So, Amy Winehouse won five well-deserved Grammy awards last night, despite being denied a US visa to attend the ceremony.

She did, however, perform live at the event via satellite link-up. The songs, You Know I'm No Good and Rehab, were presumably chosen as a knowing reference to the singer's recent troubles. But, against the odds, the set was an absolute show-stopper.

Winehouse attacks the songs as though she's performing them for the very last time, spitting out her lyrics with ferocious passion. When she sings "I cheated myself like I knew I would," you can literally taste the bitterness. And, while her voice is husky with experience, it's all the better for it.

Amy Winehouse - Grammy performance

The set is a complete contrast to poor old Britney's MTV "comeback" last year. Winehouse looks as healthy as she has done for months, and she's completely in control of her audience. It's a mesmerising performance, and something of a turnaround.

I believe one of the reasons for this is that, since Winehouse went entered rehab a fortnight ago, the British press have pretty much let her be. Okay, we heard when she was rushed to hospital, and later when she visited the US embassy, but there were no blurred pictures from inside the clinic, and no "friends" spilling the beans. Even her father, Mitch, managed to keep his trap shut for a couple of days.

Britney, on the other hand, is granted no such grace. The paparazzi even impeded the progress of her ambulance so they could get the all-important shot of her on a gurney (worth around $100,000, I'm told).

One British paparazzo, Nick Stern, has even quit in protest at the way Britney's meltdown is being milked by the media. "Directly or indirectly, Britney is going to come to some horrific end, or a member of the public will," he told the Guardian.

"It's not what's being done, it's the way it's being done. As she continues to deteriorate psychologically, I just can't see a positive way out."

So, what's the difference between the two "troubled" stars? Partly, I suspect, Britney is bigger business. A global superstar with a squeaky-clean image, her downfall is the ultimate example of celebrity hubris. Winehouse, on the other hand, was known to be an oddball with a penchant for weed, booze and ridiculous hair before her very public breakdown.

But, perhaps, there's also a moral code in British journalism that has allowed Amy the room to recover? As Alistair Campbell pointed out in a recent lecture, Hugh Cudlipp - former chairman of the Daily Mirror - warned in the 1960s that he would sack any reporter who intruded on private grief.

The tabloid press pretty much make their money from intruding on private grief these days (poor old Cheryl Cole), but nonetheless, it's interesting to think there might be an element of self-restraint still being practised by the media in this country.

What do you think?

Labels: amy winehouse, Britney Spears, Music

Given all that Amy Winehouse has been through over the past six months, the poignancy of Love Is A Losing Game (a song written after she split up with Blake Fielder-Civil) has taken on a whole new dimension.

Somehow, the cobbled-together slow motion video make that tale of woe even more heart-rending. The only question is whether it's a fantastic piece of film, or another horrible chapter in the exploitation of a very deeply troubled woman.

Amy Winehouse - Love Is A Losing Game

Labels: amy winehouse, Music, video

I'm in a bit of reggae mood this week (Toots and the Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, Lee Scratch Perry), so this remix of Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse's Valerie has been on near-permanent rotation at Discopop Towers. Check it out:



Apparently, the mix features some top British rapping talent in the form of Rukus (Antourage), Precha (C.O.V.), Alex Blood (Soul Alliance), and Malik (MD7). Not that I have a clue who they are. It could be Shaggy and MC Hammer and I probably wouldn't be any the wiser.

You can download an MP3 using the link below
Mark Ronson ft Amy Winehouse - Valerie (Baby J Remix)

Labels: amy winehouse, mark ronson, MP3, Music, video

With mrsdiscopop and I getting engaged after seeing Prince in 2002, and last night being our fourth wedding anniversary - it seemed like a good idea to catch Prince's final concert at London's O2 arena.

We were right.

By my calculations, he got through 21 (a coincidence?) of his singles, plus a huge swathe of fan favourites like The Beautiful Ones, and teases of the "ones-he-shall never-play-again-because-of-his-religious-beliefs-or-something" like Darling Nikki and Gett Off. If I hadn't been there to celebrate my marriage, I would have married Prince instead.

Or as well. I'm sure mrsdiscopop wouldn't have minded.

The whole arena was awash with purple glowsticks from the minute the show started and, at the end of Sometimes It Snows In April, he changed the lyrics to say "As much as I wanna stay... All good things, they say, never last."

The aftershow was apparently amazing, too. We didn't go (too late to get tickets, and the ones on eBay were changing hands for silly money) but by all accounts it would have been a perfect end to the night. During the course of a three-hour set, he covered Rock Lobster - which is the tune we played while walking down the aisle in 2003 - and Amy Winehouse turned up to perform Love Is A Losing Game. Eeek!

I've already done a review of the 4th August show here, and The Daily Telegraph has sent someone along to every night of the 21-date run... Here are links to all of the ones available online:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21


Meanwhile, if you missed the shows, Prince has started putting up videos on his official website. Fingers crossed for a DVD release, then!

Setlist - Main Show I Feel 4 U Controversy Musicology Chelsea Rogers Le Freak/Sexy Dancer Somewhere Here on Earth Cream U Got The Look Prince at the piano I Would die 4 U I Wanna Be Your Lover Diamonds and Pearls Little Red Corvette The Beautiful Ones Under The Cherry Moon (instrumental) The Most Beautiful Girl In The World Sometimes It Snows In April Purple Rain Take Me With U Guitar Kiss Let's Go Crazy Nothing Compares 2 U 1999 Prince at the piano (part ii) Sign O The Times When Doves Cry Darling Nikki Alphabet St Gett Off (Housestyle) Irresistible Bitch Delirious The Ballad of Dorothy Parker Rasberry Beret Encore When U Were Mine Girls & Boys

Setlist - Aftershow Love Is A Losing Game with Amy Winehouse 7 Come Together (Beatles) Honky Tonk Woman (Rolling Stones) Rock Steady (Aretha Franklin) with Beverley Knight Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin) Shhh... All The Critics Love U In London Le Freak (Chic) / Sexy dancer / Movin' Chelsea Rodgers Misty blue (Eddy Arnold) Baby love (Mother's Finest) Kiss / Alphabet St Instrumental Get On The Boat Love Rollercoaster (Ohio Players) Play That Funky Music (Wild Cherry) Anotherloverholenyohead Rock Lobster (B-52's) Villanova Junction (Jimi Hendrix) Peach / Rock Me Baby (BB King) Stratus (Billy Cobham) The Question Of U / The One What Have You Done For Me Lately? (Janet Jackson) Partyman It's alright (Graham Central Station)

Labels: amy winehouse, Music, Prince, Review

Mark Ronson ft. Amy Winehouse - Valerie

What do you mean "that's not really her"?

Labels: amy winehouse, mark ronson, Music, video

The Klaxons, you say? Best album of 2007? Hilarious. Now tell us who really won...

Sure, Amy Winehouse is a hopeless wino drug bag these days, but Back To Black - recorded last year - is clearly a work of immense genius. Of all the albums on the Mercury shortlist, it's the one we'll still be listening to in five years time - and its light won't have dimmed one single watt.

On the other hand, you can sum up The Klaxons' longevity in two simple words: Jesus Jones.

I'm not one for conspiracy theories (except that one about Angela Landsbury being responsible for 9/11 - that’s definitely true), but don't you think it's odd that the Mercury panel was overseen by NME editor Conor McNicholas? That's the NME - which championed the Klaxons, booked them for its new bands tour and christened them with the clunking "new rave" tag. The NME, of course, stands to sell more issues with the Klaxons on the cover next week than they would with, say, Amy Winehouse. Hmmm...

But there is some solace to be taken from the band's win:
1) Their on-stage drunken acceptance speech is one of the pop highlights of the year (almost as good as their still-drunk appearance on News 24 this morning, where they chastened presenter Kate Silverton for asking questions about Winehouse instead of them).
2) Winning the Mercury Prize is pretty much a black kiss of death for any aspiring pop act.

In the meantime, at least the readers of Popjustice.com got it right - awarding Amy's Rehab their £20 music prize last night. Amy gets that sum in cash. And she will no doubt spend it on orange juice.

Here she is performing Love Is A Losing Game at the Mercury Awards last night. It will send shivers up your spine (in a good way).

Labels: amy winehouse, Music, video

Some vacuous entertainment for your eyes on a Friday afternoon...

This poster was pinned to the gate of Paris Hilton's home in LA. Particularly nasty / brilliant is the description of Lohan as a "freckle-bellied cokewhore terrier".

Q: Is Salma Hayek still pregnant?
A: No, she is hiding a leg of ham up her nightdress. That is definitely what it is.

FACT: Kanye West is a tit.

US Weekly didn't look closely enough at this photo before they published...
Or perhaps that's a real thought-bubble coming out of Amy Winehouse's ear?

Isn't it sickening that someone could be this hot after a nine-hour transatlantic flight? (Answer: Yes, it is)

Crikey! Haven't the Sugababes let themselves go?
(Er, are you sure this isn't Beyoncé and her mum? -Ed)

Labels: amy winehouse, Beyoncé, Girls Aloud, kanye west, lindsay lohan, salma hayek

Because Fridays are all about mucking around on the web and waiting for the moment you can run out the office door and go to the pub. Don't forget your jacket.

The Spice Girls are (still) back! They have all put on something black and lined up in front of a man with a camera, who pressed a button and took a photo, which he sent to their record label, who asked the Spice Girls to approve it, which they did, and then the proof was scanned and given to a press person, who sent it to journalists, who put in on the internet. And then I copied it and pasted it here. Look:

While appearing on Conan O'Brien's US chat show to promote his new comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry, Adam Sandler was asked to introduce a clip from his new movie. Conan then played a scene from a gay porn film, featuring men who get off on fattening each other up. Nice:

Play your favourite 1980s aracde game here. Paperboy is still a work of unfettered genuius.

Uberblog Pop Star Poetry imagines Ray Winstone meeting up with Amy Winehouse:

To The Ivy for lunch
With Quentin Tarantino
We rap about political
Subtext in The Beano

Onetime discopop fantasy figure Mary Louise Parker bares (almost) all to promote the upcoming season of Weeds. But is that really her bottom?

"Angelina Jolie is the best woman in the world because she is the most famous woman in the world". Esquire magazine writes the worst celebrity profile in the world.

Listen to the fantastic remix of Justin Timberlake's Lovestoned by dance supremos Justice. A gazillion better times better than the original, I swear.

Take a look at this clickable map of Lindsay Lohan's slow-motion self-destruction and ask yourself the following question: "Is this the future of interactive reporting, or just sickening voyeurism?"

What are Tom and Katie doing in this photo?

Labels: amy winehouse, angelina jolie, Games, Justin Timberlake, Katie Holmes, links, spice girls, Tom Cruise, TV, video

Prince plans to give away his new album for free on the cover of the Mail On Sunday (an odd choice, but what the heck). This has thrown the record shops into a frenzy of hatred. "It would be an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career," said the co-chairman of the Entertainment Retailer's Association.

I'm slightly baffled that Prince should feel any obligation to these people, whose principle role in his career has been to fleece £5 off the price of his albums to line their own pockets. Am I missing something?

Here are some photos of Lindsay Lohan not looking pissed or stoned. Bryan Adams clearly has great timing.

Listen to Tom Baker having a strop and doing a swear while he records the voice-over for an ad:

Janet Jackson is recording her new album with the Neptunes. Is it too much to ask that it isn't a steaming pile of dog-shit like the last one? Probably, yes.

Favourite headline of the week? Stab victim 'continued masturbating'

TMZ got hold of Paris Hilton's prison canteen request form. If I am ever sent to jail - and there are many, many reasons why I should be - I want to go to one where a servant goes to the canteen to get you emery boards. Wonder what the vaseline was for?

On a related note, here is Hilton's non-disclosure agreement.

Charlie Booker on losing his Glastonbury virginity: "At 3am a group of post-pubescent upper-middle-class music-industry gitsacks pitched their tent beside mine, and no power on Earth could make them stop braying witless bullshit at the top of their idiot lungs. One of them had a bassoon."

Hooray! Amy Winehouse is releasing my second-favourite song from her Back To Black album... Here's the video:

Amy Winehouse - Tears Dry On Their Own


Right, I'm buggering off to France for a week. See you when I get back!

Labels: amy winehouse, Janet Jackson, lindsay lohan, links, Prince

I've just discovered via the mighty Popjustice a superb music blog called, erm, Zeon's Music Blog.

Recent highlights include MP3s of Amy Winehouse performing live, plus a download of Amy's producer, Mark Ronson, covering Britney's Toxic. Oh, and this breathtaking video of Italian ice skater Valentina Marchei performing a routine to the Pipette's Pull Shapes.


(Beat that, celebrities on ice)

...Best of all, Zeon recently had to suspend his blog for a month after an argument with his mum got him banned from the internet. Bless.

Labels: amy winehouse, blogs, Music

Here it is, folks. An entirely "surprising" list of the best albums that have been troubling the Discopop Towers "ghettoblaster" over the last twelve months.




1) Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope
I haven't written nearly enough about how much I love Regina Spektor on these here pages. Every single track on this album, her major-label debut, is magic. As an added bonus, she is stark raving bonkers. One song is about her illicit relationship with biblical strongman Samson. Another discusses how Regina only ate tangerines for an entire month. What marvellous nonsense, eh? Think Tori Amos or Fiona Apple, but with tunes that stick in your head for months, instead of making you think "oh, she's a really accomplished musician, isn't she?".





2) Nelly Furtado - Loose
It's not consistent - there are far too many Timbaland songs that sound like a good beat in search of a melody - but seven or eight of the tracks on Loose are actually perfect. Quite how Nelly transformed from being a bark-eating, yoghurt-knitting world music aficionado with no fans into a globe-straddling pop strumpet is anyone's guess, but who cares? Just sling on your dancing trousers and turn this album all the way up to 10.





3) Gnarls Barkley - St Elsewhere
On first listen this comes across like cats fighting in a dustbin but, with perseverance, it reveals its magnificence like a saucy lady in the Moulin Rouge. Gnarls Barkley are labelled a hip-hop act, but they're far too eclectic and inventive to be filed alongside Nas or 50 fucking Cent. Songs like Who Cares and Transformer are frenetic, majestic and affecting all at the same time. And it's a concept album about mental illness. Yipes!





4) Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
While Gnarls Barkley are just singing about being barking mad, Muse are the real deal. On this album, they're constantly banging on about spaceships, conspiracy theories and a strawberry pony called Helen (I may have made that last one up). But Matt 'spoons' Bellamy sings about it all with such conviction that you kind of accept it. Plus, they've largely ditched the 12-minute axe solos and made tight little poperas that literally explode from your speakers. Warning: Do no listen to this album on a motorway or you will accidentally start going far too fast for your own safety. I know this to be true.





5) Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
Put this album on and you could be forgiven for thinking it was a lost classic from the heyday of Atlantic Records. Except, of course, that the lyrics feature such delightful couplets as "What kind of fuckery is this?" and "You don't mean dick to me". The lady with the potty-mouth is Amy Winehouse, and here she puts Christina Aguilera and Joss Stone in their places by concocting an album of soul standards that sounds fresh and real, rather than a faded facsimile of the real thing.





6) Pet Shop Boys - Fundamental
I have never liked a Pet Shop Boys album before, but this one is superb. Back together with producer Trevor Horn, the PSBs find their form after a very long fallow period. Lead single I'm With Stupid had great lyrics and a so-so melody, but the rest of the CD towers above it - with heart-rending ballads Luna Park and I Made My Excuses and Left the stand-outs. But shame on them for shunting the superior Richard X collaboration, Fugitive, onto a bonus disc.





7) Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
A caveat: This top ten placing is only for the tightened-up, 14 track version of the Chili's double album I put together after sifting through the 38-million songs they puked up halfway through the year. Each of those 14 songs is lifted above the ordinary by John Frusciante's breath-taking guitar playing. Nearly all of the tracks on the album (even the ones I don't like) feature some new sound, clever effect or moment of heart-breaking virtuosity. Damn him.





8) The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
The White Stripes, but with discipline, Jack White's side-project proved to be a formidable lesson in classic blues rock. There aren't any major surprises or innovations here - just the sound of four musicians playing their tiny little hearts out. Could do with a haircut, though.





9) Beyoncé - B'day
In which Beyoncé spends the best part of an hour shouting at someone (Jay-Z?) for cheating on her. Whatever personal crisis inspired this album, and no-one's spilling any beans, it was worth it for the music. For the first time in her career, the thunder-thighed scream queen has turned in a CD you can listen to without your finger poised over the skip button. And it was all done and dusted in a week. Kate Bush, take note.





10) Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
Like Nelly Furtado's Loose, this album is permanently smudged with Timbaland's mucky fingerprints but - unlike her album - there isn't a standout track that overshadows the rest. But there are several gems, from the filthy S&M anthem SexyBack to the tender, Coldplay-esque I Think She Knows (which should have been a full song, rather than a 2-minute interlude). The quality only drops towards the end when Timbaland absconds from production duties - presumably because he eventually needed a bit of a kip.



And that's 2006 done and dusted... And the best thing about it all was that a big"wig" in charge of the record industry suddenly twigged that bloated 80-minute epic albums were all a bit rubbish and issued an edict that all CDs should fit onto one side of a D90 casette (note to youngsters: a cassette is an ipod with moving parts that can hold a laughable 90 minutes of music). Thus, and henceforth, all of the albums above - bar the Chilis - clock in at well under an hour. This is quite literally a-mazing and should be celebrated with a balloon.

Labels: amy winehouse, Beyoncé, discopop, gnarls barkley, Justin Timberlake, muse, Music, Nelly Furtado, pet shop boys, raconteurs, red hot chili peppers, regina spektor, top ten

Here it is, then, the Discopop Directory Totally Unbiased Top 10 Singles of 2006. As ever, instead of using any critical faculty, this is completely based on iTunes play counts - plus an amazing little bit of algebra that stops records from the start of the year automatically getting to the top of the list. That's what an AS-Level in maths will do for you, folks.

So, from the top...

1) Nelly Furtado - Maneater
Was there ever any doubt that Maneater would top the list? It's a perfectly crafted pop single, starting off with a massive drumbeat that screams "look at me", which is immediately followed (and this is a measure of just how brilliant the writing is) by the line "Everybody look at me".

Do. You. See. What. They. Did. There? Pure genius.



2) The Raconteurs - Steady As She Goes
I was surprised at this, too. Granted, it toddles along very pleasantly with a crunchy guitar hook and one of those melodies they used to write in olden times, when men rode horses and women had big skirts for the hiding of turnips inside. But the song has probably made its way to the top because it's suitable for every occasion. I've played it in the car, at parties, and in my pyjamas. What a saucepot, eh, viewers?



3) Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
This clearly should have been at number two. I'm currently looking at all that maths and trying to see if I got it wrong somewhere.

I hope I get marks for my working out.



4) Amy Winehouse - Rehab
They tried to make her go to rehab. But do you know what she said? She said NO. Thrice.

What's more, she did it all over a pseudo-Motown funky soul backbeat that made everyone go "oooh, she's not half bad, is she?". Top marks, too, for referencing Donnie Hathaway and Ray Charles.

And did you see Winehouse's fantastic appearance on TV pop quiz Never Mind The Buzzcocks???





5) Robyn - Konichiwa Bictches
Shame on you, punters, for not buying this sugary slab of fizzy pop. It's as good as a Wham bar, only on CD. Here's a sample of the words in the song, which are completely nutso-bonkers:

I'll hammer your toe
Like a pediatrician
Saw you in half
Like I'm a magician
Tear you down
Like I'm in demolition
Count you out
Like a mathematician

Luckily for you, its being re-released in 2007. Buy it, and slip into a musical diabetic coma.



6) Beyoncé - Irreplaceable
Let's face it, Beyoncé needed a bloody great ballad in her back catalogue to offset all those gloopy Destiny's Child stinkers. This will duly be her pension fund - a great big kiss-off to a cheating partner with not a small amount of ego in the chorus. "I can have another you in a minute" indeed. Get her.



7) Muse - Supermassive Black Hole
Muse generally write ridiculously overblown rock operas that would make Freddie Mercury think: "Actually, that's taking things a bit far", even if he was riding on Liberace's back in a gold lamé jumpsuit at the time. So this three-minute pop song was something of a surprise. Coming on like Britney Spears on one of her dark days, it made Muse fans furious. "It sounds just like a fucking song to dance to when you're at a wedding," fumed one. But isn't that exactly the point, my dear?



8) Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dani California
Initially, this sounded like every other Red Hot Chili Peppers song ever. Seven months on, it still sounds like every Red Hot Chili Peppers song ever. But why change a successful formula? In fact, why not just go mental and make a double album of the same song over and over and over again? "Yes, that's what we should do," quoth the Peppers. Marvellous.



9) Nelly Furtado - Promiscous
Hmmm... I suspect this is making an appearance in the Top 10 because its right next to Maneater on Nelly's album, meaning I automatically listen to it at least twice a week. It has a clever lyrical conceit, if you discount all the other duets about a man and a woman chatting each other up - i.e. every duet in history except that one where Nick Cave does away with Kylie Minogues.



10) Girls Aloud - Something Kinda Ooooh
Well, they had to make an appearance, didn't they? The trailer for their hugely successful Greatest Hits album, Ooooh was a proper saucy little dance minx. There was an allusion to the sex act involving the bottom and something about a Toot-toot - which be a veiled reference to a lady's mimsy if I'm not mistaken. Oooh-er.



So, there you have it. If you haven't heard any of these (a) get thee to iTunes forthwith and (b) where have you been all year?

I'll be back in 2007 with my top 10 albums, and a review of Kylie's comeback tour in Wembley. Have a great New Year everyone!

Labels: amy winehouse, Beyoncé, discopop, Girls Aloud, gnarls barkley, muse, Music, Nelly Furtado, raconteurs, red hot chili peppers, Robyn, top ten