AUSTIN, Texas | Fri Oct 12, 2012 7:48am EDT

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - As tens of thousands of music fans converge on the Texas capital for the Austin City Limits Music Festival this weekend, one performer will make a stop at the original "Austin City Limits" - the longest-running music show on American television.

Jack White, the former White Stripes rocker who plays the festival on Saturday, is scheduled to tape an "Austin City Limits" TV episode on Sunday. Last year, five ACL festival acts - Coldplay, Arcade Fire, the Head and the Heart, Gomez and Randy Newman - made the same trip.

"The festival is raucous, loud, tons of people, tons of stages," said drummer Tyler Williams of the Seattle sextet the Head and the Heart. "The TV show is a very intimate thing."

What was once a humble TV show focusing on the music of Texas has now become a multi-headed juggernaut that pulls in international artists: TV show, live music venue, and annual outdoor music festival. The ACL brand name has become widely known beyond Austin, which calls itself "the Live Music Capital of the World."

The Public Broadcasting Service show, now in its 38th season, began as a showcase for Texas singers and songwriters, with a 1974 pilot that featured Willie Nelson.

But it later expanded to include a wide variety of genres, from jazz to rock. The current season, which began October 6, features artists as disparate as Radiohead, Bonnie Raitt, Norah Jones, Bon Iver and jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding.

"Austin City Limits" moved into new, bigger digs last year, but still has its signature backdrop of the Austin skyline, which has been updated to reflect the city's changes. The show manages to retain its feeling of intimacy by having the stage jut out into the audience, with the crowd wrapped around on three sides.

The show's new home doubles as a concert venue known as ACL Live at the Moody Theater.

ANYTHING GOES

It is all part of the ACL experience, said the TV show's longtime executive producer, Terry Lickona.

"If you can imagine just taking an artist or a band and giving them a stage and telling them that they can do anything that they want and we're going to record it so that millions of people can enjoy their music," Lickona said. "We try to capture the natural essence of an artist at work."

The outdoor music festival, which began in 2002 and is expanding to two weekends in 2013, this year runs October 12-14 and features the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Young and Crazy Horse and the Black Keys. The festival licenses its name from KLRU-TV, which owns the TV show.

The TV show came about in the 1970s when Austin's country music scene was beginning to emerge as a sort of alternative to Nashville. It settled on the name Austin City Limits after considering other options, including River City Country and Travis County Line, Lickona said.

In the gallery of the new downtown building, near a marker designating the show as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame landmark, large photographs of past TV show performances line the walls. Dolly Parton. Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. Ray Charles.

"Every time I walk through here, it brings back a flood of memories," said Lickona, who joined the show in 1978 and became producer the following year.

Austin and Texas music remain an important part of the show's mix, and there is an emphasis on emerging artists in addition to big names. Most tickets to the TV tapings are given away in a lottery.

The TV show went through a country music phase and a roots music phase before arriving at where it is today: "Basically, anything goes," Lickona said, "if it's good and original music."

(Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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A woman walks past a Santander bank branch in Madrid July 26, 2012.

LONDON | Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:07pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Spain's Santander (SAN.MC) pulled out of its 1.65 billion pound (US$2.65 billion) deal to buy 316 UK branches from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) late on Friday, dealing a sharp blow to the state-backed British bank.

More than two years after the deal was struck, it collapsed because the process of carving out the business proved more complex and difficult than had been expected. Santander said it was unwilling to again extend the deadline when it became clear that it would not be completed this year.

RBS, 83 percent owned by the British taxpayer, said it would restart the sale process, which had been ordered by European authorities as a cost for Britain's rescue of RBS in 2008.

RBS could ask for an extension of the deadline. It may struggle to find a new buyer, however, and may have to accept a lower price or consider a flotation.

Santander UK agreed to buy the branches and the business of 1.8 million customers in August 2010, but technology and separation issues pushed back the original December 2011 completion date.

Santander UK Chief Executive Ana Botin said on Friday that she had wanted to take the business in "a steady state" and added: "We have concluded that given delays it is not possible to complete this within a reasonable timeframe."

A report by consultancy Accenture estimated that the transfer of retail customers would not be completed until 2014, and the transfer of corporate customers would not be completed until 2015, Santander said.

The bank said the deal had no chance of being completed by a February 2013 deadline, allowing it to walk away with no break fee.

Santander saw off competition from National Australia Bank (NAB.AX), start-up bank NBNK (NBNK.L) and Richard Branson's Virgin Money to buy the branches, as it was particularly keen to have the 244,000 business customers among the bank's clients.

The Spanish bank was keen to bulk up ahead of a planned flotation of its UK arm. It still wants to separate and list the business, but that is seen as being unlikely in the near future due to depressed UK bank valuations.

Virgin bought nationalized bank Northern Rock and may be the keenest to return for another look if it wants to bulk up.

RBS Chief Executive Stephen Hester faces more bad news as his bank is expected to be next in line to be hit with a big fine for the alleged manipulation of Libor global interest rates.

That and the collapse of the branches deal could overshadow two milestones this month that Hester had hoped would show his bank as being well on the road to recovery. It completed the initial public offering of its insurance arm Direct Line (DLGD.L) this week and later this month could exit a costly government insurance scheme.

The setback could further push back the timeframe for taxpayers to see a return on the 45 billion pound RBS bailout.

A Treasury spokesperson said the deal's collapse was a commercial matter for RBS and Santander, and said the government remained "determined to promote greater competition in the banking sector".

Hester said the work separating the branches would not be wasted.

"Much of the heavy lifting associated with a transfer has already been completed, including separating data for 1.8 million customers and putting in place a standalone management team," Hester said. He added that it was "disappointing" that Santander had pulled out, especially for customers and staff.

The affected business made an operating profit of 186 million pounds in the first six months of this year and has 21.7 billion in customer deposits and loans representing 86 percent of deposits.

Santander's purchase price when the deal was struck represented a 350 million pound premium to net asset value of 1.3 billion at the end of 2009. The price of the deal could have risen to 2 billion pounds or dropped to about 1.3 billion upon completion, depending on certain criteria.

(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Theodore d'Afflisio)

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