MUSIC NEWS
updated on October 19th, 1997

PERFECT DAY, the soundtrack to the BBC's licence fee promotion film, will be released as a single to raise money for Children In Need. All 29 leading musicians on the licence payers' information film have donated their performances of LOU REED's classic song so the profits can go to charity. Chrysalis Records will also waive its royalties on the single, which will be released on November 21. DAVID BOWIE, BONO, ELTON JOHN, BOYZONE, BURNING SPEAR, TAMMY WYNETTE, LESLEY GARRETT, TOM JONES, SHANE McGOWAN and Reed himself appear on the recording.

ELTON JOHN's tribute to PRINCESS DIANA has become the biggest selling single of all time in Britain, but its reign at the top of the charts is set to be ended by the SPICE GIRLS on Sunday (19OCT97). Midweek chart placings have John's CANDLE IN THE WIND slipping to number three, while the Spices jump straight into the top spot with their new offering SPICE UP YOUR LIFE. Retail giants HMV confirm that the WANNABE hitmakers are outselling John by three to one, while the number two position is occupied by Danish newcomers AQUA's BARBIE GIRL, who are outselling John by two to one. HMV's rock and pop buyer JON REES says, "Elton's had a good few weeks but it's really slowing down. It's dropped off quite a bit this week while the Spice Girls has sold very, very well. "The Aqua single's flying out as well, believe it or not." But Rees predicts John's sentimental ode, which has overtaken crooner BING CROSBY's 1977 version of WHITE CHRISTMAS as Britain's biggest hit ever, will still be popular through to the end of the year.

A quiet corner of the English countryside is set to become home to the wildest pop act in the world. The PRODIGY's leader LIAM HOWLETT and spiky-haired frontman KEITH FLINT have splashed out on a ramshackle old farm in Essex. They are spending more than $1.6 million into turning the property near Chelmsford into a rural base. Each star will have a home there. Howlett is moving into the late 16th Century barn while Flint is taking over the farm's modest cottage. A store room n the site is to be transformed into a recording studio.

THE SPICE GIRLS have succeeded where the colour blue failed. The FAB FIVE added a touch of spice to PEPSI COLA's image by marketing the soft drink. And their campaign means that the brand has gained a significant 4.5 per cent sales increase in the cola wars, an achievement which the drink's expensive relaunch in blue cans failed to do. The cola giant's market share is now 19.6 per cent. And, in a double coup - the soft drink giants managed to catch the girls just before their rise to megastardom and paid them a relatively cheap $1.6 million for their part in the campaign.

BOYZONE are constantly being hounded by gay fans. The Irish pop stars say they are propositioned and have lewd suggestions made to them. Rugged MIKEY GRAHAM is the main target for most of the attention from their army of camp followers. According to former mechanic Mikey, when the group started out four years ago many fans believed that they were all gay. But hunky star KEITH DUFFY finds it all more amusing than embarrassing. "Some of them are very rude and suggestive, trying to embarrass you. But where I grew up all my mates were gay. I actually used to live with a couple of gay fellas, so nothing could embarrass or shock me." And the whole group insist that the best gig they ever played was at the club G.A.Y. in London.

More than $160 million is set to be raised by album and singles dales for the DIANA MEMORIAL FUND. The amount, twice the sum raised in 1985 by LIVE AID, is unprecedented in charity fund-raising. Half the cash will come from the DIANA tribute album which goes on sale on December 1, while a further $80 million is expected to be raised by sales of ELTON JOHN's CANDLE IN THE WIND. The Diana Memorial Fund has already raised $17.5 million and nine new trustees are to be announced over the next few weeks. The Diana album will be a double CD of 40 tracks from the likes of GEORGE MICHAEL, REM, SIR PAUL McCARTNEY, the SPICE GIRLS, ERIC CLAPTON and STING. The only big absentees will be OASIS, who do not donate tracks to charities, although the WONDERWALL group has already raised cash for the fund from live concerts. The album will be a mixture of new and old material. John's tribute single has now sold more than 26 million copies around the world, and is set to overtake BING CROSBY's WHITE CHRISTMAS as the best-selling single of all time later this week.

BABY SPICE EMMA BUNTON nearly didn't make it to megastardom - because of her love of ice cream. As a four-year-old, the SPICE UP YOUR LIFE star was knocked down by a car after running across the road to the ice cream van without looking. Mum PAULINE, 44, says, "I thought she'd had it. One minute I was watching her from the upstairs window and the next thing she was lying unconscious in the road." A friend says, "Emma had been pestering Pauline for an ice cream but she was busy with her baby brother. One of Emma's older friends was there and volunteered to take her to the van. "When Emma got outside she slipped her hand and ran straight into the road." Although the fresh-faced pop star was knocked unconscious, she managed to escape with a gash in her leg, and she's still got the scar to prove it.

Singer PAULA ABDUL is living a plastic surgery nightmare after suffering a terrible burn following a thigh tuck. The beauty was badly scarred when the controversial new liposuction procedure, which she had done to her stomach, and legs, went horribly wrong. A source told American magazine THE GLOBE the problem occurred during the operation on her left thigh. She said, "Everybody around Paula feared she was going to lose it and go berserk because she was so grief-stricken over her leg. She would cry, 'Why me? What am I going to do?'" To add insult to injury the 35-year-old beauty had to fork out $50,000 for the surgery, which she had performed at a clinic in Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles, earlier this year (MAY97). The source says the new procedure, where the fatty tissue is blasted by ultrasonic waves rather than just sucked out, managed to overcook Abdul's left knee leaving it badly burned.

MADONNA's daughter LOURDES CICCONE celebrates her first birthday this week without her daddy to help blow out the candle on her cake. Instead, mum MADONNA took her to watch the dolphins at an aquarium in Los Angeles with her friend INGRID CASARES and their personal psychic. VOGUE hitmaker Madonna and dancer Ingrid on the singer's BLONDE AMBITION tour seven years ago (90). They've stayed friends ever since, meeting up whenever Madonna is in Miami which is where Ingrid lives. Madonna split with Lourdes' father CARLOS LEON earlier this year.

OASIS look set to overcome their disastrous MTV debut with a new triumphant homecoming show for the music broadcaster. The WONDERWALL stars angered station executives last year when frontman LIAM GALLAGHER pulled out of an UNPLUGGED special. The singer, who claimed to be suffering from a sore throat, sipped beer and smoked cigarettes in the front row of London's ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL while guitarist brother NOEL took over singing duties. The station had threatened to pull the show but eventually went ahead after last minute talks. Now the CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA stars are in talks with MTV to perform another show in their hometown of Manchester next year. An MTV spokeswoman says, "The idea has been mooted several times this year and we are now ready to move on to the next stage of planning. "It would be great to stage it in Manchester - that would be the first choice location".

Hunky PETER ANDRE has many female admirers - including those in royal circles. The MYSTERIOUS GIRL hitmaker was in an American restaraunt recently when the a Saudi Princess made an appearance and declared herself a massive fan of the singer with the six-pack. Andre recalls, "About 15 stretch limos pulled up and all these security men with walkie-talkies jumped out and were swanning all over the place. Then a group of women came and sat at tables near us. "It was THE QUEEN OF SAUDI ARABIA and her 18-year old daughter, who turned out to be a big fan. On of the bodyguards came and asked if I'd go over and give her an autograph, which of course I did."

A British singer who dishes up pizzas is set for a slice of pop stardom after landing a $1.6 million record contract in America. KATHERINE DAVIES, 21, will quit the family pizza parlour next week to sign the six-album deal with ATLANTIC RECORDS in New York. "It's a dream come true," she says. "I'm always singing at work but only our customers can hear me. "The Spice Girls have made it. Now it's the turn of the Pizza Girl." Davies from Ebbw Vale, South Wales, made a demo tape on a second hand tape recorder and sent it off to Rockfield Studios in Wales where OASIS have recorded. Producer KINGLSEY WARD was wowed and flew her to America on a whistle stop tour of all the major record labels leading to Atlantic snapping her up.

TEXAS babe SHARLEEN SPITERI wants to move to London to be with the one she loves - but she still can't find anywhere to live. The SAY WHAT YOU WANT hitmaker wants to move to the capital so she can set up a permanent base with her long-term boyfriend, journalist ASHLEY HEATH. Estate agents in London's trendy Islington have spotted Spiteri house-hunting with $800,000 to spend, but the search has so far proved fruitless. Spiteri is currently dividing her time between her Scottish home city of Glasgow and London, where she and her band are in increasing demand after the massive success of their album WHITE ON BLONDE, which has been a regular in the top ten since its release earlier this year.

Young British Royal PRINCE HARRY is to meet the SPICE GIRLS on his first official engagement since his mother PRINCESS DIANA's death. Harry is accompanying his father PRINCE CHARLES on a tour of South Africa at the end of this month. He will meet the fivesome when they play a charity show for President NELSON MANDELA's NATION'S TRUST charity on November 1. Harry, 13, will be taking a school friend with him, but older brother PRINCE WILLIAM can't go - he has to be at school.

Pop anarchists CHUMBAWAMBA have become victims of their own success. The group's new single, AMNESIA, has been put back to next year, because their hit TUBTHUMPING refuses to die in the British charts. The boozy drinking tune, which has been snapped up by 600,000 eager fans, has climbed back up the charts this week nine weeks after the song crashed into the singles list at Number Two. Group member DUNSTON says, "It won't go away. It keeps on going up and down in the charts, so we're hoping it'll be a Christmas number one. "We were all geared up for Amnesia coming out a while ago but it would be foolish to put it out now."

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