BRITS NOMINATIONS PREDICTIONS

I love this time of the year - means I get to predict the Brits again. Awards season is awesome, especially when we have such a great celebration of the UK music scene.

British male solo artist:

* Ed Sheeran (Atlantic Records/Warner Music) *

James Blake (Polydor/Universal Music)

James Morrison (Island/Universal Music)

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (Sour Mash)

Professor Green (Virgin/EMI Music)

There really isn't any other option here for me! Everybody else has done well but Ed Sheeran has had the most phenomenal year!

British female solo artist

* Adele (XL Recordings/XL Beggars) *

Florence + the Machine (Island/Universal Music)

Jessie J (Island/Lava/Universal Music)

Kate Bush (Fish People/EMI Music)

Laura Marling (Virgin/EMI Music)

Hard decision. Adele has obviously had a fantastic year, 21 came out in January and since then she's been touring and attracting some amazing crowds - don't forget her Royal Albert Hall show that got televised as well. Having said that I genuinely think Florence is doing well at the moment - she's had a Live Lounge Special feature on Radio 1 and Ceremonials is an awesome sounding album.
Laura Marling as well is not one to be overlooked- I heartily believe this is the year for folk music and for Laura to claim this award would illustrate just how much of a folk explosion we've got on our hands currently. And Jessie J - near the top of the chart now and every time you look at the Top 40 she's there somewhere, so she must be doing something right.

British breakthrough act

(Top five selected by Voting Academy. Category promoted by BBC Radio 1.)

Anna Calvi (Domino Records)

Ed Sheeran (Atlantic Records/Warner Music)

Emeli Sandé (Virgin/EMI Music)

* Jessie J (Island/Lava/Universal Music) *

The Vaccines (Columbia/Sony Music)

Well, if I didn't pick Jessie for best female, she can have british breakthrough. It could well be Ed Sheeran, mind...

British group

(Top five selected by Voting Academy. Category promoted by BBC Radio 2.)

Arctic Monkeys (Domino Records)

Chase & Status (Mercury/Universal Music)

* Coldplay (Parlophone/EMI Music) *

Elbow (Polydor/Universal Music)

Kasabian (Columbia/Sony Music)

I think the only real challenger to Coldplay here is Elbow, who have once again enjoyed a good year of live performances but Coldplay have provided the full package - an amazing album and some sensational live shows.

British single

(Top 10 British singles based on commercial radio airplay and sales in the calendar year are automatically nominated. Promoted by Capital FM and iTunes, listeners and users will vote for their favourite single of the year.)

Adele Someone Like You (XL Recordings/XL Beggars)

Ed Sheeran The A Team (Atlantic Records/Warner Music)

* Example Changed The Way You Kissed Me (Ministry Of Sound) *

Jessie J Ft B.o.B. Price Tag (Island/Lava/Universal Music)

JLS ft Dev She Makes Me Wanna (Epic/Sony Music)

Military Wives/Gareth Malone Wherever You Are (Decca/Universal Music)

Olly Murs ft Rizzle Kicks Heart Skips A Beat (Epic/Sony Music)

One Direction What Makes You Beautiful (Syco Music/Sony Music)

Pixie Lott All About Tonight (Mercury/Universal Music)

The Wanted Glad You Came (Global Talent/Island/Universal Music)

Considering this was the tune of the summer and continues to be hammered in all the clubs, it would be silly to overlook Example here! Are we all a bit bored of Someone Like You now... or will that swoop in to claim the award? Don't rule out Ed Sheeran either. 

Mastercard British album of the year

(Supported by the Sun Bizarre column and ITV1's Daybreak.)

Adele 21 (XL Recordings/Beggars)

* Coldplay Mylo Xyloto (Parlophone/EMI Music) *

Ed Sheeran + (Atlantic Records/Warner Music)

Florence + the Machine Ceremonials (Island/Universal Music)

PJ Harvey Let England Shake (Island/Universal Music)

This was one of the hardest awards to call. In these categories, Adele is always the curveball, she could pretty much win anything. Similarly, I can't get over just how strong Ed Sheeran's year has been but his album wasn't all that. The singles were great but + is really a medley of mediocrity - don't get me wrong, it's a pretty good listen, but it won't set the world on fire like Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto, which is a powerful blend of indie soft rock from not just a band but a true british institution.
Ceremonials from Florence also entered my mind as well... as did Mercury Prize winner PJ Harvey.. but at the Brits I don't think it will hold up.

International male solo artist

Aloe Blacc (Epic/Sony Music)

* Bon Iver (4AD/XL Beggars) *

Bruno Mars (Atlantic Records/Warner Music)

David Guetta (Positiva/Virgin/EMI Music)

Ryan Adams (Columbia/Sony Music)

Have I chosen this with my heart or my head? We'll see. David Guetta is the obvious choice. But Bon Iver is the right choice. And again, this is the year for folk music!

International female solo artist

* Beyoncé (Columbia/Sony Music) *

Björk (One Little Indian)

Feist (Polydor/Universal Music)

Lady Gaga (Polydor/Universal Music)

Rihanna (Mercury/Universal Music)

Rihanna's done well this year - especially in the summer. She's constantly out there with new material, but through continued releases (some of which are awful) it dilutes the good stuff she's done. Beyonce has played the game well - she's stuck around in the charts and continued to freshen things up at the right moment. Couple a brilliant album and her Glasto performance.... winner winner chicken dinner.

International group

Fleet Foxes (Bella Union)

Foo Fighters (RCA/Sony Music)

Jay-Z/Kanye West (Mercury/Universal Music)

Lady Antebellum (Capitol/EMI Music)

* Maroon 5 (Polydor/Universal Music) *

Tricky, nobody here has particularly hit the headlines with their album apart from maybe Maroon 5. Fleet Foxes did an awesome record, but it's not the most well known piece of music so will it receive the acclaim?

International breakthrough act

Aloe Blacc (Epic/Sony Music)

Bon Iver (4AD/XL Beggars)

Foster The People (Columbia/Sony Music)

Lana Del Rey (Polydor/Universal Music)

* Nicki Minaj (Island/Universal Music) *

I'd pick Bon Iver again but I don't think he's really broken through. He's been around for ages- perhaps not in the mainstream (he can thank that Birdy kid for covering Skinny Love, actually, don't thank her) but he's an established artist nonetheless. In which case, Nicki Minaj has well and truly captured our attention this year, after coming from seemingly nowhere!

Outstanding contribution to music award

Blur (EMI Music)

Critics' choice

In association with War Child. Identified by a panel made up of media music critics.

1st: Emeli Sandé (Virgin/EMI Music)

2nd: Maverick Sabre (Mercury/Universal Music)

3rd: Michael Kiwanuka (Polydor/Universal Music)

British producer

* Paul Epworth *

Flood

Ethan Johns

ME support Panic! At The Disco

On the face of it, Panic! At The Disco wasn't my #1 choice of gig to go to, but it turned out to be surprisingly epic.

We'll begin with the support band, ME, who I interviewed a little earlier in the day. A group of Aussies from Melbourne playing a pretty unique blend of rock music - lively bass, powerful drums, technical guitar and a vocal performance from frontman Luke Ferris that touched on practically every note on the spectrum - not a bad thing at all. The set never got boring, and indeed it was a pleasure to chat to the boys before hand about how their overall 'sound' has evolved and developed over the years and what we can expect from their up-coming material:

ME are an exciting new band with some fabulous prospects on the horizon. They showcase their new EP (released 5th March) at the HMV Next Big Thing event at the Barfly in Camden in February and they're only 3 dates in to their UK tour with Panic!.
They're even nice enough to give you 3 songs for FREE if you visit their website, talk about generous! http://www.metheband.com/ - the link is useful, with a band name ME, they're self-professed ungoogleable!

ME @ O2 Apollo Manchester

Overall, their gig was exciting and up-front. They have a great presence on stage (especially the lively bassist) and already have an accomplished sound. Really excited for the album in a few months. It's pleasing to say that they passed the big test- yes the mp3's sound good, but live performance is where we can set aside the men from the boys and they nailed it, and for that, they're worth a follow on twitter.com/meband



This is their current single, it's on our playlist on The Source on Shock Radio and in a few weeks time we'll put out the full interview. For now, we appreciate all your love and support:

• The Source Podcast on iTunes
• The Source on Shock! Radio Facebook
• @sirchaddy on Twitter (that's me, hello!)
• Producer @anthonyalker on Twitter
• The Source on Spotify

Panic! At The Disco - spending the budget on the lights...

The main event of the evening however was Panic! At The Disco. You know what..... I flippin' loved it. I forgot just how often their debut album used to be played in my bedroom when I was in my early teens, I knew all the words to a hefty handful of their songs and it evoked some healthy nostalgia! 

I was originally sceptical about Panic! live because I'd seen them perform at a few festivals on the TV (hardly a live experience for me I know..) and being a true advocate of live music, I remember being really disappointed that the sound was so dismal. However, it's obvious that the band have grown up a lot and the frontman Brendon Urie is one of the most exciting live performers I've ever seen! Backflipping his way onto the stage for one song, juggling his microphone.... he was a great entertainer. 

The music, too, was very strong! With such high-energy, lyric-heavy and vocally-challenging songs like Panic!'s, I did expect there to be more missed lyrics and backing vocals to fill the breath gaps, but alas, no. Brendon's ability to sing each line of any given song with the same power as the last was quite amazing, no trouble spluttering for breath like some high-octane gig performances I've seen. 

Funnily enough, I'd really recommend a Panic! gig to anybody who was flirting with the opportunity to go. They're no posers, their musicianship is right up there with the best of the best. Even in soundcheck (thanks to ME for letting me have a peek), they were busting out tune after tune and sounding ace. Live, it's a real show, and a good laugh. 

Keep your heart strong

Just looking out at the dark, grey city and longing for countryside! You can take the boy out of the countryside but you can't take the countryside out of the boy - going to be taking it back to my roots this summer, gotta acquire a motorbike somehow!




Might go camping....

Who knows where the time goes?

Just got back to the promised land after an awesome car journey - no traffic, just plain sailing up the M6 and the time seemed to fly by with my musical accompaniment. Managed to wade my way through a fair few albums that were due a listen, so here ensues some reviews:

Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo

Right from the off you can tell this album is going to be shrouded in mystery as Vile projects his voice with an obvious insecurity - it sounds like the kind of music that be the soundtrack to the low after a 12 hour booze. It's very slurred and if this album was a photograph it would be constantly pulling in and out of focus. After tender track #1 - Baby's Arms - it's almost as if a new page is being turned over and the record breathes new life, an instantly upbeat quality surround the rest of the album. This musical barrier that Vile creates is key to the album, making the listener work hard to decipher the vocals and their mood and settle down into the deep ambience of the record. 

On another note, the musicality here is AMAZING. It's a guitar-based record where every pluck is as poignant and as intricate as the last. Stand out songs for tantalising strumming are Puppet To The Man and Society Is My Friend.

****

The Tallest Man On Earth – Shallow Grave

This was quite something. I wasn't really expecting this album to be so abstract. A bizarre voice on the guy - it's definitely Edward Sharpe meets Ben Howard. The outcome is quite remarkable and I'm going to have to listen to this a few more times. On that first initial listen earlier on I wasn't keen on the lack of depth. With good wholesome acoustic artists like Benjamin Frances Leftwich and Bon Iver (1st album), the addition of a band would ruin the beautiful vocals. However with works from Ben Howard, Edward Sharpe, James Vincent McMorrow, Bon Iver (2nd album) introducing band arrangements, the sound is more embodied and full. With a band to supplement the music on this album, perhaps it would be a more appealing listen - at least then the band could offer a certain distraction from the vocals, which at times are tricky to embrace. But maybe that simplicity is the USP. I can tell you for certain that the guitar is excellent. Song to check out is Where Do My Bluebird Fly.

**

The Black Keys – Brothers

This album has been out for ages but I've recently found a love for it. From start to finish the record is a wash of fabulous guitar work and deep, dark, deadly indie vocals. A thoroughly enjoyable album to stick on whilst driving, perhaps because it derives such potent influence from legendary rock ancestry -  Jimi Hendrix showing through a lot. Some Muse in there too. 

Very catchy but not many surprises. You know what you're going to get from this album and that gets a little boring when you move past track 10. A 15 track LP probably over-does it. They could have left some of these songs out as B-sides and released the most kick-ass 10-track and we'd all have been happy. Sorry to say I got fed up and turned the radio on and let the last 5 songs pass me by.

****

Juxtaposition Exhibition

This song has captured the essence of my attention at the moment. Listen to the deep, thought-provoking and predominantly remorseful lyrics, contrasted by that primitive and simplistic instrument arrangement. They compliment each other in the most powerful juxtaposition!

"Going back to where I come from, going rolling back home again...over the hill"..

Starting tonight's blog post with the legendary words of John Martyn some lyrics to Over The Hill.



For some reason, perhaps its the recent intake of real ales and the associated reminiscences of Oxfordshire's summer beer festivals and Fairport, James Vincent McMorrow's latest song (cover of) Higher Love entering the charts and maybe a dash of excitement ahead of this year's music festivals - combined they've resulted in copious Spotify plays for Steve Winwood, John Martyn, Seth Lakeman, McMorrow himself, Kathleen Edwards etc - all exceptionally folky. Taking it back to my roots for sure...

If I'm being honest with you I put it all down to the Hooky I've been drinking but that's just a hunch.

Have been back up in Salford for a week now - and I've had a lot of fun in that week. Highlights include:

• Watching Lord of the Dance 
• Acquiring some pasta sauce from Tesco for under 20p
• Cooking the nicest curry of my life - marinade your chicken in harissa paste and honey before committing the sauce. Taste sensation.
• Landing an incredibly exciting new workplace to spend my days in (details to follow....)
• The price of beer in Factory on a night out
• Darijo Srna proving such a fabulous transfer on my current Football Manager game
• Impressing my mates with some truly wonderful garden shed tool dance moves
• Revising my limited knowledge of quadratic equations

Tomorrow (or today, Monday) it's back to Uni, back to lectures and thankfully back to some routine! My body clock has well and truly broken, alas, I am writing this blog post at 1:40am after just having watched two back to back episodes of the new Sherlock series on BBC1 - a word of utter praise for Moffat & Gatiss who've written some outstanding programmes there.

Going back to uni is going to mean I'll be waking up in the segment of the day called the morning, currently in my messed up mental clockwork that's a foreign entity, with breakfast usually arriving at around 2pm. That's got to change, it's playing games with my inner fabric. I need my routine back and I need breakfast radio back in my life - recently I've been waking up to Darren Proctor on Key 103 daytimes, unacceptable, despite how good the show is.

Ah - incredibly exciting news there actually. Very soon I'm going to be starting to work on Key 103 drive time doing some production bits. How incredibly exciting, I've been listening to them for months having moved up here to Manchester last year, now I get to spend my days in their studios. What a pleasure and a treat. Cannot wait to begin!

It's all gone corporate, boss!

Finished work on some corporate videos for Dynamic Dentistry earlier this week. A really successful project with a mate of mine - photographer/cinematographer Connor Hawkins, he took care of visuals, the audio was my brainchild.

Some great results! - we were tasked with producing some demonstration films of some simple treatments that the team (dentist Martyn Amsel and nurse Sally Chadwick, my mother) do on a regular basis.







Martyn was really impressed with the end results and posted a lovely recommendation on LinkedIn, which is fantastic stuff - really nice when a client is pleased with a finished product.

Was actually quite a good learning process! I whole-heartedly believe I could do an aspiration procedure myself now............... err.. well on second thought, I reckon flossing is my limit.

Some more of this kind of thing is in the pipeline for later in the year but for now its back to radio for a while. Back home so to speak.

Ciao x

Christmas has gone and the goose is now on a diet

What an enjoyable Christmas time. Thoroughly enjoyable, if not a little lazy.

It's not often you get a few weeks to kick back and drink copious beers with your mates, which is probably what is so attractive about Christmas, if you can look beyond the turkey dinners, festive films on TV and trad music on the radio. The conglomeration of all this has made for, once again, a cracking December.

I got back a day early from uni, surprised my mother to such an extent she didn't even recognise me - which was slightly annoying (although probably has something to do with the disguise of Santa Hat & Beard I was donning). A lot of effort went into planning that little heist and when we executed it, the under-whelm-ation of the whole thing was poor. A very disappointing surprise, but fear not, I have bigger and better ones in the pipeline.

It actually reinforces the idea that if you're genuinely not expecting something then you get the most. My Mum didn't have a clue it was all going on, and she got her son back a day early! Take that theory to town nights out. We all thought they'd be blinkin' awesome - seeing everybody and relishing the good times together and for the most part they were.. once or twice... then we fell into the mis-assumption that every Banbury night out would be superb over Christmas, and how wrong we were.

ahab at AKA on our first night back, awesome!

In fact, at 3am, sat in my kitchen with my best mate Connor after an abysmal night out, the penny dropped as to why I'd left not a few months earlier! It's great to see everybody in bursts and I never tire of seeing Connor and the other pals in my home 'wolf pack', but I did find myself going up to some people on the last Banbury Xmas night out and saying: "hey mate!-how's uni?..".. then realising I had seen them not a few weeks earlier and I'd already heard about their uni!

Alas, the promised land of manchester is what holds such uncertainty and promise and thus, makes every night a right stormer!

Still, brush aside a bad night out, the majority of my time back home has reincarnated a 'best of:' attitude, I've taken the fantastic components of my life here over the last few months, brought them together, and enjoyed the best bits in a home-coming compilation. Lovely.

I've spent some time doing a some tutorial demonstration videos with my mum and the dentist she works with, chuffed to bits with the results, which will be uploaded soon. Also been doing lots of DJing over Christmas, some fun stuff at AKA, but especially enjoyed the New Years Eve gig I did at Tysoe - raucous crowd and lots of dancing! Top night!

However, time to head back to the promised land now though, my work here is done (if you call work sitting on your ass watching Sword In The Stone and Series 1 of Misfits) and it's time to head back to the hard work and generally enjoyable toil of Manchester life. I was going to say here: time to kick some ass in 2012, and do it better than 2011, but that means a lot of kicking!...

Although.........this sums it all up well: the wise words of John Mayer talking about 4th album Battle Studies 'following' acclaimed 3rd album Continuum (skip to 15s)



"You don't follow it at all, you just leave it and step to the side and begin something completely new".

What a fantastic philosophy to adopt for the new year. Time to turn a new page and forget about bettering 2011. It's a new leaf.

Have a great 12 months, and don't forget to subscribe to the new podcast I've just launched with my pal Producer Anthony!



Just quickly (always nice to end on a musical note).. this week Gabrielle Aplin is one of our featured musicians on the show...... a real talent, no?





Ciao x