Post Eight - Jimeon

[NB: This post is part of a job application]

Jimeon - Komedia Bath - March 14th 2012

The brilliant comedian Jimeon, who is of Irish / Australian decent, will bring his own style of dry-wit comedy to Komedia Bath (which is regarded as one of the finest live comedy venues in the South West) on Wednesday 14th March, as part of a wider UK tour running throughout the month.

Not one to “downplay” his past, Jimeon has appeared in several “high-profile” feature films, including his 1999 debut ‘The Craic’ - which according to his biography was “second only to The Matrix” in terms of sales. (Possibly one to rent from LoveFilm if you can find it!)

Jimeon is no stranger to television either, having appeared on several well-known and respected television shows in Australia, the UK, and America. These include Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow (see video below), Conan O’Brien, The Very Best of the Edinburgh Comedy Festival, and last (but definitely not least) Des O’Connor!



To prove that we aren’t just making up how successful Jimeon is, we asked a load of popular magazines and newspapers what they thought. Here are some of the nicer comments!

"This is the comedy of one who truly perceives human behaviour, breaks it up and puts it all together again in all its ridiculousness, to leave you with your eyes streaming… Comic genius!” – Edinburgh Evening News

“As sharp as they come, laser-accurate with his observational comedy… Each punchline is beautifully underlined with a subtly arched eyebrow. In an age of warped wit, he is disconcertingly inoffensive.” – London Evening Standard

Tickets for Jimeoin on Wednesday 14th March 2012 are priced from £14.50 (£24.50 as part of Bath Komedia’s fantastic meal deal) and are available from the Komedia Bath website. Doors open at 19:00, with the show beginning at 20:00.

Post Seven: Brit Awards Fallout

Last night was the Brit Awards. some good things happened, as well as some bad things. But on the whole it's a ceremony that won't live long in the memory. Some points about the evening, and the Brits in general:

Ed Sheeran wins 2 Brit Awards

When the nominations were announced back in January I did realise that there was a possibility that Sheeran could walk away with an undeserved treble, but I hoped so much he would be amongst those overlooked on the night. Not to be.

Any awards should be engraved with the names of whichever groups, companies or individuals are responsible for managing to successfully market and PR a below-average busker to such lofty heights. In an era where the public don't necessarily buy the music they want, but what is instead sold to them, the rise in popularity of 'artists' like Ed Sheeran can only mean that more dirge will likely be coming down the tubes in the future.

The Great British public should never be allowed to vote

Simple really. This isn't the (now sadly defunct) Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, this is the Brit Awards, supposedly the highlight in the British musical calendar. I know the majority of viewers probably welcome the chance to have their views heard (we do live in a democracy after all, even if it is one dependent on the bill payer's permission) but having a solid four weeks of One Direction fans clogging up Twitter with various #Vote1DBrits related hashtag begging isn't the way forward.

James Cordon shouldn't present the Brits next year

For the second year in a row, James Cordon stumbled his way through the awards, asking anyone who would let him about if they were having an 'incredible year', before making offensive remarks and closing off the night by 'cutting off' one of the winners with the tact of a startled elephant.

All I'm going to say is that Dermot O'Leary wouldn't make trans-phobic jokes about anyone on-air. (Adele said in her first speech she looked like a "drag queen in comparison to Kylie Minogue. In his next link Cordon referred to her as "one hell of a successful tranny", a remark which will probably have been overlooked by him cutting off Adele)

Musical Performances

I'm not going to write loads critiquing each act, so I'll keep it simple. Rihanna was best on the night, followed by Coldplay and Blur. I don't think I'd even bother to watch any of them on YouTube a second time, let alone pay money for them on iTunes.

The Coca-Cola advert was really quite good

Most musical-based adverts from the last two years have been truly awful; such as the Yeo Valley farmers, the John Lewis Christmas '11 campaign, and more recently that FindAProperty.com rap delivered at a speed nobody can understand. Even the inclusion of Mark Ronson doesn't detract from the quality of the song, and somebody at Coca-Cola deserves a nice pat on the back.

General Standards

The organisers of the Brit Awards probably know this already, but alas, I think it's worth reiteration. The Brit Awards will never be as slick as the Grammy's, but the gulf in quality between the two ceremonies only gets wider when you include 'media personalities' who cannot read aloud from an autocue or bit of flimsy card without messing up.

In extension to this, certain dress codes should probably apply. I fully understand that musicians can choose to wear what they want (eg Gaga, Rihanna et al) but I'm struggling to find justification for acts wearing t-shirts when performing live (Ed Sheeran), let alone if said t-shirts are from an artist's own merchandise range (Rizzle Kicks). Not good enough.

Adele being cut off isn't really that big a deal

Just when the night was about to slide into the gutter, a haze of forgettable beige-pop and champagne, ITV mess up so badly that the lasting memory will likely be James Cordon telling Adele to wrap up her speech. (NB: If an artist forgets to mention you until their second awards speech, the sad likelyhood is that you're a replaceable commodity)

Anyone who has worked in a 'live television' environment will know that timing is imperative. The Brit Awards are no different, and often sacrifices are made to allow for time. It's unfortunate for ITV that those sacrifices often come at bad moments, such as during the highlight speech of one of the most popular singers in the world (or in sport, during a football game when a goal has been scored). As much as I dislike him, it wasn't James Cordon's fault. The extra few minutes needed could've been found by not asking Ed Sheeran to show us his busking.

Verdict

What would have been a mostly forgettable evening was only provided with a 'talking point' that people will remember due to poor time management. 4.5 out of 10. (I'd also like to point out I correctly predicted 7/10 of last nights awards)

Paul

Post Six: Brit Awards 2012 - Predictions

Here are some 'predictions' for tonight's Brit Awards...

British Male Solo Artist
Nominees: Ed Sheeran, James Blake, James Morrison, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Professor Green

Who I want to win: Professor Green
Who I think will win: Ed Sheeran. Yawn

British Female Solo Artist
Nominees: Adele, Florence & The Machine, Jessie J, Kate Bush, Laura Marling

Who I want to win: I'm gonna have to say Florence here
Who I think will win: Adele

British Breakthrough Act
Nominees: Anna Calvi, Ed Sheeran, Emili Sandé, Jessie J, The Vaccines

Who I want to win: None of them, it's a terrible batch of nominees.
Who I think will win: Jessie J

British Group
Nominees: Arctic Monkeys, Chase & Status, Coldplay, Elbow, Kasabian

Who I want to win: Chase & Status
Who I think will win: Kasabian (even though they aren't performing this year??)

British Single
Nominees:
Adele - 'Someone Like You'
Ed Sheeran - 'The A Team'
Example - 'Changed The Way You Kissed Me'
Jessie J ft. Bob - 'Price Tag'
Military Wives / Gareth Malone - 'Wherever You Are'
Olly Murs ft. Rizzle Kicks - 'Heart Skips A Beat'
One Direction - 'What Makes You Beautiful'
Pixie Lott - 'All About Tonight'
The Wanted - 'Glad You Came'

Who I want to win: Example
Who I think will win: One Direction, especially as this was a public vote. 1D have some awful fans who've clogged up Twitter's trending topics (#vote1DBrits etc etc) for the last few weeks, so I imagine they'll get their way.

MasterCard British Album
Nominees:
Adele - 21
Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto
Ed Sheeran - +
Florence & The Machine - Ceremonials
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

Who I want to win: I'm not especially fond of any of the nominated records (maybe F&TM at a push), but I'd like PJ Harvey to have the whole 'winning the Mercury Prize and Brit Award' 'thing'.
Who I think will win: Adele

International Male Solo Artist
Nominees: Aloe Blacc, Bon Iver, Bruno Mars, David Guetta, Ryan Adams

Who I want to win: Not fussed, the International Male award has for a long time been awful, this year is no different.
Who I think will win: Bruno Mars

International Female Solo Artist
Nominees: Beyoncé, Björk, Feist, Lady Gaga, Rihanna

Who I want to win: Beyoncé, really enjoyed her headline set at Glastonbury last year.
Who I think will win: Rihanna

International Group
Nominees: Fleet Foxes, Foo Fighters, Jay-Z / Kanye West, Lady Antebellum, Maroon 5

Who I want to win: If there's any justice from these awards, it'll be a win for Jay-Z and Kanye
Who I think will win: Maroon 5

International Breakthrough Act
Nominees: Aloe Blacc, Bon Iver, Foster The People, Lana Del Rey, Nicki Minaj

Who I want to win: Bon Iver, even if it means everyone on Twitter moaning / asking who he is (eg what happened when Arcade Fire won 2 Brits last year).
Who I think will win: Lizzie Grant (aka Lana Del Rey)

In an ideal world, Ed Sheeran, Adele and One Direction would be leaving empty-handed tonight. Sadly the Brit awards are being hosted at the O2 Arena instead of in my utopian daydream where Sheeran is still playing gigs in empty pubs.

Post Five - Fabio Capello

This entry was being written throughout the evening that Fabio Capello resigned from the England job, which will probably mean that paragraphs may become factually incorrect whilst they are being written; such is the nature of these sudden news events.

I’m loathe to write too much about what has happened, because the majority of people reading it will already be aware of what’s happened. If not, then have a look on a news website or Sky Sports News, this is a story which won’t be leaving the news agenda for at least the foreseeable future.

As football is often such an opinion-based sport, the hours following Capello’s announced departure saw the good, the bad, and the frankly godawful (Neil Warnock) spouting their tuppence-worth in the vain hope that they would be seen as relevant within the debate about who should take the England job. The only person on Sky Sports News not totally preoccupied with all things Capello must have been Peterborough’s director of football Barry Fry, who diligently stuck the task of offering updates from the FA Cup replay between Middlesborough and Sunderland.

The nature of rolling news coverage means that hapless presenters are often left to pad heavily in-between looped footage and the aforementioned phone interviews. Thankfully (for them) the rise in Twitter over the last 2 years makes their job a lot easier as they can knock up a few captions with some Tweets from a load of famous footballers.

In theory that would be great, but everyone claimed to be so shell-shocked by events that it led to a quite mundane set of visuals topped by Rio Ferdinand’s “so capello resigns... what now....” tweet. The evening saw a multitude of names put in the frame of the England job, the majority of whom were felt to have those all-important management attributes of ‘pride’, ‘passion’ and ‘belief’. The ability to speak more than an alleged 100 words of fluent English was also not overlooked.

Several names who could fit the bill as England manager trended on Twitter throughout the night; including Harry Redknapp, Gus Hiddink, Jose Mourinho, Stuart Pearce, Paul Gasgoine, and Mike Bassett. Yes, that’s the fictional character Mike Bassett as played by Ricky Tomlinson. On a personal level I was surprised (but thankful) that the whole situation wasn’t hijacked by the detritus on Twitter, the last thing that any discussion needed was a #1DirectionForEngland hashtag peddled by a load of pre-teens.

It’s a strange state of affairs if you consider that the delaying of John Terry’s trial for the alleged racial abuse of Anton Ferdinand was the catalyst for everything that has preceded Capello’s resignation. Terry’s presumed fear of being found guilty of racial abuse before Euro 2012 prompted his legal team to move the trial to July 9th, giving adequate scope for his possible retirement after the tournament, therefore protecting his reputation (somewhat) before he takes the stand.

From there it’s possible to spot the domino effect - had the whole “innocent until proven guilty” angle been removed from the equation, the FA might not have had to intervene to strip Terry of a national team captaincy that he was lucky to hold for a second time. Capello was (rightly) unhappy to be seen to be undermined, but the interview on Italian television criticising the FA only served to paint him into an uncomfortable corner.

Going forward, the best thing FA can do is not rush into any decisions based under media pressure. After being acquitted from his tax evasion trial earlier in the day, Harry Redknapp looked set to be force-fed a massive nugget of career kryptonite and the bookie’s odds of him taking the England job were slashed as low as 2/7. That his Tottenham Hotspur side are 3rd in the Premier League should not be overlooked, nor should the reality that he could’ve been spending time at her majesty’s leisure earlier in the day. As a man who fought for five years to clear his name, what he faces now is a crossroads of decision which should not be taken lightly.

As the countdown to Euro 2012 draws nearer, the fact remains that this can be an opportunity for the best build-up to a major tournament that England have had for years. Because the whole of the national team setup will now be deemed to be in such a disastrous state, the ever-present anticipation that England will win their first major tournament since 1966 will hopefully dissipate. England have always had the players to make an impact in Poland and Ukraine, but a squad playing its football without the burden of outside expectation might actually not be a terrible idea, whoever is in charge.

Paul

Post Four - Shut Up And Play The Hits

This entry is about a film which will be (hopefully) released this year, and will be premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, which in terms of independent film, is considered quite a 'big deal'. The film in question is called 'Shut Up And Play The Hits', a sort of docu-film about the days leading up to the end of a band.

According to the press blurb it's a 'narrative film documenting a once in a lifetime performance and an intimate portrait of James Murphy as he navigates the lead-up to the show, the day after, and the personal and professional ramifications of his decision.'

If you don't want to read what I think about this film (then why are you still here??) it's probably best to skip to the trailer at the bottom. Otherwise, read on..

On April 2, 2011, one of my favourite bands of all time played their last ever live gig. LCD Soundsystem played a four hour-long show to nearly 20,000 people, with those who couldn't get tickets, watching a specially set up stream on the music website Pitchfork.

As live gigs go, it was one of the best I've ever seen (even on my laptop screen) and seeing the best part of the LCD back-catalogue played out for one last time was well worth going into a fourteen hour shift at 8.30am, after just an hours sleep.

I probably should be ashamed to admit that even though I was thousands of miles away, watching a stream of a live gig in the middle of the night, I was so close to actual tears on several occasions. (Note: I am a little bit ashamed, and will blame it on tiredness and student malnutrition, but there were parts which did get 'proper emotional', and I'm not a robot...)

This felt different to when other bands I've liked have split, because I've never seen it coming. The shock of being 'caught out' by news of one of your favourite bands often means that you don't get the opportunity to think about why you'll miss them, only that you do so.

It felt different because it was all so planned. Frontman James Murphy had for a long time said that the bands third record, 'This Is Happening', would be their last, but his claims never really seemed factual until the announcement of this final gig. The named date of April 2 seemed so final, so terminal, that if I wasn't so saddened by their decision to quit whilst on top, I would have been less oblivious of the near-genius of the decision to do.

It reminded me that musicians, bands and artists do have a creative lifespan, and whether they call time on a project because they feel like it is no longer a going concern, or whether the nucleus of the group becomes dislodged from the rest of the cells is mostly irrelevant.

Anyway, the point of this entry was to talk about my potential excitement of this 'docu-film' being released, not to longingly pine over the departure of the band about whom it features. Below is a video to watch; unsurprisingly its a trailer for 'Shut Up And Play The Hits'. If you like what you see, my next bit of advice is to travel to www.shutupandplaythehits.com

Paul

Post Three - Thierry Henry

As you may have heard on Twitter or Facebook last night, the king is back. Well the king of Arsenal at least. Several references to the long-awaited return of Thierry Henry dominated the 'Trending Topics' list on Twitter, and several of my (and yours too, whoever is likely reading this) Facebook contacts updated their statuses to allude to his homecoming.

Arsenal's Third Round FA Cup tie against Leeds seemed to wait patiently for his arrival, having served up over an hour of toothless attacking versus stout defending. In fact, the only notable incident took place in the televised build-up, when the unfortunate Martin Keown was stuck on the head by a football which was probably aimed at his ESPN colleague Robbie Savage.

Just ten minutes after his introduction as a substitute in the 68th minute, Thierry Henry scored the only goal, one which better sports writers than I would describe as a 'trademark finish'. The relief was almost palpable for players and fans alike, who otherwise would have had little for discussion other than the spurned chances which fell to Andrey Arshavin and Marouane Chamakh.

So often in sport, time provides the opportunity for those who have wronged to seek forgiveness, or more likely that negative memories are omitted from the consciousness of fans at a time of happiness. It seems strange to think that twenty-six months ago (after Henry deliberately handled the ball in a World Cup playoff match for France against Ireland) he was arguably one of the most hated men in football (not the most hated - that mantle will likely belong to Sepp Blatter for many years after his death).

Yet only Henry's most vocal detractors mentioned that incident on the social networks, and negative sentiment was so scarcely placed that It was easily ignorable, amongst adulation from fans of many of Arsenal's rival clubs. Even as a Manchester United fan (who has grown a 'penchant' for current Championship leaders Southampton having spent three years at university there) it was a joy to see him return.

England has the best leagues and cup competitions, so to want the best players, matches and stories (which are so often lacking in the modern FA Cup) can only be natural. The third round of The FA Cup had a narrative of history running through it, as Paul Scholes came out of retirement to help United overcome City in the Manchester Derby, and Paolo Di Canio notched up another giant killing as manager of Swindon Town over Premier League opponents Wigan.

Arsenal will likely face sterner tests in the remaining six weeks of Henry's loan from New York Red Bulls, but for now it was just enjoyable to see the return of a player who could've all too easily tarnished his reputation in England further. Whether you have forgiven or forgotten for past indiscretions, the latest chapter in a career which may only have a season or two left, started on an emphatically high note for Thierry Henry.

Paul

Post Two - Blackbusters

I like Twitter. Well for the most part I like Twitter. Once you overlook all the awful tweets from fans of Justin Bieber / One Direction / Lady Gaga / The Wanted / Jedward etc, what's left is a informative social network which is quite fun to read and interact with.

On a personal level I find Twitter to be quite enjoyable when watching television (mostly reality shows or sport) and I have been known to tweet a lot during episodes of The X Factor (or Celebrity Big Brother which launched last night).

Anyway moving onto the point of this post. Ed Miliband has been on the end of a bit of Twitter stick after he sent out a tweet mourning the death of Bob Holness, who presented the TV show Blockbusters.

Except Ed didn't put Blockbusters. He (clearly accidentally) wrote 'Blackbusters', noticed the error of his ways, then deleted said tweet.

Cue a load of keyboard warriors (y'know, the sort of people who think that superinjunction jokes are 'cool') jumping on the already overloaded "oh look something racist was said, therefore I must be seen to kick off about it" bandwagon that's been doing the rounds in the last couple of weeks.

In case it wasn't already apparent, this is just a bit of a whinge at people who try and suck all the fun out of Twitter. There is now a #EdMilibandGameShows hashtag currently sat in the trending topics, which has some funny (if a little tenuous) suggestions - with my favourite currently being 'Dancing On (Thin) Ice'.

I'd like to think that this all could have been avoided by Ed Miliband sending out a follow-up tweet making light of what is clearly a TYPO, but then I guess somebody at Labour HQ probably advised him to delete and just look a bit stupid for the afternoon, rather than being perceived as racist and stupid. Who knows?

Paul

Post One - An Introduction

This will hopefully act as somewhat of an introductory piece about what to expect from reading this blog.

The truth is that there won't be a particular niche (just yet) because I don't want to be limited to a solitary topic, but it will probably include stuff about PR, the media, sport, music. Nice and refined.

Everyone knows the Internet is full of blogs which don't get read, because they're awful, error-strewn ramblings about subject matter which not many people care about. At uni our lecturers encouraged us to write blogs about stuff which interested us and our experiences of our studies, in between writing reports with eye-watering word counts.

Without wanting to sound too boastful, that blog (which I won't link to at the moment - it won't be too hard to find if you really are keen to read it...) managed to clock up over five thousand page views in about a year. Granted the Daily Mail website probably gets that every six seconds, but I was happy anyone bothered to read it at all.

I'm not a huge fan of bloggers, my PR experience to date makes me think that they are self-entitled exploitative freeloaders who believe that they are more important than journalists or PRs, with the mistaken belief that any (minor) slight against them is suddenly a huge deal. Despite that sweeping generalisation, I do understand the use of the platform as a communication method as well as the purpose that bloggers can play in a PR strategy. A necessary evil.

Blogging can be used as a tool for 'good', and hopefully keeping this updated will help me find a job in either a PR or Marketing agency (the reason why my old lecturers suggested blogging was to get 'noticed' in the industry). At the moment I'm currently looking for work (having recently completed a four month PR internship) so this might be a nice distraction to unemployed life.

As a recent iPad convert, I want the majority of updates to be composed using either my iPad 2, rather than having a expensive tablet which isn't being used to anywhere near its potential. This will almost definitely result in double-posting, shocking typos and grammar, as well as the occasional 'posted from my iPad' signature.

I'm not saying that anything you read here will be of amazing quality (because the chances are it won't be) and it likely won't be updated all that often (my old boss said that blogs should ideally have at least 3 updates a day for SEO purposes), but there might be something worth five minutes of anyone's time here on an occasional basis.

To conclude, this will be a irregularly updated blog about various subject matter, approximately relevant to the time in which it was written. If that sound interesting, I'll likely be promoting updates on Twitter (@paultays), or if you don't have Twitter, stick it in your bookmarks.

Paul