Britney Through The Ages

Someone sent me this bizarro Pepsi commercial Britney did for a Superbowl advert spot many years ago.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiuNWGLRp5s[/youtube]

Totally random and I love how 2001 Britney actually seems the most dated.

Geeky ramblings on Les Miserables

Les Miserables is my favourite musical. I first saw it in Manchester in 1999 but didn't quite get it until 2nd time round in London. There's so many different plots going on plus the confusion between Fantine, Cosette and Eponine had me baffled. Still nothing could get in the way of the songs which make me feel like my chest is about to tear apart through the pain.

This year it celebrates its 25th anniversary since its debut performance at the Barbican in London in 1985 and celebrates by the touring cast returning to that theatre for 3 weeks. The big day of celebration comes on October 2 when it's possible to see 3 productions of the show all in the same day - 10am at Barbican, 2pm at Queens and then 7pm at the O2. My kind of mental.

Last night I went to see the touring production at the Barbican which featured Gareth Gates demonstrating some exceptionally odd, flat hair in his role as Marius but unexpectedly some really great acting. Unfortunately there was no encore featuring a mash-up of Anyone of Us and Sunshine.

Tickets are in no way cheap at £65 but this production almost felt like the definitive one. It's a much re-worked, totally new production which features lush orchestration and, much to the horror of traditionals, no revolving stage. Instead the sets were wonderfully accompanied by a projected backdrop that at points made you feel like you were in an episode of Knightmare (this is a good thing). In particular I love the use of the projector during Do You Hear The People Sing, the sewer scenes and the fascinating, baffling way they used it in Javert's suicide.

When it comes to music, the West End always sounds like it's a couple of casio keyboards that are being played off a tape. Here we had a real life orchestra making the songs sound even fuller and effective than normal. 'Stars' was given a whole new lease of life with the audience jumping to their feet and the delicate 'Bring Him Home' was even more effective. Although 'I Dreamed A Dream' was a bit pitchy, the mighty 'On My Own' was filled with more oomph and anger than normal as Rosalind James' poured her guts into a faster rendition of the showstopped. My favourite song from the show is 'A Heart Full of Love' and Katie Hall and Gareth Gates played it perfectly with a mixture of shyness and excitement. Still, it's Eponine that makes me sob like a sad panda.

Les Miserables at The Barbican until 2 October. If I ever spot a man wearing the t-shirt to the left I am immediately proposing.

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Lauren Pritchard

Island Records seem to be having quite a tough time launching new artists over the last couple of years. They've managed to break Mumford & Sons and Florence & The Machine but they both sprung from a really natural indie scene growth. Their latest female popstar is 22 year old Tennessee born singer Lauren Pritchard. She's cute, a former cast member of the original Spring Awakening line up on Broadway, has mastered the tortured soul routine and ticks many a box for the adult contemporary Radio 2 audience. The problem remains that though they seem totally different artists, the best moments of Lauren's debut album 'Wasted In Jackson' just sound Amy-lite.

Four years (!!!) after its release "Back to Black" is still having a massive influence on the music scene in the UK. If you're making indie music, no one cares. If you're making electronic sounding r&b you're doing great, but if you're making anything with a slight tortured hint of retro or soul then it's tough. Daniel Merriweather and Adele made it but great albums from the likes of Leon Jean Marie and The Rumble Strips (all involved Amy producer Mark Ronson) have made absolutely no impact and I think Lauren could be looking at the same outcome.

Her debut single (and most Amy) 'Painkillers' is a killer track that deserved to be huge but I think I'd prefer to hear it from Daniel Merriweather. Her new single 'Not The Drinking' is nice enough, but has a cute video which sees them make the most of the Broadway talent recessed in Lauren's bones and go for the Feist 1234 effect.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8A9Ys0wh5I[/youtube]

More from her showcase from Mr Discopop.

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Cheryl 2.0

Lots of Girls Aloud fun this week. Nadine's team had their first proper meeting planning ahead on Tuesday and then various journalists like NOTW Dan have been played some tracks from the album. The Tesco situation is yet to be revealed to the public, but I'm intrigued to know if it means the songs will be thus excluded from iTunes. Anyway, as good as the music might be (which I think peeps will get to hear next week), will she be able to conquer the media & general public? To me, she's totally unlikeable. If you've not seen it before then you must watch this absolutely priceless clip of Nadine's first TV appearance on the original Irish Popstars. It's jaw-dropping, peep through your fingers car crash tv.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJCiztHvXnI[/youtube]Possibly my favourite video on the internet...

And perfectly timed, there's a new Cheryl single. I have no doubt that this will have vanished by the time anyone gets into work, but in the meantime check out Promise This (or Promises? Her accent makes it pretty hard to tell). French children's song 'Alouette' is obviously the hot thing in songwriting world at the moment with MDMR banging on about it in Mark Ronson's magnificent 'Bang Bang Bang' and now this clip begining with Cheryl singing it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqROBk2VJpg[/youtube]



'Video clip no longer avaliable'

The Modern Day Eamon

This is the awesome, awesome, awesome new single from Cee-Lo Green.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAV0XrbEwNc[/youtube]

Can't wait to hear the radio edit (and inevitably the answer back song).

Katy B

20 year old Katy B is suddenly becoming an iconic British musician for the sound of 2010. It feels like she's blown up onto the Radio 1 A-List from nowhere, but in fact she's been a-toiling via a Brit school education for a few years and having teamed up with Rinse FM and their label, has been working with the likes of Zinc and Benga on her new tracks.

'Katy on a Mission' is her first single proper out August 20th, but I'm much more about in love with 'Louder'. I like a popstar who can enunciate, and here her warm yet scratchy tones couple with wobbly dubstep basslines (which I think I'll always find a bit amusing') on this tale of an unwillingness to stop the party.

'I've been awake for a day now, 24 hours, yet still I want it louder'

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Ynf2ScKiA[/youtube]

Love her.

Also I mention DJ Zinc like I have an idea who he is. I don't, but Ed just sent me this other production from him. Total party anthem.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKB3hJBvAZY[/youtube]

Maximum Balloon

I have very little idea who TV on the Radio are. I know they don't make stonky electro-pop though, so it's a bit of a woop woop to discover 1/3 of the band, David Sitek, has popped off to make just that with solo project Maximum Balloon.

The forthcoming album is 10 songs described as 'thick, noisy and funky, with glam' by Spin with each featuring vocals from different artists, including Little Dragon, Karen O and David Byrne.

Two tracks are out there so far: 'Tiger', whose funky afrobeat sound, you might have heard on the Daisy Lowe for Esquire pant moistening promo; and the Little Dragon featured 'If You Return' which combines a stuttering drumbeat with some chilly electronica. I'm really looking forward to the album, but for now here's the pretty promo for 'If You Return'. I'm assuming it's a teaser rather than the whole thing?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5z85llbyN0[/youtube]

Rehab in Jamaica

There are certain songs I've heard so many times that I feel like I never need to hear again in my life. This might change when the burn has healed but Amy Winehouse's 'Rehab' is certainly one of them. Or at least her version.

Now there's a new version of the single being released in a few weeks by The Jolly Boys, a mento band from Jamaica who've been making music for over 60 years. Back in the 1940s they used to be quite the name on the Hollywood party circuit playing in particular for Errol Flynn after he bougth Port Antonio's Navy Island and turned it into a party zone. His wife, Patrice, is the lady in the red hat in the video.

Just how much fun were they having making this video. there's no way you can't break into a grin watching the hugely charmismatic 72 year old lead singer Albert. He's even the youngest member of the band. Brilliant.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqaadTlATqk[/youtube]

'Rehab' is out 20th September on Wall of Sound and they're playing a couple of live dates in the UK next week.

Lana Del Ray

Homemade videos need to have that special something to make you filter them out from your everyday norm. Hurts had the eyebrow raising dancing lady on their first £20 video and now Lana Del Ray weaves together old movies, bottles of drink and herself wearing a movie star wig in black & white.

The movie star image is what Lana's rocking. Her real name is plain old Lizzy Grant and according to her press release she's been roaming the musical world for a little while. Who hasn't though? Here's an old interview with plain old Lizzy from a couple of years ago. Now though she's in London and spending time songwriting with pop legend Biffco. There's a slight hint of Paloma in her voice, but an altogether much darker, sometimes sulkier, sometimes realer sound. 'Kinda Outta Luck' sounds like it belongs straight on a Tarantino soundtrack and the sinister elements to her voice remind me a lot of The Pierces. This one could go anywhere from chilling, sexy acoustic to sultry pop. Exciting.

Download Lana Del Ray - Diet MTN Dew for free.

The Garden

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs certainly have their google technique nailed with that name. This is the video for their new, totally huge sounding, single 'Garden'.



Louise of jaunty folksters Lulu & the Lampshades probably makes music I'd never listen to but sounds great here as the female vocalist. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs is though just one man - the brilliantly named Orlando Higginbottom - who I'm told does ridiculously fantastic things live.

It totally rips of this though, no?

In The Evening

The new Horse Meat Disco album is out, but I'm still massively enjoying edition 1. The ultimate disco floor-filler moment on it comes from Sheryl Lee Ralph with 'In The Evening'.

The lyrics are brilliant and make me do all kinds of inside my hair music video construction. Who cannot relate to, "In the evening, the real me comes alive." Maybe my current weary nature can't, but me at 19 definitely can.

Best of all though is the music video. It's full of totally mental face pulling. I could watch it again and again open-mouthed at the mass insanity of it.

Warning : serious amounts of 'acting' follow.



[For non London people - Horse Meat Disco is a gay club night in Vauxhall where men, primarily ranging from the slightly hairy to very hairy style, dance about to disco music in a dark room. It is amazing.]

1, 1, 1, ! 1101010 etc

If you're bored of shouting ONCE, ONCE, ONCE, YEEEEHAH - Vickers style (only me is doing this), then button up, refresh and start shouting ONE, ONE, ONE, ONE, ONE Ferriera stylee.

'One' is almost the same song as 'I Need Air' in terms of lovely twinkly electronica. Produced by Bloodshy & Avant it is also the most Swedish sounding song of the year. I bet Kleerup is thinking he missed out on this one.



Amazing.

N.B. Works better if you just listen rather than watch. She seems to be a bit annoying (SAYS I!)

I Need Air

I don't know a huge amount, in fact not even a tiny amount, about dubstep. I know when I hear it, I tend to like it and I know that Skream's remix of La Roux's 'In For The Kill' was a bit of a tipping point last summer. I'd not paid much attention though to the news of a 'dubstep supergroup' coming out of Columbia records.

Magnetic Man consist of Skream, Benga and Artwork (no idea) and you'd probably expect them to make full on raving it up noise. Their first real attack on the mainstream however is instead a twinkly electronic pop song. It's probably total disgusting to their old school, hardcore fans, but as far as I go it's almost perfectly tailored.

I Need Air by pigeonsandplanes

The vocals (and presumably top-line) come from American singer-songwriter Angela Hunte who not only sounds delightfully robotic and cold here, but, FACT FANS, is the writer behind 'Empire State of Mind', 'Do Somethin'' and best of all, various Mis-Teeq album tracks.

'I Need Air' is out on July 26.

Play Me, I'm Yours

When I was a little girl I used to bang about on the piano at my Auntie Agnes' house in Burscough. All her family were musical and there are plenty of photos of me looking adorable at various pianos aged about 4.

Then when I was 7 or 8 I actually had piano lessons from a very old (or so she seemed) lady in Blackpool called Gladys Jolly. I didn't find her or the music particularly exciting so after doing a couple of grades packed it in. I can't actually remember who taught me to read music, whether it was school or Miss Jolly but it's always been a skill I've cherished.

I wish I'd stuck with the piano though. I have one at home home and can quite happily sit down with a piece of music and very slowly bash my way through it but I'd love to be able to do it properly. My cousin Lorilee is a music teacher and plays piano to concert pianist level. She can play anything after hearing it and we've spent many fun nights together playing and singing our way through musicals, or brilliantly me playing her a Pet Shop Boys song on Spotify and her transforming it into a wildly detailed piano piece instantly. A couple of years ago she started playing a piano in a hotel lobby and I love the idea that one day I'd be able to just see a piano and pounce on it.

So I was super excited (and very jealous I can't really get involved) by the Play Me, I'm Yours project that's currently running in London. The idea of British artist Luke Jerram, 21 pianos have been placed with London's Square Mile with the intention that anyone can sit down at them and do whatever they like. It's interesting to think about the very British reserved nature and whether they'll actually dare to try them, but I'm sure if you see someone do it then you'll want to get involved.

I love the idea of a 'public space' and don't think there's enough of them in London. This idea demands a space become one and enables everyone to be creative, regardless of their personal situation, and express themselves through the power of music. You might not know how to play, have played for years, or ever had the chance to own your own piano, but this enables every single one of us to get involved. Also it's brilliantly not just a bloody London centric thing - it'll be hitting Belfast, Burnley and Blackburn later in the year.

I'm hoping to find one to tinkle out a little Cole Porter on this weekend.

Smash Bang Baby

French DJ Martin Solveig has just released a new video, the first from his brand new, slightly secret, project. It is totally insane but perfect for the current Wimbledon frenzied lifestyle.

Starring the vocals of Dragonette's Martina, the song is nice enough, but it's worth watching regardless. The one and only Bob Sinclar stars as Martin's opponent in a tennis match where the players seeds are determined by their DJ Mag rankings and real life tennis man Nocak Djokovic does a comedy turn.

Fingers crossed for a Solveig vs Gaga rematch soon.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfxC3TCDgCE[/youtube]

LAST MENTION OF GLASTO, PROMISE

So finally to two down and out pop moments. Shakira wowed the Glastonbury audience on Saturday afternoon with her perfect blend of pop and world music. From the off it was an incredible sexual performance with fun moments where we howled along to She-Wolf and tried out the Waka Waka dance to emotionally intense ones like my favourite Shakira song 'Underneath Your Clothes'. In the perfect sunshine, this was pretty special. Shakira later humped a speaker so violently we were all driven to staring at the floor.



Shakira was always on my Glastonbury to do list but the other amazing highlight for me wasn't. I've seen the current Pet Shop Boys show twice now, and was seriously tempted to head to the Pyramid for Muse as I hadn't seen them in about 5 years. In the end though, the PSB won out and I had the immense joy of the show totally converting some of my hating friends into total PSB lovers and felt like I was cheating on Colin going to see them with Daniel.

Annoyingly the moment isn't on YouTube so I can't show it, but 'It's A Sin' hit me hard during this show. It somehow transformed from AMAZING pop song to BLOODY INTENSE EMOTIONALLY DISTRAUGHT UP GAY RIGHTS pop song. I know it always was that, but I hadn't quite got it until standing about in the cold with lots of people off their face while Neil was bathed in demonic red lights.

CHE GUEVARA AND DEBUSSY TO A DISCO BEAT INDEED.

p.s. amazing (AMAZING) pop fact - Helena from 'Frank' is one of the PSB's dancers. I thought it was her, then I chastised myself for being racist by assuming a girl with an afro who I could only see from far away was another girl with an afro, for no other reason than she had an afro. BUT THEN, it was her. So there.

Florence to the power of X Squared

Moment two came thanks to the combination of The XX and Florence and the Machine. Two bands who've had a lot of hype over the last twelve months.

I've never quite been bitten by the Florence bug, but once I'd finished yawning at the amount of hype round the XX and actually listened to them I was totally in love. I saw them at a Jools Holland play two songs, and then excitingly caught their SXSW set in a Methodist Church in Austin. There the audience was very quiet and polite, at Glasto they couldn't have been more different. This was an audience who was obsessed with the band and stomping, clapping and cheering along at a moments notice.

Even though the band members normally have a very controlled stage presence, the excitement in the John Peel tent for their show meant smiles were trying to break through the serious faces just about cracking at the side of their faces. This felt big.

To close the set they said they were going to play a song they hadn't done live before and the familiar harps from the start of Jamie XX's remix of Flo's 'You've Got The Love' rung out. At first it sounded like Florence's vocals were just being scratched in but then out she came and everything went mental. Candi Staton was on a different stage at the same time. Poor Candi Staton.

Thank You For The Days

Five years ago I went to Glastonbury for the first time. It was disgusting. I hated it. It was a proper torrential downfall year so the weather conditions coupled with it being my first festival and very first camping experience made for a horrific attitude from me and a general bad time. I remember distinctly asking my tent buddy James to punch me in the face so I passed out and could get to sleep as I was sure it was never going to happen naturally (he didn't).

This year though, with many more festivals under my belt and an excellent group of mates to go with, it was time to try the Somerset fields out once again. And well, it certainly didn't rain. It didn't rain so much that my gorgeous new wellies are still shiny and I had to spend a huge chunk of Saturday afternoon lying back at camp in the shade because I thought I was going to pass out. Naomi & I both have most excellent comedy sandal tanginess too.

Everyone goes on about Glasto moments. I'll post mine over the next couple of days, but this was the ultimate one.

Ray Davies - 'Days'



My knowledge of The Kinks is quite limited to the big singles. I still highly irritate all my friends by talking much more favourably about the Cathy Dennis version of Waterloo Sunset than the original (probably because it was the first one I heard). My knowledge of Ray Davies was zip until last year I went to see his very long and slightly strange musical Come Dancing and then caught a tiny bit of his SXSW set.

At Glasto I could have chosen the footie or Ray but I'm sure I made the right decision. A set filled with classics and not so, it was just about the right balance to keep everyone interested. The brilliant Crouch End Festival Chorus joined him for most of the set and added a brilliant wall of sound harmony to sounds like 'You Got Me' and the jolly 'The Village Green Preservation Society' (which was surely the inspiration for the Divine Comedy's entire career). The real highlight though came in 'Days', a song I only realised was 'a song' and not just a Yellow Pages advert about 4 months ago. Dedicated to The Kinks' bassist Pete Quaife who died last week, it was utterly spine tingling emotional. Ray cried, I cried. It was, as they say, a 'moment'.

Obviously it sounds rubbish on tv. Thanks television.

A Bit of Fit

Fitbit. It's not the new word on the street to call a bit of hot totty, but an awesome new little gadget that's been launched in the States in the last year. A very fancy pedometer, it's as much a motivational device as it is a fitness tool.

[caption id="attachment_1669" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jalm1/4270870194/"][/caption]

Containing a 3D motion sensor, the fitbit tracks your calories burnt, steps taken, distance travelled and sleep quality as long as you remember to wear it. You can connect it up with your social networks but balls to all that oversharing. Instead I'd be perfectly happy keeping my data within fitbit's own, pretty great on first glance, social network. It tracks your progress over time, weight, foods, and allows you to set goals and see how your friends are doing - thus adding another motivational factor. I'm particularly interested in the sleep efficiency as it takes me forever to get to sleep once I'm in bed and it would be good to see it monitored.

[caption id="attachment_1670" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnswords/4022080633/"][/caption]

I'm feeling very motivated and am going to be doing a lot of diet / fitness activities over the next month in the hope to have more energy for Glastonbury. Unfortunately, fitbits are so in demand that there's a month backlog of orders. Still, one is about to be ordered and will hopefully be with me late June.

If you want one, they're $99, but you'll have to get a mate in the US to sort it out though, as they're currently only available to order to American addresses.

Zelda Ronson

If you're hoping for more vintage soul from the new Mark Ronson album 'Record Collector' then you're  in for a big disappointment. The most important thing you need to know is that there isn't a horn or cover in earshot. Instead Mark, under his new act name 'Mark Ronson & The Business' has ditched the Stax sounds and intially put out a squelchy breakbeat of a track called 'Circuit Breaker' as a bubble track (I'm bored of the word buzz). Check out the very cute, geeky video which meets DJ Hero with old school Zelda synchronised to the music.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luoAYFR_hH0[/youtube]

From what I've gathered the actual first single features the curious combination of Boy George and the London Gay Men's Choir on a track co-written by Jake Shears. Triple threat. Ex Pipette Rose Elinor Dougall is on four tracks and there's contributions also from Miike Snow, Spank Rock, Q-Tip and Santigold. I would be excited about Rose had she not seemed so disinterested and blah about her music when I saw her at SXSW. It was enough to send us home early for the night with all our energy zapped. Hopefully though Mark will have brought back her pizzazz.

'Circuit Breaker' however just makes me expect Stuart Hall to appear with the news. This is what the theme tune to Northwest Tonight sounded like in the 80s, yes?

Jessie's Girl

Rick Springfield's 'Jessie's Girl' isn't a song that I've really grown up with. Despite being a Grammy award winner and Billboard #1 in the States in 1981, it only reached #43 here when it was released 3 years later over here. So I'm not really sure how big this song is in the UK, if anything it's probably Guitar Hero that's secured it's enduring popularity. Personally I think I only first heard it a couple of months ago when Lucio played it at 'I Built This Speedwagon on a Prayer' (a power ballads night at The RVT that we run) and then soon afterwards I watched Boogie Nights in which it features. Since then I've been list ening to it A LOT and played it again at the latest Speedwagon last week.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2T7wKdQsTo[/youtube]

What nicely ironed trousers.

Once the Madonna episode of Glee aired, a lot of people suggested they'd foolishly left out the schmaltzy 'Dear Jessie'. Instead it seems Jesse St James was definately named for a reason, but it's so they  could bring Rick Springfield into play. When 'Laryngitis' airs in the UK on Monday I'm pretty sure that the #43 chart position is going to be smashed to pieces. In fact it's probably the most hit heavy episode of the sadly fading Glee. There's not very much action but brilliant song after song is banged out with two non Rachel based duets in particular absolutely nailing it.

Don't Accuse The BBC of Labour Bias Again...

Now a dead link but screengrabbed - Gordon Brown's legacy

Did Nick Robinson commission this page?

Frankie & The Heartstrings

To my ears the Sunderland / Durham / Newcastle accent when sung by male indie groups sounds the same. I know this is ridiculous but perhaps I am so swept away by the romance of a NE accent that I totally forget to listen for any defining qualities. Maximo Park were noticeably not The Futureheads because their music was much spikier, but when new Sunderland band Frankie & The Heartstrings came along last year I had a quick listen to their not very interesting debut single 'Fragile' and promptly put them into my forgettable, I'll just listen to the Futureheads if I want that, box.

The first disappointment came because it's very easy to assume things based on the first things you see about a band which are normally their name and their first promo shot. The worst thing at the moment is every band under the sun sending over some glitzy, polysexual photo that inspires you to click on their myspace, only to discover utter twaddle when it comes to the music. For Frankie & co, there was an awful, although at least not faux-gay, promo shot (see above) but the name conjured up images of beehives, quiffs, a rock & roll high school and soaring strings. 'Fragile' totally didn't tick that box.

It's good work on their part then that their second single 'Tender' is much more exciting and retro sounding complete with point winning hand claps. Dancable and infectious, the video totally endears them to me and the idea of someone who 'feeds you milk and gives you wine' sounds like a winning combo. Plus I love a frontman who doesn't have an instrument to hide behind, yet has the ability to jump about looking silly and like he's actually digging his own music. Can someone organise a Frankie vs Friendly Fires' Ed McFarlane dance off please.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29A5jD2Hz4U[/youtube]

(It still sounds like The Futureheads)

I Am Yours Now

During the first few months of 2010, you couldn't watch television without Florence popping up in the background of some trails or another. Now that moment's passed, it seems that The XX are the latest 'trail friendly' band. After 'Crystallised' popped up, much to the anguish of a snobby indie fan, on the 90210 Channel 4 trail, it's now time for 'Islands' to take centre stage seemingly in the position of the BBC's election advert song.

Handy then, that it's the band's next single. I saw them for the first proper time over at SXSW in a dimly lit Methodist church in Austin and it was magical. Now for 'Islands', video director Saam Farahmand (Cheryl's 3 words) has managed to create something very special out of the story of love breaking apart through a delicately changing dance routine. Totally mesmerising.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXNS0Uub80k[/youtube]

Lost Musicals: Paris

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-oEA1sK374[/youtube]

Forget people banging on about going to see Rufus Wainwright's opera at Sadlers Wells in the next couple of weeks; the real hot ticket comes courtesy of Lost Musicals performing 'Paris' in the accompanying Lillian Bayliss Studio.

Run by Ian Marshall Fisher, Lost Musicals is a brilliant project. It is designed to find and stage musicals which have been 'lost', either literally or in memories, by some of America's greatest songwriters. Over the last 21 years, the project has staged over 70 different works and does so with the help of actors who give their time for free as well as researchers and Ian himself who trawls the world looking for songs that have been mislaid so he can reconstruct the shows.

I'm a massive Cole Porter fan and last year, Lost Musical's staging of The New Yorkers first introduced me to their project. The show takes place on Sunday afternoons with actors in evening wear, on a stage with neither a set nor props, reading from their scripts. It's a very unusual style to watch but utterly captivating.

This year, one of their three shows is another Cole Porter show and I caught it last weekend. Not quite as sharp and lively as 'The New Yorkers', 'Paris' was Porter's first Broadway show and revolves around a marriage between an American socialite and a French actress. It's the show which features possibly Porter's most famous song 'Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)' and showcases his brilliant rhyming wit that really shines in later songs like 'You're The Top'. The show is really stolen by the socialite's mother, Cora, who at Lost Musicals was played by 'er off the tele', Anne Reid, probably best known to me as Doctor Who monster, the Plasmavore, who enjoyed sucking people's blood with a straw.

The Lost Musicals series is totally recommended and I think now a firm spring outing each year in the diary. Paris runs for three more weeks and it's followed later in the year by Lerner & Loewe's 'The Day Before Spring'.

Better than Steve

I am, as a friend put it last night, part of the Apple eco-system. I have an iPod, an iMac and a macbook. Everywhere I go, I have an apple to keep me connected, but for some reason I don't feel much connection with the iPad. Using it to read sheet music and playing board games on it sounds pretty cool but I think it would take a bit to get my head round paying for apps. Even buying iPhone apps that are more than £1 make me tense, as if it's actually £100 a go. I'm sure in time I'll come around though.

I mention this because I guess the iPad will be to a lot of people a reading device. I don't like carrying a large handbag, and ones that can fit a book are on the large side for me, so I actually don't end up reading much (as travelling is probably the only time I would be reading a physical product). There is of course also the Kindle, but I'm adverse at the moment to having 'yet another device' to cart round.

Last week James brought a life changer into play by showing me the Eucalyptus app on his iPhone. It, and various other apps (personally I'm using Stanza) are e-book readers for the iPhone. And if your eyes can handle it, are bloody amazing. They work by using something called Project Gutenberg. You might all be aware of this. Reading up on it I'm pretty aghast that in, what, 14/15 years of using the internet I've never heard of it. In essence and for this particular use, it's a collection of lots of works of literature, articles and plays which are out of copyright (currently, books published before 1923). Wonder how supermarkets sell copies of Sense & Sensibility for 99p? It's because they don't have an author to pay. These works are available for free and Project Gutenberg goes about collating and digitising them. With an iPhone app that utilises it, you can download from a vast range of books and read to your heart's content.

It's an amazing way to really get to grips with classics that you otherwise wouldn't find the time to read, or wouldn't get round to because the latest Sophie Kinsella (nowadays I should probably say the latest Abby McDonald) has hit the shelves.

If you're an iPhone-r, get on it pronto (particularly now Apple have just announced e-books in 4.0), and even if you're not you can still download material to use on other devices. In any case tips for classics please! I've just done 'The Curious Case on Benjamin Button' and am now half way through 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'.

Thanks Gutenbergers, you're amazing.

New from Xenomania - Florrie

It's no secret that I like a girl in a band. I like it even more if they're the only girl, and even, even, even more if they're the drummer. Although role of favourite girl drummer in the world falls to Cherisse Osei, there's a new challenger in the form of Florrie.

Florrie is a songwriter and part of JFK, the in-house band over at Xenomania towers. I saw her perform as the backing band to all the artists at the brilliant Xenofest showcase the production 'outfit' held over the summer but now she's just released her first piece of music via youtube. Complete with a trademark Xenomania style rap and the gorgeous swooshing club beats of a Fred Falke remix, it reveals her to be perhaps an unexpected new pop starlet for this year. That's if they don't insist she hands it over to Mini Viva to release instead.

Prepare to make this dreary Wednesday morning feel like Friday night.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtv7cvOr70E [/youtube]

p.s. what the hell has happened to Jessie Malakouti, please Xenomania?

Worried About The Boy

Ever since meeting Simon Hobart, getting involved with Ghetto and hearing his stories of the club scene of the 80s, I've had fascination with the decade. Ashes to Ashes helped bring that along even further and I've loved delving back in time and so far merely scraping the surface of all the brilliant electro pop that came out of that era. I always say that if I had a time machine I'd love to go back to 1980s London and see what it was like. I was here a hell of a lot, but as a child who didn't really see much.

It's very exciting to read then about the BBC's 80s season which is the already made part of the now dropped Decades TV season the corp were planning. The first programme to be announced is 90 minute drama Worried About The Boy which revolves around the life of Boy George. He'll be played by Douglas Booth who's only really known at the moment for being the male face of Burbury. Joining him are Mark Gatiss as Malcolm McClaren, Marc Warren as Steve Strange, and Matthew Horne as Jon Moss. I'm a bit face scowly at the idea of Matthew Horne, but we shall see. Excitingly as Worrapolava noticed, it's being made by Red Productions who are most famous for making Queer As Folk. The Blitz club will be central to the plot and who knows, maybe even Simon's Kitkat club might get a mention. Boy George is a figure who has his own little role in my life who as a friend of my dad once showed up to my fifth birthday party and gave me a red soap in the shape of a heart. This was in 1987, hopefully it'll play a central part in the programme.

Scream S for Streisand

Sometimes you hear a song and you're not entirely sure what it is. You're aware it's a classic and asking would make you look a bit daft. Shazam has gone some way to solve these issues and I have an almightily brilliant Spotify playlist that I keep up to date with everything I've shazam'd in the last year. It's mainly populated by soul and jazz from many a Saturday night spent holding my phone up in the Dalston Jazz Bar.

I don't actually care though, hence showing you that list. Yes I didn't know for a fact what Bob Dylan 'Like A Rolling Stone' was. Big deal. We all have different music specialities and learning about new stuff (even if it's old) is brilliant. That's part of the reason Absolute Radio is a preset on my car radio. I like listening to the station because it'll play me some classic songs I've never heard before. It's as much education as it is entertainment.

This is all a big preamble to me horrifying Jack by admitting to not really knowing what Jacques Brel - Ne Me Quitte Pas was before Christmas. As the Dusty greatest hits album is my standard 'BOYS SUCK. I NEED TO WALLOW' album, I must have heard Dusty's version a billion times but never quite clocked it. The reason I've gone back and found Jacques though is because Barbra Streisand has covered the song on her latest album 'Love Is The Answer'. Apart from the fact that it makes you want to tear your heart straight out of your chest I think I'm particularly into this song because of all the quiet then LOUD (probably a good technical term for this somewhere) bits.

Once upon I time I didn't know much about Barbra. In fact I was once asked 'Name three Barbra Streisand songs' as the first question in a job interview last year. Way to throw me off. After this Christmas though I feel like I could go on Mastermind with her as my specialist subject. After Christmas I drove back down from the North to London and challenged myself to listen to Radio 2 all day. I would have listened most of the day anyway but for once I wanted to avoid me being flick happy when I don't like a song. It was a very strange day on air. Cilla & Tony Blackburn presented the Great British Songbook and Dave Pearce brought Dance Anthems to the station. In between those two came an extremely intense interview with Babs presented by chart god Paul Gambaccinni that lasted for 2 hours and incorporated performances from her recent intimate show at New York's 'Village Vanguard'. I heard about 28 Streisand songs in a row and learnt everything from her relationship with the Academy to the lack of love in her life. Did you know that she's never sung 'Woman in Love' live because she couldn't relate to the lyrics? Did you know that she once went to see Jacques Brel in concert in France and he didn't sing 'Ne Me Quitte Pas' even though he knew she was there? She even went backstage and begged. Now you do.

Anyway here is her version albeit a roping recording. Just buy it. Amazatronica. There are so many versions of this song out there though - which one is your favourite? I'd advise skipping the Belinda Carlise one.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbxBoXWvG0w[/youtube]

Eliza Doolittle

And so Ellie Goulding is the Sound of 2010. I like Ellie but not enough to really care much at the moment - she seems nice enough. Both Ellie and Marina were always going to come at the top of the poll having been knocking about since the beginning of the year and taking time to leak songs, play gigs, in Ellie's case play Jools, release limited edition singles and set the blogosphere all in a tizz while making sure they didn't chart in the top 20 and break the conditions of being in the Sound of … poll. The model of the Little Boots winning path was watched and just repeated last year. My votes this year were for 1. Hurts 2. Dollface 3. Jessie Malakouti. I'd have voted for Marina as well but thought she would get enough.

Anyway a couple of the labels were less on the ball about the sound of and sent out I Blame Coco + Eliza Doolittle tracks the week after it shut. I'd have probably have voted for them both otherwise. Eliza was knocking about in development for a lot of 2009 but only released her first E.P. at the end of November. Let's just hope that wasn't the first in an attempt to be the Sound of 2011.

If you can get over the name confusion (people should really start thinking about google), Eliza makes toe-tappy jangle pop. It's not big, bold with massive production; in fact it's even a little Jack Johnson (wait… come back!) She looks like a more natural version of Miley Cyrus, lyrically there's shades of Lily with her straight talking tales dresses her age and is distinctly Norf Laaandan. Her age seems to be a bit of a mystery. I think she looks about 17, but her label replied saying they weren't sure but they thought about 22.

Her videos all have a strong visual identity. This is her first single proper 'Skinny Genes', joining the ranks of Ain't What You Do, Young Folks and er, Blow My Whistle Bitch, as songs with a whistle designed to get inside your head.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ISXumeGC1c[/youtube]

Alternatively listen to her EP on Spotify which contains the furiously catchy Moneybox, the trippy Police Car and chirpy Rollerskates.

Momma's Place

In my mind I've dramatically taken against Roisin Murphy for getting pregnant and having a baby. It just seemed like a weird thing to do at this time, but whatevs. Who cares when it's made her throw out this banging new track. Previous leak 'Orally Fixated' was a bit rubbish but this is a full out dancefloor stomp complete with eurorave piano and drums from 1992. It's so good probably because it's just a big massive tune, the lyrics might be fancy but sonically it's not trying to be cold and arty. It just likes going bang, bang, bang. BANG.

Listen on loop for an hour. Cry at being unable to scrobble it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHLC4sXm8VI[/youtube]

Number One Enemy

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlU5Qk9w0u4[/youtube]

2009: Songs of the Year

I'd love to have the energy to make end of year lists as wonderfully detailed as the mighty XO London. Unfortunately I'm full of a stinker of a cold and generally distracted by everything else. This year I've been a little rubbish at listening to as much music as I should do. There's a whole back-up of albums in my LISTEN TO ME folder on spotify, so this may well be missing some corkers. Like I'm sure Fever Ray and Metric would be likely candidates for my favourite albums had I actually listened to them more than once or twice. I need to catch up pronto.

Anyway my favourite songs of the year:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvljD0toJmU[/youtube]

1. Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling
Simply for packing as much joy and celebration as possible into just under 5 minutes. It's utterly infectious and I'm even more convinced this is my song of the year after feeling just how amazing it was to both play it and watch others enjoying it at Popstarz NYE last night.

2. Daniel Merriweather - Water & A Flame
I'm not entirely sure what I think about Daniel Merriweather but his album surprised me. Red grew on it to a manic extent but this later released single is without doubt the heart-achingly gorgeous highlight. It's one of those moments that could make me cry so hard I start to feel sick (see De-lovely, last 10 minutes of 'Doomsday', Mr Shue & Emma on Glee etc.)

3. Lady Gaga - Bad Romance
It was tough to choose between this and Pokerface, but again Popstarz last night tipped this one as best. It was as if I could have played it on repeat for 4 hours solid and no one would have minded. Paparazzi was my favourite video of hers this year, but the first 2 seconds even of Bad Romance absolutely smash it. The decade's most exciting popstar.

4. Royksopp - The Girl and The Robot
A bleak surprise song from Robyn. I interviewed the band earlier say everything I could possibly need to (600 words worth) over here.

5. God Help The Girl - Musician Take Heed
I'd not heard of this album until Colin stuck his iPod on loudspeaker at a late summer BBQ and the brilliant God Help The Girl album came out. It's a teaming up of Stuart Murdoch from Belle & Sebastian with various female vocalists. Just pipping Perfection As A Helper, this song showcases why I love the album, full of gorgeous, melancholic harmonies.

6. Cheryl Cole - Fight For This Love
I know some people (hello Naomi) fully despise Cheryl, but I'm happy to be swept away with the hype of loving her. Hooray for her pipping Nadine to a solo album. FFTL was unexpected and provided the opportunity for a wide range of new, fascinating dance with your fist type moves from the Talia camp.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKRchFtlkEI[/youtube]
7. Jack Penate - Be The One
When Jack released his first album I wasn't particularly interested in the jingly-jangly nature of it all. Who knows what happened before the release of album #2 (a long holiday in Ibiza?) but it's euphoric, Balearic sounds were the surprise of the year. A blissfully uplifting song that featured the best use of trumpets since Mark Ronson got his hands on the instrument, and provided a brilliant moment at Wireless in Hyde Park.

8. Shirley Bassey - Apartment
I have absolutely no idea what this song is about. Written by Rufus Wainwright for the latest Shirley Bassey album, it's entirely nonsensical. That said, the spanish guitars and a roaring vocal make it a quirky and utterly memorable oddity.

9. Rumble Strips - Daniel
I think I should have listened to the latest Rumble Strips album more but this is the song that stuck with me the most. That's probably because I have a friend called Daniel and when we're talking about him I like to belt this out. I feel like I want to sing it while standing on a windswept bridge in the rain. Dramatic and dastardly.

10. Lily Allen - Not Fair
A funny, silly, even stupid little song that captures everything we first loved about Lils. It causes a regular barn dance each week at Popstarz and provided a very odd moment with a bride and groom dancing and singing it to each other when I, retrospectively inappropriately, played it at a friend's wedding.

Special outside the top 10 loving goes to Never Forget You, Bulletproof, Flashback, Empire State of Mind, Battlefield, Warm in The Shadows & Heads Will Roll.