seemingly over just how much cash EMI should put into its pensions fund, presumably with the trustees saying "lots" and EMI/Terra Firma chiefs opting for "less". The Pensions Regulator has the power to rule on the matter if the two sides can't reach an agreement and could decide how much EMI has to pay, though at the first stage it is more likely the regulator would try to play an arbitrator role rather than making a ruling.

According to the BBC, EMI bigwigs have indicated that if the regulator was to be too harsh in any ruling it could send the music firm into insolvency, and the Beeb quote an independent pension consultant called John Ralfe who says that, given EMI's current debt woes, if they were forced to pay a particularly large sum of money into their pension fund it could be "the straw that breaks the camel's back".

But still, given Terra Firma have been so keen to tell us of late just how much support they have from their investors for continuing to bail out EMI, presumably those investors could have a whip round to cover any shortfall.

The EMI pension fund only actually provides for 269 people, having been closed to new joiners in 2005.

Nadja Benaissa, a member of German pop group No Angels, has been found guilty of grievous bodily harm after admitting to knowingly exposing three sexual partners to the HIV, one of whom subsequently contracted the virus. She was given a two year suspended sentence, 300 hours of community service and been order to attend regular counselling sessions.

As previously reported, Nadja Benaissa was charged with one count of causing grievous bodily harm and two of attempting to cause bodily harm in February this year, after originally being arrested in April last year. She allegedly had sex with all the men in question between 2000 and 2004, and was diagnosed with HIV in 1999.

At the start of her trial earlier this month, Benaissa told the court: "I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart. The last thing I wanted was for my partner to get infected. [I feared that revealing my diagnosis] would probably have meant the end for No Angels".

She also claimed that doctors had told her that the chances of her passing on the infection were "practically zero".

Judge Dennis Wacker told the court in the city of Darmstadt yesterday that Benaissa had been found guilty of grievous bodily harm because she had acted carelessly, but was given a lenient sentence because she had confessed, shown remorse and "learned to be responsible and deal with her illness".

Benaissa did not speak to reporters upon leaving the court, but her lawyer Oliver Wallasch said outside: "I can't say whether she's going back on stage because I'm not her manager but I'm sure she'll crack open a champagne bottle tonight. We had a very fair and speedy trial. The aim of the defence and my client was to have a verdict which led to probation and this was the result. Today will be a turning point in her life, as she now knows that she will not be imprisoned. Her reaction was emotional because it was the end".

Ou Est Le Swimming Pool have announced that they will hold to the planned release schedule for their debut album, 'The Golden Year', following the suicide of frontman Charles Haddon last week.

As previously reported, Haddon committed suicide at the Pukkelpop festival in Belgium last Friday. He was 22.

A statement issued yesterday read: "Despite the tragic loss of lead singer Charles Haddon last week, Ou Est Le Swimming Pool confirm that their debut album 'The Golden Year' will still be released worldwide on 3 Oct 2010. After speaking with the late Charles Haddon's family, remaining band members Joe Hutchinson and Caan Capan have decided to proceed with the original schedule for the release of the record as they had planned prior to Haddon's death. In further accordance with Charles and the band's wishes, the album will be followed by the single 'The Key' on 10 Oct".

It added: "Joe and Caan would like to thank everyone for their incredible support and best wishes during this extremely difficult time and ask that their privacy now be respected whilst they take some time away".

Former Happy Monday Bez had a not so happy Wednesday yesterday when he was thrown in jail for a month. The jail sentence related to that previously reported assault conviction dished out earlier this month after an altercation between him and the mother of his two year old son back in May.

He would have got away with community service and a fine, but he chose to represent himself in court, which is never a good idea, especially if you're a space cadet with a vocabulary of just under 60 words.

According to the Press Association, when magistrate Marie Cash passed her initial sentence Bez, real name Mark Berry, said he wouldn't do it, telling her: "I'm not doing it. Bothered? I'm going to appeal and take this to a real court". Cash responded by jailing him. Oh, to be a magistrate.

A handcuffed Bez later reportedly shouted "victory is in my grasp" as he was escorted to the cells, possibly because he was having a flashback to the last night of his stint on 'Celebrity Big Brother'.

EMI chief Roger Faxon donned a very fine hat for an interview with Billboard earlier this week to discuss that recent financial report that showed that, while the UK major is still loss-making, it is doing a lot better now than it has for a number of years, despite that horrible multi-billion debt it has with the increasingly unhelpful Citigroup.

Asked for his take on his company's recent performance, Faxon told the US trade magazine: "There is always the press speculation about the debt load and all of those things. But basically everyone should feel comfortable that EMI is operating on four of its six cylinders, so we have two more cylinders to ignite to get the thing to roll where it ought to be and maybe we will get it up to eight cylinders. But it's a good solid story. And in any other industry, it would be sort of 'oh yeah, they are doing okay' but in our industry, it's a pretty remarkable turnaround story".

Asked about why he thought EMI had done a lot better revenues-wise in the last financial year, Faxon focused on projects within the company's recorded music division, the flagging part of the firm that has only recently fallen under his remit. He mused: "We had a lot of really good records in the marketplace. Obviously, we had the Beatles remastered programme, which was very successful. But we had a lot of other really great success. Lady Antebellum burned up the charts, and while Robbie Williams is largely a European phenomenon, he did really well. You had David Guetta and Lily Allen and a great run with Depeche Mode this past year. So, there were a lot of reasons why EMI Music did well".

For legal reasons, we must stress that Roger Faxon was not wearing a hat during this interview. The hat mentioned above was figurative.

RIAA president Cary Sherman has said that America's Digital Millennium Copyright Act, drawn up by the US government in 1998 in collaboration with ISPs, internet companies and the content industries, contains too many loopholes which allow ISPs and other web-based companies to ignore online copyright infringement without any legal comeback. Sherman was speaking at the Technology Policy Institute in Aspen this week, CNET reports.

As much previously reported, the most common interpretation of America's Digital Millennium Copyright Act is that online services are not liable for infringement, so long as they remove offending content as soon as they are made aware of it being on their systems.

Sherman said: "The DMCA isn't working for content people at all. You cannot monitor all the infringements on the internet. It's simply not possible. We don't have the ability to search all the places infringing content appears, such as cyberlockers like RapidShare".

However, despite his concerns, Sherman added that he did not see new legislation as the solution to this (though did not rule it out), preferring to reach agreements with web firms directly. He explained: "We're working on [discussions with broadband providers], and we'd like to extend that kind of relationship - not just to ISPs, but search engines, payment processors, advertisers. [But] if legislation is an appropriate way to facilitate that kind of cooperation, fine".

In the UK and France efforts to reach voluntary agreements with the net sector that would result in ISPs taking on a piracy police role failed, and new laws were subsequently lobbied for and passed (though not, as yet, activated).

Also speaking at the debate, YouTube's Lance Kavanaugh disagreed with Sherman's view on US copyright law, saying: "It's our view that the DMCA is functioning exactly the way Congress intended it to. There's legal plumbing to allow that to happen, to allow those small companies to innovate without [the] crushing fear of lawsuits, as long as they follow certain rules. Congress was prescient. They struck the right balance".

Of course, YouTube would be supportive of the DMCA as it has been recently interpreted by US judges, because one such interpretation enabled them to defeat a multi-million lawsuit from MTV owners Viacom. The video site circumvented liability for hosting MTV content without Viacom's permission because they operated a take-down system. Viacom are not impressed by that interpretation of the law.

As also previously reported, last week, following a joint announcement from Google and US ISP Verizon regarding so called net neutrality, in which the two companies announced a joint commitment to ensure that all net users will always "have access to all legal content on the internet" (ie so smaller online publishers won't be disadvantaged in favour of the bigger service providers), a consortium of American music business types - including the RIAA, indie labels body A2IM and collecting societies BMI, ASCAP and SESAC - called on the two web giants to add cracking down on piracy to their joint mission.

Discussing Google's anti-piracy efforts directly, Sherman said that although YouTube and other Google-owned sites operate their own filtering systems to catch illegal content, the web giant "could stop filtering tomorrow and have no liability", provided it continued to respond to take-down notices issued by content owners. He also added that there was plenty more that could be done, saying: "If you enter in 'Beyonce MP3' [into Google's search engine] chances are, the first thing you'll see is illegal sites".

Ann Kirsten Kennis, the model whose picture appeared as the cover art and main focus of promotional material for Vampire Weekend's latest album, 'Contra', has spoken to Vanity Fair about her subsequent lawsuit over use of the photograph without her permission.

As previously reported, the now former model launched a $2 million lawsuit against photographer Tod Brody, the band and their label XL Recordings earlier this year. Brody claims that he took to photograph in a 1983 television commercial casting session, pinning it up on the wall behind his desk for 26 years before selling it to the band in 2009.

Kennis, however, disputes that Brody took the photograph at all, speculating that it was actually taken by her mother: "It's not even like it's a Polaroid before a photo shoot, because the hair's not done, the makeup's not done, the lighting's not done. Nothing. It almost looks like somebody caught me by surprise. The other thing that's strange about this photo is that it's not taken [in front of a] seamless [back-drop] like it would be in a photographer's studio. You can see a door frame there and hinges right in the background".

However, Brody refutes this suggestion, telling the magazine: "As a photographer, for them to try to say that I didn't take the photo and I claimed I took the photo - that's extremely damaging".

Although this dispute over who took the photograph is likely to be discussed if the case goes to trial, the main focus of Kennis' legal action is, as previously reported, a release form seemingly giving her permission for the band to use the picture, which she says was forged.

The document in question, which is apparently dated 30 Jul 2009, is an agreement between Vampire Weekend Inc and Kirsten Jonsen - Kennis went by the stage name Kirsten when she was a model, though her maiden name is actually Klendshoj. The model's address is listed as that given as Brody's residence in Kennis' lawsuit. It is then signed by 'Kirsten Johnsen', who seemingly confirms she is handing over the rights to the picture for a fee of $1.

The article's author, Jessica Flint notes: "The notion that Ann Kennis would have signed the document in 2009 using her old stage name, Kirsten, and a last name seemingly pulled from thin air stretches credulity, as does the idea that this veteran model, who was compensated at a level just below that of an elite supermodel during her ten year modelling career, would have sold the rights to her image for a mere dollar".

Both XL and Vampire Weekend say that they believed they had licensed the photograph legitimately, though they are named on the lawsuit because Kennis feels that they did not go to far enough lengths to confirm that the signature and name on the release form were genuine.

If Kennis wins her case, she stands to receive substantial damages and potentially a cut of profits from 'Contra', which has sold over half a million copies worldwide.

George Michael has pleaded guilty to driving while under the influence of drugs and also to cannabis possession. The singer appeared at Highgate Magistrates Court this morning to face the charges.

As previously reported, Michael was arrested last month after he crashed his car into a branch of Snappy Snaps in Hampstead. He was formally charged on 13 Aug, following further investigations by the police (what further investigations there need to be when someone's car is embedded in a shop and they've got a pocketful of weed I'm not sure).

Of course, Michael has a string of drug driving offences to his name, having crashed into parked cars, fallen asleep at traffic lights and driven into a lorry on the A34 (though he says he was sober when that last one happened).

He was last convicted of DUI in May 2007, following that there previously mentioned nap he took while waiting for a set of traffic lights to go green. That resulted in a two year driving ban.

It's not yet clear what sentence the singer might face on this occasion, though an introduction to the concept of using taxis when high might not go amiss.

So, Guns N Roses are still planning to head to the UK this week in order to begin the second European leg of their current world tour. But that doesn't mean they will actually play the opening shows, their headline sets at the Reading and Leeds festivals. Having assured everyone that the shows are still on, festival boss Melvin Benn has now said he will still pull the plug on them if they're late.

Last time GnR headlined the twin festivals, back in 2002, the band arrived on stage two hours late in Leeds. As with all festivals, Reading and Leeds have strict curfews set by the local councils, and breaking them can incur large fines (Glastonbury headliners are charged £1000 for every minute they play past the curfew). Eight years ago, Axl and co were allowed to play on. However, that will not be the case this year.

Benn told BBC Newsbeat: "If Guns N Roses decide to take to stage as late, as they did in Leeds some years ago, then the performance just won't happen. I've had a very heavy warning from the local councils. There is a curfew - it's a very strict curfew. We got away with it once. We won't get away with it for a second time. Unfortunately, if the band chose not to take to the stage on time there's really nothing I can do. I won't be allowed to break the curfew. The truth is - it's threatening the viability of the festival. It threatens the licence. It really is quite important".

As previously reported, Axl Rose's Twitter account was apparently hacked last week, and used to publish a fake announcement that all future dates had been cancelled.

In the first mention of the fake tweet direct from the band, bassist Tommy Stinson spoke of the confusion it caused in the GnR camp, telling Ohio radio station 98.5 WNCX: "It's startling to me how stuff happens. It's stressful. You kinda think, 'OK, well, I've gotta get my life in order here because I'm leaving in five days', and then you hear something like that coming down the pike. It's Sunday night and you're like, 'How am I supposed to deal with that?' Everyone's just trying to figure out what's happening with it and how it happened and then I get the call that everything's fine, whatever - it's just some crazy shit going on".

How something for which resolution requires nothing more than the deletion of a tweet and a quick statement (or clarification tweet, perhaps) could have stirred up such confusion was a question pondered by CMU editor Andy Malt in last week's CMU Weekly, which you can read here.

Ou Est Le Swimming Pool frontman Charles Haddon committed suicide at the Pukkelpop festival in Belgium last week. He was 22.

The news was confirmed by Eddy Temple-Morris during his Xfm show on Friday night. As rumours of Haddon's death began to fly on Twitter, Temple-Morris sent a text message to the band's Joe Hutchinson, hoping to put an end to a hoax, but received the reply: "He killed himself early this evening after playing the best gig of his life to 5000 people".

An official statement published on the band's MySpace page the following day officially confirmed the news to fans, saying: "We are all so deeply saddened to confirm that our friend Charlie Haddon passed away yesterday, Friday 20 Aug".

According to reports, after the band's Friday afternoon performance, Haddon jumped from a satellite communications mast in the artists' parking area of the festival.

A statement on the Pukkelpop website reads: "After performing with his band Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, singer Charles Haddon decided to take his own life. Our thoughts and sympathies go out to his family and friends".

Ou Est Le Swimming Pool formed in 2009 in Camden and have released three singles to date, including their popular debut 'Dance The Way I Feel'. Following a number of festival dates and an Australian tour, the band were due to release their debut album, 'The Golden Years', and tour the UK in October. You can read CMU's Same Six Questions interview with Charles Haddon here.

Former frontman of 80s band The Call, Michael Been, also died at the festival. The father of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club frontman Robert Levon Been and a sound engineer for the band, he died after suffering a heart attack at the festival on Thursday.

The Call formed in 1980 and released eight albums between 1982 and 2000, before going on hiatus. Been also released a solo album in 1994 and appeared in a number of films, including Martin Scorsese's 'The Last Temptation Of Christ'.

A man jumped to his death onto the stage at a Swell Season concert last Thursday in an apparent suicide.

The band, formed by frontman of The Frames Glen Hansard and Czech pianist Marketa Irglova, were performing at the Mountain Winery amphitheatre in Saratoga, California. According to witnesses, the man - named on Friday by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office as 32 year old Michael Pickels from San Jose - climbed up onto the roof of the stage as the band were finishing a song. He then ran, jumped and fell around 30 feet to the stage, landing near Hansard.

One witness told SF Weekly: "Glen was joking about his new guitar player, poking fun at one of his songs, when a body shot down from above and slammed downstage left. The guy fell like a dead weight, not flailing, not screaming, just hitting the stage hard and bouncing from the impact. Even Glen didn't know what it was until he stood over it and realised a man had just launched himself from the top of the stone church-like building at the back of the stage".

Attempts were made to resuscitate Pickels, but he was pronounced dead shortly afterwards by a doctor who had been in the audience.

In a statement, the band expressed sadness for the death, but said they would continue their current US tour as planned: "The band, crew and all involved with them are shocked and saddened by the death that occurred at the 19 Aug show. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the deceased, his family and friends. Making and performing music is what the band has always done in good times and in bad. Our hope is that in this communal experience tonight [20 Aug] we can somehow help our own grieving process after what we just witnessed. The show will most certainly be different than any other we have ever played".

The statement added: "We wish to continue to be sensitive to family and friends of this individual and hope that in performing it is not viewed as a selfish act. We have not come to this decision lightly. We continue to have them at the forefront of our minds and hearts".

Following a joint announcement last week from Google and US ISP Verizon regarding so called net neutrality, in which the two companies announced a joint commitment to ensure that all net users will always "have access to all legal content on the internet" (ie so smaller online publishers won't be disadvantaged in favour of the bigger service providers), a consortium of American music business types have called on the two web giants to add cracking down on piracy to their joint mission.

The Recording Industry Association Of America, indie labels body A2IM and collecting societies BMI, ASCAP and SESAC are among the signatories to an open letter to Google top man Eric Schmidt. They focus on the "legal" bit of Google and Verizon's commitment, and argue that the flip side of that commitment is that ISPs should help in the crack down on the distribution of illegal (ie copyright infringing) content on the internet. The US music industry is busy lobbying the ISP sector there to take a more proactive role in policing piracy though, as in Europe, the net firms are not exactly embracing such a role.

The letter reads as follows (complete with American spellings of some words, for added authenticity):

Dear Mr Schmidt:

We write to you on behalf of the broad and diverse music community represented by our organizations. We read about your recent joint policy proposal for an open internet and commend you and Verizon for advancing the public conversation on this important issue.

The music community we represent believes it is vital that any internet policy initiative permit and encourage ISPs and other intermediaries to take measures to deter unlawful activity such as copyright infringement and child pornography. The principle of distinguishing lawful from unlawful activity has become a firmly established tenet of broadband policy - articulated clearly by FCC Chairs Powell, Martin and Genachowski, leading Members of Congress from both parties, and industry executives. It is also contained in the standard user policies of many legitimate businesses that operate online.

We all share the goal of a robust internet that is highly accessible, secure and safe for individuals and commerce. An internet predicated on order, rather than chaos, facilitates achievement of this goal.

As you well know, music is a powerful driver of broadband adoption and related applications. So, too, the internet has become a crucial part of the music discovery process and a central platform for commerce. The number and range of music services is exploding. Our ability to invest in and create the next generation of music is grounded on crafting Internet policies and procedures that respect intellectual property.

Accordingly, we are deeply interested in the details of your proposal as they may relate to the protection of content and to making sure that the distinction between lawful and unlawful activity has operational meaning.

The current legal and regulatory regime is not working for America's creators. Our businesses are being undermined, as are the dreams and careers of songwriters, artists, musicians, studio technicians, and other professionals. That's why we look forward to working with you, other stakeholders, the FCC and the Congress to make the distinction between lawful and unlawful relevant in the marketplace so that the internet fulfills its promise for consumers, subscribers, providers, creators and business.

Google and Verizon are yet to respond.

The top guard at Electric & Musical Industries would like it to be known that everything is going just swell, like, seriously, it's good times: have an extra orange with your lunch because were celebrating big time. Or something like that.

The still relatively new boss of the EMI Group, Roger Faxon, issued a statement yesterday following the publication of that financial report from Maltby Capital, the equity vehicle through which the superhero-like Terra Firma owns the flagging music major.

As previously reported, that document admitted that Terra Firma is likely to have to pump even more money into EMI in 2011 than it has in 2010 in order to ensure the music company does not breach the covenants of its loan agreement with Citigroup; doing so would allow the big bad Citibank to seize control of the London-based major.

But despite the gloomy nature of that admission, Faxon would like it to be known his company is actually doing quite well. And, actually, day-to-day they are. Earnings before tax were up 14% in the last financial year, with operating cashflow up a massive 55%. If it wasn't for the multi-billion dollar loan with a bank their parent company is currently suing it really would be oranges all round at EMI HQ.

Faxon told reporters yesterday: "There is a clear opportunity ahead for EMI as a whole to develop a structure and approach that recognises the realities of the music environment, and that truly delivers success for the creative talent that the company is privileged to represent. The operating performance we delivered in the year under review gives us a strong platform, and I'm looking forward to working with our great staff and artists to develop the business further".

Meanwhile the chief of the aforementioned Maltby Capital, Stephen Alexander, said: "This report shows the very real operational progress that EMI has made in the past three years, in the face of the serious challenges faced by the music industry and the wider economy. The year was characterised by creative and commercial achievement in both divisions. EMI [recorded] Music had particular success with the release of the remastered Beatles catalogue, which has sold more than thirteen million albums to date, as well as strong sales from newer artists such as Katy Perry and Lady Antebellum. EMI Music Publishing has again been named publisher of the year in both the US and the UK, and the business is creating valuable new revenue streams on behalf of its unmatched roster of writers".

For legal reasons, we must stress that EMI is not frittering away its profits on free oranges for staff members. The oranges mentioned above were figurative.

Although EMI is performing better than it was, it is still not profitable enough to meet the terms of its loan agreement with the big bad Citigroup without further cash assistance from owners Terra Firma, or at least that's the conclusion of Maltby Capital, the vehicle through which the equity group actually owns the music company.

Of course, Terra Firma has already stumped up a bucket of cash to help EMI do just that for much of the next year but, according to the Financial Times, the music firm will need a "far larger injection of fresh equity" in 2011. Although this isn't news that will surprise anyone especially, it won't do anything to cheer up those Terra Firma financial backers who already have cold feet about EMI.

The big Beatles re-release programme and the success of new artists like Katy Perry helped lift EMI's fortunes in the last financial year, while reduced overheads and restructuring costs meant Maltby made a £512 million post-tax loss for the year overall, rather than the £1.57 billion loss made the year before. But the future of EMI is still uncertain.

Ideally Terra Firma needs to renegotiate its music company's mega-billions loan agreement with Citigroup, which is possibly something TF bosses could discuss with the bankers when they meet in court later this year to squabble over whether the bank gave the equity firm bad advice ahead of its purchase of the music major in 2007.

Meanwhile, given Terra Firma chief Guy Hands failed to secure two year's worth of back up funding for EMI from his investors earlier this summer - as he had originally hoped to do - presumably speculation will grow once again next spring that Citigroup is about to take control of EMI and sell it off to Warner Music and rival equity firm KKR.

The Grooveshark iPhone app has been pulled from Apple's app store just days after it was added because of a complaint by the UK office of Universal Music.

As previously reported, the mobile app from the sometimes controversial US-based streaming music service was initially rejected by Apple, presumably because some content owners had accused Grooveshark of infringing their copyrights. But last week the app, which takes the Grooveshark service mobile, was approved. However, it has now been removed from Apple's store because of, Grooveshark say, Universal UK's complaint.

In a blog posting yesterday, Team Groove said: "Earlier this afternoon, Apple sent us a letter notifying us that, due to a complaint they received from Universal Music Group UK, Grooveshark for iPhone has been, strangely, pulled from the App Store. This comes as an absolute surprise to us, and we are not sleeping until we figure out exactly how to fix this and get Grooveshark for iPhone back in the App Store".

While EMI and Merlin have entered into licensing deals with Grooveshark, Universal are suing the digital firm, though the lawsuit came out of Universal US so it's interesting that Universal UK have filed this complaint. Nevertheless, it is believed the complaint is related to the litigation.

The app will remain operational for those who have already downloaded it, and presumably it is still out there for anyone with a 'jail-broken' iPhones. Grooveshark made it available that way when the app was first knocked back by Apple earlier this year.