The View to Road-Test New Album on Short UK Tour

The View are to showcase material from their new album on a short run of UK dates in early March.

The band have deliberately chosen small venues to road-test new tracks from their forthcoming third album, these dates will be their first of 2010.

UK dates are as follows:

March
1st Glasgow, Stereo
2nd Liverpool, Zanzibar
4th Manchester, Deaf Institute
5th Edinburgh, Bongo Club

Supporting the band on these dates will be The Cheek.

Having already written their third album the band is set to enter the studio following the tour.

Their last album, 'Which Bitch?' was released to critical acclaim in early 2009. Their next effort has yet to be given a release date.

DJ Fatboy Slim to Headline RockNess Festival

DJ Fatboy Slim will headline the RockNess festival this summer, it has been announced.

He will join headliners The Strokes and Leftfield at the three-day event, which takes place on 11-13 June at Dores, close to the banks of Loch Ness.

The DJ, aka Norman Cook, played at the first RockNess festival five years ago.

Belgian duo Stephen and David Dewale will also play as the official festival ‘house band’, both under their 2manydjs moniker and as live band Soulwax.

Doves, Ian Brown and Friendly Fires have been confirmed, alongside Plan B, Dan le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip and The Cuban Brothers.

BBC Radio 1 is the event’s official partner, with DJs Zane Lowe, Annie Mac and Rob da Bank hosting the festival.

The event attracted more than 35,000 music fans last year.

Headliners last year included the Prodigy, Dizzy Rascal, Biffy Clyro and Flaming Lips.

Celebrity eBay Auction Raises £120,000 for Haiti

A celebrity eBay auction has raised more than £120,000 in two weeks for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

The auction was arranged by Glastonbury Festival organiser Emily Eavis for Oxfam's rebuilding programme in Haiti. Eavis thanked the musicians who donated items and the music lovers who bid on them.

"Everyone's been so generous; it's fantastic to see how much people care. When we first had the idea of an auction for Haiti I never imagined we would raise so much," she commented.

Lily Allen, Damon Albarn, Foals and Klaxons were among the musicians and artists who contributed lots to the auction.

The top earner was a Damien Hirst print, selling for £12,655, closely followed by a Rolf Harris oil painting, which made £12,607.

A jacket worn by Coldplay's Chris Martin on their Viva La Vida tour and signed by the band fetched £9,600.

Other items up for auction included a song written especially for the highest bidder by Damon Albarn, VIP tickets to Glastonbury and the chance to have the Magic Numbers playing in your garden.

Eavis previously visited Haiti in 2002 with Chris Martin and Oxfam, when it was already the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

"It was a life changing trip as I'd never witnessed poverty on that scale before and it had a huge impact. It was a real shock and I suppose this obviously made things a lot worse," she said.

Biffy Clyro voted Scottish Band of the Decade

Ayrshire rockers Biffy Clyro have topped a poll to find the best Scottish band of the last decade.

The poll was conducted by The Scotsman newspaper who crowned the rock trio the best band of the noughties.

The trio, who hail from Kilmarnock, saw off competition from the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Frightened Rabbit to land over 35 per cent of the overall votes.

Franz Ferdinand, whose first two albums were certified platinum in the UK, were named runners-up with 13 per cent of the votes, while acclaimed indie act Frightened Rabbit came in third with 10 per cent.

Other Scottish bands to appear in the top 10 survey include Travis, Idlewild, Mogwai, The Fratellis and Belle & Sebastian.

Men at Work Ordered to Pay Compensation for Plagiarism

Men at Work have been ordered to pay compensation after a court ruled they had plagiarised one of their biggest hits from a Girl Guides song.

The track, 'Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree', was written by Marion Sinclair 70 years ago for a Girl Guides competition and was first performed in 1934.

The current copyright owner Larrikin Music filed a copyright lawsuit in June 2009 against the group, claiming the flute riff from their 1980s hit 'Down Under' was stolen from the ‘Kookaburra’ song.

A federal court in Sydney ruled today that the riff had been taken from Sinclair's song and Justice Peter Jacobsen ordered the band to pay compensation.

Larrikin Music, who owns the rights to the song, told the Associated Press it may seek up to 60% of the royalties 'Down Under' has made since it was released.

‘Down Under’ was written by Colin Hay and Ron Strykert and went to number one all over the world.

The song was also the first song by an Australian act to sit at number one simultaneously in the USA and UK charts.

Both parties are due back in court on February 25 to discuss the compensation.

Wickerman Festival Seeks Unsigned Talent for TV Ad

One of Scotland's top music festivals is offering unsigned acts the opportunity to have their song used as the soundtrack for a TV advertising campaign.

The Wickerman, now in its ninth year, wants unsigned acts to send in their music.

Event organisers are currently working on a television advertising campaign and are looking for a piece of music which best captures the feel and spirit of the family friendly music event, to be used as the soundtrack.

Organisers of the Wickerman festival, which takes place in Dumfries and Galloway, are also offering the winner the chance of being the opening act on the Summerisle main stage at this year’s event, which takes place on July 23 and 24.

Festival Director Sid Ambrose is hoping for a good response, he said, "This is a brilliant opportunity for any unsigned act that can create an original piece of music.

He added “Not only will their soundtrack be heard by an estimated 3 million people but they also win the chance to support some big name acts."

For full details plus terms and conditions, go to www.thewickermanfestival.co.uk

ALBUM REVIEW: Corinne Bailey Rae, The Sea

Leeds singer-songwriter, Corinne Bailey Rae became a best seller when she released her self-titled debut album in 2006. The Sea, the follow-up to her million-selling debut, is a dramatic departure.

'He’s a real live-wire; he’s the best of his kind, wait till you see those eyes…’ These are the first lines she sings, in a husky, under-the-covers voice, on Are You Here, the opening song from her mesmerising and heartbreaking second album, The Sea.

Corinne is describing her husband Jason Rae, who died of an accidental drug and alcohol overdose in 2008 while she was writing this album. Following a year out, she returns with an album that is deeper, rawer, and emotion-imbued, one that plumbs the depths of her sadness but also embraces a new seize-the-day positivity.

Some songs pre-date his death, but, with a few unexpected, charming exceptions, all sound elegiac. Some of it is positively neck hair-raising, most notably the title track but also ‘The Blackest Lily’ and the haunting ‘Are You Here’.

She seems lost in a daydream, wistfully recalling a quarrel on ‘I'd Do it All Again’, and distantly wondering how she'll look back on her own life on the slow-building ‘Love's On Its Way’.

The Sea is no self-indulgent offering, even at its bleakest the music and melodies draw you in, even allowing for occasional swoops into blandish neo-soul, Rae has made an album she'll have trouble improving on.

Track listing:

1 Are You Here
2 I'd Do It All Again
3 Feels like the First Time
4 The Blackest Lily
5 Closer
6 Loves’ on Its Way
7 I Would Like to Call It Beauty
8 Paris Nights/New York Mornings
9 Paper Dolls
10 Diving for Hearts
11 The Sea