ThePensmith

I can almost foresee that the Official Charts will eventually relent and have a dedicated chart separate for the old Christmas songs like they do over in America. In some ways I hope they do, if only because I'm sick of hearing James Masterton at about this time every year onwards until early January for the last five years on his blog whining about it all.

Olly is a guest on the new episode of Jamie Laing's podcast Private Parts. Quite emotional to listen to in parts, especially when they get onto talking about Caroline Flack. ZkJvgZbRqGU Also Hits Radio have uploaded videos of his performances of "Wrapped Up" and "Die Of A Broken Heart" from their Hits Radio Live event in Manchester the other week: HzWvie_webg FSOssB5uZTM

From Music Week: I did love Scissor Sisters when they first came out, their first album was one of my favourites of 2004. Hopefully some expanded vinyl reissues would be forthcoming cause I missed out on the half speed mastered vinyl they did a couple of years ago. Good that Peter Loraine is looking after them as legacy manager as well!

Just seen their Wembley Stadium show from the summer is gonna be on ITV1 tomorrow afternoon at 5:25pm!

One half of the album "You Know" was GH (cause he was contractually obliged to under Sony) and the other half "I Know" was a brand new album. And yeah residual sales came in for it over lockdown two years ago which saw it to being platinum. I've got to be honest I'm not fond of that album or the campaign for it looking back. It was totally the wrong move to saddle a brand new album with a greatest hits that he wasn't ready for yet. Not to mention they put it up against Muse and spoiled his run of number ones. No wonder he left Sony.

Five lots of HMV signings confirmed for release week. On sale at 10am tomorrow: @1592563877371576320 He's also one of the panellists on a special "Loose Men" edition of Loose Women on Friday.

A couple of bits of promo confirmed for next month that I've seen: - Performance in the Piano Room into Ken Bruce's show on BBC Radio 2, Thursday 8th December - Guest appearance on A Night With Luke Evans on BBC Two - no air date yet but week before Christmas it's scheduled for

I don't know if it's wishful thinking on my part, but I am so excited by this news and I so hope and am manifesting that we get a tour from Rachel off the back of this next year (chiefly because whilst I like the idea of doing Hoopla, after my experience at Sugababes at the Apollo the other week when it was overcrowded relative to actual venue capacity, I don't know that I like the idea of being in such a rammed environment on my own). She has more than enough material solo and an S Club medley to fill an hour and a half set. I don't care if it's small academy style venues and only four or six dates in the major cities like Natalie Imbruglia has just done - point is I am there and she can literally take my credit card! I was so invested in her solo career - "Come and Get It" in particular is one of my all time favourite albums - mainly because it was such brilliant music she made, and she never ever got the wider recognition or love she truly deserved. I just hope these performances at Hoopla will change all that and make her realise there's more love for her solo out there than she thinks there is. Anyway there's me putting my hopes and dreams out that probably won't be realised!

He's got a whole host of intimate shows and album signings booked in for his release week: @1591357764680704001 Bummer that I'm off that week but I'll be away on business when he's doing his signings at Chelmsford and Colchester - I would have gone otherwise!

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?