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So it’s that time of year when we reflect on the highs and lows over the previous 12 months and predict who will be the names which will be making the headlines in 2010. As far as my predictions last year went most of them have done fairly well however it was a fairly rather dull and mainstream list. I doubt anyone will look back on 2009’s releases and will be able to pick any classics.
One possible exception may include Florence and the Machine who went from strength to strength and finally broke through, Little Boots and La Roux also did not disappoint and Speech Debelle deservedly won The Mercury Music Award for a leftfield and rather obscure Jazz Rap album.
Other notable debuts were released by The Big Pink and Grizzly Bear however the real big sellers in the UK were dominated by American acts in particular Lady Gaga who started the year off supporting the Pussycat Dolls on their arena tour, only to sell out her own arena tour less than 12 months later.  The Kings of Leon whose 4th album “Only by the Night” sold 5 times Platinum making it one of the best selling rock albums since Oasis’s “What’s the Story Morning Glory” .
My predictions for 2010 based on sales rather than critical acclaim focus on three female fronted acts and a Manchester band called Delphic who have been bubbling under for the past year or so playing various festivals including Bestival over the summer months.  The band sound like a cross between Friendly Fires and New Order and are pretty good. They are playing extensively in the New Year and for a full list of their dates visit their Myspace page.
Next up on my list is a 22 year old singer from Hereford called Ellie Goulding. Ellie has really excited the music business over the last six months and has been named as the ”Critics Choice” at the Brits this February, following in the footsteps of Adele and Florence and the Machine.  Ellie has also sold out a solo tour which starts at a Q Showcase gig at The Tabernacle on the 30th of January. She is the first signing by Ferdy Unger Hamilton in his new job as President of Polydor. Ferdy is one of the best A&R men in the country and over the last 15 years has signed singers including Gabrielle and Portishead. Her debut album which is out early next year has been produced by Mark Ronson and Starsmith and undoubtedly will do very well.

Daisy Dares You which is the first release on the newly revived Jive label. The 16 year old has been working with her publisher Sony/ATV for the past year on her material and her first single “Number one Enemy” is due to be released in February with an album shortly afterwards. She is also touring with her label mate Chipmunk in February. Young, pretty and opinionated Daisy no doubt will do very well in 2010.

Marina and the Diamonds is headed up by Marina Diamandis a half Welsh/Greek singer who was recently signed by Sixsevenine. Musically from what I have heard Marina sounds like a cross between Kate Bush, Gwen Sefanni and Lizi Minnelli. Her debut single “Hollywood” is out in early February with her album “Family Jewells” on the 15th of February.
Other bands and artists worth keeping an eye on include:

Owl City
Devlin
Gigs
Rox
The Drums
Alex Gardner

Written by John Rahim

Many would argue that UB40 are well past their sell by date and when Ali Campbell quit the band earlier in the year that that it would be unlikely that they could continue. Certainly there were many vacant seats at the O2 tonight however considering that they had played MEN Arena and many other arenas earlier in the week it was quite impressive that they still have the pulling power.

Ali Campell’s brother Duncan who was recruited in earlier in the year to replace his brother did an admiral job however was seriously lacking in any stage presence or charisma and plodded through the set in a fairly uninspiring manner. UB40 do however have a secret weapon, a massive back catalogue which includes over 50 top 20 hits so despite the uninspiring show they were still able to stir up the audience with hits which included “Red Red Wine”, “Rat in the Kitchen”, “Kinsgton Town” and probably their finest song “One in Ten”.
UB40 may have lost their political edge which probably comes with selling 70 million albums however their audience still love them despite of the major line up changes.

Written by John Rahim

Well no one can claim that Yusuf Islam has cashed in on nostalgia and certainly the Royal Albert Hall was tonight filled with older fans who grew up listening to his music in the early 70’s,  along with a large proportion of Muslim families who probably seldom find themselves at a folk concert. The Cat Stevens story is well known and watching him tonight I couldn’t help but feel a sense of sadness. It was obviously important for him to find himself however by through doing this he turned his back on his gift of songwriting to embrace a religion which deemed such activities as being inappropriate.  Age however has softened Yusuf and he picked up a guitar again after 30 years when his young son bought an acoustic and left it lying around the family home. Songwriting came naturally and the fruits of his labour were the “Roadsinger” album which came out earlier in the year.

The concert started with a 20 minute excerpt from his new musical “Moonlight Shadow”,  however the format of this has changed somewhat as the audience in Dublin didn’t get it and virtually started a riot when they thought that they were going to watch an entire music minus the man himself. So in London it was somewhat different with Yusuf coming on and singing some of the songs along with a young boy and girl from rival communities however find friendship, a central theme of the musical. Moonshadow  is certainly is not Mama Mia however it will definitely appeal to dire hard Cat Steven  fans.

The second part of the concert was Yusuf and his very accomplished band playing songs from his 40 year career. The Roadsinger was a very accomplished comeback album however not unsurprisingly the audience were there to hear the classics such as “Father and Son”, “The First Cut is the Deepest” and “Matthew and Son” guaranteed there was not a dry eye in the house.

Written by John Rahim

Technically speaking tonight’s gig was not an 80’s show however there certainly was a wift of nostalgia, Joop and big shoulder pads.  The popularity in 80’s bands is such that few of them who had hits between 1982 and 1985 can resists not to get back together for one last time, and of course reap the financial glories which they probably never enjoyed during their hay days.  OMD are the latest in a long list that has recently got back together after years in the wilderness.  That said Andy McClusky certainly has been busy as a pop svengali, and the creation of Atomic Kitten has showed that he was still able to write a catchy tune,  even if they were sung by the tackiest singers in the world.

I remember OMD as a class apart from other synth orientated bands of the early 80’s and there was distinctive sophistication about them which out them in a different league to their contemporaries.  Certainly the songs that they performed tonight, most of which were from their album “Architecture and Morality”,  had aged well and still sounded relatively fresh. Andy McClusky’s dancing however was still cringe worthy and made Ian Brown look like Michael Flatley. Their set included “Souvenir”, “Enola Gay” and the classic “Joan of Arc”.

This was the second time that I have seen Simple Minds in the past year and although they hadn’t sold out Wembley Arena they did an admirable job in filling the aircraft hanger of a venue. Unlike the 30th Anniversary Tour which was a strictly greatest hits tour this one was to promote their new album “Graffiti Soul” which was released by Sanctuary Records earlier in the year. Whilst this has not a patch on their previous albums it has done reasonable well. That said it was evident that most of the audience were there to hear the old hits and half way through the set around 40 people in front of me vacated their seats to go to the bar only to return when hearing the first couple of chords from “Don’t you forget about me”. Simple Minds catalogue is vast and although I was not a big fan of them whilst growing up they released some classic albums which have stood the test of time. In 1984 when they released “Once Upon a Time” around 70% of kids in my year owned a copy. That said I did go to School in Glasgow however they were pretty popular everywhere else as well.

Written by John Rahim

The golden rule of working with news agencies is not to file your images with multiple agencies, however occasionally some do slip through the net! When I received my photo pass from Retna I was told that my pass was a commission for The Guardian review which was going to run on the Monday however due to an FTP error I ended up sending them through to the rival agency Rex Features, only to get an angry call from Retna’s picture desk when they saw that their image had been used by another agency! Oops however I guess mistakes do sometimes happen. The link below is certainly proof of the error. http://bit.ly/8qCatW

This was the first time that I had seen Ian Brown perform for a while. I must have watched The Stone Roses more than a dozen times during the 90’s and sadly saw their penultimate show at The Reading Festival in 1996. Ok Ian Brown had never been pop’s finest male vocalist however his performance at Reading was enough to receive death threats from various fans! 

Whilst his performance tonight was not in the same league as Reading’s 1996 show, I was shocked about how out of tune he was. The Manc swagger and dad dancing was highly amusing however the singing was utterly appalling! The performance started with encouraging the audience to limber up as if they were about to be subjected to an aerobic workout. Yes no more songs until the first three visible rows were doing the monkey moves, quite funny but utterly ridiculous!  The audience however loved the set and Ian Brown certainly has the material to pull off a first class show. The songs played covered all of Brown’s solo albums and also included some Stone Roses classics such as “Fools Gold” however,  the biggest cheer came for his Massive Attack inspired single F.E.A.R. which solidified his position as a serious solo artists in 2001.

Written by John Rahim