ThePensmith

Wembley was wicked on Friday night, good show and a good setlist in terms of all the albums getting equal time in the spotlight. Oh, and then there was the small matter of this happening... Did have a feeling he might get a guest out given Dermot Kennedy was at the Irish dates. Didn't for one second think it might be Shawn Mendes! The crowd went ballistic when he did appear as you can see :lol:

I went to see Niall Horan at Wembley Arena last night on his new tour and he bought out Shawn as a surprise guest. They sang "Treat You Better" together acoustically. The place went ballistic, yes :lol: I saw a post of him in Paris pop up on Instagram recently so I did wonder if he had new music on the way!

The book has now been pushed back to 20th June. I did see the audio book had been pushed back to then a little while ago so I did wonder if they'd happen in conjunction!

Just confirmed this morning they're doing Brighton Pride on the Sunday - headlining with Mika:

Hmm. With the visuals they had at their disposal for this album I can't lie when I say I'm a bit underwhelmed by what's there!

A second date on 9th October has been added due to demand - on sale along with the original date tomorrow!

Pre-sale was an absolute mare (why do artists keep using Ticketek though? They did the Busted and Girls Aloud presales which were both respective shitshows) but did eventually get through and get a ticket for Block B2 so I'm happy with that ☺️ In other news, Tom and Danny will be coaches in the first ever double chair on the next series of The Voice UK:

Honestly? The continuing success that Sophie's experiencing from this? Nothing short of joyful. Loved her Live Lounge set and her performance at the BAFTAs and on Jimmy Kimmel last week.

Tour started in Belfast last night. Can't believe Wembley is next Friday, it's come round so quickly!

Confirmed that they will do a big 21st birthday show at The O2 in London on 10th October. Tickets on sale Friday, pre-sale this Wednesday at 9am: I missed the One Night Only show they did at The O2 a few years ago so might have to do this one I think!

Knew it was Danny from the start! Incredible voice 👏🏻 ☺️

Announcement coming from the boys on Monday at 9am: Hoping that this is something to mark the anniversary of Room On The 3rd Floor (it probably is!)

The B-Sides from this album - including her cover of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" - will also be on a special limited edition 10" vinyl for this year's Record Store Day on 20th April:

Reissue on half speed mastered vinyl, deluxe 2CD and 3CD boxset (the latter a limited edition of 500 copies) now available for pre-order at https://nerinapallot.tmstor.es/ from today. Out on 12th April! I've preordered the vinyl and boxset. Stunning!

I can think of one... 🤣 She could do a documentary on (or with) Queen Noor, sweetie. Seriously though. I think whatever hopes I had towards this happening have literally evaporated in the last 48 hours. Unless it's Mel C it's like the others don't wanna know.

The fact that almost 99.9% of the comments under that post are either from international fans who don't have it on Spotify and want it to be, or are from fans here in the UK that would give their right arm for a proper vinyl reissue and both of them being - for now - ignored doesn't exactly look good. But then again it's XIX Management that hold the keys to the castle at the moment, as they own the masters. And given how much Simon Fuller ballsed up not just the Spiceworld reissue (some of it because of reluctant fellow colleagues of Emma's) but also the S Club vinyl reissues nothing would surprise me if he is one of the main spanners in the works on this. It could well be that he's levying it as bargaining power to get whatever it is the Spice Girls were meant to be doing in motion?

I've heard on the grapevine that they are ridiculously priced. I'd expect it of Madonna, not The Corrs. I blame Jim #silenceinthepresenceofbeauty

Confirmed they are supporting Shania Twain at BST Hyde Park on 7th July. Not really the London date I had in mind. I guess I'm not seeing them then unless they announce something later on.

I kinda anticipated that this is how it would be acknowledged. Ah well... guess I'll be keeping an eye out for when the promo vinyl next appears on eBay for a non-crazy amount. Shame.

A new 25th anniversary edition of the album, including first time to vinyl pressing, is coming later this year - as is a new UK tour that is happening in November (although frustratingly without any dates south of Birmingham yet). Tickets on sale this Friday at 10am:

Playing at the Isle of Wight Festival in June on the Big Top Stage!

Also just noticed something - all the videos from this album now have special thumbnails like the ones they did for the SOTU reissue! (Although this does mean Jump now has a new thumbnail too. Canonically, I feel like it belongs with the last album era as well but them's the rules I guess)

Teaser of "Wicked Game" has just dropped! Have to say, even on 17 seconds alone, not at all what I was imagining - in the best possible way! It almost sounds a bit dubsteppy - before that was even a thing.

TBH whilst I don't use or have any desire to use TikTok in future, this is not the first time UMG have been in a situation like this. About 15 years ago they had their whole "removing artists and songs" from YouTube because of a similar dispute. I seem to remember specifically around the time I went to uni (September 2009) you suddenly couldn't watch any of The Saturdays TV performances on YouTube for example (annoying for me as I didn't have a telly at that point), as they were signed to Polydor (part of UMG). My feeling is that for both sides, they'll want to resolve it as swiftly as possible, but in UMG's case they've taken the approach that needs to be taken.

It's officially 20 years today since their debut album was released! If there is one of many albums I would love to see get the full reissue treatment on vinyl etc this year, this album would be one of them. Jo Whiley has incidentally been playing songs from it on her Radio 2 show all this week and it's made me get my copy out again. Immaculate record!