David Martin: Last News

NME as a government committe of UK MPs have joined the call for a levy on arena and stadium gigs – as well as a cut in VAT – to support struggling grassroots music venues and artists.Earlier this year, the Music Venue Trust delivered their full report into the state of the sector for 2023, showing the “disaster” facing live music with venues closing at a rate of around two per week.

Pulp will be the first band to contribute to the LIVE Trust, where £1 from every ticket sold at their summer 2025 UK arena tour will be given to fund financial support to those working across live music.The LIVE Trust, which was set up in the wake of last year’s CMS Select Committee investigation into the state of the grassroots, will dish out vital funding and act on behalf of the live music industry, which contributes £6.1billion to the UK economy while employing 230,000 people.David Martin of the Featured Artists Coalition told NME in January that he hopes a levy would be introduced by some artists to support the initiative; “what I would like to see happen is a £1 blanket levy on all gigs above a 5,000 capacity very quickly with that funding going to the Live Trust and distributed between venues and artists in parity, with some of the money going to promoters as well.”Pulp has been announced as the first band to pledge £1 from each of their tickets sold from their upcoming tour to the scheme.“As the first UK band to endorse our mission, Pulp is championing the future of UK live music by backing a £1 ticket addition that directly supports grassroots venues, festivals, and emerging talent across the UK,” the social media announcement post reads. “Their commitment shows that live music is about passion, community, and a sustainable future.”A post shared by LIVE Trust (@livetrustcharity)Other artists have also introduced levies on their tickets, donating some of the money from each sale to various causes.

BBC News, no homegrown artist featured on either list last year after Benson Boone claimed the Number One song with ‘Beautiful Things’ and Taylor Swift‘s ‘The Tortured Poets Department‘ was the world’s bestselling album.Albums by Coldplay, Charli XCX and Dua Lipa did not make either list. The highest ranked artist was Artemas who came in 15th with ‘I Like The Way You Kiss Me’ on the global best selling singles list.Both lists were mainly dominated by US acts including Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter and Kendrick Lamar.Previously, UK acts appeared in one or both of the top 10 lists every year since 2003.It comes after David Martin of the Featured Artists Coalition recently pointed to Spotify’s most globally streamed artists of 2024, saying that the increasing lack of UK names was a sign of the talent pipeline already suffering – and not for a lack of talent.“I’m not saying this is doomsday, it’s fixable but this should be the canary down the mine to the UK music industry,” he told NME.

EXCLUSIVE: Shout! Studios has acquired North America and Latin America rights for Ned Crowley’s new Western Killing Faith, starring DeWanda Wise ((Jurassic World Dominion) and Guy Pearce (The Brutalist), and released first images as shooting wraps in New Mexico.

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon announced on Wednesday that A Different Animal, its first stand-up special from comedian Iliza Shlesinger, is set to premiere on Prime Video on March 11.

EXCLUSIVE: After landing his first Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his work in the fourth and final season of HBO’s Succession, Alan Ruck has joined the all-star cast that has assembled to support Marc Maron in In Memoriam, the forthcoming comedy from Thelma producer Invention Studios.

EXCLUSIVE: Justin Long (Barbarian) and Michael McKean (Better Call Saul) have closed deals to join In Memoriam, the forthcoming Marc Maron comedy from Thelma producer Invention Studios.

EXCLUSIVE: Judy Greer has boarded the comedy In Memoriam from former Late Show With David Letterman producer Rob Burnett.

EXCLUSIVE: Marc Maron, the actor and comedian behind hit podcast WTF, is set to produce and star in In Memoriam, a new comedy that five-time Emmy winner Rob Burnett (The Fundamentals of Caring) wrote and will direct for Invention Studios (Thelma).

the party swept hundreds of seats across the country and ended 14 years of Conservative rule.Sir Keir Starmer is set to be appointed Prime Minister later today (July 5) and promised “national renewal” in a victory speech. Now, the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) has said it looks forward to working with “a new influx of MPs” following today’s landslide win.The FAC is the trade union body representing the needs of musicians and artists in the UK, and its CEO, David Martin, has said it’s crucial to “pick up on unfinished business from the previous Parliament, and quickly deliver the much-anticipated reforms to music streaming alongside greater support for the live music ecosystem”.In a bid to support live music earlier this year, MPs recommended a ticket levy on arenas and stadiums to save grassroots venues and artists.

full report into the state of the sector for 2023, showing the “disaster” facing live music with venues closing at a rate of around two per week. Presented at Westminster, the MVT echoed their calls for a levy on tickets on gigs at arena size and above and for major labels and such to pay back into the grassroots scene, arguing that “the big companies are now going to have to answer for this”.The Featured Artists Coalition – a trade union body representing the needs of musicians and artists in the UK – then wrote to NME to argue that while the survival of venues is “essential”, any kind of ‘Premier League’ model to be adopted by the industry needs to take into account keeping creators in pocket and being able to exist, as well as ways to open up the world of music to different genres, backgrounds and audiences.“What good is it keeping venues open if artists can’t afford to perform in them?” asked FAC CEO David Martin.Now the debate has been taken to the UK government, after last Tuesday (March 26) saw the Culture Media & Sport Committee hold evidence sessions with figures from across the industry to see what can be done.“The first impact we need to realise is that is 125 communities that have lost access to live music on their doorstep,” Music Venue Trust CEO Mark Davyd told the hearing.

NME will return for a third year to support the Featured Artists Coalition’s annual AGM, with a panel of artists looking back on 2023 and what challenges and opportunities lie in the year ahead.The FAC’s 2023 End of Year Party and AGM, in association with PPL, will take place at Signature Brew in Walthamstow on Wednesday, November 29. Following on from 2021 and 2022, NME will return to support the event with News Editor Andrew Trendell leading an artist-led ‘Year in Music’ panel discussion featuring FAC board member Joff Oddie of Wolf Alice, Murray Matravers of the band formerly known as Easy Life, LVRA and Cherise.LVRA and Cherise have both been recipients of the FAC’s Step Up Fund powered by Amazon Music, while TBFKA easy life will be recognised for their outspoken advocacy at the upcoming Artist & Manager Awards last night (November 23).The FAC’s Artist in Residence, Blur drummer Dave Rowntree will also deliver an opening statement.Much of the event will focus on the major issues that the FAC continues to tackle, such as streaming reform, the application of AI in music, the 100 Per Cent Venues campaign to end punitive commissions on merchandise sales, and the #LetTheMusicMove campaign to encourage friction-free international touring.“With 2023 coming to a close, I’m really proud of what the FAC team has accomplished, and particularly our campaigning work with 100 Per Cent Venues, #LetTheMusicMove and continuing push to reform the economics of streaming,” said FAC CEO David Martin.“Our end of year party is a perfect opportunity to hear the views and perspectives of artists on all these issues, to find out about the work we do, and for our community to come together in unison.

CNN, Vice, and the New York Times were among the big winners on the first of two nights for the 44th annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards. CNN led the news portion of the Emmys with ten wins, with trailing Vice winning nine and the New York Times with five.

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will celebrate its 2023 Gold and Silver Circle Inductees at the 44th Annual News & Documentary Awards on September 27-28 in New York.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has tapped broadcast journalist icon Dan Rather, as well as veteran network correspondents John Quiñones and David Martin to be inducted into its annual Gold Circle honor society. NATAS’ 2023 Gold and Silver Circle inductees will be recognized at the 44th Annual News & Documentary Emmys on Sept.

The brother of former Take That singer Jason Orange has agreed to sell his Altrincham-based investment business in a deal that values it at $1.6bn.

Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard-starring FX/Sky comedy Breeders is ending after four seasons.

Ellise Shafer The fourth season of “Breeders” will be the show’s last, FX has announced. The news comes just one month before the premiere of Season 4, which debuts on the network July 31 with episodes available to stream the next day on Hulu. Starring Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard, the comedy about parenthood will pick up five years after the events of Season 3, which saw Freeman’s Paul and Haggard’s Ally on the brink of splitting up. According to a press release, the fourth and final season of “Breeders” will bring “the biggest parenting challenge that Paul and Ally have ever faced, as 18-year-old Luke (Oscar Kennedy) drops a bombshell at Christmas dinner that will change everyone’s lives forever. No longer in Luke’s shadow, 16-year-old Ava (Zoë Athena) experiences her own bombshell moment as she meets and immediately falls for the charismatic Holly (Jessie Williams). Paul and Ally continue to try, fail and try again as they face these latest parenting challenges, while also having to support the increasingly troubled Jim (Alun Armstrong) and Jackie (Joanna Bacon).”

Kathy A. McDonald Once bohemian and artsy, the leafy bayside enclave of Miami’s Coconut Grove has gone decidedly upscale. In 2022, the suburb was home to Miami’s priciest residential real estate transaction when entrepreneur and Citadel CEO Ken Griffin paid $106 million for two mansions on a combined lot with expansive bayfront frontage and unobstructed views. Jill Hertzberg of the Jills Zeder Group at Coldwell Banker Realty, who represented Griffin, describes the 4-acre estate as akin to a Picasso and “priceless.”  The pandemic accelerated the Grove’s popularity, attracting transplants from New York, Chicago (such as Griffin) and California due to its proximity to all things great about Miami — including well-regarded private schools, a relatively quick drive to downtown, sophisticated dining, bayside parks and the revitalized Dinner Key pleasure boat marina. According to One Sotheby’s Intl. Realty’s February Florida East Coast Market Report, median single-family-home prices in Coconut Grove were up 43.5% year-over-year. 

APPOINTMENTSThe UK’s Featured Artists Coalition has announced 20 new Artist Ambassadors. They are Beabadoobee, Portishead’s Adrian Utley, Steve Mason, Maya Jane Coles, Mr Scruff, Carl Cox, Laura Jones, Constant Follower, Hamish Hawk, Idlewild’s Rod Jones, Andro, She Drew The Gun’s Louisa Roach, Big Joanie, New Pagans, Band Of Skulls’ Russell Marsden, Keedz, Lex Amor, Emmavie, Emily Saunders and Billie Marten.

EXCLUSIVE: Avalon, the production company behind HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and FX/Sky comedy Breeders, has hired Jenelle Lindsay as Executive Vice President of Television.