Not least @ Latitude - Part 2 - Rosay no more!

She was once Pipette Rosay, but no longer. Now she is back to being who she is and doing what she wants -  and this is Rose Elinor Dougall.  I've seen 'The Pipettes' live and, although it never struck me then, she can hardly have shrunk in physical stature in the intervening couple of years.

Even with the most ferocious heels, the wearing of which did not in any way prevent her from dancing, she is tiny except in the vocal department.

Her band, The Distractions, were very good too and only marginally failed to usurp their raison de être, which is just as it should be.

She has been working with producer Mark Ronson and so the forthcoming album 'Without Why' should be well worth the wait.  This was another Saturday treasure on the now reinvigorated Lake Stage...

Remixes, covers and coincidences...

The last year or two have thrown up a selection of cover versions and remixes, and some of them have been as successful as they seemed unlikely. The cover of The Zutons' 'Valerie', produced by Mark Ronson with Amy Winehouse on vocals, is probably the best known in the UK. Others turn up in less obvious places, b-sides and also in live sets. You can find such things such as The Manic Street Preachers covering Rihanna's 'Umbrella' (live) and also Lily Allen singing Keane's 'Everything's Changing' - it is the b-side to the 7" of 'Littlest Things'. The CD single had a new song 'U Killed It' as the (so called) flip-side!
'Littlest Things' fits well here too - it was largely written by Santi White, who has worked in major-label A&R, as a producer and also as a freelance songwriter. Now better known as Santogold she sings her new, often rather challenging, songs herself...

Santogold - Santogold (Warners, 2008)

The TV contest coincidence is this:
Earlier this year Duffy hit the big time in the UK with her début album Rockferry. She had however made a couple of fleeting appearances before. The first was as the runner up in Waw Ffactor 2003, the Welsh language version of Pop Idol. The next was a CD single, Aimée Duffy in 2004, which you can still buy new.

In 2005 she sung vocals on two tracks on the album See You In The Morning, the third album from Manchester based dance-pop act Mint Royale and this is where the coincidence factor plays. Another track from this album looks odds-on to be the UK #1 single this week. It is a cover/remix of 'Singing In The Rain' that was originally used in a VW Golf advert in 2005! That it has suddenly shot to prominence some three years later is due the fact that the winner of Britain's Got Talent, break-dancer George Sampson, used it as the backing for his final performance!
This will be a very good example of just how the weekly singles charts in even the countries of Western Europe can be incredibly different, which is not even a remotely unusual event.

More bands to see live.

My musings this afternoon, concerning those bands I might like to hear at a festival, have continued. In fact the excitement of not yet knowing which artists will be playing is probably one of the most appealing aspects.
Continuing the hi-energy theme, like The Go!Team, another band with Brighton connections would be right up there.

'Fashionista Super Dance Troupe' (Fantastic Plastic, 2004) was the first LP by shouty-punk quintet Help She Can't Swim. They returned, but as a four-piece, after a run of singles and EPs with their second album 'The Death Of Nightlife' (Fantastic Plastic, 2007). While they have never had mainstream success this is infectious music that could only benefit from being performed and heard live. Both albums are still readily available on CD and 'The Death Of Nightlife' can still be found on vinyl too. 'Fashionista Super Dance Troupe' exists on vinyl but only to the extent of three-hundred copies all of which were pressed on turquoise vinyl.

Some more Latitude 2008 acts have become known, amongst them M.I.A., The Breeders and Mars Volta. What fascinates me most now is who will be appearing on the smaller stages. I believe that Huw Stephens will once again curate the Lake Stage, which last year was a treasure trove of new and often less well known acts. Thinking of such things has reminded me that one of those artists previously unknown to me that I saw at Latitude 2007 was Candie Payne and, while the all-conquering Mark Ronson has recently been in the news for projects he is not involved in (Lily Allen's second album and the 'Quantum of Solace' Bond Theme' with Amy Winehouse are but two that come to mind), he is most definitely working on the follow up to 'I Wish I Could Have Loved You More' (Deltasonic, 2007), which was Candie Payne's début album and remains one of my favourite albums of 2007 and quite rightly so I believe.

New Year 2008

Yesterday I somehow lost heart with 2007 at the very last moment but that is not to say it, in any way, was a year to forget. It certainly wasn't and I would like to think that 2008 could be even better, if not for the major labels. The next big things are fairly easy to predict and the single Chasing Pavements by Adele Adkins from Brixton is almost certain to be the first of them but here, and just for starters, are two others and while the first pretty much does 21st century pop and the second 21st century folk that is not something to be held against either of them.

• The Ting Tings
• Laura Marling

Amy Winehouse, meanwhile, has serious competition in making her third album despite the new contributions by Mark Ronson. The second album by Lily Allen is likely to be important too and Ronson is likely to work on both these and also has on Adkins début. Pop will, for all its curious beauty and as I suggested yesterday, probably make a significant return in 2008 but everything live will remain at the forefront: only live performance makes money these days and so, in 2008 as in 2007, things look rather lean for the major labels.
The third in my list is American singer-songwriter Ryan Tedder, of One Republic, and were his only mention to date the writing of Bleeding Heart for Leona Lewis then that alone should be enough to ensure that he gets a major award in 2008 - the truth is that, very likely, he won't have to rely on that. Apologize, written by Tedder and co-produced with Timbaland, has done neither of them any harm.
Then there is another huge issue looming because in 2008 downloading, whether legal or otherwise, quite simply won't go away. The majors might wish it would but in fact it will become an issue more pressing than ever before and, while once again largely self-inflicted, DRM should ensure that it does.