Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 1371 i Music Week

Time after time It's Music Week's distinct honour to welcome the incredible Elton John, David Furnish and Rachael Paley on to our cover this month. In Niall Doherty's brilliant feature we celebrate a career that has well and truly defined – and in the past five years redefined – what it means to be a legend in our industry. There are many lessons to be learned. Yet our cover story is not the only reason why one of Elton's songs has been on my mind this month. It's a track he did for a small animated film about the tribulations of a lion monarch. You've probably never heard of it. Anyway, the words Elton sang on its soundtrack reflect on ‘the circle of life’. That notion of things coming back…

“In the next 5-10 years, we'll try to pick off one of the majors in terms of global size” ALEX KENNEDY, BELIEVE UK Following roles at D2C platform Music Glue, Sky Tickets, Sky TV and as a music manager, Alex Kennedy was appointed as Believe UK MD in April. Here, he talks chart success for rap star Knucks, the growth of artist & label services, and taking on the majors… Are you enjoying your new UK leadership position at Believe? “It's a big, challenging role and incredibly varied. There's global engagement with my counterparts at our headquarters in Paris, but also with the other MDs and their teams in many of the countries across the world, which is getting up to about 50 offices now. It's basically the dream job…

When Wu-Lu released his breakout single South last January, his intention was to shock. Often pegged as part of the wave of jazz acts that have been emerging out of London in recent years, the artist, multi-instrumentalist and producer (real name Miles Romans-Hopcraft) sought to confound expectations, and guttural noise was his weapon of choice. Acoustic bass, atonal guitar chords and skittering drums gave way to a cacophony of screaming, and an anti-gentrification anthem was born. “I needed to grab the attention,” begins Wu-Lu, his softly-spoken tone offering immediate contrast to the loudest moments of his music. “South was a stake in the ground. I'm the kind of person where if you say to me, ‘You're doing this thing,’ I'm just going to change it. I want to give people…

Riotous indie bangers from an artist in complete control… KEY TRACK: Miss Power LABEL: Play It Again Sam MANAGEMENT: Black Acre INSTAGRAM: @itsconniesworld In light of your recent single Miss Power, how has your creative process evolved? “We all lie in the studio in a starfish position and say ‘Om’ to the almighty starfish god of indie bangers to transmit their prodigious guitar riffs through us. Once the ceremony is complete, so is the next greatest indie banger of all time.” Having founded your own label, you are now signed to PIAS. What sparked the move? “After I left [my previous] major label, I felt like a broken toy that had been put in the bin, small and powerless. I used my last money to go to LA and I…

JACQUELINE ‘JPL’ PELHAM-LEIGH (RELATIONSHIP MANAGER – BLACK MUSIC, PRS FOR MUSIC) With over 25 years of experience, Jacqueline ‘JPL’ Pelham-Leigh continues to trailblaze her way through the music industry. Starting out as a recording artist, she has since seamlessly transitioned into production, songwriting, business and artist management working with stars including Alexandra Burke, JoJo and Conor Maynard. Throughout her career, JPL has opened doors for creators from underrepresented backgrounds, focusing on empowerment, ownership and longevity. She is currently supporting songwriters and producers as relationship manager, Black Music at PRS For Music – a role she shares with Amaru Wilcox. Additionally, JPL continues to prioritise the development of emerging minority talent with a nurturing hand. JPL will be involved with Girls I Rate's GETHEARD initiative in partnership with PRS For Music…

NEIKED FT. DYO SEXUAL The world's greatest songs. By the people who made them. Mikael Rabus: “Victor and I studied at the same songwriting school in Sweden and we were always writing and pitching songs for other artists. Eventually, we found that limiting. We were always in the hands of others and it stalled the creative process. Everything felt limited in the pop sphere, especially in the major label system. We said to ourselves that there should be room for our experimental projects as well, something that was open to different sounds and a place where we could drop stuff in different languages and work freely. We had some really cool friends who also felt that they wanted a platform where they could be creatively free, so we came up…

Carl Cox, DJ, producer After nearly 40 years of DJing, Carl Cox has become an undisputed legend of the dance music scene. In September he will release his fifth studio album, Electronic Generations, and play a hybrid live-and-DJ show at Wembley Arena. Here, he reflects on a life in electronic music, jamming with machines, and how he fell in love with making people dance as a child… I wanted to be a DJ from the age of eight… “My dad got me into music. He'd take me to the record store when he was buying 45s. We were blown away when he first got a stereo system because you could hear so much more than in mono. I was fascinated: at home there was Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Elvis, and…

Ed Sheeran and Harry Styles have come out on top in the 2022 half-year sales results as the UK market continues to grow. Based on BPI figures for the first six months, the overall recorded music market (AES) increased by 5.8% year-on-year to 81,971,422 units. The streaming market (SEA) powered ahead with growth of 8.7% compared to the first six months of 2021. Vinyl LP sales continued their growth trajectory with a 2.7% year-on-year increase during the same period, while CD sales were down 11.5%. Overall, physical sales declined by 7.3%. During Q2, vinyl experienced a rare dip with LP sales down 0.7% compared to the same period in 2021. But Harry Styles was an impressive performer with 36,041 vinyl copies of Harry's House moved in its first week –…

@rickburin Young people could afford houses if they didn't spend all their money on Kate Bush downloads (Rick Burin, journalist) Tuesday, June 14 @ShauniCaballero Not one person bought me a Father's Day card for being the Godfather of Music Publishing… Absolutely crazy 2 me (Shauni Caballero, The Go 2 Agency) Sunday, June 19 @Harry_Styles Wembley, last night was one of my favourite shows we've ever played. I don't know where to begin thanking you, I'm completely overwhelmed. I'm so grateful, I'm so happy. Thank you, thank you. I love you all. See you later. H (Harry Styles, artist) Sunday, June 19 @senari Beyoncé saw that it was the summer of late-millennial burnout, the labor movement, '90s revival, and queer pride and was like, “Yeah, I can make a song about…

BURNA BOY (FEAT.ED SHEERAN) For My Hand (Atlantic) The last time Burna Boy and Ed Sheeran collaborated was on Stormzy's Own It, which has more than 1.6 million sales in the UK. This offers more evidence of the Nigerian artist's musical nous, with Sheeran's vocal woven into a mix of smooth percussion, lilting melody and Burna's trademark energy. A highlight from this month's sixth studio album Love, Damini. Contact: Ebi Sampson ebi.sampson@august.agency CHRISTINE & THE QUEENS Je Te Vois Enfin (Because Music) Back with a new alter-ego, Christine And The Queens ushers in a new era with Je Te Vois Enfin. The repetitions of its title (which translates as ‘I finally see you’), combined with sweeping electronics and crisp drums, make for a quintessential CATQ experience: a song that prompts…

COVER STORY “Usually artists peter out I didn't want that” Elton John Upon receiving their manager of the year honour at the 2022 Music Week Awards, the first thing that David Furnish and Rachael Paley did was to call Elton John. Sir Elton was on a rare night off from his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour and Furnish, his husband, manager and Rocket Entertainment CEO, was of the mind that heneeded to get some rest, They could talk about it in the morning. But Elton was adamant: he needed to know as soon as Furnish and Paley, marketing and promotions director at Rocket, had found out. They acquiesced and as soon as they departed the stage, Furnish andPaley FaceTimed Elton to tell him the good news. Already tucked up in…

I'm sure that were you to assemble all these monthly columns into a collated bestseller – well, I can dream – then they might run the risk of unfortunately just appearing to be a regular opportunity to whinge and to try to make everyone feel guilty. That isn't the aim of these opinion pieces, but it is the regrettable consequence of two things in the music industry bashing up against each other. On the one hand, we can point proudly at what we have done in the last 10 years and say that we are truly bouncing back after a decade of digital impact and the shock wave of the pandemic. Previously unimagined revenue streams are starting to flow into the system. Universal's recent 2021 financial report, and even more…

UNITED KINGDOM Kate Bush Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) Song Creations: 2.3 million As well as topping the UK singles chart, Kate Bush's classic 1985 track Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) has seen huge interest on TikTok following its starring role in Stranger Things. The TikTok community have used it as the soundtrack for their own Stranger Things video creations, as well as make-up and style transformation videos. UK creator Danielle Marcan and actor Joe Locke have joined in, as well as K-Pop star Ryujin from Itzy, who used the Stranger Things Character effect. “It has been fantastic to see how the TikTok community has embraced Kate Bush's music after discovering it through Stranger Things,” said David Mogendorff, head of UK artist partnerships at…

THIS MONTH: DIY MUSICIAN Hosted by: Chris Robley, Kevin Breuner Contact: podcast@cdbabypodcast.com What was the inspiration for DIY Musician? Kevin Breuner: “When I started working at CD Baby, I had just come out of the major label system, and I was frustrated with how I saw artists being treated back then. I was on the phone all day talking to independent artists and at one point I thought, ‘It would be great if we could record these conversations so everyone could hear them!’” What kind of feedback have you had? “We get emails all the time from listeners saying that the podcast has been the source of their music business knowledge. I've had professors teaching in colleges tell me it's part of their curriculum for their students to listen to…

Where did your journey in the music business begin? “In my mid-teens I was convinced I wanted to be a music journalist, and even did work experience at Kerrang!, but the dream didn't stick. It wasn't until I was 18 and living in Ibiza that I had my lightbulb moment, after meeting a girl who was working as an event manager at Ibiza Rocks. It made me realise that there were jobs where I could get paid to be around live music. After getting back to the UK, I did an apprenticeship assisting at Believe's in-house label and then moved to AWAL, working in community support and later artist and label development. Now, I have my dream job at Chess Club working on the coolest artists.” Why is Chess Club…

JORDY – KMT Spotify's algorithm led me to Jordy and his catchphrase, ‘Jordy not Jordan, talk to me important’, instantly turned me into a fan. This North London-born, Essex-based rapper and singer has been making noise in the UK music scene for a while, both as a musician and an online personality, and he is blossoming just at the right time. They say rappers are at their peak when they're at their hungriest, possessed of that insatiable urge to be the best, and Jordy is no exception. His track Enemies, taken from his recent KMT EP, is driven by impeccable wordplay, witty punchlines and vocal inflections that show this rap thing isn't a game to him, it's a way of life he holds dear and will do anything to protect.…

JULY 22 Alex The Astronaut How To Grow A Sunflower Underwater Nettwerk Bananarama Masquerade In Synk Beach Bunny Emotional Creature Mom + Pop Ben Harper Bloodline Maintenance Chrysalis Bob Marley & The Chineke! Orchestra Bob Marley & The Chineke! Orchestra Island Gavin James The Sweetest Part Warner Gilbert O'Sullivan Driven BMG Jack White Entering Heaven Alive Third Man Odesza The Last Goodbye Ninja Tune Oh Wonder 22 Make Island She& Him Melt Away: A Tribute To Brian Wilson Fantasy/Concord Sports Team Gulp! Big Desert/Island The Kooks 10 Tracks To Echo In The Dark Lonely Cat/AWAL Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs When The Lights Go Nice Age Ty Segall Hello, Hi Drag City ZZ Top Raw (‘That Little Ol' Band From Texas’ Original Soundtrack) BMG JULY 29 Beyoncé Renaissance (RCA) DC Gore…

David Joseph, chairman & CEO, Universal Music UK: “To explain the brilliance of David Furnish and Rachael Paley I have to go back to the very first meeting I had with Elton John in 2008. I remember feeling genuinely honoured to be working with Elton and knew it was a relationship I had to spend time nurturing. I had met David a few times [before 2015] but had never worked with him directly so, naturally, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But to say there was a shift in focus for the team, in daily engagement and in vision, would be a huge understatement. What was to follow was the single most successful modernisation of an artist's work I have seen in my 25-plus years in music. David wrote…

15 years ago… TOP STORY EARTH SHATTERING Fifteen years ago, the retail sector was enraged as The Mail On Sunday planned to give away Prince's album Planet Earth as a cover-mount CD. Virgin Retail's Mark Noonan said the news represented a “new low”, while HMV's Simon Fox called it “absolute madness”. ERA co-chair Paul Quirk promised to de-stock Prince's back catalogue in his own Quirk's shop and said the star would “soon be the Artist Formerly Available In Record Stores”. Meanwhile, Prince's UK label Sony BMG said it would not release the album in the UK. But the paper's managing editor Stephen Miron had the last word. “Retailers and labels are not the issue,” he said. “We're a proven distribution channel and Prince wants to get his music to as…