EMI soldiers on

IT’S NOT EASY LACKING GREEN: You’ve gotta hand it to the underdogs at EMI Music, who keep rolling along under the looming dark cloud of Terra Firma’s enormous debt load, and the resulting uncertainty, making things extremely difficult for the record company from luring new acts to working the ones it has on the roster. A telling indicator of the gutty job EMI staffers are doing is the attitude of managers who work with them, and the praise recently lavished on the company by Robbie Williams’ manager Tim Clark is said to exemplify the attitudes of other handlers of acts on the label. To wit, Lady Antebellum manager Gary Borman told the Financial Times last week that he was "thrilled" with EMI. "Their long-term financial stability is not of great concern to me,” he said. “They're doing their job well.” (3/2a)