David Stark, Judd Lander, David Mindel & Ron McCreight David Stark and John Ravenhall DS, Stuart Hornall and Sir Harry Cowell Andy Bailey, Glenn Friedman, Ellis Rich (IMG) and David Stark Cathi Ogden (APRA) and DS

SongLink editor/publisher David Stark attended the annual MIDEM trade fair in Cannes, France and met up with many subscribers, advertisers and other industry friends there, as he reports. "The weather was superb and everyone was in an equally sunny mood, despite attendance being down on last year by 4.9%, according to official figures. I hooked up with many industry friends - writers, publishers, managers, A&R folk and producers, some of whom like John Ravenhall (producer of Jessica Clemmons, Nova/Universal) have recently been cutting songs sent via SongLink, while I was also busy getting some hot new tips from others.

"Just minutes after arriving on Sunday I was having a great lunch at l'Ondine beach restaurant with David Mindel, Ron McCreight and Judd Lander among others, while in the evening it was the regular "Table No. 5" dinner with Lotte and John Aagaard of TG Publishing (Denmark), Glenn Friedman (Music Umbrella), Ben Bailer (Germany), Sonia Belolo (France), Mark Winters (Active Music Mgmt) and others. On Monday I hot-footed it to Antibes for the regular Hornall Brothers Music party, where Stuart Hornall was holding court with colleagues such as Rod Temperton (writer of "Thriller"), the legendary Marshall Chess, Tommy Richter (Germany), Halit Uman (France), Ian James (Mushroom, Australia), Don Reedman (Focus Music), Sir Harry Cowell and many others. Later on Monday, Tony Moore was hosting the British at Midem acoustic show featuring Jonathan Powell, Sam Roman, Dave Gibson, Kill It Kid and special guest Fyfe Dangerfield who also headlined the main stage concert later on with his band The Guillemots. I was also Morrison's bar for a showcase by Russian jazz singer Marina Laslo, whose new English language album has been produced by top UK producer Robin Millar, followed by a press conference the following morning at the Majestic Hotel. As usual most of the late-night action took place at the Carlton Hotel, where the level of noise and chat bordered on the physically oppressive, but that's all part of the Midem shuffle - numbers may be down, but the amount of industry gossip, wining and dining and general cameraderie is as high as ever. Roll on Midem 2012!"

More photos here:

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