Four hundred fans were originally picked from the 2,000 hopefuls who applied on Facebook to what was billed as a ‘live video performance, but what began as an intimate performance for 400 fans was transformed in a matter of seconds into the most exclusive concert that Tinie Tempah has ever played.

It was the surprise of a lifetime for 21 year old fan Katie Hobbs from Southampton when 399 fans cleared the floor in a ‘flash exit’, leaving her to enjoy a completely dedicated, one-on-one performance of Wonderman, Tinie’s latest single.

Katie Hobbs said: “This has been the most amazing day of my life. Getting an exclusive gig from Tinie was simply incredible. I had absolutely no idea what was happening and before I knew it I was getting a solo performance from my favourite act. It doesn’t get any better than that!”

Commenting on his most unusual gig to date, Brit award winner Tinie Tempah said: “I owe my success to my fans, and being able to interact with them when I play live is the greatest feeling. I’ve played all sorts of gigs in all sorts of venues but never one like this before. It’s definitely my tiniest gig ever, but it’s also one of my best.”

The Tinie tie-up was created as part of O2’s Thinking of You campaign, aimed at showing how O2 values its customers. The campaign also follows a long history of O2’s support for live music in the UK with its high profile sponsorship of The O2 and O2 Academy venues.

This is how the event unfolded:

right said fred

Right Said Fred are back with a flurry of activity, announcing the release of a new single and album both entitled Stop The World, as well as a UK tour and Live DVD.

The brothers Richard and Fred Fairbrass are also popping up all over the place on TV this month having featured on both ITV’s Daybreak and Vanessa Feltz tv show. They will also be making an appearance on this Thursday’s edition of Celebrity Juice.

The band who back in 1992 were the first act since the Beatles to reach No.1 in the USA with a debut single, have decided to take a break from their usual European stadium circuit in order to get back to their roots and connect with their fans on a more intimate basis.

To this end the brothers will be enjoying a Q & A with their audience as well as performing some of their greatest hits, and some newer, more poignant, lovelorn ditties (firmly allaying themselves with English bedfellows like Madness and the Kinks), on the following dates:

April 25th Birmingham O2 Academy3

April 27th London Islington O2 Academy2

April 28th Sheffield O2 Academy2

April 29th Liverpool Guild Of Students, Stanley Theatre

April 30th York Fibbers

May 6th Stockton On Tees The Arc

May 7th Cleethorpes Pleasure Island

May 13th  Huddersfield The Warehouse

May 14th Hull The Piper Club

The boys will be releasing a new DVD and album (both distributed by Universal) as part of a double-pack on April 11th 2011. The DVD, Night Of The Living Fred (An Evening With Right Said Fred), was recently filmed before a packed audience at the Leicester Square Theatre and features the Freds letting their hair down and spilling the beans on sibling rivalry, debauchery at the home of one of the world’s greatest porn-stars and what really happened to that Toblerone bar in the American Hotel in Amsterdam.

The new album Stop The World features twelve new tracks including Stop The World, Trouble With Love, Julianne, Waiting For A Train, Two White Boys, Obvious, Happily Ever After, I Ain’t Your Guy, Feels Like Love, We’re All Criminals, Come Dancing, Raining In England.

Check out the Right Said Fred website to obtain a free copy of Stop The World as well as access to exclusive copies of the Night Of The Living Fred DVD.

Subscribers to the website will be able to enter into a uniquely interactive relationship with Richard and Fred themselves, a process that involves genuine meet and greets as well as exclusive access to the brother’s exclusive photo archive. Richard comments: “We love being connected with our fans and this new website will bring that connection even closer. We plan to use the site to become even more intimately involved than we are at present, both of us will be online and directly in contact with our audience.” Fred adds: “The thing that this enables us to do is keep in touch with fans wherever they are and wherever we are in the world, all the time. We are lucky to be able to perform all over the world, but we can only be in one country at a time. Now we can do a show in Germany and share the experience with the USA, Japan and back home…it’s really exciting.”

The new album Stop The World and DVD Night of the Living Fred are available now, while the single is set for release om May 9th.

Colin Devlin

As The Devlins, Colin and his brother Peter defined the cinematic rock sound of the 1990s via a series of internationally acclaimed albums that generated tracks used in dozens of film and television productions.

The Devlins’ atmospheric grooves transcended both genre and era, earning a four-star review in Rolling Stone for their debut, ‘Drift’, and worldwide praise for subsequent efforts.

Colin Devlin released his solo album Democracy of One in his native Ireland in 2010, hot on the heels of a standout performance at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and a nomination for “Best Solo Male” at The 2010 IMTV Awards in November 2010.

Democracy of One takes singer Colin Devlin’s reputation for erudite simplicity to a whole new level. With this intimate solo album helmed by producer Pierre Marchand, Devlin explores matters of the heart in a lush acoustic setting that puts his voice front and centre, adding emotional nuance to singles ‘The Heart Won’t Be Denied’, ‘Refuge,’ and ‘Raise the Dead.’

The Heart Won’t Be Denied is the first single from the album to be released in the UK and is accompanied by the beautiful video, directed by Sebastian Lopez, which was shortlisted for the 2010 IMTV Awards.

Colin Devlin – The Heart Won’t Be Denied

It is a stunning performance from Redtrack and a style of music that would not generally be linked with the band, fans appear to be liking the track a lot as it is racked up 5,000 views in less than a week so far.

Redtrack released their debut album Whole Town’s Heart in Autumn last year, earning them plaudits from fans and press alike for the ten song collection of punch new wave melodic tunes, referencing the song writing skills of BritPop heroes Glenn Difford, Elvis Costello and Paul Weller.

Buzzcocks singer Pete Shelley co-produced the bands single Poledancer which also appears on the album and could easily be mistaken for one of his own bands tracks.

Redtrack – Limit To Your Love

Limit To Your Love by Redtrack is available now as a digital download from iTunes.

wiz khalifa-rolling papers

Hot on the heels of his smash hit single Yellow & Black, Pittsburgh’s self styled rap artist Wiz Khalifa has announced his latest ‘official video’ for the track Roll Up, another track form his debut album Rolling Papers due for release on March 29th.

Khalifa started rapping in the third grade of high school and by the age of fourteen was already recording his own songs with a deal with Rostrum Records on the cards.

In 2005 Wiz released his first mixtape, “Prince of the City: Welcome to Pistolvania.” The mixtape was quickly accepted by the local scene and began to gain buzz outside of Pittsburgh.

With that excitement growing by the day, it was the perfect time for a proper commercial album. Wiz soon recorded “Show and Prove,” which Okayplayer.com claimed was “arguably the best album of the year.” The accolades began piling up and Khalifa was receiving significant co-signs from XXL, Rolling Stone, and VIBE, alike. A deal with Warner Bros. Records soon followed.

After a falling out with Warner Bros in 2009, Khalifa simply worked harder to get his independent recordings heard producing three highly acclaimed mixtapes: “Flight School,” “How Fly,” a collaborative mixtape with New Orleans rapper Curren$y, and “Burn After Rolling.” The album “Deal Or No Deal” followed in the Fall and debuted at the top of the iTunes “Hip-Hop” chart, and has remained in the top 50 to date.

By 2010 Khalifa had established himself as one of raps rising stars and certainly one to watch for in the future. Now signed to Atlantic Records the rapper has grown in popularity on a daily basis, a big star on the social media websites where he has amassed 3,000,000 friends on Facebook and over 1,300,000 following his Twitter account.

Khlifa’s first release on Atlantic, Yellow & Black received over 55 million views and already Roll Up is close to four and a half million views.

His highly anticipated debut album Rolling Papers is released on Atlantic Records on Monday March 29th and promises to be something really special.

If you fancy taking part in this amazing experience, the details are below:

Extras wanted: Do you want to star in a special live video performance with
Tinie Tempah?

Groups of up to 4 mates that love Tinie are needed to come down to a shoot in London on
Wednesday 30th March

You must be 16 or over and available all day. This is an amazing opportunity to be part of something big alongside
Tinie himself.

The shoot is unpaid and it will be a long day (12-11pm) but there will be a few surprises along the way.

You have 48 hours to apply so hurry! Places are limited and on a first come first served basis.

Visit the Tinie Tempah website to apply.

the charlatans - us and us only deluxe edition

The sixth album produced by The Charlatans and their first under the Island Records label, Us & Us Only marked a new chapter for the band in 1999, as well as being their first offering on the new label, it was also the first recording made without Rob Collins on keyboards, he had tragically died in a road accident in 1996.

The album was recorded at the band’s own Big Mushroom Studio’s in Cheshire with engineer and mixer Jim Spencer who had previously worked on Johnny Marr’s Electronica outfit. The album is still as popular today as it was on it’s release, debuting at No.2 in the charts, reached Gold status after a few days and went on to spend 10 weeks in the UK Top 40.

Regarded by fans and critics alike as The Charlatans most definitive work, Us & Us Only references everyone from Bob Dylan, through the Stones to Morricone and John Barry, through its original eleven tracks which find Tim Burgess at the top of his game as a songwriter.

Lyrically and musically this album is possibly the most enduring collection of songs that The Charlatans have ever produced and the Deluxe Edition comes complete with B sides and rare live music and radio sessions.

As well as the B-sides to Forever, My Beautiful Friend and Impossible, the bonus tracks on CD 2 include hard to find remixes by Lionrock and Jagz Kooner plus radio sessions from Mark Radcliffe and The Evening Session, a Later With Jools Holland version of A House Is Not A Home and a potent performance from 1999’s Reading Festival headlining show – the group opened up with a rousing version of Forever.

What this album and its extras reveal is a band, that despite having made music for 11 years, had lost none of their fire and drive, were very much in control and still at the top of their game. “We have a common goal,” said Tim Burgess that year. “We want to make music, music is everything to us, we live it, we love it, it’s what we do.”

CD One

1  Forever                                               Original Album
2  Good Witch, Bad Witch 1                               Original Album
3  Impossible                                            Original Album
4  The Blonde Waltz                                      Original Album
5  A House Is Not A Home                                 Original Album
6  Senses                                                Original Album
7  My Beautiful Friend                                   Original Album
8  I Don’t Care Where You Live                           Original Album
9  The Blind Stagger                                     Original Album
10 Good Witch, Bad Witch 2                               Original Album
11 Watching You                                          Original Album
12 Good Witch/Bad Witch 3                                Japanese Version
13 My Beautiful Friend (Jagz Kooner Remix)               B-side to My Beautiful Friend
14 My Beautiful Friend (Lionrock Mix)                    B-side to My Beautiful Friend
15 My Beautiful Friend (Lionrock Instrumental Mix)       B-side to My Beautiful Friend

CD 2 (Bonus Tracks)

1  Forever                                                      A-Side Single Edit
2  A Great Place To Leave                                       B-Side to Forever
3  When Your Ship Comes In                                      B-Side to Forev
4  Sleepy Little Sunshine Boy                                   B-Side to Forever
5  Scorched                                                     B-side to My Beautiful Friend
6  Your Precious Love                                           B-side to My Beautiful Friend
7  Don’t Go Giving It Up                                        B-Side to Impossible
8  You Got It, I Want It                                        B-Side to Impossible
9  Impossible                                                   Mark Radcliffe 15/10/99
10 Senses                                                       Evening Session Oct 99
11 My Beautiful Friend                                          Evening Session Oct 99
12 The Blind Stagger                                            Evening Session Oct 99
13 Forever                                                      Live Reading Festival 28/8/99
14 Senses                                                       Live Reading Festival 28/8/99
15 A House Is Not A Home                                        Later With Jools Holland 23/10/99

The Charlatans re issue the album Us & Us Only in Deluxe Edition on March 28th

Dreamin’ has already got the quirky couple noticed both in their homeland, where the single won Song Of The Year at the Icelandic 2010 Music Awards, as well as being selected by trendsetting French boutique label Kitsuné for its Maison 9 compilation.

Feldberg – Dreamin’

The track has also been chosen to feature on the Ministry of Sound ‘Late Night Sessions Compilation’ alongside The xx, Hot Chip and Moby which is due for release later this month.

Consisting of singer Rósa Birgitta Ísfeld and multi-instrumentalist Einar Tönsberg (better known as Eberg), Feldberg first came together in 2008. Einar had recently returned to Iceland from London and was looking for a vocalist to record ‘Running Around,’ a song he had written for an advert for an Icelandic shopping mall.  “It was a lovely accident,” explains Einar. “I needed a vocal, somebody to do a female vocal. I called up my friends and they all said ‘You have to call Rosa.’ She was at my studio ten minutes later and she hasn’t left.”  Rósa adds: “It was really comfortable from the very beginning, like it was destiny. I felt like I should stay once I was there. It’s kind of like a relationship without the romance.”

“We kind of decided not to analyse anything,” says Einar. “Our rule was just to do the first thing that came to mind. Keep it fun and simple. I guess we’ve both been in projects where we’ve over-analysed things and wanting to do the most special music in the world but now we just want to do what’s natural for us.”

Feldberg release the single Dreamin’ on April 11th, the album Don’t Be A Stranger is available now via the Smalltown America label.

FLO RIDA - photo zach wolfe

Hip hop sensation Flo Rida is preparing to release his new dance floor smash Who Dat Girl featuring Akon on March 28th through Atlantic Records.

Taken from the mini album Only 1 Flo (Pt1), Who Dat Girl is the third track to be released as a single following the massive success of Club Can’t Handle Me featuring David Guetta and the previous hit Turn Around (5,4,3,2,1).

Fresh from Capital FM’s Jingle Bell Ball where Flo performed not only his own club anthems but the top 10 hit, ‘Higher’ with pop starlets, The Saturdays, the megastar is back and ready to continue to reign the charts.

Already having clocked up over 7million YouTube hits, Who Dat Girl is well on its way to the top of the UK singles chart and finds the genre-busting rapper team up with R’n’B superstar and producer, Akon, creating a perfect blend of Flo’s signature stop-and-go flow, melodic sensibility and massive hooks.

The video will help promote the single, featuring party goers painting each other in luminous body paint, as you do.

On discussing the influence of ‘Who Dat Girl’, Flo says he wanted to showcase the experiences his glittering success has brought him since the release of his first two chart topping albums, Mail On Sunday and R.O.O.T.S.

The single Who Dat Girl is released on March 28th and is taken from the mini album Only 1 Flo (pt1) which is available now.

Prime time US shows are apparently queuing up to book up the Brit Award winning band Blake, prompting record label EMI to release the track All Of Me simultaneously in the UK, USA and Canada.

As well as lining up TV shows in the US, the foursome are also booked to appear on British TV in weeks leading up to the Royal wedding day.

The song is written by TV theme tune composer Simon May (Eastenders, Howards Way) with the help of his young co writers Simon Lockyer and John Brant. They believe that in All Of Me they have written the perfect wedding song, but it was not created for the upcoming special occasion and was written a couple of years ago.

“We wrote ‘All Of Me’ a couple of years ago and it has already become a popular song at weddings in America. I’ve been looking for the right occasion and artist to make the definitive recording” said Simon May.

When Simon met Blake (Ollie Baines, Jules Knight, Humphrey Berney and Stephen Bowman) in November of 2010 and saw them performing at the Royal Festival Hall, he knew that the waiting was over.  “These boys just blew me away” says Simon.  “They have an awesome ability to sing perfect harmonies and interpret a song in either the pop or classical idiom which is an impressive and very unusual combination.”

While it may not have been written for the royal couple it is none the less fitting and Blake say;

“In ’All Of Me’ Simon and his team have written a song that perfectly fits the romance and commitment of a wedding. We are really honoured to have been asked to sing it and we hope that the song will touch the heart of the nation and be a special song for many couples on their wedding day.”

ALL OF ME

The first day that I met you
I think I always Knew
That you were meant to be the one
And then the feeling grew
With God and friends my witness
Our love will never die
I take the gift you gave me
Don’t need to question why
For all the faults I’m made of
And for all the wrongs I do
I’m not asking you to judge me
Just be true

Chorus:
All of me
Is what I give to you
And everything I have
I Wanna share with you
And with this ring
For all eternity
I make this vow
When I give you all of me

This life is short and precious
A one way ticket ride
I thank you for the journey
I know you’re on my side
And we are only here once
I’m glad we shared this day
Of knowing something special
That will never go away
For all the faults I’m made of
And for all the wrongs I do
I’m not asking you to judge me
Just be true

Chorus

That’s what I give to you
And everything I have
I’m gonna share with you
With this ring
I give for all eternity
My love
I make this vow
All of Me………

With over half a million albums sold worldwide, Blake continue to build their reputation as one of the most eclectic and exciting classical-pop groups in the world. The classical Brit Award winners are currently on their acclaimed ‘An Evening With Blake’ tour.