... Rent fight threat to pub entertainment By BRIAN ATTWOOD PUB entertainment is under renewed threat after Michael Heseltine's November deadline for sell-offs by the country's big brewers was thrown into disarray with the news that leaseholders plan to use EC legislation to fight massive rent rises. Scores of publicans leasing so-called tied outlets from Grand Metropolitan's Inntrepreneur chain ...

... Inquest into death of editor Raymond AN INQUEST opens this week into the death of Debbie Raymond, daughter of Soho producer and publisher Paul Raymond. Recently listed as one of Britain's richest women, she was discovered dead at her London flat. Raymond, 36, was editor in chief of her father's chain of adult magazines and was tipped to succeed him as boss of his vast busi ness empire which ...

... Retailers hit back at CD price advice BRITISH music stores hit back at the Consumers' Association this week after it advised record buyers to import compact discs from America rather than pay UK prices. Which? magazine, the mouthpiece of the Association, has followed up its bitter attack on CD prices two years ago c by saying it is cheaper to buy direct from the United States than buy off the ...

... Orpheus In The Underworld OPERA NORTH IN A recent review, The Independent 's music critic suggested that the crudest sitcom style may suitably be applied to Offenbach. I'm happy to report that Martin Duncan has given the lie to such inappropriate advice with his staging of Orpheus in the Underworld for Opera North. It is pure delight. Simplicity and serious charac terisation provoke ...

... Five Dances On Five Floors Angel Square, Islington HANS Peter Kuhn is the architect of sound and light, Ian Spink the deviser and director, and Artangel's Michael Morris the initiator of a new project entitled Five Dances on Five Floors. This is as apt a labelling as it sounds for an event (in a trendily post-modem new buildine in Islington's Angel Square) that depends on the co-oper ation ...

... Convincing street energy RIVERSIDE STUDIOS Urban Bush Women THE URBAN Bush Women may have a serious message to impart concerning minority rights, but they choose to sugar-coat it. They sing and dance with glee about the problems of being black and being women, and underline with a joyful sense of irony the implications of their title, and the mission of mod ern American black women of today ...

... Swan Lake ROH AMONG the dancers of the Royal Ballet's home team it is the women of the Royal Ballet who in recent years have won the high profiles. Yet there is a now new strength among the men that was apparent at the new season's second performance of Swan Lake from the corps de ballet of young and enthusiastic males in Act 1, who brought a rare and dapper ener gy to the ensemble dancers, ...

... Run-down seaside Pavilion up for sale AYR'S 1,000 capacity Pavilion Theatre has been offered for sale or let by Kyle and Carrick District Council. The announcement follows the offer of a new 35-year lease to present occupant McCall's Entertainment which has run the West coast of Scotland site for nearly two decades. McCall's said it could not confirm whether it can commit itself to spend ing ...

... Pregnancy warning EMPLOYERS in the entertainment industry were warned that they could find themselves breaking sex discrimination laws if they sack pregnant woman for taking time off. A Ixmdon industrial tribunal awarded former cinema worker Michelle Herat more than £6,800, after she was sacked for asking for time off to have her baby earlier this year. Herat, who worked in the film booking ...

... 'Ban the American strippers' AMERICAN male strip acts should be banned from the UK in tit-for-tat action against the trade war threatened by the United States aeainst Europe. a British rival troupe demanded this week. Flesh For Fantasy, a 1 2-strong Nottingham troupe, became the third act to join the battle of the bulging biceps against American troupe The Chippendales over its alleged ...

... Musk industry watches Michael case with interest By HELEN GOULD THE MUSIC Industry is bracing itself for one of the most significant legal battles in music history after singing star George Michael announced he is suing his record company, Sony. Michael is attempting to sever his 1 5-year recording deal with Sony. In a High Court writ issued against the company the star cites the terms of his ...

... Julius Caesar SCOTTISH OPERA JULIUS Caesar has been given a brand new production, a collaboration between Scottish Opera, Theater im Pfalzbau, Ludwigshafen and L'Opera de Montpellier. Handel's graceful baroque music is wonderfully complemented by a truly original and thoroughly 20th century production. The opera tells the story of Caesar's love for Cleopatra, and the intrigues and battles ...