Bradninch based band Wind Up Lloyd have been back in the "bunker", recording new tracks for our listening pleasure.
After a successful year of gigging; Bradninch music festival, Bradninch Rocks, The Hub...just to name a few, they've managed to spare a couple of days to record a few new tracks.
Katie Price and Peter Andre presented the award for the best on screen partnership.
Linking arms when walking onto the stage, the camera panned to the audience who frankly looked shocked.
As Phillip Schofield introduced them as the presenters for the next award, the crowd of soap actors looked on with almost hysterical looks on their faces.
Everyone loves Top Gear. Men, women, children...even people who don't give a hoot about cars love it! The entertainment value in itself is reason enough to watch it.
The racing driver who some say he never blinks, and that he roams around the woods at night foraging for wolves... all we know is, he's called the Stig!
Every episode involves either Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond or James May describing The Stig with quotes in such a way before he races a car around the track.
For years the identity of The Stig has been questioned, and always kept a secret. The original "Black Stig" was killed off in an episode of Top Gear at the beginnning of the third series, where they raced a Jaguar against a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier. Needless to say The Stig failed to stop the car at the end of the runway, plungin into the ocean, with only his driving glove resurfacing.
It has been revealed that the black stig was driver Perry McCarthy, who revealed his identity in his book. The "White Stig" has since taken over as the tame racing driver, who aims to drive cars around the Top Gear track in record time.
Picture courtesy of socialpics.com
Yesterday it was claimed that The Stig was played by stunt driver Ben Collins, who worked on the recent James Bond movie The Quantum of Solace. The News of the World claim to have found out details of The Stig's identity, but would not reveal a name.
However the Telegraph was evidently not so discrete and outed the stunt driver as The "white" Stig.
"Collins has been rumoured to be The Stig in the past due to his connections with the show, he has appeared on Top Gear as himself performing stunts. Recently a Bristol accent has been noted on a you tube video of The Stig talking to a foreign tv crew, the clip then cuts to Collins who sounds remarkably similar.
A builder who visited Collins house also claimed that he saw the iconic white suit and helmet inside a glass cabinet in the home" -http://hubpages.com/hub/Who-Is-The-Stig
Today the Telegraph online has claimed that The Stig is played by at least 3 other drivers, not only Collins. Speculation on this arose when The Stig collected an award at The National Television Awards, but it was apparently not the same person who played The Stig on the BBC2 show.
A BBC spokesmanhas said: “We never comment on speculation as to whom or what the Stig is.”
It is highly unlikely that the true identity of the Stig will be revealed by the BBC, as it is considered to be one of their best kept secrets, all we know is...
Some say he communicates only to a car's on board computer through binary code, and that he once killed a man who was towing a caravan, using only a steering wheel.
OK, I've been a bit rubbish of late and not written anything for a while, but that is all about to change...
I'm in Coventry on placement at Mercia FM for 3 weeks, so I'm sure I'll find plenty of midlands related news and events to blog about. My computer is rubbish so I will try to keep up the posts more often now it's meant to be fixed, but we'll see!
So whats been going on that's caught my eye... The Golden Globes - How brilliant was Kate Winslet? She seems so down to earth for a Hollywood star, I just want to be her friend (however sad that may seem).
Winning two Golden Globes for her performance in both Revolutionary Road and The Reader was a great success for the actress. She is the youngest actress to be nominated for 2, 3, 4 and 5 Academy Awards.
She is married to Sam Mendes, who directed and produced Revolutionary Road, in which she starred with Leonardo DiCaprio. Twilight- What an amazing film? I was a bit sceptical about it at first, all this nonsense about fighting Vampires and such like. Hated Buffy, so expected this to be a typical load of American rubbish...how wrong was I!
This film was dark and ominous, as well as being able to show romance in a genre that is usually overruled by gore and ficticious characters. The acting by Robert Pattinson was brilliant, and showed his talents, which should reinvent him from his charactere of Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter.
It's all over for another year, with Alexandra Burke being crowned winner of the 2008 X factor.
Her winner's song "Hallelujah" already looks as though it will make Number 1 at the weekend, even though the CD isn't released until mid-week.
On winning the TV talent show, Alexandra couldn't stop crying as the host, Dermot O'Leary, announced her defeat over boyband JLS.
Her duet with Beyonce was extraordinary as it showed off her vocal range. However she did seem to lack the class of the American singer, as she was hysterical after the duet.
Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah will be the song covered by the winnner of this years X factor final, which has caused huge controversy amongst Jeff Buckley fans.
His infamous cover of the Leonard Cohen classic has been a favorite since its release in 1994. Buckley's version is perhaps the most well known of the covers, and reached number one in the US billboard hot digital songs in March 2008.
The song has been covered over 170 times, and has been involved in numerous TV shows and films. A version by Rufus Wainwright appeared on the soundtrack to Shrek, and John Cale covered it in the movie.
Fans of the original, and of Buckley's version have been buying the song in protest to the X factor. Several protest groups on social networking sites, such as Facebook, are urging fans of Jeff Buckley to boycot the version to be released byt he X factor winner.
Jeff Buckley's version reached number 43 in the UK singles chart this week, which is hopefully down to the protest against the X factor.
Evidently I watch the X factor, but one thing that any music fan hates is seeing one of their favorite songs murdered by a TV talent show.
Simon Cowell seems to be biting off far more than he can chew with this one; is it really wise to take on a Leonard Cohen classic?
Websites have discussed the fact that had Jeff Buckley or Leonard Cohen walked into an X factor audition, they would have been laughed out for not being commercial enough.
Jeff Buckley and Leonard Cohen fans alike have a great reason to boycot the future release of this song by the X factor winner. Each week viewers dread to hear the re-arranged versions of classic songs sung by the finalists of the show.
The likelihood is that the X factor winner will be Christmas number one, or at least in the top 10, no matter how awful their cover is.
On the other hand, I could be wrong. So could the hundreds of fans who have protested against this travesty, but is that likely? If the cover is any good, I'll apologise for this rant, but honestly its not likely to be better than Jeff Buckley's version.
Just listen to the song and imagine Eoghan's cheeky little face singing it; or maybe Alexandra's sexy version; or even JLS performing it as a boyband. Doesn't quite have the same emotional effect does it?
As my brother said to me, "unless one of them becomes Jeff Buckley overnight, they will no doubt ruin it".
Ironically the song speaks for itself; "you don't really care for music, do ya".
At the start of the series this year I didn't really have a favorite, as I didn't really think that anyone stood out from the others every week.
However as the live shows went on, Alexandra proved that she had the talent to become the next Leona Lewis. Her performance last week was exceptional, but she kept the standard up this week with an entertaining performance of Rihanna's " Don't stop the music", and an emotional "Unbreak my heart".
Little Eoghan's spark and Irish charisma has clearly won his portion of the vote, as each week he just seems so happy to be there. His performances tonight were fun to watch as well as good to listen too. I was glad to hear a bit of McFly; I can't get enough of the cheesy pop.
JLS have always had a bit of an edge, despite being mentored by Louis Walsh. Probably the best thing about Louis is "The many faces of Louis Walsh" on Harry Hill's TV burp after the Xfactor show.
But back to JLS... Rihanna songs had a hell of a night tonight, with the only band left taking on the unforgettable "Umbrella".
As Simon said, it was either a great idea or a stupid one, but he thought it was great. To be honest, I'm a fan of JLS, but their version of Umbrella was only average. It didn't blow me away.
Their second song on the other hand, was amazing! Of course, in true Louis Walsh fashion it was a Westlife song, but I thoroughly enjoyed it! So much so that I totally forgot to look for their token colour codes that are always there somewhere.
Aston is so cute! I just want to put him in my pocket, bless him and his emotional state tonight.
And finally... Diana Vickers.
Before her laryngitis, I quite liked Diana, but since then she seems to have been shreiking a lot of her songs. I know my brother wont like me badmouthing her, so sorry Bryn, but it's true.
BUT this week I really enjoyed her performance and am sad to see her go. She did a brilliant job to come back from laryngitis and last this long.
I wasn't too keen on her Avril Lavigne cover, but I was glad to see her wear shoes for once. Her version of "White Flag" was brilliant, and it seemed like touvh and go between her and Eoghan this week.
Then again he does have the whole of Ireland voting for him!
So, this time next week, I shall be here blogging again after, most likely, numerous glasses of wine at our Xfactor Final party that my flatmate has just informed me we will be having!
Predictions... I love little Eoghan, Alexandra has a stunning voice and JLS are a great band.
