... Commission dispute blows up By HELEN GOULD OPINION in the entertainment businness was this week divided over the legal right of agents to continue charging acts commission several years after their contracts have expired. Variety performers asked The Stage to investigate after they were billed for commission for summer work although their bookings were not directly made through the agent who ...

... Protesters step up anti-circus attacks By ERIC JOYCE POLICE in Worthing are investigating a series of attacks on commer cial premises in the town following the council's decision to allow circus performances in the borough. This latest and so far more extreme protest by anti-circus activists coincid ed with the arrival of Chipperfield's Circus and included red paint bearing animal rights ...

... Napier Bell hits out at majors By HELEN GOULD POP management guru, Simon Napier Bell, has lashed out at major record companies for failing to invest enough money in fresh talent. Napier Bell, former manager of Wham!, Japan and The Yard- birds, accused large conglomerate technology and recording compa nies of pouring their profits into re-releasing old and existing artists on new formats such ...

... No go for gay club A LICENCE application for a Cardiff nightclub catering for gays has been turned down by city magistrates. Richard Abbott, the licensee of the Tunnel Club, applied for a provisional licence to open a new mem bers' club called The Exit in Charles Street, Cardiff. He told magistrates he had collected a petition of 1,125 signatures from people waiting to join the club. Abbott ...

... BTA say Tower is the tops BLACKPOOL Tower complex is the tops for visitors to the popular North West seaside resort, according to a British Tourist Association survey. The BTA's new league table of the top 20 admission charging attractions in the country reveals that the Tower now ranks as the sixth favourite site in the country. Last year it drew a total of !,426,000 tourists, with the number ...

... Russ's secret service SHOWBUSINESS gossips have been banned from a Blackpool show. After some of the stage secrets of master illusionist Russ Stevens were revealed before last year's opening night of Blackpool Horseshoe Showbar's Mystique production, tighter security has been imposed this year. We have asked all of the cast and backstage personnel to sign a secrecy agreement and not expose my ...

... Carmen ROH THIS DISAPPOINTING production by Nuria Espert, curiously old- fashioned and burdened with fussy detail, is shown in a cruel light when Maria Ewing is replaced by Kathleen Kuhlmann and her passionate lover is the colourless Sergei Lann. Taking over from Plasson, con ductor Barry Wordsworth drew out the best in Bizet's marvellous score, and provided the best part of an otherwise ...

... Cosi Fan Tutte GLYNDEBOURNE TREVOR Nunn's stunning new production of Cosi Fan Tutte for Glyne-boume (sponsored by Castrol (UK) Ltd.) may not be as revelatory as his 1983 Idomeneo but it is still extremely revealing. Nunn deals with the traditionally problematic (because theatrically intimidating) cynicism of Da Ponte's libretto by, simply, acknowl edging it and then, audaciously, con ...

... Producer urges MU tape support By BRIAN ATTWOOD MUSICIANS Union bosses are being urged to relax their stance on taped music in clubs and to make the most of a potential job opportunity for thousands of members. The MU has traditionally opposed the use of backing tracks by singers on the grounds that this deprives other performers of live work. But producer Tony Adamson, managing director of ...

... Ringing the changes BLACKPOOL is to have a third circus this year-at the Grand Theatre. But unlike Peter Jay's Superdome and the Blackpool Tower versions, this one has fallen on hard times writes Robin Duke. Spangles Circus is the back drop to the Grand's Christinas attraction Goldilocks and the Three Bears. And ironically it is Superdome ringmaster, Nor man Barrett, who is giving the new ...

... Jubilee triumph DERBYSHIRE and Harper doesn't have quite the same ring to it as Cannon and Ball, somehow. Frankly it sounds more like a firm of accoun tants than a comedy double act which has endured 25 years in the business. The Lancashire lads, chris tened Thomas Derbyshire and Robert Harper, met as welders in an Oldham engi neering factory and started out on stage as the Shirrell Brothers, ...

... Sleeping Beauty NEW YORK THE first surprise about New York City Ballet's production of Sleeping Beauty is that this company is doing it at all. The second is that, contrary to the advance publicity, this is not a drastically cut and American-ised Beauty, but a very spectacular revival of the Petipa masterpiece we know and love. It is true that Peter Martins, who is in charge of the ...