ThePensmith

You Know I Know did 35k first week out. I think given how some other albums have been performing lately that aren't Taylor Swift and / or Harry Styles I'd be surprised if it reaches that. Die Of A Broken Heart is still playlisted at Capital but Radio 2 have dropped it after just four weeks. That's not good whatever way you look at it but then if I'm totally honest, it sort of deserves it, as it's nowhere near his best single. He can do so much better. I'm thinking the focus will probably shift to a second single in about a week or two given we're now three weeks away from the album.

There's no sugar coating that it's a shit result considering they were on everything this last week - This Morning, Sunday Brunch etc - and did all the signings. I'm not quite sure how many were at Westfield when I saw them last Saturday but it wasn't a massive amount I don't think. How they handled explaining why Lee wasn't there didn't help either I think. Ah well. Shame because the album's still good. Just hope the tour goes ahead without a hitch but even an element of doubt sits in my mind on that now.

Just heard "All The Way Over" on Radio 2. What a gorgeous song and beautiful vocal 😍

I was at the Apollo gig. Whilst I would see them again - they were excellent live, amazing vocals from all, especially Keisha! - I am not going back to the Apollo again. The venue itself was awful. It used to be one of my favourite venues about 10 years ago, but since Eventim have taken ownership of it it's not the same. The staff were not only so rude and aggressive, but the safety was a big concern to me as well seeing how many people were crowded around outside emergency exits etc - and because it started later than advertised, I had to leave after "Overload" so I didn't miss my train home and witnessed a fight outside in the foyer that I had to dodge out the way of that staff weren't managing well enough. I was a bit shaken by it TBH. They clearly oversold tickets relative to capacity. I'm not being funny but if the tragic events in South Korea this week prove anything is that it takes one bad management of a situation for it to escalate into disaster quickly. So yeah if they hopefully do another tour in future I'll go but I'll be avoiding Hammersmith like the plague if that's on the list.

What other promo that's been happening in the last week or two seems to be of the "Hi I'm Olly Murs and I am doing a challenge for random website" video variety. Case in point: YTid_qHhSNs Or the "taking a cold shower whilst singing Peter Andre" variety such as this one on Capital FM breakfast show the other week: I get the distinct impression that the main performances and interview type of promo won't be for another few weeks until right before / on album release week. Also it was on his Insta Stories the other day when he was signing album covers at the label, but there was a very small snippet of the title track from the album.

Album is out today - they were just on BBC Breakfast minus Lee, and there's all sorts of unconfirmed speculation currently flying around that he won't be at the signings which isn't so great. On a slightly more positive note though the album is killer - I'd say for me personally it's their strongest studio album since "One Love". There's also an interview in this magazine that's worth a read: https://1883magazine.com/blue/

Nialler just shared this video on his socials: @1585734657118797824 All very exciting stuff! Really hope he does a tour this time - I know one was planned for the last album before Rona had other ideas. Such a shame because had that not happened I reckon the album would have been even bigger than it was!

Absolutely, I agree with you both. Just getting the albums all on vinyl is something I am manifesting for next year. Hopefully if Fascination Management are still actively involved then we'll be able to have their streaming and digital music presence bought up to the standard it deserves to have.

So it turns out that Kimba was Odd Socks on the current series of The Masked Dancer! BIFoxdRqTF0 2aGuA9s5pqk So sweet that she did it for her boys. My sister has three - now four - boys so I can quite see why she chose it for her masked character!

I didn't need any second bidding to pre-order this. I only just recently bought a case for my 7" vinyls - which houses all my GA 7" vinyls - so I can't wait for this to be added. Even better that the royalties are being donated in Sarah's memory. I really hope this is testing the waters for the albums to follow next year!

I can't believe it's been ten years since the Ten era kicked off. This still slaps a decade on. With all that's happened in the last couple of years, I just wish I'd A) really savoured this era a bit more and B) that I'd taken the plunge and just bought the tickets for the tour. That I never saw the full lineup live for myself is one of my biggest regrets.

Couldn't see a topic anywhere else for this guy, but I thought I'd start it. Marcus McCoan is a singer-songwriter from St Austell in Cornwall. He's previously written and produced songs for BTS for their albums "Map of the Soul: Persona" and "Map of the Soul: 7". But he writes and performs his own music too. I saw him supporting Natalie Imbruglia at Shepherd's Bush Empire on Wednesday and I was so impressed, he has great energy - had a little chat with him in the foyer afterwards as well, nice lad. This is a live video for his most recent single "Try Me": vZbrXZ3k0Dk

A video has dropped but it's been tagged as "The After Party Video"? Hopefully that means a proper official video is coming because rolling around in a load of confetti isn't really it: WrWoA6mA11c Whilst the single's still not my absolute favourite he's done, I'm warming a bit more to it now. When I was at Shepherd's Bush Empire earlier this week to see Natalie Imbruglia, this came on during the music between the support act and her set and I had a bop in my seat. The tour went on sale today, but I got the presale a couple of days ago for Cardiff.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-ne...oin-1234609527/ I seem to remember he was a mentor for Olly Murs' team on the UK version so I imagine he'll be a good judge of / eye for talent. Hopefully this means a new album is imminent too!

I hope so. In the meantime just so I'm not left hanging for over a year I've temporarily cancelled my pre-order there and pre-ordered elsewhere!

Has anyone else had an email from HMV saying the CD book is now coming out January 2024?

Looking back objectively, On Your Radar should have been the killer double platinum campaign. It's still their most consistent album for me and the one I revisit the most. "Notorious" and "All Fired Up" were and still are that killer 1-2 punch of opening singles so that set it up perfectly. But I think "My Heart Takes Over" was an ideal choice for third single - it was the right time of year for it, it had wider crossover appeal and the video was gorgeous, and I don't believe it deserved to foot all the blame for the album then not doing as well. Those with short memories may forget but between "All Fired Up" charting and "My Heart Takes Over" being released, that was when Una announced she was pregnant with Aoife and when Frankie took her sabbatical, which as we now know was for her depression. That did set off a chain of "Are they gonna split" type rumours which sad but true, was still happening as commonplace for a girl group back then, and which, on a wider public scale, did somewhat overshadow the fact a new single and album were imminent. Also I remember seeing the girls during promo for "My Heart Takes Over" when they filmed a TV show - think it was The Album Chart Show special they did, I remember because Olly Murs and JLS filmed theirs that night too, and I was in the audience for all three. It was just the four of them cause of course this was when Frankie was still off of promo duties. They were juggling all that with the arena tour rehearsals - at some point something would have to sacrifice one thing over another. I don't really remember The X Factor performance rumour. It's a shame if it's true that was on the table because it does bring up a "what could have been" style scenario. But on a positive at least the arena tour was everything they deserved and more. I saw the Wembley show and I was so proud of them when they did it, especially because exactly two years before I'd seen them at my students Union Christmas party (when someone bottled Mollie - how dare they?) so it was a bit of a YES moment for me. Like "Go on girls!" I still say "30 Days" should have been tacked onto a deluxe reissue with the tour DVD. It had no place being on Living For The Weekend TBH.

I've just had my first listen. I think I was right to have my initial reservations. Admittedly, Olly has released records that sound like nothing else he has released in the past - "Kiss Me" and "You Don't Know Love" for example - but they worked because whilst they were something different sound wise, melodically and aesthetically they were still an Olly song and he made it his own. This feels, sound wise and visually based on the campaign imagery we've seen so far - and I'll be completely honest here - like him trying to sledgehammer himself into a box that he doesn't need to. Which is why I made the point of reference to McFly and "Above The Noise". On that album, somewhere between working with Dallas Austin and another major label getting involved, they started releasing songs like "Party Girl" which couldn't decide what they wanted to be and it flopped. I just hope the album has better songs than this but so far? I'm not here for this.

Huge batch of HMV album signings confirmed for release week. I've booked for the Westfield one!

Olly's profile page on the German Universal Music website has a new press shot and the following press biography which confirms the album is called "Marry Me" and is out on 2nd December: I must admit, between what I'm reading here and the "soft launch" on TikTok, I am bracing myself for this album to be to Olly what "Above The Noise" was to McFly; trend chasing and fitting in when that was never the point of either act in the first place. But I'll reserve full judgement until the single drops Friday. He's on Zoe Ball on Radio 2 that day to give it it's first play.

Title track from the album had its first play on Radio 2 this morning and is out today. It's a bit of a banger: SWRadLH8WpU

I think, especially after listening to Rochelle's episode of Steven Bartlett's podcast recently (The Diary of a CEO), I've made peace with the fact that it's still not the time for her. She's not in that place in her life where she wants to revisit whilst she has her presenting / baby brand / the interior design thing she does on W at the moment (which just seems to be "Here, have a white and beige k!tchen with bifold doors and an island". I digress) Which you can understand on one hand - let's not forget that her and Frankie were both in S Club Juniors and OK, there was a gap of about five years between their last single and The Saturdays' first. So they basically were in pop longer than any of the other girls in one form or another. But that time will eventually come, and probably when we least expect it. I dare say Peter Loraine and Fascination, knowing how meticulously they've done other reunions in the past - Steps, Bananarama, All Saints - will ensure this is done serving everything we want!

See I've always loved boybands as well as girl groups equally. In terms of the ones I am solidly invested in, it's always been Take That, JLS, McFly, Blue, Five, Busted, Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC and A1. I also loved Damage as well, I thought they were brilliant.

I must admit Jay I liked Shayne as well, he had such an amazing voice, one of the show's best in its history. He was just messed around a lot in terms of styling and releases, which I think is the reason why his career under SyCo Music was so short. He won X Factor pre-Leona winning, so this was before the template of the winner disappearing for a year to establish themselves and come back as a fully formed artist in their own right with the new series was established. The second album was brilliant - I had it on again on Spotify last night just to remind me and it was the moment where they captured lightning in a bottle. So many missed single opportunities - "U Got Me So" and "Damaged" would have been brilliant in particular. I'm half tempted to get this boxset I must admit!

I think it must be a wider thing with the old SyCo roster - a label called Cooking Vinyl are doing this reissue, and I saw the other day that Alexandra Burke's first album "Overcome" is getting a vinyl reissue too that they're doing.