Hello gang...how are you all this grey rainy Friday? I am so glad it's the weekend and thankfully DazPanic is feeling a lot better and got some colour in his cheeks. Facial and posterior...a whole hodge podge of stuff for you all today to lead you gently into the weekend...

Deb News:

Now I know you come back day after day for the Deborah Gibson news don't you ;) Well, thanks to her duet with Jordan Knight, my favourite lady has her creative vibe on - which is good, because it's over five years since her last studio album of original songs MYOB. Apparently she is laying down some new tracks with producer Neal Pogue (Grammy award winning producer that has worked with such acts as P!nk, Mystikal, TLC and Outkast). It'll be interesting to see how this music turns out - about a year and a half ago, I heard an unreleased cover by Deb called Rich Girl that was more r'n'b orientated than her other stuff and it was incredibly catchy. And, being such a fan of musicals, I am thrilled to hear that workshops for her musical Flunky are going well. I tells ya, the return of La Gibson is nigh...

Re-entering the wilderness:

its been 13 years since Sophie Ballentine Hawkins exploded onto the music scene with her million selling debut I Wish I Was Your Lover. A couple of years ago I bought her 4th cd Wilderness when it was released in the USA to critical acclaim but minimal sales (despite 5 – count em! – singles being sent to ignorant radio stations – Beautiful Girl, Walking On Thin Ice, Open Your Eyes, Meet Me On The Rooftop and Blue). I heard Walking On Thin Ice on a mix tape the other day and it has got me listening to -and loving - the album all over again and it really proves that she has lost none of her knack for melding commercial hooks with a wildly inventive sonic palette. The scope is thrilling: perky euro pop to epic rock to an idiosyncratic take on the Nina Simone classic Feelin Good. The UK edition closes with a rerecorded version of her first single that sounds every bit as sexually provocative and musically abandoned as it did back then. Remarkable :)

MP3: SBH - Beautiful Girl
MP3: SBH - Walking On Thin Ice

Always The Bridesmaid:

Everytime cool new band Hot Club De Paris come to Birmingham to play live, they are always the support act. It's no different this week as they open for Maximo Park (ew). Given that HCDP are already lazily tagged as Liverpool's answer to The Futureheads, this may not help them stand out from the art-rock crowd. New single sometimesitsbetternottostickbitsofeachotherintoeachotherforeachother might though - not only is it brilliantly titled, but the track perfectly captures the trio's way with stop start time signatures, barbershop harmonies, short choruses and lyrical wit. Refreshing...

MP3: HCDP - sometimes...

The Zapping It Pantomime (by guest writer Ella!)

- Pinkie would be the son of Shrek. He looks like Shrek so it shouldnt be huge a stretch of the imagination for the audience. We'd just have to paint him green tho..
- J'ason would be the wicked evil Queen of Clayland. Ruling the country with his iron fist he'd control his nation of little trolls by playing back The Measure of A Man...
- Paul would play a little Brummie girl called Emily, with purple ruby shoes. Lost in the midst of this strange realm aka the Land of The Spaghetti Junction. Your only desire is to get back home: the beautiful shores of Dazpantsia.
- Assisting you would be me! I'd be your FairyGodMother aka Lady Prada. With my help you'd have to fight the evil son of Shrek and kill the Queen of Clayland with your huge huge throbbing sword. Ta-DAH!

Just genius. Two artistic conditions - first poor Pinkie has to be the pre-ogre son of Shrek, so actually he's just green like Elphaba and two, Xo directs :)

Hot Links:

Nick has a brilliant song by new act called Alphabeat over at his website - if you fancy a marriage of The Pipettes and Click Five, you will love this...

Check out some Something Kinda Ooh remixes over at Will's page

You can now add the lovely Darren as a myspace friend - and trust me he's the best friend you can have xxxx

Although it's a hard song to cover, I really like the studio demo Madonna has done of John Lennon's timeless Imagine...

Join me this weekend for lots of fun stuff no doubt, that i have yet to think of. Have a lovely evening :)