Talk show host Oprah Winfrey is to look for a new TV host on a show due to air on her new television network.
Winfrey has teamed up with reality TV producer Mark Burnett for the show, which starts in January when OWN - The Oprah Winfrey Network launches.
Hopefuls are already being invited to upload videos in a number of categories including interior design and cooking.
Winfrey's long-running talk show is coming to an end in September 2011 after 25 seasons.
Burnett told the Associated Press: "Much in the way American Idol finds unknown people, there's no reason we can't find someone who deserves their own show."
While visitors to Oprah's website can watch hopefuls and vote for them, auditions are taking place in Texas and California this month.
"Try to be authentically yourself. Show energy," added Burnett, indicating that energy and charisma were the key to being a successful TV host.
The presenter of the programme, which will be called Your Own Show: Oprah's Search for the Next TV Star, has yet to be announced.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Singer Chris Brown denied entry to the UK
US singer Chris Brown has been forced to postpone his UK tour after being denied a visa to enter the country, it has been confirmed.
Brown was refused permission on the grounds of being guilty of a serious criminal offence, the Home Office said.
He was sentenced to a community service order for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, singer Rihanna, last February.
The musician was due to play three UK concerts, starting in Glasgow on Wednesday night.
Two further dates in London, Birmingham and Manchester had also been planned, along with a concert Cork, the Irish Republic which has been shelved too.
Tour promoters SJM confirmed the concerts have been postponed "due to unforseen circumstances".
They advised concert-goers to hold onto their tickets as there would be "possible re-arranged dates".
Sony Music also confirmed that the singer's tour has been postponed "due to issues surrounding his work visa".
"Chris looks forward to performing for his fans abroad in the near future and thanks them for their continued support," it added.
Brown had posted on his Twitter feed that he had been denied entry to the UK, but the entries were subsequently removed.
In a statement, the Home Office said: "We reserve the right to refuse entry to the UK to anyone guilty of a serious criminal offence. Public safety is one of our primary concerns.
"Each application to enter the UK is considered on its individual merits," it added.
Brown was refused permission on the grounds of being guilty of a serious criminal offence, the Home Office said.
He was sentenced to a community service order for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, singer Rihanna, last February.
The musician was due to play three UK concerts, starting in Glasgow on Wednesday night.
Two further dates in London, Birmingham and Manchester had also been planned, along with a concert Cork, the Irish Republic which has been shelved too.
Tour promoters SJM confirmed the concerts have been postponed "due to unforseen circumstances".
They advised concert-goers to hold onto their tickets as there would be "possible re-arranged dates".
Sony Music also confirmed that the singer's tour has been postponed "due to issues surrounding his work visa".
"Chris looks forward to performing for his fans abroad in the near future and thanks them for their continued support," it added.
Brown had posted on his Twitter feed that he had been denied entry to the UK, but the entries were subsequently removed.
In a statement, the Home Office said: "We reserve the right to refuse entry to the UK to anyone guilty of a serious criminal offence. Public safety is one of our primary concerns.
"Each application to enter the UK is considered on its individual merits," it added.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Ticket inflation
We all know about the rising cost of living, with official figures last month revealing that consumer prices inflation (CPI) had leapt to 3.5%. But there is another CPI that seems to be shooting up much faster – concert price inflation.
Many long-time gig and festival-goers are paying significantly more than they were just a few years ago to see the same act, or attend the same event – and that's even before the myriad fees and charges are added on.
Perhaps the most extreme example of gig ticket inflation is the cost of seeing Lady Gaga strutting her eccentric stuff. The triple Brit Award winner has just finished a string of UK arena shows, with tickets priced at between £27.50 and £35.
However, tickets for the extra dates in London, Manchester and Birmingham in May and June, which went on sale this week, carry a £50 to £75 price tag. That is despite the fact it is the same tour, visiting the same venues, just three months later. The star's debut album is called The Fame, which might prompt some fans to ruefully recall that famous line in the eponymous 1980s TV series: "Fame costs. And right here's where you start paying …"
But it's not only Lady Gaga. Tickets went on sale this week for the Latitude Festival in Suffolk – a highlight of many a Guardian reader's calendar, which will this year be headlined by Florence and the Machine, Belle and Sebastian, and Vampire Weekend. This is the fifth Latitude, taking place on 15-18 July, and weekend tickets have risen to £155, with day tickets rising to £65.
That compares with the £95 and £40 respectively that punters attending the first Latitude in 2006 paid – quite a hike in the space of four years.
However, while some fans on the festival's forums were complaining, others seemed relatively relieved the cost had "only" risen by £5 since last year (weekend tickets were £150 in 2009, while day tickets were £60). Of course, the granddaddy of music festivals is Glastonbury, which, this year, takes place on 23-27 June and will see U2 make their debut appearance at the Somerset institution.
Tickets were quick to sell out, despite costing £185 each (plus £5 per ticket booking fee, and £4.95 postage and packing) – £10 more than last year, and £30 up on 2008.
In fact, Glasto tickets have more than doubled in price over the past decade; they cost £87 in 2000, when David Bowie was among the acts delivering storming sets. Turn the clock back 20 years to 1990 and you would have handed over £38 to see bands such as the Cure and Happy Mondays.
There are plenty of examples of what some would say are simply crazy prices:
• Aerosmith at the 02 Arena, London, on 15 June – £106 from Ticketmaster (£95 + £11 fees)
• Bon Jovi at the 02 Arena in June – £51.25 to £215 from Ticketmaster (face values £45-£200)
• Paul McCartney "Platinum Package" tickets for Hard Rock Calling in London's Hyde Park on 27 June – £938.83 (yes, that's not a misprint). Includes a champagne reception at Abbey Road Studios, three-course lunch, free bar ("excludes champagne"), VIP seating and other perks.
Standard McCartney tickets are available at £62.50 plus fees. When Bruce Springsteen headlined Hard Rock Calling last year, standard tickets cost a lot less – £45 plus fees. Some might wonder whether the price differential has anything to do with Springsteen tickets selling out in a matter of hours, and many then turning up for sale at much higher prices on resale sites such as Seatwave.
So it is perhaps no surprise to discover that these price rises are officially running ahead of inflation. The Office for National Statistics told Guardian Money that, while consumer prices as a whole were up 3.5% in the year to January, "cultural services", which includes live music, cinema and theatre tickets, were up 5.6%.
For those who still want their festival fix, but can't afford the high prices, the answer is probably to turn to one of the scores of smaller events popping up all over the country. According to website efestivals.co.uk, there are 491 festivals in the UK between this weekend and the end of the year, so there's bound to be something for every taste.
Meanwhile, growing numbers of music fans have been giving the UK a miss altogether and packing their bags for warmer climes. Benicassim, Spain's major festival, is an increasingly popular draw. This year it is on 15-18 July, and will feature appearances from the Prodigy, Kasabian and Vampire Weekend. A four-day ticket costs £160 and includes free camping between 12-20 July, so you can make a holiday out of it. The site, near Valencia, is just a stroll from the beach.
But good weather is far from guaranteed; last year, strong winds caused havoc, forcing Kings of Leon to cancel their headlining slot – which may be why the price was frozen this year.
Responding to the Lady Gaga controversy, promoter Live Nation insists the prices are "comparable and fair" adding: "What was a small arena/theatre production is now a massive, first-rate arena production. Ticket prices for the previous dates were set long before the current Monster Ball [tour] was developed."
The Paparazzi singer's new dates are Birmingham LG Arena on 28 May, London 02 on 30 May, and Manchester MEN Arena on 2 June. She played the same venues earlier this year.
Asked about the price hikes over the years, a spokesman for Glastonbury Festival spokesman told us: "Running a festival for 140,000 people in the middle of the countryside is inevitably expensive, and the costs of things like diesel fuel have risen substantially. We're also always investing in improvements, such as £250,000 this year for a new drinking water reservoir."
He added: "We offer fantastic value for a show you couldn't find anywhere else – five days of fun, something like 2,000 performances across dozens of stages and venues, free programme, no hidden extras plus all the magic that Glastonbury offers – and we still manage to donate £2m a year to good causes.
"The fact that nearly all our tickets for 2010 were snapped up last October suggests our audience agrees."
Another big cost a few years ago was a steel fence installed after a mass break-in in 2000 brought vast numbers of people on to the site.
Many long-time gig and festival-goers are paying significantly more than they were just a few years ago to see the same act, or attend the same event – and that's even before the myriad fees and charges are added on.
Perhaps the most extreme example of gig ticket inflation is the cost of seeing Lady Gaga strutting her eccentric stuff. The triple Brit Award winner has just finished a string of UK arena shows, with tickets priced at between £27.50 and £35.
However, tickets for the extra dates in London, Manchester and Birmingham in May and June, which went on sale this week, carry a £50 to £75 price tag. That is despite the fact it is the same tour, visiting the same venues, just three months later. The star's debut album is called The Fame, which might prompt some fans to ruefully recall that famous line in the eponymous 1980s TV series: "Fame costs. And right here's where you start paying …"
But it's not only Lady Gaga. Tickets went on sale this week for the Latitude Festival in Suffolk – a highlight of many a Guardian reader's calendar, which will this year be headlined by Florence and the Machine, Belle and Sebastian, and Vampire Weekend. This is the fifth Latitude, taking place on 15-18 July, and weekend tickets have risen to £155, with day tickets rising to £65.
That compares with the £95 and £40 respectively that punters attending the first Latitude in 2006 paid – quite a hike in the space of four years.
However, while some fans on the festival's forums were complaining, others seemed relatively relieved the cost had "only" risen by £5 since last year (weekend tickets were £150 in 2009, while day tickets were £60). Of course, the granddaddy of music festivals is Glastonbury, which, this year, takes place on 23-27 June and will see U2 make their debut appearance at the Somerset institution.
Tickets were quick to sell out, despite costing £185 each (plus £5 per ticket booking fee, and £4.95 postage and packing) – £10 more than last year, and £30 up on 2008.
In fact, Glasto tickets have more than doubled in price over the past decade; they cost £87 in 2000, when David Bowie was among the acts delivering storming sets. Turn the clock back 20 years to 1990 and you would have handed over £38 to see bands such as the Cure and Happy Mondays.
There are plenty of examples of what some would say are simply crazy prices:
• Aerosmith at the 02 Arena, London, on 15 June – £106 from Ticketmaster (£95 + £11 fees)
• Bon Jovi at the 02 Arena in June – £51.25 to £215 from Ticketmaster (face values £45-£200)
• Paul McCartney "Platinum Package" tickets for Hard Rock Calling in London's Hyde Park on 27 June – £938.83 (yes, that's not a misprint). Includes a champagne reception at Abbey Road Studios, three-course lunch, free bar ("excludes champagne"), VIP seating and other perks.
Standard McCartney tickets are available at £62.50 plus fees. When Bruce Springsteen headlined Hard Rock Calling last year, standard tickets cost a lot less – £45 plus fees. Some might wonder whether the price differential has anything to do with Springsteen tickets selling out in a matter of hours, and many then turning up for sale at much higher prices on resale sites such as Seatwave.
So it is perhaps no surprise to discover that these price rises are officially running ahead of inflation. The Office for National Statistics told Guardian Money that, while consumer prices as a whole were up 3.5% in the year to January, "cultural services", which includes live music, cinema and theatre tickets, were up 5.6%.
For those who still want their festival fix, but can't afford the high prices, the answer is probably to turn to one of the scores of smaller events popping up all over the country. According to website efestivals.co.uk, there are 491 festivals in the UK between this weekend and the end of the year, so there's bound to be something for every taste.
Meanwhile, growing numbers of music fans have been giving the UK a miss altogether and packing their bags for warmer climes. Benicassim, Spain's major festival, is an increasingly popular draw. This year it is on 15-18 July, and will feature appearances from the Prodigy, Kasabian and Vampire Weekend. A four-day ticket costs £160 and includes free camping between 12-20 July, so you can make a holiday out of it. The site, near Valencia, is just a stroll from the beach.
But good weather is far from guaranteed; last year, strong winds caused havoc, forcing Kings of Leon to cancel their headlining slot – which may be why the price was frozen this year.
Responding to the Lady Gaga controversy, promoter Live Nation insists the prices are "comparable and fair" adding: "What was a small arena/theatre production is now a massive, first-rate arena production. Ticket prices for the previous dates were set long before the current Monster Ball [tour] was developed."
The Paparazzi singer's new dates are Birmingham LG Arena on 28 May, London 02 on 30 May, and Manchester MEN Arena on 2 June. She played the same venues earlier this year.
Asked about the price hikes over the years, a spokesman for Glastonbury Festival spokesman told us: "Running a festival for 140,000 people in the middle of the countryside is inevitably expensive, and the costs of things like diesel fuel have risen substantially. We're also always investing in improvements, such as £250,000 this year for a new drinking water reservoir."
He added: "We offer fantastic value for a show you couldn't find anywhere else – five days of fun, something like 2,000 performances across dozens of stages and venues, free programme, no hidden extras plus all the magic that Glastonbury offers – and we still manage to donate £2m a year to good causes.
"The fact that nearly all our tickets for 2010 were snapped up last October suggests our audience agrees."
Another big cost a few years ago was a steel fence installed after a mass break-in in 2000 brought vast numbers of people on to the site.
Internet agog for Lady Gaga's provocative video to Telephone
With some grunts, G-strings, heavy product placement and an enormous amount of hype, the 21st century's take on feminism and social commentary arrived this week with the video to Lady Gaga and Beyonce's duet, Telephone. Within 12 hours of the video being released on the internet it had half a million hits and nearly as many blogs eagerly dissecting the possible meanings behind the nine-minute video.
Already being touted by some as the successor to Michael Jackson's Thriller, Telephone continues Gaga's tradition of elevating her songs with clever videos. This time she and director Jonas Akerlund have created a melange of Russ Meyers, Quentin Tarantino, Thelma and Louise and the brief incarceration of Paris Hilton to make a film about lesbian murderers, set to the lyrics of a woman complaining about people phoning her in a nightclub.
While Beyonce is clearly the more talented, her brand of sexiness looks dated next to Gaga. Bloggers have been decoding the meaning behind the sunglasses made of cigarettes, but one might just as well try to decipher the dress Gaga once wore made of Kermit the Frogs: she does it because it's funny.
Gaga, never averse to ascribing depths to her work where others might see shallows, has claimed that the video's meaning came from "the idea that America is full of young people that are inundated with information and technology". Her intention, accordingly, was to "turn it into something that was more of a commentary on the kind of country that we are".
For
Forget outrage, just enjoy it
Some taboos are still alive and kicking. Lady Gaga and Beyonce's prison "lezz-ploitation" video has caused outrage, featuring as it does butch dykes, chicks with dicks, horny female prison wardens perusing lesbian dating sites – oh, and a bit of mass murder.
Early in the video there is a scene in the prison yard featuring a lesbian snog between a butch lesbian in leather and Lady Gaga, who is wearing a pair of sunglasses made from burning cigarettes. It's hard to know what to be outraged about first. The answer is, nothing – the answer is just enjoy it.
It's a cross between Tenko, Prisoner Cell Block H, a ghetto-girl Malory Towers and Thelma and Louise, as re-imagined by David Lachapelle and Betty Paige, only this time our heroines don't have to die. Instead, they drive into the sunset in Beyonce's "pussymobile" after Beyonce has turned to her (we assume) lover and said: "You've been a very, very bad girl, Gaga."
Women in prison exploitation movies took off in the 1950s thanks to the influence of pulp magazines with films such as Caged and So Young So Bad. But unlike them, there are no sadistic male guards in this one. While there are obligatory scenes such as the strip search ("I told you she didn't have a dick," says one guard) and the cat fights with the queen bee gang leader, the chicks are all doing it for themselves.
It's a silly, sexy, funny film for a song about the nightmare of having a mobile phone, ridden with product placement from the phone company logo on Gaga's screen to the cans of Diet Coke rollers in her locks, and it feels very zeitgeisty – a big, female power fantasy. These aren't just tough but hot tough chicks who can take care of themselves – like Trudy Chacon in Avatar, the cute Latina helicopter pilot, who's the sort of person you want looking after you if you find yourself in lost in a mad sci-fi jungle.
In terms of "all girls together" videos, it reminded me of Britney Spears' One More Time, only Lady Gaga has moved beyond the lame message of turning yourself into a Lolita schoolgirl, and has instead decided to turn the world completely lesbian – and good on her and her tattooed sisters in their studded leather bikinis, roaming the world avenging themselves on bad people.
Stephanie Theobold
Against
The same old boring sexism
Say what you like about Lady Gaga – everyone else does – but when it comes to colour and controversy she certainly delivers. She's appeared in hats shaped like lobsters, shoes resembling armadillos, dancing in a white latex catsuit in her Bad Romance video. She's regularly seen wandering around with a small china teacup and saucer in hand, apropros of nothing (this last affectation gets no less irritating).
What we get now is a cartoon-ish explosion of sex and violence. It starts with Gaga being taken into a women's prison, led past bra-clad, tattoo-covered inmates, who are writhing against the doors to their cells – and occasionally pausing (as you do) to lick the bars. Gaga is wearing a low-cut outfit, and as she gets thrown into her cell, she's stripped by the guards, revealing just a pair of fishnets and black plasters over her nipples.
When the cell door closes, she throws herself against it, and although her pubis is pixelated, the screen grab enables her to rebuke those tired old rumours of hermaphroditism. "I told you she didn't have a dick," says one guard. "Too bad," says the other.
There follow lesbian kisses, a mass poisoning, and a double act with Beyonce – the two drive off in a lurid vehicle nicknamed the "pussy wagon". Gaga has apparently said that the video was inspired by Quentin Tarantino's work, but the references reach further back to the 1960s exploitation flicks of Roger Corman and Russ Meyer's Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.
These references coat the whole video in a slick film of irony, and make the whole enterprise seem occasionally funny and always ridiculous. But also, strangely, a little bit dull. Because if there's one thing that we've seen a thousand times over the past few decades, it's old-style sexism dressed up as new-style irony. Does the fact that Gaga seems to be winking knowingly at the camera as she dances in a bikini make the vision any less predictable, any less boring, any less reminiscent of sexist video after sexist video that you've seen in the past few years? Nope.
It's a disappointment from someone who seems to be popping with so many ideas. Gaga will do something great, I'm sure. But this isn't it.
Kira Cochrane
Already being touted by some as the successor to Michael Jackson's Thriller, Telephone continues Gaga's tradition of elevating her songs with clever videos. This time she and director Jonas Akerlund have created a melange of Russ Meyers, Quentin Tarantino, Thelma and Louise and the brief incarceration of Paris Hilton to make a film about lesbian murderers, set to the lyrics of a woman complaining about people phoning her in a nightclub.
While Beyonce is clearly the more talented, her brand of sexiness looks dated next to Gaga. Bloggers have been decoding the meaning behind the sunglasses made of cigarettes, but one might just as well try to decipher the dress Gaga once wore made of Kermit the Frogs: she does it because it's funny.
Gaga, never averse to ascribing depths to her work where others might see shallows, has claimed that the video's meaning came from "the idea that America is full of young people that are inundated with information and technology". Her intention, accordingly, was to "turn it into something that was more of a commentary on the kind of country that we are".
For
Forget outrage, just enjoy it
Some taboos are still alive and kicking. Lady Gaga and Beyonce's prison "lezz-ploitation" video has caused outrage, featuring as it does butch dykes, chicks with dicks, horny female prison wardens perusing lesbian dating sites – oh, and a bit of mass murder.
Early in the video there is a scene in the prison yard featuring a lesbian snog between a butch lesbian in leather and Lady Gaga, who is wearing a pair of sunglasses made from burning cigarettes. It's hard to know what to be outraged about first. The answer is, nothing – the answer is just enjoy it.
It's a cross between Tenko, Prisoner Cell Block H, a ghetto-girl Malory Towers and Thelma and Louise, as re-imagined by David Lachapelle and Betty Paige, only this time our heroines don't have to die. Instead, they drive into the sunset in Beyonce's "pussymobile" after Beyonce has turned to her (we assume) lover and said: "You've been a very, very bad girl, Gaga."
Women in prison exploitation movies took off in the 1950s thanks to the influence of pulp magazines with films such as Caged and So Young So Bad. But unlike them, there are no sadistic male guards in this one. While there are obligatory scenes such as the strip search ("I told you she didn't have a dick," says one guard) and the cat fights with the queen bee gang leader, the chicks are all doing it for themselves.
It's a silly, sexy, funny film for a song about the nightmare of having a mobile phone, ridden with product placement from the phone company logo on Gaga's screen to the cans of Diet Coke rollers in her locks, and it feels very zeitgeisty – a big, female power fantasy. These aren't just tough but hot tough chicks who can take care of themselves – like Trudy Chacon in Avatar, the cute Latina helicopter pilot, who's the sort of person you want looking after you if you find yourself in lost in a mad sci-fi jungle.
In terms of "all girls together" videos, it reminded me of Britney Spears' One More Time, only Lady Gaga has moved beyond the lame message of turning yourself into a Lolita schoolgirl, and has instead decided to turn the world completely lesbian – and good on her and her tattooed sisters in their studded leather bikinis, roaming the world avenging themselves on bad people.
Stephanie Theobold
Against
The same old boring sexism
Say what you like about Lady Gaga – everyone else does – but when it comes to colour and controversy she certainly delivers. She's appeared in hats shaped like lobsters, shoes resembling armadillos, dancing in a white latex catsuit in her Bad Romance video. She's regularly seen wandering around with a small china teacup and saucer in hand, apropros of nothing (this last affectation gets no less irritating).
What we get now is a cartoon-ish explosion of sex and violence. It starts with Gaga being taken into a women's prison, led past bra-clad, tattoo-covered inmates, who are writhing against the doors to their cells – and occasionally pausing (as you do) to lick the bars. Gaga is wearing a low-cut outfit, and as she gets thrown into her cell, she's stripped by the guards, revealing just a pair of fishnets and black plasters over her nipples.
When the cell door closes, she throws herself against it, and although her pubis is pixelated, the screen grab enables her to rebuke those tired old rumours of hermaphroditism. "I told you she didn't have a dick," says one guard. "Too bad," says the other.
There follow lesbian kisses, a mass poisoning, and a double act with Beyonce – the two drive off in a lurid vehicle nicknamed the "pussy wagon". Gaga has apparently said that the video was inspired by Quentin Tarantino's work, but the references reach further back to the 1960s exploitation flicks of Roger Corman and Russ Meyer's Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.
These references coat the whole video in a slick film of irony, and make the whole enterprise seem occasionally funny and always ridiculous. But also, strangely, a little bit dull. Because if there's one thing that we've seen a thousand times over the past few decades, it's old-style sexism dressed up as new-style irony. Does the fact that Gaga seems to be winking knowingly at the camera as she dances in a bikini make the vision any less predictable, any less boring, any less reminiscent of sexist video after sexist video that you've seen in the past few years? Nope.
It's a disappointment from someone who seems to be popping with so many ideas. Gaga will do something great, I'm sure. But this isn't it.
Kira Cochrane
Manchester United ban players from speaking about anti-Glazer movement
Manchester United are so concerned about the increasing success of the green-and-gold protests that the club have effectively forbidden Sir Alex Ferguson's players from speaking about it publicly and imposed a series of other measures aimed at counteracting the kind of publicity generated by David Beckham's endorsement of the campaign.
Beckham's parting statement after United's 4-0 defeat of Milan on Wednesday, leaving the pitch with a protest scarf around his neck, is being described as "an iconic moment" by the Manchester United Supporters' Trust (Must), and senior figures at Old Trafford are worried about the significance of the most famous sportsman on the planet attaching himself to a movement aimed at deposing the ruling Glazer family.
In response the club have already:
• Banned players from discussing the campaign in the media.
• Forbidden the in-house TV station, MUTV, from referring to the rebellion and edited questions about it from broadcasts of Ferguson's press conferences.
• Ejected a supporter from the audience of an MUTV show after he refused to remove a green-and-gold scarf.
• Sacked a steward after 19 years' service for attempting to return a confiscated anti-Glazer banner to its owners.
The club has reluctantly accepted the protests will continue for as long as the Glazers are in power. David Gill, the chief executive, predicted yesterday that would be "many more" than five years.
While Beckham's latest fashion statement has been shown around the world, attracting headlines from the Boston Herald to the Times of India, MUTV has chosen to ignore what happened. Similarly Ferguson's remarks about the protests in recent weeks have been edited out when the rest of his press conferences have been aired in full. One supporter was ejected from the audience of the MUTV show, Red Cafe, when he refused to remove his green and gold scarf, security staff telling him that the colours were not allowed inside the studio, and a steward was dismissed by CES, the security firm employed by United, after attempting to return a confiscated anti-Glazer banner during the home game against Burnley.
The initial hope inside the Old Trafford boardroom was that the protests would eventually fade out but the club's attempts to quell the uprising have been unsuccessful. Protests were so widespread during the Milan game that CES had to abandon its usual policy of trying to remove the many banners criticising the Glazers and Gill.
Avram Glazer was at the game, smuggled into the stadium in a car with blacked-out windows and shadowed by a personal bodyguard, and United employees noted how calm and unmoved he seemed.
"Everyone has the right to protest and there was certainly a lot of green and gold there," Gill said at the announcement of a five-year sponsorship deal with Telekom Malaysia. "But this partnership demonstrates the strength of the club. We will be around for the length of this five-year deal and many more in addition to that."
Beckham produced the perfect publicity coup for Must and an organisation whose membership has now passed 130,000 has also been buoyed by the appointment of the Japanese investment bank Nomura to advise the alliance of wealthy United followers who are planning a takeover bid. Nomura will "coordinate and formulate the proposal to be put to the Glazer family" and Must's spokesman, Duncan Drasdo, described the appointment as "hugely significant because it will start to crystallise the offer. We've seen a lot of interest from the so-called Red Knights and Nomura's job will be to organise it."
In the meantime Must has written an open letter asking for other "United legends" to follow Beckham's lead and attach themselves to the cause. "David courageously showed his true colours," the letter says. "The movement for change is becoming unstoppable and we know that David is not alone. From Eric Cantona to Andrew Cole, former players are making their feelings known."
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the club's reserve coach, is a patron of the organisation and has spoken out against the Glazers in the past but the only current player to sympathise has been Patrice Evra, in response to a French journalist who asked why the United end at Wembley was decked out in green and gold. "They are the original colours of Manchester United [as Newton Heath] and the fans wear them because they love this club," Evra said. "They have their reasons for doing it and we don't think that they're crazy."
Otherwise the players have been warned to say nothing. The captain, Gary Neville, was twice asked after Wednesday's match and kept to the party line, saying only: "I'm not getting involved in that."
Beckham's parting statement after United's 4-0 defeat of Milan on Wednesday, leaving the pitch with a protest scarf around his neck, is being described as "an iconic moment" by the Manchester United Supporters' Trust (Must), and senior figures at Old Trafford are worried about the significance of the most famous sportsman on the planet attaching himself to a movement aimed at deposing the ruling Glazer family.
In response the club have already:
• Banned players from discussing the campaign in the media.
• Forbidden the in-house TV station, MUTV, from referring to the rebellion and edited questions about it from broadcasts of Ferguson's press conferences.
• Ejected a supporter from the audience of an MUTV show after he refused to remove a green-and-gold scarf.
• Sacked a steward after 19 years' service for attempting to return a confiscated anti-Glazer banner to its owners.
The club has reluctantly accepted the protests will continue for as long as the Glazers are in power. David Gill, the chief executive, predicted yesterday that would be "many more" than five years.
While Beckham's latest fashion statement has been shown around the world, attracting headlines from the Boston Herald to the Times of India, MUTV has chosen to ignore what happened. Similarly Ferguson's remarks about the protests in recent weeks have been edited out when the rest of his press conferences have been aired in full. One supporter was ejected from the audience of the MUTV show, Red Cafe, when he refused to remove his green and gold scarf, security staff telling him that the colours were not allowed inside the studio, and a steward was dismissed by CES, the security firm employed by United, after attempting to return a confiscated anti-Glazer banner during the home game against Burnley.
The initial hope inside the Old Trafford boardroom was that the protests would eventually fade out but the club's attempts to quell the uprising have been unsuccessful. Protests were so widespread during the Milan game that CES had to abandon its usual policy of trying to remove the many banners criticising the Glazers and Gill.
Avram Glazer was at the game, smuggled into the stadium in a car with blacked-out windows and shadowed by a personal bodyguard, and United employees noted how calm and unmoved he seemed.
"Everyone has the right to protest and there was certainly a lot of green and gold there," Gill said at the announcement of a five-year sponsorship deal with Telekom Malaysia. "But this partnership demonstrates the strength of the club. We will be around for the length of this five-year deal and many more in addition to that."
Beckham produced the perfect publicity coup for Must and an organisation whose membership has now passed 130,000 has also been buoyed by the appointment of the Japanese investment bank Nomura to advise the alliance of wealthy United followers who are planning a takeover bid. Nomura will "coordinate and formulate the proposal to be put to the Glazer family" and Must's spokesman, Duncan Drasdo, described the appointment as "hugely significant because it will start to crystallise the offer. We've seen a lot of interest from the so-called Red Knights and Nomura's job will be to organise it."
In the meantime Must has written an open letter asking for other "United legends" to follow Beckham's lead and attach themselves to the cause. "David courageously showed his true colours," the letter says. "The movement for change is becoming unstoppable and we know that David is not alone. From Eric Cantona to Andrew Cole, former players are making their feelings known."
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the club's reserve coach, is a patron of the organisation and has spoken out against the Glazers in the past but the only current player to sympathise has been Patrice Evra, in response to a French journalist who asked why the United end at Wembley was decked out in green and gold. "They are the original colours of Manchester United [as Newton Heath] and the fans wear them because they love this club," Evra said. "They have their reasons for doing it and we don't think that they're crazy."
Otherwise the players have been warned to say nothing. The captain, Gary Neville, was twice asked after Wednesday's match and kept to the party line, saying only: "I'm not getting involved in that."
