Celebs and Me:
I’m not going to bore you with useless drivel, I might frustrate you with Z-list celebs I’ve encountered but as I sit here looking back at my last eighteen months on the ‘celebrity circuit’ I feel its probably right to vent out my frustrations/annoyances/pleasures.
My career started back as a music journo at The Daily Mirror where my first interview was with Gary Jules, Who? I ask you say… Well he had a Christmas number one with the fantastic Madworld (notice lack of research with year etc.). Gary was and still is one of the most genuine characters I’ve met, despite basking in the glory of a Number One we sat in his dressing room playing PlayStation. I was a quivering wreck, I mean this is my first celeb experience and my questions that I so nervously written earlier in the day were disintegrating as each one of my sweaty fingers clutched on t what was a crisply folded paper. Gary put me at ease and despite embarrassingly being outclassed by support act Jason Mraz later that evening he still remains a personal (if not musical) favorite.
Where as the above-mentioned story was an organized interview I have had brief encounters at various celebrity parties. I’m going to give you some bullet pointed moments, When reading through the below, these are moments of me not trying to antagonize (barring Ashley Cole) but are genuine clanger moments of which I regret but ultimately laugh at:
1. Courtney Love – Despite not really being with it, she answered my ‘what’s your favorite Nirvana album’ without any anger but it a ‘cool if not really sure she heard me correctly’ style. ‘In Utero’ was her response.
2. Carl Barat – I questioned the man as to whether he was any good at the karaoke game Singstar – especially The Libertines track Can’t Stand Me Now. He said ‘although he’s never done it, he could beat me (playing Pete Doherty) I doubt it Carl I doubt it.
3. Imogen Thomas – Whilst my girlfriend was engrossed in a ‘pleasant’ conversation with the Big Brother star. I irrationally said to her ‘You must love the attention the whole Ryan Giggs affair has given you’ Her face dropped and so did my girlfriend’s who then valiantly tried to rescue the situation
4. Alex Reid – The man hates me. I first bumped into him at a boxing gym in Bethnal Green. I’d taken my (now) girlfriend on our third date there – surprisingly, she overlooked it and is still with me. Anyway. I asked Alex for a chat and he said to hold on, as he needed the toilet. I waited for him outside the gents, and when he came back he ignored me and walked off to claim his goody bag. (The goody bag contained beef jerky and a razor. How could I be lower down the pecking order than that?!) I saw him again a few weeks later in a club in Soho. He confronted me and asked if I was a journalist, and said he didn’t want to talk to me. My girlfriend said it would be upsetting to wake up every day and be Alex Reid. I said: “Well it’s better than being the man who’s swerved by Alex Reid on a regular basis”.
Right, depending on how successful this blog is I’ll write another piece that will include tales of Ashley Cole, Holly Valance, Calum Best, Blue and Britney Spears.
……………………
Thursday 2 February 2012
Wednesday 5 May 2010
Wood You Believe It?
I’ve been questioning a lot of things over the past couple of years, who to vote for in an election, why people say ‘at the end of the day’ at 9am and most importantly why am I still single? Unfortunately I may have just answered that last question in the previous two sentences.
Religion, it’s a funny old thing, I respect a person with beliefs, I even applaud Jehovah’s Witnesses’ who constantly have the ordeal of having doors slammed in their faces. What I do have an issue with is the asking of the same old boring question of ‘Do you believe in God?’ At the end of the day, there is no right or wrong answer; it’s just a person’s belief, however, I do think there are religious based questions that just need asking.
Adam and Eve, John the Baptist and Jesus Christ are some biblical characters that most of us, if not all, are aware of. This blog doesn’t concern the fore-mentioned biblical figures and therefore this paragraph at the moment has no relevance to any type of point I’m trying to make. The man in question, that has given me a headache throughout the day, is Noah.
Noah, in case you didn’t know, was instructed by God to build an ark, not just any old boat but literally one that would make the titanic look like the size of your rubber ducky nestling in a somewhat suicidal state at the edge of your bath. Noah was warned by God a flood was coming, I’m not talking about your Sunday afternoon downpour but an earth shattering blast of water which could rule out all mankind.
God, being the reasonable One that he is, told Noah ‘I don’t want all these animals dying, go get on your bike and save one of every single species there is.’ A few months later, there was this massive wooden ark and a procession of animals that the London Zoo could only dream of.
Right, clipboards at the ready, lions check, elephants check, geribils ch- oh go on in you get- check, termites ummmmmmmmm. Now I’d understand if the whole Noah and the ark story was an example of what you can achieve with a lot of hard work, but there are some, including my own mother, who believe in the story as fact. My original question was how could you let a woodpecker in? Surely he’d just destroy the wooden machine of an ark. After what must have been a strenuous time for most of my family and friends, having to listen to the ark ramblings of me, I was answered, why would you need to put birds in, they can fly.
Three hours later, I have finally thought about an animal of which no one has been able to give me an answer too, TERMITES. If you were looking for any type of answers from this blog piece, I apologise. If you can enlighten me in any shape or form, or even have an ark related query, it would be a pleasure to hear from you.
Sean Downs
Religion, it’s a funny old thing, I respect a person with beliefs, I even applaud Jehovah’s Witnesses’ who constantly have the ordeal of having doors slammed in their faces. What I do have an issue with is the asking of the same old boring question of ‘Do you believe in God?’ At the end of the day, there is no right or wrong answer; it’s just a person’s belief, however, I do think there are religious based questions that just need asking.
Adam and Eve, John the Baptist and Jesus Christ are some biblical characters that most of us, if not all, are aware of. This blog doesn’t concern the fore-mentioned biblical figures and therefore this paragraph at the moment has no relevance to any type of point I’m trying to make. The man in question, that has given me a headache throughout the day, is Noah.
Noah, in case you didn’t know, was instructed by God to build an ark, not just any old boat but literally one that would make the titanic look like the size of your rubber ducky nestling in a somewhat suicidal state at the edge of your bath. Noah was warned by God a flood was coming, I’m not talking about your Sunday afternoon downpour but an earth shattering blast of water which could rule out all mankind.
God, being the reasonable One that he is, told Noah ‘I don’t want all these animals dying, go get on your bike and save one of every single species there is.’ A few months later, there was this massive wooden ark and a procession of animals that the London Zoo could only dream of.
Right, clipboards at the ready, lions check, elephants check, geribils ch- oh go on in you get- check, termites ummmmmmmmm. Now I’d understand if the whole Noah and the ark story was an example of what you can achieve with a lot of hard work, but there are some, including my own mother, who believe in the story as fact. My original question was how could you let a woodpecker in? Surely he’d just destroy the wooden machine of an ark. After what must have been a strenuous time for most of my family and friends, having to listen to the ark ramblings of me, I was answered, why would you need to put birds in, they can fly.
Three hours later, I have finally thought about an animal of which no one has been able to give me an answer too, TERMITES. If you were looking for any type of answers from this blog piece, I apologise. If you can enlighten me in any shape or form, or even have an ark related query, it would be a pleasure to hear from you.
Sean Downs
Wednesday 28 April 2010
Tuesday 27 April 2010
Imogen Heap interview
From Acacia to Frou Frou, work with Bon Jovi and Jeff Beck, and of course her own solo career, it’s fair to say Imogen Heap is something of a veteran when it comes to this music business malarkey. A career littered with chart topping albums, Grammy nominations, and film and television scores, the release of her latest single, First Train Home, might be more of a milestone for her burgeoning directorial career (she directed the single’s accompanying video) than a musical one, but it begs a question of longevity in an increasingly commercially cut throat industry. “I’ve managed to keep going because I believe my songs stand the test of time.” The 31 year old singer from London, seems at war with herself, whilst with an exuberant confidence there seems an underlying tone of nervousness, a lady that continuously questions herself and always tries to reach targets that some would question were too high for her. That being said her latest single provides glimmers of encouragement, befitting modern day standards.
Heap has a dedicated fan base, one that had to wait for over two years for her latest album Elipse, “It was horrible, messages kept flooding in, when’s the album coming? How far have you got with it? All I could do was regularly give updates on my Twitter; people were growing impatient, then on day of release, the positive responses I received kept me up all night long, it truly was the highlight of my career.” Elipse is enchanting, fresh and vibrant and Imogen Heap has struck gold with her latest instalment. With the furore of illegal downloads around and having opinions spouted seemingly all the time by Lilly Allen, Imogen has a slightly different view “ I understand the concerns of some artists, but I think if my music wasn’t downloaded, I wouldn’t be here today, at the end of the day, word of mouth is the key to filling venues.” When mentioning gigs, the Grammy nominated singer/songwriter oozes excitement and whether it’s her first performance or her last, the same adrenalin and enjoyment remains.
In, 'First train home', Imogen appears to reach out for a much wider audience, whereas in previous album, ‘Speak for Yourself’, each and every song was directed at her safety net fan base.
“To be honest, I continuously question each and every song I release, for example, the song ‘Hide and Seek’ was a self indulgent attempt, one of which I really had to work hard at. For ‘The Walk’, which for me sums up my outlook and approach to releasing material, I had five different sections in the song, there was management and critics saying ‘cut this down’, and I milled over it for ages before thinking screw it, lets keep them all.”
Heap states that her song lyrics come from personal experience, but are encoded rather than being directly confessional.
“With my latest single, it goes way back to when things were all going wrong. Eight months ago we all sat down in a half-built studio, it was a really bad atmosphere; I needed to get out. I remember getting a call from my friends and we decided to go and party, more than a few drinks later, I was dancing, or should I say trying to boogie like my idol MJ. After the odd moonwalk or two I decided it was time to go home, then the whole depressing day started flooding back to me in my drunken state and I started to have a panic attack. I just wanted to get home, I rang up National Railway enquiries and pleaded with them to tell me the time of the first train home. As soon as the call finished I began writing and now here I am chatting about it”.
Words by: Sean Downs
Heap has a dedicated fan base, one that had to wait for over two years for her latest album Elipse, “It was horrible, messages kept flooding in, when’s the album coming? How far have you got with it? All I could do was regularly give updates on my Twitter; people were growing impatient, then on day of release, the positive responses I received kept me up all night long, it truly was the highlight of my career.” Elipse is enchanting, fresh and vibrant and Imogen Heap has struck gold with her latest instalment. With the furore of illegal downloads around and having opinions spouted seemingly all the time by Lilly Allen, Imogen has a slightly different view “ I understand the concerns of some artists, but I think if my music wasn’t downloaded, I wouldn’t be here today, at the end of the day, word of mouth is the key to filling venues.” When mentioning gigs, the Grammy nominated singer/songwriter oozes excitement and whether it’s her first performance or her last, the same adrenalin and enjoyment remains.
In, 'First train home', Imogen appears to reach out for a much wider audience, whereas in previous album, ‘Speak for Yourself’, each and every song was directed at her safety net fan base.
“To be honest, I continuously question each and every song I release, for example, the song ‘Hide and Seek’ was a self indulgent attempt, one of which I really had to work hard at. For ‘The Walk’, which for me sums up my outlook and approach to releasing material, I had five different sections in the song, there was management and critics saying ‘cut this down’, and I milled over it for ages before thinking screw it, lets keep them all.”
Heap states that her song lyrics come from personal experience, but are encoded rather than being directly confessional.
“With my latest single, it goes way back to when things were all going wrong. Eight months ago we all sat down in a half-built studio, it was a really bad atmosphere; I needed to get out. I remember getting a call from my friends and we decided to go and party, more than a few drinks later, I was dancing, or should I say trying to boogie like my idol MJ. After the odd moonwalk or two I decided it was time to go home, then the whole depressing day started flooding back to me in my drunken state and I started to have a panic attack. I just wanted to get home, I rang up National Railway enquiries and pleaded with them to tell me the time of the first train home. As soon as the call finished I began writing and now here I am chatting about it”.
Words by: Sean Downs
Review:- Noush Skaugen
Forgive me for being ironic but when told this female singer songwriter was a quirkier version of Alanis Morissette, I felt excitement similar to a churchgoer being given backstage passes to a Marilyn Manson gig. With a last minute change of venue, the beautiful siren from Surrey seemed a little dishevelled, but from the opening chords of her seven-song-set, all previous qualms were soon settled and the reasons behind her million-strong Twitter following quickly became apparent.
Skaugen has achieved a lot of success stateside and is about to embark on a tour down under, so performing first on the bill at a fifty-person venue should seem like a proverbial slap in the face - not that you could tell by her performance. Her enjoyment was there for all to see and the intimate confines of the setting became an irrelevance. With emotionally charged lyrics, which felt enchantingly improvised, it should only be a matter of time before she’s making waves on our shores. However, with her mix of fast-paced tracks and melodic ballads delicately balanced, the contrast of her set, at times, screamed for resolution.
Leaving the venue satisfied not to have seen another Natalie Imbruglia wannabe, I felt torn as to whether she’d be better sticking to her easygoing commercial sound.
SEAN DOWNS
Skaugen has achieved a lot of success stateside and is about to embark on a tour down under, so performing first on the bill at a fifty-person venue should seem like a proverbial slap in the face - not that you could tell by her performance. Her enjoyment was there for all to see and the intimate confines of the setting became an irrelevance. With emotionally charged lyrics, which felt enchantingly improvised, it should only be a matter of time before she’s making waves on our shores. However, with her mix of fast-paced tracks and melodic ballads delicately balanced, the contrast of her set, at times, screamed for resolution.
Leaving the venue satisfied not to have seen another Natalie Imbruglia wannabe, I felt torn as to whether she’d be better sticking to her easygoing commercial sound.
SEAN DOWNS
Darts: A sport in progression
Ten years ago in the corner of smoky working men’s clubs around the country stood a bunch of inebriated men standing at the oche in front of worn and torn dartboards; this was the state of what many considered a joke sport. Fast-forward a decade and things have changed dramatically.
The O2 arena has recently displayed the vocal delights of Prince, the raunchiness of Lady Gaga and the showmanship of Jon Bon Jovi, yet three weeks ago the dome played host to six men and ten thousand of their adoring fans, darts appears to have finally made it to the big time.
A catalyst in the ever-growing popularity of the game is Barry Hearn, embarking his sports promoting career in the mid seventies, Barry became a world-renowned boxing promoter representing acts such as Chris Eubank, Naseem Hamed and former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. Currently the chairman of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), Hearn has created a similar atmosphere to that of boxing with the players’ exuberant walk-ons and the ubiquitous glamour girl on the arm. An ever-constant stumbling block in the game has been the struggle to unify both the PDC and the original council BDO (British Darts Organisation). Despite the efforts of Hearn, an agreement has never been reached, which has left the sport in some disarray and with players jumping ship constantly, the game has lacked the stability that it deserves. With the PDC having the most lucrative financial appeal it has become the organisation where the sports top players want to ply their trade, including a one Phil Taylor.
Phil ‘The Power’
As the snooker world championships begin next month, Barry Hearn has been asked to freshen up a game which some say is losing its character, traditionalists might not agree. The O2 arena waves goodbye to the darts for a year and says hello to Dizzee Rascal. The working men’s club may be no more but the sport of darts is viewed no longer as a joke.
Sean Downs
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