There are more than 670 events being held in the UK in 2010, according to efestivals.co.uk guide. PRS For Music put the boom down to promoters appealing to all types of music fan by offering a wider variety of events, with innovations including crèches for families. "They're growing this market with incredible acumen," Mr Page said at the Great Escape music convention in Brighton.
In 2008, fans spent more money on live music than recorded music for the first time in modern history, and that gap has now widened. Sales of CDs, records and digital downloads remained flat at £1.35bn in 2009.
Papal News - The winners of a TV talent show have beaten the Pope to the album of the year at the Classical Brit Awards. Only Men Aloud, winners of the BBC's Last Choir Standing, won with Band of Brothers, beating Alma Mater's Music From The Vatican, featuring the Pope. Other winners included conductor Vasily Petrenko and soprano Angela Gheorghiu. Soprano Kiri Te Kanawa was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the ceremony hosted by Myleene Klass at London's Royal Albert Hall.
Bird Song - Former Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker has teamed up with The National Trust to release an album of birdsong, trickling water and creaking stairs. The rock singer swapped guitars for country gardens to create the 13 tracks of sounds from the Trust's properties. Cocker said the album, a free download, would provide a "holiday for the ears". He said: "It's not really meant to be listened to intently, like a piece of music, but more as something to have on in the background to aid relaxation."
Sound engineers spent three months recording background sounds at historic houses and peaceful parks across the UK, and Cocker then mixed and produced the final album. The 33-minute recording includes the sound of a game of billiards at Upton House, Warwickshire, a music box playing in the nursery at Lanhydrock, Cornwall, birdsong at Belton House, Lincolnshire, and lapping waves on Brownsea Island, Dorset.
Rock Politics - Rock band Keane have called the Conservative Party's use of one of their hits during the election campaign an "abuse of privilege". The group's Richard Hughes told BBC Radio 4's Front Row programme that their use of Everybody's Changing "implied support in a political party". Hughes also revealed that he had not voted for the Conservative Party at the general election. The Sussex band are at number one in the album chart with Night Train.
(Jim Evans)
