Although I've never blogged about it that much, both K and I take a great interest in contemporary ceramics, and we've built up a fair old collection over the years. Many of our most significant and prized purchases have been made at the annual Earth & Fire fair, which is held every June at Rufford Abbey Country Park in North Nottinghamshire, not far from the village in which I grew up.

For many years, the park has boasted a terrific Ceramics Centre, which has attracted an international reputation and ensured that Earth & Fire has become THE leading ceramics event of the year, with a large proportion of this country's leading practitioners - Chris Keenan, Antonia Salmon, Ashraf Hanna, Tim Andrews, Eddie & Margaret Curtis, Emma Johnstone and many more - manning their stalls in person, and making themselves generally available to gushing groupies such as ourselves. The centre also stages regular exhibitions throughout the year, as well as hosting workshops, providing artists' residencies, offering pieces for sale, and generally serving as a national centre of excellence.

Sadly, all of the above is now under threat, as Nottinghamshire County Council, the centre's prime benefactor, has begun to roll out a series of "changes to the operating model" - or "cuts", to use the more common parlance - at short notice and without any prior public consultation. Staff are being laid off, ceramics are no longer for sale at the centre, support for the exhibitions is being withdrawn, all workshop programs are being closed, and the whole scope of this nationally acclaimed centre is being narrowed right down. In short, a scarce and valuable national resource, which attracts thousands of visitors to an otherwise undervalued part of the county, is in danger of virtual extinction.

Thankfully, the centre's many supporters aren't taking the situation lying down. An online petition has already attracted over 1000 signatures, a campaign blog has been set up to report on the developing situation, a supportive article has appeared in The Times, a "Save Rufford Ceramics Centre" group has been set up on Facebook, and pressure is building on the County Council to justify their position.

If you're the sort of person who takes an interest in these things, then please visit the blog, sign the petition, and generally spread the word. This has been a Troubled Diva Public Service Announcement. Thank you for your time.

Labels: art, ceramics, nottinghamshire, politics

2007 was probably the year that, following several years of exponential growth, the blogging phenomenon reached some sort of plateau. The word itself has now passed into common parlance, and the existence of blogs is no longer regarded as novel, unusual, mysterious, or otherwise worthy of comment. Finally - and not before time either - we have reached a stage where no-one is predicting that 2008 will be "The Year Of The Blog". At some point during 2007, the last ever "What IS Blogging?" think-piece must surely have been penned - and for that alone, we must all be truly grateful.

Because, you see, everyone's got them now. Not just the tech-head pioneers, or the "If it moves, link it!" first wave (*), or the "Today I had a cheese sandwich!" second wave, or the pundits, the politicos, the hobbyists, the special interest brigades, the amateur journalists, the "writerly" types and the "Seize the Marketing Opportunity and make $$$!" hucksters... but also, and in ever greater numbers: newspapers and periodicals, private companies and public organisations, international broadcasting empires, grassroots community projects, established professional writers, politicians, presenters, academics, high-falutin intellectuals and Z-list celebs alike.

Until quite recently, the statement "I am a blogger" implied membership of a particular community: relatively small in size, and largely (and to the outside world, somewhat bafflingly) self-referential in nature. Now, it means little more than "I have a computer, a way with words, and some spare time on my hands." Blogs have been normalised, integrated... and some disillusiuoned idealists might even say that they have been co-opted. For literally millions of people, they are just another part of everyday life.

For the faddists - the sort of people who hung out on Blogspot or Livejournal for a few months, setting up Tag Boards, joining web rings and endlessly posting the results of "What XXXX Are You?" quizzes before getting bored and moving on - Facebook is the new blogging. (We thought that Myspace was the new blogging, but little did we know what lurked around the corner, and how many more demographic boundaries were to be breached.) I'd wager that the broad majority of people reading this have set up Facebook profiles and are still active participants, and that an unshakeable minority have resolved never to go anywhere near the service. By this time next year, I'll wager that anyone who was ever likely to dabble with Facebook will have duly dabbled, that the honeymoon period will have ended, that the last "What IS Facebook and what does it SAY about us?" think-piece will have been written, and that a significant proportion of profiles will be lying dormant and abandoned. It will have been an altogether shorter cycle of Big Boom and Slow Fade, tied as it is to a single proprietary site, a more restrictive format, and an emphasis on minimum-effort, short-attention-span novelty - and by the same token, that's why the blogging plateau is unlikely to start dropping off any time soon.

From my own highly subjective little corner of the blogosphere, 2007 was the year that the Bloggers With Book Deals started yielding tangible end results (otherwise known as, coo er gosh, BOOKS!), with many more to follow in 2008. As The Blogsbury Set came of age, and as "portfolio sites" started to make their presences felt, you could also detect the first rumblings of an increasingly widespread shift in priorities. ("Sorry I haven't had much time for blogging recently, but I've been SO BUSY, agents, deadlines, press & PR, oh it's all been such a GIDDY WHIRL!") And what with stunts such as Shaggy Blog Stories, which saw over 200 bloggers left out on the pavement as the Blogsbury glitterati sailed through the velvet ropes, and Post of the Week (over 200 blogs shortlisted to date, so why wasn't YOUR blog GOOD ENOUGH?), there was a distinct sense of competitiveness in the air, as a new élite basked in self-regard ("SO wonderful to see my DEAR FRIENDS doing SO well!") while the Not So Beautiful People muttered seditiously behind their backs ("Who the chuff does HE think HE is, and SHE'S nothing special, and who the f**k made HER the Queen of Bloody Sheba?")

OK, so I'm exaggerating to make a point. But since I have been, let's face it, one of the prime architects of the New Competitiveness, and even if my motives were always about net-widening inclusion rather than judgemental exclusivity, I am not without a certain amount of blood on my hands in this regard. And for that, and for the times where my well-meaning eagerness to champion and celebrate might have run roughshod over others' sensitivities, I can only apologise.

---

(*) Non-sequiturial addendum, while you all prepare your "Oh Mike, don't be so hard on yourself" comments, bless your dear dear hearts but really there's no need, no need at all: With reference to that first wave of link-bloggers, it tickled me something rotten to read these recent words of advice from Jorn Barger, officially the World's First Ever Blogger, on the occasion of our medium's tenth anniversary: "If you have more original posts than links, you probably need to learn some humility." Because while part of me wants to say "Respect to you, Old Timer", the other part of me wants to say "Get with the program, Grandad"...

Labels: blogs, community, opinion

After the extreme highs and lows that characterised the year before, 2007 was an altogether smoother affair, but not without significant moments of Personal Growth and Development. I'll be remembering it as the year when I published a blogging anthology, in a week, for charity (aided and abetted by a fine band of helpers, of course) - and also as the year when I started interviewing singers, musicians and random celebrities of various hues, for the Nottingham Evening Post, whilst continuing to attend as many live shows as humanly possible. (I've said it before and I'll say it again: where else do you get to hear analogue?)

It was also the year that Post of the Week got off the ground - and although I'll be taking more of a back seat with it in 2008, in order to concentrate on getting a community blog for our village off the ground, its future looks reasonably assured for now.

Other than that, I gave a talk on blog-writing versus book-writing at a literary festival, I had a couple of fun weekends in Amsterdam, and continued to visit London whenever suitable excuses presented themselves; most notably when Danish Eurovision fans, Portuguese illustrators and Belgian blog-celebs came to town. (Oh, and for the occasional film preview as well - for this was the year that the pushy PR peeps came sniffing around some of us bloggery types in earnest, and I'm not above accepting a freebie or two in certain circumstances.)

On the home front, we saw a lot of K's warm and wonderful family, as the loss of his sister in the spring of 2006 continued to cast a long shadow. A surprise gathering of the clans to celebrate K's dad's 70th birthday at a country pile in North Wales was a particular highlight, not least for the chance it gave me to get to know our two bright, charming and delightful young nieces. The cottage garden (aka PDMG#1) had its best year ever, and will be appearing in a magazine in the next couple of months or so (hey, you know what we're like). Over in Nottingham, the old concrete yards were replaced by a brand new garden (PDMG#2), and a new kitchen was installed, amidst much corporate f**k-wittery and call-waiting stress (and this latter was another of the year's less welcome themes). In the cottage, with viciously inappropriate timing, a ceiling collapsed on the day that Shaggy Blog Stories was published, and the deafening roar of de-humidifiers duly ruled our lives over the next few months.

At work, I changed both clients and desks, moving into a lively corner of the office and ending six years of aloof semi-isolation. This was definitely a Good Thing.

In August, I compiled a list of "Twenty-Five Things I Want To Do Before I Die". By the end of the year, I had accomplished two and a half of them (and as far as one of them is concerned, thereby hangs a lengthy and significantly perspective-shifting tale, but that's for another day, if indeed at all).

And then there was dear old neglected Troubled Diva, which slid ever further away from its 2002-2004 heyday, becoming little more than a repository for freelance music reviews and interviews. In the past few months, the issue of What To Do About Troubled Diva has dominated my thinking in a way that has yet to yield any firm answers. As the rigours and disciplines of print journalism have taken root and soaked up most of my spare energies, so I have moved ever further away from the "Troubled Diva" persona of yore. Although I remember him with affection, I am already looking upon him as another person, from another lifetime.

All of which begs the question: whither blogging, and whither this blog? As ABC's Martin Fry warbled, a generation ago: I don't know the answer to that question. If I knew, I would tell you. Ooh, how enigmatic!

To the few long-suffering regular readers who remain, and to anyone else who might happen to be passing: may I wish you the happiest of new years.

And now I am off down the pub. Some things never change.

Labels: journal

Click here for the full set.

Mosaic created with fd's Flickr Toys (via Anna).

Labels: derbyshire, photography, stiles

1. The Unfairground - Kevin Ayers
2. Sound Of Silver - LCD Soundsystem
3. Release The Stars - Rufus Wainwright
4. The Bairns - Rachel Unthank And The Winterset
5. The Good The Bad & The Queen - The Good The Bad & The Queen
6. Raising Sand - Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
7. Because I Love It - Amerie
8. Hissing Fauna, You Are The Destroyer - Of Montreal
9. Stardom Road - Marc Almond
10. Aman Iman: Water Is Life - Tinariwen
11. Mirrored - Battles
12. The Reminder - Feist
13. Holy Fuck - Holy Fuck
14. Good Girl Gone Bad - Rihanna
15. Untrue - Burial
16. Apples - June Tabor
17. Late December - Maria McKee
18. Curse Of The Laze - The Laze
19. Cuilidh - Julie Fowlis
20. Overpowered - Róisín Murphy
21. Kala - M.I.A.
22. White Chalk - PJ Harvey
23. In Rainbows - Radiohead
24. The Miracle Inn - Euros Childs
25. Made In Dakar - Orchestra Baobab
26. Segu Blue - Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba
27. Planet Earth - Prince
28. Comicopera - Robert Wyatt
29. Lady's Bridge - Richard Hawley
30. Neon Bible - Arcade Fire

Compilations:

1. Body Language Vol.5 (Chateau Flight)
2. BBC Folk Awards 2007
3. The Rough Guide To World Party
4. Rough Trade Shops - Counter Culture 1976
5. Box of Dub Vol.2: Dubstep and Future Dub
6. Late Night Tales (Nouvelle Vague)
7. Good Times Vol.7 (Norman Jay)
8. Fabriclive 36 (James Murphy & Pat Mahoney)
9. The Triptych (Fred Deakin)
10. Hallam Foe OST

Reissues:

1. Ring Them Bells - Joan Baez
2. Mothership - Led Zeppelin
3. 101 70s Hits - Various

Duds of the Year:

Fantastic Playroom - New Young Pony Club
Theology - Sinead O'Connor
Another Side - John Barrowman
Brett Anderson - Brett Anderson

Delayed But Played:

1. Back To Black - Amy Winehouse
2. Sigil - Nuru Kane
3. Burial - Burial
4. Burlesque - Bellowhead
5. Beautiful World - Take That
6. The Letting Go - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
7. Begin To Hope - Regina Spektor
8. Calcutta Slide Guitar - Debashish Bhattacharya
9. B'Day - Beyoncé
10. Song Of The Blackbird - William Elliott Whitmore

New Discoveries and Re-discoveries:

1. You - Gong
2. I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight - Richard & Linda Thompson
3. Sweet Deceiver - Kevin Ayers
4. Good Morning - Daevid Allen & Euterpe
5. The Very Best Of Timi Yuro - Timi Yuro
6. On Land And In The Sea - Cardiacs
7. Odetta Sings Dylan - Odetta
8. Third - Soft Machine

Labels: albums, lists, popmusic

1. Your Love Is A Tease - Rod Thomas



2. With Every Heartbeat - Robyn with Kleerup
3. Atlas - Battles
4. 1234 - Feist
5. Out Of Control (Song 4 Mutya) - Groove Armada
6. Going To A Town - Rufus Wainwright
7. North American Scum - LCD Soundsystem
8. You! Me! Dancing! - Los Campesinos!
9. Let Me Think About It - Ida Corr vs Fedde Le Grand
10. Boring - The Pierces
11. Hate That I Love You - Rihanna ft Ne-Yo
12. All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem
13. I Found U - Axwell ft Max C
14. Love Is A Losing Game - Amy Winehouse
15. Take Control - Amerie
16. Umbrella - Rihanna ft Jay-Z
17. F**k It, I Love You - Malcolm Middleton
18. Jimmy - M.I.A.
19. Lil' Star - Kelis ft Cee-Lo
20. Shine - Take That
21. Icky Thump - White Stripes
22. No Pussy Blues - Grinderman
23. Let Me Know - Róisín Murphy
24. D.A.N.C.E. - Justice
25. Starz In Their Eyes - Just Jack
26. Fluorescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkeys
27. Let It Go - Keyshia Cole ft Lil' Kim & Missy Elliott
28. I'd Wait For Life - Take That
29. It Will Find You - Maps
30. Perfect Exceeder - Mason vs Princess Superstar
31. Valerie - Mark Ronson ft Amy Winehouse
32. The Creeps - Camille Jones vs Fedde Le Grand
33. Gotta Work - Amerie
34. Don't Stop The Music - Rihanna
35. Call The Shots - Girls Aloud
36. Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse - Of Montreal
37. Overpowered - Róisín Murphy
38. Golden Skans - Klaxons
39. I'm A Flirt (remix) - R.Kelly ft T.I. & T-Pain
40. Do It Again - Chemical Brothers
41. Tonight The Streets Are Ours - Richard Hawley
42. The Worrying Kind - The Ark
43. No Cars Go - Arcade Fire
44. Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis
45. The Magic Position - Patrick Wolf
46. Take It Like A Man - Dragonette
47. Boyz - M.I.A.
48. My Moon, My Man - Feist
49. Get Down - Groove Armada ft Stush
50. Tears Dry On Their Own - Amy Winehouse
51. It's The Beat - Simian Mobile Disco
52. The Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani ft Akon
53. Acceptable In The 80s - Calvin Harris
54. Someone Great - LCD Soundsystem
55. Horse Riding - Euros Childs
56. Summer Wine - Ville Valo & Natalia Avelon
57. Uninvited - Freemasons ft Bailey Tzuke
58. Keep The Car Running - Arcade Fire
59. Männer Sind So Scheisse Sexy - The Admirals (ft. Seraphina)
60. Water - Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankoulov
61. Potential Breakup Song - Aly & AJ
62. Candyman - Christina Aguilera
63. Destination Calabria - Alex Gaudino ft Crystal Waters
64. Sunday Girl - Erasure
65. I Wanna Love You - Akon ft Snoop Dogg
66. Same Jeans - The View
67. Tenderoni - Chromeo
68. Heart It Races - Architecture In Helsinki
69. Pogo - Digitalism
70. Beautiful Liar (+ Freemasons Remix Edit) - Beyonce & Shakira
71. About You Now - The Sugababes
72. Absolutely No Decorum - The Ark
73. Our Velocity - Maxïmo Park
74. Kingdom Of Doom - The Good The Bad & The Queen
75. Goodbye Mr A - Hoosiers

Labels: lists, popmusic

(As opposed to singles, which are on a separate list.)

1. The Dancing/Miss Lindsay Barker - June Tabor
2. Matadjem Yinmixan - Tinariwen
3. Our Life Is Not A Movie Or A Maybe - Okkervil River
4. Slideshow - Rufus Wainwright
5. Late December - Maria McKee
6. Hùg air a Bhonaid Mhòir - Julie Fowlis
7. Flying Over Bus Stops - Athlete
8. Over The Ice - The Field
9. Chelsea Rodgers - Prince
10. Walk On Water - Kevin Ayers
11. Race:In - Battles
12. The Ballad Of The Sad Young Men - Marc Almond & Antony Hegarty
13. Sea Song - Rachel Unthank & the Winterset
14. Us Placers - CRS (Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams)
15. Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse - Of Montreal
16. A Modern Midnight Conversation - Chemical Brothers
17. Baby Come Home - Kevin Ayers & Bridget St. John
18. Power On, Little Star - Maria McKee
19. I'm A Broken Heart - The Bird And The Bee
20. You Wanna F**k Me - Cocorosie

Labels: lists, popmusic

This year, I attended a whopping 58 gigs (compared with a mere 30 in 2006), and I thoroughly enjoyed the vast majority of them. These were my absolute favourites.

1. From The Jam, Rescue Rooms, May
When the chants down the front changed from "We are the mods" to "Who needs Weller?" you knew Bruce and Rick's gamble had paid off.

2. Beyoncé, Arena, June
Also the winner of 2007's How Many Superlatives Can I Cram Into One Review Award. If only all Arena gigs were of this exemplary standard...

3. Cardiacs, Rescue Rooms, November
Revelation of the year! This lot have been together for 30 years, and yet I've only just discovered them. Proving that prog and punk CAN mix, and that songs with impossible time signatures can still be moshable.

4. Los Campesinos!, Social, March
In some respects, as traditionally "indie" as indie gets (shambling undergraduates in charity-shop cardigans, all very Peel Would Approve) - and as such, not something which would normally float my boat - but when it's done as captivatingly well as this, I'm not about to argue.

5. Amy Winehouse / Mr. Hudson & the Library, Rock City, March
The wheels may have fallen off Amy's wagon rather too often since, but we had it lucky: she was straight, sober and stunning. Having initially found Back To Black rather too mannered to convice, I emerged from this show fully converted.

6. Feist, Social, September
On the night that 1234 went Top Forty, the Social's consistently ahead-of-the-curve booking policy gave us one last chance to experience Leslie Feist in a suitably intimate setting. A fine performance, with no lingering traces of dinner-party-friendly Hipster Norah Jones-isms (if that's even such a bad thing in the first place).

7. Rachel Unthank & the Winterset, The Maze, November
Jollier, jokier and less austere than the second album might have suggested, but with none of their essential impact diluted along the way. If English folk is not your bag, then be prepared for a serious re-think.

8. Get Cape Wear Cape Fly / Kate Nash, Trent University, January
On the strength of this show, I had Mister Cape pegged as a major star by the summer, and Ms Nash as a Lily Allen wannabe who would sink without trace. What unfathomably strange creatures the British public can be...

9. Black Mountain / Evil Hawk, Rescue Rooms, December
Glistening Irridescent Shards Of Pure Unfettered Sound Alert! Crack open the Thesaurus, Mabel, this is a good 'un! Black Mountain's second album "drops" in 2008, and I for one shall be around to catch it when it falls.

10. Young Knives / Ungdomskulen / The Housewives, Rescue Rooms, October
OK, so the Young Knives were no more than OK - but the Norwegian prog-trash trio Ungdomskulen were a revelation, and duly pick up the Support Act Of The Year award.

11. Low, Rescue Rooms, April
One of those rare gigs where the band plays quiet, and everyone concentrates (see also Feist above). Rescue Rooms, I commend you. A truly spell-binding show.

12. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Royal Centre, November
When it comes to the restoration of his muse to 2000-era Heartbreaker levels, the number of false dawns has been second only to Prince - but now, with his demons firmly dispelled, Ryan's time could well have come at last. (That was a shit sentence, but I'm on me hols and temporarily past caring.)

13. John Martyn, Royal Centre, May
A grim start to be sure, but everything snapped into focus for the classic Solid Air album, which was played in full. What began as a dithery mumble ended as a passionate roar.

14. Euros Childs / Das Wanderlust, Social, September
Understated, self-effacing, alternately reflective and whimsical, effortlessly charming and melodically acute... no, it's not Kevin Ayers, but Euros could be shaping up as his spiritual heir.

15. Joan Baez, Royal Centre, March
But I thought she was all pious and preachy? Volte-face of the year, as I finally twig just what makes La Baez one of the greats.

16. Donny Osmond, Royal Centre, October
The second of three occasions (the others being Jason Donovan and the Arcade Fire's Win Butler) when a performer leapt off the stage and lurched determinedly through the audience, only to end up within touching distance of me. (My sister: "I've pulled Donny Osmond!") What strange, unearthly magnetism do I possess, that compels these men to throw themselves at me?

17. Andy Williams, Royal Centre, July
The last ever show of his last ever tour, we were told. And with his show-stopping rendition of Macarthur Park, one hell of a way to bow out.

18. Fionn Regan, Social, October
I didn't see this one coming at all. A quiet revelation, of the folk-meets-alt-country variety.

19. Cocorosie / Tez, Trent University, June
The French human beat-boxer Tez took the art to a whole new level, while Cocorosie turned their set around from smug aloofness to captivating brilliance.

20. Smokey Robinson, Royal Centre, July
Worth it for The Tracks Of My Tears alone, and with enough living-legend soulfulness to balance out the showbiz schmaltz (and the cheesy Miss Anglia Television 1978 backing dancers).

21. Palladium, Social, October
"They'll be back and they'll be big", I said. Fashion victim stylings tempered by incongruously musicianly "chops" and some magnificently flashy Axe Hero diddling 'n widdling.

22. Nuru Kane & Bayefall Gnawa, Lakeside, April
Playing for nearly three hours, Nuru Kane melded smoky desert blues, trance-like Moroccan "gnawa", hypnotic Afrobeat, and a rhythmic propulsion which got even this predominantly academic arts-centre crowd on their feet and grooving.

23. From The Jam, Rock City, December
WHO! NEEDS! WELLAH! WHO! NEEDS! WELLAH!

24. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Rock City, January
OK, so he lost it after the first hour - but what a magnificent first hour, all the same.

25. Maria McKee, Rescue Rooms, May
Just plain enjoyable, basically. Smiles all round.

26. Erasure / Onetwo, Royal Centre, September
Being on the front row was a bit weird, but MY GOD did I make the most of it. Knocked the arty-but-dull Pet Shop Boys show into a cocked hat, that's for sure.

27. Tinariwen, Leicester De Montfort, May
More than good enough for me to forgive the repeated interview no-shows (of which there were several, CSS I'm looking at YOU).

28. Diana Ross, Arena, May
A bit all-over-the-place, but endearingly so - and when she hit it, she HIT it. The Boss! Ain't No Mountain High Enough! ShizafookinSTAR! I can die happy!

29. Alabama Three, London Astoria, October
Not just a gig, but a mini-blogmeet to boot, as I twinkled my toes off down the front with Zoe and the Twat. ShizafookinSTAR! Et cetera, et cetera!

30. Foals, Rescue Rooms, October
Once you factored out the Trendy Wanker seen-em-on-Skins faction, who were more bothered with being seen in the right place than actually paying attention (and believe me, that took some doing), what we were left with was a rather promising little band. Impossible to tell whether the recordings will match the intensity of the live shows, but I'll be keeping an optimistic ear out.

And these were the duds:

53. Manu Chao, Rock City, November
The only show this year that I walked out of - although to be fair, it was also one of the most deliriously ecstatic audiences that I've ever witnessed at Rock City, in 27 years of going there. God knows what they saw in him, but there you go.

54. The Sugababes, Arena, April
Characterised above all else by the total and utter lack of rapport between the three women on stage, each of whom performed in their own little bubble of disinterested disconnection.

55. The Verve, Arena, December
WHADDA FAKKIN LIBERTY! Sloppy, under-rehearsed, shit sound, duff vocals, bad attitude both onstage and off.

56. Bucks Fizz / Brotherhood Of Man, Royal Centre, June
Until you have seen the Brotherhood Of Man perform a "Seventies Medley" which includes the likes of Shang-A-Lang, My Ding-A-Ling and Remember You're A Womble, you don't know the meaning of true suffering.

57. The X Factor Live, Arena, February
Leona was fine, the Macdonald Brothers were tolerably entertaining... and the rest was desperate, exploitative, bargain basement shite, even down to the taped backing vocals and the pointless, milk-em-dry, text message competition.

58. Siobhan Donaghy, London Popstarz, June
Painfully off-key, lousy sound mix, zero charisma, and no-one even bothered to get rid of the software error message on the DVD backdrop. At least I could enjoy hating the X Factor show, but this was just dismal and depressing.

Labels: gigs, lists, popmusic