Month: June 2010

MZ BRATT & JASMINE

Mariah’s brother/ nephew Shawn was in town this week and knowing he’s more a Nobu brother than a Nando’s one we went somewhere suitably expensive where you pay as much for the ambience as the food before I took him down to Bungalow 8 nightclub in St Martins Lane hotel where my friend John Woolf (Wiley’s former manager and man about town) was throwing his regular bash. We were ushered down into the intimate bar where the petite but much acclaimed female DJ Kaper was playing old skool hip-hop. In one corner was singer Hinda Hicks who has new music coming out soon, in another was producer Shy FX who was accompanied by his new American artist a very young, blonde lady and urban magician Dynamo for once was hanging out and socialising instead of taking everyone’s attention with his mind blowing magic, but I was most enraptured with one half of super production duo Chase & Status who ended up taking over the decks and throwing down some hardcore ragga! Braap!

It was a week of fabulous dinners as next one time ChoiceFM DJ, now football and business guru Chris Nathaniel invited me to dinner at celebrity loved Knightsbridge restaurant Mr Chows. We were accompanied by female vocal duo addictive. Chris and I had business to discuss so met a little ahead of the rest of the group. When addictive walked in the whole restaurant went quiet, stopped eating with forks suspended in mid-air and stared open mouthed at bthe 2 glamorous ladies that had just walked in. it was a hilarious sight to observe as they were clearly trying to work out if it was Destinys Child or The Saturdays LOL!. I ordered my (and Mariahs) favourite-the squab with iceberg lettuce. After convincing the addictive ladies it wasn’t pigeon but diced chicken –they joined me in wrapping up the little parcels of heaven and devouring. We finished with black cod-which is better in Nobu and gossiped about all things fabulous.

Addictive are really busy right now with their Mix CD out on 9th September, their Summer Tour to Holiday resorts from the end of July, a Schools & Uni Tour in September, a new Single out January 2011 followed by their Album out Summer 2011. they’re currently doing Club Tour up North and some big, rich, fat, cigar smoking bigwigs are developing a film script featuring the girls! go get em ladies! For a while now the UK charts have been dominated by male British urban acts and so its nice to see a lot of the ladies breaking through again.

Next BET invited a VIP group of 100 guests to meet controversial radio host/ TV talk show presenter Wendy Williams-as my one time child hood heroine I had to go-more on that next week!.

I ended my week with a cup of tea with Mz Bratt. With her single ‘’Selector’’ blaring out from every radio station and car stereo, Selector looks to be one of this summers anthems and Mz Bratt is the name on everyone’s lips right about now. There’s talk of her locking down a major record deal with Atlantic.
She revealed that her single which will be released in September, will be put out via the aforementioned Shy FX’s record label (keeping the money and talent all in the UK family-nice one!).
Listening to ‘’Selector’’ its hard not to smile at the very hard, Buju toned lyrics coming from this very slight, delicate, pretty young girl that looks like she could play the Disney princess in every story.
The track is very wild when Bratts music in the past in comparison is very reserved. More recently Bratt has become part of a very forceful music clique called the ‘’A list crew’’- headed up by the legend that is Wiley. Bratt confessed that the first she had heard about her inclusion in the group was when she was on holiday in Egypt. She kept seeing Tweets saying ‘’Bratts in the A List’’. The tweets continued ‘’Wiley wants you to be in the a list collective’’. Bratt added ‘’He said “let’s do this and I had known him since I was a little girl so his Co sign is a big deal’’.
Other members of Wileys ‘’A List’’ include singer Shola Ama and her sister Sadie, artist J2K, Brazen/, and lots of other new members.
Bratt confided that Wiley regularly calls the collective together to work on music in the studio altogether where he has them all working together and experimenting like the
Andy Warhol of the grime scene putting together acts and experimenting.
I had to confess to Bratt that whilst I loved wiley and what he had achieved ,he had frustrated me a lot in the past by not turning up for media promotion opportunities and so on.
Bratt smiled knowingly and reassured me ‘’Lately he’s been more reliable. He’s realised with acts like Chipmunk and Tinchy Stryder he knows its a new day and its motivated him’’.

Bratt revealed that the Album coming from the group “Midnight Love” is out now and compared her clique to a British version of American collective ‘’Young Money’’.
Bratt has recently collaborated with film director Noel Clarke on music for his movie 4321 after the musical score director Bashy reached out to her and now 3 of her tracks are in the film.
Similarly Bashy had Bratt work on a track for the movie shank too-isn’t it great to see team- UK working together united in a way that’s never been seen before!?.

Bratts story is one of struggle and tenacity. Her early beginnings were in Ilford. Essex East London. She recalls growing up with her Dad who was into acid house. She recounts the stories of squatting. They were poor. Her middle class mum brought her up. She reminisces ‘’I Had a hard upbringing –the squatting was the worst. There was a lot of Domestic violence. I remember a lot of House parties. My Sister and I sat on the stairs. Superstar Seal used to squat with dad before he was famous. I remember being 14 years old at school listening to Dizzee on the radio. I used to hang with the guys. I met Terror Danja and he supported me quite a lot’’.
Currently Bratts midway through working on her album with All Saints old producer K Gee. I imagine being a pretty female in the game isn’t easy and Bratt agrees and confirms that ‘’People feel they can talk to me in a certain way or take advantage of me and of course there are the inevitable rumours about being with acts that you’re working with but I take it on the chin and keep it moving’’. Bratt adds that she’s always having emotional rants on twitter but loves it and is slightly addicted. Her favourite tweeter is fellow artist Giggs who has her laughing all day.
Bratt is a talent to look out for. Like a very young Ms Dynamite she’s gorgeous, talented and making music in a mans world- its time for the ladies to takeover again!.

This fortnight saw me finally go see the SEX AND THE CITY 2 movie with all my girl friends. We had purposely avoided it until one of us returned from L.A so we could all view it altogether as we had always done so. So one sunny lunchtime we booked ourselves into the marble arch Odeon and had a private screening as not one other person was there. We were all dressed as our favourite SATC2 character complete with cute frocks, corsages and vertiginous heels and made a day of it at lunch knocking back pretty cocktail’s, talking about shoes and discussing men!

Next Adidas bigwig Paola Lucktung sent me a VIP box to go see George Benson. Yes, you heard correctly. Often I get sent a pair of show tickets from my record industry pals but Paola likes to do things big. So I was sent the whole Adidas corporate box and so I rolled down to the 02 Arena with some friends and we watched a living legend sing classic old skool hit after hit including ‘’nature boy’’ and ‘’never give up on a good thing’’. The Adidas box was a great barometer of how well our UK acts have done on the major platform internationally as huge photo shot pictures of Estelle alongside David Beckham adorned the walls. I felt really proud of the gigantic leaps and bounds young British talent has made recently. The George Benson audience meanwhile were expectedly a little older than my usual crowd and the volume, amusingly seemed a lot quieter which made me smile and imagine my mums voice saying ‘’turn that volume down’’. George had a tight little band that at a couple of moments seemed he was threatened by them running away without him so he reined them in again. The set was very old skool disco- like and the vibe was lovely-like a christening/wedding atmosphere.
Next I did my part for the community when I helped organise the first ever Paddington Festival for the west London area. I’m a west London born and bred gal and so when I was approached to help put together the line up and event for this year I jumped at the chance. I’ve learnt in life that its just as important to do things that aren’t always part of your daily remit and to give back and the more you give the more you receive. So on Saturday morning as the weather decided to give us a heatwave I called my mates KAT (MTV/CHOICEFM) and music artists Bashy and Akala to jump onstage at the junction of Harrow Road and Elgin Avenue where a stage had been set up. Alongside them were local dance group Hypnotik and local MC Cortex. Kat had the crowd rolling and entertained all day whilst the acts did their thing. Acts like Bashy and Akala are truly inspiring to the young, local audience. Their intelligence, lyrical dexterity and not even trying to be fly natural swag oozes out in bundles. Even the older crowd in the audience sat up and paid attention to them. Young kids had their faces painted and a lot of Caribbean and African food was going around. At one point the festival bigwigs wanted to pronounce the event officially launched by having K at cut a plethora of helium balloons and have them fly into the sky. The joke was that the balloons were tied to the roof of the stage and Kat had to climb up there to cut them off! Health and safety!

Puffy came to Europe again last week to promote his music and new group Diddy – Dirty Money, who released their new single Hello Good Morning last Monday. Now, having worked on numerous occasions with the bad boy for life I can tell you that he has a massive machine around him that ensures as part of their job that he causes pandemonium wherever he goes. Calls will be made to arrange model types and pretty chic’s prepared to wear nearly nothing to flank him as paparazzi both real and ‘’prepared’’ flash those bulbs. His bling will be ostentatious, his sunglasses will not be prized from his head and assistants will scurry around him whispering and hyperventilating to ensure the correct amount of gravitas is surrounding him-(nicely mixed with an erroneous amount of Sean John fragrance and perfectly moisturised lip balmed lips). Did I ever tell you a few years we held up a shoot so puff could summons his stylist to grab Vaseline for his lips and insisted on a mirror to show every corner of his mouth was not dry before continueing!. It used to make me laugh when I first noted the machine of fame at work but now it’s a given that I enjoy observing.
Puff arrived in the morning on Eurostar from Paris and as expected caused chaos as he descended on London’s St Pancreas station a pair of statuesque ladies either side of the Diddy. He was later whisked off to the BBC to film Jonathan Ross where even more narrow corridors were crushed up with men in black in sharp suits-you know how Diddy does!. He then topped off his London visit by partying the night away at London’s Whiskey Mist nightclub and was joined by Drake, M.I.A and Kelly Rowland as well as the usual wanabees hoping to get lucky for the night. The music stars were all clearly having a blast as they ordered over £20,000 worth of the infamous Gold bottles of Armand de Brignac Champagne-the current top champers of choice having kicked Dom P and Cristal to the kerb. Of course with all the half naked chics, sparkling bottles and DJs Manny Norte and DJ Nikki on the decks it wasn’t long before Diddy started dancing on the table and showing London clubbers what partying is all about! I gotta hand it to him, his parties are always on another level from his infamous white parties, his crazier than crazy MTV AWARDS parties and his parties on private jets- Sean Combs is a party guru!.

I’ll have to keep those memories at the forefront of my mind as its world cup time! Now I need to find friends for the next month as the football has taken over my crib and guys attention. Maybe I will spend all the extra time in the gym…..or a meet a man in there that doesn’t like the footie LOL!

Mariah’s brother/ nephew Shawn was in town this week and knowing he’s more a Nobu brother than a Nando’s one we went somewhere suitably expensive where you pay as much for the ambience as the food before I took him down to Bungalow 8 nightclub in St Martins Lane hotel where my friend John Woolf (Wiley’s former manager and man about town) was throwing his regular bash. We were ushered down into the intimate bar where the petite but much acclaimed female DJ Kaper was playing old skool hip-hop. In one corner was singer Hinda Hicks who has new music coming out soon, in another was producer Shy FX who was accompanied by his new American artist a very young, blonde lady and urban magician Dynamo for once was hanging out and socialising instead of taking everyone’s attention with his mind blowing magic, but I was most enraptured with one half of super production duo Chase & Status who ended up taking over the decks and throwing down some hardcore ragga! Braap!

It was a week of fabulous dinners as next one time ChoiceFM DJ, now football and business guru Chris Nathaniel invited me to dinner at celebrity loved Knightsbridge restaurant Mr Chows. We were accompanied by female vocal duo addictive. Chris and I had business to discuss so met a little ahead of the rest of the group. When addictive walked in the whole restaurant went quiet, stopped eating with forks suspended in mid-air and stared open mouthed at bthe 2 glamorous ladies that had just walked in. it was a hilarious sight to observe as they were clearly trying to work out if it was Destinys Child or The Saturdays LOL!. I ordered my (and Mariahs) favourite-the squab with iceberg lettuce. After convincing the addictive ladies it wasn’t pigeon but diced chicken –they joined me in wrapping up the little parcels of heaven and devouring. We finished with black cod-which is better in Nobu and gossiped about all things fabulous. For a while now the UK charts have been dominated by male British urban acts and so its nice to see a lot of the ladies breaking through again.

Next BET invited a VIP group of 100 guests to meet controversial radio host/ TV talk show presenter Wendy Williams-as my one time child hood heroine I had to go-more on that next week!.

I ended my week with a cup of tea with Mz Bratt. With her single ‘’Selector’’ blaring out from every radio station and car stereo, Selector looks to be one of this summers anthems and Mz Bratt is the name on everyone’s lips right about now. There’s talk of her locking down a major record deal with Atlantic.
She revealed that her single which will be released in September, will be put out via the aforementioned Shy FX’s record label (keeping the money and talent all in the UK family-nice one!).
Listening to ‘’Selector’’ its hard not to smile at the very hard, Buju toned lyrics coming from this very slight, delicate, pretty young girl that looks like she could play the Disney princess in every story.
The track is very wild when Bratts music in the past in comparison is very reserved. More recently Bratt has become part of a very forceful music clique called the ‘’A list crew’’- headed up by the legend that is Wiley. Bratt confessed that the first she had heard about her inclusion in the group was when she was on holiday in Egypt. She kept seeing Tweets saying ‘’Bratts in the A List’’. The tweets continued ‘’Wiley wants you to be in the a list collective’’. Bratt added ‘’He said “let’s do this and I had known him since I was a little girl so his Co sign is a big deal’’.
Other members of Wileys ‘’A List’’ include singer Shola Ama and her sister Sadie, artist J2K, Brazen/, and lots of other new members.
Bratt confided that Wiley regularly calls the collective together to work on music in the studio altogether where he has them all working together and experimenting like the
Andy Warhol of the grime scene putting together acts and experimenting.
I had to confess to Bratt that whilst I loved wiley and what he had achieved ,he had frustrated me a lot in the past by not turning up for media promotion opportunities and so on.
Bratt smiled knowingly and reassured me ‘’Lately he’s been more reliable. He’s realised with acts like Chipmunk and Tinchy Stryder he knows its a new day and its motivated him’’.

Bratt revealed that the Album coming from the group “Midnight Love” is out now and compared her clique to a British version of American collective ‘’Young Money’’.
Bratt has recently collaborated with film director Noel Clarke on music for his movie 4321 after the musical score director Bashy reached out to her and now 3 of her tracks are in the film.
Similarly Bashy had Bratt work on a track for the movie shank too-isn’t it great to see team- UK working together united in a way that’s never been seen before!?.

Bratts story is one of struggle and tenacity. Her early beginnings were in Ilford. Essex East London. She recalls growing up with her Dad who was into acid house. She recounts the stories of squatting. They were poor. Her middle class mum brought her up. She reminisces ‘’I Had a hard upbringing –the squatting was the worst. There was a lot of Domestic violence. I remember a lot of House parties. My Sister and I sat on the stairs. Superstar Seal used to squat with dad before he was famous. I remember being 14 years old at school listening to Dizzee on the radio. I used to hang with the guys. I met Terror Danja and he supported me quite a lot’’.
Currently Bratts midway through working on her album with All Saints old producer K Gee. I imagine being a pretty female in the game isn’t easy and Bratt agrees and confirms that ‘’People feel they can talk to me in a certain way or take advantage of me and of course there are the inevitable rumours about being with acts that you’re working with but I take it on the chin and keep it moving’’. Bratt adds that she’s always having emotional rants on twitter but loves it and is slightly addicted. Her favourite tweeter is fellow artist Giggs who has her laughing all day.
Bratt is a talent to look out for. Like a very young Ms Dynamite she’s gorgeous, talented and making music in a mans world- its time for the ladies to takeover again!.

MZ BRATT & JASMINE

PIC- EASTENDERS ACTRESS / MUSIC ARTIST PREEYA KALIDAS.

You can be assured that once the sun comes out in the UK that us pessimists will do all we can to make the most of it so a million BBQ”s, park picnics and summer festivities begin to take over our lives.
Last weekend I attended 2 BBQ”s, 2 christenings, a talent show called AMPT at Sound Bar where singer Shaun Williams, and MC”s Sincere and Scorcher performed ,as well as a few trips to the gym.

The christening was in Oxford for a lovely little baby girl called Monet. Daddy from Ghana via South London, mummy from Oxford. The church was stunning, the reception hall was decorated in the usual balloons, unlimited alcohol, a feast of food including a spit roast pig out in the garden area, guys all having drinking competitions, and the sun was out. We ate jollof rice, stewed chicken, and much more. As I was nibbling delicately on a chicken skewer I overheard a little boy ask a lady ‘’is that your babyson?, why is he so brown?”. Hilarious. The poor child mustn’t have been too used to seeing brown kids out in Oxford!.
I wasn’t laughing for long though, before a guy who was fully embedded in the male drink-off decided to whack an ice cream across my face for fun. I was furious but before long my competitive spirit forgot I was wearing a white knee length couture- like dress, and smashed said guy’s face into a pile of cream, chocolate and fruit cake. Cue much screaming, hysterical laughter and ruined clothes. They wont be inviting us back again!.

The following evening musician TY threw a show at the infamous north London jazz café and invited us to share the VIP balcony with his nearest and dearest for one of the best live music shows of the year so far. Early on the venue was crammed full of a great party crowd as DJ Mr Thing played classic jam after jam. Sitting with us at dinner upstairs were UK hip hop legends Roots Manuva and Rodney P. Also in the house were Flava magazine, Charlie Sloth and Lyricisit .Ty literally came, saw and conquered the crowd , joined onstage by his music friends like Roses Gabor and others the crowd were eating out of his hand all night. A real artist has personality and speaks in a relaxed manner with their audience and Ty was a genius at this-he could give a few younger chart acts a few lessons. A real fun hip hop show.

Legend George Benson was performing at the 02 and Adidas head honcho Paola Lucktung sent me not just tickets but a whole box. Yes. You heard right. I had the Adidas VIP box in the Arena all to myself so my friends and I sat back, watched Mr Benson sing hit after hit and spent a lovely evening reminiscing about the good old music from yesterday. George was good if at times seemingly threatened by his band taking over and reeling them back in. The vibe was relaxed and so laid back I could’ve fallen asleep as the crowd around me were calm and the stage set resembled an old school disco .It also seemed that the sound volume wasn’t high as it usually is for a younger artists demographic. You know the oldies. They like to listen at a lower decibel LOL!.

To end my week Eastenders actress and musical theatre star Preeya Kalidas popped over to my crib in a very sexy ,summery dress and vertiginous high heels to give me an exclusive playback session of her first music album. The sun was out and I wanted to fatten her tiny slim body up so I made fresh pancakes with fruit for brunch and forced her to eat them even though she tried to be strong with cries of ‘’no Jaz-I have a video shoot I have to be trim for this week’’ .
Now more than ever the British Asian music industry is thriving and what with singer Jay Sean’s success the time Is ripe for another pop star to emerge-particularly to fill the female Asian pop gap. Preeya left Eastenders after her massive story line last month where she found her husband was gay and a massive 9.3 million viewers tuned in to see her exit on the show proving that a brilliant storyline coupled with a diverse cast brings in great ratings. Preeya has been in the game for a long while with parts in TV specials, films and lead parts in West End Theatre shows but now the time has come for her to really take her career to the next level.
I have to confess that when I first heard Preeya was making a music album I rolled my eyes and thought ‘’here we go again-an actress wants to be a popstar’’. But then I heard the music. Its good. And then I recalled that she actually began with her roots in music and this album shows she has a strong musical background. I presumed her sound would be tinged with an Asian accent but her vocals ,which are very strong, sound very international and inclusive which leaves me concluding she could be a very successful sexy ,sassy pop star for the new generation. Im still intrigued as to how such a teeny physique can belt out such a huge, bellowing voice!
Her first single ‘’Shimmy’’ is extremely catchy and will have dance floors full and bouncing across many various club genres.
The Asian influenced remix features bhangra star Mumzy Stranger who sounds very like Sean Paul and the way he yells ‘’Preeya Kalidasssss’’ I’m convinced we will all be shouting it at her in the street!. Meanwhile artist producer Rishie Rich did a reggaeton version.
As we ate pancakes in my sunny living room I bounced around to her music including a track I loved from the album called ‘in my heels’’ which is a dance based up tempo, big dance tune that goes‘’ I’m a diva, I’m that girl ,in the club, rock my world’’. Big. A track that has to be a single is ‘’Dance for you’’ whilst ‘’Habit’’ is a big ballad with strong vocals which I can imagine being played years from now.
On the rest of the album Preeya has worked with Novell, Cage Productions, and about to blow artist producer Labrinth who made one of my favourite tracks on the album called ‘’Bad boy’’ which the bad boy in life loves!.
Preeya calls her sound ‘’triple s pop’’- which stands for ‘’sexy-sassy –soul-pop’’ and the thing I love about her is that she’s unapologetically proud of her background with regular nods to her ethnicity with her visual look sometimes enhanced and hinted at with henna tattoos and Asian jewellery accessories. Signed to Mercury Records, Preeya is a top priority act for the year and I think you’re all in for a shock with her new music-I think radio stations will play list this album as its very accessible, fun, catchy pop at its commercial best. Preeya is leading the way forwards when it comes to young, sassy British Asian females but can more than stand-up and be counted alongside the Leona’s and Alexandra’s in the mainstream. You go girl!

I hope you’re all working as hard as me! The harder I work the luckier I get, the more fabulous my life becomes!
Work hard; play harder is the perfect formula to a happy heart in my book!
So it’s a good thing that Its mid year madness in London town as when I’m not scripting, researching, editing and in meetings we’ve been awash with film premieres, awards shows, video shoots, album launch parties gigs and picnics in the park.

This week’s fabulosity kicked off with writer/director/actor Noel Clarke’s film premiere for his new movie 4321 at the Odeon Leicester square. I was so late that my guy had to hold a car park spot for me around the corner by physically standing in it and as I was wearing a tight, white ,Dita Von Teese pencil skirt dress couldn’t take bigger steps than a geisha girl. I was stressing that the doormen wouldn’t let us in as we were pushing the punctuality limit so I popped my converse on with the dress and hurried embarrassed up the red carpet with my mate looking mortified at me LOL. Typically, Noel Clarke was still doing interviews on the red carpet and said hi as I tried to run past avoiding his eye in my mixed up outfit. Once inside the foyer I swapped shoes into my skyscraper stilettos and all was good with the world (and my mates face) again!
In one corner of the foyer I spotted actors Aml Ameen and Adam Deacon who were deep in conversation, no doubt about their thespian world-I shimmied over to them for a quick hug and catch up before running along to find my seat.
Before getting there however I bumped into dishy boxer David Haye and reached up to kiss his cane rowed cowboy hat wearing head. Thankfully our seats were in between MTV comedian Kojo and Master Shortie-who’s just signed his American deal!. Also in the house were Wiley, presenter’s Rickie and Melvin, MTV and BBC comic impressionist Jason Lewis and many other power players. The film was eagerly anticipated and didn’t disappoint. Not one to be held in a niche pocket, Noel has expanded his urban film genre to a bigger diverse audience and cast and the film was gripping and intriguing in all the right places with its slowly unravelling plotline. It was very entertaining and Noel really has founded a new film genre for young people that speaks their language and that they can relate to. Bashy did the sound track and got Mz Bratt, Adam Deacon, Noel and others involved like the unifying business guru that he is.

Straight after the film I popped on the sneakers again to leg it up the road to catch the final part of singer Egypt’s showcase at Black Market Records where a nice cool crowd was mingling with good hospitality. The crowd seemed to enjoy the new music from Egypt who had fantastic energy and her new material sounds promising.

My week also included a lovely networking evening with my colleagues at BBC children’s department where i caught up with a number of diverse producers and directors from all walks of life to share experiences, next I spent a whole evening just writing lovely things for references for some of my former colleagues, then I cooked Eastenders actress Preeya Kalidas a Sunday morning pancake brunch with maple syrup, raspberries and blueberries as we listened to her debut album (more on that next week!) I ended last weekend judging at my old ballet schools national finals competition which was very la did ah darlings and reminded me to go book a pedicure for my ballet worn feet!.

Later in the week it was Genesis Carnival Company’s press launch celebrating 30 years at carnival! We were treated to nibbles and drinks as they unveiled their cyber-tribe themed costumes for this years Notting Hill Carnival 2010
The costumes were modelled by Miss Jamaica UK and Miss London and the evening was hosted by former Red Dwarf star Danny John-Jules and we were treated to a live performance by Soca Bantan from Grenada to get us into the carnival spirit early-I guess it’s a West London privilege!

The next day Mobo founder and friend Kanya King called to invite me to the UK Performance Awards, an annual event that aims to celebrate outstanding UK breakthrough performances across a number of diverse categories such as sport, education, music, innovation and the environment. Hosted by Kate Silverton at The Churchill Hyatt Regency in Portman Square it started with a champagne reception before a show, which awarded very deserving nominees accolades. In the music section were Tinie Tempah, Giggs , Marina and the Diamonds and newcomer Ainne. Lifetime award winner Sebastian Coe made me laugh as he was not amused being sat at his arch rival Steve Ovetts table. Luckily I was sat at the aptly named music influenced ‘’McCartney’’ table. The lunch was delicious, until I got a text from Giggs saying ‘’stuffing your face as usual’’!.i looked around the ballroom to see him smirking at me. If I get anorexic in the future blame him. Later as the host called for Giggs onstage it turns out he had gone for a pee and was no where to be seen. Hilarious!. Tinie ended up winning the music category and Kanya collected his award for him-make sure you get it Tinie-you know what Kanyas like-it’ll be on her desk alongside her MBE for years if you’re not careful.

That same night I was summoned to Westminster where the uber talented vocalist Alicia Keys was holding her ‘’keep a child alive black ball ‘’. The event was in a classic old church space which looked breath taking on the summers night as the paparazzi lined alongside the red carpet for the A LIST names that just kept on coming. As I stepped in there was pandemonium over Katie Price and her man Alex, next JLS, Tinie Tempah, Tinchy Stryder, footballers Sol Campbell and Carlton Cole and Chris Martin flew by. After that I spotted a gorgeous looking Jade Ewen and shoe God Christian Louboutin. The JLS boys were seated with Katie and Alex and the ballroom was heaving with glitz and money-just the right ingredients for a charity auction. Alicia took to the stage to welcome everyone wearing a silver cocktail dress that she looked pretty in but it has to be said, resembled a toilet doily. And for the millionth time this decade people questioned ‘’who is her stylist and what were they thinking?’’. We concluded that it must be an attempt to hide the ever-growing pregnant bump .She was joined by her co-host Thandie Newton who looked lovely. The food and drinks just kept on coming (can you tell I ate a lot this week!), we were also treated to platefuls of posh biccie macaroons- you really haven’t lived if you don’t know about macaroons!. Once the auction began it was the most fun-unlike most auctions the bidding and bidders were big!. First up donated by OK magazine was an opportunity to have your photo taken with Alicia. Obviously I take my proximity to stars and my photo opportunities for granted but imagine my shock when a bidder stumped up £12.000 for it!.
It was interesting to see that most of the night though, not 1 footballer or celeb bid on anything whilst heads of record labels were bidding like wildfire. Does this show who really has the purse of gold?
Funnily the auctioneer kept mis pronouncing Alicia’s name calling her Al-eeccc-ia instead of Al-esh-ia. Before long all the celebs were throwing offers around. Shaun Wright Phillips offered a footie coaching lesson which hilariously Carlton Cole bid for!. Christian Louboutin auctioned off a pair of shoes signed by Alicia and Beyonce that he had custom made for them. Next, JLS offered themselves out on a dinner date which had the ladies freakin out. it went for £7000!
Thereafter Alicia’s fiancé producer and artist Swiss Beats offered a studio session with him which AEG head Rob Hallet joked that JLS should invest in . To our delight both Tinchy Stryder and JLS got into a bidding war for it against each other -JLS won with £30,000!!! I couldn’t help thinking neither act really needed Swiss to get to number 1 but maybe they were thinking of their U.S prospects?. I also wondered whether JLS’ deal with Simon Cowell could be so lucrative that each lad could afford to shell out £8000 on a whim!?
To end the nigh everyone was upstanding as hostess Alicia performed onstage joined by Kasabian. By now Alicia had changed into a new outfit. And looked good! Wearing a black asymmetrical shoulder cut sequin knee length loose dress! Finally -the stylist came through lol.
If you love kids & Alicia Keys & support her cause-text the word ALIVE now to 82540 to make an instant £3 donation to Keep A Child Alive
As everyone danced hard to the live set, JLS were jammin hard, Tinchy looked a lil bewildered swayin by himself and I had sweat too much dancing wit the boys and decided to make a classy getaway before the lights came up fully and exposed me.
As I left I was handed a Goody bag, which was handmade, by women from Rwanda, all the women that made it had sewn their name inside the bag they made, with a toy watch inside-a very conscious, fun, inspiring night- a salute to Ms Keys-a woman of substance.