ThePensmith

Lovely to see this at #2 in midweeks, especially after my slightly gloomier prediction earlier in this thread. It's a great album and they deserve it 👍

Guests on Capital Breakfast with Roman Kemp tomorrow morning: @1467932445739782151

There is a direct link between the two though. If you take a glance at Hot Hits UK as it stands right now, Little Mix are the only girl group on there. Now OK, their career started off on the last truly decent year for The X Factor, and when downloads were still at their peak. Both those things are now either redundant or not as important as they were, but both got them to an incredibly wide audience. A lot of what came after was hard work and having consistently good songs and videos, true, hence why they've been able to grow and have lasted as long as they have. Now you look at the rest of HHUK and even this week's top 40. And what is it? It's Ed Sheeran, it's Adele, it's Justin Bieber, it's Drake, and after that it's a lot of solo stars (Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Sam Fender) and then a load of faceless DJs feat/X/Vs so and so who I personally wouldn't be able to identify from a lineup. Pop groups are driven on having personalities and big characters. The object of a record label is still, by and large, to sign artists that will be successful and make money. Usually if they look at something like HHUK or what gets Radio 1 or Capital airplay, if a certain genre's not as popular or there's less of a certain act, they're not gonna make the investment to begin with if they don't think it's worth bothering with. So that's part of the battle. The only two I can think of that record labels have tried to launch in recent years are Rak-Su and Four of Diamonds, both of whom were on X Factor in its autumn years, and neither of whom have had anything resembling a big hit ("Dimelo" aside in Rak-Su's case) or wider appeal. Andrew has made the very good point above that there is BTS but I would almost argue that what appeal they have (their Coldplay collaboration aside) is usually confined to first week of release only. Likewise, Steps are still active and producing great albums and singles, but they are viewed by the wider public and industry as (much as I hate the term) a "heritage" act. Still, historically if you look back, usually the girl groups or boybands that have made the biggest splash - Take That, Spice Girls - have broken through and got big precisely at the moment when there wasn't anyone else around like them. Now OK, again, very different era. But what I'm trying to say is the 2020s equivalent needs to have someone willing to take the gamble and make it work to begin with and make them matter. But if they're guided by what is safe and fits neatly into a playlist algorithm then it's not really gonna work.

Obviously with Little Mix now not set to be a going concern for a while to come after their tour next year, for the first time, certainly that I can remember in a long while, there won't be any active pop groups on the scene, be it girl groups or boybands. This is something I've given a lot of thought to recently, particularly in light of this Tweet that I saw a few weeks back: @1456233700543377411 I speak as someone who grew up in two decades (the 90s and 00s) where you couldn't move for girl groups and boybands, there seemed to be one launched every week at one point. Truly I look back at that time and I miss it, even when there was the middling lesser performing acts to the big league ones. Ultimately though, both are youth driven concepts in essence, always have been by their very origin. I can't profess in my early 30s to know or have much of an interest in what is popular these days, but the charts without a solid performing girl group or boyband delivering the bops and bangers and fun and big arena tours seems well, bleak? Furthermore, how do you even go about breaking a new pop group these days, when everything is so geared towards Spotify and Hot Hits UK and New Music Friday and what gains TikTok popularity? It's almost nigh on impossible. It could well be that someone somewhere at a record label or even as we speak is putting together or even getting ready to launch such an act in the next year or two years. I know with Little Mix that their "The Search" show on the BBC last year was meant to achieve that, and were it not for COVID cocking things up, I dare say the groups they formed on there would have had more of a chance.

"Postcard" on Strictly tonight. They all looked sharp here! G8zgXvcbnk0 They also performed "Day One" acoustically into Sunday Brunch today.

Album out today! Had it on a couple of times already. "Glow", "Changed", "Tango" and "Immortal Love" are my favourites so far. Beautiful live session into Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on Radio 2 this morning - they did "Eternal Love", "Everybody In Love" and "Last Christmas" (including JB's iconic 'MERRY CHRISTMAS'!) They've taken a leaf out of Steps' book and done a deluxe digital edition of the album on their official store: https://jls.tmstor.es They're also on Lorraine on ITV next Thursday.

I agree with everything you've said, and I also don't feel sad. Truly what a legacy these ladies have created and history they have made. It feels right them taking a break now and anyone clouding it with negativity needs to re-read their statement. In fact this is probably the only time in my memory that I can remember a major league pop band announcing their intention to have some time apart like this and it not being so full of either drama or hurt. What I'm trying to say is (albeit not very well) is that it is an example of the grace and maturity and strength they have demonstrated especially in this last year with everything that it has thrown at them. I really hope they enjoy their time following their own paths now, they really deserve it. 2011 - Always for sure.

I heard the single with Ne-Yo on Radio 2 this morning - what a beautiful song! I've put it straight on my Christmas playlist on Spotify 😊

And as mentioned over on the Pop forum, they are on tour again next year in September and October. Atomic Kitten supporting, tickets on sale 9am this Friday:

It's worth pointing out that when All Saints first came back they supported Backstreet Boys on their tour in 2014 before they did "Red Flag" album and their own tour (and supporting Take That). I would hazard a guess that that is probably the pattern the Kittens will be looking to follow?

As much as I am a staunch Kerry lineup fan (for me, they released their best singles whilst she was in the band), played well this could probably do quite decently. Plus they'll have the whole Gareth Southgate thing to hang it on in terms of that "So who made the first call?" type questioning that they will get 🤣

Guests and performing on Sunday Brunch next week on Channel 4. Also playing several songs live into Zoe Ball breakfast show on Radio 2 this Friday.

Moira Stuart, Adria Chiles and Anne-Marie have all been confirmed to be dancing on the Christmas special now: https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/reality-tv/a3...-adrian-chiles/

I was reading on Instagram today that Blue released their debut album 'All Rise' 20 years ago today! 1. All Rise 2. Too Close 3. This Temptation 4. If You Come Back 5. Fly By 6. Bounce 7. Long Time 8. Make It Happen 9. Back To You 10. Girl I'll Never Understand 11. Back Some Day 12. Best In Me That's absolutely crazy / terrifying it's been 20 years! I loved Blue when they first came out. Having this album on again on Spotify reminded me what bangers they had back in the day, how tight their harmonies were and indeed, what a big hit this album was: four singles, two number ones, took about six months from release to reach number one itself on the album chart, and sold over a million here. RkWQDDv_qdg S2zgNQzNCCs GjFO5zw7hq4 TMApPh9hlRY KGDJN9Az5eI I know there's been talk of a new album next year recently. Would be really intrigued to hear how that would sound.

"Postcard" video is out and the single is also straight onto the B list at Radio 2: fSLQqhsImkk They've also created a quite clever little minisite tied into the single where you can quite literally write them a postcard: https://postcard.jlsofficial.com

Mel Giedroyc also confirmed for the Christmas special!

Wow... Quite a drop but as Jay has highlighted this is what happens when you don't have streaming on your side. What are its chances of returning once the vinyl is released? I seem to remember Sophie Ellis-Bextor's K!tchen Disco album last year had a similar bounce in the New Year (albeit attributed to her Graham Norton performance).

They were on BBC Breakfast just now - they showed a clip of the new video for "Postcard" which is from their tour. They also confirmed they'll perform it for the first time on the Strictly results show on 5th December.

Tom went out way too early in my opinion. What also frustrated me about his comments on Saturday was him being marked down for not showing emotion... Erm if you've ever seen Les Miserables and know what "On My Own" is about, it's about Eponine's unrequited love for Marius which is who Tom was portraying! Aston and Janette all over again I tell you. I do think it'll be Rose's to win now, especially after that beautiful Couples Choice last week. In other news, Jay Blades (of The Repair Shop fame) and Fred Siriex are doing the Christmas special this year.

They've just confirmed a batch of album signings at HMV on release week: https://www.hmv.com/hmvlive/jls 3rd December: HMV Westfield White City, London, 5pm 8th December: HMV Manchester Arndale, 10:30am 8th December: HMV Vault Birmingham Bullring, 4:30pm

I'm with you Jay. I said this on JLS' thread that I am not right now feeling that confident of the '2.0' album doing well but actually looking at their release date most of the major competition (Adele, Gary Barlow, Westlife) will already be out plus the albums that have come out this week (Taylor, Little Mix, Rod Stewart) so they could well get a top 10 still. It probably seems impossible to call right now based on the fact they're still on tour up until next Saturday so promo hasn't officially started in earnest. If it does do well for them then that would be brilliant but I'm equally not getting my hopes up in case it doesn't. But back to The Wanted, I'm saving myself for the orange vinyl of this in the new year but it is lovely to see this do better than many thought it would.

His new Christmas song exclusive for Amazon and his Finsbury Park show announcement were probably the signs something was afoot but The Sun are reporting today that George is returning to the charts early next year: I've loved both of his last two albums and 'Shotgun' was my favourite song of 2018 so I look forward to hearing what he brings us next. Hopefully his audience has stayed with him when he does return.

The lads are guests on the new episode of Jamie Laing's podcast Private Parts. They speak a bit more about the making of the new album on here and also the tour and how the industry's changed since they last released new music: -0xORap8gX0

I can quite see why they said this is their favourite on the album - it's got more of an "Evolution" era vibe to it (and that was my favourite album of theirs) and I found myself with it on repeat for a solid two hours this morning! l0DMNUGYibA

Just had an email from Spotify - they are selling a limited "test pressing" version of the vinyl with a different cover limited to 200 copies: https://jls.lnk.to/SpotifyFanFirstEM