The return of BBC Two’s Beautiful People

It’s baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Series two of Beautiful People started on BBC Two last night, and it’s as if they never went away!

I’m pleased that they’ve ditched the New York bits at the start/end of the show, and it’ll be interesting to see how they develop the ‘older Simon’ segments now. I am also not a fan of ‘younger Simon’ having his hair as long as he has it as I think it looks odd… but that’s not really a criticism, is it? It’s me being pnickety!

Absolutely loving all of the additional sing-song bits, especially those sourced from musical theatre

Series one was only six episodes long, and alas that is all we are getting for series two too (boo!). I can genuinely, hand on heart, say that I have not laughed at anything as much this whole year. Absolutely fantastic all round, though Meera Syal as Auntie Hayley definitely stole the show this week, but it was also great to see they found a way to keep the ever excellent Tameka Empson in the show (now appearing as Tameka’s identical cousin – made me LOL as it was an episode that started with geneology, and obviously this can’t happen – JoHoYo). I like how transparent they’ve made that switch, it’s really in keeping with the show’s humour I think.

I cannot wait until next week, I may have to re-watch this episode again mid-week to save off the withdrawl pangs!

Anyone who missed it, catch up on BBC iPlayer!

FABULOUS DARLINGS!

My favourite moment from Series One.

Florence + The Machine: You Got The Love

As much as I adored the original (by The Source and Candi Staton), I really love Flo’s version!

Been dancing around to this for the last 24 hours or so:

The song has been flitting in and out of the UK Top 100 over the last 12 months or so, and it’s good to see it’s finally getting released as an A-Side!

JLS 3D Video Preview

Following on from my post about Channel 4’s 3D TV Week, they have now released a preview of a JLS music video which will also be aired as part of the season.

This is the first real preview of how it’s all going to look – if you’ve already got your glasses from Sainsbury’s, then I suggest you pop them on, make the below video full screen, sit back a bit, turn off the lights and then marvel!

JLS fans will be able to see the band perform in three dimensions as they appear in a special 3-D performance on T4.

Don’t miss it – Sunday 22 November at 10:55

JLS will be performing their hits ‘Everybody In Love’, One Shot’ and their number one smash ‘Beat Again’.

For tips on getting the best 3D effect on your TV, click HERE.

I am having a 3D TV party at my house on Monday evening with a few friends, I soooo can’t wait!

Album Review: JLS – “JLS”

So, I finally get chance to write the album review that I have been really looking forward to writing!

JLS have released ‘JLS’ on the same week that Robbie has released ‘Reality Killed The Video Star‘, so the battle for supremacy in the charts this weekend will be one of the most interesting of the year I reckon.

We all know JLS, we all love JLS, and we all want to sleep with at least one of JLS, right?!

So, in lieu of this, rather than give you the spiel about JLS and their story, here’s my thoughts on the album

I tend to just make notes whilst I listen:

Beat Again: MOBO ‘Best Song’ of the year… what more is there to say?! Excellent debut single!

Everybody In Love: not a huge fan of this, but it’s really grown on me the more I’ve heard it. A little too soppy for me.

Keep You: Funky, great song! I was chair dancing along to the beat – I really hope this one is a single!

Crazy For You: 90s-style ballad, nice sound to it, but does sound a little dated as it harks back to the boy band of yester-year. This is to be the third single, and will (again!) go head to head with Robbie (‘You Know Me‘). Unfortunately, I think this song will lose that battle.

Heal This Heartbreak: love the style of this and the pulsating baseline – would be great in a nightclub, and I’d imagine it’d have a very cool music video to accompany it.

Close To You: A JLS style ballad instead of a dated one… much better! Really nice stripped back sound, with some gorgeous vocals.

Only Tonight: Opening bars sound a little like the start of Don Henley’s “Boys Of Summer“, but it quickly turns into a song with a great beat, chilled sound and some great harmonies.

One Shot: Excellent club track – potential single I reckon. Contemporary, upbeat and pleasant on the ear.

Private: Another funky baseline, I can imagine this one as a single too (I’d choose this over One Shot) – I was dancing around my living room, and I’ve just had a long hard day at work… so that’s something! Second favourite track on the album.

Don’t Go: Edgy sounding song, starting to sound like the last two tracks a little, but I love the little ‘woo-ohh’s’.

Only Making Love: Strange sounding track, dislike the beat, it jars with the song I feel. By the chorus, I was kinda into it and bouncing along, but I think that was just because the beat started getting repetitive.

Kickstart: I like this one – similar sounding to many of the other tracks, but there’s something that I like about it that I can’t quite put my hand on it… I think it’s the chorus! Either way, it had me dancing along.

Tightrope: A bit of sing-by-numbers ballad. Album track, but not necessarily a bad one. Clumsy transpose towards the end spoils it a little.

All in all, I think that this is a good album!

I much prefer an edgy contemporary JLS sound/performance than the 90s ballad sound that they sometimes come out with…. but in all fairness, when they do go into ballad mode, it’s nowhere near as bad as some of the absolute slush that’s gone before (911, A1 etc!).

Perhaps predictably, they have been criticised (ok, ok, slammed) quite a lot by the media for this debut album, and I can understand why, though I do think that they are getting more flack than they should – it’s certainly not hideous! They wrote nine of the thirteen songs on the album, and in my opinion, it’s their second album which is going to be the more exciting, as they’ll be able to mature into their new roles and get a feel for what they want to do, and do it in their own time.

I was a huge fan of these lads in X-Factor and recognised their potential very early on. I am very glad that they’re currently getting all the success that they have earnt, and sincerely hope that it continues for them.

I purchased the HMV edition which came with the exclusive slip case (naturally, I chose Aston) – I  like the album artwork, though I was very disappointed that they didn’t include any torso shots! Boo!

… and you wouldn’t want to see Aston topless now…. would you?

A layman’s thoughts on the current UK economy

I’m going to do something that I don’t normally do, and write a quasi-serious opinion based piece. Do bear with me dear reader, it’s been a while!

This morning, I saw a news story reporting that East London Buses staff have gone on strike because they’ve been given a pay freeze. Erm, hello, RECESSION?! (and reportedly we’ve just hit the longest, most entrenched, period of it in modern history).

At a time when the transport industry are laying off thousands of people and scaling back improvement projects etc, do a group of bus drivers really think that them getting even more money on top of an already generous salary is a priority? Does it click with them that if they want an increase, we as travellers will have to foot the bill for that? It’s just selfish in my opinion.

I work in accounting for a worldwide brand name, and despite having our best ever year last year, we too were forced to plump for pay freezes. I say ‘forced’, I mean we all willingly took a pay freeze to avoid redundancies (which, ultimately, we still had to make).

In terms of the recession itself, I don’t think that we’ll exit until Q1 2010. I’m by no means an expert; I don’t even look at the money markets, but I would like to think I have a good business head at times, and can cobble together a halfway-reasoned opinion.

I don’t think that we’ll exit in Q4 – yes it’s Christmas, but there was too much disappointment at the Q3 results to get the market moving quickly enough. I have already done most of my Christmas shopping, and I have definitely scaled back this year. Add to this the fact that the UK is a service industry lead economy, so we’re not exporting goods for Christmas, and I think it’s unlikely we’ll see improvement. That said, increased borrowing may mean that we hit stagnation, which is a bit of a duff way to say we’re looking better in my opinion (and ‘wrong’), but still by definition an ‘exit’.

I prefer Q1 as I think the post-holiday mood will be more optimistic, and also because most people get their salary reviews around this time. I believe that employers need to give modest salary increases to help people ‘feel’ richer. People may realistically be no more so, but the feeling of wealth that they get is what the country needs to get it spending and producing again.

I do think that the key to making enough of an increase is with the high street. If we can get the ball rolling with the consumer, we should easily be able to increase business confidence and get output raised, both to domestic and foreign markets.

Speaking of foreign markets – stop talking our currency down people! Yes, a weak fx rate as we have at the moment is bad for those of us buying abroad, however it is marvellous for attracting foreign investment and attracting people from overseas into buying our goods! They realise that when the UK market expands again, there is serious money to be made from their initial investment into our economy when things were low. In the grand scale of things, what’s more important? Us sorting out someone elses economy, or getting them to help us sort out our own!

I don’t think the VAT increase will have significant effect – we say the reduction had no effect, so really the increase shouldn’t either. The question is whether the public will be sensible with this or blow it out of context.

I could be completely flawed in my thoughts, as I say, I am just a layman, any oversights are my own.

And drivers of East London Buses… if you don’t wish to work for your current salary, I know plenty of former service industry professionals who will happily do it, and for less…

BBC Four: Women We’ve Loved

There’s a TV season that I am rather looking forward to on BBC Four which starts on 16th November, called ‘Women We’ve Loved‘.

The season consists of three films, one about Enid Blyton, one on Gracie Fields and the final on Margot Fonteyn.

I am a big fan of all three, especially Enid Blyton, so I heartily applaud BBC Four for creating this season!

In Enid, Helena Bonham Carter is actually in a role that isn’t ’scary’ nor opposite Johnny Depp, and directed by Tim Burton – and she looks great in it!

The first of the films will be Enid, which will be shown on BBC Four on Monday 16th November, 21:00 – 22:25, with Gracie! shown the week after, and Margot the week following that.

A short synopsis of each of the films follows; if you click on the links you will find short preview trailers of each.

Enid

Helena Bonham Carter leads the cast in Enid, written by Lindsay Shapero, and is joined by Matthew Macfadyen and Denis Lawson.

Blyton’s charming characters and classic tales have enchanted countless generations of children for almost 80 years and she has sold more than 500 million books in 40 countries. This drama casts light on the ambitious and driven woman behind the beloved Famous Five, Secret Seven, Malory Towers and the Noddy series.

From the adversity of an imperfect childhood to renowned author and household name, the orderly, reassuringly clear worlds that Enid Blyton created within her stories contrasted with the intricacy of her personal life.

Gracie!

Jane Horrocks is Gracie! in Nick Vivian’s romantic comedy about Gracie Fields, singer and comedienne from Rochdale who rose to fame in the Thirties – becoming the nation’s darling and highest-paid film actress in the world.

Renowned for her “common touch”, Gracie symbolised the indomitable spirit of Thirties Britain. Her mass appeal was unprecedented.

Beginning at the phenomenal peak of her career when her iconic status seemed indestructible, this one-off film examines Gracie’s potent war-time struggle between love and duty, and the staggering long-term repercussions of her relationship with Italian-born Hollywood director Monty Banks.

The film opens a window on the complicated and fragile private life of a very public star who, despite everything, was determined to keep the nation laughing.

Jane Horrocks will sing a stunning repertoire of Gracie songs including Sally, Sing As We Go and I Never Cried So Much In All My Life.

Margot

Anne-Marie Duff stars as Margot Fonteyn, one of the greatest dancers of our time. Margot is written by Amanda Coe, and partly based on Meredith Daneman’s Fonteyn biography.

Margot tells the story of the prima ballerina assoluta’s dancing partnership and complex relationship with Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev, forged towards the end of her career.

The partnership propelled them into the stratosphere of international stardom, creating a kind of celebrity that had never existed before and securing their place in the hearts of audiences and the history of ballet.

Margot also stars Sir Derek Jacobi as choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton; Penelope Wilton as Margot’s mother BQ; Lindsay Duncan as Ninette de Valois, founder of The Royal Ballet; Con O’Neill as Margot’s husband Tito; and Dutch actor Michiel Huisman as Nureyev.

Top Gear: Alabama Rednecks

OK, so I may be a year behind the times, but just how bad are the rednecks in Alabama?!

Last night, BBC Three aired the episode where Jeremy and the gang went to the US and encountered a spot of bother with some of the locals.

Yes, the guys definitely provoked it, but even still… what happened was rather shocking in my opinion. The only time I’ve genuinely been at the edge of my seat due to the tension; especially when he needed the jump leads!

It’s somewhat shocking that a slogan that (albeit jokingly) promotes ‘man-love’ (ugh at phrasing) can seemingly have the whole town turn against you in such a quick manner.

I love how the garage owner calls it a ‘hick town’, as if she’s above it herself.

Here’s a good  summary – skip to 3 minutes for the high tension action:

3D Week – Channel Four

I have to say, I am rather excited about 3D week on Channel Four!

If all the gadget pundits are to be believed, 3D TV is the next generation of how we watch television in our own homes, and it’s not as far off as some of us may have thought!

With respect to this, Channel Four are having a 3D week, where we, as viewers at home, will be able to experience 3D images coming from our own television sets! It’s like the ultimate technology preview!

3D week starts from 16th November 2009, and although many of the shows featured are not really to my taste (the Coronation one looks good, as does Friday 13th Part III), I want to try and watch all of them to get a real flavour for what’s to come. I do like that they have put on a real mix of show genres so that we can see how each type would work with 3D, and that it’s not all scary horror movies etc.

To participate in viewing these shows, all you have to do is pick up a free pair of glasses from selected Sainsbury’s stores (click HERE to locate your nearest branch) and then tune in to the programmes you want to watch.

Note the amazement on my face people, note it!

Pioneering TV in my opinion, and, perhaps wrongly, it’s not from the BBC, who seemingly hadn’t the forsight to do something adventurous such as this earlier! Could you imagine if they made their current LIFE series in 3D?! It’s spectacular at the moment… but BBC documentaries in 3D would be truly amazing! Good on Channel Four!

For tips on getting the best 3D effect on your TV, click HERE.

I am having a 3D TV party at my house on Monday evening with a few friends, I soooo can’t wait!

Oh, and I love the trailer (apart from the blurry 3-d bit at the end, which plays havock with my contacts heh!)

Cutting Edge: The Schoolboy Who Sailed The World

I had a quiet Friday night in last night, after a very long and testing day at work,  which gave me opportunity to catch up with some telly that I’d recorded on my PVR.

One of the things that I’d recorded by chance was ‘Cutting Edge: The Schoolboy Who Sailed The World’ – the trailer looked interesting, and I do like the Cutting Edge documentaries that go out on Channel Four – they always feature truly remarkable people.

Thus as you’d expect, this chap, Michael Perham, turned out to be no different – a truly inspirational individual with a magnificent story!

I have to admit to being quite ignorant of the story when it was originally in the print media – it’s not really the sort of thing that I am interested in when skimming the news. I am really pleased that I watched the docu as it turned out to be something that I found thoroughly fascinating! By not knowing the outcome already, as most people probably already did, I found it especially gripping.

Essentially, Michael Perham wanted to be the youngest person to sail around the World, unaided. He started his voyage when he was just 16. The documentary follows him on this journey, and tells his remarkable story.

At the age of 24, I am astounded by what he has accomplished. I’ve always thought myself a fairly mature individual, even when I was 16, but I can see now that my maturity back then (and even now!) was nothing compared to this chap’s! The drive and determination he had to complete this feat was absolutely inspirational.

The documentary’s main success, in my opinion, is how well Perham’s personality came across. You had moments of jubilation, such as when he sees the whales, against moments where you can see the fear in his face and the upset he’s feeling. Most of the time, you just want to reach out to him and shout at the TV that you’re really rooting for him and that you’re behind him 100%, despite only ‘knowing’ him for 100 minutes! Without wanting to sound in any way patronising, I think that part of that is the fact that he was comparitively so young and was clearly having to mature very quickly to deal with certain situations that even grown men seemed afraid of. I’m not afraid to admit that I had a tear in my eye at many stages of the programme, and was remarkably jubilant and upbeat by the success he earnt and seeing those end stages of the journey.

My only criticism of the documentary would be the ‘professionals’ who seemed to pour scorn on everything. I am sure that they were there to add dramatic tension and a bit of context to the story, but I found them a little condescending and unsupportive if I am honest. It may have just been the way that the story was edited, but it did come across as a little malicious at times.

If you’ve not had chance to watch this yet, I really really recommend that you do; this has to be one of the best ‘human’ documentaries that I have seen. It should be on Channel Four’s “4OD” service for a little while yet.

Anybody else who saw it, any comments to add?

Here’s a few links my readers may be interested in:

• Twitter (looks official, but I can’t confirm).
• Official website for this round-the-World journey (packed with info)
• Official website for his next venture, Bounty Boat April 2010
• His official website

Robbie Williams – Reality Killed The Video Star

I am very excited today as Robbie Williams‘ new album, ‘Reality Killed The Video Star’, has been soft-released on the music platform Spotify.

The album has is being exclusively previewed in full by Spotify from today, Friday, onwards. This album will not be available elsewhere until Monday, when record sales actually begin.

For those people using Spotify, all levels of user are able to access the album, it’s not a premier user only release!

This has to be one of the most heavily promoted albums that I’ve seen in a long while. I already know which songs I really really adore (‘You Know Me’ is a career highlight I think) and the lyrics to most.

I get the feeling that this come-back album really is ‘for the people’ in a sense. Robbie’s appearance on the Electric Proms, and other media means that a lot of us have already heard most of the new material. Indeed, Robbie’s own website has been allowing people to listen to 3 tracks from the new album each day for free! (I had ‘You Know Me’ on an endless loop the other day).

I love that Robbie has gone back to an orchestrated sound. If asked to compare the sound to another album, I’d say ‘Intensive Care’ – which I thought was marvellous! It’s as if ‘RudeBox’ never even happened.

Now that the entire album has been made available, I thought I’d write this post, as it seemed unfair to judge it based on all of the preview performances etc.

Without doubt, my ‘most eagerly anticipated’ album of the year, and I’ve been waiting restlessly all week for today to come around!

As always, I had a listen to the album whilst at work, so I made a few thought notes against each track, which I have shared below.

NB – these are in order of how the ‘random’ function on Spotify played them, so are not in track listing order.

Bodies – we all know how this one goes by now… strange lyrics, but an awesome chorus when those strings kick in! A track that has definitely grown on me.

Difficult for Weirdos – perhaps how the RudeBox album should have sounded. Good club track, futuristic sounding and contemporary. Hurrah!

Somewhere – a bit of a ‘nothing’ track really, it’s only 1 minute 2 seconds long.

Morning Sun – I love the orchestra at the start of this track. A great vocal and a fabulous track. Hope this gets released as a single.

Superblind – some good orchestrations again here, good song though perhaps an album track? Love the delicate vocal that sometimes feeds through.

Morning Sun (Reprise) – I thought having a Reprise at the end of the album was a fantastic idea. It really tied the whole project together, and is a great way to close the album off.

Do You Mind – love the chunky guitar chords, which were slightly unexpected. Had me bopping in my seat and tap/clapping along!Bit of Robbie attitude in the vocal, a great bridge, though probably an album track.

You Know Me – I cannot rave about this song enough. Shoo-wop-do-booop!

Last Days Of Disco – I love this track!It’s like the genre of disco has been dragged right up the present-day. I really like the pulsating, high tension vocal.

Deceptacon – I was initially not a huge fan of this song… mainly as I was expecting a song about Transformers!! It’s grown on my a lot though and is now one of my favourites on the album.

Starstruck - My second favourite song from the album I think. The performance of this on the BBC Electric Proms was great – I loved the ’sway’ bit for the chorus!

Blasphemy – another great song; I really like the prominence of the piano.

Won’t Do That - a great brass introduction, a light vocal and a really nice song.

All in all, I really do like the album, which I think comes to life when you have Robbie on stage performing songs from it. It’s great to listen to, but I think that the album’s real potential is realised through Robbie’s delivery of the songs in his live performances, which to be fair, is usually the case! Ever the showman, I can’t wait for a tour!

The track order is as below:

#	Title		Length
1.	“Morning Sun”		4:05
2.	“Bodies”		4:01
3.	“You Know Me”		4:27
4.	“Blasphemy”		4:18
5.	“Do You Mind?”		4:06
6.	“Last Days of Disco”		4:50
7.	“Somewhere”		1:01
8.	“Deceptacon”		5:01
9.	“Starstruck”		5:21
10.	“Difficult for Weirdos”		4:29
11.	“Won’t Do That”		3:38
12.	“Superblind”		4:46
13.	“Morning Sun (Reprise)”		1:19

Oh, and I am LOVING the preview that they have released for his new video for ‘You Know Me’!

(NB – if you visit the above link after midday today, Friday 6th November, you should be able to see the video in FULL!)