Owner: worrapolava URL:http://worrapolava.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:06:01 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A music (and anything else that takes my fancy) blog, as seen the gay-tinted specs of a Brit. Hopefully entertaining, knowingly never dull. Pop in. Site statistics:Click here
Maybe we could make happen, babe 2007-07-16 14:11:00 With Every Heartbeat is now on the Radio 1 A-list playlist which means it blasts out of the nation's speakers at least a hundred times a day. It also means that Robyn (and Kleerup, bless 'im) could be in line for a big fat hit. And the promo machine is going up a gear with an appearence this week on Jo Whiley's Live Lounge. Which day wasn't mentioned (helpfully) on today's show, but you can listen again as soon as it's happened on Jo's mini-site.It would be fantastic if Robyn could get Radio 1 behind the rest of the album; in spite of rubbish DJs, they're incredibly influential. I'm keeping everything crossed. With Every Heartbeat is released 30th July (digital), 6th August (physical).Below, is a video from her live show at Cargo in March performing Be Mine. The crowd were wild for her that night, as you can hear at the end of this storming version. And is that Electroqueer down at the front? Read more:Maybe
Free Chemical Brothers/New Order 2007-07-14 13:20:00 I've never read a more accurate description of a Chemical Brothers
' album than this one on Chelsea Kelsey's Shang-A-Lang as he does his quarterly round-up of fave tunes. We Are the Night is another CB great HALF album. And this trackA Modern Midnight Conversation - The Chemical Brothers (mp3 Download) is definitely the New Order
one. Read more:New Order
And What I Am Needs Some Excusing! 2007-07-14 11:34:00 Oops! Doing in the trade, what is known as a 'Donna', eg., "Oh, my giddy aunt, she's done a Donna!", Gloria Gaynor has shat all over her (namesake) gay audience. On Radio 4's Woman's Hour, she proclaimed that she wants to "Lead gays to Christ" and when pulled up on what she actually thinks of homosexuality, refused to say anything. So, a performance at G.A.Y. isn't just a regular PA to La Gaynor, but a missionary experience. Oh please. Go here to listen to the interview. It's the height of ignorance and arrogance to assume it's acceptable to sing anthems of emancipation like I Am What I Am and I Will Survive for ANY minority group and then dismiss them as being somehow sinful and therefore wrong. Her views on feminism fall into this category. Apparently, women asking for equality are men haters. Gloria! Stop! Now! I used to have a lot of time for her; in the studio, she recorded I Will Survive in a back brace after falling on stage. Suffering for your audience like that, how g Read more:Needs
Ali, Love it! 2007-07-14 09:00:00 Ali Love, the vocalist on The Chemical Brothers' brilliant Do It Again has his own tune out on Monday in the UK. Secret Sunday Lover is de-lovely lazy funk, perfect for Sunday head nodding in a summer beer garden, (I'm sure I heard a namecheck for Brick Lane's 93 Feet East bar in there). I really like Ali's voice too, especially the cute speech impediment going on: 'Got a bwain like bubblegum, blowing up my cwanium'. On this one he goes, 'earfbound'. Aw!Taking his inspiration from the decade he was born into and being a bedroom musical boffin seems a bit en vogue at the moment. Two's a coincidence and three's the trend with Ali, Calvin Harris (who he spookily resembles) and Pleasure's Fred Ball. Ali had an overlooked single last year called K-Hole ('Lipstick on my left cheek, and a bwooze on the other side') which was a cringing account of a night spent on Ketamine. It made ME wince.Anyhoo, love the new single, the vid of which is just below. Want to hear more, then there
Pull my puppet strings 2007-07-24 13:43:00 The word is out. Kylie's coming back with... a cover, maybe. Apparently, for a laugh, she recorded Roxy Music's Love Is a Drug and Culture Club's 1983 hit Victims; the latter being full of comedic value we presume.There's something up in Camp Kylie. This interview with shouty singer, Luciana, on popjustice revealed the possible rabbit-in-headlights panic over decent material for the lead-off single. The world and his wife have been contributing songs including, thankfully, Xenomania and Cathy Dennis - let's just hope Timbaland was too busy when they called. Actually, it's a blessed relief that the Scissors' White Diamond hasn't been slated for single release... I don't know about anyone else, but I struggled to find the tune. And the middling ho-hum leaks a few weeks back only add to the sense of foreboding. I'm not sure a cover is the answer, especially one as serious and dramatic as Victims. But I wouldn't mind being proved wrong. Anyhoo, here, in case you forgot how good Read more:puppet
, strings
The 7 One Hit Wonders... 2007-07-28 09:27:00 ...of my world, anyway. Part two. THE POP SELECTION.The other day I lost my iPod. I know. It's a shiteous thing to happen, but luckily I have all my tunes backed up onto CD so it was just the actual gadget. Whoever ends up with it will have a brilliant selection; eclectic and totally me. A bit of Margaret Berger there, a lot of Pet Shop Boys here and a little bit of Cilla Black (!!) for good luck. The iPod was in a bag which somehow went missing on a Friday night bender between leaving Profile bar, calling in at Burger King in Leicester Square (the shame of it) and climbing into an unlicensed minicab. I think most of my dignity was in that bag too. Oh dear.Ah well. But there is a silver lining to my little tale of woe. My fella bought me a replacement! So I'm spending this weekend catching up with all my lovely tunes as I fill up the new one. And going through them, a blog occurred.I've got hundreds of one-offs where I only have one tune by a particular artist. This is usually becau Read more:Wonders
Even if it makes it twice as hard 2007-07-31 14:48:00 The header above is from the stonking chorus of Hard by new band I Am Finn. But the singer/songwriter and powerhouse behind the London group, Liam Lever, could just have been watching too many Carry On movies. Imagine, a shot of Babs Windsor on her knees in front of an upright cackling Sid James, saying, "Even if it makes
it twice as hard!" and then the camera whip pans around to the front of her to reveal she's actually blowing up an airbed... But then, watching the vid (posted seperately below) it's not about that at all. In fact Liam, the lovechild of Iggy Pop and Janice Dickenson, is quite serious. Go have a look at their MySpace where more tunes are streamed. Bad Luck is a particular favourite sounding anthemic and intimate at the same time with a right old late 80's AOR geetar solo in the middle and another storming chorus. They're clever buggers this lot. There was a tune at the end of last year that I kept hearing when I was out, and it turns out to be a remix of a much spa
There's nothing like an English summer 2007-08-04 09:55:00 And like a long-lost friend who suddenly texts out of the blue, a giant golden orb thing called 'the sun' appears in a cloudless sky to remind everyone in England that it is, in fact, August, and summer! Hurrah! And, more predictably, out come the noisy neighbours. How come warring couples choose to argue at the tops of their voices and a flat full of been-up-all-night-on-pills choose to make their presence felt and heard. In our neighbourhood we've even got an R&B star wannabe: it's a girl who fills her weekend days with renditions of Rihanna, Beyonce and old skool Motown. She's actually amazing, and I feel quite lucky to catch her snatches of vocal gymnastics now and again. But the open window syndrome means summer in a big old city like London is never peaceful. In some ways this is how it should be, but in other ways, having to put headphones on to drown out the summer noise goes against the grain. And so I segue into the summer tune. Like Christmas, (doesn't that word sound Read more:English
Maccy Ds play 'Hide the Logo' 2007-08-08 06:41:00 It's great this game. First you take out a double page ad in the UK's best-selling food mags (with the teeniest logo you need to find with a magnifying glass) which directs everyone to a site called makeupyourownmind.co.uk There you'll find no nasty McDonalds logos or anything to remind you you're looking at a Maccy Ds damage limitation exercise. But look closer. In place of the logos, you'll find these highly entertaining questions from Joe Public in the How Do You Make section, especially good are numbers 1 and 15. Bye, bye Maccy Ds!
"You're that George Michael out of the Wham! ain't yer?" 2007-08-06 18:47:00 The Guide has two of the funniest columnists around in Charlie Brooker's Screen Burn and Grace Dent's World of Lather. But another funny writer, popjustice's Peter Robinson appears week by week under a lower-cased umbrella header of 'music' with nothing but a byline. These one-pagers are more than worthy of a header all their own.This week, the subject was the latest episode of comedy biopics Star Stories; a seriously overlooked Channel 4 show, which has the perfect conduit in Peter Robinson. In a genuine moment of pop picking up a knife and fork and eating itself, he describes the next in the series, Simon Cowell - My Honesty, My Genius. which could easily be a popjustice version of pop history. With one-liners in the upcoming Friday episode like "I didn't want to know about the Spice Girls - they'd only be a 10-year flash in the pan" I can't wait. Star Stories is like pissing yourself laughing with a mate who is: a) a great mimicb) probably a gayerc) funny as fuckThis scene, Read more:George
, Michael
ANTHONY H WILSON 2007-08-11 11:36:00 20 February 1950 – 10 August 2007The Manchester impressario, blaggard, twat, entrepreneur, genius behind Factory and Manchester's creative scene has left a huge hole but an equally huge legacy. Bless 'im.I remember his late night Granada TV music and arts show The Other Side of Midnight which would introduce new bands like The Stone Roses every week. And this, if anything epitomised the man: he would only need utter the words "And this new..." and you would either go with it or laugh it out of the house. A visionary man with either fabulous or nebulous taste. Go here to the BBC for the story and the music heritage.
Goosebumpingly gorgeous 2007-08-11 09:02:00 It's a fight for number one in tomorrow's Top 40 between Robyn and Kanye West. Obviously I have my flag planted firmly in the Robyn Camp. But according to popjustice, there's not much in it with Kanye at number one in iTunes already. Mind you, with this kind of press cropping up in the UK now, maybe this will be Kanye's last chance. But all of these shenanigans aside, you HAVE TO LISTEN TO THIS; it's worth the investment of 20-ish minutes of your time. As I mentioned earlier, Robyn was due to do a live performance and interview on Jo Whiley's Radio 1 show. And a couple of days ago, here she was...Click here to go to the picture galleries and link to LISTEN NOW. Confusingly, Sara Cox was standing in for La Whiley, but, believe me, that is a bonus! I like La Cox and her blunt northern ways. The interview went down the inevitable Show Me Love route with a cheeky aside to the Robin S track... but otherwise, Robyn came across as funny and wholly appreciative of the gushing compliment Read more:gorgeous
7 One Hit Wonders... 2007-08-12 13:44:00 ...of my 80s world. And these are genuine one hitters where follow-ups either flopped or didn't even materialise. Even though the chart botherings of Naked Eyes and Matt Fretton aren't of stellar proportions, they qualify because I played the song as if it were a top ten smash. So, in no particular order:Strawberry Switchblade - Since Yesterday (mp3 Download) Reached No.5 in 1984You can smell the hair lacquer from here... this gorgeous tune from the Scottish girl goths has trumpets and synths and a heart-stopping middle eight. And this amazingly comprehensive website devoted to Rose and Jill makes me feel a bit guilty for including them in a 'one hit wonder' post!Carmel - Bad Day (mp3 Download)Reached No.15 in 1983The Amy Winehouse of her day (without the crack cocaine habit), Manchester lass Carmel has a voice which sends shivers down all the right places. Although there were critically acclaimed albums produced by the likes of Brian Eno, Carmel (the name of the band and the lea Read more:Wonders
'Ave it! 2007-08-12 12:39:00 Robyn beats off the challenges from Timbaland and Kanye.SHE'S NUMBER ONE! HURRAH!It's all down hill from here, love.
French & Saunders: a 100 year celebration 2007-08-18 08:24:00 50 is the new 40. It has to be. So many artists seem to be using the half century as a landmark to their – by this time - huge body of work, Marc Almond being a current case in point. And now that French
& Saunders are nearing the big 5-0 they aren’t disappointing. On September 7th, the BBC will be airing a new series, sort of. Called A Bucket O’ French & Saunders, it’s a greatest hits-type package of all their sketches stitched together with brand new ‘white room’ inserts and early next year they’ll be touring the UK. But after that, apparently, that will be it as far as being a TV duo. I can’t really remember when F&S weren’t on TV they’ve been around for that long. 25 years ago when they co-starred in the Comic Strip Presents series for Channel 4 they were, for me, easily the most interesting and funny - Famous Five Go Mad in Dorset: "Oh, Timmy (the dog) You're so licky!". A sitcom for the BBC followed called Happy Families which was under-rated and under-viewed Read more:celebration
Is it just me? 2007-08-17 14:49:00 Or does anyone else find it a bit weird that the 'reformed' ex-pill-popping, ex-crack-smoking Happy Mondays are now Amy Wino's replacements on the V Festival bill. There was a time when no one would touch the band with a shitty stick.Shaun: "La, la, la, like your mother was dirty! (Aside to Bez) Don't worry, matey, it's only water in this beer bottle" Bez: "S'OK, Shaun, mate. I'm only on Pro-Plus to give the impression that I'm bug-eyed after a triple drop. By the way, are we still going to see Il Divo next week?"
Zip it, Simon! 2007-08-17 14:20:00 "I’ve been lucky, but I also know when not to outstay my welcome". Hasn't the man learned from Tony Blair's mistakes? DON'T SAY ANYTHING. "I have three more seasons under contract with American Idol and that will be it. And it will probably come at the same time The X Factor in the U.K." Just GO when you have to but don't announce it yet! We'll end up getting a Simon
Cowell retrospective just before the new series of X Factor followed updated version at the end of the series... At Christmas there'll be Simon Cowell's All-Time Favourite Christmas Retrospectives. And there after, a potted history of Simon Cowell every six months or so for THREE YEARS.Come 2010 (!!!) we'll all be screaming "Oh just fuck off. PLEASE!". By which point, any fondness the nation may have had for the man will have evaporated into the ether.
Nice Juggs... 2007-08-20 16:57:00 A right pair here!They're called Midnight Juggernauts and despite looking and sounding vare French, they're completely Oz-ian from Melbourne and they have a new album out called Dystopia. This track, Road to Recovery is my current wake up song in the morning. And whereas, walking to work I usually remind people that they must 'get some mince for tea', it's actually making me move purposefully with a very uncharacteristic swagger. It's also a song with huge VFM: it sounds brilliantly epic when you're out and cures the hangover in the morning.WebsiteMySpace with REALLY GOOD tracks from the new album. And the boys holiday pics, like this one above after meeting the Queen, hereMidnight Juggernauts - Road to Recovery (mp3 Download)
O2 many hits! 2007-08-29 07:09:00 Prince @ The O2 Arena, London, Tuesday 29th August U Got the Look, but Where the Fuck R U?Walking into the massive 21,000 seater O2 Arena (inside the old Millenium Dome) last night, my first thought was: how on earth am I going to enjoy this? Prince isn't exactly pop's biggest star, literally, and the stage looked like The Borrowers were going to get up and do a turn. Anyhoo, the lights go down and onto the screen come Salma Hayek (!), Pharell Williams, Wendy & Lisa (obv.) and Joni Mitchell (!!!!) to extol the virtues of their pint-sized hero. And then. Up he came from under the stage to the centre of the 'symbol' right into Let's Go Crazy. Almost immediately the distance melted away and it became the biggest, most intimate gig I've ever been too. It's to Prince's credit that he pulls off the seemingly impossible. He sells out 21 nights of 21,000 bums on seats - all at the democratic price of £31.21. And above all that, he wins over every crowd, every night with a potent mix o
Amy and Britney, together at last! 2007-08-29 05:13:00 A sight you'd never thought you'd see, Wino and Britters having a liddle tete-a-tete......courtesy of French and Saunders! This is their usual celeb-baiting on the upcoming new series and, as ever, they've gone for the of-the-moment juggular. Can't wait. Read more:Britney
, together
To the Manor Born 2007-08-28 05:07:00 Like Audrey Fforbes-Hamilton I became one of the privileged and left the hoi polloi behind as I took to life at this manor in Sussex like a duck to water. Myself and 10 friends descended on it for the Bank Holiday weekend and for a change, the weather reflected everyone's mood; sunny and hot! Vare hot! This Edwardian pile had a squash court inside the house (!) and 2 grand pianos in the drawing room for an Elton/Liberace sandwich. It has its own website hereAnd the tune of the weekend? Despite some quality tracks, the trash always wins out... Wham Rap! - Wham! (mp3 Download) Read more:Manor
"Here comes a high-heeled sensation..." 2007-08-31 08:54:00 Ask for some new music and it's always the Swedes that come up trumps. Emmon apparently knocks back the Absolut with Kleerup, The Knife and, probably, Robyn. She's also a member of the lovely band Paris (see the mp3 below). Her album, with a stylish cover, The Art and the Evil is available on UK iTunes here. And for all thing Emmon, go here. The track Rock D'Amour (see below) starts off sounding like Salt 'n' Pepa's Push It and ends up as a gorgeous throbbing, synth twinkling slice of pop. And she looks like she's having a great time in the vid with her easy-going bopping.Rock D'Amour - Emmon (mp3 Download)You and I - Paris (mp3 Download) Read more:comes
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