All the gossip from PPL's AGM.(Dooley's Diary)

Remember where you heard it: Best wishes to Aim's Alison Wenham who, in a strange case of synchronicity, had to miss out on last Wednesday's PPL AGM after damaging her knee ligaments in a collision with an enthusiastic Labrador. Back in the spring, PPL chief Fran Nevrkla missed the Aim AGM after crocking himself at one or his kids' school sports day ... For once, it seems that MU general secretary John Smith had clearly read the script ahead of giving his speech at the AGM. With a typical PPL boss Fran Nevrkla delivery making War And Peace look like a Post-It note, Smith observed before his own speech that he'd been advised to, "Talk for 45 minutes and don't look like you're taking any breaths." But Dooley is very worried about Nevrkla: his own speech clocked in at less than 20 minutes. The PPL head-honcho, though, is not a man to mince his words. At one stage he talked of "beating up" people not soughing up royalties they owed, prompting one nervous attendee to tell him, "After your last comments, I'm glad I don't owe you any money" ... Meanwhile, fellow AGM speaker Feargal Sharkey put in his own requests concerning PPL attempts to win overseas broadcast royalties for UK acts. "If you manage to crack the North American nut, can you try to gel the payments backdated to 1978?" he asked ... Links fans who turned up for the EMI Golf Day a week ago last Friday, twigged that something might be up regarding EMI/Warner. Maybe it was the 30-minute mobile phone call which Eric Nicoli had to take, ...