I had the absolute pleasure of catching ‘Benidorm Live’ this week; a live version of the hit TV show written by Derren Litten. The show translates to stage perfectly; it’s essentially like this mini pantomime…it’s funny, it’s ambitious, it’s tongue-in-chic and it featured my favourite characters from the season – the wonderful Joyce Temple-Savage played by Sherrie Hewson, is elegant and hysterical and commands the stage!
Sam appears much softer in the stage adaptation and is much more of a maternal figure to Liam, instead of pulling her usual schemes that were used to from her…but she does do a knock out performance of Faith Hill’s ‘There You’ll Be’…Kenneth is absolutely hysterical and I think it’s fair to say that 99% of the audience were waiting for him to appear in an over tight t-shirt and on stage he wore the beloved Bleached Whale t-shirt…I won’t go too much into the plot of the show however think ‘The Government Inspector’ by Nikolai Gogol translated from 1836 Russia to 2019 Benidorm. We had some brief drinks with the cast afterwards and I think I just fan girled over Sherrie Hewson.
I was an extra on ‘Celebs Go Dating’ last week, and to keep it short & simple, it was a 9/10 hour shoot. I was drunk throughout and remember very little about it. I know I conversed with Megan McKenna about her music and that is all. The guys were all sweet and were meant to be having a reunion bash at some point but I 100% left our group chat because they talk too much. Sorry guys.
I seem to have caught the most irritating cough in the world, so I’m going to attempt to quit smoking to rid myself of the cough…Not sure it’ll work, but you can’t blame a boy for trying…
Rebecca Ferguson – ‘Running’
This was a complete surprise release that I had no idea about until I sauntered onto Rebecca’s Spotify page on Friday evening with the excitement of listening to some of her back catalogue. The track serves as a soundtrack single from the movie ‘Funan’, which is about a woman living in the chaos of 1975 Cambodia. ‘Running’ is a dramatised moment from beginning to end… with it’s opening of a soft piano and a deep breath, before Rebecca’s vocal appearance around the 1.18 mark “hollow sound of a nature / wonder if empty shells can remember”. I must be honest, Rebecca’s voice has always made me tingle and this particular track works accordingly for her…it has this dramatic production but gives moments for Rebecca’s voice to soar over…and boy does is soar.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor – ‘Today The Sun’s On Us’ (Orchestra Version)
It’s been a while since Sophie first announced her Orchestra Greatest Hits collection and it’s been a bit of a confusing era thus far as the three releases she dropped were more disco-tinged than Orchestra, but now, the record is here and the three pre-album releases are bonus tracks and the rest of the album is a collection of re-recorded singles over an orchestra backdrop…it’s easy to say that some songs really work, mainly ‘Today’s The Sun On Us’ which I always had a love/hate relationship with, however I think this orchestra version has transcended it to a higher level… I’m a bit on the fence with ‘Catch You’, I kinda like it, but I’m waiting for the beat to come in…’Move This Mountain’ is divine but deffo missing some percussion… but the highlight for is definitely ‘Today’s The Sun On Us’…it has a narrative musically that really fits the orchestra backdrop.
Iggy Azalea – ‘Sally Walker’
Iggy had to be one of my biggest highlights of 2014 when ‘Fancy’ dropped…I was obsessed. I remember living in the South of France and just having that record on repeat and it wasn’t long until the life changing ‘Beg For It’ dropped but it seemed that whilst I may still have had interest in Iggy, the public didn’t and she seemed to dwindle a little bit and after a rough few years; she is now back with ‘Sally Walker’. The track revolves itself around a nursery rhyme of some sort (not that I’ve ever heard it…it’s no itsy bitsy spider) but it’s catchy enough and is probably one of the only tracks in the world that can get away with referencing RuPaul and Snoop Dogg. It’s certainly one of the better tracks Iggy’s put her name on in the last few years (I mean I loved ‘Switch’, don’t get me wrong!). As always, the video for “Sally Walker’ is great! If there’s one thing Iggy’s got an eye for…it’s her visuals.
Maisie Peters – ‘Stay Young’
I got an Instagram ad for Maisie Peters and thought I’d check her our and I’m glad I did, if not for the artwork alone…it features her holding a cat in the middle of the road and I’m 100% down for that life…’Stay Young’ is a light and breezy number about chasing dreams and missing her friends and wanting to make them proud…they were all heading to university and she had just signed a record deal…They should be proud of this light and breezy little number…The track has such a sweet innocence to it and I must say her voice is particularly unusual so I’m going to be keeping my eye out for her…plus I know some people at Atlantic Records, so will 100% keep my eye out.
Benny Blanco, Selena Gomez, J Balvin & Tainy – ‘I Can’t Get Enough’
Selena Gomez has been particularly absent from the music scene considering she was due to release her 100th solo album (or SG2 as she seems to be posting about) about 2 years ago but then again lead singles ‘Bad Liar’ and “Fetish’ weren’t exactly massive hits, but I thought the ball would have started rolling again with ‘Wolves’ and ‘Back To You’ which seemed to cause a buzz, but that was over a year ago and since then we’ve only had two features – ‘Taki Taki’ and this new one with Benny Blanco, J Balvin and Tainy… ‘I Can’t Get Enough’ is super catchy and sees Selena pining over a lover and his irresistibility. I’ve been a Selena fan since ‘Wizards of Waverley Place’ and managed to catch her live 2.5 times (Shepherds Bush Empire, Eventim Apollo and a HMV signing) and it seemed that she once had a spark that from her second album ‘A Year Without Rain’, she doesn’t really have anymore.
