But all of this paled into insignificance when the results were read out and the bottom two was comprised John and Edward vs. Lucie Jones. John and Edward, or Jedward as they’ve become collectively known, deserved their position but Lucie Jones surely didn’t. Lloyd Daniels, lucky to survive last week, should have been down there as well.

And then the unthinkable happened. After a sing off which saw Lucie struggle and Jedward obliterate Rock DJ by Robbie Williams, Simon Cowell pushed it to deadlock, with the public vote deciding who would be leaving. This being despite Cowell bemoaning Jedward being in the contest week after week. He had a chance to get rid of them and bottled it!

So, Lucie Jones, my favorite of the female singers, got booted out of the competition despite there being much worse acts left. And you know that Simon kept John & Edward in to gain more publicity for the show and to keep the Jedward campaigns rolling on. So much for a talent contest, this is now more about making money from phone votes.

Stacey Solomon

Looked uncomfortable on stage. Concentrated so much on moving a little that the singing suffered. Too quiet, very subdued, and not a big enough performance.

Olly Murs

Cheesy song choice for a cheesy man. Crappy dance moves overshadowed the average singing which left me felling cold. Simon’s novelty act could go far, at a Butlins holiday camp.

Lloyd Daniels

Should have gone last week, and didn’t improve this week. Started terribly and didn’t improve. Was in the wrong key for much of the performance. How is he still in it?

Jamie Archer

Slightly off-key. A strange arrangement of the Roy Orbison classic, Crying. Also screamed the chorus every time, which made him look desperate to impress. Only truly comfortable with rock songs.

Lucie Jones

Did a fair job with a song not known by all. A solid performance that failed to truly resonate like other weeks. A little static and a little dull but still deserved to stay.

Danyl Johnson

Good song, well sung. A little too reliant on backing singers but note perfect when you could hear him over them. best performance of the night and if The X Factor is about vocals then will surely win.

John & Edward

Embarrassing and cringeworthy. I can’t actually watch this s*** anymore; my eyes won’t take it. Novelty rubbish as it is every week. Who the frick is voting for these two talentless nobs?

Joe McElderry

Note-perfect but still a little boring and very forgettable… which is why I have nothing else to say.

[Photo Source: Newscom]

Post from: Brit Music Scene

However, Paul McCartney doesn’t actually think The Beatles were any good. At least when they started out. He’s clearly referring to the very early days, even before they departed for Hamburg where he thinks they truly learned their craft.

According to Digital Spy, in an interview with XFM due to be aired from November 16, McCartney speaks about being turned down by Decca, gaining audiences in Germany, and then coming back to the U.K. better prepared than when they left. He says:

“We obviously weren’t that good. We were formulating it all. You wouldn’t have thought we were that great. You’d have turned us down if you were a record company. And they did – Decca turned us down!”

“When we first went to Hamburg, there’d be no-one in the club. You’d see a couple of students, maybe a guy and his girlfriend, and they’d look in a bit tentatively, look up at the price of the beer, see it was too much and start walking out. So we’d go, ‘Come on, everybody, get back in here! It’s all happening!’ So we’d learned to attract an audience. After a few weeks, we’d be really packing those clubs. It taught us that game of how to win over an audience.”

“We learned loads of songs, so by the time we got back to England, we had quite a big repertoire.”

Maybe he has a point. I’m just glad The Beatles found their mojo and went onto record the albums they did. They took the British music scene to foreign shores and paved the way for so many artists who followed.

[Photo Source: Amazon.co.uk]

Post from: Brit Music Scene

In 2007, Joss Stone appeared at the Brit Awards and was ridiculed for speaking in a strange American accent. There’s nothing wrong with American accents of course but the fact she’d picked one up in such a short space of time turned many Brits off her.

She moaned about the reception she got a few months after the incident in 2007. And then she did it again in 2008. And now here we are in 2009 and she’s done it again. She either has a death wish or is making sure we don’t forget her. The chance would be a fine thing.

This time around Stone told Digital Spy:

“People thought I lived in America, which I never did, but I spent a lot of time over there recording my albums so maybe it affected my accent. Who gives a f**k? England is my home and that’s what hurt my feelings. England’s meant to have my back. It was like going home and having my family say, ‘F** off!’”

“The problem was that the record company canceled all my promo after what happened. I didn’t have a manager at the time, so I had no-one to stand up to the label. Literally every single interview was canceled, and then they wondered why I didn’t sell as well in England!”

Maybe we were all a little harsh on Stone at the time but it was like having one of our own flee to the U.S. at the first opportunity and returning as a flag-waving American patriot. Which was never likely to go down well.

Robbie Williams has lived in L.A. for almost a decade and hasn’t lost his English accent at all. In fact, he sounds like he still resides in Stoke-On-Trent. So it is possible to stay true to your roots while forging a career abroad. Lesson learned Joss, lesson learned.

[Photo Source: Newscom]

Post from: Brit Music Scene

The real kicker of course is that The Beatles through Apple Corps, and EMI, which owns the recordings, have never agreed to sell any of the band’s tracks online. The nearest they’ve come is licensing the tracks for use in The Beatles: Rock Band.

EMI became aware the site was selling the songs earlier this week and issued legal action to put a stop to it. BBC News is now reporting that a Los Angeles judge has issued an injunction against the site, with arguments from both sides to be heard in court on Nov. 20.

Bizarrely, Bluebeat’s owner Hank Risan claims he doesn’t need a license to sell the tracks as they aren’t actually the original recordings. Instead, they are re-recorded versions of the songs using “psycho-acoustic simulation.” Whatever that may be.

While it’s true that tribute bands recording songs by other artists would be fine, these tracks sound like the originals, so I’m slightly confused where Risan is coming from. I’m guessing this will run for a while but hopefully it’ll focus everyone’s attentions and mean the actual original recordings get licensed for sale online.

[Photo Source: Newscom]

Post from: Brit Music Scene

Pixie Lott won the ‘Push Artist’ award which focuses on artists brought to the fore by MTV, while Placebo won the ‘Best Alternative’ prize. U2 represented Ireland by winning ‘Best Live Act’.

The full list of winners and losing nominees is after the cut. Winners highlighted in bold.

Best Song

Beyoncé – ‘Halo’
Black Eyed Peas – ‘I Got A Feeling’
David Guetta featuring Kelly Rowland – ‘When Love Takes Over’
Kings Of Leon – ‘Use Somebody’
Lady Gaga – ‘Poker Face’

Best Live Act

Beyoncé
Green Day
Kings of Leon
Lady GaGa
U2

Best Group

Black Eyed Peas
Green Day
Jonas Brothers
Kings of Leon
Tokio Hotel

Best New Act

Daniel Merriweather
La Roux
Lady GaGa
Pixie Lott
Taylor Swift

Best Female

Beyoncé
Katy Perry
Lady GaGa
Leona Lewis
Shakira

Best European Act

Deep Insight
Lost
Doda
Dima Bilan
maNga

Best Push Artist

Daniel Merriweather
Hockey
La Roux
Little Boots
Metro Station
Pixie Lott
The Veronicas
White Lies

Best Male

Eminem
Jay-Z
Kanye West
Mika
Robbie Williams

Best Urban

Ciara
Eminem
Jay-Z
Kanye West
T.I

Best Rock

Foo Fighters
Green Day
Kings of Leon
Linkin Park
U2

Best Alternative

Muse
Paramore
Placebo
The Killers
The Prodigy

Best Video

Beyoncé – ‘Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)’
Britney Spears – ‘Circus’
Eminem – ‘We Made You’
Katy Perry – ‘Waking Up In Vegas’
Shakira – ‘She Wolf’

Best World Stage Performance

Coldplay
Kid Rock
Kings of Leon
Lady GaGa
Linkin Park

[Photo Source: Newscom]

Post from: Brit Music Scene

Noel told The Evening Standard:

“I’m leaving London to go back up north, to Manchester. I’ve been advised to do a Rod Stewart, as in a tax exile, but I don’t want to do it. But London has lost its spark.”

He also spoke to The Daily Star, telling them of his plans, or lack of them. It seems the lure of soap operas is just too much for him to get back in the studio.

“I’m not doing a solo album as I’m taking time off. I’m enjoying bumming around watching Coronation Street. I much prefer it to EastEnders. That show is too depressing for me.”

I wonder whether Liam will follow him home? Although, maybe putting a few hundred miles between the two would be the best idea at the juncture due to the nature of how Oasis split.

[Photo Source: Newscom]

Post from: Brit Music Scene

There has been rumors and talk of a reunion for months now, but the end of September saw Take That and Robbie Williams meet up in a New York recording studio. At the time, I thought it could just be newspaper talk but Robbie has now admitted it happened.

Robbie is due on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross this week, but the show has already been recorded. BBC News has a couple of the highlights. The first is that all-important admittance that he and Take That have been working on something together:

“We’ve got together, done bits and bobs. I can’t say much.”

Short and sweet, maybe, but it’s enough for me.

Robbie also spoke about his decision to stop performing live for a number of years. He claims it wasn’t so much a conscious decision as something which happened as a result of how he was living his life and where his head was at for a while, saying:

“The decision was made for me, I’ve always been very nervous. You don’t know what’s going on in my head. It’s traumatic, really scary. I ended up in rehab again, it was ‘what are you doing to yourself?’ I thought it’s time to break the cycle.”

Robbie Williams recorded five songs for Jonathan Ross, including new single You Know Me and his classic song Feel. The other three will be available to watch on the BBC’s Red Button digital service.

[Photo Source: Newscom]

Post from: Brit Music Scene

As I’ve often recounted, Bloc Party have been a part of my life for the last six years, although my love for them has waned somewhat over the last couple as their style changed and mine pretty much stayed the same.

But I’d still rather they were out there and recording new material.

According to NME, producer Hudson Mohawke recently told BBC Radio 1xtra that he was soon going to be working with Okereke on a solo album. He said:

“It hasn’t been finalised yet, but I’m doing a bit of stuff for Kele from Bloc Party’s solo album. He’s doing a record with one of the guys from Spank Rock.”

Releasing a solo album doesn’t mean Bloc Party have no chance of coming back together in the future but it does signify the members wanting to break out of their little bubbles to try their hands at something else. I guess it all depends on how successful the solo stuff is as well.

[Photo Source: Newscom]

Post from: Brit Music Scene

As soon as Keisha Buchanan left the Sugababes in September, there were rumors that with the group now being made up of a different trio than that which originally formed way back in 1998 the originals were going to come back together and start all over again.

The rumors have persisted despite no confirmations or denials from any of the singers involved. Now though, Holy Moly is claiming a deal to bring the original Sugababes back as a group is almost done.

The celebrity gossip site is reporting that Siobhán Donaghy, Mutya Buena, and Keisha Buchanan have today had a meeting with a potential producer (William Orbit or Stuart Price) and a potential label in Warners. All three are said to have been offered solo deals as a sweetener to accept the group deal.

This rumor comes at a time when the new Sugababes line-up is in complete disarray. Amelle Berrabah is allegedly relaxing in a clinic somewhere in Europe to recover from exhaustion. And the release date of the new album has been put back to give the girls extra time to re-record vocals with new member Jade Ewen.

I’d love to see the original Sugababes giving it another go but I just can’t see it happening. The trio split because they ended up not being able to work together, and although they have all grown up since I doubt they’d want to go through the same thing all over again. It’s sometimes better to leave the past where it belongs – in the past.

[Photo Source: Amazon.co.uk]

Post from: Brit Music Scene

It feels like an absolute age since Amy Winehouse released Back To Black and went from being a little-known British singer to a world famous and world-renowned diva. It’s actually only been three years, with the album released in October of 2006.

The problem is it doesn’t appear to be anywhere close to being released. Winehouse has been sidetracked having an extended holiday in St. Lucia, an inspiration for the new album apparently, and been busy helping her Goddaughter Dionne Bromfield record and release her debut album.

But Mitch Winehouse thinks it could be nearer to completion than most of us thought, telling Digital Spy:

“I’ve heard a couple of songs from it. It’s not dissimilar from the second album Back To Black – it’s going to be great. She’s writing all the time and when she’s got the poetry, she can go into the studio and she’s quite capable of doing the album in two weeks. So theoretically she could have the album ready in a month’s time, but it won’t be. When she gets cracking she does it very quickly.”

So, it could be ready in a month’s time but it likely won’t be. I guess this is a good test of how lazy or committed to work Amy Winehouse is – if it’s now another year before its release we’ll know it’s the former.

[Photo Source: Newscom]

Post from: Brit Music Scene