The Brit Awards 2010

I have finally managed to watch the entire show and I will now proceed to rip it to shreds.
For the awards, in italics is who I thought would win and underlined is who did win the award.

Lily Allen opened the ceremony and I must say I actually quite liked her pretty odd performance. It's weird to think that this time last year 'The Fear' hadn't even been released yet. She's done well this past year and to me she seemed very happy as she was performing.

Brits Performance of 30 Years
Spice Girls - 'Wannabe' / 'Who Do You Think You Are' (1997)
Don't really have much to say about this, especially considering that the only shortlisted performance that I actually remember was Girls Aloud's one from last year.

British Male Solo Artist
Calvin Harris - Dizzee Rascal - Mika - Paolo Nutini - Robbie Williams
I don't think that you could watch this and manage not to be happy for Dizzee he was well deserving of this award.

Where do I start with JLS? Well their entrance was just tacky to be honest and the lighting towards the start just made it look like whoever was doing the lighting had fallen asleep. They really need to sort their stylist out, I mean really, the one that looks like a monkey looked like he was trying to reenact the Kylie 'can't get you out of my head' video and it also annoys me greatly that he lifts up his top every ten seconds just to get little teenage girls screaming at him, put it away for god's sake. Finally, they shouldn't have had dancers behind them, there was just too much going on onstage. However I will grant it to them that they sang pretty well...

International Male Solo Artist
Bruce Springsteen - Eminem - Jay-Z - Michael Buble - Seasick Steve
I would have loved for Eminen to win this.

Brits Album of 30 Years
Coldplay:A Rush Of Blood To The Head - Oasis:What's The Story Morning Glory
I don't have a problem at all with what Liam Gallagher did at this point.

Kasabian performed a song called 'Fire' whilst being surrounded by fire, hello originality. Purely from watching this one performance I am unable to grasp what it is about Kasabian that makes them a good live band. The crowd seemed well up for it but I feel like Kasabian are similar to Enter Shikari in that people think that they are good live, go to see them live and then believe that they were good when they weren't. I will admit I could be wrong because I have never seen Kasabian live, but that is my opinion on them.

British Breakthrough Act
Florence And The Machine - Friendly Fires - JLS - La Roux - Pixie Lott
JLS were by no means deserving of this but it's a given that if it is their fans voting for them to win, they will win. I would have been happy for any of the other nominees to pick up this award. JLS did not breakthrough, they were merely lifted up.

Critics' Choice Award
Ellie Goulding
I love her, I love her, I love her, I love her. She looked amazing. I also love how genuinely overwhelmed she still was about receiving her award. I hope she does well this year.

Lady Gaga was alright. I'm not bothered that she didn't do one of the big hits. I like Gaga, I think she's a brilliant popstar but I am getting a bit bored of it all now.

British Group
Doves - Friendly Fires - JLS - Kasabian - Muse
When I heard that Tom from Kasabian had fallen over when going to receive this award I assumed he had just tripped up. I was not expecting that beast of all falls, it was brilliant.

International Breakthrough Act
Animal Collective - Daniel Merriweather - Empire Of The Sun - Lady GaGa - Taylor Swift
I would have loved for Animal Collective to win this but that was a pretty big ask. An obvious win for Gaga.

The collaboration performance of the night was Dizzee Rascal and Florence and the Machine which was by faaaaaaaar the best performance of the night and that song is due to chart in the top 10 tomorrow night.

Then there was this weird bit from Prince Harry, I can't remember what it was about but his face at the end was absolutely priceless.

International Female Solo Artist
Lady GaGa - Ladyhawke - Norah Jones - Rihanna - Shakira
I don't know why I thought Rihanna would win this...

British Female Solo Artist
Bat For Lashes - Florence And The Machine - Leona Lewis - Lily Allen - Pixie Lott
Very surprised that Lily Allen got this one.

Jay Z, Alicia Keys and this godforsaken song are all just getting on my nerves now. I can not take this much longer.

International Album
Animal Collective:Merriweather Post Pavilion - Black Eyed Peas: The E.N.D. - Empire Of The Sun:Walking On Dream - Jay-Z:The Blueprint 3 - Lady GaGa:The Fame

Despite Cheryl Cole's exceedingly poor miming her performance was very pleasantly surprising and I actually quite enjoyed it. I liked that she didn't just do a standard performance of 'Fight for this love' but she mixed it up a bit. I was impressed.

British Single
Alesha Dixon:'Breathe Slow' - Alexandra Burke ft. Flo Rida:'Bad Boys' - Cheryl Cole:'Fight For This Love' - Joe McElderry:'The Climb' - JLS: 'Beat Again' - La Roux:'In For The Kill' - Lily Allen:'The Fear' - Pixie Lott:'Mama Do' - Taio Cruz:'Break Your Heart' - Tinchy Stryder ft. N-Dubz:'Number 1'
Again really, JLS' stylist really needs to get their act together, those suits were... just poor really. I am still in amazement that Joe McElderry was actually nominated for this, what a joke.

Mastercard British Album
Dizzee Rascal:Tongue 'N Cheek - Florence And The Machine:Lungs - Kasabian:West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum - Lily Allen:It's Not Me, It's You - Paolo Nutini: Sunny Side Up
Definitely a deserving winner of this award.

Outstanding Contribution to Music
Robbie Williams
A few people were saying that they thought that Robbie's performance went on for a bit too long but I totally disagree. I think this is the first time that this award has gone to someone whose music I'm actually really familiar with and I enjoyed his performance.

06 Hello My Name Is Natalie and I Fail At Life.

I have watched hardly any television this week
And for that, I apologise
Because it therefore means that I have absolutely nothing to write about.

I've decided to stop writing these posts because I don't really enjoy doing them and I find them a bit of a drag to be honest.

05 Let The Plug See The Socket

I will watch The Vampire Diaries and write about the first three episodes next week.

Glee (S1E5)
I think I've worked out what my problem is with this programme; there's not enough singing, well there is, but I would prefer more group songs because I think they are what's best about the programme.

Home and Away
OMFG. So good about Hugo's death being faked, I did not see that coming at all, definitely the best thing to come out of this beastly long storyline.

Skins (S4E2)
I hate to admit it but I think that this series is actually quite good so far.

Mock the Week (S8E3)
Really funny this week. I love the newsreal when Hugh Dennis does the voices of different people over a news clip, I could literally just watch them over and over again and never get tired of them. I think my mum fancies Hugh Dennis... Also Andi Osho, who I've never seen or heard of before was quite good, I love anyone who can do an impression of a Nigerian woman!

The Grammys
This is the first time I've ever watched this awards ceremony and to be quite honest I really didn't get what was going on. It seemed to me as though they had cut and pasted the whole show in to an order that was by no means chronological and made absolutely no sense whatsoever. I don't believe that there was any part of Jamie Foxx's performance that was sung live and god did they bring out some randoms to present awards and introduce other acts. I did however love the performance of Lil Wayne, Eminem and Drake with Travis Barker, definitely the hightlight of the two hours.

Take Me Out (S1E6)
I absolutely love this programme, it's just so hilarious. Darren from Dublin was a bit of alright, shame about the Irish accent though... if only he'd been Welsh... phwoaar.

GR: Kerrang! Relentless Energy Drink Tour 2010

We love to cause a scene.
First port of call: lost ticket scenario, approximately 2minutes after entering the venue.

Once this was over with I stood in the main room literally praying for Young Guns not to have the opening slot on this date. I did not have time to find myself being disappointed as I heard the intro to 'winter kiss', turned to everyone, shouted "young guns are on first!" and barged my way into the middle of the crowd with Anna and Curie following close behind. They played a good set but I think that they deserved a much better crowd reaction to the one that they got. I mean come on serious, Gustav Wood is ridiculously hot.

I don't really want to talk about My Passion. They look ridiculous, their music sounds dreadful and all their fans (bar Jack) are fat teenage scene kids with dyed black hair. On the up side, however, they did have a lot of energy on the stage which paid off for them getting (nearly) the whole room jumping up and down.

The Blackout never dissapoint and this was the sixth time I've seen them, definitely one of the top two performances. They pretty much get better every time. My favourite part of their set was the bemusement at the end of 'save our selves' during the "woah-oh-oh-oh" bit on Sean Smith's face making me actually believe him when he said "that is the best that that has ever been done, London".
Joshmeatsix and Gavin during 'This is why we can't have nice things'

I didn't mean to cut Curie out of this but I totally cba to make the picture smaller.

After getting some free Relentless caps, keyrings and an oyster card holder we decided to stand at the back of the room for All Time Low where Curie ensured us that we would have a good view of the stage, and we did. Their set was really good but I was wishing all the way through that they would play 'coffee shop soundtrack' but unfortunately they didn't. I don't think I've had so much fun watching a set in a long time.

Gig rating: 4/5

Three Word Reviews
Natalie W: My Passion suck
Alice RH: Don't loose ticket
Cain W: Prettyy Damnn Goood!
Anna P: The blackout owned
Curie K: Jack is sex

AR: We Are The Ocean - Cutting Our Teeth

First impressions on first listen:
I had the preconception based on what I'd heard at live shows and the couple of songs the band have released so far from this album that it was going to be absolutely bollocks. I have never been quite so long in my 17 and a quarter years of living. After listening to this album just the once I think it is brilliant.

Album artwork:
A bit odd. Not really sure what message it's trying to convery or anything but in saying that I don't have a problem with it at all. It's just not really what I was expecting.

After a few listens:
I love it, I love this album, it is so good. Although, I'm not sure whether it is as good as I think it is or whether I just think it's really good because my preconceptions were that it would be rubbish. I sort of don't really have anything bad to say about this album. For me the stand out tracks are 'confessions', 'don't take chances' and 'are you proud of me now?'. I've waited a year to have a recorded version of 'confessions' and it was worth the wait. When I first listened to 'are you proud of me now?' I didn't really get anything special from it; I later read the album sleeve where they've dedicated that song to all their family and friends which really puts into perspective how far they've actually come over the past couple of years. This album is definitely a worthwhile purchase.

Best track: Don't take chances
Worst track: [I can not possibly pick a worst track so I've chosen the one I like the least] Look alive
Rating (average rating of all tracks): 4/5

[Rock Sound: 9/10][Kerrang!: 4/5]

Got Some Tunes [February]

A fair few tracks to shout about, but not really much to say about them.

Yeasayer and Hadouken! are disbled from embedding.
View the full playlist here or at my channel here.

Drums: Let's go surfing
Something I hadn't noticed which somone kindly pointed out on youtube, it does sound like he says "Obama, I wanna go surfing" and that's had me chuckling a tad. This is a proper carefree summer tune (although I do take into consideration that it is currently winter and snowing at the time I'm writing this). If you know Alice Hodges, this is definitely song I would associate with her.


Example: Won't go quietly
I should have probably put this in last months post but I didn't so too bad. I love Example and this song is so catchy. Fact: I only like songs if they are catchy. Such a tuuune.
I totally rate the DC Breaks and also the Men In Masks remixes of this.

Chiddy Bang: Opposite of adults
This song samples Kids by MGMT and I totally didn't get the pun in the title until the second time I heard it although it is pretty clever. A lot of people were saying that they didn't like this but I think it's a brilliant use of the sample because it's not like they're just singing over the original song. Amazing.

Yeasayer: Ambling alp
I honestly can't work out why I like this song. Let's just call it catchy and be done with it. The video definitely puts a new spin on the word "weird".

Calvin Harris: You used to hold me
The best song that I've heard off of the Ready for the Weekend album by far although a lot of people seem not to like it and I can not work out why.

Hadouken: Turn the lights out

This is definitely the best Hadouken song I've heard in a while and it must be good to make it onto the radio 1 playlist. Oh fuck it, it's catchy, okay? That's all I have to say. "Make way for the cardinal sin when the boys come out and the freaks come in". I always shout that line and I'm not too sure why...

The Midnight Beast: Tik tok parody
The best (and possibly only) parody I've heard this year. It is so clever and even made me laugh a bit which parodies tend not to do for me. Plus the one in the white vest in the video is fiiit.
[I wrote this before I heard Example's version of 'Tik Tok' which I might prefer, I can't decide]

Danny Byrd feat. Liquid: Sweet harmony
Such a tune. I've never heard the original but this is immense.

Groove Armada: Paper romance
As a general rule, I don't like Groove Armada but this song has totally won me over. I think it's the male vocals which they don't normally have I don't think. So yeah, it's good, check it.

Proceed: Melancholy monday
I love Proceed, they sound amazing. No shouting vocals on this song though which I never realised the first maybe ten times I heard it. Still sounds absolutely brilliant.

Tinie Tempah: Pass out
I hated this when I first heard it but it's really grown on me and the lyrics are proper good ("I live a very very very wild lifestyle, heidi and audrina eat your heart out" loves it). I think this is the first I've actually heard from Tinie Tempah but with these lyrics it definitely leaves me wanting more.