FACTBOX-EMI's stormy relationship with the stars

Jan 15 (Reuters) - EMI, the British music group bought by private equity firm Terra Firma last year, announced on Tuesday that it would axe up to 2,000 jobs in a restructuring plan to save up to 200 million pounds ($392 million) a year. For a story please double click on [IDn:L1518124]

The announcement comes at a tough time for the group, which has struggled to retain some of its biggest acts in recent months. Following are details of some of the recent fallouts between major pop acts and EMI:

* MARCH, 2007 - Former Beatle Paul McCartney leaves EMI, his home for over 40 years, and joins Hear Music, a new venture run by the Starbucks coffee retailer. In a later interview, he said:

"Everybody at EMI had become part of the furniture. I'd be a couch; Coldplay are an armchair. Robbie Williams, I dread to think what he was. I'd felt (the people at EMI) had become really very boring, y'know? And I dreaded going to see them. I could guess what they were going to say. 'Love your record, Paul.' And I'd say, 'Well what should we do with it?' Then they'd go: 'Well, we think you ought to go to Cologne,' which is what they always say."

* NOVEMBER, 2007 - The Financial Times quotes a letter in which Terra Firma boss Guy Hands issues a veiled threat to artists not working hard enough for the label:

"While many spend huge amounts of time working with their label to promote, perfect and endorse their music, some unfortunately simply focus on negotiating for the maximum advance ... advances which are often never repaid.

"However, once EMI has the best products and services in music and the best culture for working together then ... it will be open to us to choose which artists we wish to work with and promote."

* DECEMBER, 2007 - Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke denies a report that the band wanted "a load of cash" from EMI to stay with the label.

On the band's Web site, he said: "What we wanted was some control over our work and how it was used in the future by them -- that seemed reasonable to us, as we cared about it a great deal. Mr Hands was not interested. So neither were we. We made the sign of the cross and walked away. Sadly."

He said the new management team behaved "like confused bulls in a china shop."

* JANUARY, 2008 - Robbie Williams's manager Tim Clark told the Times the singer, with estimated album sales of 50 million, would not deliver an album in 2008 in protest at the new management and what he said was a lack of expertise in the digital sphere. Williams also wants control over his back catalogue.

"The question is, 'Should Robbie deliver the new album he is due to release to EMI?' We have to say the answer is 'No'. We have no idea how EMI will market and promote the album. They do not have anyone in the digital sphere capable of doing the job required. All we know is they are going to decimate their staff ... EMI can sue or pay up his contract. Robbie needs to know what services EMI can provide to an artist of his standing."

* JANUARY, 2008 - In the same article, Coldplay's LA-based manager voiced concern at the departure of EMI's UK music boss Tony Wadsworth. The group has sold an estimated 30 million albums worldwide. The manager said:

"Tony was the reason a lot of bands signed to EMI. Artists want to work with music people, not finance guys. Why would you want to release an album with a record company in the midst of massive lay-offs? Coldplay have a lot of options. They are in no hurry to deliver their new album." Sources: Reuters/Times/Financial Times/www.radiohead.com (Compiled by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Quentin Bryar)