ThePensmith

It's such shitty behaviour. It seems to be an almost frequent occurrence every time they bring out a new album. And it's insulting to the fans who've gone out and invested in it and by definition, them. As I said, it's one thing not being fond of say, a certain song or album in retrospect, in fact most artists all have one they're less fond of. Sophie Ellis-Bextor for example isn't keen on "I Won't Change You". Little Mix aren't fond of some of the songs on their first album. But they still seem so het up about certain things and how people perceive them, when they actually don't need to be.

Oh it was along the lines of "I'm trying as well" and "Oh well". Maybe I misread too much into but it just came across as irritating and rude. I actually concur with what you said earlier in the thread, he is annoying. Like he's an undeniable talent when you look at the songs he's written and produced but there's an arrogance with it as well that I've always found ugly with James. I've been reading that "Reach For The Stars" book by Michael Cragg that came out last week and he didn't come off all that great in that either.

Just been reading this interview with Tom and Harry on Official Charts: https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/m...sations__38903/ I have to say I know not every artist is gonna be completely satisfied with their body of work, but in McFly's case it's exceptionally irritating when they do an album like "Young Dumb Thrills" - which I actually thought was their best record since Radio:ACTIVE - and then proceed to rubbish it at every turn and then Harry passes it off as "Oh that crazy thing we did in lockdown". Trouble is, and this has always been McFly's flaw, they can never just be comfortable and embracing doing what they're brilliant at for long, going on like it's 2005 and they're hard done by in the NME or some bullshit. Which is how we end up with albums like "Above The Noise".

I did eventually have better luck on the Ticketmaster pre-sale and got a decent O2 seat that way. But it left such a bad taste in my mouth, particularly with James being all non chalant and annoying about it on Twitter. It felt disrespectful.

Goodness me I can't believe it's been a year. I loved recently when Siva was on Dancing On Ice and he skated to "Gold Forever" in memory of Tom. Was done so beautifully.

Hmmm. Just had my first listen and I'm a bit on the fence about it. It's OK, but it doesn't really pop in the same joyful way that "Happiness" did on the last album. Also, lyrically they kind of covered this territory on "One For The Radio". That for me was one of their best singles because it came at a time where they were so ignored by mainstream radio and basically delivered this rollicking anthemic belter that very cheekily said "Well as you won't play us, here's a song you won't play, despite the fact we're no different from the supposedly 'cooler' bands you're throwing your weight behind." Calling a song "Where Did All The Guitars Go?" also runs the risk of sounding a bit "This youth of today..." (strokes chins and tuts in manner of old man). Hopefully it clicks with a few repeat listens but so far it's not their best or their worst. Just sort of somewhere in between.

Pre-sale has been - to put it mildly - an absolute shit show this morning. I'm just gonna have to try my luck on the general sale on Friday. Honestly 😩

So sad to wake up and hear that Paul O'Grady has passed away today aged 67. He was always one of the girls' most vocal supporters, everytime they had a new single to promote they were always on his teatime chat show. Thought I'd share a few of their best bits together down the years. Couldn't of course forget the sketch he did with them on their Party special as well with Buster his dog. dzCwJiSzNf8 2TB3X3BVMY8 WV_6X3bT7rk v8baKQcLdag SYClRK7sRGw

The clips sound wicked. Love that one of the tracks is called "You Could Start A Cult", that's funny 🤣 McFly appear to be releasing their new album "Power To Play" on the same week as this!

Oooh the cover looks ace. Looks like they'll be going head to head with Niall Horan then - his new album is out the same day as theirs is!

I've been seeing a lot about these guys on my socials the last couple of days. New four piece all male R&B group - Ebubé, Josh, Zeekay and Kaci. The latter two will be familiar to fans of Little Mix, as they were members of the boyband New Priority that were formed on their BBC One show Little Mix: The Search. Their first single interpolates a sample of "True" by Spandau Ballet and it works rather well, 1Xtra seem to be getting behind them already and they appear to be trending on TikTok. I'd be interested to hear more! z_phV3KYHjY

Something's happening on Thursday - their socials have just updated with this!

Ah, I've seen pictures from that same shoot this one was (there was one of them where they're all looking at each other inside the booklet for Now 44 I always recall, and also on the back of the boxes for their dolls). But this is a new one to me too!

I noticed that too - they must have just changed them in the last couple of days! So hoping this means Uncle Simon has got Chris Fox on the phone to do remastered videos!

They're on This Morning tomorrow for St. Patrick's Day. Big announcement apparently so I would think that a tour's gonna be confirmed!

Rachel will be joining Heart 00s Radio to guest host Ashley Roberts' Saturday afternoon show from 4-7pm on 18th March, 8th April and 15th April!

I noticed whilst browsing at lunch that National Album Day has been confirmed for October, and the theme this year is the 90s: @1635573215039815681 Releases and ambassadors are yet to be announced, but how cool would it be if we got the first album on vinyl from this?

They've confirmed through medium of amusing TikTok video that a matinee show for Newcastle has been added - on sale this Friday!

"The Greatest" and "In Too Deep" off Seeing Double are probably my least favourite as well. How they made it on the album and neither "Rain" or "Discotek" did is beyond me.

The reason it sounds a bit True Steppers-esque is because it is produced by one of the True Steppers - Jonny Lisners! He and Cathy Dennis wrote and produced the song, along with "Do It Till We Drop". In an ideal parallel universe, if the last album era has been handled a lot better, and Jo hadn't had back problems and Paul was still there, we would have got "Alive" a lot earlier than we did as a single (late August / early September) if we absolutely had to, and this would have been the follow-up, released as the second single along with the album and the movie in late November (they really didn't need to wait to release the movie until April the following year. It wasn't that high concept!) It would have shown that "Don't Stop Movin'" wasn't just a one off and that they could move forward with another punchier sounding dance pop single but with a different vibe. I suppose the only thing that works against it is the fact that unless you've seen the film, the lines "When you're a clone, you know you're never alone" don't make much sense. Other than that it's one of my picks for best lost single that never was from the "Seeing Double" era.

Interview and performance on The Jonathan Ross Show tomorrow night at 9:40pm on ITV.

They're also the cover feature and interview in this month's Retro Pop magazine: @1633515331229556770 A preview of the full interview here confirms that the single is written and produced by their old producer Ray "Madman" Hedges and they've signed with Sony again, and that the album is still being recorded: https://retropopmagazine.com/bwitched-reuni...-over-20-years/

Exclusive first play will be on Sara Cox's Drivetime show on Radio 2 tomorrow afternoon:

He's on The One Show on BBC One tonight talking all things "Heaven" and the new album. He was on Radio 2 on the Breakfast Show with Zoe Ball yesterday and talked to this adorable old man 😍

Tom has posted on his Instagram Stories today that they are shooting a new video for the first single off their new album - so I guess the topic can start, right? I did love "Young Dumb Thrills" so I'm excited to see what they do next!