Spaghetti Western Orchestra

Spaghetti Western Orchestra made a triumphant return to London’s South Bank last week with their hilarious celebration of the iconic collaborations between Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone. This highly theatrical show features classic themes from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, For A Few Dollars More and Once Upon a Time in the West as well as ingenious recreations of the saloons, spittoons and shotgun-slinging ambience of the  ‘Wild Wild West’. Now Spaghetti Western Orchestra embark on a debut tour of the UK and Ireland throughout February and March 2012.

Dressed in period attire against a dramatic scorched sun backdrop, five brilliant musician performers play over 100 ‘instruments’ which range from the conventional to an incredible array of everyday objects including playing cards, coat hangers and a packet of cornflakes. The musical arrangements are accomplished and endlessly inventive, summoning the power of an entire orchestra and using foley (sound effects) artistry to recreate the punch-ups, gun-shots and jangling spurs evoking the glorious movies that made Clint Eastwood a star.

Spaghetti Western Orchestra burst on to the international scene at The Montreal Jazz Festival in 2007 and has garnered critical acclaim and energetic fans whenever it has played at International Festivals throughout the world.  Two previous visits to the Southbank Centre in 2009 and 2010 were sold out, the show featured on the achingly cool Later With Jools Holland in 2009 and also on the BBC Proms in August 2011.

Spaghetti Western Orchestra UK & Ireland Tour

February 2012
7th BRIGHTON  Theatre Royal
8th OXFORD New Theatre
9th BRISTOL St George’s
10th LLANDUDNO Venue Cymru
12th CAMBRIDGE Corn Exchange
13th WIMBLEDON New Wimbledon Theatre
15th YORK Grand Opera House
17th SALFORD QUAYS The Lowry
18thb LEEDS  Town Hall
19th SUNDERLAND Empire Theatre
22nd KILLARNEY INEC Theatre
23rd DUBLIN The Helix
24th GALWAY The Black Box Theatre
25th  CORK  Opera House
2th BELFAST The Ulster Hall
29th BASINGSTOKE The Anvil

March 2012
1st  COVENTRY Warwick Arts Centre
2nd NOTTINGHAM  Royal Concert Hall
3rd STOKE ON TRENT Victoria Hall
4th CARDIFF Wales Millenium Centre
6th LIVERPOOL Empire Theatre
7th LEICESTER De Montfort Hall 7.30pm
9th GRIMSBY Auditorium
10th FOLKESTONE Leas Cliff Hall
11th RICHMOND Theatre
12th GLASGOW City Halls
13th EDINBURGH Festival Theatre
14th ABERDEEN Music Hall
16th BIRMINGHAM Town Hall
17th INVERNESS Eden Court Theatre
18th BRADFORD St George’s Hall

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.

In addition to classic Sade songs, the must-have album will include three new, never-before heard songs, including Moon & The Sky (featuring Jay-Z). Here for the first time, fans can find all of their favourite Sade classics from all six of their studio albums, including songs from the Best Of collection and the greatest hits taken from Lover’s Rock and Soldier Of Love.

The final tracklisting for The Ultimate Collection will be announced shortly and in the meantime Sade have announced that they will support the album with a tour, opening in Nice, France in April and arriving in the UK at Manchester on May 27th.

The accomplishments of Soldier Of Love so far are astounding. The single, Soldier of Love – which Sade co-produced with Mike Pela, and was written by Sade along with longtime collaborators Andrew Hale, Stuart Matthewman, and Paul Spencer Denman debuted at number one for three weeks in America and made radio history.

Known for their one of a kind timeless sound, Sade have enjoyed phenomenal success both internationally and stateside throughout the span of their twenty-seven year career. Since the release of their debut album, Diamond Life in 1984 the band has seen all five of their studio albums land in the Top 10 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart selling a total of more than 50 million albums worldwide to date.

They’ve been nominated for American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and have won four Grammy Awards – first in 1986 for Best New Artist, then in 1994 for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group for No Ordinary Love, again in 2002 for Best Pop Vocal Album with Lovers Rock and most recently in 2011 for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group for Soldier Of Love.

SADE’S UK TOUR DATES:

MAY 2011
Friday 27th – M.E.N Arena Manchester
Sunday 29th – LG Arena Birmingham
Tuesday 31st – The O2 arena London

The dates are – 9th April – Hearts & Roses Festival, Milan and 10th April – Piazza Vittorio, Veneto.

The supremely talented Jo Hamilton became the first person in the world (other than the inventor) to play the airpiano, a new musical interface which allows playing and controlling software instruments simply by moving hands in the air.

She has performed using this latest technology in live shows broadcast from the studio to her fans the world over via the internet on two occasions, building a solid fanbase across the globe.

Her debut album Gown surprisingly slipped under the radar for many upon its release in 2010, but a re-issue in January 2011 saw the highly acclaimed album reaching a much wider audience, generating ever more interest in Jo’s incredible music.

The singer is about to unveil details of a Summer tour of ten Apple Stores in the USA, where she will perform exclusive city sets with the Air Piano.

Hamilton’s latest video to accompany the track There It Is has just been released, you can watch her stunning performance here:

The extensively travelled offspring of a Jamaican mother and Kenyan father, Jo’s primary schooling took place on the remote Isle of Skye and the nomadic nature of her family took her to Turkey, UAE, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Kuwait during her youth.

For further information visit the Jo Hamilton Facebook Page.

Rumer

Rumer’s cover version of David Gates song Goodbye Girl, the closing track on her platinum selling debut album Seasons of My Soul, will become the fourth track to be released from the album on April 11th.

Goodbye Girl was originally recorded by David Gates of Bread and released in 1978, the song was included in the soundtrack of the film of the same name and has long been a personal favourite of Rumer.

The new single release coincides with the end of Rumer’s biggest and completely sold out tour of the UK, which saw the singer perform at the Royal Albert Hall last week.

In what has been an extremely busy period for Rumer since the release of her debut album, she was recently nominated for two 2011 BRIT Awards, Best British Female Artist and Best British Breakthrough Act, losing out to Laura Marling and Tinie Tempah respectively.

This week, Rumer has also been nominated for two UK Asian Music Awards, in which she will compete for the prizes of Best Newcomer and Best Alternative Act.

Rumer has been announced as one of the first acts to perform at this year’s iTunes Festival (together with Duran Duran and Linkin Park). She will headline Camden’s Roundhouse on July 18, a venue she last sang at with Elton John and Leon Russell as part of the BBC Electric Proms. Every ticket to the iTunes Festival is free, and can be won by entering the prize draw at www.itunesfestival.com. Acts that have headlined the festival in the past include Oasis, Amy Winehouse and Paul McCartney.

Expect further live dates and festival appearances to be announced shortly.

Rumer – Goodbye Girl

Rumer’s new single Goodbye Girl will be released via Atlantic Records on April 11th. The album Seasons of My Soul 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.

Following the sensational response to her first single Whip My Hair, which I have to admit I thought was some sort of send up, Willow Smith went on to sell the single by the bucketload, going Platinum and Gold around the world.

Whip My Hair has sold over 250,000 copies in the UK alone and the single struck Platinum in the US and Australia and Gold in Ireland and Canada.

Willow – 21st Century Girl

Catch Willow on tour in the UK with Justin Bieber now;

9th March – Dublin O2
11th March – Liverpool Echo Arena
12th March – Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
14th March – London O2
16th March – London O2
17th March – London O2
20th March – Manchester MEN
21st March – Manchester MEN
23rd March – Sheffield Arena
24th March – Nottingham Arena

Black & Yellow - Wiz Khalifa

Following the unprecedented success of his single Black & Yellow in the USA, Wiz Khalifa releases the track in the UK today (March 7th) via Atlantic Records.

No longer one of hip-hop’s best kept secrets, Wiz Khalifa is currently one of the hottest names in rap, thanks to the phenomenal success of the track Black & Yellow that has so far clocked up over 40million views on YouTube.

Black & Yellow is taken from the upcoming album Rolling Papers, which is released later this month on March 28th.

Despite being relatively new to a UK audience, tickets for the Pittsburgh native’s forthcoming gig at West London’s Shepherds Bush Empire on May 17 sold out in less than 40 minutes, whilst his May 18 gig at East London venue XOYO, had to be upgraded to the Kentish Town Forum to satisfy demand.

The track, Black & Yellow, is inspired by Wiz’s love for the American Football team – Pittsburgh Steelers (who recently lost the super bowl to the Green Bay Packers) and is enjoying massive radio support in the UK with play listings at the Capital Network and Kiss as well as A-listing at Radio 1 and A-listings at Choice FM and Radio 1Xtra. The remix features Snoop Dogg, Juicy J and T-Pain.

Wiz Khalifa has just been announced as the cover star on the next issue of Rolling Stone magazine, an accolade if ever there was one!

Asa - Beautiful Imperfection

On her second album Beautiful Imperfection, Asa once again manages to fuse her Nigerian roots with contemporary soulful pop with a wonderful collection of uplifting, intelligent and well crafted songs.

While her self titled debut album became the vehicle for Asa to sing about her ’state of mind’, writing songs about  social and political issues, Beautiful Imperfection is intended to ‘help people come out of sad moods and feel uplifted’ says the singer.

The album contains the soon to be released single Be My Man, an irresistible retro snapping soul groove pop song, which perfectly fits Asa’s intentions.

As a songwriter Asa stands tall amongst her peers on Beautiful Imperfection, creating wonderful pop melodies with soaring, infectious, sing out loud choruses that others might possibly die for.

The album is an outstanding collection of radio friendly style intelligent pop songs, featuring a singer who is without doubt on top of her game. Whatever style of music she adopts for each of these tracks, she puts her own individual mark on it, from jazz to soul to pop, Asa is a tremendous performer.

Beautiful Imperfection is one of the stand out pop album so far this year, it is like having several of your favourite female singers rolled into one, that’s Asa!

There isn’t a track that is possible to fault and equally as difficult to pick any stand out tracks, but if pushed I would have to say the Sheryl Crow-esque Ok, Ok is stuck in my head, the reggae beats and Hammond organ on Maybe and the foreign language track Bimpè.

Beautiful Imperfection by Asa is released on Dramatico Records on April 4th 2011.

Asa will be co-headlining with Tiken Jah Fokoly at the Barbican on April 4th as two of West Africa’s finest contemporary artists come together on one bill.

Asa – Be My Man

The single Be My Man by Asa will be released on March 13th.

Following the sensational response to her first single Whip My Hair, which I have to admit I thought was some sort of send up, Willow Smith went on to sell the single by the bucketload, going Platinum and Gold around the world.

Whip My Hair has sold over 250,000 copies in the UK alone and the single struck Platinum in the US and Australia and Gold in Ireland and Canada.

’21st Century Girl’ is produced by Twin & Alke for RedFly and written by Joacim Persson, Niclas Molinder, Johan Alkenas, Drew Ryan Scott, and Omarr Rambert.  The upcoming music video was directed by Rich Lee.

Already a global hit maker, Willow is currently preparing for her international tour with the chart topping sensation Justin Bieber.

UK Tour Dates Are As Follows:

4th March – Birmingham NIA
5th March – Birmingham NIA
8th March – Dublin O2
9th March – Dublin O2
11th March – Liverpool Echo Arena
12th March – Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
14th March – London O2
16th March – London O2
17th March – London O2
20th March – Manchester MEN
21st March – Manchester MEN
23rd March – Sheffield Arena
24th March – Nottingham Arena