In today’s CMU Daily: The Loop has secured a licence from the Home Office that will allow it to undertake year-round drug monitoring at venues in London and Manchester, to better “inform our understanding of the UK’s changing drug market”, with learnings communicated to the public and emergency services

Also today: Kanye West is accused of spouting “antisemitic tirades and conspiracies” on a daily basis, and of making an employee wait for a meeting while he had sex in an adjacent room, twice, in the latest lawsuit filed against the rapper by an aggrieved former employee

Plus: Both Robbie Williams and original Take That manager Nigel Martin-Smith appear in a new BBC documentary called ‘Boybands Forever’. Martin-Smith says Williams was “smart” to blame him for his drug taking in the 1990s, prompting Williams to urge his former manager to show some “contrition”

Releases & Tours: Each week CMU rounds up standout releases and tour announcements from the last seven days. This week: 070 Shake, FKA twigs, Jack White, TYSON + more, with tour announcements from Tommy Richman, Robbie Williams and others

Major breakthrough for drugs safety as The Loop announces year round drug monitoring at key London and Manchester venues

Year-round drug monitoring will now take place at two major clubbing venues thanks to drug-related harm prevention charity The Loop securing a licence from the Home Office that allows it to operate ongoing mobile testing labs within Drumsheds in London and The Warehouse Project in Manchester. 

“Implementing onsite drug testing at both Drumsheds and The Warehouse Project will commence a nationwide network of drug testing, funded directly by the venues”, says The Loop founder Professor Fiona Measham. This will allow swift communication of any issues identified, not just to customers of those two venues, but also to law enforcement, public health officials and “the wider nightlife communities”

The Loop will test drugs confiscated or surrendered at Drumshed and The Warehouse Project to identify what kinds of substances are in circulation. This, the charity says, will “inform our understanding of the UK’s changing drug market and the implications of that for both customers and emergency services operating in those venues”. 

The year-round testing extends work already undertaken at a number of music festivals, work which last year looked like it was under threat because of a new position taken by the Home Office. 

Previously, many festivals that instigated drug monitoring did so via an agreement with their local police forces. But last year the Home Office said that a licence was also required from central government and insisted that had always been the case. 

By the time that statement had been made it was too late for some festivals to go through the licence application process, prompting considerable criticism from the affected events. 

However, this year Home Office licensed drug monitoring went ahead at various festivals, and with The Loop now having permission to test drugs year-round, the whole programme is “going from strength to strength”, in the words of Measham. 

Business Affairs Executive | Domino

Business Affairs Assistant | Domino

Marketing Manager | EmuBands & Rightsbridge

Promo Department Co-ordinator | Domino

Assistant Bars and Duty Manager | Islington Assembly Hall

Regional General Manager | AEG Presents

Marketing & Production Assistant | Sunday Best Recordings

Senior Label Manager | The Orchard

HR Assistant/Coordinator | ICE

Customer Solutions Manager | ICE

Senior PR Manager/Publicist | Infectious PR

Paid Media Manager | Playliveartist

👉 See all current jobs at https://completemusicupdate.com/jobs

Horizon is CMU's weekly newsletter that brings you a hand-picked selection of early-stage career opportunities from across the music industry. Whether you're looking for your first job in music or you're ready to take a step up, Horizon is here to help you find your dream job faster.

👉 Click through to see the current selection.

“Antisemitic tirades and conspiracies” a daily occurrence when working for Kanye West, claims latest lawsuit from ex-employee

Yet another former employee has filed a lawsuit against Kanye West alleging persistent antisemitism and inappropriate sexual conduct during work meetings. West’s “antisemitic tirades and conspiracies were a daily occurrence”, claims the lawsuit filed by aggrieved former worker Murphy Aficionado. 

West is currently fighting a stack of litigation, mainly split between lawsuits filed by aggrieved former workers and uncleared sample lawsuits. Another of the latter was also filed last week, though the legal filings from former employees always provide more lurid descriptions of alleged misconduct. 

Those ex-worker lawsuits usually include sections covering West’s antisemitism and inappropriate sexual behaviour, before dealing with more specific grievances around how they were treated while working for the rapper.  

This time around, the lawsuit claims that West “championed his antisemitism in the workplace” and - slightly bizarrely - also includes two photos, one of Hitler, and one of the entrance to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. 

Those photos are inserted seemingly at random after a section alleging that West told Aficionado that “the Jews are out to get me. They froze my bank account. The Jews got Kim and my kids”. Making no further reference to the presence of the images, or the subjects represented in them, the document simply says “Ye preached this dogma almost daily”. 

When it comes to inappropriate sexual behaviour, Aficionado describes how, on two occasions when meeting to discuss business projects, West forced him to wait in a hotel suite while the rapper had sex in an adjacent room, on one occasion with his then girlfriend Bianca Censori, the other with his masseuse.

Robbie Williams hits out at former manager Nigel Martin-Smith saying he had “the brain but not the heart” to manage him

Robbie Williams has posted an open letter to original Take That manager Nigel Martin-Smith after they both appeared on an episode of the new BBC documentary ‘Boybands Forever’. 

He pushes back at the suggestion that he has blamed Martin-Smith for his struggles with drug addiction, but urges the manager to show some “contrition” about the fact that he - like much of the music industry - often failed to consider the negative impact boy band superstardom has on the young members of those groups. 

In particular, he responds to comments made by Martin-Smith in the documentary to the effect that Williams was “smart and quite clever” to blame his drug taking on being “in this band where he couldn’t have girlfriends or couldn’t go out”. Williams, he said, had often presented Martin-Smith as the “evil” manager who was responsible for the singer behaving like a “wanker” when Take That were at their peak. 

In his response addressing Martin-Smith, Williams is clear that “my drug taking was never your fault”, adding “my response to the warped world that surrounded me is solely my own”. On his challenges dealing with addiction, he goes on, “it’s part of my makeup and I would have the same malady had I been a taxi driver. I just got there quicker due to having the finances whilst trying in vain to counteract the turbulence of pop stardom’s matrix-bending washing machine”.

However, he says, “if you are following the story closely you can’t help but notice a pattern emerge. Boys join a boy band. The band become huge. Boys get sick”. He then lists the personal challenges each of his Take That bandmates faced during or after their time in the group. Referring to boy bands more generally, he says some boy band members are “fortunate through a series of self-examinations and help to overcome their experience, some never quite manage to untangle the mess of the wreckage of the past”.

⏩ Releases & Tours: Nov 2024 (Week 46)

Each week CMU rounds up standout releases and tour announcements from the last seven days This week: 070 Shake, FKA twigs, Jack White, TYSON + more, while tour announcements include Tommy Richman, Robbie Williams and others

• 070 Shake released her new album Petrichor
• Addison Rae and Arca collaborated on new single Aquamarine / Arcamarine
• AHADADREAM released his new single Read My Mind, featuring Razor & PRVNA
• bdrmm released their new single John On The Ceiling
• BENEE released her new single Animal
• Bo Staloch released his new single Wait It Out
• Carlita released her debut album Sentimental
• Chiedu Oraka released his new single Rhythm Of My Pain (Orchestral Version)
• Chloé Caillet released her new EP Here To Make You Smiile
• Denzel Curry released his new album King Of The Mischievous South
• Du Blonde released her new album Sniff More Gritty
• Elton John and Brandi Carlile collaborated on new single Never Too Late 
• Emma Jean Thackray released her new single Black Hole, featuring Reggie Watts
• FKA twigs released her new single Drums Of Death 
• Flat Party released their new EP It’s All Been Done Before
• Gwen Stefani released her new album Bouquet
• Jack White released his new single You Got Me Searching
• JAGGED BAPTIST CLUB released their new album Physical Surveillance
• Jessie Reyez released her new single Just Like That, featuring Ari Lennox
• Julia Holter released her new single The Laugh Is In The Eyes
• KAROL G released her new single +57, featuring Feid, DFZM, Ovy On The Drums, J Balvin, Maluma, Blessd and Ryan Castro
• Lil Nas X released his new single LIGHT AGAIN!
• Lip Filler released their new single Tricky
• Miso Extra released her new single Good Kisses, featuring Metronomy
• Olivia Dean released her new single Touching Toes
• Paris Paloma released her new single The Rider
• Rauw Alejandro released his new album Cosa Nuestra
• salute and Jessie Ware collaborated on new single Heaven In Your Arms
• Sam Fender released his new single People Watching
• Sammy Virji and Interplanetary Criminal collaborated on new single Damager
• Shaboozey released his new single Good News
• SHERELLE and CLIPZ collaborated on new single MEET ME AT THE TEMPLE
• Sienna Spiro released her new single Back To Blonde
• St Vincent released her new single El Mero Cero 
• Teddy Geiger and Yaeji collaborated on new single Pink Ponies
• The Kooks and lovelytheband collaborated on new single Jeanie
• TIBIA released their new single Molly In Mexico
• TYSON released her debut EP Chaos
• ZZZAHARA released their new single If I Had To Go I Would Leave The Door Closed Half Way

Tour announcements

• Basement Jaxx announced their first live shows in over a decade, including a show at Dreamland in Margate on 26 Jul
• Cage The Elephant announced a UK and EU headline tour for February 2025, including a date at London's Brixton Academy on 17 Feb
• Louis Dunford announced a UK and Ireland headline tour for spring 2025, concluding with a headline show at Alexandra Palace in London on 11 Apr
• Robbie Williams announced his tour for 2025, which will open in Edinburgh at the Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium on 31 May
• Tate McRae announced her global ‘Miss Possessive Tour’, including a show at The O2 in London on 20 May
• Tommy Richman announced his EU and North American tour, including a show at KOKO in London on 5 May