“I was still working the drugs out of my system,” Eminem has admitted, acknowledging the weaknesses of his “jokey”, critically maligned comeback album, Relapse. With the sequel already promised for next year, the rapper says he has now “flipped the page”.

“I don’t want to make shit that you hear once and then the joke’s over,” he told Complex magazine. “I want to make records that you could play a hundred times, a thousand times.” Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case with Relapse, an album most critics deemed average at best. Even Eminem admits the comeback record, his first in five years, does not show him at his quickest.

“My thinking became sharper again as I went along,” he said. “If you were to take a song like My Mom or Must Be the Ganja, those were cool – but they were the beginning stages of me coming out of the [addiction]. It wasn’t until it got into songs like Stay Wide Awake that it felt like my mind got sharper. I became more on-point towards the end of recording the album.”

Now, Eminem said he is “more focused than I’ve ever been“. Almost 19 months sober, the rapper has scrapped the original version of Relapse 2 and started from scratch. Some of these early tracks will appear on an forthcoming Relapse bonus disc, but the new material, recorded with Dr Dre in Hawaii, “has knocked out all the old songs“.

“Now I’m going for songs instead of one-liners,” he said. “The new material is definitely different. Making Relapse, I was still working the drugs out of my system, so there was a lot of … just jokey shit. It was a lot of punchline-y, funny, shock value – kind of going back to The Slim Shady LP. And that was cool, but I’ve kind of flipped the page.”

“I hated myself when I was in my addiction. I hated myself worse than anyone could ever hate me … [Now] I feel like a human being again.”

guardian.co.uk 04/12/09

Beyonce is leading the field in the nominations for the 52nd Grammy Awards with 10 nominations, followed by country star Taylor Swift, with eight.

The pair go up against Black Eyed Peas - who got six nominations - Lady Gaga and Dave Matthews Band for best album.

R&B singer Maxwell and rapper Kanye West also earned six nominations each.

Britons Depeche Mode got two, while The Tings Tings are up for best new act. This year’s song of the year winners Coldplay were given a best video nod.

‘Not eligible’

The major categories were revealed during a televised concert in Los Angeles, hosted by rap star LL Cool J. Nominees for the rest of the 109 awards were announced later.

Winners will be announced on 31 January at the city’s Staples Center.

Beyonce is nominated for song of the year for Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) and record of the year for Halo - both taken from album I Am… Sasha Fierce.

Swfit will also go up against Beyonce for song and record of the year for You Belong With Me, from her second album Fearless.

The 19-year-old country star is the biggest-selling artist in the US this year, excluding the late Michael Jackson.

Also up for the coveted record of the year are The Black Eyed Peas with I Gotta Feeling, Use Somebody by rockers Kings Of Leon and Lady Gaga’s Poker Face.

Lady Gaga, who has become a major player in the global album and singles charts this year, was not eligible for best new act because her debut single, Just Dance, was nominated for best dance recording last year.

US Recording Academy president said there would be “some changes so that particular situation won’t repeat itself”.

U2 nominations

Following the Grammy success earlier this year of Robert Plant - who took five awards for his collaboration with Bluegrass singer Alison Krauss - and fellow prize winners Adele, Duffy, Radiohead and Peter Gabriel, it was a disappointing night for British talent.

Of the major categories announced during the televised concert, only Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood were contenders.

They earned a best rock album nod - for their live concert at Madison Square Garden, in New York - and go up against No Line On The Horizon, by Irish rockers U2.

It was later announced that Clapton and Winwood had received a second nomination, in the best rock performance by a duo or group with vocals category.

Shoring up the British effort, Elvis Costello was nominated for best contemporary folk album for Secret, Profane and Sugarcane while Yes, by the Pet Shop Boys, will go up against Lady Gaga’s The Fame for best electronic dance album.

U2 are also nominated for the best rock song award for I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight ,as well as best rock performance by a duo or group with vocals for the same track.

The nominations concert featured presenters including singer Katy Perry - nominated for best female pop vocal performance - former Beatle Ringo Starr and Motown legend Smokey Robinson.

Maxwell, who released album Black Summers’ Night this year after an eight-year absence from the music scene, was among other performers on the night, singing the late Michael Jackson’s The Lady In My Life.

There were also performances from Nick Jonas, of the Jonas Brothers, and Black Eyed Peas.

BBC.co.uk 3 December 2009

Fifty years since the term ‘music video’ was first coined and on the anniversary of its release, Michael Jackson’s Thriller has been voted the most influential music video of all time.

Music fans voted for Jackson’s video - directed by Hollywood filmmaker John Landis and released 27 years ago this week - in an online poll conducted by music video site www.muzu.tv. Michael also made the list with his sister Janet for the video for ‘Scream’, which at a cost of $7million also takes the title of the most expensive video ever made.

The list is dominated by classic videos from the 80s and 90s. Peter Gabriel’s iconic Sledgehammer video (number five), released in 1987, was one of the first pieces of work by Wallace & Gromit creators Aardman Studios and won a record nine MTV Video Music Awards.

The video for A-ha’s Take On Me (number two), filmed mostly in simple pencil animation, saw lead singer Morten Harket turned in to a comic book character. The video won six MTV VMAs in 1986 and reached number two in the UK singles charts in 1985.

Ok Go’s Here We Go Again, which features the band dancing on treadmills, only charted at number 36 in the UK singles chart, yet the video, which was shot in one take, is one of the most viewed on the internet (48 million views) and has been copied in numerous TV ads and even parodied on The Simpsons.

The term ‘music video’ was coined 50 years ago, in 1959, by US disc jockey J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson.

The Top Ten Music Videos That Changed the World:

1. Michael Jackson - Thriller (1982)
2. A-ha – Take On Me (1985)
3. Bjork – All Is Full of Love (1999)
4. White Stripes – Fell In Love With A Girl (2001)
5. Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer (1986)
6. The Buggles – Video Killed The Radio Star (1979)
7. OK Go – Here We Go Again (2006)
8. Beyonce – Single Ladies (2009)
9. Michael and Janet Jackson - Scream (1995)
10. Madonna – Like A Prayer (1989)

music-news.com 02/12/09

When Beyoncé said that she “would love” to work with Of Montreal, their frontman Kevin Barnes didn’t mince his words, saying: “Let’s do this.”

“I fell in love with Beyoncé’s Crazy in Love and since then, I’ve always kept an ear out for what she releases,” Barnes told Paste magazine.

“There is a reason why she’s the most popular and beloved female vocalist of our time. I would be fully psyched to work with her. Your move, Beyoncé.”

Barnes’s group came up after Beyoncé mentioned the allure of indie rock in an interview with Observer Music Monthly. “There’s so many people I’d like to work with still, but I’d like to maybe go outside of the box,” she told Caspar Llewellyn Smith. “My sister [Solange] has put me on to bands like Of Montreal and some other different types of artists. I would love to do something like that on my next album.”

In a bizarre parallel, Barnes said Solange Knowles was also responsible for his own appreciation of her older sister. “I wasn’t that familiar with [Beyoncé's] Destiny’s Child stuff, until Solange played me some of the deep cuts,” he revealed. “I was truly blown away by the vocal arrangements/performances. I think most people don’t realise what an amazingly great singer Beyoncé is. She is so much more than a pop star.”

Solange, who released her second studio album last year, appeared with Of Montreal at a New York gig in September. She has demonstrated other indie fancies as well, recording a version of Dirty Projectors’ Stillness Is the Move and reportedly introducing Beyoncé (and husband Jay-Z) to Grizzly Bear.

guardian.co.uk 02/12/09

Pete Doherty was dragged off stage at a festival in Germany this weekend, after he began singing the controversial first stanza of Das Deutschlandlied, also known as The Song of Germany. The opening verse, beginning with the words “Deutschland über alles”, is often considered a Nazi anthem.

The Babyshambles frontman was performing at Munich’s on3 festival, organised by Bayerischer Rundfunk radio. Doherty was not originally scheduled to perform, according to Der Spiegel, but although “clearly drunk” was able to talk his way on stage. “With a quiet voice, he sang ‘Deutschland, Deutschland über alles’ four times,” according to Rudi Kuffner, a festival spokesman. “Then the audience booed him so loudly that he had to start another song.”

Doherty reportedly played five more songs before he was asked to leave by an organiser. He threw his microphone at her, according to the Munich TZ newspaper, and stormed off.

In a message posted to the Sky News website, Doherty’s spokesperson said the former Libertines singer “was unaware of the controversy surrounding the German national anthem and he deeply apologises if he has caused any offence“.

Although the third stanza of Das Deutschlandlied is now Germany’s national anthem, singing the first stanza is generally a demonstration of far-right sympathies. Beginning with the lyrics “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles (Germany, Germany above all)”, this section was a fixture of Nazi ceremony.

This isn’t Doherty’s first brush with far-right propaganda. The singer raised a fascist salute as a joke at a concert in Spain last year, and the Libertines were criticised for a 2004 song, Arbeit Macht Frei, a phrase that was emblazoned above the entrances to concentration camps including Auschwitz. Doherty is allegedly part-Jewish.

guardian.co.uk 1/12/09

A film documenting the highs and lows of pop band Blur is set to open in UK cinemas early next year.

Filmed during the band’s rehearsals and 2009 summer tour, No Distance Left To Run will also feature previously unseen archive footage.

The band announced their reunion last December, eight years after the original line-up last played together.

The film, to be released on 19 January, will also include new interviews with the quartet, led by Damon Albarn.

Blur’s appearance on the last night of the Glastonbury festival was named the best headline performance of 2009 at this year’s UK Festival awards.

Country life

Their last studio album, Think Tank, was released in 2003, after the departure of guitarist Graham Coxon.

Since then, Albarn, 41, has been best known for his Gorillaz pop project with cartoonist Jamie Hewlett.

More recently, the pair have collaborated on Monkey: Journey to the West, a Chinese opera.

Coxon, 40, developed his solo career while James, 41, became a writer and now makes cheese on a farm in Oxfordshire.

Drummer Dave Rowntree, 45, has been selected by the Labour Party to be its candidate for the Cities of London and Westminster at the next general election.

BBC.co.uk 30 November 2009

Muse are “probably ” playing Glastonbury, according to television presenter Jonathan Ross.

Ross used his Twitter account to announce that Matt Bellamy had told him the band were likely to play next June’s festival. Muse performed ‘Uprising’ and ‘Undisclosed Desires’ on BBC One’s’s ‘Friday Night With Jonathan Ross’ programme last night (November 27).

Tweeting after the show was recorded, Ross said of Muse playing Glastonbury in 2010:

“Didn’t chat to them on the show, but Matt [Bellamy] told me they are probably doing it.”

Rumours that Muse were playing Glastonbury 2010 first surfaced earlier this week, after U2 were confirmed by Michael Eavis to be headlining the event on the Friday night (June 25).

nme.co.uk 30/11/09

In a move that is unlikely to be remembered as Robbie Williams’s most romantic, the singer has formally denied that he is betrothed to his long-time girlfriend. The announcement comes just days after Williams popped the question on an Australian radio show – and contradicts the proud news reported by his own poor mum.

“Hey all,” Williams posted on his website on Saturday. “We are not engaged. Rob.” His publicist’s message was equally terse, saying simply: “We have no more comment on this apart from to confirm that they are not engaged.”

These denials mark an abrupt change of events from Friday, when Williams asked Ayda Field if she would “mind being my betrothed for the end of time”. Worse, they contradict made comments by Jan Williams, Robbie’s mother, who told BBC 5 Live that the singer had told her “a week ago” that he planned to ask Field to marry him.

The fuss began on Australian breakfast show 2Day FM, when host Jackie Henderson told Williams that Sydney has a reputation for celebrity marriage proposals. The former Take That star then turned to Field, 35, and said: “Ayda Field, I love you so much. Do you mind being my betrothed for the end of time?” She laughed before replying, “I would love to be your betrothed ’til the end of time“.

This on-air exchange unleashed a torrent of congratulatory phonecalls from Australian fans. Williams accepted them blithely, borrowing a ring from Henderson and slipping it on to Field’s finger. But Williams’s spokesperson later called it a “joke” and the singer himself admitted he told “a lie” some time that morning.

If the proposal was a joke, someone should have alerted Robbie’s mum. Jan Williams told the BBC she had “always wanted a daughter-in-law” and was “very excited” for the couple. “They’ve been together for nearly three years, so it’s about time,” she said. “She’s a great mate, as well as a lover. She’s got all the qualities that he needs in a girl. It’s a lovely match.” Though Robbie has made the betrothal seem like an off-the-cuff gag, his mother said it was no such thing – and that he had already bought an engagement ring. As for the wedding itself, Jan Williams remarked, “I don’t think it will be that far in the not-too-distant future.”

Robbie certainly seemed enthusiastic in a recent interview with Jonathan Ross. “She’s a wonderful person and I’m in love,” he said. Despite always thinking he was “going to be a bachelor … I was introduced to Ayda and things just changed.” It seems that this weekend they, er, changed again.

guardian.co.uk 30/11/09

Beyonce Knowles’ song ‘Crazy In Love’ has been voted the best song of the decade.

The 2003 single – which features her now husband Jay-Z - was released as the lead single from her album ‘Dangerously in Love’ and went on to massive success, reaching the top spot in the UK and US charts, as well as landing Beyonce two Grammy awards.

The former Destiny’s Child singer beat MGMT, whose 2008 song ‘Time To Pretend’ came second, to the top spot, while The Strokes’ ‘Hard To Explain’, from 2001, was third.

At number four was MIA’s 2008 track ‘Paper Planes’ and at number five was Outcast with ‘Hey Ya!’, which saw listeners told to head to the dance floor to “shake it like a Polaroid picture’.

The Klaxons, with their 2007 song ‘Golden Skans’, Blur, with their 2003 track ‘Out Of Time’, and Arctic Monkeys’ ‘A Certain Romance’ all made the top ten.

NME magazine Top 100 tracks of the decade top 20:

1. Beyonce Knowles – ‘Crazy In Love’
2. MGMT – ‘Time To Pretend’
3. The Strokes – ‘Hard To Explain’
4. MIA – ‘Paper Planes’
5. OutKast – ‘Hey Ya!’
6. The Rapture – ‘House Of Jealous Lovers’
7. Klaxons – ‘Golden Skans’
8. Blur – ‘Out Of Time’
9. Arcade Fire – ‘Rebellion (Lies)’
10. Arctic Monkeys – ‘A Certain Romance’
11. The Libertines – ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’
12. The Streets – ‘Dry Your Eyes’
13. The Walkmen – ‘The Rat’
14. The White Stripes – ‘Seven Nation Army’
15. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - ‘Bang’
16. Rihanna – ‘Umbrella’
17. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – ‘Maps’
18. OutKast – ‘Ms Jackson’
19. Radiohead – ‘Reckoner’
20. Hot Chip – ‘Over And Over

musicnews.com 26 November 2009

Paul McCartney has jokingly revealed his stage fright was so bad in the ’60s he thought about quitting The Beatles.

Speaking tonight (November 25) in London at a preview screening of his new DVD, Good Evening New York City, the singer-songwriter explained he was so nervous before taking the stage in the band’s early period that he sometimes wondered if it was all worth it.

“They used to have a thing called the NME Poll Winners Party, where the owner of the NME would get us, the Stones, all the top acts, to come and perform for nothing! This was a couple of years into The Beatles’ career,” he said.

“So I remember being on the steps of Wembley Town Hall, literally getting ill with nerves, and thinking, ‘I’ve got to give this business up, this is no good’. It was quite nerve-wracking.”

He seems to have recovered fully from his nerves nowadays, though, saying: “I’m not so bad now. I know I’ve got a really good band, which helps. It’s nice at the end of the evening to take a bow and there’s just [five] of us. I used to feel sorry for Elvis in Vegas ’cause he used to have 50 people on stage with him and it didn’t sound any better than his early records, where there were three people.”

McCartney also explained that the band’s performances weren’t always well-received in their early days.

“We went to Stroud one day, and hardly anyone showed up, which wasn’t wonderful,” he said. “Then you used to have these Teddyboys, the louts, you know. They started throwing coins at us. So we ended up picking them up, [ended up] a couple of shillings richer!”

Talking about the recording of his new DVD, McCartney revealed that ‘Here Today’, written about late bandmate John Lennon, is always the most difficult to perform.

“That sometimes catches me out, it catches me out in this film version, where I realise I’m telling this man that I love him, and it’s like, ‘Oh my god’, like I’m publicly declaring it in front of all these people I don’t know! It’s like, ‘What am I doing?’ It’s a good thing to do, though.”

Later in the question and answer session, the Beatle said he’s always expecting to tire of the music business, but never does.

“You know, I keep expecting to get fed up, but I don’t, and I’m really glad I don’t,” he said. “The strange thing is it actually gets a bit more exciting, maybe because of this confidence, you start to think, ‘They really want to see me, maybe I can do this’.”

Then, asked by a journalist which song of his he would have liked John Lennon to perform, McCartney picked his 1970 song ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, but admitted he would probably have a different answer if asked another time.

nme.com 26/11/09