Hassaan

I was thinking of doing another of my chart stats threads but for people who don't perform music as their primary career. Jason Manford, for example, has been in musicals, but is primarily a comedian. We've had albums from him, Bradley Walsh, Alexander Armstrong and Chris Kamara chart in the top 10. Nick Knowles just scraped into the top 75 in comparison iirc... Where the singles chart is concerned, it's primarily Christmas number ones I imagine. There's not many charity records outside of that which don't feature musicians at all. Finding total sales figures for a lot of these examples seems quite difficult but I thought maybe I'd have some luck via this thread.

Jesus. Politicians trying to be cool never works for me, which is why I don't get the criticisms about Starmer being dull. Give me dull any day if the person is actually competent.

The tournament feels like it has less of a stink this year, compared with previous ones. 2022 had the complications of being in Qatar, and people probably felt guilty for enjoying it, but also it just felt weird being in the autumn. 2021 had some COVID restrictions still and being in different countries was an interesting one-off but then spoilt a little by audiences booing players taking the knee. Hopefully it's different this year.

She's autistic and mentioned that she normally feels uncomfortable in studio settings. Taskmaster was the exception when it comes to the TV things she's done, at least in terms of the actual tasks.

I can fully picture the Tories going full Trump if they lose, with the whole "this election was fixed" angle. Hopefully the British public will be less tolerant of it.

He is a businessman in a sense so of course he wishes he could own the name. :D I am slightly worried that the boys they're casting are 16 to 18. I know the very nature of boybands are that they're supposed to be pretty young, but I think it's even harder for people to get into the industry at a young age now - in some respects. On the one hand, they'll probably be looked after better, but the social media aspect isn't all that kind.

This may not be a particularly popular thing to share here... but anyway, Simon Cowell has done Steven Bartlett's podcast: Within the last 10 minutes, he mentions that the amount of new UK artists to have broken globally has fallen off a cliff in the last 6-7 years, and only about 3 have managed it. It did make me wonder who those three are. Dua Lipa, Lewis Capaldi... anyone else? Harry Styles did release his debut in 2017 but he was already known. I'm reading into it a bit too much because I'm presuming he's talking about those who got their break specifically then - Ed Sheeran was already having worldwide success even before he released Divide.

I've not been deep in the interviews and stuff like that, I just want the day to come about. The Euros will distract us a bit.

That many people don't know? It's been unavoidable. :D I jest, I appreciate not everyone has followed it.

Why am I not surprised...

I do wonder how much of a part he had to play in what people were doing by the end anyway. With people like Labrinth (one of the few people on his roster who didn't come from one of his talent shows), he let him do his own thing but still oversaw the overall thing. With some acts (maybe with people like Susan Boyle) he took a more active role in picking the songs and stuff like that.

He doesn't. I believe Syco folded in 2020, though I don't think they had many artists on their roster by then. Most had moved to RCA or something else.

Thank you!

I wonder if Sunak realises why his D-Day mistake went down so badly? His whole thing during this campaign has been banging on about National Service and conscription. Who does he think the people celebrated by D-Day are?

I still think back to Alex Brooker (from The Last Leg) who, in 2015, made the observation that Tory Manifesto sounds like a porn star.

Plus if it was easy to have success with "cheesy" music, everyone would be doing it.

I think his presence does more harm than good at this point.

I think if they didn't rush through The X Factor: The Band and did it seriously over ten weeks, instead of the disastrous Celebrity series, they might have gotten more out of it. Creating.a group through a casting process is less of an issue than whatever they do to fit into the market.

Yes, they created two new bands with The X Factor: The Band and didn't do anything with them. No releases, nothing. I don't see this being any different, although at least he's only focusing on one band. I'm not sure the pop industry is where he's going to make headwinds these days. The problem I have with a lot of more newer boybands is that they seem too slick and polished. The whole appeal with One Direction was that they were the opposite.

It was very much lightning in a bottle with 1D, I think, and I say that as someone who remains a big fan of them. I think it was the market at the time. Early 2010s had quite a few boybands in the charts - 1D, Westlife, Take That, JLS, Boyzone, The Wanted etc.

I sort of misremembered: https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-pm-john...ion-2022-06-25/

This is so baffling: https://thetab.com/uk/2024/06/07/inside-the...er-harry-369244

He's not as bad. I doubt Sunak will say something like "I'm going to remain in power for 20 years" and he doesn't have the cult following. The kind who constantly said of BJ "he's just doing his best" during the pandemic. I say that, if - sorry, when - he's ousted, he may well go off the deep end.

Chances of Sunak doing a Truss in a year's time and complaining about the establishment being against him or something? I'm glad that there's less than a month left...

I'm surprised because I thought he had stepped back from the music business. His record label hasn't been a thing for 4 years. Social media doesn't like him anyway for various reasons, so would be laying into him regardless. I don't know where this will be broadcast but I do think it's not really his bag anymore. He was in his 40s when he signed the likes of Westlife and 5ive. I don't know how it's going to work now.