THE BRITISH ARE COMING—UPDATE

Greater synergy between the labels and publishing company, including some overlapping of personnel—that was one of the more significant organizational changes hinted at by Roger Faxon during his first official visit to L.A. as EMI’s overall chief. Such an adjustment would likely mean an expanded role for EMI Music Publishing star Big Jon Platt, according to company insiders.

Faxon, accompanied by North America rulers Ronn Werre and Colin Finkelstein, along with Capitol Music Group marketing/promo chief Greg Thompson and U.S./U.K./Ireland A&R topper Nick Gatfield, descended on Hollywood this week for a review of the music group’s currently red-hot U.S. operation.

Industry insiders consider Faxon, whose background is in both movies and music publishing, as a bright guy who should do better than the last group of Euros, which included experts in roach sprays, clean petrol station rest rooms and presiding over failing TV networks. So far, EMI’s U.S. marketshare has been bolstered by an impressive team of marketing people, despite the lack of any true A&R direction, resulting in fewer A-level records to work.

Questions continue to swirl around current A&R boss Gatfield’s future plans. Will he also move on, as did Chris Anokute, the A&R guy behind both Katy Perry albums, who is now making smashes with Dr. Luke for Sylvia Rhone’s Universal Motown label?

The Tower powers arrive just as Perry completed filming her steamy new video in Santa Barbara, the title track from her new album, Teenage Dream, and the follow-up to the smash “California Gurls,” with the full disc arriving Aug. 24.

For the last couple of weeks, Faxon has been busy patrolling Europe, which many claim is a giant train wreck that makes the U.S. operations look like the glory days of Warner Music. According to insiders, the foreign territories refuse to take global priorities seriously and pretty much work what they want when they want, much to the frustration of the record men and women left at EMI.

The exception is EMI U.K., which notched up five of the British Top 10 albums this week, paced by homegrown artists: rapper Professor Green (#2), pop/R&B artist Eliza Doolittle (#5), folkie Seth Lakeman (#7) and former Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft’s RPA & the United Nations of Sound (#10). The odd woman out is Aussie vet Kylie Minogue at #3. The U.K. company also has three of the Top 10 singles and six of the Top 20, led by “California Gurls” at #4. This positive activity would seem to strengthen Gatfield’s standing in his home country.

With the U.S. label on a roll extending throughout 2010 while enjoying its biggest slice of marketshare pie in recent years, and with Perry’s expected smash on deck, the question for the newly anointed EMI Group chief—the third in less than seven months—remains: “How do you fix what’s not broken?”