I Eat Music

It’s all been about the iPad this week, hasn’t it? Well, not all of it, but certainly some of it. And, in some small part, that has been my fault.

First off, tech blog Pocket-lint asked me to contribute to a feature called How The Apple iPad Will Change The World. I gave my thoughts on what effect it might have on the music industry both before and after the launch.

Then, not content with filling other people’s publications with my words, I went and dedicated my editorial in CMU Weekly to the iPad, as well. Here’s what that looked like:

I do so love an Apple product launch. The hype that always precedes them can only ever mean that the new thing Steve Jobs trots out with will be a big disappointment by comparison.

I suspect that this might be part of the plan, though. People always flock to point out that the latest Apple gadget is pointless, unoriginal and over-priced. And then what happens? Once the products are actually released – with our expectations reduced a little – those devices seem rather cool. And so you have the iPod, the iTunes Store, the iPhone and all the rest. The impact all those things have had is undeniable, despite all the initial naysaying.

Will that be the case with the iPad? Only time will tell. So far its main contribution to the world is to fill Twitter with jokes about “Dom Joly’s new iPhone” and iTampons. It’s certainly not the home computer replacement I was hoping for, and nor am I going to start carrying one around in my bag instead of my iPhone (I’ll still need that for phonecalls, if nothing else). However, if, as I suspect, the iPad turns out to really be the uber-terminal for accessing online content, at home or on the move, it becomes more attractive.

Following their purchase of digital music platform Lala.com late last year, it’s been rumoured Apple might launch a service that would let you store your entire iTunes library online, ready to be accessed from anywhere. If that included films as well as music, and assuming WiFi and mobile internet connections can handle it, you’ve suddenly got a fast, friendly and lightweight way to access all your entertainment content from anywhere.

I’m not entirely sure if that’s something worth having in addition to a laptop. Possibly not. But if you only really use your laptop as an online entertainment centre, well, then why have a laptop at all? And you should never underestimate Apple’s ability to sell something people didn’t think they wanted by the millions. As with all these things, it’s the content that really makes it what it is. All you need is one truly great app to make the iPad a must-have.

Read this edition of CMU Weekly in full here.

Former members of The Clash, guitarist Mick Jones and drummer Topper Headon, have recorded a new version of their 1978 song, ‘Jail Guitar Doors’, in aid of the campaign of the same name run by Billy Bragg to help rehabilitate prisoners through music. Teaming up with Bragg for the new version of the song, it was the first time the Clash pair had been in the studio together for 30 years.

In a statement, Jones said: “The guys [participants in Bragg's scheme] were telling us how much this scheme had helped them move on from their previous lives before prison. It was really touching to think we’ve helped, even if it’s in a small way”.

Headon added: “When I was in prison myself, many years ago, I was lucky enough to have access to a guitar, which belonged to the prison vicar. I know how much it helped me get through it”.

Explaining the idea behind the campaign, Bragg said: “We want people to be able to move on from their situation and reconnect with the outside world, and my hunch was that playing an instrument – particularly a guitar – could help that”.

The recording session was filmed for a documentary about the scheme, called ‘Breaking Rocks’. The film will premier at the Raindance film festival at Proud Galleries in London on 1 Oct, followed by live performances from Bragg, Jones, MC5’s Wayne Kramer, Foo Fighters’ Chris Shiflett and more.

More Beatles now, and while the music industry leaps from one foolish project to another in a bid to combat online piracy, the film industry has come up with an equally ludicrous idea – make everything 3D, cos that way we’ll all want to sit in cinemas wearing stupid glasses that make our eyes hurt rather than downloading movies to our iPhones.

Now the world of music has been dragged into this idiotic gimmick with the announcement that US director Robert Zemickis is in talks to remake The Beatles’ 1968 animated film, ‘Yellow Submarine’. According to Variety, Zemickis and Disney are currently trying to secure the rights to use the sixteen songs featured in the original film and are hoping to have the whole thing completed in time to coincide with the 2012 Olympics.

It’s not the director’s first brush with The Beatles. His first film as a director was 1978’s ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’, which obviously took its name from a Beatles song and was about some girls who were suffering from Beatlemania, with a story centred on the day the band made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in the US.

Anyway, let’s hope it doesn’t happen, but if it does, you can get a taste of what it might be like later this year, when Zemickis releases an equally rubbish-sounding 3D adaptation of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’.

That said, so long as he doesn’t start remaking the ‘Back To The Future’ films in 3D, I can just about cope with all of this.

More film news now (and another one that will be presented in 3D). Long-time Michael Jackson collaborator Kenny Ortega has been announced as the director of the upcoming documentary featuring the singer’s rehearsals for his O2 Dome residency that didn’t happen on account of him being dead.

Titled ‘Michael Jackson: This Is It’, after the name of the residency, rather than some reminder that the star is not alive any more, the film will hit cinemas on 28 Oct. Sony Pictures say that they have brought the release date forward by two days from the previously announced 30 Oct due to anticipated high demand, adding that the film will only be released for a two week run. However, if they expect demand to be so high, it seems unlikely that they will hold to the “limited run” thing. Expect it to be extended “for the fans” sometime between 27 Sep, when tickets for the screenings go on sale, and the middle of the first week of the initial run.

Confirming his involvement in the project, Ortega, who is also behind the ‘High School Musical’ films and the upcoming remake of ‘Footloose’ (oh look, another film that didn’t need remaking!), told reporters: “This film is Michael’s gift to his fans. It’s a very private, exclusive look into a creative genius’ world. For the first time ever, fans will see Michael as they have never seen him before – this great artist at work. It is raw, emotional, moving and powerful footage that captures his interactions with the This Is It collaborators that he had personally assembled for this once-in-a-lifetime project”.

In other Jackson news, a portrait of the singer by Andy Warhol has sold at auction in New York for over $1 million.

The 1984 portrait, which was commissioned to celebrate the record-breaking sales of the singer’s ‘Thriller’ album, was sold off at the Vered Gallery in Long Island yesterday, after being displayed at the O2 Dome in London.

Although the gallery would not say the exact price the 76cm by 66cm piece had gone for, they said that the buyer had paid “over $1m dollars”. The highest price ever paid for a Warhol painting was $71.7 million in 2007.

The results of Michael Jackson’s second post-mortem will not be made public until police complete their investigation into the singer’s death. It is, however, expected that the results of the tests will show that he was heavily medicated when he died, with police still focussing mainly on the dose of powerful anaesthetic propofol reportedly given to Jackson by his doctor, Conrad Murray, prior to the cardiac arrest which killed him.

As previously reported, Dr Murray, whose offices were searched by police last month in connection with the singer’s death, has not been named as a suspect yet, though court records confirm that he is the subject of a manslaughter investigation.

Elsewhere in Jacko news, AEG Live’s documentary footage of Jackon’s rehearsals for his ill-fated O2 residency will be released on 30 Oct, with 90% of proceeds going to his family, following approval from LA’s Probate Court. The deal between the Jackson estate, AEG Live and Sony’s Columbia Pictures was one of various commercial agreements put before a judge this week by the executors of his estate – they were looking for court approval to enter into such deals before the late King Of Pop’s affairs are fully wound up.

Cut together from over 80 hours of footage and interspersed with interviews with the star’s friends and collaborators, the film will apparently be called ‘This Is It’ (after the title of that O2 residency, of course, even though it has now taken on a very different meaning), and will also be shown partly in 3D for extra gruesomeness.

Jackson’s mother Katherine has raised various objections about the film, particularly over the possibility that her son’s three children, of whom she is now the legal guardian, would appear in it. AEG have now said that they will not be shown on screen.

Head of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Michael Lynton said: “This historic recording of the last time he sang and danced on stage shows the legendary artist in an incredibly powerful way, with crystal clear images and sound”.