Jenjie

sheesh you have to get up early to beat Ms melanie :P

Mike Adamson, CEO of Live Nation, and Damian Devaney, marketing director of O2, at the O2 Arena AFTER a year-long facelift that forced music fans to tramp south of the Liffey to get their live fix, the re-christened and revamped Point Depot will open in just three months' time. The line-up for the official opening of the rather unimaginatively named O2 Arena on December 16 is still a closely guarded secret, although the Kings of Leon have been confirmed for two nights later. Counting Crows and Coldplay will also take to the new stage in the following days. And while its owners were reluctant to reveal the final bill for the epic transformation, they were more than happy to offer a sneak peek of the new interior yesterday. The old Point, which played host to all the music heavyweights of the past 20 years including U2, Smashing Pumpkins and REM, is now virtually unrecognisable. Fully-seated it has a capacity of 9,500, compared to 8,500 a year ago. But, with one of the largest retractable seating systems in the world, this can rise to over 14,000. While the old stage lay to the southern end of the Dublin venue, in its new incarnation the stage now stretches almost the entire length of the western side of the building. And for those who like to get up close and personal with their music heroes, the new seat lay-out means that punters will never be more than 60 metres from the front of the stage. The classic amphitheatre design of the new arena also means there will be no more pillars to obstruct the view of the stage. Meanwhile, the owners hope that a total of 14 bars and 250 toilets will keep queuing to a minimum. Unveiling the new venue, chief executive of Live Nation Ireland, Mike Adamson, said: "We will now be able to attract the biggest and best artists, and their full shows, to the O2 for music fans in Ireland." Such ambitions were not always possible in the past. When singer George Michael played the Point he could only fit three-quarters of his total tour production onto the stage. Shane McGowan and the Pogues were the first act to perform at the Point when it opened in 1988. A host of stars have been confirmed to play in 2009, including Tina Turner, Kenny Rogers, New Kids on the Block, Boyzone and Keane. Blockbuster names such as U2, AC/DC and Madonna have all been approached to appear at the venue next year. It is thought that the Material Girl, who headlined Slane in 2004, could be interested in playing at the O2. She has never staged an indoor show in Ireland as no venue has been big enough to cater for her staggering production requirements. The O2 Arena is expected to stage 150 performances a year, bringing thousands of people north of the Liffey again. Music fans will be able to get to the venue more easily once the Luas extension is completed. A three-platform station will service the venue and the Point Village which includes a hotel, multiplex cinema, bars, restaurants and shops. - Breda Heffernan and Eamon Sweeney http://www.independent.ie/national-news/a-point-in-the-future-1482617.html

Tomorrow (27th September) is when the votes close for the Digital Music Awards. If you've been voting every day, thank you :) If you haven't already voted, please head over there today and vote for us (link in my sig) :D Those last few votes could make all the difference in our placing. Thank you :kiss:

ACL promoters say they book the fest from the bottom up Call it the Coldplay problem. In September 2005, the British rock band headlined the fourth Austin City Limits Music Festival. Three months earlier, Coldplay had released "X&Y," its third album, which went on to sell more than 8 million copies worldwide. Coldplay was the biggest band in the world and it was playing Zilker Park. That hasn't happened again. Tom Petty and Bob Dylan headlined ACL the next two years; Foo Fighters have that honor at this festival, which opens today. All three acts are respectable crowd-pleasers, but none have the same juice as Coldplay did in 2005 or as Radiohead does now. Many local music fans are incensed that Radiohead headlined last month's Lollapalooza, the other festival produced by Austin's C3 Presents, but they are not playing ACL. "If Radiohead was available, they would absolutely be playing Austin City Limits," says Charles Attal, C3 Presents principal and main talent booker. But theories and criticism abound. When the lineup was announced in April, fans rushed message boards, such as that at the American-Statesman's Austin Music Source blog at Austin360.com, mostly to complain, which launched a debate: "Not enough big names this year! Who are these people?" — Karen "All the complainers who don't know who most of these bands are will be raving about them next year and complaining that they aren't playing ACL." — Grape Ape "The headliners at this year's ACL are by far the weakest ever." — Ming This sort of dialogue continued for pages of posts. Coldplay was booked to play ACL the same way all the performers are, Attal says: "They wanted to play it, they were routing right through Austin, it was perfect timing, we were able to get it." The festival obviously is doing something right. Three-day passes have been sold out for a month, and day passes are close to doing the same. Attal credits this success to what he calls "the guts" of the event and its low price compared with other festivals. In 2008, Coachella could set you back $249 to $269, plus fees. Bonnaroo cost $209 to $229, plus fees. Lollapalooza was $175 to $205, fees included. ACL was $135 to $170, fees included. Corporate sponsorships offset a lot of those costs. "ACL is about the overall lineup," Attal says. "It's never been about the headliner. Ever." The fest also succeeds because of an eclectic, family-friendly aesthetic that never gets too aurally extreme (thanks mostly to its connection with the TV show) and, of course, because of Austin itself. For Attal and for many music fans, the heart of the festival lies in acts such as the Kills, Sharon Jones, Patty Griffin, Erykah Badu and Neko Case, mid-list artists who have strong followings but don't necessarily makes news on the charts. "We always book from the bottom up, never the top down," Attal says. This is practically his mantra. "We go club level up to arena level," Attal says, adding that while he does the majority of booking for ACL between November and February, he's already getting calls about headliners for ACL '09. "As more festivals pop up, they're booking further out to get the prime slots. It's getting booked earlier and earlier," he said. Tom Windish of Chicago has been booking bands for 16 years. His Windish Agency has a number of club-level acts playing ACL this year, including buzz bands Hot Chip, Jamie Lidell and Yeasayer. "As far as I can tell, it's almost never money and almost always logistics," Windish said. The smaller a band is, the more likely they are to quickly confirm an appearance at a major festival. Bigger acts have much more to think about. "Tour routing really is the No. 1 factor for bigger bands," Windish adds. "If they're touring in August and there's a festival in August, great. If there's a festival in September and they're not already out, they're not going to want to fly in dozens of people for their production crew." In other words, you're not booking the five guys in a band when you book a major headliner, you're booking everyone they have on staff. If those people have been promised a break by their bosses in the band, the band is mighty unlikely to interrupt that break for a festival gig, even a headlining one. Craig Saper, 22, is an Austin native and a TV producer living in Los Angeles who is coming to his first full ACL Fest. "I'm a little less enthusiastic about the lineup this year than past years," Saper says, "but Austin is a very sacred place for me and I'm more than excited to experience the town once again." For Saper, ACL is a homecoming as much as anything else. "Foo Fighters are going to be great, Beck will be amazing and there are some lesser-known acts I have my eyes on, but I'm really going because Austin is my true home. It's a vacation in this bohemian oasis." Which might very well explain why ACL Fest sells out year after year, no matter who is playing — that and the continued popularity of the television show that inspired it. "Austin City Limits," the KLRU series shown on many PBS stations, is still going strong in the middle of taping its 34th season. And there's no question that the show is an attraction for bands. While Attal and "Austin City Limits" television producer Terry Lickona both said an appearance on the show isn't held as a carrot for bands to play the festival, ACL Fest does get a whole lot of bands in town at once. Two birds, one gig: They can play the festival and tape a show in the same weekend. This year, Foo Fighters, Drive-By Truckers, Manu Chao, Gnarls Barkley and the Swell Season are all taping ACL sets. "Charles and I stay in close contact throughout the whole booking process," Lickona says. "Once we have serious conversations about who he has coming for the fest, I start making calls. By early to mid-spring, we have firm offers for taping." And it might not be explicitly (or publicly) mandated from either party, but there's no question that ACL the show and ACL the festival rarely diverge in their aesthetics. You're not going to see much metal, hard rock, rap, avant-garde music or punk either place. (No wonder Paste magazine — advocate of NPR-ish rock, neo-soul and music that just screams authenticity — hosted an official ACL kick-off party Thursday night at Emo's.) Every year, ACL is a bit different but feels essentially the same. It's eclectic within those nothing-too-extreme-please parameters. This year, there's more indie rock at ACL Fest than in years past. Buzz bands such as Fleet Foxes, CSS, Band of Horses and Antibalas are all over the grid. Other than Galactic, there are almost no jam bands, a staple of the first ACL Fest. The prog rock of the Mars Volta abuts the Barcelona soul of Manu Chao; Robert Earl Keen's country hits the stage at the same time as Erykah Badu's ultramodern soul. So it's no surprise when Attal asserts, "I can tell you that I've already got stuff booked for next year that will make (ACL) a totally different scene." We'll see. J Gross http://www.austin360.com/music/content/music/acl_fest/acl_2008/stories/0926expectations.html

5 mins is one thing. an hour's flight? completely different ball game :D

is he the one who won, or was it the other one? coz I'm sure the pic of one on their own with the Dj was the other guy

awwwwww :cry: a Coldplay tractor would be cool

awwwwww :cry: a Coldplay tractor would be cool

I'm obviously not a big enough fan coz i didn't enter :P

exactly, if you're gonna make a fool of yourself on national radio, you might as well dress for the occasion.

http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/music/artists/coldplay/article/3455.html Live in Munich Coldplay are one of the biggest bands in the world right now, so we gave away one of the biggest Coldplay prizes in the world, a money-can't-buy experience. Check out our two finalists, Mark and Simon, going head to head, to find out who was the biggest Coldplay fan. Here

:D

The parents of four-month-old Christopher Blum, kept frozen in Hornsey mortuary for 21 years, are seeking an injunction to stop Enfield council burying him tomorrow without their consent. A pathologist said the baby had suffered sudden infant death syndrome. But his parents believe the death was linked to a triple vaccination hours earlier and want further investigations. His parents were devastated when he died suddenly on June 22, 1987, just eight hours after he was given a triple vaccine for diphtheria, polio and tetanus. His father, Steve Blum, said the decision to enforce the funeral, which is to take place at a north London cemetery, was a disgrace. He said: 'My family will not take any part whatsoever in this extraordinary forced funeral of Christopher - it will be just that, a forced funeral. 'There will be no relatives there, no flowers, and no contributions that could be seen as giving credibility to this.' A council spokesman said: 'The council very much hopes that Christopher can now be laid to rest with the dignity and respect we would all wish for him.' Mr Blum said he was convinced the vaccine was responsible for his son's death, despite a coroner citing that Christopher had died from cot death. His belief was the beginning of an extraordinary legal battle which meant his son's body has remained in the mortuary since. He and wife Mathilde have never properly said goodbye and have never visited his body, which has remained untouched since its arrival at Hornsey Coroner's Court in 1987. In an earlier interview in the Mail last month he said: 'When people hear that Christopher is unburied they think I am some sort of nutter who just can't let go. 'But that is not the case. I simply want there to be a proper investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death. 'Do they really think I want Christopher lying there officially undead?' http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1061735/Dead-baby-kept-frozen-21-years-parents-fight-plans-burial.html

Oh, just read the damn column Been there, done that, and now I can't be botheredCarol Midgley Sometimes I need only glance at the title of a book and immediately I hate the author. This is because it is such a brilliant idea that I wish I'd thought of it myself but didn't get round to it because I was too busy checking the Coronation Street website or wondering whether I should put another wash on. It's the same now with Richard Wilson, whose new book Can't Be Arsed: 101 Things Not To Do Before You Die makes me want to kick my own backside around the room until it's black, blue and begging for mercy. Why didn't I write this book? It so obviously needed saying that “experiences” such as seeing the Pyramids and showering in a waterfall are overrated. Apathy is underrated, as anyone who has had to sit through a holiday bore's sightseeing checklist will tell you. I can't be arsed to do most things: it's my one specialist subject. There is no parallel universe in which I could be persuaded of the value of white-water rafting, or having sex on an aeroplane, or wing-walking, or cheese-rolling, or naked bungee jumping, or sitting in a bathtub of baked beans. But because I couldn't be arsed, someone else has snuck in and written the book about not being arsed - which is probably what's known as poetic justice. So today I'm going to come up with a different list, entitled: Can't Be Arsed - 29 Things That I Couldn't Give a Toss If I Never Did Again. Why 29? I couldn't be fagged thinking up 30. Right, so: 1 Attend the Glastonbury Festival. The only pleasure left to be gained from Glastonbury is watching it on television, hoping to spot people doing that hopping thing which means that they need to go to the toilet but can't face entering a small, foul plastic box that smells like Satan's colon. 2 Drink a Tequila slammer down in one. The most overhyped drinking experience ever, which merely makes people pull a gurning face before, eventually, vomiting. 3 Eat sushi. Yes, I hear you saying that it's the “ultimate healthy fast food”. But it's disgusting. And some raw fish still contain live worms. 4 Have a consultation with a life coach. Unless, that is, you're researching a book entitled How to Get £50 an Hour for Stating the Bleeding Obvious. 5 Fly on a light aircraft. Would you entrust your life to an Airfix model? It's arguably safer to ride on a pigeon's back. 6 Feign an interest in the appreciating value of someone's house, especially in a dinner party setting. 7 Be in Trafalgar Square at midnight on New Year's Eve. Unless you really enjoy faux jollity and being forcibly kissed by halitotic strangers before walking home for two hours in the pouring rain. 8 Go for a meal at a celebrity chef's restaurant. It all just feels a bit desperate. 9 Go on any trip arranged by a holiday rep, thus achieving the worst day of your holiday paying top dollar to visit a tourist hellhole - whereupon the rep addresses you as if you have learning difficulties and advises you never to get off the coach anywhere because there might be pickpockets. 10 Queue to climb the Statue of Liberty. Then get to the top, see that you're surrounded by camcording tourists and realise that all New Yorkers think you're a complete tosser. 11 Become a student. Yes, university is “great fun” but I'd rather have my teeth extracted without anaesthetic than go through it again, thanks. 12 Attend a golfing weekend. I'm sorry, but this surely has to be the very antithesis of pleasure. 13 Attend the Cannes Film Festival as a reporting journalist. A definition of Hell. 14 See Michael Jackson in concert. Ditto. For professional reasons I once did this for three consecutive nights in the Far East. Few things are more terrifiying than encountering true Wacko devotees who want to be your friend. 15 Meet the cast of Friends. A riveting Q&A in which the ones who play Monica and Rachel revealed that they were “great buddies”, and the one who plays Ross confessed that he “enjoyed music by Sting”. 16 Hear any music by Status Quo. 17 See the Sex and the City movie. That's two and a half hours of my life I'll never get back. 18 Attend a fancy dress party. Any fancy dress party. 19 Read Katie Price's novel, Crystal, which I once did for work and thus, regretfully, know that it contains sentences such as “the shorts were so far up her bum cheeks, it must have felt like she was flossing her ...”etc, etc. 20 Attend a timeshare presentation. This is for losers. 21 Receive a letter from the bank saying “You have been specially selected for a £20,000 loan!” Translation: you're not in nearly enough debt for our liking and we won't be satisfied until you're wrapped in tinfoil under an Embankment bridge. 22 Ride on a rollercoaster. So last century. 23 Eat a chocolate liqueur. They're just wrong. 24 Eat at Harry's Bar in Venice. Has anywhere been so gobsmackingly overrated? 25 Visit Marrakesh, where the work horses are in such terrible condition that I spent most of the time in tears. 26 Buy or receive scented drawer-liners. 27 Attend a spin class. The horror, the horror. 28 Have a shaggy perm. See above. 29 Go on an 18-30 holiday. Which I can't any more, anyway. Good. Anyone who wants to buy my exciting new book should order it the moment I get a publisher. Which I'm going to sort out immediately, probably, just as soon as I've finished eating this Twix. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/carol_midgley/article4819842.ece

not since the video went into the roof, no. and I can't use the DVD recorder coz Ian has Sky SPorts of some variety or another on :smug:

It regularly tops polls for the funniest film ever made, yet for almost three decades Monty Python's Life of Brian has remained out of bounds to residents of Torquay. Organisers of a comedy film festival in the seaside resort next week have been obliged to get special dispensation after discovering that the film was still on the local authority's blacklist, 28 years after its release. The film, which starred the late Graham Chapman as Brian “He's not the Messiah” Cohen, with John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, was attacked by Christian leaders when it came out for allegedly lampooning Jesus. Chapman played a character mistaken for the Messiah, whose life curiously paralleled that of Jesus. The Monty Python team insisted that it was a send-up of religious obsession and Hollywood Bible epics of the 1950s, but cinemas that showed the film were picketed and 11 local authorities decided to ban it. A further 28, including Torquay, gave it an X certificate, which meant that it could be seen only by over-18s. As the film's distributors refused to allow it to be shown with this certificate, Life of Brian was effectively banned in those towns as well. That the ban in Torquay had never been rescinded came to light only when Adrian Sanders, the Liberal Democrat MP for Torbay, was talking to the organisers of the English Riviera International Comedy Film Festival, which was due to show Life of Brian as one of its highlights. Mr Sanders, now 49, had been among the hundreds of young people in Torbay in 1980 who joined the exodus heading for the nearby town of Newton Abbot, where Life of Brian was being screened. Officials at Torbay Council, which covers the towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, were hurriedly forced to check back through dusty piles of minutes to confirm the ban. They eventually concluded, however, that subsequent legislation meant it no longer applied. Life of Brian remains banned by a number of authorities. In July, the Mayor of Aberystwyth, Sue Jones-Davies, who played Brian's girlfriend in the film, discovered that it was still banned in her own town. She announced her intention to have the ban lifted but ran into immediate opposition from local church leaders. Canon Stuart Bell, vicar of St Michael's in Aberystwyth, said: “If someone was going to make fun of my wife in a film then I would oppose that. Making fun of Jesus Christ, whom I love more than my wife, in a film is going to offend me.” The cultural historian Robert Hewison has written a book, Monty Python: The Case Against, recording attempts to have Life of Brian kept out of the cinemas. He said: “It had a particularly bad time in the West Country. The Bishop of Bath and Wells and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Clifton together with the Methodists and the United Reformed Church wrote to every council in the West Country urging them to ban it.” Roger Saunders, the manager of the surviving Pythons company, Python (Monty) Ltd, which owns the rights to the Python films and television series, said they were ecstatic that Life of Brian was no longer banned in Torbay, even though they were not aware that it had been. The blue pencil Freaks Tod Browning's 1932 film about members of a circus and its sideshows was twice banned in Britain. It finally received a certificate in 1932 The Wild One Marlon Brando's now famous performance as the disenchanted leader of the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club was banned twice by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). It received an X certificate in 1967 The Last House on the Left Horror director Wes Craven's first film was banned in Britain for 28 years and received an uncut release only this year The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Banned in 1975 by the BBFC, it was cleared for limited release in London by the Greater London Council. Not until 1999 did it gain a nationwide, uncut release Visions of Ecstasy This film about Saint Teresa of Avila was refused a certificate over blasphemous content in 1989. It remains the only film banned in Britain for blasphemy http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article4821208.ece

good question :D

that won't work, they'll see you coming :P

ty for the setlist and the review :D

there's only 1173 pages of new members, so I'll see you sometime next week :lol:

that's the only reason the members list is there isn't it? :laugh3:

there's a lot of people in that studio right now. standing room only!! and i can't listen to it to find out what's going on

the Oracle said it was a widely publicated mistake. so if a researcher was reading old pages, they'd come up with the wrong answer

I don't know :laugh3: I know i've seen that person online & they answered PM's, but i don't know if there are any posts. I can say its none of the band, just someone connected to them.

no-one got the radio on to listen to the competition this morning?