Lopez Blogs

I love it when acts that I adore get launched from their humble beginnings into a much bigger arena of success. Two of my more recent favourites have experienced a bit of a boost from strategically aligned television performances this past week, so I thought it worth a quick peek to see how they got on...

THE OVERTONES ON DANCING ON ICE:

The rise and rise of the delightful overtones boys has been an absolute joy to watch. They've done everything they could right. They gave themselves a fashionable geek-chic image, blended their harmonies to perfection, pitched themselves around familiar songs but with a modern take on the doo-wop sound and then worked tirelessly to ensure as many people got to know about them as possible. And all the while they've remained in touch with their fans - tweeting, twit-piccing and doing impromptu video cover versions (F*** You was a particular classic). All of these have endeared them to a growing legion of 'toners who also adore their catchy tunes and charmingly enthusiastic performances. The pinnacle of this hard work culminated Sunday night with an effervescent performance on Dancing On Ice. For people reading outside the UK, this is the equivalent to appearing on X-Factor or American Idol. It opens you up to a huge audience - indeed, blog hits went through the roof just after their performance with people coming to the site to read some of my reviews from google. And the boys whizzed past Bruno Mars on the iTunes chart. Their performance was deliciously upbeat (Why Do Fools Fall In Love) as ice legends Torville and Dean did a perky routine all around them (how the boys got onto the blocks without falling on their arses is beyond me :P) And always ones to give back to the fans, there is now a special edition available of their incredibly engaging debut album, Good Ol' Fashioned Love, on iTunes which features some new cover versions of Adele's Rolling In The Deep and Rihanna's Only Girl In The World (on which Lachie's deep vocal does funny things to me!!) Both break the songs down and reconstruct them with the boys impeccable voices building up much of the instrumentation as well as the melody. So if you fancy something a bit different but completely captivating, you could do much worse than to invest in The Overtones today. Can't wait to see them in Brum on the 25th March :)

JULIAN VELARD DOES THIS MORNING:


I've been banging on about Mr Velard for a good while now. He delivers an intoxicating blend of piano based pop that is strong on melody and heavy on catchiness. I've always felt that his tunes, particularly the sparkling Jimmy Dean & Steve McQueen & Love Again For The First Time, deserved a huge audience as they pulled together the best of blokey pop influences like Billy Joel and Ben Folds yet gave them a liberal sprinkling of the ol' Velard charm. Well luckily for the UK, the latter of those tunes has been dusted off and Love Again For The First Time is the lead single from Julian's upcoming album "Mr Saturday Night". It draws you into Julian's lyrical world (like which dvd to watch from HBO) and the rollicking piano work must have Julian's fingers flying all over the keyboard. Julian performed the track on ITV show, This Morning (think Regis and Kelly or whatever it is now) and looked tres dapper indeed with gleaming teeth and a rather lovely bow-tie,jacket, jeans combo. How fancy! Despite not being given much of a stage set, Julian commands your attention and the song is an absolute dream. And because he's a giving sort of fella, you can now download his version of my 3rd fave Madonna song ever (Crazy For You) on his facebook page. And very romantic it is too. Oh Mr Saturday Night is definitely a-coming and I can't wait :)

Tomorrow: boy pop special lead by Simon Curtis!