The Rolling Stones’ history is wild and controversial full of sex drugs bust-ups scandal and death
The Rolling Stones’ history is wild and controversial, full of sex, drugs, bust-ups, scandal and death. Disappointing, then, says Charles Shaar Murray, that a tome written by Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie doesn’t tell the whole story
Some years ago, Mick Jagger decided that it was time to write his autobiography. These “gold” singles will be charged at a premium rate of £1.19 per track.Analysts believe the move, which makes tracks available to 50 million potential customers up to six weeks before they reach the shops, will help revive the singles market, which has fallen by 35 per cent in Britain in the past five years.The service follows the success in the US of Apple’s iTunes, a similar virtual music store, which sold five million songs in its first two months and offers tracks from its catalogue of 200,000 for 99 cents (62p).Microsoft denied the MSN Music Club was an attempt to take back territory gained by iTunes, which is not yet available in Europe. The Microsoft online shop, which is available across Europe, will feature artists including Ms Dynamite, David Gray and Kylie Minogue, as well as musicians from independent labels.It is the first time the five main labels – Warner, BMG, Universal, Sony and EMI – have opened a substantial part of their catalogues to an internet provider such as Microsoft. A spokesman for OD2 said: “This is the first time that consumers can access a huge library of legitimate digital music, download it and keep it on a pay-as-you-go basis.”The venture will also try to steal a march on high street retailers by putting new releases online as soon as they are made available to radio stations. The creators of the virtual record shop, which uses a catalogue of 200,000 tracks provided by OD2, a digital music venture set up by the musician Peter Gabriel, hope to attract users of the illegal download sites and open the digital market to new users.For record company executives, a change in the music download trend cannot come soon enough.According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the annual trade in illegally copied music, ranging from downloaded tracks shared between teenagers to industrial-scale CD production by criminal gangs, is worth £2.86bn – more than the legitimate market in any country after America and Japan.Record companies claim that a global fall in CD sales of 17 per cent over the past two years is largely due to file sharing.
The multibillion-pound battle between record companies and websites downloading “pirated” music to millions of internet users intensified yesterday with the launch of Europe’s first pay-as-you-go online music shop.
The MSN Music Club is the result of a deal between the world’s largest software company, Microsoft, and the five leading global music producers, who are so desperate to reverse the success of the free file-swapping sites that they are undercutting their retail prices.Music fans can download tunes onto a CD or digital player for between 75p and 99p a track or £7.99 an album – a third less than the high street price. When ready, let the chicken rest for a few minutes, serve and bask in the praise of your guests.”Sir Clement Freud is the rector of St Andrews University and appears in ‘Clement Freud Entertains’ at the King’s Head Theatre, London N1, on 7 and 8 September. Dissolve the butter in the wok and stir.”Pour the seasoned butter over the chicken. Bake it in a medium-hot (gas mark 6/200C) oven for an hour, turning it over halfway through and basting it occasionally. You should pay around £2.50.”Ingredients (serves 4):1 large fresh chicken1 level tspn Maldon sea salt3 tbspns sherry vinegar75g butter”In a wok or frying pan, dissolve the salt in the sherry vinegar and when this bubbles over a low heat, simmer the chicken therein, turning it so that all outside parts are slightly coloured.”When the liquid hascooked away, place the chicken breast down on a roasting dish. Simplicity is the key to good entertaining, says Sir Clement. He suggests a classic roast chicken, preceded by a first course of no-fuss chilled soup.
For this reason poached eggs with hollandaise sauce, cheese souffl?and baked Alaska should not feature on informal supper menus.”Start with an iced vichyssoise. Buy a carton or tin of vichyssoise, or some similar soup, in a supermarket, pour it into a liquidiser, add some Maldon sea salt, a fifth of the soup’s quantity in single cream and six ice cubes. Blend, strain into bowls that have been in the freezer, add freshly chopped chives and serve.”The best roast chicken need not be home-reared and hand-fed Buy one in the supermarket. Eat-in only (£3.50 a bowl; 020-7580 3050).WaitroseLemon sorbet is the classic palate cleanser, but hard to get right: supermarket versions can taste slightly chemical. Things have got considerably easier since technology gave us the freezer and the gelato machine, and now we can try sophisticated flavours such as elderflower, cardamom, chocolate, rose and mint.
Get your licks before the mercury dips again and we all start dreaming of treacle pud.
Where to buy:Minghella’sTheir raspberry sorbet has just won a gold at the Great Taste Awards and can be bought online at For £39.95 you can have any six 500ml sorbets delivered to your door (01983 883545).Rocombe FarmIts mango variety has a clean taste and natural velvety texture – very like a mango, in fact. From Rocombe Farm ice cream parlour, Torquay (£3.49 for 500ml; 01803 293996) and Harvey Nichols Food Markets across the UK (020-7235 5000).Carluccio’s CaffeDelicate flavours feature on the Al Fresco menu at Carluccio’s: rose, orange and cardamom, and green apple. It’s been rather too exhausting, this prolonged hot spell. Gastronaut has almost lost the will to chew, let alone cook anything. How very grateful we are, then, that some 2,000 years ago Emperor Nero hit upon the idea of sorbet – a dish that gives maximum cool refreshment in return for minimum effort from the eater. Which is not to understate the toil involved in its conception: while Nero fiddled, his luckless slaves froze on the Appian Way, gathering buckets of snow and passing them back, hand-over-shivering-hand, to his kitchens, where the contents were flavoured with honey and wine. Surprise your partner by making them an omelette to remember.
