FESTIVAL NEWS
Mumford & Sons are on course for a UK number one album this week after their headline performance at Glastonbury. Nearly 2 million viewers saw the band on BBC2 and Babel is already the best-selling album of the week so far and they have sold nearly four times as many copies when compared to the same period last week. Their first album, Sigh No More, has gone back into the Top 10, with a similar increase in sales. Their set has been watched 163,650 times since Sunday on BBC’s catch-up platform iPlayer. The Arctic Monkeys and The Rolling Stones have also seen a marked rise in album sales since performing at Glastonbury. Watched by 1.5 million people on TV, all four of Arctic Monkey's studio albums are back in the top 100 and their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not has risen from 180 two weeks ago to now standing at number 15. The Rolling Stones, who played to over 100,000 people on site with 2.5 million viewing at home, have sold more than three times as many copies of their compilation Grrr, while Jump Back: The Best of the Rolling Stones has also doubled its sales. Grrr has climbed up to number 17, with a sales increase of 334%. Other bands who have see a rise in sales fro the ‘Glastonbury Effect’ include Jake Bugg, Rudimental, Bastille and Chase & Status.
A coroner has ruled that a 35 year old man died by slashing himself after suffering a paranoid reaction to a 'legal high' which he took at Bestival last year. Daniel Parks from Tunbridge Wells took a product called 'magic crystals' which contained a prohibited substance believed to be 4-Methylethcathinone and was found by his wife locked in a toilet having inflicted several wounds to his arms with a kitchen knife. The Isle of Wight coroner ruled Mr Parks had purchased the drugs in advance and was unaware they contained prohibited substances.Sales of dance music single tracks were up nearly 20% in the first six months of 2013, while dance music albums were up nearly 34%. Dance music accounted for one in six of the singles sold in the UK in the first half of this year, or 16.3% compared to 14.1% in the same period in 2012 and EDM is now the third most popular genre behind pop and rock. Releases from Rudimental, David Guetta, Armin Van Buuren, Disclosure, Duke Dumont, Calvin Harris and, Daft Punk all helped dance remain a strong genre in terms of record sales in the UK this year.
Motörhead's Lemmy Kilminster has been "immediately advised to rest", having had a defibrillator fitted to fix an irregular heartbeat meaning all of Motörhead's remaining live dates are cancelled. The band cancelled several shows in June apparently as Kilminster was having treatment for a severe haematoma. Lemmy posted a note saying "I'd like to thank everyone who wish me well, it was a tough decision for me [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="yes" overflow="visible"][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="no" center_content="no" min_height="none"][cancelling the shows] as I don't like to disappoint the fans, especially in times where economy is bad and people spent their money to see us. But sometimes you can't do anything else than following doctor's orders, but be sure we will be back and kick everybody's ass". And Morrissey has said that doctors feared he might die earlier this year as the singer battled double pneumonia, a bleeding ulcer and throat condition Barrett's oesophagus. He was forced to cancel a string of live appearances because of ill-health, that seemingly began when he collapsed in a hotel room in January.
SJM Concerts and Dennis Desmond are buying into Vince Power's Benicàssim festival to in a deal designed to assure the future of the popular Spanish event amid fears that the flagging Spanish economy was again affecting ticket sales. Power said in a statement: "The difficult economic climate coupled with the bad year suffered by Music Festivals plc has prompted my decision to sell a major shareholding in Benicàssim festival. I am pleased that two of Europe's best known festival promoters are now taking part".Croatia has formally joined the European Union. The country, now home to a number of successful music festivals including InMusic, Outlook, Garden, Electric Elephant, Hideout, Ultra and Soundwave, has been badly hit by the recession, and the move to join the EU comes two decades after the brutal civil war in former Yugoslavia. One in five are unemployed and the country's debt classified as 'junk' but politicians are hopeful that EU membership will strengthen the country's economy.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]