Dear everybody,

It would appear that it is that time of year again.

If you were intending to buy w.a.s.t.e. products for your friends, then here are the last dates

we can accept orders for delivery before 25th December (according to the Royal Mail).

Last order dates:
South and Central America, Carribean, Africa, Middle East, New Zealand and Australia - Sunday 5th December

Japan, USA, Canada and Eastern Europe - Thursday 9th December

Western Europe - Sunday 12th December

UK - Monday 20th December

If you were intending to buy w.a.s.t.e. products for yourself, the same applies.

to buy stuff, go to www.waste.uk.com

If you don't hear from us before, have a blinking good one and a fortuitous 2005.

all @ w.a.s.t.e.

Radiohead, Coldplay and R.E.M. are amongst the bands that have got filthy and pledged their support to the new Oxfam ‘Ever Felt Dumped On?’ campaign to raise awareness for the inequalities in the international farming trade, and Xfm has all the photos…

The collection of shots are designed to illustrate the plight of farmers from developing nations who are systematically ‘dumped on’ by rich countries and to highlight the plight of billions of people who are unable to lift themselves out of poverty because of unfair trade rules.

As part of the campaign, high-profile stars from the worlds of film and music have had their photographs taken covered in various products. Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke appears covered in chocolate, while Coldplay’s Chris Martin is shot covered in rice. Elsewhere, Colin Firth is showered with coffee, Michael Stipe is drowned in milk and Jamelia is covered in feathers.

Radiohead singer Thom Yorke is pictured here covered in chocolate for a new Oxfam campaign.

He joins a host of stars including Chris Martin, Jamelia and Michael Stipe for the new series of ‘Ever Felt Dumped On?’ photographs to raise awareness for its ongoing Make Trade Fair campaign to reverse the crippling inequalities in the international farming trade.

All the shots, in which a celebrity is covered in foodstuffs, illustrate the plight of farmers who are systematically ‘dumped on’ by rich countries.

Yorke said: How sweet does your chocolate taste when you know the producer in a country you will never see did not even get paid enough to feed his family? How sweet does it taste when you see the amount of profit a few multinational corporations make on it?

How sweet does it taste, exactly, to know our own governments prevent these countries from ever getting off their knees and from ever being able to compete and get PAID, erecting barriers and then DUMPING on them from a great height whilst feigning concern? How delicious is it to know that sweet taste in your mouth is one of slavery, a nice new economic model?

As it melts in your mouth, how sweet does your chocolate taste, now you know the suffering that it took to get to you?

Being happily married for four years, raising a 1-year-old daughter and finishing a doctorate at the University of Washington takes a lot of time and dedication.

But OSU instructor Joseph Tate has still found time to step into a world of music he never knew existed. It was the album Kid A. by Radiohead that influenced Tate to send out a "call for papers" on the Internet.

The result is a collection of essays and writings, "The Music and Art of Radiohead," which will be out January or February 2005.

Radiohead is a British rock band that has gained a large fan base through its strong live performances and experiments in shaping the sonic landscape on its albums. Contributing authors come from the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

I didn't know the contributors beforehand, really, Tate said. Several I knew name only. Receiving many submissions, Tate chose essays based on how well they fit together and by the range of topics investigated.

Paul Lansky, for example, was someone I invited to contribute because of his work with the band on 'Idioteque,' said Tate.

Tate also invited Kevin Dettmar to write the forward because of his previous scholarly work on rock music.

Backstage at Leeds University, Richard Greentree, the Beta Band's bassist, is describing what made him want to be in a band. When I was a kid I was sitting in the careers office and they were going through all these options like the civil service and the airforce and I thought, 'What crap!' Being in a band seemed like the best option. I thought you could do exactly what you wanted.

For seven years, this has been the Beta Band's manifesto. They have put on live extravaganzas, won fans from Oasis to Radiohead, and created pop songs out of everything from psychedelia to barking dogs. But four months ago, they announced they were splitting; their gig at the Liquid Rooms in Edinburgh on December 5 will be their last. Audiences now greet the band with cries of: Don't go!

I always imagined we'd be as big as Radiohead, Mason continues, but it hasn't happened. I still can't understand why. This is the mystery. Even on this tour, the Beta Band have sold out 2,000-plus capacity venues; this summer, their third album, Heroes to Zeros, received the best reviews of their career. It baffles me that we're playing much bigger venues than a band like Kasabian, but their album went in at number four and ours at 19, says Mason. I'm the biggest paranoid conspiracy theorist, but the figures don't add up.

Radiohead have left an author high and dry by charging him $4 a word for quoting from their songs in his book about The Simpsons.

Little-known writer Chris Turner used just 87 words of the angst-ridden lyrics in his book that culturally analyses Bart, Homer and co.

The scribbler quoted endlessly from The Simpsons show itself but wasn't asked to cough up for those particular words.

Instead he landed a $350 bill for referencing Thom Yorke and co, which he blames on record bigwigs not the band itself.

I’m reasonably sure, indeed almost certain, that the members of Radiohead who actually wrote the songs I cited in my book would’ve happily allowed me to quote from them free of charge, Chris charitably added on a weblog.

As Homer might say, doh!

EMI, the world's third-largest music group, has reported a 7 percent drop in first-half profits but says the beleaguered industry is rebounding as digital music sales start to take off.

EMI shares surged more than 13 percent to 236 pence by 1:25 p.m. on Friday, the top percentage gain on the London Stock Exchange, as the company reiterated its guidance for the full year despite concerns that the industry's nascent recovery was losing steam.

Results for the six months to September 30 were affected by a release schedule weighted to the second half of the fiscal year and adverse currency effects. The company, which is home to artists including Radiohead and Norah Jones, said its full-year performance would be in line with the broader global music market, which it expects to be flat to down 4 percent.

I have here on my desk a photocopy of a "licence agreement" between my agent and one David C. Olsen, Director/Business Affairs, Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, Florida. This document grants me "the non-exclusive right to print, publish, distribute and sell at (my) sole cost and expense" the lyrics from an attached schedule of "copyrighted musical composition(s)."

Namely: the songs "The Bends," "Idioteque," and "I Might Be Wrong," all by Radiohead. The cost of securing these rights was "the sum of THREE HUNDRED FIFTY ($350.00) dollars, payable in US funds," plus "one (1) gratis copy of any publication in which the composition is utilized."