Muse and Oasis win big at the NME Awards

Just a week after the Brits, New Musical Express had theirs, with some VERY worthy winners.

Muse had the most successful night scooping three awards; Best Live Band, Best Album Artwork for HAARP and Sexiest Male for frontman Matt Bellamy. It’s good to see Muse recognised for their greatness as in my opinion, they’re often overlooked. Anyone who has ever seen them at a gig will agree they are more than worthy of the best live band title!

Oasis also did well, picking up two awards. They were voted  best British band and Noel Gallagher was awarded the best blog.

I was pleased to see The Killers get an award also (after they were snubbed at The Brits). They were voted best international band.

Giving Elbow awards seems to be the ‘in’ thing at the moment. Don’t get me  wrong, I love their 4th album ‘The Seldom Seen Kid‘, I just think it’s strange they are only getting recognition now! They picked up the ‘Outstanding Contribution To British Music’ award. 

Elsewhere, Kings Of Leon won best album for ‘Only By The Night‘, Glastonbury was voted the best event, Dizzee Rascal and co won best dancefloor filler for ‘Dance Wiv Me‘ and best track was ‘Time To Pretend‘ by MGMT.

This years hero of the year was Barack Obama with George W. Bush being handed the villain of the year gong!

And that’s that for the NME awards 2009. Some very worthy winners in my opinion, maybe it’s because the public actually vote for this one!

For more info on the awards click here.

Fun Things To Do On The Web #1: Googlefight

Say hello to regular feature number 2 from ‘The Rich, Harsh Poet’. Following on from the success (?) of my ‘Song Of The Week’ feature, I’ve decided to post up fun websites for you to waste your time doing.

I feel I’m providing a valuable service here!

So the first website of interest is…. www.googlefight.com

This site is great… sort of. It allows you to input two terms and in the words of Harry Hill ‘FIGHT’ to find out which is best. It ranks items by how many hits they have on google.

So now you can truly find out which is better, The Pen of The Sword, Obama or Bush, Skywalker or Vader even the North or The South.

Enjoy!

Doctor Johnson at 300

Another week, another newsday package, this time for radio…

This year marks the 300th birthday of Dr. Samuel Johnson, the creator of the dictionary. Events will be happening all over the country including Lichfield where the author was born.

The Oscars 2009… who cares, it’s The Golden Raspberries I want!

Last night saw the most important date in the Hollywood calendar. Nah, not the Oscar’s, The Golden Raspberries.

This ceremony is held just before the main awards every year and ‘celebrates’ the worst that film has to offer for the year. So who are the big losers?

Well ‘The Love Guru’ (or Goro as some say) seems to be the film to avoid, winning worst screenplay, worst actor (Mike Myers) and the ultimate criticism, Worst Film. 

Paris Hilton will be very pleased I’m sure with her double on the night. She won both Worst Actress for her performance in ‘The Hottie and Nottie‘ and worst supporting actress in ‘Repo: The Genetic Opera‘. 

This years worst sequel, prequel or re-make was won by the widely criticised ‘Indiana Jones and The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull‘. 

Finally, Uwe Boll who bought us such jewels as ‘FarCry‘ and ‘Tunnel Rats‘ won worst director and worst career achievement. He said the awards had ruined his life and he would never be back!

So that’s the Razzie’s for another year, the guide of what NEVER to watch in the world of film!

Source: Golden Raspberries

Song Of The Week – 22/02/08

I thought it would be nice if my website had a few regular features, so here’s the first… song of the week.

Basically every Sunday (to coincide with the charts) I’ll post my personal song of the week. Unlike the charts though, this will be entirely based on my opinion. And it could be anything, something I’ve had in my head, something that’s been released recently or something totally random. 

So here’s the first ever song of the week… Duffy – Rain On Your Parade

I’ve gone for this mostly because of The Brits recently where she of course won three awards. I also really like this song and think it was criminal it was overlooked for the Bond theme as it easily trumps Jack White and Alicia Keys effort.

So here is, Rain On Your Parade…

The Times – What quality this isn’t

It’s amazing the amount of ill-educated journalism out there on the web. You’d probably expect it from a blog, dare I say it, such as this one. But from a reputable website such as The Times… surely not.

I point you to this article I read earlier this evening. Wiiiiii – What fun this isn’t. It’s a (sort of) review of the games console, The Nintendo Wii and it has to be some of the worst journalism I have ever seen.

Now before you stop me and say ‘it’s all a matter of opinion’ let me just point out that this person’s experience of the Wii seems to be only a go on Wii Sports and Wii Play. For those who dont know, Wii Sports come free with the console and Wii Play with a free controller. They are games designed to get you used to using the console, not proper hardcore experiences.

Yet the reviewer (Jon Holmes incase you’re interested) seems to think this is the only offering and criticises their simplicity and ‘kiddy graphics’. But then again, Jon himself claims he would rather shoot people in high definition, no wonder the country’s in the state it’s in.

Don’t get me wrong, I like shooting games, but there is so much more than just shooting games available. It annoys me how most reviewers seem to think shoot-em-ups are the be-all and end-all of video games.

Back to Mr.Holmes review. He claims he  ‘fantasy on a games console’. He says that games should give you an experience and offer escapism. I agree. he claims the Wii cannot achieve these things. I strongly disagree.

Super Mario Galaxy, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Excite Truck, Red Steel, Super Smash Bros Brawl, Mario Kart, Mad World, Resident Evil, Deadspace, Dead Rising, Paper Mario, Moto GP, Metroid Prime 3, Guitar Hero, The Force: Unleashed.

All of the above games are on Wii and all of them offer great experiences. From horror, to shooter, to platform, to beat-em-up to music to RPG to racing. The point is that the Wii has a remarkable choice of games, not just the two Mr. Holmes has seen. It also has a great potential as I feel the motion sensing has worked well with some games and future titles (when MotionPlus arrives) will build on that even more.

Perhaps find Mii (a game where you pick out people from a crowd) is not the hardcore gamers favorite game, but there’s more than likely some people out there who love it. They may not enjoy games which involve just killing everyone. Everyone is different and I believe the Wii offers something for all. I’m not trying to say that the PS3 and Xbox 360 don’t also have varied selections, they do. But the Wii has done the best and shouldn’t be judged by some of it’s simpler titles.

Finally I’d just like to point you to this quote: ‘“But the Wii keeps you fit,” they bleat. So what? The Xbox is far more important than that.’ Now I’m sure (well I hope) that was written tongue in cheek, but if it wasn’t and people do believe this, the God help our country! 

Perhaps next time Jon Holmes, you would like to research what you are talking about before putting it online to get some cheap laughs. I expected more from a The Times, but then again, it is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Maybe he’s the one who has these views.

Why was it called that again?

When I first made this site I told you I’d let you know why it was called ‘The Rich, Harsh Poet’ eventually.

Well here’s the moment of truth… it’s really quite simple. If you have a look here, you’ll find that…

The Rich, Harsh Poet is simply an anagram of

Christopher Heath, my name!

Oooh I feel like Lord Voldermort!

So now you know, another of life’s little mysteries solved!

Why was Pushing Daisies Cancelled?

OK, so I’ve known for a while that Pushing Daisies has been axed in America and that the second season will end after episode 13. But I’m struggling to understand why.

I was a very big fan of the first season and hoped the show would go from strength to strength. I was therefore disappointed when I heard of the cancellation and presumed that the second season had dropped in quality.

After watching episode 4 tonight on ITV, I am confused as to why the show was dropped. This season has so far been just as witty, surreal and heartwarming as the one before it. If anything it’s been better with proper over-arching stories (Chuck’s mother, Ned’s father, Emerson’s daughter).

More than anything, I feel the show has remained fresh and very different from anything else on TV. It’s nice when there are so many dark/serious dramas coming from America (Lost, 24, Prison Break, The Wire) to have something that’s not serious at all and just a relaxing bit of fun.

I will miss the show very much when it’s gone, I feel it’s been severely underrated or misunderstood in the states. I just hope that Bryan Fuller was able create a good fulfilling ending in the time he had left.

In more exciting US TV news, Heroes is back on Monday!!!

The Brits 2009- What I thought

It’s not really that exciting an event anymore (all award ceremonies are getting a bit boring) but the Brits was back again tonight, for the 29th time. So what was there to see apart from the fact Tom Jones has gone white?!

Well fist of all, I thought the hosting was rather dire. I’m not the biggest fan of James Corden or Matthew Horne at the best of times, but tonight I just found them cringe-worthy. And if what I heard from the crowd was genuine, then at times, they agreed with me. All credit that they kept trying to be entertaining, but they just failed miserably, a poor choice.

As for Kylie, well she was Kylie. She turned up, did her job fine, but wasn’t anything special. In fact at times she seemed more like a model than a singer/presenter.

The live performances were a bit of a mixed bag. U2 opened ‘showcasing’ their new single. I do normally like their stuff, but this on just didn’t do it for me. Let’s hope the final version is a bit better. Girls Aloud put in a fine performance also with their song ‘The Promise’. Cant really fault them on that, but I still don’t like their stuff :p .

Duffy put in one of her better live performances. I’ve not been too impressed with her live, but tonight she seemed to give it her all. Maybe it was all the awards she was winning. Might’ve been better if the lights had worked so we could see her face though…

Take That appeared from high above to try and imply they were Gods or something. No offence to the lads (or should I say men) but this did annoy me a bit. They’re undoubtedly great songwriters, but this space-age  OTT performance just got on my nerves, as if they thought they were ‘above’ any other British artist. Smug scoundrels!

On to the collaborations, another mixed bag. I could see what The Ting Ting’s and Estelle were trying to do, they just didn’t pull it off. It didn’t really help that Estelle started horrendously out of time with the music. It got a bit better as it went on and culminated in a strange mishmash of sound at the end, so not much different than The Ting Ting’s normally sound!

The other collaboration was The Pet Shop Boys with Lady GaGa and Brandon Flowers. This one was a bit better with The Pet Shop Boys giving us a medley of their greatest hits. GaGa and Flowers did seem a bit forced in however, just appearing for the smallest of moments, as if a last minute thought. This didn’t stop Flowers though who seemed to overpower even the music in his sections!

And finally onto the awards, I’ll give you a sentence on each…

Best British Male: Paul Weller – Yeah, pleased with this one, he was best in the category, shame he couldn’t be there though.

Best British Female: Duffy – She didn’t know what it meant, but she won it all the same and rightly so I think.

Best British Group: Elbow – Very surprised and pleased to see this one, even if just to wipe the smugness off Gary Barlow’s face!

Best British Live Act: Iron Maiden – Again a surprise here, but from what I hear, well deserved.

Best British Single: Girls Aloud, The Promise – Not what I would have chosen, but it’s a catchy tune and as the girls had never won before, probably the right choice.

Best British Breakthough Act: Duffy – I was so pleased this wasn’t Scouting For Girls, well done Duffy.

Best International Group: Kings Of Leon – If I’m being honest, I like Kings Of Leon but think they’re overrated, should’ve been Killers. 

Best International Male: Kanye West – WHAT! Not Neil Diamond or Seasick Steve!

Best International Female: Katy Perry – I thought Beyonce or Pink for this. Not a fan of Katy’s really and think she’s lucky to have on this.

Best International Album: Kings Of Leon, Only By The Night – I’ve had Day and Age by The Killers in my head since before Christmas so I think you can guess what I wanted to win.

Best British Album: Duffy, Rockferry – Was it the best this year, debatable, but it was certainly very good, so once again well done Duffy. 

Critics Choice: Florence and The Machine – Well I think she’s alright, so yeah, probably a good choice.

Outstanding Contribution To Music: The Pet Shop Boys – They’ve contributed, and it’s outstanding they’re still around, so yeah, good choice!

 

So there you have it, The Brits 2009, the year Duffy was Queen, Take That didn’t win any, Elbow got one after far too long, same goes for Girls Aloud and Fearne Cotton annoyed the hell out of everyone. Oh yeah, she always does. It’ll no doubt be back next year for the 30th time, so we can go through all this palava again then!

-Chris

Staffs News At The Stoke Twestival

Here’s my latest newsday package for you. It’s a follow-up to last weeks Twestival preview (I do do more than just Twitter stories, but these two have been quite interesting!)

 

The social networking website Twitter came to our city earlier this week. The first ever Twestival took place around the world on Thursday.

The idea was for members of the social networking site to meet up with one another and raise money for charity.

Chris Heath visited the Stoke venue in Burslem to see what all the fuss was about.