10 Tracks Of 2008

Okay, here are the rules. Each artist can only appear once (hence no ‘Gotta Find You’ by Joe Jonas, or any Nessa/Zac goodness). And er, that’s it. Oh no re-issues, hence no ‘Lucio Starts Fires’ even though we still love it.
List! List!

A Little Bit Longer – Jonas Brothers
The 59 Sound – The Gaslight Anthem
Geraldine – Glasvegas
Scream - Zac Efron
Hot Tent Blues – Late Of The Pier
Rhiad And The Bedouins – Guns N’ Roses
Fly On The Wall – Miley Cyrus
Teenagers – Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong
Posh Girl Names – Subliminal Girls
The End - McFly

10 Songs To Download This Week

1/ The Driveway - Miley Cyrus
2/ The Backseat - The Gaslight Anthem
3/ What's The Point In Anything New - The Paddingtons
4/ IRS - Guns N' Roses
5/ Hot Tent Blues - Late Of The Pier
6/ 1984 - Towers Of London
7/ Girl Of My Dreams - Jonas Brothers
8/ 1985 - Manic Street Preachers
9/ Walk Away - Vanessa Hudgens
10/ Unsung - The Wildhearts

Top 15 Albums Of 2008

The Gaslight Anthem - The 59 Sound
Jonas Brothers - A Little Bit Longer
Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement
McFly - Radio:Active
Glasvegas - Glasvegas
Alphabeat - This Is Alphabeat
Weezer - The Red Album
Mark Morriss - Memory Muscle
Fizzy Pop - Towers Of London
Fantasy Black Channel - Late Of The Pier
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Smart Casual - Kids In Glass Houses
In Our Dance Hero Suits - Those Dancing Days

New 'Friday The 13th' Poster - Nice!

Lovely new poster for the reimagining of the Friday The 13th franchise. Looks impressive, very iconic and hopefully they are going back to the darkness of the early entries – Yes, there will be blood…

10 Songs To Download This Week

1/ When The Wild Wind Blows - Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
2/ Down In A Hole - Alice In Chains
3/ Mirror - Subliminal Girls
4/ Street Of Dreams - Guns N' Roses
5/ Stay With Me - McFly
6/ Bishops Gate - Towers Of London
7/ Good Weekend - Art Brut
8/ My Summer Never Comes - Ciccone
9/ This I Love - Guns N' Roses
10/ Tonight - Jonas Brothers

Jonas Brothers Movie Poster

First there was 'Camp Rock', then the announcement of the forthcoming TV show 'Junior Operatives Networking As Spies' and now Disney has revealed the new poster for the forthcoming Jonas Brothers 3D movie. Behold!

CD REVIEW: Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy

It’s not a bunch of demos, it’s not a load of stuff they found on the studio floor, it’s Chinese Democracy and it really exists. Even better, it’s brilliant. If you wanted to see Axl crash and burn, then move along there is nothing here for you.

The album starts with a hard rockin trio, kickin off with the single ‘Chinese Democracy’ and speeding through ‘Shacklers Revenge’ and ‘Better’ like Mike Tyson on a bender. Then it steps up a gear, Axl brings out the piano and we’re in ‘November Rain’\ territory for the beautiful ‘Street Of Dreams’ and the classic voice is back, this is A grade Guns N’ Roses. Slash, who? (oh yeah, whilst the distractors are dissing Axl, Slash is off working with Fergie…think about that.)

You want more epic Elton john inspired goodness? Look no further than ‘Catcher In The Rye’, again it’s a classic Axl vocal behind a great lyric (“If I thought that I was crazy, well I guess I’d have more fun”) and a soaring musical score. Superb. If you want a more stroppy GNR thrill, then ‘Riad N’ The Bedouins’ comes snarling out of the speakers like ‘Its So Easy’’s nastier big brother. “I don’t give a fuck bout them, cause I am crazy”, married to a classic Axl snarl and a superb Buckethead guitar track, this is destined to be a big moment in the live set.

After ‘Riad’, it’s back to ballad territory with the open-heart surgery of ‘Sorry’. Is it about Slash? Is it about Stephanie Seymour? Is it about the fans? “You know that I got under your skin, you sold your soul but I wont let you win.” Ouch. Oh and it has a massive Floyd style solo! After this ‘IRS’ sounds particularly lightweight but soon we’re back in widescreen emotive territory with ‘Madagascar’ which samples Luther King and also revisits the Cool Hand Luke sample from ‘Civil War’.

Not enough emotion for you? ‘This I Love’ is back to the piano and is like Andrew Lloyd Webber on crack. Yes, that good. “There’s noone lese could ever make me feel I’m so alive” pines Axl over a beautiful refrain. Stunning. Then the album stomps off to the sound of ‘Prostitute’, Axl’s open letter to the distractors – “Ask yourself why I would choose to prostitute myself to live with fortune and shame”. There’s no shame here, Mr Rose, Chinese Democracy is a triumph. It doesn’t send you scurrying back to Appetite, it doesn’t make you miss Slash (at all), it’s a defiant beast of a record that sits proudly next to Use Your Illusion as a band doing exactly what it wants to do when it wants to. No compromise, no eye on the chart, mission complete W Axl Rose, see you in seventeen years.

10 Songs To Download This Week

1/ Sorry – Guns N' Roses
2/ Losing Touch – The Killers
3/ Hang On To Your Ego – Beach Boys
4/ New Skin – Towers Of London
5/ 14 Years – Guns N' Roses
6/ High Lonesome – The Gaslight Anthem
7/ Live Wire – Motley Crue
8/ Lovebug – Jonas Brothers
9/ Black Burning Heart – Keane
10/ Spaceman – The Killers

10 Songs To Download This Week

1/ Self Obsession Is An Art Form – Subliminal Girls
2/ It's Alright – Guns N' Roses
3/ Start The Rupt – Towers Of London
4/ Walk Away – Vanessa Hudgens
5/ Shuffle – Those Dancing Days
6/ See You Again – Miley Cyrus
7/ The Patient Ferris Wheel – The Gaslight Anthem
8/ Untouchable – Girls Aloud
9/ Psychosocial – Slipknot
10/ Love Is Hell – Ryan Adams

DVD REVIEW: Best Of Both Worlds 3D

One of the biggest US box office hits finally arrives in Britain, albeit on the small screen, but at least its 3D status is still intact.

Documenting Miley’s arena tour, the concert is split between songs from the TV show (with Miley in her Hannah Montana character) and Miley being herself with songs from the solo record that came with ‘Hannah Montana 2’.

As well as this, the show also features a duet with Jonas Brothers on ‘We Got The Party’ and the boys playing through the brillliant ‘When You Look Me In The Eyes’ and ‘Year 3000’

The Hannah songs are brilliant, the Cyrus stuff is even better and it's surely worth the money alone for a 3D Joe Jonas?

10 Songs To Download This Week

1/ The Loving Kind – Girls Aloud
2/ North London Trash – Razorlight
3/ I Want It All – Ashley Tisdale & Lucas Grabeel
4/ Breakout – Miley Cyrus
5/ Sorry – Jonas Brothers
6/ So Fine – Guns N Roses
7/ Home Sweet Home – Motley Crue
8/ Chin Up, Cheer Up – Ryan Adams
9/ Dead! – My Chemical Romance
10/ The Promise – Girls Aloud

CD REVIEW: Razorlight – Slipway Fires

The first question is: Do you like Johnny Borrell? Is he a cheeky troubadour propping up the bar at the Hawley Arms or is he The Ghost of Bono Future? How you answer that question will determine how much you get out of ‘Slipway Fires’.

The ramshackle Libs-esque ragtag tunes of ‘Up All Night’ are gone, replaced by stadium busting epics, bringing to mind U2, REM, Queen and other rock behemoths. There are still a few cheeky pop songs here though – ‘North London Trash’ owes it’s style to Lodger’s ‘I’m Leaving’, whereas ‘Tabloid Lover’ is a stomping Britpop singalong. ‘Burberry Blue Eyes’ follows the same template, whereas much of the rest of the album goes higher and wider down the sonic highway. ‘Wire To Wire’ brings to mind ‘Horse With No Name’ whereas ‘Blood For Wild Blood’ stomps around like the giants of US rock.

There’s no backing down from Borrell, he doesn’t want to be in the biggest band in Camden, he wants to be in the biggest band in the world and from the sound of ‘Slipway Fires’, he’s well on his way. If you still don’t like him? I really don’t think he cares and he’s all the better for it.

10 Songs To Download This Week

1/ Chinese Democracy – Guns N Roses
2/ New Skin – Towers Of London
3/ Lord, I'm Discouraged – The Hold Steady
4/ The River – Bruce Springsteen
5/ The Patient Ferris Wheel – The Gaslight Anthem
6/ Burn Koko – Subliminal Girls
7/ Blue Skies – Special Needs
8/ Freeway – Aimee Mann
9/ Kids – Those Dancing Days
10/ Out Of This World – Jonas Brothers

Free Springsteen!

Bruce Springsteen is giving fans a special Halloween treat via his official website. Head over to the news section now to read a special Halloween message from The Boss himself and then pick up the free download of 'A Night With The Jersey Devil'. Free classic Americana? Yes please. Head to www.brucespringsteen.com.

Zac Attack!

It’s a good week to be a Zac Efron fan – first the box office destroying ‘High School Musical 3’, then the announcement that Disney is fast tracking the ‘Footloose’ remake with Efron in the Kevin Bacon role (and new songs to go with the classics!) and Kenny Ortega in the directors chair…and now we have the official trailer for Zac’s next big screen adventure ’17 Again’.

As you’ve probably already guessed from the title, the movie is a classic body swap comedy with Matthew Perry getting his wish to be 17 again and going back to school, this time in the body of Zac Efron. Original? No. Must see? Did we mention ZAC EFRON? Sweet.

Big Screen Jonas Brothers

With High School Musical 3 taking a record breaking $42 million over the opening weekend, it should come as no surprise that other studios are trying to get in on the act. The odd thing is that 20th Centruy Fox are using one of Disney’s own acts to try and get a slice of the box office cake.

Yes, Jonas Brothers are signed up to star in Fox’s ‘Walter The Farting Dog’ (No, REALLY!) based on a series of popular children’s books. It’s being produced by the Farrelly Brothers who may also direct.

The tale revolves around a fat dog with wind problems who comes to live with a family, causing general and hilarious havoc. Interestingly as well as signing up Nick, Joe and Kevin, the film is also set to feature their younger brother Frankie, already familiar to fans of the band as the Bonus Jonas.

Jonas Brothers? Farting dogs? These are truly great days!

The Day You Never Thought Would Come. Comes.

Oh my god. Yes, the rumours, doubts, leaks, jokes are over. W Axl Rose has confirmed that Chinese Democracy, the long overdue Guns N Roses album will arrive in this country next month. Not next year, not next century, NEXT MONTH.
Whilst the Internet is always a hotbed of conjecture when it comes to this sort of thing, anyone who bought The Sun on Friday was greeted by this full page advert that reveals not only the release date, but a new web address and the album artwork for Chinese Democracy. Behold! The return of rock n roll's most dangerous band. Bring it. Welcome back Mr Rose, we've missed you.

10 Songs to Download This Week

1/ The Backseat – The Gaslight Anthem
2/ Ice Hockey Hair – The Wildhearts
3/ Scream – Zac Efron
4/ Run Run – Those Dancing Days
5/ Pork N Beans – Weezer
6/ Get In The Ring – Guns N Roses
7/ Whose Hands Are These – Neil Diamond
8/ The Boys Are Back – Corbin Bleu and Zac Efron
9/ Tiny Little Robots – Cage The Elephant
10/ Novotel – Adam Green

REVIEW: High School Musical 3

Another week, another Disney ‘event’ movie. Yet High School Musical 3: Senior Year is different, in that it is a global phenomenon that has risen from television to the big screen for its third outing.

The story will be familiar to fans of the first two – Gabriella and Troy have decisions to make not only about their own futures, but their futures together; the Wildcats are going for back-to-back championships and Sharpay still wants to be the star of the show. Add in a few new characters (a young emo Wildcat called Rocketman and a snooty London student determined to help, or is it hinder Sharpay?) and some great new songs (notably Zac Efron’s excellent ‘Scream’ and Corbin and Zac’s spirited ‘The Boys Are Back’) and you have a sequel that will excite and delight fans the world over. Brilliant.

New Jonas Brothers Video!

The new video for 'Lovebug' by Jonas Brothers has been released. Following on from the big budget Miami Vice/ Kung-Fu spoofing of 'Burnin Up', 'Lovebug' is a big epic video featuring the boys as an old style jazz band.

Check it out right now:

10 Songs To Download This Week

1/ Actionman – Those Dancing Days
2/ The Lovers Are Losing – Keane
3/ If It Dont Feel Good – Towers Of London
4/ A Time To Remember – Special Needs
5/ Twee Twee Dee – Adam Green
6/ Hello Beautiful – jonas Brothers
7/ 18 And Life – Skid Row
8/ Mr Misfortune – Hadouken!
9/ The Driveway – Miley Cyrus
10/ Time Is Running Out – Towers Of London

High Def Death

So did you buy a Blu-Ray player so that you could view big screen epics in perfect vision and stunning sound or did you grab one so you could watch executions, deaths and people eating monkey brains? If you chose the second option, then you are in luck (provided you have a multi-region player at least) as the most controversial film of them all is getting a 30th anniversary special Blu-Ray edition. Yes, Faces Of Death, now in shiny Death-O-Vision! Ok, we made that bit up.

New WWE Poster Revealed

World Wrestling Entertainment has released the poster for the forthcoming Armageddon Pay Per View. A highly stylised affair, it features World Champion Chris Jericho pressing a red button, no doubt setting off the titular armageddon. Dark, brooding, nice.

New Jonas Brothers Video Trailer

Not content with promoting 'Camp Rock', the forthcoming 3D concert movie, the forthcoming TV series 'J.O.N.A.S.' and the 'A Little Bit Longer' album, Jonas Brothers have also released a teaser trailer for the video for new single 'Lovebug'.

'Lovebug' premieres on Disney Channel on the 19th and will no doubt be right here then. Until then, here's Nick, Joe and Kevin describing the new vid…

New Poster For 'Up'!

Pixar has just unveiled this beautiful poster for its next big screen epic 'Up'. The tale will be the first Pixar movie shot in 3D (leading the way for the return of 'Toy Story' in 3D soon...) and the trailer is expected to be attached to either 'High School Musical 3' or 'Bolt' – or perhaps a different trailer with both? Let the hype begin!

Nothing Beats A Dog In A Hat

Obviously Ridley Scott, Leo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe underestimated the power of A DOG IN A HAT as their new 70million dollar epic ‘Body Of Lies’ entered the US movie charts at number three with $13 million. Yes, Disney kept the top spot with ‘Beverly Hills Chihuahua’ raking in another $17.5 million, bringing its total box office to an impressive $52.5 million.

Spare a thought too for the massively hyped family adventure ‘City Of Ember’ which only just managed to dent the top ten with a feeble $3.2 million opening. Kids don’t want big epic landscapes, they want hilarious talking dogs, get with the program!

10 Songs To Download This Week

1/ We Rock - Demi Lovato/Jonas Brothers
2/ Queen Of Cool – Towers Of London
3/ Sylvia – Special Needs
4/ In This World – The Automatic
5/ Another Way To Die – Jack White
6/ Year Of The Pig – Fvcked Up
7/ Pushin' Me Away – Jonas Brothers
8/ Beach Bar – Towers Of London
9/ Raise Hell – Kids In Glass Houses
10/ New York Groove – Kiss

Final 'Twilight' Trailer

So only a few days after the final poster was unveiled for the vampire epic, here's the final trailer for the movie version of 'Twilight'. BRING IT ON.

Disney Is Top Dog

Without a major picture like the Pirates franchise to rely on to bring in the cash, you might think it would be a quiet time for Disney, but then you would be underestimating how much people want to see talking dogs.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua opened at number one in the states, taking twenty nine million in its opening weekend, the best ever October opening for a Disney movie.

Following this, get ready for High School Musical 3 to shatter not only October records, but box office records galore later in the month.

CD - Towers Of London, 'Fizzy Pop'

So you release a brilliantly angry debut album, hit reality TV, date Peaches Geldof and become tabloid fodder. What’s next? Well, you’d think it would be a treading water sophomore effort and watch the cash roll in. Yet, this is Towers Of London we are talking about so instead, we get new members, a new sound, a new record label and the strange beast known as ‘Fizzy Pop’.

Okay, lets get the bad stuff out of the way first, the production of ‘Fizzy Pop’ is absolutely terrible – it sounds like it was recorded underwater, or the producer was perhaps asleep through the whole process. Whilst the guitars on album one were crystal clear and turned up to 11, here they are stuck back in the mix, coming through an amp that cost a quid from Poundstretcher. And what’s happened to Donny’s vocals? The screeching banshee is gone and the vocals are stuck behind some sort of effect, like they’ve borrowed Cher’s vocoder and puked all over it. It’s like having Bob Ezrin produce your debut and then sacking him and bringing in Steve Albini. Or Steve Albini’s deaf brother.

Yet, underneath all the grit are a dozen guitar pop gems, with more hooks and choruses than a lot of bands manage in their entire careers. Donny has been commenting recently that touring the first album was tough as everything was so full on, so here things are a lot calmer, less angry, but still bang on the button when it comes to singalong tunes. Forget the faux punk attitude of the past, this new (improved?) Towers is more like an amalgam of The Wildhearts bubblegum metal and the bonkers glitter rush of Space Age Playboys.

Highlights include the poptastic ‘When She Comes’, the attitude laden ‘Go Sister Go’ and first single ‘Naked On The Dance Floor’. The spotlight may have left the Tourettes, but on this evidence they still demand your attention, but this time more for the classic tunes rather than the fights and the booze. Although we’re sure they’ll still ensure there are plenty of both on the tour…

Final 'Twilight' Poster!

Here it is then, the final poster for the much anticipated 'Twilight' movie…

It's good that they have concentrated on Edward and Bella rather than tried to squeeze in all the secondary characters, but they've made Edward look slightly less suave and more undead than readers may have pictured him, as if the advertisers are like "But he's dead! He can't be beautiful!". Prepare for messagebaords across the Internet to melt!

The Killers Announce 2009 Dates

The Killers are set to return to the UK in 2009 for their biggest arena tour yet, including two dates at the massive O2 Arena in London.

Brandon Flowers and co can be seen at the following dates:

February 23/24 – London O2 Arena
February 26 – Birmingham LG Arena
February 28 – Cardiff International Arena
March 2 – Sheffield Arena
March 3 – Nottingham Arena
March 5 – Aberdeen AECC Arena
March 6 – Glasgow SECC
March 7 – Newcastle Arena
March 9 – Manchester MEN Arena

10 Songs To Download This Week

1/ A Little Bit Longer – Jonas Brothers
2/ Drive Away My Heart – Ida Maria
3/ Tiny Little Robots – Cage The Elephant
4/ Highway To Nowhere – Drake Bell
5/ Shelf – Jonas Brothers
6/ Stay Positive – The Hold Steady
7/ Home Before Dark – Neil Diamond
8/ Flowers & Football Tops – Glasvegas
9/ The End – McFly
10/ Burn Koko – Subliminal Girls

New Dogs, Old Tricks

You know, sometimes you want to sit down and relive the classics like ‘Citizen Kane’ or ‘The Seventh Seal’, but other times you just want to see Drew Barrymore starring as a talking dog.

Luckily Disney knows this and has updated the ‘Homeward Bound’ theme with new movie ‘Beverly Hills Chihuahua’ which opens in America this week and hits the UK next March.

The story sees a glamorous Beverly Hills Chihuahua getting lost on vacation in Mexico and needing help to find her way home. As well as Barrymore, the film features Andy Garcia, Cheech Marin, Placido Domingo and Edward James Olmos as other hilarious talking animals.

Come on, you know you want it, just look at that poster!!!

New 'Bolt' Poster

We can't wait for Disney's animated 3D adventure 'Bolt' and now they have unveiled the latest poster for the Travolta/Cyrus epic. Expect the hype machine to really kick into overdrive soon, probably around the time that HSM3 invades cinemas in a few weeks…

CD: Jonas Brothers - 'A Little Bit Longer'

Obviously if you’re already sneering at the idea of Jonas Brothers then this review is not gonna change your mind, it’s not designed to do that. So many people in this country have already decided they hate Nick, Joe and Kevin before they even hear a note – whatever. The fact is that ‘A Little Bit Longer’ is a great great pop record throughout, the brilliant first single ‘Burnin Up’ was just the beginning…

‘Video Girl’ is one of the bitchiest songs you’ll hear this year, the tale of a girl who thinks she’s dating a Jonas after appearing in their video for two seconds, you get the idea from the sneering vocal that there is more than an element of truth to this one. Elsewhere, ‘Shelf’ is a great tale of yearning as is the high tempo but lyrically down ‘Pushin Me Away’.

The highlights are the slower tracks. ‘Cant Have You’ is a heartbreaking tale of missed love and ‘When You Look Me In The Eyes’ will already be familiar to anyone who owns the self-titled album, but it hasn’t lost any of its power. The centrepiece of the record is Nick Jonas’ ‘A Little Bit Longer’, a tale of his struggle with diabetes. It’s a beautiful piano balled that regularly has American audiences in tears. Stunning.

Pop album of the year? No competition.

Perpetually Stuck In Sepia Film

Well, what is there to say about Paul Newman? One of the greatest actors ever, choose any period of his career and you’ll encounter classics. And he made a cracking salad dressing too. RIP, sir.

The best tribute to pay is just to pick any of the classics from this list and rediscover some of the best performances of all time. The word ‘legend’ gets thrown around too much these days, but in terms of Hollywood, the word is almost too small to describe Mr Newman.

How’s this for a CV, classics one and all, go discover greatness…

Cars
Road To Perdition
The Hudsucker Proxy
Mr And Mrs Bridge
Fat Man And Little Boy
The Color Of Money
The Verdict
Slapshot
The Sting
Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
Cool Hand Luke
Hud
Sweet Bird Of Youth
The Hustler
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

10 Songs To Download This Week

1/ Burnin’ Up – Jonas Brothers
2/ Misery – Soul Asylum
3/ Lovely Bones – Kids In Glass Houses
4/ Navy Sheets – The Hold Steady
5/ Thunder Road – Bruce Springsteen
6/ Fly On The Wall – Miley Cyrus
7/ Star – Extreme
8/ Suzanne – Leonard Cohen
9/ The Backseat – The Gaslight Anthem
10/ Air War – Crystal Castles

Pixar Moves 'Newt'

Following on from Disney’s exciting announcements this week, it seems there is some shuffling happening in the Pixar world.

With the news that Cars 2 has been pushed up to 2011, questions were raised as to the fate of the two Pixar movies already slated for that year – the first time two Pixar movies would hit in a year, would Cars 2 make it three?

Seems not. Whilst The Bear And The Bow will still premiere in 2011, the other offering Newt has been pushed back to Summer 2012. Newt tells the tale, as you may have guessed from the title, of the last two blue-footed newts on Earth who must mate in order for their kind to exist, the only problem being that they cannot stand each other…

Disney Reveals All

The Walt Disney Company held a lavish reception in Hollywood this week to announce its future slate and there were many surprises unveiled…

Amongst the films we knew about that were being shown off were High School Musical 3, Hannah Montana, The Princess And The Frog, Bolt and Pixar’s Up.

More surprising was the announcement of a new version of The Lone Ranger, starring Johnny Depp as Tonto. Depp is going to be very busy with the company who also announced he will be starring as The Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland (which will be in 3D) as well as returning as Jack Sparrow in Pirates Of The Caribbean 4.

In animation, Cars 2 has been moved forward to 2011 and the year before will see the return of Woody The Cowboy in the 3D Toy Story 3.

Add to this Tron 2 and,er, G-Force, a tale of talking gerbils and you have a very busy time in the house of the mouse.

LIVE: Peter Doherty, Bournemouth 24/09/08

Naturally we’ve all been here before – Peter announces shows at short notice in strange venues, then turns up late or no shows, it’s all part of the story. Yet, this time it’s different, the gig goes smoothly, Doherty turns up on top form and plays a brilliant set. So sorry if you’re looking for scandal, you’ve come to the wrong place.

How many support acts can one man have? Well, on this evidence a few too many. A dull female singer, an acoustic male who tries to be the British Bright Eyes and does a killer cover of Talking Heads ‘Psycho Killer’ and local favourites Betika, who are still just too many cooks spoiling a rather tedious broth. The one to take note of are The Supernovas, who seem set for stardom, despite a distinct lack of originality. They are basically a Libertines/Monkeys/Courteeners hybrid, but their three minute guitar pop songs are spiky enough that you get carried away with them, despite them offering nothing we haven’t heard a million times before.

Peter appears looking smart and straight, accompanied on some tracks by Shambles drummer Adam Ficek and works his merry way through classics from all periods of his career, everything from ‘What A Waster’ to ‘Killamangiro’ gets an airing. Highlights are Libertines favourites ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’, ‘The Delaney’ and ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’ and a rare outing for the classic ‘You’re My Waterloo’.

This is Doherty on top of his game. We don’t need a Libertines reunion (a great section of the audience don’t seem to know any of the Libs material anyway, but that’s a rant for another day!), we just need Peter to stay on this form and the Albion definitely sails on course.

Come Back To Camden

Next Sunday (28th) sees the ‘Super Sunday’ event taking place in Camden Town. The idea is to bring music fans back to Camden after the fire that ravaged the borough earlier in the year, destroying classic watering hole The Hawley Arms.

The Holloways will headline the event with SixNationState and Nat Jenkins also performing on the top of a canal boat. Other venues including The Monarch, The Lock Tavern and Dingwalls will also feature music throughout the day.

Whilst its obviously a great cause, Camden remains a hotbed of new music every night of the week and chances are you can always catch an up and coming band in Parkway’s The Dublin Castle who are better than The Holloways and you’ll probably spot some Britpop royalty too – just last week we encountered Tommy from Space in there wearing a lovely furry jacket and looking about two foot high. Oh yes, we love Camden.

Burnin' Up For You, Baby

And finally, the pop single of the year hits the UK. ‘Burnin Up’ by Jonas Brothers hits stores and iTunes today. Hollywood Records campaign for the band has been very bizarre over here already and now instead of launching ‘Burnin Up’ by itself, it is coming out as a double A-Side with ‘When You Look Me In The Eyes’, which is of course brilliant, but from the last album, which we already have in three different versions (Original US album, UK version with different tracks and Bonus Jonas Edition with the New York gig).

So essentially they’ve released the two best pop singles of the year…

10 Songs To Download This Week

Give Blink 182 a blast and raise a glass to Travis Barker. Get well soon, dude.

1/ Easy Tiger – Kids In Glass Houses
2/ All Hope Is Gone – Slipknot
3/ Film Noir – The Gaslight Anthem
4/ I Miss You – Blink 182
5/ Steve McQueen – The Automatic
6/ I Wont Back Down – Johnny Cash
7/ Shake It – Metro Station
8/ Pop Princess – The Click Five
9/ The End – Mcfly
10/ Maggie’s Farm – Bob Dylan

Your New Favourite Band

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Metro Station. Brilliant brilliant Californian Emo-pop electro goodness. Imagine a cross between the bombast of Cobra Statrship and the pop sheen of The Click Five. Yes, that good…

Metro Station features two singers – one, Mason Musso is the brother of Hannah Montana star Mitchel Musso and the other Trace Cyrus is Miley’s brother. This will no doubt put some people off, but those people are IDIOTS, Metro Station are just a joyous thing. If you like Rooney, Simple Plan or Boys Like Girls (and if you don’t, why not?) then we suggest getting the self-titled album post haste, you wont regret it.

METRO STATION – ‘CONTROL’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS3m2vyaCpI

METRO STATION – ‘KELSEY’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRTyMUZ1m1A

METRO STATION – ‘SHAKE IT’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpU78IeTx_c

The Rock Goes To Tomorrowland

It was obvious after the success of the Pirates Of The Caribbean trilogy that Disney would be going to the well again to try and turn another ride into a cinema hit.

Yet now it seems they are going one better and turning a whole LAND into a film. Yes, writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore are currently putting together a script for a epic space movie, which it is thought will take inspiration from the theme parks Tomorrowland segment – although Disney denies that the film will share that name.

What we do know is that the project will star Dwayne Johnson (it seems we cant call him The Rock anymore, BUT WE WILL ANYWAY) in his third big Disney project.
There’s plenty that can be done with attractions like Space Mountain or Mission To Mars, hey we’re such Disney junkies we’d be there day one for a Wedway People Mover movie starring Tom Morrow…

Justin Hawkins Heads Back To Stadiums

With the rest of The Darkness back as Stone Gods, a brilliant but serious metal outfit, those looking for more Darkness style fun need look no further than Justin Hawkins new band Hot Leg.

Imagine an amped up version of his last band, throw in covers of Jennifer Rush’s ‘The Power Of Love’ and Huey Lewis’ song of the same name and you have a dayglo metal treat.

The problem is of course that the Queen shenanigans of Hawkins may not translate on the toilet circuit that Hot Leg now find themselves on. Whilst we would recommend seeing them given a chance, no matter how small the venue, they are about to be support on two major arena tours where Hawkins gets back to his natural habitat.

Firstly Hot Leg will be supporting the reformed Extreme, in what should be a fantastic double bill. Then, slightly more bizarrely, but taking the band to Brixton Academy, they will tour with po-faced serious metallers Alter Bridge.

Welcome back, sir. We can hear the critics already whining about outdated hair metal. We side with Hawkins. Bring it on.

Jake Roberts 'Drugged'

This past weekend, WWE legend Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts appeared at an independent show in Lakewood, Ohio for Firestorm Pro Wrestling. Now Roberts is known for his problems with alcohol and drugs in the past, but fans were surprised to be confronted with a clearly drunk Roberts, ranting and raving, before a match with JT Lightning, which can only be described as embarrassing.

Following a video of the event popping up on Youtube, Roberts’ assistant claims that Jake was drugged before the show and the star himself has said that he has no memory of wrestling. Roberts commented: “"I never have felt like that. I don't know why this has happened. I pray that it never happens to anybody. I am sorry. I can’t even talk. I can't tell you how scary it is because right now I am shaking just thinking about it. I just don’t want it to happen to anybody. Whoever did it, I hope to hell what goes around comes around and let God sort it out because I am not going on a man hunt because I am scared to even open the door much less anything else."

Here’s the car crash of a match…

'Heavenly' New Manic Street Preachers Interview…

Following on from their gig to celebrate the Heavenly label, Manic Street Preachers have talked to Simon Price (official biographer and author of the excellent Manics tome ‘Everything’) about their brief but explosive time on the label.

James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire discuss the early days of tiny gigs, travelling as part of a mismatched Heavenly tour and their first impressions of the capital. It’s a brilliant read for those who remember the fab four before they were household names.

To read Simon’s interview, go here: http://www.thequietus.com/articles/manic-street-preachers-a-heavenly-body-of-work

10 Songs To Download This Week

1/ ‘I Don’t Want To Die’ – Conor Oberst
2/ ‘Go Square Go’ – Glasvegas
3/ ‘Save Your Scissors’ – City And Colour
4/ ‘In One Ear’ – Cage The Elephant
5/ ‘Accessories’ – The Automatic
6/ ‘Gotta Find You’ – Joe Jonas
7/ ‘Saturday’ – Kids In Glass Houses
8/ ‘About You Now’ – The Courteeners
9/ ‘I’m Sick’ – Mark Morriss
10/ ‘Love Remains’ – Mansun

Chucky VS New York City

We’re used to various publicity stunts being used to hype movies but normally they are funny or interesting rather than disturbing, but we think this one definitely falls into that category.

Yes, to promote the 20th anniversary DVD edition of the classic horror ‘Child’s Play’, a crew of full size Chuckys was sent out to terrorize New York City! Now we cant wait for the new edition of the movie, but real life Chuckys are only going to see us crying like girls or hiding behind the sofa, which is difficult to do when you’re in the middle of the city…

Iron Man 2! In 3D?!?

Poor old Jon Favreau, any other year ‘Iron Man’ would have been the greatest superhero movie of them all. Alas, Downey Jr and company arrived in the same year as a little something called ‘The Dark Knight’…

So, if you’re looking at a sequel to ‘Iron Man’, how can you make sure that it is the blockbuster to beat them all. Hmm, I dunno, how about shooting the whole film in the IMAX format? Not bad. Or maybe shoot it in 3-D? Explosions, fire, robots, all coming atcha big time. Nice. Well, it seems that Favreau is toying with doing both – yes, a 3D IMAX epic that would no doubt have fanboys everywhere exploding.

Of course, before we get too ahead of ourselves, we should remember that the movie has not even begun filming yet, so there is plenty of time for Paramount to look at the numbers and decide that they just don’t add up.

Guess we’ll see you in the queue, Summer 2010 to see how Iron Man 2 turns out and how many dimensions it is in!

CD: Glasvegas - 'Glasvegas'

Here it comes then, THAT album, you know the one, every year it arrives – ‘the best debut since Definitely Maybe’, ‘The new saviours of rock’, ‘The new Whatever We Loved Last Year’, blah blah blah. You’d be forgiven for being bored of Glasvegas before you even heard a note of their haunting majesty, tossing them aside as another McGee obsession who look a bit like The Clash. Move along, nothing to see here, etc etc.

Except, Glasvegas DO have the songs. Remember when the first Suede album arrived on the back of a huge wave of hype, but you knew it would work because you were already well acquainted with ‘The Drowners’, ‘Metal Mickey’ and ‘Animal Nitrate’? Similar scenario here, the album is worth the dosh just for ‘It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry’, ‘Daddys Gone’ and ‘Geraldine’, a storming trio of epic brilliance.

Yet, it’s not all about the singles, the album kicks off with the doo-wop My Bloody Valentine excellence of ‘Flowers And Football Tops’ and instantly you are grabbed by the shimmering wall-of-sound Spector-esque magic on view here. The voice, to be honest, might grate somewhat, but you can’t deny that soaring instrumental sheen. ‘Go Square Go’ is a highlight, a stomping rocker, with the chilling kiss-off “I can’t go home tonight, here we fucking go” – this isn’t “She loves you, yeah yeah yeah.”, Toto…

If there’s any downside here, it’s ‘Stabbed’, where suddenly the gritty realism seems slightly too much over a tale of, yes, getting stabbed. Yet even this, has a beautiful backing, a haunting piano refrain that stays with you long after the slightly cringeworthy lyrics are forgotten.

Album of the year? Nope, we’re still going with The Gaslight Anthem for that. British album of the year? Er, Late Of The Pier? Look, don’t read this bit looking for the soundbite, it’s a great great record and that, my friends, is good enough.