Hello gang! I can't believe how busy and tired I have been with work this week. But it's been in an enjoyable way and i'm really starting to feel at home there now, so it's all good. The only downside has been missing out on some great opportunities - no pop show for me, hence no interview (yet) with Beyond, no hanging out with Digital and no coffee with Switch22 :( Then tonight I was given the opportunity to go see zapping fave Scott Ashley but couldn't go again due to finishing off work stuff. It's exciting to be given opportunities like this but kinda sad that i am missing out :( Oh well, that's life. I will just need to finish my novel, get it published and retire to do writing and blogging full time ;) Still, it should quieten down a bit at work now I am (as Madonna once said) into the groove of it all. This weekend I will be getting the all new zapping website ready and giving a few of you a sneaky peek at the finished product. Ooo you lucky souls! Anyway, gotta get this up and posted so will stop yacking and let you carry on you lovely people :)
.
THE ONE WHERE PAUL LETS RUTHIEPOOS BE ON TOP:
.

Mine (Ruthypoos) and Lou's night with the Indigo Girls (and many many other lesbians!) started beatifully with Katherine Feeney who is not only visually pleasing but has a haunting voice and interesting tunes which compliment her style perfectly. A great opening act whom I'm afraid i have to skip over in order to try and demonstrate how awsome the Indigo Girls were! First a quick apology to Paul who was my intended 'date' for this gig I did miss you gig buddy and boo to work for making you unable to go - may it never happen again!! That said it was wonderful to be at a gig in a heterosexual venue and still feel totally able to snuggle with your woman! Add to this the amazing talents of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers and you have a night made in heaven! To say the guitar playing was out of this world would leave me short of an analogy to use to describe the vocal harmonies - suffice to say their CD's sound fabulous - live they defy my vocabulary - (although I'm sure Paul with his eloquence could have found words!) They played a very varied set (off about 26 songs) mixing songs from deep in their past with more recent songs and a lovely mix from their new album. I think the most memorable songs for me were Moment of Forgiveness, Power of Two, Closer to fine, Fill it up again, I believe in Love, Little Perrenials and a lovely lively medley of 2 songs, one of which I think is called Have you ever been Lonely? and the other I didn't know but they gelled together magnificently. Having highlighted but a few i must stress that every single song was spine tinglingly good. The Indigo Girls are very much at home with their performance skills and their audiences which made for interesting and perfectly timed mid song banter, such as one of them saying "it's kinda small in here I feel like we're playing in a bar" and the woman standing next to me shouted out "you are!" causing much hilarity and a good natured "ha that explains it then" response! Another classic moment was Amy forgetting a verse to a song - apologising and missing out the verse with such genteel humour that I think she could have got away with forgetting a verse in every song! I guess a review of any Indigo Girls gig has to mention their politics which still run strongly through their songs, I think however that this was perfectly reflected in the openness of everyone at the gig - when me and Lou went to the bar between acts a woman standing next to us offered to 'save our space for us'! Now that doesn't happen everyday! Amnesty International were there with very worthy petitions the details of which can be seen on their website www.amnesty.org.uk/ Finally for their encore the Indigo Girls finished perfectly with two of my favourites In Love with your Ghost and finally a roofraising performance of Galileo! We had an amazing evening which I cannot wait to repeat and I implore the Indigo Girls to return to the UK soon! Just as an end to this gushing review me and Lou were having a sneaky snog in the car when I dropped her off home and pulled apart just in time to see a nosey man passing by walk right into a lampost!! A comical end to an uplifting evening which won't be forgotten in a hurry!
.
LINK: Purchase Despite Our Differences
.
THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK:
.

Remember Drew Seeley in High School Musical? No? Although he actually co-wrote and lent his voice to songs that Zac mimed like Breaking Free and Getcha Head In The Game, he wasn't actually in the film. But no longer is he destined to be the male equivalent of whoever voiced Audrey Hepburn's part in My Fair Lady as he has replaced Zac on the HSM tour that is currently wowing tweens and D'Luv all over the states. It's like the days of Kids From Fame. I went to that tour. I nearly fainted with over stimulation during Hi-Fidelity. But I digress (as I so often do!). A quick google search tells me that Drew was part of a boyband called No Ground who has a cd out in 1999. Brillo, etc. What with Corbin doing more tv movies with record breaking ratings, Ashley and Vanessa doing their own brand of pop and Lucas Grabeel doing er, not much, this is one sensation that looks set to run and run. Drew has a debut album coming out soon and having had a sneaky listen to it, it's got all the r'n'b appeal of Justin Timberlake mixed with some pop sensibilities to make it more accessible. Super dooper.
.
LINK: Drew's myspace site
.
THE ALWAYS BOYS:
.

Aw, my little Erasure. I have to say I mainly got into them because of sitting next to Michelle Gregory in French class aged 16 (around the time of Crackers International) and being totally amazed by her devotion to them. To me they seemed like they were the cooler edge of pop - maybe how Girls Aloud seem now compared to Atomic Kitten. Anyway, I was soon sneaking to concerts in London with Michelle to see them, being addicted to Wild and a little later on being stunned by the musical capabilities in I Say x 3 and the classic Erasure album. Recently I've not been as wowed by their music, though I always find something to enjoy in their most recent projects and am always happy to see them back. Their latest single I Could Fall In Love With You is vintage Erasure ~ plinking pianos, soaring falsetto and their best chorus since the quite amazing Breathe. It's got me all excited for the new album and playing my fave Always lots all over again. Sigh.
.
STREAM: Pop over to arjanwrites to stream the single
.
QUICK BITZ/BLOG WATCH:
.

~ Look! It's Ruthiepoos and Lou! And it's Lou's birthday! And we love Lou! But not as much as she loves Ruthiepoos. We don't even mind the fact that they have lezzed it up at our apartment :) Happy birthday Lou! May you have a clitterific day!!
~ Electroqueer has all the goss from popshow. Colour me wicked green with envy!
~ David Tennant looking RAR on the cover of radio times? 98p. Laminating it at work for later enjoyment? Priceless...
~ I got ridiculously confused with this post! I thought Nick had a competition to win some Dragonette stuff. I was wrong :(
~ aw Samuel Hotstuffguy. Not only has he alerted me to a new HSM photo (though he seems a bit off with it. BOO!) he left a nice comment about me being right about how good Simon Curtis is on my myspace. See, never doubt thezapping!
~ I'm very jealous of XO's lamp. And his ability to give me cds of amazing music by Lucky Soul in NYC. Bless him!
~ What with work, i got a bit behind with Poppostergirl, but I am all caught up now and happy to read anything about Gareth Gates.
~ I so need to catch up on my correspondence with Dan this weekend!
~ Can you believe the lovely Bernice only has four myspace friends - and one of them seems to be a skanky scammer! Add her ass now!
~ and stream the always amazing Digital over at my myspace this very week!
.
~ coming tomorrow and saturday - some Roberts, some girls i didn't think i liked but now i do, some fashion, some b-sides that i prefer to current a sides, and possibly some other stuff. See you around!