The event, taking place at London’s Hammersmith Apollo, London on Sunday 14th November 2010, celebrates the achievements of inspirational teens alongside awards for top stars from the music and entertainment world.

Katy Perry will also present the award for Teen Hero to one inspiring young worthy winner.

Other awards up for grabs in the Teen Award categories include Teen Community Hero and Teen Entrepreneur. Radio 1 listeners were able to nominate teenagers who they felt should be recognised in these categories, with the winners selected by a panel of industry insiders, experts and celebrities.

BBC Radio 1’s Teen Awards is presented by Radio 1 DJ’s Fearne Cotton and Nick Grimshaw. The event will air on BBC Radio 1, BBC Three and extensive coverage will be featured on bbc.co.uk/radio1.

These very special teen awards will be presented alongside awards for top stars from the music and entertainment world in 2010, as voted for by Radio 1 listeners, and will form the centrepiece of the whole ceremony. The categories include Best Song, Best Actor/Actress and Young Sporting Hero.

Ben Cooper, Deputy Controller, BBC Radio 1 said: “This is an incredibly important event for Radio 1 as it not only features some of the biggest stars from the teen world but also celebrates the outstanding contributions made by young people in the UK”.

The announcement was made tonight during The 5:19 Show with Tom Deacon on BBC Radio 1 on Sunday 31st October (7-9pm).

BBC Radio 1’s Teen Awards broadcast live on BBC Radio 1 with a special hour-long programme airing on BBC Three on Wednesday 17th November.

BBC Radio 1’s Teen Awards will take place on Sunday 14th November at the Hammersmith Apollo, London. Doors open at 1pm and the event ends at 4.30pm

Tickets are free and will be distributed in groups of 4. This is to discourage unaccompanied young people from travelling to and from the event alone or in very small groups. There will be a £5.50 postage and administration fee, to cover the handling and delivery of the 4 tickets. No profit will be made from this transaction.

BBC Radio 1’s Teen Awards is strictly for 14-17 year olds only. Ticket holders may be required to produce photo ID (Oyster Card, Passports etc) on entry. If the door stewards have any doubt regarding the legitimacy of the ID produced they will not admit that person to the Venue.

Parents and guardians will not be permitted to enter the venue. Only over 17’s who are employed to work or supervise the event will be present in the venue.

The line-up for BBC Radio 1’s Teen Awards will include chart-topping bands JLS and The Wanted; multi-platinum American singer Taylor Swift and British rapper Professor Green. Another top international act will be added to the line-up next week.

BBC Radio 1’s Teen Awards, which celebrate the achievements of inspirational teens alongside awards for top stars from the music and entertainment world, will be presented by Radio 1 DJ’s Fearne Cotton and Nick Grimshaw. The event will air on BBC Radio 1, BBC Three and extensive coverage will be featured on bbc.co.uk/radio1

Fearne Cotton said: “I’m extremely proud to be presenting the first ever Teen Awards with Grimmy. What a great event – awards, inspirational teenagers and a brilliant line-up. Bring on the 14th of November!”

JLS said: “We’re really looking forward to the Radio 1 Teen Awards. We always love performing in front of our fans and it’s going to be really interesting to see who wins the awards. It should be a great day”.

Awards up for grabs in the Teen Award categories include Teen Hero, Teen Community Hero and Teen Entrepreneur. Radio 1 listeners were able to nominate teenagers who they felt should be recognised in these categories, with the winners selected by a panel of industry insiders, experts and celebrities.

These very special teen awards will be presented alongside awards for top stars from the music and entertainment world in 2010, as voted for by Radio 1 listeners, and will form the centrepiece of the whole ceremony. The categories include Best Song, Best Actor/Actress and Young Sporting Hero.
Ben Cooper, Deputy Controller, BBC Radio 1 said: “This is an incredibly important event for Radio 1 as it not only features some of the biggest stars from the teen world but also celebrates the outstanding contributions made by young people in the UK”.

The line-up announcement was made during The 5:19 Show with Tom Deacon on BBC Radio 1 on Sunday 24th October (7-9pm). The exciting addition to the line-up will be announced next Sunday during the same show.

BBC Radio 1’s Teen Awards broadcast live on BBC Radio 1 with a special hour-long programme airing on BBC Three on Wednesday 17th November.

A beguiling mix of acoustic innocence and pure voice, 22-year-old Natalie McCool is already tipped by many to break through nationally. Her debut EP, Shoot Shoot, promises to be one of the music highlights of the last quarter of this year.

Natalie also had the privilege of showcasing her songs while studying at LIPA to none other than Sir Paul McCartney, who incidentally, grabbed a guitar and played along to one of her songs, then found a silver sharpie and signed her guitar!

During her time at LIPA Natalie recruited her band and took to the road playing venues across the UK. Demonstrating a musical knowledge and guitar mastery and already hotly tipped as a ‘rising star’ by the BBC, “Natalie McCool is a must see for 2010. Go catch her before the rest of the world does”.

In this video Natalie McCool performs the lead track from her new EP Shoot Shoot live on the streets of London during the recent London Fashion Week.

Natalie McCool – Shoot Shoot

Natalie McCool will be performing at the following venues in October:

14th Oct – Bull & Gate, London
19th Oct – Night & Day, Manchester
29th Oct – Parr St Studio, Liverpool

Beyonce, Lady Gaga

Beyonce and Lady Gaga have each been nominated in nine categories of the Award show, while Britney Spears has received seven nominations. Spears career spiralled out of control after famously kissing Madonna on the show in 2003 but she has managed to turn her personal life around and her comeback has been well received.

Spears is currently on her Circus tour and the video for that track is nominated for best choreography. However she is not nominated for the Best Female Video category, where Lady Gaga and Beyonce will be up against Kate Perry (Hot & Cold), Kelly Clarkson (My Life Would Suck Without You), Taylor Swift (You Belong With Me) and Pink (So What).

The Best Male Video category has Eminem (We Made You), Kayne West (Love Lockdown), Jay Z (D.O.A), TI ft Rihanna (Live Your Life) and Ne-Yo (Miss Independent).

First time nominees include Kings Of Leon (Best Rock Video), Drake (Best New Artist) and Asher Roth (Best New Artist).

The MTV Video Music Awards take place on September 13 at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, the show will be hosted by British comedian Russell Brand.

La Roux are a duo comprising Elly Jackson, singer, keyboards and song writer and Ben Langmaid as co-writer and co-producer. Langmaid is seldom seen on stage and Jackson is often perceived to be a solo artist, although Jackson says they are “very much a half and half sharing situation… not like a singer producer outfit.”

And yet La Roux have become the pop sensation of 2009, their self titled debut album sold over 60,000 copies in it’s first week of release, earning the duo a number two in the album charts and going strong.

The band’s first single Quicksand was released in December 2008 and although it did not make the UK Top 40, the follow up single released in March did. In For The Kill the first single to be taken from the La Roux album reached number 2 in the UK and their latest effort Bulletproof gave the band their first number one.

Having won the O2 Silver Clef Award for Best Newcomer in 2009 and the Studio 8 National Music Award for Best Female Newcomer in 2009, as well as being featured as one of the Guardian’s Best New Acts of 2009, the band’s success should perhaps not be a surprise. The band are also amongst the recent Barclaycard Mercury Award nominees for 2009.

La Roux have supported Lily Allen on her UK tour, headlined the Samsung NME Radar Tour 2009 and have appeared at or are scheduled to appear at top UK festivals Glastonbury, Reading, Oxegen and  Leeds. They are currently in North America for an eight city tour and will return for one night at The Scala in London in September, before embarking on a tour of the UK in November.

La Roux are definitely the happening pop band of the moment and tickets for their upcoming UK tour will sell as quickly as their records have done this year.

This is a clip from La Roux performing Bulletproof on the Jimmy Kimmel Live Show on US tv from July 23.

La Roux UK Tour Dates

September 10  London – The Scala

November 12   Dublin – Academy

November 13   Leeds – University Union- Stylus

November 14  Newcastle – University

November 16   Glasgow – ABC

November 18   Birmingham – O2 Academy

November 20   Bristol – O2 Academy

November 21   Manchester – The Warehouse Project

November 22   Norwich – UEA

November 23   Southampton – Guildhall

November 25   London - Shepherds Bush Empire

November 26   London – Shepherds Bush Empire

La Roux Ticket Information

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Not far behind the favourites are Glasvegas, Bat for Lashes and La Roux all quoted at 6-1.

The full list of nominations for the Barclaycard Mercury Prize 2009 and the albums they have been nominated for, are as follows:

Kasabian – ‘West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum’
Florence And The Machine – ‘Lungs’
Bat For Lashes – ‘Two Suns’
Glasvegas – ‘Glasvegas’
La Roux – ‘La Roux’ 6/1
Lisa Hannigan – ‘Sea Sew’
Speech Debelle – ‘Speech Therapy’
The Horrors – ‘Primary Colours’
Friendly Fires – ‘Friendly Fires’
The Invisible – ‘The Invisible’
Sweet Billy Pilgrim – ‘Twice Born Men’
Led Bib – ‘Sensible Shoes’

Tricky announces new single and headlines NME Awards shows

After a nine week, nineteen country European tour including a sold out show at the Barbican in London, Tricky returns to the UK in February 2009 for live dates and the release of his new single, Puppy Toy (February 23rd).

The third single taken from last year’s critically acclaimed album Knowle West Boy, Puppy Toy is a sardonic smoky bar-room blues track featuring a cascading piano riff and an infectious chorus, but most notably some pointed banter between Tricky and Leeds vocalist Alex Mills (signed to Tricky and Chris Blackwell’s label, Brown Punk). There may be a playful exterior, but lurking between the lines there’s plenty of mercenary femininity and damaged goods to get your teeth into.

The iconic British musician has been invited by NME to headline three of their Awards shows in February 2009. Tricky will perform shows in Manchester, Glasgow and finally London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on February 20th, in the lead up to the NME Awards which take place in the capital’s Brixton Academy on February 25th.

Tricky live dates:

Wednesday 18-Feb-09 Manchester Academy
Thursday 19-Feb-09 Glasgow Arches
Friday 20-Feb-09 London Shepherds Bush Empire

Puppy Toy will be available via digital download from February 23rd and will include a brand new, previously unreleased track entitled Numb.

Little Boots (Image by Oliver J. Lopena: oliverlopena.com)

The list BBC’s list of bands set to make it big in 2009 was released last week. Top of the list was, as I’m sure most people know, was Little Boots. Her catchy electro-pop is set to be the predominant genre this year if we are to believe the trends already being set so far. These predictions generally see themselves through, too, though this is surely more due to them being self-fulfilling prophesies than pure clairvoyance  – Radio 1 is hardly going to now strike these acts off their supremely influential playlists.

White Lies were second, followed by Florence and the Machine, who remind me a lot of the Duke Spirit. Why this sound will be so much better in 2009 than it was a few years back I don’t know, but time will tell if the public still have a palate for this brash guitar based music done to death by the scenesters of 21st century.

La Roux is also an electro act – number 5 on the list, though with a lot more zest than Little Boots. Her pop is genuinely the exciting side of the electro-pop spectrum. It is darker and rawer than the others’ polished production and with an EP out by Kitsuné Maison at the moment, she wins quite a few of my special street credits, and my number one spot out of the five.

The real surprise was the Australian duo Empire of the Sun who came in at number 4, one half of which used to be The Sleepy Jackson. I remember reading a positive review of their album last year, but not expecting to hear much from them, especially not over other longlisted acts like VV Brown and Lady GaGa. Their album cover is hilariously naff, and they pull off their straight-faced cheesy sort of electro pretty well.

The award is almost a guarentee of success – I can almost hear Jo Whiley touting these five already. It’ll take quite a lot for the public not to take to them, though I still find it hard to see Empire of the Sun bursting through like MGMT did with their number 9 position last year, not least because they don’t really seem to be what I would call an ‘image’ band like the top three are.

Last year’s predictions dominated charts and airwaves alike – Adele and Duffy’s new-wave soul, MGMT’s electro,  and Vampire Weekend, Glasvegas and the Ting Tings really did become the sound of 2008. Other past winners have include Mika (2007), Corinne Bailey Rae (2006), The Bravery (who beat Bloc Party (!) in 2005) Keane (2004) and 50 Cent (in 2003, who surely has to be the biggest of all past winners).

The BBC are keen to promote British acts in their lists, though this means that, with only the best of the American crop making it on the lists, they are represented as what some would term ‘better’ music makers – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (2006), Vampire Weekend (2008) and Interpol (2003) are surely cooler acts than most of the top picks from Britain in recent years?

Sir Paul McCartney performing live in Prague

In an event dominated by praise of the new president-elect Barack Obama, Sir Paul McCartney picked up the Ultimate Legend Award at the MTV Europe Music Awards on Thursday night. The MTV Europe Music Awards is a typically glitzy night where the stars of the world pop scene come out of the woodwork (even further out, that is) to flirt with controversy and pick up a variety of awards.

This was the event that attracted Madonna and Britney Spears’ famous kiss – but this year any controversy, apart from the selection of Katy Perry (also the Best New Act) as the sexual-innuendo spouting host, was mainly overshadowed by the stars gushing their approval of Obama.

Britney Spears surprised by marking down her comeback with two awards, one for the Best Act of 2008, and another for the best album. Kanye West picked up a gong for Ultimate Urban (possibly the most vague award ever invented) and those Turkish ‘superstars’ Emre Aydin took home Europe’s Favourite Act.

The night’s big story, though, was definitely Sir Paul McCartney’s big win. Surely the most deserved winner, though he has no doubt won too many Lifetime Achievement awards to really care, McCartney made a very down-to-earth acceptance speech, thanking “my mates Ringo, George and John” just “four little boys born here in Liverpool and we went on to do quite well”. He then thanked America for voting in Obama.

Rick Astley picked up Best Act Ever, though later admitted his embarrassment at having won this title in the face of the competition (I’m not sure that he is better than Bob Dylan, for instance, but what do I know).

Some footage of the MTV Europe Awards can be seen on the Guardian website, including Kate Perry’s entrance on a giant Chapstick.

This was the full list of winners:

Most Addictive Track: PINK: So What

Video Star: 30 Seconds to Mars: A Beautiful Life

Headliner: Tokio Hotel

Ultimate Urban: Kanye West

Rock Out: 30 Seconds To Mars

Artists Choice: Lil Wayne

Act of 2008: Britney Spears

MTV Europe Music Awards Ultimate Legend: Sir Paul McCartney

Album Of The Year: Britney Spears – Blackout

Europe’s Favourite Act: Emre Aydin (Turkey)

New Act: Katy Perry

Estelle who topped the charts with American Boy is nominated in the Best UK Female, Best R&B/Soul, Best Song, Best Video and Best Album categories in the MOBO’s which will be held on October 15th.

She will also fight on five front’s in the UMA’s a month later on November 15th where she is nominated for Best Album, Best Collaboration, Best Crossover Chart Act, Best R&B Act and Most Inspiring Act Of 2008.

X Factor star Leona Lewis will compete with Estelle for three of the awards at the MOBO’s, being nominated in the Best Video, Best Album and Best UK Female categories. In the UMA’s Lewis is nominated in two of the categories, Best Album and Best R&B act.

Obscurely Duffy and Adele will also contest the Best UK Female prize at the MOBO’s.