Lopez Blogs

What a bleeding week. It's one drama and crisis after another. Still, it's Friday night, it's Children in Need night and it's the start of the weekend (whatever Dermot would have you believe on a Saturday night). So lets have some Steps and get on with a nice relaxing Saturday and Sunday with the lovely dazpanteloons...

TWEET THE WEEK:

• Remember Sean Maguire? no? He was the adorable Tegs in Grange Hill, then a bit of a nutter in Eastenders, and then went brilliant as one of those mid-late 90s Smash Hits pop stars. Then he went all Hollywood, got buff and now is on the front of Attitude magazine (who for 3 months out of 4 have rather delightfully featured my tweets!). Not only that, he looks bloody marvelous in a gorgeous tux inside. The same tux I will probably now where to the works Christmas "do" next week. The return of Sean Maguire?! Now I can stop pleasing myself to the sky plus of his family fortunes appearance :P
• While yes indeed there is no denying that 2009 belongs to Lady Gaga, I have absolute confidence that 2010 will finally be the year of Simon Curtis. People will be talking about his 8Bit♥ album the way they are raving about the fame monster now. Already he's one of the most requested artists on SiriusOutQ :)
• My Gregory Maguire book Matchless arrived today. It's a Christmas story for charity and it's rather delightful. I read it in about half an hour and was quite tearful by the end. I'm pretty sure I'll read it again before the big day. Highly recommended for a sweet emotional festive yarn. PS no relation to Sean Maguire though I'm not sure :)
• Whenever I get gloomy or depressed about the state of the world, I think about the lovely lovely book "And Tango Makes Three". General opinion is that it's one of the most complained about books in America because of it's homosexualist themes, but I don't see that. It seems to be that in the book, love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy but it's always there - boy penguin, another boy penguin, baby Tango. If you flick through the pages, I've got a sneaking suspicion that love, actually is all around. This bullet point was sponsored by the best movie ever, Love Actually :P





• I quite like Adam Tyler. I like that he makes pop music he loves, but because he loves pop music it's actually pretty darn brilliant for everyone else too. You only have to look at his youtube page and check out his covers of pop gems like Shayne Ward's No U Hang Up and Varsity Fanclub's Future Love to see he's having a positively ace time with it all. Friction is an urgent electro-heavy thumper that will get people grinding like crazy on the dancefloor. However, like a moth to the flame drawn by the fire, it's the gothic, piano driven ballad The Last Time We Say Goodbye with heavy dramatic cello and strings, lush backing vocals and a soaring chorus that BWO would be quite jealous of that I'm in love with right now. His voice is custom built for in-your-face pop and that is what he seems intent on providing. Plus two very important things - ace popstar hair, and he seems a thoroughly lovely chappy too. Hurrah. It's not essential but it helps. See also DontStopThePop and Adam's myspace :)
• A little while back I purchased Monti Montanez's debut EP "My Dreams" from iTunes. I have to confess the main reason behind this was because he has worked with the amazing Jadion who produces Simon Curtis' music and worked with Candy Coated Chaos. It's not often I'll purchase music based on a producer without hearing a note, but for Jadion I'll make an exception!! The title track of the EP is the theme to the Dig It! campaign which benefits The Children's Miracle Network, and is actually a rather outstanding piano ballad that rather beautifully frames Monti's voice and crescendos as the song progresses into a soaring anthem with uplifting and inspiring lyrics. A quite wonderful piece of work that I now have on regular repeat back to back with Simon's Another Heartache. More please (and for more check out So Hot on Jadion's myspace. Sizzling!)
• Finally hurrah for Rochella Danishei. She has picked herself up after the aforementioned CCC parted ways (sniffle) and carried on with doing what I always knew she was great at - solo or grouped - carving out a pop career for herself. Her debut single is currently available for listening on her myspace. Countdown To Zero is a feisty slice of pop that oozes sex appeal and attitude; it has that Radio Disney appeal but a harder edge than most of her contemporaries and the tune has some great banging drums, fuzzy guitars and glorious "ooo ooo ooo"s which can really make a good pop song great. It's contemporary, catchy and cute all at once - if the X Factor were brave enough to give Stacey something like this to sing she would be raking in the votes. Can't wait for a debut album.

TOP 21 SONGS OF THE WEEK:

21 ~ Backstreet Boys, Bigger (NE)
20 ~ Agnes, Love Love Love (NE)
19 ~ Westlife, What About Now
18 ~ Leona Lewis, Happy
17 ~ Sugababes 3.0, About A Girl
16 ~ Marina + The Diamonds, Mowgli's Road
15 ~ BWO, Kings of Tomorrow
14 ~ Blake Lewis, Heartbreak on Vinyl
13 ~ JLS, Everybody in Love
12 ~ The Killers, A White Demon Love Song
11 ~ Alcazar, Thank You
10 ~ Madonna, Revolver
09 ~ Little Boots, Earthquake
08 ~ William Young, Hopes & Fears
07 ~ Mini Viva, I Wish
06 ~ Mans Zelmerlow, A Stranger Saved My Life
05 ~ Mika, Blame It On The Girls
04 ~ Darin, Viva La Vida
03 ~ Robbie Williams, You Know Me (NE/VID)
02 ~ Simon Curtis, Delusional
01 ~ Pet Shop Boys, It Doesn't Often Snow At Christmas 2009 (NE/1 week)

So, another week is over. Tomorrow is the X Factor and the write up will be here on Sunday morning :) Apparently Danyl had a right hissy fit this week over being told he had to sing Praying For Time and wanted Careless Whisper instead. Oh dear. I'd have plumped for the former myself but preferred him to sing Outside :) Sigh. Here is Robbie Williams doing a countrified version of Human instead. Which has nothing to do with anything, I just wanted to post the video!