News Summary: 10th March 2010

March 10th, 2010 - 
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Fashion

Four weeks after Alexander McQueen’s death, the collection he had been working on was unveiled in Paris yesterday. This was the last ever collection by Lee Alexander McQueen, but it will not be the last collection to bear the Alexander McQueen name. A week after the designer’s death, it was announced that the label would continue. There has been no announcement as to who will replace McQueen.

A note given to each of yesterday’s audience read, ‘each piece is unique, as was he’. As the 16th outfit disappeared from the catwalk, the audience sat in silence, not yet ready for the spell to be broken. The sound of clapping began backstage, and spread. More in The Guardian HERE; Times HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

Tech

Senior police officers have clashed with Facebook, accusing it of ignoring worrying trends that it is providing a safe haven for predatory paedophiles by refusing to sign up to a ‘panic button’ for children and young people. Jim Gamble, chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Unit (Ceop), was joined by the country’s lead officer on homicide to tackle the site about its repeated refusal to sign up to a key safety practice adopted by many other similar websites.

The American-owned site has 23 million active users in the UK but refuses to display an official ‘panic button’ that links users directly to Ceop to report suspected activities by predatory paedophiles. More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and Times HERE.

Music

A report commissioned by Universal Music Group on behalf of the British music industry trade body, the BPI, estimates that Virgin Media, Sky, O2, Orange, BT and TalkTalk could be making between £100 million and £200 million between them per year by 2013 if each of them launched their own music download service. The ISPs could generate approximately £100m per year in total by 2013 if there was only a ‘a medium adoption rate’ of music services (approximately 12,000 consumer sign-ups a month), but if there was an ‘accelerated adoption scenario’ – where 24,000 new subscribers joined each ISPs’ music service per month, the report estimates this revenue figure would double. BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor said:

‘It is increasingly clear that it isn’t smart to be a ‘dumb [broadband] pipe’. This report shows that the revenue potential of digital music services alone makes sound economic sense for ISPs.’ More in The Telegraph HERE.

Pink Floyd took on their record label, EMI, in the High Court yesterday in a dispute over royalties for music downloads. Members of the band, one of EMI’s most successful since they signed in 1967, believe they have been underpaid and that the company should have asked permission to sell songs individually, rather than as complete albums. The dispute centres on a contract clause that says ‘there are no rights to sell any or all of the records as single records other than with [Pink Floyd’s] permission’. The band claims that this applies to their songs in all formats, including those sold online. EMI says it applies only to physical copies. More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; Times HERE; and HERE.

Television

Writing in The Guardian HERE, Bob Geldoff accuses the BBC World Service of a ‘total collapse of standards and systems’, threatens it with legal action and calls for the sacking of the reporter behind the story, his editor and the head of the World Service, Peter Horrocks. Geldof and the Band Aid Trust are talking to some of the world’s biggest charities – including Oxfam, Unicef, the Red Cross, Christian Aid and Save the Children – about reporting the BBC to Ofcom and the BBC Trust. More in The Guardian HERE.

Samsung has kicked off the industry-wide push – and battle for brand supremacy – in 3D television by launching a 3D range that will be in British shops by the end of the month. More in The Guardian HERE. Sony in turn yesterday unveiled its 40in and 46in Bravia 3D television sets, saying they would launch in Japan on 10 June and around the world shortly after. More in The Independent HERE. Adam May, a producer with 3D producers and consultants Vision 3, says TV companies have started showing interest in making programmes in 3D; but that the big push to sell the sets will come this Christmas. More in The Guardian HERE.

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Shadow DCMS at London Fashion Week

February 24th, 2010 - 
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This London Fashion Week features 68 catwalk shows and more than 200 labels in the companion exhibition. The week:

  • Regularly boosts the capital’s economy by more than £30 million;
  • Generates more than £100 million in orders;
  • And worldwide media coverage valued at more than £60 million.

More than 5,000 press and buyers are thought to have attended, but many eyes were on the American Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, who flew in to attend the Burberry show. The perennially-chic editor-in-chief of French Vogue, Carine Roitfeld, visited LFW for the first time, arriving along with the editor-in-chief of Vogue China, Angelica Chung.

Ms Wintour wasn’t the only one gracing Burberry with her presence; our very own Mr Vaizey was also in attendance. Burberry’s Christopher Bailey was ranked #2 in The Sunday Times Style’s list of Britian’s 20 Most Talented Designers (see the full list HERE and The Sunday Telegraph Stella’s favourites HERE). Style ranked Bailey second only to Christopher Kane, whose show Ed went to see on Monday, before trotting off to Erdem (ranked #6) later that afternoon. The Telegraph has a piece on The Rise of “the Erdem Woman” HERE. Team Shadow DCMS also attended PPQ; the Welsh Designer Collective’s Elinor Franklin, Emma Griffiths, and Josie Beckett; and Hermione de Paula shows.

Ed said today:

“London Fashion Week is a fantastic success story, showcasing British fashion around the world.  Fashion is one of our largest industries, and it is vital that politicians support it and take it seriously.”

Ed topped off all the show audience-ing by hosting his own extremely successful Shadow DCMS Creative Industries Networking Event. Harold Tillman, Chairman of the British Fashion Council co-hosted, and guests included all from Samantha Cameron to Alexandra Shulman; Editor of Vogue UK. Our bash has been covered by Dan Hasby-Oliver’s fantastic fashion blog HERE.

We do love a good fashion blog at Team Shadow DCMS, and, almost as if seeking to serve, the kindly Observer has just charted The 10 Best Fashion Bloggers in this week’s LFW inspired edition HERE, as we’ve summarised here:

Tavi Gevinson tavi-thenewgirlintown.blogspot.com; written by a girl with whom the fashion world has fallen in love but whom describes herself as “a tiny 13 year old dork that sits inside all day wearing awkward jackets and pretty hats”.

Gary Card garycardiology.blogspot.com; by a 28-year-old Brit who appears to be everyone’s favourite creative; he’s made guitars for Lady Gaga, window displays for Stella McCartney, and set designs for shoots in Vogue and V Magazine.

Scott Schuman thesartorialist.blogspot.com; since launching the blog in 2005, this 41-year-old New Yorker has been named one of Time magazine’s biggest design influences, worked for Burberry, modelled for Gap and published a book.

Susanna Lau stylebubble.typepad.com; this 26-year-old Londoner is all about the young and the trendy, and she’s shown a real knack for highlighting young designers hovering on the verge of success. Her judgment is trusted by the 10,000 people who check her posts each day, and Dazed&Confused has made her commissioning editor of its website.

David Fischer highsnobiety.com; established in 2005 by Swiss-based Fischer, the original site proved so popular it now has five offshoots and Fischer has had to bring in a couple of editors to help him on HighSnobiety.

Joe Sinclair and Katie Mackay whatkatiewore.com; the original challenge was for Mackay, 27, to wear a different outfit every day for a year, with Sinclair, 28, documenting the look, the labels and what they got up to. The blog became so popular (7,000 hits a day) that they couldn’t ignore all the messages begging them not to stop once they hit their year deadline last month.

Jessica Morgan and Heather Cocks gofugyourself.celebuzz.com; set up in 2004, millions of readers now check their blog to chortle at their latest barbed posts, which poke fun at outfits and their celebrity wearers in equal measure. They’ve also published a book (see HERE) of the best – by which they mean worst – outfits that have graced the website.

Gabi Gregg youngfatandfabulous.com; blogs for larger women is, the Observer says, the new chic niche following fashion’s sudden fascination with girls larger than an autumnal twig. They say the best is Young Fat and Fabulous by a woman who’s 23, from Detroit and a size 20 and putting up “‘real women’… with a panache and honesty you don’t get from an overpaid stylist.”

Mikael Colville-Andersen copenhagencyclechic.com; Danish filmmaker Mikael Colville-Andersen, 42, was way ahead of the curve on fashion’s newfound obsession with cycling. Since 2007 his blog has documented beautiful bikes and riders who deal with the two-pedalled conundrum of looking good yet wearing practical outfits in fine style.

Will Boehlke asuitablewardrobe.dynend.com; this San Franciscan gentleman’s solemn missives cover the minutiae of traditional menswear, from the right tie to wear to the wedding to the best cloth for a bespoke overcoat. A typical entry starts: “It seems as though Kirby Alison and I have been corresponding about garment bags for a couple of years.”

In addition to The Observer’s ten, we at Team Vaizey are big fans of Madeleine O’flaherty avogueidea.wordpress.com.

We particularly like her Behind the Scenes page HERE, and her Red Carpet page HERE. Have a quick squiz of the latter and see whether you can disagree with a word Ms O’flaherty says. We certainly never can, which is why we took her along with us to LFW and asked for her take on some of the shows we saw. This is what she said:

Burberry Prorsum

With Burberry breaking new ground by broadcasting their show in 3D across the world, and instigating a fashion frenzy with the first-time opportunity to buy the looks online fresh off the runway, the collection had so much to live up to. With a dark colour palette that lent heavily on black with some khaki, the variation of orange, antique gold and a splash of bright blue were used very effectively in this large collection of 53 looks.  Ranging from skin tight, with exquisitely ruched skirts and tops clinging to the body, to the oversized, with a great variety of shearling jackets which are sure to be very visible next winter, the show had lots for everyone.  The wool jacket and the lined boots made us think of wartime pilots and throughout the collection the use of buttons, straps, exposed zips and heavily embellished bags continued the military reference. Like the coats, the over-the-knee snakeskin boots are sure to be a huge seller. Christopher Bailey is quoted as saying: “I was thinking of uniforms and cadet girls—but it all started when I looked at an aviator jacket in the archive. Then, as I started designing into it, I realized it could be as versatile as the trench—strong and sexy, masculine and feminine,” and this season he showed he continues to take Burberry from strength to strength.

Hermione de Paula

I saw this show at Vauxhall Fashion Scout.  Hermione de Paula is their Merit Award winner and follows in the footsteps of William Tempest (whose clothes have been worn by Emma Watson and Victoria Beckham) and David Koma (whose fans include Beyonce and Cheryl Cole). Hermione studied at Central Saint Martin’s and has worked for Galliano, McQueen and Dior which helped her develop her own design aesthetic with its emphasis on hand painted materials and collage prints. This collection was entitled ‘Polly Crystalline’ and was all about a fantasy femme fatale who is fitted tightly into garments that accentuate and yet entrap her beauty. The dresses were therefore aggressively structured and made up in powerful black and white prints and the models wore multi-toned, futuristic wigs.

Erdem

Erdem presented the array of stunning prints you expect from him but with a more adult and produced twist. Darker and less floral than his S/S collection, the prints in this collection had motifs of diving swallows, autumn leaves and an almost African palette. Heavenly splashes of yellow and turquoise caught the eye and really made the dresses stand out. The models looked fresh with messily scraped back hair and a not too heavy dark eye. Some of the appliqué on the clothes was new and very appealing, as was the dark almost dirty grey lace he used in a full length dress. The shoes were heavy but beautiful and made for an edgy contrast against the more feminine patterns. I thought this was an exciting collection and very wearable, which Samantha Cameron obviously thought too as she was photographed in one of his designs.

PPQ

Designers Amy Molyneaux and Percy Parker keep PPQ the label that attracts the young and the cool. With the models’ dark eyes and flowing hair this collection was for the powerful urban woman. A colour palette of black and gold, with lots of fringing and metallics gave a clear story and theme, and there were nice contrasts between the fur and the metallics, between an LBD with a frill collar and pocket detail and the power suits and some luxuriously warm full-length jackets. And I loved the almost bondage tie shoes.

Roksanda llincic

Roksanda Ilincic was showing at On/Off this season. I love her clothes, they are so feminine but with details and qualities that make them statement but wearable pieces. The collection was luxurious and silky, with swathes of fabric beautifully draped around the body in deep blues, browns and pinks; there was fur and a glamorous sheen and a new longer hemline. Lots of items in this collection could be worn dressed up or dressed down, which is something she is excels at. All the models with their crazy curls looked so comfortable and sexy in the clothes and it was definitely one of those collections you could visualise yourself in this autumn.

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News Summary: 19th February 2010

February 19th, 2010 - 
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Fashion

Harold Tillman, chairman of the British Fashion Council, called for a minute’s silence in memory of the late Alexander McQueen, at the opening of London Fashion Week, at Somerset House, this morning.

“His impact on London and this international fashion industry has been extraordinary. And he will be sorely missed… He proved that this industry and this city is one of opportunity, he left school with one O-Level and, with a good mix of determination, hard work and genius, he became and will remain one of London’s leading lights… To ensure London, his home city, continues to grow as a global fashion centre will be a fitting tribute to this brilliant man.”

London Fashion Week has also put up a memorial wall for fashion press and buyers to leave messages for the much-loved designer. More in The Independent  HERE and Times HERE.

So many designers (more than 40) are planning to live stream their shows from this season’s fashion week catwalks – to include Burberry’s 3D live streaming on Tuesday, that the British Fashion Council has had to produce the world’s first digital fashion schedule. More in The Independent HERE; Times HERE; and Telegraph HERE

Music

Another Abbey Road update today as Andrew Lloyd Webber has announced that he would like to buy the studio. EMI’s private equity parent Terra Firma is said to be hoping the north London site could raise tens of millions of pounds for the embattled music group. Following the National Trust’s statement that it will consider buying the studios to preserve them for the nation, a spokesman for Lloyd Webber has now confirmed that  too was “very interested” in buying Abbey Road studios:

“He first recorded there in 1967 with Tim Rice. Andrew has since recorded most of his musicals there, from Jesus Christ Superstar to his new musical Love Never Dies… He thinks it is vital that the studios are saved for the future of the music industry in the UK.” More in The Guardian  HERE; Independent HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

Broadcasting and Publishing

We reported yesterday on the BBC’s announcement of a new range of free applications that will deliver its online services to mobile devices, starting with BBC News in April. The Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA) has now issued a statement complaining that the BBC’s ambitions are a threat to an important source of revenue for commercial media organisations; as people increasingly receive their news via Apple iPhones and other handheld devices. NPA director, David Newell has said:

“Not for the first time, the BBC is preparing to muscle into a nascent market and trample over the aspirations of commercial news providers. At a time when the BBC is facing unprecedented levels of criticism over its expansion, and when the wider industry is investing in new models, it is extremely disappointing that the Corporation plans to launch services that would throw into serious doubt the commercial sector’s ability to make a return on its investment, and therefore its ability to support quality journalism.” More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and FT HERE.

There has also been some reaction against the BBC’s plan to get the Pope to record a ‘Thought for the Day’. Terry Sanderson, the National Secular Society president, has said:

“I think the BBC under Mark Thompson is going to go into overdrive and we are going to have Pope, Pope, Pope, driven down our throats… We cannot help but suspect that Mark Thompson’s recent visit to the Vatican for what were called ‘high-level talks’ with Vatican officials might well have been to plan this kind of propaganda exercise.” More in The Independent HERE.

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Weekly email 17-12-09

December 17th, 2009 - 
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Here is this week’s news.  There’s some stuff not in here, but that’s just because we’re saving it for our Christmas special!

Creative Industries

Video Games

Labour MP Tom Watson has suggested that the BBC could ‘really help’ small developers. He suggests that the corporation could allow developers to showcase applications or games on the BBC website, with the studio then able to look at commercial routes as well. More HERE.

Two more games courses have been accredited by Skillset, putting them among the ranks of the UK’s elite games training grounds. Congratulations to Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Abertay more HERE.

Ed has been interviewed by Midlife Gamer, along with Don Foster and Sion Simon: HERE.

Children and Advertising

Ed Balls has published a report on: ‘The Impact of the Commercial World on Children’s Wellbeing’. Amongst its findings, the report says that the commercial world provides children with important opportunities in terms of entertainment, learning, creativity and cultural experience. Full report HERE. Press release HERE. .

The Advertising Association has published a response, HERE with chief executive Tim Lefroy saying: ‘This is a measured and thoughtful review of the role the commercial world has in society and particularly for children and young people.  We are playing a full role in various initiatives as part of our responsible approach to marketing to children’

Online Piracy

YouTube are considering offering subscription services that allow users to watch major new TV shows and films online. Some broadcasters including Channel 4 and Five have already forged deals with the website to show full-length programmes online, Youtube is now considering paid options as well. More HERE.

Australia introduces web filters that restrict access to criminal content, HERE. As you can imagine twitter is not happy, HERE.

Online security group Detica is launching a system that can monitor illegal filesharing over Virgin Media’s Network. It has dismissed concerns that it could be used to identify and spy on individual users, saying ‘customer privacy is at the very heart of this’ more HERE.

Mobile Networks

In Norway and Scandinavia the first 4G mobile network becomes available, HERE. 4G is 10 times faster than the best mobile internet in this country.

BBC Worldwide

Mark Thompson has hit back at calls to sell of Worldwide, saying it will be an ‘empty vessel’ if it is sold. More HERE and HERE.  We now have absolutely no idea what the BBC actually wants to do with Worldwide…sell it? keep it? sell part of it?

TV

Channel 4 and TalkTalk have announced they will join Canvas, the proposed venture with the BBC, ITV, Five and BT to deliver television programmes and other online content via broadband more HERE. We think this great news.

Almost a third of the entire country tuned in to watch the final of X-factor, well over half of the total TV audience, HERE.

Music

Rage Against the Machine was outselling X Factor Winner Joe McElderry in the midweek sales figures, more HERE. More than 500,000 people have joined a campaign on Facebook encouraging people to by the 1992 single Killing in the Name in an attempt to upset Simon Cowell’s domination of the Christmas charts.

Film

The BSAC have published a report into Creativity, Competitiveness and Enterprise more HERE. which calls on the Government to stimulate competition, create a UK silicon valley liberate public service content from TV and create a copyright regime that facilitates decentralised creativity and access to content in the broader ecology. HERE. This is an interesting report which we will be looking at closely.

Pinewood studios have announced that they will open a studios in Malaysia more HERE.

Fashion

Good news from Burberry which has said it will show in London again at the A/W 2010 shows in February, more HERE.

The Guardian Fashion Awards for the year are out HERE. And no, we have no idea what that thing on Madonna’s head is either.

Radio

Made in Manchester’s second online drama with the Indy is online now HERE. We think this project is an interesting development which opens up new radio platforms other than the BBC.

Awards Season

Just starting to warm up, with the Golden Globe nominations out. Congratulations to British nominees Helen Mirren, Carey Mulligan and Emily Blunt more HERE.

Arts and Heritage

Visual Art

Ed has been interviewed by Art Forum on our arts policies, HERE.

Film and Archives

The BBC and the British Library have brought together their collection of audiovisual archives to make them more widely available to the public HERE. Well done to both.

Books

A new website plans to use commuters’ music players to revive the art of the short story by selling audiobooks of work by famous writers. More HERE. Very good idea.

And Finally

Ed was interviewed by the BBC’s Hard Talk this week, talking about culture and media policies and the wider Conservative agenda more HERE.  He vigorously denied he was posh.

Win a free cultural calendar on CultureLabel  HERE

In Parliament

DCMS spending on public relations HERE

£1,100 on departmental photo shoots HERE

Departmental meetings with the music industry HERE

The cost of DCMS departmental away days HERE

Government Art Collection loans to public galleries HERE

Funding to ACE over the last five years HERE

1700 days lost to sickness at the DCMS HERE

Estimates for funding to the good causes in the years to 2015 HERE

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

ITV, Local Government Association libraries conference, Loyd Grossman, St Mary’s Tower Gloucester, Gloucester Folk Museum, Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester Museum (yes, we were in Gloucester), Tribal Education, Sally Greene… and George Osborne visited David Chipperfield and Neues Museum in Berlin and also met with Chairmen of three National Museums.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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News Summary: 16 December 2009

December 16th, 2009 - 
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YouTube are considering offering subscription services that allow users to watch major new TV shows and films online. Some broadcaster including Channel $ and Channel Five have already forged deals with the Californian website to show full-length programmes online, Youtube is now considering paid options as well. More HERE.

Online security group Detica is launching a system that con monitor illegal filesharing over Virigin Media’s Network. It has dismissed concerns that it could be used to identify and spy on individual users, saying ‘customer privacy is at the very heart of this’ more HERE.

Rage Against the Machine was outselling X Factor Winner Joe McElderry in the midweek sales figures, more HERE. More than 500,000 people have joined a campaign on Facebook encouraging people to by the 1992 single Killing in the Name in an attempt to upset Simon Cowell’s domination of the Christmas charts.

A new website plans to use commuters’ music players to revive the art of the short story by selling audiobooks of work by famous writers. More HERE

Just starting to warm up, with the Golden Globe nominations out. Congratulations to British nominees Helen Mirren, Carey Mulligan and Emily Blunt more HERE.

The Guardian Fashion Awards for the year are out HERE. And no, we have no idea what that thing on Madonna’s head is either.

Ed was interviewed by the BBC’s Hard Talk this week, talking about culture and media policies and the wider Conservative agenda more HERE.

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Weekly email 10-12-09

December 10th, 2009 - 
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Here is this week’s news:

Pre Budget Report

The Pre-Budget report, which you can download HERE, had little good news for anyone in the arts or creative industries. Buried in the detail (page 194) was confirmation that the DCMS resource budget would remain pretty much the same over the next two years and its capital budget would be cut from £0.9bn to £0.6bn.

Alistair Darling has also decided to press ahead with the phone line levy which we think will actually kill off private sector investment in superfast broadband HERE.

The film tax credit will be adjusted slightly to correct a ‘quirk’ in the legislation which restricts the available tax credit in an unintended way if there is increased UK spend in the second or later accounting periods full details HERE.

Alistair Darling has rejected a tax break from video games developers, as suggested in Digital Britain HERE. Ed has already said that we are actively considering a tax break for the industry, though we are also looking at other alternatives.

Taking a leaf out of David Cameron’s book they also announced a streamlining of quangos. This will include “rationalising up to a third of DCMS ALBs (arms length bodies), including streamlining ten DCMS advisory bodies and bringing forward plans for merging the UK Film Council and the British Film Institute” more HERE.

Creative Industries

Video Games

Tom Watson MP has called on ELSPA and TIGA to begin ‘forming an idea’ of a UK Games Council that would ‘run along the lines of the UK Film Council’ more HERE. This is something we have long advocated. We think this could be done by widening the remit of the UK Film Council, which would both encourage co-operation between these two sectors, and avoid the creation of a new quango.

Google

An excellent analysis of the implications of the Google book deal vis all creative content on the internet, and Google’s wider position in the global media world HERE.

Fashion

Congratulations to the winners at last night’s British Fashion Awards last night, though we hear that everyone was falling for Karen Elson, more HERE. Elson presented British Grace Coddington, creative director of American Vogue with the ‘fashion creator’ award.

Ahead of the awards, the British Fashion Council released their power 25 list more HERE

Ofcom

Ofcom’s draft Annual Plan for 2010/11 is out, more HERE. It includes three key areas including consumer and citizen, competition, and infrastructure and spectrum. Their Consumer Experience Report, which has helped shape these priorities is also published HERE… need to find a link

Music

The number of people using personalised online radio services such as Spotify and Last FM is growing rapidly, according to RAJAR research: 4.5 million people used such services last month, up from 3.9 million in may and 2.9 million in October last year, more HERE.

TV

Greg Dyke gave the annual Royal Television Society Christmas lecture last night. He called for the ‘unduly slow and bureaucratic’ BBC Trust to be abolished and its powers passed to Ofcom or a new body. He also said that he thought salaries across the TV industry were now too high, and that ITV and C4 have the opportunity to address this as they appoint new chief executives.  More HERE.  Given that Greg is chairman of our creative industries task force his views are particularly interesting, obviously.

There is a good story in the Telegraph on the future of local television HERE.

BBC Worldwide

The government has included BBC Worldwide in the portfolio assets it is considering selling and is urging the corporation to ‘look more widely at the options for greater financial and operational separation, including a sale or partial sale’ more HERE.

On the blog this week

What Lord Putnam would have said, had he been able to be there for the second reading of the Digital Economy Bill, HERE.

Arts and Heritage

Archives

A new archives strategy has been developed, consulted and published jointly by the National Archives and the MLA. More HERE.  Congratulations to both organizations on this, which we think it is both clear and comprehensive and note that these two organizations have done all of this in less time than it’s taken not to have a library review.

Libraries

Stirring stuff on the Government’s spectacular failure to organise a drinks party in the proverbial brewery on libraries from Rachel Cooke in the Guardian HERE, and her longer piece in the spring HERE. We did write to her at the time to point out that she’d over looked Ed’s brilliant speech on the matter HERE. She seems to have overlooked his barnstorming performance at last week’s Review launch too. What’s a Shadow Minister to do to get the attention of the Guardian’s library champion you might wonder?

Meanwhile, thanks to an agreement brokered by the MLA, libraries are to get high speed broadband access, more HERE.

Music

Gustavo Dudamel has taken over as music director of the L.A. Philharmonic. The Venezuelan musician has attracted a level of media attention over the past few years normally only reserved for pop-stars, the kind of thing can cause concern in classical music circles. However, the New Yorker points out that: “notions of the irreconcilability of commerce and art smack of college-dorm Marxism, and run counter to the spirit of Beethoven, Verdi, and Mahler, who addressed themselves passionately to the general public.” To read the article in full HERE

RBS Art Collection

RBS have given in to pressure and agreed to open its art collection to the public. Thought to be one of Scotland’s finest private art collections, some of its most outstanding works will be lent to galleries and community arts projects. More HERE. We welcome this news, although we would like to see more British companies, including banks, putting their arts philanthropy at the centre of what they do: It is part of their contribution to wider society. Credit Suisse is currently running a US ad campaign which highlights how proud they are of supporting the New York Philharmonic in the current economic climate, more HERE. We would like to see more UK companies doing similar things.

Management of the Crown Estate

The Treasury Sub-Committee has announced a new inquiry into the administration and expenditure of the Crown Estate. The inquiry will look at how effectively the Crown Estate Commissioners are rising to the challenges they face including, for example, the development of renewable energy, and the extent to which they are achieving their objectives to earn a surplus for the benefit of the UK taxpayer, and enhance the value of their estates in each of their four business areas: The Urban Estate (commercial and residential property in London and elsewhere): The Marine Estate (includes 55% of the UK’s foreshore, and almost all of the seabed out to the 12 mile nautical limit), The Rural Estate  (agricultural land, forests, and residential and commercial property in England, Scotland and Wales), Windsor Estate (includes the Royal Park) more HERE.

Turner Prize

Congratulations to painter Richard Wright, winner of this year’s Turner Prize, more HERE

And Finally

The Telegraph have recognised Ed for distinguished services to the arts, more HERE.

In Parliament

Parliamentary Questions

Forthcoming information on PR spending at the DCMS HERE

£126,000 on entertainment at the DCMS HERE

Visits to Museums and Galleries in Yorkshire and the Humber HERE

Just half of DCMS Parliamentary Questions are answered on time HERE

Early Day Motions

EDM 323 – Save Our Sound Campaign HERE

EDM 374 – Museums, Galleries, Councils and Gardens HERE

EDM 403 – Free Broadband Access in Towns HERE

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

Goldman Sachs(!), Turner Prize, Dell, MLA, launch of all-party group for Ethical Fashion, London International Festival of Theatre, Local Government Association, Munira Mirza, Serpentine Gallery, Matthew Freud, Conservative Arts and Creative Industries Network generously hosted by Rory Coonan, Turner and the Masters at the Tate, Ingenious and Microsoft Radio Spectrum seminar, Creative and Cultural Skills, BFI, Deloitte, Avatar premiere, Jingle Bell Ball, British Library, Charlie Caminda from Ludorum, new chairman of BBC Worldwide, Carphone Warehouse, V&A, Independent Publishers Forum, Hutchison Whampoa, Selina Scott, Google, Bollywood Festival at the Reel Cinema in Loughborough.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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News Summary: 18th November 2009

November 18th, 2009 - 
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Disconnecting illegal file-sharers, plans to make digital radio switchover possibly by 2015, and compulsory age ratings for video games were all included in the Digital Economy Bill in the Queen’s speech, though there was little on how the Government plans to improve the country’s broadband infrastructure, HERE.

Jeremy has highlighted our plans to encourage telecoms companies to take the lead in the rollout of superfast broadband services to major cities, before moving on to rural areas HERE.

Marks and Spencer have appointed a new chief executive, Marc Bolland will replace Sir Stuart Rose, who will remain as the groups part-time chairman, in the new year, more HERE.

New Moon,  the Twilight film sequel, has taken £1m in box office sales even before its release, making it Britain’s fastest advance selling film of 2009 HERE.

Alan Bennett’s gift for ringing up box-office success has the critics feeling giddy as The Habit of Art opens at the National HERE.

Leaner funding times could be good for the theatre argues Patrick Marmion HERE.

Stay sober, stay conscious and stay to the end – are these the only obligations theatre critics have? HERE and HERE

Jedward – the conspiracy theories HERE.

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Fashion

October 16th, 2009 - 
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Congratulations to Burberry, doing well in the middle of a recession, as they reported better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter sales, boosted by strong in-store sales of the British luxury brand’s Autumn/ Winter collection of clothes and accessories . Total sales in the three months to Sept. 30 rose 4.6% to £343 million from £328 million a year earlier, well ahead of forecasts of £323 million. More HERE and there was a good profile of Burberry’s Creative Director Christopher Bailey, in the New Yorker a few weeks ago, HERE.

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Weekly email: 15 October 2009

October 15th, 2009 - 
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Here is this week’s news:

Tory Stuff

The next Conservative Arts and Creative Industries Network event, (which we are considering renaming to a somewhat snappier Creative Conservatives) will be at the Paramount Club next Wednesday 21st October 6.30pm – 9pm. It is kindly hosted by the Creative Coalition Campaign, more HERE. If you do not have an invitation and would like to join us, send an email to Oliver, HERE

Creative Industries

Music Piracy

News in from Sweden that file sharing has dropped after a government crackdown. More than 40 percent of Swedes engage in illegal file sharing, but the record industry say they have noted a sharp drop since a government crackdown earlier this year: ‘Six out of 10 (users of file sharing sites) have stopped completely, or at least significantly lowered their use of illegal file sharing after the new legislation… We also need to prove that markets can produce good legal alternatives for the consumers,’ said Ludvig Werner, chairman of IFPI Sweden (comparable to the BPI). More HERE and HERE .We think this news is promising but would be interested to know if there had been an increase in legal downloading – we hear anecdotally that this is the case.

BSkyB is launching Sky Songs, its long-awaited digital music service designed to compete with music services such as iTunes and Spotify. Sky has agreed deals with the four major music labels, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal and Warner Music as well as a number of independent labels to access their back catalogues and new releases. We think this is also promising news, particularly as so many labels are involved. More HERE.

Internet

More than 10 million adults in the UK have never used the internet, according to a new report commissioned by Martha Lane Fox, the government’s digital inclusion champion. It also found that households without the internet are missing out on an average saving of £560 per year on bills and deals, and that the 1.8 million children growing up in the digitally excluded families could increase their lifetime earnings by £10.8 billion should they become digitally literate. More HERE.

BT will double the scope of its fastest optical fibre broadband service to around 2.5million UK homes and businesses. Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) technology will give download speeds of 100Mbps. More HERE. We welcome this announcement as a further example of the private sector pushing ahead with superfast broadband.

Confusion has broken out within the government over the 2Mbps universal broadband coverage that was called for by Digital Britain. Is it a maximum or minimum speed? His Lordship’s BIS, as represented by head of broadband policy Andy Carter (no relation), and Stephen Timms, Lord Carter’s successor, do not seem to agree. More HERE.

Design

It’s the Golden Jubilee of the Prince Philip Designers Prize which might have been drawn to your attention this week owing to His Royal Highness’s frustration with television remote controls. More HERE, HERE and HERE.

China has caught up to the U.S. and Western Europe in great swaths of the economy. Yet China’s schools lag Western counterparts in teaching “design thinking,” or taking the problem-solving process designers use to create products and applying it to the greater tasks of running a business… Now the central government is developing a design policy to help China move beyond a manufacturing economy and forward in implementing cross-disciplinary education and bridging left- and right-brained thinking… HERE.

Conversations are taking place in the United States to lay foundations for an American Design Council. The U.S. National Design Policy Initiative met on May 26th with Acting Under Secretary of Commerce and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office John Doll.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss potential support for the formalisation of an American Design Council, and the establishment of an Assistant Secretary of Design and Innovation position in the Department of Commerce More HERE, HERE, and HERE. We know, we’re slightly late with this news, but the Design Council only drew it to our attention at Conference.

Fashion

Congratulations to Burberry, doing well in the middle of a recession, as they reported better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter sales, boosted by strong in-store sales of the British luxury brand’s Autumn/ Winter collection of clothes and accessories . Total sales in the three months to Sept. 30 rose 4.6% to £343 million from £328 million a year earlier, well ahead of forecasts of £323 million. More HERE.

Film

Ed was at Screen International’s annual Film Summit this week, and reassured the sector that we are committed to the film tax credit. More HERE.

The London Film Festival started yesterday, supported by the UK Film Council as principal funder of the Festival, with £1.88 million of Lottery funding over the next three years. This year’s line-up will see 191 features and 113 shorts screened. More, and praise from Bill Murray for the British Film Industry, HERE, festival info and full programme HERE.

The London Film Festival started yesterday, supported by the UK Film Council as principal funder of the Festival, with £1.88 million of Lottery funding over the next three years. This year’s line-up will see 191 features and 113 shorts screened. More, and praise from Bill Murray for the British Film Industry, HERE link to opening night story, festival info and full programme HERE.

Figures out today suggest that UK Independent Film is weathering the recession well, with inward investment booming, more HERE.

Congratulations to the Brit Doc Foundation and More4 backed Afghan Star which follows contestants in Afghan Star, a version of American Idol, has been named as the UK’s foreign language Oscar submission more HERE.

Radio

A new radio drama is to be premiered on the Independent’s website as part of an experiment between them and production company Made In Manchester, more HERE this is exactly the kind of innovation we like to see.

Twitter

It seems Conservatives are more twitter savvy than any other mainstream party, with a high-level of background tweeting all through the conference as well as clear peaks around the big speeches. Labour had noticeably less apart from the day Gordon Brown spoke, and the Lib Dems had very little twitter activity all round. More HERE.

Arts and Heritage

Arts Council

After hearing that the Hackney Empire and the Southbank Centre might be in trouble The Stage put in a Freedom of Information request for papers to the ACE board and radar lists which mentioned the two venues in the last three months. The Arts Council’s response contains 12 full pages of redacted notes. More HERE. We think ACE should be open and honest about its role in this kind of decision.

Heritage

English Heritage has submitted a planning application to Wiltshire Council for a new visitor centre at Airman’s Corner at Stonehenge. HERE. Their proposals are designed to ensure the immediate surroundings of the monument are open and tranquil, rid of modern traffic and clutter, resulting in visitors being able to appreciate the Stones in their archaeologically rich landscape, rather than a place in isolation.  This will help fulfil the overall aim of the Stonehenge scheme which is to restore a sense of dignity and wonder to its setting, and provide visitors with a high quality experience. A modernisation of the facilities at Stonehenge is long overdue.

Libraries

Library campaigners have expressed strong concern over Margaret Hodge’s delay of the publication of the inquiry into the Wirral library service. A published report was originally expected in July, and then delayed to the autumn, and further delayed by Hodge following Wirral council’s recent u-turn over the cuts. She said ‘We must now circulate the Wirral’s recent decision to all those who gave evidence at the Inquiry, so that they may have an opportunity to comment on the new evidence before I and the Secretary of State make a formal decision,’ However, Wirral library campaigner Donald McCubbin protested: ‘I am extremely concerned that they will try and avoid publishing the full report by delaying as long as possible and only publishing an edited version. An awful lot of people struggled with the concept of ’statements of case’ and ‘proof of evidence’ to present their evidence to the Inquiry. It was conducted with great fairness to all sides by Sue Charteris and it would be a gross insult to all the volunteers who took part to save their libraries if the report is not published in full and soon. . . We are owed the full report.’ We agree. More HERE.

The book trade has also questioned Hodge’s suggestion that libraries should start selling books. Booksellers Association chief executive Tim Godfray said he was “very concerned” about the idea and that he will ” be making representations to the returned minister of culture,” More HERE and his concerns that Margaret Hodge is promoting unfair competition, HERE and HERE.

Literature

Romanian-born German writer Herta Müller has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2009 HERE.

Archives

Demonstrating how MPs can use archives, our Shadow Housing Minster Grant Shapps was just flipping through some old photos of Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City from the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s. He says they’re fascinating, so he has posted them on the Welwyn Hatfield Forum HERE. We think the National Archives should supply MPs with 10 archive pieces for their websites, to get MPs – and their constituents- focused on the power of archives.

New Deal of the Mind

A more imaginative approach to dealing with unemployment is needed urgently says New Deal of the Mind (NDotM) as unemployment climbs to 2.47 million. Founder Martin Bright says we have to be more imaginative in tackling unemployment:, ‘Instead of waiting for the next supermarket giant to open, we should be supporting people engaged in the creative industries who have the potential to create wealth and more jobs. That means understanding self employment, freelancing and moving away from the idea that you can only be an employer or an employee. A quarter of all people in work are self employed but we know after six months, without support many of those people become unemployed. …That’s why we’ re calling for a modern Enterprise Allowance Scheme that would support the next generation of entrepreneurs in the creative industries.” More HERE.

Visual Art

The Frieze art fair opened yesterday and the mood is buoyant, according to this round up, HERE

The Government Art Collection has been selection works with Ben Bradshaw to decorate his office. They tell us: ‘He was pleased to discover that a 19th-century painting of his constituency town, View of Exeter HERE by an unknown artist, had recently returned from another location and was able to form part of the new display. He also selected works by Elisabeth Frink HERE, Sonia Boyce HERE, Howard Hodgkin HERE and Frank Bowling HERE Lucky him.

Shadow Chief Secretary of the Treasury Philip Hammond seemed to say on Monday that things are so bad financially we might have to sell the Tate or was that the Tote? HERE and HERE.

How it is. Dark, apparently, HERE

And finally

Ed and the Queen have both been spotted having discrete culture moments this week. The Queen went to see Warhorse and was applauded when she left, more HERE. Ed had lunch with Tracey Emin and got quite a lot of abuse on this blog, HERE. The comments, by the way, are by turns hilarious and astonishingly offensive, reflecting the barmy nature of Guido’s readership.

In Parliament

Steps to improve value for money at the DCMS HERE

Departmental marketing costs the DCMS £45 000 HERE

6 million TV License reminders sent out HERE

No plans to undertake a review of the implementation of the Licensing Act 2003 HERE

DCMS has had no discussions with overseas radio broadcasters HERE

The effects of the abolition of regional structures of the Arts Council HERE

Steps to inform consumers of the jurisdiction of betting websites HERE

Distribution by the Heritage Lottery Fund over the last decade HERE

EDMs

Government’s proposals on file sharing HERE.

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

Frieze, Tmobile, BT, NWDA, In the Spirit of Diaghilev at Sadler’s Wells (which will be shown on BBC 4 later in the year), Critics Circle, Screen International Film Summit, Tate International, Lily Allen, Claudia Winkelman, Lucian Freud, Damian Hirst, Tracey Emin (but you knew that). Philip Green, Spotify, The Scottish Media Consortium, ITV, English Heritage, UK Film Council, BPI, Museum Sheffield, BBC, Future Production Forum and Channel 5, Jonathan Shalit.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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Weekly Email: 17 September 2009

September 17th, 2009 - 
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Here is this week’s news:

Creative Industries

Royal Television Society

In his speech to the RTS last night Ben Bradshaw renewed the government’s arguments with the BBC, which he said had reached the limits of its natural expansion. He criticised the BBC Trust (it has long been our policy to abolish it), saying its dual role of ‘regulator and cheerleader’ was not sustainable in the long term. He hinted that the governance structure should be changed in the next review of the BBC charter, although that is not due for renewal until the end of 2016. He said there ought to be more scrutiny of BBC star and exec salaries and called for NAO-auditing, also both our policies. Read his full speech which, in a shock development, is already on the DCMS website, HERE.

Meanwhile, Jeremy, who speaks at the RTS today has said that the British media industry has been damaged by a ‘cowardly’ government whose dithering has achieved precisely nothing: ‘It is hard to find a sector that has suffered from so much dithering, so many u-turns and such a relentless conveyor belt of reviews and consultations that have ultimately led no where. This is no way to nurture any industry – let alone the communications sector that last year, according to Ofcom, generated revenues of £51bn.’ More HERE and HERE.

Mark Thompson, who spoke at the RTS this afternoon, has defended the BBC against both James Murdoch and Ben Bradshaw, saying that: The BBC exists in part to make the arts universally available, Sky does not.  Private space focuses on the minority who already have a taste for the arts, public space reaches out across the population. In combative mode, he said that the BBC: ‘will never erect a pay zone around our news… [and will]… fight tooth and nail to preserve our broad public remit – from Strictly to the Poetry Season.’ Full speech HERE.‘

Digital Piracy Round-Up

Lily Allen has hit out at the Featured Artists Coalition for condoning peer to peer file sharing. She says file-sharing is not fair, and she thinks music piracy is really mean, it makes it: ‘harder and harder for new acts to emerge…: I think music piracy is having a dangerous effect on British music, but some really rich and successful artists like Nick Mason from Pink Floyd and Ed O’Brien from Radiohead don’t seem to think so.’ She also turned her fire on record labels, pointing out that: You don’t start out in music with the Ferraris. Instead you get a huge debt from your record company, which you spend years working your arse off to repay. When you manage to get a contract, all those pretty videos and posters advertising your album have to be paid for and as the artist, you have to pay for them. I’ve only just finished paying off all the money I owe my record company. I’m lucky that I’ve been successful and managed to pay it back, but not everyone’s so lucky.’ More HERE.

Bjorn Ulvaeus, songwriter and one quarter of ABBA has pointed out that the argument for the right to file share of: ‘ “Why don’t [artists] go on tour and sing for their supper?”… shows a staggering ignorance of the fact that the people who write the songs are, more often than not, not performers. They are producers and songwriters, full stop.’ He also says it was easy to explain to his youngest daughter why downloading free music was wrong, that he is a fan of services like Spotify, but they along are not the answer:  ‘internet service providers and technology companies can, and should, take steps to deal with piracy.’ For Bjorn, saying thank you for the music is clearly not enough, more HERE.

Jeremy has pointed out that Lord Mandelson has ‘gone for the soundbite’ and that he has not sufficiently thought through a complex problem. Jeremy stressed that we recognise that illegal file-sharing is a serious problem requiring ‘some legislative back-up’ to industry-led approaches. Jeremy also argued that the problem could be reduced significantly through industry initiatives, such as measures to encourage parents to block access to certain sites, and called for an updated intellectual property framework. Despite the FT’s headline, which somewhat mis-represented Jeremy’s views, we are happy for technical measures to be considered. More HERE.

Meanwhile UK Music has released a statement clarifying its stance on file-sharing. The Times suggests that it has been forced to drop any mention of cutting off internet connections to ensure unity across the industry, following the FAC criticism for Lord Mandelson’s plans as ‘grossly disproportionate’. More HERE and read the statement HERE.

BBC

The DCMS interim report on the public’s attitudes to using some license fee money for regional news provision is out, HERE. It says that ‘initial findings reveal a high level of public support for a number of key elements in Digital Britain’: 73% think it is either fairly or very important to have a choice of TV channels for regional news, 65% think a small part of the licence fee should be used to support regional news on another channel with most of the money still going to the BBC the contrasts with 24% who think the licence fee should be used only for the BBC.

Which is interesting, as BBC Trust research says that: ‘around half of those asked would prefer the licence fee to be lowered by £5.50, compared to just six per cent who wanted additional money to be spent on regional news on other channels’ HERE.

It’s almost as if research ends up providing whatever conclusion is most convenient to whichever body commissioned said research.

Meanwhile the BBC Trust has announced changes to BBC Worldwide Governance as part of its review of the BBC’s commercial activities HERE. The Trust has also announced their conclusions on sponsorship of on-air BBC events confirming that commercial sponsorship will not be allowed HERE

Channel 4

Putting an end to speculation, Andy Duncan has confirmed he is to stand down as chief executive of Channel 4 at the end of the year, more HERE. C4 chairman Luke Johnson, himself leaving at the start of next year, said today that the next chief executive had to have a ‘profound understanding of the digital universe’. More HERE.

Product Placement

In a record week for Government adoption of our policies (this is the fourth), and following yet another U-turn, product placement is to be allowed on British television for the first time. More HERE. Now all we need is for the Government to scrap their plans for the hated broadband tax for a full range of sensible Tory media policies to be operating.

Contract Rights Renewal

The Competition Commission has decided to keep the CRR mechanism, which places restrictions on how much ITV can charge advertisers, while adding that ‘some variations’ on the CRR regime ‘might be justified’ more HERE. We agree with Enders Analysis’ view that ‘this decision does nothing to ease the deflationary pressures now gripping the TV advertising medium, where CRR works hand in hand with the requirement on the commercial PSB channels to sell 100% of their advertising inventories. The current goings on underline the dichotomy between competition and public broadcasting policy objectives.’

Video Games

Happy birthday to ELSPA who are celebrating their 20th birthday more HERE.

Meanwhile Singapore is raising its profile in games and its government is giving lots of support. More HERE.

Fashion

Ahead of London Fashion Week next week, the Fashion Revolution exhibition, drawn from photographer Nick Knight’s influential website SHOWStudio, has opened at Somerset House, the new venue for LFW. More HERE and HERE.

Film

The BFI have announced the schedule for the London Film Festival HERE .

Arts and Heritage

Tate

The Tate’s annual report is out today, more HERE. It shows that it is defying the recession thanks to an astonishing series of gifts and bequests, including £64 million of gifts from artists and collectors, as well as bequests. More HERE.

Music

The Soundsurf 09 Tour, a new initiative encouraging young people to engage with music making, supported by Gibson Guitar, Pure Solo, UK Music, Hard Rock Café and The British Music Experience is running this week, travelling to Folkestone, London, Cardiff and Manchester, more HERE.

Churches

David Cameron was out cycling at the weekend in support of the Historic Churches Trust, more HERE It was a terrific day for events across the country

Visual Art

A study from the University of Rome suggests that viewing works of art engages both the mind and heart. But whether a museum visit is primarily an intellectual or an emotional activity depends upon the type of art on display, and the era in which it was created more HERE.

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

Shepard’s Bush, Dulwich and West Norwood Libraries, Natural History Museum Darwin Centre, Future of Culture, Tourism and Sport Conference, ITN, The September Issue, the Radio Advertising Awards, Ofcom, UK Council for Child Internet Safety, Ashmolean, the Museum of Natural History, the Pitt Rivers Museum, Press Association, RTS Cambridge, our Arts and Creative Industries Networking event kindly hosted by DDB advertising agency.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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