Month: May 2010

LEONA, NICOLA & JASMINE.

For so long its been about the fellas but this year the ladies are back with a vengeance. Leona Lewis manager, my mate Nicola called and asked if I’d like to join them in their ‘’Laurie Milne’’ jeweller extraordinaire VIP Box at the 02 Arena for Rihannas recent ‘’Last girl on earth’’ tour show. Well VIP and Box are my 2 of my fave words and to share it with lovely Leona of course I accepted. Leona had a bad throat the day of the show so I tried not to waffle on to her too much during the show as I usually tend to. Riri came on late. She probably wanted to distance herself from support act Pixie Lotts cos Pixie was good-too good for a warm up. When Riri finally made it onstage she brought attitude, bolshiness and visuals to entertain. Her vocals are very nasal and not the easiest on the ear but her catchy song writers and stunning outfits and set designs more than distract you from that. Also-when at a gig I try to go with realistic expectation. In the same way that going to see Whitney was more about experiencing a real moment with a legend, Riri is clearly not going to bring Mary vocals. She didn’t disappoint though. From riding astride a hot pink army tank, to dancing on a Cadillac car, to gliding across the stage on travellators and revolving dance floors there were pink leotards, black rubber S&M outfits and more visually tantalising feasts that highlighted her glamazon figure to its fullest. Even her final web catsuit that looked like it came from Dalston Market was carried off like a couture classic!. Only thing is if she’s going to wear 6 inch platforms she’s gotta practise walking in them more as she took a tumble-not the first of the tour-and certainly wont be the last. . As well as her own hits-which by now there really are plenty of (thanks to her A&R man the legendary RocNation genius, Jay Brown), -she threw in a few covers including an Oasis classic.During ‘’hate how much I love you’’ she had the crowd eating out of her hand, if only she could get more personality into her set –it was over an hour before she even said ‘’Hello London’’ and even then, that was it-it was clear she lacked confidence to relax. A lot of cash was spent on this tour with all the various sets, trapeze artists, dancers, and full band as well as an abundance of props and all I could think was ‘’bravo girl!’’, where’s the ‘’Princess of the Roc-Tierra Marie now?’’.

This very month Leona Lewis herself takes the 02 Arena in as a part of her tour which goes across the country and I cant wait to see her with her full stage show. She watched Rihanna very closely when we were at her gig but didn’t seem blown away. I know Leona will shine in that understated, purely vocal talent she has. She needs nothing else. Her brother Bradley used to be one of my editors at MTV and used to talk about his ‘’younger sister who sings’’ all the time years ago-who would’ve ever imagined that she would be an international superstar years later?.

My West London sistren Estelle was in town very briefly on low key business and whilst here she took me shopping to Selfridges, browns and Harvey Nics. She caused a stampede in Selfridges as fans recognised her and wanted photos and like a true star she obliged. I’ve noticed during my years working with the stars that the bigger and more successful they are the more they respect their fans. Its always the asses that disrespect the very people that put money in their pockets with their ‘’sorry no photos’’ crap. Estelle’s always gracious to her fans. As well as that we went down to the now regular Wednesday night at Camden’s Koko Club where Channel 4 record their great music show ‘’Pop’’. Estelle was eager to catch it as our mate’s Tinie Tempah and Mr Hudson were performing that night. Tinie Tempah was so good it was fascinating to observe. He is amazing live and had an energy that’s going to smash the summer festivals this year.

Speaking of West London, video director to the urban music world stars Luke Biggins and hip hops version of photographer Rankin- Mr Paul H, have set up an amazing new huger than huge, slicker than slick studio in West London where we have been frequenting often this month as so many new artists and old have made it their new home. Called Jacuzzi Studios it really is a central hub of London’s hip-hop elite right about now. They’re looking for eager, young, talented people to join their style, make up, film crew so holla at them on twitter if you think you’d like to be part of a growing, about to explode movement- hip hops version of the Andy Warhol.

GOSS; Which young new British musician was just about to sign on the dotted line to a major record label deal this week when Mr Simon Cowell called up and offered them a rival offer instead?

June’s finally nearly here and at last the weather has given us opportunities to pop our dresses and shorts on which frankly is a blessing as my legs were beginning to think they’d never see the light of day again and if I’m spending a few hours a week doing squats and lungs in the gym then these pins need to be on display whilst they’re still decent!

This fortnight I’ve been watching old tapes of the ground breaking, iconic, nineties youth TV show THE WORD. The reason? This September is the 20-year anniversary of the show and there will be mass TV and event celebrations to acknowledge the affect this notorious show had on youth TV culture in the past decade.
Its fascinating to watch the tapes back on the show where I was a presenter on series 5, where we had icons from Bo Derek, Prince, Patrick Swayze, Snoop Dogg, Nirvana, Salt n Pepa, Eric Cantona, Jean Claude Van Damme, Jodeci, Mary J Bilge and many , many others appearing before they blew up. The outrageous content that showed anything and everything wild in the world of celebrity was my first foray into TV presenting before my MTV presenting days and I look back on those times in awe. The live studio used to be filled with party people, street dancers wearing shell suits, burlesque furry knicker wearing performers, and all the staff that made THE WORD went on to bigger things. Zoe Ball and Jo Wiley used to be researchers on the show!. My then genius TV bosses Bob Geldof, Charlie Parsons and Waheed Ali bred a stable of future power players that are now heads of TV, radio, film, and between them all they practically control the industry. Back then millions of viewers around the uk made no plans on a Friday night because THE WORD was unmissable, car crash TV. Live music, controversial interviews (who can forget that we gave Shabba Ranks a platform to ruin his own career and humiliated Oliver Reed and MC Hammer so bad), and stunts that would never be allowed to air in today’s very politically correct world were the normal every week. A group of nobodies eager to get their 15 minutes of fame would do unthinkable things to get onto the infamous slot ‘’The Hopefuls’’ which saw them sit in baths of cow dung, eat toenail clipping sandwiches, drink pints of each others urine, snog an old granny and lick an over weight mamas armpits post workout. The interesting thing I observe whilst viewing the old shows is that no music, youth entertainment show has ever matched it. There’s definitely a huge gap for this in today’s broadcasting world but which broadcaster would ever have the balls to recreate such a monster in today’s OFCOM controlled TV world?

After a year of the men controlling the music charts the ladies are back in full force with this month seeing visits from Whitney, Rihanna, Leona Lewis, Kelis, and of course the return of my West London hombre Estelle!. Estelle continues to represent the UK internationally and battles the ‘’dark skinned stereotype within our industry’’ daily. Her forthcoming album ALL OF ME is about to take over international play lists again and the first official single called FALL IN LOVE is already being hummed by radio listeners globally.
To celebrate her return I threw a last minute dinner party in her honour at mine where a few girl friends and men popped by. The night started in the usual civilised manner with nibbles and wine and conversation. As the night continued I corrupted poor stell by encouraging her to mix up a punch from my cocktail cupboard and before you knew it all kinds of bottles were being mixed with her favourite beverage-Ribena-to make a deadly concoction that tasted sweet and easy on the palette but was messing us all up. Moments later the banter between the girls and guys went off with the men role playing men chatting up women in nightclubs and all kinds of screaming, laughing and passing out took place. Estelle’s new album playback party is this week and takes place in a very fab venue with her usual eclectic mix of art and fashion. A true artist.

Finally I ended the week by going to see 2 live shows. Firstly to see artist Bashy play the lead role of ‘Markus the Sadist ‘ again in Jonzi D’s hip hop theatre show about an artist that gets signed to a major label and sells his soul to the music industry devil-always on point Bashy is a true multi faceted artist that can only get bigger and blow up this year.

Next I was invited to the IndigO2 on Friday night to watch Muyiwa and his famed chorale, Riversongz in action. Now I had heard a bit about Muyiwa and Riversongz before, but nothing would have prepared me for the night with the UK’s number one selling gospel artist. All I can say is who needs the gym when a few hours at a Muyiwa concert has the same effect on your body! I’m still aching from all that jumping around and dancing. Even the usually reserved Rudolph Walker [Patrick from Eastenders] let all inhibitions go and danced the night away with his wife, Dounne on the front row of the sell-out show. Also in the house was award-winning comedian, Eddie Kadi (who will be headlining at the 02 in September) saxophonist YolanDa Brown who had the crowd in the palm of her hand with her performance towards the end of the night and Chief Inspector Leroy Logan – Britain’s highest ranking African Caribbean police officer – who was so “inspired” by the show that told Muyiwa that he wanted to put him in contact with his son, Gerad ‘Soundbwoy’ Logan! It’s been two years since Muyiwa took to the stage and judging by the reaction of the crowd, it’s obvious he’s been missed!

Luckily my diary has has had as much fun in it this week as work or I could be in serious danger of depression with this UK weather. As Marvin would say ‘’What’s going on?’’. We’re mid may-nearly summer and its still the temperature of winter!
Heating my life up were lots of entertaining moments. I have made 3 Sunday roasts in a row for friends who have popped in, eaten to their hearts content and fallen asleep on my now legendary sofa (Mariah name checks it in my song ‘’betcha gone know’’ in her latest album) .
This fortnight my girl Estelle was briefly in town from NYC and we spent bank holiday Monday shopping at Selfridges, Browns and Harvey Nics, where Stell bought some high dusky pink vertiginous designer heels. She nearly tempted me into getting the midnight blue satin blinged up Alexander McQueen’s but luckily my bank account managers face kept looming into my subconscious and I kept my credit plastic tightly wrapped away out of sight like a good girl.
Post shopping I dragged Stell down to our mate hip hop theatre impresario Jonzi D’s Breaking Convention hip-hop theatre weekend at Sadlers Wells which was packed full of dance loving people who wished they had been in the original Breakdance and Beat Street movies (don’t deny it-I did too!).
To end the night we had a last minute dinner in Mayfair restaurant Automat with stylist to the stars Karen Binns and other friends.

Last Wednesday and most Wednesdays recently I’ve been found down at Camdens legendary Koko nightclub (formally Camden Palace), where Channel 4 regularly record their Sunday morning T4 music show ‘’Pop’’. Estelle was still in town and really wanted to go see her mate Mr Hudson and Tinie Tempah perform, so a 10 strong crew of ladies including Virgin Media’s Jodie Dalmeda, Music Worlds Fiona Ramsey, PR mavon Vanessa Amadi, Adidas head Paola Lucktung, and I jumped around with all the young uns, and I mean young-most of the audience looked 16!  Tinie Tempah never fails to entertain, his presence onstage is so strong he had the packed venue jumping screaming and chanting-they were totally eating out of his hand!

Next my one time nemesis south London rapper Giggs called me to cuss me. Well, he actually called to invite me to his albums official playback but cussed me first because he assumed I’d deleted him from my phone contacts as I hadn’t immediately known who it was. After explaining that my blackberry had finally collapsed and was in intensive care being repaired leaving me with no contacts to hand he let me off. Phew!
Anyhoo-that Friday afternoon I took the afternoon off work and headed down to Giggs very special afternoon.
The invitation implied it would be a different event to the usual and I was excited. The address was a very old world educational institute in the heart of Londons brain centre and the college was an old Etoneque building with amazing architecture and grand painting of lords, ladies and distinguished folk from yesteryear looking down on us. As we entered the lobby we were greeted with the now expected wine, soft drinks offers and Giggs immediately came bounding down the grand staircase to greet his guests and thank us for coming. We acknowledged how far this guy had come. 30 minutes later we were ushered into a huge grand hall, like a Harry Potter movie where old world desks were set up like an examination hall. An old lecturer (was he an actor?), greeted us and played the role of our tutor explaining that we had 45 minutes to open the paper on our desks, put on our individual headphones and take the paper away with us. Well, this was brilliant! You could see all 50 of the chosen journalists were impressed. The juxtaposition of this south London, raw, grimy character placed alongside this grand ,imposing, English, establishment was enough to start with but the examination room and headphones just banged in the final nail that said Giggs was on another level. He had mentioned to me a while back that when he played his music for people ,like most music acts he wanted total silence until the track was over. Well now he had forced listeners to actually listen. Unlike your average artist playback session where journos chat drink and socialise Giggs had forced us to sit and pay attention. Like he always has. Our desks had the ‘’Giggs listening exam paper ‘’ on it, as well as a byte sized mars bar, a green apple and some water. The visual was a classic. Fantastic idea! The body of work sounded together and panoramic and I have no doubt that if Giggs plays the game, then alongside his very slick managers Jack and Archie they can come, see and conquer.
I ended the week with my favourite body jam classes at the gym and a dinner party at my crib thrown in honour of the return of my west London girl Estelle. It was a long night full of eating, drinking, screaming, laughing and after the great company I had an early start at a South London church for one of my best friends daughters christenings. I had been asked to film the blessing and so as I stood there, camcorder in hand, smart garms on, surrounded by my nearest and dearest under gods roof I thought ’’lord let me sleep 8 hours tonight!’’.

So much had been made of Whitney’s live show that it was impossible not to arrive at the docklands 02 arena without preconceptions of how bad one of the worlds living legend divas show could be. The uk press had been salivating at her ‘’terrible Birmingham show’’ with predictable headlines like ‘’Houston we have a problem’’ etc. but my guy and I turned up out of respect for who she once was and the fact that she is after all still Whitney. Legend. Icon. Badass mama with a voice that once reigned supreme.
It seems thousands of others felt the same cos the arena was heaving with anticipation early and as Whitney walked out with no extra pomp or regalia the crowd went nuts. The beginning part of the show saw her mentor and record industry label head Clive Davis watching her from his seat alongside Whitney’s mother. The family were in full support as her daughter bobbi Christina also took the mic briefly to show those melodic genes carry through the Houston household.
When she performed ‘’its not right but its ok’’ I sung along and smiled at the irony of the title song. It wasn’t right that clearly the years had taken their toll on Whitney’s voice in certain parts of songs especially those notorious high notes, but it was ok. We were there to see the legend in the flesh.
Similarly In “Greatest love of all” she wasn’t hitting the high notes but it really didn’t matter. The fans must’ve read the bad reviews but sang along hard and kept her going.
Interestingly in more gospel flavoured tracks like ‘’Preachers wife’’ movie song “Jesus loves me” , she hit every high note sounding amazing!. Clearly her vocals are more at home with the music of the church she was raised with.
There was a long segue with her brother singing “drifting on a melody” which predictably had fans running for the loo and hot dog stand whilst Whitney changed into her next outfit which was a red rubber satin looking gown which unfortunately for her clung in the wrong places and made her look a little lumpy and unflattering but nevertheless there’s no doubt that her figures great for her age. For me it was a sack the stylist moment.
The show was worth seeing a songstress with a reputation and catalogue that Whitney has. Her banter with the crowd was full of feistiness as she cussed 2 front row audience members for not participating as much as she liked, and again as she acknowledged the haters as the crowd gave her a rousing applause.
Her encore showed a more youthful Whitney in boots, jeans ,ruffled white shirt and waistcoat prince charming style. She came, she sang, she may not have conquered but she came correct and gave us her all and it was more than enough in this current day when many acts cant sing live to begin with.

Straight afterwards it was off to the Mayfair hotel uber glam bar for a party thrown by former international male model elo in honour of his business-the London motor museum.
Now, I’m not a car fan in any sense of the word. I cant tell one make from another and distinguish them from one another by describing their colour. But last week elo convinced me to travel out to Hayes in west London where he opened up the museum after hours on a Sunday so I could have a private tour and viewing. It blew my mind. And my mate who is a car fan was gob smacked by the spectacle. The museum houses over 150 classic carts from Europe and America from every era and genre. There are classic cute cars, flash cars, cars from movies, videos, celebrities and so on. Cars with statistics like ‘’fastest, most expensive, oldest in the world’’.
So when elo invited us to the pre party just before the annual infamous celeb packed gumball rally I agreed to go. As we pulled up to the venue a few of the classic cars from his collection were on display outside and passers by were gawping and taking photos in excitement as if tom cruise had just passed by.
The usual ultra trendy, sexy model types and rich kids inside were sipping cocktails and nibbling on finger food. Just as I thought at 1am that the night was over elo explained that he was dragging us to the after after party at cirque club. I protested that I had an early morning the next day. The protest was in vain and lasted 3 minutes.
The outside of cirque was heaving and reminded me of a hype New York that people from every fashionable walk of life were desperate to enter. Once we were in we were guided to the basement where it was like a scene from a video as strippers knelt gyrating on the bar in frilly pink lingerie, carnival girls and circus inspired characters were mingling with street kids. There were even midgets jamming hard (are we till allowed to say midgets or is it vertically challenged people?).
At first the dj was playing house music that didn’t have me ecstatic until I spotted a group of home boys jumping up and down like crazy on the still pretty empty dance floor. On further inspection it turned out to be none other than Dizzee Rascal wearing a nirvana t-shirt dancing hard to the hypnotic beats with 3 of his crew. As if that sight wasn’t bizarre enough , next to him Shane from boy band Boyzone was hosting a table heaving with drinks that the whole club were guzzling from.
Once the dj started spinning hip hop & R&B the dance floor got blitzed and it turned into a sweat fest up in there.
I finally dragged myself out of there at 3am dreading waking up 2 hours later as a car was coming to scoop me up at 6am to do my slot on the BBC RADIO LONDON breakfast show with my old BIG BREAKFAST colleagues Gabby Roslin and Paul Ross.
Yep-I was a wreck but hey-life’s for living right?. As someone once said, you can sleep when you’re dead.

What a week. I feel like wonder woman. cooked Sunday roasts for friends, picked up my guy at the airport, entertained my god children, did my newspaper review slot on BBC RADIO LONDON on the breakfast show with Gaby Roslin and Paul Ross, got my car back from the garage thank goodness as the matchbox I was driving was horrific, paid the usual car fines, attended the Whitney show at the 02 arena, and juggled work, family and friends. The stand out moments included my trip to a video shoot at the London motor museum and an album showcase by musician Akala.
The London Motor Museum based in West London. How had I never known about this secret hidden gem on my doorstep? A huge warehouse just off the A40 and M4 that showcases over 150 amazingly stunning cars .I’m not a car person at all, know nothing about them but even I was left speechless by the vehicles from famous movies tv shows, videos, celebrity cars, vintage, classic, pimp mobiles, European, American, you name it-this is an impressive collection.
Set in a slick, stunning, spacious venue that is the perfect place to hold parties, showcases, photo shoots, corporate events, family days out I will be taking my god children there soon. It reminded me of the aircraft hanger spaces that Puffy and Damon used to hold their fashion shows and gigs at in New York. Probably because the owner Elo is an American who now calls the UK his home. Elo used to be a very well known model face for well known clothing brands and over the years saved his money to buy up his car toys. He buys them cheaper when they’re wrecks and then does them up and sells them for massive amounts. Snoop Dogg, Kelly Rowland and premiership footballers have all graced his business. Elo shut down central London with a road block of his classic cars when he threw a cocktail party at the Mayfair hotel last week as hundreds of press, passers by and guests all surrounded the visually stunning pieces of road art outside the party venue whilst we sipped cocktails and nibbled finger food.

Next it was off to Hoxton to see Ms Dynamites little brother Akala perform tracks from his new album ‘’double think’’. Earlier in the week Akala had a private listening session for 10 people at his recording studio where we sat and eagerly heard his new work.
Akala told me he was going to hackney empire and watching KRS1 at age 7 and going to Shakka dances as a kid too so its no wonder that he fully embraces his heritage and knows his culture inside out. He was attending an extra curricular African history class
regularly as a child too so is always going to champion pro black causes quite naturally. When his big sis ms dynamite was doing her thing smashing the charts, Akala was playing professional football
and even owned a restaurant in Cyprus when he was playing for Wimbledon football club. Clearly a talent from a young age he explains he gave up every young boys dream job as a footballer to become a musician because ‘’ Football became a job’’.
Every time I hang with Akala we debate back and forth about anything and everything. With 2 very strong opinionated people nothing else could happen. We jumped from music to politics in seconds. Like me Akala hates the UK benefit system and what its turned millions of people into .’’ To make life so easy that you’re comfy to do nothing’’

I’ve always wondered why a man as gifted lyrically and visually wouldn’t just take the easy route and make a commercial chart hit to gain fame and money and make other material for his fans on a smaller scale?. Akala looks horrified and retorts to me quoting KRS1 lyrics and more as well as  ‘’there’s been a dumbing down of music in the last 10-15 years
, I’m looking at the music model from a different point of view from the norm
, so when music acts are trying to sell you a product like champagne its the end- its about selling people a lifestyle that they can’t attain. It tells you young black people can’t think. That they can only think with their pistol or penis.
I refuse to make that one track that could chart me and sell my soul in the process.
I wont make materialistic music cos I can relate to people that have taken the wrong path –grown men tell me they wet their beds and have nightmares in jail. I know this side of life and I don’t want it’’.

Wow-10 minutes into our chat and Akala makes me question so much.Akala adds as a final nail in his monologue ‘ I do believe that people want intelligent music, I know miles Davies, Ella Fitzgerald and bob Marley had to fight and for us musically to suggest that this is the best we can produce is a disservice to them and a testament to show how much we’ve destroyed ourselves’’.
Akalas has learnt not to sell his musical soul from past experience as he confesses to me that he hated his previous song “The edge”. It wasn’t staying true to his mentality and now he says its ‘’ a song I feel shame about and it hurts me. Although the NBA just licensed it LOL’’.
He has a very strong point. We were clearly a nation that once upon a time did respect and prefer harder rap when you consider that it was the Wu Tang album that was the 1st rap album to go to number 1 in the UK. It looks like this young man is steadily creating a parallel movement for a fresh more articulate listener around the world.
Further highlighting this coming change in our scene is the fact that his F64 is currently one of the most popular on the online UK music site SBTV (just for the record akalas favourite F64’s are by Black the Ripper and Lowkey).

Even though Akala may not be a commercial chart name yet he’s managed to stay true to his musical beliefs with the aid of top showbiz agents to the stars William Morris who book him regular festival dates like Camden Crawl and breaking convention/ globally. Akala excitedly reveals ‘’They treat me like a band I’ve supported Christina Aguilera / Jay Z /Richard Ashcroft and more. Lots of shows outside of the urban scene, Some even say that I started the whole electro dance genre with my Shakespeare –hip-hop music projects’’.

Not many people have heard Akalas new material yet although Radio 1 DJs Ferne Cotton and Zane Lowe have played cuts from it on their shows. In between munching down on his favourite conscious vegan chocolate Akala played us what sound like hit after hit.
The album begins with a long classical piano introduction and the material is loosely inspired by George Orwell’s 1984. Akala loves the fact that these books predicted fluke events.
Akala explained that he went away to south African and Brazil and it was the Brazilian youth that fascinated him…’’there were 50 kids holding m16’s. But still being polite to me and offering me their hospitality. Those kids are probably not alive now but their hospitality was unbelievable.

Akalas first single XXL is deliberately not like the rest of album. It stars mc stereotype. An A&R man offers an artist jewellery and the usual devil gifts to sell his soul and of course the devil wins and the artist ends up going mad. It immediately reminded me of Jonzi D’s musical ‘’Markus the sadist ‘’ where Bashy played the lead role of Markus. Akala nodded and smiled ‘’Bashys on the remix’’.
The second single-‘’Yours and my children’’ is about war and the way Brazil exploits young people to kill them. Akala spoke like a Brazilian version of Che Guevara!. I watched him thinking he would make an excellent young politician. He has natural leadership qualities that inspire and engage thought. When I mention this he shrugs ‘’A lot of young people wanna know but don’t know where to look

When you’re educated you won’t disrespect yourself and your community- I will do the video in brazil and do loads of remixes to create a movement!’’.
Much of the album is hard, heavy drum n bass, rock and hip-hop beats mashed up. Very club and festival friendly with Prodigy sounding classics.
My favourite tracks are ‘’Marathon Man ‘’ which is very panoramic sounding-I can imagine it on an Adidas advert or film soundtrack .i also love ‘’Physco’’ and ‘’Lay Down Face in the Dirt’’. There’s a stand out track that the ladies will love called ‘’I don’t need’’ ,a beautiful track about what Akala needs from a woman…’.not the fake nails/lipstick/cleavage, Needs to share quality, Its ok to be vulnerable upset ‘’. Clearly a man who knows the love of a good woman. Smile.
Akala has managed to juxtapose infectious beats with deep, articulate lyrics but even though the album talks about deep issues but it ends on a happy note.
It’s impressive. Very unexpected, very ground breaking new sounds that may not be familiar to urban music lovers but is a refreshing breath of fresh air. Akala has always stood out amongst the run of black musicians with his very sharp, attuned intellect and articulation. With this being election week he refuses to reveal which party he’s voting for but does state ‘’ this is my official party line- Whatever decision you make ,make an informed decision’’.
From his deep, political rhyming word play to his hip hop Shakespeare projects to his un-missable live shows ,he’s a force to behold.
go claim what’s yours son!.