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Cultural Trends, published by the Policy Studies Institute, confirms that the classic album cover and a national fondness for vinyl are characteristics of the 1970s and 1980s. Music in the 1990s and the new millennium is more likely to be bought on the Internet, or illegally downloaded.
Only 2.2 million LPs were sold in 1998, less than 1 per cent of all the music sold – a far cry from the glory days of the Beatles, Pink Floyd and Roxy Music, when LP covers made more of an impact on the national consciousness than magazines. As recently as 1992, 6.7m LPs were sold.The market for compact discs, meanwhile, has ballooned from 70.5 million albums in 1992 to 175.7 million last year. But the biggest threat to the music business as we know it now comes from the Internet, which Cultural Trends reckons will account for 5 per cent of the world market within four years.The success in America of Internet companies such as Amazon , CD Now and N2K is prompting traditional British high street stores to launch sales sites. HMV, Virgin and Tower Records are likely to be at the forefront.But high street brands may be under threat completely.

The Net is able to offer a far bigger selection of albums, including oldies who have been dropped from pop music play- lists on the radio. It also allows for the broadcast of live concerts, and gives individual artists the chance to break free of record company control.David Bowie has established his own Internet service, while the artist formerly known as Prince sells products exclusively via the Net.Such moves, the report says, mean the system of “professional slavery”, which George Michael claimed existed in the industry in his celebrated legal case against Sony Music, could possibly be ended. It was this kind of thinking that prompted Alan McGee, the owner of Creation Records, to suggest last year that within 10 years record companies could be relics of a past age.In the meantime, the music shop is losing out to supermarkets, which now account for more than 10 per cent of total album sales, compared with about 3 per cent 10 years ago. Multiple chains, such as WH Smith, are also taking business from smaller retailers..

THE GOVERNMENT was accused yesterday by one of its own watchdogs of planning a culture of “criminal record checking” that would make large sections of the population unemployable. Lord Haskins, who chairs the Better Regulation Task Force, said that Home Office plans to give employers access to a new Criminal Records Bureau could destroy the job prospects of many people from deprived backgrounds.
The Labour peer and chairman of Northern Foods commented: “Given that a third of all males have been convicted of a non-traffic offence by the age of 40 – and millions more have received a caution – a `checking culture’ could easily result in large numbers of people being unnecessarily excluded from work.”In a report that will infuriate Home Office ministers, the task force questioned the way the Government has responded to public concerns about people with criminal histories applying for jobs such as mini-cab driving, nannying and nightclub security. Home Office plans for regulating such occupations could lead to many people being “unfairly excluded” from such jobs because of previous convictions that had no relevance, said the report.”Arguments that those who have had [security] alarms installed may be at risk of burglary through unscrupulous installers do not appear to be supported by evidence,” it said.Lord Haskins said the Government was in danger of “over-regulating” in an unrealistic attempt to create a risk-free society. “It’s not for the state to decide who is a reliable installer of burglar alarms and who is not,” he commented.He added that it was “very much in the public interest to have more male primary school teachers” to act as good role models for boys, but warned that many good potential recruits might be excluded because of an irrelevant conviction.The watchdog – set up as an independent body to advise the Government on regulation issues – cited research by the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, which showed that most employers would not hire anyone with a criminal record.”Many individuals who acquire criminal records for petty offences during their teens will have matured and grown out of such behaviour by their mid or late twenties,” it said.Although the task force welcomed the setting up of a Criminal Records Bureau, it said the use of checks by employers should be carefully limited to jobs where there is a risk to vulnerable people. It pointed out that current Home Office estimates suggested that the bureau would carry out 12 million checks a year.The task force said the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act should be reviewed to simplify categories of disclosable offences and rehabilitation periods and to delete cautions from criminal records.The watchdog also called for unofficial local authority blacklists, based on suspicions of criminality, to be outlawed and transferred to accountable national registers with a means of appeal and with evidence tested against clear criteria.. THE PLACID world of bowls is about to be dragged through the courts after a player was banned from a tournament when he decided to enliven proceedings by using yellow woods. Wally Taylor, of Belfast, a former English athletics champion, had dispatched another competitor to cheers from the crowd when he learnt that he was to be disqualified because his bowls were too racy.

Officials told him the woods, despite being regulation size and weight, were the wrong colour.
Mr Taylor has challenged the decision in the High Court and is taking the Irish Bowling Association before a judge in Belfast on Tuesday.Last night, Mr Taylor was unrepentant: “The balls are exactly the same as the more traditional black ones except that they are yellow. The rules says that the balls used can be black, brown or any other colour unless specifically stated otherwise prior to a tournament It wasn’t my opponent who complained I believe it was some older member of his club. Nearly everyone who has seen me playing with the yellow balls think they are brilliant… we have to move into the modern age.”No comment was available yesterday from the Irish Bowling Association..

Michael Ashcroft

IN AN article (10 April) we stated that had relocated his business, the Hawley Group Plc, to Bermuda in 1984 overnight and in complete secrecy. We now accept that a Stock Exchange circular was issued and the shareholders duly voted for the move which took place two months later under an arrangement sanctioned by the Court We apologise for any embarrassment caused.. THE REMAINS of a “lost continent” one-third the size of Australia have been discovered nearly a mile beneath the surface of the Indian Ocean. Samples extracted from beneath the sea floor by the research ship Joides Resolution suggest that the vast piece of land – called the Kerguelen Plateau – sank out of sight 20 million years ago.
Located in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean, it is thought to have risen above the waves about 110 million years ago after a series of huge volcanic explosions.Drilling by the Joides Resolution, the world’s biggest research vessel, brought various types of volcanic rock to the surface including sedimentary rocks similar to those found in India and Australia. The discovery was made close to the Kerguelen Archipelago, a French territory of more than 80 islands midway between Africa, Antarctica and Australia.The Joides Resolution expedition is a long-term venture run by the Ocean Drilling Programme, an international partnership of scientific institutions and government led by the US National Science Foundation.