Steven Wilson's Innerviews
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Tue., Feb 5, 2013
Steven Wilson has been interviewed by Anil Prasad on the Innerviews website. In addition to talking about his new album (which also features Theo Travis), Wilson mentions Robert Fripp, King Crimson and the 40th Anniversary Editions of the KC back catalogue. 

New Yorke
:: Posted by Stormy on Mon., Feb 4, 2013
Two tracks from The Vicar Songbook #1 featuring the vocals of Andy Yorke. You can grab them here

KC & Koch
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Sat., Feb 2, 2013
Following on from the news that Ed Koch, former Mayor of New York City had died, Emory, frequent visitor to the site posted this on the guestbook.

"Last night Ed Koch, former Mayor of NYC, passed on.
During the Beat tour I saw and heard with my own eyes and ears Ed Koch introduce Crimson at the Pier at 42nd Street say: "Rockin’ out with King Crimson!" Though Fripp has confirmed that this was not merely a product of my feverish young brain, I have always wondered whether Ed Koch actually stuck around for a while to hear the Crimson creature play."

Hugh The Fierce has supplied photographic evidence of Koch's close proximity to the Crims.

And The Winner Is...
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Thu., Jan 31, 2013
Congratulations to Michael Sandy of Swansea. Because he was able to tell me that Maartin Allcock was born in Manchester, Michael wins a copy of Maartin's new album, Chilli Morning.

Stay tuned for another great giveaway in the next couple of days.

To Stream Or Not To Stream?
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Thu., Jan 31, 2013
My thanks to tbreen23 for spotting this article on the current state of play regarding royalties  - or lack thereof - with the rise of streaming.  

Nina Simone's Direct Action On Royalties
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Thu., Jan 31, 2013
My thanks to homeoffice for sending in this. "Just ran across this older bit today on the interwebs...good old Nina, if only the kind folks of DGM could go back in time to get Ms. Simone to handle the backpay issue, she seems sure of how to handle it here...good stuff"

Bernier's Looking Over The Edge Of Death
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Tue., Jan 29, 2013
Ex-Stick Men member Michael Bernier has posted up a rough mix of a work in progress called Looking Over The Edge Of Death. Michael writes "I thought I should share this new track's process. I’ve been dealing with the gauntlet of medical analysis and speculation over my mysterious brain growth anomaly and the seizures while trying to complete my newest CD.

This track music was inspired by the terror experienced within a grand Mal seizure yet translated through my subjective suspicion as to how KC would approach it. Sort of a tribute to KC while also a sonic insight to my experience under the veil of flatlining. I’m still tweaking it but I always like feedback and sharing the steps along the way. OK back to tracking...cheers!"

You can listen to the track here.

You can also listen and buy Michael's last album, Leviathan here.

Famous Formentera
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Tue., Jan 29, 2013
My thanks to Ricj Mlinar for this item about the island of Formentera's links with popular culture. 

Latest DGM Press Release
:: Posted by David S on Mon., Jan 28, 2013

Ground-breaking multimedia project challenges the Music Industry

A sleepy village in Wiltshire seems an unlikely place for a media revolution – even if it does involve earl grey tea-drinking Vicars, retiring rock stars and (in a twist worthy of Monty Python) a video-blogging flatulent drummer.

The intent of THE VICAR CHRONICLES, based around the exploits of the legendary music producer, The Vicar, and released this week by DGM Ltd, could not be more simple:  to expose the ill-treatment of musicians and artists at the hands of the ‘evil empire’ of the music industry.  An industry, in the words of guitarist Robert Fripp, “founded on exploitation, oiled by deceit, riven with theft and fuelled by greed.”

Even the copyright statement is a challenge to the status quo: “DGM Ltd accepts no reason for artists to give away the copyright interests in their work by virtue of a ‘common practice’ which is out of tune with the time, was always questionable and is now indefensible.”

No revolution would be complete without a street protest – and Punk Sanderson, author of The Vicar Chronicles, recently took his protest to the London offices of Universal Music Group, the largest record label in the world, releasing a Youtube video of himself holding placards and breaking wind in protest at each broken contract.

“It’s like the OCCUPY movement only smellier. We’ve called bankers, politicians and ‘phone-hackers to account – now it’s time to blow the wind of change at the major record labels. They trample over musicians’ rights and rather than owning up and offering fair settlement, reach for expensive lawyers. It would cost over £300,000 to fight them in the courts – who’s got that kind of money?”

It has taken ten years for The VICAR CHRONICLES to see the light of day. It is only now possible due to recent changes in the media landscape.

“A few years ago, a project of this magnitude – involving novels, graphic novels, audiobooks, videobooks, albums, even a potential TV series – could only have existed with the unlikely support, given the content, of a major label and book publisher,” co-creator, David Singleton, explains. “Now it took just two meetings.  One with Robert Kondrck, co-founder of iTunes, who flew into London, and the other with Dan Slater, the head of Kindle at Amazon in Seattle.”

The Vicar Chronicles, by Punk Sanderson, are released through Amazon and iTunes. ‘Sherlock Holmes meets Spinal Tap’, an ingenious series of whodunits set in the music industry, blurring the lines between fact and fiction.

Good Evening Vancouver!
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Mon., Jan 28, 2013
The Crims pull off a cracking gig on the last night of their North American tour in 1981.