Sad to relate that Charlie Gillett died today. As a DJ, writer, historian and independent record company boss, Charlie was responsible for the discovery of Ian Dury, Dire Straits and Lene Lovich, the genesis of the serious rock book and the popularisation of world music in the UK. He had a radio show in London for over 30 years. A full obituary will follow in the next issue of the magazine.

One of the things I like about this single, "Heartbreak Make Me A Dancer" is how Sophie uses the long "a" sound in the word "dancer". Of course, this is how a West London girl would normally say it, speaking in her normal Received Pronunciation, but ever since rock and roll was invented it's been the convention for British singers to use the short "a", as in David Bowie's "Let's Dance", for instance, in imitation of the black American way of pronouncing it. Any more long "a" sounds in British pop?

The papers are interpreting the Pink Floyd vs EMI court case as being all about whether you should download the whole of "Dark Side Of The Moon" from iTunes and play it as one complete track by the light of a single candle or whether you can cherry-pick the tracks you like and leave the rest by the side of your plate. This is not its main significance.

The bigger game is who gets to make those kind of decisions because it's above all about control. Pink Floyd, like many other "heritage" acts, own the masters of some of their albums but not others. This is for all sorts of historical reasons that didn't seem to be a problem back in the 70s when nobody thought they would be selling their music thirty years later. This current case is part of Pink Floyd's ongoing effort to get ownership of all of their masters. Whoever owns them gets to decide how they can be sold.

You can understand why the current owners of EMI, having paid a fortune for the company partly because of the richness of its back catalogue, wouldn't want this to happen. Once a band gets complete ownership of its masters there's nothing to stop it taking them to another record company or, presumably in this new world, doing without a record company altogether and cutting their own deal with people like iTunes. That's why the big acts are watching this with such interest, not because they're worried about the segues on Side Two.

It's lunchtime. Fraser's had chips. I had Thai. Sellers is doing soup. Meanwhile Creedence Clearwater Revival are playing on the Dansette and Mark Ellen and I are just batting back and forth on our favourite topic. To wit:
Is there, in the whole history of rock and roll, anyone who could both sing and play the guitar quite as well as John Fogerty?

I caught this documentary about Status Quo late at night nearly ten years ago and I've been dying to see it ever since. Today I've found it. It was made by Jane Treays who followed the band on a British tour in 2001. It's one of the most candid, touching films about what it means to have lived the rock and roll life that you'll ever see. The first part's here:

I knew it would eventually find its way on to You Tube. Some day soon every documentary ever made will join it. Why not find your favourite obscure documentary - it doesn't have to be about music - and add it here? Let's call it The Word/You Tube Documentary Festival. It's bound to be beat whatever's on tonight.

She won the Razzie Awards for the Worst Actress yesterday and she turned up to receive it and make a speech.

"Tell you what. You've got a beautiful spinal column. Turn around and we'll try a few that way."

Jerry Seinfeld's new show "The Marriage Ref", in which celebrities advise on couples' domestic issues, opened last night in the States to terrible reviews. I think it looks quite funny.

A few people have asked whether we're planning to do a Word App for the iPhone. The short answer is we'd love to but we've no idea how to go about it and we don't want to get taken to the cleaners by some developer. If anyone in the Massive would care to recommend anyone we could talk to that would be great. If you don't want to post it here please get in touch via david@wordmagazine.co.uk. Thanks.

Today on the show we got to wondering if BoC were the first to play the umlaut card. And who else has followed. I think they were the first. I also think their old "hook" logo was hijacked by Prince for his squiggle. He obviously was influenced by another minuscule front man.

Anyway I think it might be worth brainstorming at Word for other groups who have modified the language to achieve their brand. Have you done this already? The Monkees? Def Leppard? LED Zeppelin?

That's not how its spelt....

We published an extract of Greg Milner's excellent book "Perfecting Sound Forever" a year ago and featured him on a podcast.

He's over here next week and he's appearing at Foyles on Wednesday, March 3rd at 6.30. It's a terrific book and he's a really good talker so this promises to be an excellent evening, even better since there's no charge:

Using sound recordings and our own grand piano to bring to life the story of the revolutionary technologies that changed the way we listen to music, tonight Greg Milner, journalist and author of Perfecting Sound Forever, guides us through the fascinating history of recorded music.

Apply to events@foyles.co.uk if you want a ticket.

Cheryl Cole is said to be instigating a divorce. She's had enough of Ashley's philandering. This is not in itself surprising. What I'm really puzzled by is why people like this get married at all. "We're getting married because we're committing ourselves to spend our lives together," she said when they got married three years ago. She was just twenty-three and he was twenty-six. In many circles these days this would be considered a bit young to get married, all the more so if you were a pop star with a busy career and your intended was approaching the most hectic and demanding stage of a very high-profile sporting career. What would have been so wrong about waiting for a bit and seeing how things panned out?

As the American rock star John Mayer pointed out recently, Tiger Woods' problem wasn't the catting around; it was the fact that he was married. "I send dirty texts to girls all the time," Mayer added with the air of a man who was enjoying his bachelorhood to the full. Why shouldn't he?

I've got a theory. Contemporary stardom breeds really short attention spans. Today's stars don't believe they're alive unless they're reading about themselves in the papers, unless they've got a huge event to look forward to and to sell the rights to. Their personal life has to be a series of events, just like their professional life. We were noting in the office the current vogue for baby books. I see Tess Daley's book about idyllic domestic happiness has been spoiled by the fact that her husband Vernon Kay has been branded as a "sex text cheat" (great name for a band). Denise Van Outen has got a baby book coming out and she's not due until May!

Maybe all these people should hold off from getting married until the shine has gone off their fame and wealth. That way they're less likely to get their hearts broken in the full glare of the publicity that they brought upon themselves.

One of the great received wisdoms, which is repeated so many times that it goes without challenge, has surfaced again on this site in the course of discussing the Brits. It goes like this:

Bands are no longer given the time to develop that they once had.

In this instance it's applied to Kasabian but it could be anyone. It seems to imply that there was once a time when record companies used to give bands loads of money and then leave it to them when they delivered their records. That way they were allowed to mature like fine wine.

I don't remember this Eden and historical research doesn't support it either. Let's take, as an example, two bands from Leicester.

Kasabian put out their first album in 2004, their second in 2006 and their third, three years later in 2009.

It wasn't much different in the 90s. Cornershop, also from Leicester, put out their first album in 1994, their second in 1995 and then continued at two-yearly intervals until this century when there was a seven year gap between "Handcream For A Generation" and "Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast".

Family, who came from the same place, over thirty years earlier, put out their first album in 1968, their second the year after, then put out two albums in 1970, another in 1971, another in 1972 and their last in 1973.

It's also a myth that in the old days you would be kept on the label even if you didn't sell any records. A look at the late 60s/70s career of Soft Machine disproves this. They made ten albums between 1968 and 1978 but they were divided between three different labels. Contrast that with Supergrass who had their hits fifteen years ago but are still making records for the same label, EMI.

So if anything there is *less* pressure to produce on bands now than there was then.

So farewell, then, Dick Francis. You were a top jockey. Then you were a best-selling writer of detective fiction. Who else can say that they got to the top of two professions?