THE BIRTH OF NORTHERN SOUL

First things first, I would like to apologise for the lack of posts

this October. I've been a very busy girl what with my college work & uni applications

and yadda yadda yah. 

Plus I haven't felt very inspired lately....

But, that changed today whilst I was scouring through the music channels this early
morning and I stumbled across one video, and then another, and then
that special thing called a brainwave took place
in the depths of my cranium and fused the two together and I came up with
this idea and it look very promising: the birth of white soul.

Now I hear you ask, what on earth are you on about,
what videos? Well I shall reveal all to you now.

_____________________________________________________________

The first video was:

JOHN NEWMAN
Cheating
________________________________________

The second was:

JAMES ARTHUR
You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You
________________________________________

At first these two new artists may seem completely unrelated to one another,

but in actual fact, they have many things in common

in regards to the kind of artists they are, their voices, their style, influences

and the kind of music they are spearheading into

the charts and the national radio waves.

We've known of John Newman's voice since Rudimental's 2012 chart smasher

'Feel The Love' and its successor 'Not Giving In', and therefore we

had a taste of his gravelly, soulful, rich tone before

he went out on his own, armed with some real gems 

like number one hit 'Love Me Again'.

In all honesty, I genuinely thought he was a black man when I first

heard his voice. It was so derivative of the Motown era,

it had that gorgeous, enticing black soul that is so hard to replicate unless

you're truly blessed with the gift of having it yourself.

So it knocked me out of the water

when I found out he was a white kid from the depths of Yorkshire moors.

Now on to James Arthur,

king of X Factor 2012, we were again aware of a gravelly,

rich, soulful tone to his voice, like that of John Newman, and his take on

Shontelle's, 'Impossible' was utterly gorgeous. 

He added a depth and

soul to it that wasn't there before -if you've heard his cover of

twerkaholic Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking Ball' you'll see

what I mean- and he showed

some real promise of breaking the X Factor mold.

Everyone, whether they care to admit it or not,

wanted to hear just what he would come out with for his first single.

Would it be any good? Would he lose his style?

Would they strip away all he was and replace it with something

completely unoriginal?

Well the relieving result is no.

New single, 'You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You'

is nothing like the typical cheesy pop you would expect from an X Factor winner.

It's got substance, it's got some mean brass and beats and most

importantly: It's got soul, and not that cheap

manufactured crap.

No, no, no, it's the real stuff, the soul that money can't buy.

You've either got it or you've not.

And like John Newman, James Arthur certainly does.

And with one artist spearheading the idea of white soul, 

a certain John Newman, that's all very exciting and commendable,

and you've got to hold your hands up to the man.

Look what he's managed to achieve off his own back.

He created a new genre

in which he was  the only inhabitant, he took a risk,

he raised a bench mark, and went out there.

The public hadn't heard anything like him before,

yet they lapped him up like a cat pouncing on a dish of rich, silky cream.

A public so accustomed and tuned into rap,

r&b, dubstep, electronica, pop, got the soulful 'Love Me Again' and album

'Tribute' to number one.

John Newman has begun something.

A change in direction for the music industry.

But he can't do it alone, he needed people to start following

his example, holding up the torch for good old

rich soul, and lucky for him,

a certain X Factor winner has jumped on the bandwagon

and is following in his wake.

It's a very exciting time for the music industry.

As little as two years ago, the idea of bringing back soul and those

beautiful Motown vibes seemed impossible or at the least,

unlikely. It wasn't the right time, yet look at where we are now.

And like with r&b, hip hop et al,

could this be the start of a new genre taking the reigns and steering

the course of music?

Will we see more undiscovered soul stars emerging from the shadows,

will artists begin to incorporate elements of soul into

their music?

It seems like we're on the cusp of a new type of soul altogther:

it's white, it's British, it's modern, and it's so very, very cool.

Newman's doing it old school, Arthur's introducing it to the world of pop,

what will the artists of tomorrow be doing?

Stay tuned....

CHOCOLATE AND SEX WITH THE 1975

Now before you go jumping to conclusions, thinking I've ditched college to become a roadie in order to enjoy some rather frisky past times, involving Cadburys Dairy Milk and Manchester's finest new addition to the indie/rock scene, lemme explain.

On Wednesday I was lucky enough to go watch these guys 

The 1975, at Nottingham's Rock City and can I just tell you now it was AMAZING.

With an ever expanding back catalogue of incredible tunes, such as the mighty 'Chocolate' and the saucy little

number 'Sex', to keep the crowd rallied and as high as a certain Mt. Everest, the atmosphere,

 as you can probably imagine, was electric. And when the beginning chords of those numbers in particular began wafting around the room, everyone, including myself, seemed to

 get an insatiable injection of life, courtesy of Matt and co. and just went absolutely crazy in the best possible way.

As always seems to happen, I found myself on the very cusp of a brewing mosh pit and for once I

just let myself go completely and got stuck right in there, being thrown to and fro like a I was stuck in a human pinball machine.

It was the best feeling ever.

You close your eyes. You listen to the music, let it fill your veins, let it take you higher. 

You sing the words and you come alive, and before you know it you're bouncing up and down like a pogo stick, crashing your body into the unfortunate soul next to you and feeling like life could not get any better than it is right there and then in that beautiful moment. 

You aren't alone. You're surrounded by a huge crowd of people who feel what you're feeling too and you're all in it together, in this instance, singing about sex, petticoats and what do you know, chocolate.

And it's the most incredible thing.

They played a variety of songs from their excellent LP and self titled debut and put on a truly phenomenal show, complete with flickering lights, a buzzing atmosphere and a turtle neck clad Matty who looked

effortlessly cool with his half shaved head and youthful, energetic and beautiful voice.

So in their role as musicians and makers of tantalizing tunes and magical moments, it's

safe to say The 1975 have well and truly outdone themselves.

Even if you don't know that many songs, like me, I would get yourself down to one of their remaining

gigs (that's if it hasn't sold out yet) and experience all this for yourself.

This is a band that has been working their arses off for the last eleven years and who

appreciate and deserve every piece of success rightfully coming their way. They make fantastic music,

they're impossibly cool, intriguing, unique and to top it all off, they're genuinely nice people too!

Lead singer Matt Healy has the crowd in his hand, commanding them effortlessly

to do as he pleases "don't start a mosh pit or I'll f***ing kill you", and after the gig 

my friends and I were lucky enough to meet him.

( Bad angle of course, but nevertheless, one cannot complain when one is meeting the lead singer of an incredible band)

Living up to his other alter ego aside 'Mr Cool' - 'Mr Nice Guy'- he made the effort

to greet every last one of us who stood adoringly in his presence and enforced a sense of world peace and ensuing harmony as if he were Nelson Mandela himself, telling us "not to get crazy and start pushing and shoving one another or I'll get scared and I'll get on that bus and go home. I'm not going, I'm staying right here and I'll make sure I meet every single one of you."

This caused one of my best friends to express her overwhelming love for Matty in the only way she knew how, by screaming happily, and who can blame her?

As a fan, to hear that was just the nicest thing and it goes an awful long way.

If I didn't already love this band, I now just want to go around with their name tattooed on my forehead,

free advertisement and all that, because they took the time to meet us and thank us and show that our support is appreciated. 

So as I said, GO, GO RUN LIKE THE WIND AND BAG YOURSELF A TICKET FOR THE 1975 RIGHT NOW and me? I'm off to the tattoo parlor....

LINK: http://the1975.com/tour

SEX

CHOCOLATE

THE CITY

GIRLS

SOUNDBITE: CATCHING COLDPLAY- THE NEW SONG

COLDPLAY- ATLAS

Been suffering from Coldplay withdrawal symptoms? 

The Mylo Xyloto blues? 

Well my dear readers, Chris & co. are back, at least for now anyway,

and they've brought with them an exciting new record to keep us all satisfied

until the highly anticipated follow up to 2011's phenomenal worldwide success 'Mylo Xyloto',

which many expect to be released sometime in 2014.

And this little beauty is called 'Atlas'.

It's the first soundtrack to be released from Novemeber's second installment of the

incredibly succesful Hunger Games series, 'Catching Fire' and co-incidentally

it's also the first song Coldplay have ever written for a film soundtrack.

Pretty cool huh?

The song itself is pure Coldplay but as we all know, that's exactly

 what they do best. It's beautiful, it's haunting yet uplifting, it's stunning and 

absolutely captures the whole feel and essence of the 'Hunger Games'.

'Atlas' could easily stand for a single in it's own right,

and you can't help but speculate if this indicative of what is to come.

It bares no relation to hits such as 'Paradise' or 'Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall',

in fact it's probably a relative of 2002's 'A Rush of Blood To The Head' or 2005's 'X&Y',

but it's still very original and I don't know about you but I love the entwinement between

haunting and uplifting.

It shouldn't work, but it does. 

It really, really does.

Judge for yourself right here....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh3TokLzzmw&hd=1

SPECTOR MEETS JOY DIVISION WITH NEW TRACK 'DECADE OF DECAY'

Spector are back.

But as the title of their new tour states 'Five Tours, Four Survivors', the five piece has downsized to a compact quartet as former member Christopher Burman has left to pursue other projects.

So that leaves us with Jed, Tom, Danny and the don himself, bespectacled lead singer Fred Machpherson.

Humorously addressing themselves as Spector 2.0, it seems that the band has undergone

 a transformation of sorts, what with the line-up and sound, which as the title hints, 

seems to have dived head first into a pot full of Joy Division. And you know what? It works.

I can't lie, it is different to what we saw on 2012's 'Enjoy It While It Lasts', but it still retains the core 

Spector essence, that unique, refreshing sound which defined their debut record.

The difference appears to lie in the fact that 1) their sound has slinked it's way further into the world of 80's pop, what with the synthesizers etc, and 2) it's darker.

It isn't made of the glorious, upbeat, summer fuelled goodness that 'Enjoy It While It Lasts' contained.

Oh no.

The two key differences I mentioned are the very reason why brand new single 'Decade of Decay' seems to be inviting comparisons to 1980's classic Joy Division. 

Now I don't know if this was intentional, or if via experimenting and tampering with their sound they arrived at this result, but it's hard to deny that it is very Joy Division-esque.

But then again, their debut was essentially Joy Division on high; how Joy Division might've

sounded minus the foreboding, ominous, darker influence. 

So you could question whether this direction was inevitable?

But I really can't stress to you enough that what Spector are producing now,

regardless of the eighties and Joy Division references, is genuinely good stuff. It really is.

'Decade of Decay' is a quick little number, reminiscent of Joy Division but it has Spector written

all over it. If you're a fan of Spector like I am, you'll hear that, and realise that both the band and their music  are still very much made up of all those key components.

It's just a bit of a twist is all. The beginnings of a venture down a different road.

And yes at first, it takes a bit of getting used to, you'll need time to adjust, but I can tell you now

that I've been listening to it repeatedly for the last half an hour. 

There's an almost hypnotizing quality to it, and although initially I was unsure about 

'Decade of Decay', I can assure you now that I really do like this song.

Very much so.

And I would definitely recommend a listen.

So all you Spector fans out there, don't flop dramatically on the floor in pre-conceived despair.

There is no need. Spector are back on fine form, albeit a little different yes, but still the Spector

you know and love, with Hawaiian shirts and turtle necks aplenty.

LISTEN HERE:

TOUR DATES AUTUMN 2013

SOUND BITE: BIRDY SPREADS HER WINGS

BIRDY-WINGS

The 17 year old English-Flemish beauty is back with her second album, 'Fire Within', expected

for release on 23rd of September, and the first single she has chosen to release is the

irrefutable gem 'Wings'. 

After seeing much success with her debut self titled album back in Autumn 2011, Birdy rose

to fame with her series of utterly beautiful covers and a number of self written tracks.

You'll remember her most for her stunning cover of Bon Iver's 'Skinny Love' or Cherry Ghost's 

'People Help The People', both of which went down a storm on UK radio stations,

particularly Radio One, helping Birdy to, dare I make the pun, fly, even further.

And now with album number two, Birdy is able to really flex her wings (cheesy pun I know),

and she has progressed to writing more of her own material.

With her debut 'Birdy', it was apparent that this girl had talent by the bucket load.

An emotive, rich, beautiful voice that when put to music and to good use, can bring any lyrics

or material to life and help it to resonate even further with the listening audience.

However a decision was made, either by the record company or Birdie herself, to demonstate

her amazing abilities via a cover album. An indeed 'Birdy' is a truly stunning offer yes, but

I think many of us wanted to see Birdy combine her voice with her own material.

Because an artist instantly increases in credibility when they can both sing and produce their

own material that is equally good. 

So the question was with Birdy, could she do it?

Well the answer is a definite yes, as her new single 'Wings' shows.

And judging by this, her new album is going to be a real beauty.

Birdy's own material is strong, well made, passionate, emotive, and of course compliments

her gorgeous voice even better than before. 

She is also an artist who is accessible to people of all ages, and although obviously

a younger audience is probably better suited as she is only seventeen herself, there's no doubt

that a Birdy gig will contain older, maturer fans who relate to the wise-beyond-her-years element

that is present in her music.

I suppose in some respects, you could hail Birdy as the new Taylor Swift.

I personally, as a seventeen year girl, can relate to her music in that sense, especially as the music

resonates more when the artist is similar in age to yourself or singing about topics in a way you can relate to.

However as Taylor ventures  further into the world of country-pop and global super stardom,

Birdy is a breath of fresh air, adopting a similar approach -young adult/teen trying to make sense of love, life etc.- but from a completely different perspective.

And the result is something genuinely commendable, stunning and unique.

So as Birdy soars to the next stage of her blossoming music career, you

may just want to be flying along behind her, because this is a young woman who really is quite something.

And I mean that in the absolute best way possible.

WINGS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJTXDCh2YiA

ALL YOU NEVER SAY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iB5MLmmgyE

BOTH OFF OF 'FIRE WITHIN' OUT SEPTEMBER 23RD

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/fire-within/id673276899

ARCTIC MONKEYS EPIC GLASTO SET & TOUR 2013

Wow. Wow. Wow. What. A. Corker. Of. A. Headline.

That set was truly out of this world.

Twelve hours later and I'm still on a high, an Arctic Monkeys induced haze, because how could we,

as Arctic Monkeys fans, have asked for anything better than what they gave us last night?

Hit after hit after hit, truly phenomenal showmanship from Alex (did you like those dramatic hair combs eh?), electrifying atmosphere, Helders' intense, pulsing drumming, Nick and Jamie's scorching guitar slides and riffs.... This was a coming of age show alright.

Before the Monkeys walked on stage my heart was pounding with excitement.

The red record light on my Sky Plus box was flashing, my foot was tapping away, my mother was zonked out on the sofa. And then... they walked onstage, and the last two year wait meant nothing as feelings of excitement, love and inner celebratory screaming took over.

They were finally there. And they were ready to blow our socks off.

We've been waiting for this set since March and all day yesterday was agonising as the clock edged nearer and nearer to 10:15pm. In all honesty, I was afraid that this set had been bigged up so much that it surely couldn't live up to expectation but I am so, so glad to say I was proved wrong. 

By song number two, 'Brianstorm', I was having an eargasm on the floor.

'Don't Sit Down...' had me doing karate moves at the TV screen.

'Brick By Brick' I was pummeling my fists and shaking my head like a possessed tribal warrior.

My mother, who by now had woken up, stared at me like I was a new breed of UFO and damn she was right. The Monkeys really were possessing me. 

The music was filling me up, taking over my body, zapping through my veins.

Life really could not get any better than it did last night.

Alex was the perfect showman, working the crowd who were literally in the palm of his hand.

He requested they sing a rendition of 'Happy Birthday' to his mum Penny, which they duly did, and I'm pretty sure if he asked them to pop down to ASDA and get him a roast chicken, they would have.

Even us sat watching him on the TV were entranced like little zombies, watching our leader and obeying his every command. In my last AM's article I mentioned how the Monkeys have matured and really come into their own, and this set demonstrated that perfectly.

Just watch it and you'll know exactly what I mean.

The Monkeys were having a whale of a time, the crowd was dying of epicness overload, the music had a life of it's own. Everything came together in those one and a half hours and the result was a set that will surely go down in Glasto history. I know I'll never forget it.

Oh and who could resist a strings version of 'Cornerstone' and  'Mardy Bum'?

If I was having an eargasm before, well right then I was having an ear attack because it was just perfection.

Guy Garvey certainly spun his magic into that one. 

Of course the addition of Miles Kane and his metal incased finger to perform the much adored riffs of 505, 

wrapped up the epic show in true Monkeys style and made sure every single person both at Glasto, or watching it from behind a screen, went to bed last night 100% satisfied in every way possible.

It was a magical night and of course today we have the Rolling Stones headlining and they'll be sure to crank the mightiness of Glastonbury up by more than a few notches.

Now if you're a Monkeys fan, maybe a slightly obsessed one like myself, you'll be aware of the following key dates: 5th July and 9th September. 

The first is the day UK tour tickets go on-sale and trust me, if you want to see the AM's live, you're gonna have to get in quick because those tickets are going to sell like hotcakes.

If they hadn't just done Glasto, I wouldn't be so worried, but with that platform, you will have your hardcore Monkey fans vying for tickets and your nostalgic Monkey fans who just want to see the old school hits like 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor' or 'Fluorescent Adolescent' played live once again. 

You really need to get in there as fast as you can my friends.

Keep and eye out for pre-sale and if you miss that, 9am sharp be on the web, credit card in hand, ready to buy, because if Glasto is anything to go by, you really don't want to miss out on an opportunity to see the Monkeys live. As for the album 'AM', just head online to pre-order and you shouldn't have any problem with that whatsoever.

So that's all, hope you enjoyed the set as much as I did,

and lets hold our fists up to the UK's best band as of now. 

ALL HAIL THE MONKEYS OO-OOO-OOOO.

The setlist:

'Do I Wanna Know?'

'Brianstorm'
'Dancing Shoes'
'Don't Sit Down Cause I've Moved Your Chair'
'Teddy Picker'
'Crying Lightning'
'Brick By Brick'
'Fake Tales Of San Francisco'
'She's Thunderstorms'
'Old Yellow Bricks'
'Pretty Visitors'
'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor'
'Do Me A Favour'
'R U Mine?'
'Mad Sounds'
'Fluorescent Adolescent'
'A Certain Romance'
'Cornerstone
'Mardy Bum'
'When The Sun Goes Down'
'505'
Pictures/info from: http://www.nme.com/news/arctic-monkeys/71138#A1ZoV2BZil5TrpIj.99 

WEBSITE: http://www.arcticmonkeys.com/

Glasto: http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ej58q9

CORNERSTONE LIVE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuONLLVbbJI
MARDY BUM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwNTuPTXaJ0