PolarMonkey

haha...is that a recent photo? i note from it that Gary's got expensive taste...Bang & Olufsen earphones! :P *cough*UltimateEars>>>B&O,mate!askyourbandmates...*cough* & that's on top of the fact that he seems to have a number of All Saints tops/tees + the graphic tees from Urban Outfitters. (i'm not stalking him or anything, honest...just "keen observation" ala Sherlock... :P) oh, well...as long as he doesn't ever jump on the Beats By Dre bandwagon & coming out with a Beats By Lightbody headphones/earphones with bling & all. *cringe* & yeah, i do wonder where he gets those "Celt" stickers too...heh the stripes on his guitar strap are easy enough to guess, at least.

i haven't heard the single itself, only the version he performed in the final. his voice live even is kinda...well, not really the typical male vocalist's voice imo. on top of him singing at high pitches mostly. but i guess, for me, because i could see that it's a guy singing on the TV, i wouldn't mistake the singer for a female.

he does…he tends to sing in the higher registers, but not quite as high as a falsetto.

+2!!! :D

^^ agreed. :) but i also have to say that beards don't always work out for every guy... :P & i'm sure that we've now scared off Corkus with all this discussion about male facial hair growth... :laugh3:

thanks. am planning to try & "educate" myself more on their stuff tonight tho. heh yeah, same for me actually. annoyingly, to get to Brixton from Hammersmith, i need to travel north across the river and back south again based on the bus/train routes when i went there for The National. i'll try & drop a note here if i do hear about any spares while in the queue. tho i doubt it too since there's always touts hanging around to get the spares. :\ are you planning to queue from 2? i'll probably only get there around 4 earliest. hope that isn't too late to get a decent spot...since i'm a fairly short arse.

did you try to buy directly from the venue or via Seetickets/Ticketmaster? bought my tickets via Seetickets the day they came out on sale...but you could try direct from the venue's website. tho admittedly i'm going more for the other bands than the Manics. not all too familiar with all of the Manics' songs beyond a few of their singles over the years. :embarrassed:

daym! that's like double the price of the tickets to see them when they were doing the O2 Arena gigs in London! :stunned: i didn't go tho...skint from tickets for other gigs in Nov & Dec. to think that i could've seen them live back in Oz & Singapore in their Hybrid Theory & Meteora eras but didn't either. i'm just not destined to see them live, i guess. :\

i'm sure you should know that music tastes are very varied, personal & subjective. so this argument could go on for bloody ages... but i don't think he was even referring to his band's genre of music being "real music" when he made that comment. imo, he was just saying that, at the end of the day, we watch The X-Factor for the non-musical entertainment watching the judges "bicker" amongst themselves about their contenders & the snide remarks thrown around & not for the singing talent or quality & being able to talk (or bitch) about last week's X-Factor to our friends, families, co-workers. the show itself unashamedly runs like one big marketing vehicle for record labels to promote an artist/bands' new/upcoming album/single. the contestants/winners' popularity are almost always only relevant to the period during & shortly after the series airs. with the possible exception of boy bands who make the finals, most of these singing contest reality show winners/finalists very rarely get to enjoy success beyond a year. let alone anything as lasting as Beyonce, Coldplay, Bon Jovi, Rihanna or Take That's careers. & ultimately, these contestants basically spent their entire time on the series singing songs already recorded & released by someone else rather than doing original material & being told by their "mentors" what to do each week. only Cher came close to being a bit more original with her rapping/singing mashup style. but even then she appeals more to a niche market & Simon Cowell is really looking for someone who's got mainstream appeal to complement the boy band he's already grooming (One Direction). going back to the Biffy Clyro selling out to X-Factor & Matt's cover, & i personally don't have anything against Matt Cardle (in fact, i think he is a Biffy fan too...or at least a fan of the original song itself), but i thought his performance was off for the final given that i think he is one of the better singers on the current series. regretfully he didn't do the song any justice & to have to hear Louis Walsh enthusiastically refer to it as an "adult contemporary song"! now THAT's "many a horror"... :P & i am *really* curious as to why the song had to be re-titled to 'When We Collide', which according to Matt in a newspaper interview today was the show management's idea. there was already no mention at all of Biffy Clyro or any indication during the introduction for Matt's single that it is a cover song. so i'm fairly sure that in terms of recognition of the band & their song, this is very likely going to play out like how Snow Patrol's 'Run' is now widely mistaken to be "originally a Leona Lewis song", especially outside of the UK. in this sense, i think it's an injustice to Biffy Clyro as it seems like The X-Factor is trying to sneak this one out as a perceived original song from Matt. oh & i'm now even more convinced that the show's fixed despite what they want to say in the papers each time this issue gets brought up. depending on what survives the editing room to be aired on the Top of the Pops Christmas special. :thinking:

haha....oh, daym! for a moment there i did think they might've had a secret raffle thing to get a prize *cough*ChristmasLightsCD*cough* & you were the lucky guy. or it could've been a random security check & they found something suspect... :inquisitive:

ermmm...i was wondering, but that "Location" for the auction that closed for US$200+ isn't quite right, isn't it? :confused: or is there a state in the US with the abbreviation "GB"? which i highly doubt, but i could be wrong...

*lol* it DOES look like we need some news from the band soon, if you've resorted to writing a dissertation about Nathan's haircut! :laugh3: anyway, that pub/photo...i can't for the life of me remember where it is, but i definitely have seen a news article about it (the occasion for that plaque unveiling) before around the time leading up to Ward Park & Arthur's Day. & i'm fairly sure it's a pub in Belfast, actually. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- EDIT: daym! i must know Belfast frigging well! :P (that pub that "Snow Patrol first gigged here" is the Duke of York in Belfast!) EDIT (AGAIN!): & i just wanna say that that there in that photo at the pub is my "perfect Gary hair stage". some scruffy stubble would be nice, but not a must. ;)

oh, I think my sis & I were behind you in the queue to leave the studio! :) were you with an Indian girl & got approached by the studio staff about you bag/coat number?

yeah…he was kinda annoying after a while. not to mention he went quiet for a while there when Chris'd noticed him & asked what was it he'd been shouting. :P

*lol* ooops!!! I thought I saw the nick as a-chan on my iPhone! :embarrassed: waiting in the cold has done my eyes in!

y'know, your avatar kinda cracks me up…cos Chris was saying how nice it was to see real people again after being in the studio for so long! :laugh3:

yeah, Aurelie! all thanks to Meredith! :D & I updated my earlier post with a couple of (kinda blurry) photos I managed to take. wish I had my camera on me to get better photos since it turned out they weren't that anal about taking photos during the breaks. :\

spotted Miller in the studio area too…but am still wondering if Simon Pegg was there too as 1 of the 3 Santas given that Phil was there as an Elvis too. :thinking: a couple of photos taken with my iPhone (sorry about the blurriness)… http://plixi.com/p/61740811 http://plixi.com/p/61736197 & anyone else found that fella who kept randomly shouting stuff at Chris kinda annoying? i note that he got all shy when Chris asked him what did he say… :P

well, i'm bringing my coat even if they didn't have a coat storage area. i don't really want to freeze or fall sick just from this & for those wondering what to wear/pack, believe me, London has been frigging freezing this week still despite the snow being all melted away already. one consolation i have is that Westfield mall is nearby. so once it's open, i could take turns with my sis to go grab a hot cup of coffee to keep warm or use the toilet in there. :P didn't know about the LED Christmas lights tho...anyone got spares? oooh...you're going too? :D thought you were only going for the Liverpool secret gig!

daym! them Scots are nutters! :shocked2: i was wondering if the Biffy lads'd still play their gigs topless during the winter tour...especially with even London being so frigging freezing cold & snowing & all! brrr...

nah, i don't think they're gonna go too electronica...if at all even. from what Gary's been saying in interviews lately, it sounds like they are going to go for a more stripped down or back to basics kinda sound. so electronica is not likely. & Nathan did also say when Just Say Yes came out that that isn't quite how the new LP's going to be like either. a teeny bit worried about that whole writer's block thing. which seems to be kinda sudden. if it isn't an excuse to stay home longer, i'm guessing that the Joshua Tree Nat'l Park & LA just didn't work out quite like how they'd hoped for in terms of musical inspiration. so back home to Ireland/UK they go... :) either that, or it may just be as Jonny once said (jokingly, i'm sure...or hope so anyway), Gary really does need to be heart broken or in love once again to write the next album's songs! in which case, that may take a while to get anything going...... :thinking:

yeah, i noticed that too! he's also mentioned that LP6 may have influences from bands like The National since that's what they've been listening to a lot of recently. & after seeing The National live this week, one thing that i realised is that that new track SP debuted at Ward Park, Big Broken, is a bit The National-ish. didn't watch X-Factor last night...i just saying on Twitter last week about SP being covered on this show sooner or later. darn. me & my big mouth! :confused:

mine has Christmas Lights... :) ...not sure if it's loud enough to function as a boombox tho.

nice. LastFM's list is different & perhaps more interesting for me from the rest since it uses data mining to compile its Top 40 list & is limited to its sphere of users. there's some interesting patterns from the data they have in that it covers a wide range of music & genres compared to media/staff compiled lists. & i like that i can see my own listening patterns for a specific artist/band on their list too...if they exist in my music library.

oooh...Anna, are you going too? it'd be great to see you again...as always. :hug: