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The Age
Monday March 28, 2011
ZIGGY'S 'TOY' AT PLAYTHE bottom fell out of the David Bowie bootleg market last Tuesday with the online leak of his shelved 2001 album Toy, something of a holy grail for fans. The catalyst was an eBay listing out of Brisbane. Torrentfreak.com traced the leak to a Bristol collector "very angry" at traders profiteering behind his hero's back. Ironically, the Brisbane connection says his eBay account was misused by a "fraud- ulent" third party who he suspects never actually possessed the formerly rare 14-song disc. Bowie has not commented but a nine-year-old quote is characteristically prescient: "I'm fully confident that copyright . . . will no longer exist in 10 years."ARMY IDOLSIX soon-to-be identified soldiers handpicked from the armed services of Australia and New Zealand are on tenterhooks this week as Warner Music Australia decides which three will form a new vocal supergroup, the Diggers. Following the massive UK success of The Soldiers, the plan is an album of war-themed favourites in time for Anzac Day, with part proceeds going to Legacy. Tunes under consideration include Khe Sanh, I Was Only 19 and True Blue. Knockout auditions and recording sessions will happen in the week beginning April 9. Warner's Gordon Maddock says he is open to discussion with TV partners.SNAIL-MAIL MANYOU won't find Californian folkie Cass McCombs on Twitter, and his Facebook announcements are suspiciously impersonal. In the lead-up to his new album, Wit's End, he has announced he will only answer questions that arrive in his mailbox via America's postal service. Among the first to find a stamp was online zine Stereogum, which received a (typed) letter of reply decrying technology, celebrity and materialism and specifying that his music is "not intended to be sold, it's just intended to be traded, like a [Grateful] Dead tape". This might be news to Domino, the UK record company sorting his post.GREEK MASTERSGREEK ensemble En Chordais combines Byzantine influences with modern compositions, taking in different traditions from the eastern Mediterranean. The five-man group, which won the Prix France Musique des Musiques Du Monde in 2008, performs at the Melbourne Recital Centre at 7.30pm on Wednesday in its first Australian tour. The group's artistic director and oud player, Kyriakos Kalaitzidis, has a PhD in musicology and is renowned for his passion about the theory and history of music. Members of the group are also composers and see their music as linking the past to the future. Book online or phone 9699 3333.MUSICAL BOUNTYGOVERNMENT House is hosting a free chamber music concert at 10.30am on Wednesday, featuring Duo Axis, pianist Stefan Cassomenos and cellist Michael Dahlenburg. Both young musicians are veterans of Melbourne's booming chamber-music scene, with Dahlenburg's group, the Hamer Quartet, a winner of the 2009 Asia Pacific Chamber Music Competition. The Government House series was introduced by Governor David de Kretser last year to encourage young musicians and to allow Victorians to experience the spectacular state ballroom. Book on 9682 3411.
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