Last week I got the opportunity to chat to Adam Lambert. The star is currently in London promoting his new album called Trespassing. It has already hit the number one spot in the USA and when you listen to the album, you’ll understand why it hit number one! I’ll have more on the album soon but for now have a listen to my interview below:
Category Archives: UK
It’s The Hunger Games week
A couple of weeks ago I got a delivery from a colleague in the industry. The parcel contained three books by Suzanne Collins, who has been credited for her writing and work on several big television shows and novels since 1991. Her most famous works to date were now in my possession and it was time to get reading on the first book. The first in the trilogy is The Hunger Games, which has since been adapted into a film, a very successful one at that. When I was told that these books were very similar to that of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, my first thought was that I was in for a bit of a struggle. So naturally I had my reservations because I’m not a fan of those books or the movie franchise at all. Needless to say I thought I’d give this a shot. I took the book on the plane with me last week when I headed off to Cape Town. My iPod was flat and I really didn’t feel like making chitchat with my row buddy, so my book was the obvious choice.
Needless to say by the end of the flight I was struggling to put it down. I was hooked. While waiting for the bus into the city centre I read a bit more, I then read on the bus and given the chance I would’ve read it on the way to seeing Sting too, but I thought that would be very unsocial of me. I’m a very slow reader and it usually takes me a while to get through a book, but this one I didn’t battle with at all.
The book tells the futuristic story of Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old girl who lives in District 12. After her father’s death and her mother’s battle with depression she becomes the breadwinner of the family, who provides for the two and her younger sister Prim. She and her friend Gale spend hours hunting in the woods and it’s there that she picks up many a skill that unbeknown to her will become her saving grace at a later stage. District 12 forms part of the Panem nation, which was what used to be North America. The countries of North America were destroyed by some unknown apocalyptic event. Now the Panem exists and The Capitol is where the oppressive government is situated. It also happens to be the venue where The Hunger Games takes place. The annual event sees one boy and one girl from each of the districts being chosen to participate in a battle to the death before a live television audience. Continue reading
Sting in SA: cellphone pics
The legend that is Sting is back in South Africa. The star kicked off his Back To Bass tour at the Coca Cola Dome in Johannesburg at the weekend. The charming 61-year-old shared stories from his long an illustrious career and let me tell you the sound at the Dome (or something out of District 9 as he referred to it) was fantastic. I’m off to see him in Cape Town this Wednesday, which I really stoked about, but for now, here are some photos from the old BlackBerry.
Pray For Muamba
Soccer fans and many others are at this moment praying for Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba. The 23-year-old collapsed during the Premier League Match earlier from what many are suspecting to be a heart attack. Bolton was taking on Tottenham at White Hart Lane. This happened with just five minutes to go in the first half of the match. Below is a brief statement from Bolton.
“Bolton Wanderers can confirm that Fabrice Muamba has been taken to hospital following his collapse at White Hart Lane this evening during the FA Cup quarter-final”.
There are no new updates available at this point but I wish him well and I’ll keep him and his family in my thoughts and prayers at this hour. You two can send him your well wishes by following the #PrayForMuamba trend on Twitter.
News and details to follow as and when available.
2012 Brit Awards – winners list
The Brit Awards took place in London town last night and once again the lovely Adele took home top honours (Best Female Solo Artist and Best Album). Rihanna scooped an award, as did Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars and Lana Del Rey. Sadly there wont be a broadcast in South Africa of the awards, which is such a pity. Alas, here is a list of winners below:
Best Male Solo Artist:
Best Female Solo Artist:
Adele
Best Breakthrough Artist:
Ed Sheeran
British Group:
Coldplay
British Single:
One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful
Mastercard Album of the Year:
Adele- 21
International Male Solo Artist:
International Female Solo Artist:
Rihanna
International Breakthrough Act:
Lana Del Ray
Oustanding Contribution to Music:
Blur
British Producer:
Ethan Johns
Seal talks to Ellen about his “shocking” split from Heidi
Singer Seal and his soon to be ex wife Heidi Klum made headlines at the weekend when they shocked everyone by announcing their plans to divorce. He talks candidly and fondly of his life with Heidi, their eight years together and their four children. The full episode of this interview airs later on today in US. Check your TV listings for more deets.
Adele’s ‘Live At The Royal Albert Hall’ coming this November
So with Christmas looming, people (the organized types) will start heading to the shops to do their shopping ahead of the mad rush. I’m not one of those organized types, but alas. Here’s an idea for some of you. Arguably the biggest artist and the most successful of 2011 has to be British soul-singer Adele. Fresh off the success of her platinum selling album, “21”, which has sold 12million copies sold worldwide and counting, the star is now gearing up to release her “Live At The Royal Albert Hall” DVD and CD.
The concert film, which is 90 minutes in length, will be released on the 28th of November. Here is the tracklisting:
Hometown Glory
I’ll Be Waiting
Don’t You Remember
Turning Tables
Set Fire To The Rain
If It Hadn’t Been For Love
My Same
Take It All
Rumour Has It
Right As Rain
One & Only
Lovesong
Chasing Pavements
I Can’t Make You Love Me
Make You Feel My Love
Someone Like You
Rolling In The Deep
Dear Santa and his friends and family *wink*, I wouldn’t mind a copy of this. You know I’ve been painfully good this year. I thank you. Best, Jason
Susan Boyle’s new album, listen now.
Susan Boyle, posted with vodpod
Do you remember watching Susan Boyle, this somewhat frumpy middle-aged woman walking onto the Britain’s Got Talent stage a few years ago? Do you remember the looks on both the judges and the audience’s faces when she stood there introducing herself to the world? Admit it or not, most of us passed judgement thinking uh no. With these reality shows we’re used to seeing athletic types; the freaks of the gene pool, whose good looks and natural talent become their million-dollar weapon that propels them to instant superstardom. Well SuBo, as she became affectionately known, proved everyone wrong. She moved millions to tears with her audition and she became that superstar everyone knew and loved.
Fast track a few years on, the star has two albums to her name, both of which have hit number one in several countries across the globe. Album sales have hit the 14 million mark. And that figure is set to go up with the launch of her new album, Someone To Watch Over Me, which is due out next month. The star admits she was a bit nervous when she first went back into studio to begin work on the record, “When we started the third record I was still incredibly nervous. I do worry that I won’t be able to do what I’ve done before or to take it further. But after a week in the studio it began to feel like a second home.’
On this record Boyle has again teamed up with super producer Steve Mac. A lot of the material on the album resonates with both her and her fans. She says a lot of her fans sent in their fan mail telling her about their marital problems, dealing with grief and then of course they told her about their happy times too. ‘You have to mean everything you sing,’ she explains, ‘that was something I’d learned very early on in the studio.’
People can expect to hear her version of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy The Silence” and Tears For Fears’ “Mad World”. Abba’s Benny and Bjorn gave her their blessing to do an English version of “You Have To Be There”.
1.You Have To Be There
2. Unchained Melody
3. Enjoy The Silence
4. Both Sides Now
5. Lilac Wine
6. Mad World
7. Autumn Leaves
8. This Will Be The Year
9. Return
10. Someone To Watch Over Me
You can listen to a few snippets above and to pre-order Susan Boyle’s Someone To Watch Over Me click here.
Craig David back in South Africa
I got to chat to R&B star Craig David again today. This ahead of his guest judging and performance on South African Idol. The show airs on Sunday night and is bound to be a great night. I’ll be working on the video interview this weekend. As soon as it’s up, it’ll be here too!
Craig David heading back to SA
Pic by Gregor Rohrig
UPDATE: Got word from the label reps that Craig will only be in SA next week- the 16th. So stay tuned. More on this to follow.
One of my favourite stars Craig David is apparently heading back to South Africa this week. On Idols last night, host ProVerb announced that the R&B star will be a guest judge in this week’s episode. This season really has been the biggest yet. Nice.
I can’t seem to find any deets about what else he’ll be doing in the country, but I presume he’ll do the usual safari vibe. I’m also assuming that he’ll be at the BlackBerry secret gig with fellow Brit star Tinie Tempah. That’s just an assumption, but he why not hey. I’ve already put in my request to interview the star again. Hopefully it’ll come through but we’ll see. In the mean time, check out my interview with Mr David from last year at the One & Only in Cape Town:
