Gareth Gates voted off Dancing on Ice & other: 2008

Monday, 11 August 2008

Amy Winehouse stars in computer game - Tabloid Hell

Amy Winehouse is the star of controversial new internet game Escape From Rehab.

In the game, which is beingness used to promote unexampled spoof photographic film 'Disaster Movie' a sketch version of the singer beats up the likes of The Hulk and Batman with a crack pipe and complains "I haven't had a turd for deuce weeks."

Later in the game, Winehouse has to try out and break husband Blake Fielder-Civil out of prison.

You can act the game escapefromrehabgame.com.

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Wednesday, 6 August 2008

BUDDY GUY

�Skin Deep� (Silvertone): B+

With B.B. King on the scene, you can�t call Guy the world�s greatest living vapours guitar role player. But the most exciting? For certain. And the soon-to-be-72-year-old is out to prove it every time he picks up his axe, whether in the recent Rolling Stones concert movie, �Shine a Light,� or on this CD. Savvy production by ex-Boston rock ex-serviceman Tom Hambridge (who also plays drums and co-wrote most of the songs) highlights Guy�s formidable fret work and voice - so much so that guest appearances by Eric Clapton, Robert Randolph, Derek Trucks and Boston-bred belter Susan Tedeschi never unhinge, but only enhance. Download: �Too Many Tears.�

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Thursday, 19 June 2008

'Say You're One of Them' takes readers deep into seldom-glimpsed lives

Uwen Akpan's first book bears out the promise implicit in his first short story, "An Ex-mas Feast," published in The New Yorker's Debut Fiction 2005 issue and reprinted here.

"Say You're One of Them" is a tour de force that takes readers into the lives glimpsed in passing on the evening news: the routine of a child prostitute in the slums of Nigeria, an unspeakable decision facing a family in Rwanda, a brother and sister's slow realization that their uncle has sold them into slavery and is fattening them for the trip.

Akpan, a Nigerian-born Jesuit priest, opens a window to this world and asks the reader to sit a while with his characters and to resist the urge to look away. It helps that his narrators are children, whose understanding of the events at the core of the stories can be hazy, cut short by the limited scope of their lives.

The story that lends the book its title is an example. The narrator, a nine-year-old, knows only she's been told to stay indoors. She's restless. Her Tutsi mother's warning before she goes into hiding makes little sense to her:

"When they ask you," she says sternly, without looking at me, "say you're one of them, OK?"

"Who?"

"Anybody."

When the knock on the door comes, it's the child's uncle, her Hutu father's brother. And when she lets him in, he's with a crowd brandishing ID cards and machetes.

"An Ex-mas Feast," a story centred on a 12-year-old prostitute, starts off easy. The narrator, a younger brother, tells of the awkward transition into adolescence that's gripped his sister Maisha.

"None of us knew how to relate to her anymore. ... She had been behaving like a cat going feral: she came home less and less frequently, staying only to change her clothes and give me some money to pass on to our parents."

What develops in this story, as in others, is difficult.

Details anchor the narrative: the advice Maisha passes on to her 10-year-sister - never go with man without a condom, even if you're starving; the image of Maisha on Christmas morning when she returns home bruised, bone-tired, her face seared by bleaching creams beneath the makeup; the giddiness of children finally tearing into the food she brought.

There are light moments as well. In "Luxurious Hearses," a Muslim boy trying to hide in a mob of Christians fleeing conflict in Nigeria is at first overwhelmed by the sight of so many women. They're all around, pressing in, their heads, arms, legs uncovered.

To calm himself, he starts counting them. Dozens of women. Then he starts laughing - the hairdos, the beaded cornrows, the crimson painted nails and lips and the tight colourful clothing, it's all so new, but it's not threatening. And it's funny, even amid the squalor. One fear, defeated, many others to go.

These are stories that could have been mired in sentimentality. But the spare, straightforward language - there are few overtly expressed emotions, few adjectives - keeps the narratives moving, unencumbered and the pages turning to the end.

"Say You're One of Them"

By Uwem Akpan (Little, Brown and Company)

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Saturday, 14 June 2008

Sarah Harding records nu-rave track

Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding has recorded a track with nu-rave group Filthy Dukes.

The popstar's first solo release will appear on the soundtrack to the movie Wild Child.

Other acts on the album include Rihanna, Robbie Williams and Nelly Furtado.

A source told The Mirror: "It is a really exciting project for Sarah to be involved with. She was chuffed to be approached and recognised as a singer in her own right.

"It's a pretty cool album with some big names...it promises to be a springboard for other things."

Girls Aloud confirmed during their recent UK tour that they would be recording a follow-up to 2007's Tangled Up album and insisted they weren't splitting up.

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Sunday, 8 June 2008

On Thorns I Lay

Artist: On Thorns I Lay

   Genre(s):
Metal: Death,Black
   Metal: Gothic
   Metal: Doom

Discography:

Egocentric

Year: 2004
Tracks: 10

Angeldust

Year: 2001
Tracks: 8

Future Narcotic

Year: 2000
Tracks: 10

Crystal Tears

Year: 1999
Tracks: 10

Orama

Year: 1997
Tracks: 10

Sounds Of Beautiful Experience

Year: 1995
Tracks: 9

Originally named Phlebotomy, Greece's On Thorns I Lay started out in 1992, recording a demonstration and a 7" EP under that identify ahead devising the name-switch in time for their 1995 debut album, Sound of Beautiful Experience. Heavily influenced by death/doom metal acts like Paradise Lost and Anathema in their babyhood, On Thorns I Lay would evolve on a exchangeable path as these bands over the course of subsequent albums Orama (1997), Crystal Tears (1999), and Future Narcotic (2000), eventually arriving at a far less extreme firebrand of surd rock, infused with melancholy and atmospherical Gothic nuances. During this time, institution members Chris Dragmestianos (guitar) and Stefanos Kintzoglou (bass part), collaborated with legion henchmen, actually relocating to Romania in 1995 for their graduate studies, and on the job with Elena Doroftei (vocals/viola), Ioanna Doroftei (piano/keyboards), and Andrew Olaru (drums), before reversive dwelling to Athens in the year 2000. After welcoming fresh members Minas G. (guitars/vocals), and Fotis (drums), and hooking up with Black Lotus Records, On Thorns I Lay's side by side releases, 2001's Angeldust and 2003's Egoist, carried on exploring their self-labeled "Pure Depressive Metal."

Friday, 6 June 2008

Green Day - Green Day Side Project Announce Flash Tour

GREEN DAY's spin-off band the FOXBORO HOT TUBS are to hit eight venues on a whistle-stop U.S. tour beginning next week (19May08).

Tickets for the shows, which begin at Juanita's Cantina in Little Rock, Arkansas on Monday and wrap in Long Beach, California on 28 May (08), will only be available on the day of the show from the box offices of the venues.

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Victoria Beckham - Beckham David Is More Attractive Than Clooney

Former SPICE GIRL VICTORIA BECKHAM has lavished praise on her new pal GEORGE CLOONEY - but insists he's not as good-looking as her husband DAVID.

The star spent time with the Hollywood hunk during a flight on Giorgio Armani's private jet earlier this month (May08), and attended his star-studded 47th birthday bash in New York last month (Apr08) with her England soccer star beau.

Beckham admits she's very fond of the Ocean's Thirteen actor, but doesn't think his looks compare to the L.A. Galaxy star.

She says, "I have only just got to know George. He was so nice, a real gentleman and absolutely hilarious. He has a great sense of humour.

"But I think David is better looking than him. Definitely."

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50 Cent's New York Home In 'Suspicious' Fire

Rapper 50 Cent is "eager" to discover the authorities' findings
surrounding the fire that engulfed his New York home, endangering his son and ex-girlfriend.
The Long Island estate - owned by 50 Cent and occupied by his former lover Shaniqua Tompkins and their 10-year-old son Marquise - was set ablaze in what New York cops have called a "highly suspicious" inferno that raged at 5am on Friday.
The home has been at the centre of a bitter dispute between the hip-hop star - real name Curtis Jackson - and Tompkins since last month's ruling that she and Marquise must leave the rapper's mansion by the end of 2008.
The star's spokesperson says, "Informed this morning while filming a new motion picture on location in Louisiana, Curtis Jackson expressed deep concern over this fire at his property. He is extremely thankful that everyone including his son, Marquise, escaped the burning house safely.
"He is confident that authorities will be conducting a thorough investigation of the incident and is eager to review their findings."
And Tompkins - who split from the rapper in 2003 - has fuelled reports a vengeful party is to blame after revealing she heard "someone" come into the house at 4am, an hour prior to the incident.
Police have sent sniffer dogs to search the rubble for a substance that may have been used as an igniter.
However, the In Da Club hitmaker is not being treated as a suspect, reports TMZ.com.

Ratatat Map US Mini Tour

Ratatat make their live return in July in America, coinciding with the release of their third album 'LP3'.

The Brooklyn group will play four West Coast shows (Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles), as well as a hometown show in New York.

Ratatat release 'LP3' on July 8th - the tracklisting is here and you can watch the video for the lead single 'Mirando' here.

July Dates:

Seattle, WA Chop Suey (7)

Portland, OR Holocene (8)

San Francisco, CA Slim's (10)

Los Angeles, CA Echoplex (12)

Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg (15)

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Kirsten Dunst - Dunst Axed As Miu Miu Spokesmodel

Hollywood actress KIRSTEN DUNST has been axed by fashion house Miu Miu, according to reports.

The Spider-Man star followed in the footsteps of Selma Blair, Kim Basinger, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Lindsay Lohan when she was unveiled as the spokesmodel for the company in November (07).

But the company has reportedly parted ways with Dunst - and has replaced her with Johnny Depp's girlfriend, Vanessa Paradis.

According to celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, the autumn (08) campaign featuring Paradis will be shot by famous fashion photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Pioggott later this year (08).

A Miu Miu spokeswoman declined to comment.

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Capercaille

Artist: Capercaille

   Genre(s):
Folk

Discography:

Nadurra

Year: 2000
Tracks: 12

The musical traditions of Scotland are coalesced with the dynamic drive and electronic orchestration of contemporaneous music by Capercaille (marked: Kap-ir-kay-lee). While their initial repertory focussed on traditional tunes gathered from Christine Primrose, Flora MacNeill and Na h'Oganaich, the group has more and more incorporated modern influences. In a inspection of their 1999 album, To the Moon, Victor Arenas wrote, "It has been more than a x of a constant evolution, of modelling their traditional past with those modern ingredients that have made of their music that for which no dubiousness they testament be known in the future."

The inspiration for Capercaille was sparked in the early-1980s by senior high schools friendsKaren Matheson (granddaughter of traditional Scottish vocalizer Elizabeth MacNeill and a sometime member of a family mathematical group, the Etives), and English-born/Scotland-raised keyboard player Donald Shaw. The original band included Scottish bodhran and whistle player Marc Duff (world Health Organization had played in several bands with Shaw), violinist and vocalist Joan MacLachlan, guitar and bouzouki player Shaun Craig, and bass voice and monkey instrumentalist Martin MacLeod. After construction a report with local performances, the banding recorded their debut album, Cascade, in a fast-paced, three day, recording session.

Capercaille has at peace through legion personnel changes with but Matheson, Shaw and Duff remaining from the original radical. Shortly after British violinist Charlie MacNeill replaced Elizabeth MacNeill in 1991, the band recorded their second record album, Crosswinds, and embarked on their number one American tour. Their earlier winner came in 1988 with their commissioned soundtrack for a telecasting series about the history of Gaelic Scots, The Blood Is Strong. A soundtrack album, introducing Irvine, Scotland-born bassist John Saich, sold more than century,000 copies in Scotland and was reissued on cd in 1995.

With the accession of influential Irish bouzouki and guitar player and vocalist Manus Lunny in 1989, Capercaille became one of Celtic music's most repected ensembles. At the same time, they continued to reach out to a much bigger consultation. With their fourth album, Sidewaulk, produced by Lunny's brother Donal, the band began to incorporate English-language lyrics. The group reached their creative blossom with their fifth record album, Delirium, in 1991. A groundbreaking spinal fusion of traditional and modern influences, the record album included "Coisich A Ruin," a little Joe century year erstwhile song, that became the low gear Scots Gaelic song to reach the U.K. summit 40 when it was used as the stem strain for a British television system show featuring Prince Charles, "A Prince Among Islands", and "Breisleach," which featured lyrics by Edinburgh-based poet Angus Dudb (Black Angus), and became the motif birdcall of a Gaelic-language soap opera, "Machair."

In 1992, Capercaille released Come Out, featuring live tracks and tunes from earlier albums, and a video, Deuce Nights Of Delirium, that captured the band's live performances. Although their albums, Private People, released in 1993, and Capercaille, released the undermentioned year, featuring new tunes and remixed versions of in the first place material, were highly criticized for their overly-commercial level-headed. Capercaille's soundtrack for the pic, Gazump Roy was released in 1995, and the chemical group rebounded with the impressive albums, To The Moon in 1996 and Beautiful Wasteland in 1997; Nadurra followed in 2000.

Bond's new film set to fly Virgin

James Bond loves Aston Martin cars and when it comes to even higher flying it now seems that Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic is 007's airline of choice.
Virgin has announced that the airline will again feature in the new Bond film 'Quantum of Solace', starring Daniel Craig as 007.
"Virgin Atlantic and James Bond make a great partnership; slick, smooth and renowned the world over", said Branson.
The news follows the cameo appearance that Branson made in Craig's first outing as Bond in 'Casino Royale'. Virgin aircraft were also seen in that movie.
Virgin also announced that it would be a global partner for 'Quantum of Solace' and would be supporting the film's release with a series of promotional and marketing initiatives.
The Virgin Atlantic president added: "'Casino Royale' propelled Bond to greater success and we're certain that 'Quantum of Solace' will set an even higher standard."
Virgin's competitor British Airways cut out Branson and airbrushed the Virgin logo from the film when showing it on their in-flight entertainment system.
BA is later expected to comment on what their in-flight policy will be when the new Bond film comes out in November this year.
Visit our 'Quantum of Solace' photocall gallery here.