All rise for Mrs Houston………again!

Congratulations to Taylor Swift who quite frankly has has an astonishing year although I can’t quite work out why she chose to be in London. Surely someone had an idea that it was going to be her year?  When all the people who voted for her are here in the US it would have been nice to do the acceptance speech on home turf. Her main contender for artist of the year was Michael Jackson so I suppose one way or another it was going to be a no show.  Thought Thingy Jackson’s acceptance speech was a tad dull and someone should really have told him that since the days of the Jackson Five microphone stands are now adjustable! It looked like an acceptance speech from Quasimodo, he was bending down that low.

I can’t also figure out why Taylor was ‘shocked’ each time she won her 200 awards. Is she the only one who doesn’t realize what an amazing year she has had. Anyway good luck to the girl, she’s young and talented and she deserves it. Which kind of brings me to Houston W. Not sure she meets any of the criteria now, maybe in the past but must we keep dragging her out just because there’s an audience and viewers? When will she just go away and leave us all alone? What do we give her next year, a more appearances on any awards show award? Was this to to prove she can string a sentence together after Good Morning America and (was it )X Factor where should looked totally X’d. How many times MUST we pamper to the QUEEN OF REDEMPTION. Who ever gets that many chances!

Can someone please explain the philanthropist bit? What one earth has she done to help the cause? I’m totally flabbergasted, she’s only ever been about her.Oh and Clive, nice to see he got a name check. I noticed the new vampire film surpassed him this week, that must have been hard. These two vampires will last though, we’ve watched them sap the blood from the industry for too long. GO AWAY! Whitney Houston is my least favorite person the planet and I can only hope she puts herself up for a trip to the  space station. One way. Who’s up for a whip round?

Adam Lambert’s performance was hyped up as expected, I think he might have tried a little too hard, maybe Whitney made him puke and the vocals at then end were really just him hurling. He’s a talent though and I think he’s set for a good career. He’s certainly X Factor and the right X.

That’ll do for now, no need for a tirade unless I turn the TV on and SHE”S on.

Filed under: TV, View from the room, Adam Lambert, American Music Awards, Michael Jackson, Taylor Swift, Whitney Houston, X Factor

Posh, dosh or dross.

I’ve never seen the X Factor, the show that’s pulling in all the ratings in the UK. Apparently nearly 15 million saw Cheryl Cole perform her new single. Cheryl who? She married a footballer, apparently. A dumb one at that. So now we have He Cole and She Cole. Apparently one was enough, we needed a pair of plonkers. He cheated, she put on sunglasses to hide the swollen eyes……and they lived happily ever after. He showed remorse. He had to, she’s the bigger meal ticket now. It won’t be long before he pops up in the audience of X Factor for a personality remake. We’ll have a load of close ups of him,  they’ll tell him  to smile and applaud enthusiastically and he’ll jump up and down so the camera can catch him. It’s called grooming.

Before long it’ll become the two of them. They’ll want to put them in the jungle, ‘I’m an ass Cole, get me out of here.’ The TV program makers nowadays need the easiest, dumbest material to work with, they’ll be welcomed with open arms. They put them in a bath with cockroaches ( insert your own choice of footballers here) and they’ll make them eat things that wriggle. She’ll scream and he’ll sneak off and shag someone and the ratings will hit the roof. He’ll be sorry. He is sorry, very sorry. And then it’ll be over and they’ll go home richer and happier because the publicity will be everywhere. What supermarket wouldn’t want them to open their new perfume department. And then there’s the books

Do I sound bitter? Never, just disillusioned. I’d love to meet the person who first thought all this shite was an idea worth pursuing in the first place. He (it’s bound to be a bloke) should be flogged, publicly. The ratings would be excellent. Worse still why is a public accepting of this. What’s wrong with you Britain, you pay your license fee and you let them do this to you. At least in the USA you don’t have to pay for cable if you don’t like it. ( I don’t) Neither do I have 400 channels, all of them showing varying degrees of crap. People are going to the gym nowadays to work on their wrists so they can channel hop, it’s tiring. I make better TV in my head and it’s free. Pop round sometime.

It’s always interesting to observe from a distance and comment on something you haven’t actually seen but by all accounts, it’s not that hard. Same female judges who just seem to look the part, not that either has any relevance in being able to mentor or guide anyone. They are both nothing short of average, why would anyone give a flying fuck about any advice they gave them. After all no one in their right mind would aspire to wanting to be them….or would they? Has Victoria Spice, sorry Beckham( better brand) shaped the future for the female icon. Wherever she got the name ‘Posh’ from I have no clue unless pops having some dosh allows you to claim the title. Posh must mean wealthy, it used to mean upper class. Mmm, not quite sure where that fits, she’s not that…

This is sure to continue ( I haven’t even mentioned Simon Cowell! )but now I must return to more mundane things like sorting out my life. It’s there it just needs some order. What I can promise you is plenty more from Blog Tone. It all started here for me in Blogsville, I loved it and it lead to my book and already I have more I’m itching to write. I don’t seem to get the time to blog. I’m an idiot, pass me a football and make it a posh one.

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, TV, Cheryl Cole, Simon Cowell, Victoria Beckham, X Factor

Brown. Sugar wouldn’t melt in his mouth.

Good job Rhianna spat out that plonker from under her Um ber rella. All week ABC TV had been trailing her appearance on last night’s 20/20 program. Every morning on ‘This Morning’ they were showing clips and building up to the climax. The first time SHE had spoken about it.( In case anyone has slept away the last few months, ‘IT’ refers to being smacked around by the love of her life, Chris ‘The Bruiser’ Brown.)

And guess what? Chrissie boy, having bounded in to Larry King’s show a few months ago to ‘apologize’ decided once again, that he should have another right to reply. Like we cared the first time? And MTV opened their door like the reality madhouse they are and let him in. How totally deplorable. I don’t feel it’s disrespectful, which is what others are saying. That isn’t at all appropriate, don’t you have to have respect in the first place in order to disrespect it?

This showdown was fast becoming a battle of the brands. She has a career, his was falling apart around him. Guess what baby boy, no one likes an abuser. No matter what talent you have it just shows you up as a lowlife, a bully, a coward and what’s the word? WANKER. I’m sure there’s plenty of us out there putting blog to work and commenting on last night’s circus. She decided to speak after a long period of silence and not only did HE speak, he reacted! Good job she wasn’t around or likely he would have pounced. The tiger would have been cornered once again.

He thought she was wrong, he said it was between him and her and it should be private. OK, big boy then go make your records and keep them private. Don’t release them because if you do then you’re public domain and if you beat the shit out of someone then people have a right to know. Sadly though your public side likes you to be noticed and definitely your bank account does. You wouldn’t want that to take a beating now would you? You wouldn’t want to see that beaten and broken. Oh and by the way if it was that private then why did you go on national TV and talk about it? ……TWICE!

You can smell the PR all around him, you need to do this, and now. They’ll be people wanting to hear your side of the story, why don’t you do it to deflect from her when she’s on Prime Time on ABC. The only thing it will salvage is a few who might have flicked between channels. What is there to explain? You’re a bully and you smacked a woman.

It must be really hard doing interviews when you’re stupid, but if you’re stupid and successful then you have PR. And the PR will get you in front of the right people, they’ll work at finding you the opportunity to redeem yourself. Damn, they forgot that it involves opening your mouth and sounding believable. How could you not feel this had everything to do with him and nothing to do with her. HE GOT CAUGHT OUT, he’s not that smart and he’s trying to claw his way back. Her face hurt but his ego was was really took a beating. All of a sudden people didn’t like him and when you’re used to adoration you can’t bear the thought that you are getting bad publicity. Most of the abusers around get away with it because it doesn’t get reported and it isn’t in the papers, on TV. Thank God some of these cowards get caught out.

I’m thinking the PR people here should have given him a script to learn and told him not to deviate from it. But his ego would never allow that, the media wants to talk to him and he gets to have his say. I’d cringe if I had to put this geezer on TV and worry at what he might come out with. He needs to dance and on a stage. He’s good at that but when you try to dance around questions and interrogation you just ain’t good enough, son. It’s not what you do. And to see how you react to being cornered by a defenseless girl who wanted to know why, when you were going out with her were you texting another girl. How dare you ask me that, how dare you catch me out. If I hit her hard enough she’ll stop interrogating me. Smack, shut the fuck up!

And out come the industry folks would want to try and clean up the shit, keep his career on track. They have a living to make too. Where’s the record company honchos condemning their artist, even sacking him. They daren’t, they have precious few artists who are keeping them in work nowadays as it is. Let’s not kick the shit out of the hand that feeds us.

You have to admire the Chairman of Wigan Athletic Football Club though who sacked that other wanker who smacked a female about because she didn’t accept ‘Who he was!’ It’s always been a killer of a line hasn’t it guys when you have to use that to entice the female of the species. It sounds better than, I’m a twat, I can’t string a sentence together but would you like to have a look at my bank statement before I allow you to shag me. Oh how the footballer is the great Lothario, the real master of seduction. Wasn’t it great the Chairman came out and condemned Stupid Marvin whatshisname  and said he regretted signing him. You’re history, fuck off , you’re sacked.

Starvin Marvin soon we might hope. He thought he could bully and attack if he didn’t get his own way. They slung him inside for 6 months so what’s twathead Brown doing on the tele anyway?

Filed under: Uncategorized, View from the room, ABC 20/20, Chris Brown, MTV, Rhianna

When U2 comes to town

It’s incredible to see the media go in to free fall when the U2 show comes to town. As an exercise in how to promote your show no one does it better and no one will ever do it better. It’s close to an invasion, no matter what may be going on in the world they literally command centre stage. U2 is the number one news story. In a day when records, sorry CD sales are at an all time low it’s the only way you can hope to trigger off what meagre sales are out there. Let them know you’re here. And when it comes to record sales even U2 are finding it hard going, the public has not fallen in love with their latest album/ CD. However,  wild horses wouldn’t keep those same people away from the live show.

The band are taking plenty of flack for the carbon emissions from taking this gargantuan beast on the road and you can understand why. Personally though, I believe  The Edge when he says they will offset that carbon footprint in some way. They’d probably already thought about it long before all the knives came out.  Unfortunately at around the same time he bought 156 acres on a cliff in Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean to build an eco friendly  home. Well five in fact, his own 10,000 square foot palace and another four to flog. Nice work if you can get it! He does want to make it his main homestead though and having seen the place I think I would too! Needless to say the activists came out in force stating that to build whatever he was building they would need to flatten a part of the cliff to build an access road.

No matter what anyone says about U2, whether it’s the new album, the carbon non friendly size of the tour or anything else for that matter the one thing you can’t ignore is the experience almost every single person who attends the show takes home. For them it’s worth every penny. U2 bring them a happiness that a lot of other bands don’t and for them it’s the best night of their lives. Paul McGuinness  has been quoted as saying they don’t break even until the back end of the US tour so you cannot argue about their desire to give people an experience second to none. The Edge on the edge. Of a cliff.

I don’t think the tour will have a significant effect on their record sales either and I’m sure they know that better than anyone. Their motivation will be their desire (no pun intended) to give something back to the people who have stuck with them forever, it’ll be trying to let them experience something unique, something completely different…….to anything. Add to that the corporate, footballer world flocking to the U2 show as the place to be seen and we have ‘the event’. It’s kinda funny too, what about those who haven’t seen a live show before? Where do they go from here, anything is going to seem sub standard after Claw Wars!

And where do U2 go from here, the return of The Claw? I don’t think so , it won’t be anywhere other than rest for a while and I think we can all allow them that indulgence! But what next, where can you go. Personally I think it’ll be stripped right down and four guys will take their songs to the masses. U2 have reached such a level now that being the ‘hottest ticket’ they could do anything. They’ve earned it. They haven’t earned it because of a gigantic claw and a production of epidemic proportion, they earned it from 30 plus years on the road. They’ve earned it from playing every tiny club that wanted to book them to every fan who wanted to see them. They’ve earned it from signing every autograph for every one of those fans who believed in them enough to give them a chance to do this. And through it all they stuck at it. They posed for every picture with every fan no matter how exhausted they were after giving their all in a performance, and for many years to under a hundred people and not a hundred thousand. They stepped out front to meet and greet the fans for as long as it was safe to do so. They paid their dues, they have earned it.

For me U2, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Bruce or Led Zeppelin don’t have to prove anything to me or anyone else. They earned it, damn right they earned it. It’s called a work ethic and it’s called graft. Blood, sweat and tears. It’s called taking chances and making mistakes and it’s called entertainment. It isn’t about any one tour, it’s about understanding why you came in to this business and giving people something they have earned. The opportunity to take their hard earned cash and spend it how they want to. And if that is on two hours of a thrill of a lifetime who are we to judge?  When entertainers get this big let’s not lose site of the fact that they are still meant to entertain. It’s what they do and it’s what they should always do.

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, Risk, Uncategorized, David Bowie, led zeppelin, touring, U2, u2 360 tour